Deliverance is defined as “a rescue from bondage or danger.” Deliverance in scripture are the acts of God whereby He rescues His people from peril. In the Old Testament, deliverance is focused primarily on God’s removal of those amid trouble or danger. In the New Testament, we are offered deliverance from humankind’s greatest peril: sin, evil, death and judgment. By God’s power, believers are delivered from this present evil age and the power of Satan’s reign. All aspects of deliverance are available only through the person and work of Jesus Christ.
While believers are delivered once and for all time from eternal punishment, we can also be delivered from the trials of this life. Sometimes, that deliverance is God simply walking through the trials by our side, comforting and encouraging us through them as He uses them to mature us in the faith. Paul assured the Corinthian believers that “no temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).
Deliverance is often sought from the evil Spirit of lust, jealousy, etc. It’s important to understand that, as believers, we already have victory over Satan and demons. We can be delivered from their influence in our lives by using two weapons God has given us as part of our spiritual armour with which we battle “against the powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms”. We can defend ourselves with the shield of faith and the Word of God. By holding up the shield of faith, we extinguish the flaming spiritual arrows they send against us, arrows of lust, doubt, guilt, jealousy, evil speech, and temptations. With the sword of the Spirit (the Word of God), we overcome the evil one by proving his temptations to be lies.
Deliverance from sin, rescue from trials, and escape from the influence of a world in the control of the evil one come only through Christ, who has come and “has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.” (1 John 5:19-20 NIV).