TRUE REPENTANCE  is the firm and determined decision by an individual to stop committing sin and to start living a righteous life. Repentance is the master key that opens all doors to the blessings of God. It is the key to the door of salvation, healing, prosperity, promotion, baptism of the Holy Spirit, deliverance, etc. Without repentance, we have no right standing with God: “… all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) The act of repentance begins with the acceptance of the fact above. If indeed, you are convicted in your heart that you are a sinner, you will experience a true and godly sorrow, the kind of sorrow that will make you hate the life of sin, the kind of sorrow that will make you forsake sin.

A lot of people mistake remorse for repentance; they are two different things. Remorse comes from being sorry for one’s wrongdoing. It is a shallow feeling, a sense of regret. It is not a lasting feeling, neither is it deep enough to affect one’s attitude to the things of God. True repentance, on the other hand, deeply affects the individual. As explained earlier, it causes godly sorrow and conviction in that person, making him forsake sin and totally turn away from a life of disobedience to God. True repentance is having our spiritual eyes opened and turning away from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God. True repentance is an individual DECISION, an act of self will. No one can repent on your behalf; you must want to repent on your own and do it truthfully. There is nothing God can do for a person who has not made up his mind to be saved. There can be no lasting deliverance where there is no true repentance.

CONFESSION OF SINS The confession of sin is part of repentance, and it is also a wonderful way by which an oppressed person can be delivered and healed. “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” (James 5:16) Confession is a major key to healing and deliverance. I will advise those seeking deliverance never to hide anything from those ministering to them. If they do, they will be wasting their time.

Demons love it when you don’t confess all of their activities in your life. It gives them room to hide when they know you are concealing them. Expose the devil to let him know that you don’t want him in your life. If you conceal him by keeping quiet and not speaking the truth, you are deceiving yourself and not the minister, whose effectual fervent prayer can set you free. If you do not follow these steps, you cannot receive true deliverance.

Once you become a Christian, you are expected to leave your life of sin behind and live holy. Many people want to experience lasting deliverance yet they continue to wallow in sin. They want to live their lives as dictated by the flesh and expect to be protected by God. This cannot be! you cannot have your cake and eat it. “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” (Romans 6:13-14). We are called unto holiness, and living holy is the best way of receiving and retaining our deliverance. The nature of God is holiness and when we live our lives in holiness, nothing can harm us. If you want lasting deliverance, you need to present yourself to God in absolute purity.

We must be absolutely honest in our dealings with God and also with one another. Failure to be honest provides an avenue for Satan to enter and maintain a hold on our lives. People who fall into this category are not released when they need deliverance. In fact, they cannot get true deliverance unless there is total honesty on their part. We must, however, be transparent if we are to receive true deliverance.

This is a cardinal part of deliverance. Failure to forgive is one of the principal reasons why some people are not released from demonic oppression. Jesus’ reply emphasized that forgiveness has no end. We may suffer demonic torture if we do not, from our hearts, forgive those who trespass against us.

Unwillingness to forgive will hinder your prayers of deliverance, or any other prayers for that matter. “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.” (Mark 11:25, 26) I have seen tremendous deliverance happen in the lives of people as a result of true forgiveness. I recall one occasion in prayer gathering, where I went to pray.

There was a woman who came to wait on the Lord; the Holy Spirit revealed that if she did not forgive someone who had offended her, she would not be delivered from the yoke under which she was labouring. The woman left and made peace with the person who had offended her, and God answered her prayers immediately.

You cannot receive total deliverance if you are still under demonic covenants or curses. You must renounce all demonic covenants. You must, with your mouth, break all inherited and personal curses.

Allow the Holy Spirit to complete His work in you. Don’t feel that you know it all. During ministration, if you are asked to kneel down, stand up or lift up your hands, don’t feel you know more than the minister; just obey! Pride will lead you down a path of destruction. Be humble and submissive. Do not behave like Naaman, the commander of the Syrian Army (2 Kings 5). Pride! Naaman could have lost his deliverance to pride were it not for his servants who prevailed on him to be submissive and obey Elisha’s instructions. The Bible records: “And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee so some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? How much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.” (2 Kings 5:13-14)

His leprosy disappeared. He got his deliverance because he obeyed the man of God! Be submissive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. This is very important in receiving your deliverance.