The Spirit of Bondage

Those that have greater effectiveness in Spiritual Warfare:

Able to look beyond the traits that are being manifest and identify the predominant Spirit that is causing the issue.

Be skilled in how to deal with it

The desire to be free from it

3 battlefields of spiritual warfare:

1. Obsession - This is where most of our spiritual warfare starts, and it happens when the adversary strives to  consume  your  mind 

2. Oppression - This is where it goes beyond obsession in your mind, and your  life  starts to be affected.

3. Possession - This takes place when the individual has  accepted  the obsession as normal. Their  resolve  has been weakened by oppression to the space that they are being controlled by the spirits that torment them

Tonight as we cover the 9th of the 12 Apostles of Hell we are going to take this 9th Spirit of Hell from the book of Romans chapter 8 vs. 15

For you have not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear.

The Spirit of Bondage

While God did not specifically identify this spirit until the book of Romans, it existed long before Romans was written and is now more rampant than ever. It is the spirit that encompasses many of the maladies wreaking havoc in our present society.

- It's victims are among both strangers and friends

- It's victims stand on street corners and in our homes.

- It's victims sit in shelters and at our tables.

Be assured the victims of the spirit of bondage are seen every day.

They are people that we work with, live with, are related to and passed by in the daily routines of life.

All of us know someone somewhere in our world who is battling a vicious warfare with the spirit of bondage.

God identified this demonic general of evil when the apostle Paul, speaking about how God's grace had set them free, reassured the people whose souls had risen above sin:

For you have not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear. ()

() You have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear.

Sadly, an unfortunate number of saints and sinners know far too well exactly what it means to be in the yoke of bondage.

It goes without saying, some of the demonic spirits we have discussed, were totally undetected, but actively at work in many of our lives. Consider the following:

While the spirit of bondage is a brutal reality among lost souls, it is also the silent hypocrisy of some who claim salvation. I find it a horrible travesty of righteousness that the spirit of bondage claims victims among both the churched and the unchurched.

Most people never consider that the lying spirit is the factor that keeps them from fully committing themselves to God.

While the spirit of bondage is a brutal reality among lost souls, it is also the silent hypocrisy of some who claim salvation. I find it a horrible travesty of righteousness that the spirit of bondage claims victims among both the churched and the unchurched.

Most people never consider the spirit of infirmity is at the center of their inability to be faithful to the House of God.

However, when it comes to the spirit of bondage, it possesses precisely the traits most individuals may expect. The spirit of bondage is the same demonic spirit that captivates humanity with habits, hobbies, or substances. It takes the individuals Jesus has delivered and hold them hostage to the very things from which they were delivered.

Manifestations of the spirit of bondage:

Addiction to alcohol, addiction to drugs, addiction to gambling, addiction to medication, addiction to nicotine, addiction to video games, anguish of spirit, anorexia, bulimia, broken spirit, compulsive behavior, condemnation, constant lack of integrity, deception, domination by another, driven to failure, embarrassment, feelings of hopelessness, frustration, gluttony, inability to overcome a sinful trait, kleptomania, perpetual weakness to a specific transgression, resignation to enslavement, self-loathing, shame, stealing, unstable, untrustworthy

As stated earlier in the study of Hell’s predominate spirits, much is to be gained when we move beyond the traits being manifest and move to prayer against the root of the real spirit causing one's spiritual warfare. The importance of this is further magnified when it comes to the spirit of bondage. We all know someone who is trapped in bondage to any number of things ranging from the mundane to the malicious. Addictions were once seen in alcohol and drug abuse, sociologist have now added such things as video games and even political anxiety to the list of things to which humanity can become addicted.

To that end, it is easy to pray against a "spirit of alcoholism" or a "spirit of addiction." However, while these are very real adversaries, truly waging spiritual warfare against the root of the problem may require praying against the spirit of bondage.

As surely as drinking alcohol is sinful, there are others who have become a slave to alcohol by the spirit of bondage.

While drugs are a sinful ways, there are others whose lives are chained to it's brutal indignity through a spirit of bondage.

Sadly, those embattled by the spirit of bondage often won’t totally sell out to God because their hearts are convinced they cannot break free.

They are convinced they cannot escape the drug.

They don't believe they can break free from the bottle.

They see themselves as hopelessly shackled to those habits.

They have been persuaded they can't shake off the heavy chains that bind them to that unholy hobby.

They truly believe they cannot live without that love interest.

Understand the spirit of bondage is morally, socially, and emotionally cruel and without remorse for the devastation that shackles of sin cause in a persons life. It has no regard for the lives that are left fragmented and broken and can ultimately only be healed by the Power of God at work in their lives.

Men who walk away from their families because of their bondage to alcohol.

Spouses forsaking their God-given families because they were enslaved in lust for another person.

Individuals carelessly casting away their dignity, having most of their belongings repossessed, while emotionally chained to a video game.

I personally have know individuals who their very own mothers sold them to the wishes of others in order to support their bondage to drugs.

Adults abusing children because of their addiction to pornography.

The horrifying list goes on and on, chronicling the life and vices to which humanity can find themselves enslaved. While the many manifestations may very, all of them bear the same spiritual identification.

Is it alcoholism? Perhaps.

Is it drugs? Maybe.

Is it pornography? Sometimes.

Is it other vices? Often

Is it bondage? Yes it is always bondage!!

The thing to know about the spirit of bondage is it does not have to be anything as openly sinful as narcotics or alcoholic beverages. Mundane and things such as video games, worldly music, or questionable entertainment become bondage to individuals who allow them to control their lives.

Any addiction in your life that keeps you from drawing closer to God, regardless of how harmless it seems, is absolutely not the Will of God.

Never forget the children of Israel made a great Exodus from Egypt but struggled with the desire to go back to Egypt because they never escaped the mentality of bondage they continually carried.

While the broken lives of some seem to paint a picture of the spirit of bondage’s goal as demoralizing reputations, crushing dignity, and doing a repairable damage to one's character, that is not the entire picture. While those manifestations show up in some lives...

the ultimate objective of the spirit of bondage is to so enslave a persons spirit that they stop believing in their own ability to ever rise above the unholy element hindering them.

Individuals reach that point, they see any attempt at coming back to God as far too humiliating, far too hard, or far out of reach.

Wether your spiritual battle is with illegal vices or common corruption, let us consider some of the steps it takes to overcome the demonic spirit of bondage:

STEP 1- Be quick to recognize Satan's devices.

Be quick to recognize Satan's devices.

We should possess an awareness of anything in our lives that could become a bondage to our spirit. We cannot afford to minimize the effect that even our seemingly innocent hobbies or habits can have over our walk with God....

Overcoming the spirit of bondage requires recognizing anything can be a device with the potential to ensnare our lives and stalemate our walk with God.

The spirit of bondage does its most deadly work in the lives of those who are ignorant of its ways. Regardless of how much you may love God, if you remain ignorant (or even indifferent) about those things that can become a bondage to you, you become open prey for the demonic attack of the spirit of bondage.

The adage that suggests "ignorance is bliss" is terribly costly! When it comes to the spirit world, ignorance is not bliss but a dangerous advantage to an adversary who wants to destroy. God emphasized this through the writings of the prophet Hosea:

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. -

Refuse to be ignorant of the adversaries tactics! Take note of anything you are getting "too wrapped up" in or that starts controlling certain areas of your life. Develop a Godly sensitivity capable of recognizing anything in your world with the potential to captivate your spirit and destroy your salvation.

STEP 2 - Break every unholy pattern

Sins, and most certainly sinful vices are continually strengthened by the patterns we fall into. It has been my observation that...

most of the people who continually have spiritual struggles and constant failures do so because of the patterns they continue to follow in their world....

This is why some people seem to backslide every few months. The problem is they have overcome their past sins but never overcome the patterns that have made them fail God over and over.

I have watched as people seem to struggle spiritually continually because of seasons they allow in their lives. For example during softball season or basketball season they think nothing of missing church for their favorite hobby. Then the spiritual man is not strengthened and they fall into sin only to recover enough to repeat when the season comes around again. Due to this pattern, they will never gain ground and advance in their walk with God.

If we can backslide over something as simple as a sporting season, how much more important is it when it comes to the many sinful vices people in our society battle every day. If you are helping someone in their struggle against the spirit of bondage, or if you are personally battling it, you simply must look at any unholy patterns in your life and break them immediately.

this means you cannot keep doing the things you once did, or you will fall back into the sins you once committed. You cannot go to the places you once went, or you will end up trapped in the sins you once escaped. You cannot hang with the crows you once hung out with, or you will end up doing the things you used to do with them.

STEP 3 - Learn to exercise your spiritual authority

God knows the power of exercising your spiritual liberty as well as liberty's ability to keep you from being entangled again unto spiritual bondage. In fact, one of the major themes of the epistles is the importance of not being in bondage to anything but God. One writer expressed it this way:

Stand fast therefore in the liberty where with Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. –

This was gods way of saying, "I have set you free, but you have to keep your spiritual liberty alive if you intend never to get caught again in any other trap the spirit of bondage may send your way.”

This is the reason why one can scarcely speak about breaking the bondage of the enemy without quoting the following proclamation:

And the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.

For every individual who struggles with the spirit of bondage, immediately after you find salvation, find a consuming passion to exercise the liberty God's anointing gives to you! To truly escape the spirit of bondage, you must maintain a strong spiritual drive to exercise yourself (making a deliberate effort to involve your life) with the anointed liberties God has given you.

As a child of God, you should intentionally avoid being entangled with anything that can put you back in bondage. However, God also wants you to intentionally immerse yourself in spiritual liberties such as worship, prayer, working for God, and so many others. For instance, if you have come out of drug or alcohol addiction, perhaps the chief thing to keep you from tumbling back into such bondage is to become addicted to those spiritual liberties God gives his children.

Perhaps this is the heartbeat referenced by the writer in describing the motivation behind one named group of God’s children so successful and valuable to the kingdom:

Ye know of the house of Stephanas, that it is the first fruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the Saints –

The reason these Saints could be what God wanted them to be was because, after coming out of a pagan culture full of viruses...

they addicted themselves to the spiritual liberty God had given them and had totally devoted themselves to working in the service of the Saints.

They Exercised their liberty to be used of God.

They seemed to understand that staying free of the demonic spirit of bondage required giving themselves totally to those spiritual liberties God has bestowed.