Post 65 Spiritual Warfare 2

Your body has a natural defense system to guard you against attack by harmful bacteria and microorganisms. It is called your skin. Your skin has amazing properties to keep harmful germs out. However, if your skin is “broken” through injury or trauma then your defenses will have been compromised. That’s why we clean wounds, use antibiotics, and cover the wound until it heals. To protect it from attack by harmful germs. The same thing can happen in the spiritual realm.

Distortion of the facts.

Remember what we said in the past, to disobey God is to obey the Devil. There is no grey or middle ground. You are either in or out. When you obey the devil, you become his slave for more evil. As human beings, we have an amazing ability to rationalize, make excuses, put the blame on others for the choices we make.  We will even blame the devil, but the devil can’t “make” you do anything. The devil will try to persuade you to do something that ultimately will harm you. He will use the wounds or trauma you experience in life as an opportunity to control you and take away your ability to make sound choices in the future.

My Pastoral Experience

In my experience, as a Pastor, I have tried to counsel many people. What I have found is that getting to the “root” of a problem can be difficult. The deepest roots of trauma are often produced when we are young. The most common are caused by sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and physical abuse. These types of trauma are most difficult to deal with because they lie so deep in the soul! Our minds don’t want to bring them to the surface because the memories are so painful.

The Devil doesn’t want you to know what the source of your emotional pain or trauma is, and it is, therefore, difficult to see the root of the pain in yourself. That is the nature of the Devil’s deception. When you are being deceived you don’t know it! It is much easier for others around you to recognize it. You may experience the symptoms of fear, guilt, shame, remorse, humiliation, or embarrassment and not know why! Others see you as not-normal or as dysfunctional.

Spiritual trauma or injuries are very much like physical injuries. If you have a severe injury you don’t want others poking around the wound. That area becomes very sensitive and we will naturally try to protect the wound site. The same is true for an emotional wound or trauma! We don’t want to “mess” with it and we don’t want others to “mess” with it either. That is the trap that Satan wants us to fall into, “leave it alone and the pain will go away” but it never does. 

The devil is like an infection… if you ignore him it will only get worse. The more pain the less likely you want to deal with it. Some will end up trying to hide the wound, act like there is no problem. You may be able to fool some people, but you can’t fool yourself! Something is wrong! While the single most common symptom is – Fear! Fear can come in many forms. Now I am not a mental health expert but here are some examples: 

1. anxiety or excessive worry 
2. sleep problems
3. irrational fears
4. muscle tension
5. chronic indigestion
6. stage fright
7. self-consciousness
8. panic attacks
9. flashbacks
10. perfectionism
11. compulsive behavior
12. self-doubt

Fear

Fear is defined as “an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain or a threat”. That pretty much says it all… it is an emotion! It can be either a reasonable fear or an unreasonable fear. 

Reasonable fear is based on some present danger, you encounter a poisonous snake.  An unreasonable fear is based upon some imagined danger or a past experience. 

Here is an acronym for the word fear:
False Evidence Appearing Real.

Here is what the Bible says:

1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love”.

Unconditional love, Agape love, the decision and commitment to love God will cast out fear. Unconditional love for God is fearless. Love for God is to hate the Devil. It’s deciding to choose a side! You cannot straddle the fence between God and Satan. You are either in or out! You choose to love or fear! Choosing love will cast out fear and the torment that comes with that fear. 

You have to trust Dr. Jesus to destroy the source of the infection in your life. Look at 1 John 3:8b,

“For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil”.

Fear produces dysfunction.

The devil will use fear, especially the fear of repeating the pain you have experienced in the past. This produces all kinds of dysfunctional behavior. These behaviors will keep you in bondage.

1. He will try to discourage you with fear…
2. He will try to create doubt with fear…
3. He will lead you into depression with fear…
4. He will use guilt and shame to coerce you because of fear!

Perfect love casts out fear produced by trauma or a wound!

• 1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love”.

• 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind”.

Remember what I said earlier, “The devil can’t “make” you do anything, but he can try to persuade you to do something that you really shouldn’t do. However, as a final note, today remember this important fact. “Greater is the Holy Spirit in you than all the demonic forces in Hell”. 1 John 4:4…  Jesus came to set you Free! You are free to Love God and to love others unconditionally!

Join me next time to examine more closely a broken spirit and most importantly how Agape love will triumph!