14/08/2026
DEAR FELLOW MINISTERS: THE ISSUE OF DELIVERANCE — BEYOND THE DEBATE, THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO NEED HELP
Pastors, this is not about who trends on social media. It is not about who gets the most likes. It is not about who wins an argument, who sounds more theological, or who becomes more popular.
It is about the reality on the ground.
And the reality on the ground is that people are struggling.
I am not approaching this subject merely from a theological or academic perspective. I am speaking from many years of pastoral and deliverance ministry. Let me share some of what I have personally encountered.
1. I HAVE BEEN ASKED BY PASTORS WHO DO NOT BELIEVE IN DELIVERANCE TO MINISTER DELIVERANCE TO THEIR OWN PEOPLE
Over the years, I have encountered ministers of the gospel who openly say they do not believe in deliverance, who do not subscribe to it, and in some cases publicly dismiss it.
Yet some of those same ministers have privately asked me to minister deliverance to their church members, particularly their leaders.
That experience has taught me that sometimes what we reject publicly becomes something we have to confront practically when a real person with a real problem is sitting in front of us.
2. I HAVE PERSONALLY MINISTERED DELIVERANCE TO COUNTLESS PASTORS
I have ministered personal deliverance to so many pastors that I have lost count.
In fact, many of my personal deliverance appointments are with ministers of the gospel.
These are not necessarily people who do not love God.
They are ministers.
They preach the Word.
They lead churches.
They serve God’s people.
Yet they have recognized areas of struggle in their own lives for which they needed help.
That reality alone should make us careful about declaring categorically that a genuine believer—or even a minister of the gospel—could never need deliverance.
3. I HAVE SEEN CHURCH MEMBERS SECRETLY SEEK DELIVERANCE OUTSIDE THEIR OWN CHURCHES
This is perhaps one of the most sobering realities.
Some believers belong to churches where deliverance is publicly rejected or ridiculed. Because they already know their pastor’s position, they do not feel free to discuss what they are experiencing.
So they remain silent in their churches while privately seeking help elsewhere.
Some come to churches that minister deliverance.
Some approach deliverance teams privately.
Some specifically ask that their pastors not be told that they came.
Pastor, this is happening.
The fact that your members are not discussing deliverance with you does not necessarily mean that they do not believe in it or that they are not struggling with issues they perceive to require deliverance.
Sometimes their silence simply means that they already know what your answer will be.
4. I HAVE SEEN PEOPLE WITH REAL PROBLEMS LOOK FOR ANSWERS IN THE WRONG PLACES
One of the reasons some church members flock to false prophets and questionable ministries is because they are looking for answers to problems they feel are not being addressed in their own churches.
Some are dealing with persistent patterns.
Some are dealing with strange recurring experiences.
Some are dealing with family histories they do not understand.
Some are dealing with bo***ge, addictions, fears, oppression, or spiritual problems they are afraid even to mention to their pastors.
When they feel that their church has already declared that such things “cannot exist,” they stop talking.
But silence does not mean the problem has disappeared.
This is why I am saying this carefully: we can debate theology, we can argue publicly, and we can score points on social media, but behind these debates are real people dealing with real struggles, recurring patterns, oppression, mysterious problems, and situations they cannot easily explain.
Let me also make my position very clear.
I am not saying every problem is demonic.
I am not saying every setback is a curse.
I am not saying everything is connected to a bloodline.
I am not saying every difficulty requires deliverance.
That would be an imbalance.
But the opposite imbalance is equally dangerous: to conclude that because we are born again, seated with Christ in heavenly places, and redeemed by His blood, there can therefore be no deliverance-related issue that still needs to be confronted in the life of a believer.
Pastor, we need to pay attention to what is happening among our people.
If you look at many of the public discussions around deliverance, generational patterns, curses, bloodlines, and spiritual warfare, you will often find pastors debating passionately.
But many ordinary church members are not saying much publicly.
That does not necessarily mean they agree with us.
Some are afraid to speak.
Some do not want to be judged.
Some do not want to be labelled ignorant, superstitious, or unspiritual.
Some know what they are experiencing, but they also know what their pastor believes, so they keep quiet.
And some of those same church members quietly go elsewhere for help.
That reality should at least cause us to ask questions.
It should cause us to listen.
It should cause us to examine whether our theology is adequately addressing the lived realities of the people God has entrusted to us.
WE MUST ALSO ACKNOWLEDGE THE EXCESSES
This is not an invitation to abandon biblical doctrine.
Neither is it an invitation to embrace every extreme associated with deliverance ministry.
There are abuses.
There are exaggerations.
There are unbiblical practices.
There are people who blame demons for everything.
There are people who turn every family difficulty into a generational curse.
There are ministers who have commercialized deliverance and manipulated vulnerable people.
Those things must be confronted.
But the abuse of a truth does not necessarily make the truth itself false.
We must be mature enough to reject the excess without rejecting the biblical reality.
WHEN ELEPHANTS FIGHT, THE GRASS SUFFERS
There is an African proverb that says:
“When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.”
Pastors, while we are fighting theological battles, let us make sure the grass is not suffering.
The grass is the people.
The grass is the believer who has been crying at night.
The grass is the church member fighting an addiction they cannot seem to break.
The grass is the family experiencing the same destructive patterns generation after generation.
The grass is the leader who is serving publicly but struggling privately.
The grass is the pastor who preaches powerfully on Sunday but knows there are areas of his own life he cannot explain.
We must never become so committed to winning an argument that we stop listening to the cries of the people we are called to shepherd.
PASTORS, THIS ALSO APPLIES TO US
Sometimes the challenge we are facing personally or in ministry may have a spiritual dimension that we have not considered.
Again, not everything is deliverance-related.
But neither should everything be automatically ruled out as not deliverance-related.
Humility requires us to remain teachable.
There may be things happening in our lives, families, ministries, or histories that require prayer, repentance, renunciation, healing, counselling, discipleship, deliverance—or a combination of several of these.
The issue is not to force everything into one explanation.
The issue is to refuse to exclude an explanation simply because it makes us uncomfortable.
Our responsibility as pastors is not merely to defend our theological camps.
Our responsibility is to shepherd people into freedom, maturity, truth, and wholeness in Christ.
So before we dismiss deliverance completely, perhaps we should listen more carefully to what our people are experiencing.
Before we tell everyone that a born-again believer can never struggle with anything connected to their past, perhaps we should hear the testimonies of believers who genuinely love Jesus but are still fighting battles they do not understand.
Before we ridicule those seeking deliverance, perhaps we should ask why they are seeking it.
And before we criticize ministries that are dealing with these issues, perhaps we should ask ourselves whether some of the people going there are actually members of our own churches.
CHRIST MUST REMAIN AT THE CENTER
This is not about fear.
It is not about glorifying demons.
It is not about making bloodlines greater than the blood of Jesus.
It is not about reducing Christianity to spiritual warfare.
Christ must remain at the center.
The cross must remain sufficient.
The finished work of Christ must remain our foundation.
But precisely because Christ has won the victory, we must also be willing to confront anything that continues to contradict His lordship in the lives of His people.
Pastors, this is bigger than a social media debate.
There are people behind these arguments.
There are lives behind these theological positions.
And while we debate, people are looking for help.
Let us make sure they can find sound, biblical, balanced, Christ-centered help in the house of God.
The goal is not to win the debate.
The goal is to see people free.
