The enemy loves to attack you with lies that are grounded in some truth and let’s face it full of lies are easy to spot, but the lies that come wrapped and reasoning with those leave plenty of room for entertainment. What makes a person go from a tiny thought to a full-on torment? 

In 1st Samuel 19:9 it reads. “then a harmful Spirit from the Lord came upon Saul as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand and David was playing the lyre.” 

Upon first glance you might think, awe poor Saul, he had no choice. God sent a harmful Spirit upon him, so it really wasn’t his fault. And this is where you’d be right, but wrong, mostly wrong and here’s what I mean. The Lord does not just send tormenting spirits to someone. He allows them when they’ve been given access and this spirit that the Lord sent was not passive, you see Saul was entertaining thoughts of hatred and murder. He was jealous of David and he wanted him dead and if you read the book of 1st Samuel, I can’t imagine what kind of thoughts, that Saul gave life to as he sat there and stood over his feelings regarding David and these thoughts and feelings were cultivated and ruminated so much that they grew into a full-blown murder attempt. 

And you see, it wasn’t that Saul had all of these thoughts because of the tormenting Spirit. Saul’s mind was filled with anger, bitter, jealousy, rage towards David and God gave him over to those tormenting thoughts and a similar example can be found in Romans 1:28 where we’re reminded “and since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what they ought not be done.”

God didn’t give them a debased mind. He gave them over to the mind that they had given in to my friend, everything begins in the mind, and you may not be looking to murder someone or throw a spear at your younger competition. But if you are entertaining, angry, hateful, thoughts in your head, Jesus says it’s the same thing. If you’re entertaining, lustful thoughts, envious thoughts are any kind of thought that is not pleasing to the Lord you are opening your mind to Satan and inviting him in for complete access. 

You are opening your mind, now once in Satan can have full rein, he can have a field day and he’s not stupid. He will seek to slip in covertly little by little as much as he wants to destroy your life and your testimony in a split-second, even Satan has more sense and self-control than to bombard you, he knows that there’s a strong possibility that if he pushes too hard, you’ll fall to your knees. Instead, he keeps a gentle and steady flow of negative, fearful destructive, bitter, envious thoughts, dripping through to you like a lifeline and all he needs you to do is mildly entertaining them. You don’t even have to have a full acceptance of them. So long as you’re not completely rejecting them, he still now has access so long as you justify your feelings and saying things like how you would feel the same way if, or you would have, you have no idea what she’s done to me. So long as you’re justifying, your thoughts saying things like, if I don’t do this then he’ll get over on me or saying things like what if God doesn’t come in and take care of this situation. 

My friend you have swung the door wide open for the enemy to have a field day in your mind and he’s no gentleman. He will take the one inch that you’ve given him and use that opportunity to bring forth a hostile takeover. He will weasel his way in and bring his demons to do his dirty work until every possible area of your life is either infected or ineffective. And please don’t let this message cause you to live in fear that every negative, fearful, bitter, angry, destructive, thoughts that comes into your head, will invite a demonic Spirit, my friend, that alone will invite the spirits of paranoia, but I do want you to have a healthy fear of what these thoughts can do in your life when they are left unsubmitted and unchecked. 

Your heavenly father is not so cold as to say, oh, you had an angry thought about that person, now I’m giving you over to a spirit of anger. He’s provided a solution for you and it is found in James 4:7 and I know that you have likely heard this before, but I don’t want you to take it lightly. I want you to take a look at this with fresh eyes and an eager heart. James, 4:7 tells us “Submit yourselves therefore, to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

Do you want to resist demons, thoughts, and spirits and keep them from having their way in your life

I want you to follow the three simple steps that James laid out for us. 

#1 – Submit to God.  

When your life is completely surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no room for toxic thoughts to turn tormenting. And maybe you were in a place right now where you’ve given too much mental real estate to the thoughts that dishonor God. Now would be a good time to repent. Ask God to forgive you and he will. 

#2 – Resist the devil. 

When those thoughts come into your head, which they will, your job is to refocus, don’t be so weak as the cave-in simply because you had a thought come into your head. And while you can’t turn off the TV in your head, you can change the channel, focus on something else that’s more life giving and then go back to repeating step number one. 

As believers, we have the power to resist all the powers of the enemy. Why? Because God fights our battles for us, but he is not going to override your will my friend? You must resist. 

#3 – Watch him flee.

When you are submitted to God and not taking demonic bait, you are now privy to a front row seat to watch the enemy cower under the power of our Lord Jesus Christ. Saul was not submitted to God and he certainly wasn’t resisting the thoughts that were coming into his head, he likely marinated on them, maybe even took them to lunch and pondered their possibilities. And in doing so he gave them life and he refused to resist what he knew was wrong. You know, the thoughts in your head that aren’t glorifying to God. If you want to get right with God today and send those demonic spirits packing, submit to God and repent. And when those spirits come back, just resist, as you read the book of 1st Samuel, I want you to take note of the mind of Saul and what he was submitted to, but contrastly, take a look at the mind of David.

He wasn’t perfect, but his heart was submitted to God and the Lord protected him against the attacks of Saul. King Saul was no different than you or me when he’s tempted in his mind and that temptation led to torment. What began with insecurities led to insanity, what began with promise led to pride and don’t read the scriptures and think, oh no, no, no, he had no choice. God sent that tormenting Spirit. No, no God allows these spirits that come on a person when they refuse to submit to his ways and resist  the enemy’s ways, don’t let that be you.

 If you are struggling under the enemy’s lies, I want you to check out my online course called Delivered from Demonic Influence.

And if you are wondering just how toxic your thoughts are, go ahead and check the free quiz, How Toxic are My Thoughts?