by Jacob Ninan
When Jesus returned from the wilderness after His victory over the temptations from Satan, He went to the synagogue in Nazareth on the sabbath day. He took the book of Isaiah and read from chapter 61. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord" (Lk.4:18,19). This was the mission statement Jesus was making at the beginning of His ministry. The preaching of the Good News He brought was to result in liberation of people from all their bondages. 'Poor' referred to the helpless, those who found themselves in a beggarly situation where they could not manage themselves. 'Captives' referred to prisoners of war who had been captured by the Enemy and kept in bondage. 'Blind' referred to the mentally blind who were unable to see the great treasures that the King had prepared for them and who continued in bondage. 'Oppressed' referred to those who had been crushed and bruised by the sinful nature of life, suffering not only from the consequences of their sin but also from the sins of others. Jesus declared that He had come to set everyone free.
'The favourable year of the Lord' was not just about proclaiming forgiveness of sins, even though that itself is a huge act of grace - unmerited favour - from God. Jesus is telling us that we no longer have to remain under the power of sin that rules over us in various forms. When He sets us free, we will be fully free (Jn.8:36). Of course, we will not experience the fullness of this freedom on this earth, but we can experience it more and more as time goes on. Also, we are not going to experience this freedom automatically after we are born again, but only as we trust in God to give it to us, long for it and seek for it with all our heart (Jer.29:13).
The mission statement of the Devil is that he is there to steal from us what God has prepared for us, kill and destroy us (Jn.10:10). But Jesus has come to give us an abundant life. He wants to destroy all the work that the Devil has done in our lives (1Jn.3:8). Unfortunately, many Christians think of the abundant life only in terms of having a prosperous life and enjoying it here. But Jesus is preparing us for eternity, and we will reap there what we sow here. We can enjoy not only the forgiveness for our past sins, but an increasing level of freedom from sin's dominion over us (Rom.6:14).
There are different types of slavery that come upon as a result of sin, whether it is our sin or somebody else's. What I want to do here is to give an introductory level look at three areas of bondages that we may experience in life. These bondages may be complex and God may point out to different processes by which we can receive our freedom. They may include counselling and other forms of help too.
1. Suffering from the results of childhood trauma Our experiences in our childhood can have a crucial impact on the way develop in our mind. It is affection and acceptance from parents and our immediate surroundings that lay the foundation for a healthy mental development. But if what we face is rejection, abuse, or neglect, then it is possible that our little minds develop wrong attitudes and strategies towards people and life. Some people develop an approach of self-protection in order to avoid pain. Sometimes they do not want to make new friends for fear of getting rejected. Some go even to the extent of avoiding any negative comments about them and use different tactics to divert the attention. Some people reject themselves and lose all real interest in life, and waste away their lives in useless pastimes or habits such as drinking. A third common reaction to childhood trauma is an aggressive approach to life, trying to force others to take notice of them. These kinds of approaches can remain even after we grow up unless we receive from God, sometimes through counsellors. One or two of the couple in a marriage can bring this baggage into the relationship, and then there will be constant problems in their relationship, and then the children pick up their own version of the baggage for their lives! Jesus has come to break this kind of bondage too. He points us to the love of the Father for us who gave His only Son to die in order to save us. He loves us just the unique way He has created us, and He is the One who left the 99 others aside and came looking for us. Christian counselling brings all such truths to bring in a healing of the memories and to heal the deep, inner wounds of the heart. 'Inner healing' counselling includes finding acceptance from God, forgiving those who have hurt us and gaining a healthy self-confidence.
2. Slavery to bad habits Many people have become slaves to habits that are ruining their lives, such as smoking, drinking, drugs, gambling, pornography, partying, etc. Some have become slaves to laziness in such a way that they are unwilling to take any initiative for themselves. Many of them have come to believe that they have no way out and that even God cannot change them. But Jesus has come to set all such people also free, if only they would go to Him. The actual process of deliverance may include rehabilitation, counselling, repentance and choosing to live for Jesus. But let us not think that there is no hope, because it is for helpless people that Jesus came.
3. Demonic oppression Unfortunately, some Christians take extreme positions regarding demons. Some think that demons were a part of the mythology of Jesus' days and that there are no such things. But we only have to read the gospel narratives to understand that one of the common things Jesus and His apostles had to do was to deal with demons and set people free. Another group of Christians go to the opposite extreme and believe that all the problems they face in life are due to demonic oppression. As a result, they are binding and casting out demons right and left, without any actual result in most cases. Yet another extreme position some people take is that since Jesus has overcome Satan and the demons on the cross, they cannot trouble us Christians. But this goes against all the warnings in the New Testament for us to be alert and careful against the Devil and to put on the whole armour of God to protect ourselves.
When a demon possesses a man, the man is completely helpless because the demon makes him do whatever it pleases. Since a born-again Christian is owned by the Holy Spirit residing in him, he cannot be at the same time possessed by demons. However, we must not forget that while the 'Holy' Spirit is dwelling in us, we also have in us the flesh (or our old sinful nature) with its passions and desires. Thus it is possible that because of our carelessness, one or more demons may have got access to small parts of our life from where they control those parts of our behaviour. This oppression by demons is different from possession. For example, consider a young worship leader who is respected by everyone in the church, while he is a slave to pornography in his private life. He may have got into this by curiosity, but now he has come to the place where he is unable to control himself in this area. Somewhere along the line, a demon may have managed to take control of that area of his life. When we deal with different believers in Christ, we can see that they are under demonic oppression in certain areas of their life, and need deliverance.
"Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity" (Eph.4:26,27). The KJV refers to a 'place' and the NIV to a 'foothold' that we can give to the devil in our life by our carelessness with sin. Paul warns us to be careful with an unforgiving attitude towards other people, because the devil schemes to take advantage of such an exposure in our life (2Cor.2:10,11). We can understand from these passages that we can expose ourselves to demonic oppression if we 'continue in sin without repentance' (that is the meaning of letting our anger go on beyond sunset).
Another way we can expose ourselves to demonic oppression is by getting involved in occult activities. Playing with the ouija baord in which people ask spirits for guidance, freemasonry which involves worship of Satan, seeking help from psychics, going for the thrilling experience of a seance, yoga meditation, seeking to know the future through astrology or tarot cards, etc., bring us in direct contact with demons. If we give them a foothold in our life, they will try to push their way into other parts of our life and things can finally result in possession!
A third way of attracting demons into our life is through idol worship. How is that people who pray to lifeless idols get even miraculous answers to their prayers? Paul clarifies that behind these idols are demons who pretend to be gods (1Cor.10:20). There are also those who make pacts with demons to gain advantages in their life. They do not anticipate that after the demons give them that advantage, they would begin to take control of these people's lives. People who have become Christians do not automatically get free from these demonic footholds in their lives, because they are areas that these people have yielded to demons earlier, and now the demons will not leave unless these people deliberately choose to reject them.
However, we must also know that Jesus has won a victory over Satan and all demons when He died on the cross and came back to life (Col.2:15). Death could not hold Him because there was no sin in Him. Now He has give us His name as our authority to bind and cast out demons. It was not just to the twelve apostles that He gave them that authority, but even to the seventy two people whom He sent out to preach the Gospel (Lk.10:19). He made it clear that all those who believe in Him have the authority to cast out demons (Mk.16:17), even though doing this as a ministry may be confined only to certain people. We need not therefore live in fear of demons, recognising that our authority is not based on our merit but our faith in Jesus.
At the same time we must remember that deliverance from any of these bondages is not automatic. Just as Jesus asked the man who had been sick for thirty-eight years waiting for healing by the side of the pool whether he (really) wanted to get healed, we must know that we must 'want' deliverance (Jn.5:5,6). Victory and deliverance are promises of God for us, but we will not receive them until we seek after them (Jer.29:13). Our cry for help must rise to God. The people of Israel were slaves in Egypt for many years, but God delivered them only when they started crying out to Him (Exo.2:23,24).
Finally we must remember that when when God delivered Israel from Egypt, 'not one hoof' was left behind. When Jesus sets us free, we will be free indeed (Jn.8:36). We must not give up or stop seeking God for victory, even if we have failed for a long time after our struggles to break free. Those who seek God will not be put to shame.