TRZ

My dear Oakleaf. You are like a lot of christians I know. But I think the Bible has laboured well on this issue. I will address two things: 1. Everything you get from God you get then on the basis of FAITH! That is how you got saved and that is how the gifts will come to you. You ask and believe and then you start acting out in faith as the Holy Spirit leads you. My personal XP is that I read in the Bible where it says: desire the best gifts, especially that you may prophesy- something like that in 1 Corinthians. I started yearning for the gift of prophesy and now I am seeing it in operation MORE and MORE in both private and public spiritual life. 2. While I appreciate Born 2 Be Free's point of view, the Bible teaches that WE SHOULD SEEK spiritual gifts. Unless that word 'DESIRE' means something else. I dont know about you, but if I am desiring something, I go after it like a hound!! Right now just focus on blessing others and obeying the WORD of God. And you will see God move to bless others THRU you! T is back!!

Faith, Thanks for being a cool sis. Just to tell u that I am grateful!! HOLLER! Thanks again for the encouragement and the prayers. TRZ : :hug:

Its amazing how many people have experienced this! When I was first attacked, I couldn't imagine that any one else had experienced this level of demonic attacks. But like you ve said, spending time in the WORD really helps. The devil would attack my whole household with fear. I knew I was the key target. And not just fear that something was wrong or anything. NO! There would just be so much fear presence that I would jump at the drop of spoon. My son would cry whenever the front door was opened. I got so sick I considered resignining from my job. One day I spent a lot of time here reading these articles and by the time I was through, I felt so much better. I have also increased my Bible reading time. I was prayed for so many times but nothing happened. But God kept encouraging me that He would be with me and nothing would go wrong. Jesus is the conqueror; the devil is the defeated one! PRAISE BE TO GOD! Now I am preparing myself for more things in my life; new (better) job, house etc. And I know that the Lion of Judah has conquered in my life! Daily, I am getting stronger; I am leaving the devil and his tricks far in the dust!!!!!!! AMEN!

Thanks to u all for the responses that you ve given. As usual, I have gotten some good encouragement from your responses. And I also appreciate those who praying for me in this area. T

My wife is always telling me stories of spiritual warfare and satanism things and all that she and her workmates are experiencing (most are christians). She works in a christian organisation. Sometimes I feel uncomfortable with all these graphic stories about spiritual warfare or acts of satanism. Do you think it is right to always talk about these things? How much should christians talk about the devil and what he is doing? Some times I hear people say: " let's not talk about the devil, lets talk more about what God is doing" others say, "we need to expose these acts that are happening in our churches "- or something like that! What has been your experience? T

A scripture that proves that a demon can be in a christian? Look at: the simple scripture where Jesus tells Peter; "Get behind me satan!" () Jesus was speaking to the demon influencing Peter! But Peter was in no way demon possessed. That demon was in Peter's soul (mind). Peter had somehow yielded to the devil's thinking instead of the righteous plan of God. Also notice that a minute before this, Jesus had just been commending Peter about the revelation from God that he had had about who Jesus was. This tells you that even christians operating in the gifts of the Holy Spirit can yield to the devil in their minds otherwise James would not have said for us to resist the devil! Let me ask you? Have you ever had a really bad thought that you even wondered where it come from- that was probably an evil spirit bringing that thought! The one thing that is true is that there can be no evil spirit in a christian's spirit because he would have to cease being a christian for that to happen. THERE ARE NO DEMON POSESSED CHRISTIANS! The devil can only get into the soul and the flesh- these are not yet born-again. Rom 8:12 "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh." If we live in/ after the flesh we will frequently find ourselves in sin, but if we follow after the spirit we will have peace and happiness. That is why there is a struggle (war!) between the flesh and the spirit! LET US PUT THE FLESH AND ITS LUSTS UNDER CONTROL OF THE SPIRIT MAN! T

I think balanced teaching on this is that there are cases where both cases will happen. The Bible talks about an unclean spirit. It is a spirit that causes a person to have all sorts of inordinate affections- lust and homosexuality included! The flesh yes on its own can cause a person to have lust, but also there are demons that can work to 'trigger' that lust. I have heard of christians who say one day the Holy Spirit just came on them in such a measure that they completely stopped thinking lusful thoughts or being controlled by them. That shows a demon was presented and it left due to the virtue of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Not even the Holy Spirit does that to the flesh! The flesh is our business. WE do the crucifying. If a person yields to the temptation of watching explicit pictures, for example, a demon may accomodate him. It starts off us the flesh but a demon finds a place (foothold) to step in. But it is not always demons involved and one needs discernment operating to deal know whether or not it is so. The problem with strict deliverance ministries is that they see everything wrong as having the presence of a demon that needs to be cast out. No sometimes people need to change and its a gradual process of learning and changing their thinking patterns to the WORD of God. Sometimes a Christian can be oppressed by any of these spirits and all we need to realise is that this is from the devil and do what Jesus did; command the devil, "get behind me satan" and not yield to that thing. But I agree with you the lines between the flesh and actual presence of a demon are not easy to draw because the manifestation is usually the same. As is the case with sickness like cancer- sometimes it is caused by a devil sometimes its just a disease needing healing! Overall, we need to realise that the source of both scenarios is still the devil! He is behind all sin! Therefore the Bible says (for both cases!): "resist the devil and he will flee from you" T

Jackie, Can u be more explicit of what u have gone thru in these attacks. May be we can also share our experiences and teach one another something. One thing we are sure is that we do have authority to ward off the attacks of the devil. And he will attack (ephesians talks about the evil day!) and also in James that the devil goes about seeking who he may devour (among the christians too!). We need wisdom in these days to know how to deal with the devil and all his cohorts! We do not bury our heads in the sand and pretend there is no devil, but also we do not overemphasise his hold/ power over us. Welcome to the club! T

Thanks to you all for the advice and the prayers. And please keep up this counter checking of one another's advice. I have been praying the suggest long (lol) prayer. Already I am seeing (feeling) great results. Thanks u all, thanks worthyboards! T

You are a good friend :hug: also tell her the truth ! She is asking for the devil, she will get the devil. Next we will have her here asking how she can get rid of some devil. You should also show her whitedove's article on how the devil gets ground on even christians . She is giving the devil legal ground to steal, kill and destroy her life. Do it with all the love you can show her. TRZ

Sorry whitedove, Still trying to get the hang of names!trz

2bba: Hie. Tough days huh? A bit from my own xp: When the devil hit me, I knew that the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. Jesus did not say he would n't come. I am happy that you have held on to this point. When I was hit, the devil would whisper a lot of things into my ears. When I would go to the hospital he would say, "you are not coming back you are gonna die". When I would want to sleep, he would say others things to make me afraid. I think in the face of trials God wants us to go into his WORD and get some hope against hope. Some faith that everything is going to be ok. Your get out plan: 1. Continue to go to church (and doing all the things you know you should be doing) 2. Spend time reading the bible every day - focussing on areas that affirm your faith that you are healed, delivered and provided for. 3. Keep praying (remember the woman in Luke 18?) 4. Start speaking (that confessing thing is it!) your victory and hold on to that confession - stop describing the details of your sufferings with everyone you meet. (When they ask, "How are you?" you answer, "I am fine thanks"- and nobody will get hurt!) Remember, Jesus came to give you life, the devil is the one who wants to take it away!! IN SHORT: ANYTHING THE LEAST BIT WRONG IS THE DEVIL! FIGHT AND IF YOU MUST DIE, YOU SHALL DIE STANDING ON THE WORD! God will also use your experiences to make you stronger and also help others along the way. But if you don't fight- the enemy is after your life (I am sure I don't have to tell you that - you know for sure). It may be little by little, but things will begin to get better. The devil won't want to leave your life but he HAS to if decide to begin to take those small steps EVERYDAY! TRZ

Dove white, You do write some heavy stuff! But it makes a lot of sense. A small question: did what you are suggesting work for you? (how did things turn out for you in the financial area)?? I tell you this: one of the biggest things I have noticed in the people in the ministry of deliverance is that they make it look like a trial and error thing (at least my experience so far), which works for some and not for others. On the other hand the deliverance ministry of Jesus was straight to the point and it had direct results! I guess that is what we expect from God; better results than all the psychics can offer! I am not trying to be cynical, critical or anything, I only need help because I need to deal with some things in my own life and family!! TRZ your man! :hug:

Having experienced some of these spirits first hand, and in line with the WORD I know that there is definitely a dirty (unclean) spirit, that is the cause of inordinate affections like homosexuality, rape, child molestation, unbridled sexual immorality, Of course the spirits work through the flesh. And the flesh can manifest some of these behaviours even when the dirty spirit is not present. That is why I like what listing of different ways of dealing with demons. And I think ultimately it takes the Holy Spirit to guide one on which way will work. (And of course the WORD always works!). This is a great thread. And again the material by whitedove is really good!!

The last couple of months I have gone through an experience that has left me really thinking about spiritual warfare. I was attending a work meeting when I just felt like a big fear hit my tummy. Immediately after that I got really sick. I later went to a hospital but did not feel any better. Infact I got worse. At the hospital they could not find anything wrong with me. Infact they said I was fit as a horse. I called in a number of people from my church to pray for me. they bound, cast out, loosed and poured oil on my but I did not feel any better. Except God would keep encouraging me that everything would be ok. I would feel like my skin was on fire, then like something is holding my back and head with a G-clamp. And then more like I am in an unclear world- or about to run wild and crazy and do things to my son I knew were wrong. At first I would fail to eat anything but fruits. Now I am eating much better and is feeling a whole better (I have had to really fight and pray day and night) I am a born-again christian and has experienced God a lot. Has anyone gone through this and how did they get out completely. I am standing on: He who the son has set free, is free indeed! TRZ