How many people on earth need salvation through Yeshua? Are there certain categories that are exempt? No, for we read in Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. Every human born on this earth with the exception of the one perfect human, Yeshua, is in need of redemption through Yeshua’s blood so that we can be restored to relationship with YHVH (2 Cor 5:18).

How many people on earth are in need of the baptism of the Holy Spirit? All of us (Matt 3:11, Acts 1:4-5). We need to be fully equipped with all that the Holy Spirit brings to us if we are to be effective workers in YHVH’s harvest.

How many people on earth are in need of deliverance from the oppression and bondage of demons? Is it not all of us? This is the gift that is most often rejected. The most prevalent argument against deliverance for believers in Yeshua is that the Holy Spirit and demons cannot dwell in the same place. How many Christians and Messianic believers, whether water baptized, baptized in the Holy Spirit or baptized in both, are still sinning? If sin dwells in us alongside the Holy Spirit, then so can demons dwell in us and keep us in bondage.

In the deliverance sessions where we have assisted, we are continually astounded at how much damage has been inflicted on people who outwardly seem to be perfectly normal.  In our put-on-a-brave-front society, no one would ever suspect the misery and torment that these individuals are experiencing.

Yeshua announced His mission by reading Isaiah 61 verse 1 and part of verse 2. When comparing the words in Isaiah 61:1 with the recounting of Yeshua addressing the members of the synagogue in Nazareth, we see that a line has been added.

 “The Spirit of the LORD God is upon Me,
Because the LORD has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; (Is 61:1 NKJV)

 “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed; (Luke 4:18 NKJV)

The Orthodox Jewish Bible also records the same addition in Luke 4:18.  Also, the OJB not only makes reference to Isaiah 61:1, but to Isaiah 58:6 as well.

Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke? (Isaiah 58:6 NKJV)

The extra line in Luke 4:18 is talking of spiritual blindness.  Before Peter and I were set free from bondage, we suspected that perhaps something was not quite right with us, but we did not recognize the demons who oppressed us.  However, during the deliverance session, when the Holy Spirit gave our deliverance team revelation, our spiritual eyes started to open. Only after Peter and I were set free from our own bondage to demons, did we began to recognize and understand just how insidious bondage to demons is.

We know that we are called to be faithful witnesses and effective harvest workers as the evil around us becomes more evident. We need to be released from all the bonds with which the enemy afflicted us while we were still members of the kingdom of darkness.  If Yeshua came to set us free from bondage, why do we refuse His precious gift?

“And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will” (2 Tim 2:24-26).

“Do you not know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey–whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness” (Rom 6:16)?