Chapter Seven

stumbling into freedom

Resisting is worth doing.

Veronica Roth, Four: The Transfer

John and I went to the zoo recently. I loved seeing live-and-in-person lions, snow leopards, giraffes, elephants, gorillas, piranhas, and glow-in-the-dark tree frogs. There was an amazing section of oriental birds decorated more intricately than geishas. I’ve never seen anything like them before. There were flamingos, California condors, and two bald eagles enclosed in a habitat with high nets. There was a turtle that lives at the bottom of lakes that was the ugliest thing I have ever seen. Crazy. Wonderful.

Later that same day, we went for a hike in the hills. It was a glorious, sunny day with a strong breeze blowing. Coming back down, we stopped at the cry of a hawk and looked up to see three of them: soaring, diving so fast, then up, up, up. Chasing each other, then hovering and still—they flew with the aerial gymnastics of angels.

They were awesome. They were free.

I felt bad for the wild birds I had just seen in captivity. I understand zoos and I am not anti-zoo, but living in cages is not what those birds were created for. They are not living their best life now! At the zoo it had been wonderful to see bald eagles up so close. How huge they are! But I’ve seen bald eagles eating fish on the banks of the Snake River. I’ve seen them looking out over their domain from the protected heights of a stately pine, and I’ve seen them battling golden eagles over their nests.

Freedom is better than captivity.

So why in heaven’s name would anyone choose captivity? Why do we live so long in the bondage we find ourselves in? There’s a passage in Isaiah that I’d like every girl to hear:

Shake off your dust;

rise up, sit enthroned, Jerusalem.

Free yourself from the chains on your neck,

Daughter Zion, now a captive. (Isa. 52:2)

Free yourself? Isn’t it Jesus who sets us free? Indeed he does; he already has in ways that will take your breath away. But we have a part to play. God calls us to rise up, shake the dust off, sit enthroned. We have a part to play in our freedom.

Why does anyone choose captivity? Well, captives do get fed. On a regular basis. They’re safe in their cages, their cells, their prisons. In the movie The Shawshank Redemption, longtime prisoner and now ringleader Red has been incarcerated for decades. He confesses, “These walls are funny. First you hate ’em, then you get used to ’em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them.”1

Prisons can be safe and comfortable. They can become a known life, a familiar way. Resignation is safe; dreaming is dangerous. Letting someone else control your life is easier than rising up to deny them that control; the relationship will never be the same. Living under shame can feel far easier than fighting for your own dignity. The known is always more comfortable and less risky than the unknown. After a while, those animals in the zoo forget they were even made for the open skies, the wild savannas. This is a horrible place to come to. Not a one of us was created to live in captivity.

Let me ask you, dear one: What would you love to be free from? Is it sorrow? Regret? Self-contempt, addiction, shame, fear, worry, doubts?

What would you love to be free to do? Live your life? Follow your dreams? Love with abandon? Worship God? Experience Jesus—follow him, know him, believe him?

As we step more and more into freedom, we become the women we were meant to be. It can happen; it can be yours.

So why would captive Daughter Zion have to be told to free herself from the chains around her neck? We choose captivity over freedom because we are afraid of the price.

When Sabatina James, an eighteen-year-old Pakistani woman, rejected the arranged marriage her parents had made for her, her life became a living hell. After she refused to live within the confines of her family’s cultural parameters, her mother began to call her cruel names and beat her while alone or even in larger family gatherings. When the violence escalated and her parents threatened to murder her, she ran away. (The UN estimates that five thousand girls are murdered around the world every year by their parents for acting in ways they feel shame the family.) Living in Germany now, Sabatina said, “I rarely go out alone. I often wonder if someone is lurking around the corner. I have always loved my freedom—but I have paid a high price.”2

Yes, freedom can be costly. We know that. Look at Jesus. But captivity is always more costly. You pay too high a price to stay in chains. Freedom is good; freedom is what you are made for.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:1

We have been given the greatest freedom of all: freedom of heart, freedom from sin, a freedom that enables us to live and love as Jesus did.

We can be free from:

Bondage

Sin

The fear of man

Shame

Regret

Rage

Disappointment

Addiction

Fear

You name it

What would you like to be free from?

We are no longer captives to sin. We are no longer slaves to the Enemy, to the world, or to our own flesh. We have been released. We are not only free from; we are free to! We are free to be transformed into the very image of Christ. We are free to love in the face of hatred. Free to become the fullest expression of our unique selves. Free to offer to others the beauty that God planted in us when he first dreamed of us. We are free to:

Dream

Be happy

Be glorious

Succeed

Love

Live

Forgive

Not be bound by any chains

We have this freedom because of what Jesus has done for us! We have been ransomed, paid for, saved, and freed to be who we really are and do what we are meant to do.

What would you like to be free to do?

This brings us another startling freedom: we are free to fail. Let me say that again. We are free to fail. Because of Jesus, we can be free from the cages of other people’s expectations, demands, yokes, and judgments—even our own.

This isn’t about getting it perfect, dear one. We are loved, forgiven, embraced; we live under grace, not under judgment. Grace sets us free from perfectionism, which is a terrible prison. It sets us free even to fail.

My emotions waver. My physical strength and spiritual life have variables. One day I am strong in Christ, believing everything God says, and on another day I am not so strong. That’s okay. I will never be free from needing God, and neither will you. He alone is perfect, valiant, complete. And in him, so are we. But only in him.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. (2 Cor. 3:17)

freedom from spiritual bondage

The other night I was lying on the floor with worship music playing. But I wasn’t lying on the floor worshipping. I was wondering. The day had not been a great one. I was exhausted from work and too many conversations and thought the answer to my physical and emotional state would be found in pizza and chocolate ice cream. I chose to spend the entire day in old patterns of living that have never proven helpful. Lying on the floor, listening to the music, I asked God, “Do you really love me now? Here? How can you possibly love me in this low place?”

But I knew he did. Jesus died on the cross for all of my sins, even the ones I have committed over and over and over again. There was a battle going on for my freedom that day. And it was raging where it almost always rages: over what I would choose to believe.

It wouldn’t be right for me to talk about our freedom in Christ without addressing spiritual warfare at least a little bit. In Waking the Dead, my husband, John, wrote, “You won’t understand your life, you won’t see clearly what has happened to you or how to live forward from here, unless you see it as battle. A war against your heart.”3 Jesus has won our freedom in a spiritual showdown with Satan. But our Enemy still refuses to go down without a fight. He knows he cannot take down Jesus, the Victorious One. But he can still wound his heart by wounding ours. Jesus has won our freedom. But we need to receive it, claim it, and stand in it. That is our good fight of faith: believing God is who he says he is and believing we are who he says we are in the face of evidence surrounding us that screams the opposite.

In order for us to live in freedom and become who we are to become, we need to receive God’s love even in our lowest places.

Spiritual warfare is designed to separate you from the love of God. Its goal is to keep you from living in the freedom that Jesus has purchased for you. Satan whispers to us when we have failed or sinned or are feeling horrid that we are nothing and no one. He is a liar. And our fight for our freedom involves exposing him for who he is even when the lies feel completely true. The battle is waged and won in our thought life: in our minds and in our hearts.

So what are you thinking? (Yeah, right now.) Descartes famously wrote, “I think, therefore I am.” I would add a fill-in-the-blank in each phrase. I think I am ____, therefore I am ____. I think I am kind, therefore I am kind. I think I am chosen, therefore I am chosen. I think I am becoming more loving, therefore I am becoming more loving. I think I am forever bound to sin, therefore I am forever bound to sin. What we think about ourselves, others, or a circumstance informs how we perceive it, which informs the way we experience it. Our thoughts play out in our lives.

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Cor. 10:5)

What do you think about God? What do you think about yourself? Who are you? What do you think life is about? What do you think is true? Because what you think informs your reality and has a direct effect on how you live your life. What we focus on, we move toward. What we look at and esteem molds us in its direction. What are you thinking?

Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being. (Ps. 51:6 ESV)

Thy word is truth. (John 17:17 KJV)

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. (John 16:13)

In order to recognize a lie, we need to know the truth. Experts in counterfeit money don’t spend their time studying counterfeits. They study the real currency. In the same way, to engage in the spiritual battle raging around us, we don’t shift our focus to lies or to the Devil. We focus on Jesus. We marinate in the truth of who God is and who he says we are. Then and only then will we be able to quickly recognize a lie. And though there are some areas of bondage in our lives where truth is not going to be enough to set us completely free, we will never get any freedom at all without it.

Remember when Jesus was in the wilderness and the Devil came to tempt him? Jesus didn’t reason with the Enemy. He didn’t engage with him in a dialogue; he simply refuted him with the truth. “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).

So, Spiritual Warfare Level One: You have an Enemy. You are hated. Evil exists. Satan exists. Foul spirits exist. Peter wrote, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). Devour, not tempt. Devour as in shred, maul, kill, destroy. James commanded, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).

If we do not submit to God, the Devil will not flee. If we do not resist the Devil, he will not flee. There is no reason to fear or strive. But we do need to submit to God and resist the Devil. We enforce the freedom Jesus has won for us by believing and agreeing with the truth. This is a big, big part of “shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned, Jerusalem. Free yourself from the chains on your neck, Daughter Zion, now a captive” (Isa. 52:2). Time to rise up, girl.4 Spiritual laws need to be enforced just like traffic laws. When you are dealing with fallen angels, think Somali pirates; sex traffickers; the Mafia; and lawbreakers who hate authority, rebel against it, and breathe death and destruction. Demons don’t stop harassing you if you don’t force them to stop harassing you.

So what are you thinking? Yeah, right now. About this topic. About yourself. Does what you are thinking about yourself, others, or your circumstances today align with the Word of God?

We can no longer afford to let our thoughts run wild. What we think about matters. We have to make it a practice to regularly check in on our hearts, our thoughts. What are we believing? What agreements are we making? Why? When we become aware that our thoughts are not aligned with the Word of God, we repent and elevate our thoughts to agree with God. When we become aware of agreements we are making with the Enemy, like, “Life is hard, then you die,” or “I will never change,” we break those agreements regardless of how we feel. Out loud. As in:

I renounce this lie. I break every agreement I have been making with my Enemy. I renounce the agreement that [I am overwhelmed; I’ll never get free; I hate so-and-so; I am stupid, ugly, fat, depressed—name it and break with it]. I renounce this in the name of Jesus Christ my Lord.

what is true?

Here are some true things to fill your mind with:

The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. (1 John 4:4)

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Col. 1:13–14)

And having disarmed the powers and authorities [spiritual powers and spiritual authorities], he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Col. 2:15)

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. (Matt. 28:18)

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. (Eph. 2:4–6)

I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. (Luke 10:19–20)

Daughter of Zion—daughter of the true King—you rise up and sit enthroned when you take your position in Christ and command the Enemy to leave. The Enemy has been disarmed by the cross of Jesus Christ. When we engage in spiritual warfare, we are enforcing what has already been accomplished. That’s how you free yourself from the chains around your neck!

A basic tool for recognizing if you are under spiritual attack or dealing with foul spirits is to judge the fruit: “By their fruit you will recognize them” (Matt. 7:16). Is misunderstanding coming against your friendships? Pray against that. I bring the cross and blood of Jesus Christ against all misunderstanding and command it bound to his throne—by his authority and in his name. Are you feeling fear? Discouragement? Self-hatred? The fruit of all that is pretty obvious—it is foul, dark, and from hell. Resist it in the name of Jesus.

I am not being simplistic. I understand that often many other issues are involved: our brokenness, our sin, our history. Sometimes there’s a reason we struggle with certain things. That’s why James says we should first submit to God, then resist the Devil.

For instance, say you keep getting hit hard with a spirit of resentment. Commanding it to leave will not make it go away if you are entertaining resentment in your heart, engaging it in your imagination, and opening the door to it by agreeing with it in your thoughts. First you have to repent of resentment toward others, yourself, and God. Repent. You must seek the healing of Jesus in the wounds that allow resentment to come. You need to choose to love Christ right here, in this very place. This is how you submit to God. Then you will have the authority to command it to leave because you’ve withdrawn the welcome mat.

Familiar spirits are often hard to recognize because they are historic things you have struggled with. For me, as for many, it would be depression.

We need to break every agreement we have made with Satan. With discouragement. Defeat. Despair. Loneliness. Rage. Self-hatred.

Break agreements with it. Even if it feels true. Especially if it feels true! Repent of entertaining it, making room for it. Then send it to Jesus. I like to send foul spirits to the throne of Christ for him to decide what to do with them. I don’t just want to cast them out of my room or my house so they can go on to whomever they desire next. A lot of times, if it’s coming against you, it’s coming against the others around you as well. Send it to Jesus; forbid its return.

Let’s say you walk into a room and are suddenly hit with a wave of fear. Or perhaps you go to bed at night and BOOM, you start worrying about the future, your friends, you name it. Fear. There’s a mighty strong chance this isn’t just you. The Enemy may well be present in the form of a spirit of fear. When that happens to me, here is how I pray:

I bring the cross and blood of Jesus Christ against all fear, and in the name of Jesus Christ and by his authority I command every spirit of fear to leave me now; I send you bound to the throne of Jesus Christ. Go. Now. In Jesus’s name.

It’s good to name the specific spirit you are coming under. It doesn’t give it more power; rather it’s like opening the door into the cellar and letting the light in. It removes the power. You become aware that you aren’t overwhelmed or full of fear or shame. You aren’t intimidated. You don’t want to die. No, that’s coming from a foul spirit. Rebuke it. Out loud. In the name of Jesus Christ.

We’d better close this chapter with prayer:

Praise you, Jesus. Thank you for all you have accomplished for us. We love you. We worship you. You are the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and your name is above every other name that can be given in this age or in the age to come. We come under your authority now. We receive all the work that you accomplished for us in your cross and death, in your resurrection, and in your ascension. We take our place in your authority now, and in your name, Jesus, we come against every foul spirit that has been harassing us. We bring the cross and blood of Jesus Christ against every foul spirit of [what has been attacking you? Hatred, rage, intimidation, shame, accusation, judgment, offense, misunderstanding, fear, panic, dread, hopelessness, despair?]. We bring your blood and cross against these foul spirits. In the name of Jesus Christ and by his authority, we command every foul spirit bound to the throne of Jesus Christ for judgment. We break every agreement we have made with the Enemy, and we renounce them now. We make our agreement with the Truth. Father, please send your angels to enforce this command. Thank you, God. Praise you. We worship you, Jesus. We long to be free, to know you and to love you more deeply and truly. You are worthy. Please remove everything that separates us from knowing you as you truly are and keeps us from living in the freedom that you have purchased for us. In Jesus’s mighty name. Amen.

God has done everything, won everything, and given us everything we need to live in freedom. We are meant to walk in it, more and more. We won’t walk gracefully into it all the time. But by the grace of God, and with his help, we can stumble into it. One thought at a time. One day at a time.

notes

1. The Shawshank Redemption, directed by Frank Darabont (Culver City, CA: Columbia Pictures, 1994), DVD.

2. Sabatina James, “Sabatina James: Why My Mother Wants Me Dead,” Newsweek, March 5, 2012, http://www.newsweek.com/sabatina-james-why-my-mother-wants-me-dead-63709.

3. John Eldredge, Waking the Dead (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 18.

4. For more on this, see Eldredge, Waking the Dead; and Neil T. Anderson, The Bondage Breaker (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 1990).