When Satan Attacks...

My spirit has been vexed this week. You may ask why? Well to be honest it’s this whole thing about the 4th commandment. Years ago, I would have agreed with these women; don’t believe me, check out my blog. Then earlier today, someone posted on their facebook page, a “MEME” that was targeted at me. The word vex means “to disturb, trouble, or provoke.” To be vexed is to be frustrated, annoyed, or exasperated. A vexed person feels some serious irritation. To vex someone is to drive him from patience to impatience or to harass or goad her to the limit of endurance. 

Just a post from one of my haters

Vexation often comes in the form of Satan’s minions harassing God’s people. Vexation is anything that causes distress:  irritations, distractions, restlessness, troubles, annoyances, deception and lies, harassment, arguments, violence, abuse, suppression, maltreatment, cramped in lifestyle, confusion, afflictions, no where to turn, alarmed, exasperated, possessed with devils, possessed by people, tossed like a paper in the wind, tortured, worn out by overworking, getting burnt out, and pressure.  Vexations cause inner wounds.  Often they take a long time to heal.

According to “breakthrough4life.com" 

Satan’s vexations come whenever he sees true worship.  Read Isaiah 7:5-9.  A group of people decided to vex Judah.  Syria (name means “haughty one”) along with backslider Ephriam took evil counsel to make a breach in Judah and to set up their king Tabeal (name means “good for nothing”).  Spiritually, Judah symbolizes praise and celebration of God.  These enemies were challenging Judah’s worship and wanted to silence it. This spirit exists today as well.  There are influences that want to silence worship.  They try through the spirit of vexation.  The Lord said, “It shall not come to pass.”

• Satan’s vexations come when he sees the work of God going forward.  Read Nehemiah 6:1-14.  Nehemiah and the builders were moving forward in the wall building.  The enemies resented it and began to vex through distractions, innuendos, deliberate mischief, and discreditations.  They wanted to cause fear.  Nehemiah by the Spirit stood fast in the Lord his God. Very often when the Christian is progressing in God, there will come evil enemies to vex.
• Satan’s vexations come when he sees God’s people coming into their inheritance.  Read Numbers 25:17-18.  God told Moses to vex the Midianites, because the Midianites were vexing Israel and hindering the journey towards Canaan.  God used the word “wiles”.  Midian was using “wiles” (deceits, treachery, conspiracy).  God said, “Moses, smite them.”
• Satan’s vexations come when the Christians are in affliction.  Read Job 19:2.  Job was vexed by his own three friends while in his affliction.  They failed to recognize the spiritual warfare.  They accused Job of sin.  None of these three were edifying at all.
• Satan’s vexations come when there is jealousy between two parties.  Read Isaiah 11:13.  Judah was vexing Ephriam, because Ephriam was envious of Judah.  People in the church who just want to worship are often vexing to those who want works.  Remember Mary and Martha.  Martha envied Mary, because she sat at Jesus feet. Mary was a vexation to Martha’s spirit, because she was doing all the work in getting some lunch for the group. (See Luke 10:38-42)
• Satan’s vexations come when people rejoice in another’s misfortune.  Read Acts 12:1-17.  Herod stretched his hand to vex the leaders of the new testament Church.  He had James killed, and when he saw that this pleased the Jews, he went after Peter.  Herod was striking at the leaders to deal a mortal blow to the Church.  He failed.  People in our day also strike at the leadership and rejoice when they see people leaving the Church.  They are aligned with the spirit of Herod and the devil in these vexations.

Vexation can and will come because of disobedience to the word of God… Deuteronomy 28:15-20… The Lord did the vexing here because Israel disobeyed His word… (Job also refers to

God’s vexations Job 27:2) Not all vexation is of the devil… The Lord will cause vexation if we are disobedient to the word of God … A lot of N.T. Christians think that they are incapable of disobedience because they are under a better covenant… A Christian who has disobeyed the word often has trouble in the conscience… they are restless … bored… agitated … convicted…

Chasing a false expectation can cause vexation in a person’s spirit… Ecclesiastes 1:14-17 … 2:11, 17,22,26… 4:4, 6,16… 6:9…Pursuing after vanity can cause vexations… One of the major causes of vexation is “the wandering of the desire” or “the chasing after the wind”… (6:9) The “wandering of the desire” is simply “fantasizing”… Proverbs 28:19 talks of “the person who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty” (NIV) A fantasy is “a wandering desire”. It will waste away your life … cause vexation of spirit… Fantasies are never achieved… There is a difference between a fantasy and God given desires…

Adversity brings vexations in the form of strife… 2 Chronicles 15:3-5…Israel lost the presence of God and with this loss they lost their teaching priests and thereby they lost the knowledge of the word of God… They were vexed because they had no guidance and direction… They lost their rest as well…

I love what Lizzie Ducking says though about vexing spirits: To cause the vexing spirit or even Satan himself to run, one must ONLY PRAISE GOD! The garment of praise combats the forces of darkness such as anxiety, fear, depression, lust of every kind, despondency, hopelessness and sorrows; these are all spirits of heaviness which vex our mind. So instead of entertaining them; put the high praise of God in your mouth. The bible said, resist the devil and he will flee from you so when we praise the Lord, we are resisting the forces of darkness and they would have to leave.

The bible also said that Satan walks about like a roaring lion but that is all that he can do. He cannot bite us because Jesus has already defeated him for our sake but he would try to make us think that there is something to him but it is not.

Hardly anyone would say that an unclean spirit is attacking them simple because of the nature of the word or because they do not know that it is Satan instead, they would give it a name like fear or depression but we need to know who is behind those words and it is vexing spirits trying to steal our joy and peace but God has given us His weapon to defeat them; the garment of praise. Vexing spirits are not very powerful; they mostly just irritate kind of like a gnat but if they are unchecked, they can cause major problems later on.