Spiritual victory followed by depression

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jane Smith on August 15, 2011 at 12:45pm

Hi Nancy,

There is a spiritual warfare that constantly goes on for our souls. As believers, Satan will attack us til the day we die and it only gets worse the longer we are in Christ. But the good news is, God will always make a way of escape. Every time we grow in the Lord or witness to others etc., don't be surprised if you are attacked. Depression is just one type of attack from the enemy., but you don't have to entertain depression. It can not latch onto you unless you entertain it. When the ugly spirit of depression comes your way, put on the Word of God ( God's many promises), think on things that are pure, lovely and of a good report, bless and help others and you will find that depression has lost it's power over you. 

 

Now what most ppl do when depression comes along is to put on their best pajamas, crawl into bed and feed into it. That is a prescription for failure. I tell ppl all the time that depression slides off me like water off a duck's back. It has lost it's power over me. For the many yrs that I have been in Christ, I have not had a single day of depression. I would never even dream of taking anti-depressants or something like that. I'm trying to tell you that God's Word is so powerful, if used as a shield against depression, depression has to go!

 

When I tell ppl that depression is defeated in my life, they most often do not believe me. Let me say this clearly, I am not saying that depressing thigs do not happen to me. In fact, depressing things happen to me all the time. But it is not my depression- it belongs to those around me who do not know how to handle their problems.

 

Ppl tell me things like it is not normal not to have depression- everyone has depression. But I am here to say, no everyone does not have depression. We have what we choose to have. Surprisingly, the ppl who disagree with me about this the most, are the ones who claim to be believers. But I'll say it again- I am a redeemed, spirit-filled child of God and depression can not touch me. Am I anyone special? No, not at all. I just believe the Word and do it and depression has to go!

 

Again, if a person wants depression and gives into it, one will have depression. But if a believer stands up to it in the power of God, depression has no power and must leave.

'

Permalink Reply by Grace by the Lake on August 15, 2011 at 1:32pm

my dear sister in Christ , Jane. Thankyou for your wise comment. I believe I know why this has jappened. My pastor and I prayed about it just yesterday. I believe all you say because I know it is truth. A few weeks ago I put my hand on a depression sufferer. Who has been on medication for thirty years and I told her she will be heasled in Jesus Name. I don't think the enemy liked that because for the first time in 3 and a half years I was struck with depression for two weeks. Yes I have had a few incidebts of depression for maybe half a day. A few times since but since try. This lady is a believer for many many years and I know God wants her freed of thisbut cannot seem to convince her that We are given the authority to OVERCOME. I have been great agasin since praying with my pastor. In fact the Lord has taken this incident and used it for the good. He has made clear my path! PRAISE GOD!:D

Permalink Reply by Amanda on January 26, 2012 at 9:00am

Nancy, I see divine healing differently from you. You say God healed you of depression and yet you still have bouts of it. The following article outlines what is divine healing to me and if you disagree with my belief about divine healing and instant healing that is OK. Peace to you.

From the Fourfold Gospel: http://www.cmalliance.org/resources/archives/downloads/simpson/the-...

By Rev. A.B. Simpson

CHRIST OUR HEALER.

"Himself took our infirmities and bare our sickness." Matt. viii. 17. "Jesus Christ the
same yesterday, to-day and forever." Heb. xiii. 8. 
I. WHAT DIVINE HEALING IS NOT.
We will look at its negative side first. Wherever good is to be found a counterfeit of it
also will soon appear. Any valuable coin is always imitated, and the great forger has been
at work on this also. It is particularly necessary with this precious truth to guard against
error.

 1. Divine healing is not medical healing.. It does not come to us through medicines,
nor is it God's especial blessing on remedies and means. It is the direct power of
the Almighty hand of God Himself. "HIMSELF took our infirmities," and He is
able to carry them without man's help.

 

We have nothing to say against the use of
remedies so far as those are concerned who are not ready to trust their bodies fully
to the Lord. For them it is well enough to use all the help that nature and science
can give, and we cheerfully admit that their remedies have some value as far as
they go. There is some power in man's attempts to stop the tides of evil that sweep
over a suffering world. But there comes a point in all efforts when we have to say,
"Thus far shalt thou go and no further." Yet no one ought rashly to give up these
human helps until they have got a better one. Unless they have been led to trust
Christ entirely for something higher and stronger than their natural life, they had
better stick to natural remedies. They need to be sure that God's Word distinctly
presents healing for disease, and does it as definitely as it does forgiveness of sin.

2. Divine healing is not metaphysical healing. It is not a system of rationalism,
which is taking on so many forms in the world today, like the chameleon,
assuming the hue of the surrounding foliage, according to the class of people it
comes in contact with. What is commonly known as mind cure or Christian
Science, is one of the most familiar forms of metaphysical healing.

 

In Chicago
they call it the Science of Life, but it is practically the same thing. It puts
knowledge and intellect, or the mind of man in the place of God. It is not healing
by remedies, but by mental force. It is a system of false philosophy and a
skeptical theology; a philosophy that is absurd and misleading, and a theology
which is atheistic and infidel. The basis of it is, that the material world is not real.
What seem to be facts are simply ideas. This church is only a circular idea in my
brain, and you chance to have the same idea in yours, and so we call it a church;
but it is not, it is only an idea. As you sit there before me you are not there in
tangible form, but I have an idea of you in my brain, as sitting there. I am not here
either in any physical sense, but I, too, am an idea lodged in your mind. So the
teachers of this error go on to say that there is no body. Disease, therefore, is not
real because it has no basis to work on. If you accept this philosophy, the bottom
will drop out of all disease. If the idea of sickness has gone from your mind, the
trouble has gone.

 

This is a frank, candid statement of the principles of this theory.
It has captivated hundreds of thousands of people in this country and hundreds of
thousands of dollars have been made out of it. It is the old philosophy of Hume
revived again. The Bible is treated by these teachers in the same way as the body.
It is a beautiful system of ideas, but they are only ideas. Genesis is a beautiful
story of creation, but it is only an allegory. The New Testament contains a
charming picture of Jesus Christ, but it, too, has no foundation in fact. It is the old
errors that the Apostle John wrote strongly against. "Every spirit that confesseth
not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God; and this is that spirit of
Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it
in the world."

 

This philosophy denies that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. It
denies the reality of Christ's body; therefore, it is anti-Christian in its teaching.
This is not Divine healing. There is no fellowship between the two. It is one of the
delusions of science, falsely so called. It would undermine Christianity. Some of
us have despised it so much that perhaps we have not guarded others against it as
we should. We have felt it was so silly there could be no harm in it; but we forget
how silly human nature is. The apostle tells us the wise in this world are fools
with God. "He taketh the wise in their own craftiness." How truly this has been
fulfilled in the case of New England! That land of colleges, the seat of American
intelligence and culture, has given birth to this monstrosity. It is the most fatal
infidelity. It does away entirely with the atonement, for as there is no sin there can
be no redemption. I would rather be sick all my life with every form of physical
torment, than be healed by such a lie.

3. Divine healing is not magnetic healing. It is not a mysterious current which flows
into one body from another. It is a serious question whether there is such a force
in nature as animal magnetism, and whether what this seems to be, is not rather an
influence to which one person's mind is subject from causes within itself. Whether
this is so or not, the thought or claim of such an influence is repudiated by all who
act as true ministers of Divine healing. Such a one is most anxious to keep his
own personality out of the consciousness of the sufferer, and hold the eye of the
invalid only on Christ, that he may take his healing from Him. There is nothing to
be so much feared in this work as becoming the object of attention. It is heart to
heart, and soul to soul contact with the living Christ, and with Him alone, that will
accomplish the result.

4. Divine healing is not spiritualism. It cannot be denied that Satan has a certain
power over the human body. Certainly he must have if he is able to possess it with
disease. And, if he has power to inflict ill health upon the body, I see no reason
why he should not, if he please, open the back door and get out and leave the
body well. If Satan had power to bind a woman in Christ's time for eighteen years,
he had power to unbind her just as quickly. If sickness was his work then, it must
surely be the same now. If he can use some persons better if they are strong and
well, he will do so. Other instruments he can use better in weakness and pain. We
cannot but notice the strange persistency with which people of all ages have
resorted to evil power, either to appease them or enlist their help. The custom is as
old as the earliest races. We find it with the wild Indian in the forest, and the
equally savage African. Particularly have these wild incantations been performed
for the healing of sickness, and it is said that many of them have actually resulted
in the removal of the disease.

 

There can be no question that great multitudes of
spiritualistic phenomena are real. They give positive evidence of the reality of evil
spirits, and they are proofs of God's terrible forewarning, that in the last days the
spirits of devils shall be upon the earth working miracles, so that, if possible, they
shall deceive the very elect. God's true child will not be deluded by them. If you
are deceived about this thing, look out! You may not be God's true child. I warn
you as you value your true welfare, avoid this seductive snare. You will find in it
some reality, but it is a dangerous power and it will submerge your Christian faith
beneath its hideous waves.

5. Divine healing is not prayer cure. There are many Christians who greatly desire
others to pray for them. If they can secure a certain quantity of prayer there will
come a corresponding influence for good upon them, and if all the Christians in
the world were to pray for them, they would expect to be healed. There is a
general notion that there is a great deal of power in prayer which must have an
effect if it can be concentrated. And if enough of it could be obtained, it would
remove mountains and perhaps be able to break down God's stubborn will. This is
practically what this view teaches. There is no power in prayer unless it is the
prayer of God Himself. Unless you are in contact with Christ the living Healer,
there is no healing. Christ's healing is by His own Divine touch. It is not prayer
cure, but Christ-healing.

6. Divine healing is not faith cure. The term gives a wrong impression, and I am
glad it has been discarded. There is danger of getting one's mind so concentrated
on faith that it may come between the soul and God. You might as well expect
your faith to heal you, as to attempt to drink from the handle of the chain pump
with which you get fresh water, or to eat the tray upon which your dinner is
brought. If you get to looking at your faith, you will lose the faith itself. It is God
who heals always. The less we dwell on the prayers, the faith, or any of the means
through which it comes, the more likely we will be to receive the blessing.

7. Divine healing is not will power. No person can grapple with his own
helplessness and turn it over into strength. It is a principle of mechanics that no
body can move itself. There must be some power outside of itself to do this.
Archimedes said he would be able to pry up the world if he could get some power
outside of it to operate on it; but he could not do it from the inside. If man is
down, all the power in his own soul will not avail to lift him up. The trouble too
often is in his will. He tries to take hold of himself and lift himself up. He must
have some power outside of himself to lift him, or he will remain down. The will
must be yielded up to Christ, and then He will work in us to will and do of His
good pleasure. Then the first thought will be-how easy, how delightfully simple it
is to receive the power from Him which we need. It is only touching God's hand
and receiving strength from His life.

8. Divine healing is not defiance of God's will. It is not saying, "I will have this
blessing whether He wills it or not." It is seeing that in having it we have His
highest purpose for us. We will not trust for physical healing till we know it is
God's will for us, then we can say, "I will it, because He wills it."

9. Neither is it physical immortality, but it is fullness of life until the life work is
done, and then receiving our complete resurrection life at the coming of Christ.
10. Divine healing is not a mercenary medical profession that men adopt as they
would adopt a trade or profession in order to make something out of it. If you find
the mercenary idea appearing in it for a moment, discountenance and repudiate it.
All the gifts of God are as free as the blood of Calvary.

 

II. WHAT DIVINE HEALING IS.
1. It is the supernatural Divine power of God infused into human bodies, renewing
their strength and replacing the weakness of suffering human frames by the life
and power of God. It is a touch of the Divine omnipotence, and nothing short of
it. It is the same power that raised Jairus' daughter from the dead or converted
your soul. Is it strange that God should show such power? More power is required
to regenerate a lost soul than to raise the dead. God could shiver the sepulchre and
bring out the forms of those who have laid there for years with less expenditure of
power than it costs Him to redeem one soul, and keep His saints steadfast unto the
end.

2. It is founded, not on the reasoning of man, or the testimony of those who have
been healed, but on the Word of God alone. All the testimony that could be
gathered from the whole universe would not establish the truth of such a doctrine,
if it is not to be found in the Scriptures. All the deductions of the human intellect
are worthless if they are not rooted there. This truth rests on God's eternal Word,
or it is merely human.

3. It ever recognizes the will of God, and bows to that in profound submission. A
Christian who is looking for Divine healing will wait till he knows the will of
God, and having learned that, he will claim it without wavering. If a sufferer is
convinced that the work God gave him to do is done, and that now he is called
home, then he should acquiesce in that will and lie down in those blessed arms
and rest. If that conviction has come to any of you, dear friends, I would not dare
to shake you out of it, if you have been led into it by God. My only thought would
be to sweetly smooth your last pillow, and let you depart in peace. If, however,
you think your work is not done, if you have not clear light from God that this is
so, if there is a true and submissive desire in your heart to live and finish your
course with joy, then He who said nearly two thousand years ago, "Ought not this
woman to be loosed from this infirmity?" is the same to-day as He was then. He is
saying to you in the midst of your weakness, "Ought you not to be made well?"
Surely that should be enough.

It may be, however, that your sickness has been allowed to come as a discipline.
You may have been holding back part of the full testimony or service Christ has
called you to. I am afraid, then, you cannot be healed till that difficulty is made
right. You may be in some wrong and crooked attitude. He probably will not
restore you till that is adjusted. He may have called you to some service and you
are holding back. There will not be healing for the body till you have yielded at
this point. There are hundreds of meanings in the sicknesses that are allowed to
come upon God's dear children, and He will show you what His voice is for you.
"For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a
vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon me in slumberings upon the bed,
then He openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, that He may
withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man. He keepeth back his
soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword. He is chastened also
with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain; so that
his life abhoreth bread, and his soul dainty meat. His flesh is consumed away, that
it cannot be seen; and his bones that were not seen, stick out. Yea, his soul
draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers. If there be a messenger
with him, and interpreter, one among a thousand, to show unto man his
uprightness, then he is gracious unto him, and saith, 'Deliver him from going
down to the pit: I have found a ransom. His flesh shall be fresher than a child's; he
shall return to the days of his youth." That is the meaning of many of God's
chastenings. There is much that He would say to men through His dealings with
their bodies, and it is necessary to get their full meaning into the soul before
Divine healing can be received, and kept after it has been received. It is not a cast-
iron patent that works inexorably in one way always; it requires a walk that is
very close with God. When the soul is thus walking in harmony and obedience to
Him, the life of God can fully flow into the body. Thank God, we cannot have it
and have the devil, too.

4. Divine healing is part of the redemption work of Jesus Christ. It is one of the
things He came to bring. Its foundation stone is the cross of Calvary. "He
redeemeth thy life from destruction." "Deliver him from going down to death, I
have found a ransom." Surely that healing comes from Himself alone. "By His
stripes we are healed." That is the redemption work of Christ. You have a right to
it, beloved, for His body bore all the liability of your body on the cross. Take it
and love Him better, because it came from His stripes. I love to think of that word
as being in the singular number, stripe. That is the Greek meaning. His body was
so beaten that it was all one stripe. There was not an inch of His flesh but was
lacerated for us. There is not a fibre of your body but Christ has suffered there to
redeem it.

5. Divine healing comes to us through the life of Jesus Christ, who rose from the
dead in His own body. He has gone up to heaven with His living body. You can
see Him there this morning, with hands and feet of living flesh and bones, which
you could handle. He could sit with you at the table and eat today as He did of
old. He is no shadowy cloud-like form, but He has flesh and bones as we have.
That is our Christ, a living physical Christ, and He is able and willing to share His
physical life with you, by breathing into you His strength. We are healed by the
life of Christ in our body. It is a tender union with Him; nearer than the bond of
connubial oneness; so near that the very life of His veins is transfused into yours.
That is Divine healing.

6. It is the work of the Holy Spirit, quickening the body. When Christ healed the
sick while He was upon earth, it was not by the Deity that dwelt in His humanity.
He said, "If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God is
come unto you." Jesus healed by the Holy Ghost. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me, because He hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor, to heal the
broken hearts." The Holy Ghost is the agent, then, by which this great power is
wrought. Especially should we expect to see His working in these days, because
they are the days of His own Dispensation, the days in which it has been
prophesied that there shall be signs and wonders. How did Samson receive his
strength? When the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. Then he was able to hurl
the temple into ruins and their god Dagon with it. The Spirit of God was in his
flesh. So when this electric fire is running through our frame, it brings healing and
strength to every fibre.

7. Divine healing comes by the grace of God, not through the work of man. It cannot
be bought, neither can it be worked for. We cannot help God out in it. We must
take it as a gift. It comes to us as pardon does, a free gift from Him.

8. It comes to us by faith. It is not the faith that heals. God heals, but faith receives
it. We believe that God is healing before any evidence is given. It is to be believed
as a present reality, and then ventured on. We are to act as if it were already true.
God wants us to lean on Him, and trust Him, and then rejoice and praise Him for
what He has given, with no doubt or fear.

9. Divine healing is in accordance with all he facts of Church history. From the time
of Irenaeus down to the present century there have been repeated examples of it.
It is a long array, and great multitudes of healed ones proclaim with one voice:
"Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever." All down through the
middle ages the pure Church believed this truth and taught it. The Waldenses held
it as an article of their faith. The times of the early Reformers are full of it. The
lives of Luther and Baxter, and Fox and Whitfield, and John Wesley, give clear
and convincing testimony that they believed this truth. In later times the examples
of it are numerous. Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, England and her
colonies, and the mission fields of the world, have many witnesses to the healing
power of Jesus. Our own land, and even our own city, are full of it. You have
many witnesses to it here in your midst. You know them, and how some of them
have stood the test of publicity and of years. They are not obscure cases. Many of
them are men and women who have stood in the very front of Christian work.
There is every kind of character and intelligence and temperament and disposition
among them. There are children among them, as well as old men. Some of them
have had lofty intellects, but they have been transformed into simple children.
There are all classes of disease among them-from the terrible cancer to the most
disordered of nervous organisms. And He has healed them all.

10. Divine healing is one of the signs of the age. It is the forerunner of Christ's
coming. It is God's answer to the infidelity of today. Man may try to reason it
down with the force of his intellect. God meets it with this unanswerable proof of
His power.

Permalink Reply by Leonard T on January 26, 2012 at 9:10am

Amanda,

 

You posted one I cannot argue with, that is and stay employed .... :-)

 

Lord Bless,

LT

Permalink Reply by Amanda on January 26, 2012 at 9:12am

It is the Truth. Faith does not heal; Jesus is the Healer. We receive the healing by faith.

Permalink Reply by Leonard T on January 26, 2012 at 9:14am

Amen and Amen!!!

Permalink Reply by Carla on January 26, 2012 at 12:54pm

Amanda,

 

I love this...  Faith does not heal, Jesus is the Healer.  We receive the healing by faith.

AMEN.

Permalink Reply by Amanda on January 26, 2012 at 1:34pm

I've been listening :)

Permalink Reply by Amanda on January 26, 2012 at 10:31am

Nancy, I know you have many struggles and you also have deep faith and I know God sees you struggling everyday and is right there with you. I am not your enemy. I may not be where you are in the faith. But I believe Jesus is with me even in my depression and even on the day when I tried to take my life, He was there in the room with me.

Yes, satan causes disease and illness but he can work signs and wonders, too, and that means he likely can heal people or at least deceive them into thinking they are well.

I only know what my experience is. I don't know what your experience is or any other's. I know that depression is not always caused by satan. I know that God sometimes allows people to have illness as disciplinary action, just as the article I posted outlines. I know people can be very evil all on their own without any help from fallen angels or devils or satan. We suffer for what people choose to do to us, whether it's rape or abuse or neglect or whatever bad things can be done to us.

Here is a little more of the same article and I believe Jesus is in this with me. So think what you choose of me and judge me as you will. I am doing the best I can with what I know and God is helping me day by day but I am getting a lot of opposition, too, and it makes me sink lower and lower.

Healing can take time for some people but time does not heal. Jesus heals.

III. HOW IS JESUS OUR HEALER.
1. Because He has bought healing for us with His stripes. It is a part of His
purchased redemption on Calvary. "Surely, He hath borne our sicknesses and
carried our pains."

2. Because it is in His risen life in us. We have healing not only from Jesus, but in
Jesus. It is in His living body, and we receive it as we abide in Him and keep it
only as we abide in Him.

3. Because He enables us to take it by becoming our power to believe. He gives the
faith to trust Him if we will receive it. We have not to climb the heights to find
Him, but He comes down to our helplessness and becomes our trust as well as our
healing.

 

A Chinaman was once telling the difference between Christ and
Confucius and Buddha. He said: "I was down in a deep pit, half sunk in the mire
and was crying for some one to help me out. As I looked up I saw a venerable,
grey-haired man looking down at me. His countenance bore the marks of his pure
and holy spirit. 'My son,' he said, 'this is a dreadful place.' 'Yes,' I said, 'I fell into
it. Can't you help me out?' 'My son,' he said, 'I am Confucius. If you had read my
books and followed what they taught, you never would have been here.' 'Yes,
father,' I said, 'but can't you help me out?' As I looked up he was gone.

 

Soon I saw  another form approaching, and another man bent over me, this time

with closed eyes and folded arms. He seemed to be looking into some far-off, distant place.
'My son,' he said, 'just close your eyes and fold your arms and forget all about
yourself. Get into a state of perfect rest. Don't think about anything that could
disturb. Get so still that nothing can move you. Then, my child, you will be in
such delicious rest as I am. 'Yes, father,' I answered, 'I'll do that when I am above
ground. Can't you help me out?' But Buddha, too, was gone.

 

I was just beginning  to sink into despair when I saw another figure above me, different from the others.  He was very simple, and looked just like the rest of us, but there

were the marks of suffering in His face. I cried out to Him: 'Oh, Father, can you help me?'

'My  child,' He said, 'what is the matter?' Before I could answer Him, He was down in
the mire by my side; He folded His arms about me and lifted me up, and then He
fed and rested me. When I was well, He did not say, 'Now, don't do that again,'
but He said, 'We will walk on together now;' and we have been walking together
until this day."

That's what Jesus Christ will do for you, beloved! He comes down to you where you are.
He becomes your trust within you, and then you go on together until the resurrection light
and glory of the coming age bursts in upon you. May God help us all to receive Him thus
fully for His own name's sake! Amen. (A.B. Simpson)

 

 

Permalink Reply by Amanda on January 26, 2012 at 10:42am

I just wanted to add that I am trying to trust in Jesus. It's taking a little time. I have trusted Him as my Savior. I still have a ways to go in learning to trust Him more. Can't you bear this burden with me, not against me? Why do I have to beg? There are many on the site having trouble trusting Jesus, not only me. Two have left the site in the past two days...my dear friends...I love them and need them and they are hurt and it is like missing members from the Body of Christ and this should not be.

Permalink Reply by Amanda on January 27, 2012 at 1:08pm

Nancy, I don't want you to leave the site. I am not smiling. You have many friends here and it hurts others to leave the site.

I was trying to share my feelings with you openly and honestly without attacking. I guess I failed. I was asking you to help me bear my burdens. I was sharing that others here have made me feel not so alone because they are going through many of the same struggles I am regarding their faith, trust in God, and depression and discouragement.

Please do not leave AAG.

I am sorry.

I truly was not picking on you.

I don't know how to make this better.

I give it to God.

Permalink Reply by Leonard T on January 27, 2012 at 1:43pm

Amanda and Nancy,

 

It is obvious, for whatever reason, that the two of you struggle to see eye-to-eye. It is best for the both of you at this point to take a time out and not engage each other or speak of each other for a while on AAG.

 

Nancy, I know you said you are leaving. I hope you do not, but respect your decision if you do. You can always leave the account inactive and pop in from time to time if life becomes busy.

 

I also am closing the forum again indefinitely.

 

Lord Bless,

LT

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