Are you being held captive in your affliction?

Have you been dealing with something that you think God should have already either healed you of or broken you free from by now?   Living everyday with a shadow of pain, sadness, depression or anxiety in your life is not the plan that God had for you, when he created you, in his perfect image.   

God didn’t create man from dirt of the ground and then blow his life into man, for us to deal with living a life crippled by affliction.  God had a perfect image in his mind for what he wanted our lives to be, but also what he wanted for our relationships with him as well.   

We all know the story about the Garden of Eden and how Eve and Adam ate of the apple and brought sin and death into people forever more.  We know this story so well we can probably tell it in our sleep, so my question is why do we continue to listen to the lies of the enemy.

If Eve wouldn’t have been tempted by the serpent (Satan) to eat off the tree of Life and, then convinced Adam to eat of the fruit, the serpent wouldn’t be able to have influence over us today.  My question is, since we all know that story so well and we can pick out the evil in this story, why can’t we pick out the evil in our own lives?  

In John 10:10, quickly becoming one of my favorite verses, it says the Thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy, so why are we surprised that we have attacks against us every day, all day.  That’s 24/7 for some of you that unsure.  The enemy doesn’t let up when you are sleeping or in the shower, nope there is not an off button on the enemy, or we would surely have shared that with each other.   

I was reading John 5:5 tonight and thought to myself, so this man was lying by the pool of Bethesda for thirty-eight years, and no one helped him, he was never capable of helping himself?  To me instead of seeing the next verse, I saw a man who was held captive in his affliction.  

I think we can all understand this to some degree.  There are irrational fears we all have and are not sure where or why they hit us with such force, but that doesn’t make them any less true.  We either know someone, or have personal understanding of panic disorders, mental disorders, fears, anxiety issues, depression issues, I am sure there are many more, I can’t think of right now.   After reading this verse, I truly wonder if most of these aren’t coming as an attack from Satan. 

Before I go any deeper, in case I have offended someone, I need you to know that I myself have battled with anxiety and depression, for most of my living years, so I am not by any means saying this is not a real issue, because I know how real it truly is.   

What I am suggesting, is that we allow the seed of thought that the enemy has given us and when we originally think it or hear it, because the enemy can use people around you to knock you down as well.  But when we hear the insult or comment directed towards us we don’t know to not accept it as truth or fact.  This gives the enemy a place to work with in our minds.   

Most of us are not raised knowing that the enemy is alive in the world and that we need to speak back to him, to keep our minds clean of garbage.  Most of us are not raised knowing who we are in Christ, so when an attack of the enemy happens we can say, Ha, devil, you can continue all you want but I know my value, and worth in God, so everything you are saying about me or to me isn’t truth.   

This just made me think of the playground riddle that kids would say.  Something about being rubber and glue and whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you.   We teach our kids that these riddles are a great way to deflect the mean words that they hear out in the world, so why don’t we take it a step farther and tell them that God is the rubber, he protects us from the evil of the world, and Satan is the glue, so when he tells you or says bad things to you it doesn’t penetrate you, it bounces off of you, and lands back on him.  

I think that we are so unaware of Satan and his purpose that we let our guards down to his fiery darts, and allow them to become weapons we use against ourselves.

Do you think the paralyzed man lying around the pool in Bethesda had a high self-image?  Do you think he knew whose he was in Christ?  I don’t.  I don’t think he knew who or whom he belonged too, that he waited for thirty-eight years to be healed of his paralysis.   I think he gave up.  I think that Satan had attacked his mind in such a way, that he gave up on healing, and possibly, on God.   

Just to refresh the story in case you don’t know.  Every year at the pool in Bethesda an Angel of the Lord was sent, at an appointed season, to stir the waters of the pool and the first person who entered into the water received a miracle of healing.  

Now, I can tell you how quickly kids move for candy, and I would think that a miraculous healing would be more desirable then candy, so are you telling me that this man in the thirty-eight years he was laying there couldn’t just tip himself into that water when the Angel of the Lord stirred it? 

I think he could have… but he gave up!    

Many of us, including myself, want to give up.  Maybe you are battling depression, anxiety, addiction, abuse, or feelings of worthlessness, and you too want to give up.  You want to say that’s enough.  I am done trying.  Every day I get up and I try and everyday I fail miserably or something along those lines.   

I am here to tell you those feelings, those words, that mindset is not your own.  You don’t feel that way about yourself.   You were not created to feel that way about yourself.  Whether you believe in God or not, you were still created in his perfect image, which means, there are no mistakes.  There are no mistakes in your creation. We can make mistakes daily, and we do, because we have free will, but that still never ever separates you from whose image you were created in. 

Those horrible things we say to ourselves, that almost seem to run on a loop in our brains 24 hours a day, seven days a week, even when you get up in the middle of the night to go to the restroom, you are still hearing the loop telling you what you are not, or how you have failed.   Those horrible words are not coming from your inner most thoughts, they are coming from Satan.  Remember Kill, Steal and Destroy.  

There are days, that even before my eyes open up to the world, I am hearing some wretched thing about myself, now that’s not me speaking to myself, I am hardly awake.   

Satan does a good job at getting you young and impressionable, then working on you day and night for years to build that seed of self-hate in your mind.  Every day we fall for it because he has made us think it’s us talking to ourselves.    

I want to take a moment to tell you, the person reading this right now, I want to tell you that you are not a mistake, you are not a sum of your mistakes, you are not a horrible person, you are not unlovable, you are not abandoned, you are not worthless, you are not ugly and you are not alone.  

Here is what you are… You are perfectly created in God’s image.  The creator of the universe, of the stars in the sky and the rivers below, created you just as you are, in his image.  

 He looked at the world, and he saw that we were missing, you.  Your gifts and talents were to add to the world not subtract from the world.  There will never be another you… NEVER!   You are unique.  You are strong.  You are powerful.  You are beautiful.  You are valued.  You are heard.  You are loved and most importantly you are HIS! 

Don’t allow Satan to steal another day of your life!  Speak back to evil with truth.  Speak back to evil with the word of God and if all you know is God Loves Me than you say that every time you have a bad thought or feeling.  Every time you feel less than or that you can’t do something, you say the word Jesus and Angels are released to your side.  Call on your Creator and call on him often.  Speak the word of light and love over your emotions and tell them to get behind you in Jesus Name and show them who is in charge here. 

Speak to your fear, anxiety, depression, sadness, panic attacks, low self-esteem or whatever your struggle may be, speak to it and speak it out loud if you can.  Tell those emotions who your Creator is! Arm yourself with God’s light because it is not possible for Evil to exist in Light.   Stand in front of a mirror and tell yourself God Loves You!  God Loves You!  God Loves You!  Because he does. 

He sent his son to die for you and for your healing, whatever your healing may be.  He sent Jesus to die so that you can have life and have it in abundance till it overflows.  He didn’t send Jesus to die the horrible death that he died for us to be at the will of Satan.  Jesus died so we can defeat Satan because he already has!!!     

The rest of John 10:10 says… BUT I CAME (referring to Jesus) so that you may have and enjoy your life and have it to the full till it overflows!   

Don’t allow the sacrifice of death to be overshadowed by a serpent on a tree that you could crush with your foot.   Don’t give up and lay by your pool of Bethesda for thirty-eight years and wait for the Angel of the Lord to stir the water, when you can start walking in your Inheritance TODAY!