When we can see Lucifer’s attacks for what they really are and how he works, when we are suffering from emotional and mental health issues. We will find defenses, avoidance techniques and spiritual awareness important to our mental health.
When we can see Lucifer’s attacks for what they really are and how he works, when we are suffering from emotional and mental health issues. We will find defenses, avoidance techniques and spiritual awareness important to our mental health.
Episode #221 – The Enemy of Our Souls. I am Damon Socha. Today we are going to talk about Lucifer and his strategies and tactics when it comes to mental health issues. Now I don’t like talking about him any more that I have to but I have learned at least one thing in this life and that is a good defense is the best offense. When we can see Lucifer’s attacks for what they really are and how he works, when we are suffering from emotional and mental health issues. We will find defenses, avoidance techniques and spiritual awareness important to our mental health. I think that it is important that we understand Lucifer, how he got to where he is and why he does what he does. What motivates him? And then to understand how he specifically targets those of us who suffer?
So we will start from the beginning. Now we don’t exactly know how Lucifer went from a positive influence and an angel in authority in the presence of God, to Perdition, the leader of all evil. That seems like a fairly large change in position. We know that he was born of a spiritual family and raised in the celestial realms. Somewhere during the first estate and testing, he decided that living celestial principles didn’t suit him. We do know that he desired recognition and a high standing. And we also know that he didn’t pursue leadership from a celestial perspective. He wanted power but not the responsibility that comes with it from a celestial perspective. We see this in his selfish desire to save all of the Father’s children but unwilling to make the eternal sacrifice to do so. He wanted to be the Savior without saving. In so doing, he would have nullified our agency and forced us by ignorance or by removing our punishments to become celestial. Meaning he would allow us to go to earth and be as the animals not understanding good from evil, or he would allow us to go to earth do whatever we desired and then return to celestial life without any real learning or testing. Mortality, rather than a test would be a pass-through type of experience. Either way Lucifer did not desire to suffer for us. He didn’t care for us. What he cared about was recognition and power. He wanted the celestial powers of the Father to create without needing to be celestial. Lucifer was very intelligent and knew very well that celestial powers could only be handled by celestial principles, doctrines and by beings dedicated to a particular selfless way of life. He knew that his plans would not produce celestial beings. He knew that his plan wouldn’t work as it would cause a serious cascading failure within the systems of truth and justice. His plan would deny and rob justice and didn’t require the need for mercy. If you aren’t going to be punished for those actions that are evil in nature then there exists no need for mercy or grace.
And yet he still proposed his plan to the Father and asked that he be instated as the firstborn and rightful heir to the Father’s throne. Although we are not told how, he must have had a claim to the title of Firstborn in some sense. And so we see that as the Father was to sustain Jehovah as the Savior and Redeemer, Lucifer enters the picture with his claim to the throne. Lucifer’s claim in the scriptural story appears to come very suddenly but given that he had the support of one-third of the host of heaven, it is doubtful that he suddenly decided to make his claim. There was most certainly a timeframe when we were able to make serious choices about our future and to learn by our experiences as spiritual beings outside of the direct influence of the Father. It was during this timeframe before the creation that Lucifer appears to have amassed his followers. That timeframe is generally called the first estate.
Speaking of the one-third of heavenly spirits that followed Lucifer they were part of the his ploy to pressure the Father into giving into his demands. He knew of our Father’s love for his children and Lucifer intended to use the Father’s love for these one-third to bring him to power. However, the Father could not do so. In allowing for Lucifer to forcefully take the throne and deny us our agency, he would destroy the very fabric of celestial life. Lucifer must have known this but disregarded it in his plea to his followers. Lucifer was and is not stupid or ignorant. He is highly intelligent with a skilled ability to influence others. It is likely that those who followed him already felt an overwhelming fear of mortality. They understood that their actions in the premortal world would cause them serious problems in mortality and likely the destination of telestial life. Many were like Lucifer in that they were strong spirits seeking power and others recognized that for them to inherit the Father’s kingdom they were going to need another way in. Fear, doubt and anger have always been Lucifer’s guiding principles when it comes to emotional intent. And the premortal life was no different for his followers.
While the scriptures note that Lucifer was angered by the Father’s choice of Jehovah, it was not because he had a valid plan for the salvation of mankind. His anger was the emotion that occurs when truth is obvious and the light of truth destroys darkness. This is the first thing we learn about Lucifer. He uses anger to drive out the light and truth of heaven. Anger has no place in celestial life in the sense that it obscures truth. This is also the first thing we learn about ourselves and our illness. We have the capacity to block heavenly light through anger, contention and all the driving emotions that follow. When we become angry, we lose control of our emotional state and it is fairly easy for Lucifer to drive us where he desires. Lucifer used that anger to drive himself and his followers out of celestial spheres and rebel against the Father, Jehovah and truth that is celestial life. It is easy to find ourselves within a rebellion, especially when anger arises and clouds our ability to hear and respond to the spirit. If you wonder how Lucifer continues his devilish desires and actions, it is through anger and the energy that follows when you blindly follow those evil emotions.
Now we see that Lucifer could no longer live within heavens bounds and the laws that come through truth. He could not be governed or persuaded to seek repentance and forgiveness. When the time came for a choice to be made whether to sustain and uphold Jehovah as the rightful heir through a covenant, Lucifer and his followers chose to remove themselves from celestial light. We know through revelation that Adam or Michael as he was called was called upon to escort Lucifer whose name was now Perdition out of heavenly realms. What exactly that looks like is probably up for interpretation, however, Perdition as he was not called probably did not fight the extradition proceedings, holding himself as a victim to his cause to redeem all men regardless of their actions. I could see him certainly using what we call today the entitlement and or victim mentality saying that he and his followers were born to celestial parents and had a right to celestial life regardless of their actions. To condemn him to outer darkness was unjust and unfair. This is another one of Lucifer’s ploys when we come to the earth. He uses entitlement or victim mentality to say such things as I was born this way, god made me this way and therefore I deserve to be in his presence whether or not I act according to certain principles. This entitlement mentality places the fault squarely upon the Father. When we believe that we are victims or entitled to a particular state, we fail to hold ourselves responsible to the agency we have been given. We become guiltless in a sense and place the blame upon the creator. When in reality, our choices both premortal and mortal is really what causes our future consequences. We have been free to act according to our knowledge and agency since we were intelligences. The Father holds no responsibility for our actions as he has given us agency to choose. That agency places the guilt squarely at our feet. Entitlement and victimization is exactly what Lucifer attempted when he offered his plan. That plan was all about entitlement and being a victim rather than taking responsibility for our actions. Yes we have been given mortal weaknesses but even then the Lord gives us a pathway beyond those weaknesses. He does not give them with no pathway for overcoming them and then condemn us for our weakness. He gives a wide birth and a significant amount of mercy and grace to allow our mortal weakness to mold us in celestial ways. We can certainly allow our weaknesses to mold us in other ways. Laman and Lemuel are great examples of such behavior when compared to Nephi. We are not entitled to celestial life but we are given ample amounts of grace, mercy, love and guidance to obtain it.
We have now discussed two of Lucifer’s most common strategies, entitlement and anger. We are now going to take some lessons from mortality that have been recorded for us that give us insight into several other types of strategies he employs against us. The first of these is the opposition principle. When we came to earth we agreed to the opposition principle and likely we agreed to it in our first estate. The core element of this principle is that the Lord cannot favor one person over another. His blessings and love must be equally distributed among all his children. This doesn’t mean he can’t bless those who follow his celestial guidance above others. He can most certainly do this as we use our agency to obtain these blessings. Those blessings we obtain by obedience our provided by choice and agency. This is most certainly part of the celestial plan. What is not is favoring one particular person over another without any specific action taken on the part of those two individuals. This is favoritism and is entirely contrary to the principles of justice. Mercy and grace are given through agency. And so this principle of opposition means that Lucifer has equal opportunity to tempt us. We see this regularly when prophets such as Moses, Joseph Smith and the Savior have spiritual revelations and experiences. Once the experience or revelation has occurred Lucifer always appears right after to see if he can sway us from moving forward in our agency. He taunts us with shouts of discouragement and unworthiness. He attempts as much as he can to force us to act in certain ways pressing upon our emotions and mind. This has always been his strategy to stop good works in the tracks of thought before it becomes actions and blessings. He will use any means necessary to discourage us from moving forward with the revelation. This is one area where mental and emotional health has some disadvantages as Lucifer seems to have much greater access to our emotional state when we are anxiety laden or depressed. He simply reinforces the emotions of the illness to stop us in our thought tracks. Have you ever had a spiritual revelation or experience and then not too long after doubted if it was spiritual and from the Lord. In the moment of the spiritual event you are most certain but afterwards doubt enters and you become confused. This is one of Lucifer’s main objectives to stop righteous action before it takes hold of us. He does so by manipulating our emotional state. Now he cannot depress us any more than the Lord can encourage us. Meaning the pressure he places can be no more than the encouragement the Lord gives. This allows us to truly choose who we are and who we will follow.
The next thing we will note about Lucifer is that he rarely attacks us where we have strengths. He does not attack the strong foundational walls of our testimony. He slowly undermines them and then allows natural forces such as social pressure to cause our walls to fall. He also finds our weaknesses and then waits for us to become physically weak or emotionally weak. He waits until our resistance has been minimized by natural events in our lives. Even the Savior was not immune to his attacks when he was physically weak. When did he approach the Savior? After a forty-day fast, during the most difficult moments of the atonement, upon the cross when he was at his weakest physically, mentally and emotionally. Likewise he does the same to us. He does not fully attack our testimony until he can undermine our fortifications and weaken our resolve. When we suffer with mental and emotional illness, he attacks when we are weakest and deep in our misery. He finds the weakest part of our fortifications and then slowly works his way into our lives. He does this in a number of ways attacking our feelings of worthiness, value, capacity and abilities. He adds misery to misery as he is allowed. This is where I personally feel him the most in my life. When I am reduced to emotional darkness through depression and pain, and I am anxious about my standing with the Lord, he comes to reinforce those emotions and thoughts. He tells me that life isn’t worth living. That I have no value to the kingdom. That I will never make it to celestial life. And then with those emotions pressing upon us he tells us that we should leave behind the pressures of celestial life and even mortal life. He says that with death the misery ends. This could be physical death or spiritual death. Yes Lucifer promotes suicide regularly to those who suffer. And no the misery does not necessary end when someone commits suicide. Yes the afflictions of the mortal body are removed but the pains of those left will be felt for a time. Suicide is never the answer, so when we hear suicide in our heads know that Lucifer is always the author.
Talking about spiritual death, leaving the church will allow for some social pressures to be lifted. When we do leave the church Lucifer will support us for a time telling us we are free from the bounds of religion and those things holding us back. He will use his ability to falsify happiness and peace, and then once he has us convinced those false feelings fade and misery and darkness ensue in our lives. That is another of Lucifer’s strategies. He will support us as long as we follow his lead with imitation emotions. Once he has us sufficiently distant from the Lord, he drops all support and allows us to wallow in the mire of our poor decisions. We no longer feel free or energized. We feel lost and then comes the pursuit of strange roads leading from one life event to another searching for happiness where it cannot be found. Lucifer then tells us that it is futile to look back. Do you want to return to that church pressure and misery? You just need to keep looking and you will find your happiness. Lucifer wants us to keep looking and wandering on strange roads seeking out a happiness he knows does not exist. But he tells us that happiness is found in the seeking the moment, the ultimate event. And so we become stuck in an endless loop of happiness seeking. Adventure seeking, adrenaline searching, romantic desire seeking, seeking out power, prominence and position, always looking but never able to come to the truth. Because we have come to see happiness as a destination rather than a process.
One of the most important lessons taught by the Savior was at the very beginning of his ministry. After a 40-day fast, the Savior comes from communing with his Father into the face of Perdition. Hungry and likely exhausted after his physical ordeal and the spiritual highs, Lucifer comes to the Savior to tempt him. He tempts the Savior with three interesting propositions. Each represents part of our life in sense where Lucifer finds our cracks and crevasses to wedge in some doubt and selfish encouragement. Naturally, Lucifer knew that the Savior was exhausted and hungry. Anyone who has become famished, exhausted and extremely hungry knows that the mind when put under these pressures turns off various high functioning parts of the brain. We tend to get highly focused on securing food when we are hungry and we tend to lose our ability to think and reason clearly. We become single focused and that is when Lucifer is most likely to saunter up to us and tempt us to satisfy our basic needs. This includes food and shelter, safety and comfort, and also our sexual drive. However, Lucifer does not simply tempt us in subtle ways, he needs to reinforce his ideas and in a sense train our emotions to seek out these needs. Lucifer understands our brain chemistry far better than we do. He knows that certain activities, drugs internal and external provide a temporary relief. So in the midst of our suffering, he goes about offering various temporary solutions that tend to lead into addiction. Whether this addiction is more about internal rewards such as the high from pornography or external rewards such as various pain killers and other types of drugs such as alcohol. Lucifer knows that if he can get us dependent upon those temporary rewards, our lives will forever change. Something important to note about many if not all individuals with mental health difficulties, is that their brains are not wired the same as normal individuals. The wiring in the brain whether genetically predisposition or rewired by mental illness is setup towards addiction. Meaning those individuals who have mental health issues often struggle deeply with addictive behaviors. Lucifer is fully aware of this rewiring. So is the Lord and the opposition principle remains in effect even with an altered mind. We can certainly avoid and overcome addiction but we must be ever so careful to see it when it is coming. Otherwise we can easily find dead end roads.
The second thing that Lucifer always does, is make it personal. “If thou be the Son of God” were the first words out of his mouth. Not change this rock into bread. Lucifer knows that he can only keep us in his chains if we can justify what we are doing emotionally. Lucifer provided the Savior the justification for changing the rock into bread. And so he does with us. He makes it personal to us. We deserve the be as rich as the next guy. God made me this way so I am going to be this way. I am who I am and nothing is going to change that. Why can’t god just alter his rules a little to allow for what I am doing. I am not hurting anyone. I could continue but I think that you get the drift of the message. When Lucifer attacks he makes it all about us.
The second temptation of the Savior was similar to the first in the sense that Lucifer made it personal. This time though Lucifer did not only make it personal, he used scripture and twisted it to his own personal interpretation. If the scriptures are true and you are the Son of God, then if you cast yourself down from this temple and the angels will save you. Or in other words, you need to prove to me that you are who you say you are and that your scriptures are true. Prove it to me and I will believe. Lucifer can use scripture about as well as any prophet to justify his misuse of power and prophecy. Lucifer was attacking the heart of the Savior’s mission and testimony. If you are who you say you are and the scriptures are true, then you must do this to prove it to me. That tiny word “if” gets us into far too much trouble in our lives and Lucifer knows exactly how and when to use it. This is especially true when we suffer and seek healing blessings. Has not the Lord said that with enough faith you will be healed. Then if you are not healed either there is no god or you don’t have sufficient faith. Interestingly Lucifer does not mention the other scriptures that talk about mortal weaknesses, learning patience, diligence and simply learning from our trials. He points out one idea of faith and then twists the idea into faith equals healing. Which is not true. In fact, true faith is the ability to remain within the trial and without healing and to continue faithfully in ones life.
The final temptation of the Savior is the trap into which Lucifer fell. I have no doubt that he fell into the other two traps in the premortal world but this trap was his downfall. Power and dominion over others and their possessions seems to be one of those naturally occurring emotional traits that did not come only with mortality. Selfish power is a terrible vice. Once it takes hold of the soul, it is nearly impossible to remove. When we talk about addictions, this could be the worst one of all. There exists an energy and excitement with that kind of power that drives men and women crazy attempting to find it and then keep it. Accolades and acknowledgement give the brain a similar high as to various drugs. Lucifer knows that this internal drug is beyond powerful in our lives. Even a small taste of it causes men and women to feel their way towards that great and spacious building without a foundation. Once you have entered that building and all that comes with it, including the addiction, it is almost impossible to extract oneself. The problem with the power addiction is that it is always selfishly oriented. It is also hollow in its effects. The drug needs consistent nourishment and it comes with a strange side-effect. Individual can feel the lack of a foundational structure. Because their personal foundation relies upon this internal drug of recognition, not only do they pursue the drug but persecute those individuals that will not support them in their habit. They mock those individuals who take their support from the tree of life. When we suffer with mental illness and we feel those doubts envelope us and the pains of anxiety and depression surround us, it is so very easy to fall into the belonging trap. We can feel empowered by a group of individuals who do not share our knowledge of the Savior. This empowerment creates such an addiction that we slowly become like those who support us but do not share our beliefs. Then their beliefs become our beliefs and we are somehow standing in the great and spacious building or wandering on strange roads.
I suppose like King Benjamin, I could say that it isn’t possible for me to explain everyone of Lucifer’s methods but this I do know. Lucifer does have bounds and restrictions upon his abilities to tempt us. We cannot be tempted beyond our capacity if we are trying to live the gospel. The Lord always provides protection to his people who have made covenants with him. This doesn’t mean that we won’t have trials, temptations and problems in our lives. It means that we will not be tempted beyond what we can bear. And if those temptations rise above our abilities then the Lord strengthens us to match the temptation. As long as we remain under the umbrella of the atonement of Jesus Christ, we are protected. If we walk away from those covenants, we have no such promise. If we have walked away, then Lucifer can tempt and bind us down. The key to surviving Lucifer and his temptations is actually quite simple. Remain under the protections of the Lord by doing what you can to keep your covenant with him. We don’t give up. We fight to the end. If we do so we will find that our illness was much less problematic in our life and we are able to manage the difficult moments and emotions of our trial.
Now having said all of that, I consider mental and emotional illness one of the greatest trials that the Lord can give a person. He does not allow mental health problems to come upon his children without fully understanding if they can bear it. When we are living the gospel and suffering with mental and emotional health problems, then we should understand that the Lord has great trust in our abilities and our capacity. He also knows that we will turn to him rather than the world for the aid we need. I don’t fully understand everything about this illness we suffer but I do understand one thing, the knowledge we obtain through suffering can be a celestializing experience allowing us to feel and experience moments known only to the Savior during his suffering in Gethsemane. We are in some ways privileged to experience what the Savior did and in so doing become like him as we cling to the blessings, healings and power of the atonement. So as I have always ended each episode, I do so today with full understanding. Until next week do your part so that the Lord can do his. Or rather fight the good fight and the Lord will be beside you.