The bible is very clear, the spirit of heaviness is connected to depression, therefore depression is a spirit, and the route cause of depression is a dysfunctional connection with God, mainly through a misunderstand of His word.
Isaiah 61:3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
For us as Christians, we need to renew our minds to think positively and not to be thinking about the worst outcomes, and believe in what the word tells us, to think about good things and that good things are going to happen to us, that all good things comes from our Father in heaven James 1:7 . Hope from the word of God, provides a confident expectation of good things, and to always be thankful Phil 4:6.
Our hearts can be down cast. This spirit can brings a “heaviness” over us, it tries to rob our hope. It brings a heavy, oppressive feeling. It tries to steal our faith. Depression tries to come over us like a dark, heavy cloud. When this cloud is hanging over us, it may come over us at once, like a plague. It can causes us to isolate, it tries to steal our love, wants to make us feel alone, and it tries to steal our relationship with God. However, in all things related to depression, it is putting on the garment of praise that can brings us out of depression.
Mental turmoil – confusion, agitation, disquiet, is usually caused by emotional buildup (things never let go of) and it usually brings fear. Fear does not come from God, 2 Tim. 1:7: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
To defeat this oppression, we need to be thankful to Jesus Christ that we are saved. Rejoice! Thank Him for your health, Thank Him, Thank Him and Thank Him again and again. Make a list of all the good things in your life, “All good things come from above”, James 1:17.
The more we Thank Him the less we will be in self pity or murmuring, and we must kill all self pity, if we want to escape any oppression. Circumstances go up and down, but in everything give thanks.
“In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” 1 Thess. 5:18. As Christians we sometimes have a very tough time doing this, but this is the bible way of getting free from depression, and getting the dark clouds to roll away and the the sun shine on our lives again. So put on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness- Isaiah 61.
Pray this prayer, every time the heaviness comes on, Thank you Father, I have the authority from the finished work of your Son, I rebuke this spirit of Heaviness, I command it to leave me, in the name of Jesus. I bind this spirit and command it to lose from me, I resist this heaviness and because I am submitted to God, it must and it will Flee…James 4:7
What is the opposite of self pity? Murmuring and complaining and blaming others? No, it is Gratitude…
We all have been tempted when things get difficult to start complaining, and moaning and blaming God for not taking us out of the situation we are in. We need to repent of blaming God, hold on to the guarantee of the Finished Work, and resist the devil. They will most definitely flee from us.
Paul in Acts 16, was thrown in prison for setting a girl free from a spirit of divination. You can imagine what prisons were like in those days. If he had been like most of us today, he would have been asking, “How could this have happened to us? Get us out of here! We must have messed up somewhere. God must be mad at us!”
What were they doing? Praising and rejoicing.
This is indeed a high bar for all of us, but what an example to us. What would you have been thinking about if you were with Paul in that jail? Yes, we may be a long way from where Paul was in his thinking, but we can get on this path of thanking God no matter what the situation.
It makes demons mad when we thank the Lord when things go wrong. This is what a committed Christian does: give thanks even when things look bad in the natural realm.
Things looked bad in the natural for Joshua and Caleb, but they kept their eyes on the prize and trusted the Word of God, that they were given the land. Even though in the natural things did not look good: fortified cities, well equipped armies, tall strong men, they had courage and perseverance.
This is what you will need to resist the enemy, and because you are resisting you are in faith (James 2:14-26). Because you are acting, you are in faith. Therefore, what you need to do now is have courage and perseverance to continue to resist until the oppression flees from you. And flee they will !!!
Paul and Silas, with their backs beaten and bloody, in a filthy prison with rats running around, did not get into self pity and the “poor old me’s!” Demons like it when Christians complain. Their goal is to get Christians to say: “God, it’s your fault.”
This is a horrible thing and it will get us in a lot of trouble. We’ve all dealt with self pity at some point, and we must REPENT when we blame God for our problems..
“In everything give thanks” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
Get to the place that you are doing that all the time, not just in church, but on Monday morning when things get messy and things are not good at all. Everyone has family problems. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have them.
Isaiah 61:3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.