Now, the only way you can get competent at this is: you have to just experiment. You’ve got to just be willing to work with people. Don’t become the person – “I’ve got to fix you.” Instead - “this is your problem. Jesus has the answer for you. I’m here to help you find Jesus, and His answer. I’m here to help you face the truth, even if the truth is unpleasant.”
So when we’re ministering to people, the responsibility for their problem is always theirs. Jesus is the one who has the answer, and we need the Holy Spirit to help us show what the real problem is, and to make the answer real. So we come to the person in an attitude of humility and love, and help them see the truth; and when they acknowledge the truth, we can lead them out of the problem. That makes deliverance a lot easier.
So in ministering to a person, if you’re struggling to get them free, then there’s something you’ve missed that God sees, and can help you with. It may be sin, it may be unforgiveness, it may be some bondage to be renounced; but if you deconstruct these houses, then the demons go out quite quickly.
[Ministering to People]
Now I’ve got a few more minutes, and I want to just share just what you do with a person afterwards. I want to just open up some scriptures for you. I want to share with you just some scriptures, just so you see the principle, and then I want to show you just some specific things you can do with people.
The first scripture we look at is James 4:7. Now, notice these scriptures – they have to do with freedom. “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” So you can see there very clearly that God requires that we resist. To resist something is to actively stand against it. It also requires that we align ourselves with the Lord. Submit. Resist.
Now look at another scripture which is quite similar to it. It’s found in Ephesians 4:22-24. Notice it says in verses 22 – 24: “that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man, who was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” So you notice then a process of resisting – putting off the old, and renewing. Renewal in the mind, and in the way you respond.
So, change needs to be intentional. In other words, people often are happy for you to pray for them, but they don’t see their need to intentionally grow in this area. There is no neutral position in the kingdom of God. Jesus said: the devil, the spirits will come back; they will be outside trying to gain entrance again. So, the person needs to be active in pursuing their freedom. There’s always a price for freedom; but when you are free, and enjoying freedom, you never want to go back into bondage again. You never want to go back where you used to be; but you have to hold the freedom you’ve been given.
You’re very well aware that a nation can break free of oppressors, but then they have to maintain their freedom. So, how do you do that? It needs to be quite intentional. For example, a person has a problem with pornography. “Oh pastor, pray for me. Fix me up.” It’s not going to work, because already by that language, they’ve put the responsibility to solve the problem in someone else’s hands.
So I begin to talk to them. Firstly there’s the sin. You are sinning, and you’re sinning as a habit in your life. Habits take time to change. I said: “You have two problems: 1) a deep rejection in your life; and 2) when you’re in pain, you’re finding comfort by looking and comforting yourself by these perverse things.” So first, there’s a deep spiritual problem; secondly, there’s an emotional problem; and thirdly, because you’ve been doing this a while, there are now tracts in your brain, that the moment you get a trigger, you’ll think down that line. You can’t expect one prayer to fix up months, if not years, of damage.
Becoming free requires some steps. There is a process you need to follow. There is a journey out of this sin. It starts by bringing it to the light, and dealing with the sin issue; but in order to stay free, there’s some things you have to do. So, what kinds of things? Now, this is fairly general, but it will apply in most situations. So, I will give you 5 steps of a process. This is not the only way of approaching this, but I’ve found this is quite helpful.