A Guide to Freedom from Bondage by the Power of the Holy Spirit     The latter part of this article is designed to be a practical working model to be used to identify lies from your past and present that are keeping you in behavioral bondage today. The model is a guide designed to lead you through a process of discovery, and ultimately, freedom from bondage by the power of the Holy Spirit! Resentments Toward Parents     When a person is experiencing recurrent tendencies toward ungodly behavioral patterns in his life, it may indicate that there are foundational root judgments that he has formed about himself, about life, or about people in his past that need to be addressed. Hebrews 12:15 cautions us, “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” “Bitter roots” from the past often grow up into weeds of ungodly behavior in our lives today.     Sometimes, we are in bondage to repetitive sin patterns because of judgments we have made toward our parents or guardians. Deuteronomy 5:16 says, “Honor your father and mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” It seems reasonable to conclude then, that in the areas in which we have shown dishonor to our parents, it may not go well with us!     In many cases, if we have made judgments against our parents, we may be especially susceptible to ungodly behavior in similar areas in which we have judged them. We may be reaping in ungodly behavioral patterns today from what we have sown in ungodly judgments toward our parents in the past (Gal. 6:7, 8).         From Judgments to Beliefs     Judgments are formed by the way we interpret events in our life. From past interpretations, we subsequently formed foundational root judgments about God, ourselves, other people, and the world we live in. For our purposes, we will be referring to foundational root judgments as judgments from the past that support personal beliefs that have a spiritually negative impact on the way we think, feel and act today.     First of all, these judgments are not always formed against somebody. Very often, they are simply about somebody or something. In the following example from my own life, you will be able to observe how, as a small child, I interpreted an event and then quickly translated this interpretation into foundational root judgments about myself and about my parents. These judgments contributed to the development of a stronghold of fruitless striving that persisted throughout much of my life. This memory is from childhood and may not be accurate in every detail, but the important thing is how I perceived the events, how I reacted to my perceptions, and what judgments were formed as a result. In grade school, I had no trouble understanding that reading, writing and arithmetic were required course subjects. These were the classes that I attended and I received instruction in these subjects. I also received homework in these subjects, so I spent a considerable amount of time thinking about and trying to understand the subject matter for these classes.  But, in those early years, I did not understand why two other subjects were showing up on my report card every semester. Two subjects that I was not even being instructed in! I had not received any homework in these subjects nor had I spent any time studying or trying to understand them. I didn’t even know what they meant. Yet, I was being graded on them! It seemed extremely unfair to me.     Since the grades I had been receiving in these two subjects were generally poor, my parents were often upset with me. They tried to convince me that if I were to receive better grades in these two subjects, I would get better grades in the others. They implored me to behave myself and try harder in school!  I couldn’t figure out how behaving myself and trying harder could possibly improve my grades in two subjects I had never even been tested in. I was entirely frustrated. The two subjects were - Conduct and Effort!     At some point, perhaps in exasperation, one of my parents looked at me and said,   “Don’t you know what the words conduct and effort mean?” I still remember vividly the look of surprise on my parent’s faces when I replied with a bewildered, “No.” My parents overcame their astonishment and proceeded to explain to me the meaning of these words. It was, of course, a significant revelation for me to discover that my teachers were grading me on how hard I tried and how well I behaved in school!     But, unfortunately, I interpreted this to mean that my parents were also grading me on my conduct and effort. I noticed they would demonstrate displeasure when I would receive low grades in these subjects and exhibit happiness when I received higher grades. I perceived this to be acceptance of me on the one hand and rejection of me on the other. I interpreted their reactions to my grades to mean that they loved me more when I tried hard and behaved well, and they loved me less when my performance was not up to the expected standards. This was the mistaken judgment I made about my parents. The judgment I made about myself was that I was only as lovable to my parents as the level of my “acceptable” performance would dictate.     Because of the high degree of credibility, I, as a child, ascribed to my parents and the influence of the competition-based society I was growing up in, it was only a small step for me to universalize these judgments into the basic belief that it was necessary for me to perform well in order to be loved by anyone - including God.     My perceptions, from this single situation, substantially contributed to the formation of multiple root judgments about my parents, myself, God, and life in general. From root judgments like these, came years of fruitless striving and angry, frustrated rebellion, as I strove to earn what I mistakenly felt I needed most - conditional love from mankind! (Luke 15:28-30) God’s Unconditional Love Defines Our Value     Before sin came into the world, mankind was able to personally experience God’s unconditional love on a daily basis. Certainly, God’s perfect love enabled Adam and Eve to feel secure and maintain a positive definition of self-value. Before the guilt of sin stained their souls, Adam and Eve had no need to strive for acceptance through personal performance. Their sense of personal value was plainly evident in God’s love for them. Competition with one another for the affections of God was not even a consideration for Adam and Eve. Sin’s guilt and shame had not yet distanced them from the profoundly intimate realization of God’s never ending love for them. They would have no problem with low self-esteem, feelings of low self-worth and the multitude of personal insecurities mankind struggles relentlessly to overcome today.     But, after man sinned, mankind became distanced from the intimate realization of God’s unconditional love, and began for the first time to exhibit a performance-based, conditional love and acceptance for one another. And now, as a result of sin, though it is God’s unconditional love we all need most, instead, we  determinedly pursue the love and approval of other people in our lives. It is, in fact, our perceived deficit of man’s conditional love and acceptance toward us that initiates the formation of many of our foundational root judgments. The Yielding of Our Will to God     Much of the sinful behavior that we act out today arises from root judgments. This sinful behavior is often fueled by judgments we have made in response to personal insecurities. Many of these insecurities arise from past perceived rejection by significant people in our life (Gen. 37:3,4).     Root judgments form the foundations of beliefs that we develop, usually as children, as we try to make sense of the world around us. We are all born into a sin-damaged world. Our souls were not originally designed to exist in this distorted spiritual environment. God did not design our souls to experience rejection and abandonment. Our souls were designed to experience His perfect love and everlasting provision.  Making sense of the world around us, who we are in relation to this world and in relation to God, is a difficult task for a soul that was created to dwell in harmonious union with an infinite God’s unconditional love.     As children, we begin to form what we consider at the time to be necessary judgments about life, ourselves, other people, and God, as we struggle to survive the barrage of rejection, abandonment, betrayal, and performance-based conditional acceptance from the people in our life. We learn to survive the emotional bombardment of sin-damaged relationships by making judgments that we hope will help to protect, secure or build up our own sense of self-worth and personal safety. Add to this the natural tendency (as a result of original sin) of our souls to insist on being in charge of our own destinies (like Adam and Eve in the garden) and we have a superb recipe for relationship disaster. As we unwittingly participate in the construction of a self-protective “building up” of our souls through the judgments we make, we form a barrier from which we will eventually fear and resist the foreign concept of healthy intimacy later in our lives.     Our souls have become structured over the years by layers of self-protective, self-centered lies that we have judged and accepted as beneficial to our mission of obtaining and maintaining positive self-esteem. This dysfunctional soul structure that we have constructed on the foundation of self-centered, self-protective striving must be deconstructed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Judgments that have become the foundation of beliefs residing in our soul which encourage and support the ungodly choices that we are making today must be detected, unearthed, and removed in order for Christlike character to be developed within us (1Cor. 11:28-31). Sin strongholds arising from root judgments will never be overcome in our life by simply suppressing negative feelings and urges or avoiding certain situations and circumstances. These measures may be necessary, but they are only temporary, stopgap measures and do not deal with the real source of the problem (Col. 2:20-23).     If we truly desire freedom from our pervasive struggle with “For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing” (Rom 7:19), we must be willing to allow the law of the Spirit of life to set us free from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8: 2). The law of sin and death only has  power through the lies working in our souls that are keeping us from the freedom of truth. The law of the Spirit of life is effectually the power of truth, by grace through faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross, working in our souls to free us from the power of the lies. The law of the Spirit of life is the Holy Spirit actualizing the finished work of Christ in the individual Christian.     In order to effectively yield our will to God, there must be both a sincere desire to stop sinning and a complete trust in the power of the Holy Spirit to expose and disable the ungodly judgments and beliefs that have brought dysfunction to our soul (John 16:7-15; Rom. 8:13,14). When we are no longer impeded by the effects of our foundational root judgments, we can experience a close personal realization of God’s unconditional love for us. Secure in our Father’s love, we will no longer need to strive through sinful thoughts, desires, attitudes, and actions to maintain the delusion that we need to exhibit dysfunctional control of our lives and the lives of others in order to experience love.     When we have surrendered to the Holy Spirit to accomplish this work in our lives, we can expect to experience significant freedom from the emotional agitation of the soul that has accompanied our frequent failures to achieve victory over repetitive sin patterns in our lives (Gal. 5:22).                                 A Basic Misconception     As we struggle with sin in our lives, we may think that we are in the midst of a battle to overcome the power of sin. But, we would be mistaken. Christ has already overcome the power of sin for us on the cross! (Col. 2:9-15) The power of sin to continue to cause repetitive and pervasive ungodly desires in our souls today persists primarily when we are holding on to the ways of our old nature by harboring  foundational judgments from our past.     Therefore, we must continue to be, as we were at salvation, open to receiving the benefits afforded to us by Christ’s victory over sin. These benefits are received through our personal repentance of current sin in our lives and our faith in His finished work. Among these benefits are the personal realization of God’s love for us and the daily peace and joy, which accompany a holy lifestyle (Rom. 15:13).    We come to experientially realize these benefits as we invite the Holy Spirit to transform our souls by the renewing of our minds. The renewing of our minds (Col. 3:9,10) which brings freedom to our souls, is accomplished, in part, by the methodical rejection of old foundational root judgments as they are revealed to us by the Holy Spirit (John16:13). These old judgments must be replaced with new judgments forming a foundation based on biblical truths from God’s written word. STEPS TO FREEDOM FROM PAST FOUNDATIONAL ROOT JUDGMENTS                 Discovery and Prayer     These discovery steps and prayer steps may help you to both identify and gain freedom from past foundational judgments in your life. Please, try not to become rigidly dependent upon the step format I am presenting. These steps have been an effective method for many people I have discipled, but it is certainly possible that God may use multiple variations of this format or an entirely different means to reveal foundational root judgments in your life. DISCOVERY STEPS 1.  First, spend some time in prayer and ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom (James 1:5-7). 2. Next, take a few moments to focus on the particular recurrent ungodly thought and/or feeling about yourself, other people or life in general from which you desire freedom. It is important to realize that there may be feelings behind the dominant feelings you experience. For example: if you are angry about something that has been said or done, perhaps you are angry because you are also feeling ashamed or frustrated. In this case, you would focus on both the dominant feeling and the feelings of shame and frustration behind the dominant feeling. Always ask the Holy Spirit to help you determine whether there are underlying feelings hiding behind the thoughts and/or feelings you are currently experiencing. Write down these thoughts and/or feelings.     3. a) What are some of the earliest memories you have of experiencing these same kinds of thoughts and/or feelings within yourself?     b) What are some of the earliest memories you can recall of having someone else express these same kinds of thoughts and/or feelings toward you?     c) Finally, what are some of the earliest memories you have of wanting someone else to have these kinds of thoughts and/or feelings toward you?     For example, perhaps you are experiencing a strong passionate desire (recurrent ungodly thought and/or feeling from step two) for someone today that has led to an inappropriate or dysfunctional relationship. And you are able to recall wishing that some significant person in your past would have felt that passionately about you! Write these thoughts, feelings, and experiences down. Usually, but not always, these memories will be related to an interaction with a significant person in your life, e.g., your father, mother, sibling, relative, teacher, or friend. You will not always have to seek your very earliest memories of similar thoughts and feelings, but most significant foundational root judgments are associated with memories from childhood.           Looking at each memory: what do you think that you, at that time, might have believed to be true (whether positive or negative) about your personal value/worth/lovability as a result of what was happening? Write down these judgments.     These past judgments or supposed truths are likely to be the foundational roots of the specific recurrent ungodly thought and/or feeling you are experiencing today. This often occurs because you have translated the judgments you believed to be true about yourself into either a pride-based perceived strength upon which you have come to depend, a shame-based weakness you have tried to overcome or a fear-based behavior you have developed in order to manage what you perceive to be unsafe situations. Because sin has corrupted the condition of our souls, pride, shame and fear are intricately woven into most of our foundational root judgments.     The ungodly thoughts and feelings you are experiencing today may indicate that you have become self-reliant (instead of God-reliant), as you have come to depend upon the pride-based “strength” or tried to overcome the shame-based “weakness”  or fear these judgments implied.       It is your striving in response to these past foundational root judgments that encourages the present ungodly thoughts and feelings you are experiencing. Please consider carefully how this might pertain to your life. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you further illumination for personal insight on these matters and then go to “Prayer Steps” on the next page.     Frequently, the perceived “truth” that we believe about other people or about life in general can become the motivation from which we attempt to secure, by our own efforts and determinations, what we believe we need in life. For example, when significant people in our lives openly share their attitudes or opinions about other people or life in general we may interpret their words in such a way that a stronghold of pride, shame or fear can develop in our soul. We may then begin to develop specific behaviors designed integrate these attitudes and opinions into our lives.     As long as these “truth”/judgments are securely entrenched within our belief system, we will depend on these judgments ourselves, and, very likely, place unrealistic expectations on other people to live by them. We place these unrealistic expectations on other people because we feel more secure in our foundational life judgments when other people seem to hold the same beliefs that we do. We feel threatened when their words or actions seem to indicate that they hold different beliefs than we do.     The following example is not my actual experience, but may be a useful conceptual model: The ungodly thoughts and feelings that I may be experiencing today (from step two) are critical thoughts and angry frustration toward my adult son for not volunteering for overtime at his job. The memories from my childhood are of my father as a hard-working provider for the family. I recall that my mother seemed to admire him for this, occasionally voicing her approval. I remember that when I had my first full-time job, she enthusiastically insisted that I should work whatever overtime was offered to me that I might gain approval and promotion from my superiors.      I begin to form foundational root judgments by interpreting these memories to mean that hard work and long hours are necessary to gain acceptance and avoid rejection as a son, a husband, or even as a man. I also interpret my mother’s insistence in these matters and her admiration for my father’s efforts to mean that a potential future wife would consider me personally acceptable by virtue of my job-related efforts.      So today, even though I may be experiencing a strain in my relationship with my family because of the time I am spending away from them, I nevertheless angrily insist, influenced by my root judgments from the past, that my son also volunteer for all the overtime available to him! I sincerely believe that I am advising my son on the best course of action for his life. In this single example, I have made judgments from early childhood about myself, about other people, and about life in general.  As a result of these judgments, I have come to believe that I must depend on my own efforts, working long hours away from my family, to secure personal acceptance as I define it.   Now go to “Prayer Steps.” ROOT JUDGMENT PRAYER STEPS 1.  Consider the various ways in which personal experiences from the past and the resulting judgments may be linked to a pride-based strength on which you have now come to depend, a shame-based weakness that you have struggled with or a fear-based behavior you have developed in order to manage what you perceive to be unsafe situations (Rev. 3:17) (1 Peter 2:6) (Gen.19:15-30).    2.  An important first step is to pray forgiveness toward any person(s) from your past who may have contributed, by their actions or inaction, to the formation of the foundational root judgments that are stirring up the sin-based thoughts, feelings and actions you are experiencing in your life today (Matt. 18:21-22).       3. Root Judgment Freedom Prayer: Lord God, I reject the lie that my value, my self-worth or my personal lovability could ever be determined by the words, actions or inaction of other people in my life (mention the specific past experience or present situation) (Rom. 8:31-34; Isa. 50:6-9). The truth is that my self-worth is determined entirely by the fact that I am created in your image (Genesis 1:26, 27). I reject the lie that I can find lasting fulfillment, peace or rest for my soul through my performance or by meeting the expectations of other people. The truth is that the sacrifice of Christ for the forgiveness of my sins has demonstrated your non-performance-based unconditional love for me (Eph. 3:16-20) (Romans 5:8). I repent of the pride, shame or fear-based attitudes and behaviors that have formed in my life from believing these lies (Job 24:22-24). (Identify the specific thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that have developed in your life in reaction to the original circumstances or personal offenses against you.) I invite the Holy Spirit to sanctify me, (1 Peter 1:2) through my faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross, (John 19:30) by separating me from the ungodly weeds of behavior in my life today that have risen up from these past judgments. I ask you, Holy Spirit, to circumcise the old flesh from my heart (Rom. 2:28-29) in this area of my life which was previously not surrendered to you, so that my soul may be transformed into the image of Christ (2 Cor. 3:17, 18). Thank you, Lord Jesus, for the gift of resurrection truth and life (John 11: 25-26), which has now entered my soul, replacing the ungodly beliefs and behaviors that had developed from past judgments (Heb.12:15).     In the name of Jesus Christ, I command every unclean spirit that was claiming spiritual territory because of these root judgments to get out of my life! (Luke 10:17-19)  Through my repentance and my trust in the work of Jesus on the cross, I declare that you have lost your territorial rights to harass my soul. Be gone forever, in the name of Jesus.         I give praise to the Lord God Almighty, for the kingdom of the world has now become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever in my soul. Come, Holy Spirit, fill me with the glory of your presence (Eph. 5:18). I welcome you, Holy Spirit, to dwell within my heart with great power as you are transforming my soul into the likeness of Christ, with ever increasing glory to God (2 Cor. 3:18). Amen.                                                                                                                           Copyright © 2000 by R. Thomas Brass  All rights reserved How to print these articles: Click "File" on your browser. Then click "Print Preview." Make sure "Shrink to Fit" is in the box titled "Scale." Now you can print the page