PROLOGUE

After all the controversial and challenging articles and books which have flowed from my pen of late, how about some straightforward, positive Bible teaching? Does that sound good? You’re probably fed up with all the polemics and cut and thrust apologetics round here. You probably just want some nice, seemingly cosy little verse which, on the surface, does not appear to be at all challenging but just gives you a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling to help you through your day. But that would be a terrible misjudgement, because even those texts which look sweet and innocent serve up much more when approached in any other way than superficially. For the thing is this… as soon as you start opening up any verse of Scripture — I mean really opening it up, dissecting all its secret nested components — you will find that it is equally as controversial and challenging because the word of God speaks incisively into this corrupt, amoral, dysfunctional, dystopian world and church like a knife slicing through unrefrigerated butter, or, as the Word itself puts it even better, “like a hammer smashing a rock into pieces” (Jeremiah, 22:9).

So, let’s start off with our “little” focus text for the day (though we will come to see that it is only “little” in terms of length as it is really massive in its pastoral implications for our lives). Here is the text in literal translation from the Greek:

“For whoever might desire to save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life on account of Me and of the gospel, he will save it”.

Mark 8:35

We can immediately see that there are two parts to this verse: There is the losing of one’s life and there is the saving of it. Let’s be perfectly clear at the outset… this verse is not specifically referring to the saving or the losing of one’s physical life, although that could come to be part of it if one is overcome by martyrdom. But it is way deeper than that; and to understand what lies behind it we can find other texts which interpret it very nicely. In fact, there are five other texts in the Gospels which state almost the same thing or very similar. Here are four of them in a literal translation of the Greek:

  • “The one having found his life will lose it, and the one having lost his life on account of Me will find it” (Matthew 10:39).
  • “For whoever might desire to save his life will lose it; but whoever might lose his life on account of Me will find it” (Matthew 16:25).
  • “For whoever might desire to save his life will lose it; but whoever might lose his life on account of me, he will save it” (Luke 9:24).
  • “Whoever may seek to save his life will lose it; but whoever will lose it will preserve it” (Luke 17:33).

So we see here that there is “finding your life”, “desiring to save your life”, and “seeking to save your life”. This has to do with getting comfortable with your life in this world, with having the desire to preserve your life in it in all ways and at all costs, parking your knees under the table of this world, along with clinging on to it and all the dross that it has to offer. All that it has to offer may look pretty in parts but the truth is superbly summed up in these verses from John’s first letter:

“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the boastful pride and arrogance of life—is not from the Father but from the world. The world is passing away, along with its desires; but whoever does the will of God remains forever”.

1 John 2:15-17

“Along with its desires”, which includes the ‘desire to save one’s life’ which is in our focus text. Thus, if one’s life is invested in this world and all that it represents, coupled with an attachment to the passions and desires associated with it, one is aligning oneself with what is “passing away”, among which are:

  • The pathological accumulation of material wealth and possessions as a way of aggrandizing yourself.
  • Indulging in rank ambition and competition so as to get ahead of everyone else.
  • Getting entangled in repeated neurotic relationships which have no spiritual basis.
  • Being invested bigtime in your ego and its satisfaction.
  • Depending on alcohol, drugs and gross entertainments for “having a good time”.
  • Always looking for a “high” in your religious life, putting your subjective experience above objective truth.
  • Forging relationships with unspiritual people who drag you down to their level.
  • Being triggered into becoming angry or upset over things or people which do not go your way or which you are unable to control.
  • Having no regard for truth and therefore being able to lie at the drop of a hat.
  • Thinking that the world revolves around you as the centre of the universe.

…and all the rest of the farce of life in this world. In fact, the countermand to all this is perfectly summed up in the words which come immediately before our focus text, which are as follows: “If anyone wants to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34). Denying yourself is the equivalent of the “losing your life” which is in our focus text. To “lose your life” in this world while you are still alive involves the denial of self which is essential if one truly wants to “come after” Christ and follow Him. You cannot truly follow Christ unless you die to your self. This is a fact. Clinging to your life/self and following Christ are diametrically opposed.

The Principal Requirement of Discipleship to Christ

So desiring to save your life in this world is to glorify the flesh, and to lose your life in this world is to glorify God. This is what lies at the heart of our text. Ultimately, losing your life in this world also implies that you are willing to die physically for the sake of Christ and for the truth of His Gospel.

There is yet another verse which acts as a ‘control text’ to help us interpret our focus text: “The one loving his life loses it, and the one hating his life in this world will keep it to eternal life” (John 12:25). This is the level of abnegation and renunciation of the self to which one must aspire if one is to be a genuine disciple of Christ. Thus, you may ‘own’ (i.e. have temporary custodianship over) all sorts of material things but they do not own you. You ‘hang loose’ to them, knowing that to do otherwise would be a snare. You do not need to spend your life on a platform on top of a pole, like Simon Stylites, as that would be an extreme manifestation of attempting to deny oneself which never gets tested out in the real world and is thus a misplaced form of asceticism rather than self-denial. The real exercise of the denial of self comes from within. So you can move around in this world without difficulty and yet at the same time not be ‘of this world’ (cf. John 17:14-16).

The ‘hating of one’s life in this world’ is not a bitter hatred, full of rancour and bile. Hating your life in this world is simply a question of loving more what isn’t in this world (2 Corinthians 4:18). The ‘hatred’ here is the same as that to which Christ referred when He said: “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters and yes, even his life, he is not able to be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). He is not saying that one should engage in an active, abiding, teeth-bared hatred of one’s close relatives, but that one should glorify in one’s discipleship to Christ more than in one’s human relations, which can be a bind. Allegiance to Christ must come first every time. There must be no deflections, diversions or sidetracks. This is explained by the similar passage in Matthew’s Gospel which, again, occurs right before His statement about people saving and losing their lives: “A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household”, because Christ’s presence in this world turns “a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law” (Matthew 10:34-36), followed by the statement that, “anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; and anyone who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37-38). This is what renunciation of the self involves in the life of the serious Christian; not running off to some shaman “deliverance” quack in a charismatic setting but denying yourself, taking up your cross and following Christ. THAT is what it takes to begin to deal with one’s issues.

What we are handling here is really about nothing less than the principal requirement of discipleship to Christ: Denial of self and willingly losing one’s life as a worldling, and by preference strengthening one’s relationship with Christ. Now, you may say to me: “But how do I deny myself and lose my life in this world? I don’t get it. What does it all mean”. Good questions, which are answered by essential Bible texts. Here they are:

  • “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And that which I now live in the flesh, I live through faith from the Son of God, the One having loved me and having given up Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
  • “Now those belonging to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24).
  • “Far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14).
  • “If you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13).

The Real Wrestling Match of the Christian Life

We are now discovering the truth about the difference between so-called “deliverance ministry” and the thing which it is trying to counterfeit, which is clearly laid out in the Bible. In my recent book on spiritual abuse I showed how a made-up “deliverance ministry” — invented by the Pentecostal-Charismatic movement — is being used as an ill-fated attempt to expunge people of all their bad behaviour of one kind or another by the alleged expulsion of demons from within the ‘Christian’. For example, it is claimed that Christian people can have a demon of lust, or a demon of theft, or a demon of porn, a demon of anger, or a demon of fear, and so on, and all you have to do is cast out that demon in order to be finished with the sinful deed which it allegedly causes. So some quack who is well-versed in psychological manipulation (wittingly or not, either by experience or design) comes along with a purported “deliverance ministry” and supposedly casts that demon out. That is such a cheap route to follow, treating a “deliverance minister” like a shaman while skipping over the real work that one has to do — the real wrestling match of the Christian life in his or her desire to be holy and sanctified. So-called “deliverance ministry” is nothing other than a counterfeit way of trying to bypass the necessary heuristic process of sanctification.

The Necessary Heuristic Process of Sanctification

Now, if you are not familiar with the word, “heuristic”, it means “enabling someone to discover or learn something for themselves”, or “encouraging the desire to find out”, or “helping to learn; guiding in discovery or investigation, allowing pupils to learn things for themselves”. This is hugely significant for the process of the sanctification of the disciple of Christ. Our purpose before God is not to go to a shaman who says “Abracadabra” and… bang!… all our problems are sorted. It is not like that at all. That is not how it works. That would be (and, in fact, is) a kind of sorcery. What the “deliverance” minister does is really a Christianised version of the sorcerous utterance of “Abracadabra”, throwing in the name of Jesus to make it seem authentic. But it is all merely a psychological exercise in catharsis masquerading as spiritual cleansing.

We Have to Do the Work!

The real deliverance from bad behaviour comes from hard work and putting to death one’s sinful behaviour and all the things which contribute towards the folly of “saving our lives” in this world. If a genuine disciple of Christ finds himself attracted to pornography, he would be horrified and would use a spiritual scalpel to excise it from his life. If a genuine disciple of Christ finds herself wanting to steal something, she would be horrified and would use a spiritual scalpel to excise it from her life. Any disciple of Christ who starts to have a problem with anger would be horrified and would use a spiritual scalpel to excise it from his or her life. Any disciple of Christ who dallies with some sexual sin would be horrified and would use a spiritual scalpel to excise it from his or her life. This is what it is like to be a disciple — not to go running off to the shaman “deliverance” minister for some ‘woo-woo’ but to indulge in some radical spiritual self-surgery to remove it, known as putting to death the deeds of the body, crucifying the flesh with its passions and desires. This is when the disciple means business; and when a disciple means business when dealing with his or her sin, that sin is going to wither away from starvation. Its demise is inevitable because he or she can no longer give it any houseroom in the heart. We have to do the work!

In this little exposition of these Bible verses we are looking at what it means to do the work in order to be delivered from certain kinds of behaviour which do not conform to the spiritual nature of the disciple of Christ. The Bible shows very clearly that any bad behaviour on the part of the Christian cannot possibly be caused by demon possession (as that would be a blasphemy against the indwelling Holy Spirit) but by the flesh which needs to be crucified, or through remnants of the old unregenerate self outstaying their welcome. It may well be that some demonic presence (not from within but always from without) is giving some harassment to a disciple of Christ. But this is solely because of whatever sin it is which has wrongly gained a place in the disciple’s life. A demon can only gain a foothold in the life of the disciple of Christ if that disciple is engaged in some kind of sinful behaviour. This is a fact, and it is what the Apostle Paul specifically teaches — that disciples of Christ can provide an opening — literally, a place (Greek: τόπος, topos), a foothold, or an opportunity — for demonic interference (which is not the same as possession) from without if they engage in sinful activity (see Ephesians 4:25-27, where anger is the cause). Thus, as the verses before that declare, you are “to put off your former way of life, your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be renewed in the spirit of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24). The solution for our sinful behaviour, whatever it may be, is not to deal directly with the demonic entities but to put to death whatever sin it is which the demon is taking advantage of and then the demonic interference will naturally dissolve. Demons have no power whatsoever in the lives of genuine disciples of Christ unless we give it to them through our sinful thoughts and actions. It is as simple as that. Thus, we must deal with the sin which caught that demon’s interest and gave it a foothold rather than attempting to deal directly with the demon who is exploiting that sin. We have to do the work! This is pastoral teaching 101. Basic stuff. Bottom rung of the ladder in the Christian life.

The Real Ongoing Deliverance

Therefore, so called “deliverance ministries” are a complete waste of space cooked up by Satan as a way of deflecting Christians from actually dealing with their sin for real, from doing the work. Crucifying the flesh is the real deliverance from sin for the believer on a progressive ongoing basis. There are two levels of deliverance from sin (sanctification) for the believer. There is the once-for-all-time deliverance (sanctification) effected by Christ through the cross, by which one becomes a new creation and “born from above”. But there is also the ongoing progressive sanctification which happens every single day for the rest of the disciple’s life, as he or she renounces self, puts to death the deeds of the flesh, and crucifies them.

Whereas so-called “deliverance ministry” attempts to use psychological techniques in order to change people’s behaviour by supposedly casting out demons, the truth is that the mortification of sin and crucifying the flesh is the real ongoing Deliverance. And it involves work. We have to do the work. Real disciples of Christ are not lazy. They know that they have to do the work. That work is the work of sanctification. Really, what is happening today is a battle between pseudo-“deliverance” ministry which is false, and sanctification, which is real. That hard work comes through crucifying the flesh and mortifying one’s sin. The first way that one achieves that is by denying oneself. Coupled with this denial of the self is the realization of the horror of one sin. That genuine heartfelt horror at one’s own sin — at being out of sync with the law of Christ — is what makes it wither away so that there can no longer be any place for it in one’s life, mind, heart and soul. That realization is like a flamethrower which burns up the bad behaviour. The degree to which that bad behaviour withers away depends on the degree of your horror at it. It may take more time to shift with some things, but they will shift. So I say, “Are you serious about being free from whatever it is that disgusts you about yourself?” If you are truly serious about it, then it will be dealt with. No shamans involved. For the agency by which it gets dealt with is the Holy Spirit, who indwells the genuine disciple of Christ. It is “by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body”, as a result of which “you will live” (see Romans 8:13). This is the real ongoing deliverance from sinful behaviour. The Holy Spirit is the “deliverance counsellor” to whom we should be going with our issues. That is why He is actually called our “Counsellor” — which is one translation of the Greek word, παράκλητος, paraklétos, meaning literally “the One who is called alongside”, made up by amalgamating the two words, pará, “close-beside” and kaléō, “to call”. So if you want real deliverance, you go to the Holy Spirit as He is the master of it, in contrast to the conmen and conwomen who litter the visible church while they try to usurp the real ministry of the Holy Spirit.

“Deliverance ministry”, so-called, is therefore a devilish attempted substitute for the biblical way of the mortification of sin which we exercise through the helping agency of the Holy Spirit. It is not any alleged demons within Christians which are making them behave badly. It is a fact that those who seek such pseudo-ministry have failed to mortify their sin — failed to crucify the remnants of the old self — failed to grapple successfully with the intrusive remnants of what was their unregenerate nature — that is, if they are properly regenerated at all, which in many cases I would seriously question.

The Reasons for the Failure to Do the Work

Thus, the two main issues that I was dealing with in my recent book on spiritual abuse — 1) the destruction of pastors’ ministries through sustained campaigns of aggression and bullying, along with 2) the supposed exorcism of demons from Christians by shamanic-style “deliverance” manipulators — only occur because of the failure of professing ‘Christians’ to put to death the deeds of the body (mortification), to crucify the flesh with its passions and desires (personal sanctification), and to deny themselves, take up their crosses and follow Christ (self-renunciation). That failure is what is responsible for all the madness in the visible church today and, in many ways, it always has been so from the first century onwards.

How many people who claim to be Christians today have actually even heard of ‘the mortification of sin’, the putting of it to death, as a teaching? How many have had explained to them the difference between ‘definitive sanctification’ (being made definitively holy, set apart for kingdom citizenship by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross at the time of being ‘born from above’) and ‘progressive sanctification’ (increasingly growing in grace and holiness through our daily experience and how effectively we deal with it, hand-in-hand with the Holy Spirit)? How many have had explained to them that being a disciple of Christ involves self-renunciation, the denial of self? The number of assemblies which teach these truths and proclaim the true Gospel (which is always “full” without the false gloss which is put on that word today by Pentecostal-Charismatic sources), rather than trying to drum up (i.e. manipulate) false so-called “revivals”, is becoming increasingly less common.

EPILOGUE

So, to sum up, if you are struggling with some sin or temptation related to that sin, just make up your mind that with the expert aid of the Helper, the Holy Spirit (who is God), you are going to make a stand against whatever the sin is that has inveigled its way into your life, and which has no right to be there. There is nothing more powerful than a disciple of Christ with the Holy Spirit under his or her wings. That phrase, “has no right to be there”, is the centrepiece of it all. Because at one time,

“you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you used to walk when you conformed to the ways of this world and of the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience”.

Ephesians 2:1-2

However, now “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). So you have to remind yourself of who you really are and that what you are doing has no place whatsoever in your life today. No more procrastinating. No more excuses. No more self-justifications. No more trying to waffle your way out of it. And no traipsing along to self-styled shamanic so-called “deliverance” impostors. This is between you and the Lord. This kind of behaviour, whatever it is, no longer has any place in your life, period. So you have to do the work! Am I making myself clear? Believe me, I am preaching this just as much to myself as to you, my friends. We all struggle. The older you get, the deeper you dig. The deeper you dig, the more dirt you find. The more dirt you find, the more humbled you become. But you also become better at finding it. You learn. This is heuristics in action; which is the whole point of this life as a disciple which we now have. We are constantly growing in grace and in a knowledge of the truth. This is why there can be no quick fix. This world is our gymnasium, courtesy of God. We are here to learn for ourselves, not to have some quack utter some magic formula over us without us even raising a finger. WE HAVE TO DO THE WORK! with the Holy Spirit called alongside us. So if you are struggling against some big temptation, there is no other way that is sanctioned by God to deal with it than what I have laid out in the above paragraphs. This is the biblical way, as any thorough, impartial reading of the New Testament letters will reveal.

As the great apostasy gathers apace, the visible church — apart from the remnant according to the election of grace — will be completely given over to the religious madness it has been increasingly embracing. If the truths which have been expounded above in this little article were taught and practised widely and consistently there would be no evil bullying of pastor-teachers in the churches and no need for any worthless, pseudo-exorcistic “deliverance” rituals. Such rituals may claim to bring some relief but that can only ever be psychological (for that is the sole realm of those rituals: psychological catharsis) but they are not of any genuine, lasting spiritual enhancement. In fact, they will most likely be of some considerable spiritual harm because they draw people even more deeply into the whole warped Pentecostal-Charismatic-pseudo-deliverance mentality which is completely divorced from an elementary, essential, biblical Christian mindset.

In short, a new religion has been invented masquerading as Christianity, in which the Holy Spirit — instead of being Christ within us, our Helper, Counsellor and Paraclete — has become a kind of ‘genie in the bottle’ who can be summoned up at any time to fulfil people’s crazy religious desires and practices. The only antidote to this is what is contained in those texts in Galatians 2:20; 5:24; 6:14; and Romans 8:13. Above all, “whoever might desire to save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life on account of Me and of the gospel, he will save it” (Mark 8:35). It really is that simple. Cling to your worldly life and you will have nothing, for all that makes up a worldly life will dissolve; but if you devote yourself to that which cannot be seen materially and which is therefore eternal you will have life hyper-abundantly, eternally (2 Corinthians 4:18; John 10:10).

“Losing your life” on account of Christ and His Gospel means doing the work to purify yourself so that any misplaced remnants of the old self are dissolved. It means denying yourself and devoting yourself to truth and the proclamation of it. In this world, that will get you persecuted, especially from the impostors in the visible church. It might even get you killed, from any direction. But losing your life on account of Christ and His Gospel is the ultimate privilege, whether it involves merely suffering for Him or actually dying for Him.

So please do not love your life in this world for it is only worthy of your disdain, for all that is of this material world “is futile and in pursuit of a gust of wind” if one tries to cling to it (Ecclesiastes 2:17). The big question is: When will the many people calling themselves “Christians” see this truth and realize it for what it is and thereby take the right action instead of chasing illusions? Will it be soon, do you think?

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© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2023
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]