Healing Through Deliverance
CHAPTER ONE
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The main purpose of the study is to ascertain the efficacy of healing through deliverance. But to aid the completion of the study, the researcher wishes to achieve the following sub-objective;
- To ascertain the reliability of deliverance as a source of healing
- To investigate the effect of deliverance on the physical and spiritual health of the believer
- To investigate the role of the church in ensuring the spiritual and physical wellbeing of it’s members.
- To investigate if there is any relationship between sin and healing
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Introduction
At the heart of Christianity is the cross of Jesus Christ. At the heart of our faith is the cross. At the heart of all effective Christian ministry stands the cross.5 The cross is the source of God’s greatest provision for us. The cross represents the exchanged life, in which we give Jesus all that we are in exchange for Himself and all that He has done for us. Because of the substitutionary atonement in which Jesus became sin for us and on our behalf, we now have a pathway back to righteousness. Through the cross, Jesus Christ gives us the provisions for a victorious life: forgiveness of sin, victory over the power of sin, victory over Satan and his demons, power over sickness and disease and triumph over death itself. The cross provides the basis for reconciliation with Jesus and with our Abba Father. Because of the cross, we can live an abundant, joyful life on earth, as well as experience the glorious knowledge of eternal life. In the cross, we see God’s expansive love reaching out to us. This gives us hope to reach back toward Him, to begin to seek His healing for our pain. Through the cross, where God’s wrath toward our sin was satisfied and our punishment borne, we can now repent and be totally forgiven and thoroughly cleansed. Because of the cross, where Jesus became a curse for us, we can now break the power of the curses (judgment) in our lives and be free of the sins of the fathers and resulting curses. By the cross, Jesus demonstrated that He is the way, the truth and the life.6 He is the standard of truth, allowing us to recognize and leave behind our ungodly beliefs and move toward His godly beliefs. Because Jesus bore our grief and sorrow on the cross, we can now legitimately release all of our pain and hurt to Him, expecting His healing of our soul/spirit hurts. At the cross, where Jesus defeated Satan, we can now receive the authority He has provided for us to be victorious over Satan and all the hordes of hell. As believers, we can cast out demons and remove demonic oppression from our lives. The cross is central to our freedom. In the Restoring the Foundations integrated approach to biblical healing ministry, we appropriate the cross in all of its fullness into our lives. We receive it, apply it to our lives, possess its reality and victory and are empowered to move forward in faith. Then we are in the position to help others by bringing the power of the cross into their lives for their healing and deliverance. “While sickness of the spirit is caused by what we do, sickness of the emotions is generally caused by what is done to us. It grows out of the hurts which are done to us by another person or some experience we have been exposed to in the past. These hurts affect us in the present, in the form of painful memories, and weak or wounded emotions. This in turn leads us into various forms of sin, depression, a sense of worthlessness and inferiority, unreasoning fears and anxieties, psychosomatic illness, etc. Included in this process are the present day effects (consequences) of the sins of the parents in the bloodline of a person.
CHAPTER THREE
BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE OF OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT
Introduction
This section briefly discusses healing and deliverance from both the old and new testament perspectives and how the practice fared after the death of the last apostle who had been with Jesus. It is very important to consider healing and deliverance from biblical point of view since the Bible is believed to be the Christians’ guide to faith and practice. A survey of the Bible shows several records of healing and deliverance incidences. The earliest trace of healing in the Bible recounts the story about Abraham who was reported to have prayed and Abimelech and his household were healed (Genesis 20:17a).115 In all these accounts of healing reported in the Old Testament, it is used not only in reference to the healing of humans but it also includes natural phenomena from which humans derive their existence and livelihood. For instance 2 Kings 2: 21 states; ‘Then he went out to the spring and threw the salt into it, saying, ‘this is what the Lord says: I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.’ And the water has remained wholesome to this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken.’116 In some cases, the mention of healing in the Old Testament applies to the totality of people in a whole nation. The Bible gives account of how the nation of Babylon needed to be healed as recorded in Jeremiah 51: 9. This states that; ‘We would have healed Babylon, but she cannot be healed; let us leave her and each go to his own land, for her judgment reaches to the skies, it rises as high as the clouds.’117 What is evident, in all these cases, is the fact that healing is being employed either to deal with ill health in the lives of individuals or restore the wellbeing of the society in general. These show that the old Testament usage of healing does not only mean physical sickness of people but also has to do with the immediate environments in which people live and derive their existence and livelihood.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in theoretical form. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
This chapter is made up of summary, conclusion and recommendation. In the summary is entails what each of the previous chapters contain, while the conclusion is the outcome of the overall research work and the recommendation is what the researcher finds out on the impact of marketing research on new product development.
Summary
Healing and deliverance is one of the practices designed by the mountain of fire and miracle ministry to effectively respond to the contextual needs of people in order to facilitate its missionary activities. The practice has partly been identified as the precursor to the formation of the church among other things such as the theological and administrative factors that brought the growth of the church. This phenomenal beginning appears to account for how most branches, especially those studied in this research, were established. In the situations where the churches were established through evangelistic activities of the church, healing and deliverance has been employed extensively in reaching out to people. The relevance of the practice to the church and individuals who constitute the church is indicated in several ways.
Conclusion
This research about the relationship healing through deliverance. The deliverance practice, which started concurrently with the has now forms an integral part of the church’s regular religious activities especially during crusades and other evangelistic programs. The MFM continuously explore the deliverance practice as an evangelistic tool in winning many coverts and strengthening the faith and commitment of existing members. Consequently, the deliverance practice is discovered as one of the major contributing factors to the rapid growth of the church. This is indicated in several impacts the practice had on the growth of the church. Thus through the various activities constituting the deliverance practice, (counselling, discussing the word of God, singing and praying for deliverance) numerical, conceptual, organic progress has been made in the church in addition to the physical wealth (financial and infrastructural growth) of the MFM.
Recommendation
This study recommends that for both practitioners, the public who desire to receive such services from churches, healing and deliverance in this study is identified as an evangelism tool meant for winning people to faith in Christ. As a result, the research highly recommends that the practitioners employ biblical principles and ensure that activities constituting the practice do not defeat the purpose for its incorporation into the church. It is against this background that it is recommended that any initiative of such nature takes into consideration the tendencies for excesses and irregularities involving human right abuses. This will ensure that health and wellbeing is restored and the dignity of the Christian and his or her faith is promoted. This will enable many people to seek the truth about Christianity and finally long to be part of it.
Suggestion for further study
Haven completed the study, the researcher suggest that further research should be conducted on the following topic
- Healing and deliverance as a panacea for church growth
- The role of deliverance on evangelism
Reference
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