Dealing with familiar spirits

When the Lord dropped this topic in my spirit to share with all our cherished readers on Word Impart, I was quite puzzled and decided to brood on the topic in prayer. Several weeks later, a number of happenings in my life drew my attention to the need and reason for this topic at such a time as this.

Familiar spirits do exist and their line of action are very cunning, deceptive and deadly if not decerned in time. I trust God that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened as we learn about familiar spirits and how to deal with them.

What are familiar spirits?

Spirits are entities that cannot be seen with the physical eye. Man is a spirit and his true self is his spirit, not his body/flesh. The body then simply houses and outwardly provides a form or figure for man. Familiar spirits are spiritual entities that are 

able to see and interact with man’s spirit. They are particularly characterised by the edging desire to destroy families,

generations, bloodlines and attack any abilities and greatness a person might be having.

During Jesus’ days on Earth, He encountered many such spirits. As often as He encountered them, He cast them out. Familiar spirits are destructive in the sense that they can mislead, confuse, drag a person to death, making him/her think of others as evil when actually they are behind the scenes causing you all the pain and sorrows and heaviness you carry in your heart.

The influence of familiar spirits

Familiar spirits operate in spiritual realms. This means they see beyond the physical and are able to drag you into filthy desires of your past or deceitfully present your future to you a.k.a fortune telling. Here, I will like to caution that no believer should be lured into consulting mediums. ‘Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I [am] the LORD your God’-Leviticus 19:31. Our God who made us knows us and He reveals the realities of our life to us when we ask in prayer. Also, we have the Holy Spirit as our ever-present help to guide, direct, instruct and lead us into all truth.

Let’s look at a typical encounter with a familiar spirit in the Bible. And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the Most High God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.-Acts 16:16-18

This damsel according to scripture, was possessed by a spirit that predicted and told her masters about the state of other people to their gain. This is not a spirit of discernment as we know as part of the gifts of the Spirit. This was a familiar spirit in operation. Now, what I want you to pay attention to over here is that; the familiar spirit could identify and specifically tell the reason why the men of God were in town. This means they are able to tell from the spirit what manner of person you are. Remember what the spirit said before beating the sons of Sceva; Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? Let us not live in ignorance, because these spirits are real, though powerless compared to what we have, yet they can lead one astray and into utter destruction.

How to deal with a familiar spirit

First, identify a familiar spirit when you see one. Since they are spirits it will be impossible to identify them with the eye. It, therefore, requires you to stay connected to the HolySpirit and sensitive to things around you. Sometimes, the Holy Spirit talks to us about such spirits but because we are not sensitive, we completely lose focus and miss on things that are happening in the spirit. The Bible says to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Second, be careful to be led by the Spirit of God to cast it out. One day, the disciples of Jesus struggled to cast out a spirit. When the case got to Jesus, He barely prayed but cast it out. The import here is that it takes the power of God to cast out such spirits. Therefore, as a believer, it is expedient to be filled by the Spirit and to walk in the spirit at all times.

Third, break any ties or connections to familiar spirits. In many families, there are specific weaknesses that confront the bloodline. This is not your portion and definitely must not tie you down and rob you of your position in Christ. For the Bible says ” If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed”- John 8:36. 

Give no grounds to the schemes of the devil over your life. This is very important and should be done by surrendering completely to Jesus who has overpowered all these wicked spirits and made a public spectacle of them when He resurrected from the dead. Now I pray that your whole spirit, soul and body be protected from the dangers and influence of familiar spirits. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.