Mental illness, demons and the BIBLE

[Depleted]

I see your following me around again.. mate wazz up have you got a bone to pick... ......read your bile in the last days those who had been held captive by the snare of the devil will be set free....

Kettle? Meet Pot!

(I guess the Beer Summit is really off now.)

Heads up. This is DC's MO. He's as nosy as I am, so comes to just about every thread, and post when he just has to. (Like me. lol) Let us not assume that habit is called "stalking." There are a few stalkers on this site, but DC isn't one of them.

And honestly? I get along as well with DC as I get along with you. I truly believe in sticking by family. We are all family in the Lord. But, just like my blood family gets on my last nerve, so does some of my God family. Sometimes it's just easier to have limited exposure to family. Makes it easier to stick by them when sticking by them is needed.

I suspect DC holds to this theory too with me. And, once you get to know me better, I suspect you and DC will agree with that about me too. So, I'm sticking by him, and you, and yet, can't actually say any of us will ever have that Beer Summit together. (Not a problem with me. Never did like beer -- English style or American style. And I was never in the service, so I would have been the square wheel in your cart. lol) But don't go assuming just because you see the same people in the threads that you pick to follow all the time means you're being stalked.

A true sign of being stalked is when someone comes along to a forum rarely ventured into whenever you say something just to rag on you is a sure sign of being stalked. That's the difference.

 

[Depleted]

2 Corinthians 10

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

Same problem here that I had when Chok posted scripture without explaining it. I simply don't get what you see in it, because I'm busy seeing what I see in it.

I really do agree that we don't war according to the flesh. And I do agree it's about fighting strongholds, (albeit, didn't have a clear understanding what a stronghold was until yesterday.) BUT it is all out war! We fight with our sin nature. We fight with Satan. We fight with demons. We fight the very nastiness of society at large. But it has nothing to do with guns, tanks, bombs, and armed drones.

The outcome doesn't look like the aftermath of the Battle of the Bulge. After this war the scenery is going to look closer to the Garden of Eden. Badness replaced by God's goodness.

I still remember this post is about telling the difference between demon activity and (mental) disease. (Hard to believe I still remember that after my tangents, isn't it? lol) So, I don't know how that verse fit it. (Could have been a tangent too. I assume I'm not the only one allowed to go on tangents.)

 

[Depleted]

We don't need to hope for salvation, because we ALREADY have it.. Pretty simple concept for even the simplest brain to understand..

You're concept of simple is different than mine. (I'm beginning to wonder if you think learning html is simple too. lol)

I really do believe OSAS. But what is often missing is the assumption the person is saved. Some seeds landed on rocky soil, so the seedling grew, and then withered. I've seen believers do that. Because of that, I didn't trust I was "really saved" for the longest time. It wasn't simple for me. I walked.

I tried walking away from God several times in my life. (You witnessed one of those times, so can't say I got smarter over the long haul either.) He won't let me go anymore than he let Jonah go.

I am saved. But I didn't figure that out for the longest time, so I don't get how you think it's simple. Okay, on God's side it is. On our side? Hard to believe it, until the proof is in.

 

[Depleted]

Anxiety and depression are NOT always forms of mental illness. MY depression came about through a continuous series of bad life events. And it's normal for people to get anxious or scared. I get anxious whenever I have a doctor's appt, or get my blood drawn, or when I go to the dentist. Does that mean I'm mentally ill? NOPE. And btw, a chemical imbalance does not equate into mental illness. It CAN be treated with both medicine AND prayer..

Anxiety comes in two forms -- stuff makes us anxious (dentists, who wouldn't be? lol) and a physiological response the body has without the stuff that makes us anxious.

The latter is called a panic attack. The body does that to most of us eventually. It's a misfire from the brain, at first. It comes from nothing, but we think it must need a reason, so we begin to associate it with whatever was happening at that moment. We're usually wrong then. Sometimes the body just misfires, causing our heart to speed up, our stomach to twist, and sweating.

I got that once when I was about to go out to walk somewhere. At the time, I was having gallstone colic every five weeks, so my mind raced to make sense of the reaction and a new thought formed. "What if I have a gallstone pass as I'm walking?"

There is only two things I could do through a gallstone episode. (Want to call it an attack, but it's just a tiny piece of hardened substance going through and even tinier duct.)
1. Lie down, yell in pain, and squirm.
2. Pass out, because I didn't do the other choice. (First time I did that one, because the pain was so bad I couldn't even label it "pain." All I could come up with was, "I don't like this at all!" So since I didn't know that was pain, my body gave up dealing with it by knocking me out. lol)

So, my body had a panic attack at a moment when I was about to go out and I associated it with the fear of either lying on the sidewalk screaming in pain or passing out. In both scenarios, somebody came by to mug me. My brain filled in the gaps for why my body did that. I didn't go out that day. If I had listened to Stupid Voice, I could have easily become agoraphobic. (It runs on my family.) THAT would have been the beginning of a mental disorder. The medical version of the word "Anxiety disorder."

So it too, is a medical condition that spikes right into the brain.

As can depression. Your depression? I can imagine it easily being related to medical conditions -- epilepsy? Damn thing doesn't give you the life you want. Cancer? I bet that scared you to your core, and that made you sick and tired of what life has given you. Sciatica? Wooo doggy! That is both hard to deal with and extremely painful. It robs us of life too. Crappy family life? Gorwing up in it makes it all the way to TS. (Nothing Post about it. Full on Traumatic-Stress while it's happening, so can't call it PTSD.) Those are all triggers that start depression and are equally medical conditions. The two go hand-in-hand like hospital-induced hallucinations.

Hubby (again, before he was hubby) was very depressed and told a friend about it. The friend was a doctor. The doctor asked him why he was depressed. And hubby said, "I don't know. Maybe because my brother died and two weeks later my father died? Maybe because I'm going through this divorce, and can't see my children? I really don't know."

The doctor, (who I too became friends with -- enough so that his wife was my matron-of-honor), had a dry sense of humor. He laughed, and told hubby, "It's a wonder you're not dead, but you're supposed to be depressed."

That was a great relief to hubby. And then the friend added that there are certain life events that cause depression. The loss of a loved one and divorce are two of them. If anyone gets more than one in the same year, it can literally kill you. (It is a medical condition.) Hubby had gone through four losses (brother, father, two children) and a divorce all within six months. Even short-term depression is a medical problem.

It doesn't mean we necessarily need treatment, but it's worth finding out, so it doesn't kill us. But it is our body's way of telling us to slow down and protect ourselves from doing something else that can cause more crisis. (How many people decide to skydive or bungee jump when being depressed? lol)

So anxiety and depression are medical problems, could just be regular life, or could be severe. They are very real things, even if it's "all in the mind."

 

[Ariel82]

Same problem here that I had when Chok posted scripture without explaining it. I simply don't get what you see in it, because I'm busy seeing what I see in it.

I really do agree that we don't war according to the flesh. And I do agree it's about fighting strongholds, (albeit, didn't have a clear understanding what a stronghold was until yesterday.) BUT it is all out war! We fight with our sin nature. We fight with Satan. We fight with demons. We fight the very nastiness of society at large. But it has nothing to do with guns, tanks, bombs, and armed drones.

The outcome doesn't look like the aftermath of the Battle of the Bulge. After this war the scenery is going to look closer to the Garden of Eden. Badness replaced by God's goodness.

I still remember this post is about telling the difference between demon activity and (mental) disease. (Hard to believe I still remember that after my tangents, isn't it? lol) So, I don't know how that verse fit it. (Could have been a tangent too. I assume I'm not the only one allowed to go on tangents.)

Oh I just wanted to give you a Bible verse about strongholds, since you added it to your vocabulary. Figured now that you know the meaning of the word the verse might make more sense?

I see:

1. Our enemies aren't the people we see, but the spiritual forces of evil that have them enslaved.

2. That God has given us mighty weapons to tear down strongholds and arguments that don't align with God's will

3. We are to take every thought captive into the obedience of God.

Have you every just sat and paid attention to where your mind wonders?

For example you could try and focus on that verse I posted and think about what it means, and I at least will get distracted about what to make for dinner or what a pretty butterfly.

It just tells me we need to learn self control of not only our bodies but also our minds and hold every thought captive: test of they are from God or not.

4. We can't help others learn self control or try and "punish disobedence" until we first learn obedience. Until we first learn to submit to Christ, we can't set others free of the lies and spiritual strongholds that enslave them.

 

[Ariel82]

I love you Lynn, you are just so open about yourself and your words always paint a picture, though not always a pretty one, it's always a heartfelt sharing. Which at times is a true blessing. Thanks.

 

[Depleted]

Oh I just wanted to give you a Bible verse about strongholds, since you added it to your vocabulary. Figured now that you know the meaning of the word the verse might make more sense?

I see:

1. Our enemies aren't the people we see, but the spiritual forces of evil that have them enslaved.

2. That God has given us mighty weapons to tear down strongholds and arguments that don't align with God's will

3. We are to take every thought captive into the obedience of God.

Have you every just sat and paid attention to where your mind wonders?

For example you could try and focus on that verse I posted and think about what it means, and I at least will get distracted about what to make for dinner or what a pretty butterfly.

It just tells me we need to learn self control of not only our bodies but also our minds and hold every thought captive: test of they are from God or not.

4. We can't help others learn self control or try and "punish disobedence" until we first learn obedience. Until we first learn to submit to Christ, we can't set others free of the lies and spiritual strongholds that enslave them.

Ha! You give me more credit than I deserve. So, nope. Didn't know why you posted that verse.

Now I get it!

Oh, and as for "pretty butterfly?"

This is how my mind works even thinking about God. (I think you'll appreciate it. lol)

[video=youtube;SSUXXzN26zg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSUXXzN26zg[/video]

I am Squirrel Dog!