Standing Strong in the Spiritual Battle – Harassing Spirits

14 Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him. 15 And Saul’s servants said to him, “Behold now, a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you….23 And whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him. 1 Samuel 15:14,15,23 ESV

Last week I did a short video on the first part of this series entitled Standing Strong in the Spiritual Battle. I talked about how to face the accusations of the devil. Here is the youtube link if you would like to watch this. Standing Strong – Silencing the Accuser

This week we begin looking at how to navigate beyond “harassing spirits”. I’ll give a link at the bottom for another youtube video on the same subject in which I expound on the points in the blog.

The Devil is a legalist. He looks for opportunities to harass us when we have violated God’s plans for righteous living. Satan knows all of the “If you obey, Then I will bless you” scriptures. Only Jesus fulfilled all of these commands. We are not good enough to try to earn God’s blessings by fulfilling the laws. But being in Christ and covered with His blood allows blessings to continue to flow.

However, we can still be harassed when we violate God’s righteous paths for our lives. These sinful actions open a door for the enemy to gain access to our lives. Thanks be to God we have the authority to humbly confess and close the doors. But what if they remain open?

One of the open doors the enemy uses to harass us is Disobedience to what God told us to do. Saul had God’s favor with the people and power over his enemies…until he disobeyed God’s instructions. Read 1 Samuel 15 to get the full context, here are the main points.

• God wanted to punish the Amalekites for their ill treatment of Israel
• Saul was to destroy every living thing as a devotion to God
• Because of fear of the people, Saul kept the King alive and the best of the animals. He killed the weak and sick animals as devotion to God’s plans.
• He made a monument to himself for the victory battle. Vs 12
• Somehow he did not see how keeping the good animals alive did not fulfill the commandment of God. He had killed all the other people, except the king.
• Saul’s attempt at repentance did not change God’s mind of ending his reign over Israel

Because of Saul’s disobedience, we find that harassing spirits would torment him. The first harassing spirit was most likely depression. It would leave when worship music was played by David

• Disobedience instantly impacts our countenance with a weightiness.
  • Some, not all, depression is directly linked to a broken relationship with God from our sin.
  • Deflecting will not address the main issue of confessing the disobedience to God.
• After confessing the disobedience – changing the spiritual atmosphere can help with harassing spirits.
  • I was listening to worship music the other day while doing yard work. My spirit man was encouraged as I sang “These are the Days of Elijah” – There is no God like Jehovah. A couple of songs later, “Joyful Joyful We Adore You” started playing.  This was the version performed in Sister Act in which the kids were dancing and singing. I started dancing and singing all over my yard. Worship music changes the spiritual atmosphere and our hearts
• Left unconfessed and unchecked disobedience opens the doors to other harassing spirits.
  • Saul became jealous of David. Notice Saul could not rejoice in David’s victories
  • Saul had angry outburst. He threw spears at David to kill him. If you have uncontrolled rage, check for the open door of disobedience.
  • Saul became overly suspicious of the intentions of people. He was unable to see the good in David.

All of these troubles found their root in Saul’s act of disobedience which led to more troubles.

How to recognize and minimize harassing spirits

• Keep unconfessed sins confessed as quickly as possible.
  • Psalm 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know thoughts!  24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
    • Ask God to reveal those areas which seem to be hidden, but need to be dealt with
• Confess, Cancel, Command
  • Confess – When you see jealousy, anger, rage, outburst, suspicions, operating in your life, look for open doors of disobedience to confess.
    • If a child is having bad dreams or is upset, ask them if they have anything to confess
  • Cancel – once you have confessed, asked for cleansing from the blood of Jesus, turn your heart toward obedience, you are ready to cancel the claims of the enemy to harass you.
    • Remind the enemy that you are God’s child. He has NO claim upon you. You are in Christ and seated with Him in the throne room of God. 
  • Command – having submitted to God, resisted the devil, he now has to flee.
    • Use your own voice and words to tell the enemy to back off from your mind, your spouse, your children, your finances.
    • The key to authority is the submission to being a follower of God and walking in His righteous pathways.
      • Humility and a broken contrite heart, place you in the perfect position of authority to command the devil to depart.
• Don’t try to command, if you are unwilling to close the open door of disobedience.

Next week we will address the harassing spirits that come specifically as relating to the sin of unforgiveness.

Paul said that having done all things to stand strong…stand. Confessing sins of disobedience is included in “having done all things to stand”.

May your eyes be opened to areas in which you can walk in freedom from the harassing spirits. You don’t have to keep them around. Be free and stand strong.

Blessings Love y’all

Youtube It’s PG Time – Harassing Spirits from Disobedience