Yet both this young man and his mother were Christians. Jim (not his real name, but one I’ll use to protect their privacy) had battled with schizophrenia for years. He had seen countless visits to the psychiatric ward of the local hospital, and innumerable changes to his medication in the course of the doctors’ efforts to stabilise his condition. More importantly, he had been the subject of much prayer by many people over many years.

Although at one point his illness had seen him turn his back on God, over the last couple of years he had returned to faith and renewed his commitment to Christ, recently being baptised. Many people, myself included, were believing for his healing and deliverance.

Now, it would seem that all that faith, and all those prayers, failed. It would seem that the devil has been victorious, and this little corner of the Kingdom of God has taken a sickening defeat.

Do I believe that Jim is in heaven? Unquestionably. He was not responsible for his actions on that terrible morning, and I have no doubt that God’s grace was still extended to him. In that sense, he has not been defeated. Jim is more alive at this moment than he has ever been. He no longer has schizophrenia, nor is he bothered by the demonic force that I am convinced plagued him during his earthly life. Even the emotional scars from his childhood that gave ground for his mental and spiritual problems have been totally healed.

Yet, at least in my heart, there is the frustration of knowing that Jesus taught us to pray that God’s will would be done ON EARTH as it is in heaven. The freedom and victory that Jim is experiencing now in the presence of God should have been his here on earth, where he could have shared it with those he loved.

Perhaps the harder question, though, is what we do with the defeat. I spoke to Jim’s mother a couple of days ago. For the moment, at least, she is taking the predictable path of saying “God allowed it. We don’t know why, but He knows best.” Part of me wanted to shake her, to say “NO! NO! NO! God did not want this! For some reason He didn’t prevent it, but it’s not what He wanted!” Of course, I would not violate her grief by actually saying it. But it saddened me that it is so easy to put the blame on God.

Yet we are the ones to whom He has given the mandate of dominion. It was not God who allowed this: we did, by not rising to the fullness of the authority He has given us. No, I’m not trying to “beat up” on myself or anyone else – I’d just like to see the Body of Christ take responsibility for where we are at.

Every time we say “God allowed it”, whether it be death, sickness, demonic oppression, or any of the multitude of other evils that the enemy seeks to inflict upon mankind, we weaken our faith. After all, if “God allowed” defeat this time, who are we to say that He will not allow defeat next time … and the next … and the next …

Does God take even the very worst of situations and bring good out of them? Most definitely. That does not mean that He caused them, wanted them, or even “allowed them so that the good would come.” He is perfectly capable of bringing about the same good outcomes without the terrible situation.

Is it hard to say, “This was not God’s will” when we don’t understand how God’s will could have been violated in this situation? After all, isn’t He sovereign? Definitely! Yet, for reasons that we will probably never understand till we get to heaven, in some situations He does not give permission for it to happen, but He does not step in to prevent it.

God’s will for people is summed up in Jesus’ statement, “I am come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.” Somehow we have to learn to keep our eyes on His will, not on the situations where His will has been blatantly violated. As hard as it may be when our eyes have seen horror and our hearts have been rent by agony, we must continue to hold to Jesus’ victory. No matter what is happening in the present skirmish, we must cling to the truth that the war has already been won. We dare not allow us to believe that there is any situation in which God does not want us to be victorious – any situation in which He would deliberately allow our defeat. To do otherwise is to give the enemy ground that he will most assuredly take.

Called to Battle Spiritual Warfare Seminar
Find it at http://christianspiritualwarfaregtk.com

Free e-course: Put on the Armor of God
Find it at http://christianspiritualwarfaregtk.com/armorofgod

This blog is © copyright Lynn Fowler.

There is one God, and one mediator between God and people, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5)in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2:9)and Whom God the Father has exalted to the highest place, giving Him the Name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)

Like so much New Age stuff, alternative medicine is very much a mixed bag. Some alternative therapies are totally legitimate, whilst others are demonically backed. So how do you tell the difference? Things like the use of herbs and plants for healing are fine – God placed those things in the world for our benefit – but what about things like aromatherapy, reiki and hypnosis. How can we know what is safe and what is not?

My personal practice is to start by asking the simple question, Is there any kind of scientific backing for this? Some therapies, even though not generally accepted by traditional medicine, do have a scientific basis. One that springs to mind is aromatherapy. Studies have shown that aromas do certainly influence the mental/emotional wellbeing of patients, and may also influence their physical wellbeing.

Others have absolutely no scientific backing at all, but rely on drawing on some unseen power. In Reiki, for instance, the practitioner supposedly “heals” by channeling his/her inner healing power to the patient. The reality, however, is that human beings do not have any innate healing ability, and the power these people are channeling is actually demonic. In fact, it is exactly the same thing as I used to do before I was saved when, as a spiritualist, I operated as a healing medium. Unfortunately, the results are also the same – the patient may get “healed”, but he/she also gets a bunch of demons.

If any therapy does not have some scientific basis, avoid it. Maybe in time it will be proven to be scientific, but it is far better to risk missing out than to take a chance on it being ok only to learn too late that it is demonic.

Just to make life more complicated, some therapies do have an apparently scientific basis, but are still spiritually dangerous. I am thinking particularly of hypnosis. Certainly, hypnosis works, and there are studies which show how and why it works. Hypnotists also argue that nobody will do under hypnosis anything that they would normally consider morally wrong. However, that is very easy to work around. If a woman under hypnosis can be made to believe that the onion she is biting into is a sweet, juicy apple, they why could she not be made to believe that the man kissing her is her husband? She might have moral standards that would never allow her to kiss a man who was not her husband, but if she believes he is, then those standards are over-ridden. Even worse, hypnosis places people in a spiritually vulnerable position where they can be attacked by demons without even recognizing that an attack is taking place. Don’t ever fall into the trap of thinking, “Because it works it must be ok.”

Some Christians say we should not worry about such things. They quote the Scripture that “greater is He who is in us than he that is in the world” and insist that we are safe to do anything because of the power of God. However, God never promises to protect us from willful stupidity. If you step off the top of a building, God is not going to send an angel to hold you up; and if you deliberately get involved in things that are demonic in their origin, He is not going to shelter you from the consequences. He gave us intelligence and will, and He means us to use them.

Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater – some alternative therapies are ok, and very helpful. Pray and ask the Lord to give you wisdom, consider whether a particular therapy has any real scientific basis, and also consider what the results could be. If there is any doubt, it is far better to err on the side of caution.

Called to Battle Spiritual Warfare Seminar

Find it at http://christianspiritualwarfaregtk.com

Free e-course: Put on the Armor of God

Find it at http://christianspiritualwarfaregtk.com/armorofgod

This blog is © copyright Lynn Fowler.

There is one God, and one mediator between God and people, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5)in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2:9)and Whom God the Father has exalted to the highest place, giving Him the Name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)

Firstly we need to understand what symbols are. Symbols are not just pictures: they say something. After all, the letters which make up our alphabet and from there our words, sentences and stories, are just symbols. When we see the letter “G”, we know that it stands for a certain sound. When we see the letter “O” we know it stands for a different sound. When we put them together, we know that they stand for a word that tells us to move ourselves from where we are to somewhere else.

This is even more true in pictographic languages like Chinese, where each “letter” represents not a sound but a picture of something. Or consider the many symbols we see in our everyday lives. We do not need to be told what a raised hand sign means, for example – we know that it “says” stop, even though we don’t see any words. In a sense we can think of symbols as words or sentences written in a different language.

The most powerful occultic symbol is the pentagram, the five-pointed star. This is normally drawn upside down, so that it has two points at the top and one each at the sides and bottom. It is a stylized picture of a face with two horns and a pointed beard, and is a symbol of satan. It says that the thing to which it is attached belongs to the devil.

Closely related to the pentagram is the “horned hand” in which the index and small fingers are extended, while the other two fingers are held down in front by the thumb. Again, it is a stylized devil’s head, and it is a declaration that satan is lord – not exactly something that any Christian would want to do.

Next is the hexagram, the six-sided star, normally drawn inside a circle. It says that the thing to which it is attached is cursed (hence the word hex, meaning a curse.) If you wear that symbol, you are declaring yourself to be cursed.

Another is the Ankh, which looks like a cross but has a loop at the top instead of the top part of the main beam. Many Christians wear this, thinking that it is just another type of cross, but in fact it is the Egyptian symbol of death.

The peace symbol is another that many use innocently, not understanding its origins. This is a circle with a vertical bar, and downward sloping bar going from the center bar to the circumference on each side. The story is that the Roman emperor Nero, who despised Christians, took a cross and broke its arms downward, saying that Christ was worthless. No Christian would want to wear a t-shirt emblazoned with the words, “Christ is worthless”, yet many unwittingly wear peace symbols that say exactly that, just in a different language.

Then there’s the yin/yang symbol – a circle with a squiggly line through the middle, half dark and half white. It is the symbol of dualism, the philosophy that says there are two equal but opposite forces in the universe. Ultimately, it is saying that satan is equal to God (but opposite.) Again, that’s not a message that most Christians would really want to wear on a t-shirt, but by wearing a yin/yang symbol, that is what they are declaring.

These are symbols that were specifically designed for occultic use. There are many others, but that is enough to give you the idea. Two very good reasons for avoiding these symbols: firstly, they make statements in another language that you would never want to make in your native tongue. Secondly, because they are linked to the occult, they can actually be an invitation to demonic forces to attack your life.

What about other symbols? Some people have attached occultic meaning to all manner of things, such as butterflies, frogs, elephants and rainbows. Should we avoid using these things, too? My response to that is a very definite “NO!” Such things are not intrinsically occultic. For the most part they are beautiful creations of God, which occultists have “stolen” and adapted to their own purposes. We should refuse to give up such things: the devil does not have a right to them.

This is an illustration I often use: suppose you had a block of land with a caravan on it. Someone comes along and takes up residence in the caravan. You have every right to kick that squatter out and reclaim the caravan for your own use. However, suppose the squatter did not take up residence in your caravan, but brought his own caravan with him and parked it on your block of land. Now, you would have every right to remove both the van and the squatter; but you would not have the right to kick the squatter out of the van and keep the van for yourself.

In the same way, some symbols “belong” to the devil. They were made for him, and he has a right to them. You need to remove both them and him from your life. Other symbols do not belong to the devil, and never have. He has merely taken them over. You have every right to kick him out and keep the symbols for your own use.

Called to Battle Spiritual Warfare Seminar
Find it at http://christianspiritualwarfaregtk.com

Free e-course: Put on the Armor of God
Find it at http://christianspiritualwarfaregtk.com/armorofgod

This blog is © copyright Lynn Fowler.

There is one God, and one mediator between God and people, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5)in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2:9)and Whom God the Father has exalted to the highest place, giving Him the Name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)