26: How to Stop Giving the Devil Permission to Your Life – Practical Spiritual Warfare, Part 1

[00:00] Stephanie: Season 3, episode 26. Today we are getting started on a new series all about practical warfare.

Hello, Father.

[00:09] Marcus: Hello, Daughter.

[00:10] Stephanie: That sounded way more intense than I meant it to sound, as I’m wearing my pinkish thing.

[00:19] Marcus: Practical Warfare Boot Camp. Yes, you gotta be happy when you’re talking about spiritual warfare.

[00:25] Stephanie: Hey, you know, I love helping. A lot of people need help with it and I’m so happy that we can help.  Also I’m so happy. This week we are actually on our way to Houston, Texas, for the Disciple Making Forum where you and I are going to be there and several other very epic people.

[00:46] Marcus: Yes. And several members of the Deeper Walk team will be there.

[00:48] Stephanie: Yes, yes, yes. I obviously, yes, everybody. I will dub everybody who comes to this conference as epic, but I was referring to our team. Yeah. And you’re going to be talking about spiritual warfare in disciple making and discipleship.

[01:05] Marcus: Yeah. And I’m excited that our whole team is participating in the presentation. Not the whole team, but we have a lot of members of the team participating in the presentation.

So I’m excited about seeing this spread as we have an opportunity to teach on spiritual warfare. We’re expecting 150 to 200 people to be in our four sessions, each time, for each session. And they’re all in ministry leadership, so it’s a great opportunity.

[01:34] Stephanie: So excited to see people and for the chance to spread this part of the ministry.

Yes, so on the podcast for the month of May, we are going to be talking about practical warfare. You could also call it personal warfare because we’re going to be looking at the individual freedom journey side of things mostly.

And my hope for this is that it can give a checklist of sorts that, whether you are working with somebody, or you are working on yourself, that you can use it. I’m rather proud of it because as I knew I wanted us to talk practical warfare, I was looking for which angle we were going to do it on and I landed on four words.

And I was like, “Okay, this will be perfect. Four words!” But it didn’t make an acrostic. And I was like, “What sort of daughter would I be to you if I didn’t get this to be an acrostic?

So I’ll tell you the four words first, because some people are like, “I don’t even care about the acrostic. What’s the simplicity?” Simplicity is Renounce, Evict, Repent, and Cleanse.  That was my starting point. I won’t go through my iterations.

The final one – so we have to build joy – a key part of the freedom journey is building joy. It’s literally tool one, Understanding the Wounded Heart.

So let’s whistle while we work with a song. The acrostic is SONG:

• Stop giving permission,
• Oust the enemy. See if I remember my own thing…
• Nurture new habits and
• Guard your ground.

There we go.

[03:27] Marcus: Well done.

[03:28] Stephanie: Yeah, Huzzah.

[03:29] Marcus: Huzzah to you. Yes. Huzzah. It’s my turn to say huzzah here. Well done.

[03:34] Stephanie: So, Stop giving permission, Oust the enemy. Nurture new habits and Guard your ground.

So now we’ll give a quick overview over what we mean by that, and then we’ll go into Stop giving permission this episode, and then take it one by one from there. So whether you’re working on yourself or someone else, hope this is helpful. So you need to identify the obstacles, the focal points of what is creating whatever issue in your freedom journey, and then renounce it. So that’s what we’re going to talk about more.

[04:11] Marcus: Yeah. So why don’t we start with, people are like, “Well, how do I know if I’ve got something demonic going on? How do I know if I have a stronghold? What should I even be looking for here?”

[04:21] Stephanie: Go through a quick inventory or I was going to go through what we mean by it, but it’s probably self-evident. The acrostic is self-evident. That’s okay. We’ll start with that.

[04:28] Marcus: We’ll get there. I find that there are generally two or three things that are characteristic of strongholds, and one of them is hopelessness. And that is that I feel hopeless to make a change in my life that God would want me to make. In other words, “I know God wants me to be morally pure, but it feels hopeless that I am ever going to be morally pure.” Or, “I know that God would like me to live with more joy, but it feels hopeless to have any more joy.”

So if something that you know God wants for you feels hopeless, that’s a sign that there’s probably a demonic stronghold involved in that, because a stronghold by definition has to do with your mind. If you go to the one passage of scripture that actually refers to “stronghold” as a negative thing, because most scriptures on stronghold are about “God is my stronghold,” and they’re very good.

The one negative one is in 2nd Corinthians 10:4 & 5, where it describes all the words in there about our thought life, and tearing down high things in our mind, and that where our mind is set, and it talks about taking thoughts captive. So it’s very much about this idea that there’s a battle for our mind and that strongholds have to do with these thoughts that create hopelessness that we can’t do what it is that we know God wants us to do.

A second thing is compulsion, and that is, that I find myself compulsively doing things that I know I don’t want to be doing. It’s like, I’m not trying to do this. I’m not setting out to feed this, but it’s a compulsion that I can’t seem to stop. That’s often also a sign that there is a demonic elemental layer to what’s going on.

A third thing that we’re looking for, beyond the hopelessness and the compulsivity, is unexplained medical things. Nobody can seem to figure out why this is going on is sometimes a sign that maybe I should look and see if there is a demonic root to what is happening. So those are three things right off the top that I tend to look for to see if there might be something in the stronghold category.

[06:45] Stephanie: Yeah, that’s good. So this is the trigger of, why is it on my radar that I should be thinking I need a freedom journey here?

[06:54] Marcus: Right.

[06:54] Stephanie: And then from there, we’re going to want to go through an inventory. Probably that would be helpful, especially if you’re newer to thinking about categories.

[07:05] Marcus: Yes. Your first word is “stop”, so the obvious question is, “What do I need to stop?”

[07:09] Stephanie: Right.

[07:10] Marcus: And that would be the inventory or the checklist. So it’s like, let’s stop doing the things that give ground, and not only stop doing them, but let’s stop the permission that that ground has already given.

What are those common things? I have, obviously, an acrostic on this that we’ve gone through several times in this, which is SOUL-L. And that is there’s Sin, there’s Occult, there’s Unforgiveness, there’s Lies we believe, there’s Lineage issues.

Let me talk about three other ones. Just because this checklist is not meant to be everything. It’s just…

[07:51] Stephanie: It’s common.

[07:52] Marcus: Right. So also if I find that I am living with fear that I can’t get away from, there’s often a demonic element to that kind of fear and so I’m looking at what are the roots underneath this.

I remember, for me, one of the first times I ever had a panic attack, there was a direct lie underneath it, but it wasn’t obvious what the lie was. We had to do some digging with a counselor to figure out what that was. As soon as it came up and I admitted it, the panic left because the enemy was using that to get ground in my life.

I talked to Karl Payne about this, and he said among the people he works with, that fear is the number one issue that they are trying to resolve in getting rid of their strongholds.

A second thing is idolatry. Now, we’ve talked about the idea that idolatry is, by its very definition, spiritual warfare, because false gods, the Bible tells us, are demons. Paul wrote in 1st Corinthians, where he says, “I don’t want you to be participants with demons. I don’t want you having fellowship with them. I don’t want you engaging with them.”

And how do we do that? By eating the food sacrificed idols, by going to the temples and such like that. And so there is this warning against the idea that things that engage us with the demonic are often in that realm of idolatry.

And then there are ways that we make idols out of things. And one of the ways I look at that is, anything that I am asking to save me, that isn’t God, and I don’t just mean saving from hell, I’m talking about “I need a deliverer. And I’m asking this thing to deliver me rather than turning to God, who may well provide that.”

[09:46] Stephanie: “I will only be okay if…”

[09:49] Marcus: “I will only be okay if…” Right. And so idolatry tends to move us in those directions where I’m looking for my salvation and my help apart from God. That’s part of what’s involved.

[10:05] Stephanie: Oftentimes good things disordered are what becomes bad.

[10:11] Marcus: Yes, one of my favorite pictures of this, and this will take us a little off topic, but it’s good enough, I think, to camp out on. There was a book years ago, I believe it was written by Oz Guinness, and he talked about citadels of hope on the edge of despair.

The image has always captured my imagination. What he was doing was talking that in a secular society where people believe there is no meaning to life, you would think that people would lie awake at night pondering their eternal destiny of nothingness.

You would think that this would be a horrifying prospect that people would be wrestling with on a regular basis. But no, it’s not. We don’t see people even thinking about it much. Why? Because they have erected these citadels, or fortresses, or shall we say strongholds, on the edge of despair that distract them from it and keep them occupied. And so to some extent they become the idols or the false gods that they’re asking, “Give my life meaning, give my life purpose, and save me from the stuff I don’t want to experience.”

And so I think there’s an overlap here in terms of the idolatry picture, that a lot of us have erected these idols in our lives, whether it’s entertainment or business or family or even religion at some level when it’s not a personal relationship, that can become distractions that keep us busy so that we don’t have to think about all of the things that are truly important.

[11:58] Stephanie: I don’t think that was a distraction from the conversation either. I think that that’s right in line with what we’re talking about.

As for going through an inventory of things, whether you’re assessing, “Do I have these counterfeit citadels of hope?” or going through the SOUL-L, or going through the Steps to Freedom in Christ, this is a great way to start helping you focus, “Okay, God, is this what’s happening?” And then renouncing it. I also just want to throw in there: Is it RED?

The acrostic R E D. If you have participated in the occult, there are going to be some extra things that you’re going to want to do. So would you like to unpack that briefly?

[12:48] Marcus: This came up because of working with people who were actually in a witch’s coven, or they were actually part of a satanic cult, or they were engaged in an organization that promoted itself in a friendly manner, but underneath it, they were doing very occult things.

[13:05] Stephanie: Secret Society of Badness.

[13:05] Marcus: Yes. So the society of badness pretending to be the society of goodness. And so you have this thing where we walk them through that.

First of all, you have to Renounce. That you’re renouncing participation in all of the things that you had to do, whether it was seances or fortune telling and tarot cards or rituals or any of the things that you had to do. “I renounce my participation in those things.” That’s the R.

E is, “I End my membership.” Now, it’s not always safe to go end your membership with them directly, but you end your membership in the Court of Heaven. You’re saying, “God, please, may the blood of Jesus separate me from any connection to that membership.” Now, sometimes the Holy Spirit may lead you to go and end it in a more literal fashion.

And then the D is Destruction. And that is, in the Old Testament, idols were destroyed, right? The altars were torn down and destroyed. And in that same way, if I own occult objects, I want to destroy those.

And not only, as I destroy them I want to renounce and I want to destroy and I want to then evict. So the E just changes. And that’s saying I want to Evict anything that was attached to me because of those objects.

And so we see kind of a sample of this in Acts 19 where the community brought out all of their occult paraphernalia that they had, just within the church, and they destroyed it. And so that’s kind of where we get this idea.

[14:41] Stephanie: So I don’t want to leave people hanging if they’re tuning in because, like, “Yes! I need this!” Next episode we are going to talk more about ousting the enemy and eviction. But would you walk people through a simple way of eviction?

[14:55] Marcus: Yes, the simplest tool I’ve ever seen is Karl Payne’s CCC. And that is, I Confess that I did this. I Cancel any permission I gave because of doing this. And I ask you, Jesus, to cancel that permission up in the Court of Heaven. And I now Command anything involved with it to leave.

Now, normally when we do those Cs, that’s all we do. But in this case, there’s sometimes added the renouncing – is kind of the three Cs – but there is also an ending of memberships and there is a destruction of objects that isn’t always included in the Cs, and that’s why we specify the RED in addition.

[15:34] Stephanie: That’s good. So this can all be a lot, especially if it’s new. So two quick resource recommendations for people. One is the book Understanding the Wounded Heart that walks through the wounds, lies, vows, and strongholds process of recognizing them and dealing with them.

It also brings out four key tools which I alluded to before of building joy and dealing with unforgiveness, and taking thoughts captive, and all the things. So it’s a really well rounded resource that Dad wrote.

[16:13] Marcus: And it’s concise, right?

[16:14] Stephanie: And it’s concise. It’s not a super thick book. Dad writes books that he would read, he says.

[16:20] Marcus: Means short.

[16:21] Stephanie: He also reads very thick commentaries and all the things. But anyway, I’m derailing. I do this a lot.

So, Understanding the Wounded Heart – very good resource. And then if you want to be really intentional with that resource and go even deeper, the Freedom Course is a 10 lesson, self-paced course that walks through Understanding the Wounded Heart and also a little bit of Breakthrough.

And Dad here, he teaches about three hours worth of content over the course of the 10 lessons. And there are reflections and prayers and exercises and things that you can do if you’re wanting to really take ownership over that part of your journey. So recommend those two resources and you can find links to them in the description. And you have something to say and also you can give us final thoughts.

[17:16] Marcus: I’m just thinking about everybody who did something to make the course happen. From Dawn giving scope and sequence to it, to you doing a majority of the writing of stuff, to Ben doing all the production work on things. There were a lot of people who made that possible on our team. That’s where my mind was going.

[17:38] Stephanie: Well, thank you for giving us great, rich content to work with. So final thoughts for the episode.

[17:45] Marcus: Final thoughts for the episode. So we’re talking about. SONG is nice because spiritual warfare can be a heavy topic.

[17:53] Stephanie: Whistle while you warfare!

[17:54] Marcus: (Laughter) what else would we expect? Right? So I like SONG. That is Stop. You know, stop it. Which is not the Bob Newhart “Stop it.” This is, we gotta…

[18:14] Stephanie: Stop giving permission!

[18:15] Marcus: Stop giving permission. And then, Ousting the demons, which we’ll talk about more next time. And Nurturing. I love the idea of nurturing the new habits. And then of course, Guarding the ground because we’re reclaiming that surrendered ground and now we want to guard it and one of the things we need to do.

So great acrostic. I’m looking forward to going through it with you.

[18:36] Stephanie: And I did want to just mention, for people who noticed that “nurture new habits” came out of repentance, that this idea is walking out repentance. Because a lot of times you think about repentance as making the choice to turn the other direction, but I’m taking this as, renouncing it, you’ve already gotten there, you’re already recognizing that you need to turn. But now what are your steps to walk it out? So that’s the thought there.

[19:06] Marcus: Yeah, that’s excellent because that involves walking in the spirit, that involves biblical meditation, that involves community, that involves a whole lot of things which we often don’t associate with repentance. So I like that because repentance is way more than just a choice.

[19:21] Stephanie: Huzzah. All right, I’m looking forward to continuing this conversation. Thanks for joining us on the trail today. Did you like this episode? Would you like more people to see it? This is the part where I ask you to, like, comment, subscribe, share with a friend.

And do you love this channel? One of the best ways that you can support us is by becoming a deeper walk trailblazer. Thanks again. We’ll see you back on the trail next week.