So…

After I was forced to get the shot or get fired, it’s been an interesting time.

The first night, my joints stiffened up and the world got spinny… add in a fever and foggy thoughts, fatigue and you get me taking the next night off work.

It’s been a week and a half now… I’ve been on a cane everyday since.  Still have issues with a knee, shoulder, both wrists, and an ankle…. and still a bone numbing exhaustion…

Now it’s time to raise my vitamin D3 levels into the stratosphere to try and burn past this.

 

 

Spiritual Warfare

How and Why, Minus the Hype.

Lets look at the ‘Why’ first.

As a worker of magic I was used to doing things myself, and doing them

my way. When I left all that behind me, I was at a loss for what to do.

I knew that I was not supposed to use magic anymore, so what was

I to do?

One of many things that I did not understand when I came to Jesus was that there are things that can be a replacement for any benign use of magik. They are there.. they just do not seem to be taught to new

Christians..

As a former witch, when you leave it behind you will most likely get worked over pretty good.. both by the Adversary and by some church types who aught to know better.

The key for the ex-witch surviving this is in a form of spiritual warfare.

That is the Why.. now…. on with the program..

There have been books written on spiritual warfare over the years.. you will find this piece to be much shorter.. and, hopefully, more helpful.

Spiritual Warfare Rough and Ready #101

The first order of business for an Ex is to realize that it is a little different over here on this side of the fence. =)

One of the keys here is to get yourself filled with Jesus’ love… A good solid method of arriving at that point is thus..

Prayer…. often..

Studying Gods’ Word… the more the better..

Praising God.. either yourself or with some good music.. =)

It has been pointed out to me that those with an inclination can also praise God with various arts and crafts…  🙂

You will find that with Jesus’ love is a measure of power that is quite effective at making your presence distasteful to fallen entities.

Now, you need to understand… depending upon the path you trod you were probably used to projecting power.. for either magical workings or shieldings..

Forget about it.

While I believe that God’s gifts are available for today.. and that He still selects them for His people.. as a former occultist you will find that it is unlikely that you will be granted such gifts for quite a while..

That is quite okay though… really it is..  🙂

The more of Jesus’ love you have in you, the greater the area effect. A poor analogy would be a room light with a dimmer switch. And if there is a need.. a prayer should go something like this..

Jesus, please fill me with your love and presence.. I need you to help me walk with you through my life..

This effect I am speaking of can be profound if you allow Him to work through you and direct your steps.

Lets start with your home….

Pick a room while you are praying and walk through it.. asking God to help you and to cleanse the room.   Personally I advocate praising God with song.. and praying as you go through the house. The purpose would be to make it a haven of peace for you. There is also the fact that fallen entities do not like praises to Jesus. Please understand that this is not the same as a magical clearing of the home.. it is asking God to take care of it.. and I have been reminded that some have asked Him to just deal with it all and He has done so….

What is important here is that you direct your steps towards Jesus.. be they little steps of faith. or large ones.. follow Jesus with them.

I like to think of 1st Peter 5:7 here….

7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

Basically, stay in prayer.. and walk close to Jesus.. asking Him to use you and make Himself know through your life. Should there ever be an encounter with one of the critters.. remember that the power is Jesus’ not yours, You do have the authority to tell it to leave on those grounds though.. You belong to Jesus now that you have chosen Christ.

Upon choosing Jesus as your Savior you have become a new creature.

2nd Corinthians 5:17

17Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

as part of the old you that has been put away.. should be the working of magik.. the temptation will arise at times.. but part of spiritual warfare for the ExWitch is to depend upon God and His power.

Let us look to the book of Romans.. a portion of chapter 6 is appropriate here..

13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Now all things considered.. I would like to point out something that will be at odds with many that write about spiritual warfare… Think about this…..

The archangel Michael handled it like this in a confrontation with Lucifer..

“the Lord rebuke thee..”

Short sweet and to the point.

There is absolutely no need to talk to them. Just tell them to leave.

 

I really was done with the deliverance ministry issue… but something parallel has come up and I thought I would address it.

One of the things that I find unreal this season is that Christians would attach each other over political positions.. I mean seriously; I don’t care if you are liberal or conservative politically, that has no bearing on your salvation or walk with God at all.

The reason I am tying it in with the DeliveranceIndustry ™ posting is some of the statements and accusations being hurled about. Making the same mistakes that DM’s do with their assumptions. Just because you disagree with someone’s political positions doesn’t mean that they are possessed. Especially when you are talking to another Christian. If one’s soul is occupied by the Holy Spirit, it’s not going to contain a horde of demons also. I’ve seen this in DM circles as well as it came up in political discussions recently. Kind of silly, actually, when you think about the situation.

If the followers of Jesus would simply go back to God’s way of Bible reading and Prayer, the world could be turned upside down again. And it won’t matter who’s in the White House.

Since Deliverance ministries have made their way back onto my radar, I think that I will address them now…. proceed with caution…..

My first experience with Deliverance wasn’t exactly a good one. I had left the magik paths and been following Jesus for about six years at the time. During a brief stay in Massachusetts a gentleman who heard my background insisted that I needed to have a demon of witchcraft cast out. Keep in mind that I hadn’t noticed any critters hanging around and since I am a Christian, being possessed wasn’t something I was concerned with. Anyway, he started praying in ‘tongues’ over me and the check in my spirit was the second clue that something wasn’t right…. and it wasn’t with me. I don’t doubt that he was sincere. I know that he was sincerely wrong.

That was a rather tame episode compared to what some folks go through. Deliverance runseverywhere between fairly calm andviolently abusive. Just as Deliverance Ministers run from sincere believers to opportunistic predators. I freely admit that my sampling is comprised of the experiences of former witches, but somehow I find it difficult to believe that there is much difference within the population at large.

Pretty much without exception, The Deliverance Minister will maintain that God has called him/her to this ministry. Okay; I don’t have an insurmountable problem with that assertion. However, I do want to see scriptural justification for the things that they are saying and doing. After all, I can do so for my position on the matter. Clue- it’s at the end of the book of Mark. More on that later. There is another issue at play here. Actually two, but they are fairly interconnected so I will bring them up together. First there seems to be this need make a complex method to explain and ‘do’ deliverance. They want the demon’s name and position in the spiritual pecking order for starters. Some get so caught up that they try to learn all they can about demons and share that ‘knowledge’. Scriptures please. Anyway, that has led over the years, to the Deliverance Industries complete with ‘how-to’ books and larger books about demons of all kinds. Real and imagined. These tend to remind me more of books on magik than anything biblical. It makes sense though, because if it is complicated it leads to more books to sell, etc.

Now, back to my views on ‘deliverance’:

Is it real? yes.

Is it the business of a small group of Christians? No.

You see, when it gets back to the Bible, any Christian can rebuke a demon. Some are harder to get rid of than others, and we are advised to fast and pray for dealing with those. Basically, I don’t see Deliverance or more broadly, Spiritual warfare, to be special ministries at all. We are here to introduce people to Jesus. Healings, miracles, deliverance etc, are almost incidental to that as we keep our focus on winning souls to Jesus.

Ye ole ExWitch, just keeping it real.

As I’ve followed the path of Christianity, there have been many frustrations along the way with the church as a whole. Things taught, things not taught… Denominational squabbling, etc..

Until last week’s taping.. (note to self: never do an interview on that little sleep ever again………) I was even holding the church responsible for the length of time it took me to sort out prayer, the spiritual gifts, and things of that sort. Realistically though, during this time God has kept people in my life that both understood much and could be examples for me. This was a point that I know I didn’t get across well during the show. Which makes it a good point to put here in print. Even when the ‘church’ falls down on the job, there are God’s people out there to help the next crew coming along the trail. So if I had paid attention sooner, I would have benefitted from their wisdom earlier in my walk. Which would have been preferable to the path I took.

Some authors from days gone by to help you on your way:

A.W Tozer, R.A. Torrey, John R. Rice, and D L Moody.

As far as Brother Rice goes… He was a Fundy Baptist that many more of us should emulate. One of the greatest works I have read was his: “The Power of Pentecost” I would recommend it to any Christian.. and especially to any Ex-Witch. If you can’t find it anywhere close by, you should be able to order it from ‘The Sword of the Lord’ They have a bookstore as well as other resources available.

Now, time to make it real. Don’t just read the books; actually use what God teaches you through them. Take it to you daily life. every day.

This happens to be an issue that I have been looking into, off and on, for many years. That being the case, I will give you a quick distillation of what I have found, remembered, and surmised.

Over the years I have read studies from the US and elsewhere about autism and it’s possible causes. I have also, for obvious reasons, read many differing treatment protocols. As far as causes go, it is apparent that there are many different ways to get to the perfect storm that creates autism in an individual. Partly genetic susceptibility, partly environmental challenges. The 1000 piece puzzle.

That’s what it seems to be… a 1000 piece puzzle with a number of people looking at a few pieces at a time… usually different pieces, judging from what I have seen written. Some of the studies point to an imbalance in the microbiome of the intestinal system. Some studies point to live virus still in the body.. from a vaccine, btw. Some studies point to extreme nutrient deficiency. Of course there are some studies that have come out that seem to contradict all of the above. As to the vaccines.. there is the issue of: Why? is it the virus? possibly. Is it perhaps the toxic preservatives and other interesting additives? In some cases, that seems to be the case.

The various treatment protocols are grappling with the same 1000 piece puzzle, but are handicapped by a lack of understanding and the sheer complexity of the condition. You have nutrient protocols, chelation protocols, anti-allergen protocols, equestrian therapy, diet and lifestyle. All of them help some people, some help more people than others, and for some people the help is mild while others are helped more profoundly.

I’m tired so we’re going to start weaving the threads together now, even though I’ve left many unmentioned.

We have a subset of the population that is susceptible to various health problems from environmental challenges. These challenges can be illness, toxins, medicines (including vaccines), allergens, etc… And when a system fractures, sometimes the result is autism. Of course, sometimes it is something else. From this portion of the human population comes many, many occurrences of vaccine injury claims. You’ve probably read some of them yourselves. ~ the child is fine then after a vaccine they suddenly are not fine any longer. Typically the medical folks say that it is not related. Now I know you can’t do a double-blind test on this, but that doesn’t void what is happening to real people… real families.

Bottom line: vaccines are not usually the sole cause, but they are a heavy contributing factor. And sometimes…. the damage can be reversed. After all, we are fearfully and wonderfully made by our Creator.

Wounded and weary, with what was left of his shield strapped to his back, the grizzled veteran walked through the storm.

He didn’t care that the people where looking out from behind their shutter slats at him. Knowing that they hated and despised him was not the cause of either his mission or the darkness of his mood. For years he had been taking the hardest assignments, flinging himself into the hottest part of the battles, charging onwards wherever the odds were against him and his men.

It had earned him honors and promotions, as well as choice assignments that he had requested to be excused from. He was a haunted man they said, behind his back of course as no one would dare say it to his face, but he knew anyway.
“They are right you know,“ he told his commander one dark night.
“I am a haunted man, haunted by the memories of a post I served long ago.“
“Ah yes, Silas“ he said, “ We’ve all had some of those posts. Let me guess, Palestine?“
“Yes sir, that is where it was, nothing has ever been quite like it I suppose.“
Silas stared into the night thoughtfully as he considered how much to tell.
“ It wasn’t so much the stiff-necked and ungovernable people though, as it was…“

As he was trying to put it into words, the sound of swords crashed through the night from the Eastern watch interrupting their conversation. As it turned out, they never got back to that conversation.

Casting a glance out at his surroundings Silas pulled himself from his memories in time to throw a hard glare at a group of young men that were coming down the road towards him. They took the warning and went past in search of someone who would be less trouble. After all, soldiers didn’t usually travel alone without good reason, and without being able to take care of themselves.
“Not much has changed“ he thought to himself as he continued on towards the city. “except, perhaps that they are a little bolder than they used to be“.
“Never thought I’d be glad to see this town loom in the distance, what a wearying time to be journeying through this terrible land“.

His thoughts turned inwards again as the path cleared before him.

They had come out of nowhere, in a nicely done ambush closing front and back as he came around a bend in the road. All might have been lost without the split second warning of his mount as it snorted in response to their approach. It wasn’t much time, but it was enough to set his spear into the first one and pull his sword. It was the wildest melee of his long career in the Legion. Wheeling his horse he charged the closest part of the line, bursting through it and catching them by surprise when he turned back upon them instead of fleeing into the country side.

The brigands were tough enough, if ill equipped, and managed to unhorse him as he made yet another pass through their ranks. If nothing else, that had been their undoing, for now he was afoot with sword and shield among them, avenging the horse that had carried him through countless battles. Fighting with a skillful savagery, as only a Centurian in his prime can do, Silas dispatched the rest to meet whatever gods they belonged to. Taking a few moments to drag them out of the road and bind his wounds, Silas slung his riven shield across his back barbarian style. Picking up a well made belt dagger from the body of their leader he continued on, gathering what he needed to carry from his saddlebags and marching onwards towards his destination.

A chilling drizzle brought him back to the present as he continued his march towards the city gates.
“Yes, a dreary time to travel indeed.“ he muttered as he entered the city.
Finishing his journey at last Silas came to the Governors mansion where he could clean up and have the package delivered by the Watch. Somehow he would find out who it was that got him on courier duty before this was over, although at least with him the delivery was able to be made, unlike some of the recruits that would have been in that ambush otherwise.
“It’s been a long time since I was here last,“ he said to the watch captain. “I take it things are still restless here in this province?“
“Aye, sir. Judging from your wounds you’ve already met some of the rabble.“
“Yes indeed, and you will find what is left of them, as well as my horse 3 hours march out of the Eastern gate.“
“I’ll send a detail at once sir“

“Thank you.“ said Silas, “now if you will excuse me, I still have some business in the city, which may take me until late tonight. I’ll be back afterwards to rest and see if you have found out who they were.“

Declining the offer of a fresh cloak, he went off slowly towards the garden.
He knew he would have no trouble finding it again, since it had haunted his dreams every night for all these years. The sun was setting when he arrived at his old post, only a three day assignment it had turned out to be. Yet it had made such a mark upon him.

“Yes, this is where it was“ he said.
“This is the place where He lay“ I’ll never forget that day when They came to get Him.“
“Terrible and mighty they were“ “as only the Son of God would command“

“We were so wrong“ he cried out to the storm above, “so wrong“
“how could we have been so blind!“

Falling to his knees, the warrior knew he had to ask forgiveness of this God whose followers he had wronged so badly. This God he had insulted by insisting that His body had been stolen, instead of the incredible truth.

“ I’m sorry Lord Jesus‚ so sorry, I know you are alive‚

please‚

forgive me.“

Forum ministry… not for the faint of heart.

Seriously, from my years at the exwitch forum I will tell you that it can be both rewarding and absolutely maddening. There are people you will get to meet and talk to that you would never see any other way.

Yes, the people…. some of them come to talk to you, some of them come to ask questions…. some of them come to scream at you in text form… and some… some of the people just come to watch the show as it happens. At Exwitch we got it from all sides. There were the Neo-pagans who came to fight and distract our efforts. There were the church folks who came to argue with us and those ‘evil’ witches. Then there were people from other faiths and religions that came to fuss at us.

The more heated the arguments the greater the web traffic. I admit it was easy to get caught in the trap of trying to argue people into Heaven. After all, I had to have answers for them and had walked the magik paths myself which led many to question me from both the church and the pagan side .But there is a difference between answering questions and getting engaged in roiling arguments. To the point that I’m fairly convinced these days that there is not much value in full-contact theology.

I have to admit that I had much more patience for the witches than the supposed Christians at times. After all, I could hardly expect someone who didn’t know Jesus to act like they’d been saved for years. But when church folks got out of line it had to be dealt with in short order.

A word of warning for any who would like to get involved with online ministry, it can burn you out very quickly. Don’t let it take over your life. Set ‘office hours’ if need be, otherwise you won’t be allowed any time at all to do anything else.

Oh yeah…. I forgot to mention…. I’ve been drafted to help out with my daughter’s forum… prayers are appreciated.

 

Mark

Okay, For all of the brethren that don’t understand how someone could choose to walk the magik paths here is a brief rundown.

First off, it can start in any number of ways.. from childhood experiences to a bad run in with church folk… to open recruitment from other witches.. However it starts it tends to go along a few tracks. Some are looking for something to worship, some are looking for power. Some are looking for a measure of control over their world. It is very appealing when you look at it from their perspective. Let me explain:

As the occultist progresses, they are given the illusion that they are the ones in control of what is going on. After all, it’s THEIR will and power that is causing changes in the world around them. The fallen spirits that are enabling them will allow this to play out as long as it suits them to play with the humans. What tends to happen eventually though is that they don’t need to play any further and either drop the occultist outright or reveal themselves to them. Prior to getting to this point though, the occultist doesn’t usually want to think of living any other way. I will admit that it is rather intoxicating to be ‘in control’ and affecting changes in the world around you with magik. So yes, I get it. I should, after all, I was one.

The reality of the matter isthat while theyhave a hard time imagining any other way to live, God wants them to come toHim through Jesus. And He has so much more in mind for them. That is not easy for a witch to grasp hold of since their world is about them being in control.

Now for the church folk, if you think about it, it’s not any different from any other form of sin that gets between a person and Jesus.Not any different at all.So there is really no need to get all worked up into a tizzy over running into a witch.Tell them aboutJesus and how to be saved, pray for them, answer questions if theywish to ask any of you. Same aswe should be doing with everyone all over town. Just understand that their answer may be to decline Jesus’ offer. It is the freedom to choose that He has given to all of us.

I was going to stay out of this….. NO… REALLY… okay, I’ll wait for y’all to stop laughing now….

As with every year, there are those who come out and start in on the “it’s pagan” refrain… most of them that have come to my attention don’t even know what that means.

Without getting to far into the weeds here, I will put out a few thoughts for young christians who might read this and need to know.

The Christmas Tree… that’s a favorite of mine and the two most popular angles seem to be; decorating an evergreen is a pagan tradition… and The Bible says not to put them up.. citing a passage of scripture that, when you read it, is actually talking about the carved and painted idols that were being made to worship. So, unless you are worshiping your Christmas tree, don’t sweat it.

The Date…. It’s a pagan holiday date… Now, we all should realize that December 25th is not the actual day that Jesus was born.. He was born at tax time after the harvest. The Catholics may well have chosen the date to sort of step on someone’s holiday.. but that really doesn’t matter. After all, there are ~365 days in a calendar year.. I defy you to locate one… just ONE that isn’t a pagan holiday of some sort.

Santa… okay, really? get over it already. Santa has nothing to do with Christmas he’s just window dressing.. a fun myth that hearkens back to an earlier time and a generous man.

What is Christmas, really? I submit that to the follower of Jesus, Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of our Lord, and speak of Him to all mankind. That some of the world celebrates with us just makes it easier to spread the Gospel message this time of year.

There is an applicable New Testament principle that is being overlooked by many who have gotten lost in the weeds of this issue: Romans 14:

1Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.

²For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.

³Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.

⁴Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.

⁵One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.

⁶He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.

⁷For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.

⁸For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.

⁹For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.

¹⁰But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

¹¹For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.

¹²So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

¹³Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.

¹⁴I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.

 

Bottom line stop fighting amongst yourselves and start spreading the Gospel.