E277 | Spiritual Warfare Explained: Dreams, Demons, Redemption

0:00Welcome to the dairy podcast with Matthew Stephen Brown, where we take your real questions about faith, the Bible, and culture and give you honest, practical advice you can trust. This episode contains mature themes and may not be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. Well, hey, debrief listeners. We'll take a quick just like point out the obvious. I chopped off my hair this week. And it looks amazing. So it's kind of been the week where everyone who sees me makes the deal. So I'm just going to get that all the way. It's done. We're moving on. I cut my hair too. We're like, we're going with it. Let's get into these questions. Yeah, great questions are crazy. And so I do want to do a little disclaimer right as we get started that if you have little ones in the car or around you that it is going to be some heavy content, you may want to pause or come back to it. But yeah, these questions are really heavy, but they are such good questions because I think their

1:02questions a lot of people will wrestle with and be curious about. So let's get into this first one from Hannah. Hannah says, I've been spiritually attacked, especially in my dreams. My biggest struggle is lust. And I keep having dreams about having intercourse with random people. I've been absent for over a year. And I heard that having sex or eating in your dreams is coming into agreement with a demon. I rebuked it in the name of Jesus and felt my whole body shake was that a demon leaving me crazy. Yeah, crazy dreams. So Hannah, man, first of all, thank you for your authenticity. And what I love about our church is just our vision to be real. You know, I think most people they heard this question. They would assume it's a guy. Hannah, I just appreciate as a woman that you are really changing the narrative. And you know, God made both gender sexual. That was his idea. And so our sexuality looks different as men and women, but we both have it. And so you said, I've been being spiritually attacked, especially in my dreams. And so let me just say

2:03this, you know, I'm not always sure what to make of a dream. Sometimes it can be God. Sometimes it could be the enemy. Sometimes it's spaghetti. So that's just, and what I mean by spaghetti is you ate spicy food. Nobody in here's laughing. So it is true, though. Sometimes we have too much sugar, too much carbs. Like you can't have a crazy mind at night, not to dismiss this, but yeah. So what she says here is my biggest trouble is lust. And I keep having dreams about having intercourse with random people. So here's what's really important. I've been absent for over a year. So whenever we go from sexually active to abstinent, right? So it takes the body a while to catch up with new rhythms. So we can make a spiritual decision that's real, but it takes our physical nature some time to keep up. And so what I would say Hannah is, I don't know whether or not your dreams are spiritual or not. So before we get into that, let me say, I would say that's a normal process when your body's, you know, used to doing something and then you stop. It's, it's cravings are not

3:07going to shut off overnight. So for example, you know, you stop eating bread, you know, you could have dreams about bread. You know, and I laughed about that when I cut out bread when I found out I was gluten free. And I had some pretty graphic dreams about French bread. You know, just tell you, it was inappropriate. But I really, really want to eat French bread. And so, you know, so it's just the body saying, Hey, I feel abandoned forgotten. So the body has these physical needs. As Christians, we submit physically to what we believe spiritually. And so that's the pattern. What the world says is is that your spirituality should submit to your sexuality. And we say, no, no, no, no, our bodies must submit to what we believe. Now, that doesn't mean it's easy. And that's why Jesus, Hannah, sweat drops of blood on the night that he was going to be crucified because even though it was God's will to die, and that was a stressful event, a difficult event. And everything in his body is saying, no, the Apostle Paul says, I beat my body and make it, it make it my slave so that it will do what it should. That's a challenge. So what I would say is

4:08sex dreams can be a normal part of anybody's life. You know, there have been times where I've had to tell you, Hey, I had this weird dream. It was sexual. I don't know what to make of it. And you've laughed at times because, you know, it's not like I was attracted to this person or love this person. I'm not in control of my dreams. I have crazy dreams. You have crazy dreams. We've both had dreams where one of us treated it on the other. We've had dreams for one of died. You know, we've had all kinds of dreams. And guys, if you have a wife, sometimes you have to apologize for the dreams she had because it felt like you did it. So even though you did not. So dreams are this weird thing where they're part mental. So like our, our mind is doing things and making sense as it shuts down. So it's, you know, it's replaying emotions, feelings, whatever. And so is this just your mind doing busy work? Is this a spiritual attack? Is this prophetic in nature? Because in the Bible, sometimes dreams are prophetic. And so Hannah, I don't know what it is in your case. What, what I do,

5:12if I have a sexual dream, I've had dreams. When I have a dream that I've cheated on Tammy, I never have the fun part of that dream. I always have my dream always starts afterward. And I'm panicked. My life is ruined. Tammy's going to leave me. My kids are going to hate me. And I'll, when I wake up from that, I always wake up. And I say, thank God, thank God, it's not real. It didn't happen. I have to relax. I mean, because dreams can really rattle you. And I don't know if anybody else, our listeners have had that experience where you wake up and you're like, oh, thank God, that wasn't real. But I need to pay attention to that. Is my lust getting out of control? Am I not talking, you know, to you about my feelings, my desires, am I not talking to my accountability partners? I am a dude, although I am older. And I, I just want our younger listeners to know it becomes easier as you get older. I don't know if you would say that. Yeah, she's like, you know, so, um, so this is, this is a bigger issue as you're younger, but but there are some older people that still struggle with lust immensely. And I'm

6:15not saying I don't struggle with it all. So what about the part though about, is it an agreement with a demon if you have sex dreams? Yeah. So I've heard sex or eating inner dreams is coming into agreement with a demon. Yeah. I, I don't know where you heard that. And so here's the problem again, where there's spiritual ambiguity, idiots love to provide clarity. So let me say that again, where there's spiritual ambiguity, idiots love to speak clarity. So, you know, specifically the Bible says, be careful of people who interpret dreams or talk about dreams. There's a little, literal verse in the Bible that says, be very, very careful about people that are telling you what dreams mean. You just have to be really, really careful. Um, there are Daniels who have to give, say there are instances in the Bible were. So we have to be cautious because like if, if you don't know what something means, I mean, people can speak into that. So you need to be really, really careful. So I, I don't think that having sex or eating your dreams is coming into agreement with a demon. I just don't believe that all could a demon be impacting you

7:19through dreams. Absolutely. And so if something feels demonic, and here's why I, I feel like you might be experiencing something demonic. Take out sex, take out food. Um, it says, I reviewed it in the, and I felt my whole body shake. Was that a demon leaving me? Well, if you're a Christian, a demon cannot possess you. So it was never in you. So you need to understand that as Christians, when the Holy Spirit resides in us, we cannot be possessed by a demon. So, the Catholic Church may disagree with that. I would humbly just share that the Holy Spirit does not share space. That's what I would say. When you were God's temple, you were God's temple. Now, having said that, we can be afflicted and attacked by demons. So she says my whole body was shaking. So it could be shaking you from the outside. So what we talk about in our deep feelings is demonization. So is it normal for believers to be attacked by Christians,

8:21oppressed by Christians, a flick. Sorry. Yes, attacked, afflicted or oppressed by demons. Yes, that that can happen to Christians. Absolutely. Why wouldn't the devil attack Christians? So there might be something that's going on. And it sounds like when you rebuked it in Jesus name, and here's the thing, demons cannot stand up against a believer who truly knows Jesus. It's literally the drop the mic moment in the spiritual world. They cannot handle his name. Because at this, at his name, every knee shell bell, every tongue shell confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, period. And even though the devil is the father of lies, he has to honor that truth. So what I would just say is there could be some spiritual connections to sex that you've allowed in your life. Go to a counselor. Maybe if I don't know what campus you go to Hannah, but you know, make an appointment to do a deep healing and just and just ask that maybe some of these things that have attached themselves to you. Remember, they're not

9:22inside you, but they get attached to you because of, you know, sex is a powerful thing. It creates memories. It creates attachments. And we want to break those down to get the enemy away. And so just just think of demons like rats. They're attached to garbage. So we can pray in the name of Jesus and they'll scurry away. But if we don't deal with the garbage in our lives, they're going to come back and eat again. And so we want to get rid of that garbage that's in our life. And what is that? And literally ask the Lord to break bonds, to break strongholds, to break connections that we've had with people. Because remember, sex is a bonding mechanism created by God. So whether you're married or not, when you have sex with somebody, there's a bond that is created. And we may need to ask the Lord in our repentance, in our renewed effort to be absentant to break that. Because it can feel very powerful like an addiction. So Hannah, I just want you to know, I'm praying for you. I love you. And it's incredible to be absentant for a year. Like you're in such the right path. But to me,

10:26like you're saying, I just feel like some of that, like, you know, with our kids when they were younger, with young adults that you and I get to interact with, speak to when they come to us and ask us about this, of like, like, what's the big deal about sex outside of marriage? And it's, it's not God's way. This is just kind of a, this gives leads into a gateway to talk about. It's not God's way of saying, like, you can't have fun. It's because of the attachment. It's because of his love and kindness for us that he doesn't want us to have attachments that create something. And so, you know, some of this is not necessarily agreement with the demon, but it's that it's residual from doing it outside of God's way for, for that. And he's just, it's just part of the aftermath of how that goes. It doesn't mean it will always be there. But I don't, I agree with you. I don't think it necessarily means there's agreement with a demon, but I do think it's pretty incredible that you are abstinent. And then I also love that your first

11:30instinct was to rebuke it. And I think that's always the go to is for me when I have situations like that, my first thing is like, I'm just going to Jesus. And the more that becomes your instinct, the better. So, yeah, I would say, especially if something feels spiritual, go to Jesus. If it's something physical that you need to do, right, you know, you don't, you know, Jesus is not going to do things for you. We're talking about our summer series, The Book of Nehemiah. And one of the things we were talking about in creative team, I'm super excited. If you're around for the summer, don't miss that series. But a lot of Christians believe that God builds the wall. And it's like, no, no, no, no, Nehemiah built the wall. And so there are some things for us to do. So the constant challenge for the Christian is what, what is my part in what it's God's part? So when I'm under attack by the devil, the Bible says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. So I have to, I can't give in to temptation. I can't give in to sin. But I also know that I have

12:31this trump card, right? I can call upon the name of Jesus and the devil cannot stand. He cannot stand when I is a born again believer calling his name. And so thank you so much for your question. Wonderful question. And so good. Thank you so much, Hannah, for trusting us and being real. Okay, next question. Also a really heavy question, which is why I started with that disclaimer at the beginning of the show. This is from Jesse. And I think it's from Seacoast New Hampshire. So shout out to our East Coast friends listening in. It says, I was raised Satanist at age 14 and 15. I sold my soul. I was in a coma for a while. I saw hell a few times and had spiritual visions. When I awoke, I wanted to change. Had an epiphany one night and was moved to tears, listening to a reading of the book of revelations. Question for you, Pastor Matt, is am I ruined? I did sign a contract. I may have already broken those terms, which would explain why my life is

13:33always a mess. But what do you do when you've done this type of damage? Where do you start? Man, Jesse, let me just say thank you so much just for sitting in your question. I'm so sorry that your parents chose to raise you in such an environment. And you know, I think for all of our parents who are listening that bring their kids to church, that's why it's so important. Because Jesse needed a friend, a friend that went to church, a friend that knew the Bible, a friend that knew and loved Jesus. And a friend to say, hey, there's a there's a different way to worship. And so, you know, I'm not familiar with all of the ways that Satanists worship or work. And I'm, you know, it's like denominations in Christianity. There are denominations of Satanists. You know, it's a broad term that describes multiple ways of worshiping the God of darkness or whatever it is that they believe in Satanists. And that can be a spectrum all the way to, it's just a rejection of God in general. And the worship of self-reliance. So, I don't know where

14:38Jesse fits into that. I would guess that it was more dark because he said at the age of 14, 15, I sold my soul. What I would just do Jesse is remind you that Satan is the father of lies. Jesus says every word he speaks is a lie for he is the father of lies. Jesse, let me just tell you the truth. You can't sell your soul because your soul is not yours. It can't be for sale. It's not yours. It's powerful. God is the author of the earth and all that is in it. It's not yours to sell. It's not yours to give away. You can choose to reject God, but you cannot choose to sell your soul. It is not yours to sell. And what I believe that enemy has done here is he's tricked you because that's that's what he believed. And so, in the same way in our country, a minor cannot sign a contract as you guys know that. So, if you're under 18, you cannot sign a contract that was legal and binding. I would say Jesse, Satan doesn't get to sign kids up for hell. That's not what he gets to do. You were young. You did no better. You said I was in a coma for a while. I would love to

15:42hear more about that. You said I saw hell a few times. And I had spiritual visions. And so, I would even be careful with what you think you saw because the enemy can portray things. He's not just a liar in words. He's a liar in pictures. He's a liar of visions, thoughts. I mean, you name it. And so, we have to remember if we go to the gospel of Matthew, Jesus gives these visions of of what he will give Jesus if Jesus just bows down and worships him. Now, I think the assumption is that somehow Jesus or Satan was actually showing Jesus real things. They could have been visions. They could have been pranks, tricks. You know, I mean, who knows, right? So, it's a temptation. And I'm not saying that maybe Satan didn't really show him these things. I'm just saying everything that he says is a lie. And his worst lies have the little bits of truth in there. So, so, be really, really careful. So, so, I don't know what you saw, but I'm glad you saw something that scared you because you said when I awoke, I wanted to change. And so, I mean,

16:46I could just say that may not have been Satan at all. That could have been the Lord. The Lord was saying, hey, here's here's where you're headed. Here's where you're going. Here's what I'm trying to save you from. Yeah. Here's a picture of your future. If you continue to give your soul to the devil because here's the thing. If we don't give our lives to Christ, our souls are not safely in his hands. That's the one choice that we have. And what Satan wants is the unsaved soul. And so, so, that's when at the end of time, God will hand him over these people, these beings that were meant to live forever in his presence to the enemy, you know, according to Revelation in the bottomless pit of hell. So, when you awoke, you wanted to change. I had an epiphany one night and was moved to tears listening to and reading the Book of Revelation. And so, that's interesting. Revelation often scares people. And yet for you, it actually served its purpose. And a lot of Christians don't know that. The Book of Revelation was never meant to scare. It's meant to offer hope. So, you know, when you have witnesses come door to door talking

17:48about dragons and they're trying to scare you, that is not the point of Revelation. The point of Revelation is no matter all of this crap that we go through. There's dragons. There's beasts. There's sufferings. There's plagues. There's horses. And then behold, Revelation 21, I saw a new heaven and a new earth. We win. God wins. And the last verse of Revelation for those who don't know, the last verse in the Bible is the Lord and the Spirit say come. Come Lord. Excuse me. The Lord, the Lord and the church say come, come Lord. The Spirit. There we go. The Spirit and the church say come Lord. So, come Jesus because what we look forward to is not judgment. It's not dragons. It's not bottomless pits. It's not plagues. It is the new heaven and a new earth where every tear will be wiped away and things will be made as new. And so, how do you answer the question where it says am I ruined? I signed a contract. Yeah, so no. Yeah. Again, you could have signed whatever. I mean, you don't own your soul. You are not the author of this story. You're a character

18:49in this story, but the story is written by God. So, you know, your soul is not independent from God. Your soul is birthed out of the idea of God. Like, so God spoke and you came into existence. So Psalms 139 in the darkness of your mother's womb. God saw you. He created you. He crafted you. You are God's idea. You were never made for Satan or by Satan. You were made for God by God. And so the only way that Satan can can have us is through the rejection of Jesus Christ. That's the only unforgivable sin we can make mistakes. We can, you know, sign contracts. We can speak curses. We can do all of that stuff. But at the name of Jesus, like the last question, every Nishobal, every tongue shell confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. That is the final deal. And the only contract that is mentioned in the Bible is those whose names are written in the book of life. That's the only thing that's written. There's no mention of your name being written in the book of Satan. He doesn't have a book. God has a book. Well, and that's part of the lie you want to believe. Yeah,

19:53he's not the author. He doesn't have a book. You don't stand before him. And as an accuser, he's going to tell you it's too late. Your life is ruined. And I'm going to tell you that is not true. Satan loves to speak that it will never get any better. You can never change Easter, which is coming up proves that that anything can change because Jesus Christ is so powerful that he can even overcome. I think the next part, the last part of this question, if we read it a little bit inverse, the real question is, where do I start? Because my life is always a mess. And so could it's not the way the question's written. It says, I may have already broken those terms, which would explain why my life is always a mess. But what do you do when you've done this type of damage? Where do you start? So can you speak to Matt? Where do you start when you feel like your life is a mess? Because I think that such a majority of people feel like that. They feel like I've made bad choices. I've not been who I want to be. I've gone down roads. I don't want to go in. I'm a mess. I don't even know how to dig myself out. Yeah. And I think that where you start is in

20:59the local church. And I mean, you may have to, Jesse, you may have to go to multiple churches for years. Bob will study on Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night, Thursday night. What do you mean by multiple churches? Because so as Christians, right, we fall into this trap that we don't want to wear people out because a lot of kids that grew up in church, right? It feels overwhelming. You're there every day of the week. And we have this visceral reaction to that. And I get that. But there are some people that need church every night. There are some people that cannot go to an AA meeting once a week. They have to go every day. Some people have to go in the morning. Some people have to go in the afternoon. Some people have to go in the evening. And so Jesse, your job is to figure out the frequency with which you need spiritual community. And you may need way more spiritual community than many people in many people need. And so more than some churches offer. So it might be one program at one church one. Yeah. So we had, you know, we had this

22:02ministry at Sandals called JC's girls years ago. And, you know, the girl that helped us found that ministry. And it was, it was a, it was a challenge for us. You did not agree. We were not in agreement with this ministry. But this girl came out of her other church. And it was very legalistic. It was church all the time. And I thought I was setting her free by providing freedom and liberty at Sandals church. It actually destroyed her. Because she needed the regimented, she needed the guard rails because of where she was coming out. So for example, if I'm an alcoholic, even though I have the liberty to drink, I should never drink. Not a drop, not mouthwash. You know, we were at dinner last night with a guy and he's like, I don't even drink mouthwash. He's a recovering addict. Uh, he doesn't do nicole when he's sick. Now, to us, that seems ridiculous. But he knows the pit that God saved him from. So he's not going back. So, you know, Jesse, you got to be careful about movies. Uh, I wouldn't celebrate

23:04Halloween if I was you. I wouldn't go anywhere near that. And, and I don't think that there's anything wrong with Halloween for Christians. Uh, I think it's a great opportunity for us to minister to our neighbors. I would say for you, that's, that's not the night. I, my butt would be in church and I would be praying. And if there are other Satanists that that come out of that cult, that's your guy's night to pray to encourage each other to fast, not to participate in that. Um, you know, if I'm a sex addict, I don't go to a strip club ever for any reason. Uh, I don't, I don't, if I'm an alcoholic, I don't go to a bar. Um, so I just think you need Christians, um, around your life that understand you are coming out of a unique darkness. And it doesn't mean you're a worse sinner. It just, it's just an unusual set of circumstances that most people have no wisdom to speak into your life. And I would encourage you, you know, find a loving church, a gracious church. This could be a long process to get out of this, because those lies that Satan had, you know, are those tentacles. And I think in the back of your

24:07mind, for a long time, it's always going to be, am I really saved? Am I really out? Uh, can I really change? Am I really forgiven? And you need, uh, you know, praise God if you can find one church that's open every day of the week and, and find a place to serve, man, clean toilets. Uh, I mean, whatever it takes, you need sanctuary. So we used to understand that, um, in the Christian church, right? So if, if the government of Rome was pursuing you, you could run into a church in the sanctuary and they couldn't arrest you, um, you need spiritual sanctuary for a good period of your time until you feel healthy enough to where you're like, you know what? I can go to church five times a week. I can go three times a week. I can go twice a week, but I would always be very, very attentive to, okay, maybe, maybe I need a little more because what God has to deliver you from is way more fierce than what any of us will, you know, experience. And so a lot of churches just don't understand that that, or just have the experience to help navigate. And I would say,

25:13you know, we were in small group with a woman whose dad, and I don't know that she would use the term satanist, but it was something, yeah, we would. And, you know, her dad was a part of this sexual satanic cult that involved her until the age of 11. And I just just always tell her, you know, you're fighting battles that I can never understand. And I just encouraged her because, you know, she wanted it to all go away. And I never told her this, but in my mind, I thought, okay, some of these things will not be healed until Jesus comes because it's one thing to experience evil outside of home. It's another thing when it's your parents that are introducing you to this, the very people that God meant to protect you are the very ones that put you in harm's way. And that's very, very confusing. Before we go, Matt, why don't you, if I could just ask you to, for Jesse, because I do think he's believing some big lies from the enemy probably for years at this point, to just speak truth over him, is he ruined? Like, what, what is the truth about

26:14who God says he is and his eternity? Yeah, amen. So we're just gonna pray right now for Jesse. So if you're driving, pray with your eyes open, but let's all join as a church. I mean, think about us as a church. Think about us as a Deerry family. Like, if we all paused, whatever we're doing, and I think we all need to be a little bit grateful that we didn't have these parents. And Jesse, that's not to malign you at all. I think all of us can get a little self-focused and a little traumatized by our own experience. I want to praise God and thank my mom and dad for raising me to know and love Jesus and not leading me to sign a contract at the age of 14 with Satan. So I think we all just need to appreciate the parents that we had. And then what we need to do is be a spiritual family for Jesse. We need to be a debrief family for Jesse. And we need to say, Lord, we're rooting for Jesse. We're pulling for Jesse, but we're gonna pray for Jesse. And so Jesse, I hope you're listening to this. I hope you know that you're loved that the Holy Spirit is more powerful than Satan has ever dreamed of being. And he can do things in your life that you don't know. And so remember, God raised Jesus from the dead by his spirit,

27:19and his spirit can raise you from the depths of this, just demonization and satanic worship. So let's all just pray right now if you join me. Father, we pray for Jesse right now. And I just am so grateful that he found the debrief. Obviously, he doesn't attend Sandals. He's on the other side of the country. And so I just pray that he would know that there's a church on the west coast that loves him, that's praying for him, and that there's a debrief family that's interceding for him right now. And Lord, we pray that you would remove the enemy from him. God send your fiercest, most powerful warrior angels to protect him, to fight for him, and to drive the enemy of darkness out. Lord Jesus, I just ask in your precious name, and by the power of your blood that you would speak truth to him, that he's a child of God. Lord, I specifically think of your words, the apostles in John 15, by my words, you are already clean. I pray that you would speak that to Jesse right now, that by your words, by your declaration, he is already clean because of his faith and trust in you. And I pray that he would live in that. And like Paul said, I pray that he would remember that he's a new creation created in Christ Jesus

28:23to do new works. Lord, the oldest past, the newest here, and he is able to transform and change. And for all of us, Lord, that are struggling with addiction and difficulty, and we find ourselves falling back into darkness over and over again. Lord, deliver us, we pray. Help us to stop listening to the enemy and help us to trust your gracious words. So Lord, we pray that you would strengthen our audience, you would strengthen Jesse. And Lord, you would remind us all that we are your children. And nothing, according to Romans eight, nothing above, nothing below, nothing spiritual, nothing in the dark. There is nothing in heaven on earth or under earth that can separate us from the love that is in Christ Jesus. And I pray that Jesse knows that experiences that and remembers that. I pray that in Jesus name, amen. Amen. Well, I just think this episode is such a reminder of how much we need Jesus and how much the enemy is just has a hold on so many people. So if this episode

29:27could be meaningful and helpful to someone you know that you've had a conversation with that you love, if you could just help us have a chance to help them and and get them to be part of our community here so that they too can know the love, the grace, the forgiveness, and the power of Jesus Christ. Would you share that with them? You can support us in a lot of ways versus sharing. Second is send your questions in so that we can be a resource to help and support you guys on your discipleship journey. You can go to sandalschurch.com slash support to actually support us financially so that we can just keep this going and just the cost that it takes to do this. But we're just so grateful again to all of you guys who listen and send your questions in that you trust us with the real things going on in your life. Sometimes they're a little simpler. Sometimes they're really heavy and messy. But regardless, we want to be a real resource to you guys. We're super grateful. So until next time, we love you guys. We're praying for you. Remember to pray for one another,

30:31even if you don't know the people riding in like you can stop and pause and pray for them right now because the Lord knows that and just be a part of one another. So until then, we'll see you next time.