David Houston's
Parental Influence and Performance Orientation
(Inner Healing, Deliverance, Curses)
by
Doug Woolley
8/8/88
Questions and Answers
Who should pray for inner healing, deliverance, and breaking curses? Elders are not the only ones who can pray, but any trained person can. Is. 10:27 says that the anointing breaks the yoke. A trained person must have the anointing of the Holy Spirit as well as the gift of discernment (1 Cor 12:10). Meditating on the Word of God also gives a person discernment (Heb. 4:12). If a woman is ministering in this area, then she must be under authority as implied by 1 Cor 11:3‑12. When a woman touches the spiritual realm, she must be under authority or she will be open to demonic attack. There are clear delegated lines of authority mentioned in the Bible, such as Rom. 13:1‑5 and Matt. 8:8‑9. Bill Gothard says we must not pray for a person until we determine who their spiritual covering is; otherwise they will not grow and there will not be a lasting result from our prayer. Many sincere fundamental women get out of order if they are not under authority. We must be trained in administering inner healing and deliverance.
How can you know what kind of a curse a person has if their parents never seem to get along? The curses listed in Deut. 27‑28 can help, but the gift of discernment in 1 Cor. 12:10 must be in operation. We can't just look to the Word superficially and determine the problem: we need discernment. We must not pray until we have a word from God so that we can pray in faith. It is better to pray for 1/10 of the problem in faith than to pray for everything and not be sure what the real problem is.
If a curse was broken over an adult before he is a parent, does he need to break it over the children? No, but he needs to teach his children how to resist it. To deal with a curse you must recognize it, repent of it (if you sinned in that area), renounce it, and then resist it.
Should a parent break a curse over his child or should the pastor? Whoever is trained should do it. It would be great for a parent to do it since they are the clear line of authority over the child. If the parent is not trained and does not have the faith needed, then the pastor should assist him in breaking the curse.
Can you break a curse over your own life and/or over the life of your spouse? Yes.
Is bestiality a result of a demon or a curse? You need to have the gift of discernment to determine that.
Must a person repent of any curse or only of curses that involve sins in his life? You do not have to repent for sins of your parents'. Ezek. 18:20 says you have to repent only for sins you commit.
How do you tell the difference between a curse, a demon, and a character flaw? We need to read Deut. 27‑28 and pray that the Holy Spirit will quicken something in our spirit. We need discernment. We need to listen to good tapes and read good books on the subject. We need to get around people who have ministered successfully in this area.
Is mental retardation a curse, a psychotic behavior, or a demon? We need discernment and let the gift operate. Almost always a curse and/or a demon is involved. We need to know the power of curses so we can rise up in faith to break it.
God is not partial to any man. He does not curse some and not others. Curses actually come upon us because of spiritual laws (Rom. 8:1‑2). We need to go to the root of the problem and lay the axe at the root of the tree rather than just picking off the bad fruit (Matt. 3:10).
Is there grace over people with curses who don't know about curses? Will they be held responsible? Spiritual law is unforgiving. It doesn't matter whether you know about it or not. Grace does not come by ignorance, but by faith.
What are the causes of curses? Prov. 26:2 says "a curse without a cause does not come." It will come either from generational sin or your own sin. The difference is only in the strength. If it has been operating for many generations, then it will probably be strong.
Sometimes curses must be broken before a demon can be cast out. The curse is like a lid on a jar that needs to be taken off before the contents can be taken out. There is power in curses and it must be recognized. Both the counselor and the one counseled must know the strength of the curse and use faith to break it. The curse has put thought patterns in a person that needs to be resisted even after the curse is broken. We need to believe and speak the truth of Gal. 3:13‑14 that Jesus became a curse for us, and then the person needs to resist.
Can a Christian have a demon? Yes, even though the Scriptures don't support nor deny it. The Spirit of God bears witness with this in peoples' experience in this ministry. Christians can't be totally possessed by a demon because the Holy Spirit resides in their Spirit. If a Christian is back-slidden, and stays out of the Word, or even gets into sin, then he will have a demon. If a person walks in agreement with a demon, then he will come to live inside of him. Amos 3:3 says "how can two walk together unless they agree."
The Basis for this Ministry
The first sermon that Jesus preached, Is. 61:1‑4, gives the basis for the ministry of inner healing, deliverance, and curses. The "desolation of many generations" in verse 4 gives an accurate description of curses. Derek Prince, who has been in the ministry for 40 years, believes that 25% of all Christians are affected by curses. "Binding up the broken hearted" is the ministry of inner healing. "Bringing good news to the afflicted is the ministry of salvation, inner healing, deliverance, everything." "Proclaiming liberty to captives, freedom to prisoners" is the ministry of deliverance. We are to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord, or the day of jubilee, which was when everything was brought back to its rightful owner. Our minds, souls, and body are being taken back from the enemy: It started when we got born again. We need to be aggressive in this ministry, or we will not take our full inheritance.
An Inner Healing Testimony
Is. 11:2 speaks of the Spirit of counsel and strength which would rest on Jesus, and eventually upon us. David Houston first really noticed this spirit upon him in Austin, Texas. It gave him a supernatural anointing to counsel. He began to counsel in the area of inner healing. (Counselors walk in confidentiality in this ministry.) Houston described a story of one of his counseling experiences in which a son hurt his dad verbally. A week later the dad died in a car wreck. The son felt guilty and bad for 15 years. David prayed for healing in this boy. Prophetically he saw Jesus coming into his memory and healed the boy by seeing Jesus counsel the boy and his dad and mom. Tears came out of the son's eyes. Both the son and David saw the same things happening. The spirit of counsel took over and ministered in this situation. One year later, the boy is totally free from the guilt and hurts of his memories. This would not have happened if it was not Scriptural, according to Houston. He has seen miraculous healings similar to this many times.
Caution in Inner Healing
"This is not a ministry of just using the human imagination; It is not a ministry of using your will, or using your imagination to think of something even as wonderful and as loving as it can be. You will get into the occult realm‑‑ you will be taken advantage of by demon spirits if you begin to conjure it up in the soul." We must move prophetically by the spirit, not by the soulish realm. We need to discern what is of the spirit and what is just a nice imagination.
Pictures Color the Mind
"The ministry of inner healing has to do with images and pictures that we have inside of us." We do not see with our eyes, but with the mind. A professor at Berkley did an experiment for 2 weeks by wearing glasses that made things look upside down. At the end he could see perfectly, then he took the glasses off and everything was upside down again. If you see with your mind, then what you have inside of your mind (your memory) will color everything you see. When people have pictures of their harsh, cruel dad, then they will look to God in a similar way. "Father" to many means a drunk who beats the mother once a week. They want to have nothing to do with a "Father." It will be hard for them to ever relate to God as a loving Father until that picture is changed by inner healing through the spirit of God. We need to go in sensitively by the Spirit of God and touch those hurts.
The Need in the Last Days
The world is waiting for us to move in the anointing to deliver the captives. When this happens, many people will come to the church to know more about this Jesus that heals. We need lay people who will learn and train in this ministry and anointing. Over 1/4 of Jesus' recorded ministry was deliverance. Malachi says that in the last days the spirit of Elijah will return to restore the hearts' of the children to the parents' and the parents' to the children.