Freedom in 7 Steps

Good morning Salt Church, how are you? Good, it's good to be back in the house of the Lord here. Let's go ahead and just, I'm a praying guy, so let's pray before we start off with here. Father, I thank you for your presence here. I thank you for the angelic host that encamp around this building and around this room and just consecrate this time, Father.

I thank you that you are the God that sozos us, that saves, heals, and delivers, Father God. And I thank you for just releasing the word of the Lord today to this house, to this group of sons and daughters, Father, as we gather here in your name and ask you to bless this time in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You know, Hollywood's done an injustice to the word deliverance.

If those of you remember the old movie, The Exorcist, you know, the girl throwing up green vomit and all that. And that left a real bad stigma, like, what is deliverance? You know, are they going to, am I going to have to throw up in a bag and all that? And that's not what that is about. You know, there's a great word, and it's called sozo.

Anybody ever heard of that word before? You know, the sozo, it's a Greek action word here. It's in the New Testament between 108 to 110 times. Let me give you a little bit about what that is, because how this ties in. So the Strong's Concordance of sozo is to save, keep safe, and sound, to rescue from danger or destruction.

It also means to deliver from the penalties of the messianic judgment, to save from the evils which obstruct the reception of the messianic deliverance. So salvation in Acts 4, I'm sorry, guys, these aren't my notes. This is where I kind of go off here a little. Salvation. Salvation.

Peter, preaching to the elders and rulers of Jerusalem, said, Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven and earth given to men by which we must be sozo, or saved. For healing, Jesus turned and saw her, take heart, daughter. He said, your faith has sozoed, healed you. And the woman was sozoed, healed from that moment. That's Matthew 9, 22.

And deliverance, those that had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been sozoed, cured. Luke 8, 36. Luke 8, 36. The Lord... You know, so salvation, healing, deliverance.

Jesus said, for the Son of Man came to seek and to save sozo what was lost. So that's a great package. We get saved, healed, and delivered. That's all walking in and being a believer of Christ, amen. So today I want to share with you about how can we experience that deliverance.

You know, we live in a fallen world. We're redeemed individuals, but we live in a fallen world. And you know, and the enemy, he's like a roaring lion. He's seeking who he can devour, you know. Scripture says, the thief comes to steal, kill it, and destroy.

But I've came that you might have life and have it more abundantly. You know, and the Lord gave me a really neat prophetic picture one time when I was kind of just walking this out, trying to understand what is it, what is this inner healing, what is this deliverance all about? And he took me to the story of Lazarus. Remember, Lazarus was in the tomb. And you know, they were weeping for his loss.

And Jesus asked him, roll away the tomb, the stone. He said, come forth. And it's interesting. Let me read a little insight here for you. And it's something the Lord just kind of jumped out here.

So I'm looking in, I'm actually in John here. And it's, Jesus had said, Lazarus, come forth. And this is chapter 11, if you're looking for those fellows. Lazarus, come forth. And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with grave clothes.

And his face was wrapped with a cloth. And Jesus said, loose him and let him go. And what the Lord kind of showed me, he said, Cliff, was Lazarus alive when I called him up? I said, well, yeah. Was he free?

I said, what do you mean? He said, go back and read that. He still had the grave clothes on. He had to be unbound. And as believers, sometimes, you know, we can experience, I'm a new life in Christ, but sometimes there's the grave clothes of stinking thinking, of wounds, of false beliefs that kind of keep us bound and keep us from experiencing that freedom in Christ.

Today, we would call that different things. Maybe you have a habitual sin that you deal with. Maybe it's an addiction. Could be alcohol. Maybe it's some sexual stuff.

Maybe it's pornography. Maybe, you know. It's, I'm eating all the time, you know, for comfort, you know, whatever that snare may be, that you're still bound, the Lord wants to, like, to loose, so you can experience that freedom. So one of the things, when a pastor asked me about coming and speaking about deliverance and stronghold, you know, my heart, I'm with, I'm kind of the founder of Base Camp Discipleship. And what Base Camp does, it's a spiritual resource outfitter to equip you with your expedition in Christ.

And so, for the body here at Salt Church, the Lord's like, I want to help equip this church on their expedition, on how to help this community here in the Virginia Beach area where you're planted, to experience freedom on your individual expeditions. You know, so one of the, and so one of my heart's desires, I bring resources. So, what I'm going to be sharing this morning, I've given it to your pastor as well, and felt like this would be a good, wet your whistle, so to speak, to help develop a Freedom in Christ small group that you hopefully could launch or look into launching in the winter semester. So, what I'm going to go over, there is a resource for that that can help your church and help members of your church to kind of dive in deeper to what I'm going to get. So, if you're like, man, I want more of that, I've done my job, I've gotten you hungry there, you know, but you're going to have resources available for that.

So, let's kind of dive in. And this tool, there's many different tools for deliverance. And the one that I'm going to share with you today is from a ministry called Freedom in Christ by Neil Anderson. Anyone ever heard of Neil Anderson in here? He does a ministry called Freedom in Christ, very biblical base.

And this is the steps to freedom. And what I like about this is, you know, it's one thing, okay, Cliff, I'm a believer, but how do I, where do I need to be set free? Do I really need deliverance? What's going on? Or you maybe have a new believer.

This is a good way to kind to start. Think of it, you've just accepted Christ. Now the Lord's like, I'm going to go through each of the rooms of your house, and where does there need to be a renovation? Where do we need to kind of like check underneath the sheetrock, get rid of all the rotten stuff? You know, the Bible calls that sanctification is another way, you know.

You know, or the way we think. So, you know, when we come to believe the Lord, we have to, what? Believe in my heart and confess from our mouth. That repentance plays a really big part. And oftentimes when people get bound with something that they have a hard time giving up, usually the root of that has to deal with some form of unforgiveness.

Remember the parable of the king who had the servant, and he owed a lot of money to the king. And the king, I forgive you that debt, you know, go your way. Well, the man, he was forgiven and he found a friend who owed him just a little bit of money. And he just like, give me back my money. And he's like, I can't pay.

And he threw that guy in the prison. Well, the king found out about that. He's like, you wicked servant. I forgave you this huge debt, but you couldn't forgive this man over here. So, the Bible says that king threw that servant back into jail.

And it also says, and he turned him over to the tormentors until he could pay the full debt. When we hang on to unforgiveness, we allow ourselves to be handed over to the tormentor. He has permission to come and wreak habit because we're hanging on to unforgiveness there. You know, that's oppression. I'm not of the one to believe that you could be possessed by the devil or by a demon or anything.

You can be oppressed when you turn yourself over to that by hanging on to unforgiveness. We should be the most forgiven people that walk on this earth because we've been forgiven by the most. Amen? We should be ones that said they will know that we're Christians by our, the car we drive, by the clothes we wear, by how much money we have in our account, bank account. No, they'll know that we're Christian by our love.

And what does love do? Love covers a multitude of offense. You're not easily offended. You don't give in to judgment because you're clothed with love. And I'm meddling here, guys.

I'm sorry, you know, but that's just, I'm just me. So let's look at some of the freedoms, steps, and just kind of like picture this, the Lord coming in and he's the home inspector. You know, Revelation says, I stand at the door and knock. I learned this as a little kid at 14 when I, when I got saved, when I asked the preacher, what does that mean? He says, your heart has a door and it has one doorknob.

It's on the inside. Only you can open it up and invite Jesus into it. You know, he don't barge in. You have to open it up and invite the Lord in. But when he's into the house, you know, my heart is his home.

Guess what? He doesn't just stay in the hall closet. He's going to look at every area of your house. He's going to look in the kitchen of your house. What are you feeding yourself?

He's going to look at the study of your house. What are you meditating on? He's going to look at the garage of your house. How are you using the gifts that I gave you? He's going to look at the living room of your house.

How are you spending your free time? He's going to look at the parameter of your house. who you are inviting into the sphere of your influence. Amen? You know, eventually he's going to say, okay, you've made me a guest here, but today I want the title indeed of that house.

So I own the whole house. Amen? And he can come and he said, let's look at the kitchen. What are you feeding on? You know, he said, my, my food is to do the will of the Father.

Amen? So he wants to have a complete habitation of your house. So let's look at these steps as different rooms of the house that the Lord wants to come for you can experience freedom. That he can say, unbind her, unbind him, remove that stinking thinking. Let them experience my sozo.

Amen? So the first one we're going to look at is the counterfeit versus real. Counterfeit versus real. And so this is, you know, the devil tries to be a copycat. He can't be God.

He's not God, but he will try to copy him. So we are spirit beings. We're created in the image of the Father. So guess what? He's going to try to mimic that there.

You know, and so the step one counterfeit versus real is this is going to be looking at the areas of that you have been trying to seek the things of God that are outside the parameter of who God is. You're trying to access the spirit illegally. You know, my sheep come to the, they come right through the gate. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.

But you know, there's people that try to access the spirit realm illegally. You know, new age, you know, Ouija boards, things like that. They're trying to access that spirit realm. Well, guess what? They're not going to get the spirit of truth.

They're going to get a counterfeit, you know? And so you might've played around with that when you're growing up. I mean, you know, lucky rabbit's foot, Ouija board. Let me tell you, I was in college. I was at a party there and somebody, you know, there's a group talking.

This guy was saying, you know, he's a warlock. I'm like, a warlock? I don't know about that, you know? And he broke out his little Ouija board and I started praying. You know, he's a...

Over there, he's trying to do his little Ouija thing and asking questions and all that and that little thing wouldn't move around and he finally said, he was speaking to whatever spirit he was trying to conjure up and said, why aren't you working? All of a sudden, the thing started to move and it spelled out P-R-A-Y-E-R. He says, prayer? Well, who's praying? And I'm like, well, I'm praying, I'm like, I'm in my breath there and it's spelled out Christian.

I'm like, hallelujah, Lord. Amen. We don't want to know those heebie-jeebies up here. So you're going to look through, you know, if you've been involved with anything, you know, magic eight balls, Ouija boards, you know, there's a whole checklist that you will go through. I'm not going to go through them all here for the time, but it's like, I need to repent and forgive of accessing the spirit realm outside of you for messing around with that.

I don't want any of that stuff tainted and smearing my relationship where when I'm trying to hear the Lord and it's distorted because I've opened the doorways for other things to come in and cloud that true reception there. So the counterfeit versus real is just cleaning that out. Lord, I only want to hear your spirit speak. I don't want to hear anything else that I've opened up unbeknownst to me and my foolishness or ignorance or in my just walking into this fallen earth. So that first step counterfeit versus real and you will just renounce and, and just any involvement with that.

You know, amen. You're going to, Lord, if he brings it to light, God, forgive me of that. I repent of that. And then we make the declaration of who Christ is. Step two, deception versus truth.

I mean, you know, we can be deceived. Amen. You know, that's why you got to know, you got to know this. You got to know the word here, you know, and, and use that for your sword. So deception versus truth.

You know, this is going to be looking at ways that we can be deceived from others and ways we can deceive ourselves. Um, for example, ways I can deceive myself hearing God's word, but not doing what it says. James one 22, um, saying that you have no sin. First John one eight, thinking you are something you really are not. Um, thinking you're wise in this worldly age, thinking you can truly.

You can truly be religious, but not bridle our tongues. I mean, the Lord's serious about, let's get our house clear, you know? And then we have statements of truth that we look for because we want a place to rely with the truth. A statement of truth, like, I recognize that there is only one true and living God who exists as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is worthy of all honor and praise and glory as the one who has made all things and hold all things together.

Amen. I mean, these are great truths to memorize and get into your spirit. Another one, I recognize Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us. I believe that he came to destroy the works of the devil and that he has disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public display of them, having triumphed over them. I mean, and there's different truths that we, that you say out loud that you begin to practice there to line yourself like a plumb line.

He drops that plumb line. I want to line up with what God's Word says and have no deceptive ways, you know, it's like fine tuning. I mean, the Lord's just kind of working through the house, doing good on time here, amen. Step three, this one's the big one, bitterness versus forgiveness. Yeah, we cringed that one there a lot.

And that's really important on just learning to walk through forgiveness. And when you're into this step, there's going to be time where you're going to have to write down everybody you need to ask forgiveness for and just kind of process that. I remember there was a lady and I was in a small group when we were praying for healing and this one lady, she just couldn't, I mean, the healer wasn't budging. She had a problem in her lower back. You know, we're praying and praying and praying and finally Holy Spirit, ask her if there's anyone she needs to forgive.

And we said, okay. And she's like, I'm good, I'm good. I said, well, let's just ask Holy Spirit. She says, Holy Spirit, is there anybody that I'm, I have unforgiveness towards that I need to forgive? And the Lord took her to a memory of a neighbor that she was best friends with 20 years in the past.

And they had a dispute over something and she said some ugly things and held on to that bitterness. And that thing grabbed hold of her. And for 20 years, she had that pain in which she's like, oh my gosh, I need to forgive her. And so we led her in a prayer of forgiveness. And I forgive this person.

And she began to confess that and release. Release that to the Lord. And then when we prayed for her healing, guess what? That pain, that thing left because they had no legal grounds to grab hold of her anymore there. That's the power of just, I want to be released from the tormentor.

You know, I need to forgive. I need to be released of that. And so that's a process that you get to work through, you know, because, hey, you need to be a captive here. I don't want to be a captive. I don't want to be under the enemy's influence there because I hang on to unforgiveness.

I need to quick release. Keep short list. Don't hang on to unforgiveness there. And so that will really kind of work through another area step is, Lord, where in my life do I have unforgiveness? Who have I not forgived?

Have I forgiven my mom, my dad, my siblings, my boss, employer? Just let the Lord kind of cleanse that through so there's no area that you're harboring to that there. And interesting, you know, with that, when we, you know, sometimes our parents, our dads, our fathers, we hang on to unforgiveness. We judge them with things that they've done. That can block or hinder you experiencing the true revelation of who God the Father is.

You know, for me, my father never said, I loved you. He wasn't a huggy touchy father. He was very distant. And so my understanding as a believer coming in to as a new Christian was God was like on a galaxy far, far away because my dad was in the natural very far away. So I never really believed God was up close and personal.

I used to live my relationship with God through others because I didn't believe God would speak to me. I would go to leaders. Hey, could you pray for this? Could you ask God about this? Because I didn't believe he would speak to me.

And God had to work that through for me to forgive my earthly father, for me to encounter God in a deeper way. Now I'm a caregiver for my father. If you told me 20 years ago, I would have laughed at your face. You know, but that's just the amazing work of redemption and God working. So some of the ways, and you'll get to practice acknowledging the truth about who God the Father is.

By renouncing lies that we might believe and then declaring the truth. I'll give you an example here. I'm going to read a few of these. Like, I renounced the lie that my father God is distant and disinterested. Because I believe that's what God, in my earlier days, He was distant and He wasn't interested.

He says, but I choose to believe the truth that my Father God is intimate and involved. See the change of your thinking with that? Another one, I renounce the lie that my Father God is stern and demanding. And I choose to believe the truth that my Father God is accepting and filled with love and joy. I renounce the lie that my Father God is passive and cold.

And I choose to believe the truth that my Father God is warm and affectionate. These are all scriptural and what it's doing is it's changing the way we think. Take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. It says we have the mind of Christ. Why do we sometimes struggle with the flesh?

Because we're listening to the broken record. And it sounds so familiar to this. And what we need to learn in the church does is let me begin to tell you your identity in Christ. Who is this new creation? How does this new creation think?

How does it act? How does it walk? We're learning our new identity. We are taking off the grave clothes of the false self and putting on the robes of righteousness and walking in the newness of life. And part of that is decreeing and declaring by renouncing that false self and declaring the truth of who we are.

Are you liking this church? Is this good there? Amen. Step four, rebellion versus submission. Now, this is going to break down between government and parents and teachers and employers.

Let me put it in another realm for you. We're in the kingdom of heaven, right? And in the kingdom of heaven, you have one king, right? We're here in the natural realm. There are little mini kingdoms.

Here at Salt Church, there's a kingdom of Salt Church. Your pastor is your king. Amen. Parents, dads, you have another little kingdom. The dad, you're the king.

Your wife and your kids, they're subjects of your kingdom. When you go to work, you have a king who's your boss and you are a subject of that kingdom. If you've had bad experiences with different people in authority, that will... Filter how you relate to people in position of authority. So our pastor here, if you have come from a previous church, maybe you experience a bad king as a pastor, a bad elder, a bad leader, and you come into here, you will have a hard time accepting the leadership of this king who will lovingly tries to set up guardrails to help you stay in the lane there so you don't go off the road in your journey of righteousness.

Amen. Or your small group leaders that you have here, well, I'm not going to submit to that. So this is kind of working with, let's get some healing of where we've been at under bad kings so that we can receive lovingly instruction and guidance from our heavenly king and those kings that have been placed in our lives. And also to examine, wow, as a father, you know, as a husband or dad, how are the people learning about Jesus under the domain of me being a king? Have I been a bad king?

Have they been experiencing bad leadership? Where do I need adjustment with that? How are they experiencing God under my leadership? Amen. So they're going to dive in deeper to that and just, again, remove the grave clothes so that I can experience more life and more healing.

That's what we want. We want more life, more love, more freedom. Amen. Pride versus humility. Step five here.

Pride comes before a fall, but God gives grace to the humble. See, that's in James and Peter. So this is going to be really learning, looking at the ways that we've had the sin of pride. Pride blinds. Pride, it blinds, you know, humility you can see clearly, but pride can blind you from seeing the arrows of the enemy.

You know, some of the way pride can show up is having a stronger desire to do my will than the will of God. Leaning too much on my own understanding and experience rather than seeking God's. Relying on my own strengths and resources instead of depending upon the power of the Holy Spirit. Being more concerned about controlling others than in developing self-control. Being too busy doing seemingly important and selfish things rather than seeking and doing God's will.

Having a tendency to think that I have no needs. Finding it hard to admit when I was wrong. Being more concerned about pleasing people than pleasing God. Being overly concerned about getting the credit I feel I deserve. Thinking that I am more humble, spiritual, religious, or devoted than others.

Being driven to obtain recognition by attaining degrees, titles, and positions. Often feeling that my needs are more important than other needs. Or considering myself better than others because of my academic, artistic, athletic abilities or accomplishments. Or having feelings of inferiority appearing as false humility. Not waiting on God.

Hello. Other ways, I thought more highly of myself. I know there's probably some of y'all that have experienced at least one of those in here, right? Salt Church there, you know. Come on now, it's all about freedom.

It's all about freedom here. This, there's no, there's no shame here. You know, this all grace, all about freedom. So you will learn, Lord, where do I need to dismantle that? Because, you know, the root of that, who, who, who got prideful when they saw somebody sitting on the throne?

It's like, whoo, look at all that glory. I want that for myself. I'll think I'll dethrone him and take his praise. And y'all saw what happened in a blinking eye. I saw Satan fall like lightning.

Pew! God took care of that. He was a fried critter. Shot him down to the earth like that. So we're going to look on pride versus humility.

Step six, bondage versus freedom. This is where we're really going to get under the hood on some things here. The bondages. With this one, you're going to look with, are there habitual things that you are in bondage to? Maybe it could be, man, I can't stop dropping the F-bombs or cursing and swearing and things like that.

Maybe it's the thing about you always are angry. Maybe you have a problem with jealousy you can't get over. You know, maybe it's a gossip of slander. Maybe it's involved sexual sins. You know, things that you're on the internet, places you shouldn't be.

Or, you know, you're looking at others that you shouldn't be looking at. You know, you're cheating on your spouse. Maybe it's other things. You have suicide. Hostile tendencies, eating disorders, substance abuse, overcoming fear, this is really kind of look at things again that keep you into that bondage there and how to break that.

I did this a checklist with a gentleman that was suicidal and we were kind of going through these steps, cleaning house, he had to repent and just the Lord began to bring things up. We just repented up, confessed it, give it to the Lord there, and then asked him to come and fill that spot with his presence, you know, and this is all, again, this is all about God, just lift that up. I want that grave clothed off of me because I want to walk in the freedom that I have in Christ here. I don't want to be still bound up with stinking thinking. And then lastly, curses versus blessings, you know, and this, we're going to look a little bit more about what are some curses that I'm under.

You know, scripture declaration, scripture declares that the iniquities of one generation can be visited on the third and fourth generation, but God's blessings will be poured out on thousands of generations of those who love and obey him. Listen, this is really important. You know, alcoholism ran in my family on both sides, my mother's side and my father's side. And as a believer, you know, and learning about that, God's like, this stops with your generation. What happened in the past does not go from you into the future generation.

It ends with you. And that is redeemed and moving forward is releasing blessings. And maybe when you look at your family generation, what has come down, maybe it's suicide, maybe it's depression, mental health issues, addictions. It gets to stop with you. Amen.

You don't pass it on to your kids or your kids' kids. It is redeemed. It is sozo. It is delivered and made whole and it's healed there. You know, and you begin to learn who you are in Christ and your identity.

You need to put that on. You need to clothe yourself in your identity and who you are in Christ and begin to walk that out. It doesn't feel natural at first because our flesh is very real. We're very comfortable. We know that, but we don't quite yet know who am I becoming in Christ.

We haven't experienced and appropriated that, but it takes time to renew our mind. And you just sitting with God saying, God, tell me who am I as your beloved son? How do you see me as a mother, as a father? How do you see me as a son, as a daughter? And begin to listen to him to speak his words of affirmation and affirm who you are in his eyes there.

And then begin to walk that out and experience who you are in Christ. Amen? Amen. Thank you, Jesus, there. I'm going to read.

Do I have time to read a little bit more, Pastor? We're good. Okay. I just want to read you an overcomer's covenant in Christ. You know, because we're betrothed to the Lord.

Amen. We're the bride of Christ. He gave the Holy Spirit as that engagement ring. Amen. And one day we're going to have the great marriage supper.

So there's a covenant that we have with him. I want to read you some of the covenant here of what this looks like. My overcomer. We want to be overcomers. Are we overcomers in here, Salt Church?

Amen. Let me read this. Let me read this. Let me read this. the truth that I am now a child of God who is unconditionally loved and accepted.

I declare that sin shall no longer be master over me because I am not under the law, but under grace. And there is no more guilt or condemnation because I am spiritually alive in Christ Jesus. I renounce every unrighteous use of my body and I commit myself to no longer be conformed to this world, but rather be transformed by the renewing of my mind. I choose to believe the truth and walk in it, regardless of my feelings or circumstances. I commit myself to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

And I choose to think upon that which is true, honorable, right, pure, and lovely. I commit myself to God's great goal for my life to conform to his image. And I choose to adopt the attitude of Christ, which has nothing to do with... Selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, I will regard others as more important than myself, not merely looking out for my own personal interests, but also the interests of others. So I pray, Salt Church, that, you know, this would wet your whistle like, Pastor, I want to get free.

I want to remove the gray clothes and look to having a Freedom in Christ small group launch with that. This will be a powerful resource, I think, just to dig deeper into the soil of your heart and for you to experience greater freedom there and empower you to help release freedom to others. Amen.