No Demon Hunting Required: Set Free From Deliverance Ministry

Introduction

The book of Ephesians was a turning point for me as I began unraveling error I had learned in the modern deliverance movement. I had been taught that the Christian life was an endless battle — like peeling an onion, with layer after layer of demons to be cast out. I was told deliverance would be a lifelong process, because at each “layer” new spirits or “legal rights” would be uncovered. This created so much fear and confusion in my life and I was a mess. Everything in my life became about demons and I sought ministry after ministry to seek to have them removed. As I continued to believe the error that I had demons and that they had power over me because of generational curses and personal sin, the enemy gladly gave me problems and demonic experiences (Proverbs 23:7).

I was constantly focused on the demonic and on my sin, not on Christ and His finished work. I felt defeated, fearful, and dependent on others for my freedom.

When I began studying Ephesians, I discovered something completely different — a gospel-centered, Spirit-empowered life rooted in my identity in Christ, not in chasing demons or spiritual problems. I want to walk you through each chapter, because I believe that the way Paul teaches the Ephesians — former pagans, idol worshipers, and even occult practitioners — dismantles the need for the modern deliverance model and replaces it with the hope of the gospel.

Chapters 1–3: Identity Before Activity

Paul begins by telling believers who they are in Christ before he tells them what to do. These chapters are saturated with truth about our position in Him:

• Chosen before the foundation of the world (1:4).

• Redeemed through His blood, with all sins forgiven (1:7).

• Sealed with the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of our inheritance (1:13–14).

• Made alive with Christ and seated with Him in the heavenly places (2:4–6).

• God’s workmanship created for good works (2:10).

• Brought near to God, no longer strangers but members of His household (2:13, 19).

Paul reminds them that they were once dead in sin and following the ways of the world (2:1–3), but now they have been raised and given new life in Christ. This is the foundation — identity before activity. For someone like me, coming from a performance-based, fear-driven version of Christianity, seeing and understanding this was life-changing. Paul wasn’t telling them to search for hidden demons or spend years breaking curses. He was pointing them to the reality of what Jesus had already done. This is good news!

Chapters 4–5: Walking It Out

Once the foundation of the finished work and identity is laid, Paul turns to how this identity is lived out in everyday life.

He tells them to:

• Put off the old man — lay aside the sinful habits and ways of thinking from their former life (4:22). We have been crucified with Christ and who we were in Adam no longer exists. We have the choice and power to put off the old thoughts, behaviors and actions that no longer fit who we are. We get to choose to walk by the Spirit or the flesh.

• Be renewed in the spirit of your mind — let truth reshape your thoughts (4:23). We are transformed by the renewing of our minds. (Romans 12:2) As your thoughts become aligned to truth your actions and behaviors will follow.

• Put on the new man — we are new creations who have been given the gifts of righteousness and holiness. We get to live this out as we believe the truth about who we really are(4:24).

Paul gets practical in teaching them how to apply this: stop lying, speak the truth, deal with anger rightly, work honestly, speak words that build up, put away bitterness, and forgive one another (4:25–32). He calls them to walk in love (5:2), walk as children of light (5:8), and walk carefully and wisely (5:15). We get to choose!!

This is a message of personal responsibility and Spirit-enabled choice. We are not victims or puppets that the devil can make do something. We decide whether to yield to the flesh or to the Spirit (Romans 6:12–13). James says we sin when we are drawn away by our own lusts (James 1:14), not because of some hidden curse or because there is a demon controlling us. We get to choose what we think, how we behave and what we do! We don’t get to blame our actions on demons. We must recognize the power of our will and take responsibility when we miss it.

In the deliverance movement, I was told my sinful struggles were almost always the result of some spirit that needed casting out. That I had opened some door and needed to break the legal rights so that the demon could be removed. I’ve actually heard deliverance ministers describe it as if the demon takes over and the person cannot do anything except play out the desires of the indwelling demon. This is not the case for born again believers — we get to choose who and what we yield ourselves and submit to. If you believe a demon can make you do something then they most certainly will exploit that belief. As we see in Ephesians, Paul’s approach is different than what I experienced in the deliverance movement — he treats believers as new creations who have the power, by the Spirit, to choose righteousness.

Chapter 6: Standing Firm in Spiritual Warfare

Finally, Paul addresses spiritual warfare — and here’s what’s so interesting. Ephesus was steeped in occultism (Acts 19:19 shows they burned their magic books when they came to Christ). If anyone “needed” ongoing deliverance by modern standards, it would have been them.

But in Ephesians 6:10–18, Paul gives no instruction to hunt for demons, break generational curses, identify legal rights, or go through endless deliverance sessions. Instead, he tells them to:

• Be strong in the Lord — resting in His power, not ours (v. 10). The strength is already God’s — we access it by abiding in Christ (John 15:5). So we aren’t self dependent — warring and pressing in harder to get freedom — we are resting in what Christ has already done. There is no striving when being strong in the Lord. It is finished.

• Put on the full armor of God — truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation, the Word of God (v. 11–17). This isn’t “imagining” the armor — it’s living from the truth of your salvation, righteousness, and gospel foundation. It’s living from a revelation of who we are - the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. knowing who we are is key.

• Stand firm — three times he repeats this. We’re not told to chase the enemy, but to hold the ground Christ has already won (v. 11, 13, 14). The believer’s role is not to gain ground from the enemy but to refuse to surrender the ground Christ has already given. The enemy wants to steal and lie to us, we need to know who we are in Christ and what Jesus accomplished through His death, burial and resurrection and not allow the enemy to take what is ours because of Christ — health, provision, identity as sons and daughters, rest, etc. The enemy wants to wear us down by battling him and focusing on him so that we aren’t resting in Christ.

• Pray in the Spirit — staying alert and persevering in prayer for all the saints (v. 18). Staying alert does not mean constantly scan for demons, it means to be alert and grounded in truth so that when the enemy comes with his lies and deceptions we aren’t taken captive to his schemes.  We are to focus on Jesus and know that in Him the victory is already yours. He has given you His Spirit and we have His Word — everything we need pertaining to life and godliness is already ours. The enemy can’t devour us at his will, we have to cooperate with him and believe his lies.

Paul’s strategy for dealing with demonic powers is not an endless cycle of rituals — it’s knowing your position in Christ, walking in your true identity of righteousness and holiness, holding firm to the truth, and praying consistently.

Freedom in the Finished Work

The book of Ephesians demolishes the fear-driven, demon-focused model I learned in the deliverance movement. Paul doesn’t tell the Ephesians to spend their lives chasing freedom; he tells them they ALREADY HAVE FREEDOM in Christ, and now they are to live it out. The Ephesians lived in a major, wealthy, spiritually dark city. They had to learn how to walk out their new faith in Christ — and so do we. The Christian life is not about peeling back our lives like an onion, constant intraspection, searching for curses to break, breaking legal rights, and going to endless deliverance sessions. It’s about growing in the knowledge of who we are in Jesus, walking in that truth, and standing in the victory He has already secured.

This is the hope of the gospel— Christ has done it all. We are free. Now, we live like it. Believe the truth and be free!