Last year my pastor was approached by another pastor and invited to a series of classes sponsored by a ministry called Cleansing Stream. It's associated with Jack Hayford's Church on the Way in Van Nuys CA.

My pastor was so impressed that he has made Cleansing Stream an ongoing part of our church's ministry. He envisions new members going through our membership class followed by Cleansing Stream.

The first part is four months of weekly classes on discipleship. It has wonderful material that takes into acccount the supernatural aspects of living out a successful Christian life. This is followed by a weekend deliverance retreat. My wife and I just returned from one of these retreats, and I'd like to share a report with you.

The retreat focuses on deliverance from demonic influences we fall prey to. This year they dealt with pride, offense, abuse, unbelief, poverty mentality, anger, self-hatred, depression, rejection, sexual purity, and a religious spirit.

We participated in a series of teachings followed by prayer sessions, annointings, and other exercises designed to break the demonic ties that oppress us. To say it was powerful would be an understatement.

I was impressed with the huge range of emotions that came out of it. One person would be screaming as a demon was being dealt with, and right next to them would be others shouting and dancing for joy for their newfound freedom. Attendees need to be prepared for anything because it's impossible to predict the effect such ministry will have on the body. I experienced it myself. I was speaking with an annointer rather matter of factly about a subject I though was routine, when out of the blue my throat locked up and I began to sob. It took me a few minutes to get out what I wanted to say because it was impossible for me to talk. I should note that pride will keep a person from letting go to allow the Holy Spirit to do what's needed, so that was the first thing we dealt with in a teaching and prayer exercise. Of course the majority of the time there was no physical effect, but one should be prepared to experience anything.

The delverance retreat, coupled with the classes that teach us how to live better add up to a more powerful Christian walk. I was pleased to have gone through this twice because I found that one retreat really isn't enough. There are loose ends to tie up, and the Lord will also want to deal with some areas of your life on a deeper level, or with a different focus.

The ministry team consists of a large group of intercessors that gather before the retreat to lift up every attendee. Then during the retreat they stand at the edges of the auditorium lifting up a constant stream of prayer throughout the weekend.

Next are annointers, who are highly trained altar workers. I saw them operate in authoritative prayer, discernment, and counseling. For every few annointers there are ministry captains that will assist and coach the annointers as needed, especially if the demonic manifests in a violent way.

There is also a great musical team that leads in celebration times of worship, and provides a covering of music while the minsitry sessions are in progress. They played for hours. Most impressive.

If you're interested in more information, check out www.cleansingstream.org. Maybe a church near you is holding classes. If not, you may want to speak to your own pastor about holding them. This type of thing is in demand. I was speaking to a pastor friend of mine in another state recently, and he told me that he could use something like this. In his counseling sessions he's noticing a lot of people that don't just need sounsel, they need deliverance.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2002

Answers

For some enlightening info == do search under Cleansing Stream and click on "Is Jesus Cleansing the Church through Cleansing Stream" by Let us Reason Ministries. God bless.

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2003