Light and Liberty

“Rediscovering the power of deliverance”

Peter Mockford

ISBN: 9781909728639

128 Pages

Published Jul 2017

Christian Life

Paperback £8.99 Kindle £5.99
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As Western awareness of spirituality increases, Peter Mockford believes deliverance ministry will be critical to the church’s mission and future success.

In this engaging and thought-provoking book, Peter shows that deliverance was a vital component of Jesus’ ministry and explains how the church came to overlook it. As a psychotherapist and minister with 20 years’ experience of deliverance ministry, Peter has profound and grounded insights into the realities of spiritual warfare and an understanding of how the church can rediscover this oft-forgotten part of the gospel.

Emphasising an intimate relationship with Christ and deepening fellowship with one another, Light and Liberty empowers the church to dispel darkness and break oppression in all their forms.

  • This is a very timely, wide-ranging and contemporary treatment of a subject that needs to be taken seriously and also practised well.

    Rev Dr Russ Parker, author of Healing Wounded History, Director of 2Restore; Healing Church Wounds
  • Peter's costly experience in the deliverance ministry, combined with his scriptural knowledge and understanding, make this a book full of wise and practical guidance. Light and Liberty is a thought-provoking read, offering perceptive insights. It is the fruit of the author's own loving service and faithful witness in the community.

    Mark Rylands, Bishop of Shrewsbury
  • In Light and Liberty, Peter Mockford draws upon his wide-ranging experience as a parish priest, leader of a diocesan deliverance team and a practising psychotherapist to present a comprehensive portrayal of healing and deliverance. Peter stresses the vital importance of understanding and practising deliverance in the Church today, since it was so central to Christ's thinking, teaching and practice. In the book Peter addresses many relevant issues surrounding deliverance – discernment, power, relationships, idolatry, curses and the occult – in a way that is well researched and well-written. He refers extensively to recent books, as well as to the biblical text. Light and Liberty is a clear and definitive call to action for the Church of England – and the wider Christian Church. It is destined to be widely read, often referred to and repeatedly put into practice in the coming days. Light and Liberty is a gift from God for the Church at this time.

    Robert Mountford, County Ecumenical Mission Officer for Staffordshire and the Black Country
  • The ministry of deliverance will often be seen as controversial and divisive, and, as such, will be conveniently ignored by many. Congratulations to my good friend and colleague, Peter Mockford, for not shying away from this difficult subject but choosing to tackle it head on. Having led a diocesan deliverance team for many years and also being a qualified, so-called, "secular" psychotherapist, he is more qualified than most to balance the fine line between deliverance, psychiatry and psychotherapy. This is a book rooted in biblical truth but also in years of experience at the coalface of seeking to help those in need and to answer the prayer that pleads "deliver us from evil".

    Lloyd Cooke, Chief Executive, Saltbox Christian Centre
  • Evil is a reality, and those who have examined and experienced the claims of the Christian faith are fully aware of the destructive power and influence of evil entities. Rev Trevor Dearing made national news in the early 1970s with his deliverance ministry at St Pauls church in Hainault, Essex, when thousands were queuing to get into his small church over a period of a few months. I was very blessed to have spent much time with Trevor and Anne Dearing in the early 1980s and learnt how important this ministry was and how misunderstood it was, even in the Evangelical, Pentecostal and Charismatic Community (EPC). From this perspective, I have found Peter's book a ground-breaking, encouraging, positive and necessary contribution to this much-needed teaching within the Christian community. When public theology and social science engage in these eternal realities then many will find true freedom.

    I believe there is a shift starting to take place in the public space that may start to see some reverses from the impact of some of the negative aspects of the Enlightenment. Faith and Reason can co-exist. This is a re-engagement within the public space from a faith perspective which hopefully will move faith from being "private" to being "personal". This may well open the doors again for a discussion about cultural and spiritual capital which will encourage the Christian community to re-engage through her mandate of love and freedom in Christ. The deliverance ministry will be at the forefront of this re-engagement and awakening. It will require great godly wisdom and discernment from a motivation of genuine godly love in Christ. Peter's excellent book knocks at this door with authority and a heavenly mandate: a biblically based understanding of the book of Acts and authentic discipleship with the true love of Jesus Christ as the foundation of this much-needed Jesus-based ministry.

    Light and Liberty is a book for our times and essential reading for those who are serious about their Christian commitment and love of others. Peter is a practical theologian and academic and a great blessing to the body of Christ.

    Chris Cole, Founder of Cross Rhythms Radio
  • This is an important book since there is a big lack of balance on this subject. We either never talk about it, or become scared, or try to find patterns to pray in every detail and lose track of the big picture. As both vicar and psychotherapist, Peter Mockford has overview and wisdom, and long experience in working with deliverance issues. He points out the most important: that it is all a question of a relationship with the Lord, where we listen and try, getting it wrong sometimes, but hopefully getting it right more and more often, as we do it together. As Peter points out, this ministry of deliverance, in its widest sense, is at the core of Jesus' ministry. As followers of Jesus, it should be at ours too.

    Birgitta Sjšstršm Aasa, pastor, Church of Sweden, and consultant in Sweden for the international inter-church prayer ministry VMTC: Victorious Ministry through Christ (Helhet genom Kristus)
  • Peter Mockford's book is extremely challenging for the contemporary western European models of rational thoughts. In the well-known survey "Changing Mass Priorities: The Link Between Modernization and Democracy" (2010), the authors Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzel present a global cultural map of 53 societies by two value-scales: survival vs self-expression values, and traditional vs secular-rational values. Not surprisingly, Sweden is world-leading in secular-rational self-expression values. Other western European societies, like Britain, are not far behind. It is likely, I dare to say obvious, that the churches in our countries have been strongly affected by these values. Sometimes it is a result of a lack of a deep Christian, biblical identity; sometimes because the Church, for evangelistic reasons, adapts to this like Paul at the Aeropagus, in order to reach "modern thinking" people with the gospel.

    Peter's book, describing the spiritual realm and how to deal with such issues, drops like a bomb into our rational thinking world. Peter is literal in his biblical approach and embraces many traditional values. He balances issues about psychology, psychiatry, psychotherapy and deliverance in an admirable and honest way.

    This book gives us essential tools and increased insight in the matter of deliverance ministry. Let us be challenged! Let us test everything, and hold fast to what is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

    Magnus Aasa, vicar in the Evangelical-Lutheran Swedish Church, parish of Halmstad

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