One of the things people don’t always realize about casting out demons is that it is only long-lasting if the underlying root issues are dealt with. Matthew 12:43-45 and Luke 11:24-26 speak of the same situation—casting demons out of a person. Jesus explains that if a stronghold exists within a person, casting out the demons will not fix the problem if the stronghold isn’t dismantled. Strongholds can be thought of as a literal building inside a person in their innermost being (for info on that, read my blog article on the Inner Dimension).

If you don’t dismantle the strongholds, the demons will just come back, and the above passages say that they can bring even more demonic reinforcements back in with them. Not a great plan. So how are we supposed to walk in total freedom if casting out demons is a bad idea?

To be clear, casting out demons is a fantastic idea—it just shouldn’t be the only thing we do. It’s a bit like building a three-legged stool. If deliverance is one leg of the stool and that’s all you do, then the stool won’t function properly at all. The only way to get the stool to work right is to add the other two legs: inner healing and mind renewal.

Healing emotional wounds can be simple at times, and in other cases very complex. Praying Medic’s book/ebook “Emotional Healing In Three Easy Steps” is a fantastic resource for a simple 30-second prayer that can be prayed by anyone at any time for lasting results. I use it regularly personally, in my home, and with people I have worked with for inner healing and deliverance. It works really well and I highly recommend it because it is incredibly simple and quick to learn and use. In more complex cases it is a good idea to get some outside help from a prayer coach or prayer minister of some kind, but try using simple tools such as those in Praying Medic’s book first and see how things go. By healing the inner wounds that help create demonic access, it destroys the ability of demons to re-enter a person and in some cases uproots strongholds that provide them with firm footing once inside.

Renewing the mind is another incredible key to living in freedom. Demons get access through both our emotions AND thoughts, so if we only deal with one and neglect the other, we are only going to see half the results. We have all learned to believe things that are not true about God, about ourselves, and about the world around us. We are constantly sowing these wrong beliefs out as an intangible energy that attract demonic forces toward us, and it is visible to them in the spirit realm. As we align our beliefs with God’s, we not only stop these negative emanations, but begin to sow and reap in the positive, attracting good things toward us. That’s why Philippians 4:8-9 says that if we think about good things that “the God of peace will be with us.” There is a direct correlation between our beliefs and the level of peace and glory that we can live in. Changing our thoughts changes our lives, and it brings freedom both because it brings about better, healthier life choices and also because it has a preventive effect against the demonic.

There is a fourth component that God is revealing to the Body in this hour, which is releasing those same three components of life transformation into the parts inside our inner world—fragments and alters who the demonic are using to get to us. While I don’t want to go into depth on them more here, when this is understood, it is evident that it is a huge key to living out the full, abundant lives that Jesus purchased for us. When we deliver, heal, and renew the minds of all of the parts inside of us, the level of freedom goes to a level that few even believe is possible.

Regardless of whether one wants to believe in or deal with parts or not, when we put deliverance together with emotional healing and renewing the mind, we become unstoppable forces of inner wholeness. This allows us to enjoy the freedom that Romans 8 speaks of where without any further effort we can simply walk freely by the Spirit of Life. Anything less than that is to live beneath the level of fullness of what Jesus purchased for us.