You can find happiness by declaring it. In any situation, Christ will help you if you stand firm, if you have faith, and if in faith you remember to make such a declaration.
Persist and if it is of God, what you seek will come.
Can that be difficult?
Life is a challenge at every turn. But that challenge is joyful when we approach our trials with an attitude of victory.
Only in that way, only if we tackle everything with joy and peace, are we truly free. Declare happiness over your life.
The Truth sets us free, and the Truth is Jesus. The truth is also that you are more in control of your life and attitude, your mood, than you think. Are you free — or beholden to what’s around you?
“This is why,” explains author Dawna DeSilva, “you can leave your house in the best of moods only to have it fluctuate into a range of emotions. Let’s say you leave your house joyful; yet, when you arrive at the grocery store, you experience anxiety. Moments before you were in the best of moods yet now you are doused in stress and anxiety. What happened? Chances are you ‘picked up’ an ungodly atmosphere’s message and started partnering with it and took it on as your own.”
Make note when this happens and you are on the road to overcoming it — you are not as susceptible to the “vibes” of others. “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them,” says Ephesians 5:11-14.
Now, yes: all of us succumb from time to time to the environment, the spiritual atmosphere, that encompasses us. You are in a good mood and suddenly that shifts. Darkness descends. It’s like the lights go out. You’re deflated suddenly.
You can change that. You can decide not to let what and who is in your proximity negatively affect you.
It is in this vein that we strongly recommend Dawna’s new book, Shifting Atmospheres. We’ve already seen real effects by practicing what it preaches — removing the negative by verbal declaration and allowing God to fill in the space. Do this during Mass. Do it during the Rosary. Do it at Adoration.
Do it while you’re driving your car.
“If we are to be beacons for God in this world, we must eradicate all forms of darkness that work through us,” writes DeSilva. “Our homes should be peaceful and our neighborhoods safe. Our businesses should be the friendliest and most profitable. When we understand and properly shift atmospheres, we strategically release the Nature of Jesus. By imparting Heaven’s broadcasts, we become the open heavens through which God broadcasts His virtues to the world.”
Once we realize we’re picking up outside influences — and this happens constantly — we can more readily renounce ties to them. You just have to do it. You have to be aware. And you must stop thinking you’re at the mercy of circumstances. He Who is in you is greater than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4). When you identify the spirit you are reacting to and expose it to the Light, you cripple and eventually dismiss its power. “Many times,” writes De Silva, “a simple declaration is sufficient for shifting the atmosphere around you.”
“I see you [here fill in whichever atmosphere you are discerning]. I am not partnering with you. I send you back.”
This is where you start: remove by name what is afflicting you. Specificity grants you a mysterious power over it.
Then comes the declaration.
Let’s say you’re discerning a spirit of depression:
“I remove you, spirit of unhappiness,” you might say. “In the Name of Jesus, I remove you and fill myself with the spirit of hope and happiness.”
If it’s anxiety:
“I see/sense you, fear, and I will not partner with you. I send you back in Jesus’s Name.”
Then: “Forgive me, Father, for partnering with fear (or: jealousy or hopelessness, anger or lust). I invite You, Holy Spirit, to come and release Your peace into this place.”
Remove the wrong atmosphere by declaration and fill your surrounding with the right one. Just declare it!
Time and again, Scripture tells us how powerful words are.
We don’t think of it this way, but it’s true: we partner with negativity, falsity, and depression when we “go with the flow” of the world instead of the Flow of Heaven. Remove the negative and infill with His Light. Declare as John the Baptist, as Jesus, as Mary declared. Set forth on this path in a diligent way and you’ll be amazed at your transformation (and the marvels that materialize around you).
[resources: Shifting Atmospheres]
[And remember an uplifting song like Paloma Blanca:
When the sun shines on the mountains
And the night is on the run
It’s a new day, it’s a new way
And I fly up to the sun
I can feel the morning sunlight
I can smell the new-born hay
I can hear God’s voices calling
From my golden sky-light way
Una paloma blanca
I’m just a bird in the sky
Una paloma blanca
Over the mountains I fly
No one can take my freedom away
Once I had my share of losing
Once they locked me on a chain
Yes, they tried to break my power
Oh, I still can feel the pain
Una paloma blanca
I’m just a bird in the sky
Una paloma blanca
Over the mountain I fly
No one can take my freedom away