“Who will accuse God's chosen people? God himself declares them not guilty!” Romans 8:33 (GNT).
The world is full of accusations. One nation accuses another; one person accuses another. There are also many accusers in God’s church.
Where do accusations come from?
The source of accusations is the Accuser. And the Accuser is Satan and his angels. Can we say that Christ accuses, that the Holy Spirit accuses? No! Christ and the Holy Spirit convince people that what they are doing is sin. This is not a cold, hard-hearted accusation. There is only love and mercy behind it.
An accusation is different. It is hard, evil, and destructive. People find clever ways to make accusations look like righteousness, but it is a false righteousness. Accusations against people come from a spirit, a spirit of accusation. The spirit of accusation comes immediately when you have something against someone. It starts to tell you many things in your thoughts about the other person. It causes you to think of all the evil it can possibly think of. It tries to make the other person seem as evil as possible.
This spirit of accusation is also very active among believers. The terrible thing is that it makes people feel that they are the ones that understand things in the right way. And it coldly shows them the other person’s mistakes, weaknesses, lack of holiness and lack of understanding.
If you start to listen to the spirit of accusation, you will see that it doesn’t stop speaking to you after just one day. It comes back again. It brings up the matter again, puts new blame on the other person, comes to you with new suspicions, and lets everything about the situation look extremely bad. The spirit of accusation will not leave you alone. It wants to be deeply part of you and your thought-life.
And one day you will find that you can’t stop yourself – something inside you will force you to talk about what this spirit has planted in you. You will go to others and start accusing your fellow believer. You will become an instrument in the hands of the spirit of accusation. You will speak evil of your fellow believer. You will think that you are just and righteous, but bitter anger will be flowing out from you. Others will listen to you when they can’t see the spirit you are in, and then they will also be corrupted.
If you have let this happen, then the spirit of accusation has worked so long in you that it has become a bitter root (Hebrews 12:15). And the fruits of this root are terrible.
You will find that just thinking about a certain person irritates you, and the accuser will make you think very often about that person. You won’t just get irritated; you will become angry, you will start speaking evil, you will become a poison wherever you are, because you sow suspicion and get others to come into the same spirit.
You yourself will become unhappy, because you will know that your life is not pure, and then the spirit of accusation will turn around and start accusing you. When you pray, it will accuse you for your miserable life and laugh at your prayers. If you want to testify, it will call you a hypocrite.
The spirit of accusation destroys
The spirit of accusation has several goals that it wants to achieve in our lives. Its first goal is to destroy you; then to destroy the one you accuse; then to destroy everyone around you so that they also can receive the same spirit as you, and the same bitterness; and in the end it wants to destroy God’s work. In many places, the spirit of accusation has come in and turned one person against another with the result that they have become separated from each other, full of bitterness, each one thinking that he himself is right.
Satan accused God and made Eve doubt what God had said. Satan accused Job before God and cast doubt on Job’s righteousness, saying that Job only served God so that he could get benefits from God. These days, many people in the world accuse God, saying that He can’t be loving or righteous for letting so many bad things happen. They say that if He is love, as it’s written about Him, He would prevent all these bad things from happening in the world, etc.
In Revelation 12:10 (NLT) we read the following words: “For the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down to earth—the one who accuses them before our God day and night.”
Satan accuses us before God, and he causes one brother to accuse another. When we look at those who are caught by the spirit of accusation, we can clearly see the real nature of Satan. Such people become busy everywhere, backbiting and spreading suspicion. And when they manage to get support from many others, they start to feel very bold and powerful in this spirit!
Causing a lot of misery and suffering
This spirit causes a lot of misery and suffering to those who are controlled by it. It constantly repeats its old and new messages in your heart about the evil that the others are doing. As a result, you have a bad relationship with God and with other people. The only thing that lets you feel better is when you get more negative information from the same spirit and from those who agree with you, but in the end this only brings more anger, more pain, and more suffering.
Many believers live under the influence of this spirit with its deep, bitter roots. Read about Esau in Hebrews 12:15-17. He longed for the blessing, but he couldn’t get it, because he didn’t want to repent. He couldn’t. There was a bitter root in his heart (Hebrews 12: 15). That is why he couldn’t get the blessing. Many believers can’t get a blessing for the same reason, even though they seek it with tears as Esau did!
Accusations come from an evil spirit
When we see and admit that the accusation comes from a spirit, we will also understand what James says in James 3:6 (ERV): “The tongue is like a fire. It is a world of evil among the parts of our body. It spreads its evil through our whole body and starts a fire that influences all of life. It gets this fire from hell.” We see where the spirit of accusation comes from. You who bitterly accuse your brother—your tongue is set on fire by hell and its spirits.
James goes on: “We use our tongues to praise our Lord and Father, but then we curse people…” We accuse and judge their life as something evil. “My brothers and sisters, this should not happen." James 3:9-10 (ERV).
Paul asks, “Who will accuse God's chosen people? God himself declares them not guilty!” Romans 8:33 (GNT). God be praised, He is the highest Judge.
If someone with a spirit of accusation comes to you, do not fear! It is God who decides who is right. You should not give in to this accusing spirit or reason with it. The person won’t believe you, but will just come with new accusations. The spirit of accusation is arrogant and proud. Its whole desire is to get you to admit that you agree with what it is trying to say.
Rather give your case over to God. “Who will accuse God's chosen people? God himself declares them not guilty! Who, then, will condemn them? Not Christ Jesus, who died [for your sins], or rather, who was raised to life and is at the right side of God, pleading with him for us.” Romans 8:33-34 (GNT).
Paul calls out: “Who, then, can separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble do it, or hardship or persecution or hunger or poverty or danger or death?” Romans 8:35 (GNT).
If the spirit of accusation has real evidence that you did something wrong, but the Spirit of God has already shown you what you did wrong, you have repented and it has been cleansed away by Jesus’ death, then God says that you are not guilty! And Christ also prays for you, so you can safely reject the accusing spirit, whether it comes to you directly through your thoughts and feelings, or through other people.
The difference between the spirit of accusation and the Spirit of Christ
The spirit of accusation is bitter and negative, fault-finding, and doesn’t give any thoughts of hope. On the other hand, the Spirit of God convinces us and judges the thoughts and desires of our heart so that it can save us and help us. The Spirit of God is forgiving; it does not become bitter and does not remember the evil (1 Corinthians 13), but the spirit of accusation remembers all the evil that has happened in the past.
The Spirit of Christ prays for the other, but the accuser just accuses. The Spirit of God prays and goes to God with the other’s mistakes and weaknesses so that they can get help, but the spirit of accusation talks about the others’ mistakes both before God and people.
The Holy Spirit is our Helper, our Defender (Advocate) before the Father; but Satan is our accuser.
How to get rid of this spirit?
If you have given in to a bitter spirit of accusation, how can you get rid of it?
You have to find out where it began and why you let this spirit in. As long as this spirit is with you, you will not experience any cleansing. You must totally reject this spirit. You must refuse to listen to its accusations when it makes everything about you and the others seem as evil as possible. You should be willing to forgive as Christ forgave. You must be willing to stop thinking of the evil that you believe the others have committed. Only then can all the sins you have committed be cleansed away in Jesus’ blood.
This will become a fight for your life. You must admit that it is really a spirit of accusation and you must take up the battle against it. Begin by praying to God to get rid of this spirit, because it is a matter of life and death. You know that if you don’t forgive your brother from the heart, you cannot get forgiveness either. If you begin to pray to get rid of this spirit, it will begin to attack you more than ever. If possible, get someone who is free from this spirit to pray with you, and keep on until you have overcome.
How to help others
Even if we are free from this spirit, we must be careful and discern if the spirit people are in is of God, because it is easy to agree with someone who has been corrupted by this spirit of accusation. Maybe his words are correct, but his spirit is still bitter. Believers who are under the influence of this spirit must be treated with love, even though their accusations may be against you. You should feel sorry for them in spite of their bitterness, for they do not know that Satan has deceived them.
You can pray them free by praying against the spirit that has laid hold of them. Satan may attack you with accusations when you pray for these people, such as: “Watch out; you are not praying hard enough; you will never be heard; this is too hard; you may just as well give up,” etc. This is how Satan will mock your prayers. But God doesn’t do that when we pray to Him.
Take a good look at the value your prayers have. You can use that against Satan’s mockery. “And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.” Revelation 8:3-4 (ESV). God values your prayers so highly that they rise up to the golden altar before His throne.
Therefore, let us resist Satan in all areas, and He will flee from us (James 4:7).