What Got Me Started Learning About Spiritual Warfare

As I’d written about some time back, I decided to learn more about evil & spiritual warfare.  I started this journey after watching a sermon about witchcraft, & would like to share some about what I learned from that sermon.  Just so you know, this is just scratching the surface. It’s quite an in depth topic.

Most people hear the word “witch” & think of images of a woman wearing all black, with a pointy black hat, & either riding a broom or stirring something in a large cauldron.  This is not the norm, however, except in movies.  Witches are all around us.  Many who are involved with certain religions, such as Wicca & Paganism, openly practice witchcraft, but there are even more people who practice witchcraft in much more subtle ways.  So subtle, in fact, that many witches don’t even consider themselves witches.  These are those who do things that go against God yet aren’t as obvious, such as manipulating, controlling, envying or hating others.  By doing these things that go against God, they are inviting the enemy, Satan, & his demons to work.

A side note here… such behaviors as manipulation, control & envying others are especially common among narcissists.  This is just one more reason I believe Narcissistic Personality Disorder to be more about evil than a mental health problem.  That isn’t the topic of this post, obviously, but I wanted to put it out there for something to think about.

Satan is a powerful enemy, but his powers are limited.  He needs to use human beings to enable him to do much of his work in the physical realm.  This is where people who don’t know God intimately come into play.  When they come across someone who they feel threatened by – such as someone they view as more successful, popular or attractive – they hate that person easily.  That hatred opens the door for Satan to work in their life as well as their victim’s life.  To keep the original person engaged, Satan often works subtly to keep their minds focused on their hatred.  One thing he does is to remind them to keep up with the personal details of that person they hate.  I firmly believe that this is why some people are so devoted about keeping up with the personal details such as snooping on social media posts of people they hate.  They certainly aren’t looking in the hopes of learning that the object of their hatred is happy & doing well.  They are looking in the hopes of finding out that person is miserable, alone, broke, sick or whatever. 

An important thing to keep in mind is that even Christians aren’t completely immune to the enemy’s attacks.  Consider the story of Job.  He was loyal to God, yet Satan attacked his health, family & more.  Even Jesus was not immune to the enemy’s attacks while He was here in human form.  Satan tempted Him.  That story can be found in Matthew 4.  No matter how much you love God, Satan still can cause you problems.

To protect yourself, you must learn about Satan.  No one who successfully defeats an enemy does so without knowing about their enemy.  They get to know how their enemy thinks & how they work.  Remember that fighting Satan & his demons isn’t like fighting humans.  Ephesians 6:12 describes them in the Amplified Bible, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this [present] darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) places.” 

To fight a spiritual enemy, you also need to wear the armor of God as described in Ephesians 6:13-17: “Therefore, put on the complete armor of God, so that you will be able to [successfully] resist and stand your ground in the evil day [of danger], and having done everything [that the crisis demands], to stand firm [in your place, fully prepared, immovable, victorious]. ¹⁴ So stand firm and hold your ground, having tightened the wide band of truth (personal integrity, moral courage) around your waist and having put on the breastplate of righteousness (an upright heart), ¹⁵ and having strapped on your feet the gospel of peace in preparation [to face the enemy with firm-footed stability and the readiness produced by the good news]. ¹⁶ Above all, lift up the [protective] shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” 

And above all, never, ever fail to ask God for help, guidance, discernment, courage & anything else you need.  If you don’t know what you need, that is ok!  Just ask Him for help, & He will be glad to do so!  Remember, Psalm 46 says that God is an ever present help in times of trouble, He is always with us & our Stronghold! 

What Do You Think About This?

I’d like to ask your opinions.

I’ve been feeling a pull to learn about spiritual warfare & evil spirits recently. The little bit I’ve learned so far has been quite eye opening. I expect much more to be equally eye opening & informative.

So what I’d like your thoughts about is this.. would you like me to share what I learn in this blog? Why or why not? Please answer yes or no in the poll that follows, & if you have something to say beyond that, feel free to say so in the comments.

By the way.. if I do it (big if!), it wouldn’t mean I’m changing my writing to focus 100% on those topics. Narcissism & narcissistic abuse recovery still would be the main focus of my writing. I would just interject some of the other topics in periodically as I feel is right. Also, I schedule posts to publish months in advance, so chances are, unless I rearrange posts, you won’t see anything for a while if I do opt to post on these topics.

Also, saying no won’t offend/hurt me. If you would prefer not to read about this, it’s perfectly fine to say so. I plan on learning about these topics for myself no matter what. I just wanted to know if anyone is interested in me sharing what I learn, as I learn is all.

Thank you so much everyone for taking the time to answer my question & share your thoughts! ❤️

There May Be A Demonic Element To Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive dissonance is a term used to describe the very uncomfortable feeling of having two conflicting beliefs.  As an example, let’s say you believe that your mother was a caring, loving mother & you also believe that any problems in that relationship are completely your fault.  Then one day you learn that she is a covert narcissist.  In such a situation, facing the truth feels awful.  You grew up believing this one thing & were comfortable with it, even if it was painful thinking you were the problem in the relationship.  Learning this isn’t true creates anxiety & confusion about what is really true.

In speaking with a follower of my work one day on the topic of cognitive dysfunction, she mentioned that she believes it can be demonic.  At first, this concept sounds very far fetched, I realize, but the more we spoke, the more it made sense.

As Kavya said, when faced with the truth, many people’s core beliefs come back & they believe the lies instead.  This could be evidence of demons at work.  This also could be people operating in the spirit of fear, because they’re afraid to step out of their comfort zone of what is familiar.  So afraid, in fact, they are content to stay with what’s familiar even when it’s wrong & toxic.  That spirit of fear comes in & keeps them in toxic situations.

Another good point she made is evil is against rational thinking.  These spirits want to stunt growth.  They want to keep people miserable & down.  So when people lack good rational thought skills, there can be a demonic influence. 

Evil is also against truth.  They worked through the people in Jesus’ time on earth to hide the knowledge of who He was & what He could do.  That hasn’t changed today.  They instill doubt in people or find ways to make the Gospel message sound impossible.  They also work to hide the truth about other things.  Creating cognitive dissonance easily could be a part of that.  They make people so despondent that they return to their original beliefs, in spite of how obviously wrong they were & how miserable they were while functioning in those beliefs. 

Even good, caring people can end up supporting narcissists because they lack critical thinking skills.  They don’t recognize that there is evil influencing them.  They go with their feelings rather than facing the evidence in front of them, because the truth is making them so incredibly uncomfortable.  Doing this opens the door for evil to work in their minds & lives.  After all, who wants to face the fact that someone they are close to or even love is an abusive monster?  No one!  Doing that is extremely hard & painful!  Some people lack the strength & courage to face painful truths, so instead, they take the easy way out.  They continue in their denial out of fear of facing that pain.  I believe that fear can open a door for evil to enter their hearts, because sometimes in this situation, even a good person can end up so focused on protecting their denial that they mistreat & abuse a victim. 

If you experience cognitive dissonance like many victims of narcissistic abuse do, then please keep this in mind.  I don’t think it is always demonic, but it has that potential to be.  Protect yourself, & face the truth, even when it’s hard.

Real Evil Relating To Narcissists

I recently read an article that discussed real evil.  It claimed real evil doesn’t hide, it is fearless, it makes its plans known & basically shows them off.  As I read this article, I thought how completely inaccurate the statement is.  Real evil isn’t always so easy to spot.  If it was, life would be much easier because everyone would recognize evil & could avoid it.

In truth, real evil hides its true motives.  Considering what I believe are some signs of real evil, that confirms to me what I’ve suspected for many years, that narcissism is evil & even demonic in nature.

It can come across as naivete, as if someone truly has no idea their actions are less than good & pure.  Covert narcissists are prime examples of this.  They often come across as simple, not very intelligent people.  While their overt counterparts cringe at the thought of someone thinking they are anything less than super intelligent, covert narcissists love to be underestimated.  This helps them to do whatever awful deeds they wish to do & get away with it because people think they truly don’t know any better.  

Real evil also hides behind a mask of pretending that all abuse is done for the ultimate benefit of the victim.  My mother used to claim that her abuse wasn’t abuse at all.   It was done to help me.  In fact when her abuse hit its peak when I was in my late teens, she said she was “trying to save me from myself,” & it was merely “tough love” done because she was trying to help me.   That so called tough love involved raging at me daily, often multiple times a day, berating me & more.  Many narcissists do the same thing to their victims, abuse them while claiming the abuse is done to benefit their victim somehow.

Real evil denies & excuses bad & abusive behavior, rather than accepting responsibility for it.  A functional & healthy person may not like to do it, but they’ll admit their bad behavior & accept responsibility for it.  They try never to repeat it.

Real evil also blames victims for making someone abuse them.  This is incredibly low & wicked, in my opinion, because it abuses a victim twice while absolving an abuser of blame.  First, the victim is initially abused, then abused again by receiving the blame for making someone hurt him or her.  The abuser is exonerated of all guilt for their cruelty by putting all blame unfairly on a victim.

Real evil never apologizes.  A truly evil person may say the words, “I’m sorry”, but they won’t mean it.  In fact, they’ll give what I call a non apology.  This means rather than saying, “I’m sorry I hurt you.  I was wrong.  What can I do to make it up to you?”, they will say something like, “I’m sorry you feel that way.”  “I’m sorry I did that, but I wouldn’t have done it if you wouldn’t have done what you did.”  or,  “I said I was sorry… what else do you want from me?”  The only reason they say the words “I’m sorry” is to appease their victim so they can resume their awful behavior.

While real evil can be obvious, such as in the case of serial killers, it most often is very subtle like in the examples I have given.

When dealing with a narcissist, if you start to believe their lies, I pray you’ll remember these points.  Real evil is subtle & manipulative.  Narcissists use it to their best advantage while tearing down their victims.  Being aware of their tactics can help you to avoid further narcissistic abuse in the future.

The Lucifer Complex

Source: The Lucifer Complex

 

This article is fascinating & disturbing.  I thought for quite some time that narcissism is demonic in nature.  Remember what Lucifer said before he fell?  Things like he would be greater than God.  I didn’t delve as deeply into the subject as this author has.  He explains it very well!

There Is A Demonic Element To Narcissism

Anyone familiar with someone with Narcissistic Personality Disorder knows there is definitely something wrong with that person.  NPD fits very well, although not perfectly.  The term “disorder” can be rather unsettling.  Disorder implies something is beyond someone’s control, & we all have seen narcissists change from devil incarnate to sweetheart in a flash, when the person they want to impress comes into their presence.  Often, “disorder” doesn’t feel like the right description because of that behavior.  It seems like something else is amiss with that person, but what?

 

I firmly believe there is a demonic element to NPD.  I’m not one to blame Satan & his demons for any little thing bad that happens, but I do believe they are at work on the Earth.  Granted, I haven’t read anywhere to confirm what I believe about narcissists being possessed or influenced by demons, so I can’t offer concrete evidence.  All I can offer is some things that have crossed my mind about this topic.

 

There are evil spirits at work in the world..

 

• 1 John 4:1 “1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”
• John 10:10  “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly.”
• Revelation 12:9 “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”

 

Evil spirits are here to “steal, kill & destroy” according to what Jesus said in John 10:10.  Isn’t that what narcissists do?  They steal, kill & destroy your mental health, also physical sometimes.  They also deceive (Revelation 12:9) & speak lies (like the false prophets in 1 John 4:1)

 

Narcissists also share many very similar characteristics & means of behavior.  Even narcissists who have never met from different countries, of different races, religious beliefs, cultures, financial statuses, etc. often act very much alike.  How can that be explained other than demons influencing them?

 

And, many victims of angry narcissists have witnessed the identical physical change during a narcissistic rage – the narcissist’s eyes turning jet black.  I don’t mean their pupils dilated so their eyes looked black – I mean literally their eyes changed color from blue, green, hazel or brown to jet black.  Most people’s eyes never change color, no matter their mood, but many narcissist’s eyes will.

 

The behavior of narcissism also goes exactly in the opposite direction of the way God wants us to behave.  That points directly to Satan if you ask me.

 

Not being an expert in the field of demons, I can’t provide expert advice on this aspect of NPD.  However, I do believe it’s good to ask God for wisdom on how to handle the narcissist in your life.  I also think it’s a good idea to ask God to protect you, your family, your property, etc. from the narcissist & any evil spirits.  It also is a good idea to pray for the narcissist, as hard as that may be, so that she may come to know God.