In Him you trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.(Ephesians 1:13)

So many times we hear the question, how can an evil spirit and the Holy Spirit live in the same body? How can a Christian be oppressed by a demon? The answer is that a Christian’s spirit is sealed with the Holy Spirit at salvation . Our soul, which is our mind, will and emotions, is not sealed but rather a work in progress. This is where the scripture to work out our salvation with fear and trembling comes in. It is obvious that the devil can still have access to our souls because we still battle in our minds, our wills and our emotions. When we are saved, the enemy has no access to our spirit but to our souls he does. Sin opens the door to the demonic realm. The other area that the demonic realm is attracted to is when we have wounds from the past that fester in our souls.

When Jesus said to Peter, “Get thee behind me Satan for your thoughts are the thoughts of men.” He was speaking to the devil that was infiltrating Peter’s mind, but Peter was still saved. Now how do we get the devil out of our souls? Through deliverance. Deliverance is the second most important process after salvation. That’s how it was in the early church. In order for the demonic to be released from a believer, they were delivered after salvation. Salvation is deliverance from eternal death into eternal life, deliverance is the freeing of the soul from darkness while on earth. Jesus said to cast demons out, not say a prayer to make them go away. Sadly believers choose to believe the opposite and they live lives full of defeat, disease and torment, when God’s plan was for them to be victorious while they were on earth as well.

Throughout the Bible God talks about warring against our enemies. We no longer are facing the physical enemies that Israel was facing in the Old Testament but now our enemies are of the s spiritual nature, which are what the Bible calls demons. 

When I was a child I accepted Jesus at the age of seven. My life after that until the age of forty, was filled with being molested, being addicted to drugs, being mentally tormented by various illnesses, dealing with several diseases and financial woes including homelessness. God never intended these heartaches in my life. What I came to understand was that there were invisible evil forces still attached to my life after salvation that needed to be evicted. After I learned about deliverance and believed by faith what Jesus had done for me on the cross and being raised from the dead, I went through deliverance and I continue to practice deliverance on myself and am more free now than ever. 

I pray that the message of deliverance touches you this day and you seek out your Deliverer, Jesus to set you free. He has done it all. What we need to do is believe and receive from Him.

We are sealed with the Holy Spirit but we are still a work in progress in our souls!

Pastor Michael Cannatello

lazarusministry.com