Should YOU Be A Deliverance Minister?

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Chapter 18 
Should I Be A 
Deliverance Minister? 

“How did you get into deliverance ministry?” That 
question is put to me rather often. It surely was not 
something I desired and sought after. I often tell people, 
“If you look outside on the ground you will find furrows 
made by my toes when I was being dragged into this 
business.” The Lord did not call me into this facet of 
ministry - He thrust me into it! In Matt. 9:38 Jesus tells 
His followers to pray that the Lord of the harvest will 
“send forth” labourers. The literal interpretation is that 
He will “thrust” or “force out” workers. This is how I 
experienced “the call”. The Lord did not ask me; He told 
me! 

It was a thrilling discovery to learn that Jesus is “the 
same yesterday and today and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8). 
When I experienced the baptism in the Holy Spirit I 
discovered that miracles did not end when the twelve 
apostles died or when the canon of scripture was 
completed. Miracles are for today. I went to hear 
Kathryn Kuhlman and witnessed many miracles of 
healing in that service. My faith was quickened, and I 
began to think of friends who needed healing. 

A fellow pastor was much upon my heart. I wanted to 
see him healed more than anyone I could think of. For 
sixteen years he had suffered continuous headaches. 
This was the result of a serious head injury. Doctors 



offered no solution. They suggested exploratory brain 
surgery, but Fred would not consent to such dangerous 
surgery with so little promise of help. Because of the 
pain he could not sleep and his nerves were going to 
pieces. He could not study and make adequate 
preparation for his sermons. The constant pain made 
him cross and irritable. His family was under heavy 
tension. The children could not make any noise. 
Everything revolved around Fred’s affliction. 

I told Fred that I was going to pray for him until I saw 
him healed. Every day for a week I spent time in prayer 
for him. Then one morning as I was praying, the Lord 
told me that Fred’s problem was due to an evil spirit. 
Had I really heard the voice of God? How could I share 
such a revelation with my friend? What would he 
think? After all, what did I know about demons? I had 
heard a few references to them at a couple of meetings 
I had attended, but I had never read anything on the 
subject. How could I be sure? What should I do? 

The impression to share my revelation with Fred would 
not go away; it grew stronger. One day when we were 
together I cautiously approached the subject. “Fred, I 
promised to pray for you until God healed you,” I 
reminded. “I have been praying for you each day. The 
other day the Lord told me what your problem is.” I 
paused for Fred’s reaction. I had his attention all right. 
“Well, praise the Lord,” he said, “What did the Lord tell 
you?” “Now, Fred, I don’t know what you will think of 
this,” I offered, choosing words as carefully as I knew 
how, “but the Lord told me your headaches were 
caused by a demon.” I held my breath as I watched his 



face for a reaction. I didn’t know that Fred was more 
knowledgeable about demons than I was. He took it in 
stride. “Well, praise the Lord!” he exclaimed, even 
appearing jubilant. “Doesn’t the Bible say demons can 
be cast out? I want you to cast it out of me.” 

“Now, wait a minute,” I protested. “I don’t know 
anything about casting out demons, but I think I might 
be able to find someone who knows how to do it. Give 
me a few days to pray about who can do this for you. I’ll 
let you know as soon as I find someone.” 

I went right to prayer asking God to lead me to a 
deliverance minister. The Lord said, You do it.” So I 
prayed again. I carefully explained to the Lord how 
unqualified I was. I must have sounded worse than 
Moses at the burning bush making excuses as to why he 
could not lead his people out of Egypt. The Lord would 
give me no other course. I must perform the ministry. 

Many thoughts began to turn over in my mind. What 
would happen to me if I made a frontal attack against 
demon spirits? Wouldn’t they make a special target out 
of me? I would be in trouble for sure. The prospects 
were frightening. 

A week later I talked to Fred again. I told him the 
results of the prayers. It didn’t seem reasonable that I 
should be the one to minister to him, but he was 
completely willing to go along with it. We agreed that 
we would pray another week and study what the 
Scriptures had to say on the subject. Then we and our 



wives would get together and see what would happen. 

The day came when we were to have the attempted 
ministry. Fred and his wife were to meet at our house 
for dinner, and then we would go over to the church 
building for the prayer meeting - or whatever it would 
be. I was rather glad the day was so busy for us. It was 
necessity to make a business trip out of town. We got 
back home about two hours before Fred and his wife 
were due. On my doorstep was a little pamphlet, 
weighted down with a rock. A friend had come through 
town and not finding me at home had left the little 
pamphlet for me. I could hardy believe my eyes as I 
read the title - “An Introduction to Expelling Demon” by 
Derek Prince. My friend did not know about the 
impending ministry. The timing was perfect. It had to 
be God! 

Within a few minutes I had devoured the contents of 
the pamphlet. It was very practical and crammed with 
helpful information. We could anticipate some kind of 
manifestation when the demon came out. At least I felt 
a little more confident about the whole matter. When 
Fred arrived I had him and his wife read the booklet 
before we attempted the ministry. 

We spent some time in prayer before we challenged the 
demon. And I was thinking only in terms of a single 
demon at the time. My comprehension was not any 
greater than that. Fred was still on his knees when I 
suggested that we begin to address the demon. My wife 
and I laid hands on his head and both of us said, “I 



command the demon to come out of him in the name of 
Jesus.” After I had given this command and my wife 
had repeated it, we waited to see what would happen. 
Finally I asked, “Did you feel anything, Fred? Do you 
think anything happened?” Fred shook his head 
negatively, lie had not sensed anything. We held a brief 
consultation and decided to try it again. 

The command was given several more times. What was 
happening to Fred? His face was contorting! He was 
trying to speak, but he could not get any words out. He 
appeared to be choking. It was no time to slack off now. 
We continued to command the demon to come out of 
him. Fred began to cough violently. This lasted for 
about a minute. Then he slumped sideways to the floor 
and lay motionless. “Is it out, Fred?” I inquired. “I think 
so,” he whispered. He could hardly talk. “I’m so weak I 
cannot get up,” he explained. We prayed for Fred and 
thanked God for his deliverance. It was at least five 
minutes before Fred was able to sit up. 

Fred’s wife had been sitting and praying all this while. 
Now I heard her singing softly. I recognized the tune a 
fam ili ar hymn... “Amazing Grace”. I thought I would 
join her in the hymn, and as I listened to catch the 
words I realized she was singing in tongues. A few 
weeks previously I had prayed for her to receive the 
baptism in the Holy Spirit, and she had only been able 
to speak one short phrase in tongues. Now she was 
singing with complete liberty. The four of us were 
jubilant. 



It was a week later when I saw Fred again. I was eager 
to get a report on his headache. I was confident that he 
would tell me it was all gone. “Frank, I don’t know what 
to make of it,” Fred began, “but I still have my 
headache. It is not any better.” The sick feeling of 
disappointment came over me. How could a ministry 
be so dramatic and yet not be effective? We were both 
baffled. 

Fred told me that he had accepted the call to pastor a 
church in another state. He would be moving 
immediately. It was six months before we saw him 
again. We were on a trip that took us near his new 
place of ministry, so we drove a few extra miles to have 
a visit and spend the night. As we had prayer that 
evening it was decided that we ought to minister to 
Fred again. During the past months we had learned 
more about demons. There could be more than one of 
them. Maybe we didn’t get the one that caused the 
headache. We would be more persistent. 

We had Fred sit in a chair as we gathered around him. 
He was most cooperative. He was willing to do anything 
that offered a ray of hope to be rid of the incessant pain 
that was destroying him. At this point we did not know 
how to detect different types of spirits and had never 
received any supernatural discernment on specific 
demons. So we gave a general command for whatever 
demons were in him to come out. Each time we 
commanded, Fred would have a spell of coughing. He 
could feel a pressure in his throat which would be 
relieved through coughing. This happened about six 



times. “Has your headache gone yet?” I quizzed. “No, it 
hurts worse than ever,” Fred explained. We could tell 
there was something still inside of Fred. I recalled 
having listened to a tape on deliverance in which the 
minister commanded the demons to name themselves. 

It was decided that we should attempt this. 

“What is your name?” I demanded of the demon I felt 
sure was still in Fred. “In the name of Jesus I command 
you to tell me your name.” His face began to contort 
just like it had during the initial ministry. We kept 
commanding the thing to name itself. Fred’s lips 
protruded and his mouth contorted into a snarl. Very 
slowly and in a voice that was scarcely audible there 
was one word spoken - “P..a..i..n”. 

It sounded so simple. Why hadn’t we figured it out 
before? “Demon of pain, come out of Fred!” Our words 
were insistent. “In the name of Jesus, come out of him!” 
Fred’s wife must have sensed in her spirit what was 
about to happen. She grabbed a newspaper off the 
coffee table and threw it on the floor between Fred’s 
feet. Immediately Fred coughed and threw up two big 
blobs of phlegm onto the paper. The demon was out! 
And the pain was gone! Almost five years have passed 
and Fred is still healed. God had answered our prayers! 

Overcoming Fear 

Fear is keeping many persons from becoming 
deliverance ministers, both the fear of demons and the 
fear of men. My original theory about the devil was that 




if I left him alone he would leave me alone. Nothing 
could be farther from the truth. To leave the devil alone 
is to permit him to work unchallenged. We have no 
reason to fear the devil and his demons because Jesus 
has conquered them. In I John 3:8 we are reminded that 
Jesus came into the world for the express purpose of 
destroying the works of the devil. In Col. 2:15 it is 
shown that through the cross Jesus disarmed 
principalities and powers, made a public display of 
them, and completely triumphed over them. 

In order to move against the evil principalities and 
powers without fear it needs to be understood that 
Satan has no real power left. He is a liar, deceiver, 
usurper, trespasser and thief. Jesus has already passed 
judgment upon him. (See John 16:11). IT IS NOW THE 
RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHURCH TO EXECUTE THAT 
JUDGMENT. When we rise up against the demons with 
the authority of the name of Jesus and the power of His 
shed blood, the demons have no choice but to yield. We 
have no need to fear any enemy stripped of his armour. 
(See Luke 11:22). He is absolutely defenseless. The only 
thing the Christian has to fear is fear itself. 

Satan, that old liar and deceiver, will try to make you 
think that he is going to retaliate. He will tell you that 
he will attack you and your family with sickness, injury 
or something sinister. But you shall trample him under 
your feet “and nothing shall by any means hurt you” 
(Luke 10:19). 


When we do not listen to the lies that demons whisper 



into our ears, they will attack us with lies in the mouths 
of men. Someone is continually asking me, “Have you 
heard about Dr. So-and-so and Bro. So-and-so 
(prominent men in deliverance ministry)? I hear they 
have ruined their ministries by getting mixed up with 
demons. They can no longer get invitations to minister 
anywhere.” But I know for a fact that these men of God 
have more demands for ministry than they can ever 
meet. These are lies of the devil to cause fear. 

A few pastors whom I know, started out in deliverance 
ministry and the devil told them that they would lose 
members or that prospective members would be 
frightened away. Undoubtedly, the devil will cause 
some to be offended or afraid, but when a pastor begins 
to guard his own little kingdom at the expense of 
disobeying Christ’s commission, he will lose much more 
than he had hoped to gain. 

“Have you heard that pastor So-and-so is casting 
demons out of Christians?” If the devil cannot defeat 
you with fear tactics and lies, he will resort to criticism 
in the mouths of others. Two ministers were talking; 
the first one said, “We have to be very careful these 
days about false doctrines and false teachers. Why, 
have you heard that some preacher by the name of 
Hammond is going around in our area casting demons 
out of Christians?” (The second minister passed up the 
opportunity of saying, “Hammond is ministering 
deliverance to my own block right now.”) “All 
Hammond ever thinks about is the devil. I believe we 
should just keep our minds on Jesus.” My, the devil 



must really delight in getting someone to take up that 
chorus. The devil will try any trick to keep God’s people 
out of spiritual warfare... he has everything to gain by 
it. 

Jesus advised his followers to count the cost of 
discipleship. To serve the Lord requires personal 
sacrifices. If one is not willing to pay the price he 
should never commit himself. Consider some of the 
demands that are made upon the person of the 
deliverance minister. 

1. Time. Deliverance is very time-consuming. This is 
true from the viewpoint of the amount of time spent 
with one person and from the large number of persons 
to whom one may minister. There is such a demand for 
deliverance today that one who gives himself to this 
ministry will soon understand why it was said of 
Jesus... 

He ... entered into an house, and would have no man 
know it: but he could not be hid. Mark 7:24 

2. Energy. There are times when the deliverance 
minister will be involved for long hours. Numbers of 
times our deliverance team has ministered until well 
past midnight and there would be others still waiting to 
see us. On a few occasions we have ministered as long 
as sixteen hours per day for a week or longer. At such 
times we have received added strength from the Lord. 
But deliverance ministers may find themselves seeking 
rest as did Jesus and His disciples. 



And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a 
desert place, and rest a while: for there were many 
coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as 
to eat. Mark 6:31 

3. Patience. There are always those who do not retain 
their deliverance. They are slow to learn and must be 
taught and encouraged repeatedly. There is the 
temptation to spend your time with others who show 
more promise, but the Lord would have us be patient 
with the slow learner. 

The Minister Must Be Dedicated 

As one involved in this ministry already, or as one 
contemplating it, have purpose and a complete 
dedication. Devote yourself to Christ and others. When 
the disciples of Jesus failed in their attempt to deliver a 
lunatic boy from his demon oppression they sought the 
answer for their failure. Jesus gave them the answer 
when He said... 

0 FAITHLESS AND PERVERSE generation, how long 
shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring 
him hither to me. Matt 17:17 

Jesus said they were “faithless". The word literally 
means unfaithful or to not be steadfast. They were 
charged with not being completely devoted to Christ. 
Furthermore, He calls them a “perverse generation". 

The word “perverse” here means to be turned aside. 



The disciples were more interested in other things than 
they were in the Kingdom of God. In the parallel 
account in Mark we read in the context that the 
disciples were disputing among themselves which of 
them should be the greatest. No wonder Jesus found 
them unfaithful and turned aside. No wonder they 
were powerless. 

1. Loving and Wise 

One must also have a genuine compassion for others. 
The deliverance minister will have many opportunities 
to show the true character of his love. He must be ever 
ready to go the second mile and turn the other cheek. 

In our own ministry we have often found it necessary 
to invite persons to stay in our home for a period of 
time in order for them to experience an adequate 
ministry. This requires love, but it also necessitates 
wisdom. I have had demons in such persons try to take 
over my home, rule my life and strike out with words of 
accusation and condemnation. Love for the person will 
not be expressed by yielding to pressures imposed by 
demons. After the person has been delivered he will 
appreciate the fact that you recognized the difference 
between his person and the demons that spoke or acted 
through him. 

2. Free from Blame 

This leads us to observe that the deliverance minister 
must be free from demonic interference himself before 
he is qualified to minister to others. Unless he has 



submitted to needed deliverance for himself he will 
find an inward resistance and struggle that will 
seriously hinder his own effectiveness. I learned this 
lesson myself in attempting to minister to my wife. We 
realized that demons were responsible for certain 
tensions between ourselves. One day when we were at 
home by ourselves we decided to minister to one 
another in these areas. As I called for the demons to 
release her, she was thrown to the floor and evil spirits 
began to speak through her. One demon made a direct 
accusation against me. I knew that I was guilty of what 
the demon accused me. It put me under such 
condemnation that I could not proceed with her 
deliverance. It was necessary for me to confess my sin, 
ask her forgiveness and have her cast the demon out of 
me before I was able to continue with her ministry. 

This bonded us with love and forgiveness and shut the 
door on any further interference from the enemy. 

3. Bearing Others’ Burdens 

A minister of deliverance will listen to many sordid 
stories of sinful acts and attitudes. He may minister to 
those who are respected leaders in the church and who 
have never shared their inner conflicts and failures 
with others. These are times when he will minister 
confidentially and in love... bearing others’ burdens 
and so fulfilling the law of Christ. What he has heard 
will not affect his relationship with that person. He will 
not allow himself to remember sins that Christ has 
forgiven or to reflect on ugliness cleansed by 
deliverance. 



The deliverance minister must be like the Old 
Testament priest who ate the trespass and sin offerings. 
According to Number 18:8ff, only Aaron and his sons 
were to eat the flesh of these offerings. “Every male 
shall eat it.” Other offerings could be eaten by the 
priest’s household, but only the male priests could eat 
the sin and trespass offerings. It was their DUTY to eat 
them. The “male” represents strength. It takes a strong 
person to perform this ministry. Under the New 
Testament all believers are priests. As priests it is our 
duty to “eat” the sin and trespass offerings of others. 
What is brought to us in the spirit of confession and 
repentance are consumed and not shared... not even 
with one’s household! 

Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are 
spiritual (i.e. strong in the Lord), restore such an one in 
the spirit of meekness; considering, thyself, lest thou 
also be tempted. Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so 
ful fil l the law of Christ. Gal. 6:1-2 


4. With Prayer and Fasting 

Jesus made it clear that some types of demons are 
stronger than others, for He said ... 

This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and 
fasting. Mark 9:29 


The disciples had failed in an attempt to deliver a young 



man from a dumb spirit. In essence Jesus attributed 
their failure to a lack of spiritual dedication. We, too, 
can fail for the same reason. Jesus recommended 
prayer and fasting as the remedy for their spiritual 
condition. The concept of fasting is being restored to 
the church today. Fasting is not a way of bargaining for 
God’s power, but a way of crucifying the flesh that one’s 
complete affection may be set upon things above and 
not upon things on the earth. Apart from fasting and 
prayer one will not develop the spiritual resources 
adequate for every encounter with the enemy. 

Blessings And Benefits 

The impression should not be left that the deliverance 
ministry is all hardship and sacrifice. There are many 
blessings and benefits. There are many occasions of joy. 
Even the very deliverance session itself is an 
opportunity for worship and praise. The Word of God 
finds a prominent place, for it is the “sword of the 
Spirit” which thrusts through the foe. Much scripture is 
also used to teach, correct, instruct and exhort. Then, 
there is praying in the understanding and praying in 
the Spirit... prayers of petition, intercession, 
thanksgiving and praise. There is singing that exalts 
Christ and His sacrifice, and songs of adoration. There 
is rejoicing over captives set free as the thrill of victory 
finds expression in crescendos of praise. When 
deliverance is conducted in such a spiritual 
atmosphere, power is generated that breaks the 
resistance of the enemy, in preeminence, and the 
servants of the Lord are strengthened and edified. 



Through this ministry I have met some of the most 
beautiful people in God’s family. It is heartening to find 
out how many Christians are seeking the fullest 
expression of spiritual life possible. All sham and 
pretense is laid aside, and you get to know people in a 
hurry. I could never put a price on the value of 
friendships gained through contacts opened by the 
deliverance outreach. 

And what a joy to see multitudes brought into victory. 
The most frustrating part of my pastoral ministry was 
counseling. I was willing to listen, offer advice and give 
encouragement, but most of the time there was no 
remedy. Now we are getting to the roots of the 
problems and there are answers where there used to be 
none. Christians are being saved from lives of ruin and 
defeat and brought to stability and fruitfulness. 

I have often commented that one of the greatest 
blessings that has come to me through this ministry is 
the insight I have gained into the spiritual realm. I have 
discovered a sharp line of demarcation between the 
realm of light and the realm of darkness. Spiritual 
awareness is quickened. Satan’s wiles are much more 
readily discerned. The path of righteousness before God 
is plainer than it ever was. It is easier to keep from 
being drawn into fleshly conflicts with others and to 
keep the warfare in the heavenlies.