Small Group #17 – The Good Gift of Deliverance…wait what?!?

If you don’t have time to read this blogpost, sign up for small group #17 here.

Healing and deliverance are part of the ancient teachings and practices of the church meant to draw people to the heart of God and to help them to experience a greater fullness of life before him.  Our baptism liturgy is a deliverance prayer and we are given the model in Scripture to lay hands on the sick and pray for them.  That said, there has been a lot of misinformation and poorly handled situations that have hurt the church’s reputation in both of those areas.  We are striving to offer more small group opportunities that are designed to help us listen to the Holy Spirit in regards to his desire to heal and deliver us and to help others experience those same gifts.

A few months ago I wrote about an intense experience with the Holy Spirit.  You can read about it here.  In that blogpost I wrote, “I have been delivered from demonic oppression and helped others toward greater freedom.”  Apart from the Holy Spirit’s assurance of love and salvation, this has been one of the greatest non-material gifts that I have received from him.  It doesn’t mean my track record has been perfect since then, but it does mean that I have been able to experience amazing progress in the area of what used to be my addiction.  And I have had the humbling honor of helping people experience greater freedom through claiming the authority that Jesus won for us on the cross – the authority he has given us through his Holy Spirit.

Last trimester Ramsey and I led a small group on listening to the Holy Spirit with an emphasis on physical healing, and by God’s grace our small group experienced both healing and deliverance during our time together. Praise God!  When Jesus sent the disciples out, he sent them to proclaim the good news of the kingdom and to heal the sick, and they came back to Jesus excitedly proclaiming that even demons were cast out in Jesus’ name.  In many cases there was a connection between healing and deliverance, and this trimester I am excited to learn more about what it means to practice living into the freedom of the Kingdom of God through focusing on his gift of deliverance.

Our small group meets in north Alexandria (Chirilagua/Arlandria) and meets on Wednesdays from 7:30 to 9:00 (#17 on the small group list). In our small group, we will be using the book Unbound as our hub of conversation.  It is the book that helped me to accept and act on the authority that the Scriptures teach about concerning deliverance.  It has ultimately helped me towards greater freedom and closer alignment with the heart/will of the Father.

Even if you cannot be part of our small group (which has some of the same amazing folks that were in it last trimester) I would love to grab a coffee with you if you’d like to have a conversation about this.  I believe that God continues to use healing and deliverance to draw people to his heart, and I want to participate in that.  I would love for you to participate in it with me.