ISRAEL'S & OUR ENEMIES (Part 9) The spirit of the Jebusites

The spirit of the Jebusites

The word Jebusite means: Condemnation; accusation and intimidation.

The Jebusites were the last enemy subdued before Israel got peace and their stronghold was in Jerusalem There is always a constant battle to establish peace in the heart of a believer.

The root word is found in Isaiah (14:19), and it means to tread down with the feet, to pollute and defile and the Lord used it to describe Satan or Lucifer. The word ‘underfoot’ is the root word where we get the name Jebusite.

This spirit carries to us condemnation, accusation, intimidation, it treads down, it pollutes and it defiles the holy ones of God. Those who have been called, sanctified and made clean by the regenerating work and the sanctifying work of the word of God.

In type, Jerusalem is called ‘the holy city which Yahweh has chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to give his name a home there’.  (1 K. 14:21).  Jerusalem is called the city of the king and in the Psalms David often refers to it as Zion.

When Abraham returned from defeating the five kings, Melchizedek who was the King of peace, the priest of God and the king of righteousness, came out to minister unto Abraham and they had communion. There he sustained and encouraged him after the time of battle, to comfort and strengthen and refresh him.

In the book of Judges we know that something tragic had happened to Salem and a terrible change had taken place. No longer was it called Salem the city of peace, but it now bore the name ‘Jebus’. The name had been altered.

 ‘But the man would not stay there; he got up and set off and came within sight of Jebus¾that is Jerusalem’. (Jud 19: 10).

 

In the day of Joshua we find a man by the name of Adoni-Zedek, whose name means: justice of the Lord or the Lord of righteousness and he is ruling in what was Jerusalem but which was now Jebus. This man was a counterfeit of Melchizedek; he was a child of the devil, because he was a Jebusite. So here you have a man setting himself up as the Lord and no longer is that place called Salem the city of peace and no longer is there a person who is like as unto the Son of God ruling in that place. Now there is this Jebusite there who calls himself Adoni or Lord and he is reigning in that place and making himself lord over the dwelling place of God. He sets himself up as a self-righteous lord, but all the time he is treading down, he is polluting and he is defiling the holy place that had been chosen by God to give his name a home.

 

Zion, the Heavenly city is a type of our bodies, which are the temples of the living God. ‘Your body, you know, is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you since you received him from God. You are not your own property; you have been bought and paid for. That is why you should use your body for the glory of God’. (1 Cor 6:19-20). So now, our bodies, individually and collectively are the Zion of God. Now we are the living stones making a spiritual house where God lives by his Holy Spirit.

This is the spirit that attacks our bodies. This spirit of the Jebusite is the one that tries to destroy the temple of God. It is this spirit that wants to lord and to rule it over our bodies with infirmity; with sickness and disease; with habits and addictions so that we cannot glorify God in our bodies, which are the temples of the Holy Spirit.

How does this spirit begin to work?

It is this spirit that tries to cast down our bodies with sickness and disease. It is this spirit that tries to find strongholds in our carnal bodily appetites and desires. Once we let this ruling spirit in through our bodily appetites and desires, then that appetite will become, the lord over one’s life. Whether it is alcohol or tobacco, whether it is drugs or gambling, whether it is gluttony or immorality that rules over that person. This enemy will come into that fleshly appetite and take over control. And by doing so, begins to rule and to reign in Zion; begins to rule and to reign as lord over the temple of the Holy Spirit which is our bodies. If you take a simple example from television. You switch it on and you watch an episode of one of the ‘soaps’. It’s presented in such a way that you are ‘encouraged’ or ‘stimulated’ to watch the next episode to find out what happens next, and before you realise it, you are hooked. That’s how people become addicted, it only takes a cigarette or two and before you know it, you no longer have cigarettes but they have you.

How subtle this enemy is and here is what it does. In the same way it tempted Eve, it always presents the temptation as something good. We know that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link and this enemy will ‘sift you out’, to come into your body so that it can become the Adoni-zedek over your life.

That’s why Peter warned us, ‘to keep yourselves free from selfish passions that attack the soul’. If this enemy can get control of our bodies, then that in turn will affect our soul. Because once we lose our peace of mind and our peace of heart, then that is ruling and weakening our spirit.

Because’ Grief of heart wounds the spirit’ or as another translation puts it ‘where the heart is sad the spirit is broken’. (Pro 15:13).

If the enemy can get in and rule over our bodily appetites, then it will affect our soul by causing us to grieve over things. It will cause us to grieve over our weaknesses whenever we try to stop or give up the things that are controlling us. And when we say that we will never do that again and we fail, then our grieving will rob our spirits of strength. There are many people who have made decisions to live good clean and holy lives but their bodies are bound by habits and addictions and then this spirit will cause them to feel condemned, to live under guilt, to feel remorse, to live under self pity and to rob them of that true peace of God that the Lord wants us all to have.

 

If you are grieving over your weaknesses, which is what this spirit wants you to do. If you have made resolutions and commitments and you have tried and failed, you may feel condemned, unclean, polluted and defiled. I want to tell you that your standing before God does not depend on what you have or have not done. It stands in your faith of the risen Lord. This enemy will cause us to speak perverse words against ourselves. We are to judge ourselves according to what the word of God says about us, and ‘what God has made clean, we are not to call unclean’. (Acts 10:15). This enemy will impart a sense of unworthiness and restlessness upon us. Many consider themselves to be unworthy because of their faults and failings. This Jebusite spirit will cause us to say to the Father when we approach him in prayer that we are unworthy to be called his children. God does not condemn us because of our failures. God does not condemn us because of our weaknesses. The only reason that we can stand before the throne of grace is because of Jesus and what he has done for us. In ourselves we do not have any worthiness. Our belief in the Lord Jesus Christ and our faith in his atonement and in his blood is the only thing that has caused us to be worthy. That’s why the table of the Lord has been provided for us. At the table we have the only sacrifice in the whole of creation, which is sufficient and effective for our salvation. The lord has provided a table for us in the sight of our enemies and when those enemies see us going back time and time again to that table, that he has provided for us, they have a fit. How do I know that?

‘When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the walls he flew into a rage, beside himself with anger. He ridiculed the Jews, and in front of his kinsmen and the wealthy men of Samaria he exclaimed, ‘what are these pathetic Jews trying to do? Do they expect to finish in one day? Do they think they can put new life into these charred stones, salvaged from the heap of rubble?’ Tobiah the Ammonite was standing beside him. ‘Let them build, even a jackal jumping on their wall, will soon knock the stones back down again’. (Neh 4: 1-3).

 

The name Sanballat means ‘fallen branch’ that speaks of Satan and his mate Tobiah means ‘god is good’, but in a mocking and accusing way. When we go back to the table of the Lord, we are rebuilding the walls around our spirit; we are rebuilding the temple of the Holy Spirit; we may hear the voice of the enemy casting us down with words of ridicule¾ ‘ I know what you’re like; You’re feeble, you’ll never be any good, you’ll never  change, you’ll never make it, you’ll not be forgiven this time, and you’ve blown it now’.  But the truth is, Jesus says ‘Come unto me all you who are weighed down by the attacks of this enemy and I will give you forgiveness for your sins, healing for your bodies, peace for your minds and rest for your souls’. There is healing at the table of the Lord, and the Lord provided it for us because he knew we would be weak, but at his table he provides food for the journey and he strengthens us.

This spirit of the Jebusite was responsible for David numbering the people wrongly. It brought great destruction and death and when David saw the angel of the Lord about to put his hand towards Jerusalem to destroy it, he admitted to the Lord that he had sinned and that it wasn’t the fault of the people and the angel withdrew his hand. When numbering the people David should have taken a redemptive coin. The angel of the Lord stood beside the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, and David purchased the threshing floor from the Jebusite and built an altar to the Lord and it was on this spot that Solomon built the Temple. For the first time since entering the Promised Land Israel now had peace.

 

We know from the scriptures that Satan is the one who accuses us day and night before the throne of God, and that is the nature of this spirit of the Jebusite, it is a constant battle. Paul tells us ‘not to grieve the Holy Spirit’, and if the Holy Spirit can be grieved then our spirits can also be grieved and when this enemy attacks, it goes first for our bodies through our appetites. Then it goes for our souls through our emotions until we become like a city without walls where our spirits can be exposed to grief through the accusations of this accusing, condemning, intimidating, polluting and defiling spirit, so that it can be lord where Jesus should be Lord.

 ‘Bow down then, before the power of God now, and he will raise you up on the appointed day; unload all your worries unto him, since he is looking after you. Be calm but vigilant, because your enemy the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to eat. Stand up to him strong in faith and in the knowledge that your brothers all over the world are suffering the same things. You will only have to suffer for a little while: the God of all grace¾will confirm strengthen and support you. His power lasts forever and ever Amen. (1 P 5: 6-11)

 

ISRAEL'S & OUR ENEMIES (Part 7) The spirit of the Girgashites

The spirit of the Girgashites

 

 

The word Girgashite means: returning back from pilgrimage and black mud.

When it says returning back, it is the context of setting out on pilgrimage and then changing your mind and going back to where you came from

When it says black mud it’s in the context of ‘the dog goes back to its own vomit’ and ‘when the pig has been washed, it wallows in the mud’. The word Adam means red earth, and someone who is all muddy is Satan.

 

This is the spirit that causes apostasy. ‘The man of sin will not be revealed until there is the great falling away’. Another word for falling away is apostasy. In other words, before the man of sin is revealed in the earth, there has to come first a great falling away or apostasy.

 

Paul wrote to Timothy and told him that Demas had left him for love of this life and had deserted him that’s apostasy. That’s what Jesus was saying when he said that if any man put his hand to the plough and looked back, then he is not fit for the Kingdom of God. This is the spirit that entices us to go back, Demas was enticed by the pleasures of the world again and left his ministry and calling. Jesus told us that in the end times, ‘Many will fall away; men will betray one another and hate one another¾because of the increase in wickedness, the love in most men will grow cold’. (Matt 24: 10-12).

The tactics of this enemy is to cause us to be disheartened and discouraged, causing us to lose hope. So he will throw some obstacle in our path to stop us from going forward. We need to learn how to be persistent in the face of this enemy. Like the man who went to his friend in the middle of the night looking for bread. Jesus said that persistence would be enough for to make the man get up and give his friend all that he wanted, so he said that we were to ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking. In other words don’t get discouraged, don’t give in, don’t fall away.

‘If you come back to me, I will take you back into my service; and if you utter noble, not despicable thoughts, you shall be as my own mouth. They will come back to you, but you must not go back to them’. (Jer 15:19).

Because of the backsliding and the apostasy of the people Jeremiah was losing trust in God. Many times those who have been called in ministry, especially in leadership, become disheartened and discouraged by the coldness and the lukewarmness of the people. When there is little or no response of participation in the congregation, then it is very easy to think about packing it all in and lose heart. It’s very easy to say to yourself, ‘why should I bother, nobody’s interested?’ And it’s very easy because of the discouragement to go along with the flow and do nothing. That’s what was happening to Jeremiah, because of the apostasy of the people, he was losing heart and was thinking about leaving the ministry to become one of the crowd. That’s what happens when you step back; you become one of the crowd and the spirit behind this is the spirit of the Girgashite.

The word to Jeremiah was that the people were to return to him and not the other way round. In other words; step forward and they will follow you This enemy will also cause us to lose hope, and a loss of hope is mistrust in God. When we lose hope, then we are saying that the Lord cannot work in that situation. When we say that someone or something is a hopeless case, what we are really saying is that God is not powerful enough to do anything about it and we no longer trust him. This is how the enemy comes in and sows doubt within our hearts. When we pray and don’t doubt in our heart, then we can have whatever we say. If we want to get rid of doubt in our hearts, then we have got to get rid of our mistrust in God.

 

When Jesus was talking about the apostasy and the falling away he said, ‘remember Lot’s wife’. Don’t turn back. Don’t look back and give up your testimony just because others are not following you. If they want to stay there, leave them there but you yourself must keep going forward.

 

About five thousand disciples stopped following Jesus when they were offended at his words.

This enemy will use our failures to get us to turn back. Remember when Peter had told the Lord that they had left everything to follow him, and later on it was Peter again who said to Jesus that he would never leave him nor desert him and you know the story; Peter failed. His failure caused him to return to his nets, the nets that he had left to follow Jesus.

 

There are many times when we say that we will never say that again, or that we will never do that again, and when we fail, we become downcast and disheartened, and like Peter, the temptation is to go back, to return to the old ways, to return to where we were before and that’s the nature of this Girgashite spirit.

 

ISRAEL'S & OUR ENEMIES (Part 6) The spirit of the Perizzites

The spirit of the Perizzite

The word Perizzite means: Unwalled town or village. It also means separation.

When Israel had defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites and Og the king of Bashan, they captured all their towns and possessions ‘all strongholds enclosed in high walls and fortified with gates and bars, not to mention the Perizzite towns, which were many’, (Deut 3:5) and we are told that these Perizzite towns were unfortified.

What do the scriptures say about the dangers of an unwalled or an unfenced city?

‘The Lord says this: On that day a thought is going to enter your mind and you will work out a wicked plan. You will say: I will attack a land of unwalled villages and march against this peaceful and unsuspecting people. They all live in towns that have no walls or bars or gates. (Ezk 38:10-12).

 

This speaks about the invader that is going to come down upon Israel in the last days. Israel will make peace with the nations that are surrounding her and when they are not suspecting, when they have dropped their guard, then they will be attacked. But what does it mean to us spiritually?  

‘He that has no rule over his spirit is like a city whose walls are broken down and has no defences’.  (Pro 25:28).

The influence of this spirit causes division and separation and if you have no walls, it means that you think that you are dwelling in safety. It means that you are not recognising the fact that there is an enemy. When they had unwalled cities, it meant that they were not suspecting any attacks and that they felt safe and secure enough not to put any guards up.

 

The prophet Amos writes ‘Wow to those at ease in Zion’. In other words, don’t be lulled into a false sense of security. Don’t let this enemy separate you from the rest of the group where he can pounce and ensnare you.

 

If we take David as an example, we will see that it was this spirit of the Perizzite that caused him to fall into his sin of murder and adultery. In his prayer of repentance in Psalm 51 David asks the Lord to create in him a clean heart and an upright spirit. What had happened to David was; that he was at ease. He was dwelling in safety and he was resting on the top of his house. ‘At the time of the year when kings go to war- David stayed in Jerusalem’. (2 Sam 11). Spiritually speaking David’s spirit was at ease, it was not upright, he had let his guard down and the enemy was able to come in and tempt him. David’s problem was that he had lust of the eyes that he had inherited from his forefather Judah; who slept with his daughter-in-law, thinking her to be a prostitute. That’s how this enemy works. This enemy will lie and wait for you to let your guard down and as soon as he gets the opportunity he will attack at the point of least resistance, your weakest spot.

 

If I don’t have any walls it means that I am dwelling in safety and I’m not recognising the fact that there is an enemy about, it means that I am asleep, that I’m not awake.‘You can be quite certain that if the householder had known at what time of the night the burglar would come, he would have stayed awake and would not have let anyone break through the ‘wall’ of his house’. (Matt 24: 42-44).

Q. What are our walls?

A. Our emotions are the walls around our spirit.

What happens is that, when the enemy can come in and cause us to negatively emotionally respond; it will weaken, paralyse and immobilise our spirit. So instead of having the power to pray and to resist in the spirit, we will end up being ineffective.

Remember the man who was lowered through the roof and we are told that the condition of this man’s paralysis was spiritually based. That man was lying down; his spirit was not upright and because he was not standing upright before the Lord, he had no power over the paralysis, which was in his body. When Jesus forgave the man his sins, his spirit was now upright before the Lord and he was able to stand up. Many a time when we weakened by our guilts and our griefs, our bodies then become susceptible to all kinds of sicknesses and illnesses and we can’t understand why we can’t shake off colds or pains. Well it is because we are not standing upright in spirit. That’s what happened to David when he sinned.

Happy the man whose offence is forgiven, whose sin is remitted. Happy the man to whom the Lord imputes no guilt. I kept it secret and my bones wasted away. I groaned all the daylong for night and day your hand was heavy upon me. Indeed, my strength was dried up as by the summer’s heat. (Ps 32: 1-4).

Here David was saying that because he had kept his sin hidden, the weight of the guilt upon his physical body had a profound effect, because he was not upright in spirit.

‘A man’s spirit sustains him in sickness,

But a crushed spirit who can bear? (Pro 18:14).

It’s not your bones that hold your body up; it’s your spirit. This spirit of the Perizzite wants us to lie down in spirit and when he succeeds then many a time we will lie down in our bodies as well.

Guilt can rob you and can cause you to be weak It will drain out the strength of your spirit and then you become a city without a wall around it.

Grief is one of the major sources that will wound your spirit.

‘Grief of heart wounds the spirit’. (Pro 15:13).

 

We can grieve over many things. Many disappointments can cause us grief. We have great expectations for our children and when those expectations are dashed, our spirits are wounded. We have great hopes for our marriages and when those hopes are shattered, our spirits are also crushed. There are many disappointments through loss of employment or loss of property and all these sorrows the scriptures call; grief. When we grieve over all these losses and disappointments then our spirits become weak and we have no power.

The nature of this Perizzite spirit through attacking our emotions our griefs and our guilts is to separate us away from one another and away from the Lord.

 

Have you ever noticed when someone feels guilty about something they have done? The first sign is; they stop coming to Church, they start isolating and separating themselves because their emotions or feelings have caused them to separate away from the body of Christ. The same thing happens when a person has grief. They start to isolate themselves in their own self-pity or in their own depression and they can’t share or give out, because of their grief.

‘This is what causes my grief;

that the way of the Most High has changed’. (Ps 77:10).

Grief in the life of the Psalmist caused him to think that God had changed his ways. He was now looking at God through his emotions and that emotion of grief will cause a distortion of the image of God in our minds and will cause us to be spiritually impoverished, isolated and separated from one another and from God, when we allow our emotions to rule over us.

This spirit of the Perizzite attacks our emotions and when our emotions are out of control, we weaken in spirit and the enemy has us exactly where he wants us; powerless.

The nature of this spirit is to separate, and grief is like a death or separation. That’s what the word death means. And the reason why a lot of women have postnatal depression is because there has been a death or a separation of the child once the cord is cut. Adam died the day he sinned, not physically but spiritually; and death or separation was passed down from Adam until Jesus restored us to life and fellowship with the Father. It’s not always a physical death that causes us to grieve, it can be the loss of expectation in a person or in a situation or in the break-up of a relationship, so many times when there is a death of the expectation it will create real grief and that’s where this enemy can hold us in captivity.

 

ISRAEL'S & OUR ENEMIES (Part 5) The spirit of the Hittites

 

The spirit of the Hittites

 

 

The word Hittite means: fear, terrified, broken or amazed.

The Hittites were one of the first enemies that the Israelites encountered when they came into the land of Canaan. One of the first things that we have to overcome in our own personal lives is fear, if we are going to move forward in the things of God. The first time ‘fear’ is mentioned is after Adam sinned, when he was afraid and hid himself from God.

 

The next time we see ‘fear’ is in the life of Abram when he went down into Egypt and his fear caused him to lie about his relationship to his wife Sarai. ‘I know you are a beautiful woman. When the Egyptians see you they will say, “That is his wife”, and they will kill me but spare you. Tell them you are my sister, so that they may treat me well because of you. (Gen 12: 10-20). So his fear caused him to lie.

 

 

We see this in the life of Peter when he denied Jesus. He also lied to save his own skin, for fear of being found out. Jesus had already told Peter that he would be handed over and tortured and that he would die and rise again. Peter was afraid of dying, he didn’t want to suffer pain and it wasn’t until later, when Jesus indicated what kind of death Peter would have, that Peter was released from his fear. Peter’s problem was not his fear; it was a lack of understanding of the knowledge of the Love of God.

‘In love there can be no fear, but fear is driven out by perfect love: because to fear is to expect punishment and anyone who is afraid is still imperfect in love’. (1 Jn 4:18).

Some of the things that people are afraid of are sickness; the future; lack of finances; tragedy and calamity and many other things. If we take note of what Job said,’ whatever I fear comes true whatever I dread befalls me’. (Job 3:25). Fear will prevent us from inheriting God’s blessings.

 

Paul wrote to Timothy telling him that he had ‘not received a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of self control’. Paul was writing from prison and Timothy was taking his place in the Church in Ephesus and because of that he was going through the same kind of persecutions and stress that Paul had been subjected to. So out of prison Paul reminds Timothy to ‘stir up the gift that God gave you when I laid my hands on you¾you are never to be ashamed of witnessing to the Lord’. (2 Tim 1:6-8).

 

One of the greatest snares that prevent us from sharing out the word of life is the fear of man. The fear of being ridiculed, the fear of being laughed at but maybe most of all, the fear of being rejected. Let’s say that there is some area in my life where I feel that I need to share with you. How can I become transparent with you in sharing my feelings and my emotions, if the fear of rejection is there? Every week when we go to Church we usually meet the same faces. We should have the freedom to turn to the person sitting next to us to share out the word of life, or to ask that person to pray with us for a specific need, or just to be able to bring up things that are bothering us, so that we can get help and be set free. That’s the influence of this Hittite spirit and an awful lot of people are under its influence.

 

There comes a time in all of our lives when the ‘axe must be laid to the root of the tree’. (Matt 3:10). We need to come to a position where we can say that ‘The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? (Ps 118:6). You may know in your head that God is with you. You may know from reading about it or from someone else telling you about it. But if you are in the Lion’s den, head knowledge won’t do you any good; you need to know that he is there with you to rescue you. Unfortunately in this day when more and more are turning away from God, you will see a greater increase of fear in people’s lives.

 

There is a text in Isaiah that says, ‘do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it’. (Is 8:12) Here Isaiah is talking about the Assyrians coming in and they are in a wilderness. Sometimes when we go into a wilderness experience in our own lives we lose the sense of God’s presence. God is always there, it just seems that he has gone on holiday and we can’t seem to contact him. That’s what happened to the Israelites at various stages in the wilderness and they lost their relationship with the Lord.

We are told that they looked for a God that they could see.

• So they turned to idolatry. They wanted to be like other nations and worship Gods that they could see. What would you classify as idolatry? It’s setting your affection upon some material object. At this time when the Assyrians came in and they had again broken relationship with the Lord, we are told that they turned witchcraft.

‘When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people enquire of their God?’ (Is 8:19).

 

Saul when he no longer heard the voice of God? He turned to a witch.

• Why do you think people today are turning to the occult? They are turning to mediums, to crystal gazing, to their horoscopes, to palm reading, to tarot card reading, to teacup reading, to faith healers, to lucky charms, all because they have lost their communication with God.

Then they turned to Egypt, that is, they turned to outside sources for help.

• A person who has fear in their life has done that. A person with fear has not established a right relationship with the Lord. They have not matured in love with the Lord, so they might turn to idols and this is what people in the world are doing and so they get fearful. They look to people for answers.

‘God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in times of trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth gives way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea¾The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress’. (Ps 46: 1-7).

The whole purpose of this spirit of the Hittite is to break your relationship with the Lord. This spirit will use the circumstances of your life to bring in’ fear’. That’s what this spirit did to Peter when he walked on the water.

If you serve the Lord out of fear instead of love, then it will cause you to be spiritually impoverished, like the man who buried the talent.

Is fear such a crippling thing that it will cause us to be bowed over in the presence of God? Yes¾Look at Adam.

Don’t let this spirit of the Hittite cripple your walk with God. It will ‘come against you but will not overcome you’. (Jer 15:20).

‘Do not be afraid, do not be daunted by this vast horde; this battle is not yours but God’s’. (2 Ch. 20:16).

 

 

ISRAEL'S & OUR ENEMIES (Part 4) The spirit of the Hivites

The Spirit of the Hivites

 

The word Hivite ( or Gibeonite)  means: Dweller in a village or community and it is in the context of a worldly lifestyle. It also means: delusion or delight. It is the spirit of deception.

What does this spirit bring? It brings the complete opposite of what the word of God promises.

Jesus said ‘I have come that they may have life and have it to the full’. (John 10:10).

 

This spirit of delusion or delight brings the opposite of life; it will cause us to participate in those things that bring spiritual death.

 

The Hivite spirit deals with our association with the world

‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it. What then will a man gain if he wins the whole world and loses his soul?’ (Matt 16: 24-26). 

In other words what Jesus is saying is this; in this world there is something that appears to be good, it appears pleasant to the eye, it appears attractive because it stimulates the natural person. But to participate in that kind of life will bring spiritual death. Every one of us has a choice to fulfil those natural desires or we can put off or give up those things so that we can have true treasure and true life.

There is the story of how the Israelites were deceived after the two battles at Jericho and at Ai. The Hivites, who were living in Gibeon, sent a delegation to Joshua. They loaded donkeys with worn out sacks and old wineskins that were cracked and repaired. The men wore old clothes and worn out sandals. They had bread that was dried and mouldy and they deceived Joshua and the Israelites by telling them that they had come from a very distant country and they asked if they could make a treaty with them. ‘The leaders did not enquire of the Lord and they made a treaty of peace with the Hivites and ratified it by an oath’. By the time Israel found out that they had been deceived it was too late to do anything about it and later on these Hivites would become a destructive force and would cause Israel to suffer defeat. (Joshua chapter 9).

You need to understand that there are two types of wisdom. In the letter of James we are told that there is an earthly wisdom and there is a heavenly wisdom. The world’s wisdom causes contention, strife, and division and is devilish. Whereas the wisdom from above is pure and it brings peace and harmony. Everything that the world calls life the scriptures call death. What man says is wisdom God says is foolishness. (1 Cor 1:25).

When we start to make a comparison, there is a vast difference in what the world says and in what the word says.

If you look at the prodigal son, he left his father’s house, went to a distant country where he lived a life of debauchery and wild living. When he came to his senses and repented, what did his father say? This son of mine who was ‘dead’ is now ‘alive’. This spirit of delight and delusion is influencing multitudes of people. The world says ‘get a life, get out into the real world and live; you’re only young once get out and live it up.

 

We are told that ‘the rabble’ that had joined the people when they came out of Egypt caused all their problems. The ‘rabble’ were not satisfied with the manna. ‘Think of the fish we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, the leeks, onions and garlic! Here we are wasting away, stripped of everything; there is nothing but manna for us to look at’. (Nos 11:4-6).

This spirit of the Hivite will entice us to look away from life and will try to present to us all the ‘good things’ of this world. Notice the words ‘stripped of everything’, that’s the delusion. Remember that Egypt speaks of the world and the Lord took them out. Jesus said that we were in the world but we didn’t belong to the world. The world is not your friend; the world is your enemy. And that world will try to entice you, and try to bind you, because if the world can gain an inroad into your life, you have then touched not life but you have touched death

‘The love of the Father cannot be in any man who loves the world, because nothing the world has to offer¾The sensual body¾the lustful eye¾pride in possessions¾

Could ever come from the Father but only from the world; and all that the world craves for is coming to an end; but anyone who does the will of God remains forever. (1 John 2:15-17).

 

God wants us to fulfil all those natural drives in a spirit of holiness, in righteousness and in purity; because if we try to fulfil those natural drives according to the ways of the world, then instead of giving us satisfaction, there will be a well of loneliness within. When Jesus spoke to the woman at the well he told her that she had had five husbands and that the one she was living with now was not hers. Why do you think that many people are going from partner to partner and trying to seek their fulfilment outside the purity of Christ? Moving from one relationship to another does not bring fulfilment; it only creates a vacuum within that never can be fulfilled. The more people get involved with this spirit of delusion and delight, the greater the need is, the greater the hunger, the greater the thirst for satisfaction and they end up carrying around a fire within that never can be quenched. Unless we deal with the Hivite spirit we will be touching death all the time instead of life.

‘Think of what Christ suffered in this life, and then arm yourself with the same resolution that he had: anyone who in this life has bodily suffering has broken with sin, because for the rest of his life on earth he is not ruled by human passions but only by the will of God. You spent long enough in the past living the sort of life that the pagans live, behaving indecently, giving way to your passions, drinking all the time, having wild parties and drunken orgies and degrading yourselves by following false gods’. (1 peter 4: 1-4).

 

The spirit of deception blinds us from the truth and it will offer to us a fruit that appears enticing to the eyes, as it offered the fruit to Eve. We are told that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light and that’s why we need to be on our guard against what may appear to be from the Lord, so as not to be led astray.

‘A man who hankers after ashes has a deluded heart and is led astray. He will never free his soul, or say “what I have in my hand is a lie”. (Is 44:20).

‘Don’t delude yourself into thinking that God can be cheated: where a man sows, there he reaps; If he sows in the field of self-indulgence he will get a harvest of corruption out of it; If he sows in the field of the spirit he will get from it a harvest of eternal life’. (Gal 6: 7-9).

 

 

ISRAEL'S & OUR ENEMIES (Part 3) The spirit of the Canaanites

 

The spirit of the Canaanites

The word Canaanite means: Trader or merchant. This is the spirit that tries to bring us low, by trade or traffic and it deals with our money

The nation of Israel had crossed over the river Jordan. They had just won a mighty victory at Jericho and a few days later they were about to suffer their first defeat, all because of this Canaanite spirit. They had come to the town of Ai and Joshua sent some spies to see what the place was like and the spies came back and said ‘There is no need for all the people to go up; let some two or three thousand men go and attack Ai. Spare the whole people such toil; the enemy are not many’. (Jos. 7:3-4).

The Israelites attacked the town and they literally had the living daylights beaten out of them; this caused ‘the people to lose heart and their courage melted away’. Joshua and the elders lay down before the Lord to seek his face and to enquire of him why this happened.

 

The Lord replied, ‘Israel has sinned; they have violated the covenant I ordained for them. Yes, they have taken what was under the ban, stolen and hidden it and put it into their baggage. That’s why the sons of Israel cannot stand up against their foes; why they have turned their backs on their enemies, because they have come under the ban themselves. I will be with you no longer unless you remove what is under the ban from among you’. (Jos. 7: 11-12).

Before the taking of Jericho they were told that everything had to be put aside for the Lord. They were told not to be covetous and take anything for themselves, because in doing so disaster would strike the whole camp. ‘All the silver and the gold, all the Things of bronze and things of iron are consecrated to the Lord and must be put into his treasury’. (Jos. 6:17-19).

 

The next morning Joshua told each tribe to sanctify itself before the Lord and as the clans and families of each tribe came forward, they finally came to a man called Achan. The test was ‘Give glory to God’, and Achan admitted that he had sinned. He got his eyes on the gold and the silver and a Babylonian robe. They searched his tent and found them there. Achan, his family, his tent, his possessions, his livestock and the articles that he had stolen, were all taken to the valley of Achor and there they were stoned to death. Achan had come under the influence of this trafficking trading Canaanite spirit and it got the better of him and he lost everything because he had succumbed to that temptation. Now there is nothing wrong with gold or silver, as long as you are not hanging onto that which belongs to God.

 

You see, there are things, which God has said that we are not to touch. And that is represented by the Babylonian robe or garment. That’s a representation of the world. You could put it like this, touch not; taste not and handle not. The world has nothing to offer us except pollution and defilement. There are things that God has said, that are rightfully his, and to withhold that which rightfully belongs to God becomes an accursed thing in our hands, instead of a blessing. One tenth of all our income God says belongs unto him. If we withhold that which rightfully belongs to him then that becomes a cursed thing in our hands.

 

There is the story of Gehazi the servant of Elisha. You will recall how great a ministry the prophet Elijah had and Elisha was his servant. Elisha received a ‘double portion’ of the anointing of the spirit that rested on Elijah and he performed twice as many miracles. Gehazi had the opportunity to become twice as great as his master Elisha but this spirit of the Canaanite caused him to lose everything.

 

There is the story of Naaman the army commander of the Syrians who had leprosy, came to Elisha seeking healing and the prophet who told him to go and bath seven times in the river Jordan. Naaman did as Elisha told him and he came out of the Jordan completely cleansed. Naaman tried to give Elisha a gift for his healing and the man of God refused the gift¾why? Because the gifts of God are without money.

You can’t buy your salvation, you can’t buy your healing, you can’t buy your righteousness, they are all gifts from God. So when Elisha is offered the gift, he refuses it.

 

Then Gehazi his servant said to himself, ‘my master has let this Syrian Naaman off too lightly, by not accepting what he offered. As Yahweh lives I will run after him and get something out of him’. So he set off in pursuit.¾Gehazi lied to Naaman and told him that Elisha had sent him because two other prophets had arrived and he needed money for them, so Naaman gave him two bags of gold and two bags of clothes which Gehazi took and hid in his house, then he went and presented himself to Elisha as if nothing had happened. (2 K 5:20-24).

‘Elisha said, ‘Gehazi, where have you been?’ ‘Your servant didn’t go anywhere’ he replied. ‘Was not my spirit with you when the man got down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to take money, or to accept clothes, olive groves, vineyards, male and female slaves? Naaman’s leprosy will cling to you and to your descendants forever’. Then Gehazi left his presence a leper as white as snow’. (2 K 5: 25-27).

The spirit of the Canaanite got hold of Gehazi and not only did he lose his ministry, he lost everything because he coveted after that which he should not have at that time. It was not the ‘right time’ for him to have that wealth. The Scriptures are quite clear about times for us to receive money and about times for us not to receive money. There are times to accept gifts and there are times not to accept gifts. You have to use the wisdom of God when receiving gifts and money for your ministry. If we try to make money outside the season of the Lord than we can end up as spiritual lepers.

 

In the midst of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church a great tragedy happens. It is the story of Ananias and Sapphira. They sold a piece of property and they promised to give the money that they received for it to the Lord. Ananias kept back part of the money and brought the rest and put it at the feet of the apostles. Peter said, ‘Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? ¾You have not lied to men but to God.’ When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died.¾Three hours later his wife came in not knowing what had happened to her husband and told the same story and she too died instantly and great fear seized the whole Church. (Acts 5:1-11).

The money was theirs to begin with and they could have done what they liked with it. Their problem was that they had made a promise to give the proceeds of the land to the Lord and then they went back on their promise. That’s where the judgement of God comes, when we promise to give something to the Lord and then withhold or lie about it. These people were greedy for profit and this trading spirit brought them low.

 

There is the story of Judas, and it’s an interesting story because we are told that he had a covetous nature and when the woman who washed the feet of Jesus with her tears, broke the alabaster jar of ointment, we are told that Judas and some of the disciples said that the jar could have been sold for a high price and the money given to the poor; and we are told that Judas wasn’t concerned about the poor for he held the bag. Later on we are told that he had a covetous nature and the enemy, this spirit of the Canaanite was able to whisper into that area of his covetousness and Judas succumbed to his weakness and he sold Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. When he realised what he had done, he was full of remorse and he went out and hanged himself. That’s the nature of this trading spirit, it is out to rob, and out to destroy and to cast us down by getting us to do the exact opposite of what Jesus told us to do. It wasn’t that the rich young man had wealth; the wealth had him. The real test is, do you have money or does money have you? There is nothing wrong with money; it is the ‘love’ of money that is the root of all kinds of evil. People who seek for selfish motives, profit; that seek for selfish motives, gain; those who think that ‘godliness is gain’, are only deceiving themselves. (1 Tim 6: 6-10).

 

In the middle ages the teaching arose that if you were a godly person you would have money. This was suppressed, so in order to follow their religious beliefs, the early fathers of this doctrine that godliness was profit and that you would be able to trade freely, emigrated to America. When those Pilgrim Fathers came over to America they did not start Churches, what they did was to set up ‘trading companies’ to practise what they believed. They believed that as a sign of your godliness you would profit financially. Unfortunately this ‘prosperity’ gospel is still being pushed around today, that if you have faith, then you are going to be financially prosperous. Now, that is fine ‘if’ God wants you to prosper that way. But the test of universal truth is that it must be accepted universally in every nation, to every people, to every creed and to every race. If you go around and talk about prosperity as it being taught today and go to Russia or go to China where, when you come to Christ you become a pauper and are left destitute. You talk to these people about prosperity and godliness being linked together and they will mock you and laugh in your face.  Because universal truth can only be preached universally. This type of teaching only brings people under condemnation. Do I believe in prosperity? Yes I do, but it must be in God’s time and if you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then what you possess is what God wants you to have. The Canaanite spirit wants you to believe that prosperity and godliness go hand in hand. Prosperity comes by an attitude of heart.

One of the darkest sins of England was reported in the China inland mission.

The business interest of these British trading companies had grown opium in India and they could not land this opium in England. So they turned to China with that opium and the Chinese Government refused to allow them to sell their opium in China. So these traders began to smuggle opium into China, but because of their financial ‘pull’ in England, these traders ‘moved’ Parliament to send the British navy to go and shell undefended cities of China and for twenty seven hours they shelled defenceless cities till finally the Chinese Government opened those ports up so that opium could be traded into China. Because of that trafficking, because of that Canaanite spirit, millions upon millions of Chinese became slaves to opium. What spirit do you think was behind the ‘Gulf war’, and all the other wars? It’s all because of finances. Think about all the destruction and the loss of lives, all because of this trading spirit.

 

You can see this spirit operating in the life of Lot the nephew of Abram. There came a time when their flocks had increased so much that the land could not support them while they stayed together. On top of that there was quarrelling between their herdsmen so they decided to separate. So Abram who was wise in the things of God, told Lot to choose for himself whatever land he wanted and that he would take whatever was left over. Now it takes a big person in God to be able to give someone else first preference. It’s got to take a big person in God to be able to make him or herself poor in order to make others rich. So Lot gets his greedy eyes on the lush land of the Jordan and set out towards the east and he settled near Sodom. When Lot chose this land he was judging according to the flesh because of his covetousness. If he had been in the spirit he would have seen the end result, the destruction of his own family and the destruction of that city. Paul says, ‘Never say or do anything except in the name of the Lord Jesus’, why? Because when we do things by ourselves the end results may have disastrous consequences for us. This is what James writes about. ‘What causes fights and quarrels among you¾because you covet after things’?

This is the influence of the Canaanite spirit. At this moment in time the world is going ‘claim’ mad, because it’s a quick way to make some money. The one thing that will make you ‘sociably’ acceptable is money. It doesn’t matter how you get it, as long as you have plenty of it the world will look up to you. Why do you think people go out on strike? They are rejecting the word of God that says ‘be content with what you have’. (1 Tim 6:9).

‘Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility always consider others to be better than yourself’. This is what Abraham the man of God did. If we have our hearts set on money and gain, we will have anguish and anxiety; if we set our hearts on the Lord we will have life and peace.

This spirit of the Canaanite is one of the tools in the arsenal of the Antichrist. We are told that ‘he also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no-one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name’. (Rev 13:16-17).

 This trading spirit has taken control of the banking systems of the world so that he can imitate God who said ‘would supply all our needs’ (Phil 4:19) and he wants everyone to be dependent upon him so that everyone would have to depend on him for their needs. Up until the mid 70’s we all got paid cash in an envelope; the majority of people never had a bank account. Now everyone has to have a bank account and operate under their system. Did you know that Jesus never handled money, and it’s interesting to note that Caesar head was on the coin and it belonged to him. Today the Queen’s head may be on coins or bank notes but they don’t belong to her.  But I’ve got news for you; all the wealth in the world is coming the way of the Church. That’s why this trading spirit is trying to hold on to it.   ‘The wealth of the wicked is being stored up for the just’. (Pro13:22).

 

‘We brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it; but as long as we have food and clothing, let us be content with that’. (1 Tim 6:7-8).