Beware, lest telling demons where to go degenerates into a power trip and turns a sacred ministry into an egotist’s playground.

Luke 10:17-20 The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” He said to them, “ . . . don’t rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Jude 1:9 But Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil and arguing about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him an abusive condemnation, but said, “May the Lord rebuke you!”

Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

A friend of mine had been so deeply traumatized by childhood sexual abuse that she would freak out if anyone so much as touched her. Then some people with more ignorance than brains tried to subject her to “deliverance ministry,” with truly tragic results. She writes:

At a Bible study I was attending, a guest evangelist excited the other eight Christians present to “deliver me from a demonic spirit.” Until then, I had allowed no one but my husband to touch me throughout my adult life – no family, no friends, no Christians, no one! I have always made sure of that. Even to be touched by my husband was so upsetting that I would dissociate.

One person grabbed my wrists. I flinched and pulled away. They thought this must have been a demon and grabbed again. I struggled. The guest got some others to hold me. I dropped to the ground, trying to free myself and pull away. They followed me to the ground and pinned me. Eight people restrained me for over four hours, “delivering me from the devil.” (Did they really think God was too weak to deliver me in a much nicer way, if deliverance were really necessary?)

They took olive oil and rubbed it on my body. The ladies even rubbed it under my clothes. I was just growling and thrashing about in panic as they pinned my limbs and shoulders and head down. They hit me in the stomach several times, yelling and rebuking the devil in Jesus’ name. I hated myself for trusting them and not protecting myself.

I was seven months pregnant and within hours I miscarried, losing my baby boy. Too distraught even to cry, I just called the doctor and brought him to the doctor’s office with me. Thereafter, horrific flashbacks and memories from past abuse began to torment me.

I have always blamed myself for murdering my baby boy, because I had been unable to break out of their restraints, and because I trusted those people and had been part of that group.

My mental state quickly degenerated after that and about six months later I sought counseling and have been on a long healing journey ever since.

As well-meaning as the offenders might have been, their actions were criminally irresponsible. The ordeal they inflicted upon this sensitive woman would have highly distressed anyone, but with her background it was as traumatic as prolonged rape. More atrocious still is that it was done in the name of Jesus!

If you have read my other webpages you will know I firmly believe in the value of deliverance ministry, but there is a vast gulf between what is spiritual and what is fleshly. Things can quickly turn dangerous when people presume that anything out of the ordinary must be demonic and that they are justified in physical and/or psychological assault in the name of Jesus.

For another way in which deliverance ministry has been wrongly used with tragic results, see Multiple Personalities & Demons.

Not to be sold. © Copyright, Grantley Morris, 2009. For much more by the same author, see www.net-burst.net These writings may be freely copied provided they are not placed in a webpage, nor in anything that is sold and provided this entire paragraph is included. For use outside these limits, written permission is required. Freely you have received, freely give.