THE TRUE MEANING OF DELIVERANCE - PROPHET T.B.

JOSHUA Ezekiel Fajenyo and Sunday Patrick The concepts of deliverance and healing may not be new to Christians who have quite a significant knowledge of the Word, the breath of God. The notion of becoming bornagain (a spirit of newness and radical transformation) is derived from the experience of deliverance. And every Christian wants to be seen as being delivered; born of water and Holy Spirit and become anew in his/her relationship with God. Deliverance has to be perfect; it should be a new experience which comes when a man is separated from unholiness and impurities of life. It is generally understood as a process of separation between light and darkness; it brings about a distance between light and darkness. It has to do with renewed cordiality with Jesus, the symbol of light, who must quench the ignoble traffic of blindness, evil, darkness, and spiritual terrorism in people. During a recent Sunday service, Prophet T.B. Joshua had tried to explain in detail what deliverance means. He said the spirit of darkness has to engage the world that it is obvious that it has become an object of worship to some. It is in recognition of the power of darkness that deliverance must be practically potent. Darkness is responsible for bad leadership, family disunity, greed, insubordination, immorality and attachment to the idols, to name a few instances. Most kids involved in cultism, rape, stealing and drugs are propelled by forces of darkness, but so are the elders, the parents who have polluted the political, economic and social space in society. People are in bondage today as seen in marital unhappiness, lack of innate peace, and quest for satanic powers; many people are jobless, hopeless and helpless because they are trapped. One point which Prophet Joshua made clear is that it is quite possible for a man to confess God and still be in bondage, unless a permanent deliverance occurs in the life of such a person. The knowledge of God is not sufficient for man, but the ability to have

Gods Spirit. He has said repeatedly that not only must we have Gods Word in order to be born again, or to become a pastor; we must have Gods Spirit. This seems to be a response to the fact that most people who claim to have been delivered, and have become born again, are in truth very far from the orientation. Their deliverance has been most suspect, hollow and spiritually inconsequential. Such deliverance happened by words of the mouth and lacks spiritual potency and celestial grace. Most pastors who engage in delivering and healing people these days are themselves in need of the same process they are gripped and menaced by the devil. Satan is cunning and hypocritical, and has his own ways of instilling his presence in the lives of people. For the Kingdom of Light to have impact on people, their spiritual life has to be operated upon, to remove the filths and impurities planted in them by satan. This is the essence of deliverance. This is why Prophet Joshua speaks often that there are two kinds of pastors: there are those who commit the words of God into memory, and teach and preach with same (most of the modern pastors belong here as they have the ability to quote extensively without the necessary authority to achieve their mission). The second group is for pastors who can move mountains; those who commit the Word into their hearts (by making same an integral part of themselves). They know of Gods ways; they act with God, and know His opinion about themselves and others. And when something is part of you, it dictates to you; it is your director. When you memorize, you will confess but not from your belief, the prophet has said. He also established that before something becomes ones belief, it must become an integral part of the person, as our faith is in our heart. He said in a contest between light and darkness, light must have victory, which is what deliverance is. He said that these days people are not sure of themselves again, for they may be in the arms of evil forces and yet proclaim the almightiness of God. This is true, as seen in the examples of many pastors (with ministries or churches) who had negative, influencing spirits coming to The SCOAN and other living churches to receive deliverance. He said while 20% of the people are ignorant of such evil forces, 70% of them are aware. However, the problem has always been how to combat same. Most deliverances in many places are not thorough, sincere, effective and God-inspired. Indeed, not all those who call the name of the Lord, and do His will, will enter the Kingdom of God. Deliverance is therefore, an integral part of belief; it is the preamble to the exercise of that belief. Without it, belief is sheer dramatics. He said: Our lives are not what we confess as we often confess blessing but experience poverty; confess breakthroughs but experience stagnation and failure. Words said without adequate form of deliverance are a package in empty encounters. He said: No one can say, Jesus is Lord genuinely unless he is genuinely delivered, and that our God is Spirit; those who confess Him must do

so in Spirit and truth. Deliverance is associated with the use of power because as Prophet Joshua said, Divine nature must be of holiness. You have no control of your divine nature. In other words, If you yield to light, light takes control of your divine nature; no man can use the power given by the Holy Spirit at his own will; it has to be by the will of the Father. And such power will have to be original, and not a photocopy. The use of original power must lead to true deliverance because if you are praying and not delivered, its like you are calling your father at home, said Prophet Joshua. The problem, nowadays, is that rather than recognizing the different graces bestowed upon each other, denominational difference are rather projected in Christianity. As such occurs, love is killed, faith is brutalized and deliverances become hollow and impotent of effect. Some Christians have seen churches as running a race; they speak of the number of worshippers rather that those being truly saved. Yet, the apostles of Jesus worked as one; they acted in oneness to achieve great effects as recorded in the Holy Bible. Joshua preaches today that the gifts of God may be enjoyed if churches are interdependent and pastors believe in collective approach to God through true deliverance. Today, people are departing from the way of the Lord, and people should avoid being wasted, he emphasised.