I have done deliverance ministry for over a year now. In that short time, I have done a lot of deliverance ministry and have gained a reputation as a deliverance minister. This reputation is wonderful, but not the goal. The goal is for the Church to gain an accurate reputation as a deliverance ministry because it is the ministry of Jesus.
“What’s this?” They started to say to each other. “New teaching- with real authority! He even tells unclean spirits what to do, and they do it!”
Word about Jesus spread at once all over the district of Galilee...When the sun went down and evening came, they brought to Jesus everyone who was ill, all who were demon-possessed. The whole town gathered around the door.”
Mark 1:27-28, 32-33
Jesus is the deliverer and the healer. Jesus carries out His work through His people. When Jesus heals, saves, or delivers, He involves the Church to accomplish this. Even though we hear many stories of Muslims in isolated Middle Eastern countries meeting Jesus and being transformed through a dream, they never get discipled or even baptized without other human’s involvement.
We are the hands and feet of Jesus. Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to expressly do what He did and does. We are the healing, saving, and delivering ministry of Jesus. This ministry does not belong to one person or a select group of people, except for God’s people, all of them.
I have led worship for over twenty years. The goal and role of a worship leader is to lead a group of people into the presence of God. A worship leader must be familiar with the path to God’s house, or He cannot lead anyone there. He must habitually go to God’s house in worship. When the time comes for worship, the leader is the first to get up and go there. But if nobody follows him, he is not a worship leader. A true worship leader beats a path others can follow to the end goal of multitudes worshipping in God’s house.
I am now a deliverance minister. Since few other people in my life have done deliverance ministry, I have become a local leader by default because the leader goes first and beats the path. But the goal of the leader is for others to follow. And I am only leading because I followed others who also followed Jesus. Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. So pray the master of the harvest to send more workers to harvest the fields!” Matthew 9:37. The Master of the Harvest answered that prayer, but we need more laborers still.
Satan never wanted me to become a deliverance minister. But now that I am a deliverance minister, the next thing he doesn't want is for people to follow my path. Satan wants Christians to point at me and say, “He does deliverance,” instead of “We do deliverance.” Remember that the harvest is plentiful. It’s the laborers who are few. If satan can't take me out of commission, he will try to wear me out. So, you must defeat him by sharing the burden.
“Now it will come about that
In the last days
The mountain of the house of the Lord
Will be established as the chief of the mountains,
And will be raised above the hills;
And all the nations will stream to it.
And many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let’s go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
So that He may teach us about His ways,
And that we may walk in His paths.”
For the law will go out from Zion
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
And He will judge between the nations,
And will mediate for many peoples;
And they will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning knives.
Nation will not lift up a sword against nation,
And never again will they learn war.”
Isaiah 2:2-4 NASB
This wonderful day of peace comes through “us” and “we,” not through me. So, if you want Isaiah’s day to be fulfilled, you must become a leader. You must become the one saying, “Let us go to up to the mountain of the house of the Lord.” You must learn to beat a path others can follow.