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Curses and How to Deal with Them (4 of 5)
Sat 7 Jul 2012 PM Baycity Outreach Center, Hastings, NZ
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For people who have a spiritual world view, blessing and cursing are a great reality. Blessing means there's a flow of spiritual power that brings favour around my life; cursing means there is a flow of spiritual power that obstructs and frustrates and sets me back continually. This session will help you identify when a curse is operating, and how to go about addressing it. This includes a range of heart issues that give legal rights to demons. Jesus came to set us free!
Welcome Back. So how many in the last session, you had a list of a few things that you realised oh,that's me there, that's me there? How many found some things came to mind, thought that's quite good. Good to just ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you; Lord, show me where I'm needing to be set free, where do I first need to break out, and what's there. So as things come up, jot them down, things the Holy Spirit speaks to you about. As things come up, or you have a question, jot that down so you can remember later on, say well I need to get some information about that.
Okay, we want to just look in the next session, I just want to look at the area of curses, and what they are and how to deal with them, recognising curses. For people who have a spiritual world view, blessing and curses are a great reality. Blessing means, there's a flow of spiritual power that brings favour around my life; cursing means, there is a flow of spiritual power that obstructs and frustrates and sets me back continually, and so we want to identify what curses are, and just look at how we would recognise them, what we would look for, and then how you would actually go about addressing it.
So in Deuteronomy 28 the Bible talks about blessings and cursings. Now there's a huge difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament, how God has dealt with us. Now we are blessed. We are a blessed people. However, there may be evidences of old things still operating, which have legal rights that need to be cancelled and addressed, so in Deuteronomy 28 it lists out the blessings of obedience, it lists out cursings that come from disobedience, so moreover all these curses shall come upon you, pursue you, and overtake you, until you're destroyed. Now notice about curses, they're spoken of as though they're something living. Notice it uses the words: they will come on you, and so we you don't expect it but there it is, they'll pursue you. It's like you can't run away from it, and they'll overtake you. So when God is describing the nature of a curse, there is clearly a spiritual force, a demonic power operating behind, that comes on you and pursues you, overtakes you, and has negative or destructive forces.
So 'curses come on people' means they just turn up. You've got no idea where they came from, there's no apparent reason, but there is always a reason. Curses tend to pursue people, so wherever you go, you are, you're there, so therefore, that's where the curse will be, where you are. It's attached to you, so that's why it runs after you. Curses overtake people, and tend to overcome them, so key aspects of a curse is that the curse can impact not only an individual, but also a family itself generationally, and also a larger group like a whole tribe can have a particular cursing operating around them. Groups, organisations can have a curse running around them. I recently had the opportunity to speak into a movement of churches in New Zealand, and the Lord gave me insight that enabled us to establish a pattern, that was destructive within the movement, that had gone on and pursued it all these years.
When I shared with them what I could see and what I knew, the Holy Ghost came on them, and they began to break down and weep. Since that time they've worked systematically to address all those issues, and now God's just suddenly brought a blessing, an increase, and what they've tried to do for years has now started to come about, started to come into existence - to the extent where I'm astonished really. I don't want to identify what movement it is, but it's a movement of churches in our own nation, and within the roots of it, there was a pattern that had continued and persisted. They said after I'd shared with them, they looked into it even further, and they found it pervaded every aspect of their churches. Isn't that extraordinary? Once they brought it to the Lord, as a leadership, and dealt with it and then addressed it and put everything right, it's immediately everything has started to come into place for them. Quite extraordinary - I'm still stunned and trying to get a hold of the significance of all of that.
So curses can affect whole groups of people, and a curse, when it's operating, allows demons to operate. The power behind a curse is a demonic spirit, so we tend to think of cursing as someone swearing, but those who have a spiritual world view, what they're looking at is the demonic realm having a legal access, a legal right to come, and create havoc and destruction. So how would you know if some kind of curse, or some demonic power was operating? What would you look for? You'd be looking for something that shows up in lifestyles, it shows up in behaviours, you're looking at something that would show up in repeated patterns, so the keys to finding these are found in Deuteronomy 28. It starts off there of course, in Verse 45; all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes.
Now if you go through there in Deuteronomy 28, and the verses in Deuteronomy 28 from Verse 15 through almost to Verse 45, it lists in detail what curses look like when they're operating, and so I've broken them down into a number of headings so you could identify them, and I've put the scripture reference there. They're pretty well all found in Deuteronomy 28. So firstly there's mental and emotional breakdown, so if there's a pattern in your family of mental or emotional breakdowns, there's almost certainly some spiritual power at work. If there's just one person, well there'd be something in that one person, but if there's several in the same family line, then there's obviously something has got an inroad in, so repeated patterns of mental or emotional breakdown. A second one is chronic disease or sickness. By chronic I mean it keeps repeating, it keeps repeating. The Lord will make pestilence cling to you until He's consumed you. He'll bring back to you all the sicknesses of Egypt, which you're afraid of, and they shall cling to you - so repeated cycles of sickness or disease, family sickness that can't be healed.
So we found in our family that, for example, one of my daughters had a particular skin condition that wouldn't go away, and it just persisted. We prayed and prayed and prayed, couldn't get rid of it, then she was just listening to the Lord, and He showed her how that one, it was rooted in anxiety, which is a family generational spirit, and also how she'd taken on responsibility for the rest of the family, when they were quite young. When she let all of that go, overnight the eczema all vanished. It was quite sudden, so there was clearly a spirit that was behind the sickness and infirmity.
Another one is history of women with problems with their womb, barrenness, they can't conceive at all; or miscarriages, they continually miscarry, have several miscarriages; or fertility problems or bleeding problems. These are often indication that there's some form of cursing is operating, and so it says cursed is the fruit of your body. Hosea talks in Hosea 9:14, that idolatry results in miscarriages, you've just cast off the fruit of your womb, so if you have a family, and you know that there's some form of regular and repeated problems that women have, there's almost certainly some form of cursing operating, and there can be many causes of the curse. We've got to find the root cause.
A fourth one is marriage and family breakdowns. If there's repeated patterns of marriage or family breakdowns, so they can never build marriage, it's like something is destroying marriage, something is destroying families, that often indicates that there's a curse operating - constant quarrelling and fighting, breakdowns - but it's the pattern of it. It's not just confined to one, it's actually in a family line. That's how we can see that it's generational, and it's a cursing of some kind. Another one is financial setbacks, where constantly there are setbacks, so the person's managing money the best they can, but no matter what they do, they keep getting these setbacks just when they should prosper. It could be constant lay-offs at work, harassment in the workplace, constant problems with housing, foreclosure on housing, problems with landlords. It's almost like everything around the provisional area of their life just keeps going wrong and toxic. Often there's a cursing around there.
Accident proneness - have you ever noticed some people are accident prone? If there's a history of it in your family then it's generational, and also there's an element or an area of it which is related to some curse, some demonic power. Freak accidents, regular car accidents, lots of broken limbs; these can indicate there's some hidden kind of curse operating, some spirit is operating. Remember the power of a curse is a spirit, the power of blessing is the Holy Spirit. A history of suicides or premature violent death, so if you look into your family background ,and you start to notice then that there are premature deaths or suicides, if there's more than one there's some kind of curses operating in the family, there's some kind of demonic power. Patterns of mistreatment and abuse, they also indicate that physical abuse, abusive relationships, those patterns are in the family, it would indicate: one, there's a cursing operating that needs to be broken; two, there are family patterns and habits that need to be changed.
Another one which I noticed in Genesis 4:11 was the inability to settle down, like being a gypsy. The person can never form roots, they're there for just a little while and then they just up, and for some reason when they've just been there long enough to start to prosper, suddenly they're up and we're shifting. There's no apparent reason, there's no work reason, it's just the person has got restless and feel like I need to move on, I need to move on.
That can be - remember that Cain was cursed that he would be a fugitive and a vagabond. He would never settle. He would just continually move and travel around, so that's evidence of a cursing too. I have come across people, and it's like they could never settle anywhere. They'd just be there for a while and then, I've got to go. Now it could be it's in the family pattern, that their own pattern in their background was one of shifting from one place to another, and everyone learned not to make friends - but always look for some spiritual roots before trying to just solve problems. Look for some spiritual roots behind it. So there's always a cause for a curse. If there's a curse operating in a family, or in a personal life, there's always a reason for it. Think that, there's always a reason. That's what it says in Proverbs 26, Verse 2; Like a flying sparrow or a flying swallow, so a curse without a cause shall not fall. What he's saying is: if there's a curse, there's a cause. If something bad is there, there's a reason it's there. Find out the reason, and then you can deal with the curse.
So let's have a look what some of the possible causes of a curse. Now first, before we go there, how many of you can recognise maybe even in your own family that you've got one of those patterns operating? Whoa, look at that. Wow, we may have to have a ministry time, could be exciting. [Laughter] Could be very exciting. We'll save it up for after lunch. You've had the demons a long time now, so a little bit longer won't matter. [Laughter] We'll deal with them soon, so that'll be fun won't it. So how many recognise more than one pattern that's running through your family line? Wow, that's a whole number of you, okay, great. Well it'll be great for us to get into it after lunch then aye? It'll be good to do that.
So what are some of the causes for it? Well I've tried to find, and actually there seems like there's a variety of causes, and the Holy Spirit's got to bring them to the surface, so one of the most obvious ones is Idolatry. Everywhere there's practising idolatry, curses are inevitable, so what you'll often find when you're in a culture of idolatry, sickness abounds. Sickness abounds, idolatry, sickness abounds everywhere there's idolatry. The second thing is a cause, or root cause, is occult practices. You get involved with the occult, you're involved with demons, sickness and cursing is inevitable. Now here's one I found is people don't recognise; dishonouring your parents. Dishonouring your parents opens the door for cursing, for example in Ephesians, Chapter 6; honour your father and mother, that you may live long, it may go well with you. Now notice the consequence of honour is health, and prospering in your life, so that implies that the consequence of dishonour is sickness, and problems with health, short life, premature death, and problems throughout your life.
I have discovered of one of the biggest keys, for things working right in your life, is to ensure that you come to a place of resolving issues with your parents, and you come to a place of peace in your hearth with their weaknesses, and their failures, and their lacks. You come to freedom to honour them, and be appreciative of who they are. Now all parents make mistakes, all parents have their flaws and their issues, but God doesn't worry too much about that. He says: how you respond is really important - so honour, that it may go well with you. Throughout the Bible, I can show you many scriptures, it's very, very clear that when the dishonour of parents, there are demonic problems comes up. It says the one that dishonours his father and despises his mother, it says: the ravens of the valley shall pick his eyes out. The ravens of the valley speak of demonic spirits, and to pick the eyes out means to cause you to become blind or in darkness so you can't see.
So a key cause of cursing is this impact of dishonouring your parents. If you want to prosper in life, bring resolution to the home conflicts, the home issues, the home things. That will require forgiveness and repentance, and a decision to bless instead of remaining bitter, so have a think about that one. If you find that you're avoiding parents, or your attention isn't around when you're with them, the chances are you've got something going on inside you that needs to be resolved. Another one, in Deuteronomy 27, is mistreating the people who are weak, or oppressing or treating people who are weak or sick in some kind of way, or handicapped in some kind of way. We don't like to use that word. We use the word disabled, but if a person's disabled and you mistreat them, the Bible says a curse comes on you. God is very concerned about justice, and the treatment of people who are poor, or who are afflicted in some kind of way. The Bible is full of that. It says he that disregards the cry of the poor, shall himself cry and not be heard, so God is very concerned about how our attitude towards justice, towards people who are handicapped, disabled, or in any kind of way impaired. We should watch that we don't dishonour, disrespect them, but treat them properly.
Unlawful sexual relationships we've already looked at. Violence and abuse brings a curse. You notice that families where there's violence, it is a generational thing, it just keeps on going. The pattern of violence just continues, one generation of cursing. It's alarmed me how abusive, verbally abusive, many of our native culture, the Maori people are to one another. The way I've heard some speaking to one another, they're actually literally cursing each other. No white person could say that without getting a huge severe reaction, but many seem to feel it's okay to speak that way to one another, and cursing one another is always going to end up with problems. So violence and abuse always brings cycles of cursing and demonic powers. Another one, which is very clearly outlined in Genesis 12 Verse 3, is anti-Semitism, or being anti the Jews, or acting in a way hostile or contrary to the Jewish people. The Bible says: those that bless Abraham and his family, those who bless him, will be blessed, those who curse him, will be cursed. So that's still in application that still is there. That's why we have to guard that we don't have an attitude or a negative thing towards the Jews in any kind of way.
Stealing and lying opens the way for a curse. Lying and stealing always go together; if you steal you'll cover, and you'll have to lie. In Zachariah 5, Verses 3 to 4, it tells that a curse will enter the house of the person who steals. It actually says a curse will enter in, it will fly into the house, so when there's stealing and lying going on, there's nothing you do prospers. Now it appears as though you prosper, but what you don't see, is what really goes on in the true riches, which are the relationships and the family building. Where there's stealing and lying going on, there's massive destruction and erosion, and sure, there may be some short term material advantage, but somehow it all turns to dust. There is a curse where there is stealing. That's why we want to operate in integrity in all our finances. We don't need cursing coming into our life. We don't want to break the laws that will involve demonic powers coming in, and plundering what God wants to bless us with.
Word curses are an evident one of course. Word curses are words spoken by authority figures, spoken by yourself, over yourself: well I'll never get anywhere, I'm a failure, I'll never get anywhere. Curses spoken by parents over their children can create huge problems because they activate demonic spirits. Sometimes, in some cultures, you'll have people arise to curse you, if you're working in missionary areas particularly. Sometimes people who operate in the occult will endeavour to curse you. The curse always has to have a reason to rest. I remember I was in a meeting in Indonesia, a fantastic meeting, and there were about 2000 people there, and three witch doctors came to have a confrontation. They wanted to stand up and strip the power off me, whatever power it was, and so they came in there all wound up to do it. I never even saw them, I just had a great meeting and people got delivered.
Then it turns out later that three of them had stood up to do their stuff, and the moment they stood to their feet, boom! The power of God hit them, they were just thrown on the ground and could not get up. They actually had to crawl out of the meeting [laughter], so the cursing did not rest, because there's flowing in the power of the spirit. Dave was able to whip round and catch one of them and confront them, and cast the demons out, one of them got saved. So cursed objects can create problems in your home, and we talked about that before. Deuteronomy 7, 34 to 35, says don't even bring them into your home, so we need to guard our home from having idols and focal points for demonic spirits, otherwise it can introduce sickness, turmoil, conflicts into the home. Of course the last one we have is generational iniquities.
So I've given a list that I've found. It's probably not an exhaustive list, there are probably others, but these are ones commonly that I have seen, or have come up when I've ministered to people, those various kinds of areas. So if you know that something is going wrong, and it keeps going wrong, there's got to be a reason, so what is the reason? When did it first start? Was it very young, was it in the family line? Has there been a pattern in the family line? Is it generational? Where has this thing come from? Let's track it down to its root; what is the potential cause? Was it idolatry, spiritism, whatever? The Holy Spirit, if we ask Him, can bring it to the surface, bring a memory, a picture, bring something up to the surface that brings to mind, this is what we think it might be. So how can people be set free from curses? It's not as difficult as it looks. Remember many of the curses are generational, but not all.
I remember talking to one young man, and he was in conflict with one of our leaders in our church, so I went to sit and talk with him to try and work it all out, and try to find out. Of course he had his whole reason for why he was in conflict with this leader and oh, it's okay. I said well, tell me about how you're getting on at the workplace? He said I've just shifted job. I said why did you shift job? He said I had a conflict with the boss. Oh really, what about your last work? Oh no, same thing happened there, and I said oh really? I said did you ever have a good job you liked? He said oh yeah and he told me the job he liked, so that was great. I said how did you get on with the boss there? Oh, well not too good actually, I fell out with him. Oh really, I said. Tell me, how did you get on at school? Oh, didn't do so good at school. I said what about the teachers, how did you get on with the teachers? No, I didn't get on with the teachers at all. Oh really? Now he's starting to see a pattern starting to develop now.
I said okay then, how about your dad, how did you get on with your dad and your mum? Oh, I didn't like my dad, kicked me out of home. I said really? He said well, it wasn't my real dad, he was my step-dad, I was adopted. I said oh really, how interesting, and I could see straight away that there is a common pattern in it all. There is a pattern of conflict and reaction to authority figures all the way through his life, and the root goes right back to him being rejected, and having bitterness and resentment against his father and mother for rejecting him. It projected against the adoptive parents, and then every authority figure in life, so whatever he put his hand to was cursed, it just would not prosper and go ahead. I've watched him make plan after plan after plan, and it would not prosper. It's like it was a great plan, yes, it should succeed, couldn't quite pull it off, something went wrong at the last minute. It was like there's no reason for it, but it happened, and in this case, the cursing went right back to the whole thing of being adopted, and the bitterness in the heart, the judgements against the father, and the spirits that had access to work while he didn't deal with the heart issue. Getting the idea?
Okay then, so how are we going to deal with freedom from cursing? We have to first identify - we have to find out what the curse is, and try to identify where it came from. Then I've found a very simple process is to take it step by step, it's very, very simple. You are dealing, when you're dealing with a curse, with a legal right. The demon as a right to be there. Remove the right, and the demon will go quite quickly. Remove the legal right. Now that's a crucial part of dealing with all of this stuff, is removing legal rights, removing the grounds the spirit claims it has, to be in the person's life. Now in Galatians 3, Verses 13 and 14, Christ has redeemed us from the curse. That means He's paid the full price for us to be free of cursings, He become a curse for us, for what? So we could be blessed. The blessing of Abraham come on us and on the gentiles through faith in Christ. There it is, Galatians 3, 13 and 14. Now God's intention is this, is that when you come to Christ, you are repositioned in a place of blessing.
In Ephesians 1, it tells us Verse 3, He has blessed us with every blessing in spiritual places, in heavenly places, so already you are blessed. You are in a place of blessing. You don't have to do something in order to get blessed, you are already, in identifying with Christ, blessed. What we do need to do though, many times, is to break legal rights that evil spirits have, which they still cling onto to afflict us, so how do we do that? I think number one, the person needs to recognise what the issue is. They need to recognise, this is what my problem is. They need to repent of any sin that they have done, that's opened the door to that, so repentance is a crucial part. If there's a cursing, we should speak it off our life; in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I renounce that curse, I cancel that curse, I cancel all agreements made with evil spirits. I renounce it in Jesus' name. It's not a hard thing to do, speak, and break this off your life. Make a stand, I belong to Christ, I cancel this thing over my life.
So our keys to freedom are: recognising there's a problem, standing up and identifying with Christ, repenting of the sin, renouncing the bondage, forgiving those who've hurt us, and claiming freedom in Christ. It's always the same pretty well for all areas of deliverance; recognise the problem, repent of any sin, renounce any cursings, release forgiveness, and receive forgiveness for what we've done, and then make a stand to resist. Later on we'll lead you through a prayer to make a stand around that area, and let's see what God will do. Remember what it is again; I need to recognise the problem and own responsibility, it's my problem. It won't go until I own it. Secondly, I need to come to the Lord, and acknowledge who He is and what He's done, and repent of any sin that gives this thing right to be there. Third, I need to release forgiveness to any who have hurt me, or opened the way for this cursing to come; four, to renounce the spirit, to renounce the bondage, in Jesus' name I renounce and cancel any bondage caused by this, any legal right, any legal ground established by this sin, and then resist the spirits; in Jesus' name, go from my life, I resist you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. So I'll lead you in a prayer a little later to do that. It's quite simple.
So that's the foundation. It's always the same foundations for freedom. You can move them around, change them a little, but it always seems to me to come down to the same thing; I need to identify with Christ, recognise the problem, identify with Christ, I need to come to a place of repentance, releasing forgiveness, receiving forgiveness, renouncing sin, renouncing the curses, and then resisting. It's always the same, and I've put it down in some words which are quite easy to remember: recognise, repent, renounce, release, receive and resist, quite simple things. Recognise the problem and take responsibility, repent of the sin that opened the door, renounce any cursing, release forgiveness and receive forgiveness, then resist all spirits that were involved - so that's how we do it. It's not very hard and in dealing with a person, or helping a person, you would just do a simple thing like that, lead them through a prayer to acknowledge Christ, confess the sin, renounce the sin, renounce the curse, release forgiveness and then claim freedom.
Our part is break the curse. It's not hard - in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I break that curse, I command that spirit to go in Jesus' name. It's not very hard that part of it, that's the easy part. The harder part is finding out what the root cause, what the root bondage is. Okay then, so sometimes there's a little bit of - we'll talk about how to do the process of deliverance this afternoon, the session after lunch, but it's helpful if you just understand, that for setting people free, I always see that there are several things are needed for it, so I'll just go through them again - to set a person free. Number one, they must recognise and take responsibility for their problem. They have to own it. If a person's blaming someone else, trying to find a reason someone else is to blame, they're never going to be free. You only have the power over what you own, and what you're responsible for, so the first place is recognition. If you recognise that you have a problem operating in your life now, don't be blaming anyone else. Say God, what is my part in this? What do I need to do to get free?
Sometimes people want to blame a parent. Well maybe a parent was a terrible parent - that doesn't mean we shouldn't honour them. God will hold them responsible for what they do. Your part is to create honour, and to have a right attitude, so number one, I get them to face and own responsibility for what they have done; number two, I get the person - almost always I've found it helpful if they acknowledge their relationship with Christ and what He's done, a very, very simple thing like: I confess Jesus Christ is my saviour and Lord, I am redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ from every curse, every evil spirit, and all the power of sin. It's helpful to acknowledge that. Just even doing that, you position yourself for a battle. It's just saying: I'm on the Lord's side. It's putting words to: I'm on the Lord's side, and I belong to Him, and it's quite helpful always to do that. I come to You Father, I come to You in Jesus' name, I confess Jesus Christ is my saviour and Lord, I am redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ from every curse, every evil spirit, all the power of sin. I am redeemed. I belong to Jesus Christ. It's really helpful to make that kind of profession of faith. Now Lord, I confess this cursing, or I confess this sin that's upon my life right now, I ask you to forgive me. It's really good to just be quite honest and straight forward about that.
The next part I will vary a little bit, depending on how the Holy Ghost leads, but it's always both are there. Lord, I release forgiveness to those who have hurt me, and I receive Your forgiveness for my sins. I release forgiveness, I release forgiveness. I give forgiveness. Lord, You've forgiven me, I forgive them. It is important from the heart to let go forgiveness. If we don't, bondages stay there. Then the next thing is: now I renounce this curse, I renounce that curse of poverty, I renounce that curse that's come, that occultism, that spirit that's come down our family line. I renounce it in Jesus' name. I cancel its power. All agreements my family have made with evil spirits, or all actions they've done that open the way for the curse, I just renounce them now. I speak them off my life. Now Lord, I ask You to set me free. Satan, go from my life in Jesus' name.
I've found that a very simple process to work through. You don't have to remember lots. I find it hard, if I have lots of written prayers, to be able to feel the flow of the spirit in it. I like to be able to flow out of a revelation in the spirit, rather than trying to have it a routine. Some like a routine, have it all written down. I've found it helpful if you can just remember the key parts, and stay in the flow of listening to God as you speak and pray. So the first part - we'll just go back over it again - the person has to own responsibility, it is my problem. I'm not blaming anyone, I've just come to own my part, and get set free. This is a crucial one, and most of your preparation is around that. The second thing is then, I lead them to profess their faith in Christ; Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I come to You in Jesus' name. I confess Jesus Christ is my saviour and Lord. I'm redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, from every curse, every evil spirit, every sin. It's all broken, in Jesus' name. I belong to Jesus Christ wholly.
Now that's like making a profession of faith. Now I repent of the sin, I turn to You and confess Lord, I'm asking for Your forgiveness, and I choose to release forgiveness. I hold nothing in my heart, no judgement, no bitterness. I renounce all bitter judgements and all inner vows that I have made, anything that's locked my life up to this thing. Lord, I renounce the cursings that are over my life. I speak them off, I cancel their power, any agreements - and think back that there may be someone's made agreements with the demons, someone has actually entered into covenant with the demon. We don't know what people have done, as the Holy Spirit leaves. Some people cut themselves, and have blood lettings to demons. That's very powerful, and so we need to just renounce them all, because the blood of Jesus is more powerful than that. Then finally resist, I take a stand to resist.
So in ministering to people that part, if you can get the heart prepared then the ministry of deliverance is quite easy. It's just breaking the curses: in Jesus' name I just break that curse, I command that spirit to go in Jesus' name. Okay, so how are we doing? Why don't we just stand up and move around, have a break for five minutes.
Great, okay. One of the things you'll realise as we look at the work of deliverance, we need the Holy Ghost. There is just too much that's covered that you wouldn't know. You can't do it without the presence of the Holy Spirit. That's why I got you in your first exercise, it was just getting used to flowing with the Holy Spirit. We'll do another one of those before we finish this morning, and then this afternoon we want to look at the whole area of just actually deliverance, what it would involve. Okay, how many have already become aware, I've got some issues that I would like to have sorted out? Okay, that's great, so we'll have some time to minister and pray today, but some of these things, there's a journey on them, and there are two approaches; one is we just believe God together, we lead you through prayer, and have a time of ministry. That will bring a certain measure of release. There's another way of dealing with it, which is by process, taking one problem in your life and step by step dealing with everything that contributes to it, then removing the demonic spirits out of it.
This is where the course Prayers the Heal the Heart help with that. They take one issue and you walk your way down all the possible contributing factors, then deal with the demons around it. So there's no one way of doing things, and we're wanting to teach you about how to flow and to work with the Holy Spirit, how to work in deliverance, so I won't go into every aspect. We'll just keep you in just what I consider the basics. I want to have a look just at the issue of breaking bondages, bondages. Bondage, you think of someone tied up, as in bondage. In Luke 13, Verse 16, Jesus said ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for 18 years, be loosed from this bondage on the Sabbath? You've not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but received the spirit that places you into sonship, by which we call out Abba, Father. So people can have bondages. Now there are a whole range of different bondages, but almost always they end up with issues in your heart, and what I want to do is I want to identify a number of issues of the heart.
The Bible says in Proverbs 4 and Verse 23, it says: guard your heart, because out of your heart flow all the issues of your life. Keep your heart, for out of your heart will flow the issues of your life. So in my work with deliverance over a number of years, I've found that the majority of problems were caused by legal rights, but the legal rights were formed not just by sin, but also by, in many instances, reactions people made to being hurt, so I've listed some that I have worked with. I want to just identify them for you so you become aware that these things are a bondage. It's not hard to break them, but you've got to recognise that it exists. When you recognise it exists, and exercise authority over it, it will break, and then if there's any demon attached to it, you can get it out. So it's only the anointing of the Holy Spirit can break the yokes of bondage, only God can do it, but He requires that we engage with Him in that journey. Let's go through and have a little look at some of the different kinds of bondages.
I've already referred to some of these. Let's just explain what each one is. Number one, an ungodly soul tie or soul attachment, see? A soul tie or a soul attachment, now a soul tie is a bonding between two people. God has designed us to be joined. We can join to the Lord, and be spiritually bonded to Him. We can join with people, and be bonded to people. It says this guy in the Old Testament, Genesis 34, Verse 3, he abused Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and his soul cleaved, or joined to her. So soul ties can be good, they can be Godly, a husband and wife are bonded together, parents and children there's a bonding together. Those are good bondings. Bonding is very, very important. When we become part of a church, there's a bonding. We get connected, we feel bonded, so a bonding is a crucial part of human development, the attachment. You find a baby that does not attach or bond properly to a parent, never forms good intimate relationships, so God has designed us for bonding and the first process or task any person has in life is to bond, so a child that doesn't bond will have huge issues later in life.
Then we need to separate and have our own identity, so if you can't separate and be your own person, you've also got problems. But soul ties have to do with bonding, a Godly bonding or joining together, husband and wife, parent and child, members of a church, good friends. For example, Jonathan and David were great friends. The heart of Jonathan knit, or was bonded, to David. They were great friends. We sometimes use the world soul mates, there's a feeling of connectedness, and to be separated would create distress - but soul ties can also be ungodly, and they can be demonic in origin, out of God's order, and when they're out of God's order, then stress, demonic activity, and pain and troubles start to take place. If a soul tie is ungodly, it's not in God's order, it's out of order, so for example, sexual relationships outside marriage, the two are bound or bonded together. That's an ungodly joining, and demon spirits can use it to harass people. A person can even be bound, or soul tied, to images. That's one of the deep problems with pornography, is the person gets bonded to sexual images, and there's a tie to an image that they see, a fantasy realm, or fantasising, and that whole realm, there's like a chord that's between them needs to be broken.
A person can be soul tied to a controlling person, so you get perhaps a father who's very abusive, controlling. There's a love/hate relationship goes on with that person. They're bonded, and the child often can't break away; or it could be a controlling mother, an insecure mother who just fusses over, and fills the child so much with anxiety, they can't seem to do anything for themselves. The result is the child is soul tied in an unhealthy way to the mother, and unable to break free. We call a person like that co-dependent, they're dependent on the approval of someone and they can't live their life out. They're soul tied to the one they're dependent on. Another one is if someone is abusive, sexually abusive, physically abusive or verbally abusive, the most extraordinary thing is to find how many women cannot break free of an abusive man. There has to be a reason apart from logical - I mean logic, you think why would you stay there? They just say I don't know. They just can't seem to break free, because there is a soul tie and a demonic power operating, and often a person who's in an abusive relationship needs quite some support to break free. Without the support of friends they just keep feeling obliged, or guilty, or duty-bound to go back.
People can even be soul tied to a dead person. What do I mean by that? Suppose someone has not bonded well to their parents, got a strong attachment with a grandmother or grandfather, and they die, and they never let go or grieve properly. Now one of the first phases of grief is shock and denial, so many times when a person comes into a grieving process, instead of journeying through grief, they actually stop and lock up at the first phase, denial, or the second phase, anger. They're just stuck in being angry, and denying the whole thing, so they don't journey through grief, through it's stages, to get to release, and they remain locked to the person they've lost. I have known of people who were soul tied to a dead child that they lost, to a dead spouse, to a dead parent or grandparent, even to a dead animal. They got so attached, and then the grief was immense, and then somehow their life just fell apart afterwards. So soul ties are very, very powerful, and if they're ungodly or out of order or distorted in some way, then demonic spirits can harass the person.
People can also be soul tied to an idol, so if someone's been involved in idolatry often a huge fear is of letting go of that idol, what will happen to me if I let go? People can be soul tied to a trauma, a traumatic experience, like an accident or an abuse. They can be soul tied to pornographic images. People can be soul tied through blood covenants they've made, they're soul tied to a demonic spirit or someone else, another person they've made a blood covenant with. Sometimes people can be soul tied through tattoos to the person who shed blood in the making of the tattoo. Tattoos can open the door for evil spirits. I'm not saying every person who's got a tattoo has got demons, but I have prayed for people, and when we broke the soul tie to the tattooist, and came against the spirits entering in through the tattoo, there was massive deliverance. Often it's because underneath it, there was a deep rejection or rebellion that was mobilising the person to get the tattoo in the first place.
Some of you here may have tattoos, or you've got them cleverly hidden. We're not condemning you, you have what you have. It's just helpful to be aware that all of these things can be doorways through which spirits can afflict people. So whenever there's a soul tie, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we just break that soul tie now, we hold the cross of Christ between those two people, and release you from it. It's quite a simple thing to do, just as simple as that. Imagine a cord between the two people - in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I just cut that soul tie right now. I break it in Jesus' name, and as you're breaking it, begin to look in the spirit, look and allow God to show you what's happening. Often you'll find there'll be just a sudden release, command the spirit using that soul tie, to go.
Another one which is a very common one which I've found is a death wish. When people are in a lot of pain or trauma, they make a death wish, they wish I just wish I was dead. So when a person does that, and there's examples in the Bible; Moses did it, Elijah did it, in various times of stress. When a person makes a death wish, they can open the door to agreement with a spirit of death. I just wish I was dead, spirit comes around them and then they get numbed out, and disconnected, so often death wishes are made when a person's experienced sexual abuse, painful failure, I just wish I could die. A long period of extended stress and pressure, a controlling relationship and the emotional turmoil, they can't see a way out. They just I just wish I was dead, so when a person has a death wish, that thing opens the door to a spirit of death, and often subsequently in times of stress, they suddenly feel they want to die.
Then spirits of suicide will come around and say: oh well, it's the best thing, do yourself a favour, do everyone else a favour, just kill yourself. The person is tormented by demonic spirits of suicide, and despair, and deep self-rejection, so when a person makes a death wish, they've given up hope that God has a great future, and they could walk their way through, and they've rejected their own selves and they're saying: I just wish I was dead. A lot of teenagers get locked in this kind of thing, and that becomes a major problem for them, so when a person does this they become in agreement with a spiritual power, the spirit of death that numbs and isolates them. Maybe some of you have been through a time of stress like that, and in that time of stress and pain have started to say those things. You would have found that subsequently in life, when you're in stress, you'll easily tend towards become full of despair and hopelessness, and rejecting yourself, and then wanting to die.
If that's been the case, should just open it out, bring it out to the Lord, and let God help you with it. In dealing with a death wish, usually there's a pain that goes with it. It's helpful to talk about the pain and what happened, release forgiveness into the situation, and then renounce the death wish; in Jesus' name, I just renounce that death wish. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I cancel its power right now. I choose life. God is with me, life is good, God has a great plan for my life. So God is a God of hope, so when people lose hope, that's when they start to make these death wishes, and they're far more common that you realise. When people make them, they don't realise the agreement they've made with a spirit of death, and what it can open up in their life, so just be aware of that one. I just wish I was dead, I just want to die - so inevitably it has on-going impact in relational closeness, and the ability to form close bonds. The person will isolate, withdraw, and shut down, and just want to die.
Okay, we've gone all quiet on that one. I assume there's one or two have made those death wishes, so it may well be that that's something you just need to put a tick beside, or a cross beside, or a circle around, and say I need to, before the day is out, resolve that issue. Amen? Okay then, and you resolve it by acknowledging it, and repenting of that desire to die, and choosing life. I renounce that death wish. Okay, here's another one, a third one. The third one, which is a very common one too, is an inner vow, an inner vow. A vow, is a word you speak, which binds you to a commitment, like if people make a wedding vow, they speak the words out, and they make commitments to one another. An inner vow is words spoken into yourself, and an inner vow usually goes something like this. It usually starts with I'll never do this, I'll never do that, I'll never trust a man, I'll never trust a woman, I'll never go out, I'll never do this and do that. For example, one of the things I did as an inner vow, when I was a teenager about 14, I can remember it clearly, absolutely clearly, and we had to do this performing at school and stuff like that. I made an inner vow, I'll never sing anywhere in front of people. [Laughter]
So of course I had these problems inside me all the time, I couldn't worship, couldn't let go, I wasn't free until I dealt with the inner vow. You would never think now of course that, but on the other hand, that was what was there. There was just a deep shame and a struggle I was facing in early teenage years, and singing just exemplified for me, just being on display and exposed. I just did not want to have that kind of exposure. I made an inner vow not to do it. I remember praying with another woman, and she'd had a number of miscarriages, and she'd asked me to come and pray for her. I remember going there thinking God, this is so distressing, what do we do? I don't know what to do. The Lord said, the child she's losing is a boy, all of them have been boys. Tell her to ask her father to pray for her. That's all He told me, so I got there to the place, and we tried to comfort the couple. They were losing a child again, and there's a number of miscarriages. I said, what do you think the child is? She said I think it's a boy. Oh really, that's interesting. I said what about the other one? Actually I think they were all boys. I said well I tell you what, your father's a Christian. I said how do you get on with your father? She said oh fine, I love my dad and he loves me, actually I'm his favourite, and so I'm thinking, and I said: why don't you get your dad to pray for you then? No, I wouldn't do that! I said really, there's a lot of reaction there, what's going on in there?
So we began to talk, and then it turns out the family was incredibly dysfunctional, and the marriage was in problem, and the father had connected in an unhealthy way to one daughter, and the mother to the other daughter, and both daughters were messed up in different ways; one, because of the parents had transferred what should have been the intimacy of marriage, and put it on the child, and shared things they should never have shared, so the child felt controlled. I said did you ever, at any time, make an inner vow, I'll never carry a male child? She stopped and looked, she said yes, I did, I remember it clearly. She had made an inner vow, I'll never carry a male child, and so each child that she had, she just miscarried. Her body literally outworked the vow, and I believe behind it was a demonic spirit - so of course there are many other examples of things like that. But inner vows, vows spoken and made within, they're usually made in a time of pressure, stress, emotional pain, and/or loss, or tragedy in a relationship, and they often begin I'll never do that, I'll never do that.
Can anyone think of doing that, can anyone think that? Isn't it amazing. Can you remember what you said? Now just stop for a moment, and think back to when you made that inner vow. Were you in pain and stress at that time? See, well if you haven't actually come and addressed that, it's still operative, and so you'll have a block in your life to flowing into that area, because a demonic spirit will lock onto it, and hold you in bondage in that area. You'll try, later on you'll put it aside. It's like something you remember from way back. Now let me ask you this question: when you think about that area you made the inner vow, how many of you really have broken through to freedom in that area now? See, you may find not so many are free. It's like, I've got a struggle - how many would struggle still in that area? It's like I've got to really work at that. The fact you've got to work at it, and it doesn't flow naturally indicates a block. Things that we're free in, should flow in our life. When they're blocked, and the flow is blocked you know, or there's a resistance, there's something causing the resistance. What is it? If it's the inner vow why don't you just deal with it and address it, come and open your heart and acknowledge God, these things have happened to me. Lord, I was in such pain and grief, I just renounce that inner vow right now. I choose life. Amen.
So when we come back after lunch we'll start to go through some areas, and have a time of just some ministry, and see what God does. It'll be an interesting time to see what the Lord does. Amen - nothing like learning it through experience yourself and then you think ooh wow! [Laughs] Okay then, so there's another bondage of the heart which is a very common one too, and that is a bitter judgement, bitter-root judgements, or bitter expectations. It's like a negative belief that things are going to happen, and so in Hebrews 12, Verses 14 and 15, it says don't let bitterness get in your heart. It says something like this: let no man fall from the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness spring up. Now whenever you're in conflict you can either act in judgement, or grace. You can either bless people, and let it go, or you can judge people, and become bitter. That's really the options, so if you are in a conflict situation and you begin to judge, you often open the way then for things to happen, or a cycle to take place in your life.
In Matthew 7, Verses 1 and 2, it says do not judge, lest you will be judged. The judgement you judge, that's how it'll come back to you. The measure you give it out, it'll be measured back. So when you judge someone, you set in cycle, or you set in place, a cycle of sowing and reaping. Remember what it says: if you judge, it comes back to you, the same way. In other words, the very thing you judged, now you find you're experiencing the very same thing, it's the law of sowing and reaping. So when a person makes a bitter judgement it's like they expect that this is what's going to happen. It's like a negative faith. It will attract into your life the very thing that you actually have judged, so for example, you can never trust men, men will always let you down. So you notice most bitter judgements have the word 'never' or 'always' in it, never or always. When you hear the word always - well you 'alway's do that - that then tells you there's a judgement there. Well you 'never' do that - that tells you there's a judgement there, because you're not dealing any more with a single issue, you're dealing with a judgement.
If someone says you never do that, that's a judgement. If someone says you always do that, that's a judgement. How could it be true I never do that? How could it be true I always do that? It's just not true - so you know, you can never trust men, they will always let you down. You can see the two words of judgement in there, never and always. Now do you know what a person who comes to that - now usually a person who comes to that judgement, has had a bad experience, or some bad experiences, with a person, a man - so a woman would make a statement like that. She may have had some bad deals with her father, or with some person she's in a relationship with, and she gets very hurt, and out of all her hurt and resentment, she comes to the place, well never trust men, they'll always let you down. Now what happens is now is, now there's a judgement in the heart, and the Bible says if there's a judgement in the heart, you can't see clearly any more. You can't see the good, you can only see that, so for a person who makes a judgement, for a person who for example, who's got a spirit of rejection over their life, and they believe something like this: I'll never be good enough, nothing I ever do is good enough. Now you know what'll happen? No matter what they do, every time they look at it, they themselves will see the fault. They can't see the good, they just see the fault. Why? Because their heart resonates, it's not good enough.
It already is decided what the outcome is, it's not going to be good enough. A person who's, I'll never be accepted, or no one could ever love me, you know what'll happen? They'll enter relationship expecting to be rejected, and then whatever happens, they'll interpret it immediately through the judgement. I'll give you another example, it's quite an easy one to pick, and this is it. Suppose we have a person who's got a deep rejection in their heart, they have a spirit of rejection, but they've also got a bitter judgement in the heart. The bitter judgement is, no one accepts me or wants me. Then suppose two men are standing there talking, and I happen to walk in, I'm very busy, preoccupied, I walk by, go past them both. I'm on my way, and both of them say: morning Pastor, how are you this morning? And I just didn't hear, I just got preoccupied as I sometimes do and away I go and didn't hear. I didn't say anything to either of them, I just missed it, because I was focussing on something else. Alright then, now one of them will look and say: oh he's obviously preoccupied and busy, I'll catch him later. The other one will look at it and say: he doesn't like me.
Now one of them is seeing out of a pure heart that just sees, oh, he must be busy, he didn't hear what I said. Just there's no judgement whatsoever, it's just an observation - oh, he's missed me, I'll catch him later. The other one has re-read it through the eyes of a judgement, and has interpreted it completely different. You would be amazed how many conflicts in relationships come about because we judge, rather than observe. When you judge, you cannot see clearly. When I judge, I'm ascribing some motivation to you, which I have really no way of telling whether it's there. It's my judgement I'm putting on you, and I'll be tormented, so the two men saw the same event; one read it one way, one read it the other way, but it was the same event. How could it be both? It can't be. It was just something happened. It's how they judged it, is what made the pain and the torment for one, and the freedom for another. One said: it doesn't mean anything; the other said: it means this, it means he doesn't like me.
The one who says, it means he doesn't like me, is now tormented and demons keep tormenting him, and it just racks around in his day and day and day. I've had people come to me after two years and say you know, two years ago you did this. I'm thinking two years ago? I don't remember two minutes ago! [Laughter] You know, two years ago! How can you remember two years ago? They'd been in torment for two years. [Laughter] I'm thinking whoa! I remember a person who'd been in our church for many years and came and did that, and I was stunned you know, to think you've been tormented and sitting there angry at me for two years! I didn't have a clue, but the problem was they misinterpreted something. They actually put a judgement on it. Now the dilemma with judgements is, when you have judgements in your life, they are a conclusion you yourself formed, and you will live out of your judgements.
Here's one of the things about bitter judgements is they're like the opposite to faith. Faith brings in the good things of God, bitter judgements bring in the very bad things you expected, now are drawn like a magnet into your life. So even if the person is a good person, so suppose you get a young woman marries a man, and her belief is: you can never trust a man, they'll always let you down, then you know what'll happen? That man's going to let her down, and before he lets her down in reality, she'll accuse him of letting her down many times, when he didn't let her down at all. In other words, she will defile it. I'll give you an example. I was asked to counsel one person in Taiwan and I don't know why they asked me. They asked me to counsel them, so I asked what's the problem? She said well I've got this guy wants to marry me. I said well that's interesting. She said well, I've got a child. I said oh, that's interesting, how old's your child? She told me how old the child is. I said who's the father of the child? Oh, it's another guy. Okay, so tell me more.
Anyway she told the story and here's the story. She'd had a relationship with this guy that's now wanting to marry her, and the relationship broke up, she had a fling with someone else as a reaction, got pregnant, had the child, and now she's got the baby, and the other guy, the first guy is now interested in her, and now she's weighing up whether she should marry him. I said is he Christian? No. Oh okay then, why would you go ahead and want to do that? I said really, tell me why did the relationship break up? She said well, while we were going out together, he was unfaithful to me three times. I said really? Well is he Christian yet? No, no. I said well he's not changed then has he? He's the same person he was, he was unfaithful then, he's unfaithful again, so you're just asking for trouble. Do not do this. Then I said, tell me about your father, how's your father doing? How do you get on with your father? I don't see my father much. I said why is that? Well the parents broke up when I was a teenager. I said oh, isn't that interesting, you don't see him anymore? She said no, we don't get on too well. I said really, that's interesting - so tell me why did the marriage break up? She said he was unfaithful to my mother. I said how many times? Three times.
I said, can you not see, that you are having a re-run of the bitter judgement of your father? It's literally replaying in your life again, just like it originally happened. Your father was unfaithful with your mother, he betrayed your mother, betrayed you, the marriage broke up, and he has caused huge grief and pain to your life - and you have judged him. Now, you're drawing into someone who'd done exactly the same to you, and having broken free once, now you're drawing back in again to the same thing. You've got the conflict with your father, and this is defiling how you see this relationship. You know what she said? I don't see that. I said I'm sorry, I can't help you, because this is actually how it is. You have a bitter judgement against your father, and it's going to defile your relationships with men the rest of your life, until you actually address it. This is what the problem is. I said my counsel is very simple: do not marry the man. You've got a problem in your heart with all men, and you need to resolve that first. But she didn't see it, so I've no doubt she's carried on - quite a shame really, but you know, people - I was reminded again afterwards - I don't judge her for that. That's how life works, you know?
We make our choices - but how Jesus said: judge not lest you be judged, the same measure you judge, it'll come back to you. Then He said - notice this - He said hypocrite, first remove the beam out of your own eye, then you'll see clearly, to get the speck out of the other. So what He's saying is, when you've got judgement, it's like a big beam in your eye and you can't see clearly, so if you want to see clearly in relationship, you have to remove judgement. Judgements are demonic doorways for spirits to come in, because Satan's the great accuser, so if you have a bitter judgement in your heart, it's a huge open doorway for an evil spirit to come in, so any time - so if it's a woman's got an issue with men, she's going to have trouble with men all her life, because every time they do something, the accusing spirits will accuse and wind it up, and next thing you know, it's in high drive and high emotions, emotions beyond what the incident called for. So if you ever see someone who's in a high overdrive in their emotions, well above what the situation called for, they have got bitter judgements in their heart, there's unresolved conflict in their heart, and demons have got a hold of their life.
The problem is not the demons. They're just energising what's already there, and making it worse. The problems are the bitter judgements, and the person needs to repent, release forgiveness, let go, and start to have grace, and extend grace to people. I'd really ask the Lord to help me to be a gracious person, to extend grace, and to walk in grace. It's not always the easiest thing to do.
Here's another bondage in the heart, that's the area of word curses, word curses. Word curses are words which are spoken with strength or feeling behind it, and if the person agrees with the words, then they agree with the demon that's behind it. In Proverbs 18:21 it says death and life are in the power of the tongue, so when you speak words, you have power to release things. Get this: the first use of words in the Bible was to bring something from the spirit world into the earth, into reality, so words, their first use, is to bring something from heaven into the earth, or from hell into the earth. So cursing, cursing words will always have an impact on people. One of the things that is a common form of cursing are words, names, calling people by names, abusive words, you know, you're a dummy, you're stupid. You'd be amazed how many people have got this thing going on in their mind, I'm stupid, I'm stupid - and here they are, capable, intelligent people - but I'm stupid, I can't do that. For example, one of the most common places we find it is this, when we run the Bible School. When we run the Bible School, do you know what probably half if not more of the people have a struggle with? I'm stupid, I'm dumb, I can't do study.
Where did they learn that? Who told you you can't do that? You're a Holy Ghost person now, you can do all kinds of things you couldn't do before - but no, there's a lock of words spoken over them, or words they've spoken in, or agreed with in their heart, I can't do this, I'm a dummy or I'm stupid or whatever and they've come into agreement with it. So word curses, particularly words spoken by a father, by a mother, by a teacher, by a Pastor, can have great power in behind them, and can carry on devastation in a person's life. I remember laying hands on one lady, and I put my hands on her head. The moment I put my hands on her head, I heard the words that were spoken over her, and I spoke them out. She broke down and wept and wept and wept, and we broke the power of those words, and she got delivered straight away of the curse that come on her life, so word curses, or judgements, or accusations that are made by people - especially in a family, sometimes one person gets scapegoated; it's your fault, your fault, and you know what? They get this thing in their mind, it's my fault, and so they've come into agreement with it, it's my fault, it's my fault. You know what happens every time a problem comes up? It must be my fault, it's always my fault. Then a despair, and a hopelessness, they're unable to resolve problems, demons are working around their life.
Okay then, then the last one I want to just bring out, is the area of burdens or expectations placed by others upon people. A burden is like a cargo, it's like a weight you carry, and it brings stress and pressure around your life. They can be a real thing that's on you, or it can be just something you perceive. For example Jesus accused the religious leaders, you put all these expectations or burdens on people, and it just weighs them down. Now some people have burdens placed on them by their family, and they can be around a simple thing like, you have to be here on a Sunday for lunch. Now having family times together are wonderful, but when it actually becomes something that's on you so hard, you dare not even break that, you've got a problem there. Of course the burdens can be quite intense and unrealistic, for example a person can have such - like the eldest child, there can be huge expectation on the eldest child, to carry the other kids. They can shudder under that, and become burdened under that, and it creates problems for them, then they feel responsible for everyone in life, and have no proper boundaries in their life.
Another kind of burden that's put on is, it's your fault. I mentioned that before, where someone's scapegoated or blamed all the time: it's your fault, it's your fault, it's your fault, it's your fault. Sometimes a mother who's got trouble with her husband, and she sees in one of the children the boy that looks like the husband, or carries on like the husband, often he'll be the butt of her resentment and bitterness, and the grief and frustration will be poured out there. The child grows up with an unreasonable burden, I'm responsible, when anything goes wrong, it's my fault. I struggled with that for many years, and had to wrestle, try and break that one off. Particularly if you're from a Catholic background, you can carry this immense sense of guilt and expectation, you're not good enough somehow, and it can be a very, very strong thing.
Another cause of burdens on people, is where a parent fails, and becomes the child, and puts the weight or transfers the parenting to the child. It's called parental inversion, so for example a mother's an alcoholic, or a father's an alcoholic, and one of the children has to arise, and in every kind of respect they carry the parent's duties, except in the bed. Then there's what's called parental inversion.
Now what happens then is, the child loses their joy of childhood, and there's this burden placed on them, so I have found it helpful just to break that burden of responsibility, and lead them in a confession to release the burden, and then we just break that weight of expectation off them. The last one under that list there, is a code of silence or secrecy, which often happens in a family where there's been abuse of some kind, or there's dysfunction, and we don't talk, we don't tell anyone about our issues, or we don't talk outside family. What happens is, the person becomes burdened. It can happen in church, where someone makes someone be secret about the counsel, or secret about things. This is all a burden, so for example - and if you're a leader you can be trapped in it - someone comes to you and says I've got something terrible I've got to share with you, and I just want to know I can trust you, that you won't share it. Will you promise you won't tell anyone?
Now my alarm bells go off when someone says will you promise you won't tell anyone, because it's likely what they're going to tell me is going to be a problem for me, so I have to usually try and say - it's not the same since I'm a senior leader, but when I was working in church in a leadership level, I'd have to say listen, I will respect your confidentiality. However if it's a serious matter, and I felt it necessary to refer it to someone above me, I will do that, and you have to trust that I'll use good judgement over that. If you can't accept that, don't share it with me. Now sometimes the desire to be in the know, can cause you to lack discretion and protect yourself, so if that person had said to me: well promise me you won't tell the Pastor what I've done - okay, I promise. Now they tell me, and I think oh my God, they're the worship leader, or this or that, or the youth leader, and they're sleeping with this person, and they've just told me. What on earth am I going to do? So next time I see the Pastor I'm in trouble, because I've got this burden inside me, and I'm tormented by spirits, because now my relationship is fractured, I can't be open and transparent.
Now I'm not talking about good sensible confidentiality in counsel. We're talking about being put a burden of secrecy you can't keep. It just burdens you and I have some people come to me, said I've been sitting on this for six months, and it's just weighed me down. They tell me what happened, and they were caught in a situation like that, and we break the power of that agreement they made, release them from the bondage, command the spirit of death - because there's always a spirit of death around it - to leave it. Sometimes if someone's been abused, the abuser will tell them: you mustn't tell anyone, if you tell someone you'll be responsible for the family breaking up. [Inhales sharply] and so they're caught. I want to tell someone, I don't want the family to break up, ooh - and they're burdened, tormented by spirits, and it's a huge relief to be able to get that veil of silence. It's a very simple thing, in setting people free we need to recognise what the bondage is, let the person renounce the bondage, speak it off their life, and then we pray and break the power of the bondage; in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I just break this bondage.
Okay, I've got a list of some details on that for you in the notes, on the How to Break Bondages. This afternoon we'll get into it and do some of it. How many of you, having gone through that teaching, would recognise that there are some areas of bondage that are sitting on your life? A soul tie? Just hand up and down - soul tie, ungodly soul tie, alright. A death wish, how many have got that sitting there around their life? Okay, some have got that. An inner vow of some kind? Okay, some have got that. Some bitter judgements against someone, against men, women, church, Government, authorities... let's go through it. It can go through against Maori, it can go through Pakeha, it can be racial in orientation, it's a judgement. It will always reproduce something. How many realise there's a judgement in their life around that area? Okay, quite a few. Alright then, what about words spoken, curses put over you, spoken over you, you're in agreement with? Okay, there's a few of them there, alright then.
How many of you have got burdens that someone else put on you, either blame or expectations or secrecy? How many have got something in those areas? Oh, okay, we've got hands going up all over the place, alright then. So after lunch we need to come in, and have a time to minister and pray for some of these areas, and in the praying and ministry we want to be aware of the Holy Spirit, sensitive to the Holy Spirit and we want you to learn. It's not a Freedom Retreat or a Restoration Restoration Retreat where the focus is on the ministry. The focus here is on helping you get understanding about how to minister, so that's the key is, how to minister, and one of the best ways is to get some experience of it yourself, okay?
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Keywords: Curses, recognise, repent, renounce, release, receive and resist, co-dependent, soul-tied, curses, abuse, pornography, death wish, inner vow, sowing and reaping, bitter judgement, Word curses, parental inversion, burden of secrecy