Liz talks with author Dayne Kamela about his new book titled Choose Prayer, Not Despair. A simple but powerful message: to win the battle for your mental health, start with prayer. In it, author and social media influencer Dayne Kamela delves deeply into the intersection of mental health and prayer, highlighting their profound connection. By incorporating biblical stories of individuals who battled similar struggles, Dayne offers practical insights into how prayer can serve as a powerful tool for overcoming depression, suicidal thoughts, and other mental health issues.
This is Liz Franzel with Crawford Media Group, and today our guest is Dane Camilla, social media influencer and now author of his new book titled Choose Prayer, Not Despair, which gives practical strategies for using prayer to combat specific mental health issues such as anxiety, fear, and worry. Welcome to our program, Dane.
SPEAKER 02 :
Liz, thank you so much for having me on.
SPEAKER 01 :
Dane, you had your own struggles with these issues. Tell us a little bit about that and how you overcame it.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, definitely. My story with mental health specifically was I was 22 years old, following the Lord, rededicated my life to Christ at 18, and the first thing I started really growing in was prayer and just talking to God. He was doing some amazing things in my life, put that gift of encouragement on my heart, and I just wanted to encourage everyone around me. I was going to school at the time, getting a degree in exercise and wellness and health promotion, and about four years into growing in my faith and growing in prayer, I still was still learning the Word and still pretty, I guess, not as deep into understanding my identity and authority and some of these other things, and I believe that what happened was the enemy kind of came around that time when I was 22 and started to just oppressed my life little by little in regards to just different thoughts and feelings. And because I didn’t know how to fight back and resist the devil, I more so entertained it. And he really took a seat at my table and started to just mess with my mind. And it got worse and worse and worse. I became delusional and just acting really weird. I was around my family at that time. And my mom, who’s a strong believer, could see that. And What ended up happening was I had a full blown manic episode, which is the result of someone who is diagnosed with bipolar disorder one. It got so bad to the point where I was eventually hospitalized i still had to admit myself but just going through so much delusion and darkness and i truly believe is an attack from the enemy too at this time that i was in that hospital and they gave me a lot of medication which i think was important to help me since i didn’t know how to help myself and couldn’t tell what was real from what was not and i was in there for two weeks and After getting out, I went to see a Christian psychologist, and they did a brain map on my brain to show me and my family with evidence what was actually going on with my brain. And from that report that the doctors had shared with me at that time, they showed me how unbalanced my brain was and that I had severe bipolar disorder 1, which is a mental health illness that has no cure. I was taking medication at that time and they had told me that I was going to need to continue to take medication so I wouldn’t have to encounter another one of these manic episodes because the medication helps balance your brain back to that normal state where you can function and hearing that information obviously was difficult for me to hear but also at the same time I had a mom who had such strong faith to believe that I could be healed. And she encouraged me in a time like that when my identity was really being challenged to not speak that illness over my life. Yes, we took the medication and we did what the doctors recommended, but we also believed at the same time that I could be healed, which I think was extremely important. And I started to walk in that wholeness and health and walk in my identity as a believer and really meditate on the scripture and pray that scripture over my life. And two weeks after getting that diagnosis at the Christian psychologist, I went to a church service that my walk with the Lord started at. And they asked for prayer at the end, if anyone wanted to come up for prayer. And my mom looked over at me and she said, you should go up for prayer again. I didn’t hesitate. I walked right to the front to the wife and the husband who were the leaders of the church. And they just, I told them what was going on. They started praying for me and my hands started to shake. Keep in mind, I’d never experienced anything like this. I, at this point, never saw anyone healed at church and my hands started to shake. And my eyes opened up too, just a little bit, and I think the pastor’s eyes opened up too, because they were just wondering what was going on, but they continued to pray, and I knew in my mind right then and there that the Lord was moving, and after they got done praying, I felt this spirit lift off my body, and I knew right then and there that God had healed me, and it transformed what I believed about Him, because I experienced so much of that darkness when I was going through the bipolar and the mania and the darkness that really was on my life at that time and he came in and he moved and he healed me and two weeks later I just started to taper off the medication each day because I just believed that I was healed I shared that with my mom and she believed that too and been over 10 years, and that oppression, that illness has never come back, and it’s a testimony to the God that we serve being a good God who can heal, restore, and redeem, and I get to share that now every day after, you know, that happened. Eight years later, God called me to start sharing my faith, and I’ve been doing that for now over five years just by praying for people and doing live streams online.
SPEAKER 01 :
Love that testimony. I completely agree. I’m all about the Holy Spirit and His power and actually the oppression of the enemy because it’s real. And people think that I just have bipolar or I’m depressed or I’m anxious, whatever. Those are spirits. Bottom line, they’re spirits. And just briefly, I had an incident where I was at church and I was on the ministry team and the Holy Spirit told me to go. There was a young kid that was kind of on the floor and I thought, you know, everybody thought he was slain in the spirit and Holy Spirit said, go, go cast that out. And I said, okay. And I just went over there, put my hand on there and didn’t know what I was doing, you know, what I was casting out, but in Jesus name, out and out in Jesus name. And he opened his eyes. He sat up, you know, within, you know, minutes and, And he said, it’s gone. And I said, what? He goes, I’ve had schizophrenia my whole life and it’s gone. And that is how powerful the Holy Spirit is. And so I love your testimony. Before we go further, you said something that kind of I was hoping you could touch a little bit more on. You had said that the enemy was really powerful. Um, antagonizing you, what were a couple of things that, you know, for some of our listeners that might be going through the same thing and they just think it’s them or they think it’s, you know, their own state of mind. What are a couple of things that you could describe that you were going through that you, you know, you said the enemy was really attacking you.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, at first, especially in the beginning, it was just kind of like some dark thoughts. And, you know, at that time, because I didn’t really know how to take thoughts captive and obedient to Christ and use the Word of God in prayer, I just kind of sat with them and I let those things fester. And that’s dangerous as a believer because… The enemy attacks us in our mind, right? He’s after our soul. And those negative thoughts just started to fester. And then I started to feel like an actual presence that was around me. And that presence felt off. It didn’t feel good. It didn’t feel right. And again, I was still an early believer, so I didn’t really understand these things. And because I didn’t understand these things, I kind of leaned into it. I opened that door, which gave the enemy the right to really come in and really start moving in my life in a bad way. And I think the reason it manifested itself in this illness of bipolar is because God really gave me a unique mind and I could learn and read and retain lots of stuff. And I think it was a gift from God alongside that gift of encouragement. And I believe he goes after us in places where God has blessed us and wants to use us. And those were some of the things that I felt in the beginning that because of my ignorance of who I was in Christ, I didn’t do anything about it. And that just made it worse and worse over time.
SPEAKER 01 :
And you’re exactly right. The Bible says my people perish for lack of knowledge. So if you don’t know those tools, and you said to speak the word of God over your life, I’m an example person. So what would be an example of that if you were going through an episode, let’s say?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah. Even for someone who is, let’s say, dealing because I think a lot of people deal with this, even people who don’t have, quote unquote, like a mental health illness. But we all deal with different things that affect our mental health just in regards to our psychological well-being. Right. Sometimes we’re happy. Sometimes we’re joyful. Sometimes we’re peaceful. But also sometimes we’re stressed out, anxious, worried and fearful. Right. We have feelings, but we are not our feelings. Right. Feelings are fleeting. They come and go. So whenever someone is dealing with something, let’s say like fear, and they feel a strong presence of fear, a spirit of fear coming into their life, and they can feel that, there is a choice that they can make, which is they can choose to move towards the Lord, focusing their mind on Him, or they can choose to entertain that fear, sit in that fear, and when we do that as believers, that fear starts to run in our lives and becomes more powerful. So if someone is experiencing, let’s say, that gripping level of fear, that spirit of fear coming on them, We can make a choice to say, I’m going to take this thought captive. I’m going to make it obedient to Christ. I’m going to sit and focus my mind on the Lord. I’m going to look up scriptures that deal with fear, right? There’s work to be done as a believer. And as you look to find scriptures, scriptures even like 2 Timothy 1 verse 7, which says, For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind. We can sit with that scripture. We can read and meditate on that scripture, which just means to deeply think. And then we can pray that scripture, which I love doing because it renews my mind and and prayer has power so i would take that thought i’d rebuke that thought i resist that thought i’d come to the lord in prayer and say lord you have not given me a spirit of fear your word says that you’ve given me a spirit of power and of love and a sound mind and i thank you for giving me a mind that is sound and that is at peace as i sit in your presence and i reject and rebuke all fear and tell it to go in the name of jesus christ Amen. There is power when we do that because God’s word is alive and active. So that’s one recommendation I would do for someone who’s maybe dealing with a spirit of fear in their life.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, that’s so good. You know, if they can just realize and you hit it right on the nail on the head, it’s a spirit. And if they can depersonalize it, because we think it’s our own. Like you said, we think it’s our own doubt. We think it’s our own anxiety. We think it’s our own fear. It’s in us and we have a problem because… You know, we just can’t get over it. It’s not. If they can depersonalize it and say that is a spirit and they can tell it to go, it makes it so much easier to stand in your authority because we do, as believers, have that authority to bind the enemy up and command it to leave us. And so that’s really good because, like you said, when people sit in it, they actually think it’s their own authority. And it’s not. It’s not. It’s the enemy. Your book is to equip readers to fight against doubt and unbelief and receive healing along their mental health journey. For those suffering with these things, what would be something you would recommend for them to do besides the scripture-based talk and declarations?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah. So, yes, I think scriptures are so important because scriptures also help us understand our identity. I think that is one of the biggest things, especially when it comes to someone who is struggling in their mind, their mental health, stress, anxiety. Our identity is challenged every single day as believers. So our mind, where all of this stuff starts, has to be renewed to God’s Word every day, right? The Bible tells us not to conform to the patterns or the customs of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. So mind renewal is required daily for a believer to stand and walk in their identity, which is in Christ, not in, let’s say, the feelings, the crisis, the challenge. The external circumstances that come that sometimes influence us to feel a certain way. The thing I would say, Scripture aside, is to develop a practice in your life that happens every morning before you do anything where you sit with the Lord.
SPEAKER 01 :
So well said. We’re visiting with Dane Camilla about his new book titled Choose Prayer, Not Despair, which gives practical strategies for using prayer to combat specific mental health issues such as anxiety, fear, and worry. Dane, where can our listeners go to find out more of what you do and to get your book?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, definitely. I think the best way to connect is just on social media. We have the same social media account for all of the Instagrams, Facebooks, YouTubes, and TikToks, which is just Lit With Prayer, all one word, L-I-T-W-I-T-H, prayer. Everything you can find there. I pray every single day on social media just to encourage people on the power of prayer. And you can find our book there, too, or on Amazon if you look it up.
SPEAKER 01 :
Dane, thank you so much for joining us today. It was such a pleasure.
