We need to be set free.
Since 1979 Jesus has progressively set me free from “prisons” that I had been put into by sin. A lot of these “sins” were things that others had placed on me. Some of them were my own doing. Some of them were simply things that were passed down from former generations. I believe that all three of these are causes of bondages and prisons in our lives.
So many people are too proud to admit that they need help or that they need to be set free from slavery. “Then Jesus said to the Jews who believed on Him, ‘If you continue in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’ They answered Him, ‘We are Abraham's seed and were never in bondage to anyone. How do you say, You will be made free?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, Whoever practices sin is the slave of sin. And the slave does not abide in the house forever, but the Son abides forever. Therefore if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed’” (John 8:31-36).
Notice, Jesus spoke this to the Jews “who had believed on him.” They did not want to hear that they were slaves and that they needed someone to set them free. So many Christians today are the same way.
Jesus’ mission statement spoken on the day He started His ministry emphasized setting people free. He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour” (Luke 4:18,19).
Paul tells us in Romans Chapter 6 that we have “already” been set free from sin’s slavery. “Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey-- whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness” (Romans 6:16-18).
It is true that we have been (past tense) set free. It is also true that we need to be (future tense) set free. Legally we are no longer slaves to sin and Satan once we make Jesus our Lord. However, there is a progressive realization of that fact. Progressively we work out that truth in our lives.
“Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed - not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence-- continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, [not in your own strength] for it is God who works in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire] to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Philippians 2:12,13 - added phrases from Amplified Bible).
A good example for visualizing this truth is the story of the Israelites coming out of slavery in
The Israelites were slaves to the Egyptians for over 400 years.
God sent a deliverer, Moses, to confront the slave-master Pharaoh. Jesus came and confronted our slave-master Satan.
The people of
However, God did not take the Israelites directly to the Promised Land. He led them through the desert. The deserts of your life are going to come. They are part of God’s program of deliverance from slavery, and you need to know how to respond in faith. The Israelites did not respond in faith.
We see in Hebrews chapters 3 and 4 that God tells New Testament believers to be warned of the ways of the Old Testament children of God.
God provided for the Israelites in the desert in a marvelous way. Several times He provided for water to gush out of a rock. He provided fresh bread from Heaven every morning (Exodus 16:15). Their clothes and shoes never wore out. God turned the bitter pool at Marah into a wonderful fresh water lake (Exodus 15). Yet they kept murmuring against God and Moses because they were not used to living by faith in the unseen God. They continued to want to live by their natural senses, even preferring slavery.
These Israelites show us that being a slave for a long time can give us a slavery mindset that is not easily overcome. God knows how to walk us through the overcoming process, but so many times we do not like God’s ways.
What are some of the symptoms of the slavery mindset?
Give yourself a check-up.
One of the sneakiest types of slavery is slavery to oneself, otherwise known as selfishness. When we continue to yield to our own selfish desires, we become slaves to our old fallen nature, the flesh.
A lack of identity is the primary attribute of a slave. Slaves have to get their identity from someone else. That is why you see people in the American culture running around trying to get fancy cars, having certain types of friends, dressing a certain way, being part of a movie star’s fan club, etc. In some cultures it may include belonging to the proper tribe or family. They are trying to define who they are by how they look, what they drive and with whom they associate.
How are we supposed to receive our identity? I believe that God created us to receive our identity through having a relationship with another being. We are designed to become like the person with whom we become intimate. We receive our identity from whom we obtain our needs. God wants us to become intimate with Him in order to receive our identity from Him. He has taken up residence inside of us. If that does not give you identity, self-worth and dignity, then nothing will!
During the first century, the Romans dragged people from their homes and made them slaves. Families were forever separated, never again to see their parents, children, brothers, sisters or spouses. Most likely the women and men were raped and beaten. They completely lost their identity.
From the slave's point of view his life was now different. He had no identity of his own; he was a non-person. The only thing that he had left was what he could do in his work. The only scale or measure of who he was now was the way he performed his task. If his master looked at him with pleasure because his task was done well, he could feel some self-esteem. Even if another slave admired his work, or perhaps someone else up the ladder of authority gave him one compliment, one measure of “well done,” he could feel good about himself.
His life was now a formula. (How I perform) + (how you feel about my performance) = (my self-worth).
The human being was created by God to obtain his worth from God's unconditional love. Now exactly the opposite has happened; humans feel like all love is totally conditioned upon how they perform, and worse, how their masters feel about their performance.
Slaves are “men-pleasers” (Ephesians 6:5). They are constantly trying to get the applause and approval of other people. Their work has no other meaning. If their boss, their parents or teachers are pleased with their work, they feel good about their self worth; if not, they feel like “nothings.” They are always attempting to get friends who will give them their identity and self-worth.
Slaves work for “eye-service” (Ephesians 6:5). While they are being watched, they work hard, but as soon as their authorities turn their backs, they goof off. They hold in their resentment against their authority. They criticize them and bring them down all the time.
Slaves Complain. They always blame their problems on other people. In their minds, their horrible state of being is always somebody else's fault.
Some slaves become very good at manipulation. They learn how to please and even “love” others, so that they will be “loved back.”
Slaves do not like obeying authority. They have learned that authority is bad; they hate their authorities.
Slaves have no authority so they are always manipulating others in order to serve their own needs. Some slaves use their sheer brute force, like shouting and screaming in order to get others to conform.
Slaves have no self-esteem so they use other people, religion, amusement and immorality, which are some of the same things the Israelites used in the desert to achieve some sense of self worth.
Now let us go back to the story of the Israelites.
God was trying to work the slavery mindset out of them by their journey in the desert. Only two of the original group made it, Joshua and Caleb. The only other ones who made it to the Promised Land were the children of the original slaves. Perhaps they did not have so much of the “old slave life” to try to forget.
Why did Joshua and Caleb make it? If you read the accounts in Exodus and especially in Numbers, both of these men spent a lot of time with God. They spent a great deal of time outside the Tent of Meeting where the presence of God abided while the others went about their earthly interests.
It is the same with you today. If you spend more time with entertainment and with minding the things of the world than you do with God and His Word, you too will remain as a slave.
Joshua and Caleb determined to believe what God had said. They did not consider final truth to be what they saw with their eyes. Final truth to them was what God had said.
In Numbers chapter 13, Joshua, Caleb, and ten others went into the Promised Land on a spying expedition.
“Send men so that they may search the
Notice God told Moses that He had given this land to the sons of
Twelve spies went in. Ten gave a bad report. “But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there” (Numbers 13:28).
“Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, ‘We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.’ But the men who had gone up with him said, ‘We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are’” (Numbers 13:30,31).
“We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them” (Numbers 13:33).
Seeming like they were grasshoppers to their enemy was part of the slavery mindset. Ten of the spies looked at their enemies, two of the spies looked at God’s Word!
If we know that it is God’s will for us to be free, then we need to know what we need to do in order to cooperate with Him so that the task can be accomplished. Remember that we do have a free will. God will never impose His blessings on us. He must see that we are willing to receive and to give up those things that are hindering us. God will not set us free from our friends, but only from our enemies. If we are holding on to old slavery based habits as something that we like and enjoy, God cannot help us get free.
Sometimes God instantly sets new believers free from demonic situations. I don’t know why He does some this way and others have to take the long road. It seems like it has nothing at all to do with the person being set free; it is simply God’s plan for each individual.
Sometimes it is a combination of both. All I can say is, you should be prepared to let God have His way in your life.
Sometimes we have strongholds that are demonic and sometimes the strongholds are in our “flesh,” or patterns of our old nature. Galatians 3:13 tells us that Jesus took our curse for us so that we could go free. However, we need the knowledge and the will to cooperate with God.
A stronghold is fortress of false knowledge that is believed on as truth. How strongholds get a foothold in your life:
a. Your sin. All sins give demons a foothold, but one of the worst is sexual sin. Sexual acts bind two people together spiritually in a very unique way.
b. Generational sin. Demons follow families for generations, and gain the right to put the same diseases and curses on them (the law of inheritance). Demonic religions are based upon worship of ancestral spirits in order to perpetuate curses and control of families. They convince people, even Christians, that they must pay a price to a witch doctor or a spirit for protection and blessings. Some even purchase items and drinks as a way to receive protection and blessings. These people believe that by contacting and being in touch with the spirit of their ancestors they will be blessed and have protection from evil. Actually, just the opposite happens. They become prisoners to Satan, the enemy of their soul!
Most festivals like Mardi Gras in
c. Sin in the world. This world is full of sin, which promotes demon activity.
d. Weights, or oppression you might receive from someone else. A very common tactic used by demons is to sexually abuse a young person and thus gain entry for the rest of his/her life. A weight is not a sin you performed, rather it is oppression against you by someone else’s sin.
e. Through an idol in your life. Many religions are based upon the spirit world. They believe that objects such as stones, rivers, trees, etc., contain living spirits. They fear and thus worship these spirits so that they will meet their needs in life. An idol can be anything that you make more important than God. It can be a person, a habit, a custom, even a Christian denomination. An idol is anything or anyone in your life to whom you go for your needs other than God. You worship whoever or whatever supplies your needs. It is an act of your own free will.
f. Rebellion against authority. If a person does not submit to Jesus as Lord, that person, by default, will be under the control of some other being. Eve was deceived by Satan, and she deceived Adam. Adam should have taken dominion over Satan but he did not. Eve, in effect, took inordinate authority and Adam did not exercise his ordained authority. The original sin demonstrates how authority and sin are tied together. Obviously, they both should have submitted to the authority of God’s Word (the Tree of Life).
g. Christians can be vulnerable (some disagree with this). If we are influenced by demons before coming to Jesus, there could be a period of time before we receive deliverance. Some never do receive deliverance based upon the fact that they do not wish to totally yield. Obviously, a Christian cannot be “possessed” by a demon, but they sure can be influenced. It does not matter if we use the term possessed, influenced, oppressed or whatever. What matters is that we know how to get rid of demonic activities in our lives!
These Scriptures show that we are still vulnerable even after we believe. “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons” (1 Timothy 4:1). “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). “But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough” (2 Corinthians 11:3,4).
Some say that the blood of Jesus protects Christians. Yes and no. The blood protects us when we are obedient Christians. We cannot presume God’s protection if we are living in disobedience. “...who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance” (1 Peter 1:2). Christians do need deliverance. I have personally been involved with some absolutely amazing demonic deliverance that resulted in Christians being healed and set free! This is not doctrine but it is factual testimony.
The Scriptures show us a process that God often uses for getting us free. If you look at Isaiah Chapter 61 that Jesus was quoting in Luke 4:18-19, you will see His mission statement expressed. “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD” (Luke 4:18,19).
Here is how Jesus often starts the process.
He heals your broken heart. He knows that when you come to Him that you have been most likely beaten up by the world, and have received some type of heartbreak. It may be in a relationship, a career, or whatever. He gently heals this through His Holy Spirit.
He speaks (proclaims) a word of liberty into your life. God normally deals through His Word and through a promise.
He gives you eyes to see Him, to see what kind of condition you are in or have been in. You always need to make the choice. He will not set you free from your friends, just your enemies.
Then He gives you liberty from your captivity. God’s ways of setting us free are amazing. He has and uses many different ways. I can personally testify that He does indeed do it!
Isaiah 61 continues with more, including giving you joy, making you an “oak of righteousness,” rebuilding your personality and character, providing for your material needs, and putting you into ministry for Him to reach out to your realm of influence.
How can you cooperate with God?
Here is what Jesus said about getting free. “Then Jesus said to the Jews who believed on Him, If you continue in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31,32).
First you must continue in His Word. The word “continue” is a strong word. It means to settle down, abide, and make our home in His Word. It does not mean to look at His Word once a week or even five minutes a day, it means to sustain your very life by His Word. “But He answered and said, It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:4).
The word used in this Scripture for “word” is “rhema.” Rhema means a personal Word spoken from Jesus to you. You must invest time with God to receive His rhema.
Next you must be committed to being Jesus’ disciple. That means to be so united to Him that He is your teacher in everything. It means that you drop your pride and allow God, who knows you better than you know yourself, to have His way with you. He also loves you more than you love yourself. When you are going through discipline with the Lord, remember He is doing it because He loves you.
The result will be that we will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. “Jesus said to him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but by Me” (John 14:6). Knowing Jesus is knowing the Truth. Having a personal, close, intimate relationship with Him is the only thing that will really make you free.
God may use many methods of delivering this freedom to you. He may cause demons to be cast out of you, or out of the influence of your life. Or He may take you through a long process of getting free through pouring the Word into your life.
My own personal experience has been one of displacement. I continually pour the Word into my vessel, and everything that is not of God comes out, including demons. Matthew 8:16 is an example of Jesus casting out demons with His Word. It says, “And evening coming on, they brought to Him many who had been possessed with demons. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick.”
We are responsible for becoming slaves to various things and people (excepting of course those issues that have to do with our childhood). We become slaves to whomever or to whatever we yield. Only we can exercise our own will (volition) in yielding. The cure is to begin to yield to Jesus in obedience to His Word, and by doing so you will become His bond-slave. In that, and that alone, will you find perfect liberty and freedom.
“Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey-- whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?” (Romans 6:16).
Be honest. Confess your sin. Practice honesty and truth at all cost. When you lie, you make Satan your father.
Renounce any contact you have had with anything demonic: music, porno, TV, movies, drugs, alcohol, occult, horoscope, Quija boards, fortune telling, card games, etc.
Renounce any relationship to family ties that may be used to pass down curses. You can be courteous to family without receiving their curses.
Stay close to Jesus through prayer, His Word, selective friends and church groups. Keep your mind filled with Godly things. The mind is the battlefield.
Be open for whatever ways God wants to deliver you. Desire to be free and don’t limit God. He has many ways to set you free. His mission is to set you free (Luke 4).
Forgive. This is the big one! Here is a principle that is too often overlooked. Jesus taught it this way:
“Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). This can be interpreted, “forgive us in the same measure as we have given forgiveness to those who have sinned against us.”
“For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:14,15).
It’s not that God does not want to forgive you, He will not override your own will. Holding in bitterness and resentment towards another person hurts us. We bind that sin to ourselves, and that will destroy us. The wages of sin is death. What we need is the free gift of God, which is forgiveness.
So many people are tormented their entire lives because they will not forgive. Sickness, disease, poverty and many other maladies have been instantly healed when forgiveness is accomplished.
Forgiveness is not a feeling; it is an act of the will. The root word for forgive carries the meaning to cut away or remove.
When someone really hurts me and even uses treacherous means to take advantage of me, it does not feel good. The first thing I want to do is to expose them and to see justice accomplished. However, I know that is not how God works. I then recall the meaning of forgive; to cut away. So I say with my mouth, “Lord, I forgive so and so. I take his sin off of him and put it onto You.” You see, without Jesus, we cannot forgive because He is the only one who can take anybody’s sin. He is the only way we can forgive.
If you will do this with everyone in your life, The Holy Spirit will fill you in a mighty way, and you will unlock the hands of God to work on your behalf. You will be set free from things you didn’t even know existed.
Prayer for deliverance.
“Lord Jesus Christ, I confess that you are my Lord.”
1. Personally affirm your faith in Christ. “Lord Jesus Christ, I believe that You are the Son of God and the only way to God - that you died on the Cross for my sins and rose again so that I might be forgiven and receive eternal life.”
2. Humble yourself. “I renounce all pride and religious self-righteousness and any dignity that does not come from You. I have no claim on Your mercy except that you died in my place.”
3. Confess any known sin. “I confess all my sins before You and hold nothing back.” Now list and confess them.
4. Repent of all sins. “I repent of all my sins. I turn away from them and I turn to You, Lord, for mercy and forgiveness.”
5. Forgive all other people. “By a decision of my will, I freely forgive all who have ever harmed or wronged me. I lay down all bitterness, all resentment and all hatred.” Now list and confess them.
6. Break with the occult and all false religion. “I sever all contact I have ever had with the occult or with all false religion. I renounce all the works of the devil, Satan, and other evil spirits in my life. I confess and renounce all my occult practices and sins as abominations before You, a Holy and righteous God. I renounce any occult influence from my forefathers.” Now list and confess them.
7. Prepare to be released from every curse over your life. “Lord Jesus, I thank You that on the Cross You were made a curse, that I might be redeemed from every curse and inherit God’s blessing. I renounce every curse from my forefathers. On that basis I ask You to release me and set me free to receive the deliverance I need.”
8. Take your stand with God. “I take my stand with You, Lord, against all Satan’s demons. I submit to You, Lord, and I resist the devil. Amen!
9. Expel. “Now I speak to any demons that have control over me.” Speak directly to them. “I command you to go from me now. In the name of Jesus, I expel you! I pray that any evil power or ability I may possess, or which have oppressed or possessed me, be completely destroyed or removed from me. I commit myself, my body, my mind, my personality, my emotions, my whole being to the Lord Jesus Christ to be my Lord and savior. I pray this in the mighty Name of Jesus, believing I am delivered.”
It is important to have Godly counseling during and after deliverance.
Be real with God.
Now listen for His voice.
“Hello there, my Name is Jesus. I love you.”
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