When It’s Not Just Depression — It’s Spiritual Oppression

By Growth With Mo'

It’s Testimony Tuesday here at Growth With Mo', and today I want to talk about depression.

I’ve battled it since childhood — not just moments of sadness, but deep, chronic heaviness that has followed me through different seasons of my life. There were times I didn’t want to be here. Times when even getting out of bed felt impossible.

I sought counseling. I was prescribed Zoloft. But I didn’t like the way it made me feel.The severity of my episodes would come and go, and eventually, I just learned to move through them — surviving, but never truly healing.

What I now know is this:I wasn’t just living with depression. I was battling spiritual oppression.

What Spiritual Oppression Feels Like

Spiritual oppression can wear the face of depression — but it cuts deeper than emotion.It’s a weight on your spirit. You feel it inwardly, and it suppresses you outwardly. It’s a heaviness that makes ordinary tasks feel overwhelming. It can look like isolation, irritability, overthinking, or complete numbness. Some days, you might wake up angry for no reason. Other times, you might be overcome with sadness… or feel absolutely nothing at all.

You might turn to vices — smoking, sex, alcohol, food — just to cope. Or throw yourself into work, hobbies, or helping others to stay distracted. But none of those things fix it. They just temporarily dull the weight or create moments of pleasure while you’re still swimming in pain. And that can lead you to chase the temporary high, hoping you never come down.

You can be surrounded by people and still feel completely alone. Even connecting with those closest to you can lead to feelings of being misunderstood or unseen. You can laugh, create, serve — and still feel like you’re silently drowning.

That’s what spiritual oppression does: It tries to keep you stuck in darkness while convincing you you’re the only one there.

The Enemy Wants You Stuck

One of the biggest lies the enemy tells you is that the heaviness will never lift — that you’ll always feel this way, and that trying is pointless. You may even hear thoughts whisper, “You may as well give up.”

But the truth is: the enemy is trying to keep you down so you never reach your purpose. Because if he can get you to quit, then the impact you were meant to make by rising — won’t happen.

Spiritual oppression is an assignment. It’s strategic. It comes to stall your momentum and kill your drive. Because a person who can’t move… can’t build. Can’t grow. Can’t obey. Can’t minister. Can’t rise.

When you carry purpose, the pressure is heavier. And when you start trying to live right — when you walk in truth — the attacks often intensify. It may even catch you off guard.

You’ll notice that those living outside the will of the Father often seem unbothered. That’s because the enemy doesn’t need to attack what’s already disconnected. But you — your fruit still has life. And that’s why the oppression feels so personal.

The enemy knows exactly what you’re capable of if you ever get planted and start growing. So he tries to keep you buried under the weight of your own pain...

Too heavy to lift. Too tired to move.

Coping Isn’t Healing — But Surrender Is

A lot of us never healed from what hurt us — we just learned how to keep moving, most of the time in silence. We carry childhood wounds, teenage trauma, broken relationships, rejection, abandonment, failure… and we pretend we’re okay. But deep down, the pain never really left. It just got buried under busyness, distractions, and survival.

Coping can look like strength, but it’s really just a form of endurance.And while endurance isn’t “bad,” it also doesn’t heal. You can function while broken. You can show up for others while silently falling apart inside.

Enduring without healing still leaves you spiritually stuck.

Healing doesn’t come from coping. Healing comes from surrender.

It’s in the stillness — the quiet places where everything slows down — that the Father speaks. And yes, the quiet can be scary. Because when there’s no noise, you hear everything: your thoughts, your guilt, your fear, your failures.

But you also begin to hear Him.

He speaks in a subtle yet comforting way — not to condemn you, but to call you closer.He doesn’t want to just patch you up. He wants to carry what’s been crushing you.To heal you. To restore you.

Yes, you’ll have to release some things. You’ll have to let go of what doesn't serve your growth or His purpose for you. But what you gain is far greater: peace, strength, clarity, and direction.

Your Walk Is Yours — Don’t Let People Rush You

When you’re healing, people may try to help — but sometimes, their help comes with pressure. Maybe they think they can relate, and they feel if you’d just listen and apply their guidance, you’d be fixed. They may mean well, but often their urgency has more to do with them needing to feel useful than with your personal journey.

You’ll hear things like:

“You need to get up.”

“Nothing will change if you don’t.”

“You could be better, but you’re sleep on your potential.”

But the truth is: no one gets to dictate your healing timeline but the Father.

The key that unlocked someone else’s breakthrough may not be the key that unlocks yours. Maybe they sought the Father to get where they are — or maybe they didn’t. Even if you’ve shared similar struggles, what you need might be completely different.

Your walk is personal. Your healing is sacred. And your pace is not a problem.

Sometimes the people who seem to “have it all together” are really just hiding behind productivity. They pour into everyone else because it keeps them from sitting with their own pain. Fixing everything and everyone on the outside helps them keep the inside hidden.

Remember: productivity doesn’t equal healing. More than you need to keep busy… you need to heal.

Because truthfully: You can’t truly minister to something you’ve never healed from.

How can you help someone overcome ssonthing you've only managed to cover up? Theory is helpful. But experience? That’s where the oil flows. That’s where the anointing is produced.

You don’t have to rush. You don’t have to fake it. What matters is that you’re moving — even if it’s a crawl… or one shaky step at a time.

Your motion matters.

How to Rise Again

If you feel like you're in the sunken place right now, I want you to know: You are not lazy. You are not too weak to be strengthened. You are not beyond repair.

You don’t need to be perfect — you just need to be willing. Willing to try. Willing to show up for yourself, even when it’s messy — and especially when it hurts or it’s hard. Willing to believe that healing is possible for you, too.

Every time you rise instead of staying down — that’s a win.

Every time you get up and do one thing better than yesterday — that’s a win.

Every time you breathe deep, pray honest, or sit in stillness instead of running from it — that’s a victory.

You were fearfully and wonderfully made. You have purpose. And no matter how long it’s been, the Father still desires to plant you in good soil — not just so you can survive, but so you can thrive.

Yes, the weight is real. Yes, it’s hard. But it will never outweigh the love and power of the One who created you.

So start where you are. Crawl if you have to. Cry if you need to. But I pray you believe this with everything in you:

You were made to rise.

From one fighter to another: I see you. I’ve been there. And I truly believe you will rise just as soon as you begin to release.

🕊️ Shalom (peace),

— Mo

Free ResourceIf today’s blog spoke to you, download the “Hope in the Fog” Encouragement Sheet — a free printable filled with gentle prayers, affirmations, and space to produce good thoughts on the hard days. It’s a tool to help you breathe, reflect, and keep going — one moment at a time.

📥https://www.growthwithmo.net/freeresource