OUR OWN SPIRIT:

We can hold others in bondage by our expectations of them.  This can be the case if we want someone to change or become or do something apart from their will.  If they wanted to change, they would already be moving in that direction! This can happen even when someone asks us to pray over a specific situation.

The most difficult situation is when we hold others in bondage because of our worry over them or our fear for their safety and well-being.

This also has to do with sowing and reaping.  Galatians 6:7  Do not be deceived, God is not mocked;

for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.  We can’t blame everything on the devil!

Proverbs 4:23  Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.

(Heart – seat of the soul:  mind, knowledge, thinking, understanding, appetites, emotions)

Proverbs 28:26  He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but  whoever  walks wisely will be delivered.

The effect of our human spirits on others:  Curse—to bring contempt or dishonor.

Ecclesiastes 7:21-22  Also do not take to heart everything people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you.  For many times, also, your own heart has known that even you have cursed others.

Leviticus 19:14  'You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shall fear your God: I am the LORD.

Job 31:30  Indeed I have not allowed my mouth to sin By wishing a curse to his soul;

Psalm 62:3  How long will you attack a man? You shall be slain, all of you, Like a leaning wall and a tottering fence.

Psalm 62:4  They only consult to cast him down from his high position; They delight in lies; They bless with their mouth, But they curse inwardly. Selah

Ecclesiastes 10:20  Do not curse the king, even in your thought; Do not curse the rich, even in your bedroom; For a bird of the air may carry your voice, And a bird in flight may tell the matter.

1 Samuel 13:14  "But now your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you."

Our human spirits are not confined to our bodies:

2 Ki 5:26  Then he (Elisha) said to him (Gehazi), "Did not my heart go with you when the man turned back from his chariot to meet you?

This was in response to Gehazi getting stuff from Naaman after he was healed of leprosy.

John 1:48  Nathanael said to Him, "How do You know me?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you."

John 1:49  Nathanael answered and said to Him, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!"

John 1:50  Jesus answered and said to him, "Because I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree,' do you believe? You will see greater things than these."

1 Corinthians 5:5  For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Our obsession or intervention (by our human spirits) into the lives of others almost certainly will produce oppression.

Judges 2:18  And when the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them.
(Oppressed:  forced, crushed, afflicted, squeezed, pressed, pressured.

Isaiah 1:17  Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow.

Isaiah 3:5  The people will be oppressed, Every one by another and every one by his neighbor; The child will be insolent toward the elder, And the base toward the honorable."

We need to examine and distinguish between what is flesh, human spirit, evil spirit or Holy Spirit.

Those that we hold in bondage by expectations or desire for them to change need to be released.  This is akin to witchcraft.  In marriage, children, parents, friendships, those in leadership positions. This can certainly happen when they share their trouble, and we want them fixed.  God is able; we are not.  We have to bear the burdens of others in intercession to the Lord and release them.

Galatians 6:2-3  Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.  For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

Faith Tabernacle
Bill and Marsha Burns
P. O. Box 1148
Kremmling, CO 80459