Mark Dawes,
Staff Reporter
WHEN HE was young in the Christian faith, Lloyd Maxwell attended a church conference where he encountered a teenaged girl who seemed to have a mental disorder. Her condition troubled him. He got a few of his Christian friends to pray and fast three days for her.
On the last night of the conference, he and his friends decided to pray for the girl. Soon it became evident to them that she was under demonic bondage. After almost four hours of prayer the demons were expelled and the girl was thereafter able to live a full life.
A few days later, Lloyd got a call to go and minister to a woman in her 60s who was being tormented by demons. The demons were pulling out her hair and there was a resulting bald patch in her head. Lloyd arrived with a friend. They surveyed the house and noticed a plaque they sensed was occult. It turned out that the woman had bought the plaque for $250,000 from a famed occultist. They sensed that as long as the plaque remained in her possession she would continue to be tormented, as demons were emanating from the plaque. After they cleaned house, the woman was delivered, peace of mind was hers again. And her hair grew back.
PARTICULAR PHENOMENON
His reputation spread as a deliverance minister - and he was not then a pastor. He did not even hold any leadership position in his local church. His ministry in deliverance took him to persons from all sectors of society, including high-ranking politicians and medical doctors. Many of them, he said, knew they had a problem, but they felt nobody understood this particular phenomenon.
The Rev. Mr. Maxwell, entered pastoral ministry in 1990. Prior to that he worked as a Budget Control Officer in the Office of the Bursar of the University of the West Indies, Mona. He was also, in the early 1980s, a People's National Party Councillor for the Trafalgar Division of the South East St. Andrew Constituency. In 1997 he became the Senior Pastor at Faith Deliverance Ministries International, Cedar Grove, Portmore (opposite the Caymanas Park Police Station) - a church he founded.
ALL CHRISTIANS ARE QUALIFIED
He is disappointed that so few Christians seem to have embraced deliverance ministry. For, he maintains, it is not for a select number of church folk, but for all in the Body of Christ. "All Christians are qualified to be deliverance ministers. Some Christians, however, have a greater grace to carry out this particular ministry," he said.
"A large section of the church, believe that Christians can't be oppressed or possessed. They believe that, at conversion, total deliverance takes place. That is not always the case." He explained that a person's being, has 'compartments' and so it is possible for God to be in one section and for Satan to be in another part. "For most persons conversion is a progressive thing. After you get saved you 'work out' your salvation daily," he said. Salvation means, he said, that the soul is saved, but one has to work to conquer the flesh, and to renew the mind.
Deliverance ministry, he said, is an activity where God uses a Christian(s) to help free persons who are under Satanic bondage. Persons in demonic bondage, he said, are prisoners in their own bodies. Demons, he explained, are interested in getting at people's minds so they generate situations from outside to get inside the mind.
Deliverance ministry, he said, depends less on formulas and more on faith. Before going out on a mission to cast out demons, he and his team, he said, will typically spend some time declaring and affirming God's authority and omnipotence. This is important, he stressed, because the Devil can be relied on to protect his interests. "We spend time before the lord worshipping. We declare God's authority. Satan is the 'prince of the power of the air'. We block him there, and ask the Lord to cordon the atmosphere above so that we can concentrate on the deliverance below. In that way, the demons can't send for reinforcement," he said.
This ministry of deliverance is head-on spiritual warfare and as in any war, there are sometimes casualties. There have been reports of deliverance ministers dying in the process of trying to cast out demons. But this need not happen, says Rev. Maxwell.
"Death would be an impossibility for persons who understand deliverance. Because you (the deliverance minister) are in charge of the deliverance session. When I am about to start a session I declare to the demons 'You can't hurt me. You can't hurt my assistants, You can't hurt the person to whom we are ministering. I am standing on the authority of the Word."
Christians, he said, should ideally, not go into a deliverance session alone. Furthermore, he said, "You can't conquer the Devil until you conquer self. So if you know you have outstanding issues with God, I suggest that you correct them. Keep a short account with God." He warns, though, that one's family will be targeted when you get into deliverance. Hence, the need for deliverance ministers to be covered by the supportive prayers of church folk. Demons always seek to intimidate. They will leave intimidating messages on the voice mail of deliverance ministers, he said.
IT WAS A DEMONIC PRESENCE
The Rev. Mr. Maxwell tells the story of how he went home late one night, after a deliverance session. His wife was overseas. He sat on his bed and felt the other side sink as if someone was in the bed. He knew immediately that it was a demonic presence. Remembering what a famed deliverance minister did in a similar situation, he rebuked the demon, saying 'I am a Minister of the Gospel, I have done my day's work, I am entitled to sweet sleep and I am drawing a line here on this bed over which you cannot cross." He said he slept like a babe that night. He added: "The more you fight them, the more you realise they are subject to the authority of the Word of God, and you become bolder, and less fearful. I have been in sessions where the demon says: "Please, I am begging, I won't give anymore trouble, allow me to stay."
His experience has taught him that demons enter a person's being mainly through: ancestral curses - such as that which comes through one's progeny because of one's involvement in the occult; sexual sins; curses set by others or self-inflicted curses.
With generational curses, it is important that prayers are said breaking the curse of the forbears, he said. Such was a notable practice in the Bible where persons often prayed to God, asking His forgiveness of the sins of the forefathers.
MAJOR DOORWAYS
Incest and the resulting traumatisation are major doorways through which demons enter a person's life. This often results in an impairment of the person's ability to trust others.
He tells stories of many health problems having demonic roots and how when these demons have been cast out, good health is secured. "There are people who have come down with medical problems but the kind of relief that they expect is not forthcoming. Where medical help is not forthcoming I am willing to explore the case. "I have had some remarkable results. I have seen spirits of cancer literally fall off people. This was confirmed by doctors afterwards. I have seen the dumb speak , I have seen the lame jump up and march.
Demonic possession, he argues, is often at the root of a lot of societal problems, including crime. He testifies that in many instances, homosexual behaviour has roots in demonic spirits. He has cast demons out of many homosexuals and most have abandoned that lifestyle. He stressed "Nobody is exempt from the grace of God."
Send feedback to
mark.dawes@gleanerjm.com.
