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Deliverance

Chemistry and Compatibility

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In a relationship, chemistry and compatibility are important.  We are pretty familiar with chemistry.  It’s the butterflies-in-the-stomach, electric connection you feel when you are near your partner.  Chemistry is almost drug-like, brought on by neurotransmitters and feel-good hormones; it’s almost beyond our control. But what does it mean to be compatible?   Compatibility is defined as “​​the natural ability to live or work together in harmony because of well-matched characteristics, the quality or fact of being in agreement.” Chemistry is automatic but compatibility takes work.  In the event of divorce, there are usually two reasons – incompatibility or infidelity.  And sometimes incompatibility produces infidelity.  

Couple with chemistry and compatibilityGo Back to the Beginning

We often counsel couples who are on the verge of divorce and want to end their marriage.  One of the things we’ll say is, “Let’s go back to the beginning – the memory where you knew they were the one.”  You knew something.  You felt something.  You were convinced that he or she was the one.  We urge couples to put their compatibility struggles out of mind and remember the chemistry.  If you can’t see a future right now, go back to the beginning.  What made you fall in love?    

Couple with chemistry and compatibility

We’ll Do Anything

When we met, I was so obsessed with the idea of marrying my wife.  I was a resident assistant at a college, and didn’t have the money to get her an engagement ring.  I did whatever I could to save in order to get her that ring… I didn’t care what it took!  At the beginning of our love story, we’ll do anything for the person we love.  But, sadly, at the end, we’ll do nothing.  

Lack of Compatibility is No Excuse

Some would say their lack of compatibility is why they watch pornography or hold their spouse in contempt.  I want to exhort the men reading this:  don’t ever lust after another woman if she hasn’t paid the price to bear your children.  Your wife is due respect and honor. When you married your wife, you did not make a mistake.  But when your heart began to wander, you did.  

So how do you fix a marriage that is lacking chemistry or compatibility?  

1. Fun fixes marriages.  

When you laugh you last.  Over the course of our marriage, we have learned how to laugh at ourselves.  We laugh at almost everything.  We even laugh at the weirdness of our bodies as we age and go through the ups and downs of life.  Lust ruins marriage, but fun fixes it.  Make time and space for fun.  Go do the things you did early in your relationship on dates, before the worries of life took over and things got complicated.  Or, go try something completely new together!  Being out of your comfort zone can be an adventure!

Couple with chemistry and compatibility

2.  Focus fixes marriages.  

If your marriage needs fixing, it’s time to change your focus.  Instead of focusing on what is wrong, focus on what’s right.  Stop focusing on dirty dishes.  Buy paper plates.  Are you going to ruin your marriage over dishes?  Refocus on the important things.  

3. Faith fixes marriage.  

Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the evidence of things hoped for and the substance of things not seen.”  Life will not go the way you plan it, but it will go the way you prophesy it.  In faith, declare that you’re going to have chemistry and compatibility.  

 


Check out our YouVersion plan “Rip Up the List: Renew Relationships” where Pastor Mike takes you on a 7-day journey through the seven phases of romantic relationships. Each day you will be challenged to rip up the list of failures and mistakes and pursue relationships that reflect God’s heart.

My Breakthrough Community is full of people just like you who are hungry for more of God. If you are interested in learning more, consider joining the Breakthrough Community!

Request prayer here.

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What are Soul Ties and How Do I Get Free?

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Have you moved on to a new relationship, but you’re still lusting after someone you broke up with a long time ago? Do you keep going back in your imagination to connections from the past? Have you blocked your ex and have no way of communicating with them? You may have a soul tie.  

What is a Soul Tie?

A soul tie is when your mind (intellect), will, and emotions become knit together with another person.  There is both a biological and biblical basis for soul ties.  Contrary to what you’ve probably heard, soul ties can occur in various relationships, not just romantic.  

Soul Ties in the Bible

We see soul ties between parent and child in the story of Joseph.  Joseph’s father, Jacob, had a soul tie to his son Benjamin.  

Genesis  44:30-31 (ESV)
“Now therefore, as soon as I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us, then, as his life is bound up in the boy’s life, as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol.”

In the story of David and Jonathan, the Bible says that they had a soul tie in their friendship.  

1 Samuel 18:1 (ESV)
As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.

You can even have a soul tie to a leader – spiritual or otherwise.  We see that between Judah and their king David.  

2 Samuel 20:2 (ESV)
So all the men of Israel withdrew from David and followed Sheba the son of Bichri. But the men of Judah followed their king steadfastly from the Jordan to Jerusalem.

The soul tie we hear the most about is the one between a man and woman, established through the act of sexual intercourse or close emotional and intellectual bonding.  

Genesis 2:24 (ESV)
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Like a Dog Returns to Its Vomit

I want to start by saying that you can be free if you have an ungodly soul tie to someone.  You don’t have to live in the past.  Maybe you ended a relationship with a narcissist or a toxic person, but there was a sexual component. Perhaps you ended the relationship with the pastor who used or abused you, but there is a remaining spiritual connection.  If you know you’re in a toxic relationship, you need to get free, and you can get free. So often, though, despite our knowledge that we need freedom, we continue to return to that relationship repeatedly due to the tie that connects us with the person.  Why?

Proverbs 26:11 (ESV)
As a dog returns to its vomit,
    so fools repeat their folly.

The Bible says a dog returns to its vomit.  It is a vivid and distasteful depiction and evokes a reaction.  Why would a dog return to its vomit?  A dog’s sense of smell is so keen that it can still perceive the morsels of undigested food present in the vomit.  It can sense a little bit of good among the vomit, which compels it to return and consume something that is otherwise abhorrent. We often behave this way in relationships that have soul ties.  We keep going back because we see a little bit of good in the relationship.  That indicates that there’s a soul tie that needs to be broken.  

Satan’s Counterfeit

Soul ties are not always bad.  There are times when you establish a healthy intellectual and emotional connection with others.  These connections are necessary for us to form healthy attachments that foster security and feelings of well-being.  God has created soul ties so that husbands and wives, family members, and close friends can form secure connections with one another.  But whatever God creates, Satan counterfeits.  Wherever God places purpose, Satan places perversion.  Soul ties can take something God created that is necessary and pervert it into something designed to keep you in bondage.  If you keep accepting a counterfeit, there’s no room for God to replace it with the real thing.  

Colossians 2:2 (ESV)
that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ,

God doesn’t want you to remove people from your life so you can miss out on relationships.   He wants to remove so that he can replace.  Everything God has is better than what he asks you to give up. He won’t take away a broken relationship without replacing it with a covenant-level relationship.  If you keep settling for counterfeits, you cannot accept the upgrade.  

Cutting the Ties

The scissors for cutting your soul ties are in your hands.  The scissors are the signs that the relationship is unhealthy and ungodly.   

Some signs of unhealthy soul ties are:

  • You know you’re being used.
  • Lack of trust.
  • The relationship has no benefits to you.  
  • There’s an obsessive element to the relationship.
  • You crave the approval of the person.
  • There’s emotional intimacy that’s not beneficial but you keep going back.  

Let’s take our spiritual scissors and cut the ties today if this describes you.  Pray with me:

I break and release every single soul tie now in the name of Jesus. I cut and sever myself from all romantic relationships, spiritually perverse relationships, and past relationships in the name of Jesus.  I renounce every connection that was not from God in the name of Jesus, and I declare that I am free by the blood of Jesus.  I thank you that every chain is broken, mental torment is ending, and obsession is ending.  Whom the Son has set free is free indeed, in the name of Jesus.  Amen.  

 


Check out our YouVersion plan “Rip Up the List: Renew Relationships” where Pastor Mike takes you on a 7-day journey through the seven phases of romantic relationships. Each day you will be challenged to rip up the list of failures and mistakes and pursue relationships that reflect God’s heart.

My Breakthrough Community is full of people just like you who are hungry for more of God. If you are interested in learning more, consider joining the Breakthrough Community!

Request prayer here.

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What is a Spiritual Spouse? Incubus, Succubus, and Lilith

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If you experience terror at night in your sleep, you may have a spiritual spouse.  A spiritual spouse, or spirit spouse, is a phrase used in shamanism.  Spiritual husbands or wives help a shaman assist in their work of witchcraft.  In many cultures, the belief is held that a spirit spouse will cause someone to be successful in witchcraft.  The relationship between shamans and their spirit spouses is expressed romantically, sexually, or sometimes symbolically.  Shamans report engaging with their spirit spouses through dreams, trancelike states,  and other ritualistic elements.  In some cultures, you have to gain a spiritual spouse to prove that you’re a legitimate shaman.  

What does the Bible Say About Spiritual Spouses?

Genesis 6:4
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

Genesis 6 talks about spiritual entities (the sons of God) that had relationships with human women and even impregnated them.  Their children were called the Nephilim.  I know this sounds wild, but if you are a Christian and claim to believe the Genesis account of creation, you have to also believe Genesis 6.

Isaiah 34:14 (NKJV)
The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the jackals, And the wild goat shall bleat to its companion; Also the night creature shall rest there, And find for herself a place of rest.

Some translations of the Bible refer to “the night creature” as Lilith.  Lilith is a night demon who is sexually wanton, actively seeking out victims to violate sexually.

Signs of a Spiritual Spouse

Those who struggle with orgasms or wet dreams in their sleep could be experiencing a spiritual spouse.  Spiritual spouses can also look like demonic activity in the night where they feel their bed shake, the sheets move, or feel a presence on top of them as if a demon is raping them.  It can also look like sleep paralysis (not all sleep paralysis is demonic).    These demons can be incubus, succubus, or Lilith.

Open Doors for Spiritual Spouses

A spiritual spouse is a demon.  Demons can come into your life through open doors, such as the practice of witchcraft, horoscopes, astrology, ouija boards, or signs.  Even if you haven’t participated in these, if someone in your family has, they could have opened a door to it. The door could be opened to spiritual spouses through molestation or abuse.  Viewing pornography and engaging in sexual sin are other ways that doors could be opened.  

My Story

I was tormented in my sleep from my earliest recollections.  As a three-year-old, I remember waking up in the middle of the night and seeing my entire room covered in frogs.  My grandmother was heavily rooted in witchcraft and held seances.  There were many open doors to the demonic on both sides of my family.   I remember waking up out of nightmares, and sleep paralysis started at a young age.

As a teenager, I would experience this in an extreme sense, waking up and feeling as if I was being raped.  My bedsheets would be ripped off of me.  Other times I would be physically choked, gasping for air.  I would even put tape recorders in my room to try and capture the noises I heard. I had so much anxiety to go to sleep.  I was obsessed with figuring out why this was happening.  

At this point, I was young in my faith.   I started to learn spiritual warfare and discovered that Jesus cast out spirits.  I read Romans 10:9 and learned about generational curses and how the sins of your ancestors can be transmitted through your bloodline.  I discovered that Jesus came to break curses.   I learned about the demonic and how when you are a believer, Jesus himself gives you spiritual authority over darkness.  You can renounce and cast out demons.  After this, I went from terrified to sleep to excited to exercise my spiritual authority.  I went from a kitten to a lion!  

How I Found Freedom

Once I learned about my spiritual authority, I took myself through deliverance.  You can walk yourself through deliverance – you don’t need someone to do it for you.  Allow the Holy Spirit to target what you need to repent from and then confess it,  renounce it, and break the curses.  Before self-deliverance, I felt demons following me down the hallway.  I was so afraid of the dark that I would strategically turn out the lights so that I wasn’t in the dark too long. Sin opened up the door to these demonic experiences.  But once I was delivered, it all ended.  

Sleep Paralysis

There are two forms of sleep paralysis.  One is a form of demonic activity which includes sexual activity or being physically held down after waking.  It is exhausting to experience and steals your strength and peace.  There is another form of sleep paralysis that is actually necessary for restful sleep.  Being paralyzed during your sleep due to brain chemicals allowing your body to rest is good; God designed you that way.  The negative form is when you wake up and your body is still paralyzed and held down by a demonic entity.  

How do you know if your sleep paralysis is the healthy kind or the negative kind?  Learn to practice good sleep hygiene.  This includes:

  • Getting plenty of exercise during the day
  • Eating healthy foods that nourish your body 
  • Stopping caffeine consumption early enough in the day so that your sleep isn’t affected
  • Putting your phone down an hour before you go to sleep
  • Reducing the temperature in your bedroom to a comfortable, cool level
  • Bringing in white noise
  • Establishing sleep routines like taking a shower, reading the Bible, and praying prior to sleep before you go to bed

 

How Do I Know If I Need Deliverance?

You can’t blame everything on the devil.  If you eat greasy pizza at 11:30 pm and then have terrorizing dreams, start by eliminating the pizza.   But if you exercise and your diet is right, and if you eliminate caffeine early enough in the day, and you’re still being tormented, you need deliverance.  If you will confess your sins, deal with generational sins, and break curses off your life, you’ll be free from whatever succubus, incubus, or foul spirit is on your life.   There are some things you can’t counsel, coach, or cure with a pill – they have to be cast out.  Allow God to deliver you, live free, and sleep peacefully in Jesus’ name! 

 

If you’d like to hear Pastor Mike pray over people to be freed from spiritual spouses, click here.  

My Breakthrough Community is full of people just like you who are hungry for more of God.  If you are interested in learning more, consider joining the Breakthrough Community!

Request prayer here.

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