Check your own relationship with the Lord. Are you saved?

Have you renounced worship of other gods, and occultic involvement and practices, when you came to Christ or at your baptism?

Are you walking as a disciple? Are you in community, submitted and being accountable?

Is there stuff in your life that opens up avenues for oppression? For instance, are you watching a lot of bad movies or reading a lot of bad stuff? That opens doors.

The name of Jesus is powerful. We’ve found a lot of people who, when starting to come to the Lord or preparing for water baptism, have strange encounters.

They may feel strangulated while sleeping or a heavy weight upon their chest, and are unable to breathe.

We teach them to just shout out the name of Jesus. The moment they do it, the thing goes.

Is there really such a thing as spiritual oppression?

Evil spirits have fought against God, so their whole inclination is rebellion.

Anyone who worships God, the true and living God, is someone they want to target. They want us to turn against God.

Satan also wants us to worship him. In fact, he even tried that with Jesus Himself at the third temptation.

So you can see Satan’s lust or craving to replace God. That intention has been made clear.

This is the root of spiritual warfare. It is Satan versus God.

Even Christians can come under oppression, which means coming under or being affected by demonic activity.

Manifestations or symptoms of that include fear, obsessive behaviour, confusion and identity issues. 

… The supernatural realm is real. It is another dimension of existence, that is as real as — if not more real — than the physical.

I believe it is even bigger than the physical realm because the supernatural realm — which comprises of God and spirits — is eternal.

On the other hand, the physical realm, the biological realm, is time and space confined. There will come a time when the physical realm will end. 

Humans are spiritual beings. In the heart of every person, there’s a longing for the spiritual or supernatural, an almost spontaneous yearning for the reality of the spirit realm.

But within the Church, many have been taught, or I dare say, deceived away from this dimension of biblical worldview.

Christians, especially those ones with strong Western roots, have intellectualised everything. There is a general climate of unbelief and, in some places, even fierce opposition.

My major grief is that there’s indifference, ignorance and hazy ideas about this. We are more content with the merely cognitive stuff.

In the heart of every person, there’s a longing for the spiritual or supernatural…

My desire is that the Church would not neglect the supernatural. We cannot be passive when it comes to the supernatural. 

Jesus says we have to ask, seek and knock on the door for it (Luke 11:10-13). Paul says to covet it (1 Corinthians 14:1). 

We have to long for it. We have to yearn.

These nuggets of wisdom have been adapted from our full article here — you’ll find more tips inside for when there’s something strange in the neighbourhood!