“Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him” - 1 Sam 16:14 (NIV)

God allowed an evil spirit to torment Saul because he had been rejected for his disobedience (I Sam 15). Sometimes in our Christian walk we too can experience a certain heavy spirit that comes to oppress us. It weighs us down with anxiety and often depression.

Such a tormenting spirit is not necessarily from the Lord as in the case of Saul whose transgressions were so clear and usually it is the enemy only harassing us. The enemy is in that business of moving to and from to harass believers. His intention is one: to draw believers away from the Lord!

For a believer one of the weapon clearly at our disposal is to go down on our knees or rather, rise up and call upon God for deliverance. Of course it is quite impossible for one to do so if his walk with the Lord is distant. In such instance the evil spirit roams and reigns freely. So let’s always be close to the Lord and give the enemy not a single opportunity to weigh us down.

Another is to be a witness. That as believers we too, in spite of our faith, can be weighed down, with the hopeless pain of anxiety is not an embarrassment. We are but in a spiritual battle. In such moments let us be steadfast to rise above all because of the hope we have in him.

And when we are victorious we serve as an encouragement to those who do not know him or those who are struggling and need empathy from only those who have been down.

Prayer for today: Lord Father in heaven today I pray that through faith in you I overcome any tormenting spirit that seeks to draw me away from you!