You can see then, if a person loves their sin, and doesn’t really want to let go of the sin; they’re not submitting to God, and they’re not resisting the devil. If a person is unwilling to forgive, they’re not submitting to God, they’re not submitting to His order, they’re staying on the side of the devil.
In James 4:7 –Submit to God, or position your life in divine order or in align with the kingdom; resist the devil; then it says draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. You see the person is able to move from being oppressed by a spirit, into enjoying the presence of God.
The key point is the issue of change. When we’re ministering to people, we want to help them see what their part is in getting free. Otherwise, we have this kind of ‘victim culture’; or ‘you come to me, I come and fix you’; which keeps the person a victim, and makes you the rescuer. We need to build in people faith for their breakthrough. We need to look at how to do this.
Main MessageWhat I want to do now, is I want to look at some of the bondages that come in the heart. I want to identify what the bondages are in the heart, and how you could break these bondages. Then, we’ll go back to the doors of entry, identify each one, and show what you do to help a person get free. What we’re going to do now is look at heart bondages.
You remember we saw in Luke 11, the need to remove the armour, so we can then set the person free. I want us to look at a verse in Proverbs 4:23. It says – “Guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it, flow the issues of life.” In other words, be a watchman over your heart. The Bible says: there’s a reason you need to guard, or watch, over your heart carefully; because it’s out of your heart that the borders or limitations of your life are established. What is happening in your heart will always find a way to manifest in the world around you.
Jesus said: when people speak, they speak what is in their heart. In Proverbs 4, it says – ‘out of your heart flow the issues of life’. In other words, we don’t just live from our head and our thoughts; we actually live out of the flow of what’s in our heart. If there’s a root of bitterness if your heart, it will just flow like a river of poison, into every relationship you’re in. It will be demonically empowered; and it will just show up in your life. It will defile all your relationships. So, we need to be able to recognise these things, and to deal with the root.
Inevitably, what’s in the heart will find its way out through the words, or the countenance will be seen by its fruit. For example, if someone is bitter, if you ask them “Are you bitter?” They say “No, of course not.” “Are you harbouring deep anger and unforgiveness?” “No. No. Why do you think that?” If you know what to look for, you will find so many people are very bitter. Let me just share what you look for. These are some signs of bitterness flowing. We’re just going off course now, but I may touch it again another time.
Bitterness shows up in a number of ways.
1.) First of all, it shows on the face – there’s no joy. A bitter person cannot be joyful. Their joy doesn’t last, because their heart is bitter.
2.) Secondly, if a person’s got bitterness, often you can see it on them on their face. It looks sour. It just shows on some people. The older they get, the more it shows - it can’t be hidden. You find some people, when they’re older, they’re sweet and loving; other people when they’re older… You can feel it.