Blockages To Freedom

Even after you have accomplished much work on your issues and your emotions, there can still be blockages to your total freedom from homosexuality. We need to understand this truth and look for these deeply held lies that can hold us in this sin.

The first and major blockage to total freedom is the lie that you will never be free. Even if you have worked extensively to uproot old emotional lies, this one lingering doubt about getting free can mean the difference in whether you can stand against temptation or not. You can feel you are solid in your walk out of homosexuality and be faced with a person who wants to seduce you and think of this lie and let it take you into either hopelessness or angry rebellion.

This comes from years of feeling like a loser and never able to succeed. You have felt beaten down and tired so “I’ll never be free.” rings with the false identity of loser. Everyone else is way ahead of me with home, spouse, children and car. Why should I try? ( But the truth is, you are probably doing work on your emotions that many people would never think to do and this is great success.)

The old lure of believing there could be “connection” moves in along with the lie that you’ll never be free. This is a major blockage to freedom and must be addressed with a powerful attack on these lies. There is no way you can never be free as long as you have faith in God’s promises and walk with Him. Here are some of those promises:

“It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1

If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. John 8:31-32

I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So is the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:36

Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.

But thanks be to God that though you used to be slaves to sin, you whole-heartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you have been entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
Romans 6:17-18

So it is proven here by the Word of God that all Christians can be set free from being slaves to sin. Being a slave to sin is more than just sinning.

Every man and woman who lives on this earth sins, but those who are slaves to sin make the choice to follow the evil desires and walk after the flesh and not the Spirit. They serve sin, do the work of sin and support its interests and sadly accept sin’s wages. So to hear that there is freedom from being a slave to sin is truly good news. This is the grace of God, His unmerited favor, on us who are slaves to sin. He will set us free–totally free.

The reason we go into believing we’ll never be set free from homosexuality is that we go into our old childhood emotions of hopelessness, anger and rebellion. We are mad that God does not seem to help us. But that is a lie about God because He is right there with you to help, and you know it, but we want to turn our mind off to His help and go to our quick-fix idols because we feel many ungodly emotions from our childhood at once–frustration, rejection, fear, pain, jealousy, hatred, vengeance–and we don’t want to feel these.

We want the fix we have used for years. The lie of the sexual touch. The lie is that it can bring love or acceptance or release or connection. It brings none of these. They are all counterfeits from Satan. It simply gives him a chance to put his hooks more deeply into us. The truth is the sexual experience brings confusion, torment and death. We all know this–after the orgasm when the shame and guilt set in.

So we must train ourselves to go to the truth of God’s Word instead of the lies of our childhood emotions and the ensuing desire for sex to be our answer. This is such an isolating and dead-end way of dealing with old emotions. You keep believing you’ll never be free from homosexuality and that very belief leads you to be open to practice the sin. Quite a trick of Satan!

If on the other hand you believe the Word of God that says, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” you can say no to the sexual sin because you believe you will be set free. He does not say He will set you free without you doing anything as many people cry out to Him to do.

So many people caught in this addiction want God to do it all. To stop the feelings entirely. He never promised that. He knows that you must do the work of learning how to resist sin and turn to Him and not the false god. This is what brings maturity and stability. He says clearly you must abide (live in continually) in His Word, really become His disciples (learners who do not resist His teaching) and then you will know the truth and it is the truth that will set you free.

So many people want love to set them free. There is even a popular false teacher today who teaches that you need “hug therapy” to be set free. True love (not hug therapy) is a great help but it is the truth that sets you free because it was the lies that enslaved you in the first place. “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator–who is forever praised. Amen (Romans 1:25)

So to be set free, we must become a learner who lives in God’s Word and ex- changes the lies for the truth. Live by truth. Than we will be set free by the power of living by the truth and not the lies. So break the power of that statement of discouragement and hopelessness, “I’ll never be free.” by choosing to say the truth, “God is setting me free by the power of His truth as I learn to live by it.”

This means breaking the lie of fantasy and unreality. Many of us have lived a false life in our minds, on the phone and internet, in the bars and on our beds. We have created a world of untruth and illusion–unreality–where we could feel we are in control, we could get back at those who hurt us or we felt special and got acceptance. All this is a blockage to the truth of God that is offered as the way to freedom. But to live in the lies is to continue the slavery and bondage.

Another blockage to truth and freedom is to say, “This is all I know.” in regard to homosexuality. It is true for some people that they have known no other sexual attraction except same-sex attraction. However, if this is not of God, and it certainly is not, then once again you are believing lies when you practice same-sex sin. This is not true sex.

God designed true sex and it is the only approved sexual union in the Bible—that union of a man and a woman in hetero-sexual marriage. All other sexual activity is ungodly and Satan’s counterfeit for God’s created design. So trade the statement, “This is all I know.” for ” I want to learn what God’s true sex is and be freed to experience godly marriage.”

Another blockage to freedom is living in passive helplessness and hopelessness. Always feeling like a victim and allowing lies to be where you live. Your past is over and if you continue to live in the experiences of the past, you cannot reach out for the hope of the future.

To hope in God and trust Him is to find who you are and the blessings of His love. You, because of the pain and internalized emotions of the past, misperceived God and how He deals with us. Job did the same thing when unresolved pain eroded his concept of God.

God is always loving and always working for our best because He plans for us to have abundant life. But there is no abundance in reaching out for old fleshly fixes–only frustration and remaining in bad feelings about ourselves. Truly receive His divine mercy and grace for your life. That is what He sent His Son to die for.

Mercy and grace on us through the power of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice. He will give you peace and joy as you see your help is in the name of the Lord. You can come boldly to His Throne of grace to find help in your time of need.

Come unto Me, all you who are heavy laden
and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me.
For I am gentle and lowly of heart
And you will find rest for your souls.
For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.
Matthew 11:16

Blockages To Freedom
by Joanne Highley