Breaking Chains

There are moments in life when betrayal, rejection, disappointment, and pain try to wrap themselves around our hearts like chains. At first the chains may seem small—an offense we never dealt with, words spoken over us that wounded deeply, a betrayal we never expected, or a season of suffering that slowly drained our hope. But over time, what began as pain can become bondage. We find ourselves thinking differently, responding differently, trusting less, fearing more, and struggling to move forward. The enemy loves to use brokenness to imprison God’s people emotionally, spiritually, and mentally. Yet the good news is this: Jesus came to break every chain. This is episode 8 of Freedom After Betrayal.

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Transcript

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Hi, I am Lois Wellington. We all desire the spiritual world, but you don't always know where to begin. On the new level await you, we might step you to my excitement. And reach new levels of greatness in the world. We'll begin the storm of every obstacle and into your specific excitement. So get ready to go from glory to glory as new levels await you. Well, welcome back. There are moments in life when betrayal and rejection, disappointment, and pain try to wrap around us our hearts like a chains, don't they? And at first the chains may seem small. It's an offense we never dealt with. Maybe words spoken over us that maybe uh have wounded us deeply. Or maybe it's a betrayal we never really expected. And it can be a season of suffering that slowly drained all of our hope. But over time, what began as pain can become bondage. We find ourselves thinking differently, responding differently, trusting less, fearing more, and struggling to move forward. The enemy loves to use brokenness to imprison God's people emotionally, spiritually, and mentally. Yet the good news is this: Jesus came to break every chain. Welcome to A New Level Awaits You. I'm Lois Fewelling, and today we're talking about breaking the chains. If you've walked through betrayal, deep wounds, disappointment, or seasons when you felt trapped by fear, shame, regret, bitterness, or hopelessness, this episode is for you. I want you to know from the very beginning that freedom is not only possible, it's part of your inheritance in Christ. So many believers love God deeply, but still live chained internally. They attend church, they worship faithfully, serve others while silently struggling beneath the surface. Some are chained to fear because of past trauma. Others are chained to rejection because someone they trusted them deeply has wounded them. Some are chained to shame from past failures or choices they regret. Others are chained to unforgiveness because the pain was so severe they cannot imagine releasing it. But Jesus never intended for us to survive in bondage. He came so that we can walk in freedom, wholeness, authority, and healing. Isaiah 61 gives us the clearest picture of the ministry of Jesus. He declared, The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners. That's in verse 1 in Isaiah. Do you notice that freedom and healing are connected? Jesus does not simply unlock chains while leaving hearts shattered. He heals the broken places that allowed the chains to remain. Sometimes we ask God to remove the bondage without allowing him to really touch the wound underneath of it. But true freedom requires surrender. We have to get to the foundation of all of this. We have to get down deep into what's really going on. And what I've learned through my experience is that these foundations are we have to go one level and then another level and another level down into it so that we can hit on the very place that is holding, held us captive and held us in this prison, this cell that we're in. God doesn't want that for us. He wants us to be released from this darkness that has chained us up. And what I've seen in my experiences recently is God is doing some amazing work. He's really going in there for those who allow him to. We can allow it to. We can allow betrayal to keep us chained up into our shame, into all these fears, into isolation. We can allow that to keep us in the prison cell. But I want you to know that pain does not get the final word either. We can release this. We can let some of this go. Because why? Because the cross has already settled that. Do you want to have a time where you can just come out of that prison cell? I know I did. I get to this place where I just have had enough. And that is when I start to open up my life to the Lord and say, okay, Lord, I've had enough. I'm just giving this all over to you. I don't want to stay in this pain anymore. I don't want to stay in this chaos. I don't want to stay in this devastation anymore. Our depression, I want to release it. But God showed me something else. There's been seasons in my life where the Lord showed me that chains are not always visible. Sometimes chains are internal agreements we unknowingly make in our pain. We believe things like, I can't trust anymore, and I will never trust anybody. I'll always be rejected. I'm not enough. And how about this one? Nobody really cares. This seems to be a big one today because so much selfishness is out there. We're all about ourselves, and we call it our rights to be and we're protecting something around us. But underneath is all these internal chains that are that are holding us captive in that. So we may have outward chains that we actually see. I can see them on people, and I mean not literally the chains, but I can see how they behave, I see how their their posture is, I see how they uh respond, how they react. I see what's over them. They're outward, but believe me, they're stemming from somewhere inward. But God says those, these greens can become spiritual strongholds that influence how we live. That's what I'm talking about. Spiritual strongholds that define whether we walk with our heads up or we're bowing down low under something, under the shame, under the intimidation, under the control, under things that cause us to not be able to look at people, have conversations with people. These are all chains. Or how about the other outward one? Anger. One of the greatest and biggest strongholds that we have is anger. And you'll see anger a lot out there today. But here's the thing 2 Corinthians 10, 4 through 5 reminds us for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. I love it because God pulls them down. He's the one that pulls them down. So a stronghold is often built through repeated thoughts, wounds, fears, lies. But what is built through lies can be demolished through truth. Freedom begins when we allow the word of God to confront the lies we embraced in our pain. There is a moment I realize that some people become so familiar with the chains that they begin adjusting their lives around them. I mean, they they come into such full agreement with these chains, it becomes what they want to be. I remember hearing one gentleman tell me, I'm just angry. This is just the way I am. You need to either accept me or not, that this is what I am. He was coming into agreement with a stronghold of anger. His face revealed it, his tone revealed it, his whole actions revealed it. You didn't even want to come in close to him because of it, because he just presented in that way. Now, was he truly an angry person? Was that in his natural nature that God created? No. But that was what he'd become because of circumstances and things that have happened to him, and he came into agreement with it. The same is true of fear. Anxiety is so common today. And yet we've come into that agreement with that. And what happens is we become it influences us that we become that. Here's the thing we need to start confronting these strongholds. We need to, you know, really face them. Because what happens when we come into agreement with these other strongholds? We begin to stop dreaming again. We begin to stop trusting again. We stop stepping into new opportunities because disappointment has conditioned us to expect the pain. But God did not create us to live emotionally handicapped to our past. Or should I say, handcuffed to our past. That's what it is. We're being handcuffed and put into prison. Galatians 5:1 declares, it is for freedom that God has set us free. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. You're a slave to it. So sad when we think about these things. We don't even consciously recognize that we become a slave to these strongholds. That verse is powerful because it reminds us that freedom must be protected. You know, sometimes I've seen change just break instantly through an encounter with God. Other times, freedom is a journey where God teaches us how to renew our minds, surrender our fears, confront unhealthy patterns, and trust him again one step at a time. I believe many people are carrying chains connected to disappointment with God. They prayed, they believed, they've trusted, and still experienced heartbreak. The enemy then uses that pain to create distance between them and the father. But God is not intimidated by our questions or our struggles. He invites us closer, not further away. Some of the deepest healing occurs when we bring our honest pain before Him instead of hiding it. In Acts 16, Paul and Silas were beaten, they were chained, they were thrown into prison. Now, naturally speaking, they had every reason to despair. Yet in the middle of their pain, they began to worship. They were serving the Lord, they were speaking the truth out to the Lord. And then some people, some of the Pharisees, came against them. And what happens here is they went and started to lie and complain about. I've spoken on this chapter before. And yet it says here, um, they threw him into jail and they clamped leg irons on them. This is in the message Bible. And along about midnight, Paul and Silas were at prayer and singing a robust hymn to God. The other prisoners couldn't believe their ears. Then, without warning, a huge earthquake. The jailhouse tottered, every door flew open, all the prisoners were loose. Started from sleep, the jailer saw all the doors swinging loose on their hinges. Assuming that all the prisoners had escaped, he pulled out his sword and was about to do himself in. Figuring he was as good as dead anyway, when Paul stopped him and said, Don't do that. We're all still here. Nobody's run away. The jailer got a torch and ran inside. Badly shaken, he collapsed in front of Saul and Silas. He led them out of the jail and asked, Sirs, what do I have to do to be saved? To really live. I like that. And Paul says, put your entire trust in the Master Jesus, then you'll live as you were meant to live, and everyone in your house included. Now, this is a powerful scripture because it shares about an encounter. Here's an encounter that happened for this jailer. And what happens is through that encounter, he discovered who Jesus really was, the power and the authority that Jesus walks in. And then he says, What do I have to do to really live? That's what I want to say to you today. Do you want these chains broken off? Do you want to learn how to really live in Christ? Paul gives tells us here, he says, put your trust entirely in Jesus. I love that passage for several reasons. One is I love the encounters of God because God can move in miraculous ways. He moved with an earthquake in this particular incident. But also, you notice that Paul and Silas prayed robust prayers, worshiped, because prayer and worship has a way of breaking chains. Praise shifts atmospheres. I've seen it happen, I've experienced it. Worship reminds our soul that God is still sovereign even when circumstances are painful. And when we open up those avenues of prayer and worship, our whole environment starts to explode with the very presence of God. And he begins moving mightily. Sometimes freedom begins when we stop magnifying the pain and start magnifying the greatness of God. But here's another key. Breaking chains also requires forgiveness. Now, forgiveness does not excuse what happened, nor does it deny the pain. Forgiveness releases us from becoming permanently tied to the offense. I love that definition. Unforgiveness keeps us emotionally connected to the wound. It allows the injury to continue influencing our life. But when we surrender the offense to God, healing begins to flow. Some of you today that are listening have been carrying chains for years. You've learned how to function while still wounded. But the Holy Spirit is inviting you into deeper freedom. He wants to heal what you've buried. He wants to restore what was stolen. He wants to remove the labels, shame placed on your life. He wants to remind you that your identity is not found in what happened to you, but who he says you are. You are not abandoned, you're not forgotten. You're not disqualified, and you're not permanently broken. You are loved by God, chosen by him, and called for purpose. Like I said, sometimes change break through one powerful encounter. Like I explained to you in Acts. I've had that experience in my life as well, where one encounter with the Lord just shifted me totally and broke things off of me. Other times they break link by link as we continually and consistently surrender to him. But either way, freedom comes through Jesus. The enemy cannot permanently hold captive what Jesus has redeemed. That's a powerful statement. Get this in your head. The enemy cannot permanently hold captive what Christ has redeemed. I want to encourage you today. Do not build your home in the prison of your pain. God has more for you. There is life beyond betrayal. There is healing beyond rejection. And there's hope beyond disappointment. There is joy beyond sorrow. And there's purpose beyond the battle you've survived. And so as we close today, I want to just pray for you. Lord, I thank you for every person listening today. You see every hidden wound, every disappointment, every betrayal, every fear, and every chain they have carried. And I ask in the name of Jesus right now that you begin to break every chain that has held them captive, that you will heal broken hearts, that you will restore hope, that you will remove shame. Silence those lies in the name of Jesus. Renew minds. Pour out your peace where anxiety is ruled, and your love where rejection has wounded deeply. Oh Lord, teach us to walk in freedom and truth. Let us encounter your presence in a fresh and powerful way. And remind us, Lord, that we're not defeated, we're not abandoned, and we're not forgotten. Remind us repeatedly, Lord, that we belong to you. We are yours, we are your child. You are always with us, and you give us every single thing we need to survive beyond all of this and enter into a new freedom, a new restored trust, and a new renewed purpose. In Jesus' precious name, amen. Well, I want to thank you for again for joining me on a new level away with you. I know that chains were broken today because that's who Jesus is, and he breaks them off in this. So don't allow those chains to get the final word because Jesus does. Remember that. Jesus has the final word. God bless you in every way. I want to thank you for watching and joining me on this journey as we go higher. Expect to grow, expand your territory, and enter into new levels of intimacy with the Lord. Check out my website at loisforwelling.com for books, online courses, podcasts, and other resources to help you soar in the Lord. Are you interested in increasing your confidence, being able to speak assertively, subdue your fears, manage life situations effectively, and overcome rejection or betrayal so that you can tenaciously stand back up again? Then you must sign up for a free strategy session so we can design a plan specifically for you. I now offer one on one coaching sessions with group sessions coming soon. My heart is to equip and make disciples and advance them into living a life more abundantly. Yes, my website is loisfelling.com. Check it out, and I hope to be talking to you soon.