Released To Respond | 06.30.12

Release is the freedom to start all over again but with a greater sense of responsibility than before.  Bondages are absolutely nothing to play with.  They wreck lives, destroy relationships, ruin careers, dissolve trust, deplete finances, manifest disease and ultimately kill people.  The opportunity to experience release from any form of bondage is nothing short of us witnessing the miraculous extension of GOD's life-altering mercy.  The freedom to start all over again, however, is not a license to enter into that same bondage again.

Responsibility is simply the ability to respond.  With every bondage release there must come greater ability to respond to the factors that initially led us into the bondage from which we've been released.  Why?  Because the enemy is not intimidated by freedom.  As a matter of fact, according to Matthew 12:43-45, an unclean spirit that's been cast out comes back with seven other demonic influences more evil than itself because--just like GOD's plans--Satan's plans require human anatomy for earthly manifestation.  Therefore, deliverance is about much more than a release unto freedom.  Following the recovery of territory occupied by the Kingdom of Darkness in an individual's life, there must be an imparting of power that divinely enables the now free individual to guard their territory against the greater attack to come.

Receiving the power to respond creates a paradigm shift that turns victims into victors.  GOD is all about empowering His people to win by enforcing the defeat of Satan that took place when the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world.  The devil has ALWAYS been a defeated foe, but every victory of his is directly attributed to powerless people who are ignorant of the truth being sucker punched by evil schemes and demonic devices.  The freedom we experience in deliverance is designed to restore our free will that we might make wiser, GOD-influenced decisions and receive the strength necessary to combat the enemy with the Word of GOD--that two-edge sword so sharp that it precisely divides soul and spirit.  Let the redeemed of the LORD rise up and stand guard, empowered and emboldened by the Spirit and the Word of the Most High GOD!