Staying Free in Life's Storms

In the midst of a tough situation? Recognizing the work of the enemy or the negative effects of life? Wondering how to keep doors closed and the enemy out of your life despite all the things going on around you?

We live in a world with a very real enemy working all around us (John 10:10). Being free from the grip of the enemy means that we are fully free from the internal influence of the enemy (the compulsions, the barrage of thoughts, the unhealthy and unholy obsessions); however, we still walk through storms in our life.

My desire is to be like Jesus in the midst of the storms of life (Mark 4:35-41). Peacefully sleeping. Fully trusting my Father for protection. My hope firmly placed in my Heavenly Father knowing He will get me through and all of the difficult times will glorify Him and His kingdom. How about you?

Let’s take a look at scripture and see how we walk through the storms of life and keep the enemy away:

1. Apologize, Repent, and Pray

James 5:16 – “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”

Is there anyone you need to apologize to? No matter how big or small the matter, the act of apologizing causes us to humble ourselves and allows for healing. Admitting our fault and declaring we will turn away from those behaviors begins a process of softening our heart. The second part of that scripture was really highlighted to me – “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working”. A righteous person is one who is in right standing with God, and James 5:16 states that there is great power in the prayers of a righteous person. Repentance positions us back in right standing with God. Once we have dealt with any apologies and repentance, the power of our prayer can and does affect our situation and our life after the situation and circumstances have passed.

2. Keep Surrendering

James 4:7 - Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

1 Peter 5:6-10 - Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

Submission and surrender to God’s ways is giving Him permission to rule and reign over our situation. In James 4:7, submission to God comes before we are told that if we resist the enemy he will flee. Surrender and humbling ourselves positions us to be used for the glory of God, to be established in Him and His complete restoration work to be done in and through us.

3. Apply His Word and Truth

2 Timothy 3:16-17 - All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 2:15 - Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

God has provided all the guidance we need in scripture to navigate the turbulent waters around us and to come out victorious. We only need to seek Him in His word and apply His truth to our life.

4. Process with the Lord

2 Kings 18:5 - He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him.

Romans 10:17 - So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

1 John 5:14-15 – And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked him.

Processing our situation with the Lord requires us first to trust him and to grow in our faith and belief that He cares about us and has the solutions. Asking according to His will so that we see His solutions working out in and through our life requires us to know His will. We can gain understanding to His general will through His Word, but His specific will for our life and the different situations we face comes through leaning into Him and seeking His will on a day-to-day basis. I call this processing with the Lord. I ask the questions: Why do I feel this way? What do I need to do about this way that I feel? How do I respond to this situation? What direction do you want me to go? How will my actions affect others? Am I staying focused fully on you, Lord?

I go back and forth with Him until I feel settled in my spirit and have peace regarding the situation so that I can move forward with Him in confidence.

5. Align with the Lord over Aligning with Culture/Family/Friends etc.

Proverbs 3:5-6 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Ephesians 2:10 - For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Matthew 19:29 - And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.

The ways and will of the Lord for our life does not always line up with those around us. It can be tumultuous at first to break away and forge a new path with the Lord. Your family may not be a family that apologizes and openly pours their heart out.  Our culture tells us that we make things happen in our life instead of submitting to the Father’s will for our life. However, the way of the Lord is the way of freedom, peace, love, and restoration. He has a plan in all things. Stay close to Him and trust the mighty work He will do through you.

6. Look Forward, Not Backwards

Philippians 3:13-14 - Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Isaiah 43:18-19: “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

Luke 9:62 - Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Genesis 19:26 - But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

Most of the time in deliverance sessions, the things that keep people stuck and in bondage are the things they are holding onto in their past consciously but sometimes even subconsciously. This can be the hurt, pain, trauma, suffering, guilt, shame, anger, fear, regrets, etc. that keeps us from being able to move into the fullness that God has for us. We cannot embrace lasting joy and peace if we are holding on to any of those things. Luke 9:62 is very direct in that if we look back we are not fit for the kingdom of God. The enemy lives in the past, reminding us, holding us prisoner to the things we did and/or the things done to us. Deciding to let go of the past and move forward with Christ gives the Lord permission to begin a new work in us. Difficult situations have a tendency to try and draw us back to them and keep us stuck in the situation as time moves forward and our current becomes our past. Releasing all the pieces daily to Jesus ensures that our current moves into past where it belongs and does not pull us into the past with it.

7. Declare what will be Different in the Future

Proverbs 18:21 – The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Matthew 12:37 - For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.

The words we speak prophesy over us and have a serious effect on our future. When we are in difficult situations, it becomes much easier to speak negativity, hopelessness, frustrations, and word curses over our lives and the lives of others. These choices become our agreement with the enemy’s perception, influence, and plan for our situation and our future. Speaking life and hope over our current situation no matter what we see around us is agreement with God’s plan in moving us out and into the fulfillment of His plan for our life.

I trust that as you apply these principles in the midst of your storms that the Lord will keep you in a place of full freedom and protection from the enemy as He leads you through the storm and to the other side.