Free Will
God will not strip away what you will not let go of. Because God chose to relate to us in love, He has committed to giving dignity to our choices.
You cannot be delivered from a spirit you continue to invite or rely on. If you make lies your refuge when trouble comes, you cannot be delivered from a spirit of deception. If you turn your heart toward anxious thoughts and doubts, you are actually allowing those spirits more reign in your heart...if you comfort yourself with lust, lust will not be forced from you. If you let those spirits run loose with your choices or your words of complaining and worry, heaven honors that choice and looses them as well:
Matthew 18:18 “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
The enemy must be resisted. It is a two step process: cast out the demonic forces, then turn your flesh...your hand and heart...towards God!
James 4:7-8 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Both steps are crucial because we have two enemies working against us:
1. the demonic forces that incite us to give in to our flesh with lies, and
2. our flesh itself.
Both must be resisted. We cast out the demonic forces from our mind and body so that our flesh can be more easily dealt with. Binding an afflicting spirit "cleans the house" of our heart and body...it is as simple as saying "spirit of depression leave now, in Jesus' name" but it requires resisting...actively wrestling with your words UNTIL you feel the spirit leave! That defeats enemy number 1, but we must do something with our flesh! If we just leave the house cleaned up and empty, we invite that same spirit to return:
Luke 11:24-26 “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”
The key to living in increasing freedom...increasing victory...is to clean the house THEN begin denying the flesh it's unhealthy food by feeding on the Spirit of God.
The house of your mind, will, emotions, and body...your flesh...was not made to be empty. There are no vacant houses in the heart and flesh of mankind! Creation abhors a vacuum! Your flesh was made to be a temple...a dwelling place for the increasing presence of God:
I Corinthians 6:18-20 Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
If you don't invite God to take you deeper...to fill you more...then you are hanging out the "vacancy" sign for the enemy. This is why HOLINESS MATTERS!
Chasing after holiness LIBERATES you from darkness! Reaching to be more like Jesus fills you with more of His presence...it gives Him an invitation to come and make His home in your heart...this is what Paul prayed for:
Ephesians 3:16-17 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
This choice to invite Jesus in by loving Him, is really the choice to obey Him!
John 14:15-16 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—
This process of filling your house with more and more of the presence of God starts with simply gazing on who He is with the eyes of your heart fueled by the Word which testifies of Him, then as you look at who He is, using your words to long to be more like Him...beholding and becoming fills the house of your heart:
II Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
This choice to look on, and speak of, what is Holy leads to great revelation of His beauty and starts a cycle of momentum towards God...the fascination causes a hunger for more consecration! This will cause you to be very unbalanced, but in a good way! This is called holiness!
This is safety in the time that flesh is being unrestrained because it produces great confidence that God loves you and you love God! When God is invisible, you need faith (confidence) that He loves you when very tangible enemy armies are rising up all around.
Psalms 27:3-6 Though an army may encamp against me, My heart shall not fear; Though war may rise against me, In this I will be confident. One thing I have desired of the Lord , That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord , And to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me; Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord .
Now is the time to ask the Lord "search me, find the evil in me. Let's cast it out and begin filling the vacant spaces with Your presence...that I might be ready for the time of trouble!"
Holiness really matters!
Psalms 42:7-8 Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; All Your waves and billows have gone over me. The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, And in the night His song shall be with me— A prayer to the God of my life.
You cannot be delivered from a spirit you continue to invite or rely on. If you make lies your refuge when trouble comes, you cannot be delivered from a spirit of deception. If you turn your heart toward anxious thoughts and doubts, you are actually allowing those spirits more reign in your heart...if you comfort yourself with lust, lust will not be forced from you. If you let those spirits run loose with your choices or your words of complaining and worry, heaven honors that choice and looses them as well:
Matthew 18:18 “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
The enemy must be resisted. It is a two step process: cast out the demonic forces, then turn your flesh...your hand and heart...towards God!
James 4:7-8 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Both steps are crucial because we have two enemies working against us:
1. the demonic forces that incite us to give in to our flesh with lies, and
2. our flesh itself.
Both must be resisted. We cast out the demonic forces from our mind and body so that our flesh can be more easily dealt with. Binding an afflicting spirit "cleans the house" of our heart and body...it is as simple as saying "spirit of depression leave now, in Jesus' name" but it requires resisting...actively wrestling with your words UNTIL you feel the spirit leave! That defeats enemy number 1, but we must do something with our flesh! If we just leave the house cleaned up and empty, we invite that same spirit to return:
Luke 11:24-26 “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”
The key to living in increasing freedom...increasing victory...is to clean the house THEN begin denying the flesh it's unhealthy food by feeding on the Spirit of God.
The house of your mind, will, emotions, and body...your flesh...was not made to be empty. There are no vacant houses in the heart and flesh of mankind! Creation abhors a vacuum! Your flesh was made to be a temple...a dwelling place for the increasing presence of God:
I Corinthians 6:18-20 Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
If you don't invite God to take you deeper...to fill you more...then you are hanging out the "vacancy" sign for the enemy. This is why HOLINESS MATTERS!
Chasing after holiness LIBERATES you from darkness! Reaching to be more like Jesus fills you with more of His presence...it gives Him an invitation to come and make His home in your heart...this is what Paul prayed for:
Ephesians 3:16-17 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
This choice to invite Jesus in by loving Him, is really the choice to obey Him!
John 14:15-16 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—
This process of filling your house with more and more of the presence of God starts with simply gazing on who He is with the eyes of your heart fueled by the Word which testifies of Him, then as you look at who He is, using your words to long to be more like Him...beholding and becoming fills the house of your heart:
II Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
This choice to look on, and speak of, what is Holy leads to great revelation of His beauty and starts a cycle of momentum towards God...the fascination causes a hunger for more consecration! This will cause you to be very unbalanced, but in a good way! This is called holiness!
This is safety in the time that flesh is being unrestrained because it produces great confidence that God loves you and you love God! When God is invisible, you need faith (confidence) that He loves you when very tangible enemy armies are rising up all around.
Psalms 27:3-6 Though an army may encamp against me, My heart shall not fear; Though war may rise against me, In this I will be confident. One thing I have desired of the Lord , That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord , And to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me; Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord .
Now is the time to ask the Lord "search me, find the evil in me. Let's cast it out and begin filling the vacant spaces with Your presence...that I might be ready for the time of trouble!"
Holiness really matters!
Psalms 42:7-8 Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; All Your waves and billows have gone over me. The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, And in the night His song shall be with me— A prayer to the God of my life.
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