ARE YOU ALLOWING THE APPEARANCE OF OTHERS DECEIVE YOU? Written by Mindy Schuman Many times in scripture, Jesus emphasized that holiness and righteousness extends far beyond someone’s outward appearance, beyond their background, beyond even their nationality and gender. So many times Christians assume that those who appear to look and act outwardly holy are in fact living a sanctified and holy life before God and teaching in truth. Unfortunately, many times Christians whose outward appearance seems to convey this outward holiness are in fact unrighteousness and self indulgent (Matthew 23:27) on the inside according to scripture. This is why it’s so important to discern for yourself, with the help of Holy Spirit, to guard your heart with these types of Christians. While it’s true that our inward state of being should reflect on the outside, we can be easily fooled by those with intentions that are not pure and who do not have God’s heart even though they would like others to believe they do. Let’s look at the following scripture: Matthew 21:28-32 A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I will not,’…

IS THE COUNSEL YOU RECEIVED OF THE LORD OR THE ENEMY? There are about 30,000 pastors and over 120,000 licensed professional counselors, over 80,000 psychologists and over 30,000 psychiatrists in America who have people come to them for advice with which to handle issues in their own personal lives and relationships. Over the past 8 years at Restored to Freedom, we have seen more and more people coming to us who have shared that they were given counsel from their pastors, counselors as well as other professionals that was not good, unwise and actually hurt them worse. Sadly much of the counsel came from the person, pastor or counselor and not from the Lord or Holy Spirit. Many times the counsel given to them were from well-meaning pastors or counselors but they had no understanding how demonic spirits cause people to behave which cause emotionally harmed people more harm by their support of aggressive / abusive spouses or controlling / abusive parents who act like they are godly. Many times the advice was coming from a place of inexperience on the part of the pastor / counselor or sadly through similar demonic tainted like-minded spirits that were similar to the…

GOD WANTS MARRIAGES THAT ARE HOLY NOT COMPROMISED God wants both husband and wife to be aligned with living a godly life according to the Bible. They need to both have fruit of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control). They need to both walk in humility and sexual purity. If your spouse is not living a godly life and is living a sinful life of the flesh then they will try to get you to compromise and tolerate sin in your life. They will come against you fulfilling your calling in the Lord. They will try to pull you away from living a life full of integrity and sexual purity and follow them instead of God which can ultimately affect your salvation if you give yourself over to them in order to “keep the peace.” There was a woman in the Bible named Sapphire who agreed to sin with her husband and it unfortunately cost her life. “But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession. And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at…

HOW TO KNOW WHEN DEMONS ARE MANIFESTING IN PEOPLE Most people around the world are tormented by demons in their mind (thoughts) and then manifest without even realizing it. Many who attend church and would call themselves Christians also hear from demons in their thoughts (let alone those who are outside the church). The National Science Foundation did a study in 2005 and learned that the average person could have 12,000 or more thoughts a day of which 80% of the thoughts would be negative and 95% of the thoughts were repetitive of the thoughts from the days before. Demons gain access to people when we endure various wounds in our souls (mind, will and emotions) or when we are physically or sexually harmed as well as when we willingly choose to sin and choose to make confessions to Satan through various ungodly organizations (Freemasons, Shriners, Eastern Star, Skull & Bones, etc.) or if our father or mother or grandparents also have made confessions to Satan through organizations and cursed us. A soul wound could be someone showing you pornography, speaking words to you that hurt you (could be soft and gentle or harsh and loud), getting rejected by someone…

GOD GIVES US THE HOLY SPIRIT SO WE CAN GET DELIVERED FROM OUR DEMONIC SPIRITS So many Christians have been told lies that when they get the Holy Spirit that all demons have to leave them. They are told demonic spirits and the Holy Spirit can’t coexist in the same person. In reality most people still behave in ungodly and sinful ways after they “ask Jesus into their hearts.” It’s because they still need deliverance from their demons that attached to their soul. They still have sin that is plentiful in their lives, pride, unforgiveness, anger, sicknesses, gossip, lying and sexual sin. Sadly the truth is that most will still have more fruit of the flesh than they do the spirit after spending years in the church. Just because you make an initial decision to follow Christ (or “ask Jesus into your heart”) doesn’t mean that demons have to leave your soul (mind, will and emotions). In fact they won’t leave you as long as they have legal rights to stay. Why would they leave you alone if you are giving them rights to stay through unforgiveness, pride and sin? Derek Prince stated that some of the most dangerous people…

GOD LOVES HIS TROUBLEMAKERS! Most church attenders have been told that to be a good Christian you must be nice, never upsetting anyone, nor getting people angry or riled up or causing any trouble. You need to simply get along with everyone. They expect church people to live peacefully, work diligently in their jobs, responsibly raise their families, and of course, go to church every Sunday. Christians must certainly never complain, oppose authority, resist the governmental laws or use power to force reforms. Judging from the Bible, however, people would have a hard time proving these assertions to be true. In Scripture, most of the greatest men and women of God were known as troublemakers. So if you can’t get along with people and look the other way at their sin and go with the status quo then you are called a troublemaker. You are being made a scapegoat because you have an actual moral compass and will call out the sin and bad behavior in others instead of participating in it, but then be labeled as not being able to get along with everyone. Joseph caused his brothers to be jealous and hate him to the point that they…

MANY WANT INSTANT DELIVERANCE FROM THEIR PAIN WITHOUT ANY EFFORT TO CHANGE Many of us want delivered from our pain without any effort to change on our part. Many want healed of the sicknesses and pains in their bodies without having to truly forgive all who ever hurt them so that God can forgive them for those they hurt and walk in good health. They want to look thin or strong without cutting out sugars and fried food from their diet and exercising every day. They want delivered from smoking without actually enduring any pain from withdrawal symptoms. They want to be blessed in their lives without changing their sinful behavior to obey the Bible. They want to be elevated to leading a ministry without consecrating their lives to total obedience to the Lord and sacrificing their financial living arrangements. They say they want freed from porn and masturbating yet won’t stop looking at porn, lusting and masturbating because it feels good to their flesh. They want to be delivered from poverty yet refuse to tithe regularly and waste money on addictions and foolish temporal things. They want to be rich without having to work or stop wasting money on…

WHEN WE ARE HEALED & DELIVERED SIN BECOMES RARE IN OUR LIVES When we are healed from our soul wounds of our past and have forgiven everyone who has hurt us, repented for our pride and sin, delivered from demonic strongholds then sin becomes rare in our lives. We don’t want to sin anymore. It has no hold on us or attraction to it - we become like Jesus as our fruit is His fruit. We are a true Christian with the fruit to show for it. Christians who continue to live a life full of compromised sin, lust, selfishness and pride with no conviction for it will not see heaven no matter how many good works, miracles, casting out of demons in others or prophesying over others that they have done. ““Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from…

NOT EVERY MARRIAGE WAS ORDAINED BY GOD Think about it. Most marriages happen when a young man and woman are first physically attracted to one another. Then they date for a period of time to see if they are compatible with one another. If one person is very controlling, lies, cheats on them, emotionally abuses or worse, or has no godly fruit while the other person wants to live for God then often times they don’t follow through with the wedding. Often times one of the parties says they are a Christian, acts nice to them as much as they are able to muster during the dating process but ultimately has no intention in their heart of living a godly lifestyle and simply wants their future spouse to provide for their financial or physical needs, give them sex when they want it, yet will treat them like a slave with consistent emotional abuse, putting them down with a cutting tongue and possibly worse during the marriage. Does that sound like a potential marriage ordained by God? Of course not. Yet millions of marriages are consummated under false pretense. So what happens if you had every intention of serving God in…

JEZEBEL LOVES STRIFE AND HATES PEACE People who operate in the Jezebel spirit love to strive and argue and hate peace. They are used to getting people to give them what they want when they get angry and threaten and intimidate them in fear. They will provoke you until you can no longer stay at peace and then when you say something back to them in retaliation they blame you for not getting along with them. The spirit of Jezebel causes them to rant and rage, talk on and on and on without ceasing for hours. Jezebel causes arguments, fighting, strife and will change the subject multiple times in order to shift the discussion away from the real issues concerning their own bad behavior to something totally irrelevant. People who operate in the spirit of Jezebel have no peace in their minds. Ever. Just torment from their demons every day. They get hit with 12,000 or more thoughts a day of which 80% are negative and 95% the same thoughts they had the day before. So what does the Bible say about striving and arguing? 2 Timothy 2:23-26 NKJV 23 But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate…