Think about your body for a minute. You start with two cells joining together, divide and multiply into billions of cells, which form tissue, organs, and skin. Chemicals and electrical currents flow throughout it all. You carry the genetics in your blood from your mother and father, and have power to recreate another life, that will resemble you. That first breath outside the womb starts to express the innate temperament of the baby. Another living soul, another miracle, another testimony to the power of God. There are over 353,000 of these miracles being born each day around the world.
The baby grows physically into an adult, taking in all manner of input through the sense gates to the brain. The brain filters, stores and discards, but everything leaves a mark on the soul. These marks take the innate tendency to do good, helping to turn this miracle into a good person, or they use the innate tendency to do bad, helping to turn this miracle into a bad person. There are over 150,000 of these good or bad people dying each day around the world.
There are two spiritual forces in the invisible spirit world around us. We are not alone on this earth, as other created beings are sharing our space. There are good angelic beings and there are evil angelic beings everywhere we go. Sometimes we get the privilege of seeing a good angel manifest in a human body to bring us a message of hope, direction, or protection. Hebrews 13:2 affirms that these visitations are from God, and we should be kind to strangers, for we never know if they are an angel or not. I personally have had these visitations, and maybe you have had them too. They are real, and did you know that bad angels also appear to people? Check out some the testimonies of some former Occult adherents. They have seen the devil and it is not a good experience. So, these two invisible worlds are a reality.
When Satan was cast out of heaven for his pride and rebellion, he persuaded a third of the angels to rebel with him. He and his evil angels now rule this world with darkness, and destruction. Paul says there are altars, tables, ministers, and prophets in the devil’s kingdom. There are also levels of authority based upon this world system of government, and we are to make war against these authorities or strongholds of evil.
Man desires to do good, but he also desires to do bad. Paul said he constantly had to wrestle against his fleshly body to bring it into subjection to his spiritual man. He was only able to do this by the power of Jesus Christ. Jesus said I am the door to the sheepfold, I am the way to the Father, I am the truth revealing the lies of the devil. It is the Blood of Christ that paid the ransom for our sins, nailing them to the cross, removing them forever from the devil’s accusations against us. The devil hates Christ and His Blood and His Word.
Sin separates man from fellowship with his Creator. When a baby is separated from its mother, it soon suffers emotional trauma that can lead to physical manifestations. Man, as soon as he was outside the garden, began to manifest physically the traumatic experience of being separated from his Maker. Rebellion, anger, hate, wrath and murder soon followed, with a brother dead and the killer on the run. Guilt, shame, humiliation, rejection, alienation, loneliness, resentment, bitterness, unforgiveness, revenge, then death without God.
Cain failed to filter his thoughts and emotions through what was, and what was not, pleasing to God. He brought the sacrifice the way he chose to, and not in obedience to the pattern shown to his parents in the garden. His temperament went from cranky to mean, to killer, to evil. At some point, when he was offended at God’s favor for Abel, he attached an unhealthy emotion to his thoughts of how he could make Abel suffer, and he soon carried out his imaginations into a plan of murder.
I can envision Cain being angry while he was alone, and talking to himself out loud how he felt about Abel and his special relationship to the Father. His words of confession soon attracted evil beings. A demon of wrath, and a demon of rage, and a demon of murder surrounded him, and fueled his ill intended thoughts against his brother. We don’t know over what period of time all of this took place, but it did grow from a thought, into an action, into an evil deed, and into an evil ending.
Cain allowed input to enter into his mind and soul through the openings of of his sense gates. He then told his conscience to be quiet, while he relived his memories of being wronged, using his imagination and reasoning skill to form a plan of revenge. He liked what he felt and he liked the plan he formulated, so he allowed the resentment to grow with stronger and stronger affections for his plan, until he snapped and carried it out.
Abel is dead and he is confronted by his Creator. He has to withdraw further away from the fellowship that he was jealous for in the first place. Not a pretty scenario, but one that we are all familiar with in our own personal life, or of someone close to us. The same demons that encouraged Cain are still deceiving the guys on the nightly news. These demons have lots of experience, and we can see that violence is increasing once again as in the Days of Noah.
Emotional pain seems to be one of the main portals for the demons of darkness to use in gaining access to our minds and souls. When we experience some traumatic event, we are at our weakest point and unable to guard the entries into our soul properly. Emotional hurts and emotional traumas, with an unforgiving attitude, opens the doors of our souls to demonic spirits who begin to build a stronghold. This stronghold has to be torn down or a soul will be destroyed and spend eternity without God.
The devil doesn’t have a legal right to your soul, until you give him that right by invitation. When you entertain anything that is contrary to the Word of God, or is displeasing to God, then you are inviting the dark kingdom of Satan’s demons into your soul. They can not legally violate your will, but when you show an interest in anything associated with their territory, they take that as a yes, you want it, and they bombard you with deceptive thoughts and desires to partake of it. The more you entertain these thoughts or patterns of behavior, the more strength they gain, until they have built a ‘stronghold’ inside your mind, ready to capture your soul.
Your words, attitudes, and actions are like a magnet. A magnet draws like properties to it on one side, and repels those properties on the other side. Man inherited a desire for rebellion from Adam and since we live on enemy terrain, we operate with a mind that desires the material things of this world system. If we look around us, people are giving their energy in pursuit of money, possessions, education, comfort, pleasure, power, and fame. All television shows promote these material things as our rights and thus we live in an entitled society. Our entitlement frame of mind creates a society which is all about self. We resent others for sharing what we feel is rightfully ours, whether it is ours rightfully or not. (my grandson C. used to refuse to share his toys, saying, “I can’t, I can’t, I won’t, I won’t!-fortunately he grew into a very polite and courteous young man)
Thankfully there are still those who put more emphasis on the spiritual than on the material, seeking that which is eternal and not temporal. They are using their word-confessions to attract peace, love and all things in agreement with God’s Word and Person. Unfortunately, many are asleep as to the seriousness of the battle around them, and thus are spending very little time reading the Bible, and less time on their knees asking for God’s angels to intervene in this war for the souls of man. (I was asleep for a season-but I am awake now)
We need to turn our words toward God and His Word to be able to attract the help of the Holy Spirit and His angels of light. We need their power to be able to tear down the strongholds that the enemy has built in the minds and souls of many people around us, including our own from time to time. If we don’t turn the words toward God, it automatically allows the devil to send his demons to influence us and those around us. Light drives back darkness. When there is a high crime area of a city, the mayor asks for more policemen and more lights in that area. The works of darkness hate the light for it reveals their hidden intentions and deeds. They don’t want more policemen to increase the chance of their being caught doing wrong.
The darker the area, the longer that area remains in darkness, and the darker the activities that are drawn to that area. The dark areas of town are a magnet drawing all kinds of crime. When good people move away because of the crime, the area attracts more bad people and it goes further into darkness. Many times the city has to raze the whole area and start over with new developments to attract better people.
It is the same for our minds and souls. The longer we entertain that which displeases God or the light, the more the magnet of our thoughts, words, and actions attract the demons of darkness. When enough darkness enters a soul, the light is driven out and the personality is changed into a very bad person. Evil generates ‘evil energy’ that you can feel in your spirit when you drive through these areas of town. Without thinking about it, all of a sudden you find yourself locking the car doors and making sure the windows are all the way up, as you feel yourself tense-up. Your eyes are darting back and forth looking for any sign of danger, as you hurry to get to a safer area of town.
To counter the darkness, we turn on the light and we turn up the light. We use the magnet of our thoughts, words, and actions to attract and draw the good and the blessings that come from the Presence of God and His angels of light. Just as evil deeds give off ‘evil energy’, good deeds give off ‘good energy’. When we enter a house where there is strife, we feel uneasy and tense. When we enter a house where there is harmony and peace, we feel at ease and begin to relax.
However, the devil knows this, so if he can’t get you to think bad thoughts and act on them, then he will transform himself into a good angel and allow you to feel like the thoughts in your head are your own, or the feelings that you are feeling are the correct ones to feel. Demons don’t care if it is 90% truth as long as it isn’t 100% truth, and demons do transform themselves into angels of light to become whatever you need them to be, as long as it does not agree with God’s Word. The Word of God is our standard to test every spirit by, to know whether they are from God or from the devil. This is why the kingdom of darkness keeps you busy and away from your Bible and away from praying to your God. When you restore the fellowship to your Father, and spend time with Him in His Word and in conversation with His Son, you begin to learn to recognize the voice of your Shepherd, Jesus Christ. When you know the Good Shepherd, Jesus says the sheep will not follow anyone else.
When you are in fellowship with the Good Shepherd you begin to express hope, faith, reverence for God and His Word, and spend time in prayer and worship. In other words you fill the inner man, the soul, with the Presence of God. The closer you draw to Him, the brighter the light becomes, and the clearer your understanding is as to what is pleasing to Him or not. The brighter the light, the less room for darkness. Just as bad people hate light, the demons hate the light of God’s Holy Spirit.
This whole process starts with a thought and then attaching an emotion to it. It all stops by refusing the thought and never allowing the emotion to make a stronghold in your mind. The tongue gives power to the thoughts and turns them into actions. The words and actions show demons that you are interested in the dark activities of their kingdom, so they are happy to provide more of the same. It is your responsibility to undo your wrong confessions by renouncing them in repentance to God, and replacing them with good confessions. Your good confessions in agreement with God’s Word attracts God’s Holy Spirit of light and your guardian angels. When you confess good things long enough, they will become the stronghold in your mind and soul. Your soul will experience peace and hope instead of turmoil and despair. You will die with your soul shaped to feel at home in God’s Kingdom of Light, and thus be in full fellowship with your Creator.
Click here to go to The Portals To The Soul Of Man-Part Seven