Light of the World Today
The diagnosis is complete. You know the source. Now comes the most important part of this entire series. How to walk completely and permanently free from every evil agreement, every open door, and every self-inflicted affliction that has had access to your life.
"He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins."
Colossians 1:13-14 NKJV
Colossians 1:13 is the verse this entire conclusion rests on. He has delivered us. Past tense. Already accomplished. Not he will deliver you if you pray enough or fast long enough or perform at a sufficient spiritual level. He has delivered. The work of rescue from the power of darkness is a completed transaction in the spiritual realm, accomplished at Calvary, certified by the resurrection and available in full to every believer who understands what was done on their behalf and how to receive it and apply it to the specific situations where darkness has been maintaining a foothold.
Yesterday's devotion identified the doors. Today we close them. Permanently. Comprehensively. With the full authority of the blood of Jesus Christ applied to every agreement, covenant, connection and dedication that has given the kingdom of darkness access to your life. This is not a mystical or complicated process. It is a legal one. And the law that governs the spiritual realm has already ruled in your favour. Today you serve notice on everything that has been operating illegally in your life based on a legal situation that no longer exists.
The Legal Foundation: What the Cross Actually Accomplished
Colossians 2:14-15 in the NLT says he cancelled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. Two things happened at the cross that are directly relevant to every affliction produced by an open door to darkness. First, every legal record of charges against you was cancelled. Every covenant you made, every agreement entered into, every vow spoken, every spiritual transaction that gave darkness legal access to your life, was nailed to the cross and its legal authority was terminated. Second, the spiritual rulers and authorities who had been operating on the basis of that legal access were publicly disarmed and shamed by the victory of the cross.
The enemy's continued operation in the life of a believer is therefore not based on legal right. It is based on ignorance of the legal situation that the cross established. He operates in the dark corners of lives where the light of this revelation has not yet reached. And the moment a believer understands, declares and applies what the cross accomplished, the darkness that has been maintaining its position on the basis of what was nailed to that cross finds its legal ground has been removed. Hosea 4:6 said God's people were destroyed for lack of knowledge. The knowledge of Colossians 2:14-15 is the specific knowledge that ends the destruction.
"He cancelled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities."
Colossians 2:14-15 NLT
A Biblical Example: The Ephesian Believers Who Destroyed Their Occult Objects
Acts 19:18-19 in the NIV records one of the most dramatically practical accounts of freedom from occult connection in the New Testament. Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. A number who had practised sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. The new believers in Ephesus did not just pray about their previous involvement with sorcery and occult practices. They brought the objects. They gathered them publicly. They burned them. And the value of what they destroyed in the natural was enormous, fifty thousand drachmas represented approximately fifty thousand days of wages for an ordinary labourer. They counted the cost and they counted it worth paying. The spiritual freedom that followed was worth infinitely more than what they burned.
The principle is clear and it is consistently biblical. Freedom from self-inflicted affliction through open doors to darkness requires not just prayer but action. The object must be removed. The practice must be stopped. The relationship must be evaluated and where it is a source of spiritual contamination, the appropriate boundaries must be established. You cannot keep the door open and pray for the thing that is coming through it to stop coming. The door must be closed. And Acts 19 shows that the early church understood this at a deeply practical level. They did not store the scrolls safely in case they needed them later. They burned them publicly, permanently and at significant personal financial cost. And verse 20 records what happened immediately after. In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power. The freedom produced by closing the doors was not just personal. It released something into the atmosphere around them that changed the entire spiritual climate of the region.
How to Get Free: A Practical Step by Step Framework
Step 1: Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal every open door
John 16:13 in the NIV says when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. The Holy Spirit is the most reliable guide to what needs to be addressed in your spiritual history. Before you proceed with any declaration or prayer of renunciation, spend time in quiet, unhurried prayer asking the Holy Spirit specifically to bring to your remembrance every open door that has given darkness access to your life. Write down everything that comes. The visit you made that you knew was wrong at the time. The object you still have that someone gave you under suspicious circumstances. The practice you participated in that felt spiritually significant but was not connected to the God of Scripture. The agreement you made under cultural or social pressure. The Holy Spirit is faithful and specific. Ask and then wait. He will show you what needs to be addressed.
Step 2: Confess and renounce specifically
1 John 1:9 in the NLT says if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. Confession is not a general admission of being imperfect. It is a specific naming of the specific thing before a specific God who is faithful to cleanse what is specifically named. For each door the Holy Spirit has revealed, confess it specifically before God. Then renounce it. Renunciation is the deliberate, verbal, specific revocation of any agreement, covenant, permission or connection that was established through that door. You are not asking God to do something. You are declaring what has already been accomplished at the cross and applying it to the specific situation. Say it aloud. Name the specific thing. Revoke the specific agreement. Apply the blood of Jesus specifically to the specific door.
"Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
James 4:7 NIV
Step 3: Remove and destroy every associated object
The Ephesian believers did not negotiate with their scrolls. They burned them. Deuteronomy 7:25-26 in the NIV says the images of their gods you are to burn in the fire. Do not covet the silver and gold on them, and do not take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it, for it is detestable to the Lord your God. Do not bring a detestable thing into your house or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. Any object that was used in an occult context, received from a spiritually contaminated source, associated with a covenant made with darkness or dedicated to any spirit other than the Holy Spirit needs to be removed from your home and destroyed. Do not give it to someone else. Do not sell it. Remove it. The presence of such objects in a home creates a spiritual environment that sustains the affliction that is trying to be addressed in prayer. Remove the object. Close the door completely.
Step 4: Declare your freedom with specific scripture
After confession, renunciation and removal, declare your freedom aloud using the specific scriptures that cover the specific situation. Colossians 1:13 says he has delivered me from the power of darkness and transferred me into the kingdom of his dear Son. Romans 8:1 in the NLT says there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. Revelation 12:11 says they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. Speak these over yourself, your family and your home specifically and by name. The declaration is not earning your freedom. It is announcing what the cross already accomplished and establishing it in the atmosphere of your life through the word of your testimony.
Step 5: Fill the cleared space with the presence of God
Matthew 12:43-45 in the NIV records Jesus giving a solemn warning about what happens when an unclean spirit is driven out and the person or the house is left empty. When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says I will return to the house I left. When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself. The cleared space must be filled. After renunciation, after declaration, deliberately fill the space with the presence of God. Worship. Daily reading of the Word. Prayer. Fellowship with genuinely Spirit-filled believers. The freedom from affliction through open doors is not maintained by the absence of darkness alone. It is maintained by the fullness of God's presence that fills every space from which darkness has been removed.
So the Light of the World word for today and for the close of this four-part series is this. He has delivered you. Past tense. Already accomplished. The power of darkness has no legal ground in your life because every charge was nailed to the cross. Your part is to know it, declare it, act on it and fill the space it leaves with the presence of the God who already won the battle. Close every door. Apply the blood. Burn the scrolls. And then fill every room of your life with the God who came to deliver you completely, permanently and without remainder. You are free. Walk in it today.
Memory verse for today
"He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins."
Colossians 1:13-14 NKJV