Dementia definition - a condition characterized by progressive or persistent loss of intellectual functioning, especially with impairment of memory and abstract thinking, and often with personality change, resulting from organic disease of the brain. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of a progressive dementia in older adults
Overview - A group of thinking and social symptoms that
interferes with daily functioning. Not a
specific disease, dementia is a group of conditions characterized by impairment
of at least two brain functions, such as memory loss and judgment. Symptoms
include forgetfulness, limited social skills, and thinking abilities so
impaired that it interferes with daily functioning. Medications and therapies may help manage
symptoms. Symptoms - People may experience: Cognitive: mental
decline, confusion, disorientation, inability to speak or
understand language, making things up, mental confusion, or inability to recognize
common things
Behavioral: irritability, personality changes,
restlessness, lack of restraint, or wandering and getting lost
Mood: anxiety, loneliness, mood swings,
or nervousness
Psychological: depression, hallucination, or
paranoia
Muscular: inability to combine muscle
movements or unsteady walking
Also
common: memory loss,
falling, jumbled speech, or sleep disorder, and wandering
Treatments - Treatment depends on stage. Medications and therapies may help manage
symptoms.
Therapies: Rehabilitation and Occupational
therapy
Medications:
Cognition-enhancing medication
The above is
from the scientific explanation of Dementia and most of it is related to
symptoms and treatments. But, where does
it come from? In other words, what is
the root cause of Dementia? How can we prevent Dementia? Can God in His Word give us insight into the
causes of Dementia?
Keep in
mind the mind body connection in this teaching.
What happens to our emotional affects our physical.
Key thing to
understand about Dementia is that this disease/sickness began shortly after
Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the forbidden tree (Genesis 3:6). They
were deceived by Satan causing them to be confused when they chose to eat the
forbidden fruit. There are verses from
the bible that I will breakdown to explain the cause of Dementia. One of the beginning stages of Dementia is confusion. Confusion is the state of being bewildered or
unclear in one’s mind about something. Similar words are: perplexed, puzzled,
disoriented, and dazed. Does this sound
familiar as it pertains to you or someone you know? Dementia gets worse as the confusion
increases. Doctors cannot reverse or
heal Dementia. They just treat the
symptoms. Understanding confusion is one
of the keys to slowing down Dementia and/or bringing healing in the name of
Jesus.
1
Corinthians 14:33 For God is not the author of confusion but of peace,
as in all the churches of the saints.
If God is
not the author of confusion, who is?
Satan! He is a thief (John
10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy…..). Satan uses confusion (Dementia) to destroy
us. In addition, envy, and self-seeking causes confusion (James 3:16 For
where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are
there).
The next
verse is the number one issue we deal with in ministry. It has to do with fear. It is said that fear is mentioned in the
bible 365 times. Is God trying to tell
us something?
2 Timothy
1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of
a sound mind.
God tells us
that He has not given us a spirit of fear.
The second part of this verse is very important and powerful when
overcoming fear and the confusion tied to it.
First: he gives us power, which
means authority over fear in the name of Jesus.
Fear is a spirt. We have the power to cast fear and send it to the dry
places (Matthew 12:43 When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes
through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none).
Second:
We have God’s perfect love in faith to cast out fear as we
minister to those who have fear including ourselves (1 John 4:18 There is no
fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment.
But he who fears has not been made perfect in love).
Third: He promises a sound mind because of
our authority to cast out fear causing confusion.
Fear is the
primary cause of confusion and is the number one cause of Dementia. We need to identify the hundreds of different
fears that causes Dementia and many other sicknesses and diseases.
Fear of not
being loved Fear of not being
worthy Fear of rejection Fear of failure
Fear of
being alone Fear of losing your job Fear of the future Fear of how people think of you
Fear of
driving Fear of confrontation
Fear of letting people down Fear
of people
Generational
fears passed down to all of us and our children
Symptoms
that have stressors (fears) tied to them
Traumas Regrets Sorrows Contracted
muscles/ligaments/tendons heart
problems
Constricted
blood vessels Sleep apnea Cramps Migraines Insomnia Constipation
Panic
attacks Fatigue Chest Pains High
blood pressure Indigestion Depression
So, how does
fear affect us regarding Dementia? We must
understand how much we fear throughout the day and how it contributes to our
sickness and disease and especially Dementia.
We are born
with fear. As we get older fears
multiple exponentially. By the time we
get into our sixties and seventies we have hundreds of thousands of fears
affecting our health. Example:
Each day,
and I am being conservative, we have a minimum of twenty-five
anxieties/stressors/worries/fears.
25 fears X
365 days = 9,125 fears in one year
9,125 fears
X 10 years = 91,250 fears by the time a person is ten years old
9,125 fears
X 70 years = 638,750 fears by the time a person reaches
the age of seventy years old
This does
not include the fears that were passed on to you from the previous generations.
2 Timothy
1:7 tells us that
fear is a spirit and it is not physical.
Although, the symptoms of fear are physical.
We cannot
battle in the physical if the war is in the spiritual realm. Gabriel and Michael fought the prince of
Persia in the spiritual realm in the second heaven (Daniel 10:13 But the
prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold,
Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone
there with the kings of Persia). When
we pray to God in Jesus’ name, it’s in the spiritual realm.
There are two
ways to battle fear and confusion that leads to Dementia.
First. A team of two or more (Matthew
18:20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in
the midst of them) can cast out fear in the name of Jesus (Mark 16:17
And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out
demons).
Second. You can confess your sins of fear to God and ask God
to forgive you so that you may be healed (James 5:16 Therefore confess your
sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The
prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective).
Generational
sin must be renounced as well. There are two parts when we pray for
generational sins. 1. We must confess and renounce the sins of fear from the
generations and ask God to forgive them. 2.
We must ask God to forgive us for being partakers of the generation sin
and ask God to forgive us. Deuteronomy
5:9 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am
a jealous God, visiting the iniquity (sins) of the fathers upon the
children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me. The bible has many symbolic
scriptures. I believe this verse
represents past and current generations.
Once the oldest dies the newest child take the place of the oldest. Its perpetual from the time of Adam and Eve.
The hard
part in dealing with sin is to:
·
1.Recognize
your sin
·
2.
Acknowledge sin is an issue in your life
·
3.
Confess your sin
·
4.
Ask God to forgive you of your sin so that you are absolved of that sin by His stipes
Isaiah 53:5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was
bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by
His stripes we are healed.
1 Peter 2:24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the
tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose
stripes you were healed.
It gets easier when you pray each day because the sins that
have you in captivity must be eradicated so there will be less sins affecting
you. Understand, we have a propensity to
let sin back in because of our past history of sin. So, we may be addressing some of the same
sins each day. Eventually, the effects
of sins are minimized and we progressively get better, mentally, and physically
each day. Our sins require daily attention.
We must turn from our worldly understanding because we are
sick and diseased and turn to God and His Word to be healed of sickness and
disease.
Do not minimize God’s promises of healing.
Although, we focused on fear as the primary sin causing
confusion leading to Dementia, we must consider all sin contributing to
Dementia such as self-rejection (beating up on self), self-hatred,
unforgiveness, bitterness, anger, etc.
Every sin is a trauma to our temple.
Every trauma has a stressor tied to it.
Lastly, I want to emphasize the mind-body connection again. What happens to our emotional
affects our physical. Many blessings
to you all!
Tony Sanchez March
21, 2023
