Do you experience hurt and pain that gets triggered regardless of how you try to retain gain control of your emotions?
Are there people you Have you tried to forgive those who have hurt you, but the pain lingers?
Does this hurt steal your joy no matter how hard you try to “get over it”?
Inner healing is an important puzzle piece of spiritual freedom.
During deliverance ministry, we command the demons to leave, but some clients, especially those who have experienced significant trauma, struggle to see complete freedom.
Bill Sudduth, President of the International Society of Deliverance Ministers, contends that deliverance (kicking out the demons) is the easy part. Helping people uncover the source of pain and gain healing for their soul wounds can be more challenging.
Just as removing a splinter can facilitate physical restoration, inner healing may be crucial to help complete the process in the soul
Sudduth shares an illustration from an incident in his childhood. As a young child, he had taken the training wheels off his bike for the first time. A neighborhood bully pushed him down a steep hill. Bill lost control, had a nasty crash that left him with a severe case of road rash, gashes on his knee, and pea gravel embedded in the wound.
His knee did not heal properly, and Bill got frustrated. One day, he ripped off the scab, exposing another piece of pea gravel in the oozing wound. He removed it yet still noticed that the pain did not disappear.
One year later, during a football game, he got tackled and fell on the same knee. Much to his surprise, when he was examined, yet another piece of pea gravel was still embedded under the skin. Once that was removed, his knee could finally heal.
Do you see the similarity?
Sudduth estimates that 75% of the hindrance to spiritual growth involves renewing the mind, 20% deals with inner healing, and only 5% consists of the need for deliverance. I do not agree with the ratios, but his points are well-founded.
Driving out demons, being transformed by renewing our minds and inner healing does present a roadmap for the wholeness Christ provides.
One cannot mend a broken heart, but if one is unable to renew the mind because the demonic activity is keeping the soul stuck, deliverance is the missing link. At Above and Beyond we strive to lead others to a Thessalonians 5:23 experience: May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Inner Healing Testimony
One of my recent clients was battling fear, anxiety, inadequacy, and timidity. I took her through deliverance, which helped put her on the path to confidence and courage.
She experienced greater peace and healthier relationships but realized that she still had not dealt with the pain of her father abandoning her family as a child. She met him when she was an adult, but he never apologized for his behavior. Shortly after their meeting, he passed away.
Before the deliverance session, as part of the preparatory homework, she had forgiven her father. During a subsequent meeting, I asked the Lord to show her what she needed to know about the painful memory of rejection in her childhood.
She received a vision of Jesus telling her that He protected and sustained her through the lonely and abusive times with her father. This revelation loosed a profound feeling of love and joy in her life. She no longer needed to seek love and acceptance in unhealthy relationships. She was able to boldly approach her Heavenly Father to receive what she needed:
Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace to help us in time of need. Hebrews 4:16
If this article speaks to you, I urge you to seek help so you can get unstuck and take hold of the complete victory, joy, and peace that Jesus has secured for you.