How would your view of circumstances change if you suddenly began to include in the picture a significant amount of interaction and even conflict between demonic and angelic forces, as well as human beings like yourself?

“A journey toward the unexpected” is an accurate subtitle in the same way that “a journey toward the English language” might be an accurate subtitle for the dictionary.

This is why “health and wealth” erroneous teaching is such a plague on the church. The idea that our own level of faith can generate continuous well-being and abundant resources is a not-so-subtle substituting of our dependence on God with self-dependence, or what is more often the case, a self-serving teaching that allows someone to manipulate and confiscate the goods of others.

Thompson did his homework on this one.

…the Reformers lived in a world where everyone was at least nominally Christian but just the wrong type.

Most of the book is either history, other writers’ commentaries on history, or Thompson’s commentary on those writers’ commentaries.

He very clearly spells out that the solitary life of these believers subjected them to intense demonic attention.

The actual ministry programs and procedures are almost an afterthought.

Jesus promised His church would prevail against the gates of hell; He didn’t promise the Church would never be under siege.

There are mere flashes of case studies and encounters.

I now reflect about how on several occasions, in dealing with the demonic, I had demons laugh at me. I would get angry and they would mock me.

That’s probably because Thompson repeatedly stresses the essential humility of this ministry and warns against involvement out of pride or turning deliverance into a performance.

We would meet with someone who reported being demonized. After the opening prayer, I would immediately verbally assess the situation. I could see the demons and I would name them off, noting their relative strengths. I often knew when and how they gained entrance to that person’s life.

He does take the position that some spiritual gifts are more suitable for the deliverance ministry than others.

Like Moses, we can sin and make mistakes even while wielding spiritual gifts from God.

He also warns against being too interested in the spiritual realm.

Resist the temptation to enjoy being “in the know,” as the enemy would love to piggyback that and show you a lot of things.

As a result, he will namedrop something interesting and then never discuss it again.

Sometimes we know the person is connected to a cosmic level spirit because of family, history, or travel for example, and we ask Jesus to stand in and cut them and us out from that fight. Never have we directly confronted a cosmic level spirit.

What the heck is a cosmic level spirit?