Step 4 – THE PATHWAY TO WHOLENESS

If you have felt the gentle and loving conviction of the Holy Spirit and are in a place where you are ready to repent, I encourage you to pray this prayer with me:

“Father I come to you in the Name of Jesus. I recognize that I have served the sin of self-hatred, self-rejection, self-disapproval and/or a low self-esteem in my life. I’ve allowed the accusing spirit to train me in my thinking to have this toxic sinful mind-set and as I fell into agreement with it, I became one with sin as if it were me. Father I confess my participation with this sin, I repent to You and I ask You to forgive me. I also repent for abusing my body, which is Your Temple and trying to use, (mention the substance you are addicted to) to fill the void of the need to be loved. Today I repent for this idol in my life and lay it down before You. I declare that You are my Lord and Master, and as my spiritual worship to You – with the help of Your Holy Spirit, I dedicate my body to You – that it would be holy, devoted, consecrated and set apart for You, so that I can be a vessel of honour ready for Your use. If these same sins were in the generations before me (i.e. if they also had addictions) I repent for self-hatred and addictions in the generations before me in order to break the power of this sin in my life generationally as well**. As I have forgiven every single person I know who has hurt, wronged or injured me, I thank You for forgiving me of my sin and for the blood of Jesus that has washed me of all my guilt and shame and cleansed me from all unrighteousness. Father in the Name of Jesus I ask You to break the curse of this iniquity so that the power of this sin of self-hatred and addictions is broken in my life and in the generations after me. Father I open my heart right now to receive Your perfect love and the love of the Lord Jesus Christ as a work of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

1 John 1 v 9: “If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just (true to His own nature and promises) and will forgive our sins [dismiss our lawlessness] and [continuously] cleanse us from all unrighteousness [everything not in conformity to His will in purpose, thought and action].”

** Addictions can be inherited. An in depth teaching on genetically inherited diseases and how to deal with them is explained in detail on pages 151 – 161 in the 4th Edition of the book “Healing Begins With Sanctification of the Heart” as well as in session 14 of the DVD series. See website www.eagleswings.co.zw for details as to where the material is available. However the prayer above is a guideline to help you break the curse generationally as well.

THE PATHWAY TO WHOLENESS:

I explained in chapter 2 that the low self-esteem, guilt, shame, condemnation, self-disapproval, self-rejection, self-bitterness and self-hatred behind an addiction does not begin in your mind, it initially comes from the spiritual realm, from an accusing spirit.

Revelations 12 v 10 says that the devil is the accuser of the brethren. An accusing spirit gave you thoughts in your mind in the first person such as “I am unworthy, I am not loved, I am unwanted, I am no good, I hate myself, I feel so guilty and bad about this and that etc.”. Because those thoughts came in the first person, you did not realize that is was not your thought, but that it came from the spiritual realm, from an accusing spirit…and so you followed that way of thinking as if it were you and developed a toxic mind-set of a low self-esteem, guilt and self-hatred. As you meditated on those thoughts in your mind which is your soul, you built a toxic long term memory in your brain. So that guilt and self-hatred which was initially spiritual became a part of your soul through thinking and then a part of your body physically in the form of long term memory. You have become one with an accusing spirit in spirit, soul and body. That toxic long term memory of a low self-esteem, self-hatred and guilt released toxic chemicals that initiated a cascade of electrical, chemical and hormonal reactions that eventually lead to the development of addictions. In summary addictions develop through the spirit-soul-body connection. Healing from addictions occurs through the same pathway which is sanctification of the spirit, soul and body. Sanctification means cleansing or getting rid of filth – it is the process of getting rid of sin.

1 Thessalonians 5 v 23: “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Sanctification of the spirit – means getting rid of the accusing spirit where the toxic mind-set that causes addictions came from.

Sanctification of the soul – means renewing your mind or changing your thinking to the way that God thinks. In the case of addictions it involves changing your thinking from a low self-esteem to a healthy self-esteem through learning about who you are in Christ (this will be dealt with in chapter 8).

Sanctification of the body – this is removal of disease and everything that destroys it. This naturally follows sanctification of the spirit and soul – because when you remove the toxic mind-set that causes a disease, and the spirit where that mind-set came from the sequence of physical reactions that cause that disease are broken and the body’s healing mechanism kicks into gear. How the body heals from addictions will be explained in chapter 10.

FREEDOM SPIRITUALLY

2 Corinthians 7 v 1: “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” KJV.

Paul taught in 2 Corinthians 7 v 1, “Let us cleanse ourselves of all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit.” Any spirit that is not of God is an unclean spirit by its fallen nature. That’s why when Jesus cast out evil spirits when He was healing people, He would call them unclean spirits. If you have an addiction, you have become one with the accusing spirit in spirit, soul and body. That is not a clean spirit, which is an unclean spirit by its fallen nature, so you need to cleanse yourself from all filthiness of the spirit. In other words you need to be delivered from the accusing spirit and remove it from your life. You need to command it to leave in Jesus Name because it no longer has a legal right to your life if you have repented. That is sanctification of the spirit.

Jesus gave us authority over the devil and his kingdom. Jesus said in Luke 10 v 18-20 “I saw Satan falling like a lightning [flash] from heaven. 19 Behold! I have given you authority and power to trample upon serpents and scorpions, and [physical and mental strength and ability] over all the power that the enemy [possesses]; and nothing shall in any way harm you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Mark 16 v 17: “And these signs will accompany those who believe: in My Name they will drive out demons. They will speak in new languages; they will pick up serpents; and [even] if they drink anything deadly, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will get well”

The devil has already been defeated. Jesus is an expert in war and He is an expert in victory. He has spoiled principalities and powers of darkness and He has made a show of them openly (Colossians 2 v 15). He did it when He was here as Jesus, He did it when He was in hell and He wants you to do the same thing as believers because He gave you the power, He gave you the mandate, He gave you the sonship, He gave you the Holy Spirit and He gave you the authority!

I encourage you to say the following out loud with authority: “I take authority over the unclean, unloving, accusing spirits of self-hatred, self-rejection, self-bitterness and guilt that have been accusing me to myself as well as inherited iniquity of self-hatred and guilt in my family tree – you cannot rule my spirit and mind any longer. I break your power in the Name of Jesus. I command you to go and to be cast out of my life and the generations in my family in the power and authority of the Name of Jesus! Spirit of bondage and addictions, you have bound my body long enough with different types of addictions. Whether it was smoking, drinking, drugs, gambling, sex, pornography, gluttony or whatever form of addiction, it is finished now. I refuse to be bound any longer as it is written that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit – you heard me dedicate my body to God to be holy, devoted, consecrated and set apart for Him – so I refuse to allow you the right to defile my temple any longer. I don’t want to do any of those things any longer and I now break your chains and holds on my thoughts, my body, my mouth, my taste-buds, my throat, my lungs and my intestines and I command you to leave me and my generations in Jesus’ Name. I also take authority over the spirit of death and spirit of infirmity. In the Name of Jesus I break your power and I command you to go! Father Your Word says that whom the Son sets free is free indeed! So I thank you that I am really and unquestionably free today! (John 8 v 36). Now Father, I ask You to help me to begin to love myself this day. I ask You for the grace, power, strength and ability that I need to renew my mind as I begin to learn in the next chapter how to build a healthy self-esteem. Amen”

Note: You cannot just think these words above in your mind because evil spirits can’t read your mind – you need to speak it out. Make it verbal so that the invisible kingdom can hear the declaration of your heart – the Word of God spoken out of your mouth is your weapon in spiritual warfare.

The reason that it is necessary to do sanctification of the spirit first (where you command the spirits behind an addiction to leave in Jesus’ Name) is because you will not be able to renew your mind and build a healthy self-esteem until the accusing spirit has been removed.

Take the Next Important Step with me !