Last week, I shared a post on Instagram in response to our most frequently asked question: "Is it a demon? Or do I need therapy?"
One of the things that we get to educate the world on at Flamingo Trauma Recovery is the powerful overlap of deliverance ministry and therapy. In the video, I talked about how sometimes, the struggle we face is a demonic power that we have yet to confront, while other times, it is the result of a process that we have yet to pursue. In any case, we need both.
What I didn't share in the video is that deliverance is a process that falls under a larger concept of transformation and sanctification. Therapy and deliverance pair together well because therapy facilitates the process of unearthing subconscious or buried ways of thinking. Deliverance ministry effectively confronts the powers that make certain tendencies unmoving and forceful. However, after a demonic power is confronted and removed through the authority of the Name of Jesus, there remains the responsibility of renewing the spirit of the mind. Renewal of the mind is a process that God has given us authority to oversee in our personal lives.
Renewal happens through shifting:
what we meditate on
what we choose to believe
how we make sense of our past
who we choose to journey through life with
What we start to meditate on and believe might be informed by sermons and scripture, but what we subconsciously or routinely meditate on can be unearthed through a sound counseling regimen.
How we make sense of our past can most certainly be revealed by the Holy Spirit or a proverb. However, knowing the patterns and paradigms that commonly result out of experiences can support your awareness with the help of a skilled psychologist or counselor.
Who you choose to journey through life with can be determined through discernment and church gatherings, but you might be surprised to learn how your past has an effect on who you naturally gravitate to, why you gravitate to them, and if they are indeed safe people.
While a demonic power can become disempowered immediately, understanding what a free life looks for you now like can be an entirely new learning curve.
I always say that psychology is the study of the fruit of a thing. The names of diagnoses are just how we categorize patterns and combination of thoughts and tendencies.
Psychology studies the fruit of sin: the impacts that sinful environments and behaviors have on the psyche. It also offers insight to the impact that goodness has on the human experience. Domains like love, safety, and truth are very much part of any therapeutic process as it goes back to the several fundamental human needs. Psychologists have recently (mid 1940's) discovered those needs, but God knew first and has allowed the earth to come into the knowledge of those needs. Most importantly, He knew that man would have to return to Him to get satisfaction of every need that He placed in us.
Psychology is not saved or sanctified, but neither is medicine. These are neutral terms and tools we use to understand the patterns of our fleshly limitations. To abuse either or place either above the truth of God would be sin, but that would be the case for anything one chooses to idolize. Psychology cannot tell us what is true, but it can reveal what is factual and at the very least, can expose our deeply complex need for Jesus.
Psychology and deliverance are so well aligned because they both have to do with the transformation of the mind. Psychology and therapeutic practice may study the mind in its most warped form, but it can also show us what transforms it and how. Nothing renews the mind like Jesus, but a good analysis of the brain can be an incredible tool for showing us where our minds, in light of our individual stories, need an encounter with God.
In our brand new group Trauma - Informed Spiritual Intervention, we explore the intersection of counseling and deliverance ministry. The wall is always open for questions, sharing experiences, and following up on things shared in the Trauma Informed Spiritual Intervention certification program.
More information about that certification track is here, but whether or not you are in the certification program, this group will be a resource of enrichment!
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