TRANSCRIPT

“Hey everybody, I’m Anne-Marie Michaelis, a Christian author and coach. Welcome to the Hidden Battles Podcast. My life was radically transformed during a supernatural encounter with Jesus.

God allowed my eyes to be spiritually opened long enough to see the truth of these hidden battles and to scare the rebellion against him right out of me. This workbook series is called The Truth to Overcoming Hidden Battles, taken from my Christian coaching workbook. I’ll be taking you through the workbook in podcast format.

This workbook series is designed to help you overcome negative thinking, limiting beliefs, irrational emotions, unhealthy behavior patterns, toxic relationship addictions and break spiritual strongholds. This book is a workbook and is available on amazon.com. You’re welcome to use the actual workbook or have a notebook and pen ready for taking notes.

You can always pause the video. Or if you like to have everything included, then pause and order the book first. If you’re jumping in and have missed any episodes, I suggest starting with the first one of this series so it makes more sense.

Hidden Battles, revealing what the enemy does not want you to know. Please take a moment to follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and subscribe to my channel on YouTube at GodDesign LLC. Podcasts are available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcast.

For a free download of my memoir, visit my website at GodDesign.me. GodDesign does not guarantee and is not responsible for your results from the information in this podcast. You need to know that your ultimate outcomes will result from your situation and the innumerable circumstances beyond our knowledge and control.

This podcast is meant as a source of valuable information for the listener. However, it is not meant as a substitute for direct assistance by a licensed medical professional. If such a level of assistance is required, the service of a licensed professional should be sought.

For additional details, visit GodDesign.me. Hello, everyone. This is the third episode of the workbook, The Truth to Overcoming Hidden Battles.

Episode 23 from the Hidden Battles Podcast, Module 1, Chapter 3 called What We Know About the Demonic. And this is part 2. So if you missed part 1, go back to last week and you’ll find part 1 of this chapter.

Alright, before we begin, let’s start with prayer. Heavenly Father, we give thanks and gratitude for this time we have to take this walk with you today. Scripture says, Ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives, and the one who seeks finds.

And to the one who knocks, it will be opened. As we go into this chapter, we ask that you open our eyes to see your truths through your word clearly. Open our ears as we seek to hear your voice guide us through areas of our lives that may need healing, growth, strengthening, clarity, purpose, and victory.

Prepare our hearts to fully receive and get to know you, Jesus, as our Lord and Savior, who brings eternal salvation as we walk in union with you. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen. So, we’re still in module one.

Is this just me or is something else going on? Is this just me? Module one is focused on awareness of mind, heart, and spirit, bringing awareness of thoughts and where they come from as the mind and heart of the battleground locations for our hidden battles.

I have discovered this principle of life, that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart, but there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.

And that’s Romans 7 verse 21 through 23. And this is fundamentally the theme of Module 1. So let’s get into Chapter 3, Part 2.

So last week we covered in Chapter 3, what do we know about the demonic, the fundamentals of what we know, the battleground and how it starts, how it all came to be, Satan’s fall and the enemy’s purpose in relation to us. Now, the second part, we’ll be going over examples of manifestations of demonization, as well as deep dives and clues of spiritual warfare. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 3 through 4 reminds us, Satan, who is the god of this world, like lowercase G God, not God God, Satan, who is the lowercase G God of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe, who don’t believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

They are unable to see the glorious light of the good news, the good news of Jesus. They don’t understand this message about Jesus, about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God. And this was the state of mind that I was in for 40 years.

I did not understand. So now we’re going to talk about psychological and biological manifestations. Remember, Satan and his demons, they attack from all fronts and in various ways.

Knowing if it’s demonic or spiritual warfare can become a little tricky. Satan can work directly or indirectly as well. If he cannot take you out directly, he may come at you indirectly through others you care about, parents, children, friends, grandparents, etc.

He has zero compassion or remorse. His entire purpose is to destroy. What are some ways the Bible has demonstrated the manifestation of demonic possession or oppression?

Psychologically, in Acts 19, verse 13-16, Luke 6, verse 17-18, Matthew 8, verse 28, Mark 1, verse 23-24. In these examples, they appear like uncontrolled emotions and sometimes that kind of look like mental illness or mental health issues. And ironically, we see that on the rise right now, along with a lot of evil, that we see that a lot of us can’t even wrap our minds around.

So I don’t think that’s a coincidence, right? So we also see it biologically, manifestations biologically in Luke 13 verse 10 through 17, Matthew 4 verse 23 through 25, and Matthew 12 verse 22, and Mark 9 verse 25. And these appeared like blindness, bodily deformities, deafness, diseases, pain, paralysis, and seizures.

Knowing that we’ve been given plenty of examples from God’s Word on demonic manifestations and how they may impact us psychologically and or biologically. Let’s take inventory with this reflection question. If you have the workbook or worksheets, grab those now.

And if you’re taking notes without that, you may pause the video if you need to. But let’s get into the actual questions. And then when you need to pause it, go ahead and do so.

So list any psychological and or biological issues you are currently experiencing. Now this does not mean every issue is spiritual warfare and caused by a spiritual attack, but it could be, and we would be remiss if during our inventory process, we didn’t examine anything we’re struggling with psychologically and biologically. I’ve experienced spiritual attacks in both categories, psychologically and physically, and I had deliverance, healing and breakthrough once I understood what was causing my issues and what was going on.

I also want to make sure to remind you we are not to panic and worry. Jesus is the divine physician, especially in situations rooted in the demonic, and so that is beyond good news. I know I felt that way when I learned that from a healing ministry teacher.

So, don’t worry, we’re not to panic and worry, because if it is spiritual warfare, that’s actually good news, right? It’s good news. Jesus is a divine healer and he can heal you.

And so, let’s read Mark 5, verse 34. And it reminds us how powerful faith in Jesus can be when it comes to healing. Then he, Jesus, said to her, Daughter, your faith, your personal trust and confidence in me has restored you to health.

Go in peace and be permanently healed from your suffering. If that’s not good news, I don’t know what is. So even if you’re going through something right now, write that scripture down.

If you need healing, write the scripture down. This is good news. This is such good news.

All right, here are the spiritual warfare clues. And there’s quite a few of them. So let’s take a look at these clues that might help us determine if it’s possibly more than just you or just me, right?

As you read each of these, I’m going to be describing examples of each of these that you see here on the screen. And so I’m going to ask you to stop and reflect if it sounds like something that’s going on or happening in your own life. And this is a short list to get you started reflecting on different areas of your life.

And remember, these are clues to help you determine what’s happening and some may not be absolute answers. This is going to be where we focus on for the remainder of this episode. I have 15 categories and we’ll be going through each of them, providing examples.

And it’s, it’s not every single possibility, but there are common areas experienced by other people. And so this seemed like a really good list and some good examples to start with. So you may be pausing a lot to write stuff down.

We’re going to be on this particular screen right here for a while for the remainder until we do our final takeaways. So as we go through each one and something comes up for you, pause, write it down. So don’t just keep going all the way through and don’t write, you know, not writing anything down.

Please write things down. Again, this builds on where we’re going with future episodes and chapters. So we’re going to need this information, these clues, right?

And again, doesn’t mean that this is spiritual warfare, but some of it may for sure as we go through and I read it to you, you’re going to be like that. Yeah, it’s for sure a spiritual issue. And some may not be, some may be a clue and we need more digging, right?

So let me go through these. Open invitation, that’s the first one. And that could be things such as witchcraft, psychics, mediums, occult practices, new age, spirit guides, false religions, false teachings, possession of items used in ritualistic practices related to any of the things I just mentioned.

So if you’ve experienced, if you’ve done any of these things, that’s an open door. And so you’re gonna want to pause and write it down. Even if you’re not doing it anymore, if you haven’t repented, you know, basically apologized, if you haven’t like broken that open door, closed that open door and broken that agreement, remember that handshake you make with the enemy, if you haven’t gone through that process yet, that open door was never truly closed.

And so even though you may not be doing these things anymore, you may have opened the door and you may have invited the enemy in through these particular practices. And so if you’ve done any of those things that I had mentioned, witchcraft, psychics, mediums, occult practices, new age, spirit guides, false religions, false teachings, possessions of items, use and ritualistic practices related to any of these things, and most of us have done something like that, like horoscopes. I mean, most of us have done some of these things, right?

Those are all open doors, so write it down. Okay, the next one, chronic sin, and that’s just huge. I mean, I couldn’t list everything here, but I’m just going to give you some basic ones that many of us have done.

Lying, cheating, hatred, resentment, anger, unforgiveness. That’s a huge one. Bitterness, because unforgiveness leaves a bitterness or resentment.

Intense craving for ungodly things, like lust, right? Or like a food indulgence, right? That’s an intense craving for ungodly things.

If you’re overeating, if you’re like gluttonous, that’s not godly, right? That’s excessive. And so there’s many other things that we’ll go over in another chapter called Godly vs.

Ungodly Traits, but that’s kind of to give you some ideas of chronic sin. And if you, if something comes up for you under this category or anything else, write it down. And the next one, addiction.

Drugs, toxic relationships, pornography, sex, gambling, alcohol, food, technology, work, exercise. You know, there’s so many different things that could fall under this at this point. Technology is a big one for sure.

And drugs and alcohol and different things like that. Overexercising, that was a big one for me. I would overexercise, I was controlling my life and causing issues.

With me actually being able to be places on time, you know, is ridiculous. So addiction is the next one. All right.

Heaviness, depression or extreme, extreme tiredness. So there’s times when that you’re feeling so stuck in a feeling of heaviness, that even if you want to do something, the heaviness might feel like you’re being held down or your body may feel like life was just sucked right out of it. And again, these are clues.

This doesn’t mean that for sure you have spiritual warfare going on, but it’s a good clue to dig deeper, right? Next one, chronic fear. There’s a healthy fear that keeps us safe from a situation that could harm us.

And then there’s an unhealthy fear that can paralyze us from doing something. So if you’re experiencing fear, that’s preventing you from doing something that you should be doing or would like to do, you need to examine that, write that down. The inability to change.

So if therapy, medication, self-help, prayer, nothing works no matter how hard you’re trying and you can’t change, write that down. Repeated unhealthy patterns, right? I had that one.

I had a lot of these actually. So, but this is a big one. Continuing to be drawn back into the strongholds you thought you had broken free from.

And each time it seems to be getting worse. So for me, like toxic relationship addiction, it was also an unhealthy pattern, right? I would continue to go back.

And so if you have anything like a toxic relationships, if you go from one to the next, if you have a pattern like this person and then another version of that person, but a different person, that’s a pattern or gambling or whatever. It kind of, there’s like a little bit of an overlap between addiction and these patterns. But if you keep being drawn back to it and you think you’ve broken free and then you go back again to whatever it is, whether it was exactly the same or slightly different, but basically similar, that would be that.

Next one is chronic sickness or affliction. If you’re finding yourself chronically afflicted with physical issues, especially if the doctors cannot figure out what is going on, there could be demonic activity behind it. There may not be, there may be something, maybe they just can’t figure it out, but there may be.

And so I would write it down. Mental torment. If you’re experiencing extreme difficulty concentrating or are repeatedly distracted by thoughts popping up into your mind, confusion, we see that everywhere.

People are seriously confused. They don’t even know a woman from a man. Okay.

Accusatory voices in the mind, thoughts popping up telling you to do something you don’t want to do, or thoughts popping up telling you not to do something, that you want to do, becoming mentally fatigued or burnt out, limiting beliefs about yourself. All those can be forms of mental torment. The next one is emotional torment.

You may have intense feelings for no good reason of shame, guilt, insecurity, lack of peace, extreme frustration, reminders of traumas that pop up and you relive, unable to love, unable to make connections with people, rebellion and vengefulness. And so, you know, through Jesus, when we really release something, Jesus, we are freed from this. People say, oh, you never really quite get over this trauma, but that’s not true.

That’s not true. So if you have emotional torment, write it down, what is going on, when it started, you know, describe that. Next one is physical torment, like self-mutilation, attempts or thoughts of suicide, violent thoughts of abusing yourself or others.

Write that down. And if you have this one, if you have thoughts of abusing yourself or others, I highly, highly, highly recommend right now to stop what you’re doing and please seek out a good, reputable Christian counselor, because this, you need to get help if you’re truly thinking about abusing yourself or others, okay? Because if that’s happening, it’s important you see a Christian counselor and one that is spiritually rooted, right, in Christ, because they’re going to be able to help you.

If this is a spiritual thing, a regular therapist is not going to be able to get to the root cause of what is causing these violent thoughts, okay? The next one is spiritual torment. If you’re trying to read the Bible, worship, or pray, you may feel all of a sudden tired, or thoughts may pop up to distract you.

Confusion about your purpose, a lack of passion spiritually, unable to experience joy, unable to connect to God, irritated, or annoyed by someone anointed with the Holy Spirit. These are all examples of spiritual torment. So I would write down whatever is coming up for you with this one.

The next one is compulsive thoughts or behaviors. You don’t know why you thought, said, or did something. It was almost like you could not control yourself, and possibly you repented right after asking for forgiveness.

The next one is disruptive sleep. It’s unrelated to expected disruptions like illness, or menopause, like hot flashes, and things like that, or sounds that naturally wake us up. Not like that, but like you just have a disruptive sleep, like the enemy is stealing your ability to sleep at night.

And that happens for people. It really does. And so you’re going to want to be mindful of that and write it down if you have unexplainable disruptive sleep patterns going on.

And then the last one is really an obvious one, paranormal paranormal experiences. You’re actually seeing demonic entities, shadows, items moving unexplainably, voices or noises, nightmares, visitations, seeing visions of demonic faces, all that kind of stuff. And I mean, I had that going on.

I had a lot of the other stuff going on before. And finally, it was like, God just said, here you go. I’m going to show you what you’re, what you’re like ignoring, right?

Because I didn’t have a good awareness about all the other things. I knew things were going on, but I dismissed, I dismissed and I dismissed all these things. And then God opened my eyes and said, okay, I’m going to let you see what’s really going on.

And so I actually had this one, the paranormal paranormal experiences, actually seeing these things. And so that will scare the rebellion right out of you. And so hopefully you’re not to that point.

But there’s a lot here, a lot of clues. And so again, take a lot of time here to really go through and you can replay. If I was talking too fast, replay for examples or something, Holy Spirit lays something on you.

Write it down. Okay, so I know that was heavy, but it’s going to get more. We’re actually we’re going deep and we’ll go even deeper normally if we were doing coaching sessions.

But it’s important that we do these deep dives into what is going on. That’s how you’re going to overcome. If you have no idea what is going on, you know, it’s going to be harder for you to overcome, to renew your mind.

So you want to be mindful. It’s very important to be mindful of yourself and understand what is going on. So the takeaways for this chapter, chapter three, what do we know about the demonic or this?

First question, what was the takeaway from this chapter that spoke to you the most? And remember, this includes the last episode because we had part one and this is part two of this chapter. The next question, why do you think this takeaway spoke to you more than any other?

And number three, what other takeaways spoke to you in this chapter? And again, all these questions, they do have a purpose and we’ll be revisiting these as we continue to build and working towards a battle plan. So make sure you’re pausing and taking your time to answer them.

Hey friends, that’s a wrap of today’s Hidden Battles Podcast. A transcript for this week’s podcast and my memoir are available for a free download on my website at GodDesign.me or check out some of my other books that you may find helpful. If you liked this episode, please share it with others.

Hidden Battles, revealing what the enemy does not want you to know. Never stop praying, never give up and I’ll see you next week.”