As new believers, one of the main things we all need to learn and practice is trust. And related to trust…like the other side of the coin is surrender. Say you have a sin that’s really hard for you to give up – drinking, pornography, overeating, anger, cursing – to name a few. It can be anything. We confess, we try and struggle, but keep failing in these areas. We feel embarrassed to come before God in prayer knowing we’re failing in these areas. These tough areas to conquer are called strongholds. The enemy may have some legal grounds to stay in your life in these areas. But remember, nothing is impossible with our God. Even longtime drug and alcohol addictions! Nothing is impossible!
Keep going into your prayer closet. Get alone with God. He already knows everything we’ve done. He loves us so much that He died for us, don’t forget! He yearns after us. He wants to heal and set us free. But we have to let Him. Everyday. Go before Him on your face if it feels right (I do that a lot) and confess it. Talk to Him about it. Cry if you feel like it. Never, ever give up. Pray for your deliverance from this sin and tell God you hate it and know it hurts Him. Tell Him you don’t want it anymore. Do this as many times as you have to. What you don’t know is – every time you do confess and pray about it – He’s healing you, breaking strongholds, restoring you, working in you! He doesn’t expect us to run before we can walk, or walk before we can crawl. Don’t withdrawal from Jesus, but run into His arms. Let Him wash you and heal you. If it takes 100x or 1000x – do it! He will never give up on you or condemn you. Only welcome you with loving arms so very tenderly. Trust Him to love you more than you love yourself.
Sometimes Jesus comes and miraculously lifts that problem, addiction, weakness, whatever, right out of you…suddenly…gloriously. There are many testimonies of Jesus delivering drug addicts in a moment, like the powerful story of Cody Bates. He recently wrote a book about his life before and after Christ stepped in, titled The Devil’s Pupil. He was in the act of suicide when Jesus came to him and changed everything. There is a great video of his testimony on Sheila Zilinsky’s YouTube channel as well, dated 10/5/2018.
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The Devil's Pupil -The Cody Bates Story
Other times God will take you on a slow process of restoration. That is how it was with me. I had picked up a bad habit of drinking too much wine. If I had a glass I had to have two more. And that was most nights of the week. The habit started during the worst years of my first marriage. The abuse was horrendous and frightening. I had four children and no where to go. Nights were the worst. I often hid in other parts of the house for hours until it was safe to go to bed. At the peak of it all I had to live in a locked room, bolted from the inside. My only relief was the wine. Unfortunately, years later when God made a way for me to get out, I still had the bad habit. Jesus took it out of my life little by little until today I only have 6-8 ounces at a time, watered down, and I don’t want any more. And only on special occasions. That is a true miracle!
The next thing you can do to help break these strongholds in your life is spiritual warfare. You need to learn how to do self-deliverance. In these days it is very difficult to find a church or ministry that understands how to do deliverance, and do it correctly. It’s not something to play with or take lightly! But you have Jesus’ authority as a believer over all the power of the enemy. Read Luke10:19. You can take charge over the enemy in your body, mind, soul, spirit and emotions. Let me give out a strong warning here. Do not attempt self-deliverance unless you know you are truly born again, and you have searched your heart, mind and life as well as asked the Holy Spirit to bring to your mind every sin you may have forgotten. You have confessed before the Lord every sin and asked for the washing of the blood of Jesus over you and your life. Ask Jesus to cover your family and pets, home and finances and everything else the Holy Spirit brings to your mind with the blood of Jesus to protect from retaliation. You can directly address any spirits that would attempt retaliation and backlash by binding them and casting them out in the name of Jesus, past, present and future. More on this below. The main point here is you want to be as clean and transparent before God, and as holy as the precious blood of Jesus will make you…which is 100% if you have been totally honest before God of every sin you’re remotely aware of, as far back as you can remember. Don’t try to justify anything! Get brutally humble and confess everything you remember. The Holy Spirit will show you if you ask Him. OK, now it’s time to get bold, trust in the Holy Spirit to lead and guide you in this. Stay in His peace, listen for His ‘checks’ in your spirit where He is warning you not to go or say something at this time. But don’t be afraid! God has you. Trust in Him. Lean on Him. Your authority in Jesus is awesome compared to that of the enemy!
Let’s keep it simple. After you’ve confessed all your known sin in your prayer closet and had prayer – communion with the Lord - and asked, in Jesus name, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and by faith received His filling; ask Him to take charge of you in your body, mind, spirit – every part of you. Then by faith, you choose to believe you are now forgiven (1 John 1:9) and filled with the Holy Spirit (1 John 5:14, Ephesians 5:18). Ask the Father to cover you with Jesus blood. By faith, put on the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:13). Remember, none of this is by your feelings or emotions – you’re basing everything now on the Word of God.
Ask the Father to surround you with a sphere of angels standing shoulder to shoulder to guard and protect that no evil may penetrate. Now you’re ready. Now you address the enemy out loud with the authority you’ve been given in Jesus’ name. Let’s take for example the stronghold of alcohol. In God’s eyes you’ve already been set free and delivered through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. That’s truth! We’re standing on that! Wearing your armor, filled with the Spirit, you take your stand with authority. First you bind, then you cast out. “In Jesus name I bind every spirit not of the Lord Jesus Christ trying to influence me and lie to me. In Jesus name I bind all you spirits of addiction, addiction to alcohol, condemnation, failure, etc.” as the Holy Spirit leads you. He will help you and put ideas and words in your mind as you do this. Listen with your spirit for His words to say. Trust Him. You can and should make a written list ahead of time if necessary, when addressing many sins and activities, alliances, etc that opened doors for demons to come into your life. Then I would bind the strongman of alchohol addiction. Say, “In Jesus name, I bind you strongman of addiction in me and my life, and all your related spirits! I now break your power off me and my life in Jesus’ name! Now, in Jesus' name I cast you out to the feet of Jesus for your destiny! In Jesus’ name, I break all generational curses for drinking, alcohol addiction and every related sin coming down to me from both sides of my family, father and mother, all the way back to Adam and Eve. I bind and break off all generational curses coming to me through illicit sexual relationships I’ve had. I bind and break off generational curses from marriage partners and their ancestors all the way back to Adam and Eve. I bind and break all familiar spirits coming down to me through every ancestor and blood tie and soul tie that I have. I now cut off these evil blood ties and soul ties in Jesus’ name! I bind and break your power in my life in Jesus’ name, and I cast you all out to the feet of Jesus! Go right now, in Jesus’ name! Father God, please fill every empty space that was just vacated with your Holy Spirit!
I now bind all your reinforcements, moles, gang members, retribution, retaliation and backlash spirits, past, present and future from my life and my family’s lives, even my pets, finances and property. I cast you out to the feet of Jesus for your destiny, away from me and mine, past, present and future in Jesus' name. In Jesus’ name I forbid you to come back!
Now, praise God! Rejoice in your deliverance! You can say, “I seal my deliverance in the blood of Jesus and the Holy Spirit! Thank you, Lord!” Believe it, accept it. Expect to see great changes in your life for the better. After I did one of my first self-deliverances, I had the most amazing result! A fear of heights had come upon me in my adult years. I used to enjoy climbing high up in trees when I was young. But later I wouldn’t even climb a ladder. Much to my surprise, I had to reach something in the high cabinets of my kitchen that same day. I climbed up on the granite counter and stood to my full height and reached the item I needed! I was totally free of my fear of heights and still am today! Thank You, Jesus!
You are going to accept by faith that you are seated with Jesus at the Father’s right hand in the heavenlies. As His child and heir, no demon has any right to mess with you, anymore! You won’t tolerate it! Keep making this spiritual warfare part of your prayer life now. We have clear instruction to do this in God’s Word. Don’t rush. Do a thorough job. You can break up self-deliverance into as many sessions as you need. If the Holy Spirit tells you to get rid of certain things in your possession, do it. This could be books, artwork, nicknacks, gifts, photos and letters from old lovers (if you are married you should do this anyway), etc. This is very important! If something keeps popping up in your mind…get rid of it even if you don’t want to or don’t fully understand why. Often it will be something you really like. The devil makes sure of that. Don’t go by feelings.
This also applies to other things in your life like TV shows, groups of people, hobbies, whatever the Holy Spirit puts His finger on. This is the surrender part of the coin. Surrender your whole life to Jesus. There is no halfway walk with the Lord. Now it may take time – God will never overwhelm you or stress you. As a new believer, you are taking baby steps, but you need to take them! You can repeat your self-deliverance as many times as necessary. Each time you will win back more ground in your life and become stronger. Address all the things the Holy Spirit shows you over time. Don’t accept your sins and mistakes in these strongholds as your being a loser! No! The enemy will try to come back and regain his territory over and over. Just keep doing it and having done all - STAND! (Ephesians 6:10-18)
Be patient and gentle with yourself, because Jesus is! Lean back on your Lord in His loving arms and accept His victory over all sin in your life. Ask for His divine strength and you’ll be amazed! He never will grow tired of giving you the victory. A year from now you won’t even believe how far you’ve come!
For prayer and help with deliverance please reach out to:
Dr. Erica Shepherd (teaching live on BlogTalkRadio at 6am every day but Sunday and on Omegaman Radio channel on YouTube)
www.Tedline.com
848-782-7788
Listen to Omegaman Radio to learn more about deliverance!
Remember Mark 16:17 where Jesus said, “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”
I also recommend to my students the book, Blessing or Curse You Can Choose by Derek Prince. Part of deliverance is breaking off curses from your life. It is important to understand curses and generational curses…how they work and how to get rid of them.
LISTEN TO THE MATCHING PODCAST ON SELF-DELIVERANCE ON https://anchor.fm/spiritwithus/episodes/Self-deliverance-e2ctss/a-a5qjll
