This brings us to the crucial matter of Column 2 of the way in which the "ground" the evil spirit has held must be dealt with. Thoughts admitted to the mind, passivity of mind or body, faculties allowed to lie unused, lack of mental control, of the use of the will, of decisive power or judgment, etc. Now the believer must deliberately and steadily refuse ^note 16 all this ground to the enemy, especially and specifically the ground on the points wherein he has been deceived; for it is of primary importance that the one who is deceived should know the ground, and give it up. ^note 17

Since there is POSSESSION BECAUSE OF GROUND GIVEN, there must be DIS- POSSESSION BECAUSE OF GROUND REFUSED to the enemy. The deceived one must pray for light until the cause or causes of the deception are revealed, and honestly desire, and be willing for the light on every point (John 3: 21). He must be given light from God to detect symptoms and their causes, and in the recognition of these beware of introspection, i.e., a turning in upon himself, which is the contrary of a simple refusing of ground as it is brought into the light.

It may be said generally, that whatever the person shrinks from hearing about, or is troubled when reference is made to it, may reveal upon examination, ground given on that point. If the believer is afraid to examine something he shrinks from dealing with, then it is safe to examine that particular thing, for the enemy most probably has some footing there. What the believer cannot bear to hear about is probably the very thing that he is guilty of doing, or is in some way wrong in his relation to it. Then the ground--and the cause or causes of it--when revealed, must be taken back from the deceiving spirits, by the rejection, or refusal of these points upon which ground has been given, until the ground given has passed away; for ground which admits the evil spirit is the ground that keeps him in possession. ^note 18 There is also ground given which causes the believer, unknowingly, to take hold of evil spirits, and there are things, and ground given, which enable them to grip the believer, and his faculties. There is also the probability of giving new ground, by taking the lying spirits' interpretation ^note 19 of their manifestations, which on the believer's part is the accepting of lies from them in the present, as much as in the past, when ground was given to admit them.

What it means by "fighting through" may be explained in a specific case. For instance, if the believer discovers that he has sunk into passivity, and that an evil spirit has fastened upon the passive faculties, and whilst they were lying passive, acted for, or in conjunction with him; ^note 20 when he gives up the ground, he finds it most difficult to act for himself again, and to regain the use of his faculties. If he has been drifting into passivity in the matter of decision, and, refusing this ground to the enemy, he decides now to "decide" for himself, and not to act under their control, he finds that, at first,

(1) He cannot act and decide for himself, and

(2) The evil spirits will not let him act, i.e., when their victim refuses them permission ^note 21 to control him, then they will not let their captive act without their permission.

The man has therefore to choose between "not acting" at all, or letting the evil spirit continue to act for him. This he will not do, and so for a while he is unable to use his own decisive power, and yet refuses to allow the enemy to use it. It becomes a fight for the use of his "free will," and for deliverance from passivity of the will, ^note 22 which destroyed his decisive power, and gave evil spirits control over him.

Why does not possession, and its effects, cease directly the man refuses all ground, as a whole, to the deceiving spirits? Because every detail of the ground must be detected; the man must be undeceived on every point; and the evil spirits must be dispossessed from every hold. Whatever caused possession, the opposite must be obtained for dispossession; instead of the lies of Satan, the truth of God; instead of passivity, activity; instead of ignorance, knowledge; instead of surrender to the enemy, resistance; instead of acceptance, refusal.

Actions are the result of thought and belief. The ground is always to be traced back to its radical cause, which is a THOUGHT AND BELIEF. Wrong thoughts and belief, which gave ground to evil spirits for possession, must be detected and given up. The basis of acceptance or refusal must be knowledge, not a passing thought, or impression. It is for this reason that understanding ^note 23 is such an important factor in deliverance, and the subsequent warfare.

In seeking for the ground of any trouble in the spiritual life, believers generally go back only as far as the first manifestation of conscious wrong, instead of seeking the radical cause of the manifestations.

Men in seeking for the root of a tree do not content themselves with the discovery of its manifestation above ground. They know that the cause of the growth they see lies deeper down. It is VERY IMPORTANT that believers diagnose the cause of their trouble as further back than the first conscious manifestation, i.e., some thought or belief which has given the enemy occasion for deception.

RESULT: Ever since the believer admitted that "thought" and "belief," he became subject to the consequences of it, and all that evil spirits gained by it; for they came around and made true to the victim what he desired, i.e., "unconsciousness," which formed the ground of passivity for Satanic manifestations.

If the believer resists and refuses any specific ground for possession, and cannot get rid of it, he must seek light upon the cause, i.e., the ground in the past in thought and belief, when this is discovered and refused, the "possession" of necessity passes away.

This is why it is necessary to say that each point must be patiently "fought through," i.e., the refusal ^note 25 of all ground to evil spirits must be maintained, because refusing all ground, and getting rid of all ground, are two different things. All ground is not of necessity removed at the moment of refusal. The refusing must therefore be reasserted, and the believer refuse persistently, until each point of ground is detected and refused, and the faculties are gradually released to act freely under the will of the man. The faculties let go into passivity should regain their normal working condition, such as the operation of the mind kept to true and pure thinking, so that any subject being dealt with is mastered, and does not dominate beyond control. So with the memory, the will, the imagination, and the actions of the body, such as singing, praying, speaking, reading, etc. All must be brought back into normal working order, out of the passive, heavy state, into which they have fallen, under the subtle workings of the enemy.

The refusal, also, of the workings of deceiving spirits in possession, is necessary as well as the refusing of ground upon which they have obtained possession. The believer may say as his declaration of decision:

The "fighting through" period is a very painful time. There are bad moments of acute suffering, and intense struggle, arising out of the consciousness of the resistance of the powers of darkness in their contest for what the believer endeavors to reclaim. The moment he begins to advance from weakness into strength, he becomes aware of the strength of the evil spirits resisting him; consequently he feels worse when fighting through. This is a sign of "dispossession," although the believer may not think, or feel it to be so.

The order of dispossession is not the order in which possession took place. The last thing given to the spirits of evil is generally the first thing removed, because fight is given upon the experience of the moment, and deliverance from the bondage of the moment is the most urgent need. Sometimes it is the advanced stage of possession, with its terrible bondage, which reveals his condition to the man himself, and it is not until he starts, point by point, to fight back to his normal condition, that he discovers the depth of the pit ^note 26 he has fallen into, and the slow work of regaining the liberation of his whole being, from the power of the deceiving enemy.

The believer fighting back to freedom must not be deceived about the immediate effects of dispossession, for it may appear as he advances, that he is slipping back. For instance, when the man is in a passive state under the bondage of the enemy, he may be absolutely regardless of what he is, what he feels, and how he appears: and therefore he cannot feel and cannot be touched on these points; but as he fights back to the normal condition, these things become real to him again, and he thinks he has gone back; but the fact that he feels about these matters, proves a degree of dispossession, for his feelings, which had become numb, ^note 27 are once more regaining their normal condition.

The believer must not be off-guard when he knows much about dispossession, because there are new realms of deception, and he must take heed not to confuse ordinary wrestling ^note 28 in spirit with the powers of darkness, with manifestations of their workings through possession.

When the spirits of evil see their hold coming to an end, they never let go until the cause is fully removed, and they continue to attack if the thing they have attacked about still exists in any degree. When "fighting through," the enemy has various tactics to hinder the man's deliverance; and will dangle a thing before the mind which is not the true cause of the possession, so as to get the believer occupied with it, whilst he is gaining all the time, pouring in accusations ^note 29 upon his victim, until he is bewildered and confused. Charges, accusations, blame, guilt, direct from the enemy, or indirectly through others. Accusing spirits can say "You are wrong" when you are not wrong, and vice versa; and also say you are wrong, when you are wrong, and right when you are right, but it is very essential that the believer does not accept blame until he is absolutely sure that it is deserved, and then not from Satan's lying spirits, who have not been appointed by God to do the convicting work of the Holy Spirit.

When once the truth has dawned upon the victim of the powers of darkness, and they no longer hope to gain by deception, their one great attack all through, from the moment of undeceiving to final dispossession, is the perpetual charge, "You are wrong," so as to keep the man in ceaseless condemnation. The poor persecuted believer then goes to God, and tries to get victory over "sin," but in vain. The more he prays, the more he appears to sink into a hopeless bog. He seems to himself to be one mass of "sin," without hope of freedom. But it is victory over the powers of darkness he needs, and he will quickly prove this when he recognizes the true cause of his trouble, and lays hold of the Calvary Victory over Satan.

In fighting back to freedom, the believer must wield Scripture as the Divinely provided weapon for victory over evil spirits. The verses used with immediate effect, and giving evidence of relief, indicate the specific nature of any attack; showing by the efficacy of the weapon used the immediate cause of the conflict, the believer reasoning back from the effectiveness of the weapon to the cause of the warfare. For instance, if the text wielded is that Satan is the "father of lies," and the believer declares that he refuses all his lies, brings liberty from the oppression of the enemy, it indicates that the enemy is attacking with some of his deceptive workings. Then the believer should not only refuse all his lies, but pray, "Lord, destroy all the devil's lies to me."

All this simply means that in the path to freedom, the deceived believer must act intelligently. He must know the truth, and by the truth being received and acted upon, he is set free. ^note 30 In going down into the deception the intelligence is unused, but in recovering freedom he must act with deliberate knowledge; i.e., he goes down "passively," but he must emerge to liberty actively that is, by the action of his whole being.

Force must be used against force. There are two aspects of the use of force in the fight against the powers of darkness; one of using spirit force against spirit force when the believer is free from possession, and the second of physical force brought into action against their power or grip of the body. Either of these the Deceiver may suggest as "self-effort," and deceive the man into taking up a passive attitude, and thus to cease his resistance against him.

When the believer is fighting free from possession, he must bring into action all the forces of his tripartite being, and must know the place of the spirit, the soul, and the body, in the conflict, e.g., if evil spirits have a hold on the muscles of the bodily frame ^note 31 there must be effort, and use of the muscles to dislodge them, and so in every other part of the being. The believer, therefore, must not be afraid to use force--pure force, which simply means ACTIVE USE OF SPIRIT, SOUL AND BODY in their various actions. Evil spirits, by possession, caused the forces of the tripartite man to be inactive and passive, and now these must be aroused to action against the force holding them. There must be liberation of the physical being from passivity, ^note 32 as well as mind and spirit.

But resistance, i.e., action of spirit, soul or body, must not take the place of refusal by the will. A man may "fight" without any result, if he does not first "refuse." There is an evil fight, i.e., a resistance in body or brain, which is due to possession. If it exists it must be refused. To be clear that this evil force is not in operation, the believer can say, "I refuse all evil fight now in spirit, soul or body." The believer may be resisting something in himself which is the fruit of his choice in the past, and which only his "refusal," or revoking of his past choice, can touch in the present. Fighting by force, or resistance, must therefore always have at the back of it the volitional attitude of refusal. For example (1) in the refusing stage of regaining the use of the memory, the man says "I will to remember," and so to speak, by the action of his will he lays hold of freedom; then follows (2) the actual fighting stage where he holds the liberty he has taken by refusal, and actively insists upon the enemy giving way, until the memory becomes really free from his possession. ^note 33