MANY THINGS CAN be taught from the story of the woman who had a spirit of infirmity for 18 years (Luke 13:10–17). I heard one person who taught on this say that this woman had an inside problem and an outside problem. The Bible says she had “a spirit of infirmity.” She was bent over, which indicates that a paralytic condition was involved. Infirmity means “feebleness.” It can carry a connotation of something that’s been shaken up—something that is faltering.
Many people are like this. They are walking around with a problem on the inside. They are faltering. Their soul has been shaken. They say, “I can’t. I’ve failed so miserably. There’s no use. I might as well give up.” That gives the enemy a chance not only to afflict them on the inside—in their minds and emotions—but also to afflict them on the outside, to afflict the outward person.
God’s Word teaches that we are spirit, soul, and body (1 Thess. 5:23). When the soul is depressed, it shows up in the body. When a person is down spiritually and mentally—thinking he is a miserable failure—it shows up in his outward countenance and in the way he functions. It usually tends to lead him from one failure to another.
The devil is always trying to condemn us. But he can’t condemn those of us who are Christians because he has no authority to, according to Romans chapter 8.
God’s power ministered in love is the key to deliverance from depression and oppression.
ROMANS 8:1
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
The devil can and does accuse. He goes around whispering innuendos and scandalous little remarks that, if we listen to them, become fearsome in themselves. But who listens to a donkey braying or the wind blowing? Who listens to outlandish statements? Nobody. Well, what are you listening to the devil for? He’s a nobody! Let him make all the accusations he wants—what can he do? Nothing.
If we’re not careful, when the devil begins to point his finger, we’ll allow what he says to affect us. We will begin to feel depressed, and then we’ll become a target for him to come in and harass us.
For instance, maybe the devil tells you, “You’re never going to amount to anything. You’re nothing but a miserable failure.” Those words cut like a knife, and the next thing you know, you’re down and out. Or maybe he comes against you by attacking you with a disease. Then he’ll come in and say, “What makes you think that God is going to heal you? What makes you think that you could even go ask God to do anything for you?”
When children of God start listening to that junk, they don’t receive what they need from Him. The woman with the spirit of infirmity had been bound for 18 years. The devil had probably been telling her, “Well, you’re a child of Abraham all right, and you belong to the special group—but you can’t get healed. You can’t get anything.” Jesus defied Satan even on the Sabbath Day by healing her.
The Answer for Oppression
You see, the devil can oppress us, but he can’t possess us—he can’t cross the bloodline. One way he oppresses us is by putting symptoms on us. But we find the answer for oppression in the Book of Acts.
ACTS 10:38 (NKJV)
38 God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
If you’re being oppressed mentally or physically, you are bound and you need to be loosed. The Church is full of bound people who are being oppressed by the enemy to the point where they’re not the success God wants them to be.
Many people are hurting. Psychiatrists and psychologists realize it. They know these people need to be free. The Church recognizes it too, but she uses every kind of tactic possible to snap them out of it: indignation, scolding, harassment. Some people have a “holier-than-thou” attitude that says, “If you had faith, you wouldn’t be in this problem!”
None of these “solutions” is going to work. Why? Because you need the anointing of the power of God to break the spirit of infirmity that has gotten hold of that individual. God’s power ministered in love is the key to deliverance from depression and oppression.
Reaching Out in Love
People need someone who can minister to them not by the letter of the Word but by the love of the Word! We need to realize that just because people sitting around us in church are singing and maybe even praising God, we don’t know what the enemy is feeding their minds. We don’t know their situation. That person sitting next to us may be hurting and nobody knows about it. Our tapping them on the shoulder and saying, “I love you in Jesus,” may minister to them more than we realize.
Love has won more people to God and has ministered to more people than all preaching combined. You can talk about faith. You can quote scriptures until you’re blue in the face. But when you reach in your pocket, pull out some money, and give it to the person who is down and out, that ministers to them more than any word you could give them.
There’s a world full of hurting people who need help—who need to be set free. And they’re not all outside the Church. Maybe you’re reading this and saying, “That’s me. I need to be set free.” Jesus came to deliver you and set you free! Jesus knows all about your troubles. He knows how the enemy has lied to you and crushed your body with disease. He knows all of your mistakes. He knows you have been bound by depression and disease, sin and sickness.
Jesus is calling to you right now, just as He called to the woman with the spirit of infirmity in the synagogue. He’s saying, “Come here. Come to Me.” He said to the crippled woman, “You are loosed from your infirmity” (Luke 13:12 NKJV). And He’s saying to you right now, “Be set free! You are loosed from your infirmity because I have delivered you!"
Author
Kenneth W. Hagin
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