Dawn Simmons 6/9/24 Dawn Simmons 6/9/24

How to Evict the Spirit of Anxiety, Part 2 of 2, Ep 3-19

Welcome back! This is Conquering Our Unseen Enemies and I am your host Dawn Simmons. Today we are going to talk about something you may already be familiar with, Familiar Spirits!

We will discuss how these harmful counterfeits to the Holy Spirit develop relationships specific to an individual and what you need to do to evict these spirits and their influence in your life.

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons, and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing part 2 of 2 episodes on the spirit of Anxiety. In part 1, we identified the various levels of anxiety, and discussed how the spirit of anxiety functions. Now in part 2 we are going to talk about how to identify the root of anxiety and all the other demonic influences that have partnered with anxiety in your life. From there we will put a plan in place to evict all of these influences.

Let’s start with a quick review of anxiety as we discussed last week:

· Defintition of Anxiety: a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.

· There are 4 different levels of anxiety we are going to address:

· Normal (Mild):

· General anxiety disorder:

o Moderate:

o Severe:

o Panic:

When we think about anxiety, we want to think about what triggers our anxiety. When we know our triggers then we can start to understand what is at the root of our anxiety. What we don’t want to do is just placebo effect our solution. What do I mean by that? Well when we just deal with the symptoms of our anxiety and not the actual cause of the anxiety, we will never actually get rid of our anxiety.

To get to the root or the cause of our anxiety is not easy and will likely even be painful, but it is the only way to rid ourselves of the root. Remember, anxiety is like an octopus, so there are likely multiple areas we will need to deal with, painful memories, uncomfortable situations or acknowledging our poor decisions. We may have engaged in relationships we were never intended to be in, taken on financial obligations we should not have, made major life decisions that were not part of God’s plan in our lives. We must be willing to be honest with ourselves and believe in Him for all that we need to evict the Spirit of Anxiety. Sometimes anxiety comes in response from a wrong against us while we were a child or as an adult unable to prevent this wrong act, so trusting in Him may be more difficult. Give yourself some grace as you go through this, but do take the time to follow through on the steps I am going to give you to root out anxiety and all the other demonic influences that anxiety has partnered with in your life.

The easiest way to attack this influence in your life is to begin to create a plan that you can follow that will change with you as you develop strength and understand the root of each demonic influence. The first thing we need to do is make a list. We are making a list of all the demonic influences that you are experiencing in addition to the spirit of anxiety. This list may be 5, it may be 20, everyone is different. Don’t feel that if you are at 25 that something is wrong with you. There is no right or wrong number except maybe 1. Anxiety always has friends. We don’t care about the number, we care about being thorough.

So what might this list look like? Well, we talked about this a little in part 1. Your list may include fear, insecurity, doubt, inadequacy, unworthy, criticism, shame, there could be some addictions as well that are used as a coping mechanism. What we are looking to do in creating this list is identify all the demonic identities that feed into your anxiety. What contributes to your anxiety? If it is a sin issue, then name that sin. There is nothing to be ashamed of in this exercise, we can’t get rid of it if we are too ashamed to identify it. This exercise is just for you and the Lord. We aren’t sharing this with anyone.

Once you have your list, now I want you to put in a second column, words that represent the opposite of each word in your list. You can do more than one word. So for example, if you have fear on your list, you could put confidence. Again, two or three words is even better. This is a list you can build on or you may find some words you can consolidate. It’s your list, make it work for you.

There are a number of things we are going to do with this list. First, we are going to build ourselves some support with scriptures. Using the words on your list that are the opposite of the demonic influences, now dig into your Bible and start finding scriptures that include those words or concepts. So using our fear confidence example. I could use 1 John 5:14-15, This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. I could also use Jeremiah 17:7, “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. Gathering 2-3 scriptures for each word should suffice.

The purpose of this exercise is this: When you are feeling your anxiety triggering, you immediately begin to rebuke anxiety and speak the words that are opposite of anxiety over yourself and quote the scriptures over your life. We are going to take this a few steps further, but that gives you something you can do immediately to begin to clear out anxiety and all of the other influences.

Our next step is to begin to know your triggers. What is it that begins to set your anxiety in motion? We want to know that so we can begin to get ahead of what is coming at us. Ask the Lord to help you by revealing to you more about the triggers. Sometimes we know our triggers, but we don’t know why. Sometimes we just accept them and don’t bother to find out why something triggers us. The more we know, the better we will be at prevention and eviction.

Our next step may be the hardest part of the entire exercise. I want you to identify as far back as you can recall what occurred that created that demonic influence to begin its influence over you. Was it one specific event? Was it a series of events? Was it something traumatic? Was it a result of a poor decision you made? Whatever it is, identify it. Let’s say it was a traumatic event, then identify the spirit that caused that traumatic event. This may be a little graphic but I want to give you some examples so you understand what I mean. If you were a victim of a violent crime, then name that demon, rape, robbery, or if it was a family member that was taken by violence, then murder. If it was sexual misconduct, then incest, rape, adultery, whatever it was, name it. That should give you an understanding of what we need to identify.

That process could take some time and you want to do it at your own pace. It is better to do this correctly than to do it quickly. As you work through the list, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you what you need to know, He knows why you are asking so He can help. Using our example of fear, if I have anxiety triggered by fear because as a child I was abused by a relative, then we have the root of the spirit of fear. If this happened to me as a child, there should have been someone to protect me from that, I was too young to protect myself. The adult responsible for me did not protect me and that allowed this to occur. This isn’t a blame game, we need to establish this because it identifies legal rights. As a child, you were too young to willingly and knowingly agree to allowing someone to hurt you or understanding what they were doing was going to hurt you, so what happened to you was a legal trespass. Now as an adult, or older and more knowledgeable, you can remove the rights the enemy essentially took from you. So you would renounce any rights the spirit of fear has in your life and submit authority in your life in that area to the Lord.

Think of it like this. You see a little kid with his lunch money and a much older kid comes and just snatches it out of his hands. The little kid can’t do much about it, but you see it happen so you go and take that money back from the much older kid and give it back to the little kid. That is what we are doing, but add in, we are now saying, Lord, I give everything to you. You see, if this were to happen to this little kid every day, at some point he would just start handing the money over without resistance because he knows it’s going to be taken any way. We do that. When we give in to fear, we then are allowing it the legal right to move in our lives. When we take it back and submit to the Lord, renouncing any rights the enemy has over us, then we are no longer handing over our money, but walking in confidence.

Now do that process with each of those demons on your list. It will take some time, but if you do it right and not take short cuts, then you can evict the enemy. We need to take our lives back and submit them to the Lord. Take out what the enemy has poured into us and replace it with what the Lord tells us in His word is what He wants in our lives, we just have to be willing to accept it.

A few extra things I want to add here. It is possible when you are going through this process that you might feel some manifestations as the enemy gets evicted, especially during the time when you are renouncing. For example, you may cough, sneeze, yawn, things you might not necessarily notice. If this happens, let it happen, it could easily be a manifestation of a demon leaving your life and we certainly don’t want to do anything that inhibits the exit process. Don’t feel weird about it, just let it happen. Feeling a manifestation is not a requirement so if you don’t feel anything, it does not mean nothing happened.

One final thing, always remember to go back and ask the Lord if you missed anything. He wants this too so He will reveal to you what you need to know. Don’t be surprised too if as you are going through all of this, things come to mind that you have forgotten, it is all related to making sure you get this done correctly.

I hope this has been time that inspires you to want to learn to grow in your relationship with the Lord and build your desire to partner with Him. We want to grow in Him and learn how to work with Him to build the Kingdom and Conquer Our Unseen Enemies. The more we grow the more our life will change, and you can help change the lives of anyone around you who is willing.

I want to thank those of you who are supporters of out podcast. We work hard to provide a resource here to help people get out from demonic influences. If you are growing through our podcast, consider supporting us each month as we continue to build the Kingdom of God. www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support. Don’t forget to check us out on the YouTube Channel, Conquering Our Unseen Enemies. https://www.youtube.com/@conqueringourunseenenemies/featured

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share.

As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:

· Part 2 of 2 episodes on the spirit of Anxiety.

· Let’s start with a quick review of anxiety as we discussed last week:

o Defintition of Anxiety: a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.

o There are 4 different levels of anxiety we are going to address:

§ Normal (Mild):

§ General anxiety disorder:

§ Moderate:

§ Severe:

§ Panic:

· We want to think about what triggers our anxiety because then we can start to understand what is at the root of our anxiety.

· To get to the root of our anxiety is not easy and may be painful, but it is the only way to rid ourselves of the root.

· We must be willing to be honest with ourselves and believe in Him for all that we need to evict the Spirit of Anxiety.

· The easiest way to attack this influence is to create a plan that changes with you as you develop strength and understand the root of each demonic influence.

· The first thing we need to do is make a list of all the demonic influences that you are experiencing in addition to the spirit of anxiety.

· In a second column, put words that represent the opposite of each word in your list.

· Build support with scriptures: Using the words on your list that are the opposite of the demonic influences, dig into your Bible and find scriptures that include those words or concepts.

o When you are feeling anxiety, you rebuke anxiety and speak the words that are opposite of anxiety over yourself quoting the scriptures over your life.

· Our next step is to begin to know your triggers. What sets your anxiety in motion? We want to get ahead of what is coming at us.

· I want you to identify as far back as you can recall what occurred that created that demonic influence to begin its influence over you. Was it one specific event? Was it a series of events? Was it something traumatic?

· That process could take some time and you want to do it at your own pace. It is better to do it correctly than to do it quickly.

· As you work through the list, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you what you need to know and renounce any rights the demonic spirit has in your life and submit authority in your life in that area to the Lord.

· Now do that process with each of those demons on your list.

· Remember to go back and ask the Lord if you missed anything.

We encourage you:

· To have an active Bible reading plan, if you want a personal relationship with the Lord, you need to be active about reading His word.

· Take a look at my newest book, Conquering Our Unseen Enemies, available on Amazon or our website, Conqueringourunseenenemies.com

· Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies and FB.

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

Dawn Simmons 6/2/24 Dawn Simmons 6/2/24

How to Evict the Spirit of Anxiety, Part 1 of 2, Ep 3-18

Welcome back! This is Conquering Our Unseen Enemies and I am your host Dawn Simmons. Today we are going to talk about something you may already be familiar with, Familiar Spirits!

We will discuss how these harmful counterfeits to the Holy Spirit develop relationships specific to an individual and what you need to do to evict these spirits and their influence in your life.

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons, and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing the spirit of Anxiety. We will identify the various levels of anxiety, see what the Bible reveals about anxiety and talk about how the Spirit of Anxiety works in us to create these various reactions and how we can overcome their attacks and control over our lives. There is so much to discuss here that this is part 1 of a 2 part series.

First off, I want to do my frequent disclaimer that not all cases of anxiety are demonically influenced, some are physiological. That being said, our discussion involves circumstances that have created anxiety that are derived from a demonic influence.

Anxiety: a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.

There are 4 different levels of anxiety we are going to address:

Normal (Mild): base level of anxiety we all feel when we have a tight deadline, a final, job interview, everyday activities that are short-lived and for most can be overcome by increasing activity to complete the task. Most people feel this multiple times in our lives and this level can be healthy because it can motivate us to perform at a higher than normal level in order to complete that task. Not likely we will live a life without some level of anxiety. An example of that is Paul in his letter to the Philippians in speaking of Epaphroditus who had been very sick, Paul was sending him back to them and asked them to welcome him on his behalf. Paul writes this, Philippians 2:28, Therefore I am all the more eager to send him, so that when you see him again you may be glad and I may have less anxiety. From this we see, some level of anxiety is normal if it is short-lived and derives from everyday life situations. Another example of this is found in Luke 2:48 when Joseph and Mary realize Jesus was not traveling with the family and they had to go back to Jerusalem to find them, it says this: When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”

General anxiety disorder: this occurs when someone experiences excessive or unrealistic or uncontrollable anxiety about numerous aspects of their life circumstances and in some cases things that have not yet happened. It can be accompanied by physical symptoms such as muscle tension, difficulty sleeping, inability to focus, confusion and fear.

Someone with a general anxiety disorder may have it at differing levels

Moderate: most common, occurring in about 1/3 of all people who experience anxiety above the normal level. Focus is decreased and the ability to observe or focus on details becomes challenging. Perspiration increases, heart rate increases, shakiness, headaches, gastric discomfort.

Severe: At this level one may begin to have feelings that are debilitating and feel like they are going to break, unable to function in normal activities, crying, confusion, emotional outbursts, impending doom. This occurs in about 22% of people who experience anxiety.

Panic: Extreme, feeling out being out of control, hallucinations, inability to control their breathing and reactions, highly likely medical intervention is necessary to manage heart rate or breathing. At this level, the person cannot function.

Now we are all on the same page regarding anxiety, so let’s start talking about some of the spiritual reasons why anxiety increases in our lives. Sometimes I talk about spirits being quiet or loud. What I mean by that is how it enters our lives and how it resides, the characteristic of being quiet or loud. The spirits of anger or violence tend to be more loud because the nature of what they bring out of people is noticeable. While something like anxiety or doubt will tend to be quiet because we tend to want to hide that aspect of ourselves so others don’t know we are experiencing them. The quiet ones are the ones who are able to linger and over time wreak more havoc in our lives than the loud ones. The loud ones cannot function full force all the time but the quiet ones can because they can move almost completely unnoticed. Anxiety starts as a quiet spirit.

The spirit of Anxiety will move slowly into our lives, generally not the first one into our lives but it works like a glue to hold the other demonic spirits together. It functions like an octopus, and I apologize to all the octopi out there for needing to use you for this analogy but it is helpful. So think of Anxiety as the Octopus. Over your life you have experienced many things, some fantastic, some loving, some tragic, some unfortunate, some sad, some unjust. How we respond to all of these things, how we were raised, sometimes where we were raised, the nature of our childhood, all of these things add up. When we have experienced trauma as a child, it places on us an impact. We could have experienced mostly positive events in our life, but anxiety wants us to forget about those, and instead wants to bring up the hurtful things, shape our minds around the ugly things that have happened to us and control us using those ugly things.

Anxiety moved in slowly and while it remained quiet, slowly building in strength, it also brought in other demonic spirits to work with it. I work with many people on their anxiety issues and I am going to give you an idea of the most common demonic influences I see in their lives: fear, doubt, unworthiness, insecurity, uncertainty, worry, control, fear of judgment, inferiority, shyness, frustration, legalism, crying.

When I am working with someone who has anxiety, I want to find the strongman, and with anxiety it is often difficult to identify because anxiety isn’t usually the first to show up in their lives, fear is. By the time I am talking to them, however, anxiety has had the biggest impact and here is why. Think of the spirit of anxiety as that octopus and all of the other demonic spirits, the ones he invited in, as situated at the end of each of the arms. A trigger will occur, which is different for everyone, and as that trigger occurs, anxiety uses its arms to reach out to all the other demons that can help to turn what should be no anxiety or normal anxiety into moderate anxiety and if we do not address it, then it will continue to severe and ultimately panic whenever it so chooses. When you see someone in a severe or panic level attack, these aren’t voluntary situations. If you have never experienced it, you may even dismiss the person as being silly or dramatic, but it is very real. If I saw someone having a severe or even to some degree a moderate attack, I can’t just say “oh, look at 1 Peter 5:7, Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you, then walk away and think everything will be okay for them. That’s not helping them. It’s true, but they are dealing with much more than normal anxiety and we need to understand they don’t know how to apply that because the enemy is terrorizing them.

One of the common denominators I see with people who have anxiety issues is that the root of it started when they were children, young children 3,4,5 years old and there was an ongoing circumstance that created fear in their lives. That is where we need to start because that is where the door was opened and likely is still open. To address how that door opened often involves them talking about painful memories they would rather forget. Generally, one memory is tied to another and tied to another and so on. It’s not an easy task to address all of this, but if we don’t then we will not be able to fully excise the root.

Last week I talked about divination being a cancer to Christianity when we allow those beliefs and practices to enter Christianity unchallenged. It is the same principle here. Leaving a root intact that allowed these demonic influences to enter our lives, leaving that door open to allow them to continue to enter our lives because the root is still in place will eventually eat at us and take over our lives and our ability to function. We cannot allow that and we need to excise the root and close the door.

Another common denominator I see with people who are dealing with higher level anxiety issues is they say things like they are tired of it and want it gone. There is an impatience to wanting to have it out of their lives. If this is you or you know someone with this issue, you are familiar with what they are experiencing. You can hear it in the pain of their voice and through their words.

The good news is we can get rid of it. It is possible, the less good news is that it takes time. It takes time because of how much is involved, the length of time it has been going on has meant there is an accrual of demonic influences that need to be dealt with as well. This ultimately leads to a deliverance. This is not a deliverance where you just tell it to go in the name of Jesus. There has been a long and winding path to get to this point, and we need to deal with that long and winding path. If we do not do that, we are putting ourselves in the position of any or all of these demonic spirits coming back because we did not excise it and close the door.

This process involves looking at some of our life choices as well. We may have entertained demonic spirits at some point in our lives. We have made choices outside of God’s will. We may need to renounce some things, we may need to repent of some things. While the initial event that began all of this situation may have occurred when we were a child, we have to look at what we have contributed to it along the way. If we do not address those issues, we will then remove the legal rights the enemy has to your life and you will be right back where you started. So, it’s a process. It took time to get in this position and it will take time to change this situation. Behaviors have been developed and sometimes ingrained that will need to be addressed and changed so we can begin to handle life situations differently than we have been accustomed to responding or reacting to when a trigger presents itself. We need to be able to identify those triggers and learn ways to manage our reactions, which takes time.

When we include the Holy Spirit in the process He can begin to clean out the damage the enemy has done over the years, bring healing and restore us to Him with a new way to love, a new way to manage and a new way to live our abundant life as Jesus tells us in John 10:10.

This is a good stopping point for this first episode. We have laid the groundwork for what anxiety is, how it functions and that there is a process we need to follow so we can change how we respond. In the next episode we will lay out the groundwork for how to start the process and make the changes necessary to root everything out that allows anxiety to function in our lives, so make sure you come back for that.

If you are growing through our podcast, consider supporting us each month as we continue to build the Kingdom of God. www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support. Don’t forget to check us out on the YouTube Channel, Conquering Our Unseen Enemies. https://www.youtube.com/@conqueringourunseenenemies/featured

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share.

As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:

· Discussing the Spirit of Anxiety

· Not all cases of anxiety are demonically influenced but our discussion involves circumstances from a demonic influence.

· Defintition of Anxiety: a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.

· There are 4 different levels of anxiety we are going to address:

· Normal (Mild):

· Philippians 2:28,

· Luke 2:48

· General anxiety disorder:

o Moderate:

o Severe:

o Panic:

· Anxiety starts as a quiet spirit.

· The spirit of Anxiety will move slowly into our lives, generally not the first one into our lives but it works like a glue to hold the other demonic spirits together.

· Spirit of Anxiety functions like an Octopus.

· Most common demonic influences I see that pair with the spirit of anxiety: fear, doubt, unworthiness, insecurity, uncertainty, worry, control, fear of judgment, inferiority, shyness, frustration, legalism, crying.

· The spirit of Fear usually works in our life before the spirit of anxiety.

· The strongman is difficult to identify because anxiety isn’t usually the first demonic influence to show up in their lives.

· The spirit of anxiety is like an octopus and all of the other demonic spirits, are situated at the end of each of the arms.

· 1 Peter 5:7, Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you

· A common denominator for people with anxiety is it started when they were young children 3,4,5 years old

· We can get rid of it but it takes time because of how much is involved, the length of time it has been going on has meant there is an accrual of demonic influences that need to be dealt with as well. This ultimately leads to a deliverance.

· It took time to get in this position and it will take time to change this situation. Behaviors need to be changed so we can begin to handle situations differently when a trigger presents itself.

· When we include the Holy Spirit in the process He can begin to clean out the damage the enemy has done over the years, bring healing and restore us to Him with a new way to love, a new way to manage and a new way to live our abundant life.

· In the next episode we will lay out the groundwork for how to start the process and make the changes necessary to root everything out that allows anxiety to function in our lives.

We encourage you:

· To have an active Bible reading plan, if you want a personal relationship with the Lord, you need to be active about reading His word.

· Take a look at my newest book, Conquering Our Unseen Enemies, available on Amazon or our website, Conqueringourunseenenemies.com

· Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies and FB.

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

Dawn Simmons 5/26/24 Dawn Simmons 5/26/24

Do We Recognize Polluted Christianity?, Ep 3-17

Welcome back! This is Conquering Our Unseen Enemies and I am your host Dawn Simmons. Today we are going to talk about something you may already be familiar with, Familiar Spirits!

We will discuss how these harmful counterfeits to the Holy Spirit develop relationships specific to an individual and what you need to do to evict these spirits and their influence in your life.

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons, and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing beliefs and practices that pollute Christianity by counterfeiting what is True. I am going to share a recent experience of mine and how important it is to be truthful when we hear words that are rooted in Satan rather than the Bible.

All too often we as Christians are not aware of all the different ways Satan and his demons have polluted and contaminated the Christian belief system. We don’t know enough about what the Bible says so when we hear something we aren’t sure about, we sort of cower back or don’t speak up when it just doesn’t sound right. Another reason we fail to speak up is everyone nowadays is afraid to speak up if our opinion isn’t popular or we think we are going to hurt someone’s feelings. Another reaction I have heard lately is that everyone has their own truth and they have the right to believe what they want. We are going to address all these thoughts and walk through some things that we as Christians, or believers, need to understand, and what we are expected to understand when we have a relationship with Jesus.

There are many places in the Bible that discuss divination, which is our topic here. One of the main places God discusses it is: Deuteronomy 18:9-13. It says this:

Occult Practices

9 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. 10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. 13 You must be blameless before the Lord your God.

Let me tell you how all this started for me to want to have this discussion. I teach classes at our business, Bible based classes and one of the classes I teach is a class based on my Loving Conversations book about how to hear the voice of God. It’s a seven-week class and we learn a process that helps you develop your relationship with the Holy Spirit and learn to distinguish the Holy Spirit’s voice from your own. We should all be able to hear the Holy Spirit, we want Him to guide us in our lives, we want to know our purpose and how to live the life He can provide.

I had a new class start recently and my classes are filled by word-of-mouth referrals. We don’t advertise. As a class is going on, lives are changed and the people in the classes talk to their friends and then they sign up for classes and so on. So that is how this situation developed, someone referred to my class by another person who is currently in a class. As a new class starts, I lay out what we are going to be doing over the seven weeks, they get a syllabus because there is homework and I explain the process we are going to go through both as individuals and as a group, because they become very close in that seven-week period. As every class comes to an end at seven weeks, it’s always sad because so much has been shared together.

Anyhow, this particular class is new and at the end of my discussion there is generally time for some questions and a little chit chat. Most of the time people don’t know each other. In this case, no one knew each other even the slightest and one of the things they do throughout the class is check in with each other each week between classes. So, this particular day, which was last Thursday, we ended the class with some discussion and getting to know each other.

The one thing about my classes is that it is my preference for anyone who is attending to already be saved. I don’t require it because the Lord can do what the Lord wants to do, but I prefer it because the things we discuss will not necessarily make sense to someone who does not have a relationship with Jesus and therefore does not have the Holy Spirit, but again, the Lord can choose to move however He pleases so I don’t shut the door on someone who is not saved. That said, I have not had anyone who wanted to come that does not have a relationship with Jesus because it is a commitment, so it has not been an issue, until now.

As this class began to chit chat, one of the people began to share a bit about her struggles. She explained that she has been having trouble with a blockage lately with her third eye and is so overwhelmed by being an empath that she can’t take it anymore. She asked me several questions but did want to know how I managed my third eye. She talked about taking on the feelings of others and how she uses the light to help her clear out the bad feelings. The conversation continued with her describing and discussing her past situations using her third eye, I won’t repeat it all, but you can understand the nature of the conversation. As I sat there listening to her talk, I was shocked at what was coming out of her mouth because she was a referral. I am very, very clear on who we are and what we do and that it is all Bible based. As I sat there listening, I asked the Lord, How did this referral get to me? Within seconds of me asking the Lord that question, out of her mouth she says, “Jane (name changed) does not know anything about my third eye or all of these things I am telling you.” So that answers that question.

Now the issue became how to address all of this satanic behavior discussion in front of the class. I can’t let it go, because it was all said in front of the class and I am responsible for what happens in the class. I want to show compassion, but what I can’t do is compromise the truth and allow any of the things she discussed to be given any credibility or appearance of truth. I will not allow the truth of the Word or a discussion of God or Jesus to be polluted or contaminated in any way by allowing a false religion and demonic activities to be discussed as if it was in any way legitimate. I am accountable for what happens in my classroom. I am accountable for what is said against God that is a lie in my presence and in the presence of anyone else when I know the truth. I am required to speak up, just as you are required to speak up, even if it is uncomfortable or makes someone uncomfortable. We have compassion, but we don’t spare the truth to spare feelings. We aren’t rude to them, we aren’t judgmental toward them( though I am judging her beliefs and what they are based on and the resulting actions, we are called to judge those things against the Word), we aren’t mean or hateful, we are to be truthful. Many people forget that we are dealing with someone who is hurting or broken or they would not be in that position. Truth can hurt, but not telling them the truth hurts more. Leviticus 19:26 tells us, ‘Do not practice divination or seek omens.

I want to talk about the things this woman brought up so we are all familiar with how the truth of God gets contaminated by tactics the enemy uses to counterfeit “the light.” There are nine things we are going to discuss.

1. One of the things she told me was that she had been “channeling Yeshua” for many years. She wanted to learn my way of “tuning in.”

a. As Christians, we do not “channel” a spirit. We have the Holy Spirit who resides in us. There is no “tuning in.” The Holy Spirit is available to us 24/7. Where we struggle is believing He is speaking to us, knowing it is Him and not our own mind telling us what we want to hear.

2. She talked about being an empath.

a. An empath is someone who claims to take on the energy of others, but it appears to only be the negative energy or traumas. There is no truth to this occurring anywhere in the Bible. The reality is that demons can transfer onto us negative emotions and bring to us negative thoughts. Our job as a believer is to rebuke that and turn away from the demons who are attempting to draw us down. We are not to host the demonic influences and that is what someone who calls themselves an empath does. It is playing with the demons and quite frankly it is an idiotic practice.

3. She referred to her third eye and all the problems she is having because of it and questioned me about how I handle my third eye.

a. Let me explain what a third eye is. In Hindu it is a little different, but this woman was calling herself a Christian, so I am not discussing the Hindu version of a third eye, tho that is also satanic.

i. The third eye is an invisible eye that represents mystical intuition and insight, or inner vision beyond what the physical eyes can see. It's traditionally depicted as being located in the middle of the forehead. The third eye is also called the mind's eye or inner eye, and is associated with:

· Intuition

· Mindfulness

· Being awakened

· Strengthening mental and emotional intelligence

· Accessing the subconscious

· Seeing something that the two sensory eyes cannot see

· Seeing your interiority

Let me be very clear and state that never have I ever and never will I ever have a third eye. That is all satanic garbage that if you play in those arenas, you will get exactly what Satan wants you to have and none of it is good. None of this is or should ever be attributed to God.

4. When I questioned her about Jesus in her life, she initially ignored the question and then when I asked a second time, she referred to Jesus as an “aspect” of her life.

a. If someone has a relationship with Jesus and we are in a place that talks about Jesus, it should be a question that is able to be answered, not ignored. When asked a second time, no one who is saved would legitimately refer to Jesus as an “aspect” of their life. It’s a subtle thing to say and I know she was hoping I would be satisfied with what she did say when she ignored me the first time, but no. We can’t be afraid to ask questions when it is important.

5. She refers to herself as a lightworker.

a. Let me first explain what a lightworker is: A lightworker is someone who wants to bring a higher level of consciousness to the world. Lightworkers prioritize spiritual and emotional growth and development through a positive and uplifting lens. They believe that spiritual methods can heal any situation, and that healing their own life is the first step in healing the world.

b. A lightworker does not seek the Lord for healing. A lightworker does not seek the Lord for anything, it is an inward source for healing and growth. Anytime we look within ourself for the answer, we are creating our own god as an alternate to the One True God.

6. She uses crystals for healing

a. This practice focuses on transferring energy and using the crystals to heal and transform. Nowhere in the Bible does Jesus tell us that crystals are our healer. Nowhere do we see Him use crystals as a way to transfer energy. All of this use of crystals is divination and you can’t be saved by Jesus and be involved in divination. It is one or the other.

7. She talked about cleaning out her house of bad energy by using the light. When I discussed Jesus was the only way to clear out demons, and in some cases, the blood of Jesus and she said the blood of Jesus doesn’t work, only the light works.

a. Jesus is the answer to everything. If we have evil spirits in our house, Jesus is the way to evict them. I then told her that if Jesus does not work to evict your house, then you are doing something to allow the demonic the legal right to your house. Before I could finish my sentence, she interrupted me with “no, I’m not” which was a lie because she has all of these other areas in her life where she is working in consort with the enemy.

8. She teaches “awakening” of your spirit and refers to past lives.

a. Awakening of the Spirit is the concept of looking within yourself to find God, rather than through anything on the outside, such as the Bible. We have to first learn who God is through the Bible, develop a relationship with Jesus and believe in Jesus for our salvation before we can receive the Holy Spirit within ourselves. There is no god in us without Jesus, no need to look within ourselves. This is an ancient teaching that many prefer because we can decide what we want to do or not do and not be accountable to God.

9. This woman represents herself as a Spiritual Life Coach for finding your inner god.

a. The thought of her teaching others any of this nonsense is a scary thing. People are so naïve and empty that they will actually believe the garbage she is dishing out. We have to be more knowledgeable about the Word and who God is and what He is not.

When I list them out in this way, it would likely be easy for even a baby believer to see or hear something isn’t right here, but would you be able to quickly recognize she was representing a counterfeit religion if only one of these things were mentioned? I know that the person who referred her was aware of her using crystals.

When we hear people say their connection to these things, or even talk to us about these things in relation to “God,” as Believers, we need to recognize these as red flags that what they are telling us is false. We need to understand when someone speaks of such things, the “God” they are referring to is not the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It is not the God of the Bible. It is not the God that gave us His Son. This is a false god, a perverted distortion of the One True God and we cannot allow our God to be mingled in with these false beliefs. What do I mean by that?

This woman is allowed to believe whatever she wants, that is her right. What she cannot do is speak of her demonic practices, her divination ways and refer to “God” as the same for me as it is for her. We have to be clear that we have two different gods. Clarify that your God is the One True God of the Bible. Her god is a made-up entity to suit the needs of the time. This is the same remanufactured false god that has been in existence for thousands of years in different areas, different cultures, different names, but its all the same, it is Satan disguising himself as some sort of god to lead God’s people astray. We have to recognize what is real and what is a counterfeit. What is real cannot be denied and should not be denied. When we fail to correct misrepresentations of God, we are allowing this corrupt practice to continue. This is black or white and I will not allow someone who practices in the black to contaminate my classroom where people are wanting to learn more about getting close to the true Light.

My response to her was very direct. I told her that all of the things she referred to had one source and that was Satan. I do not receive anything from Satan. Everything I have, anything spiritual I have comes only from the One True God. You see when someone attempts to imbed lies into truth, it changes the meaning of what is “true” and then nothing that comes out of that, in this case, nothing coming out of her mouth contained any truth. It was a contamination of Christian beliefs, because again, she calls herself a “Christian.” These types of beliefs, third eyes, a light source that can be worked, a god within ourselves, crystals for healing and the rest of the nonsense she was discussing is like a cancer that tries to attach itself to the Truth of God. It must be eradicated before it metastasizes to more of the Church body. People who represent these cancers will be burned off in the end if they do not repent and listen to the Truth. I gave her the opportunity to hear the truth. I offered mentors to help her, but she has declined so far.

We cannot compromise the Word of God. We cannot participate in activities with people who compromise the Word of God and not speak up. The Lord is very clear about the practice of divination in all its forms. Don’t be afraid to speak up, there is no such thing as once saved, always saved. If you turn your back on the Lord and begin to practice such things that contaminate what the Bible says, what Jesus died on the cross for, then you are turning your back on your salvation.

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share.

As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:

· Discussed beliefs and practices that pollute Christianity by counterfeiting what is True

· Reasons Christians fail to address contamination

· Deuteronomy 18:9-13. Discussing divination

· Talked about a recent class of mine based on Loving Conversations book and a woman who wanted to learn how my way of “tuning in” and discussed her practices with a third eye, light work, being an empath and other satanic practices while calling herself a Christian.

· I show compassion, but I can’t compromise the truth and I will not allow the truth of the Word or a discussion of God or Jesus to be polluted or contaminated in any way by allowing a false religion and demonic activities to be discussed as if it was in any way legitimate. We have compassion, but we don’t spare the truth to spare feelings.

· Leviticus 19:26 tells us, ‘Do not practice divination or seek omens.

· There are nine things she discussed that contaminate Christianity:

o 1. One of the things she told me was that she had been “channeling Yeshua” for many years. She wanted to learn my way of “tuning in.”

o 2. She talked about being an empath.

o 3. She referred to her third eye and all the problems she is having because of it and questioned me about how I handle my third eye.

o 4. When I questioned her about Jesus in her life, she initially ignored the question and then when I asked a second time, she referred to Jesus as an “aspect” of her life.

o 5. She refers to herself as a lightworker.

o 6. She uses crystals for healing

o 7. She talked about cleaning out her house of bad energy by using the light. When I discussed Jesus was the only way to clear out demons, and in some cases, the blood of Jesus and she said the blood of Jesus doesn’t work, only the light works.

o 8. She teaches “awakening” of your spirit and refers to past lives.

o 9. This woman represents herself as a Spiritual Life Coach for finding your inner god.

· As Believers, we need to recognize these as red flags that what they are telling us is false. We need to understand when someone speaks of such things, the “God” they are referring to is not the God of the Bible. This is a false god.

· My response to her was very direct. I told her that all of the things she referred to had one source and that was Satan. I do not receive anything from Satan. Everything I have, comes only from the One True God.

· You see when someone attempts to imbed lies into truth, it changes the meaning of what is “true” and then nothing that comes out of that, in this case, nothing coming out of her mouth contained any truth. It was a contamination of Christian beliefs, because again, she calls herself a “Christian.”

· These types of beliefs is like a cancer that tries to attach itself to the Truth of God. It must be eradicated before it metastasizes to more of the Church body.

· We cannot compromise the Word of God. We cannot participate in activities with people who compromise the Word of God and not speak up. The Lord is very clear about the practice of divination in all its forms. Don’t be afraid to speak up.

We encourage you:

· To have an active Bible reading plan, if you want a personal relationship with the Lord, you need to be active about reading His word.

· Take a look at my newest book, Conquering Our Unseen Enemies, available on Amazon or our website, Conqueringourunseenenemies.com

· Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies and FB.

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

Dawn Simmons 5/12/24 Dawn Simmons 5/12/24

Fatih for your Miracle, Ep 3-16

Welcome back! This is Conquering Our Unseen Enemies and I am your host Dawn Simmons. Today we are going to talk about something you may already be familiar with, Familiar Spirits!

We will discuss how these harmful counterfeits to the Holy Spirit develop relationships specific to an individual and what you need to do to evict these spirits and their influence in your life.

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons, and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing how our Faith impacts our Miracles. In our discussion we are going to be looking at what Jesus said and did when he performed one of his most well-known miracles. I am going to take you to where this miracle occurred during our time together here. So let’s get going and talk about our faith and how it impacts our ability to receive a miracle.

Before we begin, I want to ask our regular podcast listeners to consider supporting us each week as we work to provide you quality and useful information. Your support is appreciated more than we can express. You can show your support at www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support. There is a link in the notes.

Don’t forget to check us out on YouTube for this podcast, Conquering Our Unseen Enemies. There is a link in the notes.

I’ve begun to talk more about Faith recently because it is such a crucial part of life as a Christian and I think Christians are anemic in the area of faith. Some of it is our own fault, some of it is a lack of strong spiritual leadership for the last several decades, some if it is just complacency and some of it is downright laziness. The problem with being anemic is you will have difficulty being strong in faith if you are anemic. If we can’t be strong in faith, then we will miss opportunities available to us. So how do we go from being anemic to being faith filled in a way that will foster a lifestyle of miracles?

Most of us are probably familiar with Matthew 17:20, you may not remember it’s Matthew 17:20, but you you may recognize what I am about to quote. This is Jesus speaking, “He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Show the mustard seed pendant from Israel) Faith as a mustard seed. With this mustard seed, if I planted them, cultivated them and harvested them, I could create vinegars, mustard, mustard oil, eat the mustard greens, use it as a spice, a lot can be done with this plant, but I have to take this seed and put effort and action behind it and allow it to become a plant (picture of mustard plant) and then I can produce several other things. If I leave it in my pendant, then all I will ever have is this pendant, which is fine, I like the pendant, but I should not expect this to be anything more than just a pendant, no matter how hard I pray.

Now let’s take a little trip. What you are seeing is a picture from my trip in Israel, and this location is Tabgha. Notice that plant in the foreground, those are mustard plants.

So what is the significance of Tabgha?

Luke 9: 10-17, this particular miracle is the only one that is recorded in all 4 gospels.

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

10 When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, 11 but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.12 Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.”13 He replied, “You give them something to eat.” They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” 14 (About five thousand men were there.) But he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” 15 The disciples did so, and everyone sat down. 16 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. 17 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

Acted in faith in response to His disciples

Motivations were in alignment with Kingdom business

Acted in faith preparing the people for the miracle

Acted in faith physically taking in his hands the bread and the fish

Acted in faith giving thanks for what He did not yet have

Acted in faith breaking the bread and the fish so it could be passed out to the crowd.

Jesus was giving us an example of the faith and action needed on our part for the miracle to occur. The world will tell you it only happened because it was Jesus. The world will tell you a miracle doesn’t happen today. Even Christians will say we don’t need miracles today. Until the Lord returns, we will always need miracles and the enemy loves to hear words of doubt and disbelief come out of the mouths of Christians. Miracles still happen today, but they don’t just fall out of the sky. Miracles are a result of our faith. Miracles are the result of our relationship with the Lord. Miracles are a result of our action in faith for that miracle to occur.

Don’t be afraid to act in faith. If the Lord tells you He will handle a situation, act it out in faith, even if you have nothing in your hands. Act out in faith that you are completing a task with the provision you need. I do mean literally act it out. What we don’t have in the natural realm, we do have available to us in the spirit realm. What I am not talking about here is trying to act out a miracle for our own selfish needs, that won’t work. If we start doing that, we are out of alignment with the Lord and we should expect to receive nothing. When we have a need, the Lord will provide. He won’t let us suffer needlessly. He will allow us to deal with the consequences of acting out of alignment with Him, but He will provide what is needed His way.

The God who created the world and everything in it, also gave us His Son who gave us all that we need to have a life with Him and that life with Him includes the ability to ask for and receive miraculous events. It’s up to us to do what is needed to enable the Lord to provide in miraculous ways.

When you need a miraculous answer what do you do?

1. Open your Bible

a. Find the promises He has given us for all of our needs

b. Read similar situations in the Bible of people who were in need and how the Lord responded both in the Old and the New Testament.

c. Read dissimilar situations of people in need and how He met their needs so build your faith of all the ways He provides

2. Pray in Faith

a. Use your scriptures in your prayer

b. Act in faith first: when my miracle comes, when the Lord provides: Instead of sending the people away, Jesus responded to the Disciples with “You give them something to eat”

3. Thank Him in faith for your miracle

a. Just because you don’t see it yet does not mean you don’t have it: Jesus thanked God before he even broke the bread

4. Act in Faith

a. Ask the Lord what does He need you to do to prepare: He had the people sit in groups of 50 to prepare for what was to come.

b. Start moving in ways that shows your faith is deeply rooted

5. Accept in Faith that your needs will be met and then some.

a. When the meal was over, there was food left over and it was collected so it did not go to waste.

b. Make sure that you are responsible and respectable to God in all that He provides. If we do not act responsibly, then our motivations have shifted and we are impacting our relationship with the Lord.

Miracles still happen today, do not let ANYONE rob you of your faith in believing in yours. Fortunately for us, we did not need a miracle to eat that day, so this is my fish, no bread, fries instead, but that is the same fish they would have had that day that fed thousands.

If you want to see and learn more about Tabgha, check out our YouTube Channel, Life Journey with Dawn Simmons in a week and we will have the full visit available for you to see. There’s a link in the notes. On that channel we travel to Biblical places and share those trips with you so you can visit with us!

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share.

As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:

· Discussion of how our faith impacts our ability to receive miracles

· Matthew 17:20, and the discussion of the mustard seed

· We talked about it being our choice what we do with our mustard seed of faith

· Luke 9: 10-17, the Miracle of Feeding the Multitudes

· Discussed the example Jesus gave us of how to develop faith and ourselves for miracles in our life

· Making sure our alignment is correct with the Lord and our motivations are correct

· 5 steps we need to take to cultivate our Faith for a miracle

1. Open your Bible

2. Pray in Faith

3. Thank Him in faith for your miracle

4. Act in Faith

5. Accept in Faith that your needs will be met and then some.

· Don’t let anyone rob of you of your belief and faith in miracles for today.

We encourage you:

· To have an active Bible reading plan, if you want a personal relationship with the Lord, you need to be active about reading His word.

· Take a look at my newest book, Conquering Our Unseen Enemies, available on Amazon or our website, Conqueringourunseenenemies.com

· Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies and FB.

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

Dawn Simmons 5/5/24 Dawn Simmons 5/5/24

NEVER Challenge the Enemy, Ep 3-15

Welcome back! This is Conquering Our Unseen Enemies and I am your host Dawn Simmons. Today we are going to talk about something you may already be familiar with, Familiar Spirits!

We will discuss how these harmful counterfeits to the Holy Spirit develop relationships specific to an individual and what you need to do to evict these spirits and their influence in your life.

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons, and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing why we should never issue a challenge to the enemy. It seems like it should be common sense, but for some reason people do not understand that such words are not biblical and should never be uttered. We will hear what the Lord has to say about issuing such a challenge.

Don’t forget to check us out on YouTube for this podcast, Conquering Our Unseen Enemies. There is a link in the notes.

https://www.youtube.com/@conqueringourunseenenemies/featured

Ok, so let’s talk about what I mean by issuing a challenge to the enemy. Last week I was talking to someone, I don’t really know her, I’ve met her once before but at a public event she asked to speak to me privately. We talked about a few things and then she began to talk about where she is in her spiritual walk. Her words surprised me and this is what she said, “where I am at right now, if the enemy wants to come at me then I say Bring it!” and she became animated moving her arms in a sweeping inward fashion. Maybe you’ve heard someone say something like that. I hear it more often than I like because I don’t think that the person saying it really understands what they are saying at the moment they are saying it and it grieves me to hear those words. Understand I am not the spiritual police, I’m not trying to be and I don’t want to go around correcting everyone, but when we say words along those lines, we are opening a door we do not want open. It reflects a spiritual immaturity that in and of itself indicates that what you are inviting, by using those words, you are not equipped to handle, or you would not say such things.

Every now and then I hear things like that said by someone who claims to have a deliverance ministry. I say claims because if someone says it, I don’t verify it, if they say it then presumably they have a deliverance ministry of some sort. However, if someone who has a deliverance ministry says anything like that, it’s a questionable ministry at best. Let’s talk about why.

We are going to look at scripture from a few different angles and then dig in a little deeper.

1 Peter 5:8, Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

So here we see Peter using a metaphor of a lion to describe the enemy. We are still human, but the enemy is a lion. I don’t know about you, but I can tell you if I had to stand face to face or toe to toe with a lion, in my own human strength, all that might be left of me is a toe. What Peter tells us here is not to attack the lion, he doesn’t say, “Go Get Him!” He says two things, resist him and stand firm in the faith. Daniel did not survive being in the lions den by telling that lion, “Bring It!” Neither are we to challenge the lion. Next up.

Matthew 16:21-23, From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Now here we have Peter again, and in his immaturity he says some things he should not, just like this woman did with me. Peter didn’t understand what he was saying, but the Lord knew Peter was being influenced and rebuked the enemy. He wasn’t upset with Peter, tho Peter probably felt that way in the moment. The thing about this we want to pay close attention to is what specifically Jesus says here. He tells us about Satan. “You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Satan, our enemy, is concerned with human concerns, he is focused on us, not to help us, but to harm us as Jesus also tells us in John 10:10. The enemy came to steal, kill and destroy. We have to have common sense not to challenge an enemy who is intent on killing, stealing and destroying the lives of humans.

Ephesians 6:12, Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

When we read that, it is clearly, very very clearly referring to spiritual battle. Nowhere in all of that beautiful description does it say, once you have your armor on, Charge! No it tells us to take our stand, stand our ground, stand firm, hold our shield of faith which will distinguish the flaming arrows of the enemy. This is a very active, not passive look at how we are to handle ourselves in battle. We are going to have to fight, we can’t avoid the battle but we, in our own strength are not to issue a directive to the enemy. When we say “Bring It!” we are speaking in our own strength.

Jude 1:8-10, In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them.

Hardly anyone takes the time to read Jude, but when you do you get gems like this that reveal aspects of the spiritual realm to us that are very insightful. So what do we learn here. There is a discussion of heaping abuse on celestial beings, it does not say what form, God’s Kingdom or Satan’s Kingdom, both have celestial beings and with that being the case we are not to heap abuse or judgment on either, that is not our role today. Then we see a discussion about the archangel Michael and a dispute with Satan. They are both archangels, the highest level, and you see even Michael does not challenge Satan, he does judge or condemn or even slander Satan. Our words are very important so we can speak truth about who Satan is and what he does, but we are not to speak to him or order him around like he is our servant. Even Michael defers to saying “The Lord rebuke you” We rebuke in the name of Jesus, so same thing.

Matthew 4:1-10, Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted[a] by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ ”Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Here we see Satan himself challenging Jesus, but Jesus does not in turn challenge him back or taunt him or say anything beyond what scripture tells him. The reason for that is because Jesus knows it is not time for that. He knows what his role is and what is required of Him and He is going to fulfill that role. We need to understand our role is not to challenge the enemy and become embattled in a war we created.

Revelation 12:7, Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

This is what is coming. There is a war coming, there is a time and place set for a battle to occur with Satan, and nowhere does it say, and all the people who said “Bring It” will prevail and throw Satan down. We need to keep our perspective. Jesus is the one who will prevail.

In case it us unclear, this podcast is called conquering our unseen enemies not challenging our unseen enemies, there’s a difference. This is our third season, 93rd episode, not once in 93 episodes have I ever said to goad the enemy, someone who does that does not understand the arena they have just stepped into. We are not to challenge the enemy to war, where do we ever see Jesus do that? Where do we see Paul or the disciples do that? Nowhere, because we should never do that. We are called to respond to warfare, we don’t invite it. We are equipped for our role; we are not equipped for His role and we are not to try to fulfill his role.

I asked the Lord what He wanted to say on this issue and here is what he told me:

“We need to steer clear of this behavior. It only invites trouble and no one with sense invites trouble. I am misused and people are in their own power proclaiming wars I never called them to. They are fighting their wars, not mine. I want them to fight their own battles not ones I never asked them to. I don’t battle the enemy the way they are battling the enemy. I seek the heart, to repair hearts, not stir up more issues. I seek to remove the enemy from the lives of My children, not draw him to My children to create a battle. When we send out an invitation, don’t be surprised when someone shows up. That’s not My way and My children need to move My way. There is no glory in fighting a battle you created. I don’t put My children in those positions, and neither should they. Seek Me and remove strongholds and influences that impede Me. Anything else is done for your own glory and I am not a part of that.”

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share.

As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:

Discussing why we should never issue a challenge to the enemy

Story of someone who challenged the enemy by saying “Bring It” and that reflects a spiritual immaturity by inviting the enemy

1 Peter 5:8, using a metaphor of a lion to describe the enemy. We are not to attack the lion, Daniel did not do that, neither are we to challenge the lion.

Matthew 16:21-23, Jesus tells us about Satan and his intent to kill, steal and destroy

Ephesians 6:12, This is a very active, not passive look at how we are to handle ourselves in battle. We are going to have to fight, we can’t avoid the battle but we, in our own strength are not to issue a directive to the enemy.

Jude 1:8-10, Our words are important, we speak truth about who Satan is and what he does, but we are not to speak to him or order him around. Even Michael defers to saying “The Lord rebuke you” We rebuke in the name of Jesus, so same thing.

Matthew 4:1-10, Jesus does not challenge Satan or taunt him or say anything beyond what scripture tells him. Jesus knows it is not time for that. We need to understand our role is not to challenge the enemy and become embattled in a war we created.

Revelation 12:7, This is what is coming. There is a war coming, there is a time and place set for a battle to occur with Satan. We need to keep our perspective. Jesus is the one who will prevail.

This podcast is called conquering our unseen enemies not challenging our unseen enemies, there’s a difference.

I asked the Lord what He wanted to say on this issue and here is what he told me:

We encourage you:

· To have an active Bible reading plan, if you want a personal relationship with the Lord, you need to be active about reading His word.

· Take a look at my newest book, Conquering Our Unseen Enemies, available on Amazon or our website, Conqueringourunseenenemies.com

· Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies and FB.

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

Dawn Simmons 4/28/24 Dawn Simmons 4/28/24

Doubt vs Faith, Winning the War in your Mind, Part 2, Ep 3-14

Welcome back! This is Conquering Our Unseen Enemies and I am your host Dawn Simmons. Today we are going to talk about something you may already be familiar with, Familiar Spirits!

We will discuss how these harmful counterfeits to the Holy Spirit develop relationships specific to an individual and what you need to do to evict these spirits and their influence in your life.

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons, and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing the second part of our two-part series on the ever-common struggle we have with doubt versus faith so we can begin to win that war in our head. Understand if doubt is with you, there is a war going on, even if you don’t recognize it. How we respond to doubt reveals a lot about our relationship with the Lord. This is a two-part series and in the first part we talked about the Spirit of Doubt and laid the groundwork for both episodes and now we will dig into faith and how we go about winning this war in our minds.

The pivotal scripture for this series is Matthew 21: 21-22, because in it we hear what Jesus has to say about the relationship between the two, doubt and faith. Remember, there is an inverse relationship in these two and it is our responsibility to manage that relationship both in the natural realm and in the spiritual realm. We live in both simultaneously and we need to speak and move like we live in both simultaneously.

Matthew 21:21-22 says this, Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. 22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

Let’s review where we started last week with the definitions of doubt and faith

Doubt: to be uncertain about; consider questionable or unlikely; hesitate to believe:

Faith: complete trust or confidence in someone or something

To talk about faith, we need to understand there are levels of faith and why there are levels of faith. I am presenting these in a specific order, your faith will generally grow in this order. As it grows, it becomes elevated for what you are believing the Holy Spirit will do in your life, lead you to do in your life, lead you to do in the lives of others, whatever your plan and purpose is with Him in Kingdom business.

First is what I refer to as a beginner level faith or saving faith as found in Ephesians 2:8, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—” So we truly need to be saved first. Our salvation is through our beginner level or saving faith in who we believe Jesus is and what He did for our sins, his death and resurrection. If that is all we have, we know where our eternal security is, but we are expected to move beyond that level of faith. So let’s move beyond and talk about the next level.

Second, is just a simple faith, some call it general, but most functioning Christians operate in simple faith. When I say functioning, I mean Christians who attend church and have some involvement with Christian principles or practices in their lives. Paul describes it in Romans 12:3, “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.” When we think of simple faith, it is what every believer operates in as they pray and move in their lives. We must have this level of faith to have encouragement in the Word. This level of faith is increased the more we read His word and understand who He is. Going beyond this level of faith becomes rare. Faith is uncomfortable and those willing to go past their comfortability are rewarded greatly.

The third level of faith is more complicated. The third level I call “Faithfulness” because it is through our faith that we change and become more Christlike. This level of faith is where many of us say are always trying to attain but may feel like we never truly measure up. We all probably know someone who has “faithfulness” and we admire them for their commitment, but overcoming that challenge is likely something still just our of our reach, not because it us unattainable, but more likely because it takes time, effort commitment, consistency and discipline to allow our faith to grow because it does not grow alone. Another way to look at it is like a ladder where somedays we climb up and then, some days we go down a level. Imagine it as a ladder with 9 rungs and we are trying our best to get up but even on our best days, it can be a difficult to get all 9 rungs. Any guesses what I am referring to here? This third level is called “faithfulness” because it is part of our goal to live our lives with the fruits of the spirit. Galatians 5:22 puts it this way, “ But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”

I believe most of us focus on all of the other 8 gifts and leave “faithfulness” out in the cold a bit because it doesn’t seemingly get tested the way the others do.

The fourth and final kind of faith is Supernatural Faith. This is one of the 9 supernatural gifts as described in 1 Corinthians 12. It is one of the Power Gifts and it is the greatest of the Power gifts.

When people talk about the spiritual gifts, faith is misunderstood. It is looked at as just being super extra faithful. It’s not thought of as supernatural. People are unable to grow in their faith because we focus on all the things we aren’t, instead of all the things we actually are and will become. When we get caught up in all we struggle with, we neglect to fully partner with God because we think we aren’t worthy to move forward into supernatural levels of anything. That’s a lie from the enemy and we need to deny any of those thoughts from a place in our mind and heart. The Lord cares about our heart and our willingness to seek Him. Grow through all of that and elevate your faith.

Now let’s talk about why the gift of faith, supernatural faith, is the greatest of the power gifts and I hope this ignites in you the desire to pursue it. Supernatural Faith Brings into operation the invisible and limitless resources of heaven so that the one with this faith has protection of the angels. Once you have the spiritual gift of Faith, nothing can stop you, the enemy cannot move you and you can undo what the enemy has done. In order for Supernatural faith to operate, there is an element of danger required, that is why we have the shield of faith, for protection. Supernatural faith is passive, it receives the miracle.

Faith, I think gets a bad rap though because you cannot see faith. It is intangible so it is overlooked. A leg growing back, a person raised from the dead, you cannot miss that. If you saw either of those things occur, you would be mesmerized by that gift and the action that you witnessed.

You don’t witness faith, you can’t see it so you can’t qualify it’s importance.

Supernatural faith can still exist and needs to exist to be able to accomplish what we are called to do for the Kingdom. Just because you may not have seen it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. There are plenty of things in this world I have never seen, but it doesn’t mean they don’t exist. If we all carried that level of faith, which we are capable of, think of how many people would still be with us, think of the cures we could have, think of the diseases we could eliminate, think of the birth defects we could correct.

If I were to define supernatural faith, I would say “A supernatural level of faith is exhibited when the words spoken by the individual operating in the gift of faith is powered by the Holy Spirit and enabled to come to pass.”

Examples: Moses parting Red Sea Ex 14, Daniel in the Lions Den Ch 6, Elijah and Fire, 1 & 2 Kings

We have now discussed the Spirit of Doubt and the four types of faith. Where do we go from here? Assuming you want to win this war, then we need to be honest with ourselves and I have 7 steps to Grow Faith and Dissolve Doubt, it seems like a lot, but it’s really not.

1. Identify what level of faith you are operating with or without and decide at what level of faith you are interested in building toward.

a. You are still going to go through the natural progression, that’s part of the growth process, but knowing the starting point and your end goal is important to allow yourself the time, understand the discipline needed and your willingness to be consistent in growing in Him.

2. Set aside consistent time to read the Bible where you focus on areas of faith.

a. This can be done by reading the stories of those who had to exhibit great faith in order to accomplish what God called them to do. Both Old and New Testament. As you read, look for commonalities, spiritual principles, how they overcame their struggles with doubt.

b. Set aside time to read the Bible and focus on areas addressing doubt. Use same method you used for studying faith.

c. Find outside reading of people of faith and read their stories of how they were able to accomplish Kingdom projects through their faith.

3. Set aside consistent prayer time to build your relationship with the Holy Spirit specifically asking Him to help you build your faith.

a. This is not time to complete your prayer list for your neighbors and friends. This is quiet time for the Holy Spirit to fill you with what you need to grow.

b. Be patient and listen to what He has to say to you

c. Follow through with what He is guiding you to do or not do.

4. Begin to move in areas of your life that require faith. We have to practice faith in order for it to grow.

a. Partner with the Holy Spirit on areas where you can begin to level up your faith and see how He will move with you and what He requires of you.

b. Remember to thank Him for all He is doing with you and for you.

5. Keep going

6. Keep going

7. Keep going

Before we end, I want to go back to our pivotal scripture in Matthew 21. Jesus says, if you have faith and do not doubt, this is a conditional statement with an inverse relationship. Remember back when you were a kid, way back in grade school. I don’t even know if they still have these, but I’m sure most of us remember the see saw. You would get on one end of the plank, someone else would get on the other and the plank would pivot over a center point and you could go back and forth and oh it was so fun. The best part was to be the one on the top end, high above everything. No one wants to be the one down on the ground. It was all so fun until that one kid, the one kid that is was a wildcard, that can sometimes be mean spirited, and they get on opposite you. You have no control, and the next thing you know, they decide to bail on you and without any weight on the other end of the plank, you come crashing down. Those were the worst. Now I want you to think about faith and doubt this way. That is your see saw. Your faith is on one side, your doubt is on the other. How are you going to handle that see saw? Are faith and doubt going to be looking eye to eye, straight across? Are you going to sandbag your faith and stay on the bottom while Doubt rises above? That’s how most people would ride that ride, maybe a momentary pop up but right back down? Or are you going to fully trust in the Holy Spirit, get on that see saw, push the weight of Doubt down and let your faith rise above and live out your life up there on that see saw high above and in full sight of all that the Holy Spirit is planning in your life? Does it mean that at some point you might be a little nervous you are going to fall off, maybe, but you won’t. It all comes down to how you are going to manage that ride.

That’s a decision you have to make and once you do, then that’s what Jesus was talking about when He said, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. 22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

If you are growing through our podcast, consider supporting us each month as we continue to build the Kingdom of God. www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share.

We encourage you:

· To have an active Bible reading plan, if you want a personal relationship with the Lord, you need to be active about reading His word.

· Take a look at my newest book, Conquering Our Unseen Enemies, available on Amazon or our website, Conqueringourunseenenemies.com

· Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies and FB.

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

Dawn Simmons 4/21/24 Dawn Simmons 4/21/24

Doubt vs Faith, Winning the War in your Mind, Part 1, Ep 3-13

Welcome back! This is Conquering Our Unseen Enemies and I am your host Dawn Simmons. Today we are going to talk about something you may already be familiar with, Familiar Spirits!

We will discuss how these harmful counterfeits to the Holy Spirit develop relationships specific to an individual and what you need to do to evict these spirits and their influence in your life.

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons, and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing the ever-common struggle we have with doubt versus faith so we can begin to win that war in our head. Understand if doubt is with you, there is a war going on, even if you don’t recognize it. How we respond to doubt reveals a lot about our relationship with the Lord. This is a two-part series where we will talk about the Spirit of Doubt and lay the groundwork for both episodes in our first episode, and then next week we will dig into faith and how we go about winning this war in our minds.

Before we begin, I want to ask our regular listeners to consider supporting us each week as we work to provide you quality and useful information. Your support is appreciated more than we can express. You can show your support at www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support. There is a link in the notes.

If you haven’t heard, the podcast is now available on our new YouTube Channel, Conquering Our Unseen Enemies! and we will be adding more content to the YouTube channel in ways that will be visual and enhance our time together and our discussions on spirit filled topics. This is our third year in the Conquering Our Unseen Enemies podcast and all the good things we do will remain the same, you just have more options and opportunities now to enhance the podcast.

Ok, back to our discussion on Doubt and Faith. We are starting to lay the groundwork and to do that we will begin with defining both doubt and faith so we are all on the same page from the get go.

Doubt: to be uncertain about; consider questionable or unlikely; hesitate to believe:

Faith: complete trust or confidence in someone or something

The pivotal scripture for both of these episodes is Matthew 21: 21-22, because in it we hear what Jesus has to say about the relationship between the two, doubt and faith. We need to understand there is an inverse relationship and it is our responsibility to manage that relationship both in the natural realm and in the spiritual realm. We live in both simultaneously and we need to speak and move like we live in both simultaneously.

Jesus here is describing this inverse relationship; this see saw effect with doubt and faith. We do need to put this in context. Does this mean if I don’t like something I can have faith to get what I want and it will be done for me? No, if it were all about me getting what I want I am sure I would make some changes, maybe a neighbor or two, just kidding, just one neighbor, just kidding, I digress. When we are moving in faith as discussed here, which we will talk more about in part two, we are talking about our alignment with the Holy Spirit, so our motives and actions are Holy Spirit directed.

Let’s look at another scripture James 1:2- 8. We want to look at this one because it reveals a lot to us about the character of the spirit of doubt and what we should expect when we operate from a place of doubt. It says this, Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

Let’s get to know the Spirit of Doubt a little bit better. We have talked about this spirit before. We will hit on some of our previous discussion points, but we are specifically looking at doubt now in relation to what it does to our faith life.

The Spirit of Doubt is a demonic spirit that likes to hide in the background. It may very well have been the first to arrive, but it will hide. When a demon can hide, it can do more damage than when it makes a big announcement that it has arrived.

Once we have given doubt space in our mind, it will creep into our heart and then into every area in our lives as we begin to see the downward changes happen in our marriage, in our work, in our relationships and most importantly, in our relationship with the Lord. There is a reason Paul tells the Philippians in 4:4, Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

When we are in concert with the Holy Spirit, cooperating, living our life with a focus on the Holy Spirit, listening and following the Holy Spirit, we will have peace. We will have an ability to pray, wait on the Holy Spirit, know in our spirit that He is working and in that strength we are guarding our hearts and minds by keeping them focused on the peace of God.

When we allow doubt into our mind and our heart, there is collateral damage that will occur. Doubt erodes trust. Doubt destroys creativity. Doubt builds walls. Doubt shuts doors. Doubt ends friendships. Doubt builds fears. Doubt ends marriages. Doubt conceals talent. Doubt shreds love. Doubt will tear down your strength and lead you to believe you are alone and you never were. You may have pushed people aside. You may have misinterpreted someone who you thought was pushing you aside, but if you have Jesus, then the Holy Spirit has never left you side.

Why is doubt so difficult to conquer? Well, let’s look at how it works and see why that can be challenging.

The spirit of Doubt will maneuver in your mind to pull you back from activities and opportunities by feeding you with lies that you are not good enough. It will lie to you and create a comfortable space for you to retreat so that it can block off what God wants to tell you in truth through the Holy Spirit, through your church, through your friends. Once the spirit of Doubt can get you to buy in just a little bit, then it can start to move in your life and you are giving it access to your mind and your heart. By coming into agreement with anything the Spirit of Doubt is deceiving you with, you are creating opportunity for Doubt to grow and that is when Doubt will begin to bring in some friends. You may begin to feel alone, isolated, and that is all by design. Doubt has opened the door to Insecurity, Jealousy, Self-delusion and once defeatism enters the room of your mind, you will have a very difficult time getting yourself aligned with the Holy Spirit. The moment we rise up to try to do so, we are met with doubts about what we are doing, what we are saying. Our words change from hopeful to despair and we begin to say things that are self-defeating and leading us to a place of believing failure is our only option and our only outcome. These are all lies. Demons are very good at what they do. Demons have been around since before creation.

We all have weaknesses. We know what they are, we may not share them but we know our own weaknesses. Well, guess what, so do the demons. We don’t have secrets from demons any more than we have secrets from God. When you have done something that is in opposition to what we know is God’s plan or how the Kingdom of God functions, in other words, when we sin, particularly when we have not repented of that sin, well, that may be a weakness or a secret, whatever it is, it is not a secret from the demons. They want to know all of that so they can exploit it.

Now let’s say you live a pretty righteous life. You stay focused on the Lord, you repent when you should, you do all the things the Lord would want of you. There is still a weakness somewhere, maybe it’s how you were treated as a child, maybe something going on at work, or even just a flat out lie being told about you. The enemy will manipulate any situation, even righteous situations to create fear and get you off balance. How do I know that, well Joseph had to deal with that, didn’t he? Potiphar’s wife accusing him of something he did not do, he ran, he ran out of fear, he ran because it was how to get immediately out of a bad situation. But Joseph was just. Did it mean Joseph didn’t still have to pay a price? No, he spent years in prison paying for something he did not do. Do you think the Spirit of Doubt was hanging out in jail with him? Do you think the Spirit of Doubt kept quiet all those years?

Never let the circumstances you see, dictate your outcome. If Jesus had done that, how could He have been resurrected? Doubt wants to get you to a moment of weakness, and then use your own words and thoughts against you. Normal challenges may be magnified or increased, instead of one flat tire it’s two, and the purpose is to make you feel everything is against you. It’s not the truth, it’s just what it wants you to feel. We tend to respond to how we feel, whether it is true or not and that is what gets us into trouble. We don’t always wait to know the truth or hear from the Holy Spirit before we react or respond. It’s a weakness. Why is this such an important tactic? It takes our mind off of the Lord and erodes our faith and trust in Him. It’s a carefully crafted plan of action against you that if you aren’t at peace in the Lord, you may find yourself wrapped up in that challenge being presented to you instead of wrapped up in the security of the Lord.

This is actually a really good stopping point for this episode. I think we have a pretty good idea of who the Spirit of Doubt is and what it is he is trying to do.

If you are growing through our podcast, consider supporting us each month as we continue to build the Kingdom of God. www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share.

As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:

· Defined Doubt and Faith:

o Doubt: to be uncertain about; consider questionable or unlikely; hesitate to believe:

o Faith: complete trust or confidence in someone or something

· Matthew 21: 21-22, it reveals the inverse relationship between doubt and faith.

· James 1:2- 8. it reveals the character of the spirit of doubt and what we should expect when we operate from a place of doubt.

· The Spirit of Doubt is a demonic spirit that likes to hide in the background.

· Once we have given doubt space in our mind, it will creep into our heart and into every area in our lives including in our relationship with the Lord.

· Philippians in 4:4, referencing the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, and the importance of guarding our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

· When we are in concert with the Holy Spirit, we are guarding our hearts and minds by keeping them focused on the peace of God.

· When we allow doubt into our mind and our heart, there is collateral damage that will occur.

o Doubt so difficult to conquer

o Maneuver in your mind

o Pull you back from activities and opportunities

o Feed you with lies that you are not good enough.

o It will lie to you and create a space for you to retreat

o Block off what God wants to tell you in truth

· Once the spirit of Doubt can get you to buy in just a little bit, then it can start to move in your life and you are giving it access to your mind and your heart.

· By coming into agreement with anything the Spirit of Doubt, you are creating opportunity for Doubt to grow.

· Doubt has opened the door to Insecurity, Jealousy, Self-delusion

· Our words change from hopeful to despair and are self-defeating and leading us to believe failure is our outcome.

· Joseph and the Spirit of Doubt trying to erode his trust while he was in imprisoned.

· Never let the circumstances you see, dictate your outcome.

· Doubt wants to get you to a moment of weakness, and then use your own words and thoughts against you.

· We tend to respond to how we feel, and not wait to know the truth or hear from the Holy Spirit before we react or respond.

· Doubt wants to take our mind off the Lord and erodes our faith and trust in Him.

We encourage you:

· To have an active Bible reading plan, if you want a personal relationship with the Lord, you need to be active about reading His word.

· Take a look at my newest book, Conquering Our Unseen Enemies, available on Amazon or our website, Conqueringourunseenenemies.com

· Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies and FB.

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

Dawn Simmons 4/14/24 Dawn Simmons 4/14/24

Evicting Guilt and Shame from Our Lives, Part 2, Ep 3-12

Welcome back! This is Conquering Our Unseen Enemies and I am your host Dawn Simmons. Today we are going to talk about something you may already be familiar with, Familiar Spirits!

We will discuss how these harmful counterfeits to the Holy Spirit develop relationships specific to an individual and what you need to do to evict these spirits and their influence in your life.

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons, and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing part two of two demonic influences, the demon of Guilt and the demon of Shame. These two demons can work separately but are intertwined and when they work together it’s like a one two punch coming against us. This week we are going to discuss the demon of Shame and talk more about how they work together against us and what we need to do to evict them from our lives.

Before we begin, I want to ask our regular listeners to consider supporting us each week as we work to provide you quality and useful information. For the month of April we are sending our monthly supporters an appreciation gift of Anointing Oil. Your support is appreciated more than we can express. You can show your support at www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support. There is a link in the notes.

Let’s review again the definitions of both guilt and shame.

Guilt: the fact of having committed a breach of conduct especially violating law and involving a penalty.

Shame: a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming or impropriety.

In our last episode we talked about guilt as being the strongman. If you recall, the reason behind that is that we feel guilty before we feel shame. Even if it is a nanosecond earlier, it is still guilt showing up first. We can feel guilt even before we do something. If we are thinking about doing something we know is wrong, we are already feeling conviction. We know, we already know, and we feel guilty as we are in the process of doing it or deciding to do it.

Where we start to feel the pain of shame is generally after we have done something we shouldn’t have and now we feel the shame towards ourself about it. The demon of shame can increase it’s strength if we do nothing about it. If instead we chose to remain silent, hide it, pretend it didn’t happen or lie about it, we compound shame’s impact drastically. Shame feeds itself and then invites embarrassment, unworthiness, and whatever demons are involved in your sin. For example, if it is an affair, then the demon of lust will join shame, adultery. If it an emotional affair, then that is a fantasy lust. If the sin involves alcohol or drugs, then we can expect the demon of addiction, or escape to make their way into your life.

When we feel shame, it has a more direct impact on how we feel about ourselves, how we identify ourselves as either a good person or a bad person. Are we a successful person or are we a failure as a person. Shame hits us at our core. If it is a sin issue we are struggling with over and over then we likely see ourselves as a failure and not worthy of seeking God’s forgiveness. Those thoughts place a wedge between us and God. We don’t accept Jesus as our savior because we are rejecting what He did for us on the cross. We are walking down a path of eternal separation by holding this inside and not dealing with it with Him.

I’ve seen some people try to cope with their shame by doing good works. The thought is that they can make up for what they are doing by evening out their offense. They think they will feel better about themselves because they did “something” because if it, something that was good. Doing something good, does not wipe out the bad anymore than people who think they can buy off their guilt feelings. Nowhere does the Bible say to make amends for your sin by doing good works. There are some religions that teach that and it is entirely unbiblical. We need to seek forgiveness for our sins. Our repentance is a part of that or it is not a true seeking of forgiveness. Out of repentance, if we want to do good works, then so be it, but they are not tied to any past sinful behavior as a way to absolve anyone of anything. Works done to seek absolution are useless and a waste of time. Seeking forgiveness without repentance is dangerous and a waste of time. God is not mocked.

When we carry shame, we carry the weight of our sin. When we have sincerely sought forgiveness and we still carry around shame, then we are carrying around the lies of the enemy. You can still have feelings of what you did, that’s conviction coming in, but we do have to move forward, deal with the consequences, particularly of it affects someone else, and maintain a restored relationship with the Lord. The demon of shame wants to tell you none of that is possible, that you are rejected by God, that you are no longer able to approach God. All of that is a lie.

What can happen if we do not deal with our shame, but instead hide it, hoping no one will discover what we have done. Inevitably, unaddressed shame will begin to bubble up and we will see a change in behavior. Anger issues may creep into situations that may be bothersome, but not so much to illicit anger. I’ve talked before about what I consider to be loud and quiet spirits. Shame starts off as quiet, because it wants you to feel bad and keep it hidden. If it remains hidden, it remains in your life. Slowly it will percolate. The slower it can percolate, the easier it can remain incognito. Ultimately it wants to lead you to destruction, so a slow percolate will accomplish that more effectively than a loud bang. You may not even realize shame is behind these new emerging emotions, and that is even better. You aren’t going to want to talk about it, if shame can get you feeling bad enough about yourself and if you don’t talk, you won’t seek forgiveness. You will steer clear of conviction and anyone who will try to get you to draw close to the Lord.

Shame works from the inside out. While guilt works from the outside inward. Shame can lead to depression and anxiety. Unfortunately, shame can take you so far down the road of despair that you will even consider suicide. It is a very strong demon. This is not a low level demon and we need to understand that and take it seriously enough that we want to seek eviction immediately. Shame will produce numerous fears in us as well. We can have a fear of condemnation, a fear of accusation, a fear of judgment.

Guilt is often easier to address, guilt can be produced in us for things done to us, omissions on our part. We can often admit to guilt. We may get caught and we can’t get around our guilt. Shame on the other hand, we don’t openly address shame. We don’t want to address shame, we want to hide it. Put guilt and shame together and we get that one two punch. We may justify our guilt, but we don’t generally justify our shame, we can’t. We know when we are justifying that we are lying and making excuses. Our shame confirms we are lying when we justify.

So now we know about guilt, we know about shame, we see how they work separately, we see how they work together. Now what?

Well, now we need to get rid of them both.

In order to do that we have to first Acknowledge our guilt and our shame with ourselves, and then with the Lord. He already knows anyhow, we can’t hide anything from Him, so come clean and come clean entirely. Until you can do that, you will limit and even block your ability to get guilt and shame out of your life. What if you are carrying guilt or shame from childhood, as a byproduct of how you were raised. Still go through these steps because we are trying to break the sin that placed these on you. We want to break the sin that occurred to bring it in your life and then for your role in perpetuating it, even if you didn’t know better. Ignorance is no excuse and we want to evict, not argue about the semantics of what you knew or didn’t know.

Next we need to repent. The act of repentance is a complete turning away from the sinful behavior. If you don’t think you can do that, then you need to work on the root of what is causing you to sin. To be in a cycle of sin, repentance, sin, repentance, over and over is not going to work. You didn’t actually repent if you keep returning to your sin. Repentance needs to be taken seriously as a complete turning away. Again, even if this was created as a byproduct of how you were raised or what a poorly indoctrinated church or pastor taught you, we want to repent of any involvement with it. We don’t want to give the enemy any legal rights to remain, so a complete repentance is one step in how we remove those rights.

Ask for forgiveness, this includes forgiving yourself. We want to seek forgiveness for any and all, knowing and unknowing participation in activities, thoughts, behaviors that resulted in your guilt and shame, condemnation of yourself, a lack of forgiveness to others or yourself. This is essential. Without this step, we will not receive the forgiveness we need to move forward.

Fourth, look for any areas in your life that will lead you back to feelings of shame or guilt. We don’t want to carry around the past. We don’t want to be reminded of the past, we don’t want to associate with people who were a part of the past that led us into any sin or who are continually bringing you back to those feelings of guilt and shame, particularly when those feelings are a result of a byproduct of your childhood or an unbiblical church or pastoral teaching.

Fifth, we need to tell the demons of guilt and the demons of shame and any and all of its associates to leave you immediately. You are a child of God, and are covered by the blood of Jesus and you do not want them in your life. Revoke their access to you and any rights they have to your mind, body and spirit.

Sixth, we need to make sure we are being proactive in remaining in a repentant, forgiven state. If we do not have proactive measures in place, what do you think will happen? Well, we don’t want the enemy to come back and find your house empty and start trying to move in again. We need to fill the empty house we just created and we want to fill it with the Holy Spirit and the Word. Invite the Holy Spirit into your life, to move and grow in you. Read the Bible, have some scriptures ready to go to quote when you feel the enemy is antagonizing you. Be strong.

Remember, Isaiah 54:17, No weapon formed against you shall prosper.

If you are growing through our podcast, consider supporting us each month as we continue to build the Kingdom of God. www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share.

As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:

· Part 2 of 2 on Guilt and Shame

· Guilt: the fact of having committed a breach of conduct especially violating law and involving a penalty.

· Shame: a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming or impropriety.

· The demon of shame can increase its strength if we do nothing about it. If we chose to remain silent, hide it, or lie about it, we compound shame’s impact drastically.

· Shame feeds itself and then invites embarrassment, unworthiness, and whatever demons are involved in your sin.

· When we feel shame, it has a more direct impact on how we feel about ourselves, how we identify ourselves as either a good person or a bad person. Those thoughts place a wedge between us and God.

· I’ve seen some people try to cope with their shame by doing good works. Nowhere does the Bible say to make amends for your sin by doing good works.

· We need to seek forgiveness for our sins. Our repentance is a part of that or it is not a true seeking of forgiveness. Out of repentance, if we want to do good works they are not tied to any past sinful behavior as a way to absolve.

· When we carry shame, we carry the weight of our sin. When we have sincerely sought forgiveness and we still carry around shame, then we are carrying around the lies of the enemy.

· Unaddressed shame will begin to bubble up and we will see a change in behavior. Anger issues, etc.

· Shame works from the inside out. While guilt works from the outside inward. Shame can lead to depression and anxiety. We can have a fear of condemnation, a fear of accusation, a fear of judgment.

· We don’t want to address shame, we want to hide it. We may justify our guilt, but we don’t generally justify our shame

· To get rid of them both.

· In order to do that we have to first Acknowledge our guilt and our shame with ourselves, and then with the Lord.

· Next we need to repent. The act of repentance is a complete turning away from the sinful behavior. We don’t want to give the enemy any legal rights to remain, so a complete repentance is one step in how we remove those rights.

· Ask for forgiveness, this includes forgiving yourself. Without this step, we will not receive the forgiveness we need to move forward.

· Fourth, look for any areas in your life that will lead you back to feelings of shame or guilt.

· Fifth, we need to tell the demons of guilt and the demons of shame and any and all of its associates to leave you immediately. Revoke their access to you and any rights they have to your mind, body and spirit.

· Sixth, we need to make sure we are being proactive in remaining in a repentant, forgiven state. Invite the Holy Spirit into your life, to move and grow in you. Read the Bible, have some scriptures ready to go to quote when you feel the enemy is antagonizing you. Be strong.

· Remember, Isaiah 54:17, No weapon formed against you shall prosper.

We encourage you:

· To have an active Bible reading plan, if you want a personal relationship with the Lord, you need to be active about reading His word.

· Take a look at my newest book, Conquering Our Unseen Enemies, available on Amazon or our website, Conqueringourunseenenemies.com

· Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies and FB.

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

Dawn Simmons 4/7/24 Dawn Simmons 4/7/24

Evicting Guilt and Shame from Our Lives, Part 1, Ep 3-11

Welcome back! This is Conquering Our Unseen Enemies and I am your host Dawn Simmons. Today we are going to talk about something you may already be familiar with, Familiar Spirits!

We will discuss how these harmful counterfeits to the Holy Spirit develop relationships specific to an individual and what you need to do to evict these spirits and their influence in your life.

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons, and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing two demonic influences, the demon of Guilt and the demon of Shame. These two demons can work separately but are intertwined and when they work together it’s like a one two punch coming against us. We are going to discuss this in two episodes and today we will begin with identifying both demons and then honing down on the demon of Guilt. Next week we will focus on the demon of Shame and talk more about how they work together against us and what we need to do to evict them from our lives.

Before we begin, I want to ask our regular listeners to consider supporting us each week as we work to provide you quality and useful information. For the month of April, we are sending our monthly supporters an appreciation gift of Anointing Oil and an explainer and a how to use anointing oil. Your support is appreciated more than we can express. You can show your support at www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support. There is a link in the notes.

Let’s start off first by defining both guilt and shame.

Guilt: the fact of having committed a breach of conduct especially violating law and involving a penalty.

Shame: a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming or impropriety.

In this combo, the demon of guilt will usually be the strongman. Before you feel shame for something, you will feel the guilt of it, so the demon of guilt gets there first and establishes the house.

I want to look closer at this demon of guilt and really show how he works against us. This demon is so common and is so difficult to get rid of, one of the worst. When I am mentoring and coaching, I do both, people, guilt is a frequent wall I come up against. In these conversations I ask a lot of questions so we can begin to understand what this guilt is rooted in, how the door was opened. When we can understand how the door was opened, then we can put a plan in place to close it, seal it shut. There are three main places I see guilt derive from: religious spirit, unintentional poor parenting, inability to forgive oneself.

Let’s talk about each of these three, maybe yours is different, but by looking closer at these maybe you can find some commonalities for you or someone around you struggling with this.

Unfortunately, the demon of guilt pairs heavily with the demon of religion. There are some denominations where this is more of an issue. Those religions or denominations that are based on rules, man-made rules and legalistic bondages that everyone must adhere to are most prevalent in perpetuating guilt. What I am not talking about here is our need to live righteously. The Bible talks about our need to live righteously from beginning to end. God created us in His image with the intent for us to be righteous and holy, we know that from Genesis 1:26, Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness. Creating us in His likeness goes beyond physical likeness. We know, we can see throughout the Old Testament that living up to rules doesn’t work even when God makes them. So why would it be any different when man makes them and tries to force people to live by them when they go beyond what God provides, what Jesus gave us as a gift when he allowed himself to be crucified and then in his resurrection. That gift given to us which fulfills the need for meeting all the rules of the Old Testament gets washed away in manmade rules. Jesus fulfilled the law. We still live up to the righteous standards, we can do that. At a minimum, we can look at the ten commandments and live by those standards, nearly every country follows those standards to some degree. When Jesus fulfilled the law, He did not say, go and sin all you want, He said go and sin no more, that’s in Matthew 8:11. Manmade religious rules take the focus off Jesus and put them on the rules and how often we fail at the rules. The Spirit of religion creates fear when we can’t live up to the rules God never intended, the bondage, then the spirit of guilt moves in and places a hold on the mind and the heart. You are made to feel like you are the lowest of the low because you violated a rule and the penalty of that is guilt you need to carry. The feeling of never being able to be good enough begins to permeate within you and a feeling of worthlessness begins to choke you. It will cause a divide in your relationship with the Lord because the guilt makes you feel you can’t approach God and seek forgiveness. The longer this feeling of guilt lasts, the more distance is created in the relationship. Our past is carried in front of us, it doesn’t stay behind us, forgiven, because we don’t feel worthy of forgiveness. The demon of guilt doesn’t want you to feel worthy of forgiveness. The demon of guilt will tear apart your heart in this way. It deceives you into believing you cannot be forgiven because your offense was against God, so He doesn’t want you anymore. This is how the strongman becomes firmly seated in your life. When we are living in a bondage that is unrealistic or even “false” because it is a manmade religious rule, then it can be difficult to break the demon of guilt because the belief of guilt is rooted in a false belief to begin with. I have had success helping people with this, but it takes a long time. I have to keep questioning them to get them to understand why they feel guilty. If you start at the beginning and keep going backward with “why” and “why” and “why” pretty soon you get to a place where they say, “I don’t know, that’s what the church said I had to do” At that point you can try to source the “why” of why the church is saying to do something. If it’s Biblical, then we have something to discuss, but if it’s not, then you have a thought process that needs to be evicted.

Now let’s move onto the Spirit of Guilt as a result of unintentional poor parenting. Some of these issues stem out of some of the same thought processes I have seen with the spirit of religion. Things that happen to us as a child tend to have some sticking power then even when we know it’s wrong, it becomes so ingrained in us that we end up repeating the cycle and foster the demon of guilt that we actually hate having in our lives. Parenting styles have definitely changed over the last 4-5 decades, not always improving just changing. I think when we see a lot of the rebellion of the younger generation today it is in part a product of unintentional poor parenting. No matter what generation, guilt is present. You can have guilt as a seed planted from your parents that was used as a way to control you when communication and establishing trust were much better options. Some generations thought children should be seen and not heard or not so seen and not heard. That brings a spirit of unworthiness to the child that is a counterpart to both guilt and shame. When that child made a mistake, guilt was placed on them for the fact that the parents were having to “deal” with whatever the issue is, and it was likely normal kid stuff, nothing over the top, but a seed was planted in the kid. There is the poor parenting by not establishing healthy boundaries they should be expecting of other people and therefore allowing the kid to develop friendships and experience the positives and negatives that happen to all of us. When we shelter or protect kids, we leave them with an inability to cope and as a result they can feel guilty, and a sense of failure that is dramatically overexaggerated when they don’t succeed as expected. Guilt works well with failure. Likewise, I have seen a lot of parents realize they did not do their best in raising their children and let the guilt of what they didn’t do eat away at them. They try to buy their way out of it and that doesn’t work. Money cannot pay off guilt to make it leave. I’ve seen parents who have guilt issues because their kid or kids have addiction issues and they want to carry that burden on themselves and never acknowledge the choices their kids make and that there are consequences for them because of their choices. I’ve been told by one mom that she felt bad that she made a poor choice in the father of her child so now, in her 70’s she still feels guilty and is trying to make up for it by providing finances to a child who is financially irresponsible. When we try to come up with our own solutions for guilt, instead of turning to the Lord and evicting the demon of guilt, we will not make good choices. We will only walk ourselves down a hallway of more poor choices and then we feel guilty about those choices as well. The only answer is going to the Holy Spirit for how to clean up our messes.

Finally, let’s look at our inability to forgive ourselves. Sometimes I think we treat ourselves worse than we allow others to treat us. When we know we have sinned, or done something that we are not proud of, we can really paralyze ourselves, especially when what we have done causes harm to someone we love. When we have to deal with that pain, or we have to accept the consequences, we can be very hard on ourselves. When we fail to recognize that we need to treat ourselves with respect and we need to honor what Jesus tells us, He included ourselves.

Look at Matthew 6:15 for example, But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Do you realize how many people are carrying around guilt, guilt they have asked for forgiveness for, and then continue to feel guilty and hold it against themselves. Then they speak poorly of themselves and hold themselves back and say they aren’t worthy of better for themselves because of what they have done. I had that very conversation with a woman, a wife, mother of 2, has a business, just this week, 3 days ago. She is holding onto guilt from over 10 years ago for mistakes she made and in that guilt she tells herself over and over that she isn’t worthy of all the good things in her life that she knows the Lord has in store for her. That demon of guilt has been there since she was a kid, and it’s going to take some time to get it out of her. Until she forgives herself, she will remain stuck, stuck with her unhealthy and unnecessary guilt. If Jesus is your savior, then He can forgive you, but if you don’t forgive yourself, then He cannot forgive you. It’s as simple as that.

When we continue to focus on the past, or hold onto it and place it above our relationship with the Lord, we are creating for ourselves an idol. With guilt there is 1 healthy way that will show up in our lives and it is called conviction. Where we get caught up is in the condemnation. What’s the difference?

Conviction is when the Holy Spirit speaks to us, let’s us know that what we are doing, what we have done, where we are going, what we have said, whatever it is, the Holy Spirit is letting us know it is not in alignment with the Lord. That conviction is to lead us away from sin and produce in us repentance and restores our relationship with the Lord. Paul writes it this way in

2 Corinthians 7: 9, yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. 10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. Paul is pretty clear about what happens without this process of “sorrow” or conviction leading to repentance, it’s death. Guilt, failing to forgive, failing to respond in repentance to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, leads to death. That is the entire objective of the enemy, to lead us to our death. That is condemnation. We need to make a choice if we are going to be convicted or condemned, life or death, the Holy Spirit or the demon of guilt.

So far we have talked about the demon of guilt and how I have seen him work. We haven’t really touched on shame yet or how they work together. In our next episode, we are going to break down the demon of shame and see how the cycle of demonic influence gets stronger once shame enters the house. We will also talk about how we can break all of this up and evict these influences from our decision making and everyday life.

If you are growing through our podcast, consider supporting us each month as we continue to build the Kingdom of God. www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share.

As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:

· Part 1 of two episodes focused on the demon of Guilt and the demon of Shame.

· Let’s start off first by defining both guilt and shame.

· Guilt: the fact of having committed a breach of conduct especially violating law and involving a penalty.

· Shame: a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming or impropriety.

· In this combo, the demon of guilt will usually be the strongman.

· We need to understand what guilt is rooted in, how the door was opened to know how we can put a plan in place to close it.

· There are three main places I see guilt derive from: religious spirit, unintentional poor parenting, inability to forgive oneself.

· The demon of guilt pairs heavily with the demon of religion based on man-made rules and legalistic bondages.

· We need to live righteously. The Bible talks about our need to live righteously from beginning to end.

· The gift of Jesus given to us fulfills the need for meeting the rules of the Old Testament and the importance of that gets washed away in manmade rules.

· Jesus fulfilled the law. We still live up to the righteous standards, we can do that.

· Matthew 8:11.

· Manmade religious rules take the focus off Jesus and put them on the rules and how often we fail at the rules.

· The Spirit of religion creates fear when we can’t live up to the rules God never intended, the bondage, then the spirit of guilt moves in and places a hold on the mind and the heart.

· Guilt deceives you into believing you cannot be forgiven because your offense was against God, so He doesn’t want you anymore. This is how the strongman becomes firmly seated in your life.

· Now let’s move onto the Spirit of Guilt as a result of unintentional poor parenting.

· Things that happen to us as a child tend to have some sticking power and becomes so ingrained in us that we end up repeating the cycle and foster the demon of guilt

· You can have guilt as a seed planted from your parents that was used as a way to control you when communication and establishing trust were much better options.

· There is the poor parenting by not establishing healthy boundaries they should be expecting of other people

· Guilt works well with failure. Likewise, I have seen a lot of parents realize they did not do their best in raising their children and let the guilt of what they didn’t do eat away at them. They try to buy their way out of it and that doesn’t work. Money cannot pay off guilt to make it leave.

· When we try to come up with our own solutions for guilt, instead of turning to the Lord and evicting the demon of guilt, we will not make good choices. We will only walk ourselves down a hallway of more poor choices and then we feel guilty about those choices as well. The only answer is going to the Holy Spirit for how to clean up our messes.

· Finally, let’s look at our inability to forgive ourselves.

· We treat ourselves worse than we allow others to treat us.

· Look at Matthew 6:15 for example, But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

· If Jesus is your savior, then He can forgive you, but if you don’t forgive yourself, then He cannot forgive you.

· When we continue to focus on the past, or hold onto it and place it above our relationship with the Lord, we are creating for ourselves an idol.

· With guilt there is 1 healthy way that will show up in our lives and it is called conviction. Where we get caught up is in the condemnation.

· Conviction is when the Holy Spirit is letting us know it is not in alignment with the Lord.

· That conviction is to lead us away from sin and produce in us repentance and restores our relationship with the Lord.

· 2 Corinthians 7: 9

· The entire objective of the enemy, to lead us to condemnation by failing to respond in repentance to the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

We encourage you:

· To have an active Bible reading plan, if you want a personal relationship with the Lord, you need to be active about reading His word.

· Take a look at my newest book, Conquering Our Unseen Enemies, available on Amazon or our website, Conqueringourunseenenemies.com

· Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies and FB.

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

Dawn Simmons 3/31/24 Dawn Simmons 3/31/24

Why does Rebellion seem so attractive?, Ep 3-10

Welcome back! This is Conquering Our Unseen Enemies and I am your host Dawn Simmons. Today we are going to talk about something you may already be familiar with, Familiar Spirits!

We will discuss how these harmful counterfeits to the Holy Spirit develop relationships specific to an individual and what you need to do to evict these spirits and their influence in your life.

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons, and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing the Spirit of Rebellion. We will look at Rebellion from the very beginning and see how it played out in the Bible. Then we will discuss how we get caught in the trap of Rebellion and why so many people fall for Satan’s trap.

Before we begin, I want to ask our regular listeners to consider supporting us each week as we work to provide you quality and useful information each week. Your support is appreciated more than we can express. You can show your support at www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support. There is a link in the notes.

When we think about Satan, we likely draw some inference in our imagination to evil and come up with some imagery of what we think evil looks like. The first time we meet Satan is in Genesis 3. He appears to Eve in the Garden of Eden as a serpent. So Satan presents himself not as he appears in his own natural state, but rather how he wants us to see him, how he wanted Eve to perceive him. From there, he began to engage with her. Notice that a serpent spoke to Eve and she spoke back. If this were us and a snake began to speak to us, I doubt we would just respond and continue the conversation. We don’t want to overlook that point however, because it gives us insight into an interesting principle that still applies today. The principle we learn in that interaction, short as it is, is that Satan can and will communicate with us and it is up to us to make a choice on how we will respond.

Let’s look at how Eve responds. First, she engages in conversation. I don’t know that she understood who she was talking to, the Bible doesn’t give us insight into how much of what we would consider “the unseen world” was revealed to Adam and Eve. We don’t know if the “unseen world” was in fact unseen to them. By this point in time, we only know the Fall of Satan had occurred. Jesus tells us a little about it in Luke 10:18, He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I think that must have been a sad day. That was the first rebellion. We do it every day so maybe it doesn’t seem so shocking, but it had to have deeply hurt God to see this happen. Satan is a created being, like we are. When Eve first encounters Satan, or at least it is the first encounter we are made aware of, meaning, not every single event or act that has occurred is included in the Bible. God provided what we need, not all the information there ever was. So when we see Eve encounter the serpent, what is the first thing Satan does? As the conversation begins Satan creates a wedge that he slowly starts to weave into the conversation through doubt and as he pulls Eve into the conversation, he is gently hammering that wedge in to place to create a divide between her and the relationship she and Adam had with God. Once Adam entered the picture, we don’t see the serpent in the conversation, only Eve pulling Adam into her sin. He participates in an act of Rebellion against God that he knows is contrary to what God has told him. Satan successfully created a divide and their daily walks with God in the cool of the day as is described in Genesis 3:8, Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

When we look at how this encounter worked so well we see that Satan masterfully used deception as a way to lead Adam and Eve into Rebellion against God. Satan knew exactly what the result would be for Adam and Eve. He didn’t care what happened to them. The more he can do to tear apart God’s creations, the better. He used deception to convince Eve that God was not truthful, that what God said was a lie to keep all the good stuff for Himself, as if God were withholding the best from them for his own selfish reasons. Remember that while Eve is being told this, she is standing in the most lush land and diverse yet peaceful animal community ever created. She was standing in an earthly heaven in the Garden of Eden. How much more could she have wanted than what she already had? Yet even in all of that, Satan managed to convince her that she could have more. Why?

Why does Rebellion seem so attractive? When we are considering rebellion, we are in essence saying that we are questioning the nature of God. We are saying that God cannot be trusted. We are saying that what Jesus did, which is what we are celebrating this week was nothing. The life that Jesus gave for us, his death and resurrection, none of that was enough. Let’s go to the Garden of Gethsemane for a minute. Matthew 26:39, let’s see what Jesus is experiencing, Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Jesus knows what He is about to experience. He obviously doesn’t want to and in a moment of prayer He speaks to His Father and says if there is any way He can avoid it, then please arrange it, but if not, then He will follow His Father’s will. Jesus had a moment there where if He had chosen Rebellion, He could have spared Himself. He had free will, just as we do. He chose His Father. Jesus was afraid, so fearful He sweat blood. Satan was working to create everything that was about to take place, all the evil acts, the betrayal of Jesus, all to ensure the death of Jesus. Fear, Satan was using fear.

If we go back to the Garden of Eden, I’m sure when Adam and Eve were banished from their beautiful Garden, a Garden created specifically for them, I am sure when they look out at the vast, barren, darkness that awaited them, I’m sure they were fearful. The land was no longer full of food, they were going to have to do that themselves. Their lives changed forever. Physically their lives changed, spiritually their lives changed, they began to experience their own death which wasn’t present up to that moment. Animals did not pursue each other, there were no carnivores up to that point. Now the animal kingdom had predators and prey and man was brought into that kingdom as both a predator and prey. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the unthinkable happens. One of their sons, commits the first murder, and so then they experienced their first loss of life, their son.

Rebellion breeds sin. When we take that first step, we don’t stop at one step. Rebellion is a staircase that progressively leads us deeper down into sinful behavior and the consequences continue to build. We are choosing self-will. We are choosing our own ways, or we think we are. In reality, we are choosing Satan’s ways. Our freewill, that will eventually end because we become so ensnared in sin and its consequences that we will eventually feel we are being choked out of our life.

So back to the question of why does it seem so attractive? Well firstly, we don’t always realize we are entering into rebellion. It starts slowly. We rationalize or justify what we are about to do. We say things like, “I earned it,” “just this one time,” “It can’t hurt,” then we move to “no one will know” and begin trying to hide sin. The consequences will still come no matter how hard you try to hide rebellion. God will not be mocked. Second, our desire to obtain what the rebellion provides becomes more important than what God provides. The rebellion provides may bring a short-term benefit, but over time that short term benefit won’t be enough. More will be wanted and deeper we go down that staircase. Third, we aren’t willing to be honest with ourselves that our rebellion is taking us to a place that is drawing us further from God. Fourth, we would rather continue in rebellion than have to admit we are involved in things we should not be, we don’t want to have to admit what we are doing. Fifth, we have become so engaged in what we are receiving, money, sex, various addictions, status, possessions that we no longer want a relationship with our Creator, the Great I Am. Satan knows our weaknesses. He knows what He can use to draw us further away and deeper into rebellion with him.

From the beginning, Satan set the traps of rebellion before you. You have the free will to turn away and go toward God, or you can choose to accept what Satan is offering and walk the path of Rebellion. Rebellion is turning our back on God. Rebellion is the source of evil. Satan is the father of lies and everything he offers is a lie and temporal.

So why do so many people fall for this trap from Satan? Well let’s think about this. Satan rebelled from God as a result of his pride and his desire to become God or overthrow God. Selfish, narcissistic, self-absorbed, arrogant, greedy, self-righteous, vain, haughty, what else was in Satan that drove his rebellion? All of those qualities, he uses all of those against our weaknesses so we begin to believe we should have whatever he is offering us to pull us into rebellion. However, he can twist the truth to turn your heart and mind against God as if God were keeping “things” from you. You deserve more than what you have, you should have xyz. All of these tactics are what he did in the beginning, what he is doing now and what he will do after we are all gone until the end of times. Because, for the most part, people are pretty shallow and not interested in the “deep” things of God and fulfilling our kingdom purposes, well rebellion seems tantalizing. I mean “YOLO!” You only live once, right? “Life is short, might as well enjoy it!” These sayings are repeated mindlessly without consideration for the references being made and the resulting decision made. We need to be better than that and keep ourselves focused on what matters. Relationship. In the end, relationship, not rebellion, will be what you have to show in your YOLO! If we make the wrong choice, it is a costly choice.

Here is how God views the rebellion of man:

1 Samuel 15:23. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”

Proverbs 17:11, Evildoers foster rebellion against God; the messenger of death will be sent against them.

When I read that, I hear God saying, if you want to rebel, you are partnering with Satan himself and I will have no part of you. Those are words I never want to hear. Not out of fear, it would just hurt my heart if that is how God saw me. Most people see God as someone who only wants us to be afraid of Him, but no, He wants relationship with us. Have a healthy fear of Him, just like you would of a grizzly bear or a white shark, but you still respect that grizzly bear or white shark, you can have an appreciation of them. Unlike the bear or the shark, God rewards, God blesses, God supports, God comforts, God provides comfort, God counsels, God creates. When you think of things in those terms, I don’t think rebellion seems so attractive. I know people who are years into recovery from various addictions, I am sure they would not see rebellion as attractive. The man or woman who has lost their family due to their infidelities, they may not see rebellion as attractive anymore.

We need to wake up as a church. We need to see Satan for what He is, a void, a darkness that offers us nothing in rebellion. God is the provider of all things. Rebellion is death. God is life.

We will end with the words of Jesus, “The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I came that they might have life and have it to the full.” John 10:10.

If you are growing through our podcast, consider supporting us each month as we continue to build the Kingdom of God. www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share.

As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:

· Why the Spirit of Rebellion seems attractive.

· Genesis 3. He appears to Eve in the Garden of Eden as a serpent. Satan presents himself not as he is, but how he wants us to see him

· Satan can and will communicate with us and it is up to us to make a choice on how we will respond.

· Eve responds and engages in conversation.

· Jesus tells us a little about it in Luke 10:18, He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I think that must have been a sad day.

· Satan creates a wedge through doubt to create a divide between her and the relationship she and Adam had with God.

· Adam participates in an act of Rebellion against God that he knows is contrary to what God has told him.

· Satan successfully created a divide Genesis 3:8, Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

· Satan used deception as a way to lead Adam and Eve into Rebellion against God.

· When we are considering rebellion, we are questioning the nature of God, that God cannot be trusted.

· We are saying that what Jesus did, his death and resurrection, was not enough.

· Matthew 26:39, let’s see what Jesus is experiencing, Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

· When Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden, their lives changed forever. Physically their lives changed, spiritually their lives changed.

· One of their sons, commits the first murder.

· Rebellion breeds sin. When we take that first step, we don’t stop at one step.

· Why does Rebellion seem so attractive?

o First, we don’t always realize we are entering into rebellion. We rationalize or justify what we are about to do.

o Second, our desire to obtain what the rebellion provides becomes more important than what God provides.

o Third, we aren’t willing to be honest with ourselves that our rebellion is taking us to a place that is drawing us further from God.

o Fourth, we would rather continue in rebellion than have to admit we are involved in things we should not be.

o Fifth, we have become so engaged in what we are receiving, that we no longer want a relationship with our Creator, the Great I Am.

· Rebellion is turning our back on God. Rebellion is the source of evil. Satan is the father of lies and everything he offers is a lie and temporal.

· So why do so many people fall for this trap from Satan?

o Satan rebelled from God as a result of his pride and his desire to become God

o Satan uses our weaknesses against us to pull us into rebellion.

· Here is how God views the rebellion of man:

o 1 Samuel 15:23. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”

o Proverbs 17:11, Evildoers foster rebellion against God; the messenger of death will be sent against them.

· We need to wake up as a church. We need to see Satan for what He is, a void, a darkness that offers us nothing in rebellion. God is the provider of all things. Rebellion is death. God is life.

· We will end with the words of Jesus, “The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I came that they might have life and have it to the full.” John 10:10.

We encourage you:

· To have an active Bible reading plan, if you want a personal relationship with the Lord, you need to be active about reading His word.

· If you want to learn more about how to Hear God's Voice, visit our website, lovingconversationssalo.com. My book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice has helped so many people in their relationship with the Lord, check out the testimonials. Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Walmart. Those are also available on our website www.lovingconversationssalo.com.

· Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

Dawn Simmons 3/29/24 Dawn Simmons 3/29/24

Appreciation Gift for the month of April, Ep 3-11

Welcome back! This is Conquering Our Unseen Enemies and I am your host Dawn Simmons. Today we are going to talk about something you may already be familiar with, Familiar Spirits!

We will discuss how these harmful counterfeits to the Holy Spirit develop relationships specific to an individual and what you need to do to evict these spirits and their influence in your life.

Hello everyone, this is Dawn Simmons and I am here to share that we are celebrating in the month of April. This is a time to celebrate the “Anointed One” and to do that I am sending out an appreciation gift for the entire month of April to all of my monthly subscribers. What is this gift?

It’s Anointing Oil! I am sending out a bottle of Anointing Oil, an explanation of cultural and Biblical anointing and a How To of Anointing which will guide you on how you can anoint your home, your work, your car, even your family members. I use Anointing Oil to dedicate my home, and my business to the Lord. This is a time of cleaning out the house of any demonic spirits while I dedicate everything to Him. I do this periodically and I also anoint my family. If you aren’t very familiar with anointing, no worries, I am providing all of the information you will need to get an understanding of how anointing was used throughout the Bible and how we can use it today. There are 24 Biblical references included with the gift. The How to’s of Anointing will walk you through anointing so you can do so with confidence.

I am excited to give my monthly subscription supporters this gift I made myself, my husband and I prayed over this oil and we want to share it with you.

If you are currently a monthly subscriber, email me at contact@conqueringourunseenenemies.com and let me know your name and the address where you would like to have your gift of Anointing Oil and I will be happy to send it out.

If you are not currently a subscriber, join anytime in the month of April and you will receive this free gift of Anointing Oil as well. Just email me at contact@conqueringourunseenenemies.com the name and where you would like to have your gift of Anointing Oil and I will be happy to send it out.

I want to again let my monthly subscribers know how much I appreciate them, and I look forward to sending you your anointing oil gift!

Have a great week.

Dawn Simmons 3/17/24 Dawn Simmons 3/17/24

Forgiveness Series, Part 4,Ep 3-9

Welcome back! This is Conquering Our Unseen Enemies and I am your host Dawn Simmons. Today we are going to talk about something you may already be familiar with, Familiar Spirits!

We will discuss how these harmful counterfeits to the Holy Spirit develop relationships specific to an individual and what you need to do to evict these spirits and their influence in your life.

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons, and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing part four in our series on Forgiveness. In this fourth and final episode on forgiveness we are discussing how to clear the obstacles to our own healing and deliverance through forgiveness. Our objective is to get rid of the weight and chains of bondage that come from holding onto unforgiveness. In the first three episodes of this series, we have discussed what unforgiveness is and the 10 points of the price we pay carrying our unforgiveness. Now let’s finish up what we started here.

Let’s do a quick summary of what we discussed in both part 1, 2 and 3

We defined, what is forgiveness? Forgiveness involves an intentional decision to let go of resentment and anger. The memory of the act that hurt or offense may remain with you, but forgiveness lessens that hold over you. Over time, unchecked resentment can turn to bitterness.

Point 1: When we do not forgive, we may be creating Bitterness in our heart.

Point 2: When we do not forgive, we are not forgiven.

Point 3: When we fail to forgive someone, we stay tied to that someone.

Point 4: When we do not forgive others, are prayers are hindered.

Point 5: When we do not forgive, Satan is given opportunity.

Point 6: When we do not forgive, we may find ourselves stumble in darkness.

Point 7: When we do not forgive, God may choose to turn us over to the tormentors which will block our deliverance.

Point 8: When we don’t forgive, we cannot fully participate in God’s divine nature.

Point 9: When we don’t forgive, we are creating an obstacle for ourselves to receive eternal rewards.

Point 10: When we don’t forgive, we are grieving the Holy Spirit.

A few months ago I heard someone say that forgiveness was not necessary and that it was not necessary to heal. In their opinion, it was revenge that provided healing. This is their reasoning and these are their words verbatim.

“Forgiveness does not reverse a wrong. It does not reverse the negative emotions that one felt at the time of the experience. It does not eradicate a negative memory. It does not reverse trauma. It does not bring back a murdered family member. It does not reverse a rape or sexual assault. It is not “necessary” to heal. “Forgiving someone” has never made me feel better. And being told “I forgive you” by someone else has never made me feel anything positive if I had legitimately wronged someone that I did not want to hurt. We don’t even actually “know” if someone actually forgives us on top of that. We can’t read anyone’s mind. You don’t actually “know” what anyone thinks or how anyone feels about you at the end of the day. The only thing that has ever made me feel positively about something that has been done to me was by enacting revenge and receiving the outcome that I wanted at that person’s expense.”

When we are in a place where we are angry, bitter, hurt, whatever your emotion is as a result of a wrong against you, forgiveness isn’t about justice. We cannot equate our forgiveness to justice. When we forgive, it doesn’t mean we forget. When we forgive, there is no undoing of what was done. It still happened. When we forgive, it doesn’t matter if the person believes you or not. When we forgive, we are not trying to then artificially create a positive out of a negative just because we said a few words. When we enact revenge and intentionally set out to harm the other person in response, we are doing exactly what the enemy wants and our anger, bitterness and hurt has come full circle and we are in an even worse position than we were before.

Here is some advice given by a licensed therapist about whether forgiveness is necessary for healing. Listen first, then we will evaluate.

“Forgiveness can be a powerful tool for healing, as it allows the individual to release negative emotions and move forward with their life. However, it is important to note that forgiveness is a personal choice and may not always be the best option for everyone. Forcing oneself to forgive before they are ready can actually hinder the healing process. It is also important to recognize that forgiveness does not mean forgetting or condoning the actions of the person who caused harm. It is simply a way to release negative emotions and move forward in a more positive direction, forgiveness can be a helpful tool for healing and growth, but it is not always necessary or possible. Each individual's journey is unique, and the decision to forgive should be made with careful consideration and support from a trusted therapist or coach.”

This statement is one of the reasons our world is so dysfunctional. The creator of this universe tells us forgiveness is necessary. Man has decided it knows better and through studying the mind He created, man has decided healing may not be the best option for everyone. While I agree forgiving and condoning are unrelated, I do not believe healing is “not possible” as it was described, for everyone. Forgiveness is something that should be done with support from the Lord, not a therapist or coach who could help you “decide” to make the choice. I am not against therapy, one of my best friends is a licensed therapist. If you need therapy, it’s important to find a therapist that is Christ centered so that you don’t get someone who will lead you away from the Lord because they think they know what is best for you. There is a lot of nonsense psychology out there and it is designed to focus on self, not the Lord. When we are only focused on self, we are doing exactly what the enemy is wanting us to do, take our eyes off the Lord and the support He provides in forgiveness and everything else we need.

The next one I want to share is someone discussing forgiveness and it’s an entirely different concept than anything we have discussed so far, but I am sure there are millions of people out there who think this is the correct way to view forgiveness.

“Forgiveness cannot be granted to those who are continuing to inflict or threaten harm on others, and offering forgiveness to such people is a shallow, meaningless gesture that will not “heal” anything. If I punch you in the face, ask for forgiveness, then continue punching you, or promise that I will punch you again the next time we meet, I have no reason to expect you to forgive me. Your forgiveness should be conditional. It should be conditioned first on me stopping my attack on you. Next, I must acknowledge that it was evil of me to punch you, promise not to do it again, and offer any medical care and compensation that you need to recover from my evil behavior. The religious term for this is repentance. It is not enough for me to say, “I’m sorry, let’s be friends now”. I must also acknowledge, without any excuses, that I am to blame for your suffering, that causing you to suffer was evil of me, and that I owe you compensation sufficient to enable you to recover from the harm that I have caused you by my evil acts. Only after doing all of those things can I ask you to forgive me because until I do those things the matter is not resolved; you are still suffering, I am still the reason that you are suffering, and I continue to be a threat to you of future suffering.”

This person is treating forgiveness like it is transactional. This person also begins to weave in other concepts that make forgiveness conditional. Let’s talk about why this is not the way God intends forgiveness to take place in our hearts. While forgiveness is about another person, it is primarily about your heart condition with the Lord. While this example sounds very much like a domestic violence situation, it is not what he was referring to. If this were, then the first thing I would say is remove yourself from that situation. Easier said than done I know, but safety always is the highest priority. Safety first, take care of essential needs, get yourself resituated and out of the situation, then when all of that is in place, then you can focus on what is needed for you to work through forgiveness with the Lord for that person. This example is about nonfamily members. Let’s dig into this a little more. First, Forgiveness is not granted. Forgiveness needs to be freely given or it is not forgiveness. Second, Forgiveness isn’t about who asks for it or whoever needs to be forgiven won’t get it unless it is asked for. If someone feels bad and wants to ask for forgiveness, then good, there is a change in their heart, hopefully a real one, but it is a separate issue from the one who gives the forgiveness, they are not tied together. Only unforgiveness remains tied together. Third, if we are the one who committed the hurtful act, we don’t have a right to expect forgiveness from the one we hurt. It is a choice they get to make no matter what you say or do. You cannot demand it and if you ask for it and they say no, move on. At that point, whatever is holding them back is between them and the Lord, you are out of it, leave it alone. Fourth, whoever commits a hurtful act against us does not need to acknowledge what they did was wrong in order for us to forgive them. We already know it was wrong. Whether they admit it or not does not change the fact that it was wrong. Fifth, there never has to be a promise that someone will not recommit the same offense. We cannot control someone else no matter what the offense. If we start doing that, we are entering into a territory that could go sideways if we are not careful. For example, if we perceive an act to be wrong against us, but it wasn’t, it was a misunderstanding, but you are holding forgiveness over someone’s head and saying they need to act a certain way going forward or you will not forgive them, then that’s manipulation, that’s witchcraft. Sixth, we do not get to demand compensation for the hurtful act as a part of our forgiveness. If you do that, then you are not offering forgiveness at all and any discussion of such is negated. The Lord will carry out the justice, we are to forgive regardless. We were forgiven freely, we forgive freely. Seventh, we cannot demand repentance of someone else. That is not ours to demand. True repentance belongs to the Lord and if they are truly repentant you will see it, not by making demands, but by their free will. Finally, my future is not threatened because you have not met my conditions for you to receive my forgiveness. Again, manipulation, witchcraft.

Forgiveness is a process, it may take a month, a day, a year or a minute to get through the process of forgiveness. When we have been hurt or betrayed in some way, we feel the emotional pain, for some there may be physical pain involved, for some life may never be the same again. Whatever has happened to cause this painful situation can be broken by spending time with the Lord and allowing Him to move through your heart. If you speak honestly to him, even if you are angry, even if you want revenge, it’s okay to tell Him that. Be honest, He will not mind if you need to let out the ugly, He wants you to let it out so He can start to show you the beautiful again. Until we get the ugly out, we won’t make room for the beautiful He has to offer us. He will talk to you. He will comfort you. He will guide you. Through all of that, the bondage of the ugly will be broken if you allow Him and submit to Him all of your brokenness from the situation. You don’t have to rush this process. He is helping you. This is what we are commanded to do, but He is not demanding it of you. He walks you through it so when you get to the place where you begin to see the beautiful, it is genuine and it will be lasting for you. We don’t want to do things halfway and then we have to revisit and have multiple triggers we have to be careful of as if we will step on a landmine and have to start this forgiveness process all over again. Submit to Him all you are carrying, and He will gladly take it from you. He never intended it for you, so He will gladly take it from you.

If you are growing through our podcast, consider supporting us each month as we continue to build the Kingdom of God. www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share.

As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:

· This is Part 4 of our Series on Forgiveness

· Point 1: When we do not forgive, we may be creating Bitterness in our heart.

· Point 2: When we do not forgive, we are not forgiven.

· Point 3: When we fail to forgive someone, we stay tied to that someone.

· Point 4: When we do not forgive others, are prayers are hindered.

· Point 5: When we do not forgive, Satan is given opportunity.

· Point 6: When we do not forgive, we may find ourselves stumble in darkness.

· Point 7: When we do not forgive, God may choose to turn us over to the tormentors which will block our deliverance.

· Point 8: When we don’t forgive, we cannot fully participate in God’s divine nature.

· Point 9: When we don’t forgive, we are creating an obstacle for ourselves to receive eternal rewards.

· Point 10: When we don’t forgive, we are grieving the Holy Spirit.

· Story of someone who believes forgiveness isn’t necessary and revenge is the answer.

· We cannot equate our forgiveness to justice. When we forgive, it doesn’t mean we forget.

· When we enact revenge and intentionally set out to harm the other person in response, we are in an even worse position than we were before.

· Example of a licensed therapist about whether forgiveness is necessary for healing.

· “Forgiveness can be a powerful tool for healing, it is a personal choice and may not always be the best option for everyone.

· The decision to forgive should be made with careful consideration and support from a trusted therapist or coach.”

· Forgiveness is something that should be done with support from the Lord, not a therapist or coach who could help you “decide” to make the choice.

· There is a lot of nonsense psychology out there and it is designed to focus on self, not the Lord. When we are only focused on self, we are taking our eyes off the Lord .

· Story of someone who had their own concept of what forgiveness should be

· This person is treating forgiveness like it is transactional.

· First, Forgiveness is not granted. Forgiveness needs to be freely given or it is not forgiveness.

· Second, Forgiveness isn’t about who asks for it or whoever needs to be forgiven won’t get it unless it is asked for.

· Third, if we are the one who committed the hurtful act, we don’t have a right to expect forgiveness from the one we hurt.

· Fourth, whoever commits a hurtful act against us does not need to acknowledge what they did was wrong in order for us to forgive them.

· Sixth, we do not get to demand compensation for the hurtful act as a part of our forgiveness.

· Seventh, we cannot demand repentance of someone else. That is not ours to demand.

· Forgiveness is a process, it may take a month, a day, a year or a minute to get through the process of forgiveness. A painful situation can be broken by spending time with the Lord and allowing Him to move through your heart.

· Until we get the ugly out, we don’t have room for the beautiful He has to offer. He will talk to you, comfort you, guide you. Through that, the bondage of ugly will be broken if you allow Him and submit to Him.

· You don’t have to rush this process. He is helping you. This is what we are commanded to do, but He is not demanding it of you. He walks you through it so when you get to the place where you begin to see the beautiful, it is genuine and it will be lasting for you.

· Submit to Him all you are carrying, and He will gladly take it from you. He never intended it for you, so He will gladly take it from you.

We encourage you:

· To have an active Bible reading plan, if you want a personal relationship with the Lord, you need to be active about reading His word.

· Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies

· Conference 3/23, Camarillo, CA 8:30-noon, it’s called Restore and it is a Holy Spirit Revival in your heart, if you are in the area, ticket information can be found in show notes or on our Instagram pages, email, contact@conqueringourunseenenemies.com and I can send you the link.

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

Dawn Simmons 3/10/24 Dawn Simmons 3/10/24

Forgiveness Series, Part 3,Ep 3-8

Welcome back! This is Conquering Our Unseen Enemies and I am your host Dawn Simmons. Today we are going to talk about something you may already be familiar with, Familiar Spirits!

We will discuss how these harmful counterfeits to the Holy Spirit develop relationships specific to an individual and what you need to do to evict these spirits and their influence in your life.

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons, and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing part three in our series on Forgiveness. Through this series we will go over how a lack of forgiveness can prevent healing and deliverance, we will discuss the benefits of forgiveness and we will talk about what is produced in our lives, or not produced, by a lack of forgiveness. Today we are going to start off reiterating what unforgiveness is and hit on our last 6 of the 10 points of the price we pay carrying our unforgiveness. Once we finish these 10 points, we have one more episode on forgiveness so we can break any obstacles to our own healing and deliverance. Our objective is to get rid of the weight and chains of bondage that come from holding onto unforgiveness.

Let’s do a quick summary of what we discussed in both part 1.and 2

We defined, what is forgiveness? Forgiveness involves an intentional decision to let go of resentment and anger. The memory of the act that hurt or offended you may remain with you, but forgiveness will lessen that event’s hold over you. Over time, resentment turns to bitterness.

We also discussed the first 6 points of the importance of forgiveness for our own healing and deliverance.

Point 1: When we do not forgive, we may be creating Bitterness in our heart.

Point 2: When we do not forgive, we are not forgiven.

Point 3: When we fail to forgive someone, we stay tied to that someone.

Point 4: When we do not forgive others, are prayers are hindered.

Point 5: When we do not forgive, Satan is given opportunity.

Point 6: When we do not forgive, we may find ourselves stumble in darkness.

That was the first six points we discussed in the first two episodes. Now let’s move on to the next 4 points we need to discuss.

Point 7: When we do not forgive, God may choose to turn us over to the tormentors which will block our deliverance.

This is really difficult for us to imagine, but if we want to carry unforgiveness towards someone we are in essence saying that what that person did wasn’t worthy of your forgiveness as if your forgiveness were more important or powerful than the forgiveness Jesus died to provide us. Jesus died for the other person as much as for you, so we need to release ourselves of unforgiveness. Jesus gives us this example in the parable of the unforgiving debtor:

Matthew 18 starting in verse 21,

21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. In other words, you always forgive, you don’t hold back on forgiveness. 23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold[h] was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. 26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. 28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins.[i] He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. 29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’ 30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. 32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. 35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Verse 35, 35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” Is pretty clear. We have spent so many episodes talking about the damage the tormentors do to us because of our own choices, sometimes unknowingly. Here, Jesus is telling us this will happen, we will be tormented if we make the choice to hold onto unforgiveness. Jesus cannot lie, so if He says that is what will happen, then that is exactly what will happen. Nothing is worth this price.

Next point:

Point 8: When we don’t forgive, we cannot fully participate in God’s divine nature.

I want to start explaining this by taking a look at what Peter has to say in 2 Peter 1:3, 3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

Without forgiveness, we will find ourselves in a place where evil desires begin to take over what is good in us. We will lose ourselves to the evil. Where there is evil, we will not find the presence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus describes it masterfully this way in Luke 11:33, 33 “No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. 34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy,[g] your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy,[h] your body also is full of darkness. 35 See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. 36 Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.” I love how He describes this because He tells us that light and dark are not compatible. You are one or the other.

Let’s rewind to 2 Peter and read chapter 1 verse 5.

2 Peter 1:5, 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

If we are going to hang onto unforgiveness, then we will not participate in things of the light as Peter describes for us. We have to make a choice.

Point 9: When we don’t forgive, we are creating an obstacle for ourselves to receive eternal rewards.

When we do not forgive, we are fulfilling an earthly desire to stay mad, to get revenge, to let that person go for their wrong, to keep bring it up, take your pick. When we chose to live in the world, in our flesh, then we are placing ourselves above the Holy Spirit. We are saying how we feel is more important and therefore we are our own obstacle that will prevent us from receiving eternal rewards. Paul describes it to us this way: 2 Corinthians 5, starting with verse 6, 6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 For we live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

When someone wrongs me, I count on the Lord establishing justice on my behalf. I know that He is righteous and just. I know that He will give them time to repent and make it right. I know that ultimately how He addresses it may not be what I want, but I also know that justice is justice once I give it to Him to carry out. I can’t carry around anger and a need for revenge, it won’t go well for me to do that.

Romans 14, starting with verse 12, 10 You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister[a]? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 11 It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.’” 12 So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.

When each of us has our time, we want what we have done here in our short lives to amount to something we can give to the Lord for all that He has given to us. Here is what is going to happen on that day. We can read about it in 1 Corinthians 3, starting with verse 10, 10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.

I don’t want to just escape with my life. I want what I have done to withstand the fire. If I do not forgive, what I have done will only be rubble.

Our tenth and final point is this:

Point 10: When we don’t forgive, we are grieving the Holy Spirit.

I don’t think enough attention is given to when we grieve the Holy Spirit. I think many of us do it every day without forethought or after thought. If we could, but for one minute see what we are actually doing when we do so, we might reconsider. I can tell you that if we continually do so, we will find the Holy Spirit is not apt to stay with us. The Holy Spirit will not remain in a place where sin resides. Don’t misunderstand or misinterpret what I am saying, this is not a salvation discussion, this is a discussion about having the presence of the Holy Spirit in your lives daily. If we walk with the Holy Spirit, rather than without, our lives will be different. How our needs are met will be different. How we respond and react to other people, under pressure, in a crisis, all of this will be different. The fruit that comes out of our life will be affected. Do you want to produce vibrant, beautiful, delicious tasting fruit for all around you? Or would you rather produce anemic fruit, if any at all, that isn’t worth the time spent to grow or harvest? Fruit that is not useful for anything but compost. That’s what it comes down to when we live a life where our choices grieve the Holy Spirit in such a way that He is not able to be with us daily. Here is how Paul describes it in Ephesians 4 starting in verse 29, Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Forgiveness isn’t always easy, but when you look at all the points we have discussed, not forgiving becomes really expensive and it’s not a price I am willing to pay. Let go of where you have been wronged and take control of what you can control going forward and that is making the choice to forgive.

Join me next week for our final episode on forgiveness where we will break any obstacles to our own healing and deliverance.

If you are growing through our podcast, consider supporting us each month as we continue to build the Kingdom of God. www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share.

As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:

This is Part 3 of our Series on Forgiveness

I gave you a micro summary of part 1 of the series, including the first 6 points

Point 1: When we do not forgive, we may be creating Bitterness in our heart.

Point 2: When we do not forgive, we are not forgiven.

Point 3: When we fail to forgive someone, we stay tied to that someone.

Point 4: When we do not forgive others, are prayers are hindered.

Point 5: When we do not forgive, Satan is given opportunity.

Point 6: When we do not forgive, we may find ourselves stumble in darkness.

Point 7: When we do not forgive, God may choose to turn us over to the tormentors which will block our deliverance. Matthew 18:21,

Point 8: When we don’t forgive, we cannot fully participate in God’s divine nature.

2 Peter 1:3, Luke 11:33, 2 Peter 1:5

Point 9: When we don’t forgive, we are creating an obstacle for ourselves to receive eternal rewards. Romans 14:12, 1 Corinthians 3:10

Point 10: When we don’t forgive, we are grieving the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 4:29

We encourage you:

· To have an active Bible reading plan, if you want a personal relationship with the Lord, you need to be active about reading His word.

· Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

We encourage you:

· To have an active Bible reading plan, if you want a personal relationship with the Lord, you need to be active about reading His word.

· Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies

· Conference 3/23, Camarillo, CA 8:30-noon, it’s called Restore and it is a Holy Spirit Revival, if you are in the area, ticket information can be found in show notes or on our Instagram pages, email, contact@conqueringourunseenenemies.com and I can send you the link.

· I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

Dawn Simmons 3/3/24 Dawn Simmons 3/3/24

Forgiveness Series, Part 2,Ep 3-7

Welcome back! This is Conquering Our Unseen Enemies and I am your host Dawn Simmons. Today we are going to talk about something you may already be familiar with, Familiar Spirits!

We will discuss how these harmful counterfeits to the Holy Spirit develop relationships specific to an individual and what you need to do to evict these spirits and their influence in your life.

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons, and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing the second part of our series on Forgiveness. Through this series we will go over how a lack of forgiveness can prevent healing and deliverance, we will discuss the benefits of forgiveness and we will talk about what is produced in our lives, or not produced, by a lack of forgiveness. Today we are going to start off reiterating what unforgiveness is and hit on our next 3 of the 10 points of the price we pay carrying unforgiveness. Through this series, we are also going to hear some compelling stories and hopefully convince you to look at any areas of unforgiveness you are carrying. We can get rid of the weight and chains of bondage. We have all experienced it and many of us still are carrying it around, so let’s get to it and get rid of it.

Let’s do a quick summary of what we discussed in part 1.

We also discussed the first three points of the importance of forgiveness for our own healing and deliverance.

Our first point: When we do not forgive, we may be creating Bitterness in our heart. We don’t want to give bitterness an opportunity to take root.

Point 2: When we do not forgive, we are not forgiven. We want to make sure we are forgiving others if we want to be forgiven ourselves.

Point 3: When we fail to forgive someone, we stay tied to that someone. Holding onto unforgiveness ties us to the person and the sin attached to the act and the unforgiveness of the act we are failing to forgive.

That was our first episode in a micro summary. Now let’s move on to the next 3 points we need to discuss, and I will share some stories as well. Before I bring up our first point, remember at the end when I encouraged you to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you any areas in your heart where unforgiveness has a place? I had something interesting happen to me this past week which I will share today. I’m wondering if any of you have had one of those moments.

Alright, let’s get onto our next point, which because it is a continuation from part 1, is point 4.

Point 4: When we do not forgive others, are prayers are hindered.

I am teaching a class right now called, Moving Mountains Through Prayer, and it is a 7 week class where we discuss the elements of a prayer when you are in a time of your life where you need some mountain moving prayer. We go over 7 elements of prayer. I based the class on what I saw in Nehemiah, but I also bring in biblical background, we use videos from biblical places from our YouTube Channel and I bring in visual aids to bring the class to life. One of the things we discuss, one of the elements we address in a mountain moving prayer is repentance.

Mark talks about it this way in 11:22, “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “Truly[f] I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” The thing with this verse, and the one similar to it in Matthew, is that people tend to stop before that last line. They want the “whatever you ask for in prayer part” but not so much the forgiving others part. This last line is what I call an “And if so”. You see, there is a condition attached there for the first part to be effective. You can have your prayers answered, “and when you pray” so here is where the condition begins that will have an affect on our prayers if we ignore it. God is not about giving us everything we want. That’s how many people see Him and then get disappointed because they don’t bother to read or care to follow through on the “And if so” If we hold something against someone, we know, we discussed it in part 1, that we need to forgive so that we are forgiven. For point 4, let’s now take it a step further because the issue goes beyond just not being forgiven. Our prayers on earth will be essentially silenced in heaven if we do not allow forgiveness into our hearts. Where am I getting that? Right here in 1 Peter 3: 7, “Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.” The definition of hindered is: to create difficulties for (someone or something), resulting in delay or obstruction. I realize that the reference is to husbands and wives. We still need to follow the principle to our relationships beyond just husbands and wives, it’s a spiritual principle.

Ok, onto our next point.

Point 5: When we do not forgive, Satan is given opportunity.

If you have been listening to this podcast for any length of time, hopefully you have picked up on my continual message of all the opportunities Satan will seize if we allow him access into our lives. A lack of forgiveness creates one of those opportunities. Satan’s objective is to separate us from the Lord, to keep us apart from each other, to rob us of using our authority and understanding all that the Holy Spirit can provide to us. Let’s see how Paul explains it to us in 2 Corinthians 2, starting with verse 5. “If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you to some extent—not to put it too severely. The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. Another reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.” Paul uses the word, “outwit.” Satan outwits us all the time because we are too ignorant of the Word. When we are ignorant, we don’t apply the principles in the Word and we end up with fragmented relationships, empty relationships, void places in our hearts and brokenness. By holding onto unforgiveness, we are holding onto something that is not our burden to carry. When Christ died for all of our sins, it covers everyone, not just who we want it to cover. When we don’t forgive, we come into alignment with what Satan wants for us and the other person. Satan wants hurt, anger, resentment, bitterness, anything that will serve to tear apart our willingness to forgive. When we carry that for a period of time, we begin to find ourselves in the condition that brings up our next point.

Point 6: When we do not forgive, we may find ourselves stumble in darkness

Being unwilling to forgive will, over time, begin to open doors in your life. The longer you hold onto those feelings associated with your unforgiveness, the more they will morph into other areas and pretty soon it isn’t just one person you don’t forgive, its 2, then 4, then it’s anyone who crosses you. I have a friend that has been hurt many times in her life and she has allowed all of that hurt to build up to where the slightest thing makes her bitter and vengeful. It’s even in the smallest things where she claims victory. Last week, she went somewhere and as she entered a business she held the door for another woman, most of us do that, it’s just human kindness. Do we always get a thank you, no, some people are just that way, or they are in deep thought, who knows. Sometimes it is irritating I admit. However, in this case, as my friend was leaving, that same woman happened to be leaving at the same time and as my friend opened the door, instead of again holding it, she purposely timed it so the door would slam closed on the woman. She wasn’t done there; she then went out and told everyone about it in celebration and in sharing it she berated the woman for her outfit. I can’t actually repeat her words, but that’s how petty she became over a stupid door. Is that what you want to become in your unforgiveness? Someone who takes everything to the extreme and becomes mean and rude to strike back at the world for hurting you? The more you allow yourself to go down that road, the more you will find your behavior changes, your heart changes and then you will wonder why people always hurt you and why you are alone. You will have a skewed view of relationships. John tells it to us this way, 1 John 2:9, “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister[b] is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister[c] lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.” I would say, my friend is pretty well blinded at this point. Don’t allow your unforgiveness to lead you to blindness, it’s never going to be worth it.

Now I want to share with you a story that happened to me last week. As I began this series, I too, was expecting that the Lord would remind me of anything I had hanging out there that I still had a bad feeling about, or a person I had bad feelings toward. Last week was our 20th wedding anniversary. Every year we try to go back to the restaurant where we had our first date. This year I wasn’t feeling great, but we had been planning the day for weeks, my husband took the week off, so I was going to go no matter what. The restaurant we went to is called Mission Burrito, it’s in Simi Valley, CA which is 2 cities over from where we live now. I love that place; I have been going there now for 35 years. Mission Burrito has the world’s best hard-shell tacos. It is the standard to which I measure all other tacos in the world. Anyhow, we went, had delicious tacos, and we thanked the owner and told him how much his restaurant meant to us. Then we were on our way to our next planned event, which sounds ridiculous, but it was to go to a place called Cinnabon. We love they’re cinnamon rolls and there is a place somewhat local where they still make them behind glass and you can watch them make them and we like to do that while we eat our Cinnabons. Its not some machine making them, it’s a person, we like that. For us to get to Cinnabon, it’s another 20 minutes or so in the opposite direction of our house. Going through Simi Valley, we drove through some streets and took a little walk down memory lane. We drove by the store where we met, we drove by places I lived before I met him. Then we drove by a neighborhood that I used to really like and as we drove by, I remembered a friend of mine who lived there. I’m going to call him, John. As we drove by the neighborhood, I remembered an incident with John that really irritated me. John and I were both regional managers at the same company so we were friends, not socially, but good work friends. One day, John, came up to me and was trying to get me to buy some tickets to a pancake breakfast at his church. I don’t usually like to buy tickets for those things, and at that time, I was a single mom, 4 kids, and money was something I needed to watch. I didn’t get child support or anything so I was on my own financially. When you have 4 young kids, going to something like that can also be difficult to manage. John, however, was doing a hard sell on these tickets so I relented and bought 5 tickets. Because I am not one to waste money, when the day came, I packed up the kids and we went to it. This church was packed, and I knew no one. My daughter was still stroller age, the boys were pretty young, 3 and maybe 4, and then 7. They were not all at an age where I could reasonably expect them to carry their plate and everything through the serving line and to a table, which there were none that had room for all of us. Given that it was a church, I sort of expected someone might be helpful and at least offer to help us get a seat, or something. John saw us there, didn’t really acknowledge me which I thought was odd but I was trying to just make it work. It ended up being a very frustrating morning. I vowed I would never, ever do that again. So that was the memory that flashed back up to me. When it flashed back, I was still baffled at how it all went down, but I was like, well, I guess you can’t expect people to be the way you think you would be to someone in that situation. It still bothered me, but I was on my way to Cinnabon, so I didn’t think about it much longer. That was Thursday. On Saturday, we went out of town about 2 hours away to a basketball game at a university where my son is part of the coaching staff. It happened to be homecoming and alumni night, which we were not a part of any of that, we were just going to see the game. We won by the way so that was fun. After the game, we were told to wait in a certain place near the locker room entrance on the gym floor so we could be introduced to the coach after he spoke with the team. While we were waiting, we were talking to the dad of one of the players. As we were standing there talking, I see someone walk across the gym. I watched the guy and said, “hmm, that guy looks a lot like John” but I hadn’t seen John for over 20 years, then I realized, that was John! So I yelled out, “John” John turns around, I start walking across the gym floor to him and he looks at me and says, “Dawn?” So John and I reconnected, he retired in 2013, I just retired last year to do Kingdom work full time. We chatted for a bit and in the back of my mind was that memory as we spoke. I was glaringly aware the Holy Spirit was telling me John never meant for that day to be a bad experience, let it go. After we finished talking, I walked away and said “Thank you, Lord.” I was surprised but not surprised at how the Lord handled that situation. Was that bad feeling holding me back from anything, no, but what it was doing was coming up every time I thought of John. I associated that feeling with him, attached it to him, if you will, without even realizing it. So, the Lord helped me to get rid of that and now when I remember John, I will think of him the way you would when you see an old friend and you know they are doing well.

This is a good stopping point for today. Now we have discussed 6 of the 10 points of the price we pay carrying unforgiveness around in our lives. We still have so many more areas to discuss as we continue this series on Forgiveness. In the people that I work with on an individual basis, this forgiveness issue comes up quite frequently. We need to make sure we address this so that the Accuser has nothing to hold against us. As we continue through this series, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you any areas in your heart where unforgiveness has a place. Many times we have forgotten about it, but the Lord wants us to take care of old pains and get a clean heart filled with Him.

If you are growing through our podcast, consider supporting us each month as we continue to build the Kingdom of God. www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share.

As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:

This is Part 2 of our Series on Forgiveness

I gave you a micro summary of part 1 of the series, including the first 3 points

Our first point: When we do not forgive, we may be creating Bitterness in our heart. We don’t want to give bitterness an opportunity to take root.

Point 2: When we do not forgive, we are not forgiven. We want to make sure we are forgiving others if we want to be forgiven ourselves.

Point 4: When we do not forgive others, are prayers are hindered.

Mark 11:22, 1 Peter 3: 7

Point 5: When we do not forgive, Satan is given opportunity.

2 Corinthians 2: 5

Point 6: When we do not forgive, we may find ourselves stumble in darkness

I told you about my friend acting petty and how it has affected her behavior and her heart

1 John 2:9

I shared my story about John and how the Lord helped me shed a bad memory I associated with John.

We encourage you:

· To have an active Bible reading plan, if you want a personal relationship with the Lord, you need to be active about reading His word.

· Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies

· I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

Dawn Simmons 2/25/24 Dawn Simmons 2/25/24

Forgiveness Series, Part 1,Ep 3-6

Welcome back! This is Conquering Our Unseen Enemies and I am your host Dawn Simmons. Today we are going to talk about something you may already be familiar with, Familiar Spirits!

We will discuss how these harmful counterfeits to the Holy Spirit develop relationships specific to an individual and what you need to do to evict these spirits and their influence in your life.

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons, and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing the first part of a series on forgiveness. Through this series we will go over how a lack of forgiveness can prevent healing and deliverance, we will discuss the benefits of forgiveness, we will talk about what is produced by a lack of forgiveness. Today we are going to start off understanding what unforgiveness is and 10 points to the price we pay carrying it around in our lives. Through this series, we are also going to hear some stories that are compelling and will hopefully convince you to look at any areas of unforgiveness you are carrying. We can get rid of the weight and chains of bondage. We have all experienced it and many of us still are carrying it around, so let’s get to it and get rid of it.

What is forgiveness? To be clear, forgiveness involves an intentional decision to let go of resentment and anger. The memory of the act that hurt or offended you may remain with you, but forgiveness will lessen that event’s hold over you. Over time, resentment turns to bitterness.

Why is forgiveness so hard? The majority of offenses that occur are not illegal acts, they may be intentional, but they are not illegal. When an act is illegal there is always hope for justice, an intervention that will attempt to make things right through a legal process. When you have been betrayed, when someone is taking advantage of your kindness, when someone is lying to you, whatever the offense is, it is a legitimate intentional act that caused a hurt. The bottom line is, we want what we have experienced to be made right or corrected in some way. The ones that hurt the most are those caused by someone we are closest to, our spouse or our family member. Those are the hurts that are deep and hard to overcome.

What happens when we do not overcome these offenses? We are going to discuss 10 points that illustrate the price we pray when we fail to forgive.

Here is our first point: Creating Bitterness in our heart

In other episodes we’ve talked about bitterness and insecurity and many other deep wounds we experience that have leave us with these influences in our lives if we don’t clear them out. When what happened to us wasn’t right, it is made worse by our reaction to it and enduring pain. Here is what we read in Hebrews 12 about bitterness affecting our lives: 14 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

I was talking to a man this week, we will call him, John, and within a few minutes of small talk conversation, he went on to talk about the medical issues his ex-wife was currently experiencing and the way he spoke of it was almost joyous. John’s marriage to this woman ended after multiple occurrences of her being unfaithful. I am sure that experience was difficult. There were children involved and that left John to raise them on his own. I understand where John was coming from in terms of the root of his pain. The issue here is that this marriage ended about 50 years ago and John went on to marry another wonderful woman in a marriage that has lasted 40 years. So when is enough enough on being resentful toward someone else? You have moved on in your life, done well with someone else, so when does the resentment end? In addition, why be joyous about this woman’s medical issues? Why does John want to willingly carry around this unforgiveness? Resentment equals unforgiveness, you can’t dance around it. Here is what happens when we hold onto unforgiveness. Unforgiveness is like taking a little plant of a rosary pea, which is a herbaceous flowering plant. It’s an invasive plant with leaves that wrap around trees, shrubs, whatever it can attach itself to. It produces pods of red seeds that are toxic to humans and animals. So we take that little plant, we know what it will grow to become, but because we are hurt, we don’t care what it will become. We plant it and we give it food, we nurture it and it grows and attaches itself to all it is near. You water it and pretty soon you see the pods forming and you feed it some more. Then one day, the pod breaks open and out pour these little red beads. You spent all this time growing this plant and now it has produced these little red beads and even though you know keeping these red beads, holding onto them is toxic, you decide to put them in your mouth and get a little taste of them. Unforgiveness works the same way. We hold onto it, we nurture it, we feed it with our thoughts, our anger, our desire for revenge, our wanting to destroy the other person and ultimately we lose sight of the danger and damage we are doing to ourselves, so much so that we cultivate our own poison. We knowingly and intentionally create a bitter poison in our lives.

Here is what the Lord tells Moses about a bitter root in Deuteronomy 29: 16 You yourselves know how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through the countries on the way here. 17 You saw among them their detestable images and idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold. 18 Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison. 19 When such a person hears the words of this oath and they invoke a blessing on themselves, thinking, “I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way,” they will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry. This is a spiritual truth regarding bitterness. When we fail to recognize unforgiveness in our lives, we set ourselves up for disaster. We cannot allow ourselves to be so deceived by our own heart of unforgiveness. To believe in Jesus, His coming, crucifixion and resurrection and our then receiving salvation from our belief in Him as our savior, does not negate this spiritual truth being active in our lives. When Jesus came, He fulfilled the law, He made spiritual truth accessible through his resurrection. What do I mean by that? Through His sacrifice, we no longer live by law, but by the grace that God provided through a spiritual sacrifice as well as a literal sacrifice. Grace allows us access we would not have otherwise. We are one with Him in Spirit and in truth, so we have access to spiritual truths, and we must accept the spiritual truth of our salvation by faith. We live by spiritual truth. When we are ignorant of spiritual truth or reject it, we are living in our own idea of truth which equals death.

Let’s switch gears and move onto our second point by asking a few questions. What is the most expensive thing you ever bought? Was it your house? Your car? A gift for someone? Have something in mind?

Now let me ask you, what is the cheapest gift you have ever given? You can be totally honest here because no one knows but you. Maybe it was something you regifted or something you found so it was completely free. Have something in mind?

Point 2: When we do not forgive, we are not forgiven

In John 3 we read this, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

As a believer, our salvation is the most expensive gift we have ever received. The costliest thing we are holding onto is our eternal life. If we continue to hold onto our forgiveness instead of giving it away, we are leading ourselves to a path of death. In Matthew 6, Jesus tells it to us this way: 14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

When we choose not to forgive, we are choosing our own life over the life that Jesus gave for us. We are creating a separation between us and Him. I think where people get lost, particularly when the root of unforgiveness involves a tragic event, they associate the hate, pain, bitterness in their heart with accountability. The person who is responsible for the offense is not affected by our lack of forgiveness the way we are affected by our lack of forgiveness. Most of the time, they aren’t even aware of it and even if they were, they wouldn’t care. We jeopardize ourselves and we pay the price for unforgiveness, no one else, just us. The price the offender pays for their acts are not ours to extract. We hand it over to the Lord and let Him execute judgment. We will never win by seeking to execute our own judgment, it doesn’t work. Whatever you think you will extract by holding onto the unforgiveness will actually cost you everything you have. There will be a point one day when you can no longer turn back, you will have chosen your eternity.

That brings me to my next point.

Point 3: When we fail to forgive someone, we stay tied to that someone.

When you have had a wrong against you and the wrong is such that it requires a forgiveness, holding onto your forgiveness of that person is what turns it to unforgiveness. By carrying around the unforgiveness of that person, you are creating a relationship to that person that functions like a warped soul tie. You will stay attached to that sin because you are anchoring yourself to it, instead of giving it to the rightful owner, the Lord. Whether you choose to carry it is entirely on you, but it will not hold back the other person. Your lack of forgiveness will not exact a punishment on that person, but rather it becomes your own chain of sin tied to the sin related to that person. If you are carrying something within you that is so bad that you cannot forgive them, then you are keeping that circumstance in your life by choice. Over time you will find that those around you do not want to be tied to your unforgiveness. Your circles will shrink of people willing to listen or carry on your burden, not because they don’t love you, but because the healthy alternative is to release that person, give it all to the Lord, gain your freedom in Him and move forward in your life with the Lord by your side. I don’t want to continually think about the people who have wronged me. I cannot heal if I do not allow forgiveness to come in to my heart and remove the raw, remove the pain, remove the scars. I want a better life for myself where I have a life I will be proud to stand before the Lord when my time comes.

So far we have discussed 3 of the 10 points of the price we pay carrying unforgiveness around in our lives. We still have so many more areas to discuss as we continue this series on Forgiveness. In the people that I work with on an individual basis, this forgiveness issue comes up quite frequently. We need to make sure we address this so that the Accuser has nothing to hold against us. As we continue through this series, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you any areas in your heart where unforgiveness has a place. Many times we have forgotten about it, but the Lord wants us to take care of old pains and get a clean heart filled with Him.

If you are growing through our podcast, consider supporting us each month as we continue to build the Kingdom of God. www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share.

As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:

Series on forgiveness. We will go over how a lack of forgiveness can prevent healing and deliverance,

Today we discussed an understanding what unforgiveness is and we talked about 3 of 10 points to the price we pay carrying it around in our lives.

Through this series, we are also going to hear some stories that are compelling and will hopefully convince you to look at any areas of unforgiveness you are carrying. We can get rid of the weight and chains of bondage. We have all experienced it and many of us still are carrying it around, so let’s get to it and get rid of it.

What is forgiveness? To be clear, forgiveness involves an intentional decision to let go of resentment and anger.

Why is forgiveness so hard? The majority of offenses that occur are not illegal acts, they may be intentional, but they are not illegal and we want justice for being wronged

The ones that hurt the most are those we are closest to, our spouse or our family member. Those are the ones that are deep and hard to overcome.

We are going to discuss 10 points that illustrate the price we pray when we fail to forgive.

Here is our first point: Creating Bitterness in our heart

Hebrews 12

Story of John still holding onto bitterness against his ex-wife from over 50 years ago

Resentment equals unforgiveness

Unforgiveness is like a plant of rosary pea, which is a flowering plant that produces toxic seeds in our life that we embrace and want to taste.

We often nurture, feed and hold onto unforgiveness losing sight of the danger and damage we are doing to ourselves

Bitter root in Deuteronomy 29:

When we fail to recognize unforgiveness in our lives, we set ourselves up for disaster. We cannot allow ourselves to be so deceived by our own heart of unforgiveness.

Point 2: When we do not forgive, we are not forgiven

John 3 the price Jesus paid so we are forgiven without any cost to ourselves. As a believer, our salvation is the most expensive gift we have ever received. The costliest thing we are holding onto is our eternal life. If we continue to hold onto our forgiveness instead of giving it away, we are leading ourselves to a path of death.

In Matthew 6, Jesus tell it to us this way: 14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

When we choose not to forgive, we are choosing our own life over the life that Jesus gave for us. We are creating a separation between us and Him.

Point 3: When we fail to forgive someone, we stay tied to that someone.

By carrying around the unforgiveness of that person, you are creating a relationship to that person that functions like a warped soul tie. You will stay attached to that sin because you are anchoring yourself to it, instead of giving it to the rightful owner, the Lord.

Whether you choose to carry it is entirely on you, but it will not hold back the other person. Your lack of forgiveness is not a punishment on that person, but becomes your own sin tied to that person.

Over time you will find that those around you do not want to be tied to your unforgiveness. Your circles will shrink of people willing to listen or carry on your burden, not because they don’t love you, but because the healthy alternative is to release that person, give it all to the Lord, gain your freedom in Him and move forward in your life with the Lord by your side.

We need to make sure we address this so that the Accuser has nothing to hold against us. As we continue through this series, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you any areas in your heart where unforgiveness has a place.

We encourage you:

· To have an active Bible reading plan, if you want a personal relationship with the Lord, you need to be active about reading His word.

· Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies

· I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

Dawn Simmons 2/4/24 Dawn Simmons 2/4/24

God Speaks to Us Through Dreams, Part 2,Ep 3-5

Welcome back! This is Conquering Our Unseen Enemies and I am your host Dawn Simmons. Today we are going to talk about something you may already be familiar with, Familiar Spirits!

We will discuss how these harmful counterfeits to the Holy Spirit develop relationships specific to an individual and what you need to do to evict these spirits and their influence in your life.

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons, and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing part 2 of our 2-part series on how God is speaking to us through Dreams. This episode is devoted to Basic Dream Interpretation. These principles we are going to discuss are also the same principles for interpreting visions. If you are someone who receives visions this will be helpful. Dreams and visions are one of many ways God still speaks to us today and is a very useful form of communication if He can get our attention and not dismiss His words for us revealed through dreams.

Before we begin, I want to thank those who are supporting us each month. Your gift is appreciated more than we can express. If you are growing through our podcast, consider supporting us as we continue to build the Kingdom of God. You can support us for as little as $3/month. https://www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support. There is a link in the notes.

Why should we care about interpreting our dreams? Let’s look back at our last episode and review the functions of dreams.

Here are 8 functions of dreams:

· Direction

o Joseph, Magi Matthew 1 and 2, Jacob told to go home, Gen 31

· Correction

o Peter’s vision, Acts 10

· Understanding

o Daniel 2 the statue, Joseph and the cupbearer and baker, Gen 40

· Encouraging

Judges 7, Runaway Barley loaf

· Confirming

o Jacob’s ladder in Genesis 28

· Repentance

o Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar’s dream living like an ox until he acknowledged God correctly

· Prophetic

o Numbers 12:6, “Listen to my words: “When there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, reveal myself to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams.

· Warning

o Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar’s dream living like an ox until he acknowledged God correctly

o Abimelech’s dream, Genesis 20

o Pilate’s wife, Matthew 27

o Laban’s warning, Gen 31

By understanding why God uses dreams to communicate with us, we allow God to speak into our lives. If the Creator of the universe is communicating with you, then you need to do something with what he is communicating. That is why we need to learn how to speak the language of dreams, to interpret the meaning of the symbols and actions we have been given.

When we receive a dream there are some steps we want to take if we are going to have an opportunity to interpret what the Lord is speaking. Here are the 5 steps we need to take as quickly as possible after we receive the dream.

5 Steps for Beginning Level Interpretation

· Write it down

o Record all the details you can remember

o Simplify the dream to essential details

o Record the emotions

· Pray about it

o Use scripture (Jeremiah 33:3, Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’

· Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the meaning of important details

o Give the Holy Spirit time to respond, wait on Him

o Write down what He reveals

· Research in the Bible as well as outside resources

o Find Biblical context for what was represented or occurred in the dream

o Review parables

o Discuss with a trusted biblically knowledgeable confidant or advisor

· Ask questions about what the dream reveals

o Identify spiritual principles

o Do not make assumptions

o Do not create your own expectations

o Complicated dreams does not automatically mean it’s a complicated message, simple dreams can have an important message

To give us something to work with I am going to share a dream of mine from 2008. It was a dream I spent quite a bit of time seeking Him to interpret what He was telling me.

I was on a beach walking with my keys. My keys were a very large keyring of about 6 inches with several keys of various sizes, gold key ring and many of the keys were very large skeleton keys, some were modern keys. As I walked in the sand, something unknown to me snatched my keys and threw them into the ocean about 30 feet from the shore. I started to run to the shore to go into the water to retrieve my keys but as I began to do run a hippopotamus came out of the ocean with its mouth open. The hippo was coming at me to attack me. I looked for somewhere to protect me and found a building that was a bathroom nearby and I got on top of the building to be out of the hippos reach but where I could see the ocean and looked out toward my keys. As I looked to the ocean, I could see my keys floating on the ocean. There were other people on the beach and in the water, but no one was aware of me, the hippo or the keys. The world was going on around us while we were simultaneously in it. The day was sunny, weather was warm. I was fearful of the hippo but once I was on the roof I didn’t pay any attention to the hippo.

2 Kings 6:4, “They went to the Jordan and began to cut down trees. 5 As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axhead fell into the water. “Oh no, my lord!” he cried out. “It was borrowed!” The man of God asked, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float. 7 “Lift it out,” he said. Then the man reached out his hand and took it.”

Now that we have gone through several of the elements in my dream, lets talk about the ways God gives us our interpretation. I experienced a number of these ways as I was learning what He was telling me in my dream.

Ways God gives interpretation:

· Instantaneously

o When the dream is being shared

§ The person we are sharing it with may be receiving a word of knowledge

§ The Lord may be giving us interpretation as we describe it

o When we awaken

§ Speaking to us in that moment would occur more frequently if there was a sense of urgency, a warning

· During the dream

o While we are experiencing the dream

§ Don’t be afraid to ask questions while still in the dream.

§ Solomon example

· 1 Kings 3:5 “At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”

· While we are writing down the details and events of the dream

o Hearing from Him as you are writing details and going through the dream again

o Hearing from Him as you are researching

· Over time as we develop our relationship with Him and grow in our knowledge of Him

o When the time comes for the dream to be fulfilled

§ My dream example

o After you have grown in the Lord while seeking Him

o Once your relationship has developed and you are able to hear Him more and on a deeper level

§ Daniel 2:19,“During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision.”

· Through the use of a follow up dream

When we are looking to interpret the symbols of our dreams, we can find many of the answers in the Bible, where these symbols are discussed. Our modern world has many objects that didn’t exist when during Biblical times so that can sometimes pose a challenge. In those cases, we want to look at the function of the item. For example, in my dream, I was given keys of both older skeleton keys and modern keys. Another example would be a flashlight and a candle. They often perform the same function.

Let’s go over some other symbols and numbers and what each could represent in our dreams. What we want to remember as we have these discussions is that there are no hard and fast rules here. A tree in my dream may have a completely different meaning in your dream, mine could be figurative and yours could be literal or yours represents growth and mine is about lineage. So just keep that in mind as we discuss some of these symbols. How they are used in a dream also can be varied. We could both have flashlights and mine is with a solid beam and yours is a flashing beam of light. We don’t want to get tunnel vision or in our interpretations and completely miss what He is saying.

Ok, let’s start with numbers. A lot of people report numbers in their dreams that they also see when they are awake. Numbers are pretty standard in meaning so they are a good place for us to start.

If you are growing through our podcast, consider supporting us as we continue to build the Kingdom of God. You can support us for as little as $3/month. https://www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share.

As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:

This episode is devoted to Basic Dream Interpretation

Reviewed the 8 functions of dreams:

· Direction

· Correction

· Understanding

· Encouraging

· Confirming

· Repentance

· Prophetic

· Warning

Steps for Beginning Interpretation

Write it down

Pray about it

Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal meanings

Research in the Bible as well as outside resources

Ask questions about what the word reveals

Reviewed a dream of mine from 2008 and discussed the interpretation, 2 Kings 6:4,

Ways God gives interpretation:

Instantaneous

During the dream

While we are writing down the dream

Over time as we grow in our relationship with Him

We encourage you:

· To have an active Bible reading plan, if you want a personal relationship with the Lord, you need to be active about reading His word.

· Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies

· I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

Dawn Simmons 1/28/24 Dawn Simmons 1/28/24

God Speaks to Us Through Dreams,Ep 3-4

Welcome back! This is Conquering Our Unseen Enemies and I am your host Dawn Simmons. Today we are going to talk about something you may already be familiar with, Familiar Spirits!

We will discuss how these harmful counterfeits to the Holy Spirit develop relationships specific to an individual and what you need to do to evict these spirits and their influence in your life.

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons, and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be doing a 2-part series on God speaking to us through Dreams and the second part will be Basic Dream Interpretation. Dreams are an important and exciting way God communicates with us and by examining dreams we can learn important principles of who God is and what He wants to say to us, for us and our purpose in Him.

Why are we here? Why are Dreams important to understand? We are going to go through 5 principles of dreams to answer those questions.

Principle #1: Dreams, once understood, will open the door to change our life as God intends.

Ancient civilizations believed dreams were derived from a divine being. Dreams were treasured and the ancients used them as a way to direct their lives. Did you realize that over 1/3 of the Bible is about or relates to a dream or a vision. If we look at the Bible, we can see that beginning with Jacob, God chose to use dreams as his frequent tool for revelation.

In our Western, modern civilization, we are ruled by our rational mind which denies us of a main form of how God communicates with us. God does not always use our rational mind to communicate. God can do, create or reveal anything in any way he chooses. Many times, he does reveal His will in new ways and yet we dismiss it.

We know from Genesis 40 that Joseph was placed in prison and God used that as an opportunity to give dreams to the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, so Joseph could use his gift of dream interpretation with them, opening a door for him down the road. This opportunity ultimately placed him in a position of being second in authority in Egypt, a country where he was wrongly accused, imprisoned in and forgotten about for years. This after being sold by his brothers.

Most of us know that Solomon is known as the man who God gave the highest level of wisdom and discernment, so much that God said it would never be matched again. How did that opportunity come to happen in Solomon’s life? God came to him in a dream and Solomon asked for this wisdom, this ability to govern the people correctly. 1 Kings 3 tells us this story and in verse 5 we read that is was through a dream. “At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”

Even before Solomon was gifted with wisdom or discernment, he knew enough to respond to God’s inquiry, even in the dream.

One of the more frequent prophetic books quoted is Joel. I don’t know that as many people actually read the book as quote the verse, but here it is, Joel 2:27, Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the Lord your God,and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed.28 “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.29 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. When you read this, it is apparent that the Lord finds giving us dreams useful and necessary. There is a reason we will need them and he will use those willing to receive them as a way to provide messages to His people.

We are going to talk about Daniel a few times in our discussions, how could we not? His entire book establishes dreams as an integral part of God communicating with His people. As the book of Daniel opens, we immediately learn he was gifted, intelligent and one of the more respected young men brought in to captivity. Part of his gifts was in interpretation of dreams. Daniel 1:7 tells us this, To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds. This gift will prove to be extremely significant in Daniel’s life. It will ensure not only his own life but the lives of the remnant of Israel and enable this remnant to return to Jerusalem from captivity in Babylon.

Principle #2: When we do not value God’s resource of receiving dreams, this resource will begin to diminish.

We are going to start with Genesis 37: 5, Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”

Joseph had a dream, he was excited, he valued it, he received it in his heart, and he naively shared it with everyone around him. Remember society at that time was largely your family members. Jacob, Joseph’s father had land, so they weren’t living in the city where Joseph was surrounded by his friends. This excitement is how the Lord wants us to be when He gives us dreams.

Imagine if you wanted to be in a relationship with someone and you kept giving them gifts that would make their life better, their decisions would lead to better opportunities, they would be provided for, they would avoid a lot of problems because of the gifts you were providing out of love. One day you came to give another gift and found out that the person you loved, never opened a single one of your gifts? Would you continue to give the gifts that are unused? If we don’t value what God is providing, He will eventually see that as turning your back on His provision and He will not see this as a fruitful means of communicating with you. Would you rather have more ways to receive from God, or less?

Principle #3, If we ignore God speaking to us in dreams, we will miss what He has planned for our lives.

Of all the books in the bible, Job is one of the ones that we all remember well because of all of the hardship that Job endured. The fact that he endured it just because he was a man who loved God makes it even more memorable. We learn al ot from Job, we learn a lot about the character of God and we learn about how Satan moves and Satan’s purposes with creating chaos in our lives. Job lived during the patriarchal period. He was a contemporary with Isaac and Jacob, so we are talking about 2000 BC. There may not have been a written word at the time, and no technology as we know it, but Job knew some things. Most importantly, Job knew God. Here is what he says in Job 33:14-18, “For God does speak—now one way, now another—though no one perceives it. 15 In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they slumber in their beds, 16 he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warning 17 to turn them from wrongdoing and keep them from pride 18 to preserve them from the pit, their lives from perishing by the sword.” Job knew God communicated through dreams and he knew even in the midst of his turmoil that God’s words were not to be ignored, but revered, understood and acted upon.

Let’s look at someone who was the opposite of Job. Even though he was anointed as Israel’s first King, Saul was not a man worthy of his country’s devotion. He did not have a relationship with God throughout most of his kingship. It catches up to him multiple times, but as we read 1 Samuel 28:15, he is feeling the hardship of it. It says this, Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” “I am in great distress,” Saul said. “The Philistines are fighting against me, and God has departed from me. He no longer answers me, either by prophets or by dreams. So I have called on you to tell me what to do.” Saul ignored God often enough that he missed the opportunity to be a great king and have a long life with his family line intact.

Sometimes, we live like Saul did and one reason God uses dreams is because when we are asleep, we are a type of captive audience. Unlike when we are awake, and we don’t give him the opportunity due to our inability to wait and listen or our unwillingness to give him the time he would like to share with us. We honor God by valuing the dreams He uses to communicate with us which helps us to not miss what He is providing to us and what he has planned for our lives

Principle #4: Identify the author of your dream

Both believers and non-believers alike will readily admit that dreams can come from God or they can come from Satan. Where we get into trouble as believers is when we don’t know the difference or worse yet, we seek out someone involved with palm reading, psychics or the like. There are times in our lives, no matter who you are, when Satan will be bothering you in the night, particularly midnight to 3a.m., and you will have terrorizing dreams or dreams that create fear or worry. Where we often go wrong is immediately dismissing anything that has a negative message. God can use dreams however he wants and at times he will use negative actions to instill a response in us. Likewise, people will misinterpret a dream where they are happy but doing something sinful, and they will interpret that as, God wants me to be happy. I hate hearing Christians justify sin with, God wants me to be happy. It’s sickening and one day they will realize that was not God at all. Zechariah speaks to that in 10:2, “The idols speak deceitfully, diviners see visions that lie; they tell dreams that are false, they give comfort in vain.”

When we get a dream, it’s important to know who gave us the dream, who is trying to instill something in us. If we allow something to be instilled in us through a dream that is not from God, it can lead us down the wrong path. God tells us this in Deuteronomy 13:1, If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, 2 and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,” 3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him. 5 That prophet or dreamer must be put to death for inciting rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. That prophet or dreamer tried to turn you from the way the Lord your God commanded you to follow. You must purge the evil from among you.

There are times when God very clearly tells you what is Him and what is not and we still don’t listen, mostly because we don’t want to and we doubt him. If what He is saying doesn’t suit our ears, we may choose to reject it and that is just what happened in Jeremiah 27: 8, “‘“If, however, any nation or kingdom will not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon or bow its neck under his yoke, I will punish that nation with the sword, famine and plague, declares the Lord, until I destroy it by his hand. 9 So do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your interpreters of dreams, your mediums or your sorcerers who tell you, ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon.’ 10 They prophesy lies to you that will only serve to remove you far from your lands; I will banish you and you will perish.

If we don’t know the author if our dream, we open doors for the enemy we can’t shut and we close doors to God, we can’t open. We make those choices in our own lack of knowledge. Hosea 4:6, my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.

Principle #5: Identify the Purpose or Interpretation of Your Dream

When the Lord communicates with us, there is a reason. The most difficult aspect of dreams I believe is understanding them. Dreams can suspend reality. Dreams can suspend the laws of gravity. Dreams can function without the need for natural laws or the order of the world we live in so they are full of details we sometimes cannot comprehend and find difficulty in describing. That is what also makes them fun. The creativity and imagination the Lord uses never ends.

We discussed Genesis 40 in our first point. Let’s reexamine it here for a minute, when Joseph was in prison and God gave him the opportunity to interpret the dreams of the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, we see Joseph clearly understood where his gift of interpretation came from and was able to give God the credit in his response in verse 8, “We both had dreams,” they answered, “but there is no one to interpret them.” Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.”

Daniel was also given the gift of interpretation and we see that God was able to use Daniel in huge ways that would have impacted the lives of many if Daniel had chosen not to honor God by being willing to be used for God’s purposes. The King was upset, in turmoil over a dream and was willing to kill many people over his lack of understanding. Daniel knew God would provide him what was necessary and his faith in God was rewarded as we see in Daniel 2:19, “During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision.”

Dreams are important. We don’t want to dismiss them just because we don’t understand them.

If this is an area of your life you want to see an increase in from God, then we need to show Him honor in that area. How do we show Him honor? Here are 7 steps we can take to show Him honor in our dream life.

We show that honor by:

· Make time for Him in our daily life

o Are we praying, are we reading the Bible, are we acting in a way that is honoring to Him

· Welcome Him to speak to us through the dream

o Let him know before you go to bed that if He needs or wants to communicate with you in a dream that you will value that communication and ask that He help you remember it so you can act on it

· Document the dream

o Keep a notepad or journal and pen by your bed so that if He provides you with a dream, you can document it while it is fresh in your mind. Details can fade over a matter of minutes. Document all the details you can remember. Using a voice memo will also work well.

· Seek Him to understand what He has given you: Be a Daniel

o If he chooses to use a dream to communicate, be thankful and then pursue Him for the interpretation. He wants us to pursue Him. If he didn’t, He would just leave you a note. Our relationship grows when we pursue Him and seek out understanding. He wants us to grow.

· Develop understanding of why He gave it to us

o There are reasons why He chose a dream and there are reasons why He gave you the dream. Once you have an understanding of what He gave you, pursue Him for why He gave it to you. Are you involved in something He is guiding you away from? We can gain understanding of what He is telling us, but He will also explain why so that we can begin to change our direction and become more like Him. He can reveal to us what we cannot see on our own.

· Act on what we understand from Him

o Once we have the understanding and the why, we need to do something with that information. We cannot simply receive the information and sit on it. He took the time to lay out the dream for us, now it is our turn to move on what He gave us.

· Follow Up with Him for additional direction

o Stay connected with Him until you have fulfilled all that He has ask of you. Follow up with Him to make sure you did not overlook what He wanted from you and that you did whatever He asked, the way He asked it of you.

Lastly, we are going to discuss the Functions of Dreams. We need to have an idea of the various functions before we begin the discussion next week on the basics of interpretation. Dreams are a way for God to instill His power and purpose in our lives. Each dream may have only one function, or it could have multiple functions. The more we understand about functions, the easier it will be to begin to seek Him and show him honor in our dream life.

Here are 8 functions of dreams:

· Direction

· Correction

· Understanding

· Encouraging

· Confirming

· Repentance

· Prophetic

· Warning

If you have documented your dream, you may be able to identify the function easily. If, however, your dream requires a lot of interpretation, then you want to pursue Him for the understanding. There are many people who can interpret dreams, but understand, like everything in life, not all dream interpreters are created equal. It is best to first seek the Lord on your own. Work with Him in the steps we discussed on how we show Him honor. In the next episode we are going to address the Basics of Interpretation. Listen to that next week and get some of the basics, pursue Him above all else and you will begin to see what He is saying to you and open a new way of beautiful communication with the Lord. Don’t ever let anyone tell you God no longer uses dreams to communicate. Anyone who speaks those words is speaking a lie and those are words from the mouth of the enemy. We are here to conquer our unseen enemies, even in our sleep.

If you are growing through our podcast, consider supporting us as we continue to build the Kingdom of God. You can support us for as little as $3/month. https://www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share.

As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:

God speaking to us through Dreams and the second part will be Basic Dream Interpretation.

Dreams are an important and exciting way God communicates with us and by examining dreams we can learn important principles of who God is and what He wants to say to us, for us and our purpose in Him.

5 principles of dreams

Principle #1: Dreams, once understood, will open the door to change our life as God intends.

Genesis 40

1 Kings 3:5

Joel 2:27

Daniel 1:7

Principle #2: When we do not value God’s resource of receiving dreams, this resource will begin to diminish.

Genesis 37: 5

Principle #3, If we ignore God speaking to us in dreams, we will miss what He has planned for our lives.

Job 33:14-18

1 Samuel 28:15,

Principle #4: Identify the author of your dream

Both believers and non-believers alike will readily admit that dreams can come from God or they can come from Satan.

Zechariah 10:2,

When we get a dream, it’s important to know who gave us the dream, who is trying to instill something in us.

Deuteronomy 13:1

Jeremiah 27: 8,

If we don’t know the author if our dream, we open doors for the enemy we can’t shut and we close doors to God, we can’t open. We make those choices in our own lack of knowledge.

Hosea 4:6, my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.

Principle #5: Identify the Purpose or Interpretation of Your Dream

When the Lord communicates with us, there is a reason.

Genesis 40 verse 8

Daniel 2:19

Here are 7 steps we can take to show Him honor in our dream life.

· Make time for Him in our daily life

· Welcome Him to speak to us through the dream

· Document the dream

· Seek Him to understand what He has given you: Be a Daniel

· Develop understanding of why He gave it to us

· Act on what we understand from Him

· Follow Up with Him for additional direction

Here are 8 functions of dreams:

· Direction

· Correction

· Understanding

· Encouraging

· Confirming

· Repentance

· Prophetic

· Warning

If you have documented your dream, you may be able to identify the function easily. If, however, your dream requires a lot of interpretation, then you want to pursue Him for the understanding.

We encourage you:

· To have an active Bible reading plan, if you want a personal relationship with the Lord, you need to be active about reading His word.

· Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies

· I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

Dawn Simmons 1/21/24 Dawn Simmons 1/21/24

Rooting out Apostasy and Apathy around us,Ep 3-3

Welcome back! This is Conquering Our Unseen Enemies and I am your host Dawn Simmons. Today we are going to talk about something you may already be familiar with, Familiar Spirits!

We will discuss how these harmful counterfeits to the Holy Spirit develop relationships specific to an individual and what you need to do to evict these spirits and their influence in your life.

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons, and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be addressing two areas of the church today that are increasing and are leading Christians astray. Both are being done gradually over time and will only increase the more we know less. I am referring to the Spirit of Apostasy and the Spirit of Apathy. Both are destructive to the church and yet they are the opposite in nature except for one key fact, both separate a Christian from the Lord and lead them to the eternal fire.

So what is Apostasy and what is Apathy?

Apostasy is the act of refusing to continue to follow, obey, or recognize a religious faith. So someone acting with a Spirit of Apostasy will lead you away from the word of God and a relationship with God. This is what Jude, the half-brother of Jesus, the brother of James was talking about in the book of Jude.

Truth must never be compromised. There is light and there is dark. There is no liark. Light or dark, that’s it. Hot or cold, no lukewarm.

We need to know the truth of the Bible, have a relationship with the Lord, we need unity among the church body for the essentials in Christian beliefs. We can disagree about little things that don’t matter, style of music, ministry outreach, whether you raise your hands in worship, but what Christianity is founded upon, salvation in Christ should not be a point of disagreement. When we allow teaching that is contrary to God’s word, then we have allowed a false, ungodly teacher into our midst unchallenged. We need to know the Word to root those out who oppose God. Watering down the gospel, the way Joel Osteen does is opposing God and he will be judged for that when his time comes.

I think Jude 1:12 is written for men like Osteen and those who claim to preach but use empty words to teach a gospel without a salvation in the Lord. We don’t need to feel good, we need to be saved. Jude 1:12 says this, “These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. 13 They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.”

God will sentence those who reject him to eternal fire, and someone who teaches false doctrine is in rebellion to God. Those who think they are saved but teach what opposes God’s word will be eternally separated from Him. Jude 1:4, For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about[b] long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

Spirit of Apostasy: when people turn away from God’s truth and embrace false teaching. There will be a judgment on those who turn their back on God. Once saved, always saved will not apply if you decide to turn your back on Him and live your life by your own standards. This is an act of Rebellion, so you will find the spirit of rebellion working closely with the spirit of apostasy. The lying spirit will also be present. The spirit of pride, lust for power, greed, jealousy. Apostasy is the strongman with various demons working to lead teachers or leaders astray and in turn, those who listen to their false teaching.

The last times is simply the period of time between the first and second coming of Christ. It is not referring to end times.

Where I see this come up most frequently is among people who call themselves Christians but do not know the Lord. They read the Bible and then become hyper focused on one thing and use only their own understanding to interpret and come to their own conclusions and use hate and anger to spit at others who do or say anything contrary to what they have determined is the truth. The example I gave a few episodes ago about the man calling the Christian woman who disagreed with him Satan is an example of heresy, blasphemy and apostasy in the message he was originally sharing. Apostasy can function as a counterfeit to Christianity or be positioned to look like an elevated form of Christianity as those who preach counter to the word of God are creating their own religion with their own standards of what they want to be right and wrong. This will involve the deception of twisting God’s word to appear to be credible to those who do not know the word. If an archangel is not even willing to speak to a demon in a slanderous way, we are higher than the angels, so we should not be calling each other satan or any other demonic reference. Jude 1:9 speaks to this behavior, “But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”[d] 10 Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them.”

One purpose of Apostasy is to create divisions within the church. One of the major divisions in the church today is the LGBTQ community. The Bible is clear about what the Lord thinks of homosexuality. Leviticus 18:22 says, “‘Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.” When the Lord gave us Leviticus, he was giving us His standards for holy living. We live under the new Covenant with a salvation with Jesus, so our salvation, our restoration in Him is through Jesus, not the sacrifices. The standards did not change. Just because Jesus came, he did not negate God’s standards, Jesus made it possible for us to live up to the standards through grace for when we do fall. That said, let’s get back to the LGBTQ community. God gave his standard for sexuality and He created us as man for and woman and vice versa. He calls relations other than man and woman detestable. The act is detestable, He did not say hate the person. The act is what is detestable. The person still needs to know Jesus and through that relationship they have a choice to make. If they make one choice, they will have salvation, if they make another choice and continue in an act that the Lord finds is detestable, then they are in rebellion and they will face judgment for that. We are not to condemn the person and act in hate towards them either way. We are to be obedient in a loving way to show them the Way, the Truth and the Life. The churches who are accepting the LGBTQ without presenting them with the truth of God’s word, that is apostasy and those church leaders and everyone supporting the leadership condoning homosexuality will face judgment.

Jude 1:17 speaks to this, But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18 They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” 19 These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. 20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. 22 Be merciful to those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.[f]

Jude 1:4 also speaks to this, For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about[b] long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

I want to share Jude 1:6 also. It very clearly tells us what is going to happen to the demons, the fallen angels and likens their punishment to those guilty of sexual immorality and perversion. There is no denying how God feels about those who are working in tandem with the enemy and the judgment of those who practice things he detests. “And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. 7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.”

Apathy on the other hand happens when we lack the desire and motivation to grow closer to God and to have a relationship with Him or have any involvement with anything related to Him.

Apathy is a spiritual bondage that will lead to discouragement, produce no fruit, open the door to sin and a lead us to a complete indifference to anything associated with or involving the Lord. It begins in the mind, then filters to the heart and flows outward to others. It can grow to include the spirit of anger, the spirit of mocking, the spirit selfishness, depression, rejection, and rebellion. It doesn’t stop there but those are some of the major areas that will begin to influence your life. Doubt will work its way in and soon you will question everything you have known about salvation in Him. The purpose is to lead you from Apathy to then question if God even exists at all. You don’t bother to corrupt the Word or twist it because you instead reject it as a whole.

I would say Apathy is far more prevalent than Apostasy. Apathy can weave its way into our heart and begin as simply as dropping off from going to church. When church gets replaced with things that are presented as more fun then our human nature feeds into that and doesn’t resist. Apathy works differently on everyone because we are all motivated differently and have our different interests. 2 Timothy 4:3 describes this well, For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

The one thing that Apathy will do to work on you is bring in a physical feeling of tiredness, fatigue. If Apathy can override you with not even wanting to get up and go anywhere, then the battle is already over. You have no resistance, and you are likely not going to be doing anything to develop your relationship with the Lord, let alone maintain it. Paul talks about this in Ephesians 5:15, “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

When I look back over my life and I think forward to whatever life I have left. I can tell you one thing for certain, I do not ever want to be standing before the Lord and hear these words. “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” That is in Revelation 3:15, and it was Jesus speaking to the church at Laodicea. I went to Laodicea and I actually thought it must have been a beautiful city. It was an affluent city known for multiple industries. You could see even in the remains that they were modern in their day, they were well engineered, they had a beautiful theatre, there was a medical school, this was an accomplished city. Yet the Lord saw them for what was in their heart. None of the other things they had accomplished mattered. It doesn’t matter how much money you have or don’t have. It doesn’t matter what you wear, what you drive or where you live. What matters is whether you are hot or cold for the Lord.

So how can we combat both Apostasy and Apathy. Paul tells us how, but we have to be willing. We have the answer, but it requires action on our part. Ephesians 6: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

The Lord always gives us a way. He is the Way, He is the Truth and He is the Life. We need to make sure we are always in alignment with Him, put our armor on and pursue Him. The enemy is going to try to disrupt us, but we can overcome that in Him.

If you are growing through our podcast, consider supporting us as we continue to build the Kingdom of God. You can support us for as little as $3/month. https://www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share.

As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:

· Spirit of Apostasy and the Spirit of Apathy, both separate a Christian from the Lord and lead them to the eternal fire.

· Apostasy is the act of refusing to continue to follow, obey, or recognize a religious faith. Apostasy will lead you away from the word and a relationship with God.

· Truth must never be compromised.

· We need to know the truth of the Bible, have a relationship with the Lord, we need unity among the church body for the essentials in Christian beliefs, salvation in Christ, teaching contrary to God’s word, is false, ungodly teaching

· Jude 1:12, addressing false teachers and their eternal judgment

· Jude 1:4, those who reject him and who teach false doctrine is in rebellion to God andwill be eternally separated from Him.

· Spirit of Apostasy: when people turn away from God’s truth and embrace false teaching. There will be a judgment on those who turn their back on God.

· Apostasy works with a spirit of rebellion, lying spirit, spirit of pride, lust for power, greed, jealousy.

· The example I gave a few episodes ago about the man calling the Christian woman who disagreed with him Satan is an example of heresy, blasphemy and apostasy in the message he was originally sharing.

· He was an example of someone who twists truth becomes hyper focused on one thing and use only their own understanding to interpret and come to their own conclusions and use hate and anger to spit at others who do or say anything contrary to what they have determined is the truth.

· Apostasy can function as a counterfeit to Christianity or be positioned to look like an elevated form of Christianty as those who preach counter to the word of God are creating their own religion with their own standards of what they want to be right and wrong.

· Jude 1:9 speaks to this behavior, slander and irrational to what they do not understand

· One purpose of Apostasy is to create divisions within the church. One of the major divisions in the church today is the LGBTQ community.

· Leviticus 18:22, The Bible is clear about what the Lord thinks of homosexuality.

· In Leviticus the Lord was giving us His standards for holy living. We live under the new Covenant with a salvation with Jesus, our salvation, our restoration is through Jesus, not the sacrifices. The standards did not change. Just because Jesus came, he did not negate God’s standards.

· With homosexuality, God says the act is detestable, He did not say hate the person. The act is what is detestable. The person still needs to know Jesus. We are not to condemn the person and act in hate towards them either way. We are to be obedient in a loving way to show them the Way, the Truth and the Life.

· The churches who are accepting the LGBTQ without presenting them with the truth of God’s word, that is apostasy and those church leaders and everyone supporting the leadership condoning homesexuality will face judgment.

· Jude 1:17 referring to the judgment of those leading others astray.

· Jude 1:4 also speaks to the judgment of those teaching a life of immorality is covered by grace,

· I want to share Jude 1:6 also. It very clearly tells us what is going to happen to the demons, the fallen angels and likens their punishment to those guilty of sexual immorality and perversion.

· Apathy on the other hand happens when we lack the desire and motivation to grow closer to God and to have a relationship with Him or have any involvement with anything related to Him.

· Apathy is a spiritual bondage that will lead to discouragement, produce no fruit, open the door to sin and a lead us to a complete indifference to anything associated with or involving the Lord. It begins in the mind, then filters to the heart and flows outward to others.

· It can grow to include the spirit of anger, the spirit of mocking, the spirit selfishness, depression, rejection, and rebellion.

· The purpose is to lead you from Apathy to then question if God even exists at all. You don’t bother to corrupt the Word or twist it because you instead reject it as a whole.

· 2 Timothy 4:3 describes apathy in the church

· Ephesians 5:15, warns us to be careful of the destructive nature of apathy

· Revelation 3:15, and making sure we are not lukewarm.

To combat both Apostasy and Apathy we have Ephesians 6, putting on the full armor of God.

We encourage you:

· To have an active Bible reading plan, if you want a personal relationship with the Lord, you need to be active about reading His word.

· Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies

· Conference 3/23 if you are in Ventura County area, details coming soon

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

Dawn Simmons 1/14/24 Dawn Simmons 1/14/24

The Great I Am versus Satan,Ep 3-2

Welcome back! This is Conquering Our Unseen Enemies and I am your host Dawn Simmons. Today we are going to talk about something you may already be familiar with, Familiar Spirits!

We will discuss how these harmful counterfeits to the Holy Spirit develop relationships specific to an individual and what you need to do to evict these spirits and their influence in your life.

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons, and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are looking at names in the Bible. Specifically, we are looking at the Great I Am, versus Satan and what their names as revealed to us in the Bible mean to us on a daily basis. When we are in the midst of a battle or even just trying to understand what is going on around us, remembering these names and applying them in the situation will help you to discern what could be at the root of your situation and how to move through your situation with Him. If we want to conquer our unseen enemies, we need to understand what is at the core of our unseen enemy.

When we look at names in the Bible, names are revealing in nature and character. For example, we read Jesus is referred to as the “Messiah” which means “The Anointed One.” The name Daniel means “God is My Judge.” In Genesis we read that God changed Abram’s name to Abraham which means “father of multitudes or father of nations.” God changed his name because God was revealing who He Abram was to become. Names are important in the Bible for other reasons as well. Through names we see how the name of a person can represent their relationship to us. A name reveals character. A name reveals purpose. A name reveals past, present and future.

Let’s start looking at how God began to reveal his character and relationship to us in Exodus.

Exodus 3: 1-5, Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” 4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” 5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father,[a] the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

We can already see from just this part of the exchange between them that God is willing at times to show himself to us in a way that we cannot comprehend. The bush that did not burn went against what Moses knew to be logical in this world. From this we know, God will work wonders for our benefit. We also see from this exchange that the ground where God is presenting himself is holy, therefore God is holy. Then God introduces himself. He tells Moses who He is, He does not hide it, He is specific and puts it in terms Moses will understand and identify with.

As we read on, we see God is calling Moses to leave this wilderness and his flock and instead go back to Egypt and lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses is giving him some pushback. I am sure we would all react that way when you imagine the enormity of the task for Moses to complete.

Back to Verse 11, But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 And God said, “I will be with you. (so again, God is revealing to Moses a characteristic of who God is) And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” 13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’

“This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.

From this part of their discussion again God is telling Him who He is in relation to Moses by bringing in Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Moses knows who his descendants are, he knows he is an Israelite, so he can identify with this and God’s people. He also tells Moses, I Am who I Am. He says, I Am sent you. Its simple yet so profound, He just is. We’ll dig into that deeper, but remember that, I Am. Now let’s backtrack a minute and see what happened before Moses. Why did Moses know who God was in relation to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob?

Genesis 15:1, After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:

“Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield,
your very great reward.”

God is revealing himself to Abram as to what Abram can expect from Him. This is the beginning of God creating His people. He has to introduce himself to Abram so He can begin to build Abram into the man He created Him to be, the father of the nation of Israel and ultimately the lineage from which Jesus will be born. What God reveals to Abram is still the same for us today, He is our shield and our great reward. When you are having a moment. When you are needing comfort, just call His name, I Am. He knows what you are going through, He will be there.

Let’s go spend some time with Isaiah.

Isaiah 43:3, For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;

Again, He says, I Am and then tells you specifically who He is and what that means in relation to you.

Isaiah 43: 5, Do not be afraid, for I am with you;

Another I Am, and a reassurance for us that He is here with us through everything.

Isaiah 43: 10, Before me no god was formed,
nor will there be one after me.
11 I, even I, am the Lord,
and apart from me there is no savior.

Here God is telling us, who He is in relation to everything and everyone else. Then again, letting us know our place in relation to Him with a very definitive description of our place with Him.

Isaiah 43: 12, You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “that I am God.
13 Yes, and from ancient days I am he.
No one can deliver out of my hand.
When I act, who can reverse it?”

This verse tells us a lot but I want to touch on I Am again for a minute. He refers to himself as I Am throughout the Bible, and then in the New Testament Jesus does as well. The reason I like this so much is that it speaks to him as yesterday, today and forever. He never changes. In Malachi 3, we read “I the Lord do not change.“ We read in Hebrews 13:8 that He is the same yesterday, today and forever. When He says I Am, there is no limitation. It’s not, I used to be but now I am this. There is no, some day I will be, but for now I am this. When we read words written thousands of years ago that mean the same today and will mean the same to our children’s children, he is I Am.

One of my favorite references to Him is Ancient Days or Ancient One depending on your translation. He always has been and He always will be. We cannot fathom how long He has been I Am because there is no beginning and no end in His existence. When he says “no one can deliver out of my hand” that tells you that He controls everything and the place you want to be is in His hand. Let’s keep going.

Isaiah 64:4, Since ancient times no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.

This again explains who God is in relation to us, but also tells us something about who He is in providing for us. He “acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.” There is a two way communication here. That implies relationship. He wants us to have a relationship, He created us with that as His objective and He expects us to be in relationship with Him so that He can act for us, in place of us, so that whatever he does is right and true. It also tells us our position in Him. At times, we will need to give to Him our issues, let Him work them out, submit to His plan over the situation and wait for Him to resolve it His way on our behalf.

Isaiah 64: 8, Yet you, Lord, are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.

This is the perfect analogy for accepting who He is in relation to us. Again, we want to be in His hands and if we allow ourselves to be the clay and He is the potter shaping us in to what he creates us to be, then we will be perfect in His eyes for what He created us to do.

While we could spend hours on who God is, we are going to end our discussion of God with this last verse from Daniel 7:13, “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man,[a] coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence.

Daniel is describing this and in his description which is God breathed, He refers to God as Ancient of Days, the same way God refers to Himself. He is also talking of Jesus so we see the two together and we begin to see their relationship. Jesus is able to approach God and be in His presence and that is an important detail to know because Jesus does that on our behalf against the accuser which is what we are discussing next.

Satan has many names: Prince of Darkness, Beelzebub, the Antichrist, Father of Lies, Ancient Serpent. All names of which he lives up to but too often we forget all the ways He works to live up to his names.

Let’s start with Revelation 12;10, Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:

“Now have come the salvation and the power
    and the kingdom of our God,
    and the authority of his Messiah.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,
    who accuses them before our God day and night,
    has been hurled down.

We can never forget that the accuser, satan, is always present to trick us, deceive us into doing what is against God and then he goes to God and accuses of doing what he set in place for us to do so that he can get permission to evoke a penalty. It’s just as if we were in a court of law being accused of wrongdoing. Jesus acts as our attorney, defending us against the Accuser. We see in Job how satan himself tells of what his objective is in the world. Job 1:6, One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”

Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”

1 Peter 5:8 tells us what he is doing while he is roaming, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

Let’s look at a few more places that tell us who satan is and reveal who he is in relation to us.

Revelation 20:10: And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

His character is revealed as a deceiver and as a result, in the end times, he will pay the price for all he has done and he will pay that price forever and ever.

Matthew 4:1, Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

We can see from this that satan was tempting Jesus in the wilderness. Another tactic of satan. If satan was working to try to tempt Jesus away from serving God, His own Father, why wouldn’t we think that satan would also use this tactic against us. All too often we allow ourselves to be put into position where we know there will be temptation for something and we brush it off and down the road end up in sinful situations we never should have been in but we allowed satan to convince us it’s not that big of a deal. Many marriages have been destroyed because of that deceit that starts with satan but then we come into agreement with it and start using it on ourselves to justify bad behavior.

Isaiah 13: 12-16,

How you have fallen from heaven,
    morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
    you who once laid low the nations!
13 You said in your heart,
    “I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne
    above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
    on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.[b]
14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
    I will make myself like the Most High.”
15 But you are brought down to the realm of the dead,
    to the depths of the pit.

This reveals to us who Satan has at the center of everything, himself. His purposes are to serve himself, and that means he wants to draw us away from God to serve Him and His purposes. A sharp contrast to what God reveals of himself to us.

Lucifer, some of the names we have for satan are a result of translations, for example Lucifer came as a result of an early Latin translation called the Vulgate. So knowing that the name, Lucifer, for example, is associated or speaks specifically of Satan, we need to consider that in the use of that name anywhere else. For example, there is a TV show right now that is called Lucifer. I have never watched it, nor will I ever watch it. The marketing of it is depicted in reds, oranges, yellows and black. It is done in a way that subtly indicates some ties or reference to Satan as mankind has come to depict him. Whatever the show is about, the marketing of it is aligning itself with how we perceive Satan, so that would be something that my discernment would tell me to avoid. Why? Not because I am afraid of a show. There is nothing the show itself can do to me, though I doubt it would hold my interest. The reason is that by knowingly and intentionally watching something that is purposefully aligning itself with Lucifer, I am in essence opening a door to other things that are also aligned or associated with Lucifer. It would be subtle, somewhat like the marketing, but then slowly become less and less subtle. Over time I will have positioned myself to allow the enemy to have influence in my life, once there is influence, authority comes in and is allowed to move in my life.

If you are shaking your head thinking, “all of that as a result of watching a TV show? Yes, all of that as a result of watching a show. The tactic is to move in quietly so you don’t even realize it and then spread. It’s a cancer. The things of this world, the things of satan, are a cancer to everyone, believers and unbelievers alike. We turn a blind eye to it thinking it is harmless and the next thing you know, Stage 4 and you need help.

The name Satan in Hebrew is translated as adversary or accuser. By using specific names, God is revealing to us what we can expect from satan and those who work for him. When we name someone, that isn’t always the case. For example, my name is Dawn, which means the first appearance of light, daybreak. This is not when you want to see me. I am not naturally one of those people who walks into work “Good morning! all smiles”. I have to work at that. The funny thing is, I must have taught my parrot Good morning, because while I am still in bed, I can hear him up at dawn, literally, and he is looking out his window yelling “Good morning!” He has several different variations of ‘Good Morning’ so I know it is because he hears me say it differently. It’s pretty funny, if you want to know what you sound like and phrases you use frequently, get a parrot. You learn a little about yourself. Anyhow, my point is, God names things for what they are or will become, we tend to name things for our own reasons that may or may not have anything to do with what we are or will become.

This next scripture is Jesus talking about who Satan is and it screams of telling us what we can expect from Satan. This is Jesus talking to the Pharisees, who were religious leaders who became corrupted by Satan.

John 8:44, You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Jesus is giving us a lot of information here about satan and what we can expect to receive if we deal with him. When we cooperate with satan, knowingly or unknowingly, we are carrying out the desires of satan. He only cares about himself. He is also at the root of the spirit of murder. We see that play out in the very first murder by Cain in Genesis out of anger and jealousy, and as a result, Cain used violence to kill his brother. These are all demonic spirits we have discussed. Jesus also tells us satan is not holding to the truth, he cannot because he doesn’t have any truth so everything he says will not have truth. Jesus calls him a liar, tells us “when he lies” that lies are his native language essentially saying every word he uses to speak is a lie. He ends with telling us he is the father of lies. Lies began with satan, they are all attributed to satan and are his main tactic to get what he wants.

Luke 10:16, 16 “Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.” 17 The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” 18 He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. (Reference to Isaiah 13) I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.

Jesus is painting a picture of black and white here. Jesus tells us he is the way the truth and the life, he has told us satan has no truth. So in verse 16 Jesus is telling us, pick one or the other, you can’t have both. If you pick satan once, that is your choice and that is rejecting Jesus. He references the scripture in Isaiah we talked about where satan fell from heaven. Then we see who we are in relation to satan. We have been given the authority and we can overcome him and when we do, he can’t do anything to us. When we don’t use our authority, we don’t have that assurance.

Matthew 13:18, “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path.

Here Jesus is explaining the parable of the sower and he starts off with discussing how satan is there to steal even our opportunity to have a relationship with Him. We have to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus as we are told in Philippians 4:7. He also refers to him as the evil one. The definition of evil is profoundly immoral or wicked. Why do we continually place ourselves in positions to be misled by something profoundly immoral or wicked? We have to see through the lies, see through the deceit, help others see through it in love, not bashing like I described to you last week. What that man did that I described last week calling that woman satan, was evil. That is how the enemy wants us to treat each other, that serves him and his purposes.

We need to decide for ourselves, are we listening to I Am or are we listening to lies. Anything that is not a part of I Am will lead you to a path of lies and destruction. I Am, I Am, I Am is the same yesterday, today and forever.

If you are growing through our podcast, consider supporting us as we continue to build the Kingdom of God. You can support us for as little as $3/month. https://www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support

If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share.

As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:

· Looked at the Great I Am, versus Satan and what their names reveal to us in the Bible.

· Through names we see how the name of a person can represent their relationship to us. A name reveals character. A name reveals purpose. A name reveals past, present and future.

· Exodus 3: 1-5, Then God introduces himself. He tells Moses who He is, He does not hide it, He is specific and puts it in terms Moses will understand and identify with.

· Genesis 3: 11, From this part of their discussion again God is telling Him who He is in relation to Moses by bringing in Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Moses knows who his descendants are, he knows he is an Israelite, so he can identify with this and God’s people. He tells Moses, I Am who I Am.

· Genesis 15:1, God is revealing himself to Abram as to what Abram can expect from Him. This is the beginning of God creating His people. He has to introduce himself to Abram so He can begin to build Abram into the man He created Him to be, the father of the nation of Israel and ultimately the lineage from which Jesus will be born.

· Isaiah 43:3, God saying, I Am and then tells you specifically who He is and what that means in relation to you.

· Isaiah 43: 5, Another I Am, and a reassurance for us that He is here with us through everything.

· Isaiah 43: 10, Here God is telling us, who He is in relation to everything and everyone else. Then again, letting us know our place in relation to Him with a description of our place with Him.

· Isaiah 43: 12, God refers to himself as I Am throughout the Bible, and then in the New Testament Jesus does as well.

· In Malachi 3, we read “I the Lord do not change.“

· Hebrews 13:8 that He is the same yesterday, today and forever. When He says I Am, there is no limitation.

· Isaiah 64:4, This again explains who God is in relation to us, but also tells us something about who He is in providing for us. There is a two-way communication, implies relationship with Him.

· Isaiah 64: 8, This is the perfect analogy for accepting who He is in relation to us, shaping us in to what he creates us to be

· Daniel 7:13, He is talking of Jesus. Jesus is able to approach God and be in His presence, Jesus defends us from the accuser

· Satan has many names: Prince of Darkness, Beelzebub, the Antichrist, Father of Lies, Ancient Serpent.

· Revelation 12;10, the accuser, satan, is always present to trick us, deceive us into doing what is against God and then he goes to God and accuses us so that he can get permission to evoke a penalty.

· Job 1:6, Satan telling the Lord he was out roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it

· 1 Peter 5:8 tells us what he is doing while he is roaming,

· Revelation 20:10: Satan’s character is revealed as a deceiver.

· Matthew 4:1, satan was tempting Jesus in the wilderness. A tactic of satan. Satan was working to tempt Jesus, he uses this tactic against us also.

· Isaiah 13: 12-16, This reveals who Satan has at the center of everything, himself. His purposes are to serve himself, and to draw us away from God

· Lucifer, some of the names we have for satan are a result of translations, for example Lucifer came as a result of an early Latin translation called the Vulgate.

· The name Satan in Hebrew is translated as adversary or accuser. God is revealing to us what we can expect from him. God names things for what they are or will become, we tend to name things for our own reasons that may or may not have anything to do with what we are or will become.

· John 8:44, Jesus is giving us information about satan and what we can expect if we deal with him. When we cooperate with satan, knowingly or unknowingly, we are carrying out the desires of satan.

· Luke 10:16, We have been given the authority and we can overcome satan and when we do, he can’t do anything to us. When we don’t use our authority, we don’t have that assurance.

· Matthew 13:18, Jesus explaining the parable of the sower discussing how satan is there to steal even our opportunity to have a relationship with Him.

· We have to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus as we are told in Philippians 4:7.

· I Am is the same yesterday, today and forever.

We encourage you:

· To have an active Bible reading plan, if you want a personal relationship with the Lord, you need to be active about reading His word.

· Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!

Dawn Simmons 1/7/24 Dawn Simmons 1/7/24

Satan’s Tactics to Change Meanings and Derail our Relationship with the Lord ,Ep 3-1

Welcome back! This is Conquering Our Unseen Enemies and I am your host Dawn Simmons. Today we are going to talk about something you may already be familiar with, Familiar Spirits!

We will discuss how these harmful counterfeits to the Holy Spirit develop relationships specific to an individual and what you need to do to evict these spirits and their influence in your life.

Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons, and this is the first episode of our third season of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies. We have covered a lot of topics and traveled to many places during our time together. We are now in 42 countries, and we are looking forward to even more growth in 2024. I want to thank those who are supporting us each month. Your gift is appreciated more than we can express. If you are growing through our podcast, consider supporting us as we continue to build the Kingdom of God. You can support us for as little as $3/month. https://www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support. There is a link in the notes.

When I asked the Lord for the direction for this year, He gave me a number of things He wanted me to address, but the very first thing He wanted to address was Meanings. I asked for clarification and here is what I heard. “I want My people to hear My voice and understand what I mean versus what the world tells them I mean. What is behind a word? What is true versus what is said for gain. The enemy is a wordsmith and a twister of truth. Look behind the words through the “veil of truth” for my truth. I reveal all to those who seek Me. I am clear in My truth.”

I had to sit and think for a bit after He gave me these words. There is a lot to what He said. So let’s break it down and go over each element.

First: I want My people to hear My Voice.

Second: He wants His people to understand what He means versus what the world tells them He means.

Third: What is behind a word?

Fourth: What is true versus what is said for gain.

Fifth: The enemy is a wordsmith and a twister of truth.

Sixth: Look behind the words through the “veil of truth” for My truth.

Seventh: I reveal all to those who seek Me.

Eighth: I am clear in My truth.

That is eight things He wants us to discuss. We are going to hit each point independently and walk through what the Lord wants to reveal to us.

His first point is that He wants His people to hear His voice. When we go back to the very beginning of the Bible we see in Geneses 1:26, “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

Genesis 2:7, “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

We are going to look at a few more scriptures here because it lays the groundwork for additional points.

Genesis 2:15, The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Genesis 3:8,” Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

From the beginning, God’s intention was a personal relationship with man. God would spend time with Adam in the Garden of Eden. It was through God’s assistance that Adam was introduced to each animal so that he could name them. They worked together as a team. We can do that today. The Holy Spirit gives us everything we need to be able to work together as a team. If you can’t hear the voice of God and you really want to, email me. I’ve been teaching it for years. I’ve been telling you about my book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God’s Voice for months now. We all have the ability, the enemy wants to rob us of our relationship by planting doubt and confusion. When God says He wants His people to hear His voice, He means it. He wants us to know His best way for everything in our lives. Going further, if we can’t hear His voice, how can we function in His gifts? Hearing His voice is foundational for a believer. We can’t have a relationship with someone if communication is only one way. We also need to be able to hear Him for his second point.

Second: He wants His people to understand what He means versus what the world tells them He means.

The very first time we meet Satan in the Bible, what is he doing? Let’s look at Genesis 3, Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” 4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

The Lord was clear in his direction to Adam about all that he could do, he only had one thing he could not do. Instead of relying on the truth God gave, which had been pretty consistent to that point, Eve and Adam allowed themselves to be manipulated by Satan who presented himself as a creature, so that was his first deception. His second deception was telling Eve that God didn’t really mean what He said. Satan, the ruler of this world essentially repurposed God’s words and manipulated Eve into believing what God “really meant” convincing her that God was essentially hiding something and not truthful in His words. Satan has not changed. He is using the same tactics he used the first day he spoke to Eve. We still fall for it. We cast aspersions at Eve and then turn around and do the exact same thing and many times much worse. We need to be able to hear God’s voice, understand what He means or we will fall victim to the enemy.

Third: What is behind a word? The Lord showed me something today as I was preparing to explain all of these points. There are a lot of people who are involved in spiritual warfare and not all for the same reasons. From my experience, spiritual warfare people can be split into categories like many other groups. There are those who are extremists, hard core and once they have their beliefs, right or wrong will crucify anyone who opposes them. There are those who have little experience and little knowledge and are swayed by the wind, and then there are those in the middle that are aware and learning and maybe even sometimes a bit quiet about it because of the misconceptions of spiritual warfare. What the Lord showed me today was someone who was an extremist, who proclaimed His name and then condemned other believers who believed in the Trinity. This guy used scripture to support that there was no such thing as the Trinity mentioned in the Bible, which the scripture was used incorrectly and with pure hatred he condemned a woman who tried to show Him where Jesus discusses the concept of the Trinity. The word “trinity” is not in the Bible. The word “trinity” is just that, a word, used to identify a Biblical concept. The word “trinity” seemed to trigger him and the result was his condemnation of this woman, calling her Satan among other things and anyone agreeing with her were demons. The Lord showed me that someone who behaves in this way, their heart is not pure but dark. The Lord referred to his behavior of calling the Holy Spirit in this woman Satan as blasphemous and He said that his words will be remembered. In other words, he will have to answer for those words one day. The Lord will not allow that behavior to be dismissed, this man is accountable for the words he used. So what is behind a word? Sometimes Satan is working behind a word and working to tear down people who believe and spit hate at them to get them to stop talking God’s truth. We need to be able to hear God’s voice, understand what He means and identify correct and incorrect use of His word or we will fall victim to the enemy.

Fourth: What is true versus what is said for gain. This one at first glance might seem self-explanatory, but we need to take a closer look. If the Lord wants to discuss this, it must be more involved than just first glance. We don’t want to live our lives where we can’t trust anybody, but we do want to exercise discernment and to have discernment requires relationship. A church in my area underwent a transformation this past year. An elder went rogue to put it simply. Although one elder has no real power, in this man’s head being an elder meant power. In any given conversation, if you weren’t aware he was an elder, he made sure you knew. If you were aware, he made it a point to remind you anyway. He began to push his own doctrine, which began to emerge the more power he thought he had. He used intimidation all the while praying over people and being involved in the youth ministry. This elder took what was initially true and began to reshape various church projects to fit what he wanted. In this way, he thought he was elevating himself. His demonic spirit of pride and arrogance controlled him. It was ultimately addressed, and he is no longer an elder, but it took something way out of the norm to fully bring to light how he was manipulating the church. God will allow some things to continue to give people time to repent but ultimately, when He decides a lack of repentance is doing too much harm, He will bring his judgment and the consequences with that judgment. The Lord will not allow His truth to be exchanged and turned for our gain. We need to be able to hear God’s voice, understand what He means, identify correct and incorrect use of His word and discern truth from gainful motives or we will fall victim to the enemy.

Fifth: The enemy is a wordsmith and a twister of truth.

We know from the experience Jesus had in the wilderness that Satan is a wordsmith and a twister of the truth. We also know from that experience that Satan used the words from the Bible to try to manipulate Jesus. The specifics of those tactics are in Matthew 4:1. Jesus was masterful in responding to Satan with the correct use of scripture, which is what we should be able to do as well. The problem is we don’t know the scripture or worse yet, when we do know it and we think we know so much or that we are above that manipulation, so we don’t recognize when it is being twisted on us. I saw a young pastor this past year who thought he knew it all and didn’t recognize the enemy right in his face. He played right into the hands of the enemy and I saw him turn into a prideful, judgmental, immature, power seeking man in the span of 6 months. He didn’t believe in hearing the voice of the Lord, he knew of the Holy Spirit, but he did not have a relationship with the Holy Spirit. When his pride filled tactics began to unravel, he made a rash decision and as a result, he no longer has the pastoral position he worked hard to build. He then went even further and spread words of untruth to try to garner support of church members and twist what actually happened into what he wanted people to think happened. God cannot be mocked and when we think we are above the Holy Spirit, he will humble us if we don’t repent. We need to be able to hear God’s voice, understand what He means, identify correct and incorrect use of His word, discern truth from gainful motives and recognize when the truth is being twisted or we will fall victim to the enemy.

Sixth: Look behind the words through the “veil of truth” for My truth.

To understand what the Lord means when He says “veil of truth” we can look in Colossians. Paul write his letter to the Colossians while he was imprisoned in Rome. He received a visit from Epaphras, who was the backbone of the church in that area. Epaphras was exasperated at the heresy he was dealing with from the Gnostics. Among other things, the Gnostics were teaching that knowledge was the only way to salvation. The aim of salvation is for the spirit to be awakened by knowledge so that the inner person can be released from a dungeon and return to a light realm where it becomes reunited with God. They taught the soul needs to ascend and penetrate cosmic spheres which separate the soul from its heavenly destiny. This ascension can only be accomplished through knowledge. It gets worse, but you can see why Epaphras paid Paul a visit for some support to combat this evil nonsense. Our world today is full of different variations of the gospel, of who God is, and downplays the truth of salvation and the consequences for not being saved. The veil is meant to disguise and hide what is real by creating a false cover of the truth. Men like Joel Osteen are leading thousands to their death with his empty messages of feel-good hope. We need to be able to hear God’s voice, understand what He means, identify correct and incorrect use of His word, discern truth from gainful motives, recognize when the truth is being twisted and see through the evil veil of untruth or we will fall victim to the enemy.

Seventh: I reveal all to those who seek Me.

The enemy has twisted the concept of relationship with Him through doubt and confusion. The less we know the word, the more his demons can twist. We need to know that God is available, God is waiting, He wants to share with us, He wants to answer your questions and tell you why on all areas of your life. He always has wanted that. In Jeremiah 33:3 he tells us: “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ He answered Job during his afflictions. He spoke and had a deep relationship with Moses, and it at times seems like it was more of a relationship than Moses wanted. When we look at John, the Disciple, after all the other disciples were long passed, He continued to reveal himself to John and out of it we have the Book of Revelation. The Lord is the same yesterday, today and forever, that’s Hebrews 13:8. If you seek Him, He will reveal himself to you. Don’t let the enemy steal that from you. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. James 4:8 says it this way, “Come near to God and He will come near to you. We need to be able to hear God’s voice, understand what He means, identify correct and incorrect use of His word, discern truth from gainful motives, recognize when the truth is being twisted, see through the evil veil of untruth and know He will reveal Himself to us if we seek Him or we will fall victim to the enemy.

Eighth: I am clear in My truth.

The enemy has corrupted the world view on truth. The world does not see God as the creator of truth, as the beginning and ending of truth, as the source for all that is true. Instead, the enemy has convinced the world that each of us has our own truth. We get to determine truth for ourselves based on our own self derived set of beliefs. There can only be one truth. Truth is an absolute, not a sliding scale. Jesus tells us in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

I want to instill in you who He is with this imagery. As I read it, really think about it, really imagine it because this is His truth.

John 15: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

We need to be able to hear God’s voice, understand what He means, identify correct and incorrect use of His word, discern truth from gainful motives, recognize when the truth is being twisted, see through the evil veil of untruth, know He will reveal Himself to us if we seek Him and receive His truth in our lives or we will fall victim to the enemy.

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As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:

We reviewed a word from the Lord on starting out this new Year, our third season. He made 8 points.

First: I want My people to hear My Voice.

Second: He wants His people to understand what He means versus what the world tells them He means.

Third: What is behind a word?

Fourth: What is true versus what is said for gain.

Fifth: The enemy is a wordsmith and a twister of truth.

Sixth: Look behind the words through the “veil of truth” for My truth.

Seventh: I reveal all to those who seek Me.

Eighth: I am clear in My truth.

We encourage you:

· To have an active Bible reading plan, if you want a personal relationship with the Lord, you need to be active about reading His word.

· Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies

I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!