Tag Archives: freedom

Chapter 6. Freedom

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Chapter 6.  Freedom

per — Capturing God’s Heart Volume #6 

Today I share what I have found to be a simple yet profound process of bringing the freedom of the Lord into very specific areas of our lives.

Receiving Jesus Christ as Saviour is the first step towards this freedom.  And then as we continue to walk with Him we can begin to bring His freedom into very specific areas of our life, increasing His light within our own hearts and lives, experiencing freedom and the lightness of the Lord in increasing measure.

Freedom in any area of life comes about through a process before the Lord.  (10)

1.  CONFESSION.  Confession is where we say “I did it”.  Confession admits to something that has gone wrong, and by our own heart and hand.

The ability to confess comes when we see clearly our sin.  Those things that offend, deny, or outright attack the character of God.

“I did it”

“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.”  James 5:16a ESV

The next part of freedom comes when we are repentant.  When our hearts find remorse and sorrow for our sin.  Repentance comes as a gift from the Father.  The Bible is pretty clear that without the revelation of the Holy Spirit over our hearts we will not understand or even see a need for repentance.

2.  REPENTANCE is the place where we declare our sorrow over actions, thoughts, words, whatever it may be, that contradicts the glory and nature of God.

“I am so sorry”

It is quite possible to have confession, “I did it”, without repentance, “I am so sorry”.  But to have full freedom we must have both.  First the acknowledgment of wrong-doing, and then the grief and sorrow regarding that.

“For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret”                             2 Corinthians 7:10a ESV

3.  RENOUNCING.  This is where we declare, “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I say NO to this in my life.”

“I renounce (the name of the specific sin) in the name of my Lord Jesus Christ.”

This is where we hold our hand out so to speak, against the sin, against the stronghold, and declare “No More!”

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and wordly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age”  Titus 2:11-12 ESV

4.  BREAK the hold of the sin upon us.

This, all of this, can only be accomplished in our lives because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross some 2000 years ago.  He did the work, we merely bring it specifically into and over our lives.  Breaking the hold of the sins over us goes something like this:

“I (name of self), stand in the name and the blood of my Lord Jesus Christ and I declare the stronghold of (the specific sin) broken off of my life.  Where it has woven itself into my life, today I say ‘no more’ in the name of my Lord Jesus Christ.  I remove its grip from my life, I break its hold, I sever its grasp, all in the name of my Lord Jesus Christ.”

Breaking the sin, using whatever picture the Holy Spirit gives us, can only be done through the authority of Jesus.  It is why we keep saying His name so many times.  ONLY the name of Jesus Christ has any power to break us free from sin’s death grip.

“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?”  Isaiah 58:6 ESV 

5. CANCEL the accompanying things of the enemy, that most likely have come along because of the sin.

For instance, when we sin we agree with the enemies plans over our life.  When we sin we enter into an agreement with Satan.  This is like a legal document in the spirit realm, that then plays out in life-debilitating ways.  Cancelling the assignments and curses and authority of the enemy is as simple as declaring it so.

“I (insert your own name) stand in the name of my Living Lord Jesus Christ declaring that all assignments, authority and curses of the enemy be cancelled this day.  I declare all things of the enemy in relation to this sin silenced and bound to ineffectiveness, No More!  Today I declare a new contract written, this one unto the Lord with all glory and honour to him, all in the name and the blood of my Living Lord Jesus Christ.”

“God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.   This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”  Colossians 2:13b -14 ESV

6.  CLAIMING comes next.  It is the place where we receive from God’s heart and hand that which replaces the sin.

*If there were something to replace the sin in your life, what might it be? (remember, forgiveness is already a given based on the work of Jesus Christ).  Here we receive into our lives all that is beneficial, to replace the stronghold of sin that is now cancelled.  We then give God the thanks.

“In the name and the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, I receive _______________ from the heart of the Father. Thank-you God for this gift. I press it through my whole being, heart, mind, spirit and body in the name of my Lord Jesus Christ.  Thank-you for making a way for me to glorify You God.”

“Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.  Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant,”  2 Corinthians 3:4-6a ESV

7.  SEAL this work.  Covering it and protecting it with the presence of the Lord, sealing ensures that the enemy cannot muck about with the work done.  It claims the work as part of the Glory of God and not anyone else.

“In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I declare this work sealed and kept for the glory of God and God alone.”

Language is powerful, and speaking God’s heart into our lives is powerful.  Speaking and declaring in the Name and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is powerful.

It is because of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ that we can stand in the same authority and declare freedom.  We do this verbally, out loud for ourselves.

“Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”  Romans 10:9 ESV

This has been but a short summary of the process of bringing specific freedom into specific areas of our lives. We can do this because of the authority given us in Jesus Christ when we believe on Him.   And when we do this for ourselves, out loud with our own mouths, we participate in the power of the Kingdom of God come to earth.

Application

1.  Memorize these steps to freedom: 

    1. Confession
    2. Repentance
    3. Renouncing
    4. Breaking
    5. Cancelling
    6. Claiming
    7. Sealing 

2.  Write a short summary of each step and why it is necessary.  Memorize this also. 

3.  Practice praying these steps once every day until you are fluent in them. Use the following script. Notice the shift in your heart and spirit as you bring specific things to the Lord in this way. 

*Note: each day you want to ask the Lord to reveal to you something that he wants you to bring to the cross of Jesus, that you may be free. 

“God, I come before you in the name and the blood of my Lord Jesus Christ.  I set this time and space for your glory and honour.   To any lying, deceiving, or confusing spirits I say ‘silence’ in the name and the blood of my Lord Jesus Christ. (11)

Jesus, what would you have me bring to you today?  (12)

( Wait and listen for the Holy Spirit to direct you.  You will get a sense of what to bring to Jesus and to the cross. Let’s pretend that the Holy Spirit is directing you to bring your anger to the cross.  James 1:20)

Jesus, today I confess to my anger (step 1).  I realize that my anger is not compatible with your work or spirit.  In fact, many times I am damaging others with my anger.  I am sorry (step 2).  Today I renounce anger in the name of my Lord Jesus Christ. I say ‘No more!’ to anger today (step 3). (13)

With the strong arm of my Lord Jesus Christ I reach back into my past where anger first took root in my life and I remove it, leaving nothing behind.  I unwind the chains and stronghold of anger from my life in the name of my Lord Jesus Christ.  And I declare every link of that chain severed (step 4). 

In the name of my Lord Jesus Christ (14) I cancel all assignments, curses, and authority, of the enemy that has been over and through my life because of this anger, and I send all things to do with this anger to the place where the true Lord Jesus Christ chooses to send them (step 5). 

Jesus, what would you have for me in place of this anger? 

(now, wait and listen to see what the Holy Spirit might like to give you in place of anger — or, alternately, you can ask for something, such as patience)

Jesus, today I receive from you a new patience for life and people and all things.  Please soak your patience into my heart, mind, spirit, and body.  May I be a new creature in you (step 6). 

Thank you Lord for your work in my life today.  I wrap myself in the love of the Father, I declare myself covered in the name and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I breathe the Holy Spirit through me in a new way today.  

I seal this work in the name and the blood of my Lord Jesus Christ.  To any messing of the enemy in this work, 

I say “No, back off’.  I reserve and preserve all the glory for God alone, in the name and the blood of my Lord Jesus Christ.  Thank you Lord.  Amen and amen. (step 7)”   

Summary – freedom

When we sin we create agreements with Satan.  1 John 3:4,  Isaiah 59:1-2

Sins are: 

    • Physical actions of our flesh.   Galatians 5:19-21
    • Words spoken carelessly.   Matthew 12:36
    • Attitudes not in accord with God’s heart.   2 Timothy 3:1-7
    • Judgments (contempt) against others.   Matthew 7:1-5

All sins invite bad fruit.  Matthew 7:18-19

To be transformed we enter into confession and repentance.  1 John 1:9,  Proverbs 28:13

We break agreements with Satan and declare new agreements with God.  James 4:8-10,  Joel 2:13

Footnotes: 

10. The prayer ministry processes in this course are heavily influenced by elijahhouse.org  prayer ministry model.  

*  NOTE: Further in the course we will be teaching more about inner healing prayer.  Please use the healing prayer process for yourself only, until you have completed the teaching in the later parts of this course.

11. We include this pre-step. We always begin listening prayer by inviting God to speak to us, and by silencing the lies of the enemy. We want to only hear from God and so it is important to set this expectation and to declare the space and time set for God’s heart and covered by Jesus. 

12. In the same way, unless the Holy Spirit directs us we may not know our strongholds. We take the time to ask Jesus to reveal to us what he would have us free from, and we take the time to become silent in our inner spirit and to listen to the Lord. ALSO it is very important that we ask very simple questions with very few words. This is hard to do as our natural habit is to speak many words, but when we speak many words we become unable to hear the Holy Spirit’s whisper back into our hearts. Therefore, as you ask Jesus a question, use no more than 4-6 words. 

13. Do not add extra words to this prayer process – simple is best.

14. We use ‘in the name and the blood of my Lord Jesus Christ’ because it is only in the power of Jesus that we can be free from anything. Only his name has the power to free us. It is suggested that in specific spiritual warfare work we speak his complete title ‘Lord Jesus Christ’.

Chapter 4. Repentance

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Chapter 4.  Repentance

per — Capturing God’s Heart Volume #28

There is a time for celebration and rejoicing and for worshiping God, and then there is a time for mourning and grieving and laying bare our deeds before the Lord.

Consider what James says,

“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.  Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  Be wretched and mourn and weep.  Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”  James 4:8-10 ESV

Admitting that we have done wrong is one of the most freeing experiences.  Repentance is deep intimacy with The Father.

Yet it is not a normal human response to admit wrongdoing.  In fact, our natural response is to cover up and to hide our sins.

But think about it, when we cover up our sins we still have them with us.

They bury into our hearts and minds with the memory and emotions.  We are never free of our sin when we harbour it in our selves.

“Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.”  Proverbs 28:13 ESV 

At the very beginning when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden we see this propensity to cover over our sin.  We read,

“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.”  Genesis 3:8  NIV

We have been hiding ourselves ever since.

“But the LORD God called to the man,  “Where are you?”  He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”  And he said, “Who told you that you were naked?  Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”  The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”  Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”  The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”  Genesis 3:9-12 NIV 

Do you notice the excuses, the blaming, the rationalizations?  Don’t we all continue in sins of avoidance and fear, of shame and covering over?

The man blamed the woman (9), the woman blamed the serpent, and ever since we have been making excuses and blaming others.  We have been unable to admit our wrong and have carried death as a result.

God saw this and understood the depths of the problem.  Shame was coiled around us, guilt was heaped on our heads, and we were emotionally and psychologically unable to admit wrong.  We are fearful of the exposure that confession requires.

Then in verse 21 we read,  “The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.”  Genesis 3:21 NIV

In one amazing act of grace, God, who made all things unto life, now kills an animal/s in order to provide a covering and to remove shame.

In a powerful prophetic act looking ahead to the cross, God takes on our sin and death so that we might be all that God originally intended.

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV 

God was committed to our covering and our keeping right from the start, and has since played that out through Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.  Our sin is buried with Christ when we accept his salvation and turn from our wrongs.

In fact, the blood covering of Christ is the only thing that truly covers our sin and washes it away.

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.  By his wounds you have been healed.”  1 Peter 2:24 ESV 

Imagine in your mind’s eye the cross of Jesus Christ.  And imagine the blood that fell from Christ onto the ground at the foot of that cross.

Imagine that you bring your sins and lay them down at the foot of the cross, and imagine that Christ’s blood, as it soaks into the ground, takes your sin with it.

Burying the sin, washing the sin away, covering over the sin.

This is the work of Christ, not us.  We cannot bury our own sin.  We cannot cover over our own sin.  Only Christ can do this.

When we try to cover over our own sin we simply become hardened of heart.  In trying to keep our sin secret we build a wall between ourself and God.

READ all of Psalm 32

If you think that you are above sin, consider this verse,  “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”  Luke 5:32 NIV

It is imperative that all of us, no matter our station or influence, allow repentance.  The leaders amongst us should be the first on our knees before the Lord, the first to repent and to enter into a contrition of spirit before the Lord.

Let us never forget that,  “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”  Psalms 34:18 ESV

And that,  “As the scripture says,  “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ ”  James 4:6b NLT

We are given a conscience, a knowledge built into us, of right and wrong.  And when we violate this sense of right and wrong we have only two choices.

One, we labor under the sin, trying to get free, cover it over ourselves, hide it, but then like anything that goes bad we are simply left with a poison in our hearts and minds.  We are not free, we are caught.  And there is a deep divide between ourselves and God.

There is a better way.  Our second option is to confess our sins to God and each other.

“Yet even now,” declares the Lord,  “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.”  Joel 2: 12-13 ESV 

Bringing our sin out into the open allows the light of Christ to come upon it and us.  And in the shift deep within our being as we bring our wrongs into the light, we find that we are given the gift of sorrow and grief and mourning.  We come near to God in humility and repentance.

We grieve over our sin.  We acknowledge it.  We say, “I did this.”  And without excuse or blame we simply stand before the living God.

“As for me, I said,  “O Lord, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you!”  Psalm 41:4 ESV

Instead of trying to cover over our own wrongs, we find that God then covers over our wrong. Jesus (who already took it over 2000 years ago) takes our sin and washes us clean with his blood.  Our wrongdoing is buried along with Christ’s sacrificial death and we are free.

“I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said,  “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.  Selah” 

Psalm 32:5 ESV

And in our acknowledgement we experience and really come to know that God is for us.

The Psalmist put it this way,  “But You, O LORD, are a shield about me, My glory, and the One who lifts my head.”  Psalms 3:3 NIV

God surrounds us and lifts us up.  We come broken on our knees before him, and we find ourselves standing beside the Lord.

Repentance is the key to this sort of freedom.  Repentance enables us to receive God’s grace.

Nothing else can do this.  Without repentance we are simply stuck in our sin.

But with repentance we find life.

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor;  he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;” 

Isaiah 61:1 ESV

With repentance we are rich in heart and mind.  We find ourselves, as this verse declares the Living Christ, with our broken hearts bound up, our captivity to sin is turned into liberty of life, and the prisons and bondage of guilt are opened and freed off of us.

As we accept and agree with the sacrifice of Christ the forgiveness established on the cross over 2000 years ago becomes our own.  Repentance is our hearts position to receive all the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Without repentance we are merely in contempt of the cross, and against the work of the Lord. But with repentance we find the habitation of God in our very lives and we receive his gladness throughout our whole life.

“For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:  “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.”  Isaiah 57:15 ESV 

Prayer 

”God I come before you today in the name and the blood of my Lord Jesus Christ, bringing my sins (they are…. ) to the foot of your cross.  These sins, my guilt, and my shame have weighed us down and crippled our hearts and minds. 

We are tired of our sin and wrongdoing, and today we say,  “No more” in the name of my Lord Jesus Christ.  Today I declare enough is enough and I release my sins unto you God.   We enter into a contrite heart and we ask for a deep repentance before you. 

Leaving our sins at the foot of your cross, declaring them covered by the blood of the Lamb, they are washed away and cancelled by the power of our Living Lord Jesus Christ. I take unto myself your salvation to every part of my being.  We receive your grace and give praise, declaring all glory to you God.  Amen” 

Application

We cannot know our sin without the revelation of the Holy Spirit.  While repentance may feel bad to us we come to find that it is a gift from God.  In this, our response turns from one of avoiding our sin and our need of repentance to coming before God eager to know how we might be free. 

Repentance, after all, is the path of healing and freedom for all of us.  In Psalm we read,  “The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.  You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.” Psalm 51:17 NLT

We can therefore take courage to come before the Lord with a broken and repentant heart.  As leaders we want to lead the way in this.  The people we serve need to know that it is always okay to bring our sins out into the open before the Lord.  As leaders we set the tone. 

Part of making repentance normal amongst us, is creating a culture of safety in our churches.  We must normalize our growth processes and in this we must normalize the fact that we are sinners before a holy God, that God has covered over our sin, and that we are invited to enter into his covering.  There is no shame in this — only cause for celebration. 

This means, that we remove shame and condemnation as part of our ministry to each other.  Shame and condemnation are of the enemy, not the Lord.  Shame and condemnation keep us from bringing our sin to God — and this keeps us bound.  God’s heart is for the exact opposite. 

God’s heart wants us free to bring our sin, failures and regrets to him.  This is, in many ways, the ministry of the body of Christ on this earth.  We are to participate and lead people to the grace of God.  We do this as we create emotional safety for each other as we refuse to condemn, blame, or bring shame. 

1.  Begin to listen to your language and the words, and the unspoken messages beneath your words, and see how much shame and condemnation is in your church. 

2.  Repent and allow your heart to be broken over the amount of shame and condemnation that is in your fellowship of believers — it should not be there. 

3.  Ask the Lord to show you a new way.  Invite the grace of the Lord to penetrate your own heart and mind first, and then to penetrate the culture of your church body.  We must be changed by the grace of God or all we have is religion, and religion kills; we want the life of Christ. 

As a church leadership team and as a body of believers it is important to come together and into agreement with the grace of the Lord, and to break our agreements with the enemy’s shame and condemnations. 

We do this as we gather together and as we talk about shame and how damaging it is to our hearts in the Lord.  When we are bound up in shame we cannot see the love of God.  And where we are bound up in condemnations we are unable to know the love of God. 

We desperately need freedom from shame and condemnation and into the love of Jesus Christ.  We must cry out to God for this freedom for only the work of Jesus is powerful enough to reach into our deepest hearts with a touch that heals us and restores us and makes us glad. 

I suggest that as a family, as a leadership team, and even as a congregation that you confess to your agreements to shame and condemnation (remember, these are agreements with satan), and make a new agreement with the Lord for mutual blessing and honouring of each other. 

We are called to be healing agents of Jesus in this world.  To do this we must renounce shame and condemnation and we must take on the grace of our Lord.  In this we become safe people and safe churches so that repentance comes naturally and easily to us, and in this repentance we are transformed into the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Prayer

“We come before you God in the name and the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We confess that we have been under the shame and condemnation of the enemy.  We have even been participants of shame and condemnation, even bringing these things to those around us.  We are sorry. 

Today, in the name and the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ we renounce shame and condemnation.  We refuse to use them any longer to control or manipulate each other.  We realize that shame and condemnation are of the enemy and not God. 

Please alert our spirits to these things of the enemy.  Help our ears and our understanding to hear when we are speaking shame or condemnation, help our hearts to know when we are carrying shame or condemnation deep inside ourselves.  Heal us, help us, restore us. 

Today we make new agreements unto the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We recognize that the grace of Jesus is powerful to make us new creatures and to free us unto all holiness and godliness.  We receive your grace today God.  Thank you for making us new.” 

Summary – repentance

Repentance is key to our healing and freedom.   Joel 2:12-13, Psalm 57:17

Hiding our sin never bears good fruit.   Psalm 32:3-5, Proverbs 28:13

God is understanding.   Isaiah 1:18, Exodus 34:6

We can come to Him with everything.   James 4:6, Psalm 34:18

 

Footnote: 

9. Adam was really blaming God for giving him the woman

Why Do We Confess?

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A Pastor who is using our CCIM College Material has relayed a question about James 5:16a which says, “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” NLT.

What does it mean to confess? “Do we confess our sins before God or our fellow people whom we have offended?”

Below is my answer to his questions:

  • NOTE: This refers to James 5:16a as noted in CCIM College Course, Module One, Month One, Chapter 6 – FREEDOM, page 31

Poverty Strongholds #2 – The Authority By Which I Speak

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In Part One of this topic I barely scratched the surface of the intricacies and poverty mindsets as many of us observe them, and/or live them out. There is so much that can be delineated within each of the ten strongholds as I am describing them. But let me continue on in this series with a bit about myself. I speak into this issue of poverty strongholds not from a place of observation or as an outsider, but I speak from a place of, “I’ve lived through these very same things”. I’ve intimately known the mindsets of poverty and the bad fruit that was piling up as a result.

For instance, there was a time in my history where I was continuing in bad relationship with ‘hope’ that refused to look at reality. There was a time when there was very little provision or food and I was starving myself so that my children could eat. There was a time when the money I did have seemed to be consistently and always disappearing as though my ‘bucket’ had a giant hole. And for years I carried accumulated pain upon pain (heart pain) that nearly stole my life in chronic autoimmune diseases. I’ve know what it is to be in despair and to be buried in pain that overwhelmed me in both good thinking and in energy required to rise above the current circumstances.

Continue reading →

Capturing God’s Heart – Roots – Volume 42

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At Capturing Courage International Ministries we are called to work at the roots of difficulty and despair. Imagine, if you will, a tree. The tree has branches and on these branches there are fruits. The tree has a trunk and connected and below the surface of the soil are the roots of the tree.

Consider that the branches of the tree bear the bad fruit that we see in our communities. There is poverty, sexual abuses, injustice, corruption, educational difficulties, family breakdown, modern slavery, sex trafficking, and more.

Often, we look at these bad fruits and we are drawn to action. Now, action is always good and right and necessary, absolutely necessary. We must enter into these problems and make a better way for everyone involved.

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Pain Upon Pain

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Mbale March 2012 331

Before my first trip to Uganda I inquired of the Lord, “Why me?”

“Why is it so important that I, a simple woman from Surrey, go to Africa?”

While God had been telling me for quite some time about the work to come, I still didn’t completely get it, “Why me?”

Like all queries I held this one open before the Lord and waited on the answer, and within a few weeks time, I had my answer.

I was in conversation with a pastor who had been partnering in Uganda for nine years. And over tea he spoke about his experiences, and in the midst spoke this one sentence, “There is so much pain upon pain.”

Bingo! Then I knew why I was going to Africa and beyond.

Through my own journey I’ve come to learn and carry the authority to speak into pain upon pain, and loose it off of folks. It’s been my own journey and now I give it out to others.

There is a single sentence in Jeremiah 22:3 that says, “Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed.”

This is what we do. You can read more about it HERE>

My first trip to Uganda I met many lovely people. One couple really stood out to me. They were beautiful, alive, and obviously delighted with each other. He helped to get me around on his boda-boda, she gave me her scarf one evening. They were friends I’d simply not yet met.

The next time I was there, some four months later, there was trouble. Violence and disruption had entered the home, and the light was going from her eyes.

Another three months passed and I was there once again. This time, things were really not well. He had taken a second wife. Her world had collapsed. She was the primary caretaker of some 12 children and the second wife was giving no assistance.

Besides that, her heart was broken. She was deeply grieving. And the woman I’d known to be so energetic and delightful was somber and sad. Deeply sad.

The change and the sorrow, and the rage of my own heart, as I watched this play out reminds me of why I am going to these places. It is to ease sorrows.

The Lord gives me pictures you see. And I then simply pray into them.

On my first trip as we went from one elderly home to another, we came to a lovely older woman sitting serenely on her mat in front of her house.

As my companion spoke with her, I saw a picture of many arrows lodged in her body. So I asked my companion to inquire of her, “Was there ever a time when many bad things happened to you all at once?”

She replied a simple, “Yes.”

So right there I prayed away those ‘arrows’. The attacks upon a life can in fact be rendered null and void when the blood and name of Jesus Christ are spoken over that life.

Everywhere I went the most common testimony was, “You’ve just taken us to the next level Cyndy.”

But of course, it wasn’t me, it is the power of Jesus Christ.

You see, it is not the lack of physical things per se that have us in pain. It is not a simple life that bears down upon us. There is something much more going on behind the scenes.

Our hearts that bear too much for too long need healing, releasing, freedom. Quite simply, the touch of Jesus Christ. This is the primary work of Capturing Courage Int’l.

We are praying away that pain upon pain, easing emotions, releasing strongholds.

I’m praying for my friend who no longer has a husband, who has been relegated to the ‘other wife’. I pray for their children. For though their situation is humble, there was order and discipline and amazing peace in their home, before the pain began.

Jesus Christ came to heal pain upon pain, to carry it himself so that we don’t have to. It’s the least we can do, declaring this around the world.

Amen and amen – to God be the glory.

CCI School of Discipleship

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P1320433 compressedI’m near the finishing line. For over a week I’ve been in my cave writing and editing and praying over our Course One – The King’s Heart. I’ve a deadline to send it off to Madudu, Uganda later this week.

While I’ve written the course for us western folks previously, it needed quite a bit of re-crafting to ensure it is in fact useful for our overseas pastors.

There is a lot of my heart in Madudu. And it is here that I so felt the thick presence of God, and have been so compelled to pour into the pastors and lay-leaders there.

All of our activity in Madudu is overseen by Geoffrey, our lead hand in Uganda, and Pastor Kakuba, the lead guy on the ground in Madudu.

The picture accompanying this post is from our School of Discipleship that met in August of last year.

And as they meet again in a weeks time we ask your prayers for their good success.

We also ask that you consider donating to the gathering – for help with food, transportation, and printing costs.

You can see more about that HERE