I will lay a question at your feet, and let you make the decision as to the answer, I ask only that you search the Scriptures in the matter, not your feelings or emotions, not what your pastor has said, but what the Word of God says.
When and how often should we seek for deliverance, and what circumstances should prompt those prayers?
When we pray in such a way, is deliverance what we are truly seeking, and for what reason. I have been in church services where everything from a minor backache to the need for a new vehicle has been brought up in the morning prayers, where what might seem to be a major catastrophe to some would be a minor inconvenience to others. When should we ask for such deliverance, and when should we instead accept the will of God, asking Him what it is that He wants us to learn from whatever it is He has allowed.
One of the greatest analogies seems to be related to death, those same individuals who speak openly about how wonderful it will be to finally be in the presence of the Lord seem to be the ones that attempt to stay as far away from the doorway that leads to heaven as they can. Until a moment arrives, at least in their own eyes, when speaking of another, that one who is so old and frail, talking now of how it would be a blessing if they could just “pass on.” Now, all of a sudden, we go from asking for deliverance to in a sense asking the Lord to euthanize them. I could have put that in terms that would have made you feel better about the subject matter, but I want you to leave your emotions at the door, so to speak, I want you to look at yourself and explain to yourself why you pray for deliverance when through trials and tribulations we grow closer to Christ, (Romans 12:12) why you can read Isaiah 53:3, “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not,” but do not want to experience those same things yourself.
Why do so many seek for deliverance from the most minor, petty inconveniences. The answer here of course is fear, we do not want to suffer, because suffering hurts, after all, Christ took the punishment, right? He died on that cross so you could be happy, so life would never need to be terrible. It is why I use the words born-again believer so often, instead of the word Christian, it is why the videos always have and always will have, as the Lord leads, the opening, “Ye must be born-again.” (John 3:7)
You and I do not remember it, no matter what the brain doctors say, but I bet it hurt really bad to be born, very traumatic to say the least. It’s supposed to hurt to be born-again, no one is going to enter heaven who did not carry their cross in this life, (Matt. 16:24) no one. And that means pain, it means rejection, suffering, sorrow, not a life lived trying to avoid these things, not a life lived devoted to prayers of deliverance.
We, for the most part, would never be recognized by the first century Christians, and that is one of the reasons I use the term born-again believers, first, I see it as disrespectful to those who lived in those times, even to those who came after and those who live today. They were Christians, they were worthy of the name, but secondly it is because the name Christian now is encompassed by the world towards anyone that has faith, and that faith does not need to reside in Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior.
I would stress only this in your study and contemplation on this word “Deliverance,” are you sure that the Lord wants you to be delivered from what you are going through, does He desire for you to be happy and healthy, or does He desire for you to be a partaker in the fellowship of His suffering. (1 Peter 4:13) Which one do you believe will draw you closer to Him?
