1. Encounter in Hood River 2
2. Precepts of battle 3
3. God the Father 9
4. Questions 12
5. The queen 13
6. The control spirit 25
7. Tradition 28
8. Antichrist 32
9. The "declaration of independence" 39
10. Death and Hell 41
11. The big key 49
12. The cork 52
13. Wrap-up 55
Afterword:
Who can bind principalities and powers 59
Chapter 1: Encounter in Hood River
I first encountered principalities and powers in Hood River valley where I was to shepherd a small group which had recently come out of dead tradition into life in the Spirit. Shortly before coming to the valley, I received a prophetic word which said (in part):
My son, I would say unto thee that I am power and that I
am authority. My son I would have you to know that you have only
walked in the shadow of everything that I could give unto thee.
It has been nothing. It has been like the widow's mite. Would
you trade the widow's mite for the wealth of the kingdom, my son?
My son, I would have thee to grasp of the wisdom, to seek after
the pearl of great treasure, my son, for I am power. I am authority.
I am the supreme God and I have let you walk in the shadow of
my authority and all that you have tasted have only been but fruits,
just the beginnings of the fruits, my son. Oh, if you could come
to me and if you could see what I have in store, my son ... Think
deeply and be careful my son and trade not the kingdom for a mite.
Now personal prophecy is first of all to be judged and confirmed,
and then, if it passes, believed and obeyed. This one tested out.
Therefore I sought a means to act, i.e. to seek God for "the
pearl of great treasure." Because most of the brothers worked
during the days, I had considerable time to study and pray out
at the isolated building where we held services. Once I decided
to seek God in a special way according to the prophetic injunction,
I began to utilise large periods in which I would simply come
before the Lord and say, "I have come to receive what you
have for me." Now as I approached God in this way I did not
come flippantly or arrogantly: I approached with fear and trembling,
aware of the awesome presence of the Supreme King of the universe.
I believe we can come boldly unto the Holy of Holies, but not
lightly. Even though Jesus made the way for us, we still are the
creatures and he is the Eternal Father, the Creator of all that
is. Many a day I stood there, shoes off in awe, unable to look
up. My declaration was, "Lord, I am here by permission. You
bade me come, I would have it all."
As I continued in this way, I began to be baptised afresh in the
Holy Spirit. Two experiences accompanied this: the inhaling of
deep gasps of air and the sense of power coming down from heaven,
flooding over my body. At the time I did not understand these
sensations, but shortly afterwards I read From Jordan to Pentecost
by Derek Prince, and then I knew. The "gasping" was
in reality "drinking" for "we ... all were made
to drink of one Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:13) and "Jesus stood
up and proclaimed, 'If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink.'"
(John 7:37) The "power flowing," on the other hand,
was simply that "... in the last days ... I will pour out
my Spirit upon all flesh ..." (Acts 2:17) Here the picture
is one of the Holy Spirit coming down over the believer from above.
I was both "drinking" the Spirit and having the Spirit
"poured out" on me. Praise the Lord.
Before I go on, I must explain that almost all of the experiences
which I will relate in this book were "do and teach."
What is "do and teach"? Simply that something occurs
in the Spirit and then, sometimes immediately afterwards or, perhaps
years later, the Lord explains the spiritual dynamic involved.
The elucidation comes after the event. Now this is neither heretical
nor spooky: it is scriptural. Luke told Theophilus that in the
first book (the gospel of Luke), he dealt with all that Jesus
began to do and teach (Acts 1:1). Jesus performed, and then He
taught. He works no differently through the Holy Spirit today.
(Godly experiences, though, will never violate the letter and
the spirit of Scripture). Persons who must have every little question
answered before they experience being led of the spirit will never
receive much freedom in God.
At any rate, after two weeks of "drinking" and "being
poured upon," I expected a marked difference in my ministry.
To my chagrin, though, the Sunday service was as tight as ever.
The atmosphere seemed filled with spiritual death. In near despondency
I returned to the empty church on Monday morning to face my God.
As I was gazing from the window, meditating upon the day before,
the Lord distinctly spoke to me: "The reason you failed to
flow in ministry yesterday is because of a demonic strong man
which has been assigned to you by Satan in order to destroy your
ministry. His name is ______." I was stunned. But my shock
was ever the greater when I turned around and saw the strong man
standing across the room, looking at me.
I saw him. In the spirit I saw him. I continued to see him for
the better part of two weeks. Several brethren have asked me for
a description. Perhaps the best analogy is that he resembled the
king on a deck of cards, except that his complexion was doughy
and greenish. He was large, with thick jowls.
The Lord's allowing me to perceive this demonic creature was neither
for the purpose of frightening me nor for titillating my curiosity.
His assignment to me was "do war against this strong man
until he stands over you no more." Fortunately around this
time New Wine magazine ran a full coverage on the theme "Battling
the Strong Man." (The timing was uncanny). I used the insights
in the articles as a springboard for the attack; yet as I battled,
the Lord taught me much about the enemy and how to defeat him.
The remainder of this book is the story of my encounter and the
personal and theological consequences from it which have since
transformed many lives.
Chapter 2: Precepts of Battle
How could we have missed it all these years? Jesus plainly
stated "No one can enter a strong man's house and plunder
his goods unless he first binds the strong man; then indeed he
may plunder his house." (Mark 3:27) Our tragedy is that we
have attempted to plunder without first binding. Now this is not
to say that in past years the church has been totally without
blessing; it is to say, though, that we have experienced only
a trickle of power through the demonic dyke whereas God's will
is that the dyke collapse and the end-time flood of revival ensue!
We in modern Western cultures have such difficulty believing in
the full biblical scope of the spirit world. We are over-educated,
over-psychologised, and desensitised, whereas the Apostle Paul
had no difficulty with the idea that "we are not contending
against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against
the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness,
against the spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenly places."
(Eph. 6:12) Even in our evangelical churches (and I have been
active in them all my life) we do not confront principalities
and powers; rather we fight communism, or humanism, or liberalism.
(We contend against flesh and blood). Daniel's true enemy was
not Darius, the King of the Chaldeans, but the demonic prince
of the kingdom of Persia who resisted the Archangel Gabriel as
he attempted to come to Daniel with the answer from God (Daniel
10). Are not our true foes those princes over our communities,
our states, our nations? Do they not hinder and stifle us at every
turn? Do they not take the blessings of God and in a few short
years stagnate and pollute them? Alas! Those in pagan lands are
more aware than we of the presence of personalised evil about
them! Just because the strong men over America are more "sophisticated"
than those over, say, a nation like Uganda, does not mean that
they are non-existent, or even less active.
Now all of this is not intended to glorify Satan out of proportion.
Even though the devil and his angels are mighty, God is almighty.
The first verse that I used in battling the strong man over my
ministry was Colossians 2:15: "He (Jesus) disarmed the principalities
and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over
them in the cross." Satan is a defeated foe.
"Why, then," some will ask, "if he is defeated,
is it necessary for us to take on principalities and powers?"
Perhaps Pastor Jim Croft brings forth the best answer when he
compares what happened at the Cross to the two atomic bombs that
ended World War II. Now when an atomic bomb is dropped, everything
within a fifty-mile radius will inevitably be destroyed. But that
destruction is not made manifest until the waves of power push
out from the point of explosion, utilising the energy released
by the initial blast to obliterate everything in their path. To
apply this to the spiritual realm, the most potent of all bombs
was dropped in Jerusalem two thousand years ago, and each successive
generation of believers has been an extension of it's waves of
power. As the Gospel gains an ever-extending mushroom of authority,
each generation of Christians must call afresh upon the power
of the initial blast as they level the walls of opposing satanic
fortresses into rubble.'
The Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Spirit, wrote that
Jesus had disarmed the devil and his angels; yet under that same
inspiration he stated that "we wrestle against ... principalities
and powers." Divine paradox!
As I stood there in that quiet church that day, opposite my enemy,
the Lord reminded me of the time when He first faced his foe.
(When he asserted that one first binds the strong man, then plunders
his house, He was speaking from experience.) It was that time
immediately following His baptism when He was led by the Spirit
into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
And he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward
he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, "If
you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves
of bread." But he answered, "It is written, 'Man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from
the mouth of God.'" then the devil took him to the holy city,
and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, "If
you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written,
'He will give his angels charge of you,' and 'On their hands they
will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'"
Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'You shall not tempt
the Lord your God."' Again, the devil took him to a very
high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and
the glory of them; and he said to him, " All these I will
give you, if you will fall down and worship me." Then Jesus
said to him, "Begone, Satan! for it is written, 'You shall
worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve."'
Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered
to him. (Matt. 4:2-11)
In this account we find three principles to follow in binding
the strong man:
1. We go into the battle "full of the Holy Spirit."
Jesus did not take a list of instructions with him, nor did he
have a detailed battle plan. He was filled with the Spirit of
His Father and with a working knowledge of Scripture. Wouldn't
it have been ridiculous if Jesus had to consult the rule book
every time Satan hurled an accusation or temptation at Him? No,
Jesus had no written program for this, nor is there indication
that he knew beforehand the tactics of Satan on this occasion.
The evil one assaulted Him with "If you are the Son of God,
command this stone to become bread." Jesus didn't fumble
in His pocket for the slip of paper which contained the correct
answer. Rather, He consulted with the Spirit, Who told Him, "Answer
with Scripture! Pierce him through with Deuteronomy!" And
Jesus, being always obedient, did just that: "It is written,
'Man shall not live by bread alone ..."' I believe Satan
was pierced through and badly shaken by that one.
The blessed Lord wants to breathe upon us and dwell in us and
flow out of us. To walk in the Spirit is to be well-equipped to
bind the strong man. Let us put off religion and dead tradition
and find Him who is "far above all rule and authority and
power and dominion, and above every name that is named .(He) who
fills all in all." (Eph. 1:21, 23)
2. We go into the battle in an attitude of self-denial. Jesus fasted for forty days. I do not believe He did this merely to prove His endurance. Instead, I believe His denial of legitimate body needs sharpened His ability to perceive the spirit world, especially His ability to hear the Holy Spirit. The more receptive we are to the Holy Ghost, the more effective we are in battle.
3. We go into the battle realising the power of right decisions and right declarations. In each of the replies to the three temptations, Jesus was not only quoting Scripture, but was affirming personal convictions. He was not just offering, as a platitude, "Man shall not live by bread alone," but full of the Holy Ghost, He was declaring for time and eternity, "I shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God!" One of our greatest weapons for binding the strong man is a Holy Ghost inspired declaration of righteousness! "Here I stand, Devil! I shall worship the Lord My God, and Him only shall I serve!" Such an avowal causes Satan to flee. Matthew 12:36-37 states: "I tell you, on the day of judgment men will render account for every careless word they utter; for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." Frequently we focus on the negative aspect of this verse, and we should heed its warning. But what about the positive side? "By your words you will be justified." Now in context I believe Jesus is referring to justification and condemnation which shall come on the day of judgment; yet the principle applies in our daily lives. The anointed declaration of godly choices, these words of my mouth which I fling at the strong man, will set me (and mine) free from his grasp and justify me in God's eyes. Hallelujah!
I had a strong man assigned to me to destroy my ministry. Jesus had a strong man attached to Him. Because of Who He was, His strong man was the strongest of all. Satan himself. I believe Satan's object was to block the ministry of Jesus. After the binding of the evil one from off His ministry, Jesus was then able to return in power and proclaim:
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has
anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." (Luke 4:18-19)
Many of our churches, as Christ's body, preach this, but,
because we have not bound the strong man (or men) virtually none
of us can say, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in
your hearing" (Luke 4:21) and show supernatural works which
parallel or surpass those of Jesus. Brethren, as the revelation
of binding principalities and powers becomes more widely accepted,
Christ's present body on earth shall truly do "greater works"
even than He did (John 14:12), and we shall find ourselves in
that blessed generation which will see "the gospel of the
kingdom ... preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony
to all nations; and then the end will come." (Matt 24:14)
A thoughtful study of Jesus' experience in the wilderness corrects
two common errors persons fall into as they consider binding strong
men. I worked with a brother once in a situation where I proposed
that we, as a church, enter into a time of binding principalities.
His comment was "Just bind the thing, and go on." What
he meant was as we go about our "busyness for God" just
look up once and say "I bind you in the name of Jesus"
and assume that that takes care of it. (Actually, this was his
roundabout way of telling me that he thought the whole emphasis
was unnecessary.) At any rate the statement "Just bind it
(once)" goes against the example of Jesus who had a season
in which his total emphasis was confronting the evil one. If he
had a season for doing so, should we not do likewise under the
leadership of the Spirit? The other error is the opposite extreme.
I was conversing with a brother concerning a strong man with which
he repeatedly wrestled. His statement was, "One just has
to keep fighting." But Jesus, our example, did not keep fighting
in a wilderness-type experience. The season of specialised warfare
for Him had a beginning and it had an ending. When He returned
from the wilderness, He was able to plunder Satan's house. Now
this doesn't mean that the devil just disappeared but it does
mean that he was bound so that Jesus could return in the power
of the Spirit. Warfare against strong men is seasonal: it has
a beginning, a middle, and an ending.
Luke 11:21-22 tells us that "When a strong man, fully armed,
guards his own palace, his goods are in peace, but when one stronger
than he assails him and overcomes him, he takes away his armour
in which he trusted, and divides his spoil." I believe these
verses imply a season of warfare: one assails and overcomes the
strong man, taking away his armour. Ancient armour had four main
parts. First of all was the shield, then the helmet, then the
coat of mail, and finally the greaves (armour to protect the leg
between the knee and the ankle). In spiritual warfare, I believe
we have the authority to strip the strong man of his armour a
piece at a time until he stands (or falls) uncovered, defenceless,
and robbed of his power, for "the weapons of our warfare
are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strongholds."
(2 Cor. 10:4)
In light of this, one can imagine the dismay of the Apostle Paul
when he found that he had a strong man who would not go away.
And to keep me from being to elated by the abundance of revelations,
a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass
me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I besought the
Lord about this, that it should leave me; but he said to me, "My
grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."
I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power
of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am
content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and
calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor. 12:7-10
)
Here we have a messenger of Satan, sent to harass Paul.
The verb "harass" (or buffet) is in the present tense,
which in Greek indicates recurrent action; i.e., Paul was repeatedly
attacked by this agent. My conviction is that the demonic setup
here consisted of a strong man on the outside who controlled a
demon of infirmity on the inside. But verse ten indicates that
the messenger (the strong man) was responsible for more than just
sickness; he caused weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions,
and calamities! (There is no paragraph change from verse seven
through verse ten. The subject is the messenger of Satan.) I believe
that this strong man followed Paul around, stirring up not only
the infirmity, but the demonic bondages of his human enemies so
that those persons reviled and persecuted him.
Now I believe that the Apostle Paul was accustomed to experiencing
victory over the devil. Paul doubtlessly sensed that a satanic
agent was accompanying him. But when he turned to assault this
strong man with godly weapons, nothing happened. I believe Paul
came before the Lord and asked "Why? Why do I have authority
over principalities and powers, but not over this one? Lord, will
you not take it from me?" The Lord replied, "because
of the abundance of your revelations, I have made an exception.
He will remain by my permission to keep you humble." The
point here is that Paul normally expected victory! It was he who
wrote "the weapons ... have divine power to destroy strongholds."
People, let's put aside our spiritual poverty complex. Whereas
it is true that all godly persons will suffer persecution (2 Tim.
3:12), we have allowed Satan to go well beyond his limits in robbing
us of power and authority simply because we Christians have failed
to believe the explicit teaching of Scripture concerning the evil
one and how to overcome him. Through unbelief, we have failed
to prepare to become the battleaxe of the Lord so that satanic
strongholds can be destroyed. Yet I believe the Lord in this generation
will raise up an army of blood-washed men who will go forth to
"destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge
of God." (2 Cor. 10:5) and who "for Zion's sake...will
not keep silent ... until her vindication goes forth as brightness,
and her salvation as a burning torch." (Isaiah. 62:1)
As a preparation for becoming a part of that army, some persons
may have to bind the strong men off of their ministries. I do
not believe that most individuals have a specific strong man assigned
to them in the same sense as Jesus and Paul had, but a man who
is destined to a position of strong spiritual leadership may well
have one. I know of several brothers who have discerned special
enemies designed to harass them continually. A number of the brothers
have since bound those specific strong men and have moved into
freedom and victory. Praise God!
During my own season of battle the Lord taught me much. For two
weeks after discerning the strong man I spent several hours daily
in solitude. At one point toward the end of the two weeks, I experienced
a deep breakthrough into joy. While in the Spirit, I saw the angels.
Up to this time I was only away of the demonic prince and the
Lord. But on this occasion as I stood across from the strong man,
I saw the angels. As I battled, they were pinning his arms behind
him and binding him with strong ropes. These heavenly visitors
were not toiling in anguish as they battled; rather, they acted
as if they were at a party. At first I didn't understand this,
but later the Lord showed me that those of us in this dispensation
of grace have come to "innumerable angels in festal gathering"!
(Heb. 12:22) They are in a party mood because they know that Christ
shall reign until He puts every enemy under His feet! As I broke
through into joy and praise, the angels began to circle in the
air and rejoice with me. Then the Lord updated for me Psalm 149.
For the Lord takes pleasure in his people;
he adorns the humble with victory.
Let the faithful exult in glory;
let them sing for joy on their couches.
Let the high praises of God be in their throats
and two-edged sword in their hands,
to wreak vengeance on the nations
and chastisement on the peoples,
to bind their kings with chains
and their nobles with fetters of iron,
to execute on them the judgment written!
This is glory for all his faithful ones.
Praise the Lord! (Psalm 149:4-9)
Genuine praise unto the Lord in the time of warfare wreaks
vengeance on the spiritual hosts of darkness, binds the principalities
with chains, snaps fetters of iron on the demonic powers, and
executes the judgment against them of the blood of Christ's Cross.
While I was experiencing this victory, the heavenly curtains parted,
and I saw my father. He was standing there in simplicity and childlikeness,
face beaming as it used to years ago when he was delighted about
something. He was watching the cosmic struggle in that tiny church
much as one in a stadium would view the action on the playing
field. (We are "surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses"
[Heb. 12:1]) Accompanying him were two other companions whom I
was unable to identify. While neither looking at me nor addressing
me directly, my father clapped his hands enthusiastically and
exulted: "Atta boy, son! Atta boy!" Then he turned and,
in animated conversation with his companions, strolled off into
the mist ...
After that something deep down inside me broke. I sobbed almost
uncontrollably for forty minutes. As I emerged from that experience,
I realised that a torn corner of my soul had been mended.
Months later, during a conference, I realised the purpose for
the Lord allowing me to glimpse my father. Brother Bob Mumford,
in a sermon, described his emotion when his dying father pronounced
a blessing upon him. when I heard that, I recognised that I had
experienced the same emotion that day in the isolated church.
"Atta boy, son!" was my father pronouncing a blessing
on my ministry.
Chapter 3: God the Father
The greatest need in our time is for strong fathers, both
natural and spiritual. But what of those (and there are millions
of them in this generation) who have been deprived of good fathers?
I believe the ones who sincerely seek the Lord will be supplied,
in time, with spiritual fathers whose anointing will bring a measure
of restoration; yet the greater healing will come as we experience,
over the next few years, a fresh revelation of God the Father.
The first intimation I had that there was more to learn about
the role of God the Father in the end times occurred several years
ago in a difficult deliverance session in which a co-worker and
I were ministering to a seriously demonised woman. As we commanded
the evil spirits to come out, they continually baulked or feigned
indifference, or mocked. Finally in desperation I left the other
brother in charge as I departed to another room to pray about
the situation. When I returned, to my amazement the demons had
ceased mocking and had begun cringing and leaving. My co-worker
was addressing them from Psalm 18:
The Lord also thundered in the heavens,
and the Most High uttered his voice,
hailstones and coals of fire.
And he sent out his arrows, and scattered them;
He flashed forth lightnings, and routed them ...
We had read other Scripture passages against those evil
spirits, but only Psalm 18 routed them. What was going on?
It was not until my season of battle against the strong man that
I received the answer: it is God the Father who will make the
enemies of Jesus a footstool for His feet, and Psalm 18 is a prophetic
picture of that event. (Sometimes demons know more about Scripture
than the church does.) Psalm 18 is the battle hymn of the end-time
church.
Now one of the most exegetically ignored passages of the Old Testament
as it is quoted in the New Testament is Psalm 110:1. In the New
Testament it appears directly five times and indirectly at least
twice. It states in Acts 2:34-35:
"The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand,
Till I make thy enemies a stool for thy feet."
Question: Who is speaking to whom?
Answer: God the Father is speaking to Jesus the Son.
Question: Where is the Holy Spirit ( in the context of Acts 2:34-35)?
Answer: On Earth.
Question: Who is going to make the enemies of Jesus a footstool
for His feet?
Answer: God the Father.
Now that's simple enough, isn't it? A more complicated passage, though, is First Corinthians 15:24-28:
24. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to
God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority
and power.
25. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his
feet.
26. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
27. "For God has put all things in subjection under his feet."
But when it says, "All things are put in subjection under
him," it is plain that he is excepted who put all things
under him.
28. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself
will also be subjected to him who put all things under him, that
God may be everything to everyone.
The difficulty with this passage is that in verses 24-25
Jesus Himself appears to be the One Who puts His enemies under
His feet, whereas in verses 27-28 God the Father seems to be the
Who does the work. Did a spirit of confusion come upon the Apostle
Paul? What is the solution? I believe the key is in an understanding
of the unity of and the co-submission within the Godhead.
The appearing of God the Father to vanquish the enemies of Jesus
will not draw attention away from Jesus; rather, the victory will
come in such a way as to cause God's people to shout triumphantly,
"Jesus is Lord! He is King indeed !'' God the Eternal Father
descends from His throne to serve the Son by routing His enemies;
the Son then turns and subjects Himself and His kingdom for all
eternity to the Father, so that "God may be everything to
every one.'' Sublime community! Blessed oneness!
The idea that God the Father will yet execute the sentence of
the judgement of the cross upon principalities and powers is also
found in Hebrews 12:25-29:
See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less shall we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. His voice then shook the earth; but now he has promised, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven." This phrase, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of what is shaken, as of what has been made, in order that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.
The quotation "Yet once more ..." is from Haggai 2:6-9:
For thus says the Lord of hosts: Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with splendour, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts. The latter splendour of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts; and in this place I will give prosperity, says the Lord of hosts.
Haggai believed that he was prophesying concerning the temple
which was being constructed by the Jews who had just returned
from the Babylonian Captivity. He was reassuring the builders
that the temple which they were then erecting would be greater
in splendour than Solomon's Temple, which had been destroyed in
the overthrow of Jerusalem. But the fact of the matter is that
historically no temple in Jerusalem (including the one under construction
in Haggai's time) has ever surpassed Solomon's Temple in grandeur.
Therefore, I believe the "house" or Temple referred
to in this prophecy is the church of God (1 Cor. 3:16). I do not
believe that the latter splendour which will come upon the church
refers to heaven because the passage appears to indicate an earthly
fulfillment. Now what shall be "shaken" so as to cause
the latter splendour of this house to be greater than the former
("the former" likely referring to the early church)?
Unquestionably Hebrews 12:25-29 indicates that at some point the
physical universe will be shaken; yet the created material order
is not that which has robbed the church of power, authority, and
prosperity - the spiritual kingdom of darkness has been responsible.
Therefore if the Father is going to shake something in order that
the treasures come to the church, that which first of all shall
be shaken is the kingdom of darkness in the heavens!
A question which will arise at this point is: "If God the
Father Himself is to make the enemies of Jesus a footstool for
His feet, why does the church have to pray against principalities
and powers? Why can't we just wait for the Father to do the work?''
I believe Paul answers the question when he asserts that it is
through the church that "the manifold wisdom of God might
now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly
places." (Ephesians 3:10) God the Father will use the body
of Christ on earth to announce to the principalities and powers
that they are, indeed, defeated enemies, and to execute against
them the judgment of the cross! As the church, through the Holy
Spirit, takes up the battle-axe for the Lord Jesus, God the Father
descends from the throne with "devouring fire from his mouth"
(Ps. 18:8) to rout the demonic princes. It is once again all a
part of the mysterious metaphysics of the inter-submission and
yet oneness of the Holy Trinity, the Blessed three-in-one!
We in the modern church have hesitated to discuss the distinct
roles of the Three Persons of the Godhead out of fear that anything
we might say about God the Father or the Holy Spirit would detract
from the Lord Jesus, or out of fear that to speak of separate
roles borders on tritheism (three gods) instead of monotheism
(one god). Such fears show that this rebellious age needs a fresh
revelation of the exquisitely beautiful pattern of servant hood
and submission within the Godhead. The explicit teaching of Scripture
is that the Holy Ghost came, not to exalt Himself, but to bear
witness to Jesus (John 15:26). The Spirit does not speak in His
own authority, but whatever He hears (from Jesus) He speaks (John
16:13). Now most people don't have a problem believing that the
Holy Spirit points to Jesus, (in fact, some groups have reduced
Him to an "it"). But many individuals struggle with
the idea that Christ points beyond Himself to God the Father.
Yet Jesus, in John 17:25-26, stated
"O righteous Father, the world has not known thee:
and these know that thou hast sent me. I made known to them thy
name, and I will make it known, that the love with which thou
has Loved me may be in them ,and I in them." (italics mine)
Derek Prince has pointed out that the Name which Jesus made known
was "Father" which appears six times in Chapter 17.
Now an interesting thing is that the Lord Jesus didn't say, "Father,
I have revealed thy name once and for all." No, He said,"
I will make it known." People, where in the church today
is there much awareness of the presence of God the Father? Derek
has written:
As far as I understand the New Testament, this is the climax
and goal of New Testament revelation: God the Father. Jesus is
the Way, but a way is meaningless unless it leads somewhere. Jesus
is the Way to the Father. If we stop short at Jesus Christ, we've
really missed the main point of the gospel. Jesus said, "I
am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father
but by me." (John 14:6)
John 17:26 (quoted above) indicates that we will not know a true
breakthrough into divine love until we grasp God the Father; for
that matter, we cannot truly perceive Jesus as Lord unless we
allow Him to take us to God the Father. I am convinced that, because
we have failed to go beyond the Son to the Father, this generation
tends to make Jesus a sentimental, sin-excusing figure. Many Christians
do not want to go beyond Him to the Father because they really
do not want to experience the discipline in their lives which
they believe the Father represents.
Chapter 4: Questions
Questions, occasional victories, frustrations, and more
questions! Such has been the lot of many of us in ministry who
have taken seriously Jesus' declaration that "in my name
they will cast out demons." (Mark 16:17) At one point in
my pilgrimage I backed completely off from this ministry because
I gleaned such meagre results from so much effort.
I remember a young man whom I tried to help several years ago.
He had a history of mental problems which included at least one
strong attempt at suicide; but he came to me to receive ministry.
My approach was to intermingle counselling with deliverance. Now
anyone who witnessed this brother during the exorcism sessions
generally had no problem believing that he had demons and was
receiving deliverance. The difficulty, though, was that he would
stabilise for a period, but then would regress. It appeared that
he could neither get free nor stay free: there always seemed to
be another demon. We would complete a deliverance session, hoping
that he was once and for all free, only to find that there was
something else. How many demons can one person have, anyway? Is
there ever an end?
One time the Lord revealed to me an extremely powerful spirit
which this young man had. My hopes were that the deliverance from
this demon would prove to be the breakthrough we needed to bring
the brother into wholeness. The Lord showed me that the manifestation
of this evil spirit would be violent; so I enlisted the aid of
three other brethren to help in case things got out of hand. Sure
enough, as I came against the demon the young brother went berserk.
As the three men struggled to control the man, the evil spirit
was shrieking, "you have no idea how strong I really am!!"
Something in my spirit clicked. What did the demon mean by that
exclamation? (I found out years later.) At this moment a co-worker
(a man with whom we had had some conflict over submission) came
bursting through the door. He immediately took charge of the session
by addressing the demon in the young man, saying, "I take
authority over you ..." At that point I asked the intruding
brother not to interfere with the commanding, but it was too late:
something had transpired in the spirit world which I did not then
understand. The demon in the young man quieted to the point that
I thought perhaps it had gone. At any rate , the young brother
was willing to testify to deliverance; so I took him into the
sanctuary where about twenty people were awaiting a report. He
stood before them and stated, "I am delivered, it is gone."
A few days later he left the church, never to recommit himself.
And then there was the older sister who had such promise in God.
She was a registered drug addict who at one time had been a practicing
fortune teller. She came, confessing her darkness and seeking
the light. Her subsequent experience in deliverance was one of
the most tender manifestations of God being a Father to someone
I have ever witnessed.
Once in her deliverance, we encountered a "false personality"
spirit which was powerful. Now this sister was one of those who
experienced a complete submersion of personality when demon power
manifested; so when the spirit of "false personality"
surfaced, the woman's true self receded somewhere within her to
the extent that she was unaware of what was transpiring. At any
rate, there we were, faced with this "false personality"
spirit which was budging not at all in response to our commands.
Finally two of us adjourned to another room to cry out in intercession.
When we returned, we witnessed an amazing thing: with no one commanding
the demon, it suddenly began crying out, "Oh no, Lord Jesus!
Do not torment me before the time! I will yield! I will yield!"
and the woman fell to her knees, and the evil spirit left.
In the following days, the Lord became a Father to her. She would
be like a small, innocent child before Him, and He would communicate
with her on an intimate level which (save for one other example
I witnessed) surpassed anything I had ever seen. During those
times her testimony was:
He reached from on high, he took me,
he drew me out of many waters.
He delivered me from my strong enemy,
and from those who hated me;
for they were too mighty for me.
They came upon me in the day of my calamity;
but the Lord was my stay.
He brought me forth into a broad place;
he delivered me, because he delighted in me. Psalm 18:16-19
But even in the midst of all this sovereign help, she could
not stay free. Repeatedly the "false personality" would
regain entrance. The whole experience with her was a strange mixture
of God's miracle and the demonic. Once, when she was overwhelmed
by the demons, she ended up at the medical clinic where she used
to undergo psychiatric treatment. Now the horror of this was that
the psychiatrist would take one look at her charts, note that
she was a registered drug addict, and prescribe medication. (At
that time she had been delivered of the drugs.) So my co-worker
and I jumped into the car and sped away to the medical centre,
praying all the way. As it turned out, they could not find her
medical records. She had been to that clinic at least twenty-five
times, but they could not find her records. After we arrived,
the psychiatrist in charge turned to me and said, "I put
her over into your hands. You have the help for her," and
we walked out with her.
Yet she didn't make it. She, too, left, and returned to her bondages,
leaving me with many questions: Was the whole thing a rip-off?
What was the significance of that "false personality"
which was so powerful and kept re- entering? Why was her experience
such a mixture of the sublime and the satanic? I realised that,
both in her case and in that of the young man, personal responsibility
(the ability to will a correct choice) played a part, yet I could
not believe that that was the whole story. What was missing in
our understanding of the demonic kingdom and of the ministry of
deliverance?
Not long after my encounter with the strong man in Hood River,
I became an elder in Faith Fellowship Church in San Jose, where
over a period of several months and through many experiences,
the Lord answered all of these questions. He gave to us (and I
do mean "us," for I see this as a community revelation)
the key to set God's people free from the kingdom of Satan. At
first He gave us several smaller keys, not all at once but one
at a time; then, He took those keys and merged them to form one
big key. I believe this key is the "pearl of great treasure"
which is mentioned in the prophecy in Chapter One.
Chapter 5: The queen
I received a general answer to the questions in the last
chapter when I realised that we were attempting to minister deliverance
before we had bound principalities and powers. The clear scriptural
injunction is "first bind the strong man, and then plunder
his house. "We were trying to "plunder the house,"
i.e. break the demonic strongholds within persons, without first
binding the greater enemies over the churches and the communities.
The demons within individuals are under the control of the regional
strong men. No wonder delivered persons had trouble staying free!
Yet in order for the revelation of binding the strong man to have
practical effect, we had to know what we were up against and how
to fight it. Therefore we were blessed as the Lord began to give
us technical insight both into the demonic kingdom in the heavenlies
and into the ones within individuals.
We had had some contact with teaching on the "Jezebel spirit."
We had heard it described largely as a witchcraft which leads
to (or stems from) the female domination of men. Brothers who
grew up in situations where the mother was strong and the father
passive were pointed to as likely candidates for a "Jezebel"
spirit which makes them female in their emotions. Women who rebel
against men, on the other hand, were seen as having "Jezebel"
as a spirit of witchcraft whereby they manipulate the wills of
others. In our experience we had seen some good fruit from "Jezebel"
deliverance. Our belief was that perhaps one person in six needed
to be freed from this bondage. But were we ever to learn more
about that evil queen!
Shortly after my arrival at Faith Fellowship Church, I brought
a general teaching on principalities and powers which was to be
followed by several weeks of united prayer against the strong
men over the church and the community. But one of my co-workers
could not receive the teaching. He wanted to hear it and to believe
it; yet he couldn't. His problem was neither intellectual nor
theological ... he had a spiritual blockage. When the brother
later went through deliverance, the chief demon which manifested
called itself the "queen." It was the jezebelic spirit;
yet however it did more than what we normally thought Jezebel
did because, when it left, my co-worker was immediately able to
receive revelation about principalities and powers. Why was this
"queen" so powerful as to stop the brother's spiritual
ears so that he could not hear the teaching?
A partial answer was that during this time the Lord revealed to
me that Jezebel was more than just a demon which a few had: it
is a power, a strong man over the entire San Jose area. From Revelation
2:18-25, I discerned the work of this power.
18. And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: "The
words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and
whose feet are like burnished bronze.
19. I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient
endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.
20. But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel,
who calls herself a prophetess, and is teaching and beguiling
my servants to practice immorality and to eat food sacrificed
to idols.
21. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her
immorality.
22. Behold, I will throw her on a sickbed, and those who commit
adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless
they repent of her doings;
23. and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches
shall know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will
give to each of you as your works deserve.
24. But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching,
who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan,
to you I say, I do not lay upon you any other burden;
25. only hold fast what you have until I come."
Here I saw five things for which Jezebel in the heavenlies
was responsible:
1. v.20. She calls herself a prophetess. Most religious demons
are submitted to Jezebel.
2. v.20. She teaches and beguiles my servants. Here is manipulative
witchcraft which we before had labelled "jezebelic."
3. v.20. she teaches them ... to practice immorality. The Lord
showed me that spirits of sexual lust and perversion are submitted
to Jezebel.
4. v.20. She teaches them ... to eat food sacrificed to idols.
Now the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 8 teaches that to eat food
sacrificed to idols is a matter of individual conscience. However,
the church at Thyatira evidently had direct command from the Lord
not to eat the food. Jezebel, though, said, "That's all right.
Go ahead and eat. God understands!" Jezebel in the heavenlies
promotes a lightness towards sin. It portrays God as having the
emotional approach of a mother rather than the disciplined, rational
approach of a father. A mother in her emotions tends to love and
accept her children regardless of what they do, whereas a fat
her, though he loves his children, sets standards for them and
shows disapproval and/or anger and executes discipline if the
standards are not met. Jezebel promotes unconditional acceptance.
But God says, "I love you, but if you persist in sin, I shall
destroy you!"
5. v.24. "... this teaching ... what some call the deep things
of Satan ..." Occult spirits are submitted to Jezebel.
One night during a deliverance session, I saw the relationship
between Jezebel in the heavenlies and Jezebel in a person. I was
praying against a strong spirit called "Christian Science
practitioner" which a brother had picked up in babyhood when
he was set apart for such an office. At one point I was led to
ask the spirit, "Who is your father?" The answer revealed
not a father, but a mother: "Eddy!" (Mary Baker Eddy
- founder of Christian Science). I then began to command the spirit
to leave; but it baulked and went nowhere. In the midst of this
frustration, the Lord said, "This is a jezebelic religious
spirit. You must cut the five cords between it and its 'mother'
in the heavenlies." (At this time the church had not bound
the power of Jezebel). So I opened the Bible to Revelation 2;
Then I took each of the five areas and cut those cords between
the strong man and the demon: "You Jezebel in the heavenlies,
I see that cord of religion which extends from you to the evil
spirit in this man! I assault that cord in the name of Jesus!
I hack it, and hack it, and hack it!" In like manner I went
through each of the five areas. Before I began, the brother was
sitting on the sofa with some degree of composure; but the minute
I began to chop the cords, the demon became quite agitated, causing
the brother to pitch to the floor and writhe. The demonic convulsions
continued until I completed cutting the five cords; then immediately
the brother became calm, stood up, and said "What happened?"
The demon was gone, and it has never returned.
The next night we four elders stood before our congregation to
bind Jezebel. We realised that later we would need a more concentrated
season of prayer in order to reap the full plunder, but we wanted
to begin rolling that strong man off of our people; so the four
of us joined hands and cut the cords. The thing which happened
over the next several days, though, was not that our people began
to receive help: we elders began to perk up jezebelic spirits!
We were seeing the glimmer of a breakthrough in the deliverance
ministry, and the key was binding specific strong men, especially
Jezebel.
But all of this was just the beginning; so much more was yet to
come.
The Lord showed us the difference between a principality and a
power. A principality is a strong man which is assigned to a specific
geographical area. For example, the United States has a demonic
prince which is in charge of Satan's activity in this country.
The various states have princes over them which are under the
authority of the principality over the United States. Then each
state has its own organisation of principalities over cities,
etc. The strong man over the United States, however, has no authority
over Mexico or Canada, because those countries have their own
principalities. A principality is limited by geography. A power,
on the other hand, is in charge of a pervading evil influence
or an evil realm, and is not bound by geographical limits. The
powers work under the principalities to execute Satan's evil plans.
Jezebel is a power, not a principality: its influence is found
world-wide. Now this does not mean that Jezebel is an omnipresent
strong man. Instead, I believe there is one extremely powerful
jezebelic strong man which has myriads of assistants spread over
the world to work with the various principalities.
We were confirmed in our revelation of Jezebel's influence when,
at a conference, we heard Bob Mumford point out that there is
a concentrated, determined attack on maleness, and particularly
fatherhood. Have you noticed how many television programs there
are about one parent families? They are telling us that the traditional
family is no longer necessary. If there is a program with a two-parent
family, the father is a bumbling idiot who doesn't know how to
walk around a coffee table. He can't administrate his home, balance
a cheque book, or handle the children. Commercials, especially,
represent the man as an idiotic moron who can't remember to take
his vitamins, doesn't know what to wear, doesn't know what to
wash his hair with, or what to take for a backache. He needs his
wife and children to mother him and take care of him just so he
can cope with life. The message is clear: We don't need real fathers
anymore!
I found a bumper sticker recently that says, "Trust in God;
she will provide." A recent article in a San Jose paper reported
on a group of Christian theologians who had declared the Bible
a "sexist" book. They suggested that Christians begin
to pray, "Our Mother, which art in heaven."
As we heard Bob Mumford's words, we realised anew that Jezebel
in the
heavenlies is quite busy.
As time passed, we continued to find jezebelic spirits within
people. One evening we were ministering to a sister when I discerned
that she had a "mother" spirit, which, through commanding,
identified itself as "madonna." Then I saw in the Spirit
a child which this "madonna" was holding. The child
had a glowing, strange face, and hypnotic eyes. Radiating from
the top and sides of its head were tiny beams of light which resembled
porcupine quills. The baby's name? "Terror!" Then the
Lord showed me that the mother-child combination is typical of
jezebelic spirits, although the child may not always be named
"terror." This revelation shortly opened a floodgate
of biblical insight which ultimately gave us the complete (and
startling) picture of Jezebel through history on into the end
times.
What we discovered is that "Jezebel" is not really a
broad enough name for the power which we are encountering. As
Ahab's evil queen (I Kings 16:29-II Kings 9:37) she opened the
door for Israel to be polluted by the religion of Satan: Baal
worship. Now what has been the devil's plan in religion since
the fall of man? To imitate, as closely as possible, the promise
that mankind would be saved through the seed of a woman (Genesis
3:15). In Genesis 10:8-9, Nimrod is called "a hunter of men
against the Lord" (the literal translation of the Hebrew).
He was the founder of Babylon, which came to be a scriptural symbol
of all that is evil and demonic (as over against Jerusalem, the
city of God). In the religious mythology of the ancient Near East,
Nimrod married Semerimus who had a male child by him. Nimrod died
before the birth of his son; but the son was considered a reincarnation
of his father, "the mighty hunter of men against the Lord."
This reincarnation caused Semerimus to declare "mourning
I shall not know." Semerimus was the forerunner of all the
pagan goddesses of the ancient Near East, including Astaroth,
the mother (or wife) of Baal. Jezebel was from Sidon (I Kings
16:31) where Astaroth was worshipped. (Significantly, Astaroth
means "she who sits upon many waters.") In Semerimus,
with her god-son, we have the devil's perversion of God's plan
to bring salvation through the seed of a woman. Virtually every
religion which, through the ages, has raised itself against the
truth has had this mother-child pattern somewhere in it. The amazing
thing we have found is that the jezebelic power which we are encountering
both in the heavenlies and in individuals is none other than the
demonic "queen of heaven" which historically has been
called Semerimus, or Astaroth, or Venus, or Diana of the Ephesians,
or something else! The modern fruits of the jezebelic strong men
and their demons are spiritually identical to the pollutions of
these ancient idols. The devil hasn't changed his intentions through
the ages; he is just more subtle.
In Isaiah 14, a taunt is taken up against the king of Babylon
which, in verse 12, obviously takes on deeper spiritual significance.
How are you fallen from heaven,
O Day Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low!
You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will make myself like the Most High."
But you are brought down to Sheol,
to the depths of the Pit. (Isaiah 14:12-15)
Most evangelicals believe that this passage refers to Satan
himself, who is the King of Babylon" inasmuch as Babylon
represents the realm of fallen angels. What many do not realise,
though, is that there is a "Queen of Babylon" mentioned
in Scripture who is none other than the demonic false goddess
described in the preceding paragraph. This queen has a taunt hurled
at her in Isaiah 47:
1. Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon;
sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans!
For you shall no more be called tender and delicate.
2. Take the millstones and grind meal, put off your veil,
strip off your robe, uncover your legs, pass through the rivers.
3. Your nakedness shall be uncovered, and your shame shall be
seen.
I will take vengeance, I will spare no man.
4. Our Redeemer - the Lord of hosts is his name -
is the Holy One of Israel.
5. Sit in silence, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans;
for you shall no more be called the queen of kingdoms.
6. I was angry with my people, I profaned my heritage;
I gave them into your hand, you showed them no mercy;
on the aged you made your yoke exceedingly heavy.
7. You said, "I shall be mistress for ever,"
so that you did not lay these things to heart or remember their
end.
8. Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures, who sit securely,
who say in your heart, "I am, and there is no one besides
me
I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children":
9. These two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day;
the loss of children and widowhood shall come upon you
in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries
and the great power of your enchantments.
10. You felt secure in your wickedness, you said, "No one
sees me";
your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray,
and you said in your heart, "I am, and there is no one besides
me."
11. But evil shall come upon you, for which you cannot atone;
disaster shall fall upon you, which you will not be able to expiate;
and ruin shall come on you suddenly, of which you know nothing.
12. Stand fast in your enchantments and your many sorceries,
with which you have laboured from your youth;
perhaps you may be able to succeed, perhaps you may inspire terror.
13. You are wearied with your many counsels; let them stand forth
and save you, those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars,
who at the new moons predict what shall befall you.
14. Behold, they are like stubble, the fire consumes them;
they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame.
No coal for warming oneself is this, no fire to sit before!
15. Such to you are those with whom you have laboured,
who have trafficked with you from your youth;
they wander about each in his own direction;
there is no one to save you. (Isaiah 47:1-15)
Verse five states: "... no more will you be called
queen of kingdoms." When the spiritual significance of this
dawned upon us, we saw another dramatic breakthrough in deliverance
- we no longer were satisfied with occasionally encountering Jezebel;
we began to head for the "queen of kingdoms" in everyone
to whom we ministered. The results were amazing. Persons were
able to get free and to stay free of bondages which were never
touched before. Through experience we have found that the "queen
mother" is indeed in charge of kingdoms - the demonic kingdoms
within individuals. Unless one uncovers the queen in deliverance
(v.3 "Your nakedness shall be uncovered, and your shame shall
be seen ...") and casts her out, a person will never know
complete freedom, for she will continually call her children back
to her! (v.8 "... I shall not sit as a widow or know the
loss of children.") We have found the queen to be a very
powerful spirit. People who previously have manifested little
in deliverance get stirred up when we go after her, for it is
she who has declared, "I am, and there is no one besides
me ..." (v.8).
Now what is the devil up to through the "queen"? Essentially
he wants to deceive people concerning the nature and character
of God. The queen's statement, "I am, and there is no one
besides me" is a claim to deity, which is why Isaiah in verse
4 declares, "Our Redeemer - the Lord of hosts is his name
- is the Holy One of Israel." Only one can make the claim
"I am that I am" and that is the Lord God Omnipotent
Whose Name is revealed by Jesus in John 17 as "Father."
Satan's attempt through the queen is to feminise God to the point
where we believe that He is tolerant of sin. As I mentioned before,
Satan has never changed his intentions; he has just become more
subtle. He came to Eve in the garden and declared, "God said
that if you eat of the tree you will die, but you will not die
..." In other words, God didn't mean what He said. The essential
pollution of the Canaanite religion on the Israelites is that
it gave them license to sin without fear of punishment. The true
and living God became no god at all. The false prophets said,
"You shall not see the sword nor shall you have famine, but
I (god) will give you assured peace in this place." (Jeremiah
14:13) The true prophets said, in effect: "God is exactly
as He revealed Himself to be to the fathers. Your sins are an
abomination. Repent or perish!"
Historically Jezebel sought to slay the prophets of Jehovah, especially
Elijah. It is no different today. The "queen," both
the ones in the heavenlies and the ones in individuals, works
to stifle the prophetic voice of the church. It has preachers
exuding love and unconditional acceptance, when, because there
is sin in the camp, they should be preaching the discipline and
judgement of the Father. It causes fathers to be passive in the
home, rather than to be the head of the wife as Christ is head
of the church, and to "love (their) wives, as Christ loved
the church and gave himself up for her ..." (Ephesians 5:25).
Jezebelic men delegate to their wives the responsibilities of
being the prophet, priest, and king over the home, they want their
wives to mother them, which, whether we are aware of it or not,
is the practical expression of the feminisation of God. (Astaroth
was both the wife and mother of Baal.) The queen is certainly
at work in this generation!
Isaiah reports that the queen boasts "no one sees me"
(47:10). And, as far as I know, no one has, up until this generation!
She has sat there for centuries, patiently awaiting the time when
she would become more active and destructive. How many deliverances
have we performed where we had no intimation that she was even
there? "No one sees me," she bragged as she reached
out to snatch back her demonic "children." But, by the
grace of God one day we saw her, and that was the beginning of
the end of her reign among our people. Hallelujah! Our God reigns!
Isaiah 47 indicates that the queen is responsible for:
1. The senility of old age. v.6 "... you showed them no mercy;
on the aged you made your yoke exceedingly heavy."
2. Drug abuse. v.9 "... in spite of your many sorceries ..."
The word "sorcery" as it appears in Greek is "pharmakia,"
which means the use of drugs.
3. Occult witchcraft. v.9 "... the great power of your enchantments."
4. Illicit sexual sins. v.8 "Now therefore hear this, you
lover of pleasures ..."
5. Fear. v.12 "... perhaps you may be able to succeed, perhaps
you may inspire terror." When I first saw in the Spirit the
mother-child combination, the child was "terror." The
Lord has shown us that, in the next several years, the queen will
instigate a wave of fear across America that is unparalleled in
its history. Mass murderers such as the "Son of Sam"
will become commonplace as Jezebel strikes back in anger because
she has been discovered.
6. Astrology. v.13 "... let them stand forth and save you,
those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars ..."
I mentioned in a previous chapter that God the Father shall make
the enemies of Jesus a footstool for His feet. Hebrews 12, which
indicates the godly shaking of the heavenlies, declares that "our
God is a consuming fire." Isaiah 47:14 indicates that the
queen's counsellors "are like stubble, the fire consumes
them; they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame.
No coal for warming oneself is this, no fire to sit before!"
Praise the Lord! Their doom is sure.
The last mention in Scripture of the demonic queen is in Revelation
17:1-19:2, where she is revealed as having a significant role
in the end times. One portion reads:
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came
and said to me, "Come, I will show you the judgement of the
great harlot who is seated upon many waters, with whom the kings
of the earth have committed fornication, and with the wine of
whose fornication the dwellers on earth have become drunk."
And he carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness, and I
saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of blasphemous
names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed
in purple and scarlet, and bedecked with gold and jewels and pearls,
holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the
impurities of her fornication; and on her forehead was written
a name of mystery: "Babylon the great, mother of harlots
and of earth's abominations." And I saw the woman, drunk
with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
When I saw her I marvelled greatly ... And he said to me, "The
waters that you saw, where the harlot is seated, are peoples and
multitudes and nations and tongues ..." (Rev. 17:1-6, 15)
The harlot who sits on many waters is none other than the
demonic false goddess which has been around since the fall of
man. It is significant that Astaroth, Jezebel's goddess, was also
"she who sits on many waters!" Verse 15 tells us what
the expression means: "The waters that you saw ... are peoples
and multitudes and nations and tongues." No wonder we find
the queen everywhere! In the demonic realm she is the "queen
of kingdoms," and that is that. One cannot by-pass her in
deliverance and see individuals come to complete and lasting freedom.
The Apostle John saw the woman "drunk with the blood of the
saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." (v.6) Even
though we can bind the queen in the heavenlies and experience
subsequent deliverance from her evil co- workers in God's people,
we can't destroy her. She will be allowed to persecute the godly
until the Lord God burns her with fire. (Rev. 18:8)
A New Testament example of both plundering Jezebel's house and
in turn being persecuted by her is found in Paul's experience
at Ephesus. I believe that it is safe to assume that Paul and
his party bound the principalities and powers over Ephesus before
attempting to minister. The fruit of this binding was that Paul
argued daily in the hall of Tyrannus. This continued for two years,
so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord,
both Jews and Greeks. And God did extraordinary miracles by the
hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away
from his body to the sick, and diseases left them and the evil
spirits came out of them. (Acts 19:9-12)
But even though Paul plundered Jezebel in a glorious way, she was given freedom to persecute him.
About that time there arose no little stir concerning the
Way. For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver
shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen.
These he gathered together, with the workmen of like occupation,
and said, "Men, you know that from this business we have
our wealth. And you see and hear that not only at Ephesus but
almost throughout all Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned
away a considerable company of people, saying that gods made with
hands are not gods. And there is danger not only that this trade
of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the
great goddess Artemis may count for nothing, and that she may
even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the
world worship." When they heard this they were enraged, and
cried out, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" So the
city was filled with confusion ... (Acts 19:23-29)
Following the riot, Paul left Ephesus (Acts 20:1), probably to
preserve his life.
Some day Jezebel will suffer the final judgement of God; but the
church of God is not to sit idly by until fire falls from the
Lord.
Our orders are found in Revelation 18:4-8:
Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, "Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Render to her as she has rendered, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double draft for her in the cup she mixed. As she glorified herself and played the wanton, so give her a like measure of torment and mourning. Since in her heart she says, 'A queen I sit, I am no widow, mourning I shall never see,' so shall her plagues come in a single day, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she shall be burned with fire; for mighty is the Lord God who judges her."
We are to come out of Jezebel with all dispatch unless we
want to share in her plagues. Not only this, but we are to turn
our spiritual guns on her and bombard her twice as hard as she
has bombarded us! I believe the church accomplishes victory through
binding Jezebel in the heavenlies, through delivering God's people
from her kingdoms, and through preaching which exposes her works.
Increasingly the world society will label as good the fruits of
Jezebel (women's liberation, homosexuality, the occult, etc.).
The true church of God must resist the pull towards compromise,
and, through the anointing of the Holy Ghost, proclaim loudly
what the living God is saying to this generation about sin, about
righteousness and about judgment! The church which refuses to
throw down Jezebel will share in her plagues, which are described
in Revelation 2: 22-23: "Behold I will throw her into a sickbed,
and all those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great
tribulation, unless they repent of her doings; I will strike her
children dead ..."
1. "I will throw her into a sickbed." Most cancer is
jezebelic judgement. Isaiah 3:16-17, 24 points out that
Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks, glancing wantonly with their eyes, mincing along as they go, tinkling with their feet; The Lord ... will lay bare their secret parts ... Instead of perfume there will be rottenness ...
I believe that the church which successfully wars against
Jezebel will be given an unusual healing anointing against all
kinds of cancer (not just female).
2. "I will strike her children dead." Homosexuality
(which is living death) is a judgement on tolerating Jezebel.
Most psychiatrists believe that the main root of homosexuality
is a home where the father is passive and the mother is smothering
or domineering. Now "gay rights" people can proclaim
how natural they feel and how free they are all they want: the
truth of the matter is that the homosexual is dead, and way down
deep he knows it. I believe that each of us (even before we are
saved), has a natural law within, placed there by God, which tells
us that to lust for a member of the same sex is wrong. We may
stifle that inward witness or, as Paul puts it, "suppress
the truth" (Romans 1:18), but the truth remains: homosexuality
is living death. The husband (even though a Christian) who continually
refuses to become the man of the house and the protector of and
father to his children runs a high risk that his son will be homosexual.
The wife who usurps her husband's authority and who conveys to
the children the idea that their father is some sort of fool is
developing a cosy nest for sexually perverted children. The Lord
God means what he says: "I will strike her children dead!"
Divorce is a product of Jezebel; her emphasis on the female domination
of men robs the home of its chief agent of stability: the father.
Our observation through many deliverances is that persons who
come from broken homes frequently have strong spirits of death.
Divorce is a fruit of Jezebel, and the spirit of death is an accompanying
judgment on that fruit. A child's light goes out when daddy informs
him that he is leaving, never to live with him again. Our society
is filled with "dead" children because Jezebel is allowed
to tear up homes, even within our churches! In the San Jose area
alone, there are over 10,000 divorces a year. All of this accumulated
death in the children is bound to affect our society. A visible
outcome is that, in America in 1976, over 38,000 teenagers killed
themselves. That number is several hundred percentage points higher
than just a few years ago. Awake and arise, arm of the Lord, and
take on that one in the kingdom of darkness who is largely responsible!
"Render to her as she herself has rendered, and repay her
double for her deeds ... give her a like measure of torment and
mourning!" (Rev. 18:6-7) Snatch her victims out of her clutches!
Let the battle cry be against that witch, "Our God is a consuming
fire!"
3. "... those who commit adultery with her I will throw into
great tribulation ..." Schizophrenia is a jezebelic tribulation
which abounds today. Psychiatry defines schizophrenia as a type
of mental illness characterised by loss of contact with reality
and by disintegration of personality. Most schizophrenics are
incapable of relating to life without occasional periods of hospitalisation
and without strong medication. Schizophrenia is nearly always
demonic; it is an extreme judgment of tribulation on tolerating
or using Jezebel in any of her forms, even through the schizophrenic
himself may be the victim of his parents' or grandparents' sin
("I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation
of those who hate me ..." (Deut. 5:9). Many of God's people
suffer from a demonically induced lesser form of schizophrenia
known technically as schizothymia. Psychiatrists define schizothymia
as a schizophrenic-type condition remaining within the bounds
of normalcy (i.e., the person is not considered insane.) The Bible
labels this condition "double-mindedness" (James 1:8)
which literally means "having two souls." The overriding
characteristics of this problem are doubt and instability (James
1:7-8). The double-minded man will make a positive declaration:
"I do not believe in evolution!" But then the inner
questions come: "Are you really sure? Who are you to take
such a stand?" Or there are inner accusations: "You
are not showing love by being so dogmatic!" Perhaps a person
decides to change jobs. The doubts rise up: "Did you really
make the right decision? How do you know you heard from God?"
I know of little else in the church today which robs us of confidence
in our message and authority in our proclamation than does this
double-mindedness. it is as if a person has two people in him
in constant debate: "You did right!" "Are you sure?"
"Yes!" "No!"
Now the tragedy is that many of God's people who have this double-
mindedness (the intensity varies from individual to individual)
believe that it is just part of being human. I used to think that.
One day, though, I was with a co-worker when a problem associated
with double-mindedness surfaced in me. The brother said, "I
believe the devil is at work." He began to command the evil
spirit in me to name itself. My head began to swim as the demon
called itself "false Travis." Now I had experienced
deliverance before, but I was one of those who just didn't manifest.
This time though, to my amazement, as the brother commanded the
spirit to leave, I pitched out into the floor and emitted a piercing
scream. As I picked myself up, I realised something big had gone.
From that point on, the inner questions and accusations stopped.
Now I do not mean that presently I never have a doubt or a fear,
but it is different: I can treat double-mindedness as the flesh
and have victory. One does not crucify a demon - one expels it!
So I had "false Travis" - a false personality which
caused weakness and insecurity. When it left, I instantly found
myself. No longer was there the problem of asking "Will the
real Travis stand up?" and having both the true and the false
stand up at the same time!
Later the Lord showed me where this "false personality"
fit in the demonic scheme of things. Essentially it was the "offspring"
of the strong man over me (which I had defeated several months
before the deliverance described above) and the "queen of
kingdoms" within me. The devil's purpose was to cripple my
personality so that I could not function to the highest degree
in my ministry. My "false personality" was Jezebel's
child. I mentioned previously the deliverance where the jezebelic
"madonna" had a child called "terror." At
that time the Lord revealed to me that this "mother-child"
combination is common. In many people, the "child" is
an alternate personality. My "false person" was weak
and insecure; other individuals "false selves" can be
fearful, or rebellious, or sexually deviant, or any other characteristic
which is over against the true self.
The phenomenon of the "false self" is a judgment of
tribulation because of tolerating Jezebel. A home where the mother
is dominant and the father passive will likely produce double-minded
children. I believe there is something instinctive in each child
which causes him or her to look to the father to lead. ("A
child's glory is his father." Proverbs !7:6 Living Bible).
If, then, the father is weak and the mother strong, the result
will be spiritual and psychological confusion of which the devil
will take advantage. For example, it is not uncommon for a man
who has had a domineering mother to have a "false self"
called "recklessness," or "breakout!" or "revolution!"
Such demonic false personalities are expressions of the men's
attempts to throw off the smothering blanket of feminisation which
comes from their mothers.
The schizophrenic pattern also can develop if both parents are
strong and vie against each other for leadership. The spiritual
dynamic which comes upon the child in this circumstance is described
in Matthew 6:24: "No one can serve two masters; for either
he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted
to the one and despise the other." The product of this out
of order situation is also psychological confusion with the subsequent
formation of jezebelic "false personalities" in the
children. The wife in the two strong man situation must repent
of her rebellion and submit to her husband lest the home suffer
the tribulation of tolerating Jezebel. The judgment on the home
is sure if the sin persists, and that is that!
But Jezebel will not have the final word among those who sincerely
want all that God has for them. The Lord is raising up a specialised
ministry in these last days to drive out the false goddess from
among His true people. In Revelation 2:23 the Lord, after pronouncing
the judgments on tolerating Jezebel, proclaims that "all
the churches shall know that I am He who searches mind and heart,
and I will give to each of you as your works deserve." Now
the Lord's method in this New Testament dispensation is to work
through men: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers
(Ephesians 4:11). Which of these five ministries specialises in
portraying the Lord as "He who searches mind and heart ...
and (who will) give as your works deserve"? The prophet!
It is true that scripturally Jezebel was the archenemy of the
prophets: once she caused Elijah to flee for seventy miles. What
is equally true, though, is that the prophets are the archenemies
of Jezebel! God is going to deliver his prophets from Jezebel's
pollution, and set them aflame with the message of holiness and
righteousness. This generation has a beautiful promise in Malachi
4: 5-6:
"Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse."
The spirit of Elijah is coming!
Now the promise of the return of Elijah was initially fulfilled
in John the Baptist, of which it was prophesied that ''... he
will turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God, and
he will go before him (Christ) in the spirit and power of Elijah
...'' (Luke 1:16-17) But Malachi teaches that Elijah will come
"before the great and terrible day of the Lord." What
is "the great and terrible day of the Lord"? Virtually
the same expression is found in Peter's quote from Joel in Acts
2:16-21:
16. " ... but this is what was spoken by the prophet
Joel:
17. 'And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and
your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
18. yea, and on my menservants and my maidservants in those days
I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.
19. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth
beneath,
blood, and fire and vapour of smoke;
20. the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood,
before the day of the Lord comes, the great and manifest day.
21. And it shall be that whoever calls on the name of the Lord
shall be saved.'"
Verses 19-20 mention "blood, and fire, and vapour of
smoke ... darkness ... before the day of the Lord comes, the great
and manifest day." Now obviously we haven't yet experienced
these manifestations in nature. They will occur just before "the
day of the Lord ..." which in Acts 2 must refer to the second
coming of Christ. On this basis we can conclude that all of Joel's
prophecy has a double fulfillment: the day of Pentecost was the
first instalment, but this generation shall see the pouring out
of the Spirit plus the wonders in the heavens above! Using the
same reasoning, the first instalment of the spirit of Elijah was
John the Baptist, but Elijah shall come "before the great
and terrible day of the Lord" (the second coming); therefore
this generation shall see a fresh outpouring of "Elijah"
which shall "turn the hearts of fathers to their children
and the hearts of children to their fathers ..." Hallelujah!
Now I do not believe that the returning Elijah is a single individual.
Rather, "Elijah" is a prophetic emphasis of the Holy
Spirit which exposes Jezebel and drives her out of God's people.
Although the prophets will specialise in "Elijah," the
emphasis ultimately will permeate all God's servants. It will
do three things: (Luke 1:17)
1. Turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. Among the committed
people of God there shall be a glorious resurgence of anointed
fatherhood!
2. Turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the just. John the Baptist
did that. He did not preach holiness in generalities, but gave
specific answers to specific questions in Luke 3:10-14:
And the multitudes asked him, "What then shall we do?"
And he answered them, "He who has two coats, let him share
with him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise."
Tax collectors also came to be baptised, and said to him, "Teacher,
what shall we do?" And he said to them, "Collect no
more than is appointed you." Soldiers also asked him, "And
we, what shall we do?" And he said to them, "Rob no
one by violence or by false accusation, and be content with your
wages."
God's people are looking for definite answers. But I believe that
the disobedient who truly want to be turned to the wisdom of the
just will be required by God to submit to spiritual fathers (who
are being raised up, too) who will not merely point them to the
right way, but will take them by the hands and lead them into
righteousness.
3. Make ready for the Lord a people prepared. Jesus will come
back for a bride which He shall present to Himself "in splendour,
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy
and without blemish." (Ephesians 5:27)
We had come a long way from experiencing occasional good fruit
in deliverance (mixed with much frustration) to the breakthrough
involving the "queen of kingdoms." There is always a
tendency when new revelation comes which produces good fruit to
say "This is it! We have arrived!" But we were to find
that the uncovering of the queen was but one aspect of the whole
demonic picture: more revelation was on the way.
Chapter 6: The control spirit
Most persons believe that the characteristics of a demonised
individual entail mental torment, uncontrollable passions and/or
violent behaviour. But the truth of the matter is that the devil
can bring peace as well as turmoil. In fact, a common device of
the evil one is to infest a person with tormenting spirits such
as anger, lust, or fear, and then give him demons which bring
counterfeit tranquillity. Satan doesn't mind if we are calm as
long as he, and not the Lord, is producing the calmness!
Once we were dealing with a brother whom I believed was neglecting
the emotional and spiritual needs of his wife. In the name of
"ministry" this man had taken into his home an attractive
young woman who commanded much of his time and attention. Not
uncommonly, the brother would allow the woman to display toward
him "daughter-like" affectionate rubs and pats. He sometimes
would call her "sweetheart." In the meantime the wife
(who didn't quite share the affection for the new "daughter")
had only the emotional and spiritual crumbs of her husband's relationship
to the young woman. I knew in the Spirit that the wife was hurting
because there were two "sweethearts" under her roof;
so one day I confronted the brother. He denied that there was
anything wrong with his relationship to the young woman (he was
being a "spiritual father" to her, he said) and he double-denied
that his wife was in any way bothered by it. In fact, he called
his wife in so that she could answer for herself. I outlined to
her what I had observed and what the Spirit had shown me, to which
she replied, "Oh how ridiculous! There's nothing wrong with
me." And that was the end of that.
But I knew through common sense and through the Spirit that I
was right. (Much later the young woman herself testified to serious
abnormalities in the relationship.) I couldn't understand how
the wife could so calmly deny what was happening deep in her spirit.
Was she afraid of her husband? She didn't act fearful at the time.
What was going on? Some time later I was just awaking from a night's
sleep when the Lord told me, "______ ( the wife's name) has
an evil spirit called 'It isn't real.'" The spirit allows
the woman to deny to herself unpleasant facts: whole sections
of her childhood are completely blotted out. No wonder she could
say that she wasn't bothered by having two sweethearts under the
same roof. In fact, she wouldn't even accept that there were two
sweethearts!
It was not until after the revelation concerning the "queen"
that I understood the full implications of "it isn't real,"
and demons similar to it. One night a brother and I were parked,
overlooking the vast sweep of twinkling lights which is Greater
San Jose. Our interest was not in the view, but we were analysing
interpersonal struggles Specifically we were discussing the brother's
inability to deal with, or even recognise, offences within his
spirit. At one point he stated, "I have a difficult time
getting in touch with my feelings." When he said that, the
Lord began to reveal to us the dynamic of what we have come to
call the "control" spirit (which he had and from which
he was later delivered.)
The function of the control spirit is twofold: 1) to shield the
human spirit from hurt, and 2) to bring calmness. This demon frequently
comes in during childhood as the result of trauma. For example,
if the child's father one day says, "I'm going away and I
will not be back," the youngster may well take on a demon
which eases the pain. This agent of the evil one from that point
on will act as a deflecting shield over the person's spirit. If
hurt or offence comes, it strikes the shield and bounces off.
The problem, though, is that, because the devil is a betrayer,
the deflected offence still enters the person's spirit: it bounces
off of the "front door" but sails around and enters
the "back door!" The Lord showed me that behind the
demonic shield is a quiet pool. The offence enters the "back
door" and, like a small pebble, drops into the pool and sinks
to the bottom. Persons with strong control shields have layers
upon layers of "pebbles" (offences) beneath the surface
of their pools. The hurts haven't been dealt with in a godly way;
they have merely been camouflaged by the devil. These "pebbles"
can manifest through chronic mistrust, unbelief, lust, or depression
which seem to have no cause. The wife who has "it's not real"
is plagued with bouts of hopelessness even though she remains
"calm."
The brother said, "I have difficulty getting in touch with
my feelings." Such a statement is common among those with
control spirits. It doesn't necessarily mean that they never feel
anything; it does mean that they don't always feel what they normally
should feel in a given circumstance. The devil gives a control
demon which generally sits on top of much turmoil. When it suits
the evil one's purpose, he lets some of that turmoil out! At times
a person with a strong control spirit may feel as if he is going
insane.
It is difficult for an individual with a control spirit to enter
into close personal relationships. The demonic shield not only
"protects" the person from hurt; it encloses him in
an almost impenetrable shell. A common complaint of those around
the "controlled" individual is that they cannot really
know him. One can imagine the difficulties which come in a marriage
when one or both parties have strong controlling shields.
God's purpose for His church in this age is that we know one another
after the Spirit. I am tired of churches where people have masks.
Now I don't believe it to be God's will that we all wear our hearts
on our sleeves; yet the Lord would have His people to be genuine
and transparent. The only way that this can truly be accomplished
is through the ministry of deliverance which drives out of God's
people such enemies of fellowship as the control spirit! My experience
is that a person cannot "obey" out a demon of this type;
it must be exorcised through the blood and name of Jesus. The
"control" spirit becomes so much a part of the personality
that the individual himself cannot possibly draw the line between
the true and the false. Only after the demon is gone can he tell
what was the evil spirit and what is he.
I have been a Christian all of my life. Even though I made a public
profession of faith at seven years of age, I can never remember
a time when I didn't know the Lord. I have also been active in
evangelical churches all of my life, and my observation is that
there is a tremendous need of deliverance among God's people.
Many are enslaved by such demons as "control" (in varying
strengths) and they aren't even aware of it. I am not interested
in knowing a person as interpreted by his demons; I am interested
in his receiving deliverance so that I can know him as he is made
in the image of God!
Now when I say that the control spirit cannot be "obeyed"
out, I do not mean that the person enslaved by this demon does
not need to make a renunciation. The control spirit is an accuser
of God the Father. We as Christians believe that "in everything
God works for good with those who love Him, who are called according
to His purpose." (Romans 8:28) If, then, a brother permits
a demonic shield to stay over his spirit to protect him from hurt,
he is saying, "I believe that God the Father will allow something
to be hurled at me that He will not give me the grace to handle."
God wants us to put away all false props of security and trust
in His infinite goodness. He wants us to put off demonic "control"
and put on "the shield of faith, with which we can quench
all the fiery darts of the evil one." (Ephesians 6:16) Therefore
in deliverance from the control spirit we have individuals confess
that God the Father will give them sufficient grace for every
trial. Frequently when we minister to women in this area, we have
them confess also that God the Father will not permit anything
to come through their husbands to them that He will not give them
grace to handle. As for men, we sometimes have them confess that
God will not permit anything to come through the spiritual authority
over them (the elders of the local church) that He will not give
the grace to handle. Our experience is that the control spirit
works not only as an accuser of God the Father, but also as an
accuser of the earthly representatives of God the Father (i.e.
husbands and elders). Therefore frequently the renunciation must
mention a willingness to submit to the authority of husbands and/or
elders or the person will not get free. Vulnerability to those
over us in the Lord is a powerful weapon against the devil.
The control spirit, if not dealt with, can hinder deliverance
from other demons. "Control" does just what the name
implies: it controls emotions and it controls demonic manifestation.
Our experience has been that a person who has a strong control
spirit will not manifest in deliverance until that demon is gone.
It works like a shield over the demonic kingdoms, and especially
does it hide the jezebelic queen who all these centuries has boasted,
"no one sees me!" We have seen brothers and sisters
who never exhibited demonic manifestation in deliverance become
stirred up after the shield has been expelled.
As our generation progresses inexorably into the end times, the
phenomenon of the control spirit will become more widespread.
In fact, the Lord showed me that, in a few years, people will
be divided into two camps: those who have demonic shields, and
those who have the shield of faith. Times will become so fearful
that no one will be able to have his human spirit uncovered. Even
now the devil is selling control spirits on a wide front. (A control
spirit can come in not just through trauma, but by our invitation.)
Persons who go in for Transcendental Meditation, "success"
seminars, est, mind control, drugs, hypnosis, or any of the other
diverse pursuits of peace, self-control, and good self-image are
picking up demonic shield spirits. Modern men will either find
these fruits God's way, through the way of the cross and the blood
of Jesus, or increasingly they will fall prey to the devil who
will give false peace for a price!
And what is that price? Enslavement to the coming man of lawlessness.
Second Thessalonians 2:9-12 tells us that
The coming of the lawless one by the activity of Satan will be with all power and with pretended signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are to perish, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends upon them a strong delusion, to make them believe what is false, so that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
As the pressures of these days continue to build, people
will increasingly seek that which will give them stability. Those
who turn away from the Lord and His deliverance will take on the
devil's peace. I believe that ultimately the reins of these demonic
shield spirits will be handed over to the man of lawlessness,
the Antichrist. Have you ever wondered how the Antichrist will
gain such authority over the minds of people? He will be a man
of false peace! Those who submit to him can retain their demonic
peace of mind; those who rebel will experience the removal of
the demonic shield and will be engulfed by the torment and fear
of the age to such an extent that they will come running back.
Those who refuse the Lord Jesus and His peace will find peace
only in the presence of the Antichrist. Second Thessalonians tells
us that because they will refuse to accept the Prince of Peace
the Lord himself will send them strong delusion to believe the
Antichrist, the man of false peace. I believe that the delusion
will work through control spirits. The greatest sign that the
Antichrist is not too far away is the proliferation of methods
whereby persons can receive counterfeit peace and deliverance
from their problems.
Now all of this is a challenge to the church of God. The forces
which are at work in the world today will not be stopped by words,
even though those words are soundly evangelical. We must have
the spiritual power to expose the devil and to deliver people
(even our own church people) from his work. The church that has
to send all of its mental cases to the psychiatrist and all of
its sick to the hospital and all of its serious counselling to
the state social services department is helpless against the coming
onslaught of evil. Either we have the spiritual power as God's
church to help people or we don't. And it isn't enough just to
get them saved, for Satan's emissaries live and move even among
the people of God. We need to get people saved and delivered.
Let us drive the darkness out of God's people so that we can indeed
shine forth as lights in a wicked and perverse generation. May
our testimony in the face of demonic false peace be:
Thou, O Lord, art a shield about me; my glory, and the lifter of my head! (Psalms 3:3)
Chapter 7: Tradition
As I talked to the brother that night on the hill overlooking
San Jose, I not only received enlightenment concerning the control
spirit, but I learned about the spiritual dynamic of tradition
through another problem which beset him: he had difficulty being
a spiritual pioneer. His tendency was to find a predictable religious
rut and to settle into it. In our churches we had been teaching
on principalities and powers, which is a new emphasis. The brother
realised that God was calling him to be on the leading edge of
this thrust, but something in him longed for the warm, comfortable
nest of the traditional and the predictable. His problem was not
intellectual: with his mind he could believe in principalities
and powers and could see the necessity of binding them. His problem
was in his emotions - he feared the unknown and the unproven to
the extent that it crippled his spiritual growth. As he talked,
the Lord revealed to me that the brother was enslaved by a demon
of tradition that bore the name of the particular denomination
of which he had been a part.
The next day the brother and I received further proof of the presence
of this "tradition" spirit. He was sharing with me that
he might have to miss many of the Wednesday night services of
his church because of work commitments. Inasmuch as his church
group is small, I suggested to him that the brothers move the
service to Thursday night to accommodate him. When I said this,
something in the brother winced. His thought was; "But I
have always worshipped on Wednesday night!" Bound by tradition!
Yet here is a case where the devil went to far, for the brother,
after sharing his thought with me, remarked, "Why that's
the religious rut demon I have." Shortly afterwards he received
deliverance.
A few mornings later as I was awaking, the Lord spoke: "Tradition
is more than just a demon within a few persons - it is a power
in the heavenlies. The power of tradition is what has shipwrecked
the modern pentecostal movement!" Needless to say, I bolted
upright in bed. I realised that each church which wants to flow
into all that God has in store for this generation must bind the
strong man power of tradition in the heavenlies. The evil one
does not care if we come into new truth and life if, after we
come into it, we stop growing and listening to the Spirit, and
turn the new thing into rigid tradition.
What are some examples of religious tradition in our society?
Perhaps the best way to answer this is to make a partial list:
Sunday School at 9:30 or 9:45; church buildings; pews facing the
front; hymn books; Sunday night church; the order of service where
one sings two hymns, has a prayer, sings another hymn, gives the
offering, etc.; printed bulletins; robed choirs and ministers;
sitting, standing, or kneeling at appointed times; the alter call;
Wednesday night prayer meeting. The strong man power of tradition
subtly brings people to believe that these things are sacred in
and of themselves, (even though persons generally will not admit
that they feel this way) whereas the truth of the matter is that
none of the above-mentioned items is vital to knowing or pleasing
God. All of them can be instituted or disposed with as the Spirit
so leads. We need to bind the power of tradition so that we can
hear what the Spirit is telling us to keep and what he is telling
us to change or shelve!
In Colossians 2:8, 16-17, 20-23, we have a discussion of tradition:
See to it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy
and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the
elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food
and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath.
These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance
belongs to Christ.
If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe,
why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do
you submit to regulations, "Do not handle, Do not taste,
Do not touch" (referring to things which all perish as they
are used), according to human precepts and doctrines? These have
indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting rigour of devotion
and self-abasement and severity to the body, but they are of no
value, serving only to indulge the flesh.
Two observations can be made from this passage:
1. "They ... only ... indulge the flesh." The elemental
spirits of the universe were likely gnostic religious demons which
inspired legalism. The Colossian Christians were judged by the
Gnostics because they did not observe rules concerning food and
drink, nor did they go with festivals or new moons or sabbaths.
Paul states that such rules and observations look good from a
religious point of view, but in reality they only feed the flesh
- they make us feel as if we have done something to please God.
Now just because a person is a Christian doesn't mean that his
tendency toward fleshly religion is dead. How much do we do in
our evangelical and pentecostal churches which feeds our religious
flesh? The answer is that any form or tradition for which we do
not have the immediate permission of the Spirit will automatically
become a "religious work"! It was never God's intention
to give us a permanent blueprint of how to do things, for
2. "The substance belongs to Christ." What does this
mean? Simply that the leadership of a church is to stay on its
knees before God so that they can hear moment by moment instructions
from the Lord of the church. Biblical principles will never change,
but methods and structures will change from situation to situation.
Relying upon structure or programs (even though evangelical) which
have lost the immediate sanction of the Spirit insulates us from
the necessity of hearing God continually. The tendency to sanctify
traditional methods and approaches is one of the greatest causes
of spiritual death in our churches.
The Apostle Peter tended to be trapped by religious ruts. (Acts
10:14, Galatians 2:12). He even wanted to institutionalise the
transfiguration experience.
And after six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves; and he was transfigured before them, and his garments became glistening, intensely white, as no fuller on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah and Moses; and they were talking to Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is well that we are here; let us make three booths, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." For he did not know what to say for they were exceedingly afraid. And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, "This is my beloved Son; listen to him." (Mark 9:2-7)
Peter wanted to set up three tents of dwelling. Why? I believe
in his spiritual immaturity he thought that to set up permanent
shrines would ensure the continuation of the experience. But God
the Father was not then (and is not now) interested in attempts
to establish structures which are designed to perpetuate the anointing
of a moment. His answer to Peter was, "This is my beloved
Son; listen to him." I believe God the Father was telling
Peter, among other things, not to focus on the event, for "the
substance belongs to Christ": follow Him!
Yet in another sense I can believe that Peter did not really want
the experience to continue in such intensity. He and his companions
were "exceedingly afraid." In his thinking, the tents
could well perpetuate the ecstasy of the transfiguration while
shielding him from such naked exposure to the Majestic Glory!
In this respect, Peter was like the children of Israel at Sinai
who heard "a voice whose made (them) entreat that no further
messages be spoken to them," Hebrews 12:19) and like Moses
(also at Sinai) who exclaimed, "I tremble with fear"
(Hebrews 12:21).
Now many church people want to be shielded from immediate dealings
with the Spirit of God. They want God (they say), but in reality
they do not want the raw exposure to God which will truly set
them apart as His people. Therefore they insulate themselves in
comfortable and predictable tradition. The rule-laden Pharisees
of Jesus' time represent an extreme form of this. On one occasion
Jesus asked them, "Why do you not understand what I say?"
Then He answered His own question: It is because you cannot bear
to hear my word." (John 8:43) How many today will not break
religious moulds because they cannot bear to hear what God is
really saying to them? Yet God the Father still proclaims over
against the tendency to erect tents of dwelling for protection:
"This is my beloved Son; listen to him!" And He expects
each of us to obey Him moment by moment.
Now I am not saying that we do not need structure and organisation.
Paul in First Corinthians 14:40 states: "... all things should
be done decently and in order." But is it not true that when
we come to set a thing up, we tend to listen more to the dictates
of tradition than we do to the living Spirit? Just because a denomination
has done something the same for thirty or fifty years does not
mean that it is the method which the Spirit will sanction now.
God is looking for men of courage who, under His leadership, will
break spiritually outdated moulds.
Yet God may well take an old method and use it today. Jesus in
Matthew 13:52 stated "... every scribe who has been trained
for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out
of his treasure what is new and what is old." Now only that
tradition or method or office which is clearly revealed in the
spirit and letter of Scripture is unchangeable - everything else
is subject to the establishment by, and the removal by, the Spirit
of God. An example of that which is unchangeable is the ministry
of a teacher (Ephesians 4:11). To remove the teacher from the
body of Christ is to violate a biblical absolute. On the other
hand, an example of a tradition which is changeable is the Sunday
School. The Lord may tell a church to have a traditional Sunday
School beginning at 9:45 for the instruction of its members. But,
nine months later, the Lord may tell that same church to disband
the Sunday School and to institute an entirely different approach.
The teacher will always be in the body of Christ; the method whereby
he conveys his gift is highly flexible. We must listen carefully
so that we can bring out of our treasure what is new and what
is old as the Lord leads!
We must not make the error of thinking that the tendency to settle
into a religious rut is just a fleshly problem, for the devil
is up to something. I believe a cursory look at church history
reveals that every move of God since the early church has died
out because after a generation or so the leaders seemed unwilling
or unable to discern what the Spirit was saying to do next. Because
certain methods were blessed by God during times of revival, the
tendency was to believe that those methods were the timeless keys
to success. Thus the modes became tradition, and the Spirit passed
on by. Now who has so effectively stopped the church of God by
causing it repeatedly to bog down in the mire of dead works? Scripture
tells us that "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but
against principalities and powers ..." I believe the power
of tradition in the heavenlies is responsible. It is time for
God's people to rise up and take him on, believing that "whatever
you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose
on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Matthew 18:18).
I mentioned earlier that the devil doesn't care if we come out
of tradition into new life and truth, if after a while we make
a religious tradition out of the new thing. Thousands in this
day are coming out of the doldrums into the renewal of spiritual
gifts. Yet my observation is that many who come into the Charismatic
Revival are content to think, "This is it! We have arrived!"
But can we believe that God does not want us to stop at the gifts?
There is so much more He longs to lead His people into in this
generation. The devil is attempting to make a religious rut out
of the Charismatic Renewal.
I believe that God wants all of His people to be pioneers. Now
I realise that some will lead and some will follow, but God wants
all of us to be willing to enter new truth as it is revealed by
His Spirit in His Word. Many persons are bound by tradition demons
which make it difficult for them to avoid the comfortable rut.
We must bind tradition in the heavenlies and then free our people
from the strangle hold of religious mode spirits or every new
truth we enter will in a few years become encumbered with tradition
and legalism.
Scripture indicates that before the end of time, we will come
into a revival which carries on from generation to generation.
"And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says the Lord; my spirit which is upon you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your children, or out of the mouth of your children's children, says the Lord, from this time forth and for evermore." (Isaiah 59:21)
Past revivals have seen one generation on fire for God and the next one cool down. Isaiah prophesies a move of God which is unending. I believe that a key to this outpouring is the binding of such powers in the heavenlies as tradition, which has so plagued the church of God for centuries. May we gird up our armour!
Chapter 8: Antichrist
One day I was struggling to bring deliverance to a woman
who had been in our congregation only a few months. She had come
our way with a man who had been her pastor for several years.
He had disbanded his congregation and had entered our fellowship
to find new direction for his ministry. Several of his ex-members
(including this woman) had come with him.
The problem on this occasion was that the ex-pastor would not
allow me to take the lead in the deliverance of the woman; he
wanted the reins of authority, although it was clear in the Spirit
that the authority was not his. He kept usurping the leadership
until in frustration I asked that he leave the room to pray for
success in the deliverance. He huffed out and closed the door
not too gently. But shortly afterwards, just as I was on the verge
of a breakthrough with the sister, the door flew open and the
ex-pastor stormed in. Without acknowledging me, he proceeded to
address the woman in an entirely wrong spirit. Once again I asked
him to leave, this time to go to my office which was at the rear
of the room. He reluctantly plodded off and disappeared through
the office doorway. But shortly after I resumed ministering, the
brother re- entered, taking a seat at the back of the room. Now
to my knowledge the sister did not see him come in; yet, while
under strong demonic manifestation, she turned and pleaded, "______,
take me home!" Then I realised something: the demons in this
woman were submitted to an evil spirit in the ex-pastor. As I
looked up from the woman to the brother at the back of the room,
I saw his demon. I do not mean that I saw it in my minds eye;
I saw the evil spirit in the face of the man in much the same
way that one would see an image on a somewhat snowy television
screen. At the precise moment of this vision, the Lord told me,
"The name of the spirit is 'top dog.' It makes the man strive
for authority and prestige."
Several years later the Lord revealed to me the more biblical
name for this demon: Antichrist!
Even though Scripture teaches that just before the second coming
of Christ the one Antichrist will appear, the Apostle John indicates
that this spirit "is in the world already." (I John
4:3). But our generation of Evangelicals has an incorrect view
of the present operation of the spirit of antichrist: we tend
to think of it as manifesting chiefly through false teaching.
Therefore we sit in our churches and vilify the Mormons or the
Christian Scientists or the liberal Protestants as antichrist.
The truth of the matter, though, is that false teaching is only
a secondary aspect of this spirit; its primary characteristic
is one ugly word: rebellion!
The Apostle Paul in Second Thessalonians 2:3-4 writes of the coming
Antichrist:
Let no one deceive you in any way: for that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.
Ultimately the Antichrist will be a man of false theology, but initially he will be a man of rebellion and lawlessness. The perverted teaching does not lead to the rebellion; the rebellion paves the way toward the false theology! We must get this straight in our thinking or we will miss much of what the devil is up to in this generation.
The Apostle John is the only biblical author to mention antichrist by name:
18. Children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard
that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come;
therefore we know that it is the last hour.
19. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they
had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went
out, that it might be plain that they all are not of us.
20. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all know.
21. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but
because you know it, and know that no lie is of the truth.
22. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?
This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.
23. No one who denies the Son has the Father. He who confesses
the Son has the Father also.
24. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what
you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide
in the Son and in the Father.
25. And this is what he has promised us, eternal life. (I John
2:18-25)
Now a surface reading of this passage would indicate that
John is primarily equating the spirit of antichrist with false
teaching which denies the Father and the Son (v.22). But the key
verse in discerning antichrist as it is operating here is not
verse 22, but verse 24: "Let what you heard from the beginning
abide in you." What really was at issue here was the authority
of the Apostle John. Those who were manifesting antichrist were
not abiding in what they heard from the beginning. Why weren't
they? Because they believed that they were as capable of hearing
God as was John. The Apostle had stood before these Christians
and proclaimed authoritatively the doctrine of the Father and
the Son. The antichrist people said, "How do we know he's
right? We can hear God as well as he;" so they gave themselves
over to seducing spirits. The deception began when they determined
to rebel against the authority of the Apostle John. The spirit
of antichrist is primarily rebellion!
I should point out that no leader in God's church today has authority
in revelation which compares with that of the apostles who formulated
the New Testament. All doctrinal statements now must be judged
by God's ultimate written revelation, the Bible. If a man in spiritual
authority through his theology violates the letter or the spirit
of Scripture, he is not to be heeded.
But the Apostle John had the permission of the Spirit of God to
require his converts to submit to his doctrinal pronouncements.
This is clearly brought out in I John 4:1-6:
1. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits
to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone
out into the world.
2. By this you know the spirit of God: every spirit which confesses
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,
3. and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God.
This is the spirit of antichrist, of which you heard that it was
coming, and now it is in the world already.
4. Little children, you are of God, and have overcome them; for
he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
5. They are of the world, therefore what they say is of the world,
and the world listens to them.
6. We are of God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and he who
is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit
of truth and the spirit of error.
John here flatly states that those who listen to them (to
the apostles) have the spirit of truth; those who do not listen
to them have the spirit of error. The issue here is submission
versus rebellion, which is always the basic issue when antichrist
is around. The problem is not primarily false teaching.
When we once understand that antichrist is basically rebellion,
I John 4:2 is more easily understood. Those of us who have worked
in the ministry of deliverance these years have experienced frustration
over the injunction to test the spirits by asking them to confess
that Jesus has come in the flesh. The problem is that I have heard
demons readily confess that Jesus has come in the flesh! Now either
(1) John is wrong, or (2) we are deceived; or (3) we have not
understood the spirit of this verse. I now realise that the answer
is (3). The gnostic heresy (which John was combating in his epistle)
taught that Jesus on earth was merely a phantom-like being (not
in human flesh). But I do not believe that the declaration "Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh" refers only to this doctrinal
aberration. If the essence of antichrist is rebellion, then the
spirit of the confession is "I believe that God gives authority
to human flesh today." Was not the refusal to confess this
the real issue with the antichrist people at the time of John?
They would not submit to the authority of Christ as it was invested
in the Apostle. I believe that their doctrinal error which said
Christ on earth was but a phantom (God would not invest His authority
in flesh) came as a result of their refusal to acknowledge Christ's
present authority through John. My observation is that people
today who have strong antichrist spirits will not submit to God's
authority in human flesh, either.
Even though it is true that no man today has the absolute word
on doctrine as the New Testament apostles did, God still places
Christ's spiritual authority in men. Hebrews 13:17 reads, "Obey
your leaders and submit to them; for they are keeping watch over
your souls, as men who will have to give account." The word
"leaders" here is better translated from the Greek "those
who have the rule over you." Clearly God intends His children
to be answerable to human spiritual authority even today. "Rule"
is a strong noun; "obey" and "submit" are
strong verbs. If we do what our "ruler" wants us to
do only when we feel like it, we are not obeying, for we are still
insisting on ourselves being the ultimate authority: such is the
essence of the spirit of antichrist.
Now when antichrist is seen to be primarily rebellion and only
secondarily false teaching, our complacency is shaken. No longer
can we sit and point to antichrist as if it is outside our church
fellowships (i.e. in the Mormons, the Jehovah's Witnesses, etc.).
Rather, we must become alarmed to realise that the church of God
manifests antichrist within itself because it is riddled with
rebellious people. The enemy inside is more dangerous than the
one outside. Our dilemma is that we have spiritual leaders who
will not keep watch (as rulers) over the souls of God's people
(they don't want the responsibility), and we have many of God's
people who will submit to no man. The spirit of antichrist is
not coming on God's church: it's already here in force.
An interesting fact is that rebellion does not become obvious
until confronted by authority. In a church where there is little
or no scriptural emphasis on submission, rebellion can reign almost
unnoticed (although it still does its destructive work). But begin
to bring in teaching concerning divine order, and every antichrist
spirit in the place will sooner or later raise its ugly head.
My observation is that these spirits manifest in five basic ways:
1. They cause a person to ask the question, "Where do I fit?"
Now on the surface this is a harmless query. It is not wrong to
ask where you fit if indeed you absolutely and honestly do not
know where you fit. But if you realise, way deep down, that you
belong under the authority of a certain brother and yet you rationalise
that perhaps you belong somewhere else, or you convince yourself
that you are at least that brother's equal, you are manifesting
antichrist. My observation is that there is a hierarchy in the
Spirit: we are not all equal in authority. Our responsibility
in a local fellowship is to humble ourselves under those who are
ahead of us in God. We even found it necessary at Faith Fellowship
Church to rate the four elders according to spiritual maturity.
We four agreed on who is number one, who is two, three, and four
in authority and maturity. It puts an end to competitiveness and
striving for place! (I am not number one, by the way).
2. An antichrist spirit will drive a man to be the "top dog."
To the brother who persists in asking, "Where do I fit?"
even after God has shown him where he belongs and what he is to
do, the devil gives an answer: "Why, at the top, of course!"
Then sets in an unteachable spirit and an underlying resistance
to the authority of the ones over him in the Lord. The ex-pastor
at the beginning of this chapter who had "top dog" was
sent our way by God to receive help. God's will for him was to
submit to us for character correction and for ministry to his
family. Yet in the early days with us he was forever saying, "I
just don't know what God is going to do with me." He knew
what God wanted to do with him: bring him in to the shop for repairs!
But he really didn't want to submit to that because he had a thirst
for power and prestige. He was unwilling to lay down his ministry
so that he could receive help.
The demon of antichrist through "Where do I fit?" and
"top dog" reflects the attitude of Satan himself as
expressed in Isaiah 14:13-14: "You said in your heart, 'I
will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne
on high ... I will make myself like the Most High.'" The
man who has a strong antichrist spirit has a demonic anointing
which makes him push for position and authority in much the same
way as Satan who declared, "... I will set my throne on high
..."
3. An antichrist spirit will cause a man to find his &q