You're Free - Part 1

The devil has no right to your life. He has no right to your mind. Yes, he can try to oppress you, but he has no right.

He has no legal access anymore. Christ has triumphed over him. You're a child of God today.

You're free. You're free. You're free from the power of sin.

You're free from the dominion of darkness. You're free from the memories of the past. You are born again to live a new life in God, empowered by the Spirit of God to go forward in this life, giving God glory by letting him change you into the very image of your Savior.

Not only, he says, did he leave captivity captive, but he gave gifts unto men. He took captivity captive, and then he gave supernatural, God-given and empowered abilities to you and I. He came into us in the power of the Holy Spirit when we trusted in him. And he came to cleanse the temple, just like he did in the New Testament in the beginning of his ministry.

When Christ came into my life, I thought it was just going to be this woozy, wonderful feeling, and in measure it is. But I found he came in with a whip in his hand and started overturning tables and throwing out money changers and kicked out all of the religious dove sellers out of my heart. I found this war going on inside of me because the conquering Christ had come into my life.

He's not sharing the temple with anything unclean. He's not sharing with anything unholy. In the true man and woman of God, he comes to cleanse the temple, just like in the beginning of his ministry in the New Testament.

Furthermore, Jesus himself pronounced a judicial sentence on the devil. He sentenced him. And when he said it is finished, it was like a judge who put his gavel or hammer down on the bench with that resounding sound that echoes through the whole courtroom.

I've been through this as a police officer. I know the finality of when that hammer finally hits the round wooden base on the desk and he says guilty and then begins to pronounce the sentence. You see, when Jesus said on the cross, it is finished, there was such a volume, as it says, that came from him when he gave up the ghost that even a Roman centurion, hardened by the sight of death, said surely this was the Son of God.

The scripture says he cried with a loud voice. He executed, as it is, a judicial sentence on the devil. It is finished.

Your power to torment, your power to ensnare, oppress, enslave, torment, captivate, crush, control, defile, defeat, deceive, remind of past sins, lie, cheat, steal, the forgiveness of God, the assurance of salvation, God's plan of victory for my life, it is finished. It's finished. I'm a new creation in Christ Jesus.

I have great promises from God and by these promises the scripture says I shall be made a partaker of the divine nature of Jesus Christ. I have promises for my body, I have promises for my mind, promises for my family. Hallelujah.

And furthermore, he has banished forever from my life his right to control my life, to ruin my marriage, to steal my children, to touch my grandchildren has been cancelled at Calvary. Satan's destiny is a lake of fire to be tormented forever. My destiny is the right hand of God where in Christ I will rule and reign forever.

That's why the psalmist says, Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song and his praise in the congregation of the saints. Let Israel rejoice in him that made him. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their king.

Let them praise his name in the dance. Let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp. For the Lord takes pleasure in his people and he will beautify the meek with salvation.

Those who know they need God, he said, I will beautify you. Actually, the word for salvation in the Hebrew is help, deliverance, victory and free from distress. He says, if you know you need me, yes, you may be in the deepest struggle of your life, but I will beautify you with my salvation.

You see, my life, my presence, my victory that I won for you on Calvary, the presence and power of the Holy Spirit that will come into your life today, if you will trust me, will give you help and deliverance and victory and free you from distress. I will set you free and give you a sound mind. When the people come who wants, when the enemies and powers of darkness who once delighted to torment your life come, they'll see you sitting and clothed and in your right mind.

They'll see you not tormented and cutting yourself with stones anymore, but a powerful evangelist sent back to your friends, sent back to your family, sent back to your neighborhoods with the glory of God in your life to tell them what Jesus Christ has done for you and to tell them what Jesus Christ can do for them. That's what the gospel is all about. Oh, we try to make it so complicated sometimes and it's so simple.

Verse 6, he says, let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand. You see, the two-edged sword is the Word of God. Remember that Hebrews tells us the Word of God is quick and sharper than any two-edged sword.

The high praises are those songs that we sing to God saying, I will not be moved. Hallelujah. Jesus is my Savior.

I shall not be moved. These are the high praises. The only evidence, the only reason that I shall not be moved in my walk with God is I have promises from God and by these promises, I shall be kept.

By these promises, I shall grow. By these promises, I shall walk. By these promises, I shall see God's glory and victory in my home and in my family.

I have a promise to execute vengeance upon the heathen and punishment upon the people, to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute upon them the judgment written, in this honor have all his saints praised ye the Lord. You see, I have a promise. I have a promise that in Christ I can bind powers and principalities of darkness.

I have a promise that in Christ, everything that once brought me into captivity by his presence and power in my life has to come into submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. I have a promise that I can execute upon those kings that rule the lives and hearts of those who are without Christ, that I can execute upon them the judicial verdict of God.