Finding Freedom in Yeshua’s Name
by Lonnie Lane
Some of God’s people are in deep emotional pain and circumstances they can’t seem to get out of. On occasion, someone writes to the ministry to ask for prayer or for wisdom. This week just such an email came to our info@sidroth.org email from a woman in the UK who shared some of what she is dealing with in her life. Her suffering is multifaceted, but certainly not too much for the Lord. The reality is that we can ask others to pray for us in our situations, but for the most part, it is we who must make the changes in our thinking, and who must take spiritual authority in Jesus’ name for our own life. If you are prayed for, but the roots of the issues aren’t dealt with, they will come back or not change at all. Many of Sid’s guests have given Kingdom keys to how to be set free from demonic oppression and struggles in our lives. By using these keys we can change our destiny and our lives. God has put in our hands, in Jesus’ name, the way to be free from sin, sickness, and death. He took our sins and our sorrows upon Himself at the cross. We all know that, but yet, many of us are stuck and don’t know how to get free.
Based on what we have learned from some of Sid’s guests, following is a mini-course on spiritual warfare which should provide some of what this dear woman and others in need can do to put their lives in order. Hopefully this will serve to bring freedom from things that may be hindering, harming, hurting or causing you to feel helpless. My goal in sharing the following with you is to change all those “h” words to Hope, Help and Halleluiah!
By praying these kinds of things which are suggested below, you are agreeing with God that what Yeshua did by His death on the cross has power to make real changes in your life so that your life looks like Jesus is Lord over it and no longer is the devil able to be. First let me say that our hearts go out to any of God’s people who are suffering. But we praise the Lord that He is able to deliver us from all the suffering of the devil. One of the first lessons we must learn is…
It is the devil who is causing your failure or sickness; it is not God. One of God’s names is YHVH Rapha which means God our healer. God created Adam to be whole in every way. The restoration that God is doing is to restore mankind to wholeness once again. If the devil was suddenly vacuumed out of the universe, you would cease to be sick, confused, depressed, fearful, etc. One of the devil’s greatest tactics is to lie to you and get you to believe that it is you who has the problem. Paul was faced with the same predicament. He expressed it this way: “If I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me” (Rom 7:20). As long as I believe that I am the problem, then I have trouble thinking God can fix me. But when I see that the problem is what satan has injected into my life, I cease to be the problem and I can come out of agreement with thinking I’m wrong, sinful, sick, etc. If I’m born again, then I truly am a new creation and I operate under a whole new set of paradigms about myself, about others and about God. But the devil continues to lie to us that things are the same old, same old, or worse. He tries to keep us from Kingdom thinking and Kingdom identity. When I recognize that it is satan that is influencing me, I can choose to no longer believe his lies. I can reject his input. I can believe God and come out of agreement with the devil. That means about myself and about others. It may even mean about God.
Once we realize that satan is behind all the suffering in life, we can see that it also applies not just to my life but to those who have in some way hurt me. We can then see others as being affected by satan too and instead of fearing, hating, resenting, or rejecting someone who’s hurt you, you can now….
Forgive anyone who has ever hurt you or caused you pain in any way. Jesus forgave us all and so must we. Any unforgiveness we hold against anyone is held against us. Jesus said, “If you do not forgive others, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your transgressions” (Mark 11:26). That’s pretty clear. Forgive or you’re not forgiven. Need I point out that to not be forgiven of your sins by God means you’re not going to heaven. It’s like this, if Yeshua died to forgive us all of our sins (whether or not we accept it), if I hold onto someone’s sins, I am as an unbeliever not believing Yeshua’s death covered that sin.
The most significant aspect of getting free from the oppression of the devil is to forgive. It’s a powerful weapon actually. If we no longer agree with the devil against someone, we take the spear out of his hands not only for that person but for us as well. Because if he can get us to attack someone else, we open the door for him to attack us too. It’s a no-win situation when we hold resentment against anyone.
When we forgive in agreement with the Lord, we shut the door to the devil in many ways. If we reap what we sow, consider it this way. You speak against someone, talk against them to others. You may know some facts about them but you can’t possibly know the whole story or what their side of it is. It’s often amazing to me when you hear both sides of a story how different they are. You’d think you were hearing about two different incidents. So to talk about someone is sowing gossip and is breaking the 9th Commandment: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Ex 20:16). Love, on the other hand, “does not take into account a wrong suffered…bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (See 1 Cor 13:4-7) especially as we pray and believe God to be at work in their lives.
So we forgive and disable the devil’s work in the lives of those who are a source of hurt to us and his work against us. As we give up retaliating and forgive, we revoke satan’s license to torment us with that situation. When it comes up again (the devil doesn’t give up easily), we may have to forgive all over again. I have one person in my life whom I had to forgive big time many years ago. On occasion something comes up and that person reappears and does something that provides yet another occasion to forgive. Stay caught up on your forgiveness. “Do not let the sun go down on your anger” (Eph 4:26). And remember what Yeshua told Peter when he asked how many times must we forgive “Seventy times seven” (Matt 18:22).
Nothing done to us is beyond the blood of Jesus and His mercy. He will deal with the persons who have done harm or evil but you must let them go, in Yeshua’s name. Release them to you, just as you release your hurt to Him. “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried” (Is 53:4). We can hold on to them, but why would we when He has made the world’s most magnanimous gift of taking them so we don’t have to bear them? One more thing about forgiveness, we must even let go of saying, “But I was right!” We must forgive and release the person to God and tell God we forgive the person for each incident.
Come out of agreement with the devil and all of his ways. We want to make a clean break from agreeing with all the lies the devil has told you about yourself, first of all, and others secondly. If God says you’re “accepted in the Beloved” (Eph 1:6) and the devil tells you God couldn’t or doesn’t really love you, who will you believe? If God says “by (Yeshua’s) stripes you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24) but the devil (even through the voice of a doctor) says you’re incurable, who will you believe? If God says “Your sins are forgiven you for His Name sake” (1 John 2:12) but the devil is telling you you’re still guilty, who will you believe?
It is important to make a statement that you are God’s and His alone and that you renounce the devil and all of his ways, in Jesus’ name. You might have to make that statement daily (or even more often) till the devil believes you mean it and you believe it thoroughly too. If you truly mean it, saying it once will be enough. But if you doubt it again, or the devil bothers you, make the declaration again that you belong to God and are covered with Yeshua’s Blood and the devil has no right to touch your life. Ask God to help you recognize when the devil is lying to you and you’re believing it and come out of agreement with the lie. Make a statement out loud in agreement with God’s Word. Declare that you are healed, whole, happy and forgiven…. and whatever it is that you are trusting God for. Believe God and not the devil or the world for that matter.
You want to break the curses and receive the blessings in your family lines. Ask God to break all generational curses that have been in your family on your mother or father’s sides, all the way back to Adam and Eve. Curses maintain for at least 4 generations but Sid’s guest, Pastor Henry Wright suggests we go all the way back. Here’s how: First, you forgive all those in your past generations that may have sinned and brought a curse into your family line that has come down to you. Ask God to forgive all those in your past generations for their sins (even if they are dead) and then ask Him to break the generational curses that have come down to you as a result of their sins. You can pray the same for your children and grandchildren. Then ask Him then to release to you any blessings that may have been in your past generations. You may want to ask God to break any generational curses that have gone to your children as a result of your own sin and to release to them all the blessings that are due (even if they’re not born yet). Put the cross between you and your past generations (and for your children too).
Severing unclean ties through sexual sins. When we have sexual relations with someone, we take upon ourselves whatever his or her spiritual condition is. God has made us so that the union between man and woman is as becoming one flesh and one spirit. So if you have had sexual relations with someone you weren’t married to or any unclean sexual activity, you must first ask God to forgive you for violating His commandments and for your sin. Then renounce or state that you are now severing any spiritual connection with _________ and name their name(s). Ask God to break any spiritual connections between you and this person or persons and to release you entirely. If you need to forgive them, do so.
Repent of any unbelief or anything the Holy Spirit may bring up to you. By now, you should realize that you have not always been in agreement with God’s Word, or you have allowed lies about yourself or others to be your mindset. Repent for your unbelief in God’s word. You may want to repent for not believing God for His goodness toward you, or for holding grudges, etc. Don’t go digging around in your heart for things. Allow the Holy Spirit to bring them up to you. He is gentle and will not require you generally to go through remembering a whole trauma. Psychology does that, but God protects and heals and gives you peace. I find that when I need to forgive someone, the conviction floats up like a balloon into my consciousness. I thank God for forgiving me and I forgive them and that’s that. No long drawn out ordeal.
Stay in praise to God all the time. Refuse to give the devil any credit for the pain and sorrow in your life. Don’t give him any publicity. He loves when we talk about how the devil is doing this or that to you. Don’t give him anything he wants. Put your life in God’s hands and then let the words of your mouth be as someone who is destined to an eternity in God’s presence spotless, free from sin and in great joy. Sing praises to God from your heart. Let your thoughts be of His goodness. Expect good from God. Find verses in the Bible that give you promises of hope and well-being and safety and His goodness and speak them out continually. Become a person of praise. The devil doesn’t stick around to listen to that. He will try to get you to worry or stop you from praising God but your best defense is a mantle of praise instead of a spirit of heaviness. If or where there is a pressing need in your life, begin to praise God for how He is going to solve it (Don’t tell Him how to; leave that to Him). Find some verses that meet the need. God loves when we hold Him to His Word and “pray with thanksgiving” (Phil 4:6; Col 4:2).
Stay in the Word. We get input from the world, the devil and even our own flesh all the time. The Bible is the only Truth. To think like God thinks, we must stay in His Word. Little by little He transforms our way of thinking. I’m a reader, but at times I take a book fast and only read the Word of God. I feel closer to Him when I do that and receive more revelation from the Word during those times. Try keeping a Bible where you can read a few sentences a few times a day besides your daily time with God. Smith Wigglesworth was a powerful evangelist and healed many people. I recall hearing that He never let an hour go by without reading a sentence or two in the Bible. Make God’s truth your truth and your trust.
I know this sounds like a lot. It need not be done in one fell swoop. I find that these principles are a way of life. Life happens; we run into reasons to forgive and be forgiven. Praise is definitely a way of life, a wonderful way of a joyful life. God’s truth keeps us fresh and alive to God and discerning as to the lies of the devil so we can disregard them as lies. These things will make a difference if you work your way through them. Ask God to change the way you think to Kingdom thinking! I do the same for myself often. We all must learn to think as Jesus thinks, and trust as He did in His God and Father when He walked the earth. We can “in Him.” He is our firm hope!
Lord, I pray for my sisters and brothers that You would send Your Holy Spirit to help them to understand what they should pray. Give us all insight and a spirit of wisdom and revelation of You and Your goodness. Be with each one who will pray through these things and lead and guide them into truth and out of any deception of the enemy. Free them entirely from the hand of the devil to walk in the freedom Yeshua died to give us. I thank you, precious and all powerful God, that in Yeshua’s name, we are free and that we can walk in joy and peace. Teach us how to think in Kingdom ways, Lord. Change our thoughts to be ones of Your goodness and protection and safe-keeping. Give us all greater understanding of how good You are and open our eyes to see Your goodness in our lives and all around us, no matter what the earthly circumstances look like. Where You are, You will make good out of any situation. Make good out of each of our lives, Lord, for Your glory and praise. Fill each heart with thanksgiving to You. And make each one reading this a light to help others out of the darkness. Bless abundantly, Abba, in Jesus’ name. Amen
Reprint of this article is permitted as long as you use the following; Use by permission by Messianic Vision, www.sidroth.org, 2009.
Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible Copyright ©1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. Used by permission.