The Triumphant ChurchDeliverance should be done by the Holy Spirit's
direction. Of course we can pray for someone who is
being oppressed by the devil and stand with him in
rebuking the devil. Ultimately, however, believers are
going to have to learn how to stand against the devil for
themselves.
But the point I am making is that you can't just look
at a person and decide that since he is acting a certain
way, he must have a demon. It isn't scriptural to try to
categorize demons from your own mental understanding
or to determine that certain demons always act in
certain ways. A demon can affect the way a person acts,
but the Holy Spirit would have to show you that a
demon is involved, because it could just be the flesh too.
You can't just figure it out in your mind; it has to be
spiritually discerned.
In other words, true deliverance isn't just a matter
of saying that a particular problem or illness, either
mental or physical, is always caused by a demon. Be
careful in trying to label certain patterns of behavior as
demons, such as demons of jealousy, gluttony, greed,
and so forth, when it may just be works of the flesh.
It's true that if people indulge in the works of the
flesh, they can open a door to the enemy, but the Bible
doesn't mention demons by those particular names.
However, it does teach that those characteristics are
works or evil tendencies of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21).
It is too easy to blame problems of the flesh on a
devil and remove the responsibility from ourselves to do
something about our fleshly tendencies. Even when an
evil spirit is involved, the kind of evil spirit influencing
or affecting a person must be discerned or revealed by
the Holy Spirit. Apart from the Holy Spirit, we wouldn't
know what kind of evil spirit is involved.