In seeking for radical cause of e.s. possession, the believer must look to the opposite to discover the ground of access, e.g., as in the following instances.
Example.--Believer troubled with e.s., speaking to, and accusing him. The true cause lies in the fact that he-- 1. Opened, as he thought, to God Himself speaking of His own initiative, making communications to the man, apart from his asking for them, and he opened to and listened to what he thought was God speaking. 2. Or he thought God spoke to him in answer to prayer, and he listened. The cause therefore of e.s. speaking and accusing, is that the ground was given in the opposite, i.e., supposed listening to God. Believer conscious of "cold"--really supernatural trembling. Root cause in the past was the acceptance of "fire" from e.s. under belief it was fire from God. The cause of one extreme is the cause of the other. The two results come from same cause, e.g., the cause of the cold, or trembling, is the cause of the heat, etc. If hindered by e.s. now, the believer accepted help from them in the past; that accepted help giving them access to hinder now. pp. 158, 159. If no initiative now, then the believer ceased to act in the past, waiting for e.s. prompting, that prompting and waiting for it, giving them power to prevent initiatory action now. p. 73. If sudden stoppage of mind now, with result in mechanical words, the cause is a mediumistic attitude taken to God in the past, which produced the habit of cessation of action for supernatural action. pp. 115, 116. |