The armory of Satan, Yahweh's enemy and therefore our enemy, is comprehensive. Just as warfare leads the protagonists to perfect their weapons, so Satan has, in the course of six millennia, perfected his. He knows every human weakness, knows how to time his attacks and which weapons best fit a given situation. And like any human army at war, his weapons extend from the blatant to the subtle, from heavy artillery to propaganda, and from overt military action to infiltration and the use of fifth columns.
To be a successful deliverance minister you need to know not only the the multifaceted intricasy and deviousness of human nature but also how the Enemy exploits each and every facet and uses them to his own ends. Because the vast majority of people are ignorant of the invisible they tend to ascribe to themselves the activity of the demonic and as a result attack the wrong source.
One of the most useful books I own as a deliverance minister is called Battles of the Bible by Chaim Herzog and Mordechai Gichon. It taught me something of tactics and strategy and how Yahweh led his own Israelite armies to victory even when the odds were "insurmountable". Time and time again Yahweh demonstrates the futility of fighting battles in His Name when in truth we are fighting them in our own ... in the flesh. Indeed, He deliberately placed His little Israelite nation at the crossroads of two opposing civilizations: Egypt to the south and Assyria/Babylon to the north. Israel always had the possibility of the "German nightmare", a war on two fronts, and when she fell away from Yahweh's Torah and tried leaning on her own strength, she found herself hopelessly trying to appease one of her neighbours at the expense of the other. In short, she played the game of power-politics.
As human beings we do the same thing too. Our soul is a kind of 'nation' and we are surrounded and assaulted on two fronts. First, on the invisible, by the demonic; and second, on the visible by human agents of Satan.
A basic strategy for successful warfare is occupying the 'high ground'. As I have said, I am very interested in military warfare and in particular (and in addition to my interest in the battles of the Bible) learned much from the battles of the two world wars. In Deborah's victory over Sisera (Judges 4), the key to victory lay in Barak occupying and concentrating his forces on the high ground of Mount Tabor. That high ground not only gave the Israelites a panoramic view of the battle field, which Sisera could not, and did not, enjoy in the Esdraelon Valley, but it gave him the element of surprise as well as the advantage of attacking down hill. Throughout the battle, Deborah kept reinforcing Barak's position on top of the mountain. Finally, Deborah ensured that she had a reserve which she stationed on another high point, Mount Ephraim. This one might call a 'covering' force.
Now it should be obvious that the 'high ground' in any spiritual warfare is Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus) Himself. We figuratively stand on Mount Zion, in the Temple, in any deliverance work we do. Without that positioning, we cannot win. The same is required of the client seeking deliverance: he must be firmly trusting in Yah'shua (Jesus) as his deliverer or he is a gonner. Satan knows this, of course, and therefore seeks - as his first line of attack - the faith of the one seeking deliverance (and if he is really lucky, the deliverance minister too). The moment the client starts to doubt, he is in the valley under unfavourable conditions. Doubt leads to defeat, faith to victory.
"And this is the victory that has overcome the world -- our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Yah'shua (Jesus) is the Son of Elohim (God)?" (1 John 5:4-5, NKJV).
When Sisera [Satan] learned of the Israelite concentration on Mount Tabor [client on the foundation of Christ], he reacted as predicted and collected an army to oppose. This is Satan mustering his demons for an attack. Now he did not attack immediately - indeed, the opposing armies watched each other for several days. In Satan's case, collecting information from his spotter-demons, something that can take time because he is working in the 'dark' and therefore relies on a chain of spies to inform him. We too must wait and not rush headlong into the battle. Yahweh knows the timing, we do not, therefore we must wait on Him, and not do, as some deliverance ministers do, rush headlong throwing demons out here and there with no strategem.
Now the extra force on Mount Ephraim proved to be critical because as it happens some Canaanite villagers rose up against Israel and the Ephraimite force was obliged to engage them. In deliverance ministry Satan always has his "fifth column" and typically they can be family members, friends, or even unredeemed or deceived Christians who 'get in the way'. Satan mobilises these too when he feels he has a need for them. Or they can simply be fleshy impulses which arise at a critical point in the battle who sow confusion of mind and heart.
The element of surprise is always a key to successful military engagement. As I said, Satan has a full back of tricks which can unsettle both clients and deliverance ministers at times. In the case of SRA victims, the 'Canaanites' can be heavily demonised alters supporting ther satanic attack. Many a time 'friends', prompted by their demons, have come 'visiting' at a key moment in deliverance, or phoned, etc.. We have had misguided 'Christians' come and interfere with deliverance sessions, led, as they supposed, by the 'Spirit' but in reality prompted by their own demons. Many are the diversion tactics that Satan can use. Or he can use the demonic already in the system to stir up fear and confusion.
Sisera had the advantage in terms of ordnance over the Israelites inasmuch as he possessed iron charriots, the ancient equivalent of the tank. Satan comes will all sorts of intimidating armaments. From a fleshy point-of-view, the situation looked hopeless to the Israelites, but neither had counted on Yahweh intervening in this battle by sending a torrential rainstorm, which caused the charriots to get bogged down and become militarily useless. In many a deliverance session, Satan's agents in the form of satanists from covens who have been physically present, have been 'bogged down' and rendered helpless to do anything. In a recent deliverance, my client had come under my protection or 'covering' by accepting adoption. In preactice this meant that no spiritual warfare could be done against her without Satan first attacking the protecting 'power', in this case, myself. As the 'protecting power' I asked Yahweh to send angels to my client so that if any satanist tried to approach her, they would come between her and them. She saw them appear and take up their position within her soul. Shortly afterwards the satanic coven took her to a meeting to abuse her and when the satanists attempted to get near her, they suddenly drew back, restrained by an invisible power (the angels). Without that covering and angelic presence (invoked by the authority of the 'protecting power', the satanists would have laid hands on her and done their evil).
I have titled this essay, Fear, Doubt and Accusation: Three Darts of the Enemy, because they are, without doubt, the greatest obstacles to deliverance. Satan knows this which is why he uses them again and again, with great effect. I have seen the pattern so many times that it is almost monotenous. A greater army can be rendered impotent if it once starts to doubt in its own abilities. Once doubt sets in, fear soon follows on its footsteps. And once fear sets in, it is not lonfg before Satan starts using your own forces against you.
There are numerous stories in the Bible of Israel or Judah being attacked by numerically superior armies or such a size that in human terms the outcome was determined even before the fighting started. King Hezekiah of Judah faced such a threat. His country was small and weak, and like so many coming to Christ, his people had been living deeply in sin before he brought about a reformation. The residues of our former sinful life - old habits not removed, for instance - can so often be our undoing in a spiritual battle, which is why when we come to Yah'shua (Jesus) we must give all of ourselves. The last thing a partially surrendered Christian wants is for Satan to raise up 'Canaanite forces' (unredeemed fleshy area (or in the case of MPD, unredeemed alters) as a fifth column.
King Hezekiah was more than aware how vulnerable he was. He knew that he had to trust Yahweh as his deliverer but he was not so unwise and foolish as to believe that all he had to do was sit back and do nothing. He too had to make preparations, as we must in any anticipated spiritual battle. So the king set about fortifying his fortresses and manufacturing weapons. How does that translate into practical preparation for a believer? Well, Paul explains that to us in Ephesians 6:
"Put on the whole armor of Elohim (God), that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of Elohim (God), that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of Elohim (God); praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Ruach (Spirit), being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints" (Eph.6:11-18, NKJV).
This is something we should be doing every day even when everything seem to be peaceful (it isn't - Satan is just "watching" you, waiting for an opportune moment to strike - in this life we are in a state of perpetual warfare, make no mistake of that (so many have fallen who became slack and though they could take off their armour, leave their fortresses, or walk from under theior covering).
Hezekiah not only built up his armory and fortified his cities, but created storehouses containing food. The food of spiritual warfare is the Scriptures, so you need to be 'in' them every day, sticking up with precious words of Truth, for only the Truth will defeat our enemy. He will be whispering lies to you all the time, say and night, so if you are not equipped with the Word, you are eventually going to succumb to those lies which will be tailor-made to appeal to your fleshy nature, the unredeemed parts of you (e.g. the desire to be self-sufficient, one of the biggest lies there is to face and overcome). So Hezekiah stocked up with essential foodstuffs. Not only that, he got his engineers to redirect his water supply so that the enemy could not cut it off in a siege.
Now what does this mean spiritually? Yah'shua (Jesus) tells us:
"To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this" (Rev.21:6-7, NIV).
The spring of the water of life is the supernatural supply of 'eternal life' from Yahweh through Yah'shua (Jesus). When a soul is trusting and being obedient to Torah, it is placed in the heart. When he stops trusting and stops being obedient, the fountain is turned off. This 'life force' is very different from the counterfeit psychic equivalent which appears to be alive but which in truth isn't - the motions in our heart deceive us into believing it is the real thing (like romance, sex, or any kind of psychic stimulation). Guarding our hearts so that we are led by the and not the flesh is critical. One of the most subtle demonic activities is providing this 'substitute' life to deceive and ensnare, and the most clever of all is to get Christians to believe that this psychic life (which is rooted in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil) is, in fact, the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) (which is rooted in the Tree of Life). This is one reason we warn people so strictly against the charismatic movement which claims to be able to give people true Spirit but without law. It is a deadly demonic trap and one of the cleverest counterfeits devised by Satan in these last days. Worse, it is filled with 'deliverance ministers' who merrily throw out one set of demons in the name of Christ and, unknowingly, admit hosts of others (religious demons under the control of Sophia and Hecate).
I have seen that spring of water in newly saved clients dry up so many times because they were seduced by psychic counterfeits. The changeover can be so subtle that the clients, for the most part, don't even know it is happening. The only evidence that something is wrong is oppression, emptiness and hostility to the deliverance minister which can so often lead to a spirit of accusation.
What happens is that the client believes he is still in the true Ruach (Spirit) but since it is demonic, it cannot resist attacking the servants of Yahweh. I don't know how many times these demons have accused me through clients but the pattern is familiar. One of their favourites, based on the satanic hatred of Torah, is the accusation that I am 'legalistic', like to put people in 'bondage', am a 'control freak', am 'heartless', etc., etc. (the list is endless - the latest one is that I am into 'mind control'). The satanic behind these accusaions becomes crystal clear when you see how, instead of trying to build and edify the Body, it sets it against itself, and almost always moves the client into the solo-Christian, self-sufficiency mindframe and away from accountability. These are classic warning lights. And since it is lawless (anti-Torah), it is, of course, always anti-Truth.
Satan loves to accuse the brethren and to set them against one another. He loves to sow discord and division, to rip and tear down. He builds walls between people and turns hearts hard so that that living fountain cannot perate. He separates mind and from heart so that thewy are almost never in harmony, unless in a perverse way. He sows distrust (which takies ytou away from Christ) which turns to fear (perhaps the minister is a 'cultist', for example), which leads, finally, to hate. This fall can be gradual or preciptous, depending on the weaknesses and vices of the client.
People don't usually know that 'Satan' is not a proper name but a title which means 'adversary'. When someone starts accusing Yahweh, His Word, or His servants, he becomes a satan. Satan is out to find fault - any fault - to get legal grounds over you. "He (is the) accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our Elohim (God) day and night" (Rev.12:10, NIV). If you find yourself suddenly compelled to accuse a minister, in spite of what your better sense tells you, then you can be sure you are under satanic influence. The spirit of accusation is a harsh taskmaster and bring no ultimate peace or happiness. And if it does bring a 'peace', it is always a counterfeit one at the expense of love - a Hecate peace.
What, then, is the proper response to these things? How should we respond to friends or clients who are suddenly filled with one of these three - fear, doubt or accusation? Remember, that all three of these are snares or nets to believers and one thing that Satan loves to do is get those who are free of these things enmeshed in the nets of those who are possessed by them, usually under the appeal to counterfeit 'love'. It is never true love to empathise with these things - they do not come from Yahweh - ever:
"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love" (1 John 4:18, NIV).
Fear is an absence of love as doubt is an absence of faith. Yahweh does not support fear or doubt because they have a demonic root. Fear is a lack of trust in Yahweh. Doubt is a lack of trust. Remember also that Yahweh works through people - whilst salvation is a 1-to-1 thing between you and Yahweh, the process that leads to it, and the its sustaining afterwards involved Yahweh's human agents. That is why, upon professing faith, we are required to love on and become united with Yahweh's people in a mutual covenant, Messianic Israel. We become part of a nation with leaders appointed by Yahweh Himself to whom we are to submit in the holiness of righteousness and truth. These leaders are parents - spiritual father and mothers - who through their own submission to their spiritual fathers ands mothers, learn by the only means Yahweh has given us - imitation:
"I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you, as my dear children. Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Messiah Yah'shua (Christ Jesus) I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me" (1 Cor.4:14-17, NIV).
Everyone coming to Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) is adopted into Israel and given a father to imitate in the ways of godliness. Everyone! But sadly there aren't too many of them. They then become our spiritual covering, that reserve army on Mount Ephraim given by Yahweh to deal with 'Canaanite issues'. Yah'shua (Jesus) takes care of the main enemy (Satan) but He appoints guardians ovber our souls - all of us. We all should have earthly fathers in Christ - that is the true pattern of Messianic Israel - and the rôle of those fathers is to teach, protect and prepare their sons to become fathers too.
Does it surprise us, then, that the first line of satanic attack is against our spiritual fathers (adoptive fathers, pastors, etc.) ... by planting doubt and fear in our hearts that leads us to eventually accuse them and treat them like Satan himself? That way Satan separates us from our reserve army - our covering, the one Yahweh has given to us, our safety net. Before long Satan has us in the valley with his superior army and the result is defeat. And who do we reflexly blame when that happens? First our spiritual fathers and then Yahweh Himself. By this means the enemy tricks us out of the Kingdom and takes us down into destructive habits again.
There are those who think that spiritual fatherhood is a male power trip which centres around control. Such people have no idea what they are talking about. Recently one of my clients moved out from under my covering without being aware of it because of doubts and fears. Then suddenly she came under a massive demonic attack which shook her to her spiritual foundations. She had been immune to such attacks before. What she, and many others, do not realise is that it is thwe fathers who are on the front line of battle as the coverings of their adopted children. Our 'reward' is daily warfare, 24 hours a day, not just for ourselves but for all whom we are covering. The only reason we do this job is out of love because there is no glory in it whatsoever - just constant attacks from enemy against our coved ones. And we are only enabled to do it because of Yahweh positional covering of us and the love which He gives us.
Our only satisfaction is knowing that we can cover those whom we love with parental wings and protect them as they grow and mature.
For women, this is especially important because they are never supposed to be outside a male covering - either a father or husband. No woman is supposed to be doing it alone in Yah'shua (Jesus) because she was not equipped for that. As the weaker vessel, she was designed to be under perpetual protection. It is her God-given rôle to be protected and the God-given rôle of fathers and husbands to protect. And we should accept both in love and faith. Women who try to do it alone inevitably lose their femininity as they try to walk into a male rôle and with few exceptions end up with spiritual difficulties. The same is true of sons while they are young until they have matured and can stand on their own under Yah'shua (Jesus) and begin to cover their own children.
Are you perhaps "looking for a reason to accuse"? (Matt.12:10, NIV). If you are, ask yourself some honest questions. But mostly ask Yahweh the source of the spirit of accusation.
I asked earlier what the proper response to these three darts of the enemy should be. To doubt, Yah'shua (Jesus) simply warned and let the doubters go on their way. Doubt is an issue between self and Yahwehy. To fear, much the same. And to accusation, either a response from the Word, rebuke or silence. Satan, as ever, wants to fuel conflict. Having fallen into that cauldron many times and got scalded, I have learned not to feed that fire. It is better that those who are thus tormened by demons be brought to a place of humility. There will always be people who "lie in wait like an outlaw against a righteous man's house" (Prov.24:15, NIV) slavishly following Satan's power. It is best to hand such people over to Yahweh to work His salvation in them in His own time and way. We have varfious promises, moreover:
"The wicked lie in wait for the righteous,
seeking their very lives;
but Yahweh will not leave them in their power
or let them be condemned when brought to trial.
Wait for Yahweh
and keep his way.
He will exalt you to inherit the land;
when the wicked are cut off, you will see it"
(Ps.37:32-34, NIV)
Not responding to the wicked usually provokes demonic rage in them and leads them to conspire to do more wickedness in the short term, but in the end their fury burns them out. Our responsibility is to simply wait on Yahweh, not get provoked, and do what He tells us. The demonic is compulsive, the godly in peace. Fathers must wait for the prodigals to return home, which they do anxiously. Notice that the father did not leave the farm in search of his prodigal son but waited until he had come to the end of himself and come to a realisation of his folly. He brought himself home, very much humiliated, having squandered all, but with a right mind.
This should not be confused with the sheep that wandered away whom the shepherd went searching after, leaving the 99 behind. There is a difference in the sheep and the prodigal. The sheep leads us to go out and rescue, the prodigal to wait at home. The difference between the two is that the sheep is ignorant whereas the pridigal knows perfectly well what he is doing. Does Yahweh care about the prodigal as much as He does the lost sheep? Absolutely. But to go out after the prodigal is simply to follow a demonic agenda because the demonic is in control. This we are forbidden to do. How can well tell the difference? By walking in the Ruach (Spirit). And if you don't know how to do that, or can't tell the difference, then you are still and spiritual son or daughter and in need of paternal guidance.
