BY Argie Simonis
Truth is like soap. You may have lots of soap in your house, but if you don't use it on yourself, you will continue to stink. You are not cleansed by the soaps presence, but by its application. It is not the prsence of the truth does that casts down strongholds, but the application of it.
The people of Israel had God's Law and commandments. Their problem was not that they did not have God, but that God did not have them. So how do you take down these strongholds?
The same way you demolish a house. Time consuming process and dirty work.
Have you ever had to evict a tenant? He may have not being paying your rent, causing problems and damage to your house. It may be a store that you rent to him and you may legally evict him, but that doesn't mean that the building has been demolished, and the sign he had with his company name is still hanging over the main entrance. So when the tenant leaves, it doesn't mean that your shop has automatically been renovated. This is something you have to do:
"And be not conformed to this world: but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Rom. 12:2
As long as a demon dwells in you, it not only attacks you, but at the same time builds you up. So when it is gone you continue to suffer unless you start going to your local church, start studying God's word and join a Bible study group where you will apply the truth of God's word to renew your mind and your thoughts. If you don't do this, you may not be demonized, but you will continue to suffer and feel like you are demonized.
So if our only concern is to cast demons out of people without leading them to Christ and the study of the Bible, without leading them to a local church where they will sit and learn in a safe spiritual environment with proper teaching, with mature spiritual people around them to be able to counsel them, if we don't encourage them to memorize scriptures and join some biblical discipleship, then they will experience the same thing that happened to the people of Israel. They came out of Egypt, but Egypt did not come out of them. Pharaoh was gone, but they continued to suffer and act like slaves, talk like slaves and carry the same label of slavery that they had in Egypt. Everything remained the same.
The problem is not so much about delivering someone from a demon. Demons leave as fast as they entered and in the previous message we saw through the word of God examples of deliverances, where demons left with many strong manifestations.
But what ultimately matters is what happens after the deliverance when you return home? What kind of thoughts do you have? I already said that evicting a bad tenant is not difficult if you have a good lawyer. But do you know how much trash you have to throw away to renovate the space that tenant used to live in? Throwing in a grenade and knocking everything down is not a solution. You have to clean, tidy up and rebuild something new.
THIS is the meaning of casting down strongholds. You cast down all those wrong thoughts that the demons built inside your mind while they were there.
So, demons are cast out, strongholds are cast down, and this removal is a time-consuming process. It takes hard work and discipline.
--------------------------------------
- Mental illnesses are not always demons.
I believe that a mental illness can sometimes be the result of sin. We see King Nebuchadnezzar developing a mental illness because of his pride:
"At the end of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon.
The king spoke, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?
While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from you.
And they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: they shall make you to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over you, until you know that the most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever he will.
The same hour was the thing fulfilled on Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws." Daniel 4:29-33
We see King Saul having a combination of mental illness with an evil spirit attacking him in 1Samuel 16:14
We also see the demoniacs in Gadara. From the description we read in Matthew 8:28-32, I believe they were suffering from some kind of schizophrenia, WITH severe demonization. It wasn't just mental illness and it wasn't just demonization. I will explain it:
If these two people were examined by a doctor today, I believe they would be diagnosed with schizophrenia. They heard voices, screamed like crazy and lived naked in the tombs.
And yet we see that they were demonized, and when Jesus cast out the demon called Legion (because they were many), in the account of the same story in Mark we read that their mind was also healed:
"And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid." Mark 5:15
Your mind is like a pianist and your brain is like the piano. Your mind does the thinking, but uses the brain as an execution instrument. Is there a chance that the piano (the brain) can break? Of course. If a string is not tuned or broken, the piano cannot produce the correct sound. In this case the problem is not with the pianist, but with the piano. When the brain is damaged, it cannot carry out the commands you give it.
The perception that dominates especially in charismatic Christian circles, is that everything can get sick, except for the brain. In the world on the other hand, they completely ignore the spiritual world and there is a perception that everything (depression, suicides, etc.) is solely due to brain problems. I'm not disputing that mental illness has its share of blame for this, but it's NOT the only thing.
Especially for suicides, in most cases those who have taken their own lives have had a demon along WITH a mental illness.
So can do you tell the difference?
Since I am not a doctor or an expert, I will quote the opinion of someone who specializes in this matter. His name is dr. Steven Waterhouse and is a pastor and teacher of the word of God, holder of a Phd in theology, with degrees in social sciences and a keynote speaker for the "National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI)" conventions in America.
While in the deliverance ministry, his brother Mark's diagnosis of schizophrenia at 17 inspired dr. Waterhouse to write the book "Strength for His people" to comfort the families of those suffering from mental illness. All this information is very easy to find on google.
Among his other remarks, dr. Waterhouse mentions some signs that you can tell schizophrenia from a demon. Here are some of them:
- Aversion to religion.
Mentally ill people are attracted to the Christian faith, while demons hate it. So when you see a schizophrenic for example, usually that person loves God. Demons on the other hand always have an issue with God:
"You believe that there is one God; you do well: the devils also believe, and tremble." James 2:19
- Irrational speech versus rational speech.
A mentally ill person usually talks nonsense. What he says makes no sense. Demons speak in an intelligent way. Unmedicated schizophrenics talk nonsense and jump from one topic to another, unrelated topics, which a demon does not. Most of the time a demon speaks clearly, but he will try to distract you and waste your time on meaningless things.
- Natural knowledge versus supernatural knowledge.
Demons possess knowledge that a demonized person could not have. The mentally ill does not have the ability to know things that has not acquired in a normal way.
- Normal and paranormal manifestations.
In schizophrenia, the manifestations that exist are limited only to the affected person, while if you see a little girl beating up 5 body builders, that is not normal. We see something similar in the book of acts with the seven sons of Sceva:
"And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded." Acts 19:16
You won't see this happening in people who only suffer from mental illness.
- They claim to be possessed.
Many people with mental illness claim to be possessed. One of the reasons they do this is that they are suffering so much from their illness, from the inside, that they are trying to find some kind of relief.
Could some of them ALSO have demons? Of course YES, but it is important to understand that demons try to hide and work behind the scenes. They don't like to show their cards. They don't usually come out on their own to tell you they are there. As I said, they are thieves, and a thief always tries to work secretly, behind the scenes.
That's why when someone comes to me saying "I have a demon", I always start with the questions I mentioned earlier in the message.
- What makes you think you have a demon?
-- I have strange thoughts
- Have you been to the doctor? What did he tell you? Have you received any medical diagnosis? Any medication?
You know, there are cases where some have been injured in the past. Brain injuries. And because they're literally missing certain chemicals from their brains, it causes certain reactions.
There are for example people who before coming to the Lord were drug users and some of these substances they used burned their brain and there is permanent damage. What they need is medical help and systematic counseling to stay sane.
The same can happen to someone who lost a leg in war. When that person later came to Christ, did he also get his leg back?
Sometimes you stay with one leg or one arm until the second coming of the Lord.
The brain is no different than any other organ in our body, and when we treat it differently than we treat the rest of our body, it limits us from helping someone effectively.
Every human being is a complete entity, not just a person with a demon. Every human has a brain that can be hurt and damaged.
I have emphasized that we must be careful because if deliverance is all we think or do, we will see demons behind every corner. We live in an environment that is subject to both physical and spiritual laws and we need to know them in order to know how to respond to each situation.
This is done only through the study of the word of God, where we will know all the truth and find all the answers we need.
--- An important advice:
Many people in their despair they are looking for comfort, for support, and they get attached to other people in a way that God does not want. It is good to have spiritual people around us from whom you can receive comfort or advice when you need it, but when these people take the place of God in your heart, you can unintentionally put yourself under a curse:
"Thus said the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the LORD." Jer. 17:5
-----------------------------
- Soul ties.
Among people we have ministered to, we have seen the following problem: Soul ties. These ties are like invisible chains that keep you tied to a person. They are not exactly demonic spirits, and we will examine this in the light of Scripture:
"Now therefore when I come to your servant my father, and the lad be not with us; seeing that his life is bound up in the lad's life;" Gen. 44:30
We see Jacob's soul being bound to his son Benjamin. This probably happened because Rachel, the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, had died in childbirth.
Let's look at another example with David and Jonathan:
"And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul." 1Samuel 18:1
A soul tie is when your soul (not your spirit and I have explained the difference between soul and spirit in a previous message) is connected to the soul of another person.
Let's look at an example from the people of Israel:
"So every man of Israel went up from after David, and followed Sheba the son of Bichri: but the men of Judah joined to their king, from Jordan even to Jerusalem." 2Sam. 20:2
The word "joined" here has the same meaning as what we read about King David and Jonathan.
Parents can have strong bonds with their children. Friends can have such bonds (mental and emotional) with each other. And people can have similar bonds with their leaders, with people in authority, teachers, pastors, prophets, etc.
Let's look at another example:
"And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.
And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her.
And his soul joined to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spoke kindly to the damsel." Gen. 34:1-3
Here we see that there was rape (he slept with her, and humiliated her). In other words, they had sexual intercourse and something happened.
We need to be careful here. During sexual intercourse, soul ties are created. They are not necessarily created by sex alone, but also by a sick obsession you may have with a person, or something you experience with a person, like David with Jonathan.
The same with Jacob and Benjamin that I mentioned above. This kind of father-son bond was not healthy, because the rest of Jacob's children saw that if Benjamin left, their father would die.
God's word also speaks of a man and his wife having this special relationship.
"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall join to his wife: and they shall be one flesh." Gen. 2:24
Do you see the bond here? The two in one flesh. And in the message "Carnal and Spirit Man" I have explained that our flesh is not only our body, but also our soul. This is a healthy mental bond, but only within marriage, which is the holiest institution introduced by the Lord himself.
Therefore, when we come to soul ties, there are good soul ties (healthy) and bad soul ties (sick), where there is binding, imposition and manipulation. Maybe your past is binding you and preventing you from moving forward in your life, maybe you are stuck with an old relationship that is holding you captive from finding a mate for example and getting married.
Another example:
"That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;" Col. 2:2
This is a bond that we should all have as Christians with each other. A bond of love in Christ. No manipulation, guilt, imposition or criticism.
If you, in any way, have fallen into the trap of a sick soul tie, God can heal you and bring restoration to your soul.
"Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like to it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Μatt. 22:36-40
I will close the message with the words of our Lord:
"If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed." John 8:36
"And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32
Amen!
No comments:
Post a Comment