Meaningful Questions about Curses and Deliverance from Evil Spirits

Meaningful Questions about 

Curses and Deliverance 

from Evil Spirits

Jim Croft

Questions from Vince

Jim,

I really enjoyed your book, Invisible Enemies: How to recognize and defeat demons. I have been working to get cleaned out. I have also been reading your articles and I am seeking to apply them to myself where needed.

I have some thoughts and questions. As you know, I come from a Vineyard background. This does not make me special, but I embraced the Vineyard’s history of openness to the things of God.

Anyway, I understand the need for forgiveness, repentance and renunciation of the curses listed in the Old Testament and any sowing and reaping effects.Jim, I notice that in the New Testament, there is no indication that the disciples or Jesus required anyone to ask for forgiveness before ministry of healing or deliverance.

Likewise, neither Christ nor the disciples asked anyone to renounce curses before healing. It appears the same pattern exists when they drove out evil spirits. Of course, I am seeking to apply these principals in your articles and book to my life. But I wonder what your thoughts are on these issues?

My Response

Vince – I’m very pleased about your observation of the absence of specific mention of repentance and renouncements in relation to demonic and curse issues in the New Testament and the Early Church. Miracles were performed without explanatory trimmings of that genre. Were you to exhaust yourself by reading all
of my articles, you would find that I’ve pointed out the truths that you have mentioned.

However, I have thoughts about the evolvement of the practices in question.Though the practices are not specifically addressed in “how to instruction” in the New Testament, they can be arrived upon by reasoning about the implications of the entirety of the Bible’s record.

There are many modern evangelistic techniques that we hold dear that are not explicit in the New Testament. Among them are found altar calls for salvation and leading people in prayers where they ask Jesus to come into their hearts to replace self in Lordship on the throne of their hearts. Nonetheless, millions have been born-again through those methods.It is much the same with the evolvement of how we function in the gifts of
words of knowledge, wisdom and discerning of spirits. We have come up with acceptable guesses about function and the Lord grants results.

Repenting of and renouncing sins resultant of curses and any accompanying demons had similar evolution that came from innuendo in both Testaments. We know of a certainty that Jesus, like John the Baptist, preached repentance and that the Lord’s disciples baptized the repentant. Therefore, it is safe to assume that inclination of repentance permeated the atmosphere of Jesus’ presence.

The existence of a particular habitual sin and demonic infestation within a person are evidence that either the Adamic curse or a self-induced curse is in effect. There is a vernacular way to define renouncement. It is verbal or physical indication that a person wants riddance of the curse of a sin and/or a demon.

People made physical indication that they wanted liberation from the aforementioned when they presented themselves to Jesus for healing from affliction.With all of that said I rarely bring up demonic and curse issues during first prayer encounters with people’s sicknesses and negative life situations. I simply pray with faith’s expectation and routinely see positive results.

Countless secular people and many nominal Christians are not familiar with the idea of evil spirit and curse affliction. If introduced prematurely, those concepts can derail attempts for effective ministry. With that in mind, I hesitate to venture more than subtle reference to evil spirits and innuendo about curses when ministering to them. 

The phrasing could go something like this: “I command the aspect of John’s personality that compels him to be excessively confrontational to leave his psyche. (Speaking about demons) If John’s parental guardians exhibited habitual contentious interaction with others, I break ancestral influence in his life. (Pertains to curses)”

It is my conviction that the generic repentance and forgiveness of initial salvation dissolves many curses and puts most demonic entities to flight. I do not bring the possibility of demons and curses to bear, unless a Christian incessantly has the same issues after prayers of faith. In that event, I surmise it is legitimate to do so under an extension of the “confess your faults” clause of James 5:16.

In conclusion, the concept of renouncing curses has become ingrained in the collective psyche of a sector of the Church. Due to this, it is better to address the matter on common ground than to try to stop the momentum of what so many reliable voices assert.

We can offer thanks to the Lord for allowing us innovation in our efforts to see captives of life’s bondages liberate.

jcm888@comcast.net

Note: Following artwork added by blog editor.  :)

Steve Martin