Arachnophobia
Having a fear of spiders is a bit irrational in this country as they are all harmless, yet so many people, as I used to be, are terrified of them, and go into blind panic if they see one scuttling around.
Compulsive irrational behaviour is usually a sign of demonic oppression, and in my case this was certainly the case. But demons can’t oppress without some sort of entry point, some sort of giving in to sinful behaviour, and this is often passed down through family lines. In my case, it was transmitted onto me. I was never frightened of spiders as a small child, but we had this young lady who stayed with us during the summer holidays when I was young to help look after us children.
I remember the incident well. A spider crawled out from under the curtains. This lady saw it, shrieked and ran. I also became frightened, and from that point on I was always afraid of spiders. I must have been about 5 or 6 at the time. The entry point for the demonic was my agreeing that spiders were to be feared and becoming frightened (terrified, really).
To become free of this, I recognised that this lady had sinned against me by influencing to be afraid of spiders, and I forgave her for that. By the way, we got on extremely well and, apart from that, she had a very positive influence on me. Then I confessed by sin of being afraid of spiders, received God’s forgiveness and forgave myself. I confessed the ungodly belief that spiders area nasty creepy-crawlies that are dangerous and to be fled from, replacing it with the godly belief that all the UK species of spiders are harmless and can easily be handled when necessary. Thus, having removed the grounds for oppression, we (my wife and I) calmly cast out the demon of fear of spiders.
A few months later we had a lady friend of ours round and were chatting, when a spider about 8cm in diameter (including legs) ran across the carpet. The lady shrieked and jumped on a chair. Without thinking, a got a tissue, picked up the spider in it and took it out of the room. My wife was astounded, as only a few months previously I would have got as far away as possible and asked her to deal with it.
As of now, I would not relish sitting in a bath full of spiders and having them crawl over me, but I am generally not really bothered by them.
Some people reading this might be rolling their eyes and thinking, “Demon of fear of spiders? Whatever next?” At one time I would have reacted in the same way, but then films and folklore have created a very distorted view of what the demonic realm is like – full of scary monsters pertaining largely to fiction. Whereas they are a vast number of invisible defeated spiritual beings of limited influence, who are determined to mess up our lives whenever we give them the chance, because they hate God and what we represent.
Some people might be thinking that the Bible says, resist the devil and he will flee from you, so why all this casting-out business? But what is meant by resist? Repeating to yourself, “I am not afraid of spiders”? Gritting your teeth and being determined not to run away next time you see a spider? Anyone who has a genuine phobia knows that you get gripped by blind panic and just can’t control it. It controls you. Surely resist includes using our God-given authority and telling the controlling demons to get packing?