4 Marks of Someone Sent By Satan to Destroy Your Mental Health

Did you get romantically involved with someone, but now your mental health is a wreck? Or is there someone at work who seems to be demonically empowered to say the most hurtful thing at the most hurtful time? Or maybe you have a toxic family member who has routinely abused your mind despite your best efforts to stop them?

If so, it’s very possible this isn’t just a toxic person. It’s possible this is also spiritual warfare. In this article, we will discuss 4 marks of someone sent by Satan to destroy your mental health.

1. If You’ve Been Ruminating on Something Mean Someone Said to You, That Person Could Be Sent By Satan

It’s not just that Satan will send someone into your life to be mean to you. That can be hurtful, but it won’t totally destroy your mental health. Rather, what Satan really wants is for you to get stuck on that hurt, unable to move forward in life. This often occurs when we start “ruminating.”

In the mental health world, rumination “is the unproductive, repetitive focusing on negative feelings, past mistakes, or uncontrollable problems, often described as ‘mental chewing’ or a ‘broken record’ of distressing thoughts. It causes anxiety, deepens depression, and hampers problem-solving.”

While “ruminating” is not a biblical word, the Scriptures have been warning us of this for far longer than modern mental health professionals. For example, in 2 Samuel 13, we have Amnon ruminating on his desire for his half-sister, Tamar, which led to his raping her. And then we have Absalom, Tamar’s full brother, ruminating on Amnon’s sin, which then led him to murder Amnon.

Ephesians 4:26-27 states, “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.” There is a righteous anger that should occur when wrongs are done. And yet, the devil knows that if we refuse forgiveness and ruminate on the wrongs, we ourselves can be tempted into sin. This is why Paul then goes on to say in Ephesians 4:31-32, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

If someone hurt you, seek justice when needed. However, whether this person needs to be disciplined or you can just let it go, always forgive. Refusing forgiveness is like swallowing poison and hoping your enemy dies. It will destroy your mental health.

2. If Someone Is Constantly Tempting You to Doubt God’s Goodness, That Person Could Be Sent By Satan

While Christianity is a religion of faith and obedience, it is also a religion of logic and doctrine. We don’t just have blind faith. We have faith in specific truths that have been confirmed through real evidence. Yes, we need the Holy Spirit to illuminate our minds so we can understand these spiritual truths (1 Corinthians 2:10-14). And yet, we must also put in mental energy to study the Scriptures and work through the questions we have about God.

Satan hates it when we do this. Rather than seek answers in faith, Satan wants us to shake our fists at God in doubt. Every time a new wind of doctrine is introduced to us, the devil wants us to doubt the truths we’ve been taught (Ephesians 4:14). This will destroy our mental peace in Christ. But notice what 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (NIV) states:

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

Therefore, if there is someone in your life who is always tempting you to doubt the truths of Scripture, don’t fear this person. Go to Scripture, find answers, and use the mind God has given you.

And in most instances, once you find answers and show that you have an unshakable faith, these people run away because they are filled with so much doubt themselves. But sometimes, by the grace of God, when you answer them in kindness and truth, God uses you to help them escape the trap of the devil.

As 2 Timothy 2:25-26 (NIV) states, “Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.”

3. If Someone Is Very Worldly and Is Pushing You to Join Them, That Person Could Be Sent By Satan

The unholy trinity of darkness includes man’s sinful nature, Satan, and the world. By “the world,” Scripture is not referring to the earth. Rather, it’s referring to the sinful systems, societies, and practices of people who love evil pleasure more than they love God.

Whenever Satan attacks us, he appeals to our sin nature. Satan can’t make us do anything. We have to choose to do this. Thus, Satan uses temptations. These lure us into making bad choices. But how does he tempt us? When an inner evil desire arises, it’s actually coming from our own sin nature. However, when a desire is triggered by an external evil, that external stimulus is from the “world.” This is how Satan gets us to sin. As Ephesians 2:1-3 explains:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

Sin destroys our mental health because it causes our minds to follow our flesh rather than the Spirit. Romans 8:6, “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”

4. If Someone Is Being Used to Intoxicate Your Mind, That Person Could Be Sent By Satan

Like a drug that causes a flood of feelings in the body that leads to addiction to that drug, so too can we become addicted to harmful mental stimuli that cause a flood of feelings. For example:

• Maybe you are so romantically infatuated with this person that you can’t stop thinking about them. Thinking of them causes a rush of good emotions, so you are constantly doing it.
• Perhaps your job is so stressful that you and a certain coworker are coping by indulging in daily gossip. However, the majority of your workday is not filled with gossip, and it keeps getting worse.
• Maybe you are engaging in sexual sin with someone digitally or in the flesh. And now your mind is consumed with lust.

Satan seeks to intoxicate our minds with emotional highs so that we are more easily swayed into making poor decisions. 1 Peter 5:8 states, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

To combat this and maintain a sober mind, we must have a daily rhythm of studying God’s truths in Scripture, regularly spending time in prayer to allow the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin and to guide us into God’s will, and to live an active life that keeps us busy doing good so we are not overcome with evil (Romans 12:21, Romans 13:14).