SID: Now Chester, God revealed to you a super stronghold, and I can’t wait for you to explain it.
CHESTER: It was amazing. We had been ministering, applying the integrated approach we had been talking about. One day we’re ministering to this lady and I said, “You’ve got these three different things, shame, fear and control, and they’re working together in a very major way, and I don’t understand it, but I know it’s really important.” And says to me, “How does it work?” And I said, “I just told you, I don’t understand.” And then I heard come out of my mouth, “Because of abandonment we get ashamed, shamed and rejected, and we think there’s something the matter with me.” That’s the basics of shame. And then out of the shame we get fearful. Well what if other people find out about my inadequacies, stuff like that. And we get a place to control them that I’m not going to let them find out. And so we put up walls. We get aggressive. We turn inward. Lots of ways.
SID: When you have a group and you’re teaching this, and you say, how many think that this is affecting you? What percentage would say that?
CHESTER: Well I usually don’t ask them that way because it’s shaming to admit that you have shame.
SID: Sorry.
CHESTER: So it’s an issue. But as we minister to people, we estimate over 80 percent in the United States are what we call shame-based.
SID: And if someone doesn’t get rid of it, what’s going to happen with their destiny from God?
CHESTER: Well certainly hindered, may be preventive. I mean, it’s really serious stuff. And as we see people get free of that super stronghold of shame, fear and control, and get released to where they can be led by the Holy Spirit and no longer in fear, you know, I’m afraid to take a risk, did you notice the Christian life requires taking a risk?
SID: That’s my middle name.
CHESTER: Yeah. And what if we can’t do it, you know? If we’re held back we’re not going to fully fulfill our destiny.
SID: Well tell me, actually, I got an email today and I believe that God has an answer for this from the two of you. Here it says, “I watch Sid regularly. I often times hear him saying, ‘someone with a back pain is being healed, someone struggling with depression is being healed, etc., etc.’ Has Sid ever felt anyone being healed from homosexuality? Is that even possible? I have never seen a single anointed person or pastor ever even mention a healing from it. Is that because no one wants to talk about it or does it not happen? I know many people, including myself, who have prayed about it and gotten not even a hint of a response from God. I’m not asking for resources. I’m asking if you have a clear understanding and message for me, maybe from a past experience.” Well I can tell you, we have interviewed people that have spent a lifetime in homosexuality and a lifetime being married, happily, to a woman, a man married to a woman with children. What is your experience?
BETSY: Well we have experience of helping people come out of homosexuality.
SID: Tell me one.
BETSY: Okay. I want to tell you one that really was supernatural. Sometimes they’re a process. Sometimes they just happen. This was a young, attractive man in his probably 30s who had been gay as long as he could remember. He had prostituted himself many years and he was in the middle stages of HIV positive. So he was not looking at a very bright future. And we were ministering to him, and first he recommitted his life to the Lord.
CHESTER: And we helped him get really serious about his healing. This is not a game of playing with God. This is serious business. So we took him to the integrated approach and did everything we knew to do.
BETSY: And God had begun to heal his heart of a lot of deep rejection, wounds by his father and some sexual abuse wounds. And then Chester, remember that day that we just stood there with our hands on his shoulders and just cried out to the Lord and said, “Lord, we don’t have anything else. Please come and just touch this man.” And we were just praying in our prayer language. And all of a sudden we saw these tears rolling down his face, and we saw him kind of expand his chest. Do you remember what he said?
CHESTER: Yeah. He said, “I feel fuller, solider and I want to go be with the guys, but not like the past. I want to just be with the guys.” And in that instance God changed his spirit from the feminine demonic influence he had to masculine.
SID: What happened to his HIV?
CHESTER: He got worse.
BETSY: He got worse.
CHESTER: He kept getting worse.
BETSY: A year later, we went down in the city that he lived. He was at a AIDS patient home preparing to die, and we went to say goodbye and pray for him one last time. And he said, “You know something. I’m going to declare the goodness of the Lord every breath to my last breath.” And we said, “Go for it. You know, we have a good God.” And he did. And little by little, God healed him. And he is alive today. Hallelujah.
SID: Chester, there are many people dealing with shame. Please pray for people to be free of shame right now.
CHESTER: Just pray with me. And the first step is, Lord, I acknowledge that I’ve allowed shame to control my life and that I have a shame-based personality.
SID: Lord, I acknowledge that I’ve allowed, say this with me, Lord, I acknowledge that I have had a shame-life and that I have allowed the enemy to access me.
CHESTER: Lord, I confess all the sins of my ancestors.
BETSY & SID: Lord, I confess all the sins of my ancestors.
CHESTER: Parents.
BETSY & SID: Parents.
CHESTER: All the authority figures in my life.
BETSY & SID: All the authority figures in my life.
CHESTER: Everybody that has sinned against me.
BETSY & SID: Everybody that has sinned against me.
CHESTER: That would cause me to give place to this shame.
BETSY & SID: That would cause me to give place to this shame.
CHESTER: I forgive them all, Lord.
BETSY & SID: I forgive them all, Lord.
CHESTER: Lord, I ask you to forgive me now.
BETSY & SID: Lord, I ask you to forgive me now.
CHESTER: As I have forgiven them.
BETSY & SID: As I have forgiven them.
CHESTER: Lord, I choose to forgive myself.
BETSY & SID: Lord, I choose to forgive myself.
CHESTER: For all the stupid things I’ve done.
BETSY & SID: For all the stupid things I’ve done.
CHESTER: To enhance this shame.
BETSY & SID: To enhance this same.
CHESTER: And give it place in my life.
BETSY & SID: And give it place in my life.
CHESTER: I break my covenant with shame.
BETSY & SID: I break my covenant with shame.
CHESTER: With fear and with control.
BETSY & SID: With fear and with control.
CHESTER: I dismiss all the demons I’ve given legal rights to.
BETSY & SID: I dismiss all demons I’ve given legal rights to.
CHESTER: I command you to leave me and my family line.
BETSY & SID: I command you to leave me and my family line.
CHESTER: Lord, renew my mind now.
BETSY & SID: Lord, renew my mind now.
CHESTER: Let me see myself as you see me.
BETSY & SID: Let me see myself as you see me.
CHESTER: And Lord, I trust in the coming days.
BETSY & SID: Lord, I trust in the coming days.
CHESTER: You’ll come and heal all the hurts in my heart.
BETSY & SID: You’ll come and heal all the hurts in my heart.
CHESTER: That have given place to shame.
BETSY & SID: That’s given place to shame.
CHESTER: Lord, tonight.
BETSY & SID: Lord, tonight.
CHESTER: I declare war on shame.
BETSY & SID: I declare on shame.
CHESTER: I will not stop the war.
BETSY & SID: I will not stop the war.
CHESTER: Until I’m totally free.
BETSY & SID: Until I’m totally free.
CHESTER: In Jesus’ name.
BETSY & SID: In Jesus’ name.
CHESTER: Amen.
BETSY & SID: Amen.
BETSY: Thank you Lord.
