JUICY JULY 2022| DAY 3
THEME: BUT FOR THE SHOWERS WE PLEAD
TOPIC: FREEDOM FROM LIMITING YOKES
TEXT: ISAIAH 10:27
BIBLE STUDY: MARK 5:1-43
Hello sisters!
Welcome to the third day of the juicy July program. The first two days have been full of showers of God’s blessings and today the Lord is set to do even greater things in our midst. Amen.
Before we start properly, I want you to take time to worship the Lord solemnly with this popular chorus:
(Sing it as many times as you can. Continue singing until you feel a connection in your spirit)
You are God
From beginning to the end
There is no place for argument
You are God all by yourself.
Let’s get started…
Our topic today is ‘Freedom from Limiting Yokes’.
What is a yoke?
A yoke is a harness (bondage) made of wood by which two animals are tied together to pull a load. This means that a yoke means: forced submission, it means forced obedience and it means forced service. To be yoked means to submit and surrender.
The yoke is an instrument of toil and labour. It is an instrument of hard labour! Yokes aim at forcing you to do the will of the ‘Yoker’ even if it will cost your blood and sweat.
Yokes could present themselves in one’s life as:
- Generational bondage (Something bad you have seen passed down from your grands to your own parents and to you and now to your own children…)
- Arrested developments (Developments that stop on the way! Good things that won’t reach full manifestations)
- Strong limitations (You just can’t seem to cross over!)
- Unprofitable sweating (You labour, sweat blood yet you see no profit just like the Israelites under Pharaoh!)
- Forced and unprofitable labour
- Evil domination or submission,
- Aggressive restriction,
- Aggressive stagnation.
- Suffocating chains
- Unprofitable entanglement
- Negative detention
- Evil hook
The Lord has promised us freedom from every form of captivity and yokes of the Devil but many times we still live as people who are in bondage. The Devil plays with our freedom and compels us into managing situations that we should not ordinarily accept as God’s children.
Sisters, see, God has created us with amazing gifts, talents and opportunities aimed at releasing the greatness that we already have inside of us. But somehow, we see ourselves living below the standard of God for us, not because we do not want to do better but because a force stronger than us seems to be holding us back no matter the efforts we make.
This force compels us to manage when we are supposed to be conquering, this force makes us believe where we are is enough but deep down, we know that we are far from what God created us to be. This force is called a limiting yoke!
During the time of slavery in Africa, the slaves were usually tied with chains and yokes. The purpose of the yoke was to limit their movement and to prevent them from escaping. With the yokes on their necks and chains on their feet, no matter how much they tried to escape bondage, they were limited because they were tied up.
This is a picture of what the devil does when we allow him the opportunity to bind us with limiting yokes and chains. He prevents us from being the best that God has created us to be. He ties our hands and feet together so we don’t move away from his grip and limitations.
There are various types of limiting yokes.
- Yokes of Sins. Deuteronomy 28:48
Now, this particular one is the most devastating because it is like opening the door to oppression with your own hands. The children of Israel were faced with oppressing yoke because they sinned against God and that opened the door of oppression into their lives. It is worst if as a believer you find yourself enslaved again in this yoke.
On the other hand, when we were born, we all had this limiting yoke on us. Because of the sin of mankind, we inherited this burden and as a result, we were born into spiritual slavery that prevented us from becoming who God has designed us to be. This is the worst kind of slavery anyone can be in because at this point you are at the mercy of the devil and he decides to do whatsoever he pleases with you!
You might get opportunities to become better, and you might have amazing talents and gifts but because the devil is still in charge in your life, he dictates to you what to do with the gifts and the talents and as a result of this, you are working tirelessly for the devil without any form of fulfilment because you are sold out to doing his biddings- and the devil’s biddings are not without oppressions!
The best way to escape from this bondage is to give the ownership of your life to the One who came to set you free from the slave market of sin. Christ Jesus paid the price for your redemption and all you have to do is accept Him into your life and denounce the reign of the devil over your life and consciously live in the reality of your freedom from the devil and his oppression.
- Yokes from Birth. 1Chronicles 4:9
A very good biblical example of this kind of limiting yoke is seen in the life of Jabez. The Bible records that Jabez was more honourable than his brethren but his name was called Jabez because he was born in sorrow. The sorrow part had a way to overshadow the quality of honour in Jabez’s life. God created Jabez to be a man of honour but the circumstances surrounding his birth made his life take another turn and this became a limitation to him.
Yokes from birth are one of the most devastating and limiting kinds of yoke anybody can experience and because you have lived all your life accepting that yoke, you feel as though there is no way you can come out of it and the devil goes on to impress that in your heart and before you know it, you will live in the enslavement of that yoke continually.
God does not create a mistake or an accident. You are not a mistake, not an accident. Have you been told of scary stories about your birth that has shaped the kind of life you live today? A life that makes you think less of yourself? A challenge that makes you accept life just as it comes? Or a name that portrays limitations, sorrow, backwardness and regrets? It is time to drop that yoke and put on God’s original purpose for you.
Today, like Jabez, you will cry unto the God of Israel and God will hear and send answers from above.
Are you ready to pray, sister?
Are you?
Before we look at the third kind of yoke, let’s sing this song with all strength and assurance:
Agbara n bé ninu Ije Jesu (There is power in the Blood of Jesus)
Agbara n bé ninu Ije Re (There is power in His Blood)
Agbara n bé ninu Ije Jesu (There is power in the Blood of Jesus)
Agbara n bé ninu Ije Re (There is power in His Blood)
- Demonic Yokes. Ephesians 6:10-13
These are devouring yokes. They are devouring because they leave you worse than the way they met you.
Remember the woman with the issue of blood? That is an example of a demonic yoke. She spent all her life’s savings on that illness but still no cure. The illness made her a self-ostracized person because she couldn’t stay amidst others. That yoke limited every aspect of her life.
These are yokes that come:
As a form of illness without any medical interpretation, solution or remedy.
As a form of lack- Something you need so direly but you’re not getting no matter what. Something you deserve but somehow isn’t coming to you!
As a form of oppression in the night, you find it difficult to sleep because some personalities are bent on disturbing and pressing you.
As a form of delay of all kinds and this seems like a continuous vicious cycle in your family.
There are many times of yokes and I know that as we have looked at these three, they would have made you to start seeing the yokes present in your own life too.
So, what is the yoke in your life right now, limiting you?
Have you recognised it?
Knowing that there is a yoke is the first step to breaking free from it. After knowing, ascertain what the cause of that yoke is.
Is it a result of sin?
Is it a yoke from birth?
Or a demonic and devouring yoke?
No matter what the cause of that yoke is, there is a power that specializes in breaking yokes and setting captives free.
Let’s take our first song, sisters before we launch into the realm of prayers.
Please, sing with all faith and assurance.
I’m Free by Milton Brunson and The Thompson Community Singers:
I’m free
Praise the Lord, I’m free
No longer bound
No more chains holding me
My soul is resting
And it’s just another blessing
Praise the Lord!
Hallelujah, I’m free
I’ve got to say it one more time
I’m free
Praise the Lord, I’m free
I’ve been saved and sanctified
Filled with His holy holiness
I’m resting
It’s another blessing
Praise the Lord
Hallelujah, I’m free
I am free
Praise the Lord, I’m free
No longer bound
No more chains holding me
My soul is resting
It’s just a blessing
Praise the Lord
Hallelujah, I’m free
I am free (hallelujah)
Praise the Lord, I’m free
No longer bound
No more chains holding me
My soul is resting
It’s just a blessing
Praise the Lord
Hallelujah, I’m free
Praise the Lord
Hallelujah, I’m free
Praise the Lord
Hallelujah
I’m free
I’m free
Born again, born again
Born again (I’m free)
Born, born, born, born again
Saved and sanctified
Filled with the Holy Ghost (I’m free)
Baptized with the fire
Born again, born again, born again (I’m free)
I can feel the fire burning
Moving, moving, moving, moving, moving, moving (I’m free)
Moving, moving
Moving on the inside, somebody said
Jeremiah said it’s like fire (I’m free)
Burning deep down in my soul, I’m free
(I’m free)
I’m free, yes I am
I’m free (I’m free)
Oh, yes I am, yes I am
I’m free (I’m free)
Praise the Lord
Hallelujah, I’m free (oh yeah)
Praise the Lord
Hallelujah, I’m free
Praise the Lord
Hallelujah, I’m free
Halleluyah!
Shall we pray, sisters?
- Oh Lord Jesus, I acknowledge Your death on Calvary and I believe and confess that it is enough for the remission of my sins and deliverance from every yoke in the Mighty Name of Jesus.
- Oh Lord God Almighty, I receive the grace to detest sin and grace overcome every temptation of sin in the Mighty Name of Jesus. I believe it is possible through Your Blood to be righteous. I accept righteousness and renounce sin in the Mighty Name of Jesus.
- Dear Father, every yoke that I am bearing right now, that my family is bearing right now, as a result of sin, today I drop them all at the Calvary by the Power of the Holy Spirit in the Mighty Name of Jesus.
- By the power in the Name of Jesus, I break free from sinful yokes and oppression now! (Say it 7x and yank the yokes off your body and spirit as if you can see them)
- I plead the Blood of Jesus (7x) I plead the Blood of Jesus over my past sins and decree that they have no hold whatsoever on me anymore in the Name of Jesus.
- In the Name of Jesus, from this day forward, I live in the reality of the freedom that Christ has given me in the Name of Jesus.
- I declare that I (mention your full name) am no longer a captive of sin but a conqueror through Jesus’ Name. I am a conqueror, not a captive in the Name of Jesus (7x)
- I am born again and I begin to enjoy the privileges of my new identity in Jesus Name….
Let’s take our second song now as we launch into warfare prayers. Sing it out loud for the devil to hear. Sing it until you are led to continue.
Break every Chain by Tasha Cobbs.
There is power in the name of Jesus
There is power in the name of Jesus
There is power in the name of Jesus
To break every chain, break every chain, break every chain
To break every chain, break every chain, break every chain
There is power in the name of Jesus
There is power in the name of Jesus
(There is power) There is power in the name of Jesus (We know where it is)
To break every chain, break every chain, break every chain
To break every chain, break every chain, break every chain
There’s an army rising up
There’s an army rising up
There’s an army rising up
To break every chain, break every chain, break every chain
To break every chain, break every chain, break every chain
There’s an army rising up
There’s an army rising up
There’s an army rising up
To break every chain, break every chain, break every chain
(To break every) To break every chain, to break every chain, break every chain
The chains are broken (The chains are broken)
The chains are broken (The chains are broken)
The chains are broken (The chains are)
The chains are broken
I hear the chains falling
I hear the chains falling, the chains are falling
I hear the chains falling
You gotta hear it, I hear the chain (I hear the chains falling)
Hear it in the spirit
I hear the chains (I hear the chains falling)
Is loud in my ear
I hear the chains falling
I hear the chains falling
I hear the chains falling
Halleluyah!!!
Sisters, it’s time for some warfare prayer.
Remember, Ephesians 6:12 says: For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
So, we are going to wrestle all those evil associations now!
Are you ready?
Cry out loudly and in faith:
My Father in the Name of Jesus! I come to You today asking that You let every power and force working against my good crumble now by the power in the Name of Jesus. Crumble now! Crumble now! (Say 14x and pull those powers down with your hands!)
My Father, by Your power and authority, I take on the whole armour of God now and wrestle against the wiles of the devil troubling my life in Jesus’ Name!
Oh Lord! Every demonic affliction from the pit of hell, in my life, in the life of my family I begin to root you out right now in the Name of Jesus!
Oh Father! Any yoke associated with my birth; I renounce them now, out of my life in the mighty Name of Jesus!
My Father, my Father! I disassociate myself from every ancestral yoke and declare my freedom in the Name of Jesus! I declare my freedom! I declare my freedom! (7x)
Every demonic chain holding me to one spot, what are you waiting for? Be broken off me now! Be broken off me now!
Holy Spirit, lose from every limitation now and let me go in the mighty Name of Jesus! Lose me, let me go! Lose me, let me go! (7x)
Every devouring and ostracizing ailment and disease in my body, this body is not for you. I have been bought with a price. In the Mighty Name of Jesus, pack your load and go now!!! (7x)
Henceforth, I enjoy perfect health from the One through whose stripes I was healed (3x)
Everywhere my honour, progress and breakthrough have been buried, the power that raised Jesus from the grave, take off every gravestone and release my honour, progress and breakthrough unto me in Jesus’ Name!
Every yoke of marital delay in my life and family, you have no hold over me henceforth in the Name of Jesus. I shall be married well! My God-written love story is delivered to me now and I receive it in the Mighty Name of Jesus! (I receive! 21x)
Every form of a yoke around my neck, come off now! (Shake your head as you repeat this 7x)
Every yoke of barrenness, I have served you enough! You have enjoyed my tears enough! Come of my neck now in the Name of Jesus! (Come off now! Repeat until you are free to continue)
Do this for every yoke you have noticed in your life.
Continue to pray as the Lord leads you.
When you are done, raise your prayer journal and cry to the Lord ‘Oh ye requests of mine, I command you to begin to turn to me now for testimony in the Victorious Name of Jesus!’
Then, sing this song if you know it:
He has broken every fetter
He has broken every fetter
Jesus has broken every fetter
He has set me free
I will sing hallelujah
I will sing hallelujah
I will sing hallelujah
He has set me free.
Sing it will all joy and dance to the glory of God.
