Recognizing The Taunting Spirit
How to Recognize and Defeat the Taunting Spirit
The first way to defeat the taunting spirit is to understand what it is and when and why it operates. The second is recognizing that it is in operation in the first place. The taunting spirit is one of the enemy’s go-to weapons against God’s people. Though invisible to the natural eye, there are spiritual entities at work to distract us from God’s purpose. The taunting spirit is one of the sneakiest culprits.
What is mocking/taunting
Taunting is a battle cry, sarcastic remark, gesture, or insult -intended to demoralize the recipient or anger them and encourage reactionary behaviors without thinking.
Why satan sends the spirit
The key to defeating this underhanded tactic of the enemy is learning how to recognize it before it gains a foothold. The purpose of this spirit is to discourage you. To distract you from the plan God has for your life! Think of it as a kid on the playground poking “na-nany boo-boo.” The point is to annoy you into an Un-Godly reaction. Satan has sent this demon on a strategic assignment, and if he can get you to take the bait, you unwittingly postpone God’s plans.
Plans and purposes of the taunting spirit
There are two major focus points of the taunting spirit.
#1 to get you to fuel the ‘parent demon’ so you open the door for demonic operation in your life. The ‘parent demon’ is the big kahuna who wants to come out and play! This one is the hidden demonic oppression that satan wants to manifest in your life. He sends a taunting spirit first to get you to let your guard down so you are more susceptible to the more powerful spirits.
The parent demon behind the taunting spirit operating in your life will depend on your spiritual makeup and the work God is doing in you. But some common culprits are bitterness, anger, retaliation, and rejection.
The demonic in action
An example of what it might look like for the taunting spirit to attack with a plan of making you more susceptible to the parent spirit of bitterness could be you getting passed up for a promotion at work.
The taunting spirit will come with sneers like “How did so-and-so get promoted over you? You are a way better employee. They are late every day. You are the first to arrive and the last to leave. Its favoritism. They do not appreciate you.”
If you agree with these thoughts, whether true or not, you will start to take on those feelings for yourself.
Before you know it, you have anger and bitterness toward that co-worker who got the promotion in your stead, the boss, the company, and anyone else you feel might have snubbed you.
Those feelings grow, and then Boom! Satan has an open door for the spirit of bitterness to take root in your heart and hinder the work God is doing in you.
How to fight when you recognize the spirit
The key is recognizing this is the taunting spirit at work. Instead of agreeing with the spirit – You speak the word of truth over the situation!
Tell yourself Deuteronomy 28:13 – “I am the head and not the tail”!
Tell yourself Psalm 84:11 – “The Lord God is a sun and shield: The Lord will give grace and glory: No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.”
Counter every whisper of the taunting spirit with a truth from God’s word. Then the enemy can’t gain any ground!
The #2 Focus point of the taunting spirit
The other focus point of the taunting spirit is to throw you off focus of how God is moving in your life. It’s intended to demoralize you by discouragement. The idea is to frustrate you into reactionary behaviors without thinking.
In this case- if the spirit has reared its ugly head – You probably already have a gripe with God’s timetable. You’re likely watching and waiting from the sideline as things look immaculately different than what he promised.
You must recognize that the taunting spirit will swoop in with discouraging thoughts like – “Why has God not done it yet? If he cared, he would do something. Doesn’t he see how this is affecting you? Sure – you are not where you used to be, but you aren’t where you should be either. God must not care”.
Keep your eyes on the throne
You become so focused on the object of the taunting – what God hasn’t done yet, that you take your focus off what God is doing. If you get hung up on the promises that God has yet to fulfill, you might find yourself discouraged.
Discouragement prevents you from acknowledging and appreciating the work that God has already done in your life. Not only is this not pleasing to The Lord of Glory – but it also robs you of your peace and joy. It causes you to lose confidence and hope in God and his works.
This lack of hope gives the enemy a foothold to whisper lies into your situation. Keeping you discouraged and without confidence in The Lord to bless your life. Jesus is the hope of Glory, without which you will drown in those unfavorable circumstances.
The enemy knows this, so what better to do than deplete your hope so you’ll be more susceptible to him and his demons?
The goal of the mockery is to make you lose track of God’s plans for your life.
whispers of inadequacies
The taunting spirit might also attempt to dissuade you from completing the work God has assigned to you by making you feel inadequate.
We see an example of this from Moses when he complained to God that he was not eloquent enough in speech to speak to Pharoah on behalf of the Israelites. The taunting spirit made Moses believe he was not qualified to do what God had called him to.
I can imagine the conversation in Moses’ head; “Who are you? You can’t even speak properly. How are you going to talk to Pharoah? You should ask God to get someone else to do it”.
The enemy pulled the big guns out on Moses to discourage him because he knew what the deliverance of the Hebrews would mean for Israel. But God, in his infinite wisdom, had a plan to redeem even Moses’ insecurity.
Let the taunting be motivation
We also see an example of the taunting spirit at work when Nehemiah sets out to rebuild the wall in Jerusalem. Sanballat and Tobiah had a mouth full of discouragement from the taunting spirit – trying to stop Nehemiah’s purpose.
But Nehemiah kept building! – “For the people had a mind to work.” Nehemiah recognized the taunting spirit at work and was determined to defeat it and fulfill God’s plan.
It’s important to understand that this spirit can operate in your mind and through other people – Christian or otherwise. If you recognize that you are being mocked or taunted by a friend or family member, it’s possible that they are being influenced and encouraged by a taunting spirit. Seek God on how to deal with this.
Thankfully, there is no devil in hell that can stop the purposes of God! His word will not return to him void. Because of this, we can bear the taunting in peace and love.
Knowing that – though the foolish may taunt you for a season, they will be humbled in due time by the Omniscient, Almighty God.
Click here for more posts on spirits operating in the unseen world.
