patrick jane forums

Bondage…
   One of the schemes of Satan is to put us in bondage.  This bondage can take several forms.  In Luke 13:10-17 we see that the bondage was to a disability, a physical malformation.  This bondage had been going on for at least eighteen years.  All Jesus had to do to free the woman was say, “you are free of your disabilities.”  Then He laid His hands on her and she was restored and glorifying God.  The entire teaching is about the law of Sabbath which we should touch on since it is the context and Jesus point was that it is NOT unlawful to set someone free on the Sabbath.  It’s a teaching about the heart of the law not the letter of the law that is important when it comes to us being set free from our bondage. 
So let’s talk about bondage since we are looking into the schemes of Satan.  Some of the bondage we experience is at the hand of Satan (Luke 13:10-17,  II Corinthians 4:4) but as we study bondage we discover that we are the ones who decide who we will be in bondage to.  Corruption has us in bondange in Romans 8:21.  In fact the whole world is in bondage to that corruption which is the result of sin entering the world.  This bondage is broken by the Lord Jesus Christ. 
John 8:34 talks of our bondage to sin.  Anyone according to John 8:34 who commits a sin is in bondage to that sin.  Since everyone sins (Romans 3:23) we all are slaves to sin at one point or another.  John 8:32 tells us that it is the truth that sets us free from this bondage.  Genesis 4:7 tells us that we need to master sin rather than to open the door and invite it into our lives.  In Romans 6:16 we see that we are in bondage to whomever or whatever we obey, whether the evil desires within, Satan, the Christ, or anything inbetween.  If we are a slave to whomever we serve it is little wonder that we are all slaves to the sin that we serve.  II Peter 2:19 further expands on the idea of our bondage or slavery to sin by talking about we are slaves to whatever overcomes us.  When we fail to live a righteous life we are slaves to the sin that we gave ourselves over to.  Romans 6:20 tells us that when we are a slave to sin we are free from the obligations of righteousness but righteousness is the goal and therefore we need to be set free from our bondage to sin.
We already talked about the truth of Jesus Christ setting us free from our bondage to sin. (John 8:34) We also talked about Jesus being able to set us free, Jesus being the truth.  There are some other things we can do as well.  We can become a slave to Jesus, (II Corinthians 4:1-6) we can allow Christ to lift the veil and transform us into His image. (II Corinthians 3:14-18)  We can guard ourselves so that we do not give Satan a foothold in our lives. (Ephesians 4:27)  This diligence comes from resisting the Devil rather than giving into him as well as submitting ourselves to God with a yielded heart. (James 4:7; I Peter 5:9) When we think with a sober mind that is alert and watchful for the schemes of Satan and the truth of the Lord we are working towards freeing ourselves from the bondage of sin. (I Peter 5: As we clothe ourselves with the blood of the Lamb (Jesus Christ) and testify to His goodness, as we love God more than our own lives, we begin to set ourselves free. (Revelations 12:11)  Being set free from the bondage of sin is to wrestle against the sinful desires that reside in our hearts. (Ephesians 6:12) When it is not clear, when we don’t know if we are being deceived or not we can test the spirits to see if they are from God and if they are speaking truth. (I John 4:1) Finally we need to put on the full armor of God.  The full armor of God is often taught but let’s take a moment to look at what it tells us to do to not fall to the bondage of sin and the schemes of Satan.  First we are to be strong in the Lord and in His power.  (II Corinthians 12:9-10)  The battle we are waging is not one of the flesh but one of the spiritual realm.  Keeping this mindset is important to our battle.  Where Satan can use our fleshly weaknesses as he did with Jesus when he tempted Him, the battle was one (Ephesians 6:12; Acts 26:17-18; I Corinthians 9:25; Ephesians 2:2; Ephesians 3:10)  With the full armor of God we can and need to stand firm in His power and strength.  That armor includes the truth that we talked about above, righteousness, being ready in peace, faith, salvation, the Spirit which is the very Word of God, and being alert and praying.  Matthew 12:25-27 shows us why we cannot be set free from our bondage by the things of Satan but only by the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ as He washes over us and sets us free, for then we will be free indeed.  (John 8:36)
   As we talk about bondage let us also talk about demon possession.  Demon possession is a real thing in scripture.  We are given several accounts of just such a phenomena.  Luke 22:3 and John 13:27 talk about how Satan entered into Judas Iscariot which led the way for him to betray Jesus.  These passages show us a specific moments when the person became possessed.  Acts 16:16-18 tells the story of a woman who was demon possessed and because of the possession she had the gift of divination, that is she could tell the future so that her masters could have great gain.  The demon saw cast out in the name of Jesus.  Mark 5:1-20 tells of a demon possessed man who had been given by the demons great strength, that is super human strength.  What I found extremely interesting is that in verse 6 even though the man is demon possessed he worships Jesus the Christ.  Possession does not prevent us from coming to God.  As we move through the story, Jesus cast out the demons by casting them into a herd of pigs who promptly ran over a cliff unto their deaths.  Luke 4:33-36 tells of a man who was demon possessed and still cried out to Jesus who cast out the demon and the man was not hurt.  This is twice that we notice that being possessed does not stop us from seeking out Christ and the healing that He brings. 
Sometimes it is the person who is possessed that calls out and at other times someone brings them.  In Matthew 17:14-21 a man brings his son, a son who was having seizures that were caused by the demon within him.  This does not mean that all seizures are caused by demons anymore than all strength is demonic what it means is that demons can cause deformities as we saw previously and seizures.  The disciples tried to cast out this demon but couldn’t because they didn’t have enough faith.  Jesus cast out the demon and said that this type of demon can only be cast out through prayer and fasting.  Demons made a man blind and dumb in Matthew 12:22 and again the man was brought by his friends to Jesus for deliverance.  Even Matthew 4:24 talks about those who were brought for healing and were healed of even demonic possession.
This is obviously not a full study of demonic possession and I would recommend that no one seeks out demon possessed people to exercise the demons out of but it is also not something we should fear as we move through our lives in Christ and something we should be aware of that Satan can and does do to send people to their deaths but Christ is the power that overcomes even this.  It is through authority, prayer, and fasting that we overcome this type of scheme of Satan’s to pull us into death and away from life.