There’s a Demon There! – Choosing Your Battles but Standing in Truth – Purity 1171

There’s a Demon There! – Choosing Your Battles but
Standing in Truth – Purity 1171

Purity 1171 10/13/2023 Purity 1171 Podcast

Purity 1171 on YouTube:

Good morning,

Today’s photo of the sun and Chicago City skyline
reflected in the stainless steel surface of “The Bean” – Anish Kapoor’s “Cloud
Gate” Sculpture – comes to us from yours truly as I captured this scene during
my visit to Chicago’s Millenium Park during a walking tour of Chicago’s
downtown Loop last Saturday.  

Well, It’s Friday, thank God, and even though I am
back to work and facing the harsh reality of a shifted work schedule that will
have me working on Saturday, I am still thankful because I really needed the
day off on Tuesday and even though my life can seem particularly busy at times
because I “walk in the Spirit” as close to 24/7 as I can, I have been
continually and progressively blessed by the Lord for making the decision to
follow and serve Him where called as my purpose for life.

About a year ago the call came to pursue increased
training in “freedom” or “inner healing” prayer ministry and since then I have
not only learned how to minister to others in new ways, but I have received healing
from things rooted in my past from misconceptions and lies I believed about
life or myself that I didn’t think I would ever divulge to anyone – ever.   While I won’t be sharing any of the details
of the things I have been set free of through the prayer ministry sessions I
had with Deeper Walk certified prayer minister, Christy Edge, today, I will give
you an example of what I am talking about.  

For instance, a child’s parents’ divorce just
happens to coincide with a mistake or misbehavior of the child – say they broke
something – like a vase- or they didn’t do well in school – had failing grades –
and the child internalizes the trauma of the divorce and their misdeed as a
cause and effect relationship.  “I know
if I never broke that vase, my parents would still be together” or “If I had
only done better in school, my parents wouldn’t have divorced.”  Obviously, we can see that one doesn’t
necessarily have anything to do with the other, but it could “feel true” and
because it is somewhat irrational the child may never speak of it, but it can
be internalized and create all kinds of misconceptions about life or themselves
that could affect their course through life. 
The healing in this situation is for someone to validate the person’s
feelings of pain and comfort them with the fact that their “belief” wasn’t true
and all the vows or beliefs they made internally because of that “false belief”
where thus not true either and through care and counsel we could help them
recover by living in the “light” of the truth.  
Truth dispels the darkness and so we should turn on the light.  

So in my prayer ministry sessions with Christy Edge
and with the help, guidance, and presence of the Lord, the light got turned on
and some things I had realized long ago weren’t true were finally confessed, released,
and healed.  Even though I had grown out
of those childish secret beliefs long ago – really I did – the healing wasn’t
complete until the Lord brought them to my attention so we could expose and
renounce them once and for all.  Those
sessions removed what I think of as “residual lies” – things that may no longer
play a part in our day-to-day existence but were back there in the past and should
be “cleaned up” and removed through the Lord’s help and a healthy dose of the
truth.  

So now as my certification training for prayer
ministry is in its final months, I will practice leading someone else through
prayer ministry to help them experience their freedom in Christ and assist them
in allowing the Lord to heal traumas of the past.  

Recently, I was in a group where a prayer minister
was describing a difficult session of guided prayer that they were leading that
was in a word “complicated”.  

While the participant presented no particular issues
that needed to be addressed and just wanted to “connect with Jesus”, after the
session began all types of traumas and issues were revealed but because it was
a “one time” appointment, the prayer minister had to choose which battles to
fight and which ones to let go of.  

Don’t get me wrong, in guided prayer the Lord leads
the session, and we just follow His lead but when the sessions are limited in
scope – by time or other factors – the prayer minister has to decide how far
they want to go. Generally, as prayer ministers we don’t want to open up wounds
that we don’t have the time to deal with and we don’t want to leave a participant
more traumatized than when we found them.   

In this session, the prayer minister led the participant
into a particular area of their past and was surprised when the participant,
who was actually a trained prayer minister themselves, announced: “We can’t go
there! There’s a demon there that won’t let me go there.”   

So what do you do!?

While you might envision the prayer minster breaking
out the rites of exorcism or rebuking the devil and casting it out in the name
of Jesus at the mention of a demon, because of our commitment to the care of
the people we minister to we don’t necessarily jump into the fray at a moment’s
notice.   This session was a one time appointment
and limited in scope and time and despite the prayer minister’s choice not to take
on the demon encountered head-on; the Lord guided the session to move the
participant to find healing in some other areas of their life.  

I have to admit that I was shocked to hear it myself,
but I saw the wisdom of just dealing with what you can. 

However, I think that this episode just points out
the need to lead people through a discipleship process and the Steps to Freedom
in Christ as a first step to prayer ministry.  I understand that in this situation there was
no time for that, and the Lord still came in and did a wonderful work of healing,
but it just goes to show us, to me anyway, that even someone who is trained in
healing prayer ministry should not be assumed to have their freedom in Christ.  

People come to faith in different ways, and we have
no idea about the instruction and care they have received in the church – nor whether
or not they understood, absorbed, and applied it to their life.  I think the worst thing we can do as
Christians is to assume “we are all one” in terms of our theological
understanding or levels of maturity.  Other
Christians may be proven to be that in “name only” and have little or no Biblical
education, training, or experience – to the point where they can have a demon!   

So seek the Lord, know His word, know His presence,
and if you don’t have it pursue your freedom in Christ – because the gift of
God’s grace is priceless but doesn’t inoculate us from demonic oppression if we
give ground to the enemy through sin, unforgiveness, or unresolved spiritual or
personal conflicts.     

While someone may ask for healing, we should ask
them if they know Jesus and have done the work of applying His teaching to
their lives in repentance.  If they haven’t
we may discover they believed “childish lies” about their faith, life, or
themselves that make room for the spiritual forces of darkness to have a place
in their lives.   So while time may be a
factor, always keep first things first by instructing others in what God’s word
says and help them to repent and become free by leading them though the Steps
to Freedom in Christ. 

Healing is a priority for sure, but Freedom in Christ
should be the first thing we direct people to who need it.

——————————————————————————————

Today’s
Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By
John G. Kruis.

(
While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google
search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s
work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )

This
morning’s meditation verses come from the section on Assurance of Salvation.

1 Peter 1:3-5 (NASB)
³  Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us
to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from
the dead,
⁴  to obtain an
inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away,
reserved in heaven for you,
⁵  who are protected by the
power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last
time.

Today’s
verses fall under the seventh and final point of our counseling reference guide
resource’s section on Assurance of Salvation.

 7.  A
Christian has a living hope through Christ’s resurrection.

 Today’s verse reminds us
of our born again status that comes with our faith in Jesus.   When we put our faith in Jesus, we are said
to be crucified, die, and raised to life with Him. 

So our hope comes from Jesus’
resurrection – the sign that Jesus was who He said He was – God the Son – and when
we place our faith in Him we receive an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled,
and will not fade away. 

We are protected and saved
because of Christ, and it will someday be fully revealed when Jesus comes back
to rule and reign.  In His resurrection,
we have a living and eternal hope!

——————————————————————–

As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.

Today we continue sharing from  The Holy Spirit By A.W. Pink.

As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage you all to purchase A.W. Pink’s books for your own
private study and to support his work.  This resource is available online
for $0.99 (https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Spirit-Arthur-Pink-Collection-ebook/dp/B008CM5292/ref=sr_1_3?crid=AHKAQOM39CTN&keywords=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit&qid=1684376225&sprefix=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit+%2Caps%2C96&sr=8-3) 

A.W. Pink’s The Holy Spirit

30 – The Spirit Fructifying

In the Song of Solomon

Far more is said in Scripture upon this aspect of our
many-sided subject than is generally supposed—different figures being used,
especially in the Old Testament, to express the graces and virtues which the
Spirit imparts to and develops in the elect. A considerable variety of emblems
are employed to set them forth. They are frequently referred to as flowers and
gardens of them, to beds of spices, and unto trees and orchards. For example, in
Solomon’s Song we hear Christ saying to His Spouse: “A garden enclosed is My
sister, My Spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Thy plants are an
orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphor, with spikenard.
Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense;
myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices: a fountain of gardens, a well of
living waters, and streams from Lebanon” (Song. 4:12–15).

The figures used in
the above passage are very beautiful and call for careful consideration. A
“garden” is a piece of ground distinguished and separated from others, for the
owner’s use and delight; so the Church of Christ is distinguished and separated
from all other people by electing, redeeming, and regenerating grace. In a garden
is a great variety of plants, herbs, and flowers—so in the Church there are
members differing much from each other, yet in all there is that which is
delightful to their Lord. In a garden the plants and flowers do not grow up
naturally of themselves, they do not spring forth spontaneously from its soil,
but have to be set or sown, for nothing but weeds grow up of themselves; so in
Christ’s Church, those excellencies which are found in its members are not
natural to them, but are the direct product of
the Spirit’s operations, for by nature nothing grows in their hearts but
the weeds of sin and corruption.

The commentators are
not agreed as to whether Christ is speaking to His Spouse in verse 15, or
whether She is there heard replying to what He had said in verses 12–14.
Personally, we strongly incline to the latter: that Christ having commended His
Church as a fruitful garden, She now ascribes it all to Him: “A Fountain of
gardens, a Well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.” Yet, if we accept
the former interpretation, it amounts to much the same thing, for He would
there be explaining what it was that
made His Garden so fertile. To be healthy and productive a garden must be well
watered, otherwise its delicate plants will quickly wilt and wither; the same
being true of trees and all vegetation: a plentiful supply of water is
indispensable. Consequently, in keeping with the fact that believers are
likened unto plants and trees, and their graces to flowers and fruits, the
quickening, renewing, reviving, and fructifying operations of the Spirit are
spoken of as “dew,” as “showers,” as “streams in the desert,” etc.^[1]

—————————more
tomorrow————————

Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage
Breaker”, “Freedom in Christ” series of Discipleship Classes via the
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for the Path of Christian Discipleship