Sunday, February 15, 2015

"Being Set Free From the Bondage of Bitterness & Self-Bitterness!" S5 Part 3A-1 2/15/16




III. Obtaining YOUR Freedom From Bitterness & Self-Bitterness – Part 3A-1:

A. Recognize you are bitter and make a conscious decision to forgive. In order to get rid of the toxic emotion of unforgiveness, you first must recognize you are bitter and then you decide to forgive. You cannot act as if there is nothing wrong; you cannot sweep what happened to you under the rug and live in denial! And despite the saying, “Time heals all wounds,” it does not – ONLY God can heal your wounds! Therefore, you must deal with what happened to you, bring it to the forefront of your mind, so you can know you are bitter at the person and then decide to forgive. This MUST be done no matter how painful it may be; recognizing you are bitter and deciding to forgive are the first steps to recovering from bitterness.
You are bitter if the thought of the person who hurt you, hearing his/her name, seeing his/her name, etc. makes you angry! If you are always putting yourself down or calling yourself “Stupid,” you have self-bitterness; you are bitter at yourself! To get rid of the unloving spirit which is causing you to have self-bitterness, you must deal with what happened to you to cause this in order to be set free. Holding onto memories of what happened to you is not doing you any good, in fact it is killing you spiritually and physically! The person or persons whom hurt you are not thinking about you; he/she has moved on – most of the time, to their next victim! Likewise, beating yourself up for mistakes you made, is not doing you any good and killing you spiritually and physically too! I say you are killing yourself spiritually and physically because there is a connection between your mind (thoughts) and body (physical house); let me explain.

When people believe they been wronged, they become offended. This offense, if know dealt with, can lead to angriness, hatred, self-hatred, jealousy, fear, bitterness, self-bitterness, sorrow, guilt, etc.; this is why forgiveness is so very important. The toxic emotions that are associated with unforgiveness will only leave when you forgive your offender. The recovery process (recovering from what happened to you) begins when YOU decides to forgive!

Don’t worry about the other person; most of the time, he/she will not ask for forgiveness – put them in God’s hand and move on! There are spirits that try and keep you from forgiving people; they are called accusing spirits. Accusing spirits are the original of all negative thoughts. The goals of the accusing spirit is to bring us down, bring others down, and try and discredit God. These spirits seek to separate us from God and others. Accusing spirits love to plant doubt so our faith can be destroyed. The accusing spirit continually reminds us of what others has done so we will forgive them; it is like a record is in our heads and rewind is pressed on a continual cycle. Don’t allow accusing spirits to cause you not to forgive others or yourself! When these spirits comes to play back in your mind what the other person has done, bring those thoughts captive under the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).
May the peace of God comfort you ALWAYS!!!

Dr. Dorothy E. Hooks




   
NOTE: These materials are copyright protected therefore you must request permission to reproduce any part of this material. To request permission, please contact Dr. Dorothy E. Hooks: drdehooks@abusedwoman.org.
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Bethel Music- You Know Me ft. Steffany Frizzell





God knows you; He knows EVERY detail of your life - even the things in the deep places of your heart!! God knows YOU and no matter what is going on in your life right now, God is still in control!! God got you in the palm of His hand and nothing and nobody can pluck you out!! No matter how chaotic your life seems, God is working it out for your good; He does not miss a thing!! Let Him know today that you trust Him to work it out; let God know you will wait on Him to work it out and not worry, nor try to fix it yourself!! Worry, anger, drugs, alcohol, sex, men, women or anything else is not the answer, it is not the solution to your problem; God is the ONLY solution!! Let Him do what He needs to do to fix the problems in your life for good; God give permanent solutions not temporary ones!! If you don’t know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, accept Him today and give your life over to Him so He can fix it for you; you cannot do it yourself!! God loves you very much and He wants the best for you!! Let Him work everything out in your life; choose life today!!


God bless you all!

Dr. Dorothy E. Hooks
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"'Being Set Free From the Bondage of Bitterness & Self-Bitterness!" S3 Part 2C 2/15/15 - Armor of Bitterness





C. Armor of Bitterness – Part 2C: Bitterness is a ruling spirit, a principality, because it has several lesser demons answering to it. These demons not only answer to bitterness, they give it protection and provides its armor are (each of satan’s principalities have lesser demons doing the same thing. The demons that make up the principality of bitterness are: unforgiveness, resentment, retaliation, anger, hatred, violence, and murder (see Illustration 1) – these are the powers which Ephesians 6:12 talks about. Now, let’s look at each part of the armor for the principality of bitterness separately:

1. Unforgiveness - Bitterness gains entrance to us through unforgiveness, the first piece of the armor surrounding bitterness. The accusing spirit whispers in our ear, "No, you're not going to forgive them; you don't need to forgive them." Remember I said accusing spirits keeps a record of wrongs; they remind you of everything someone has done to you. Accusing spirits rehashes, projects, and torments us with past negative events of what has happened to us. The strong man (the principality of bitterness), uses the accusing spirits to constantly accuse us. Unforgiveness is a smaller entity, a lower spirit. It's just the beginning.

2.  Resentment - After unforgiveness has done its work, the strong man sends out the spirit of resentment. Resentment builds on the foundation laid by unforgiveness. The record of wrong ferments and resentment begins to grow. Resentment generates a feeling of ill will toward a person who has wronged us. Resentment says, "I don't like Mary," or "I will never forgive Alex," or "I don’t trust my neighbors." Resentment constantly reminds us of past events, seeking to stir up negative sentiments that stew and ferment within us. Resentment adds fuel to the fire. Resentment and unforgiveness stem from thoughts. They find their homes in our memories.

3. Retaliation - After unforgiveness and resentment have gained a foothold in our minds, the strong man (principality of bitterness) sends out the spirit of retaliation. Now it's time to get even. Have you ever seen a bumper sticker that said, "I don't forgive, I just get even?" The spirit of retaliation is much more dangerous than the spirits of unforgiveness and resentment. Retaliation's presence shows progressive demonization.

4. Anger - Unforgiveness first gains a foothold, and then resentment gains a foothold. Next, retaliation gains a foothold. Each of these manifests itself in ways that are progressively worse than the prior spirit. When retaliation wins its foothold, bitterness sends out anger and wrath. With anger, we have crossed a line. Anger gives the evil spirit a voice. Unforgiveness, resentment, and retaliation can be kept unspoken, eating away at a person's own spirit through self-deception. With anger, we have crossed a line. Anger gives the evil spirit a voice. Unforgiveness, resentment, and retaliation can be kept unspoken, eating away at a person's own spirit through self-deception.

5. Hatred - After anger and wrath have gained their foothold, hatred moves in. Bitterness gains fuel from unforgiveness, resentment, retaliation, and anger and wrath. Now hatred starts a process of elimination; it seeks to eliminate the other person. Retaliation ferments anger on behalf of bitterness. Anger vocalizes bitterness, and next comes hatred to act out of bitterness. Hatred reveals your feelings toward an offender; it tells them that they don't belong in your world, and you absolutely hate their guts. Hatred provides the fuel for the next piece of armor for the principality of bitterness; violence.

6. Violence - The sixth level of bitterness is violence. Violence is anger and hatred set into motion. Our emotions erupt into physical or sometimes hate-filled verbal attacks. At this point, we see pots and pans thrown across the room, wrenches fly and punches being thrown. Fights erupt. Physical, sexual and verbal abuse result.

7.  Murder - The seventh and worst spirit in the principality of bitterness is murder. Cain slew Abel because of his bitterness; today, we hear of others murdering their children, spouses or friends in fits of rage. The spirit of murder includes more than taking someone's physical life. God's Word teaches how we can murder someone with our words. Murder starts in the heart, because the ultimate level of the spirit of bitterness is the elimination of someone's person-hood. 1 John 3:15 says, "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him."


May the peace of God comfort you ALWAYS!!!

Dr. Dorothy E. Hooks






   
NOTE: These materials are copyright protected therefore you must request permission to reproduce any part of this material. To request permission, please contact Dr. Dorothy E. Hooks: drdehooks@abusedwoman.org.


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'Being Set Free From the Bondage of Bitterness & Self-Bitterness' S2 Part 2A & 2B 2/12/15 - Major Strongholds of Satan



  
II.  Major Strongholds (Principalities) of Satan – Part 2A:
A. There are seven (7) major strongholds (principalities) that the devil uses against us: bitterness, self-bitterness, jealousy and envy, rejection, fear, unbelief, and the occult. In this message, I will be discussing the principalities of bitterness and self-bitterness since these has to do with unforgiveness the most. The devil takes these seven strongholds and builds principalities; each principality is made up of so many demons. You might ask, “What is bitterness?” Bitterness is satan’s wild card. A wild card is a card that can be substituted for any other card in the deck. Even though it has no power of its own, it assumes the power of the card for which it is substituting. So it is with bitterness. It can bring any number of troubles, depending on which one it uses to accomplish its purpose. Its purpose is to ultimately destroy faith, ours and that of others around us.

Bitterness drives divorce, heart disease and digestive problems. Bitterness is an extreme form of anxiety and stress which affects every organ in our bodies. Most organic diseases are tied to bitterness, including cancer. All of the auto-immune diseases are tied to self- bitterness.
B.    Hierarchy of Satan – Part 2B: There are differing levels of authority and power in satan's realm. Each specific evil spirit answers to another spirit higher up the line of authority. Just below satan in this pecking order are his principalities. It is through this hierarchy of evil spirits and principalities that Satan continually seeks to draw us into captivity, taking control of our lives.  The evil spirit who presides at each step up in the hierarchy of a principality is more evil than the ones below him. Let’s look at Luke 11:24-26: 24 “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ 25  And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. 26 Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”
  
The original house refers to mankind — us. Even if we are "empty and swept clean,” the evil spirits try to come back, and bring along seven more who are even more evil than the one who left. To prevent these spirits from moving in, we must be continually filled up with God's Word, and the knowledge of God, "precept upon precept, line upon line" (Isaiah 28:10). Being filled with God's Spirit is the antidote to Satan’s ploys. When that evil spirit comes knocking on the door of our minds with a feeling, a thought, or a mental picture - seeking to lead us back into captivity we need to rebuke him.

Now, let’s look at Luke 11:21-22: 21 “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. 22 But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils.” The strong man referred to here is one of Satan's principalities. He is armed. What does this mean? The Greek word means to fully equip with armor. The strong man is fully equipped, and this brings him peace. The one stronger is Jesus. Since we have been granted Christ's power and authority, we also are the one stronger. As the one stronger, through Jesus, we will strip the strong man (the principality) of all his armor; once that happens, that principality must flee because he will be left standing naked and weak, unable to war against us.

May the peace of God guard your hearts and minds ALWAYS!!!

Dr. Dorothy E. Hooks




 
NOTE: These materials are copyright protected therefore you must request permission to reproduce any part of this material. To request permission, please contact Dr. Dorothy E. Hooks: drdehooks@abusedwoman.org.

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"Being Set Free From the Bondage of Bitterness & Self-Bitterness!" S4 Part 2D - Self-Bitterness 2/15/15




D. Self-Bitterness – Part 2D: Another major stronghold of satan is self-bitterness. Forgiving yourself is just as important as forgiving others. If you do not forgive yourself, you cannot effectively forgive others! If you have any of the below symptoms, you have self-bitterness and need to forgive yourself. The dictionary defines "self' as "by its self'" “an individual” or "separate." A self is a separate, unique identity. Each of us is separately and uniquely different, and we stand alone as individuals. Psalms 139 says that God made each of us "fearfully and wonderfully." Even before conception, God saw how our parts and our pieces fit together; this included our body, soul, and spirit. "My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth" (Psalms 139:15). God knew our ancestry and our offspring before we ever actually came to be. God knows each one of us as unique individuals, separate and different from everyone else.

Turning back to our dictionary, we notice that following the immediate definition of word "self," self includes many modifiers:
  • Self-abandonment: disregarding all self-interest.

  • Self-abasement: humiliation of oneself Self-absorbed: focusing on oneself to the exclusion or consideration of others.

  • Self-abuse: comes in many forms, i.e. obesity or anorexia; sleep deprivation or too much sleep; lack of exercise or pushing oneself to the brink; denial of normal sexuality with your spouse or preoccupation with sex; calling yourself “stupid,” “fat,” “ugly,” “dumb or other names that will demean and degrade yourself [you are “fearfully and wonderfully made” – Ps. 139:14].

  • Self-accusation: constantly finding fault with oneself.

When Satan entered the world through Adam, another nature became added to our original nature: the sin nature. Self now had a hyphen after it, and became the target of unloving spirits. Self-hatred is caused by unloving spirits; these spirits attaches to us and attacks us, seeking to make us feel self-rejected, unclean, and unworthy. It tells us that we don't measure up, that we are no good. Unloving spirits make us wretch at the sound of our own voice or the contents of our words: "everything I say is so stupid." These spirits, along with other ones, convinces a person to commit suicide! The unloving spirit uses its armor of self-pity, self-abuse, self-rejection, self-hatred, competition, self-pride, self-enthronement, false piety, self-mutilation, excessive eating and bingeing to protect itself. It fires self-comparison, self-idolatry, perfectionism, and self-torment at us. The unloving spirit pushes us to be defensive, and filled with self-doubt, unbelief, self-bitterness, self-resentment, self-unforgiveness, self-retaliation, self- anger, self-violence, and suicide. These are but a few of the arms with which unloving spirits attack us. The unloving spirit which is the kingdom of self, is the principality of self-bitterness, and it is protected by strong armor (Luke 11:24-26).


May the peace of God guard your hearts and minds ALWAYS!!

Dr. Dorothy E. Hooks



NOTE: These materials are copyright protected therefore you must request permission to reproduce any part of this material. To request permission, please contact Dr. Dorothy E. Hooks: drdehooks@abusedwoman.org.
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Wednesday, February 11, 2015

"Being Set Free From the Bondage of Bitterness & Self-Bitterness!" S1 Parts 1 & Introduction 2/11/15



I. Introduction: 
In this message, I am going to explain to you how to be set free from bondages cause by unforgiveness; since most bondages begins with unforgiveness. Unforgiveness causes strongholds to set up in your mind (soul-made up of mind, will, and emotions) which leads to principalities being set up; bitterness and self-bitterness are two of satan’s principalities– I will discuss in full later. When this happens, the person or persons who has hurt you has gotten the victory over you; you are in bondage to him/her because you eat and sleep them – they have taken control of your life! The strongholds of bitterness and self-bitterness are satan’s weapons that he causes to produce toxic emotions to destroy us; the enemy uses every trick in the book to keep us from forgiving others and ourselves. This is why forgiving is not easy BUT it is NOT impossible! We CAN DO ALL THINGS through Christ who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13); we just have to make up in our minds to do it!! God’s grace is sufficient for us because His strength is made perfect in our weakness and when we are weak, He is strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)!

To help us forgive others, we must know who REALLY is fighting against us; it is not the flesh and blood person that is fighting against us but the spirit behind that person! Ephesians  6:12 lets us know this: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (biblegateway.com – NKJV). Knowing who are really fighting against us will cause us to immediately forgive someone when they offend us and cause us to immediately forgive ourselves when we make a mistake. We can choose to forgive people when they hurt us or choose not to forgive them; the choice is ours. EVERYTHING we do, we have choice to do or not to do.

When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Gethsemane, this caused us to have choice; it opened their eyes and they knew good and evil (Genesis 3:5; Genesis 3). After Adam’s and Eve’s eyes were opened to good and evil, God gave mankind a choice between life and death (Deuteronomy 30:11-20; Deuteronomy 30). God said in Deuteronomy 30:15, “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil,” (biblegateway.com – NKJV). Therefore, we have a choice to do what is right when others hurt us (forgive) or do what is wrong (not forgive); we can either choose life or death or blessings or curses – the ultimate choice is ours!! There is NO in between; we either choose God or the devil!! We are either for God or against Him; we SHOULD NOT be straddling the fence (Matthew 6:24; Matthew 12:30; Luke 11:23)!!


May the peace of God guard your hearts and minds ALWAYS!!!
Dr. Dorothy E. Hooks





NOTE: These materials are copyright protected therefore you must request permission to reproduce any part of this material. To request permission, please contact Dr. Dorothy E. Hooks: drdehooks@abusedwoman.org.
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Monday, February 9, 2015

Day 17 - "It's Too Hard To Find God's Will." Pastor Gregory Dickow

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