Friday, February 5, 2010

Differentiating mental illness, demon harassment, and demon possession

What do these terms mean by themselves?

Mental Illness, in my own words: A condition of the physical brain (hardware), or the ontological operation of the mind (software and synaptic operation), that causes abnormal function in the affected person's will, decision making, intelligence, social adaptability, mood regulation, or physical function of the body, or any combination thereof.

For example, some people who have survived physical brain injury on the right side of the head may have anger or rage problems. This is a mental illness caused by a defect in the hardware. Defects in synaptic operation may result in clinical depression or schizophrenia.

Demon harassment, in my own words: Acts of the fallen angels meant to torment God's people by interacting with other people, animals (including microscopic creatures), or the mind in a way that brings about emotional, physical, and/or spiritual pain and anguish.

I don't know of any harassment of a non-believer, though I'm sure it is possible. Compare Matt 12:25-26 with 1 Peter 3:19-20.

Examples from the Bible: Acts 16:16-18 A demon (inside a woman) was following Paul for days and shouting at him. 1 Timothy 4:1 Says that demons will teach false things and mislead people. In Job 1 and Job 2, Satan himself destroyed everything and everyone in Job's life and gave him serious physical illnesses. 1 Peter 3:19-20 Indicate that demons had to be imprisoned due to their disobedience in the days of Noah. These are probably demons who participated in the deep and drastic moral decline before the flood and participated in people's sins such that the Lord had no choice but to wipe out all living things on the planet.

Demon possession, in my own words: A spiritual interaction with the physical realm whereby a person or animal is spiritually indwelt by one or more fallen angels. The interaction results in violent or destructive physical behavior, super-human strength, multiple simultaneous vocalizations, languages spoken by a host who does not know such languages, knowledge of things that are normally impossible for the host to know (such as personal secrets of others or knowledge of the future), or any combination of the above.

It is impossible for a believer to be demon possessed: Matthew 12:29 and others. I will not debate this with anyone. Period.

Examples from the Bible: Matt 8:28 (violent), Mark 5:1-5 (super-human strength), Acts 16:16 (knowledge of the future)

Homebound and need prayer

Thank the Lord - this victim of mental disease and demonic harassment is going to be discharged either today or tomorrow.

I was told that the auditory hallucinations have decreased significantly. I also spoke with our gem last night and she was very bright, bouncy, full of life and energy! As usual, the staff and the other patients will miss her.

I'm going to step up my prayers again because she will soon be in an environment where she cannot be fully supervised all the time. I'm sure she'll be fine with the spiritual protection of our platoon of Christian Soldiers. The site admin tools are telling me that 56 people have viewed this blog. My goal is to get that up to 5600 by the end of March. The more prayer, the better. Thanks so much again for standing with us in a fight against what cannot be seen.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

One down, more to come

We have victory! The young girl is talking about going home, seeing her friends, graduating high school, visiting Florida, and all kinds of positive hopeful events that the future may hold. Her sleeping pattern has normalized, she has lots of energy, and the medical staff has described her as, and I quote, "The life of the party!"

What a turn-around from maximum risk, no bed sheets allowed, constant supervision, and even a brush with death just a few days ago!!

The Lord has chosen not to heal her from schizophrenia. She still hears some voices and struggles with visions that she doesn't like. All this AND she wants to charge forward at the speed of Life!

The young girl is healthy; The saints are edified; God is glorified!!

Doctors are not recommending her release quite yet, so that's my final prayer request: Please pray that this precious child will continue to be stable, that the demons will leave her alone, and that she will be able to get to a normal home environment by her brother's birthday (in a few days)!!

In His grace, amen.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Progress Report

At the start of this blog, and the following day, things were looking grim. The enemy became aware of the dozens (hopefully hundreds) of prayers going up to glorify the King on the young girl's account. The demons responded swiftly with an attempt to stop the girl's heart in the night through dehydration. It's almost impossible to go to bed well hydrated and then become unresponsive due to low blood pressure the next day unless you're sleeping in a sauna. I'm so glad the news of God's power can be spread to believers and unbelievers alike regarding this situation.

I have not been able to glean details about the level of torment, whether auditory or visual or physical, since the young lady was stabilized yesterday morning - and many of you continued to step up your responses and prayers then too. I know that in the last 24 to 36 hours, this precious child for whom we pray has experienced positive progress. She was able to get a full night's sleep with no physical threats to her body. Her outlook on the situation has turned from, "Will someone please just let me die," to, "I'm going to lead a group class today!" I can't report this verbally to anyone without getting all choked up.

However, I don't want to lead on with a false sense of security and have my platoon on a lower guard. After all, the enemy tried to shut her body down. They tried to kill her. This isn't just a difficult-teenager-story. This is a matter of life and death - and I can't tell you all how happy I am to know so many are standing with us. God is glorified. The saints are edified. The young victim is making progress. That's why these things happen.

Please continue to pray:
Please pray that the voices will be forever silenced, the visions will be destroyed with the memories thereof, that she will be filled with hope and promise of a deeply fulfilling life ahead of her, and if God is willing that even the Schizophrenia will be completely healed.

The Lord bless and keep you; may His face shine upon you; and be gracious; and give you peace.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

All'alba vincerĂ²!

My young lady has been physically stabilized and moved back to the health center. Thankfully, the staff knows one more thing to watch out for: dehydration. That is what the enemy tried to use to shut down her little body. With the heat of the flames they brought with them from the pit of hell, they attempted to dry her out. But with our platoon of prayer warriors, this latest wave of enemy fire was defeated.

Don't back down. The next one will be worse. This ain't over yet. Thanks for praying with us.

Emergency

The enemy has stepped up his game. This is nothing for Hollywood - this is real.

Tuesday night I talked to the young girl on the phone. Knowing my plan to fast and pray for a while to drive out the oppression, I told her that God has a plan and in the next few days something amazing is going to happen. I told her I don't know exactly what, but to keep watching for something wonderful to happen "between now and the next 7 days."

As you know, I reached out to several people and hopefully the prayer chains lit up. If not, they need to, asap.

The young lady was non-responsive this morning when they went to wake her up. The medical staff has no explanation, but we do, don't we. Her blood pressure was dangerously low, she would not respond to any stimulation except pain... remember, cutting is what kept the enemy calm before, and now he's at it again. Let's not allow the enemy to convince her that pain works for anything other than what God decides.

She is in the ER. They have her on oxygen and IV's. They have her on an EKG, but not an EEG which I would hope they could do since the enemy is holding her brain hostage and is attempting to use it to shut down her physical body.

This is real. There are no medical reasons identified yet to explain this, and suddenly she is nearly comatose. Please pray, pray, pray!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Uphill Battle

Please treat this with discretion and wisdom. These kinds of things sometimes spin out into gossip and rumor mills. Thank you.

Here's what is going on in order to facilitate good prayer for the situation:
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About 18 months ago, maybe more, a young girl I know began hearing voices and seeing terrible visions. I will not give you details because I fear that could drag you into the battle possibly unwillingly. We didn't know about it until the problem led to physical consequences, i.e. Cutting. Cutting is the only way to make the voices stop. She was also convinced that there was some kind of mind-control plot and she was somehow unaffected and tried to warn her mother and her doctor. She was then diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia.

Her treatment helped with the paranoia, but not the voices and visions. When you have a known diagnosis, and a known treatment that doesn't work, it is usually time to evaluate physical causes like brain damage, or if you know about the Great Spiritual Battle for the mind, you should also add demonic forces to the suspect list. It is clearly NOT a demonic possession, but I am absolutely convinced that this girl has been targeted for severe demonic harassment.

To summarize, this problem has her under observation and heavy medication in the hospital. She does have, I believe, Paranoid Schizophrenia AND unrelenting demon harassment. She has lost all hope and simply does not want to live another day. She doesn't have any hope for the future and the voices will not stop tormenting her night and day.

In the last week or so, my mind has been pelted several times a day every day with a specific Bible Scripture. This pelting is coming simultaneously with information I'm getting about the girl and corroborates information I am getting from Christian counselors. It plays in my mind like a broken record, "But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.", "But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.", "But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting."...

So for the next 7 days, I will be answering the call. (This is Matthew 17:14-21 by the way) I am also asking for a platoon of spiritual warriors to help me with this very specifically assigned mission through prayer (I'll do the fasting ;-))

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Please pray for the young girl. This problem has her under observation and heavy medication in the hospital. She does have, I believe, Paranoid Schizophrenia AND unrelenting demon harassment. She has lost all hope and simply does not want to live another day. She doesn't have any hope for the future and the voices will not stop tormenting her night and day. Please pray that the voices will be forever silenced, the visions will be destroyed with the memories thereof, that she will be filled with hope and promise of a deeply fulfilling life ahead of her, and if God is willing that even the Schizophrenia will be completely healed.

The Lord bless and keep you; may His face shine upon you; and be gracious; and give you peace.