Wow, this is a subject that tugs close to my heart strings, how about yours? Do you know how many people have blocked emotions? I do. Guess I kinda used to be one of them. I remember saying, I just really don't like crying -- especially not in front of people.

Well, why not? The Lord created emotions, actually in the book of Genesis. There must be a reason He created tear ducts, and even biologically and physiologically there's a reason for them. I've typically preferred crying alone, you know, it's private, no one sees you and if it messes up your make up, you can straighten it up. Right now, my mind rolls back to two crying episodes I had where I just couldn't control the tears.

First crying episode

I was on a business trip in South Carolina and I was tired after landing at the airport.
I was exhausted emotionally and mentally.
I decided, I'm not going to work today, instead I'll eat lunch and rest, after all, I don't know anyone in this city.
I ate lunch and when I finished, a stranger in the restaurant walked up to me and said, "Baby, the weight on you is so heavy, I felt it across the restaurant and I've been sitting over there praying for you."
I remained quiet, I didn't know her.
She asked while standing at my table, “May I pray for you?”
I said yes and she began to pray while touching my hand [the waitresses are now looking because they know we didn't come in together].
Bear-sized tears began racing from my face because this woman called out everything that was wrong with me and I didn't know her.
Yes, people in the restaurant are really looking now.
After praying the lady said, do you have car, did you come here in a car.
I said yes, my rental is outside.
She said, go in the car, roll up the windows and cry as hard as you need to.
I did just that.
I exited the restaurant, drove across the street to a bookstore parking lot, went way in the back of the parking lot -- and baam, I wailed like an animal in the forest who was wounded and no one was there to rescue them.
I'll never forget that cry.

Second crying episode

I'm now in another state years later and I spontaneously decided to have a meal with a lady I'd met like about two days prior.
I'd been doing some reflecting on my life and thought I was fine.
The Lord was dealing with me on an issue I really didn't want to talk to people about.
After all, nothing is ever going to change, so why bother even addressing it.
Sometimes you just have to accept things the way they are right?
No, wrong!
Why is that wrong, because what I believed DID NOT align with The Bible, the Word of God.
If what I believe doesn't align, then what I believe is not true.
The Word of God is true, it is the truth, which meant what I believed was a lie.
Yes, it had been a reality for a long time, but it was a lie I believed because the situation had been that way for so long.
Well, let me tell you.
I sat at that meal table with just about a perfect stranger.
We were eating.
And I tried to be civil and talk, do the small talk exchange.
Lord, that didn't last for two minutes.
The tear ducts RIPPED and there was no way I could conceal the tears.
This wasn't a simple cry, the veins in my soul had ruptured and here I am with a complete stranger.
It's a beautiful thing when you can communicate with a person -- human spirit to human spirit -- without using any words.
Really in this particular situation it was the spirit of the Lord in me connecting with the Spirit of the Lord in her.
That lady rubbed my right shoulder and the top of my back.
She didn't say a word.
Underneath my breathe I eked out the words repeatedly, "They are not better than me."
I just kept repeating that because that had been my inner struggle that started centuries before I was born.
I just bought into the lie because it had been passed down generation to generation to me -- and in ignorance I accepted it.

Well, Beloved reader, I simply share with you today, you have the freedom and are released to cry.
Cry in public.
Cry in private.
Cry with friends.
Cry with enemies.
Cry with your spouse.
Cry with the Lord holding you.
Cry in your car.
Cry in the bathroom stall at work.
Cry in your woman's lap.
Cry on your man's shoulder.

It's okay; you are now released and have the freedom to cry.

Beloved reader, thank you for taking your time to read this blog. If you're not a member of this online Healed People, Heal People community, we invite you to join for free here. You'll receive regular updates of encouragement wrapped in biblical truth.

Free at last, free at last … thank God Almighty I’m free at last! I clearly remember that sunny Saturday almost 15 years ago. It was the day my 20-year masturbation addiction finally died.

Instead of sleeping in I got up early, determined to rake and bag a yard full of leaves. Around noon I was sweaty and tired, but felt accomplished as I finished twist-tying and hauling the last heavy bag to the sidewalk for pickup.

Afterward a much-needed shower, my thoughts turned to relaxing in bed with a book or even dozing off. As I lay there reading, my still-damp hair cooling the back of my neck, that old familiar urge to satisfy myself suddenly visited. Quickly I thought of how many times in the past weeks I had said no to the urge and how good I had felt about these victories. Not wanting to lose any ground I had gained, I cried out to God for help and just as quickly I heard His still, small Voice, Take a walk.

Much as I didn’t want to go back out into the heat and humidity after feeling so cool and clean, I knew that I needed to obey because the conditions were ripe for a fall. I forced myself up, put on some clean, comfortable clothes and called my dog who was always up for a walk. I don’t remember anything exceptional about that walk except that later I realized it really was my final victory lap in a very long and frustrating race. Yeah! The enemy of my soul had finally lost in yet another area and God and I had finally won!

So how did masturbation get such power over me that I was hooked for two decades? Well, it all started when I was a kid -- where many life-controlling habits, good and bad, have their roots. As a pre-teen a friend loaned me a XXX-rated paperback and I, unwisely, read the raunchy rag. It planted some really rotten seeds in my mind and heart that years later sprouted into a garden of weeds. One of those weeds was masturbation.

Nothing happened for five years. Then one day while I was alone -- and lonely -- [not a good combination, to say the least] the pornographic words [and resultant images] that had been imprinted on my mind revisited my thoughts and I bought their dumb lies! I listened to the thoughts telling me to just try it and rationalized what could just trying it’ hurt? A lot.

Almost instantly I got high on a feeling [as the song goes], which led to another good feeling episode, then another and another till this little secret became a monthly, then a weekly, and sometimes a daily routine. I wanted it yet I hated it, always fearful of getting caught. Then what?! I couldn’t bear the thought! But then I couldn’t stop either ‘cause the urge was too strong by now. Yuk! I was stuck!

And wouldn’t you know it, this insatiable lust brought its friends who soon became part of my persona [or so it seemed]: depression, roller coaster emotions, sarcasm, mocking, self-hate, and a bunch of other unsavory emotions. Yeah, right, just try it! Forget that! Try it and get hooked - by a crook [The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy John 10:10 reads.] is more like it!

Sometime after I got hooked I overheard someone say that the woman who used to live in the room where my addiction began What I didn’t know when I had engaged in some really perverted sex acts. started this supposedly innocent, feel good habit is that I, who had already been seeded with porn trash five years earlier, had unknowingly walked into a major trap/ambush that further stole my innocence and other beautiful gifts God meant for me to enjoy -- plus take heaps of humility to shed.

So now you know how I got hooked. Let’s move on to the good part - how I got free - and how you can too! In a word: accountability. I remembered the power of this amazing tool from when I attended an Anonymous program that helped me dump another bad habit -- overeating.

The leader at one particular meeting I attended told the group that if the urge to pig out came, the solution was to phone someone in the Anonymous group. Wouldn’t ya know it, a few days later I needed that advice. I bravely got up the courage to call the number and guess what? It worked! With my pig out food in front of me and my anonymous friend on the line, I told her what I was about to do and sort of challenged her to talk me out of it.

She didn’t freak out or get offended, she just asked me what had recently happened. [Later I learned it was to reveal what triggered my binge so that she could help me avoid future set-ups and upsets]. Then she listened, which helped a lot. After dumping a bunch of pain into her ear, I suddenly realized that I was breathing more easily and no longer wanted to stuff my face with junk food when I wasn’t even hungry! It was amazing! I couldn’t care less about pigging out now because I was feeling something far better -- self respect! Cool! So I told her that then thanked her and threw the rest of the junk food away.

It wasn’t exactly that way with getting free from masturbation, but the whole ‘blowing the lid off the shame thing’ was almost identical. I had said I wanted to get free for quite awhile, but when the temptation to satisfy myself came - usually around the time of my monthly cycle - I would make excuses and once again fall.

It seemed like fantasy had a lot to do with it too, and not always sexual fantasies either. Sometimes living-in-the- future-fantasies, like day dreaming about what a fairytale life I was going to have … some day. But once I climaxed, the fantasies and the good feelings both disappeared and I went back to my roller coaster life with some exciting ups, but also a ton of painful downs.

Then I got into relationship with a person -- who later became my spouse. While he also had a bunch of addictive habits -- this wasn’t one of them and he didn’t judge me -- at least not in this area. [Now between us, unless you’re married to someone who won’t condemn you, make sure your accountability partner isn’t someone [male or female] who is going to tempt you to sin sexually or in other ways].

So one day after falling … again, I decided to try the accountability thing that had worked with overeating. And guess what? It worked! Now, please understand, it took a lot of courage to admit to him what I had just done [masturbated], but I really wanted to get free. Because of this strong desire for freedom, I became willing to pay the price [of exposing my shame] and I did.

When I confessed that first time I was really embarrassed and I sheepishly used a code word that I knew we’d both understood. Inside I braced myself for a look [of condemnation], a sarcastic remark [I sure had said a bunch of them!] or a lecture, but instead received a gift. Very simply and kindly he said, I forgive you.

Wow, did that feel good! Before he could change his mind or say anything else I simply accepted his gift, got up and joyfully went on with my life. Wow, I remember thinking, I could get hooked on that feeling!

As good as that high was, it only lasted a few days and then the M-demons returned to tempt me again. Yup, I gave in … again. Sigh. Bummer! But, inside I knew that I was gaining ground. Why? Because I knew I had a tool [accountability] that I could use to win -- if only I would use it. So, the next time the urge came, I told myself that if I gave in I would have to confess. I did fall … but I also confessed! And you know what? It worked!

The urge to masturbate became less and less with each passing month because I used this have to confess approach, which made me think twice before falling again. Then finally I was able to confess before falling and then eventually not fall at all! I strongly believe that because the demons in me knew that I was going to expose them to the Light [Jesus said in John 8:12, I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

Like scattering roaches that hate being exposed to the light, they hid [quieted down] and eventually left. They had lost their captive [me] because they saw that I wasn’t giving them any more agreement or legal ground. From that sunny Saturday to today -- almost 15 years -- I AM FREE!

I have to give God and my forgiving, patient accountability partner a lot of credit as it took me about 10 years from the first time I first confessed this shameful habit to finally get and stay 100% free. Another really big help in overcoming this and other addictive behaviors was praying A LOT in the Holy Spirit or praying in tongues, [aka one’s heavenly prayer language].

Here’s some really good scriptures you can look up about this wonderful gift: Luke 11: 9-13; Acts 2; I Corinthians 14: 2, 18; and Jude 1:20. If you don’t have this awesome, powerful gift, I HIGHLY recommend you seek God to receive it because when you pray in the spirit, you pray beyond your own understanding [read Romans 8:26 - 28] and you allow the Holy Spirit to pray through you. He gives you all sorts of help in overcoming this and any other shameful habits because God doesn’t want you addicted to anything or anyone but Him. He’s so awesome!

Also, I know that some Christian leaders say that masturbation is not so bad and they downplay its effects, but if you’ve ever been hooked, like I was, you know it’s such bondage! One leader, however, whose words really did help me said this, I’ve never known anyone who wanted to move on in the things of God who didn’t have to deal with this issue [referring to masturbation] if it was a problem for them. I agree.

There are all sorts of rotten spirits that come with this package. One of them is independence: I don’t need men or women. I can satisfy myself is the attitude. Wrong! God made us to be interdependent, not independent. We do need each other -- a lot more than we sometimes think. Some of the other trashy spirits that often hang out with masturbation are uncleanness, lust, shame, self-hatred, mistrust, fear, fantasy lust, perversion, self-pity, sarcasm, mocking and the victim and predator spirits. Yuk!

You don’t want that mess and God sure doesn’t want it for you either! So get honest with yourself and Him and confess the fantasy and selfishness [lust is selfish; love is selfless] as sin and ask Him to show you if there is anyone [including yourself] that you need to forgive so that you can really be really free. Forgive? Yes, forgive.

You see, what I realized is that I could have gotten free a lot sooner if I had known that “the axe is laid unto the root of the trees” [see Matthew 3:10]. But I do now and so can you!! Also, ask Him to guide you to at least one other trusted human being who can help you as an accountability partner. He will and you too can get and stay free!

Also, there are some really helpful books. One that rocked my world is The Broken Image [ISBN: 0-8010-5334-X], by Leanne Payne. On pages 77 - 81 she shares about a man named Randy, an artist, who struggled with habitual masturbation and how it inhibited not only his personal life, but also his artistic endeavors.

This really made sense to me because soon after that sunny Saturday when I got fully and finally free [although it was the many coming clean times before that wonderful day that eventually led to my final freedom], I started writing poetry and joyfully dancing before God. And it was really cool ‘cause an artist friend of mine told me that she saw a real increase in my level of creativity. Another book that some friends highly recommended, but which I haven’t read is, Single, Saved and Having Sex by Ty Adams, [ISBN: 0-9740132-0-X].

Another place where you can find help is L.I.F.E. Inc., Box 353, New York, NY 10185, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 212-768-2366.

The Shame, Fear & Control, a CD series can be purchased here .

I know it’s not easy to fess up, but it is so freeing and so necessary if you want to really enjoy your life and not be in bondage to this or other addictive habits. May I pray for you?

Lord Jesus, you know everything about this person and you love him/her deeply. You know that he/she really wants freedom from this addiction or he/she wouldn’t be reading this right now. You set me free and You “do not show favoritism” [read Acts 10:34] so I ask you to give them this marvelous gift of freedom too. Help them recognize that You’re a good God, a loving Daddy and a Friend who wants to help them to be all they can be. Daddy, you gave me the courage and ability to obey I Corinthians 6:18, which reads flee from sexual immorality.

All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. So please give them the peace of God, which passes all understanding too [read Philippians 4:7]. Would you also guide them to people and places where they can find one or more trusted accountability partner(s) so they too can get and stay free and then help others do the same? Thank You, Lord! I love and trust You to do what you promised in Your word: … and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.” [read John 6:37].

In the might and marvelous name of Jesus Christ,

Amen! [which means, So be it!]

Victim and Predator Spirit Prayer That You Can Pray

I give you permission God, to remove any and all traces of victim and predator spirit and I declare to you God that I need your strength and guidance to change.

I repent of any actions on my part of submitting wrongfully to any predator spirit in any person.

I repent of giving them authority over me. Lord Jesus, please forgive me.

I fire every authority figure and person, who has preyed on me.

Every teacher, mentor, boss, pastor, peer, babysitter and family member.

I forgive everyone who has used me as a victim.

I declare today that I am no longer a victim, or a predators’ puppet.

I sever myself, body, soul, and spirit, from every ungodly attachment that has been made between myself and any predator.

I take back from any predator, all wrong power and authority that I gave them over myself, that would determine a wrong identity in me, or any ungodly response. I give that authority back to the Lord Jesus, who really determines my identity and destiny.

Where I have been a predator, I repent of any action and loose any control I have had over anyone in regard to that area. Please forgive me Jesus.

I place You Jesus back on the throne of my heart.

I declare victory over failure. I declare that I shall have dominion over my life, my circumstances and my responsibilities as appointed to me by the Lord Jesus, amen.

Thank you for taking your time to read this freedom from masturbation article on Healed People, Heal People. If you have questions regarding this article on masturbation, place a comment here. If you are not a member of this online community, you can join for free here. You'll receive regular updates of encouragement wrapped in biblical truths.

I know the title of this article is "You got these people in your life?" Bare with me please, and keep reading. Some ground work needs to be established first in this article, before we get to are these people in your life?

WHAT'S GOING ON AT YOUR PERSONAL ALTAR?

In the history of the tabernacle, the same altar was used for 270 years.

II Kings 16: 10 - 18; Isaiah 7: 3 -9

Do you have a personal altar in your life?

If you're sliding or drifting from God, it starts with you drifting away from your personal altar.

If you don't protect the altar in your life, you'll begin to replace your personal altar with carnal things.

Is your prayer life's standard set according to the world i.e. like a hybrid, watered-downed religious activity?
Or, is your prayer life's standard according God and of heart-wrenching transparency and honesty before the Holy Spirit?

Once you loose the personal altar, you loose your direction.
Once you loose conviction in your life, you begin to pick up the very things the Holy Spirit has delivered you from.
Once you loose your personal altar, your begin to slowly lower your standards.
Once you loose your personal altar, you choose to shut the door on the Holy Spirit convicting you.

The altar is not a place where you simply inquire when you are in trouble.

The altar in its ultimate purpose, is a place where you die to your flesh and you die to yourself, where you die to your own will and your own desire.

When you little-by-little remove your altar, your prayer life [which should include praying in your heavenly prayer language] and killing the flesh is no longer a priority.

You and I need the altar, the old fashioned altar of God, because as long as you and I breathe, the following will be continuous:

a) your flesh continues to try to override your spirit.
b) another part of yourself will always need to die.
c) you and I will always need to pray constantly, specifically when we don't feel like it.

Every Christian believer needs the following three types of people in your life.

YOU got THESE PEOPLE IN YOUR LIFE?

Who are the Paul's in your life? These Paul-type people are above your spiritual level, they can check you and hold you accountable? The Paul-type people in your life are a very select, few people that you'll rearrange your schedule for when they call you up because they have heard from the Holy Spirit specifically for you.

- the relationship with these Paul-type people should NOT be codependent
- the relationship with these select Paul-type people should NOT have a trace of manipulation
- your relationship with these few Paul-type people should NOT have any trace of fear in it

Who are the Timothy's in your life? These are people that you pour into their life spiritually? Your spiritual maturity is more developed than theirs. This select group of people seeks you out, they respect you, your character draws them.

- the relationship with these Timothy-type people should have boundaries established up front
- the relationship with these Timothy-type people should NOT have a trace of control from you in their lives
- the relationship with these few Timothy-type people are usually for a season
release and conclude the relationship amicably when the season ends with each of these people

Who are the Barnabas' in your life? These are your spiritual peers, you all are on the same level of maturity. These are people you sharpen and they sharpen you. You need to hang out with these like-minded people because you all are of like faith.

When you show signs of loosing the altar in your life, REMEMBER the Paul-type, Timothy-type and Barnabas-type people are in your life from God -- so do not resent these chosen people. When these people speak, correct, challenge, irritate and admonish you about the "its" in your life, don't shun them, please beloved reader.

- these Paul/Timothy/Barnabas people can be any age in your life
- these Paul/Timothy/Barnabas people should NOT represent any form of temptation in your interaction
- the character of these Paul/Timothy/Barnabas people should show evidence that they thirst and seek God regularly
- these Paul/Timothy/Barnabas people should themselves be surrounded with people who hold them accountable

GET YOUR PERSONAL ALTAR BACK IN YOUR LIFE.
GET YOUR FAMILY BACK AT THE ALTAR.
GET YOUR MARRIAGE BACK AT THE ALTAR.
GET THE YOUNG PEOPLE IN YOUR LIFE BACK AT THE ALTAR.

Beloved reader, I derived the contents of this article by listening to a teaching by Jentezen Franklin titled "All Directions Come From The Altar." If you have any interest in having and transferring generational blessings to those in your life, I encourage you to listen to this teaching in its entirety. You can view this video teaching on this Healed People, Heal People Web site.

If you are not a member of this Healed People, Heal People online community, we invite you to join for free.
There are weekly updates of encouragement wrapped in biblical truths. Thank you for taking your time to read this article.

Signed,

The Cross, A Place of Exchange

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Psalm 118:8

It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in man. Help me sweet Jesus to write this article. Okay, beloved readers, a part of this Healed People, Heal People community. Why am I stammering at the keys on my keyboard today? The Holy Spirit taught me a lesson about 10 years ago that I will never forget. It’s about s-o-m-e people, good people, Christian people, loving people, those who love you, those who surround you on a regular basis, or those who may even be in your corner.

Psalm 118:8 declares it's better to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in man.

Okay, here goes.

We all have churches that are headed by pastors and leadership teams.

We all have family members, some of which we love, some we don’t care for too much – and some we just can’t stand [sorry, but it’s a reality for some].

We all have confidantes.

We all have those fun-to-hang-out with partners.

We all have those let-your-hair-down with friends.

We all have those kicking-it with buddies.

And we even have those select Christian people we like being around who will not check us when we are clearly stepping outside of the boundaries and principles of the Lord.

We even have accountability people -- we still have a choice in how much we disclose to them.

We all had or have secrets, some are not-so-big secrets, some are closet secrets, some are in-the-dark secrets, some are go-to-your-grave secrets, some secrets just cripple the hell out of you.

You decide what you do with your secrets. I can tell you this, the Lord never intended for us to carry the internal weight of the secrets. Many of our illnesses come from keeping secrets. Some of our constant mind racing comes from not being able to still the secrets.

Much of depression spurs from buckling secrets that people try to keep the lid shut down on. Many of your spiraling urges come from trying to holster your secrets. Many things we do to escape, including sleep, is to not deal with the harshness of our reality -- the secrets, the impending, unnecessary, illegitimate weights.

We all have those ride-and-die friends – no matter what, these friends will be there for us. Make no mistake about it, this is an extremely short of list people – it may even be one person – it may only be the Lord Himself.

But, beloved readers, you know what our Lord taught me 10 years ago that I’ve n-e-v-e-r forgotten?

Don't ever put anyone's word, advice, counsel, approval, consent, guidance or direction above what I say, says the Lord.

This was a very hard lesson for me to learn and live by.

Why?

Because some of those Christians who loved me, then, and still love me, now, gave me advice, counsel, guidance – that didn’t line up with the Word of God.

Did they love the Lord and do they love the Lord? Yes, these Christians did and do love the Lord.

Did I own a Bible? Yes, I did own a Bible, then, and; yes, I do own several Bibles now.

Did I know the Word? Yes, I knew the Word and; yes, I know even more Word now.

Did a little flicker go off inside of me when these loving Christians told me what I wanted to hear? Yes, the Holy Spirit pushed that flicker button inside of me. But, I knew what some of the loving Christians said to me over the years did not line up with the Word. [I'm not being sarcastic when I use the words loving Christians; I'm sincere.]

They padded their advice, lined their counsel and justified it with scripture – I think the Bible calls this itching ears, on my part. And let's mention this, there are a lot of Christians, even Christians in leadership positions, who are so wounded they believe life's experiences more than they believe the Word of God. And accordingly, they give advice, counsel, approval, direction based on experience. It's your responsibility to know the Word for your life. It's your responsibility to know when scriptures are being misaligned.

Now, what each of us reading this article knows, is that we tell people, even Christians exactly what we want them to know. An ole' pastor once told me, it’s just human nature to do this – tell folk o-n-l-y what you want them to know.

Beloved reader, do you disclose every single, slither of information to the people you’re seeking input from? I’ll leave that for you to answer.

I always flinch, in particular, when Christians say, “Follow your heart.”

Excuse me, beloved readers, I am not trying to be disrespectful, but that statement above is just plain dumb.

“Follow your heart.”

Do you know when I graduated from undergrad, I did a Bible study for two years just dealing with the different conditions of the human Christian heart.

You know what’s an even better question, beloved reader, Do you know what’s in your heart?

If so, how do you know what's in your heart? What have you done about the contents of your heart?

How often do you inspect your heart?

How often do you present your heart to the Holy Spirit?

Do you know what to do once the Holy Spirit has revealed the contents of your heart?

Well – I offer several versions of the scripture below.

Jeremiah 17:9 [NIV]
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

Jeremiah 17:9 [NASB]
The heart is more deceitful than all else, And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?

Jeremiah 17:9 [KJB]
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Jeremiah 17:9 [AKJV]
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Jeremiah 17:9 [ASV]
The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?

Jeremiah 17:9 [Bible in Basic English]
The heart is a twisted thing, not to be searched out by man: who is able to have knowledge of it?

So, beloved reader, help me understand again why so many people, especially Christians, throw out the statement so casually, “Follow your heart,” or “I just follow my heart.”

I’m choosing to believe based on the Word of God and based on my experience in integrated healing and deliverance and based on the experience of veterans in the ministry of integrated healing and deliverance – that people, Christians, are simply making this statement, “follow your heart,” out of ignorance.

I used to wrestle with the following questions when I really respected and esteemed some Christians who gave me counsel. Now keep in mind these were internal thoughts I had in my mind about these Christians. I am still in relationship with the majority of these Christians.

Thoughts I had after receiving advice, counsel, direction from some respected Christians

- but, look at their position in the community, they are so visible
- but, look at how much they study the Word of God
- but, look at their leadership position in the church
- but, look at how much influence they have
- wow, I really need to stay in their good graces, they can help me
- but, they seem to be pretty close to the Lord, do what they say
- I know they wouldn’t tell me wrong, I’ll do what they say
- but, look at their walk with the Lord [what’s visible to me]

Beloved reader, what I have painfully learned from our Lord is this scripture, It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in man. Psalm 118:8

Why do I use the phrase painfully learned? Because I had to go around the darn mountain over and over – I sound like the Israelites, right? The first time I realized the advice from the respected, respective Christians landed me in hot water, why didn’t I confess to the Holy Spirit, “I’m sorry for not listening to Your whisper in my ear.”

Each time, beloved reader, I remember the Holy Spirit placing that little flicker inside of me saying, ”That’s not the way to go;” “Don’t ignore Me.” But I yielded again and again, beloved reader, because I respected Christian people more than I esteemed the Word of God. These respective, respected Christians said what I wanted to hear and what they said aligned with my desires, my will -- a recipe for impending disaster.

Now, in Psalm 118:8 the end of the scripture says, … than to put confidence in man.

Well, who is man?
Man is any human being breathing who is in your life, male or female.
Man is any human being, Christian or non-Christian.
Man is any human being in any income level.
Man is any human being on any status level.
Man is any human being in every rank of the Christian church.
Man is any human being in your family.
Man is any human being who is your friend.

The beginning of Psalm 118:8 says It is better to trust in the Lord …

Yall, I’m literally b-e-g-g-i-n-g you, trust the Lord.
If you don’t know how to trust Him, just tell Him, He already knows.
If you’re scared to trust Him in an area of your life, just tell Him, He already knows.
Wherever you’re deficient in trust, ask Him to build that in you for you since you’re not able to do so.
If you’ve not dealt with the issues preventing you from trusting the Lord, would you consider asking the Holy Spirit to reveal these things to you.
Would you consider receiving ministry for integrated approach to healing and deliverance for these issues?
Why?
So, you can experience freedom in this or these areas of your life.

Don’t have itching ears like I did; ask the Holy Spirit to remove your itching ears.
The Holy Spirit knows that we all have desires and dreams and wills.
He truly has better plans for us than we’re able to muster up for ourselves.
His plans for you don’t even involve manipulation and maneuvering and dodging.

Yall, I guess by now, you know I’m a born and breed [USA] southerner – that’s fine.
Let's ask the Holy Spirit to reveal our spiritual blind spots.
Let's ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the areas of our lives we’re in denial about.
Let's ask the Holy Spirit to reveal areas in our lives where there may be self hatred.
Then when He reveals, please, please, take action to do something about it.
If you don’t know what to do, I’m willing to find a resource to help you, if I can’t.

Yall, I understand that you may not disclose everything to people, but please, don’t lie to yourself. You desire the abundant life the Lord speaks of so often in scripture, right? Well, the abundant life is short circuited when we choose to do the following things:

- pretend you don’t know the Holy Spirit is nudging you
- cut corners to try to get what you want
- only disclose so much information and purposely conceal other pertinent information to those you seek counsel from
- you choose to turn a deaf ear to the Holy Spirit
- you choose to forget that some blessings and some promises of the Lord are conditional; Have you met the
condition(s) without compromising?
- wrongly use scripture, people, situations, [conditional] prophecy to justify something you want
Please remember that satan and his demons have strategy too for your life.
And his strategy is presented very nicely, not in a questionable fashion.

Whatever word, advice, counsel, approval, consent, guidance or direction you receive, even from Christians, put it before the Lord, please, before moving forward. And wait for His confirmation or His denial and His instructions.

Now, let me share this with you. I know the respective Christians throughout the years didn’t provide advice to hurt me on purpose. Although we’re Christians, we are humans. We have good days. We have days when we’re not as sharp, when we’re not on point. Well-meaning, God-loving Christians have been and can be used strategically by demonic in your life -- even without them knowing it and you knowing it.

We all recall when Jesus spoke to Peter in Matthew 16:23. Jesus was very aware that the demonic was working through Peter. Yes Peter, a man who literally was chosen and walked with Jesus. I'll keep this brief by simply asking these questions. Are your spiritual tools keen enough to discern when God-fearing Christians are off kilter who give you advice?

Do you even know what your spiritual tools are? What do you do to improve your spiritual tools? How often do you use your spiritual tools? Spiritual tools are similar to the physical muscles in your body. They becomes stronger the more you exercise them and use them on a regular basis. Spiritual tools become stronger they more they are stretched out of their comfort zone.

People ask me and you for advice in areas that we may be weak in. When you realize that a person is asking you for advice in an area you're weak in, do you disclose that this is one of your weak areas, up front? Do you or have you chosen to do what's in the best interest of the person by stopping the conversation and sharing in integrity that this isn't an area you're strong enough and disciplined enough to provide counsel, advice, consent, approval, direction or guidance.

You and I ask people for advice in areas that they are weak in, but we don’t know that because they don’t disclose it [the majority of the time]. And even when we see -- through people’s repeated actions that they’re weak in certain areas, we sometimes still choose to seek their advice, their counsel.

This is not wise, beloved reader. So this begs the question, why do we ask them? Because they’ll tell us what we want to hear. This is a clear sign of spiritual immaturity and/or lack of exercising godly wisdom in this particular area of your life.

Psalm 118:8 reads, It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in man. Please do not esteem man, woman or Christians words higher than the Word of God for your life, please.

Thank you for taking your time to read this article, beloved reader.

If you’re not a member of this Healed People, Heal People, community we invite you to join for free here. You'll receive regular updates of encouragement wrapped in biblical truths. If there are others who’d benefit from this article, please send them the link to this article.

About 10 years I learned a spiritual principle that I've never forgotten.

First let me give credit where credit is due.

I learned this biblical principle by listening to a series by Dr. Tony Evans of The Urban Alternative in Dallas, TX.

Dr. Evans taught, whatever it is that you need from someone, from the Lord, that is what you should give first.

I decided to apply this to my life and it works.

You are familiar with the universal principle of sowing and reaping, right?

You know that sowing and reaping is a universal principle, right?

Meaning that it, the biblical principle of sowing & reaping, is operating in your life, Christian or not, believer or not, a lot saved or not, a little saved or not.

I'll allow you to do the homework to find the scripture where this is established in the Word of God, The Bible.

When I was unemployed in 2002, I had to pay my mortgage.

If my memory is correct, at that time my mortgage was $1,007.49. Yep, I remember numbers very well.

I had about $500 of the mortgage for the upcoming month and I didn't know where the other half was coming from.

A had a friend who was also unemployed, like many Americans during that time.

Her car insurance was due and she didn't have the money either.

Well, guess how much her car insurance was, $500.

As I was backing in the garage one day, I clearly heard the Holy Spirit say, "Pay her car insurance."

She was fretting about how she was going to have to park her car and would not have a means to go look for a job.

She was used to her family coming to her financial rescue because not only did they work, they also owned companies.

Her family would not deliver the money as she was accustomed to -- this didn't sit too well with her.

Meanwhile, I'm having a major verbal spat with the Holy Spirit.

The conversation went something like this.

ME: Lord, you know I don't have all of my mortgage. I need that $500.

THE LORD: You trust me, right? After all, you've been telling people that I'm going to deliver you. Don't you believe it.

ME: Lord, I've got to figure out where the other half of my mortgage is coming from in less than two weeks. I ain't seeing how this is gonna happen.

THE LORD: Are you going to take action and demonstrate what you've been saying to people about me. Show your faith.

Well, this little verbal tennis match went on for a while between me and the Lord.

I ended up finding my friend's insurance agent and paying her car insurance.

I asked him not to tell her who made the payment, ever.

He said to me, aren't you unemployed too?

I said, yes, and walked away.

To this day, she doesn't know I paid her insurance.

She called me a few days later saying, you'll never guess how the Lord provided for me. I was mad at my family for not giving me the money. I should not have tried to determine how the Lord was going to provide.

I listened to her rejoice, smiled and rejoiced with her. She's still working and doing well to this day.

I simply wanted to share this with you to let you know I tried, in leariness, applying this biblical principle to my life --> Give, What It Is that You Need, First, To Someone Else.

Bless You in the name of Jesus and thank you for your contributions to this online Healed People, Heal People community. If you are not a member of this online community, we invite you to join for free. There are regular updates of encouragement.

Signed,

The Cross, A Place of Exchange

Success with Bladderwrack!

My son suffered with blotchy skin and a cold sore that just wouldn't go away. He also had candida that I could not get under control no matter what I tried.

I wrote to Solomon and he recommended the Pure Herb Bladderwrack for the both of us to get rid of excess aluminum we had.

After two weeks my son's skin became much clearer and the cold sore he had for six months went away!

Finally, I am able to keep candida under control. The high levels of aluminum that we had caused many of our problems and the Pure Herb Bladderwrack has halped us to eliminate the dangerous metal from our body.

Thank you so much! I swear by your Pure Herbs. They are the highest quality and work so well!

-- S.D., Dyer, IN

When you smoke, you inhale up to 4,000 toxic chemicals. After you meditate on the list below, you will hopefully consider healing and deliverance to quit smoking permanently.

Acetone - paint stripper

Ammonia - floor cleaner

Arsenic - white ant poison

Butane - lighter fluid

Cadmium - used in car batteries

Carbon monoxide - car exhaust emission

DDT - insecticide

Methanol - rocket fuel

Napthalene - mothballs

I began smoking cigarettes as a teenager when I was a 7th grader.

My parents smoked and several of my friends.

It looked like such an enjoyable thing to do as well as looking cool and grown-up.

Almost needless to say, a habit of 5-7 a day soon became a ritual.

As the years progressed, I got pregnant with my second child and was encouraged by my doctor to quit and I did.

Since my husband was a smoker, it begin to appeal to me again.

Admittedly, trying not to smoke once you have been a smoker and you live with a smoker is challenging at best through human efforts.

So, I started smoking again.

Another doctor encouraged me to quit since I developed high blood pressure/hypertension.

Even though I only smoked 1 cigarette a day after supper in the restroom so my children wouldn’t see me, it was still a habit and just as difficult to quit.

This time, I prayed for the Lord to take the desire away.

As of today, I haven’t had another cigarette since.

That has been at least 15+ years ago.

For whomever may be wrestling with the smoking habit, I encourage you, my sister, brother, or future Christian, to believe the Lord will deliver you, too, if you sincerely desire to be delivered.

Signed,

Smoke-free Sister

Prayer for freedom from smoking including renouncing

A biblical complete set of instructions for the smoker who is dying to give up smoking!

Why is it so difficult to stop?

Jesus said that the devil is a murderer from the beginning and cigarettes are one of his preferred methods of killing humans since it is such a slow, seductive, and finally painful process.

As we study the origins of smoking tobacco products it becomes clear that there are many spiritual roots, which hold a person in bondage to this habit. The benefit of the following teaching has been proven over several years and as readers exercise their freewill to pray and cut off the spiritual roots associated with smoking, freedom will result. Let's start with a story.

True story
When I was only about six, my older brother found a brand new packet of cigarettes beside the road and we felt very grown up as we smoked almost the whole packet between us.

By the time dad arrived home from work we both were very sick and probably looked green. When he smelt the tobacco and enquired if we had been smoking we lied at first but were questioned till the truth came out!

I am so glad, now, to have been put off smoking by that experience. Although I did experiment with cigars and a pipe in my 30s, I couldn't forget how sick I had felt as a child. I have since seen a lot of sick and spiritually bound friends who have ignored the warnings on tobacco and cigarette packets.

Out of concern for two friends who were heavy smokers, I studied the historical spiritual roots of smoking tobacco and was amazed.

Soon after finishing my research, I prayed with a taxi driver who wanted to quit smoking explained the history of tobacco etc. and he was set free of his habit of years through deliverance ministry, dealing with the various roots.

Many other friends have seen the victory, but some only partially since I have found that you must deal thoroughly with the roots of this dying habit.

In many countries the law requires that warnings be printed on cigarette and tobacco packets e.g. Smoking causes lung cancer. Smoking causes heart disease. Smoking causes fatal diseases, etc.

True story
One morning as I sat having morning tea with a friend, I asked him how he could still use cigarettes in spite of the warning on each packet that it causes fatal diseases. My friend got very upset and almost shouted, "It does not say causes!"

I asked him to read what his packet said and he read aloud with amazement, "Smoking causes lung cancer." He paused, looking quite stunned. "I've never seen that word causes before!" he said quietly. The demons of addiction had blinded him to the truth.

So first, it's helpful to understand the spiritual background to smoking; and therefore, why it is so difficult to stop.

1. Biblical roots

This sin is described in Deuteronomy: "There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer [one who consults the dead] or all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord; and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee."
Deuteronomy 18:10-12

Incense = Idolatry. Also, the burning of incense like tobacco is described as a form of idolatry in the Bible and is condemned as an abomination to God.

"He that killeth an ox [is as if] he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, [as if] he cut off a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation, [as if he offered] swine's blood; he that burneth incense, [as if] he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations. I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose [that] in which I delighted not." Isaiah 66:3 - 4

Because ye have burned incense, and because ye have sinned against the Lord, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, nor walked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies; therefore this evil is happened unto you, as at this day.
Jeremiah 44:23

"A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick; Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine's flesh, and broth of abominable [things is in] their vessels; Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou.

These [are] a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day. Behold, [it is] written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom, Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the Lord, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom." [Lungs?]
Isaiah 65:3 -7

The incense that we should burn is prayer; Let my prayer be set forth before thee [as] incense; [and] the lifting up of my hands [as] the evening sacrifice.
Psalm 141:2

Next, the great Spanish explorer, Christopher Columbus, had to smoke the Indians peace pipe of tobacco before he would be accepted by the North American Indian tribes. So now we can see the typical.

2. Emotional roots | Most smokers will acknowledge that they have taken up the habit through fear of rejection by their peer group who were experimenting with smoking and thought it was cool. When they are rejected, people seek a comforter and tobacco smoking, like over-eating, masturbation, drug taking, even expressing violence can be the false comforter they turn to.

Christopher Columbus took the tobacco curse back with him to Europe in the 16th century, where one of its early uses was as a medicine, and from where its use spread throughout the world.

3. Chemical roots | The tobacco plant [nicotiana tabacum] is a member of the group of plants described as the solanaceae group. Solanaceae means comforter and nicotine is renowned for the sense of false comfort that it gives to the addict, yet nicotine is used as an agricultural insecticide. This group of plants includes the potato and the deadly nightshade or belladonna plant.

4. Bodily roots/effects | Nicotine causes disorders of the respiratory system, dizziness, increased blood pressure, and disturbances of hearing and vision.

It seems that the first thing that the spirits behind smoking do, is to mask the true taste of the tobacco. The taste, which is disgusting to a non-smoker, becomes attractive to a smoker.

A simple prayer asking the Holy Spirit to reveal the true taste of the tobacco is sometimes enough to cause a smoker to seek to be free of the habit. However, without prayer, and once hooked, smokers usually carry on smoking even though the smell rejects non-smokers.

True story
One of my nephews was a smoker, a drinker and loved rock music. However, we loved him enough to pray for him as a family one day; binding satan, all spirits of addiction to nicotine through smoking, alcohol and rock music, in intercessory prayer. He was not present!

We prayed that God would let him see these things for what they are, to taste the true taste and to help him to find the real Comforter, God's Holy Spirit. Only two weeks later he became a Christian and his testimony was that he had tried to drink a Bacardi and Coke but it tasted like poison.

He reached for a cigarette but couldn't smoke it as it tasted disgusting, and that when he looked at his rock music posters in his bedroom, he saw how evil they were for the first time. So, he got down on his knees and prayed and asked Jesus to come into his life and; "Boy, did He come!" He testified to us.

"While smoking tobacco directly destroys the lungs, nicotine slowly damages the arteries and the heart. In its pure form nicotine is one of the most powerful poisons known. A direct link between lung cancer and tobacco was established in 1950." [Penguin Hutchinson Reference Library.]

Having achieved his end to slowly kill the unaware smoker, satan then offers those who want to try to give up, his alternative remedies. These often only lead to greater bondage eventually. Products like nicotine patches [the poison without the pong!], a program named after an Egyptian false god, i.e. the Isis program, and Hypnosis.

Hence, many people get out of the frying pan and into the fire. The real cure = cut out the roots of this multiple bondage til the tree falls over.

Perhaps you need to repent of:

1) the fear of rejection by [a peer group];
2) lying [to anyone like parents];
3) rebellion against [anyone like parents];
4) self-will;
5) lack of self-control; and,
6) seeking false comforters.

Renounce:

1) All historic roots;
2) Communication with familiar spirits (even in ignorance);
3) challenging or worshipping death;
4) burning incense, therefore Idolatry; and,
5) damaging the temple of the Holy Spirit. Your body is where the Holy Spirit dwells.

Renounce the ungodly lie
"Man, this is living."
Then believe, speak and confess the truth
Smoking is death in disguise

Renounce the ungodly lie
"I'll be accepted."
Then believe, speak and confess the truth
"Cigarettes make you stink."

Renounce the ungodly lie
"Smoking just comforts me."
Then believe, speak and confess the truth
"Smoking is an addiction."

Renounce the ungodly lie
"Cigarettes tastes great."
Then believe, speak and confess the truth
"Cigarettes taste like poison."

An excellent way to help you quit the habit is to put a small New Testament Bible in the pocket where you would normally keep your smokes. Then you have three choices when the habit to reach for a smoke nudges you.

1st choice: Read God's Word, which is health and medicine to all your flesh. Proverbs 4:20-22

2nd choice: Read God's Word, and smoke, or

3rd choice: Smoke and ignore God's medicine. Die young!

However, don't let the devil make you feel condemned if you can't immediately quit a long-standing addictive habit. Ask Jesus to help you one day at a time. Perhaps hum the tune when you feel like a smoke! "One day at a time, sweet Jesus, that's all I'm asking of you." Pray!

The following steps will help you to freedom. These are based on the principle of drawing nigh to God, resisting the devil and then, God’s Word promises that, he shall flee from you!

1. So call on the Lord and ask Jesus to help you one day at a time. Remember that His Holy Spirit is The Helper.

2. Throw away all items associated with smoking, even ashtrays, and all eastern incense and idols.

3. Tell every spirit associated with your addiction to leave you and never to return, in Jesus' name!

A true testimony

"After 17 years of smoking, I have stopped!" I didn't just give up - I just got on a winning team. Jesus did the work for me. This testimony is not a condemnation of smokers - I pray it will help someone, somewhere. During the 17 years that I was chained to nicotine I tried all sorts of methods to give up - hypnosis, Isis, patches, cold turkey, cutting down, etc. -- and contrary to advertising myths, you don't get your money back.

I was amazed at how I could do without practically everything else except my beloved cigarettes [my best friend]. I would even choose buying a packet of cigarettes over something my baby needed. And when I was really desperate, you guessed it, I rolled those butts up! After failing so many times and everyone sick of hearing I'm giving up smoking' song - I sought deliverance prayer.

First I had to pray about praying - to learn what might be behind my bondage. This led me to remembering that I had enticed others into smoking when I was a kid, so I needed to apologize to God for this and ask His forgiveness as well as for deliverance from the spiritual bondage.

I believe, because I had been baptized in the Holy Spirit, prayer was able to release me from the cravings. Although this was just the beginning, it marked the start of the battle. The sword had been drawn - my job was to determine who, or which side, I was giving the sword to. The choice was mine.

Here's what I mean. Every time a trigger set my mind off about smoking I started to think praise and worship thoughts towards Jesus - thanking Him for setting me free and breaking the chains of bondage. I would just keep doing this until the thoughts of smoking were no longer there. Initially I was doing this a dozen times a day, maybe two or three times in a row. It was a battle, but one I was allowing Jesus to fight for me.

Three times I was lazy and allowed my mind to entertain the smoking triggers - three times after receiving prayer I had a cigarette. Although it's important to point out that I didn't crave nicotine, but I had entered the trap. I had allowed the thoughts to penetrate and lead to no good.

Over a year later, I still get the occasional trigger and each time I thank Jesus for continuing to break those chains. I can't believe I haven't smoked for so long and neither can members of my family. They honestly thought that I was so spiritually attached to it that I would be smoking until the day I died.

In fact the very experience has spoken volumes to my grandmother who has strengthened her own faith through this and also my sister who has given her heart to the Lord because she has seen through this just how real He is. How real Jesus is! This testimony is written by Awhina Leca, but belongs to God. Please feel free to copy it and share it.

Another young woman named Juliana writes after being delivered of her smoking habit." It was a miracle! I could not resist smoking before, and now, there I was, throwing the lighter away over the hill." "Coises! These Christians are getting free! Soon there'll be no houses' left for us demons!"

Other scriptures relevant to smoking

John 8:44
... you belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. [NIV]

John 8:44
For you are the children of your father the devil and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning and a hater of truth -- there is not an iota of truth in him. When he lies, it is perfectly normal; for he is the father of liars. [TLB]

John 8:45
And so when I tell the truth, you just naturally don't believe it! [TLB]

Deuteronomy 18:10-13
Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.

Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God. [NIV]

Deuteronomy 18:10-13
For example, any Israeli who presents his child to be burned to death as a sacrifice to heathen gods must be killed. No Israeli may practice black magic, or call on the evil spirits for aid, or be a fortune teller, or be a serpent charmer, medium, or wizard, or call forth the spirits of the dead.

Anyone doing these things is an object of horror and disgust to the Lord, and it is because the nations do these things that the Lord your God will displace them. You must walk blamelessly before the Lord your God. [TLB]

Isaiah 66:3-4
But whoever sacrifices a bull is like one who kills a man, and whoever offers a lamb, like one who breaks a dog's neck; whoever makes a grain offering is like one who presents pig's blood, and whoever burns memorial incense, like one who worships an idol.

They have chosen their own ways, and their souls delight in their abominations; so I also will choose harsh treatment for them and will bring upon them what they dread. For when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, no one listened. They did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me." [NIV]

Isaiah 66:3-4
"But those who choose their own ways, delighting in their sins, are cursed. God will not accept their offerings. When such men sacrifice an ox on the altar of God, it is no more acceptable to him than human sacrifice. If they sacrifice a lamb or bring an offering of grain, it is as loathsome to God as putting a dog or the blood of a swine on his altar!

When they burn incense to him, he counts it the same as though they blessed an idol. I will send great troubles upon them -- all the things they feared, for when I called them, they refused to answer, and when I spoke to them, they would not hear. Instead, they did wrong before my eyes and chose what they knew I despised." [TLB]

Isaiah 65:3-7
A people who continually provoke me to my very face, offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on altars of brick; who sit among the graves and spend their nights keeping secret vigil; who eat the flesh of pigs, and whose pots hold broth of unclean meat; who say, 'Keep away; don't come near me, for I am too sacred for you!'

Such people are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that keeps burning all day. "See, it stands written before me: I will not keep silent but will pay back in full; I will pay it back into their laps; both your sins and the sins of your fathers," says the Lord. "Because they burned sacrifices on the mountains and defied me on the hills, I will measure into their laps the full payment for their former deeds." [NIV]

Isaiah 65:3-7
All day long they insult me to my face by worshiping idols in many gardens and burning incense on the rooftops of their homes. At night they go out among the graves and caves to worship evil spirits, and they eat pork and other forbidden foods. Yet they say to one another, 'Don't come too close, you'll defile me! For I am holier than you!'

They stifle me. Day in and day out they infuriate me. "See, here is my decree all written out before me: I will not stand silent; I will repay. Yes, I will repay them not only for their own sins but for those of their fathers too,' says the Lord, 'for they also burned incense on the mountains and insulted me upon the hills. I will pay them back in full. [TLB]

Jeremiah 44:23
The very reason all these terrible things have befallen you is because you have burned incense and sinned against the Lord and refused to obey him." [TLB]

Psalm 141:2
Regard my prayer as my evening sacrifice and as incense wafting up to you. [TLB]

Proverbs 4:20-22
Listen, son of mine, to what I say. Listen carefully. Keep these thoughts ever in mind; let them penetrate deep within your heart, for they will mean real life for you and radiant health. [TLB]

Miracle prayer

Lord Jesus, I come before you just as I am. I am sorry for my sins, I repent of my sins, please forgive me. In your name I forgive all others for what they have done against me. I renounce satan and his evil spirits and all their works. I give you my entire self, Lord Jesus, now and forever. I believe that God the Father raised you from death and that you are alive to save me right now.

I invite you into my life, Jesus, and I accept you as my Lord God and Saviour. Heal me, change me, strengthen me in body, soul and spirit. Come, Lord Jesus, cover me with your precious blood and fill me with your Holy Spirit. I love you, Lord Jesus. I praise you, Lord Jesus. I thank you, Lord Jesus. shall follow you every day of my life. Amen.

Thank you for taking your time to read this article on Healed People, Heal People. If you are not a member of this community, we invite you to join for free here. You'll receive regular updates of encouragement wrapped in biblical truths.

Audio Teaching | Why We Fight With Those We Love

You're all too familiar with how we can sometimes be kinder to people we don't know -- at work, at church and in the community -- than we sometimes are to our own family, children, siblings and spouse.

Why? Because they know more about us than anyone. And, yeah, sometimes they tend to not forget even when we've confessed and the Lord has forgiven us. The consequence -- quarrels and fights that others are usually exposed to. Darn.

Please click the audio file above [where the blue text is] and download this pdf, Why Do We Fight With Those We Love, that includes study notes with scriptures to accompany the audio.

Thank you for taking your time to listen to this audio and work through the study notes. If you're not a member of Healed People, Heal People, we invite you to join for free here. You'll receive regular updates of encouragement wrapped in biblical truths.

In May on Twitter, I commented on i-n-t-e-g-r-a-t-e-d healing & deliverance. Here's what it is. Typically, when churches have deliverance service, it's either impromptu [during alter call] or it's a planned deliverance service. Both are fine because it's at the direction of the Holy Spirit.

What's been learned by those who are veterans in healing and deliverance is many times parishioners don't stay healed and delivered for a long time or permanently. You know as well as I that those services are exhausting and a lot of work.

Neither the pastor nor the parishioner wishes to continue redo-ing and redo-ing healing and deliverance on the same person for the same issue.

It's even a bit disheartening to see when the person returns back to whatever they were healed & delivered from -- even if they elect not to return for another healing and deliverance service.

Naturally, the healing and deliverance veterans within the body of Christ globally asked, "Well why isn't the healing and deliverance lasting?"

Many books, articles and even ministries have been started around the world in response to this one question.

Allow me to transition to me for a moment, please.

There's nothing like my own story.

My life bottomed out a few years back.

That's the simplest way to put it.

I went to talk to my [former] pastor, a great man of God and gifted leader to this day.

He understood, prayed with me and I left.

I told him I knew something was wrong in the spiritual realm.

One thing I like about him, still, is he'll admit when he doesn't know something.

Well remember -- my life was a wreck and I needed answers, which no one could offer.

I have a [former] church member in OH who said, "Child, when you need help, you gon' find somebody to help you, somewhere, you don't care how long it takes you, you will not stay broken."

And she's right.

If the Holy Spirit is our all-in-all, then it didn't make sense that I had to operate in such a broken state daily.

Long story short, I took about six weeks to fill out an application for integrated healing and deliverance ministry. I also completed prerequisites so I’d be prepared to go through the ministry.

Integrated means two healing and deliverance ministers, also known as my ministry team, spent one week exclusively with me. There were also intercessors and prophetic intercessors praying for me, which I didn’t know until the last day. I never met them. They were interceding for me weeks before I arrived and definitely the week I was there.

They prayed and studied over my application before I arrived in conjunction with the Holy Spirit.

There were prophetic intercessors and intercessors [that I never met] prayed specifically regarding me for insight from the Holy Spirit.

Their focus was, Holy Spirit help us, identify, show us the roots of where her issues began in her life that are still affecting her to this day.

1st - That being said, they went back four generations in my family, on both sides [this is why it took 6 weeks for me to fill out that application]. They examined, studied and co-labored with the Holy Spirit regarding my family lineage to identify active generational curses that were affecting my life; we broke all those generational curses.

It's so nice to use past tense now -- that were affecting my life. HA-LE-LU-JAH! The reality is, any person who is breathing who hasn't broken generational curses, is living actively with generational curses. It takes a good 40 minutes of simple teaching to show this reality to any Christian breathing.

Exodus 20: 1 - 17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21

2nd - They [my ministry team] identified all the ungodly things [better known as lies] I believed about myself, other people [family, friends, white people, enemies, church members] and even God [based on my earthly experience with dad]. Just about every person [even if it's subconscious] draws some conclusions about God based on their relationship with their earthly father no matter how good, great, bad, absent or devastating he was.

Women, in particular, [even if subconscious] draw conclusions about God based on relationship with men, brothers, husbands, dad, step dad, pastor, etc. [doesn't take long for me to find this by studying a person's life with the Holy Spirit]. Again, co-laboring with the Holy Spirit, we changed those many beliefs into godly beliefs.

That is, what the Lord say is true about me, my family, my friends, white people, my enemies, men, what God says about Himself and my church members. This is a lot of work; the sentences here don't do this justice, but I have to keep it moving here.

Isaiah 55:7 | Romans 12:2 | Psalm 139:17 | I Corinthians 2:16 | Proverbs 23::7 | Hebrews 11:16

3rd - Oh Lord, this is the part I don't like here. You and I both know what it's so darn hard for people to forgive. You, me, the Bible and integrated healing & deliverance ministry teams around the world, agree that forgiveness is the key to freedom. Then why so many people keep having a forgiveness problem. It's preached about every single day -- 24 hours a day, on radio, tv, internet, streaming sites, tons of Bibles, tracks, CDs, christian music.

Why? why? why? why?

Even if a person cannot articulate it, it's the pain/hurt associated with the person or situation that they can't get beyond -- that the wall blocker. This lady said to me about 10 weeks back, Christians just outta live right, they know better -- then she quoted me some scriptures. I responded to her [as I was walking my four daily miles in the mall] that nothing matters day-to-day to any person in any kind of pain except how to get through the day dealing with their pain.

Yep, folks are married and yes their families should be first, but dealing with the pain takes precedence. We both know there are tons of ways people deal with pain. This brings up to the next part of integrated healing and deliverance ministry. The ministry team co-labors with the Holy Spirit [in private] to deal with the roots of the person's pains.

Ugh - I hated this part! Much needed, but I really didn't want to do this. Thereafter, forgiveness flooded like the waters of the Niagara Falls! to this very day.

4th - The ministry team taught me in scripture my authority in dealing with the demonic activity in life. Now why I'd never learned this in church for three decades still fathoms me to this day, hell, almost makes me mad. Many churches and pastors generalize and talk about freaking freedom all the time and never gave me the tools to know how to engage daily with the warfare in my life. Can you believe this? Can you believe this?

Do you know how many seminars, conferences, conventions, counselors, years of Bible studies, institutes, books, tv programs, pamphlets, ministries ... I've gone through in three decades.

This is almost similar to the trillion-dollar pharmaceutical industry. Just give people drugs for a life time to treat the symptoms, but never the root cause -- all the while the meds are killing them daily and causing even more problems.

The church -- just tells people they need to be free, have deliverance services ever so often to deal with the surface issue temporarily [but never dismantle the spiritual roots so the symptoms will be forced to die]. Well, the ministry team taught me what demonic oppression was and we commanded the demons out.

Lastly, they showed me how to take the offense instead of always living my life in a posture of defense and reactionary mode.

The integrated approach to healing and deliverance taught me how to stop operating day-to-day in the natural with people and address the spiritual [demonic] behind people's action.

As you and I know every thing is spiritual. Let me underscore that again, e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g is spiritual. The more Christians operate day-to-day in the natural, the more they are frustrated, tired and defeated.

Yep, I know we tell people to pray, and that's very much needed. But as we know, demons do not respond to prayer, demons only respond to authority. Authority which most Christians have no idea how to use daily. And no pastor and no counseling ministry in a church has the time to deal with this level of activity in every member's life.

That changed my life!

One week being taught was fundamental biblical tools every Christian should have and use every day -- changed my life and a 180 turn was made. I went back there [two years] to the int'l school to learn integrated healing and deliverance and I graduated with a certification in integrated, biblical healing and deliverance.

I'm sharing this because I get tired of folk living in bondage.

So many leaders in the church just aren't aware, but with the use of technology and continuing to co-labor with the Holy Spirit -- the body of Christ, at-large, and by denomination will have knowledge of integrated healing and deliverance.

And you know what the benefits of integrated healing and deliverance are to a pastor.

a) Fewer visits from your parishioners for the same issue, which means more time for you and your family

b) The believer is empowered to deal with their own issues

c) Your church operates in more freedom because the members have lasting healing

d) People see the fruit of the healing and start asking the others, how'd you get like that, so multiplication begins

e) There's no way for the church not to end up having a healing and deliverance ministry team that serves the body [or even the community] which changes families and heals up the bride of Christ so she [the church] is without a spot or wrinkle

So many people are so deceived daily as you well know.
They think they are just having bad luck.
They think this is just the way it is.
They think folk just got personality problems.
They even think their common illnesses are just inherited through the family [rather than an extension of a generational curse that controlled by demons].

There are healing and deliverance teams literally all over the world.
Either people can come to us or we go to them any where in the United States or other countries.
We are equipped to come to churches to train leaders in a group setting [healing and deliverance seminars].

I decided to post this blog below because my life and my family's life has been adversely, negatively affected by being a part of the Masonic and Eastern Stars. Yes, I know the organizations are presented as community organizations, especially to Christians.

My life has done a 180 degree turn since I made the decision to renounce my family's historical and generational involvement in these organizations that are part of the occult. I made the decision to break the biblical, generational curses that are automatically active in your life once you join these organizations. Those in my family who have chosen not to do so still suffer to this very day.

They shrug their repeated life mishappenings as a bad day, bad luck, or whatever they choose to pawn it off on. The Holy Spirit can speak to you better than any person. I challenge you to ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you about your involvement or your family's involvements in any society or organization that has initiations or secrets. My dearly beloved believers in the body of Christ, the Bible is very clear about this subject.

While pastoring a church in Arkansas, I was asked to take a church that was on a spiritual and numeric decline.

I accepted the call, and in November 1990, 1 became pastor of the First Baptist Church of Columbia, Louisiana.

For the first few months, the chairman of the Pulpit Committee regularly visited my office telling me what I could or could not do.

He was especially opposed to door-to-door evangelism.

Soon I learned that a group of other men shared his views.

They criticized most of the former pastors and even explained in detail how they had "railroaded" a full-time youth pastor out of the church.

His removal was so slick, they said, that no one in the congregation knew what was happening.

Their message was clear, "Do what we want, or we will do the same to you."

They kept me so busy carrying out their plans, projects, and agendas that I had little time to
listen to God.

When I would move in the direction I felt God wanted, one of them would show up with all kinds of plans and projects. I was continually derailed from God's leading.

There was small numeric growth with these activities, but the church was spiritually dead.

Worship was oppressive, as if a dark cloud hovered over the services.

Throughout this time the chairman of the Pulpit Committee repeatedly gave me a funny handshake. I had no clue
what he was doing.

Finally, God began to speak to me that I needed to listen to His direction, not the direction of these men.

His Words were so clear, "Concentrate on worship, revival, evangelism, and making disciples."

When I first began to emphasize worship, I sensed resistance from the Minister of Music, who proudly wore his Masonic ring and tie tack.

Several months later, however, he went through a spiritual crisis and prayed to receive Christ.

Two weeks later he gave his testimony in church.

After his testimony, I stood to invite others to come forward and receive Christ.

I was shocked at what I saw.

Although there was rejoicing on a few faces, most were hostile - so hostile that it sent chills up and down my spine.

As I looked at their faces, I identified them as Masons and their Eastern Star wives.

"This is demonic," I thought. When I started two discipleship groups, there was tremendous resistance within the deacon body.

One deacon, who was also a Mason, tried to wreck every session.

When I emphasized a personal relationship with Jesus, he became combative and hostile.

He argued so much during Wednesday night Bible study that I had to switch to straight preaching.

Hungry for fellowship, I had been praying for months for a soul-winning partner.

God answered that prayer when the Music Minister expressed a desire to go out witnessing.

We went from house to house sharing Jesus, and quietly, without fanfare, his Masonic ring and
tie tack disappeared.

He told me that God had convicted him about being a Mason, and that he had formally renounced Freemasonry through a letter of resignation sent to the lodge.

Gradually, a group in the church began to catch a vision for having a personal walk with Jesus, learning discipleship, and evangelism.

The church services began to change.

I could feel God's presence in every service.

The Masons, however, were not rejoicing.

The one who had so frequently given me the Masonic handshake, called my home and threatened me that
if I didn't get the Minister of Music "calmed down," the deacons would "take care of him."

As one group in the church grew closer to Jesus, another group became increasingly resistant
toward what God was doing, and hostile toward me as pastor.

Seven couples began forming a wall of resistance.

Of the seven couples, two individuals were not Masons, nor members of the Eastern Star. One was a Seventh Day Adventist, and the other's father was a 32nd Degree Mason.

During this same period, a sister church was experiencing a touch of God, with the same resistance from Masons.

Not willing to participate in the battle, several couples left that church and came to ours.

They openly acknowledged that they had been upset because the Masons had squelched the moving of God in that church.

The Masonic group in our church immediately began a verbal attack against the newcomers.

One Mason summoned me to his house and warned me that the newcomers could cause trouble in our church because of their attacks on Masonry.

He revealed that he was a Mason and that there was not going to be a discussion of Freemasonry at First Baptist.

He warned that a previous pastor had tried to deal with the Masonic issue in the church and had created
problems as a result.

I located the former pastor and learned that he had maintained a bookstore which contained several books exposing Freemasonry.

One night someone broke into the store and stole all the books on Masonry.

"If Freemasonry is just a harmless men's fraternity, why get upset about a few books?

Why all the scrambling to hide books and refuse to even discuss Masonry?

If Masonry is of God, let's bring everything out in the open and see what wonderful things God has done in Masonry.

But if it is not of God, then there are many reasons to operate in darkness and secrecy."

These were my thoughts.

It was at this time we began experiencing demonic manifestations during the services.

Usually the demons would surface when I preached on our victory over Satan through the blood of Christ.

Any aspect of victory in the Christian life or salvation messages would stir up the demons.

During a series of messages on revival, and the filling of the Holy Spirit, there was considerable agitation.

All of those with demonic manifestations were either Masons or Eastern Star wives.

Hostility toward me began to increase, all directed by the Masons.

Deacons' meetings became nothing more than open season on the pastor.

Again, led by the Masons.

Finally, the man who had given me numerous Masonic handshakes came to my office, tearing into me about the spiritual atmosphere that was developing within the church.

As he was verbally attacking me, suddenly a force, as it were, came out from him and hit me.

Evil surrounded me. I sensed oppression.

Within two days the oppression became deep depression.

All that week I read books on spiritual warfare to educate myself on what was happening.

By Sunday a black cloud of spiritual oppression had settled over the entire church.

I told no one of my encounter with the Mason, yet several people verbally expressed that things were different in the church.

This oppression continued for eight months, while life for me and my family was a living hell.

It was as though sharks could smell blood and were coming in for the kill.

Vicious attacks by the Masons were leveled against me and my family, and against all who
supported me.

I became so physically ill that I had to enter the hospital for two weeks.

The church decided to give me a three-month sabbatical, which at first seemed compassionate.

It soon was evident that this generous action was a disguise to buy time, so that the Masons could remove me from the church.

When I returned from my sabbatical, the deacons informed me that I was no longer pastor - that the church would have to vote me back in.

This was one of those instances in which a few deacons decided their own agenda privately.

No one else knew what was going on.

This is the way satan works - always in the dark, in secret, behind closed doors.

satan lost temporarily.

The vote was never taken and I was permitted to resume preaching.

Two months later, at a monthly business meeting, the Masonic group succeeded in voting me out.

The members voting against me included many who had rarely come to church, and some I had never seen before! I was not permitted to speak, and the meeting was so hostile that I thought I was going to be mobbed.

Those who were yelling, screaming, and jumping out of their seats were one and all Masons and their Eastern Star wives.

Shortly after leaving First Baptist I had a counseling session with Dr. Mark Bubek, who is well known both nationally and internationally for his experience in spiritual warfare.

After hearing about the man who regularly harassed me in my office, his first question was, "Is he a Mason?"

He confirmed that I had been under heavy demonic attack.

I never preached against Masonry, so the attack was not a counterattack.

It was simply that the spirit behind Freemasonry opposes anything God-sent, Christ-exalted, Spirit empowered
that brings revival to the church.

Yes, the Masons reacted negatively to my messages on grace.

They were infuriated when I suggested man could not earn his way to heaven.

They were not opposed to inviting people to church.

They were opposed to the evangelism that was taking place in church, once the visitors arrived.

And they were greatly offended by the fact that people in the church were going door-to-door in the community, asking people if they knew that they had eternal life.

The Masonic message is one that abhors a Christian life that has Jesus Christ at the center.

The Masons in Columbia regard First Baptist as an extension of their lodge.

Well, they have preserved that extension, for today First Baptist has disintegrated into a handful of men and
women, primarily the Masonic and Eastern Star group.

The price of their success was the destruction of a house of God, and the persecution of its pastor and many God-fearing people.

Such is the spirit and purpose of Freemasonry.

What are pastors to do? First, take a stand on Freemasonry. Second, write your position in a letter and mail it to your
national headquarters.

By Stuart Bedillion

Stewart Bedillion
Ephesians 5:11, Inc., Box 291, Fishers, IN 46038
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Copyright 1997. This testimony is used with permission. It is from the 1998 reprint of The Character, Claims and Practical Workings of Freemasonry, by Charles G. Finney. It was originally published in 1869. The book is available from JKI Publishing at (800) 333-5344.

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