Bondages of the Heart (3 of 8)

Explore the issues in the heart that can hold us in bondage. Discover that ungodly soul ties, inner vows and word curses are three entry points into our lives, where we can open ourselves to bitterness, jealousy, anger, complaining, addictions, etc, which then become strongholds in our lives, that the enemy can come in and take hold of. This includes other peoples words and actions towards us. As we recognise these traits in our lives, we can take ownership of them, renouncing and releasing them from our lives in Jesus Name. Introduction

Let’s welcome the Holy Spirit this morning. Lord we open ourselves to You, we want You to touch us, we welcome You. May the kingdom of heaven come into this place. May we see your presence established, your kingdom established. We reach out to You Lord today, we thank You for all You’ve done so far, and all You will do today. In the meeting this morning, in the meeting tonight, we thank You. We treasure Your presence. We love what You do. Most of all, we set our heart on You. We give You the honour Jesus, and we thank You for what You’re doing. Amen.

That was very exciting last night wasn’t it? I always love it when God moves, just surprises us. I didn’t expect that demon to manifest so quickly. Let’s just this morning, continue where we were; and as I teach, I’m changing the flow which I normally teach in.

Summary of Last Session

What I want to do this session, is I want to look at heart bondages. We’ll just quickly look at where we were yesterday. We looked at Jesus was anointed to set people free. We looked at Jesus teaching on deliverance, and how deliverance is a manifestation of the kingdom of God. We saw that Jesus taught that once demons were cast out, they will try to come back and re-enter the person. This has brought deliverance into a lot of discredit over the years, because people have focused on the demons, rather than focused on the issues the person has.

Jesus said that after a person’s delivered, and the evil spirit’s gone out, they will seek to re-establish their hold in the person’s life. So we saw as a result of that, the need to deal with underlying root issues. In other words, our role is not just to cast out demons, but it’s to bring the person out of darkness and into light. It’s to help them journey in their life so they’re walking with God. We saw one of the scriptures in Ephesians 4 – when is a thief, not a thief? It’s not when he stops stealing; it’s when he works and gives.

We identified different avenues, or ways, evil spirits get in. We saw number one, they come in through legal rights. This is where a person has broken the law of God, and the demon claims a right to access. Remember in Jesus’ teaching, how the demon says “I will return to my house”. If you were listening yesterday, when I began to pray for that girl at the beginning of the meeting, the demon began to speak to me and say “She belongs to me”. In other words, the demon is claiming “this is my house”; or that I have a right to ownership. So, it’s important, if we’re going to set people free, that we remove all rights to ownership. We’ll show you how that’s done quite simply.

Now, for a Christian, Jesus Christ is their owner. Demons can never own a believer. When the Bible says: “we are redeemed by the blood of Jesus”, that means we are purchased, a price has been paid to set us free. A person is saved when they believe in their heart, and confess with their mouth, that Jesus Christ is my new owner, my new lord; and we are moved by the Spirit of God into a new kingdom, with new rights and privileges.

You remember when I was inviting people to come to Christ, I quoted John 1:12; and it says – “To whomever who received Him, even those who believed in His name, He gave the right, the legal right, to become a child of God.” So, when we put our trust in Christ, there is a legal standing, we shift in our legal standing, and we are now privileged to be sons of God and heirs. So, a demon can’t own a Christian, they can just oppress a part of their life.