"Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty;

not on your past misfortunes of which all men have some."
Charles Dickens

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Reminders, reminders...

I just started reading a book entitled, Spiritual Warfare For Every Christian.

When I began my second journey with the Lord, I started being aware of this thing and read stuff by Neil T Andersen, someone named Warner and did the 7 steps to freedom thing, etc...

I am definitely not a sceptic nor am i ignorant of the existence of this other realm and the happenings there but after some time, have learned not to OVEREMPHASIZE and look for a demon in every closet!

So this book says I am right but it also reminds us not to UNDEREMPHASIZE the existence of warfare in our lives. We can do this when we do not put the same weight on the bible verses that talk about it as you would with other portions of the bible. Hmmm, think that this is a good reminder indeed!

Thanks, Dean Sherman!

Living in Asia, we see so many religious ceremonies, etc. and it is easy to understand that the spirit world is indeed very real. I am thankful for the LORD and His covering over my life as I remember being so fearful of all sorts of ghosts, spirits, imagined or otherwise, as a child. It was this very thing that brought me to Him and He was such a comfort even back then, too!

These days, it is my thought life that is "attacked". Sometimes, strange, forgotten memories invade my thoughts and altho many seem to think it is normal, I found that rebuking and rejecting these thoughts aloud (altho softly, for fear of being heard by the earthly variety!) repeatedly have reduced them significantly! Strange but wonderfully true!

I thank God for this "weapon" that He has given me and encouragements through this book in pages 26-31 on Sitting, Walking and Standing (ref. Ephesians 1-3, 4: 1-9 and 6: 10-20).

Sitting - being relaxed and knowing who we are in Christ
Walking - putting into action (walk worthy of the calling with which you are called)
Standing - taking our stand against the enemy (can only be done after sitting and walking)

As with many authors, Dean Sherman reminds us of who we are in Christ. I am very forgetful of this too, so I appreciate these constant reminders!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi aunty jolene! nice posts! blog on. =)

Dissociated Mind said...

I share your thoughts on the overspiritualizing of things by some of these authors. I'm also glad you brought up some cultural issues on the topic because I've been going through some things myself that I haven't been talking to many people about. I shared it twice recently with a few friends, and each time I received the same response: "Ask Ps Danny (senior pastor of the church I'm attending here) to pray for deliverance!!"

I don't really wanna make it more than it really is, but I really believe that maybe the church here shouldn't just do it for the one or two of us who have mild spiritual attacks, but should do it as a whole for many international students from our Asian backgrounds.

It's reassuring to see you blog about what has been in my heart for the past few months.