Renunciations can play a significant role in our long-term health and healing.  The Bible declares two very important concepts.  First, what we say with our mouth can either set us free or ensnare us and bind us like chains.

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue . . . .” (Proverbs 18:21)
“You are snared by the words of your mouth . . . . “ (Proverbs 6:2)

The second concept concerns the truth.

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32)

Yet just knowing the truth is not enough.  When the Apostle Peter spoke to the multitudes on the Day of Pentecost and declared the truth concerning Jesus Christ, the people cried out under deep conviction and said “. . . what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37).  Peter’s primary response to them was “repent.”

The Greek word used here literally means “to think differently afterwards”.  To repent requires us to change the way we think about something.  Yet others will only know our repentance when we declare what we now know to be true.  For instance, the Apostle Paul said:

“For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth, one confesses and is saved.” (Romans 10:10)

The word “saved” means to be delivered, to be preserved, to be healed and to receive eternal life.  For this to happen requires both the believing (the truth) and confessing or declaring this out loud with our mouth.

The purpose for renunciations are to break us free from old habits and old ways of thinking which have us bound.  We do this by declaring with our mouth what we will and will not accept or do in this life.  A renunciation is a formal or a legal rejection of something that we believed or a course of action that we have taken.  Our renunciation declares that we were wrong and now we are going a different way and believing a different truth.  The truth we now believe is that God’s Word is true; it will not change, and it will never be wrong, so we can act in accordance with what God says and when we do, then freedom comes.

The renunciations that follow will destroy the power of words, which we have spoken or which our ancestors have spoken over us, so that we can live a life that is free from their control and dominance.

When we renounce something, we realize that our ancestors or we have sinned against God, and ask God to forgive us.  We now, of our own free will, choose and declare what we will do going forward.  We declare it with our mouth and thus establish an agreement with God that this is now what we believe and will receive because it is based upon God’s word.