Then we started to look at how you address the doors of entry; and we looked at several specific doors. Generational curses – it’s established over a family when someone does something; it’s dismantled when someone deals with it. We saw that the curse is dismantled when someone, as a representative of the family, owns up to the sin, brings it to the cross, and holds the cross of Christ between them and this problem. We suggested that if you’re going to diagnose problems, always identify where it began, because that’ll be a clue to generational curses.
We shared that occultic practises and idolatry open the way for demons. We saw that sexual sin opens the way for evil spirits. We saw patterns (or habits) of sin: anger, bitterness, hatred, unforgiveness, rebellion, bitter judgements. All of these create doorways for spirits to enter a person’s life.
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So, now what I want to do is I want to look just briefly at the area of traumatic experiences. Then I want to show you some steps to how to find if a person’s got the root of the problem; and then how we focus on freedom or helping the person walk out of it.
So, we need to look at the area of trauma. It’s a big area, and I’m learning my way into that right now, because I have found that many of the problems people have began when they were very young; and often it began with a traumatic or painful experience.
So, a trauma is an overwhelming emotional experience. It’s an experience that overwhelms the emotions and soul; and it leaves an indelible imprint in the person’s memory.
Now, there can be many traumatic experiences ranging from mild to quite severe; and different people react in different ways. You need to understand this – people don’t forget what happened to them - the more painful the experience, the more deeply it’s imbedded in their memory. So if an experience is of a major one, and extremely painful, or it’s a prolonged one, then it imbeds in the memory.
For example, the person has a motor accident. The shock sometimes is so great, that the whole of the mind shuts down, and it’s like it doesn’t remember what happened. So you talk to someone who’s had maybe a motor accident, and they remember before and after, but they don’t remember the accident. Actually, they do have memory of the accident, it’s just they’re not conscious of it. It was such a trauma, that the memory gets dispersed through their body.
When a person has a traumatic experience, they have a memory imprinted in them; and the memory consists of these things: it’s chemically imprinted into the body; and demonic spirits use it as a doorway of entry. When a person has a traumatic experience, there is first of all, a memory or a picture. The memory of the trauma is made up of these things.
1.) There’s a picture. There is an image. There is something they remember vividly. If you were to think back into your life, can you remember a very embarrassing situation at school or a very embarrassing or painful situation in your life? Most can remember something. What happens is, a picture comes up. So your memory retains the trauma first as a picture.
2.) Firstly there’s the memory of the experience; and secondly: how the person interpreted the experience. What did this mean to them? For example, for a person who was sexually abused, there’s the picture of the experience, the memory of all the smells and sights and sounds and feelings of it; and there’s how they interpret it - what did this mean? I’m powerless. I’m worthless. Men will hurt me. There’s the reaction that the person makes; like an inner vow. I’ll never trust anyone.
So, within the memory of the trauma, there’s: a picture, a belief they formed about it; and a reaction to it. The picture, feelings, what they believed; and how they responded. All of it is contained in the trauma.
So, for example, when you have a person who is sexually abused, they have a picture of the abuser and what happened; there’s the feelings and sounds and smells and sights - all of that is remembered. Then what they believed about this thing: “I’m powerless. I’m useless. I’m worthless. It’s my fault.” Then, how they reacted – “I must never tell anyone. I’ll never let men get near me. You can never trust men.” So, those heart reactions we talked about. So when a person has a trauma, all of those are in the trauma. Particularly powerful is the picture, and what they interpreted that picture to mean.