Frustrated or Free? | Freedom in the Mind // Daniel Goulet

Hey, can you help me give a warm welcome to our online family? So glad that you are with us as well. I'm actually going to pray at the start and just welcome our teacher and guide, Holy Spirit. So would you just join me and pray? Holy Spirit,

we

welcome you in this room.

We

thank you, Jesus, that you are the giver of freedom.

Lord,

we thank you

for

teaching us and guiding us this morning. And Lord,

I

just ask that you would help us focus our attention on you.

And

maybe even more importantly, our affection.

Jesus,

we want to glorify you

with

our lives.

So

we welcome you, Holy Spirit.

In

Jesus' name,

amen. So

we've been in a series called Frustrated or Free.

And

we've been exploring this key verse from 2 Corinthians chapter 3. It says, the Lord is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is

freedom.

Oh, you know it. That's good.

Now,

some of you know that several of us just returned from a very transformational trip to South Africa.

And

we saw the Spirit of the Lord everywhere we went setting people free. It was pretty amazing. And so on our way back,

you

know, we were at the airport in South Africa,

and

something happened that was totally unexpected. Now, I have to tell you something. I love dessert.

I

love it. That's right. Someone loves it too. That's good.

And

so the place that we were eating, eating our food at the airport, they ran out of dessert. And I was kind of iffy.

I'm

like, do I want dessert or not? But then when they said they didn't have it, then you know what you really want it after that, after that ever happened to you. So I turned to Joanna, and I say, hey, maybe there's another place here that has dessert. And we saw that there's a mug and bean. This is like a national chain all throughout South Africa. And the rest of the team didn't want to go. So Joanna and I were like, okay, we're going to go eat dessert. So we go there. We go to mug and bean. We're like, do you have dessert? And they're like, yes, we have dessert. They had carrot cake and chocolate cake. We're like, yes. So we sit down and have dessert.

And like we did like all throughout South Africa, we would just often ask, hey,

do

you have any pain in your body? Or is there anything we can pray for? And she was like, well, I don't have any pain in my body, but I would love prayer.

So

we're like, oh, that's great. So we decide to pray for her. We begin to pray, and the Spirit of God starts to touch her really powerfully. Some tears start to fall, and you could tell that there's really cool, like awesome things happening. We're like, you know, that's Jesus. She goes, oh, I know Jesus. I'm like, oh, we know Jesus too. That's awesome. That's what's happening to you.

And

so we finished the prayer, and we just said, you know,

if

anybody on the staff

has

pain in their body or they need prayer, you know, we're just going to be here eating cake,

and

you could just send them to us. And we'd love to pray for them. She's like,

really?

I'm like, yeah, that'd be awesome.

I'm

like, okay.

And

over the next 45 minutes,

what

happened completely shocked us,

because

one staff member after another came to us for prayer.

And

everybody who received prayer was healed. People that had chronic back pain for years, for years, instantly healed. Shoulder pain, knee pain, feet pain, all of it was healed. Some people were dealing with anxiety, and all that was lifting off. Some people broke out in joy and laughter. We're just like, oh, my gosh. They're breaking out in joy and laughter. I look at Joe, and I'm like, is this really happening? I mean, what is happening here? And one person, I was like, do you know Jesus? She goes, no, I don't know Jesus. Would you like to? Yes, I would like to know Jesus. And so I led her to Jesus. And it's just like over and over.

And by the time it was done, we probably prayed for over 25 staff members. And we're like, how do we? I mean, isn't that crazy? I'm like, how do we commemorate this? I'm like, maybe we could take a selfie. Could we gather some people?

And

so we have a selfie. That's only 15 of them. But I was like, oh, my goodness, Lord. See, where the spirit of the Lord is, there is

freedom. And

we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of God, the glory of the Lord, are being transformed. That was what was happening right before us. Into the same image

from

one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, who is the spirit.

Now,

that's going to be one of those amazing memory markers. Like, it feels like we were participating, where God, everybody that had a frustration,

God

had freedom for. No matter what it was.

It

was definitely marked in my memory. What an amazing experience.

But

if you've been following Jesus for any length of time,

what

happened at Mug and Bean, as amazing as it was,

doesn't

always happen.

You

know, sometimes there is freedom, but sometimes

we're

just left really frustrated.

Sometimes there's

breakthrough, and sometimes you just walk away still in pain. Like, we prayed for lots of different people that didn't see breakthrough,

where

they walked away with pain. And, you know, we don't often talk about these times, because it's kind of like, oh, you didn't get healed? Let's take a selfie together. I mean, it just kind of doesn't go together.

See,

when we don't see the breakthrough,

it

can leave us really frustrated. And it starts to mess with our minds.

It

can mess with your belief systems, even your thought life.

See,

what we've been doing in this series

is

looking at different areas of our life that can be really frustrating. And we've been asking Jesus, Jesus, can you bring us insight and revelation, how we can experience freedom in our bodies? Or freedom in our workplaces? Or last week, we looked at freedom in our finances.

And

today, I want to look at a really crucial area

that

really touches every single area of our life.

How

can we experience freedom

in

our minds?

You

know, our minds

have

a lot of power over our lives.

A

lot of power. Craig Rochelle, he's a famous pastor or author, he says this about the mind. He said, our life is always moving in the direction of our strongest thoughts. Most of life's battles are won or lost

in

the mind.

Like,

it's no secret

that

our minds are under attack. You know, like, half the people we prayed for at Mug and Bean were dealing with mental attack.

Like,

mental health is a crisis, not just in America. It's a crisis all over the world.

Just

the other day, I was talking to the window consultant in my house. And I said, hey, I really love to pray for people. Is there anything I can

pray

for you about? And without hesitation, he's like, oh, my mind. I've been dealing with such anxiety and stress. And my mind just wraps around it all the time. I need prayer for my mind. Like, didn't even hesitate.

See,

what we fix our minds on actually have the ability to lead our life.

This

proverb,

Proverbs

23, it actually says it really well.

It

says, for as he thinks within himself,

as

he thinks, so is he. Meaning, so he becomes.

Our

minds are so powerful that we can become what we think about.

Or

you could say we become what we behold. You know that in our anchor verse,

you

know, behold the glory of the Lord, like which is the revelation of who Jesus is. But if we start beholding other things, it actually stunts our growth.

It

stifles our transformation.

And

see, our enemy, Satan,

he

knows this.

You

know, we often say this phrase here,

the

enemy has been defeated, but he's not departed.

And

what that actually means is that he still has a lot of influence. And you know where the major part of influence goes?

To

our minds.

See,

the battle is for

our

minds.

Now,

I'm really grateful

for

every amazing tool we have. I'm grateful for Christian counselors, grateful for basic sozo healing, like healing prayer, wholeness.

But

today, I really believe that Jesus wants to give us a fresh revelation for our minds. How can we actually experience freedom in our minds so that we can be transformed to who we were made to be? That's what I believe he wants to do today.

Now,

in my first few years

as

a Christian, I had this crazy encounter.

So

I was laying in my bed. It was early in the morning.

And

I was in between this, like, state of sleep and awake. Ever been in that place?

You're

kind of awake, kind of asleep.

And

I hear this really loud voice. You're never going to be free. And instantly, it was so loud, I just jolted awake.

And

I felt this weight on my chest. It was, like, pushing down on my chest. And I could barely breathe. And I couldn't speak. And I was like, what is going on? What is going on? And I thought in my head, if I could just say the name of Jesus. If I could just say Jesus. But I tried to say it. And I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. And I kept trying and trying. And finally, I was able to go, Jesus. And it lifted off.

And

there is power in the name of Jesus. Right?

And

that was a crazy experience.

I

was like, what did I just experience? What was that?

And

I could sense this

fear start

to grip my life.

And

over the next several months,

I

began to spiral

mentally.

Like, the only way I can describe it is, like, these bouts of depression. And when I was with, around people, I could kind of push it away. But when I was alone,

my

thoughts would just start to go into this dark place where I kind of dreaded life. I almost didn't want to live anymore. And those demonic words just kept ringing over and over and over in my head.

You're

never going to be free.

They

just felt so true.

I

don't know if you've ever had thoughts like that,

that

kind of bombard your mind over and over. And it's almost like this broken record that just doesn't seem to, you can't seem to get away from it. Sometimes we say those thoughts out loud. Right? Oh, I'm not good enough. Or I'm just such an angry person.

And

sometimes those thoughts actually get really strong.

You

start to loathe yourself. Or you're like, I hate myself. Or I'm a mistake. Or I don't matter. And then sometimes you have friends in your life that are like, no, no, no, that's not who you are. Right? And they say, don't think like that. But it doesn't seem to go deep enough.

It

doesn't seem to

change

your mind.

The

Apostle Paul,

he

understood this battle really intimately, actually.

The

Apostle Paul experienced tons of persecution, especially against

the

mind. Now, Paul, he's a really amazing person. He wrote two-thirds of the New Testament. So he kind of knows what he's talking about. And he actually gives us some powerful truths in the New Testament about our minds. He said things like, we have the mind of Christ.

Well,

that's an amazing promise. He'll call us new creations. He says, you're a new creation if you're in Christ. The old is gone. The new has come. Well, that's a promise. And then he tells the Romans, here's how you're transformed. By the renewing of your mind. Yeah, you guys know it. That's good.

He

says all these powerful truths because he understands where the real battle is

for

our minds.

You

know, sometimes

that

stuff comes

from

people that are, maybe we consider your enemies.

But

many times the battle comes from those closest to you.

And

so later on in this, the same book, the same letter to the second Corinthians,

the

title of the section in chapter 10

is

called Paul Defends His Ministry.

See,

what he's sharing here

is

this accusation that these things that were coming against him, but he has a pretty amazing insight. So we're actually going to look at what he says. How does he defend his ministry?

Second

Corinthians 10

says,

now I, Paul, appeal to you with gentleness and kindness of Christ.

Though

I realize you think I am timid in person

and

bold only when I write from far away.

Well, I

am begging you now

so

that when I come, I won't have to be bold with those who think we act from human motives. Basically, Paul is saying, dude, don't make me open up this can.

See,

Paul is dealing with accusations and issues that he didn't expect. You know, you expect stuff from your enemies, right? You even build up some good defenses against that.

But

from those closest to you,

from

your fellow believers, you know, this ever happened to you? Sometimes those closest to you have the harshest opinions. And boy, do they like to share them,

right?

Or maybe you feel like in front of this person, you always have to defend yourself.

See,

sometimes those kind of words from those closest to you can go so deep and right to the core of your belief system that if we're not careful, the lie can be

replaced.

The lie can replace the truth.

And

it can start to lead us away from faith. It can lead us to despair and depression, anxiety. And all of a sudden, you find yourself way over there, far from Jesus. You're not even sure how you got there. And you're caught up in these cycles. See, Paul, he understood what was happening.

See,

this is key. And he says this in verse 3.

He

says, we are human,

but

we don't wage war as humans do.

You

know, very similar thing that he told the Ephesians. He goes, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood.

See,

what Paul is trying to say is, I know what's happening right here. I know that the enemy is trying to do with your words, and I'm not falling for it.

I'm

not going to fall for that. See, this is not a person-to-person battle. My battle is not with flesh and blood like it seems. I know it feels like it,

but

it's not.

So

he goes on in verse 4.

He

says,

for

the weapons of our warfare

are

not of the flesh,

but

have divine power to destroy strongholds.

Now,

this word stronghold is actually the word for a military fortress.

What

he's saying is, our thoughts have such powerful influence over our life

that

they even have the ability to create a stronghold,

a

mental fortress. Now, there are some good strongholds. You know, there are defenses that we have. There are some truths that we build up in our mind that keep the bad stuff out. I love what Psalm 9 says,

the

Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold

in

times of trouble. There are good strongholds,

but

there are also

bad

strongholds,

mental

fortresses that are built on a lie. And what happens is they build these barriers in our mind, and they're so strong that they can keep the truth out,

the

truth that actually sets us free.

And

so Paul gives us more direction. Okay, what are these things?

He

says,

we

destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. Being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience

is

complete.

What

he's saying in those last couple lines is, I'm not going to let any thought get to the core of who I am unless it's surrendered to Jesus, where it says, Jesus is Lord. I'm not going to let anyone get by.

But

what Paul is trying to show us here

is

how strongholds are built.

He

says,

we

have divine power to destroy strongholds, which are arguments

and

lofty opinions.

Man,

there's some arguments out there.

God

can't be good because there's so much evil in the world. Look at all that. God can't be good. Or here's one.

He's

causing my sickness to teach me a lesson.

That's

a big one.

He

doesn't care about me.

That's

another one. Or how about this lofty opinion?

God

doesn't know the best pathway for my life.

He

doesn't define me. I am who I say I am. I'm not who he says I am.

And

see, these arguments and lofty opinions, they're raised up, almost like a wall built in your mind against the knowledge of God. Now, this is not the knowledge we know about God. This is actually God's knowledge.

So

it's raised against his truth.

And

see, when we have

a

thought or opinion, whether it could be our own thought, it could be someone else, you know, someone else said something to you. You know, it could be the enemy's thought.

Do

you know that one of the enemy's names is the father of lies? He's good at what he does. Lie, lie, lie. And those things kind of start to bombard your mind and they begin to build a wall, right? They start to become a stronghold.

And

it has the ability to keep

the

truth out.

So

Paul gives us

some

amazing direction. He says, take every thought captive to obey Christ,

being

ready to punish every disobedience

when

your obedience is complete.

You

know, that's such an interesting word picture,

to

take every

thought

captive. You ever have thoughts like that, you know, kind of runaway thoughts? It kind of reminds me of these little bouncy balls.

You

know, you have this thought and then all of a sudden it's like, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

oh, oh, oh,

still going, still going, oh,

I

got it.

You

know, like I caught the thought, right?

C

'est bon.

Je

suis fait. Je n'ai pas fait si ça. Mais je

n'ai pas à vous, mais je

n'ai

pas juste

une chose.

Je

n'ai pas de thoughts que vous avez

besoin.

Et puis ils se sont tous

les problèmes.

Et puis vous êtes comme, je ne sais pas où je vais. Je ne

sais

pas.

Je ne sais pas, ça

fait que vous avez toutes ces pensées.

Parce

que

je

ne veux pas.

Donc

Paul est disant,

«

Né, nous n'yons pas la même chose. Our weapons are not of the flesh, right? We don't wage war. We have spiritual weapons.

And

these weapons have divine power to destroy strongholds.

Now

there are a lot of offensive weapons that I could say, but there's one that kind of stands above them all. Paul tells it to the Ephesians. Do you know which one it is?

Anybody

say it? Sword of the Spirit. Oh,

you

know your Bible?

That's

good.

The

sword of the Spirit,

which

is

the

Word of God.

See,

the Word

is

God's truth revealed.

And

it has divine power, a lot of scriptures say, to separate bone and marrow, to teach, to correct, to rebuke, to guide, to destroy every stronghold, if

you're

willing to surrender it to him.

If

you're willing to listen. If you're willing to be obedient, is what it says.

You

see,

when

you read the Word,

it

actually has the ability

to

tether itself

to

your thoughts.

Right? And

so when you have a lie, it starts to bump up against the truth.

And

then you have another negative thought,

and

it bumps against the truth. And then another one, and then all of a sudden, you're trying to

be

ready to punish every disobedience until your obedience is complete. You

see, until

the thought listens to the truth.

You

see, we don't need to go after each thought. You just need to go after the Word, and that will grab on to your thoughts.

Right? You

see, this is how Jesus defeated temptation. Over and over and over again. No matter what the enemy threw at him,

what

did Jesus answer? It is written.

See,

some of us just need to get into the Word.

It

needs to penetrate every thought. Some of us are frustrated in our life. We're frustrated in our faith

because

you don't know enough of his truth.

This

is what he tells his disciples. John 8. If you abide in my Word, if you follow my Word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you

free.

Boom.

I

mean, he said it.

It's

powerful.

You

know, with my story,

the

thought that I had to chase down

was,

you're never going to be free.

And

this just rung in my head, and all these bouts of depression and despair, and it kind of built this wall up in my mind, and I just felt completely frustrated. I felt completely in despair, and I didn't know what to do, and I didn't know how to break it.

And

so there was one Friday night,

and we

had a young adult conference going on, and I had decided, I am not going to that thing. I am not going anywhere. I'm staying home.

And

I hear this still small voice.

You

need to go to the conference. So I'm like, no, I'm not going to the conference, you know, back and forth, back and forth, yes, no, yes, no, but I needed,

I

needed a breakthrough. I needed something.

And

so I got up, and I went, and I kind of sat

in

the back corner, you know, where no one could see me.

And

Steve Nicholson, he's a longtime Vineyard pastor, he was the speaker,

and

you know what he talked about?

How

God brought him through debilitating depression.

I

was like,

what? I

cannot believe this is happening right now. And everything he started to

explain, I

was like, I know what that is. I know what he means. That's exactly what I'm going through. Every single thing. And he kept saying and sharing and saying and sharing, and every single thing he went through, I was going through at the time. And by the time the end of the message, I was over here just like weeping like a little mess over here, right?

And

then he does a ministry time.

And

tons of people flood up to the front.

Let

me just say, mental health is a huge issue. We all deal with it, right? And I just sat back there, and I'm like, I am not going up there. I am not going up there. And all of a sudden, I was going up there.

But

I'm like, well, I'm going to stay in the back,

and

I'm going to hide. But I'm tall, so it's really kind of hard to hide. So I'm like, you know, I'm

just

like, I'm losing it.

And

Steve is kind of looking around, looks one row, two row, and then he goes through the two rows. He grabs onto me in the third row

and

brings me back to pray

alone

while other ministry went on.

And

he's like, what's going on?

And

I began to just

let

it all out and share all these lies I was believing that you're never going to be free.

I

shared about what happened in the bedroom, all these kind of things. And he began to pray for me under the power of the Spirit. Do not underestimate the power of the Spirit of someone's prayer, right? And he began to pray scriptures over me. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. The truth will set you free, all these things. And this lie, I could see it in my mind's eye. I could see this dark thing. You're never going to be free. You're never going to be free. And it just left me.

And

I was free.

See,

we have divine power to destroy strongholds,

arguments,

and lofty opinions that are raised against the knowledge of God.

We

have divine power for that.

Now,

throughout this series,

we've

been sharing some pretty amazing stories

of

people that

are

part of this church, that call this church home.

And

they've shared different places where they've just been frustrated in their faith, but where God has led them into some freedom.

And

I'm really excited

to

share a very powerful story of transformation from one of our dear church members. She's also a School of Kingdom Ministry student, so I love that.

And

her name is Ann Bauer.

Now,

just as a heads up,

this

story has some pretty mature themes. And this is what she writes.

I

was born into a family of multi-generational Satanists.

So

that means a cult that worships the devil.

I

was the first daughter of the highest-ranking female member,

and

I was expected to grow up and take her place.

While

growing up, I was also taken to a Christian church and Sunday school nearly every Sunday morning.

And

then that afternoon, at another location, to cult school.

My

earliest memories about Jesus is of learning to sing Jesus Loves Me in Sunday school.

That

afternoon at cult school,

they

would do horrific things to me while singing Jesus Loves Me

in

an effort to reprogram my thoughts

and

beliefs.

Now,

that almost seems unbelievable.

It's

intense.

At

age nine, so we appeared normal, my family and I attended a potluck event at church,

where

we listened to a missionary talk about her experiences.

I

was totally amazed that God would allow her to do something good.

After

hearing this story,

I

decided I was going to choose to serve God, because sometimes he let people do good things, and Satan never did.

I

knew I had to keep my decision to serve God a secret, or terrible things would happen.

My

childhood and adolescence were filled with torture, abuses, terrifying cult rituals, and systematic trauma-based mind control, designed to give them instant control over me,

even

from a distance.

Like,

I know for some of us, this is really hard to even imagine. It's like out of a movie, the pain, the frustration, the fear. And the cult's whole goal over her life was to make her choose, are you going to serve God, or are

you

going to serve Satan? Interesting that she had to choose.

And

so finally, she escaped from the cult, got married,

and

then a miracle happened. She says,

In

my early 30s,

I

miraculously gave my life to Jesus while listening to Severi Billy Graham crusades. Thank you, Billy Graham. Come on, man.

I

don't remember when I was finally convinced that I was really saved. Mostly, I just hoped it applied to me. And I tried to be good so that God wouldn't change his mind, because I had been told, God loves everyone,

but

you're the exception to that rule. Even though I was saved, believing this lie led me to be severely depressed and in despair. I lived in constant fear and confusion. I was very frequently suicidal. On the one hand, I knew God was my only hope.

On

the other hand, praying and reading my Bible caused horrible flashbacks. I lived in constant fear.

I

lived my life very hidden and away from people to avoid retaliation

and

attack from the cult.

Thankfully,

God led me to a skilled psychotherapist who began to help me resist the harassment and learn to think of both myself and God differently.

Thank

you for all the Christian therapists out there.

Come

on.

For

me, healing required risk. Many years of hard work, conscious choice, and determination. So she shares she had a role to play in this, right? Action.

She

goes,

although

professional therapy was very important and necessary, it was not enough.

It

was actually the spiritual teaching and application that provided the most important breakthroughs and transformation. I needed to learn that God is always good and that God's word and his love are as much for me as for anyone else. I needed to learn to depend on God instead of on myself.

One

powerful encounter that happened during this season of healing

was

when I had a disturbing memory of the traumatic abuse. I heard this non-audible voice say, Ann,

that

wasn't me.

I

was suddenly transported in a vision to a waterfall where I was washed clean and Jesus clothed me in the white robe. And the voice told me, In me, there is no darkness at all. I am always and only good.

I

was immediately back in the present. And I knew with 100% certainty, which has never wavered, that it is true. In him, there is no darkness at all. That's 1 John 1.5. God is always and only good. This was a miracle. Mind control programming messages are very difficult to change, much less eradicate completely. But God accomplished it in only two or three minutes.

I

have never had any doubt whatsoever about God's goodness since then.

I

have heard 1 John 1.5 many times prior to that, but it just seemed meaningless and empty until God broke through and replaced lies with the truth that penetrate my entire being. Talk about sword of the spirit. Right? Come on. Today I know with total certainty that God is always and only good.

That

he loves me with perfect, pure, and holy love. That he has good plans for my life.

Instead

of being terrified of God and experiencing horrible flashbacks to scripture, my favorite times every day are times of intimate fellowship with God. and I read the Bible eagerly and without fear of flashbacks. Fear and depression no longer control me. I am able to take risks. I have learned to ask God, God, is there a lie I'm believing when I'm stuck?

That

still happens far too often in my opinion,

but

now it's just a bump in the road instead of a deep rut or bottomless pit. Through SOCOM, through School of Kingdom Ministry, I'm learning and testing new ways of thinking and believing. I intentionally monitored my thoughts and feelings and get this, take them captive.

I

replaced negative thoughts and feelings with positive declarations and by refocusing on God. See, what Satan meant for evil, God has turned around for good. And to my ongoing amazement and joy, I am truly happy. Look at that. I am truly happy, glad to be alive, and excited about life.

God

wants you to be free too. Listen to this. No matter what your past, how deep or dark your wounds or dysfunction, what sins you have committed, or how unhappy or miserable you are, my life is proof that God can set you free.

Come

on.

Thank

you, Jesus.

And

thank you, Ann, for sharing that powerful, powerful story.

God

can set you free.

It's

for freedom that he sets you free. There is no issue in your life

that

is impossible for God. There is nothing that you're facing that is impossible for him.

Where

the spirit of the Lord is, there is

freedom.

I want you to stand to your feet. We're going to worship Jesus, but I want to pray something over you.

I

want you to put your hands on your heart. Lord,

actually, I

want you to put your

hands

on your mind. Right there.

Your

fingers on your temples.

Jesus,

right now, I just thank you

that

your power is here to renew our minds.

Lord,

that your power is here to take every thought captive

so

that it comes

into

surrender, into obedience to your truth.

Lord, I

thank you, Lord. It's your power. It's not our power. It's your power.

I

thank you, Lord, right now that the truth is going to set us free. We're about to sing a whole bunch of truths

about

who you are and what you've done.

So

Holy Spirit,

come

and do what you do. Thank you, Jesus. It is for freedom that we have been set free.

We

bless you

in

Jesus' name.

Amen. Let's

worship.

Let's

worship.