Belief in Spiritual Warefare

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Coreopisis

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I am not sure how to post a poll here but I am going to try…

I am Catholic and I’ve had problems with a demonic haunting which after 4 years is now officially conqured. On my journey to get help I encountered many skeptics including some Priests.

I’ve learned many things through my journey but the one thing that is most surprising to me is how many people believe that spiritual warefare isn’t real in the sense that they don’t believe that there are actual spiritual entities who are working to destroy us every day.

I am curious how many people here on this forum believe or don’t believe and I am also curious how many of those are Catholic.

Thanks for participating.
 
I think it’s truly sad that Catholics or any Christians for that matter don’t believe in actual spiritual warfare. It seems to me that if having professed to believe in what the Gospels say Christians don’t believe in spirits - both good and evil, that means they haven’t (yet?) received the Grace to believe in Him fully. That’s sad. Not being able to believe in His Power and Glory. Not that I can say I have got it all down, cause I sure don’t!:o I just have been blessed with seeing a portion of His Power and Glory (and all that entails).
Having said that, I certainly would agree with St. Teresa of Avila in that we (humans) can start believing that the evil spirits might win and be afraid because of it. That’s totally wrong thinking (albeit thinking of which I’ve been guilty). 😊
 
Life is definitely full of demons. I know a handful of people I literally consider evil – that is, possessed of the Devil. Although we must endeavor to still love them, we must also guard ourselves against them. Good must triumph over Evil.
 
brigid12 said:
I think it’s truly sad that Catholics or any Christians for that matter don’t believe in actual spiritual warfare. It seems to me that if having professed to believe in what the Gospels say Christians don’t believe in spirits - both good and evil, that means they haven’t (yet?) received the Grace to believe in Him fully. That’s sad. Not being able to believe in His Power and Glory. Not that I can say I have got it all down, cause I sure don’t!:o I just have been blessed with seeing a portion of His Power and Glory (and all that entails).
Having said that, I certainly would agree with St. Teresa of Avila in that we (humans) can start believing that the evil spirits might win and be afraid because of it. That’s totally wrong thinking (albeit thinking of which I’ve been guilty). 😊
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I agree with you.

I’ve run into some people who I think believe that demons aren’t actually real but are the bibles way of explaining bad things to us.

I’ve also run into people who think that there are spirits but if we don’t talk about them they wont bother us. (sad)

The list goes on. I want to see how this poll goes and then I have more questions and I want to post a couple more.
 
Well, for what it’s worth, I’m no longer Catholic, but at one time I was a huge believer in “spiritual warfare”. I almost always had, near to hand, holy water or blessed salt. I had an old exorcism prayer (a long one, promulgated by Pope Someone or Other the Xth). I could take authority and rebuke and all that jazz.

Except it didn’t work. The more I rebuked and whatever, the more my fears grew and tormentors increased. It got to the point were I could barely be alone in the dark. I always felt like something was following me, just around the corner, always out of sight.

It wasn’t until I gave up the “spiritual warfare” that I got relief. I stopped rebuking and instead asked the Divinity to be present in my home and around me. The Darkness cannot coexist with the Light.

The lesson I learned: if you are focusing your attention on the enemy, then you are giving it power. Instead, once I focused on the Divine, I became much more aware of It’s power in the world.
 
St. Paul tells us…

“For the rest, brethren, be strengthened in the Lord and in the might of his power. Put on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the Principalities and the Powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness on high…” (Ephesians 6:10-13)

Yes, the battle is real. And the dangers are real. But we belong to Jesus Christ. God bless. 🙂

“I love You, O Lord, my strength, O Lord, my Rock, my Fortress, my Deliverer…” (Psalm 18:2)
 
KingAlfred said:
Life is definitely full of demons. I know a handful of people I literally consider evil – that is, possessed of the Devil. Although we must endeavor to still love them, we must also guard ourselves against them. Good must triumph over Evil.
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I have met my share of jerks and more than my share of poisonous people (those that, while not evil, are not pleasant to be with), but I have only met one person that I would consider truly evil. And I’m still not sure if it was a psychological issue or a moral issue.
 
I’ve raised 4 teenagers (now safely into adulthood) and been involved in the upbringing of many more, and I definitely believe there are demons from hell who attack us on the spiritual front, and have succeeded in reducing much of the entertainment and information indurstry to their service.
 
Demons can only attack us if God allows them to for our own good. They were defeated by Christ, and even though they try to drag us to Hell, in the end they work for the Kingdom of God by providing us with crosses to bear.
 
Kevirish01 said:
For those who want to read a hair-raising story about the reality of spiritual warfare – read the following article at posted link.

Yes Virginia, there are demons.

(P.S. Do not read this at night.)

holyspiritinteractive.net/columns/guests/tomhoopes/darkbackward.asp
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Interesting article, not scary though after living it for 20 + years. I find it fascinating though that demons don’t seem to come up with any new tricks. Not the most creative of God’s creatures.
 
cheese_sdc said:
Well, for what it’s worth, I’m no longer Catholic, but at one time I was a huge believer in “spiritual warfare”. I almost always had, near to hand, holy water or blessed salt. I had an old exorcism prayer (a long one, promulgated by Pope Someone or Other the Xth). I could take authority and rebuke and all that jazz.

Except it didn’t work. The more I rebuked and whatever, the more my fears grew and tormentors increased. It got to the point were I could barely be alone in the dark. I always felt like something was following me, just around the corner, always out of sight.

It wasn’t until I gave up the “spiritual warfare” that I got relief. I stopped rebuking and instead asked the Divinity to be present in my home and around me. The Darkness cannot coexist with the Light.

The lesson I learned: if you are focusing your attention on the enemy, then you are giving it power. Instead, once I focused on the Divine, I became much more aware of It’s power in the world.
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I am glad that worked for you but that is not necessarily true according to the exorcist, Priests and deliverance team I’ve spoken with or got help from.

How much you get attacked has really has nothing to do with your awknowledgement of it.

What you experianced is very common and all to familiar to me. Demons really don’t appreciate your fighting back. To re-focus your attention they will do anything they can to re-direct your attention, even purposefully reducing the attacks at certain times to make you think that something worked.

Ultimately you can not get rid of them entirely until you sever their ‘legal’ right to be there. (Thankfully they need our permission in some form which gives us a way out, we just have to find it.) It takes work to determine if they are there through sin, curses, witchcraft, Ouigi boards and a whole host of other things. It takes a lot of repentance and prayer to break all possible ties to them. Sometimes those ties can even be a curiosity toward new age information. It just depends.

Once you get rid of their ‘legal’ right to be there, then you say the spiritual warefare prayers and they work.
 
cheese_sdc said:
I have met my share of jerks and more than my share of poisonous people (those that, while not evil, are not pleasant to be with), but I have only met one person that I would consider truly evil. And I’m still not sure if it was a psychological issue or a moral issue.
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You’re very lucky.

I met one who was truly evil, truly possessed. It was horrible.
 
Coreopisis said:
I am glad that worked for you but that is not necessarily true according to the exorcist, Priests and deliverance team I’ve spoken with or got help from.

How much you get attacked has really has nothing to do with your awknowledgement of it.

What you experianced is very common and all to familiar to me. Demons really don’t appreciate your fighting back. To re-focus your attention they will do anything they can to re-direct your attention, even purposefully reducing the attacks at certain times to make you think that something worked.

Ultimately you can not get rid of them entirely until you sever their ‘legal’ right to be there. (Thankfully they need our permission in some form which gives us a way out, we just have to find it.) It takes work to determine if they are there through sin, curses, witchcraft, Ouigi boards and a whole host of other things. It takes a lot of repentance and prayer to break all possible ties to them. Sometimes those ties can even be a curiosity toward new age information. It just depends.

Once you get rid of their ‘legal’ right to be there, then you say the spiritual warefare prayers and they work.
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There is no fighting demons. All you do is rely on the Source of Goodness. The two (evil and Good) cannot co-exist. Once I asked that my home, work, and person be filled with Truth and Goodness, then there was no room for anything else.

I really don’t even like discussing it because I do not want to draw attention to the adversary. I’d much rather concentrate my energies on God.
 
cheese_sdc said:
There is no fighting demons. All you do is rely on the Source of Goodness. The two (evil and Good) cannot co-exist. Once I asked that my home, work, and person be filled with Truth and Goodness, then there was no room for anything else.

I really don’t even like discussing it because I do not want to draw attention to the adversary. I’d much rather concentrate my energies on God.
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But the good and the evil do co-exist. That is Earth.

You don’t have to answer this, but I wonder to myself that if getting rid of evil is just a matter of asking for truth and goodness then why has no one done this for the whole planet? (I don’t expect an answer.)

It is possible to fight back, resist and prevail over demons, that is what spiritual warfare is all about. That is what exorcists do, that is what the Catholic church does, that is what I have done through Him.

Jesus gave us the abilit to resist the devil and to cast them out in His name. Through Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit and our freedom to make choices we can fight back so-to-speak in His name. Fighting back not on our own (of course) but through God.

But I do understand that everything I am saying makes you uncomfortable for many reasons. You’re not the only one to be uncomfortable with it.

God Bless and I pray for your continued freedom and peace.

With love,
Sarah

.
God bless!
 
Coreopisis said:
You don’t have to answer this, but I wonder to myself that if getting rid of evil is just a matter of asking for truth and goodness then why has no one done this for the whole planet? (I don’t expect an answer.)
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Even if someone exorcised the whole planet tomorrow, we’d still have evil due to man’s fallen nature. Ours is a battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil.
 
Coreopisis said:
You don’t have to answer this, but I wonder to myself that if getting rid of evil is just a matter of asking for truth and goodness then why has no one done this for the whole planet? (I don’t expect an answer.)
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Probably for the same reason that no one has done an exorcism over the whole planet. 😉
But I do understand that everything I am saying makes you uncomfortable for many reasons.
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Not uncomfortable. My experiences are different. I have no doubt that rarely (extremely rarely!) a full bore exorcism may be required, but that engaging in “spiritual warfare” on an on-going basis is counter-productive. And I know that fact is counter-intuitive to most people.
 
beckycmarie said:
Even if someone exorcised the whole planet tomorrow, we’d still have evil due to man’s fallen nature. Ours is a battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil.
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LOL - thus my point beckycmarie. You’re exactly right.

This is why it is not enough to ask for truth and light to fill our earth. We must repent and work to be better Christians, go to mass, try not to sin, recieve the sacrements. Otherwise we end up with a situation where we are mixing the light and the dark as demons can enter light with permission through sin.
 
cheese_sdc said:
Probably for the same reason that no one has done an exorcism over the whole planet. 😉

Not uncomfortable. My experiences are different. I have no doubt that rarely (extremely rarely!) a full bore exorcism may be required, but that engaging in “spiritual warfare” on an on-going basis is counter-productive. And I know that fact is counter-intuitive to most people.
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I feel close to anyone who has ever dealt with these issues. So I just want to say to you “May our Lord’s peace be with you always, and may you continue to be protected from the evil in this world.”

If ever you find you are encountering problems again know that there are more things that can be done and that you are not alone. We are all in this together.

Thank you for sharing your experiances.
 
Coreopisis said:
I feel close to anyone who has ever dealt with these issues. So I just want to say to you “May our Lord’s peace be with you always, and may you continue to be protected from the evil in this world.”

Thank you for sharing your experiances.
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I appreciate that. I dealt with these issues for years (all through childhood and into adulthood - it wasn’t until a few years ago that I was able to work free of it.
 
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