“And though the nightmares should be over
Some of the terrors are still intact
I’ll hear that ugly coarse and violent voice
And then he grabs me from behind and then he pulls me back”

When I heard the lyrics of this song the Lord allowed me to see the sharp claws of the past seeking to draw each of us back into the pain and wounding that we experienced as children and teens. How these things continue to haunt us never ceases to amaze me. The experiences of the past ARE closer that we think as these demonically driven and maintained wounds throb with daily pain; sometime in subtle ways that are beyond anything that we can even conceive. Yet we who have experienced God’s deliverance have tasted the freedom for which our Savior has died.

When I heard that old Meatloaf song, I couldn’t help but think of the more than one hundred and fifty people that we in Spiritual Interventions have had the chance to meet and to minister to this past year. Yet, in spite of this success, I can’t help but be overwhelmed when I think of the number of God’s kids who continue to struggle throughout their lives to be free from the incapacitating memories of the past. Yet, as soon as they let down their guard these “terrors” grab them from behind and pull them back down. When I think of that I am overwhelmed by a God-driven desire to see more of God’s kids set free. We know that our friends and family can be free because God has set us free! We are walking testimonies of God’s faithfulness to his kids! As more than one of our clients said, “Why doesn’t everyone do this?” Most don’t do this because they don’t know about it; they don’t know that freedom is our inheritance from God.

One of our recent clients said,

“Well, at first I was hesitant to say anything was different….but, do not drop the word “transformational” from your descriptions! My negative thoughts (aggravation, anger, impatient, etc.) seem to flit by BUT not land. I can easily wave them off and that is it. The air around me is the biggest difference…lighter, clearer, more free and more easily moved about in. The heaviness has only returned once and then I shook it off quickly. More open to people and they seem more open to me, weird.”

Yeah, weird. God’s grace is often extended to us in wonderfully strange ways. May you experience God’s wonderful, extraordinary grade this New Year!

In the deliverance ministry I have the privilege of working with all kinds of people. Most of the time these are newly found friends. I work with the young and the old, males and females, educated and uneducated, and those with a wide variety of religious traditions including Baptists, Catholics, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, Charismatics, non-denominationals, and even some miscellaneous. I get to work with different ethnic and racial groups, and the rich and the poor. I am privileged to work with God’s kids, regardless of their stripe or color.

Recently I found myself out west working with a significant group of new friends. These families were primarily professional people. They lived well, had good paying jobs, were well educated, and most were white. One of them, however, had had a very rough life. She was poor, a minority, had experience a lot of violence, and had simply not been loved by many people. She lived on a day by day basis and struggled just to get by. I was amazed and impressed with her resilience. She was determined to make it in spite of all the pain in her life. Fortunately, today she has a lot less pain because her Heavenly Father reached out to her and touched her.

In the midst of the process of seeing her set free we mentioned that we had seen a particular demon in another one of the individuals with whom we had worked. She said, “I didn’t think rich white people had demons.” Apparently God is not the only one who isn’t a respecter of persons.

The enemy has as his primary goal the destruction of everything that God loves. He seeks to destroy children, individuals, couples, marriages, nations, the environment, in short, everything that God has said was good. He doesn’t care what out income level is, how much education we have, or how much we love the Lord. If God loves it, the enemy wants to destroy it. We each have a target painted on our backs.

Neither God, nor the enemy, is a respecter of persons. Yet we are. We allow ourselves to be deluded into thinking, as this tormented woman did, that demons don’t bother rich white folks. The enemy goes after those who are unlike us; those who do drugs, those who are promiscuous, those who live in poverty and are surrounded by violence, those who aren’t educated, those who aren’t white, those who weren’t blessed with being raised in Christian homes. Yet we, because we are deluded, are as vulnerable as those who have suffered much more than we have because we believe that the driving force behind many of our problems isn’t demonic, in fact, can’t be demonic, because we aren’t “one of them.” We are good “church goin” people. Well, I am one of those who needed deliverance. If you are getting this newsletter chances are that you are also “one of them.” We have experienced God’s unmerited favor and have been set free. That’s something that we need to share with others who are like us; in need of God’s touch. We have much for which to be thankful.

The motorcycle was also very light.  It took no energy to push it around the yard or to get it on its center-stand.  Being light also meant that when I lost my balance and the bike started to fall, I was strong enough to correct my mistake.  That was thirty-five years ago.

Now I ride a Honda Gold Wing 1800 that has a larger engine than some cars.  It also weights 900 or so pounds (not including me or any gear that I might have).  It is a touring bike, which means that it is designed to go long distances for days at a time at considerably more than legal speeds in complete comfort.  Sound system, large saddlebags and trunk, and heating ducts (to keep the footsies warm in the winter) are all standard.  It even has a reverse gear so I can back it up if I get headed nose first into a downward sloping parking spot.  It is embarrassing to have to recruit passerbys to help me push the bike backward out of the parking spot.

If the Gold Wing starts to fall over you don’t want to rescue it; you just want to get out of the way so it doesn’t land on you.  While it is amazingly maneuverable for a bike its size, you don’t want to find yourself under it.

When I was younger I traveled light.  Comfort did not have the attraction that it does today.  I hadn’t had the opportunity to learn, in great detail, where my failings, weaknesses, and faults lay.  School, marriage, career, children and grandchildren were all over-the-horizon experiences yet to be embraced.  As you get older you tend to pick up baggage.  Your life gains weight.  Problems from childhood seem to become exacerbated as they play out in the relationships and responsibilities of life.  It becomes harder to maneuver; harder to get back on your feet when the challenges of life appear.  The culmination of sin and failings can crush us.  Sometimes the pain of living feels like it going to overwhelm us.

That’s one of the things about deliverance that constantly amazes me.  At the end of the session, when I ask clients to go inside to look at the room where all these demonic spirits have been hanging out, often since childhood, they tell me that things look so different! Every time a demonic spirit leaves the “room” it’s like God hits the “refresh” button in the client’s life.  What does your room look like now?

A while ago a young man wrote me about a week after his deliverance:

“My thought life has totally changed. The impure and ungodly thoughts are gone, and are now focused on the Word and things of the Lord. While this may not seem like that big of a deal, it was for me. Prior to last week, I would not sooner focus on things of the Lord and they would be overtaken by things of the world. I know it has not been that long and everything is still fresh so that makes it a little easier I guess. I know that as time goes on, the enemy will try again. I am filling myself up daily with the word and to put on the full armor of God daily. I was telling my wife that to go a day without an impure thought is such a relief, but to go on 5 days now is truly a miracle. Trust me – I never want that back. I seek to be passionately consumed by my Lord.”

God has hit his “refresh” button.  I don’t think it is an accident that the Apostle Paul says in Eph 4:22-27

22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. 25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 26 “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold. NIV

Sometimes just being taught the right things doesn’t result in freedom.  Sometimes we need to be delivered because we’ve given the devil a foothold and we desperately need to have the Lord hit our “refresh” button. It’s what he does because he loves us.

Travel light and keep the shiny side up.

As we were leaving he turned to me and said. “I have been a Christian almost my whole life. I was raised in the church. I know the Bible inside and out. Yet, in spite of all of that, I never heard anything about deliverance. Why didn’t anyone tell me about deliverance? Why didn’t anyone tell me that I could be free? Where was the church?”

That question has been asked of me many times. I think that answer is that we’ve simply been bewitched, baffled, and bewildered.

Bewitched – “to affect by witchcraft or magic; cast a spell over.”

Baffled – “to confuse, bewilder, or perplex.”

Bewildered – “completely puzzled or confused; perplexed.”

Does that sound like the Church to you?

The Enemy has cast a spell over us; telling us that something that is clearly present is not really there. One of my friends said that his pastor was preaching through a book of the Bible that addressed the issue of demons and deliverance. When the pastor got to that passage he simply skipped it like it wasn’t there. Most of our churches and pastors have unknowingly chosen to be blind. Because of this we are
baffled and bewildered.

We try to believe what the Bible teaches. Some of us even believe that counseling and psychology canprovide insight into our lives. We know that physical influences can influence our thinking. However, we get stuck when what we believe the Bible teaches doesn’t work like it says it should and neither psychology nor medicine can help us. We are then baffled and bewildered because the Spirit of God whispers to us that it shouldn’t be this way.

After I did a deliverance presentation at a church a few years ago the pastor came up and said to me, “My denomination doesn’t believe any of this stuff, but now it all fits together; deliverance was the missing piece! You’ve changed my world!” Actually, I didn’t do anything. The answer was there all the time.

How can I forgive myself? Matthew 18:23-25 defines forgiveness the cancellation of a debt. When
someone hurt us, that person owes us and we demand justice. The problem arises when God wants to
apply the same standard that we apply to others to apply to us. To experience God’s forgiveness we
also have to forgive.

The concept of self-forgiveness can’t be found anywhere in the Bible. Nowhere do you find Peter,
after having betrayed Christ, saying, “Gosh I am really wrestling with forgiving myself over betraying
Jesus.” Paul is not recorded anywhere as saying, “’I’ve got to learn to forgive myself if I am going to find
any peace about my having killed and imprisoned my Christian brothers and sisters.” The idea simply
isn’t there. Isn’t self-forgiveness a little like taking money out of one of my pockets and putting it into
another of my pockets and then declaring that I owe myself a debt (when both pockets belong to me)?
How can I pay a debt to myself? I can’t.

Lots of time people try to do the self-forgiveness thing because they don’t know how to handle the guilt
that comes from making bad decisions or of doing something stupid. They feel an obligation to beat
themselves up. As one who has done lots of stupid stuff I know how much I hate to admit that I did
something that I was, in perfect 20/20 hindsight, both stupid and often sinful. The good news is that the
issue of my guilt and shame has already been addressed on the cross. All I need to do is to admit that
I have sinned against God (or against people), sincerely ask him and those whom I have hurt to forgive
me, accept the forgiveness for which Jesus died, and see my guilt and shame nailed to the cross and
covered by our Savior’s precious blood. It’s called grace. Who among us doesn’t need grace?

Try a spiritual intervention.  Spiritual Interventions, Inc. is a newly formed non-profit organization consisting of a growing number of people who want to see God’s kids set free from demonic influence.  It developed from Dr. Appleby’s recognition that what he had learned in his graduate counseling programs often didn’t help people experience the long term positive change that they desired.  He recognized that something was missing from the counseling process.  What was missing, he concluded, was a distinctively biblical “spiritual intervention” in the counseling process.  While many of his clients needed counseling, they also needed deliverance to experience the fullness of their promised freedom in Jesus Christ.

Spiritual Interventions, Inc. teaches that hereditary, physiological, psychological, environmental, and spiritual factors all influence an individual’s emotions, thinking, and behavior.  While we fully support the appropriate use of medical, psychological, and environmental interventions, we also acknowledge that some problems have a spiritual, even demonic foundation, and are extremely resistant to standard treatment practices.  In such cases we purpose that a biblically grounded spiritual intervention – a deliverance, may be are appropriate and even necessary for relief to be obtained.  We view deliverance as being a legitimate part of the therapeutic process.

Spiritual Interventions, Inc. was created for the purpose of training counselors, pastors, and laypersons in a method of deliverance that often results in significant long-term positive change.  Our goal is to help Christians find relief from their torment when other interventions have not proven fully successful.  Spiritual Interventions, Inc. is there to train others to assist persons who have no other place to go.  The ministry is based in Lynchburg, VA.

Luke 4:18-19 (NIV)
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”