Breathless

Once when visiting friends in Tanzania, we were taken to a snake zoo, where graphic photographs hung on the walls of men being swallowed whole by pythons. Guards had been attacked while sleeping and then swallowed by the big snakes. Apparently, pythons are attracted by the breath of their victims and when they have coiled themselves around the victim they squeeze the breath out of them till they are dead.
Many years ago I went through a time of real confusion in my life. I did everything I knew to do to break out of it but in the end, I knew I needed help from friends I trusted. I had had the breath squeezed out of me.
When the Apostle Paul was breaking new ground in Philippi, he once found himself opposed by the devil, though a woman with a spirit of divination. She spoke the truth but with a spirt that brought death. The Greek word for divination translates to python in English.

In the spiritual realm the “python spirit” smells people with breath and life and creeps up on them to squeeze the breath and vision out of them. It might wait till you are feeling low mentally or spiritually but it will slither your way. The python spirit wants to crush you and destroy your spiritual life. What God put in you, the devil will seek to take out of you. Sometimes it works through people like Jezebel, who squeezed the life out of Elijah and shut down the prophet in the land. Watch out who you let into your life and find some one who can bring you life.
Friend, it’s an old device. It began in the garden when the serpent turned up to squeeze the breath and life out of Adam. We may be in lockdown but we are not to be knocked down. We are told to stay at home but we choose to stay in Him. Don’t let him squeeze the life out of you. Get annoyed like Paul; rise up and cast it out. It didn’t solve all of Pauls challenges; he was locked up but because his spirit was now free, he was ready for revival, prison couldn’t hold him and even the prison keeper was set free. Come on; someone needs you to be ready too!