Victory Over Depression
Foreward	There are various kinds of depression, ranging from clinical depression to unceasing spiritual attack, and also biochemical imbalances, etc. Those causes that are more medical in nature are outside of the scope of this article. However, there are a variety of reasons that we encounter in our Christian walks. It might have been guilt, either over an area of vulnerability and sin in your life and you didn't feel you measured up in your own eyes. Withdrawing inwardly because you felt unworthy, you shunned the fellowship of others, including the Lord. Finally, depression began to set in. It was so difficult to shake off. Its hold remained tightly upon you. Ultimately, Satan wants us all depressed. He either tempts us to sin, and when we cross the line, he piles on guilt to damage our relationship with the Lord, which is one based on grace. He'll try to make us think that God's forgiveness and love is given to us only on a merit system, that we must work so hard to avoid sin in order to attain righteousness. While it is good not to sin, always remember that God's love for you is not earned nor based on your performance. He will never look at you and say, "You're not good enough" or that you didn't do well enough. That is why God died on the cross for you, to show you that love, so that all the requirements that you'd ever have to make in order to earn righteousness was paid for by the life of Christ! Now, you can work out - instead of work for - your salvation! There are various categories covered by this article. Please find the one that matches your situation the most.
Index	Spiritual Burnout God's Wilderness Persist, Pioneer! Overwhelming Guilt Lonliness Self-Inflicted Separation Breaking Through Depression's Onslaught Conclusion
Spiritual Burnout	Spritual burnout is experienced by many. Some have stopped going to Church, feeling so torn inside over various areas. Some feel they had committed the unpardonable sin and fear that God will never accept them, so they even feel suicidal. Others could not feel God's presence even though they did everything everyone told them. Let's address those areas, shall we? "I've Committed The Unpardonable Sin" - if God really has turned away from you, then you would not be worrying about having "lost" your salvation, and how you could find repentance in God! The fact that you are brokenhearted over your situation and desire to be close with God is in essence the very heart of repentance and turning to God - and that kind of heart is nonexistent in one who has commited the unpardonable sin. Satan would most certainly want you to believe that you're unforgiveable just to keep all your God-given potential pinned down! "I've Done Everything But I Don't Feel God's Love" - Keep in mind that God's love is not on the basis of our earning it! God loved you so much that He died on the cross for You! If Christ died for you, then God's not holding back anything to give you all His love and goodness! "I feel alone" - Perhaps somewhere along the line when you began to feel depressed, you might have drifted away from your brothers and sisters in Christ and attempted to maintain a relationship with the Lord solely on your own. One brother in the Lord realized this. His interpretations of the Scriptures - though sincere - were out of whack, and he was gripped with fear by his own incorrect interpretations! You see, Jesus has made us part of a body - His Body. We cannot exist as individual cells, because we were made in Him to be interdependent of one another. A single cell outside your own body would not survive because it is out of its element! So think how spiritual famine and malnourishment in terms of God's revelation of truth and the glory of His presence would affect you if you didn't have a local church to attend, nor a group of friends to nurture you! "I've Been Hurt by People in Church" - Understandably, some have been hurt by church members. Some were judged harshly because there was an area of weakness in their lives, and they were condemned for their failure, by Christians. Condemnation never healed the sick. Judgementalism never opened blind eyes to show people God's love! Even though that may be the case - and the accusers might have been too harsh or wrong altogether - our blaming those who wronged us will not bring us to the place of healing! We can become so blind to our own tendency of blaming our "enemies" that we live the remainder of our lives a shadow of the full measure of glory God has intended for us to enjoy. "The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy," said Jesus. "But I have come that you may have life, that you may have it more abundantly!"
God's Wilderness	Sometimes we are in a place of incredible vacuum, where we seem to not sense God's presence at all, and that the joy we once knew seemed to have either dimmed or vanished. We thus tried hard to regain it, but some depression set in. In the natural, the wilderness is a place of lack of water and lack of food. Both can in a way parallel a lack God's presence and God speaking to us. But wilderness was a place where God trained some of His mightiest prophets: Moses, Elijah, John the Baptist, and our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. One thing we should know is this: the wilderness is where God strips away from us all that is unnecessary, removing from our eyes the decoys to our destiny in Him. It is not the place of punishment but the place where God perfects us. All that is unessential - all that has managed to deter us from the true path of God's will - is taken from us. Here, God begins a fiery refining process that makes you like gold. There was one time I was very badly persecuted at work, openly berated by colleagues at work, frustrated to the point of tears, breaking inwardly. During that time, all kinds of blue language came out from deep within me, making me feel worse. "God, I feel so dirty; how could you ever forgive me? I normally don't even curse, but here all this filth is coming out! How could you ever love someone like me in the condition I'm in? God, get me out of this hell!" And the Lord spoke to my heart: "Son, you're gold being refined in a furnace pot. The furnace is all your difficult situations at work. As the metal is being refined, the dross metals - the impurities - rise to the surface. You're being discouraged because you're looking at the dross. But I am only looking at the gold!" From that point on, I felt encouraged and said, "Lord, keep me here until You have accomplished Your purpose in my life." So for five months I endured in the Lord. Come January, my manager called me into her office. I received a raise, a merit increase, and a promotion! Then she said, "Something's different about you." I asked her if I had done anything wrong. "Oh no! But for the past five months you've been more professional; you've had a better attitude; your work has been exempliary. I don't know what you did, but keep on doing it!" Praise God! Remember that the wilderness creates thirst. We cannot function as men and women of God if all we have is a shoddy religion based on exteriors! When God sees that His children are not hungering and longing for Him and that things have distracted us devastatingly, then out of His love and His desire to see us come to a higher place in Him, He will give us times in the wilderness, but they are only for a season of time!
Persist, Pioneer!	You may say, "I keep falling repeatedly to this sin." We're all imperfect, so join the club! Interestingly, men and women fight secret wars - sexual sins that cannot be talked about openly in Church. And yet if people knew, they would look down upon you. But nobody seems to be able to know how to properly resist temptation. Nobody seems to understand the extent of darkness you've fallen into. At times like this when there are more questions than answers, the person with the ultimate answers is the Lord. And because you have not found the answer but you're earnestly seeking God for it, it is possible that God has allowed you to go through this process so that He can reveal the answer through your life and your struggles! Remember that we can do nothing to earn our righteousness. It is given to us - again and again - through the washing of the Blood of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. If you sin, he cleanses you such that you stand before God as though that sin had never been committed! His love does not change on us each time we blow it. But persist, pioneer! A price has to be paid to find that answer, and the prize of what you're going through is that God will be able to use you to reach many people who struggle through what you've gone through. And you will be able to relate to them with healing grace and mercy so that they can overcome!
Overwhelming Guilt	Who likes guilt? Guilt can come when we've either repeatedly falling in certain areas in our lives, or if we've found it hard to receive God's forgiveness and still feel He has not really forgiven us. Some of us think that God will bless us only when we get our lives sin-free. "If only I'd just overcome in this particular area, I'd have it all together!" we often say to ourselves. We look at other brothers and sisters and they seem to have it all together. They don't seem to understand nor go through the struggle you and I are going through. But, beloved, that is not so. Worship leader Marty Nystrom, who wrote that most loved song, "As The Deer" once said in a worship service, "Isn't it good to know that you don't have to strive to be good enough for God, but that His grace alone is sufficent?" Don't get me wrong: this is not to say, "If you are depressed, there must be sin in your life!" Far from it. Sometimes it's more that we're down because we don't feel we've been forgiven, or we don't seem to have any victory yet in this area, and keep on trying so hard, and nothing works. To this, the Word of God says in 1 Corinthians 10:13, "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God [is] faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear [it]." That means that we're all made of the same mud! We all have highly similar passions that war within our flesh against our spirits. We're all in this together! But in terms of guilt, let's consider Paul. Paul was a mass murderer of the Lord's disciples, yet the Lord had so much mercy on him! In fact, Paul says that he is the chiefest of sinners 1 Timothy 1:15-16! "This [is] a faithful saying, and worthy of al l acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting." God's mercies last far longer than we think. Even though we think we've exhausted all the mercies God would ever lavish upon us in a day, God has a fresh new batch for us the next morning! Lamentations 3:22-23 says, "[It is of] the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. [They are] new every morning: great [is] thy faithfulness." Wow, God's mercies are new every morning! And his compassions fail not! There are three kinds of guilt: a Godly guilt/conviction, and guilt from not measuring up in your own eyes, and condemnation from the enemy. Godly guilt produces a repentance that touches God who empowers change within our lives. Yet this is a process. Some changes are overnight, and some take place over a process of time, until the dealings of God reach maturity in our lives in that par ticular area God is working on. 2 Corinthians 7:10-11 says, "For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what car efulness it wrought in you, yea, [what] clearing of yourselves, yea, [what] indignation, yea, [what] fear, yea, [what] vehement desire, yea, [what] zeal, yea, [what] revenge! In all [things] ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter." Look at the fruit of this Godly repentance! Carefulness, clearing of yourselves, indignation, fear of the Lord, vehement desire, zeal, revenge! So, saints, pat the dust off your knees, and get up and go on! Guilt from not measuring up in your own eyes. This is a difficult thing. It's one thing when God forgives you, but sometimes we don't forgive ourselves and let ourselves off the hook. Remember that 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." When you repent of your sins and ask God to forgive you, He only cleanses you from "some" unrighteousness, right? Wrong-o! It's "all" unrighteousness! How we still hold ourselves to the sentence, especially when we fall again straightaway into the same sin! And all this despite God's pardon! Remember that God desires a heart that is towards Him and a heart that is broken over sin, and a loving trust that He will bring change in your life as you commit to the process and the workings of the Holy Spirit and dealings of His hand. Psalm 34:1 8 says, "The LORD [is] nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit." Also, Psalm 51:17 says, "The sacrifices of God [are] a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." God will never turn you away if your heart is broken and contrite before Him. David wrote Psalms 51 after having committed adultery with Bathsheba and arranging for the murder of her husband, Uriah. Even though he sinned terribly, when caught, his heart was indeed broken over his sin and his rebellion, and he cried and fasted unto the Lord. God memorialized David in the Bible as a man after His own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). Condemnation. This is from the enemy. While guilt can be healthy in that it brings change within us, condemnation basically says, "You'll never get it right... You're always like this... You'll always be a failure... You'll never succeed... You just aren't good enough." Saints, isn't it good to know that Satan is nothing more than a liar? While what these above statements may sound true, we don't live by what Satan says about us, but by what God says about us! Jesus says in Matthew 4:4, "But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Jesus took the punishment and the guilt and the condemnation that was due you and nailed it to the cross in His own body. Then He credited your account with His righteousness after removing the guilt-sin debt from your account! As a result, Romans 8:1 says, "[There is] therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." So all you have to do now is begin walking in the Spirit. Establish or re-establish your relationship with the Holy Spirit. After all, He is Holy, and He will help you become holy! So to avoid depression is to know that God is for you and that He loves you so much and that even if you sin, He is not burning in anger or hatred towards you. You don't have to always strive to be good enough for Him. His grace alone is sufficient! All your sins have been washed in His Son's blood, so confess, repent, and charge on in Him!
Lonliness	Lonliness is not an easy thing to go through. You can be single and feel it's gnawing pain, and you can be in a crowded room - even married - and still feel a harrowing emptiness on the inside. It is in times of lonliness that we are most vulnerable to Satan's suggestions and fiery darts and flaming arrows. Let's use an analogy of how wolves attack. The wolf does not launch itself against the entire flock all at once. Rather, it watches from a distance and spies a single lamb that strays from the flock that it deems being the weakest and slowest. The wolf then approaches and attempts to single the lamb out and bring it as far away from the flock as possible before dealing the deathblow. There are naturally going to be times of lonliness in our lives. Again, there are three kinds of lonliness. There is a place of lonliness that the Lord brings us to for a purpose: to draw closer to Him. These times of lonliness are not necessarly attacks from the enemy, but can be a place where the Lord has somehow systematically separated all those things that cloud our vision, that take up our time, and that hog our affections from His zealous/jealous heart. God loves us with a tender and holy jealousy! Men of God like Elijah and David who reached the limits of their human strength and abilities found that God sought more for their availabilities. Elijah, in 1 Kings 19, had a visitation form God in a cave at Mount Horeb. God revealed himself in a mighty wind, earthquake, and fire, but it was finally in a still small voice that He spoke and mainifested Himself. Elijah went though all that misery but that was ultimately so that he could hear God clearly! What reward! David, in 1 Samuel 22, hid in the Cave of Adullam from King Saul who sought his life. It was in a place of lonliness where they exchanged their weakness and the direction of their lives to God's mighty hands for His direction and His strength. And see the victory! Elijah called down fire upon the altar. David slew his ten thousands! There is a human lonliness within us. If we do not primarily satisfy this in God, we will attempt to satisfy our flesh with sin and fail in the long run. There is indeed pleasure in sin, but the Bible says it's only for a season. Yet, in Psalms 16:11, it says that in His presence there is fulness of joy, and at His right hand are pleasures forevermore! There are two practical ways of avoiding this lonliness and thus opening a door to Satan's arrows. First, always be filled with the Holy Spirit through intimate and adoring worship and singing - and even dancing! (Remember, David danced with all his might, and his worship echoed through the centuries in the scriptures till this day). Second, find Spirit-filled friends who will encourage you and will speak words of encouragement to you. Sometimes that lonliness may cry within us a need for a mate. But in God's time, He will make all things beautiful. Until then, we can experience wonderful and healthy friendships with both brothers and sisters at an intimate level that will abundantly satisfy that cry! Also, try not to listen to non-Christian music that basically echos and magnifies the lonliness, rather than bring you God's peace! An attack from the enemy. Again, Satan is a liar. He says, "How alone you are! Look, nobody is with you. Everyone is against you. All hate you. You're alone. Even God is far away!" What a liar! Hebrews 13:5 says, "... for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." God will never abandon us like orphans. In John 14:18, Jesus said, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." Remember, His Holy Spirit is the Comforter He would send to teach us all things. Keep in mind that God inhabits the praises of His people (Psalms 22:3). Praise can drive back the enemy. Quoting the Word of God as the Sword of the Spirit can bring down these thought-attacks (2 Cor. 10:4-6). It is interesting to note that the harp was an instrument of praise, and the bow an instrument of war. The way a harp was made was bending a bow and tying the ends close together, and then with several strings tie them from that binding string to the bow to form the different notes it was to play. Hence praise is an act of spiritual warfare. Also, the Bible says that to the Name of Jesus, every knee must bow, including this attack from the enemy. We can break the power of the enemy in the name of Jesus! So under these circumstances, we can avoid depression by avoiding situations that would make us feel lonely. Gather closer to God, and gather closer to friends. We cannot be like Lone Rangers, and there are no spiritual McGuyvers - there are no one-man-armies in the Kingdom of God. You may be able to minister to other people powerfully, but sometimes you hear silence when you need to hear God's voice for yourself. Times like that, God is showing you that you need to be humble and submitted and to lean on the Body as much as others have leaned upon you.
Self-Inflicted Separation	This tends to be our reponse if we've been through the previous two points already. There is an inner thrist to be satisfied, but isn't it interesting that at times when we are down, that the Lord is the last person we go to? Here we are in a wilderness. Wilderness experiences are not necessarily "not of God" if God leads you there. Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit to be tempted of the devil. John the Baptist - God's mightiest prophet - who wore camel hair double breasted suits and locust prime rib steaks received his prophetic and character training in the wilderness. Were it not for the wilderness, these two would not have the mantle under which their authority lay. Oh, how this looks good to the flesh now. Oh how that sin looks like it will satisfy. Again, these are only for a season. The pleasure will last only for a moment in time, be it seconds to years, depending on the season itself. But it will fail to que nch that inner thirst and longing. It is times like this when we are most vulnerable. Satan will bring temptations and try to convince us to escape this mental suffering by satisfying the flesh and promising a complete euphoria in this pending depression. Liar again. If you have found yourself in this situation, simply be honest to God. God will not condemn you. He will, however, get on your case if you approach him in pretention and dishonesty. Just say, "God, help!" God will listen. He will give you the strengt h that you could not find on your own. Noah was alone. As we study Genesis, we see that the Ark was atop the waters for many days as rains pounded the earth. During that time, Noah could not throw open a porthole to see if there was land. The only window was a large open rectancular space a bove him. In all Noah's trials and tribulations and lonliness, all he could do was look up. Psalm 121:1-2 says, "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help [cometh] from the LORD, which made heaven and earth." Fear not. Jesus will leave the ninety-nine sheep in the flock to go after the one: you! (Matthew 18:11-13). So avoid separating yourself from your friends, from God. Get on the phone. Call that brother or sister that you trust and ask them to pray for you. Don't give pride any consideration. Spiritually, you are in a dangerous position if you've purposely removed yourself from fellowship.
Breaking Through Depression's Onslaught	Depression is hard to shake. Sometimes something as overlooked as a chemical imbalance in our blood fluid can cause depression. A proper diet with enough Vitamin B and B12 complex can sometimes work wonders. Insomnia and stress can contribute. A little getaway to a nice lovely quiet spot with a precious friend can be quite a blessing. But see your doctor if your depression is medical! A spiritual attack is different, however, but can be combatted using the weapons of our warfare as outlined in previous sections of this document. Never attempt to fight alone - we weren't made for it. The Bible identifies a demonic spirit of depression as a "spirit of heaviness" and offers the solution: His beauty, the oil of joy, and the garment of praise. Isaiah 61:1-3 - "The Spirit of the Lord GOD [is] upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to [them that are] bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified." Ultimately here are three manifestations of the same Holy Spirit. He can come upon us in praise, as anointing oil to bring us joy (the Joy of the Lord is our strength, Zechariah 4:6), and as a restorer to return to us the beauty we've lost and had held a shes in its absence. God is so willing to freely pour out His Spirit. Remember, it's not our ability to fight but our availability to receive victory! Just open up your hands to Him and ask the Lord to give you His Holy Spirit, to pour His Spirit - His anointing oil upon you and to break the devil's yoke. Isaiah 10:27 says, And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] his (Satan's) burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.) So be ever filled with the anointing oil of God. In the days of old, Prophets would use a special God-given recipe for anointing oil that was not to be mimicked. Its ingredients were highly symbolic of wha t the Holy Spirit would end up doing in our lives. The anointing of the Holy Spirit would break the bondage of heaviness and depression and restore joy to us if we are depressed - how much more help us walk and live in the Joy of the Lord!
Conclusion	Many people spend hundreds and thousands upon psychiatric help. While at many times there is a place for it, if the root cause of the depression is spiritual, then attacking the physical symptoms instead of addressing the root will not necessarily solve it. It may act as a band-aid at best. We are currently in a world-wide renewal in which the Holy Spirit is being pourred out into different parts of the earth and bringing laughter and healing to people. While many are disagreeing violently with this new move of the Holy Spirit, the people in China who easily have no contact with the outside world nor its influences are influenced sovereignly by God himself in this mighty act. God is a restorer. No matter where you are in these four stages, God can restore you and bring you to the place where you are lifted out of the mirey clay and your feet are set upon a rock, and you stand strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Why don't you join me in prayer? "Dear sweet Lord, thank you for bringing the brothers and sisters who are reading this prayer and joining me in prayer as we look to You. Lord Jesus, let your anointing right now be poured out upon their lives and break the enemy's chains of depression and every vestige of bondage from off their lives. "Lord, your Word says that the yoke would be destroyed because of the anointing oil. Even now, let the oil of joy rise up within them, Lord, because Your kingdom is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, and that the joy of the Lord is our strength. Dear Lord, strengthen them and equip them, in your mighty Name we pray. Amen!" God grant you victory!