Walking With God

Copyright Sept. 24, 2007 by David L. Williams. Permission is granted to share this, as long as it is given freely. Nothing may be added to it, nor subtracted from it. If your copy is on paper, request free download via email at: DavWms777@AOL.COM

Gen. 3:15 π Ex. 34:9 π 2 Sam. 24:1 π 1 Chr. 21:1 π Isa. 7:14-15 π Mt. 16:17 π Mt. 25:1-13 π Lk. 2:52 π Lk. 9:55 π Lk. 10:19 π 2 Cor. 11:3-4 π Rev. 3:17 π Rev. 19:7

Prologue π 1 π 2 π 3 π 4 π 5 π 6 π 7 π 8 π 9 π 10 π 11 π 12 π 13 π 14 π 15 π 16 π 17 π 18 π Conclusion π Epilogue

The series of trials had been long and hard. I had seriously asked God to show anything wicked in me that displeased Him, and had no idea what that would entail. The changes in my life were taking me where I’d never heard of anyone going before, and I often regretted asking that of God. During one of those deliverance trials, I came to that decision making place again. It went like this:

I was slumped at my desk, emotionally drained to the point that even my body ached. I felt I could go no further. Suddenly everything around me began changing, and I was drawn into a vision. It was so real. I found myself on a mountainside that was covered with bitterbrush. Bitterbrush is the three to four foot tall thicket that deer make narrow trails through in the mountains of California. It is too thick for a person to go through, and has long sharp thorns to discourage anyone trying.

I looked downhill behind me and saw a wide trail I had cleared. The soil was roughed up from the battles I’d fought, and in the scuffs were pools of my blood. I turned and looked uphill and saw more bitterbrush ahead of me as far as the eye could see. I was in such pain, I wanted to run downhill.

Then I saw Jesus standing close to me, looking at me with intense concern in His eyes. Then I heard Him plead, more than ask, “Will you go on?” The vision disappeared and I sat at my desk crying. His concern for me overwhelmed me, and the plea was from so deep in His heart that it touched me to my depths. How could I not go on, after that? I told Him I would go on.

Those deliverance trials lasted for 3-1/2 years. I kept waiting for another, but it didn’t come. Little by little I came to know I was to write about those experiences, and tried many times. I did not yet know I had more to learn, but no longer by trials. He had shown me so many things going through those trials and I had not yet put them together with the proper conclusions.

Since then it has been a journey to lay those things out so others could make sense of them. During this time, He showed me the Bible connections so it could be seen this was not from my imagination but had been hidden in the Bible all along, waiting to be seen and acted upon in this era.

Each era in God’s plan has its own revelation for that era. It is drawing near time for Jesus to come for His Bride, so now is the time for her to prepare herself. Note that Rev. 19:7 (top) tells us that the Bride will prepare herself. This verse is missed by many, and needs to be seen as important so we no longer misquote “It is finished” as though we do not have to do our part.

Lord, open the eyes of our understanding. In Jesus’ name, amen.

The question is, “Are we really ready for Jesus to come for His Bride?” To answer that, let’s consider a few more questions; Have we become holy yet? Have we become one yet? Have we dismissed Jesus’ words that He is coming after a Bride without spot or wrinkle, and have we settled instead that we will not be cleansed until after He comes for us?

For that last question, let’s look at some logic. It is said that when we see Jesus as He is, we will become like Him. We need to know that this is not about our being. It is about our body, which will change to be like His. Think of this; If we had already become just like Him in every way, then why would we still need to be judged, with varying rewards depending on our works here on earth? Our being will remain essentially the personality we developed here on earth.

Long ago, I had just finished watching a documentary about the pyramids in Egypt. As I was contemplating the pyramid that had no capstone, I wondered if that was a parable about the Israelites leaving Egypt without their capstone, Jesus. Suddenly, I heard, “Watch this!” A pyramid vision formed before my eyes, made of thousands of shaped rocks. I “knew” that each rock represented a verse in the Bible.

Then I saw a red line go from one rock to another way across the structure, and from that rock to another, and then another. This continued until the whole pyramid was red. I understood that this meant that every verse in the Word must be considered in the light of every other verse in the Bible, and to not merely read in context to get hidden truths. That while truth can come by reading in context, more and deeper truths come from seeing a larger picture.

I saw that reading only in context merely gives rules to follow, while seeing larger pictures reveals the heart of God. The Bible is like layers of an onion, each layer showing what we need to know for where we are spiritually at that particular time. Subsequent readings can peel back more layers to know God more deeply.

It seems to me that most of us stop with the first layer and few find the deeper truths that can help the Bride of Christ to prepare herself for His coming for her. The first layer tells us that we are sinners who need Jesus. We see the Bible heroes and desire to be like them, for we see that God was pleased with them. But we may have come short in staying with that layer, not knowing there are more. Only those who will go deeper will find the Narrow Gate and take the hard path that makes us like Jesus. Jesus said that only a few would find and take this path.

Over and over as Jesus walked the earth, He talked about the evil hidden in men’s hearts, (souls.) He indicated that men could not see their own evil. This book is about our discovering our own personal hidden evil within, and further, being delivered from it, not just following the Law to keep it covered up.

Much of the Bible concerns the Bride and her preparation. And we must take Jesus’ words seriously that it is possible for even the elect to be deceived. It is the intent of this book to show that the Bible tells us just what this deception would be. It was demonstrated all through the Word, and it waits for us to open our spiritual eyes to see it. Know that what you will read in this book will go against much of what you have been taught in church. It is up to you to search out the truth. Let’s begin by showing some of this deception.

We have taught our babes in Christ to look at Bible patriarchs as heroes that we should emulate. Let’s begin by looking at some of them to see if we really want to be like them. But first, know they did the best they could with the revelation each had in his own era. Because they did, they will be placed in high regard in Heaven. But revelation is now available for us to fulfill our era’s destiny, and go further than our patriarchs did. By peeling back some layers, we will show hidden evil in these patriarchs that they were unaware of. And in its place, we will show we have that same leaven. This leaven makes it easy for us to be deceived. We must see this in order to cleanse ourselves and become the prepared Bride. We must also see we can no longer justify ourselves that we are only human. God is perfect, and He ordered us to be like Him.

We all know about how Joseph had dreams as a child about being a future ruler, and how he ended up in a prison in Egypt. We see how he miraculously became Pharaoh’s right hand man, saving not only Egypt from the famine, but also saving the lineage that would form Israel and birth Jesus. But there is something else included about how he accomplished this that is very important.

To save the people, Joseph laid out a plan for the famine that was to come. He caused them to grow extra food and put it in storage under his management. When the famine came, he sold the food back to them. When they ran out of money, he traded the food for their land. When their land was gone, he caused them to sell themselves as slaves to the pharaoh, and thus, slaves to himself.

We have been so enthralled over the miraculous involved in bringing Joseph’s family back together in forgiveness, that we missed seeing how he let evil leaven into the situation. He had no good reason to sell the food back to the very ones who had grown it. He had no good reason to take their land. He had no good reason to make slaves of the people. (Later, the law of sowing and reaping came into effect, and another pharaoh made slaves of the Israelites.) Keep what Joseph did in mind as we explore other like leaven, and in its place, we will show the roots of this evil.

Moses had led the people out of Egypt, going through many trials in the process. Just before they were to enter the Promised Land, God instructed him to speak to the rock to bring forth water for the complaining rebellious Israelites. Not only did he strike the rock instead, but his angry words can tell us something. He said, “Must we bring forth water from this rock?” He was speaking for himself and his brother, Aaron. This anger revealed he felt his personal significance was being challenged, not God’s. He was unaware of this, but God wasn’t. Moses was not allowed to lead the people into the Promised Land.

King David provides us with an even greater example. Even the chosen ancestor of Jesus demonstrated something strange within him that few of us have noticed. This goes beyond the adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband. We look at his good and miss the evil roots hidden within him. But God showed He saw the things in him that David was unaware of. We have to arrange his scattered story in chronological order to see this for ourselves.

We see in the Psalms where David pled for God to show any wickedness within him, and he also asked to see the ways of God. God showed him both, but David was unable to recognize them in the trials God sent to him to expose them. In all fairness, we must know it was not yet time for people to see the revelation about the reasons for trials sent our way. But the record is there for us to see for revelation needed in our day.

It was known that when David personally led the army in battle, quick victory was assured because of God’s hand on him. Yet we see him listening to friends advising him to no longer go to war, lest he be taken from them. He took that advice, and at a time when kings go to war, King David stayed home. There, he is tempted by seeing Bathsheba bathing and sends for her. When it was found she was pregnant, David schemed to make it look like the pregnancy was from her husband, Uriah, not him.

That failing, David sent Uriah, a more righteous man than he, to the front lines of the war and had him murdered. David did not repent until the prophet confronted him. And even then, his repentance was only partial. He said he had sinned against God and God only. He did not see his arrogance in destroying the lives of others as sin against them. Nevertheless, God gave him mercy again and set up another trial situation to expose his iniquity, the wickedness he had asked God to show him.

Next, we look at 2 Samuel 24:1 and 1 Chronicles 21:1 (top) together and see God sending the devil to entice David into counting his warriors. This was to show him his hidden arrogant pride of high position. He was warned by several not to do this, but he paid no attention. So God sent a plague on David’s people. He repented again, but only to what was obvious in the eyes of other people.

So God arranged yet another situation for him. We find David again lounging while his men went off to war. When the battle was near victory, his general sent for him to come and get the glory. He did so, taking credit for a victory he had no part in. Note that God did not use David again except to install his son, Solomon, to be the next king. But also see that Bathsheba had to do the arranging, for David had become rather useless.

Next, we need to look at Solomon, David’s son. He had a dream in which he asked for God to give him wisdom to rule His people. Since it was only a dream, this made his wisdom a gift, rather than learned wisdom. In this, he had wisdom for others but not for himself, as his life story shows.

Solomon knew God had promised to not visit David’s sin on him, and that his reign would be in peace. Yet he prepared for war, buying horses and chariots from Egypt, with whom no Israelite was to do business. Solomon built army outposts to defend against an enemy that should never come in his days. He made his people part time slaves to build an empire he would rule over, exalting himself.

Solomon unwisely married many wives and had many concubines. He had written about how foolish it was to have more than one woman, yet did not follow this wisdom for himself. Many of these women were from foreign countries and had foreign gods. In time, they convinced him to build altars, high places in which they could worship their idols right there in Jerusalem.

In the above stories, we have shown there is often another story about our Bible heroes than we learned about in Sunday school. If we can see that, then perhaps we can go further and find out why these patriarchs could do such evil things, often even while in a close relationship with God. And in its place, perhaps we will see what spots and wrinkles we have, even though we too may be in a close relationship with God. We will get back to the patriarchs later in Chapter Three.

As we go on in this, it is my hope you will come to the revelation of, “They know not what they do,” the words Jesus spoke on the cross. It is one thing to assume the meaning in our mind, and quite another to get a revelation of its real meaning.

To understand what we saw in the patriarchs that we must also search out in ourselves, we need to explore some basics. Here, we will make a mental picture of our foundational knowledge.

A child is born with a relatively empty mind. Let’s see it as a room full of empty information file boxes, each waiting to be filled. As each bit of new information comes, it is filed in the appropriate subject box. Then when a particular subject comes up again, past information would be there to help guide our decision making process.

It would be overwhelming to shuffle through so much information each time a particular subject came up again. But our minds have the wonderful ability to draw an overall conclusion from all the information gathered on a given subject. In a sense, we can write out our conclusion on a label and paste it on the box, so we never have to go into the details ever again. We need only look at the label.

Babies are born with little more than instincts to begin with. When they feel a need, they cry for it to be fulfilled. At this stage, they cannot consider anyone but themselves. So the beginning of their filling those knowledge boxes is about how to get what they want. For lack of a better word, we must call this, “selfishness.” No, it is not intended by them to be selfish as we think of the word, but without wisdom, they know no other way to get their wants met.

Then we found ourselves coming under discipline and had no idea why this was coming about. We only knew that we had to do the will of those big powerful authorities, or we would be punished. So even though our selfishness had not gone away, we had to find ways to not be punished but to still get as much of what we wanted as possible. We learned to act.

Depending on what our family was like, we chose an act that would best suit our purposes to get what we wanted. On one end of the scale, some would choose to be defiant, perhaps even being a bully. On the other end of the scale, some would find it more profitable to act sweet, in hopes this would bring more of what we wanted. There are many other modes of acting between those. But every one of us chose what we assumed would work best for us to get what we wanted. Those were not conscious choices, but were what we felt was the most comfortable for the moment we were in. We did not know back then that we were setting our ways for how to get along in life.

As adults, we have mostly forgotten just how traumatic those childhood learning times were. Back then to us, each moment was our whole life. Without wisdom, we felt that when we were denied our desires, we were not being loved. We felt rejection. This brings us to the meat of the subject. We need to know what else we put in those knowledge boxes.

In our church teachings today, we dismiss the importance of knowing just how our enemy operates. All too often we are told we do not have to worry about the devil, since he was defeated at the cross. But Jesus left him intact for us to contend with, didn’t He? By our ignoring the devil’s ways, we actually help him do his evil works on earth. We even joke about how, “the devil made me do it.” There is nothing funny about this!

We were not told the whole story about evil spirits in the Bible. Note that even the religious leaders of Jesus’ days knew much about them anyway, but not from the Torah. They had learned to put what they saw in daily life with what the Word did say, and came to conclusions that were mostly correct. Likewise, we need to do the same thing, and learn far more than they did. I call this “parable thinking.” Thinking in parables brings revelation.

Parable thinking was shown as Jesus’ tool to make difficult things understandable, but only to those who were spiritual. Parable thinking is putting invisible information alongside visible information, and this brings revelation. The visible speaks of the invisible.

If there is one thing we need to know as Christians, it is that the evil spirits have still small voices to employ, just as God does. These are thought transmissions from the spirit world to us, and are not usually orders to do something wrong. They are far more subtle and deceptive than that. Their assault on children reaches full speed when we have an established vocabulary, but while we are yet void of wisdom.

Evil spirits send thoughts to us and we “hear” them in the first-person, as if they were our own thoughts and not from another. The evil spirits did not say, “You are bad.” No, they said, “I am bad,” as if it was our own thought. As adult Christians, we can easily dismiss such thoughts. But as children without wisdom, we were absolutely vulnerable to them even into our teens and later. It was the very purpose of those spirits to put wrong information in those knowledge boxes, and to allow the conclusion labels on them to keep us from ever going back into them to correct the lies therein.

Lies were given to us by evil spirits during the traumatic disciplining times of our childhood. This took place mostly as we brooded after being denied something we wanted, and after we found our tantrum did not work. The thoughts they transmitted to us were about our worth. They made us feel as though we were rejectable, not worthy of being loved. The spirits would enforce this and cause self-pity and bitterness to form in us, because it is unfair that we are unlovable. Children seem to have an innate sense about fairness, but they do not draw the dividing line where it should to be.

The brooding brought much self-condemnation. But this could only be taken so long before we needed a solution to make us feel better about ourselves. And the evil spirits were there to give us a way out of those feelings. It took practice and perfecting over a period of time for us to find a way to dull the pain of feeling rejectable.

Early on, we learned to shift blame to deflect feelings of rejection. As a toddler, we may have spilled our milk, then we would say that “it spilled,” distancing ourselves from being at fault. We perfected this to where we never even notice that when things go wrong, we find fault from somewhere else as the cause. It is always someone else, or this or that happened, causing the problem. We ignore that in most cases, a little wisdom would have avoided the problem in the first place, regardless of others or the situation.

But the main way of avoiding feeling rejectable was to justify ourselves. We began seeing that our peers and authorities were not perfect, either. In a child’s mind, this would serve to justify us in our own wrongdoings. “If they can do wrong, then why do they always pick on me?” Guess who put that thought in our minds?

This “comparison” justification will always be there to soothe our feelings in our own minds. But later when we have a great embarrassing fall where others can obviously see our wrong, we are likely to begin speaking it out. We will quickly admit our wrong, (probably not specifically though.) The next phase we choose is to lay out the parts that others involved played. This is meant to get others to take their eyes off our self, and to look at the faults of others, instead. We won’t even be aware this is our motive.

For another example, let’s further consider that toddler spilling the milk. His mother scolds him and kneels to wipe the spill from the floor. She bumps her head on the table and now her anger rises. When the child sees this, he will no longer even consider his responsibility for the spill, but will feel his mother is wrong for blaming him for her bumping her head. He has twisted the subjects in his own mind to justify himself. He conveniently remembered only the part that made him feel less bad about himself. Again, the evil spirits guided those thoughts.

Then of course, there was always the, “I didn’t mean to” excuse. It was proper when a true accident happened, but all too often we were at fault in one way or another and still presented that same excuse. We don’t even notice our thought process as we go on in life. After we do or say something we should not have, our mind automatically goes over the possible ways we can make ourselves feel better about it, and we go on satisfied with the justification we chose. If we do feel slightly convicted by our decision, we let a little time go by and any guilt becomes safely hidden away.

Those kinds of self justification would become a very strong excuse for our wrong ways. We would put a label on a box that would never be entered again to see how poor these excuses really are. That label would carry us throughout our lives and we would never truly see our responsibility for our wrongdoing for what it should be. The mixture of “I didn’t mean to” and time passing becomes an automatic assumption of innocence.

But there is yet another very important thing we put in those boxes in our youth. We were desperate to feel significant and when someone hurt our significance feelings, we vowed to someday show all those people how wrong they were. Vows, even those made by children, have very much power. Not only that, there is vengeance in such vows. The evil spirits worked hard to cause us to make vows, as they knew that they would become a curse within us as we grew older, and that we would never suspect where the curse came from.

Let’s look at this from another angle. The Bible consists of two testaments. “Testament” means, “covenant.” So God presents us with His covenant, and when we are saved, we make a covenant with God in return. That came about by our simply agreeing with God’s covenant. What we don’t realize happened when we agreed with demons’ words to us, is that we made covenants with them. And these covenants remain hidden in place unless we find them and renounce them.

We may have forgotten even making those vows soon after the pressure was off us, but they remain in effect. For example, remember one time when you knew a certain good event was to come in the future. Even though your thoughts were not always on that coming event, there was an underlying sense that something good is coming, right up until it happens. Likewise, our vows give us a subconscious anticipation of someday having others recognize our significance. Don’t take this lightly!

It should not surprise us that the devil wants us to make vows. After all, he vowed to one day ascend to the very throne of God.

So as we grow, we become more proficient at showing the world that we are not rejectable. Alongside this is an inner drive vow to prove we are significant. Added to this is how we learned to manipulate to get our desires met, to the best measure we can without being seen as selfish. This is the personality we present to the world.

But it is a false personality developed with the help of evil spirits, so it is not the personality God designed for us. It is built on the leaven of lies and errors. It is maintained by never going back to those knowledge boxes and bringing truth to them. We assume we are just the way we are supposed to be, and we carry that right into our Christianity, and even into after being filled with the Holy Spirit. Those lies, vows, and errors are our iniquity, hidden deep in our foundational knowledge boxes.

These vows are our “flesh.” They are promises to ourselves that one day, we will have it our way. Later, even after our salvation, we can think we are hearing something from God, but we are really hearing our fleshly desires. It will not be apparent to us that our vows have formed a hidden agenda to rise in the sight of others. And even as we say, “All the glory goes to God,” we won’t realize that is not quite true.

One problem we have with those box contents later in our life is, that our own spirit is fully aware of them and tries to pressure us to re-examine them. Ignoring this pressure can cause many kinds of tensions and sicknesses. Instead of being open to truths, we find ways to keep busy, make mind noise, or use chemical mood changers, or any number of other ways to silence our inner voice. We can even form a constant praise to God to keep from hearing it.

We can also become so busy trying to change the world, or at least to stop the devil from making advances, that we cannot hear God’s voice telling us to fight the right battle, the one for the Kingdom within us.

It is important here to mention other ways vows can affect us later in life. Panic attacks can come from inner fears that we are not completing our vows, or depression can come from unmet inner expectations. We would not know these come from an “inner knowing” that we were not fulfilling our vows. More often than not, these come about the time we realize we are late into our lives. Sometimes we call this, “Mid-life crisis.” But for some, this can happen earlier in life.

We can also erupt in anger, even to rage at times when our vows are threatened. We would not know the real reason for our rage, and would have only to try and discipline our self to stop. But this solution can only last for a while then along comes stress again, and we find our self going around the same mountain once again.

Perhaps we need a mental picture of what our soul is, since we cannot physically see it. Let’s picture it as a hollow ball in our lower chest. Inside it are three smaller balls. One of the small balls is our intellect, another is our emotions, and the third is our will. The former two are used in making decisions. The latter one is for putting those decisions into action. In the mix between those three balls is our own spirit, which was designed to make proper sense of information so we can make proper decisions. It has perfect memory from our past experiences, and it also has intuition of the unknown.

The problem is, when we unknowingly decided as children to listen to the lies of evil spirits, we quenched our own spirit so we could no longer develop it to see wisdom. That left us to make our decisions by our emotions, only sometimes influenced by our intellect. Our emotions had been so overwhelmed by shame, that our main way to get through life is to keep from having hurting emotions again.

So all our decisions are made in our soul. While trying to make an important decision, we may be balancing out the plusses and minuses to know which way to go. Without knowing it, our emotions often tip the scales and are the real cause of our choice, regardless of right or wrong.

So when we get filled with the Holy Spirit, He moves into the mix and tries to awaken our spirit so it can bring wisdom into our decision making process. But we have not known this purpose and have ignored it. We have instead been playing with our Holy Spirit giftings as if that were the sole purpose. Thus we have not been able to win over the enemy, for we have not known his real wiles.

The Holy Spirit is sent to us to bring all truth. But we have concentrated on stopping our sin without seeing the iniquity within us that causes us to sin. So we ignore that by listening to our shepherds tell us all the ways to stop sinning, which is but a thin bandage over the festering wound of our iniquity.

Note that sin and iniquity are two different things, being mentioned in Ex. 34:9 (top) with “and” between them. Often in the Bible, iniquity is mentioned along with a type of sin, showing that we sin because of our iniquity. But most of our teachings talk of them as if they both mean the same thing. The Bride will find the difference.

Now, let’s go back to what we saw in our Bible patriarchs, where they let evil leaven into their works. Let’s see that even they had childhoods like ours. Joseph had been ridiculed and hated by his many brothers. Even his father Jacob could not understand his prophetic dreams and angrily dismissed them as meaningless.

We are shown Moses had a speech impairment of some kind. We know how childhood peers make fun of anything they see as a fault in others. He also had a strange childhood in the Pharaoh’s palace. He knew he was out of place, and he did not like how his fellow Israelites were being treated. When he finally arose against that treatment, his own people rejected him. He had to flee for his life.

David was shown being ridiculed by his siblings. When the prophet came to Jesse’s house to choose the next king of Israel, David’s father did not even consider him worthy to be present at the meeting. He had been sent out to tend sheep.

Solomon was the wisest man alive, but we need to see more about his childhood too, to see why he made some of the worst decisions ever. David preferred his evil son Absalom over Solomon, even though he knew God had chosen Solomon to be the next king.

What do you suppose took place in the minds of those patriarchs as they grew up under these conditions? Isn’t it likely they did the same as we did, making vows to someday show others that they were significant, after all? Now, let’s look at how the vows became a curse in their lives, and perhaps we will see the same for ourselves.

First, did you notice that each of them were absolutely blind to the evil leaven within themselves? How could this be? They were also in a close relationship with God as they went about such. Why were they unable to see what they were doing was wrong? It was because of blind pride.

We tend to think of pride as something we can easily see, since we have all seen boastful people. But this blind pride is different. Remember the vows they forgot they ever made? After they rose to a high position among the people, there came an inner self satisfaction that they had completed their vows. This never came with conscious thinking, since it is an inner soul matter.

This gave them an arrogance, an inner sense of being superior to all who are now below them. They can now justify what evil they do to others as their proper due. And they would not know that there were many knowledge boxes within them that had labels that confirmed that self-justification. Those labels caused them to be blind to their own evil ways. So, they knew not what they were doing. The vows brought a curse on them of hidden insidious pride, the same kind of pride the devil has.

You should not be too sure this same blindness is not in you. You will not be able to see it merely because you have read these words. This can only be revealed by the One who came to bring all truth, the Holy Spirit. I will discuss what I know about how He does this later.

It is discouraging in writing these things about self-justification, shame, and significance, knowing that almost every person reading this will let it go over their own heads. They may be able to see these things in others, but will not be open to see it in themselves. This book is about you, not them!

We have shown some tools the enemy uses to bring us into making vows and in forming our personalities. Those are, self-pity, bitterness, and rejection. But these tools would be useless if they did not already have something within us to work with. This chapter will discuss the devil’s main weapon. We can first see this in early Genesis, in the Garden of Eden.

We see Adam and Eve there, naked and unashamed. As soon as they fell by eating the forbidden fruit, they stood naked and ashamed. We are told they had been corrupted. That means that all God had created in them was still there, but something wrong had been added. It was shame! Now they tried to hide their physical shame with leafs, and tried to hide their spiritual shame with justification for their fall.

Eve said it was the serpent. She knew it was Adam’s job as keeper, (better translated as “watchguard,“) to stop intruders from coming into the Garden, so this shifted some of the blame to him. Adam said it was because of the woman God had brought him, shifting some of the blame to God. In them was the feeling of rejection, that they were no longer acceptable to God, so they tried to paint it over by justifying themselves with half truths. Did you see how quickly they learned to twist things to fend off feelings of shame?

We might say that when shame arises in us, it lessens our feelings of significance. So each time I mention either shame or significance in this writing, know that I am talking about both, from one direction or another. Further, consider that what Adam and Eve lost was their glory. So again, when shame or significance is mentioned, we are also talking about glory. The visible shining glory covering was now gone, thus, the need for lambskins to cover their genitals.

We had been created to be very significant, but now having lost it, we began the battle to regain it. But we have chosen the wrong way as we learned to justify ourselves. There is a proper shame, known as Holy Spirit conviction. This is meant to bring us to ask forgiveness and to repent, bringing back righteousness.

More is needed to understand shame. In our understanding of God, we know He is spirit, but we can also say He “has” a spirit of love. Likewise, the devil is spirit, but he also “has” a spirit. The devil experienced the ultimate rejection from God, and thus, his spirit is named, “shame.” Let’s go into more detail to prove that.

Shame is the opposite of love. We might have thought hate is the opposite, but hate is merely a symptom of shame…. Love loves to be expressed openly. Shame hates to be seen…. Love unites. Shame divides…. The Holy Spirit is the comforter. Shame brings discomfort…. Love makes you feel significant. Shame makes you feel insignificant.

Love is the power of God. Shame is the power of the devil…. God’s love draws us near to Him. Shame, often through self condemnation, tries to drive us away from God…. Did you catch that last sentence? If shame tries to drive us away from God, then that means shame is the spirit of anti-christ, doesn’t it? Don’t reject that thought too quickly. Let’s look at it this way; If shame is the opposite of Love, the Holy Spirit, then shame is the unholy spirit, thus shame is the spirit of anti-christ.

If shame was behind the evil we saw in our patriarchs, then shame was also behind the religious leaders who could not accept Jesus when He was on the earth. Those had satisfied their childhood vows and were now in power. They could not accept the carpenter from Nazareth as the Christ, because He would not recognize their significance. They were against Christ, weren’t they?

So why do we go through so many battles with the “old man” within us? We need only to look again at what came into Adam and Eve. It was shame, and this would be handed down through all to be born of their blood after them. Except for Jesus, whose blood came from His Father, God. Shame was already a part of us when we were born, so that gave rejection, self-pity, and bitterness something to attach to.

So shame is the name of our enemy. It resides within us to do all it can to keep us from becoming the cleansed Bride. It stays hidden within so we cannot see how it has corrupted us. Only by bringing truth to those knowledge boxes within us can we prepare ourselves. And that can only be done with the help of the Holy Spirit.

This is accomplished by taking away the tools that the spirit of shame uses to rule us from within. I doubt that shame itself can also be ousted, but we can take away its power. I suspect shame is a part of our DNA, and this is why we need new uncorrupted bodies when we see Jesus as He is. Remember, in Gen. 3:15 (top), we are shown satan has seed. There, we were told that there would be enmity between Eve’s seed and satan’s seed. We could go much further on this theme, but it would take us off track.

In case there is any remaining doubt about the power of shame, remember back to one time in your life when you were horribly embarrassed. Remember the hot red face and the wish you could just disappear? Perhaps you may remember how you also vowed to never let something like that happen again. If you are able, it would be profitable to watch to see just how careful you are in all your dealings with others to not say or do anything that would be embarrassing. To not expose your shame.

Adam and Eve were told that one day they would go forth from the Garden and dominate the world. But unfortunately, satan has turned that into each of us subtly trying to dominate each other, instead. We need to know just how much we are driven by shame, our feelings of insignificance. From early childhood, children shame each other to get their way, or to imply others are lower than they. They learned this only causes shame to be returned to them, so it became necessary to disguise how shame is put on others.

For example, if one was trying to convince another to do something, a different than normal voice inflection might be used that inferred the other was being stingy. If the other reacted to that inflection, it could always be called “your imagination.” We could use as little as a raised eyebrow, or as much as silent treatment pouting to get what we want. Those methods are only some of the polished tools of shame manipulating.

Newly married couples soon see that each does not recognize the other’s significance, and no matter what they may think they are fighting about, somewhere it comes down to their significance being slighted. This leaves essentially two options. They can divorce, or they can learn to not cross the other’s significance boundary. In the latter case, they can come to look like they love each other, but in truth, it is an unspoken compromise, an armed truce. “You don’t shame me and I won’t shame you.”

Unfortunately, one of the ways adult Christians have polished their defense against shame is to misquote Jesus’ “Judge not that ye be not judged” command. Real judging has two components. One is to assess guilt or innocence, and the other is to apply a penalty, whether real or wished upon another. Note that Jesus assessed everybody He came in contact with, but He did not apply a penalty to any. Thus, He did not judge them.

Likewise, every one of us assesses others we know, and make choices whether to be friends or less with them. But when another says something that slights us, we accuse them of judging us. This is to dissuade them from further assessment by putting shame guilt on them for their supposed trespass of “judging” us.

Shame sneaks in, in many different ways in our lives, unnoticed. Sometimes when someone does something for us, we feel obligated to return the favor, whether we want to or not. Can you see that we fear shame feelings in that? After all, we don’t want anyone to think we are ungrateful. There are some who intentionally do favors just for the purpose of making another feel obligated to them.

If we get angry or get our feelings hurt, it means our significance has been challenged, and we react unlovingly. Some who want to hurt another might tell something, true or not, about his enemies to shame them. Shame is often used to manipulate others to do what one wants them to do. Some can even say, “Thank you very much,” sarcastically to put shame on another. A modern way shame is imposed is in Christian emails that end with someone telling us we are ashamed of Jesus if we don’t forward this email message to others. Manipulation. “Christian” witchcraft.

Shame is also often used in advertising. We are given a view that if we had this or that product, it would elevate us above our peers. We might remember some time ago when a new men’s hair product came on the market, they talked about the old product as “greasy kid’s stuff.” In other words, it would be shameful to continue using the old product. It worked.

Let’s consider sports competition as an example of how people try to rise above others, gaining significance and fulfilling their childhood vows. Note that this competition is not only in the competitors, but also is in the watching fans. They identify themselves with their team. This is a way to feel they are better than the opposing fans. If this were not so, there would not be such a letdown when one’s personal team loses. But there are many other ways that competition is hidden in the hearts of people.

Many join an organization that has a goal. The goal may not at first be meaningful to them, but in time they apply themselves to it fervently. They don’t realize that they are finding power in forcing people outside their organization to have to take notice of them, and they like that feeling of significance. Labor unions are an example of usurping power over others to gain selfish goals. As long as they get their share, most union members will ignore that their leaders are in it for personal gain.

So often we see people who rise to stardom in the eyes of the “common people.” Once there, they feel they have all the answers to life and begin telling those below them how they should live. They are incapable of seeing their own faults. How often do we see this in government leaders?

Shame could also be the reason for finding comfort in a certain church and also how we interpret the Bible. For example, a person not comfortable about the Holy Spirit gifts would find it easier to attend a church where such is not emphasized. He would not know the decision was from fear of looking foolish in the eyes of others whom he knows frown on such.

A preacher could push his congregation to grow his church, and not know at least part of this was fulfilling his childhood vows to someday be seen as significant. God may also want to grow that church, but it cannot have His full blessing because there is leaven in the preacher’s motives. He would not even know he was partly seeking first his own kingdom, rather than only first seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

Shame remains a prominent force in our daily lives. Sometimes, even a preacher might use disguised shame to cause some to come to the altar for salvation. He could also put people in shame if they might be considering going to another church. Or he might use shame to get larger offerings. None of us are necessarily beyond using the devil’s main weapon to accomplish our desires. We are just blind to the fact we do it.

That latter kind of shame use has a Biblical name. It is called, the “Jezebel spirit.” We can see in 1 and 2 Kings that evil Jezebel openly usurped her wimp king husband’s power to gain what she wanted. But we might be surprised how often we usurp God’s authority to gain what we want, ever so subtly.

We can use Bible verses to shame another into doing as we wish for our own gain, and not even know we are using the Jezebel spirit. For example, a husband can quote the verse that a wife should submit to the husband in ways he wants. She may retaliate with the verse that says he should love her as Jesus loves the church. Usually, both are at fault and have wrong motives, neither being like Jesus at all.

People with the Jezebel spirit cannot be confronted because they are completely unaware it is in them, and frankly, they don’t want to know. They are completely satisfied with the label they put on that knowledge box. They mistake God’s grace on them as approval of their actions and cannot be convinced otherwise by man. Many of them will wreak vengeance on any who try to show them the truth. And oddly enough, they will believe they are doing God’s work in this vengeance.

The Ten Commandments and Jesus’ later commandment to us were about operating in love toward God and others. We have been shown that the Law was impossible to follow, and that it was given to show us we could not do so. And that this should set us off on a course to find out why and remedy it.

We are supposedly now free from the Law and living under grace instead, since Jesus fulfilled the Law in our place. And that now, we have the Holy Spirit within to guide us. But this has not brought us together as one, has it? That is because we are still living under the Law, like it or not. Why would Jesus want us free from the Law and yet put another law on us before He departed? It is because He knew we would still be unable to love unconditionally, and this command should also send us searching for the reasons why not.

We may think we love others, because we try hard to do as Jesus’ commanded. But we all know that there are times when we fall short and at the very minimum, fail to love a perceived enemy. We fall into trusting God will forgive us of this, and then we start out and falter again and again. Yes, He does forgive us for our failings out of merciful grace. But He still demands we love unconditionally. So when we are told we have the power to become sons of God, there must be a way we can fulfill the Law and become Love, like Jesus did. That is what this book is about.

In our churches, we think we are being taught grace, and indeed, it is spoken of often. But we are also taught to discipline ourselves to sin no more. Has it crossed your mind yet that disciplining yourself is putting the Law on yourself? Spend some time in church while specifically listening to see if you are being told how to live a Godly life. The words may come softly, but they are still words of Law. It is even putting Law on us when we are told to follow “Biblical principals,” or “spiritual disciplines.”

We need to understand the meaning of the two words, “discipline,” and “disciple”. Because the two words look and sound much the same, we automatically assume they mean the same. They do not! Look it up and find that a disciple is a learner! A disciple is NOT one under discipline! Jesus taught His disciples, but He never taught them self discipline. Think how many times a preacher has unknowingly misled you with this error.

We are shown in the Bible that we are not to fight against flesh and blood, but rather against evil spirits in dark places. But using the Law to fight against sinning is fighting against flesh and blood, and that is not spiritual at all. It cannot win the war. It can only make us look good on the outside, while the inside remains in iniquity.

The Law can fool us into thinking we are perfectly in God’s will. This is because of another law, the one of sowing and reaping. This law is on the earth, just like gravity is a law on the earth. So if we do good, as the Law instructs, we will reap good. We can even have a close relationship with God while under the Law. We can even be filled with the Spirit and operate in the gifts. But this is not the ultimate goal of God.

God wants us to have His kind of love. His kind of love does righteousness without having to obey any Law. Our kind of love is an act, and we perform it because we are commanded to do so. So Jesus was right in saying not a jot or tittle of the Law would be done away with. As we now are, it is the only thing that helps us any at all.

Jesus did not fulfill the Law by obeying it. He fulfilled it by using wisdom, and needed no laws to do right. But even He had to learn wisdom. Read Luke 2:52 and see that in His hidden years, He became Love by gaining wisdom. Also read Isa. 7:14-15 (top) and see that even Jesus had to learn to choose good over evil. Jesus said He only did what He saw the Father doing. This means He had a living relationship with the Father. Likewise, if we are to become the sons of God, then we should also have a living relationship with the Father and do what we see Him doing today.

But this does not mean we should not read and know the Bible. Heaven forbid! But in the reading of the Word, the danger is to obey it as law and miss what the Father is showing us now. If we are in a living relationship with Him, then what He tells us today is just as valid as what we read in the Bible. So knowing the Bible will help us know if what we hear is from Him, and not from our own soul’s hidden agenda.

A real relationship with the Father comes when you get the revelation beyond what the Bible says, that God loves you. It must come to us that even though God loves everyone, it is still as if He loves me personally, as if no one else exists. In this, we will each have our own unique walk with God. Further, we will learn to hear His voice and know it is no other voice. This relationship will even be romantic. We will hate to go to sleep at night, as we want to spend more time with Him. Our first thoughts when we awaken will be, “What are we going to do together today, Father?”

Living in a personal relationship with God is living life more abundant. It is the full knowledge that you and He are walking together on a Path through both good and hard times. It is constant expectancy to see His hand in all we go through. Worldly rewards have nothing to do with this life more abundant. He is enough.

Jesus knew the church would start out as a baby, just as we start our lives as babes in need of much learning before we can take our proper place in life. So, just as we treat our babies with laws, (rules,) the church needed laws as well in its childhood. But there should come a day when laws are no longer needed to keep us on the straight and narrow. So we need to see why we so often wander off that path into sin, in spite of the Law.

First, consider this: THE LAW CREATES FALSE LOVE. LOVE IS NOT CREATED. LOVE IS, BECAUSE I AM.

Now, Jesus’ love was unconditional. That is God’s kind of love. We are told to be like God. We are to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Jesus told us the Kingdom was within us. So if we are going to seek His Kingdom, we must go within ourselves to see what has not yet been formed into His Kingdom.

(Author’s note: “Midst” and “inside you” are used in different Bible translations about where the Kingdom is. I know that Jesus was talking to the Jews when He told them the Kingdom was in their midst. After all, He was the King and now was in their midst. But I believe this is a dual meaning verse. That our souls are to be made into the Kingdom of God too, for we cannot make any Promised Land into His Kingdom until we have made our souls His Kingdom first.)

Our soul is where those boxes of knowledge are. In those boxes are many ways in which we learned to defend ourselves from others hurting our feelings, and; Ways to justify ourselves; Ways to seek significance; Ways to avoid dealing with others whose ways we do not like; Ways to excuse ourselves from helping those in need; Ways to manipulate others to give us what we want from them, etc; The labels on those boxes of knowledge protect us from seeing the truths about ourselves.

So with those wrong ways hidden deep in our make-up, we can only use the Law to make the best we can of this life. But our trying to be like Jesus is merely an act, a way to appear to others in spite of what is really in us. It is not unconditional love. What we put in those knowledge boxes makes our relationships depend on how others treat us.

We can go on like we are, or choose to seriously ask God to show us anything in us that displeases Him. That is the main key to the Kingdom. It opens the Narrow Gate to the Path that Jesus said few would find. It does not necessarily mean going to hell if we refuse to take that Path. It means we will take the broad path of destruction instead. And this means that when we are judged, we will not hear, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” Instead, we will see the true motives of all our deeds on earth, and we will watch our works burn in the fire of Jesus’ eyes. Wood, hay, and stubble, fit for destruction.

I hope you see by this that we can have either a relationship with the Bible and follow its laws, or we can have a living relationship with the Father. In the latter, the Holy Spirit will show us what the Father is doing, so we may do it, too. Only then can we be free from the Law.

He laughed, and said he now knew why God told him to wait to read the verse. It was Luke 10:19 (top), where Jesus told His Disciples He had given them authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you. My right foot had been anointed to do this. We all laughed. God has a sense of humor.

Again meanwhile, I had asked God what I should do about Lira, and He told me to woo her. So when the first opportunity came, I asked her to consider going out with me. She beamed her smile at me over that, and we agreed to talk about it at the next church service. There, after the service, I approached her to talk and she stomped out of the church in anger. I wondered what had changed.

A few weeks later, our deliverance ministry team was to minister to any who wanted it at a large conference meeting with people coming from all over the world. I asked the team leader, whom I will call, “Lex,” if I could be there, and he gave a vague non-answer. I pressed him and he finally told me I couldn’t. I asked him why not.

Lex told me that I was not over grieving for my wife, (I was,) and that I should not yet let myself be close to women, as takes place in ministry. He said Lira called him after I asked her out, wanting his opinion. He told her he saw me rubbing her back that night, and was not comfortable with it. He warned her that I was flirting with her for the wrong reasons, that I was on the rebound from my wife’s death, and I would end up hurting her. He also told her our age difference to further discourage her. He accused me of stalking Lira. He would not listen to my explanation that I had nothing to do with our running into each other all the time, that it was God causing it.

Lex further explained that he had used his engineering knowledge to put out a fleece to God. He had made sure I never again ministered to women, and if he was right, I would soon quit the ministry. He smugly brought up that I had left. I reminded him I had only taken a leave of absence, having been called to intercession by God. I asked him why he did not use Holy Spirit knowledge instead of engineering knowledge to make this determination. His pride of being a smart engineer wouldn’t allow that to sink in.

It turns out Lira looked up to him as a spiritual father, and she took his advice. I saw it as something different. I knew he liked his position with her, and he did not want me to take his place. I discerned a controlling spirit in him. This surprised me. I had never considered such a high church leader could have that spirit.

But Lira had become valuable to me. I didn’t know how much I loved her until I had to fight for her. I went to talk to Lex many times to try and convince him I had no wrong thoughts about Lira. Then he warned me to never approach her, or talk to her, unless she approached AND talked to me first. He was my authority in the church and I had to obey. I heard the Still Small Voice say, “Do as they say, but not as they do.” So God made it official. I spent many hundreds of nearly sleepless nights tossing and turning, trying to find a way around that command.

But the last time I tried talking to Lex, I brought up that he had been wrong in telling Lira such things without talking to me about it first to check my intentions. I had found out he had gone around to other leaders, supposedly to investigate me. I knew his real intent was to get his version in first, in case the story became openly known in the church. He also threatened me he might go to the police to report me for stalking Lira. This had become slander.

It became a loud argument, but he finally just looked at the floor with nothing more he could say. He knew he had done wrong, but was unable to admit it. I was dumbfounded that he would cost Lira and me a relationship just because he could not admit wrong.

I would come to see that Lira had doubts about what Lex had told her. She tried many things to get us close together “accidentally,” even now knowing our age difference. But she did not know she also had to be the first to talk to me, and all I could do was watch. This went on for several years as she would make efforts then withdraw, angry and hurt that I had not spoken to her.

In an early talk with Lex, I tried to tell him that Lira was making attempts to bring us into contact, that she still had an interest in me. He scoffed at that and maintained his position. I felt conviction for having told him this as it violated her privacy, and never brought that up to him again. She did not know she was playing two acts, one to him, and one to me. The spirit of rejection was guiding her.

Another thing she tried was phoning me to ask about the weekly singles meeting in my home. She pretended she did not know who I was, but I found out from the person who gave her my phone number she knew exactly who she was calling. Naïve me, I did not recognize who she was until after we hung up. She showed anger the next time we saw each other, for I had not taken advantage of her attempt to break the ice.

Maybe it is time to take another look at our churches and leaders. We enter a church and get saved, and assume the churches must be following God’s will. After all, there are so many already there that are following the pastor and his teachings, so it must be right. Oh? Maybe we need to look in the Book of Acts and see if we are building improper “towers” on the foundations the Apostles laid out.

Why do I call our churches, “Towers?” Anytime we see God mentioning Babylon in the Bible, it is showing man’s evil. Babylon had become a major settlement after the Flood, and its leader was a man named, “Nimrod.” He did not want the people wandering off from under his influence, so he caused them to build a tall tower, later known as “The Tower of Babel.” Babylon means, “Gate of god.” But it is not the God we know of.

It was supposedly another way to heaven. Perhaps they thought in their rebellion against God, that the tower height would save them in case of another flood. In any case, it gave the people something to stay gathered around, rather than leaving. God showed His feelings about this by confusing their language, so people had to leave and group with others speaking the same language. Is this tower concept beginning to sound familiar?

Do today’s pastors gather people around them, ask them for their tithes, and cause them to build a “tower” to show off their significance? The significance they once vowed to achieve? Like the patriarchs, they would not know this leaven was a part of their desire to serve God. Wolves in sheep’s clothing do not necessarily know they are wolves.

But we must make no mistake about this. These pastors are doing all they know to do to serve God. Indeed, they actually hear from Him what to preach about. But the depth of their teachings can only go to where their knowledge boxes allow them to go. God will not tear down those conclusion labels, (strongholds,) they have chosen to block out truth. They must find them and tear those strongholds down themselves. Until then, we can only hear baby milk talk coming from their mouths. Until they peel back another Bible layer to see they are teaching men’s traditions more than God’s will, they will remain blind, leading the blind.

Do our pastors struggle to show us from every vantage point to follow the law of tithing? And this, while telling us we are free from the Law? Look in the Book of Acts. No longer were tithes pushed on the believers. Rather, they gave when and where they saw needs. Of course, this properly included compensation for the traveling teachers of the Gospel. You may be tempted here to mention that Jesus told some religious leaders they were right to tithe. But don’t forget, Jesus lived His life in the Old Testament Law times.

And remember, the OT tithes were supposed to be used in certain ways by the leaders. One was to support the ministers so they could serve God full time. But they were also supposed to help the orphans and widows, who had no man in the house to pay their way. (Just for the record, the word translated “widows” included divorced women.) And some of the tithe was to help the stranger passing through the Land.

For the most part, today’s churches forget the orphans and widows, spending much money instead to tempt the strangers to come join them. When they do find an orphan or widow in need, they tell them to give what they can so God can give them an increase. They are not ashamed to take the widow’s mite to help build their tower. And more than that, many of them live off the fat like Solomon did, making themselves mansions to live in.

They twist Paul’s words to make it seem we are all supposed to prosper financially. They conveniently forget Paul spent much time in prisons, hardly prospering financially. And at least once because he didn’t want to take people’s money, he made tents for a living. We are also told that Jesus was rich, so we should be, too. They conveniently forget that He had to send Peter to catch a fish and take a coin from its mouth to pay their taxes.

One must ask himself just what God prefers when He spoke of His people prospering. Would He have meant to prosper financially, or spiritually? He also said His people perish for lack of knowledge. Was this perishing for lack of knowledge of how to get rich, or was it lack of spiritual knowledge? When Jesus came on the scene, His thrust was trying to get people to think spiritually. And this, even in the many things He said about money.

I wonder if these get-rich-now preachers ever consider the third world Christians, where millions are dying for their faith. How would their prosperity-now message go over in those countries? If they were preaching only the pure Gospel, the same message would be appropriate anywhere in the world. Their new gospel is tainted.

These words are not against anyone being rich. God does make some rich. This is about how we get rich, and what do we do with our riches. Are they God-given, or man-taken from others for wrong motives? After all, when preachers teach on tithes and offerings, they are the nearest and most obvious ones to give them to. Nor is this about not giving. It is about our motives in giving. Do we give to get, as is promoted by many telethons? Or do we give where God shows us a need, with no expectations of earthly reward?

So when one of us questions one of these preachers, we are warned to not touch God’s anointed. They forget the Bible is full of prophets “touching” God’s anointed when they needed correction. “Christ” means, Anointed One. So we who are called, “Christians” are also anointed ones. When Jesus warned us not to run around because of rumors that “Christ” is here or there, perhaps He was warning us of those who constantly talk about their anointing, and that those may be the ones He said would be coming saying, “I am the Christ.” They certainly are in the business of creating a following.

Many of today’s ministries have become big businesses, operating as such. They spend much of the money sent to them to promote this business to keep money pouring in. Most offer trinkets or special deals to persuade people to send more. And they put people’s names on a mailing list so they can barrage them with more pleas for money. Even prophets God has sent to warn them have instead chosen to join them. I think if Jesus came on the scene, He would turn over all their money-making sales tables.

We have seen all too many ministries that started out well, spending given money with great care. But in time, like Balaam before them, they have searched out ways to get around what they before knew was right. They now seek earthly treasures rather than laying up treasures in Heaven waiting for them.

This includes those who have received special personal gifts from others, aside from gifts to their ministries. This, they spend upon themselves, rather than helping the poor who are always with us. They justify their mansions and luxurious living as their just dues, twisting Scriptures to fit the real desires of their hearts. The old adage fits here: Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And just like our patriarchs before them, they know not what they do.

Some of our TV teachers’ names have become more famous than the Jesus they preach, no matter how many times they tell us that all the glory goes to God. They can sound holy even as they tickle peoples’ ears.

The early church simply met in homes of believers and needed no tower, and the Gospel spread like wildfire.

So what is the point I’m trying to make? To see it, let’s look at one of Jesus’ parables in Mt. 25:1-13 . (top)

In this, the ten virgins were waiting for the groom to come so they could go to the wedding they had been invited to. When he arrived in the dark, five of them did not have enough oil for their lamps to light the path. Sometimes, something not said in a parable can tell us more than the parable itself. If you or I had a lamp, we would share the light and walk together side by side. But note that in this parable, there was no allowance for them to walk in another’s light. That should tell us something.

When the Israelites were heading for the Promised Land, they refused to hear directly from God, for fear of Him. They insisted on walking in Moses’ light instead, and floundered. Even after they made it into the Land, they insisted on hearing from God through others. And we know the many ways that failed as their religious leaders stifled them with law after law they must live under.

Likewise, today we listen to a man who takes the place of the Holy Spirit dealing with us personally, One to one. I hope by now you see that our pastors have grafted themselves between us and the Vine, and they have deceived both themselves and us in doing so. No, they do not know what they are doing. They have merely followed the traditions of their predecessors who built towers on the foundations the Apostles laid for us.

We are building a new Babylon.

We have further evidence in Luke 9:55 (top). Here, Jesus and His disciples were refused entrance to a town. Some of the disciples wanted to call fire down on them. Jesus told them they did not know what manner of spirit they were of. (Note; this verse is not in all translations.)

Another place to look is 2 Cor. 11:3-4 (top). There, Paul is writing to people he knew were saved. He is warning them about receiving another spirit, brought to them by a false prophet. This spirit, in addition to the One they had received from Jesus.

Another place to note is after Jesus came out of His temptation, He said the devil found nothing in Him. Would that not note that anyone who did fall to temptation would have something in them? Something that would tempt them to sin? What else could that be than an evil spirit?

I know that few of you who read the following will be convinced, but I must tell what I witnessed, anyway. I was surprised when these things became obvious, too. At the first session for our deliverance training class, the teacher told us a story of what happened at a recent conference he attended. He told about a man he had led to the Lord. The man wanted to be baptized right away. Arrangements were made to do so the next day.

When the man came up out of the water, he was manifesting of demons. What? I went to the teacher later and asked him how a person could be saved, if only for a day, and still have demons. He merely told me it happens, not wanting to get into details then. I continued the classes and learned much more.

The deliverance ministry was meant to help Christians who had long ongoing problems in their lives. The teams were divided into groups of three people. One would do most of the talking while the other two silently prayed in tongues and listened for words from God about the person being ministered to. Often in this Holy Spirit atmosphere, the victim would begin to manifest of demons. If you had witnessed this, you would have no doubts of its reality, nor would you doubt they were also saved.

Now, know this was nothing like the demoniac with a legion of demons, nor like the movies depicting exorcising demons. And know also that no one is “possessed” by demons. That is too strong a word. After all, the demoniac was still able to make his way to Jesus, wasn’t he? So instead of possession, let’s use the word used now in most new translations, “demonized.” Most exorcisms are quite calm, with none of the theatrics we might have seen on TV.

Most demons do their work in us while we are children, and they remain silent and hidden after that for the most part. They usually only rise up in us to “help” us defend against our significance being challenged.

First, let’s tell about an elderly widow who had before been on the same deliverance ministry team. She came for help because she had an inordinate fear at night alone. As we questioned her about the fear, she slid off the chair and slithered on the floor, hissing like a snake. We cast that demon out of her. She said she was very surprised, having cast demons out of many before and now finding she had one, too.

Another example was when a pastor’s wife from a Spirit-filled church came for help about the weird supernatural things going on around her in her home. As we questioned her to find out more, she told us she often has terrible headaches, and she had one now. I asked her if the headaches ever move from place to place in her head? She said they did. I told her to tell us if it moved while we were in session. Moving pain is a manifestation. We never went after demons unless they manifested first.

Not much later, she said the pain had moved. I commanded the demon to manifest. It did, and her face contorted and her voice changed dramatically. (Note that face and voice changes are not always evident when a demon speaks through its host.) We questioned the demon, knowing it had no choice but to answer the truth in the presence of the Holy Spirit. It told us its name was, “Deceit.”

We asked how it got in her, and it told us he had convinced her to cheat on a test in grammar school, allowing him in. And it told her he would always be there to make her look smart. She agreed to this, and had made a life of others looking up to her for how smart she was. We brought the lady back and questioned her on this, and she admitted it had happened just this way. For hours we tried to cast this demon out of her, to no avail. She was not willing to lose the significance that appearing smart gave her.

This instance came as God was showing me the many ways demons get permission to enter children. A child merely agreeing with a demon’s lies gives it permission to enter. Just as our agreeing with Jesus’ truth saves us and lets Him enter us. I seldom cast demons out of people anymore, because if they don’t know how they got in the first time, the demons can soon come back in.

A lot of what God was showing me was how parental authority had much to do with permission for demons to enter a child. We just do not understand that this authority means much in the spiritual world. A parent’s attitude and words to the child can give them permission to enter. This was partially described in an earlier part of this book, where we showed how evil spirits guide the thinking of vulnerable children.

This is magnified when an authority may take sexual liberties with a child. Several kinds of demons can come in because of this, and certainly it permits a spirit of sexual lust to enter. I have dealt with many victims of this type abuse. Some definitely want this demon out, while others develop a relationship with the demon of lust, even to some allowing incubus, sexual intercourse with an invisible demon. The victim may not like all the other things that come along with this, but they are unwilling to give up the pleasure part and remain in bondage by choice.

I could write many of these experiences, but the few here will have to do. Earlier in this book, I told about my deliverance trials. What did you think that meant? I was being delivered of demons! In each case, I was taken back by the Holy Spirit to see how I fell for the demons’ lies as a child. As I saw how I was duped, I repented, but more than this, I rebuked the demon and commanded it to leave. It did, and a great change came over me as a result, each time. One of the times, I even felt two demons burst through my lower chest in a hurry to leave.

We need to tell more about the demons’ purpose. First, a strong one gets into a child, then he works at getting many underlings in as well. They like to rule over other demons. Each of the demons has a unique specialty. Scan the list below and see if you have any tendencies their names describe. These could be traits that you have to either hide or discipline yourself to overcome. Some, you will not even know are in you, as your knowledge box label will prevent you from seeing it.

In no particular order: Deceit, envy, lies, scorn, strife, panic, impulsiveness, greed, pride, jealousy, procrastination, control, anger, hate, self-pity, bitterness, bully, vengeance, fear, covetousness, prejudice, theft, manipulation, shy, rejection, obsession, depression, tardy, suicide, macho, argumentative, homosexual, murder, defiance, lust, laziness, gluttony, oppression, filth, selfish, addictive, infirmity, self-mutilation, negative, darkness, over-achiever, arrogance, and etc; Yes, there are more.

Demons have no mercy in trying to find a body to occupy. Some people are born with brain problems, which give easy access to demons. Sometimes brain injury or an imbalance in brain chemicals opens the way. Autism, Downs Syndrome, Tourette’s Syndrome, bipolar, and at least one form of Alzheimer’s can sometimes allow in the most vile of demons, among other problems. Then there are several mental disorders which are accompanied by a myriad of internal voices of demons. Need we mention that dabbling in the occult is a direct invitation for demons to enter a person? But the most common way in is as earlier explained about our childhood.

You would be surprised how many preachers have seen people they knew as faithful believers who momentarily openly manifested of demons. But most preachers don’t know how to handle it, nor do they want to face the ridicule they would get from their peers, should they talk to them about it. Besides, they see that they are no better than the victims, and this might hint that the pastor himself had demons. Who of them would be willing to face the shame of that? So they remain silent and end up helping the devil keep his work secret.

Our church once had a pastors’ conference, and a multitude of pastors from nearly every denomination from all over the world attended. During one meeting, so many of them began manifesting of demons, the scheduled program had to be set aside so those could be ministered to. I have seen two of the assistant pastors from our church manifest of demons.

When the recent “Laughing Movement” and “Toronto Movements” swept through many churches, I looked on with amazement. We were seeing actual moves of the Holy Spirit and manifestations of evil spirits going on side by side. What troubled me is that the leaders could not discern the difference, and blessed the whole thing as from God.

Church missionaries often come home from third world countries after having seen demons openly manifesting in people, even after they were saved. But they are prevented from telling about that part when they make their report to the congregations. Pastors fear talking about the enemy, because that may frighten some of their sheep.

I believe that each time a church gets close to seeing the truths about demons in Christians, that a principality or power fallen angel is especially assigned to that church. Their job would be to foment problems, stirring up demons in people and causing them to rise up against such thinking. Thus, Christians are kept blind to the truths.

So there is nothing more I can say to convince you about demons in Christians. You will either believe it and take steps from there, or you will ignore it to your shame at judgment. Your choice.

Another vision was; I saw a long wall to my left, reaching out into the distance ahead of me. On the close side, it was dry and parched, and I knew it was the church world of today. (The end times church will think it is rich and has no needs, yet it is poor, wretched, blind, etc; Rev. 3:17; top .) And I saw green shrubbery growing from the other side of the wall, reaching over it. Suddenly, a row of long blue trumpets thrust through the shrubs aimed at the church world. I knew that when they blew, it would shake up the churches of today.

I wondered why the trumpets were blue, and asked God to show me. One of the trumpets moved up close for me to examine. It was not like the spun brass horns we know of. It was made of many small rectangles of steel, each fit together absolutely perfectly with the rectangles around them. I saw that each piece had been in the fiery furnace, and had been hammered into shape while red hot. Such heating turns steel blue. I believe the many pieces of those trumpets represent people God has set aside in the fiery furnace to see the truths about today’s churches. And that one day, they will be called forth to blow the trumpets in unison.

One more recent vision I saw was of a doorway on a street. I was suddenly through the door and into what looked like a museum. All was quiet, and everything was absolutely clean. Not a speck of dust anywhere. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a movement. Had the lance of the horse-mounted knight moved? Then I thought I saw another movement. Had the sword of that knight in shining armor moved?

Then I turned back and saw that the mane and tail of the horse were slightly moving. I wondered where the breeze was coming from, and looked at the windows at the back of the room. One of them was slightly opened, allowing a slight breeze. Then I heard, “These are the first stirrings of the war you have been expecting!”

Indeed, for a long time I have felt that calamity would hit the churches, causing a great falling away. But I have sensed that the ones staying in the churches were the ones falling away. And the ones leaving them were the actual Church, having come to its senses.

I have noticed many faithful believers already leaving the churches. They have not given up on God, but have given up on the churches. Some of them have begun forming homegroups with others like themselves. The danger in this is, if they have not been delivered, they will take Babylon right in with them.

I do not believe God is calling all of us out of the churches yet. This is a transition time, and only later will we see which leaders will follow God, and which will continue building themselves towers. Many have been prophesying a soon coming revival. I believe it will come both in the Church, and in the churches. The churches won’t notice the Holy Spirit has departed, and that another spirit has taken His place. I believe this revival will serve God’s purpose. It will separate the sheep from the goats by our own choice.

I must mention here, the present “revivals” we see taking place here and there. I believe these have a demonic purpose. As I said before, God is holding some aside for a future date when they will be sent forth with truth, in the spirit of Elijah. I think these meetings are meant to cause two things. One is to tempt Christians to either seek another jesus. The other is to make sure that when the real Elijahs come forth, that the ones who did not fall for the fake revivals will be too wary to accept the real.

I hope I have presented this in a way that you do not think God is angry about the leaven in the churches…yet! In this transition time, this revelation will come before all believers, and only then will we be held responsible for how we react. It will no longer be that, “We know not what we do.”

Grace, as we know it, will come to an end.

When Jesus said to Peter that, “this is the rock on which I will build my church,” He was not talking about Peter being that rock. He was talking about what had just happened with Peter. It had just been revealed by the Father to Peter that Jesus was indeed the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Peter had been blind to that until that moment. ( Mt. 16:17; top ) “Revelation of Jesus” is the Rock.

We may have also had that revelation, but why do we stop there? Isn’t there yet much to learn from God by revelation? If Jesus told us He was building His church on the rock of revelation, then it is up to us to seek more of it. And this, not by merely going to church to hear another talk about God. That is walking with a man, more than with Jesus. We tell people we have a personal relationship with Jesus, but do we really?

In this book, I wrote about watching for “co-incidents” that come from God, and acknowledging them as such. And to keep these things uppermost in our minds as we watch for more. This is living with an expectancy. These will be small parts of a whole revelation. When all God sends on that subject come together, it will amount to a large revelation that we need to grow in Him.

It is apparent that God will seldom if ever tell us our iniquity, as He does our sins. So it is up to those who would be the Bride to search out hidden things. She will know this has a great price, but will be willing to sacrifice for the closer walk She desires with her Bridegroom. This is pursuing first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

The purpose of this book is to point out that each of us has hidden iniquity, and that the purpose of the trials that come upon us is to help us discover our iniquity for ourselves by revelation. If you have not seen this purpose, then perhaps it may benefit you to reread the book with this goal in mind.

I’ve been writing on these things for years now. As the books have been shared with others, I’ve seen several reactions. Most start out finding it very interesting, but they soon decide to finish the book later, which never comes. Something in them warns them they are about to learn something they do not want to know. Some reject it outright, as they prefer the present status of the churches.

Some read it and fully agree with it, but they do not recognize how to take the Hard Path, even though it is explained in this book. It takes seriously asking God to show any hidden evil in us, and then watching the co-incidents that God will show as signposts along the Way. And to not be dissuaded by what comes upon you as you travel with Him.

I’d love to hear comments and/or questions from you! Email me!

God bless you.