10

stumbling into freedom

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.

—Paul, Galatians 5:1

John and I went to the zoo on Saturday. 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, 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 we shine up on the screens at the women’s retreats we hold:

Shake off your dust;

rise up, sit enthroned, Jerusalem.

Free yourself from the chains on your neck,

Daughter Zion, now a captive. (52:2 NIV 2011)

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 savannahs. This is a horrible place to come to. Not a one of us was created to live in captivity.

By the way, there can be many zookeepers in our lives. We can chain ourselves through years of bad habits, bad mental patterns, chosen idolatries that become our addictions. Other people can chain us through their expectations and demands. Many people have a picture in their minds of who we ought to be and how we should be living. Cultures can chain us; religions can chain us. And of course behind it all we have an Enemy who loves nothing more than to keep us in prison. We will have to choose freedom and fight for our freedom as the Scripture urges.

Let me ask you, dear one: what would you love to be free from? Is it sorrow? Regret? Resentment, 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?

This is all a part of our becoming. As we become the woman God always meant us to be, we are able to step into more and more freedom. And as we step more and more into freedom, we become the woman 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. But sister, captivity is always more costly. You pay too high a price to stay in chains. Freedom is what you are made for; freedom is good.

we were meant to be free

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise. (Gal. 4:22–23)

Okay, I’ll confess I never liked the story of Hagar and Sarah. (You’ll find it in the Old Testament, tucked between the Tower of Babel and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.) I’ve always felt bad for Hagar. I mean, she was Sarah’s slave. She didn’t have a choice of whether to obey or not. It was Sarah—who was barren and mighty bitter about it—who cooked up the plan to have her husband, Abraham, sleep with Hagar in the hope that perhaps she could bear him a son. It’s a messy story.

But in the New Testament we are urged to read the story figuratively, as a kind of parable, a spiritual picture:

These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. (Gal. 4:24–26)

Hagar is the bondswoman, and she represents bondage. Her son, Ishmael, represents the fruit that comes from being in bondage. By staying in relationship with Hagar and Ishmael and keeping them close, Sarah and Abraham were preventing Isaac from being able to receive his full God-given inheritance as a son. When Isaac was weaned, his father Abraham threw him a big party to celebrate (Gen. 21). Hagar was there and so was Ishmael. And they were jealous. Ishmael mocked Isaac just like the fruit of bondage in our life mocks us—be that the scale or the bank account or the failures we relive as we lie awake at night.

Genesis tells us that Hagar despised Sarah. The word used in Genesis means cursed. She and her son hated and mocked Isaac as well. They cursed him. They wanted the inheritance from Abraham for themselves. They did not want it to go to the one God had given it to.

Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” (Gal. 4:28–30 NIV 2011)

Sarah dealt harshly with them. “Get rid of that slave woman and her son,” she told Abraham (Gen. 21:10). Abraham felt bad about that. He went to his tent and asked God what to do, and God told him, “Do what Sarah said. Make them leave” (v. 12, author’s paraphrase). So he did, and they left. (And by the way, God took great care of Hagar and Ishmael. He dealt kindly with them.) This story is actually about our need as believers to cast out any and all bondage from our life. And after we have done so, not to let ourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. It is about casting out the fruit of that bondage as well.

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. (Gal. 5:1)

God has given each of us an inheritance in Christ. Jesus came that we might have life and life to the full. When we get into relationships with people or institutions or into patterns of behavior or addictions that are not God’s highest for us, they get in the way of our being able to receive what God has for us. We are to deal strongly with areas of bondage in our life. We are not to make excuses for them but cast them out. Make them leave. We say no to bondage, no to mocking spirits, no to accusing spirits. We say no—fiercely and firmly to any accusation that we are (fill in the blank—what are you accused of being?) unloving, disqualified, stuck, mean, unforgiving, lacking in faith, lacking in beauty, or lacking—period. And we say yes to God and yes to what he has spoken over our life. Yes to his promises.

Like Isaac, you have a God-given inheritance. You have a destiny. You are a daughter. You are also a bride. You are a coheir with Christ. Your inheritance in Christ is freedom and life and joy and every good gift. Your inheritance is victory and a heart that is not striving or filled with fear but at rest. It’s holiness and happiness and peace. Your inheritance includes having peace in your soul no matter what is going on in your life. As we walk toward our freedom, we walk toward who we are becoming.

It begins with an internal choice.

choosing to be free inside

Many years ago John and I were members of a wonderful church in Southern California. A young man also attended there who had an amazing spirit and an even more amazing testimony. “Daniel” was from Uganda; he had lived there under the brutal reign of Idi Amin. He had been in prison there, beaten, and tortured—and he had the scars to show for it. He had been imprisoned because he was a Christian.

Many of his days were spent being beaten. During one of his trials, he was hung from his feet and beaten over a period of days. The guard’s job—his job—was to whip Daniel. After several days of this, after the ritual torture, as his guard was preparing to leave, Daniel said to the guard, “Have a nice evening.”

Seriously. He said that. Daniel blessed him. By the grace of Jesus Christ living in his heart, he was able to forgive his oppressors and in that forgiveness rise above the bondage they wanted over his life—the bondage of his heart, mind, and spirit.

“Have a nice evening.” My goodness. Which of these two men was truly free?

The guard was undone and incredulously asked, “How can you say that to me? How can you say that?” Daniel told him how. He told him about Jesus, about the price Jesus had paid to win his heart, about the freedom he knew in Christ. He told him about being forgiven and accepted and loved perfectly. And a few days later, that guard helped Daniel to escape. But first he took him home to feed him and have him share the gospel with his family.

Have a nice evening?!?!?!

We can be so free. It all begins here—with an internal choice to let Christ so invade our hearts that we cannot be held to any sort of bondage internally. We choose to love, to forgive; we choose not to fear; we choose life.

Most of us are probably still laboring under the impression that freedom comes first in our circumstances, and then we can experience love, joy, peace, patience, and all the other wonderful fruit of the Spirit. Not so. God usually begins first with the transformation of our attitudes; then he can change our circumstances.

Did you know that you have been set free from sin? Did you know that you now have a good heart? It’s true. It happened through the coming of Jesus Christ for you:

Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the Cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin’s every beck and call! … From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did.…

A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. (Rom. 6:6, 11; 8:2 MSG)

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. (Ezek. 36:26–27)

He purified their hearts by faith. (Acts 15:9)

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. Let me show you how this works in an area many, many women struggle with.

judge not lest ye be judged

In chapter 3 I talked about how mean women can sometimes be. Girls can be catty, vicious. We cut with our words and even with a look. I think it all comes back to our vulnerability, that glorious vulnerability God gave us when he created us feminine. It also flows out of our relational gifting; God made us masters of relationship. But when fear and insecurity seize upon our vulnerability, we become self-protective. We look for ways to feel better about ourselves, and one of our choicest ways is to bring others down. If we are insecure in ourselves or our life choices, then people who make choices different from ours can feel threatening. We judge.

“She’s breastfeeding on demand. She’s breastfeeding on a schedule. She isn’t breastfeeding. Her children are going to public school. Her children are homeschooled. She’s going back to work. She isn’t working. Their family is so busy they never have time to sit down to dinner together. They eat only organic food. They eat only processed food. If she exercised more often she wouldn’t have those extra ten pounds. She talks too much and laughs too loud. She never speaks. These people are doing it wrong!”

Judgments are dangerous; judgments are like curses. They release the hatred of the Enemy upon those we have judged. When Christians pray with a spirit of judgment, it is not a prayer, it is a curse. Christian curses happen when we pray wanting vengeance, when we pray with a spirit of hatred, judgment, anger, or revenge. Prayers like “Get him, God,” “Teach him a lesson,” “Rebuke him, God” have the same energy as witchcraft. Actually, they are witchcraft, and they hurt people. They damage them spiritually and physically. They damage us as well. Judgments also backfire; they open the door for judgment to come back upon us.

In Matthew 7:1–2 Jesus says, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

When we judge others with a sense of righteous indignation—when we enjoy it, feel justified in it—we are opening the door for judgments and curses to come into our lives. When I say “judging,” I’m not talking about the wisdom of discernment between evil and good. I’m talking about cursing others.

Some dear friends are the only Christians in their extended family. It is a close family system (some might say too close), and the rule is that all members are always present for any holiday. (This is a good example of a family acting as a zookeeper, creating a bondage for its members.) As our friends have grown in Christ they have chosen not to attend every family obligation. This has brought a lot of judgment on them. They experience that judgment as a real spiritual oppression; of course, it is. It is sin, and it is permission for the Enemy to oppress.

The problem is this: our friends are judging back. In their hearts and words, they continually judge their family for judging them! (It gets pretty twisted.) And they can’t get free of the relational bondage or especially the spiritual cursing of those judgments until they first repent of their judging.

And I’m wondering, how many relationships between women are ensnared in the same dynamic?

We can be free from judgments, or at least more free—free from judging others and free from the effect of others judging us.

God says to bless those who are cursing us. In his wild, free, and amazing love, he instructs us to pray blessing over people—pray blessing over people who have hurt you, judged you, maligned you, rejected you, or simply misunderstood you, or who have done that to someone you love very much. Pray blessing on them. The truth is that’s what you want. Pray more of Jesus for people! Because when they become blessed and happy and close to Jesus, they won’t be hating on you and those you care for anymore! Also, you will receive blessing instead of cursing as well.

The spiritual principle here is you reap what you sow. Bless. Bless. Bless. “Shower people with your favor, God, with your love, with your Presence!”

We want to be free of judgment, and because of Jesus we can be free. We can be free from:

Bondage

Sin

The fear of man

Shame

Regret

Rage

Disappointment

Addiction

Fear

You name it.

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:

Be happy

Be glorious

Succeed

Love

Live

Forgive

Not be bound by any chains

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.

You know that catchy saying, “Dance as though no one is watching you. Love as though you have never been hurt. Sing as though no one can hear you. Live as though heaven is on earth”? I’ve never liked that. I’ve thought, how can anyone be free to love like they’ve never been hurt? How can we do that when we have been hurt and hurt badly?

How can we be free to dance like no one is watching? Unless you are home alone with the curtains drawn, people are probably watching. How do we live in freedom? We live in freedom when we come to believe, know, receive, and embrace the boundless love of God for us—when we are captured by his goodness, his faithfulness, his honor, his sacrifice, his heart that yearns for us. Then we can dance for an audience of One. Because we are so completely loved. We are safe and secure in the love of God. Every moment of our lives.

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. It 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. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Cor. 3:17–18 NIV 2011)

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 travel 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 the women 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, esteem, molds us in its direction. What we think is true plays out in our moment-by-moment existence. What are you thinking?

Surely you desire truth in the inner parts. (Ps. 51:6)

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

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all 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 writes, “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 NIV 2011). Devour, not tempt. Devour as in shred, maul, kill, destroy. James commands, “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 NIV 2011). 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, law breakers 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.

We can no longer afford to let our thoughts run wild. What we think on 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. 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.

Regardless of how you feel.

what is true?

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 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 and engaging it in your imagination. If you’ve opened 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 seek the healing of Jesus in the wounds that allow resentment to come. You 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 it would be depression. For many women, it is death. (By the way, daydreaming about your memorial service is not a good idea, and I know I’m not the only woman who has done that. Imagining what people will say, how they’ll feel—bad idea. If we are longing for relief from the sorrow of life or our failures through death, we are coming into an agreement with death. Jesus wants life for us. Always. Jesus is Life. In those moments, invite Jesus into your need and your sorrow.) 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 children, 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.

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).

2. Sabatina James, “Why My Mother Wants Me Dead,” Newsweek, March 5, 2012, www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/03/04/sabatina-james-why-my-mother-wants-me-dead.html.

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

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