| Helping someone to cope with their challenges is important, for a time, but it is not enough. We at The Joy House Counseling Center are Faith-based. We begin with the conviction that God is real and involved in human affairs at every level including the personal, interpersonal, familial, institutional, communal, cultural, political, and certainly the spiritual. Our work goes beyond helping our friends cope. We want to be agents for God’s transforming Grace. Victory in times of challenge is always the greater good. In a world of modern techniques and medicines, deliverance is often regarded as passé or unnecessary. It is said that deliverance doesn’t happen any more. The enemy of God would have us believe that science, culture and government are the best we can hope for, that we are obliged to cooperate and compromise, that we are expected to do for ourselves first and let “God” handle what’s left, and that “God” gets irritated with us when we ask too much of him. In fact, “modern” man doesn’t need “God” to exist at all. Please understand, science is not evil. It’s just behind the curve. God does exist and He created science. Science in the hand of God serves well. The question is not the validity of science but rather the virtue of the practitioner. Deliverance flows out of the only source of perfect holiness. Christ is the great healer. It is prideful to think we can compete with that. And we don’t need to! “Miracles” do happen, without interrupting the laws of nature. God created a world that can meet Him on His own ground — through faith. God makes Himself available to us — through prayer. We can share in His holiness, compassion, authority and power — through His Holy Spirit. This is more than doctrine. It’s Truth! This is fundamental but by no means trivial. Redemption, reconciliation, restoration, salvation, healing and freedom from torment and spiritual oppression all share a root of deliverance. It seems that anything God does delivers someone from brokenness. Prayer is our part. We are admonished to pray to our Father ... deliver us from hunger, sin and guilt, temptation and evil. Serious, trusting, desiring, fervent, persistent, prayer by obedient and vigilant people with God’s own holy character and righteous conduct, avails much. For His part, God is faithful to answer prayer. He promised and He keeps His promises. Because prayer changes things, the Christian life can be tested and nothing strengthens faith like answered prayer. So, we need to pray more, ask more, and be specific in what we ask for. It is our privilege at the Center to witness deliverances, large and small, ordinary and dramatic. These are the measure of our ministry. They are why we do what we do. | 