Spiritual Warfare

In this essay, I aim to explore the tools I have used to acquire revelation and engage in spiritual warfare against temptation. These are gospel applications, not core principles, so will not necessarily apply to everyone. For a more bird’s eye view of the gospel, I advise reading these three articles: Four Steps to Salvation, Seven Principles That Fundamentally Alter How Christians See the World, The Commandments.

Rituals and Ordinances

In my religion there is a great emphasis that the ordinances I will outline shortly can only be performed by one who has proper authority: This authority is the priesthood, and one receives the priesthood through the laying on of hands by one who already has the priesthood while under the proper sanction of church leaders. We believe we can trace the conferral of the priesthood directly to Jesus Christ.

All of this I believe is mostly true – our goal should be to attain proper authority and perform all these rituals under the sanction of Church leaders. Where my views differ however is: For the majority of people, who don’t have access to the correct authority and permission, they should still attempt to perform these ordinances to the best of their ability (while still hoping for a day when they canproperly receive authority). Another difference I have is: Seeing that my dreams indicate that our church will be deceived by the antichrist and in fact already is captured, attaining permission from Church leaders to perform these ordinances no longer matters to me (though I still believe that the Church done well in maintaining the proper chain of conferral of priesthood power from Christ to this generation).

Sacrament – According to my religion, this occurs during Sacrament meeting once a week. According to the scriptures, this should be performed at least frequently (3 Nephi 26:13, Moroni 6:6). I’ve found that I feel the spirit more following this ordinance, so I try to perform it daily – I hope that is OK with God. In my Church there is a convention (I have no scriptures about it) that one cannot give themselves the sacrament – someone else must pass it to you. Seeing I have no one else to help me with this, I have not followed this convention. My Church by tradition uses water for this ordinances, however in the scriptures I read that wine is to be used (3 Nephi 18:1-8, Moroni 5:1-2). Seeing that modern day “wine” is much more alcoholic than it was anciently, I don’t think we should use wine – I doubt God wants us to get drunk performing the sacrament. Therefore, I believe we should use grape juice or whatever juice available that is most similar to grape juice. Lastly, how do we actually perform the sacrament? This process is described in these scriptures: Moroni 4, Moroni 5.

Blessing your Home – Here is a story: When I served a mission, us missionaries were asked to bless a literal haunted house (the owners literal had photos with blurry shadows that they claimed were ghosts). I kid you not when I tell you it felt very creepy inside. To do so, I prayed that the house would be cleansed, and while praying the children present began wailing. However, once the prayer finished, the whole atmosphere instantly changed – it felt like a normal house again – and everyone present could feel it. So I personally know that blessing a home can make a difference.

Since then, my views have evolved on how to bless a house.

First, you start with the oil: Ideally, you should use olive oil, but if that is not available in your area, the most similar oil will do. To bless the oil, you simply address God and ask him to consecrate the oil for the blessing of homes to cleanse the home of the influence of Satan and fill it with the holy spirit (though this prayer can obviously be modified). You end by saying “in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen”.

Next, utter a prayer over your house. You start by addressing the lord (for example “Dear Heavenly Father”), and say that you are using consecrate oil to bless this house (“Using oil that has been consecrated for the blessing of houses, I bless this home …”). Then you utter your blessing – this can be anything you want but generally would be a request to banish all demonic entities and fill the house with the holy spirit. Such a prayer should not be overly dramatic or involve raising your voice – it should be uttered calmly, respectfully and feel mild and serene. It may help to specify that these entities are to leave immediately and not come back. Finally, you again close the prayer in Christ’s name.

Following this prayer, you would dab olive oil on your doors, windows, and other major entry points. Since this is symbolic, you don’t need to cover *every single* entryway. Basically, you either drop a drop of oil on these places, or dip your finger in the oil and smudge these places with your finger. If using your finger, in my view, you should not paint symbols with the oil (even a cross) because you don’t want to resemble witchcraft (unfortunately witchcraft has evolved to use the cross); rather you should just make a simple roundish smudge with your finger.

Finally, you seal your anointing of the house by addressing heavenly father (“Dear Heavenly Father”) and saying you are sealing the anointing (example: “I ask thee to seal the blessing of this house that the house may cleansed of demonic entities and filled with the spirt”). Then you utter the rest of your prayer regarding how you wish your home to be blessed and you close in the name of Jesus Christ.

One more point: If I were to do this myself, I would state that I am acting under the authority of the Melchizedek priesthood at the start of each prayer/blessing (“Dear heavenly father, acting under the authority of the Melchizedek priesthood, which I posses, I bless this house …”). This is because I actually was conferred the priesthood; If you don’t have the priesthood, I believe you can still bless your house, just don’t mention the priesthood in your prayer.

However, if you don’t have the priesthood, there is one significant modification to make throughout your prayer: you don’t command things to happen, rather, you ask God to make things happen. So, for blessing a home, I would say “I bless this house to be …” if I had the priesthood, but if I didn’t have the priesthood, I would say “I ask thee Lord that this house might be …”. Likewise, for consecrating the oil, I would say “I consecrate this oil for …” if I had the priesthood, but without the priesthood I would say “I ask thee Lord to consecrate this oil for …”. And similarly for sealing the home I would say “I seal the blessing of this house” with the priesthood, but without the priesthood I would say “I ask thee to seal the blessing of this house”.

Even if you feel your home doesn’t need to be blessed, I still recommend doing it. The atmosphere will change following a blessing –  your home will feel more holy – and you will be blessed for it.

Blessing a Person – Blessing a person is basically the same as a blessing a home. You start off by consecrating the oil – but since it is a person you include the verb “anoint” in your prayer (for consecrating oil: “Dear heavenly father, I ask thee to consecrate this oil for the blessing and anointing of the sick and afflicted …”; while blessing person “… using oil that has been consecrated for blessing and anointing the sick and afflicted …”). Following this, you place your hands on the head of the person and utter your prayer (in like manner to how I described blessing your home). Then you drop a drop of oil on their heads and seal the anointing again in like manner as described earlier.

When blessing a person, you can cover basically any topic – healing from an illness, help overcoming an addiction, assistance finding a job, or even general aide during a new school semester. However, there is a belief that in these prayers, we should truly be in tune with the spirit so that we only say things inspired by God. According to this belief (which I subscribe to), we therefore can’t just mention anything in a blessing, only things we feel God allows us to say.

In my religion, as is the case for the sacrament, there is a convention that you cannot bless yourself – someone else must bless you. In my view, this is indeed the ideal scenario. However, if you have nobody to bless you, then you can bless yourself.

Baptism – I will leave my religion to describe how to perform a baptism here. In my opinion, it would be unwise to attempt a baptism without proper authority – so if you have nobody with authority who can baptize you, then don’t get baptized and try to meet with the missionaries. Therefore, I will not discuss this topic much because I assume he who has the proper authority to baptize will know how to do it.

Conclusion – This essay is all just my opinion. For a more authoritative source, you can see my Church’s article here. It feels weird to be writing about how to do these things and be making small adjustments to what is taught conventionally. I pray that nothing I have said here is wrong, and that I am not being manipulated by dark forces.

Scripture Study and Prayer

I won’t reiterate all scriptures telling us to pray and study God’s words – those can be found here: The Commandments.

Prayer – you start by addressing you heavenly father (“Dear Heavenly Father”), then make your petition (example: “I ask thee that I might feel your spirit”), you make known things you are grateful (“I am grateful for this beautiful country I was born into”), and close in the name of Christ (“in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen”). If necessary, you can also ask questions in your prayer. While praying, you fold your arms/clasp your hands, bow your head, and close your eyes. This is how I was taught to say prayers, however, I have been trying to also incorporate praise into my prayers: (example: “Thou art king of kings, thy ways are higher than our was, and they wisdom makes us nothing”).

I have also heard about people giving less structured prayers – where they might be hiking while at the same time talking to the lord. This seems like a good idea to me – so basically you start and end in the same way, but you just say whatever you want to the lord – how your day went, what your plans are, etc.

I try to pray several times a day (sometimes I forget though). If you have a specific problem you are trying to overcome, prayer obviously is going to be a huge tool you can use in overcoming it. One experience I have had with prayer was I lost my phone in the woods and a prayer helped me to find it (story described in detail here).

Synchronicity: while writing this section on prayer, this song came up: Celtic Woman “Sometimes a Prayer Will Do”  – a song I have never heard of before

Prayer while falling asleep – I personally try to continuously utter prayers while laying in bed until I fall asleep (this influencer does the same: Get Up N Glow). This usually ends up with me repeating a mantra prayer (the only time I ever use mantras in prayer).

Scripture Study – I try to read the scriptures at least once a day (though sometimes I forget). Beyond studying the Bible, I also read the Book of Mormon (as described in my article: Why I believe the book of Mormon is true). Obviously, there are many ways to study the scriptures, but I have found additional power in reading them out loud.

Scripture Memorization – this may help you in your walk with Christ. Psalms 91 is definitely the primary scripture to memorize. Here are a few others that are good: (2 Nephi 31:20 , Ether 12:4 , Ether 12:27 , Helaman 5:12 , Helaman 14:30-31 , Matthew 10:16-39, Romans 8:25-28 , 1 Corinthians 10:12-13 , 2 Corinthians 4:8-18 , Philippians 4:6-8 ). And of course, psalms are always good to memorize, these are a few additional ones I like: (Psalm 19, Psalm 23, Psalm 25, Psalm 27, Psalm 37, Psalm 38, Psalm 40, Psalm 46, Psalm 51, Psalm 62, Psalm 103). Which scriptures to memorize (if you do) is up to you, these are just my recommendations, but the council of the Lord should of course take precedence over any of my suggestions.

How does one memorize scriptures? I have found this site helpful (biblememory.com) – users can hide ever other word in a verse to facilitate incrementally learning the verse. You also can use my website (spacedrepetition.xyz) which I designed for memorization though it isn’t specifically designed for scriptures. Finally, for memorizing longer sections, I have found it helpful to start by reading one verse, then trying to repeat it without looking, then reading the next verse followed by trying to repeat it and so forth. After this, you try reading two verses, then repeating them, then the next two verses and so forth. Following this, you try with three verses, and progress until you can repeat the entire desired section.

Fasting and the Sabbath

Fasting – Basically fasting is a supercharged form of prayer. Great blessings and access to spiritual power are promised to those who fast; here are a few good scriptures (Matthew 17:19-21, Acts 10:30-31, 1 Corinthians 7:5, Psalm 35:13, Esther 4:16, Helaman 3:35, Joel 2:12-13, Alma 17:3, Alma 5:46, Alma 6:6, Isaiah 58:6-11). Unfortunately, most references to fasting have been deliberately removed from the NIV bible (source 1, source 2, source 3), therefore one should read the KJV! So obviously the enemy is working overtime to prevent people from fasting, meaning we should fast even more!

In my Church, our tradition is to fast on the first Sunday of every month. However, (in my view) sometimes fasting for multiple days can carry additional spiritual power. For example, Alma states that it took many days of fasting and prayer to attain revelation (Alma 5:46) and Esther commands her people to fast for three days to avert the danger to her people (Esther 4:16). There also are several accounts of people online only receiving visions after fasting for multiple days (for example this influencer).

Now, we don’t earn salvation through fasting, and we shouldn’t fast to the point of unhealthiness. Here is a personal story: during a time in my life where I was skinny (still am lol) I was fasting a lot because I was trying to be able to fast for multiple days – but each time I fasted I wouldn’t finish because I would get sick and start throwing up. So anyway, I prayed asking God whether I should continue fasting, and I felt like the answer was No you don’t need to continue. Worrying this was my subconscious, I opened the scriptures to a random spot – the first one I believe was a Paul scripture saying that we are saved by grace not our works (sadly I don’t remember which), and the second was a passage in the Book of Mormon discussing missionaries who had been captured and deprived of food, who were then rescued (Alma 20:29). So, to me, both these scriptures were perfect answer to my prayer telling me I didn’t need to fast, so I stopped.

Sabbath Day – Another great way to get closer to God is by using his Sabbath. We should view following the Sabbath as not a burden, but as a blessing and a tool that we can use to get closer to God. Here are some good scriptures about the Sabbath Day (Isaiah 58:13-14, Jeremiah 17:24-25, Exodus 20:8-11, Leviticus 26:2-4)

To close, here is a great scripture about both fasting and the sabbath:

Isaiah 58:6-14
6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
8 ¶ Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward.
9 Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:
11 And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
12 And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
13 ¶ If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

Things not mentioned specifically in scripture

Don’t sleep by technology – I’ve found that if you sleep right next to your phone or computer, that leads to Satan giving me dark dreams. I only fully understood this after I stopped sleeping near technology as an experiment, after hearing this recommended to me by various influencers (example: Demonic Attack, DMT And The Power Of Christs Name). Here is an interesting story on the topic: I have heard my Dad complain several times that there is a specific room in our house in which if he sleeps he gets demonic attacks. Only recently did I learn that in this room he had installed a large TV attached to the wall – the only room in the house with a TV. Sadly the man won’t listen to me, even though he fully admits that his experiences while sleeping in this room are different from other rooms.

Don’t listen to worldly Music – I’ve found that music has a special power to control your emotions, and that I cannot feel the spirit when listening to certain music. One interesting story is that immediately after I made a commitment to not listen to worldly music – and I mean seconds after – the audio of my computer completely broke (I was able to fix it). What are the chances of that? I believe that if we are holy spirit filled, we won’t even need music, and will be able to feel the peace of God even in the silence.