Deliver Yourself from the Satanic Struggle for Your Emotions

My friend Gus texted me. He said that while he was in prayer, I came to his mind. There was something he wanted to share with me. It was a word of encouragement. That same day, a little later, I realized that what he shared was something I needed to hear. It was a word from God.

Two days later, I felt a great spiritual assault. I wept on the floor. I felt God’s anger. God’s displeasure. God’s rejection. I wept. I felt like a complete failure.

Gus called. We spoke. Gus said, “Do you mind if I try some deliverance on you?”

I said, “Go ahead.”

So he did. He began to pray into areas of need. He began to command evil spirits that might be in me to come out. I was not convinced there were any evil spirits in me, but I was certainly open to Gus’s prayer. He said, “You might yawn. If you yawn, just let it come out.” I didn’t expect much. But I was open. Gus ministered in all those areas. He commanded evil spirits to come out, naming them –for example, spirits of discouragement, rejection, and even religion (a religious spirit is a type of performance spirit). I occasionally told Gus how I was feeling, to provide him with some feedback. The feedback was important. Gus used that to help him pray even more effectively.

Gus prayed for around ten minutes. During that time, I yawned. I yawned again. Then I yawned again! There were so many yawns. I yawned for minutes, not seconds. I also coughed.

Then, bam! I could suddenly feel God’s love. I could feel his presence! It was awesome. Prior to that, I had only felt God’s anger, displeasure, and rejection. But was it really God’s anger, displeasure, and rejection that I had been feeling? In this, I had been mistaken!

Everything was now so different! I could feel God’s acceptance. I could feel his peace. I could feel his warmth. It was just incredible. What a huge difference! What happened? I was transformed! It was stunning! I was so moved by what had just happened. It was miraculous! God had not rejected me. But my faith had fallen. I had felt so rejected. Yes, but my feelings were lying to me. The reality was that Jesus loved me. I had trusted in him. I was his child, because of that trust.

Jesus promised his followers,

“I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you.” (See Hebrews 13:5)

It had all been an attack from the enemy. Who was the enemy? The enemy was Satan and his demons. These were the ones who masqueraded as “angels of light.”

And no wonder, for even Satan masquerades as an angel of light. (2 Corinthians 11:14)

It was a powerful attack. It was an attack that Satan seized upon due to the weakness of my flesh. In a moment of self-condemnation, I had let down my shield of faith. For the Bible (God’s word) said,

“above all, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one.” (Ephesians 6:16)

In the absence of faith, fiery darts (or “arrows”) from the enemy had sunk deep within my soul. And I had been hit! If you can understand the reality of how significant these demonic attacks can be, and how real they are, it would almost completely satisfy the purpose of this message. But there is more!

Satan (a real, living, being who is an evil spirit) decided to move in to my life, in a very “big way”, on account of a very serious error I had made that day. It was an error I have made before! The error was that I refused to believe that God could, or would, accept me.

How was it that I felt this way? I felt this way because I kept thinking of my failures. I considered myself to be unacceptable in God’s eyes. I thought that if God was going to accept me, I had to be a better person. Therefore, I condemned myself. I came under a spirit of self-condemnation. A spirit of self-condemnation is a demonic spirit. It will make you feel rejected, hated, and forsaken by God. It is not God speaking in that case, but an imposter that is “masquerading” as an angel of light. You can hear this imposter, because you are a spiritual being. You need to defend yourself against these attacks!

This evil spirit came into me, because I chose to believe a lie. The lie I believed was that I was too evil and that God was not good enough to want to forgive me. Of course, this was a lie! My focus was entirely wrong! Furthermore, God says plainly in his word (the Bible) that he will forgive us if we confess our sins.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

Of course, we are to purpose never to do those sins again. But my problem was not so much that I was engaged in sin at all (except the sin of unbelief). My problem was that I was heaping condemnation upon myself for past sins! These were not sins that I was walking in. These were sins that I did not even recognize as sins when I committed them, but which later I became convinced were sins.

So then, what was really happening? I was being affected (condemned) by the “accuser of the brethren” who hates all of God’s people. Yes, I was a believer. Yet I was choosing to believe a lie. The lie was, “I was a very bad person — worse than Hitler, even — on account of sins that I had not even known about, but which became evident to me years later, that I had committed. Now my ship was sunk. God would never forgive me!

This whole picture was painted in my mind by a clever artist, who depicted God as being “so evil” that he could not, would not, dare not, ever, even consider, forgiving a treacherous sinner like me! And this, I believed. I believed it because of failures. The failures were real. But the problem is, when I learned about those failures, I chose to focus on them, instead of saying (like I should have), “God, you are greater than all of my past failures! I surrender them to you. Make my life great, so I can serve you with this knowledge that I now have on what not to do in future!” Yes, that would have been a far better response, than simply believing the lie, “O God, I am unforgiveable!”

The first response, is what God is looking for. The second response is built on a demonically-crafted lie. Who painted that picture in my mind? Satan, or one of his demons. Otherwise, my own heart, being still corrupted, and unregenerated by God’s Holy Spirit, may have also had a part to play! For Jeremiah says,

“The heart is deceitful above all things and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)

On this note, I would like to explain what is, and what is not, regenerated by the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer, because there is a lot of confusion on this point. The answer is quite clear from Scripture that not all of you is regenerated. For you are composed of a body, a soul, and a spirit.

Paul writes to believers, saying,

But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (see Ephesians 2:4-5).

When Paul says, “we were dead”, what part was dead before we became believers? The part that was dead was our spirit — which gives us our connection to God. Formerly, we were like a little computer, doing its own thing, but not connected to the internet. Part of us was very much alive, but part of us was very much dead. We had no connection to the internet! When we were born again, we got “plugged in” to the internet of God. And not only did we get plugged into the main computer, we instantly became connected to all of these other computers, as well — because we became part of the family of God.

This analogy is meant to help you understand the difference between your soul and body, and your spirit. While before you were born again, your spirit was not connected to (joined, or regenerated by) the Holy Spirit, your flesh (consisting of your soul and your body) was. Yes, you were an independent person doing your own thing, prior to coming to faith in Christ. That happened (and was even possible) because you had (and still have) a soul, and a physical body. One thing most Christians do not realize is that this did not change when you became born again.

Whereas before, your soul was alive and functioning, it is still alive and functioning. But it is not perfect!

Whereas before, your body was alive and functioning, it is still alive and functioning. But it is not perfect!

But what about your spirit? That was not alive and functioning at all! It was dead! Hence,

“we were dead through our trespasses” (Ephesians 2:4-6)

And,

“You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh” (Colossians 2:13).

The Bible is clear that we were dead prior to believing. But it is not talking about your soul or your body. Now to shed more understanding on this situation, it would be extremely helpful if we would consider God’s words to Adam and Eve when they were in the Garden of Eden. When God created Adam and Eve, he created them “very good” and there was no sin. Prior to their sin, which we know they both committed, God warned them, and said the following words:

“but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17).

What exactly is tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Whatever it is, it represents desiring something that we should not have. It probably represents desiring to be independent and separate from God. In other words, it probably represents classic rebellion. Well, we all know what happened. This was a “testing ground” to see if Adam and Eve would obey. And they failed. What happened to their body? Did they die? No, not physically. Did their ability to think or feel or make decisions die? (These things are controlled by the soul.) The answer is, “No, again.” So their soul did not die, either.

We do understand that “all creation groans” on account of the sin of mankind (see Romans 8:22). This much is evident. Their body was affected. This is certain. Their soul was affected. This, too, is certain. But neither of these actually died. Yet what did God say? Is God a liar? No! Surely not! Yet he told them, “for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die” (see Genesis 2:17). Surely means “surely,” so they surely died in that same day! We only have one choice left as to what died, and it must have been their spirit. It is the spirit that provides the connection with God. And, of course, this is entirely consistent with what Paul wrote!

“we were dead through our trespasses” (Ephesians 2:4-6)

Now what is my point? My point is, today, if you are a believer in Christ, you are a mix of one thing new, and two things old. Your “one thing new” (that is, it is regenerated) is your spirit. Think of your spirit in this way. You had a furnace that was never lit. It was completely extinguished. No fire burned in that furnace! But when you were born again, God himself came into that furnace as a fire, and remains there! Thus, he has regenerated your formerly completely dead spirit, and made it alive. He lives there right now. And the intensity that his fire will burn in you is determined by ... hum. What is it exactly determined by, anyway? Good question!

The Bible says,

“Do not grieve the Holy Spirit” (see Ephesians 4:30).

As a believer, you cannot extinguish the Holy Spirit, but you certainly can cause the flame to seriously diminish! If you walk in righteousness and perfect obedience, you will literally sing for joy! Peace will rest in you at all times (but you will still be tested). Yes, troubles and trials will come, but God will help you even through them. You will know that he is with you, and he will give you wisdom every step of the way. This is the Christian life! It is an awesome life, and there will be challenges along the way, as well. But God’s goal is to “grow you up,” and to “see that fire burning brightly.” You can cause that to happen through obedience.

Because I myself had a very bad picture (painted in my mind by my heart and by the devil when I was younger), I had a “very bad idea” of what “real love” really looked like. It affected me hugely! God had to retrain me (and continues to retrain me), so I can truly understand that he is loving, gracious, merciful, kind, willing to forgive, and even fun and humourous! But you would never know half of these things by the way some Christians live! I myself am also “guilty as charged.” But what is the point? The first point is that God is perhaps not quite who you thought him to be. Yes, he is holy. But he also desires to relate with you intimately.

If God’s nature is “not that well understood” even by many Christians, neither is the nature of man “well understood” by many Christians. It is common within many Christian communities to believe that Christians cannot have demons. The belief seems to arise out of an over emphasis on the goodness of God, meaning he is soooo good, that he would not allow a demon to enter into your flesh. This belief is false.

I’m not entirely sure if this is just a coincidence or not, but I have tended to notice that those people who believe this also tend to be very strong believers in the pretrib rapture. This is a belief that says the tribulation will last seven years, and before that seven years begins, Christians will be raptured (caught up to meet the Lord in the air). Certainly Christians will be caught up (it is taught in 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18), but the timing is in dispute by many believers who say it must occur prior to this 7 years time period. But to even teach a seven year tribulation period is nowhere stated in Scripture. To be clear, a seven year period is stated in Daniel 9:27, but it never calls it the tribulation. On the other hand, the Bible does explicitly teach a three and a half year great tribulation in both Daniel 12 and Revelation 12.

But getting back to the main point, can a demon literally enter the flesh of a believer? The answer is yes, as long as we understand that it is his flesh we are talking about. His spirit cannot be permeated, because it is regenerated by the Holy Spirit. So then, it is absolutely critical to properly differentiate between the spirit of a believer, and his flesh! The spirit is “somewhere” but there is no “size” defined. If you grieve him, he will “shrink right up inside of you,” perhaps so small, that you will not even notice he is there!

Now Christians do unfortunately, commit sin. They are not perfect, and some of them are even “more sinful” than that (some are indeed not saved, and only believe that they are, having never been indwelt by the Holy Spirit). Where then does the Holy Spirit “go” in that case, when a genuine believers sins? For God has said,

“I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you.” (See Hebrews 13:5)

Certainly, he will not occupy your entire body or fill you. He will be grieved! So how does this work, exactly? Inside of you is this thing called “the flesh.” Now I have a question. Is your flesh at peace with God or is it at war with God? Paul writes, saying,

For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. (See Romans 7:18)

So if the Holy Spirit dwells in your flesh, for Paul to write, “in my flesh, dwells no good thing” would be a sheer insult to the Spirit of God! God would never lead him to write such a thing, if God resided there.

God does not reside in your flesh.

He resides only in your spirit!

This is that which, as Paul also declared, was formerly “dead through your trespasses” (see Colossians 2:13). Now what exactly is your flesh? It is not your spirit — because your spirit is regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, your flesh must be that which is not your spirit. You would know it, too, because it must be that which is decaying, struggling, in need of constant maintenance (unlike your spirit, which needs no maintenance whatsoever). What then is decaying and struggling, except for your body and your soul? It is very easy to see your body is struggling. But what about your soul?

Think about it. Here is what your soul is. Your soul is that which gives direction to your mind, will, and emotions. And if you have ever seen a believer make a bad decision, it is clear evidence that they are not regenerated in their soul. That soul was present in you before you came to know Christ. For you were indeed able to think, and to make decisions, and to feel, prior to your coming to know Jesus in an intimate way. Your flesh is therefore a composition of your soul and your body. It is not your spirit.

So when you sin, you are sinning in your flesh. If you are a believer, this will cause your spirit (that is joined to, and renewed by, the Holy Spirit) to be grieved. This is why you feel bad when you sin. You feel bad because God is grieved inside of you. There is a little voice crying out, ever so softly, “I feel very grieved about that!” That voice could be the voice of your conscience (which itself is imperfect and tainted by sin). But that voice could also be the still small voice of God. It is up to you to discern it.

How then do you discern God’s voice? This is the part that I have gotten wrong many times! For we may all succumb to fleshly ways of thinking, if we are not careful. We must recognize that for as long as we are in these “mortal bodies” that we are prone to error. Yes, it happens, and none of us is perfect. Hence, we need each other. Paul put it this way:

“I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.” (1 Corinthians 15:31)

In other words, Paul had to daily (not weekly, monthly, or annually) resist temptation and crucify his ugly flesh! Because your body and soul are not regenerated yet by the Holy Spirit, it is at war with God, as we read in the following verse.

For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire. (Galatians 5:17)

How then do we deliver ourselves from the satanic struggle for our emotions, which is what this article is all about? For your emotions can and even will lead you to unbelief, and to even denying the very character of God himself, if you allow them to. What you need to do is be very very careful. Paul writes that we are to,

“put no confidence in the flesh” (see Philippians 3:3)

Instead, all your confidence is to be in Jesus Christ! Daily, you must say “no” to your flesh! Daily, you must be in the word of God! Give yourself plenty of quiet time in the morning, before you even do anything else! Awake to gentleness and quietness, and humble yourself before God, talking to him, and going over every aspect of what you might be possibly doing that day. Submit all this to him in prayer, carefully, and deliberately. That will require some time, and may even necessitate you getting to bed earlier, so you can afford to spend that “time alone” with the Lord in the mornings — but it is worth it!

Read the book of Ephesians, read the book of Psalms, read the entire Scriptures, diligently, and stop when God convicts you of sin, and pray over those passages, and even the entire Bible, confessing your sins to him, and asking him for mercy in the midst of your struggle to overcome any temptation. This battle is real, and God wants you to have success.