"No Longer Bound"

“No Longer Bound”

By

District Elder M. L. Maughmer, Jr.

Mark 5 : 1-9 & 15

Opening: It is often said that the greatest accomplishment the devil has done is that he convinces people that he does not exist. What the devil does so many times is he tries to cause people to believe that some of the events that happen in your life simply are accidental, fate, or happenstance, because he knows that if he can convince you to believe that lie then he knows that you are one step closer to killing your destiny. Destiny simply is the plan God has for you, in you, and through you; therefore, to kill your destiny is the abortion of God’s plan in you, for you, and through you.

Understand that the mission of the devil is to kill, steal and destroy. He doesn’t care anything about you, he just wants to try to abort God’s plan for you. He tries to keep you bound, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. He understands that if you are free that you will realize the potential God has placed in you, that you will realize that because you are free and through Jesus Christ that you can turn this world upside down and he does not want that. Therefore, he places a stronghold on the minds of people today not just the people of the world but sadly the church folk also.

You must first understand that a stronghold is a mind-set that is impregnated with the spirit of hopelessness, helplessness, depression, discouragement, despair, and anxiety that causes a person to accept as unchangeable and irrevocable a situation in their lives even though they know it goes contrary to the Will of God. This is the nuclear weapon of spiritual warfare the devil use today. He understands that if he can cause you to accept a situation in your life that is contrary to the will of God that you will never be able to raze hell (RAZE) and tare his kingdom down. It is because of this stronghold and deception by the devil that people are being bound in their minds thinking this is the way it is supposed to be.

Because of this way of thinking people are bound physically, emotionally, and spiritually unable to do what thus saith the Lord. Many in society and even in the church are being incarcerated mentally, physically, and spiritually. Although free from the human judicial system, they are regretfully imprisoned in a far crueler and ultimately eternal prison. They are sentenced with a life sentence of emotional emasculation, depression, anxiety, low/no self esteem, and phobia’s; some are on the habitual death row of deadly narcotics, alcohol, and careless, unsafe, and uninhibited sexual activity. Others have been placed in a solitary confinement of physical pain, discomfort, and disease. They are being held captive behind these seemingly impenetrable bars and inescapable walls, being made to believe that this is all there is to life. Mentally messed up, emotionally emasculated, and spiritually lost, they are aimlessly wandering through life bound hopelessly waiting to die, imagining that if everything would be over, if what they have experienced to be life would just cease from being that they would be free. They are disappointedly unable to see that God has a far more excellent and abundant life. They are bound.

When I was working on this message God took me back to a childhood story that we all are familiar with and that is the Disney story of “Pinocchio”. Pinocchio was the creation of a man named “Geppetto”. Geppetto had a desire that this wooden puppet was in fact a real boy. Well as fairy tales go a blue fairy unexpectedly grants Geppetto’s wish somewhat, but instead of turning Pinocchio into a real boy she animates him, which simply means that on the outside he looked like a real boy. He didn’t have any strings like all the other puppets, he seemed by all outward appearances to be a real boy, he could move his arms, legs, head. He could walk and talk without having someone working strings. So when people saw Pinocchio because he had a form, the outward appearance of a real boy people thought he was something that he wasn’t. Even his own perception of himself was wrong, he felt he was free because he even began to sing “I’ve got no strings to hold me down, to make me fret, or make me frown. I had strings but now I’m free, there are no strings on me. Hi ho the merio that’s the only way to go. I want the world to know nothing ever worries me I got no strings on me”. On the outside he looked free, but he was bound by a spirit on the inside. I like to call this the Pinocchio spirit.