Dealing With Problems
Cancelling Out Emotional,
Physical, Sexual, Spiritual
and Verbal Abuse
Dealing With Problems
Cancelling Out Emotional,
Physical, Sexual, Spiritual
and Verbal Abuse
Solutions > Examples and Methods for Breaking Free
Cancelling Out Abuse > Emotional, Physical, Sexual, Spiritual (This page)
Breaking Free from > Anger, Fury, Rage
Breaking Free from > Suicidal and Self-harm Thoughts
Breaking Free from > Controlling Sexuality
Breaking Free from > Toxic Relationships
Click on a topic below, or scroll through to the Introduction
Abuse can take many forms, some of which are described in the page title.
It can take place as a single event, or repeated on many occasions over many years. The trauma that accompanies it can be shrugged off, discarded, or held onto for as long as or even longer than the abuse situation itself lasted.
Physical trauma can involve things such as cuts, bruises, broken bones from an accident or physical abuse, complications from a serious illness or operation, or the result of assault (domestic violence and more) or acts of aggression such as robbery, civil unrest or warfare.
Emotional trauma often follows physical trauma, or it can come as the result of abuse or even one's own mistake(s). Emotional trauma generally results from the way we react to a situation that is seemingly outside of our control.
Often this results in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a serious psychological condition frequently attached to trauma. The trauma does not even have to be extreme or serious; rather, it's the way we perceive it and then react to what can be a simple or non-event for others, which seems to determine whether we suffer from PTSD or not.
Whatever the diagnosis, the treatment and its cure can be quite simple.
The story of Joseph, the abuse he suffered and his triumph over it, is an unusual story because of his victory over circumstances. Well, mostly.
Favoured by his father in front of the other boys because he was the son of his father's first love, Rachel, and being not slow in coming forward to his father with a bad report about four of his brothers, Joseph only made himself more hated by sharing with his siblings and then his parents two dreams he had had. He was just seventeen.
Liberally interpreted, Joseph's dreams implied that he would be in a position of leadership greater than anyone else in his family, but when his brothers sold him to Ishmaelite traders on their way to Egypt, who on-sold him to an officer in the Egyptian pharaoh's court, that did not seem likely.
However, Joseph applied himself diligently to his role as a slave in Potiphar's house, and because God was working with him, he excelled in everything, and his master and his household prospered at God's hands also.
Well, that was until Potiphar's wife wanted to have sex with Joseph. In a case of reverse sexual abuse, Joseph declined repeatedly, but eventually Potiphar's wife accused him of attempting to rape her. He was thrown into prison for his (unknown to Potiphar) Godly attitude and left to languish there for years. What was happening to his dreams?
Strangely enough, Joseph's attitude and leadership ability were quickly recognised in prison, and he was placed in charge of all the other prisoners. Once again, God was prospering his work.
When two of the pharaoh's servants were thrown into gaol with him, Joseph successfully interpreted their dreams, but the butler quickly forgot who had helped him after he was restored to the pharaoh's service. It took another two years for the butler to remember Joseph's dream interpretation skills after his boss himself had an obscure dream.
After calling for Joseph to be brought forward, Joseph again declared God as the author of dream interpretations and, for his wisdom in declaring how the dream revelations were to be handled, Joseph was suddenly elevated to second in the land. He had been in Egypt for thirteen years in the most deprived circumstances.
But there is an important part of this story which I have left out.
Many, perhaps most people, after suffering for a long time, cannot get past the offence, the suffering, the abuse, deprivation or injustice of what has happened to them, and seek to make it known and bring recompense for their pain. Not Joseph.
In a sentence in a verse which stands out in the whole of the Old Testament, perhaps in all of Scripture, we read:
"Then pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon. But Joseph shaved himself, changed his clothes, and made himself presentable; then he came into pharaoh's presence." Genesis 41:14 (AMP)
But Joseph didn't always get it right. When he was elevated to second-in-command he was also given two daughters from the priest of On (a heathen deity) as wives, and these led him mix idolatry and divination with the things of God.
In the end, though, when he considered the wrong his brothers had done to him, with no thought of vengeance in his mind, he said to them, "You thought evil against me, but God meant it for good." In spite of serving ten years as a slave, and then three years in prison for a crime he did not commit, he carried no malice towards those who had harmed him, but just saw God's direction and provision instead.
Like many of us, Abraham had a strong encounter with the Living God that changed his direction and, ultimately, the life of generations to come.
In the beginning he responded quickly to what God had told him but then, as happens with us, too, God left subsequent decisions up to him. Those decisions were not always founded in God, or in trusting God.
If Abraham was "the father of faith" why did he twice sell his wife into sexual slavery in (totally unjustified) fear for his own life? Why did he not value the life and sexual integrity of the mother of the future son of promise? God would have certainly had a way to protect him from the possibly lustful eyes of the ruler of the land to which they had emigrated. Surely...
Why did Sarah call her husband "lord" or master, and suggest that he have sex with her foreign maid to bring the son of promise into being? I'm quite sure that she was afraid of him, knowing that he did not really value her and would stop at nothing to get what he wanted.
Were Abraham's actions acceptable in the society of his day?
That's not the question, it never is. Instead we must ask, "Were Abraham's actions justifiable or acceptable in his relationship with God?" Are our actions justifiable or acceptable in our relationship with God?
After the second sexual slavery transaction, like the first, was halted by God (Genesis 20) we read in the beginning of Genesis 22, "After these things, God tested Abraham." God did not need to know how Abraham would react; Abraham needed to know whether he would finally trust in God and a God-type of solution.
Many people today still miss those God-type solutions.
It was pretty bad, and only became worse.
We tend to think that the Old Testament "men of God" were without fault, beyond reproach, just because of who they were, because of their position before God. That's not the case.
Samuel misrepresented God at times, and misrepresented what God had said to him. He used fear tactics to punish the people for wanting a king, something that God had planned-for 500 years earlier, and then displayed pettiness and a distorted view of God towards the king. Not good, and that's not all.
How did a mighty man of God like Samuel was meant-to-be get into such a mess, and become a spiritual abuser? Personal failures which he never acknowledged and never dealt with.
You can read about it here.
(Note that in the New Testament - in the New Covenant that is - every believer is a man/woman/child of God. There is not meant to be any hierarchy among believers.)
The important thing to note is that, after Samuel drew Saul out of the crowd at God's direction and anointed him as king, his words were more often negative towards the new king. Samuel was not a man who chose to encourage.
Saul was initially unwilling to become Israel's first king, but warmed somewhat to the idea after the Spirit of God came mightily upon him and he prophesied like those in Samuel's school of the prophets.
For the first 25 years of his 40 year reign he tended to follow God; well, Samuel's sometimes somewhat-distorted version of what God wanted Saul and the people to do. During that time he also won many victories over Israel's enemies, and enlarged their territory.
When he made mistakes he would (sometimes only eventually) acknowledge them, and desire to worship God. Samuel was not always willing to join him in this. While Deuteronomy, Joshua and Judges show that the people saw God as "the Lord our God," whenever Saul spoke with Samuel, Saul spoke of "the Lord your God," and Samuel never once corrected him. In fact, Samuel's actions showed clearly that he wanted the people to fear him as much as they feared God.
Samuel never wanted a king, seeing that as a personal and familial rejection, and he made sure that, after his coronation, Saul would not feel comfortable in his God-ordained role.
It's possible that Saul was head-strong and somewhat unwilling to be schooled in the ways of God by the priests of Israel who accompanied and supported him. After Samuel spoke a number of times to de-stabilise his kingship and eventually abandoned him, Saul went into depression, and when he did not deal positively with that, oppression took over. He never recovered more than momentarily, and ultimately made bad choices which led to his death and the unnecessary death of his son, Jonathan.
You can read more about this, here.
Temptation was not unique to Adam and Eve in the Garden - it's real for all of us as well. Continually, daily. Temptation comes as a seemingly rational, logical and valid thought originating within our own reasoning, to do something wrong or harmful, either to ourselves or someone else. However, temptation always has an external, evil-spirit source.
When we succumb to temptation to feel sorry for ourselves, or to get angry with someone over some issue, whether serious or not, we open ourselves up to be emotionally, physically or spiritually attacked by the enemy. (I have just mentioned two strong temptations - there are many more.)
In Saul's case the attack came in the form of seriously increasing, negative thinking which ultimately became oppression: the seemingly reasonable, the seemingly valid, the seemingly uncontrollable suggestion to kill a potential rival. That did not originate in his own rational thinking, but as subtle suggestions from the evil spirit which oppressed him.
Saul's temporary solution was to listen to peaceful music, but there are even more effective ways for us to handle this today.
It might not always seem easy to say "Yes" to a call from God, but it is essential to do so. It's not an option, as Jeremiah found out. (It took me just 30 years to realise that for myself.) But as Jeremiah also found out, God provides the "tools" to make it all work. He still does the same today.
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I set you apart...and I appointed you as..." Jeremiah 1:5 (All verses AMP)
We might hear something similar within us, or something totally different, or these words themselves might come alive as we read them as they did for me: that is God's call!
"Then said I, Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am only a youth." v6.
Our objections don't matter. To do what God has designed for us will only bring spectacular results, either here, or on Judgment Day.
"But the Lord said to me, Say not, I am only a youth; for you shall go to all to whom I will send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak." v7
"Be not afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord." v8.
In this verse "them" refers to anything we might think of that is a possible impediment or inability to do what God has designed for us.
"Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, Behold, I have put My words in your mouth." v9.
God will call us to something that we do not have a natural talent for, and so They will empower us in a special, suitable way that is appropriate for what we have been called to do. It could be any of the manifestations of Holy Spirit listed in 1 Corinthioans 12, or in Romans 12. It could be something else entirely - God is not limited by our imaginations or expectations.
"See, I have this day appointed you to...to root out and pull down...to build and to plant." v10.
Note that the destruction named in this verse is of wrong ideas, wrong plans, wrong intentions of the people to whom Jeremiah (and we) will speak. God is not destructive per se.
"Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Jeremiah, what do you see? And I said, I see a branch of an almond tree." v11.
This was a vision: God will show us something when we accept the call that will be meaningful to us. It might be an object, it might be us helping people, or it might be a scene where we are addressing multitudes, or anything in between. It doesn't really matter what it is because it is God's way for us individually to receive confirmation of what we have heard in the call.
"Then said the Lord, You have seen well, for I am active and alert, watching over My word to perform it." v12.
Whatever we saw, whatever we heard, God will bring it to pass as long as we agree to go forward. If we don't follow through we can expect great problems at the hands of the enemy, since they are empowered to attack us when we don't do what God has set before us. Those problems could include anything, such as depression, accidents, sickness, pain, loss and destruction, and often in a repetitive, sometimes continual, sometimes random pattern that just does not make sense.
"But you, gird up your loins; arise and tell them all that I command you. Do not be dismayed at their faces, lest I permit you to be overcome." v17
Time to go to work. God gives us authority in situations where we would not otherwise have it. No matter what the situation looks like, the reputation and presence that God gives us before the people we are called to minister to will carry the day. If we falter, though, that presence of God might not be enough, but only if we falter. That's the same as 'entertaining doubts' or 'becoming concerned' about our challenges.
"For I, behold, I have made you this day a fortified city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land..." v18
That is strength and impregnability that Jeremiah (and you and I) did not have outside of the call of God, but we do have it within God's call - it really does work that way.
"And they shall fight against you, and they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you." v19.
Note that the word 'prevail' means 'to withstand an attack'. In other words, the people that Jeremiah was challenging at God's direction would not be able to withstand his wisdom, grace and truth. He would win out, because God was with him. Oh, that same guarantee applies to us, also!
Jeremiah spoke many positive words, including critically central teachings about the New Covenant under which we live, in chapters 29-33. Interspersed among these were some intensely critical words about the religious and civil rulers of his day, and the people in general. Ultimately those words were so hard to take that at one stage he ended up in the poo, literally!
It is important to remember in ministry that we are remain upbeat and positive within our own thinking about God's ability to save us and bring us through the mess which sometimes accumulates in the wake of the messages we are given to share. Jeremiah did not always do that, with some disastrous results.
Some upbeat verses:
"I will give you shepherds after My own heart...they shall no more say, The ark of the covenant of the Lord...they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord, and all the nations shall be gathered to it. Nor shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their own heart." Jeremiah 3:15-17
"Thus says the Lord, Let not the wise person glory in his wisdom; let not the mighty person glory in his strength; let not the rich person glory in his riches. But let him who glories glory in this: that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who practices loving-kindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, says the Lord." Jeremiah 9:23-24
"Most blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord..." Jeremiah 17:7
"For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, and shall not fear when heat comes, he shall not be anxious in the year of drought, nor shall he cease from yielding fruit." v8
"For I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord, plans for peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.
"Then you will call upon Me...and I will hear you. Then you will seek Me and find Me; when you search for me with all your heart,
"I will be found by you, says the Lord." Jeremiah 29:11-14
Some of the upbeat verses had a sting in their tail:
"Now therefore, say...to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,, Thus says the Lord, Return now every one from his evil way:
"But they say, That is in vain, for we will walk after our own devices." Jeremiah 18:11-12
Some downbeat verses:
"Then I [Jeremiah] said, Alas, Lord God, surely You have misled this people and Jerusalem, saying, You shall have peace, whereas the sword has reached..." Jeremiah 4:10
Jeremiah might have been thinking out loud for the people he was delivering the message to, but by expressing it as his doubt he was potentially opening up himself to an enemy attack.
"An appalling thing has come to pass in the land: The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule at the hands of the prophets. And My people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?" Jeremiah 5:30-31.
"We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, but behold, dismay." Jeremiah 8:15.
"And the Lord said to me...For I earnestly warned your fathers, even to this day, persistently, saying, Obey my voice, Yet they did not obery, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of his own evil heart." Jeremiah 11:6-8
Jeremiah, like some prophets before him (Samuel, Elijah), was prepared to bring curses upon his fellow countrymen:
"And the Lortd gave me knowledge of it...then You showed me their doings.
"But I was like a tame lamb that is brought to the slaughter, I did not know that they had devised schemes against me, saying, Let us...cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.
"But, O Lord of Hosts who judges rightly, let me see your vengeance on them..." Jeremiah 11:18-20.
"O Lord, let me plead the case with You...You are near in their mouth and far from their heart....O Lord, You have seen my heart toward You,...prepare them for the day of slaughter." Jeremiah 12:1-3.
"Then my enemies said, Come, let us devise schemes against Jeremiah...let us smite him with the tongue...remember that I stood before You to speak good for them...
" Therefore, deliver up their children to the famine; give them over to the power of the sword, and let their wives become childless and widows. Let their men meet death by pestilence,, their young men be slain by the sword in battle." Jeremiah 18:18-23.
Aren't we glad that Jesus said, "Bless those who curse you, do good to those who spitefully use you?"
Some self-destruction verses:
By chapter 15 Jeremiah was feeling the weight of his negative messages; actually, not just the weight of the messages, but the negative responses of his fellow-countrymen.
"Woe is me, my mother, that you bore me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth!...every one of them curses me." v10.
"The Lord said, Truly your release (and) affliction shall be for your good; surely I will intercede for you with the enemy...in the time of evil and in the time of affliction." v11.
Evil and affliction are the work of the enemy, not God. Note that 'intercede' and 'intercession' do NOT refer to prayer, but to the fact that the Angel of the Lord, the Old Testament portrayal of Jesus, steps in between God the Father and the accuser to defend us, and intervenes on our behalf for no penalty or a lesser penalty for what we have done wrong. See "The Accuser is Not the Only One at Work" here.
Had Jeremiah done something wrong?
Here are some more of his words of self-pity and despair; I feel for him:
"O Lord, You know; remember me and visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors;,,,know that for Your sake I suffer." v15.
It's easy to let the problems of ministry outweigh the presence and blessing of God, unless we continually force out such negativity. Once we allow negativity in, which comes from the enemy in the form of temptation, it's easy to fluctuate between two states, positivity with exhilaration, and negativity with despair. That's what now happens with Jeremiah.
"Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me...the rejoicing of my heart. For I am called by Your name, O Lord of Hosts." v16
"I was not in the assembly of those who make merry...I sat alone...for You have filled me with indignation." v17
"Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will You indeed be to me as a deceitful brook, like waters that fail?" v18.
Once we give in to those self-important, self-preserving feelings from the enemy, God incorrectly appears to us as the adversary and we become subject to great turmoil and confusion. It can take a lot of work, a lot of push-back to turn things around - we tend to then place ourselves in situations where we don't readily hear from God.
God now speaks back to Jeremiah:
"Therefore thus says the Lord, If you return then I will give you again a settled place of quiet and you shall be My minister; and If you separate the precious from the vile you shall be as My mouthpiece. And I will make you to this people a fortified, brazen wall. They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail over you, for I am with you to save you, says the Lord. And I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked." v20, 21a.
As God often does, that is a repeat of Jeremiah's initial protection guarantee. Will he continue to walk in it?
Jeremiah's Tough Messages Brought Backlash...
In Jeremiah 20,:1-2 Pashur, the son of the priest who was also the chief officer in the house of the Lord, "heard Jeremiah prophesying these things...," and "beat Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the Lord."
In Jeremiah 26:8, 24 "...the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, You shall surely die! Why have you prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, This...city shall be desolate without an inhabitant?"
"But the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death."
In Jeremiah 27 the prophet made wooden yoke bars with leather thongs at God's command, sent them to four nearby kings, and wore one himself. God's message was that Judah and the surrounding nations should surrender to Nebuchadnezzar and serve him for a time, to avoid destruction and desolation at his hands. He also spoke against the false prophets who were claiming otherwise.
Later that same year (see chapter 28) Hananiah, one of the false prophets, prophesied that God had "broken the yoke of the king of Babylon" and that God would return within two years all the vessels from the temple which had been taken to Babylon.
"The prophet Jeremiah said, Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord perform your words which you have prophesied...Nevertheless, hear this word which I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people...
"...as for the prophet who prophesies of peace, when that prophet's word comes to pass, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent him." Jeremiah 28:6,7,9.
Hananiah then made a bold move, as some prophets are wont to do, and took the yoke bar off Jeremiah's neck and broke it, to demonstrate how God would break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar within two years. (That did not happen.) God then spoke to Jeremiah.
"Go, tell Hananiah, Thus says the Lord, you have broken yoke bars of wood, but you have made in their stead bars of iron."
However, Jeremiah did not deliver that message, as far as can be determined. Instead, he turned it into a curse, in much the same way that Samuel did on several occasions when he was dealing with the Israelites and King Saul. While we don't see any penalty for Samuel, there definitely were penalties for Jeremiah.
"Then said the prophet Jeremiah to Hananiah the prophet, Listen now, Hananiah,The Lord has not sent you, but you have made this people trust in a lie.
"Therefore, thus says the Lord (actually, thus says Jeremiah): Behold, I will cast you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die, because you have uttered rebellion against the Lord." Jeremiah 28:15-16
Hananiah died two months later.
Death does not come from God, but the enemy. When we utter something evil like this, because of the authority vested in us and in our words by God at our call, when we speak a curse the enemy are empowered to bring that to pass. Elisha spoke wrongly over some boys who were mocking him, and they were attacked by a she-bear. Samuel called down a curse, in the name of the Lord, mind you, on the Israelites' harvest on the day of their new king's inauguration. He also distorted God's words about King Saul when he was conveying them to Saul. These men, and many more besides them, have either suffered in life because they spoke, not from God but from the enemy, or they will suffer loss on Judgment day.
That these things and more came to pass without correction from God does not indicate God's approval or complicity in what occurred.
The wrong thing that someone with a prophetic gifting or calling speaks might not be a curse - it could be a prophecy that God has not authorised. Somehow Balaam (Numbers 22-24) knew that he must not speak against or contrary to what God had told him to say.
In any case people might be left wondering, Why does God not correct or at least speak against these errors?
That is not how God works. That is not the obvious message from Scripture.
Right from the beginning we see this principle in practice, in execution.
In Genesis 3 the tempter mixes truth with error:
Genesis 3:4 "But the ‘enchanter’ said to the woman, You shall not surely die" = Lie
Genesis 3:5a "For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened" = True
Genesis 3:5b "and you will be as God" = Lie
They were already 'like' God - one cannot become more 'like God' by disobeying something they say.
Genesis 3c "knowing the difference between good and evil, blessing and calamity" = True for them but = Lie for God
The word 'know' is the same one used to describe the act of sexual intercourse throughout the Old Testament. God does not have an intimate connection with or experience of evil or calamity. We do, though.
We would expect God to correct this somewhere, but verse 22 seems to only amplify the error, as if to make it truth.
"And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of Us, to know good and evil, blessing and calamity;"
That is a figure of speech called antiphrasis, or saying the opposite of what is correct for the sake of emphasis, and/or irony, where the opposite effect to what has been expected or desired is unfortunately achieved. This is explained in greater depth in God's Love.
Jesus also followed this pattern, in the temptation in the wilderness, when the adversary took him to a high place and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world.
"And he said to Him, To You I will be giving all this authority and their glory, for it has been turned over to me, and I give it to whom I will." Luke 4:6
Really? When did that happen?
Even though both Psalm 24:1 and Jeremiah 27:4-6 both say that God is still fully in control, because Jesus did not refute this spurious claim a lot of people actually think that the devil has control over the kingdoms of the world. Not so. Jesus described him as "a liar and the father of lies." John 8;44.
What an honour. You can read all about it here.
Jeremiah was shut up in the court of the guard of King Zedekiah, because he kept prophesying that the people remaining in Jerusalem would also be overrun. The king was upset at his negativity, and kept him isolated to prevent him from affecting the resolve of the Jews to resist.
One day his cousin came to ask Jeremiah to redeem the field belonging to his father (Jeremiah's uncle) that was in nearby Anathoth. God had told him that would happen, and that he should buy the field. That might not seem like such a good idea if the area was going to be overrun by invaders, but Jeremiah did as he was told. He completed the elaborate deed signing and sealing, and on God's instructions placed them in an earthenware vessel for long-term safekeeping, before giving God's prophetic explanation.
"...thus says the Lord of Hosts...Houses and fields and vineyards shall be purchased yet again in this land." Jeremiah 32:15.
At this stage even Jeremiah had some doubts. He prayed:
"Alas, Lord God! Behold, You made the heavens and the earth by Your great power...There is nothing too hard for You." Jeremiah 32:17.
And he spent the next eight verses praising God's goodness. However, that word "alas' at the beginning, which is an old fashioned word we have replaced with 'unfortunately', suggests that Jeremiah has a problem, and it is the fact that he was told to buy land when the area was under the control of the Chaldeans.
God responds:
"Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is there anything too hard for Me?" Jeremiah 32:27.
"I am giving this city into the hand of the Chaldeans..." v28
"For this city has been to Me a provocation...from the day that they finished building it." v31
"They have turned their back to me and not their face..." v33
"And now, therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city..." v36
"Behold, I will gather them out of all countries to which I drove them...I will bring them back again to this place, and I will nake them dwell safely." v36
"Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good..." v41
This is the nature of prophecy: that there can be more than one point in time when a prophecy applies. It appled to the Babylonian captivity, and it is still being applied in Israel today. It's important to note that israel today is still applying ungodly methods to the way they are living in the land. Jesus, their Messiah and ours, taught a completely different way to deal with enemies. You cannot kill them all - love, instead, is the way, and making friends "by means of unrighteous mammon" (spending money to befriend people).
In chapter 36, Jeremiah is in hiding. God instructs him to have Baruch write down his prophecies. Baruch did so, and then took the scroll and read it in the temple. Some princes, members of the king's court, heard his words and organised for hone of the princes to read them before the king.
As soon as he had read three or four columns, the king would cut that section of the scroll and burnt it in his fire. He continued to do so "until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire." No one could persuade him not to burn the scroll, so God had Jeremiah and Baruch produce another scroll to replace it, "and besides them many similar words were added."
The problem was that the Jews of that era simply did not want to believe that their wickedness had led to God lifting Their arm of protection from the nation. Because it was known that a genuine spokesperson (prophet) from God could speak things that would come to pass, it was also felt that, if that person could be forced to change their words, then a crisis might be averted. There was also a certain amount of "there's nothing we can do about it because God's mind is made up," but God was actually looking for a change of heart in the stubborn people.
"Thus says the Lord...speak to all the cities of Judah...It may be they will listen, and turn every man from his evil way..." Jeremiah 26:2-3
In chapter 36 God addressed Jeremiah in a similar way:
"Take a scroll for a book and write on it all the words I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah...It may be that the house of Judah will hear...so that every one may return from his evil way..." Jeremiah 36:2-3
In chapter 37 Jeremiah went out to visit his plot of land at Anathoth. A sentry stopped him at the gate of Benjamin, claiming he was deserting to the Chaldeans. Jeremiah denied that, but he was handed over to the princes there.. They "were enraged with Jeremiah, and beat him and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe." v15
Eventually the king rescued him from there and confined him in the court of the guard. He was then given a loaf of bread a day until the bread ran out. Eventually the princes complained to the king that Jeremiah had advised people to desert to the Chaldeans to save their lives. They asked for him to be put to death. In his politically weakened state King Zedekiah released Jeremiah to the princes, who had a slow, lingering death in mind.
"So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern pit (also known as a cesspool, the underground tank to hold human waste) ...which was in the court of the guard, and they let Jeremiah down with ropes. And in the cistern pit there was no water, but mire, and Jeremiah sank in the mire." Jeremiah 38:6
One of the king's eunuchs reported to Zedekiah what was happening. The king sent him back with thirty men to rescue Jeremiah from the pit. He remained in the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was taken by the Chaldeans.
...or Disbelief
...or Both
They could have been recent or long ago, back in the past.
"Don't climb up there, you might fall."
"You always make the same mistakes," or "Can't you ever get it right?"
"You're useless," or "You're stupid," or "You're ugly," or "You're fat."
"Jesus doesn't like that," or "God hates what you are doing." And so on.
For the first forty years of my life I would have occasional nightmares, less often as I got older. I grew up on a farm next to a railway line, in the days of steam trains. I loved to go outside and watch the trains go by; sometimes they would stop opposite our rural house for some reason or another, before 'choof-choof-choofing" off again. We lived a mile out of town, and when I heard the loud steam whistle at the level crossing up the road I would waddle outside with a warning from my mother in my ears.
Decades later I was in Sun City, an outlying city in greater Phoenoix, AZ, when I once more heard the warning whistle from a modern, diesel locomtive, about half a mile away. It was the same sound I used to hear as a child, and it sent shivers down my back. Why?
It seemed that the trigger for the nightmares was still with me.
In them I would hear the whistle, and go outside to watch for the train. As it got near our place I had to go inside the house and hide, otherwise the train would "get me." Sometimes it would come off the tracks and slowly chase me down, or the driver and fireman would get out after stopping the train and catch me. If I left it too late before I started to head inside, my movements became excruciatingly slow, and I would be caught. And then I would wake up.
So I asked, "Why am I still triggered by that sound, what's going on?" And God opened my memories so that I could resolve the problem.
When I was a toddler, my mother would say to me something like, "Don't go over the road, the train will get you."
I did cross the road at some stage, but only to stand and look through the fence along the railway line. But whether it was that lapse in rigid obedience, or just the general, fear-based warning, I had unconsciously allowed the enemy to get a foothold in the innermost recesses of my soul. And so, just a couple of years ago, I applied the very same technique to myself that we have used successfully with many people.
It goes like this:
1) Process the memory, ask God to restore it, if necessary.
2) If the memory is strong and painful - violent, physically or verbally abusive, traumatic in some other way (such as an accident) we need to take responsibility for the way we felt or feel now. This is NOT taking responsibility for any abuse or trauma directed at us by someone else. See point 4).
3) Hold out your hands before God, at waist height, palms up and open to receive. Do not close your eyes as you do this, or pray with your mind or your lips. Wait ten to twenty seconds like this before proceeding.
This is a special type of prayer, according to Lamentations 3:41. Many people get set free or healed just by following the instruction above. It is correctly translated by AMP pre 1987, Young's Literal Translation and the Interlinear Scripture Analyzer 3:
"Let us lift up our heart on our hands to God in Heaven."
In essence, Psalm 37:4 says that as you "Delight yourself in the Lord, He will grant you the desires of your heart." Lifting up hands before God in this way seems to achieve just that for many people!
4) Say out loud, softly is fine, but don't try to do this just in your mind or heart - it is important to vocalise this, even in a small way:
"I'm sorry I was abused/scared/traumatised/told I was useless/didn't take notice of what I was told." Insert or add the appropriate action words for your unique situation - these suggestions are just to help you find a suitable expression(s) to use.
Note that you are not apologising to or for the abuser as if you deserved the abuse.
5) It is not uncommon for those who have been abused, especially in childhhood, to in turn use similar, abusive tactics on others: perhaps their children, family, workers or social contacts. Release comes through owning (accepting responsibility) for the flawed
attitudes. Like this example:
"I'm sorry that I adopted similar patterns to the abuse that was inflicted upon me, and have used similar tactics on family/relatives/friends/co-workers/neighbours/employees (choose or substitute whatever is appropriate for your situation). I should not have done that, I won't do it again, and I want to repair the damage where I can."
6) "I'm sorry that fear/anger/uncertainty/hopelessness/revenge/self-destruction (insert or add whatever is appropriate to your situation) has taken hold of me. I don't want this anymore. I bundle this/these things up and place them on my hands now."
7) At this point you are going to pass/hand these things to Jesus - He wants to take our burdens from us. Once you have placed everything on your hands that you want to be rid of, gently throw them straight up. (Don't throw your hands over your shoulders - you don't want to put these things behind you, but give them to Jesus to dispose of).
8) Then say, as you throw these things up gently, "Jesus, I give you these things that have burdened me." Pause for a second or two, then, "Thank You, Jesus, for setting me free."
It works!
(Sometimes it will come back as a temptation and catch us unawares, so that we hold onto it again - repeat the above steps as necessary.)
This is a work in progress (June 2025)
Solutions > Examples and Methods for Breaking Free
Cancelling Out Abuse > Emotional, Physical, Sexual, Spiritual (This page)
Breaking Free from > Anger, Fury, Rage
Breaking Free from > Suicidal and Self-harm Thoughts
Breaking Free from > Controlling Sexuality
Breaking Free from > Toxic Relationships