#TalkingThursday – If you don’t talk about Jesus who will?

This #TalkingThursday topic came as a question via Ask Fm, and its been long overdue for discussion. The question is: Can someone be free from sin but still be in bondage?

Ultimately, the short answer is yes but here’s a longer answer.

A person may no longer be committing sin, but he/she may still be in bondage due to consequences of past sins or other things. Such a person isn’t necessarily free from “sin” in general but they have repented and are no longer committing the sins they used to as an unbeliever.

Bondage and sin are inextricably linked to one another and bondage is always a result of sin in one way or another. One who is truly free from sin should also be free from bondage, but this isn’t always instantaneously the case.

We all know what sin is, but many of us do not quite understand what bondage is.

Bondage (NKJV):

Greek Lexicon

δουλόω

doulóō, doo-lo’-o 

G1401: to enslave (literally or figuratively):—bring into (be under) bondage, × given, become (make) servant.

Let’s look at some scripture on how the term bondage is used in the bible.

Bondage is not just something that ties you down, it is a form of slavery. Bondage makes you servant to the thing you are bound to. It keeps you under its thumb and uses you to do its work. Whatever overcomes a person, also brings him into bondage.

Bondage is like a yoke – yokes entangle or attach you to something and wherever that thing goes, you follow.

Egypt was seen as the house of bondage for the Israelites, and we know the great suffering they faced in egypt – killing of male children, slavery, inhuman treatment, not letting them worship their God etc. That’s what bondage is, Bondage prevents intimacy with God.

Bondage prevents you from getting closer to God; Sin on the other hand, separates you from God. Lol, it’s not the same thing, think about it carefully.

Sin:

The wages of sin is death and death here means separation from God, it is a spiritual kind of death. Freedom from sin, means receiving righteousness in Christ and eternal life.

A person can have eternal life and still be in bondage. Bondage does not affect your salvation, it merely prevents you from enjoying it. Bondage prevents you from enjoying the benefits of eternal life here on earth.

Eternal life isn’t something that happens after physical death, eternal life begins when you receive Christ, but many are ignorant of this and that in itself is a kind of bondage.

A few notes on where bondage lies and breaking free from bondage:

Mindset:

If you think of yourself as an evil and worthless piece of meat, you will live like it. You cannot live contrary to what you believe. You have died to the old self; you are no longer associated with your past!

We must break free from the mindset of bondage. The mind is where a lot of spiritual strongholds are rooted, so even if a person is no longer physically committing a sin, guilt from memories of past sins may still haunt them.

It is important not only to repent but to accept that God has really forgiven you. It’s hard to believe sometimes that God can forgive certain people even with what they’ve done and sometimes that causes them to remain in bondage.

They think well God’s never going to forgive all that I did before – but that’s a lie designed by the devil to keep you in bondage. Change your mindset and you’ll begin to see results.

If you aren’t sure your sins are forgiven, you will be experiencing guilt, and a feeling of unworthiness to live in victory. The enemy moves right in on this weakness and fault in your belief system, and uses it against you. Guilt gives the enemy room to move in and make you feel worthless, and therefore he keeps you fighting from a defeated position.

You must believe that your sins are forgiven so the enemy won’t hang guilt over your head!

Unconfessed sin & Unforgiveness:

If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us (1 John 1:9), but we hide them, we give the enemy ground to be in our lives (Proverbs 28:13). The same goes for unforgiveness. Unforgiveness is a tool the enemy uses to keep people in bondage.

Those who are free from sin, i.e. they no longer commit the sins they used to as unbelievers but still carry unforgiveness in their hearts towards certain people who hurt them in the past can often be in great bondage.

When you hate, keep malice or refuse to forgive someone, you are saying that person is more important to you than yourself, because your malice, unforgiveness or hate for that person has become greater than your own joy – ergo, you have created a shrine for them in your heart.

Unforgiveness cuts us off from God’s forgiveness (Mark 6:15), and turns us over to the tormentors (Matthew 18:23-35), which are demons. Unforgiveness gives demons sound, legal grounds to be in a christian’s life, to torment and keep them in bondage.

Unholy Soul Ties:

This is a major source of bondage that even I have experienced firsthand as a christian. It happens often to youth and singles and anybody who has ever gotten vulnerable with another person. This is why we must be careful who we open up ourselves to.

1 Corinthians 6:16: “What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.”

When two people become close, not always but often though sexual relationships, soul ties are formed. If the soul tie is unholy, it can serve as a demonic spiritual bridge between the two persons. This can allow the demons tormenting one person to torment the other person. To be free from bondage, unholy soul ties must be broken in Jesus’ name. To learn more about breaking soul ties please look up @solaadio on twitter.

Generational curses, Spoken curses & Cursed objects:

Cursed objects such as idols, books, rings, etc. can bring a curse upon a christian’s life and home. Land can be cursed because of the sins of its inhabitants (Leviticus 18:27).

Deuteronomy 7:26, “Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.“

Cursed things can bring torment and bondage, if you suspect anything is cursed, pray and throw it out, burn it if necessary so it does not find its way back to your life or home.

Words have the power of life and death (Proverbs 18:21), if you have said something that has bound your soul (such as declaring, “I’ll never amount to anything” or “I want to die”), then you must repent and take it back (renounce it out loud).

Matthew 12:37, “For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.“

If you realise that you often find yourself declaring negative things on yourself or on others, please pray for God to cleanse your mouth and give you control over your tongue. When you utter something negative, immediately cancel or renounce it in Jesus name.

The sins of ancestors can also attribute to spiritual bondages and troubles, even in a christian’s life (Exodus 20:5). To break this, say a prayer of repentance on behalf of your ancestors for their sins (Nehemiah 9:2), and break any curses (in the name of Jesus) that may have come upon you as a result of their actions.

Although we are christians who are striving for holiness and doing our best to remain slaves of righteousness not sin, we must remember that our past actions have spiritual consequences that we must take the time to deal with even as we have been reborn in Christ.

We must examine our christianity and check ourselves. It is definitely possible to be free from sin, have eternal life and still be in bondage but through Jesus, it is possible to get rid of the chains that bind us and break free into the higher calling of intimacy with Christ our Lord and Saviour.

Our rightful position in Christ affords us these blessings:

We are beyond condemnation (Romans 8:1)

We are delivered from the law of sin (Romans 7:6)

We are near to God (Ephesians 2:13)

We are delivered from the power of evil (Colossians 1:13)

We do not receive a spirit of bondage but a spirit of adoption (Romans 8:15)

We are a member of His Kingdom (Colossians 1:13)

We are justified (Romans 5:1)

We are perfect (Hebrews 10:14)

We have access to God at any moment (Ephesians 2:18)

We are part of His priesthood (1 Peter 2:5)

We will never be abandoned (Hebrews 13:5)

We have an inheritance (1 Peter 1:4)

We are a member of His body (1 Corinthians 12:13)

We possess every spiritual blessing possible (Ephesians 1:3)

Praying and declaring these blessings daily is a good step to take in order to break free from a mindset of bondage.

We hope this has been a useful explanation of bondage and breaking free from it. I’m no expert, but you can check out @prophetugo on twitter for more on the subject. Till next #TalkingThursday!

Selah!!!