"The Spirit Of Heaviness"

This I believe is one of the big strongmen in the bible that attempts to attack believers. The bible talks about twelve strongmen. In the event that sounds strange, checkout the book of Ephesians. It says we wrestle not against flesh & blood but against principilaties & powers, rulers of darkness in this world and SPIRITUAL WICKENEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. This verse is very cleary describing in detail the rank in Satans Kingdom. In other words these are "the big boys" The Lord has placed upon my heart to talk about the one that I think that people that especially are on fire for God and love him with all their heart soul mind and strength can accounter. First lets talk about a group of individuals in the word that faced it. Elijah, in just one day of his life called fire down from heaven consuming the 450 prophets of baal, he prayed for rain in the midst of the drought, and outran the chariot. This was indeed one power packed day at the ranch! However we read just a few verses later that Jezebel SENDS A MESSAGE saying that she planned to kill him. The spirit of heaviness griped him to the point of where he wanted the Lord to take his very own life. Lets pause a second just to say often when there has been a great victory is when words will flow attempting you to get down and downcast. Be careful who you share your victories with, Jesus said we must be caustious not to "cast pearls before swine"(Matt 7:6) In the synoptic gospels we'll often find him telling the people "Tell no man of this" There is a time to speak and a time to be silent(Ecc 3:7) No matter what people or preachers say DONT LET GO of what the Lord has quickened to your hearts that hes going to do. You + God = Majority! Another one is David. He was a man after Gods own heart. He had defeated Goliath as a young teenage boy, than assembled a 600 men army that was virtously unconquerable. Than we read in the 69th psalm his battles with "the spirit of heaviness." I sink deep into the mire, where there is no standing, Iam come into deep waters where they overflow me, Iam weary of my crying and my throat is dried(Psalm 69:2,3) I dont think any of us need to have taken any counseling coarses to see heaviness all over David like a lampshade! Thirdly, theres Job. Job curse the day he was born(Job 3:3) Hmm sounds like heaviness to me lol What can we do as blood bought born again believers to combat this conquering sprit? Number one, SELF ESTEEM. Now when I mention that Iam not talking about tooting our own horns. I am simply stating that we must SEE ourselves AS HE SEES us IN HIM! Remeber when Adam & Eve were in the Garden? Satan comes all up in there as that subtle serphent saying If you eat of it, you'll be LIKE GOD. HELLO They already were!!! God had created them in his own image and likeness. This what the devil does, get us fosused on a different image of who we are! The book of James says that Gods word is like a mirror and if we LOOK AWAY from it WE WILL FORGET WHAT MANNER OF PERSON WE ARE(Jms 1:23,24) We gotta be like God says it, that settles it! You and I are already complete in him! There is a line in the movie Jerry Mcguire where Tom Cruise says "You complete me" HOGWASH lol People dont "complete" us, they compliment us! Its very important that we all understand that. We do not NEED anyonelse telling us who we are or what we can do. The bible says that you are fearfully & wonderfully made and his thoughts about you are more than the sand upon the shore(Psalm 139) Danger of Discouragement. In an earlier bog we talked about the importance of encouragement, especially being able to do it to our ownselves. The reason why its dangerous to remain in discouragement is because it can become a "gateway" to the spirit of heaviness. Samual the prophet was told by God after saul messed up How long will you mourn over Saul, fill your horn with oil and go(1 Sam 16:1,2) Obviously at this time, the prophet was mightily discouraged, but we see clearly that god was not going to allow him to stay in that state. He WILL NOT let us either. Recall what I said in the past, Jesus is the "specialist" He turns scars to stars, lemons to lemonades, and ashes to beauty! Every dissappointment can turn to a reappoinment. Its all in if we let him do it. You see, Samual could've just like stayed there and would'nt been a cotten-picken thing the lord could've done. Why? Its always are choice! When we let ourselves stay in discouragement all were really doing is delaying the new that God wants to do. God moves in an atmosphere of faith and expectantcy. In the event you find yourself in that condition watch your confession. Its the very thing that can keep us cripped in the circumstance. Death and life is in the power of our tounge(Prov 18:21) Christ is the HighPriest of our confession(Heb 3:1) When we begin to use our words to change not describe the miracle working power of God gets involved! You'll soon see things different with pertinent perspective. Number Three, COMPARISON. This is like a biggie in our society. When we begin to compare ourselves to anyonelse were suspetable to the spirit of heaviness. The bible says comparing ourselves among ourselves is not wise(2 Cor 10:12) Comparison quickly can lead to covetousness. Our God is no repector of persons(Acts 10:34, Rom 2:11) Before we recieve what someonelse has, we must be willing to do what that person did! Heres a story I heard to illustrate that point. There was a group of ladies that hungout. They were like the best of friends. Always going out to dinner, movies and shopping. all of them were nearly unseperable. These ladies were overweight. One of them decided that she was going to get disciplined and determined and begun loosing weight. Instead of inspiring the other ladies to be like "Hey girl you got the plan, tell us how its done!" They were offended and upset. There were no more phone calls, invitations or shopping trips. They had completely disconnected themselves. Why? It was through comparison. It seemed easier for them to rot out from the cancer of envy and jealousy. In the beginning of this blog, we mention twelve strongmen. Jealousy is another one(Num 5:14) According to Prov 6:34 it leads to rage and ultimately death. How many murders just like cain and abel have been committed by it? You might be like I never would ever do such a thing. Hey, no one grew up as a little child with the dream of being a killer! Even if someone would'nt physically murder, people still do it with their deep rooted hatred toward another. God says thats the same as MURDER!(1 John 3:15) Finally, Goals. Before you say anything goals are good, but they are not a God! I have seen many people suffer with I would like to call "destination disease." You hear, when I get married, when my kids are grown up, when i have more money, when I get a new house. the list can be endless. You see how it can lead to heaviness? We need to allow the Lord to slap us with the "spirit of chill" lol How bout it? Now we said earlier that we need to write the vision and make it clear right? The bible says Without a vision, the people perish(Prov 29:18) Preperation leads to opportunity. The the thing is we can get so "caught up" in it that we refuse to enjoy where we are "in the process" to where were going. Beethoven was a a skilled piano player, John Ghrisin is an awesome author, Pavorotti was an excellant italian tenor. None of them were FOOTBALL PLAYERS! God said through the mouth of Paul "This ONE thing I do(Phil 3:13) The term "jack of all trades" will lead a person down the pathway of poverty. This is the reason the BOC needs eachother! We all bring something unique and special to the table. God spoke through the mouth of Paul saying If whole body was the eye, where would be the hearing?(1 Cor 12:17) Be on the offensive, practice these principles. They WILL produce the POWER to be free from "the spirit of heaviness."