Victimization & Healing from Trauma by Alice Smith

Victimization Healing from trauma takes time. Yet, many victims of trauma are continuously harassed by their victimization because they've stopped thinking about their God-given kingdom authority, and are instead focused on just getting past life's next pothole. Often victims can't see past their problems, and become so engaged with the cycle, that in time they think survival is the normal Christian life.
Arthur Burk in his book, Overcoming the Victim Spirit says,

 
"This attitude is totally understandable. Scripture says, 'Hope deferred makes the heart sick.' While it is understandable, it is not permissible. Obtaining freedom from victimization requires us to appropriate God's power. God delights to make his power available to us, but only for kingdom objectives. He is not primarily interested in helping us to survive. He wants to partner with us in releasing his power into our world in such a way that we become life givers to others around us. It is about building up and expanding, not survival." Arthur Burk, Overcoming the Victim Spirit, (Whittier, CA.: Plumbline Ministries, 2001), p. 19.
 

Victimization isn't gender biased. It happens to both male and female. Think of the thousands of boys and girls who've been impacted because of Catholic priests or Christian leaders taking advantage of them. Will they ever escape the victim mindset? And for many of those abused, if the Lord Jesus hasn't done a powerful transforming work in their life, the abuse will repeat itself in the next generation. One of the Devil’s primary plans is to perpetuate victimization from one generation to the next.
 

The problem with childhood sexual abuse is not remembering the experiences. It’s trying to forget them. I know from experience that once God heals the pain, the memories are only just that. Memories. No pain. No ache. No terror.
 

Our emotions only react. They can't think, organize, or plan. Emotions are simply involuntary responders to our circumstances. Though our emotions can't think, they are either positive or negative in nature. Example: a good emotion would be excitement; a bad reaction would be despair; a good emotion might be pleasure; and a bad response would be displeasure. A good emotion would be faith; a bad response would be fear. There isn't any neutral ground when it comes to emotions. We may try to be unemotional, but even what we call an absence of emotion often reveals hidden emotional pain. We all manifest some level of voluntary or involuntary response to life's situations.
 

Why do we need to understand how our emotions work? Because emotional responses often correspond to our personalities. Since emotions are reactors, they provide mental energy to whatever motivates us. When we think strongly about an issue, we generate strong feelings about them! For some of us it is abortion, others it is politics, and another it might be marriage, or war, or children. Our emotions trigger our will to act. We may act godly or ungodly. It depends in part on how healed we are from the past wounds.
 

If our thinking is polluted once victimized by trauma, and we have developed wrong conclusions, it is possible that they will manifest in improper emotional behaviors like various kinds of abuse, overeating, lying, domestic violence, alcohol, adultery, phobias, excessive spending, drugs or depression. When I refer to a victim spirit, it is on two different levels.
 

First, a "victim spirit" could refer to any one of a host of demonic spirits that are attracted to, and desire to attach themselves to a person who along with it's lies and behaviors, has embraced a "victim identity". There is an unseen world of darkness filled with spirit beings just looking for opportunity to "kill, steal and destroy" lives. (See Judges 19:25; 2 Sam. 13: 1-20; John 10:10) So when trauma occurs through any form of victimization, demons are often ready to attach themselves to the wounded individual, which advances the cycle of events. The victim's fear, intimidation and hopelessness are now supercharged by the demonic. This obviously causes troubling consequences.
The terms used to describe demonic activity in an individual are:
 
· Demon obsession - means to be mentally or emotionally obsessed by an evil spirit; I.e. confusion, hallucinations, fantasy, hearing voices in the mind and paranoia.
 
· Demon oppression - is the experience of feeling pressed down; (this can be in the mind, body, or emotions), like depression, lethargy, heaviness, and suicidal thinking.
 
· Demon possession - Although the KJV uses the word possession, the original Greek word is "demonized." The word demonized describes a person vexed with a demon.
 

Secondly, a "victim spirit" is the (human spirit of a person who's been violated in some way and whether intentionally or unintentionally has failed to process the experience properly. There is a specific mindset that a victim embraces that keeps the pattern of victimization reoccurring unless or until it is broken. I'm not referring to everyone who's been abused; only those who continue to allow it to shape their lives. They've adopted a victim mindset and worldview by believing lies. Thus they've developed predictable patterns of behavior. A victim can explain why it's right for things to be wrong and continue to allow a predator access to their life.
 

An example would be a woman who allows her husband to physically beat her year after year. In her mind, she has assumed lies that tell her she is the problem in the marriage and deserves beating. A predator is someone who preys on wounded and victimized people, and in the above case would be the husband. Three keys have to be in place to keep a person victimized.
 

1. A wrong mindset
2. A demon to continue the lie
3. A predator to produce the victimization
 
The spirit of victimization has a voracious appetite. It must be fed to stay in place. And it thrives on unforgiveness and self-condemnation. Many of us who have been victimized played little or no part in our victimization. This would especially be true of innocent children. However, the enemy is shrewd. He will argue to abused people that the pain they suffered was at least partly their fault. This keeps the victim paralyzed from ever leaving their circumstance.
 

 

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