SCSP 001 – SLEEP PARALYSIS IS NOT NEW PHENOMENON

Of late there has been a concern on account of what is now known as SLEEP PARALYSIS and some who claim to be sleep experts have tried to explain it away through intellectual and academic reasoning. It is generally described as pressing in the sleep. The victim observes that someone or something is pressing him down and in some cases the victim notices something or somebody in the room he is lying down. Most people have had this experience but some people have had it more often and some suffer from the after effect of such experience which may include some or all of this;

1. Palpitation
2. Fear
3. Confusion of mind
4. Lacerations on the skin
5. Health Break down

I was surprised to notice that all the comments and articles online on this subject were written by sleep experts or psychiatrists who were trying to find explanation to the complaint of their clients and these scientists are not Christians hence, even in the presence of the obvious, they avoided to acknowledge or say something that supports the position that this is a spiritual attack. I was also impressed when some of those experts acknowledged that they don’t have the right answer yet but as is often the habit with scientists they still said something about what they don’t understand and people still accept such as authority.

As a deliverance minister many people have mentioned this issue to me and I never gave it much thought until I began to hear how people’s lives have been made miserable by this thing I call a non-serious issue. That was what have led me to go to my bible and through the assistance of the Holy Spirit tried to find out what the bible says concerning SLEEP PARALYSIS.

SLEEP PARALYSIS is not a new phenomenon and we have an example of such experiences expressed in the bible. My intention here is to give a Christian bible position on the subject.

SLEEP PARALYSIS AS MENTIONED IN THE BIBLE

TEXT SCRIPTURE

“A word was secretly brought to me, my ears caught a whisper of it.  Amid disquieting dreams in the night, when deep sleep falls on men, fear and trembling seized me and made all my bones shake. A spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end. It stopped, but I could not tell what it was. A form stood before my eyes, and I heard a hushed voice: Job 4:12-16NIV

One of the friends of Job had this experience as expressed in this text. This scripture is an example of what worldly scientists or “sleep experts” call SLEEP PARALYSIS.

What were the experiences he had?

1. He heard a voice speaking to him and what he said was sensible
2. The speaker spoke in a hushed tone like a whisper
3. He had had several dreams that got him disturbed before this experience
4. This happened when he should have been sleeping but he was awake
5. He experienced fear because of the presence of the spirit
6. His experienced trembling and his bones shook
7. He noticed the movement of a spirit across his face
8. Random Eye Movement as it was only his eye-balls that was struggling to catch a glimpse of the spirit personality that was moving around him
9. Confusion of mind because he could not tell what or who it was that was moving around his bed
10. Cold shivers resulting in his hairs on his body standing erect

WHO WAS THIS SPIRIT PERSONALITY?

Some friends of Job heard that their friend was sick and went to visit him but what they saw beat their wildest imagination; they could not have imagined that a man could go through what Job went through and remained alive. Besides that he had lost his children and businesses, there were sores all over his body and he was scratching his body with some hard objects because of the itching. Then think of the stench coming from the sores; they were loss of words and so could not console their friend. In fact, it took Job to break the three days silence.

It was within this period that one of them had the experience described above.

Even though this happened when people are supposed to be sleeping and having dreams, Eliphaz was not sleeping but had this experience in between other dreams.

Note that a spirit glided past his face and he heard a voice who said something very specific. Even though the speaker did not specifically mention Job’s name but Eliphaz could decode that it was talking about his sick friend.

The voice accused Job and condemned him for claiming that he was innocent and lived upright life. The voice also accused God for being too high handed that even His angels were not able to please Him. Both statements were false and we can see that from the account of the same book of Job

Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”  “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” Job 1:8-11NIV

Here God calls Job an upright man proving that God is not a highhanded fault finder; He recognized that Job was living upright life. Satan himself acknowledged that God does not abandon His children without protection; he said that God blessed Job and placed a wall of protection around him.

So, we can see that what that spirit said was not true about God or God’s servant, Job. We also learned from the Book of Job that he did not stop serving God after all he went through. The spirit was actually the fault finder.

We don’t need to go far to know the identity of that spirit; it is the same spirit that asked God for permission to afflict Job and he was responsible for all the calamities that came upon Job. That was the devil.