Joy in Canaan Land | Pastor Stan Mons
Sermon Transcription:
Today, it's the third part of the Canaan Land series. I believe it will be the last part, and this week's title is "Joy in Canaan Land." This week, I want to talk to you about what Jesus has really done for you and I and what He's willing to do today for you and I. The last few weeks, we've been talking about what it will be like walking with God in Canaan Land. Let me give you a little recap of those last two weeks. We learned that God is not offended by the areas of your life that are cursed. Remember what "cursed" meant? It meant not set apart for God, not holy—not some mystical, witchcraft kind of curse that we often associate with that word today. When the Bible uses that word, it means that the order of God has not been brought in, the presence of God has not been brought in. This area of your life has not been made holy; it's not been made just for Jesus—to please Jesus. Now, sometimes that may be your mouth—it's not set apart yet to please Jesus; it's still doing other things. Sometimes it's actions. Sometimes your heart is just producing evil thoughts and evil intentions.
We learned that when sin caused this curse that we spoke of, Ham, the son of Noah, who came into the tent and made fun of his father, did not cover his father's nakedness. We learned that Ham's son—his name was Canaan—was cursed because of the sins of his father. Wherever Canaan and his children began to live ended up being called Canaan Land.But this was all the cursed people—all the people that did wrong things. The root of their life, if you will—was found in sin. But then we heard of God taking someone outside of the descendants of Canaan—his cousin, a couple of generations apart, but still his cousin. Abraham gets called by God, and God tells Abraham, "I'm going to take you out of your land, and I'm going to take you to a land that I will show you." And He takes him to the cursed land—He takes him to Canaan Land.
We learned that when Jesus sees a cursed area in your life where there's no hope, no holiness, no change, He wants to cover it with His blood and give it to you, taking it away from the enemy.
That's what Jesus did. Ultimately, Jesus bled and died on Canaan Land years and years and generations later. That's where Jesus chose to go. He knew that Canaan was cursed, so He sent Abraham there as a picture of what would really happen. Because the Word tells us that a son of Abraham—the seed of Abraham, which we now know to be Jesus—would also go to Canaan Land, and He would bleed on the very earth that was cursed to break that curse. To provide forgiveness. To provide a breaking away of God's people from the enemy, where the enemy has no power anymore. That's where we came into the second week. Our slide says: "Likewise, God has called you to take possession of the gate of the enemy."
The Word promises—God promises Abraham—that his descendants will possess the gates of their enemies. And then Jesus tells Peter, "Anyone that believes and confesses that I am the Christ, the gates of hell will not prevail." Again, the same promise! When you take the gate, we learned, the enemy can no longer come and go as he pleases and carry out battle strategies or whatever he may be planning to do. He can't do it because you've taken the gate. You now set the boundaries for what he is able and not able to do. Jesus, bearing the weight of our sins, crushed the head of the enemy. Now, being made a part of the body of Christ, we can dance on top of the head of Satan. The Word told us in Genesis—God made a promise to the devil. Remember that: when God makes promises to the devil, you pay attention. That's good news!
And God promised the devil: "Someone is going to be born. He'll be bruised, but in the process, He is going to crush your head." Then we learned that, by miracle, by the power of God, He takes sinners, and the Bible teaches that He makes them a part of the Body of Christ.
Some a hand, some a foot, some a knee—all we have different purposes, different activities, different things to do in the kingdom of God. But when we all come together as one body, it functions. The Bible says, "And Christ is the head of the body." Well, if the promise was made to the head to crush Satan's head, then that's the same to the hand, to the foot, to the knee. Amen. And we came to find out that God is calling us—us, a weak, a broken, a sinful people—to be able to stop the enemy from messing with our family, our loved ones, the people that we care for. We learned that word is called intercession. It's intercede. It's the literal definition of that word means to get in the way. It's a form of prayer. To intercede means you're getting in the way of what the enemy wants to do in someone else's life. You're now not praying for yourself; you're praying for other people. You're praying on behalf of other people. You're interceding. You're getting in the way.
And then we learned: We get in the way in prayer, and then we pursue. We pursue the people that the enemy is trying to carry away captive. Get in the way of the enemy's plans for their lives, for the lives of others. The enemy cannot stand before a people that God has promised the land to. Amen? Amen. That's a brief recap. If you want to go back and listen, you can do so on our website; you can do so on our YouTube channel. But today, we're going to go on to the third part: Joy in Canaan Land. Joy in Canaan Land. You see, I come from a background where I know what bondage is fairly well. I had a close relationship with the enemy, with demons, before I got saved. I struggled with demon possession off and on for years. I struggled with real satanic bondage. The word bondage—we also learned that recently—means that you are stuck in a direction. That's simply what that word means.
No matter what you do, you seem to not be able to change that direction—in your character, in your feeling, in your actions, in the way that you express yourself, whatever it may be. In the way you argue, in the way you get upset, in the way you forgive, in the way you believe—you are going in a direction, and you're unable to change that direction. The Bible calls that bondage. That's what the definition of bondage is: unable to change a or the direction of your life. And that was my life. That was all I knew. And I just called it, "Well, that's just who I am."
You know, the enemy is not dumb. The enemy helps you understand that you're the problem so you don't see him, you don't pray, you don't step up, you don't run to Jesus—because you're the problem. And as I lived that life of sin, I often have told you—the only thing I was good at was sin. That's true. Because I was bound in one direction.
I was bound to go the direction of sin. I was bound to go the direction of disappointing people, hurting people, and making money. I was bound to that direction. And even the times that I tried—not because I feared God, just because I wanted to look better in front of people—even the times I tried, I would always find out I was unable to change the direction of my life or to change the direction of a certain issue I was seeking to address. No matter how small. No matter how insignificant. No matter really what it was. I did not have the power to change myself. In all actuality, bound, traveling in a certain direction. And then one day, Jesus speaks to my heart—for the first time in my life that I can ever remember. For the first time in my life, I heard God's voice.
No one had ever told me I was supposed to one day hear God's voice, even though I grew up in a church. No one was there with me, praying for me. It—it blew my mind. It caught me off guard. It shook me to the core. And God said, in my native language—because I was in my home country—but translated in English, He said: "Stan, if you come back now, we're going to do it together, and we're going to go all the way. If you don't come back now, you will never come back." And God showed me so clearly in that moment that He wasn't sending me to church. He didn't tell me to get a prayer life. He didn't tell me to get in the Word. All these things are good. But God showed me that He was worried for my life. That He was worried for me losing my life. And when He showed me that—someone like me, who had been stuck for years in one singular direction of sin, deceit, lies, and hiding stuff. Secrets. Being mean. I was very good at being mean, but I was stuck in that direction.
Every relationship I had, I messed up cuz I was mean and controlling, unreasonable, and even if I wanted, I couldn't change it. I was stuck in a direction, bound by the devil. That one day, where I heard Jesus's words for the first time in my life, I couldn't quote you a scripture if you put a gun to my head. I did not know the Bible, but Jesus spoke to my heart. I trusted him this much, and for the first time in my life, I became honest. All I understood in that time was that it was the God of the light who was speaking to my heart and that he was inviting me to come to him, into the light, and that he would never leave me. That's all I understood. And I came into the light. In my life, that meant every secret, every lie, everything I'd ever done and hidden—I had to bring with me because it's part of my life. I had to bring it into the light. And so the only person around me at the time was my father, so I began to tell my father everything I'd ever done—all the prostitution, all the lying, all the cheating—everything I had ever done. And when I couldn't go on, I would just whisper to this God who had spoken to my heart, "God, I can't do this, but burn me clean." And his presence would come.
I had no words for it at the time, but his presence would come, and it would literally feel as if he was there to just put his arm around my shoulder, let me know I'm not alone so I could continue to bring everything into the light—at that time, to my father. And that night, every addiction was broken, every sin guilt was broken, every direction my life had—every single direction that my life had up until that day—was broken. That very moment that I responded to this Jesus Christ, and I came to him and believed on him, Jesus broke the bonds. I didn't ask him, but he asked of me to come to him with all of my heart. And when Jesus gets his hands on all of you, this is what he does, this is what he provides for the people that he loves: He breaks off the bondage so that you are no longer stuck going in a direction you may not even like about yourself, or a direction that you very well know is not pleasing to God or helpful for the people around you, but you feel helpless, as if you can't make the change. Jesus breaks that off.
Now, that doesn't mean you don't do stupid stuff anymore. Amen? Some of you go, "I didn't know! I didn't know!" Yes, you are still—because you're human. You're not fully like Jesus, because you're human. Sometimes, you're going to abuse that freedom that you have been given. Amen? I know this Christian does. There are times where we take the freedom that Jesus bled and died for—so you would no longer have to be under bondage—sometimes we take that, and we say, "I'm going to do with this freedom what I know is not right," only then to find out when you get convicted, when the Holy Spirit lets your heart know, "This wasn't the plan, and you knew it," to find out that— Even though I make a mistake, even though I did the mistake, I came up with the mistake, I'm not bound to continue to make that mistake.
Now, I'm not bound to now stick in that direction. The moment I realize it, I can now get up and change direction and follow Jesus once again—be restored in relationship with him and enjoy what God has done to my Canaan land. However, we also know that the scripture says: "Don't be"—to the believer, not to the unbeliever—"don't be again entangled into a yoke of bondage."
And so, there are mistakes—willfully, or maybe even it feels like it is bondage. You can't make the change, even though you really did believe on Jesus, you really gave him your life. But somehow, you seem to be stuck in a direction. That doesn't mean necessarily that you're not saved or that you're horrifyingly evil. It does mean there are areas of your heart, areas of your mind, that are not resting in Jesus's hands. Because anything that we put in Jesus's hands—
He washes it. He breaks off the bondage. He makes it into a testimony. He gives it right back to us as an encouraging testimony for us, but also for all of the church.
That breaking free of the bondage is what Jesus provides for those whom he loves. Now, clearly, the scripture indicates that you can be wonderfully saved and forgiven and love Jesus—and struggle with some bondage in your life. Because the warning is there: "Don't be again entangled, caught up in a yoke of bondage." In other words, be careful that no area of your character or life gets stuck in a direction that God did not give you. Because clearly, that is possible for the heart. We see it in the people of God throughout the Old Testament—all the time. A half-hearted people. God has a great place in the heart, but other things have also creeped in. We see the experience of being broken free out of bondage—as I described it a little from my own life—we see it reflected in the Bible.
We see it described, word for word, how God brings joy into that Canaan land—that area of your life that was so cursed, so unchanged, so stuck, so affected by sin, maybe even the enemy.
And then Jesus does something. And this happens here: Psalm 116:1-16 "I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my supplications. Because he has inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call upon him as long as I live. The pangs of death surrounded me, and the pangs of Sheol (or Hell) laid hold of me; I found trouble and sorrow. Then I called upon the name of the Lord: 'O Lord, I implore you, deliver my soul!' Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yes, our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple; I was brought low, and he saved me. Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from failing. And I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believed, therefore I spoke: 'I am greatly afflicted.' I said in my haste, 'All men are liars.' What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. O Lord, truly I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosened my bonds. You have loosened my bonds!"
Now, if anything I would put above this Psalm, it would probably be joy. Because this is somebody writing a song that has been given a gift they really did not deserve. But they got all of it. And they know it. Amen? And they're excited about it. He even says in verse 10: "I believed." In other words, "I was wrong, but I did believe this. I was wrong, but I believed it. Therefore, I spoke: 'I am greatly afflicted. My situation sucks.' I said in my haste, 'All men are liars.' Can't trust nobody, says I. I hastily spoke, and I believed this." But what will I do?
Because God has turned everything around. God has given me a whole new life. God has made me one of his. And he has loosened my bonds. Every direction that I used to be stuck in, every direction that I didn't like about myself— God has loosened it. And now— I'm not stuck anymore. Now I'm not bound anymore.
This is what Jesus does. This is the true fruit, if you will, of what an encounter with Jesus looks like. If you've had a true encounter with the Jesus of the Bible, then the fruit of that encounter is that bonds are broken. A direction in your life that was stuck is now unstuck. Now things are changing. Now you're able to begin to love people that you used to hate. You begin to be able to forgive people that you used to hold a grudge against. You begin to be able to walk away from sins that had you in their grip, and you just thought you were practicing your freedom, doing what you want to do. But if anyone had told you, "Well, if you're doing what you want to do, then stop," you couldn't have. You were stuck in a direction. The enemy had you convinced you were the problem.
But then, a true encounter with Jesus Christ— All of a sudden, the directions are unstuck. All of a sudden, he brings joy to Canaan land. All of a sudden, the very place that once was cursed, once was defined by sin, now has a song and a dance because God broke the bonds. Amen? Amen. Let me take you into a story where we see Jesus do it. Let's go into Luke 13:11-17: Starting in verse 11: "And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up." Talking about bondage—literal bondage. Unable to change her direction. Unable to freely move about in the way that God had intended and created her. Scholars don't fully agree on all of this, but in every case, it is very clear that enemy bondage is involved, and it's affecting her. It's affecting her every day.
Some of us can relate. You may not be physically put in bondage in that same way, but it's still an everyday thing. It's been years, and you're unable to change a certain direction that you've had the desire to change. You know, "Really, if I had a choice, this would be changed in my life."
But when Jesus saw her, he called her to him and said to her, "Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity." "And he laid hands on her, and immediately she was made straight and glorified God." But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation—that's anger. Answered with anger because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath. And he said to the crowd, "There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore, come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day." The Lord then answered him and said: "Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it away to water it? So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it, for eighteen years—be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?" You see, the Sabbath again—I love Jesus and how he does things. Cuz he could have done this miracle and had this story written down on a Tuesday. Amen?
Yet he performs this significant miracle where once again, he reveals, "I'm the Messiah. I'm here to loosen the bonds." He does it on a Sabbath. What was the Sabbath? The rest day of the Lord. This is the day God rested from all that he did, and he's bringing us into his rest, where we can rest from all of our works. We don't have to work for our salvation. We don't have to work for our right standing with God. And it was on that rest day that God brought this woman into his rest—into his finished work. Now, not everybody understood it. And even the religious leaders at the time hardly agreed with it—disagreed with it. And Jesus says, "This is a woman I made a promise to. This is the daughter of Abraham. This is a woman who's part of the promise—that Canaan land, the cursed areas, are going to be given back to them. This is a woman who's been promised that the gates of hell, the gates of her enemies, will not prevail over her. Look at her—stuck in bondage. I'm here to keep my promise." And I don't mind if that interrupts my peace.
I don't mind if that means I have to go to work, even though she can't do anything about setting herself free. Jesus—when he has been somewhere, church, you can tell. Because the direction of people's lives change. He doesn't make a big deal about the details, about the little side nuances—whether you prayed right or not, whether you came to him a certain way or at a certain day or in a certain place. Here's what Isaiah 58:6 reads to us about Jesus: "Is this not the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bonds of wickedness?" In other words— The bonds of sin. The effects of sin in your life. And your habits of sin that you would like to get rid of, but you cannot. Is this not the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burden, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?
This is what Jesus says. One of those things Jesus says he came into this world to do—this. To find people that are stuck in a direction, however that may look in your life. A direction—and it's stuck. You cannot undo it. It is bound for that direction. He says, "I came into this world to break that, so that people are now free, and they have an opportunity to choose—to follow me, to trust me, or to choose against me. I want people free." That's what Jesus says. That's why I come into this world. How does he do it? How does Jesus do this? See this woman, daughter of Abraham, around the temple service. Surely at one point in her life, she whispered or cried out unto God to heal her or to make a difference in her life. Did not happen. But when Jesus came around, she does receive that healing.
How does he do it? And why can the name of Jesus, even in our time—the name of Jesus and a new direction for your life, a set-free direction for your life—how can that be one and the same thing? Praying together in the name of Jesus. Not alone, but with another. Another vessel filled with the Holy Spirit. How come the name of Jesus has that power? Isaiah 53:4-5 says this about Jesus: "Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities (or our sins); the chastisement—watch it—for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed." See, church, you've seen this over the last couple of Sundays, but I'm going to point it out again. In order for Jesus to bring joy to Canaan land, he had to go there.
And it's a picture of what he does in our life. He comes to that very cursed ground—Canaan land—cursed under the mistakes, the sins of Ham. All of his descendants affected, just as you and I have—just a knack for sin because our great-great-great-great-grandfather Adam had the same thing.
Jesus goes to that Canaan land, born of a virgin, bleeds on that ground to break that curse and to bring that joy. What does that mean? Jesus came into the place of the curse. The Bible even tells us that he became a curse for us. Came to the place of the curse and became a curse for us. And what that means today for you and I is— Jesus has felt your bondage.
Jesus took on your bondage. Your inability to make a difference in the direction that you're going. He knows exactly what it feels like for you to be stuck. He knows exactly what it feels like to have those thoughts race against you and accuse you all the time—making you feel not good enough, making you feel like a special case compared to everyone else. To be stuck. Unable to change your direction. Even if you don't like it anymore, and you would love to quit.
He knows what it is like to be under bondage.
John 18:12: "Then the detachment of troops and the captain of the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him." Here we have the King—the Lord of Lords—coming into Canaan land, coming and putting himself under this bondage. Church, Jesus knows what it is like to be bound for a direction. And the Son of God, experiencing all of that, he simply made a decision. Knowing what bondage is like. Knowing what it takes. Knowing what it takes out of you.
He simply said in his heart: "I don't want this for my people." "I don't want bondage for my people." "I know what it feels like. I've experienced it. I came to Canaan land. I experienced the curse. I took all of your sin on me. I don’t want this for my people." Psalm 68:18-19—this is what he did: "You have ascended on high, you have led captivity captive. You have received gifts among men, even from the rebellious, that the Lord God may dwell there. Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation."
See, Jesus said: "I don't want this for my daughters. I don't want this for my children. I don't want this for the people that are made in my likeness. I don’t want bondage over their life. I don’t want the enemy dictating their every move. I don't want them to stay stuck in sin." If they have a heart that even remotely would love to be free— Would love to stop doing unhonorable things— A heart that would love to stop hurting the people around them— A heart that would love to stop making decisions that hurt me and tear themselves down as well— And so what he did— He took on those bonds. He took on your sin. He took on your death. So that he could take bondage into bondage. He led captivity captive— So that his children would no longer be under the threat of captivity anymore.
Church, if there are things in your life that you would like to change, but you can't really change them— That area of your life is bound. It's bound for a direction, and you can't change the direction. If your entire life feels that way— You are bound. Jesus says, "I don't want that for my people. I don't want that for your life." I want to invite you to take every bond. It's always shameful stuff, isn't it? It's always stuff that makes us look bad. It's always stuff that tries to make us believe we should be embarrassed of our entire self. If people could see our entire self, we would be embarrassed. All of these things—the enemy tries to throw into our mind to try and keep us from coming into the dead light where Jesus dwells, to try and keep us from coming and praying together in the name of Jesus—that every bond may be broken.
See, I want you to take your bonds to Jesus. Because even if it disturbs his peace, even if it means you are again the person that is putting Jesus to work— You should have known better.
You've been a Christian for eight, twenty years, and you say, "Well, I—I—I’m a Christian. I—I shouldn't be in bondage." Take the bonds to Jesus. He breaks the bonds, even if it disturbs his own peace. He forsook his own peace to loosen that woman. He forsook his heavenly peace to come into that Canaan land of curse and to take on your punishment, to take on your curse, to take on your bonds—that he may take captivity captive and set you free. God would rather work on your peace than enjoy his own. Church, that's what he's like. He would rather work on your peace than enjoy his own. That is who Jesus is. He brought joy to Canaan land—that's what he wants to do in your life. And then he teaches us to pray, to talk to him, to come to him, and to address him, and to talk to him about things. And he tells us to deliver people from bonds in his name, to do it in his name.
That means he gets the credit. It's for his honor. It's for his glory. It's not one person that he calls to do that. He calls all of us. "I don't like it when people are in bonds. If you are my people, help people walk away from their bonds." Matthew 18:18-19: "Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you that if two or three agree on earth concerning anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven." He tells you and me— Maybe you already have partial freedom. You say, "I have already been forgiven. There's just some minor things in my life." Maybe you say, "There are some major things in my life, and I seem to not be able to change the direction." I've prayed about it for years. Gone to Bible studies. Read my Bible.
Cried out to God. Whispered to God. Did every form of prayer I know, only to realize that he says: "Where two or three agree together." That means it has to be in the light. People need to know what they're agreeing with.
That means your sin—your dirtiness—your shameful stuff. You can't be delivered in the dark. You can't be delivered while it is hidden. You can't be delivered while you try to cover it up and make yourself look a little bit better for everybody that's watching. No. He says, "Where two or three agree together in my name—anything—any kind of bondage—anything you have to stand against with the devil and bind him in an area of life—anything that needs to be loosened in the life of someone created in my image—Father’s going to do it." You got your request.
People, come into the light and come to Jesus. Praying in his name— Nothing will be impossible.
The bonds will be broken. "I don’t want bonds for my people." Church, God has promised Canaan land to his children. The places that once were cursed—he’s going to give back the control of those places to his children. And we are called to bind the devil’s plans, the devil’s strategies, and his activity in the lives of our loved ones.
In the lives of those that are too weak, too broken. And we're watching it, and we're seeing it, and they're not seeing it. But we're thinking: The enemy is messing with this person. Trying to take them down. Trying to take them out. We bind the enemy’s plans. We bind the devil. Because the Word tells us— Jesus promises you— That you will possess the gates of your enemy.
And the enemy won’t be able to come and go as he pleases in the lives of the people that you love—or in your life, for that matter. And in the name of Jesus, as his hands and feet, as the body of Christ— In the name of Jesus, we loosen bonds. Where two or three agree together—
It will be done for them by my Father in heaven. If you would stand with me for a moment, church— And I want to extend the invitation to the online— Whatever is bound in your life—
Somehow, it seems unchangeable. It seems stuck, this direction. It pops its head up time and time again.
If you would love—if you would be able to—you would love to change it. It can be the bond of sin. No matter what you do— No matter how many times you've been to church— No matter how many times you've prayed— You've even been to the altar— Somehow, sin stays on your heart.
It stays on your mind. You do not seem to be broken free from your sin debt towards God. You've not experienced that joy. You have not received a song in your heart as we read in the Psalms. Have you ever taken it to two or three, brought it into the light, and prayed together to break that bond of sin in the name of Jesus Christ? Maybe it's the bond of shame—you believe you're forgiven, but you just have a hard time talking about the things that, back in the day, you did do wrong. You're not testifying about it; you still feel shame connected to it.
It can be pain—pain of things that you've done, and it has affected your heart or your mind, or pain that you carry around because of things that other people have done. And even though Jesus raises the dead, this pain, it seems to stick with you. Healing—you believe healing is possible, but it just doesn't seem to come. It seems to be stuck in one direction. Maybe you walk around with regrets, and you know God redeems, and you know that God gives you back the years, but this emotion, this feeling of regret, it seems to go in one direction, and it's unchangeable. Maybe you have problems often overlooked. If you have problem after problem after problem after problem in your life—You had it before you got saved.After you talked to Jesus and gave him your heart, it still kind of continues.There's just always troubles in your life.It seems to be an unchanging direction.You seem to not be able to enjoy the Lord's favor and his presence as some other people do.
Maybe you struggle with attacks from the devil—Attacks on your mind,Attacks on your emotions, Attacks, panic attacks—Whatever it may be. And somehow, the direction is not really changing. You may struggle with unbelief. You may be bound in an unchanging direction—A direction where unbelief is always your issue,And it seems to just not go anywhere. You may struggle with same-sex attraction, and even though you don't want it, it just seems to not go anywhere. I've been there. In the name of Jesus Christ, we want to agree with you in prayer, lay hands, and pray that the bondage may be broken in Jesus' name. Church— Jesus brought joy to Canaan land. Joy to the areas that were unchangeable, cursed. He didn't lead people away from it—He went right into it, and he broke the bonds. He led captivity captive, took it away so it couldn't affect you anymore.
He gave you the keys to the kingdom, and now he invites you to believe him and to pray. He'll loosen you. I believe it with all my heart—He'll loosen you today from the devil's direction in whatever area of life he may have brought to mind. Maybe a person—not you—Maybe another person in your family has come to mind during this service. That's the Holy Spirit asking you to pray on their behalf. If the Holy Spirit has spoken to your heart and to your mind that he would like for you to pray on behalf of someone else, I want to invite you to come forward and to join me here at the altar. And if you say, "I have bonds that have come to my mind throughout this service, and I believe that God will break them," then I also want to invite you to come and join me at the altar at this time. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
I'm going to ask the prayer team to get ready—those of you that are ready for a direction that could not change, for that finally to be broken off of you—so that you are free to make mistakes and free to follow Jesus. As the prayer team comes around, they're going to ask you, "What can I pray for?" If you don't want to share it with them, you're free to just tell them that.
But I'm encouraging you—if you come into the light and you pray with two or three, whatever you ask in the name of the Father, he's going to do for you. So if you trust Jesus enough to come into the light,And you believe that in his name, praying together with the body of Christ, you believe that in his name,He desires for your bond to be broken— I'm telling you, you're going to see a miracle today. He—He will touch your heart. So let's pray together. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Lord Jesus Christ.
-Pastor Stan Mons