260. Psychosis or Demonic? With Pastor Rafe Ronning260. Psychosis or Demonic? With Pastor Rafe Ronning
Strong Tower Mental Health with Heidi Mortenson
Heidi Mortenson and Pastor Rafe Ronning talk frankly about whether psychosis, voices and severe mental distress might involve demonic influence, especially in the context of addiction and suicide. They share personal stories, biblical references and clinical language to help people weigh mental health care alongside spiritual deliverance and prayer.
49:05•5 Oct 2026
Psychosis or Demonic? Rethinking Mental Health, Voices and Deliverance
Episode Overview
- Voices that command harm or suicide may indicate spiritual influence, even when they resemble intrusive thoughts or psychotic symptoms.
- There is no explicit New Testament verse saying Christians can or cannot have demons, so experience and discernment play a major role.
- Rafe argues that when years of medication and treatment fail, it may point to a spiritual root that requires deliverance rather than more drugs.
- Heidi stresses that deliverance, like therapy, can’t be forced; the person needs to want help and choose Jesus and freedom for themselves.
- Both emphasise asking the Holy Spirit to reveal whether a problem is natural, spiritual, or a mix of both, rather than assuming it’s only one or the other.
“Deliverance is for the desperate.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety and mental health when spiritual questions are thrown into the mix? This episode of Strong Tower Mental Health brings that tension right to the front, asking a blunt question: “Is it psychosis, demonic influence—or both at the same time?” Licensed therapist and host Heidi Mortenson chats with Pastor Rafe Ronning, who has a background in drug and alcohol counselling and a personal story of dramatic deliverance.
Together, they talk through one of the trickiest issues many Christians face but rarely say out loud: can a Christian have a demon, and how does that sit alongside mental health diagnoses? The conversation moves between theology, real-life ministry stories, and clinical language. Heidi offers the clinical definition of psychosis and notes how symptoms like hallucinations, disorganised thinking, and suicidal urges can fit both a mental health framework and a spiritual one.
Rafe shares stories from addiction treatment, suicide loss in his own family, and his own freedom from sexual bondage, including the moment he kept hearing the phrase, “It’s a demon,” after crying out to God for help. They also discuss the high-profile Lindsay Clancy case, wrestling honestly with voices, medication, exhaustion, responsibility, and where spiritual oppression might fit in.
Rafe puts it plainly: “Deliverance is for the desperate,” while Heidi keeps circling back to the need for consent, choice, and readiness for change. If you’ve ever wondered whether those tormenting thoughts are ‘just you’, purely a diagnosis, or something darker, this conversation aims to bring clarity without shame, mixing Scripture, therapy language and real stories. It ends with a joint prayer for anyone battling suicidal thoughts, self-hatred, addiction, or confusion about what’s really going on.
Maybe the bigger question is this: are you willing to ask God, “What’s the real root here?” and stay open to the answer?
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