Twin Spirits

Matt 12:43-45 (NIV) “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first.

1. Get Rid of Them!

Like her mother, my spouse had a critical spirit and spoke death instead of life into our marriage. One day I confronted the spirit within her. "In the name of Jesus, I command you spirit of criticism to come out of her!" My spouse angrily stormed out of our house and drove off. Several hours later she returned with a very subdued attitude. I cautiously asked her, "What happened?" She hesitated a moment and then replied, "The Lord spoke to me. He told me,

'The spirit of criticism has a twin . . . low self-esteem."

Seeing an opportunity, I suggested "In that case, let's pray on it and make sure it's taken care of." My spouse was agreeable to this. So we renounced these evil spirits together and banished them from our home. Later on I asked the Lord, "How can she have low self-esteem? She is beautiful, intelligent, and has every reason to feel good about herself." But in regard to low self-esteem He said,

"That's not how it works!"

2. They're Back Again!

I naively thought that casting out these twin spirits would be the end of the matter. But to my surprise, my spouse's negative speech did not clean up. Instead, she went back to her old ways within a few days. I complained to God because He wasn't backng me up. After all, I had done all the right things. Isn't that supposed to automagically take care of everything?

At that time my spouse was proud of the new lineolum in our mudroom-kitchen-dining room area. She told our children to keep it clean by taking their shoes off at the door and to not track mud all over her new linoleum. But the next day this is exactly what she did herself when she returned from the barn. She blew up when she saw the muddy tracks and called the children to find out who was guilty. About the third time that I told her to look at her own shoes, she finally realized that she was the guilty one! I knew that this was God trying to show her that she had brought the dirty twin spirits of criticism and low self-esteem right back into our spiritually clean home. But she couldn't see it. I was soooo frustrated when she wasn't able to connect the dots!!!!

For some reason I had to go into our crawl space to make a minor repair. I was still fuming about my spouse's inability to connect the dots and told God,

"I know I'm not supposed to interfere. But if she can't figure it out for herself, I'm going to tell her. And if you want to stop me, you're gonna hafta hit me on the head with a two-by-four!"

At that point I suddenly stood up (a really bad idea in a crawl space!) and soundly cracked my head against a floor joist. I was dazed but not hurt. After my head stopped throbbing I asked the stupid question,

"Was that You, Lord?"

"If you can't figure out that this was from Me, how do expect her to connect the dots?"

3. How They Operate

So I kept my mouth shut. My spouse never did connect the dots. (How could she not?!!!!!) She never understood that she had brought the twin spirits of criticism and low self-esteem right back into our home. Years later they are still here. There is no reason for her to have to live like this. But somehow in the heavenlies she has given them permission to enter her life. For example, if you slam your fist on the table and declare,

"I have a RIGHT to be angry!"

then you have just given permission (a..k.a. opened a door in the spiritual realm) for a spirit of anger to enter your life. And spirits often work together. The low-self esteem | criticism twins reinforce one another as follows. Criticizing someone gives your brain a temporary adrenalin rush that makes you feel good and empowered. But it is quickly followed by a crash that is lower than the high was high. This diminishes your self-esteem. But you can get another temporary adrenalin rush by speaking more criticism . . . and thus you become trapped in an endless cycle of highs and lows that is controlled by these twin spirits. It's really not that complicated. Professional counselors and people who do deliverance ministries can flowchart all sorts of dysfunctional behaviors and generational sins. The real problem is helping the victim to understand what is going on. Once they see it, it's usually not difficult to get free.