13/ Cut the cords
The salty air tickles your nose; your ears feel offended by the screeches of the sea-gulls and your eyes have difficulty following the bee-hive activity of the wharf. As stately as any queen-bee, the ships are waiting to be served by an army of workers. It is preferable to let your eyes travel across the blue-green water, rather than focus on the filth that laps the bow of the massive cargo ships, which are held by huge ropes that are not easily cut. God used a friend of mine to show an interesting parallel between these ropes and our spiritual condition.
My visitor sat opposite me relating how many years previously he had nearly suffered a mental breakdown due to the pressure of circumstances around him. During this hard time, God had given him a vision about a massive ship being tied up at the wharf. The engines were working to full capacity, trying to move the ship; but as the ropes had not been untied it was unable to pull away. Eventually the engines died.
Likewise, there had been circumstances in this man's life which had held back his walk with God. No matter how hard he had tried to achieve a better relationship with God, something was holding him back. So, like the mighty engines of an ocean liner, he eventually burned out. One of the major cords or ropes, which had held him were the cords of rejection. His mother had tried to terminate the pregnancy, so rejection had come into his life from the womb onwards. Many will say, "Rubbish, how can anything affect an unborn child!" Luke 1:44, indicates differently:
For as soon as I heard your greeting, the baby within me jumped with gladness.
The rejection felt by this man had affected his attitude to those around him, until God showed him what to do about it.
God explained that the ropes holding the ship cannot be broken. Likewise the cords, or ropes holding a person back in their life cannot be broken. What can be done then in a seemingly hopeless situation? Go back to the point of contact! The cord that first attached itself to a person would have been the thickness of a spider web, or hair, but over time it grew to the thickness of rope. God said that it was easy to break a fragile web so what needed to be done was cut the matter off at the point of contact saying: "I take the sword of the Holy Spirit and cut the cord at the point of contact. I take the ends and tie them off separately and place them under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, never to be joined again."
Why are cords formed
1/ Sin (wrong doing)
a) Psalms 129:4 The Lord is righteous: he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked.
b) Proverbs 5:22 His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself and he shall be holden with cords of his sins.
c) Isaiah 5:18 Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:
2/ Unforgiveness
When you don't forgive people, cords of hatred, bitterness and violence are formed. The person who suffered the hurt will want revenge and very soon another criminal statistic is recorded
I felt in my heart to ask God if there were cords holding me back in my walk with him. No sooner had I started to pray, when scenes flashed before my eyes. I saw myself, as a little child watching my parents hit each other. Then I saw myself lying on the floor with a bleeding nose, after my father had beaten me. Next I saw myself being beaten up by my then husband. Violence had been very much a part of my life.
The mere raising of the hand would cause me to instinctively cringe. Although I had never committed a violent act, violent thoughts would constantly plague my mind. If I walked through a shop the thoughts would be, "Go on, smash it". Walking down the street I would want to lash out at somebody. One day visiting a friend I felt disturbed at the thoughts which bombarded my mind, directed at the person sitting on the floor. "Go on, step on her fingers, squash them."
I never shared with anybody the violent thoughts which constantly plagued me, it is only by the grace of God that I didn't give in to these suggestions. I can't thank God enough that he freed me from this torment, for after praying and cutting the cords of violence, which had attached themselves to me when I was a child, I have never had violent thoughts again, even though l7 years have passed.
The cords are usually well and truly formed before people become Christians. By living a life without Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit we don't know the difference between what is of God and what isn't. Yes, we have a conscience, but a non-Christian can so easily rationalise that their actions "aren't really as bad as they seem." Little realising that the hair like cords of iniquity -sin- turn into ropes of iniquity, which, even when they become Christians are very much binding and need to be cut.
I can see people jumping up immediately saying, "Hey, wait a minute! When I asked Jesus into my heart he gave me new life." True! But you still have to do a little housework. As God won't impose his will upon ours, he gives us the choice whether or not we want to get rid of those things from the past which will hinder our walk with him.
Yes, salvation is free, but 2 Corinthians 7:1, Ephesians 4:23&24 and Colossians 3:9&10 indicate that we need to put a little effort into the relationship as well.
Many years ago a young woman came to me for prayer, because her walk with Jesus was always up and down. As I prayed, God showed her a vision. She saw Jesus standing in front of her and the Devil behind her. She ran towards Jesus, but could only go so far because there was an elastic cord attached to her back. When the Devil tugged at it, she went flying backwards. So instead of being closer to Jesus, now that she was his child, God showed her that because the Devil was still pulling the string, there could be no going forward in the relationship.
In this case, as in many others, she had been involved in occultic practices. As has already been mentioned, it is dangerous to play around with seances, tarot readings, the horoscope, levitation etc. What people don't realise is that these activities are of the Devil and by doing them you are actually serving Satan. So even when you have become a Christian you must cut off past associations - or cords - with the Devil. You allowed Satan to come into your life, you must now throw him out. Yes, Jesus will accept you gladly as His child, but he will not share you with the Devil. Therefore cut off all past dealings, especially in the above areas, otherwise, Satan, like a puppet master will pull the strings and your walk with Jesus will be unbelievably difficult, if not impossible. This is one of the reasons why baby Christians fall by the wayside and others see their Christian walk as drudgery.
A prayer I usually ask people to pray; even if I know they are Christians is as follows:
Oh Lord my God I come to you and I seek your presence. Lord Jesus I acknowledge you as my Lord, my Master and my Saviour. I ask you, Oh Lord my God to forgive me for my sins in being involved in seances, levitation, etc. (name whatever is the issue) and wash me clean with your precious blood, Lord Jesus, from these sins. Then speak firmly to Satan and say: "The Lord Jesus Christ is my Lord and my Master. He has forgiven me for my association with you Satan in the area (name the area) so I tell you now to get out of my life and stay out. I cut off all past and present association with you, never to be joined again.
A Christian who participates, or has participated in Martial Arts, needs to realise the the activity is not of God and must be stopped. All forms of Martial arts come out of Eastern religion, which is based on the worship of many gods - gods which in fact are demonic forces. Before participating the person must bow down to the "Master". Jesus Christ is my Master! The cords tying the person to this activity must be cut.
I had been invited to the home of a Lebanese family to teach them the Bible. Many people had arrived and the two-storey house was bursting at the seams. After we had finished people requested prayer. The men were the first to come forward. I was about to pray for the first person, when God caused me to ask if anybody had been involved in martial arts. Unbelievably every male, young and old, had at some stage in their life participated in Kung Fu. Some had even risen to black belt.
Instead of taking individuals through a prayer, renouncing Kung Fu, God instructed me to pray for them as a group. We all joined hands and the men repeated the prayer after me. They asked Jesus' forgiveness for having served Satan in the form of Kung Fu. Then they told him to get out of their life, cutting the cords that had bound them through martial arts.
Rarely have I felt such a mighty presence of God's Holy Spirit. When I finally did pray for individuals they fell backwards, without me having touched a hair of their head. Grown men were weeping, confessing their sin to God. Only God's Holy Spirit can touch a person's heart to such a degree. A man later shared with everybody, how God had shown him in a vision what had taken place when I prayed. He saw himself running towards Jesus, but could only get so far, because Satan had attached a string to his back. When I cut the cords of martial arts, he was able to run to Jesus without hindrance. He felt a tremendous joy at having been set free.
People see martial arts as a form of self defence and exercise, they never question what the movements stand for, or what the words mean that they are required to utter in Japanese, or any other Eastern language. There are many forms of exercise, without getting involved in Eastern religion.
It is relevant at this point to mention two other instances where I have had to deal with martial arts. During an outing with a friend one afternoon, God, out of the blue gave me a vision about my friends' husband. I saw him as a little blond haired boy in the school playground being teased by a group of bullies. Later at their home I was able to share that revelation with the husband.
He agreed with what I had told him and added that it was for this very reason that he had taken up martial arts, being a shy and timid child. When I prayed for him later on the spirits of timidity and and shyness went immediately. However when I tried to pray about the spirits of martial arts I felt as if a wall had come between us. Upon opening my eyes I saw large saucer like eyes staring at me. The look in them sent a cold shiver down my spine.
Naturally I straightaway asked God what had gone wrong. The answer was simple, the spirits of timidity and shyness had come into his life uninvited, therefore I had the authority to drive them out. In the case of martial arts he had asked these spirits into his life, by the activities he had been involved in and therefore he needed to tell to go. I could pray for the next twenty years and nothing would happen, because these spirits had a legal ground to be in his life. Once he told them to go they did so very quickly.
In the other case I had been visiting a friend in Queensland. She had invited Jesus into her life, but the husband hadn't. On my first night at their place he excused himself stating that he had to attend martial arts classes where he was the assistant to the instructor. Just after he left I said to my friend, "I'm going to prove to you that people involved in martial arts get their power from demonic sources." Then I prayed and bond the spirit that gave Ian his skills.
When he came home later that night I asked him how his evening had been. He was very perplexed as to why he had not been able to function normally. As a matter of fact the instructor had said to him, "What's wrong, have you got two left feet tonight?"
Later on that week I witnessed to him about Jesus. He could not ask Jesus into his mouth. Instead he changed and became violent wanting to throw the huge diningroom table at me. Also out of his mouth came the words that he belonged to the Devil, who had his name written in his book.
After much prayer Ian finally asked Jesus into his life. At the end of it all he shared how there had been a mighty battle going on. He had seen two Samurai fighting, one dressed in white and one dressed black. At first the black Samurai was winning, but as I prayed the white Samurai gained the upper hand. In the end the black Samurai lay defeated on the ground and it was then that he had been able to accept Jesus into his life. Martial art quite obviously has a strong hold on a person's life and the cords need to be cut.
An unpleasant experience dealing with the cutting of cords involved a young woman, who had been brought to my home. As soon as I started talking to her, the word Jezebel came to my mind. Queen Jezebel is recorded in the Old Testament as being the most evil woman of her time and lacking in morality.
After about an hour of working through her problems and jotting down possible areas of needing prayer, the name Jezebel still came to my mind. Finally I plugged up enough courage and told her what was on my mind. To my amazement she agreed. Apparently the problem had come down from her mother and the cords had to be cut between the two.
I try not to be so cocky anymore. Everything went fine until I said, "I take the sword of the Spirit and cut the cords of Jezebel between mother and daughter; tie them off separately and put them under the blood of the Lord Jesus, never to be joined." The ear piercing scream that came out of her mouth was bad enough; the somersault, backwards into my prize fern, unexpected! Then she came at me on all fours. A lion would have seemed tame in comparison, as she sprang at me. I must confess this was one occasion when my knees weakened. Nonetheless, I just stood there holding the Bible, quoting the Word of God.
The "simple" prayer session turned into an almost all night session. My visitors had come at 7 p.m . By 10 p.m. I decided that prayer back up was necessary. So I bundled everybody into the car and headed for my Lebanese friends home, the Harbs. Just as well they only lived a few streets away and didn't mind getting visitors that late in the night. I thank God for their faithfulness to His cause, for with combined prayer; she was finally set free at 1 a.m that morning.
The more I have learnt about this topic, the more I am convinced that Satan is the puppet master and God's creation the puppets. Whenever I see a rap dancer I can't help but feel that I am looking at a robot or puppet. The movements are jerky and emotionless. A puppet bears great similarity, having no life, emotions or a mind to control the actions. In my heart I always felt that rap dancing was not of God. I had no proof to back up my suspicions until I watched a programme on Hindu rituals. The dancer, performing the religious rituals in the temple used exactly the same movements as a rap dancer. Here was the proof and my instinct had been correct. I thank the Holy Spirit for guiding me in the right direction.
If you mean business with God ask him if there are cords in your life that need to be cut.
WHO PULLS THE STRINGS IN YOUR LIFE??
1/ Fiji
2/ Egypt
3/ Israel
4/ Papua New Guinea
5/ Forgive or I cannot forgive you
6/ Jesus still heals today
7/ Suicide
8/ Long Bay Gaol
9/ Attempted murder
10/ Bathurst Gaol
11/ Angels
12/ How to pray
13/ Cords
14/ Counting the cost
15/ The heart condition
16/ Lorraine
17/ Dracula - fact or fiction
18/ If you love me
19/ Being gay
20/ Faith
21/ Roots
22/ Malaysia
23/ Fiji revisited - 1997
24/ What Jesus means to me
25/ My diary entries
26/ Conclusion