The first Sunday night of mass deliverance at Global Vision Bible Church in Tennessee, Pastor Greg Locke admits he was more than a bit nervous. Locke and his church staff had never done a service like it previously, and he simply didn’t know how many people would show up or how they would execute it.
But now, almost a year and a half later, Locke says Holy Spirit is working in mighty ways and “tens of thousands” of people have been ministered to for deliverance and healing during 73 Sunday evening services. The word got out quickly, and Locke says people from all over the world have come to receive the miraculous works of God at their church in Mt. Juliet.
“I don’t know another church in the world that does that a deliverance service every single week,” Locke told Charisma News’ John Matarazzo during a recent interview. “It’s mind-blowing to me. I tell my wife, eventually people are going to quit coming, and every single week they just keep showing up … keep showing up … and keep showing up.”
Locke says he and his staff were “forced into mass deliverance” because of how many people began showing up for the services in a tent outside the church. He says that services would sometimes go from 10:30 a.m. on Sunday until 2:30 a.m. Monday.
And after getting some sleep and doing a Bible study in a local hotel, he returned to the church and “100 to 150 people had slept in the parking lot” in their vehicles, and they were standing in line for deliverance.
“It was the most uncontrollable growth you can imagine,” Locke says. “It was mushroom growth. Big on top, small on the bottom. And we didn’t have a deliverance team then. But now we’ve got a great team of people that are praying and laying hands on folks.”
Locke says he consulted YouTube, of all places, to find some help to guide he and his staff through the deliverance services. He found videos of a preacher named Win Worley, a Baptist pastor in the late 1960s and 70s who cast out evil spirits and effectively waged war for the body of Christ against Satan and his kingdom.
“It was kind of like Derek Prince, but on a bigger scale,” Locke says. “I said, ‘Wow, I need to figure out how this guy formulated this.’ And so we wrote a manual and started doing mass deliverance, only because we could not keep up with the demand and still can’t to this day.
“On that first night, we only wanted about 120 people there. I didn’t know the first thing we were doing and I was scared to death. But 160 people showed up and I wasn’t going to turn them away. Now, we’ve had as many as 3,000 people on a Sunday night during our deliverance conferences. But we now keep it a lot smaller because it can get wild, wild west and we only have so many workers. Now we try to do about 300 to 500 people (on Sunday nights).”
Locke says the deliverance services are predictable at first, but when demons begin to manifest and the Holy Spirit starts doing its work, you never know what’s going to happen next.
“We’ll worship for a few minutes. I get up and do some repentance [calls], to get people to start forgiving those in their life they need to forgive and, ‘pow,’ right out of the gate, those demons will start manifesting. But here’s the interesting thing about that. What I love even more than the 72 (now 73) straight weeks, but we have created such an atmosphere. The Lord has given us such an authority and such an anointing for deliverance ministry that now it’s almost every single service, demons are flaring up.
“And it’s not just Sunday night anymore. But now, on Sunday morning, we’re having to pull people aside because in the middle of my preaching, they just can’t handle it. Demons are beginning to manifest right there in the service.”
And it begins to happen, Locke says, when people start driving into the parking lot.
“The moment that gravel starts crunching under their tires, they are in full-blown spiritual orbit,” Locke says. “Right there on the spot. We have to get them into the tent and get them with a deliverance worker.”
Locke says there is little doubt the anointing of the Holy Spirit shows up every week. It’s one of the factors that led to the production of the hit movie, “Come Out in Jesus Name,” which debuted earlier this year in theaters across the nation.
“The difference between influence and anointing in deliverance and healing ministry is this: In Matthew chapter 7, the influencers stand before Jesus and say, ‘did we not cast out devils?’ Locke says. “Didn’t we write bestselling books? Didn’t we do amazing things in your name? And Jesus said, ‘Yeah, but I never knew you.’
“They had influence, but no anointing. It’s not about the person, it’s about the power that’s in the name of Jesus. And there’s a lot of people that have churchy influence, but they don’t have the anointing of the Holy Spirit. … The difference between influence and anointing is the anointed people are doing it for the glory of God. But Jesus is going to separate them. I’m not interested in being an influencer. I’m interested in being a humble, walk in the fear of the Lord, anointing man of God. There is a difference.”
And that is exactly why the deliverance services at Global Vision Bible Church produce fruit each and every week. {eoa}
Shawn A. Akers is the online editor at Charisma Media.
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