Word of Life
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I have good days and bad days, some days I feel as if I have gained victory over the battle, but the next day, it comes back sometimes twice the force as it was the previous time.
I hope that this article may bless others who also go through spiritual battles like me.
Victory Over Spiritual Battles
By Daphne Crause
How many times have you been in a spiritual battle and have longed for and cried out, unsuccessfully, for victory? How many times have you had a problem in your life that you have tried so hard to gain the victory over and yet you still do not seem to have success? If you are in this position today, I want to encourage you to read on, because there is victory ahead!
What Problems?
So, what problems am I talking about? I am talking about emotional problems that you think you should be able to solve by conventional means, but you can’t. They are spiritual in nature, but they manifest themselves in an emotional form and you feel like you are going through a tug-of-war.
Have you ever participated in a tug-of-war? If you have you know that you hang onto that rope for dear life, but you are being pulled one way and then the other. You are pulling with all your might in one direction, and then you are suddenly pulled in the other direction, and it is difficult to stay in one place and stand your ground.
This is a good picture of what I am talking about. You may have a problem that has cropped up recently or one that has been ongoing for years and years, and you try vehemently to stand your ground against the tug-of-war and turmoil that you are feeling inside, yet you swing like the pendulum and go from one extreme to the other.
Personal Battle
I am well aware of having spiritual tugs-of-war. I went through one once that put me into the depths of despair about ever gaining victory over it, but the Lord took me through a process which I would like to share with you on shortly, and I received full victory in it.
I did not fully realize that I had a problem in a certain area until the Lord moved my husband more fully into a different type of ministry. I had always backed him and given him full support, yet when he moved into this new thing that the Lord had for him I suddenly felt an anger and irritation about it that baffled me. It was like when a cat and dog meet unexpectedly for the first time and the cat’s fur stands up on end. For the life of me I couldn’t understand what was happening. It was illogical and irrational, and try as I may I simply could not get victory over it.
I examined my heart, confessed my anger as sin and realized that I could be stopping him from accomplishing all that the Lord wanted to do in his life, but in spite of confessing and receiving cleansing from the Lord the feelings of irritation were still there and I resented his involvement in this ministry terribly.
Here was my tug-of-war. I knew that my attitude was wrong. The very last thing I wanted to do was stand against him in the work of the Lord, but my emotions went way out of control and it is as though there was an internal influence there that was stopping me from breaking free. Indeed there was and it was the key to breaking completely free of it. For the first time in my life I understood what Paul was saying in Romans 7:19, 24 and 25:
19 For the good that I want I do not do: but the evil which I do not want, that I do.
24 O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
This is what was happening to me. I wanted to do what I knew was right in the Lord, and what I didn’t want to do I found happening. So what was the key to victory? I want to share what the Lord showed me.
Sin, Bitterness and Judgment
If you are experiencing a continual battle over anything, even though you may not be in deliberate rebellion and may have every good intention of walking with the Lord, you need to face up to the fact that sin is at the root of the problem. In almost every case that sin is bitterness, because bitterness is the tap root of most of our problems.
You may say, “Bitter? Huh? I’m not bitter!”
Look at yourself carefully and see what is going on in your life. Look at how you react to people. Do you want to know if you are walking in bitterness? Check to see if you are down-mouthing anyone, or getting angry with anyone. If you want to smack a person when you see them instead of giving them a hug, then you are walking in bitterness, and it is unfortunately sin. It is so easy for it to creep in. The enemy can bring anyone across your path to try and rile you up and get you to open the door to him through strife.
When you have identified and seen the root you may now need to look a bit closer and see if your problem does not have a judgment associated with it. The Lord showed me that the reason I could not break free of the problem I was experiencing was because I had in fact judged someone in my childhood for the same thing, and this judgment was continuing on and being reaped in my husband.
If you are continually struggling with something like for example all women rejecting you, you need to do a little digging and ask the Lord to reveal to you if you have made a judgment about a woman rejecting you in the past and you are now reaping it in your life. It may have been your own mother who rejected you and you may have judged her in your anger. Now unfortunately that judgment is still with you and you are reaping it again and again, and it will remain with you until you have dealt with that judgment.
Sometimes it can be devastating to realize that you have a law of judgment in operation, but it is powerful to see it, because you will suddenly realize why things have been going the way they have and why you have sometimes reacted the way you have. How many times have you treated your children the way your parents treated you and yet you have never wanted to be to your children like your parents were to you? Do you know why that may have happened? It is because you likely judged your parents for something, and despite not wanting to repeat the negative cycle, you have gone and done just that! If the Lord shows you something like this it is wonderful, because now you can do something about it and truly break free.
Submit and Forgive
Having identified the sin issue, now let’s consider how to break free. The first thing to do is James 4:7:
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
You need to submit yourself to the Lord and then close the door on the license that you have given to the enemy through your sin. Once the sin aspect has been dealt with, the rest will follow suit fairly quickly, although the Lord may still need to deal with other weaknesses of the flesh that are standing in the way. You will find though that the tug-of-war will cease and you will have a calmness in your spirit again.
If you are bitter against someone who is close to you and whom you can talk to, you need to admit your bitterness to them and ask for forgiveness. Sometimes this is extremely difficult for some people to do face to face, and you may feel better about writing them a letter, but either way you need to say those words and get them out into the open in order to begin the process to victory.
You can share and be open about what you feel – always in love - but then you need to say, “I was wrong in being bitter towards you. Please will you forgive me for this?”
The person you were offended at should say, “Yes, I forgive you,” and now you can close the door on the sin aspect that gave Satan license to attack you and keep you in bondage. Turn to Satan now and tell him out loud that you are closing the door on him and he and his oppression must leave. If a law of judgment has been revealed openly renounce that judgment and let it go. You have now gained a great victory, but the process has not been completed just yet!
Past Links
If the Lord revealed to you a law of judgment you now need to ask Him to shine His light on the past and what caused the law of judgment in the first place. You may have been hurt and reacted badly. You have dealt with your sinful reaction, but there may still be a sting in those memories and when you think back on them you still feel horrible about the situations or events. It is a good thing to get someone to pray with you and ask them to speak healing to those painful memories. The Lord will go back with you into those memories and shine His light sometimes in places that you have even forgotten, and in a flash He will heal the pain associated with them. Now you can think about them without wanting the painful emotions that went with them before.
A Choice
Now you need to make a simple choice to walk with the Lord and to let Him help you overcome the problem completely. The Lord will not force you to change, but as you have committed your problem and your tug-of-war to Him, He desires to get in there with you and help you to overcome completely. You have done the spiritual part and done what you can by dealing with the sin aspect, bitterness, law of judgment and negativeness towards the person. Now you need to make a choice to let the Lord change you and move you from victory to victory.
You have to make a choice to walk with Him in love and be free from bitterness. If something has irritated you, you need to choose to not let it irritate you and make a commitment to perhaps even become involved in what you did not want to be involved in before. Be flexible and have an attitude of humility before the Lord, because that is what He desires of you. If the person or people involved are not walking the way they should, as you keep your own attitude right before the Lord, He will move on them to correct theirs as well if it should be needed.
Do you know what happens now? You will find that what stressed you out badly before and what you were having so much trouble getting victory over will suddenly not be a problem anymore. You will change in your spirit, your soul and your body. You will be at peace and often you will see things from a completely different viewpoint from what you used to before.
You can walk in victory! As you go through these points that I have discussed and implement them in your life you will rejoice to see the chains that bound you before fall away, and you will win that tug-of-war once and for all!
“Thank you Lord for setting your people free. Thank you for giving them the victory that they are crying out for. Lord, whoever is reading this article now, if they are facing a problem that is difficult and they are battling to overcome, I ask you to release them. I ask you to show them the sin in their lives that is causing the bondage. Reveal any laws of judgment, Lord, so that they can let it go, confess it and put the past to sleep. You have come to set your people free, and I thank you Lord for the victory that is theirs in you right now.
“Satan I stand against you and declare that you will take your hands off God’s people. The Word says, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free!” In Jesus’ name I speak freedom and liberty to your people, Lord. I declare that you will make your truth known and that your people will begin to walk in victory as never before, as they break those negative bonds from the past and take your hand to walk down the path that you have for them. Thank you for it, Lord.”
I hope that this article may bless others who also go through spiritual battles like me.
Victory Over Spiritual Battles
By Daphne Crause
How many times have you been in a spiritual battle and have longed for and cried out, unsuccessfully, for victory? How many times have you had a problem in your life that you have tried so hard to gain the victory over and yet you still do not seem to have success? If you are in this position today, I want to encourage you to read on, because there is victory ahead!
What Problems?
So, what problems am I talking about? I am talking about emotional problems that you think you should be able to solve by conventional means, but you can’t. They are spiritual in nature, but they manifest themselves in an emotional form and you feel like you are going through a tug-of-war.
Have you ever participated in a tug-of-war? If you have you know that you hang onto that rope for dear life, but you are being pulled one way and then the other. You are pulling with all your might in one direction, and then you are suddenly pulled in the other direction, and it is difficult to stay in one place and stand your ground.
This is a good picture of what I am talking about. You may have a problem that has cropped up recently or one that has been ongoing for years and years, and you try vehemently to stand your ground against the tug-of-war and turmoil that you are feeling inside, yet you swing like the pendulum and go from one extreme to the other.
Personal Battle
I am well aware of having spiritual tugs-of-war. I went through one once that put me into the depths of despair about ever gaining victory over it, but the Lord took me through a process which I would like to share with you on shortly, and I received full victory in it.
I did not fully realize that I had a problem in a certain area until the Lord moved my husband more fully into a different type of ministry. I had always backed him and given him full support, yet when he moved into this new thing that the Lord had for him I suddenly felt an anger and irritation about it that baffled me. It was like when a cat and dog meet unexpectedly for the first time and the cat’s fur stands up on end. For the life of me I couldn’t understand what was happening. It was illogical and irrational, and try as I may I simply could not get victory over it.
I examined my heart, confessed my anger as sin and realized that I could be stopping him from accomplishing all that the Lord wanted to do in his life, but in spite of confessing and receiving cleansing from the Lord the feelings of irritation were still there and I resented his involvement in this ministry terribly.
Here was my tug-of-war. I knew that my attitude was wrong. The very last thing I wanted to do was stand against him in the work of the Lord, but my emotions went way out of control and it is as though there was an internal influence there that was stopping me from breaking free. Indeed there was and it was the key to breaking completely free of it. For the first time in my life I understood what Paul was saying in Romans 7:19, 24 and 25:
19 For the good that I want I do not do: but the evil which I do not want, that I do.
24 O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
This is what was happening to me. I wanted to do what I knew was right in the Lord, and what I didn’t want to do I found happening. So what was the key to victory? I want to share what the Lord showed me.
Sin, Bitterness and Judgment
If you are experiencing a continual battle over anything, even though you may not be in deliberate rebellion and may have every good intention of walking with the Lord, you need to face up to the fact that sin is at the root of the problem. In almost every case that sin is bitterness, because bitterness is the tap root of most of our problems.
You may say, “Bitter? Huh? I’m not bitter!”
Look at yourself carefully and see what is going on in your life. Look at how you react to people. Do you want to know if you are walking in bitterness? Check to see if you are down-mouthing anyone, or getting angry with anyone. If you want to smack a person when you see them instead of giving them a hug, then you are walking in bitterness, and it is unfortunately sin. It is so easy for it to creep in. The enemy can bring anyone across your path to try and rile you up and get you to open the door to him through strife.
When you have identified and seen the root you may now need to look a bit closer and see if your problem does not have a judgment associated with it. The Lord showed me that the reason I could not break free of the problem I was experiencing was because I had in fact judged someone in my childhood for the same thing, and this judgment was continuing on and being reaped in my husband.
If you are continually struggling with something like for example all women rejecting you, you need to do a little digging and ask the Lord to reveal to you if you have made a judgment about a woman rejecting you in the past and you are now reaping it in your life. It may have been your own mother who rejected you and you may have judged her in your anger. Now unfortunately that judgment is still with you and you are reaping it again and again, and it will remain with you until you have dealt with that judgment.
Sometimes it can be devastating to realize that you have a law of judgment in operation, but it is powerful to see it, because you will suddenly realize why things have been going the way they have and why you have sometimes reacted the way you have. How many times have you treated your children the way your parents treated you and yet you have never wanted to be to your children like your parents were to you? Do you know why that may have happened? It is because you likely judged your parents for something, and despite not wanting to repeat the negative cycle, you have gone and done just that! If the Lord shows you something like this it is wonderful, because now you can do something about it and truly break free.
Submit and Forgive
Having identified the sin issue, now let’s consider how to break free. The first thing to do is James 4:7:
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
You need to submit yourself to the Lord and then close the door on the license that you have given to the enemy through your sin. Once the sin aspect has been dealt with, the rest will follow suit fairly quickly, although the Lord may still need to deal with other weaknesses of the flesh that are standing in the way. You will find though that the tug-of-war will cease and you will have a calmness in your spirit again.
If you are bitter against someone who is close to you and whom you can talk to, you need to admit your bitterness to them and ask for forgiveness. Sometimes this is extremely difficult for some people to do face to face, and you may feel better about writing them a letter, but either way you need to say those words and get them out into the open in order to begin the process to victory.
You can share and be open about what you feel – always in love - but then you need to say, “I was wrong in being bitter towards you. Please will you forgive me for this?”
The person you were offended at should say, “Yes, I forgive you,” and now you can close the door on the sin aspect that gave Satan license to attack you and keep you in bondage. Turn to Satan now and tell him out loud that you are closing the door on him and he and his oppression must leave. If a law of judgment has been revealed openly renounce that judgment and let it go. You have now gained a great victory, but the process has not been completed just yet!
Past Links
If the Lord revealed to you a law of judgment you now need to ask Him to shine His light on the past and what caused the law of judgment in the first place. You may have been hurt and reacted badly. You have dealt with your sinful reaction, but there may still be a sting in those memories and when you think back on them you still feel horrible about the situations or events. It is a good thing to get someone to pray with you and ask them to speak healing to those painful memories. The Lord will go back with you into those memories and shine His light sometimes in places that you have even forgotten, and in a flash He will heal the pain associated with them. Now you can think about them without wanting the painful emotions that went with them before.
A Choice
Now you need to make a simple choice to walk with the Lord and to let Him help you overcome the problem completely. The Lord will not force you to change, but as you have committed your problem and your tug-of-war to Him, He desires to get in there with you and help you to overcome completely. You have done the spiritual part and done what you can by dealing with the sin aspect, bitterness, law of judgment and negativeness towards the person. Now you need to make a choice to let the Lord change you and move you from victory to victory.
You have to make a choice to walk with Him in love and be free from bitterness. If something has irritated you, you need to choose to not let it irritate you and make a commitment to perhaps even become involved in what you did not want to be involved in before. Be flexible and have an attitude of humility before the Lord, because that is what He desires of you. If the person or people involved are not walking the way they should, as you keep your own attitude right before the Lord, He will move on them to correct theirs as well if it should be needed.
Do you know what happens now? You will find that what stressed you out badly before and what you were having so much trouble getting victory over will suddenly not be a problem anymore. You will change in your spirit, your soul and your body. You will be at peace and often you will see things from a completely different viewpoint from what you used to before.
You can walk in victory! As you go through these points that I have discussed and implement them in your life you will rejoice to see the chains that bound you before fall away, and you will win that tug-of-war once and for all!
“Thank you Lord for setting your people free. Thank you for giving them the victory that they are crying out for. Lord, whoever is reading this article now, if they are facing a problem that is difficult and they are battling to overcome, I ask you to release them. I ask you to show them the sin in their lives that is causing the bondage. Reveal any laws of judgment, Lord, so that they can let it go, confess it and put the past to sleep. You have come to set your people free, and I thank you Lord for the victory that is theirs in you right now.
“Satan I stand against you and declare that you will take your hands off God’s people. The Word says, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free!” In Jesus’ name I speak freedom and liberty to your people, Lord. I declare that you will make your truth known and that your people will begin to walk in victory as never before, as they break those negative bonds from the past and take your hand to walk down the path that you have for them. Thank you for it, Lord.”
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