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Whitehorse
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« Reply #1 on: August 06, 2003, 08:14:00 PM » |
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Yes, absolutely. The first thing I would advise is that your friend be skeptical of the claims; it is in all likelihood an attempt to gain some sort of control over your friend, if only by causing fear, if for no other reason than the witch's own entertainment and feelings of personal superiority and power. He wants your friend to be afraid of him. This should be totally, completely, and utterly rejected. Fear of man is a trap.
Your friend should take every opportunity to simply trust and rest in God. He'll deal with this blokester, whether it's a power trip or he really is targeting your friend. God will not be mocked. If anything does happen to your friend, it is entirely under the control of God, and God will use it to bring your friend even closer to Himself, if he persists in trusting God. As it is written:
We live by faith, not by sight. II Corinthians 5:7.
It is also true, however, that people who practice these pagan religions can invoke demonic spirits to cause severe, vexatious grief to a Christian, but never outside the will of God. Christ is stronger than any demon, and your friend has the Holy Spirit living in him. So if your friend has indeed been targeted, these things should soothe him:
1. God often uses these circumstances, as painful as they are, to prepare His people for great ministry or to cleanse away sin. While the witch is increasing his own sin, God will use it for good in your friend, if he allows the witch to indeed invoke evil spirits to attack your friend, who may just as easily be under the protection of God.
It is written: To keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. II Corinthians 12: 7-9
2. Jesus was tormented by satan in order that He might be a sympathetic high priest to us. If this does end up happening to your friend, it may be God is putting him through the same school as Jesus and the apostle Paul, for it is written:
As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. At that moment heven was opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, 'This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.' Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. Matthew 3:16-4:1
So we can see from this that as soon as He was publically commissioned, He was led into the desert to be tested: He was tempted with suicide, worshipping the devil, and disclaiming His own divine powers to break the prophecy He was fulfilling with His fast, and thereby denying His own divinity...with divine powers.
And for what purpose did Jesus Himself suffer these things? As it is written:
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way, just as we are-yet was without sin. Hebrews 4:14-15
Have your friend be sure to remember the promise attached to this verse: Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4:16
The Bible also gives us an example to follow closely: During the days of Jesus's life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from what He suffered, and, once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 5:7-10
(In case your friend is a young Christian, this does not mean Jesus ever sinned, as we know from the other scriptures. It means that He increased day be day in the testing and levels of obedience to which He would be called, ultimately to the cross, and He was prepared to carry out these missions through suffering. If your friend suffers, he must see it as an honor, embrace the role God is calling him to, get sin out of his life, and completely trust God to remove the situation when the time is right and your friend has stood the test. There are very stern warnings against falling away under pressure. If your friend slips into doubt, God will help him but if he continues in doubt, God will not reward it and He may make his situation worse.)
3. Thoughts that are rejected cannot hurt your friend, and he has an incredible weapon that the witch will never have! As it is written: For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. II Corinthians 10: 3-5
4. Praising God is a powerful weapon. David employed it a lot because it in itself is an act of faith.
5. The armor of God can be found in Ephesians six. I have pulled pages and pages and pages of verses on this chapter out of other areas of scripture. Let me know if your friend wants me to, and I will post some here.
So what should he do? Read the Bible and godly literature constantly. Make changes in his life to accomodate a lot of alone time with God. Read with care, pray before reading and ask for insight. Root any and all sins out of his life. Pray constantly, and fervently. God *will* hear and answer. Play and sing praise music a lot. Be sure that every assault only leads him closer to Christ. Find and write down promises and helpful verses out of the Bible. Believe on them. Get rid of doubting thoughts-they can be very destructive. God does not reward unbelief, but He adds punishment if His aid goes unused, because unbelief will eventually destroy. Do what Jesus did when He was assaulted: answer every evil thought with the scriptural antidote, and then do what that verse says. He'll be just fine. Ask if you need anything. I'll pray for him. But in all likelihood, the witch is just a blokester who wants to intimidate him. If your freind has been casting pearls before swine, he should stop.
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