Spiritual Warfare Library of PSM

During the 19^th century, American grocers were free to put whatever they pleased into their products. However, the Pure Food and Drug Act was administered to prevent inedible things like sawdust to be served at the dinner table. Sadly, spiritual food isn’t near as regulated as the food that we put in our mouths. Every day, countless Christians consume false doctrines of deceiving cults and religions. Out of all, one of the most notorious “grocers” is the New Age Movement. Adhering to East Asian, Middle Eastern, and other religions of the world, the New Age Movement becomes a particularly dangerous conduit of deception. An amalgamation of so many religions, the New Age Movement rounds itself out with a false masquerade of Christianity. With an “everything goes” attitude, the New Age Movement has become an occult-converting factory, encouraging the use of tarot cards, energy healers, psychic mediums, and countless other forms of idolatry. So, here are some pointers to differentiate the false New Age Christianity (and other worldly religions) and biblical Christianity.

Simply put, the New Age Movement attempts to glorify the self. Meanwhile, Christianity glories God. The deadly, attractive poison of the New Age is that people are baited into acting on anything that pleases their flesh. When trying to get people to open their sacral (sex) chakra, I recall a reiki healer saying along the lines of, “Don’t be afraid to be sexual, just let go! There’s no shame in your sexuality. ~ Is that really the right thing though, or is that something they’d would want the right thing to be? If a belief system is attempting to get someone to actively indulge their bodies, it’s absolutely the opposite of Christianity. As according to the Bible, “…offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God–this is your true and proper worship.” In other words, your flesh is meant to be ‘cut out’ in favor of developing your spirit to be free of sin, instead of smothered in it.  The New Agers say, “Follow your heart and do what makes you happy.” Meanwhile, Christianity counters, “Follow and obey Jesus for the heart is deceitful.” 

The New Age Movement also enforces the concept of “self-saving”, in other words, taking matters into our own hands. Instead of trusting and following in the Holy Trinity, the New Age turns to ascended masters, spirit guides, astrology, and angels for their personal guidance. (When in reality, these are empowered by malevolent spirits who disguise their evil in their messages of good.) Particularly, such divination practices demonstrate how the New Agers attempts to predict and control their lives, especially the future. Hence, they display that they aren’t really at peace, but rather they are in the illusion of peace. To put bluntly, there wouldn’t be enough horoscopes to give them a peace of mind, there’s always a worry for tomorrow. They’re anxiety is constantly cycling without end. So, they always need a word from someone, somewhere, or anywhere. Although, without spiritual discernment, they play a game of Russian Roulette. It’s a trap of unregulated food products when you get into divination as evil spirits are quite listed on the box of crystal stones, the label of the tarot cards, or the latest Ouija board.  

The New Age Movement also distorted the message of the Gospel. This is like the way Charles Finney deceived the institutional church in the 19th century with the ‘I accept Jesus practice. Graphing such easy believism into their narrative, the New Age Movement has added their own variations of Finney’s guide to salvation. (Man cannot redeem himself from his own sins as true spiritual repentance is prompted by the Holy Spirit) Many of the New Age Movement claim that Jesus Christ is a meager “ascended master” or a laidback, enlightened individual. While the TRUTH is that Jesus was fully God and fully man during his walk on the Earth. Continuously, they negate the essence of Christ’s teachings, the existence of sin, hell, devil, and demons. Meanwhile, these lessons are a badge of honor to those following true Christianity. More so, when these individuals are redeemed by the blood that Jesus shed on the Cross, born-again, SAVED from their sins for eternity. There is no reiki, subliminal, or astral projection that would ever produce that kind of supernatural release from the world. Of which, many in the New Age Movement still seek after, not even realizing that they are producing their own bondage by trying to make peace with their flesh, an insatiable animal.  With so many in the dark, these individuals do not know the taste of proper spiritual food to decide whether their own doctrines are safe or poisonous. 

If you need help refining your spiritual palate, RESCUE fellowship on Facebook provides countless posts, articles, and commentary on false doctrines. You’d know the Enemy’s lies so well, you wouldn’t even need to ponder if something sounds legit or not. After I left the New Age Movement, I felt so confused and conflicted, who was the God that I was trying to serve? Is he merciful? Is he judgmental? Through RESCUE, I’m learning step-by-step, no hassle or rushing. You learn at your own pace. Not to mention, there are numerous, welcoming people waiting to answer any of your questions, including myself. So, you’ll never feel lost or overwhelmed. At RESCUE, we’re the people that care! Give us a chance at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/rescue/.

God is love. And since Jesus Christ is God, He was and is the example of love.

The word “love” is handed around in the world like cheap cigarettes. And even the modern-religious lingo of the day, “love like Jesus did” is spoken of constantly.

We have heard, “God so loved the world that He sent His only Son” (John 3:16) and the Lord Jesus spoke, “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). He also mentions in the same Chapter, “If you love Me then you will keep My commandments.”

The concept of Christ’s love, is that 1) it’s an unemotional choice 2) it’s manifested in a form of willful giving 3) the first priority is to love God the Father and keep obedience to the Son Jesus Christ 4) it’s a love without distinction 5) it’s supernatural 6) it does not demand love in return and 7) is respectful of others’ freewill and perspectives. When Jesus walked, He did not necessarily love man. He loved His Father, which inevitably resulted in Him loving and forgiving man. Jesus Christ’s love was ultimately for God and doing His will.

This is the very paradox we face, since although He loved His Father in heaven, and God revealed to the world His love by sending His Son—Jesus Christ as the revelation of the love of the Father. Yet, even though this revelation of God’s love was manifested in Christ before the eyes of men; He was despised, rejected, hated, betrayed, and killed. All the Apostles likewise, following their Master’s footprints, imitating Christ’s love, were beaten or killed and or put into exile. These examples reveal, it’s possible to love your neighbor and be hated without explanation in return.

What we have to remember is that loving God means loving people according to His will and the example that Christ left. Human nature, or the natural condition of the flesh is able to love also. However, this love is subjected to the flesh and the law of sin and death. Discerning this love is easy, it’s emotional, selfish, and unable to please God. While at the same time this love can have a good side of natural feeling, or natural compassion human’s have, a sort of empathetic conscience—at times, we can be moved to love people according to this love or our flesh, making ourselves the center of love, rather than a love centered on Christ. True Christian love has Christ in the center of the relationship, you loving God and the other person loving God. When our love interferes the other person from loving God, and makes them more moved to love us; the love thus becomes fleshly and is “man-centered” love.

This is the form of love that religion offers. The love is natural, draws people to themselves and has distinction. What love with distinction is, can be expressed in this way, “I am going to love you because of.” It’s an attitude that a person must have a certain distinction in order to be loved. Whereas Christ’s love does not have distinction, in other words, “I am going to love you despite.” It leaves out the required distinction that religion requires to obligate themselves to love.

True love, means your love for your neighbor is flowing from your love for God. Loving the Father and His will precedes all other loves and commandments. At times, especially to man, it may not seem as though we love them according to the flesh. Yes, you can be loving God and your neighbor, but because Christ is “in the space in-between” they will be aggravated, they will mistrust you, accuse you, and draw their own conclusions about you. And, not to mention those who love yet, don’t understand the supernatural love of Christ, they can easily be deceived into living a natural life of love for humans, rather than a life of loving God.

The ultimate reality we must come to terms is that, no matter how much we can love God, our foundation is not on our love for Him, but on His love for us. As it says,

“This is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atonement for our sins.” (1 John 4:10).

The fruit of the Spirit is love, and here at Pam Sheppard Ministries this love is manifested in deed and truth. Our love is founded on God’s love for us and our love is first obligated to the Father through Christ. We do not love from our flesh, but from the Spirit and a sincere heart. This means, that we are going to be more inclined to choosing God’s will, even if that means certain relationships fail for the sake of a greater One. We are able to train you to love the Lord and your neighbor without compromising your love for the Lord by loving your neighbor. Religion’s love is an empty tomb, and man’s love is fleshly gravitated toward selfishness, and easy pleasings. Contact 888-818-1117 for a greater understand of what Christ-like love is or email getreadyforthelord@gmail.com to be in an environment of true Christian love.

We are commanded and exhorted constantly to love our neighbor. The Lord prophesied about love in the endtimes, “Because of lawlessness the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). Interestingly, the word “grow cold” in Greek is “psycho.” It’s no doubt that we see psychos everywhere in the world, along with lawlessness. A psycho isn’t always a mad serial killer, it’s simply someone who doesn’t have a heart and whose love is cold. I’m convicted this prophecy is being fulfilled as you read, especially within religious white washed tomb churches.

Well, despite our neighbor’s distinctions, and lawlessness—we still must uphold the royal law of Christ, and love without any distinction, loving without compromising our love for God the Father through Christ Jesus the Son.

Can you relate to the paradox example of Christ’s love? Have there been moments in your life when loving your neighbor appeared to them as not so “loving”? Can you discern the difference between the supernatural love like Christ, from the natural human like love?

Do you ever remember a time when you were driving, and you followed the wrong road because you misread directions or a sign? Bearing this concept in mind, this is similarly what happens when we believe in signs, works, and wonders.

No matter what supernatural wonder comes at us, the second we believe the wonder to be of God we become subjected to that wonder or sign. Yes, whatever we believe, we ultimately are obeying and following that belief.

We can see throughout the history of the saints, Satan has constantly used counterfeit signs to directly deceive people into believing his works, making people more easily subjected into his evil will. The Israelites were warned about false prophets with their idol’s signs and wonders, but did not heed and latter believed that their idol’s supernatural abilities of their day was of God, people in Samaria thought a sorcerer’s miracles to be of God, and likewise today we have people believing in the wrong signs, “There’s nothing new under the sun…” All these people were ultimately lead astray by following after these false signs and wonders.

This is part of Satan’s design, since he is the prince of the power of the air, he has limited control over the elements. Satan can use elemental powers and even parts of nature to create convincing signs. This is exactly what the Lawless one, the man of sin, the Antichrist will do when manifested and revealed. He will perform signs, wonders, works that will be nearly identical to that of God—causing “fire to fall from heaven.” And when people believe these signs to be of the true God; they ultimately subject themselves to the man of sin and his wonders as their “god.”

We at Pam Sheppard Ministries constantly, and urge with all instruction to doubt every spirit, but prove, examine, test, try each spirit to see whether it be of God. Deception leads to bondage of mind, since ultimately your mind is taken over by a lie, and held captive to the subjected belief.

Do you remember what happened after the Israelites were redeemed by the LORD’S hand out of Egypt? They eye-witnessed countless miracles, then wonders after signs, after powers of God, but to no avail. They became of hard-heart in times of testing, and strayed because they “had an evil heart of unbelief in the living God.” Faith is ultimately what we need in these last times, since faith is what pleases God.

Please contact the ministry if you wish to understand the endtimes, gain discernment, and join our genuine fellowship with the true Father and the Son. Call 888-818-1117 or email getreadyforthelord@gmail.com

What are modern day wonders that need testing? What makes signs and wonders so convincing?

TEMPTATION, BUT WITH GOOD? WHEN WE THINK of temptation, we usually think of sex, vanity, absurd pleasure, drunkenness, and so on. We know that even unbelievers can resist certain temptations like so by their volition.

However Satan’s cunning temptations, or the real temptations don’t always come across to be upfront evil, immoral, and wrong. As you grow to learn more about the devil’s schemes, you learn that there are many of them. Many of Satan’s schemes revolve around deception and temptation, and he attacks were we are ignorant. The agenda of the devil and his kingdom is to get us ignorant, deceived, and to sin. And he will pull whatever strings necessary to do so.

Looking at the Lord’s encounter with the Tempter in the wilderness, each temptation He faced had good in them. “Eat bread, since it will help Your body survive; fall off the temple to fulfill Scripture; take the kingdoms now so You can rule over them with justice and peace,” the devil said. That’s just the tip of the iceberg with the depth of these temptations. Satan had to come with cunning craft; but no matter what temptation he offered, Jesus had knowledge, truth, and an understanding of what the greater good was. “Man lives off every word from the mouth of God; don’t test the Lord your God; worship the Lord your God and serve Him only,” Jesus replied understanding that these were greater goods, and the Father’s will. Jesus had immense knowledge of the Father’s will which allowed Him to recognize what was not His will, so He was able to see past the good presented by Satan, and see a greater good beyond the initial good offered by the devil.

We can also see this with the Pharisees since the Lord rebuked them for choosing a lesser good tradition of dedicating oneself to God, while un-obligating themselves from a true commandment of God to honor their parents, which was the greater good.

Religiosity teaches you, “Be concerned with eating a gnat, and forget about eating a camel.” Religion does not put weight on the weightier matters, making those who have a religious mindset easier pray for the adversary roaming like a lion to devour them with choosing lesser goods, and annulling the greater good of God’s will. A modern example would be the message of the Gospel. Religion has not put weight on the most weighty matter of doctrine for decades, but has put weight on traditions, rituals, ceremonies, fleshly unspiritual worship, and works.

The highway to hell is paved with a broad road of good-intentions and a bunch of itty-bitty wittle good choices—with a bunch of people and Satan making such encouragement and support for you choosing these goods.

Here at Pam Sheppard Ministries we have all our weight on the weighty matters, especially the message of salvation, or the Gospel. If you have not heard that message, or if you want freedom from the exhausting weights of religion—contact 888-818-1117 or email getreadyforthelord@gmail.com !

There are countless scenarios to test, when good is being presented, we should ask…Is there a greater good I am missing? All the reason to be transformed by the renewing of the mind, and not conform to the world and it’s “good”.

Have you been tempted with “good”? How did you know that the “good” was of the devil?

A DEADLY ATTITUDE seems sort of strange. Shouldn’t we have such a good attitude of hope, and love? Well, maybe in some cases but what about the world and sin? What is your attitude to those such things?

When you observe the world, all the sins, all the ignorance and deception, all the temptations, all the wickedness, seduction, evil, and wrong, what’s your attitude, your inner-desire? Overcoming these things, and living a godly life in Christ means conforming to His death and resurrection, and therefore the attitude we must have toward the world and sin is death, being crucified unto such things.

Every morning, day, moment by moment we have to reason, consider, and truly reckon ourselves dead to sin. We must take zealous activity to make sure our fleshly desires are crucified. Once they are dead, we can walk alive to God in Christ.

What Satan and his wicked spirits want is to ultimately “resurrect” your flesh, and attitude toward sin. Instead of being dead to sin, the devil wants you to be alive to sin. Satan will come to “resuscitate” the attitude of living a carnality, fleshly, natural way—having desires for the world and the things in it.

What we must proclaim is our identity and belonging with Jesus Christ of Nazareth and His death, being crucified to the world and sin. Proclaim with all genuine deadly attitude, “I am dead unto sin.” When the world comes, when sin comes, when desire comes, when flesh excites, when temptation burns… “dead unto sin.”

When our death unto sin is made true and conformed with Christ’s death; we then can live in His resurrection power of being alive from the dead for service to the living God! Although your flesh can still “rise” at times you can ultimately, by the resurrection power walk in the Spirit and not fulfill those lusts.

This here is what Pam Sheppard Ministries teaches, exhorts, and proclaims; walking in the Spirit in order not to walk in the flesh. We have vast knowledge about the human flesh, the spirit, and the fundamentals of the faith. If you are looking for a powerful life united with Christ, the Lord of Glory; join our ministry or check us out!

How dead are you to sin? Is there any area or aspect of your flesh that is still “alive?”

Chronic illness is a door for countless people to enter the occult. Unrequited by the field of medicine, people feel entrapped by their flesh to where they’re willing to believe in anything for a solution to their affliction. So, they look to yoga, reiki, and mediums as ways to cure themselves. However, many people fail to realize that these practices are forms of idolatry. Yoga is rooted in Hinduism that praises a pantheon of false gods by positioning into certain positions; reiki opens entrances to the soul (“chakras”) where evil spirits may come and go; and mediums receive information from familiar, demonic spirits that provide visions and words for the matter-at-hand.

These days, countless “occult solutions” have spurred millions of dollars in the alternative medicine industry. While alternative medicine itself, isn’t necessarily bad, offering natural, homeopathic remedies as a means of healing, it has unknowingly become invested with countless occultic practices. There is nothing wrong with looking to plants for medicine. However, when someone is not giving credit to the God (that put those plants onto the Earth) and honoring Him by the way that those plants are used, that’s where they go wrong.

Here’s to prove how much the occult has infiltrated alternative medicine. My eye sight has gotten a bit worse in the past few years. So, I looked online for tea products that featured herbs that helped eyesight. Innocent enough, right? Although, the first result that I found was along the lines of “Medical Medium: Vision Tea.” Obviously, I didn’t indulge myself in the product, however, that doesn’t disregard the fact that someone was misusing God-given materials with an occultic twist. That same person apparently offers psychic readings to clients on behalf of their health; and John Doe would provide food recommendations based on information from “the Holy Spirit”. However, he never divulges if he had ever tested the spirit in his countless years of practice. Considering this person has become an outright popular author and featured nutritional expert on the morning news, he is an astounding example about how the occult has become a normalized way of healing.

Some may wonder why God would allow Elect to be chronically ill. After all, He has told us himself to not be attached to the world. Yet, the chronic population find themselves dependent on manufactured medicine to function. However, the truth is that illness doesn’t need to be a path of disability but a way of grace. Remember, our flesh isn’t what the Lord is after but the spirit that’s inside. For He knows the essence of each of His creations; and “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18).

Without my illness, I would’ve never looked to the occult for physical healing. Once I figured out that the occult was filled with spiritual darkness, I tried to find refuge in the institutional church when I began to become tormented by unseen forces. Long story short, without getting tormented, I would’ve never found RESCUE; and I wouldn’t be writing this piece. Since I was a child, I’ve protested my chronic illness, crying out to God, “Why? Why did you make me, only for me to be broken?” Well, I believe that I have found myself the answer. It is to reach and assist the other broken souls that need help finding their way.

People looking into the occult for healing need to understand, “…Those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31). If you’re wondering how to trust the Lord, but your chronic illness is an obstacle, give Pastor Pam a call at (888)-818-1117. She provides guidance for clients to take what the medical world has to offer and teaches them to talk by faith in spirit. Just because you’re hurting, doesn’t mean you have to go to the Devil for a way out!

IN THE WORLD there is common belief, standards, norms, and customs. Behind most of these norms is a mass of people who ignorantly go along with the unobserved life, or people who willingly follow the crowd. We are warned in the Scriptures about the broad-path and not following popular opinion if it is evil (see Ex. 23:1-3).

If you are walking alone with someone you know, let’s say a close friend, and he or she asks you to do them a favor; you will be more inclined to say, “No” to them. But say, you have a group of all your close friends and they all request you do something you don’t wish; you will be more inclined to say, “Yes”. When multiple people are telling you what to do, persuading you, giving you advice, and pressuring you; your ability to say “no” to them will be more difficult. This is especially true for those who are dependent passive-people pleasers.

What makes leaving the Institutional Church difficult is that it seems as such a radical, unpopular, and abnormal belief in the eyes of the masses. With such intellectual, persuasive, and seemingly good intention-ed people promoting such organizations, the majority of people see the IC as a place were people can get their lives together, have ties to the community, build a family, connect with others, and help change lives. The IC is seen as virtuous, as moral, and regarded by society as a place that’s upright.

However, what has to be objected is all things must be judged. When judging with spiritual discernment this is were the IC takes a turn for the worst. If the majority of people were spiritual and judged all things; they would have understanding of the fallacies, errors, deception, doctrines of devils, religious evil-spirits, nonspiritual fleshly worship, vanity, unbelief, and denial of power that every church takes part in. Not to mention that there are people professing to be believers yet, are such as the Apostle Paul prophesied would be like in the end-times, whom we are warned to turn away from (see 2 Tim. 3).

Looking at the only Lord, Jesus Christ of Nazareth and the time He walked this earth in the flesh before being crucified. He never succumbed to popular opinion, norms, crowd mentalities, and the masses. He did not care for what the majority thought. He only desired to obey the will of His Father, even if that meant believing what no one else in the world believed. Jesus was labeled by religious people as demon possessed, others saw Him as literally insane. There was never a time when Jesus was an outsider to the popular opinion and beliefs.

The Lord specifically warned that the way of life is narrow, oppressive and only few would find it. We are not to follow the masses and the easy, wide-broad path that leads to destruction. Walking by faith, means not walking by sight. Religion is unable to present faith, and therefore must rely on the seen for their faith to be authentic. The faith they present is not of God, and is humanly inspired to trust in works, rituals, traditions, and that walking by such is faith. Or, that faith is some willy-nilly blind trust, a sort of attitude like, “Throw yo hands up in the air if you jus don care!!”

True faith comes from God, and “is the assurance of the things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). We have been convicted of the not seen reality of the Institutional Church, and have assurance of what we hope for, namely the revelation of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Despite what the masses see, we will not rely on the seen, but the unseen conviction, and walk by faith.

It takes faith that comes from God to leave the IC, and when He does provide the faith for you to leave, you will always have a go to haven here at Pam Sheppard Ministries. Contact the number 888-818-1117 or email getreadyforthelord@gmail.com if you would like to discuss the IC, or the ministry.

Being religious has caused me to lack a lot of common sense. In the past, I was so blinded by religious rules, that I found it quite difficult to use my common sense to make daily life decisions. As a result, I have had to deal with the consequences of many significant life decisions I made all in the name of religion. There were times when I KNEW what to do, but because of some religious belief, second guessed myself, and made a different decision. Also, there were times when I would have a difficult time coming to a decision because I relied too heavily on waiting for some supernatural sign from God, not realizing it was just a religious belief inspired by the devil.

I can recall many occasions where I would lack confidence in my own God-given natural ability to make practical life choices, because I was afraid that using my common sense to make certain choices would somehow affect my “relationship with God,” or make me less of a Christian or candidate for heaven. Would you believe it if I told you that areas like politics, relationships (marriage included), careers, where to live, etc., are not necessarily areas that we need to be “consulting God” in? You see, God operates in SPIRITUAL MATTERS. But, religion has taught us to seek the supernatural in EVERYTHING that we do, and in EVERY aspect of our lives, that it is second nature to many of us. We fail to realize that often times, it is the ENEMY behind those decisions!!!

When detoxing yourself from religion, it is important to note that you must restructure your entire thought process. You must change your value system. You must determine new morals based on truth and common sense. I have effectively accomplished this by learning from people like Pam, who have never really been religious to begin with. For those of us who have been either raised religious, or have been heavily influenced by religion, religion is all we know, and has become the foundation for the morals and values we have today. It will have us wondering why we even make some of the decisions we make! LOL!!! That needs to change. When you encounter that WHY question, it’s time to suspect that religion is the culprit, and that it is time to do some serious investigating, which is an important part of the process of undeception. And as you go through the process of detoxing yourself from religion, use your God-given common sense, along with TRUTH to help you develop your morals and value system that will be based on TRUTH vs. false religious beliefs. Then and only then will you be able to see clearly, and start getting religion out of your system for GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thoughts? Can anyone out there relate to this?

If religion has harmed you spiritually and you are at the point where you are ready to dump FOOLISH religious practices for good, contact us toll free at, 888-818-1117 or send us an email at getreadyforthelord@gmail.com

Doing what’s right seems to have results. The world commonly teaches, when you do good things, good results come back. Even in the religious atmosphere, “The righteous are blessed” with wealth, praise from men, status, and favor. However, this is not in line with God’s Kingdom to those who do desire to live a godly life united with Christ. Agony, pain, distress, hardship, persecution, are all part of the deal with being part of the Kingdom of God through Jesus Christ of Nazareth, as it says,

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account. Rejoice be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:9-12).

Before we can dig into this kind of suffering, we must address there are counterfeit Christ-like sufferings. As human beings with a frail nature, we are vulnerable to natural sufferings like sickness, injuries, getting fired, losing a loved one, having a stressful day, and so on. Suffering in this way is simply a part of life and something we have to deal with from time to time, since naturally we are able to overcome and recover from these sufferings. Human suffering is a natural result of being human.

Then there is another kind of suffering. This suffering is not necessarily natural, but supernatural. It’s a suffering that is an affliction from demons or evil spirits. This kind of suffering is demonic. Whether it be emotionally, mentally, bodily, and or spiritual suffering; what is taking place is demons have been given ground to oppress. Passivity is the main reason for suffering demonically, although there are other possible reasons. The way to discern this kind of suffering is if the affliction and suffering does not naturally recover, and has no results or fruit. No matter what is done, the affliction remains. This suffering is obviously not to be accepted, but refused. Many people passively allow demonic oppression because they think it is authentic suffering for God, when God is hoping that they realize what’s really going on. This kind of suffering involves deliverance, and discovering what caused the oppression. To conclude here, Jesse Penn-Lewis wrote this, “Suffering directly caused by evil spirits may be discriminated from the true fellowship of Christ’s sufferings, by a complete absence of result, either in fruit, victory, or ripening in Spiritual growth.”

Now that the counterfeit of sufferings are addressed, we can press onto what Christ-like suffering is. “For the sake of righteousness'” is the most important key phrase here. Christian suffering is an active choice of doing the Father’s will. Christian suffering is not merely purposefully choosing “suffering” over God’s will; but purposefully choosing God’s will regardless of what happens. Many Christians can think that any suffering means suffering for God. Or, that making suffering choices or these certain “self-sacrificing” decisions to suffer for God is Christian suffering, this is not always so. That kind of suffering is merely “self-suffering.” For example, if you give away all your money and possessions to suffer for God. This is futile suffering, since now you can’t provide for yourself, offer hospitality, or do other services for God that require money and now you will have to be financially dependent on others to take care of you.

Christ is the example of suffering. He humbled Himself from His glorious position, and came into the flesh-likeliness of man, to accomplish His Father’s will. The will of His Father was to be fulfilled, and part of that will involved suffering. The difference between the first example, and Christ’s is that Christ did not merely suffer in vain, His sufferings bore fruit while He suffered to achieve a goal, namely the Father’s will to bring about salvation for the elect.

Christ like suffering is also supernatural, but in a godly way. “When others ‘revile’ and ‘persecute’.” Revile in Greek gives the idea of defaming, finding fault and harsh criticism. Persecute in Greek gives the idea of follow-after, press-forward, pursue, and ensue. Persecution is not solely being ignored, but involves a coming after, a pursuit to destroy, cause distress and pain. Alas, the question arises, who pursues Christians to cause distress, revile them, and make false accusations? The answer is, the world.

The world and it’s culture is at direct conflict with Jesus Christ of Nazareth’s culture. Therefore, when following after the Lord, the steps lead one by one into a deeper tension with the world. And soon enough, your identity will be recognized from others. Your choice of loving the Father, your love of Christ, always choosing the sake of righteousness, will soon result into Christ like suffering.

Discerning the sufferings of our lives is seriously important. Since you don’t want to claim you are suffering for Christ when you are suffering from the flu. And you don’t want to suffer from demons. But you want to do what is right, namely the will of God in Jesus Christ of Nazareth our Lord, and if you suffer, and are persecuted for doing so… well...yours is the Kingdom of God. Rejoice!

Do you have the correct understanding of suffering? What do you think about what true suffering is? And, if you suspect you are suffering demonically, we at Pam Sheppard Ministries offer deliverance counseling to bring about freedom, by knowledge of the truth. Contact 888-818-1117 or email getreadyforthelord@gmail.com if you have any concerns or questions.

Without a doubt, the United States is undergoing major demographic changes. By 2060, the Hispanic population would be expected to reach 26.6 percent of the country’s people. Disturbingly, the forewarned statistic has ignited much hateful, detestable protest from white supremacists in the form of racist protests and mass shootings. Of which, Mexican Americans find themselves commonly caught in the crossfire. Not fully accepted as Mexican nor American, they often suffer their hurt in silence.  

“You don’t understand, [Mexicans] don’t accept us…,They’ll tear us apart,”  People fail to understand Mexican Americans carry a complicated relationship with their solely Mexican counterparts. While there are exceptions, the two groups usually kindle a mutual animosity toward one another. Countless Mexicans view their American brethren as traitors for “selling out” to the white man. Thereby, they have historically shunned Mexican Americans whenever they cross over the border.  It’s dangerous for Mexican Americans to enter Mexico. Often, they are targeted to be robbed, kidnapped, or murdered for their “American” nationality. Even today, Mexicans feel that their American counterparts owe them for Mexico’s exploitation at the hands of white people. Yet, Mexican Americans do not feel like they have done anything wrong. It wasn’t their fault how the borders were drawn nor their fault for being born in the United States. Yet, Mexican Americans still get treated as traitorous backstabbers by their own former people. So, when a white supremacist says, “Go back to Mexico,” They really mean, “Get yourself killed.” 

On the flip side of the coin, Americans choose to see only the “Mexican” side of the Mexican American. They fail to understand that many Mexican American families have resided in the United States for multiple generations. Like Native Americans, a good portion of Mexican Americans were forced to assimilate to American culture after the United States had conquered their homeland. As such, white people had taken plenty effort to snuff out the Mexican out of Mexican Americans thinking they were bettering them for society. The most lasting, severe tactic used to “Americanize” Mexican Americans was to abruptly end their ability to speak Spanish.  At which, countless generations have since had lost the skill to speak properly to their monolingual ancestors. Since, parents often refused to teach their children Spanish under American pressures. Not to mention, children received a negative association with their native tongues as usage brought on punishment. Adding insult to injury, places like southwest Texas held Spanish classes for students, however, the dialect was normally taught in Castilian. So, the children that were fluent with their local Spanish still couldn’t catch a break in class. They’re own dialect was literally seen as wrong. That took place as recently as the 1980s. Despite that not being their fault, Mexican Americans still receive a quiet criticism in the Hispanic community when they cannot speak in Spanish. A kick in the teeth, many Americans these days encourage learning a second language, in fact, the most recommended language is Spanish. That is a far cry from the policies that were enacted against Mexican Americans years ago. 

Overall, Mexican Americans assimilated to the United States as they “told” to do. Despite their best efforts, however, they’re never seen as American enough. Understand, Mexican Americans are under the wrath of a cultural double-edged sword. If they choose to assimilate anymore, they’ll be the “Americans sellouts” that Mexican hustlers tell them they are. However, if they hang onto their culture, they’re no better than the next Mexican crossing the border. Indeed, it’s common for Mexican American to be faced with an identity struggle as they figure out where they are on the “Mexican to American” spectrum. So, it isn’t as simple as, “Just speak English.”  

Trapped between two worlds, Mexican Americans receive cultural pressure on both sides. If a Mexican American only speaks English, they’re considered a heretic to their culture. Although, if a Mexican American only speaks Spanish, they’re seen as an illegal delinquent. If they speak both languages, they’d be judged on their lingual performance from both sides. Consequently, Mexican Americans find themselves trying to be twice as perfect as everyone else to satisfy the societal criteria of the two groups.  

In most cases, Mexican Americans have resided in the United States for centuries. Yet, Americans still treat them as if they have just crossed over the border. Within the U.S., there are countless ethnicities whose homelands are much distant away than the Mexican American: African, Irish, German, Japanese, Chinese, etc. Although, a Mexican American’s native land is usually a short trip across the Rio Grande or right where they’re standing. No matter the case, a Mexican American’s presence seemingly offends Mexicans and Americans alike overall. Hence, Mexican Americans attempt to take pride in their unique position by rebranding themselves with names like “chicano” to make something of their own Mexican identity without “Mexican” baggage. Meanwhile, other Mexican Americans identity themselves with the word “Hispanic” to avoid similar stereotypes. However, neither rectification solves the problem.  Mexican Americans always seem at a crossroads on issues, forced to pick a path. However, no matter which path they choose, they must face rejection from the opposite, parallel road.  Hence, the quiet suffering of the Mexican American.  

If you feel caught at a cultural or spiritual crossroads like countless Mexican Americans. consider treading the path of RESCUE. There, you could overcome the influences of culture and rejection to empower yourself on the way to a new identity. With the help of fellowship, you will learn how to stand on your own, standing for your own best interest. Filled with a multitude of backgrounds such as African, Mexican, and English and (former) religions like Jehovah Witness, Catholic, and Baptist, just about every person can find someone who can relate to your situation. Thereby, you find the foremost advice to spiritual liberation…beyond all the labels, just as the Lord intends. https://www.facebook.com/groups/rescue/