(written by Redeemed on behalf of Abigail)
When the concept of MPD was first introduced to Plex, who was the personality who was primarily out when we were first diagnosed, the principal concern was how to understand and interpret this concept as it relates to Scripture. Our whole life has been built upon the understanding that the Bible is God’s word given to mankind so that we can understand God, creation, mankind (on both a broad and personal level), and how God wants to relate to His creation and His creation to relate to Him. It is 100% accurate and 100% reliable.
Although there are many specific things that are not addressed in the Scripture, all things that exist can be rightly understood and applied through an accurate understanding of Scripture. God has provided all that is needed to rightly understand His Word – primarily the Bible and His Holy Spirit, and He also uses many other aides to guide us. If something is prohibited, or if it is contrary to what the Bible says, it is not from or of God.
From that basic understanding, we focused our search of Scripture to achieve a right understanding of DID.
The first passage God took us to was _*Ecclesiastes 4: 8-12*_ in which Solomon (the wisest man that ever lived but in my opinion not the smartest) describes how one man alone cannot stand against the perils of the world, but two together can withstand an attack and two together can give needed warmth to each other which neither can have alone; and then he concludes that, “a three-strand chord is not easily broken”. Plex felt strongly within her spirit that God was revealing a basic principal God had designed for the survival of his people in a fallen and often hostile world, but she wanted to be sure that she was not just taking a passage of Scripture and applying it to her specific situation .
At that time we were part of a very small body of believers, but one of our members was doing his doctoral thesis on a Hebrew letter, and we sought out his help in making sure we were accurately interpreting this passage, which he did confirm. We sought out his help each time we found another passage to add to our understanding because we were searching out what was true concerning this diagnosis, not looking to find passages to support what we wanted the Bible to say. Our trust in and reliance upon our Creator grew as He revealed more and more about Himself as well as His design.
One of the New Testament passages we studied was _*Romans 12: 4,5*_ “For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.” Paul was talking here about the church of Christ, not DID, but it is an example of how God has incorporated this principal into how He wants His people to function. He goes on to amplify how God designed different strengths into different members of His body with the intention that we would work together for the good of one another and to bring honor and glory to Him. In _*Ephesians 2*_ Paul is talking about how God has reconciled to Himself the Jewish Christians and the Non-Jewish Christians who previously were very separate groups as God had ordained in the old testament, yet in Christ Jesus God has made the two into one _*(vs. 14)*_ and concludes in _*vs. 19-22,*_ “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are…of God’s household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles, and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.” Here again is the principal of God taking more than one nation/group of people and in His time and His way He takes away what divides them and makes them one.
The principal is even evident in who God is – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – all independent, unique, whole personalities yet together they are the one and only GOD.
We also looked at the passages that are sometimes used to make the point that DID is not of God, like Jesus’ words in _*Luke 11:17*_, “…Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and a house divided against itself falls.” / _*James 1:7,8*_ “For let that not that man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways,” / and _*Mark5:1-14,*_ which is the account of Jesus casting out the many demons who were in one man (and other passages where Jesus casts out demons). In Luke 11:17 Jesus was actually being accused by the Jewish leaders to be the head of all demons, and Jesus’ words were meant to point out how absurd that premise was. That’s a far cry from meaning that this is a principal to be observed. The context of the passage in James is people asking God for wisdom when they don’t really trust God or believe God will answer their prayer.
I think James was addressing the attitude that God is a great Jeanie in the sky and that He should just give me whatever I think is good for me. It has absolutely nothing to do with more than one personality in one body. If you look closely at all the passages about demons, they are always agents of harm to the people who they possess, and while they recognize Jesus as the Son of God, they are terrified of Him. They certainly do not glorify Him or attempt to honor Him. Our experience of/as alters has been that we are motivated by what is good for the birth personality, we each have come to our own point of acceptance of Jesus Christ as personal Savior, and each time one of us comes to that point, the healing and benefit to the individual personality as well as the many of me is evident for anyone to see. There is one other evidence that we are not demonic that I want to mention before concluding this subject. Demons can be cast out and alter personalities can’t leave no matter how much they may want to or how hard they may try. We know this without a doubt because of what happened to us in Texas.
That will be the topic of another post very soon.
There are three more passages that have been foundational to our healing journey and the way we have incorporated Scripture into the way we function.
The first comes as close to a mantra as we get, and that would be _*John 8:32,”*_You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” These words of Jesus were spoken in reference to Himself being the truth that would set the Jews who were talking to Him at the time free; but they have resonated and reverberated in my spirit as I have meditated on them through the years. I do not understand them to mean that my perspective and understanding of my life is 100% accurate or flawless; but I do understand them to mean that as I continue to seek to see God’s truth reflected in my life and remain committed to integrity to myself as well as to others, the truth that God reveals to me will guide me into the freedom I need to live a healthy life that can bring glory and honor to Him. That means (among many other things) that I must embrace the true reality of the many of me.
The second passage of Scripture became a model for us. The passage is _*John 10:1-16*_, and it became our model after our return from Texas. I will highlight the specific parts of this passage that provides us with our model: (Jesus speaking) “Truly, Truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his oice, and he calls his own sheep y name, and leads them out. When he puts forth all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice…Jesus therefore said to them again, “Truly, Truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep…I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture…I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep…I am the good shepherd, and I know my own, and My own know Me…And I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must ring them also, and they shall hear My voice; and they shall become one flock with one shepherd.”
Jesus was talking about the Jews who would recognize Him as their Messiah and the non-Jews who would also become part of His flock; but we have applied this passage to address the issue of switching, which is a significant issue for a multiple (especially a multiple with so many personalities and so many different “folds”) At the time we adopted this passage, it had become abundantly clear that we needed someone to be in charge of who was out and when and for how long. Jesus Christ was the only One who could meet the requirements for the job – Someone who could base the decision on both the immediate needs and the long term goals for healing, Someone who knew who the many of me were (and could recognize an alien spirit if it attempted to masquerade as a sheep) and knew who needed to be out to work on their issues and/or who needed to take charge of the tasks that needed to be done. There have been many times when adhering to this model has appeared to be unwise; but over and over again we have learned from experience that God does not make mistakes as we have learned to leave complete control over switching to Him.
The third is _*Ecclesiastes 3:1-11*_, which speaks to the seasons of life – that there are seasons that are hard to endure and seasons that are a delight, ending with the 11th verse which states, “He has made everything beautiful in it’s time.”
I wish I could recall right now more of the different passages God took us to in our search to rightly understand this phenomenon that we were learning about, but the fact is that I can’t and I don’t have access to the written notes we took at the time. I know that our search took us to both the new and old testaments, including some very unlikely passages, but the more we studied the more clear it was that God built into our design the ability to create new personalities out of our whole one as a method to survive and to protect us.