Through The Open Door

The name Jesus has authority in the spirit realm. There are many testimonies online that show this. One woman was told by her spirit guides that she was going to become seriously unwell. This raised alarm bells in her about who these ‘spirit guides’ were. She owned a Bible and came across this verse about testing the spirits;

‘Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.’

When she asked her guides if they believed that Jesus was the son of God, who rose from the dead, they shape-shifted into demons, laughing and mocking her.

There are some who believe the Bible to be a mix of truth and lies, or to be stories that have changed throughout time. Yet, for me when I hear stories that show how the scripture can be used to reveal truth about our spiritual realm I see its validity.

There are other fascinating testimonies that point to this truth; an ex psychic who experienced ‘alien abduction,’ before realising the aliens were actually demons, a Buddhist who was haunted by Demons, and only got help when he came to Christ, a teenaged musician who wrote songs about selling his family to the devil and ended up calling out to Jesus in a moment of sleep paralysis.

These stories might sound fantastical, but the spiritual realm is very real. Now for many of us spiritual seekers we won’t experience spiritual attack, alien abduction, or any kind of dramatic situation that leads us to call out in desperation to Jesus. But that doesn’t make the spiritual realm any less real. It whispers away in the background, looking for doorways, looking for ways in. The Bible tells us Satan, ‘disguises himself as an angel of light,’ so we might not even realise that there is an open doorway, when all we can perceive is love and light.

Many forms of spirituality teach how we must trust ourselves, and rely on our own intuition, and I see the value of it, as in some ways trying to discern what God wants for me, feels like listening to my intuition.

However it’s not the whole story, because Satan has a greater intelligence than us. What feels good to us, what feels right, can be a manipulated perception, coming through the open doorway that we didn’t even realise was there. We need a guiding light to pull us away from the things we are deceived about, and the perceptions we have that are not perfect.

One thing about spiritual practises is the tendency to want more, to go deeper. I used to love meditating for hours, I couldn’t get enough of stillness. I recall one day, feeling a presence in the corner of the room. It felt benevolent and I felt excited at this piercing of the cosmic veil.

A few months later I had a mini-breakdown. I felt a strange kind of ‘depression’ that didn’t manifest as suicidal thoughts, but as a struggle to read and stay focused, stress, a disconnection from the world that left me unable to concentrate. I went to the doctor as I couldn’t continue to work, and took three months off. Later when I read about the experiences of people at Vipassana retreats and how they sometimes had breakdowns, I realised that my breakdown probably was a result of intense periods of meditation. I thought it must have been because the meditation ‘brought stuff up’ that I needed to work through.

While stillness, presence, and compassion to ourselves can be extremely healing, there is a risk involved. Because we don’t fully perceive the spiritual realm and only get glimpses, we don’t know how spirits are interacting with us, as we slowly open those doors.

How much of my breakdown was healing, and coming to process trauma that I’d hidden all those years? How much was because of whatever was in that room, that I’d invited into my life, by being still but not knowing what I was sitting beside?

Like a deer in the headlights we are vulnerable to the dangers, and I’ve come to believe that we need Jesus. And of course not just as our spiritual protector from all that is negative and dark in our reality. Jesus is a healer. Whatever we are struggling with he is there to help. We don’t need to go knocking on random doors.

I loved what a Pastor I took a class with told us; that Jesus is a gentleman. He doesn’t force his way in through the crack in an open doorway you didn’t even know you’d opened. Jesus says,

‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.’

Jesus answers every call for assistance. He gives us a safe direct line to God, like a spark of light that shoots directly through the darkness to Him.

(link to testimonies)