The Way To Experience True Freedom by Rev. Christie Bature: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

I can anticipate the response that is coming.

Romans 7:14-24 — I know that all God's commands are spiritual, but I'm not. I am full of myself. After all, I've spent a long time in sin's prison. What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can't be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command is necessary. For if I know the law, but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help. I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it. I decide not to do bad. What happens? I do it anyway. My decisions don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong. And it gets the better of me every time. I truly delight in God's commands. But it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel. I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me?

This is where the Christian gets to, and the devil sells you the lie: you have done everything. You've gone to pastor. They've prayed for you. You have gone for deliverance. You have done fasting. This thing still won't go away. Just live with it. So subconsciously you make that decision to live with it. And then you become this dual personality, compartmentalized. If you meet the Christian in church, they're the consummate Christian. But when you meet the addict outside, you cannot relate the two. And somewhere the devil also sells you the lie that you can actually be two people at the same time.

That's the definition for addiction. Whenever I decide to do good, I do bad.

What Addiction Actually Is

Addiction is a training of the brain. Every addiction is physically altering the shape and the structure of the brain. That's what is responsible for the terrible change in personality that you see.

Addiction is two sides of a coin. On one side of addiction is a demonically energized phenomenon. The demons are responsible. But on the other side, addiction is a learned behavior. Nobody wakes up and becomes an addict overnight. The Bible says, who by reason of use have the senses exercised. It's by reason of use that you become an addict. By repetition that addiction comes. Therefore, nobody can lay hands on someone and simply cast addiction out. It's a training of the brain. If you're going to break free from addiction, you've got to untrain and then retrain.

But the only way you get the power to retrain is when Jesus has held the demons captive from putting pressure on you. That's the purpose of church. Only the church of Jesus Christ has the power to deal with both sides. The secular places you go to help you with addiction can only deal with the habit. People go to rehab, but the demons are still in place. The moment you come out, they trigger you, and you go right back. Only the church of Jesus can deal with the demon and then get into the place of discipleship to help people break free.

Addiction is also a pleasure phenomenon. When you abuse a substance, you focus on the pleasure. But what you don't know is happening is that it is physically restructuring the brain. The frontal part of the brain contains what is called the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system — the part of the brain that helps you make rational choices and rational decisions. The devil is destroying the very place that helps you think straight and act straight. That's why you will speak to an addict and they understand the threat, but still take the money for their mother's medication and go and buy drugs. The part of the brain that should interpret that message has been eroded.

You form a habit and the habit turns around and forms you.

The addict started by making the choice, but after a while it's no longer a choice. They have no control. Even when they don't want to do it, they do it. The brain is a pleasure organ. God designed it that way. But addiction hijacks that design.

The Early Start Problem

The earlier an addiction starts, the harder it is to break in the future. The brain of the human does not fully develop until age 26. That's why teenagers make stupid decisions. Whatever is happening to the brain before age 26, if it is repeated, the brain takes it as part of the operating system. When a person starts using drugs at 14, and you say stop at 20, they are going to revolt. Why? The brain is afraid. It says, this is part of my operating system.

How Addictions Come

The first doorway is found in Romans 1:21 — because they knew God but would not honor him, neither were thankful, God gave them up. It is ingratitude that opens you up to addiction. Paul in Colossians said: cultivate gratitude. Cultivation means hard work. It doesn't come naturally to us to be thankful.

The second doorway is the addictive society. We live in a society designed to exclude God. Society attempts to shape our thinking. There are decent men and godly men on earth, and Satan will not redefine who a man is.

The third doorway is trauma. Trauma is any experience you have that is so painful that you need a coping mechanism for it. Every addiction is a coping mechanism for fear or pain. Trauma is loss, grief, divorce, rape, accident, abuse. Instead of bringing it to the Lord, Satan shows the option of anything else, and addiction follows.

The fourth and most potent doorway is family dysfunction. Some of us are struggling and we don't even know how it began. But if you check your father, Isaiah 51:1 says: those pursuing righteousness, look to the rock from which you were hewn and the pit from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah your mother. Check where you're coming from.

Ezekiel 18:2 — the fathers have eaten sour grapes, but the children's teeth are set on edge. This is what they call generational patterns and generational curses.

Altars speak. If somebody has put an altar and put a sacrifice on it, it will speak until somebody else rises up and raises a higher altar. Thank God there is no altar higher than the name of Jesus, the blood of Jesus. Anybody can take a stand and break that nonsense coming from behind by raising an altar higher than the altar of the voice of Abel crying. The blood of Jesus speaks better things. Put the blood on that altar and decree that that blood speaks for the rest of the genealogy.

Moses was called the meekest man on earth, but Moses did not enter the promised land because of anger. Where did Moses's anger come from? Moses is the tenth generation from Levi. Levi and Simeon were the two who wiped out a nation in their anger. When Jacob was dying, he spoke about the anger of Levi, and that anger waited for the best descendant to show up — Moses. It tripped him up and anger brought him down.

David committed adultery. None of his sons were there when he did it. But in Second Chronicles, over 50% of the first seven sons died from sexual sin. Then God said to David it wasn't the problem — it started with Judah, ten generations away, who went to sleep with his daughter-in-law. Satan does not waste ammunition on losers. He saved up that lineage for the greatest of them.

If you're struggling, it's because there is something you are supposed to contribute to the earth to bring about change, and Satan is fighting that. Satan is afraid of who you can be.

The Answer Is Jesus

In Romans 7, after crying, who will help me? Paul says: Thank God, Jesus. I was drinking with my family until Jesus stepped into my life. That name, Jesus, is powerful. Jesus saved me. If you're here and Jesus has not stepped into your life, you don't even have a fighting chance yet.

There is power in the name of Jesus to break every chain.

Father, see these hands raised to you. What they are saying is: Lord, I acknowledge your capacity and your willingness to help me. Father, honor that faith.

Today, I come against the forces of darkness that are holding the addictions in these people's lives. I take a stand against you and I resist you in the name of Jesus. I command your force to break right now. I command your influence to break right now. In the name of Jesus, I invoke the name of Jesus, and I draw a bloodline between you and these people. I decree until they have the information they need, you will not pressure them anymore. In the name of Jesus, I suspend your activities. In the name of Jesus.