I want to welcome you this morning again, we're looking at the ministry of deliverance, and there are many approaches that people have to this whole area of deliverance, so this is one approach. There are other ways that people approach it, and other ways they look at it and resolve some of the issues, but what we want to do is to give you understanding of the ministry of Jesus and deliverance, and we want to give you understanding of what demons are, how they operate and how they access people's lives, and some of the foundational keys to getting people free, and ministering to people. We also want to give you an opportunity to just practice praying for, and ministering to one another, and I expect that God will do some great things today.
Yesterday we looked at Jesus' ministry. We looked first of all at the apostolic ministry, that we're all sent by God, we all have a sphere of influence and God wants us to be used in this ministry, not only of sharing the gospel but of healing the sick and delivering people from evil spirits. We looked at Jesus' ministry of deliverance. We saw an example of His ministry, we saw how He worked and how He operated, and then we looked at some of Jesus' teaching as to what evil spirits are, and how they operate.
So today, we're looking now in your notes on Page 4, Section 2.4, we're looking at how demons enter people, and when they get into people, what kinds of things would happen inside the person as a result of that. There are a number of ways of approaching this particular aspect, and I've used a way which has been quite helpful for people to get an overview, and so you know what to look for, you know the places to look. Then there are a number of ways that we can approach the actual ministry.
So first thing we need to realise is that demons cannot access a person's life unless they have a ground or a reason to be able to do so. We saw that demons will occupy buildings, they'll occupy objects, they can occupy animals, and they definitely seek to occupy people, but they need in a way in. They can't automatically just get access into you, so they need a way in, and if we read in Ephesians 4, Verse 18, Paul is writing. He's writing to believers, and he's talking about being angry but don't sin, don't let the sun go down on your anger. Then in Verse 27: give no place to the devil. Give no place to the devil. He's writing to believers, and he's telling them do not give a place to the devil. The word place is a - many times these words if you don't understand the original, they lose their meaning in translation, so the original word, it's the word topos. It means something like this; it means a foothold, don't let the devil get a foothold. A foothold is where you put your foot in the door, and you stop the door shutting, so you can get your way in.
Another translation of that word is a beachhead. In the Second World War, the allies sought to establish a beachhead, that's a small area that they occupy, from which they can launch a greater assault, a beachhead. But one of the most important meanings of the word means, a legal right, a legal right, a lawful right to do something, a legal right. We talked a little bit about that last night, how legal rights are very, very crucial in the operation of demonic spirits getting into people's lives. If they can find a place where the law of God is broken, they have a room to operate against people, and so when we bring our life under the kingdom of God, under the lordship of Jesus Christ, and begin to flow in His principles, then legal grounds and rights are diminished. But when we violate the laws of God, we come outside the kingdom of God, then the grounds have been established for demonic spirits to enter.
So they can enter when you break the laws of God. Now you say well, what if I didn't know? Well ignorance does not matter. You know, the fact you didn't know doesn't mean the demon can't use it. They will use every ground possible, and the nature of the demonic kingdom is one of darkness and deception, so you may be sitting here today, and already there are areas of your life which are in bondage to evil spirits, and you're not even aware of it; accept that's just me, I've got this struggle I have, and it's just me, I've always been like that. So we can have areas of bondage and we're not even aware of it, and we're going to just identify some of the doorways now that evil spirits use.
In Nehemiah 9, Verse 37, Nehemiah is praying, and what he does is he says: You have set kings over us, because of our sins. So from a spiritual perspective he's saying that we are under bondage because of sin, and so let's have a look then, at some of these doorways or gateways that demons use. Let me do one more verse before we go to look and identify the gateways, and it's found - it's not in your notes - in 2 Timothy, Chapter 2, so if you've got a Bible you could look at it. It's talking about ministering to people, and it says in Verse 24: the servant of the Lord must not quarrel or argue or strive, but must be gentle to all men, able to teach and patient. So it's saying if you're going to minister to people, then don't argue with people, it's not going to work, get any results - but be gentle, able to teach and patient, in humility instructing those who oppose themselves, and perhaps God will give them repentance, that they may acknowledge the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, who have been taken captive by him to do his will.