Forces

God is calling His people to stay connected to Himself and to be aware of the schemes of the enemy, so that we can effectively resist him. 1st Peter 5 says:
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.

The enemy is at work throughout the world - He intends to do harm to people, while God is the healer, the restorer...and He, in His great love, is inviting people to experience more of Him through a relationship with Jesus Christ.  Otherwise, we are walking in the kingdom of the enemy in the domain of this world.  We can recognize the struggle, and rejoice that we have a God who goes before us, a mighty and powerful God, Who gives us the power to effectively walk in victory.

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In Ephesians 6, we are given instruction that is beneficial for us in spiritual warfare:
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

I can't say I'm familiar with the TV show, Kids Incorporated, but many may be familiar with one of the child stars of it, Stacy Ferguson.  Stacy went from child stardom to same-sex experimentation and hard-core drug use, including crystal meth, according to a Daily Mail report a few years ago, relating information from an interview with Oprah Winfrey.  She described the progression:

'From ecstasy it went to crystal meth. With any drugs, everything is great at the beginning, and then slowly your life starts to spiral down. [I was] 90 pounds at one point.'

This only lasted for a year, she claims.  The article says that she "said she was able to quit after going to church and making a deal with God."

She said: 'I started getting really paranoid. So I went one day into this church and I thought that the FBI and the SWAT teams were outside the church...so I had a conversation with God...and I said, "Alright, if I go out there and the FBI and the SWAT team's not out there, then it's the drugs and I'm stopping."

'I went outside of the church...and there was no SWAT team, there was no FBI, just me and God. And I kept my promise. That day. That was it.'

Well, Stacy is better known as the lead singer of a group called the Black-Eyed Peas, and is known now as simply, Fergie.

And, recently, she has added a more spiritual dimension to the effects of drugs on her life, basically exploring the demonic aspects of her experiences.  In a recent music video, according to CBN News, she says, "I got to a point where I was seeing devils everywhere. Devil faces. Creatures that would appear to me and say 'fly, fly, fly.'"

She also says, "I would constantly be in the state of just listening to these characters, or these demons, or creatures – what they were going to tell me, what their messages were..."

The CBN story also relates:

She is seen in the music video barricading herself in the church and crossing herself as she approaches the altar.

Fergie, who says she takes her four-year-old son to church every Sunday, goes on to explain what happened.

"It was just this epiphany I had in this holy war. The war between good and evil, that good will always be more powerful," she says.

ChristianHeadlines.com quotes her: "I had to really work hard at telling the visions, the spirits, to go away," adding, "I had to say it out loud -- 'Leave me alone. I choose the good.'" It reports, "Although in the video Fergie mentions how the epiphany has helped her to love her husband and son better, according to CBN News, Fergie and Duhamel have since separated."

Now, you don't really pick up on what sort of religious practice Fergie is involved in.  She and her husband had their son, Axl, baptized in a Catholic church back in 2013, according to People magazine.

Here you have a famous singer who is discussing spiritual matters, and there are some talking points that we can certainly relate to:

One is the battle between good and evil.  It's there, and through the Scriptures, we can truly define the two.  Designer religion or pop culture might have its own concepts of the spiritual dividing lines, but the Bible can bring those into clarity: It's not a matter of what's good for me not being good for you; rather, it's God's objective, absolute truth .

But, at least Stacy, er, Fergie, is calling attention to those things, as well as the existence of demonic spirits and their operation.  Her experimentation with drugs is seen as a bad thing that brought her into a desperate place.  We acknowledge the physical effects of substance abuse, but we also have to realize that there are spiritual forces at work that affect the addict - that is why Christ-centered recovery programs are so effective, because the physical act of drug usage is driven by a spiritual deficiency - the absence of Christ in a person's life.

The enemy will play mind games with us - for instance, Fergie was a victim of paranoia, brought about apparently by drug use.  But, we recognize that he will attempt to deceive the Christian, trying to lure us with false promises and fake stories that he will project into our brain.  We have to take the Scriptures seriously to be transformed by the renewing of our minds and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

And, we do well to identify how spiritual forces are working all around us, and choose to arm ourselves with God's resources - Ephesians 6 describes the full armor of God.  We are armed with His truth - defensively and offensively; protecting our minds and doing battle with the enemy.  It's more than a matter of religious practice, though; it's walking in the reality of God's presence.