I have occasion to minister to couples who are into their second (or more) marriage and there is a typical common assessment of the difficulties they are encountering. The phrase, “we’ve each got baggage” or some facsimile thereof is a common refrain and here is what I hear when they say that:
“We brought demons into this marriage”.
Yep, that’s right, I translate the word “baggage” into “demons” and begin to try to give them some insight, once I’ve heard their stories, into what is REALLY going on? Are you saying that there are demons everywhere and we’re to blame them for everything? No. Can’t people be damaged or wounded in previous relationships and bring those tattered emotions, wrong thinking and hurtful memories into the new relationship? Of course they can and those need to be addressed.
What I am talking about are those behaviors, or “issues” (as they are sometimes euphemistically called) that have been part of people’s lives for a long time and typically predate or post-date relationship histories. Rational thinking, repeated counsel, prayer and so on have limited lasting result and there is often a confused silence when they are asked what’s really behind the emotions that manifest.
I met with a couple recently who had been married only three years (they were in their fifties) and anger and fear were prevalent in their interactions with one another. The demonic realm was working overtime to ensure that each spoke out things that would push buttons in the other person and their marriage was being tormented by events that happened in their past, many years before they met one another. In the man’s case, the source of his anger, and the open doors for the strongholds that were in him, was the abuse he suffered as a child at the hands of a cruel father.
When it comes to spiritual warfare, the battlefield truly is the mind. When a person is delivered from tormenting spirits they are in a much better position to win more of those battles, take thoughts captive and respond in a way that does not feed depression, anger, fear, addictions or lusts into life situations.
How about you? Tired of going around the same mountain and fighting the same battles? Have you thought about going through deliverance? What do you have to lose… except maybe some of that baggage you’ve been toting around!
