Getting close to God and overcoming demonic oppression — prerequisites and warnings

Prerequisites for closeness to God: (1) Humble attitude toward God. (2) Repentant attitude toward sin. (3) Trusting attitude toward God's love and grace — cannot draw near if you do not trust his love. Pride is identified as the silent but deadly sin because it does not announce itself. On demonic oppression: Mike cannot diagnose remotely. He urges finding stable spiritual leaders who are both supernaturally aware and naturally grounded. Two failure modes: (1) stable but anti-supernatural — will not help with spiritual warfare. (2) supernaturally aware but ungrounded — everything is a demon. Open doors to demonic oppression may include sin; removing dark spiritual influences is standard advice. Some people in demon-focused cultures mistake ordinary sinful temptations for demonic oppression.