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3 Ways to Lift the Spirit of Heaviness

Struggling with mental weight? I believe you must lift heaviness off your spirit before you can release it from your body.

Why do I believe this?

depressed-overweight-woman

When I weighed 240 pounds, I felt as if I had the weight of the world on my shoulders.

It was like the mental weight I felt inside translated into physical weight on the outside.

As believers in Jesus Christ, it is important that we recognize the enemy’s destructive schemes; his goal is to weigh us down (depress us) to hinder our ability to fulfill our purpose in the Lord.

Let’s take a look at the ‘spirit of heaviness’ meaning, the influence of a weighty spirit and then discover the strategy to combat it.

The topics we will cover include:

The Meaning of ‘Spirit of Heaviness’

The Hebrew word for heaviness is keheh, which means “dim, dull, or faint.”

Since Jesus calls Believers in Him as the “light of the world (see Matthew 5:14),” then it is clear the enemy wants to extinguish our light and cause us to “faint” during life challenges!

While Isaiah 61:3 warns us that a heavy spirit exists, the scripture also gives us hope about the exchange that believers can make through our relationship with Jesus.

Here is what Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would do and why:

“To console those who mourn in Zion,

To give them beauty for ashes,

The oil of joy for mourning,

The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;

That they may be called trees of righteousness,

The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”

The goals of these exchanges are to establish believers in righteousness and to glorify the Lord. 

However, 1 Peter reveals that we will also face opposition on the path to glory and that a humble attitude is the key to overcoming it.

Humility is recognizing that you serve a King who is greater than yourself and He has resources that can help you in any situation.

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

1 Peter 5:5-8

When we feel a weighty spirit is on us, let us submit ourselves under the Lord’s care each day through prayer and trust Him to do the heavy lifting!

Does a Heavy Spirit Cause People to Feel Depressed?

A demonic spirit can deceive us through lying thoughts, leading to depression. 

A psychiatrist once said that people who struggle with neurotic disorders, such as depression or anxiety, almost always have a habit of fault finding.

Either they focused on faults within themselves or faults with other people. 

No matter what was good in their lives, they always focused on what was wrong and what was lacking.

When I suffered from depression years ago, I was like that.

Now I know how critical it is to practice discerning of spirits, which requires awareness of the thoughts that are directing our focus and ensure they line up with God’s word.

For example, if I have thoughts that are focused on complaining, then I know that attitude is not of God because 1 Thessalonians 5:18 gives us guidance on God’s will in every situation:

in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Notice the scripture doesn’t say that we give thanks for everything, but in everything; that means whatever the situation, we can always focus on thanksgiving, even as we seek God’s wisdom for a solution

So once again, pay attention to your thoughts and ensure they are consistent with God’s word. Godly thoughts yield the fruit of the Holy Spirit:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”

– Galatians 5:22-23

How to Break Free from a Weighty Spirit?

Within Isaiah 61:3 is the prescription for lifting a heavy spirit: 

“The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;”

Reading this scripture reminds us that a garment is something that we must put on intentionally; after all, our clothes don’t put themselves on!

The following are 3 ways to put on the garment of praise every day:

1. Listen to praise and worship music, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord regularly.

Hum praises to the Lord as you perform routine tasks, like washing the dishes or sweeping the floor.

Sing praises as you take a prayer walk and practice thanksgiving for the ability to move during your exercise session.

Since you have chosen to do these activities anyway, you might as well cultivate a merry heart while doing them!

I also recommend having moments of stillness in your day, putting on worship music, and reflecting on or journaling about God’s character of faithfulness.

As you recall how the Lord has been faithful in times past, you have confidence that He is with you now and in the future!

2. Create a gratitude list. When I suffered from depression, I used this scripture as a prescription:

Psalm 119:164 – “Seven times a day I praise You, Because of Your righteous judgments.’

 God led me to write down 7 things for which I wanted to praise Him each day for 31 days.

Toward the end of those days, that depressive spirit left me.

It became a habit to start looking for things to be grateful for in my life.

Even in the midst of the most trying times, you can always find reasons to praise!

3. Write a ‘Thank You’ note to all the people on your gratitude list.  Buy some ‘Thank you’ notes, then write a brief note to a person on your life about how much you appreciate them.

Because tomorrow is not promised to you, wouldn’t it be best to let the people you care about know how much they mean to you while they are still with you?

It doesn’t matter if they thank you in return. All you want to do is make sure they know you appreciate them!

If you end up with 10 people on your list and commit to writing 1 note per day, you’d have this done in 10 days.

But I’d suggest you do this sooner rather than later.

In summary, cultivating a practice of praise and of “good finding” rather than fault finding each day will help to lift the spirit of heaviness right off of you.

And I believe that will help lighten your load on your Christian weight loss journey as well!

Be Blessed with Health, Healing, and Wholeness,

Kimberly Taylor

Author of the Take Back Your Temple program

P.S. Do you struggle with overeating sugar? If so, you are not alone!

Overcoming sugar addiction was a key factor on my weight loss journey; I lost 85 pounds and dropped from a size 22 to an 8.

In our 14-day Sugar Detox Challenge online course (inside the Take Back Your Temple program), you’ll get the same success strategies and support to gain peace in your eating habits and achieve lasting weight loss.

Click here to learn more about the Take Back Your Temple program.

“Prayer for Weight Loss”

About the author 

Kimberly Taylor

Kimberly Taylor is a certified Christian life coach and has a heart to help others struggling with emotional eating and weight loss. Once 240 pounds and a size 22, she can testify of God’s goodness and healing power to overcome. She lost 85 pounds as a result of implementing techniques to overcome emotional eating and binge eating disorder.

Kim is the author of "The Take Back Your Temple Program," which teaches Christians how to take control of their weight God's way and the books "The Weight Loss Scriptures" and "The Weight Loss Prayers."

Kim has been featured in Prevention Magazine, Charisma Magazine and on CBN’s 'The 700 Club' television program.

  • May God continue to enrich you with wisdom and authority to provide guidance to His people! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this as it encouraged me to walk in gratitude! Thank you for your transparency and boldness to share with us!

    • Thank you for those words of encouragement, Torlise – May the Lord be magnified through His people!

  • Thank you for such a powerful message which confirmed a lot of what God’s been showing me about humility, honesty, and integrity. I’ve battled myself my entire life, weighing myself down, listening to and believing what others have said, causing much of my own anxiety, setting expectations and standards I could never meet on my own, leaving me frustrated, angry, defeated, paralyzed by fear and anxiety, ‘stuck,’ unable to make steady progress. BUT GOD is turning all of that around with His lovingkindness, compassion, and faithfulness. He continues to show His power in my weakness, teaching me how to live by the truth, how everything in His Word is cross-referenced and relevant, that He truly has EVERYTHING covered, how He’s in control, that it’s NOT about the weight but my obedience to His teaching. He’s redefining, refreshing, and reshaping me so that I can function as He intended before I got in the way! He’s showing me what an incredible gift it is to bring what’s weighing me down to Him, so I can be taught by the Master–that He cares about and is IN it ALL. This year God has released 32 pounds from my frame, and I am grateful for the struggle because these are lessons that I could not meet in any other way.

    Thank you for your powerful teaching and leadership so that we can see God in a deeper way and give Him glory, honor, and praise in all things.

    God bless you, Mike, and the TBYT ministry.

    • Hi Mary (((HUG))) – I read your message to Mike and said, “YES!!! This is why we do it (TBYT).” You just encapsulated what TBYT is about and the transformation we pray for to happen in the hearts and minds of all of our members. Thank you so much for articulating everything the Lord put on our hearts. May the Lord continue to bless you in your journey and become EVERYTHING He created you to be, not only for yourself but all the people the Lord has blessed you to influence. Thank you, Sister – God be praised!

  • Love this lesson, Kimberly! I was just sharing with our small group at church a few weeks ago about intentionally choosing to put on the garment of praise — and to cultivate a cheerful, thankful heart — to overcome the spirit of heaviness. I’ve definitely had those day when those choices are easier said than done. (It’s so much easier to ruminate and feel sorry for ourselves!). But when you take tiny steps to do what you’ve outlined here, then the LORD is there to lift that burden. Speaking from recent experience!! PTL!!
    /sg

    • Thank you for that feedback, Shana – I am grateful that this is a “just in time” word that strengthened and encouraged you today 🙂

  • I love the encouraging words with such revelation and simplicity. It’s always an “in season” seasoned word from the Holy Spirit. You are doing a powerful work for the Lord.

  • Kimberly, you don’t know how happy you have made me by posting, “ Notice the scripture doesn’t say that we give thanks FOR everything, but IN everything; that means whatever the situation, we can always focus on thanksgiving, even as we seek God’s wisdom for a solution.” I have been fighting for Christians to realize this difference for years! Such a huge difference a proposition can make!!!

  • This is a wonderful article with a lot of good news! I have already started a thankfulness journal. It helps a lot. Now for that list of how the Lord has been faithful to me… Thank you so much, Kimberly. I feel the weight starting to lift off of me. The enemy is all “smoke and mirrors” but greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world! Hallelujah!

  • Thank You Kimberly!
    Me too! I have experienced this before and your post reminded me that a spirit of heaviness can attach itself to our emotions and try and make us doubt God’s love for us so we pull away and go into self preservation mode!
    Now I’m pressing in even more and praising my Lord, my God, my Rock, my Redeemer!!

  • Thank you so much for sharing this. It has helped me. I was rejected at an application I made for my status change in a country I am not an original resident. As a result, I have been having racing heart beats when I wake up. I am grateful for this. It has helped me. GOD bless and keep you always.

  • Hi Kimberly. Thank you for the encouraging post. Am so blessed and i will follow the steps for lifting lifting off the heavy spirits.
    Is it possible to help someone out off depression even when they dont want your help?

    • Hi Banji – I am glad this was helpful to you! To answer your question, you can help any person through praying for them. Ask the Lord to open their Spiritual eyes so that they can see the lies they are believing that are keeping them in bondage. Also if they do not believe in Jesus as their Savior, then pray for their Salvation, which in the most powerful thing you can do. God bless you in ministry to the person you are concerned about.

  • Well what I was going through in these tough days is a huge list which I couldn’t share but after reading your post about the spirit of heaviness lifted my spirit and gave me a confidence within my inner man that I can show an exit to my anxieties and worries. Thanks for taking time this blog is a real help for people like me and I thank god for the wisdom he gave you neatly put this article into writing.. keeping doing more kim. Thank you

  • This is simple truth. Truth from physician who made our bodies. The key here is to put it into practice. Your adversary will hinder you. Like a basketball game, he’ll make sure you don’t get ball into the net.

  • Thank you so much for take back your temple. This is certainly a renewed revelation on emotional eating. I am applying theses principles. I have loss a couple of pounds already, after reading the book. Thank you!

    • That is awesome, Essie. God is so good. Just remember that each day has its own challenges and victories so take it one day at a time, choice by choice with the Lord walking with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you!

      • I pray the Scriptures during a fast which is very powerful. It says “this kind only comes out by prayer and fasting”

        • I do the same, Safira. We are walking in agreement with what the Lord says and can be confident that the Lord backs up His word!

  • Kimberly, I would like to Thank you for your commitment of edifying people ( like me) through your articles. I have been struggling with depression and its been getting worse. I haven’t acknowledged it because I thought “I’m a Christian! I can’t be depressed!” Reading this article opened my eyes to see that I am a fault finder and it stops now. I will do what you have recommended and trust in the Lord to do the heavy lifting. I appreciate you! God Bless you.

    • Wonderful, SV – I am so glad the article spoke to you. The Lord has a way of bring the right word to us at the right time 🙂

  • I needed this today… thank you for sharing!! Satan uses anything to keep us down..
    But we have the victory!
    We all have things we struggle with..

    • Hi Vicki – I am so glad this was helpful. You are right that we all struggle at times but the bottom line is that we have the victory in Jesus! We must always remind ourselves of that daily to remain encouraged 🙂

  • Great suggestions! Very promising! God is good! Thank you, Kim, for your faith and sharing the wisdom you have gleaned through your journey with the Lord!

  • This is music to my ears!!!
    Thank God for you, it’s like this was meant for me, at this tryig time in my life.
    Pray for me I struggle each
    to stay positive.

  • Thank you Kimberly, for being used of God to share this deliverance. These words are exactly what this heavy heart needed!

  • Hi there! Cool post! As I was reading my bible this morning in Samuel 16: 14 it said “Now the Spirit of the Lord had left Saul, and the Lord sent a tormenting spirit that filled him with depression and fear.” And then further on in Samuel 16:23 says ” And whenever the tormenting spirit from God troubled Saul, David would play the harp. Then Saul would feel better, and the tormenting spirit WOULD GO AWAY.”
    How cool is that?! That is scripture to confirm scripture! David was certainly a praiser and that tormenting spirit obviously did not like the music!! I struggle with fear and occasionally spiritual heaviness so it’s super cool to have the answer nestled inside the scriptures!!! Thank You Jesus!! Praise the Lord!!!! Thanks for sharing this post and God bless!!

  • Just feeling heavy in spirit and weight. Perfect timing for my situation. Thank you for knowledge and understanding on this problem. I will apply it today. God is please with your writing on this matter.

  • How quickly we forget and take those reins back again! Great reminder, thank you…I like the prescription. Blessings on you .

  • Very rich and wise advice. Thank you for your ministry it touches so many lives for the good. Romans 10:8 and Deut. 30:14 says that the word is neigh us, even in our mouth. Speak the word of God and our Faith grows.

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