Spirit of heaviness / depression

Description

Isaiah 61:3 contains an expression rendered in the English KJV as “spirit of heaviness.” Derek Prince repeatedly referred to this verse when describing his own long struggle with a depressive heaviness.

Prince spoke of a condition like a dark cloud that regularly hung over him. It was accompanied by hopelessness, isolation, discouragement, and the conviction that he was unable to go on. For a long time he regarded the problem primarily as part of his own personality.

The breakthrough came while reading Isaiah 61:3. Prince then discerned, in his own case, a personal spiritual influence and connected it with the biblical expression “spirit of heaviness.” Referring also to the words, “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved,” he called on the name of Jesus and prayed for deliverance.

In his teaching he also describes a path that can take a person progressively deeper: from rejection and loneliness, through discouragement and self-pity, to depression, despair, and hopelessness. The heaviness gradually begins to take away joy, hope, and the ability to see beyond one’s own suffering.

Frank and Ida Mae Hammond likewise list heaviness and depression in their spiritual groupings. They connect them, among other things, with discouragement, despair, hopelessness, despondency, loneliness, and a morbid preoccupation with what leads toward death.

Vlad Savchuk also teaches about a “spirit of heaviness,” describing persistent spiritual oppression that weighs a person down, takes away joy, shuts them into hopelessness, and makes it difficult to emerge from continual discouragement.

In Prince’s testimony, deliverance did not end with one experience of prayer. He noticed that the former heaviness tried to return, so he learned to resist it actively. The words of Isaiah 61:3 about “the garment of praise instead of a spirit of heaviness” were especially significant to him.

Praise, thanksgiving, and consciously directing the mind toward the Word of God became ways of resisting returning hopelessness. Prince also developed the picture of the “helmet of hope” — protection for the mind against thoughts leading back toward despair.

The path to freedom includes rejecting agreement with hopelessness and despair and turning to Jesus Christ. If a spirit of heaviness is discerned, its activity can be renounced and it can be commanded to leave in the name of Jesus.

The continuing battle consists in refusing to receive the same heaviness again, while consciously choosing hope, thanksgiving, and praise and filling the mind with the Word of God.

“...to give them (...) the garment of praise instead of a spirit of heaviness.”
Isaiah 61:3

Sources

Isaiah 61:1–3; Joel 2:32 [3:5]; 1 Thessalonians 5:8 — the spirit of heaviness, calling on the name of the Lord, and hope as protection for the mind.

Derek Prince — “The Helmet of Salvation,” “Protection Against Discouragement and Depression,” “Hope as a Helmet,” and testimonies concerning his deliverance from the “spirit of heaviness”.

Frank and Ida Mae Hammond — “Pigs in the Parlor” — DEPRESSION / HEAVINESS groups.

Vlad Savchuk — teachings concerning the “spirit of heaviness” and deliverance.