“God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see and ears that could not hear, to this very day.”

The spirit of stupor (also known as slumber) is a principality whose presence has the potential to affect a person spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically.

 The potential impact caused by the operation of a demonic principality is very real, not imagined. The Bible gives examples of how a demonic spirit’s presence can affect a person physically, mentally, and emotionally:

• Physically: The disabled woman in Luke chapter 13:10
• Mentally: The demoniac in Mark 5:1-14
• Emotionally: King Saul distressed by a demon in 1 Sam. 16:14-23

Just because a person may feel the effects of the spirit of stupor, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ve yielded to it in any way. It might just mean that they’re discerning what’s operating in the spiritual realm. This would especially be true of those who have the gift of discerning of spirits.

What does it mean to be in a state of stupor?

• A state of impaired consciousness, or slumber
• To be lethargic, sluggish, or dormant physically, spiritually or emotionally
• To be stunned, as if with a narcotic; shocked
• Bewildered, as if struck
• To be in a slothful, unenthusiastic, or negligent state
• Spiritual dryness, hardness, insensitivity (Ro 11:7, Isaiah 6:10)

How do I know if I’m being influenced by a spirit of stupor?

• Disabling fatigue that doesn’t match amount of physical exertion. When affected by the spirit of stupor, fatigue may hit when you’d normally feel well rested. This spiritual fatigue may feel like tiredness with an added element of pain attached to it.
• Fatigue tends to hit at key times when you’d normally be going to church or serving the LORD. The fatigue may “conveniently” disappear when you give up on pursuing healthy spiritual activities.
• The Bible seems “closed up” to you; you don’t feel life in it. The bible bores you, and you don’t see the point of it or understand it. Reading it doesn’t result in life change (Isaiah 29:10-11) Some people literally fall asleep when reading the word or hearing a sermon.
• Feeling overwhelmed, tempted to “crawl in a hole and go to sleep when needed action looks too hard or too scary.”
• Patterns of giving in to sin; lack of resistance
• An inability to feel emotion when an emotional response would be healthy. (Matthew 13:15)
• Falsely believing that retreating/fleeing instead of taking needed action will protect yourself and your loved ones. This may look like literal sleep, passivity, isolation, mentally allowing threats to be blocked from one’s mind, physically removing oneself from a situation, escapism, or numbing on screens.
• The person who yields to the spirit of stupor tends to believe that they’re limited to their own strength and ability. Forgetting to factor God’s help into the equation leads to the belief that life’s challenges are too overwhelming to face.
• Mental fogginess
• The ability to “see” is impaired, the ability to perceive (discern) spiritual truth is diminished. The person yielding to this spirit finds it difficult to discern good from evil, true prophecy from false, etc.

What’s the big deal about yielding to the spirit of stupor?

• The spirit of stupor acts as a smokescreen for the enemy to do his dirty work, unhindered by a sleeping church. John 10:10 says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” His agenda is to steal everything that is precious to us, including the harvest that we have labored for years to yield. If we as a church are finding comfort in sleeping while he ravages our treasure houses, he will gladly steal us blind. He would love nothing better than to steal the hearts of our children, destroy our reputation, and lie to us so that we do not walk in our true identities and destinies. If we will have the courage to wake up, we will be alarmed enough to act when we see him rummaging around in our treasures. We will stand up and fight only if we are awake!
• Yielding to stupor leads to a pattern of retreating from conflict, resulting in a lifestyle of passivity and defeat.
• A hardened, calloused heart loses its’ ability to feel. It’s a dangerous thing to allow our feelings to go into lockdown. It may block out painful emotions, but it also blocks out love, joy, and the ability to feel God’s presence.
• If left unchecked, it’s possible to be alienated from the life of God through falling asleep and having our hearts hardened through unbelief. (Ro 11:7-8)

How discern between the spirit of stupor and normal physical tiredness:

• Normal physical tiredness is “fixed” when we get physical rest. The weariness caused by the spirit of stupor may temporarily appear to be “fixed” when we isolate and rest our physical bodies, but in the big picture, the weariness remains an on-going problem.
• Fatigue caused by the spirit of stupor will dissipate when we expend much energy in worship. Our energy returns when this spirit flees. The spirit of stupor may lift quickly when we worship. Other times, it may take an hour or more. The key is to remember God’s promise; if we resist the enemy, he will flee from us. There’s likely to be suffering involved when we persevere in worship when this spirit is operating. Don’t give up. You fight from victory, not for victory. Turn your eyes toward Jesus. Focus on His attributes. Develop a playlist of worship songs that specifically call upon the church to wake up from our stupor. Resist the temptation to wait until the weariness passes before engaging in worship. If we’re discerning the spirit of stupor through fatigue, look at that fatigue as a word of knowledge. The Lord is telling us through the fatigue that NOW is the strategic time to engage in warfare against this spirit. Timing in spiritual warfare is critical if we are to defeat the enemy.

How to resist the spirit of stupor:

1. Follow Jesus’ example…use your sword!  When Jesus engaged in battle against Satan at the end of His fast in the desert, He used the word, not human reasoning to defeat him. If ever there was a time when the atomic bomb of spiritual warfare was needed, this was it! Jesus was physically weak from a 40 day fast. He was hot, tired, thirsty, and hungry. Lucifer handled this assignment himself. Most of us have never had to directly engage Lucifer in battle, but we would be wise to use the same weapons as Jesus when seeking to overcome demonic spirits. The word of God is a powerful weapon we can use against principalities, powers and rulers. When this spirit tries to convince us that what God is calling us to do is just too hard or too intimidating, some powerful scriptures include:

• “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.” Isaiah 40:29
• “I can all things through him who gives me strength.” Phil. 4:13

2. Identifying numbing behaviors that you may be using to escape the fatigue is another effective way to resist the spirit of stupor. If you have given in to yielding to this spirit through escapism, stop long enough to identify what those false refuges are; things like screen time, isolating, naps, alcohol, etc. Exchange these numbing behaviors for more helpful responses. Enjoying screen time can sometimes be a good thing, but if we’re using screens as an escape from the fatigue of this spirit, we’re ignoring the spiritual attack we’re facing.

3. Another practical step in overcoming the spirit of stupor is to get the right kind of rest. Not all rest is restorative. Some examples of restorative rest would be listening to worship music or soaking in the word of God.

Ask God for help discerning between normal physical tiredness and spiritual fatigue. We can be more tempted to yield to stupor when we’re physically tired, so we may at times find ourselves dealing with both at the same time. When this happens, invite God into your rest, and just soak in His presence.

4.  Asking God for strength is another effective way to resist the spirit of stupor. While this might seem obvious, it’s all too easy to overlook it.  God is asking His church to overcome, and this will mean staying in the battle when we feel that we have used our last ounce of strength. We cannot overcome without tapping into God’s strength; and He’s glad to give it. Psalm 89:17 says, “It pleases you to make us strong.”

5. Another practical step in overcoming the spirit of stupor is to assume the right physical posture in prayer. If we think we’re going to overcome this one on our knees with our eyes closed, we may find ourselves succumbing to sleep in the same way that the disciples did in the Garden of Gethsemane. Good intentions. Bad warfare strategy.  This battle is won our feet. Find a prayer closet where you can pace if you need to and pray out loud.

6. Repentance for yielding to this spirit is another effective way to resist the spirit of stupor.  If we have yielded to this spirit, repentance is called for. If we have found it difficult to trust God for strength (unbelief) in this season, we repent. 

7. Another practical step in overcoming the spirit of stupor is to declare and prophecy. Make declarations over yourself and your people; declarations such as: “I am strong.” (Joel 3:10) and, “Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” (Ephesians 5:14b)

8. Declaring the promises of God to be our strength is another way to overcome the spirit of stupor, i.e., “God is our refuge and strength…”

9. Another practical step in overcoming the spirit of stupor is to join with other believers who are also discerning the presence of this spirit and pray together.

Look for patterns, or predictable times when stupor operates:

• Do you regularly discern stupor operating when you step through the doors of your church? If so, partner with other corporate intercessors.
• Do you discern stupor at the mall?
• Do you discern stupor around certain individuals? Perhaps God is giving you an opportunity to minister to them.

Beloved, it is the last hour. 1 Thess. 5:6 says, “…let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.” The rapture of the church is imminent. Mark 13:35-36 says, “Therefore stay awake – for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning – lest he come suddenly and find you asleep.” Let’s work while it is daylight.

Response:

If you think that you have yielded to the spirit of stupor in any way, I want to invite you to take a moment and pray with me:

“Dear Lord Jesus,

I now recognize that I have yielded to the spirit of stupor. I no longer want to do this. Please give me Your strength. Thank you for giving strength to the weary and  for increasing the power of the weak. Thank you that I can do all things through You, my continuous supply of strength.  Please help me to resist this evil spirit of stupor and help me to submit to you. When I am tempted to flee, quit, or shut down, I ask that you would help me to stand firm. If I have sinned against you in any way that opened a door for stupor to have influence in my life, I ask that you would forgive me.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

God bless you, my friend. May you stand firm in the strength of the LORD,

Arlene