Spirit of despair

Description

Derek Prince describes despair within chains leading from rejection through successive negative states towards depression and hopelessness. Frank and Ida Mae Hammond place despair and hopelessness within their groupings related to depression. Don Basham describes persistent emotional blockages as areas that may require further spiritual discernment, particularly when they remain despite previous work on sin, habit, prayer and discipline.

Despair is more than momentary sadness. A person may come to believe that nothing will ever change, there is no way out, and the future holds nothing good. Such a state may grow out of prolonged rejection, losses, loneliness, disappointment and despondency.

Discernment encompasses the whole chain of experiences, rather than a single emotion. Prayer for healing and deliverance, rebuilding hope, and working through rejection and loss may belong to one path.

If despair leads to an immediate threat to life or an intention to take one's own life, the first task is to protect the person from harm. This does not mean rejecting the spiritual dimension; prayer and discernment can continue while safety is ensured.

Symptoms / signs

Deep, persistent despondency, loss of meaning and hope, withdrawal from life and relationships.

Possible roots / causes

Rejection, loneliness, prolonged despondency, accumulated losses, grief, chronic disappointment, lack of support and an entrenched belief that the situation has no way out.

Doors / context

Remaining in unhealed rejection, loss and hopelessness for a long time, isolating oneself and reinforcing the belief that neither change nor help is possible.

Effects

Withdrawal from life and relationships, loss of hope and motivation, self-neglect, isolation, deepening depressive heaviness and, in extreme cases, a risk of suicide.

Help / what next

Prayer for healing of rejection, loss and despair, prayer for deliverance, and rebuilding hope in God and safe relationships. When there is an immediate threat to life, the person's immediate safety and appropriate help must also be ensured; they should not be left alone.

“Why are you downcast, my soul, and why are you troubled within me?”
Psalm 42:6. Teaching sources: Derek Prince — despair in the passive chain of rejection; Frank and Ida Mae Hammond — despair and hopelessness in the DEPRESSION group; Don Basham — “Deliver Us from Evil”.