How to Keep Your Deliverance

Think about it: your demons entered you and set up house pretty effortlessly, but it’s going to take effort on your part to keep them from returning and making you captive again. Here’s what you must do.

Lead a Holy Life.

This requires a change of paradigms, a change of lifestyle. You need to change what you think, you need to change what you believe, and you need to change what your preferences are.

Growth requires change. Growing in Christ requires that you take stock of your self, rid yourself of old ungodly habits, thoughts and actions, and replace these with the new things God is offering you. Throw away the old you and put on the new you. God wants you to grow to the stature of Christ, and to do this you need to achieve holiness.

You may need to rid yourself of old friendships that induce you to sin. You may need to change some habits. You may need to change your manner of expressing yourself. Let the Holy Spirit guide you in this transformation.

One example of changing old habits might be making a decision not to watch R-rated movies any longer, because of the graphic language and sexually explicit content. Do you think the Lord would consider watching R-rated movies a part of living a holy life? The Word says for us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. I doubt that watching R-rated movies renews our minds in a godly manner. These are the kinds of subjects we have to take stock of and change.

But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. (Peter 1:15-16)

That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. (Ephesians 4:22-24)

Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him: (Colossians 3:9-10)

Read Your Bible.

Read your Bible every day–not only read it, but study it, absorb it, make it a part of your daily thoughts and your being. You will get to know God by studying His Word.

Pray.

Praying is not repeating the same things over and over, like “Our Father who art in Heaven”, etc. You would not talk to a friend this way. If you kept repeating yourself to a friend, he would not want to be around you any longer!

Prayer is conversing with God. Sometimes prayer is just being in the presence of God in a meditative attitude, but not saying anything. The goal of prayer is to have a relationship with Him that moves you closer to Him. You need to take the steps toward establishing this relationship.

Resist the devil.

You will know when a demon wants to come back in. Resist him. Speak to the demon and rebuke him in the name of Jesus. Demons will tempt you. You need to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might to resist. By submitting to Him and obeying Him, you will be able to resist.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. (James 4:7-8)

The need to keep your deliverance.

Upon receiving deliverance, you probably heard some demons give their names as they were expelled. If the minister asked the demons what their assignments were in your life, they might have said what it was that they pressured you to think, believe or do. Once you have this information, you have an advantage that you did not have before: now you know what areas of your life need strengthening. You know that you must be alert to resisting demonic attacks in those areas so that the demons cannot enter you again.

Do not take this information lightly. You need to study it, meditate on it, pray about it and make a determination not to let those demons enter you again.

I have ministered to people who did not believe that what the demon was compelling them to do was sinful. Sometimes the compulsion or the behavior does not appear to be a sin, but the demon knows his subject’s weaknesses and has an ulterior motive. If the person analyzed the facts, he or she would realize that the demon was manipulating a symptom and not the real disease of the person’s soul. So, the demon is cast out, and the person goes back to doing whatever it is that brought that demon to them in the first place. The demon comes back in.

In one case, I was with a lady the day after the deliverance from such a demon. A circumstance arose where she was tempted to do “the symptom”. She wanted to do it and I restrained her, asking her if she did not remember what the demon had said the previous day. She got frustrated and mad, but then continued to do what she wanted. Some time later, she needed deliverance again, and the same demons came out. Despite my advice and counseling, I had to minister to her again, expelling the same demons. The result is that she is not living a life of victory.

When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation. (Matthew 12:43-45)

When I was a new Christian, I read this scripture and could not understand it. Every time that I read it, I could not grasp the part about the house being “clean”. Why would the demon, an unclean spirit, come back to a “clean” house? One day, the Lord explained to me, “I was talking about a hotel room.”

There were hotels in Jesus’ times and even before. If you remember the Christmas story: “There was no room at the inn”. And hotels had the same procedures as they do today. Before admitting a new guest, they needed an empty room. And when the room was empty, they needed to clean and garnish it: clean sheets and towels, clean glasses, soap, etc. Then the room was ready to receive the guest.

When the demon comes out of a person (his house), it tries to come back. If the person has not changed and continues in sin, the house is ready to receive the guest. Then the situation might be worse than before. The “seven other spirits more wicked than himself” are explained thus:

And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. (Leviticus 26:18)

And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. (Leviticus 26:21)

Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins. (Leviticus 26:24)

Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. (Leviticus 26:28)