Most Recent Blog Posts
-
Post 66 – Spiritual Warfare 3
Jesus is the Healer! He heals physically, spiritually, and emotionally. My focus today is on emotional healing. Emotional healing is important because an emotional wound is an open door for Satan to influence a person. So, if a person is healed emotionally then the door to the Devil’s influence is closed.
In the last post, I used Proverbs 18:14 “The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness, But who can bear a broken spirit”? The word broken spirit can be translated as a wounded spirit, or a traumatized spirit. So, a broken spirit is one that has been wounded… and the emotional wound has not healed.
The good news is that Jesus came to heal the brokenhearted! Listen to the mission statement of Jesus Christ found in Luke 4:18-19.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”Jesus came to heal and deliver those who put their trust in Him to be set free from the Devil’s lies which is at the root of all emotional wounds or trauma.
If we break it down there are clearly 5 steps in the cycle of unresolved emotional wounds or trauma:
- The Trauma – the event it could be sexual abuse, physical abuse, or emotional abuse. It can happen at any age, but when it happens when one is young it is often a deep wounding. When we are young, we are not wise enough to recognize the truth and that opens the door to a lie.
- The Lie – the lie comes from the Father of Lies, Satan. He will try to put the lie in our souls, that we deserved the abuse, or it was our fault it happened. Another lie is that it happened because God didn’t love us or care! This is a common lie that the devil will use when prayer doesn’t seem to be answered in the way we want it to be.
- The Emotional Upheaval – as a result of believing the lie it produces guilt, shame, fear, and bitterness.
- The Dysfunction – the guilt, shame, bitterness, and fear produce behaviors that are not natural or normal. In the last post, we described some of the most common dysfunctional behaviors.
- The Trigger – this is an event that brings back to memory the lie and it starts the cycle again as if it were for the very first time.
The cycle continues round and round until the cycle is broken.
Let’s look at an example or two of how this all works.
- A young person experiences a break-up in the marriage of the parents. That is the trauma– instability, arguments, and fighting in the household. Then one of the parents leave. The child believes that it was their fault, that’s the lie. This happens often in the mind of a child. They begin to feel guilty and shame- that’s the emotional upheaval. They start to pray that the parents will reconcile… and it doesn’t happen. Now the child feels that God doesn’t care about the situation. This leads to distrust of God or outright rejection of God. All of these lies are created by Satan and put into the mind of the child. Now as an adult the child doesn’t trust close relationships, doesn’t trust God – that’s the dysfunction. They may become lonely, depressed, and bitter towards life and God. They make bad choices in their relationships and when it goes bad it brings back, unconsciously, the hurt as a child of the breakup of the parents – that’s the trigger. Then the cycle starts again… pain, lies, emotional upheaval, dysfunction, and on and on.
- A second example would be the case of abuse. It can be sexual, physical, or emotional, usually from a family member a relative, or a close friend. A person who is abused often comes to the wrong conclusion that they are unworthy or deserved the abuse because they are bad (that’s the lie) no one deserves to be abused. Then follows the guilt and shame and trying to hide that they feel worthless (that’s the emotional upheaval). As a result of the lies of the devil, the guilt, and shame they make bad choices to confirm the lie. It may be an addiction, alcohol or drugs, to ease or try to erase the pain (that’s the dysfunctional behavior). They may become angry and hostile as a defense against being hurt again. The kinds of abnormal behavior are endless. They may settle down and be quite normal for a while and then something “triggers” the memory of the trauma and then the dysfunction starts all over again.
How can the cycle be broken?
- Step one is to identify the trauma
- This is the work of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal “what and why” you act the way you do in certain circumstances. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth. He will reveal the truth and the truth will set you free!
- Confront the trauma – you may have been innocent when the wounding took place but accept the fact that you are the one who made bad choices because of the lies of the devil.
- Receive the healing that only Jesus can produce
- Accept Jesus’ love. His love is Agape love. It is not based upon what you have done His love is unconditional. He has decided to love you.
- Accept Jesus’ forgiveness. Jesus died on the cross for our sins. We are forgiven and justified (just if I’d never sinned). When those old painful thoughts come to your mind, remind Satan that you are forgiven and that he can go to hell! Where he belongs. You are a child of God.
- Forgiveness yourself. God has forgiven you, what right do you have to not forgive yourself. This sometimes can be difficult because we sometimes can’t forget. Just remember this point, don’t let your past determine your future in Jesus Christ. He has a glorious plan for your life!
- Forgiveness of others. Forgiving those that hurt you is essential because it allows you to break from the past. Hanging on to bitterness or hate is like “drinking poison hoping that the other person will die!” The only person you hurt is yourself. Not forgiving means that you are letting the person or persons that hurt you still have control over you.
-
Post 65 Spiritual Warfare 2
IN A FALLEN AND SIN FILLED WORLD “HURTING PEOPLE HURT PEOPLE!”.
A Traumatized Spirit (broken hearted, broken spirit, crushed)
Proverbs 18:14 “The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness, But who can bear a broken spirit”? The word broken spirit can be translated as a wounded spirit, or a traumatized spirit. So, a broken spirit is one that has been wounded… and the wound has not healed.
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:
- anxiety or excessive worry
- sleep problems
- irrational fears
- muscle tension
- chronic indigestion
- stage fright
- self-consciousness
- panic attacks
- flashbacks
- perfectionism
- compulsive behavior
- 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.
- He will try to discourage you with fear…
- He will try to create doubt with fear…
- He will lead you into depression with fear…
- 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!
-
Post 64 – Spiritual Warfare 1
As I said in my last post, we live in a “fallen world”! This means that we must deal with the consequences of not only our own choices, but we also have to deal with the consequences of the evil choices of others. We can be perfectly innocent and yet be negatively affected. In a fallen world, “Hurting people hurt people!”.
the issue of Free-will
You’ve heard it said that “bad things happen to good people”. It is also true that bad things can happen to God’s people, Christians! How can this be? It has to do with the fact that God has given us free will. That is, the ability to make our own choices.
Free will is important because of the following fact. God loves us with an Agape or unconditional love, God has “decided” to love us. In the same way, God wants us to make the decision to love Him in an Agape- unconditional love as well. This fact alone requires that we have the ability to make a decision or commit to this kind of love.
You have heard and perhaps even thought, “why doesn’t God do something about cruelty, injustice disease, and poverty in the world”? Well think about it, is there anything God can’t do? No, He is omnipotent or all-powerful. Nothing is impossible with God.
However, here is the rub, the only way God can sovereignly right all the wrongs today is to violate or over-ride the will of people! You might think, well that’s not a bad idea, but that would mean taking away someone’s free will. It’s easy to think about violating someone else’s free will, but are you willing to give up your free will to make decisions and choices. You see it is a two-edged sword. It cuts both ways. [it rains on the just and the unjust].
This world system is in the control of Satan
Also, keep in mind who has control over this fallen world. I know that there may be many who don’t believe the following scriptures, but let me present a quote from the mid-1850s by Charles Baudelaire which endures even to this day, “The devil’s finest trick is to persuade you that he does not exist.”
- Satan is the ruler of this world in the sense that the world is still characterized by sin. Jesus said. “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over Me” (John 14:30). This title suggests that he is the major influence over our world.
- Scripture teaches that the whole world is in his power. “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the evil one” (1 John 5:19).
- Satan is the authority over this present, evil world-system. “in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient” (Ephesians 2:2).
- Satan is the deceiver of the whole world. This fallen angel deceives the unbelieving world. “And the great dragon was cast down, the old serpent, he that is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world; he was cast down to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him” (Revelation 12:9).
I have said all of this to make this point, none of us escape life unscathed. We all bear the scars of making bad choices or suffering the physical/emotional abuse caused by the evil decisions of others.
Satan is a spiritual entity; therefore, his only weapon is to distort God’s truths and insert those lies into our minds. If we obey the lie, then we, in essence, serve him.
Romans 6:16, “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves, slaves, to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness”? this truth makes it even more clear that the battle we fight is a spiritual one.
The Spiritual War- the battlefield is in the mind
2 Cor 10:3-5 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
Let me paraphrase this statement:
Although we live in a physical body, our battle is against spiritual entities. Therefore, we can’t use physical means to battle against a spiritual foe, but Jesus has not left us hopeless or defenseless!
He has given us powerful weapons for pulling down “strongholds”. These strongholds are those false ideas or lies that we “strongly hold on to”. They are mental strongholds. Ideas like, you are not good enough, you are worthless, you are unlovable, you are ugly, you are stupid, you will never amount to anything, you are always wrong, and any other thought that Satan can put into your mind.
The Devil can put these thoughts directly into your mind or through the people you have encountered in life. We have the ability to “cast down those arguments or patterns of thinking that are contrary to what God has said about you and your circumstances.
God has placed His Holy Spirit in you for the purpose of revealing the truth that you are loved, forgiven, accepted, and empowered to resist the lies of the enemy and to accept what is true, but also the spiritual ability to live your life in obedience to your King, Jesus. This is easy to do when you realize that you are a “King’s kid”!
Once you know the truth, the truth will set you free, however, this usually doesn’t happen instantly. Understanding the truth may be instantaneous, but undoing years or a lifetime of lies may take time. It is very much like a physical injury or wound, there is a healing process. The same is true of spiritual wounds.
Next time we will be looking at the process of spiritual healing.
-
Post 63 – The Fallen World!
We live in a Fallen world, but don’t blame God for evil. Evil exists because of Sin! In other words, rebelling against God knowingly or unknowingly.
When we look at the world today, we can see a great deal wrong with it. There is evil in the world- poverty, disease, and crime. Yet when God created the world He said in the book of Genesis, “it was very good!”. What happened between God’s creation and the reality of life today?
In the creation of man, God gave mankind a unique characteristic that distinguishes mankind from all of the other creations. That is the ability to recognize the difference between good and evil and make a decision. That is what the account of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden shows us. We get to choose our destiny and we as well as others reap the consequences.
Only human beings have a conscience, a moral compass as it were, to guide us to do the right things, those things that God intended to be a blessing for us. Instead, mankind has been bewitched by the Tempter, Satan to choose those things that seem pleasant, “to the eyes, to the flesh and to make us wise (the pride of life)”. This very strategy of Satan is the downfall of mankind; the reason that we live in a Fallen World! Many will mistakenly try to blame God for evil in the world and say things like “how can God allow this to happen?”, when in fact God is not the cause of evil. God is good!
God will never violate your free will because with it you can choose to love God and follow Him. However, your free will is a two-edged sword. You can choose to do right or choose to do wrong in God’s eyes.
“We have met the enemy, and they are us.”
This is a twist on Oliver Hazard Perry’s words after a naval battle when he defeated a British squadron in the Battle of Lake Erie in the War of 1812.“We have met the enemy, and they are ours.” The updated version was first used in the comic strip “Pogo,” by Walt Kelly, in the 1960s and referred to the turmoil caused by the Vietnam War. That statement could easily be used to describe the human condition. Our sin nature. Turmoil in the world is caused by people who do evil and the consequences of that evil impact innocent people too.
Trusting in our own ability to make the right choices based upon emotions, personal experience, and wrong thinking very often leads to wrong conclusions. All of this when rolled up into a package is what we mean when we see the scripture, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Technically to sin means to “fall short of the mark”! God establishes the mark, and we miss it time and time again.
Throughout the Old Testament of the Bible, God gives us over and over again examples of poverty, disease, and crime as the consequence of missing the mark! The root issue is that we rebel against anything that tries to guide or direct us even if it is for our own good. Human nature wants to be in charge of their own destiny. A term that is used several times in the book of Judges is, “they chose to do what was right in their own eyes”! This is the central issue of life. So, how do I choose what is right in God’s eyes and reap the blessing instead of the curse!
In my last post, Donna S. W. made a comment, “The book of Proverbs in the Bible gives us the outcome of bad choices! We rebel because of our sin nature! Only accepting Christ can change that”!
This comment reveals the truth that rebellion is part of our sin nature and the ONLY way to overcome this nature is to replace it with a new nature that only Jesus Christ can give when we repent and believe in Him.
The book of proverbs is one of five Wisdom books in the Bible- Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job, and Song of Solomon. There are 31 chapters in the book of Proverbs, a wise practice is to read a chapter of Proverbs each day of the month, and when you complete the month… then start over again.
Instruction for a successful life.
For the sake of this post the relevant scripture is found in Proverbs 3:5-13:
- 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;
- 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.
- 7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil.
- 8 It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your bones.
- 9 Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the first fruits of all your increase;
- 10 So your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.
- 11 My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor detest His correction;
- 12 For whom the Lord loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights.
- 13 Happy is the man who finds wisdom.
I don’t want anyone to think that simply knowing what is right and wrong enables us to do the right and shun the wrong. Human history has shown that not to be the case. We need help and because the struggle is spiritual, we need spiritual help!
1 John 3:8 says, “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God (Jesus) was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil”. The works of the Devil is to lead mankind into sin, away from God. Remember the Devil comes to “steal, kill and destroy”, but Jesus came to give abundant life (Romans 10:10).
The Spiritual War- battlefield is in the mind
2 Cor 10:3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ”
To know Jesus is to trust Him with and for your life. If you only know about Jesus, you will miss out on the work of the Holy Spirit in you. That’s the difference between a personal relationship with Jesus and simply knowing about Him.
Knowing Jesus as a result of making a conscious decision to believe Him and His teachings means that you are a new creation, the old has passed away, that’s 2 Corinthians 5:17. The Apostle Paul says to the Philippians in Philippians 1:6, “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ (His return)”.
So, the question of the day is; Do you know Jesus! Or do you just know about Him?
-
Post 62 – Making the Right Choices.
In the last post, I said that all of us make choices every day. No one is exempt from making choices. The question is, are we making the right choices? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to know the outcome of our choices before we make them? If that were the case, we would never experience disappointment or the repercussions of making the wrong decision.
The truth is we never make decisions that are totally objective, we are always influenced by our experiences, our emotions, and … by the voices we allow into our lives. The voices of friends, family, the spiritual voices of God, and even the Devil. So, the real issue is who will you trust, people, demonic voices, or God’s voice?
Perhaps you have trusted in your own self, your friends, your family, and even the Devil himself in an attempt to find happiness. You’ve done it your way. Now ask yourself the hard question, are you where you want to be at this point in your life?
How about a change, put your trust in Jesus! His love for you will never go away! He wants you to live a blessed life, but you have to do it His way. To do it His way means that you will have to learn to hear His voice then trust and obey.
Step one is learning how to recognize God’s voice.
The reason there is such an emphasis on the Bible is that the Bible is the way we:
- we take time from our busy day to devote to the Lord. You have to admit when you commit to reading the Bible you are taking time away from all of the distractions that life brings.
- God often speaks through the Bible to our situations and circumstances. In previous posts, we’ve talked about Spiritual illumination of the scriptures, personal revelation, and the Rhema word. All of these ways are common ways in which the Lord speaks to us.
As we spend time in the Word, we begin to learn the spiritual language of God. We learn of His ways and character which then enables us to recognize what is of God and what isn’t. In essence, I am saying that relationship builds awareness of His voice.
Satan, of course, will try to imitate Jesus’ voice, but if you really know Jesus you will recognize the imposter. Just as you know the voice of your closest friend.
Once you know His voice the next step is to isolate His voice from all the noise in the world that we live in. Isolating His voice from the – TV, radio, cellphones, work, and responsibilities. Satan will try to keep you busy and occupied so that you will be unable to hear the “still quiet voice” of God which is spoken of in 1 Kings 19:11-13.
Can you hear what I am talking about? You have to take the time and practice of listening for the “still quiet voice”.
Many Christians wait for a crisis in their lives and then try to learn God’s voice. In the noise of a crisis, it is so difficult to hear the voice of the Lord.
Remember these things as you learn to discern His voice…
God’s voice encourages the Fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22,23.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control”.
Satan voice, on the other hand, will encourage your flesh (old man). Galatians 5:19-21.
“Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God”.
Next, God’s voice does not condemn, shame or use guilt to do His will.
God edifies, encourages and exhorts. In general, He builds us up.
- Edify– to instruct or improve (someone) morally or intellectually. / Antonym – confuse, perplex, puzzle
- Encourage– to give support, confidence, or hope to (someone). / Antonym – demoralize, depress, sadden
- Exhort– to strongly encourage or urge (someone) to do something. / Antonym – deter, discourage, dissuade
- Satan will use any means necessary to make you stumble and fall and after he does that, he will use guilt and shame against you.
God’s voice is “still or quiet”.
This means He is gentle and doesn’t have to use many words to make His will known. Satan is verbose and loud, trying to confuse you and trying to drown out God’s voice. He will go on and on…
Be aware… 1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour”.
Demonic Voices or Strategies:
The devil can’t “make” you do anything, but he can try to persuade you to do something that you really shouldn’t do. Here are some methods he will use to tempt you.
He will appeal to your flesh, that simply means that he will tempt you by appealing to your sexual nature, opportunities for financial gain, or personal power over others.
He will use fear, especially the fear of loss…
- 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”.
- 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”.
These things are not of God but are the tools of the enemy to try separate you from God.
- He will try to discourage you…
- He will try to create doubt…
- He will lead you into depression…
- He will use guilt and shame to coerce you…
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… (paraphrased).
