personality disorders

[believer]

i have some people in my life that are non believers and have mental problems or what the world would call a personality disorder.  What would the bible say about that.  Would you say they are being controlled by spirits?   

[warrior]

I am sorry we don't know your friends. Such things require discernment. Does the Bible teach that some with 'mental illness' are demonised? Part of the ministry of Christ was deliverance. Would we describe the man on the Gaderene slopes as having a personality disorder? If so, you would have to say the answer is possibly, yes.
Now, here is an interesting point. Some medics would be so offended by such a suggestion that they would seek to lock you away. Their chemicals are not a cure so why the fear of deliverance ministry which has no harmful side effects? However, Jesus's disciples had already been with him for some time before they started to practise this ministry.
Is deliverance real? When you have seen it or been involved in it you will know. We fight not against flesh and blood. We have to admit that sometimes illness is 'just' illness. But what is illness? Genesis is clear that illness was introduced at the Fall. It is not part of God's plan for us. Jesus tells us to lay hands upon the sick and heal them.
Now, if the answer is yes you should pray for your friends. On the other hand, if the answer is no, you should pray for your friends. I hope this helps.

[believer]

Of course I pray for them.  Its kind of complicated.  They are family members so I can't really not see them.   I do have the mind of Christ and pray also for wisdom and discernment in handling situations.  I would like some further input.  

1 Corinthians 2:14-16
NIV
14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for,



“Who has known the mind of the Lord

so as to instruct him?”

But we have the mind of Christ.

[buildthefarm]

to the best of my understanding so far in life i think that you cant separate the natural and the supernatural completely. there are things that happen in the physical world that mirror things that happen in the spiritual world. i cant always identify them but ive seen enough in my life to believe its true. (always feel free to straighten me out if im missing something). personality disorders reflect issues that are both spiritual and physical/emotional. we can see plainly the result but the cause is usually not obvious unless the Lord gives dissernment of that exact issue to you for a person. so prayer healing of any spiritual issues/physical issues or emotional issues awta cover your bases for anyone your concerned about and praying for. and prayer is how things like that get turned around. if God comes in and changes the spiritual issues upon the repeated request of Him son or daughter then the physical and emotional will change with it. did that help?

[believer]

I really do feel these persons influenced by something Supernatural and its not the Holy Spirit.  I have to keep myself prayed up and under protection to deal with them.  The evil one uses people to make us ineffective for the kingdom.  Goodnight.

[warrior]

You discern a spiritual issue. Can depend if they embrace what they have and identify with it or want to get rid of it. Armor of God stuff. I understand the difficulty with relatives. Funnily enough a world that can accept genetic predispositions cannot accept generational curses - they can't deny the existence of the issues but rather like creation/evolution they make up a godless story to explain what they see. Where are they in their thinking? Prayer can get them in a different place. In doing this you are doing enough because trying to force things in our own strength invariably ends badly. Give it to God. He's really good at these things (wry smile - thinking of awesome stuff He totally turned around recently in the things I have given Him).

[Deleted]

I know it's been a long time since you've written the post but I just have some stuff to say about this. If you look at the past few decades, there has been an increase in what is considered "mental illness/personality disorders". Just about everything has become a disorder. If you're sad in the winter, you have Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD, a type of depression). If you can't sleep after having too much caffeine you have Caffeine-Induced Sleep Disorder. If your child is misbehaving constantly, he might have Oppositional Defiant Disorder. The sad reality is that the medical industry has begun to label EVERYTHING as a disorder. People can no longer fail at doing something, it has to be a disorder. People just love it when these amazing words come out of the mouths of doctors: "don't worry, you can't help it, you were born that way" (which at this point they give some prescriptions that contain a trillion side effects). The patients have been duped into thinking that everything is fine as long as they take their 20 pills for breakfast, 20 pills for lunch and 20 pills for dinner. All the doctors think that it's just great because they look at their pay check and see six zeros next to the first digit. Satan loves it because the demons that are suppose to be casted out stay inside and because no one's getting healed, they lose their faith in God. Here's another example of what is considered a mental illness. People have started treating addiction as a mental illness. Isn't that something that's developed though? Can't people get addicted to pretty much everything if they allow themselves to? They don't care though as long as they get those giant pay checks.

It's from my understanding that ALL mental illness is caused by demons. It's God's Will for people to be physically/mentally/spiritually well. All we need to do is follow Him and He will be our healer (Exodus 15:26). Having said that, God doesn't force anyone to come to Him. The only thing you can (or should) really do is pray.

- Jake