Foot in the Door

This post is regarding spiritual warfare.  If that isn’t your cup of tea…good luck with that you will want to skip this post.

Our son is 9 1/2 years old and is in a bit of a transitional stage from little kid to big kid.  We have homeschooled and I am very conservative about what the children watch.  Considering my background which was strict UPC (United Pentecostal Church)  owning a tv was prohibited for the first 15 years of my life… not that we didn’t own one (we did on and off – that’s another story) this is not surprising.  My husband did not grow up with the same strict standard.   It’s funny,  we didn’t go to movies but I watched Magnum P.I., Simon and Simon and Remington Steele on a regular basis.  I do not allow shows with magic (thinly veiled witchcraft or not so veiled witchcraft – No Princess Sophia), bad attitudes (especially toward authority – No Sponge Bob), and no shows with bickering, fighting, back biting. We watch a lot of innocent “little kid” shows like Peppa Pig, Doc McStuffins, Puppy Dog pals and Tom and Jerry.  Having said that, I have been allowing our son to watch more LEGO shows like the LEGO Star Wars (Star Wars but no one really dies), LEGO Super Hero shows…I will watch with him occasionally but not all the time.

Side note on this…if you are concerned about any show, instead of just watching it, listen to it.  When my daughter was little, she would get obsessed with watching certain shows over and over. One evening I was cooking dinner while she watched this popular movie (a little older).  I had noticed a day or so earlier that she was yelling at her dad.  She’s a daddy’s girl for sure but she was being ugly with him.  As I listened to the show, I realized the main character yelled at her dad.  I turned it off and told her we were taking a break from it because I didn’t like how the girl was speaking to her father.  I still have that movie “vaulted” as we say.  Another show she was watching was Spirit…she loves horses. It’s a show on Netflix about this kids and their horses. (We have since cancelled Netflix) Again, while cooking dinner I was listening to the dialog.  The characters on the show all preteen girls (I believe) were making plans and telling their parents what they were going to do….not asking but telling.  They treated the father figure on the show as if they were smarter and wiser than he.  He was always going along with them.  We don’t watch that show any more either…back to the story of the nightmares….

Before Christmas, I asked him what he wanted for Christmas. He told me about one LEGO Star Wars set he wanted and a set called LEGO Bionicles.  LEGO Bionicleslook kind of creepy to me and usually, I trust my gut on this but it’s LEGO and most of the LEGO things are cool plus they teach kids design and creativity.  LEGO discontinued making Bionicals so I found one on eBAY.  All I could remember was he wanted a green one.  I got a green one.  He as excited to receive a LEGO Bionicle for Christmas.

Just to put this in perspective, I do not buy my kids (or myself or my husband) anything with skulls on it.  I feel this perpetuates a death mentality and we are “life” people not “death” people.   I AM SUPER CONSERVATIVE because I feel strongly that physical things can have spiritual connotations AND that garbage in equals garbage out.

Apparently, there is a Bionicle show that is aired on the Cartoon network (or one of those kids networks).  Nic had asked to watch the show.  I allowed him to but did not watch with him.

Fast forward to 20 days after Christmas…for the second or third time in three weeks I was awoken by my son screaming out in his sleep. He often tells me of dreams he has had and we regularly discuss how God speaks to us through our dreams sometimes and what God might be trying to communicate to him.  Because of his history (foster care and then adoption), in the past he would sometimes have nightmares.  I would have to wake him all the way up, send him to the bathroom (all the way awake) in order to get him to stop fighting.  After inquiring about the dreams, he rarely remembers what they were about.  I have prayed and rebuked demonic spirits, soul ties and generational curses off of both my children.  That seemed to stop the dreams.  Then they started up again.  Last night at 4 a.m. I heard him in his room and I started praying.  I simply asked God, “Have we allowed something in the house that would cause these nightmares?  If so, what?”  IMMEDIATELY I saw a picture of the Bionicle in my head.

I began investigaing….the LEGO website doesn’t describe the series this bluntly but Wikapedia.org says this:

After reading this, I began to suspect, something had gotten its foot in the door.  I don’t think it was the Bionicle.  I’m pretty sure the foot in the door was me.  We have had a lot going on and my escape it pretty much Netflix.  Over Christmas break I watched several series on Netflix.  Overall, I’ve been distracted.  Every January our church has a season of fasting and I felt the Holy Spirit (the Holy Ghost for my Holy Roller readers) leading me to fast from media and not just the 21 days prescribed by our church but a Firstfruits of the year fast (36 days).  As a family we are “fasting” from media.  While fasting from media I have been listening to podcasts and audio recordings from some of my favorite ministries including Gateway church, especially their Freedom ministries.  One of the recordings I listened to was about raising healthy families.   The speakers were the Jobes…the parents of Kari Jobe (their fruit seems to indicate they know what they are talking about).  It’s worth a listen.

This morning I talked to our son about the Bionicle and suggested that we pray about what we should do.  I talked to him about holiness and what it means to be “set apart for the Father’s use”. We talked about the first two commandments…You shall have no other gods before me and make no graven images.  Tonight as a family we prayed, asked God’s forgiveness and we asked our son to pray about what he should do with the Bionicle.  We will give him a couple of days and see what he says.  We also prayed that any demons associated with the actual object would be cast out of our home, in Jesus name.

That’s what we did.

It’s a season for cleaning house.

It’s a season of examining our lives for strongholds.

There is going to be calling back to prayer for individuals, churches and the Body of Christ as a whole.  We are about to experience new seasons of intercession.  There was a wave a few years ago of people setting up War rooms and starting to pray for their families and that’s good.  This next season there will be a calling to intercession (a calling back for some people) and a calling into spiritual warfare.  

David didn’t step out onto a battlefield for the first time when he fought Goliath.  David had some times all alone, at night in a pasture when he encountered some lions and bears.  Lions and bears are on your home front.  You battle those before you face a giant.  The lion and the bear prepare you to face the giant.   You know God’s got the giant because He already gave you a lion and a bear.

Check your windows and check your doors.  Ask the Holy Spirit if you have left any doors ajar. This is the season to handle the small things and secure your perimeter.

Footnote: the boy chose to get rid of the Bionicle. We actually threw it away because we didn’t want another family to get it and have similar issues.

Soul Ties

Warning:  Contains adult content

2 Corinthians 6:14

Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?

It is interesting that this scripture is so often quoted and related to marriage but if we would apply it to every area of our lives it would be soo very helpful.  Do not yoke yourself to unbelievers in business, in friendships, in relationships …fill in the blank.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have any friends who are not believers but yoking yourself, as in forming a soul tie with someone who isn’t a believer in Jesus Christ will end painfully.

Soul ties are powerful ties we make with others when connect soul to soul.  Not all soul ties are “bad”.  Husbands and wives should have soul ties with one another….that is on of the things that makes them “soulmates”.  In the case of marriage and family, soul ties are good.

Some soul ties are not healthy.  At times, God may ask us to release a soul tie with someone even though that person is a believer.  Sometimes even “good” soul ties must be broken.

There have been two situations in my life that God has dealt with me in the area of soul ties.  The first was when I fully submitted my life to Jesus, I had to break soul ties that I had formed with unbelievers.  The most common soul tie, or I should say the easiest soul tie to establish is the one formed through unsanctioned sex.  Yes, I am going to use the “s” word in a Christian based blog about prayer.  Here’s the deal.  God invented sex.  He’s all for it.  He says it’s awesome and good.  He also sanctioned sex strictly for within the boundaries of marriage.  The only “safe” sex (on so many levels) is “married sex” between a husband and a wife.   The reason God sanctioned sex for marriage is because He knew that every time you have sex, any kind of sex, a soul tie is formed.  Bishop Tudor Bismark used the example of when you think of someone you haven’t see or heard from in years and suddenly they pop into your head and then a day or two later you run into them or hear from them.  He said quiet often, there is an existing soul tie and when they pop into your head, where ever they are in the world, they were thinking about you.  This can be very dangerous for a marriage or even a believer who is haunted by past memories.  If there is someone from your past who you “just can’t get over” it is very likely you are suffering from an existing soul tie.

In our studies on freedom we are finding that “renewing of the mind” that God promised us is not just us not thinking about the things we used to think about but a complete change in the way we think.  Our thinking must change.  We cannot think in the say way the world thinks.  Whether married or not, as Christians we cannot entertain old memories, it’s not healthy for us and it’s not godly to “fondly” recall past sin.  Speaking frankly here, there may even be a visiting of past painful memories as a result of soul ties.  If you have been raped, date raped, molested, assaulted, etc, you may be revisiting those memories because of a soul tie.  It’s time to break them.

God dealt with me about soul ties I had formed with unbelievers and ties I had through shared memories, etc.

The second soul tie God dealt with me about was actually soul ties that served me well during a season of my life.  Some soul ties are designed by God for a season of our lives.  My husband and I are foster parents and a few years ago we fostered newborn twins.  We fell in love in with them, naturally.  During that time in their life they absolutely needed to form bonds with people and feel loved and safe.  However, being the loyal person that I am (which by the way, God created me to be fiercely loyal but at times the enemy has used that against me) my soul tie with the twins was stopping me from being open to loving any other children.  In fact, I was so heart broken, or should I say “soul-broken” over the twins that I did not want to foster any more children.  One child we did foster, I did not attach to at all.   We attended an event at Gateway Church in Southlake, TX and one of the speakers spoke on soul ties.  She described a time in her life when as a youth pastor she was leaving one position to take another position in another church.  God told her to break the soul ties she had with her students.  She didn’t want to but God told her if she didn’t she would not form healthy relationships with her new students.  He said she would always be comparing them with the students she loves so much.  After her message, she prayed for us about breaking soul ties and asked God to bring to mind any soul tie we had that was not His will for us. I had not thought about the twins in a while.  They had been placed with a family member nearly a year previous to this event.  Immediately, the twins popped into my mind.  I broke those soul ties.  Not even 24 hours later, our fostercare agency called and asked us to take a baby girl who was two days old.  We said “yes” but we were in Southlake, a few hundred miles from home.  The way fostercare works is when they need a placement and you aren’t available, they go to the next person on the list….and the list of people wanting newborns is very long, especially when that baby is in the category of “adoptable”.  We prayed that God’s will would happen.  We released His Kingdom come and His will be done on earth as in heaven in our lives.  They worked it out for us.  THEY WORKED IT OUT.  We didn’t have to do anything different.  And that baby girl captured our hearts and will be our “forever daughter” very soon (the plan is underway for us to adopt her).

Pray for yourself and for your pastor today that unsanctioned soul ties will be broken in Jesus name.

Dear Jesus, I ask You today to bring to mind any soul tie in my life that is not Your will for me.  Right now, I break my soul tie with _______________.  I ask that You would heal my heart and guide me to the soul ties that are Your will for me.  God, I ask that You would grant me healthy, godly relationships and that You would change and renew my mind to think how You think.  Your Word says that I have the mind of Christ.  I ask that the “mind of Christ ”  would be manifest in me.  I ask that You would give me a hesitation or a “check in my spirit” if I attempt to form any soul tie that is not Your will for me.  Please help me to equally yoked with the people You place in my life.    In Jesus mighty name, Amen.

Warfare

3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ       II Corinthians 10:3-5

Recently, I had a conversation with someone who said that I pray “differently” than other people….he described my prayers as powerful.  My husband says that I “call the fire down”.  That doesn’t sound all that positive to me…the fire of God?  I’m not sure but I will say this…I believe that each one of us should be praying in a bold manner.  Because we are at war.  Warriors must boldly approach the throne of grace that we might obtain mercy and visit destruction up the enemy of our soul; the enemy of our person, our family, our church, our community, our nation….we must fight boldly KNOWING and BELIEVING (in other words, this cannot be something we merely say but something we BELIEVE in our hearts) that “GREATER IS HE WHO IS IN US THAN he who is in the world.”  Jesus already overcame the enemy.  What Jesus did at Calvary is a completed work…He died for us and rose again.  His work is done….it’s up to us.

We must begin to engage in a warfare that is mighty to the pulling down of strongholds.  ENGAGE people.

I added this new category because we have been engaging some things, some demonic spirits and I want to share what we have learned so you can also engage, overcome, be healed, be free, grow and help someone else.

Graham Cooke (www.grahamcooke.com) says that revenge on the enemy is when you get free from something, you help someone else get free.