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147. Deliverance doesn’t keep you free

 I am continually blown away by the goodness of the Lord. I am constantly challenged to grow in my obedience, my walk, my relationship, my faith and my pursuit of righteousness. Tonight was another deliverance at my home. It went amazingly well. New friendships were formed and old ones were deepened. We all learn and grow with experience. It takes stepping out, speaking up, humbling yourself and being led by the Holy Spirit to grow in areas of deliverance, healing, prophecy etc. Jesus is amazing!! He continues to blow my mind. Every. Single. Day.

Freedom is something that we are all given the ability to obtain. Freely we receive, freely give. However, it’s often that our walk and level of obedience (or lack there of) is what will make or break our continued freedom. I remember being in that position. The feeling of experiencing deliverance for the first time. Feeling lighter, free, having no more anxiety or racing thoughts. I remember how amazing that felt. I also remember those same demons that I was freed of, hunting me down like it was a game. I remember falling back into sin, and I remember those anxious thoughts coming right back. 

So what did I do? I went through deliverance again, and again and again. I dove into scripture. I remember watching a video of a long deliverance service. It was almost 4 hours long. I watched it theee days in a row. Each time experiencing a greater freedom. Each time the Lord bringing up different experiences that He wanted to heal. Even now, two years later, I am constantly healing and experiencing a greater freedom and a deeper deliverance. I’m constantly growing, learning and stepping out. 

Freedom is a process. It takes a lot of work. We have been bound up by years and years and years of hurt. That doesn’t go away in an instant. 

Deliverance is only a part of the process. We have to repent and turn away from sin. Yes that includes sex outside of marriage even if you’ve lived with the guy for 5 years. We have to be in the word, reading it. Not just verse of the day in our email. We have to drop the things of this world, run after and hold on to Jesus. We need the renewal of our minds with the truth of scripture. 

The enemy can’t jump on you and oppress you unless you open a door to him. Keep in mind though, that when you open the door back up, that oppression will walk right back in and make itself at home. Keep going after your freedom. Turn away from sin. Don’t go back to the things you’ve renounced. Don’t lay in bed with someone that’s tangled in soul ties. I’m not saying be perfect, we can’t be, but what’s more important to you? Being free or drinking alcohol, being free or doing drugs, being free or having sex, being free or watching trash tv? I’d choose being free over any one of those things because I know what it’s like to have been bound. Freedom tastes so much better than sin. 

I encourage you to keep chasing your freedom. To keep growing, learning, reading, praying and spending time in the secret place. The Lord will meet you where you are to get you where you’re destined to be. When people ask me why I love deliverance, it’s a very personal answer. It’s because I was set free from anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, and thousands of other demons that gained access to me over the course of my life. I wasn’t made perfect by deliverance, but I was strengthened. I wasn’t made righteous but I was able to read the word and understand it. It wasn’t the end result that I craved, instead it was only the beginning. 

1 Corinthians 10:13 - There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Matthew 26:41 - Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Ephesians 6:11 - Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Proverbs 26:11 Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.

Ephesians 4

Unity in the Body of Christ

4 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. 8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,and he gave gifts to men.”

9 In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood,to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

The New Life

17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

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