Our Secret Weapon in Spiritual Warfare

Today is the Ides of January. And it’s already clear that this new year will challenge us in new ways. So, today, we’ll look at the single greatest weapon we must develop and continuously train with so that we can be effective in the intensifying spiritual war. Our very survival may well depend on it.

But we need to begin now to develop and hone this skill in new ways we never imagined to survive and thrive against the existential threats of AI, nuclear war, more pandemics, perhaps even extraterrestrial encounters — and most importantly the spiritual war against evil.  This powerful weapon that can protect and defend you, as well as help you evolve in ways you never imagined is: discernment. 

From the practical and physical to the sublime and the divine, we can think of discernment as a heightened sense of awareness and perception that we can activate consciously, subconsciously, or even unconsciously. And it’s extremely powerful! We all have either personally experienced or know someone who saw or heard or otherwise knew of, a particular threat against which they reacted instantly — sometimes in fractions of a second — to narrowly avoid death or serious injury.

Discernment serves as an early warning system in your daily life. Sometimes, it’s warning is subtle — you have a vague but sudden sense that “something isn’t quite right.” Maybe when you turn down a street, or walk into a building, maybe even your own house. Or you strongly don’t want to take a particular flight on the scheduled date of departure.

Your discernment often operates on levels you are not consciously aware of. We  call that form of discernment intuition. And once your subconscious early-warning discernment alerts you, you can then bring your discerning power into full consciousness to focus and direct it intentionally as you seek to identify and eliminate the threat.

Transcript

Today is the Ides of January. And it’s already clear that this new year will challenge us in new ways. So, today, we’ll look at the single greatest weapon we must develop and continuously train with so that we can be effective in the intensifying spiritual war. Our very survival may well depend on it.

But we need to begin now to develop and hone this skill in new ways we never imagined to survive and thrive against the existential threats of AI, nuclear war, more pandemics, perhaps even extraterrestrial encounters — and most importantly the spiritual war against evil.  This powerful weapon that can protect and defend you, as well as help you evolve in ways you never imagined is: discernment.  

From the practical and physical to the sublime and the divine, we can think of discernment as a heightened sense of awareness and perception that we can activate consciously, subconsciously, or even unconsciously. And it’s extremely powerful! We all have either personally experienced or know someone who saw or heard or otherwise knew of, a particular threat against which they reacted instantly — sometimes in fractions of a second — to narrowly avoid death or serious injury.

Discernment serves as an early warning system in your daily life. Sometimes, it’s warning is subtle — you have a vague but sudden sense that “something isn’t quite right.” Maybe when you turn down a street, or walk into a building, maybe even your own house. Or you strongly don’t want to take a particular flight on the scheduled date of departure.

Your discernment often operates on levels you are not consciously aware of. We  call that form of discernment intuition. And once your subconscious early-warning discernment alerts you, you can then bring your discerning power into full consciousness to focus and direct it intentionally as you seek to identify and eliminate the threat.

We need to intentionally practice and develop our natural discernment. Here are a few simple examples of how and where you use your power of discernment intentionally in daily life to keep yourself safe:

Online communications — Discernment is part of everyday situational awareness in the digital world. Now I can usually spot a phishing email or text, or what’s called “pretexting.” The first step was that I paid great attention to how unsolicited but authentic emails and texts typically look — words used, grammar, spelling, formatting, sharpness of logos, and of course, a legitimate-looking email address and URL. 

Deep parts of us respond positively to authenticity. Get familiar with this positive gut feeling and the external signs and signals that support your sense that all is well.

I first learned about this kind of discernment from a police office when I was a teenager in a police ride-along program. I noticed he would suddenly accelerate and begin to chase and pull over a vehicle for expired registration. I couldn’t believe it. We’re driving along one minute and suddenly we’re pulling over a car that I didn’t even notice. I asked this experienced patrol officer how he spotted cars with expired registration stickers several cars away. 

He told me something so practical that it has stuck with me all these many years later. He said, the trick is not to look for what is wrong or missing; instead, you want to become very familiar with how something is supposed to look, how things are supposed to be, so that when something doesn’t look that way, it sticks out like a sore thumb. 

Such a subtle insight made a great impact on me in the way I looked at the world around me every day. And that’s how I got pretty good at spotting shady texts and emails.

We can also learn to use our discernment power consciously and pro-actively like a laser or radar, projecting it out quickly at regular intervals while doing something that could potentially kill or injure you.

Keeping with our traffic example, when I worked in Los Angeles, I used what I called freeway mode discernment. I drove L.A. freeways for up to an hour and a half each way daily for over 20 years without an accident. And that was a by-product of a highly honed and specialized discernment based on a few basic observable facts and tactics:

-       First, Commuters exhibit a certain driving style – like a “dance,” that allows each driver to rely on and anticipate what other drivers will do in order to safely arrive at work on time and get home every day without undue delay or incident;

-       As part of this dance, I learned to keep my visual gaze approximately a quarter mile ahead and base my driving responses on not just what was happening directly in front of me but also what was occurring a quarter mile ahead. So, it I saw a car swerve or stop suddenly in my lane a quarter mile up, I would immediately change lanes and prepare to slow down or maybe even exit the freeway if necessary, well in advance and without any stress;

-       Then, I learned to only shift that quarter-mile gaze to look at the vehicles immediately around me by glancing at their front wheels, which provided me with highly-reliable and direct objective data about any impending lane change — see, that’s the only reliable indication of a lane-change or a turn — because it is subconscious. A driver thinking about turning or changing lanes will immediately start to cause that wheel to start turning, almost pulsing imperceptibly and unconsciously when they formulate the intention.

-       Once I mastered those very basic elements of freeway-driving discernment, I then could surrender my more intense attention mode to the traffic version of “schooling” – that is, cars moving together in unison like a school of fish or birds flying in formation. As long as I moved with the school, I was safe. 

Without knowing exactly how that all works, I definitely know when I’m in it, and I feel deeply relaxed – literally in-sync. This is the “flow” principle discussed in an earlier episode about the record-breaking surfer who focused on staying in the flow of a massive wave.

This level of discernment is where heightened awareness turns into flow. The usual noisy thoughts quiet to the point of near silence, and you feel a sense of well-being and safety in the larger sense of the word. You might call it “moving meditation.” You’re highly alert and very relaxed and confident, yet ready to adapt instantly to whatever happens without thinking.

Okay, so now let’s turn to Discernment as a Weapon for Spiritual Warfare. Let’s say you’re driving home from an event one evening, and your phone rings through the car. Your dad’s voice says in a distressed tone, “Son, I need your help! I’m too far from the house, and I think I’m having a medical issue. Can you come right away?” and he gives you an address and then hangs up. It sure sounds like your dad’s voice — but it’s not really your dad. It’s not even a real person.

Now, I want to recall in the prior episode of this podcast, the true story of Howard Pittman, a pastor, who had an unknown aneurism blow out and was struggling for every breath in an ambulance when he technically died — a near death experience. 

And he immediately began begging God to give him more time in his physical life. He suddenly heard the sweetest voice imaginable tell him that he would have ALL the peace and rest and calm he always wanted; he just needed to stop struggling to breathe — just stop struggling, just stop breathing. And he did! But he was very confused and upset. How could God respond to his desperate plea for more time on Earth by telling him to stop breathing?! It made no sense. It created doubt.

Now, that awareness of confusion and doubt is a very important sign. Confusion and doubt are hard-wired responses to a shock, something incongruous, something out of context, disharmony. It is our felt sense of a sudden and unexplained block in the flow of the moment, the normal and natural flow of energy. That sudden block creates chaos and doubt, disorder and upset.  And that is the feeling of darkness!

Howard’s confusion at the response that interrupted the flow of his plea to God for longer life is when Howard said an angel appeared at his side, and whispered to him that he was not hearing God’s voice. Howard immediately discerned the truth and commanded, “No!” And he started breathing again. 

That’s all it took! Discern the truth, recognize evil attempting to deceive, or mask or refute the truth and cause confusion, and then exert your sovereign will in whatever way seems appropriate to overcome the threat.

The lesson for Howard, and for us, is that Evil always works by deception, delusion and lies. In Howard’s case, what the deceiving voice of Evil was telling him was partly true, he could have rest and peace if he stopped breathing. Just not physical life, which is what he really wanted. But when he discerned the whispering voice of the Divine in his hear, he mustered his sovereign will to thwart the evil attack. That was a test.

We likely will be in Howard Pittman’s circumstance at some point when we hear the friendly and appealing voice of an evil AI masquerading as something familiar and helpful asking us to bend our will to its purpose, through deception and lies.

Evil always seeks to fool our senses — ears, eyes, thoughts, feelings. 

What makes discernment a powerful tool and weapon is our ability to suspend our assumptions and beliefs about what we think is reality — or what we think we know or hear or see or feel — by focusing our perception, with an open heart and curiosity instead of judgement, in order to see or hear or feel what is true and authentic.

It's very useful to begin a practice of questioning what you think, hear, see and feel. That voice you hear in your head — ask yourself “Who is speaking now?” If that voice doesn’t feel like your normal thoughts, get curious and question who is the author of this?  Ask out loud! Maybe it’s the remembered voice of a parent or teacher or other authority figure triggered by a memory or feeling that suddenly arose in that particular moment. But you need to find out whose voice is speaking to you.

Like Howard Pittman, you may feel confused or concerned or upset by what the voice is telling you. You may be lucky enough to have an angel at your shoulder to whisper in your ear, but don’t count on that.

Now, here is the challenge and opportunity that most people don’t know about when they hear a voice in their head telling them to do something.

The old cultural lie, based on simple ignorance, is that only crazy people hear voices in their heads. Research and experience has demonstrated that’s completely wrong!

The truth is: all of us hear voices in our heads! But clear-headed, sane and discerning people question those voices before acting on them.

One of the most pioneering psychologists today is Richard C. Schwartz. In the 1980’s, he discovered that everyone’s mind is made up of relatively discrete subpersonalities — typically referred to now as “parts” — each, with its own unique attributes and viewpoints.

Based on his dramatic and revealing work with patients, and his own experience helping them with their parts, he developed an integrative approach to individual psychotherapy called Internal Family Systems, or IFS.

IFS or what’s typically referred to as parts work teaches you, first, to learn about your parts. Get familiar with them. Their yours! And you ignore them at your peril, like a child trying to get its parent’s attention.

And Schwartz came up with a basic categorization of the mind’s parts and how they function. He discovered through his work that the mind’s various subpersonalities are governed by a core entity that he called the Self. His IFS model seeks to help clients differentiate the Self from the other types of parts — he calls those types managers, firefighters and exiles — that constitute a person’s inner world. And the goal of IFS is to “unburden” or restore the extreme and wounded parts to establish a trusted, healthy and harmonious internal system coordinated by the Self.

In order to achieve this, IFS teaches a person how to discover and then dialog with each part to find out what it is, what it’s job is, and, determine if that job or purpose is no longer appropriate to the person’s current stage in adult life. If what the part is doing is no longer appropriate and helpful to the Self, then we help that part find it a new helpful and healthy job within the person’s internal system overseen by the Self.

Schwartz’ system and findings are supported by research that validates one’s ability to talk to one’s own subconscious, for example by self-hypnosis. Studies also show IFS is effective in reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder.

Especially when we’re alone, we can always call forth the highest and best parts of us for help. We can speak aloud to our subconscious, saying things like: “I call upon my INNER GUIDANCE to show me the right path here! What’s the next right thing to do?” Instead of your inner guidance, you can call upon God or whatever your higher power is, or a close relative or friend who has passed over for help.

Once we begin to get familiar with our various parts, and reprogram the ones that hinder our desire for a happy and healthy life, we realize that we’ve built an internal team — it’s our team. And they all have their respective and important roles to keep us safe and secure and support our healthy decisions and goals.

And when we know our internal team members, it becomes much more difficult for a malevolent agent to infiltrate our thoughts and feelings because all our team members are working together for a common purpose. The imposter will stick out like a sore thumb.  And we will be keenly aware of any sneak attack by the agents of evil infiltrating into our thoughts and feelings in this escalating spiritual war.

And we will more quickly and easily do the spiritual equivalent of calling 911 by then calling upon our inner guidance and spiritual allies to help us thwart any attack. 

Developing and training our discernment of truth as a spiritual superpower will indeed set us, and keep us, free.

Copyright © 2024 by Joe Kornowski