Chapter 3.11
Tormenting Spirits
Does God send trouble and Evil Spirits to
Discipline?
Does God delve out tormenting spirits with depression
as punishment for disobedience?
First
Word
I have written on spirits, both good and bad, many many times, but
this one is especially controversial because the Book
says that an evil tormenting spirit was
SENT BY GOD to King Saul to fill him with depression
and fear.
The question that must be asked; Is God
the source of tormenting
spirits in our lives?
I had a water leak that messed up our kitchen
flooring, I was so focused on the
Insurance policy that said that they would cover the cost to repair the primary water leak in the pipe that I missed the
part that said that they DID NOT COVER secondary
damages, like to the floor.
In this story of the tormenting spirit and Saul; just like the insurance
company we are so focused on the Primary Story that
we miss the Secondary Story of God’s
actions.
To address this controversial subject, I must take
you “Around the world in 80 days” to
explain not only the answer, but the WHY of the answer.
NOTE: When God allows trouble in our lives, we
should look for something else going on.
1
Samuel 16:14-23 – God sent a Tormenting Spirit to Saul
14 NOW
THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD HAD LEFT
SAUL,
and
the LORD sent a TORMENTING SPIRIT that filled
him
with depression
and fear.
23 … David would play the harp.
Then Saul would feel better,
and
the tormenting
spirit would go away.
(NLT)
Setting the stage
The story of Job is where we need to take a look at first. God
said Job was blameless, a man of complete integrity who feared God and stayed
away from evil.[1] Satan wanted to sift Job like wheat[2] and
asked God to put him to the test and God said “SURE”
you have my permission. NO… THAT’S NOT WHAT HAPPENED. God said, Behold, all
that he has IS in your power.[3]
Job
was already in Satan’s hands and Satan did not know it. Job confesses how it all went down in his own
words. “The thing which I GREATLY
FEARED has come upon me”.[4]
Job was operating in FEAR
and the Book records many times to NOT
FEAR[5]… Without exception, every time an Angel
appeared, the first thing out of their mouth was, “FEAR
NOT”. Fear was the Sin that allowed the snake Satan
to slither in.[6]
THE SIN TRIFECTA; Fear leads to Doubt
then to Unbelief. It’s
when we SIN that Satan can get a foothold in our life. Hold that
thought.
Primary Story: All creation
watches and is witness to God letting Satan attack Job. (With limits.)
Secondary Story: All creation is witness to Job’s example of
patience in waiting on God’s plan.
Story of Ananias and Sapphira who were both
filled with the spirit of Satan, brought money to the church, but lied about
the circumstances.[7] GOD STRUCK THEM BOTH DEAD in front of the
church.
Primary Story: God’s sends punishment of death for lying to
the Holy Spirit.
Secondary Story: The Early
church received an up close and personal
extreme EXAMPLE of the fear of the Lord
and the reverence for His Holy name and His sovereignty.
Story of a man in the church at Corinth was in an
adulterous incestuous relationship with his stepmother[8] and
God speaking through Paul, commanded the leadership to throw him out of the
church and HAND HIM OVER TO SATAN.
Primary Story: God, through
Paul commands that this man is to be “handed over to
Satan” because of his Sexual immorality as he was representing
himself as a upstanding Church member
Secondary Story: The hope was to bring the man to his senses; to
destroy his sinful nature and save his soul before the great day of the Lord;
and provide the church an example.
Story of the Apostle Paul; God gave
permission to a messenger of Satan to TORMENT Paul,[9] the
very Apostle that He predestined before he was born to be a light to the
Gentiles.
Primary Story: God allows
Satan to buffet and torment Paul with a “THORN IN THE FLESH”.
Secondary Story: The “THORN IN HIS FLESH” was to keep
Paul from thinking too much of his own self, to keep him from becoming conceited because of the
surpassingly great revelations that had
been revealed to him
NOTE: To use this scripture to say that it is
sometimes “God’s will” for you to be SICK; you must ask yourself this question. Has God given you any surpassing great
revelations? Have you rote any
extraordinary miracles? If not, then this scripture does not apply to
you.
Story of Jesus casting out demons. A man was possessed with a legion of demonic
evil spirits and Jesus cast them out into a herd of
some 2000 pigs and DROWNED them.[10]
Primary Story: Jesus cast a legion of demons out of a
possessed man and sent them into pigs that went crazy and killed themselves.
Secondary Story: Jesus shows that he has authority over demonic
evil spirits by sending them into the very swine that the Jews were forbidden
to eat.
Story of my wife making a wrong turn; she pulled
over on the side of the road to look at the map. Just then three trucks pulled off the road
right behind her. Running up to her door
they told her the car was on fire under the hood and they put it out.
Primary Story: Trouble; she made a wrong turn and pulled off
the road.
Secondary Story: Worst Trouble;
the Car was on fire and God sent people
to put it out.
When stuff happens to you look for the Secondary Story. Look for God’s sovereign hand working on
behalf of your life even when you are in dire circumstances.
God delves out Punishment
I would like to digress here for a moment
and LOOK at some examples
of God sending stress, disappointment, anxiety and storms into believer’s lives
as PUNISHMENT.
The
Story of Jonah and the Whale is a well-known
story. Jonah was commanded to go to
Nineveh and preach to them, but instead he went the other way and hopped a boat
in the opposite direction. GOD SENT A BAD STORM AND A BIG FISH TO EAT HIM.[11]
Primary Story: Rebellion; Jonah
disobeyed God and did not go to Nineveh, he was thrown overboard, swallowed by
a big fish and was puked up on the dry land of a bank.
Secondary Story: Obedience; Jonah finally obeyed God and
went to Nineveh and preached and the people repented of their sins and God did
not destroy their city.
The
Story of Moses and Water from a Rock. At
one point God had told Moses to STRIKE a rock with his
rod to get water for the people of Israel.
But the next time He told him to SPEAK to the rock to
get water. Moses reasoned with himself
and thought that speaking to the rock would probably not really make it gush
forth with water, that he should help God by hitting it. So thinking his plan was better, he did as
he had done before and struck the rock, but this time he hit it twice
for good measure.[12]
Primary Story: Disobedience; Moses beat the
heck out of the rock to get water.
Secondary Story: Punishment; MOSES WAS NOT
ALLOWED TO GO INTO THE PROMISED LAND after 80 years of preparation because he
disobeyed.
When you read the Book, you will see over and
over again, OBEDIENCE is what God desires. The story of Moses is an example for us that
God wants obedience in the smallest of things.
Now we can talk about King Saul and the tormenting evil spirit that
was placed on him by God; look for the Secondary
Story.
Saul’s Disobedience
The Book comments on King
Saul, indicating that He had disobeyed God on at least
two occasions[13]
allowing the snake Satan to slither into
his life and like yeast permeating a loaf of bread, Satan
finally had permeated Saul’s whole life and God departed from him. This is important; because of the Sin of
disobedience; God had left King Saul.[14]
Satan wants to sift us like wheat and now God is simply
giving Satan permission to do so.
The
Story
Because of Saul’s sin of disobedience, God removed Himself and His hedge of protection from Saul leaving him
to go his own way. As punishment, the
Sovereign God sent Saul a willing EVIL MALICIOUS SPIRIT[15] that wanted to harass
and torment him. Satan and Evil are not
autonomous to do what they want; there are certain things that they must get
permission from God before doing.
Saul’s servants noticed that he seemed to have a
mental malady, a spiritual sickness and knowing that music had the power to
tame the mind, they suggested a contest to find the best musician that could
play the harp and David was selected.[16]
Note: Saul was NOT demon possessed, the
tormenting spirit was only temporary as it came on multiple occasions and as
David played his lyre, the tormenting spirit would depart from him and Saul would feel better.[17]
Primary
Story: An evil
tormenting spirit is introduced into King Saul’s life by God as punishment for
his disobedience. Pain is God’s Megaphone to get Saul’s attention to get him to stop being disobedient.
Secondary
Story: The tormenting spirit was
used as the vehicle to get David
introduced into Saul’s life.[18]
David had already been anointed with oil
to be the next King of Israel and God was just beginning to introduce him into
the king’s palace. David himself went
through many difficulties that almost took his life as God’ plan worked out to
put him on the throne.[19]
Primary
Story: David was
hunted down many times by Saul to kill him.
Secondary
Story: David was being positioned to be the next King
of Israel.
I was suddenly terminated from my job and I chose to work out my two week noticed with integrity, and on
Friday of the very last day at 5:00pm, I received an unsolicited phone call and
was offered the JOB OF MY LIFE. I did not know the man; had not applied for the position, and never had a
job interview and I started Monday morning with an increase in pay. PRAISE GOD
God is
both in the Primary Story as well as the Secondary Story.
Sidebar
If you have not yet selected a Bible, I urge you to consider the NLT New Living Translation as it is not a paraphrased Bible, but a full translation that
reads easy like a novel.
Romans 15:9 – The chief end of man is to
glorify God
9 He also came so that the Gentiles
might GIVE GLORY
TO GOD for his mercies to them. That
is what the psalmist meant when he wrote: “For this, I will praise
you among the Gentiles;
I will sing praises to your name.” (NLT)
The Take Away
It is certainly possible for a believer
to be troubled by demons, but Jesus made it clear that it is NOT GOD'S WILL for His people
to be oppressed, troubled or harassed by evil tormenting spirits.[20] God is sovereign and has authority over
everything and that includes Evil. God
uses evil as well as evil people in His plan to get man’s attention back on
Him; to bring them to their senses so they might have an opportunity to choose
good.
King Nebuchadnezzar was the EVIL enemy of God and of God’s people, yet God called
him “His
Servant” and used him to bring punishment against Israel.[21] When
we are enduring hardships we are often tempted to dismiss anything unpleasant
that we feel as being from the hand of God, but the
Book is clear that God does
condone and allows discipline for His children. No discipline is enjoyable while it is
happening; it’s painful![22] But soon afterward there will be a peaceful
harvest of right living for those
who are trained in THE WAY.
Did you see it? You can disobey and rebel against God for just
so long and just like Saul, God will eventually leave you to do your own thing, and it’s all over. You get what you want and you will be
separated from God for eternity. If you have a tormenting spirit, it just MIGHT be God trying to get
your attention; I encourage you to look at your life, confess your sins and
pray for wisdom and knowledge to know how to turn your life around.
Read the Book, Submit
to God
and then Trust
Him.
Don’t be upset
when Jehovah God corrects you.
Just as a father
corrects a child in whom he delights,
the LORD
gives “course corrections” to those he loves.
DON’T
REJECT THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD [23]
[1] Job 1:1 - Job was blameless with complete integrity
[2] Luke 22:31 – Satan wants to sift the believer like wheat
[3] Job 1:12 – LOOK; Job is
already in your hand
[4] Job 3:25 - Job said the thing which I greatly feared has come upon
me
[5] Genesis 15:1 – The Angel said to FEAR
NOT
[6] 2 Timothy 1:7 – The spirit of fear is not from
God
[7] Acts 5:1-11 – Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit about their
money
[8] 1 Corinthians 5:1-5 – God hands an immoral man over to Satan for having
sex with his stepmother
[9] Acts
[10] Mark 5:1-13 – Jesus DROWNS
and KILLS 2000 un-kosher pigs
[11] Jonah 1:1-17 – God sent a storm and a huge fish to EAT
Jonah
-- Jonah 2:1-10 – The Big fish vomited Jonah onto dry
land
-- Jonah 3:4-5 - The Ninevites believed God and lived
[12] Exodus 17:6 – Moses commanded to Strike the rock ONCE --
Numbers 20:8 – Moses commanded to SPEAK to the rock, but struck it instead -- Numbers
20:11-12 – Moses disobeyed and struck the rock twice;
punishment: could not enter the Promised Land.
[13] 1 Samuel 13:5-14 - FIRST TIME; disobedience, Saul’s
gave sacrifices instead of the Priest; Samuel said, what have you done?
1 Samuel 15:3-35 - SECOND
TIME; disobedience,
Saul’s did not completely destroy the Amalekite nation.
[14] 1 Samuel 15:22 - OBEDIENCE IS BETTER THAN SACRIFICE --
1 Samuel 15:26 – God rejects Saul as King of Israel
[15] 1 Samuel 16:14 – GOD SENT A TORMENTING
SPIRIT TO SAUL
[16] 1 Samuel 16:15-16 – Find someone to play the harp to help sooth king Saul
loosening the Tormenting spirit
[17] 1 Samuel 16:21-23 – David played the harp and the
tormenting spirit left Saul
[18] 1 Samuel 16:13 – Samuel anointed David as King and the spirit of God came mightily upon him -- Acts 13:22 – David, a
man after God’s own heart is made their King;
[19] 1 Samuel 19:9-10 – Saul with the Tormenting
Spirit, hurled a spear at David, but missed
[20] Acts 10:38 – God’s WILL is for the
believer to not be oppressed, tormented or stressed
[21] Jeremiah 25:9 – God used Evil Nebuchadnezzar as “His servant” to punish
Israel
[22] Hebrews 12:10-11 – Discipline is painful, but the end is a peaceful
harvest Acts 10:38
[23] Proverbs 3:11-12 - DON’T REJECT THE LORD’S
DISCIPLINE
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