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    A32. Deliverance Through Truth

    There is this false stereotype that people have, thanks to Hollywood, the Catholic Church, charismatics and others that deliverance is all about summonsing demons, binding them, and throwing them out in the Name of Jesus, accompanied by the victim doing lots of screaming and frothing at the mouth. Sometimes this happens but I have to say that it is usually very rare. We at New Covenant Ministries believe in gentle deliverance (where this is possible).

    I relate here an experience with a client yesterday to serve as my principle illustration of what I wish to convey. We had spent considerable time looking into past memories and traumas using the Theophostic method. Much had been achieved but somehow we had come up against a blank wall. Demonic oppressions would manifest and indeed the demons could sometimes be seen in the room in the distance, seeking to interfere. We would expell them and they would simply return again later, attracted by something that gave them the right to reappear.

    Time dragged on and we seemed to be dealing with trivia. I sensed the strongholds were still present and that the Theophostic method was not working for this client any longer. So I stopped and listened to Yahweh. I instantly experienced an anointing and began to preach! I simply talked about Gospel principles and expounded upon them in depth. At once my client began to feel an oppression in her heart area. I told her to ignore it (to her surprise as before I would have prayed over her until the oppression had gone) and continued preaching. I subjected my client to a barrage of Truth and shortly afterwards the oppression in her heart disappeared. She asked me questions about doctrinal concernes and it became clear that part of her problem was her belief in untruth of a general doctrinal nature, and that it was this that was giving demons continuing legal grounds. I preached and taught for some hours. Having concluded, she remarked that she had not felt so good in a very long time.

    Many clients are surprised that we as deliverance ministers aren't constantly hovering over them throwing out demons by the authority of Christ everytime they show their ugly heads. Sometimes they can even resent the fact that all we do is teach them the Gospel. They have this idea that deliverance is like a dispensing machine or a medical clinic - you go in, take your medicine, and you get better. Deliverance encompasses - as I have said so many times before - the whole of life, and there is no more important aspect of life than building on a foundation of solid Truth. I believe that nearly all of the demonic problems not caused by believing in lies associated with trauma and abuse come simply from wrong belief about things and God in general, and that most of our problems stem from these things. Indeed, many of the lies we believe in when we experience trauma and abuse often stem from wrong belief about life.

    When I speak of Truth I refer to that which is real as opposed to mere appearance or copy. Yah'shua (Jesus) is the minister of the true tabernacle (Heb.8:2) in contrast to the shadows of the Levitical models (Heb.8:4ff). He is the true bread and the true vine (Jn.6:32,35; 15:1) which of course means He is the substance and reality of images or copies of the Truth. The Levitical images are a bit like photographs in reverse - in other words, the objects they represent haven't yet appeared to be photographed, and yet there is the photograph! The rituals were the photographs, but Yah'shua (Jesus) Himself is the reality and the truth of what they represent.

    It is the same in the rituals of the Lord's Supper and Passover (Pesach). Yah'shua (Jesus) is the eternal reality symbolised by the bread and the wine. In the same way, true worshippers are not so much sincere but REAL (Jn.4:23). Their worship is a real approach to Yahweh who is spiritual, in contrast to that which is ritual which restricted Yahweh to Jerusalem or Mt. Gerezim (Jn.4:21), and which can at best symbolise Him and at worst distort Him. Again, I am not saying that Yahweh has dispensed with rituals (otherwise, for example, there would be no need for baptism or the Lord's Supper) - what I am saying, however, is that believers need to get behind the symbol to the reality. The symbols and rituals are but helpers rather as a ruler is a guide to help a child write text to the right of a specific margin on a piece of paper.

    Demons cannot abide Truth because their substance and life is in lies. Reading scripture, singing inspired Christian songs, praying in the Ruach (Spirit), listening to inspired preaching or attending doctrinally accurate Bible teaching, is to immerse the mind in Truth. So often lies are displaced simply by what Chemists call elution or 'washing out'. By simply saturating yourself with truth the lies get washed out and the demons with them, usually subconsciously. Truth also has the effect of separating out the various lie components in our mental and heart system rather as chemicals are separated and then identified by colouring in a mixture by chromatography. With Yah'shua (Jesus) as the base, and truth the solvent, the lies get eluted out.

    I can therefore readily sympathise with some believers who are sceptical of 'traditional' deliverance ministry or exorcism. Much of it is indeed unnecessary. However, simply reading the Bible to those like SRA victims, for example, is never enough, even though exposure to Truth like this is always beneficial. Just as David's harp music drove out Saul's demons for a while (until his unrepentant sinful disposition summonsed them back in again), so exposure to Divine Truth can get rid of a lot of demon problems.

    When the Truth is declared and there is an inner oppression of some kind it is because there is a demonic stronghold within built upon upon the foundation of a lie believed. A belief in reincarnation as an explanation for the suffering in the world, and its solution, might be an example. Reincarnation simply isn't true and behind belief in it is always a demon or two. Challenging it by exposing the lie with Biblical truth always gets demons going because reincarnation is a key to satanism, the occult and nearly every false religion there is, because reincarnation is salvation by self-effort (and therefore without Christ) which is impossible. The reality of the effects of belief in reincarnation is too often dismissed - a nation like India, for instance, whose predominant Hindu religion espouses a belief in karma and reincarnation ought, by virtue of its superior knowledge of truth, be far ahead of all the other nations in the world which have not known it. But the opposite it true. That nation remains in the thraldom of poverty and oppression. That is reality. Even the Hindu Ghandi could see somewhing was wrong with reincarnation doctrine ... that it was just too much for humans to bear.

    All deliverance should include intense discipling which means, as I have also said before, that deliverance should be part and parcel of congregational life. People come to this ministry because of our knowledge, anointing and experience but then go away again when expectations are placed on them which are not in accord with their own denominational teachings. We have been pressurised to be more 'broad-minded' and 'all-inclusive' but how can anyone who professes a love of the Truth deny reality in order to supposedly be more 'accommodating' and 'accepting'? Such an attitude plays straight in to the Enemy's hands and is the reason why deliverance is almost never fully completed. The Truth is the Truth and no amount of 'loving' can alter that - indeed it is the spirit of truth the defines what genuine love actually is.

    Scripturally Truth has two aspects: (1) Intellectual; and (more commonly) (2) Moral. Truth is defined as being dependable, consistent, and of reliable character when applied to people. There is a close correlation between the Hebrew emet (Truth) and emunah (Faith or Faithfulness). Truth is both facts as well as moral reliability. This reliability is a basic attribute of Yahweh:

      "For Your mercy is great above the heavens,
      And Your truth reaches to the clouds"
      (Ps.108:4, NKJV)

    Yahweh "keeps truth for ever" (Ps.147:6). Yahweh is true and consistent, unlike the capricious pagan deities (demons) both in His loving care for us (Gen.32:9ff) and in His implacable hostility to sin (Ps.54:5).

    Truth is an attribute of Yahweh-Elohim and therefore all His judgments are true (Ps.96:13) even if we may not approve of them because of our blindness. He alone sends the Truth forth into the Universe (Ps.57:3). When we say that Yahweh's Word is true we mean than it is permanently valid and cannot be altered by men or angels:

      "Forever, O Yahweh,
      Your word is settled in heaven"

      (Ps.119:89, NKJV)

    When we dispute His Word, we make Him out to be a liar and deny Truth. Because He is permanent, unchanging, consistent, reliable, etc., Yahweh in His turn expects Truth from us - He demands as our response to Him obedience to Torah (Ps.119:151). It must be established in our innermost nature (Ps.51:6) and must be the bedrock of all human relationships (Ex.20:16; Dt.5:20). When we reject Torah in any degree, we reject Truth and the basis on which to discern it. And since demons gain their footholds in us by persuading us to become lawless and to trust instead on our unreliable and fickle feelings to judge what is primary right and wrong, it follows that to reject any of Yahweh's Torah is to open the door to demonic onslaughts. Our national problems are a direct fruit of this rebelliousness to Truth.

    Our Greek translations of the New Testament use words that add various nuances to the Hebrew forms, and so here we must be careful too. When the early translators of our Hebraic New Testament books translated emet (truth), they had a choice of three words - alétheia, aléthés, and aléthinos - whose sense is much the same as we use in modern English when we speak the truth. For the Greeks 'truth' was perceived more as something intellectual - purely of the mind. Truth, for them, was a state of affairs that had to be proved forensically. Thus Bultman defined the Greek concept as 'the complete or real state of affairs' which reduced truth to very much a human and earthly level.

    Implied throughout the New Testament is the sense that Yahweh can be relied upon to keep His Word (Rom.3:7; 15:8). Men, in their turn, are expected to do the same (2 Cor.7:14; Eph.5:9). In addition, Truth is the absolute (cosmic) sense of that which is real and complete as opposed to that which is false and wanting (Mk.5:33; Eph.4:25). The Christian faith is 'the truth' (Gal.2:5; Eph.1:14) which excludes all others, which by definition the others counterfeits. Most importantly of all Yah'shua (Jesus) is the Truth personified (Jn.14:6, cp. Eph.4:21). He is the Mediator of all Truth (Jn.1:17) and the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) alone leads men and women into all Truth (Jn.16:13; cp. 14:7; 1 Jn.4:6) so that the true followers of Yah'shua (Jesus) know it (Jn.8:32; 2 Jn.1). This means that those who do not know the truth, even if they may claim to be His followers, are not, in fact, His followers, and a fruit of that will be the fact that demons continue to steer their lives. The true followers of Yah'shua (Jesus) do the truth (Jn.3:21), abide in the truth (Jn.8:44), and their new birth as Yahweh's children rest on that truth (Jas.1:18). That means that those who are not resting on Truth and have been 'born again' into something else other than Yah'shua (Jesus) even if they may use His Name! Truth is not a mere credal formula - it is Yahweh's active Word which must be obeyed (Rom.2:8; Gal.5:7). Those who do not spontaneously find themselves attracted towards and obey Torah therefore demonstrate that this divine activity is not in them, but a counterfeit.

    Finally, the New Testsment conveys the Truth as something which is genuinely real as opposed to a mere imitation, appearance or copy. Demons are experts at making unauthentic copies, and these copies always lack true saving power - most importantly, they lack the power to deliver souls out of Satan's hand. One demon known as 'Sophia' (of Gnostic origin) is an expert at counterfeiting the Light of Christ and the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) and comes as a false 'comforter' - behind the beams of counterfeit light with which she infiltrates the human spirit follows darkness. Some of my trainee ministers are therefore surprised when on occasion they come across active 'Christians' who are not just demon-oppressed but in some cases actually possessed. The fact that they claim the Name of Christ is not enough when the reality behind the name is not authentic but a demonic look-a-like. Indeed, in Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA), satanists under demonic control go to great length to create counterfeit 'Christian' alters in their victims which lack the True Light and are empowered by a counterfeit such as 'Sophia' whilst using Christian vocabulary in ordinary speech and mimicking Christian behaviour.

    Truth is not, therefore, merely intellectual. It is that error, which comes from Greek thinking patterns, that has led so many astray. Truth is at core the active principle of Yahweh Himself in those men and women who through proper faith in the living Yah'shua (Jesus) and obedience to Torah have received it. When 'Christians' presented with the truth of Torah refuse to abide by it, it is usually because they are being steered by a counterfeit in some area (or several areas) of their life, which areas are dark, hostile, arrogant and ... in a word ... demonic. And in a good many cases they may never have actually met the living, resurrected Yah'shua (Jesus) but a counterfeit spirit (demon) using His Name.

    If you want to know the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth, you must yearn for it with all your heart, ask Yahweh-Elohim for His active principle, and trust every word He has written in the Bible ... all of it. Truth is what sets a man free intellectually and morally, and the more of it that is absorbed, the less easy it becomes for demons to find place. A proper grasp of reality - that which is around us and that which is above us (as well as underneath) gives perspective, clarity and a sound basis for making right choices in life. And once you really know something is true it is impossible to be deceived again - then if error is chosen it is deliberate, wilful and without excuse. There is mercy in ignorance but wilful rebellion has dire consequences. Yahweh is quick to forgive unintentional sin but when we choose to openly rebell against what we know is right, then the consequences can last a lifetime. King David openly rebelled and committed two of the worst sins possible (against his fellow man) when he deliberately and knowingly committed adultery and murder. He knew Yahweh's Torah perfectly well but chose to listen to Satan instead. His tortured and remorseful writings testify that His soul was in distress for the rest of his life even though he was in the end forgiven.

    The quality and blessedness of a soul - and the extent therefore that he allows himself to be demonised or not - lies in the boundaries he will or will not cross when it comes to loving Yahweh and his fellow man. I ought therefore to end this article with a few words about the art of judgment in respect both of self, others and Yahweh Himself. It is a Christian duty to exercise discrimination. Yah'shua (Jesus) asked: ".. and why, even of yourselves, do you not judge what is right?" (Luke 12:57, NKJV). Again, He said: "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment" (John 7:23-24, NKJV). He complained of certain Judeans that "judge according to the flesh" and in that situation added, "I judge no one" (John 8:15, NKJV). From this we see that the believer is not supposed to be credulous - believing something with little evidence - Yahweh has given him the ability to discriminate. Therefore he should use it to "judge righteous judgment". Indeed, Yahweh has made us so well that we are really without excuse when it comes to chosing error over truth, or evil over righteousness. When we allow demons in it means that we are basically responsible and cannot blame-shift. True humility recognises our culpability. And when we blame-shift we are in fact indulging in evil like the demons themselves by passing the buck to others. I have noted consistently that the rate of deliverance in my clients is a direct function of humility (or a lack of it) - deliverance goes no faster than our willingness to admit the truth when we know it and swallow our pride.

    What of judgment of others? The fact that it is easier to judge other people than ourselves ought to be revelation enough - why is the latter so hard? And the answer is, that agent which led Satan to fall in the first place; pride. When it comes to judging others, we are given four cautions:

    • 1. It is not always safe - "Judge not, that you be not judged" (Matt.7:1, NKJV) - and you risk condemnation - "Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things" (Rom.2:1, NKJV). To pass judgment on others is therefore to invite a similar process with respect to oneself;
    • 2. We are not always qualified. When the woman caught in adultery was brought before Yah'shua (Jesus) He said: "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first" (John 8:7, NKJV). He counselled the man with a 'beam' in his own eye not to concern himself with casting the mote from his brother's eye until he had first dealt with his own condition (Lk.6:41ff). Until our own consciences are undefilied through repentance and humility we lack the Judgeship credentials, which is why Judges in Israel must be selected by Yahweh Himself and not by man. Hypocritical judging is actually harmful since it distracts us from that self-examination which is a primary duty of the believer;
    • 3. We don't always have the authority. "Who are you to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls" (Rom.14:4, NKJV). So the question must first be asked: Whose servant are you and whose master (or mistress) are you? Wives are not to judge husbands and congregational members are not to judge pastors. One man is not to judge another man's wife and a Deacon is not to judge an Elder. Where there are disputes, Yahweh has set up judgment procedures in Torah. Judgment - how it is to be done and who is to do it - is Yahweh's business, not man's. "Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the Law (Torah), you are not a doer of the Law (Torah) but a judge. There is one Lawgiver (Torah-giver), who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?" (James 4:11-12, NKJV). And in some matters we may never be qualified - who, for instance, has the divine discernment to judge someone to hell or not? Only the Judge can do that! To pass judgment on others when we have not been given authority to do so is to usurp a divine function; and
    • 4. Often our judgment is irrelvent. Neither Paul's view of himself or other's views of him matter in the slightest. "But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I know nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me is Yahweh" (1 Cor.4:3-4, NKJV). There are times and seasons in which to judge. Therefore we should judge nothing before its time.

    Judgment is dangerous where there is an inadequate grasp of reality. Not untypically, clients coming for deliverance are quick to judge and condemn their deliverance ministers, thus giving demons even more legal grounds. And when they curse Yahweh, they can open doors to very powerful demons indeed. In either case, but especially the latter, much contrition and repentance are needed to cancel the offence and enable restitution to occur. Grace is free, but it cannot be exploited. We must always remember that once grace is exhausted, the Law of Justice assumes its place and must be executed.

    There is almost universal abysmal ignorance amongst Christians of Yahweh's justice. Most don't even know that in Hebrew the words for 'justice' (mishpat) and 'righeousness' (zedek) are interchangeable. And when they are combined together (as in 2 Sam.8:15; cp. Gen.18:19) they are properly rendered "judgment and justice". Justice is not so much 'legal equity' or 'fair play' (though it is these also) but 'being right' (righteous). Biblically it has 9 nuances or shades of meaning, all of which are important because they are functions of Truth. I will try and summarise these now:

    • 1. Uprightness or Straitness (Dt.9:5). Like Torah itself and the Way into Heaven, it is the 'strait way', a narrow passage. You cannot see the end of a road that has twists and turns in it, but you can see the end or goal of a strait way. There is no ambiguity, there are no surprises. Torah states things as they are - the mortal, ethical and theological Truth of Yahweh. If you don't like something in Torah, then quite simply you do not like the Truth, and you likely have a demon problem. There are no escapes, rationalisations - adultery is adultery, and idolatry is idolatry, and both lead to spiritual death, no matter what the cicumstances or choices that led to these things. If you are 'in it' - living idolatrously or in adultery, then somewhere along the line you made choices of your own that took you into them. No beating around the bush. An upright person does what is right, and a non-upright person does what is wrong. If you choose and do wrong, you are responsible and must take the consequences for being cut off from Yahweh and demonised. Yahweh offers grace through Yah'shua (Jesus) but if you spurn either of them, that grace is cut off and you must reap the consequences of sin and receive your just reward.

    • 2. Conformity or a Standard of Values (e.g. Gen.30:33). If you bind yourself to a standard, heavenly or demonic, you are obliged to fulfil them unless you renounce the demonic in harmony with the Divine Standard. Moses speaks of just balances, weights and measures (Lev.19:36; Dt.25:15) and insists that Israel's Judges pronounce "just judgment" (Dt.16:18,20). The New Covenant Judges are the Patriarchs - Pastors, Bishops, Apostles - who must judge justly by Torah and the Ruach (Spirit). Please note well that arguments that are actually questionable may seem, at first glance, to be 'just' when they are not (Prov.18:17). Christian masters are cautioned to provide their servants with what is "just and equal" (Col.4:1). Even inanimate objects are described as zedek if they measure up to the appropriate standards. The phrase, "paths of zedek (righteousness)" (Ps.23:3), for example, designates walkable paths for everyone. Yah'shua (Jesus) is that Way of Righteousness and we are to imitate Him in the way He walked it.

    • 3. Yahweh's Will and the Activities That Result from It. Life's highest standard is derived from the character of Yahweh Himself (Dt.32:4). The heavenly choirs proclaim: "Just and true are Your ways" (Rev.15:3, NKJV). Job recognised the ultimate claim that Yahweh's makes on man when he said: "how can a man be righteous before God?" (Job 9:2, NKJV; cp. 4:17; 33:12). Even though Yahweh is answerable to no man, He has nevertheless voluntarily limited Himself: "to justice ... he does no violence" (Job 37:23) for His actions are always in harmony with His own standard which is in turn always perfect and right (Zeph.3:5; Ps.84:14). The Hebrew zedaka thus describes Yahweh's preservation of both human and animal life (Ps.36:6) and His dissociation from vain enterprise (Is.45:19). Here the word for 'righteousness' can equally well be rendered 'regularity' or 'reliability. Yahweh is consistent, unchangeable, fair, just, reliable and regular. How different is this from the demonic hosts!

    • 4. The Moral Standard by which Yahweh Measures our Conduct. Justice is His moral standard (Is.26:7) and therefore we too must do 'justice' (Gen.18:19) as we walk with Him (Gen.6:9; Mt.5:48). Who are those who are just' before Yahweh? It is not the hearers of Torah but the doers (Rom.2:13). So where is justice to be found? Simply, in the hearts of those who fear (reverence) Yahweh (Lk.18:2) because justice in the biblical sense always begins with holiness (Mic.6:8; Mk.6:20; 1 Thes.2:10) and result in sincere devotion (Lk.2:25; Ac.10:22). Thus leaders like kings are absolutely required to conform to the moral will of Yahweh (2 Sam.8:15; Jer.22:15), as also princes (Prov.8:15), and judges (Ecc.5:8). But is justice restricted to just the leaders? By no means! For every true believer is expected to "do justice" (Ps.119:121; Prov.1:3; cp. Is.54:14). Justice is the opposite of sin (Eccl.7:20) and was something that especially marked out Yah'shua (Jesus) as the Messiah (Is.9:7; Zec.9:9; Mt.27:19; Ac.3:14). And, it may surprise some, that there is such a thing as positive self-righteousness in the Bible, as opposed to negative (or selfish, sinful self-justifying) self-righteousness:

        "Yahweh shall judge the peoples;
        Judge me, O Yahweh, according to my righteousness,
        And according to my integrity within me"

        (Ps.7:8, NKJV; cp. 18:20-24).

        "I am one mocked by his friends,
        Who called on God, and He answered him,
        The just and blameless who is ridiculed"
        (Job 12:4, NKJV).

      There is no sin or arraogance in a man claiming to have integrity if he does, or in knowing it, if he is simply stating facts and not trying to boast or save himself through it. That is simply justice. This is so even in the light of appearing to be incongruous when considered in the light of his accusers' acknowledged iniquity (cp. Job 7:21; 13:26). So why are they making such declarations? Simply to exonerate themselves from particular crimes that their enemies have falsely laid to their charge, and no more (cp. Ps.7:4), or to profess a genuine purity of purpose and single-heartedness to Yahweh (Ps.17:1). As A.F.Kirkpatrick puts it:

        "They breathe the spirit of simple faith and childlike trust, which throws itself unreservedly on God ... and they disclaim all fellowship with the wicked, from whom they may expect to be distinguished in the course of His Providence" (The Book of Psalms, 1906, Vol.1, p.87).

      Or as the prophet Ezekiel puts it:

        ""If he has walked in My statutes
        And kept My judgments faithfully --
        He is just;
        He shall surely live!"
        Says Yahweh-Elohim"
        (Ezek.18:9, NKJV).

      So we are back, again, to the life principle of Yahweh - life in its divine sense.

    • 5. Punishment for Moral Infraction. I think most people are instinctively aware of this aspect of justice - the demons certainly are and know their fate already. Justice in this sense is a particular way of punishment for moral infraction relative to divine government. When a soul declares that Yah'shua (Jesus) is his Lord (Master) he is voluntarily placing himself under divine government - it is his 'oath of allegiance', if you like, and he makes himself accountable both to Yahweh and to those who witness his oath (a public confession in the presence of witnesses sealed by the ordinance of baptism). If he breaks his oath then divine punishment follows, inflicted directly by Yahweh Himself and/or by his representivives in the divine assembly (local congregation/church).

      Under the last of heaven-sent plagues, Pharaoh confessed:

        "I have sinned this time. Yahweh is righteous (zaddik), and my people and I are wicked" (Ex.9:27, NKJV; cp. Neh.9:33).

      Remember also the thief who was crucified alongside Yah'shua (Jesus) who confessed:

        "Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds" (Luke 23:40-41, NKJV).

      Are you offended by Yahweh's justice? Then if you are, you are offended like Satan is, and you have an attitude problem stemming from the rebelliousness of demons. Yahweh cannot remain indifferent to evil (Hab.1:13; cp. Zeph.1:12), nor will He pervert Justice (Job 8:3; cp. 8:4; 36:17) in the name of 'grace'. Even the pagans of Malta believed in a divine nemesis, so that when they saw Paul bitten by a viper, they concluded: "No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped the sea, yet justice does not allow to live" (Acts 28:4, NKJV). Yahweh's punitive righteousness is as a consuming fire (Dt.32:22; Heb.12:29), and His condemnation is just (Rom.3:8). That is why Yah'shua (Jesus) is such good news, for it is written:

        "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Messiah Yah'shua (Christ Jesus), who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Ruach (Spirit). For the Torah (Law) of the Ruach (Spirit) of life in Messiah Yah'shua (Christ Jesus( has made me free from the torah (law) of sin and death" (Rom.8:1-2, NKJV).

      What is the "torah of sin and death"? Ultimately, Satan and his demons. What is the "Torah of the Ruach of life in Messiah Yah'shua"? It is the Torah of Yahweh lived through and in Yah'shua (Jesus) - the written Torah lived through the spirit. When we do this, we are justified and are declared righteous, because Yah'shua (Jesus) is righteous. Our obedience to Torah is a song of praise for the work that He did for us on the Cross, and demons hate it. Their legal grounds for oppression are our violations of written Torah, because that is Yahweh's stated Cosmic Code of Justice. They know that these are binding and that if men break them, punishments follow which only Yah'shua (Jesus) can stop. They know that Yahweh's justice for violation of Torah gives them legal rights to go through the door of divine protection that their sin has opened.

    • 6. Yahweh's Deeds of Vindication for the Deserving. These are the "righteous acts (zedaka) of Yahweh" (Judg.5:11). Absalom promised to "do justice" on behalf of his petitioners (2 Sam.14:4; cp. Ps.83:3), and Solomon proclaimed that Yahweh "blesses the home of the just" (Prov.3:33, NKJV; cp. 94:15). Divine vindication was also the plea of Isaiah's contemporaries, "they ask of Me the ordinances of justice" (Isa.58:2, NKJV). And even though Yahweh's intervention may be delayed (Eccl.7:15; 8:14; cp. Is.40:27), He will yet "be jealous for His land, and pity His people" (Joel 2:18).

      One of the frustrating things of life is knowing that one has been just and yet Yahweh's hand of punishment against the evil-doers is slow in the coming. I know SRA victims often feel this, and understandably so. Yahweh is just, but His timing is not ours and is always redemptive. And there are often many more people than the victims themselves that He carries in His heart and wants to bring salvation to. Learning to forgive and have patience are therefore, in this context, vital to understand and implement.

    • 7. Divine Pity, Love and Grace. Our first understanding of this aspect comes with David's prayer for the forgiveness of crimes over Bathsheba, when he implored:

        "Deliver me from bloodshed, O God,
        The God of my salvation,
        And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness (zedaka)"
        (Ps.51:14, NKJV)

      But what David sought was not vindication - he had just acknowledged his heinous sin, and, indeed, his depravity from birth (Ps.51:5). His petition sought rather for undeserved pardon - and zedaka is therefore best translated by simple repetition:

        "... God of my salvation (deliverance),
        And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your salvation (deliverance)"

      In other words, zedaka has now become redemptive! It is Yahweh's fulfilling of His own graciously promised salvation (deliverance), irrespective of the merits of men (cp. David's same usage in Ps.31:1; 103:17; 143:1). Thus David's counsellor Ethan moves, in the space of two verses, from a reference to Yahweh's justice (zedek) and judgment (Ps.89:14) to the joyful testimony:

        "In thy righteousness (zedaka) shall they [Israel] be exalted"
        (Ps.89:16, KJV; cp. Is.56:1).

      When Isaiah speaks of a "just (zadik) God and a Saviour (Deliverer)" (Isa.45:21, NKJV), his thought is not, "a just God, and yet at the same time a Saviour/Deliverer" but rather "a zaddik God, and therefore a Saviour" (cp. the parallelism of 'righteousness' with salvation in Is.45:8).

      Correspondingly, we read in the New Testament:

        "If we confess our sins, [Yahweh] is faithful and just (dikaios = 'faithful to His gracious promise') to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:8-9, NKJV).

      Such concepts of non-judicial 'justice', however, must be limited to those passages in which this usage is specifically intended. In Romans 3, on the contrary, with its contextual emphasis upon the wrath of God against sin and upon the propitiatory (appeasing) sacrifice of Yah'shua (Jesus) for the satisfaction of the Father's Justice, we must continue to understand dikaios (Rom.3:26) in its traditional sense, "that He [Yahweh] might be just [exacting punishment, according to sense #5 above] and [yet at the same time] the justifier of the one who has faith in Yah'shua (Jesus)" (Rom.3:26, NKJV).

    • 8. Man's Own Moral Attributes. As a condition that arises out of Yahweh's forgiving 'justice', there next appears in Scripture a humanly possessed zedaka, which is simultaneously declared to have been Yahweh's own moral attribute (zedaka in sense #4 above), but which now has been imparted to those who believe on His grace. Moses thus describes how Abraham's faith served as a medium for imputed (attributed) righteousness (Gen.15:6), though we must, of course, observe that his faith did not consitute in itself the meritorious righteousness but was merely "reckoned" so. He was justified through faith, nit because of it. Habakkuk likewise declared, "the just shall live by his faith" (Hab.2:4, NKJV), though here too the justification derives, not from man's own, rugged "faithfulness", but from his humble dependence upon Yahweh's mercy (contrast this with the self-reliance of the Babylonians, which the same context condemns; and cp. Rom.1:17; Gal.3:11).

      It was Yahweh's prophet Isaiah, however, who first spoke directly of "the heritage of the servants of Yahweh, and their righteousness (zedaka) is from Me" (Is.54:17, NKJV). Thus this righteousness is not so much a divine attribute but a divine effect produced by Yahweh's Word. What this means is that there exists within Yahweh a righteousness which, by His grace, becomes the possession of the believer (Is.45:24). Our own righteousness is totally inadequate (Is.64:6) but "in Yahweh" we "are righteous (zadak)" (Is.45:25), having been made just by the imputed merit of Yah'shua (Jesus) (Phil.3:9). A century later, Jeremiah thus speaks both of Judah and of Yahweh Himself as a "home of justice, and mountain of holiness" (Jer.31:23, NKJV), i.e. a source of justification for the faithful (cp. Jer.23:6; 33:16, "Yahweh our righteouesness").

    • 9. Seeking Justice. But even as Yahweh in His grace bestows righteousness upon the unworthy, so the people of Yahweh are called to "seek justice" (Is.1:17) in the sense of pleading for the widow and "judg(ing) the cause of the poor and needy" (Jer.22:16, NKJV). 'Justice' here then connotes goodness (Lk.23:50) and loving consideration (Mt.1:19). Since the days of the Exile, the Aramaic sidqa, 'righteousness', came to be specialised into a designation for alms or charity (Dan.4:27), and equivalent expression for "giving to the poor" (Ps.112:9; cp. Mt.6:1).

      There is an apparent biblical contradiction here, in the supra-judicial sense, as involving a tension between zeduka in its 7th, gracious sense to forgive the very crimes that it condemns in its 5th, punitive sense. The ultimate solution is found in Yah'shua (Jesus) and His work. The ethical example furnished by His sinless life (Heb.4:15) constitutes the climax of biblical revelation on the moral will of Yahweh and far exceeds the perverted though seemingly lofty justice of the scribes and Pharisees (Mt.5:20). Yet He who commanded men to be perfect, even as their Heavenly Father is perfect (Mt.5:48), exhibited at the same time that love which has no equal, and he laid down His life for His undeserving friends (Jn.15:13). Here was revealed zedaka justice, in its ethical stage (#5), in its redemptive stage (#7), and in its imputed stage (#8), all united in echad or one. Yah'shua (Jesus) came that Yahweh might be Just and yet the Justifier of Him who believes in Yah'shua (Jesus) (Rom.3:26).And that we might be found in Him, who is made unto us righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1 Cor.1:30).

    It is not uncommon for demonised people to criticise or attack the justice of Yahweh - to claim that He is 'vengeful', 'bloodthirsty', 'cruel', 'murderous', etc. This is the kind of image that Satan, who hates Yahweh, wants to promote. Some of the most powerful demons I have come across enter people who accuse Him of being unrighteous.

    An SRA survivor who was recently delivered and spoke with Yah'shua (Jesus) face-to-face asked Him, at my request, why she was allowed to be so horribly abused by Satanists. You have to remember that she had just had all her sins washed away and was filled with the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) and was dancing with joy for her salvation. She had also discovered that her demon problems came about as a result of her believing Satan's lies so in that respect the demonisation she suffered was perfectly 'just'. She had no bitterness in her heart, just joy for her Lord whom she realised had actually been with her from the very first day she had been abused in her mother's womb. The answer to my question actually surprised me at the time for He said: "It was not a part of the Plan [of Yahweh]" - it had never been Yahweh's will.

    One of the most difficult aspects of justice and truth that we have not so far covered is the concept of collective responsibility and collective justice though I have covered these elsewhere in other articles. Justice exists on many levels - personal, familial, national, and cosmic. We are all here on earth by agreement. Moreover, we are not down here 'just for ourselves' but for others too. Sometimes we have to suffer to that others can understand and see. The Apostle Paul was a murderous Talmudic Jew who was instrumental in the death of righteous Stephen. That divine grace that so filled Stephen must have had an effect on Saul of Tarsus. It is often indeed the gracious deeds of others that bring us to repentance, salvation and deliverance. The righteousness of someone can be enough to shame us and bring us into reality. It is the example of the love of Yahweh in others than can create the first bridge of faith between the unbeliever and Yahweh, and so lead to a full salvation in Yah'shua (Jesus).

    Why do SRA victims go through what they do? Firstly, evil is not in Yahwehy's Plan - it never has been and never will be, but because evil is permitted by the Law of Agency, it can also be used redemptively by Him. My client was promised also by Yah'shua (Jesus) that nothing in the end would be wasted. Indeed, she herself has been much of the inspiration of this webpage which has been helping thousands. We may never know the extent of the redemption won by our suffering but what we can know is that Yahweh is perfectly just and unblameworthy. He is, after all, love.

    When you are in pain and under demonic bondage, you cannot see reality - the Truth, purposfully, becomes distorted. Deliverence brings about a totally different perspective on the world and people. Delivered SRA clients of mine are just filled with wonder after their salvation and they are amazed that they could have been so deceived. Their image of God and their ministers totally changed too. Most clients think I hate them at some point and that Yahweh will never accept them because they are just too dirty. On both counts they are wrong.

    Yahweh's Justice, then, is seen to be also His Love - they are all one. The Truth is that He desperately cares and is available for everyone who will call upon Him and yield control to Him. And the more Truth we can get into our systems, the less likely demons are going to intrude or bother us in the future.

    This page was created on 27 January 2005
    Last updated on 31 January 2005

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