Humans have struggled to overcome the power of sin since the start of life here on earth. The narration on how to overcome sin is based on the following topics.
- Freedom from the power of sin at war with us in our flesh
- Freedom from the power of sin that comes through a demonic influence
- Jesus’ Mission Statement where He proclaimed the beginning of His Ministry here on earth
- How Christians engage in ‘harmless’ adultery
- Seeking deliverance
- Preaching deliverance
- Building your life through the Holy Spirit
- Being wary of devil’s servants ( There is a special mention of The Jezebel Spirit)
Freedom From The Power of Sin In Our Flesh
We are spirit beings and our flesh will always be at war with us, fueled by seduction coming from the world of materialism.
It is prudent to remind ourselves that the flesh belongs to the world and when it dies it remains here on earth as dust.
Ecclesiastes 12:7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
On the other hand, when we leave our earthly bodies, we, in a spiritual form, go back to to our Creator. The real you is your soul not your perishable body.
Galatians 5:17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.
Note that this scripture was translated using the word Spirit in capital S, this is because it is the Holy Spirit living in you that desires the good and not the human spirit as one may think.
If you are born of the Holy Spirit (born again), your desire will always be to please God through the power of the Holy Spirit.
John 3:6-7 “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.”
Sin has power on us if we don’t confess, renounce, repent and seek forgiveness. We can crucify what is of the flesh by making a conscious decision to become dead to sin.
Galatians 5:24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires
Freedom From The Power Of Sin Living In Us Through A Demonic Influence
However, if the flesh refuses to die to sin , we are then dealing with a demon. We can’t crucify a demonic issue, instead the demon involved needs to be cast out. If we are unable to kick off a habitual sin, then it’s no longer a flesh issue but demon living in us.
Our bodies are meant to be temples of God the Holy Spirit, a house for our soul and our human spirit. Unfortunately they are also suitable resting places for evil spirits that rule the world.
Unlike in the earlier scripture where we see the flesh opposing the Holy Spirit in you, in this case the evil spirits living in you also oppose the work of the Holy Spirit through your will.
Ephesians 12 For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against persons without bodies—the evil rulers of the unseen world,….
Evil spirits get legal rights to live in our bodies as a result of our own sins, inherited sins from our ancestors or pronounced curses by servants of satan (but not without a cause), Idolatry which is found in false religions, worship of ancestors, worshipping material wealth, occult, freemasonry and others.
Some of these sins including idolatry gives the evil spirits legal rights to live in you of up to four generations.
Exodus 20 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me
Ancestral sins come to us as curses and according to the bible verse above, they have a generational lifespan.
It’s also important to note that the sting of a curse is implemented by evil spirits and an evil spirit cannot live in your body without a cause.
Proverbs 26:2 Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow, an undeserved curse does not come to rest
Jesus came to break these legal rights. He was made a sacrificial lamb for our sins.
Once your sins are forgiven and the legal rights that demons have on you are dealt with, by making them null and void, you are then set free from the curse of the law and by extension, the claws of the devil.
Jesus’ followers were normal people just like us. Some were of higher social standing while others were of a lower social circle, a group that some world royalties will call as commoners, but they all had one thing in common, demons lived in them at some point in their lives
Luke 8: 1… The Twelve were with Him, 2 as well as some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary called Magdalene,from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 Joanna the wife of Herod’s household manager Chuza, Susanna, and many others. These women were ministering to them out of their own means.…
This brings us to the main problem why Christians struggle with sin. They are controlled by evil forces from the inside and around them.
When they turn around for help from others, they are encouraged to accept the lifestyle since every christian in the world is experiencing the same. This is the type of a gospel that is preached around them by persons clearly under the devil’s payroll and foxes by any definition.
This type of thinking is a deception from the devil who is using the word of God to continue suppressing you. The scripture talks about temptation not wallowing in sin.
Being tempted and living in sin are two different things.
1 Corinthians 10:13 You are tempted in the same way that everyone else is tempted. But God can be trusted not to let you be tempted too much, and he will show you how to escape from your temptations.
The second part of the verse says that God will show you how to escape. This means that it’s expected that you are not to continue living as a slave of sin even if you are tempted. If you can’t stop a habitual sin, then you may not be hearing from God but a deceiver in you or around you.
Many Christians in ignorance have tried to crucify demonic traits like they will do to the flesh. Others have been subjected to long hours, days, months and years of counselling. You can’t counsel demons. They are sad, condemned (never to be pardoned but expecting to go to hell), extremely evil, nothing to loose, murderers!
Demons need to be cast out not crucified or counselled else you will end up in hell.
There are two major hurdles on the road to deliverance for many Christians.
One is failure to believe in the existence of evil spirits or the presence of evil spirits in a person who is identified as a christian. The second one is pride.
Whereas humans who don’t believe in Jesus Christ can be compared to a wild land where every type of a creature has a dwelling, believing Christians do also give dwelling places to lots of evil spirits in their lives due to ignorance, carelessness in their christian walk and attitudes they have towards deliverance which includes pride. When it comes to attitude, this is the single most liberating factor. Since our thoughts easily merge with the demonic , evil spirits reject deliverance through our minds. A demon living in you and influencing your thoughts will not allow you to cast it out or cast out any other demon for that matter since it’s part of the ‘kingdom’. Mark 3:24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
A person who is not delivered may not tell the difference between their own thoughts and thoughts from evil spirits living in them.
The deliverance process is simple yet hard. The process is hard to a Christian who does not believe that evils spirits roam the world seeking a body to dwell in. The process will not start until a person believes that they can be a host of evil spirits and that a struggle with sin could be demonic.
I clearly remember when I started believing in the presence of evil spirits in me. My Christian life took a u-turn for the better. I came to realise that the enemy was also within me. After that, my deliverance which was and is still is a process, started in a very beautiful way. Every time an evil spirit gave me up, the oppression in my soul reduced and I looked forward for more. I yielded more to the Holy Spirit and He continued pointing at areas of darkness where evil spirits were living within me. Hosts of more demons gave me up and others were cast out of me as this areas became illuminated by the light from the Holy Spirit as I stopped living in falsehood!
Many demons will give you up without even being cast out when you become aware of their existence in your life and once you change your attitude towards deliverance.
When you don’t believe then you won’t be aware of their existence. If someone tried to cast them out of you there will be zero work done because these demons will still come back. They will come back because of your thought pattern that is conducive to their needs and therefore protects them and gives them rest. Mathew 12: 43 When an unclean spirit comes out of a man, it passes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it.44 Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ On its arrival, it finds the house vacant, swept clean and put in order. 45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and dwell there; and the final plight of that man is worse than the first. So will it be with this wicked generation.”
The problem with demons is that they are not honourable or adorable loving sweethearts but intelligent and incredibly wicked-sorrowful-loveless – restless spiritual beings without a body.
Think of them as mongrels, stomach-chunning skunks, extremely deceitful bustards that have an affinity to destroy anything that pleases God.
Once evil spirits are in your body, they will resist at all costs any efforts to cast them out.
Meanwhile, because they are literally your sleeping partners, they will cost you sleep, peace, vigour, freedom, confidence, respect, love, affection and joy. You will always be fearful, short tempered, critical of others, restless, very materialistic, yearning for love or affection, confused, unfaithful, have an affinity for anything evil etc. In other words you will be displaying all the characteristics of demons and at the same time thinking that these are your traits or something you inherited from the family line.
Some demons are ancestral and it’s common to see certain traits from your ancestors coming out in you. Some come in form of infirmities or diseases. Doctors will always ask you about your family history because some diseases can be traced through family blood lines. In other words, doctors probe you about the history of certain demons in your family.
Some of the things that happen to our bodies due to the presence of evil spirits range from comical to pure disheartening evil. I have seen some people posting pictures of themselves in social media with all the telltale signs of devil harassment.You don’t have to pose in any way in a photo and post it to be assured by a thousand likes that you are beautiful. It’s not you, it’s a spirit that has taken over your life. You need deliverance and at this point it’s urgent!
Demons are sad opportunity seeking mongrels! They try to jump in our lives at different stages like puberty, marriage or on the deathbed. If you think carefully, our free will’s personal guard is normally down at this stages due to what is happening to us and the devil knows that.
When inside you demons will always align themselves with various types of existing physical conditions like an injury, a diet that has gone wrong like diabetes due to certain foods, hormonal changes and even an attitude like unforgiveness. Once they patch on something that can be explained in human terms, they then start making it worse. Their ultimate aim is to destroy you, destroy your body and eventually escort you to hell from bitterness with yourself, everybody else and God.
Your body may suffer from allergies, non absorption of nutrients and not responding to medicine for treatable diseases. Your immune system is affected and simple infections become chronic and kill you.
I heard a story of this young teenager who had broken her leg three times. A demon in her prevented the bone from healing properly. Fortunately for her, she attended a healing service with her parents where a preacher through discernment felt led to cast out a curse in her family. The preacher then asked her dad if he can pray for her. Her dad agreed but warned the preacher that the doctor had said it will not heal since she had broken it the third time. He went ahead and prayed for her. A few weeks later her leg started healing.
I wonder how many people are dying due from treatable ailments that are not responding to medicine because of the presence of curses.
How can we be delivered from evil spirits if we don’t believe they exist. Jesus could not send the disciples without instructing them to drive out demons in people. Why? Jesus knew that they will be no healing and the gospel will not be effective to some specific people without first driving out evil spirits living in them.
Mathew 10:8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.
If you randomly picked a stray dog from the street, Irrespective of how beautiful it looks, it is highly likely it will be full of internal and external parasites. I don’t have to elaborate.
Christians need to live repentant lives and not go on sinning because when a demon is cast out once from a person, it goes out there looking for help from more wicked demons. Once they come back and live in that person, they make the later part of that christian worse than before they were saved. If such a christian does not drop off from church or fellowship but continues in that state of un-repentance, they evolve to being agents of satan becoming building blocks of a fake bride of Christ. This is very dangerous because they consciously or/and unconsciously influence true believers around them to abandon sincerity and purity of the gospel. This effectively turns the beautiful gospel of Jesus Christ into a religious strife where potential believers are turned away from the nastiness of what is being offered to them as Christianity.
Sadly, professing Christians live as slaves of impure spirits because of lack of knowledge. This makes the words of Hosea the prophet true in Hosea 4:6 my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge…
[Read this if you are not a born again christian]
Let us now look at the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ here on earth and see how He brought victory to us through through His work of deliverance.
What was in Jesus’ Mission Statement that He proclaimed at the beginning of His Ministry here on earth?
The ministry of Jesus here on earth can be summarised as to redeem man from the power of sin and enable man to reclaim his or her position in eternity has a child of God.
Jesus proclaimed the main objectives in His mission statement through the following scripture.
Luke 4:18-19 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor“
It was on that Sabbath day at a synagogue in Nazareth that Jesus read his mission statement from the book of Isaiah 61:1,2, Isaiah 58:6. These words were also a fulfilment of the prophesy by Isaiah about 700 years earlier.
1. Proclaiming God’s word that equips us fully for our Journey to heaven
2. Buying our freedom from the devil. Our sins and our ancestors sins make us by default prisoners and slaves of the devil
Hebrew 9:12 (NLT) : With his own blood–not the blood of goats and calves–he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever
3. Getting rid of our spiritual blindness. The presence of the Holy Spirit in us gives us discernment. This helps us in the spiritual warfare
John 16:3 (NIV) But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come
4. Lifting all yokes of oppression and affliction that the devil has placed on us.
Mathew 11: 27 All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. 28 Come to Me,all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light
5. Declaring that the kingdom of God is among us, a period that the prophets and the men of faith were eagerly waiting for. A few saw it and were glad others saw it from a far but died before they could be part of it.
Read the following fascinating scriptures on the coming of the Kingdom of God
Luke 2: 25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: 29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. 30 For my eyes have seen your salvation, 31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.” 33 The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him.34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, 35 so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” 36 There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, 37 and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshipped night and day, fasting and praying. 38 Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.
Heb 11:13 (NIV) All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.
Luke 17: 20 Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, 21 nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
How Christians Engage In ‘Harmless’ Adultery
‘Harmless’ adultery is a form of intense love relationship with the world. Persons who easily bond with the world and are unable to free themselves are likely to be hosting evil spirits in their lives. There is tendency of a person who is operating under the influence of evil spirits to be worldly.
Worldliness has it’s cause in spiritual blindness and outright rejection of God.
1 John 2:16 For everything in the world–the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life–comes not from the Father but from the world
It all starts in a committed christian when an evil spirit creeps in ‘harmlessly’ through the desires of our flesh like what is pleasing to the eye or what feels good or what gives us power and respect. Once the demon is in, the pleasures of fulfilling these desires takes centre stage.
If we were previously experiencing a glow of the love of God in our hearts we then start believing that what we can see, feel or acquire is the source of our Joy.
Before we know it, it’s no longer the Holy Spirit that is leading us but a demonic spirit inside of us. The evil spirit becomes a slave driver and pushes us to have strong desires for what the material world can offer, effectively replacing the love of God in us with money, boyfriend, girlfriend, family ties, social friends, drinking, drugs, etc. We then start building our successes and happiness around these things.
At this point the devil has done his job. He has managed to land a demon or demons in your body completely aligned with your thoughts. You will never know that the thoughts are not yours. It all started with the lust of the flesh.
Then after sometimes a sincere christian will notice that the unconditional joy is gone and mood swings become the order of the day. The joy of the Lord has been replaced loves from other sources. These loves are conditional and sometimes very painful.
God has stated clearly in James 4:5 that His Holy Spirit longs to have a close fellowship with us, no wonder He watches in envy how well we bond with other loves other than His. He calls these relationships though not necessarily sexual , acts of adultery
James 4:4-5 You adulterous people,don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us ?
God’s love will not grow in us again unless we ditch other loves. How do we do that? Examine your life and if you suspect you have a demonic influence pushing your life, seek deliverance from evil spirits. Humble yourself and yield to the Holy Spirit, repent, confess, renounce and let evils spirits be cast out of you.
Adultery is a form of idolatry. Read more on idolatry
Seeking Deliverance
The life of a born again Christian should agree with the scripture in 1 John 3:9 “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God”.
This may not always be the case. Why? Please read a discussion on this topic here
Preaching Deliverance
“For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places” Ephesians 6:12 NLT
It’s hard for just anyone to see and agree with what you are fighting against. Even those that will see a trail of personal destructive events and sicknesses will have a different explanation for it.
God would wish to equip you for this battle.
You may need to give yourself time to grow deeply in this area before involving yourself in the deliverance ministry. God will show you the areas in your life that are exposed to the devil and are therefore strongholds that the enemy army of demons use to wage war against you. This will enable you not to fight blindly and give up. Many preachers have genuinely come out fighting and punching but only to fade away wounded or killed because they are fighting an enemy who has a stronghold within them. You can’t fight the old experienced devil when not in partnership with the Holy Spirit. You can’t be in partnership with the Holy Spirit until you learn how to obey His directives. You must learn not to quench the Holy Spirit
The anti-Christ spirits will fight you from many strongholds such as harbored roots of bitterness , unforgiveness , ignorance of God’s word, sexual immorality, unconfessed sins and living a general defiled spiritual lifestyle. The reason you have these strongholds of satan could be from events or agents within your immediate spiritual and physical environment that have developed over a period of time.
God would wish to deal with these areas first. You have to go through repentance, forgive, seek knowledge and education from the Holy Spirit. Seek partnership with the Holy Spirit in whatever you do
Building Your Life Through The Holy Spirit
If you wish the Holy Spirit to build your spiritual life, there are a number of topics discussed in our blog page that can be of big help to you .
Being Wary Of Devil’s Servants
John 8:12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
There is no light and therefore no love or victory in the lives of those that live in long dark shadows of sin.
If you wish to follow Christ then be ready to expose sin and not hide it.
If what is inside of you can’t tolerate God’s light and purity then click here to learn more about deliverance .
What is your immediate spiritual environment ?
1 Corinthians 5 9: I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10: not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11:But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.
Mathew 7:15 Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.
My experience shows that, the people the bible is warning us about in the above scriptures are close Christians who harbour a seed of rebellion towards God. These are the type of Christians who lord themselves over you and wish to be worshipped, held in awe and reverence . If You don’t, they ignore you , deny you fellowship and generally give you a cold shoulder. There is normally no life in what they discuss with anybody but are preoccupied with topics about materialism, personal attainments and slander.
This behaviour can come as a shock to both young and old in faith. It’s a strategy that our enemy uses to deny the body of Christ spiritual nourishment and true fellowship. These habits also interfere with spiritual growth and revival within our social environment, a bigger picture of what the devil is planning daily for the church of Christ.
Any Christian who behaves this way is actually a vessel of the devil and may need to be told on the face to repent and if they refuse, keep a safe distance from them
I noticed something very evil and extremely deceptive that I had never seen before. I will say this with a lot of humility, I don’t think God could have shown me this if I didn’t seek him in sincerity in the situation I was in.
The spirit spews tons of vile and pure emotional evil towards the target. The spiritual atmosphere around a person carrying this spirit is like a foul gas coming from the very breath of hell. This spirit is the Jezebel spirit and is mentioned in Revelation 2:20.
I have seen this spirit send people and even children on the way of self destruction. Some have attempted or committed suicide and some have taken to drugs.
There is normally no peace to the target of this spirit. I have seen such agony and bitterness ooze out of the victims that I used to wonder why there is so much hurt from this spirit than any other spirit. Now I know why. This spirit uses witchcraft which is a spirit of manipulation to make the victims feel helpless and fearful. It’s this helplessness on the part of the victim who sees no justice or help in sight that makes them very resentful and can lead to self-destruction
A person hosting this spirit is nothing but a servant of the devil operating at the highest deception level possible in satan’s kingdom. In order to identify a servant of the devil you need to closely watch the fruit. It’s not so obvious for the Jezebel Spirit.
How do you recognise servants of the devil? This can be by special spiritual discernment or by general guidance through the scriptures
Jesus taught us how to in the following scripture
Mathew 7:16 By their fruit you will recognise them. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?
What are the fruits to watch for? Paul writes to the Galatians about these fruits
Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,23 gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no Law…
What is the opposite of these fruits?
Galatians 5 19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God
What is the future for all unrepentant sinners?
Revelation 21:8 “But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshippers, and all liars–their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulphur. This is the second death.”
Live In Victory 