I believe according to the Holy Bible that the main thrust of the devil’s attacks against people will be in the MIND and EMOTIONS and for this reason, it’s not surprising that mental/emotional health is such a huge problem in society.

EPHESIANS 6:11 NLT Put on all of God’s armour so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.

From my observation, it’s usually during times when people are feeling vulnerable that evil spirits are given an opportunity to bring affliction.

2 CORINTHIANS 2:11 MESSAGE After all we don’t want to unwittingly give Satan an opening for yet more mischief we’re not oblivious to his sly ways!

2 CORINTHIANS 2:11 AMPC To keep Satan from getting the advantage over us; for we are not ignorant of his wiles and intentions.

The Apostle Paul also warns in EPHESIANS 4:27 NIV And do not give the devil a foothold.

What is he doing? He’s looking for an opening, an opportunity a moment of weakness or vulnerability.

It’s like when the door is open and someone is trying to get in so they put there foot between the door and the door frame to stop the door from closing. You know something, if you keep the door closed spiritually speaking the devil will have nowhere to put his foot into.

I’m not sure where you are all at. I pray that everyone is living in victory and has the joy of the Lord ruling and reigning in your hearts but maybe that’s not you.

Maybe you don’t have a relationship with God and you feel the emptiness that only God can fill or maybe you love Jesus but your struggling right now and you don’t know what to do.

I want to fast forward to Jesus’ first sermon in the Synagogue because it reveals some very powerful things about finding answers in our desperation.

LUKE 4:16-18 NKJV

16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. 17 And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book He found the place where it was written: 18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.

Right here you have Jesus’ mission statement.

1. Teach God’s economy and how to get out of POVERTY.
2. Heal the BROKENHEARTED of spirit and soul.
3. Bring liberty to those that are CAPTIVE mentally and emotionally.
4. Bring liberty to those who are being demonically OPPRESSED.

Jesus Christ specifically came to earth to SAVE and DELIVER us or you could say RESCUE us from these demonically inspired attacks.

The only way to break the power of these afflictions is to REPENT of sin and ACCEPT Jesus Christ into your life and be BORN AGAIN. Start fresh but this time with God in your life and His Word guiding you into making the right decisions.

HOW SATAN OPERATES AGAINST US 1 PETER 5:8-9 NKJV Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him steadfast in the faith knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.

The Lord has shown me that there are what I call TEN D’s and each D stands for a word that has the potential to demoralise us.

1. DISCOURAGEMENT
2. DISAPPOINTMENT
3. DEFEATED
4. DIVISION
5. DOUBT
6. DISBELIEF
7. DISCONTENTMENT
8. DISTRACTIONS
9. DECEIVE
10. DESTRUCTION

These 10 D’s I just read can be empowered by EVIL SPIRITS and the only solution is they must be EXPOSED and they need to be CAST-OUT.

1. DISCOURAGEMENT
   This means to remove or lose courage in you. Evil spirits come to remind you of past failures and mistakes. Maybe things have not turned out the way you thought they would. Maybe you were let down or wounded by someone.
2. DISAPPOINTMENT
   This is huge in Church. There are so many disappointed Christians who feel that God has let them down or has not come through for them but actually evil spirits can get into our lives when we are vulnerable and make us believe that there is no reason to keep believing.It is so important that the basis of your belief is not based on some kind of BARGIN or DEAL for example ‘God you do this for me then I will believe and serve you’.
   This can lead to an enormous amount of frustration and disappointment because the motive is not right or sincere.
   The basis to believe and worship God is simply because He exists, He is our Creator and Saviour everything else is a bonus.
   Whilst I have Jesus I have nothing NO-THING to be disappointed over. If you get this right it will keep your faith in check.
3. DEFEATED
   Discouraged and Disappointed people usually go on to feel DEFEATED and believe me there are evil spirits to keep you feeling defeated in life. It’s one of the causes for people contemplating suicide. They feel like they just can’t go on. December has the highest spike in suicides in the whole year.I believe that behind every suicide attempt or suicide there is an evil spirit behind it without question. It compels a person into believing that the only solution is to end it all. This is why Jesus said that Satan is a murderer.
4. DIVISION
   The Bible says that unity brings a BLESSING and this is why evil spirits are always seeking to divide you from relationships.
   One of the strengths of a happy and successful life is having long-term established relationships with people it’s also a sign of a stable and loyal person because they have such long-term relationships. Evil spirits are always seeking to divide you from others and keep you in hostility.
5. DOUBT
   This is one that entraps so many Christians. It’s an Unbelieving spirit causing you to doubt or question God’s Word and His Promises.
   The Bible says in HEBREWS 3:12 NKJV Beware brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.
   Doubt or Unbelief is also an evil spirit that can keep you from receiving revelation from God. It can be a generational spirit where a whole family is just bound with demons that are blinding them to the truth.
   Even the Bible says in ACTS 9:18 NKJV Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales and he received his sight at once.
6. DISBELIEF
   Disbelief is different to Doubt even though they are similar but differ in that Doubt is sometimes 50×50 or it believes but always questions whereas Disbelief has a stubborn, refusal to accept the truth.
   Many atheists have this spirit that has usually come from some disappointment in life or a refusal to accept moral judgments.
   Atheism is an implausible and illogical position because it makes no sense that the entire universe, earth and human being just accidentally happened without any intelligent design.
   A more sensible position would be to say ‘Who is this intelligent designer?’
   Well I can tell you who the intelligent designer is His name is Jesus.JOHN 1:1-3 NKJV
   
   1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
   2 He was in the beginning with God.
   3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
   14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.COLOSSIANS 1:15-16 NLT
   15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
   16 for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.One word destroys an atheist’s argument and that word is ORDER. Order can’t come from chance there must be someone who creates the ORDER.
7. DISCONTENTMENT
   Takes away your peacemaking you compare yourself to others always thinking what you have is not good enough.
   Chronic or constant discontentment can lead to you being demonically afflicted where you are always critical, highly jealous, easily intimidated by what others have or do and just generally always miserable.
8. DISTRACTIONS
   Church listen to me on this one. If there is one thing that Satan is a master of it’s distractions. He knows how to hinder you from God. Even the Apostle Paul said in 1 THESSALONIANS 2:18 NKJV Therefore we wanted to come to you even I Paul time and again but Satan hindered us.In the Short term, distractions keep you always busy and away from God.
   In the Long-term the distance from God will eventually lead to poor decisions about your faith to ruin your destiny in God.
   Most of if not all of Satan’s tactics to distract you will be REALLY GOOD ONES they rarely come in the form of something bad.
9. DECEIVE
   Evil spirits attack your mind trying to convince you that God’s Word is not true. Satan did this with Jesus in the desert. Constantly questioning Him with ‘IF’.
   JAMES 1:16 NKJV Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.1 TIMOTHY 4:1 NKJV Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons.
   Any message that is not Christ-centred and by that I mean central to the faith is the Cross of Christ. The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the only means unto salvation then it’s nothing more than deception that has originated from demonic spirits.
10. DESTRUCTION
    Satan knows he cannot rob you of your salvation spiritually speaking but he can attack your soul and body.
    He knows he can hinder and immobilise you from serving the Lord by causing trauma to get you off track perhaps being accident prone.
    We see this in the Gospels when Jesus and His Disciples were on a boat in the Sea of Galilee and a huge storm out of no where came to destroy the boat.
    We know this because they would never have gotten into the boat if the storm was already happening right and where were they headed to the Region of the Gergesenes where the two demon possessed men were it was also the Region of the 7 Pagan Tribes that attacked Joshua.

Now tell me are all Christians immune from these things? Of course not!

The problem today is that Christians are being told it’s all psychological it’s all in the mind and most ministers have ceased teaching on the reality of spiritual warfare of curses and demon spirits.

And you know this has left many good Christian people in Churches frustrated and totally bound with problems that they are being told don’t worry in time it will all go away just pray harder, worship harder, and give more.

Now the truth is that many problems do originate from an UN-RENEWED MIND that requires your thinking to change however what we find in the Gospels is Jesus confronting many of these issues head-on by taking authority over evil spirits.

These 10 D’s I just read can be empowered by EVIL SPIRITS and the only solution is they must be EXPOSED and they need to be CAST-OUT.

You know after 25 years of ministry in this area of Healing and Deliverance and in particular, observing the nature and activity of demon spirits I have discerned that there are some demons that behave just like unruly children in a playground causing havoc but when the teacher comes by they go very quiet, passive and have the appearance that they are so well behaved so as not to draw attention. Why? Because they don’t want to be confronted, exposed and disciplined or in our case CAST-OUT.

You can be free from demoralising thinking in Jesus’ name.

OUR NEXT FREEDOM DAY IS ON SUNDAY 28 JUNE 2026 10.00AM

MATTHEW 8:16-17 NKJ “When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: ‘He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.”MATTHEW 8:16 NLT “That evening many demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. He cast out the evil spirits with a simple command and he healed all the sick.”

MATTHEW 8:16-17 LIVING BIBLE “That evening several demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus and when he spoke a single word all the demons fled and all the sick were healed. This fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah ‘He took our sicknesses and bore our diseases.’”

MATTHEW 8:16 TPT “That evening the people brought to him many who were demonised. And by Jesus only speaking a word of healing over them they were totally set free from their torment and everyone who was sick received their healing!”

The Holy Spirit has shown me that with just a WORD the demonised today will be delivered and the sick will be healed.

One of the most distinguishing features of the Holy Bible is God providing DELIVERANCE for His people. DELIVERANCE means to be SET-FREE. It means to be taken from one place and released into another. DELIVERANCE means to be RESCUED.

In the Old Testament God delivered His people out of the bondage and slavery of Pharaoh in Egypt to the freedom of God’s Promised Land in Canaan. This was a physical DELIVERANCE which was led by Moses the deliverer.

God’s people were set free from bondage and freed from slavery.

In the New Testament God uniquely delivered His people out of the bondage of Satan to the freedom of a New Creation. This was a spiritual DELIVERANCE which was led by Jesus Christ.

Pharaoh in the Old Testament was a type and shadow of Satan in the New Testament both causing God’s people to be bound.

As we will see the DELIVERANCE is from spiritual bondage as it affects people physically through oppression, depression, sickness, mental torment, and addictions.

This teaching is to show you DELIVERANCE ACCORDING TO THE HOLY BIBLE specifically FREEDOM IN CHRIST as found in the New Testament.

I will preach and teach and give people an opportunity to respond by faith to be saved, healed, and delivered. I will do this with a simple Word that the Holy Spirit has given me for your deliverance.

The Bible is clear about the reality of spiritual warfare.

EPHESIANS 6:12 LIVING BIBLE “For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood but against persons without bodies the evil rulers of the unseen world, those mighty satanic beings and great evil princes of darkness who rule this world and against huge numbers of wicked spirits in the spirit world.”

1 PETER 5:8 NKJ “Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

We are not given much information in the Bible of the origin of demons only that they exist, Jesus confronted them, rebuked them, and commanded that His Church cast them out of people.

EXTERNAL demonisation can be resisted personally.
INTERNAL DEMONISATION must be cast out by another person.

Demons are evil spirits which the Bible says come to torment people with three main objectives.
1. To keep you in sin and bound by a curse.
2. To keep you away from knowing Jesus Christ.
3. To keep you distracted from serving the Lord and His Church.

I want to stress that only through faith in the Cross of Jesus Christ can a person be DELIVERED from SIN, CURSES and DEMONISATION.

This teaching will be divided into 3 parts for the sake of time as we have multiple services today.

1. EVIDENCE OF POSSIBLE DEMONISATION.
2. OPEN DOORS THAT LEAD TO DEMONISATION.
3. DELIVERANCE FROM DEMONISATION.

1. EVIDENCE OF POSSIBLE DEMONISATION.

DEPRESSION accompanied by mental and or emotional turmoil. This depression as with all the other evidences can also be generational that is affecting not only the individual but a parent, grandparent, sister, auntie etc in others. It’s seen in many members of the same family tree.

POVERTY that once again is rampant within the household and previous generations. An on-going insufficiency financially. Constant lack and no ownership of any property.

SICKNESS disease and infirmity which is unexplained and is usually always terminal. Something is in the bloodstream or DNA causes the same symptoms and illness to reoccur in the family tree. Science calls it hereditary the Bible calls it a generational curse.

ADDICTIONS which are always driven by a spirit of death to prematurely cut short the person’s life such as alcoholism, drug-taking, immorality, adultery, and divorce. It can also be evident in the family with multiple members struggling with addictions.

2. OPEN DOORS THAT LEAD TO DEMONISATION.

SIN is the OPEN DOOR for demonisation and is directly connected to Satan’s kingdom. Deal with the sin through repentance and Satan’s grip over your life is diminished.

1 JOHN 3:4 NKJ “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.”

1 JOHN 3:8 NKJ “He who sins is of the devil for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil.”

EPHESIANS 4:27 NKJ “Nor give place to the devil.”

OPEN DOORS that give Satan legal right to demonise.

1. PRE-NATAL ABUSE – Parents cursing, rejecting, drug-taking.
2. SINFUL ACTS AND HABITS – Addictions, being drunk or high, violence.
3. IDLE WORDS – Towards oneself or receiving from others.
4. FORNICATION – Sexual relations outside of marriage.
5. DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD’S WORD – Wilful or ignorantly.
6. FALSE WORSHIP – Seeking alternate ways to be spiritual.
7. OCCULT INVOLVEMENT – Tarot cards, astrology, clairvoyants, new age activities, witchcraft.

I want to add to that EPHESIANS 4:27 AMPLIFIED BIBLE “And do not give the devil an opportunity to lead you into sin by holding a grudge or nurturing anger or harbouring resentment or cultivating bitterness.”

Any UNFORGIVENESS which you keep in your heart will give Satan legal found to demonise you. It is essential that you FORGIVE and allow yourself to be purged from any bitterness.

HEBREWS 12:15 NKJ “Looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.”

These open doors to sin have consequences which the Bible calls CURSES. Curses are invisible powers of evil that come to restrict, bind, and hinder any blessing of God from manifesting in your life.

Many people have described a curse as being constricted in life with nothing ever going right for them. The curse may have been present since childhood or after a certain involvement with a person or activity, things begin to go wrong.

Curses are usually accompanied with depression, confusion and constant resistance to ever being able to move forward in life. It just feels like invisible chains holding you back from the increase.

Curses are the consequences of disobedience to God’s Word. There are many sources of curses including God, disobedience, lawless living, negative words, a work of witchcraft and idolatry.

PROVERBS 26:2 NKJV “Like a flitting sparrow, like a flying swallow, So a curse without cause shall not alight.”

The Bible clearly outlines the curses that afflict people as a consequence to disobedience in the Book of Deuteronomy 28.

Here is a list of the 7 indications of a curse.

1. Mental and/or emotional breakdown.
2. Repeated or chronic sicknesses.
3. Barrenness a tendency to miscarry or related female problems.
4. Breakdown of marriage and family alienation.
5. Continual financial insufficiency.
6. Being accident-prone.
7. A history of suicides and unnatural or untimely deaths.

Curses must be repented, renounced and rescinded in the name of Jesus Christ before a person can be released from any curse. They just don’t go away on their own and the worst thing a person can do is to consult witchcraft or some other new age practitioner to have the curse removed…listen satan can not cast out satan only the Blood of Jesus Christ shed on Calvary’s Cross has the power to dissolve any curse.

3. DELIVERANCE FROM DEMONISATION.

LUKE 11:20 NKJ “But if I cast out demons with the finger of God surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

Deliverance is God’s Kingdom overthrowing Satan’s Kingdom in your life but first you have to make a choice which Kingdom you want to abide in. God’s or Satan’s.

1 THESSALONIANS 5:23 NKJ “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

When a person is BORN AGAIN their SPIRIT is filled with the Holy Spirit and can not be possessed by an evil spirit but a person’s SOUL (Mind, Will & Emotion), and BODY can be.

The Bible says in MARK 6:7 NKJ “And He called the twelve to Himself and began to send them out two by two and gave them power over unclean spirits.”

MARK 6:12-13 NKJ “So they went out and preached that people should repent. 13 And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick, and healed them.”

LUKE 10:1 NKJ “After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also.”

LUKE 10:17 NKJ “Then the seventy returned with joy, saying ‘Lord even the demons are subject to us in Your name.’”

MARK 16:16-18 NKJ “He who believes and is baptised will be saved but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name, they will cast out demons they will speak with new tongues they will take up serpents and if they drink anything deadly it will by no means hurt them they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover.”

Prayers to pray…

SALVATION Lord Jesus Christ I believe that you are the Son of God. I repent of all of my sins. I renounce all lawlessness and rebellious living. Lord Jesus Christ come into my life. I want to be saved in Jesus’ name.

HEALING Lord Jesus Christ I believe that your Body was broken on the Cross for my sicknesses and by faith, I accept your healing power in my life today for by your stripes I am healed in Jesus’ name.

DELIVERANCE Lord Jesus Christ I believe that your Blood was shed on the Cross for my demonisation and by faith, I accept your delivering power in my life for the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.

AWESOME CHURCH DOES NOT PRACTICE GAY CONVERSION THERAPY IN ACCORDANCE WITH NSW LAW

EPHESIANS 4:27 NLV

NASB And do not give the devil an opportunity.
NIV And do not give the devil a foothold.
WEYMOUTH And do not leave room for the Devil.
AMP And do not give the devil an opportunity to lead you into sin by holding a grudge or nurturing anger or harbouring resentment or cultivating bitterness.

Opportunity Greek topos marked off space – a place you have allowed.

The Kingdom of darkness looks for what we call OPEN DOORS to gain entrance into a life. Satan has no authority to demonise a Christian unless he is given legal right to do so.

To believe and agree with the devil’s lies is effectively making an agreement with him to enter. Sometimes the OPEN DOOR is not of your choosing as you may have been subjected to it involuntarily such as when a child is exposed to demonic activity by their parents.

Demons are legalists they can only operate within the confounds of their authority which is minimal because it has been stripped by the Cross of Jesus Christ. Once you remove the legal right you can force demons to vacate the ‘topos’ or marked off space you have allowed.

But the truth is many, many people throughout the earth have OPEN DOORS to demonisation and in many cases were ignorant to these OPEN DOORS. In a sense, the Bible is the safety instruction book to life.

The Holy Bible is our guide book in this area of OPEN DOORS and what we must do to close them, keep them shut and drive out whatever is occupying an area within your life.
By knowing these OPEN DOORS we can accurately identify how demons or curses got in, what we must do to remove them and keep them out.

What we know from the Gospels is that Jesus dealt with CURSES and DEMONIC SPIRITS on a daily basis within His ministry. He was fulfilling prophecy about His Kingdom take over on the earth ever increasing.

ISAIAH 9:7 NKJ Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end,

ISAIAH 9:7 LIVING BIBLE “His ever-expanding, peaceful government will never end.”

And how is it increasing and expanding? Through the preaching of the Gospel but most importantly through occupying territory once held by the devil.

LUKE 11:20 NKJ “But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

CURSES must be broken and DEMONS must be driven out there is no other way.

MARK 1:27 NKJ “And He was preaching in their synagogues throughout all Galilee and casting out demons.”

Demonic territory is not so much geographic locations but places within human beings. Notice that much of the deliverance ministry of Jesus was conducted in the Synagogues where Godly people were congregated. This is why Jesus said in LUKE 17:21 LIVING BIBLE You won’t be able to say, ‘It has begun here in this place or there in that part of the country.’ For the Kingdom of God is within you.

The freedom that Christ wants to bring into your life is not by sending you to someplace but by delivering you from whatever is binding your life from within.
Here are 7 areas in our lives that will show signs we need deliverance.

Emotional problems
A constant feeling of confusion, Loneliness, Feeling unloved, Ongoing sadness, Feeling’s of sorrow and grief, Insomnia and restlessness.

Mental problems
Fear and anxiety, Confusing thoughts, Heaviness of mind, Feelings of paranoia, Hearing voices, Making no sense in thinking and actions.

Speech problems
Constant negative talk, Uncontrollable swearing, Using the Lord’s name in vain, Cursing people and things, Filthy talk and rude joking, Argumentative

Sexual problems
Fornication (Sex outside of marriage), Lust for constant sex, Adultery, Homosexual tendencies, Pornography addiction, Perverted desires (Pedophilia, Bestiality), Gender confusion.

Addictions
Alcoholism, Smoking, Illegal drugs, Sex, Gluttony (Over eating), Gambling Gaming (Electronic devices)

Physical infinities
Weakness, Some diseases, Reoccurring illnesses, Undiagnosed sicknesses, Symptoms with no apparent cause, Rashes that comes and go for no reason.

Religious error
Unable to believe God, Hatred towards Jesus, Unbelief towards the Holy Bible, Desires for the Occult and witchcraft, Paranormal experiences or abilities. Seeing spirits or hearing voices.

Now there could be other things not mentioned in this list that you just know are oppressing or controlling your behaviour.

I have observed in ministering to hundreds of people over the years and through experienced that OPEN DOORS to demonisation usually occur when a person is at the most weakest point.

In other words, when the defences are down they become vulnerable to attack and demons are master’s of intrusion and lurk waiting for an opportunity…remember 1 PETER 5:8 NKJ “Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.”

The LIVING BIBLE TRANSLATION uses more graphic words: Be careful watch out for attacks from Satan, your great enemy. He prowls around like a hungry, roaring lion, looking for some victim to tear apart.

What the Bible is telling us is that if we are not careful demonic intrusion can occur quickly and unwittingly if we are not vigilant or on-guard.

I never knew about these open doors before I became a Christian and to be honest it wasn’t until I heard teaching on spiritual warfare that I became equipped to know how to better protect myself from demons and curses.

I want to make it clear that every Born Again Christian that is Baptised in water and Baptised in the Holy Spirit that is living a consecrated life for Jesus does not need to fear demons or curses.

When your walking in the fear of the Lord no demon or curses has any legal right or authority to afflict your life. They can attack as they did to Jesus and other Apostles and when they do we resist in Jesus’ name but they will be unable to cause any harm in your life because the doors are shut.

Consecration is the key. Consecration means to be set-apart and to walk a holy life. That will mean different things for different people because not everyone struggles with worldliness in the same ways.

Living a life of prayer and the Word will keep you being led by God.
Now we come to the OPEN DOORS and once again there are many but here are some of the most common ways OPEN DOORS to CURSES and DEMONS can enter through.

Here are some ways in which demons can have access into a person’s life.

1. A family background in the occult or false religions. (A false religion is a religion that denies that Jesus Christ is God)

2. Negative prenatal influences. (Parents who were engaged in sinful acts during conception and after)

3. Abuses from early childhood. (Either emotional, physical or sexual)

4. Traumatic experience. (An accident, sickness, criminal activity, divorce, perverted observations)

5. Sinful acts or habits particularly fornication. (By far the number one way evil spirits are transferred is through sex)

6. Laying on of hands. (Through false religious ceremonies and dedications as children)

7. Idle words. (Speaking direct curses over your life or others through undisciplined speaking)

But there is one area that by far would have to be the biggest reason why so many Christians today are afflicted, harassed and tormented by evil spirits and that is because of a LACK OF SANCTIFICATION.

1 THESSALONIANS 4:3-8 NKJ
3 For this is the will of God your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality;
4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honour,
5 not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God.

You can be SAVE, HEALED, and DELIVERED today here at the altar but the question is: Will you continue to follow Jesus and consecrate your life?

You see becoming a Christian means we come out of the world not the earth but the world’s ways of ungodliness. By choosing to follow Jesus Christ there is an immediate calling out of the world so to speak.

When we say of the ‘world’ in the New Testament we are reading the Greek word cosmos. Cosmos most often refers to the inhabited earth and the people who live on the earth, which functions apart from God.

Satan is the ruler of this ‘cosmos’ 1 JOHN 5:19 NLT We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one.

The simple definition of the word ‘world’ refers to a ‘world system ruled by Satan’. When Jesus said that believers are no longer of the ‘world’ we are no longer ‘ruled by sin, nor are we bound by the principles of the world’.

In addition, we are being changed into the image of Christ, causing our interest in the things of the world to become less and less as we mature in Christ.

Believers in Jesus Christ are simply in the world physically but not of it. Not part of its values. As believers, we should be set apart from the world. This is the meaning of being holy and living a holy, righteous life, to be set apart.

We are not to engage in the sinful activities the world promotes, nor are we to retain the insipid, corrupt mind that the world creates. Rather we are to conform ourselves, and our minds, to that of Jesus Christ. This is a daily activity and commitment.

We must also understand that being in the world but not of it, is necessary if we are to be a light to those who are in spiritual darkness. Ask yourself ‘are you a light to those around you?’
We are to live in such a way that those outside the faith will see our Godly lifestyle and know that there is something ‘different’ about us.

Being ‘in’ the world also means we can enjoy the things of the world such as the beautiful creation God has given us but we are not to immerse ourselves in what the world values, nor are we to chase after worldly sinful pleasures. Sinful pleasure is no longer our calling in life as it once was but rather the worship of God.

A great example of this is last night’s Mardi-Gras. That is an example of unrestrained and ungodly living. The people participating are saying to God that we don’t want your demands of holiness. The result is an utter perversion and sinful behavior that is contemptuous to a Holy God. We must pray for their salvation.

But a decision to live a consecrated life by being in the world but not of it is really the hallmark of Christianity and without consecration, it’s nothing more than useless religion devoid of power. In other words, Christianity and Consecration go together.

It’s a choice every person who comes to Christ will face and have to make. The friends you associate with. The places you go for pleasure. The things you engage in. The people whom you shall be intimate with.

Take a look at this video…

So what’s the answer to these OPEN DOORS TO CURSES AND DEMONIC INTRUSION? Well simply put it’s time to close the doors and you can do that through REPENTANCE.

REPENTANCE means to come back to God and change your mind. It’s a definite decision but with Christ, you will be empowered by His Holy Spirit to keep it shut…remember sin no more Jesus said.

I have written a special prayer of repentance and renouncing open doors for empowerment in your Christian walk today. We will also minister to break any curses and drive out any demonic intruders that have entered so you can be free today.
PRAYER OF REPENTANCE TO CLOSE DOORS
TO CURSES AND DEMONIC INTRUSION

Heavenly Father. I stand here today in your Holy House ready to give you my life. I recognise and confess that I have sinned and opened up doors in my life which have consequences.

I humble myself before you Lord God and renounce all of these open doors before you. I renounce and repent of…

1. Any family background in the occult or false religions. (A false religion is a religion that denies that Jesus Christ is God)
2. Any Negative prenatal influences. (Parents who were engaged in sinful acts during conception and after)
3. Any Abuses from early childhood. (Either emotional, physical or sexual)
4. Any Traumatic experience. (An accident, sickness, criminal activity, divorce, perverted observations)
5. Any Sinful acts or habits particularly fornication. (By far the number one way evil spirits are transferred is through sex)
6. Any Laying on of hands. (Through false religious ceremonies and dedications as children)
7. Any Idle words. (Speaking direct curses over your life or others through undisciplined speaking)

For all of this, I am sorry and repent of any open doors that have brought a curse or any demonic intrusion in my life. Today I humble myself and seek to be saved, healed, and delivered in the name of Jesus Christ.

Heavenly Father you are ALL GOOD filled with GOODNESS and you are GOOD to me. With you Heavenly Father ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE and my freedom is possible right now.

Any sickness, oppression, or turmoil in my life is a lie and I reject the lies of Satan and only accept that in you Lord Jesus I am saved, healed and delivered. I leave this altar today completely restored, made whole and sound in spirit, soul, and body in Jesus’ name!

Holy Spirit empowers me now to keep these doors closed and to resist and demonic attack from the enemy. I apply the Blood of Jesus over my life for safety and protection and now fill me with your Holy Spirit and fire.

MATTHEW 2:1-2 NKJV

JOHN 18:37 NKJV “Pilate, therefore, said to Him, Are You a king then? Jesus answered, You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

Today I will be concluding my series Jesus the Messiah, Prophet, Priest, and King. These four titles all have very significant meanings to who Jesus is.

A MESSIAH anointed to save, heal and deliver. A PROPHET to proclaim God’s Word. A PRIEST to intercede and mediate for people and A KING to rule.

Most Christians know these terms but probably don’t really understand how they relate to Jesus. Most would say they know Him as Lord but He is also the Messiah, Prophet, Priest and King.

Firstly we looked at JESUS THE MESSIAH or CHRIST both words mean the same thing ONE WHO IS ANOINTED.

Secondly, Jesus is PROPHET in that He came speaking a direct message from God to repent for the Kingdom of God is now.

Thirdly Jesus is the Great HIGH PRIEST because He paid the price for our sins and applied His own Blood on the Mercy Seat of heaven.

Fourthly as we will see today JESUS CHRIST is KING. As it says in REVELATION 19:16 NKJV “And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”
Jesus Christ as KING means that He rules over a Kingdom and that Kingdom is the Kingdom of God. On the earth today there are two kingdoms vying to rule over the hearts of humanity.

We may not see it like that because we only consider the natural realm of where we live and under what government rules us but in the spiritual realm there are two kingdoms.

Those two kingdoms are God’s Kingdom and Satan’s kingdom. Both God and Satan seek to rule people’s lives. One is destructive the other is full of life eternal.

LUKE 11:14-20 NKJV
14 And He was casting out a demon and it was mute. So it was, when the demon had gone out that the mute spoke and the multitudes marvelled.
15 But some of them said He casts out demons by Beelzebub the ruler of the demons.
16 Others testing Him, sought from Him a sign from heaven.
17 But He, knowing their thoughts, said to them: Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and a house divided against a house falls.
18 If Satan also is divided against himself how will his kingdom stand? Because you say I cast out demons by Beelzebub.
19 And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.
20 But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.

So right here we see Jesus explaining the two kingdoms on the earth right now. Most people are born into Satan’s kingdom without even realising it or with no power or say in it.

Satan’s kingdom is defined as a kingdom ruled and run by evil, lawlessness and disobedience to God, His Word and His Ways. The consequences are tragic because sin, curses and demons are what control this kingdom.

Look around the world today and you see the rule of satan.
Satan’s kingdom started when he deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and caused them to be seduced into disobedience.

The results were tragic and we see how he did this in GENESIS 3 NKJV

But God had an answer to win back humanity to Him. Enter His very own Son Jesus Christ. Now notice when Jesus began His ministry what He began to proclaim.

MARK 1:14-15 NKJV
14 Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
15 and saying The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.

Only a King can make such a command or decree because when a King speaks it is a decree or legal binding command.

Jesus was effectively saying that I am here to push back and drive out the enemy of sin, curses and demonic affliction and when I do I am advancing my Kingdom of salvation, healing and deliverance.

Awesome Church we are here today advancing the Kingdom of God. Our Rydalmere Church property is our Church advancing the Kingdom of God by taking ground for the Lord.

So how do I enter the Kingdom of God? JOHN 3:1-6 NKJV “There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.  Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus said to Him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? Jesus answered, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.”‘

Once you are BORN AGAIN you have officially entered the Kingdom of God and now it’s time to SEEK OUT THE KINGDOM OF GOD to learn how to live in it.

MATTHEW 6:25-33 NKJV
25 Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28 So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;
29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

And what are we seeking? The answer is in LUKE 8:9-11 NKJV
9 Then His disciples asked Him, saying, What does this parable mean?
10 And He said, To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God but to the rest it is given in parables, that
‘Seeing they may not see, And hearing they may not understand.’
11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

The parable that Jesus is speaking about is the parable of the sower. It’s a critical parable because in another Gospel account of the same story Jesus said MARK 4:13 NKJV And He said to them, Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?

Because the primary law of God’s Kingdom is that everything begins with a SEED. First the SEED then the HARVEST and you can apply this to every area of your life GOOD and BAD.

GALATIANS 6:7 NKJV “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked for whatever a man sows that he will also reap.”

Listen my Christian life is the result of constant SOWING to the Spirit. Before I was saved I only sowed to the flesh (GAL 6:8) and my own selfish desires but now that I understand how the Kingdom of God functions I live by it’s Kingdom laws and reap the benefits.

‘SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM’ doesn’t mean only the kingdom but SEEK IT FIRST in your life.

What we are to be seeking daily is His Word because contained in it are mysteries that will unlock your potential for healing, prosperity, inner peace, success, miracles and the blessing of God.

Now Jesus makes a command to His disciples or His ministry team and notice what He tells them to do…LUKE 9:2 NKJV “He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.”

Do you know what identifies the Kingdom of God? It’s salvation, healing and deliverance. God’s Kingdom is a spiritual territory of salvation of spirit, healing of the body and deliverance of the soul. It’s a complete restoration of the human being.

This is what Jesus commanded His disciples to do and this is what I seek to continue to do. It’s why we exist. Today my desire is to increase God’s kingdom and take ground over satan’s kingdom by preaching the Gospel, praying for people to be saved, healed, and delivered in Jesus’ name.

COLOSSIANS 2:13-15 NLT

My Lord what an amazing portion of scripture. Our theme for 2019 is the Year of the Cross. 1 CORINTHIANS 1:18 NKJV “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

The Cross of Christ changes everything and when you look to the Cross you will live and find life everlasting.

Notice what verse 13 says ‘You were dead because of your sins’. This ‘deadness’ is your total separation from God but it also means decay because with death comes decay and decay is a rotting away of your life and sin will do this to you.

1 JOHN 3:4 NKJV “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness and sin is lawlessness.”

It’s living contrary to God’s Word and His Ways and there will be consequences when we violate God’s laws. Most people don’t even know what God’s Word or His Ways are.

Well, His Word is what the Holy Bible says’s and we have it right here. His Way’s are the leading of the Holy Spirit. You can’t be led by something you don’t have but you can receive the Holy Spirit today.

1 JOHN 3:8 NKJV “He who sins is of the devil for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil.”
We probably have never thought that living lawlessly means we are of the devil. That’s pretty strong but that’s what the Bible says. It dense matter how good a person may appear to be it’s what resides in a person’s heart that matters.

The Bible says about the heart of an unsaved person JEREMIAH 17:9 NKJV “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked: Who can know it?”

As good as I thought I was before I came to Christ I can tell you that I still possessed an inquisitive mind that would go astray and it definitely did not lead me closer to God.

This is why you hear of people committing heinous crimes and people who knew them say ‘He or she was such a good, quiet and decent person I can’t believe they did that’. Well an evil heart without God is capable of anything.

But let’s leave aside terrible crimes what about lawless living where we choose our own way of living which does not include God in it. This kind of living will always lead to sin that leads to your life being cursed and eventually suffering demonic affliction.

It’s usually always in that order from my experience in ministering to hundreds of people. And what are the consequences well simple pout TROUBLE. Trouble, strife, and oppression in the spirit, soul, body relationships, and finances.

But the Bible says that God made us alive. This is the opposite of the deadness that can only occur when a person comes to God in humility and repentance and accepts Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour. There is no other way.

And all the trouble created by our sins that bring curses and demonisation Jesus destroyed on the Cross of Calvary.

COLOSSIANS 2:14 “He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.”

He did this for you and me but the freedom, forgiveness, and faith the Cross brings into a person’s life can not be appropriate unless you accept it.

You have to accept what Christ has done for you but to accept what Jesus has done means you have to identify with what Jesus has done and die to yourself. Due to the lawlessness and die to your own sinful desires.

If you can do that you can be BORN AGAIN. Then the power of the Cross will be made manifest in your life because through death comes life when you embrace the Cross of Jesus Christ.

Look at COLOSSIANS 2:15 NKJV “In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.”

Notice that on the Cross Jesus disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. These are the demonic powers that afflict people every day. They were defeated but they still cause affliction to people who have not been redeemed and washed by the Blood of Jesus.

I can tell you to use this cleaning product but it won’t have any effect until you apply it. I can tell you all about the saving grace of the Blood of Jesus Christ but if you don’t apply it then there won’t be any victory.

Satan is the master of deception. He thrives on making people believe lies and in the process cause people to be led astray in their minds through deception. They end up believing things that are not really causing fear, anxiety, and depression.

Satan is always leading people astray mentally into sin which results in curses that can cause everything from sickness, poverty, depression, heartache, disconnection, and premature death. These curses are empowered by demonic spirits that only the Blood of Jesus can destroy.

How many people here today want victory over sin, curses, and demons? Then come to the Cross and give your life to Jesus.
On the Cross God, the Father placed all the consequences of the world’s iniquity, guilt, shame, and rebellion on Jesus’ shoulders.

Every wicked thing produced by our rebellion was put on Jesus as all the goodness in Him became ours because of His obedience.

The completeness of this Divine Exchange came about in the following ways.

1. JESUS WAS WOUNDED SO THAT WE COULD BE FORGIVEN.

ISAIAH 53:5 NKJV “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.”

2. JESUS CARRIED OUR SICKNESS AND SUFFERED OUR SORROWS SO THAT WE COULD RECEIVE HEALING.

ISAIAH 53:4-5 NKJV
4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes, we are healed.

3. JESUS BECAME SIN AND CARRIED OUR SINFUL NATURE SO THAT WE COULD BE JUSTIFIED.

2 CORINTHIANS 5:21 NKJV “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

4. JESUS DIED IN OUR PLACE SO THAT WE COULD SHARE IN HIS ETERNAL LIFE.

ROMANS 5:8-9 NKJV
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

5. JESUS CARRIED OUR CURSE SO THAT WE COULD BE BLESSED.

GALATIANS 3:13 NKJV “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us for it is written Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”

6. JESUS PAID FOR OUR POVERTY SO THAT WE COULD BE PROSPEROUS.

2 CORINTHIANS 8:9 NKJV “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.”

7. JESUS SUFFERED OUR SHAME SO THAT WE COULD PARTAKE OF HIS GLORY.

HEBREWS 2:10 NKJV “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.”

8. JESUS SUFFERED OUR REJECTION SO THAT WE COULD BE ACCEPTED IN HIM.

EPHESIANS 1:6 NKJV “To the praise of the glory of His grace, which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”

A feeling of rejection is one of the most common emotional problems but you can be delivered from rejection today.

Rejection is one of the deepest wounds the human soul can experience but Jesus suffered it for us on the Cross. You see overtime the Bible mentions the Cross and the redeeming work that took place upon it healing is connected to it.

However, it is always mentioned in the past tense indicating that the healing already took place on the Cross.

SO THE QUESTION IS HOW DO I APPROPRIATE THE CROSS IN MY LIFE?

Through death comes life. This is the great mystery of the Cross. That if I die to that sin, disobedience, lawlessness, addiction, bad attitude, unholy desire than what lies on the other side is my salvation, healing, and deliverance.

LUKE 9:23-24 NKJV
Then He said to them all, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. 24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.

PRAYER

Lord I put this THING to death right now and I ask for your resurrection power to fill my life with your power so that I may have victory and so that I will overcome in Jesus’ name.

PASSION BIBLE “But we thank God for giving us the victory as conquerors through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One.”

There’s something powerful about that word VICTORY it means to WIN and that is the great promises of faith in Jesus Christ WE WIN!

Our victory is assured because of what Jesus Christ accomplished for us on the Cross. Church you need to know deep within your hearts what the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ means to all of us today.

1 CORINTHIANS 15:55-57 NLT
55 O death where is your victory? O death where is your sting?
56 For sin is the sting that results in death and the law gives sin its power.
57 But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The end of SIN is DEATH and DEATH was defeated on the Cross when Jesus rose from dead. This means that He has supremacy over death and sin and everything else in between.

It also means that no Christian should be suffering under the weight of sin, curses and demonic oppression because when we look to the Cross our victory is assured.

This month the Holy Spirit has moved on me to deal with this subject of VICTORY THROUGH THE CROSS and specifically to deal with 4 areas over the next 4 weeks.

Depression, Disease, Demons and Death so are you ready?
Today I want to focus on VICTORY THROUGH THE CROSS OVER DEPRESSION.

I heard a statistic on the news last week that I just couldn’t get out of my spirit and the more I prayed the more the Holy Spirit kept prompting me to deal with it.

It was from the Australian Mental Health Department and it was in relation to Anti-depressant medication. I mean the very mention of anti-depressant pills today is like no big deal because almost everyone knows someone whose on them.

Sadly many Christians are struggling with depression. The statistics were as follows…

1 in 8 Australians are on antidepressant medication.
3 million people in Australia today are on antidepressant pills.
100,000 children are on antidepressant medication.
One in four over the age of 68 are on antidepressants.

This is a serious problem and we as the Church have got to address this for the benefit of those whom we may know that are struggling in this area of depression.

Jesus dealt with DEPRESSION on the Cross of Calvary and everyone needs to hear that. Everything that leads to death which includes depression was defeated on the Cross through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

There are many causes to depression and except for injury to the brain which can cause depression requiring physical healing the Bible gives one very clear explanation to depression, in fact, it’s the only place in the Bible where the word depression is found and that is PROVERBS 12:25 NKJV “Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression but a good word makes it glad.”

Well, today I’m going to give everyone the ‘good word’ to make it glad and that word is the CROSS. As Christian’s, we don’t need to look to man for our Victory over depression when the Cross gives us the victory over depression when we look to it it’s power. Now going back to PROVERBS 12:25 NKJV “Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression.” In other words, when FEAR begins to dominate a person’s life it turns into anxiety which is a feeling of dread, disappointment, and despair.

When this is left unchecked for an extended period of time is has the potential to turn into DEPRESSION. It’s at this point of mental torment because that is what depression is MENTAL TORMENT the Bible says in 1 JOHN 4:18 NKJV “Because fear involves torment.”

The Greek word for torment is kolas which means to be punished. Fear, anxiety, and depression will punish you if you are not careful to overcome it.

It’s when the human mind is under duress and is feeling the oppression of fear and anxiety that it becomes vulnerable to demonic affliction.

Demons love it when humans are vulnerable this is why it says in 1 PETER 5:8 NKJV “Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

Listen when you are intoxicated or high you become vulnerable to demonic intrusion into your life but you can add to that confusion, despair and despondency a feeling of being let down.

We have to know how to take authority over our thinking before it’s too late.

We see the first successful strategy of Satan in the Book of GENESIS 3:13 NKJV “And the Lord God said to the woman, What is this you have done? The woman said The serpent deceived me and I ate.” Another translations says TRICKED, FOOLED, BEGUILED.

Well, it’s the Hebrew word NASHA 5377. It means to lead astray mentally. To delude morally and to seduce into a trap.
And it’s in this primary area of the MIND that most people get caught up into a STRATEGY OF SATAN. Mental and Emotional sickness is huge in our nation and if attention is not given to spiritual warfare people will be left helpless or drugged. Most strategies of Satan come against our minds. Today I want to deal with the STRATEGY OF DEPRESSION.

Today in almost every nation on the earth the number one ailment that afflicts human beings is DEPRESSION. In fact in Australia alone in 2017 over 17 million prescriptions for anti-depressants were prescribed 17 million can you believe that?

The one thing about DEPRESSION is that unlike a virus or bacteria that the body can be infected with you can’t catch DEPRESSION as it were. DEPRESSION always has a starting point that commences with a THOUGHT.

Now if you can dismiss the thought then you can stop DEPRESSION from growing into a debilitating and chronic disease. Sounds easy enough only that initial THOUGHT can be at times overpowering particularly if it has been sent by a demon spirit and has attached with it supernatural power.

This is why some thoughts can be dismissed easily and quickly and others remain like a dead weight where nothing can cause it to move.

Mental health experts at best can only describe mind-altering and chemical changing drugs or medication however you want to term it but the long term effects of these drugs will eventually create new problems as the body’s chemical balance is continually altered.

Depression treated with drugs can lead to addictions.

You must remember that the anti-psychotic drugs can not heal a person of depression they only enable the person struggling with depression to cope with life better if they work effectively enough. The stronger the dose the more tranquillised a person becomes. When it comes to spiritual healing as Christian’s we depend on the Holy Spirit and God’s Word. The Bible say’s in PSALM 107:20 NKJV He sent His Word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions SHECHITH 7825 which literally means ‘the pits’.

So we as Christians always go to the Word of God for our answers.

I remember when I was in high school buying the U2 album ‘Under a Blood Red Sky’ and there was a song on it called 40. I didn’t realise some 15 years later when I became a Christian that the song was based on PSALM 40 NIV and what a powerful Psalm it is.

1 I waited patiently for the Lord he turned to me and heard my cry.
2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit (Hebrew depression or despair) out of the mud and mire he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.
3 He put a new song in my mouth a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.

Can I tell you what DEPRESSION is? Depression is a mental or emotional STRONGHOLD that has been created negative thoughts that becomes stuck almost trapped you could say.

The person begins to believe that there is no way out. The thoughts becomes imprisoned in a web which has no exit.

But depression is also a monumental lack of JOY.

I heard an expression recently that really struck a chord with me as a practitioner of spirt/soul/body health and it’s this.

‘Stay in your head and you’re dead’ In other words if you get trapped in your own thinking long enough it becomes a stronghold of problems. This is why the Bible say’s in…

2 CORINTHIANS 10:4-5 NKJV
4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,
5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

Depression always begins with a THOUGHT.

You can not control the first thought that comes into your mind but you the second thought. In fact, as Christians, we have to judge thoughts that enter our minds quickly and determine whether or not they are useful, positive, and faith-building.

If not they must be dismissed immediately and with practice, it will become very easy to do this without thinking because you will be able to identify what’s good and useful and what is bad and harmful.

Thoughts compound when you dwell on a specific thing. It’s usually things in life that you can not control that will often produce the most anxiety if you allow them.

Depression as with FEAR can also be a demon spirit. A demon spirit of FEAR brings with it a sense of torment and terror but with DEPRESSION it feels more like a heaviness and being constricted almost like a vice around your head.

You become weak, unmotivated, and generally very negative about everything including God. You begin to view life through the lenses of despairing, lethargic, and despondent images.

Depression is the state of being depressed – a feeling of letdown, of hopelessness. It can affect the body. It can cause an overwhelming sense of fatigue to come upon a person. In fact, there are studies that indicate that many psychological neuroses as well as some fatigue diseases are the results of living with depression.

The Hebrew word is DEAGAH 1674 David called it ‘being cast down’. Depression is a state of mourning in your life, a state of heaviness over circumstances. You are under the circumstances of your life.

We see this spirit afflicting King Saul.

1 SAMUEL 16:15 NKJV “And Saul’s servants said to him, Surely, a distressing spirit from God is troubling you.”

Now notice what 1 SAMUEL 16:23 NKJV says about eliminating this distressing spirit…

1 SAMUEL 16:23 NKJV “And so it was whenever the spirit from God was upon Saul that David would take a harp and play it with his hand. Then Saul would become refreshed and well and the distressing spirit would depart from him.”

In this scripture, we see that a ‘spirit of death/heaviness/stress left when there was PRAISE & WORSHIP.

It is clear that a spiritual focus helped to lift depression.

Medical science does not believe in the existence of demons causing depression but rather focuses on the chemical imbalances of the brain. I don’t pretend to be an expert in psychiatry I will leave that to them but equally, they should not pretend to be experts in Christian Biblical theology.

If the depressed person feels better after focusing on the Lord through praise and worship then it would seem to me that the problem is spiritual and not simply medical.

On the other hand, if the person does not feel better after prayer, praise and deliverance then they may be suffering from a purely medical condition but from my experience the later is in a very small minority.

2 CORINTHIANS 7:5-6 NKJV
5 For indeed, when we came to Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Outside were conflicts, inside were fears.
6 Nevertheless God who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus.

The Greek word for COMFORT here means to ‘call to one’s side’ or ‘summon’. When someone is feeling downcast and depressed it’s a call to God.

Depression is the call for God to arrive on the scene. He is close. You are not alone. God is right here to help but you’ve got to let Him. You’ve got to resist the SELF-PITY syndrome.

MATTHEW 2:18 NKJV A voice was heard in Ramah, Lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, Refusing to be comforted because they are no more.

It’s possible for a person to refuse to be comforted. You may feel sorry for yourself that you are convinced there is no help available for you. You tell yourself that nobody cares about you. Do you know what you are doing? You have become stubborn and are refusing to be comforted. Eventually, you will spiral down into a pit of depression.

So here’s the Biblical remedy for Victory over DEPRESSION.

1. LOOK TO THE CROSS AND BE HEALED.
ISAIAH 53:4 NKJV
4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.
ISAIAH 53:4 VOICE
Yet it was our suffering he carried our pain and distress, our sick to the soulness.
The power of the Message of the Cross is that through DEATH comes LIFE. If you can put the death the issue by releasing it to Jesus and let it die then victory comes – LUKE 9:23-24 NKJV

2. BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT AND PRAY IN TONGUES.
Why? Because the Bible says in ACTS 1:8 NKJV “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.”
For 30 years I have been praying in the Spirit. I attend all the prayer meetings, I fast regularly. It requires discipline but guess what? I’m not battling depression.

3. RESIST AND CAST OUT THE SPIRIT OF HEAVINESS.
JAMES 4:7 NKJV “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
Once you have been delivered of any demonic spirits of heaviness you have also got to be able to identify when they try to come back and they will so you’ve got to resist immediately and give Satan no foothold into your life.

4. USE GOD’S WORD TO RENEW AND PROTECT YOUR MIND.
Put simply if you’re not feeding your spirit with God’s Word daily then your soul will not have any diet for renewing. Meditation, Confession and Application of God’s Word is essential EPHESIANS 4:23 NKJV “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.”

5. ENTER INTO THE POWER OF PRAISE.
ISAIAH 61:3 NKJV “To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.”

THREE SIMPLE CAUSES TO DEPRESSION (S.A.D)

1. SIN We see this perfectly illustrated with Cain’s depression in GENESIS 4:3-7 NKJV “And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord.  Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. So the Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you but you should rule over it.”

We may discover that often the reason for our depression is the fact that we went against our consciences and sinned. The solution is obvious: We need to repent.

In cases like this where there is or has been deliberate rebellion towards God’s Word no amount of medication, therapy or alternative medicine is going to be able to relieve you if sin is the underlying cause on repentance and the blood of Jesus will work. There is no point seeking spiritual deliverance if repentance is not the first step.

2. ATTITUDE Horrible circumstances can get anyone down. A death in the family, divorce, loss of income or deteriorating health can all lead to depression. But there is always hope in Christ and your attitude will determine the outcome and it’s all based on how you look at things.

As a non-christian I always looked at things through the prism of my own inadequacies but now I have Christ in me the hope of glory. I have the Holy Spirit in me to aid me in whatever I face. The Bible says in PHILIPPIANS 4:13 NKJV “I can do all things through Chits who strengthens me.” The difference between the defeated person and the victorious person is not their circumstances but their attitude.

Once you eliminate the first two reason SIN and ATTITUDE then you are ready to deal with any D for DEMONS that may be causing your depression.

3. DEMONS ISAIAH 61:3 NKJV says the ‘spirit of heaviness’ or ‘depression’. Notice it say’s ‘spirit’ so there is an evil spirit of heaviness and depression.

This type of depression causes you to become overwhelmingly pessimistic. You lose any sense of excitement or optimism about the future. You feel everything is about to go wrong with your life all the time.

ACTS 10:28 NKJV “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with Him.”

Jesus dealt with spirits of depression, heaviness, fear, and sickness by resisting them and casting them out of people. There is no question, debate or doubt Jesus did this. He specifically commands His disciples and Church to continue the practice and for good reason because evil spirits are diabolical against humanity.

There are many OPEN DOORS to depression and here are some.

CIRCUMSTANCES around your life just seem to be all negative and bad. You begin to feel disappointed because life is not turning out the way you would like it to. Many people are living with a ‘spirit of heaviness’ because of negative circumstances in their lives.

ILLNESS in addition to physical or mental sickness can make you depressed. If you are physically sick for a prolonged period of time sometimes that can bring a spirit of depression but not all mental problems are the result of a demon.

THOUGHT PATTERNS sometimes wrong thinking just takes over your life. It becomes hard to look at life through the clear lenses of reality. You look through glasses of your own circumstances and everyone and everything seems tainted by your own experiences.

CHAINS OF HABIT that you just can’t escape and then become demonically empowered.

REJECTION may have you in deep depression. Jesus came to tell you that God has not rejected you.

DEATH AND LOSS because you have lost someone or something very special. Understand that there is nothing wrong with legitimate mourning. If you have had death in the family you are not being demonised because you are sad or grieving. It is a normal human response to feel sadness and sorrow.

NO DIRECTION because you believe there is no place, meaning or significance for you in this life. That’s a lie. You were created by God for a divine purpose. When you find Christ you will discover that purpose and it’s up to you to go out and fulfil it.

FAILURE is something that everyone is going to experience but it’s what you do with that failure that will determine your future. God is waiting for you to give Him your failure so he can turn it around and make a success out of your life.

LOSS OF PASSION FOR GOD because you feel like you have lost touch with God or you are not ON FIRE like you once were. Well you have the power to change that all right now by making a decision to pick up from where you left off and forge ahead in Jesus name. Get back to Church, Worship, Prayer, Bible Study and watch how fast you will return to your first love of God’s Presence.

All of these are entry points for depression. The key for us is that now that we know what they are we can be more aware of the beginning of a Satanic strategy.
I know the trigger point of what could potentially make me depressed so I have mechanism’s in place to quickly dissolve any Satanic strategy from forming. The key is stopping it in it’s tracks quickly.

DEPRESSION SYMPTOMS

RUNNING IN A PANIC Depression sometimes feels as if you are being chased by something. You are so tired of running from what you are afraid of that you don’t know where to go.

DISSATISFACTION You may be thirsty and unsatisfied in your soul. Depression will put a thirst in you. It will cause you to say ‘Lord I have to get out of this. I can’t stand this. I don’t care what it takes. I’m thirsty for you and I’m going after You’.

UNSTABLE EMOTIONS You find yourself as if you are riding a roller coaster. One day up the next day down. You go from laughing to crying in a blink of an eye. You become very moody and grumpy most of the time.

FEELING FORGOTTEN Have you ever felt like crying out ‘God I don’t know where You are I’m looking but I can’t find You?’ Even Jesus cried out ‘My God My God why have You forsaken Me’. Of course God had not abandoned Him as Jesus took the cup of sin and drank our cup of sin and because of this for the first time in His life He felt the separation that sin brings.

FEELING OVERWHELMED Do you ever feel like it’s just too much. When circumstance become so erratic that the pressure feels like you are caving in? This is a very common feeling that people experience and will usually distance themselves from God when God is Who they should be running to. Don’t quit under pressure or make inner vows that you’re going to quit.
For most people these feelings tend to lift quickly or can be dismissed quickly but when they become chronic meaning you just can’t seem to shake them off then something is wrong and it could very well be the early stages of depression.

Satan always attacks when you are the most vulnerable.

RECOVERY

OK so what’s the answer? What is the Biblical answer to DEPRESSION?

Well firstly in order to be healed from depression you must experience a fresh work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said in JOHN 7:38 NKJV He who believes in Me as the Scripture has said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

LUKE 4:18-19 NKJV is the great depression buster scripture that Jesus used to announce His ministry. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

What a VISION STATEMENT that is but notice that everything that Jesus will do is because ‘THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME’.

1. HOLY SPIRIT BAPTISM If you are not FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT then you need to be tonight. If you are filled with the Holy Spirit then it’s time for you to speak and pray in tongues like never before

2. DELIVERANCE If there is a demon spirit of heaviness or depression at work in your life then it must be cast out immediately in Jesus name. The demons of depression must be rooted out or it’s impact will be devastating.

3. MENTAL RENEWAL If it is a demonic mental stronghold that has been created in your mind because you have dwelt on certain thought patterns for too long then it’s time to be renewed in Jesus Name.

God’s Word is alive and has the power the Bible says in HEBREWS 4:12 NKJV For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Satan can not take away the Blood of Jesus. Satan can not take away the Cross of Jesus or the Holy Spirit or Salvation. These are all certainties now for every living human being to call upon.

The Bible says in ROMANS 10:13 NKJV “For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Today I want to commence a brand new series based on this portion of scripture as we enter into the month of June and in particular the celebration of the Day of Pentecost.

For those who are not aware, the Day of Pentecost is really the day the Christian Church was birthed and came onto the scene in all it’s power but I will say more about that next Sunday.

One of the hallmarks of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is that the Holy Spirit fills a person with POWER ACTS 1:8 NKJV And you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. Dunamis in the Greek which means MIRACULOUS POWER.

The Bible dictionary says this about dunamis Power through God’s ability which is needed in every scene of life to really grow in sanctification and preparation for heaven.

Jesus was Baptised in Water in the river Jordan by John the Baptist but He was also baptised in the Holy Spirit. Immediately after He was baptised in water and the Holy Spirit Jesus went into the desert to fast an pray for 40 days and 40 nights where He also engaged in spiritual warfare. After this…

LUKE 4:14 NLV says Jesus went back to Galilee in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus was now ready for ministry to the world and to fulfil His God given assignment on the earth and that was to preach the Gospel of Salvation, Healing and Deliverance.

Let’s pick up the story in LUKE 4 once again…

LUKE 4:14-18 NKJV
14 Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region.
15 And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.
16 So He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up. And as His custom was He went into the synagogue (Jesus went to Church) on the Sabbath day and stood up to read.
17 And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me Because He has anointed Me…To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed.

Now you will notice that there were 5 very important things Jesus did in His ministry by the power of the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 18 once again because this was His assignment and mission.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He has anointed Me…The name Christ means ANOINTED ONE and the anointing on Jesus’ life was not with oil but the Holy Spirit enduring Him with supernatural authority.

Jesus did not carry out this ministry with natural strength but with supernatural God-given authority and power and what you need to know about the ANOINTING of God is that according to Isaiah…

ISAIAH 10:27 NKJV “It shall come to pass in that day That his burden will be taken away from your shoulder, And his yoke from your neck And the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil.”

God’s ANOINTING is for a purpose and that is to REMOVE BURDENS and DESTROY BONDAGES over people’s lives. You must remember this it was not Jesus as God who performed miracles of salvation, healing and deliverance. It was Jesus as a MAN anointed by the HOLY SPIRIT who performed miracles.

That same ANOINTING is available today through the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Now getting back to LUKE 4:18 NKJV notice what the ANOINTING on Jesus which is the BURDEN REMOVING YOKE DESTROYING power of God will do…

1. To preach the Gospel to the poor. LIVELIHOOD
2. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted. EMOTIONS
3. To proclaim liberty to the captives. SALVATION
4. And recovery of sight to the blind. HEALING
5. To set at liberty those who are oppressed. DELIVERANCE

And it’s in these 5 areas that I want to minister on over the next 5 Sunday’s dealing with one per week as we study the Gospels and see examples of Jesus carrying out this assignment.

I am also seeking to minister in these 5 areas as well and I am praying that you listening to this message will also receive a personal breakthrough and miracle in your life.

Firstly Jesus came ‘To preach the Gospel to the poor.’

Now, this was the very first area that the Bible says Jesus was anointed to deal with…POVERTY and we should never leave this out or think that it’s just describing the type of people Jesus preached to. Clearly Jesus did not just preach to the poor but to the wealthy and influential as well but to the poor He had a message to get them out of lack.

The Greek word used here for POOR is ptochos it means to be deeply destitute lacking in resources. In its purest sense, it means to be in LACK. To not have enough is to be in lack.

When we speak about divine healing and Jesus healing the sick and delivering people of demons we tend to forget that He also PREACHED THE GOSPEL and here it says specifically that He preached the Gospel to those who have lacked.

But what Jesus preached and taught had the ANOINTING on it and that is the big difference between God’s word and worldly wisdom.

Lack is without question a huge cause for frustration, anger, anxiety, fear, criminal activity and depression. It can cause a person to fall into despair not know ing how they are going to survive. It has the potential to put devastating pressure on a marriage causing divorce and depression amongst children growing up without.

Lack, poverty, or need whatever you want to call it is the source of tremendous stress for many people’s lives including many Christians.

The Bible does not say that Jesus was anointed to GIVE TO THE POOR but that HE PREACHED THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR.

Now, remember that the ANOINTING is the burden removing yoke destroying the power of God, and when the message of the Cross has preached the power of God is released to destroy lack.

Preach the Gospel to the poor means that Jesus gave hope, faith, and importantly instruction into how to escape from being poor.

No Child of God should be suffering from lack but sadly today many Christian’s who are suffering are actually suffering from lack but in the area of revelation knowledge of what God’s Word say’s to prosper.

HOSEA 4:6 NKJV My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Because you have rejected knowledge.

And prosperity is a Bible word that should not be shunned or rejected because of the excesses of a few. Remember it’s not ‘money’ that is evil but the love of money that is A root of all kinds of evil’.

1 TIMOTHY 6:10 NKJV “For the love of money is a (there are others) root of all kinds of evil for which some (not all) have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

1 TIMOTHY 6:10 PASSION “Loving money is the first step toward all kinds of trouble. Some people run after it so much that they have given up their faith. Craving more money pushes them away from the faith into error, compounding misery in their lives!”

Money in of itself is not evil but your motivation for it and what you do with it can be but the Bible recognises money as earth’s commodity for trade. I believe that God uses money as a TEST in our lives. He watches to see what comes first MONEY or GOD.

As a Pastor of a Church, it would be irresponsible for me as a Church leader caring and overseeing God’s people to not preach, teach and give instruction on being a GOOD STEWARD (MANAGER) of money from a Biblical perspective. Jesus did this and that is the heart of what I am saying.

Anointed preaching and teaching on God’s economy to get you out of debt and into a life that has no lack so that you can be blessed to be a blessing. Amen!

Now, remember what LUKE 4:14 NLV “Jesus went back to Galilee in the power of the Holy Spirit.”

It’s in the POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT that will enable you to have a personal breakthrough in this area.

The great minister of the Gospel SMITH WIGGLESWORTH said: Everyone who has received the Holy Ghost has within them great possibilities and unlimited power also great possessions not only of things which are present but also of things which are to come.

Now let me share with you principals from God’s Word to break the spirit of lack over your life so poverty will not have a hold over you.

Deliverance is not just for the BODY and SOUL but also in the area of FINANCES because as I said it can be the source of incredible frustration, anxiety and depression in people’s lives and if you are finically secure don’t let it become a point of your trust or confidence as this can become an idol.

1. YOU MUST HAVE THE SPIRIT OF POVERTY BROKEN OFF YOUR LIFE.

And you know you can be RICH and have a poverty spirit because you can’t give it away freely unless it’s an invoice. JOHN 10:10 NKJV the Bible say’s that Satan comes to rob, kill and destroy.

It’s mentioned again as the result of a curse in MALACHI 3:11 NKJV And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field Says the Lord of hosts.

The ‘devourer’ is an evil spirit that comes because you have no covenant with God in the area of your finances.

Well how did that CURSE enter in this context? Because God’s people failed to TITHE. They were withholding what belonged to God and His Kingdom.

MALACHI 3:9-10 NKJV
9 You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation.
10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this, Says the Lord of hosts, If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.

Tithing or giving back to God ONE out of TEN or 10% was instituted way back in the book of Genesis. It pre-dates the Law of Moses by 400 years (remember Moses made it a Law so that the people would prosper and not be cursed).

This is why it says in ROMANS 7:12 NKJV “Therefore the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good.”

But in God’s eyes giving because you have to is not the same as giving because you want to and I tithe not because I’m under any law but because I love the Lord and His Church.

2. YOU MUST RECEIVE A SPIRIT OF GENEROSITY.

Because without a spirit of generosity you will never be moved to obey God’s Word when it comes to being a good steward.

PSALM 51:12 NKJV “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.”

It’s been my observation with people before I was saved and now as a Christian for over 30 years that you either have a generous heart or you don’t.

I personally believe that a generous heart comes from observation whilst growing up. Watching your parents being generous or the lack of is what creates a generous heart in a person I believe.

I have also observed that people who generally have everything done for them are usually not very generous because they have never had to exercise giving because it’s always done for them so they just expect it to be given.

Parents one of the best things you can do is to demonstrate your generosity to your children. by showing acts of giving. The greatest financial lesson I can give my children is the revelation and demonstration of TITHING and OFFERINGS.

My children see how Lissa and I TITHE and give OFFERINGS. They have it ingrained in their spirit. They are generous and they know how to TITHE and give OFFERINGS and bless others.

Their greatest investment in life financially speaking will always be what they sow into the Kingdom of God.

PROVERBS 22:6 NKJV “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.”

Parents the way you conduct yourself when it comes to God and Church will greatly affect the way your children will view God and Church because a child’s greatest influence is their observation of their parents in almost everything in life.

3. YOU MUST RECEIVE REVELATION OF GOD’S ECONOMY.

The Kingdom of God operates very differently to the way the world operates when it comes to being a good steward with your finances.

Now I keep saying a GOOD STEWARD because it’s in this area where most people with lack have no revelation or wisdom in. Put simply you can’t manage money.

Jesus said this in LUKE 16:11 NLT “And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?”

God’s Economy is about God’s Financial Stewardship program. Here is a very basic and simple formula for final ical success.

1. TITHE – Because it releases the Blessing of God in your life.
– Tithing enters you into a financial covenant with God.
– LEVITICUS 27:30 NKJV “And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s. It is holy to the Lord.”

2. WORK HARD BUT DON’T TOIL Because toiling is exhausting and leaves no time for God, family and yourself. You are not under the curse of toiling any longer you are blessed.
– PROVERBS 10:22 NKJV “The blessing of the Lord makes one rich And He adds no sorrow with it.”

3. SPEND LESS THAN YOU EARN and you will always be ahead. This is called being a good steward with money.
– 1 PETER 4:10 NKJV “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”

I live by these principals and it has kept me in good stead all my Christian life. Now you can work those 3 areas more vigorously and see great success financially but that’s up to the individual and what they want out of life.

Well, today under the anointing of the Holy Spirit I want to break any poverty spirit and also pray for people to be released from any curse of poverty that could be running in your family.

1. COME TO JESUS.
2. REPENT OF THE SIN OF LOVING MONEY.
3. RENOUNCE REBELLIOUS LIVING TO GOD’S WORD.
4. ENTER INTO A COVENANT WITH GOD THROUGH TITHING.
5. RECEIVE THE BAPTISM FO THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR POWER.

1. COME TO JESUS AND BE SAVED.

2. REPENT OF THE SIN OF LOVING MONEY. Lord Jesus I repent of any wrong attitude I have held towards money. I repent of loving money, trusting in money or holding on to money for selfish purposes. I repent of not being generous and ask that you help me to be renewed in my mind and thinking when it comes to being a good steward of finances.

3. RENOUNCE REBELLIOUS LIVING TO GOD’S WORD. Lord Jesus I renounce all rebellion and lawlessness towards You and Your Word. I renounce withholding more than what is right according to Your Word. I pray that any curse of poverty, lack or need be broken over my life today in Jesus name.

4. ENTER INTO A COVENANT WITH GOD THROUGH TITHING.
Heavenly Father today I choose to not only make You Lord over my life but also Lord over my finances. I enter into the sacred covenant of God’s Economy through Tithing and Offerings. I make you a partner with me when it come sot my livelihood. I put my complete trust in Your Word and ask for Your blessing to rest upon my life in this area off finances.

5. RECEIVE THE BAPTISM FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR POWER.

GALATIANS 3:13-14 NLT

GALATIANS 3:13-14 TPT
13 Yet, Christ paid the full price to set us free from the curse of the law. He absorbed it completely as he became a curse in our place. For it is written: Everyone who is hung upon a tree is doubly cursed.
14 Jesus, our Messiah, was cursed in our place and in so doing, dissolved the curse from our lives so that all the blessings of Abraham can be poured out upon even non-Jewish believers. And now God gives us the promise of the wonderful Holy Spirit who lives within us when we believe in him.

Whenever you hear the word CROSS you should immediately think BLESSING.

These two words CROSS and BLESSING are two very important Bible words that everyone who hears them should understand and know what they mean and the power behind them.

To most people, the words CROSS and BLESSING would not necessarily go together. To most people, the word Cross means a religious symbol and the word Blessing a nice sentiment you say when someone sneezes or you bid them farewell.

Nothing could be any further from the truth.

The CROSS is the power of God unto salvation and The BLESSING is God’s supernatural empowerment upon your life for success, favour, and dominion.
To really understand and appreciate what Jesus Christ accomplished for humanity on the Cross one has to first see what was lost in the Great Fall into sin by Adam and Eve.

Firstly we’ve got to see what God did in creation and particularly His greatest creation ‘Man’.

GENESIS 1:26-28 NKJV
26 Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
27 So God created man in His own image in the image of God He created him male and female He created them.
28 Then God blessed them and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply fill the earth and subdue it have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

Look at verse 28 because it’s a key scripture in understanding the power of the Blessing. Notice that GOD BLESSED and then GOD SAID or COMMANDED and to BLESS and to COMMAND are two entirely different things.

A COMMAND is an instruction for you to obey but you don’t have to and it’s an authoritative demand that is spoken but to be BLESSED means you are supernaturally empowered by God and something comes over you to enhance your life.

The BLESSING is on you like it or not. You can’t reject it but you can block it or fail to understand and work it in your life. All Adam had to do to work the power of the Blessing was to BELIEVE in His heart and CONFESS with His mouth and it was done that’s it.

GENESIS 2:7 NKJV “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.”

That term ‘living being’ in the Hebrew is SPEAKING SPIRIT. The ability to function like God through imagination and confession.
God BLESSED Adam first before He COMMANDED him and what did God COMMAND Adam and Eve to do?

1. Be FRUITFUL – To be active in producing.
2. MULTIPLY – To be active in reproducing.
3. FILL THE EARTH – To be active in fulfilling.
4. SUBDUE – To be active in authority.
5. Have DOMINION – To be active in dominating.

This is the God given BLESSING and COMMAND for humanity but it was interrupted by SIN. In GENESIS chapter 3 it tells us the story of Adam and Eve being tempted by Satan into disobedience towards God resulting in Adam and Eve being CURSED and this CURSE came from God.

A CURSE from God is not designed to kill you but it is a heavenly judgment against your act of disobedience towards God’s laws. Adam and Eve by eating from the knowledge of good and evil now understood evil and it became a curse to them producing sin and eventually death something God did not want them to know – evil.

This rebellious spirit continued into their children’s life with Cain murdering his brother Able and the earth becoming completely defiled and overcome by sin, curses and demonic spirits.

GENESIS 6:11-12 NKJV “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 So God looked upon the earth and indeed it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.”

What was the corruption? It’s an important truth to know because even Jesus mentioned it…MATTHEW 24:37 NLT When the Son of Man returns it will be like it was in Noah’s day.

Well, what was it like? the Jewish Talmud and Commentaries give us insight into this.

1. IDOL WORSHIP – They forsook their Maker and served idols.
2. BLOODSHED – They had become depraved in murder.
3. IMMORALITY – They had become perverted in sexuality.
It became so bad that God pronounced judgment over the entire earth by sending a massive flood that cleansed the earth from all of it’s depravity wiping earth’s population except for 8 people of Noah’s family.

Now humanity lives under the curse and the curse is deadly. God raised up Moses who gave the Ten Commandments and the Laws of God to show humanity what God considers good and evil.

You see the nature of man is not to obey so to keep ‘man’ from cursing his own life Moses decrees the Laws of God to protect man but this was never God’s intention because God wanted man to obey willingly.

The consequences to obedience and disobedience to the Laws of God are all here in what the Jews call the Torah. the ‘fault’ HEBREWS 8:7 NKJV For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.

The ‘fault’ of the Old Covenant is that the Laws of God when given to show man’s sinful and the 613 Laws, Commands, and Statues are purposely designed by God for man to be unable to comply to become Holy without a Saviour.

In other words the Ten Commandments real our sinfulness and any attempt to become Holy through the Law os futile because nobody has ever been able to do it except One…God’s Son Jesus.

God promised a Messiah who would come to the earth and save the Jewish people from living under this curse and His name is Jesus Christ.

While the Jewish people waited they offered up animal sacrifices on a yearly basis to atone for their sins but the blood of animals is imperfect and could only cover the sins but not remove them.

Sin is so devastatingly bad in the eye of God that it requires the payment of blood for life is in the blood. We may not fully understand why BLOOD?
But this is how it is because God is so Holy and sin so ugly in His eyes that only blood can redeem a person from sin’s consequences.

However, the Blood of the Messiah God’s very own Son was pure, undefiled, and sinless because Adam was not his forefather and Jesus did not have sinful blood running through His veins.

If Jesus had not laid down His life on the Cross He would never have died because He contained no sinful nature of death…think about that. But on the Cross Jesus shed His Blood to not only cover the sins of humanity but to actually removed them once and for all destroying every trace of the curse.

The only condition is that we MUST REPENT of our sins and acknowledge our sinful disobedience and accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Saviour.

This is beautiful said in GALATIANS 3:13 NLT “But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When He was hung on the cross He took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”

And the result of this is verse 14 look at it…

GALATIANS 3:14 LIVING BIBLE “Now God can bless the Gentiles too with this same blessing he promised to Abraham.”

Now GENESIS 12:1-3 NKJV tells us what Abraham’s BLESSING is but it is really an extension and continuation of the BLESSING pronounced over Adam.

GENESIS 12:1-3 AMP
1 Now in Haran the Lord had said to Abram, Go away from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house To the land which I will show you;
2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you abundantly And make your name great exalted, distinguished. And you shall be a blessing a source of great good to others
3 And I will bless do good for, benefit those who bless you, And I will curse that is, subject to My wrath and judgment the one who curses despises, dishonours, has contempt for you. And in you, all the families nations of the earth will be blessed.

THE CROSS BRINGS THE BLESSING. The Blessing neutralises the Curse and every trace of it. When you come to Jesus you are not only forgiven but also empowered supernaturally for success.

So my question for you today is: Are you walking in the BLESSING or the CURSE? Here are some ways you can identify a Curse operating in your life.

1. DEPRESSION that is affecting not only the individual but a parent, grandparent, sister, auntie, etc in others. It’s seen in many members of the same family tree.

2. POVERTY that once again is rampant within the household and previous generations. An on-going insufficiency financially. Constant lack and no ownership of any property.

3. SICKNESS is something the scientific world calls heredity when it is seen in multiple members of the same family. Something is in the bloodstream or DNA which causes the same symptoms and illness to reoccur in proceeding generations.

4. ADDICTIONS such as alcoholism, drug-taking, immorality, adultery, and divorce. It’s amazing how many marriages that end in divorce come from divorced families and so the cycle continues.

The list could go on and on. Ask yourself are the struggles, failures, and setbacks that you witness in your life a common occurrence in other family members past or present?

Whenever I am counseling or I see a tragic misfortune that seems to come out of nowhere I always like to counsel the person and ask questions to find out where the OPENING TO DEMONIC AFFLICTION or a CURSE has entered and inevitably I will find it.

A demon can only enter a person if it has the right to do so. Removing this right is foundational to effective and long-lasting deliverance ministry. In other words, we must go to the ROOT CAUSE.

In cases of GENERATIONAL CURSES, you are NOT GUILTY of the sins of previous generations because you are only accountable for your own sins however the consequences and ramifications of the sins of previous generations can continue to afflict a person until the cycle is broken with this there is no question and the evidence in people’s lives speaks for itself.

If a child is sexually molested the guilt lies with the perpetrator, not the victim but the consequences of the abuse will be experienced by the victim in horrendous ways.

The word CURSE appears approximately 300 times in the Bible but the word BLESS over 600 times.

Most people in Churches are totally unaware of the nature of BLESSINGS and CURSES. A lot of people are enduring curses because they have never been taught about them and so what they put down to misfortune or bad luck is actually a curse operating in their lives and they don’t even know it.

The best way to describe what a BLESSING or CURSE is, is they are both vehicles of supernatural power for good or evil.

They can also continue from generation to generation.

You may be struggling with a curse over your life that was released generations ago without your knowledge. The vehicle for curses is usually words spoken, written, or pronounced by a person.

They can also be pronounced inwardly through your own words and they can also be transferred through objects such as idolatrous idols, books, and amulets.

Remember that IDOLATRY was one of the 3 gross sins in the days of Noah that brought upon the earth God’s judgment.
Demons or evil spirits are the agents or carriers of curses this is why Jesus said in JOHN 10:10 NKJV The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.

1 JOHN 3:8 NKJV “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.”

And this is what Jesus did whilst on the earth. He was a healer and exorcist. He dealt with demonic power and curses like no one had ever done before. In fact, this is what He was famous for.

Jesus’ ministry was a ministry to neutralise any trace of the CURSE and He did this via THE BLESSING. He reversed the CURSE with the power of THE BLESSING.

Before the CROSS Jesus BLESSED because He was present. We are now living POST-CROSS where Jesus in the flesh is not present but His Spirit and Word are. The Cross neutralised the Curse so today anyone who looks to the Cross can be BLESSED.

What does it mean to look to the CROSS?

It means you identify with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. You allow your SELF-WILL to die. You put it to death. The desire for sin. The rebellious nature and disobedient attitudes.

Your blood does not need to be shed because even if it were it would be of no use because it is sinful but the Blood of Jesus is sinless and perfect and for this reason, it cleanse you from all sin. It breaks the power of any curse and releases you into the Blessing.

LUKE 9:23 NLT “Then he said to the crowd, If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way take up your cross daily and follow me.”

The Cross brings the Blessing but you have to come to the Cross and have your sins forgiven and allow the ‘old man’ to die before the power of the Blessing will be manifested in your life.

1 JOHN 1:7-9 LIVING BIBLE

There is tremendous power in the Blood of Jesus Christ that was shed on the Cross.

• Power to Save, Heal and Deliver.
• Power to Overcome any adversity.
• Power to bring Freedom and Hope.
• Power to Break every Chain of the Devil.
• Power to Transform Your Life and Destiny.

If the heart of the Gospel is the Cross then the Blood of Jesus is the life force that propels its power. Before the Blood of Jesus was shed on Calvary’s Cross Jesus preached the Gospel of the kingdom.

MATTHEW 4:23-24 NKJV
23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.
24 Then His fame went throughout all Syria and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics and He healed them.

And what was His message? KINGDOM TAKE OVER MATTHEW 12:28 NKJV But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God surely the kingdom of God has come upon you
In other words the defeat of sins, curses and demons.

And to accomplish a once and for all defeat of the powers of darkness Jesus Christ the sinless, perfect Saviour went to the Cross of Calvary and was crucified totally absorbing the penalty of our sins once and for all.

After this monumental event the Gospel message becomes a message centred around the Cross. You don’t find the term Gospel of the Kingdom used anywhere except in the 4 Gospels. From the Book of Acts onwards the central message is the Message of the Cross.

GALATIANS 6:14 NKJV But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 CORINTHIANS 1:18 NKJV For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Identification with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ brings an end to sins, curses and demon affliction in a persons life.

It destroys sickness, depression, poverty and fear. It neutralises all disappointment, grief and despair. it is the antidote to guilt, shame and hopelessness.

No other message on the earth today compares with the message of the Cross because what circulates through it is the eternal Blood of Jesus which still today has exceedingly great life changing power. Thank God for the Blood of Jesus.

COLOSSIANS 1:19-20 TPT
19 For God is satisfied to have all his fullness dwelling in Christ. 20 And by the blood of his cross everything in heaven and earth is brought back to himself back to its original intent, restored to innocence again!

The Blood of Christ deals with sin. The Cross deals with self. You accept the Blood to forgive but you die to self on the Cross.
I said this statement a few weeks ago that perhaps the two most important messages taught by the Apostles after the resurrection of Jesus are…

1. The Message of the Cross.
2. Spiritual Warfare.

And one could say that today in most Churches these two vitally important messages are not being taught as the Apostles once did.

I’m not suggesting that other Churches are not preaching the Gospel nor teaching legitimate messages but I’m simply making the point that the Message of the Cross and Spiritual Warfare are incredibly important for the Church know and understand.

I will go so far now as to say that over the past 30 years I have witnessed many good Christian people get shipwrecked in their faith and some even fall away back into the world and in all circumstances without question there had been a failure to fully appreciate and understand the Message of the Cross and Spiritual Warfare both are extremely important.

You see central to the message of the Cross that gives you victory is the Blood of Jesus and central to Spiritual Warfare to have victory is the Blood of Jesus.

REVELATION 12:11 NKJV And they overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb.

The precious Blood of our Lord not only serves as atonement for our sins but it also totally devastates the demonic realm. Every Christian must know and identify with the Message of the Cross and know how to engage in Spiritual Warfare. If not you simply will not live a victorious Christianity it will be defective, lacking power and be void of any testimony.

We have our Mid-year Prayer & Fast over the next 3 days. This is a time to recalibrate, refocus, be revived, refreshed in His Presence. To press the pause button in our lives spiritually to allow our spirit to be enriched and importantly engage on spiritual warfare.
The Message of the Cross and Spiritual Warfare are the most important messages to come out of the New Testament and we need a revelation of both of these.

You see the trend today is SELF IMPROVEMENT and this has crept into the Church with most messages orientated around improving SELF.

Now there’s nothing wrong with wanting to improve yourself and wanting to get better as a person but the problem is that IMPROVING SELF is not God’s way.

God’s way is not to IMPROVE SELF but to CRUCIFY SELF. ‘Man’ is a sinner lost without any hope of renewal without God’s intervention and when God intervenes He starts by first putting to death SELF. But many churches today are afraid to call ‘man’ what he is a ‘sinner’ but without this realisation there can be no freedom.

The OLD MAN the Bible calls it must die. This is why entrance into Christianity begins by being BORN AGAIN and to be BORN one must first cease to exist then be born.

This is where many people who claim to be Christian’s are not experiencing the Presence and Power of God in their lives because they are not BORN AGAIN.

SELF has not died and is still very much alive therefore the NEW MAN created in Christ Jesus is unable to emerge and its the NEW MAN that God blesses.

ROMANS 6:5-8 NKJV
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ we believe that we shall also live with Him.

The BLOOD forgives SIN but the CROSS crucifies SELF.
ROMANS 6:5-8 NLT
5 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was.
6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.
7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.
8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him.

The reason why SELF-improvement is only a temporary fix is that it does not deal with the real issue of a SINFUL and CORRUPT nature that simply can not be fixed it must die for the NEW MAN created in Christ Jesus to come alive.

EPHESIANS 4:22-24 NKJV
22 That you put off concerning your former conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.
23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind
24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness.

In other words, you will never have total victory in your life until you identify with the Cross of Christ.

The Apostle Paul boasted in the power of the Cross and noticed what he said in GALATIANS 2:20 NKJV “I have been crucified with Christ.” (He did not say I have been IMPROVED with Christ that would mean that God simply cleaned him up. NO Paul’s flesh died when he was water baptised.

The precious Blood of our Lord not only serves as atonement (covering) for our sins but it also totally devastates the demonic realm. Like most things in the Spirit, faith is the active ingredient in claiming the Blood or using it as a weapon.

You see blood is precious to man because it is precious to God. God shows very early in the Word the importance of blood to Him and all mankind. GENESIS 3:21 NKJV. Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin and clothed them. To obtain skins there had to be shedding of blood. Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves but fig leaves will never do. Only blood can provide a covering for mankind. Only blood will cover our sins.

In GENESIS 4 God respected Abel’s sacrifice of a lamb but He rejected Cain’s sacrifice of fruits and vegetables. God showed that a blood sacrifice was the only type of sacrifice acceptable to Him.

Cain misunderstood as many Christians continue to misunderstand the importance of the Blood. They do not preach the Gospel that demands identification with the Cross but only belief in Jesus.

When Moses led the people of God out of Egypt God again demonstrated the power of the blood. This time God showed us that the blood protects us even from death.

In EXODUS 12:7, 13 God instructed Moses to have the people kill a perfect lamb one for each household of fifteen people and to sprinkle its blood on the doorposts and lintel. When the Angel of Death passed by it did not enter any household with the blood sprinkled on it for God did not allow it to enter.

Death is an enemy. The Bible says that Jesus will sit at the right hand of the Father until all of His enemies are put under His feet 1 CORINTHIANS 15:25-26 NKJV

Life defeats death. The Bible says that the life is in the blood not the heart, kidneys or brains. The life of Jesus is in His Blood. It is the life in the blood that turns back death.

Only God’s perfect Passover Lamb Jesus Christ will do. It is His Blood that protects us from death and gives us everlasting life. His Blood compels death to pass over. No fig leaves or fruit and any otherworldly substitute will provide a covering including no good works or deeds just faith, the grace of God and the blood of Jesus.

It is the Blood of Jesus that atones for the soul.

LEVITICUS 17:11 NKJV For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.

Man is a SPIRIT that lives in a BODY and possesses a SOUL which is your (mind, will and emotions). For most Christians today, the suffering they are enduring is in the body or soul. Physical illness and mental or emotional illness. For a Christian demonisation only occurs in the SOUL and BODY area because the SPIRIT belongs to God.

Let me deal with SOUL SICKNESS because it’s here that many people are struggling in. Mental or emotional sickness. The MIND is your THINKING and the EMOTIONS is your FEELING. When SIN enters the mind or the emotions it causes defilement and damage.

One could call it SOUL SICKNESS and it’s really no different to the BODY becoming sick because a bacteria or virus has infected and entered the body. Perhaps the biggest infectors of the MIND and EMOTIONS are…

1. UNFORGIVENESS
2. BITTERNESS
3. ANGER
4. FEAR

There are others but in my experience of ministry these seem to be the top 4 trigger points for SOUL SICKNESS. These 4 aberrations must be dealt with before FREEDOM comes.

Now the Bible tells us that Jesus ministered to all kinds of people suffering with all kinds of sicknesses and demonic oppressions.

MARK 1:33-34 NKJV “And the whole city was gathered together at the door. 34 Then He healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons.”

MARK 6:13 NKJV “And they (disciples) cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick, and healed them”. Remember 1 JOHN 1:7 NKJV “The Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

We are living POST CROSS. The Blood of Jesus has already been shed for our forgiveness therefore there is power in the Blood of Jesus today to cleanse you from all sin, sickness and demonisation and this applies to the BODY and to the SOUL.

1. UNFORGIVENSS – Is a trap that keeps you in a state of vengeance that in the end only damages yourself. MATTHEW 6:15 NLT But if you refuse to forgive others your Father will not forgive your sins.

2. BITTERNESS – Is the poison that filters through your body causing you to become bitter and to poison others. HEBREWS 12:15 NLT Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.

3. ANGER – Is a natural reaction to an injustice but if allowed to fester will rob you of all personal peace. EPHESIANS 4:27 NLT For anger gives a foothold to the devil.

4. FEAR – Is the great immobiliser that keeps you in an anxious state that if left unchecked will lead to depression. 1 JOHN 4:18 NKJV …because fear involves torment.

Demonic spirits thrive on people who are vulnerable and to those who give him legal access to demonise them. Unforgiveness, Bitterness, Anger and Fear give the devil legal access to cause trouble within your life.

A lot of damage is done in people’s personal health and well being including marriages, families and friendships when these aberrations are allowed to remain dominate.

2 CORINTHIANS 7:1 NKJV “Therefore, having these promises, beloved let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
This means that we are the ones who have deal with the issues of our heart and bring them to the Lord and have them ‘cleansed’. that’s the why the altar is such a powerful place for sins to be erased and what cleanses them?

1 JOHN 1:7 NLT “But if we are living in the light as God is in the light then we have fellowship with each other and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

But these SOUL SICKNESSES such as Unforgiveness, Bitterness, Anger and Fear are generally trapped in our conscious mind because of trauma, hurt, disappointment etc. If these are allowed to fester they will begin to dominate our reactions and even magnify them to boiling point at times.

HEBREWS 9:11-14 NKJV “But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands that is not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all having obtained eternal redemption.  For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

HEBREWS 9:14 NLT “Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.”

Critical to be cleansed is that you are RENEWED and it’s this area of RENEWING OF THE SOUL that I want to deal with next Sunday. Demons must be cast out but the Flesh must be crucified through identification with the Cross and the then renewing of the mind.

The altar is open to be purified by the Blood of Jesus today.

There are so many scriptures in the Bible which speak about INNER HEALING and I asked the Holy Spirit for the right one to be the feature verse I will use for this series and he gave me one in particular but before I share it I want to say a few things about the importance of the Holy Bible in our lives.

Firstly you’ve got to understand that the Holy Bible is God’s Word. It’s written by His very breath upon people He inspired to record His very heart, mind, and plan of instructions for righteousness.

2 TIMOTHY 3:16 LIVING BIBLE The whole Bible was given to us by inspiration from God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realise what is wrong in our lives it straightens us out and helps us do what is right.

Secondly, you must understand that God’s Word has healing power contained in it. It’s a supernatural phenomenon that is difficult to understand in the natural because the Holy Bible is not a natural book. It is infused by the very nature and presence of the Holy Spirit.

PSALM 107:20 NKJV “He sent His Word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions.”

Thirdly and importantly as it relates to this new series on INNER HEALING. God’s Word is able to something no other text can and that is to penetrate our very spirit, soul and body of a person.

HEBREWS 4:12 NLT “For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.”

What I have in my hand is a scalpel for INNER HEALING.
ACTS 10:38 NKJV How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with Him.

You will notice that this text which was written by the Apostle Luke who was a physician says that Jesus HEALED those oppressed by the devil. You see to Luke healing and deliverance either from sickness or from demons were the same. To be healed is to be delivered and to be delivered is to be healed.

I have ministered to hundreds of people seeking healing and deliverance over the past 25 years and I can tell you that a huge part of ministry is related to INNER HURTS or INNER OPPRESSION.

I have also come to the conclusion that in most cases the demonisation is secondary to the INNER HURTS. In other words, breaking curses and casting out demons in most cases will only fix half the problem.

Let me explain it to you this way.

RATS WILL INFEST WHEREVER GARBAGE IS PRESENT. Removing the rats will not remove the garbage but if you remove the garbage the rats will go.

Now the rats are the demons and the garbage the inner hurts.

I can cast out the demons but if the inner hurts remain they will return and for this reason INNER HEALING is so important. INNER HEALING is the clearing away of the garbage, the defilement, the wounds, the trauma, the unresolved issues of the heart.

And I use the word garbage because in reality that is what these inner hurts are to our soul requiring cleansing.

2 CORINTHIANS 7:1 NLT Because have these promises dear friends let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body and spirit. Let us work toward complete holiness because we fear God.
Also HEBREWS 12:15 NKJV Looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God lest any root of bitterness (pikria/poison) springing up cause trouble and by this many become defiled.

The process of looking to clean ourselves of any poison is INNER HEALING because as the name suggests it’s a healing that takes place within you. The deepest parts of you. The areas of your personality which include your mind and emotions that perhaps have become defiled, troubled or wounded.

I think you get the gist of this series and a definition of inner healing is probably not required but I’ll give you my definition of inner healing.

INNER HEALING is the process of bringing wholeness to a persons inner life spirit. soul and body.

It’s no different to a surgeon having to undertake surgery on a vital organ within your body. It can not be treated from the outside so surgery must be done on the inside only we are not talking about internal organs but a person’s SOUL.

1 THESSALONIANS 5:23 NKJV Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

INNER HEALING is not deliverance even though it may involve deliverance. INNER HEALING is more focused on HEALING the SOUL realm of the MIND, WILL & EMOTIONS.

Two experiences are vital: Your SALVATION and your FREEDOM.

You can be SAVED spiritually speaking but not FREE. You can be SAVED following Jesus and guaranteed a place in heaven but still live a life trapped in mental and or emotional bondage.

Yes, a Christian may be FREE from sin and yet still be suffering the consequences of sin. In this case the process of INNER HEALING is important.
Listen intently, take notes and if the Holy Spirit reveals something to you about your past make a note of it when you come to the altar for ministry.

I want us to start by praying a prayer to allow the Holy Spirit to begin His INNER HEALING in your life. Are you ready?

Heavenly Father I come to you with complete faith and trust in Jesus Christ Your Son. I know that You sovereign Lord are a healer and deliverer. I invite You Holy Spirit to come into my life and begin the process of healing, wholeness, renewing and restoration to my soul and I pray that I find peace within my mind, will and emotions in Jesus name Amen.

The SOUL is the second part of our being. The SOUL is made up of your Mind, Will and Emotions. Your mind is what you think, your will is what you choose and your emotions is what you feel.

Throughout the course of life the soul can become wounded, defiled and damaged through abuse, disappointment and rejection. These three areas would be the ones that cause the most harm but there are others that you would be able to testify to.

We can not see the SOUL but we know that it exists because we all think, choose and feel in life. We all have a mind, a will and emotions. We also know when the mind, will and emotions is damaged by the behaviour of the person.

One could say that an unblemished SOUL has become polluted and stained by sin and this pollution causes the soul to be damaged.

Very few people on planet earth have been able to evade some kind of damage to their soul. This is the garbage or rubbish that attracts the rats of demonic oppression because demons always attack the vulnerable and when you’re hurting you’re vulnerable.

Psychology uses the word ‘conscience’ for the soul because modern-day psychology does not recognise the spirit/soul as we do as Christians.
Psychology’s response to a ‘conscience’ that is disturbed would be the use of behavioural therapy but more often the use of medications. in times past they even used shock therapy and operations to remove parts of the brain.

For most people though who can not deal with the ‘conscience’ which has been disturbed will turn to alcohol and drugs to subdue the thoughts but this only temporary.

The Bible also speaks about the conscience being ‘seared’ as in a hot iron causing a surface to burn on a garment because it’s too hot.

1 TIMOTHY 4:1-2 NKJV
1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,
2 speaking lies in hypocrisy having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.

This is speaking about Christian’s who have allowed themselves to be deceived from the message of the Cross to their own version of Christianity which is not Biblical.

1 TIMOTHY 4:1-2 NLT
1 Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons.
2 These people are hypocrites and liars and their consciences are dead.

Conscience suneidesis 4893 to see in one’s mind with one’s self, to understand, perceive and comprehend, It basically means how you see yourself.

At the core of SOUL, healing is how you see yourself. This is a very critical statement and it’s the heart of INNER HEALING.

The way you see yourself will determine the way in which you will interact with the 3 most important elements of interpersonal relationships.
1. YOU – Inner hurts cause a person to dis-love themselves.
2. OTHERS – Inner hurts cause you to hurt others.
3. GOD – Inner hurts cause you to blame God.

Inner hurts will cause you to have an incorrect view of yourself, others and God. This falls into the category of UNGODLY BELIEFS which is one of the 4 main areas of focus for deliverance.

1. Sins of the fathers and generational curses.
2. Ungodly beliefs.
3. spirit/Soul hurts.
4. Demonic oppression.

The Holy Spirit has spoken to me clearly about this fact. Knowing that your sins are forgiven and you are made right with God is absolutely necessary and essential to receive INNER HEALING.

HEBREWS 9:14 NKJV How much more shall the Blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

The only way that you will reach that place of freedom is when you put your total and complete trust in the Blood of Jesus knowing that it was shed for the remission or removal of your sins and a defiled, wounded or damaged conscience!

MATTHEW 26:28 NKJV For this is My Blood of the New Covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

INNER HEALING sees the Blood of Jesus as the healing elixir for the soul. You apply the Blood of Jesus over the memory or the thoughts and feelings that torment you by confessing them to the Lord and asking for his Blood to cleanse your conscience and you do it by faith.

We dedicate children by faith. We baptise people by faith. We have communion by faith. We anoint with oil by faith and we must learn how to apply the Blood of Jesus by faith over our conscience.

Abuse, trauma, hurt, and pain are all works of the devil. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil and restore His children to the fullness to which He created them to fulfill. When Jesus was here on earth, He went about doing the will of the Father in heaven and this included healing all who were oppressed of the devil.

There is a very powerful portion of scripture that is the basis for ALL HEALING and it’s found in the Book of JAMES 5:13-16 NKJV “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.  And the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”

There is so much in this portion of scripture and it really lays the foundation for INNER HEALING of any kind post Cross of Christ. This is specific to the Church. It’s for a Christian’.

Verse 13 ‘Suffering? Let them pray’. The onus is on the individual to pray. To seek God. To petition and make a request. To pray through and not sit and be idle feeling sorry for yourself.

‘Suffering’ is the Greek word: kakopatheo to undergo hardship, to be afflicted, suffer trouble.

JAMES 5:13 LIVING BIBLE “Is anyone among you suffering? He should keep on praying about it. Now, this may go against how you are feeling but this is what are commanded to do. The natural tendency is to withdraw and go inward hoping it will disappear or change but actually God is allowing it to happen to draw us closer to Him.”

So many things can easily get in the way of our relationship with the Lord. It now goes from ‘suffering’ to ‘sickness’. Here the command is to call the Elders of the Church and have them pray over you anointing with oil.

This is a clear reference to ministry and it’s what we will do today right here at the altar.

Verse 15 is a command to the elders to ‘pray in faith’. To pray believing for the healing and not to be agreeing with the problem and certainly not in unbelief by saying ‘IF it’s God’s will’. Healing clearly is God’s will.

You will also notice it say’s ‘the Lord will raise Him up’. The healer is Jesus Christ and not the elder or minister administering the prayer. You must always look to Jesus. I’m just a conduit.

There is also clear reference to ‘sins being forgiven’ which is an indication that sin and sickness is closely connected. It’s the double curse SIN and SICKNESS but thank God for the double blessing of SALVATION and HEALING.

Verse 16 In this verse we have clear instructions on the power of confession or dialogue between the person seeking healing and the elder. This can also be taken to mean seeking out forgiveness from the person you have had an issue with.

Whichever way you look at it there is the inference that if some kind of trouble has occurred in your life it may be directly related to you being sick.

It goes on to reinforce the need to pray and to pray for each other and two pray with effective fervency whilst living righteously. One could view this as a formula and I believe the Bible has many promises and instructions that are like formulas that when applied they work.

That’s the power and reliability of the Word of God. We as Christians look to the CROSS, the BLOOD OF JESUS, the table of COMMUNION, the baptism of the HOLY SPIRIT, the anointing of OIL, the laying on of HOLY HANDS and PRAYER!
A wounded soul requiring INNER HEALING will usually fall into these 5 CENTRAL WOUNDS.

The 5 CENTRAL WOUNDS for INNER HEALING are:

1. REJECTION is a feeling of deep loss and judgment.

2. INJUSTICE is a feeling that something is taken from you.

3. ABANDONMENT is a feeling of isolation and loneliness.

4. BETRAYAL is a feeling of stolen trust and disregard.

5. HUMILIATION is a feeling of total shame.

I believe that the Holy Spirit would have me minster on each one of these central wounds over the next 5 weeks here at the altar beginning with REJECTION.

REJECTION this deep feeling of loss and judgment and by judgment I mean you believe that another person’s decision to cut you off is a blight against your very self.

You interpret the rejection as you not being good enough in some way which is a total lie. You must remember that rejection is only experienced when you elevate the opinion of others above God’s.

It’s also received when you interpret a personal choice of someone as being a judgment against you as a person when in fact it’s just another person deciding to exercise their free will.

If you can accept the choices that another person has made as nothing more than a decision based on their own desires or will for their own lives and not as a judgment against who you are then you will be able to keep rejection from becoming a wound in your soul. Someone saying ‘I don’t love you or want you’ say’s more about them than you.

I’m not saying it’s easy to accept but I am saying that with Christ and a renewed mind in God’s Word you will be able to see and celebrate your own self-worth and identity regardless of other people’s opinions or rejection of you.

But having said that the feelings of being REJECTED really hurt. They can hurt very deeply within our soul because nobody likes the feeling of being I suppose for the lack of a better word ‘cut off’.

A parent rejecting a child would be by far the most painful form of rejection. Then there are relationships, friends, not being selected, missing out, being overlooked I mean the list is endless.

Just remember it’s a choice based on themselves and not you because you equally have the power to accept and reject in your own life and we do it all the time.

You can accept or reject this message that’s your choice based on your free will. Now if my identity is based on your acceptance or rejection of my message than I’m setting myself up for trouble but if what matters the most is how God perceives me and I know I’ve heard from heaven then I can remain confident, content and cozy in God. I like that word cozy it just fits.

However, if you feel the pain of REJECTION than today’s ministry here at the altar is for you. A time to soak in God’s healing anointing but first you must be able to FORGIVE and FORGET those which have rejected you otherwise healing can not flow.

Forgiveness releases God’s Holy INNER HEALING power to soothe and heal the aching soul. We have plenty of tissue boxes at the altar so use this time to be set free in Christ.

IDENTIFY – RENOUNCE – FORGIVE – RELEASE – RECEIVE

I am believing for God’s healing and restoring power to flow into your lives today. I am going to ask for the Pastors to come forward and assist me in ministering to you today.