O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory? (1 Corinthians 15:55)
I want to share about the torture of bad thoughts and what it does to a person. God’s Word says to think on things that are lovely and pure and of a good report, if there be anything noble and good, to think on these things.
Because of years of obsessive compulsive behaviors like watching pornography and sexual sin, I had opened the door of my mind to Satan and countless demons. It had come to the point that my mind was no longer my own to choose my own thoughts, it had become a battlefield of horrible nightmares that was a constant torment. Before I knew it, all I thought of was death, disease and filth. My mind had rotted away in a sewer that was inhabited by a thought process that was running quickly towards death. I just couldn’t control my mind anymore and when a person loses their mind, they have lost the control center of their lives. I had turned control over to the enemy by exchanging the truth for a lie, I was deceived by the great deceiver. Through this all, God saw a mighty man of valor, a soldier in the waiting for His Kingdom.
The fear of death had surrounded me and whatever hope I had, turned into deep and dark despair. I turned to witchcraft to seek mercy from the demons that had tormented me. I sought after palm readers and psychics and horoscopes and deeper mind controlling drugs. I searched eastern religions and a deeper activity in immorality to make my torment become more tolerable, by trying to satisfy the lust of my flesh for whatever pleasure I could obtain. I was smacked in the face to find out that the pleasures of sin are for a moment. I sank deeper and deeper into total darkness. I found myself homeless and hopeless.
When suicide attempts failed and all my many friends were gone, I was finally ready for what God wanted to do. I was spent. With nothing left in me, I waited to die with trembling fear. I knew my afterlife would make the present seem like heaven. The hindering spirits sent to stop my destiny from coming to pass had seemed to win the battle over my life, but then the Lover of my soul intervened! Jesus set me free. He has washed me, sanctified me, delivered me, saved me, healed me, gave me His mind to put on and the greatest miracle He has shown me is His love which removed all fear of death.
I share all this to let you know that no matter what you are going through, no matter where you are in your journey with Jesus, that He sees all and knows all. There is no sin too great, no situation too dire that He can not reach down and pull you out of. The keys to my freedom were repentance, faith in Him and submission to His Lordship and those are the keys that will free you as well!
Every one of us will face the judgment seat and stand before God. There is coming a day when we will leave this earth and continue on in eternity. The peace which we have in knowing Jesus is that we will be with Him if we are serving Him. Solely believing in Him does not bring salvation. Satan and demons believe in Him as well. The bible tells us in Acts 16:31, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” This scripture has a fuller meaning in the Greek where belief is translated as faithfulness. We are to be faithful to Jesus which includes obedience, not just mental agreement. In other words, once we know Jesus a life change happens and we no longer need to fear death or the afterlife.
Because of Jesus Christ we can boldly say to the enemy of my life,”O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?
TMMC-The Teaching Ministry of Michael Cannatello
