Dr. Basil Frasure, a counselor and minister with the Fellowship Church of San Angelo, Texas, has written a fascinating article, "Discerning of Spirits." Dr. Frasure has authored several psychology self-help books, including How to Destroy the Evil Tree, a popular and informative book on overcoming generational curses, as well as Bringing Every Thought Captive, Vol. 1, also a great self-help book, which he describes as an informative manual on Whole Person Counseling. He also has designed and taught competent counseling courses.
In the course of his article, Dr. Frasure explores just what kind of spirit visited Job's friend, Eliphaz. This episode appears in Job 4:12-21:
Now a word was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a whisper of it. In disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake. Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair on my body stood up. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence; then I heard a voice saying: "Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker? If He puts no trust in His servants, if He charges His angels with error, how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before a moth? They are broken in pieces from morning till evening; they perish forever, with no one regarding. Does not their own excellence go away? They die, even without wisdom."
Dr. Frasure writes, "One of the best ways to discern the nature of a
spirit is to check the Word of God. Does what the spirit says match up with the
Word of God?" When we apply biblical themes and principles to Eliphaz'
encounter with the spirit, it does not pass the "smell" test.When we closely examine the nature of the being that troubled Job's friend, we learn that this spirit appealed to the carnal desire for a special revelation. If we remember the content of serpent's appeal to Eve, "Your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:5), we see a similarity.
We notice that the spirit came at nighttime, in the form of a nightmare, an approach that could be characterized as intimidation, not an approach that God chooses to use with believers. We remember from Paul's second letter to Timothy that "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (II Timothy 1:7).
Generally in Scripture, when people express fear at the appearance