Since the Word of God is the embodiment of all Truth, those who believe in the truth of the Word of God are delivered from all their sins.

 

Deliverance from sin follows three stages; we are immediately delivered, we are continuously being delivered, and we will be delivered.

 

The reason the work of deliverance follows three stages is because we are being delivered completely, spirit, soul, and body.

 

Let’s take a look at the spiritual aspect first. Our spirit can never die, for the spirit that gives us life originated from God, and like God it is eternal.

 

In our mortal human nature we are considered dead in trespasses and sin, but death when referring to the spirit speaks of separation from God.

 

When a person dies in their sins their spirit becomes separated from God for ever, that is what is called eternal damnation. When a person becomes born again, or born of the Spirit, their spirit is immediately regenerated and will never again be separated from God.

 

Our spirit is delivered instantly the minute that we accept the Word of Truth. If we were to die a second after salvation our spirit would rise up to God in an instant.

 

2 Corinthians 5:8 “We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”

 

The only thing that our spirits need after we become born again is to feed in the truth of the Word of God. For a weak spirit, one who is not being nourished by the Word of God, is not strong enough to influence our souls to turn its back on its sinful ways.

 

We need to realize that our spirits are either dead, that is separated from God, or alive in Christ through the born-again experience, there is no in between for the spirit man within each person.

 

Not so for our souls, for they are always going back and forth depending on which spirit is driving them.

 

When our spirit is inspired by the Word of God it motivates us to do good works. When we neglect spiritual nourishment, our soul is moved by the sensuality of this world, through the spirits of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, to do sinful things.

 

That is why Paul is commending the Thessalonians for receiving the Word of God and is telling them this: Which also effectively works in you who believe.

 

By using the word effectively works in you, Paul indicates that the deliverance of our souls is always a work in progress.

 

Galatians 5:24-25 “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

 

If we are born again, we live in the Spirit of God who made our spirit alive in Christ, so why not also walk after the Spirit of Truth that can also deliver our souls from the deadness of this world system?

 

Our physical bodies will not be delivered until the day when the resurrection of the dead takes place.

 

Even if we are born again, our bodies will continue to decline and decay with the passing of time, for the Word of God declares that:

 

Hebrews 9:27 “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.”

 

So that in our everyday lives, the ministry of deliverance is the process of working out of our souls its dependency to the desires of the flesh, that is why the crucifixion metaphor is used, those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since crucifixion implies a slow painful death, that is what the separation from the desires of this world entails, a slow painful death.

 

Matthew 26:38 “Then He said to them, ‘My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.’”

 

The hardest thing for us humans to accomplish is the death of self. Our self life is who we are and how we see ourselves. But when how we see ourselves and who we are does not align with the Word of God, there is no other choice, our soul has to die to self or lose its reward.

 

The effective working Word of God is the only power that can bring about such transformation in us.

 

This is what Paul told the Thessalonians, When you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God.

 

We cannot die to our self life until we realize that our lives are not our own, for they belong to God. Reason dictates that if we belong to God, our lives should be modeled after the Word of God.

 

As we welcome the dictates of the Word of God for what our lives should be, that is we receive them as if directly from the mouth of God, that’s when the effectively works part sets everything in motion within us.

 

1 Thessalonians 2:14 “For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans.”

 

Immediately the world around them began to persecute them, just as the churches that they had modeled themselves after were persecuted. The world will always persecute those who desire to fulfill the Word of God in their lives. Now why is that?

 

Very simple, those whose desire is for the Word of God, which is Truth, cannot be lead stray by the deception of this world system.

 

If you don’t move with the flow of the world you become an impediment to the flow of the world.

 

John 15:18-19 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

 

Hatred from the world means that the Word of God is effectively working in us the transformation that God wants to accomplish in us who believe.

 

2 Thessalonians 2:13 “But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation (deliverance) through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.”

 

Notice how the process begins with salvation, then sanctification by the Spirit, and all comes together by belief in the truth.

 

Would you agree that the world is waging war against the Word of God? Here in the United States if a student takes his Bible into a public school building it would cause so much trauma to the local ACLU chapter that you would think that the end of the world had arrived.

 

Just a lonely cross standing on a faraway hill causes enough distress to those who are under the influence of this world system, that they will not rest until they find a way to remove it.

 

You cannot have such a disproportionate reaction to small things like those, unless it is because it offends the spirits of intolerance that are behind those who feel threaten by the presence of something that they know can delivered them from the power of those demonic influences.

 

Think of it, that was us before we got saved, being moved by the desires of our flesh to lust after the things of this world, and to hate those who take a stand for the principles of life that are taught in the Word of God.

 

And now as believers, are we going to tolerate these same demonic entities just so that we can be part of this world system? Of course not! But remember that deliverance from them requires us to fully commit our lives to the true teachings of the Word of God.

 

Following with this threefold principle of salvation, sanctification and belief in the truth, we can take a threefold approach as well in our stance against these demonic entities.

 

I call it repentance, renouncement and restoration.

 

We repent before God for all of our sins, He forgives us and cleanses us from all of our sins.

 

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

 

We renounce the world and the things which are in the world.

 

1 John 2:15 “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

 

Remember, we know that His Word is effectively working in us when the world hates us.

 

And as we truly repent of our sins and renounce this world system, then the Lord takes it upon Himself to restore our souls to the divine setting that He originally created us to fulfill.

 

1 Thessalonians 3:13 “So that He may establish your hearts (souls– self life) blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.”