What if I told you that the very people who claim to be able to deliver you from demons are teaching you a doctrine that comes straight from demons?
I’m speaking of the false teaching that tells Christians that because of something they’ve done, or because of something in their ancestral bloodline, that satan has a legal right to them even though they are a child of God.
This is absolute nonsense and about as far from the truth as you can get!
As far as I can tell, this teaching on “legal rights” was brought into the charismatic movement by Derek Prince. Although there is much I appreciate in the teaching of Derek Prince, this is not one of them! Prince helped to create an atmosphere in the church that was very demon-centric.
An exaggerated emphasis on demonic activity became a fad in the late 80’s. There were entire churches physically stomping their feet on the ground supposedly stamping out demons. I’m not getting this from a story on YouTube. I was there, I saw it with my own eyes!
There were wild stories of rampant witchcraft in the United States that were circulating around the church that even made it into secular media. Satanism and child sacrifice was the topic of much conversation. An atmosphere of demonic paranoia pervaded the charismatic church.
A man who billed himself as a Christian comic/evangelist, claimed that he was at one time a high priest of satanism. He became very popular as he traveled among charismatic circles, but was later debunked and exposed as a fraud. [Read here.] A woman claimed that her involvement in Satanism led her to sacrifice her own child! As it turned out the story was fabricated and the child never existed. [Read here]
Many of the errant teachings today that affect certain aspects of spiritual warfare were taking root in the late 80’s and early 90’s.
I don’t have time to go into a deep dive now, but there is much more that could be said about this topic and the various elements that were coming together in the church in the 80’s and early 90’s that drastically changed the church’s perspective on spiritual warfare, the demonic, and deliverance.
Many of the things that are routinely believed and practiced today concerning the demonic are built on very shaky ground.
We have a tendency to believe that today’s deliverance practices are biblical simply because they are common. It’s worthwhile to take a look at the history of how Deliverance Ministries came about!
We cling to doctrines that we assume came out of the Bible when they were actually created largely from the mind and imagination of man.
My assessment of the current landscape concerning spiritual warfare and deliverance ministries in the church is that we have a mixture of that which is from God, that which is from man, and that which came from the teachings of demons.
It’s entirely plausible that some of our teaching about spiritual warfare and deliverance is actually the teaching of demons that men unwittedly believed to be from God!
Now the Spirit expressly states that in later times some will abandon the faith to follow deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons. -1 Timothy 4:1
Demons have a teaching ministry
It’s actually quite an amazing thing to consider that demons have a teaching ministry! The Apostle Paul took this so seriously that that he was warning believers day and night about false prophets and false teachers who would infiltrate the church bringing with them doctrines of demons.
Even from your own number, men will rise up and distort the truth to draw away disciples after them. Therefore be alert and remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. -Acts 20:30
It’s instructive that Paul warned them that from their own community men would “rise up and distort the truth”. He wasn’t just referring to false teachers “somewhere out there”, but pointing out the fact that these false teachers would rise up right within our own gatherings. His concern was so great that Paul says that for 3 years he never stopped warning them day and night with tears. Contrast that with our current spiritual climate.
While false teaching is also rampant within the church in our day, we have very few voices like Paul who are deeply concerned to warn God’s people. Instead, we have fostered a climate that discourages critical thinking. It is, therefore, vitally important that we examine what’s going on in the church today, comparing our practices and teaching with the Word of God.
When the teachings of men are elevated above the teachings of God
I’ve been noticing something very troubling in the Body of Christ. It doesn’t just apply to the topic that I’m addressing today concerning Deliverance Ministries, but it concerns a general tendency where we’re seeing widespread doctrine built on the ideas of men, even though there’s no evidence for it in the Word of God.
They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.…Thus you nullify the word of God by the tradition you have handed down. And you do so in many such matters. – Mark 7:7,13
Legal Rights
Just about every major Deliverance Ministry teaches that demons can have “legal rights” to Christians because of something we might have done, or because of some kind of generational curse that was passed down to us. They even tell us that the reason demons might have legal rights over us is because of what somebody else has done to us, thereby suggesting that innocent victims are subject to legal jeopardy brought about by the devil.
It’s ridiculous to believe that demons have a legal right to me when somebody has victimized me.
A criminal doesn’t get legal rights over the person who was victimized. Neither do demons have a right to terrorize and hold captive those who are abused.
There are people who claim that you may have been completely innocent, but because you were abused by somebody else you ended up getting demons, and they ended up getting legal rights to you. This is absolutely ludicrous! It’s a lie straight from the pit of Hell.
If you want an idea of how crazy this can get, consider the following three statements which were posted by Deliverance Minister/Pastor, Vlad Savchuk.
“Demons can be inherited through unwanted pregnancies. Demons may gain access to the baby while in the mother’s womb. If the baby was unwanted when conceived, or if the pregnancy was unplanned, these can become open doors.” -Vlad Savchuk
This is one of the most outrageous things I think I have ever read when it comes to deliverance! It is utterly unbiblical.
Unwanted pregnancies do not give demons access to the mother’s womb or to the baby in her womb! This is nothing more than entering into the realm of spiritism and superstition.
In the same post deliverance minister, Vlad Savchuk, goes on to say, “A person may also be born with demons, which can be embedded into one’s DNA.”
Demons embedded in someone’s DNA? Is there a scientific test that I don’t know about that indicates somebody’s DNA has been infected and embedded by demons? There is no biblical evidence or medical proof to suggest this whatsoever.
Vlad Savchuk goes on to say “Some parents prefer to have a boy instead of a girl and are filled with disappointment and resentment when that does not happen. This open door of gender confusion may cause the child to desire to be of the opposite gender when growing up.”
Am I to believe that because a parent wanted a boy and got a girl instead that it gave demons an open door for gender confusion in the child’s life?
This is absolutely preposterous, and once again, is completely unsubstantiated from scripture. There is absolutely no biblical basis for these statements whatsoever. These things are being made up out of thin air and being declared as fact. You can read the entire post by Vlad Savchuk here.
Within the charismatic community there’s a widespread belief that demons can obtain legal rights to born again believers. Satan is a liar and that’s exactly what he wants us to believe! The scriptures paint a very different picture.
I’ve been bought by the blood of the Lamb!
I woke up one morning under severe oppression. It wasn’t a mystery to me that I was under some kind of spiritual attack. It was concentrated and heavy. I don’t deny the fact that there’s a demonic realm. I’ve been a Christian for 40 years. I’ve gone through a lot of spiritual attacks during that time, some of them worse than others. I was even at a “Holy Spirit Conference” recently, where of all places, I had one of the worst demonic attacks that I can recall.
I want to state flat out that I know demons are real. Sometimes these attacks have come because of stupid things I’ve done. Other times they come just because the enemy likes to torment people. One thing I can tell you though, is there has never been a moment since the day that I was born again, that the devil or demons have had a legal right to me. I’ll go into greater detail as I go along, but I want to state up front a simple, solid, biblical truth.
I was bought by the blood of Jesus and the only one who has a legal right to me now is Jesus Christ!
It might surprise some of you, but in one sense, we don’t even have a legal right to ourselves!
You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. –1 Corinthians 6:19-20
It should resonate to the core of us that if we are the children of God. We are not our own anymore, but belong to Jesus, and He alone has legal right over us.
Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. -1 Peter 1:18
I’ve written a post about redemption. I encourage you to read it here.
You are the purchased possession of God. He bought you with His very own blood, paying the highest price by the sacrifice of His own life. He has the title deed to your life and is the only one who has legal rights over you from a spiritual perspective.
I want to state this as plainly as I possibly can: As a child of God, satan has no legal rights over me.
The devil does not have a legal right to torment me because of generational curses, bloodlines, or because I mess up and sin! I’m sorry, but that’s just bad doctrine, and bad doctrine is never good for a Christian!
A closer look at the devil and legal rights
As I stated earlier, and will prove further as we go along, the devil actually doesn’t have any legal rights to a child of God.
In the Book of Job we see that God’s protection was upon Job. There were limitations on what the demonic realm was able to do and satan actually had to get God’s permission to go past a certain point because there was a hedge around Job of the Lord’s protection
And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD. –Job 1:12
We can see from this passage that even after satan was given permission by God to bring havoc into Job’s life, God still set limitations that satan was not allowed to go beyond.
We can see the same dynamic at work in the life of Peter.
Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith will not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” -Luke 22:31-32
Once again, we see that the enemy had to ask permission to do what he was about to do. Not only that, but Peter had actually denied knowing Jesus, and not even this gave satan a legal right to him!
I don’t think we can surmise from these passages that the enemy necessarily has to ask every time he wants to attack us, but we can see that there are certainly boundaries in which he cannot go beyond without the Lord’s permission. We live in a fallen world and the enemy is going “to and fro” throughout the Earth as it says in the Book of Job. We’re also told in the Book of James that he goes about as a roaring lion seeking who he may devour. Finally, we’re told that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. Obviously he’s out trying to do as much damage as he can.
I want to put it before you that the devil, by his very nature, tramples the rights of people! It’s just who he is, and what he does.
Just stop and think about it for a minute- The enemy doesn’t need a legal right to attack someone. It’s just his nature!
Since when does a thief need a legal right to go in and steal? Since when does a murderer need a legal right to go and kill someone? Does a lawbreaker ever have a legal right to do what they do?
No!
The enemy’s nature is to steal, kill and destroy. The devil doesn’t care whether he has a legal right to do that or not, he just does it because that’s who he is! He’s a thief! He’s a murderer! He’s a destroyer! He’s constantly trampling the law of God. Do you honestly think he cares about your legal rights? He couldn’t care less! The activity of satan is lawless BY NATURE.
All demonic activity is rooted in lawlessness.
“The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan…” -2 Thessalonians 2:9
Satan is lawless, and he really doesn’t care about God, or His laws, or about having some kind of legal right to do what he does to you. He hates you and attacks you because you are a child of God.
Satan has no legal rights over you if you are a child of God.
When Jesus shed His blood He redeemed us and delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his beloved Son.
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. -Colossians 1:13
Jesus has redeemed us, He has purchased us with His blood, and all of our sins have been forgiven. What legal right does the enemy have over such a one as this? When the enemy comes struting around telling us that he has a legal right to us because of something we’ve done we’re to recognize that he’s a liar and an accuser.
The bible never tells us to enter into some legal debate or argument with the enemy of our souls. Rather, we are simply to give the testimony of the sufficiency of the blood of Jesus on our behalf!
For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down— he who accuses them day and night before our God. They have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. -Revelation 12:10
We answer the accusations of the devil by pointing to the blood of the Lamb! Our testimony is what Jesus has done for us at the cross.
We’re never to argue our case by pointing to ourselves and our own righteousness. We have no need of arguing our case with the devil or before God. There is never any victory along these lines.
The devil knows he has no right over you if you are a blood bought child of God. When under the fiery arrows of the evil one we’re supposed to go right to the cross and the blood of Jesus Christ. We overcome the devil by pointing out the truth– “You have no right to me satan, I’ve been bought by the blood of the Lamb!”
The devil will list your sin from sun up to sundown if you let him! He’ll accuse you and claim that that he has some legal right to torment you because of what you’ve done.
I want to remind you that we’re not being tossed back and forth like a volleyball from God’s Kingdom to satan’s dark domain. You don’t belong to God one minute and the devil the next!
Some Christians have the idea that every time they sin they lose their salvation. Well, I suppose that would be true if my salvation depended upon my works and my own righteousness, but it doesn’t!
I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” -Galatians 2:21
What Jesus did at the cross is more than sufficient to deliver me from death, from demons, from the power of hell and to bring me to heaven. God doesn’t lose his right to me and His possession of me because of some sin that I’ve done.
The Lamb of God came into the world to take away our sin!
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! -John 1:29
There’s no reason for you to appear before the courts of heaven
There’s an erroneous teaching in the charismatic church that teaches that christians can appear before God in a legal court in heaven and plead cases before Him. I can assure you that there’s no place in the scriptures where the saints of God are traveling to heaven to appear before Him in a spiritual court of law. If you want to plead your case before God for some reason then go before Him the scriptural way and simply intercede and pray. But don’t make up some kind of spiritual fantasy where you think you’re taking an esoteric trip to heaven and appearing before God in some kind of legal proceeding!
Whatever legal right the devil had over you ended when Jesus died on the cross and shed His blood for you!
What were the last words that Jesus spoke on the cross?
It is finished. -John 1:29
He did not say, “It is finished after you go to a deliverance minister!” No, He actually said that it was finished. The enemy will do everything he can to try to mess you up on this point. He wants you to get in there to try to finish things yourself. He wants you on a never ending hamster wheel of deliverance when he knows full well that Jesus already delivered you at the cross!
The devil has no legal rights to a child of God.
Satan is a usurper and a liar. The blood of the Lamb overcomes the lies of the devil. Jesus paid the price fully. All of your debt has been canceled. The devil may accuse you and bring a legal charge against you, but Jesus is your advocate and He pleads for you on the basis of His shed blood!
Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is there to condemn us? For Christ Jesus, who died, and more than that was raised to life, is at the right hand of God—and He is interceding for us. -Romans 8:33-34.
God doesn’t lose His legal rights over you just because you mess up. The debt has already been paid.
As I previously stated, It’s not like the title deed of your life is being tossed back and forth between God and the devil. One day God has the legal rights, and the next day the devil has the legal rights? No, it doesn’t work that way.
Legal rights over you were obtained by the blood of the Son of God and belong to Him forever.
The scripture tells us not to give the devil a foothold. But that is not the same as the devil having a legal right to me. The only one that has a legal right to me is Jesus. He purchased me with his own blood.
And by Your blood You purchased for God those from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. -Revelation 5:9
You were purchased for God. End of story.
From a human perspective we purchase that which we consider to be valuable. So it is with God.
For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of the earth. -Deuteronomy 7:6
You are precious to God and He protects that which He considers precious. He paid the highest price that could be paid for you. He’s not going to just turn over legal rights to you!
Where there’s disobedience there needs to be repentance. But as far as the devil having a legal right to me? That’s a doctrine of demons. Christ alone has a legal right to me. Thank God for His blood which purchased me for God.
Have I been overly repetitive on this point? Yes, absolutely. The enemy of our souls has lied to too many of us and convinced us that we belong to him rather than Jesus. We need to get the truth firmly planted in our hearts and in our minds. Therefore, I have repeated it incessantly in this article.
The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple. -Psalm 119:130
The power of the cross of Christ
Isaiah Saldivar says that Christians should come back for deliverance every two to three months just like they routinely go in for an oil change for their car! [HERE]
Is there anything remotely biblical about that statement? Am I to believe that I’m supposed to have demons cast out of me every couple months? To speak like this shows an utter misunderstanding of the power of the blood of Jesus and the Cross of Christ!
If you’re on the deliverance hamster wheel you’ve been believing a lie. You need to get off that thing and put your faith in Jesus and the power of the cross.
Demons manifesting all over the place?
For those of you who are not in the prophetic movement, “manifesting” simply means that a person begins to show forth the demonic because they “have a demon”.
It’s interesting that in the New Testament we do not see examples of christians manifesting. Every example of demonic manifestation in the New Testament involved unbelievers who either found themselves in the presence of Jesus or were being delivered of demons.
In the prophetic movement Christians “manifesting” is about as common as drinking water! An overwhelming majority of the people that show up at deliverance conferences are actually christians. If you’ve ever been at one of these conferences you will witness one of the most unbelievable sights you have ever seen! Growling and shrieking voices and people being thrashed around on the floor are commonplace. This is precisely opposite of what you see in the Bible!
In the Bible it’s the unbelievers who are demonized, not the Christians!
To those of you who are in the prophetic movement and have witnessed what I’m talking about, I would like to ask you a question, “Why does most of the Body of Christ have no idea what “manifesting” even means? Why aren’t Christians breaking out in demonic manifestations throughout the Body of Christ? Why is it in a very narrow segment of the Church that we see these things occurring?
Why aren’t christians routinely manifesting in other churches as we see happening in the prophetic movement?
This is a very important question because people are mostly manifesting in the churches where deliverance is taught and manifestations are expected.
I have another question. Why has the incidence of manifestations exploded in the prophetic movement over the last few years? Suddenly there are demonized christians coming out of the woodwork! The truth is you did not see this kind of thing in the body of Christ in previous decades. Why not?
I was at a Deliverance Conference a couple years ago that was held by a very well known pastor who specializes in Deliverance Ministry. From the look of things you would swear that all of hell showed up! Most of the people who were in attendance were christians looking to be freed from demons. That’s quite a contrast from the Bible. As I mentioned, in the Bible the people that were manifesting the demonic we’re unbelievers!
I believe this is an important point to bring up. Just because something is being practiced today in churches does not mean that it’s biblical. I quoted the passage from Jesus earlier where He was talking about people who nullify the word of God by their traditions. I think we really need to examine what we call Deliverance Ministry in the church today with what we see in the Bible and weigh it by the standard of His Word.
Handing demons a microphone?
I don’t want to venture too far afield from the point of this article, but I saw ministers at a conference hand the microphone over to supposedly demonized people while they engaged in long conversations with demons! The only way that I can describe the atmosphere is that it felt like a circus.
Did Jesus or the apostles ever make purposeful public displays of demonic activity? Did they give demons the floor to speak before the gathered crowds? Did they have intake forms for demonized people to fill out beforehand? Did they have gatherings where demonized people came together for mass deliverance? Is it just me, or is there something inherently suspicious about having somebody fill out an intake form only to be giving out public “words of knowledge” later on about the very things that people disclosed on their intake forms?
There’s so many points of concern that I could bring up. I think we really need to evaluate what’s going on. I wrote this post specifically to address the issue of “legal rights”, but there is much more that needs to be looked at when it comes to spiritual warfare and Deliverance Ministry in the church.
In churches where people are not taught about “Deliverance Ministry” christians are not spontaneously manifesting all over the place the way that they are in the prophetic movement and at deliverance conferences.
This should give us great pause.
We’ve created environments where the sensational flourishes and it’s critical that we examine these things by the Word of God.
Spiritual oppression
This is not to say that christians cannot be heavily oppressed by demons and need serious prayer. There is, however, something seriously wrong with the notion that there’s an epidemic of demonized christians who are in need of deliverance.
I have the gift of discerning of spirits and there have been many times where I have seen demonic activity around a person. The Holy Spirit will show me in one way or another how these demonic entities are affecting the individual. Spiritual oppression is a very real thing and unrepented sin and sinful lifestyles can certainly attract demonic activity.
Idolatry in our life attracts the demonic. If we delve into occult activities as christians we can be sure that vexation will follow. Christians for the most part have always understood this aspect of spiritual warfare. We’re to resist the devil, we’re to resist temptation. We’re instructed not to give a foothold to the devil. We understand that playing around with sin leads to worse sin. We know that engaging in dark things causes darkness to come into our lives, but this is quite different than demons taking possession of people’s bodies, thrashing them around on the floor, and taking possession of their vocal cords and growling and speaking out of their mouths!
Much of this error has been built on the back of the false doctrine that satan can gain legal rights to a child of God. We should be teaching people about the power of what Jesus did at the cross and how it has canceled every legal demand. Even God is not holding our sin against us from a legal standpoint. The debt has been paid and we are free!
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. –Colossians 2:13
I’ve mentioned three prominent people in this article who have heavily influenced Deliverance Ministry. I believe that each of them has been a blessing to the body of Christ in various ways. In my view each of them has also strayed from the truth in some matters as it concerns deliverance and the topic of legal rights. We would do well to accept the things that they teach that are biblical and to give wide berth to those things that are not.
It feels like I’ve repeated it a thousand times in this post, but if you’re a child of God you were bought by the blood of Jesus Christ and He alone has spiritual legal rights over you.