I have prayed for sick people and watched them be healed; I once told a demon to leave a woman and it flew by my head, and she immediately knew it was gone; I once prayed for a man who had been dead for approximately thirty minutes and watched the Lord breathe life back into his body. I did all this through faith in the name of Jesus. However, when it came to my own PTSD, I could do nothing, nor could anyone else.
PTSD, especially if one develops it in childhood, actually causes the brain to grow differently than a normal brain. Demons don’t cause this. To say demons are the cause of all mental problems as so many Christians say, is detrimental to those who suffer from mental problems, not to mention an outright fabrication.
Yes, it may be true that demons can cause someone to appear to have a mental deficiency. But the majority of actual mental problems are caused by impaired neurotransmitters, our brain chemicals, which can occur for several different reasons, such as a history of mental illness in a blood relative, stress, brain damage, alcohol or drugs, abuse, trauma, etc.
Even after seeing a dead man come back to life, and sick people healed, and a demon flying by my head after coming out of a woman, I would at times get so depressed that I would do things like hide under my desk in the middle of the night in an effort to escape the reality of what was outside of my hiding place; other times I would sometimes beat my head against the wall or floor, begging God to free me of my horrendous turmoil. This went on for years and years until a friend talked me into going to the VA. There they determined that I had PTSD and medicated me. It took trying several different medications before they found one that actually helped me.
The medicine that finally helped me was Prozac. I remember well the very first time I realized it was helping me. I had just pulled my car under our carport and burst into tears when it hit me that I was no longer in the mental turmoil I had gone through for so many years. I still have problems with certain things like being in a crowded place and an exaggerated startle response, plus a few other things, but it is nothing like it used to be.
Many today claim to have deliverance ministries which primarily concentrate on demons. But there is no such ministry in the church of the living God. Jesus gave the church five ministries and the ministry of deliverance is not one of them.
As for demons, I’ve seen many. They have threatened me, harassed me, and they downright hate me. Back in the 1970’s one stood at the end of our bed every night for several weeks threatening to take my wife from me. I was a young Christian at the time, and, as I recall, he was the first demon I had ever seen. This demon scared me quite a bit. I dreaded going to bed at night. I never told my wife a thing about this. I’ve also seen demons quite a few more times, and I’ve seen them in and around other people several times.
So please understand I am not suggesting that demons don’t exist, or that they don’t do harm. I am only saying they don’t do everything many Christians claim they do. They do not cause mental illness; they may, however, cause symptoms of mental problems to exist. But the overwhelming majority of mental illnesses today are caused by impaired neurotransmitters in the brain.
Christians need to stop trying to be spiritual, and begin learning obedience to all authorities put in place by God. This is His will.
Jon David Banks, God’s most unworthy servant
jondavidbanks.com 