Continuing the series on Kingdom skills: helping those with inner pain and problems.
In the last post we looked at the first of the 5, rather contrived, "S's" that allow Satan access to our lives–namely sin. Here are the remaining four.
Seance:
This “S” refers to where we
have given Satan access to our lives by involving in any form of the
occult. A friend of mine, years
previously as a student, had gone to a séance with the intention of praying
against it. She hadn’t thought
about it for years, but when she realized that her contact with this might have
affected her, she asked Tony and I to pray about it with her. A few days later she came to us, amazed
at the difference the prayer had made.
Without knowing it, her life had been oppressed—a sense of being under a
cloud—and our brief prayer had set her free. Dabbling with the occult is expressly forbidden in
the Scriptures. There are many
different forms of it including things such as Ouija boards, palm reading and
so on. Also included in this
category are mind-altering drugs which sometimes allow the enemy access.
Shock: Debbie and her boyfriend went to visit his
uncle one day. When they knocked
on the door, no one answered but finding the door unlocked, they went on
in. They discovered the uncle dead
on the floor—natural causes, no suspicious circumstances. But from that day on, until we prayed
with her, Debbie was overcome by fear.
She was afraid of opening doors.
She was afraid in any kind of unfamiliar situation. Satan had taken advantage of the shock
of finding a dead body and supercharged a natural reaction to give her a major
problem with fear.
We know that God doesn’t give us a spirit
of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind. Any time fear is present, it’s worth finding the source and
dealing with the enemy.
Subtlety:
In the Garden of Eden, Satan is described as subtle (Genesis 3:1), and
he tricks us. For example, you are
watching some innocuous program on television, and when it ends, you drift
without thinking into whatever program comes on next. Before you know it, you are into a topic you would never
have chosen—semi-pornography, or graphic violence. I remember praying with a friend who was feeling under
oppression—nothing very major, just that all wasn’t right. In those days we lived in a very
socially deprived, inner city area of London, where every kind of crime was
committed on an almost daily basis.
When she traced back to find out when the problem had started, she
realized it stemmed from reading our local paper, which was full of accounts of
murder and crime. When we prayed
against it, she was set free.
Siege: Sometimes Satan lays siege to us. Take for example, a situation where finances are an issue. Month after month, they are a source of concern and worry, and over time, the burden gets heavier and heavier. In Daniel 7, one of the kings is described as wearing out the saints of the Most High, and this perfectly describes the activity of the enemy.
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