SHOCKING STATISTICS ABOUT ANTIDEPRESSANTS

I was astounded to read a BBC News Article this week which stated: “More than eight million people in England are on antidepressants – which are prescribed for depression, anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder and other conditions. That’s one million more people than five years previously, (stats from NHS for BBC Panorama)…”

So, if there are around 50 million adults in England, then that’s a whopping 16% taking antidepressant medication! And that’s probably a similar figure for the rest of the UK and other nations too.

The BBC article goes on to say: “More than a quarter of patients on antidepressants in England have been taking them for five years or more.

This is despite there being limited evidence of the benefits of taking the drugs for that length of time.

A doctor who runs an NHS clinic helping people off the pills says withdrawal symptoms can make it hard for some to stop taking their medication…

The investigation also uncovered evidence that a leading drug company attempted 27 years ago to conceal possible withdrawal effects that one drug could cause.

Modern antidepressants – called SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Re-Uptake Inhibitors) – arrived from the late 1980s, including Prozac. They were quickly heralded as wonder drugs compared with earlier medications, some of which had serious side effects.

They were thought to treat depression by fixing an imbalance of the mood-regulating chemical serotonin in the brain. Researchers are now not clear how they work. One theory is that they simply change how you think or feel, rather than rectifying an underlying problem.” (BBC News Article June 2023).

With such a huge percentage of the population looking for help and resorting to antidepressants, which statistically have little benefit and potential side-effects, it’s high time we made known the powerful alternative available for everyone!

A powerful alternative to antidepressants

In my latest book, “Get rid of those demons – it’s your time to shine!” I address the underlying cause of many common mental health issues. Below are extracts from my book, including a powerful alternative to antidepressants, which I think you will find liberating:

Evidence is clear that the side-effects of taking antidepressants are many and according to the NHS website can include anxiety, shaking, stomach problems, sexual problems, insomnia, blurred vision, problems urinating, tiredness, weight gain, excessive sweating, heart problems, twitching, diabetes, seizures, psychosis, stopping breathing, coma, suicidal thoughts, and if that wasn’t enough, even muscle pain and headaches, presumably the very problems that one was attempting to alleviate in the first place!…

A Spiritual Root

Despite often being a result of past trauma, many mental health issues actually have a spiritual root. Discovering the spiritual power behind conditions such as depression, bi-polar, self-harm, confusion, imaginary friends, OCD, ADD, autism, schizophrenia, phobias, anxieties and various disorders can help bring swift and permanent freedom.

I was speaking to a large crowd one time and the Holy Spirit showed me that a person in that meeting had witnessed something horrific in their past, like a violent death and suffered from ongoing trauma as a result. A vision flashed before my eyes of a lot of blood and an awful incident which I went on to describe. A young woman raised her hand and told us all how as a girl she had witnessed an horrific murder right in front of her. Her life had been dramatically impacted as a result to such a degree that she suffered terribly from the trauma in many ways.

After releasing the peace of Jesus into her life, we told the spirit of trauma to leave her. It left forcefully and she fell backwards some distance onto the floor. She was unhurt, but when she got up, she knew all the trauma had left her. We saw her again a year or so later and she told us that she had been completely set free from that demon and her life had been transformed as a result. Years of medication and counselling were unable to help her, but she was instantly freed through the power of Jesus.

FREEDOM FROM NEGATIVE THOUGHTS AND ANXIETY

Our Miracle Cafés attract a lot of people. Not just for the good food and drinks, but many are also drawn to our free spiritual menu. Freedom from negative thoughts and anxiety is a popular request from our customers. And it’s no wonder, with pandemics, wars, unrest, economies and the like being in turbulence, not to mention ill health, loss, financial and relationship issues…

Unfortunately, whenever we come into agreement in any way with an evil spirit and give it a place in our life, we empower it. We must break agreement and stop its influence in order to live free.

“Refuse to worry about tomorrow but deal with each challenge that comes your way, one day at a time. Tomorrow will take care of itself” (Matthew 6:34 TPT)…

The way to freedom is simple. Once we recognize that the source of the problem is demonic, half the battle is won! In fact, the battle has already been won, because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross. Once the schemes of the enemy are exposed, it’s simply a matter of submitting to Jesus and acknowledging that through Jesus’ death on the cross and subsequent resurrection, the powers of darkness have been broken.

“Since the children have flesh and blood, He (Jesus) also shared in their humanity, so that by His death, He might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery…” (Hebrews 2:14)…

What is behind depression?

Depression can very often be caused by demons. Once, when I was relaxing in the garden on a lovely summer’s day, a dark feeling came over me for no apparent reason. I began to feel sad and then depressed quite quickly. I was starting to take on board the depressing thoughts and felt very low, but instantly I realized these were not my thoughts and that I must not take them on board or agree with them. I recognized that a spirit of depression or despair (like that mentioned in Isaiah 61:3) had tried to settle on me, so I spoke out loud and commanded the spirit to leave in the name of Jesus. Immediately the feelings disappeared, and I was back to normal. I was shocked to realize that if I’d taken those thoughts any further and come into agreement with that demon, before long I could be suffering from depression. I think this happens to many people without them knowing it.

Demons torture, they enslave, they defile, they deceive, they cause addictions, they attack the physical body and the mind, they compel, they harass, they entice.

But, “The mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:6). That is our true identity and inheritance, and it is up to us to choose this way of life each day.

Emotional freedom

Isaiah 61 cites a spirit of despair which can also be translated ‘heaviness’. Many people relate to a feeling of hopelessness, or despair as being a heavy feeling or a dark cloud upon them. They find it difficult to get up in the morning or to exercise, or even to go about the day’s basic necessities of life.

Often this is a result of being betrayed or abandoned, even from a young age, or perhaps a traumatic experience or sustained difficulties or loss in life.

If we allow feelings of rejection, hopelessness, anger, rebellion, hatred, bitterness, fear (and any negative emotion you can think of) to have a place in our life, then before long, evil spirits of rejection, hopelessness, anger, rebellion, hatred, bitterness, fear and so on, will take up residence in our emotions which is part of our soul. The result of this is that we become an angry person, or a fearful person or whatever, and those traits will manifest in our lives, no matter how hard we try to stop them.

The solution is to recognize the demons and get rid of them and to go back to the root cause of those feelings – what caused that response in me in the first place? That needs to be dealt with and repentance is also necessary, which means changing the way we think and acting differently.

THERE IS A POWERFUL ALTERNATIVE TO ANTIDEPRESSANTS!

My book goes on to explain how we can be free, along with a whole series of prayers for you to pray along with. Here is part of one of those prayers that you may now wish to pray:

Father God, please forgive me for coming into agreement with any evil spirit that has caused… (and then say what it is). Father God forgive me for coming into agreement with any evil spirit of (pain, depression, despair, anxiety, addiction, cancer, arthritis etc) when I spoke out….. or took medication to try and suppress it…. or expected it to happen…. or gave in to fear… (or whichever way you gave it a foothold in your life). I’m sorry for believing the lies of the enemy over the Word of God and Your Truth. Whatever is causing this condition, I command that demonic spirit to leave me now through the power of Jesus who is the anointed one; the highest power… Amen.

I hope you found these short extracts from my book helpful. Follow the link for more details including me reading the introduction on video and you can purchase the book from our online store. Also available on Kindle.

Hearing the Christmas story each year, we can dumb it down to simply a children’s nativity play or choir boys in a high church setting, but re-read the gospels as though hearing for the first time, and you’ll realise how religious we’ve made it. What actually happened was to ordinary people like you and me. And just like us, they had to work out what to do, and those choices would affect the history of the world.

And how did they do that? They came into alignment with God’s plan for their lives by paying attention to their dreams, listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit and communicating with angels.

God speaks through dreams

In Matthew 1:20, as the young man Joseph prepares to quietly separate from his fiancee Mary when he finds out she’s pregnant (and not by him), he has a dream in which an angel appears and tells him it’s OK, the baby has been conceived supernaturally! When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel told him. Wow! What faith. So many of us get into difficulties or don’t know which way to turn, but if we ask God to speak to us, He will. In fact He’s always speaking in many different ways, but we often miss it – we usually dismiss dreams as not being relevant, but God often directs our steps or warns us through dreams. And angels, believe it or not, do not always have wings! They often appear as normal human beings and can be easy to miss (see Hebrews 13:2).

The sorcerors who came to worship Jesus and bring him gifts were warned in a dream to return home a different route. Joseph dreamed again after Jesus was born and was told to flee to Egypt to protect the life of Jesus from Herod who would have killed him. What if Joseph had ignored the dream, or at least waited around and hoped for another sign? Even if they hid and Jesus wasn’t killed with all the other little boys at the time, He wouldn’t have fulfilled the prophecy by Hosea that is quoted in Matthew 2:15, “Out of Egypt I called my Son.”

Submitting to God’s plan

Many prophecies were fulfilled by the choices that Mary and Joseph made and the same applies to us. God has a plan for your life but you have to pay attention, make the right choices and step out in faith for those plans to be fulfilled. Often, when a difficult situation or something unplanned arises, we quote scripture at it, ask people to pray for us and blame the devil. But you know, if Joseph had not taken his wife Mary, along with Jesus and fled to Egypt to live until the death of Herod, Biblical prophecies would not have been fulfilled.

God often uses trials and unpredicted circumstances to keep us on the right path. Following Jesus is not the easiest path, so there’s no point in hoping it will all be plain sailing. We may as well accept that now! But it will be the greatest adventure, and if you pay attention to your dreams, visits from angels and other signs in everyday life, follow where they lead and trust that God knows what He’s doing, it will be a life full of peace and purpose no matter what happens along the way.

Watch this video and read the blog by Aliss Cresswell below.

Discover what is happening in the spirit realm right now, how this impacts your life and what choices you need to make at this pivotal moment in history…

The Spirit Realm affects the Natural Realm

It’s important to know what is happening spiritually at any given time, because what happens in the spirit realm actually affects what happens in the natural, physical realm. For thousands of years people have known this to be true, but on the whole the western world gradually turned its back on spiritual matters over the past few centuries, to its detriment. Only in recent years have we increasingly begun to understand again that the spiritual realm is real and its influence can no longer be ignored or belittled.

Spiritual Power

The power available in the spirit realm is immense, for good or evil, and it is essential that we learn of its potential to affect our lives, including our families, communities and nations. Many of us still give little thought to what is happening spiritually and this leaves us subject to external forces, resulting in wrong choices and powerless lives. To counteract this, many search for spiritual guidance, but without a clear understanding of the powerful forces at work spiritually, can unwittingly become drawn into spiritual practices that open the door to harmful influences. This can result in ill-health and torment both physically and mentally, broken relationships and generally a lack of well-being in many areas of life.

Forces for good and evil

The key thing to remember is that there are two opposing forces in the world – good and evil; we see this reflected in what is happening around us. The Bible says that God is good and He has good plans for our lives – plans to prosper us in spirit, soul and body, and not to harm us. According to the Bible, our enemy, satan, comes to steal, kill and ultimately destroy us (see John 10:10). So the key to living a healthy, fruitful life is to know God’s plan for us personally and to walk that path, and also to understand what the enemy is doing so we can steer clear from his plan for our lives. One of the best ways to know God’s good plan for us is to read letters from God Himself – this is what the Bible is – the written word of God.

Avoiding pitfalls

The Bible helps us to know God and be joined to Him, but how do we know what is happening spiritually right now at this moment in time? How do we know what the enemy is planning to do so that we can avoid falling into his traps? The Bible says that the enemy cannot outwit us if we are aware of his schemes (see 2 Cor 2:11). That’s where we need discernment from God and His daily communications with us. God speaks to us through His Holy Spirit (see John 16:12-15) in many different ways, and if you would like help to hear from God for your own life then do consider joining our SpiritLifestyle.com portal.

So what is happening spiritually right now?

I’ve been asking the Holy Spirit to show me what is happening now and you can do the same. As you read this, ask the Holy Spirit to confirm to you if what I am saying is from Him. Get used to communicating with Him more and learning the ways that He speaks.

In early November, as England went into another full lockdown, I shared regular Facebook Live videos (November Challenge with Aliss Cresswell) and in one video, I reflected on a dream I’d had that morning. Now I don’t know if this dream is just for the UK regarding the timescale, but I do believe it’s indicative of what God is doing globally in these days.

A Shaking

Before I awoke I heard the words ‘GREAT CHANGE’ being spoken and I saw the ground shaking from below, almost like an earthquake and roots of what looked like grass in the soil. Later that same day as I asked the Holy Spirit to show me more, I heard the words ‘SPRING BULBS’ and ‘PARTHENOGEN’. Not knowing the word Parthenogen, I typed it into my browser just as I’d heard it and was surprised to discover it was in fact an actual word, and its definition is ‘reproduction without two parents, where the offspring is an exact replica of the parent eg. virgin birth, spring bulbs such as a daffodil’. Apparently a daffodil (which happens to be a Welsh national emblem) can be grown from seed but it’s a very long process. From a bulb, planted in the autumn, using its underground food storage, after winter, the daffodil shoots up quickly and flowers in the Spring. It’s a much quicker process of reproduction.

A Spiritual Awakening

This was back in November 2020 and what I gleaned from that revelation was that as we approach Spring 2021, I believe we are going to see a powerful spiritual awakening beginning in the UK and other nations too. Here in Wales, daffodil shoots are already coming up through the earth and some even have flower buds, so the signs are pointing to an awakening of new life springing up very soon.

The Winter is Past

I’m reminded of Song of Solomon chapter 2: “See the winter is past… flowers appear on the earth… arise my darling, my beautiful one and come away with me…” The Lord is calling us into a deeper communion with Him, to come away from worldly distractions and to keep our eyes focused on Him. One of the things the enemy is doing right now is trying to distract each one of us away from Jesus, the One our souls long for. If our eyes are taken off Him, then our lives begin to fall apart and we will lose our hope and our reason for living.

Our battle is not against flesh and blood

As I mentioned already, God has a good plan and a purpose for each one of us, but the enemy will try and take us off that path. One thing happening right now is the enemy is trying to destroy marriages and break down family relationships.  He will go for your weak points, so watch out. Remember, our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (see Ephesians 6:12). So if you’ve been cooped up with family members for a long time during Covid, don’t fall out with each other, but come together to war against the spiritual forces that are working to destroy your relationship. We really do need to know what to watch out for so we can avoid the devil’s plans to destroy every area of our lives.

The Spirit of Life sets us free

Death, destruction and despair are swirling around us, but meditate on the powerful truths of God’s word. I love Romans 8 which states that ‘The law of the Spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death, through Jesus.’ Woohoo! That’s good news right there, but we have to stand against sin, sickness and death by faith and release the kingdom of heaven instead if we are to live in the good of that scripture.

Hope Springs Forth

Despite the great shaking in the earth right now, there is immense hope. Like daffodil bulbs, there are hundreds of thousands of followers of Jesus – children of God, made in His image, who have been hidden and covered, protected and nurtured. The waiting and preparation is worth it, as new life emerges. And just as spring flowers are revealed as the sun’s warmth penetrates the earth, so each of these ‘new creation’ children of God will be revealed in all their glory as the ‘Son’ shines through us. “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God” (Romans 8:14) and “The entire universe is standing on tiptoe, yearning to see the unveiling of God’s glorious sons and daughters!” (Romans 8:19 TPT). That’s you and me.

Heaven’s Armies are on the Move

Look out for my next blog, where I share how the angelic host of heaven are an integral part of what is happening in the spirit realm right now and how we can interact with them and harness the power available to us through Jesus.

An invitation from Rob & Aliss Cresswell

We want to help you live the life you were born for. God has chosen you to live a life of fullness and a lifestyle of miracles. He wants to work powerfully in and through your life. We invite you to be part of our supportive online community and mentoring where you can choose a weekly Spirit Lifestyle Class to suit you, we’ve personally produced many powerful training videos that will help bring clarity and a sense of well being, along with activations and faith tasks that will help you put into practice the overcoming Spirit-led life. Plus regular live Q&A where we answer your questions personally!

Click the button below for your FREE TRIAL to get started. There’s really nothing to lose – you even get to choose how much you want to pay each month for your subscription once the free trial ends. So don’t delay, join now and we look forward to welcoming you into a whole new world and a life beyond your wildest dreams!

Want to know more about our weekly Classes and Miracle Hubs?

More and more lives are being transformed in many nations through our Spirit Lifestyle weekly Classes and now Miracle Hubs too. If you would like to be involved in any way, follow the links below and get ready for God to move powerfully in and through your life…

This post is one of many written on the community page of our online portal.

An invitation from Rob & Aliss Cresswell

We want to help you live the life you were born for. God has chosen you to live a life of fullness and a lifestyle of miracles. He wants to work powerfully in and through your life. We invite you to be part of our supportive online community and mentoring where you can choose a weekly Spirit Lifestyle Class to suit you, we’ve personally produced many powerful training videos that will help bring clarity and a sense of well being, along with activations and faith tasks that will help you put into practice the overcoming Spirit-led life. Plus regular live Q&A where we answer your questions live!

Click the button below for your FREE TRIAL to get started. There’s really nothing to lose – you even get to choose how much you want to pay each month for your subscription once the free trial ends. So don’t delay, join now and we look forward to welcoming you into a whole new world and a life beyond your wildest dreams!