Mark DeJesus's Blog, page 128
September 24, 2014
#021: Enemy Access Point No. 4 – A Broken Spirit – Who Broke Your Heart? |Q&A on Food Issues and Fear [Podcast] Show Notes
In today’s episode, I will address the 4th key door point that can allow enemy access into our thinking. It is one that many are not aware of, it has to do with brokenness in your heart. I will also be taking some questions today on food issues and fear issues in relationships.
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Q&A Segment: Food Issues and Relationship Fears
Missy Gordon (Glastonbury, CT):
Does binging/over-eating (for comfort, pleasure, to escape etc.) come from a spirit or is it something passed down? If inherited, is it something that needs to be worked through on a spiritual level? Or should we treat these things like a disease that we ask God for healing for rather than something we work through with Him from day to day? (Same would go for drinking, pornography, etc.)
Christopher Rivera:
What is working behind generational fear of covenant? Why do people not want to get married, but instead just live with each other?
Feature Presentation:
“Enemy Access Point No. 4 – A Broken Spirit Who Broke Your Heart?”
In today’s feature presentation I want to speak to your heart and talk about something everyone needs to address. This has to do with your hearts condition. So let me stop you in your life and ask, “How’s your heart doing?”
Proverbs 25:28 (KJV)
He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.
Proverbs 15:13 (KJV)
A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.
Proverbs 18:14 (NKJV)
The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness, But who can bear a broken spirit?
Proverbs 17:22 (KJV)
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine [cure]: but a broken spirit dries the bones.
Drying of the Bones = in the bones lies the production of red blood cells and the white blood cells of the immune system.
Question to ask yourself: who broke your heart?
What is a broken heart?
Broken Heart: Where someone should have or could have loved you but did not, leaving a void of hurt and emptiness. This gives the enemy room to torment you.
Many people do not realize or care to admit they have a broken heart.
Common Wounds of A Broken Heart:
1. Father Wound
2. Mother Wound
3. Relationship Wound
4. Dream Wound
Article Recommendations: (search “broken heart” on web site)
8 Signs You Have a Broken Heart
The Problem: You Have a Broken Heart
We Cannot Ignore the Health of Our Hearts
Heartbreak hurts people physically, too (ARTICLE – USA Today)
What To Do About A Broken Heart:
1. Admit that Its There.
2. Begin to Address God about Your Spiritual Heart Condition
3. Process through forgiving those who should have loved you, but didn’t.
4. Begin to receive love . . .
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September 21, 2014
What Life Looks Like With and Without Rejection Mindset [Audio Teaching]
Taking from the Biblical lives of David and Joseph, you will see a drastic difference in how someone with rejection strongholds and without it lives their life. Be stirred as I challenge you to become more aware of the spiritual battleground of thought. The enemy is very keen on giving us his lies and his twisted version of your story.
Become armed to see life as God sees it, not as rejection would have you to see it.
Learn through this insightful teaching how your life can be completely different if you remove the rejection root out of your life.
Today we have a choice, will we allow rejection to train us in our thinking, seeing and behaving, or will we choose to put on the new mindset that follows God’s story for our lives?
Question: What insights have you learned from this audio teaching that have helped you in your journey?
Comments: What Life Looks Like With and Without Rejection Mindset [Audio Teaching].
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September 17, 2014
#020: Episode 020: Enemy Access Point No. 3 – Trauma – Overcoming Traumatic Experiences | Q&A on Trauma [Podcast] Show Notes
In today’s episode, I will address the 3rd point the enemy can use to have access in our thinking, and that is through a traumatic experience. Find out today how to overcome the drama of trauma. I will also be taking some questions regarding this subject.
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Feature Presentation: “Enemy Access Point No. 3: Trauma”
In today’s feature presentation, I want to address the subject of trauma, and help equip you to overcome the drama of the traumas in your life. I have been addressing the access points where the enemy can have room to steal, kill and destroy, releasing his thoughts into your life–keeping you from peace, wholeness and overall sanity. The first access point was agreement. The second was inherited iniquity. Today’s is specifically the issue of trauma.
Introductory Thoughts on Trauma:
Most people have had various kinds of traumatic experiences. They may not see it that way or understand the affects these past events can have.
A traumatic moment can be as severe as being involved in military combat or experiencing physical abuse or it can be as simple as being left alone, yelled at or or accused wrongly in a staff meeting.
TRAUMA (as we define it): a sudden life event where a person is on the receiving end of physical, emotional, sexual or mental damage to any degree, which can be an open door for the enemy to enter and maintain a stronghold in that area of their life.
In a trauma, a person encounters a situation where they are “out of control” to a certain extent, surprised or taken off guard. Because of this vulnerability, the person is not able to handle the overwhelming situation; they are not able to take thoughts captive, so a flood of thoughts, impressions and emotions surge. Each recall of the event builds to further oppression and bondage. Rejection, fear, shame, guilt and many others can come pouring in, to give the person a bound view of that encounter.
Some Examples of Trauma:
- Abuse (Physical, Sexual, Emotional)
- Accident
- Witnessing harm to someone or yourself
- Being bullied or ranked on.
- Abuse from a spiritual leader.
- Violence, robbing, mugging
- Being cheated on, sudden betrayal.
- Being yelled at.
- Unwanted pregnancy.
- Traumatic pregnancy.
- family crisis
- sudden loss, death or injury
- parents divorcing
- performance and perfectionistic home
- neglect, being ignored
- sudden financial loss
- near drowning
- going to war.
What Effect Can Trauma Have on a Person?
1. You can become deeply trained in fear to avoid a recurrence of that event ever again.
2. Facing similar circumstances become very challenging.
3. If these areas are not brought to proper resolution in God’s love and His Word, they can become deep breeding grounds for enemy roots.
4. Traumatic moments in life, to any degree, can cause us to pull back relationally in the future.
-We become trained to be apprehensive, hypersensitive and less likely to take risks.
-This is the enemy’s working, to keep us from recovering and healing.
-We become more separated in relationship with others, with God, and even with ourselves. We can lose the power that relational connectivity brings and we become detached from love.
- Overall, we become much more guarded.
Biblical Understanding of Trauma:
Proverbs 15:13 (KJV) A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.
PTSD: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
In PTSD, a person receives severe damage or torment from exposure to, or confrontation with, an event that to the person is highly traumatic . . . being exposed to a scenario involving terror, horror or even death.
False Coping from Trauma Can Come In:
Traumas create deep programming that can re-shape us.
The True Refuge for Trauma:
1. In the secret place of the Most High God. (Psalm 91)
2. Out of what the enemy has chained us to.
3. Back in healthy relationship with people.
Ministry Help to Trauma: Resolution
1. Establishment of loving relationship, where trust can be fostered.
2. Forgiveness
•with others who wronged you or victimized you
•practice separation – see that it was the enemy working through the person who wounded you
•forgive yourself
•cleansing of guilt
•deal with possible anger and bitterness towards God
3. Come out of agreement with the enemy.
fear, rejection, self-hatred, guilt and whatever else seems to still be in operation.
4. Taking authority over the tormentor needs to be executed. The enemy needs to be removed in Jesus name by the power of the Holy Spirit.
5.Person needs to be released from guilt, condemnation, self-blame and accusation.
6. Begin to renew your mind and have a renewed experience.
7. Get into Loving relationship again. Get out of isolation.
8. Testify.
Q&A Segment: Questions Regarding Trauma
Anonymous:
I have a question on trauma and the effect of it. Hopefully I can word it correctly. So with coming from sexual abuse and a physical abusive relationship and the trauma that comes with that how do you know that the decisions you make on a daily basis are healthy ones and not ones made out of fear that my past will replay itself with my kids. In my generation there’s so much history of abuse both physical and sexual so I feel like my mind constantly thinks of what if in all scenarios. For example when we let our daughter go out with friends for dinner, I can’t help but think “Is she ok? Is she safe? Is someone going to hurt her?” At times I feel this can be so tormenting. What are ways to deal with the trauma of what I experienced in order to not feel like my kids can only be safe when at home? Does this make sense?
Anonymous:
If you suffered trauma continuously as a little child growing up until your teenage years does that tend to make you have a super sensitive heart? I feel like I’m always weeping over stuff I see, hear . . . everything. How can you toughen up and not feel so traumatized in your adult years?
Question: What questions regarding trauma or past hurt that you would like to have answered?
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September 16, 2014
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Signs that Pride May Be the Problem
When pride creeps into our hearts, we don’t just have a devil problem. We have a God problem. God says that He actually will resist someone who has pride in their life:
God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.
1 Peter 5:5b-6
When pride creeps into our hearts, we don’t just have a devil problem. We have a God problem.
The only way we can develop true freedom is learning to humble ourselves under the hand of God. Deliverance does not occur solely because we resist the enemy, but only when we first submit to God and then cultivate a life of walking humbly before Him. This is often a missing component that many try to skip over.
Getting Under God’s Authority
This process of humility sets us up under the authority of God. True spiritual humility, is all about submission, helping us to walk humbly under God and those He has placed in authority over us. In this journey, humility allows us to become moldable under God’s hand, allowing Him to form what is missing and heal what has been damaged. The false humility that many show, where they beat themselves down and self-reject, is a counterfeit to true humility.
God has a never-ending supply of grace and empowerment for the humble. But when pride enters the picture, we can expect that flow can be stifled. God even says he hates a proud look, “These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look . . . (Proverbs 6:16-17). God is more concerned about the inward heart, which shows His distaste for the work of pride in people’s lives. He is tuned into the attitude of our hearts and wants to know, in our brokenness, will we take the route of humility for healing or will we walk the avenue of the proud?
Common Signs of Pride
Inability to admit weaknesses or areas of struggle.
Very seldom taking responsibility for growth and change.
Not very quick to apologize or repent to others.
Presenting as someone who knows everything.
Constant defense of self.
Having no one with authority to speak into their life.
Cannot be told what to do.
Not teachable.
Seldom asks for help.
Takes themselves too seriously. Can’t laugh at themselves.
Appear to have everything in life under control.
Lacking in tolerance or patience for others’ ideas, problems or feelings.
Unable to listen to others
Quickly appears to “know it all” in your new-found truths, often prematurely.
Sarcastic, caustic and biting in comments toward people they believe to be beneath them or behind them in life.
Looks down at people who react negatively to their opinions or comments.
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September 12, 2014
The Root Issue Behind All Addictions
There is a key root that is common in all addiction issues and that is this . . . an excessive need to be loved. God created us for love. We have a love bucket that needs to be filled by Him and others through healthy relationships. When that need to be loved is not filled, a festering, excessive need develops that is never satisfied. We then become vulnerable to addictions. Addictions creep in where love has been compromised or absent or where abuse has been instead of loving acceptance. Rejection fuels this excessive need to be loved through driving us toward addictions.
There is a key root that is common in all addiction issues and that is the excessive need to be loved.
It is important to note that addictions are inappropriate responses to a valid need. The enemy knows how to control you by taking advantage of your needs. Satan knows you need the Father’s love, but he make you think you can satisfy those needs in other ways, especially when you have never been taught how to walk in the love of God.
When we are not loved properly, go through stress or carry inward pain we are tempted to numb that place in our hearts. Teenagers will get involved with crazy crowds and say yes to dangerous behaviors when they are in pain. The same is true for adults. Brokenness and hurt have spawned all kinds of dysfunction. Those who are abused can often fall into some kind of addiction to cope with the pain of the horrific experiences.
This excessive need to be loved also involves a lack of nurture, something we either learned or did not learn from our mothers. Nurture helps us deal with and process pain in a healthy manner. It is in the realm of love that we receive comfort, something the Holy Spirit of God does. Those who did not learn nurture are absolutely wide open for addictions, especially during times of stress, tumult or pain. This lack of nurture causes people to be insecure and have low self-worth and to often find a way to cope through an addictive pathway.
An addict spirit will come and lie to us, keeping us convinced that we are not loved by God or anyone else and we need a “fix” to make ourselves feel better.
Addictions mess with two key areas; our state of being and our state of belonging. State of being has to do with our identity; how secure we are in who we are. State of belonging addresses our ability to know we are loved and cared for. Our state of being asks “Who am I?” while state of belonging asks, “Why am I here and does anyone care?” Those who have a deep unmet need to be loved will be unable to obtain solid answers to these questions, leaving them wide open to the assault of addictions. An addict spirit will come and lie to us, keeping us convinced that we are not loved by God or anyone else and we need a “fix” to make ourselves feel better.
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September 10, 2014
#019: Enemy Access Point No. 2 – Inheritance – What is in Your Generations? | Q&A: Inherited Battles, Parents, Bipolar [Podcast] Show Notes
In today’s episode I want to talk about your inheritance and what kind of patterns are running in your generations. I want to talk about your family tree and the battles that are getting repeated in generation after generation. I will also be taking some questions regarding this subject too and teaching you how to live in your new inheritance. I also briefly address the battleground of bipolar.
You can listen to the audio by clicking the link above or by subscribing using iTunes, Stitcher or Zune.
Feature Presentation: “Enemy Access Point No. 2 – Inheritance”
What is in Your Generations?
In today’s feature presentation I am addressing the second enemy access point in thought, which we know can then affect the condition of our heart, our relationships, our sanity and our health.
Question: What have you inherited from your family tree?
Inheritance Defined:
• Dictionary – Inherit: to take or receive (property, a right, a title, etc.) by succession or will as an heir
• Webster’s Medical Definition of inheritance: the reception of genetic qualities by transmission from parent to offspring
It is a proven fact that we inherit many things from our family line.
We have all received blessing from our genetic inheritance to some degree.
We have also inherited aspects of our family tree that are not of God.
• Whether we agree with this inherited factor or not, experience proves it to be true in every family.
• Medicine and science know that diseases run in families; this is why they examine our family history when doing check ups or physicals.
• Anger and fear can run in families.
• Addictions can all run in families.
From the Book, “Love is a Choice” Quote: “The adult child of an alcoholic swears, “I will never ever marry a drinker and subject my family to the suffering I endured.” That child will almost invariably pick an alcoholic or similarly dysfunctional mate despite all the good intentions, despite the hard knowledge of what dysfunction is like. Reason and logic seem to fly right out the window, banished by the seductive siren’s song of the past.”
Studies have shown that alcoholics children who are adopted into nonalcoholic homes at an early age are more likely to become alcoholics than children of non-alcoholics who are adopted into alcoholic homes.
- Mental illness will run in families.
- Lying habits or propensities towards sexual dysfunction can run in family lines.
– Even personality traits can run in families. Science says your personality is formed for the most part at 2 years old.
Inherited strongholds are the specific sin issues that become the most troublesome in our life.
With inherited sin patterns, we enter the world more vulnerable to those attacks in our lives.
Seeing Through Biblical/Spiritual Eyes: Iniquity
There are very few in Christianity that disagree with the fact that we are born with what is referred to as a “sin nature.” Yet many fail to recognize this is not just a generalized sin nature that is at work. These are inherited sin battles. Some of our sin issues come as a result of our own journey in coming into agreement with the enemy, yet most of our deepest struggles are inherited ones. We are actually born with specific sin battles that have been undefeated in our family tree. Generational sin is not some generic sin floating in the sky. These specific sin issues are waiting for the opportunity to repeat in us what has already been in our biological past. These inherited sins are the work of iniquity.
Iniquity can be defined as the sins in our family line that have not been addressed and overcome. Because of inherited sin, not only are we born with a seed of sin, but we inherit the unconquered sins of the family.
Exodus 20:5-6: “For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
David in Recognizing the Sin With Bathsheba:
Psalm 51:5, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.”
Abraham: Abraham had a lying problem. Because of his battle with a spirit of fear, it gave way to a lying spirit. This drove him to lie to King Abimelech, saying that Sarah was his sister, not his wife. Abraham’s son Isaac years later ended up doing the same thing in the same situation. Isaac’s son Jacob also delivered a bold-faced lie to his aging father, by deceiving him into thinking Jacob was actually his brother Esau. This was all done to steal his brother’s blessing. Even Jacob’s name means deceiver!
God in Christ Jesus grants us a new inheritance, but there is an all out war the enemy brings to keep the old inheritance intact.
We love the idea of receiving an inheritance of blessing from God through our family history, but we despise the notion of receiving the iniquity of our family lines.
Nehemiah: I love the heart of Nehemiah. He watched what the sins of his family did to his nation and his own personal life. Instead of whining or complaining, he had a prayer fest with God; addressing not only his own sin battles, but the ones he inherited that were still affecting the land. If we would carry this same heart, we would not only see our lives healed, but the land transformed.
Nehemiah 9:1-2 Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, in sackcloth, and with dust on their heads. Then those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners; and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.
Daniel’s Approach: Daniel 9
How Can We Remove Instead of Repeating the Pattern?
Recognize the generational areas of your life that you battle regularly.
Do not blame your generations for your problems.
Forgive your parents: If we do not forgive, then bitterness creates a bridge for their sin to repeat in our life.
Maintain a heart of honor in all that you address regarding your family tree.
Take responsibility for your freedom.
Repent and renounce those ways in your life.
Ask God to fill you with whatever you did not receive.
Stand in for your new inheritance to manifest.
Give yourself time.
Psalm 78:8 And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.
Q&A: Inherited Battles, Parents, Bipolar
Jean Hoff – Glastonbury, CT asks:
Are the demonic influences and bondage always an automatically inherited by the child from the parents? Must there be agreement or access points on the child’s part for the battles to be manifesting ?
Why in your opinion, does it take years for someone to walk out of say for instance, mental bondages and another person to be set free instantly with one touch from God? I know part of the answer would be b/c it’s been in the generations for so many years and it doesn’t want to go but can you elaborate a bit. I know there’s no short answer for this one!
What about generational divorce? Everyone in my immediate family has been at least once if not more and I don’t really know about extended family or the generations before but I’m assuming it’s been the same. How do you crush the cycle…
Kat McDonald, Tolland, CT
Is bipolar disorder passed genetically, or does it have it’s roots in physical/mental trauma, or are both true?
Question: What kind of questions do you have from this episode regarding generationally inherited battles?
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September 9, 2014
Does the Bible Address Addictions?
The key to understanding addictions, from a biblical perspective, is in seeing the meaning of the word lust. James writes, “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed” (James 1:14 KJV). In a biblical context, lust is not just a word describing sexual temptation, although that can certainly fit. Lust speaks of many forms of desires and cravings that God did not create us with, but can come at us in various ways. A good definition of biblical lust is forbidden desire and affection. It really speaks to the modern plague known as addictions. We could almost read James 1:14 as saying, “everyone is drawn away by his own addictions.“
Lust really speaks to the modern plague known as addictions.
It is important to note that lust is the counterfeit to love. Love seeks to give, while lust is always looking to take, in order to satisfy a craving within. Love walks in contentment. Lust is never satisfied. Love is selfless. Lust is selfish. Wherever love is not present, we can be certain lust will show up to draw us into forbidden desires. To the one struggling with addictions, they must realize that lust affects their desires, keeping their heart chained to wanting something that will never fulfill. Wherever God’s nature of love has not had its stabilizing work, lust comes to place addictive chains on us.
It is important to note that lust is the counterfeit to love.
Many people reading James 1:14 see the phrase his own lusts and mistakenly think, these forbidden desires originated in their own thinking. They walk with shame, guilt and defeated hearts, wondering how such awfully binding temptations could have originated inside of them. Because thoughts carry such intense emotions with them, they often lose sight of the one who is tempting them with the lust in the first place.
Jesus helps us to see who the source of all addictive behaviors is—Satan himself. “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do” (John 8:44 KJV). His kingdom seeks to keep people bound in the realm of lust, knowing if they take the bait, one will struggle in torment. Satan is the father of lusts, meaning that he is the origin of those temptations and thoughts. So many get caught up into self-condemnation, simply over the addictive pulls that course through their being. Yet when you realize who is at the source, you can begin to separate who you are as God’s child and who the enemy is within your thinking. Those addictive thoughts and pulls are not you! You have them coursing through your being, but they did not originate from you. You have an enemy speaking to you through thoughts and feelings so that you remain bound to that way of living.
Jesus helps us to see who the source of all addictive behaviors is—Satan himself.
This should never be used as an excuse or a cop out for taking responsibility. It is important to have a healthy spiritual vision and see the battleground as it is. You are daily being fed with thoughts from an invisible kingdom that wants to train you to be an addict. And he will use where you are not settled in the love of God to make those assaults.
Addictions spawn from three dimensions in a person’s life: addictive thinking patterns, addictive habits and what I call an “addict lifestyle.” The addictive thinking patterns are those thoughts and fantasies that don’t seem to go away; they become obsessions that often lead us to do certain things. These actions become the habits that embed the addict’s thoughts into their being and produce a way of living. This way of living becomes an addict lifestyle, where their way of living accommodates the bondage of addiction.
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September 6, 2014
How Addictions Train the Body: Dopamine
Addictions are a common place theme in today’s society. If its not a substance addictions, its a relationship. If its not an addictive relationship, its an obsessive pattern of thinking. Our world has allowed an addictive mindset to roam and take greater control. We don’t ingest life anymore, we binge. We overload on TV shows, we feed on sexual addictions and we obsess over things that should not captivate our minds. Too many are being ruled by addicitons. What’s the deal with this?
Brain Chemistry & Dopamine
To understand addictions, you need to understand the basic premise of the brain chemistry that is involved; especially the role of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that when released in the brain, gives a tremendous rush of pleasure throughout the body. This was especially created to be experienced in the context of sexual orgasm by a husband and wife. That intense release was designed by God to bless us with an experience of pleasure in the context of covenant marriage.
You can also receive a dopamine release when engaging in any activity where you feel that “rush.” It could be experienced when eating chocolate, working at the office, snorting cocaine, watching pornography, riding a roller coaster or getting attention from that person who is not your spouse.
Non-Evil Things Becoming Evil Addictions
Some addictions involve things that in themselves are not evil, such as working at the office, eating chocolate or riding a roller coaster. Not every activity that people become addicted to is evil to begin with. What becomes dangerous is the connection to that habit, activity or person that now chains them. These activities move from becoming periphery things in our lives into dependencies.
Dopamine rushes are not intended to be experienced all day long or continually. They are meant to be an added bonus to a life already filled with contentment and joy. Those who struggle with how they feel about themselves and their lives will develop a chemical low in their brain. They then look to a dopamine rush to rescue them.
Dopamine rushes are meant to be an added bonus to a life already filled with contentment and joy. But when you don’t have good thoughts and feelings about yourself to begin with, an addictive dopamine rush is called upon.
Self-Hate and Addictions
When someone feels bad about himself or herself, then the calming neurotransmitter, serotonin, is low. When serotonin levels are low, people look for a dopamine rush to fill the need. This is a dangerous trap, no matter what the object of addiction is. Dopamine is released in a similar way for the person doing cocaine, as the person who is addicted to chocolate. Both brains become programmed to look for that heavy rush of pleasure.
When serotonin levels are low, people look for a dopamine rush to fill the need.
The Dopamine “Rush”
Let’s use cocaine addiction to help illustrate the dopamine-rush-bondage people fall into. When a person takes their first hit of cocaine, this particular drug initiates a massive release of dopamine that is felt all over the body. If we were to look at dopamine being something that is kept in a storage tank; during this drug hit, the tank is emptied, all the way down to the reserves. The person experiences an extraordinary “high” and “euphoric” experience that has never been experienced before.
It never ends there. No person who uses cocaine does so once and then walks away. They are imbedded with the memory of that rush and seek to get that hit again. They have now drained their dopamine resources, however, and returning again to get that same high that was experienced before. The problem is, the same high he experienced before cannot be reached again, because in that first hit, he had an over the top dopamine release. The following drug hits cannot match it, so the person then becomes bound to chasing that high continually. This is chased through more frequent uses or an elevation in the potency of the drug, usually moving to crack cocaine or heroin.
It has been said that once a person has that initial “over-release” of dopamine, it takes about two years for proper dopamine levels to return to normal, providing the person never uses again. This is why it takes a great deal of commitment and time to walk free from addictions. True deliverance from addictions cannot be achieved overnight. It takes two to three years to confirm that a person has truly been able to untangle themselves from the bonds of addictions. This is not to discourage, but to give a proper understanding and timetable for the “walk-out.” This also shows us what is at stake when the enemy gets someone deeply entangled in the web of addictions.
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September 3, 2014
#018: Enemy Access Point No. 1 – Agreement | Q&A: Weakness and Spiritual Attack [Podcast] Show Notes
In today’s episode, I am going to be addressing how the enemy can get his thoughts into our thoughts. I have titled it “Enemy Access Point Number 1, Agreement. I am also going to address a question regarding weaknesses and spiritual battles in our weekly Q&A segment.
You can listen to the audio by clicking the link above or by subscribing using iTunes, Stitcher or Zune.
Q&A Segment: “Weakness and Spiritual Attack”
Lyn Wojcik from Wethersfield, Connecticut
“How can we tell the difference between an area of weakness that we have that is just a quirk of who we are, and an area that the enemy is making weak that we really need to press into or work to strengthen. I know sometimes these areas that seem to be weaknesses are places that the enemy is actually hitting, that are actually our greatest strengths. I know that there are also legitimate areas of weakness in me that need to be connected to the strengths of others. How can we tell the difference?”
Feature Presentation: “Enemy Access Point #1 = Agreement
In today’s feature presentation, I want to discuss the thoughts that the enemy places into your life. We know not every thought is your own. And the thoughts that come against you that are not from God are from the enemy. With that in mind, how do those thoughts get there in the first place? How can we begin to be more armed and take our victory back? Today I want to address the first of four key enemy access points.
Today’s access point I want to talk to you about is AGREEMENT.
We need to understand that our lives manifest the thoughts that we agree with in our hearts. Whatever is the predominant way of thinking, feeling and perceiving, will become what our life is going to manifest.
Spiritual warfare 101. Where the enemy has access to steal kill and destroy, there is agreement with his way of thinking. Where is there agreement with the enemy’s thoughts in your life?
Thoughts from the enemy come as though they are our own. They even arrive in the first person voice.
Just as God can speak thoughts into our inner dialogue, the enemy can send thoughts that sound like our own, or even try to sound like its a “God thought.”
There can be active agreement and passive agreement.
We break the agreement through practicing repentance.
We have to ask ourselves, “Who Told Me This?”
Question: where is there agreement in your life with the enemy that can be addressed before God today?
Comments: #018: Enemy Access Point No. 1 – Agreement | Q&A: Weakness and Spiritual Attack [Podcast] Show Notes.
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