Grace and peace to the brethren in the Lord, and greetings to the unsaved.
Today, I was considering the revelation that Catherine Zeta-Jones, by her own admission, has been diagnosed as having Bipolar Disorder. This term has grown in popularity in the last decade. I had never heard of it until 1998, when a friend told me that her child had been diagnosed with it.Â
Since that time, another acquaintance of mine has expressed concern that she too, may be bipolar. I’ve always wondered what bipolar disorder was and why there seems to be an increase of it in the last ten years or so. But, before today, my curiosity was never enough that I took the time to research it.
Today, however, I went to the encyclopedia to look for a definition for bipolar disorder. First, I looked in the Encyclopedia Britannica, 1985 edition, and could not find it.  Then I looked in the Collier’s Encyclopedia, 1991 edition, and could not find it either.  Lastly, I went to the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition, which gave the following definition:
“Bipolar disorder n. (1980): Any of several psychological disorders of mood characterized usu. by alternating episodes of depression and mania – called also manic depression, manic-depressive illness.â€
In other words, serious mood swings.  Webster’s also gave this definition for bipolar:
“bipolar adj. (1810) 1: having or marked by two mutually repellent forces or diametrically opposed natures or views.â€
This definition is highly enlightening and suggestive of the real cause of bipolar disorder. The excessive mood swings that characterize this disorder are caused by two mutually repellent forces in one person. I could stop writing now, because it is obvious where I am going with this. But I won’t.
Because I had heard somewhere that bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are the same, I decided to test this contention by looking up the definition for schizophrenia in the encyclopedia to see if it matched the dictionary’s definition for bipolar disorder. I was not disappointed. Â
Encyclopedia Britannica says that schizophrenia literally means, “splitting of the mind.â€Â Do you see the similarities? If you split something, like a mind, the result will be two halves or two minds, yet, in one person.  Bi-polar literally means “two poles,” yet, in one person.  They are the same thing.
Now, two poles are not necessarily bad.  A car battery has a positive and a negative pole, but it doesn’t explode when you turn the key.  The earth has two poles: the north and the south, yet here we are.  That the two forces are mutually repellent and diametrically opposed is what makes bipolar disorder problematic. That means they don’t get along. They are contrary to one another.
A car battery functions because the two poles are separate.  The earth has not exploded, because its two poles are separate.  Perfectly normally people are often either happy or sad.  But when the two poles, or in this case, minds, are mutually repellent and are trying to come together in one person, that is a recipe for disaster.  It’s like trying to touch the same poles of two magnets together.  You can’t do it.  They will fight each other.
I think the reason I could not find bipolar in the encyclopedia is because it is the same as schizophrenia. It has just been given a kinder, gentler name, a politically correct name. All reference to the mind have been taken out so as not to offend anyone.  After all, we don’t want to offend a schizophrenic by telling him he is a schizophrenic, because he would know that he had a problem.  And If he knew that he had a problem, then he might seek help. And we don’t want that, now do we?Â
That’s the whole idea behind political correctness. Being careful not to call something what it is.  If we don’t know that something is broken, we won’t try to fix it.
We do the same thing with sin. Â We don’t like to call sin what it is: sin. Â Because if people believed in sin and the consequences of sin, they might seek help so that they could stop sinning, and we don’t want them to do that, now do we? Â
So, we come up with the name bipolar, because it sounds less harsh.  It’s like calling a drunk an alcoholic.  It makes us feel better.  I could probably easily find bipolar in a modern encyclopedia because I would bet they are all politically correct. They would probably even have the term, politically correct, which, by the way, I was not able to find in my encyclopedias.
The contention that modern dictionaries and encyclopedias are politically correct is supported by the following example. Webster’s dictionary usually lists the origins and meanings for words made of foreign roots, so you will know the origin for such words.  If you look up the word, schadenfreude, for example, Webster’s will tell you that it is made up of two German words: schaden meaning “damage†and freude meaning “joy.â€Â The word literally means “to have joy at someone else’s troubles.â€
Though Webster’s lists the origins and meanings of many words made up of foreign roots, it doesn’t do this with the word schizophrenia. If you look up the word schizophrenia, Webster’s will not list the root words and their meanings, but will merely give you the definition for the word.  If you look up the root schizo-, however, Webster’s will tell you that it is a Greek word meaning “to split,†and if you look up the root –phrenia, Webster’s will tell you that it is a Greek word meaning “mind.† The word schizophrenia literally means “split mind.”
Webster’s Dictionary Eleventh Edition is also politically correct with the word entertain.  If you look up the word entertain, Webster’s will tell you that it is derived from the French word entretenir, which Webster’s says is formed from the words entre + tenir. Interestingly, Webster’s says that tenir means “to hold,†but it doesn’t tell us what entre means.  But if you go to Webster’s Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language, International Edition, Vol. 1, (p. 291 “Entertain”) you will learn that the word tenir means “to hold or maintain.”  To entertain literally means “to hold between or suspend.” Click here for the spiritual significance of this word. Â
Why doesn’t Webster’s list the meanings of the two roots that make up the word schizophrenia? Could it be because the politically correct powers-that-be do not want you to know that schizophrenia literally means, “split mind?† You bet your boots it is. Because if you knew that schizophrenia meant “split mind,” then you would know that you had a problem. And if you knew that you had a problem, then you might seek help.  And we wouldn’t want that, now would we?
Think about it. If someone went up to a Bible-believing Christian and said that they had been told that they have a split mind, then the Bible-believing Christian might remember that the Bible says,
“a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways†(James 1:8).
Then the Christian might tell the person that
“God has not given us the Spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind (READ whole mind)†(2 Timothy 1:7).
Then the person would realize that his problem was spiritual, not mental.  Then, with his eyes wide open, the person might ask the Christian, “What Sir, shall I do?† Then the Christian might say, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.â€Â And then the person might get down on his knees then and there and accept the Lord Jesus as his Saviour, and he would then be delivered from the DEMONIC ACTIVITY that is causing his problems.
Then the person, set free and wanting to let somebody know about it, might go and tell someone else he knows that is suffering from the same thing, and then that person might accept Jesus and be set free.  And then that person goes and tells somebody else, who tells somebody else, who tells somebody else, until there are no more bipolars or schizophrenics. How would the psychologists and psychiatrists make a living? They might starve to death!  And we wouldn’t want that to happen, now would we?
So they come up with a kindler, gentler name for it, and say, “Take this pill and call me in the morning…and the morning after that…and the morning after that…And so we follow the politically correct spin-doctors who make us feel better about ourselves instead of telling us that something is broken so that we can get it fixed.  And we let them do it. For shame!
Did you know that doctors don’t have a clue what causes bipolar disorder? Â Did you know that according to doctors, bipolar disorder (schizophrenia) is not a disease, but a syndrome? Why, then, don’t they call it bipolar syndrome? Â Why, because you might look in the dictionary and find out that a syndrome means,
“a group of signs and symptoms that occur together and characterize a particular abnormality or condition” (Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition).
That means that a syndrome is not a problem, but a sign that there is a problem. Â So, they call it a disorder, meaning that something is “not in order,” or out of whack. Â You already know that!
They’re being politically correct again. Â They don’t want you to know that something is broken, and they can’t tell you why, because if you knew that something were broken, and that they couldn’t tell you why, then you might seek help elsewhere, perhaps even from Jesus.Â
And if you sought help from Jesus, then you would find it. Â And when you found it, then you would get better. Â And when you got better, then you might tell somebody. Â And we surely wouldn’t want that, now would we?
Schizophrenia. Bipolar. Six of one, half-dozen of the next.  Both mean that something is broken that needs fixing.  Both mean that a person does not have a whole mind. Jesus says he can make you whole. If you, like Catherine Zeta-Jones, have been told or suspect that you are bipolar or schizophrenic, or know someone who is, know that Jesus Christ can make you whole, if you would only ask Him.  Why don’t you give him a try?
If you want to be whole, click here.
By the way, Bipolar Disorder is often a result of a generational curse and even affects many Christians and their families. Â Read here about generational curses and how to get free from them.
We have produced a companion audio podcast of this teaching which is available for free at the iTunes Store.  You can get it by clicking here. For your convenience, it is also available below.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
As always, be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.
The Still ManÂ
I loved your article. I struggle with how many people believe everything western medicine throws out there. In the bible an epileptic was brought to Jesus for healing, but did Jesus heal him? No, He cast the demon out of him and then he was made whole. Western medicine is fueled by greed and the love of money, which is the root of all evil. The medical community looks for ways to come up with new terms so they can push drugs. ADD, ADHD, all this mental illness, it is all part of Satan’s plan to get people on drugs. When a child exhibits lack of focus, it is easier to throw them a pill then to look at the crap that is going into his little body and do something to give the child nutrition but that would require the parent to accept accountability for what they are feeding their child and we wouldn’t want to do that now, would we? After all if the FDA says it is safe it must be, right? It surely could not have anything to do with who knows who in Washington and what lobbyist has the most money, could it? Surely America wouldn’t have corruption like that, could we? Those who reject your opinion do so because they are typical Americans who need someone or something to blame for their problems so they don’t have to look at themselves. I struggled with depression for 10 years before bipolar was a word and I was delivered through prayer and the laying on of hands to break the generational curse that was passed down to me by my Mother, who if was still alive, would surely be given the diagnosis of bipolar disease. There is scientific proof that we have an ability and the power in our minds to chose what enters our brain but one must first accept that if they chose negativity it is their choice and they must take accountability for that choice. Sadly, many Americans are just truly not humble enough to do that. We live in a world that looks for a reason to not have to be humble or accountable for our choices. We live in the time of the great falling away where even people who profess to follow Christ will be unwilling to humble themselves enough to ask God if what you are saying could be true. This is evidenced by so many comments to your article. Such a sad sight to see so many being decieved and not living the abundant life Jesus died to bring us. In this life, yes, we will have troubles, but He said He would be with us. Why on earth a Christian would believe Jesus is not enough and turn to drugs just shows how far Christianity has fallen from the Gospel.
Absolutely, Kathleen! It is pride! I’ve been saying for years that if we would just humble ourselves and at least consider that the root of our problems could be sin, then we would take the next logical step and go to the Lord Jesus and confess our sin; and He would heal us. But as you say, we are so far down the road of apostasy that it doesn’t seem likely we would ever do that. America is just like Israel in this regard. And you are so right about Christians: we have fallen so far from the Gospel that there is no more fruit in our lives, especially faith. It is for this reason that there is such a sense of hopelessness in America. If the Church is powerless, then where are the unsaved to turn?
I praise God for your deliverance from mental illness, and I hope that someone else who is suffering will read your testimony and understand that I’m not making this stuff up. It is the Gospel truth. Jesus can heal anyone from mental illness if they would just humble themselves and confess their sins. If He did it for you, then He Thanks Kathleen for your encouraging testimony, and God bless!
I hope someone else did not address my topic as I skipped many of the comments. In regard to your negative comments about speaking in tongues, I have some experience with that. My own mother had a few nervous breakdowns in her life and during one of them she spoke in what I will call “devil tongues” . It was most certainly not from God because her countenance was evil. She was a Christian lady but had her problems. My own brother is bipolar. So I believe in the generational curse thing. What I must disagree with you on however is that all tongues are bad. I had what many call a second blessing with the experience of not being able to speak English for a time, holy laughter, and if any unbelievers were around it would appear I was drunk as they were accused on the day of Pentecost. It is also my belief that all do not experience what I did. But I have also experienced the gifts of faith, and healing. Since then I have occasionally had to fight off attacks of the devil. A preacher almost caused the breakup of my marriage because he believed as you, that all tongues are bad. And he had my in laws working against me. You like to quote the bible in your arguments. So what do you do with Paul declaring he spoke in tongues more than anybody? You must be spirit filled if you cast out demons. When did the gifts of the Spirit stop operating? Don’t pick out one gift to criticize. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. In these last days we need each other. Dave
Hi Dave, and thank you for your comment.
True, Paul said he spoke in tongues more than anybody; but he didn’t do it in church:
And we know that his testimony is true, because there is no record that Paul ever spoke in tongues; but he could preach all night (in fact, he did).
Paul didn’t have a problem with people speaking in tongues, but his point was that we shouldn’t do it in church, because speaking in a tongue that no one else understood would not be edifying, because no one (not even the speaker) would understand:
Paul said that even praying in tongues is not edifying, because even the person praying doesn’t understand what he said:
I’m not against tongues. I’m against the babble that is almost universally considered tongues. Before I got saved by the grace of God, I once belonged to a charismatic church that believed in the baptism of the holy ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues. They tried to teach me tongues, which consisted of saying the same thing over and over again very fast until you started babbling. I wouldn’t do it! The woman pastor told me in front of the entire congregation that I couldn’t speak in tongues because I was resisting the holy spirit. Even though I wasn’t saved, I realized right then and there that the tongues movement is about going along to get along, and ostracizing those who genuinely want to do the will of God, by labeling those who cannot speak in tongues as unsaved, and those who will not speak in tongues as rebels.
What gifts I possess I possess mightily; but the only gifts I have truly sought after are wisdom (because Solomon did) and love (because Jesus commanded us to love). And I’m very content with that.
God bless you, and keep the faith!
Thanks for your reply. I agree with you completely that trying to get everybody to speak in tongues results in a lot of babbling as not everybody is chosen by the Holy Spirit to be used in that gift. It is unfortunate that Satan has so divided the Church on that. I do believe that in the last days that there will be much more supernatural activity on both sides. Persecution on the Church will strengthen it. Peter just thought he was living in the last days on the day of Pentecost when he referred to Joel’s prophecy about the Spirit being poured out. So how much more should we who really are living in the last days expect to see much more than what they experienced back then.
Amen, Dave! Persecution will weed out the posers from those who truly want to do God’s will, and the true body of Christ will be strengthened through it. We shall do exploits, the Bible says.
Thank you for you words, I am a child of God. I have recently come back to the Lord. And I have been diagnosed with Bipolar I Disorder. A short while ago, I advised my pastor about it and he too states that my Lord and Savior could indeed heal me. And although I believe that he rose people from the grave I have yet to believe he could do the Same for me. Then I can across this article, and I believe this is confirmation… When God speaks, He speaks LOUD and CLEAR. Your words come from the heart and are unfiltered. So our politically correct society is not willing to accept it. I just turned 30 this month and have had a huge revelation, I let Him speak and He has turned my life around. Can you please pray for me, my mom and my children. I believe in the generational curses and I have laid hands on my womb to break them. My oldest has also been diagnosed with the same illness and he is only 12. I proclaim in Jesus name that we are healed. Because how dare we NOT believe that the same God that rose Lazerus from the grave, can’t heal our mind from this illness. I proclaim victory in Jesus name.
Your opinion, and others like yours, is the reason why so many people with mental illness pull away from Christianity and their church community. God’s greatest commandment is to love one another. Your words are cruel and hateful, and your attitude contributes to the stigma that makes life that much harder for those struggling with mental illness. It breaks my heart to once again have a brother in Christ use ignorant and twisted logic to denigrate people who already have a rough road to walk. I would wish on you the experience of watching a beloved and courageous child struggle with bipolar disorder and psychotic episodes, but that would be cruel and hateful on my part, and I strive to walk the path of Jesus’ love.
Mary, without even trying, you have actually illustrated my point. You see, it is the mental health profession that has historically denigrated those who are struggling with mental illness. It is the mental health profession that has been accused of falsely diagnosing people as being mentally ill solely because their behavior was considered outside the norm, resulting in them being branded and ostracized for life. It is the mental health profession that has used shock therapy, frontal lobotomies, and unnecessary drugs to “treat” those diagnosed with mental illness--many of them incorrectly--only to ruin many of them beyond repair. Yet no one--but no one--accuses the mental health profession of “contributing to the stigma” of mental illness. How can this be?
I say that mental illness may be spiritual and not physical, and people get offended. This, to me is evidence that I am correct, because, if I were wrong, you would just say so and write me off. That you cannot speaks volumes. By the way, I have watched a courageous child struggle with bipolar disorder as a teenager, and now watch that child struggle as an adult. That child also has no interest in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I have also watched another child struggle with epilepsy at four years and be incorrectly diagnosed as mentally retarded by a psychologist who said the child would never be normal. The psychologist never even considered the epilepsy drug that left the child almost in a catatonic state. I also watched the child’s pediatrician try to block the child from starting school until the child could pass an intelligence test, and when the child passed (because the child’s father took the child off the offending epilepsy medication temporarily), the pediatrician stated “why should [the child] start school before other children?” The same child was also illegally given a drug for psychosis by a nurse at the child’s quarterly EEG exam, while the father was out of the room, supposedly out of concern for the child’s well-being.
I know all about the stigma and the shame of mental illness, Mary, and I don’t like it at all. I also know that some mental health “professionals” don’t know squat about mental illness and have no interest in seeing their patients get well, because it is not in their best interest. I know far more about mental illness (real and imagined) than you think. I’ve also taken authority over mental illness in the name of Jesus, and I’ve seen what He can do. I cast the demon out of the epileptic child and the child (who is now almost twenty) has never had another seizure. That child also accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior at ten years of age. I have also had a relative tell me they suspect they may be bipolar, and I believe them, as all the signs are there. Coincidentally (or not), this relative also has no interest in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and gets noticeably offended when I bring up the subject.
You may not agree with my views on mental illness, but seeing it would cost absolutely nothing to at least consider it, who in their right mind (pun absolutely intended) would not?
Your servant,
Tony
You are the biggest asshole I ever came across. I have bipolar and I have mania. If you ever went through a mania you would realize you are a pompous no nothing dangerous thing.
You have no medical qualifications to open your mouth about a serious debilitating neurological disease.
By the way skitzophrenics are many times paranoid. Not the case with bipolar. Bipolar feels like the angriest you have ever been times 10. You don’t want to be around your loved ones. I have never seen a bipolar person in a catonic state yen institutions are filled with paranoid and catonic skitzophrenics who hear voices telling them to shoot bastards like you. God forgive your sorry ass.
You are the biggest asshole I ever came across. I have bipolar and I have mania. If you ever went through a mania you would realize you are a pompous no nothing dangerous thing.
You have no medical qualifications to open your mouth about a serious debilitating neurological disease.
By the way skitzophrenics are many times paranoid. Not the case with bipolar. Bipolar feels like the angriest you have ever been times 10. You don’t want to be around your loved ones. I have never seen a bipolar person in a catatonic state yet institutions are filled with paranoid and catatonic skitzophrenics who hear voices telling them to shoot bastards like you. God forgive your sorry ass.
Sister, don’t allow this world to blind you. I’m Jesus name I pray.
God bless you
P.S. In your post you very much come across saying that if a person is saved, they will basically be cured of this illness -- that Jesus will make them what you call “whole”. Being saved is not an instantaneous “calm, cured mind”. Peter believed and yet he denied Christ 3 times. How is that not double minded? He spoke out of 2 sides of his mouth -- praising Christ and then denying him. Was he demonically possessed or simply human? Yet He is saved. He is not damned. He already believed in Christ (believer) before he did these actions.
I hope you are not implying in a blink of an eye -- cured and gone forever demonic possession or oppression and that that is all bipolar or schznophrenia is because you sir then imply that people with those illnesses are unsaved which means essentially damned and you sir, very much, are wrong if that is what you think. What do you say to a person who knows Jesus -- who has actually seen Him and spoken to Him -- who has said to the believer “My grace is sufficient” -- a saved christian who has bipolar ism or schizophrenia? They exist.
The bible talks of Paul’s affliction and in another place in the new testament of a believer having a demon problem. The closer you get to God -- last I checked -- the more you are persecuted and the more you face the enemy. Satan wants to kill, and steal and destroy -- including your peace of mind. He doesn’t lay dormant. This is a continued battle of the mind. It does not get easier (look at Jesus’s disciples -- how many died gruesome, horrifying deaths?)
I have a problem with anyone trying to suggest that someone who deals with either illness you mentioned as being unsaved or not “whole”. We’re not whole on this earth until we are in heaven with our Lord. Everyone is a sinner and falls short of the glory of God. Last I checked, God is sharpening iron or transforming our minds. Not everyone has an overnight process and most people spend a life time growing in the Holy Spirit, transforming into something new, etc. No one is good, not even one. No one can come to the Father except through Him (Christ). The whole point of needing a savior is no one is whole and no one is good. All minds need transforming (renewal of the mind) -- it is in the bible. All people are to call their thoughts into obedience under Christ. All people are capable of having an unstable mind. Psalms talks about God helping us by calming the storm or our feet “standing on level ground”. A person is not demon possessed or lost to God or unsaved because they have “bi-polar-ism” or “schizophrenia”.
I hope anyone reading this site is not discouraged as a believer because of these posts or comments. Jesus loves you! Satan would use much of this article to convince you that you are damned or lost if you suffer any of these illness but it is simply not so. Even Jesus spoke to Satan and had to deal with temptations. Jesus spoke to demons and yet He is our savior. The spiritual realm is real and someone who is exposed to demons or etc. are not lost or unwhole. God may be testing people or bringing them closer to Him through everything and He takes these awful things Satan throws at us -- and turns it for good. Not all suffering is spiritual (physical, example) and some of it simply “is”. Jesus when He was on earth did not cure ever illness -- physical or otherwise. He did heal many people plagued by demons and saved people. He may allow bad things to happen but this same Lord says “vengeance is mine”. He will punish and judge the living and the dead so while we suffer now -- Christ also suffered -- one day all tears will be wiped away -- all suffering will be gone and we will live in heaven with Him (all who call on Christ as their savior and whom He has called as His own). Satan will be punished his part in our suffering. You are not lost if you do have a mental illness. If you are seeking answers and landed here -- please know Jesus is with you and loves you. Don’t loose hope!
If it’s all spiritually related, can you explain how and why the parasitic entity is affected by prescribed medications like lithium carbonate?
I’m curious if these drugs scare away the demon in some way?
Also, how can you take the words of a King James Bible so seriously without having done any research on the original preserved texts, in Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, or have you? If you have, you would know that much of what you read in a King James Bible is completely inaccurate… beginning at the first verse of the first chapter of the first book onward.
Are you aware the letter “J” wasn’t even invented until the 15th century?
How do you know when you pray to “Jesus Christ” you’re not just praying to a clever malevolent entity in disguise?
Did you know that Christmas has absolutely nothing to do with the birth of “Jesus” ? [He was born in the fall] So do you know what Christmas is actually based on? Where the “Santa” character came from, why he’s red and why parents wait in line to sit their child on the fiery-red hot creature?
Regarding Jesus not being born on Christmas, the Bible is very clear:
If some want to celebrate Christmas as the birth of the Lord Jesus, then let them. They could do a lot worse.
I’ve heard these arguments before, and I will hear them again. We are finite creatures, living in a world of seemingly infinite possibilities. It would be impractical to believe nothing; and it would be unscientific to believe everything. The logical and pragmatic thing to do, therefore, would be to put everything worth considering to the test, and go with what works. This, by the way, is exactly what the Bible admonishes us to do; and this is what I did.
The world accuses Christians of having “blind faith,” but the Lord Jesus never asked us to do this, because He understands human nature. “Give Jesus a try”: this is what I advise anyone to do who sincerely seeks to know the truth. And when you find the Truth, He will make you free.
You ignorant, ignorant person. I am a believer with bipolar. How dare you suggest I am possessed by the devil.
You can have bipolar and only experience mania. You don’t have to experience depression to be diagnosed with bipolar. So your whole double minded theory falls flat. Schizophrenia is not a splitting of the mind. It’s to do with psychotic thoughts such as hallucinations and delusions as well as a flat affect.
Get yourself an education, man, this is not cool.
Anyone who thinks that bipolar disorder can be magically cured by Jesus is suffering from religious mania. You’re not healed you’re just focusing your energy in a different way. People with mania always think they’ve found “the answer” but it’s really just a way of avoiding their problems and replacing them with new ones that are so elaborate and grandiose that they appear to be solutions until you’re literally hospitalized. P.S. Your perception of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia is stunningly inaccurate.
Jesus does not practice magic, Mark, Jesus heals. You should give Him a try. You won’t be sorry.
Nothing wrong with imaginary friends excluding demons and gods of course, Hang loose Jesus dude. Oh Yeah DSM now Categories Religion As a mental illness, finally some progress, amen.
The Holy Bible says this: “True religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless [orphans] and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27). In that the DSM condemns doing good to those who most need it, then if I had to choose between your sacred DSM and the Word of God, I think I’d go with the latter. Amen
TSM
I agree with your perception and greatly appreciate your boldness and writing this article! Having worked around Bioplar and Schizophrenia, it is definitely demonic possession. Unfortunately, people will perish for lack of knowledge and refusing to be deal with the illness spiritually.
Ephesians 6:12
11Put on the full armor of God, so that you can make your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore take up the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you will be able to stand your ground, and having done everything, to stand.…
Thank you Ruth. God bless you.
TSM
I…what can I say? As someone with bipolar who was saved by the Lord, I haven’t the faintest idea of what you’re going on about. As many have said before, schizophrenia and bipolar are two very different illnesses with very different symptoms that I’ve had the displeasure of either witnessing or having, myself.
I understand where you are coming from in reference to demonic attacks and mental illness, however I do not believe that is always the case. It may be for some people, but it also may be possible that others have this illness, as reflected in brain scans, simply to bring them closer to God. Perhaps those, like myself will always carry it with them, most likely learning lessons they wouldn’t have otherwise.
I do not intend to demean or belittle you, in fact I wish you peace and love. I simply think that one should take caution when the subject of serious illnesses like these are brought up.
If you understand where I’m coming from in reference to demonic attacks and mental illness, then you do have a slight idea what I’m going on about, though you don’t agree with all my assertions. And you have not demeaned or belittled me in the least; you have only stated your opinion, as I. God bless you!
Sir, if you don’t want to advertise your ignorance (lack of knowledge), don’t concoct explanations out of your own head based on the slightest information you did bother to obtain. Bipolar was previously called Manic Depression. It was never confused by professionals with schizophrenia. The symptoms of the two are very different. Political correctness had nothing to do with it. I am so sick of people with only a smattering of knowledge about a subject running off at the mouth like they’re an expert. If you’re not going to bother to truly educate yourself on a subject, especially one as serious and delicate as this, please keep your trap shut so you don’t harm someone through discouragement. Go look at some brain images of people with bipolar compared to normal brains. Are you going to cast their brains out? There are people who need deliverance, yes. But you remind me of the guy I knew who smashed his finger in the car door, then rebuked “the demon of infirmity”. What poppycock! The devil had nothing to do with the mass, force, and smashed nerves that caused his pain. You also remind me of my grandfather (whom I dearly loved, but who nevertheless was willfully ignorant), who believed that because there were earthworms in the cows’ watering tank, that was proof it rained earthworms, never mind that there were none on the ground! I beg you, have enough humility and kindness to remove your site until you’ve learned what you’re talking about. You may as well insist that no one has been to the moon and the earth is flat.
Remove my site? I shall do nothing of the kind. There are probably well over a million websites run by people whose opinions differ from yours. The way I see it, you had better either learn to live with that fact, or visit each one attempting to persuade them to take their sites down to suit you. If you choose the latter, you may consider starting immediately, as you have at least 999,999 sites to go, and you’re not getting any younger.
By switching the responsibility to me, you have avoided addressing the evidences I’ve mentioned which shouts that your assertions are wrong -- that of the amazing differences in brain scans between bipolar brains and normal brains, and the fact that by YOUR -- YOU -- “Still Man’s”, own logic, anyone with Alzheimer’s either isn’t a Christian, needs their mind renewed, or needs deliverance. Anyone knows that is patently absurd from the get-go, and you yourself surely realize that, yes, the brain does go haywire from dementia. By giving a “God bless you”, but avoiding reality, you come off as being “kind”. But you’re not being kind, because you won’t address these points which prove you are not accurate in your accusations, but leave these statements up here that cause harm to people who will continue to have the problem with the “mechanical” aspect of their brains. And I’m not interested in the hundreds of thousands of other sites, I’m talking about YOU, yet another self- appointed “teacher” I’ve encountered, who refuses to use his own line of reasoning to test his own assertions. I’ve discovered so many like yourself who get just enough facts to “prove” what they already believe, but not enough to be able to help the people they claim to care about. It is because your claims could really harm people that I addressed your position. If can can produce just one -- ONE -- Christian Alzheimer’s patient you’ve seen healed, I’ll reconsider what you have to say. Sir, you proved you don’t know how to research by basing your fallacious claim that bipolar and schizophrenia are the same thing on DICTIONARY definitions, not medical references, and your own short-sighted line of reasoning. All the people on here that have told you you’re wrong -- from fact, not conjecture, and you still leave up lies about the two diagnoses being the same thing. You may fool some people that you’re genuinely interested in the truth, but your stubborn refusal to acknowledge simple fact betrays you. Please, for the sake of those that hurt, shut down your pride long enough, and calm down your mind long enough to THINK the evidences through. You are hurting people.
Mr. Thomas, though I appreciate your concerns, I’m not at liberty to continue this pointless dialogue. If you are generally concerned about hurting people, might I suggest you address the thousands of people who are murdered by the medical profession every single year due to misdiagnosed illnesses, being mis-prescribed medication, inebriated doctors and just plain neglect? My own mother died in the hospital for one of those reasons. My third eldest daughter, who had epilepsy at three years of age (until I cast the demon out of her), was once given the wrong medication by a nurse during one of her quarterly EEG visits. Instead of epilepsy medication, the nurse gave her medication for dementia. The nurse did this while I was in the bathroom, and had my daughter swallowed the pill instead of holding it in her cheek for me to see, God only knows what the result would have been. And the unfortunate reality is that this happens quite often, especially in the psychological profession. Do you therefore have any idea how ridiculous you sound going on about me “hurting” people in the face of the overwhelming evidence that the medical and psychological professions routinely hurt people? Do you know how many widows, widowers, and fatherless children are out there because of what these people do? Sir, I’m not going to waste any more of our precious time with you. And rest assured that if you leave one more comment on this vein, I will delete it immediately.
TSM
I want to apologize to you for my insulting tone and manner. It was a knee-jerk reaction on my part to come across so harshly to you. In one way, I would prefer to make this apology public, since I made my remarks to you in public. The only reason I am asking that it not be made public is because I am sincerely asking that you remove my three other posts as well.
You see, I didn’t want to tell you that I myself have bipolar, because I feared your knowing that fact would destroy any hopes I might have of your taking me seriously, and your considering even the possibility that you might be mistaken. Having now read even the post from the pastor who is also a mental health counselor, I just don’t believe that is going to happen.
But, in addition to the wrong attitudes I displayed, which are a terrible example for me to set in front of a watching world, this whole matter is adding to my problem in an extremely negative way. In addition to the bipolar, I also have post traumatic stress disorder from a father who many times played “russian roulette” with me, not with guns, but with cars and farm equipment. I was afraid he would kill my mother or me someday, but he ended up killing another man instead. He claimed he made his peace with God on his deathbed, and I surely hope he did.
I would like to tell you this, and I truly am not meaning to be argumentative. I do believe there is a “mechanical” component to many mental illnesses, which I believe are clearly visible in the many brain scans I alluded to before. I also believe there can be a demonic element. I believe the same could be said for believer’s who get dementia. A Christian doctor whom I questioned about dementia believes, that in, for example, Alzheimer’s, the part of the brain that the person was formerly able to use to control the “baser” instincts, now no longer functions properly, and the old man reassurts itself. Again, I am not arguing, I’m just giving you my thoughts about these matters. My best memory of a Christian with dementia was an old lady who sat around and repeatedly sang, “I Shall Not Be Moved”. I still wonder if at the onset, she dug her heels in and that was her strategy. Whatever the case, I always feel respect for her when I think of her.
But my brother, regardless of your or my position on bipolar being demonic, and again, please believe me, I’m not now interested in arguing, just honest and open discussion, but it just is not accurate to say that schizophrenia and bipolar are the same because they have extremes of emotion, any more than it would be accurate to say psoriasis and seborrheic dermatitis (my wife has one, I have the other), are the same because they are skin problems that can both be red and itchy.
Seeing your unyielding position on this point is very distressing to me personally, and I can’t for the life of me understand why you wouldn’t reconsider, especially in view of brain scans. But my main stressors here are my own insulting statements to you which I regret very much, and for which, again, I apologize. I do ask your forgiveness in all these matters.
My stress has been so bad that I have been having trouble helping my wife, who has cerebral palsy, and is in a wheelchair. So, again, I am asking, if it is possible, would you please remove all of my statements, and yet again, I do sincerely apologize for my unkind, unloving, and unchristian tone. Thank you in advance for removing my comments, if that is in fact your decision, as I sincerely hope it will be.
Hi Henry. Thank you for the kindness you have shown in taking the time to apologize; but though I understand perfectly that it can be difficult for someone suffering with mental illness to be objective, an inability to be objective does not necessarily constitute an inability to be rational.
I am not inflexible in my views out of stubbornness, but of faithfulness to the Word of God. It is the Christian’s right to always be in his right mind, though the Bible demonstrates that Christians who fall out of step with the Lord Jesus because of sin can suffer from demonic attacks such as mental illness. The Bible also makes it clear that someone under a generational curse, in that he is living in sin, can also suffer from mental illness.
Regarding mental illness showing up on brain scans, it is certainly possible for spiritual maladies to manifest in the physical (i.e demon possession results in illnesses like epilepsy), but it nevertheless originates in the spiritual.
Lastly, it is human to sometimes say things we wish we hadn’t, but you shouldn’t worry about that on this blog, because we deal in highly controversial issues about which we feel very strongly. That said, it is not my practice to delete comments once they have been posted, even my own, which have not always been edifying. After all, we all make mistakes.
God bless you, and thank you for your comments.
TSM
I do not hide my bipolar. I hid it from you alone, hoping to not have my points immediately nixed before you considered them. I doubt you’ll put this post up, but to post the last comment plus leaving the others up as well, despite the explanation of my childhood, and particularly to risk having my wife be without her caregiver (should I go to the hospital from what appears to be your glee in my misery), reveals you to be a man cruel in the extreme. I have been shaking while writing this, the anxiety has been so great. My psychiatrist and also my Christian counselor already knew the horrific stress the previous exchanges caused. I don’t expect to see this post up here, yet somehow it wouldn’t surprise me. Either way, it will be on my camera. Hospitalization is very costly. The cost to my wife is much greater, and she is a Christian without mental illness. My wife is crying. What do you gain from this?
What do you do to stop a demon attack? Are physical illnesses demon attacks?
The Bible makes it clear that many illnesses are demonic attacks. The question is why are we getting attacked. Are we being disobedient? Is God allowing us to be attacked, in order to show Satan how faithful we are, as in the case of Job? Is God trying to teach us to lean more on Him and not to our own understanding? Or, are we doing something God doesn’t appreciate, like eating the Lord’s Supper unworthily, as in the case of the Church at Corinth, where many for this very reason were sick and dying (1 Corinthians 11:29-30).
Pray about it, Haley. Start by confessing any sins to the Lord Jesus, and ask Him to help you to understand what is going on. God bless you.
TSM
Thank you that was very helpful! God bless!
You’re welcome Haley!
I couldn’t agree more! Bipolar and schizophrenia are not the same disorder. I have struggled with bipolar disorder, depression, and anxiety. Some are genetically predisposed to these disorders. I have overcome my anxiety issues after twenty years. I don’t believe my anxiety was caused by demonic possession- but I do believe that I was healed from it (anxiety). I think, for me- I am not a doctor- my bipolar mania is triggered by caffeine, sleep/body rhythms, stress, certain music, etc. I have sought answers my whole life on the issues of mental/mood disorders. Some have more severe forms of mental disorders. Their experiences are most often different from mine.
Bipolar disorder is not a form of schizophrenia they are two different disorders instead of reading a dictionary definition of the two use a reliable source source such as the DSM-5. They are clearly different and have different characteristics and symptoms. Based on years of scientific research. Everyone sins but the sins of the father no longer fall on the children because of what Christ did at Calvary. when his disciples asked why a certain man was disabled, assuming he had sinned, Christ stated neither his mother nor his father sinned but this was done so that God could be glorified. So according even to the Bible just because someone in not considered normal to society does not mean that they sinned or that their family sinned. Everyone has a cross to bear, no one is perfect and just because someone may be mentally disabled or burdened doesn’t mean that they are possessed or are not of God. Shame on you for demonizing a mentally disorders and labeling peoples mental struggles as generational curses. You come off as real ignorant and unaware of the new testament and what Grace really is. mental illness is not an indication of demonic activity, people suffer from many different things and illnesses are influenced by genetics. for instance sickle cell anemia is found in Blacks but it was something in our blood to protect us from an illness that mosquitoes carried thousands of years ago. however today hundreds suffer from a disease that use to protect us. So is it that our African ancestors sinned and today hundreds are paying for that sin? or is it just a consequence of the first woman and first man who sinned. I recall when Paul was afflicted with a physical ailment. he asked God to remove it and God did not assuring Paul that His grace was sufficient for him.Paul was given and a faithful disciple of God and yet although his sins were forgiven God chose not to free him from his affliction. Be careful not to judge and lean into your own understanding. you are not God no one has the right answer we can only speculate until all is revealed. God bless you Still Man i know you love the Lord and your intentions are not to harm anyone. but its evident that you are naive because you dont even realize even with the scientific research that Bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are two different disorders. you should work from a point of fact and not spiritual opinion.
Hello, LaKenia, and thanks for your comment. You say that bipolar disorder and schizophrenia “are clearly different and have different characteristics and symptoms.” This is not true, as the mental health field experienced so many cases involving patients with schizophrenia exhibiting symptoms of bipolar disorder and vice-versa, that in order to explain this phenomenon, they coined an entirely new disorder: “schizoaffective” disorder. The Mayo Clinic defines schizoaffective disorder as
Schizoaffective disorder is actually very prevalent, but the mental health field has no idea what causes it. “Years of scientific research” have not brought them any closer to an explanation, let alone a cure, because bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are spiritual disorders, not physical.
And please stop citing Paul and his affliction as an excuse for Christians suffering from mental illness. Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” had to do with his sight (Galatians 4:15) and not his mind. No matter how many Scriptures you quote, you will not find one case of a spirit-filled Christian with mental illness in the Bible--not one; and no matter how many Sriptures you quote, you will not find one case of mental illness in the Bible that was not caused by demonic activity--NOT ONE.
So, though you may not want to accept the biblical take on mental illness, which is what I espouse, it is the only take that can set you free. 2 Timothy 1:7 cannot be refuted: it is the Christian’s right to always be in his right mind; and if you are not in your right mind, then you have no testimony. I am not leaning on my own understanding, but rather on the clear truth of the Bible, which you reject because it is uncomfortable for you. If you would try leaning on the Bible and not the DSM-5, you would be set free. Believe that.
TSM
Still Man you are doing a lot of assuming I don’t have a psychological disorder not that I’m offended by this assumption but thank you for your support in telling me that I can be set free. I’m an actual grad student of psychology and will be receiving my degree by October of this year. I’ll start by explaining the difference between Bipolar Disorder and schizophrenia then ill address Schizoaffective disorder. According to the DSM-5 based on actual research and not speculation Bipolar disorder is categorized as a mood disorder. according to the DSM-5 in regards to type 1 ( ill skip type 2) “ …it is necessary to meet the following criteria for a manic episode. The manic episode may have been preceded by and may be followed by hypomanic or major depressive episodes.†Pg 123. Pgs 124-125 explains what hypomania is and characteristics of a major depressive episode. Now on to Schizophrenia …†is defined by abnormalities in one or more of the following five domains : delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech and thinking, grossly disorganized or abnormal motor behavior including catatonia and negative symptoms pg87. I’ll go into negative symptoms because it high lights the major distinction between Bipolar and schizophrenia. Pg 88 “ Negative symptoms account for a substantial portion of the morbidity associated with schizophrenia but are less prominent in other psychotic disorders. Two negative symptoms are particularly prominent in schizophrenia : diminished emotional expression and avolition. ….. other negative symptoms include alogia, anhedonia and asociality†pg88. Since it’s also obvious that you know how to refer to a dictionary ill skip the definitions. Now on to Schizoaffective disorder instead of listing the symptoms ill just state what makes this disorder different “… schizoaffective disorder can be distinguished from a depressive bipolar disorder with psychotic features based on the presence of prominent delusions or hallucinations for at least two weeks in the absence of a major mood episode. In contrast, in a depressive or bipolar disorder with psychotic features, the psychotic features primarily occur during the mood episode(s). pg 110 of the DSM-5. It is possible for someone to be diagnosed with bipolar and schizoaffective disorder. Now on to the part where you said I reject the Bible. Because it makes me “uncomfortableâ€. That’s another assumption . actually I was saved at seven read the Bible in my adult life 4 times from the beginning to the end. I believe that we can all be healed by believing and calling on the name of Jesus Christ by his stripes we are healed because of what he willing accomplished at Calvary we are no longer under a curse. For those that Believe , abide and Christ and submit to His will. however my point is that just because someone has an affliction, physical or mental, born with it or developed it later in life it does not meant that they don’t have a functional relationship with Christ or that they are not abiding in His will. I get that you believe that having a mental illness is the cause of not having a sound mind. There is also a distinction between the mind and the brain. Ill state the distinction which is probably based on opinion but after all this is not a war between academics “Your brain is part of the visible, tangible world of the body. Your mind is part of the invisible, transcendent world of thought, feeling, attitude, belief and imagination. The brain is the physical organ most associated with mind and consciousness, but the mind is not confined to the brain.†https://www.sharecare.com/health/teen…learning…/what-difference-between-mind-brain. I used a simple website. Mental disorder are a disorder of the brain not the mind “Of the conditions deemed inherently psychiatric, some seem rooted in biological brain dysfunction. Schizophrenia, autism, bipolar disorder, and severe forms of obsessive compulsive disorder and melancholic depression are often cited. . https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sacramento-street-psychiatry/201512/are-psychiatric-disorders-brain-diseases. Ill stop quoting Paul as you requested but you didn’t address this statement “ Everyone sins but the sins of the father no longer fall on the children because of what Christ did at Calvary. when his disciples asked why a certain man was disabled, assuming he had sinned, Christ stated neither his mother nor his father sinned but this was done so that God could be glorified. So according even to the Bible just because someone in not considered normal to society does not mean that they sinned or that their family sinned.†You also did not address this statement “mental illness is not an indication of demonic activity, people suffer from many different things and illnesses are influenced by genetics. for instance sickle cell anemia is found in Blacks but it was something in our blood to protect us from an illness that mosquitoes carried thousands of years ago. however today hundreds suffer from a disease that use to protect us. So is it that our African ancestors sinned and today hundreds are paying for that sin? or is it just a consequence of the first woman and first man who sinned.†I would like to know what you think in regards to these statement. Thank you.
Hello LaKeina,
Your belief that mental illness is “of the brain not the mindâ€: that is, physical not spiritual, is contrary to the Word of God, so you are forced to wrest Scripture out of context to make it agree with your thesis.
If it were true, however, that mental illness is physical, then Jesus would be a liar, because 2 Timothy 1:7 says,
“God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind.â€
If the Bible is true, then God has given all Bible-believing Christians a sound mind. Sound in this regard means functioning properly. Mental illness, then, is having a mind that is not functioning properly--an unsound mind. Now, because many who name the name of Christ also claim to be suffering from mental illness, then either 1. the Lord Jesus is lying, 2. those Christians who claim to be suffering from mental illness are lying (and what would be the point of that?), or 3. the mind is spiritual and not physical. I believe it is number 3, because God has never promised that Christians would never suffer physical problems. In fact, if we look at the Bible, we see that Christians were often sick. Pastor Timothy, for example, was often sick, and the Apostle Paul as you noted, was given a “thorn in the flesh†which very possibly had something to do with his eyes. Moreover, the Apostle Paul tells the Church at Corinth that because they were eating the Lord’s Supper without regarding the Lord Jesus’ sacrifice, many of them were “weak and sickly†and many had died (1 Corinthians 11: 26-30).
It must be emphasized that though there are biblical examples of Christians getting sick, there is not one example of a Christian suffering from mental illness. The reason is simple: 2 Timothy 1:7.
Those who cite Paul’s “thorn in the flesh†as proof that mental illness is physical, overlook the most important aspect: it was a thorn in his flesh. Flesh in the Bible is always used to refer to the world of the carnal, the sensual, the material: the physical world. To fully understand the nature of Paul’s affliction, it is important to understand the purpose for God having allowed Satan to afflict Paul. In 2 Corinthians 12:1-9, Paul tells the story of a man he knew who was taken up to heaven and given a glimpse of paradise. Paul is, of course, talking about himself, but elects to “glory in [his] infirmities,†rather than brag on himself. It is because of these incredible revelations, Paul says, that God allows Satan to afflict him:
“And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.â€
In other words, God allowed Satan to afflict Paul in order to humble him, so he wouldn’t get the big-heads. But the thorn was in Paul’s flesh, not in his mind. Had God made Paul mentally ill, He would have destroyed Paul’s testimony, because a Christian must have a testimony, and that testimony must be one of victory, not defeat. A Christian suffering from mental illness is living in defeat, and his testimony is therefore useless. A Christian, however, who overcomes mental illness by confessing the sins that brought that on has a testimony of victory and can testify to the power of Jesus to destroy the works of the devil.
Now, you believe that the sins of the fathers no longer fall on the children because of the blood the Lord Jesus shed at Calvary. If you truly believe that, then you obviously haven’t talked with anyone whose family has practiced witchcraft for generations. Many of these people suffer serious problems that manifest over succeeding generations, and, even if they didn’t believe in generational curses in the past, after seeing the same problems manifest in their grandparents, parents, children and grandchildren, they come to realize that they are under a curse.
To understand what the blood of Jesus accomplished, you have to understand the difference between salvation and deliverance. While it is true that the blood of Jesus washes away all sin, it is important to understand that it only washes away past sin: that is, Original Sin and any sins we committed before we got saved. Scripture says:
In other words, when we get saved, the blood of Jesus washes away the sin of Adam and Eve and our own past sins, but not our future sins. To understand why this is, you must remember that there are two covenants: the first (old) covenant was under the law of sin and death, the second (new) covenant is under the law of grace. Our past sins fell under the first covenant:
“Transgressions that were under the first testament†is a direct reference to the “sins that are past†(Romans 3:25). Again, this means that the blood of Jesus only washes away our past sins, not our future sins. In order for the blood of Jesus to wash away any future sins we commit, we must first confess those sins to the Lord Jesus. Scripture says:
Proof that this verse is not referring to our past sins, but any sins we commit after we get saved, is the fact that according to Scripture, in order to be saved, we need only repent (Acts 2:38) and believe on the name of Jesus (Romans 10:19-20). Because 1 John 1:9 specifically says that we must confess our sins in order for them to be forgiven, then this verse is not not talking about salvation, but about deliverance--both from generational sin and from the sins we commit after salvation, as this is the context of the previous verse: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves” (1 John 1:8).
Further proof of this is the fact that you testify to getting saved at seven years old. If one needed to confess sins in order to be saved, then you could not have been saved, as the average seven-year-old does not have the level of understanding of sin (and guilt on his conscience) to confess sins.
Where does generational sin fit into this? I’m glad you asked. If you are under a generational curse, you are living in sin, because God punishes the descendants of a person who commits an abomination with the same sin(s) the ancestor was guilty of (Exodus 20:4-5, 34:7). Because it is a curse from God, the children will commit the sins of their fathers without fail. This goes for Christians also, because you can be under a curse and still be saved, as salvation and deliverance are two separate things. Put simply, salvation is remission from the penalty for sin, which is death (Romans 5:26), while deliverance is being set free from the bondage of a generational curse.
Now I need for you to put on your thinking cap as a grad student. The Bible says that if a Christian willfully sins, then the blood of Jesus does not apply to those sins:
“We†here means Christians. While this applies to Christians who purposely sin, knowing it is wrong, I believe this verse also applies to Christians who do not confess their sins in accordance with 1 John 1:9. In other words, if we don’t confess our sins, it is as if we purposefully sin; and the blood of Jesus will not cover those sins.
This is the danger in the false belief that the blood of Jesus washes away past as well as future sins when we get saved: it gives the Christian a false sense of security that no matter how much he sins, the blood of Jesus will cover those sins. And Christians do sin, especially if they are under a generational curse. I’m a witness.
This is one reason so many honest and sincere Christians are suffering from mental illness: they are under a generational curse from which they need deliverance, while others, falsely believing that the blood of Jesus automatically covers their future sins, are not confessing their sins as the Lord Jesus commanded. They are willfully sinning.
You also asked if Blacks today are paying for the sins of our African ancestors, and the answer is a resounding yes. I strongly suggest you read our article entitled, Does God Hate Blacks and see why Satan hates the black race so much (hint: it is because God loves us so much.) God blessed the Jews above all other races and they were supposed to be a light to lead the rest of the world out of the spiritual darkness the sin of Adam brought upon the world; but they fell into idolatry and left off worshipping the Lord. God also blessed the Blacks in the same way because Moses’ father-in-law, a black man named Jethro, blessed God and declared Him to be “greater then all Gods.” But the Blacks, too, fell into idolatry, and inherited the same curse the Jews did (Read Deuteronomy Chapter 28 in particular verses 15-68).
Generational curses are real, LaKeina. The evidence is there to see for any thinking person.
Putting my thinking cap on as a grad student, (and as someone with common sense and someone who has read the Bible and someone who has actually studied mental illness) it is obvious that we are never going to agree especially when you believe that the mind and the brain are the same thing. So the scripture that you keep quoting about having a sound mind is irrelevant to me (regarding mental illness).
Sin is not only a physical act it also takes place in the MIND and in the heart. Because of this no one is exempt from sin, and sin even for individuals like yourself who cast stones, is an everyday occurrence. As you said we all fall short…. Does having a sound mind keep us from sinning in our thoughts? The answer is NO!!! or literally no one would have a “sound mind†sinner or want a be saint.
Now on to the issue regarding Blacks and generational curses. If I am understanding you correctly it would take all of us to repent of the sins past of our ancestors for future generations not to be affected by Sickle cell anemia. So our struggles like the Jews are upon us because of what our ancestors did un -confessed sin that will continue to go un- confessed because they are now dead) So we will forever suffer?? So we are born cursed, besides being born into sin?? But then we could go back to this scripture John 9:3. Where neither the father nor the man nor his mother sinned. There seems to be some contradiction there or is it that we only qualify for salvation and not deliverance because we will continue to pay for the sins of our fathers??
You say, “Sin is not only a physical act it also takes place in the MIND and in the heart.” Do you not realize that in juxtaposing “physical” with “mind and heart” you are agreeing that both the mind and the heart are spiritual? And do you not therefore realize that if it is true that sin is both physical and spiritual--of the body as well as of the heart and mind--and it is, then Christians, in order to stay in a right relationship with Jesus Christ, need to confess sins committed in their mind as well as sins committed with the body?
You may resist this clear teaching of the Bible--which you now understand very well--as much as you want, but your conscience will condemn you for it, because your conscience now knows better. Listen to your conscience; don’t harden your heart against the Lord.
TSM
BTW, when I pray at night, I usually begin by asking the Lord Jesus to forgive me “for anything I have said, thought, or done today that was not pleasing in your sight.”
TSM
I am well I actually stumbled across your blog because I was trying to find evidence of what I believe that BPD is demonic depression on some level.
I used to be exactly like you and have your same mentality because in my ideal God was so conforming to my expectations that everything was such and such way. It’s convienant it’s easy. God doesn’t speak to me.. find verse that says “God doesn’t talk to anybody today ..Ok then he never speaks to anyone. God doesn’t do any supernatural miracles around me. Ok find verse that says” when whats complete….God does some things for some and not for other. For you to say other wise not having met every Christian makes you sound like a fool. But your point is very astute and you are very well versed. Now I personally think that people with brain disorders have more demonic access than those who do not. Often it’s not all or the other of anything. Do all Christians who sin and are losers in the faith die and go to hell. I don’t think so. But I might very well myself. I have multiple personality disorders and under actual mind control for several years.
But see I didn’t know, that until recently. See I’m 33, and after reading
There is alot that can happen to Christian with unconfessed sin. You are very well read to know that. Of course if you are too well read , then you would know that more than a few including Chip Ingram I believe, know that the average Christian
Doesn’t even have a renewed mind. After trying hard far many years I came to accept that no amount of praying on my part would change this. And I’m slowly getting over the fact that God did not inform me of the nature of my struggles. I now realize it was up to me . I thought God spoke to me frequently he did not.
It was someone else and caused me thousands and heartache to those who loved
Me. I’ll find a verse for you from memory. “The fool commits folley in his heart and rages against the Lord. See. Makes everything better. And most of all it is true.
Watchman Nee diaagress with you. Every Christian doesn’t have a renewed mind.
Because it takes the Word and I think the spirit allowing you to. Wouldnt more Christians believe as you and I do if this minds were the same.
Demonic oppression.. most don’t believe never happened to them in tangible way.
Demons spirituly raping people- never happened to me …The Bible says that …..you can find a verse that protects you from everything. But bad things are going to happen to Christians as trials, and since we live in America maybe we shouldnt be upset that many Americans have mental trials rather than getting Bea up and stoned or just problems at work, or finding a job. But I feel you I really do. the verse in Timothy really does seem to say that. Honestly there is a disconnect for me. But I don’t have to know everything to know God’s real. You seem like a real smart guy and very biblical. I bet you even understand that no Christian is simply vanishing before the tribulation. But you simply can’t understand something unless you go through it. So keep your blanket statements if they help you. God is good. I don’t understand why people are born certain ways and have to suffer except that this is a place will people suffer and if get saved one day we won’t have to.. I wish there other all or nothing things you can tell me about God and prove with one verse.
Will I never get physically sick if I claim the Blood?
Will I never get attacked by Satan now that I’m saved
While being bi polar is most likely demonic, saying that makes you
Seem like a douchebag. But if someone gives you evidence that
Manic depressive/ bi polar/ borderline personality like me or someone proves in brain scan after brain scan (see story about neuroscientist that accidently looked at own scan and found out he was a psycho, then his friends and family agreed)
Then you really are ignorant and stupid. And I’m not mad at you and that sounds harsh. So let me rephrase the whole thing in a nice way and close it with a story.
After being heavily involved in demonic mind control while serving God to my utmost but in fact listening to Satan. I met A woman in the ward and got her. Number. I beginning sinning quite casually after I realized I just messed up my job my place to live, my savings, and broke my mom’s heart. It’s rough to find out you wasted the last two years of your life. (Don’t find a verse …I actually know it wasn’t a waste now because If I can ever trust God I may be valuable to Him one day to help others- that’s appropriate to find verse for that) Now God kept me alive and out of Jail since then and like with everyone else I owe Him more than I can repay. My story could have been averted my a Your Tube Video but my poor babys’s not so much.
See she claims (story never changed but you can find a verse about why I’m wrong after reading the story) that one day she was at a church and had hands laid on her and people spoke in tongues.. (again you Im dying to know what you even think about tongues, genuinely not sarcastically this time)
Surprise Surprise. She has been “schizophrenic” ever since. How schitzofrenic you ask? You know all the right questions don’t you? So schizophrenic that she has to medication. 3 types. She used to work at a dentist she has a daughter. Her husband left her and fell away from the faith because of that ( there is an appropriate place to find a verse for that he could have pressed on he still had her) we instantly had sex when we were out and did what those I’ll in the world without God did. Fast forward a year, and she doesn’t want to have sex, TSM.
Do you know why? You can guess. I didn’t just want to have sex with her and wanted my relationship with God to improve also. After struggling with drugs
To fill the void now that I didn’t use scripture to cover up the emptiness. I was ready to just be with her and walk forward. She could hardly drive down the street so much anxiety. Though I liked her she was really sick and wouldn’t stop calling me. She loved the Lord wanted to go to church and prayed everyday about getting better and being able to have a life without pharmaceutical s which were destroying here health. And even though she focuses on God daily and was even told by “prophets” in her church we would be married, she had little interrst in listening to me, she had to call 80 times a day because of her illness. That plus she made little effort to control her weight ( it was already heard) would not grasp that this is what God has in mind for her for a season. Her sister was healed.
But see you are not her sister or family so you can’t see her life for God. Only say something which as far as you know is accurate. So I’m not mad at you
To her you would be what people in England term a “wasteman”
But not to me. I see where you are coming from. Because I’ve seen it .
But man if only I could not need meds and my brain would healed so I could be emotionally stable, I’d be happy and trust God more. Maybe there is a special repentance prayer you could say because you know so much
Now also genius, because are smarter or at least more well informed than most people, I’m happy to say I ran into an ex of mine from 2003. She was bipolar, manic depressive bpd( they go hand ) when I saw in 2007 I felt my spirit soar as she spoke to me and told me she was saved and even gave me what I believe was word from Lord” we talked but she still had it . Now this time she said something that I was proud to hear because I had prayed for her and abandoned her because she was willing to love me. (That’s part of my disease) Or just Satan the source of it really matters alot to me after all hmm. Satan/ brain disorder Satan/brain disorder.
Often medication helps. I won’t ask you to explain why because I know you can’t ( go ahead find verse) I’ll help you with my opinion but again it may be something spiritual. Those chemicals do something in the mind that restrict access from the demons for whatever reason Until the drugs are gone from her system.
Met two other Christians in ward. Both of us were in ward seeking God.
When you mix ignorance with treasure some people are going to get pissed off.
In reality God let’s people go through things.. and there isn’t anything that’s off limits when it comes to his people’s ultimate salvation.
PS. The schizophrenic girlfriend must have alot of sin I her life., She owes state thosands as she goes to the hospital every 90 days
. I left her because she only wants Joel Osteen Gospel
Probably the one that tells you you will never get sicked because by Jesus stripes you are healed. That’s took 2 hours on my mobile I pray to hear from you.
Andknow from what I read from others, there are definitely Christians who sinnes against God too many times and we’re condemned. Don’t be surprised that most people don’t believe that. Like you they only know what they have read, heard, or maybe had God reveal it to them. Well that’s not the same as having one. I used to preach to people in a small town in Texas, about alpha and beta males Red Pill wisdom. Than it occurred
God is who He is apart from what Id prefer it. What your selling sounds good. “If you were the perfect Christian, your mind would be just like
Peter’s and the apostles when they were filled with the spirit.” And that not what
You said but lets take it a step farther because we are not even talking about the mind that a unsaved human has in his best conditions. Are we? We are talking about a “renewed mind” And if your like me you believed every Christian has
one. Read the Spiritual Man by Watchman Nee. Maybe you heard of him. I’ve been bipolar for a long time but because I was like you and naively imagined “every Christian has renewed mind” Well the Bible is often discerbed.
T
..
but God is God and not you and there’s things that he does that he under that you don’t understand so rather than make something All or Nothing what’s some issues like somebody else suggested you should say nothing and here’s why:
As the 33-year old I now realize that from age 8 and til now I had all kinds of symptoms which were definitely a disorder once I got saved they didn’t go away
Because I was naive like you I believe that I knew something that I had no idea about I was the same Christian who told myself when I saw this sick woman that other Christians had pointed out to me semicolon if she knew what I knew and was saved away I was saved she wouldn’t be mentally ill at all
A Christian can have a mental illness because mental illnesses can be caused by the brain.. I’m fascinated though that you have the inside and an actually believe what you’re saying that unconfessed sin can lead to lot of mental illnesses I never connected the two so that makes sense I’m glad to hear it but but at the same time assuming that there’s no Christian right now that it’s confessed all to send it to everything had to do but it is still having a mental disorder is just douchey to tell you the truth
and I’m and I know that somebody already told you this it if you won’t if you won’t admit to that point then there’s no point in arguing with you as your head is up your ass
Hello, Greg, and thank you very much for sharing your insight and experience. I will continue to believe that many, if not most, mental illnesses are caused by demonic activity and are the result of unconfessed sin that, in many cases, stems from a generational curse. I believe that it is a Christian’s right to be in his right mind, because 2 Timothy 1:7 says that God has given us a sound mind. I believe, however, that you are correct about many Christians not having a renewed mind and for this reason suffer from mental illness. I even agree with you that God may let Christians pass through trials (possibly even mental illness) when they err seriously.
There is biblical precedent for this. In the Old Testament, 1 Samuel records how King Saul fell into sin and God sent an evil spirit which possessed him for a time. Chapter 4 of the book of Daniel also recounts how after King Nebuchadnezzar exalted himself instead of glorifying God who had blessed him with power, prestige, and prosperity, the Lord drove him mad for seven years and took his kingdom from him. The reason God did this was so that Nebuchadnezzer would learn “that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.” (Daniel 4:32). The New Testament has similar examples, both involving the Apostle Paul, who “delivered unto Satan” certain men who had sinned grievously. The first involved a Christian man who had had an affair with his stepmother (1 Corinthians 5:1-5), and the second involved two men who had blasphemed God (1 Timothy 1:20). Paul delivered the first man “for the destruction of the flesh” (to be destroyed by Satan because incest is an abomination to God). As for the two men who blasphemed, Paul does not specify what their punishment would be, but that he delivered them up to Satan “so they may learn not to blaspheme.” Since all the men involved had been delivered up to Satan, then it stands to reason that they could have been afflicted demonically with mental illness the same as Saul and Nebuchadnezzar. This especially applies to the two blasphemers because they would survive their punishment. It is worth noting that both Saul and Nebuchadnezzer were guilty of pride, and “pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” In my opinion, of all sins, pride is probably one of the easiest to commit because one could be proud without really knowing it. Christians are now under grace rather than the law, but is important to realize that unconfessed sin is not covered by the blood of Jesus, according to Hebrews 10:26. That means that unconfessed sin falls under the law, not grace, and is punished accordingly.
I also agree with you that many professed Christians do not have a “renewed mind”: because they have not been truly reborn. They may believe on Jesus Christ in the academic sense, but have never really been born-again through a saving knowledge of Jesus; which knowledge, as you correctly point out, can only come through the washing of the Word. Many such find themselves doing many of the things they did before their so-called conversion, and it is for this reason that many such suffer from mental illness. I believe also that a Christian who has fallen away from the faith, but has not totally rejected Jesus, can suffer from mental illness. I also agree that a great many nominal Christians: that is, Christians in name only, can fall prey to Satan through mental illness, which is why I emphasize what some call “Lordship Christianity”: not only making Jesus Christ your Savior, but also making Him your Lord. When Jesus Christ is your Lord, you do more than merely believe that Jesus died and shed His blood for your sins: you appropriate that Blood into your daily life. This means that you rely on what Jesus accomplished on the cross to get through each and every day, and you are very serious about pleasing Him and obeying His commandments. This means not only not doing what Jesus said not to do, but also doing what Jesus told us to do, most importantly, to “confess our sins,” and to “study [the Bible] to show ourselves approved unto God.”
Emphasis on the laying on of hands and speaking in tongues is due to the influence of Roman Catholicism through the Charismatic Movement and the “baptism of the holy spirit evidenced with speaking in tongues.” Many have testified to having been possessed after hands were laid on them in a deliverance service. I would be very careful letting someone lay hands on me, as the person laying the hands has to be in a right relationship with the Lord Jesus and should have no unconfessed sin in his life, which is rare in today’s spiritual climate. Speaking in tongues only appears once in the Bible in the Book of Acts, and was only used to show unbelievers that God was moving in the disciples after Jesus’ ascension into Heaven by having them speak in languages that they should not have been able to speak, as they were all from Galilee. The babbling that is associated with the tongues movement is clearly not of God and serves no purpose other than to confuse the hearer, as he cannot understand what you are saying.
Regarding unconfessed sin, I wold ask that you read the comments, Greg, as I have quoted author and Christian psychologist Kurt Koch several times, who wrote, “Many of my patients are not so much suffering from mental illness as from demonic oppression,” and “If I could obtain forgiveness for the sins of my patients, I could release half of them tomorrow,” or words to that effect.
Thank you for your insightful comments. I hope I have been of some help to you.
Your servant,
Tony
By your reasoning then, (because a Christian WILL, according to your unyielding interpretation of 2 Timothy 1:7, have a sound mind), a Christian either cannot get Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia, or it must be a demon-originated malady that can only be cured through deliverance. You act like a zealous defender of the truth, but refuse to see the truth when it slaps you up side the face because it doesn’t conform to YOUR TAKE on scripture. When you start delivering all those thousands of poor Christian people with Alzheimer’s, other people will certainly start to reconsider what you have to say. Until you can produce one such example, perhaps YOU should reconsider what you have to say, and your interpretation of what God actually intended in certain passages. You are hurting people that God loves in your efforts to defend the truth.
Thanks for sharing Dwaine, and may God richly bless you and all your house.
TSM
I saw Jesus and talked to Him. He told me to return to Him. I was in a manic state so this was not real? Also how do you stop demon attacks? Are there certain bible passages. Do you view physical Illness as demonic attacks?
Hi, Haley. I don’t know if it really was Jesus you talked to, and I don’t feel it is my place to judge the validity of your experience. You are the best judge of what is real and when. You seem to doubt you really saw the Lord Jesus because you were in a manic state, but when Jesus walked the earth, he saw many people who were suffering from mental illness and He healed them. There are many who are not suffering from mental illness who claim to have seen the Lord, and I don’t think your condition makes you any less credible than they.
Regarding demonic attacks, the way to fight a demonic attack is by using the Word of God. Read your Bible and get familiar with passages dealing with spiritual warfare. I could give you some verses, but, in my experience, the best way is to allow the Lord Jesus to show you passages in the Bible that seem to have something to do with what you are going through. There are different reasons for demonic attacks, but ultimately, it is God who is allowing them to happen. The way to fight these attacks, then, is to rely totally on the Lord Jesus Christ, remembering that without Him, we could do nothing.
There is a website hardcorechristianity.com. It contains hundreds of YouTube videos by a man named Michael Smith who was a mental health counselor for 25 years before he become a Christian counselor and started a deliverance ministry. His teaching about deliverance and mental illness is eye -- opening and biblically based. You will be blessed an enlightened by his teaching.
This information was dangerous when written and is now dangerously out of date. Using a dictionary to get the definition of a medical issue is like trying to fix your car using just the owner’s manual. Use the DSM to get the real definition or just continue attacking your straw man. If you would have looked at the DSM you would have seen that bipolar and schizophrenia are most definitely not the same thing.
Six years later we do have a much better idea of what happens in the brain of someone with bipolar disorder. We know how lithium and depakote work in the hippocampus to slow overly active apoptosis and even help neurogenesis. We don’t know everything but we know enough to move beyond the medieval idea that anything behavioral is demonic.
Dangerous? Please. Six years later you don’t know anymore than you knew when this article was written. That is why, to date, you have not cured one single person from bipolar disorder. All you have done in six years is refined your rhetoric and honed your hypothesis. You will never cure one single person from mental illness, because the true cause of mental illness is too “medieval” for your science falsely so called to consider.
Just read the comments, and you will clearly see that all science has done is give those suffering from mental illness a better sounding reason for their suffering: a “scientific” pacifier, if you will.
TSM
Have you even looked at the research? We don’t have perfect knowledge of the brain in general, but that doesn’t mean we have no understanding. It doesn’t mean we lack strong observational evidence. Yes, we have honed “our” hypothesis. That is called science. I’m not sure what you mean “falsely, so called”. Science is science. You may not like its conclusions, but that doesn’t change its reality.
I am a Christian. I believe in and have encountered the spiritual. I believe that mental illness can be exploited by the enemy, as can any physical or psychological issue. I also know that my life was transformed by proper therapy and medication.
It is medieval to label any psychological issue as “demonic”. Schizophrenia, bipolar, PTSD, depression and other disorders are disorders of the brain, just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas. We know that when we medically treat all of these, people get better. Perfectly healed -no. But we make them better than they were before. When you tell people they are being attacked by demons and that they aren’t healed or delivered because they lack faith you condemn them to a lifetime of shame and suffering.
I understand where your belief system is coming from, and I therefore understand that further discussion is futile. Let us therefore agree to disagree on this subject. God bless you, and thanks for your insight.
TSM
I agree with you wholeheartedly. My born again husband still believes that being bipolar is a chemical imbalance. My response to him if that’s the case name me one person who is so happy that they have to take medication to normalize him or her. Because if there is one extreme there should also be an opposite. I don’t know any purpose whose has to calm down from their constant state of euphoria, optimism, joy, and overwhelming happiness. Do you?
Absolutely, Dalia, and I could not have said it better.
It’s called mania and yes.
Clearly coming from someone with no mental illness in the family…. If God opposes science and discovery, the truly faithful should cease hand washing upon leaving the restroom.
Lindsey, the so-called, pseudoscientific term “chemical imbalance” has yet to be proven. Please tell me what “chemicals,” hormones, proteins, aminoacids, etc. are out of balance. Most of these “diagnoses” are based on symptoms and a lot, I mean a LOT, of assumptions.
By contrast, you can hold a dirty, unwashed hand or finger under a microscope and count the multiple colonies of germs, which is why we need to wash. Don’t be deceived, a lot of what counts as “science” today is not even close to being science.
It’s callled mania and yes.
You sound uneducated and ignorant. I tried the God route. My own head tried to kill me in various ways while in “God’s House”. You obviously don’t walk this twisted path. If God alone can heal me why did I need electro shock therapy just to function? # I am Bi Polar Strong. #Don’t judge what you don’t understand.
I cannot tell you why you needed electro shock therapy, because I wasn’t there. What I can tell you, however, is that Jesus was healing people from bipolar disorder long before it was called bipolar disorder; and He still is. And you shouldn’t think that everyone whose experience differs from yours is judging you (even when they have never met you). You may end up rejecting someone who really wants to help you and could, just because his methods differ from what you’re used to.
You have no clue what you are talking about. Mental Illness is due to a chemical imbalance in the brain. There are no demons to cast out. This is exactly why the stigma persists. The illness is real and many people suffer from it. I was diagnosed at 18 and I am still battling my illness. Being so depressed you can’t get out of bed isn’t a sin. It is one of the symptoms of Bi Polar depression. You don’t call physical illnesses sins and you can’ say that mental illness is a sin either. It is an illness not a choice. # Bi Polar and Proud. # They call me Princess Leia.
After reading your blog on the split mind and simply bow the knee to accept Jesus as Lord I could discern no empathy whatsoever in your ‘research’. After suffering bipolar for decades I can truely say that the Lord has healed me as I began to trust in the Father’s heart. We can accept
Jesus as Lord and Saviour and say the simmers prayer over again but we must be transformed by the renewing of the mind. It’s not an overnight cure.
Deliverance can take many stages bit by bit over time. The Lord does this in stages so that we can learn to conquer new ground.
This is a type of when
Israel came out from the wilderness into the promised land and Joshua was told to take over the cities ( strongholds) with it’s Godless inhabitants ( demons) city by city over time lest they were overtaken. Demons are real and can infest the mind, soul and body but cannot infest a born again believers spirit as the Holy Spirit lives within the believers spirit and is owned by God.
Generational curses, habitual sin, seared conscience, apathy to repent to ask, seek and knock can have the demons festering in the strongholds of the mind.
So, bipolar, schizophrenia, manic depression or whatever you may call it is curable. I’m so thankful for the journey that I had to go through, some of it my fault and some of it generational, for memories of the darkness are so far from me that my mind is now fixed on the prize. We who overcome can truely ‘ minister’ with true empathy to the lost and hurting. I do not say this with pride as I owe my deliverance entirely to our Lord Jesus. We are more than conquerers in Him.
Unfortunately, this ministry is not dedicated to counseling those suffering from mental illness, Ray. The article was simply an attempt to convince those suffering from bipolar disorder to at least consider that their problems may be spiritually based and to take the appropriate steps to break free from bondage. Might I suggest, therefore, that you consider starting your own blog where you could use your experience and empathy to help the lost and hurting? There are a number of websites dealing with bipolar disorder: a couple of people who have such blogs have even written me and directed me to their websites (check the comments). In my opinion, however, none of those sites, to my recollection, approached mental illness from a purely biblical perspective. This is something you might consider doing.
Don’t be dismayed, therefore, by what you perceive to be a lack of empathy on my part; but, rather, allow your visit here to help you identify a critical need and to serve as the impetus for starting your own ministry. If you and others who have been delivered from mental illness would use your time, talents and experience to minister to your brothers and sisters still struggling, then you would be filling a great need and you would be doing the lost and hurting a tremendous service.
In love,
TSM
H.P. Dewaine Thomas
The stillman is Spiritually dead. He does not walk in The Holy Spirit. He thinks he does. Save your apologies -- he is the one who needs to apologise. He is indeed ignorant when you read some of his articles. The Holy Spirit has shown me so -- I sensed it at the very beginning. You bring yourself to Jesus and pray in earnest to Him for help. We are in Spiritual Warfare where we fight demons & (their afflictions ) on humans -mentally and phyically. Though the yare invisible to the human eye they are very real.!Just you ask Jesus to fill you with His Holt Spirit -- right where you are -be it the batbroom a shed wherever. Jesus WILL hear you and send The Holy Spirit into your body /Spirit -- from there onwards learn to trust and rely on The Holy Spirit . Forget about the misguidings of mortal men.The Holy Spirit will show you the Truth and guide you in His way . It won’t be an easy journey but it will be worth it for all eternity my friend .Ask Him for guidance through His Holy Bible (King James version- has proven to be the most acurate ) May the Heavenly Father be with you . God Bless you and all the true followers of Christ x
I have Bipolar 1 disorder with psychotic tendencies. Your article is misinformed. My family is documented to have suffered from it for over three generations. It can be medically proven by taking a MRI or CT of a manic brain versus a “normally functioning” brain. Manic depression was the original term for the disease and was originally treated with electro shock therapy and lithium salts. Since it has been renamed because there are many types of the disorder and the way it cycles. I am really disappointed that the stigma of ignorance is still out there it is like blaming a heart condition you were born with on sin. According to the Bible we are not punished for the sins of our parents so why would we be born with a condition we cannot control before we even know our own name?
You say that according to the Bible we are not punished for the sins of our parents. Well, that is very odd indeed, because, in my Bible, in both Exodus 20:4-5 and 34:7, God says, “Thou shalt not bow down thyself to [idols], nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers UPON THE CHILDREN unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.”
As for why people are born under a curse, the answer is contained in the aforementioned verses: God says that if we worship other gods, then we hate Him. That this is true is evident by the fact that when I tell people that a generational curse can be lifted if they confess their parents’ sin (and their own sin), some instantly get angry and oppose this clear teaching from the Bible.
Now, if they loved God, then, when they learned that their ancestors have in some way offended Him, they would repent of the sins of their parents, and seek to establish a right relationship with God. That most don’t, is proof positive that they have indeed inherited the sins of their fathers, including a hatred of a Righteous God, who is True and Just when He judges.
You are absolutely right. Until we repent, confess our sins, and break all curses (whether generational or self-inflicted through sin) in Jesus name, we will continue to suffer.
Most if not all illness is rooted in sin, but there’s nothing that Jesus’ blood cannot wash clean. I’ve seen cases where a homosexual person is no longer homosexual after giving themselves to Christ and the same goes for all mental cases. People forget that a big part of Christ’s ministry was to cast out demons that were making people dumb, ill, etc.
While I believe in real science, I have a Master of Science degree, I’m first and foremost a Christian. I’ve experienced and seen the power of Jesus Christ cure the incurable of the soul and body. Praise you Lord!
Amen Carol!
I agree with you Allison. The curse is toward only those who hate God anyway. If a father molests his son, and his son molests his son they are cursed but the grandson can break the curse by refusing to molest his own son. That is what the passage means. The Still Man has taken it completely out of context. You are not cursed of God, Allison! He loves you and does not hold you responsible for your illness nor your family!
Ezek 18:2-3
“What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel: “‘The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’?
“As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel.†NIV
God did not agree at all with that saying! Read a bit further in Ezek 18:19-20
“”Yet you ask, ‘Why does the son not share the guilt of his father?’ Since the son has done what is just and right and has been careful to keep all my decrees, he will surely live. The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him.†NIV
Dendrites are similar to trees. We have them in our brains. At birth they are clear and as they grow, their root are similar to trees we see everyday- strong, big, healthy, etc. As we get older our dendrites are strong and clean or weak and dirty. Dirty ones indicate the beginning stages of alhemizer. This can be seen thru cat scan and other medical devices. There are pics on the Internet. God us cleaver and He has left two witnesses (biblical concept). A spiritual witness seen in the natural realm. So because it’s generational, it’s called a generational curse. Regarding heart disease and sin, the bible says men’s hearts will fail them because of fear and fear is the opposite of faith and it is a sin against God. Be encouraged and inquire of the Lord for more understanding because this article is truth. Be blessef
Allison, You are brave and should be commended for the insight and confidence that you have. My son also has Bipolar 1 with psychotic features. I understand what you and your family are up against. One of the most difficult aspects of the illness is the social isolation that the lack of mental health education creates.
This article is an example of the stigma and misinformation people have about mental illness. People do not develop mental illness because they or their family is sinful or spiritually weak. To say that mental illness is sin would be to say other PHYSICAL, that is right PHYSICAL , illnesses are sin. Cancer, sin? Diabetes, sin? Arthritis, sin? heart disease, cancer?
Bipolar is not a result of deviant thoughts. It is a biochemical disorder. It is an imbalance of chemicals. It is a malfunction between receptors in the brain. It is NOT sin.
Bipolar is the common term for a genetic condition known as Manic Depressive Disorder. It is clinically different from schizophrena, as much as autism and aspbergers. Each have their own distinctions.
Bipolar in and of itself is not a mental illness, but many with the genetic trait do suffer from mental illness. Anxiety, paranoia, grandiose thinking, speech inpediments, depression, indecisiveness ect.
While you’re stepping in the right direction, I sincerely believe you lack the definitive terms and an understanding of the ‘disorder’. Modern stereotypes paint the condition as if it is a disorder, an illness, and most doctors seek to medicate versus mend the soul of a broken mind.
Instead of solving their fears, anxieties, unsound thinking, etc, doctors choose another approach, by destroying a mind in hopes of starting over from near nothing.
These medications can destroy a person’s personality, shut down existing thought processes, and render a person virtually unable to take care of themselves. Not all cases, but most suffering from mental illness only receive a way to mask the pains, but not to cure or extinguish the personal problems, the personal sins, that are holding that person’s mind in torment.
Like I said, you’re in the right direction, but curing a genetic condition isn’t going to happen. God’s hand is just, and his will is good. Dismantling stereotypes and focusing on real mental illness, should be the our focus.
A man will die of his own iniquities. Generational sins have no power here, except those passed through teaching and respect for God. Those suffer from the sin of their parents by being taught untruths and raised unGodly, being raised along a line of sins.
If you choose to focus on “real mental illness,” then please do. I choose to focus on the clear teaching of the Bible, which is that generational curses indeed do have power here. God bless you.
TSM
Most ignorant of scripture please understand what I am saying. We are saved by grace through faith in Christs finished work. Sins of a believer are forgiven. You understand we are in Fallin bodies hopefully and that’s why we are born with illness of all sorts. God’s grace is sufficient for all. You dare say one woman’s generation is cursed with sin and family is suffering (not realizing all have sinned and come short of God), that mental illness is a result of a secret sin(no sin is secret). Heretic! I recommend you actually open your bible and find out that it is God who is righteous and cannot sin. That we simply believe 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 and we are saved and sealed by the Holy Ghost forever. It is God who works in us. Study to shew thyself approved a workman rightly diving the Truth. Apostle Paul was sent by Lord Jesus Christ to the Body of Christ. Quit your preaching in ignorance and go study. You dare say things you no nothing about. Prove all things.
Follow your own advice “Ambassador,” and “prove” to me that Christians cannot fall into sin and be punished by God, though they are saved.
Read 1 Corinthians 5:1-5, and read how a believer fell into sin and was having sex with his father’s wife. Read how mad Paul got at the Church at Corinth for not throwing this man out of church. Read how Paul said he had already judged the man and handed him over to Satan “for the destruction of the flesh” so that his soul could be saved at Jesus’ coming. Understand that though this man had willfully fornicated--with his stepmother no less--he was still going to heaven. But notice that God, through the Apostle Paul, gave this man the death sentence for his crime (1 Corinthians 5:5). And he was still saved!
Just because Christians are “saved and sealed” as you say, doesn’t give us license to sin. Christians are supposed to confess their sins. The problem today is that the Church has gotten so far away from the clear teaching of the Bible, that most Christians mistakenly, and tragically, believe that when Jesus died on the Cross, His blood washed away all our sins, including our future sins, yet the Bible makes it clear that when we get saved, Jesus’ blood washes away our PAST sins:
The sins we commit after we are saved must be confessed for the blood of Jesus to be applied to them (1 John 1:9).
I quote again from the Holy Bible:
In that no true Christian willfully sins, what Paul obviously means here is that if we sin, but do not confess those sins, then it is as if we willfully sin, because a true Christian repents after he sins, and confesses those sins to the Lord Jesus. Those who do not confess their sins, then, are willfully sinning, and, as the passage clearly states, the blood of Jesus does not apply to those sins. This is true of generational sins as well, because generational sin is unconfessed sin.
Now if God will kill a saved man for sinning, is it a stretch to believe that He would at least punish a saved man for sinning?
I forgive you for calling me a heretic (you are neither the first, by the way, nor the last to do so). People tend to get pretty worked up by things they don’t fully comprehend; it’s a reflex thing.
TSM
Do you member how in the book of Job God is angry with Job’s friends for continually telling Job the reason he was suffering was because he must have some kind of sin in his life that he is not owning up to?
Bipolar is devastating. Imagine waking up one morning and everything is different. The way you perceive things are different, scary, unsettling. Your body feels like a piece of lead. There is no particular reason, just one day to the next the gears in your mind switch and a devastating depression emerges.
I am a sinner just like everyone else, but similar to what Job says, my sin isn’t greater than than most other saved individuals (I can’t find the verse but I will send it when I find it.) I’m not exponentially worse than anyone else. Although devastating, my depressive episodes have made me HAVE to rely on God every moment just to survive. I have absolutely no strength but somehow I function. Although I very much dread when a depressive episode hits, it strengthens my relationship with God and shows me how to rely on God on a level that I don’t think I would without it.
Job 19:3-5
“You have already insulted me 10 times. You should be ashamed of treating me so badly. Even if I have sinned, that is my concern, not yours. You think you’re better than I am, using my humiliation as evidence of my sin.â€
When someone is in legitimate pain the appropriate response is not to point the finger at them and say it must be because of some sin they are unaware of or hiding. It’s not black and white like that.
Bad things don’t always mean that you are being punished. Similar to Paul’s thorn in his side. It wasn’t necessarily to punish him but to humble him and glorify God.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe bipolar is a spiritual battle, as well as a mental and emotional one, but I feel that some of the explanations in this post are way too black and white and can be very damaging to others in my situation. You are not God, and you do not have the answers to everyone’s pain and struggles. Your job is not to tell people why they have a certain pain in their life, because you don’t know, none of us know. Your job is to be like Jesus as much as you can. Jesus did not tell the people he healed that their infirmities were because of their sin. He simply healed them. On the contrary, he was the harshest on the Pharisees, who thought that they were better than everyone else and had all of the answers.
“And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.†Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
2Co 12:7â€-‬10 NKJV
Those who argue that mental illness is of God love to cite Job and Paul; but neither Job nor Paul suffered from mental illness; and neither did any of the other saints. Mental illness is not something the Christian is supposed to suffer from. Physical illness is certainly part of the Christian experience, but if mental illness were also, then God would be a liar, because He said that He has given the Christian power, love, and a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). Mental illness is not having a sound mind.
Why does the Bible make it clear that when Jesus cast the demon out of the possessed Gadarene the man was no longer walking around naked and cutting himself with sharp rocks but was now sitting at Jesus’ feet “clothed, and in his right mind?” (Mark 5:15, Luke 8:35). That he was sitting at Jesus’ feet means that he became a follower of Jesus. If his mental illness were not a problem, then why did the Bible make a point of noting that this man was now “in his right mind?” Why did the Bible not simply tell us that the man no longer walked around naked, cut himself with sharp rocks, slept in the cemetery, or cried in the mountains? Why was the Bible careful to point out that the man was in his right mind? I’ll tell you why: because if you are truly following Jesus, He is not going to leave you with a mental problem. You might have vision problems (as Paul did); you might have stomach problems (as Timothy did); and you might come close to dying from sickness (as did Epaphroditus); but you will be 100% of the time in your right mind.
People may still call you crazy or possessed, as they did this to Jesus; but you will not be crazy or possessed and everyone (including you) will know this, whether they admit it or not.
If the Apostles and the first century saints suffered from mental illness, then Jesus also would have to have suffered from mental illness, as the Apostle Paul says that to know Jesus is “to know the fellowship of His sufferings.” We are to suffer the way Jesus suffered; and Jesus’ suffering was physical not psychological. The Apostle Peter agrees with Paul as he says that we are “partakers of Christ’s sufferings” (1 Peter 4:13). Again, if mental illness were a part of our Christian walk, then it would mean that even Jesus Himself suffered from mental illness. And don’t even go there.
Let me point something else out for you. The Bible says that Jesus “learned obedience through the things which He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). It also says that Lord Jesus will make us “perfect, established, strengthened, and settled, after we have suffered a while” (1 Peter 5:10). Let me ask you: How does a person learn obedience and become perfect, established, strengthened, and settled through mental illness, when mental illness--especially schizophrenia and bipolar disorder--is known to have the exact opposite effect?
Lastly, you are wrong to say that Jesus did not tell those whom he healed that their infirmities were due to sin. Have you forgotten the cripple man at Bethesda? After healing him, Jesus told him, “See, you have been made well; sin no more, lest a worse thing upon you” (John 5:14 NKJV). Obviously, the man’s condition was due to his own sin; and Jesus was careful to let him know that.
Please understand that I am not suggesting that those with mental illness are not saved or do not love God. What I am suggesting is that a person can be saved and still suffer from mental illness if he has unconfessed sin in his life. Jesus commanded us to confess our sins and He would forgive them (1 John 1:9). If we don’t do that, then we are living in disobedience, which is the very definition of sin.
TSM
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?â€
3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,†said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.
John 9:1-3
Some infirmities are because of sin and some are not. God knows what the case is for each individual, not us.
I know someone who had an exorcism performed on them. I have spoken to them and their family about the experience of the exorcism and what he was like while he was possessed. His mind did not belong to him, and he had little control of himself. His memories are vague, but his family remembers clearly.
He got PTSD later in life during his time in the military. Both experiences are very different. The brain is physical and helps to process and balance emotions (among many other functions.) If something isn’t functioning correctly in the brain, then it is a physical problem. Since the mind is influenced by the brain, obviously it will affect the way our mind works. Mind and brain are two different things, but they are linked. Although sometimes my brain is causing irrational feelings, my mind is able to spot out the irrationality and usually counter it.
The brain is incredibly complex and has many things going on in it. We have about 100 billion neurons in our brain. Autism for example is caused by just a few misplaced wires. Just like things can go wrong with our genes, hearts, bones, and so on, things can also go wrong with our physical brain. To think that that is not so really makes no sense.
This man was BLIND from birth, not mentally ill. You will not find one single case of mental illness amongst the early disciples of Jesus or the first century Church in the Bible, unless you completely wrench the Scriptures out of context, as you continue to do in order to defend your unscriptural thesis that mental illness is a part of the Christian experience.
Miraya, my purpose for writing the article was to give hope to those suffering from mental illness--especially Christians--that their illness does not mean that they are not saved, or that they are willfully sinning against the Lord, or that God has forsaken them. I want them to know that their illness is totally in keeping with the Scriptures, in that they are living with unconfessed sin in their lives. They can be healed, if they would just confess those sins--generational and otherwise--to the Lord Jesus.
And I’m not the only one who feels that way. There are Christians in the mental health profession that know that their patients can be healed if they would only confess their sins. Again, I quote from Occult Bondage and Deliverance, by Kurt Koch:
Deliverance from mental illness is a simple matter of confessing sins or, depending on the illness, of casting out the demon that is causing the illness. In both cases, the culprit is sin. Satan doesn’t want you to know this, because if you did, you could regain possession of your mind. Satan doesn’t want that because he needs your mind in order to keep you in bondage.
If you are content living with mental illness, however, then what is there for me to say, except God bless you.
TSM
I can’t seem to reply to your later post, so I want to point out that this is a response to your post dated November 21, 2016.
You wrote, “You will not find one single case of mental illness amongst the early disciples of Jesus or the first century Church in the Bible, unless you completely wrench the Scriptures out of context, as you continue to do in order to defend your unscriptural thesis that mental illness is a part of the Christian experience.”
You will not find arthritis, dementia, thyroid problems, diabetes, heart attacks, and the list goes on, in the Bible, doesn’t mean that they don’t exist, or that that makes those particular infirmities because of sin because they are not mentioned.
Also, how you are saying that I am twisting the scripture because it is referring to blindness and not mental illness would suggest that you can then only quote that scripture if you are referring only to blindness and nothing else.
I am not trying to say that nobody can have mental illness due to sin. Bipolar is grossly over diagnosed. Instability in moods can often be a result of something else, such as guilt or other intense feelings such as worthlessness, low self esteem, and so on, transformed into anger, depression, and so on. Events in childhood can be a cause, or it is completely possible for it to be because of sin. And of course it is completely possible to be a problem with your physical brain. Regardless of the cause, you should always call out to God to heal you, and confess your sins. I don’t believe that I can never be healed. If God wills it, it can and will be done. But on the flip side similar with Job and Paul, for reasons sometimes beyond out understanding, sometimes we must bear whatever thorn on our side we have.
Also you completely disregarded my statement that the brain is physical with 100 billion neurons working inside of it. Just because that specific part of the body was not mentioned, it doesn’t mean that nothing can go wrong with it. There is mind, and there is brain. The brain affects the mind, but the brain is not the mind.
I am not saying that there isn’t truth to what you posted, but we are all capable of being fallible in our thinking.
I could be absolutely wrong on everything I am saying, but you are just as capable of being absolutely wrong. I try to always leave a possibility of being wrong in my opinions because there is nothing I can be absolutely certain of with my limited ability of thinking and understanding. The only thing I can be absolutely certain of is that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior and one day I will be healed. It can be today, tomorrow, next year, or when this body dies. No matter the timing I will be healed, but it is in God’s timing not mine.
Miraya, one thing I definitely don’t want to do is steal your hope, sister. Whatever you need to believe to put one foot in front of the other each day, you go on and believe it, because life is not easy. What matters at the end of the day is that you have made the Lord Jesus your Savior and are trusting in His blood. Your position on mental illness will only affect your ability to live the victory Jesus purchased for you, and not your salvation. And that is truly a blessing. God bless you.
I’d like to thank you for approving of my posts even though my views on this topic oppose yours. I was worried that you would not let them be posted on your blog. Most people would silence an opposing view when given the chance. Thank you and God bless you.
You’re very welcome, Miraya! God bless you and yours.
TSM
I found this looking for insight on a friend of mine who is diagnosed 1 bipolar. He is also addicted to drugs. He was clean for a year (when we met) and has since relapsed unleashing a beast. He has always talked about God and how God has saved him, but he says that he is cleansed by the blood of Jesus, no matter what he does. . Its hard to say because we actually don’t know what’s going to happen to us on Judgment day. He has read the Bible. I have been told he actually tries to talk about God as he gets high with others. He says God tells him to say these things. His doctors say he is hyper-religious. which I have read is also associated with Bi-polar.
I’m confused, I’m torn, I’m exhausted. I love this person and he needs help, but I don’t know where to draw the line. I can’t completely discredit what he says, but at the same time, a Godly man wouldn’t want to sin the way he does. I believe in God I have prayed, I will continue to pray, and ask for wisdom. I just needed another opinion.
I understand completely what you are going through, Michelle, having gone through something similar myself. Bipolar disorder, as well as all mental illnesses to a greater or lesser degree, is often as devastating to the loved ones of someone suffering from the illness as it is for the person himself, if not more so. It is very true that many suffering from bipolar disorder as well as other mental illnesses tend to be, as you say, “hyper-religious.” This, to me, is one of the many signs that bipolar disorder is a spiritual, rather than physical illness, as many try to argue. Many who had never even regarded religion before they started suffering from the disease (or before it started to manifest) have suddenly become very religious either around the time they are diagnosed or shortly thereafter.
You touched upon another indicator that bipolar disorder is spiritual in your comment; in fact, it is the main indicator: that is, the fact that “a Godly man wouldn’t want to sin the way [your friend] does.” Bipolar disorder as well as other mental disorders, is characterized by sinful behavior. The type of behavior associated with bipolar disorder is not the type of behavior you would associate with a God-fearing person. Now this doesn’t mean that bipolar people are evil: in fact, in most cases, the exact opposite is true. What it does mean is that they are being influenced by Satan to a greater degree than the average person is influenced in that their thought life is extremely corrupted. Bipolar people have lost the ability to reason, which results in actions that are unreasonable and often don’t line up with the person’s true personality.
What your friend needs is a face-to-face encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. I don’t know what your friend’s relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is, but it is highly likely he is not saved, evident by the fact that he does drugs. Drug, use, according to the Bible, is witchcraft (Deuteronomy 18). A true, Spirit-filled child of the Living God, therefore, would never do drugs. There is no way you can reconcile them with the Christian life. Jesus said that you can tell by the way a person lives his life whether or not he is saved. I think you and I would agree that drug use is not Christian behavior. It is possible that your friend at one point sought out the Lord, as Jesus Himself spoke about those who hear the Word and accept it, but the cares of this world tempt them to ultimately fall off. James 5:19 also makes it clear that some believers fall into sin and must be “converted.” Because James 5:19 calls these people sinners, then it follows that they were never truly converted in the first place. They believed on some level, but they were never really born again.
What is certain is that your friend’s only hope is in Jesus Christ, as Jesus said that He could give anyone 1. Power, 2. Love, 3. A sound mind. It has been my experience, however, that bipolar people are extremely difficult to convince that they need Jesus, especially if they are hyper-religious. In my experience, many people who are bipolar and hyper-religious tend to get very offended when you suggest that their condition is spiritual and will often cite their Christian credentials (choir director, Youth Pastor, grew up in a Christian family, etc.) as proof that they are in a right relationship with God. They don’t understand that a person can be saved and still suffer from bipolar disorder, because bipolar disorder is the result of sin (most likely a generational curse), and a person can be saved and still be affected by a generational curse. I’m a witness. So, while you may talk to him about what we’ve discussed here and even direct him to my article on generational curses, which I highly suggest you read, it is possible that he will resist you on this.
What you can do for your friend is exactly what you said you would do: pray. Your friend needs a lot of prayer; but, while is is commendable that you would pray for him, you must understand that because you are not saved, while God may hear your prayers for your friend and sympathize with you, He is not obligated to answer your prayers because you have not come to Him in the name of Jesus recognizing Him as your Savior. You see, Michelle, when we pray, we are to pray believing God will not only hear us, but that He will also answer us. You cannot believe that God will hear you, because you don’t even believe what the Bible says regarding the Judgment, evidenced by your comment that “we actually don’t know what’s going to happen to us on Judgment day” when Jesus Christ said that on Judgment Day He would separate the sheep (God’s people) from the goats (Satan’s people). To the goats, He said, He will say, “Depart from me, ye wicked, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels”; while, to the sheep, He will say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” There is a day of Judgment, Michelle and it is coming quicker than most of us believe. Only those who are washed in the blood of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, will be saved from this day of reckoning.
The Bible says that if we “regard iniquity in our heart,” the Lord will not hear us (Psalm 66:18). If you want God to hear your prayers for your friend, as well as miss His coming Judgment on this sinful world, then you will need to establish a relationship with God though the Lord Jesus Christ. I invite you to do this today by clicking here
God bless you Michelle, and I hope you make the right decision.
TSM
Please pray for my husband. From the time we had gotten married 2.5 years ago I’ve observed a pattern of fighting one week and then being kind the next. The changes have been literally every other week. He is so mean and cruel when the littlest thing triggers it. Even when it has nothing to do with me. His grandmother and mother suffer from depression and just recently he admits to having mental illness. He said he does t understand why one minute he’s fine and then his emotions crash the next. I’ve told him that Jesus can save him and heal him but he refuses to believe in Jesus. I’m praying for his salvation and complete deliverance.
It’s very common for people suffering from bipolar disorder to resist the Gospel, because mental illness is a stronghold Satan uses to exercise authority over a person. Every time you preach Jesus to your husband, you threaten Satan’s territory, so he will cause your husband to resist the Gospel message as a defensive measure. The fact that his mother and grandmother suffer from depression mean that your husband’s problems are likely due to a generational curse, from which he will eventually have to be delivered if he wants to be free.
I will pray that the Lord Jesus will soften your husband’s heart, and I would also suggest that since he acts out every other week, you go into prayer and fasting a day or two before or during that week (if not the whole week). Now, Satan hates prayer and fasting, so there will be likely be some pushback from your husband; but, since he’s acting out anyway, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
The fact that he admitted to you that he has mental illness and that he doesn’t know why he acts out is a very promising sign, as most won’t even admit that anything’s even wrong with them, let alone own up to their behavior. Just keep on loving on your husband, because understanding and love is exactly what he needs right now. He’s very blessed to have you as his wife, sister. Don’t give up and don’t get discouraged. God sees you, and I love you for what you’re doing for your husband.
I would also suggest that you read our article on generational curses and, if you feel led, share it with your husband. It will open your eyes and bless you.
Your servant,
TSM
Says someone who doesn’t even have bi polar??? Get out of here. I’m diagnosed bi polar but I don’t believe that, I do believe that I am different from others, “normal” people. I’m also one of the sweetest, most loving, generous, compassionate, strong willed, VERY SPRIRTUAL, people you’d ever meet. And I often wonder if others diagnosed are as EXTEMELY big hearted, kind people, but yet were labeled as the most angry…. I’ve been told numerous times things about me glowing, or that People can feel good vibes coming from me, that I just light them up, complete stranger pumping gas next to me stopped me and told me that he could see the lord shining through me, AND GUESS WHAT THEY HAVE NO EARTHLY CLUE I AM BI POLAR AND WHAT MY OWN MIND IS CAPABLE OF DOING, THAT IM SOME FREAK WHO NEEDS TO GET RIGHT WITH THE LORD??? LOLOLOLOL. I was raised in a very Christian and God fearing family. I pray everyday I wake up and go to sleep, the lord is the only thing that keeps me going and having faith. That has kept me from pulling the trigger so many times…. I do believe that our doctors and pharmacys are crooked, but I don’t know how in the world you think you could say , from a far distance from the illness, that we are not right with the lord, or lost spiritually, I actually think the problem sometimes is being TO spiritual and to good hearted and feeling and seeing things differently and more deeply than what YOU and people without the disorder do, which makes us obviously hurt deeper, and think a lot harsher things than you. The mind is a scary and amazing place, and you’ve never been outside of your own simple mind so don’t speak on other peoples. 🙂 especially when you bring the lord into it.
so you basically agree with his article youre just mad? The Devil hates the name of JESUS..say it more and more untill that demon flees.
delusions of grandeur
This is a bunch of bullshit.
Thanks for sharing, Susan.
TSM
It is a bunch of bull I agree with Susan . I had to stop reading after seeing that supposedly we are the same as a schizophrenic install we were being compared to a car battery. People who do not have bipolar disorder or some sort of psychology degree have no right to comment.
*and not install
Disagree
Stillman is correct……the world is blind and many sins have been covered up and we don’t even realize as christians that we are committing them……you can bat it and beat it around a bush but on solid fact is the bible and it does speak of curses sooooo if you say you love god then you cannot deni the fact of what the bible says.
This is a reply to all those claiming this is demonic. You know the Church back in the Middle Ages all the way up to the 1700 and 1800’s considered people with this disorder witches or demon possessed and several were killed for it. You seem to have the same line of thoughts. They don’t know exactly what causes cancer but that does not mean it is a demon. All of this claiming this is demonic make a very sad example of Christians who are ignorant and look for the devil under every rock. I can’t see how you are helping anyone and this comes from a Christian who has had to deal with a great deal of mental illness with family members. You all are feeding yourself milk as babies as you can not handle spiritual meat. The boogie man is not causing this mental illness.
When you say “Church,” to which church are you referring? The church of Jesus Christ: that is, the true Christian Church, never killed anyone. Both those who are ignorant and those who look for the devil under every rock are already sad examples of Christianity, as Christians are neither ignorant nor look for someone who is standing right next to him. Neither, therefore, would be so enlightened as to claim that bipolar disorder is demonic. And, just because you “can’t see” anyone being helped by this information, doesn’t mean that no one is being helped by this information: it merely means that you “can’t see” it. People who can’t see are generally referred to as blind; so your very words have revealed your own blindness and ignorance, as you wrest the Scriptures to your own destruction.
So you are a Christian, yet you seem in denial to demons !? You need more teaching in Christ. Your comment shows that you are quite far from Christ actually.
Sorry Stillman this comment is for A Christian who knows better --
Let’s add in “should” ☺!!
Absolutely!!:-)
TSM- THANK YOU !
My daughter suffers from this thing called ” bipolar” it is demonic , my beautiful sweet loved child turns to into a evil demon, NO ONE will understand until they witness how terrible this thing is ! I believe in God I accept Jesus into my heart and soul but I pray daily to help me to help her. It is like living with the devil, we all walk on eggshells , some days I hate my own life because she is in it. I pray to Jesus to help not to hate her! I love her because I am her mother but I hate this illness. We have tried pills, hospitals, councilors IT DOES NOT WORK. After ready all of this I am just going to pray that Jesus help me to help her find him! I am honestly at my wits end and have come across your page , I feel at peace ! She does not believe in anything , she reminds me of the girl on the exorcist when she is raging berating me like the devil himself. She spits her words and the fire in her eyes reeks evil! I do not know what I did to deserve this in my life but I am praying to Jesus tonight because I need help. Please find it in your heart to pray for me too!
I will be praying for you Jeannie. I know full well what you are going through, as I have gone through this very thing. Yes, bipolar is demonic! What gives it away is the fact that the things bipolar people say and do when they have an episode are all sin. Even their thought life is corrupted. There was a time when we would consider such behavior a red flag that someone needed spiritual help, but because we have become such a sinful society and have been programmed by the media to view sin as normal, this is no longer true. The psychological profession has also played a role in this, as few psychologists and psychiatrists are Christians and therefore believe in Satan and the demonic. Only someone whose moral compass is intact and functioning properly will see Satan at work in bipolar disorder.
I will pray that the Lord Jesus will help you to be patient and keep loving on your daughter while she is dealing with this. I know from experience that the hardest thing about living with someone with bipolar is continuing to love them in spite of their illness. It’s hard. You should also remember that because you are a believer, Satan can always use your daughter’s illness as a way to persecute you.
But don’t despair. Jesus says in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that He will not put more on us than we can bear, but will always “make a way for us to escape.” Just when you think you are at your wit’s end, he will unravel a couple of yards more of wit. When you think you can’t take it anymore, Jesus will give you a shot of patience and a heaping helping of love. So be strong; you will get through this. And as long as you keep loving on your daughter and praying for her, your daughter will too. I will also pray that the Lord Jesus will soften your daughter’s heart and help you to lead her to Him so that He can set her free. And please say a prayer for me and my family. God bless you.
TSM
TSM,
Some of the people writing only know the text book definition of Bipolar NOT what its like to live with someone who has it, I dont even want to call it an illness because I do not believe there is a medical cure. What people dont understand is stated in your first blog. I take my daughter to drs, they spend 10 minutes IF THAT pass of prescription after prescription, its just a legal way of being a drug dealer. Then that Dr will say go see this doctor and that doctor will recommend another. My daughter does not do drugs , I was a good mother to her, I do not do drugs. In the past month they have found ” group” therapy for her , I walked into a group with her to find 25 addicts who are court ordered to be there , WHY in the name of GOD would I send a 20 year old sober person to a group where people are battling drug addiction , she is vulnerable , weak and I fear she will meet that one wrong person who will tempt her with drugs and she will fall pray to that. I struggle daily with my life , my mom had 5 strokes, I refuse to let her go to a nursing home so I take care of her daily , I dont have much of a life of my own because between the two of them it can be somewhat overwhelming. BUT I never feel depressed , people ask me all the time why aren’t you depressed and YOU gave me my answer… I know God / Jesus is with me , there has to be a purpose to my life like this but I do have to ask Jesus to stand with me because it is some days more then what I feel like I can handle. I will pray for you and your family and Thank you for being here to listen …
You are very welcome, Jennie. The testimony of the family and loved ones of someone suffering from bipolar disorder will always be quite different from the person’s own testimony or that of the mental health professionals. I’m so proud of you for sacrificing your own life to take care of your daughter and mom, like a dutiful mom and daughter should do. I’m in a similar situation myself, so I can relate.
I truly believe that Jesus appreciates people who make such sacrifices, because that’s what He did for us. And He will be with us every step of the way. I’m a witness! You know Jeannie, I believe that the true measure of a parent is not how “good” we are, but how hard we try, and how willing we are to make sacrifices for our children. Under the circumstances, I think you are doing an outstanding job of being both a mother and a daughter. Be encouraged!
Your servant in Christ Jesus,
TSM
Thank you Jennie for sharing your story with all of us that really touched me and I will be praying for you and your daughter because our God is ABLE and he is a HEALER. You will be on my mind probably for the rest of the night because i felt your pain and i can relate but i just want to tell you to continue to be a prayer warrior for your daughter, she is going to need a praying mother on her side. God bless you
Your sister in Christ
Thank you Jennie for sharing your story with all of us that really touched me and I will be praying for you and your daughter because our God is ABLE and he is a HEALER. You will be on my mind probably for the rest of the night because i felt your pain and i can relate but i just want to tell you to continue to be a prayer warrior for your daughter, she is going to need a praying mother on her side. God bless you
Your sister in Christ
My mom has bi-polar for years since 1992 and I just thought that’s what it was. But when I decided to live with her again in 2004. It came back. But this time I realize it wasn’t bi-polar it was demon possession. A couple of times she said she will kill me and take me to Jesus herself. Sometimes she would bark like a dog. They would give her medicine. And she would just sleep, like a sedated state. One time she put a penny next to a Jesus picture we had hanging on the door frame of the entrance of the front door. The house we were living in after a while became haunted with demons, for whatever reason. I was getting scratched, I would hear witches laugh, a baby laughing. Things falling off the wall,flashes of light at night time. I could keep them at bay by praying,and reading the bible and playing gospel music real loud. But for some reason it kept attacking my mom, because I guess it didn’t have the same effect on me. This was the time in my life where I was closest to the Lord I have ever been. I have many more examples but im convinced in my mind bipolar is a form of demon possession. She lives with her sister now and she is doing better. She goes to church, I think its a generational curse as well. The reason I said that. I almost drowned when I was 4. My sister died at 22, my brother died at 13. I guess only God knows for sure. Hope this helps. God Bless (=
Thanks, Zam. While I agree that bipolar disorder is demonic, I don’t know if I would say that it is demon possession. Possessed people have been diagnosed bipolar, but not all bipolar people have been possessed. Former witch turned Christian, John Todd, who admitted to having been possessed before he got saved, said that the difference between obsession and possession is that a possessed person does not do a thing without the demon driving him and the demon drives him 24 hours a day. An obsessed person, on the other hand, is at times in control. I would agree with you, then, that bipolar may be “a form of” demon possession, but not full-blown possession. Think about King Saul, who the Bible says was plagued by a demon that would possess him for a time, leave, then come back later. As you say, only God knows for sure.
TSM
My name is Tim, and couldn’t help but interject. I am now 59 years old, and have been a Christian all my life since I can remember at the age of 3 years old. And at 14, I personally received Christ in a formal way acknowledging my faith publically and truly being born again.
I experienced my first episode of mania at age 19, and without going into detail was a horrific experiencing and then concluding I didn’t have enough biblical knowledge. At age 23 I decided to go to Bible college for a year, and believed that knowledge would be the grounding I needed, because I felt it was a spiritual oppression that caused my bipolar episode not a physical one.
Well behold a few weeks before graduating studying only the bible 16 hours a week of formal fundamental class teaching, I again received a horrendous episode of mania destroying my belief it was spiritual not physical.
With that said, looking back with much thought and prayer, I am convinced the Lord had shown me that it is truly a physical condition not a spiritual condition that has caused my episodes, and since then, I have struggled with hypomania causing much damage in life regarding finances, business ventures and relationships believing or denying I had a physical disability.
The Lord when in bible college was telling me through experience that it was not spiritual but physical, but due to my denial as a alcoholic denies his addiction. The Lord simply walked with me through my denial all those decades in life.
I practiced Cognitive therapy on my own which helped strengthen my outward efforts, but however it turns out it was a camouflage or a bandaid over the cause which is physical disorder.
In conclusion of this matter its simple..The Lord showed me that all humanity has some kind of weakness or failure, but its how we deal with those disabilities that God deals with us.
So, its a matter of acceptance and allowing the Lord to work with us to the day we die. I believe the Lord showed me more now that I am out of denial..He spoke to my heart and asked what would I trade my infirmity for? Would I rather be blind, deaf, or born with cerebral palsy? and so forth..
Each of us as Christians carry a cross we did not ask for, but its a matter of how we carry that cross that God is glorified or grieved.. Denial is the worst way of carrying the cross which I did for decades literally blind to actually believe I had a mental illness and He was gracious to show me at a very young age in bible college of all things to get me to a place of acceptance not denial.
But because I chose denial I bared the consequences of life changing poor decisions due to hidden hypomania episodes I chalked up to high energy versus mental dysfunction.
The Lord was with me every second holding my hand while I suffered through these consequences of denial.
Lesson is simply this..Accept your disability and honor the Lord with it..For Paul asked thrice his disability would be taken away, but the lesson to us all is this..His power is made perfect through our weakness and Paul did mighty in the name of the Lord accepting his disability versus fighting it like I did.
So, to our loving brother who admonishes the broken minded, I would say to him, to walk with your brother versus prescribing antedotes and conclusions to very complex issues especially in the area of the mind, a final frontier.
Accept your brother the way he or she is, and offer prayer of helping them carry their cross they were born with rather than labeling that cross as demonic. A discernment that couldn’t be more blind.
Sir, you love the Lord, but in this area of manic depression, bipolar you are truly a blind guide and play the role of the friends in Job that had no clue but offered only abrasiveness to the things of God that was working in Job, as the things in God that work in the souls of the troubled mind, not brought about by spiritual possession, but born out of a fallen humanity one symptom of many the whole human race experiences which is simply the consequences of a sin nature.
I only wish I had learned my lesson earlier that denial versus acceptance will produce a much more peaceful walk with the Lord. But either way He is faithful and always there assisting us in our decisions and walking with us through the poor decisions we make calling something that its not..
Bipolar is a physical disorder, not a spiritual one.
Tim
Tim, I thank you for your testimony and your input. For many, the motivation for insisting that their mental illness is a physical disability is that they are receiving (or hope to receive) some sort of disability compensation. (one woman was even honest enough to confirm this.) Once, I was in the waiting room at the Veterans Administration hospital, when I met a veteran who told me that he didn’t have any mental illness, but had claimed PTSD and was being treated for it so he could get a disability check. He kept telling me how easy it was, seemingly trying to pique my interest. I smelled a rat and logged in my mind that this was probably a setup to get me to also claim PTSD. I’m not saying this is your motivation, but it is for some.
At the end of the day, it is your right, thank God, to choose how you will proceed in life with your illness. It is impossible, however, to “honor God” with mental illness, though a person with mental illness can certainly praise God every day he makes it through. Just because someone has mental illness doesn’t mean he doesn’t love God; and just because someone has mental illness doesn’t mean God doesn’t love him. Mental illness is simply the result of unconfessed sin in our lives, generational or otherwise.
One final thought: Satan has many in bondage through mental illness, and he wants to keep them there. One way he does this is by having people testify that God Himself has shown them that their mental illness is His will for their lives and that mental illness is one way God calls His saints to suffer. While it is possible that some truly believe this, in my experience, most don’t. Both biblical and secular history record Christians suffering in many way, some truly horrific, but mental illness was never one of those ways. The reason for this is simple: a person with mental illness is a poor witness for Jesus Christ, unless he has a testimony of how Jesus healed him from mental illness. Don’t forget that one reason Jesus heals is so that we will give Him the glory and tell others what He has done for us. That is one purpose for our testimony. Most who are suffering from mental illness, however, have no testimony of victory, and they need such a testimony.
Your servant,
TSM
Hi TSM
I appreciate your reply and would encourage our discourse not just for our conversation, but also for others who read can gain insights into our discourse.
Let’s at least agree when alterior motives are concerned that such as disability fraud and “INTENTIONS” to deceive is off topic and obviously does not address the real issues of bipolar which I can attest to.
TSM, after reading your reviews you it is apparent you have obvious beliefs and presumptions regarding the Christian life which I find you are in grave error.
1. Generational Curses-This is a topic many FALSE teachers teach such as Larry Huch who I have researched and his teachings which include many false statements and beliefs.
Generational curses are not true..I am speaking of spiritual curses not dna issues we inherit from our parents in the flesh. I can get into details of this on a later discussion if needed.
If one is convinced spiritual generational curses exist then it becomes extremely problematic in discussing the truth of the bible because it is a presumption that is the basis of logic and conclusion.
So, I conclude that the area of the root issue is your belief in generational curses chalking it all up to this
3. One cannot be a good witness for Christ if they continue in mental illness. Again, another false assumption, and you limit your brothers in Christ and worse are devaluing the Christian faith and Christ Himself.
This comes from the FALSE teaching name it claim it, and comes from the false notion that we are all healed when Christ shed His blood..
The word of faith cult teach this such as most false prophets on TBN, which I fear you maybe a part of this brand of Christianity and thinking.
Regardless, your views align with these false teachers who presume guilt on those who are not living their definition of the abundant life.
My observation in closing TSM is that the real issue in this topic is not bipolar but your view of truth in how God works in the Christian life due to your notions of the name it claim it crowd.
Lastly, anyone is a witness who are His..It is your responsibility as a Christian brother to assist the Holy Spirit in carrying the cross of that brother, not putting that Cross down which Christ is strengthening that brother to carry not discard.
Lots of issues here bro, and its not about bipolar its more about your ignorance and I say that respectfully to your Christian view which is very unbiblical.
Tim
Hello TSM,
I forget to comment on the issue you raised that mental illness is a poor witness?
That is a very extreme biased judgment my friend. Who is anyone to say such things
Sin in a Christians life is a poor witness but you still sin TSM. Sin is actually worse of a condition than mental illness. Because mental illness is not a sin , again it’s a condition .
That’s the problem with you TSM. You lack knowledge and are simply ignorant of biblical facts and theology unfortunately
I would suggest one bro to another bro that you work on your facts and knowledge base for you have become a judge if another brother because you do not have the facts and are blind
I say this as a admonition and a rebuke to you in the Lord and suggest you repent and ask the Lord to open your eyes
My prayer for you friend is this .. I believe you will not repent because you are full of yourself and are a blind guide hurting this area of the body of Christ
My prayer for you is that God would humble you to a place of sober spiritual thinking and He would lay you down for a season even if it means putting you in a place where you cannot speak and have a brother in the Lord to label you as a mute and dumb man instead of showing compassion and understanding
I am convinced this is the only prayer to put you in a place that will give you understanding not to punish you but to simply wake you up to the harm you do to another brother in the Lord simply because you are too spiritually lazy to get the facts and to spiritually blind to hear the Lords correction
I simply rebuke you in the Lord because you speak in your own fleshly mind thinking you bring glory to God but actually bring Shame to His name
Tim
Hello, again, Tim.
I understand perfectly why you would feel that I’m judging you and all those who suffer from mental illness. It’s natural, brother (and I do count you as a brother), given the stigma that has been attached to mental illness that you would be somewhat defensive. Let me say for the record, Tim, that I do not share the thoughts of those who ostracize people who suffer from mental illness. It’s only out of respect for those whom I love that I don’t go into greater detail; but, I know a great deal more about mental illness than you may believe. It is out of love for those suffering from mental illness that I tell you the truth. My beliefs in this regard, they are totally biblical, if you would go to the Bible.
Take a moment, Tim, and think about the Lord Jesus’ ministry when He walked this earth. He’s trying to help His people to understand the error of their ways and to know that though they honor God with their lips, their hearts are far from Him. He told them that, in that state, they would not see the Kingdom of Heaven. And the authority for everything He said were the miracles He performed, which no one had ever before done in the history of the world; yet, they denied Him. Jesus told them the truth, but, being the children of the great patriarch, Abraham, they were lifted up in pride and would not listen to Him, In fact, they murdered Him for nothing more than simply speaking the truth.
I’m not Jesus; that much is clear. But, Jesus did say that the servant is not greater than his master, and that if they called the Master of the house Beelzebub, then you had better believe that the servant will be called far worse. I believe I am speaking the truth about mental illness, and those who suffer from it, who should be more responsive to the message, seeing that most simply write them off, are the most virulent opposition against that truth.
You can no more prove that I am wrong than I can prove that I am right. Mental illness is not a subject that Jesus explicitly preached on, so the Scriptures regarding that subject are relatively few. But, given the heart of man, even if 99% of the Scriptures were on mental illness, most would still doubt and oppose those Scriptures if they don’t line up with “conventional wisdom.” As Jesus said in His story of the rich man and Lazarus, if they have the Bible, yet still do not believe in Hell, then they will not believe even if one were to come back from the dead and tell them.
In closing, therefore, seeing that you have not and, in fact, can not provide any Scriptures to prove your beliefs or disprove mine--except they be wrenched out of context, then let us simply agree to disagree and pray for one another that God will illuminate us more on this matter. I accept your rebuke--as much as my fleshy mind will allow, anyway--and I pray that you are successful in your attempts to glorify God with your illness. I don’t believe I bring shame to the Lord Jesus trying to help those who need it; but, if I am, then I pray He will forgive me. And, I know He will.
TSM
A few days ago, my sister in law (whom is bipolar) and my mom(who i know stuggles in generational curses as many of us do) got into a huge crazy fight at a family gathering…. since then ive been praying for direction in how i could help…. god kept reminding me of the same scripture you have used. God did not give us a spirit of fear but of love, power and a sound mind! He too has been leading me in the same direction, that it is demonic activity whether oppression or possession. I started searching it and found this. God’s confirmation for me! And reading about the generational curses, God has shown me too where i need to be praying for my own family. I shared it all with my brother and am hoping he will be able to help his wife! He did receive it well, i was worried about that but he knows it was out of love and concern for his family that i am trying to help.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and standing firm in your beliefs and convictions. We live in a time when many are so disceived and blind. Some will receive it with an open heart and there are those that won’t but at least you can say for yourself you obeyed and did what you felt led to do.
The majority of what you have said was confirmation and some i will be praying and seeking God for myself. After reading some comments on here, it also confirms again for me how close we are to the end…. and sadly so many people including some christians are so blind to the truth, but one day we will all face God and find out for ourselves…. but then for those who chose not to believe for their salvation,it will be too late…. it breaks my heart knowing this!
Hi, Liz. I am so encouraged that you found confirmation here that mental illness is demonic activity. I’m also very encouraged that you have consequently taken it upon yourself to pray for your family, because PRAYER IS WHERE IT’S AT! It is on your knees that your family will ultimately defeat Satan and his mental illness agenda. Thank you for sharing this information with your brother, and I’m happy that he received it well, knowing that you did so out of love and concern. I’ll be praying for you and your family. True, Liz, we are close to the end, and the fact that many of the household of faith are as deceived as those in the world is the proof. But those who know their God will shine as brightly as the firmament, and shall do exploits.
TSM
Mr. Still Man,
In one of your responses you mentioned that “not all christians have a teachable spirit”. Based on your lack of understanding (and lazy research) about Bipolar v.s Schizophrenia, and your responses to some of the comments from people who are trying to help educated you, it appears that you are speaking about yourself. I don’t know you but you seem very proud and stubborn on your position that you believe has been given to you by God. Sometimes it takes years for God to teach us something and often it is through unexpected sources. You said “you tested Jesus” in this matter… did you ever think that He’s testing you and your willingness to put aside your stubborn spirit?
I am a born again believer and have struggled with manic-depression most of my life. I spent most of my youth and young adult life praying for God’s deliverance, searching my heart for my “unconfessed sins” (known and unknown), speaking the name of Jesus against spiritual forces, and pouring over scripture. Despite these efforts, that few christians I know do on a regular basis, I became sicker over time and nearly suicided twice during wildly psychotic episodes. That is until God lead me to a doctor who prescribed me medications THAT WORK.
I have been stable for many years on the medication I’m currently on. You can argue your belief, as an outsider who has never experienced mental illness- but I’ve been through it, asked God for the answers, and believe He has shown me that bipolar IS a physical illness. So by your rationalization, did God teach you something special and lie to me? I have a much better relationship with God now that my mental health is being properly treated with medications… is my improved relationship with God also a demonic plot to keep me ill? Yes, I will always need medication but short sighted people will always need glasses (vision problems are based on symptoms and these eye differences can be seen with refractors- mental illness is based on symptoms and these brain differences can be seen on MRIs)… why are they not accused of harbouring sin or being generationally cursed?
If I am correct, that you have no interest in learning anything, then what I have to say won’t matter much. But we are all accountable for what we do in the name of Christ. I agree that we can’t ignore the spiritual side of things (and I do believe the mentally ill are at more risk for demonic oppression/possession) but it does great harm when we pass off something physical as, simply, a “sin problem”. The book of Job is a great example of a sufferer being ignorantly accused instead of supported. We don’t always know why God asks us to suffer the way we do but passing off God’s ‘thorn in our flesh’, as being evil, is simplistic and could even be argued as a lack of faith in God’s design. Please don’t be that guy who persecutes a struggling brother that could be helped by acknowledging their physical disability.
Liz, there is a lot I could say, but I simply won’t. You can try to educate me all you want; but don’t get upset if I adhere to my beliefs based on 1. the Bible, 2. practical experience. Again, I say, you don’t have to suffer from mental illness to be able to speak on it and help others who are. Your use of Job as an example of someone wrongly accused does not apply here, because Job did not suffer from mental illness. Even when his wife tried to get him to commit suicide, Job still kept it together. I say again: Jesus promised the Christian 1. power, 2. love, and 3. A SOUND MIND. You can argue the point, but that’s one promise I’m holding onto. Why don’t you go to my ABOUT page and read my testimony of how the forces of darkness constantly use mind control techniques against me? I’m sure that one reason they do this is because I know that people can be set free of mental illness if they would just trust and believe the Scriptures. And Satan does not like it one bit that I preach this, because he’s afraid someone might listen, and he wants you to stay in bondage. Praise God that some people have listened and have profited thereby.
Think about it: Paul had vision problems, Timothy was often sick, Epaphraditus was also sick, in fact, he almost died. Moses stayed stressed out. Suffering is part of the Christian life, no doubt, and stress plays a major role in that (it’s one of Satan’s favorite weapons). But not one of the saints in the Bible suffered from mental illness (i.e. bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, etc.). There’s a good reason for this: 2 Timothy 1:7.
If you want to believe that your mental suffering is part and parcel of your Christian walk, well, you are free to believe that. A good friend of mine always says that there are enough ways in the world for everyone to have one of there own. Your way may not be my way, but if it works for you, then who am I to argue? Likewise, why get upset with me because my experience differs from yours? And don’t use the fact that I teach my beliefs as an excuse to lambast me. The world is being influenced by people with way bigger platforms than mine and with agendas much more sinister than mine, and people are paying them to do so. The Lord Jesus “went around doing good,” and people said He was possessed. I don’t expect any better.
TSM
I apologize that you feel my skepticism about God’s direction in regards to your perspective on this matter is me “lambasting you”. Did you ever stop to think that it feels like lambasting to the mentally ill when you publicly dismiss their physical disability as a “sin problem” or “generational curse”- you have no proof that mental illnesses are not physical- you are making an assumption, just as you’re making an assumption about me. You don’t know anything about me except that I have a diagnosed mental illness; yet you still make the assumption that I am “living in bondage” and that you have a better relationship with God than I … can you quantify that for me? In fact, it sort of looks like you’re implying that any attempt to challenge your position is a demonic “mind control technique against you” to throw you off course. I can’t beat you when you’re making a claim like that can I?
You adhere your belief to 1. Your interpretation of the Bible (not the same thing as “The Bible”) 2. Your practical experience (which has nothing to do with Bipolar or Schizophrenia making it about as relevant to this issue as my misuse of the example of Job that you felt the need to nitpick about). By the same twisting of the bible that you use to support the idea that mental illness didn’t exist biblically among the righteous, I could also twist by telling you to read the Psalms and account of King David… the guy looks pretty Bipolar to me and he was a man after God’s own heart.
I also have 35 years of practical experience that supports my position. Considering my position is a first hand account with evidence to support my claim (being that my medication works), that I too prayed for God’s discernment in this issue, AND there is no evidence here to support that God has handpicked you over me… I’d say my position has more weight being that I, at least, have some anecdotal evidence that supports my claim. But I don’t care about being ‘right’ I care about the number of people, saved and unsaved, that you are isolating and causing needless suffering to with your dogma.
Furthermore, in numerous responses you have likened yourself to Jesus. You even ended your response to me that way. I gotta say, that doesn’t sit well with me… seriously, don’t you see the egotism in comparing yourself to Christ?
You say you preach what you do to help people out of bondage. You clearly weren’t listening to me when I said that I haven’t been suffering with my mental illness since I started taking effective medications. I was in bondage when I was unmedicated and believed that God was punishing me for 25 years while I, and the rest of my church, tried to psycho-analyse my “sin problem” and “generational curse”. I’m not saying that these are not real issues in the Christian community but, for me, they weren’t the smoking gun you claim it is.
I can claim Jesus’s promise of 1. Power 2. Love 3. A SOUND MIND since He led me to the healing power of modern medications. Just because God didn’t heal me through some mystical means and exorcism doesn’t mean He didn’t heal me. I thank God everyday for my medications, I am free because of this blessing, and I will not let Satan keep me in bondage because of my refusal to accept that my illness has a physical basis.
I know this may come off as an unloving response but it wounds me deeply to think of the number of people who suffer and die, needlessly, because nobody takes the physical side of mental illnesses seriously. Yes, you should help people by trying to free them from spiritual oppression BUT don’t let Satan use you to keep the sick from getting the medical help they need as well.
Liz, try to understand that I am only one person out of over seven billion on the earth, only a literal handful of whom are Christians. Of that handful of Christians, I am one of a relative few who believe as I do (or at least one of the few who dares to publicly express his beliefs). I just don’t have the reach to make any kind of real impact on the world. Because my message is unpopular even with many professed Christians, no one is going to promote my beliefs to the mass of humanity. My ministry, therefore, is a niche ministry, which means that the vast majority of those suffering from mental illness are not going to be effected by my message.
Like you, many, if not most, of those who will at least admit they suffer from mental illness are satisfied believing their problems are physical, and are okay taking medications. For most the medication merely treats the symptoms but does nothing to solve the problem, and many have resigned to believing that is as good as it gets.Unlike you, however, most have not found anything truly effective in the way of medicine. I am not trying to reach those people, because many such are not looking for solutions, but, rather, are looking for confirmation that what they are doing and how they feel about what they are doing is okay. And, because few really want to hear the truth, but, as the Bible says, have “itching ears” and are just looking for someone to scratch them, then those people will find the confirmation they are looking for, as you have.
My ministry is for those who have tried everything and listened to everyone and have still found no relief. A person like that is now ready to listen, not just hear. One has nothing to lose by listening to me, but, rather, one has everything to gain. He risks only getting better. If he listens to me and doesn’t like what he hears, then he simply goes back to doing whatever he was doing (or not). Even if he gets his feelings hurt, he’ll be okay. Some, however, rather than do this, attack the messenger, or attempt to get me to change my stance. Why? because they don’t agree with me? This is pointless. What may not work for you may work for others. So, if it doesn’t work for you, the prudent thing to do would be to move on to something you find useful.
You may one day run into someone who was in your same situation and had tried everything you tried, yet found no relief. In this situation, out of Christian charity rather than for the sake of your own beliefs, you should offer that person an alternative. That is where I come in.
In closing, I will say that there is no way I can stop a person from seeking medical help, if he is so inclined, as a medical solution is the first alternative for most. Nearly everyone who comes to this site has already sought medical help, that’s why they come. At the risk of sounding unloving, people such as yourself, who through your unbelief and intolerance of alternative points of view, are the ones who may ultimately stop people who desperately need deliverance from getting it.
So, I thank you for your insight. And I wish you all the best with your treatment. God bless you.
TSM
I do hear what you’re saying. After having read more of your website I have to admit that, in general, we share similar views on several issues. On the subject of mental illness, we obviously disagree- although I have never denied that spiritual oppression can be involved (I am neither “unbelieving” nor “intolerant” of this idea as you suggest). I simply believe that there is a physical component, as well, in the majority of cases. That has been my personal experience and the testimony of many of my Christian brothers and sisters who have battled this.
I always consider the spiritual aspect when interacting with those with mental health issues (my father was a pastor and I have seen some scary demonic stuff) and believe that a relationship with Christ is the first step towards real freedom. I don’t stop those who need God’s deliverance, I encourage it. But I also know, from experience, that it DOES cause harm when someone, like me, loses 25+ years of their life, growing sicker, while beating themselves up about the fact that their constant prayers for healing/deliverance and pleading with God to forgive their sins (and the sins of their ancestors) is not working. Over the years this damaged my relationship with God and caused me to question everything I believed about Him. Then God lead me to the doctor I have now. I was put on medication and have experienced great relief through this. Through the restoration of my mind I have been able to see that God has never left me, or forsaken me, but that His journey for me was different from what I had expected. I believe God has shown me that mental illness has a physical component so that I can be supportive to others, like me, who live with disabilities that the Christian community, as a whole, are still struggling to understand. Your perspective is not, at all, unpopular amongst many Christians and your opinion that mental illness is not a physical illness is not unpopular in the secular world either. The stigma with mental illness is crushing and the mentally ill are pariahs almost everywhere they go (that’s why we keep it a secret).
You feel your ministry is for those who have tried everything and listened to everyone and still found no relief- I feel my ministry is the same (just on the other end of things). You are hoping to offer help to those who are spiritually oppressed and I’m hoping to offer help to those who are not, solely, spiritually oppressed but suffering due to physical factors.
I thank you for taking the time to respond to my responses. I still strongly disagree with your perspective on this matter but I have prayed over this conversation and feel that your intentions are well-meaning. I pray that God will use your ministry to help others and that we, both, will remain open to God’s leading in our lives.
Hi, Liz. I’m sorry you lost over 25 years of your life from mental illness the whole time searching for the way out. Though I’ve never suffered from mental illness, I know something of bondage, having been a slave to Satan through lust a great many years, and I know how such bondage can impair one’s judgment, even though he may always be in his right mind. I just want to use my experience and what the Lord Jesus has shown me to help people get well, especially my brothers and sisters of the household of faith. I’m glad you understand that. I will try to always remain open to the leading of the Holy Spirit in my life, and I thank you for your perspective as well as your well wishes for this ministry. May the Good Lord Jesus richly bless you and yours.
Your servant,
TSM
Liz , Hi I am going to pray for you and that you soften up your heart and ask God to help you and deliver you from the bondage of mental illness (demonic influence). It is aparent from reading your responses that this is bothering you to hear someone say mental illness stems from demonic presence, generational curses, etc. BUT i can feel just from reading your words that the enemy does NOT want you to figure it out that he has his way in your mind. I speak healing over your life in the name of JESUS!!
Well, this entire thing is just a shame. This ads to the category of ignorance and misinformation known as; Christians that do not acknowledge the reality of mental illness. Informed Christians know that there’s a difference between demonic activity and true mental illness. Yes, demon activity in ones life WILL affect your mental health, undoubtedly! It can copy some symptoms of mental illness. However, the prevalence of real demonic activity in ones life, be it oppression or possession, is probably much less common than people such as yourself might think… There’s a hell of a lot of people with anxiety, depression, bipolar, schizophrenia, BPD, etc, that aren’t demonic in nature, but stem from brain disorders OR thinking issues caused from a tragic life; think PTSD and nightmares after witnessing the gore and suffering of war.
Firstly, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are two entirely different ILLNESSES with different symptoms. Schizophrenia is much like this:
Hallucinations.
Delusions.
Disorganized speech.
Disorganized or catatonic behavior.
Negative symptoms (emotional flatness, apathy, lack of speech)
There is a whole host of symptoms for schizophrenia, but in general it’s when somebody is extremely paranoid, delusional, and has no grasp on reality whatsoever -- schizophrenics do not get manic. The only similarity is both disorders can present delusions.
Bipolar is when you experience ABNORMAL HIGHS and LOWS, as well as anxiety and everything in between; it’s far from simple. The issue is not these ‘apposing poles’ or whatever that ridiculous comparison was, the issue is the depression itself, and the mania/hypomania itself -- the issue isn’t the contrast of the two.. Which is why plain old depression is STILL an issue. If a person had just hypomania or mania, it’s still an issue regardless if there’s depression present at other periods. Get it? So that whole argument of the issue being the two opposites is rubbish. The issue isn’t the existence of both, it’s just that both exist with this condition.
Bipolar can include delusions such as schizophrenics get, however, it’s entirely different in nature. Mania is when a person is so high, so inflated, so ‘UP’ they often believe in delusions mainly about their own power or ability, such as thinking one is the son of God, the smartest man on earth, has the cure to cancer etc. Hypomania as seen in type 2 bipolar disorder is also a huge, huge issue, and this is the kind of bipolar disorder I’ve had my whole life.
Hypomania is a milder form of mania where NO delusions are present. It is, simply put for your simple mind, as if you are on a great deal of speed or amphetamine ALL THE TIME. The ‘gogo’ feel good chemicals in your brain are all up, all out of control, you RACE, you cannot slow down or calm down, you plan grand futures for yourself, some people can use this hypomania to be wildly successful, others get a more irritable version; but with hypomania there’s next to NO sleep, and until you medically intervene, you only go higher and higher and sleep less and less, getting more and more energetic until your brain ‘bums out’ and you crash into a lasting and very real serious depression. It is no small deal, I assure you! And I assure you that you will never feel as euphoric as I have, even if you do drugs.
Bipolar wreaks havoc on every aspect of your life. From personal health, relationships, financial to your career. If you have bipolar YOU and OTHERS WILL KNOW. It is in no way mild and sooner or later with the disorder untreated you will wind up in a hospital somewhere to get the diagnosis for the condition you have. Until you get that diagnosis, learn of your condition, take medication, nothing will improve, the symptoms worsen over time.
it’s real, it runs in families and here’s the thing; while there is certainly the possibility of people being demonically possessed or oppressed, it’s uncommon. And it’s ENTIRELY different from mental illness.
True demonologists have a psychiatrist evaluate somebody prior to exorcism to test if it’s supernatural, truly, in nature, or if the person has bipolar, schizophrenia, or perhaps another disorder which may include delusions such as schizoeffective. All disorders are entirely different with severely different symptoms and very different treatment. But the same way chest pain can be caused by two different illnesses exhibiting much the same pain, similarly, mental illness symptoms can be similar. And guess what? 9/10 cases are that the person is mentally ill and can only improve through psychiatric intervention, NOT through any amount of prayer unless God grants them a miracle cure, which most people do not get. We must all suffer in our own ways.
Also they do know a lot about mental illness now and what causes the illness. Heard of dopamine? Seratonin? Well, if your seratonin and dopamine is constantly going WAY UP then WAY DOWN, you’ll experience the depression and mania. Drugs to this to people, but with bipolar, your brain does it on its own.
With brain mapping and brain scans they can now see the insanely different brain activity with people who are manic, hypomanic, compared to normal people -- and depressed people compared to those not depressed. This included abnormalities in brain structure, such as a shrunken hippocampus in many depressed people, and insanely over active brains in those manic. Cool thing is people that take medication and respond to treatment, over time, their brain structure can actually repair, people with shrunken hippocampus’ can actually recover and it can grow while taking anti depressants and going to treatment. Medication now targets particular processes and regions that are abnormal in those with bipolar for instance, and works tremendously well in treating the condition.
If you throw medication at somebody whose problems stem from demons then the medication and treatment will not work; JUST THE SAME as praying for somebody with bipolar is infact very very dangerous! DO NOT CONVINCE somebody with a delusional disorder they have demons… This can lead to anything, suicide, hospital, you name it.
I told you I have bipolar and I convinced myself for a very long time in the past that it was DEMONIC in nature. It was a dark delusional depression where I was convinced. I underwent exorcisms, I prayed and prayed and I was DELUSIONAL AND SICK through getting overly spiritual while unmedicated. Basically, spirituality made me incredibly sick because I was SICK WITH AN ILLNESS and sometimes you need to pray as you seek treatment. If you have cancer, you pray, but you also go to get surgery, chemo, etc, you do not rely on prayer alone; same applies to depression, anxiety, etc.
I have since learned that God will help me with bipolar disorder but I will always experience crippling depressions, euphoric highs, and irritable times; I will always be at risk of suicide and reckless behavior and I always need support and to be very mindful and strict with my lifestyle. With the right medication, and I only take one, I experience no delusional thoughts, I sleep 8 hours, maintain a job and relationship, all of these things impossible without the appropriate treatment. I can now have a healthy prayer life and a healthy spiritual outlook. I no longer run around trying to heal people and pray for strangers while hypomanic, and do not think I am being tormented by demons while depressed.
If I blame my mental condition on spiritual issues the problems will worsen drastically because my problems are mental NOT spiritual. Spiritually I am doing really well and God is proud of me.
Is diabetes demonic?
Is a broken leg demonic?
Is a liver disease demonic?
You would come across insulting if you weren’t just so ignorant of mental illness. This is why mentally ill people commit suicide, because they are too proud and too afraid to ask for help because they are afraid of people like you that insult their suffering and pain and diminish their real problems into fantasy. You truly can have no say on the topic of mental illness if you haven’t done appropriate research, and unless you or somebody close to you has battled a severe mental illness.
Well, the brain malfunctions as any organ does. The brain is the human computer and network that controls EVERYTHING, why is it hard for people like you to grasp the reality that the brain can be sick like any other organ? Epilepsy is a brain illness, is that demonic? Are those seizures just because they are not ‘born again’?
God gives all humans suffering. And mental anguish and illness is another form and a ‘demon’ we must battle, not spiritually, but medically first and foremost.
It’s been a pleasure trying, hopefully with a good result, to change your mind on this.
To begin, I must address something you said near the close of your comment. You said: “This is why mentally ill people commit suicide, because they are too proud and too afraid to ask for help” and that people like me cause them to commit suicide with our belief that the cause of their problem could be spiritual. This is simply not true. There are people who need help, but are afraid to ask for it, and there are people who need help, but are too proud to ask for it. I have belonged to both groups at one time or another in my life. But I have never committed suicide. Mentally ill people who commit suicide do not do so because they get their feelings hurt; they do so because they are mentally ill. If you are mentally ill and prone to commit suicide, you will do so even if you have a caring family, friends, are in a relationship, have a steady income, and have a great support system, and you know that this is true. This is what characterizes mental illness. You admit that you are a suicide risk. Is this because you may run into a Christian who says that your problems may be spiritual? Or is it because of your condition?
You make far too many unsubstantiated claims to defend you views. For instance, you say that the prevalence of real demonic activity in one’s life is probably much less common than people such as myself think yet, but you cannot prove that. You say “there’s a hell of a lot of people with anxiety, depression, bipolar, schizophrenia, BPD, etc. that aren’t demonic in nature,” but you would have no way of knowing this unless you had personal knowledge of all these cases. You attribute their mental illness to brain disorders, “thinking issues” caused by things like PTSD and nightmares caused by war, but this is another dubious claim. Those who have been in war, such as myself, make up less than 1/100 of one percent of the total population, and those who suffer PTSD from witnessing the horrors of war are even less. Those who have suffered a brain disorder are fewer still. Yet, mental illness has been on a steady increase for decades. By some estimates, more than 40% of the population suffer from some form of mental illness. How can this be? Many, such as yourself, try to gainsay the prevalence of demonic activity in our day, but you cannot do so without reaching for straws.
You believe that mental illness can be caused by one’s seratonin and dopamine levels “going WAY UP,” and that with bipolar disorder, the brain “does it on its own.” I submit that our bodies do nothing on their own. If one’s seratonin and/or dopamine goes up (or down) something (or someone) is causing it to go up or down. Now, in my experience, things that happen to our bodies have either a physical (medical) cause, or a spiritual cause.
Regardless what you say, you believe in your heart that mental illness is spiritual and not medical, as you say, “If you throw medication at somebody whose problems stem from demons then the medication and treatment will not work.” Did you know that the vast majority of those being treated for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are not getting better? In some cases, the medication may help their manic and depressive episodes or help them to function fairly normally through such episodes, but they never get better and they are rarely, if ever, cured.
You say that it is “very very dangerous” to pray for someone with mental illness. Dangerous to whom? If you mean the person who is mentally ill, what does he have to lose? You say that the delusional person who is convinced his problems are demonic could commit suicide or end up in the hospital, but many people--yourself included--are convinced that mental illness is not demonic, and are a suicide risk anyway. You also say that if a bipolar person goes untreated, he will “sooner or later” end up in the hospital. Again, what does he has to lose seeking help from Jesus?
Now, if you mean dangerous to the person doing the praying, you are dead wrong. God would never allow one who prays for another to get harmed by Satan. As a matter of fact, James 5:16 says that when we get sick, we should “pray one for another that ye may be healed.” Come on now!
God loves prayer. Look at Job. The Bible tells us that God healed Job “when he prayed for his friends” (Job 42:10). Job didn’t get further afflicted because he prayed for them, but he got healed! This agrees with Jesus’ commandment for us to “Love one another.” It is never wrong or dangerous to pray for someone. I have heard such a doctrine before from a man who claims to be a Christian psychologist, but whom I suspect is actually a Jesuit. Now, if this was your experience, you must remember that by your own admission, you were “delusional and sick” while you were praying for others. What may have happened is that Satan did not appreciate you praying for anyone while he was busy afflicting you and tried (successfully) to discourage you from praying by afflicting you in the process. I pray all the time for people who are burdened by Satan, and have even prayed and fasted with them. My family and I are under steady attack because of this, but it hasn’t and won’t deter me. Jesus loves it when we pray for others.
I will say that it is very important to stay prayed up yourself and keep it “under the blood” (confess sins) while praying for someone who is in bondage to Satan, but you needn’t be concerned about any danger. If there were danger in it, I believe the Lord Jesus would have warned us.
Allow me to address one last comment that you made. You say that I have no right to speak on the topic of mental illness if I haven’t 1. done the “appropriate” research, 2. suffered from mental illness myself, or 3. know someone close who has suffered from mental illness. As far as research, I have researched the topic of mental illness both from a spiritual and temporal perspective. You may not appreciate my views, but they are no less valid. As far as me not having had mental illness, Jesus never sinned, yet 99.9999% of his preaching was on sin. Did he speak out of place?
As far as someone close to me suffering from mental illness, suffice it to say that I have suffered as much as anyone who lives with a person suffering from mental illness. And the more you love them, the more it hurts.
Thank you, Kieran, for your comment. Let me begin by saying that the problem with the term mentally ill is that it fools people into believing that mental illness is as normal as breaking a leg or having a disease. You yourself have implied this. The term mental illness, while easier to hear, over-simplifies a very devastating state of being.
I must also address something you said near the close of your comment. You said: “This is why mentally ill people commit suicide, because they are too proud and too afraid to ask for help” and that people like me cause them to commit suicide with our belief that the cause of their problem could be spiritual. This is simply not true. There are people who need help, but are afraid to ask for it, and there are people who need help, but are too proud to ask for it. And there are people who commit suicide and don’t belong to either group. Mentally ill people who commit suicide do not do so because they get their feelings hurt; they do so because they are mentally ill. That is one reason they are considered mentally ill. Mentally ill people are not horrible people. They are not pariahs. They do not deserve to be scorned or shunned. They are simply mentally ill, which, for me, means they can’t properly cope with the issues of life. They don’t function as they should, and they need help. Most harm only themselves, some harm others; But, all--without exception--harm those closest to them.
While I applaud your zeal, you make far too many unsubstantiated claims in defense of you views. For instance, you say that the prevalence of real demonic activity in one’s life is probably much less common than people such as myself think yet, but you cannot prove that. You say “there’s a hell of a lot of people with anxiety, depression, bipolar, schizophrenia, BPD, etc. that aren’t demonic in nature,” but you would have no way of knowing this unless you had personal knowledge of all these cases. You attribute their mental illness to brain disorders, “thinking issues” caused by things like PTSD and nightmares caused by war, but this is another dubious claim. Those who have been in war, such as myself, make up less than 1/100 of one percent of the total population, and those who suffer PTSD from witnessing the horrors of war are even less. Those who have suffered a brain disorder are fewer still. Yet, mental illness has been on a steady increase for decades. By some estimates, more than 40% of the population suffer from some form of mental illness. How can this be? Those, such as yourself, who gainsay the prevalence of demonic activity in our day, cannot do so without reaching for straws.
You believe that mental illness can be caused by one’s seratonin and dopamine levels “going WAY UP,” and that with bipolar disorder, the brain “does it on its own.” I submit that our bodies do nothing on their own. If one’s seratonin and/or dopamine goes up (or down) something (or someone) is causing it to go up or down. Now, in my experience, things that happen to our bodies have either a physical (medical) cause, or a spiritual cause.
Regardless what you say, you believe in your heart that mental illness is spiritual and not medical, as you say, “If you throw medication at somebody whose problems stem from demons then the medication and treatment will not work.” Did you know that the vast majority of those being treated for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are not getting better? In some cases, the medication may help their manic and depressive episodes or help them to function fairly normally through such episodes, but they never get better and they are rarely, if ever, cured.
You say that it is “very very dangerous” to pray for someone with mental illness. Dangerous to whom? If you mean the person who is mentally ill, what does he have to lose? You say that the delusional person who is convinced his problems are demonic could commit suicide or end up in the hospital, but many people--yourself included--are convinced that mental illness is not demonic, and are a suicide risk anyway. You also say that if a bipolar person goes untreated, he will “sooner or later” end up in the hospital. Again, what does he has to lose seeking help from Jesus?
Now, if you mean dangerous to the person doing the praying, you are dead wrong. God would never allow one who prays for another to get harmed by Satan. As a matter of fact, James 5:16 says that when we get sick, we should “pray one for another that ye may be healed.” Come on now!
God loves prayer. Look at Job. The Bible tells us that God healed Job “when he prayed for his friends” (Job 42:10). Job didn’t get further afflicted because he prayed for them, but he got healed! This agrees with Jesus’ commandment for us to “Love one another.” It is never wrong or dangerous to pray for someone. I have heard such a doctrine before from a man who claims to be a Christian psychologist, but whom I suspect is actually a Jesuit. Now, if this was your experience, you must remember that by your own admission, you were “delusional and sick” while you were praying for others. What may have happened is that Satan did not appreciate you praying for anyone while he was busy afflicting you and tried (successfully) to discourage you from praying by afflicting you in the process. I pray all the time for people who are burdened by Satan, and have even prayed and fasted with them. I will admit that my family and I are under steady attack largely, I believe, because of this, but we understand that this is goes with the territory. Jesus loves it when we pray for others.
It is very important to stay prayed up yourself and keep it “under the blood” (confess sins) while praying for someone who is in bondage to Satan, but you needn’t be concerned about any danger. If there were danger in it, I believe the Lord Jesus would have warned us and discouraged us from praying for those in bondage.
Allow me to address one last comment that you made. You say that I have no right to speak on the topic of mental illness if I haven’t done the “appropriate” research, suffered from mental illness myself, or know someone close who has suffered from mental illness. As for research, I have researched the topic of mental illness from a spiritual and temporal perspective, and am satisfied that my understanding of it is correct. In fact, in my opinion, the medical profession understands so little about mental illness, that the biblical perspective is the only one that makes sense. You may not appreciate my views, but they are no less valid. As far as me never having suffered from mental illness, the Lord Jesus never sinned, yet 99.9999% of His preaching was on sin. Did He speak out of place? And lastly, regarding knowing someone who has suffered from mental illness, suffice it to say that I have suffered as much as anyone who loves someone who is suffering from mental illness. In the words of Forrest Gump, “That’s all I got to say about that.”
God bless you.
TSM
Although i am not a Christian, i resonate to the general message behind your article.
I feel you are in the right spot but if you keep limiting yourself to one perspective you will never see the bigger picture. As this is your own free will, this is just my advice.
There IS a spiritual “war” going on but this has been going on since before the oldest times described in any Christian text. (Yes the Earth is way older then 6000 years)
Search an ye will find..
Yet it is not a war, but just the everlasting searching for balance between the two forces of this Universe. (Which you call God and Satan)
The fact these things are happening (in the spirit world) should not scare all of you people any more than the fact that their live at least a million mites in your mattrass.
So above, So below..
We feed on lower density entities (plants/animals) and so do higher density entities feed on us, only because they are not made of material, our food for them also has to be non-material. So whats the non material thing we humans have in common and are transmitting 24.7? Emotions!
Now do we get it?
Everybody here is trying to prove their right and wrongs, is it so hard to accept that people have different ways of seeing thing and that it might, IT MIGHT, could be that BOTH of the perspectives contain the truth?
As someone who has studied all available knowledge since 14 (religion, sience, para sience, etc. etc.), and someone who has something like bi-polar/schizophrenia (never diagnosed, dont trust doctors) i can tell that all of you people are wrong and right in some kind of way.
To the people who say that it is a brain disfunction, this is true, as our emotions (which are the building blocks of the manic/depressed episoded) are governed by chemicals whitin our celebro. But WHY become these chemicals out of balance?
T0 the people who believe it is merely a spiritual event, this is also true, but these ‘demons’ (its just enitities from higher lifeform though) cant just magically cause a decease in someone, as we are all protected by the Love and Light of the Infinite Creator.
But there are occasions, when our defenses are weakened, like when we are not balanced (when we are “ill”, have a “disorder” or decease, but also if we dont eat/drink the right things, when we seek the negative, etc. etc.)
Disbalances are caused by the Law of Karma(sin?) and can/will manifest in a physical/mental form as a result of your action. Like the author states this can come from familiar Karma (sin?) or even racial Karma. I personally believe that it even goes from/with you in to your next experiences as an incarnated soul. (I know you wont agree with that but its a pity that so many people believe that there is only life as that limits your opportunities to become enlightened in the long term)
Now should we see this as a reason to lower our heads and just live with it?
Accept ourselfs as incomplete beings because this is the way your God want it?
Take meds that make you “better” in the moment but destroy your spirit?
(People who believe that gifted people invent all medicine for the better of us dont know NOTHING about the pharmaceutical industry, if this where true, why do most medicines have side effects that are worse then the actual illness itself?! And if you really look at the results of these medicine and you please be honest to yourself.
ARE THESE PEOPLE REALLY CURED BY THESE MEDICINeS???
Or are they just being held in a situation which is acceptable to them (and foremost society)
(I’m not saying that all medicines do no good.. Offcourse they’ll do what you take em for, thats what they are invented for.. But at what price?)
The answers to all these questions is NO.
You shouldn’t “just” live (like that is even possible) with it.
Neither should you just trust the lord and pray that it will go away.
Your God is a creator, and we are his co-creators.
Our Universe is made of infinite creation.
If you are born with an illness, disorder, decease or whatever..
IT IS YOUR DUTY TO SOLVE IT..
And thats not by just giving yourself to the lord Jesus and pray a lot.
(although i either dont see that as a wrong thing! Prayer/meditation (same) is good, its just not all there is)
The evidence is dat their are many people (as read above) who are very committed to their religion and still suffer..
As an old saying says:
Your salvations lies in the wounds that has been given to you.
People try to see the bigger picture and you will see that we are all participating in a great scheme of things, this goes further then the Bible (sorry to say) or any other religion of believe system “known” today.
P.S.
You may call me a sinner for not being a Christian, i call it freedom of choise to follow the way of the Infinite Creator as i want to, as this is who/what we are.
Discovering ourselfs (sparks of the Infinite Creator) in all possible ways.
Blessings
P.P.S.
Before any of you naggers is going to complain about my grammer or spelling,
I am not an native English speaker so save your sorrow.
P.P.P.S.
Please dont reply with any Biblical references but with your own LOGIC.
Hello Still Man,
I am a certified Mental Health First Aid instructor and I teach the course to the general public for Ventura County Behavioral Health and I teach it from a Christian perspective in local evangelical churches. The following comments do not represent the views of Ventura County Behavioral Health, Mental Health First Aid USA, nor the evangelical churches that I teach the course in.
Bi-Polar disorder is a physical disease in which the brain causes people to have manic phases (chemicals cause their body and brain to be supercharged) and depression phases (brain does not produce serotonin and other chemicals) and this causes the body to shut down and often persons with the disease physically unable to wake up or get out of bed. I believe the Bible is the infallible Word of God and it teaches that disease and death came into the world as a result of original sin. However, It does not tell us why certain people get specific diseases (cancer, asthma, etc). If your assertions about Bi-polar disease and sin are correct then the majority (all have sinned- and even the best of Christians still sin) of people would have Bi-Polar disease as well as episodes where they could not physically go to sleep for days and could not wake up or physically function because of depression. Science has proven that Bi-Polar disease is primarily the result of genetics like cancer or diabetes. Yes diabetes & cancer can be brought on by behavior or physical conditions in the environment(sugar abuse or polluted environment) in those who are genetically predisposed to them. However, many people who are not genetically predisposed to these diseases will not develop them even if they ingest sugar every day or live in a unhealthy environment. Only 2.6% of the population has Bi-Polar disorder. The rate for schizophrenia is even lower. The percentage of people who deny Christ, live in Sin, or who are double minded carnal Christians is much-much higher. If sin and demons caused bi-polar disorder the prevalence rate for BPD in the general population would probably exceed 50%. Your assertions regarding sin and BPD & Schizophrenia simply do not line up with reality.
Also, schizophrenia as a disease should not be understood by the definition of the ancient Greek word but by what it is as a disease. For example “diabetes” is an ancient Greek word which means siphon because ancient patients urinated often. However, urinating frequently and the word Siphon has nothing to do with understanding the cause of Diabetes or it’s nature as a disease. The words Bi-Polar Disorder and schizophrenia are simply words used to describe a real physical disease caused by physical realities in the brain (a physical organ). Brain scans show real physical distinctions in brain activity and physical features from brains of persons who do not have these diseases. Schizophrenia is not diagnosed because of a “split mind”. The disease is diagnosed because of a cluster of symptoms: Delusions, hallucinations, very slowed thinking, etc. A doctor nor a psychiatrist would never diagnose some one as a schizophrenic because of double mindedness or because instability in all their ways and thoughts (James). They are diagnosed with schizophrenia because they have a psychosis (complete break with reality-Cannot distinguish what is real). Proper Biblical exegesis would never lead one to connect the Book of James 1:8 (I have been a full time pastor for 23 years and I am proficient at Greek exegesis after 3 years at Fuller seminary). Also,
14% of patients with Bi-polar disorder complete suicide. The number is far lower for carnal Christians who are double minded (James) and un-renewed in their thinking. If your logic was correct (double mindedness is akin to Bi-Polar disorder or schizophrenia) then 14% of double minded carnal Christians would complete suicide. The suicide rate for double minded Christians is no where near that (praise God) because the diseases of Bi-Polar disorder and schizophrenia having nothing to do with double mindedness or carnality.
As a pastor and Mental Health First Aid instructor I have met many Godly Christians who are full of the Holy Spirit and who are single of mind and passion in serving the Lord who have been diagnosed with these diseases (Bi-Polar Disorder & Schizophrenia). They go through physical brain changes and experience mania and depression but honor God in their thought process and behavior. Instead of staying of nights and doing drugs or acting out sexually they stay up praying and reading. However because BPD is physical there minds and bodies are supercharged with energy and racing thoughts but they submit them to the Lord. I also have a faithful church member who has schizophrenia. He takes the bus to church every Sunday, goes to Bible study, witnesses and lives a Godly life in obedience to Jesus Christ. However, because his physical disease of the brain (schizophrenia) two to three times a year he has to deal with unwell phases (delusions and hallucinations). He overcomes them with medication which helps his brain and with prayer and the Word which helps him stay attached to reality in the face of hallucinations.
I have committed my life to helping Christians with mental health disorder because more often than not they have to suffer alone because a big portion of the Body of Christ is ignorant when it comes to mental health issues. People whom Jesus shed His blood for and filled with the Holy Spirit are forced to “go it alone” because other Christians think they have demons, lack faith, having a pitty party, or chose to be “weak minded”.
I am sure that you are a sincere Christian who is trying to honor Christ and to help others draw closer to Christ through this blog. However, in my opinion you are sincerely incorrect regarding the nature of Bi-Polar Disorder, Schizophrenia, and their causes. People with these diseases may be more vulnerable to the power of sin because they are at a mental disadvantage but they do not have these specific diseases because they have sinned. Yes, sickness and disease exists in this world because of original sin but only God knows why specific people are born with out limbs, get cancer, have heart conditions in their youth, or have mental health disorders.
Thanks-Blessings,
Pastor Ron Urzua
Mental Health First Aid Instructor
Pastor Ron, I thank you for your comment. I have no doubt that you have met Christians who have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, as there are a great many. One can be saved and still suffer from mental disorders, because to be saved one must only trust in the shed blood of Jesus (for by grace are we saved) and confess Jesus as Lord. To be delivered from a generational curse, however, which I believe is the primary cause of mental illness, one must do more than merely believe on the Lord Jesus: one must confess sins. This is the purpose 1 John 1:9, which few people understand.
Regarding your claims, It is untrue that modern science has proven bipolar disorder to be genetic; for, in order to prove that, it would be necessary to both identify the gene that causes bipolar (in successive generations) and, in that bipolar disorder is not normal, the abnormality within that gene that causes the disorder. Even with all the advances in gene research, to date, medical science has not been able to do any of these. For this reason, the mental health profession has only theorized that the disorder is genetic, because successive generations as well as siblings have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Their conclusions are only suppositions, however, and are not conclusive.
It is also untrue that it has been scientifically proven that bipolar disorder is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. This has been merely theorized--not scientifically proven. But this fact has never stopped mental health professionals from telling their patients that bipolar is physical or chemical. In this way, bipolar disorder is very much like the theory of evolution. There is not one shred of hard evidence that humans evolved from apes, yet, because most so-called scientists believe this (or at least profess to believe this), then what used to be called the theory of evolution is now accepted and taught as a scientific fact. This science falsely so-called is the same science that calls, without a shred of scientific evidence, bipolar disorder genetic simply because it is found in successive generations. Show me the gene that causes bipolar, then I might consider that the disorder may be genetic. Until then, no honest medical doctor worth his salt should spread that falsehood.
As for your church member who suffers from schizophrenia, I feel sorry for him, not only because he has the disorder, but because you, his pastor, are satisfied to leave him as he is, suffering from a mental disease, when the Bible makes it clear that God has given us “power. love, and a sound mind.” All Christians should have a testimony of victory or our Christian walk is of no value to the unsaved world. If this man has schizophrenia and two or three times a year is not in his right mind, then he has no testimony of victory, but of defeat. That you, his pastor, are comfortable letting this man walk around like that by accepting that this is normal for a Christian merely because he can praise God and witness is appalling. The man has no victory! This man could be set free, but your closed-mindedness has condemned him to a life of bondage. And believe you me, mental illness is bondage, regardless of whatever spin you put on it.
As I have said before, not all Christians can receive this teaching on the correlation between mental illness and sin--generational or otherwise. The Apostle Paul made it clear that even in his time, there were Christians who had to be fed milk when, at that point in their Christian walk, they should have been ready for “strong meat.” (Hebrews 5:14). These he called “babes.” Those who were ready for strong meat, Paul said, are they who “by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” Did Paul mean that babes in Christ didn’t know good from evil? No. Paul used the word discern, which is the ability to perceive that which one cannot see: to know what is of God and what is of Satan. Notice that Paul said that their discernment was exercised “by reason of use.” That means such people have developed the habit of seeing not with the eyes, but with the spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things, through the perfect lens of the Holy Spirit, who can see in the darkness and in the light. Spirits are invisible, and Satan is a spirit. Though his works manifest in the physical, they always originate in the spiritual; if you cannot discern them, then you cannot even begin to understand them. This is where most Christians are.
In the times of the Apostles, most Christians were not able to understand many of Paul’s teachings, which is why the Apostle Peter said:
Clearly, God has not given all Christians the same amount of wisdom. It is therefore, incumbent upon those who do understand to teach those who do not. The problem, however, is that not all Christians have a teachable spirit, especially those who like to tout their Christian credentials. Such tend to resist those things they cannot readily grasp, rather than praying over those things they disagree with and seeking the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit.
Though you may be committed to helping Christians suffering from mental illness, what you may ultimately do is help keep them exactly where they are with no relief in sight, taking medication to treat the symptoms, suffering manic episodes, hallucinations and delusions, and depression, but never getting at the root of the problem. You may succeed at convincing these people that Christians such as myself who believe and know that mental illness is rooted in sin and can be conquered by the blood of Jesus through confession of sins--especially generational--are the reason for their discomfort, but you will have a zero deliverance rate and hear few, if any, genuine testimonies of victory over mental illness. All because you won’t even consider what I and others like me are saying. This is truly a pity.
I am deeply saddened to read this article. I think what bothers me the most is the lack of compassion in the tone of your writing. You seem completely unattached from the reality that there are people who actually struggle with this. I would never recommend this to someone who is seeking healing both spiritual and biological. You have missed the mark entirely. As a person who has been trained to heal and rid the body of spiritual darkness I have come to also realize that our brains can sometimes be wired differently than others. That is no fault to the person. Just as some people need glasses. Does that mean they are demonically oppressed because they can not see? No! But if I had perfect eye sight I could pass that judgment. I say all this to say I recommend you become close friends with someone who struggles with this. You will see that is not always sin. You have proven two things by writing this: 1. Your maturity and 2. The lack there of. Please stop trying to defend this article! Bi polar is both mental and physical.
I am more than close friends with people who struggle with this. One of those even names the name of Christ and is a regular churchgoer. My own mother, now deceased, while alive, was being treated for clinical depression. The churchgoer is from a family that practiced generational witchcraft (fortune tellers), and my own mother used a ouija board. The occult is a common denominator with many suffering from mental illness. You would be surprised how many people who suffer from mental illness come from families where one or all of the ancestors practiced witchcraft and dabbled in the occult. The problem is that witchcraft has become so common that is not considered sin anymore. In my experience, many so called pastors and healers are not Christians, many being witches, and are openly opposed to the Gospel. These either wittingly or unwittingly don’t ask their patients the right questions, and, so, ultimately their patients don’t get truly healed or delivered.
I don’t need to defend anything. Just because you and others disagree with me, doesn’t mean you are right and I am wrong. And your opposition doesn’t deter me in the least. With your fair speeches and pleasant P.C. words, you will convince many, while I may only convince one. But that one will be free--totally and completely--while those you convince will be in bondage for the rest of their lives. I am deeply saddened by the lack of maturity and discernment on the part of many professed Christians. But, Jesus said it would be like this; so, I’m neither surprised nor deterred.
With modern science and technology, a “blind man” can simply wear glasses or
have surgeries that may heal or help.
A “lame” man , by birth or by accident, can be fit with prosthetics.
Cancer patients are often healed with specific treatments, great strides being made towards cures for certain types.
Diabetics now have insulin available.
High blood pressure? Medicine.
Deadly childhood and adult “plagues” (chicken pox etc) offer innoculations.
Aspirin is an anti-inflammatory that eases pain.
Childhood leukemia? Medicine and making great strides towards a cure.
Seizure medications save the lives of “demon posessed” (???) epileptics
There are medications nowadays that have been developed by gifted men,
gifted by God, to help save lives and/or to enable normal, healthy, useful lives
to be lived by His children.
How simple-minded (and closed-minded, for that matter) to whisk away mental
disorders as sin. Judging by your judgement, you sir are the sinner.
You are a type needing serious renewing of the mind.
Manic-depression is a much more accurate term than bipolar since we ALL have
both severe sadness and extreme joy in this life. The difference is much like
comparing a sugar high after an overload and life-threatening diabetes coming on
without any sugar being consumed.
Those of us who suffer from psychiatric disorders (differences from the “normal order”) suffer greatly. The medications that work save families, relationships, jobs, and most importantly, lives.
Why would any “sane” person suggest that any other person be deprived of a
sane life?
Psychiatric illnesses are GROSSLY overdiagnosed. I believe that is because
a) Doctors and therapists are loose with their diagnosis to keep earning, among other reasons it behooves them to do so.
b) They constitute a very very large number of disability claims and awards.
All of that is unfortunate for those who really suffer and do NOT wish or try to
claim that we are disabled. We wish to be useful to our fellow man.
So, I’d suggest you judge not lest ye be judged and
take the (sin) plank out of your own eye before you look for one in another’s.
I could say so much more since I have experienced this dreadful condition for over 20 years. My doctor has “dubbed” me a doctor of my own illness because of my experiences with and without medication. (We tend to stop taking medication due MOSTLY to stigma and sometimes due to hoping we’re “cured:)
He welcomes my input and allows me to be a partner in my care. He honors my wishes to lower doses in order to keep the treatment at a minimum.
He has NEVER approved assistance in seeking disability because he knows from his
own 45 years experience that this is treatable. It’s not curable -yet. And if ever it
has been Excorcised then it was not truly manic depression. Perhaps these cases
are emotional distress or demon posession or simply phony.
I pray that you may be given an open mind rather than insisting you will NEVER
believe anything but your own opinion. Opinions aren’t based on facts, they are
determined by information and interpretation based on point of view.
Be thankful in this: that your mind is closed and your brain falls within the
“normal” range.
Just be thankful. It’s a terrible illness.
Perhaps only Alzheimers Disease can rival it.
(There is no cure in sight for that either, nor many treatments that have much affect)
Perhaps the brain and the mind are not the same. Perhaps both, however, are so complex that they will always only be truly understood in the Mind of God.
Thank you for listening to an opposing, educated, experienced voice on this subject.
May God bless you.
Thank you, Pam, for sharing your thoughts in such a charitable manner. All I am trying to do is offer an alternative, when mental health and medical solutions fail. If you listen to the podcast that accompanies this article, you will hear me say that I know that not all illnesses are spiritual, and that there are indeed medical causes for some illnesses. The problem, however, is that this is not always the case; yet, modern science totally disregards the spiritual to the hurt of many. The majority of medical and mental health professionals are not Christian, and so they do not believe that oftentimes the cause of many psychological illnesses are spiritual and, therefore, cannot be cured or even effectively treated purely by medical means. But mental illness is increasing at such an alarming rate, that a growing number of physicians and mental health professionals are beginning to consider the possibility of a spiritual cause of many physical and psychological disorders.
For example, Christian counselor Kurt Koch, in the book, Occult Bondage and Deliverance quoted psychiatrist Dr. William S. Reed to have said, “Many mental and physical illnesses result, in fact, from demonic attacks. Exorcism must therefore be given a place within present day psychiatry and medicine” (pp. 14-15). In the same book, Koch, quoting an English psychiatrist, writes, “If I were able to obtain forgiveness for the sins of the patients in my clinic, I would be able to discharge half of them tomorrow” (p. 13). And Koch quotes a Christian neurologist as saying, “60% of the inmates of my psychiatric clinic are not so much suffering from mental illness as from occult subjection or even demonization” (p. 12).
While I don’t agree with all of Koch’s assertions, he makes a very good case for the connection between mental illness and the demonic, especially epilepsy. It was Koch’s writing that first led me to consider that my own daughter’s epilepsy may have been demonic, which it was. As I relate in the podcast, when I asked my daughter’s epilepsy doctor if she thought that epilepsy may have an other than medical cause, she told me that both her mother and husband suffer from epilepsy and that she was unable to help either of them. While not all epilepsy is demonic, the Bible makes it clear that in many cases, it is. It certainly was in the case of my daughter.
You say that I am closed minded and will never believe anything but my own opinion. But this is not true. I was one of the biggest skeptics that ever lived. My motto was, “I’m from the Show Me State,” and I would not believe anything unless I could see it with my own two eyes. Jesus changed all that. When I got saved, I told Him that I would put Him to the test, and that is exactly what I did. When I read Koch’s book, I asked Jesus to show me whether what he says was true or not, and I learned that, regarding mental illness and the demonic, Koch, as well as others, was dead on.
If I had been closed minded, I would never have taken Koch seriously, and my daughter would probably have epilepsy this very day. But, grace be to God, I prayerfully considered what Koch said and went to the Bible for proof, which I found. Later, I took the steps necessary to deliver my daughter, who was first diagnosed with epilepsy when she was four years old, and was delivered when she was six. She will be eighteen years old this year, God willing, and she has never had another seizure. Jesus is Lord, and the devil is a liar!
I have to constantly remind my daughter, however, that Satan has not given up on her. The first time was on me; but, now, it is all on her. It was a lot easier when she was a preteen, but now that she is almost a woman, it has been a constant struggle. We suffered one setback, as she has rebelled as do all teenagers. But, thankfully, until now, she has not descended into the type of sin that would cause her to be revisited by the demonic presence that caused her epilepsy. Now, because of what I have seen, I am a witness that there is certainly a spiritual war going on. Satan is not only after our souls; he is also after our minds.
Your own words prove that you and I agree more than you admit. You made a very revealing statement: “If ever it (manic depression) has been Excorcised then it was not truly manic depression. Perhaps these cases are emotional distress or demon possession or simply phony.” This echoes my beliefs and those of Koch, who, quoting a renown psychiatrist, writes, “If a case of epilepsy can be cured medically, the demonic is not involved. If, however, the illness can be cured by prayer, then it was not an instance of epilepsy” (p. 10). If mental illness cannot be cured medically, then it is, in all likelihood, not medical. In such a case, we should, at the very least, consider the possibility that the cause may not be medical, but spiritual.
The Bible teaches that it is foolish to dismiss a matter without even considering it. Please meditate on this, for your own peace of mind.
God bless you.
--TSM
I read your article on Generational Curses and took the advice in earnest. I had never heard such a thing nor did I realize there was a difference from salvation and deliverance. It is worth a try so if I am no longer bi-polar and see that this is truth, I will post so in that event. I still do not agree with everything you’ve written (at this time) but I thank you none-the-less. After reading more of your posts and responses, I realized you are a biblically based, good intention-ed after Christ individual that is trying to help people and I think God can use this information for good so while I may not agree with everything, I thank you for sharing this information. God bless you.
You are very welcome, M, and God bless you too.
--TSM
Well, I read what you wrote about Generational Curses and took the advice in earnest. It is worth a try and if my bi-polar disorder disappears, I will take back everything I have said in my earlier reply and state so. I thank you for the information and it is worth praying with the Lord about to see what His will is in this situation. While I may not agree with everything you’ve written I have, after reading most replies and posts, come to better understand that you are basing much of what you are stating on biblical teachings of truth and what you have written is being shared out of love for your fellow man and from a heart that seeks/loves Jesus Christ. You’re intentions are good and I learned some things from your responses so I would like to take a second to say that while I may not agree on everything, I am grateful for your posts and I’m glad these are here to be seen and read. I think God can use this for good for those who love Him and He will make our paths straight so there is good in some of this. Thanks. God bless you.
i am christian i should know better that demons exist there alot of people who have demons especialy bc of sinful activity they often manifest if christ want to open our eyes that he is real and demons are act work to destroy us. salvation is the key to being free when we accept jesus then we can be made whole again the bible says we all fall short from the glory of god all have sin none is rightous just jesus, we need jesus to obtain help, he opening our eyes to the spiritual relm that it is real ,we didn’t make our selfes in this earth god did he loves us much that he died for us so we wouldnt perish ,no one is perfect give jesus a chance and you will not be dissapionted you with have joy and eternal life gbu all
There are definitely similarities between BD and schizophrenia but there are stark differences which enable psychiatrists to easily tell the difference between the two. Do a study on the symptoms of each and you, too, will know that while similarities exist, they are two difference illnesses that require a different set of medications.
Hi, Laura. You are very likely right that from a symptomatic standpoint, the two vary considerably; however, from a spiritual perspective, they are actually quite similar: in fact, the cure for both is exactly the same: Jesus.
--TSM
Hi,
I am considered to be Bipolar. Perhaps it is the enemy’s doing.
I am a born again Christian.
I just ask, if you or other Christians on here would say a prayer for me.
Thank you
Petuts
Born-again Christians can be bipolar, because bipolar disorder is caused by sin in your life that has not been confessed. Bipolar has nothing to do with your faith in Jesus Christ. You can be delivered of bipolar disorder if you confess the sin that brought it on. I will pray that the Holy Spirit will show you what sins you need to confess so that you can be set free. I had to do this myself after I got saved as I too was under a generational curse.
I’m a born again christian that has confessed my sins and am in close relation with God. Christ himself has told me that “His grace is sufficient”. Yet I still suffer from bipolar disorder. How dare anyone say it’s a lack of confession or it’s your own fault for sinning that causes you to have bipolar disorder. Paul had a condition God did not take away yet He served the Lord faithfully as His servant. I hope anyone reading this hunk of junk realizes the loving God we have that is full of Grace to cover a multitude of sins and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us to set us free from sin but that He began a work in us that is not yet complete … that all fall short of the glory of God and that we all have our cross to bear daily. Do not listen to this load of baloney on this log post saying it’s your own fault and you are doing something wrong to make yourself have this issue. How sad to be attacked. Last time I checked, Satan is an accuser of the bretheren so doubt anyone that is an accuser. We are to love one another and love God. It’s no different than the prosperity preachers out there teaching you’d be healed if only you believed more so it’s your own fault if you’re sick of have problems. It is not your fault if you are sick. Sometimes, we just get sick. It is what it is. The truth is, we live in a fallen imperfect world and the enemy uses that to his advantage. We all suffer in various ways and Jesus promises to never leave or forsake us. Do no listen to anyone saying it’s your fault. I can’t help that I am the way I am -- God is working in me and I put my faith in Him that even if I am not yet healed, I am healed by His stripes and one day, in heaven, will be whole as He would have me be. Know God loves you and He is with you always. His rod and his staff comfort us. He called us by name and we are precious in His sight.
Praying for u in Jesus name
Well I pray I get healed for whatever I have mentally. Lord please lead me to a deliverance ministry. In Jesus Name Amen
Christians accusing the mentally ill of being demonized. Why am I not surprised? Hey, you want to hear of a truly mentally ill entity, check out the murdering, lying, racist, homophobic, rape-advocating, child abusing, family-destroying, religiously oppressive and manipulative God of the Bible.
As for people with actual psychological differences and struggles in daily life, I’m sorry that we have to deal with scum like this. Maybe they would have no need to preach to us “salvation” if they didn’t invoke within us the feeling that we have something spiritually wrong with us.
I read “Pigs in the parlor” 30 years ago. It made me realize this issue is definitely affected by evil spirits. All the writers of the bible got depressed.All the people I know that get depressed, have awesome gifting from the Lord. I know a lot of depressed people. I have seen many get healed. My own beloved Tom not yet. The Lord said that He will always love and restore my beloved and that God Himself goes through depression ups and downs too. the only scripture I can offer with what I heard from Him about that is ” But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the Lord’s flock is carried away captive.”Jer.13:17 and it could be Jeremiah rather than the Lord speaking, but I feel it is the Lord grieving. Prophetic gifted people carry a backpack of the peoples shame. sometimes without demons. so it is important not to rigidly believe it is always demons causing the depression. I am grateful for this hopeful helpful blog. and pray it will increase reader’s faith
We must understand that there is a difference between the depression caused by particular circumstances is different from the depression associated with bipolar disorder. Circumstancial depression generally subsides with time or with an improvement in circumstances, whereas bipolar depression actually worsens over time if not treated. There is certainly evidence to suggest that many of the writers of the Bible dealt with being down because of persecutions, or, as in the case of Moses, carrying the weight of the sins of his people. This is normal, and cannot be associated with bipolar disorder. Bipolar depression, however, can come on a person when everything in his life is going right as it is not caused or affected by circumstance. This is often the most troubling aspect of bipolar disorder for the sufferer: how a person can be up one minute and down the next for no particular reason. My own mother, who suffered from bipolar disorder and depression, often said that she could be in a roomful of people and feel totally alone.
True, many gifted people get depressed. But, again, this is not clinical depression: the kind caused by bipolar disorder. We must make that distinction when addressing this issue. Bipolar depression is caused by demonic activity, and the litmus test of bipolar depression is what people do when affected by bipolar depression, whether up or down. Suicide, for instance, is typical among bipolar people. However, not one writer in the Bible and not one Bible-belieiving Christian I know of, has taken his own life because of depression. There is a clear reason for this: 1 Timothy 1:7.
Thank you for your support of this blog and for your prayers for this ministry.
TSM
For those like myself who truly suffer from the ‘disease’ of Bipolar, your statements/assumptions/excuses(demonic! hah!) do more harm in it’s understanding than any perceived good.
The Still Man’s statement that “Because I had heard somewhere that bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are the same” only proves your moronic understanding of mental illness-and very DANGEROUS assumptions.You are WRONG.
I’m 100% with D.R on this.
Unless you personally have experienced,you will NEVER truly understand.But I dare you to try.
I came to this blog to try to discover why christians can never & will never truly understand(refuse to actually!) all that is real about mental illness-in whatever form.
Even my own family are unable & refuse to even acknowledge the concept of mental illness being the SIMPLE consequence of a misfiring brain.They (my family)appear too muddled in their ‘spirituality’ to grasp basically presented FACTS.
I repeat again-we are still discovering more about BP all the time-but I refuse to rely on stoneage propoganda & misconceptions……or inane quotes.(Churchill-a politician!!)
The bible is NOT a peer reviewed medical journal ! Encylopedia’s are a REFERENCE-a starting point ie not definitive!
Learn how to discover INFORMATION.If that involves you reading ” literally billions of books” on the subject.You better get cracking!
Why do you allow your ‘spirituality’ to deny you the right to DISCOVER & ask questions !?
I hope you are able to discover before assuming that you have the right to make MEDICAL conclusions for & on our behalf.
Here is a hard FACT for all to digest :There is indeed a cure for BP,unfortunately for most this involves suicide.
peace.
To the contrary: I have not made any medical conclusions, in fact, I flat out stated that BIPOLAR DISORDER IS NOT MEDICAL. And I have not drawn any conclusions on the behalf of anyone. I have merely stated my opinion, based on the Bible. I challenge you to re-read your comment and see that your words are not those of an individual who is thinking clearly. Your last line proves it, as you say that the cure for bipolar “involves suicide.” That statement is demonic, as only Satan, who comes to kill, steal, and destroy, would endorse such an evil and pointless solution to a very fixable problem. So, by your very words, you have proven my point that bipolar disorder is demonic.
You say that your family refuses to believe that bipolar disorder is medical. I would be interested to know if any of them, besides yourself, are bipolar, because, if not, it might prove beneficial for you to at least consider what they are proposing, if it is working for them, because what you believe is clearly not working for you. Believe me, you have not truly lived until you have lived a day in your right mind, which involves more than just being able to function.
As for being able to truly understand bipolar, I prefer not to understand it as well as you do: that is, as an insider: a sufferer of the disorder. I’d rather just trust Jesus about mental illness and live bipolar free. I prefer to be in my right mind 24/7, so I will allow you to endure the bondage and torment of information while I will continue to enjoy the freedom and peace of wisdom and knowledge: the kind of peace that can only come through a relationship with Jesus Christ. You could enjoy the same peace, if you would only believe you could.
God bless you.
--TSM
I have read both of ya’ll’s comments and I disagree with The Still Man in a lot of ways.
When I was 19 I actually committed suicide, you see I took 36 muscle relaxers and my heart had stopped for very close to 2 mins, and what was weird was killing myself never entered my mind, and actually don’t remember doing it.
After some pretty intense therapy it was discovered that I was born a Manic Depressant, and the definition given back then was you could either hurt someone else or yourself.( skipping ahead a few years now) I went through years of therapy and medications, to about 4 years ago where my psychiatrists says that I am re-classified as a Major Manic Depressant.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that the type of depression that I was born with and Bipolar is MEDICAL and not caused by demonic activity, I believe in the Lord and his son Jesus Christ with all my heart and always have.
The proof that Bipolar Disorder is demonic is in your comment. By your own admission, committing suicide never entered your mind, yet you tried to kill yourself. If it was not your intention to kill yourself, then whose idea was it to take 36 muscle relaxers? I know whose idea it was: and so do you. Remember, Satan comes to kill, steal, and destroy.
Waveriding, by placing Christians in all the same boat your post is just as biased as The Still Man’s post. I recommend for both of you to look into some of the teachings from well-known Christian mental health therapists. Dr. Grant Mullen has some good teachings on the subject. He covers all three aspects of a person: body (including chemical imbalances), soul (including emotions), and spirit.
Many, if not most “well-known” so-called experts don’t have the discernment of the Holy Spirit and therefore, the spiritual maturity to receive the Bible’s teaching on the subject of mental health. While I can’t say that this is the case with Dr. Mullen, what I will say is that if what he teaches works for you, then by all means follow him. As for me, I prefer to take my biases and follow The Lord Jesus. God bless you.
--TSM
I am happy to find someone who finds bipolar to be a spiritual battle. You were the first one in my search. I hope to talk to you soon and read more of what you have written. P. S. What state are you in and do you have any ties in Indiana.
Hi, Cynthiea. I’m originally from St. Louis, MO, but I now live in Munich, Germany. I’m not aware of any family ties in Indiana.
Do you know why you could not find bipolar in the dictionary, encyclopedias, and other sources pre 1985? It was referred to as MANIC DEPRESSIVE DISORDER or manic depression. Sometimes just mania. I don’t disagree with your assertion that there is a spiritual component. I assure you that whatever name you choose to represent bipolar, it is not the same as schizophrenia. They may share similarities, but they are two different animals. I was diagnosed with a mood disorder NOS. Yes, I am born again. I await your comments and analysis.
True, Jacob: bipolar disorder was referred to as manic depressive order:
However, it is necessary to point out that, according to Collier’s, experts are not in agreement as to what causes schizophrenia or what it is exactly. Collier’s says that the term schizophrenia was first introduced in 1911 by Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler. Prior to this, in 1896, German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin distinguished the disorder from manic-depressive disorder, which he characterized primarily as mood swings. This implies that prior to this time, manic-depression and schizophrenia were thought to be either related or the same thing. It is important, however, to understand that Kraepelin’s findings are not universally accepted, as again, there is no universal consensus as to what causes the disorder or what it is; hence, it is referred to as a syndrome.
Britannica, by the way, says this about schizophrenia:
You will notice how the symptoms associated with manic-depression (bipolar), showing up in patients diagnosed as schizophrenic, prompted experts to create a new classification, schizoaffective, a term which I had never heard of. This appears to be an attempt to distinguish the two disorders even though patients diagnosed with one exhibit symptoms of the other. Note that Britannica states that even the types of schizophrenia are not mutually exclusive, as symptoms of one type are also seen in patients diagnosed with another type.
So what does that tell us? It tells me that the more they learn about mental disease, the less they actually know. The only thing that Collier’s and Britannica agreed on, which I found very interesting, was that both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder seem to be hereditary, though they can’t explain this. How, then, did they come to the conclusion that the disorders are hereditary? Because they did twin and adoption studies, as well as multi-generational studies and found that the disease was present in siblings as well as in parents and their children. That, to me, suggests a generational curse.
I believe, my brother, that you are a born-again Christian. And I believe that you have been diagnosed with a mood disorder. The literature states that since experts do not know what causes these disorders, the only thing they can do is treat the symptoms. They will not, unfortunately, be able to cure you. The Bible has proven to my satisfaction that psychological disorders are spiritual and not medical, and are the result of a generational curse. I therefore urge you to consider that you might be under a generational curse and to take the steps that I outline in the article. You will, without a doubt, be set free. God bless you.
Hiya!
So we talked like a year ago when I was diagnosed bipolar. I’m in that awesome church and then God called me to bible college. All of my “bipolar” was spiritual attack and its gone now. I’ve been off medication for a year and I’m not going through anything like I used to. When I fasted, when you fasted with me, I didn’t actually make the whole amount of time and I ate, but on the morning the fast would have broken I threw up (I never throw up) and I felt like it was almost like a spiritual purging. I wasn’t like “so different” afterwards but its hard to explain, I was just on a different track after.
The pastors wife did a lot of deliverances for me against the spirits of abandonment and blasphemy against the church and a few others. there was a time I couldn’t even be in the church during worship because I would get so nauseas, and the pastors wife would pray for me and put oil on my forehead and I would get horrible migraines, then she would be praying for me and ask me like “do you believe Jesus died and rose for your sins?” and I would try to answer but I would have muscle spasms around my mouth so I couldn’t talk. It was a really difficult time but Jesus got me through it and my life is good now.
I’m gonna finish my biblical studies degree next year, and the Lord provided me with a job in the hospital and I found that I really want to be a nurse (I love my job:), There’s also a really amazing guy that God brought into my life so we’ll see how that goes. so thanks for all of your prayers. I hope your well, God bless 🙂
Praise God for your deliverance, Emily! It seems that you went through quite a battle, but I’m grateful that you understand that bipolar is spiritual and you are now a witness. I’m also very happy that you’re going to Bible school and that you found a job that you love. It really sounds like you’ve found your calling in life! I also wish you well with the guy that God has brought into your life.
If I were to give you one word of caution, it would be to make sure to stay pure as far as the man in your life is concerned, so that the Lord will bless your relationship, and so Satan won’t use it as a doorway back into your life. And when you sin, make sure to confess those sins.
I’m happy that things are going so well for your Emily. I’ve been praying for your victory since we talked, so it is really a pleasure to hear that you have claimed your victory. Now I can give Jesus the glory!
I am well, praise God. God bless you, and keep in touch.
Psalm 103, God says “forget not” and “all your diseases”
103 Bless the Lord, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:
3 Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases,
4 Who redeems your life from destruction,
I had another comment, where you said that we should be able to claim our immortality if we can claim healing. Well, is not that what we do when we put our faith in Jesus, that He has given us eternal life. I claim that is mine, by the Grace of God. Understanding, that we are made up of spirit, soul, and body. As believers we are given a new spirit, an alive, immortal, uncorruptible, everlasting spirit. And we know, that these bodies we live in now are mortal, but will eventually put on immortality when the Lord returns. It’s just that, while we are in these mortal bodies, the Lord promises blessings, and one is healing of these mortal bodies while we’re here on earth.
It was also interesting to me that you say sickness is a result of sin. Well, what about Job. God called him a righteous man, but allowed sickness on him. It was a test of his faith, not because of sin. I do believe one’s sin can bring on sickness, but not always. Yes, there wouldn’t be sickness in the world if it wasn’t for the original sin of Adam and Eve, but sickness in one person is not a direct result of one’s sin. Jesus even talked about that with one of His healings. His disciples asked Him about this in John 9.
David, you may want to reread my response, as I said that sickness is caused by sin, but also can be brought on by God as punishment (such as eating the Lord’s Supper irreverently) or a trial as in the case of Job.
Hello Still Man, thank you for your response. Just to clarify, I didn’t mean that we as believers are exempt from sickness, but that the healing is there through our faith.
Now on generational curses, I’m not going to waste my time reading you’re theory on this. I know what the Bible says, but for those that have put there faith in Christ, that curse is washed away once one first believes. When I first believed, I understood that I was a sinner and needed a Savior. I confessed all my sins to God, and accepted Jesus Christ to be my Lord and Savior. At that time, if there was any generational curse, it was washed away at that moment. If I haven’t been “set free” already, than I have made God out to be a liar, which is what you are doing Still Man. You are crucifying our Lord twice. Nowhere in the Bible does it say I have to confess sins of a generational curse. That’s just another Pharisee law that you have added to the Bible, and are trying to encourage us to put into practice. Do yourself a favor and remove that article on generational curses, so that you won’t bring condemnation on youself. Blessings brother!
Hello again, David.
Indeed, the healing is there through faith, but it is still God’s sovereign prerogative to heal. We can compel Him to do nothing.
It is a pity that you will not heed the teaching on generational curses and that you consider it a waste of time. You’re not the first person who believes that when he got saved all his sins, including generational ones, were healed. You’re also not the first person who names the name of Christ, yet suffers from mental illness. In that Jesus said that He has given Christians a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7), aren’t you, in reality, calling Jesus Christ a liar? Please think about this.
I have added nothing to the law: the teaching on generational curses is very clear. A person doesn’t have to confess one single sin in order to be saved, according to Romans 10:9 and Acts 8:37. What, then, does the Bible mean when it says “If we confess our sins, [Jesus] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness?” (1 John 1:9). It is talking about the sins we commit after we are saved, including generational sin. I would know: I confessed generational sin, and Jesus forgave me and cleansed me of generational sin. And Jesus has worked mighty things in my life and the lives of my children.
Interestingly, without exception, every person, with whom I’ve talk, that has gainsaid the teaching on generational curses has suffered from mental illness. I see Satan at work.
I would be doing no one but Satan a favor if I were to remove the article on generational curses; for God only knows how many have been set free and will be set free because of it. Therefore, Satan must really hate that teaching. I praise the Lord Jesus for the way He has used you to let me know this!
Well, David, I’m sorry that you reject the full counsel of God. It won’t affect your salvation, of course, but you certainly won’t be able to live the victory that Jesus purchased for you at Calvary with His own blood. And if you can’t live the victory, then you can’t have a testimony of victory. And that is a shame; for without a testimony of victory over mental illness, how can you possibly convince the unsaved suffering from mental illness that there is hope in Jesus? You can’t, in fact. And therein lies the tragedy.
Notwithstanding, I still count you as a brother. May the grace, mercy, and peace of the Good Lord Jesus be with you and yours.
Hello Still Man,
Thank you for your website, and it’s great to see you responding with great thoughtfulness to all these comments. Yes, the world and medical science will be more and more in these last days, trying to challenge our Lord Jesus Christ and His promises. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder about 10 years ago. They diagnosed me originally with schizophrenia and then concluded with bipolar disorder. I agree they both have a lot of the same symptoms. Not too much of a difference. In the last 20 years I’ve been hospitalized 6 times, where my manic episodes had become psychotic. I have been on 2 or 3 meds at a time, on and off, for the last 10 years, and been beaten with all kinds of side affects from all the drug use. This last February I weaned myself off the meds, and had my last visit with the psychiatrist. I know this is all spiritual warfare, and it’s still been a battle for the last 7 months, but I have not gone into any manic episodes since being off the meds.
I believe we need to understand that, as believers in Christ, the enemy is able to put thoughts in our minds. The problems I’ve had in these manic episodes is going along with thoughts, thinking they are from God or something that is good, and it has led me into many dark places. The thoughts seem so real and so right with what I’m doing, but what it is, is me getting led astray by evil. Yes, God’s Word through the Apostle Paul, says we are given a spirit of a sound mind. We need to take these evil thoughts captive as God’s Word tells us to. I have decided to take a different approach, and that is to fully trust the Lord, in that He not only went to the cross for our sins, but also for our healing. It was finished at the cross. So the healing is already there, it’s just a faith condition. All the healings Jesus did, as recorded in the Bible, were done by one’s faith. Of course, Jesus as God had the power to heal, but healing was never done without the faith of a believer. So I am now reaching out in full faith that I am healed from this so-called disorder. I can walk around the rest of my life taking meds and holding on to a disorder or trust in the Lord. The Bible says to trust in the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. I’m chosing to follow His Word.
I know all of this is very touchy for so many people who have been diagnosed with so many different illnesses, and I feel for you all. It’s like Still Man said, I’m just going off my experience and what the Lord says in His Word. He gave us promises brothers and sisters, and we need to know them and take them, as God desires us to.
I wanted to make a comment on one of your responses, relating to the passage of Paul, and asking God to heal him. Actually, I don’t believe Paul ever asked for healing, he asked for the thorn in his flesh to be removed. In King James Version 2 Corinthians 12:7 tells us what the thorn in the flesh was, and it was not an illness. It was a messenger of Satan to buffet him. The word buffet means to strike or attack repeatedly. These attacks are infirmities, reproaches, necessities, persecutions, distresses. Well, in 2 Corinthians 11 it talks about all of these attacks on Paul, and his infirmities were nothing about sickness or illness. There was weariness and weakness and pain, but not illness or disease. The reason why was because of Paul’s faith in Christ alone.
In Christ we’re not under the of curse of the law. That is where sickness and illness come from. God promised to keep us from the curse of the law by sending His Son to the cross, if we put our faith in Him. I think we need to be studying faith, and what True faith is. Blessings brothers and sisters in Christ, Lord be with you!
Thank you, David, for your comment and for being so frank and sincere about your struggles. I especially appreciate that you realize mental illness is a form of spiritual warfare and that Satan can and does put evil thoughts into our minds that masquerade as righteous thoughts.
You are correct when you say that we need to take evil captive, however, we do not do this by claiming our healing, as nowhere does Scripture say that we are healed from all sickness and that we need only claim our healing. If it is His will, Jesus will heal us, but if it is not, then He won’t. The Bible teaches that if we ask anything in accordance with God’s will, then He will hear our prayers (1 John 5:14). But, just because God hears us when we call on Him for healing, does not mean that God is obliged to heal us.
With regards to Paul, the “thorn in his flesh†was, in fact, a physical ailment; for Galatians 4:13 seems to imply that Paul had a problem with his sight. He may have even been legally blind. Paul makes it clear that this ailment was intended to humble him and to keep him from being “exalted above measure†(2 Corinthians 12:7). As you recall, God gave Paul a glimpse of Heaven: something that only one other man was allowed to see without passing through the veil. In other words, God allowed Satan to inflict Paul so that he wouldn’t get the big-heads.
I have heard this argument before: that neither Paul nor anyone else in the first century Church contended with sickness or disease. But pastor Timothy suffered from stomach problems and was often sick (1 Timothy 5:23), and Epaphroditus was sick “nigh unto death.†It is a fallacy to believe that Christians aren’t supposed to get sick and wouldn’t get sick if they would only claim their healing. Sickness is one of Satan’s favorite ways to persecute the body of Christ. God also allows us to get sick as punishment (1 Corinthians 11:30) and as a trial (Job).
Sickness does not come from the law. Sickness comes from sin. The Bible teaches that sin brought death into the world (Romans 5:12). If death came from sin, then sickness came from sin. And if “death reigned from Adam to Moses†(Romans 5:14): that is, before the law, then sickness was in the world before the law. And we know that this is true. Moreover, if Jesus’ death purchased healing from sickness for us, and we need only claim it, then we should also be able to claim our immortality now also; for Scripture teaches that through death, Jesus destroyed him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. Following this faulty logic, then we should not only conclude that Christians should never die, but that Satan should be dead also. Do you see where all this could go in a hurry?
It is because of our mortal bodies that we get sick and die, because the body is cursed with sin. This is why Paul said that he at times sinned, unwillingly, but comforted himself with the knowledge that it wasn’t he who sinned, but “sin that dwelleth in me†(Romans 7:20): that is, his mortal body.
Those who chose to believe that they should not get sick will never fully realize the victory that the blood of Jesus bought for them at Calvary. Because we will all get sick at some point in our lives, then the Christian who claims his healing but still gets sick, or never gets better, will always feel that something is wrong in his Christian walk. This will inevitably lead to a crisis of faith. I know a pastor who adheres to this very belief and whose family is facing this very issue.
Because 2 Timothy 1:7 says that God has given us a sound mind, then this is one kind of healing that Christians have a right to, because a Christian without a sound mind has no discernment, and a Christian without discernment cannot resist the devil. And we are admonished to do just that. Because I believe that mental illness is a result of generational sin, and is a curse, I believe that a person with mental health issues needs to confess his sins to God rather than merely ask God for healing. This is taking sin captive by taking action. Several people have written me saying that they have asked God for healing from mental illness and God did not heal them. That is because, I believe, Bipolar Disorder is caused by demonic activity in a person’s life and that activity cannot be stopped unless the demon causing the activity is cast out. And a person can do this only if 1. He is saved 2. He confesses the generational sin that brought the demon into his life.
I urge you therefore, David, to prayerfully read our article on generational curses, and to follow the instructions therein, so that you may be set free. It would be a shame for you to have come this far in your Christian walk only to throw a roadblock in front of yourself due to a faulty understanding of God’s will. Please think this over. God bless you and all your house.
Hi Still man,
I disagree that if you accept Jesus as your savior, you will be completely healed. God won’t heal you unless you ask for healing. I have bipolar, PTSD, panic disorder, and anxiety disorder w agoraphobia. I have prayed time and again for healing and I’m slow on the long path god has laid out to me to healing. I think Sometimes god gives these illnesses because it is part of his plan for you- to constantly seek out his help.
Aub
Hi Aubrey. You sound like a very intelligent, thoughtful, and sober individual, who has thought this through and, after asking several times to be delivered, to no avail, has come to believe that it is God’s plan in her life. Understand that I am not a subject matter expert on mental illness and don’t pretend to be. But (and this is a huge but), I do understand the biblical position on mental illness. 2 Timothy 1:7 makes it very clear that God has given the faithful believing Christian 1. Power, 2. Love, and 3. A SOUND mind. Notice that good health is not on the list. I believe this is because, as you correctly point out, God allows us to be sick for various reasons. Paul asked for healing and the Lord Jesus did not heal him, because God’s power was to be shown in Paul’s weakness.
But you will notice that many saints like Paul, Timothy, and Epaphroditus were often ill, yet not one of them suffered from mental illness: not one. Though Paul said he was often weary and exhausted, he was always in his right mind. In fact, he tells the Hebrews that they ought to look unto Jesus as an example of enduring persecution “lest they should grow weary, and faint in their minds” (Hebrews 12:3). The Apostle Peter also exhorts us to “be sober” (1 Peter 5:8). We cannot be sober if we are not in our right mind.
Lastly, I didn’t mean to imply that accepting Jesus as your Savior will completely heal you. It is merely the first step. I believe that mental illness, from simple anxiety attacks to severe schizophrenia, is the result of a generational curse, and I have seen nothing but evidence to support this. If you are truly serious about being set free from mental illness, then may I suggest that you read our article on generational curses. It is very comprehensive and focuses on confession of sin, generational and otherwise, as the key to being set free. I know it works, because I was once in bondage to Satan because of generational sin and have been set free doing exactly what I outline in the article.
Resist the temptation to gainsay this, Aubrey. Remember that Naaman, the Syrian general, whom the prophet Elisha healed of leprosy, doubted at first, until a servant basically told him that he had nothing to lose in doing what Elisha told him to do. And Naaman was healed. You can too. I’m a witness.
Oh man! you would really fast with me! thats so amazing. I am going to fast monday through thursday. Thank you for everything you said. Its so cool that even though Ive never met you we can still have fellowship through christ.
It’s simple Emily: If you are serious about being set free, then I am equally serious about wanting to see you set free, and I’ll do what I can to help. So, I will be fasting with you, and praying for your victory. Yes, fellowship is a good thing isn’t it?! So, on Friday, shoot me an email or comment and let me know how it went.
God’s grace go with you, as you shake the vestiges of generational sin from your life forever!
Hi there
I really agree with what you said. I’ve been diagnosed bipolar for a year and I’ve been a Christian for a few years but I just got connected with a church that loves Jesus and the bible and who is well aware of the spiritual warfare that we’re in. And three months in that church and leaning into Christ the voices have gone my mood swings have calmed. I still have a lot of spiritual stuff like nausea and head aches during prayer and worship. BUT that’s alright I’m going to be starting a fast in a few days so I can just really seek the Lord and try to root out the sin that’s giving the devil a foot hold. so pray for me 🙂 and praise Jesus
Hi Emily.
I’m thankful that you appreciate that we really are in a spiritual war, and that mental illness plays a significant part in it. You are so blessed to have found a church where the Truth is preached. They can be a big help to you. You are definitely on the right track going into prayer and fasting. You may also want to check out our article on generational curses. It can help you, as you so aptly put it, “root out the sin that’s giving the devil a foothold.” I will be praying for your victory! Yes, praise the Lord Jesus for His goodness!
ya i did look at that page my grandpa was in the freemasons and the kkk. I have a full family history of occultic stuff and warped spirituality. So i have a lot to bring to the lord. Even as I’m preparing for my fast I’ve been under loads of spiritual attack so I was gonna do what you did and make a list and pray through it. oh man there is so much more i could say but i’ll just leave it at that. Anyway keep doing the Lords work your such a blessing 🙂 p.s Even after i had read this page i went to bed and started getting the spins i rebuked it and it went but i thought i was going to throw up it was awful
By all means do make a list, Emily. It is the best way to make sure you don’t leave anything important out. It is no surprise that you are under spiritual attack, as Satan knows full well what you are about to do, and he doesn’t like it one bit. But you just go right on with it. One blessing that you have is knowing your family history. You don’t have to guess what the issues are that you must confess. Freemasonry, as you probably know, is witchcraft, so it needs to be confessed, as does your grandfather’s involvement in the kkk, which is an occult organization that has committed many atrocities, including murder. All these must be confessed. You are a very brave and sincere woman, and I admire you for having the guts to stand up for truth and to confess evil openly. I don’t take lightly what you are up against, Emily, so, please, let me know ASAP what day you are planning to fast and I will see if I am able to fast also. I want to stand with you in this.
I have lots of friends taking depakote for years. It never helped any of them. Your opinions give me hope for them, that deliverance is near. No condemnation for any that only go the medical route. Hope is a good thing. Jesus is more powerful than any drug.
Yes, He is Joyful. I’m a witness!
often, people are healed of diseases after Jesus casts out a demon. I agree with Still man. but you are right we should all speak the truth in love
Thank you, Joyful. I saw Jesus heal my daughter from epilepsy. So, I know full well what He can do.
I do speak the truth in love. But, because my intention is to wake up the Christian Church, I blow a trumpet rather than play a harp, and I guess that sometimes gives people the wrong impression. But I know the commission I have been given of the Lord, and He is not displeased.
If you are not interested or concerned enough to do the research to back up an article stating things as “facts”, then you have no business writing one. The fact that you rigidly use one (incorrect by the way) definition of a word that has many uses shows that you don’t even know how to use a dictionary correctly. But let’s say that your “definition” is correct for argument’s sake: that’s literally what a disease is, a group of symptoms. To give you an example of how your argument makes no sense at all I’ll take it away from mental illness since you obviously have a bias that prevents you from understanding anything in that field. Diabetes is a disease. It is made up of the group of symptoms that include excessive urinating, feeling thirsty, tired, blurry vision and wounds healing slowly, among others. The cause of diabetes is a problem with how the pancreas produces insulin. The symptoms are how the disease, illness or disorder (which are all synonyms) affects the person. The cause is not dependent on what the symptoms are.
I don’t believe you have ever read the Encyclopedia Britannica because it says exactly what I said about what the symptoms of each completely different illness are. You taking the root origin of the word bipolar into the illness’s meaning so literally that you interpret it’s major characteristic as being two-poled makes as much sense as a person saying that because caterpillar originates from the french for shaggy cat it means that they are shaggy cats. And my esteem for a doctor has nothing to do with whether or not they are all-knowing beings the way you seem to demand they be. There are many things that we didn’t know about medicine 100 years ago that we know today and in the same way there are many things we don’t know today that will one day be discovered. Next, just because we have a lot of knowledge about a thing and we can treat it doesn’t mean that there isn’t more knowledge to find and that we can cure it. Another example for you: just because we have a plethora of knowledge about cancer does not mean that we can cure it and it also doesn’t invalidate the knowledge or the treatments that we have to manage the symptoms. Just as with cancer, mental illness is not curable. But if the treatment is effective it can go into remission.
And Jesus Christ can cure any ailment, that does not mean that it isn’t a disease with legitimate causes. Jesus cured lepers, blind men and lame men. That does not at all mean that suffering from leprosy, blindness or lameness means that a person has a spiritual ailment such as demonic influence. All that says to me is that God is all powerful and that is obvious. No, those are ailments of the body; just like bipolar is an ailment of the mind, and Jesus can cure any ailment in the body, mind or spirit. Period. And oh? really? the term bipolar was created in 1980? That is ridiculous and it is historical fact available to any person with a library or internet access that that is not true and that is has been used for hundreds of years. Why don’t you show me the research you did? It would make sense though that a person who is not interested or concerned enough to do research would claim something that incorrect as fact. Just because the illness became popularly addressed as bipolar by the vast, uneducated masses in the 80’s doesn’t mean that the term originates from that time. And no, manic depression is bipolar absolutely not schizophrenic. The forms of schizophrenia are paranoid, disorganized, catatonic, undifferentiated and residual. I don’t feel like explaining them to you, but trust me when I say that I have actually done the research that mania is exclusive to bipolar and occurs in no other mental illness. And that is actually a fact.
Also, you absolutely were hateful to that woman. You called her names such as a bad person and a filthy mouthed child. And if you can’t see how there was a very threatening undertone to what you said to her then I’m not going to spell it out for you. And you know what? It is not a sin to call water wet just as it is not a sin to call a fool a fool. If she did apologize, which I doubt, it was to avoid getting dragged to your level, because she realized how far gone you were or because you intimidated her. From your words I drew my beliefs about your daughter. You said it was medicine for psychotic people. I know for a fact that a lot of medicines are used for psychosis or for epilepsy. You have no idea what I believe, so don’t assume. It is possible to completely believe in the Bible without condemning medicine. And of course they couldn’t cure her of epilepsy, as I’ve said some diseases are incurable at the moment. Jesus said that to his disciples and you are most definitely not a discipline of his. Your words are a proof of that. If God answered your prayer of relieving her symptoms than that is great, but don’t be so vain as to think that it was through your power. And I believe Jesus more than I believe anything. Me not being stuck in the dark ages and understanding modern medicine has nothing to do with my faith. But you trying to spread fear, ignorance, self righteousness, pride and oppositional attitudes has a lot to do with yours.
OK.
I know this comment is a year old but I just stumbled onto your blog. youareabigot has the spirit of Jezebel (malignant narcissist) That was a demonic attack
Yes, it was FreeSpirit. But more important than that is the fact that you saw it for what it was, and I praise God for that.
The only reason that I made a profile was because I could not read something this ignorant, offensive and blasphemous without responding. The reason that you had never heard of bipolar disorder is because you are obviously unbelievably ignorant. If you weren’t then you would know about the book “On Etiology and Symptomatology of Chronic Illnesses” by Aretaeus of Cappadocia (written in the 2nd century A.D.) which recognized that mania and depression were linked, about how ancient Greeks and Romans used the term “mania” and would use natural Lithium springs to cure people suffering from it, how in 1686 Swiss doctor Théophile Bonet did studies that linked mania and depression, how manic-depressive psychosis was first classified as a mental illness by Jean-Pierre Falret in the 1850’s, how also in the 1850’s Jules-Gabriel-François Baillarger distinguished a marked difference between schizophrenia and bipolar, about how Sigmund Freud used psychoanalysis with bipolar patients in the 1900’s, about how in the 1950’s Karl Leonhard noted the difference between unipolar and bipolar depression, about the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (first published in 1952) which lists the criteria for a person to be diagnosed as bipolar, or the DSM II, DSM III, DSM IV or DSM V which have all added to the medical information we have on mental illness. But you don’t know any of that because you are ignorant and choose to be that way because of your stubbornness and pride.
Also, just to clear things up there are two types of bipolar. Bipolar I is when one or more manic episodes have occured, along with depression. Bipolar II is when depression is present along with at least one hypomanic episode. A manic episode is diagnosed when a person meets three or more of these criteria for more than a week: increased self-esteem or grandiosity, decreased need for sleep, being more talkative than usual or under pressure to keep talking, flight of ideas or subjective experience that thoughts are racing, distractibility, increase in goal-directed activity or psychomotor agitation, excessive involvement in pleasurable activities that have a high potential for painful consequences. A depressive episode is when a person meets five or more of these criteria for more than two weeks: depressed mood most of the day, diminished interest or pleasure in all or most activities, significant unintentional weight loss or gain, insomnia or sleeping too much, agitation or psychomotor retardation noticed by others, fatigue or loss of energy, feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt, diminished ability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness, recurrent thoughts of death. Schizophrenia is when a person has two or more of these criteria for at least a month: delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, catatonic behavior or flat affect. So to simplify it for your simple mind, bipolar has been documented by medical professionals since Biblical times and it has been common knowledge that Schizophrenia and Bipolar are two very different illnesses for hundreds of years.
Also, you say that doctors don’t know what causes these illnesses and that is just untrue. The cause of all mental disorders is an imbalance in neurotransmitters, abnormalities in chromosomes and environmental factors such as trauma or stress. You are spinning webs of lies, prejudice and conspiracy in the name of Jesus Christ, and that is blasphemy. Maybe the “civilian” doctor told you that your daughter was developmentally challenged in a harsh way but from what I’m reading of your experiences the doctors gave you very similar diagnoses but because of your pride and your stigmatization of any neurological illness you heard them differently because of the terms that they used. Also, I believe that they didn’t give your daughter the wrong medication. I believe that was once again your stigmatizing attitude and ignorance rearing it’s ugly head. Many anti-convulsants (epilepsy medicine) are also used as anti-psychotics. Even more offensive than your complete lack of facts is the way that you act while calling yourself a Christian. The way that you are twisting the Bible’s words and using Jesus’ name is appalling.
You even condemned and spouted a lot of self-righteous hatred towards a woman all because of one word that bruised your fragile ego. You need to look into your heart and see how wrong you are, if you are capable, for your own salvation on Judgement Day. Remember Matthew 7: 21-23 says “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ The will of the Father is to follow the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule and to practice the Fruits of the Spirit. This article is a sin, as is your attitude in general.
YouAreABigot, there is just no way I would know about the book by Aretaeus of Cappadocia, unless I were interested or concerned enough to have done the research. There are literally billions of books out there. I couldn’t possibly read them all, and neither could you. You say that doctors know what causes bipolar disorder. I’m telling you that the very use of the term disorder implies that they don’t have a clue what causes it, as a disorder is “a group of signs and symptoms.†My daughter’s epilepsy doctor told me that she didn’t know what causes epilepsy, and that she couldn’t help her own mother and husband who both suffered from the disease. I read in the Encyclopedia Britannica that doctors don’t know what causes schizophrenia. How could they, then, know what causes bipolar disorder, especially when the two share identical symptoms? If they know what causes bipolar disorder, then why don’t they give it a concrete name, rather than call it by its major characteristic which is “two-poled” or manic-depressive? You must understand that the foundation of the medical establishment is trust. How much would you trust your doctor if he always said “I don’t know?â€
You give an incredible amount of information about mental illness. With so much information available, why is it that there are millions, possibly even billions (or at least a billion) of people walking around with mental illness, many of whom are under treatment? It is because not all information is knowledge, even if it sounds so. Jesus cured mental illness. And He never said one thing about neurotransmitter imbalance, chromosome abnormalities, or environmental factors. Jesus simply cast out the demons that caused those people to have mental illness. Period.
You say schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are “two very different illnesses.†I tell you I did the research, and the term bipolar disorder came into being in 1980, while the symptoms associated with bipolar were being treated before then as schizophrenia, one form of which is manic depression. That’s a fact.
You say that I condemned and expressed hatred towards a woman who supposedly bruised my ego. Did you know that same woman has written me and apologized? She even tried several times to get me to delete her comment, because, in her own words, she hates the fact that every time she googles her name and bipolar disorder, this article comes up in the search results, with the word “moron,†which she called me, standing out for all to see. She realizes that her attitude was inappropriate for a Christian, which she claimed to be. Jesus said, “Be thou angry, but sin not.†Getting angry is not a sin, but what we do and say when we get angry can be.
You say that you don’t believe they gave my daughter the wrong medication. You weren’t even there, so how could you know? You don’t know, in fact. You believe. And your beliefs are the root of your problems. You choose to believe what the medical establishment, which is not Christian, has to say about mental illness, rather than believe what the Bible has to say about it. Jesus cured mental illness. I did the same with my daughter, who, by the way, the doctors could not cure of epilepsy. Jesus said, “Greater things than these you will do, because I go to my Father.†If you believed Jesus half as much as you believe what you believe, you might do the same.
We are ALL sinners. I hate that christians treat other christians as though they weren’t human. That is why there is so much phoniness in the church. I can’t say “moron” without receiving a puritanical, accusatory lecture. Fake.
The reason there is so much phoniness in the Church is because many Christians have forgotten that Jesus told us that we are “not to be conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of our minds” (Romans 12:2). It may be OK for unsaved folks to call people names when they disagree with them, but, as Christians, we should not do this. We are to be “quick to hear, but slow to speak” (James 1:19). We are to think first and measure what we say, before we open our mouths and say something we regret.
The Apostle Paul tells us that we should use “sound speech that cannot be condemned” (Titus 2:8). In this day and age, call anyone a moron--especially if they know you consider yourself a Christian--and see how fast you will be condemned.
You want a puritanical, accusatory lecture? Try Jesus on for size:
I unfortunately thanks to some german doctor was mis diagonsed with bibolora for 6 years of my life i was on depakote, which permantly damaged my mind, i became a VERY slow learner and it had damaged my apatite that i was very underweight all because of this so called bipoor disorder
I believe that bipolar is 100% demonic and is the result of a generational curse. I even have family members who are “bipolar.”
Thanks to the doctor my mind was so messed up that i was way behind my classmates. I did not have a disorder I was troubled at the time do my parents divorce. Thank god for my grandmother and god for convincing my mother to take me off it but it still affects me to this day.
I’m so sorry that this happened to you. I have plenty of experience with German doctors and misdiagnoses.
its ok now im on new medication vivance for my adhd if idont take it i tend to get REALLY hyper and bounce off the walls. though i do hate how if i forget to take it i go off the wall
I have to say I am gobsmacked.
First off, please educate yourself before posting such medieval, damaging, dribble.
Also if you take great offence to somebody not only disagreeing with you but insulting you rather tamely, I have to assume your ego needs checking. You sir are not Jesus Christ nor a chosen one. You are a man spreading negative views on a spectrum of illnesses still being scientifically investigated. Just because they haven’t worked it out doesn’t mean it’s not happening or that it deserves to be interpreted as demonic possession. The fact you also attribute epilepsy to possession and have claimed to have exorcised your own daughter sends out red flags in my mind.
Mixing up mental illness and demonic possession is DANGEROUS and unnecessary. You are not helping those who do suffer. You are spreading stigma. You are encouraging shunning. If demonic possession does exist I don’t suppose for a second it takes a home in any of these conditions.
You think googling ‘bipolar disorder’ or schizophrenia’ makes you an expert? You read a term which says ‘the splitting of the mind’ and take it literally?
I’d like to put it in plain terms as I am a sufferer of manic depression.
Manic depression is a disease of the brain. Some people don’t like this term so they swap it for others. There has in fact been a lot of recent scientific studies to prove it is a disease. The proof is it has a physical affect on the grey matter of the brain shrinking it by 10%. This means basics things such as language processing, memory and co-ordination can be affected. There is also some scientific research to back up there is truth to it having a genetic basis. For example if you related to a bipolar sufferer you are 10% more likely to develop it. Some people are born with it and others have it triggered through extreme times of stress or unfortunate circumstances. I was unfortunate to have inherited my disease from my grandfather.
Another thing which bugs me and those who know little about this condition misinterpret time and time again is the literal taking of the term. The American re-naming of manic depression to ‘bipolar’ disorder is incorrect. Manic depression sufferers do not shift between two poles. It is not a case of Jekyl and Hyde!!! Instead they suffer from times or mania and depression, both of which can be deeply spiritual and enlightening periods of pain and suffering. Even in mania, a time which can make people aggressive, agitated, excited, thrill seeking, happy etc., a person isn’t going to just change into a monster. It’s a mood disorder which means your emotions are basically PMSing to extreme.
Now, I assume you do not attribute such brain diseases as alzheimers or brain tumours to demonic possession. To think otherwise would be seen as madness by society. Why then do you think it appropriate to put down demonic possession to what is simply an ill organ? I will fight my whole life so that people such as myself and others don’t become ‘mistakes’ that are shunned and closeted at the convenience of relatives. Horror films and media have done us a massive injustice. Why then are you using religion to drag us back into the asylums?
Many a good man and woman has suffered from such severe mental illnesses in the past and I have no doubt many a religious leader has. My own grandfather who suffered before me was the most devoted man. His father was a minister, his brother a Presbyterian bishop. He spent his whole life fighting to be a good Christian. He was a religion scholar and even taught himself Hebrew so that he might read the lords word in it’s original form. Few men showed such unfaltering devotion to their lord. A man who sacrificed time and time again to help others and spread the word of god. He went abroad to spread the word and even when in a concentration camp in Taiwan during the war he held services for the down trodden men, even when he himself was starving. So what if he was manic depressive? He was a good christian and in times of mania practically made himself bankrupt by aiding the church and it’s charities. He did none of this out of guilt or fear for his soul. He did it out of love for his God and the people of this world.
If you think there is a spiritual war going on then so be it. If I defy you then I defy you, I do not defy god of Jesus. Instead I think you should feel shame. You show no humility. In times like this you look to those who need most care and protect them! Instead you shame them by calling them out to be such wretched, demon possessed, souls.
There is no hole in my soul. I have suffered greatly but I have been enlightened through my pain. Jesus has been with me all the way. I am a sinner, like all men but I am not a demon nor does my temple possess one. Rather it has a poor, sick organ within it which needs medication to function correctly. And it does. I don’t think you can say a possession can be aided with medication.
I am done here. No doubt this will be censored. I won’t even read a reply. I’ve said my piece.
Thank you, Anne for your comment. I am very sorry for what you are going through, but I have no reason to be ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus healed a boy from epilepsy by casting a demon from him, and He did the same thing with my daughter.
I speak only of that which I have experienced myself. You say I have no humility or pity for those who are suffering from these terrible illnesses and their families. Do you have any idea what it’s like to be the parent of a child who suffers from the debilitating physical and psychological effects of severe epilepsy? Anne, before my daughter had her first seizure, she was a perfectly normal, healthy little girl. I used to take her everywhere I went in one of those strap-on child carriers. She was happy, bouncy, very inquisitive, and intelligent.
All that changed after she had her first seizure and they put her on the epilepsy medication. She went downhill fast. She couldn’t understand most of the things you said to her. She would slobber all the time, and had this blank, frightening look that I cannot describe. She would wake up in the middle of the night and walk outside. I had to tie a rope from her ankle to mine so I would know whenever she got out of bed. At five years old, her kindergarten teachers said that something was wrong with her, and that they didn’t think she would be ready to go to school. They suggested I take her to a behavioral psychologist, who took great pleasure in telling me that my daughter was mentally retarded and would never, ever be normal. I told her that before the seizures and the medication, she was perfectly normal, that it didn’t make sense that epilepsy would make a child retarded. But it was no use. With tears welling in my eyes at her callous attitude, I vowed that I would not let this happen to my daughter.
It was a civilian doctor that diagnosed my daughter as mentally retarded, so I decided to get a second opinion from a military behavioral psychologist, which I did. This doctor told me that there was nothing wrong with my daughter mentally, but that she may have had some developmental problems physically, because she had a slight gimp when she walked and carried her left hand almost like someone with cerebral palsy. These things did not show until my daughter started having seizures.
Now here were two doctors, experts in their fields, with two radically different diagnoses. My logic was that with such a disparity, one of them had to be wrong, which I knew was the civilian psychologist. I furthered gathered that if it were possible for one of them to be wrong, then it was also possible that they both could be wrong. In other words, I began to wonder if what had been diagnosed as a neurological condition and a psychological condition may have been neither neurological nor psychological, but spiritual. But for the time being, I kept these thoughts to myself.
Then something happened. During one of my daughter’s quarterly EEG and physical examinations, the nurse “accidentally†gave my daughter the wrong medicine. And what made it so bad was that she did it when I had gone to the bathroom. Now I had given all staff explicit orders that all medication was to be administered either by me or under my supervision, but this nurse, with full knowledge, disregarded my instructions. Luckily for me, my daughter hated taking pills and would hold them under her cheek pretending to swallow them. So when the nurse gave her the pill she held it in her cheek and when I came back to the room, she took it out of her mouth and showed it to me. When I saw the color I instantly knew something was wrong. I went ballistic.
Do you know that the medicine that they gave my daughter was for people suffering from psychosis? I didn’t then, nor do I now believe they gave her the wrong medicine by accident. They thought something was wrong with my daughter but they didn’t have the authority to prescribe the medicine they thought she should be on. So they pulled a fast one. Because of the very real possibility that they could have seriously injured or even killed my daughter, the leverage was on my side. And I used it.
Because I believed the medicine was causing my daughter to behave strangely, I reduced her dosage by half. Do you know what happened? An almost complete reversal. When she went to have her physical and cognitive examinations to go to the first grade, she passed with flying colors. The doctors were amazed. But this was only the beginning.
On the next quarterly exam, I asked her epilepsy doctor a very simple question. Do you think that epilepsy may be something other than neurological? I was trying to put this delicately so she would not think I was crazy, but she knew exactly what I was trying to say. “Are you asking if I think epilepsy may be spiritual and not medical?†she said. Her response shocked me.
“Mr. Keeton, I am an epilepsy doctor. My mother has epilepsy and she went to the Orient to find a traditional cure for her epilepsy, because I can’t help her. My husband has epilepsy. He had it as a child, but when he reached puberty, it went away. Now he is an adult, and a few years ago it came back suddenly. He’s a grown man now, and he’s having seizures again. Mr. Keeton, I am an epilepsy doctor and I can’t help these people. So whatever you think you need to do, do it.â€
That was all I needed to hear. Now the rest of the story you know. Anne, I am not trying to minimize or discount your pain and suffering. I believe what you say. But please understand that my experience was every bit as real as yours. I am no doctor, and I don’t have tons of ecclesiastical erudition. What I do have is my testimony, and you have just heard it. And make no mistake: it is 100% authentic. I would be remiss if I said that there is no medical basis for illness. There most certainly is. But if we believe the Bible, then we have to believe that there are times when illness is brought on by demonic activity—not necessarily demonic possession, but unquestionably demonic activity. To gainsay this is to call Jesus a liar.
All I am trying to say is that if nothing else works for a person then it doesn’t hurt to try Jesus. The epilepsy doctor, though not a Christian, was honest enough to imply this. Unfortunately many are not. Christians can be affected by demonic activity too, if they are living in sin or are under a generational curse. I know: I was one of them.
Anna, thank you sister!!! I’m bipolar and am a Christian and have had this disease for years, and its NOT demonic! They’re are plenty of other sites that tell us why we suffer this from this and that it may not be in Gods will to heal us from mental disorders. Some people need to honestly get a life, and turn to God themselves!
I totally agree with you (The Still Man). Bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are the same… People think that people hearing voices is only associated with bein schizophrenic but it isn’t. As a matter of fact they definitions of both have many similarities to them. I myself have been told that I am Bipolar but i’ve never wanted to be one to give myself a false diagnosis. Now days everything is considered being a disorder. But I am working on changing my life around so that i can be of a sound mind.
Praise God Britta. Satan has many devices, one of which is changing language so that some things are not what they appear to be, and others appear to be what they are not. I pray you will find solace in Christ Jesus, because if there is one thing that He can give you, it is a sound mind. I will be praying for you.
You are a moron. I am a born again Christian and suffered my entire adult life with manic depression. It is not demonic. It is biological brain dysfunction similar to epilepsy, an aneurism, parkinsons, or trauma induced paralysis. Like diabetes, if it’s not miraculously healed by God, you take your insulin. Bipolar disorder is different from schizophrenia, as I do not hear voices or have hallucinations. I’m missing part of the seratonin 1a receptor in my brain, causing depression, and have more neurotransmitter activity, than people with normal brains. I am blessed by God to be a worship leader at my church, and spend daily time in prayer and worship and bible study. They conceal knowledge about mental disorders in things called “books”.
You know Ms. Rittler, I have heard many people say things that I don’t agree with; some of them have even made me very angry. But I have never, ever condescended into name-calling. Why? Because it is not edifying. Not only that, but it is dangerous. Countless incidents of name-calling have resulted in murder. And you say that you are a born again Christian?
I was going to delete your comment and bar you from returning, but I will leave it for the edification of the body of Christ. Even bad people can be used as a good example. But know that I will bar you if you ever do this again. You either stop behaving like an unrepentant sinner, or stop calling yourself a Christian. I have more respect for those in the world who know better than disgrace the cross of Christ than I do for worldly so-called Christians who behave as filthy-mouthed children.
Now you say that manic depression is not demonic: that it is just “a biological brain dysfunction similar to epilepsy.” How then, do you explain Jesus healing the boy with epilepsy In Matthew 17:14-21? The boy’s father told Jesus:
“Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for oftimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water†(v. 15)
The Greek word for lunatick means “crazy or possessed.” The Greek word for falling, means “thrashing about†(Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance). The boy was possessed with a spirit of epilepsy.
When His disciples asked why they could not cast the demon out of the boy, Jesus said that it was “because of [their] disbelief” and because “this kind cometh not out but by prayer and fasting.” My own daughter had epilepsy with severe seizures until I cast the demon out of her that was causing it. Now was Jesus also a moron, or are you one of those “Christians” who believe that the Bible is full of mistakes?
You say that you are “a worship leader at your church and spend daily time in prayer and worship and bible [sic] study.” Yet, you call me a moron just because I speak of things that I have not only read, but seen, some of which would seem totally fantastic to someone of your ilk. Is this what “born again Christians” do? “Christians” like yourself are the reason why many people say that they would rather die than become a Christian. We are not supposed to act like the rest of the world.
Now, if you believe that you suffer from depression because of a neuro-chemical anomaly, and you’re OK with that, then that’s fine. But please don’t insult me because my experience differs from yours. This very blog that you are reading is a result of the things that I have experienced that can testify that there is a spiritual war going on. If you are offended or uncomfortable with that reality, you can return to your comfort zone and pretend that I and my moronic ideas don’t exist. But I would caution you not to make a habit of offending those with whom you disagree.
You are going to learn very shortly that there are many in this country who, if given the opportunity, would do serious bodily harm to anyone who claims to be a Christian, let alone any who adhere to Biblical Christianity. Understand that by your very words you identify more with them than you do with Jesus, who by the way was called far worse than a moron.
I see you are still in the dark. Since this was all published, it’s been discovered and found to be FACT that Bipolar Disorder is a neuro biological BRAIN DISORDER. The brain is much smaller than a normal brain. There differences between them (now proven by scans) between a “normal” brain and one that is not normal, biologically. So Bipolar Disorder is a PHYSICAL brain abnormality, no different than brain injury such as with a stroke or being in an accident causing brain damage. Nothing whatsoever to do with demonic activity. I know this is on the internet, so I’ll spell it backwards….uoy era norom! Stop typing all day and READ.
Denise, why do you continue to resist the Holy Spirit? If you’re convinced that bipolar disorder is a “neurological brain disorder,†isn’t that good enough for you? Do you so vigorously resist everyone who disagrees with you?
I don’t need to read every piece of literature out there on bipolar disorder to have an informed opinion. The medical establishment admits they don’t know what causes bipolar disorder. All they have is theories.
Collier’s Encyclopedia 1991, Vol. 15, p. 334, says:
If bipolar disorder were no different than a brain injury, how do you account for the fact that it runs in families? Colliers, on the same page as above, says, “According to recent research, this disorder is transmitted in families. In some families, transmission appears to be genetic.â€
Encyclopedia Britannica, 1985, Vol. 7, p. 775 says, “Statistical studies have suggested a hereditary predisposition to the disorder.â€
Are brain injuries genetic? I think not.
The only evidence that suggests that bipolar disorder may be genetic is the fact that it runs in families. Again, brain injuries are no more genetic than a broken leg or a dislocated shoulder. Bipolar disorder runs in families because it is a generational curse.
Further proof of this is the fact that the activities engaged in by many people with bipolar disorder are mostly sinful and include murder, pathological lying, stealing, spending money you don’t have (poor stewardship), sexual hyperactivity, outbursts of anger, physical abuse, alcoholism and other substance abuse, stalking, voyeurism, pornography, and other sins. And get this: According to Collier’s Encyclopedia, 15-20% of suicides (self-murder) are attributed to bipolar disorder. That’s close to 1 in 5! And that was in 1991. Just imagine the statistics today, 24 years later.
Whenever you write me, rather than convince me that bipolar disorder is a medical condition, you reaffirm my belief that it is spiritual. For the second time in four years, you have called me a moron, even after numerous emails from you apologizing for that first episode. Can’t you see that this behavior alone confirms that your situation is spiritual?
As long as doctors admit or imply that they don’t know what causes bipolar disorder and continue to prescribe medications, like lithium, which only treat the symptoms and do nothing to cure the source, I will never believe that bipolar disorder is medical. As long as people write me agreeing that bipolar disorder is, in fact, spiritual, because they found that only after confessing their sins were they freed from the disorder, I will never believe that bipolar disorder is medical. As long as I keep getting letters from people suffering from the disorder or having relatives that are and testify that the medications only have them walking around in a semi-catatonic state, I will never believe that bipolar disorder is medical. And as long you continue to write me regarding this matter and always resort to name-calling, yet consider yourself a Christian, I will never believe that bipolar disorder is medical.
And, finally, as long as the Bible says that Jesus has given us “power, love, and a sound mind,†I will always believe that Jesus can heal anyone from bipolar disorder.
Maybe you, Denise, should read less and pray more. God bless you.
Encyclopedia Britannica, 1985
Collier’s Encyclopedia 1991
et al….
you seem to quote some very outdated sources-selectively!
much has been learnt since then…..
does it really matter whether bp/manic dep is a disease/condition/disorder etc?
it IS REAL-contrary to your misguided understanding.
peace.
Winston Churchill is quoted to have said, “The farther back you can look, the farther forward you can see.”
Churchill knew that much of the truth can be found in older source material, a great deal of which is no longer available. That’s because Satan has been very busy destroying or removing from circulation much of the older literature that revealed the truth about a great many things, including bipolar disorder, while simultaneously replacing this information with new “enlightened” material. That is the purpose for the thousands of new “enlightened” bible versions. Satan is doing this so that people, such as yourself, will never learn the truth. You must understand that much of what is available today about a great many subjects is not true knowledge, but information disguised as knowledge. Much of the information that you consider outdated, is actually closer to the truth than a great deal of contemporary literature.
You say “much has been learnt” about bipolar disorder, yet the best that the medical establishment can do is to say that bipolar disorder is due to a neurotransmitter disorder or some other brain function anomaly and that it is genetic. According to the “outdated” source material I cited, these same claims were made as early as 1985--thirty years ago--and the same encyclopedia says that there was no scientific proof to back up that claim. This means that with all that “has been learnt,” the medical and psychological establishments are no closer to finding out what causes bipolar disorder, and, therefore, no closer to a cure. They are merely disseminating more “enlightened” information to pacify those who have the disorder and to make them feel OK about not being in their right mind.
This agrees with 2 Timothy 3 which says that in the last days many would be “ever learning, and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.” This is because they are more comfortable listening to men than they are listening to God. There is not now, nor will there ever be a cure for bipolar disorder. They will only be able to treat the symptoms, because BIPOLAR DISORDER IS SPIRITUAL, NOT MEDICAL.
As for whether it matters what you call bipolar disorder, you must understand that one of Satan’s greatest weapons is language. He changes the meaning of words to make things appear to be what they are not, and to not appear to be what they are. This is no less true with bipolar disorder.
Blessings,
--TSM