SPIRITUAL CAGES
Spiritual Warfare - Strongholds
Spiritual Cages
What is a cage?
According to the Webster's dictionary, a cage is an enclosure. In most cases, it looks like a box made with metal wire or net. Cages are specifically made for the purpose of trapping and confining birds and animals.
Cages come in different sizes. The size is of the animal you want to trap or confine determines the size of the cage. The cage you put hummingbird in is going to be smaller than the cage you put an eagle in. A rat's cage will be obviously smaller than a bear's.
Factors determining the size and consistency of physical cages apply for spiritual cages.
Spiritual cages are spiritual devices that are used to trap and hold people in confinement. These cages come with spiritual wires, nets and iron bars.
Human beings as well as the things that belong to them are kept in these unseen cages. That means a person's finances can be caged. So can one's general progress, health, marriage and academic career.
In Jeremiah 5:25-26, we read a very troubling message from the Lord: "For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men."
Among people who were supposed to be Israelites, God found those that he described as wicked men. What did they do? The verse says "they lay wait as he that setteth snares, they set a trap," but this time they didn't catch birds or rats. They caught men.
Life in the cage. What sort of things does a person that is spiritually caged up experience? To understand this better, let's go from the known to the unknown. What does a bird in a cage experience? What they experience in the physical is what a caged up person experiences in the spiritual.
1. They can move but only within a certain radius.
The person that is in a spiritual cage has the ability to move but only within a certain radius. They make progress but with serious limitations. Have you ever seen an animal in a cage? It moves, doesn't it? How far does it go? It can only go within the realms its captor has set for it.
The purpose of demonic cages is to say, "you can go this far but no farther." That is why you see some men and women, no matter how hard they try, they can only achieve up to a point. All efforts after that point end in frustration.
I know of a man who went to medical school and graduated as a medical doctor. Unfortunately his medical certificate was caged. He could not pass his board examination. Each time he sat for it, he failed by one point. He had to abandon the medical field to set up a cleaning business.
If you've ever been to the zoo you will notice that caged animals have the freedom to move around only within the confinement of the cage. They desire to be like other animals roaming around in the wild but they cannot because of the "gates of brass and bars of iron" that surround them.
When you see a person making little progress in life, it may very well be due to the presence of a spiritual cage.
This evil can affect a business. When a business is caged, it will only make limited progress. It may be a ministry. The ministry is making progress but alas! It is a very limited prepress. It may affect a person in his academics. He is making progress, but it is little progress. It may be a person on his job. Every body else is being promoted and given a salary increase, but his own will never be commensurate with his qualifications. Why? There may be a spiritual cage over his life.
What the enemy does to a caged individual is to draw a spiritual circle around him. He is only allowed to operate within that circle. Every blessing outside that circle is kept out of his reach.
PRAYER POINT: Every demonic invisible line that has been drawn around my life; be erased by the blood of Jesus.
PRAYER POINT: Every demonic restriction placed upon my life; receive the fire of God.
2. They see freedom but never experience it.
There is a second problem with spiritual cages. Animals inside them can see through them because they are not totally covered up. They see other animals roaming free but can never be like them. If they are birds, they are healthy enough to fly like other birds but cannot. If they are animals, they are healthy enough to run like other animals, but the cage will not allow them.
The same holds true for those who are spiritually caged. They see freedom but never taste it. They see other people doing what they could do, having what they could, going where they could go but some invisible power restrains them from breaking free to be like others. Their daily cry is; "if I can just break through these barriers, I can have freedom to move on in life." Unfortunately all they do is see it but they can't have it. They desire it but can't possess it. Such people are the most frustrated on the face of the earth. They carry their frustration to their job, to their church, business and homes. They snap at everybody, they get angry with everybody because they are frustrated.
I took my children to the zoo several years ago. We went around the zoo until finally we got to the lion's cage. The lion paced back and forth within the confines of the cage. It moved, but only within the radius his captors allowed him. It stared angrily at all the people outside its cage. Suddenly, he jumped up and charged towards where the people were hitting the walls of the cage where I was standing. I felt sorry for the poor animal. I told my children, "Not only is this animal angry, it's hungry, too. Let's go home."
As we left the zoo I began to meditate about how spiritually caged people behave. If care is not taken, they become mean spirited, short tempered and walking time bombs. It is a tough thing to see freedom and not be able to experience it. Unfortunately that is the lot of those whose lives have been caged by the enemy. They have what it takes to fly but their wings have been clipped. They have what it takes to run but their legs have been amputated. They have what it takes to walk but they can only crawl. Their ability to fly, to run and to walk have been taken away from them by the power of the cage.
When a man's life is caged, he will have a Ph.D. but will only be offered the job of someone that has an Associates degree. A man that has a B.S. will be offered the job of a high school diploma holder. Why? Because his B.S degree might have been caged. He has a legitimate degree in his hand but he can't use it.
Degrees get caged, ideas get caged, intellect gets caged, and things that can help better your lot in life can be caged.
I heard the story of a dear Christian sister that perfectly illustrates my point. This lady is a very intelligent woman. She holds a Ph.D. degree. Not only was she endowed with a high level of intelligence, she was also a very beautiful woman. From the top of her head to the soles of her feet, she had no blemish whatsoever.
What was mysterious about her though, was that no man wanted her as wife. She had what most men are looking for in a woman, yet no one was interested in her. So, she began to ask God why her situation was such. She discussed her plight with her pastor who told her that he believed her ability to get married must have been caged by agents of the powers of darkness.
Dear reader, if in the natural, things are not working out well for you when they ordinarily should, then there is a spiritual problem somewhere. You might have been caged. If you should be doing well in school but you are not, if you should be doing well in business but you are not, if nothing is medically wrong with you, yet you cannot get pregnant, it is very possible that you are bumping against "gates of brass and bars of iron." In other words, you might be operating inside a cage.
If your situation is as described, you need to set time apart for serious fasting and praying to find out from God the cause of your problem.
That was exactly what the Christian sister did. She went to God with fasting and prayers to find out the what, where, who and when of the cage.
She prayed, "Oh God, I am a beautiful girl, men should be lining up in front of me; why don't I see anybody? Oh God, you have given me a good educational qualification, which should be a plus; on top of it all, I am your child and you have promised to give me whatever my heart desires. I have long desired to get married but no one is forthcoming. O Lord, show me what is going on, in Jesus name."
Suddenly, God showed her the vision of a bottle. The more she prayed, the more the vision persisted. She began to wonder; "What does a bottle have to do with me not being married?" She went to her pastor and narrated the vision to him.
Being an experienced deliverance minister, the pastor was able to easily make a connection between the bottle and her marriage. He told her; "Your marriage has been caged and a bottle was used as part of the ceremony to cage you. Go to your father and ask him if he knows anything about it."
In obedience, she went to her dad saying; "Dad, I have been praying for some time now to get married but each time I pray, I see a bottle. Do you have any idea what that might signify?"
On hearing that, the father put his hands on his head and said, "Oh my! The bottle, yes, the bottle." She asked, "What do you mean by that, dad?"
The father then said, "When you were born, you turned out to be the most beautiful girl that anybody in our family has ever seen. Your grandfather was concerned that with your kind of beauty, boys will not let you get out of elementary school before they impregnate you and ruin your academic career. So he suggested that we cage that area of your life. To do that, we put some charms together and demonically caged your ability to get married into a bottle. The bottle was kept under your grandfather's bed and has been there for over thirty years now. The bottle was kept upside down and unless it is reversed, you will never be able to get anyone to marry you. Our plan was to reverse it after your Ph.D. But we completely forgot about it." Prayer point: Every area of my life that has been turned up side down, be turned right side up in the name of Jesus. Prayer Point: Every demonic container housing my destiny, collide with the rock of ages.
The lady went to her grandfather's room where she found the bottle as her father said. She brought it to her pastor and after sessions of praying and fasting, it was broken and the contents were set on fire. By that simple spiritual exercise, the gates of brass were broken and the bars of iron were melted by the fire of God.
I am happy to let you know that the Christian sister is happily married now. Are there unanswered questions in your life? Are you asking, "why?" and cannot find an acceptable answer? Are you unable to have what you ordinarily should have? Are you unable to do what others like you are able to do? There may be a cage somewhere in your life that must be opened before you can have your desired victory.
3. They cannot effectively respond to whatever is done against them.
You can throw a stone at a bear in a cage and it will just look at you. As strong as a lion is, if a stone is thrown at it, it cannot fight back. Even if the animal wants to fight back, it is restricted from doing something. The bars of iron make him helpless.
There is a feeling of utter helplessness when a person is in a cage. Folks will do things to you that they ordinarily should not and you cannot defend yourself. People will take advantage of you, infringe on your fundamental human rights and you cannot do anything. Life in the cage is one of utter helplessness.
I have written extensively about the activities of spirit husbands and spirit wives in my book; A Woman's Worst Nightmare. I highly recommend this book to those who have sexual encounters in their dreams.
There was a woman who was once caged by her spirit husband. She was not allowed to marry because of this demonic manipulation. She tried and tried to no avail. Finally she got engaged to a man who she finally hoped to marry. Suddenly, she developed a male organ beside her female organ.
She became helpless and embarrassed. In desperation she went to see a doctor who told her that the only way out was surgery. On the day of the surgery, she got into the operating room only to find out that the male organ she came to surgically remove had disappeared. The surgery was cancelled, but on her way back home, the male organ reappeared again.
What can you do in a situation like that? In her helplessness she ran to the Lord for deliverance and she was wonderfully delivered.
It is therefore true that those who are in cages are too helpless to effectively respond to things done against them.
4. They depend on others for sustenance.
Animals in the cage do not know what it means to be independent. They depend on people for their daily needs. A little peanut here for the captured squirrel; a little banana there for the captured monkey, a little carrot here for the caged rabbit. That is how life in the cage is. You have to depend on others for sustenance. Whatever is thrown at you, you have to take it. Like they say in Africa, "A beggar has no choice."
Let me illustrate the point this way. Somebody comes from Africa or the Islands to the United States. He applies for the green card that will enable him stay in the States legally. He is qualified for the adjustment of status. Under normal circumstances, within one hundred and twenty days he should hear something from government authorities.
If his green card is caged by the enemy, what others get easily becomes an uphill battle for him. Mysteriously, his application gets lost in the mail; hence there is no official record of his application. While he is waiting to hear from the authorities, he gets out of status, so becomes an illegal alien.
Instead of voluntarily retuning to his country of origin he decides to stay in the States. Since he needs to eat, drink and clothe himself, he goes to look for a job. He finds it difficult to get a job because every employer is asking for a work permit. Finally he finds an employer who asks him "Where is your work permit?" He replies, "I have none." The employer then offers to pay him a dollar an hour instead of the minimum wage. He is asks, "Will you take the job?" He replies, "A beggar has no choice, after all, half bread is better than none. I gladly will take the job." So the employer illegally offers him the job, paying him next to nothing.
That is how life in a cage is. You are hindered from having what you ought to have. You depend on others for sustenance. You are taken advantage of but can do nothing about it.
The guy in my illustration may be working in a gas station or a restaurant. His equals will be bringing their Porches and Lexus and Mercedes Benz to the gas station. He will be filling it up with gas for them. Unfortunately he cannot hide from them because he is the only attendant on duty. He pumps the gas for his old schoolmates and they give him tips of one or two dollars and he says, "Thank you, sir."
Spiritual cages will make you settle for half bread when you are actually destined to own a bakery. These cages will make you say "sir" to one who is supposed to be your equal.
When a man is caged he depends on others for food, he depends on friends for shelter sleeping on the couch in his friend's living room. A caged life will always make you dependent instead of being independent.
I pray that God will do a new thing in your life that will lead to total independence for you, in Jesus name.
5. Even when occupants of cages move, they move with the cage still around them.
The bad thing about cages also is that unless the door of the cage is opened, movement only takes place if the cage is moved about. In other words, wherever you move, the cage is moved with you; so you are confined to that cage. Let's say an animal is to be moved from town A to town B. It is not moved independent of the cage. Either it is moved in the same cage or it is transferred to another cage and then moved
I have seen people move from one city to another looking for a better life. Unfortunately, the cage that blocked them in the former city moves with them to the new city too. Since the cage was not opened where they moved from, they will experience the same problems in this city like they experienced in the previous. I have seen this same problem affect people moving from one country to another, from one job to another and from one marriage to another.
6. After you've been in a cage for a long time, you get used to life in it.
That is the truth. After some time, you adapt to life in the cage.
Prayer Point: Every life that I have adjusted myself to, that is not of God, I reject it in the name of Jesus.
Many who are poor have adjusted to life of poverty. Many who are sick have adjusted to not being well. After being in a cage for a long time, you get so used to it that even when you are set free, the cage mentality is still in you. Hence, when you are set free, you still live as if you are in the cage.
Many times in Africa, you go to the market to buy a live chicken. Usually the legs of these birds are tied to restrain them. Even when the ropes are removed, some chickens will not move because the ropes have been on them for so long they feel they are still tied.
That's what I call cage mentality. Some reading this book may be free already but because of their cage mentality, they still walk around as if there are restrains on them.
I once heard about the story of a bear that was kept in a ten-foot cage. The poor animal paced back and forth inside the cage twenty-four hours of the day, seven days a week. One day, the authorities decided to release it back into the wild. It was transported by air and then by road to its natural habitat. All the while it was being transferred; it just paced ten feet this way and ten feet that way as usual.
When they got to where it was to be released, they opened the door of the cage hoping the bear will walk out. It did not. It just paced back and forth in the opened cage passing by the opened door several times.
Finally they managed to lure it out. One would have thought the bear would rise up and run into its natural habitat, but it didn't, it started going ten feet one way and turn around going ten feet the other way. You know why? It still had the cage mentality. Released but bound, set free but still in bondage.
Prayer Point: O Lord, deliver me from every cage mentality in me in Jesus name.
7. It is possible to live and die in a cage.
This is a scary thought, nonetheless one that is absolutely true. Just as countless animals have died in captivity so have numerous human beings died in spiritual cages.
Many tombstones can rightly carry the inscription; "Died in the cage without being allowed to achieve his goals, dreams and aspirations."
Notice, I said, "without being allowed." Not that these people did not want to, not that they did not try to but how much can you do when you are caged up?
This article has been extracted from Dr. Itiola's book: Freedom from Spiritual Cages. To purchase a copy, click here.
Spiritual Cages
What is a cage?
According to the Webster's dictionary, a cage is an enclosure. In most cases, it looks like a box made with metal wire or net. Cages are specifically made for the purpose of trapping and confining birds and animals.
Cages come in different sizes. The size is of the animal you want to trap or confine determines the size of the cage. The cage you put hummingbird in is going to be smaller than the cage you put an eagle in. A rat's cage will be obviously smaller than a bear's.
Factors determining the size and consistency of physical cages apply for spiritual cages.
Spiritual cages are spiritual devices that are used to trap and hold people in confinement. These cages come with spiritual wires, nets and iron bars.
Human beings as well as the things that belong to them are kept in these unseen cages. That means a person's finances can be caged. So can one's general progress, health, marriage and academic career.
In Jeremiah 5:25-26, we read a very troubling message from the Lord: "For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men."
Among people who were supposed to be Israelites, God found those that he described as wicked men. What did they do? The verse says "they lay wait as he that setteth snares, they set a trap," but this time they didn't catch birds or rats. They caught men.
Life in the cage. What sort of things does a person that is spiritually caged up experience? To understand this better, let's go from the known to the unknown. What does a bird in a cage experience? What they experience in the physical is what a caged up person experiences in the spiritual.
1. They can move but only within a certain radius.
The person that is in a spiritual cage has the ability to move but only within a certain radius. They make progress but with serious limitations. Have you ever seen an animal in a cage? It moves, doesn't it? How far does it go? It can only go within the realms its captor has set for it.
The purpose of demonic cages is to say, "you can go this far but no farther." That is why you see some men and women, no matter how hard they try, they can only achieve up to a point. All efforts after that point end in frustration.
I know of a man who went to medical school and graduated as a medical doctor. Unfortunately his medical certificate was caged. He could not pass his board examination. Each time he sat for it, he failed by one point. He had to abandon the medical field to set up a cleaning business.
If you've ever been to the zoo you will notice that caged animals have the freedom to move around only within the confinement of the cage. They desire to be like other animals roaming around in the wild but they cannot because of the "gates of brass and bars of iron" that surround them.
When you see a person making little progress in life, it may very well be due to the presence of a spiritual cage.
This evil can affect a business. When a business is caged, it will only make limited progress. It may be a ministry. The ministry is making progress but alas! It is a very limited prepress. It may affect a person in his academics. He is making progress, but it is little progress. It may be a person on his job. Every body else is being promoted and given a salary increase, but his own will never be commensurate with his qualifications. Why? There may be a spiritual cage over his life.
What the enemy does to a caged individual is to draw a spiritual circle around him. He is only allowed to operate within that circle. Every blessing outside that circle is kept out of his reach.
PRAYER POINT: Every demonic invisible line that has been drawn around my life; be erased by the blood of Jesus.
PRAYER POINT: Every demonic restriction placed upon my life; receive the fire of God.
2. They see freedom but never experience it.
There is a second problem with spiritual cages. Animals inside them can see through them because they are not totally covered up. They see other animals roaming free but can never be like them. If they are birds, they are healthy enough to fly like other birds but cannot. If they are animals, they are healthy enough to run like other animals, but the cage will not allow them.
The same holds true for those who are spiritually caged. They see freedom but never taste it. They see other people doing what they could do, having what they could, going where they could go but some invisible power restrains them from breaking free to be like others. Their daily cry is; "if I can just break through these barriers, I can have freedom to move on in life." Unfortunately all they do is see it but they can't have it. They desire it but can't possess it. Such people are the most frustrated on the face of the earth. They carry their frustration to their job, to their church, business and homes. They snap at everybody, they get angry with everybody because they are frustrated.
I took my children to the zoo several years ago. We went around the zoo until finally we got to the lion's cage. The lion paced back and forth within the confines of the cage. It moved, but only within the radius his captors allowed him. It stared angrily at all the people outside its cage. Suddenly, he jumped up and charged towards where the people were hitting the walls of the cage where I was standing. I felt sorry for the poor animal. I told my children, "Not only is this animal angry, it's hungry, too. Let's go home."
As we left the zoo I began to meditate about how spiritually caged people behave. If care is not taken, they become mean spirited, short tempered and walking time bombs. It is a tough thing to see freedom and not be able to experience it. Unfortunately that is the lot of those whose lives have been caged by the enemy. They have what it takes to fly but their wings have been clipped. They have what it takes to run but their legs have been amputated. They have what it takes to walk but they can only crawl. Their ability to fly, to run and to walk have been taken away from them by the power of the cage.
When a man's life is caged, he will have a Ph.D. but will only be offered the job of someone that has an Associates degree. A man that has a B.S. will be offered the job of a high school diploma holder. Why? Because his B.S degree might have been caged. He has a legitimate degree in his hand but he can't use it.
Degrees get caged, ideas get caged, intellect gets caged, and things that can help better your lot in life can be caged.
I heard the story of a dear Christian sister that perfectly illustrates my point. This lady is a very intelligent woman. She holds a Ph.D. degree. Not only was she endowed with a high level of intelligence, she was also a very beautiful woman. From the top of her head to the soles of her feet, she had no blemish whatsoever.
What was mysterious about her though, was that no man wanted her as wife. She had what most men are looking for in a woman, yet no one was interested in her. So, she began to ask God why her situation was such. She discussed her plight with her pastor who told her that he believed her ability to get married must have been caged by agents of the powers of darkness.
Dear reader, if in the natural, things are not working out well for you when they ordinarily should, then there is a spiritual problem somewhere. You might have been caged. If you should be doing well in school but you are not, if you should be doing well in business but you are not, if nothing is medically wrong with you, yet you cannot get pregnant, it is very possible that you are bumping against "gates of brass and bars of iron." In other words, you might be operating inside a cage.
If your situation is as described, you need to set time apart for serious fasting and praying to find out from God the cause of your problem.
That was exactly what the Christian sister did. She went to God with fasting and prayers to find out the what, where, who and when of the cage.
She prayed, "Oh God, I am a beautiful girl, men should be lining up in front of me; why don't I see anybody? Oh God, you have given me a good educational qualification, which should be a plus; on top of it all, I am your child and you have promised to give me whatever my heart desires. I have long desired to get married but no one is forthcoming. O Lord, show me what is going on, in Jesus name."
Suddenly, God showed her the vision of a bottle. The more she prayed, the more the vision persisted. She began to wonder; "What does a bottle have to do with me not being married?" She went to her pastor and narrated the vision to him.
Being an experienced deliverance minister, the pastor was able to easily make a connection between the bottle and her marriage. He told her; "Your marriage has been caged and a bottle was used as part of the ceremony to cage you. Go to your father and ask him if he knows anything about it."
In obedience, she went to her dad saying; "Dad, I have been praying for some time now to get married but each time I pray, I see a bottle. Do you have any idea what that might signify?"
On hearing that, the father put his hands on his head and said, "Oh my! The bottle, yes, the bottle." She asked, "What do you mean by that, dad?"
The father then said, "When you were born, you turned out to be the most beautiful girl that anybody in our family has ever seen. Your grandfather was concerned that with your kind of beauty, boys will not let you get out of elementary school before they impregnate you and ruin your academic career. So he suggested that we cage that area of your life. To do that, we put some charms together and demonically caged your ability to get married into a bottle. The bottle was kept under your grandfather's bed and has been there for over thirty years now. The bottle was kept upside down and unless it is reversed, you will never be able to get anyone to marry you. Our plan was to reverse it after your Ph.D. But we completely forgot about it." Prayer point: Every area of my life that has been turned up side down, be turned right side up in the name of Jesus. Prayer Point: Every demonic container housing my destiny, collide with the rock of ages.
The lady went to her grandfather's room where she found the bottle as her father said. She brought it to her pastor and after sessions of praying and fasting, it was broken and the contents were set on fire. By that simple spiritual exercise, the gates of brass were broken and the bars of iron were melted by the fire of God.
I am happy to let you know that the Christian sister is happily married now. Are there unanswered questions in your life? Are you asking, "why?" and cannot find an acceptable answer? Are you unable to have what you ordinarily should have? Are you unable to do what others like you are able to do? There may be a cage somewhere in your life that must be opened before you can have your desired victory.
3. They cannot effectively respond to whatever is done against them.
You can throw a stone at a bear in a cage and it will just look at you. As strong as a lion is, if a stone is thrown at it, it cannot fight back. Even if the animal wants to fight back, it is restricted from doing something. The bars of iron make him helpless.
There is a feeling of utter helplessness when a person is in a cage. Folks will do things to you that they ordinarily should not and you cannot defend yourself. People will take advantage of you, infringe on your fundamental human rights and you cannot do anything. Life in the cage is one of utter helplessness.
I have written extensively about the activities of spirit husbands and spirit wives in my book; A Woman's Worst Nightmare. I highly recommend this book to those who have sexual encounters in their dreams.
There was a woman who was once caged by her spirit husband. She was not allowed to marry because of this demonic manipulation. She tried and tried to no avail. Finally she got engaged to a man who she finally hoped to marry. Suddenly, she developed a male organ beside her female organ.
She became helpless and embarrassed. In desperation she went to see a doctor who told her that the only way out was surgery. On the day of the surgery, she got into the operating room only to find out that the male organ she came to surgically remove had disappeared. The surgery was cancelled, but on her way back home, the male organ reappeared again.
What can you do in a situation like that? In her helplessness she ran to the Lord for deliverance and she was wonderfully delivered.
It is therefore true that those who are in cages are too helpless to effectively respond to things done against them.
4. They depend on others for sustenance.
Animals in the cage do not know what it means to be independent. They depend on people for their daily needs. A little peanut here for the captured squirrel; a little banana there for the captured monkey, a little carrot here for the caged rabbit. That is how life in the cage is. You have to depend on others for sustenance. Whatever is thrown at you, you have to take it. Like they say in Africa, "A beggar has no choice."
Let me illustrate the point this way. Somebody comes from Africa or the Islands to the United States. He applies for the green card that will enable him stay in the States legally. He is qualified for the adjustment of status. Under normal circumstances, within one hundred and twenty days he should hear something from government authorities.
If his green card is caged by the enemy, what others get easily becomes an uphill battle for him. Mysteriously, his application gets lost in the mail; hence there is no official record of his application. While he is waiting to hear from the authorities, he gets out of status, so becomes an illegal alien.
Instead of voluntarily retuning to his country of origin he decides to stay in the States. Since he needs to eat, drink and clothe himself, he goes to look for a job. He finds it difficult to get a job because every employer is asking for a work permit. Finally he finds an employer who asks him "Where is your work permit?" He replies, "I have none." The employer then offers to pay him a dollar an hour instead of the minimum wage. He is asks, "Will you take the job?" He replies, "A beggar has no choice, after all, half bread is better than none. I gladly will take the job." So the employer illegally offers him the job, paying him next to nothing.
That is how life in a cage is. You are hindered from having what you ought to have. You depend on others for sustenance. You are taken advantage of but can do nothing about it.
The guy in my illustration may be working in a gas station or a restaurant. His equals will be bringing their Porches and Lexus and Mercedes Benz to the gas station. He will be filling it up with gas for them. Unfortunately he cannot hide from them because he is the only attendant on duty. He pumps the gas for his old schoolmates and they give him tips of one or two dollars and he says, "Thank you, sir."
Spiritual cages will make you settle for half bread when you are actually destined to own a bakery. These cages will make you say "sir" to one who is supposed to be your equal.
When a man is caged he depends on others for food, he depends on friends for shelter sleeping on the couch in his friend's living room. A caged life will always make you dependent instead of being independent.
I pray that God will do a new thing in your life that will lead to total independence for you, in Jesus name.
5. Even when occupants of cages move, they move with the cage still around them.
The bad thing about cages also is that unless the door of the cage is opened, movement only takes place if the cage is moved about. In other words, wherever you move, the cage is moved with you; so you are confined to that cage. Let's say an animal is to be moved from town A to town B. It is not moved independent of the cage. Either it is moved in the same cage or it is transferred to another cage and then moved
I have seen people move from one city to another looking for a better life. Unfortunately, the cage that blocked them in the former city moves with them to the new city too. Since the cage was not opened where they moved from, they will experience the same problems in this city like they experienced in the previous. I have seen this same problem affect people moving from one country to another, from one job to another and from one marriage to another.
6. After you've been in a cage for a long time, you get used to life in it.
That is the truth. After some time, you adapt to life in the cage.
Prayer Point: Every life that I have adjusted myself to, that is not of God, I reject it in the name of Jesus.
Many who are poor have adjusted to life of poverty. Many who are sick have adjusted to not being well. After being in a cage for a long time, you get so used to it that even when you are set free, the cage mentality is still in you. Hence, when you are set free, you still live as if you are in the cage.
Many times in Africa, you go to the market to buy a live chicken. Usually the legs of these birds are tied to restrain them. Even when the ropes are removed, some chickens will not move because the ropes have been on them for so long they feel they are still tied.
That's what I call cage mentality. Some reading this book may be free already but because of their cage mentality, they still walk around as if there are restrains on them.
I once heard about the story of a bear that was kept in a ten-foot cage. The poor animal paced back and forth inside the cage twenty-four hours of the day, seven days a week. One day, the authorities decided to release it back into the wild. It was transported by air and then by road to its natural habitat. All the while it was being transferred; it just paced ten feet this way and ten feet that way as usual.
When they got to where it was to be released, they opened the door of the cage hoping the bear will walk out. It did not. It just paced back and forth in the opened cage passing by the opened door several times.
Finally they managed to lure it out. One would have thought the bear would rise up and run into its natural habitat, but it didn't, it started going ten feet one way and turn around going ten feet the other way. You know why? It still had the cage mentality. Released but bound, set free but still in bondage.
Prayer Point: O Lord, deliver me from every cage mentality in me in Jesus name.
7. It is possible to live and die in a cage.
This is a scary thought, nonetheless one that is absolutely true. Just as countless animals have died in captivity so have numerous human beings died in spiritual cages.
Many tombstones can rightly carry the inscription; "Died in the cage without being allowed to achieve his goals, dreams and aspirations."
Notice, I said, "without being allowed." Not that these people did not want to, not that they did not try to but how much can you do when you are caged up?
This article has been extracted from Dr. Itiola's book: Freedom from Spiritual Cages. To purchase a copy, click here.
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