The same is true of humans and their spiritual environments. If a husband and wife fill their marriage with rage and intimidation, an ecosystem (or atmosphere) of fear will develop. Left unsolved, this ecosystem will manifest physically in the form of arguments, stress, and financial troubles.
This is why certain people, buildings, and cities feel more spiritually healthy than others. Depending on what has been seeded into the environment, the area’s specific spiritual realities will develop. Jesus illustrated this when he spoke about how good trees bear good fruit and bad trees bear bad fruit (see Matt. 7:17-18). Whatever we sow into our environments eventually takes root—whether it be peace or strife, love or hate.
This is how families, cities, and regions become stuck in cycles of poverty, fear, and powerlessness. Failing to steward their spiritual environments, people open doors to the demonic. Unless we are able to identify the root issues and replace them with the Lord’s truth, we will not be able to break free and experience freedom.
Another way to understand atmospheres and how they shift in our lives is to look at our relationships with movies. I remember as a teenager sneaking into films like Jaws and Friday the Thirteenth. I taunted my friends with phrases like I’m not scared and I’m braver than you making the movie-going experience somewhat a competition. We would see who could stay in their seats the longest and avoid succumbing to the terror. Unfortunately, I never made it long enough to collect any prizes.
Like atmospheres, films naturally affect/shift the hearts and minds of the audience. When we enter a theater, our thoughts, feelings, and moods change as we undergo the process of entertainment. As the story unfolds, our willing suspension of disbelief (our agreement with the story as reality to better engage with its emotions) kicks in. We experience the tonal shifts of the film and adjust our empathy accordingly.
When we watch films like Raiders of the Lost Ark, our personal atmospheres shift from excitement to thrills and adventure. If it is a romantic tragedy like Titanic, our atmospheres morph from hope to sadness. Each of these shifts is predetermined by the author who structured the story. As long as we continue to “buy into” these created realities, our hearts and minds will follow the movie’s currents.
This process is no different from how we buy into and cooperate with spiritual atmospheres. When we “buy into” their broadcasts, whether good or bad, we give them authority over us. For instance, if we walk into a store feeling depressed but suddenly encounter a sense or feeling that God is good, we can either agree with that statement and live under its influence or shrug it off and lose its heavenly impact. Hopefully, we will partner with our willful suspension of disbelief (our acceptance of something as reality) and accept that virtue as reality. We can then walk through the rest of our day believing that God is good and stewarding this truth into our lives.
This is why you can leave your house in the best of moods only to have it fluctuate into a range of emotions. Let’s say you leave your house joyful; yet, when you arrive at the grocery store, you experience anxiety. Moments before you were in the best of moods yet now you are doused in stress and anxiety. What happened? Chances are you “picked up” an ungodly atmosphere’s message and started partnering with it and took it on as your own.
As we learn to identify the atmospheres and broadcasts pervading our area, we grow in understanding how to defend or adopt them as truth. In this following example, a former client, Julie, discovered the power of rejecting negative atmospheres and renouncing their broadcasts.
THE CHURCH IS DESIGNED TO OPERATE AS BRINGERS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND TO RELEASE HOPE, PEACE, AND PROSPERITY INTO THESE COMMUNITIES WHERE DEMONS WORK TO RELEASE THE OPPOSITE.
Julie always slept well—some would say like a rock. When she dreamed, her dreams were usually encouraging and fun. But around the age of forty, she started having nightmares. These night visions were so vivid and demonic that they forced her to cry out in her sleep. Sometimes, her cries were so loud that they woke her husband.
She found herself experiencing these repeated nightmares and constantly tried to wake herself up. During these encounters, demons weighed her down and tried to keep her from waking. These dreams terrified her so much that she began fearing sleep itself. This fear eventually crept into her day. Consequently, she began to feel on edge nearly all day long.
The atmosphere in her home no longer felt safe; instead, it felt hostile and cruel. This went on for weeks. One day, she visited the nearby park for fresh air. While jogging, a stranger’s dog broke loose from its leash and chased her. Julie screamed and ran so hard that she wet her pants. When the owners caught up to take hold of their dog, they were amazed. They had never seen their dog act like that before.
Julie returned home and wondered if it were possible the neighbor’s dog had picked up her own partnering with fear. If so, she realized she was actually handing over power to the enemy. She called a friend who encouraged her to take authority over her home and dream life. Hanging up, Julie blasted worship music and recited Psalms all throughout the house. She anointed each doorway with oil and even went up to the attic to release peace. Following these acts, her fears shifted and the atmosphere over her mind and home changed. From that day on, the nightmares stopped.
Julie learned a valuable lesson. Partnering with this atmosphere of fear allowed its presence to increase in her life and even began to broadcast from her to her natural surroundings. As long as she continued to “buy into” its anxiety, the evil spirit was able to operate with power. When she finally took ownership and renounced its hold over her life, the atmosphere and its relating messages lifted.
Just as Julie’s partnership with fear gave it increasing power, demonic strongholds grow as communities digress from God’s Word and embrace lifestyles of sin. As more people partner with the messages that are announced, the demonic influence grows. This cycle continues until either repentance is made, truth is revealed, or God intervenes. The church is designed to operate as bringers of the Kingdom of God and to release hope, peace, and prosperity into these communities where demons work to release the opposite.
About a month before we were scheduled to do our very first Shifting Atmospheres conference, I received a phone call from an intercessor friend. She wanted us to seek the Lord in prayer regarding a demonic influence that was gaining traction among the youth in her county. Several young teens had committed suicide, and while she and some friends had been praying around the schools, news of suicide pacts had been exposed. Teen suicides swept so strongly through the community that even some of her church’s family members bore the pain of personal loss.
Before we finished the conference, we gathered together all willing participants and placed them in four groups to signify north, south, east, and west. Guided by the Holy Spirit, I led them in a quick prayer of repentance. Because we were dealing with an assignment of death, the prayer went something like this:
I ask You, God, to forgive me if I have ever partnered with a spirit of helplessness, hopelessness, secrecy, murder, or death, and I forgive anyone in our community who has partnered with these spirits. We release hope, vision, and life back into our region, and we command this attack on our youth to stop immediately in Jesus’s name.
BEFORE YOU TAKE AUTHORITY OVER SPIRITUAL ATMOSPHERES IN YOUR REGION, MAKE SURE YOUR AUTHORITY LEVEL AND COVERING ARE UP TO THE TASK.
One of our sons, Cory, had written a song, “Dissipate,”4 a few years back that had an anointing to break suicide. I had him stand on stage and play it in the background while we prayed. We were encouraged to find out weeks later the teen suicide pacts had been exposed and the accompanying suicides stopped.
Before you take authority over spiritual atmospheres in your region, make sure your authority level and covering are up to the task. To begin, start stewarding your own internal atmospheres before branching out into the external ones around you. As you grow in your understanding of atmospheres and the authority you carry, begin practicing in your own ho
me. As you steward your authority and the territory God has given you, more will be granted:
For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away (Matthew 25:29).
NOTES
1. Stephen De Silva, Prosperous Soul Foundations (Accent Digital Publishing, 2010).
2. Bill Johnson, “Born into a War,” Bethel.TV, November 14, 2016, http://www.bethel.tv/watch/4497/born-into-a-war/2016/11/14.
3. Kris Vallotton, Heavy Rain (Regal, 2010), 988.
4. “Dissipate” from the album, Someday When I’m Young, (to purchase album) https://shop.bethel.com/products/someday-when-i-m-young.
FINDING YOUR NORMAL
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
—EPHESIANS 4:11-14
Our ability to discern atmospheres, spirits, and mindsets comes after we first establish our normal. By normal, I mean how we think and feel on a regular basis. Our normals are made up of the internal truths that govern our lives. These can be truths like God is good and He loves me all the time or lies (false truths) like nobody wants me or I am unloved.
Christians who have a healthy normal easily discern the enemy’s atmospheres/lies because the voices feel foreign. For instance, if a person who is driving suddenly has a thought of veering into oncoming traffic, his understanding of what is “normal” (driving safely) keeps him from steering into the wrong lane.
Establishing your normal helps to decipher which thoughts are not your own. The enemy uses a myriad of voices (whisperings, taunts, impressions) to try and deceive you. Self-awareness empowers you to switch off these enemy channels and, instead, tune in to heaven’s broadcasts instead.
The chart below helps to expose what healthy and unhealthy normals can look like. You may want to circle any mindsets that seem familiar:
If you discover any unhealthy mindsets in your life, take some time to examine each one and ask the Holy Spirit where they first gained influence. This mindset will often stem from a childhood memory. In most Sozo sessions, people receive healing once they uncover a deep wound from childhood and exchange it for God’s truth. Take some time right now for inner healing and ask the Holy Spirit these questions:
Holy Spirit, which ungodly mindset do I need to examine?
Holy Spirit, where did I first learn the lie that created this mindset?
Is there anyone I need to forgive?
I hand You this lie, Holy Spirit. What truth do You want to impart in its place?
Holy Spirit, would you remove all ungodly mindsets attached to this lie and any harm it has caused me or others?
Holy Spirit, what Scripture or verse do You want to show me to emphasize this new belief?
This process is a condensed version of an inquiry prayer we use in Sozo sessions. To learn more about this process, check out my previous book, Sozo: Saved, Healed, Delivered.
IF YOU DISCOVER ANY UNHEALTHY MINDSETS IN YOUR LIFE, TAKE SOME TIME TO EXAMINE EACH ONE AND ASK THE HOLY SPIRIT WHERE THEY FIRST GAINED INFLUENCE.
You may wonder why we need to do this process of renewal. The Bible says we have the mind of Christ (see 1 Cor. 2:16). If so, why take the time to constantly cleanse our minds? The answer is that although we have the mind of Christ, we must continue to adhere to His principles.
To replace our ungodly beliefs, we must realize they do not line up with God’s intention for our lives. It is impossible for any belief system based on a lie to produce good fruit. If we ask the Holy Spirit to reveal lies and supplant them with truth, we can develop a healthy normal.
God constantly encourages us to renew our minds:
We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5 NASB).
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2 NASB).
Until we displace lies that we believe about ourselves, others, and God, our minds will need to be renewed constantly. Only then can we fully embrace truth.
Stephen De Silva explains how most Christians, although saved, continue to be hindered in their lives due to ungodly mindsets. He believes Christians become really good “fruit pickers” and pick the bad fruit from their lives rather than conform themselves to Christ’s image. Instead of trying to cover up our messes, we can make our trees (hearts) good by uprooting the issues the Holy Spirit exposes in our lives.
Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart (Matthew 12:33-34 NASB).
Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (Matthew 7:17-19 NIV).
Instead of hiding our bad fruit, we should uproot the bad trees and replace them with good ones. Making the trees good, Steve says, comes from tearing out the roots in our lives that represent bad trees. These bad trees are nothing more than false mindsets/lies. We must uproot them to seize God’s truth.
UNTIL WE DISPLACE LIES THAT WE BELIEVE ABOUT OURSELVES, OTHERS, AND GOD, OUR MINDS WILL NEED TO BE RENEWED CONSTANTLY. ONLY THEN CAN WE FULLY EMBRACE TRUTH.
Years ago, a friend came in for her session. She had already experienced breakthrough many times before. When asked why she wanted to schedule another, she stated that she simply felt “unwanted” whenever she was invited to social gatherings. No matter how many people told her, “I’m so glad you are here,” she always felt unwanted.
We asked the Holy Spirit to show her where she first learned this lie. The Lord showed her a memory from a time she was almost three years old. In the memory, she stood outside her home and heard roaring laughter inside. Curious, she opened the front door and stepped inside. When she did, the people in the living room looked her way and instantly stopped laughing. The Holy Spirit told her, “You believed the lie that they did not want you in the room.”
When we asked Jesus for the truth, she started to laugh. She said Jesus told her they stopped laughing because they were planning her surprise birthday party for the next day. I asked her if she remembered the birthday party. She said, “Yes. I walked into the room and everyone yelled ‘surprise,’ but I felt they did not really want me there.”
This memory planted a seed in her heart, watered over the years by future group experiences until it became a fully grown tree bearing the fruit of rejection—creating a need for self-protection and keeping her isolated from groups. Her normal was I am not wanted, so she was not able to embrace any compliments as true.
If we are to be effective in properly discerning atmospheres, we must make each and every tree (mindset) in our lives good.
Once we have established a new healthy normal, we can discern which thoughts are our own and which thoughts are the enemy’s. Once we identify our normal thoughts, we can decipher enemy broadcasts—those echoes in our brains that originate from the demonic realm. When we realize these thoughts are outside influences rather than our own ideas, we can renounce their assaults and not partner with them.
DISCERNING ATMOSPHERES
Over the past twenty years, I have seen thousands of people freed from lies and demonic strongholds. No matter how strong the enemy’s pre
sence feels, God’s power always dispels its authority. I have found this to be true in the shifting of atmospheres as well.
I find this premise of displacement works well with shifting atmospheres. To work toward this, we must first develop our skills of identification. That which is being broadcast from an atmosphere might be either obvious or veiled. It is important we understand we may need to increase our level of discernment in order to effectively label what we feel, sense, or hear. Fortunately, it is biblically legal to practice our gifts of discernment:
But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil (Hebrews 5:14).
DISCERNMENT IS PERHAPS THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT TOOL RELATIVE TO SHIFTING ATMOSPHERES.
Although it may seem like some people just “get” what is going on around them, I guarantee you anyone far along in their gift of discernment has spent years of practice.
To begin discerning spirits, start paying attention to how you feel in different environments. Take notes, journal, and ask others how they experience these same places. Are you calm everywhere you go or are there places or people who make your skin crawl? Are there stores in your town or buildings that you love visiting because you feel accepted and cared for? All of these feelings may emanate from the spiritual atmospheres governing the area.
Shifting Atmospheres Page 7