THE NEUROTIC PERSONALITY (PSYCHONEUROSIS)

GENERAL
This is a series of three lessons, The Three P's: Psychoneurosis, Psychopsychosis and Psychopathic. The first lesson will deal with "The Neurotic Personalities (Psychoneurosis)"; second lesson "The Delinquent Personalities (Psychopsychosis)" and third lesson "The Pathologic Personalities (Psychopathic)". These are the results of unresolved traumas of mind and emotions.

Many people suffering from some form of personality disorder believe they cannot be helped at all. They are happy to find that they can be helped by God's provisions through Jesus Christ. Many that you think will never make it do. They start off by attacking one or two problems and follow right on through to success.

We've also worked with a few people who didn't really seem to have many problems and they would get a lot of help. Maybe they would get a job and lose their government aid. Then they would decide they didn't want to go through with deliverance and discipline because of money, or persecutions.

As you will find in Pigs in the Parlor, most personality problems begin with that first deadly wound of rejection which is not handled properly. Satan and his demons build a strong web around rejection as the person tries to protect himself from further rejection and its pain.

I would like to share with you some very wonderful verses from God's Word. These verses were very vexing to me at one time.

First I'll share one group of verses which encouraged me while at the same time these others troubled me.

Isaiah 61:1-4, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the Gospel of good tidings to the meek, the poor and afflicted; He sent me to bind up and heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the physical and spiritual captives, and the opening of the prison and of the eyes of those who are bound. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord - the year of His favor - and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn. To grant consolation and joy to those who mourn in Zion, to give them an ornament - a garland or diadem - of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for heavy, burdened and failing spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, lofty, strong, magnificent, distinguished for uprightness, justice and right standing with God, the planting of the Lord that He may be glorified. And they shall rebuild the ancient ruins and raise up the former desolation's and renew the ruined cities, the devastation's of many generations.

Verses 1-3 show us what God planned to do in each of our lives. He knows we have all the problems listed. This is a mighty job and God can only accomplish this job if we cooperate with Him. This cooperation means we will have to read, study and discipline ourselves to obey His Word (I Pet. 1:4-9). After Byron's death, each of us had our own personal struggle. I could not see how I would ever have any joy again except being joyful over my salvation.

Verse 4 tells us what we will be able to do if we allow verses 1-3 to take place in our lives.

I thought, "God, that's a very big job you've got in me". Phil. 1:6 gave me the answer. He will complete the job if I cooperate with Him.

Sometimes I find myself and others fulfilling Jer. 6:16. The Lord said Stand by the roads and look and ask for the eternal paths, where is the good, old

way; then walk in it, and you will find rest for your soul. But they said, 'We will not walk in it'. Does this sound like you? Young people today, as well as old, say "No" to God.

Matthew 11:28-29, Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and over burdened, and I will cause you to rest. I will ease and refresh and relieve your souls. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart and you shall find rest for your souls - relief, ease, refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet. Verse 29 has the key - we are to do the taking of the yoke.

What is the yoke - taking time to learn what God said to do and doing it. Sounds easy? Try it'! Learning and doing require great determination and discipline. It sounds paradoxical that in discipline and obedience you'll find your greatest freedom. Everyone thinks if they throw off the yoke they'll be free. Let's use a classic - the young lady or man who throws off God's advice to be chaste (sexually inactive) until married and remain faithful to mate to death. He or she thinks they are free of old moral restraints only to find sexual diseases aplenty and a life of agony.

Matt. 11:30, For my yoke is wholesome (useful and good) not harsh, hard, sharp and pressing, but comfortable, gracious and pleasant; my burden is light and easy to be borne. Really obeying God is easier than carrying the load of sin.

Example A friend of my dad's, while in service, enjoyed many female friends and got sexually-transmitted diseases several times. Each time his disease was cured by penicillin. He figured he beat the odds, found a wonderful girl and got married. In a few years they had a sweet beautiful baby girl. The baby had syphilis and died in about one year. Next baby is a beautiful girl again; at three years old she's fine. He's making a fortune as a hotel baker . He still thinks this time we made it. But alas, at seven years this child starts going blind and takes ten years to die. I worked for this man in his bakery for two years. He cried all day everyday. There was no help for his pain. He did not find healing for his girls.

Today one of our greatest problems as individuals and as a nation is our heavy, over-burdened lives. Before I ever knew there was deliverance and hope, I thought "God, you surely must be kidding."

But after my first deliverance, I was able to understand a lot better what God was saying. We can lead a peaceful contented life mentally as well as spiritually. The soul contains your mind, will and emotions. Sometimes in the King James version these words are used interchangeably.

When you have demons in your soul, you think this is surely an unkeepable promise or pie in the sky bye and bye. Please read Phil. 4:7-9, test your inner emotions, actions and will against the scriptures, and see if you score very well. Rejoice in the Lord Always? Do you see your unselfishness and consideration? Do you ever fret or be anxious? Always in everything give thanks to God? Show God's Peace? Think only on things true, just, pure, kind, lovely, excellent, etc.? Do you fix your mind by force, if need be, on the above? Now verse 7 always eluded me. I look always for someone who has God's peace, the peace of mind which passeth all understanding. Mostly I found people worse off than me.

In Gal. 5:22 and I Pet. 5:10, I found that the work of the Holy Spirit in me should have accomplished love, joy, peace, patience (an even temper), kindness and goodness, faithfulness, meekness, humility, gentleness, self-control, self-restraint and continence but it had not done so yet.

I became fearful that I was not saved even though I had received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit two years before. Not only was I in trouble but also my husband and daughter. Each of us wondered, I'm sure, why the others didn't do better while minimizing our own shortcomings.

Two years of frustrations and prayers paid off one night when God showed us about evil spirits. We began to learn then and it hasn't stopped yet.

So I want to share a few things with you that we have observed during deliverance sessions about ourselves and others that may help you.

TRAUMA
All people who have ever lived on this earth will at one time or another encounter an earth shaking event from which your life will never be the same again. When we refuse to face it honestly, we can enter into mental or emotional fantasy.

My first, I suppose, was ten years of child beatings at the hands of my mom and sometimes my dad. I used the psychosis of denial to repress these beatings so that I do not remember them very well. At ten years of age, our daughter saw the death of the brother she loved more than anyone else. She also developed and used some forms of denial. The denial was only recently faced up to and its power broken. She now feels so free and happy, the first time in thirteen years (facing up with no pretense = freedom).

Most of us use some form of denial to help us adjust to this trauma. We simply deny it, build withdrawn fantasy lives that do not deal with the real world we face. This is a childish way to adjust to trouble. Unless the people around us understand what is happening to us, know God's solution and are willing to practice it, we may spend a lifetime in a troubled state of mind. Sometimes we will be only mildly troubled but sometimes it may grow to a neurosis or psychosis.

When we refuse to deal honestly with life or have unrealistic expectations of an easy life with no problems or sadness, refuse to be responsible for our action, we make lies our refuge (Isa. 28:15). And God will send you strong delusions (II Thes. 2:11). In our humanity we often resort to lives of fantasy when faced with trauma which cuts us to our core. In Psalm 51:6, God desires truth in our inner parts. In John 8:32, the truth sets us free.

DEFINITIONS
Soul - mind, will and emotion - your personality. Will - the power of choice and deliberate action or intention resulting from exercising this power. Emotion - a physical or mental response to happenings. It may be a change in feeling, behavior or internal excitement with both superficial (mild) or deep (extremely strong) phenomena being elicited. Mind - the thinking and perceiving part of consciousness, intellect, reason. Trauma - a severe, sudden shock that has a permanent effect upon the personality. Neurotic - a maladjustive form of an adjustment mechanism. Neurotics do not adjust normally to trauma. Psychosis - a mental or personality disorder, more severe than a neurosis, having unrealistic behavior that often is so dangerous that a person must be institutionalized. Psychopath - a person with an imperfect or nonexistent understanding of morality, and consequent antisocial conduct. In short, a psychopathic personality has absolutely no moral scruples - no conscience.

Personality Impairment - falls into three separate categories: neurosis, psychotic and psychopathic. Each is separate yet sometimes overlap. A person may have problems in only one area or some in each area.

Neurosis is the milder form of abnormal reaction to trauma. It is an inability to deal with traumatic experiences in a mature way and almost always has roots in childhood.

Sexual, emotional or physical abuse, neglect, too much attention or too little attention, unrealistic expectations from parents, death and traumatic accident are only a few things that accelerate a small problem into a larger one.

Neurosis is evident when a function of the personality escapes conscious control: groundless fears, uncontrollable ideas, disturbing behavior patterns, loss of control of body parts and disability of involuntary organs where no medical or physical reason can be found.

A common symptom is groundless fear or anxiety. We're not talking about normal anxiety or fear when there is immediate danger but a constant reign of fear. Worry is mild but continuous fear; panic is extra - intense fear.

Reality - Our world is full of dangers but God has promised to protect us and never leave us (Psalm 116:15). Precious in the sight of God is the death of His saints. Living Bible says He is present at accidents. In Hebrews 13:5, He will never, never, never leave us. When hard times come, God doesn't get scared and run from us. Many of the hard times or traumatic experiences can be used by God, with our cooperation, to refine us and make us strong.

Fearing and fantasizing (denial), and fearing what may happen and usually doesn't wastes mental power and capacity.

Panic with no cause or an imaginary cause is a sure sign of neurosis. We panic about fear of death, fear of death of loved one, pain, serious illness and permanent injury. Bodily signs of panic are heart palpitations, rapid pulse, sweaty hands and or feet, rapid breathing, perspiring and dizziness. Anxiety may be caused by memory of pain caused by failure, rejection, cruelty and being projected to future events.

Some common phobias are fear of falling from high places (bathophobia), being confined (claustrophobia), of corpse (necrophobia), and fear of open spaces (agoraphobia).

Phobias are unreasonable fear such as fears of snakes, mice, spiders, heights, darkness, sex, leaving home and driving after an accident. When these interfere with normal life they become a neurosis.

Obsessions - a conscious idea or device recognized as being irrational such as a desire to rape, exposure, prostitution, murder, hurt, drunkenness, drugs, peeping toms, homosexuality, gluttony, etc. An obsessive neurotic does not approve of his desire but cannot get rid of it.

Compulsions - Attempts of the obsessive to hide or counteract the obsession as a person who fantasizes about homosexuality but goes to great lengths to show how he hates it. If desiring to kill someone, he may go to great lengths to show he loves them. Excessive hand washing is fear of getting germs. Extreme spotless housekeeping sometimes masks a dislike for the family being cozy or comfortable. Lust is hidden by unusually strong attempts to show he does not lust.

Kleptomania - desiring to steal even when you can pay.

Mania - committing acts against your conscious will, like stealing, fire setting, assault, rape and rage. When not doing these things, they seem normal.

Sleepwalking - desire to do something impulsive that he may be ashamed to do when awake.

Amnesia - intense desire to forget something dreadful.

Hysteria - condition of people wishing desperately to avoid a distressing situation. Blindness with no physical or medical reason, paralysis and convulsions can result also from repressed emotions or motives. These symptoms satisfy the person.

Hypochondriac - behavior of one who uses illness to keep from doing something he doesn't want to do; to avoid confrontation. Example - wife gets a headache every time husband gets romantic.

Death Wish, Neurasthenia, Accident Prone - these are people who have a strong sense of guilt and feel the need to be punished.

Neurotic Depression or Melancholia - a person sad for no reason or sorrows for an abnormally long time. Melancholia is prolonged grief and finding comfort in it.

LIST OF NEUROTIC PERSONALITY DEMONS AND CHARACTERISTICS
Bind all demons that we or our ancestors have given power to control our minds. Bind all demons of the occult, cults, drugs, rock music, sexual sins, occult games, etc. (II Cor. 6:14-18; 10:3-6; Eph. 6:11-18). Loose the Seven-Fold Spirit of God: Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Might, Knowledge of God, Reverence to God and Obedient Fear of God (Isa. 11:2). In the Name of Jesus, we loose ourselves from your control. We will have victory over you (Eph. 3:16-19).

CAST OUT THE FOLLOWING DEMONS IN THE NAME OF JESUS