J Heinrich Arnold-Freedom from sinful thoughts.pdf

FREEDOM FROM SINFUL THOUGHTS - F A S C I N A T I O Npossession comes about when a person is completelydominated by the power of evil. But we must recognizethat there are people today in such a condition.In a world where everything is explained away bypsychology and psychiatry, it seems tempting to dismissthe idea of possession. We have a medical label forevery ill and, it seems, a cure. Yet there are so manypeople for whom psychiatry is ultimately of no help! Ihave often wondered what would happen if Jesus wereto visit our overflowing mental hospitals. How manypeople would he recognize as possessed? How manymen and women would he find beyond human help,desperately in need of his freeing touch?In the end, whether a person is possessed by evilspirits or merely pursued by them, the same truthapplies: only Christ, by means of his Holy Spirit, candrive away their darkness, sadness, and fear. For thoseof us who are free from the torments of fascination, thisrecognition should help us to treat those who are boundby them with special patience and compassion. For theperson trapped in struggle, it means turning to Christ sothat he can take the steering wheel of our inner life inhis hands.We are not concerned here with categorizing sin butwith acknowledging the fact that the artifices of thedevil – the sovereignties of darkness the New Testament26