Weekly Devotional for Week of August 8, 2010 - Drown Out The Noise! (Part III)

[Dr. Dorothy E. Hooks, PsyD]

Drown Out The Noise! (Part III)

Scriptures: John 14:27; Phil 4:6-8; 2 Tim 2:4; & 2 Cor 10:3-5

Before you begin this week’s devotional, if you need to review Parts I or II, please do so. I will not post devotional for next week, just in case you need to review the previous ones. The next devotional will be posted on August 22nd; however, the week of August 15^th, I will post a “Nugget for the Week.” Now, let’s begin with our topic for this week, “Accusing Spirits.”

In the previous chapter, we learned that discernment is the primary weapon of the mature Christian in spiritual warfare. Mature Christians discern between good and evil, and choose to do good. II Corinthians 10:5 teaches us to take captive all of our thoughts to see if they line up with Jesus Christ and the teachings of His Word.

This week, I want to get into what constitutes our thoughts, their origins and effects. We discussed previously that the thoughts and voices we hear in our minds are not always our own. There are three sources for these thoughts and voices: they are either ours, from God, or from Satan. But the nature of our thoughts will always reveal whom they line up with: God or Satan.

The Bible implies about the second heaven as the place or sphere where Satan resides with his evil spirits, principalities and powers. These evil entities have access to our though life. However, evil spirits cannot read our minds because only God is omniscient (all knowing). But evil spirits size us up, then set us up, watch our reactions, and keep attempting to influence us to walk the wrong road until we have walked so far away from God that we think there is no way back. We are under no obligation to accept or obey every thought that enters our mind. The mature Christian knows that every thought is not necessarily for our Godly edification.

Some of our thoughts are good and wholesome, while others are dark and evil. Have you ever noticed that? We drive down the street and think, “What a beautiful spouse God gave me. Praise God” or “He didn’t have to treat me that way. Sometimes I wish he’d die.” We can have thoughts like these about the same person within moments of each other. We need to be able to think about our thoughts and not allow them to randomly follow their own lead. We need to stop every thought and examine it to know whether it is from the devil or from God, determine whether it is a truth or a lie.

Examining each thought doesn’t mean that we have become paranoid, nor should it indicate confusion. Actually just the opposite is true. This process of examining our thoughts is powerful, preventing mental illness, and banishing sin and disease from our lives. It can keep us from being “double minded.” James 1:8 says “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” Stability is one of the observable and measurable fruits of the Christian life.

Some people lose the thought war before they begin to fight by believing that evil thought is their own. They have not learned to discern all the voices or thoughts, accepting truth and discarding lies. Often, doctors tell them they are schizophrenic or manic-depressive, thus labeling them with a horrible and usually false diagnosis that haunts them. The diagnosis itself brings additional condemnation, or provides an excuse so they never face the demons that actually cause their disorder.

The only solution doctors offer is to prescribe mind-altering drugs that mask the real problems. The truth is that all humans hear or perceive voices in our minds. For some they are m stronger than others.

Grab hold of this powerful idea. Learn to stop and think about what you thinking. This is the Scriptural principle taught in II Corinthians 10:5: “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”

One of Satan’s tactics is to show us something that looks good, when in fact it is evil and counterfeit. To recognize the counterfeit object or thought, we must know what the real thing looks like. Accusing spirits can operate in our life when we don’t know what the real Spirit looks like. Accusing spirits build on our ignorance of who we are in Christ. They tempt to misunderstand who other people really are and confuse our thinking about God’s true nature.

Accusing spirits’ goals are to bring us down, bring other people down, and to bring God down. They seek to separate us from God, others and ourselves. Satan uses an old military tactic of divide and conquer; he even uses this in the churches.

Evil does not always express itself as the total opposite of good. If we only look for opposites, Satan will use subtleties to deceive us. We will find ourselves accepting ideas that are ninety percent truth and ten percent lies, eventually being drawn into accepting a deeper lever of lies. Accusing spirits routinely use this tactic of a ninety percent truth and ten percent lie as they seek to seduce and deceive us. Accusing spirits hand us a generous portion of truth with one hand, and use the other hand to slip us a lie that begins to break down our value system.

Accusing spirits possess definite characteristics that result in certain manifestations. One is suspicion; others include bitterness, mistrust or always believing the worst about someone. Presence of these in our thought life should sound a warning shot that an accusing spirit is at work. The same is true of suspicion, being easily offended, or easily offending others. These all give evidence that an accusing spirit is at work.

Accusing spirits accuse others to us by constantly reminding us why we should not have fellowship with them. These types of thoughts often find their root in mistrust. Mistrust comes from accusing spirits who give us no legitimate reason, just a vague sense of uneasiness. Accusing spirits speak lies to us, giving us reasons why we should not have fellowship with one another or why we cannot believe one another. Their goal is to separate us from each other, from our spiritual leaders, and from the church.

Accusing spirits accuse God to us by constantly telling us that God doesn’t care about our suffering. Satan always blames God for his own actions. Satan creates a dilemma that leads to suffering and then blames God for not stopping it, or worse yet, accuses God of creating it.

Satan uses self-condemnation to accuse us to ourselves; again, using accusing spirits to carry out this deed. The primary goal of accusing spirits is to steal our faith and confidence in God, and make us feel like second-rate citizens in God’s Kingdom. If Satan makes us feel like we are a “nothing,” we will be a nothing.

We really need to understand who we are and who we are not in Christ. This is a profound truth: We are everything that God said we could be, provided we are living it. Some people “live it” correctly and yet still feel unworthy, guilty, unclean, and unacceptable to God or man. If you feel that way, you have accusing evil spirits operating against you; it is not you.

We learn to separate ourselves from the demons that accuse us. If we fall to their accusations and begin to believe them, then we will act out their lies. We will say, “Well, since I feel that way, what’s the use?” We begin acting sinful even though at the start, we weren’t sinning.

Don’t trust your feelings; trust what God has said about your relationship with Him. Satan accuses us to God and to ourselves all the time. Satan and his accusing spirits focus on our weaknesses, sins, faults and failures. They focus on sins for which we have forgiveness, but they accuse us as if those forgiven sins were still part of the most successful tools of accusing spirits is to accuse us of which we have already turned away. They harass us as if we were still sinning, to discourage us so that we will sin again. They want us to think, “That’s the way I am. I must be that way because I feel that way.”

Romans 8:1 say, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walked not after the flesh but after the Spirit.” If you have confessed your sin and have turned away from it, and you are now walking after the Spirit, there is no more condemnation or guilt. If you still feel condemnation and guilt after you have sin, and you have quit practicing that sin, then the condemnation and guilt bears evidence of the work of accusing spirits who want to drag you back down. Nail them! Stick Romans 8:1 under their noses!

Feeling like we don’t fit in is another of the lies of an accusing spirit. We self-talk saying, Well, I don’t want to go to this church anymore; I just don’t fit in. Everybody a good time praising God and so on, but I just don’t seem to fit in. Nobody really likes me here; they just ignore me.” Or, “They don’t like me for myself, just for my (talent, money, service, etc.).” These are examples of the attacks of accusing spirits who try to separate us from fellowship with other believers.

When self-accusation is present, understand that this is an evil spirit attacking you; it is not you! If you are accusing yourself in any way, or putting yourself down, go before the Lord and deal with it. If you still sense self-accusation, know that it is not you, but an evil spirit accusing you.

Remember, as I stated in Part II: Discernment is a powerful battle weapon that starts with bringing into captivity every thought, so that all our thoughts are obedient to Christ (II Corinthians 10:5). We demolish all kinds of wrong and evil thoughts through our use of God-directed discernment. All thoughts that are contrary to virtue, purity, and righteousness are demolished.

Scripture says to resist the devil. Do you believe the devil is real? If you don’t, you have bought into the ultimate deception. The Bible says the devil is real, and that settles it for me. Don’t doubt the reality of Satan and his demons. The Bible teaches it, and teaches it, and teaches it. Satan is real and so are evil spirits.

The Bible says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” It means we must test every thought to know if it is of God, Satan or us. The devil manifests his nature through people; he uses people’s bodies to manifest his sin nature (Luke 11:24-26) – but this if we allow him to. It’s our right and responsibility to obey God and resist! Resist! Resist! Resist!

If you have seen yourself in this devotional, and you recognize accusing spirits at work in your life, I have included a prayer against accusing spirits below; pray the prayer and ask the Holy Spirit to tell you the truth about everything the devil has been lying to you about yourself, God, and others.

Prayer of Release (These are three different prayers)

Dear Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus I repent for all of the ways that I have accused others in my life and in my generations. I forgive myself and release myself from this bitterness. In the name of Jesus I cancel all of Satan’s authority over me in this bitterness because God has forgiven me and I have forgiven myself. In the name of Jesus I command the accusing spirit that accuses others to me to go. Holy Spirit please come and heal my heart and tell me Your truth.

(Listen to the Holy Spirit and write down what happens.)

Dear Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus I repent for all of the ways that I have accused myself in my life and in my generations. I forgive myself and release myself from this self-bitterness. In the name of Jesus I cancel all of Satan’s authority over me in this self-bitterness because God has forgiven me and I have forgiven myself. In the name of Jesus I command the accusing spirit that accuses me to go. Holy Spirit please come and heal my heart and tell me Your truth.

(Listen to the Holy Spirit and write down what happens.)

Dear Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus I repent for all of the ways that I have accused You for what Satan has done in my life and in my generations. I forgive myself and release myself from this bitterness toward You. In the name of Jesus I cancel all of Satan’s authority over me in this bitterness because God has forgiven me and I have forgiven myself. In the name of Jesus I command the accusing spirit that accuses God to me to go. Holy Spirit please come and heal my heart and tell me Your truth.

(Listen to the Holy Spirit and write down what happens.)

Week of August 8, 2010 Devotional

Shalom and have a blessed week in the Lord,

Dr. Dorothy E. Hooks