by Rose Murdock

How many of us have ‘played around’ with hypnotism when we were kids?  We saw TV commercials about people getting hypnotized to stop smoking or lose weight and it seemed impressive.  We may have seen people barking like a dog or quacking like a duck—making fools of themselves and bringing a laugh to others.  For some reason, the idea of being ‘out of control’ may have had a certain appeal.

Addictions can begin this way.  Enjoying the ‘buzz’ or the feeling of being carefree, even irresponsible, not because of laziness but because things are beyond your control.  We think there is freedom in that and there may be initially.  But excessive use leads to addiction, which is not freedom at all. In reality, true freedom only comes as we surrender our will to our Creator—God the Father.

We may have thought experimenting with hypnotism or mind-altering substances was harmless and laid them aside but what we may or may not have realized is that there is a hypnotic type demonic spirit that still would like to gain influence and control over our will.  And, ultimately, to use us to gain influence and control over another’s will.  The highest power in this earth is our will.  Even God honors our own will in the earth.  And the highest form of worship to Him is to surrender our will to His.

When a person is hypnotized they are brought into a sleeplike condition which makes them extremely responsive to suggestions made by the hypnotist.  "Hypno" means ‘sleep.’  The way the hypnotist brings the person into this condition is through words.  It’s not through drugs like an addictive spirit might use, but through words.  The result is gaining a strong influence, and eventually control if possible, over another person’s will.

Unfortunately, this can happen in a much more subtle way then openly trying to hypnotize a person.  A person may be influenced by a hypnotic type spirit, which thrives on gaining influence over others.  This person will have a desire to bring people ‘under their spell’ so to speak.  Ministers in particular need to guard against this hypnotic spirit because the words of a minister should be words of truth, which allows the Holy Spirit to reveal the heart of God to the people.  A hypnotic minister will want to gain influence himself over the people.  He/she may start out looking for respect and influence but it will lead to control and self-worship if not dealt with.

What did Paul say in 1 Corinthians 2:4, "not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power."?  The purpose of a minister’s message should not be to impress people and gain a following for himself, but to allow the Spirit of God to speak to the people.  Even though minister’s especially need to guard against this temptation, every Christian needs to as well.

This hypnotic spirit is a subtle thing. It’s a false light.  True light allows others to clearly see for themselves.  But hypnotism, like a religious spirit, gives out a very dim light drawing people to us, not the truth.  It may stem from a craving for attention or affirmation from people.  It may stem from an insecurity or lack of love, but it leads to control or self-worship.  The end result of its desire is an ungodly influence over a person’s will.  It may not appear to be ungodly.  But it’s ungodly and forceful in the sense that it wants to take over another’s will.

This spirit is very subtle.  It may switch methods or work with other spirits to accomplish its purpose.  It may go from flattery to ridicule or abuse.  In an abusive situation the abuser convinces the victim that (s)he isn’t worth anything and needs the abuser in order to survive or to amount to anything.  This could be a domestic abuse situation but it can also involve leaders in the church, bosses in the workplace or in any relationship between two or more people.  An abusive spirit intimidates through fear and even physical force.  Hypnotism, however, will manipulate a person through words to ‘willingly’ do for him/herself what the hypnotist wants done.

Just as a hypnotist lulls a person to a hypnotic state through words, a spiritual hypnotist uses words also, words of flattery.  The word "flattery" means smooth or slippery.  This may be hard to detect because if it is confronted or exposed it will slip into another form.  It may switch to ridicule, blame or abuse and then back to flattery.  Flattery is often welcome after ridicule or abuse.  In the ‘domestic violence cycle’ you see the abuser going through ‘honeymoon’ periods where he is very sweet to his victim.  This flattery is just another expression of this vicious spirit intending to gain the trust of the victim.

Daniel tells us that the antichrist will obtain the kingdom by flatteries.  A spiritual hypnotist, looking to promote his own self-interests will try and ‘gain the kingdom’ by flatteries.  This person is looking for personal gain rather than the will of God to be done and uses words of flatteries to try and get it.  Daniel also tells us that he will be able to corrupt those who are wicked by flatteries.  But those who know God will be strong and do exploits for God. (See Daniel 11:21, 32-35).  If our heart is not after God, we run the risk of becoming swayed and corrupted by flatteries.  If we love the praises of men more than the praises of God we will easily fall prey to this spirit.

In talking about the last days, Paul says that "when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them…" (1 Thessalonians 5:3).  In the same way, spiritual hypnotism brings a false sense of peace and security.  It brings a person to a ‘peaceful’ state of trust and then strikes.  Spiritually speaking, a person under the influence of this spirit may flatter you, gaining your trust and then use the influence they have over your will for their own interests.

A ‘spiritual hypnotist’ most likely does not know they’re being influenced this way.  This person may not be aware he’s manipulating others this way.  We need to ask God to show us our heart.  We have a responsibility to not yield to this spirit.  And we also have a responsibility to not yield to others who are influenced by it.  We have to know how to keep ourselves from being manipulated by others as well making sure we are not manipulating them.

Things to watch for:

Interrupting others, monopolizing conversations, manipulations, flattery, influence or persuasion for selfish purposes as well as outright rebellion and control.  Now of course when I say monopolizing conversations I’m not talking about in a church-type setting where the preacher is up there preaching and no one else is talking.  This is an agreed upon situation where you are coming to hear someone speak.  I’m talking about conversations.

Interrupting and monopolizing conversations is like verbal detention.  We’re holding you captive by continuing to talk and talk.  We think that what I have to say is more important than what you have to say.  We always want to give out, but not receive from others.  We are consumed with our own opinion.  We may even think that God is showing something to us so we have a ‘right’ to interrupt.  But the Spirit of God is love.  It’s a control spirit that gets us to shut down another and bring them under our control or influence—‘forcing’ them to listen to us.

A person who monopolizes a conversation doesn’t always just talk about him/herself.  He may appear to be concerned for you.  A warning flag should go off if he appears too concerned for you.  A person may appear to be loving and merciful, but if they are excusing and compromising sin then they have no fear of God and their love and mercy may be flatteries intended to gain a person’s trust in order to get something from them.  What they want to gain may be something as simple as wanting a friend, or wanting attention, or wanting to hear someone say, ‘thank you, you are so kind.’  But someone who does not put God’s standards first is dangerous.  I don’t say this to promote suspicion, but to try and reveal truth.

Also watch out for the tendency to worship God in word only and not from the heart, and flaunting our worship of God. (See Psalm 36:1-4, Psalm 5:9, Psalm 78:36).  Flaunting worship doesn’t mean that you can’t be expressive through things like lifting your hands, dancing, kneeling, bowing etc.  On the contrary true worship gets our physical body involved in the worship process.  But a person under the influence of this spirit is not worshiping God from their heart.  They may either not be very expressive at all in their ‘worship’ or they may flaunt their worship, trying to call attention to themselves during times of worship.  It may be difficult, if not impossible, to tell the difference unless the Lord reveals it to you.  But if we find ourselves being critical of another’s worship we need to look at our own heart.  We need to ask ourselves why we are looking at other people during times of worship instead of worshipping God ourselves.

If you recognize or suspect someone is being influenced by this hypnotic spirit, the first thing to do is to remember not to combat evil with evil.  Don’t interrupt back or try and show off or prove you’re right or impress them with some great insight to try and show them that they’re not so great after all.  That’s exactly what this spirit wants you to do.  It doesn’t just want to control them, but you also.  If it can’t flatter or impress you then it will try and get you to compete or become critical.

Competition is really just another form of ungodly control or influence.  It’s when we always have to out-do someone else.  We feel we have to be on the ‘cutting edge’ and ‘in the know.’  Now of course there’s a difference between bearing witness to what someone is saying, (Oh yeah, I know what you mean. It happened to me too…) and competing with them, (I’ve known that for years, it’s happened to me several times but in a greater way…)  Our excuse may be that we think they need to be humbled and shown that they’re not as great as they think they are.  But in reality aren’t we really trying to show them that we are the greater?

Another thing we don’t want to do if we suspect someone is trying to manipulate us is to become angry with them.  If we are angry because we think someone is trying to control us then the real issue is that we are being influenced by this control spirit ourselves.  Anger or intolerance at another person’s attempt to control us is an indication that we have yielded to that controlling spirit ourselves.  We haven’t fully yielded our trust to God.  We feel threatened and insecure and feel the need to be in control.

If you had a young child trying to get you to say ‘yes’ after you said ‘no’ to something you should not become angry and correct their behavior with an angry heart.  You may become abusive.  But if you discipline your child out of love because you know that manipulative behavior has to be stopped, then your discipline is godly and not abusive.  In the same way if we try and stop someone from manipulating us out of an angry heart then we may be abusive or ungodly in our behavior towards them.  But if we know that our responsibility before God is to only yield our will to His, then because of our love for Him, (and subsequently our love for others), we will be able to resist a person’s manipulative attempts in a godly way without developing any roots of anger or bitterness.  Now of course we can’t think it’s our job to ‘correct’ everyone who tries to manipulate us.  Most of the time that’s not the case at all, and if we do we’re probably being moved by a critical and controlling spirit ourselves.  But it is our responsibility not to let another person control us.

Of course there are times we are to submit to authorities in our lives and that is another subject too lengthy to address here but the bottom line is this; we need to know that our free will is a gift from God that we should not take lightly.  It’s a powerful thing that can bring the Kingdom of God to the earth. (Matthew 6:10).  That’s why the devil fights to gain control over the human will so badly.  But rather than trying to influence others to our way of thinking, even if we think we’re thinking like God, we need to give them the Word of God and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to their heart so they can decide for themselves to allow Him to influence them.  Then as we unite together, all of us individually and corporately yielding to the will of God, much can be accomplished for the Kingdom.  His Kingdom really will come and His will really will be done in earth as it is in Heaven.  The result—Heaven on earth!