Depression has become so prevalent that it has been called the common cold of psychological disorders. It creeps into the lives of all people regardless of age, sex, social or economic status. People diagnosed with depression and anxiety disorders have doubled in the past decade.
The purpose of this article and this web-site is to connect you with the life-changing, supernatural power of God. Only He can heal and transform you. Throughout the article, there are healing prayers that you can pray to God.
Emotional issues are too uncomfortable to be discussed or addressed in church or at home, so the emotional dysfunction is passed on to each generation. Emotions become an avoided subject, like sexuality or even financial planning.
Why are Emotions Important?
Emotions are one of the three fundamental, God-given building blocks of our personalities. The other building blocks are intelligence and will. To function at the level of wholeness that God intends for us, we must be healthy in all three areas. If our emotions are damaged, we will not function at the level our intelligence or will permits.
Emotions make us want to be in relationships. Without emotions, our relationships would be cold and businesslike. If a person is emotionally unwell, it will be his “Achilles’ heel,” an opportunity for Satan to limit or even destroy the use of his other abilities.
Our success in work, family and ministry is dependent on our emotional health whether we want to admit it or not.
The Nature of Man
There are three parts to humans: body, soul and spirit.
The body is the physical nature, the part of us that relates to the natural or “seen” world. It is the temporary container that the spirit briefly inhabits while on earth.
The spirit is the eternal part of man. This is the true inner, unseen self that God places in us at conception. It is the part of us that relates to the unseen spirit world, which includes both God and Satan.
The soul, is the personality, which includes the mind, will and emotions. It is the part of us that relates to other humans. It is shaped by all of our accumulated life experiences. These experiences, both good and bad, shape our personalities and determine how we relate to others.
Before coming to Jesus, we are outside God’s kingdom and in the domain of Satan. There he moulds us into his image by wounding us in as many ways as possible. These accumulated wounds leave deep scars in our personalities, causing lifelong emotional bondage. The longer we live in Satan’s kingdom, the greater our accumulated wounds and personality damage will be.
Some well-meaning people have created a climate of condemnation and shame that prevents other peoplefrom admitting that they need help in the emotional area. The problems are then only suppressed and “swept under the rug.”
Our souls become so contaminated while we are in Satan’s kingdom that our emotions are damaged and chained up, so we can’t be free to enjoy the blessings of new life in Christ. These very heavy and encircling chains have to be broken for us to be free of our old nature and to have healthy emotions.
Unfortunately, far too many people remain firmly attached to their baggage and never live victorious lives. There are two reasons for this. The most common reason is that few people (particularly leaders) are talking about the problem. The second reason is that the process to be set free from baggage is voluntary. To come to freedom, we have to want to be free and we have to allow God to break our chains and empty the bag.
What is a StrongHold?
A stronghold is a pattern of thinking based on a lie.
At the time of a significant emotional injury, particularly as a child, your personality became like wet cement, highly vulnerable and impressionable. Right then, Satan came and planted a lie into that wet cement. This lie was the conclusion that he wanted you to believe about what just happened. It could have been a lie about yourself, others or God. He knew that years later, after the cement had hardened into an emotional scar, the lie was buried alive and he could activate it any time he wanted to.
When you agree with his lies, because they seem like such a logical assessment of the event, you empower them. This then gives Satan permission to set up a broadcasting station in your emotional baggage where he can broadcast his lies to upset you any time he wants. These stations are called strongholds.
The good news is that God wants to smash the strongholds, empty your baggage and set you free.
The Chain of Emotional Bondage
There are three giant links in this chain of emotional bondage that must be broken if we are to come to emotional freedom.
The three links are:
1. Physical illnesses of thought control (chemical imbalances). This refers to the conditions doctors call mood and psychotic disorders. The most common disorders or chemical imbalances are depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. In these conditions, a person loses the ability to control their thoughts due to brain chemistry deficiencies. These conditions require medical treatment and divine healing.
2. The harassment of Satan (demonization). This refers to the specific harassment of an individual by demonic forces.
3. Personality injury from the wounds of our past experiences. This refers to every negative or damaging experience in a person’s life that has hurt him and left a scar on his personality that restricts his emotional freedom.
To achieve complete freedom, we need to be ministering to emotionally broken people in all three areas of bondage.
We must recognise the usefulness of medications, deliverance and emotional healing as a combined treatment for all believers who struggle with their emotions.
Being Emotionally Free
We need to understand that emotions are not evil. We are created in the image of God and the Bible talks about His anger, passion, sorrow and even pain. Emotions allow us to rejoice over the birth of a baby or grand baby, celebrate friendships, milestones and victories. Emotions allow us to be angry at the evils around us, to praise the faithfulness of God. Emotions allow us to demonstrate a response to the world around us.
Out of control emotions hurt people. Hurting people hurt people who hurt other people and it goes on. Emotions in control or out of control come from the heart. Definition of emotional freedom is being free from feeling like a victim of and controlled by our emotions. We are emotionally free when we know how to learn from and manage our feelings so that we are not reactive to them and they don’t control us.
When we seek the Lord honestly and authentically, we tap into power. “Search for the LORD and for his strength; continually seek him.!” (Psalms 105:4). In order to access that power, we need to embrace the psalmists’ practice of baring the soul to God. Through the practice of inventory of spirit, the soul (that is, the person) can be strengthened by offloading great burdens to God and receiving great hope from him (see 1 Peter. 5:6-7). This emotional unblocking is a removal of barriers which so often prevent us from accessing everything God has for us. Therefore, we can confidently claim, biblically and experientially, that emotional growth leads to spiritual vitality. May we boldly enter the presence of God in order to emerge with the heart of David from Psalm 131, “tranquil, and quiet’ – in other words, strong.
THP Team
The Healing Project Team comprises compassionate individuals who understand the struggles of mental health and faith. We are here to offer support, acceptance and hope through God’s healing plan.
Source: Emotionally Free by Grant Mullen