Deliverance from Evil.

We've been discussing the REALITY of having evil spirits and the Devil himself attacking us, and we'd be very remiss if we didn't talk about 'Deliverance' from the attacking, the possessing. 

Please, bear in mind I haven't been copying the entire book, The Spiritual Man, in fact chapters are missing. I am using excerpts. If you find these recent studies helpful in your spiritual walk, then please find the book either online or purchased from a store and read it. Most importantly have your Bible right by your side so you can use it to measure all you are learning.

Please, read the long excerpt here and by the will of God we will study it more in-depth tomorrow. 

We truly need God guiding us in all ways! Opening our minds, our heart only to His truth and nothing else! When we realize God through His Holy Word tells us that MANY will be deceived then we NEED desperately to pray and study seeking only truth without any deception at all! Please Lord, help us, save us! All through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior!

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Excerpt - The Spiritual Man by Watchman Nee

'3The Way of Deliverance

When One’s Mind Has fallen victim to the phenomena discussed in the previous chapter, he should seek the way of deliverance. What was described in that

chapter were but general symptoms of a passive mind.

We cannot set forth everyone’s condition in detail because there are variations in the degree of passivity, the extent of the evil spirit’s attack, and hence the measure of damage to the mind.

Nevertheless it should be stated that as soon as one realizes he has encountered any of the aforementioned phenomena, he must exercise extreme caution because he may have given ground to evil spirits and so is being assaulted. He should look for deliverance.

Few are the believers who are not surprised at their ignorance of the damage done to their mind. It is on the contrary a matter of great surprise to them that they have been unconscious of the fallen condition of their organ of thought. They seem to understand a lot about many matters, but in regard to their own mind they know next to nothing. They do not even realize how serious has been the damage inflicted until someone else has pointed it out to them.

Why have these not discerned it before? Is it not that this very lack tells us that our mind and the evil spirits possess some special relationship which consequentially weakens our knowledge concerning our mind? Let any who have suffered such damage answer this question.

The Wiles of the Evil Spirits

If his eyes have been opened to see his condition, the believer will naturally search for deliverance. Realize, though, that the evil spirits are not going to let their captives go free without a fight. They will apply every ounce of strength upon the person to prevent him from securing deliverance.

The evil spirits will suggest many lies to serve as excuses: Those sudden beautiful thoughts of yours are from God. Those flashing revelations are the fruits of spirituality. That bad memory is due to your ill-health. It is natural for you to become abruptly forgetful. Your over-sensitiveness is because of your temperament. Your weak memory is inherited. Insomnia is an outgrowth of sickness. You are simply tired. You cannot think because you have worked too hard. That incessant contemplation at night stems from your mind’s

overexhaustion in the daytime. Impure thoughts arise from your sins. You already have fallen.You cannot listen to others because of your particular environment and because of their faults.

The evil spirits can manufacture sundry other excuses. Unless God’s children realize they are really being attacked and have actually fallen from the normal state, the enemy will engage these and other excuses like them to cover up the ground they have gained. But the true reason lies in the fact that the mind is passive and vacuous, and thus occupied by these satanic spirits. Every one of

these phenomena is the effect of their pernicious working. We grant the possibility of natural causes being mixed in with these excuses, but the experience of so many saints confirms that the powers of darkness are extremely subtle in operating alongside natural causes so as to deceive the saints into accepting these natural causes—such as temperament, physical condition and environment—as the only explanation, forgetting altogether the subtle mixing in by the evil spirits. The latter are very delighted in hiding their works behind some little natural cause.

 There is one test which can be brought to bear here, however; and that is, that if the cause is natural the man’scondition will be restored to normal once the natural factor is eliminated: but were there something supernatural added to the

natural, then the man will not recover even though the natural element is removed. If you have insomnia, for example, the enemy will suggest it is due to your overwork and your mind’s overexhaustion. You listen to this and cease working and rest for aperiod without exercising your mind at all. Nonetheless thousands of thoughts continue to crowd your mind and pass to and fro through

your brain during sleep. This demonstrates that your illness is not entirely due to natural cause: a supernatural one is mingled in with it somewhere. If you do not take the time to deal with the supernatural aspect, your removal of the natural element will serve no purpose.

It is of paramount importance that brethren today examine the source of these excuses. The wicked powers are highly skilled in misleading people into explaining their evil devices in terms of natural phenomena. They goad them into imagining they themselves are wrong. These individuals thus unconsciously cover up the

perpetrations of the evil spirits. Consequently whatever excuse comes into his head the Christian must examine it carefully. Every reason must be scrutinized and every symptom of the mind must be traced. Otherwise, in his mistaking supernatural work to be natural he will cede increased ground to the enemy.

Every opinion he entertains about himself needs to be proven, lest he yield new

territory to the evil spirits even before the old is recovered.Because of his long capitulation a person may easily commit the fatal error of defending the malevolent operations of the evil spirits. This must be guarded against, for in so doing he assists them in veiling the true cause of their attack. Although he is in distress, nevertheless he is siding with the evil spirits in preserving their ground.

The devil’s hosts at this juncture are inciting the believer’s flesh to cooperate with them. Actually the flesh always works together with the devil. For the sake of saving face or for some other reason, the Christian refuses to believe his mind could possibly be occupied by the devil and objects to hearing anything about him or his works. Such distaste of examination for fear that he may lose his “spiritual

experience” is a great hindrance to deliverance. He may retort in any one of a number of ways: “I don’t need deliverance, why should I want to be delivered?” or “I have overcome through Christ; He has overcome Satan already, so now I need pay no attention to him but just leave him to God. I focus my attention on Christ.” or “I know nothing about satanic matters.” or “I concentrate on preaching the gospel, why should I notice Satan?”

 With these or many other responses the believer dismisses the actions of the evil spirits in him. And to those who try to help him he may even say: “All right, you

resist for me and pray for me.” He is not speaking with sincerity; he merely desires to live in ease and let others sweat out deliverance for him.  Yet in all this, it should be asked why anyone should object to hearing about Satan and his works? Can it be that his mind has in fact been worked on by Satan and hence is apprehensive about facing the situation once it might be exposed? The truth is that he is familiar with too many things already concerning the devil and does not care to know any thing more.

Yet the gospel of Jesus Christ saves people not only from sin but from the devil as well. Why then be afraid if  the devil be mentioned when the gospel is preached? Is it not similar to the person who has committed a certain crime and is afraid to have anyone mention that particular crime? Due to his preoccupation with the devil the believer resents people mentioning him. Deep down in his heart he harbors a fear lest his true condition should be revealed. Supposing I am indeed invaded by evil spirits, he gravely muses, then what in the world can I possibly do about it now? Thus he speaks to others as we have indicated above both to cover up and to comfort himself.

But should a believer receive and accept the light and begin to look for freedom, the evil spirits will commence to pour into his mind loads of accusations which charge him with all sorts of errors and which condemn and reprimand him in such a fury that he is left with no energy to recover his lost ground. They know he has

obtained light and that they can no longer deceive him. They therefore change their tactics to a ceaseless chain of accusations  “You are wrong, you are wrong.”

During this time the believer, because there is no help in view, feels like sinking into a pit of sin. But if he could recognize this as simply Satan’s lie he would rise up and resist. He shall overcome.

Experience teaches us that directly after one apprehends the truth of his having lost the sovereignty over his mind and accordingly begins to seek to regain it, he shall suffer many times over that of previous days. The evil spirits will attempt one final struggle for him. They will employ their customary lying tactic by hinting to him that he cannot possibly regain his freedom since he has sunk too deeply

into passivity or that God is not disposed to grant him grace again or that he will fare better if he does not resist or that in any case he can never see the day of deliverance so why bother to strive and suffer anyway. Every child of God ought to know, however, that he should not live by satanic grace. He must have liberty even should he die retrieving it. No one can have fallen into passivity to such an extent that he is beyond deliverance.

God is for him and he shall be set free.'