In the 1980’s, I was a college student. That’s when the whole deliverance ministry was going strong. We’d sit in a room and take turns going through deliverance. People would puke, cough up junk, choke, wriggle on the floor, and do a bunch of other weird stuff when getting “delivered.” Most of the time, I sat and watched, simply observing. One time, they had me come forward. After praying over me, I was instructed to start coughing so that any demon inside of me would come out. I felt nothing so I did nothing. Needless to say, it was the last time I attended that church. I felt there was more to Christian living than constantly looking for demons.
I moved to a new church where we still talked about deliverance but the focus wasn’t on getting everyone delivered every service. We still had books upon books on understanding the strategy of the enemy to help us deal with opposition and things that plagued our lives. If we did something wrong, it was “the devil made me do it!” We still looked for a demon under every rock. Who knows why but we did. For me, none of it made sense so I basically blew it off and went about my business. After all, I was a college student and I had school on my mind. What the enemy did, wasn’t on the forefront of my daily life.
Fast forward through the years… Every church I attended taught what I call “traditional warfare.” That usually involved looking at an entity and stating, “In the name of Jesus, I command you to ______!” There were books on how to do that, too. I actually got a pretty decent handle on kicking the enemy’s butt. After all, it is scriptural. I remember times when I felt under attack, I’d pray in tongues for hours and get a few words in English every once in a while saying “In the name of Jesus ______.” So, I know there’s power and authority in those words.
Eventually, I was introduced to the teachings of Smith Wigglesworth. There’s a quote on his site that says, “A deep intimacy with his heavenly Father and an unquestioning faith in God’s Word brought spectacular results and provided an example for all true believers of the Gospel.” Years later, as I look at this quote, the words “a deep intimacy” stick out to me. It was out of intimacy with Father that he functioned. I believe he lived in the presence of Father and brought back to earth the authority he received there. My pastor frequently retold the story of a night Wigglesworth was sleeping. Something woke him up and after looking down at the foot of his bed, he saw the devil standing there. This didn’t phase Wigglesworth at all. He simply said, “Oh, it’s you!” and went back to sleep. He felt secure enough in his identity in Christ that nothing the enemy did phased him. It inspired me, reminding me of the scripture that says “Your adversary, the devil, walks about AS a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” (1 Peter 5:8). If Wigglesworth could function this way, so could I. Although I didn’t know HOW to do it, I set out learning.
This leads me to the next bit of information when a friend told me about “terraforming.” It’s actually a term used by NASA to describe changing atmospheres from ones that are hostile to the human race, to ones that are hospitable. For a Christian, this is about the Love of God changing a spiritual atmosphere through repentance – from hostile to hospitable. The key word here is “repentance.” I listened to a video by Scott and Shari Norvell, who had the original vision for spiritual terraforming. In one of the examples, Shari talked about being in a park with her daughter. Another child was pitching a fit and was uncontrollable. Then, other kids started acting up. Shari’s daughter (about 8 years old at the time) made a comment asking if they could terraform. Right there, they identified something on the land (through asking Father) what could be repented for. After their prayer, the kids on the playground went back to their normal behavior. I knew at that time, there was something about this and it had to do with repentance. It’s a far cry from what I’d done before! Again, I was intrigued.
Now, we fast forward a few more years when I started hearing people such as Ian Clayton, Mike Parsons, Grant and Sam Mahoney, and others talk about warfare coming from the kingdom realms to the earth. Again, I was intrigued. Their “style” of warfare, provided some practical pictures in my mind of what that might look like. So, hang on with me here while I explain this one out a bit.
When we look at war in general and read about it in history, at one time, armies would literally come face to face with one another. They’d line up on opposite sides of the battlefield and go at it. I think the best example of how this looks is found in the “Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe” from the Chronicles of Narnia. At the end of the movie, as predicted, both sides line up and start shooting arrows. The arrows really don’t do much. Then birds fly dropping firebombs. That does a bit more. It’s when they start using the trebuchet that damage begins to be apparent. In the movie, Aslan comes in just in the nick of time and it’s his breath, breathing life into the trees that turns the tide of the battle. It’s unexpected to the enemy and they freak out a bit. They all die or run away and the movie ends with the daughters of Eve and sons of Adam being crowned kings and queens.
Let’s take a look at this scenario from another angle. As most everyone knows, we’ve had some major wars. Armies are constantly trying to find methods of one-upping the enemy. It wasn’t until World War II with the bombing of Hiroshima that there was a certain awe about warfare. The key to all wars? The winner is usually the one who can go the highest. The one with the best air power and bombs generally has the upper hand. Think about that for a moment.
How many of you have read Rick Joyner’s book “The Final Quest?” It’s part of a trilogy invloving a vision he had. CLICK HERE to see all three books in that trilogy. What I found interesting is that in order to escape the enemy, he had to always go higher. On the top of the mountain, the enemy couldn’t get him. At the bottom, he could see Christians being vomited upon and badly beaten up by hordes of demons who were actually at a higher level. As people in the vision got a clue to climb the mountain, they began to escape the clutches of the enemy. If they didn’t go higher, there was no relief. That thought alone struck me for many years. Again, I didn’t know what to do with it. It literally had to marinate within me for a few years until I had my own revelation about it.
The main theme here in the natural and spiritual is that in order to win a war, you have to go higher. Everything in the natural is a mirror of what’s in the supernatural. It’s a matter of learning how to function out of the supernatural so we can bring that revelation from heaven and release it in earth. This is when my journey really took a major turn. I had to see and understand this fact before I could do the next part.
One of the first teachings I listened to from Ian Clayton talked about angels. I don’t remember the name of the teaching but if you click on his name, you’ll be redirected to his website. Type in “angels” in the search box and the teaching should pop up. I was totally overjoyed after hearing that teaching. Finally, I had answers to why certain things bugged me about deliverance and why Christians seem to always get beat up. The teaching tied together all my puzzle pieces, which I’ve presented some of those in a truncated form above. In a nutshell, we spend so much time talking about demons but very little about angels. Why is that? Well, I guess you need to get the teaching to fully understand it. What struck me is that behind every demon is an angel, an angel from the kingdom realms of God. It’s what we choose to look at that makes the most difference. Shabbam!!! Now, we’re talking!
Smith Wigglesworth obviously understood this. Why else would he tell the enemy to take a hike? Think about it. What grabs our attention? The enemy is like that child who tattles on his friend. All he wants is to get our attention off what we’re doing and onto him. It’s that whole roaming about AS a roaring lion bit that the enemy tries with us. If we’re gullible, we take the bait. He only gets what we give him. Sorry friends, I really don’t want to pay attention to demons and Ian’s teaching helped me solidify that. Time to throw away all those books about demons! (Not that I had any to begin with.)
Ian also brings up another good point. All the teachings we’ve had over the years about deliverance are not wasted – it’s practice. But, that only gets us so far. I don’t remember doing any spiritual warfare that involved repentance up to this point. As we mature, there’s more expected of us. If we get stuck in those places, we don’t grow. Maybe a key to where we are is to look and see if we’re stuck with certain things in our lives. But, that requires a good HONEST look. How many of us are really able to do that?
A quick synopsis of what I learned. Warfare is necessary to get rid of stuff that we don’t need. Forgiveness appears to be a major key and going to a higher level definitely gives us the upper hand.
I honestly don’t think it should take hours, days, or even months to walk someone through deliverance – in most cases. There will always be exceptions to everything. In general, if we don’t deal with stuff in our lives, we will get beat up. You know, those pesky little hidden sins that no one knows about but you? Or, anger, bitterness, strife, and the usual list, too. If we leave doors open to these things, then we’re gonna get hammered. No need to fear! Repentance is here! The moment we repent, it totally disarms any demon. It literally takes all the power from it. We own the sin, repent, and then renounce it. Then, we take it, nail it to the cross and walk it through to the other side where it’s covered by the blood of Jesus. Repentance often includes doing so on behalf of our family lines and what’s gone in them that’s affected us. A scriptural example? Nehemiah (Nehemiah 1) rebuilds the wall to Jerusalem. Prior to doing so, HE repented on behalf of his ancestors. The sin was not his but he repented to cleanse the land.
If you’ve read my book “Accessing the Kingdom Realms,” there are many instances where I stop and repent right in the middle of what I’m doing while I’m in the presence of Father (or Jesus). I’ve gone to the mobile court so many times to take care of my sin (or on behalf of my ancestor’s sin) that I’ve lost count! Some things that have affected me are not truly my personal sin but, I carry the effect of that in my DNA. Scientists are now discovering that junk DNA we all have is where these kinds of things are carried. Repentance is a long process. As part of warfare, I believe the results are better.
Angels are there to assist us. Remember that right behind every demon is an angel. Now, if you don’t believe me, go look it up in scripture. How many times did angels come to help people? Uh, too many to name. So, if they can engage with angels in scripture, so can we. When I see a demon now, I look a little further and see the angel that’s there for me. I ignore the demon and welcome the angel and let him assist. Often times, I need to repent first. Then, the angel can do what’s necessary. That varies upon the situation, which I won’t go into here.
Here’s the scoop… when we stop fighting the enemy on his turf and go higher (dealing with it from heaven to earth), we’re going to have the kind of results we need as long as repentance is part of the equation. If we do the warfare standing right across from the enemy, chances are, we’re going to get beat up. Sorry, but I want no part of that. When we stop giving the enemy credit for every little thing, we’ll also be better off. Sometimes, it’s our own stupidity that causes opposition, too. There’s really no formula but I have found the following is a general starting point:
- When something goes haywire, get in that place of peace and rest. Go into the presence of God and deal with everything from the midst of His presence. Get into the center of His name. If you want to know more about that, listen to Ian’s teaching titled “The Four Faces of God.” Again, go to his website and type in that title in the search bar. It should come up.
- When an accusation comes (true or false), I usually own it even when I know it’s false. The reason? It disarms the enemy and takes away his power. At that point, he becomes what my pastor used to call a “powder puff lion.” Imagine the True Judge taking care of him.
- Go through the repentance process first, even if you don’t think you did anything. If you didn’t, someone in your family line probably did. We carry the memory of all that our ancestors did in our DNA. For more of that, you’ll need to read some of my blog posts on Healing Frequencies Music. Ian also has some great teachings on DNA.
- Do not look to fight the enemy on his territory! Commanding things to go in the Name of Jesus is fine… for a while. But, if we’re not doing that from our position IN Christ, IN heaven, seated WITH Him in those heavenly places, we’re on the same level as the enemy. Chances are, you’ll get the tar beat out of you.
- Worship always sends the enemy fleeing. If you don’t know what to do, put on some music that brings you into the presence of God. Worship brings light. Light dispels the darkness. If you need some music suggestions, try some of my albums: I AM, Into His Presence, and Deep Calls to Deep. They are all instrumental and perfect to pray in tongues to. Praying in tongues is a must as a part of spiritual battle. Again, Ian has teachings on this, too.
- If you’re looking for music to help during repentance or DNA cleansing work, consider the album, 528 Creative DNA.
With that, this is already a marathon blog post. More will come on this subject but for now, this is a start in helping us understand that our system of warfare needs repentance as part of the equation. If you’ve done something for so long and it’s not quite working like it used to, then that’s the first clue something’s wrong in River City.
Here’s another clue… If you’ve done deliverance the usual warfare way (commanding and demanding) and you’re constantly under attack in your personal life and/or in your health, there could be something missing. There appears to be three key ingredients: 1) Being in the center of God’s name, in that place of being IN Him (intimacy with Him), 2) Repentance of some kind, and 3) Getting on “higher” ground. A fourth likely ingredient involves allowing our spirit (not our soul) to preside over us. That’s a topic for another post.
It’s all about intimacy with Father and through that intimacy, we can deal with those things that keep us from moving forward.
Blessings to all of you and may you walk in total freedom from all things that would try to hold you back from fulfilling your destiny!
Del
© 2018 by Del Hungerford