Discouragement, Depression and Demons

Part Two: Deliverance!

The previous segment of Discouragement, Depression, and Demons dealt with the spiritual cause of depression. We saw from scripture that the human mind—unlike that of animals—is imbued with a spirit component which makes man vastly superior to any animal. This spirit component is the one single quality that creates a “great gulf” between man and beast. Man can make contact and commune with the spirit-intellectual dimension of the Almighty – animals can not.

Job observed: “...multitude of years should teach wisdom. But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty [the Holy Spirit] gives them understanding” [32:7-8].

WITH AGE, states Job, wisdom should be garnered. Yet, there is another, superior, source of wisdom – the spirit of the Almighty. The indwelling of THE ETERNAL’S Holy Spirit communing with man’s spirit can make a person “wise beyond his years”. It is SAID of Daniel [5:11] that he had the spirit of the Almighty and as a result, he had the wisdom of God.

This interrelationship between the spirit in man [the human spirit] and the spirit of God is EXPLAINED by Paul in 1 Corinthians 2, “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: … But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit … For what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so, the things of God know no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received … the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God ... But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God … neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” [1Co 2:7-14].

This spirit in man is directly affected by spirit forces – good or evil, Godly or satanic. And as noted before, even holy people and the Eternal’s servants are at times oppressed and depressed by evil spirits.

Remember Eliyah? He took flight into the desert trying to escape from the DEMON-possessed priestess-queen Jezebel and the demonic influence that controlled his own nation which sought to execute him. The dark demon of DEPRESSION caused a flood of negative thoughts, bad ideas, depraved discouragements, horrifying dejections, and evil temptations. He had had enough! He served Yehovah faithfully and then he had to suffer the contemptible onslaught of a vile woman and an evil nation! His wounded spirit scurried into a dank, dark cave of defeatism. Despondency, despair, resignation, and negativity overpowered his spirit. [See 1Kings 19.]

Yes, even the greatest prophet of old had his moments of terror, fear, and depression. The burdens of life, the impact on his spirit due to the burden of his prophetic mission with its divine duties, national rejection, and hate responses, had taken its toll. He was “burnt out”. Though he temporarily succumbed to the spirit of deep depression he was restored by direct communication with Yehovah and provided with a renewed spirit to complete his prophetic commission to ordain his replacement prophet, the younger Elisha, and a new king for ISRAEL.

Similarly, Christ was plagued by Satan during his earthly sojourn. Satan left Christ after the 40 days’ trial in the wilderness “FOR A (short) SEASON” [Lk 4:13]. Christ suffered constant emotional, spiritual, and mental attacks. Vile verbal abuse from the “holy” establishment -- those self-righteous rabbinic police and scribal doctors of divinity – followed him constantly. The demon-inspired biblical scholars and teachers were Satan’s instruments of torment. They served as the channels of opposition, physical persecution, false accusations, and arrest of Christ. Ultimately he died the most dreadful death as he cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Did Christ suffer depression?

Isaiah explains: “He was despised [disdained and scorned] and rejected of men; a man of sorrows [mental anguish], and acquainted with [fully knew and understood] grief [anxiety] [or, as Moffatt translates: “a man of pain who knew what sickness was”], and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

Isaiah continues: He took upon himself “our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted … he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities [“'twas our misdeeds that crushed him”, Moffatt]…” [Is. 53:3-5].

As a man, he suffered deep sorrows and was accustomed with "grief" [Hebr: malady, calamity, anxiety, and disease (Strong’s H2483)].

During his last Passover night on earth, he confided in his disciples: “My soul is exceeding sorrowful [intensely sad], even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me” [Mat 26:38]. As great drops of blood and sweat dripped from his fevered brow in Gethsemane he cried out in agony, “If it be possible let this cup pass from me”. It did not!

The sorrow and suffering Christ endured was brought on by Satan and the demons due to their temptations and mental infestations of all humanity from the time of Eden which caused man to sin. The penalty for all this human sin Christ took upon himself in his gracious salvific work. He suffered great mental agony for our sake.

Satan’s avowed objective is that the righteous must be pursued, until death! And in the process, mental discouragement and depression can set in. In Christ’s case, though suffering for our sakes, Satan and his demons never gained the upper hand. Christ gained full victory by going through the trial and suffering death on our behalf.

But Elijah, being like us, “subject to like passions”, occupying this frail, feeble frame of flesh, became overwhelmed by depression until he had his God-encounter in the cave.

James confirms that we will encounter manifold adversities, all forms of temptations, trials, and tests – physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. But instead of succumbing to negativity and depression, we must “count it all joy!” [Js.1:2.]

Joy in the face of depression is difficult. It goes counter to our nature. But the process is a means of overcoming depressiveness.

James as the half-brother of Christ and head of the congregation at Jerusalem must have endured much suffering and anguish himself. He was brought to trial by the hypocritical high priest Ananias [a political appointee of Herod, brother of Herod Agrippa I]. This was the same Ananias who ordered Paul to be struck in the face. This materialistically greedy, haughty and sadistic Sadducaic “son of a serpent”, an extortionary hypocrite, a spiritually blind and demonically deceived leader – and a fool! [refer Mt. 23:17-19] – falsely charging James with “breaking the law”, convened an illegal Sanhedrin, and unlawfully and without legal authority wickedly condemned him to be stoned to death! [Cf. Josephus, Antiquities, XX, ix, 1].

Like Christ, James was executed for his faith. The horror of it was that he did not die immediately. He suffered for days after his illegal stoning before finally perishing from his wounds.

Did he remember, while writhing in raw agony with swollen suppurating wounds, what he wrote to the twelve tribes of Israel, “Count it all joy when you fall in diverse temptations [experience evil and adversity]”?

James’ joy [“a calm delight”] was the certainty that he would again see his brother and master Yeshua immediately after opening his eyes in the resurrection. The Holy Spirit which begot him as the spiritual son of the Eternal Father, and the “dunamis” – the power – that dwelt in his mind no doubt strengthened him, like it did his brother Yeshua, to be endured victoriously with “calm delight” to the moment of death.

DEPRESSION CAN BE OVERCOME EVEN IN THE FACE OF DEATH. To this end we have the historic testimony of the thousands of martyrs who were crucified, impaled, boiled in tar and turpentine, burnt at the stake, and skinned alive. They never denied Christ despite the overwhelming onslaught against their faith and spirit.

God has made available the positive and powerful spiritual “dunamis” – dynamic – of the Holy Spirit. Here are some specific actions we must take to overcome spiritually influenced depression during trials:

1. “Put on the armour of light” [Ro 13:12b] How is that achieved? Verses 13-14 explain. “Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. 14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.” A lot of active, dynamic, positive steps must be taken. But this segment is preceded by this admonition: “Cast off the works of darkness” [Romans 13:12a]. If there’s any sin in our lives we must “cast it off.” It is something we must DO! We must bring to an end ANY AND ALL sin. Stop breaking the commandments of God [1 Jn 3:4]. Live within the laws of God. If we won’t do what we can do to overcome sin, if we will not cooperate with our Father’s wishes, He will not do for us what we won’t do for ourselves.

2. “Put on the new man” [Eph 4:24]. That “new man” is a mind change. It’s “putting on” – internalizing – the character of Christ. That means we live as Christ lived, in obedience to the laws of the Almighty. It expresses the same principle as in Romans 13. We put off old carnal human behavior patterns, sinful actions, evil words, and wicked thoughts, by replacing them with holy thoughts.

3. “Capture every thought and subject it to obedience in Christ.” Negative thoughts are to be imprisoned. We “enslave” those evil thoughts instead of them enslaving our thoughts, or our spirit. We are not to be enslaved by evil thoughts that destroy our spirit, our psyche, our conscience, our sanctified holiness.

Paul further illuminates the same great truth concerning the battle we face against the depressing demon spirits and how to gain victory over them in Christ when he writes: “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of [Satan’s] strong holds;) Casting down [demolish, destroy] imaginations [evil, negative, demonic thoughts and reasonings], and every high thing [demonic obstruction and barrier] that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity [lead away] every thought [intellectual disposition or devising] to the obedience of Christ; [2Co 10:3-5].

Every thought is to be subjected to the laws of God. They must be pure, God-pleasing in every way. We face great battles against evil spirits. They seek to invade our mental privacy all the time. These are battles of the mind, THE EMOTIONS, THE THOUGHTS. The true Christian life is never a “walk in the park”.

4. “Put off... the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.” How do we manage that? After instructing us to rid ourselves of the unconverted lifestyle [verse 22] Paul instructs in Ephesians 4:23-25: “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind [Here we discover once again the spirit operating within the mind. We see that our actions AFFECT THE SPIRIT and MIND.

There’s an inseparable interrelationship between actions [deeds, behaviors] and the spirit [thoughts, desires, motivation]. The psychosomatic integration is once again confirmed with these words: “Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”

Righteous behavior – living by the law of God -- generates the “new man”, the new mind – the holy mind that is untrammeled by evil spirits.

This reconstituted mind, this changed mind, this regenerated mind -- changed from negative, depressive thoughts to the positive, joyful, and dynamically vigorous spirit – is formed by the combination of our determination [decision] and behavior [action].

We have to act! Notice verse 25” Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth ...” [Eph 4:22-25].

The putting on of Christ, or the new man, is not an unknowable mystery. The process is clear-cut. It consists of three D’s:

Determine what is right , [It has already been decided by God; it’s obedience to his commandments.]

Decide to do it.

[This requires positive decision making.]

DO IT!

The last two steps are not easy but it is do-able because of the promise in Phil 2:12-13: “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed [obedience is always necessary] ... work out your own salvation…”

Despite the contrarian bleating of the false churchian ministers, there are works to be done! We have to be pro-active and dynamically action-orientated in the call to salvation, not passive. That is, we have to plan a program for achieving our salvation. Discipline and commitment are required. That’s character building. That’s overcoming. as per Revelation 2 and 3. That’s putting forth the effort to put on Christ! We study the Word. We meditate on it. We pray about it. We communicate with the Father through Christ—and, we obey His holy law as a lifestyle. And, with what attitude do we do it?

“...with fear and trembling. For it is God which works in [us] both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” [Phil 2:12-13.]

We can’t do it ourselves! The Father first gives us the will and then he gives us the ability to do it. The Father works within our spirit and where the Father works Satan cannot work!

All glory to the Eternal Father for his gracious provision in Christ. Despite all trials, we can be joyful, positive, and productive in Christ! So, let’s be!

Woman and child photo credit to: Kevin Carden Photography.

Supplementary exposition: Smn 04062022 "Sp--phys--Sp" Desk Notes Nov 18ff