Humans are so diverse and unique in so many ways. We all have our own looks, perspectives, backgrounds and ways of dealing with things. We are so often in default mode. We just do what we always did, based on what our Mothers or Fathers did, based on how we perceive a situation or based on what we choose to believe. Most people are not aware that there are two kingdoms warring within them to bring them either to peace or to destruction. They just follow whatever thoughts seem more familiar.
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof [are] the ways of death. Proverbs 14:12
A person may get by fine until adversity comes, perhaps a trauma, abuse, something not going as planned, disappointment, fill in the blank. This can be a turning point in a person’s life. If they follow the path the enemy wants to lead them down, they could end up feeling fearful, losing hope and the ability to trust. They could begin to want to withdraw because they really don’t know how to cope with their situation. They may blame themselves and feel drowned by guilt. They may feel so hurt they can’t even stand to be around people anymore. They may internalize that hurt and get so focused on it that they hardly can think of anything else. Maybe they don’t even want to deal with life anymore.
It’s a downward spiral. The enemy’s ultimate goal is to withdraw that person from the world, to isolate them and to keep them bound in their problems so that they will never see the light of day. If a person truly does become focused on this stuff long term, it will become part of their long term memory and actually form permanent pathways of thought in their brain.
This is the root issue behind depression.
The medical community will tell you that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in your body leading to symptoms of sadness, anxiety, emptiness, hopelessness, guilt, fear, restlessness, loss of interest, overeating or loss of appetite, problems concentrating and making decisions, insomnia, aches, pains and suicidal thoughts and actions.
What they can’t express to you is why that imbalance is occurring. In general depression, there is nothing biologically wrong with the person at all. So what is actually happening?
Humans are not just soul and body as we have been led to believe, but rather, we are a spirit, we have a soul and we live in a body.
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and [I pray God] your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:23
Every part of our being is interconnected and directly affects the other parts. Every thought we have at the soul level has an equal reaction physiologically in our body. Different hormones and chemicals are secreted into a person’s various body systems by the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland trigger a biological response. It’s important to realize that our thoughts are not only influenced by what we experience through our five physical senses and what we think in our own mind, but also by the spiritual dimension– from either the Holy Spirit or the kingdom of the enemy.
In depression, the enemy will feed a person melancholy, moody thoughts that will lead to a person’s body suppressing the secretion of dopamine and serotonin, the “feel good” chemicals. If they focus on those thoughts long term, they become programmed as a part of that person’s regular way of thinking and their general state of being. Their hypothalamus and pituitary gland will start to permanently suppress those chemicals.
So let’s rewind all the way back. A person needs to recognize what may have happened in their life that was a door point to this pathway of thought. Was it a single event or maybe a string of events? Was it an unsafe environment or an environment where that person felt pushed to drive and perform in order to receive the love or attention that they needed? It’s important for them to recognize what pathway of thought they followed in order to unwind the tangled mess they are now in.
It is okay to recognize that whatever happened or whatever someone else did was not good, but then what do you do with it? As long as a person thinks that a situation, circumstance, other person or anything else is the reason for their problems, and feels like the victim, they can never rise up and take responsibility for their own lives. Self-pity will come alongside them and focus them in on a tunnel vision of all that is wrong and all that is bad. This will cause a person to miss out on all of the potentially good things that God still has to offer them in their life.
First, we need to recognize who the real enemy is, the Word says this:
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places]. Ephesians 6:12
Our enemy is not any other person, circumstance or thing. He is the Father of Lies that has been tormenting mankind since the beginning along with his kingdom of darkness. If a person can really understand this and separate themselves and others from their sins, and learn the power of forgiveness, this is the first major step to them finding their peace and freedom.
At Be in Health®, we have observed that a major block to healing is unforgiveness. A person that keeps a record of wrongs against themselves or another person, who cannot let it go, will find themselves a slave to this sin. Why is it a sin? After all, there may be solid grounds to be resentful right? The Word says this:
And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses. Mark 11:25-26
Even Jesus, while He was dying on the cross, after being brutally beaten, mocked and tortured cried out to His Father in Heaven and said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do!”
When we hold on to these things, we are holding ourselves in a prison house of pain and keeping ourselves separated from God, ourselves and others. Why should we live in torment for another person’s sins against us or even for our own past faults? It’s time to flush it and move forward into the fullness of life that God intended for you.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Jeremiah 29:11
That phrase “expected end,” literally translated from the original Hebrew, means “Hoped for future or an outcome.” That is Father God’s heart for every one of His children, so would you rather follow the enemy’s plan of hopelessness, heaviness, isolation and fear or would you rather follow God’s plan for hope?
Did you know that the choice is yours?
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, [that] I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: Deuteronomy 30:19
It is essential that a person now retrains their mind to think differently than they had previously been programmed to think. Now comes the renewing of the mind. Now comes the washing of the water or the Word. Now it’s time to find out how Father God sees us and our identity in Him and make that part of their long term memory. Now is the time to find out what love really is. It is time to recognize that any kind of “love” that would take from you, use you, cause you to drive or perform in order to receive it, or that can be given or withdrawn on a whim is not the real, unconditional love of Father God.
The Word lays out clearly what Father God’s love is like, and the kind of love that He would like to grow us into.
Charity suffereth long, [and] is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth… 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
In this is the completeness of life, health, wholeness and peace. In fact, love is the antidote to fear which is a major stronghold of depression.
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18
Through the revelation that they’ve received here at Be in Health® and our For My Life® retreat and the renewing of the mind in the Word of God, hundreds of people have been completely healed and delivered from the bondage of depression. With God all things are possible. He is our faithful, loving Father.
Blessings,
The Be in Health® Team
