FOREWORD
For over thirty years my wife lived with chronic illness. We saw every type of doctor you could imagine, lost count of how many treatments and therapies we tried, spent thousands of dollars, gave up all hope of her getting better, and started making plans for an early death. I was in my mid-thirties making plans to be a single father.
Then we discovered a generational curse. Four generations ago, a shaman in Mexico City had been hired to curse the firstborn daughters of her family line. We knew there was a lot of sickness and death in her extended family, but had never connected the dots. We immediately did the genogram math and realized, every single firstborn daughter for four generations had either died young or been struck with chronic, debilitating illness. All the way down to my wife T.
What the heck? It sounded like something out of a movie or fantasy novel, not my living room in Portland, OR, a secular city. While I had a theological category for a generational curse (curses show up all through the Old Testament), I had zero experiential knowledge of how to proceed. So, I called Jon. Jon Thompson has, for an increasing number of us, become a leading voice on deliverance ministry, especially those of us facing a rise in demonic manifestations in secular cities. Jon was beyond helpfulwise, experienced, thoughtful, biblical, and deeply prophetic. He gave us an advance copy of the book youre about to read, which became our working framework (Spoiler alert: its excellent). Under Jon's tutelage we arranged for a deliverance session, fasted and prayed, and came expectant.
Id never seen anything like it. Part of my wife's illness involved facial spasms due to a movement disorder. During the prayer to break the generational curse, T's entire body began to spasm and shake, worse than weve ever seen. (I should clarify, she is a very calm, down to earth personality, not remotely given to emotional expressiveness of this sort). The moment she prayed to break the curse, her entire body stopped shaking. Her eyes (which were spasming so bad they could not open), opened wide. It was like watching a fog lift off her entire body. Her back straightened. Her facial muscles were perfectly still. She started to laugh with joy.
Of course we tested the healing. Wait and see, I said.
But she was completely healed. All symptoms gone. Decades of chronic health issues, ended in an instant.
Her healing and deliverance have since ushered in a whole new era in our spiritual formation, and opened up a whole new dimension to our view of the spiritual life.
How many Ts are in our churches and lives? Men and women and even children who deeply love Jesus and follow him, but are living under demonic pressure?
What would it look like to live in deliverance?
John Mark Comer
Pastor of Teaching and Vision
Bridgetown Church
INTRODUCTION
Within much of the church, the conversation about the influence of demons has been dismissed, ignored, and exaggerated but rarely understood. Many Christians and non-Christians experience the presence of evil but do not have the categories to evaluate the experience, let alone be set free from their presence. No longer can these situations be located only overseas or reduced to certain ethnic groups with certain religious experiences. The truth is, this has always been around us but now, because of massive paradigm shifts, these experiences can be more easily talked about and engaged with. They are seemingly found in all areas of life regardless of education, ethnicity, or geographical location.
We live in a post-Christian, de-Christian, postsocial, postmodern (yet modern), multicultural, radically globalized, fully mobile, highly personal world. One of the great paradoxes of life today is an ever-increasing level of connectedness, paralleled by increasing levels of fracturing. Social media offers the hope of bringing us all together but is often the instrument for tearing us apart. The long held assumption that an increased awareness of diversity would easily lead to understanding and unity now seems to be morphing culture into something reminiscent of the ominous situation described at the end of the book of Judges: In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit (Judges 21:25).
I happen to live just outside of Toronto, Canadaone of the most global cities on earth. The fourth largest city in North America, its rated as one of the top five most multicultural cities in the world, with over 150-300 languages spoken every day. Its an amazing place to live. Our city can be seen as a microcosm of the world and we are trying to grow the church right in the middle of it.
Here in Canada, as in much of the West, Christians find themselves more and more at the edge of society, not the center. Along with marginalization, we now experience increased hostility and intolerance toward expressions of a Christian worldview. And more, with all the nations of the world here, Toronto is deeply religious, deeply spiritual, and deeply secular all at once. The need to deal with the kingdom of darkness in all directions is now a must. As you read this, you will hear from our journey of trying to deal with evil with the good news of Jesus to many people in multiple directions.
This book will provide the background and outline of the hybrid matrix of deliverance we use at Sanctus Church, which has assisted the pastoral leadership and our people in dealing with this growing and/or rediscovered phenomenon. This process has not only helped people come to faith in Jesus Christ, but to also be set free as they journey with Christ. Simply put, this is a snapshot of where we are today in our journey. Do we have all the answers? No, but these chapters outline who we were, where we are, and where we are going. In addition, this is a systematic explanation for this type of ministry. Our current practices are outlined biblically, historically, logically, and from experience.
If you are a pastor or church leader, its important you understand that we dont consider our experience unique and unrepeatable or the exact template of how God must work in deliverance. We are convinced the biblical principles found here will apply anywhere, but local and time factors will shape your expressions. I believe you will find much of what we have done helpful, even our mistakes will show you what not to do. But there are significant time and faithfulness factors that you cant ignore without generating problems. Weve been at this now for almost two decades. If we had known everything we know today back then and expected to plug and play a deliverance ministry into an unsuspecting local church, things would have blown up. These things take time. Sometimes, mistakes are actually necessary tools God uses to shape us. Faithfulness is not a spiritual sprint; its a marathon.
I would be very glad if you come to the end of this book with a clearer picture of where to start and a vision for where you want to eventually get to, rather than expecting to implement a full-blown deliverance ministry right out of the gate with followers of Jesus for whom this may well be a whole new experience. I can almost guarantee chaos.
Heres my prayer for all of us:
Lord, deliver us from easy answers, packaged programs, and systems that minimize our desperate need for You to be involved every step of the wayeven when (and especially when) we are actually doing it right! Jesus, You have promised to build Your church Your way. Help us do whatever we must do to let You do that! In Your name I pray, Amen!
CHAPTER 1: Rediscovering the Obvious