Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 7:25; 8:1)
Romans 7:22,23, pinpoints the battleground for the contest between me and sin: "For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members."
How can anyone enter the strong man's house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man? (Matthew 12:29)
A prime target for our authoritative prayer is the "strong man" mentioned in Matthew 12:29. Jesus was saying that you cannot rescue people from the bonds of spiritual blindness or demonic influence unless you first overpower their captors. Satan's power is already broken, but he will not let go of anything he thinks he can keep until we exercise the authority delegated to us by the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ (Romans 8:16,17)
I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20).
In the early 1980s I counselled a Christian young woman who was languishing in deep spiritual, mental and emotional torment. She wrote:
Dear God,
The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy (John 10:10).
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15).
The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death (Romans 8:2)
You were formally darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (Eph 5:8)
For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit (Rom 8:5)
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! (Matthew 7:11)
Most people in spiritual conflict have a distorted concept of God. Mentally they may have embraced correct theology, but emotionally they feel something different. True concepts of God are filtered through a grid of negative experiences to produce false concepts of God. These false concepts must be replaced by truth in order for freedom to be realized.