HOW TO BREAK OUT OF DESTRUCTIVE CYCLES
(Part 2)
One day you wake up and you just are not you. You feel like you need to get saved and maybe wonder if you ever were. You may feel angry at the world, snappy and insecure all at the same time. Nothing in your life seems to have gone right. No matter who you think about your mind gets flooded with negative thoughts about them. Everybody it seems is just using you. Whatever your past involved comes back. If you used to drink, cuss, or sleep all day because of depression – its back! If you used to go clubbing or whore around, the old thoughts come right back on you and quite often a person shows up that invites you out.
HOW TO KNOW WHEN YOU'RE UNDER ATTACK!
The key is this – YOU JUST DON'T FEEL LIKE YOURSELF, and that's because it isn't you … it's the OLD YOU! The problem is you don't know how to shake it off and get back in your “right mind.”
FAMILIAR SPIRITS
Ever hear of “familiar spirits?” They are the demons in your family lineage, “iniquities” in the blood line and they were involved in your own personal history. They know exactly how to angle themselves into the nooks and crannies of your thinking- virtually undetected. They are expertly familiar with your old thought patterns. Ever been betrayed? The feeling if distrust rises up. Ever suffered lack? The feeling of greed and fear of poverty rises up.
Point is – they know how to trigger old patterns of anxieties or lusts or whatever. Yield to them an inch and they jump on you with condemnation till you break down and give in. Give in enough and you become a spiritual “Jekyll and Hyde.” This pattern exists in the private lives of every public melt down and its a shame we don't create SAFE PLACES for Christians to share their struggles in this battle. A wise mentor once said “people are only as sick as they are secret.” One of the best gifts in warfare is a non judgmental friend.
NOTE THE TIMING
Remember those old LP records? If you got a scratch on it the scratch came through every time the song hit that part of the album. Your life is like that. Some people get hit with depression at Christmas. I knew a girl who lost her mother at an early age and every Mothers Day when would be sad. These may look like natural patterns, but there are rhythms in life for you as well. Sometimes a person comes to mind every Spring and you can't get them out of your head. Thats the sneaky thing about cycles and patterns – they are subtle and seem natural. Sabbath is a cycle every seven days. Neglect it and you can be going to war when you should be resting and too tired to fight when the actual battle starts!
RIGHT AFTER BREAKTHROUGH
Your greatest attack can come after your greatest breakthrough. Elijah defeated the false prophets on Carmel and afterwards got so depressed he wanted God to kill him. Backlash and Breakthrough run together. Paul built the power to say “be anxious for nothing” by encountering and overcoming anxiety! If you never felt it you never slew it. (Thank you to Mark Chironna of that one.)
STEP ONE: Recognize that it is an attack. Paul said that spiritual armor is there so you can stand “in the evil day.” It's a brief period not a life long thing. If your warfare is constant and you are always getting beat up something is out of alignment.
STEP TWO: You do ministry out of the anointing but you resist the devil and do warfare out of a strong inner man! Samson had a strong anointing and a weak inner man and lost it all. Joseph had a strong inner man and an anointing and got promoted after it all.
STEP THREE: Make yourself eat! When you are ill you don't have an appetite. Get around strong preaching- not goofy stuff. Read the Bible. Get a pen and circle everything that stands out. That act of faith with a pen will kick start a flow of insight. God will give you a word for your battle.
(more to come…)