Breaking The Chains Biblical Recovery Ministry

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

(Ephesians 6:10-18)

 It’s no secret…we are in a war and the world is the battlefield. By the world, I don’t just mean the place outside the doors of your home. The battle can exist in our homes and families, our place of work, our friendships, within ourselves and even in our very own church. Why is that? Because we have an enemy, Satan, that seeks to devour and destroy the children of God:

1 Peter 5:8-9

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

It’s hard for so many to believe that our struggles can be against anything other than each other or ourselves. I guess in order for it to be believed, you’d have to be one to believe in the word of God first of all. If you believe in the word of God then you will believe what the word of God says and Paul states “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”  This is why we must wear our spiritual armor…the armor of God. This war we fight is fought on a spiritual level and therefore we must think on a spiritual level when combating it. In order to think on that spiritual level, you have to go to the word of God and see what the Bible has to say and what others before us went through and how God helped them through it. Christ states the following regarding our enemy:

John 8:42-47

Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God."

Jesus makes things very clear in this verse…If you refuse to hear the truth, God is not your Father…the enemy is. That is because the enemy blinds us to the truth. The truth is, we fight an enemy and his army that, from the beginning, has set out to destroy the children of God. To destroy God’s children would bring pain to God and this is his goal. How does he seek to destroy us? By causing all types of distractions, pain, dissension, arguments, hatred, division, murder, and much more. These are things God clearly tells us not to do, so if we do it, you can better believe satan is behind it. When these things happen, it distracts us and causes us to move further away from God and closer to the enemy where he can continue on with his work until we are chained and bound and can’t move in any direction. We can only stay in the same spot and that means we stay in the same addictions, habits and problems and we are unable to see any way out. Our minds are so preoccupied with our problems that soon the thought of God helping us doesn’t even enter into our minds anymore. If anything, our thoughts fall too “Why did God allow this to happen to me?” “Where was God when this was happening?” “I’ve prayed so many times but God doesn’t hear me”…and soon the final thought which is doubt…“There is no God”. Once you reach doubt in God’s existence, you have reached the goal of the enemy…separating you from God.

In order not to be a POW (prisoner of war) of the enemy, you must know how to combat him and his army. As any Soldier in the military knows, when in battle, you must be alert to everything around you, identify the tactics, and be prepared for combat by having a battle plan. Below is some information that will help you no matter where you are in your recovery.

1. Seek God Daily For Guidance – This is the most important thing to do and that is why it is number 1! We must seek God daily in prayer and guidance. Jesus often went somewhere by himself to seek God in prayer. It is always best to do this in the morning right before your day begins as it will also bring you peace. Ask God for revelation on how He wants you to handle the situation you are going through and then give Him time to answer. Many times we want an answer quickly but God doesn’t work in our time, He works in His and He knows the right time to do things in.

 Jeremiah 29:11-14

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity.

2. Be Alert – When a soldier goes into battle, he isn’t alert for one or two days and then relaxes and     allows his mind to go on vacation. He is always alert to his surroundings and what is going on in the vicinity. He notices if something isn’t quite right or doesn’t seem “normal”. He watches body language in others, facial expressions, detects a different tone in a voice, and is able to realize when someone isn’t acting quite right. When he sees or hears these things, his mind thinks ahead to a battle plan of how to react if this or that transpires. We have to be able to do the same in our own lives. When things just don’t seem right, our child seems tense or acts out of the norm, our husband seems distracted, we ourselves are more irritable, we have to take a step back and look at what is going on around us or others. We must be alert to our surroundings at all times. This does not mean we have to always be looking for something or dwell on it all the time. It just means that we must be alert to any changes going on around us that could lead to problems.

3. Identify The Tactics Of The Enemy – This is very important because when you can identify the tactic, you can expose it and can put your battle plan into action! Below is a list of things that, according to the Bible, are considered acts of a sinful nature:

Galatians 5:19-21

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 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.

These sins are worldly and the enemy is of the world. So if you begin to see these things in others and within yourself, consider who is behind these feelings and actions. There is one thing you must realize though…although the enemy can tempt, in the end, the choice is yours whether you choose to follow through with the temptations or not. For example, if someone is rude to you at work, the very first emotion you may feel is anger and you may want to tell them off. This emotion is of the world and we know who roams the world. Yes, it is a human emotion, but the Bible states we are to be self-controlled:

1 Thessalonians 5:4-8

But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.

Our words can cause situations to either go in a good direction or a bad one. Proverbs 12:18 states:

Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

The Bible speaks loudly about our tongue and the words we say. Our tongue can bring healing or it can destroy. It can bring peace or it can bring battles. How we react to a situation can make all the difference in the world. We must always seek peace, which is what the Lord calls us to do, and do our best to keep our emotions in check. We must try to diffuse all hostile situations when possible. Below are some verses regarding the tongue and our words and the effect it can have on others or a situation:

Proverbs 15:4

The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.

Proverbs 18:21

The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Proverbs 21:23

He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity.

James 3:5-12

Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

How do we diffuse situations? When someone does or says something you know angers you and is causing that anger to rise, you must take a step back and realize what’s happening, especially if you have an anger problem. Pray for guidance in your words and to keep your emotions in check and ask God to reveal the truth and how to deal with the situation correctly. This may seem like a lot to do, but remember who you are going up against. The enemy will always use others to draw us back to our old self and if your old self was angry then rest assured he will know which buttons to push to draw it out of you and to get you back on the path to a destructive life. Next you will be dwelling on the situation that caused you anger and from there, you will begin to see many opportunities coming at you to cause you to get angry again. To give into the anger opens the door back up to allow the enemy back into your life. It’s as good as going to your front door, opening it up and inviting him into your home.

Another tactic of the enemy is perception and circumstances. He will always try to draw us back into our old ways and keep us there by getting us to perceive situations his way and using circumstances to reinforce the perception he wants you to see. Say your old self struggled with a low self esteem and feelings of unworthiness (not good enough). Once you became saved and moved forward, you didn’t struggle with this emotion for a long time. Now that you are moving in a direction God wants you to go and succeeding in leaps and bounds, one day you wake up and sometime during the day you find yourself faced with feelings of not being good enough. You get to work and find your co-worker who is usually kind to you suddenly ignoring you. When you speak to her she talks to you but you can see she just isn’t as friendly as usual. In a quick moment you feel rejection hit and think “I wonder if she’s mad at me”. Normally you would ask her if everything was ok, but today you don’t and instead have thoughts. You go back to your desk and do your work and now the thoughts keep popping into your head “You must have upset her” (although you know you didn’t). “What have I done?”.  This is called perception…you are perceiving a situation to be a certain way without fully knowing the truth. A while later, you look up from your desk to see she is laughing with another co-worker and she might look your way once or twice. You now begin to feel worse perhaps thinking again “what have I done?” and maybe “they are talking about me”. Now the thoughts are streaming into your mind…negative thoughts about yourself and now about this co-worker. This is called circumstance…something that seems to confirm or add to what you have perceived. This is a wonderful tactic of the enemy to cause division and destruction in our lives by drawing us back to our old ways of thinking and acting. Because you didn’t ask your co-worker what was wrong, you began to perceive what you thought was going on and the enemy enhanced it through circumstances. Now if you would have asked your co-worker what was wrong anytime throughout the day, you could have found out that she had received a call from her husband and they had an argument which would have explained her attitude towards you as she was still fuming from the argument. What you witnessed between her and the other co-worker was the fact that she received a call of apology from her husband a while after you had been at her desk which changed her mood drastically from anger to joy. The fact that she looked over at you while laughing just meant that she was looking around while talking as we all do, but in your frame of mind at the time and what the enemy wanted you to perceive it looked quite convincing of what you were thinking.

Perception and circumstance is something the enemy is good at using to get us to see something in the way he wants us to see it. This is considered a tactic. Any situation that you feel is drawing you back to your old ways should send up red flags to you and you might as well consider it a tactic especially if you are on the verge of doing a great and mighty work for the Lord. The bigger the work, the bigger the tactic and attack. Learn to identify the tactics. The enemy knows which buttons to push to set you off, therefore you must know the right biblical verses and have the right battle plan to combat it. Always think things through. If you start struggling with thoughts from your old ways, get ready for the battle and cover yourself in prayer against the attack.

4. Be Prepared For Combat By Having A Battle Plan – We must always be prepared for combat and have a battle plan ready. Just as in an earthly war, we never know when the enemy is going to hit so we must always be ready. Again, this doesn’t mean we have to dwell on something happening all the time as this would only give him more power over us than he actually has, but it does mean we must always be alert and prepared for combat at a moment’s notice. This means we must have a battle plan ready. This is a plan of action to counter the attack. What should our battle plan consist of?

             Prayer – We must always cover ourselves in prayer every morning, asking God to help us be alert   to the tactics of the enemy and to help us to combat those tactics  immediately through prayer. We then should pray periodically throughout the day simply asking for continued coverage and wisdom.

             Scripture – the Bible is considered the sword of the spirit…our sword we use to combat the enemy and his army. The enemy knows the Bible front and    back and won’t hesitate to use scripture to attack you, therefore we should also strive to know scripture to counter his attacks. Remember, Satan used scripture to try and tempt Jesus into doing the wrong thing during His 40 days in the desert. Jesus turned around and countered Satan’s    temptations with more scripture. Allow Jesus to be your example in combat!

           Fasting – Fasting should be an important part of our lives. We should do it at least once a week, combined with prayer, as it has very powerful    effects! We fast and pray to seek answers from God, to break strongholds, and to get closer to the Lord. Fasting and praying moves God! Many people in the Bible fasted to receive answers from God. Daniel was one (read the book of Daniel). We also fast to break strongholds:

                     Isaiah 58:5-6

Is it a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?

“Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?

5. Raise Your Shield Of Faith – In order to combat the enemy, we must have faith that God will protect us and see us through our difficult times. The enemy will do everything possible to bring doubt into your mind that God will help you. Remember…that is his goal…to separate you from God through doubt! He will throw every obstacle in your path to get you to doubt God’s help, but you must stand firm in faith and wait for God’s rescue. Jesus says the following about doubt:

 Mark 11:23

"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him."

James 1:2-8 states the following:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

Sometimes it takes time to for God to rescue us for reasons only God knows of. Maybe it’s to teach patience, test our faith, to teach us how to lean soley on God for help, maybe we are reaping what we’ve sown, or most always it’s because the help we need is needed at a certain time in our struggle and now isn’t the time. Rest assured God will send words of encouragement to you until that help comes, you just have to be careful not to overlook them. These words can come in the way of other people, things we read (I’ve had devotionals in email be the words I needed to let me know God was listening to and helping me), or even things we see on tv. So, stand firm and raise your shield of faith to block the fiery darts of the enemy!

6.  Praise Amidst The Suffering - Always voice praises to God even though you are suffering at the time. The enemy hates to hear us praise God and it's even worse when we praise Him through attacks! Praising God brings inner strength. Even David praised God through his suffering:

Psalm 42:10-1

My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, "Where is your God?" Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

7. ADVANCE, ADVANCE, ADVANCE!!! – Get moving! During your struggles, do not stop moving! This is another goal of the enemy…to get you to stop moving forward in your walk with Christ and in your recovery. If one obstacle does not get you to stop, he will throw another in your path. If you still keep moving, he will throw yet another. Soon you may find yourself surrounded by obstacles (problems) and you now are unable to focus on your recovery because of all the distractions going on around you. It seems as though you are stuck in one spot, unable to move forward to your goal, the goal the Lord has set before you. Fatigue sets in, both physically and emotionally. You become weak and weary. You try to fight and move forward but you feel so drained you barely want to get out of bed. What do you do?

Identify this as a tactic, do the first 5 battle plans and continue moving! Believe me when I say this can be very hard to do, but once you begin moving again the Lord will help you continue on. When that first obstacle hits, begin praying immediately for God’s help and for strength and endurance to continue on, always covering yourself in prayer. Do not hesitate to go to others for prayer:

James 5:16

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

The most important thing is that you don’t stop moving. When you stop moving forward, it causes you to stay in one spot and begin dwelling on your problems. Soon these problems are magnified so largely that they become overwhelming to you. This may cause you to go back into old habits you got rid of long ago just to numb the pain. This will cause isolation and then doubt and separation from God. Do not underestimate your adversary, Satan. He is cunning and knows exactly what he’s doing. He is always planning and waits for the right moment to attack. He starts with small attacks that you may barely notice and gradually slips more in. When you start to become weary physically and emotionally, that is when the bigger attacks come. If you think about the earthly army and how they battle, the spiritual battle is the same way…frontal assault (physical) then syops (the mind – emotions). Wear down your opponent physically and emotionally so they don’t have the will nor the energy to continue on. The difference is when you have God on your side, He gives us the strength and endurance to continue moving forward but we must have faith and not doubt no matter what comes at us! If we continue moving, he will do the rest, clearing the obstacles from our path, but we must do our part in order for Him to do His. If you allow the enemy to stop you from moving forward soon he will slap the chains on your wrists again and you will be bound with the same problems you had before. Paul states the following in Galatians 5:1:

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."

If you stop advancing forward, you risk becoming a slave to your habits and problems again, something Christ already freed you from, so it’s very important that when problems arise, you don’t stop moving!

God never promised that our walk in this life would be stress free nor problem free, but he did promise He would be with us during these trials and help us:

Isaiah 41:10-11

"So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. "All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced; those who oppose you will be as nothing and perish."

Do not fear…the Lord is with you!

ADVANCE, ADVANCE, ADVANCE!

copyright ©2008 Breaking The Chains Biblical Recovery Ministry