Serving Zion
Seek First His Kingdom & Righteousness
Awww Mark, I feel for you man, because I know what it's like to be in that place .. though with your children being turned against you too, that's a heavy load to carry brother.
I'm going to tell you quite a bit of what I know about these things, because you're on the right track by thinking of exorcisms, but what most people don't realise about demonic activity is that breaking it's hold by using some supernatural command, that's only effective by entering a covenant .. which means that the one who is giving the command needs to be respected by the one who is doing the haunting (I speak of the spirits - see Mark 7:29). Now as you know (no offence to anyone), that there is so much division in Christianity and confusion is not God's doing, then it stands to reason that a majority of the teachers themselves, being proponents of division, must have fallen victim to the deception of the adversary.
We know that the devil is the father of lies, and all the problems you have is because people cannot hear the truth you are telling them. It is because there was a time when the lies crept among you and took the minds captive, and the inability to come back into agreement and peace according to the truth, has led to compounding misunderstandings. St John writes "we are from God and whoever is from God hears us. Whoever is not from God does not hear us, and that is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error". This shows a concept that the "spirit of truth" is found amongst those who are of God. St John also writes "God is love.. the one who stays in love stays in God and God in him". So we can see that love and truth are co-dependent qualities of a person who truly is of God - and that as long as we are vulnerable to misunderstanding (eg: Proverbs 18:17, Proverbs 18:13, Exodus 23:2), there is a potential to fall away from that place and to therefore give the devil a foothold through deception.
So I would be about to ask for information about your family. Were you Christian before you met, or did you become Christian after marriage, and do you both go to the same church etc.. and also I would ask what is it about your faith that makes all these people think it is different enough to be of Satan? .. but that's just extraneous information that will help me to get a better picture for my next reply.
Anyone who has departed from the character of truth and love, then those ones have chosen to abandon The Holy Spirit. It is not as though everyone who lives that way calls themselves Christian though, and as the most obvious example I will say that there is a lot of children who don't know about Jesus, and yet the spirit of Christ is alive and well within them according to their conscience in light of the knowledge they have. So this is how scriptures such as Luke 6:44 and John 10:16 can reconcile what I mean.
I'm basically saying that being Christian isn't defined by the beliefs a person has, but the spirit that a person has. Where beliefs are involved, is that beliefs are often the cause of a person falling away from the truth. This is so important that I'll begin a new paragraph:
A belief is a habitual decision (or thought process). A healthy, natural belief is a mechanism of the human that is meant to make life more efficient. The opposite to belief is rational thought, which is a process of considering information, deliberating, and carefully discerning the right decision. When a person finds that there is a repetitive call for decision, they identify a pattern as being reliable and they form a belief, which if you think in terms of computing, it is equivalent to the difference between running a complex database query that may take several seconds, or storing the result of that query into a cache so that it can be retrieved in microseconds. It's like taking a shortcut in our thinking because we have found that it's unnecessary to keep repeating that same complex thought.
I should give you an example for good measure, hmmm... think of a teenager (because they haven't yet learned much, it's easier for this example) and just because I am sitting next to a fire place. Let's say they were going to light the fire and they were tempted to use gasoline to help start the fire. They might not have ever seen gasoline used that way before, and they know gasoline explodes (that's another belief they have formed, btw), so they have to make a very careful decision before they are able to do so. They might in fact go ahead and do it, and say they use too much, they get a fright, maybe even get burned because gasoline is very dangerous to play with, so they would use less gasoline the next time, and eventually they would find that there is an amount of gasoline that is safe enough to use. They have formed a habit of thought, a belief, that gasoline can be useful and safe enough for lighting a fire, and they would do so in future without having to think so much about it. (disclaimer: I do not recommend using gasoline to light a fire! .. it's hypothetical for education only
.. even one teaspoon of gasoline can cause a dangerous explosion, so use paper and kindling instead!).
Now in a more abstract way, people do the same thing when they make judgements of a person's character. When a person is learning about someone that they haven't come to know yet, they will be considering information carefully to make sure that they don't misjudge the person. A large part of that process is understanding human nature, and that is where stereotypes have their advantage to the devil, but that works against humanity's objective .. because stereotypes are beliefs about human nature that effectively prejudice a person's judgement of others without giving a due and fair investigation. (Television is doing huge damage to the world in that way, by programming minds to think that way about people). Anyhow, that is the nature of the world that we live in, because humans are ignorant (closed-minded) to that extent, and the thing is that communities are full of gossipers on top of that.. in fact, there are parts of the world that think nothing of gossiping, that it is a normal and fun thing to do! .. but this is showing where the real danger of gossip is and why it is condemned in scripture.
As soon as a person has believed wrongly about someone, they have departed from the truth and have entered the realm of deception, having believed a lie that comes from the devil. Every person that they then infect with that error is likewise entering deceit with regards to the one they are thinking wrongly about. That means that they aren't giving the due regard for that person anymore, when that person in fact deserves fair regard and love according to who they truly are - they are condescended instead for something that is actually not true.. and that is without having been given the opportunity to balance the view with the truth!
.. The only thing that can truly break that stronghold is the truth. The people who are wrong need to be put right, and that isn't going to happen by some priest coming around in a special robe and with a crucifix, speaking threats into the air. That might have been appropriate 2,000 years ago, but the demand for precision in truth is greater now than ever before, (because of how much knowledge has been gained since that time). The spell is only going to be broken by making sure that the people who are wrong recognise that they are wrong, but in a way of such kindness that they are not ashamed to admit it and to come round to the right thinking. That's the really tricky part, because part of what the evil spirit does, is it makes them expect of you that you are going to rub it in and that they will never be free of the guilt that they have been wrong. Do you see how fear gets a person trapped in their error? .. and see how Adam and Eve made the same mistake too - instead of running up and saying "Lord! .. wow, are we glad that you're here, because we need your help! we have to tell you what we've done!", they were hiding: "we heard you and we were afraid because we knew that we were naked".
Now, I know it's been a bit long-winded and tedious to get through, but if you have kept up with me, then you should be at the point of realising that what you really need to do is get some group therapy happening, where you can all sit down with a suitable (mediator/referee/guide) to help navigate the whole situation that is full of misunderstanding, and to allow each party to get their problems on the table and the other parties to then be able to respond, in order to try and all come to a genuine agreement of the truth, because it is the truth that will set us free. That can't happen when everyone is feeling like they are being accused of things that they feel is not fair, or that they have some grievance to bring but they feel like it is falling on deaf ears.
I'm going to tell you quite a bit of what I know about these things, because you're on the right track by thinking of exorcisms, but what most people don't realise about demonic activity is that breaking it's hold by using some supernatural command, that's only effective by entering a covenant .. which means that the one who is giving the command needs to be respected by the one who is doing the haunting (I speak of the spirits - see Mark 7:29). Now as you know (no offence to anyone), that there is so much division in Christianity and confusion is not God's doing, then it stands to reason that a majority of the teachers themselves, being proponents of division, must have fallen victim to the deception of the adversary.
We know that the devil is the father of lies, and all the problems you have is because people cannot hear the truth you are telling them. It is because there was a time when the lies crept among you and took the minds captive, and the inability to come back into agreement and peace according to the truth, has led to compounding misunderstandings. St John writes "we are from God and whoever is from God hears us. Whoever is not from God does not hear us, and that is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error". This shows a concept that the "spirit of truth" is found amongst those who are of God. St John also writes "God is love.. the one who stays in love stays in God and God in him". So we can see that love and truth are co-dependent qualities of a person who truly is of God - and that as long as we are vulnerable to misunderstanding (eg: Proverbs 18:17, Proverbs 18:13, Exodus 23:2), there is a potential to fall away from that place and to therefore give the devil a foothold through deception.
So I would be about to ask for information about your family. Were you Christian before you met, or did you become Christian after marriage, and do you both go to the same church etc.. and also I would ask what is it about your faith that makes all these people think it is different enough to be of Satan? .. but that's just extraneous information that will help me to get a better picture for my next reply.
Anyone who has departed from the character of truth and love, then those ones have chosen to abandon The Holy Spirit. It is not as though everyone who lives that way calls themselves Christian though, and as the most obvious example I will say that there is a lot of children who don't know about Jesus, and yet the spirit of Christ is alive and well within them according to their conscience in light of the knowledge they have. So this is how scriptures such as Luke 6:44 and John 10:16 can reconcile what I mean.
I'm basically saying that being Christian isn't defined by the beliefs a person has, but the spirit that a person has. Where beliefs are involved, is that beliefs are often the cause of a person falling away from the truth. This is so important that I'll begin a new paragraph:
A belief is a habitual decision (or thought process). A healthy, natural belief is a mechanism of the human that is meant to make life more efficient. The opposite to belief is rational thought, which is a process of considering information, deliberating, and carefully discerning the right decision. When a person finds that there is a repetitive call for decision, they identify a pattern as being reliable and they form a belief, which if you think in terms of computing, it is equivalent to the difference between running a complex database query that may take several seconds, or storing the result of that query into a cache so that it can be retrieved in microseconds. It's like taking a shortcut in our thinking because we have found that it's unnecessary to keep repeating that same complex thought.
I should give you an example for good measure, hmmm... think of a teenager (because they haven't yet learned much, it's easier for this example) and just because I am sitting next to a fire place. Let's say they were going to light the fire and they were tempted to use gasoline to help start the fire. They might not have ever seen gasoline used that way before, and they know gasoline explodes (that's another belief they have formed, btw), so they have to make a very careful decision before they are able to do so. They might in fact go ahead and do it, and say they use too much, they get a fright, maybe even get burned because gasoline is very dangerous to play with, so they would use less gasoline the next time, and eventually they would find that there is an amount of gasoline that is safe enough to use. They have formed a habit of thought, a belief, that gasoline can be useful and safe enough for lighting a fire, and they would do so in future without having to think so much about it. (disclaimer: I do not recommend using gasoline to light a fire! .. it's hypothetical for education only
.. even one teaspoon of gasoline can cause a dangerous explosion, so use paper and kindling instead!).Now in a more abstract way, people do the same thing when they make judgements of a person's character. When a person is learning about someone that they haven't come to know yet, they will be considering information carefully to make sure that they don't misjudge the person. A large part of that process is understanding human nature, and that is where stereotypes have their advantage to the devil, but that works against humanity's objective .. because stereotypes are beliefs about human nature that effectively prejudice a person's judgement of others without giving a due and fair investigation. (Television is doing huge damage to the world in that way, by programming minds to think that way about people). Anyhow, that is the nature of the world that we live in, because humans are ignorant (closed-minded) to that extent, and the thing is that communities are full of gossipers on top of that.. in fact, there are parts of the world that think nothing of gossiping, that it is a normal and fun thing to do! .. but this is showing where the real danger of gossip is and why it is condemned in scripture.
As soon as a person has believed wrongly about someone, they have departed from the truth and have entered the realm of deception, having believed a lie that comes from the devil. Every person that they then infect with that error is likewise entering deceit with regards to the one they are thinking wrongly about. That means that they aren't giving the due regard for that person anymore, when that person in fact deserves fair regard and love according to who they truly are - they are condescended instead for something that is actually not true.. and that is without having been given the opportunity to balance the view with the truth!
.. The only thing that can truly break that stronghold is the truth. The people who are wrong need to be put right, and that isn't going to happen by some priest coming around in a special robe and with a crucifix, speaking threats into the air. That might have been appropriate 2,000 years ago, but the demand for precision in truth is greater now than ever before, (because of how much knowledge has been gained since that time). The spell is only going to be broken by making sure that the people who are wrong recognise that they are wrong, but in a way of such kindness that they are not ashamed to admit it and to come round to the right thinking. That's the really tricky part, because part of what the evil spirit does, is it makes them expect of you that you are going to rub it in and that they will never be free of the guilt that they have been wrong. Do you see how fear gets a person trapped in their error? .. and see how Adam and Eve made the same mistake too - instead of running up and saying "Lord! .. wow, are we glad that you're here, because we need your help! we have to tell you what we've done!", they were hiding: "we heard you and we were afraid because we knew that we were naked".
Now, I know it's been a bit long-winded and tedious to get through, but if you have kept up with me, then you should be at the point of realising that what you really need to do is get some group therapy happening, where you can all sit down with a suitable (mediator/referee/guide) to help navigate the whole situation that is full of misunderstanding, and to allow each party to get their problems on the table and the other parties to then be able to respond, in order to try and all come to a genuine agreement of the truth, because it is the truth that will set us free. That can't happen when everyone is feeling like they are being accused of things that they feel is not fair, or that they have some grievance to bring but they feel like it is falling on deaf ears.
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