This is the second article in a series entitled Wonderful Counseling. I sometimes use other names for this ministry, such as Personal Prayer Ministry and Biblical Healing and Deliverance. The adjective "wonderful" is used because Jesus is the "wonderful Counselor" of Isaiah 9:6. This ministry attempts to make room for Jesus to personally counsel people by means of the indwelling Holy Spirit, with the human ministers acting as facilitators. This makes it different from most counseling. It is highly effective at teaching the recipient how to hear the voice of the Spirit and to receive his life giving words..
I believe any sane person would agree that the world is in a seemingly hopeless situation. We cannot even agree on the nature or root of the main problem, and we fight over how to solve it, believing that the other side’s “solution” is actually making matters worse. Human “fixes” generally have side effects that introduce a whole new set of unintended consequences. Individuals, families, corporations, people groups, and nations pursue selfish agendas at the expense of the less fortunate and less powerful. Ignorance, poverty, sickness and disease ravage the human race. Wars, genocide, infanticide, and general inhumanity to others abound. Religions vie for “top dog” status, their adherents often being willing to kill and oppress “non-believers”. Prisons are filled with those who flaunt the laws of civilized society, and those who believe in Biblical values find themselves in a “Twilight Zone” world where what was considered vile a generation ago is now paraded and applauded as good and normal. How did we get here? Is there a way out, either corporately or individually?
The Bible teaches us that God created a world in which there was order and goodness. He placed the first couple in a ideal situation where all their needs were supplied with a minimum of work. They were commanded to increase and multiply. Those first humans enjoyed the privilege of walking and talking with God. They were naked and unashamed, apparently clothed with a sort of aura of glory. They “had it made”, but since they had nothing with which to compare their situation, they were prone to think something might be wrong. God gave them amazing freedom and only one prohibition: they were forbidden to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
God created us to be dependent beings who only need to know what God reveals to us. If we could be satisfied to know him, be with him, and depend on his continual grace and lovingkindness, we would be happy and thrive.
You probably know the story. Satan cleverly deceived them into doubting God’s goodness and motives and to desire more than God had given them, which set them up to do the unthinkable. They did the one thing that could bring down the whole system of blessing and life. They turned away from God, choosing to try to live independently from him by relying on their own wits, discernment, and strength.
That rebellious act of disobedience set in motion what we see today. It opened the door to the horrific consequences of living apart from God and gave the keys of authority to our archenemy,
Satan. Instead of being under God’s protection, mankind was now victim and prey, contributing to his own demise by continuing to be deceived and cooperate with our new tyrannical master.
Romans 5:12-21 teaches us that Adam’s sin opened the door to death, condemnation, and the reign of sin in the human race. Let’s examine this in more detail.
God built within humanity the ability to procreate, that is, to reproduce after our own kind.
Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth." Genesis 1:26-28 (NASB)
We are much more than physical beings. The Bible teaches that we are a unique and marvelous combination of spirit and flesh, the joining of which produces the soul (translated “living being”) and personality.
The Lord God formed the man from the soil of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Genesis 2:7 (NET1)
Not only do we pass on our physical DNA when we have children, we also pass on spiritual “genetics” – the sin nature and proclivities toward evil that were “encoded” into Adam and Eve when they first transgressed. That sin nature has been passed to each successive generation since the Fall.
This inherited indwelling propensity to sin is the root of most of our problems.
This means that people who have never been born again by the Spirit of God have for their “default” mode to live counter to what produces goodness, life, and order. No one has to teach a baby how to be self-centered. It comes naturally. No two-year-old needs a course in how to be defiant. It comes naturally. No adult needs to learn how to be tempted to do all manner of evil things. It just comes with the package.
In addition to this huge problem is the additional compounding effect that sin has upon people, families, people groups and nations.
Just as a stone thrown into a perfectly calm pool causes ripples that spread outwardly and eventually destroy the tranquility of the entire pool, sin also has a ripple effect.
To get a better idea, imagine throwing two rocks into the pool simultaneously and watch what happens. The ripples will go to the edge of the pool and then rebound back causing an intersection with other ripples. Now throw several more rocks into the pool in different places, including a couple of really big ones. Now imagine that the number of rocks thrown into the pool increases geometrically in size and number. I hope you get the picture. Sin’s ripple effect eventually produces a turbulent, choppy, and disordered world where once there was serenity and peace.
When people are born, they come into this confusion that sin has created, fully equipped with a sin nature. They are impacted by sin from within and from without.
The sin within propels us to do our own part to contribute to the already existing mess. The impact of sin from the outside further exacerbates things, often doing incredible damage to our already marred personalities. It is as if, in many cases, that little ones are born into a virtual landslide of evil that carries them right over the cliff into the abyss.
For example, children from broken homes never get the chance to experience family life the way God intended. They have missing or broken pieces in their personalities and flawed ideas about how to be a man or woman, a husband or wife, or even a child. Think of the little girls and boys born into families where generations of sexual abuse and incest have been the norm. What are their chances of growing up with any sense of normalcy? What about the little babies born in war ravaged and poverty stricken areas of the world? What about those born into political and religious systems to resist and prohibit the true gospel from even being heard? What are their chances to experience the life that God desired for us at creation? The list of examples goes on. Some people call this progression of evil generational sin. Regardless of the label, it is real.
Individuals and families pass on problems and proclivities to their offspring without the intervention of God.
Things are actually much worse because there is also a being, who commands hoards of like-minded beings, who has a master plan and insatiable desire to ravage and destroy humanity. As you know, his biblical name is Satan.
The devil has a plan for your life – to kill, steal, and destroy you. He is a master deceiver, accuser, and intimidator. He does not play fair and uses any and all means to oppress and harm human beings.
When Adam sinned in the garden, the authority God gave to humans was effectively transferred to Satan. For centuries Satan has used his rule to drag multitudes into hell with him and make life here on earth intolerable for countless people. Although, Jesus dealt Satan a death blow on the cross, he is still being allowed to deceive those who will listen to him. He is still leading people astray. He is still stealing, killing, and destroying, and, if you are a follower of Christ, he hates you and is working against you.
As a result of his activity and the inner workings of sin and our sin-impaired ability to think, we end up afflicting ourselves by choosing to believe lies which are a form of idolatry. They are more important to us than the Truth, whose name is Jesus. They propel us to disobedience and keep us locked up in spiritual prisons of our own making.
The Bible calls these self-inflicted inner prisons of lies “strongholds.”
I call them lie-based strongholds, and Paul teaches us that they keep us from knowing, believing, and acting upon the truth about God and life.
For though we live as human beings, we do not wage war according to human standards, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not human weapons, but are made powerful by God for tearing down strongholds. We tear down arguments 5 and every arrogant obstacle that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to make it obey Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NET1)
These strongholds stand between us and the freedom that could be ours through Christ via the gospel. Notice that here for the first time I mention that there is a way out of this mess!
The gospel is all about Jesus Christ, who is the Truth, and what He did to accomplish our deliverance.
Satan operates in the milieu of the Lie. If we are going to get out of this quagmire of death and deception, we must allow God to tear down any lie-based strongholds that we have embraced. And, believe me, everyone has them.
Working in tandem with these deeply held lies, many people have experienced enormous hurts in their lives, which have deeply traumatized them and, in many cases, produced a fertile seedbed for growing lies about God.
For example, if a young girl was sexually abused by her grandfather over several years, as an adult she will most likely question the goodness of her heavenly Father. After all, could not He have prevented this horrible evil? And if He did not protect her then, how can she know that He is worthy of her trust now? So, we see that the pain inflicted by evil can easily set us up to believe lies about God, which in turn can block us from believing the truth which is able to set us free.
and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. John 8:32 (NET1)
The good news is that Jesus is the great Healer and is well able to heal those deeply wounded areas of our souls, but usually it requires us to pursue him for that healing.
Lastly, many individuals are harassed and oppressed by demons.
The Bible is unclear regarding the origin and exact nature of these malevolent beings, but makes it clear that they are real and, when relevant, their oppression must be removed for people to experience complete freedom. Jesus continually encountered and removed these pests from those to whom He ministered while He walked the roads of Israel.
you know what happened throughout Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John announced: 38 with respect to Jesus from Nazareth, that God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with him. Acts 10:37-38 (NET1)
Demons gain access by various means. Often we open the door through participation in some sin, especially sexual sin and occult practices. Sometimes demons seem to be passed on through families, which somewhere along the line opened the door to them. Sometimes they gain access when people undergo trauma.
In other words, sometimes it is our own fault that we are demonized and sometimes we are victims of collateral damage resulting from the sins of others. The devil does not care. He will jump through any open door he can find.
Many are tormented today because of these creatures and don’t even know it.
You may have noticed that I began this paragraph describing the worldwide mess sin has produced and have concluded by focusing on the problems that individuals face. This is because I want you to see that people’s problems and issues are bigger than their own situation. However, the gospel focuses largely on the individual.
Jesus came to set the human race free one person at a time. When enough people experience the liberation found in Christ through the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit, families, communities, and nations will be transformed.
The following articles in this series will be an attempt to explain how Jesus can and will set us free from every layer of bondage.
You can personally experience freedom in Christ, and you can move from being part of the problem to being part of the solution.
