This message can help us to understand what we have experienced or are experiencing or what others have gone through. It is not easy to minister to someone who has come into difficulties. Furthermore, it is not easy to help Christians who have experienced difficulties which have deeply affected their spirit. And we might well wonder if we ever get into any difficulties unless something wrong first enters our spirit.
Some difficulties seem to be of no great consequence, and we pass through them. Those of a soulish and physical nature do not seem to distract us very long if our spirit is right with the Lord. Don’t you think that anyone can be provoked into a corner? Such an incident may be viewed as an isolated incident rather than as a true expression of our spirit.
Once in a while, some people seem to be ready to give up. Actually, they have reached a place where fatigue and pressure have caused them to either go on a crying jag or eat a gallon of ice cream or do something even a little more foolish. But they tend to pull out of that state because it has not deeply affected their spirit. It was usually an isolated incident that did not have much permanent significance. It was a safety valve. They blew off a little steam and repented, “Lord, I’m sorry that I was ready to run the other way!” Then they usually press on.
The serious problems occur when difficulties reach a person’s spirit. I am always amazed to read in the Scriptures that the disciples were able to penetrate down into a person’s spirit. An incident such as this occurred in the eighth chapter of the book of Acts. Philip had gone down to Samaria because of the persecutions which scattered the Christians after the stoning of Stephen. Philip performed great miracles and signs there, and he preached and won the whole city to the Lord (verse 6). In Acts 8:14–17 we read, Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit.
Peter and John were ministering to the believers in Samaria when something unusual happened. Verses 17 through 24 tell a story which illustrates how the apostles penetrated into the spirits of the people to whom they ministered. The apostles’ conclusions were not occasioned by what they saw or by the actions of an individual. Rather, they penetrated into his spirit, which was and is the determining factor.
This is important and of interest to us, because today people are generally evaluated by their actions. We might automatically assume that a person has a bad spirit if he hits someone. We tend to reason by the physical action that he commits, rather than to discern what was in his spirit. If we could reach his spirit, we could help him before he starts hitting someone.
Let us see what happened when Peter and John began laying their hands on the believers and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” We cannot blame Simon too much for offering them money; he was not familiar with the grace of God. He recognized their authority, and he thought this was great; he had never seen anything like it. But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not right before God.” Peter exposed what was in Simon’s heart, rather than judging him by his actions.
Notice how Peter dealt with Simon’s spirit. “Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity.” But Simon answered and said, “Pray to the Lord for me yourselves, so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.” Acts 8:18–24.
Peter gave us a good example of how to deal with someone’s spirit. People ask questions about everything; and when you listen to them, you know that something is not right. They do not want information; they are trying to put you in a corner. Others ask questions; and you perceive immediately, “This person’s spirit is open to the Lord. There is no gall of bitterness here. This is an honest seeker.”
If we were to go up and down the highways and byways and try to talk to people about the things of the Lord, many would say, “I can’t be bothered.” Among those who would talk, we might be rather amazed that although some would ask the same questions as others, they would have an entirely different attitude of heart. Some would have a bitter spirit.
Talk to some people about religious Babylon, and they may say, “You don’t need to talk to me about Babylon! I don’t know about Babylon, but I will tell you what my church did to me and what our church was like and what they are doing. It was terrible!” There is bitterness in their spirits. That bitterness keeps coming out by their lashing at everything. Talk to another man and you may find that he is not bitter in his spirit. He may have gone through similar experiences and could be bitter, but he is not. In his spirit, in his heart, he has a deep overriding hunger for God. And because he has a right spirit, he has not been embittered by the difficulties he experienced. Although he may have been very upset at the time, he did not retain any bitterness in his heart.
Simon the magician was rightly discerned by Peter, though he seemed to be an honest inquirer: “I want to lay my hands on people and see them receive the Holy Spirit, too. What a neat trick!” However, behind his inquiry was not just the motivation to buy a gift of God with money. Even more than that, he was in the gall of bitterness. Deep in his heart he had no part or lot with God. Peter said, “Your heart is not right with God. You have no part or portion in this matter.” Not one thing was right because bitterness had cut him off.
Bitterness can be a great deceiver. It is surprising how many people hide their bitterness so well that it is difficult to detect. Sometimes this happens in a marriage. A wife may act pious in church, but be very bitter at home over the way her life has turned out. At times, we see this also in husbands. Colossians 3:19 says, Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. Bitterness can build up, until after a while a veneer of toleration exists, while actually that bitterness goes down deep.
Some of the seemingly religious and spiritual homes should be analyzed for bitterness. Though entire families go through the right motions, at times there are uprisings of insidious criticism. They talk sweetly; their terminology is just right; their inflections of voice are just right. But look a little closer. Within these families there is bitterness. There is not the deep love. Tension and edginess come out. There is that gall of bitterness beneath the surface.
Do you realize where bitterness really is? Proverbs 14:10a says, The heart knoweth his own bitterness. Doesn’t this seem true? We have a way of detecting the bitterness that we accumulate within our own spirit. When you think back on the people who have stopped walking with God, you cannot point to any specific problem that was too much for them to bear. The reactions in their spirits, more than anything else, caused some to lose out. Others, who went through the same problems, stayed on. Maybe you excuse a brother for losing out because he seemed to have so much to put up with. Maybe you thank God for the work he did, and you think, “He was a good man at heart.” Take another look. All the way along the bitterness of his spirit may have been constantly building up a reaction in him to the testings that were taking place. When someone else went through the same testings, God used them as a catalyst to prepare his spirit to go on into deeper things of the Lord and to seek Him with all his heart.
In Hebrews 12:5b–6 we read, Do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines… Anytime you go through a testing which seems to cloud your walk with God, be aware that the problem is not the testing; the real problem is your reaction to it in your spirit. Walking with God in the Body of Christ is deeply personal. It is between you and the Lord. It is not based on the way your brother treats you. It is not based on the way the Body of Christ treats you. Good strong ministries, who should walk on with the Lord and be on top of every situation, sometimes begin to blame their circumstances and other people for the fact that they are not moving in the Lord. Passivity and bitterness build up in their spirits. Their bitterness builds up while everyone else is breaking through. In the same worship services, we see some breaking forth to become prophets of God and others losing out because of their own bitter spirits.
People react differently, and the difference in their reactions often is based upon the bitterness or the brokenness of their spirits. What is in your spirit? A broken, contrite heart before God? or bitterness? Look back and analyze a time when you were in trouble. It was not necessarily the severity of the circumstance that caused the problem as much as it was your own spirit reacting to it.
Bitterness of spirit does not always result in people becoming vicious and leaving the church and criticizing it. They do not always react that way. Some keep going to services without ever becoming active. Meanwhile bitterness is in their spirits. Then in a difficult situation they become champions to criticize everyone else. Their bitterness may manifest itself in numerous ways. Sometimes they become aggressively defensive to a point of blaming someone else. But more than blaming someone else, they may even pose as being very spiritual.
In the New Testament churches that are coming forth today, there are people with beautiful, hungry, tender spirits who wholeheartedly press on with the Lord. There are others with beautiful spirits who love the Lord with all their heart, but they cannot seem to adjust to intense expressions of music and intercession. Still they worship and pray in their own way and keep a right spirit. At the other end of the spectrum are some people with bitterness! They may be critical and withdraw, or they may become aggressive to a point of berating everyone else.
How are we to deal with bitterness? How can we deal with the varying responses of the human spirit to the things that happen? It would be marvelous if we would all bow down broken before the Lord. Then He could give us an overall vision of the Kingdom and of the people who are ready to be brought in. With a right spirit coming forth, we could forget ourselves and bring other people in.
What kind of spirit should we have? We should not be self-defensive or self-assertive, but in our spirit we should be dedicated to bring forth the will of God in people’s lives. If our dedication does not lead to this, we are not motivated in the right direction. A wrong spirit always dead-ends before the true issues arise. A wrong spirit stops at an impasse without seeing the great issues of the Lordship of Christ and His Kingdom coming over all the world. A wrong spirit always stops one at the local, personal level.
A wrong spirit lacks these spiritual attributes of godliness which are listed in II Peter 1:5–7: faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. In verses 9–11, Peter said, But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall. For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. An abundant entrance will be ministered to you into the Kingdom! Is anything greater than this?
Do you realize the amazingly simple wisdom there is in this message? You can apply it to a thousand situations: to what you have experienced and what you are in now; to what other people have gone through and what they are in now. You will see how to best assist and help others.
We can see why satanic powers have beamed witchcraft on a psychic level against the people of the Lord. This has been designed to affect our spirits so that we will not be able to walk with God. Satan knows that the effective way to stop a person from serving God is by an attack against one’s spirit.
We are leaving the age of soul and entering into the age of spirit. The world emphasizes the soul; we can forget that. In this age which is opening up to us now, we are serving God in the realm of spirit. Do you understand the difference? Throughout the age of soul, men were more religious, because religion operates in the soul level. But in today’s age of spirit, the human spirit is opening up to move in the realm of spirit.
Look back at the conjunction of dispensations when the Kingdom of heaven was first preached by John the Baptist. The people were still so entrenched in the Old Testament age that they reacted on a physical level. What happened to John the Baptist? They cut off his head. When the Roman soldiers put the disciples in prison, they beat them and stoned them to death; these soldiers were also reacting on the physical level. But Paul announced what was happening in the entire Church age. He warned the Christians not to be deceived into thinking they were fighting against flesh and blood. They were not fighting against Roman soldiers who wanted to pierce them with a spear. Paul said, For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12. This is what we must bring down.
Today, people are more aware of the demonic forces than ever before. Even the man on the street can see things that would have been difficult for the people in New Testament times to see. A man on the street is aware of the soulish level, of the underlying forces that direct the governments of this world. He is aware of the greed and the demonic power on this soulish level. The world as a whole accepts the reality of witchcraft today more than in the past. Although they may not practice it, they believe that it exists. The whole world is becoming aware of the soul level and aware, also, of the spirit world. Let us wake up to the fact that when we came into this walk with God, we literally stepped over into the age of spirit. Our human spirit becomes the important factor that determines whether we will walk on with God or not.
In the Old Testament times, the physical realm was predominant. A man was reached spiritually through the physical realm. This is why the children of Israel bound the Word on their foreheads and around their wrists and kept the Jewish feasts and observances. Circumcision, too, was a very physical rite. But in the New Testament times, Paul said, “Forget that! True circumcision is not that which is of the flesh; circumcision of the heart is what counts” (Romans 2:28–29). Circumcision was lifted into the level of spirit. Today we want that circumcision of our human spirit. We want to wholly belong to the Lord.
Satan may assault you physically or in your emotions; but usually he assaults your spirit, and the effects spill over into your other faculties. A headache may even be an effect of the oppression that is coming against your spirit. Rather than taking an aspirin to get rid of the headache, it would be better to throw off that oppression. Then you will see the headache, and the emotions, heal up.
A controlling force and a deciding factor in your life is your spirit. If your spirit is bitter, or you allow things to defeat your spirit, you will be defeated in every way. This is why Satan attacks the human spirits of those who are led by the Spirit of God. Because they have reached into the realm of spirit, they face spiritual conflicts and tests of faith that are entirely different than what the denominations and other religious groups face.
God is a Spirit, and the great mark of this new age is worshiping Him in spirit. Today’s end-time walk with God started in a service where the people began worshiping and singing in the spirit, because God is a Spirit and He wants us to worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). This indicated that the breakthrough would be by Spirit communicating to spirit—crying from the depths to the depths—God reaching to the depths of our spirit (Psalm 42:7).
If you understand this, you will see that true discernment is not an analyzation of what you have been through, or your actions: “Well, let’s see. You were in a car accident, and seven people were in the car; but you were the only one hurt. The car was pink.” Forget about that type of revelation. For what purpose do people try to get a word of knowledge? What does it matter whether a pink car or a maroon car struck you?
Rather than discerning or receiving revelation back on those levels, we need the penetration and analysis of what is happening to a person’s spirit. When we see what is happening to his spirit, everything else in his life can be explained. But try to explain everything else in a person’s life without penetrating into what is in his spirit, and you will always miss it. You will never reach the necessary depth of discernment and revelation until you start with the spirit, or at least reach the spirit somehow. For those walking with God today, it is not so important to discern what is wrong with a person physically. It is more important to see how the physical is being affected by the spirit. Then we have a true answer.
Sometimes a person who is oppressed in spirit may be affected physically from day to day by different symptoms. If he analyzes his symptoms on one day, he may believe that he is sick with a sinus condition. The next day he may have symptoms of strep throat. In a week’s time he may have various symptoms. A spirit of infirmity can assault a person in many different ways, but usually it starts by hitting the human spirit so that it will have access to various parts of the body, and also to various areas of the soul, such as the emotions. If such a demonic spirit hits you hard enough, you can look at a situation and completely misinterpret it. Bitterness of spirit will lead you to interpret things wrongly, too. A complete misinterpretation can come by assault in this realm of spirit.
Revelation and the gifts of the Holy Spirit come to our spirit. Many Pentecostal believers who believed in the gifts experienced few of the gifts because they received the Holy Spirit on a soul level. Consequently they experienced much emotion, a little prophecy, but no deep revelation. Deep revelation comes when the Holy Spirit actually operates on your spirit level and you are filled on the Spirit level. Then you will see clearly by the Spirit. What you are as a soul and what you are as a spirit are almost like two separate entities. The human spirit can be very objective. It is difficult for the human soul to be objective.
When God speaks to men’s souls, He is not heard as clearly as when He speaks to spirits, because He is a Spirit. Let me give you an illustration of this from the physical realm. Dolphins and whales in captivity have been trained to perform at the sound of a whistle or some other signal. Men of science are learning the language of these mammals, and can imitate their mating calls. It is a tragedy that through this knowledge, the whale hunters can summon the whales and then kill them. So many are being destroyed that some species are in danger of becoming extinct.
Just as man can make a noise like an ocean mammal, so God can make a noise or speak like a soul. But the natural language of God is for Spirit to speak to spirit. When the human spirit is humble and broken before the Lord, the understanding comes. David cried, Behold, Thou dost desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part Thou wilt make me know wisdom. Psalm 51:6. Our ears and our understanding open up when our spirits are right. Our interpretations and discernment can be a little off when we deal through the soul level, or the level of our senses and emotions.
Can you see why it is necessary that we have our spirits right before the Lord? Any bitterness can be deadly.
Hebrews 12:15 says, See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled. This verse shows what bitterness can do to a human spirit. Bitterness is like a root. Bitterness is a defiler. These two qualities of bitterness are given right in this verse. Bitterness is like a root which you can chop off with a hoe; but if a little bit is left down deep, it may start growing again. It is necessary to get every bit of the root out and to be cleansed of bitterness. Paul said that “by it many be defiled.” Bitterness has a way of traveling from spirit to spirit.
The minute we believe God and start walking with Him, He says we are to be one. As we open our hearts to be one, we bond together. This means that we are capable of blessing each other infinitely. Thus, the Body of Christ makes increase of itself in love, and it is “fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth” (Ephesians 4:16). Yet it is alarming to see that we are in trouble if we disregard the negative aspect of this Scripture. It also means that the Body functions so well that if someone injects poison into it, that poison will go through the entire Body. Although there is blessing in the oneness of the Body of Christ, there is also the warning of danger to be heeded.
A congregation may appear beautiful outwardly. But fornication, adultery, and lust may constantly break out if a spirit of defilement enters in the Body through only one or two. That spirit will defile all the other members, manifesting itself somehow through the lust of the flesh. Then something more has to be done than restrict people and tell them to stop what they are doing. Their spirits must be reached and delivered from this defilement.
This defilement comes from the spirit of Babylon—“Mystery Babylon, the Mother of Harlots” (Revelation 17:5). On the soulish level Babylon commits fornication with the kings of the earth (Revelation 17:2). She is very religious. She rides on the governments, but the spirit of Babylon comes forth as adultery, as a filthiness. It ultimately comes forth out of the human spirit as Satan assaults that spirit level. Because God is leading His people into the level of spirit, Satan is drawing people into witchcraft and using sex as a religious ritual in worshiping him—this becomes Satan’s means of defiling the human spirit and of bonding that spirit to himself.
While speaking about the complexities involved with the human spirit, let us also see the simplicity in what God really wants. Aside from the control and regulation of your behavior and conduct, what does God really want? He wants a broken spirit before Him, a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51:17). If you have that, everything else will eventually be taken care of. Sooner or later you will throw off everything that is wrong, if you open your spirit before the Lord.
Paul gave this instruction to Timothy: And the Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth. Notice the sequence: Repentance leads to the knowledge of the truth. It is not that the knowledge of the truth leads you to repentance. When your spirit is wrong, you cannot see the truth. You will never see things correctly until your spirit changes. And they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. II Timothy 2:24–26.
If you have a bad spirit, you have been stung by Satan. Study the hornet, and you will see how Satan operates. Hornets, as well as spiders, know how to move in rapidly to sting a fly or a bee and put that insect into a state of suspended animation. Although it cannot move because it is totally paralyzed, it can be kept alive for some time. The hornet carries it away to build up a cache of food in its nest. When the little hornets hatch out of the egg, instinctively they start eating away at the fly or bee which has been paralyzed. They eat, reaching the vital parts last; and so they always have something alive to feed on.
This illustrates the way Satan operates. He holds people captive to do his will. When Satan assaults your spirit, you enter into a state of suspended animation, spiritually. You become crippled and helpless in your spirit. This is why Paul told Timothy, “As the Lord’s bond servant, you are not to be quarrelsome. You are to be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged. With gentleness you will correct those who are in opposition to you.” Never deal harshly with others in any way, because it will not help. But in gentleness lead them to the place of repentance so they can be liberated, because Satan is holding them captive to do his will. Helping someone after Satan has made an inroad into his spirit is a little more complicated than it would appear. You cannot start with the visible evidence of his problem. You must first study the spirit of the individual who is in trouble and discern what is buried there.
Often a person becomes open to deception by not walking in the light he received when God gave him revelation and direction. This has happened to the denominations, as well as to individuals, on a large scale. It should serve as a warning for us too. Today we have so much light that we are in far greater jeopardy than we realize if we do not actively walk in the light which God has given us. There are many things we know to do. God has given a flood of foundational truths to His people today, more than to any people in the history of all of His dealings with humanity. None have ever had this much revelation and light laid at their feet.
Here is a good way to build a church and build the Kingdom: If we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. I John 1:7. If you do not walk in the light, that light starts turning into darkness. You lose your immunity. You are assaulted by things that you thought would never trouble you again, that you thought you had overcome. You are stung by Satan into a state of suspended animation. There may not be even enough strength to walk away from the church. You are in a state of numbness—not blessed, not cursed. Get your spirit right with the Lord!
Bitterness can lead to defiling and destructive paralysis. It is a defiling root, a great deceiver. Simon was in the gall of bitterness, and his heart was not right with God. Even when he thought he was doing right, he only spoke the judgments of God upon his own soul.
Are you in a position where you need this Word? You could excuse yourself for having things wrong in your spirit by thinking, “I’m doing what I’m supposed to do. I intercede; I serve the Lord.” This is not enough! Of course you should do what you think is acceptable, but be sure that you are doing it with a right spirit. Be sure your spirit is right with God! Plumb its depths!
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9. Oh, the depths of the heart! How deeply things can be lodged in the human spirit. In the Scriptures, the word “heart” seems to be a generic term which includes the human spirit and the soul with its emotions and focus of the mind. The term “spirit” seems to express at least partially what the heart means in the Biblical term.
Do you have a right spirit? Or do you think, “No. I have been complaining and gossiping—I don’t have a right spirit.” Some people who complain do not necessarily have much defilement in their spirit. They may fuss and whine by nature, but this may not be from a deep contamination in their spirit. We must be concerned about the defilement which reaches our spirit. If it affects our spirit, we are in trouble.
In the Old Testament, the children of Israel murmured; and God dealt with them somewhat. But when the spirit of murmuring came upon them, God smote them down! It is one thing to murmur, and it is another thing to have a spirit of murmuring with roots penetrating deep down into your spirit. When there is a root of bitterness, then the defilement comes. When the children of Israel murmured against Moses and the Lord, He sent snakes to bite them. Then He had to create a miracle of grace to deliver them (Numbers 21:5–9).
Bitterness is suicidal. Let us see what James 3:11 says about bitterness: Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? James was speaking about the people who had a mingling of things. In verse 10 James said that there ought not be blessing and cursing from the same mouth. When the spirit is embittered, can much good come out of it? Your prophecies, everything you say, and even the inflection in what you say may be right, but any bitterness in your spirit will defile the fountain.
The apostle James also said, Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Neither can salt water produce fresh. Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have a bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural (or carnal, fleshly), demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. James 3:12–17. James here spoke of two kinds of wisdom.
God has always had His hand out to judge bitterness. Therefore it is difficult to restore people who have become bitter in spirit. They seem to come out of other problems easier, but once bitterness is in their spirit it continues on and on. Let us pray for those who cannot walk closely with God because of bitterness in their spirit. Bitterness is so contaminating that even after it seems to have been uprooted, a person will break out with it again if he is around another bitter spirit. When they get near each other, they reinfect each other, they feed it to each other, they contaminate one another.
What happened in the Old Testament when a person became bitter and turned away from the Lord? Moses spoke to the Israelites this Word from the Lord: “Now not with you alone am I making this covenant and this oath, but both with those who stand here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God and with those who are not with us here today (for you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed. Moreover, you have seen their abominations and their idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold, which they had with them); lest there shall be among you a man or woman, or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of those nations; lest there shall be among you a root bearing poisonous fruit and wormwood.” Do you recognize the poison, the bitter spirit Moses was talking about?
“And it shall be when he hears the words of this curse, that he will boast, saying, ‘I have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart in order to destroy the watered land with the dry.’ The Lord shall never be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and His jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse which is written in this book will rest on him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven. Then the Lord will single him out for adversity from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant which are written in this book of the law.” Deuteronomy 29:14–21.
Judgment is rough on the man with bitterness, that bitter vine with wormwood in his spirit who has turned away from the Lord. God said, “I will put upon him all the curses. I will never be willing to forgive him.” This is what happened in Old Testament times. God has something better for us. We have come to this day of the Kingdom, the day of spirit. This means that our spirit will be right: it will be broken and humble before the Lord. Let us keep our heart with all diligence, because out of it are the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23). Everything is resolved in the heart.
Were you ever overtaken with a bitter spirit? Are you sure the bitter root is gone? Look to the Lord. It is not enough that you seem to have recovered. You do not want that dormant bitterness to rise up again. You want the root out! You want to be loosed from anything wrong in your spirit. Cry, “O God, by Your grace, by Your mercy, I repent of any bitterness. Loose me! Loose me! Loose me!”
Reach in with simple faith, saying, “Lord, if You wanted me to be angry at myself, I would become angry. If You wanted me to just say, ‘I am sorry,’ I would say, ‘I am sorry.’ But I want to repent to the depth of my spirit and be broken and humble before You. Forgive me for everything which has come out of a defiled spirit within me. I refuse to blame anyone or anything anymore. I want to react with my spirit being open to You. If I have had a wrong reaction, I will see that my heart is changed. I will walk with You, Lord.”
Our defensiveness sometimes is an evidence of a wrong spirit; when someone criticizes us, we react. God forgive us! Remember what Paul said to Timothy about the man of God. He is to be gentle, easily entreated, ready to help people, ready to recover them out of the snare of the devil who holds them captive like a vicious hornet that stung them and left them paralyzed. God help us! I wonder how many among us are like that right now? “Lord, help us to heal them! Help us to reach their spirit and heal their bitterness. Give us the ministry of healing to heal Your people.”
We will come to the right rules and the right ways of working; but we will not start that way. We will have a right spirit, but not because everything else went right. We will have a right spirit first! Then everything else will eventually be right.
The prophet Elisha threw salt in the bitter waters at Jericho and healed them. When the waters were bitter, the animals and the fruit trees aborted; but after the salt was put in the spring of waters, the land began to be fruitful (II Kings 2:19–22). There is no fruitfulness in a church of bitterness. We will not be fruitful if we let bitterness overwhelm us. Our fruitfulness will come as we throw salt in the bitter waters and rejoice in the Lord. Then we will become fruitful in the land and a blessing to the Kingdom of God.
Our evangelism will become effective the day our spirits are broken before the Lord. Why should God send newly born souls of the Kingdom among people who are without love, who are bitter, who are “biting and devouring one another and consumed one of another.” Oh, what bitterness can do! What a defiler it is! What a suicidal, self-consuming transference goes through the Body of Christ when we are bitter! Many of our troubles would never have happened if we had walked with a right spirit. By the grace of God, this can be the way of healing and it can come quickly.
A bitter spirit can last a lifetime. It can so poison a person’s life that he could go to his grave with that bitter spirit. There are old men and old women who have been bitter, year after year after year. They became bitter and never pulled out of it. At a certain age, a person seems to be set either with bitterness or with an open heart. It seems almost impossible to get older people who are bitter to really walk with God.
What you are in spirit eventually sets the whole course of your life. Your walk with God depends upon your keeping a right spirit before the Lord without any bitterness. Loose yourself and set yourself to walk with a right spirit by faith.