Many of our clients are on medications for depression, anxiety or mental illness. They’ve come to us because they know there is a better way. Will we still minister deliverance? Do the meds hinder the process?
Between 2011 and 2014, approximately one in nine Americans of all ages reported taking at least one antidepressant medication in the past month (Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2017).
Anxiety Disorders affect 18.1 percent of adults in the United States (approximately 40 million adults between the ages of 18 to 54). – National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH, Sept 2017).
Another report found that more than half of college students sought help for their anxiety issues. Research has found that anxiety can impede learning, which often leads to lower academic achievement and performance.
We have good success working with many clients who want to be off the medications, believe and accept the notion that their issues are spiritual and not physical, and are willing to go through deliverance and walk it out afterward.
Our position as NCCA-Licensed Clinical Pastoral counselors (and not physicians) is unequivocal:
- We never encourage clients to stop their medications when they come to see us.
- We do not try to guilt or shame them for pursuing the pharmaceutical path. Those who find us have stirred up faith for the power of God, through deliverance, to help set them free and get them back on the right track.
- We encourage them by telling them that the medications they are on will not hinder the effectiveness of the deliverance process.
- They can work with their physicians, after deliverance, to develop a reasonable plan to wean themselves off the drugs as they walk out their freedom.
There is one exception to how we handle point three above.
We use a five-step process approach for deliverance where the client actively engages and prepares homework before the deliverance session (the fourth one).
Medications Issue Must Be Addressed for Deliverance
If a person is heavily medicated, their ability to listen effectively and do that homework can be an issue. Sometimes they have someone who has brought them in who can help them. In some cases, we walk through the sheets with them.
It can be a challenge, and we try to minimize the effects of the medication as follows:
- Before each meeting, and certainly before the deliverance session, we will look in their eyes, hold their hand and declare that the medicines will not hinder the effectiveness of what is to come and we bind up every demon (Matthew 16:19) seeking to derail the process from tormenting or causing the person to fall asleep.
- We then loose the Holy Spirit on the person and speak forth vitality, focus, concentration and good fruit coming forth. As with all things in the spirit realm, we encourage them to stir up their faith, and we link our faith with theirs for God to do a work.
I estimate that 10% of our clients come into the office with active psychotropic medication prescriptions. Some are active users, while others choose not to take the pills unless they are desperate.
We do believe that the root sources of most fear and depressions are spiritual so that deliverance ministry can be useful in bringing freedom if the client stirs up their faith and does the homework we ask.
That’s really all we look for, and we do not allow the medications to be a distraction nor barrier for that victory.
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