DISMISSING DEMORALISING THINKING
I believe according to the Holy Bible that the main thrust of the devil’s attacks against people will be in the MIND and EMOTIONS and for this reason, it’s not surprising that mental/emotional health is such a huge problem in society.
EPHESIANS 6:11 NLT Put on all of God’s armour so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.
From my observation, it’s usually during times when people are feeling vulnerable that evil spirits are given an opportunity to bring affliction.
2 CORINTHIANS 2:11 MESSAGE After all we don’t want to unwittingly give Satan an opening for yet more mischief we’re not oblivious to his sly ways!
2 CORINTHIANS 2:11 AMPC To keep Satan from getting the advantage over us; for we are not ignorant of his wiles and intentions.
The Apostle Paul also warns in EPHESIANS 4:27 NIV And do not give the devil a foothold.
What is he doing? He’s looking for an opening, an opportunity a moment of weakness or vulnerability.
It’s like when the door is open and someone is trying to get in so they put there foot between the door and the door frame to stop the door from closing. You know something, if you keep the door closed spiritually speaking the devil will have nowhere to put his foot into.
I’m not sure where you are all at. I pray that everyone is living in victory and has the joy of the Lord ruling and reigning in your hearts but maybe that’s not you.
Maybe you don’t have a relationship with God and you feel the emptiness that only God can fill or maybe you love Jesus but your struggling right now and you don’t know what to do.
I want to fast forward to Jesus’ first sermon in the Synagogue because it reveals some very powerful things about finding answers in our desperation.
LUKE 4:16-18 NKJV
16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. 17 And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book He found the place where it was written: 18 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.
Right here you have Jesus’ mission statement.
- Teach God’s economy and how to get out of POVERTY.
- Heal the BROKENHEARTED of spirit and soul.
- Bring liberty to those that are CAPTIVE mentally and emotionally.
- Bring liberty to those who are being demonically OPPRESSED.
Jesus Christ specifically came to earth to SAVE and DELIVER us or you could say RESCUE us from these demonically inspired attacks.
The only way to break the power of these afflictions is to REPENT of sin and ACCEPT Jesus Christ into your life and be BORN AGAIN. Start fresh but this time with God in your life and His Word guiding you into making the right decisions.
HOW SATAN OPERATES AGAINST US 1 PETER 5:8-9 NKJV Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him steadfast in the faith knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.
The Lord has shown me that there are what I call TEN D’s and each D stands for a word that has the potential to demoralise us.
- DISCOURAGEMENT
- DISAPPOINTMENT
- DEFEATED
- DIVISION
- DOUBT
- DISBELIEF
- DISCONTENTMENT
- DISTRACTIONS
- DECEIVE
- DESTRUCTION
These 10 D’s I just read can be empowered by EVIL SPIRITS and the only solution is they must be EXPOSED and they need to be CAST-OUT.
- DISCOURAGEMENT
This means to remove or lose courage in you. Evil spirits come to remind you of past failures and mistakes. Maybe things have not turned out the way you thought they would. Maybe you were let down or wounded by someone. - DISAPPOINTMENT
This is huge in Church. There are so many disappointed Christians who feel that God has let them down or has not come through for them but actually evil spirits can get into our lives when we are vulnerable and make us believe that there is no reason to keep believing.
It is so important that the basis of your belief is not based on some kind of BARGIN or DEAL for example ‘God you do this for me then I will believe and serve you’.
This can lead to an enormous amount of frustration and disappointment because the motive is not right or sincere.
The basis to believe and worship God is simply because He exists, He is our Creator and Saviour everything else is a bonus.
Whilst I have Jesus I have nothing NO-THING to be disappointed over. If you get this right it will keep your faith in check. - DEFEATED
Discouraged and Disappointed people usually go on to feel DEFEATED and believe me there are evil spirits to keep you feeling defeated in life. It’s one of the causes for people contemplating suicide. They feel like they just can’t go on. December has the highest spike in suicides in the whole year.
I believe that behind every suicide attempt or suicide there is an evil spirit behind it without question. It compels a person into believing that the only solution is to end it all. This is why Jesus said that Satan is a murderer. - DIVISION
The Bible says that unity brings a BLESSING and this is why evil spirits are always seeking to divide you from relationships.
One of the strengths of a happy and successful life is having long-term established relationships with people it’s also a sign of a stable and loyal person because they have such long-term relationships. Evil spirits are always seeking to divide you from others and keep you in hostility. - DOUBT
This is one that entraps so many Christians. It’s an Unbelieving spirit causing you to doubt or question God’s Word and His Promises.
The Bible says in HEBREWS 3:12 NKJV Beware brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.
Doubt or Unbelief is also an evil spirit that can keep you from receiving revelation from God. It can be a generational spirit where a whole family is just bound with demons that are blinding them to the truth.
Even the Bible says in ACTS 9:18 NKJV Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales and he received his sight at once. - DISBELIEF
Disbelief is different to Doubt even though they are similar but differ in that Doubt is sometimes 50×50 or it believes but always questions whereas Disbelief has a stubborn, refusal to accept the truth.
Many atheists have this spirit that has usually come from some disappointment in life or a refusal to accept moral judgments.
Atheism is an implausible and illogical position because it makes no sense that the entire universe, earth and human being just accidentally happened without any intelligent design.
A more sensible position would be to say ‘Who is this intelligent designer?’
Well I can tell you who the intelligent designer is His name is Jesus.JOHN 1:1-3 NKJV
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.COLOSSIANS 1:15-16 NLT
15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
16 for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.One word destroys an atheist’s argument and that word is ORDER. Order can’t come from chance there must be someone who creates the ORDER.
- DISCONTENTMENT
Takes away your peacemaking you compare yourself to others always thinking what you have is not good enough.
Chronic or constant discontentment can lead to you being demonically afflicted where you are always critical, highly jealous, easily intimidated by what others have or do and just generally always miserable. - DISTRACTIONS
Church listen to me on this one. If there is one thing that Satan is a master of it’s distractions. He knows how to hinder you from God. Even the Apostle Paul said in 1 THESSALONIANS 2:18 NKJV Therefore we wanted to come to you even I Paul time and again but Satan hindered us.
In the Short term, distractions keep you always busy and away from God.
In the Long-term the distance from God will eventually lead to poor decisions about your faith to ruin your destiny in God.
Most of if not all of Satan’s tactics to distract you will be REALLY GOOD ONES they rarely come in the form of something bad. - DECEIVE
Evil spirits attack your mind trying to convince you that God’s Word is not true. Satan did this with Jesus in the desert. Constantly questioning Him with ‘IF’.
JAMES 1:16 NKJV Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.
1 TIMOTHY 4:1 NKJV Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons.
Any message that is not Christ-centred and by that I mean central to the faith is the Cross of Christ. The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the only means unto salvation then it’s nothing more than deception that has originated from demonic spirits. - DESTRUCTION
Satan knows he cannot rob you of your salvation spiritually speaking but he can attack your soul and body.
He knows he can hinder and immobilise you from serving the Lord by causing trauma to get you off track perhaps being accident prone.
We see this in the Gospels when Jesus and His Disciples were on a boat in the Sea of Galilee and a huge storm out of no where came to destroy the boat.
We know this because they would never have gotten into the boat if the storm was already happening right and where were they headed to the Region of the Gergesenes where the two demon possessed men were it was also the Region of the 7 Pagan Tribes that attacked Joshua.
Now tell me are all Christians immune from these things? Of course not!
The problem today is that Christians are being told it’s all psychological it’s all in the mind and most ministers have ceased teaching on the reality of spiritual warfare of curses and demon spirits.
And you know this has left many good Christian people in Churches frustrated and totally bound with problems that they are being told don’t worry in time it will all go away just pray harder, worship harder, and give more.
Now the truth is that many problems do originate from an UN-RENEWED MIND that requires your thinking to change however what we find in the Gospels is Jesus confronting many of these issues head-on by taking authority over evil spirits.
These 10 D’s I just read can be empowered by EVIL SPIRITS and the only solution is they must be EXPOSED and they need to be CAST-OUT.
You know after 25 years of ministry in this area of Healing and Deliverance and in particular, observing the nature and activity of demon spirits I have discerned that there are some demons that behave just like unruly children in a playground causing havoc but when the teacher comes by they go very quiet, passive and have the appearance that they are so well behaved so as not to draw attention. Why? Because they don’t want to be confronted, exposed and disciplined or in our case CAST-OUT.
You can be free from demoralising thinking in Jesus’ name.
