Dean Hochstetler - in his own words:

IN PURSUIT OF TRUTH – MY JOURNEY INTO DELIVERANCE MINISTRY

Over the years people have asked me how I began to be involved in deliverance ministry and the reasons that compelled me to address the varying needs and problems of troubled people. They insisted that this information be recorded. Therefore, at age 74, I will address the origins of deliverance ministry of the past forty years.

Those who do not believe in the reality of an evil, malignant spirit world will either say I am unbalanced, given to hallucinations, or that I have lost the sheet anchor of reason – perhaps, all three. I reject all three propositions as unfounded and will attempt to demonstrate that the spirit world as portrayed in the Synoptic Gospels and Acts is reality even today. What happened in my surroundings and circumstances in the pursuit of this facet of reality will be recorded in this paper.

I grew up in the midst of a Pennsylvania Dutch speaking community west of Nappanee, Indiana. A large part of the population was and still continues to be Amish. As I got near my teen years I noticed that miracles were happening in the community. I wondered what the source of the power behind them might be.

As a child, my Mother often assigned Bible verses and short passages for us to memorize as she was the spiritual leader of our home. Our Father provided a strong work ethic and taught us to be honest. He was an industrious carpenter and was constantly busy with construction projects.

One day Mother assigned the parable of the sower in the scripture passage of Luke 8:5-15 to me to learn. However, I began reading verse one instead. Chapter 8, verse two, addresses demonization. After reading about the sower, I continued to read on in the chapter. I read verses 26-39 about the demonized man of the Gerasenes. Then I asked Mother, “What are demons?” She said, “They are spirits.” Upon inquiring further I questioned her again, “Where are they now and do they “catch” people today?” She replied, “That was only in the time of Jesus, not now.” This seemed to be the common understanding of the church in our area at this time of history, and sad to say, continues to be so in a large segment of it. I pondered about Mother’s response to my question. Other parts of the New Testament were said to be true and for our own adherence to its directives. Why is this one exempt? This made no sense to me.

Furthermore, I am told my father’s mother who died two years before I was born, was often sick. So an older Amish man who could “pow-wow” over sick people, was sent to my grandmother. Pow-wow is the English equivalent of the German word “broucha.” It is “healing magic.” (See Deuteronomy 18:9-14 on casting of spells.) This practice is still prevalent today and is at least temporarily effective for a variety of ailments.

One day he spoke with my Father, “Why not transfer this power to you so you can help your mother and I will not need to come?” Father was a willing recipient and the power was transferred to him. (The gifts of the Holy Spirit are not transferable unlike the counterfeits of satan.) Now as a result of my Father’s healing powers, people came to our house occasionally for treatment that was done in secret. My Mother, my sisters, my younger brother who was too young to remember this, and I went to another room. The blind on the door was drawn, and the session began. My inquisitiveness was strong and so I peeked through the keyhole and listened! As a result, I know the formulas and rituals for some ailments. I have never tried them and have never told the formulas and rituals to anyone. Eventually, my Father discontinued practicing the rituals. Mother said he was uncomfortable with it.

When people are involved in magic healing which is a part of sorcery, they are often unable to have assurance of salvation. However, when my Father died in 1959, he said he had peace with God. How I wish my understanding of pow-powing then would have been perceived as sorcery and had understood its consequences as I understand it now.

I came to the conclusion before 1959 that these practices of water divining or smelling, the use of the horoscopes, iridology, and pow-wowing healing in my community were of the devil. Consequently, I began to think specifically about the power behind the miracles I had seen in my neighborhood since childhood.

In 1952, at age 24, I married Edna Swartzentruber. We attended church regularly. In 1954 we bought a welding and machine shop west of Nappanee, Indiana. By 1958 we had four children and were doing well financially. Slowly but surely I began to realize that I was living on a “borrowed” faith, one that my parents had “handed” to me. It was not a personal relationship with Jesus. So one day I discarded the “borrowed anchor” and had none at all.

We built a new house in 1959 and by 1962 Edna and I developed relational problems. I shall be eternally grateful for Richard Yoder who pastored the church we attended. He was able to get us through the problems. I realized it was primarily my fault and it cost me a lot of tears when I became aware of it.

In the latter part of 1962, our pastor had invited an evangelist, Joshua Daniel, from the southern part of India, to speak at our church on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings. I attended the first evening primarily to listen. Upon returning home I began thinking, “That man is a radical Pentecostal and I will not attend the meeting tomorrow evening – but I did! That night I was convinced someone had informed him all about me. Again I thought, “I will not go to hear this man again.” However, there was something irresistible about it. I went! I still remember the text in II Samuel 24:24 that states: “I will not offer sacrifices that cost me nothing.” He preached one and three-fourth hours and I was thoroughly shattered. I had not slept the night before and I went home and wrestled with God until three o’clock in the morning. Finally, I said to God, “I give up. Here is me!” I found peace with God temporarily and slept. I had found a personal anchor in Jesus Christ.

The “turn-around” was so sudden that Edna became ill and the doctor told her that she needed complete rest. She spent seven weeks with two aunts in Florida where she had no responsibility other than to take care of herself. I worked and cared for our four children. It took almost five years for her to recover.

Shortly after this episode, some of my customers began telling and convincing me that healing is in the atonement just like salvation. They said, “If you have right faith you will not get sick. If you are sick and have right faith, you will be healed.” I had never heard of this belief before and it seemed interesting and so I listened to what they had to say. Soon they gave me books authored by William Branham who was a Jesus only Pentecostal. What I did not know at that time was that William Branham was a spiritist and had a heavy occult ancestry as well. I read my Bible, talked with our pastor, and read Branham’s books. I got thoroughly confused about the subject.

As my study continued, I began to hear strange noises in our house. It sounded as though chairs were being dragged over the upstairs floor and heavy boxes were being pushed around. I began to wonder, “What is this?” I said nothing to Edna about it but began to think, “Is this real or am I losing my mind?” One day Edna said to me, “What kind of noises are in this house?” She described them to me and I replied, “You hear noises?” She said, “Yes, especially when you read the books those men gave you.” I said nothing but began to realize that I was not losing my mind. She described the same thing I heard but I did not admit it.

At this point in history, the summer Bible School teachers had a meeting on Friday evening and all day Saturday in Archbold, Ohio. Edna attended those meetings. That evening I put the children to bed early. All four of them were in a bedroom upstairs next to the bathroom. Clair, the oldest child, (9 years old at the time) was on the top bunk; Donald and Verle were at each end of the bottom bunk; Lee was in the child’s bed. Then I began studying again and was so confused about the entire healing in the atonement subject, I could not have told you “straight up” about it if my life depended on it. I was into this crucial study about twenty minutes and an awful noise began upstairs. The toilet stool lid went bang, bang, bang, up and down. It sounded like someone was also pounding on the wall with his fist. I froze in terror and after listening for a while, I got enough courage to go upstairs even though I thought I could not do so.

As I got to the second floor, the noise stopped. I hurried to the bedroom where the children were sleeping. A night-light was on in the bathroom and I could see into the bedroom without a problem. All the children were asleep and under their covers and none of them were near the walls. There was an awful uncomfortable oppressive presence in the room although I saw nothing. I returned downstairs, put my books away, and went to bed. When Edna returned on Saturday evening, I conveyed to her what had been happening. Her reply was, “Now do you believe there are noises in this house?” I answered, “I know it to be so. I just said nothing to you about it.”

The following Monday, providentially, a person whom I do not recall, gave me a small book on Demon Experiences in Many Lands published by Moody Press. I read it and the best and longest chapter was written by Joshua Daniel’s father. I began to catch on!

Edna decided that the bunk bed arrangement was no longer satisfactory. The children were too big for such beds. She moved the two oldest children into the bedroom at the west end of the house which we had not used before. On Thursday evening she put the children to bed early, retired to the first floor bedroom, and I intended to study more. I had just begun studying and the noise started again but was twice as loud. I heard it by the fireplace chimney. Edna exclaimed, “It’s over here at the east end of the upstairs.” I went up the stairway and entered the same ugly atmosphere as I had encountered previously. It was a little easier to get up the stairs, however. The noise had stopped. I entered the “new bedroom. Clair was sitting up. I asked him, "Are you making noise up here?" He said, "No, but someone out in the hall is."

By reading the book Demon Experiences in Many Lands, considering all the noises that were heard, dealing with a confused mind, and a child sitting up in bed, I thought, "This is demonic!” The same oppressive feeling was in the room. For the first time in my life I issued a command to satan and his host, “In Jesus’ name I order you out of this house and off these premises." Instantly, the atmosphere changed. Clair crawled under the covers again and he went to sleep.

The next morning I went to work in my shop next door. After a while Edna came to me and said, “Did you take that fern off of the stand in the boys’ room when you were in there last night? It is on the floor and is not broken. Clair and Donald say they did not touch it.” I responded, “I did not know you had a plant there!”

The following day while I was studying the Sunday School lesson, I read in I Corinthians 14:13 that "The Holy Spirit is not the author of confusion." I certainly was confused about the “healing in the atonement” topic. It seemed as though the letters in that verse were two inches high. The next Sunday after church, I pursued this subject again and I saw truth in less than fifteen minutes. I have not changed my mind on this topic and I burned William Branham’s books.
Soon after this event, I heard the voice of the Lord one day saying, “This is the field of work I want you to pursue.” I exclaimed, “No, I don’t want to!” I heard the voice again that asked, “Will you be faithful? Your task will be the study of occult practices, that is, sorcery and its consequences, demonization of people, and their freedom Jesus won for them on the cross.” I agreed to be trustworthy. I now began to see the believers “in Him” found in Romans 5-8 and Ephesians 1:1 through 2:6 was an integral part of Christian experience. I had already experienced that the use of the Lord Jesus Christ’s name had power over evil and I had authority to use that name.

One day in Goshen, Indiana, there was a meeting where Homer Kandell from Berlin, Ohio, spoke about the Lord’s dealings with him. Like a flash, things came to my mind that I had forgotten twenty years ago. I knew I had to make these things right and began to do so. It took me nearly a year to cleanse the past history of my life. I still remember the last thing I had to do on my list. As I had completed one item, I would think of another one. When I was sixteen I had helped a friend steal a transmission from an old car in the junkyard. By now the owner had established a business in South Bend, Indiana. One day I went to him while he was in his office. I introduced myself and told him why I was here. I apologized and offered to pay him for the item. He folded his arms, put his feet on his desk, and said to me, “I forgive you but what has gotten into you? I have had lots of stuff stolen over the years and this is the first time this has happened.” I shared Jesus with that Jewish man and he took no pay. Following this incident, a deep peace descended on me that is secure today. Have I arrived at perfection? Anyone who knows me knows better, but my past is behind me and under the blood of Jesus.

Now I began to study the realm of occult activity, demonic problems, and the victory of Jesus over all of this area. About a year later, Brother Joshua Daniel was in our area again and we invited him to come to our house. I told him about the noises in our house. He laughed and I said, “That wasn’t funny!” He replied, “You were fortunate. Those spirits betrayed themselves with noise. Smart ones would just have left you confused.” I saw the truth of that statement.

Among Brother Daniel’s things was a book Between Christ and Satan by Kurt Koch. It has now been given the title of The Lure of the Occult. This interested me a great deal and I asked him, “Where did you get that book?” He said, “I know the German author. Do you want to read it?” I said, “Yes,” and took the book and read that evening until three o’clock in the morning. I saw immediately that what Kurt Koch was saying was the same stuff I had seen in my childhood in my own community.

I began to study, ask questions where I could and observe what was happening or what had happened. This continued for eight years. Even though I knew of only a few books written in English, I discovered in time that there were more of them available. I struggled through two German books on the subject. People laughed at some of my questions. Even a theologian told me to shut up and stop deliverance work as they were not for today. He accused me of practicing medicine without a license and informed me that I was programming people to respond in a certain way. My reply was, “If I listen to you, I am not competent to know when to take my children to the doctor.” Finally, being convinced that demonic things today were the same as my Bible spoke of, I began to say so publicly.

In 1963 my sister and I, through no efforts of ours, met a demonized woman in Bremen, Indiana. She was from Elkhart, Indiana. She had been in and out of mental hospitals for years without help. We encountered four religious spirits who became verbal. One spirit who I cannot recall the name, spoke with a deep bass voice; another was St. Herman who had an alto voice; St. John had a tenor voice; and St. Mary had a high soprano voice. (The woman herself was a second soprano.) A group of people and myself struggled with this situation for three days, did stupid things, and often wondered what to do next. At this point I contacted Professor John C. Wenger , a personal friend and historical theologian, at A.M.B.S (Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary) in Elkhart, Indiana, for advice. He said, “I cannot give you any advice for I have no experience with such things, but I will pray that your courage does not fail you.” He prayed thirty years for me until his mind failed. God honored our faith and she was set free in Jesus’ name. The details of this incident would be a large chapter by itself. I have never recorded it.

After reading Kurt Koch’s books, I wrote to him one day asking, “Do you travel and if so, do you come to the United States?” He responded, “I will be in Chicago in three months at a German speaking church. I have several free days thereafter and if you want to, I will visit you.” The last night he spoke there Edna and I went to hear him and brought him to our house.

One day while looking at a world map he said, “The Caribbean area is the only place in the world I have not been.” I had contacts there and asked him, “Do you want to go there?” He said that he would like to go. I arranged an itinerary as a favor to him and I wished to see what I now believed would present itself in other cultures.

On December 26, 1972, I left for New York, flew to Trinidad, and Dr. Koch and I spent five weeks traveling the Island nations and parted company in Panama. I had learned a lot. Charlotte Toibner, a Swiss missionary in Panama, rode her donkey three days and two days on the buses to talk with Kurt. The conversation was High German, some of which I did not understand but, nevertheless, I got the gist of it. I had never heard of the things she told that happened from spirit powers among these Animistic people who are Quimea Indians. It opened my eyes to a greater depth of insight into satan’s works, the power of witchcraft, and satanic worship of the spirit world.

After my return from the Caribbean area, I decided to write an article for our church paper. I had developed an acquaintanceship earlier with John Dresher, the editor of the paper. He questioned me, “What will you write?” I said, “Christ’s Work, the Devil’s Counterfeits.” He continued, “Write it and I will publish it.” It was published in the Gospel Herald in May, 1973.

Soon after this I was praying one day and I heard the voice of the Lord again saying, “In September I will send you on the road.” Again this made little sense to me. I was a welder and machine shop operator. I was not a public speaker and certainly not highly educated according to academic standards. The only current degree I have is a B.A. I received from Jesus. Ultimately, my travels took me to forty-two countries.

In late June of 1973 while at work, I became violently ill with severe abdominal pain in the morning hours and I was alone. Finally, I lay on the grass under a tree in agony. My older sister, a nurse, came and said, “Get to the doctor.” I said, “NO!” She spoke again, “You are going right now and I am going along.” As the doctor examined me he said, “You have a bleeding ulcer.” I answered, “No, I do not!” He said, “I am sure of it.” He then sent me to South Bend, Indiana, for x-rays. They found nothing wrong and I came home with the pain and minus one hundred dollars for the cost of the x-rays.

Slowly it dawned on me that this was a satanic attack. In Jesus’ name, I rebuked it and within an hour I was well! The following day a letter came in the mail from a church in Pigeon, Michigan. The leadership of the church had read the article I wrote and asked if I would consider coming to their church the weekend of September 9. Edna and I did go and I have been busy and traveling ever since but I no longer travel overseas.

Now criticism from church leaders began in earnest. One leader told me that I was demonized. (They accused Jesus of the same thing in Matthew 12). In the past ten years that has come to an end. It is now leadership persons who are asking questions. Realization has set in what third world cultures have known for centuries – the spirit world is real!

Demonization is not mental illness in Jesus’ day terminology. It can be coterminous with mental illness or be an independent entity. Much more would need to be said here to clarify the issues of psychological and demonic overlap, but it is outside the scope of this brief paper. The scientific is part of God’s creation. Science and the spirit world are not to be confused. Satan would like us to have an unhealthy interest in him and his works or his ability to be disguised sufficiently so as not to be detected and, therefore, not taken seriously – neither him or his host. (See Matthew 4:23-24). Jesus is not deceived nor is He a liar. North Americans have for the most part a faulty world-view. The Bible sees the physical or scientific realm, but also affirms the spirit world as real. Jesus has given authority to believers “in Him” to deal with all the power of the enemy. (See Luke 10:17-19 and Ephesians 3:10).

Jesus quoted Isaiah 61 in the synagogue in Nazareth and said, “This scripture is me.” We are in Him and our authority is delegated to use Jesus’ name. Much of my work the past fifteen years is helping the captives to freedom. Some days one-half of it is answering phone calls with those who want help. Frequently missionaries seek advice. Seminaries and colleges, although Christian, have not prepared students for the realities of the spirit world or how to address these issues. There is, however, some change taking place now.

I became acquainted with Dr. Timothy Warner in 1986. He had spent a term of missionary work in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Later he was president of Ft. Wayne Bible College and was then teaching at Trinity Seminary in Deerfield, Illinois. There he taught a course with the title of “Power Encounter” for which I was the resource person for several years. I met mature people from all over the world in those classes who were pursuing a doctorate in missions. There were many interesting things that happened during those times and as a result of those contacts later on. These events would be several chapters of a book if I ever wrote one.

I have read widely, traveled extensively, and now have a Ph.D. from the school of experience. Most schools give lessons and then an exam to see what you retained. The school of “hard knocks” is the opposite. You get the exam first and learn the lessons from those events.

In 1986 the Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference ordained me as a deliverance minister, the only Mennonite leader, so far, to ever have such credentials. Dr. Timothy Warner preached the ordination sermon based on Mark 3:14-15.

I am well aware that I am living on borrowed time. In 1996 the doctor said to me, “Clinically, you should be dead and added, “The only reason we, the three medical doctors, can give that you are still alive is that God is not finished with you yet.” That is a sobering statement. I am now in the process of training others as my usefulness is in its "evening hours."

Jesus’ parting words are, “Teach all that I taught you.” (Matthew 28:18-20). One-third of Jesus’ recorded ministry was concerned with setting the captives free from demonic grip.

There is much more that I could say such as giving addresses at seminaries, schools, and churches but this account provides a brief description of my journey for forty years. Many are the captives that satan had bound but were set free in using the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of His blood. And I get to watch it happen! Christ is victor!

Dean Hochstetler
March 2003