II Cor. 10:4-5 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
Getting to God's promises for you is not arriving at a place. It is experiencing everything that has proceeded out of the mouth of God on your behalf.
Remember that anything that we do outside of the Spirit of God is bondage. There are some symptoms of the spirit of bondage. These are how you know you are operating outside of the Spirit of God.
The first is the spirit of fear.
I Timothy 1:7
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
When you fear and worry it is a symptom that you have not turned everything over to the Lord. You are relying on your limited thoughts and your limited resources. When you give all to the Lord you don't worry about how bills are going to be paid or how you are going to make it from day to day. God will supply all of our needs according to His riches in glory.
Matthew 6:25-29
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
As Minister Tina Johnson shared with us, it is God's good pleasure to take care of the needs of His children. It is now time to mature in Christ to the place where you know that His plans for you are for good and not for evil to give you a hope and a future. Know that He desires to be the head of your life that when you submit even the very smallest care to Him that He will give you power to stand and to overcome. Do not be overcome by fear, but rather overcome fear by trusting in the one who supplies all of our needs.
We have to be delivered from fear so that we can operate in faith.
The second symptom of the Spirit of Bondage is addiction. People mistakenly believe that they can only be addicted to sex, drugs, alcohol. However, you can be addicted to yourself. Addiction is preferring anything that is common or carnal over God.
Know that there is a difference between deliverance and spiritual warfare. Deliverance is dealing with demonic bondage and getting a person set free from that. This is the process of becoming spiritually whole. Deliverance is needed when a person is already bound. We have all needed to be delivered from something.
Spiritual warfare is resisting the Devil and overcoming attacks. When you overcome an attack it is less likely that you can be caught up in that situation again because you have conquered it through Christ. Spiritual warfare is fighting against a thing so that you don't revert. You gain spiritual tools and weapons that assist you with resisting and overcoming temptation. When you overcome you can identify the issue and you now have the credibility to testify and help someone else to overcome.
The Word of God comes to complete us. It comes to develop us. It comes to mature us. When we apply the Word to our lives we grow, change and become like Christ.
You cannot be whole in what God has called you to do when you are in bondage to something. There are spiritual connections that keep us from operating in God's will. We become bound by the results of our sin and sometimes that bondage can have long lasting affects that keep us from completing God's purpose for our lives because that bondage brings condemnation, torment and self loathing. In order to reach God's purpose after being bogged down in bondage, we have to overcome the root and the subsequent consequences of our sin.
Be very careful not to get caught up in pornography, too many relationships, the wrong relationships etc. These are the ties that bind us down and keep us from reaching our purpose. There are things that have happened to us in the past that keep us broken.
We need to get to the place where we are a spiritual force to be reckoned with.
The enemy has three weapons:
Deception: makes another person think or believe a lie. No one in the world should have more power over you than God. No one should have you thinking something that is in contrast to God's promises for you. If they do, you have been deceived--even when it is yourself. There is no issue or place that should have more power over you than God. Eph. 6:11 tells us to put on the whole armor so that we can stand against the whiles or methods of the devil.
Get from around where the enemy is trying to deceive you! That's how you resist. Don't go to the same places and hang with the same people. Beware when your sinful routine has become your norm. It is okay to be uncomfortable if that means changing who you hang around with when those people do not speak life and want the will of God to be completed in you.
Temptation: The enemy will dangle a worm in front of you. That worm is always something you want. He has been dealing with humans long enough to know what works. Don't fall for the worm. Let the devil know that you are not ignorant of his devices and that you see the hook. Because it is the hook that gets us caught up. The enemy wants to keep you in bondage by tempting you to do things that he knows will have you in regret, condemnation and fear. We have to learn to resist the enemy. The Bible says that if we resist him he will flee. What we fail to realize is that even though he flees he always comes back so we have to wage a constant and consistent battle.
The enemy is an accuser: he wants you to feel like you are not qualified to do the will of God. See that mess for what it is. It is simply condemnation. The Bible says there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. So while you may have used to do something or used to have a certain reputation, just like Saul turning to Paul when you are in Christ you are a new creature. You are called according to His purpose and no devil in hell can change that for your life. Do not allow the enemy to move you out of position by bringing up your past. Let the devil know that Jesus erased the evidence!
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