Isaiah 61:3 read to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness that they may be called trees of righteousness; the planting of the Lord that He may be glorified. Jesus has given us a weapon to fight against vexing spirits and it is called the garment of praise. We are to use this weapon to defeat spirits that are trying to vex our mind. However, a lot of people do not want to call it vexing spirits, they would prefer for example, to call it depression, anxiety or fear but these are vexing spirits wearing the name depression, anxiety or fear. So we need to get to the roof of the problem in order to be delivered and praising the Lord is our answer.
The devil cannot stay when we praise the Lord because God inhabits the praises of His people and where He is, the devil cannot stay; he has to leave. Do not be swayed by them and entertain them instead put on the garment of praise and get lifted up far above all principalities and powers.
I can recall telling one person years ago that I had been casting out devils, she became very fearful and said; do not send them her way. Of course I would not have done that but because of her fear, that was the first thing that came out of her mouth. I had another encounter some years ago as well with another lady. She told me about a problem that her husband was having and I told her that it was an unclean spirit; that did not go over very well, she was in denial and she got offended. I have had a personal experience with vexing spirits; they were in my house, my bedroom to be exact and when I laid down, they would call my name and laugh. I was new in the Lord and did not know much about praising the Lord for the spirit of heaviness but I knew Jesus and I called upon His name and they left. I have never had that problem again.
The garment of praise combats the forces of darkness such as anxiety, fear, depression, lust of every kind, despondency, hopelessness and sorrows; these are all spirits of heaviness which vex our mind. So instead of entertaining them; put the high praise of God in your mouth. The bible said, resist the devil and he will flee from you so when we praise the Lord, we are resisting the forces of darkness and they would have to leave.
The bible also said that Satan walks about like a roaring lion but that is all that he can do. He cannot bite us because Jesus has already defeated him for our sake but he would try to make us think that there is something to him but it is not.
Hardly anyone would say that an unclean spirit is attacking them simple because of the nature of the word or because they do not know that it is Satan instead, they would give it a name like fear or depression but we need to know who is behind those words and it is vexing spirits trying to steal our joy and peace but God has given us His weapon to defeat them; the garment of praise.
Vexing spirits are not very powerful; they mostly just irritate kind of like a gnat but if they are unchecked, they can cause major problems later on. For example, a person might be experiencing a little depression from time to time but if it is left unchecked by not applying the garment of praise over it then evidently he might find himself unable to get out of bed because of the depression.
When we start to feel heaviness of heart then we should think about the goodness of God and start praising Him; after a while that feeling of heaviness will vanish because praise would have entered into our heart and mind and where praise is; authority will be there.