548 The Spiritual Man
his will every ground of the evil spirits and afterwards overthrow one
by one the lies which he formerly believed but now disbelieves. In
this way he gradually will recover all the surrendered territory. He
will not believe, not even in the slightest degree, what the evil spirits
say. So shall they lose their power.
Normalcy RecognizedIf one has plunged into all sorts of vexations due to passivity or
believing the lie of the evil spirits, he urgently needs to determine
what is normal for him. Except for the unrenewed mind, both
passivity and assent to lies furnish such footholds to evil spirits that
the Christian’s mental state will deteriorate steadily in every
direction. His powers of thinking, of recall, of physical endurance,
and so forth will all continually fail. If he realizes his danger he
ought to rise up and seek liberation. But what should he regard as
“liberation”? It is this: he needs to be restored to his original state.
Hence it is essential for anyone who seeks restoration to determine
what his original state was. Each person has his normal condition,
that state he had before he fell through the deceit of the enemy. He
must be made reaware of his normal state. Upon discovering he is
not as he was before, he should ask himself such questions as: What
was my former condition? How far am I today from it? How can I be
restored to it?
Your former state is your normal state. The condition from which
you fell is your measuring rod. Should you be ignorant of what is
normal for you, you need to inquire of yourself on this wise: Was my
mind born so confused or was there a time when I was not confused?
Was my memory habitually so poor or was there a period when I
could remember well? Was I usually so sleepless or did I once sleep
well? Did I always have so many pictures passing before my eyes
like movies on a screen or were there some clear moments? Have I
always been weak or was there a time when I was stronger? Is it true