I get a lot of requests for elaboration on blaming the devil verses needing personal accountability.  For me, I’m not hosting demons because I’ve been delivered of the strongman and religious spirit, so I see emotional battles as an inner healing thing which we will always be working out through sanctification.  It’s not casting down demons but strongholds of thought that come against the goodness of God because the battle is in the mind.  Thoughts need to be healed and that takes time in the prayer closet to have a conversation with Jesus about; when was the stronghold erected, what was happening when I believed a suggestion of negativity and how has familiarity become habitual?  My relationship with Jesus will allow that emotional part to argue its point; “I only cause her to dissociate because depression usurps her peace”.  It is man’s agreement with condemnation that will BELIEVE emotion is bad, or judge it as being sinful and wrong, but if the negative parts of us are really trying to help, we could trust Holy Spirit to apply revelation.  

Not all things we deem bad really are.  If a surge of anxiety comes up, I have to realize that the familiar response is trying to help me slow down and have a conversation with it.  Curiosity toward its onset, situation or belief can calm down the symptoms.  If I tell it to shut up and be quiet or demonize it, then it reverts to hiding and it will take that much more compassion and grace to draw it out by Christs love.  It is just the same with people, we cannot rebuke their experience because that is arrogant. Holy spirit was there at the inception of rejection, abandonment, fear or anger in ones life, He is well acquainted with suffering and can comfort back to the original moment in time.  He would want to communicate with your inner parts and ask them what they want to say?  I’m sure His approach to an anxious part would seek a solution through gentleness.  If a part is trapped in the soul and screaming out, isn’t the relationship with Jesus supposed to bring truth to the pained part’s perception?  It seems obvious to me that Jesus would ask, “what happened”, or “tell me about what is upsetting you”.  Yet, somehow we expect to be chastised for seeming faithless.  Faith is founded on friendship and the enemy has convinced believers that it is all about performance.  Satan comes against Jesus, but he uses his hierarchy of demons to mess with us, so we have to be merciful to ourselves when a part can’t make sense of its emotional history. If we bring the emotional part into the presence of Jesus, He ministers understanding to every historical attachment to the problem.  We become accountable for our relationship to ourselves and Him by addressing the deep inward parts. (Psalm 51:6, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part you will make me know wisdom.)

The devil isn’t making us react to life through turmoil, our unheard expressions and dismissed longings are.  In my own life, I can tear down the strongholds of disbelief much easier now that I’m delivered, so my transformation of the mind is that much easier because demons aren’t tripping up my relationship with Christ from the inside anymore.  Sometimes there is no language but a cry or a moan, the scriptures say that deep in our heart is the purest worship, we can say “help me Father”.  The song of our heart is what the Father hears because He gets us, He knows how long we have mourned and why.  The Lord of all who represents Himself in three parts understands the depth of all of ours, they are a representation of the multiplicity our brain communicates with.  Some parts are really strong because they have been navigating us through life on auto pilot and will only calm down after allowed to express themselves.  God loves that expression because it’s an authentic connection that includes Him in redeeming the lie which perpetuates a parts “bad behavior”.  

We aren’t defined by our sin anymore then the parts who drive it. He can change the action and behavior from that relational moment forward.   If it is silenced, denied or blamed it will only emerge in heightened power and get louder.  If the practice of rebuking worked than Christians could end all conversations with God that were too hard and then they could boast in their own willpower to trudge forward while ignoring the still small voice inside.  But dialogue was always meant to be between friends, and communication wavers when one isn’t able to be honest.  I know believers like this and they lack maturity because they can’t uncover the root cause of their hangups.  They hide behind position, piety and pulpits yet lack all power because they want things to happen easily, being left in shallow relationships like the rest of the world.  To be set apart we have to go deep and invite the lost to partake in the challenge as we demonstrate transparency.  The sickest people are the ones who push down their protective parts, yet wait for Jesus to heal them while withholding their anguish from Him.  God can be that healing balm of Gilead but we must bring everything to Him for access.  

We wouldn’t tell a friend to stop crying if they were cut deep in the flesh, it is the same with emotion.  Wounds cut deep and without compassion we could command a part of a person to “stop acting up” as if it is demonic and then that further shames and damages the person.  Nine times out of ten, that person won’t tell us another honest word either.  At the very least, our ability to minister will be limited because hurting people need to be encouraged to face their fears to overcome them.  Applying scriptures about fear to their circumstances doesn’t get past their ears if the relationship to their Savior isn’t engaged.  Maybe fear inside of them has worked to protect them for years from making flippant choices.  Fear as a caution to sinning isn’t something to be rebuked.  Working out our salvation is sitting still and Inviting Him into each inward part so they can individually be transformed.  A coming to Jesus moment is necessary for every brain pathway to restore it’s childlikeness, especially when parts are stuck in childhood memories. This doesn’t just happen when we get saved or focus on the Lord so the devil will flee.  Try telling that mantra to anyone who has been addicted, if it were that easy we would all be doing it.  

This is the reason why two siblings can witness the same trauma but one walk away defeated for life and the other overcome and prosper.  Once you put statistics into the mix, the most adapted survivors are the ones who address the layers of symptomatic behavior instead of professing a one time deal that offered them bliss.  And that is exactly what deliverance should be, a removal of the ruling demons so they are out of the way and inner healing begins to take root.  Until we go home, we will be working out our salvation so we can respond as Jesus would to His people. He never reacted and He engaged personally with those pained, listening and asking questions.  He wasn’t uncomfortable with others emotions and therefore held their reactions as He bore their suffering.  He didn’t say “be healed” without knowing exactly how deprived their state of mind was.  Our emotional parts will always be longing for freedom by relinquishing their stories of suffering to the Lordship of the Trinity.  To do something they were intended to do by God, they must first feel understood by all aspects of Him.  

We all want to be deeply known and accepted even in the darkest places within.  We aren’t called to demand others get it together, we are called to walk beside them during the lifelong journey of surrender and change.  To do battle with their mind isn’t our role, but to settle our own mind, is. 

1 Cor. 2:10,14,15

But God has revealed things to us through His Spirit.  For the spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.

If Jesus longs for me to think like Him I cannot limit the vast ways in which He speaks.  My mind responds to His acceptance of what I have lived. I have argued it out with both Him and my inward parts who didn’t trust He or I.  Relationship unfolds, it takes time to cultivate and none of us know the magnitude of conversation necessary with Our Savior to overcome it, until we try.  The depth of walk determines the anointing and attracts those longing for the same authenticity.  I have seen the need to just be and draw close to others who seek explanation for the life they have lived.  I share my relationship with a Savior who doesn’t judge, condemn or dismiss my efforts to keep growing from glory to glory.  I am not ashamed of needing Him daily or looking foolish to others because I wrestle with my inward parts.  I trust that most will long to be accountable to themselves too.  May we walk in supernatural wisdom to the degree that we BELIEVE all parts of us can partake in it.