Leadership Journal

Matt, thanks for your input. The purpose of this article was not to make a carefully reasoned case for deliverance. I try to do that in my book, It’s Only a Demon. I would encourage you to check it out if you are looking for a carefully reasoned argument. As for Michelle being powerless and 100% the victim as a child, I would agree. We know that the Enemy goes about like a lion seeking whom he may devour. If you’ve ever watched a large predator hunting you will see that they go after the young, the injured, and those who have been separated from the herd (meaningful, healthy support). Michelle was all of these. As an adult, I am afraid that I would part company with you there. I believe that God holds us responsible for our choices, though your point about co-dependency is a good one. Demons prefer to begin the process of violation and destruction early. Their usual pattern is for the demon to help the victim “fix” one problem using demonic patterns that will ultimately exacerbate other problems further down the road. Because the demonic “fix” often initially works and helps alleviate the pain, the victim begins to cooperate with the demonic spirit, thus reinforcing the destructive patterns. It rarely gets better before it gets worse.

David, I appreciate your comments and I just wanted to tell you that I completely agree with you. The symptoms and sources of demonization are based upon observations made over more than twenty-five years of doing deliverance and are not, to my knowledge, found listed this way anywhere in the Scriptures. If you read my book, it’s Only a Demon you will find that I say that plainly there. I try to make a clear distinction between what I can support biblically and what I’ve discovered over the years that is not biblically based. In fact, if you read this article carefully, I don’t think I say anywhere that the symptoms or sources are biblically based. Unfortunately, the Bible doesn’t provide us with much information on a lot of subjects. The purpose of the Scriptures is to reveal Jesus Christ, not to be a handbook on how to do deliverance, how to govern a church, the biblical position of men and women in the community of believers, etc. However, the fact that many things are not clearly laid out for us does not keep us from trying to connect the dots and drawing what we hope are biblical conclusions on a wide variety of subjects.

Jeff

June 10, 2012  4:25pm

I was raised baptist and mostly educated within the Church of Christ (which does an EXCELLENT job with educating their flock, in my honest opinion), and I had issues that my Bible teachers assumed were neurological. I heard about Dr. Appleby, so I booked an appointment. Lo and behold, I was freed from the torment and have now seen first hand what freedom in Christ is supposed to look like.

ANONYMOUS COWARD

May 12, 2012  6:56pm

For many years I worked at a maximum security mental hospital. When I was young I believed that ALL of the patients were ONLY mentally ill and could be helped. After years of experience I believe ALMOST ALL mentally ill people are ONLY mentally ill. There were a few patients I had my doubts about. Some of those acted insane but some of them were not. Some were just plain evil.You have to look evil in the face to understand this. I can't explain it, it has to be experienced.Some people who work in those places never see it or do not recognize it.I cannot describe the experience in a short post. It would take a novel to do that.A novel that would have many mental health professionals demanding that I undergo psychiatric care. The truth is that those professionals do not spend much time in direct care of the mentally ill. I truly believe that there are a FEW people I met in that place who WERE possessed. NOT MANY but still a few.

I agree that his does open a can of worms but it is more dangerous to ignore this topic that to unplug the blinking oil light on your dash which will lead to imminent engine failure. As a newly rededicated believer a demonized fellow student declared, I need to talk to you. NO, I had never been mentored and trained in what I would face. But Jesus cares and can help people.