Part of personal discipline is being aware of and dealing with the spiritual realm and the works and effects of Satan.
“Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” (John 8:42–47)
Satan is a liar and God tells us the truth so that we can be free of Satan and his lies and our besetting sins. Therefore, it is imperative that we confess our sins, are truthful, and invite the light of God to shine into our darkest places.
“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” (1 John 1:5–2:6)
This process of complete and total honesty can be very painful as we name our sins and the most private and scarred portions of our soul. Your temptation may be to partially confess or withhold a few things that you feel are too embarrassing or painful to admit, but you must be completely honest with yourself and with God so that you can join God in the truth and be forgiven and restored. So, please take some time to answer the following questions truthfully on another sheet of paper, trusting that God loves you as His child and desires to make you whole and well through His grace.
- Read Galatians 5:19–21 and list each thing that has been a besetting and/or habitual sin for you.
- Read Colossians 3:5–8 and list each thing that has been a besetting and/or habitual sin for you.
- Read Mark 7:21–23 and list each thing that has been a besetting and/or habitual sin for you.
- Consider the following list and list each thing that has been besetting and/or habitual for you: bestiality, habitual lying, physically unhealthy, masturbation, lying, pornography, ongoing depression, suicidal thoughts, alcohol abuse, drug use, anger, blasphemy, violence, self-inflicted injury, rape, incest, eating disorders, mental illness, paedophilia, and anything else that comes to mind.
- Consider the following list of sins that may have been committed against you or by you: rape, incest, molestation, other forms of abuse (e.g., physical, sexual, mental, emotional), as well as anything else that comes to mind.
- Briefly explain any involvement you may have had with the occult, witchcraft, or anything spiritual other than orthodox biblical Christianity.
- Briefly list any of your ancestors and any activity they may have been involved in with the occult, witchcraft, other religions, drug use, alcohol abuse, sexual deviancy, rape, incest, mental illness, and anything else listed above or that comes to mind.
- Briefly describe your sleeping patterns, including any inability to sleep and ongoing nightmares or disturbances.
- Briefly list any paranormal/supernatural experiences you have had.
- Briefly list any voices you hear and what they generally speak to you in the exact words that you hear or think.
- Briefly list the main two or three things that you would like resolved immediately.
- Read 1 John 4 slowly and pray each part that strikes you, honestly speaking with God about the things His Holy Spirit brings to mind.
Note For Pastoral Care
If you are thinking of using this checklist in counselling another person, use wisdom in how you go about this. If a person doesn’t have a regenerate heart, they have no lasting desire to change. Ultimately a person follows their deepest desire (without repentance and regeneration from the Holy Spirit that desire is to feed the flesh). If a person’s deepest desire is a selfish one, you can try to talk a person out of their decision, get angry with them, threaten them, plead with them, get upset and emotionally manipulate them, call them every day and make them do what you tell them…. That may work for a little while but ultimately a person will still go back to their deepest desire. Apart from a heart change, you can’t really do anything. You can’t make someone moral, obedient or complicit, because the flesh can’t do that. Only God can. It is heartbreaking to watch, because you love people and you don’t want them to ruin their lives. The most powerful thing you can do is to pray that they would come to their senses before they come to their end.