Take responsibility and deal with your soul

When it comes to deliverance and being liberated from the bondage of sin, destructive habits, and following the dictates of the flesh, so often we tend to play the blame game. I’m not saying this to be critical or to be judgmental, the reality is most of the time our problems are simply settled in the realm of the soul, not in the spirit. Yet so often we do not want to deal with the soul, because it connotes responsibility, and being accountable for one’s actions, behaviour and conduct.

Since dealing with the realm of the soul takes effort, a lot of hard work, and a determined and concerted effort of renewing the mind and guarding the heart, we would rather blame the devil, or the world of whoever else for our prevailing issues and bondages. It is easier at times to rather point the finger at the devil, blaming one’s condition and captivity for example on soul ties or generational curses, then dealing with the condition of one’s soul.

Oh yes, we need deliverance in the realm of the spirit. We need to break soul ties, deal with generational curses, and we need to deal with legal entry points (such as unforgiveness) through which the devil can attack and torment us. Yes, we need to deal with any form of witchcraft done against us or what we have performed (such as the involvement in the occult). But once it has been done, it has been done. Finished. Now we have to work on the soul, which is far harder to keep in alignment with God than the realm of the spirit.

So what happens is that when keep on falling, keep on sinning, or keep on falling prey to destructive and harmful practices, behaviours and habits, we keep blaming the realm of the spirit. We then keep on looking for bondages that do not even exist. We come up with “new” soul ties or try to find some or other curse or we start blaming people for speaking curses over us. Eventually, this leads down a path of paranoia, and even worse, never arriving at the true root (s) of one’s woes.

Over the years we at Avishua Ministries have seen this tendency play out time after time, as people are convinced the problem is in the realm of the spirit. And if they do not enjoy deliverance and being liberated from whatever ‘torments’ them, they start jumping around from one person to the next, or one ministry to the next, as they seek deliverance and liberty. At the end of the day, you end up consulting all kinds of ‘prophets’ and supposed deliverance gurus, yet in the process also expose yourself to potential spiritual corruption, deception and even worse, opening even bigger doors through which the devil can enter. Let us be honest, there are some very weird deliverance practices circulating (some of them are New Age teachings or even Spiritism disguised as being Christian), and some of the ‘prophet’s and ‘gurus' do even greater harm than good.

Let it again be emphasized, most of our bondages need to be dealt with ALSO in the soul. Habits form when new behaviours become automatic and are enacted with minimum conscious awareness, yet habits are born out of the soul, not spirit. The reality is that the greatest battle we face is in the soul, not the spirit. God has liberated our spirit by the Blood, but our soul has to be renewed daily. Yes, daily we need to sanctify ourselves with the truth of the Word. Daily, we need to guard our minds, our hearts and our tongue. Daily we need to seek God’s will and not ours. Oh yes, the will is a strange thing, for the truth is most of our problems simply stem from us wanting to enforce our will instead of seeking God’s will (which is rebellion, and rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft). Daily we need to pray, yield and submit to God. Daily we must seek to surrender to the Spirit and meditate upon the Word (and then act upon it).

It says in “John 8: 31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” To know the truth means abiding in God. The truth will not set us free unless we abide, and to abide speaks of a willing action to yield and surrender to the will of God and to His truth and ways.

It is remarkable how often when we are tempted and give into temptation we blame the devil or some curse or demonic oppression (even though this does exist). Most of the time the problem is not the devil, it is your mind overriding the Spirit of God and choosing to sin, or choosing to advocate a bad habit or practise. When we act in the flesh, it is not the devil taking control of our body, it is ourselves who chose to act in a certain manner. As mentioned, demonic possession, infiltration and oppression are real, but most of the time THE DELIVERANCE A PERSON NEEDS IS IN THE SOUL. And this is not a quick fix. This is not about snapping your fingers and everything is alright. With the realm of the spirit, it is much easier to deal with negative influences, but the realm of the soul deals with character, and it deals with our will, emotions and thoughts. Unless we are very serious about serving God and following Him, then we will remain condemned to remain a captive to the corruption of the soul.

Paul wrote in Roman 7, “15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.” Paul never blamed the devil, for he realised the problem was a matter of either surrendering to the Spirit of God, or being led by the dictates of the flesh. His answer to deliverance and liberty is explained in Romans 8. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” If we not being led by God, submitting our flesh, we shall remain a prisoner of the deceitfulness of the heart, meaning we will constantly betray ourselves. Yes, we often deem ourselves to be so wise and clever, but pride comes before a fall. We cannot be better people without God. It is that simple.

Indeed, we are called to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). The sense in which we are to work out our salvation in fear and trembling is twofold. First, the Greek verb rendered “work out” means "to continually work to bring something to completion or fruition." We do this by actively pursuing obedience in the process of sanctification, which Paul explains further in the next chapter of Philippians. He describes himself as “straining” and “pressing on” toward the goal of Christlikeness (Philippians 3:13-14). The “trembling” he experiences is the attitude Christians are to have in pursuing this goal—a healthy fear of offending God through disobedience and an awe and respect for His majesty and holiness. Obedience and submission to the God we revere and respect is our “reasonable service” (Romans 12:1-2) and brings great joy. Psalm 2:11 sums it up perfectly: “Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling.”

We need to work out our salvation by going to the very source of our salvation—the Word of God—wherein we renew our hearts and minds (Romans 12:1-2), coming into His presence with a spirit of reverence and awe. Jesus said to follow Him we need to deny the Self and carry the cross. This all deals with the realm of the soul, and willingly choosing to yield and submit to the Spirit of God, abiding in His Presence (John 15) and praying without ceasing (Ephesians 6). Yet to deny the Self and to “carry the cross” is not something that comes easily to anyone, especially since we sit with free will and we live in a world that advocates people must have the right and liberty to live the way they want to.

As mentioned, there is no quick fix for the maladies of the soul. It calls for perseverance and a determined desire to seek the Lord day in and day out. It calls for a sincere and contrite heart that seeks to worship God, to humbly follow Him and that is willing to repent. It calls for a life in the Spirit, and not a life where we follow the dictates of our senses (the sensory mechanism of the soul being what we see, hear, taste, touch and smell). If we keep on passing the buck and playing the blame game, we are in danger of not accepting responsibility of our actions and remaining accountable for our actions. So yes, deal with the soul to enjoy true liberty and freedom from soulish corruptions and carnal temptations.