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Deliver us from evil: ’That kind can only come out by prayer and fasting’ [Mark 9:29].
Since starting at SOMA UK I have had to grow rapidly in my understanding of deliverance ministry. The best known deliverance material in history can be found in the gospels. In Mark’s gospel there is little preamble. Jesus is introduced not by a Christmas nativity story, but by John Baptist preparing the way and announcing that Jesus would ‘baptise’ - drench, immerse, saturate people with the Holy Spirit. We then witness him seeing right into heaven as it is ‘torn open’ and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. He hears his Father’s affirming, commissioning voice from heaven, but before he has said a single word himself in this telling, he is in the desert tempted by Satan for 40 days. Satan in one of the earliest characters in the gospel.
No details are given, but the clear assumption is that he was victorious as the story marches on to him recruiting his first four disciples - Simon, Andrew, James and John. They follow him without delay. So far his only recorded message has been ‘Repent and believe the good news’ after announcing that the ‘Time has Come’ and the ‘Kingdom of God is near’. But by the Sabbath day we learn that his teaching amazed people as it had ‘authority’. That authority is then dramatically evidenced with Jesus’ first miracle in Mark’s gospel. It is no surprise that it is an exorcism. His teaching is interrupted by a man from the Jewish covenantal community in the synagogue where he is teaching. An evil spirit has grip on this Jewish man and causes him to interrupt Jesus’ teaching.
The evil spirit claims to know who Jesus is: ‘The Holy One of God’ and addresses him by name ‘Jesus of Nazareth’. It is publicly demanding to know if Jesus is coming to destroy us? By ‘us' it presumably means the ranks of demons. The very person of Jesus invokes an almighty fear in this spirt. But this Jesus who had been tested and affirmed already simply orders the evil spirt ‘Quiet’ and ‘Come Out’. The man is shaken, the spirit shrieks, and then all is calm. The people see that the authority with which Jesus teaches is the same authority with which he silences and casts out demons.
Within a few verses Jesus is again driving out many demons. But now he does not let them speak as he slowly builds up his band of believers. Then, as if to reiterate this is Mission Normal, the gospel records him travelling right around the region from synagogue to synagogue driving out demons as he continues his preaching ministry.
All this within the first 39 verses of Mark’s fast flowing gospel.
The final verses of Mark’s Gospel see it stop as abruptly as it started. The definitive words finish with Jesus’ tomb empty, the disciples lost and feeling out of it, and even the two women witnesses of the resurrection trembling and bewildered. But some manuscripts add Mark 16:9-20. Words probably chosen by the living faith community of the early Church to round off the account with a ‘what happened next’. So what did they then choose to add? Well more material for a deliverance manual:
Firstly Mark 16:9-20 affirms that the very first witness of the resurrection was a woman who had previously had seven demons in her. Then, in the accounts of the resurrection, it records Jesus commissioning disciples to drive out demons (even after rebuking them for their lack of faith). Then it concludes with a very brief description of Jesus’ ascension and an announcement that the disciples did just that. They went everywhere, preached, and the Lord worked in them to ‘confirm his word by the signs that accompanied.’
Although lacking in detail, Mark’s Gospel is a deliverance 101 training manual as it locates authority in and through the person of Jesus and sets out a clear expectation that when confronted with demons his disciples should be able to imitate what he does.
As we travel around the world, and as we minister in the ’neo-pagan’ West, this sign of the Kingdom that is deliverance ministry seems ever so important. Often SOMA teams are called in when there is a spiritual blockage or problem that needs dealing with. It’s worth remembering that at the centre of Mark’s gospel Jesus teaches us that prayer and fasting is needed to make this ministry work. (Mark 9:29). Whatever obstacles you face today, seen or unseen, may God guide you to greater dependency in prayer as you join him victoriously in the very real battle we all face.
Richard Moy,
National Director, SOMA UK
