We have no clue what Satan did at first when he and his horde of angels were cast out of God’s third heaven. My guess is that the Devil’s hatred for God and His works caused him to continuously seethe at how God had treated him unfairly. After all, the evil one felt he could have been just like God.
Satan and his horde became a government in exile. They had no authority and no subjects to rule over.
Let’s fast forward to the first man: Adam.
God formed a new kingdom government on earth with His creation of man, giving dominion over all the earth to man, through Adam. God was the King, the King’s angelic spiritual government was set in place in the second heaven, and His flesh and blood ambassador on earth was Adam.
Through Satan’s coup d’état and by default, Adam and all future subjects on earth, were placed under the reign and authority of Satan and his angelic government.
Spiritual warfare has been fought between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness since the Garden of Eden. The King desires to reclaim His subjects under His righteous reign while Satan hopes to continue his government of enslavement, depravity, and sin. The battles still rages today.
For us believers, we are dual subjects while we live on earth, in that, we are royal sons of the King, but still live in a world ruled by Satan. Our dual citizenship poses daily problems for us.
Let’s check out our spiritual adversary: Satan. Scripture gives us a little insight about the evil one and a few other conclusions can be drawn through biblical reasoning.
Scripture doesn’t state when God actually created Satan, but I believe we can deduce that Satan and the other angels were created before the end of the fourth day or Genesis 1:16. (Maybe even as early as the first day.) Why? Because His angels perform God’s word and the angels rejoiced when the foundations of the earth were laid. They may even have been the ones who helped to determine its dimensions.
Where did all of Satan’s fellow demons come from? My answer will seem a little roundabout, but bear with me, okay?
Prophecies in Scripture may have an early and a later fulfillment to them. Usually, the early fulfillment is a partial one whereas the later one is a complete one.
For example, Jesus referred to John the Baptist as the “Elijah who is to come.” His words referred to the prophecy in Malachi 4:5. Yet, John did not fulfill all the words of the Malachi prophecy. We have to wait until the time just before Jesus returns to earth for the complete fulfillment.
Another example, Jesus answered the disciples’ questions about when things would happen by prophesying in Matthew 24: 4-31. The disciples would have thought Jesus was referring to the destruction of the Temple. Yet, when Roman soldiers destroyed the Temple in 70 A.D., not all of the scriptures were fulfilled. The complete fulfillment will occur during the tribulation.
And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So, the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. (Revelations 12:7-9)
If you read Revelations Chapter 11 and all of Chapter 12, the only conclusion you can reach is that this will happen during the tribulation. But I believe an early fulfillment of this prophecy happened when Satan and a third of God’s angels rebelled against God and were cast out of God’s third heaven. I believe these angels then became Satan’s demonic hierarchy in his kingdom of darkness.
I watched various students crisscrossing the Campanile Esplanade on their way to classes. They looked normal, wearing typical college apparel. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. My spiritual eyes then kicked in, and what appeared normal in the natural realm was not so normal in the spiritual one.
Have you ever seen pictures of a flying dinosaur known as a pterodactyl? It has a long, slender head with a mouth of sharp teeth, scaly-like body, web-like wings, and talons for feet. This sort of resembles the creatures I saw, sitting on the shoulders of almost every student walking below me. Each creature was the size of a large crow and had wolf hair on its body and a slender rat’s tail. They constantly whispered into the ears of students while holding a wing over the students’ other ears. The creatures also defecated and vomited on the students so that each person dripped with slop and sewage. It was ghastly and I yearned to warn the students.
“Follow those two over there,” said the angel, pointing toward two guys.
I focused on the two students. They continued talking to each other as they walked into a free speech area where a street evangelist preached the gospel of the kingdom of God. Both stopped and listened. I watched the pterodactyl-like creatures use their beaks to snatch the seeds of the gospel out of the twosome’s hearts with swift surgeon-like precision. The two students walked away after a few minutes, none the better for their experiences.
I wanted to shout and warn everyone. Someone needed to do it. Why not me?
The angel touched my shoulder again with his hand. I turned toward him.
“Now, it’s time for your spiritual ears to be opened.”
He reached up and touched both of my ears with his hands.
Wouldn’t you think it would be quiet in the spiritual realm over the University of California, Berkeley? Well, it is not. There is constant clamor, reverberating throughout the whole atmosphere, most of which comes from the ruling principality. But what really shocked me was the demonic principality’s words mirrored the liberal attitudes on the campus, from the deans down to the professors, and then, to the students. The religious principality constantly spewed out proclamations like:
“All white Americans are racists… All wars are immoral and wrong… Homosexuality is not a sin… Pro-choice is a woman’s right… Same-sex marriage is morally acceptable…Traditional Christianity is irrelevant, mean, hateful, judgmental, and dogmatic…Jesus never said anything about homosexuality…Jesus is the Way which is open to other ways, such as Hare Krishna, Buddha, and Mohammad…God is a God of love and not judgment… Satan and demons are fictional beings, thought up by fundamentalist nuts…The Bible contains no more authority than the Koran, Buddhist sutras, Veda, and other spiritual writings…Creating social justice is the main emphasis of the gospel…Global warming is a Christian stewardship concern…”
I stood there with my mouth open, drool running down my chin.
“Hey, many of these statements I agree with,” I muttered aloud, not realizing I had done so.
“And that’s why you are deceived.”
“Deceived? Me?”
“Yes, you and most liberal Christians who believe such garbage.”
“But, but –”
“Not only are you deceived, but your faith is dead when it agrees with Satan’s agenda. He’s always a liar, even when his words sound like truth. Your faith, in order to have life, must be based on what the Lord has stated in Scripture and is presently saying to His church.”
I kept quiet as his words ripped my theology apart.
He paused for a beat or two.
“Not only is this IOU collection day, but it is your deliverance day,” he said in an authoritative voice. “Your past deception, your dead faith, and your deliverance from all of it will give you an understanding of the spiritual battles taking place on America’s college campuses, beginning with the University of California, Berkeley.”
His eyes locked on mine.
“But how –” I stopped myself. How could I complain when I did not know what I was talking about?
The angel almost grinned.
“Now, you’re starting to learn.”
He pointed down again.
“Look.”
There just below us, was a student resembling a fluorescent light bulb walking across the esplanade. She lit up the whole area around her as she hurried on her way. Unlike the others, she did not have a creature sitting on her shoulder, but instead, one hovered around her head, trying to alight on her, but for some reason, the creature could not land. Deep frustration etched a gully in the creature’s face.
“Listen,” said the angel.
My ears adjusted themselves to only listening to the girl. Her footsteps and the movement of her arms came through loud and clear, but also something else.
“Dee, dee, bah, bah, hooka mah hundae,” she whispered over and over.
She spoke in tongues as she walked along.
“Your message to Christians on college campuses is very simple,” said the angel. “It’s the same one Paul gave to the believers in Ephesus when he said, ‘Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, with all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.” Then he added, “In case you have forgotten, these scriptures are located in Ephesians 6: 17-18.”
The dome of the San Francisco City Hall appeared directly ahead of us. It looked like we would crash into it. But before I could scream aloud, we passed through it and landed in the Supervisors’ meeting chamber on the second floor. A wooden bench somehow telescoped out of the wall, up near the ceiling, which he motioned for us to sit down on it.
The eleven supervisors sat in leather swivel-chairs down below us. Each had a laptop computer on the desk in front of them. They talked and carried on. It was the weekly San Francisco Supervisors’ meeting.
The angel turned toward me. His robe whispered softly as he pivoted around.
“Open your eyes and see,” he said with a quiet power filled with heavenly authority.
I looked down again. This time my spiritual eyes opened.
There I saw grotesque creatures sitting on the right shoulder of each of the eleven supervisors. The chimpanzee-size beings had a mixture of what looked like reptile, dragon, and wolf-like body parts with stubby tails, talons for feet, scale-covered wings, web-like hands, and misshapen faces which protruded into long snouts and were filled with sharp teeth. They resembled dingy, gray gargoyles.
Each creature held its right wing over their assigned supervisors’ eyes. Their right hands were curled into a megaphone shape so they could speak directly into the supervisors’ ears. Their left hands looped behind the supervisors’ heads and covered their left ears.
The creatures never rested. When they were not speaking into ears, they looked up, around and at each other, their heads constantly moved about, their eyes searching to and fro. They seemed to be driven by a deep dread, almost as if a cruel slave master’s power instilled a fear in them about possible future punishments.
What is this? I thought. Why am I here?
“Today is show and tell day, preparing you for your first assignment next week,” said the angel.
“First assignment, next week?”
“Quiet, I’m the teacher. You’re the student. Understand?” he whispered a stinging rebuke at me.
His voice contained no anger and love cushioned the blow, but yet, I felt the power behind the rebuke. I shuddered and nodded.
“Earlier today, you had a vision. In it, you saw yourself being used as a sword by the Lord Jesus against a brass gate. The brass gate you saw was a gate of Hell over this city. It must be attacked so the truth from heaven can be heard in San Francisco. You are His chosen weapon for the undertaking.”
I bit my tongue, but my brain continued to be plugged in. I wondered if His weapons ever suffered pain, especially with the vigorous way the Lord swung the sword against the gate. O Lord, will it hurt? I thought.
He paused a beat before continuing.
“Your spiritual eyes have only been dialed up two notches, but that’s more than enough for you to get an idea of what’s happening in the Supervisors’ meeting room,” he said. “As you can see, demons sit on the supervisors’ shoulders, blocking information that is contrary to Satan’s agenda. At the same time, evil ideas are constantly spoken into the supervisors’ ears.”
He pointed a finger at me.
“Remember: our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the hordes of Satan.”
The creature’s appearance alternated between looking like a beautiful angel dressed in white and that of a gigantic monster version of the dingy, gray gargoyles, sitting on the supervisors’ shoulders. Like the smaller demons, the creature never rested. It caused fear in the hierarchy of demons below it and, at the same time, seemed fearful of its own cruel masters in the ranks above it.
The words I saw, streaming through the ceiling like hologram ticker tapes, emanated from this creature. I saw additional word streams coming out of the creature’s mouth, heading toward Sacramento, Hollywood, Washington, D. C., New York City, newspapers, television networks, movie studios, publishers, corporations, and thousands of other places.
The angel interrupted my thoughts.
“What you are seeing is the spirit of depravity. It is a ruling principality over San Francisco and guards a gate of Hell over the city. This spirit is so powerful that its wickedness is spread throughout the nation.
“The reason the spirit switches back and forth between appearances is it is creating confusion by this maneuver in the minds of people, whereby good is called evil and evil good.”
Michael Snyder at End of the American Dream reports that “as Halloween approaches, thousands of witches will cast a ‘binding spell’ on Donald Trump on October 25th.” (See full article here.)
I am neither Republican, Democrat nor Independent. In fact, I have not voted in an election since 2008.
Yet even so, it wouldn’t matter to me if these witches were casting spells on former President Obama, President Trump or presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, I wouldn’t want witches and demons intervening in our politics.
How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had surrendered them? (Deuteronomy 32:30)
Although Satan and his demonic allies love to pile it on in spiritual battles, God has His mathematical formula to fight spiritual battles. One Christian standing in faith can defeat a thousand witches backed by demons and two standing in faith and agreement can defeat ten thousand witches backed by demons.
Using God’s formula, we can expect three or four Christians standing in faith and agreement to handle these so-called witches backed by demons. Just three or four!
What should we do?
Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow, an undeserved curse does not come to rest. (Proverbs 26:2 NIV)
First of all, ask the Holy Spirit to check each of our hearts. We don’t want the curse intended for President Trump to land on us. So, let’s make sure we don’t have pride, anger, hatred or another sin when we pray.
Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior (1 Timothy 2:1-3)
Second, we need to understand that God wants us to pray and intercede for our government officials, not curse them.
Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. (Matthew 18:19)
Third, standing in agreement moves the Father to act on our prayers.
Okay, let’s pray in faith and agreement:
Father in Jesus’ name, we plead the protective blood of Jesus over President Trump, his wife Melania, his children and grandchildren. And Father, because of 1 Timothy 2:1-3 and Matthew 18:19, we command all of the binding spells and curses uttered by witches and their variants to fall to the ground and have no effect on the Trump family for this Halloween season. Plus, we cry out to You for mercy for all of the witches and ask the Holy Spirit to open up their hearts to the love of the truth so they might be saved. Amen.
If you have prayed the above prayer in faith, just thank the Lord for His victory in this battle.
A couple of weeks ago, I had one of those dreams which seemed so real that it felt like I was really there.
In the dream, I was walking along a sidewalk through my neighborhood during an early summer evening. The temperature was perfect and the sky was clear.
As I walked, a pretty daughter of a high school friend approached me. She was wearing an attractive, but conservative blouse and skirt outfit. She stopped and we chatted a bit. I didn’t really think anything was out of the ordinary until she embraced me with her arms. I did the same to her. Our hands groped each others’ bodies in all of the wrong places.
While this was happening, I thought, “What’s happening here? I’m twenty-five years older than her.”
Yes, we were passionately carrying on, out in the open on that sidewalk in front of our neighbors, but that didn’t seem to bother us.
Finally, she said, “I want to go home and change into something more comfortable. Let’s meet at such-and-such place.”
I agreed to meet her there.
When she left, all I could think about was that I was about to commit a sin — a big one!
Next, I began heading toward our meeting place, which happened to be a steep downhill walk for me. I cried out to the Lord as I moved along. “Forgive me, Lord! Pour out Your grace on me! Stop me before I fall into deeper sin! Help me, Lord! Help me! Help me!”
I kept walking. My prayers did not stop me.
I looked ahead and saw the pretty daughter at the bottom of the hill, awaiting me. She looked beautiful, luscious and inviting.
Not knowing what else to do, I began fighting with spiritual warfare prayers. “In Jesus’ name, I command the spirit of sexual immorality to go from me right now! Go in Jesus’ name.”
My spiritual warfare prayers did not help. I kept walking toward her.
I was only a few steps away when I tossed out a last resort prayer. “Lord, I plead the blood of Jesus over me and over this terrible situation.”
Bam!
I was set free and transported by the Spirit out of that seemingly hopeless situation to a place of peace and safety.
And they overcame Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. (Revelation 12:11)
After the Azusa Street Revival, the critics of the early Pentecostals called them “blood obsessed.” Why? Because these early Pentecostals sang about the blood, preached about the blood and pleaded the blood over almost everything in their lives. They had a deep revelation about the power in the blood of Jesus.
For most, that revelation is not so strong in us today.
Pastor Jack Hayford says about pleading the blood of Jesus:
There is no circumstance in life to which the blood of Jesus isn’t key to God’s releasing, protecting, resolving power, whether it’s removing the potential of confusion, overcoming the impact of rebellion, breaking the torment of fear, or the shame of the past. When we “plead the blood,” we are to do so in the understanding sense, with the firepower of the supernatural, and on the basis of the body of evidence that through the blood of Jesus Christ, all hell has been broken in its power, all sin neutralized, the power of death overwhelmed, and every human need paid for once and for all. (See Hayford’s powerful teaching on pleading the blood here.)
Because of my dream, I now plead the blood of Jesus often.
Hey, why not use the “firepower of the supernatural” to help us walk with Jesus?
“It’s in God’s hands. If it is meant to be, it will happen. If not, it won’t.”
How many times have we heard the above statement or a similar one by fellow believers? Maybe hundreds of times over the years.
Is there any truth in the statement?
Therefore, put on the complete armor of God, so that you will be able to [successfully] resist and stand your ground in the evil day [of danger], and having done everything [that the crisis demands], to stand firm [in your place, fully prepared, immovable, victorious].(Ephesians 6:13 AMP)
After we have done all of this, then we can place our concerns in God’s hands and trust Him to work everything out for His glory.
Anything less than this will usually end up as a defeat in our lives.
My prayer today:
Lord, help us learn how to fight the good fight of faith so we can finish the race You have set before us and keep the faith while we are still running. (Based on 1 Timothy 6:12 and 2 Timothy 3:7)
Join with me on Thursdays to fast and pray for our families.
Since 1973, there have been over 61 million abortions in the US. In the world, there have been more than 1.5 billion abortions since 1980. (If you want to see a constantly updated abortion counter board, click here.)
Watching the numbers change at the abortion counter board are mind-boggling. They just keep moving forward. Each tick represents another dead baby. And another. And another. And so forth.
But let’s be honest, it’s easy to be discouraged about abortion, especially when we read about New York’s new up-to-the-time-of-birth abortion guidelines, the Virginia governor’s statement about babies surviving abortions and the media’s words.
Why even pray? Why even fast? It seems like such a waste of time. Might as well just not care at all anymore, right?
But what does discouragement really mean?
Being discouraged actually means we’re looking at our problems and seeing them as bigger and more powerful than our God and His leadership ways. But of course, none of us would ever admit this, right?
Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake. Revelation 8:3-5)
Maybe my individual prayers are not making a big difference at the local Planned Parenthood Clinic, but that’s not necessarily my intention. I’m praying to the Creator to let Him know I agree with Him and His leadership ways against abortion and that I know my prayers will soon cause noises, thunderings, lightnings and earthquakes on earth.
That’s enough to keep me in the battle against abortion and other major problems.
My prayer today:
Lord, I pray that You would give each believer the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of You, that the eyes of our understanding would be enlightened about prayer and that we would know the exceeding greatness of Your power backing our prayers. (Based on Ephesians 1:17-19)
Join with me on Tuesdays to fast and pray for our nation.
All of these certainly are culpable for their parts in legalizing abortion, but they are not the main guilty party. That belongs to the blood-bought Church of Jesus Christ.
Surely the Lord God does nothing without revealing His secret plan [of the judgment to come] to His servants the prophets. (Amos 3:7 AMP)
The Lord sees the end from the beginning. So, He had to see that 60 million babies would be murdered if Roe versus Wade was passed, but what did God do with His foreknowledge?
In my mind, there’s no doubt that God attempted to speak to the church ahead of time about abortion, but I believe the prophetic ears of the Church were not tuned into heaven. I believe they were tuned into something else.
During the 1960s, America was embroiled in the Vietnam War. It began with 800 military advisers under President Eisenhower, increased to 9000 troops during President Kennedy’s years and finally to over 500,000 combatants while President Johnson was in the White House.
The Vietnam War divided our nation and the Church. The bloody images came into our living rooms each night through the newscasts on CBS, ABC and NBC. Every believer had an opinion on the war and prayed it would soon end.
And guess what?
Roe versus Wade was first argued before the Supreme Court on December, 13, 1971, before only seven justices. Two justices, William Rehnquist and Lewis Powell, joined the court in January 1972. Because of this, Roe versus Wade was reargued in front of the full Supreme Court on October 11, 1972.
What else was going on during October 1972? The Paris Peace Negotiations to end the Vietnam War.
On October 8, 1972, a major breakthrough came in secret negotiations between Dr. Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho. North Vietnam modified their demands. Ten days later, a final draft was drawn up and Dr. Kissinger announced, “Peace is at hand.”
On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court issued its Roe versus Wade decision. The landmark decision overturned almost every federal and state law restricting abortion in our nation. From that day forward, the war against babies began with a vengeance.
On the following day, Dr. Kissinger and Le Duc Tho signed off on the Viet Nam peace treaty, which was almost identical to the final draft agreed to in October 1972. Then, on January 27, 1973, the leaders of the formal delegations signed the agreement at the Majestic Hotel in Paris.
It wasn’t until 1976 when Reverend Jerry Falwell began preaching against abortion that the Church began to wake up.
(Continued in Part 9…but if you want to read all of the parts to date, you can go here.)
David was in his early 20s when he fled to the wilderness to escape from King Saul. His parents, four hundred men and eventually his wife, Abigail joined him there.
His adversary, King Saul, handpicked three thousand warriors to hunt David down, hoping to kill him. This kept David looking over his shoulder for seven years, never allowing him a moment’s rest, day or night.
God – who loved David – wanted him to continue in his life-threatening trial?
YES!
Why?
You see, it was this agonizing, painful, fearful trial that God used to change David into the man who would eventually become the King of Israel, a noted psalmist and an encouragement for future believers like you and me. Look at the words he wrote in Psalm 23:
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me… (Psalm 23:4)
David lived these words for seven years while King Saul hunted him down.
But even David, who had such great revelations about the heart of the Father, could only handle so much stress. He ended up rebelling against the prophetic word spoken to him by Gad and spending his last sixteen months of the trial in Gath. He stayed there until King Saul was killed.
What did the back-slidden rebel David say was the reason that God delivered him from King Saul?
He rescued me because He was pleased with me and delighted in me. (Psalm 18:19 AMP)
Hey, most of us are going through seemingly endless trials right now. Some of the time, we are walking in faith and victory, but during others, we may be standing on the edge of a cliff, thinking about jumping off and quitting altogether.
Yet, no matter where we are right now, let’s remember this: if the Lord delighted in a back-slidden David, He delights in us.
Larry Who 