rstand that fear, PTSD, suicidal thoughts, bi-polar conditions, not having peace and joy, are all spiritual issues, and you bring the Scriptures (individually and as a group) to bear on these spiritual forces arrayed against you, you ARE going to have success in your battle for freedom and wholeness.
What does the word spiritual mean:
Relating to, or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.
In the Book of Colossians, Chapter 1 is a prayer that would be good for you to begin praying for yourself. Verse 9 reads: “We do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding”. Paul was telling the Colossians that he prayed this prayer for them, but you can also pray it for yourself. It would go like this: “Father, I ask you to fill me with the knowledge (insight) that You have about my life as Your child. That I would be able to see and understand what Jesus did for me on the Cross and what that means to my life today. I pray that You will also give me Your wisdom and spiritual understanding of the issue that I am dealing with so that I might see it through that Finished Work, in Jesus’ Name.”
God loves to answer prayers that we pray from His Word, Spirit-inspired prayers.
As He answers your prayer and gives you a spiritual understanding of your situation, it will bring the hope of total deliverance from any oppression. As you continue to develop your spiritual understanding from the Bible, your victory is guaranteed based on the Finished Work of the Cross.
If you have been oppressed for a long time, these words may be hard for you to believe, but the words of Jesus are clear:
“I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10).
“I have come to set the captives free.” (Luke 4:19)
“Who the Son sets free is free indeed.” (John 8:36)
“If you continue in my words, then you are my disciples indeed, and you shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32)
“And they overcame him (the devil) by the Blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony.” (Rev. 12:11)
When you understand from your spirit that these words were meant for you, you will be on your way to freedom. Truth will bring your deliverance, but you have to accept that His words are true for you personally. The world can give some help to the oppressed, but only the supernatural Word of God can bring about in your life the freedom gained at the Cross for you. The Word of God coming into your mind and acted upon, will set you completely free from oppression. Oppression comes from the spiritual realm and only the Truth in the supernatural Word of God has the Power to produce your freedom from the spiritual oppressors.
Have You Lost Hope of Being Free?
If you have lost hope that you can be free from oppression, we want to encourage you and help you get your hope back. The Bible says that losing hope makes the heart sick. (Proverbs 13:12)
When you have had hopes for a long time of getting the oppression under control, or being rid of it, and your hopes have not materialized, you get “heart sick.” You lose hope of ever being free.
God will cause your hope to come back to life, as you receive the encouragement of the Scriptures.
Proverbs 10:28: “The hope of the righteous shall be gladness,” or “The hopes of the godly result in happiness.”
Hope Based on A Guarantee….
The New Testament tells you about your guarantee of freedom. Jesus is the Author and Completer of that guarantee through His Finished Work on the Cross. The only way you are not going to have victory, is if you give up. If you don’t give up and you persevere, you will overcome any oppression.
If you are a Christian, you have a measure of faith (Romans 12:3), so faith is not necessarily the problem in dealing with oppression. Your faith will develop as you go along and study the scriptures and act on these scriptures. The real problem is losing hope in the middle of the push toward freedom.
We have seen many people, come out of and overcome different oppression’s. Just hang in there when things are not looking too good, and depend on the Words of Jesus. Put your trust in Him and freedom will come!
Lean Not To Your Own Understanding
Proverbs 3:5 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding.”
We have found in working with people that the first thing we encounter or come up against, is their understanding of what the problem is, what has caused it or is causing it. What they think they know messes them up. I tell them, “Well, the REAL problem is that you think you know what is going on, and what the problem is, but you really (spiritually) don’t!”
When I listen to people telling me what is happening in their lives, they give me a good understanding of the problem, but it is all from a natural standpoint. They have been leaning to their own understanding of their problem, which has usually come from a doctor, counselor, psychiatrist, friend, family member, etc.
When it comes to spiritual problems, such as PTSD and others, people usually do not know much about the spiritual realm. Most of them will admit that they do not have any real understanding of the problem from that standpoint.
We have found that even those who have been Christians for a long time, lack spiritual understanding of these problems. This is proof of what God says in Hosea 4:6 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”
When Christians have been diagnosed with PTSD, or Depression, and have been crying out to God for help, they need to look at this verse and ask themselves: “Am I lacking the right knowledge to get free of this problem?”
The answer is “Yes.” Somewhere they still lack the knowledge of Truth that will set them free. The teaching on this site will give them the answers they are lacking. These steps will help any Christian, no matter how long the oppression has been there, to understand how to apply the Word of Truth to produce their freedom.
The Oppressor’s authority over you has been broken when you became a believer in Jesus Christ….
Colossians 1:13 says, “God has delivered you from the power of darkness and brought you into the Kingdom of His dear Son.”
Acts 10:38: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power and He went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil.” (Healing refers to all forms of oppression.)
As a Christian, you (the real you, the spirit) have already been taken out of the kingdom of darkness. Now you have been placed in the kingdom of God’s Son. Come to Heaven with the right approach and get what you need! You have been suffering due to a lack of knowledge about the fact that Heaven has finished the work that guarantees your deliverance.
It was your spirit man that was translated out of the Kingdom of darkness. Satan no longer has any authority over the real you. And the only way that he can oppress your soul (mind, will and emotions) now, is to keep you ignorant of the fact that you aren’t under his rule any longer.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:23 & 24, Paul writes: “I pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved whole and entire unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He Who calls you Who also will do it.”
Once you, the spirit, have been born from above, become a new creature in Christ, 2 Cor 5:17, and translated out of the Kingdom and authority of darkness, then your mind must be renewed (Romans 12:2).
Renewing the Mind….
Again, “Getting a spiritual understanding.” Your mind is not automatically filled with light or Truth when you are saved. You must bring it out of the darkness of the old thoughts and into the new thoughts of your new life in Christ.
When you realize that God’s work in your life is based on the absolute truth, Jesus has already set you free, your entire sense of reality will begin changing and lining up with the Word of God. The next step is to learn how to fight the good fight of faith, co-labor with Jesus, stay in line with the Finished Work, and you will walk in freedom!
One of the main areas that Christians get tripped up is that they are usually taught to ask Heaven to do something that Jesus has already done for them. This fact reveals that what is being taught in most churches, is NOT the reality of the Finished Work.
That is not the way to approach Heaven, that is NOT faith and it is impossible to please God without faith:
Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, for he that comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
As we have mentioned before, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you have a measure of faith. We are giving you Scripture to feed that faith, and we are giving you the steps to walk that faith out to manifest your freedom from oppression. You are getting the Truth you need. Stand before the Oppressor boldly, and declare that he has no authority to put PTSD, or anything else on you. If you are in Christ and Christ is in you, you are working from the position of victory over the Oppressor, not coming to Heaven to ask God to give it to you. He has already done that at the Cross and made that Finished Work alive IN you when you were saved.
Depend on the supernatural now, not the wisdom of man….
1 Corinthians 2:5: “your faith should not be built upon the wisdom of man, but on the power of God.”
You need to depend on the supernatural power of God rather than the wisdom of man (man’s estimation of your problem). People go to doctors, psychiatrists, everywhere but to heaven, everywhere but to the Word of God.
You are going to go to Jesus now, to the Word of God. You are going to see what you have in Christ. You are not going to ask Him to do something. You are going to understand that He has already done the work to set you free.
Then, through His Word showing you the truth, you are going to come against the lies that you are dealing with and you are going to enjoy the freedom that Truth will give you, (John 8:32 – the Truth will set you free.)
Depend on the supernatural power of the Word of God. It will do its work!
Romans 1:16 states, “The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes.”
That Greek word for salvation, ‘sozo’, means: healing, deliverance, soundness of mind, preservation, protection, provision.
There is a supernatural power in the Word of God, that is why Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for in it is the power of God revealed.” The Gospel is that Jesus came to set the captives free. The power of the Gospel will set you free, supernaturally.
We are giving you the Scriptures which set out for you the Gospel of Christ. They will bring God’s power on the scene for you as you stand against the darkness of oppression.
The devil’s chief weapon is unbelief. This is a very old strategy for keeping you in bondage. He used it first in the Garden of Eden:
Genesis 3:4 “Hath God said?”
The devil came to Eve and lied to her. He uses the same strategy against us, the reason: it works. So you will have to commit to the Truth of the Word and pull down thoughts that do not line up to the truth of John 8:32: “You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.” What truth? The Word of God.
Question: What IS truth?
Most Christians have to think about this.
Answer: Truth is the Word of God!
Question: What is a lie?
Answer (very simple): Anything that is opposite of the Word of God is a lie!
Here is an example for you from a person we worked with who was a drug addict (this will apply to any issue):
When a person is a drug addict, they are told: “Once a drug addict, always a drug addict.”
They then say this about themselves, even Christians. In recovery programs they are made to stand up and say, “I am a drug addict”, “I am an alcoholic”, etc., even if they have celebrated a length of time free from the addiction.
This is a classic example of a statement that contradicts the Word of God. When Jesus sets you free, He does not expect you to go around the rest of your life confessing what you WERE, He wants you to confess what you ARE through His delivering power.
Confessing that you are still bound when He has set you free, is an example of a lie. Remember, a lie is anything contrary to the Word of God.
Jesus said, “Whom the Son sets free is free indeed.” We need to acknowledge what He said. Even when you are beginning your stand against an issue, and fighting the good fight of faith against it, you should always insist on and accept what Jesus said. That is the only way to your TOTAL FREEDOM from any oppression, by believing what Jesus said.
Receive The Word With Meekness….
Thoughts can be very stubborn. Over time, oppression sets up a thought pattern in your mind. The Bible calls these thought patterns, “strongholds.” These strongholds do not want to “bow their knee” to the Word of God. They are demonic, based in pride, and think they are the final authority in your life.
We must bow the ‘knee’ of our minds/thought life to the Word of God to get to freedom. The spiritual forces behind the strongholds keeping you captive have only one intention in your life: to steal, kill and destroy, (John 10:10), and they will not ‘bow’ to anything but the Word of God. When Jesus resisted the devil He said: “It is written…..”
James says we must with “meekness receive the engrafted Word which is able to save your souls”, (James 1:21). Meekness is an inner attitude of the mind, will and emotions. Bowing down before God and His Word and receiving what it says about you, regardless of how you feel or what your current thoughts are. For example, when Jesus says, “whom the Son sets free is free indeed”, you bow your soul and say: “Lord, if You say You set me free, then I declare I am free!.
That is meekness. You don’t continue in your old understanding of the problem, but receive the new reality that God’s Word is setting before you about you.
If you will also acknowledge that anything contrary to the Word is a lie, then you can proceed to total freedom. The process of freeing/saving the soul begins with your acknowledge what the Scriptures say. Each time the lie arises that you are still bound or will never get free, you confront it:
“The lie says this, but the Word says this!”
You are reinforcing the Word and exposing anything contrary to It as a lie. You will then get past the lie and begin living in the Truth.
This is being a DISCIPLE. It is renewing your mind. It is acknowledging the Truth, and the Truth is working freedom in your life.
That is what Jesus Himself said: “If you are my disciple indeed (in truth, in action), you shall know the Truth and the Truth will set you free.” This one scripture can bring you into freedom from any form of oppression.
Anything the Son of God says, such as this, you can take that ONE PROMISE and get free just on that alone.
John 8:44 Lies will keep you in bondage. “….the devil is a liar and the father of them.”
Satan is the father of lies, and a lot of Christians don’t know this!
“Whom the Son sets free is free indeed,” and Jesus has actually, in everyday life, SET YOU FREE! This is absolute truth.
If you have lost your hope of being free, spend some time re-reading these things and thinking about them. Your hope will reawaken. You will begin to see how this works, and that your freedom is ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY GUARANTEED by the Son of God Himself.
“I have come to set the captive free,” (Luke 4:19). This statement is not an advertising slogan from Jesus, or a cute one liner, THIS IS TRUE FOR YOU! And He completed it, when He rose from the dead.
THE NEW TESTAMENT IS A GUARANTEE OF FREEDOM TO THE CAPTIVE!
As your hope is reawakened, it will turn into faith.
Once you say, “Yes, I see that means me!” The renewing of the mind has begun. You will sense the supernatural power of the Word of God changing you. This is a battle and can be difficult, but hang in there, and make a stand on the Word of God, on Truth.
The Word of God is absolute. Jesus came to set the captives free and if you are a captive, that means you! Can you see that? Jesus said that He came to give you abundant life, relate this to yourself:
John 10:10 “The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, but I am come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.”
John 10:10 is the dividing line of Scripture.
Jesus brought forth truth that had been hidden from our understanding from the foundation of the world, “I will open my mouth and utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.” (Matthew 13:35).
Here in John 10:10, He shows us something that had been ‘kept hidden’: the clear distinction between God and the devil.
A good question to ask others or yourself is: “If Jesus came to give us abundant life, what does the devil come to do?”
Sadly, most people can’t answer this question.
If we can’t answer this question, then we don’t know what is going on, spiritually.
John 10:10 however, is the plain and simple answer to that question. The devil comes to steal, kill and destroy.
Ask yourself: “Has this happened in my life?”
If it has, let’s talk about how.
Satan, who is your defeated foe, builds strongholds in your life through thoughts and continuous lies which produce all sorts of oppression. After a time, the lie becomes a reality and you can become totally convinced that the lie is absolutely true. It is quite amazing how these lies can have so much power over your mind, emotions, will and life. What are we to do with these lies?
First of all, discover they are lies by finding what God’s Word says about you and what Jesus made available through the Work He did on the Cross for you. Then use that Truth to ‘pull down the thoughts’ that do not line up with that Truth:
Capture and pull down thoughts and lies. (2 Corinthians 10:4)
“We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.”
Read this verse in some other translations. You will see that this is very, very simple. You just have to be careful of your thought life. You have to make sure that any thought that comes into your mind lines up with Scripture. This verse is very clear, that is we don’t pull down these thoughts that are contrary to the Truth, that they become a stronghold over our lives. As Christians, we usually know this Scripture and most of us can quote it, but for some reason we have difficulty applying it in our own lives!
Looking at these lying thoughts a little more, they can become absolute reality to you as you begin to believe them. You can think them all the time and as you do you give them more and more credibility. This means any thought you have about yourself that brings bondage, fear, oppression, darkness, our past sins, guilt and shame, etc. This is very serious because it bring to light again the scripture that says, “as a man thinks in his heart so is he.” This can work to bring bondage as opposed to what God intended: freedom.
Remind yourself about “capturing and pulling down” any lies and make sure your thought life, especially where it concerns any bondage you might be in, is lining up with the Word of God and the Finished Work of the Cross.
One helpful thing to do is make a “Freedom Statement.” Write out on a piece of paper a version of 2 Corinthians 10:4 that especially speaks to you and then make a statement out of it, such as: “I pull down thoughts of _______________ that are contrary to the Truth of the Word that says I am/have ________________________. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate words that apply to your particular situation.
A Working Example
Let’s take a subject mentioned above and use it for an example: hopelessness. This is a very relevant, negative, horrible thought that has become a stronghold in many lives especially if they have been dealing with something for an extended period of time.
When hopelessness is overcome, it opens the door to freedom.
The world can help, but even the best psychiatrist will admit that there is no cure for many of the mental and emotional ailments that people have, and that even medication can only treat the symptoms. This contributes to the sense of hopelessness that people feel.
Only Jesus Christ can set a person free from spiritually based problems, and through His Word, you can defeat these feelings of hopelessness. As your mind is transformed by the Word of God, (Romans 12:2), you will overcome these feelings of hopelessness. Here are some Scriptures to encourage you:
“I have come that you might have abundant life.” John 10:10
“I have come to set the captives free.” Luke 4:19
“Who the Son sets free is free indeed.” John 8:32
“If you continue in my words, then you are my disciples, and you shall know the Truth and the Truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)
“And they overcame him (Satan), by the Blood of the Lamb (Jesus), and the word of their testimony.” Revelation 12:11
Trust these words, and the stronghold of ‘hopelessness’ will bow its knee to the power, truthful words of our Lord and Master.
Jesus is LORD.
Hopelessness will not find a place of lodging in the life of a committed Christian, once the Christian has spiritual understanding and trusts the words of Jesus. Hopeless will be overcome and defeated, but it will take some time to get the mind renewed to line up with the Word.
Don’t lean any longer on your current understanding of your situation. That will only breed more hopelessness. In Proverbs 3:5, we are told not to “lean to our own understanding,”, or a purely human estimation. The world’s estimation may be that there is no cure, but in the reality of God’s Word, the Cure has already been made available.
Jesus is the same Yesterday, Today and Forever, (Heb. 13:8), and He said that if He sets you free, you will be free indeed, that you would know the Truth and the Truth would make you free, that He came to give you life and that more abundantly. He does not change and His Word does not change. Depend on His Word. Accept the Real Truth from the Bible and YOU are on your way to freedom.
How do we get things from heaven?
Well, how did you get saved? You accepted the words of the New Testament, believed in the finished work of Jesus that He died on your behalf, bore your sin, and you accepted this reality. When you confessed with your mouth that you believed Jesus had saved you, the Holy Spirit seals or makes real IN you this truth.
Romans 10:8-10 – But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach). That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
This same principle applies to mental, emotional or physical healing. You get things from heaven when you believe with your heart and speak with your mouth. What you believe and speak becomes real inside of you. Now comes the living out of it. Before you walk in any aspect of the Finished Work of the Cross, you will most likely have a battle on your hands. This is where most Christians fail, you will need courage and persistence to walk in the things that Jesus has accomplished for you.
Growing Up, Spiritually…
First John 2:12-14 talks about three stages of spiritual growth: the child, the young man and the father. Little children spiritually know primarily that their sins have been forgiven. When you come into the young man stage spiritually, these are the characteristics that you have developed: you are strong, the Word of God abides in you and you have overcome the wicked one.
You will become a young man spiritually as you courageously persist in the Word of God as you face the wicked one and his oppression’s on and against your life.
As you face down the stronghold he has built in your mind, read and meditate on the words of Jesus, do not give up, let the words of Jesus become your reality and defeat the negative thoughts that will definitely come during the first fight. As you persist, you will overcome it with the Word and this stronghold will leave you.
Applying this to the oppression of hopelessness, the thoughts of hopelessness will flee, just like the Word of God said they would: “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7).
Here is a declaration of freedom to get you started:
“Thank you, Father, I have what your Son has paid for, my total freedom from oppression. I honor the finished work of Jesus by laying hold of what Jesus has already paid for, for me. I will not ask for what had already been paid for, but I will lay hold of it. I come in real faith, Father, which I know pleases you. I resist the devil and he flees from ME. I will walk in freedom, in Jesus’ Name!”