I hadn't realised, and as I say, all of this stuff's coming out of experience; let me just give you a couple of definitions. I looked up in the thing put down, a put down is literally this; to remark, to make a remark, or speak or act, a remark or an action that's intended to humiliate or embarrass someone. So a put down, you put someone down when you speak, or do something that embarrasses them, or humiliates them, put downs. Okay, let's just define it a bit further. Humiliate means you cause the person a painful loss of dignity. They feel embarrassed. They feel ashamed. They feel their respect is gone. They feel down, see? They become self-conscious. So a put down, any words or actions that intentionally, or even sometimes we don't even know we're doing it, it puts a person down, or it causes them to be humiliated, to feel they're shamed about who they are, and they lose their sense of value, they lose their sense of self-respect, become quite embarrassed.
How many have had a put down in your life, one or two? [Laughs] Okay, yeah, well the reason we get it of course, is because the world's the devil's playground, and the devil's been put down. He's been put down, he wants to put everyone else down, so put downs are a manifestation of demonic nature. Build ups are a manifestation of divine nature. Build up - that's God at work. Put down - that's the devil at work. You and I choose whether we build up, or put down, whether we bless, or whether we curse. Put downs curse people. Put downs release spiritual power against them. Put downs can eventually determine, and set the direction, for a person's life, put downs, so we're going to look at some put downs, and this of course is a major thing in New Zealand culture, is put downs, a whole put down culture, and put downs can take many forms.
I want to just pick three forms of put down that I felt I've had to address and deal with in my own life, and that you'll have to address and deal with in your life. There's probably other ones as well, but the first ones come out of family dysfunction or family patterns, and of course they take place in tribal groups as well. But the first one I want to look at is in the area of family patterns. We're going to look at it in just a moment. Now a put down can take many forms, but get this, this is what it is. When there's a put down takes place, inevitably words are spoken that have a spiritual empowerment in them. We'll get to this in a moment, and I'll show you what the spirit is. When a person puts another one down, words are usually spoken in some kind of way that are spiritually empowered, there's a spirit carried with the words. I'll show you what it is in a moment, and what it comes out of, in the heart.
The second thing is, it's the spirit of murder. It's the spirit of murder. The Bible says, hatred is as murder, because murder arises when we hate people in our heart, so a spirit of murder is released against a person when you put them down. A spirit of murder - oh well, of course we're such sweet people, we'd never murder anyone. Not so. We murder people with our words. Let me give you a couple of verses that describe this. In Psalm 55:21 it says the words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart. See? His words were softer than oil, but they were as drawn swords. Notice it says the words, soft, smooth, but there was war in the heart, and actually when he spoke the words, they were like a sword. It cut in, and hurt, and I felt it. How many people have made a comment to you, and it may be a laughing kind of comment or a joking comment, but you suddenly felt there was something in it? You want to know what was in it? The spirit of murder, and it hurt you, and if you don't do something about it, it affects you, especially if it keeps happening.
Here's another verse. Psalm 64:3; They sharpen their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words. So put downs then are words, put downs release a spirit of murder, and put downs are a form of cursing, and the root behind it is bitterness, and hatred, and envy. I'll show you those roots are in - whenever there are put downs, there are roots of bitterness, and hate, and envy. Now because we ask ourselves, have you got bitterness in your heart? Well no, no, I don't feel it, I don't feel like I have. Have you got hatred in your heart? No, I don't feel like I have. Got envy in your heart? I don't feel like I have, no, I feel real good, just been praising the Lord, I feel real good.