POISON OF THE SPIRIT

And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD. - 1 Samuel  1:15 

The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear? - Proverbs  18:14 

Man' spirit can be poisoned by the evil spirit. When a man's spirit is poisoned, he will have problems with himself and the people around him. It sometimes makes you to be provoked easily in your dealings with people in your daily endeavours.

WHAT IS POISON? 
Poison is a substance that can cause people or animals to die or to become very ill if it gets into their bodies especially through swallowing. It is something such as idea, emotion, or situation that is very harmful or unpleasant.

CHALLENGE OF LIFE

Life is full of difficult people who will come round you to challenge your patience and you may not be able to stop them. In such case, you may be angry easily, hissing often and even saying to yourself: "It is not their fault. If I have better chance in life they cannot be talking with me that way."

Handling difficult people in life's relationship may not be palatable, but we must still bear with them. The perspective of individual in handling difficult people varies from one another. The season of provocation should be treated with caution lest we fall off the grace.

One of the contributing factors in handling issues leading to the poison of the spirit is our encounter with the Holy Spirit. Few of the ways people handle provocation leading to poison of the spirit are:

 SILENCE - Some people prefer to approach the distressing issues with silence. The strategy most often used is to stay away from any form of action until the provocation is over. The challenge of silence is that, it may lead to bottle-up anger until it finds expression in a negative way. Here is the Biblical injunction:
In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent. Psalm 4:4 [NIV]
Psalms  4:4 Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.
Silence is good when we have Godly motives. Your silence must not be an opportunity for bitterness within.

 EXTRA CAUTION IN WORDS AND ACTION - When suffering from provocative act, let us beware of our words. Our caution must be exercised with the fear of God, lest it turns to false humility. The words we speak have the power to make or mar destiny. Job in the season of his challenging issues responded to his friends' assault:
 How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words? - Job  19:2

RETALIATION - This is an act of paying back evil for evil.

Walking away - Some people do not want to get deeply involved in the distressing issues, hence they prefer to walk away. Sometimes, some people walk away only to get to secluded place and start shedding tears. Such action may lead to secret plot to fight back. If you will walk away, let it not be done with bitterness in your heart. Sometimes we walk away only to wait for when we will vent our poison on the concerned.

Wisdom - It takes wisdom and grace to handle difficult people

Trusting the Holy Spirit - This must be our daily experience.

Difficult people were raised to poison our spirit man, do not allow the devil to successfully use them against you. In actual fact, the difficult people may be unavoidable, but God placed them around you to test your patience. Beware!

Hence, brethren, remember, Hannah's spirit was poisoned by Peninnah her rival. How then did Hannah responded to the humiliation experienced from her rival? - Rather than returning evil for evil, she resolved to pour her heart cry to God. The Scriptures is right:
"...A wounded spirit who can bear?" 

As a matter of fact, no man can bear wound on his spirit. You have no cause to commit suicide because your spirit man suffer wounds, it must be handled by divine help. Do not build castle in the air on the foundation of bitterness, you must cast down the activities of the power of hell against your spirit.

LET US PRAY! 
1. Heavenly Father, I appreciate your love towards my life.

O Lord, arise for my life:

2. Deliver my spiritman from demonic poison in the precious name of Jesus.
3. Let your power breaks the yoke of darkness in my spiritman.
4. Power of God, come and help me out in the midst of provocative issues in the precious name of Jesus.
5. Father, deliver my spiritman from ungodly men in Jesus name.
6. My spiritman, take your rest in the Lord. You are free from demonic assault in the precious name of Jesus.
7. My heaven is open for exploits in the precious name of Jesus Christ.
8. Thank you Jesus for taking the glory. In the precious name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Watch out for the next episode: "Dart of the Wicked Against Man's spirit."

Revd Dr Nathaniel Tade Obaniyi
President, Dayspring Vision, Nigeria.