Holy Disruption With Heather Schott | Demons Vs. Mental Health | With ‪Pastor Millicent Sedra

Stop calling a mental health crisis when it is demonic. Demons don't die. Like, where did they all go? Do you think that they all just went to Africa or something? You think Satan's like, yeah, you know what? The West, we don't care about the West. Like, God can have the U.S. No way. The problem the disciples had when they were trying to cast out demons was that they lacked faith in God's power. We're even worse off because apparently everybody is losing their minds. We're handing out more drugs and more medications. Homelessness is skyrocketing. People walking on the streets. Insanity. Oh, no, this is compassion that Jesus walked in. No, the compassion that Jesus walked in set people free. Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Holy Disruption. I am your host, Heather Schott. And today I have a special guest with me, a young woman named Millicent Sedra. You and I, really, this is our first time meeting, which is really exciting. You're a husband and yourself and then your family, your brother-in-law and sister-in-law, right? You guys pastor a church in Australia. What part? Sydney, Australia.

And my husband and I, he's actually been in a relationship with your brother-in-law for a few years, getting to speak into his life. And I think it was in COVID where your brother-in-law was just being very, very bold, very vocal. You guys were getting a lot of backlash. A lot of hate. Church opened before anybody else was willing to open. And my husband was like, I like these people. We share the same heart. Yes, we share the same heart. We were doing the same thing here in America where we were closed for a few weeks and we're like, hold on a second. Lord, what do you want? What do you want? And the elders of Mercy Culture, we got on our face. We said, Lord, what pleases you? And he said, have church for me. Come on. And so we opened up the doors and it was wild. Mercy Culture exploded. We tried calling pastors and being like, open your churches. People need Jesus right now more than ever. And so I feel like there was these knit hearts that took place from afar. Yes. And then my husband sent some of the videos from social media and you are fiery.

You are a fiery preacher. You were small, but mighty, small, but mighty. And I just had so much joy watching this young couple stand so firmly for Jesus, for truth. It's a joy to meet you and to have you on Holy Disruption. I'm so excited. It doesn't feel like we're just meeting because it feels like we share the same heart, the same spirit, the same fire for truth and boldness. And so it doesn't feel like even we are so honored to be at Mercy Culture. We watch you guys from Australia. Australia is a very dark nation. It's very godless. It's very wicked. And people are not hungry for truth and for justice. And to see a church on the other side of the world that is standing up, making a difference, not in just the believers, but in the nation, in the streets, making a difference. We are so inspired by what God is doing here. We love you and Pastor Landon. We love you. We honor you guys. So it's such an honor to be here. Same, same. It's such an honor to have you here. I know it is. It's special.

It's special to meet you guys face to face. Definitely you guys that are listening, go give them a follow. I'm going to call her Millie because that's what she prefers to go by. And it's, I love it. I love it. But you also, you went to college for psychology and neuroscience, which is pretty wild. You're smart. I listened to some of your videos. I'm like, I don't know what words. No, she just, it's a little facade, it's not real. But there are also some of your most listened to videos because I think one of the crises that we are seeing in the world today is called this mental health crisis. And apparently everybody is losing their minds. We're handing out more drugs and more medications. It's not helping. People are going even more crazy. Homelessness is skyrocketing. Drug abuse is skyrocketing. The furries. Yep. You have, yeah. People walking on the streets. Insanity. Yeah. Dressed as animals.

Yeah. Believing that we are animals. Yes. We, there was actually a convention in downtown Fort Worth and we accidentally drove through. Crazy. There a furry convention and there was a lady in a tank as a mermaid. Oh no. Believing she was a mermaid. Oh God help us. God help us. God help us. That you put yourself in a box all evening long that that's your identity. Yes. And like, honestly, I said this as a joke but these people believe that they are. This is their identity. Yes. Look, you hold her underwater for about 15 minutes, we're gonna see real quick. If you're a mermaid. If you're a mermaid or not. But the place that we have come to is to believe these false identities that are so insane, yet we don't wanna call it insanity, right? But those that are calling it out, insanity is actually what the world is trying to say

to pastors and people. No, you're the insane ones to not embrace children chopping off their body parts. To not embrace men in full bondage wear marching down streets with children. That's crazy. Or why are you not embracing the fact that some of these people, they were born this way to desire children sexually. Wow. This is insanity. Yes. And they don't wanna call that mental illness. But when somebody comes out like yourself, your husband, leaders at Mercy Culture, and I know there's others out there, and they say, no, this is insanity. Yes. Or this is a reprobate mind. Then you're the mean spirited ones. We're the mean spirited ones. So what is going on, Milly? It's crazy because they'll say that you are the mean spirited one for saying, that's not your identity. That's not where God wants you. But to me, the one that is oppressive is the one telling these people, I can see that you're in chains. I can see you're in bondage.

You're living in insanity, but I'm fine for you to stay like that for the rest of your life. I'm fine for you to identify with that. I don't think it's mean spirited to say, hey, I don't want you in those chains. I believe the gospel and the word of God can set you free. I don't want you to stay in those shoes. That is love to say, I don't want you in that kind of bondage. God has more for you. God has a life for you. I don't want you to be in that. And for a very long time, pastors and Christians even have stayed away from this topic of mental health, and they've fallen into believing that we have to leave it to the experts, to the people that have studied it, and the people that have the degrees, the certificates. They've left it to the experts, and shame on all the pastors who have put expertise above the power of the word of God and the power of the presence of God. Shame on us who have chucked out the word of God as though that is not powerful to set people free, as though the presence of God is not powerful to set people free. And so a lot of Christian leaders and churches have bowed down and say,

you know what, there are some things like different disorders and depression, anxiety. I don't think the Bible can speak on that. I don't think us pastors can speak on that. We'll leave that to the experts. No, the Bible has a lot to say on it. Absolutely. And I mean, at some point you have to look at the world, okay, for the last 200 years, let's say, psychology has been the big buzzword. They've been the big industry, and yet we're more messed up than ever before. I mean, look at our young people. They're barking on the streets like dogs. Our young people are cutting their own body parts. And at some point you need to test the credibility of this whole field based on the results that they're producing. 100%. And we're more messed up than ever before. We are. We are. Suicide rates, this is wild. They are through the roof right now. As we embrace surgeries for our children, they're actually showing suicide rates are higher after the surgeries. Even though we have doctors manipulating parents, saying, do you want a dead son or a live daughter? Like saying, this is the only way

your child is gonna get to live in peace and happiness and joy so that parents lay down their rights as a parent, which should be to protect our children. I mean, it is a horror movie. It's what I would have watched as a child and thought, this is a horror movie to watch a child placed. Get butchered. Yes, and get butchered by a doctor in a hospital. That would be something I would turn off and freak out. And this is a reality that is happening to our children today. No wonder suicide is skyrocketing with the drugs that are being handed out that are not helping. Okay, so suicide is the new normal with approximately, you guys, listen to this, 110 Americans a day are committing suicide and roughly 3,500 a day are attempting to do so. 700,000 a year die worldwide from suicide. This is not how many are attempting suicide and are saved or brought back to life. This is 700,000 that are dying a year worldwide from suicide. Someone dies of suicide every 12 minutes. Self-harm, cutting depression is also the new norm. Over 18 million adults struggle with depression. One in 10 people. This is insane. This is a crisis.

And the more that we are embracing what you're saying, evil as good, and pastors backpedaling, saying, let's leave it up to doctors who, by the way, are going. to colleges to get their degrees that are being taught by professors on campuses that are anti-God and anti-Bible, and we think that doctors are coming out with authority over the demonic. And I think that that's the bottom line of what we want to start to dive in, that I know plenty of people are going to be upset about, because we want to believe that mental illnesses, that they are sicknesses, so that we can easily take a pill. I mean, 20 years ago, right, it was the diet pill. Those that were struggling with obesity, give me the hydroxycut or whatever the different things were that people are passing out over so I don't have to exercise, so I don't have to eat healthy, I don't have to be disciplined, I can take a pill. So now it is, oh, well, I want to embrace what this doctor is saying, because they're actually saying it's a sickness. Not all of these things that are anti-Bible that I've embraced. I don't have to do anything about it. People don't want to be held accountable. A lot of people are trying to take on different diagnoses, they want to be diagnosed, and I think the reason a lot of people want a diagnosis from a doctor is because they're experiencing real pain, and they're experiencing real hardship, and they want to feel like their pain is validated. They want to feel heard, and they want to feel understood, but what they don't understand is you don't need to go to a stranger in a white coat to have your feelings validated. You have a heavenly Father who loves you, who can empathize with your weakness, who came to this earth to be able to empathize with you, and He hears you, and He sees you, and you're able to take whatever you're going through. I love the Word of God says, and this verse is very controversial these days, Philippians 4, 6, says, do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation.

I love that it's every situation, because we think that there are some mental crises, some mental illnesses that God doesn't know how to handle that, like God doesn't know how to handle it. Schizophrenia, that one's a bit hard for God. I think God, maybe He can stay away from, no, no, it says, in every situation, through prayer and petition, and then I love it says, with thanksgiving, with thanksgiving, as a Christian, we have no reason to ever not be thankful. We have never a moment to not be thankful. The fact that He has given us eternal life, no matter what anxiety you feel, no matter how depressed you feel, you're always able to open your mouth and give praise and thanks to God, which is going to take you out of the mess that you're feeling mentally. And it says, then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will fill and guard your minds and your hearts. And the truth is, a lot of people would say, the Bible is not able to help you mentally. The Bible is, you know, it's there maybe to help you feel good, but it can't, it can't fix, you know, your mental crises. Why did He instruct us, do not be anxious, but pray. Any person that thinks that the power of prayer cannot change your mental state, you're not praying enough. You're clearly not praying enough. You're praying maybe one minute a day. You're not soaking in the presence of God. You're not spending time with God. And so people are trying to diagnose themselves, diagnose themselves. And this is the problem. As the people of God, we're going to feel depressed. We're going to feel suicidal. If you read the Bible, if you read a lot of the men and women of God, they felt all of this stuff. You read, you read Elijah after he has that moment with Jezebel and Jezebel wants to take

his life. It says he flees into the wilderness and he cries out to God. He says, I'm done. Take my life. I don't want to live anymore. So we, the people of God, we're going to feel hopeless. We're going to feel depressed sometimes. We're going to feel down sometimes. But that's not my identity. See the devil is trying to label us with this diagnosis. And this is the problem I have with labels and diagnosis is that it communicates permanency. The devil is trying to keep you in chains. The devil wants what was meant to be a trial to be your destination. And this is a real problem. It's like if we were to use Christian language, it would be like saying, I've been diagnosed with a trial. This is something that in fact, God is using to prune you to teach you dependence and reliance on him. But you haven't been diagnosed with a trial. You're not supposed to camp here. And I love how in the story in 1 Kings 19, where Elijah, he flees from Jezebel and he's like all suicidal. I love what happens. God's response seems so understated. It is the funniest story to me. He is out in the wilderness saying, take my life. And he falls into a sleep. He has a nap. And then he wakes up and an angel gives him some bread and a glass of water. How understated.

See, the thing is, God is not going to catastrophize with us. He's not going to be like, oh my goodness, like the prophet Elijah. He's feeling suicidal. What are we going to do? He's not freaking out and panicking. He's not going to catastrophize because he's got it all under control. pose. This is just a moment where he can teach us to depend on him. And so he responds with first of all replenishing his physical needs. I mean, I wonder how much are we willing to look at just our physical state and wonder how much are we contributing to the problem of our mental state? I know we don't want to be held accountable. I know our society, it despises accountability. It despises personal responsibility. And that's as you were saying, the exhaustion that he was in from that moment. He probably hadn't eaten in a few days. Who knows? And this is what you were saying. Our culture is quicker to grab a weight loss pill than go to the gym. They are more willing to take a medication that's going to alter their body, harm their bodies than to bring their body into submission and into discipline. And so I wonder how much of the problem, and I'm speaking obviously for the majority, there's obviously a minority, but how much of our problem is you're not disciplining your body in the way that God intended you to. You're not striking a blow to your body, making it a slave. You're eating, like you're filling your body with garbage and filth. You're not eating right. You're not sleeping. You're not exercising. You're not going to the gym. And so first of all, he meets his physical needs, seems so understated. And then it says he goes and Elijah went and lodged himself in a cave. It says he lodged in a cave. And it's very interesting when you look at the Hebrew word for lodge, it's this word loon. And it means whenever it's, you look at the cross references, whenever someone would be passing through a town that they didn't belong in, when they would settle down in that town in a foreign place, it's this word loon. It's staying and belonging in a place that you do not belong in a foreign place. And the other time this word loon comes up is when the people of God were walking through the wilderness and they were grumbling and complaining against Moses saying it was better for us back in Egypt. They were grumbling. They were loon against Moses. And here it says Elijah lodged himself or loon in this cave. See what

was supposed to be a momentary trial, what was supposed to be a season of I'm experiencing a feeling of depression or anxiety. But this is a moment to declare scripture and say, what am I doing? Put your hope in the Lord. He decided to make it his destination. And I love the first thing God says to him. This man is feeling suicidal. He wants to end his life. The first thing that comes out of God's mouth to Elijah, it says, Elijah, what are you doing here? What are you doing in this cave? Why have you lodged yourself here? Why are you staying in this place? This is not where you belong. Well, the devil wants us in chains. The devil wants us to take on a diagnosis as if we're supposed to stay like this for the rest of our life. The devil wants us to believe if you are born with whatever kind of thoughts that you have, if you have thoughts of homosexuality in your mind, the devil is the one that lies and says, this is permanent. The devil is the one that says, this right here, you're never going to be freed from this. This is your final destination. And God says, no, no, no. This was a moment where I'm pruning you. This is not your destination. Why have you lodged yourself here? While creating, denying your flesh and feeding your spirit, ministering to his heart through adoration, meditating on his scripture, getting alone to be with him, meeting him in creation, asking him questions and listening for his response, learning something new about him, moving into an encounter with him, making the crooked way straight, serving his people and remembering what he has done. Your daily personal encounters with God change everything. Discover how you connect with God. Text ENCOUNTER to 59090 to take your assessment today. I love that you brought up Elijah and Jezebel. My husband has a book on Jezebel and that spirit and breaks it down. So anybody that is listening right now, because you're breaking open for everybody that's listening, it's a spiritual attack. The majority of what we are calling today is mental illness. It is demonic. It is a spiritual attack. You had a man, Elijah, who calls down fire from heaven. The most powerful show of God's glory. One of the most powerful showdowns there is. How does he go down from that into a woman bringing insults. some through a messenger. She's not even face to face, but through a message or what a spirit comes to attack Elijah to get him to the point to take his life. I think this is what many people don't realize is the anxiety that you're talking about. Do not be anxious about anything.

When anxiety comes, it is a characteristic of that spirit. You are being attacked by a demon. It's why all of a sudden the pounding, the heaviness on your chest, why you start sweating, a nervousness that is overwhelming, feels like I'm on the brink of a stroke of a heart attack that many of us are dealing with. This is a spiritual attack that a medication, a pill will never ever heal. It is only the blood of Jesus. You need Jesus. And here's the beautiful thing, is that Jesus died on the cross and he overcame death. I think we forget about that. We say it, the nursery, the whole thing, 100%. We have forgotten the one living in us and the voice of the enemy has become so loud. And that's why God said to Elijah, hold on a second. What are you doing here? Remember who you are. Remember who has anointed you, who has called you. Exactly. As I begin to declare who you are, you have to know who a son and a daughter you are of. And that's of me, King Jesus, that overcame all of it, that overcame death. And like what you were saying earlier, there is no demon that is new today. There's no demon that is new today. I've worked in the anti-human trafficking realm and had to war against the lies in this realm that trauma-informed care is the answer to healing. I rebuke it in the name of Jesus. There are even Christians are saying, oh, well, God has used me. He used you. His anointing was on you, not on a worldly, made up, secular way of healing. Jesus is healer, not trauma-informed care. Bible has power. Not trauma-informed care or these curriculums that are written by man. There are no demons that are in specific realms or are new today that Jesus didn't die for and not give his people authority over. And so we think like, oh, I don't have the training. I didn't go through the college. I didn't do this. So I must not have authority no more than most likely. If you go to college for those things, you are actually not coming out with authority over demons. You're probably coming out with demons. More than most likely. In our colleges today, what you need is biblical training, submission to his word, submission to the Holy Spirit. And then you enter what you're talking about earlier, a life of prayer and fasting. The word of God even says when he begins to rebuke his disciples, why didn't these demons come out? Well, he prayed. He said, because some come out through prayer and fasting. He's saying, I want to take you deeper with me, not deeper with your doctor, not deeper into the things of the world. I want to take you deeper with me. And this is why I'm calling you into prayer and fasting because this is a place. I'm going to put that double portion authority in you where you begin to walk, not just preach

the gospel, but you begin to call the dead back to life. You begin to heal the sick and you begin call the dead back to life, heal the sick. And the third that I'm forgetting right now that Jesus called his disciples, heal the sick, call the dead back to life. Oh, it's leaving my mind right now. But I want to share this story. There's a woman at the altar and I go to pray for her. And as soon as I lay hands on her, I start praying for her. I can see in her eyes, there's demons, there's multiple. And if I remember correctly, Holy Spirit says there's three. So I start and I hear the first two. So I call them out. She goes back onto the floor, out in the Holy Spirit. Immediately she starts speaking in tongues. And then all of a sudden I see over her mouth like this, this fight for her mouth where she can't keep speaking in tongues. And I closed my eyes to ask the Holy Spirit what's happening right now. And I see the third demon as a snake and it's flip flopping. It's not dead. It's not gone. And so I tell the intercessors that are around the woman, I say, Hey, start praying, start praying with me. So we start praying, asking the Lord, what is it? What is it? I'm getting frustrated. We're 20 minutes in, Lord, why are none of us hearing? And then the scripture comes up in me because it can't be in my own strength. Can't be in my own strength. It's a spiritual battle. Yes. He said some only come out through prayer and fasting. The next day I started a fast. The next day I entered into a 40 day fast. I said, Lord, give me a double authority that heals the sick, calls the dead back. back to life is preaching the gospel that we would begin to walk in an authority that was one on the cross and signs, miracles, and wonders. So then I go on this fast. Next Women's Conference happens, marked Women's Conference. I keep having women come up to me that are either demonically oppressed, possessed, laying hands. I mean, one after another is coming up and I have this thought, I can't be the only one. I can't be the only one. So I gather a group of women.

This next January, we're doing a 40-day fast together where not just one, but many, many leaders, we begin to seek and ask God for this double portion of authority. Now we have women all over our mercy culture that are laying hands and cancer is leaving bodies, sickness is leaving people. People are coming back into their state and a sound mind because God, here's what I'm trying to encourage people. There's no, the Bible says there's no new thing. There's nothing new under the sun. There's no new, wow, big extra demon, like what you were saying. No mental illness, no situation, that God doesn't have authority over. He said to Jesus, we're both preaching to each other right now. But he said to Jesus, or Jesus said to us, after I go, you are gonna do greater because I'm gonna give you my spirit who's gonna fill you with the power and authority. If we're gonna do greater, and Jesus called out demons, he sent demons out of people. I want you to share a little bit on that because we're like, oh, well, what do you mean by God had authority over mental illness? We don't know our word. We don't know our word, so we have to know our word. He had authority over it all

and he's given us authority over it all. I want you to share on that. I think this is the big demon that I'm seeing in the church right now. And it's that the problem the disciples had when they were trying to cast out demons was that they lacked faith in God's power to be able to cast out that demon. We're even worse off because not only do we lack faith, we are misidentifying the problem. We are not even seeing the reality in front of us through a biblical lens. What I mean by that is, in Jesus's time, if there was a man who, like as we see in Mark 5, the man is in chains, he's cutting himself with ceramic, he's crying out day and night, he's naked, yes, the man that was filled with the legion of demons. In Jesus's time, if you see a man that is crying out and cutting himself, you knew that that was a demon tormenting that soul. And yet the Christians today have such an atheistic worldview. We look at people, for example, with schizophrenia. I'm not saying all cases, but please hear me because all Christians right now, when it comes to this area, this topic, have such an atheist worldview. You look at a case where people are hearing voices telling them that they wanna kill themselves. You're hearing a voice that is tormenting you day and night

saying you should kill yourself. And the Christians look at that and say, yeah, we don't know what that is. The experts know that that's schizophrenia. We don't know much about it. Let's just leave that to the experts. And the problem is demons are cheering right now. They are celebrating because the church is so blind to the spiritual realm. I don't expect secular psychologists to be able to diagnose what's really going on, that it is often a spiritual battle. And people, you see demons being casted out all through the New Testament, all throughout the Bible. Demons don't die. Where did they all go? Do you think that they all just went to Africa or something? You think Satan's like, yeah, you know what? The West, we don't care about the West. God can have the US. No way, no way. Satan wants the US, he wants Australia. And so you would be crazy to think that the demons are not here in our midst, that they are not operating, that they are not tormenting people in our nation. And they're cheering because Christians have become so atheistic. They have strayed so far from the word of God that they look at stuff like this,

people barking like dogs and say, that's insanity. No, that's not insanity. That is either God's punishment on those people, like he did with King Nebuchadnezzar. Don't you remember when King Nebuchadnezzar, the punishment from God to bring him to his knees was to go out and he became like an animal. So it could be God's wrath and punishment on our wickedness, or it could be demonic oppression, but it's not natural. That's what I wanna get out of it. It's not natural. This is not a chemical imbalance. This is not chemicals. This is demonic. And I don't expect secular psychologists to get that, but where are the Christians? Where are the Christians? Where are the Bible readers? who sees stories like Matthew 17, where there was a boy who was throwing himself in the fire, throwing himself in the water. And what's interesting is they labeled that in the Bible, the disciples or his father said he was having epilepsy or seizures, a medical condition. And again, I'm not saying every single, I'm not saying if you have seizures, you're possessed by a demon. There is obviously minorities. Come on. But I'm saying, does it even cross your mind that there is a demonic possession happening here? That there's oppression happening here? The disciples looked at that and said, this is a medical occurrence. And Jesus says to them, he's like, you have little faith. This is the story you were talking about before. You have little faith. I mean, it's one thing to not believe the power that is able to cast out demons. It's another demon for us as Christians to not even recognize that it is a spiritual battle. And this is why demons

are thriving right now in the field of psychology and psychiatry, because the Christians are leaving it up to the ones who do not know the problem and do not have the cure. We have the cure. The cure is a man and his name is Jesus Christ. We understand that we have been set free. We have been transformed. Why are you not wanting to see other people transformed? And people can call me mean spirited for calling this demonic. You can say, how dare you say that people struggling mentally, that that could be demonic. Empathy for the wrong thing. Empathy for demons. You can say that's mean spirited. I want you free. If you are struggling, if you are under demonic oppression, I don't want you in that. I want you free. And I believe in the power of Jesus Christ. And I believe that he still has power today. And he can cast out demons today through us in his name. I believe that. You said something that shattered me and I hope it shattered everybody. I mean, you said multiple things, but you said demons are cheering. They are celebrating. Demons are celebrating. Look at these foolish Christians. Let's call it what it is. Look at these foolish Christians that are partnering with all of these different mental illnesses, diseases, taking the pills from the pharmaceutical areas that is completely demonic. So much of it is witchcraft. It is led by greed, by the love of money. And this is what we're trying to do to heal ourselves. And you said that the demons are cheering. Listen to what we're saying right now. Your approval for demons matters. Yes, it's good. Your approval to demonic warfare matters to God. Stop calling certain sicknesses as a mental health crisis, a mental illness when it is demonic. And this is what you were just saying. We don't have authority of what we can't see as truth. And so we want to see the way we have to identify. No, this is demonic warfare. And so many of our children, that moment in the Bible you just brought up, I think in Matthew 17 was a child. And many people are like, well, how could this happen to a child? Can you imagine how many children have demonic oppression today with media that they didn't have back then, that our culture is feeding them anti-Christ stuff, unbiblical, evil, wickedness through children's programs, through Nintendo, all the different video games that we have out there that they sit there playing and seeing and getting in their spirits. All the while our parents are like, oh, they have ADD, they have this. Let's give them more medication and let's put them back in front of a TV with evil

that is in their spirit. And we wonder why. We wonder why our children are experiencing the oppression, are experiencing the depression. Why are 10 year olds wanting to kill themselves? Why are they wanting to kill themselves? It's what we are filling ourselves with. It is a demonic oppression that is only won by the blood of Jesus. It is through prayer and fasting. And again, I'm going to go there. You've listened to these podcasts before. It is a consecration that we would begin to separate ourselves from the things of this world, what our world has created to demonically oppress us, to demonically possess us. You know what's interesting is we're hearing all these pronouns right now. It's like, oh, well, people keep saying like the Bible just doesn't speak to what we're going through right now. Yet you talk about Mark 5 and what does the demon say? We are many. them. And it was a demon or multiple demons that were speaking to Christians. And Christians are so atheistic. I love what you said that we are to be set apart. We are to be consecrated. And people think this just means in the way that we live. But God is calling us to be set apart in our worldview and the way that we think worldview. It goes back to worldview. When you see the world, do you see the world like an atheist sees the world? I call it Christian atheists. You call yourself a Christian. You go to church on a Sunday, you read your Bible, but probably not much because you don't see the world as though the Bible is relevant today. You don't see these stories as you're saying, we are no people are like, why doesn't this stuff happen that we read in the Bible anymore? It is happening. It is happening. They're butchering their own kids are butchering their own body parts. And yet Christians have an atheist worldview. And it's time for the Christians to read their Bibles and stop having an atheistic worldview and have a biblical worldview when you see this stuff, because it's one thing to not have faith, but we need to call it out in order to cast it out. But we're not casting it out because we're not even calling it out. We're not even identifying so many people are afraid of the sons of Sceva. And if that's what we're going to identify with as Christians, then shame on us. Then shame on us. This was a priest and people that did not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ that said, I want to cast these demons out by the name of Paul. And the demon said, Hey, we know Jesus. We know, Paul, we don't know you, which means of demons don't know my name. I don't have authority of you because if they don't know my name, it means I don't know Jesus. And so this is the first step for people that are listening is you need an

intimate relationship with Jesus. If you're calling yourself a Christian, which is a Christ follower, yet you are not daily spending time in his presence, then you have something to fear. And it's why you are probably getting your tail kicked by demons right now without even realizing that you're getting your tail kicked. And it might look a little bit different than the sons of Sceva, but why your home is oppressed, why your children, why your teenagers hate God, don't want to go to church, why your marriage is falling apart, why it seems like it's so hard is because we are getting our tails kicked because we don't know the King. Yeah, that's right. And we have to come back to a place that we have an intimate relationship with Jesus, prayer and fasting. And then, you know, you were bringing up the. Well, let me let me go here. I'll go to that in a second. Earlier, you were talking about that. It says to come to him with prayer and thanksgiving. And I just ministered a message on the power of gratitude. And it's so important what you are saying is I'm just ministering to people right now on how to walk in authority over darkness and the demonic. When you're talking about thankfulness, you mentioned praise. Yes. And this is what thankfulness and gratitude truly is. Yes. Yes. Is I am not moved by my feelings. Come on. Yeah. I am not moved according to what media praises hinge on how I feel. That is right. It is not about how I feel, how the world tells me what I feel, how I should feel based upon what's happening in the world, because I know one and he is good and he is worthy to be praised no matter what's happening around me, no matter what I'm going through. And when we begin to live a life of gratitude or what that is consistently giving him praise. This is what we're doing. We are lifting the name of Jesus above every demon that thinks that he wants to be in the high place. Yes. That has tried to exalt itself in our lives. Amen. That has tried to make itself bigger. Like what David had to come up against that giant that made himself so big and intimidating. And this is what happens. Yeah. We get so afraid of demonic warfare. I don't want to touch it. We get afraid of the Goliath. Yet David, a little boy comes up. Yeah. Kind of laughs at him. Yeah. Who are you? You uncircumcised Philistine. You don't know my God. That comes. Yeah. You don't know my God. You're coming down today. Yeah. This is the authority as a 10 year old, as a 16 year old, as a 30 year old, as a 70 year old that we carry. That comes from knowing to these demons to come down. Amen. And what was crazy is David was a worshiper. He was a man of praise. Yes. And so authority comes through our gratitude and our praise. That's right. Because

when we begin to praise him, despite the circumstances, what we're doing is we're lifting up the highest authority. That's right. That's right. We are exalting him. Yes. And when we begin to exalt him, the things that were seem so massive, they become so small. Yeah. And the next thing you know, we are crushing them. Yes. We are taking down the giants. Yes. We are overcoming by the blood of Jesus. Amen. It's an honor. I'm always reminded that when we're in heaven, we don't have the opportunity to praise in the midst of hardship. We don't have the opportunity. When we get to heaven, we're not going to be able to praise Him no matter how depressed I feel, no matter how anxious I feel. We get that opportunity now. And this is what I kind of want to get at to the Christians is that we have the opportunity to praise when we don't feel like that. What an honor. And a lie that has come into the church is that God wants us to be happy all of the time. That's not true. The main primary objective is that God wants us to cling to Him and to be reliant on Him all of the time. What good is it if I have peace and happiness in my soul, if I'm going to end up in an eternity away from God? What good is that? And so even what you learn from the story of Job, what can you learn?

If God's primary objective is to make sure we're always happy, He failed Job miserably, but that's not His main goal. His main goal is our total dependence and reliance on Him. And that is why He allows us to go through difficult seasons to make sure that we are clinging onto Him. And I love even when you think about Paul with the thorn in his flesh, it says he was, I love this. It says, I was given a thorn. Notice how it says given, not inflicted with a thorn. I was given as though it's a gift from God to be able to struggle sometimes. I was given like it's a present. It doesn't feel good when I feel down. Why is this a gift? So that I do not become conceited and proud in the giftings. God help us if we become so happy and so content that we do not think we need God anymore. So I'm actually okay if sometimes I don't feel okay because that drives me onto my knees. It drives me to a dependence on Him. And so often we believe this false lie that God wants us to be happy or that no, God wants us to be reliant all the time. And sometimes it's actually a gift. We believe that negative emotion is always bad. That's not true. To the one who's unsaved, for example,

I don't want them to feel peace in their soul. I pray that they would feel unrest in their soul. If you are on your way to an eternity away from God, I don't want you to feel at peace. I don't want you to feel at rest. See, the Christians are trying to make sure everyone in the world is happy, happy with them, happy with their sermons. I don't want you to be happy. If God is not pleased with you, I want you to feel anxiety in your soul. That's what the prophet Amos said. He says, woe to you who are at ease in your sin. Isaiah says, I pray that you would be unrest in your soul. I pray you'd have unrest in your soul. And Christians have taken on this humanism and this humanistic thinking that our goal is to make the world happy. No, our goal is to lead people to a dependence on Jesus Christ. And so even if I'm struggling, even when God allows me to remember my carnality and how weak I am, thank God, because it brings me to my knees and it reminds me that my flesh is weak, but his grace, his power is made sufficient in my weakness. And so the goal for our mental health is not to just be happy all of the time.

It is to be able to praise in the midst of suffering. But even when you say happy, right? I think of joy. Joy is the biblical word, but we think joy or love is a feeling. And I'm not feeling joy today, but Paul, who you brought up, is in a prison cell and he's lifting up worship and praise to God from a prison cell. Because joy, love, biblically, it's a choice. Happy is just a feeling. That's right. We make a choice to get up to serve him. If I'm in the valley, I get to wake up in the morning and make a choice. I'm gonna have joy that is a strength that's gonna get me through this. And what am I gonna learn, Jesus, with you of making it through this valley? Because you're not gonna leave me. You're not gonna forsake me. You're gonna stay with me through this. And I know that my joy in the midst of suffering, ah, it's an aroma to him. It's pleasing to him that I make a choice to bring him praise, to bring him gratitude, despite what's happening around me. I truly believe really what the pandemic,

so to speak, the crisis, so to speak, is it's a reprobate mind. We are in a Romans 1 time that people, they have cleaned to wickedness and lawlessness. It's what we were talking about. Christians don't know their word well enough. They become empathetic with the ways of the world. It's a poisonous empathy, okay, that we begin to open our lives up to the demonic and wickedness, thinking like, oh, no, this is compassion that Jesus walked in. No, the compassion that Jesus walked in. set people free. It delivered them of demons. It did not oppress people. That's good. And so Romans 1 18 through 32, I'm not gonna read all of it. I would challenge everybody go read Romans chapter 1 right after this. We are in a Romans 1 time, but it's God's wrath on righteousness, and it says in verse 18, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and the unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. This is what we're seeing. We're seeing a suppression of the truth in culture. We're seeing a suppression of the truth in the body of Christ, which is the setup for people losing their minds, right? Verse 22, we skip to. Claiming to be wise, they became fools. Yeah, and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God. They exchanged the glory of God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. We see all these people, right, that they are identifying with animals. Or another way is that they gave up the creator of the heavens and the earth and his glory for the things of creation. They begin to worship that which man even created. Yeah, they turn their worship to things that were created and away from the creator. Yeah. Therefore God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity,

to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie. They worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator. Listen to this. For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. And the men likewise gave up natural relationships with women. That's right. They were consumed with passion for one another. Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. Verse 28, and since they did not see it fit to acknowledge God. Wow. They did not see it fit to acknowledge God. That's the key. Meaning they knew him. They knew about God. They did not acknowledge him. God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. And then when he gave them up to the debased mind, the reprobate mind, they were filled with all matter of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossip, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. I mean, it's describing our culture today. And it says, though they know God's righteous decree, they knew God's righteous. We're not talking about somebody on some island that has never heard about Jesus, has never heard the message, though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die. They not only do them, but they give approval to those that practice them. Yes. I'm going to say it again. Your approval to demons matters to God.

So good. And we have to begin to operate as a body of Christ in the gifts of the spirit. So good. I don't know how Australia is. Texas. We're in the South here. It is the Bible belt, and it's full of religion. We don't believe women can be in ministry. We don't believe speaking in tongues and prophecies. For now, it died out with prophets, blah, blah, blah, all the things. No, no, no, no, no, no. Holy Spirit fills us. We need to be filled with the gifts of the spirit. And this is why we are not distinguishing between spirits. We are not discerning between good and evil because we are rejecting the gifts of the spirit so that no longer can we see the difference between somebody that is being oppressed with the demonic, our children that are being oppressed with the demonic, and what the doctors would call. Yeah. Can I? Yes, absolutely. Can I just say, just jump in once? Yeah. This world, as you're saying, as you're describing, our world is sick. Like our world is sick right now. We are struggling the most that we've ever struggled mentally. And we do not want, the Christians do not want to acknowledge God. We do not want to acknowledge that the cure to the sickness of sin and the demonic is Jesus. We do not want to acknowledge.

And I can't help but think of that story where a man that has been paralyzed for who knows how long, his friends bring him down the roof of a building. They bring him to Jesus. And you would think the thing that he needs most is the ability to walk. And he stands before Jesus ready. He's been hearing of all of this healing and miracles. He stands before Jesus. And the first thing Jesus says to him, he says, your sins are forgiven. He saves him before he gives him the ability to walk. And people would say, how dare you, Jesus? Can't you see what he? He needs most. He needs a material solution. He needs more resources. He needs more medication. He needs script. And Jesus is like, cut all that aside for a second. You need me. This world is sick and the solution is Jesus. You need me. Return to the scriptures. Return to the gifts of the Spirit. You need my Spirit. And this world wants to not acknowledge that we need one thing and it's God. We don't need more scripts. We don't need more medication. We are dying because we are godless and we need to return back to the scriptures and we need to return back to God. I'm believing those that are listening right now, they are dumping out medications. They're dumping out bottles of pills that they've placed their faith in, that they think is going to bring them a sound mind when we renew our mind in Christ Jesus. I want you to just pray for those. Maybe you listening right now, you've struggled with depression and oppression for a long time. Maybe you have teenagers that are struggling. Maybe it's been something that's generational that's been passed down through your family. Maybe it's just been hate or these extreme manifestations that doctors have tried to prescribe with different mental illnesses. I don't know what it is, but I know that this is a stronghold. It is a lie of the enemy. And I want you, Millie, to pray over those that are struggling today. And I am believing that wherever you are at, if you would posture yourself, if you pull over that car, if you would pause the treadmill, if you would get on your knees at home and you would posture yourself for the fire of God to come and heal and deliver and renew you right now in this moment. But Millie,

will you just pray for people to be set free mentally and emotionally? Amen. God, we need you. We just say this over and over and over again. Lord, we need you, God. We believe in the power of your word, God. We believe that the power of your word holds all authority over depression, over homosexuality, over anxiety, over suicide. We believe in the power of your word. And we know, Lord, that you have given us a weapon to fight. When the enemy came to Jesus in the wilderness, how did he respond? He said, it is written. What happened to Elijah when he was feeling suicidal? God came to him with his presence and a gentle whisper. We need your word. We need to declare scripture. We need your presence, God. So no matter what we are feeling, we believe that your word is sufficient. We believe that the truth of your word, we can stand, we can feel depressed, but declare the joy of the Lord is my strength. And we believe in the power of that word that when we begin to get our eyes off ourself and off our pain and off our situation and get our eyes on the throne, stop looking inward and start looking outward. We turn to you as the healer of all things. There is nothing that is beyond your ability, beyond your power. There is nothing that scares you in the realm of mental health, God. You understand it all. You understand it all. And so we bind every demonic scheme of the enemy in Jesus' name, in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. We just say, come out. We come out to every demon that is taunting, lying, messing with your people right now for every demonic slogan from a doctor that has been placed over families, over children, over individuals. We say, come off in Jesus' name. Jesus' name. Demons that have partnered, that have celebrated over these words placed on your people, these quote unquote sicknesses over your people. We say demons come out in Jesus' name. Demons flee in Jesus' mighty name. We plead the blood of Jesus over teenagers, over children. We declare their identity would be found in you once again, King Jesus, that you would anoint parents and how to raise their children in the fear of the Lord and the words of God in this hour that you would make parents courageous to raise them according to your word. We ask that you would make preachers, pastors, teachers, Christian counselors, make them courageous to stand on the one thing, truth, your power, your authority. Lord, I pray that you would come and wreck any ideologies that your people have turned to for healing that is outside of you. Would you reintroduce yourself and your mercy has the only healer. We thank you, Jesus, that you are the same yesterday, today, and forever, that you still set free, that you

still deliver. You still make mine sound once again and clear, oh God, that you still heal bodies of cancer, that you still remove oppression and depression and suicidal thoughts, that you still bring clarity back to those that are confused and who they are. Lord, I thank you that you're the God of clarity, that you would bring clarity back to the minds of your people, that your truth again would set us free. So those that are listening right now, this is what I feel like you're supposed to do is just begin to give glory to God. Lift up the name of Jesus, begin to praise him where you're at right now. And we lift up the highest authority, King Jesus. Your blood is the highest authority. Jesus, you are the highest authority. We lift up your name. We give you praise. We give you all of the honor and all of the glory. We declare that you are the banner over Christian households once again, that idols are being torn down in houses and altars are being rebuilt back to you, King Jesus. Jesus, you are the way. You are the truth. You are the life. So again, we give you all of the praise,

all of the honor and all of the glory. In Jesus' mighty name, amen. I just want to close with this. The practical ways for you to be set free in your mind is to have a daily encounter, a daily relationship with Jesus, where you would come to know him. You would dive into that word. You would feast on that word. You would begin to fast, fast some of your favorite things, fast the things that keep you from him, fast the things that keep you busy, where you think you don't have time for that daily encounter and feasting on his word. Fast from those things, begin to pray and see what the Lord does in your life. It'll be miraculous. I know the second that we take a step out, Jesus comes and meets us. And that's what I'm believing, that you would encounter a living God, not a dead God, a living God that is gonna set you and those around you free. Thank you for joining us on another Holy Disruption podcast. I'll see you next time. Thank you for joining me on this episode of Holy Disruption, where we are awakening the bride of Christ and calling the church back to holiness.

If you'd like to continue with me on this journey, follow me on social at Heather Schott and make sure to subscribe at Mercy Culture on YouTube and all podcast platforms.