Brighter days ahead!

                 

      Question. Have you ever had days where you just feel defeated? Curtains pulled, lights are off. You feel down, oppressed. You seem to have a loss of hope. Your vision is dimmed. You feel depressed and alone, unloved. Everything seems dark and you just have an all around sense of heaviness. I'm pretty sure that everyone has experienced days like this. Some, unfortunately, have these kinds of days more often than not. Woah, I just reread what I typed and it's like I am supposed to offer some kind of new drug or 5 step program right about now. Well... Nope:) The other day a song popped into my head. It was a song that I used to sing when I was very young. It goes like this, "Put on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, lift up your voice to God. Praise in the Spirit and with understanding oh magnify the Lord". After singing it through once I thought, "garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness?" That has to be a Bible verse. I looked it up and sure enough, Isaiah61:3 says, "and to console those who mourn in Zion- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified." How beautiful I thought! but, what does it mean?! In my research I was blown away! This spirit of heaviness is not a mans own spirit and it is not a spirit from God, nor could it be. It is a demonic spirit. (note; for all the Christians out there who don't think or acknowledge that spiritual warfare is real or is going on all around us, all of the time, every day, please read and ponder Eph 6:10-18, 1Peter 5:8-9, and John 10:10. awareness, i feel, is about 3/4ths of the battle). So, this demonic spirit of heaviness can come over us and seriously oppress us or it can linger like a dark cloud over certain places or even large areas. Just an all over sense of darkness or despair. It's mission is to cause us to isolate and like I said before, rob us of our hope, and joy in believing. How do we combat this spirit of heaviness? Well, Isaiah says we put on a garment of praise! We praise our God for Who He is and for His constant provision! We praise Him for our children! We praise Him for the beauty of nature, and for air that we breath, for every heartbeat, for the water we drink and the food that we eat! We praise His glorious name for we are fearfully and wonderfully made! We praise Him for the mercy and grace He pours down upon us daily, For His Word, His constant forgiveness, His unending faithfulness and His unconditional love! The spirit of heaviness can not remain! Our praises and adoration of our Lord snuff out that evil spirit and it is replaced with a renewed lightness. Our hope is restored as well as our joy. We can again see and feel how much He loves us! Oh how Satan doesn't want us to be aware of this. What victory comes through the worshiping and praising of our Heavenly Father! So, keep this in mind the next time you feel alone, dark, depressed, hopeless, oppressed and unloved. Turn on your favorite praise music, loudly, or just sing without music. Don't worry, He loves your voice! Lift your hands to your Creator and praise Him for the breath of life that you have been given and for the gift of salvation that comes through His only Son, Jesus Christ (John14:6) that He sent to die for you because He loves you so much! Do not let the spirit of heaviness rule another day of your life. Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.

  I heard once, "demons are like germs. you know they are there but you just take the necessary precautions. keep your hands clean etc..." We should not be consumed by them but we do need to be aware of them and their eagerness to spiritually paralyze us. Pick up your sword (bible) Know the Truth and cling to His promises. Jesus already had victory over death and darkness and we as Christians also have that victory through Him! So PRAISE!