“The spirit of self-destruction is one that it will serve you well to know about and to be able to easily discern says God. This is one of the most sinister of the enemy spirits because there are large numbers of them and they operate at different levels in many different ways.
Only at the extreme do they have the power to get someone to end their own life on earth. However, there are many other subtler forms of destruction that they practice which will bring about the same consequences. They are able to stop some of My children from entering into the fullness of the relationship that I desire to have with them.
These spirits can often cause a person to constantly repeat one action that brings something else undesirable into their life, such as guilt or shame or feelings of unworthiness, which hold them back in their spiritual walk.
The reason that the spirit of self-destruction is so sinister is that it can change its angle of attack at will. One day it can cause a person to do one wrong thing, the next day another. Its presence can account for why many people, having been delivered from a particular affliction, seemingly return to their old ways from time to time, particularly during periods of stress or turmoil.
What happens is that once a person’s overall spiritual defenses are down, this spirit will often ‘mimic’ the behavior of something that the individual had previously been delivered from. Subsequently this can lead to doubt, even unbelief, which of course can set the person concerned on a spiral of self-destructing actions and confessions.
This is one of the main factors behind the words of the apostle Paul when he talked of not doing what he knew he should be doing and doing what he knew he should not. Without overcoming this spirit, a race runner can easily reduce his chances of running an effective race. If a race is not run with the keen expectation of victory and the receipt of the winner’s garland it is without power or reason.
Understand then how to discern the presence of this spirit says God. At the extreme it will be someone under a great cloud of depression, in its subtler form it will be a person repeating an action from which they have previously been delivered or someone who is continuously repeating the same behavior which is keeping them from running a good race.
Remember this spirit has the ability to mimic other spirits as well as his tendency to partner with other spirits. As an example; you may obviously witness the spirit of pride at work in someone’s life which is seriously holding them back. What is not evident to those without this knowledge is that the spirit of self-destruction has formed a partnership with pride and is goading and encouraging him.
If the individual will come to understand that this pride is hurting his spiritual race, he can repent for it and pray that ugly spirit out of his life. Unbeknown to him though, self-destruction can still be lurking nearby, just biding his time, waiting for just a tiny hole in the hedge and he will slip back in.
This is where he can be at his most dangerous. You see, if he is merely ‘mimicking’ a spirit, a deliverer can call upon the name of the spirit being mimicked, but it will be to no avail. He must be specifically named to be removed, so be constantly watchful of him in his various guises”, says God.
Romans 7:15-25
2 Peter 1:8-9
