¹And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. ²Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, "So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time." ³And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

⁴But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, "It is enough! Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!" ⁵Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, "Arise and eat." ⁶Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again. ⁷And the angel of the Lord came back the second time, and touched him, and said, "Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you." ⁸So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.

⁹And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" ¹⁰So he said, "I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life."

¹¹Then He said, "Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord." And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; ¹²and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. ¹³So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" ¹⁴And he said, "I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; because the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life." ¹⁵Then the Lord said to him: "Go, return on your way to the Wilderness of Damascus; and when you arrive, anoint Hazael as king over Syria. ¹⁶"Also you shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi as king over Israel. And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place. ¹⁷"It shall be that whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. ¹⁸"Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him." 1Kings 19:1-18

Did you know that about eighty to ninety percent of Christians today are depressed? Scary figures aren't they? But unfortunately that's true. You are probably saying, "Are you saying that Christians can be depressed?" of course they can and they do! Even the great men of God such as Moses, Elijah, Peter got depressed, did you know that? Well I will look at that later.

The point I am making is that depression is one of the biggest problems facing our world today. It is not something that affects only the unbelievers; it can affect everybody. This means that you and I need to have a better understanding of what depression is. Do you know why? Because depression is one of the deadliest weapons that Satan has against the believer today. It is a weapon that he uses to stop you from being the person God called you to be, to stop you fulfilling your destiny. Do you know why? Because as we will see later, the main characteristic of depression is paralysis, and immobilisation. Now if you are paralysed and immobilised then you cannot go anywhere or do anything.

You need to understand that depression is not a mental illness or a psychological problem. Depression is not a natural reaction to trials and circumstances of life, like most people believe. If that's what you believe then you are looking in the wrong direction. Depression is a serious spiritual problem and therefore requires a spiritual solution. In fact most human problems are spiritual problems. Do you know why? Because man is a spirit having a soul and living in a body.

This teaching will try and answer three important questions:

·         How to recognise depression?

·         What causes depression?

·         And finally how to overcome depression?

I. How to recognise depression

So how do you recognise depression in your own life or in the life of others? I think the main sign to look out for is when you become paralysed and immobilised to the point that you cannot do anything. Your life comes to a standstill. You don't feel like doing anything and you are unable to accomplish anything. You just sit there doing nothing. You fail to do what you normally do. There comes a decrease and a decline in your day-to-day activities. You stop being what God has called you to be.

Now let's see how depression is manifested in each part of our being, our spirit, soul and body. Because as I said in the beginning depression is not just a psychological problem. It affects our whole being.

A. Effects in the Spirit

Let's start by the spirit. The spirit, as you may know has three major functions that get affected: the communion, the intuition or revelation and the conscience.

Since your communion is what enables you to commune and fellowship with God, when you are depressed your fellowship becomes affected. God seems miles away from you, you don't sense his presence anymore.  As a result you give up because you start to believe that He has abandoned you. This situation becomes worse when your conscience becomes affected; you are gripped with a sense of guilt and accusation, you are ashamed of yourself. You feel such a failure and so unworthy that you don't even dare to approach God. You start to withdraw from people as the prophet Elijah did.

When all this happens to you it is obvious that your intuition is affected. You cannot hear and feel the Lord's presence properly. You become spiritually immobilised, because your spirit seems to be blocked off.

As a result the three spiritual forces of your spirit that are faith, hope, and love become weakened to the point that you don't trust God anymore - your faith is immobilised.  You are gripped by a sense of hopelessness and despair. There is nothing for you to live for and as a result, you'd rather die. That's what happened to Elijah. When he reached that point in His life He said, "It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am no better than my fathers." When Peter reached that point he didn't want to be a fisher of men anymore. He instead returned to catching fish again, his old trade.

Your love becomes so badly affected that you might even want to kill. This happened to Cain. When God refused his offering, love stopped flowing from his spirit; hatred grabbed hold of him and he killed his brother. When people reach this point they start to blame every body and everything for their problems. They think everybody and everything is against them; and so they fight against everything. Others on the other hand become so vulnerable that they accept anything that they think might help. They become subject to abuse and deception. They live as a victim.

B. Effects in the Soul

What about the soul? As you may be aware the spirit, the soul and the body are closely linked together and function to produce our very life. So whenever each part is affected it has an effect on the other. So all these effects in the spirit will affect the soul.

Now the soul also has three functions: the mind, the emotions and the will. The emotions are the first to go out of control and you start to have all kinds of negative feelings. You feel sad and miserable. In fact you become so sad and so miserable that it becomes visible on your face. Your face drops, you cannot hide it. That's what happened to Cain after God refused his offering - You feel like a failure. Guilt grabs hold of you! You can add your own list of negative feelings.

As all these start to happen to you, the next part of your soul to be affected is your mind. How? Well you try to make sense of all that is happening to you, but nothing makes sense at all! You cannot find any logical explanation of all these negative and overwhelming feelings. As a result you become perplexed and confused. Despair starts to set in.

And if you are an analytical then your sleeping pattern suffers more.  You cannot shut your eyes. Why? Because surprisingly you will find that your mind starts functioning independently of you. You want to switch off and sleep but you can't! Your mind wants to carry on until it can figure things out. This is a very exhausting experience! The night becomes so long. Your mind is in total turmoil, and becomes so tired that it comes to a halt. It becomes immobilised to the point even thinking becomes a hard work.

Now if you cannot control both your mind and your emotions then you are in serious trouble; because these two control your actions. They influence your will! As the Bible says, "For as he thinks in his heart, so is he." Proverbs 23:7. Your mind influences your emotions, which in turn influences your will, which causes you to act and do something. So it is evident that your will becomes paralysed. You feel like you cannot do anything! Even the smallest task becomes impossible for you. So as a result you just sit there doing nothing. You will sit in front of the TV and watch anything, any kind of program. You become isolated.

C. Effects in the body

The effects in the body are a direct consequence of all the effects in the spirit and in the soul. All the bodily functions start to slow down. And as the depression becomes worse, they become almost paralysed and immobilised.

Your immune system becomes weakened and you become vulnerable to any kind of disease. Your brain becomes affected because your brain is closely linked to your mind. So as your mind becomes tired so does your brain. Now if your brain is affected then you are in trouble because it controls and regulates all the bodily functions and cells.

Therefore you begin to be overcome by an extreme sense of fatigue and weariness. Your appetite becomes suppressed; and you may experience some physical pains and aches, which appear to have no physical cause. In fact research has shown that 80% of patients with chronic pain are depressed. Your passions are stilled, so you cannot enjoy sex anymore.

We can go on and on with symptoms, there's so many of them, and they vary from one person to the other.

Looking at these effects you realise why this is one of the biggest weapons of Satan in our time; because as stated earlier, depression paralyses and immobilises you and stops you from fulfilling you divine destiny.