Honestly Phil, I truly don't think a lot of pastors would know what to do if
a demon confronted them.  I think the sad thing about today is that we don't
spend enough time teaching about spiritual warfare or demonic actuvity.

Just my opinion.

Lelia


----- Original Message -----
From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2004 6:29 PM
Subject: Counselors Confronting Demons


> Thinking out loud, as it were, I was wondering this afternoon as I thought
> about all that is being discussed on echurch, what the average Christian
> counselor, psychologist, or psychiatrist would do if a demon manifested
> itself during a normal every day counseling session?  If the demonic
> infestation was due to a strong hold, he very likely would literally speak
> through the person's own voice.  Sometimes they, the client, knows it and
> sometimes they don't.  Would some form of medication be immediately
> administered, if they were licensed to do so, or would they just consider
> that it was a multiple personality manifesting itself in the person.
Would
> they know, Christian or not, how to tell the difference between an
alternate
> personality or a real demon?  Do they even believe demons can do such a
> thing?  What if the counselor is scared spitless and the demon is, in
fact,
> a real manifestation of evil?  Of course, at this point, the unclean
spirit
> would have the advantage over the counselor because demons work in the
area
> of fear and when they see it, they go for it.  What if, as happened to me
> once, a demon manifests itself through the person's voice and says, My
name
> is Lucifer.  Or what, as happened to me, a demon speaks through a person
and
> says, we aren't leaving and you can't make us leave.  I wonder if the
> average Christian counselor would know what was going on or what to do
next.
> I wonder if even a Christian psychologist or psychiatrist would know what
> was going on and what to do next?  I know some who would but not because
> they got their degree from a secular college, university, or even a
> seminary.  To make the point even clearer, I wonder if the average pastor
> was counseling someone in his church and this happened, what he would do?
> In one of Neal Anderson's books, he had a pastor in his office with him
with
> a lady from the man's own church.  As soon as the demonic manifestation
came
> out, the pastor tried to run out the door but Neal stopped him and taught
> him what to do.  Thank you Jesus for not leaving us defenseless against
the
> wiles of the devil.  Now the big question.  Can a Christian counselor,
which
> some say that I am, or a Christian psychologist, or a Christian
psychiatrist
> heal you?  They can help you and bless God they do help lots of people.
> Most of what they do is help people cope and they even use the Bible to
help
> you cope.  Ok, that's fine, and there's nothing wrong with that.  What if
> you could be healed, though?  What if your fear could be literally removed
> by the Holy Spirit and your mind totally renewed.  Wouldn't that be better
> than coping with life as a Christian?  What if Jesus could, through
prayer,
> lead you to a memory and the guilt and shame and terror of that memory be
> totally obliterated to the point it never comes back again?  Yet you can
> return to the very memory any time you wish and there is nothing there
that
> can hurt you any more?  Wouldn't that be better than coping with life as a
> Christian?  How is it that a little girl who has been raped by her father
> ever get over the fear and the terror and the anger?  Besides, isn't that
> justifiable to have those emotions?  If so, why are they in the counselors
> office at 40 trying to find answers?  Why are they on antidepressants?
What
> if the Lord God could invade her memory and remove all, I said all, the
pain
> and doubt and fear and emotional pain and physical pain, and the screams
of
> that little girl, and the mother who didn't care because she was too drunk
> to care, and the haunting  words of an evil father who threatened to kill
> her if she told any one, and the nightmares she now has as an adult woman
> because of what had been done to her 45 or 50 years ago, what if a loving
> God could literally remove it all and replace it with love and holiness
and
> purity of mind and heart?  Wouldn't that be better than coping with life
as
> a Christian?  What if a little boy is made subject to a Satanic cult where
> men in a room forced human male excretions down his throat and made him
> swallow everything and if he spit it back up, they beat him so he couldn't
> even walk.  Can God heal the broken emotions of that little boy or must he
> live on drugs the rest of his life as a half of a human being?  If God
could
> heal his brokenness and fear and hatred for men and his homosexuality,
> wouldn't that be better than just coping with life as a Christian?  Where
is
> God when we need Him?  Where is God when a girl is literally tied to a
table
> and raped repeatedly by grown men and if she cries, they literally turn on
> electricity and shock her over and over again.  Doesn't God care about
these
> people?  Does God stop loving the woman who gets an abortion, as my
daughter
> did two years ago, because she is now a murderer and has slain her own
flesh
> and blood?  How does she cope with such excruciating emotional agony when
> she is convicted about what she has done?  What about the little boy who
> grows up with a father who repeatedly, all the time he is growing up, and
> even into his adult life, telling him he is a failure, a looser, and not
> worth spit?  Must he live the rest of his life thinking his father must be
> right or is there a God who knows how to get to the root of this lie and
> remove it once and for all?  I thought the cross meant something?  I
thought
> the cross of Christ saved and cured and healed our brokenness but maybe I
> was misled.  Maybe you were misled, too?  Where is God in all of this and
> why, pray tell, can't He do something about our pain?  The truth is, He
can.
> He will.  He does.  There are literally thousands of people all over this
> country, and the world for that matter, doing exactly what I do every day
> with people and that is pray.  With God, nothing shall be impossible.  Do
> you really believe that verse or is it just ink on paper to you?  If God
> cannot help us, then we are truly the most miserable people on earth who
are
> serving a God who cannot meet the needs of His people.  I, for one, won't
> serve a helpless God like that.  If the best God can do is a doctor who
> prescribes drugs and offers a list of affirmations for me to read every
day
> and a dozen Bible verses to memorize, that is a God of less than enough.
My
> bible tells me that one of my God's names we serve is a God of more than
> enough and more than we need.  If you aren't getting all that God offers,
> keep what you have but find someone else who believes more than your
> therapist believes about God and His miraculous abilities.  Finally, if
you
> have a pastor who falls into this same category, keep what you learned but
> for your own sake, find some pastor who knows the God of the bible.
>
> Phil.
>