Deliverance

There is a school just to the North of where I live that started out as a simple farm school but is now large and thriving. In its very early years we, the Village Church, were asked to come and lead Tuesday afternoon Bible studies for the learners. Opposition immediately sprung up among both the teaching staff and some parents. In response we decided to take a team out there on a Sunday afternoon to pray.

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I was the only guitarist in our little church at that time so I took my twelve-string and we marched around the area singing and praying. Some very impoverished families lived on the farm that housed the school and alcohol was a major problem for them. Yet, despite their partying and brawling the music attracted many and soon there was quite a crowd gathered around us.

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This seemed like a great opportunity to preach the Gospel so I laid the guitar down and took up my Bible. As I started to preach a large woman in the crowd fell face down in the dust and started undulating across the ground like a snake, hissing loudly. Some of our tender hearted ladies thought she was ill and rushed to help her, but I instructed them to back off. I walked over to the woman and simply declared; “Demon, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth I command you to leave this woman!” She writhed, hissed, coughed, blinked, and sat up looking both surprised and relieved.

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Suddenly, every eye was fixed on me as I stepped back and continued preaching. I gave an invitation to repent and believe and dozens stepped forward for prayer. Hallelujah!

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Now what were we going to do with these people who had responded? Right there and then we decided to establish a Sunday afternoon congregation at the school. We announced it right away and the next Sunday many of the local folk attended… and the woman who had been delivered of a demon was the first one there!

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The opposition to our Tuesday Bible studies ceased from that day onwards and later the church management erected a sign at the gate to the school which read ‘To God be the glory’. The congregation lasted for several years but then the local authorities relocated the families in the area to a township where a number of churches already existed. We still work with the school and the sign still stands at the gate – to God be the glory.

Christopher Peppler

Christopher Peppler

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4 thoughts on “Deliverance”

  1. Trevor Stedman

    I remember that so many years ago! Spiritual warfare and deliverance was ‘a done thing’ but now is it still being practiced much in the Church?

    1. chrispeppler@telkomsa.net

      Hi Tevor. Deliverance should be a feature of all church life as and when it is needed. Jesus set the example and instructed His disciples to do likewise. Spiritual warfare, on the other hand, as it is so often defined and practiced (spiritual mapping, binding territorial spirits and so on) has no biblical warrant.

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About Me

My name is Christopher Peppler and I was born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1947. While working in the financial sector I achieved a number of business qualifications from the Institute of Bankers, Damelin Management School, and The University of the Witwatersrand Business School. After over 20 years as a banker, I followed God’s calling and joined the ministry full time. After becoming a pastor of what is now a quite considerable church, I  earned an undergraduate theological qualification from the Baptist Theological College of Southern Africa and post-graduate degrees from two United States institutions. I was also awarded the Doctor of Theology in Systematic Theology from the University of Zululand in 2000.

Four years before that I established the South African Theological Seminary (SATS), which today is represented in over 70 countries and has more than 2 500 active students enrolled with it. I presently play an role supervising Masters and Doctoral students.

I am a passionate champion of the Christocentric or Christ-centred Principle, an approach to biblical interpretation and theological construction that emphasises the centrality of Jesus

I have been happily married to Patricia since the age of 20, have two children, Lance and Karen, a daughter-in-law Tracey, and granddaughters Jessica and Kirsten. I have now retired from both church and seminary leadership and devote my time to writing, discipling, and the classical guitar.

If you would like to read my testimony to Jesus then click HERE.