Empowerment and liberation are two words that I hear in the Spirit. God wants to empower His people, and He wants to liberate His people. Liberation is empowerment because when we are liberated, we are empowered.
Webster’s 1828 defines “liberate” as: “To free; to release from restraint or bondage; to set at liberty; as, to liberate one from duress or imprisonment; to liberate the mind from shackles of prejudice.” “Prejudice” is defined in Merriam Webster’s as: “Injury or damage resulting from some judgment or action of another in disregard of one’s rights.”
Our mind is what can be in shackles and imprisonment. We’ve all heard the saying the battle is in our mind. Jesus came to set free those who are at liberty and oppressed. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed” (Luke 4:18).
In order to receive the freedom Jesus came to offer, we must realize that we are bound. I am seeing in the spiritual realm that Christians are bound by a python spirit which is causing them to lose their passion and be prayerless and stagnant. The python spirit is masking itself and going undiscovered. People are feeling dry, stagnant and unproductive and unfruitful for the kingdom. The python spirit is at the core of our challenges, but people are not detecting this spirit and instead believe they are in the desert or a wilderness experience spiritually.
It is a spiritual attack from the enemy to cut off your prophetic destiny and attempt to take you off course of God’s plans for your life. The terms “desert” and “wilderness” have been overused in our spiritual walks. Instead, what has happened is the enemy has found a gateway into our souls, giving us a spiritual warfare attack we are unaware that we are fighting because we haven’t been taking every thought captive as the Bible instructs us to in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5. The Bible says, ” Be sober and watchful, because your adversary the devil walks around as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). He can’t devour us if we are sober, which means being watchful. Discovering the balance between giving the enemy too much credit and no credit at all will be the key to your liberation.
As our minds are freed, we are empowered, and I have really been feeling and receiving in the Spirit recently how much the Lord wants our liberation and minds freed. He desires the strongholds of our minds to be broken, no more shackles and no more chains. I keep seeing a person with their arms stretched out and chains that had been keeping them shackled together broken.
Liberation is empowerment! God needs us in His army to do His work. Jesus has already given us His authority. “Look, I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. And nothing shall by any means hurt you” (Luke 10:19). When we look at the definition of “empowerment,” it says: “The act or action of empowering someone or something: the granting of the power, right or authority to perform various acts or duties.” We see the correlation in the natural and spiritual with the words “power,” “might” and “authority,” the very things Jesus has given us.
In order to receive liberation and empowerment, we need to be determined and persistent to receive our freedom. We need to press into the very heart of God and ask the Holy Spirit to expose all those places within our soul that we need to release. We need to expect Jesus to be our deliverer and call on His name to deliver us. The Lord can and does supernaturally deliverance us; however, there are also times we have to co-labor with Him and do our part. God is on the edge of releasing a great liberation and empowerment for the Kingdom across the earth. What are you going to do to be a part of it and receive what He has for you? {eoa}
Kathy DeGraw is a prophetic deliverance minister releasing the love and power of God, to ignite and activate people, release prophetic destinies and deliver people from the bondage of the enemy. She is the founder of Kathy DeGraw Ministries and Be Love Outreach. She is the author of several books, including Speak Out, Discerning and Destroying the Works of Satan, Identity Invasion, Who is Speaking? and Warfare Declarations. You can connect with Kathy on Facebook at facebook.com/kathydegraw or visit kathydegrawministries.org.
Joyce Meyer 
Stephen Strang 
Charisma Media Staff 
