I am not a believer in true ghosts as we think of them in human culture. They are not disembodied souls wandering about because they cannot cross over or are condemned to wander the earth for their sins like Jacob Marley. No loved one comes back from Heaven and no one can come back from Hell. Jesus spoke of this when He spoke of the rich man and Lazarus. Neither the rich man or Lazarus could come back.
If you are having visitations by any spirit whether they say they are a guide or a departed person, including your loved one, you are being deceived by a demon. I believe those who charge you to speak to your dead loved ones are working iniquity dealing with demons who can mimic a voice and know all about your loved one by networking with other demons who knew them. Their speed of networking makes anything we have in the digital world look like smoke signals and tin cans.
Indeed, the ghosts in our lives that torment us, be we believer or unbeliever are demonic harassers doing all they can to steal, kill and destroy our lives or at best our joy and potential You know what I mean. There is that relationship that went badly that you cannot forget or get past. That failure that seems to choke any hope of success in you. Those voices in your head repeating all the things you heard as a kid. “You're fat or a bean pole!” “Four eyes” You're ugly!” “You're stupid!” “You'll never be any good” “You're most likely to be in jail or the gutter”, etc.
Those situations haunt you every day of your life. Whenever you attempt a new relationship or career you hear, “You're a failure! Always have been and always will be! Don't even attempt it! You'll just screw up like always!” These are ghosts from the past and can be demonic attacks to rob you of the potential and destiny God has for you. We need to kill them or banish them from our lives.
Philippians 3:
13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul knew we would never attain all our full potential until we get to Glory for that is the ultimate destiny of all the children of God. Then we shall be completely like Him in all things including the full walk in His resurrection power. It is our duty, calling and joy to reach forth and press toward the mark while we are here.
The past is dead and you cannot raise it to fix anything. Any continued regret for what you did or did not do or pain caused by others to you be it bulling in the physical, emotional, verbal or even in a spiritual form or pain you caused others are just ghosts haunting you. They cannot harm you unless you allow them.
Paul said he had to forget that which was behind if he was going to reach forth and press toward the mark! Even secular Country music understands this. Vince Gill sang “There's no future in the past. Randy Travis was “diggin' up bones exhuming things that's better left alone.” Garth Brooks sang about what hurts a relationship because “we bury the hatchet but leave the handle stickin' out” if three chords and the truth folks get it then we who are His need to use what He has given us to make the past vanish and banish the haunting ghosts.
Micah 7:19 He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
When we are saved or repent of our backsliding and return back to Him Micah says that God casts all our sins int the depths of the sea. That means they are buried in the sea. They are dead and gone as far as He is concerned!
Maybe you should write everything down that the haunting thoughts are telling you and take them to the river. Ball it up and throw it in. That is where God has all that stuff. If you are a history buff like me make a little boat, douse it with lighter fluid, put it in the water and light it like the Vikings did and watch the ghosts burn and sink into the water. If you have a list like mine it might be more like an aircraft carrier than a Viking ship. No matter. Light that sucker up and say goodbye once and for all to them and hello to freedom in Christ's grace and love!!
Romans 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Your old man is dead!!!! Ron Shultz, as my high school chums knew him, died April 6, 1975. Is the new man perfect? No, I have often allowed ghosts to haunt me and rob me of my joy and potential. That is not God's fault. He said I am crucified. Past tense, dead and gone. My body of sin is destroyed! Why, so that we should no longer serve sin. Why do we who are dead struggle with sin? Because we listen to the voices of ghosts and demons who say we are not dead. Just like Eve, they are asking us, “Yea, hath God said?” We sin when we believe the lies based on the dead things, not the truth of God that says we are alive in Him and do not need to sin.
2Corinthians5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Are you in Christ? Are you born again? I don't mean are you a member of some group or steeped in the traditions of some group. Are you in Him? Have you come to Christ for forgiveness of sins by putting your faith in Him and Him alone for your salvation as the Son of God come in the flesh dying on a Cross to pay for sins and then rising from the dead as proof that the debt was paid? No creed, ritual or rite or denominational/non-denominational group will save you! It is Him and Him alone! Call out to Him and He will answer for He said anyone who comes to Him He would not cast out and whosoever calls upon Him will be saved! Do it now! Kill the hold that the world, flesh and the devil has over you!
If you just did it, I welcome you to the family of God, my brother or sister in Christ!!! Did you do it before this sermon. Good! Now everyone listen! Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, said you are new creature! Old things have what? Passed away or are gone and dead! All things are new!!!! Grab that and run with it!!!!
Colossians 3:3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
If that did not make even the staunchest Presbyterian shout Glory, this should! You are dead! I know you are looking good for a dead person. You old man is dead and your new life is hid where? In Christ! Great place to be, but it is even better because He is in God!!! Christ is in God hiding YOU!!! How safe is that????
You really can't play hide and seek with God because He is omnipresent and omniscient. He knows where you are going to hide before you get there and He is already there when you arrive! On the other side, what He hides you will never find! So where are you hid???? Glory!!!!!! And it is not only your present life, but your past life and your future life is hid because your life is all of that! So the past is dead, He is present in your present and waiting for you in your future!!! What or who has a ghost of a chance to haunt you or darken your future unless you listen to demons, flesh or spirit, that try to get you to believe their lies?
Yes, demons, flesh and spirit. Actually, the fleshly satans/false accusers/slanderers are influenced by the spiritual devils, but their effect on your life can be the same if you allow it. God has said you are dead and your life is hid in Him. Your sins are buried when you are saved and whenever you have to use 1 John 1:9. Do you keep your old bath water for the next bath? No, you let it go down the drain and it is buried in the system. That is what 1 John 1:9 does. It cleans off your confessed sins and even dirt you don't know you had. Yet, you are still haunted.
The devil doesn't want you to believe or forget because if you reach forth and press on to your destiny you are a danger to him. Every Christian is a Weapon of Messiah's Deliverance that has power to destroy the strongholds of the Wizard of Mass Deception. He and his minions know it, but the more he keeps you and I listening to his haunting lies the less we will grasp our authority in Christ and power in the Holy Ghost! He launches attacks everyday against us.
The devil says your sins and stuff are still active holding you back because God does not want to use the likes of you or cannot because of your failures and weakness. Remember, he is a liar and the father of lies. If God has forgotten and buried whatever is haunting you then you need to believe Him to silence the lies.
When the devil and his messengers that sometimes appear as angels of light bring up dead things go immediately go to the Lord and ask Him to send those messengers straight to the pit and allow no replacements. Dr. Laymance says that there is a box the demons do not like to be placed in. I forget what he called it, but ask God to box them up and ship them out.
Ask God to place a hedge of thorns around you to keep that evil one from you based on the blood of Christ! Then Praise God for your forgiveness and salvation through Christ. Call the roll of God's attributes; His mercy, forgiveness, grace, power, etc! The devil hates a praise fest and the more you mention the blood of Christ that bought you, the Cross and resurrection that defeated the devil the better! He will tire of hearing that ans flee.
Do the same when people remind you of something that is dead and gone! Go to your place of personal worship. You may call it a prayer closet or something else. Just go there and call upon Him who delivered you from all things including the past.
If the person is ranting or swearing in front of you just send a silent prayer up for them because it is pain or demonic influence making them do that. Ask God to save the person's soul or heal the person if they are saved. Hurt people hurt people.
When they are quiet then softly tell them what they said was correct, if it was, and say that is why you need the love, grace and forgiveness of God through Christ. Ask for their forgiveness. If they give it, be grateful and show your gratitude. If not, continue to pray for them.
If they will allow you, pray and acknowledge before them and God that you hurt this person or what they said about you WAS true and ask God to heal the person or situation. You are not doing it for God, as you have dealt with Him about it and it is buried. You are doing it in humility out of concern for the other person and your relationship with that person. If the Spirit works on them and there is reconciliation, Glory! If not, walk away rejoicing that God has buried that situation and He can and will work with the other person.
You leave the dead with the dead and reach forth Let God make a message out of your mess and a testimony out of your test. After all, He raised the dead and you are in Him so look for the high calling without looking back. The ghosts of your past will ultimately be unheard. Just as a crowd may be waving and yelling as you drive away there comes a time when you are out of range so you cannot hear them even if they keep yelling until you are out of sight. God has banished those ghosts so you do the same. Drive on!
Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
In closing, we win when we walk in faith. That is nothing mystical. It is just trust. It is what God wanted from the human race from the beginning. The tree in the garden was all about trust. Noah build the ark because he trusted God when he had no real clue about what God was talking about. Those who trusted that looking at a bronze serpent could heal them of a deadly snake bite because God said so were healed by that faith. Israel could only trust God when He said sacrificing animal would get their sins forgiven.
You are saved because you believe in what God said about His Son and His sacrifice. Now, we live by faith that we are dead by crucifixion with Christ. No ghost haunts Christ. He killed the ghosts/demons and they will be eternally dead in the Lake of Fire one day. You are in Him and hid so do not let anything cause you to look back. Forget even the last five minutes. Reach forth and press forward. He has a place for you in the Kingdom as a beloved son or daughter. Indeed, you are a Prince or Princess. Forget that which is behind. Press forward as a Warrior in the Kingdom and allow Him to make you a destroyer of satan's strongholds! Glory to His name!!! Maranatha!!
