We are at war... We have a dark enemy who hates God and us. In a warfare [mentality], it means we accept the idea that there are angels and demons, that are real, autonomous agents and that they impact world affairs for better for worse. They too have free will, and some, unprovoked, chose to rebel... We children of Adam made a choice long ago, a choice to follow the evil one and give authority over this world to him. It is an evil age, and we are still paying on that note...

Jesus makes this one thing very clear, very simple: The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." - John 10:10

Seems simple enough. It is not God if it clearly looks and smells like stealing, killing, or destroying. It is probably God if it looks and feels like life—lavish, abundant, and free. So what was that like? What did it feel like? Look like? When we look to Jesus we never see him attributing to God untimely death, demonic oppression, hardship, human torment, misery, torture, murder, or sin. We never see him explaining things through some convoluted logic about sovereignty. He constantly portrays the Father as good and welcoming, even partying after regaining the lost coin, lost sheep, and the Prodigal Son.

We see him conquering, forgiving, removing, healing, comforting, and confronting. He is filled with compassion, moved with compassion, overflowing with compassion. We see him engaging evil—demonic and human. He cut short every funeral he attended—because in the world people die outside of the will of the Father. That is what the Father's heart is...exactly. And we should take it personally.

- Andy Reese

"You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies." - John 8:44 NIV

"Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." - 1 Peter 5:8 NIV

"...The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work." - 1 John 3:8b NIV

Jesus came for two main purposes:

You know that He appeared in order to take away sins... The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. - 1 John 3:5,8b

...Freedom is God's will—your freedom specifically is God's will. [So] everything in your life that is not part of God's destiny is fair game for removal. The same death on the cross that purchased our sin purchased our freedom. We can be very sure that when we are about doing the two things in the verses from 1 John above, we are moving directly in line with God's clearly stated will.

The truth is, I am predestined to be conformed to the image of Jesus. Predestined. He began and will complete the good work in me. He authored and will perfect. He works to will and to do inside me. It is a done deal in His eyes. He completed the work of your freedom when he died and was resurrected, and now you are God's child. His type, His possession. And His is the only opinion that counts.

- Andy Reese

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." - Galatians 5:1 NIV

"I pray with great faith for you, because I’m fully convinced that the One who began this glorious work in you will faithfully continue the process of maturing you and will put his finishing touches to it until the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ!" - Philippians 1:6 TPT

"For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him." - Philippians 2:13 NLT & "For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose." - Philippians 2:13 NIV

Christ said, "In this world you will have tribulation." The word for tribulation means "stress." It was a promise. You will have pressure, strain, anxiety, tension, and hassle in your life. No exemptions. When you are going the right direction, you will meet the enemy head-on. Those meetings are not random. They have a specific diabolical purpose. [Here's] a picture we see all the time—one young [person], two plans for his/her life—one a dark fate, one a bright destiny...

God indicates to us that He has designed each person with a specially purposed life, with numbered days, with specific equipping or gifting and with unique works prepared for him or her to co-accomplish with God... You are part of an unseen plan of God, one of intergalactical conquest!

In Paul's letter to the Ephesians, he says that you carry something of the essence of God that is unique to you It is called your metron in the Greek, your "measure of God"... When each of us operate within our metron, the Bible says that Jesus' body will measure up to the fullness of Christ. Millions of fully functioning mini-Jesus men and women, delivered on earth with some assembly required to be [,together,] fully Jesus. That is God's plan for conquest. And our enemy detests the whole idea.

The devil hates God... Negotiation will not solve it. It is a never-ending, diabolical, seething, jealous rage. There is no treaty or truce.

You and your metron (God in you) represent a risk to Satan's hold on planet Earth—your part. The assault of Satan's demons is not random. It is not just some chance of "wheel of misfortune." On the contrary, the aggressive singular objective of hell's forces is to find an approach that will somehow neutralize (at least) and totally pervert and destroy (at most) the place of intended glory in man or woman. He attempts to pervert or destroy the very aspect of each person that is planned to display the grace and glory of God to the rest of the world: the metron of Jesus in you—your destiny and calling.

- Andy Reese

"I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." - John 16:33 ESV

"What blessings await you when people hate you and exclude you and mock you and curse you as evil because you follow the Son of Man. 23 When that happens, be happy! Yes, leap for joy! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, their ancestors treated the ancient prophets that same way." - Luke 6:22-23 NLT

"Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." - 2 Timothy 3:12 NLT

...if [Satan] can add torment, harassment, injustice, pain, and wounding [to our lives, the place of intended glory in man and woman]—all the better. It is generational, it is pervasive, and it is deadly effective... It is not random... [This is] the hidden plan of the evil one...

- Andy Reese

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In the lives of men there is some obvious natural, logical, and psychological causes and effects... a tendency toward sowing and reaping... It is portrayed throughout Scripture. You see it as a result of both an individual decision and of group choices, of self-inflicted torment and as that perpetrated by another. A reaction is caused by an action. An ongoing reaction remains because the action has not been dealt with and still churns out its poison. It is part and parcel of this world—you will have tribulation. And it all started somewhere.

The pain, failure, hindrance, sin, or demonic torment in a person's life had a source, a beginning point, an origin. It may not have been the person's doing at all, but that of someone against them. But there was a cause to bring about the effect, an action that brought the painful or harmful reaction.

"Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. - Galatians 6:7-8 NIV

...Sin has consequences. Righteousness has rewards. Faith moves mountains. There are both current—world and next—world results of our choices and beliefs for good and for bad.

God's original plan for men and women was that everyone would reap the blessed fruit of past generations and pass along a multiplied blessing to our children. Age to age, generation to generation, multiplied, ever-increasing, never-ending blessing.

Then we gave it away in Eden.

In the world we will have tribulation, pressure, issues, pains, hurts, and failures. Each of us is subject to fallout from these things. We are culpable and each victimized, each swept up to a greater or lesser extent by the forces at play around and within us. We are each acting on the natural/supernatural consequences of the "there is always a reason" principle.

Time by itself, never heals wounds, never erases sin, never eliminates the cause and never casts out the demonic. It only makes us forget what it is that puts us in prison in the first place, and what is killing us. We become inured to the low level of existence, used to the pain. We go "three years with famine" in our own land unaware of the cause-effect dynamic playing itself out. It is bottled ignorance , lies, and forgetfulness—but it stays fresh until exposed to the light.

- Andy Reese

...It does seem true that there are basically two kinds of issues—those we bring on ourselves and those that others perpetrate on us.

Jesus quotes this about himself:

"The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners." - Isaiah 61:1 NRSV

Liberty to captives, freedom to prisoners. The distinction is important to freedom: Captives vs. Prisoners.

PRISONERS:

Prisoners are held in prison because they have done something to deserve it. They are held until they are granted pardon. Most prisoners are in a self-made prison of sin, self-binding actions (such as vows or covenants) or unforgiveness. [Yet] they hold the key to freedom [through confession of sin, repentance, and receiving God's forgiveness, turning away from rebellious ways against the will of God, etc.], and can reverse the results of their actions.

• As prisoners, we continue to seek the pleasure of a sinful habit or addiction, believing that the sin gives us what we need—thus becoming more and more controlled and warped to serve it.

• We move into ever-deeper bondage transitioning from suggestion or situation, to impression, to oppression, to obsession. Along the way we lose more and more freedom, spiritual lucidity, and rationality. The demonic goal is destruction.

CAPTIVES:

Captives have been captured in war through no fault of their own. They are held in bondage due to wounding and the resultant false or unfruitful beliefs. Their surface behavior can be confusing, sinful, or full of issues that must be dealt with. But their sin is a reaction to wounding.

• As captives we can respond to wounding aggressively (anger, rage, bitterness, outbursts, and even murder) or passively (self-pity, withdrawal, self-hatred, and even suicide).

• Some behaviors are designed to protect the person from his/her pain or provide a solution to it: addictions, ritualized actions, anorexia, homosexuality, etc. They are pain management coping mechanisms. Other behaviors are the direct result or consequence of the pain and sin: phobias, panic reactions, etc.

• A person then either tries to arrange their life in reaction to, or avoidance of, these painful areas—thus becoming more and more bound and isolated, and less and less in control. Defense mechanisms, ways of acting and relating [that have self-protection as a priority], can form and begin to limit our freedom...

• This web of deception, sin, and wounding, created over time in an unsuspecting life, is called a "stronghold."

• The person may be normal in most other ways, but when this area is touched or encountered, we see unusually strong and inappropriate reactions. It is an echo of what has happened in the past. We have walked into a minefield of old pain and anger.

- Andy Reese

If you look at any God-chosen biblical character, you will see a common thread: ...God's final answer to any question about calling of every person into any kind of ministry situation is, "I'll go with you."

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” - Joshua 1:9 - spoken to Joshua

[The Apostle ] Paul [even goes on to say later on that] we are "co-workers" with God" (1 Cor. 3:9a), who causes the growth.

...When we find the sweet spot in the middle [of the narrow road] as co-laborers, God is willing to enter into a partnership with us even when we are not perfectly suited to Him and His ways.

- Andy Reese

"So Jesus explained, 'I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.'" - John 5:19 NLT

"For I [Jesus] have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak." - John 12:49 ESV

"...I [Jesus] do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me." - John 8:128 ESV

I love reading testimonies of our [inner healing] sessions… When someone says they felt honored, that they experienced kindness, gentleness, real love, and compassion—some for the first time—that floats my boat.

When someone is vulnerable in our presence, confessing sin, weakness, and the most intimate details of their failings, our response must be one of gentle understanding and true compassion. This ministry is meant to be safe. It is confidential. We do not "kiss and tell." It is loving. It takes its time. It is one-on-one, face-to-face. People need to tell their story, to have a voice.

[When ministering to people in a session], we know that the problem is the problem; the person is not the problem—and they know it too. They know that we, God, and they are all on one side of the table, and the issues—sin, wounding, and everything else —are on the other side. God is not mad at them; He is having a good day.

So we honor two things above all: the ways and flow of God, and vulnerable, hurting people.

Scripture is clear about who is in charge, in the driver's seat. Captain of the vessel. This ministry is God's doing. We are the flight attendants making the passengers feel comfortable and safe. Honor God. Honor people. Listen carefully with one ear in both worlds. Smile. Be nice. Use breath mints!

- Andy Reese

God has specific tools for specific purposes. There seems to be a way to accomplish certain things in His Kingdom. There is a time for, an approach to, every issue we face. The wrong approach will go nowhere.

Many of our tools, maybe all of them, involved speaking words; and many of our tools rely on intuition and perception and not on logic alone.

At the outset it is important to grasp the fact that our words are powerful—when they are an expression of our heart's intent, our will, our agreement, and our faith.

WORDS as Tools:

"Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit—you choose." - Proverbs 18:21 THE MESSAGE

• ...Death and life are in the tongue's power. What are repentance, forgiveness, vows, lies, agreements, covenants, and promises, if not mere words? Words that, when spoken from the heart, are binding, powerful, and life-changing. They have power to create and tear down. They are the stuff of the Kingdom of God —and the kingdom of darkness.

• In this ministry, one of the things we do is lead people to undo bad deals they have made and to vow to do better things, to forgive, to bless, to renounce. The power of some of the tools... lies in their ability to put us in the emotional or revelational place where we are eager to make such godly and well-conceived statements. They gently open us up so we are more than ready to undo bad covenants we have made in the past. They assist us in being willing to draw on the ability to cancel debt owed through what Jesus accomplished. Many of the [inner healing] techniques are merely ways of framing our words to effectively vow before God and call on Him to enforce our vows against the kingdom of darkness.

Tools based on RATIONAL THOUGHT and NONRATIONAL PERCEPTIONS:

• ...Our tools are based on rational thought and nonrational perceptions. The deepest motivations, wounds and constraints within us are largely nonrational and are often hard to access through logical questioning and reasoning. Even when we can explain our inner drives, we cannot easily deal with them from the place of cognitive understanding.

• ...It is the stories we tell ourselves that drive our behavior—our internal dialog. In ministry partnered with God, we are often able to move quickly to these inner stories. Not only does God know the totality of the unconscious mind. He also knows the false stories (beliefs) we have told ourselves and were told, and the key to unlock the prisons we are in. He can, in a moment, show us what direction to take, what to declare, what to speak and what to say. Often false beliefs were laid into us pictorially, and the surest way to replace them is to let God and the inner spirit of the person direct us—bring pictures, inner visions, stories.

• The tools and approaches we use tend to be visual and often story- or memory-related. The instruction that does happen is in conjunction with these other approaches to help explain them, to bring biblical truth, to amplify what is felt or seen or to give practical application of something realized or experienced.

There is a PROCESS:

• You grow and change into the likeness of God over time. If God were to tell you everything that needed transformation for you to be like Him, to live eternally with Him in comfort (His, yours, and your eternal neighbor's), you might be discouraged.

• But He knows He has time and He is in it for the long haul with each of us. He is committed. It is a natural and organic process—with a sure ending.

• "Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. ...Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose." - Philippians 1:6 & 2:12-13 NIV

• "There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears." - Philippians 1:6 THE MESSAGE

• "I’m fully convinced that the One who began this glorious work in you will faithfully continue the process of maturing you and will put His finishing touches to it until the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ!" - Philippians 1:6 TPT

• God thinks you are okay and attractive to Him even while things are taking time.

- Andy Reese

We are all a little like a balloon rising naturally to its designed altitude. We are supernaturally intended to grow, expand, rise, and mature. But each balloon is tied to the ground by by one or more cords of different lengths. These cords are the constraints caused by [the following major categorical] issues: Wounding, Entanglements, Sin, Ungodly Beliefs, or Demons [WESUD for short].

They limit us, stop our rise, keep us stunted and diminish our capacity for destiny fulfillment. We rise naturally until the shortest cord is stretched tight. Then we are caught up short—short of destiny, short of God-inspired desire. In God, the cords are rarely lack of talent or even opportunity—they are character based. A person may rise to great heights based on personal anointing, charisma, and talent, but they will stay there only because of godly character. So it becomes a temporary ascendancy—our fifteen minutes of fame. Then we crash.

When a cord is cut, through [inner healing] ministry, we find we rise to the next point where we are again caught up short. God can change something in our lives in an instant. Freedom and release can be immediate. Then we grow and consolidate the gains, changing our minds and habits with the new truth and freedom. Then we come up short again [in a new way]. Then we repeat the process. God calls it going "from glory to glory."

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind..." - Romans 12:2a NIV

- Andy Reese