Rise Up In New Strength

Winning the Battle for Your Mind

Journey Into The Promised Land

Luke 4:14–30 (CSB)

MINISTRY IN GALILEE

¹⁴Then Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread throughout the entire vicinity. ¹⁵He was teaching in their synagogues, being praised by everyone.

REJECTION AT NAZARETH

¹⁶He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. As usual, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. ¹⁷The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him, and unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written:

¹⁸The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me

to proclaim release to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to set free the oppressed,

¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.^,

²⁰He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹He began by saying to them, “Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled.”

²²They were all speaking well of him and were amazed by the gracious words that came from his mouth; yet they said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”

²³Then he said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Doctor, heal yourself. What we’ve heard that took place in Capernaum, do here in your hometown also.’ ”

²⁴He also said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown. ²⁵But I say to you, there were certainly many widows in Israel in Elijah’s days, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months while a great famine came over all the land. ²⁶Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them except a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. ²⁷And in the prophet Elisha’s time, there were many in Israel who had leprosy, and yet not one of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”

²⁸When they heard this, everyone in the synagogue was enraged. ²⁹They got up, drove him out of town, and brought him to the edge of the hill that their town was built on, intending to hurl him over the cliff. ³⁰But he passed right through the crowd and went on his way.

Millions of Christians are oppressed because of spiritual ignorance concerning Satan’s strategies and methods of attacking and oppressing them. There has been a lack of revelation, not only regarding the work of the enemy, but also concerning the power and authority we have today over all the power of Satan and his evil principalities.

Not understanding the need to detect and resist the evil spirits oppressing and exercising authority over them, many have become victims. Instead of exercising dominion over Satan and his principalities, Satan and his demons are exercising authority and dominion over them. Satan is oppressing God’s people today in their minds, bodies, finances, on their jobs, and through circumstances. But God is exposing the strategies Satan is using in his attack against the Church and we are not ignoring his devices!

Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit and sent by God to deliver and set free all those oppressed by the devil. He has destroyed the works of the devil. We have been anointed by the Holy Spirit to stand in Christ’s stead, confront the power of Satan, and set free all those who are oppressed by Satan.

It is time for you to rise up in new strength to exercise authority over the unclean spirits Satan will use to try to oppress you. There may be spirits oppressing your mind, continually bombarding you with lusts of the flesh, tempting you to sin. A spirit of fear may be tormenting your mind to such an extent you are bound by it and constantly living in fear. Spirits of worry and doubt may be attacking you until your mind is in a constant state of turmoil. Spirits of heaviness, hopelessness, frustration, or depression may be coming against you until you have reached a point in your life where you feel you cannot go on — where you are worn out, tired of resisting, tired of doing spiritual warfare.

But the bonds of oppression over God’s people are going to break! Just as God delivered Israel out of the hands of her oppressors, He will deliver His people today out of the oppression of Satan and his demon forces. Christians who have been tormented in their minds by spirits of lust, adultery, fornication, and sexual perversion are going to be delivered and set free! Christians who have been under heavy oppression by the enemy — who feel as if they have been pushed down, spiritually repressed, who have no freedom in their spirit, no joy, no peace, who are unable to freely worship and praise God — are going to be set free! The dark cloud of oppression is going to lift and they are going to walk in new freedom and liberty in the Spirit.

The key to being set free from oppressing spirits and walking in victory over them is in knowing the power and authority that is yours over Satan and his demon forces and in using it! The moment you feel a spirit of oppression, don’t hesitate or be fearful in dealing with the demons that are attacking you, your family, friends or loved ones. Take authority over them and cast them out, in the Name of Jesus.

Make this declaration:

I am anointed by the Holy Spirit to stand in Christ’s stead, confront the power of Satan, and set free all those who are oppressed by Satan.

*Adapted from MCWE email – Journey Into The Promised Land by Morris Cerullo

Rise Up In New Strength – 3/14

Winning the Battle for Your Mind

Journey Into The Promised Land