After finishing my Persuasive on Why the Need for Inner Healing, I was left wondering: What does Inner Healing look like? I was quite surprised that I could not form these words immediately after a few years of working in inner healing ministry. When doing my research, I realized that the spirit led me to this question before I knew what this assignment was about. You must have this kind of faith, this kind of theology to be a deliverance minister.

When I began preparing this paper I had to go back through the last few years of my education and research. I had to pull out books from whence I started, even having to re-read and pray often to work through this. After spending years learning about spiritual warfare and casting out demons, I had taken my eye away from the focus. I found I was at a loss for words to explain “What Inner Healing Looked Like”

How does inner healing fit into deliverance? Don’t exorcists cast out demons? Can’t counselors just lift people up? Is inner healing just a form of shepherding? What do we do differently than a pastor of a church as he helps people to maturity in Christ? These questions were stumping me so much that my first draft of this paper was just a good research essay and not so much an exploratory essay. So where was I to begin? I grabbed my bible, went to prayer, and pulled some books out of my library.

Recalling my roots, I was reminded first that Inner Healing is a form of Spiritual warfare. Spiritual Warfare is a subject many big-name ministers have written books about, yet it remains such a controversial topic in today’s church, or worse taken very lightly. Charles Spurgeon, Derek Prince, Tony Evans, John Eckhardt, Charles Stanley, and A.W. Tozer all have books, even Billy Graham has spoken about Spiritual Warfare in sermons.

Bob Larson is an Exorcist who directly calls demons forward to confront them, he also advocates for inner healing having its place in SW, and he has indicated on his university website there is a difference yet beneficial

 “Satan is always looking for the legal right and authority to torment and attack people. Whatever he has the right to do, the devil will do” (Larson 2012)

We even have former Witches and Warlocks that have come to Jesus only to tell us that it is all very real! Anna Mendez Ferrel and John Ramirez both have given their lives to Christ. Since then, they have written books and publicly testified about their former lives dedicated to witchcraft. John Todd, a former Satanist gave his life to Christ and spoke publicly numerous times that Spiritual Warfare is taken very seriously on the opposing side.

Spiritual Warfare is what is really happening in an inner healing prayer session, and there are different approaches to administering “Deliverance” but everyone needs to understand that the presence of Jesus ultimately drives out all darkness.

“Divine healing focuses on the person of Jesus Christ, while faith healing looks inwardly to human potential or outwardly to some human agent. Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), we make Him the center and source of healing gifts and miracles from God.” (Hayford 2020)

This wonderful explanation from former Chancellor Hayford explains a fundamental difference between praying to have Jesus do the work vs us doing the work. When we do the work it is affirming counsel, it is beneficial, crucial, and necessary. We do counsel people in the Word of God, but Inner-Healing as we call it, is done prophetically, divinely from Christ. We ask the Beloved (That is what we call someone who comes in for prayer because they/we are Christ’s Beloved) if they would be willing to go on a journey with Jesus. We pray for Jesus to meet the beloved and reveal what needs to be known or seen for healing to take place.

Joey Gentempo describes in his book Redemptive Justice what his version of inner healing looks like;

“Redemptive Justice describes what changes a person from the inside out. Redemptive justice is what touches the heart of a man or a woman so that they can re-embrace life and live out their God-given identity and destiny.” (Gentempo 2022) What an amazing explanation of the process of inner healing!

Ultimately, I believe Jesus draws us into His presence for sanctification, to live in Victory, and for us to turn around to help others live the same way. This is what the Lord showed me as “Being Healed”

“Healing never happens outside our intimacy with Christ” (Eldredge 2004)

“And they overcame the enemy because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life—to death” Rev 12:11

           Focusing on Spiritual Warfare did not answer my question. Deliverance, Exorcism, and casting out demons are all real, but that is only HALF of the equation. Removing darkness is only the beginning, inner healing deals with the other half as well. After seeking the lord in prayer for context and an the right words he finally gave me wisdom to explain.

“Transformation requires a transfer” a transfer from dark to light, a prison to freedom, sickness to health. Isaiah 61 sums it all up…

1The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
    because the Lord has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
    to proclaim freedom for the captives
    and release from darkness for the prisoners,^[a]
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
    and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
³     and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
    instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
    instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
    instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
    a planting of the Lord
    for the display of his splendor.

⁴ They will rebuild the ancient ruins
    and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
    that have been devastated for generations.
⁵ Strangers will shepherd your flocks;
    foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.
⁶ And you will be called priests of the Lord,
    you will be named ministers of our God.
You will feed on the wealth of nations,
    and in their riches you will boast.

⁷ Instead of your shame
    you will receive a double portion,
and instead of disgrace
    you will rejoice in your inheritance.
And so you will inherit a double portion in your land,
    and everlasting joy will be yours.

⁸ “For I, the Lord, love justice;
    I hate robbery and wrongdoing.
In my faithfulness I will reward my people
    and make an everlasting covenant with them.
⁹ Their descendants will be known among the nations
    and their offspring among the peoples.
All who see them will acknowledge
    that they are a people the Lord has blessed.”

¹⁰ I delight greatly in the Lord;
    my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
    and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
¹¹ For as the soil makes the sprout come up
    and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness
    and praise spring up before all nations.

In every Inner Healing session I have ever been in, Jesus was more than willing to give a beloved something in return for the pain released over to Him. He wants to do the same for you!

Bibliography

Eldredge, John. Wild at Heart. Waterville, Me.: Walker Large Print, 2004.

Gentempo, Joey. Redemptive Justice. Houston: His Father’s Heart Ministries, 2022.

Hayford, Jack. Jack Hayford ministries. Jan 1, 2020. https://www.jackhayford.org/teaching/articles/healing-is-for-today/ (accessed February 15, 2024).

Larson, Bob. AZ Quotes. January 04, 2012. https://www.azquotes.com/author/74994-Bob_Larson (accessed February 15, 2024).