The Spiritual Realm is Real and Active

 

 I recently had an interaction with someone to whom I am related that left an unwelcome impact on me. This person is a cousin of mine with whom I have contact anywhere from once to two or three times a year. I have always initiated contact, but I respect him for who he is and what he has accomplished. He has done very well for himself in his chosen field and I know that he has helped others, in particular a sibling of his, with the wealth that he has amassed. I suspect, given the field that he is in and my knowledge of it, that he carries a not insignificant debt load, but the fact that he can carry that debt is a testament to his earning capacity.

This all comes into play due to the nature of our latest interaction. As you know if you have been reading my posts for a while, I have not been working for several years now as I feel that I have been called to do by God. There is a long story behind this that I will not go into, but long story short, I committed myself to obey God and pursue a deeper relationship with Him, and He gently lead me to leave all of my needs in His hands, gradually slowing my business and eventually letting it die off completely, while also allowing a severe trial to enter the lives of me and my family which severely tested my resolve.

When I was visiting with my cousin, he asked me if I was working yet, to which I responded that I am not. My cousin then began to chastise me for this, stating that as a husband and father it is my duty and responsibility to work and earn and provide for my family, as well as to set an example for my kids in this manner. His concern is not without merit; my cousin's brother-in-law has not worked in something like 30 years, for some unknown and undiagnosed 'medical' reason, and has left his wife to bear the burden of providing for the family, which has lead to 30 years of tension in that family.

Under normal circumstances I would absolutely agree with my cousin, but he does not know the details of my circumstances, nor do I think that he could grasp the truth of those details until and unless I have something tangible to prove to him that I am acting in obedience to God. Since I have no such proof yet, I let him say his piece, made a small statement to him stating that I am not remaining unemployed due to issues of trauma or eluding account (as his statement alluded to) or laziness, but that I also understand if he does not understand my choices. I then managed to change the subject in order to try to extend our visit.

What struck me was how long his words weighed on me after I left, and the burden that they placed on me. It's not that I felt that he was correct, but there was something that was eating away at the peace that I have felt in my circumstances, a peace that I received from God. I prayed about this several times over a few days, but I was not receiving any relief from this burden.

Then a few nights later as I was sitting in my chair preparing to do some reading, I stopped and thought about my situation and I felt that I was being demonically oppressed. I have received some training in spiritual warfare and have engaged in it numerous times, but I am not always as sensitive to the spiritual realm as I maybe should be. I began to pray and I lifted my concerns to God regarding the possibility that I was being demonically oppressed and I felt the unction to engage in battle. I asked the Holy Spirit to enlighten me as to which demons were oppressing me, and I promptly felt that I needed to call out and remove the demon of 'envy' from myself. After having done so, I felt somewhat relieved, but I knew that there was another demon still attached to me. I was quickly prompted to pray against envy's twin, jealousy, which I also did, and since undertaking that quick battle I have felt a lot better, and my wife tells me that I am sleeping more soundly again, better than since the night that I met with my cousin.

To be clear, while I am pleased with and proud of my cousin's accomplishments, I am not envious of him or what he has. I think he has pursued an idol of sorts and the manner in which he operates has been dictated to him by the "professionals" that speak into the field in which he operates. I hope to someday delve into that general field, but I plan to operate quite differently in my efforts; ways that I believe are more along the lines of how God wants us to operate. My goals will also be quite different from my cousin's apparent goals of expansion and constant upgrading of equipment and methods. I believe that the demons that attached themselves to me were not due to my own issues or desires, but rather his issues and desires.

I have no illusions that my cousin is in any way envious or jealous of me or my circumstances, but I have begun to wonder if the drive that pushes him is his desire to 'keep up with the Jones's'. It could be that the demons that I encountered sensed that I have no such desire and am living in expectant contentment rather than wanting to compete with anyone (real or imagined) to acquire bigger, better or more than someone else. So I think that those demons tried to corrupt my heart and my thinking in such a way as to lead me to abandon this path of obedience that I have invested several years into, which I believe would cause me to forfeit at least some of the blessings that I believe that God has in store for me and my family.

I have dreams and I have expectations of what God might move me into, but in order to accomplish those things, I will have to wait on Him. Even if I were to try to pursue them myself, I think my history of 'successes' shows me that I would be unable to accomplish my dreams by my own efforts.

I think the purpose of sharing this story is to illustrate an example of how the spiritual realm operates. This is not something that I have received a lot of training in, but I have done some reading on it including studying the Scriptures, I have been taught some basics, and I have observed things through spiritual warfare and the observations of others that have advanced my understanding of spiritual matters.

I want to be clear about something; I was not possessed by these demons, rather, they attached themselves to me by my exposure to circumstances and people over whom these demons have been allowed a level of access or authority. A born-again Christian cannot be possessed by demons unless they open themselves up to it through their personal choices - this may be another topic which I will need to delve into to some depth in the near future. I don't believe that my cousin is possessed by these demons either; he is also a born-again Christian, however, he has allowed them access to his mind and his heart, so they are able to sway his thinking and his desires towards the things that they want.

This is a danger for all Christians. We need to always be on guard against thoughts and desires that are contrary to what God wants for us. That is not to say that pursuing earthly wealth, for example, is a bad thing that a Christian should never desire, but we need to examine the root of that desire and what we will do with that wealth should we attain it. This goes for any myriad of other desires or pursuits that we may have, and it can even pollute seemingly good desires such as ministry. If the purpose for our pursuit of ministry to is appear righteous and godly in the eyes of others or to attain some type of status or title rather than to pursue our own close relationship with God and to bring others to the same, then that is a wrong motive and God has no reason to honour that pursuit.

As I said, I don't believe that a true Christian can be possessed by demons outside of their personal choices leading to that, but demons can attach themselves to Christians and can act to persuade and otherwise affect us. In my case, I was sensitive to the unusual burden that was on me after having met with my cousin. Perhaps that was due to an error on the part of the demons; maybe they made their presence too obvious by the weight that they were applying on me, or maybe their presence was just such an obvious change to me that I was quickly aware of the difference, a difference that I did not like, and I sought to investigate the nature of the difference, even if it took a little while to identify the problem.

The reason that I give credit to for why I was able to notice the difference is that over the years while I have been learning about and practising spiritual warfare, my family has begun to intercede for each other in spiritual warfare, releasing us from things that attach themselves to us through our daily interactions with others. Every year we intentionally engage in this battle for each other, typically around the end or beginning of the year, around Christmas or the New Year. Each of us submits ourselves to the hands of the other members of the family, and our collective spiritual gifts combine to identify and call out the different demons that have attached themselves to us over the course of the year. We have also interceded with each other when we sense that someone is undergoing a severe spiritual oppression that they need deliverance from right away. This is an intensely personal time for all of us, and we all look forward to intervening with each other in this way as a way to show our love for each other and God.

This topic may make you feel uncomfortable. You may have a hard time with the notion of demons and the thoughts of how they affect us, but Scripture is clear that there is a spiritual realm, there are spiritual creatures out there that seek to help or to harm us, and we have the authority in Jesus' name and as children of the Living God to speak to and act against the schemes of the devil and his minions. Unfortunately, there are too few churches and pastors who delve into this at all. It may be that they do not want to seem too "out there" or out of touch with reality, but I suspect that the truth of the matter is that they simply have no idea about the nature of the spiritual realm or how to conduct spiritual warfare. This is a shame and a condemnation of Christian schools, seminaries and colleges that are churning out pastors who are unable to engage with the spiritual realm from a position of knowledge and power.

As I am writing this, I think that this will turn into a series of sorts. I don't expect it to be a sequential series, but as I feel lead to do so, I think I will add information on this subject in upcoming articles. This is not mysticism or divination; those are specifically denounced in Scripture. This is opening up the nature of the spiritual realm and our place in and around it without encouraging the pursuit of unity with it. We are not to seek guidance from any spirit being other than the Holy Spirit who will lead us in truth and love. We are not to engage in contacting those who have died, this is necromancy and is also denounced in Scripture. I am hoping to steer you towards a healthy understanding of and stance towards the spiritual realm. I will have to be very careful in doing so as I do not want to mislead anyone into something that is not God-ordained through a misunderstanding of what I write. For that very reason, I may actually decide not to pursue this area of teaching out of an abundance of caution. It would be one thing to teach this face-to-face where we can interact and questions can come right away; to do this through writing may not be advisable. I will pray on this and I ask you to pray with me.

As always, the comments section is available below for any thoughts or questions that you may have. Please feel free to use it.