Breaking the spirit of discouragement

No matter who you are, we all go through times of discouragement and I’m sure you agree it feels horrible. Discouragement is like a dark cloud or a heavy blanket that wants to oppress us and take away our energy, our drive, our joy and just make us want to give up, run away and be silent. For some it can last a moment and for others it can drag on for days, weeks, months or even years. I believe the time it lasts for has got a lot to do with how we deal with it. But in order to deal with it we need to know what we are dealing with.

(AUDIO VERSION WITH PRAYER TO BREAK DISCOURAGEMENT OFF YOU. CLICK HERE)

I find there are two kinds of discouragement. One that comes from natural circumstances like hardships of various kinds, insults and attacks from people, failure in things we attempt, sins we give into or just stupid things we do. The other comes from an actual demonic spirit of discouragement. The first one you can reason with and mentally overcome by putting things in perspective, but the second one is not rational and cannot be overcome by mental reasoning. It is a spiritual attack that has to be broken in the spirit in order to be overcome. The problem is most times people are unaware that their discouragement is coming from the spirit realm and are just trying to deal with it from the natural and mental realm.

There are some seasons in our life we go through where the circumstances just attract discouragement. For Joseph it was one discouragement after another from the pit to the prison to the palace. He was rejected by his brothers and sold into slavery, then accused and lied about by Potiphar’s wife of sexual assault and thrown into prison, then being forgotten about in prison for years knowing he had a great calling on his life. Who knows what kind of discouragement Joseph endured.

Then there are times where we come under an assault by the enemy because he hates us and hates the destiny on our life. You can go from riding high and feeling strong to suddenly feeling incredibly weak, inadequate, intimidated and wanting to just hide away for awhile. There’s usually no rational reason for this in the natural, it’s just a spiritual atmosphere and assault against you. This happened to the prophet Elijah. After destroying the false prophets of Baal in true Old Testament fashion he receives a message from Jezebel that she was going to kill him. After hearing this message Elijah was intimidated and fled deep into the wilderness where he wanted to give up and die. There was no reason in the natural for Elijah to have been discouraged by Jezebels words, but there was a demonic spirit of discouragement operating behind her words and Elijah allowed that spirit to come on him and he tried to deal with it in the natural by running from it. This wasn’t a natural discouragement it was spiritual. This same spirit of discouragement wants to make us run away and give up on our destiny and calling.

Even Paul the apostle faced a spirit of discouragement on occasions. In fact he called it a messenger from satan sent to buffet him day and night through religious people and hardships. The way God told him to deal with it wasn’t through reasoning but through the grace of God, which is God’s supernatural ability and strength that is manifested when we rely on him and not our own natural strength. Paul said because of this buffeting there were times when he despaired even of life. This same spirit of discouragement wants to make us despair of life but there is a way to overcome it and reign in life.

So how does this spirit of discouragement find a way to have influence in our lives? I believe it looks for opportunities and vulnerabilities in us. This usually happens when we are facing particularly difficult natural circumstances and we don’t keep a healthy mental state that agrees with truth but rather sees the difficulties and begins to agree with lies. When we allow the circumstances to take our eyes and thoughts off Jesus and get them on ourselves and our abilities we become vulnerable to a spirit of discouragement.

I experienced this very thing just yesterday. I was talking to my wife Kylie about a truth that has been stirring in my heart lately. As I was sharing I was also aware of a growing frustration I am recently having in struggling to present some of the truths I’m being stirred with, particularly recording them for YouTube. I then spoke out very negatively over myself and from that point on I became very discouraged. Hopeless thoughts, self pity and wanting to give up overwhelmed me for the rest of the day. It was particularly bad because it was actually Kylie’s 40th birthday and I was being a little bit of a drama queen! What’s really funny is that I even had a prophet friend of mine on the other side of the world phone me up out of the blue and for some reason just felt to share with me about aligning my mind and thoughts with heaven in order to see the promises of God come about in my life! I finally realised I was dealing with a spirit of discouragement that had found a vulnerability through my own poor thinking and verbally speaking lies over myself. This morning I got up and smashed that spirit of discouragement off my life and the peace and joy of God have returned and I feel supernaturally encouraged. It’s not the first time this has happened. It happens anytime I’m willing to agree with lies and speak them over my life. I’m usually a very positive person and keep my eyes and thoughts on Jesus but every now and then if I’m facing challenges I get a little vulnerable to looking at the circumstances instead of Jesus.

But God has been challenging me lately to never speak negatively over myself but instead to speak life! Even if I feel inadequate in some areas don’t validate and agree with those inadequacies. Come in the opposite spirit and speak the truth of God over myself even if I have to faith it!

I’m realising that there is a link between a poor psychology (mental state) and being vulnerable to a spirit of discouragement. The Bible says we haven’t been given a spirit of fear but of love, power and a sound mind. 2 Corinthians 10 says the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine (spiritual) power to pull down strongholds (wrongs ways of thinking in the mind), and we are to take captive every thought that is contrary to Christ and make it obedient to His truth. Ephesians 6 says our battle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual demonic forces and we are to put on the armour of God, a part of it being the sword of truth and the helmet of salvation that protects our mind and thoughts. Then Hebrews 12 says we are to endure hardships by fixing our eyes on Jesus and to consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners (religious Pharisee’s operating under a demonic spirit) so that we don’t lose heart and faint in our minds.

There is a connection in all these scriptures between the spiritual state of our mind and the enemies ability to attack us. The enemy doesn’t have any right to attack us because we are in Christ but if we agree with a spirit of fear and with lies about our identity in Christ and don’t stand on the truth of our salvation then we’ll actually become vulnerable to a spirit of discouragement. And if we’re walking through some difficult circumstances and begin to speak out negative things over ourselves, don’t be surprised if you start feeling a heavy cloud of discouragement coming over you and hanging around. But thank God there is something we can do! And here it is:

I believe there are two ways to deal with a spirit of discouragement. Firstly we need to repent, which is to change our mind and agree with God. To stop agreeing with lies and circumstances and to see things in the Spirit according to the truth of Christ. If God has called you to do something but you are not seeing it happen don’t speak what is not happening, speak what is true in the spirit. “I am this… and I will do that… because God has called me to it!” “I am good at this… and I can do that… because God has given me the strength and ability to do it!”

Secondly, you need to break off the spirit of discouragement through warfare prayer. This simply is where you speak up and take authority over a spirit of discouragement, command its power to be broken and command it to go. And it will go because it has to go if you are in Christ. All of a sudden you’ll feel the dark gloomy clouds vanishing and God’s joy and peace flooding back into your life.

Once you realise the heaviness you are experiencing is a spirit of discouragement then it’s actually very quick and easy to deal with it.

A few weeks ago I was feeling discouraged because one of the articles I spent a lot of time writing didn’t get as good a response as I was hoping. (I know, pretty pathetic right!). But I started to entertain silly thoughts in my mind like, “What’s the point of writing articles, no one is interested?” At that point I should have recognised the lie and shut it down straight away but I didn’t. I allowed my thoughts to run with this negative thinking and eventually lead me to a place where I felt like giving up. This was happening just before I went to bed so I went to sleep feeling really discouraged. I had a dream that night and in my dream I was in a church and someone from my past was there. This is a person who gave me quite a lot of trouble in the past while I was in leadership in a particular church. I woke up the next day not thinking too much about my dream but feeling twice as discouraged as when I went to bed. That whole day I walked around discouraged and didn’t realise what I was dealing with. That night I went to sleep and had another dream where that same person appeared in my dream again. This time Kylie and I were hosting guests from all over the world in our home and that person was right there again! I woke up thinking, “Ok, what’s going on here God?” I knew God was trying to get my attention and speak to me so I really sought Him about my dreams. God showed me that this particular person always tried to intimidate me and make me feel inadequate as a leader. The spirit operating through them was constantly trying to make me give up. Seeing this person in the church represented my current ministry into churches and seeing them in our home represented my online teaching ministry. Then God spoke to me and said, “It’s got nothing to do with that person, it’s the spirit behind them. That person represents a spirit of discouragement that is trying to silence you and get you to give up your ministry into churches and online.” I suddenly had insight into what was going on. Once I realised what was happening I was relieved because I knew how easy it is to deal with a spirit. I simply went into a time of prayer and broke the spirit of discouragement off me, which broke very quickly and easily. I also repented for agreeing with discouraging lies and began to agree with the truth of who I am in Christ and what God has called me to do and began to speak that out over myself.

Its funny how the enemy always tries to come at the very beginning stages of a new venture to stop it. He tried to kill Moses when he was a baby. He tried to kill Jesus when He was a baby. He tried to tempt and trick Jesus at the very start of His ministry. He tried to stop Joseph at the start of his calling, he’s trying to stop me and he’s trying to stop you.

If you’re launching out in something new and find you’re facing lots of discouragement don’t be surprised. The enemy doesn’t like what you are doing and wants to stop it.

The last six month period for Kylie and I since starting our ministry has been incredibly challenging. The biggest challenge has been in keeping a healthy mental state. We’ve just had a massive transition in our life and are basically starting over again at 40, and with not much momentum. This causes you to continually have to keep your thoughts on God and not on what’s not happening and how it’s not happening quick enough! Kind of like all the seed under the ground with not much on top to show for all your hard work. The most frequent thing God has kept saying to us is, “Just keep going.” I have to say that, while I find it very challenging, I also absolutely love the season we’re in. I can feel our faith being tested. We’re having to rely on God and keep a disciplined focus on what He is saying. We can feel endurance being worked in us and faith being developed with fire. Even though it hurts at times, we feel God enlarging us and strengthening our fortitude and reliance on Him. I call it a rough start to a great future!

So I want to encourage you, don’t allow a spirit of discouragement to just sit on you. You can do something about it. Break it off you and if it tries to come back keep breaking it off. Then in the meantime keep your thoughts on Jesus and agree with truth. Don’t agree with lies in your mind or speak negativity over yourself ever again, rather speak what is true in the Spirit and what God says about you. Throw off that heavy discouragement and keep running your race by fixing your eyes and thoughts on Jesus!

God bless you and may He fill you with His courage!

Ryan Rufus.

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