10 Signs That You’re Captive to the Enemy
Getting Free
If you can identify the effects of captivity in your life, don’t despair. It is possible to get free from this spirit and its results.
When we become Christians and turn our lives over to Jesus, He sets us free from the power of a “Nebuchadnezzar” or captivity spirit so we can rebuild our lives as the temples of the living God. However, many believers don’t let go of the influence of “Babylon” because they feel it’s not their fault that they were taken there.
Maybe your parents didn’t take proper responsibility for raising you. You could use that as an excuse to remain in Babylon for the rest of your life. But to truly be free after your life has been tampered with, you must let go of the excuses.
A friend of ours once told us about a time when she was trying to overcome a spirit of anger. She admitted that she had a temper and was feeling bad after having blown up at someone. Immediately she said: “Well, Lord, I’m sorry. I just can’t help it because I’m French, and French people have tempers.”
She said she heard the Lord loudly reply inside her, “Well, I’m not French!” In other words, the Holy Spirit in you is not focused on why you are a captive. He is interested in bringing you out of the captivity!
Someone may have horribly hurt you and left you broken and bruised in life. But God wants you to get past that hurt so it doesn’t keep you in bondage, doing things you hate for the remainder of your life. While in captivity, the children of Israel had to take responsibility for their state even though some of them had no part in committing the sins that caused them to be taken to Babylon.
You are the temple of the Lord that Jesus wants to rebuild, and He is there to help separate you from the memories and influences of your past to make it happen. He has come to live inside you to force every bad habit, every bad attitude and every feeling of failure out of your life.
Second Corinthians 6:16-17 says, “And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’ Therefore ‘Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.'”
That is what God is looking for with you. He wants the spirit of captivity removed so there is more room for Him in your life. The next verse goes on to say, “I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty'” (v. 18). Regardless of the habits and lifestyles you have become accustomed to, you will find them losing their influence on you when you see God as your Father.
When you know your heavenly Father, you become unfamiliar with any other “family.” Your Father wants to be your greatest source of influence and to replace what you once knew. You can ask the Lord to reveal Himself to you as your Father. For many whose lives have been tampered with, this is difficult to do because so many people didn’t have a positive fatherly influence in their lives.
Ask the Lord to help you receive Him as the good Father that He is. You don’t always have to understand how He will do it because the Lord is supernatural. He can impart miracles that will shake you and change your entire outlook on life in one moment of time.
Here are some positive steps you can take to remove captivity from your life:
Expose the captivity. Acknowledge what is holding you captive. It may be a type of fear, an attitude, your words or an addiction. Be willing to see these areas and call them what they are in your life—captivity and bondage. Exposing the root will prevent it from growing back. Face it and then start a new life with a new direction.
Let go of excuses. Take responsibility for living as a captive. How or why you were invaded by the devil can no longer be your focus. Repent now and get your own actions right before the Lord so you can move on to reclaim your real purpose in life.
Separate from Babylon. Decide you do not want the spirit of captivity in your life, and be willing to detach from it. The children of Israel had to make the decision to come out of captivity and change their habits. They could not keep going back to what had become familiar. They had to learn a whole new way of living.
Run to your heavenly Father. When you decide to see God as your Father, all the other control figures in your life will start to weaken as the culture of your new family takes over.
If you allow Him to, the Lord will deliver you from any type of past culture this spirit of captivity has imparted to you. That is what Jesus came for—to set you free—and He is an expert at doing it.
Brenda Kunneman is co-founder of One Voice Ministries and co-pastor, with her husband, Hank, of Lord of Hosts Church in Omaha, Neb. She ministers in conferences and churches and is the author of several books, including When Your Life Has Been Tampered With (Charisma House).
