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anger, authority, Boris Becker, deception, demons, disciplining, experience, God's voice, joy, pain, peace, Satan, spiritual power
If we see Satan as he really is, we will not be deceived any longer.
(Photo from http://fbcmillington.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Demonic-Deception-1140×641.jpg)
My special thanks today goes to Kenneth Dawson whose last comment on my latest blog somehow haunted me (positively, of course) and eventually has helped me go deeper into the issue of how Satan works.
Just this morning I had a strange experience. After a few short and rather restless sleeping periods, I awoke finally when it was still dark. As I began to pray, God gave me some light about how demons disguise inside human beings and about how to discern them so that we might be able to see what is really going on behind the scenes. Since, if we truly read Satan’s character, we will see that others, and maybe we ourselves, still, are not as (naturally) moody as we might have thought but only under the undetected guidance of Satan at times.
So, as I was lying there praying while having been given more and more of God’s very peaceful and joyful light that was surging like tender waves in my head, suddenly, a terrible pain hit me. Right behind my left ear, it seemed as if an electric drill would bore a hole into the bone. It was so painful that I could hardly go on thinking straight. I only prayed to God that He would help me. Nothing happened. Then I asked Jesus to set me free from this pain. Again, nothing happened. After a few minutes I thought I would go nuts if that pain lasted for a longer time!!! Continued prayers had been of no effect and thus I tried another thing. I said in my mind, “Satan, leave me alone!”
And the pain was gone, even immediately…
Now back to the inspiration Kenneth’s response on here had given me. As I was thinking about how Satan continually tries to deceive us, I found an enlightening excerpt by T.A. Sparks in which he explains how easy it is for the natural man with his unredeemed soul life to fall prey to Satan’s subtle insinuations. Please, keep in mind that our fight, truly, is only fought in the spiritual realm. Whenever we are tempted to think that God or our neighbors are our enemies, we have already confused the evil spirits with either God or human beings. “Every tennis match is won in the mind, not with the body,” as my fellow countryman Boris Becker once said. I wholeheartedly agree with him here since our spiritual fights are also decided in the invisible realm. For your information, in his time Boris Becker was famous to endure terribly long matches (esp. in Wimbledon) and to finally wrap them up contrary to all expectations.
By the way, I just had a similar experience now. After I had prepared another cup of coffee for me in the kitchen, I felt a pain hitting me in my left shoulder and then in my neck, spreading further and further. At first I thought, “Oh, well, one of my herniated disks says ‘Good morning’ to me.” However, as the pain got worse, I thought it must have been Satan, once again. Since I had no faith to believe that the same sentence I had said before would help me now, I prayed to God for wisdom. Jesus only promised, “Wait on me, I will help you.”
Back on my computer, I reread what I had already written and found one sentence I did not really like since it could easily be misunderstood. I deleted it and, “BOOOOM!!!” all of a sudden, the pain was gone, completely.
Interesting, isn’t it… 🙄
Ha! Just now I had another funny experience. 🙂 I guess most of you are familiar with unnerving phone calls from people you do not know and with whom you do not want to have to do anything at all for their only interest is to sell something to you which you most probably do not need. In the past I tried to listen for a certain time and to finally hang up after a more or less friendly ‘Good Bye’ when it was too tedious to listen to them. And, sigh, it was ALWAYS tedious. I remember I also got a bad mood while listening and I felt angry, too. Not so just now. As the phone rang and I answered the call, I heard a woman who spoke German but disguised her voice as if she was a French or Italian woman (kind of mixture between both accents). Without thinking about it, I did not let her speak and hung up at once. Result? Joy and great peace have been flooding my heart and soul since then. Or in other words, I am learning the following lesson the apostle Paul taught the Ephesians as he said,
“You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” (James 4:4-10 ESV)
Who would have thought that the reasonable thought to be friendly toward everyone, even toward such unnerving phone callers was a satanic idea? I was always convinced that loving one’s enemies would come close to this kind of behavior. But NO! Arghh!! 😛 Since, did I ever feel God’s peace as I gave in to these often sickening, sassy and slimy parasites (speaking of demons, of course)? Oh, I praise God for the clarity of seeing the truth behind all these lies now and for being able to use plain language to sketch out a thrilling topic of which I hope to be able to share more with you in the days ahead, knowing that Satan will keep attacking me the more God helps to disclose his various disguises!
Dear brothers and sisters, that was all new to me until today. But I always wondered why I got mad at these callers, every time, and why physical pains often hit me out of the blue. It happened because I had submitted to human reason that is led by Satan without asking God if there was, perhaps, another way. OUCH!!! Who would have thought… Well, now I hope I know how to resist the devil and I pray that I will submit to God in all things because He is so jealous about the Spirit that indwells us that he even lets Satan attack us in order to wake us up. Also, the peace and joy after having listened to God’s voice cannot be compared with anything else on earth. Praise the Lord for His unfathomable ways and His wonderful wisdom!
Oops, finally, here is the TAS excerpt I announced quite some time ago. XD
You notice what happened in the Garden: Satan was there to make God a liar. Jesus said that Satan “is a liar, and the father thereof” (John 8:44), and he was there in the Garden to make God a liar, Did he do it? Mark you, this is something very important for us to notice today, for this is always Satan’s way. He did not accept the situation in the Garden, and he never does accept a situation. There will come a time when he will have to accept a situation and will not be able to do anything about it, but all through the ages he has refused to accept this situation and has told a lie. So man has fallen a victim to the lie of Satan. What is Satan’s lie in connection with life? He offers false life, another kind of life that looks like the true one. Satan falsifies true life, and, instead of being spiritual life, it is just soul life. Do you know the difference between spiritual life and soul life?
Satan attacked the soul life of Adam. You know what the soul is, do you not? It is your reason, your emotions, your will. Satan began by REASONING with Adam, and, oh, what a dangerous thing it is to argue with Satan! Never reason with the devil, or, in other words, do not listen to his arguments! There is a sting in his tail! So Satan first came to man’s reason and started an argument: “Yea, hath God said?” (Genesis 3:1). Immediately a question about God was lodged in the mind. There is a terrible destiny bound up with that question!
Then Satan appealed to Adam’s FEELINGS, and, pointing to the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he said: ‘You see how lovely and full of juice that fruit is! How much it is to be desired!’ So Adam looked at the fruit and said: ‘How lovely! I think I would like some of that.’ His emotions went out to it, and when Satan has got your mind and your emotions, it is not far to your WILL! The next thing was that Adam took the fruit. He used his will, and the damage was done.
It is all symbolic, but, you see, it contains eternal principles. The whole kingdom and reign of Satan are built upon that basis. The mind, the heart and the will of humanity are captured by the devil, but it is false life. What about all the emotion in the world, even in Christianity? There is a vast difference between spiritual, eternal life, and soul life. There is such a thing as false life, and that thing is the master-stroke of Satan! You will remember that there was a time in the history of Israel in the wilderness when certain sons of Aaron brought false fire and offered it upon God’s altar. You know what happened! You know all about God’s jealousy. There is a vast amount of false fire in this world today. It looks like true life, true fire, what is of God, but there is a lie in it, and the fruit of that tree is bitter fruit in the end.
http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/000884.html
Entering the Promised Land 
Susanne, you are learning some wonderful lessons in the Spirit as you are being taught by our Father on how to set proper boundaries in your life. I was just experiencing this feeling of talons digging into the top of my shoulders (this happens often when they attack me and in most cases it spreads from there). As I read about how you resisted those demons that were attacking your body, I addressed them directly and told them to depart and the pains subsided in my body as well. In regards to your quote from TAS, the following passage is very instructive.
From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men.” (Matthew 16:21-23 RSVA)
I deal rather abruptly with those phone solicitors as well. As it was with Satan in the garden, you can not let them reason with you. “Get behind me, Satan” is the only response when even our own close friends and family start appealing to us to be reasonable about what God has told us to do. As in the above passage, Jesus made no room for human or satanic reason in His life when His Father had told Him otherwise. Beware of any argument that appeals to you to do the “reasonable thing.”
Thanks for sharing your intimate walk with God with us once again, dear Susanne. 🐻
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You’re welcome as to my sharing, Michael. Indeed, I was relieved to hear that your pain subsided as well. 🙂
That example with Peter nails it, for sure. Imagine what would have happened if Jesus had listened to his friend Peter MORE than to His Father… none of us could have ever been saved! Thank God, Jesus was not only man; He was God, too, and without sin at that. Meanwhile I think sin always comes up when we ignore God’s voice due to more reasonable deliberations.
I agree with you, it is particularly difficult if you have order from God to do THIS, but close friends, family, and relatives know it all better, saying you ought to do THAT. In hindsight I see how often I thought I had to listen to them and do God’s will within the framework given by them. That was impossible because He led me into a completely other direction. It has been as if I was torn between two lovers, which does not work, either. Also, I made this mistake with my daughter myself, thinking she had to follow the “German tradition” I followed (high school + apprenticeship + university). As it did not work, I blamed myself for it until Jesus after many sleepless nights asked me, “Why do you think that women should learn and work outside the house?” Since Sarah loves to stay at home, which I thought to be wrong, I had a lot of inner turmoil during the last year until Jesus said this particular sentence. Afterwards a huge burden fell down from my heart. Although I am not yet through and I do not know what His plans for her might be, I now know that she is in His hands like we all are. And His plans turn out the best in the end – always!
Thank you very much for your wise and thought-provoking reply, my dear brother! 🐱
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Yes, Our church and cultural traditions are often counter to what God wants in our lives, Like Jesus told the Pharisees…
And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die’; but you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, What you would have gained from me is Corban’ (that is, given to God)– then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God through your tradition which you hand on. And many such things you do.”
(Mark 7:9-13 RSVA)
Man is to live by every word that PROCEEDS from the mouth of God, not that once proceeded and was recorded in a book. “Let he who has ears hear what the Spirit IS SAYING to the churches.”
I am so glad for Sarah that you heard our Daddy’s will for her at this time.
Bless you!
Michael 🐻
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That’s IT, Michael – I loved this:
And I also love this one that is repeated in Hebrews:
Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.” (Ps 95:7-11 ESV)
Regarding Sarah, yes, I am so relieved that God cares waaaay more than any parent ever could! 🙂
Bless you, too!
Susanne 🐱
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Susanne, there was something more that your response above stirred in me.. this thing of human traditions. You wrote, “In hindsight I see how often I thought I had to listen to them and do God’s will within the framework given by them. That was impossible because He led me into a completely other direction. It has been as if I was torn between two lovers, which does not work, either. Also, I made this mistake with my daughter myself, thinking she had to follow the “German tradition” I followed (high school + apprenticeship + university). As it did not work, I blamed myself for it until Jesus after many sleepless nights asked me, ‘Why do you think that women should learn and work outside the house?’…”
I was reading TAS again and found this wonderful insight of his on this subject…
http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/001389.html
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Amen. Very good! Thanks for sharing, Michael.
I would add that we can only stand on the ground/foundation that is Christ Jesus IN the power of the Holy Spirit. We need to have experienced our utter helplessness and weakness in all areas of life before we can say, “I give it all up and surrender to You alone, o Lord!”
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Susanne, He waits for us to see our total helplessness and cry out to Him. My own prayer was, “God, I can’t do this! I can’t live my life any longer! All I touch turns to crap. Please take over my life and make it your life not mine. Amen” Yes, my sister, it feels so good to finally lay it all down at His feet and forsake all our own ground; who we are and have been, gender, nationality, social status, religion, family ties… everything that has once been our identity for our identity in Christ alone as sons and daughters of God. It is so good to have this fellowship with you IN Christ! 🐻
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Amen again, Michael.
All our old self touches without having asked God before turns to crap, indeed. Thank God He lets us see and feel the mess we have created without Him.
I too am very grateful that I may have this wonderful fellowship in the Spirit with you, my brother!
🐱
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I think it’s another scenario entirely when dealing with random phone people. Someone I trust once said that many of these people employ witchcraft behind the scenes, and as insane as it sounds, I’ve no doubt it’s true some of the time.
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I think you and your friend might be right, James. Searching on the net about a connection between witchcraft and increasing sales, I found the following quote – inter alia – which deals with the applicability of witchcraft in almost every area of life, for example:
• Clean a business.
It can be used for new businesses or ones that are already in operation. There are cases where one wonders why the business we run does not begin to generate profits, and often the cause is a blockage of energy generated by envy, a job or because the location was already loaded with bad vibrations before we took it. The manual includes powerful cleaning jobs for businessmen who bring spells to work at full power with results within 45 days.
• Increase profits of a business.
If your company is already in operation but needs to generate more sales or attract money through more customers, you can do it through a spell of Money Attraction. Money spells that come with the manual are 100% tested with over 2348 cases in construction, services, clothing, groceries and other areas.
http://witchcraftsecretmanual.com/?hop=1buycheap
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on here. Very helpful! 🙂
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Oh, that was a great comment, Jack! Thank you so much for the compliments, too! 🙂
What you said and shared makes complete sense to me, all of it. It was as if you spoke directly out of my mind and heart. I really do know these people pleaser struggles versus God’s gentle nudges so well. What hit me as if I was struck by lightning as I was reading your response was the following paragraph. You wrote,
“One of the things I deal with, is the tendency to be a people pleaser – in fact, one of the admonitions commonly taught by the IC to influence and ultimately win others to Christ, is to be “pleasant”. Yet the scripture tells us to “speak the truth in love”, and to let our “yes be yes and our no be no” … so where in speaking the truth in love meets my inner people-pleasing self, there is often an inner turmoil between them, whereby I labor to speak the truth (Spirit) while at the same time try to candy-coat it (soul) so as not to provoke an unpleasant reaction in the person I’m speaking to. Of course, that boils down to subjecting the truth to the fear of man, which in the end, negates the truth.”
I had the same Scriptures on my mind today, but was still mulling over them insofar as I did not know how to apply them. As you explained your inner turmoil, it got more and more clear to me that our tendency to please people came directly from Satan and has nothing to do with God’s love. That helped me a lot! Now I need to ask myself, ‘Do I want to serve Satan by trying to please people any longer? NO!!!’ Thanks a bunch for your enlightening words on here!
Furthermore, I want to share another experience with you I had today. As for the unnerving salesmen of all sorts, I know now that there is no principle to be followed as I always did until today. My principle was, “I do not want to talk with them at all, but I do – as short as possible.” And I was always angry as I shared in my article. Even if I had not spoken with anyone, my people pleasing self (aka Satan) accused me afterwards. As I wondered and asked the Lord about how to react in future situations, He only said, “There is no principle but to always listen to me.” BOOM!!! That was a plain response, wasn’t it… . I remember that I never wanted to really listen to these people on the phone and therefore I felt offended when someone told me in the past with a nasty undertone, “If you do not listen to me, you won’t be able to talk on the phone any longer, very soon at that!” I thought he spoke nonsense and was mad at him for a few days until our phone connection was dropped completely. So much as for Susanne who thoughts she had always listened to God’s voice. Now I know it better. 😛
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Susanne, you make a great point. There is no cut and dried plan we can follow for each situation for our Father does not want us to live by the law, but rather to listen to Him and live by the Spirit. Imagine poor Peter, At the last supper Jesus says,
So Peter says to himself, “Alright! We now get to be armed and dangerous! WoooHoooo!” But then what happens? The temple authorities come to arrest Jesus and take Him away to be tried, tortured and killed and what does Peter do? He pulls out his sword and hacks off the ear of the servant of the high priest! And what does Jesus do? He says to Peter, “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.”
“ARG!!!! Jesus! Didn’t you just tell us to go out and procures swords for the battle that was ahead? You are impossible to follow!” You see, we can’t assume anything and any action that we come up with that was not a work given us by the Father always lead to death. We must pray about all things before we act!
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WOW!!!! That was an awesome and God-inspired interpretation, even biblical! I am impressed, Michael! ⭐
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Yes, Susanne, I have this thing about giving biblical responses to what people write. Maybe I am so much this way to a flaw. What do you think?
Michael 🐻
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I think it is all good as long as the Lord has shown us these Scriptures before we share them. Whatever PROCEEDS out of His mouth now must be shared when He wants us to do so, don’t you think? 😉
Susanne 🐱
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I am not knowledgeable on this topic, so found your post (and the discussion here) especially informative. The statement that “The mind, the heart and the will of humanity are captured by the devil…” struck a real chord.
In “The Screwtape Letters” by CS Lewis the senior demon instructs his protege to keep victims in the dark as to the existence of demons. Our culture tends to trivialize the forces of evil, and those who acknowledge their existence. However, denying the existence of Satan is, I think, a very dangerous thing for the believer. We are, thereby, opened to spiritual attack — making little or no use of the armor of God.
Whether there is a physical component to the attacks against us, or we are merely suffering from ailments common to this life, we are more vulnerable when in pain. I suffer both from migraines and back pain, so can readily empathize w/ your experiences, Susanne!
I remember reading somewhere — it may again have been “The Screwtape Letters” — that if Satan cannot destroy our faith, he will settle for preventing us from exercising it by doing good. For me, this takes the form of anxiety and depression. Whether the worst of these episodes are spiritual attacks or merely the cross I bear (a very small cross, compared with most others), I cannot say.
One of Satan’s most potent lies is that we are unworthy to approach the throne of God in prayer and worthless overall. I think this lie holds particular power for abuse victims. Without Salvation, of course, we are all unworthy. When we sin and fall short, our best course is to seek forgiveness…not avoid God. Jesus died to restore our relationship with God — which is proof beyond measure of our worth in His eyes.
One last point. Martin Luther said, “The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn.”
Sorry to be so long winded. Just one of my many shortcomings (LOL).
With love,
A. ❤
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No need to feel sorry, dear Anna, your sharing was very helpful and informative for me as well. I am not familar with Lewis’s “The Screwtape Letters”, but most certainly, Lewis had some great insights. As for your many sufferings, I offer you a prayer here, my dear sister.
“Dear Father in Heaven, please, heal Anna from her migraines and back pains, and help her trust in her own self-worth and Your own desire to listen to her prayers. Amen.”
If it is difficult for us to approach God, thinking He would be somehow above us, sitting on His throne beyond reach, it could be helpful to ponder on Jesus’ way down to earth, leaving all His might, power, and glory behind in order to draw us through Himself, who is God as well, to our all-loving God in Heaven who is like no human father could ever be. He is truly perfect and He is wonderful! 🙂
Much love ❤
Susanne
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The discernment experiences, drilling pain over the left ear etc. my wife and I have experienced upon many occasions. At first it began with one or two like what you have shared. Not having a clue as to how and why these sensations
kept happening.
Later we were led deeper into prophetic ministry we both began to receive more grace in this function of discernment.
The Holy Spirit would key us up either with pain in various parts of our bodies and would also sometimes release visuals as to the type of spirit that we would be dealing with in the upcoming session oupcoming meeting.
This initial head pains were expanded to headaches on either the right or left side. Than pain began being felt in our hands and on certain fingers, toes and feet.
Eventually we were able to associate pains we were sensing with the spiritual condition of the people we were to either meet and or pray with.
My wife received more sensitivity than I did in this area. I believe that was designed in this manner as some of the things he has called me to do has been in close proximity to areas and or places that she is unable to get close to and will usually be called to prophetic intercession as I complete the task that Jesus has purposed.
I say all of this is because the discernment you are being given is a miraculous tool in the hands of our King.
“Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding,”
When Jacob blessed his twelve sons, he said, “Naphtali is a doe set free that bears beautiful fawns” (Genesis 49:21). The image presented is of one who springs forth with great speed and provides good news.
May you spring forth with great speed to continue to provide good news.
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Thank you, Garry. I am still mulling over the following sentence:
“Eventually we were able to associate pains we were sensing with the spiritual condition of the people we were to either meet and or pray with.”
Interesting… 🙄
Almost 16 years ago, I had a dream in January 2000 in which I could see myself as a doe and Christ as a lion (of the tribe of Judah). The Scripture you shared from Genesis reminded of that dream of which I had not thought for quite some time.
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