Spiritual Warfare

These ‘set up’ prayers have proven to be invaluable in providing protection for us and our families as we enter into spiritual warfare in behalf of others and ourselves. We cannot emphasize enough, the importance of using these prayers regularly, at the start of every new day and every time you begin a counseling session.

Each word has come to have significance although these prayers are only a model of how to pray. You can surely pray your own prayers using your own words. Nevertheless, under all circumstances, we urge you to prepare each time of ministry by taking the time to pray.

Dear Lord Jesus,

I thank You, Lord God, for this day. I thank You that You are in control. I thank You for this place and I ask You to fill this room with Your peace, Your power, Your protection and Your presence right now.

I ask You to seal the perimeters of our time and space with Your precious Blood, that Your will be done here, on earth, right now, as it is being done and declared in heaven. I bind the operation of the Enemy and forbid his attempts to confuse, confound, disrupt, interrupt, distract, hinder, delay conceal, steal or resist the work and revelation of Jesus Christ.

I ask You to tuck ______ into the palm of Your Hands, that they will feel Your peace and sense Your presence, and hear Your voice. You said, ‘My sheep know My voice’. I bind the powers of darkness arrayed against _________ and forbid them to call for reinforcements to the strongholds or to network with those in the strongholds.

I bind the strong man, the familiar spirits, and any who hold assignment over ________. I forbid your operations against ________ . I render you powerless and inoperative, and command you who keep the strongholds to prepare to leave the temple dwelling place of the Most High God in _______. I command that the Light of Your Truth and the Sword of Your Word make manifest the hidden works of Darkness, and separate them from every part of us.

I also pray for divine favor, that the Blood of the Lamb to cover each one of us, our families, those who pray for us and work with us and have come to us for help in the past. I pray for those who love us, and for protection of all that pertains to us and them.

I pray that You would keep us in our words, our conversations, our relationships, our communications, our thoughts, and our perceptions, that the Enemy cannot get into our lives to bite, divide, devour, destroy, deceive or separate us in our fellowship with each other and with You.

I pray that we would all rightly divide Your Word of Truth, and that the thoughts and meditations of our hearts would be acceptable in Your sight. I declare, according to Your Word, that “no weapon formed against us will prosper” and that any curse that has been sent against us, either in word or deed, made either ignorantly or intentionally, will fall to the ground and be covered by the Blood of Jesus Christ, that the Enemy cannot use it against us. I pray that those who have cursed us will be blessed with a revelation of Your truth that would set them free.

Your Blood cancels out the agreements and contracts my generations past have made with the Enemy. I declare his continued operations in my life through those lies to be illegal. I command that the familiar spirits who works through those agreements to be separated from me and my descendents and their lies be exposed by the light of Your truth.

I also ask that You would give us a deeper revelation of Your truth and keep us in good health. Watch over us and keep us safe. Keep us from the hindering spirits and make the thieves put back all that they have stolen from us. Cover our vehicles, our travel, our finances, our property and the work of our hands, that we might enjoy the fruit of our labors. Let the gifts of Your Holy Spirit work freely in and through us that we might be used to make disciples and bring the good news of rescue and salvation to those lost and hurting.

I thank You, Lord Jesus, that you are the Wonderful Counselor. I ask You to come right now to give us Your Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of You as we cry out for discernment and rest our hope fully in You. Amen.

WORDS OF WARNING

When asking Jesus for things do not feel that you must make it complicated. He is more than willing to help us. The Devil is a different story. He is very legalistic. With him, it is best to dot the “i” and cross the “t”. Though we might resist the idea of being that specific in identifying the Enemy, and in dealing with him, it is necessary to be bold and as firm as possible in naming him. Do not be double-minded or apprehensive in binding him.

Though Jesus has given us power over all the power of the Enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt us, it is not wise to move in any kind of haughtiness or arrogance against this foe. He is clever and you and I, in our human understanding and wit are NO match for him. 

Because the Enemy has gained access into our lives through the sins of our generations past, it is important that we get our own lives cleaned up before we start working with others. He may still have strongholds of fear and deception in us of which we have no knowledge. When you begin to deal with him in others, the Enemy will begin to attack you in some part of your life, if he can. It is best to approach war with the gates of your fort closed and the interior secured.

PRAYER FOR THE RELEASE FROM SELF-HATRED AND SELF-REJECTION

Dear Lord Jesus,

I come to You right now and ask You to forgive me for rejecting, hating and despising myself. I ask you to forgive me for the judgments I have made against myself in listening to the lies of the Devil. Forgive me for using his description of who I am to describe my life. Forgive me for using his counsel to guide my life. I ask You to forgive me for believing him instead of You. I ask you to remove all the judgments I’ve made against myself in listening to him and have mercy on me.

I ask You to take the Sword of Your Truth and remove from me all judgments and the consequences of the judgments the Devil has made against me for judging myself. Remove from me all the judgments and consequences of the judgments I have made against myself including agreement with the spirits of self-hatred, self-rejection, self-judgment, self-destruction, self-reliance, self-preservation, self- condemnation, condemnation, doubt, self-doubt, guilt, shame, fear, anxiety, perfectionism, failure, death, infirmity, chaos, confusion and unforgiveness toward self. I ask you to give me a deep revelation of Your love for me and peace in my relationship with You. Thank You, Jesus.

PRAYER FOR SELF ACCEPTANCE

Dear Lord Jesus,

I come to You right now and ask You to forgive me for rejecting and despising myself. I repent. I come before You to declare, before heaven and earth, that I change my mind and repent of embracing the lies the Devil has formulated against me. I refuse to believe the liar and his lies any longer. I choose to release and forgive myself for despising and hating the creation You made in making me. I choose to live and breathe and have my being in You and give You glory. I choose to let Your Holy Spirit reflect Your image in and through my life and conduct. I agree with the instructions You gave my body to “live”. I no longer choose death.

I take authority over my body, and in Your Name, Lord Jesus, I command all liars, deceivers, destroyers, and every spirit of confusion, and rejection that operate in my body, mind, heart, soul, will, emotions, and spirit, and all that pertains to them, to leave my body. I am the temple property of the Living God and will have no fellowship with the hidden works of darkness! I ask You to forgive me for hating myself and opening the door for the Enemy to bring judgment against me using my own words to do it. I choose to live and ask You, Lord Jesus, to cancel all vows and death wishes I uttered against myself in wanting to die.

I ask You to form Your image and reflect Your purposes in and through me. Loose me from judgments I have held against myself in listening to the counsel of the liar who uses those judgments to use me to sabotage my own life by holding me in unforgiveness toward myself. I choose, by an act of obedience, to forgive myself even as You have asked me to forgive others. I come to You, Lord Jesus and submit myself to Your care. I yield myself to Your workmanship and commit my salvation to You for safe keeping.

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for making me, me. I am Your idea, and I come into full agreement with Your idea for making me who I am. Thank You for making me just the way You wanted me, and for placing me in time and place as You desired. You are the Potter and I am the clay. Let me be satisfied to be a vessel made in Your Honor and fit for Your use. Thank You, Lord Jesus for this life. I give it back to You. Fulfill all the destiny and dreams, and all Your purpose and desire for my life in making me, that I may, on that Day, hear You say, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord.” Amen.

PRAYER FOR FORGIVENESS OF OTHERS

Dear Lord Jesus,

I come to You right now and choose, by an act of my will, and with my heart, to forgive ______, for the crimes they have committed against me. I release them from the judgments I have made against them and forgive them for their failure to love and protect me. I forgive them for the betrayal and the injustices they committed against me. I release my case against them and the injustices they committed against me, to You, Lord Jesus, and the Court of Heaven. I ask that You would consider my complaint and bring forth a righteous resolution and a just settlement in this matter in favor of truth, justice and mercy.

I ask that you would bless both of us with a deeper revelation of Your love for us. If the person being forgiven is deceased, we ask that God would give their descendants a deeper revelation of His truth. I ask that You would release me from all the judgments and the consequences of the judgments that have come upon me and my descendents because of any unforgiveness, bitterness, or anger I have held against them. Release me from becoming like the thing that I judged and hated in them.

I pray that You would release me from all the judgments I have made against myself in listening to the lies of the devil and using his counsel to bring these matters to justice, including listening to retaliation and resentment.

Forgive me for taking matters into my own hands and not listening to You. I ask You to have mercy on me, and remove the hurt and pain and confusion. I trust You, Lord Jesus, to establish justice and give me Your peace. Vengeance is Yours and I trust in Your justice. Thank You, Lord Jesus. Amen!

FORGIVENESS OF GOD

Dear Lord Jesus,

I come to You right now and ask You to let me see my true heart. Forgive me for listening to the Accuser who perpetrated lies against You, defaming Your character and identifying You as the One responsible for my destruction. Forgive me for believing his lies about You. I ask You to release me from the lies Resentment has told me about You, and open my eyes to the truth about where You were and what You were doing when the Enemy was raging against my life. Thank you for Your faithfulness to me, and Your Divine Protection in keeping Your promise to never leave me or forsake me. Amen.

THE BREAKING OF THE CURSES OF THE GENERATIONS

In dealing with the sins of the generations and the open accounts that have been left standing by those who have gone before you, it is important to understand how the Enemy uses these things to build his case and form his plot against your individual life. When you see the patterns of destruction coming down into your life you have evidence that what is happening is not a coincidence, nor is it without a design. Recognizing the patterns of destruction removes from us the denial that would counsel us to ignore the obvious and live in ignorance. The patterns tell us three things; the plot is not an accident or a random act, it is orchestrated and operated under a deliberate design and intention, and that it is predictable.

Once we are convinced, we will want to take action. The action that must be taken to address the sins of the generations and the “iniquity of our fathers which is with us” (See. Leviticus 26:39) is clearly laid out in the Bible.

The first step in breaking the curses and the cascade of evil that comes down into my life, (even as a believer), and the lives of our children is to: CONFESS THE INIQUITY OF THOSE WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE US. Confessing the sins of the generations, identifying as specifically as possible, the patterns and the offenses, breaks the agreements and voids the contracts the Enemy has been holding over us.

Those agreements made with the lies by those who have gone before us have allowed the familiar spirits to created particular responses and repercussions in our lives that have brought with them a negative spiritual legacy. Each generation wrestles with the “sins of the fathers” he tries to carry down into each successive generation.

When it is not possible to know the patterns specifically, as may be the case when you are adopted, or do not know what has gone on between your parent(s), the best you can do is confess the general categories of sin and take responsibility to declare them to be an abomination before the Lord.

“But, if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments, and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant, I also will do this to you: I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. I will set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you.” Leviticus 26:14-17 NKJV

“And as for those of you who are left, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies;…they shall stumble over one another,…you shall have no power to stand before your enemies,…your enemies shall eat you up. And those of you who are left shall waste away in their iniquity in your enemy’s lands; also in their father’s iniquities, which are with them, they shall waste away.” Leviticus 26:36-39 NKJV

“But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me and that they also have walked contrary to Me,…if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt – then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember; I will remember the land for I am the LORD their God. Leviticus 26:40-42, & 44 NKJV

As we see from these verses, the prescription for recovery and restoration is very specific. If we CONFESS our iniquity AND the iniquities of our fathers, which are WITH us and their unfaithfulness to Him, and humble ourselves, and REPENT of our own participation in those sins, God will heal us and restore blessings to our generational line.

REMOVAL OF THE JUDGMENTS

The breaking of the generational curses includes CONFESSION AND REPENTANCE along with FORGIVENESS AND THE REMOVAL OF THE JUDGMENTS. After the patterns are recognized and iniquity confessed, the next step is forgiveness. Forgiveness releases the crimes committed against us to the Court of Heaven and closes Satan’s case against us. His demand for blood and his claimed right to continue to violate the temple property of the Most High God are rendered null and void. The Blood of Jesus more than satisfies the Devil’s demand for our blood and the death of Jesus more than answers the demand sin has made upon our life.

Each person can be lead in this prayer individually, or it can be used as a corporate prayer. Let them repeat each phrase after you.

THE PRAYER FOR RELEASE FROM THE SINS OF THE GENERATIONS

The following prayer is a model for dealing with the oppression and bondage Satan has inflicted on you through his claimed rights against you. The first part of the prayer re-establishes the legitimate ownership of Jesus Christ over that area, including the place the Enemy is contesting and to which, through occupation, he lays claim. The second part of the prayer identifies and breaks the generational curses. The scripture tells us those iniquities and their continued operation through the generations is broken through confession. Confession releases us from the Enemy’s claims and assault, making his operation in our lives illegal. Invite the person to repeat after you….

Dear Lord Jesus,

I come to you right now, as Your child, Created in the image of God, and brought forth by Your will and truth. I believe You died on the Cross for me and rose again. I believe You are seated at the right hand of the Father, and that you sent Your Holy Spirit to live in me. I am the temple of the Holy Spirit.

I come today as the authorized representative of my generational blood line to do business before the Court of God, to claim my new inheritance as a new creature in Christ. I confess the sins of my generations past – their idolatry and the crafting of graven images, their reliance upon themselves for safety and sustenance, and declare it to be an abomination and an insult against the Holy Character of our Heavenly Father. I confess their use of false comforts and self-indulgence, lust, adultery, infidelity, incest, sexual perversions and the violation of the innocent as an abomination against the true heart of the living God.

I confess the practices of witchcraft, rebellion, control, manipulation, hardness of heart, stubborn resistance to the Holy Spirit, jealousy, insecurity, and relying on the Devil’s power sources, as fear and an abomination against heart of the God to love and protect me. I confess all bitterness and holding of grudges, resentment, unforgiveness, retaliation, backbiting, hatred, hatred of God, violence, rage, murder, bloodshed, the shedding of innocent blood, pride, religious self-righteousness, greed, covetousness and disobedience as lawlessness and rejection of the will of God.

I cancel out any agreements made with the Enemy of God through the practice of sin or belief in his lies. I confess their contempt for the things of God, their deception, and rejection of the truth, doubt double mindedness and unbelief to be sin and abomination against Your Holiness, Lord Jesus. I confess all agreements made with the Enemy under the counsel of the Strongman, the Anti-Christ spirits, or the familiar spirits who have brought these destructive patterns down into our lives, to be sin and iniquity, and an abomination against the Living God.

And even as I confess the iniquities of my ancestors, I repent for my own participation in these things, both knowingly and unknowingly. I ask you to forgive me, Jesus, Son of the Living God and take the Sword of Your Truth and sever the cords of iniquity that have bound me and my descendants. I ask You to break the curses of the words, deeds, actions, dedications, vows, rituals, oaths, prayers, promises, covenants, contracts, symbolic dedications, and every claim made against our lives through blood sacrifices, human or animal. I ask You to remove all demonic programming and the operation of the “body of death” in all parts of my body, soul, and spirit. I ask You to remove all of his assignments over my life. Set me free according to Your Word, “Whom the Son sets free is free indeed.”(John 8: 36) Thank You, Lord Jesus for hearing my prayer.

If there is Masonic or Shriner involvement you may want to give them a copy of the Masonic prayers to pray privately or you may lead them in renouncing them out loud. The first three degrees of Masonry are especially effective in opening the door for physical sicknesses. Diseases like asthma, heart attacks, stomach aches, choking and mental confusion, including inability to concentrate, can all be part of those curses. If Masonry, including participation in the Shriners, or witchcraft or participation in a specific cult has been identified, specific prayers of renunciation are suggested.

It is important for us to know our spiritual authority over the Enemy or he will deceive us with his lies and accusations. It is also important to confess any sins of bitterness or unforgiveness you might have toward both family members and strangers. These acts of obedience take away the Devil’s claimed rights to your life, as well as secure your life and the lives of your descendants.

A soul tie is like having two signatures on a contract. You cannot execute that contract, to sell the house, for example, if only one person is willing to sign. Many times we have formed soul ties with a person through sexual contact, physical or emotional abuse, and or the exchange of experiences, expectations and words. Though there are many legitimate relationships into which we can enter, there are boundaries which must be respected for each person to maintain their dignity and integrity as a person in that relationship. Putting others first is a form of idolatry. Controlling them is a form of slavery. Ask the Lord if your soul has been inappropriately tied to any person or thing and if so, how. Pray this prayer to unhook yourself from any unholy alliances you may have formed either intentionally or inadvertently with someone that are keeping you from going forward in your life.

People who are divorced benefit much from praying this prayer to release themselves and their former spouse from the vows of their marriage covenant. You are merely completing the dissolution of the transactions in the spiritual world that have been recognized in the natural world.

Dear Lord Jesus,

I come to You right now, Lord Jesus, Son of the Living God, and ask You to break any soul ties operating in my life that bind me or restrict me from freely serving You. I do not want my soul to be tied to anyone else but You, Lord Jesus. I ask you the take the Sword of Your Truth, which is Your Word and cut the ties that bind my soul to ______. I ask You to release me from any vows, covenants, oaths, promises, expectations or exchanges between me and ______ and that every exchange made between us will be canceled and all attachments between us will be broken.

I give back to ____ right now, by the power of Your Spirit, all the parts of (himself, herself) including all the parts of (his, her) body, mind, soul, will, spirit, being, expectations, emotions, and circumstances that were given to or exchanged with me in our relationship. I also take back to myself, right now, by the power of Your Holy Spirit, all the parts of me that were given or taken in our relationship. I take back to myself, all parts of me, including all parts of my body, mind, soul, will, spirit, being, expectations, emotions, and circumstances. I ask You, Lord Jesus, to separate me from __________by the Sword of your truth. Make me one with myself, and at peace with You.

Thank You for setting me free to be the person You have created and called me to be for Your glory. Amen.

PRAYERS FOR THE INTEGRATION AND REUNIFICATION OF THE FRAGMENTED PARTS

After you have mediated the transaction between Jesus and the broken part of the heart and the person agrees to give (his, her) burden of procuring safety, or establishing righteousness, or determining the boundaries of responsibility to Jesus, the person is ready to pray. Jesus will give them His peace, joy, eternal life, and the revelation of His truth, etc. in exchange for their burden. As they agree to the transaction, the deal is done. This is how we pray for them;

Dear Lord Jesus,

Father God, I pray, right now, by the power of Your Holy Spirit, through the Blood of Jesus Christ, Your Son, that You would knit this broken part of ______’s heart back into the fullness of Your perfect plan for (his, her) life. I ask You to reveal to (his, her) heart, the fullness of Your truth in this matter, that they would be free indeed from the pain and hurt and rejection and fear of the past. I command all demonic programming and every system including all back up systems operating under the counsel of Fear that control ________to be dissolved by the Blood of the Lamb. Amen.

BREAKING THE CURSES AND RENOUNCING THE OATHS OF FREEMASONRY

Like so many of Satan’s snares, Freemasonry is camouflaged in the everyday lives of the unsuspecting as a merely casual and beneficial activity. Freemasonry presents itself to potential initiates and its adepts (followers in the lower ranks) as a business opportunity to meet people and make contacts with potential customers/clients. It appears as a beguine, “good old boy’s club” where men can fraternize, exchange business cards and provide support to the up-and-coming men of the community. It targets strategic public leaders, law enforcement, mayors, politicians, judges, and anyone of influence in an effort to control the atmosphere and spiritual climate of the area, city, state or region.

Freemasonry had its roots in the guilds of Western Europe with its legend of Hiram Abiff coming out of a distortion of the biblical story of Solomon and his building of the temple. The guild may have operated as the first primitive “Unions” of their day. The guilds were composed of the skilled laborers, builders, craftsmen, bricklayers and stone masons. And though there is nothing intrinsically evil about being a block layer, the Enemy took advantage of these men and their craftsmanship, common interests, the pride of their craft and the impressive structures they built as a cover for his own intentions. Not unlike the building of the Tower of Babel, he infested their ranks with his evil plan for world domination as is clearly revealed by the Masons themselves their final declarations in the thirty-third degree that “Lucifer is God and the grand architect of the Universe”.

Many of the early founders of this country carried the concepts and agenda of Freemasonry with them from across the Atlantic. It makes perfect sense that the Enemy wanted to stake his claim to the new land called America. Mixed right in along with the followers of God who fled here for religious freedom, came the Masons, many of whom were part of the fledgling group coming out of the 1700’s known as the Illuminati. Ironically, the oaths and vows, the symbolic dedications and agreements that are used as the initiation and progression rites of Freemasonry are the very things the Enemy uses to strip the initiate “seeking enlightenment”, from the true light of Jesus Christ. They have traded their religious freedom for an innumerable set of physical, mental, financial, relational, and spiritual bondages. These oaths and agreements have bound them through the agreements they have made by practicing the rituals, symbolic dedications, re-enactments. The spiritual and natural consequences of these agreements travel down even to the bloodlines of their successive generations.

As with any of Satan’s activities in our lives, he must be invited in and there must be an agreement made with him before he can establish his control over us. There is nothing casual or beneficial in coming into agreement with the oaths that are made to the Devil by those participating in Freemasonry. Those oaths give the Enemy permission to tear out the participants tongue, curse their teeth, cut their throats, and bring destruction to every bodily organ and every relational function they have. The oaths are like contracts that are pre-agreed on that only come into play if the participant betrays their allegiance to the craft and tells its secrets or tries to get out of the group. Then the promises you made upon entry are called into play.

Many of you do not know if your ancestors were practicing this kind of blasphemy and treachery against the Most High though your medical, financial and relationship experiences would bear record to the truth. The effects of those vows, oaths, secret words, symbolic dedications have given the Enemy ample operating privileges in your life and may be the reason you are experiencing any number of tragic things including health issues, poverty breakdowns in your relationships even now. Take a look at the manual to get a more comprehensive understanding of what it is that might be hurting you.

Download “Masonic Prayers“

Download “Christ or The Craft – You Choose!“

There are many “feeder” organizations that also lead one into the more “hard-core” oaths and the activities of the Masons. These include:

CONFESSION AND REPENTANCE FOR PRACTICING AND PARTICIPATING IN THE GOSPELS OF GUILT, GOOD WORKS AND MIXING THEM WITH THE GOSPEL OF GRACE (Rom. 11:1-10)

The bottom line: There is no way that God could use the law as the means to bring about our salvation because if He did, it would cancel out the validity of and need for Jesus Christ shedding His Blood on the Cross. If Satan can get us to agree with any other means of salvation than the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is a gospel of grace and good news, he has caught us in his snare of “never enough’ and “not worthy”. The gospel of “be good”, “try harder”, “measure up”, and “it’s your fault” all generate fear and guilt and ultimately reduce down into an agreement with failure which comes from HELL.

In adopting the gospel of spiritual completion and perfection based on good works, the Enemy has gotten us to agree that the gospel and mission of Jesus Christ was to get us to deal with our SIN when in truth God’s desire is to make the gospel of Jesus Christ all about Him dealing with our sin through His SON. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is all about the goodness and forgiveness of God. When the gospel, as we practice it, is all about me getting rid of “my sin”, it is all about ME! When the gospel is all about Jesus coming to earth to purchase us back from the Kingdom of Darkness and pay the price demanded by the Devil for our souls, the gospel is all about HIM!

When we believe the dictates and doctrines of the counterfeit gospels or mix the gospel of law and good works with the gospel of grace we are in essence saying that what Jesus did on the Cross was not quite enough and that we must add our penance, will-power and good deeds to His to complete the act of appeasement and atonement. Indeed, it is true that our sacrifice, suffering and the surrendering of our will and life to the direction of the Holy Spirit is a daily part of the life of all who would follow Jesus, but, these efforts come out of our desire to trust and abide in HIM, not out of a need to earn our salvation.

To believe that our good works and sinless behavior is the prerequisite to salvation or the means of it is like trying to earn it ourselves. In that way of thinking, God owes us salvation. He has become indebted to pay us for our good deeds and is obligated to let us get into heaven on our own merit.

God wants us to get to heaven, but does not want us to be fooled by the Enemy’s clever lies to get us to believe that we can earn or deserve it by “doing it ourselves”. Grace is not about deserving or earning. It is just the opposite. Grace says “there are not enough good deeds or money, or earnest effort in all the world to pay for even one man’s salvation”. Therefore, God made it available to any who would simply ask Him for it. How easy and available is that? Anyone can have it, rich and poor alike. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” “There is none righteous, no not one.” Rom.3:23 & 10

The only remedy for sin acceptable to both God and the Devil is the Blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world. The Devil knows all the counterfeit substitutions he has made available to any who reject the Blood of Jesus Christ, and that those substitutions will fail to deliver them from his hand on the final Day of Reckoning. One of the Enemy’s greatest schemes from the beginning has been to hide the truth of God’s Word and His promises among a million look-like options and counterfeit gospels in his sinister effort to promote his, “all roads lead to heaven” approach to salvation. And, by-the-way, the Devil is totally okay with us making a mistake in falling for the lie. He loves it!

Grace is a free gift freely given but it was never cheap. Salvation is the manifestation of God’s grace and good will toward wayward mankind. With the law came wrath and transgression, “because the law brings about wrath, for where there is no law there is not transgression” (Rom. 4:15). Conversely, then, where there is law, there is transgression.

The question then becomes, which kingdom profits from the transgression of mankind, God’s or the Devil’s? Obviously, Hell’s kingdom builds a strong case against us by using our sins and transgressions to accuse us before God in the Court of Heaven. He uses them as evidence, proof that his accusations against us are well founded and we are guilty. He uses our transgressions and unconfessed sins as part of his argument to petition for permission to bring his demonic judgments for down upon us as punishment for our disobedience to God.

This clever set up allows the Enemy to use our sin and the agreement that we are guilty and deserve to be punished, to bring down troubling consequences upon us. We believe God is punishing us because He is mad at us for breaking His law and that because we have been bad, we deserve His judgment. This is exactly what Job’s comforters tried to get Job to agree to, that God was punishing him for being bad and harboring some secret sin.

The exact opposite was the case. As we read in the beginning of the discussion, God is describing Job as His “righteous servant”. Satan was the one who sought to differ with God and get permission to test his theory. He believed that if he could put enough pressure on Job he could expose Job’s true motives for serving God. The Devil also wanted Job to believe that God was mad at him and that God was the one who had “done this” to him.

God is not the One calling for our judgment. He knows we have been tricked into making a choice and that, like with Eve, the Enemy had set the whole thing up to corrupt the relationship God wants to have with us. By getting us to judge ourselves as “bad” or believe that God is “mad” at us or that we are mad at God for punishing us by letting all this bad stuff happen to us, we are being tempted to doubt God’s love for us or our love for Him.

This temptation is the Devil’s insidious, master-plan designed to break the relationship between us and God. The Devil wants to prove to God that He is a fool for loving us by getting us to believing lies about God. If Satan can keep us from knowing the truth, we will ever respond to God’s love. If we do not acknowledge God in His love for us, God will never be vindicated in His love for us, and the Devil wins! God has failed to convince us of His love. We believed the Enemy’s lies about God and love for us. Love has lost, defeated by fear and the lie.

This makes the law an essential part of the Enemy’s plan in shooting down the love of God in the hearts of the humans. The sinner, (one who believes the lie and acts on it) is pushed into a place of condemnation where he is then tempted to judge God. This is like killing two birds with one stone for the Enemy who has set us up to judge God at the same time he sets God up to tempt Him to move against us.

When Jesus was confronted by the Devil in the Wilderness, one of His responses was, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” (Mt. 4:7). He was speaking at that moment, to the Devil about using Him (Jesus) to sin against His Father’s love and put God in a hard place, much like when a loving parent must discipline their child for disobeying and take the risk of being misunderstood by their child.

When we reject grace and make the law the determining factor of salvation we are also putting God in a hard place. When we are tempted to insult the work of God’s grace in the liberation of our souls through the shed Blood of Jesus by offering Him a fruit basket of our handpicked good deeds we are doing the same thing Cain did. We are in essence telling God the work of His Son was not sufficient to satisfy the demands of sin and death made by the Devil.

If Satan can get us to embrace the law as a means or part of the means of salvation and atonement, he, in essence, has gotten us to reject the completed and finished work of Jesus. We have agreed with the Devil that we are guilty and deserve to be punished because we are guilty! We, in essence, come into agreement with the prosecution’s argument, when we are the defendant! What is the Just Judge of all the Earth supposed to do when we agree that we deserve to be punished? And how weird is that when the Judge Himself has already paid in full, the penalty demanded by Enemy for our crime?

One of the Enemy’s objections that can be heard resounding in the Court of Heaven is, “But it was their choice!” The only correct response to that is the one Eve made when God questioned her when ate the forbidden fruit. “The Serpent DECEIVED me, she said. We must understand the order of events. First the Enemy tempts us, deceived us into believing his idea is our idea. Out of that deception, we make a choice. We get tricked, just like the hungry, little fish that bites into the hook of the fisherman believing he sees lunch. In his search for lunch, the little fish becomes lunch! Is the fish guilty for getting tricked? Is he in trouble? Does he need help or a scolding? And would it be right for the fisherman who set the hook, to also demand that the fish wash the frying pan that was used to fry him in, in order to pay for his sin of being caught?

One of the most powerful, if not THE most powerful argument the Devil, the Accuser of the Brethren, uses against us is our sin the violation of the Law that measures it. Using the law to determine the measure of our guilt for violating the law may mistakenly cause us to conclude that God uses our keeping of the law to determine our worthiness, or not, as candidates for salvation and deliverance.

The Word of God is very clear that the Law cannot justify or save anyone. “…knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith (of) – KJV, Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith (of ) – KJV, Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.” Gal. 2:16

All the law and its demands were satisfied in the coming of the second Adam, Jesus Christ, Who successfully repaired the damage done by and to the first Adam and his children. For us to go back and reinstate the law as the legitimate means for cleansing us from sin is like using the mirror to wash the smudges off our face instead of the water. The Law can only point out the sin; it cannot wash its stains off of the soul.

And one final thought on the bottom line in discerning any counterfeit is to remember what Jesus told us; “by their fruits you will know them” (Mt. 7:20). The bottom line in practicing and participating in the counterfeit gospels of be good and do it right is frustration and failure. We draw a wrong conclusion that I cannot be that good and that, “that Jesus stuff” doesn’t work for me, based upon the assumption that the gospel we heard preached in church was the correct gospel, when it was not. Then we get mad, give up and go away, which is simply, more evil fruit from the Kingdom of Hell.

If, however, we opt to stay in a church that preaches the works of the law, Gal. 1:6-9, presented as the “be good” gospel, we miss the whole point of following Jesus. We begin to gossip and compare ourselves with ourselves and judge everyone else to make ourselves feel better. We console ourselves that at least we are not like the wretched sinner that sits in the back of the church barely able to lift his head he feels so ashamed. Sounds like another “holier than thou” story like the one Jesus told us in Lu.18:9-13.

For more detail on the Gospels of guilt and good works and the curses that come upon those who mix them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is the Gospel of Grace, see “Cravings, Why Do I Do What I Don’t Want To Do?” or the manual, “Diagnosing Your Family Tree” .

One of Satan’s most undetected strategies and unconfessed sins that he uses to build his case against us in the Court of Heaven is to keep us from discerning the difficulties that come upon us by practicing and embracing the counterfeit gospel(s). Not only is this idolatry in the worship of false truth, but the source and force behind many of the patterns of dysfunction, disease, and loss that have come down our bloodlines.

Not resting in the final and finished work of Jesus Christ sets us up for anxiety, guilt and fear, it blinds us to the activity of the familiar spirits and patterns of demonic judgment that descend upon us. We never see them as anything unusual because we are so used to hearing their internal self-talk as it comes through our minds as reasoning and religion. They use the gospel of works that we have already been primed to believe as true to get us to accept the charges guilt has pressed against us. We then come into agreement with the condemnation of the Accuser of the Brethren that we had it coming. We embrace the lie that God is mad at us, never suspecting we have swallowed the bait of sin and guilt set by the Devil’s hook.

To walk in the freedom of the truth and the peace it brings we offer you the following prayers of confession as a pattern or outline for your consideration and use. First, we specifically identify our own family’s personal practices of religion and perfectionism that have violated the grace and truth of Jesus Christ. Second, we cancel out our agreement with those beliefs and replace those professions with a declaration of the truth of what God says. The more specific we are in the identification, the more effective will our release be in setting us free from the grip of the Evil One.

THE PRAYERS FOR MIXING THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST WITH THE COUNTERFEITS

Dear Lord Jesus, Son of the Living God, I confess as sin and an abomination, and repent for the practice of mixing law with grace and for adding to and subtracting from Your finished work on the Cross,

I repent and confess as sin and iniquity, the substituting of law for grace, and living in the confusion of mixing the truth of Your Holy Word with Satan’s counterfeit remedies for sin, forgive me for making salvation about something I can earn and You owe me.

I confess as sin and an abomination, and repent for the exalting of my family’s traditions, (Mk. 7:13), above Your Word, and for givingYou lip service. I ask You to forgive me for substituting duty for devotion, and for going through the motions in practicing a “form of godliness” instead of knowing the power of Your love, (II Tim. 3:5).

I confess and repent for my hardness of heart toward You, and the vain disputes and debates and idle words I have used in the midst of my family and the congregation and ask You to forgive me for sowing discord and confusion among the brethren by preaching the false gospel, (II Tim. 2:16).

I repent and confess as sin, my living in the “flesh” and being anxious and afraid and for not recognizing these things as alien and unwelcome in my life and forgive me for listening to the lies of fear born of the Devil instead of Your truth.

I repent for offering you vain worship and teaching as doctrine the commandments of men, I repent the volumes of systematic theology and self-help books that I have studied and substituted for your Word. Forgive me for taking heed to the works of men rather than the Word of God.

I repent for making judgments based upon assumption, presumption and appearance and drawing wrong conclusions, for refusing correction and for defending my opinions rather that receive correction.

I repent for being afraid to leave and come out from among those who preach a false gospel and practice spiritual abuse or allow the spirit of Jezebel to operate unchecked within the midst of the congregation.

I repent of the fear of man in not standing up for the truth, knowing that we are called to worship God in spirit and truth.

I repent for refusing the love of the truth and for embracing the deception that the Enemy would want to put on me as a result of my passive agreement with wrong doctrine and manipulation of the scriptures for greedy gain and personal ambition that has promoted confusion among the weaker members.

I confess as an abomination my participation in the Devil’s attempts to create a false unity and social conformity through a global gospel of good works, at the expense of the truth, and for being afraid to suffer reproach for Jesus, (I Tim. 4:10). Forgive me, Lord, for being ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, (Ro. 1:16).

I confess as sin and repent and ask You to forgive me for clinging to a denomination distinctions, and using your Word to discourage and judge weaker believers, (Col. 2:16).

I repent and ask You to forgive me for not sharing the Gospel of the Good News with those lost who are still held under the sway of the Evil One for fear of persecution.

I confess as sin the neglect of the gifts that you have placed within me and for not following the lead of the Holy Spirit Who has been sent to lead me into all truth and triumph. I ask You to forgive me for not meditating on Your Word, neglecting the gift You have placed within me, and burying it in the sand.

I repent for seeking wisdom, peace and comfort from the false gods and gurus, whatever they may be, for yielding myself to their spirits through the practice of yoga, meditation, offerings, pilgrimages, penance, rituals, etc.

I repent and ask You to forgive me for being discontent, (I Tim. 6:6), and being covetous and bitter of the blessings of others.

I ask You to forgive me for “doing my life myself” and resisting and grieving the counsel of the Holy Spirit sent to dwell within me. Forgive me for not dealing with and resisting the lies of the Devil, (Rom. 1: 18-32) and for living in passive agreement with the Enemy. (Matt. 12:30).

Forgive me for not submitting to You and for not resisting the Devil. I repent for not believing in the spiritual war between God and Satan that permeates every fiber of our existence upon this planet.

I confess as idolatry the “love of the world”. Forgive me for not casting off the vanity of this world, and even the things I counted “dear” to myself, to be more like You. (Phil. 3:3-10).

I ask you to forgive me for leaving my first love and ask You to remove from me the hardness of heart and the spiritual blindness in not knowing that I am “poor and wretched and blind” without You and Your truth as given to me through Your Gospel.

I confess that anything, person, place, thing or concept I place between me and You is idolatry. Forgive my people for allowing fear to control us and all of these things that have operated as idols in our lives to remain and for teaching these things to our children.

I confess my (our) disobedience, as sin and iniquity, and remind You of what You said, that if we will “confess our iniquity and the iniquity of our fathers which is “with us” then you would restore the covenant. (Lev. 26: 39-40).

I repent and ask You to forgive me for seeking after signs, because You said an “evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign”, and for relegating to coincidence the many specific and daily blessings and interventions You have bestowed upon me and my family. (Mt. 12:39)

I ask you to forgive me for murmuring and complaining and rehearsing over and over in my soul, the words of Your Enemy who desires to separate me from Your love. I declare, I am your workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, (Eph.2:8-10) and You are committed to finish the work You began in me.

I ask You to deliver me from the religious bondages that have controlled my life and set me free with Your truth, to be free to do Your will to my fullest ability.

I ask You, to give me a deeper revelation of Jesus Christ, and a hunger for Your Word as I endeavor, by the Grace and Mercy You have bestowed upon me through your Holy Spirit, to follow You, and become a fellow laborer together with you. I declare “to live is Christ” and “in Him I live and move and have my being”. Amen and Amen!