TLP 356: The Spiritual War in Your Home, Part 3 | the frontline enemy

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Now, it may sound strange describing them like that. Most of us would view them as being very dangerous and very sneaky.

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But the assumption that they're like the Navy Seals of Spiritual Warfare is biblically untenable. Welcome to Truth.

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Love. Parents. Where we use God's Word to become intentional, premeditated parents.

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Here's your host, A .M. Brewster. Welcome back to our study of Spiritual Warfare. Specifically, the

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Spiritual Warfare waging in your home. It's quite possible that today's topic is the one about which most people want to talk.

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It is important, and we are going to talk about it. But if you've jumped into this series right here just because you're curious what

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I have to say about, dun, dun, dun, demons, I just want to strongly encourage you to listen to the previous two episodes because they lay a necessary foundation for what's to follow today and through the rest of this study.

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Don't just skip the stuff before this because you're curious what I have to say about demons. But before we jump in,

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I do want to encourage you to connect with me on social media. You can find me at A .M. Brewster on Twitter or at The Brewster Home on Instagram.

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You can also find me on LinkedIn. I'm pretty much most active on Twitter and LinkedIn, but you will see some personal family photos from time to time on Instagram.

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Those are just other ways that I can share my parenting and my marriage journey with you and I hope they will be a blessing. Also, if you're new to the show, we want to welcome you.

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We are just a group of parents trying to discover God's will for our marriages and parenting. That's why we spend so much time with our

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Bibles open. We know that no human being will be able to give us everything we need for life and godliness and parenting and family.

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Our Creator is the only one who can give us that. So Team TLP and I strive to create resources that point us back to Him and His word.

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Two of those resources are our free episode notes and transcripts available with nearly every episode. You can find those at TakingBackTheFamily .com

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and TruthLoveParent .com. And of course, there's a link in the description of this episode for that. All right, let's look at the spiritual enemy with which most people are familiar, demonic forces.

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First, let me say that I've wanted to talk about this for a long time, years in fact. I think there are two things that really motivated me to sit down and do it.

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One, I'm part of a number of Facebook parenting groups and I kept seeing parents asking about the impact demons could have on their families.

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And I know I've asked many of the same questions over the years. And two, Mama Bear Apologetics released a three -part series called

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The Role of Apologetics in Spiritual Warfare. It was extremely timely and filled with great content.

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It not only featured the Mama Bear's erudite handling of the topic, but they also shared some content from Simon Brace. Now, I told you before that we wouldn't be able to discuss every single little detail involved with the topic of spiritual warfare.

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And it's important to note that many people are saying things about spiritual warfare that are just patently untrue.

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For those reasons and more, I'm going to provide some additional study materials at TruthLoveParent .com.

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So how do you access that material? If you go to TruthLoveParent .com, you can easily join the TLP family for absolutely no cost.

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Just register on the site and within 24 hours, you'll be provided a link to set up a unique login. When you log in, you'll have access to all the exclusive content made just for the

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TLP family. There's a bunch of great stuff already there, but I'm also going to include links to content that will help you grow in a biblical understanding of spiritual warfare.

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It will include links to the Mama Bear episodes, as well as Simon Brace's fantastic material. I also hope to include book recommendations, which you can pick up using our

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Amazon affiliate links, as well as other trustworthy content so that you and your family can be as prepared as possible to fight the spiritual battle you're in today.

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Okay, so last time we learned the very important lesson that your family members are not your enemy. Your conflict is not with them.

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It's with something or some things spiritual. But what are those things? When you study the

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Bible, you find that our spiritual warfare happens on three fronts with three different enemies, all working in chorus to destroy you and your family.

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Ephesians 6 .12 describes the enemy as rulers, powers, world forces of this darkness, and spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

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I believe there are three key distinctions to pull out of this list. Really, Aaron? Aren't there four things listed there?

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Aren't you the guy who likes to itemize every biblical list? It's true, I do, but I only do that when the

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Bible gives us sufficient data to describe each item in the list with detail. The Bible doesn't really provide us enough information to know with certainty how each of those four groups interact.

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We don't know if one group is simply a subgroup of another, but what we do know is that the Bible details with clear evidence and illustrations three distinct enemies within our spiritual warfare.

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Those are the ones on which we'll be focusing for this series. Of those three, the enemy we're talking about today is the demonic forces.

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I'm calling this enemy the frontline enemy, and I'm calling it that for three reasons. One, demonic forces are generally the first thing people picture when they think about spiritual warfare.

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But two, the enemy on the frontlines is generally not the hard -hitting enemy. This is where, historically, you find the infantry.

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The infantry isn't as powerful as the chariots. They're dangerous, but they're not that dangerous. And number three, the enemy on the frontlines is not as sneaky as, like, let's just say the spies.

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They're just right out there. They're not guerrilla warriors. They're not deep espionage operatives and agents. What you see is what you get.

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Now, it may sound strange describing demons like that. Most of us would view them as being very dangerous and very sneaky, but what

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I'm trying to communicate is that the assumption that Satan and his forces are the navy seals of spiritual warfare is biblically untenable.

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They're not titans wreaking the most havoc in our families. Such an understanding is patently false, and I aim to prove this to you over the course of today and the next two episodes.

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But let me remind you one more time that the Bible does not give us a ton of information when it comes to how demonic forces actually work.

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So I have two very important prerequisites for us today. The first is that if the Bible gives us everything we need for life and godliness, and if the

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Bible doesn't give us all the information we may desire on the topic of demonic forces, then it would probably be wise to focus on the more important things in Scripture.

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In other words, I don't want this episode to influence some of you to take up an unhealthy preoccupation with demonology.

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And second, there can be legitimate interpretational challenges when it comes to this topic, so I'll be very frank when it comes to addressing the foolish conclusions to which we are prone to jump.

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All right, let's pull back the curtain on our enemy. Let's start with what the demonic forces are and also look a little bit at what they are not.

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Number one, demonic forces are purely spiritual. This spiritual enemy cannot be seen, smelled, tasted, touched, or felt.

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Now there's something interesting about this, okay? We have biblical evidence that angels took what appeared to be human form when they interacted with Old Testament saints.

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However, there is absolutely no biblical example of demonic forces presenting themselves in physical form.

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All the movies and things like that, which have Satan looking like a man and stuff like that, there is no biblical evidence for that.

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Now, this is not to say that they never have done that, but I'm just not going to waste time on conjecture. For this study, we need to stay strictly biblical.

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The demons' inability to take physical form would explain why they seem to always be possessing various creatures.

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From Satan and the snake, to Satan and Judas, to Satan and the Antichrist, from demons and pigs, to demons and adults, to demons and children, it appears that demons are limited in the physical realm if they're not possessing something physical.

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This is an important observation we'll touch back on later. And just like the angels, it appears that demons can take shapes that only correspond to earthly creatures, as opposed to humans.

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They may look like frogs or scorpions or locusts, but it's also possible these are metaphorical illustrations as they only show up in the book of Revelation.

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So first, we see that Satan and his forces are purely spiritual. No person is Satan, no organization or government or movement is

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Satan. As always, we need to be careful with our language so we don't confuse our children about the reality of spiritual warfare.

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Why is it important to know they are spiritual? For the same reason I mentioned last time. It's too easy for us to be so blinded by the physical realm that we completely forget about the spiritual realm.

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Just because you can't see your quote -unquote shoulder angel or shoulder demon, or just because you can't see the demons out there, doesn't mean they don't exist.

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Now Satan loves for it to work this way. Let's not make things any easier for him by forgetting that he exists.

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This is the equivalent of us blindfolding ourselves on the front line of battle. Why would we do that? Number two, demonic forces want to eat your family alive.

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Right now, today, they want to destroy you. 2 Peter 5 .8 tells us, be of sober spirit, be on the alert.

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Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. I believe it's too easy to be lulled into a sense of normalcy in our lives.

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We're just going to school, we're just going shopping, we're just cleaning the house. No, the Bible makes it clear that we are on the front lines of an active and raging war where all three antagonists are presently trying to kill us or worse, make us useless to God.

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We need to maintain our wartime mentality if we hope to be victorious in all the ways God promises.

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This means that you need to accept the fact that Satan and his forces will take every opportunity to influence your family to make choices that are not in their best interest.

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We must not assume that anything is amoral until we've done our due diligence. Entertainment and philosophy are moral weapons demons will use to destroy your family.

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Even amoral things like food and drink are acted upon by moral agents. Therefore, Satan and his horde will seek to influence your family to interact with amoral things in immoral ways.

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One of the things martial artists and soldiers know is that anything and everything can be used as a weapon. The demonic forces look at things the exact same way.

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Number one, demons are spiritual. Two, demons want to destroy your family and they'll use everything they can to do it.

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And three, one way demons influence your family is by possession. Now, this is the one that really scares us.

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This is the only the third of six points though today, but I'm going to spend a lot of time on this one because admittedly it makes our skin crawl.

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However, this is also the one that I find is most easily dismissed by many western Christians. Biblically speaking though, regardless of what superstar

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Christian is telling their following, we know four things for certain about demon possession. A, demon possession is a real phenomenon.

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You don't have to spend much time in the Gospels before you get the idea that nearly everyone knew at least one person who was demon possessed.

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From children to adults, from lunatics to fortune tellers, from people with physical ailments brought on by the demons to those who seem to be completely healthy, from people with one demon to people with thousands, demon possession was everywhere.

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We're told all throughout the Gospels that people were bringing demon -possessed individuals to Christ to heal all of the time.

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The Blue Letter Bible provides a really helpful list of conclusions based off of the biblical data concerning demon possession.

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They write, quote, demon possession does occur. Possession may be voluntary or involuntary.

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They don't necessarily live immoral lives. It may or may not be permanent, can affect the body, can also affect the mind.

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There can be a wide variety of symptoms, and when someone is delivered, it is immediate, unquote. I'll link the article in case you're interested.

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Now, I plan to talk about it more later, but I feel the need to address an objection I've heard before when discussing demon possession.

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In the times of Christ, every seventh person seemed to be possessed, and everyone else always seemed to know they were possessed.

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There appeared to be very little doubt on the subject, but nowadays it would be hard for most of us to name even one person we thought might be possessed.

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And I believe many Christians don't even think demon possession is either a big deal or even still a thing. They may believe it happens maybe in third world countries, or that it happened a hundred years ago, but not in modern civilizations.

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Yet, Jesus leads us to believe in Matthew 12, 43 through 45, that demons aren't happy unless they're indwelling someone.

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So, that leads us to our second observation about demon possession. B. Biblically speaking, we have no reason to believe fewer people are being possessed today than were in the time of Christ.

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There is nothing in the Bible that would cause us to think that Satan and his forces are no longer possessing people. In fact,

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I would argue there is plenty of biblical data to suggest that it will continue on just as it did in the first century.

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And since there are more people alive today, we may argue that even more people are being possessed today than before.

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So, why don't we see it the way they did in the first century? Why isn't it easier to tell when someone's possessed?

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I believe there are two very scary answers. The first is that Satan is smart. Sure, he's an absolute idiot for thinking he could dethrone

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God, but he is intelligent when it comes to deceiving humans. This may be a little sanctified conjecture on my part, so I won't spend too much time on it, but I do believe

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Satan's wise enough to realize that he has a better chance of controlling first world countries if he works in the shadows.

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Satan still has very solid sway in countries where they believe in demons and spirits and live in fear of them, but he has to be sneakier in America.

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So, I think Satan is quite pleased with the Hollywood fantasy that has convinced the masses that demon possession isn't happening or that it's something very different than it really is.

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Again, back to the Blue Letter Bible observation, demon -possessed people didn't necessarily lead deplorable lives.

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They weren't all axe murderers always constantly dripping with slime like Hollywood would have us think. But the second reason we don't see demon possession for what it is is that we've redefined abnormal behavior.

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For thousands of years, God followers knew that people who sacrificed their children to an idol were under demonic influence, and yet today abortion is considered normal—a normal thing done by normal people.

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Christians knew that people who willfully harmed themselves were either possessed or deluded by those who were.

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Today, we learn that a teenager is cutting himself, and all we can muster is a look of disdain or we swallow the company line that they're experiencing some quote -unquote mental disorder.

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No, my friends, self -harm is a spiritual disorder. People who do that today are doing it for the same reasons that people have always done it.

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They're either demon -possessed or they've been influenced by someone who is. This is not normal. It's not a healthy response to life.

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No creature on the planet knowingly hurts itself physically to escape a secondary hurt. Humans are the only ones, and in the scriptures, the only people who ever did that were worshiping idols or they were demon -possessed.

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What we might call insanity today was a clear sign of demonic possession back then. Unexplained medical issues also pointed to possession, and nearly any and all anomalous behavior was at least a potential symptom of a deeper spiritual issue.

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Now here's the problem. I don't think I nor any other genuine God -fearing person wants to just say that all anomalous behavior, every single one, every person who has a legitimate brain deterioration who's acting strangely is demon -possessed.

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I'm not saying that, okay? And I don't think anybody else is. And I think that's one reason that people are very hesitant to make sweeping remarks.

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But you can't throw out the baby with the bathwater, okay? So today, unfortunately, we've accepted the secular model of medicine that says that every issue a person has is always going to be purely physiological.

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They deny the existence of the spiritual, so it's no surprise that they can't think outside of the tiny box that they've constructed.

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But their blindness is expected. It's the Christians who go through their day blinded to the spiritual war waging in their homes and around their children because they accept that there is a physiological answer to all anomalous behavior without once considering the spiritual realities at play.

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It's those people whose blindness really is deplorable. But today, in our politically correct landscape where the only people who can be openly bad -mouthed without consequence are

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Christians and conservatives, it's a crime worthy of torture to suggest that a person with aberrant behavior were demon -possessed, to suggest that a child, any child, were demon -possessed for any reason, regardless of their malady, would be met with death threats.

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And honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if I started receiving hate mail and death threats even for the comments I've made today, even from professing

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Christians, because they can't believe someone would suggest an adorable child or a depressed 20 -something or a popular celebrity who advocates for abortion might be under demonic influence.

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Now, I've kind of alluded to it already, but what complicates the issue even more is that more and more aberrant behavior is being redefined as normal.

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It's not just a problem with a biological solution. It's actually no longer seen as an issue at all.

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Secular psychologists used to argue that a homosexual had a mental illness. Today, it's been removed from the

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DSM and is believed to be healthy and normal activity. Pedophilia is being treated the exact same way.

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I tell you now, I'm prophesying it, it won't be long before psychiatrists no longer view sexual attraction to minors as a problem.

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And too many Christians are filling their minds with these quote -unquote experts to the degree that they actually believe what they say over what the scriptures show us.

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But when we allow the Bible to inform our understanding of demon possession, we have to accept that the fact that it does happen, that it happens just as much as it did back then, and that many of the behaviors that we consider to be acceptable or the result of a quote -unquote mental illness may,

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I said may, may actually be caused by demonic influence. I'll say more about this in a minute.

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Letter C. Born -again believers cannot be possessed by demons. 2 Corinthians 6 14 through 16 says,

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Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

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What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with a non -believer? What agreement has the temple of God with idols?

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And tons of scriptures either command us to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit or state the fact that born -again believers simply are filled with the

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Spirit. Light and dark cannot exist in the same place at the same time, and so a person filled by the Holy Spirit cannot be possessed by demons.

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If your family members are born again, if they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, there is no fear that they may be possessed by demons.

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However, unbelievers are in danger of demon possession, and that is letter

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D today, our fourth point under demon possession. Now again, this is only one part of a much larger discussion.

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I don't want us getting lost in the weeds trying to understand the dynamics of demon possession and exorcisms and the like, okay?

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We are going to discuss the biblical data, the commands, and the principles on the subject, and I promise you we will, but we can't cover them all here right now.

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I fully intend to share with you my own family's interaction with demonic activity, but like I said, today we're outlining the basic facts.

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Later in this series, we'll discuss what the Bible has to say about actually combating the spirit world, including how to handle the possibility that an unsaved family member may be experiencing demonic influence.

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But really, we're almost out of time, and we have three more important points to make, so let's review. Number one, demonic forces are spiritual.

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Two, demonic forces want to destroy your family. Three, one way demonic forces influence your family is by possession.

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Four, a second way demonic forces influence your family is by temptation. Again, we'll have to deal with this in much more detail later, and most

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Christians accept this fact quite easily. The perfect example is the temptation of Christ in Matthew 4 and Luke 4.

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Number five, a third way demonic forces influence your family is by physical attack. There aren't a lot of New Testament examples of this, but the example of Job comes to mind.

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Satan was able to influence the heart of men, affect the weather, and touch Job's health, even though he was a follower of God.

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I believe that Satan cannot control a believer, so he will do everything he can to manipulate them. That will include temptation from influencers that he can control, but will also include temptation to sinful responses due to the physical challenges

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Satan can bring into our lives. I'm not saying that every stubbed toe is a satanic attack, all right?

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I don't want you guys seeing demons behind every bush, but again, we'll need to get more specific on this later.

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And lastly, demonic forces are spiritual. They want to destroy your family. They can influence some people by possession.

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They can influence others by temptation. They can influence everyone by physical attack. And number six, God wants each of your family members to actively engage

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Satan and his forces in battle. Let's look back to 2 Peter 5. We need to read both verses 8 and 9 this time.

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Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour, but resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.

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Ephesians 6, 11 through 14 uses six different phrases to call us to engage Satan. Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

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For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against, the list we saw earlier, therefore take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm.

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He says it says it again next verse, stand firm, later on taking up the shield of faith which which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

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And of course James 4, 7 leaves no room for doubt, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Now we're going to talk about how

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God wants us to resist demonic forces in a future episode. I know it's just so painful to ask you to wait until then, but there is so much we have to know about the spiritual battle before we can begin discussing techniques and methods for fighting off this enemy.

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For now though, I do want to encourage you to reject all pop culture ideas that may be going through your head right now.

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I remember reading Frank Peretti's This Present Darkness. The story was engaging and I got the impression that this man knew a whole lot more about spiritual warfare than I did and was eager to discover the scriptures he used to support his depictions of the interactions between demons and humans.

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Well, I looked and I looked some more and it's just not there. This present darkness is fiction.

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It's not an insider look into spiritual warfare. In addition, as I mentioned before, I'd argue that demonic influences is the least of our concerns compared to the other spiritual enemies out there, at least in homes where everyone is born again.

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And I know I keep saying demonic influences are the least of our concern, but the idea of demon possession may sound like the worst thing we can imagine for our families.

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Please remember that our trust must be placed firmly in God and God alone. We don't live the way we do because we're afraid of Satan.

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We live the way we do because we fear the Lord. Now, if you need some peace of mind, you can listen to the

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Peaceful Parenting series that starts in episode 69. God is good and nothing we've talked about today negates that fact.

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Next time, I'll help us see how demons aren't as dangerous as the second enemy to whom I'm referring as the infiltrator enemy.

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And before you know it, we'll be talking about the battlefield, the weapons of our warfare, the statistics, and the way God wants us to engage our three spiritual enemies.

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I'm really looking forward to this. I encourage you to head over to truthloveparent .com, join the TLP family, and check out the links

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I've included to the Mama Bears and Simon Brace and the links I'll add later. And if you're looking for biblical counseling for your family, please write us at counselor at truthloveparent .com.

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And remember, if we want our children to grow up into Christ, we must parent in truth and love. That's going to include the truth about spiritual warfare.

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To that end, join us next time as we look at The Spiritual War in Your Home, Part 4, The Infiltrator Enemy. Truth.

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Love. Parent. Is part of the Evermind Ministries family and is dedicated to helping you become an intentional, premeditated parent.

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Join us next time as we search God's word for the truth your family needs today.