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 Question: I was wondering, how can a believer discern if another believer is being spiritually oppressed? Are there any telltale signs, or can one never really know? What steps need to be taken to discern a spirit of oppression on a believer, and what is to be done to help free him/her?
 Answer: I actually don't think we need a lot of discernment to know if a person is oppressed by the devil. From time to time we all have experienced that the devil has oppressed us. If you, or someone is oppressed by something this is not from God, and if it ‘s not from God, it most be from the evil one. If I have sickness, it is oppression from the devil (or in most cases his servants the daemons), because sickness is not from God and he will not oppress anyone (if it was why did Jesus die for my sickness?).
The way you drive it out can be just with a command or by using the word of God. See how Jesus is doing it (e.g. Luke 13:10). When we know the power of the word of God the enemy can't oppress us any more. Sometime it can take time to be free, but when we confess and believe the word, the evil one has to go sooner or later.
So you can do two things to the one that is oppressed: Pray or command the oppression to go, (and) or encourage the person by the promises we have in the Bible. God’s power is grater than any other power and when we have our eyes focused on Jesus, the enemy has to flee.
The person can be free by someone praying in faith over him/here or in many cases the one that is oppressed can be free by just grasping and believing the truth found in the Bible. It can seems very simple when I’m telling it like this, and it is, but I know that it can be hard to really grasp it many times. It's a fight and the enemy don't want us to see it and believe this truth. But don’t give up and hold on to the truth.
I'm going trough a hard time my self right now, or for the last half year. I can really see that the enemy wants to oppress me with a sickness, but I have chosen to believe the truth even tough I don't fell or see it in the physical. I'm using the word every day, and confess the truth and I will continue until I really believe it and healing comes.
Note. To be oppressed is not the same as being possessed. A Christian can't be possessed, but only oppressed. And you will also know quite well if a person is possessed.
Question: How can I be involved in Spiritual Warfare? Are there conditions to be met? If so what are they?
Answer: In the moment you receive Jesus into your life you get involved in Spiritual Warfare. So the only condition is; that you want to be Christian.
There are two important things when it comes to how we can do spiritual warfare:
- Our biggest weapon in spiritual warfare is prayer and worship. When we focus on God we make the enemy weak.
- But there is one thing that we often forget. To go against the devil is not always to say: I go against you, but the way you live is a spiritual warfare. As I have said in my teaching; everything you do have also an effect in the supernatural.
If you live in the opposite spirit of this world, like love instead of hate, forgiveness instead of unforgiveness etc. you do spiritual warfare. I have said to teams going on outreach to other countries: "The biggest warfare you can do is to live in unity and live in the opposite spirit of what the strongholds over the country are."
Question: Do we need spiritual warfare and where in the Bible does it say Spiritual warfare. Haven’t Jesus won over the enemy once and for all?
Answer: I know you don’t find the expression Spiritual Warfare in the Bible, but it talks a lot about a enemy that wish to destroy our lives. (See John 10:10 and Eph 6:10)
Even though it is a fact that Jesus has won over the devil once and for all, we have not done it yet. As Christians we are not immune against him, actually it is quite opposite. We are being tempted all and tested in many ways. So it is a spiritual battle for sure. In Jesus we also have the opportunity to concur everything, but we need to trust Him. Here is actually the biggest battle.
Question: Isn’t it dangerous to have the focus at the enemy?
Answer: I know it is some traps to fall into when it comes to Spiritual Warfare. I don’t think it is good to have focus a lot on the devil, but it is important to know something about Him. In a war, which we are in, isn’t it important to know about the enemy. It is the same with our enemy, the devil. We need to know his tactics so we know how he is going to attack us.
Actually our strongest weapon in spiritual warfare is worship, that’s something the enemy hates. The one you worship, will get the power. On other thing that is spiritual warfare is to walk in the opposite spirit. Give love there it has been hatred and be humble where you should be proud.
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