Who Are You Giving Power Over Your Life?

Something similar to leaving dark doors open in your life is allowing someone or something other than God to have power over you.

Let me begin with a caveat.

When you were a child, it was good that someone else had power over you.

Children need to be cared for because they can’t care for themselves. They require wisdom to be input into them. They don’t know yet what is good and what is not. They need to be taught what is safe and what is dangerous. They can’t yet discern the truth or protect themselves, so it is especially important that they are shielded from lies and abusive influences until such a time as they can be taught how to handle such influences themselves. They must receive accurate and loving teaching in order to nurture them into strong adults who are capable of making wise decisions.

Children haven’t learned yet how to manage their lives properly. They need someone else to do that for them.

But you are no longer a child.

When children grow into adults, they have power over themselves. It is not healthy for adults to seek approval from their kindergarten teachers and childhood babysitters before making their own decisions. Adults don’t need permission to go to the grocery store and buy what they need - or even what they want.

You are an adult.

You should always be aware of when you’re giving power to someone else.

Giving power to other people

You’re giving other people power over your life any time you…

Giving power to demons

Watch out for the following, because they can open dark doors, allowing demons to oppress you and have power over your life:

Also be careful not to compromise your emotions. When you listen to music, read books, watch movies, play games, watch television, listen to the news, etc., you’re receiving a lot of input and much of it happens on a subconscious level.

If you start to notice a decline in your mood or attitude, consider the media and other influences you’ve been consuming.

Those influences can very subtly affect your feelings and beliefs and you may find that you begin to internalize certain ideas or emotions without meaning to.

Another way we open doors for demons to come in and have power over us is by relinquishing control of ourselves but not giving it to God.

Some examples include:

Emptying yourself through drugs opens doors and provides a vacant house to be filled. What do you think will come in?

Escapism leaves your life void of presence and emotion. Again, you have emptied your house and are inviting squatters to come fill it.

The Bible talks about meditating on God, His goodness, and His Word. Not all meditation is a bad thing. But some forms of meditation specifically focus on emptying yourself out. Just like doing drugs or escaping your own life:

When you empty yourself, something will fill you.

Be careful. God is good and you can trust Him. But He’s the only one you can trust to fill your empty house. Don’t let anything else come take over you. In 1 Peter 5:8, Peter warns us:

Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

So when is it okay to relinquish control over yourself?

It’s okay in marriage when you do so out of love. Why?

Marriage is a symbol of our relationship with God.

Marriage teaches us both how to receive love and how to offer love. It gives us an example to go off of when we try to understand God’s love for us and grow in love for Him. As such, it is a lesser and more partial relinquishment than the kind that God intended.

And what kind did He intend?

God wants you to empty yourself so He can fill you.

Notice Who’s doing the filling. If you allow anything but God to fill you up, you’re in a dangerous place, because God loves you and wants to work good things in you, but you have an enemy who wants to steal, kill, and destroy. In John 10:10, Jesus says:

The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

So why empty yourself at all?

When you’re full of yourself, you can’t be full of God.

You must empty yourself in order to receive the fullness of all He has for you.

The more you struggle to hang onto your own life, the more futile your attempts at freedom will become. When you let go and let God take control, that’s when finally you can have peace.

In Mark 8:34-35, Jesus says,

If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.

In Romans 6:6-13, Paul says:

We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.

Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.

Make sure you know who holds the power in your life.