Several of our  cases  have consisted of professing Christians of two types:

THOSE WITH A MENTAL DISORDER AND THOSE WITHOUT A MENTAL DISORDER.

In most cases, the onset of the mental disorder is directly correlated to the client's religious conversion.  In some cases, the  disorder is the result of the client having been exposed in one degree or another to either religiosity, witchcraft or both.  Hearing voices, OCD and depression are considered mental disorders.  WE DO NOT ACCEPT CLIENTS WHO ARE  delusional or incoherent, unable to discern reality from illusion.  Those who are incoherent certainly require the medications and the skills of professionals who specialize in mental illness.  The vast majority of OUR cases consist of clients who experienced behaviors---- symptoms not expected to occur and unbecoming  to a Christian:  ie a kind of torment that may or may not include hearing voices, disturbing visions, and various  abnormal body movements.  It should be noted that various anti-psychotic drugs are known to produce abnormal body movements as a side effect to anti-psychotic medications.  However, WE have found in most cases that abnormal body movements also occur in the absence of client  medication exposure.

HERE ARE SOME CASE EXAMPLES: (All first names  and background info of former clients have been changed.)

RELIGIOSITY, BORDERLINE  PERSONALITY DISORDER--HEARING VOICES, SEEING DEMONS:  Raised Catholic, an hispanic young woman converted to word of faith Christianity in her youth.  By the time she was a young adult, she was  in ministry---preaching, prophesying, speaking in tongues, and discerning spirits.  She heard threatening voices throughout the day, and developed a strategy to cope with the voices by trying to ignore them.  She had a dream that showed that there were 3 snakes emanating from her chest area.  During her deliverance session,  an entity manifested that threw her across the room and spoke to me in a gutteral voice saying "Maria is mine.  Her grandmother gave her to me."  Her grandmother has been a believer and follower of Santeria, a religious system that combines Catholicism with witchcraft.

DEPERSONALIZATION/RELIGIOSITY: A nominal Christian in a Baptist church for 20 years, this client KNEW that she was not saved. Then a  friend brought Dorothy into a pentecostal prayer group where they were tarrying or "chanting" to receive the Holy Ghost through the manifestation of speaking in tongues.  Once Dorothy "uttered", she was told that she was saved or born again.  Almost immediately, Dorothy was "taken over" by hearing voices and abnormal body movements. She was diagnosed as suffering from depersonalization by a psychiatrist, but she did not partake in treatment and was not on medication.   The voices threatened to cause Dorothy to gain 800 pounds.  In two months, a thin woman, Doris had already gained 50 pounds, forced to eat food out of garbage cans.  I picked Dorothy up from the bus station and while driving to my office, she grabbed my steering wheel while I was on the highway, driving at about 60 miles an hour.  She looked at me and said "I didn't do that.  It was 'them.'  They just told me that they are going to give you quite a time when you try to cast them out."

CULTISM, UNCONTROLLABLE BODY MOVEMENTS:  While watching Christian television, Carol responded to Christ through a Mormon sponsored program, sent for the Blue Book and repeated a sinner's prayer to become saved.  There was no mention of repentance or the Lord's resurrection, other than to "make Jesus rule over the throne of your soul."  Almost immediately, Carol began to hear voices that she thought were from the Lord.  While standing in her kitchen, "something" overtook her and caused her to speak in a tongue.  She received visions about the man she would marry and the church that she would attend.  At the onset of counseling, her body parts were moving outside the use of her own will and entities would speak through her.  Extremely faithful to her church and to the Christ of her understanding, this case was particularly baffling because I could perceive no real fault of the client, a fervent, loyal follower of the Jesus of her understanding, one who refrained from sin and who continually sought after righteousness.

RELIGIOSITY, OCCULT/WITCHCRAFT: An hispanic client raised both Catholic and under the influence of Santeria, there was no realm of the occult that Johnnie did not experience, including a belief in reincarnation and in alien life on earth.  Johnnie functioned well in society in a professional career until he had an accident that caused severe pain.  Once he went to a Santeria witch for healing, a being stepped into him that caused suicidal ideation, thoughts of violence to others and insomnia.  A being stepped on his back and caused other body part manifestations, ie. changes in facial features, head movements similar to those that occurred in the movie "The Exorcist."  Prior to counseling, Johnnie began to attend a Christian non-denominational church where he repeated a sinner's prayer and was pronounced "saved."  The torment immediately worsened.  In our first session, it was revealed that Johnnie did not understand resurrection, believing that resurrection was the same as reincarnation.  The word was rightly divided to him and he obtained a glorious salvation that included the godly sorrow of repentance and a confession to believe that Jesus Christ came back to life, once dead.

RELIGIOSITY/INTRUSIVE, DEGRADING THOUGHTS: A young  female adult, raised in a Christian cult, entered into sin as a child with the pastor's daughter.  The two youngsters obtained magazines and practiced lesbian sex.  Technically a virgin, Sarah continued to experience spontaneous orgasm.  Furthermore, she continued to waver in her faith, as to whether or not she was really born again.  After 11 months of counseling, Sarah is now assured of her salvation and the spontanous orgasms have ceased. To read her testimony in her own words, click here.

OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER/RELIGIOSITY, BLASPHEMOUS THOUGHTS: Raised by parent who practiced Christian Science, upon adulthood, Cynthia entered into all aspects of the occult, including Indian religion, the use of crystals, and necromancy.  A woman in her 50's, Cynthia has been treated for 3 decades for OCD.  Around the same time that she was diagnosed and treated with OCD, she began to frequent word of faith churches, where she spoke in tongues.  However, she constantly hears voices that compell her to curse Jesus.  She also has spontaneous orgasms.  When she attempts to read the bible out loud, she growls like an animal and hisses like a snake. She has been on anti-psychotic medication for years.

HEARING VOICES, SCHIZOPHRENIA:  Raised in church, Joyce began to dabble in the occult.  Once she took peyote, she began to hallucinate, having been hospitalized for mental illness on more than one occasion.  Joyce believes that she is saved because "her pastor told her that since she repeated the sinner's prayer, she is saved."  She loves church and religion, but finds it difficult to enjoy life because of constantly hearing voices that either condemn her or try to control her daily activities.

RELIGIOSITY, DEMONIC SOUL TIES:  Raised in church, Doris has been depressed for 20 years.  Never missing church when the doors are opened for many years, Doris realized that something was wrong with her Christian experience and sought counseling.   In the first session, I suggested to her that she was not saved.  I really didn't think that she had any demons but was I not in for a surprise.  In short, I quietly spoke to one demon, one time, without even a plan in place to do so. I called it by name.  Doris had a demonic soul tie with someone that she had committed adultery with several years back,--- someone that she has not seen for some time but whom she talked to frequently over the phone.  I called the demon by the name of the man., who I will refer to now as "Thomas."   I said quietly, spirit of Thomas, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I break your hold over "Doris" and I command you to come out and come out now.    First, there was a calm silence.  I said to Doris, how are you feeling.  She answered, "Sad,, I feel sad." 

 RELIGIOSITY, OCCULTISM, DEPRESSION:  Raised Catholic in a family with strong gyspy influences, Barbara was a bitter unhappy person who believed that life was passing her by.  She also had frequented several psychics and readers over the years, even after she had joined a word of faith church.  When asked why she was seeking counseling from me rather than from her church, she said that her church was not into deliverance.  She had had a dream which showed that she had 4 demons in her.  After several months, it was determined that she needed to be delivered from unholy soul ties as a result of the domination, manipulation and control manifested upon her by several of her relatives.  We took them one at a time: her mother and then her sister.  The soul tie was broken with her mother but not with her sister.  In future counseling sessions, it was discovered that the client was unforgiving and bitter where her sister was concerned, complicated by the fact that the client and the sister had made a pact with a gypsy witch, a pact that placed Barbara under the control of her older sister.  In time, we successfully broke this unholy soul tie also.  Barbara was successfully released from counseling 3 years ago.

TORMENT, HEARING VOICES:  Jane came to Christ by listening to mega preachers on TBN.  Shortly thereafter, she began to hear voices.  Demons also spoke through Jane, against her will.  She had been to practically every "big name" deliverance ministers to no avail.  She became "a student of deliverance."  As we proceeded through pre-deliverance, counseling sessions uncovered that Jane was unknowingly in sin.  She was of the belief that oral and anal sex was not fornication.  Once persuaded that she was in sin, other issues began to surface. It was clear to me that Jane was not saved, but she refused to accept my assessment.  Quoting to me from several books on deliverance that she had read, she fired me for not agreeing with her and those whom she respected, people more renown than myself.  I could not help her because she would not allow me to.

WITCHCRAFT, RELIGIOSITY, SUBSTANCE ABUSE:  Sam had always been a drug addict and a practitioner of the occult.  One day, he went to a word of faith church service, spoke in tongues, fell out slain in the spirit and got up delivered from a desire to use drugs.  He began to give Jesus the praise and went about his neighborhood preaching the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  However, shortly thereafter, an entity began to "take over his brain."  He began to hear voices, have delusions of grandeur, then suicidal thoughts, then homicidal thoughts.

RELIGIOSITY, OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER:   Julia came to Christ when she was 18 years old, walking up to the altar  and receiving the right hand of fellowship from the pastor.  Shortly thereafter, she went to a conference of a mega preacher where 25,000 people were gathered.  She fell out slain in the spirit and got up speaking in tongues.  She joined a pentecostal church when she returned home from the conference.  A few weeks later, she found himself suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder, where she is compelled to wipe and clean everything he touches.  She has been hospitalized in mental health hospitals several times in her life.   Now 80 years old, Julia  has suffered from OCD her  entire Christian life.  She received about 4 sessions when I had to recommend that counseling stop.  She refused to even consider that perhaps she was not saved and that the problem began with "the mega preacher" whom she idolizes.

RELIGIOSITY, WITCHCRAFT/DIVINATION, SEX WITH A FALLEN ANGEL: A victim of a well known deliverance ministry, Andrea's pastor wrote books and sold tapes of Andrea entering into an altered state of consciousness, where entities spoke through her.  Once Andrea left the church, other entities which appeared to be "alters," mimicked the fallen angels.  Andrea also reports that a sinister being walked into her bedroom and had sex with her. A faithful church member for almost a decade, in the first session, it became clear that Andrea did not understand the cross, repentance or the resurrection, and therefore she was obviously not saved.  All she learned in her deliverance church was demonology.

 These cases and others are drops in the bucket relative to the extent of spiritual abuse running rampant throughout  the organized church and  Christian television. I know that there are millions of professing Christians around this nation that have been caught up in  deception, having heard a different gospel about a "different Jesus." The sin of deception, whether accidental, unintentional or deliberate---the result is the same. Professing Christians  are dying believing that they are saved when they are not. This is the worst sin of all because it affects the rest of a person's life in eternity. 
 
If the deceived  and bound have not heard it already, they will hear the Lord say, "I NEVER knew you." And the fault will be that of the ministers who are complicating the pure simplicity of the gospel of Jesus Christ.    Through what I am learning as I practice my profession as a counselor,. Obviously, the church models of today are not working. When people can sit  in church and hear sermon after sermon for 50 years and STILL not be saved, organized church  is not working. When people can watch TV preachers and come away from the TV demon possessed, it is not working. When captives can go to their pastors seeking relief and deliverance from their bondage, only to hear "stand on the word," ---a word that neither the pastor or the captive understands---it is not working. 

SO BE WARNED, UP FRONT AND PERSONAL!!!!   IF YOU ARE SUFFERING IN SIMILIAR WAYS TO THE CLIENTS INCLUDED IN THE SAMPLE ABOVE AND  YOU COME TO US FOR COUNSELING, WE WILL TELL YOU TO "STOP GOING TO CHURCH" AND TO "STOP WATCHING CHRISTIAN TELEVISION, AT LEAST  WHILE YOU ARE IN COUNSELING WITH US.   OTHERWISE, WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO HELP YOU.  ONCE DELIVERED, YOU WILL NEED TO MAKE SOME  VERY SERIOUS CHOICES AS TO WHO YOU WILL ALLOW TO FEED YOU THE WORD OF GOD IN THE FUTURE.