The Only Way to Get Rid of All the Negative Energy in Your Life

Or, Should Christians Wear Crystals?

Contrary to other answers here, I would say Yes, positive and negative energy exists, and they are at work in your life. But the Bible talks about it pretty differently than new age spirituality does. And there is a whole different kind of protection that Christians have, much better than crystals.

Three Types of Energy

Off the cuff as a theologian and a pastor, I would say there are three types of energy the Bible talks about, and they connect with us having a spirit, soul, and body/mind.

1) Spiritual energy is connected to our “spirit.”

2) Relational energy is connected to our “soul.”

3) Neural energy is connected to our “body/mind.”

Negative spiritual energy attacks us.

Negative relational energy wounds us, making us easy targets for spiritual attack.

And negative neural energy (our brains and bodies) tempt us through bad habits and addictions.

[Side note: I’m adding these to the typical energy sources that science talks about (heat, light, motion, electrical, chemical, nuclear, and gravity). The three I listed connected to body, soul, and spirit are intimately connected to all the others, even if we don’t always know how.]

Let me explain.

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Power Encounter with a Spiritual Energy

I had a couple vivid experiences in college that illustrate the reality of spiritual energy. I went to college in Santa Cruz, California. It is a very spiritually charged place. Everyone had ghost stories, and strange occurrences. People practice new age spirituality and witchcraft all over the place. After a couple weeks living in a new apartment I also had a spiritual occurrence. But it wasn’t fun.

In the middle of the night I woke up with a dark presence in the corner of the my room. I was full of terror. And frozen in bed. I couldn’t move a muscle, not from lack of trying. I couldn’t speak or do anything. I was in the grip of this malevolent presence (call it negative energy if you want), and it won’t let me go. Did I say I was terrified?

But then, from the deep recesses of my mind came a Bible verse from 1 John 4:4: “Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”

And I remembered that the one who was in me is Jesus Christ, God who had become fully human.

So from the back of my mind I just kept thinking, praying, and speaking the name of Jesus until his name popped out of my mouth. As soon as the name of Jesus crossed my lips evil presence immediately left and I could move again.

You might think I was just having a bad night.

But the same thing occurred every time I moved to another house or apartment! After a couple days in a new place I was confronted by what I later came to know was an evil spirit living in that place (what many would call bad or negative energy). And then I would struggle to speak the name of Jesus, and when I did the evil presence was forced to leave.

And this didn’t just happen in California. It happened again when I moved to Chicago. Slowly I was learning more and more that the one “in me” is greater than whatever it was that was attacking me.

I was having a power encounter with negative spiritual energy—or what many call demons, or evil spirits. But because Jesus had overcome all that bad energy I didn’t need to fear them any more.

Relational Energy

Bad spiritual energy isn’t the only kind. We also need to understand that there is relational energy.

Relational energy is the inflow and outflow of energy needed to be in relationship with someone. Sometimes when we are with people we feel they are dragging us down, or after we are done being with them we feel exhausted. Other people we love to be around because they are bring us up and fill us up. One person give us relational energy. The other take it away. Or one person gives us positive relational energy (when we feel fully alive) and the other gives us negative relational energy (we want to crawl in a hole).

Most often good or bad relational energy comes through the words people speak. As Hawk Nelson sings, “Words can build you up. Words can break you down. Start a fire in your heart or put it out.” If you’ve been told you are stupid long enough then you are going to believe it. That negative energy will stick to you long after that person is gone.

Neural Energy

The last type of energy has to do with our brains and bodies (which are intimately connected).

Neural energy is the energy flowing through our neural pathways, pathways that are initially made when we are young through all the relational energy (positive or negative) we received. Our neural pathways are also paved through our habits and actions. Often we think we are making decision and acting with intention. But in reality we are just sliding down well-established neural pathways—following the energy signal wherever it leads us because of our habits (of thought or action).

If we were loved then our brains will assume the world is a safe and caring place, and we will be resilient in hardship, we will protect the weak, and we will contribute creatively to the world.

If we weren’t well loved well as children then our brains will assume the world is dangerous and unpredictable, we will be discouraged by hardship, we will become predators on the weak (or will be the weak ones preyed upon), and we will not contribute positively to the world.

These things happen not necessarily because we chose them, but because of the neural pathways.

Learn how to quiet an anxious and avoidant faith by attaching to God and others in our Attaching to God learning cohort.

Greater is He than…All the Negative Energy

What does all this have to do with protection for bad energy?

Well, remember the verse I mentioned, 1 John 4:4. It says that Jesus is greater that he who is (or they) in the world.

1) Jesus is greater than the evil spirits that would attack and destroy us (the negative spiritual energies).

2) Jesus is the true word of God who speaks words of love and belonging to us, healing our wounds (overcoming all negative relational energy).

3) And Jesus, the Word become flesh (in brain and body), promises to retrain our neural pathways if we follow him rather than fall into temptation. Can can have the mind of Christ through the Spirit of Christ (overcoming negative neural energy).

So while bad energies would attack (spirit) , wound (soul), and tempt us (body), Jesus overcome those and gives us life-giving words, words that bring positive energy.

Better than a Crystal — Positive Relationships

What you need to ward off bad energy is not a crystal. For all you know that crystal is opening you up to attacks by negative spiritual energy.

The only way to get rid of the impact of these negative energies is to really grow your own relational energy. With really high relational energy (what some call joyful connections) you are protected from attacks from spiritual realm (spiritual energy) and withstand temptations from our flesh (brain/body). The best way to grow in relational energy is to have better words, is to believe better words, about ourselves and others.

Positive Thinking, or Word Made Flesh?

This is where “self-help” and the “power of positive thinking” get it right. Words, the right words, words that speak life and joy and hope and strength, will radically transform your life.

But these kinds of therapy and counseling are wrong because we can’t just give ourselves new words. No matter how hard we try, our own words just won’t do the trick. We have to receive these words from another person—someone who is both an authority (they know what they are talking about) and they are someone intimate to us (so we can believe them and know they care for us).

Jesus Christ—fully God and fully human—is this person. He is the best person to give us better words because he is the very Word of God. As fully God, Jesus is the authority we need to overcome all the bad energy (the negative words). And as fully human, Jesus is intimate to us, coming close to us in our weakness and building us up with compassion.

A Cross, Not a Crystal

If you need something, then get a cross to wear instead of a crystal.

Not because a cross has any power in itself (like in the exorcism movies and all that). But a cross can remind you that Jesus crossed out the power of all that negative energy in your life. A cross can remind you that the name of Jesus is more powerful than all the negative energy killed him. But God overcame even death, cancelled all that negative power, and was raised back to life. And he promised to do the same for you.

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