I have been so surprised at how many millions of innocent Soviet citizens were tormented into signing a paper which said they were guilty of being anti-Soviet. Whether you were guilty or not, it didn't matter. You may have greeted a friend on the street whom they believed was anti-Soviet, so you were arrested too. Like spreading germs through contact, a glance, a handshake, a smile to the wrong person could land you in death camps across Russia.
It is a terribly disturbing book to learn such horrors have existed. I have asked myself a few questions:
What makes some people so evil?
Does that evil exist in me too?
How do I overcome evil?
Solzhenitsyn made a list of methods which break the will and the character of the prisoner without leaving marks on his body. By using these methods, they could get millions of innocent people to sign a paper of lies condemning them to a long prison sentence for treason.
As I read the methods they used to break people down, I saw that they are the very tools the adversary uses to enslave us in our minds. It is exactly how he gains power over us as we succumb to his method of torment.
Here are some of the methods Solzhenitsyn listed:
- Come at night
- Persuasion: ("Look, you're going to get a prison term whatever happens. But if you resist, you'll croak right here in prison, you'll loose your health. But if you go to camp, you'll have fresh air and sunlight....so why not sign it right now?")
- Foul Language: Useful to people who are brought up, refined, delicate.
- Psychological contrast: sudden reversals of tone or mood.
- Humiliation
- Confusion
- Intimidation
- Lie
- Playing on one's affection
- Sleeplessness
- Hunger
Solzhenitsyn then goes on to say that people were:
"arrested for nothing and interrogated about nothing...the Criminal Code (the law book of how to interrogate criminals); and the codes themselves are not on open shelves in our libraries, nor sold at newsstands; nor do they fall into the hands of the heedless young."
Later he says:
"The principle of our interrogation consists further in depriving the accused of even a knowledge of the law...And of the hundreds of prisoners I knew who had gone through interrogation and trial, and more than once too, who had served sentence in camp and in exile, none had ever seen the Code or held it in his hand!"
It was only when the code was 35 years old that Solzhenitsyn was able to find a copy. Reading the laws he said, "I read them today touched with emotion...Oh, if we had only known that in time!" Had they been able to quote the law, their interrogation would have come to an end and their freedom procured.
We are engaged in the midst of a war for our souls. Unbelief is sweeping the earth. It is common for most youth to know more than one classmate who has committed suicide. You yourself may know someone in the last few years who has also attempted or taken their own lives. They are inprisioned by their Enemy...the one who entraps our hearts and minds in sleepless nights, with persuasion, confusion, humiliation, and then lies.
And we, like those interrogated by the USSR, are caught by surprised sometimes....shocked at our own dark or depressing thoughts and feelings - all are warfare tactics of the Enemy.
Because we can't see the spiritual world, we very, very, very often discount it's intense reality.
You have an enemy that doesn't sleep and whose only desire is to claim you his, to see your spiritual death and suffering complete. He will use ANY method to break you. Make no mistake - you are a marked traitor and he will wear your faith down until you simply become robotic in prayer...predictable in your worship...and mechanical in your study of the scriptures (if you study them at all).
If you will ask the Lord to awaken your heart to see the battle and the spiritual war in your day to day life, your life will become very interesting very quickly. Approaching arguing children in your home as a spiritual attack or your annoyance with your spouse or co-worker as a spiritual lure set to trap you, will cause you to approach the Lord in prayer far differently, more intently, and with a purpose designed to shake the very jaws of hell.
We underestimate the prayer of a righteous soul in combating the enemy. Prayer is where I see most people struggle in their relationship with the Lord. And that is no surprise...prayer is the place where mountains are moved. Where the enemy is bound and forced to fall back in battle as you make advancements towards his demise.
I shared Solzhenitsyn's story with you because what he wrote is your story too. You are being daily tortured in his interrogation confines...he is pulling out all the stops to enslave you in his prison camp, if you'll admit it. There are areas in your mind where the enemy has a stronghold. "Agreements" have been made...false beliefs you have where the adversary has whispered lies to you and you agreed and spiritually signed the papers, condemning you under his power. It is only through prayer that these agreements can be broken. You must identify the lies you believe and, with Jesus Christ as your advocate, break them in prayer. With the law.
Christ showed us the way to overcome the interrogation.
Christ showed us the way to overcome the interrogation.
Learn
The
Law
And then use it.
Read as Christ completes his 40 day fast and then uses the law to keep from coming under enslavement:
Matthew 4:
4 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
11 Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.
Your enemy never rests. Never stops. He desires to destroy a family. A marriage. A relationship. A soul. He isn't happy until he immobilizes you and the methods he uses to break your soul are common but the message is tailored to you. By knowing what "is written" in the scriptures and then using it to combat the lies he tells you, you will have angels come and minister to you!
"It is written."
"If Ye Love Me"
by
Tallis - Tenebrae
