Triumphant Life Church

By Apostle Isidore Agoha

Jesus did various ministry activities such as teaching, preaching and working miracles such as deliverance, healings, raising the dead and the divine provision of material needs. Invariably, all these were done to accomplish God’s purposes in people’s lives. However, upon closer examination , the ministering of deliverance was central to Jesus’s ministry in two ways.

First, Jesus spent most of His public ministry time dealing with demons; rebuking them and casting them out. Apart from the many specific or named individuals who received deliverance through the ministry of Jesus, there are also several places in the record of the New Testament where Jesus dealt with demons in the lives of groups or masses of people simultaneously.

Second, another fact that underscored the place given to the ministry of deliverance in Jesus’s campaigns is that He employed this ministry at the beginning of and continued with it through the entire course of His ministry. He never contemplated backing off or modifying it. Towards the end of His earthly ministry, when some Pharisees sought to discourage Him from fulfilling His purpose of going to Jerusalem, they tendered an intimidation, "Herod is seeking to kill you." Jesus’s answer was no less intimidating, not only to Herod but also to the demonic forces behind Herod’s motive: "Tell that fox, behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today, tomorrow and on the third day I reach my goal" - Luke 13:32.

This answer not only reflects the vital place that deliverance occupied in the Lord’s ministry, it also reveals that deliverance as a ministry strategy was given a continuing practical emphasis. Furthermore, there is a goal to which the Lord aims to reach through the deliverance ministry.

Apostle Isidore Agoha is the Senior Pastor at Triumphant Life Church in the Bronx, N.Y.

www.tlcny.org | http://twitter.com/apostleagoha