In our today’s episode 611, we shall be examining the concluding part of the book of Obadiah titled:
Upon Mount Zion Are Those Who Have Escaped; Meaning Of Deliverance Explained
17 But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.
Verse 17 was not saying we should be doing deliverance services in churches.
You are not in Zion to start looking for deliverance. You are in Zion because you have been delivered. You have escaped already.
Let’s look at the original Hebrew transliterated text for deliverance.
It is called: pelêyţâh or pelêţâh
Pronounced as /pel-ay-taw’/ or /pel-ay-taw’/
It means concretely an escaped portion; those who have escaped, also known as the REMNANTS.
The above word has both literal and spiritual interpretations.
Let me first dive into the literal interpretation:
It means: “there shall be a remnant that shall escape.”
Let’s look at how Prophet Isaiah wrote his own version of the same subject matter according to Isaiah 37:32
There will be people in Jerusalem and on Mount Zion who will survive because the Lord Almighty is determined to do this. Good News Translation.
This in essence explains the fact that Israel was actually under the bondage of many captivities and they were promised rescue and survival.
In other words, anyone you find in Zion at the point of fulfilment of this prophecy is already a survivor – saved and preserved.
Remember we are still dealing with literal meaning.
Now let’s move to the next sentence…”there shall be holiness…”
This means that Zion shall no longer be violated by any nation or foreign invaders to the point of taking them captive.
Let’s see how Prophet Joel was able to put this in the right perspective.
17“Then, Israel, you will know that I am the Lord your God. I live on Zion, my sacred hill. Jerusalem will be a sacred city; foreigners will never conquer it again.
Joe 3:17. Good News Translation.
That’s the literal meaning of: “there shall be holiness…”
Meaning that the land will no longer be desecrated.
The people of Israel will now focus on serving the only true God. They shall His people and He shall be their God.
Obadiah further says: “…the house of Jacob shall possess their possession…)
This literally means that the rightful owners of the lands desecrated by foreign invaders will be restored, that is to say for example: the people of Ephraim will possess all the fields of Ephraim and the tribe of Benjamin shall possess Gilead and so on. This is called total restoration. They were not only saved, but also all their lost possessions were restored to them.
Now, let’s look at the spiritual interpretation of what Obadiah was saying. Let’s read the verse again:
17 But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.
Never forget the Hebrew’s transliteration of deliverance.
It means concretely an escaped portion; those who have escaped, also known as the REMNANTS.
What does this mean spiritually?
We are going to examine this using the words of our Saviour Jesus Christ when He quoted Isaiah’s prophecy in Luke 4:18-21
[18]The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.
[19]To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
[20]And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
[21]And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Let’s pick some key points from the above verses:
👉He was anointed for His assignment. Apostle Peter confirms this to us in Acts 10:38
[38] How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.
This same anointing was passed on to us too, when we believed.
1 John 2:20-21 TPT
But the Holy One has anointed you and you all know the truth.
[21] So I’m writing you not because you don’t know the truth, but because you do know it, and no lie belongs to the truth.
So, as a believer, you were not only saved you are also possessed by the Holy Spirit who is the anointing of God in you and upon you. Please, bear this in mind as we will be examining the spiritual interpretation of deliverance shortly.
👉The next point in that verse is to preach the gospel to the poor. The anointing was not meant to be dormant. It was meant to carry out so many things, one of which is to preach the Gospel to the poor. This is not talking about physical poverty. Otherwise, rich people will not need the Gospel.
The poor in this context according to original Greek interpretation are the meek, humble, gentle or those who are depressed in mind. So, before Christ came, sin brought everyone to their knees in the first Adam, whether you are physically wealthy or poor. This is why the Gospel is for everyone.
👉He hath sent Me to heal the broken hearted. This is damage done by sin to man’s heart (the subconscious). Jesus came to offer total healing to man’s central processing unit using the power of His Word.
👉To preach deliverance to the captives. This is where we are going as far as the book of Obadiah is concerned. And it is from this same Obadiah verse 17 that many churches derived the concept of deliverance ministry from.
In the past, we were made to believe that even believers need to undergo deliverance session until later we found the real meaning of deliverance, which I am going to shed more light on through this study.
When dealing with demon-possessed people in the Bible, the Bible is quite explicit enough to use the right word which is “casting out.”
I have never seen or read from anywhere in the Bible where deliverance service was conducted for anybody.
Each time a demon-possessed person is to be set free, the Bible uses the statement casting out or cast out, which is different from deliverance.
If you are sick, what you need is healing, which can be administered through medical or spiritual means. And if an unbeliever is possessed of demons, those demons are cast out using the authority of the Word of God.
Let’s read some Bible verses…
Matthew 8:16
[16] When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick.
Mark 1:34
[34] And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him.
You will notice that deliverance was not mentioned in any of the above verses where people were possessed of the devil. And where sick people were mentioned, healing was the right word used.
The Greek transliteration for “cast out” is “ekballo” which means to eject, drive out, expel, thrust out, or send away.
Driving out or expelling demons from the life of a person or from an environment.
Now, let’s look at what deliverance means spiritually:
The Greek transliteration for deliverance is in two major forms:
1. Aphesis (mentioned by Jesus Christ). It means pardon, forgiveness, remission, freedom and liberty.
2. Apolutrosis (mentioned in the Epistle to Hebrews). It means ransom that is paid in full to deliver people from sin problem, from the curse of the Law. It means Redemption, Salvation for mankind.
According to Hebrews 11:35
The Bible says: Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection.
Not accepting deliverance means, they didn’t accept Salvation that was preached to them and so they perished.
That’s exactly what Jesus came to do and He did a very good job, once and for all with His blood. You don’t get saved twice. Salvation is once.
By running to the altar to answer altar calls every Sunday or in crusades, you are simply making mockery of yourself.
By the way, we must note that not everybody is possessed. You can only cast out demons from only those who are possessed. Any believer claiming he is possessed was never a believer in the first place.
Here is what happens once you have received Christ – you are completely delivered:
Colossians 1:13-14
[13] Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
[14] In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.
Pay close attention to some key words there and I will also include their Greek transliterations:
Delivered = rhuomai = rescued.
Redemption= apolutrosis= Salvation, deliverance.
Forgiveness = aphesis= pardon, remission, deliverance.
Salvation= soteria = rescue, safety.
You will notice that all of them have the same meaning with the literal interpretation we first considered in the beginning when we read that …
Upon mount Zion, there shall be deliverance and holiness…meaning that there shall be those who have been saved – survivors. The moment you are in Zion (Christ), you are saved already.
Also, you will not find anywhere in the Scripture where Deliverance is conducted.
Rather, deliverance was preached/offered and taught because it’s a message – The Gospel of Salvation, which is received by faith. It’s a thing of the mind – the subconscious. Whatever controls your subconscious controls your entire life.
That’s why the Bible advises us to renew our minds.
Romans 12:2
[2]And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
The reason is because, if we fail to renew our mind, the devil can easily throw some dirty suggestions into our mind. This is particularly too dangerous for new converts. Read Luke 11:24-26
Please, bear this in mind that when you are born again truly, you are no longer in satanic domain. He no longer has authority over you because he has been subjugated by a higher authority – Christ.
Colossians 1:13-14 NLT
For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, [14] who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.
The moment you are saved, your domain has changed, because you have relocated. There is no way you can be possessed again let alone needing casting out of demons (which many people misinterpret to be deliverance).
Kindly note that when you are casting out devils, you are not conducting deliverance, you are simply expelling demons.
Biblically speaking, a person is only delivered if he/she receives Christ Jesus. Deliverance is preached for people to receive pardon, forgiveness of sin, total freedom, through Christ.
From the above exegesis, you will all notice that it is biblically wrong to tell a believer (someone who has received Christ/born again) to go for casting out of devils session or to receive Salvation (deliverance) again. So ridiculous right?
It’s ridiculous because demons and Holy Spirit cannot dwell in the same place.
Nevertheless, we must not shy away from the fact that believers do have problems/challenges.
That a believer is having some challenges does not mean he is demon-possessed…and would be told to go for casting out of devils prayer session. This is a wrong teaching born out of ignorance.
What such believers need is prayers using the authority given to them in the name of Jesus Christ and also such believers need to constantly renew his or her mind using the rightly divided Word of God. When you do this, no demons can afflict you anymore. You become a terror to the kingdom of darkness, because you are now in the domain of Christ Jesus. Hallelujah!!!
To be continued…stay tuned and stay blessed.
Let’s pray:
May our hearts continually be receptive of the rightly divided Word of God, in Jesus name.
Every spirit of error has been banned from gaining access into your subconscious mind, in Jesus name.
Bible Readings For Today: The whole book of Habakkuk and Zephaniah with Isaiah 45&46
I call you blessed now and always.
Saturday December 5, 2020 (DDMI)
