The “Most Practical” Advice for Demonic Attacks / Obsessive Thoughts – Purity 1374

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of the sun and clouds over Waite Road forming a pillar of fire by day to light my path comes to us from yours truly as I captured the scene yesterday afternoon as I decided to take a couple of photos on the way back to my countryside home, even though the The brilliance of the sun before me had me effectively blinded by the light. Well, it's Thursday, and there is a popular proverb that says, "There are none so blind as those who will not see." And according to the Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings, this proverb has been traced back to 1546, John Heywood, and resembles the biblical verse Jeremiah 5:21, which says, 'Hear now this, O foolish people and without understanding, which have eyes and see not, which have ears and hear not.' It's also attributed in 1738, was used by Jonathan Swift in his Polite Conversation, and is first attested in the United States in 1713, the works of Thomas Chalky Lee. The full saying is, 'There are none so blind as those who will not see, the most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know. But that is assuming a lot. This wisdom assumes that people can see and people already know something, and by implication would be fully capable of applying their knowledge to their lives. As a Christian life coach, teacher, and encourager, um, I know that this isn't necessarily the case. In the past on the blog and in And in, um, and in one-on-one conversations, I, I have encouraged scores of people to seek the Lord, follow his ways for living, and to keep on walking and talking with God continually as the means to their freedom and victory. While many have expressed their thanks to me for my encouraging words and the help that I've tried to give, I noticed that few of the many seem to have experienced the levels of freedom, peace, and joy that I have found by following my simple advice. That's why I decided to become a Christian life coach, to help others to be accountable to knowing what they know and, and living according to their wisdom. As a coach, I make the same encouragements and give the, the same practical advice that I would as a teacher or blogger/podcaster, but I do so in the context of a relationship where I work together with my clients to ensure that they are seeing what they should see, that they really know experientially what they should know, and are making efforts to put their knowledge into practice. I often have people referred to me for advice or to receive help with spiritual and personal conflicts, and yesterday I received an email from someone who I had already given some practical advice and free resources in an attempt to help them overcome recurring afflictions of a spiritual mental nature. But apparently the advice wasn't taken or wasn't effective because they were reaching out to receive, quote unquote, the most practical things they could do to reduce or eliminate intrusive visions or thoughts of an occultic symbol that played a part in some very real trauma in their past. I don't take their pain and suffering lightly at all, and I am blogging about this today as an attempt to address their concerns specifically. And to help others who may be suffering from recurring thoughts or visions that may be demonic in nature. Okay, first and foremost, while I am responding in kindness, I am a student of what we would call the Nofetic approach to Christian counseling, which is an approach that demands personal responsibility of the counselee for their healing, believes in the inerrancy and authority of the Word of God as the best advice for living and human flourishing, and it also believes in the spiritual realms of darkness and light portrayed in the Bible and the implications of the permissions we give to the spiritual forces of darkness through the things we believe and the way we live our lives. Um, and it confronts the counselee with the inconsistencies of their choices to believe and obey what the Word of God teaches. So, with that said, I have to point out that I gave the following resources and advice to this emailer previously. I gave them a link to my podcast, which walks people through the Freedom in Christ course. That link is on the blog today. Also, I pointed out that they could buy the Freedom in Christ Participant's Guide and go through the material as well as they listen to the podcast. And then I gave them— I suggested they go through the Steps to Freedom on your own. Which is a book you can buy. It's a prayerful repentance process. And, you know, basically I also gave them a link to the free book Restored from Freedom in Christ Ministries that would lead them through, you know, they could read about the steps and go through the steps to freedom in Christ basically through that book. And so those links and that information, that the exact steps, you know, all the advice that I gave him is on the blog today. Like I said, I believe in personal— in the personal responsibility of each one of us in our receiving healing and freedom from the Lord. We have to do our part. We have to believe what God's Word says and take the advice of those who offer us help. Otherwise, we are just a hoping and a praying, treating God as a genie in the bottle. Because this emailer gave no feedback on how these resources were received or how they were used, I have to assume they went unused. I personally know how effective the Steps to Freedom in Christ can be in eliminating obsessive condemning thoughts, so I doubt they were able to complete them. And that's okay, but I gotta keep it real. Also, please understand that it's not the Steps to Freedom in Christ that sets us free. It's God and you working together in faith, in repentance, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, and with the use of this prayerful repentance process, that spiritual conflicts are resolved and freedom is experienced. So, so you couldn't, wouldn't, or were unable to do this, but you are still looking for the quote-unquote most practical things you can do to stop these flashes of an occultic symbol from your traumatic past. So what do you do? Well, it sounds like there are some real problems here. One, and I guess, you know, I, I list one, but there is no two. One, you obviously have unresolved problems from the past and most likely some very real current problems with your walk of faith. I have to imagine that there are some fundamental trust issues between you and the Lord, and I suspect that the life you are living is less than one of complete faith and obedience to God's word. That's okay, it's pretty common. Which probably includes some of the— some, if not all, of the following. Um, and we have bullet points: sexual sin, specifically fornication, sex outside of marriage, masturbation, homosexuality, or continual or regular lustful thoughts, unforgiveness, bitterness, anger, faithlessness, biblical illiteracy, irregular or no fellowship with the local church, no real intention of following the Lord with one's life, blasphemy, negative view of God or a heightened view of the occult's power, secular, uh, occultic, occult forms of entertainment, dishonesty, lying, sloth, gluttony, laziness, obesity, passivity, addiction, to alcohol, drugs, food, sex, gambling, money, shopping, uh, all of those things. I point all of those things out not to appear holier than thou or to beat you up, but to expose the areas of your life where the satanic forces of darkness can claim permission to stay in your life and afflict you with demonic visions or thoughts of the occultic object of your past. With this specific occultic ob— symbol reappearing, there is also a fundamental category error that is being made here that exposes believing a lie. The enemy is using your past traumatic experiences to cause you to believe that this symbol and the demonic entities it represents is somehow more powerful than the Lord of all creation, including He's the creator of all creation, including said demonic entities. Not to sound unkind, but really? If you think about it, it's really dumb. Satan and the occult are not equal and opposite forces to God. They are created beings underneath him. The problem is not that they are more powerful than God. The problem is that your past traumatic experiences, and not for nothing, your less-than-stellar commitment to following the Lord, and and the permissions that you are believing lies and living a selfish/sinful life creates have allowed the enemy to afflict you and cause you to continue to believe something that isn't true. Please forgive the bluntness of all the above. None of this is meant to condemn you. It is meant to expose those lies and to stir in your heart a desire to repent and surrender to the Lord to get set free. So what do you do? Depending on how much of the above shotgun blast of possibilities is true about you, you could have a lot or a little to address. What is the most practical thing you can do to help when this occult symbol comes flashing into your life? Well, do something. The first thing that comes to mind is to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. When it comes, rebuke it. Say, I recognize this, this symbol is inferior to the Lord Jesus. I cast it out of my mind in the mighty name of Jesus. I recognize it as one of Satan's counterfeits and deny its power over me because I have been saved by Jesus Christ. I commit myself to following him and receiving his guidance and protection. That symbol and the trauma of the past didn't kill me, and I now live to testify of the Lord's power over it and all— and over all the spiritual forces of darkness. You know, if you repent and start living as a Christian with those other areas of your life and develop a daily spiritual practice of prayer and Bible study, the Lord will bless your life and give you the power to go through the Steps to Freedom— through the Freedom in Christ course, read the book Restored, and go through the Steps to Freedom in Christ to help you resolve those spiritual conflicts of the past, to break those traditions, and to live a new abundant life in purity and by the power of the Holy Spirit. So here are some suggestions that are very practical that will, and will help. Read the Bible every day. Start and stay in the New Testament and know who Jesus is and know how to live as a Christian. After you've done it a couple of times, do the Old Testament, knowing that God's Word is a progressive revelation, that it all leads to Jesus. The next thing you can do is pray. Talk to God every day throughout your day. Stop talking to yourself, stop talking to yourself and start talking to God. Ask him for help, guidance, and strength to live, to live for him. You can also decrease and eliminate the secular or occultic forms of entertainment in your life. You should join a church where the Bible is preached and taught to be lived by. Serve and fellowship there. Try Christian forms of entertainment. Listening to uplifting praise music and sing along. Watch The Chosen. It may not be perfect in its artistic license, but it's good. Turn from sexual immorality. Forgive those who have offended or harmed you from the heart. Stop lying. Live a life of honesty and integrity. Remove all occult objects from your home. Throw them out or burn them. Be a good steward to your body. Go to recovery for addictions, preferably a Christian program. Exercise. Eat a healthy, low-fat, low-carb, low-calorie diet. Get lots of rest. Take responsible— responsibility for your thought life. Think on the things of God and those things that are good. Um, and wow, we are basically out of time today. So do these things and trust in the Lord, and your life will change and the enemy will flee. God bless you all. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Crews. This morning's meditation verses come to us from the section on divorce. Today's verses are Matthew 5:31 and 32. Where the Word of God says, it was also said, whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife except on the ground of sexual immorality makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Today's verses are the first of two passages of Scripture that fall under the, underneath the fourth point of our counseling reference resource section on divorce. And that fourth point is Jesus says no divorce except in the case of adultery. Today's verse establishes divorce as acceptable in cases of adultery. Jesus said so, so there. We are out of time today. But with that, it, you know, really points out that if you divorce for for any other reason other than abandonment, alright, the unbeliever leaves you or abandons you in some way, or through sexual immorality of your spouse, they cheat on you, you know, those are acceptable means of divorce in the New Testament. Anything else basically indicates that spiritually you're like, you're still married. So, you know, and you would basically be committing adultery. So, what do you do with that? You repent. You go to the Lord and ask for forgiveness if you've divorced for other reasons. And you really take the Word of God seriously. And if it's possible, consider reconciling. You know, I'm not going to tell you, but, but those are the biblical mandates on divorce. And so we should take it very seriously. It's not for nothing, but we can be forgiven and healed of even wrong choices in the areas of divorce. So, but we have to go to the Lord and ask for forgiveness and resolve those issues with him in prayer. So do that. Don't take it lightly. But you can be forgiven and healed and, you know, start living for the Lord today. That's the point. Anyway, as always, we invite all to go to mt4christ.com where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament by Stephen F. Allford. And in his, in his devotional, he prompts us to read a chapter of scripture. Today's chapter is 1 Corinthians chapter 1, and from chapter 1 he shares a portion of verse 18 which says, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing." And Stephen Alford writes, Lord, give me a real passion for perishing sinners. The word of the cross may be foolishness to many, but there plenty who long to know Christ has died for their sins according to the scriptures, that he has been buried, and that he has been raised according to the scriptures. The tragedy is that they are perishing now. Give a vision, Lord, of a perishing world. Give a vision of yourself, for your word has taught me that where there is no vision, the people perish. And Stephen Albrecht concludes his message by praying, "Hear my prayer, for Christ's sake. Amen." Yeah, he had a real heart for the perishing world. Not to take the gospel lightly, like, "Yeah, I believe in Jesus, and you know, thank God I'm saved, and off I go." No, um, we're called to help those, those who are so blind they cannot see, because they are spiritually blinded, you know, without the Lord reveals the truth of the gospel, and the way that happens is we have to— they have to hear about it. So someone has to speak. I suppose you could read it in a book, but someone has to introduce the word of God to people who don't believe, to perishing sinners, and to take you know, to take that word of God seriously in areas of where it tells us to live our lives. You know, if we suffer demonic thoughts, they come flashing into our head, we got to wonder, maybe something's not right between me and the Lord. Um, yeah, you might be attacked spiritually, um, from an outside entity, but, um, you know, we put up the shield of faith and extinguish those fiery darts. We recognize the thoughts of the enemies as not our own. You know, if we're tempted or the foul things come into our minds, we go, that's— I'm not thinking about that. I can't, you know, I rebuke it, I cast it out in the name of Jesus. I don't want to think about that. And we turn our thoughts to the good things of God's word and the, you know, good, holy, and pure things of life. That's spiritual warfare. And that's an expectation we should know that will be, you know, a part of our lives as a— as even as a Christian, as a committed Christian, um, that at any moment we can be afflicted with tempting or profane thoughts from the spiritual forces of darkness. And we hold up the word of God and, uh, you know, our shield of faith to fight. We put on the whole armor of God through our faith in Jesus Christ. He covers our head and our heart. And we use that sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, just like Jesus did to rebuke the devil in the wilderness when he was tempted. Satan came at Jesus 3 times, and he used the Word of God to defend himself and to drive the enemy out. So our being afflicted by negative thoughts or images of an occult nature. It shouldn't be too surprising. We need to fight. And if we fight, and if we live according to the Word, those things will occur less and less. So, I've stated that when I started the ministry work I do with Freedom in Christ Ministries, I was afflicted with demonic dreams. So I got in the habit of having Christian message playing while I go to sleep. Right now I listen to, as I sleep, Charles Stanley Radio is on, and that's, you know, through my Alexa, my Alexa app or whatever. I better not say that name too much because she'll speak. Anyway, but then so Christian worship music, Christian messages while you sleep will keep out those spiritual forces of darkness. But the thing that really keeps them out is a life that's surrendered to the Lord. So we've got to remember to do that. Anyway, we're really out of time, so I should pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we pray for that emailer that they'd find the answer to follow you, do some practical things like believe and follow Jesus. And, uh, we all need that practical advice, Lord, because none of us are perfect and we need to repent, uh, as a lifestyle. So help us with that today. We pray for that emailer and anyone who's listening or reading today's message, that you would help them come alongside their prayer request and their walk of faith. And we pray for you to do the same for us, Lord. Open our eyes to the things you want us to see and lead us the way we should go. It's all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom, and we need your help with that. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.