Deliverance

[FireBrand]

What is intercession if not using your faith on behalf of someone that has none, or at least doesn't know how to use?

It is a sharp collision of God’s power and grace stepping into hopelessness.

[Colonel]

All I see here is people overriding the details of the passage with their simplistic word of faith principles. One reason why Jesus made the return of the demon an issue in this passage may have been that the boy was naturally prone to letting it back in. Normally one would consider living in sin (the man at Bethesda pool) or refusing the Lordship of Jesus to open up for that (the demon returns and finds the house empty). But being retarded or insane could also make the person prone. From the description this was obviously a horrible demon with a lot of power over the boy (as Tertullian also notes) and it may even have driven him insane along the way. Which implies that he needed healing along with the deliverance. It's possible that that was what the boy's father was told to have faith for, a complete deliverance that implies that the boy would function normally and be able to resist letting the demon back in again. Someone might object that the term healing isn't used in the passage but the term healing is never used about mental healing in the New Testament. Which doesn't imply that there is no such thing. The closest the gospels get is probably the man from Gadarene who, some time after he has been delivered from demon possession, is said to be of a sound mind. But that was after Jesus had been ministering to him for hours while the spectactors had been around the countryside telling the people in the various local villages about what had just happened.

[Colonel]

A few years ago I was talking to a severely retarded man who was barely able to speak. He was a Christian and had just been to a service and was having a meal in the church cafe. I saw that he was living in sexual sin, perverted stuff was going on in his mind. I was trying to get that across to him and that he needed to repent and that wasn't easy but at some point the power of God manifested around myself and the man and he got the point and repented. That was a very demonstrative manifestation, it was like nothing else existed for a few seconds. To my knowledge the man didn't have any demons but I can see how hard it would be for him to avoid letting demons back in if they had been cast out. It's possible that he would barely be able to resist that unless something had happened to his mind first.

[Smitty]

The devil and his minions of evil spirits can capture your thought life. If the individual continues to feed his mind on what the demon has presented, a stronghold in the thinking process will occur which leads to giving place to the devil. Once the door has been opened (in the mind) the demons will enter in. Of coarse, the unsaved have no defensive measures to stop this assault because they are controlled by the impulses of the fallen nature (sinful flesh). The believers objective is to obtain the mind of Christ by constantly renewing his mind to the word of God which will ensure a victorious mindset. The thought life of the believer is a battleground that is in continual conflict with the kingdom of darkness. But God has given us weapons in His word in which to ensure a godly mindset. Of coarse, we have to do our part which will enable us to not succumb to the mental assault of sinful thinking that the demons try to inflict in our mental capacities.

[Colonel]

How common is it that demons are cast out then they return after a short or a long while ? People who are more fans of Word of Faith than I am tend to think that healings are lost quite frequently, typically a lot more frequently than I think they are. What then about deliverances ?

[Smitty]

How common is it that demons are cast out then they return after a short or a long while ? People who are more fans of Word of Faith than I am tend to think that healings are lost quite frequently, typically a lot more frequently than I think they are. What then about deliverances ?

If you're delivered from demonic oppression or total possession, I think the demon will come back just to pay a visit to see what's in the house.
Maybe looking for any open windows or a point of entry. Something that may present a legal right to gain entry to either harass the former delivered person or move back in altogether.

[Colonel]

If you're delivered from demonic oppression or total possession, I think the demon will come back just to pay a visit to see what's in the house.
Maybe looking for any open windows or a point of entry. Something that may present a legal right to gain entry to either harass the former delivered person or move back in altogether.

Jesus told this particular demon to never return again. Can they be commanded to stay away per default ? I don't think they can, rather I think the boy was healed in such a way that he would be enabled to keep the demon out.

[Smitty]

Jesus told this particular demon to never return again. Can they be commanded to stay away per default ? I don't think they can, rather I think the boy was healed in such a way that he would be enabled to keep the demon out.

Yes, I agree, that seems to be definitely the case. I have a hunch that the lunatic at the Gerasenes may have remained sane the rest of his life also, even though there is no record of Jesus forbidding the legion from entering him again.

[Colonel]

Yes, I agree, that seems to be definitely the case. I have a hunch that the lunatic at the Gerasenes may have remained sane the rest of his life also, even though there is no record of Jesus forbidding the legion from entering him again.

There's yet another account of the same event in Luke :

Luke 9:42 And as he was still coming, the demon threw him down and convulsed him. Then Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the child, and gave him back to his father.

In this account Jesus heals the child in addition to casting out the demon.

[Ezekiel 33]

Never mind what happened before Jesus arrived at the scene. The point is that Jesus stated the father's faith as a condition for the deliverance. Why would Jesus do that if Jesus' own faith were sufficient ?

You are reading that wrong bro. Jesus did not state the father's faith as a condition for the deliverance. Read it again. Smitty nailed it on the head.