Understanding Spiritual Bondage

Before we can discuss spiritual freedom, we need to address these questions:

• What is spiritual bondage?
• Can Christians be spiritually bound?
• How do we get in bondage?

I believe that just as a person cannot fully appreciate salvation without first acknowledging their needfor a Savior, so it is with freedom…you cannot walk in total freedom without recognizing those things that are keeping you bound.

What is Spiritual Bondage?

The Webster definition of bondage is:

•  The state of being under control of a force or influence
•  The state of one who is bound as in captivity or slavery

We can see in the Bible that Spiritual bondage doesn’tmean you are being held physically captive.  Remember how Joseph in the OT, or Paul in the NT were both thrown into prison?  They were in captivity, but were not in spiritual bondage. They did not turn away from God and lose their hope. Paul and Silas exemplified this by praising the Lord. Because they weren’t “spiritually bound”, their praise actually caused them to be set free physically as well.

(Acts 16:25-26) “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose”

Spiritual bondage has more to do with Webster’s first definition – In this case, the controlling force or influence starts out as the lusts of your own flesh, but is being manipulated by the demonic.

Can Christians be in Spiritual Bondage?

Yes! Not all bondage is about possession, but sometimes it is a matter of oppression. Which means you can be saved and have the Holy Spirit living inside of you, and still open up areas of your life to demonic influence. The only one who has never had any form of spiritual bondage, is also the only one who has never sinned – Jesus Christ.  The Bible says that Jesus spoke this about Himself in John 14:30:

“I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming (Satan) and he has nothing in Me.”

There was no sin in Jesus, therefore nothing for Satan to tempt Him with, no foothold or opening for him to rule over Jesus.

How Do You Become Bound?

Spiritual bondage is any area of our lives where we come into agreement with a lie from the enemy that is in direct opposition to God’s Word. In those areas, it gives the demonic legal access, and it’s like an open invitation for them to come and torment us.
The easiest way to explain how a person can become bound up is to give an example:

If someone hurts us and we become offended…we know the Word of God says to forgive them. If we decide NOT to obey the Word and forgive them, we open up a door for the enemy to come in and set up what is called a “foothold”.

Ephesians 4:27 says “do not give the devil a foothold” (NIV)

The New American Standard (Eph. 4:27) puts it like this: “do not give the devil an opportunity”

My NKJ Study Bible says (Eph. 4:27) – “nor give place to the devil” – It explains that the Greek word for place (topos) emphasizes that believers can actually give ground in their lives to satanic control. If we give the enemy a foothold, and the Holy Spirit convicts us, but we choose to ignore it, eventually this foothold will grow into a stronghold. You see, demons don’t like to work alone – they come in packs.

Using our example from above, let’s examine what happens after a foothold has been established. It started out as unforgiveness, but that wasn’t enough of a hold for the demons…then it turned into resentment (a little bit stronger hold). If you don’t deal with the resentment, it goes on to retaliation (an even bigger hold)…then full blown anger (a HUGE hold). Before you know it, you have a stronghold of bitterness that is no longer contained to this one particular incident, but has taken over every area of your life. You now see everything through the eyes of bitterness. You wonder why you’re so angry all the time?…why bad things keep happening to you because your prayers aren’t answered?…where did this sickness come from?  (Many forms of sickness and disease are directly linked to opening ourselves up to some form of spiritual bondage).

This was just one example of how a stronghold can be established.

We can be bound because of:
Habitual sin, giving into the lusts of our flesh

Rom. 8:5 – “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the thins of the Spirit.

Rom. 8:13 – “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”

Acts. 8:23 – “for I can see that you are full of bitter jealousy and are held captive by sin.”

Disobedience

Eph. 2:2-3 – “in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.”

1 Chron. 9:1 – “…The people of Judah were taken captive to Babylon because of their unfaithfulness.”

Ignorance of God’s Word

Eph. 4:17-18 – “…you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.”

Hosea 4:6 – “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge”

Isaiah 5:13 – “Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honorable men arefamished, and their multitude dried up with thirst”

Generational curses (We’ll discuss this at a later date)

Exodus 34:7 – “I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected–even children in the third and fourth generations.”

This was an explanation of bondage to lay the ground work for our Bible study on Freedom.

Join me again for our next study where we’ll look at Israel (which represents the Church) and discuss a “Bondage mentality”.