February 21st
Evil Spirits and Sin
Now the Spirit of the LORD
had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD tormented him. Saul's
attendants said to him, "See, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you.
Let our lord command his servants here to search for someone who can play the
harp. He will play when the evil spirit from God comes upon you, and you will
feel better." 1
Samuel 16:14-16 NIV
The next day an evil spirit from
God came forcefully upon Saul. He was prophesying [“madly raving” Amplified
Bible] in his house, while David was playing the harp, as he usually did.
Saul had a spear in his hand and he hurled it, saying to himself, "I'll pin
David to the wall." But David eluded him twice. Saul was afraid of David,
because the LORD was with David but had left Saul. 1 Samuel 18:10-12 NIV
Our adversary, the devil, is constantly looking for
ways to attack us and enslave us to sin. Sin
is rebellion against God, and the devil is an expert in it.
The above passages about Saul reveal an important spiritual law that the
devil uses to oppress people. The
law is basically this: when we
rebel against God in sin, we give the devil a “legal” right to enter our
life and attack us. The devil rarely misses the opportunity to enter through an
open door!
Saul had just rebelled against God through
disobedience, pride and deception (see 1 Samuel 15).
He disobeyed God’s command by sparing the Amalekites’ King and their
choice animals. He also did not
attempt to correct his error even after Samuel revealed it to him.
Saul’s sin caused God to reject him as king of Israel.
God’s Spirit left Saul and his sin opened the door for the devil’s
forces. The evil spirit tormented Saul through rage, strife, fear (of
losing the kingdom) and jealousy of David.
Ironically, the only way Saul could get peace was to have David play the
harp. The evil spirit caused Saul
to rave madly at David (vs.18:10) and try to kill him.
Satan and his evil spirits continue to look for
opportunities to oppress people today, just as in Saul’s days.
With several thousand years of experience with humans, the devil knows
our weaknesses well. Just like Saul, we can open the door to the devil through
sin. For example, sex addiction
activities open a large door to the devil in our lives.
Through sex sin, we cater to evil spirits of lust and idolatry, which
take the opportunity to enslave us to our own passions.
Perversions, masturbation, fear, depression, suicide, anger, shame and
confusion are just a few manifestations that evil spirits can oppress us with. We can even be temporarily influenced by the spirits to do
bad things, yet we still retain the responsibility for whatever we do.
Some examples may include: physical
abuse, sexual abuse, divorce, rape, incest, rage, murder, suicide, adultery,
fornication, etc. These actions may
not always be motivated by evil spirits, but often they can be.
The good news is that through our faith in Jesus
Christ, we are co-heirs to his authority over
every evil spirit. Once we’ve
confessed and repented from our sin, we can take authority over any evil spirit
that may have gained power over us because of our sin.
To get started in reclaiming your life for God, visit our
Freedom
Journey I study.
Questions for further thought:
Prayer:
“Lord Jesus, Thank you
for dying for me on the cross and giving me your authority over every evil
spirit that may be oppressing me. I
confess and repent from every sin that I have committed which has opened the
door to the enemy: ___________ (list). Father
please forgive me from these sins through the blood of Jesus.
Thank you! I now take
authority over every evil spirit that is oppressing me and rebuke them in the
name of Jesus Christ. I command those spirits to leave me and go straight to
Jesus right now! Lord Jesus, please
fill me afresh with your Holy Spirit and teach me how to walk in purity,
especially in the areas of my former weakness.
Thank you, Jesus. In your name I pray, Amen.”