Ultimate Truth and Lies

A note from the author: Three of the critical issues dealt with in Ultimate Truth and Lies are spiritual warfare, emotion and forgiveness. The insights and skills regarding emotion are groundbreaking and will benefit any person greatly. Here are excerpts from the book relating to the three key areas:

Spiritual Warfare

Too many of God's children shy away from spiritual warfare, because the very thought of fighting against demons paralyze them with fear. They pay for it dearly in the loss of life quality because they fall victim to demons manifesting in their lives. Demons invisibly attach themselves to people and influence their behaviour. A good portion of those out-of-character crimes and behaviour are directly the work of demons. That suits Satan's purpose very well that most of God's children prefer living in ignorance or denial. You must begin and continue to pray, especially against demonic attack, because Satan will never give up on his quest to rob you of spending an eternity with God in heaven and making your life miserable, if not killing you, in this life! Spiritual warfare is when we actively counter Satan and his demons which cause death and destruction in our lives and that of others.

Spiritual warfare has different components, but the result is the same: The power of Satan in a given situation or over a specific person is broken. The two methods of spiritual warfare can be used on their own or together, depending on the circumstances. The two methods are prayer (binding Satan, a strongman or demon) and worship (usually songs of praise that are used to worship God).

Emotion is a tool God gives us to tell us that we need to take action to save our life, soul or improve our life quality. Satan deceives people into dysfunctional behaviour that lands us in trouble with God, the authorities and the people we care about. For example: when I talk to the youth offenders I work with and ask them what they need most, they will answer in unison that they want respect! So I ask them if they think they will get respect by putting a gun to someone's head and demand respect. There is a difference between demanding respect under threat of force and earning it. If a person's life is threatened the person facing the wrong side of the gun may say they respect them, but what they mean is 'I'll tell you anything you want to hear, as long as you don't shoot me!' But contempt (disrespect) and distrust (fear) is generated by the threatening behaviour and not real respect! Respect, like trust, is earned. It is earned by how well you treat a person and the value we attach to how we observe one person treating another. (Treating people well mean that we are fair, respectful, helpful, considerate, compassionate, and caring towards them.) People generally fail to bring their behaviour in line with their needs and then fail to have them met, causing further damage to their relationships (with people and God) from the resultant poor choices and secondary emotions like anger emanating from the frustration of not having the need met.

Forgiveness is to actively seek restoration and reconciliation with God. Forgiveness embodies that we show compassion and mercy to an offender (someone who has wronged us). It requires understanding, empathy and offers leniency, kindness and care, instead of dealing out punishment.

You cannot focus on the future when you are trapped by past hurts. Forgiving someone for hurt they have caused us reduces stress and its associated emotions (anger, fear and bitterness) and allows us to find happiness again. Even if the person who has hurt you is no longer available to reconcile with in person, you must make the time and effort to forgive them. The process can be very painful, but the outcome is worthwhile. Old pent-up hurts, which indicates that the process of forgiveness is not complete, can cause of range of physical illnesses that can both rob us of joy and kill us prematurely.

I truly believe that the issues I presented in this work are relevant to our daily lives. I truly believe that the skills I shared are critical to improve our life quality as human beings. If I had these skills from my teenage years, I’m convinced that my life would have been much happier or happier much sooner than it has been. Thank you for the privilege of sharing a part of my life story and life truths with you. If even a small part of this work made a positive difference to your life, then none of the hardship that culminated in this work was in vein. As I have shared this with you, who will you share with what was meaningful to you in these pages? Reflect on the lessons, skills and insights in the book. Make them your own and share them with all those in your sphere of influence. . Help me to make the world a better place, by making your world a better place, using the skills you have learned here. I wish you well on your life’s journey. Choose to make it a happy and meaningful life!