Once again the Body of Christ is in a significant step toward total, absolute victory in the end-time battle against antichrists, false prophets, false Christs, and nephilim spirits. Let us determine to settle for nothing less than that. The book of Revelation tells about three unclean spirits that come to pervade the whole earth. We face a number of phenomena that God is causing to come forth, for the purpose of seeing the complete deliverance of God’s people. Therefore we need the significant and timely scriptural teaching, some of it from the book of Revelation, which will show us where we actually stand in this hour.
The teaching of the Fundamentalists is confusing, because they follow a system of prophecy created by a man named Darby. This teaching was fostered by the Scofield Bible, and in reality it is based upon a counter-reformation teaching enacted by the Roman Catholic church. The Darby system is based on the work of two Jesuits who were trying to discredit the idea that pervaded the teaching of all the early reformers who identified Rome as the antichrist spirit, the beast of Revelation (Revelation 13:1, 11). Those two Jesuits proceeded to create another line of doctrine that took the events of Revelation out of an historical application and placed them in the future.
A careful reading of the book of Revelation reveals an emphasis of this phrase, “… the things which are …” In Revelation 1:19 Jesus told John to write about the things which are and the things which are to be. This clearly indicates that some of the events were actually taking place at the time John was writing the book. John, on the Isle of Patmos, experienced this revelation approximately at the time when the first spirit of antichrist was entering into the scene. It is an historical fact that some twelve hundred years of Dark Ages were introduced between 200 and 300 A.D. In John’s time, apostasy was in motion, and it continued to gain momentum afterward.
Much of the book of Revelation has already been fulfilled, but people have not known it. For instance, it speaks about the rivers turning into blood (Revelation 16:4). People wonder when that will be fulfilled. Attila the Hun, who lived between 406 and 453 A.D., was called “The Scourge of God,” or, “The Scourge of the Rivers.” So great were the numbers slain in his conquests that he actually succeeded in turning many rivers to blood. When he finally died, his followers diverted the river long enough to bury him beneath the riverbed because he was known as “The Scourge of the Rivers.” This obscure fact of history becomes important when you realize that it is the historical fulfillment of what is known as the curse of the rivers which was prophesied in Revelation over 300 years earlier.
If only we could understand that we are right on the threshold of the Kingdom. It is not necessary to look to the future for the fulfillment of many of these prophecies. It is also historically true that the antichrist came forth in the papacy, and he was recognized as such many years ago. Nearly all of the book of Revelation has come to pass, and we are now facing the final battle.
A study of the battles of the ages, of even the Old Testament times, will reveal that the warfare against God’s people was infiltrated with certain demonic forces which we call nephilim spirits. Whenever total judgment is coming, Satan uses those who are direct contacts through whom he can operate and control things. At one time Satan offered to Christ all the kingdoms of the world if He would bow down and worship him. Most people do not understand that had Jesus accepted, from that time on the Spirit of Jesus Christ would have been open to Satan. Christ would have become a nephilim, a son of Satan instead of the Son of the Father. He would have become the operative channel through which the nations of the world would have been governed, controlled, and judged by Satan. But of course He said, “Thou shalt worship the Lord God, and Him only shalt thou serve” (Matthew 4:10).
In order to become a nephilim spirit, a person has to give willing consent at some time to the rebellious spirit within, to the extent that there is either an unconscious or conscious rejection of the will of God and a submission to the will of Satan. A nephilim spirit is created not to be possessed but to be absolutely controlled and used by Satan at will for a distinct function.
Many famous men were nephilim, and the history of their lives shows that they did certain things under times of stress which were completely under the control of Satan. At other times they were most humanitarian, as the other side of their lives came forth. A biblical illustration of this is Judas Iscariot, whom Jesus called Satan, saying, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? John 6:70. This statement clearly indicates that Jesus knew that the devil came and went within Judas. On the night of the betrayal, Satan entered into the heart of Judas who then went to accomplish the betrayal (John 13:27). Satan completely controlled his motivation and his desire. Afterward, Satan withdrew from Judas; and when Judas became aware of what he had done, he returned to the sanctuary, threw the money on the floor and cried, “I have betrayed innocent blood.” He then went out and hanged himself, but the rope broke, dashing him down a small precipice on the sharp rocks below where his bowels gushed out (Acts 1:18). This was the ignoble end of Judas, the son of perdition.
The son of perdition is also the name given to the antichrist in the writings of Paul (II Thessalonians 2:3). Whether they be the son of perdition, false Christs, false prophets, antichrists, they are all a type of the nephilim spirit which Satan brings forth as sons to frustrate the purposes of God. They are Satan’s sons in the only sense that he can have sons. He cannot fill them. He can only have channels in which he can come and go at will. Satan does not have the omnipresence capacity that God has, but he does have many channels and an infinite amount of wisdom and cunning that enables him to move through any one of all the millions that he controls in the world at any split second.
Whenever the occasion arrives for the plan of God to come forth in people’s lives, Satan is constantly set to frustrate it. He uses millions of spirits in the earth for one purpose: to try to control and wreck people’s lives who are doing the will of God. He marks those whom God marks for favor, from the time of their birth many times, and begins to war against them, bringing all kinds of persecution against them. This is found even in the Old Testament where men were born to be great kings and there were extensive efforts to destroy them. It is found in that satanic effort in the attempt to destroy Jesus Christ at the time of His birth. Herod gave the word to destroy all the children under two years of age, so that without question he would destroy the one who was God incarnate, God in the flesh, while He was still in a helpless state, not having the protection and immunity that would develop in His life as the Messiah (Matthew 2:16).
It is imperative that God’s people be very much aware of what God is doing and of what the devil is doing as a counterattack. Satan always tries to work within the boundaries of what God is doing, transforming his ministers, his antichrists, into ministers of righteousness and he himself into an angel of light, so that if it were possible he would deceive the very elect (II Corinthians 11:14, 15; Matthew 24:24). Jesus spoke of this to His disciples, saying, “The time will come when religious people will think they are doing God a favor if they kill you” (John 16:2). The deception will be great in this end time.
Satan moves through channels who have a false sense of religious motivation. Look at the obvious truth of Jesus’ statement to the Jews, “You are of your father, the devil.” But they were furious, and they picked up rocks to stone Him (John 8:44, 59). Indeed, they were of their father, the devil. They yielded to a lie, and Satan is the father of a lie. When a lie became incorporate within their being, they had assumed a parent.
In the spirit realm, a man can choose whom he wants to be his father. Everyone starts out with a spirit that is dead in trespasses and sins. At that point a man is already under Satan; but as he comes to an awareness, he can choose who is to be his father. He can believe a lie and become a son of Satan, or he can believe this truth: “To as many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become the sons of God” (John 1:12). A man can choose who is to be his father.
Christ saw that those Jews, while professing to be children of Abraham and never in bondage to anyone, were actually believing a lie. They proved Him correct within a matter of minutes when they became so motivated and controlled by Satan that they picked up stones to stone Jesus Christ. Who connived to put Jesus on the cross? It was not the Romans, nor the sinners, but the scribes and the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the Jews. Likewise the enemies of the people who walk with God in this end time are not out in the world.
The enemies of God’s remnant are to be found among those who call themselves Fundamentalists and Pentecostals and Charismatics. They are still living their own lives according to their own discretion and not at the leading and direction of the Lord. This places them just beyond the pale of sonship. Those who align themselves with God’s plan for this hour believe all that such groups believe and more, which brings them into an active position that makes Him Lord over the Church and Lord over their lives. Their true submission brings them exactly into the realm of sonship. True sons believe the truth of His Lordship and submit to it. That is the chief point of division and the reason that those who limit themselves with creeds will eventually end up in the army of the antichrist—as much or more than most of the modernists.
Who are the people who began opening up to the Holy Spirit and are now moving on with God? They are not the Fundamentalists, nor the Charismatic people, nor the Pentecostal people (who tried to move in and to a large extent succeeded in organizing what was known as a Charismatic movement). They are hungry men and women who have never been caught by the attempts of those who would put a brand on them. God began to meet them. Many of them were modernists. Many of them did not believe anything, but they were hungry. They were too honest to go along with just saying that they believed something unless they really believed it. Many of them will come forth to walk in the Kingdom, just as Christ said, “The first shall be last, and the last shall be first” (Matthew 19:30).
It is important to realize that at every great point in God’s dealings with men, the nephilim spirit (or the antichrist spirit, as some may call it), the false Christs, and the false prophets make their appearance; and they always have a purpose. There are outstanding scriptural examples of this. In the days before the flood, there was much corruption in the world because the nephilim (translated in the King James Version as “sons of God”) saw the daughters of men and entered into a promiscuous sexual relationship with them (Genesis 6:2). That same evil force today is behind the sudden abandonment of morals in the United States, resulting in a new era of immoral permissiveness. It has been caused by the same force that caused corruption in the days of Noah (Matthew 24:37, 38). In those days, the nephilim went into the daughters of men and produced a race of giants (men of renown), perverted, destructive hybrids who had such a demonic, devilish twist in their natures that God said He would have to destroy them from the face of the earth. The corruption of the entire race increased so much that God said, “Noah, thee alone have I seen righteous before Me in this generation” (Genesis 7:1); and the flood, in which the nephilim were largely destroyed, became a necessity.
The reestablishment of the nephilim spirit appeared in later times, however, especially in the days of Joshua. Satan, anticipating what God was going to do in Canaan, positioned his sons there. They were the sons of Anak, a race of nephilim (Numbers 13:33). Consequently, when Joshua went in to possess the land, he could not react as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had done in earlier times. They had attempted to live peaceably with the people around them, but God told Abraham that He would send his seed down into the land of Egypt for 400 years because the iniquity of the Amorites had not yet come to the full (Genesis 15:13, 16). God allowed this to happen so that He could justify His later command to Joshua that every man, woman, and child, along with their animals, were to be destroyed (Deuteronomy 7:1; Joshua 6:21). The wars of conquest were wars of annihilation because the people in Canaan had completely corrupted themselves. The Israelites were sent by God to destroy thirty-two nations mightier than themselves (Deuteronomy 9:1). The land was so filled with corruption and wickedness that once again, as in the days of Noah, the nephilim defiled the whole land. The Israelites were told to loose that land and take it back for God.
Today, God’s end-time believers must also face the nephilim who are positioned throughout the earth, who stand in high places of government and science, uncovering the keys of self-destruction for the human race. Everything is being manipulated by these forces in so many realms that “unless these days be shortened, no flesh would be saved alive. But for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24:22).
The prophetic community of believers of this day must have deep revelation by the Spirit that enables them to see who is coming against them and to discern the presence and the tactics of spiritual wickedness in high places. They must understand the infiltration methods of nephilim who come and work within the Body of Christ. They must understand how the nephilim operate, how it is possible to check them out spiritually and find no devil power, only to be confronted with it at a crucial moment of an important decision regarding the Body of Christ. Realistic believers must also understand how the nephilim spirit moves in to defile and corrupt the will of God where the government is concerned.
Pray for the purity of the Body, believing for the defilement within to be corrected, but with a realization that the nephilim spirits (the closest beings that Satan can have as sons) will be pitted against you. The battle is between the sons of God and the offshoot of Satan himself, the nephilim spirits in which he can come and go at will. Those are the agents who are coming around the remnant of believers now. People who are possessed of demons do not come around this walk with God as they did in former years. That again is by satanic wisdom. In former days, demons were cast out of people frequently, but the Body has now reached a spiritual level in which any mere demon is immediately discerned and cast out. Therefore, Satan does not bring them because he knows that immediate deliverance from them is forthcoming. In his subtlety he tries to find the open channels within the Body through whom he can work at will. It is not unusual to discern satanic spirits affecting two or three people in the midst of a worship service, just enough to stop the flow of worship. Consequently, the Body must fight for liberty even in a worship service.
It is interesting that God’s people seem to be open to whatever the Spirit leads, whether it be a violent, jubilant praise or a quiet, awesome hush before the Lord. But people who are channels of Satan rise up against the worship. Of course, some people do not particularly care for the more exuberant rejoicing; but it is amazing how they still open up to it. Not everyone may prefer loud worship, but all should understand that God is bringing something through it. The Scriptures themselves command God’s people to “Shout aloud for joy” and to “Praise Him with loud cymbals” (Psalm 150:5). It is not to scare the devil away, but to break the spirit of lethargy and heaviness that comes upon them as a result of what Satan does. Satan creates a climate that is suppressive to the people of the Lord, and they must break through that.
What is the purpose of using drums, cymbals, and tambourines in worship? Such instruments are nothing in themselves. If their noise could scare away demons, God’s army could fire off strings of firecrackers as some peoples do on their holidays. Believers do not beat drums and clash cymbals to scare away the devil, but to combat the effect of Satan’s constant pressure against their spirits. Coldness comes to men’s hearts; the heaviness and indifference of this age comes because they are surrounded by a climate of evil. “Because iniquity abounds, the love of many waxes cold” (Matthew 24:12). God’s people live in a climate of Satan’s raging, and after awhile it causes a cloud to rest upon them.
Break loose from that coldness! Command your spirit to obey God and worship Him with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. Be determined to rise up and not become victims of the spirit of this age. Be free from the spirit of the age, and the reaction against you will be interesting. Pharisees may sit back and accuse you of being a spiritualist or of being under so much devil power that you are deceived. In reality, the deception is in those who make such accusations. They are lukewarm, half dead, not alive to God, not breaking through, yet look who are calling who names! They are not open, but filled with unbelief. Like the church in Revelation 3:1, they have a name that they live and are dead, saying that they are Fundamentalists who believe the whole Bible while rendering it inactive and inoperative through their unbelief. They say there can be no miracles, no deliverances, and no exploits today. What kind of faith is that? They believe that Jesus was, but the Lord says, “I Am” (John 8:58). Believe that the Lord Jesus is and that He will move now. Struggle to contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints (Jude 3). The walk of believers that God has raised up in the end time is the truest expression of faith that God has brought forth in centuries. It is a pure movement led by God’s Spirit.
Should you rush out to win souls and tell people, “Come on, this is the real thing”? No! It is not time to do that. It is time to eliminate the corruption and the inroads against the Body that come in through nephilim spirits. Right now is the time to build walls and come into the immunity that belongs to the people of God. Is it being done? That is exactly what is happening. Many are praying and interceding with no intention of letting up—they will keep right on crying out to God. If it takes a year, it does not matter. Many in the Body knew that the spirit of this age was already beginning to settle upon them before they joined together in a violent expression of praise, worship, intercession, and prophetic proclamation. They were in the Body, but the passivity was still getting to them. The spirit of the age is an insidious, deadly force that reaches right into the church where the restoration is preached, where truths of the Kingdom are taught, where beautiful songs and creative new things are coming. With all this, many were in jeopardy of going under. There is no valid reason why God’s people should conform to a certain kind of worship just because some people like it. That which is important is not what you and I like, rather it is what will be effective in helping us to break through to what God wants.
This is a day in which something is being revived that was prophetic in the first Feast of Passover. Looking back at the first Passover, it is found that the last event in the deliverance of God’s people was God’s destruction of the enemy. There was complete release from Pharaoh and all his chariots forever. They were buried in the Red Sea. When that happened, all the people of God sang a song known as the song of Moses (Exodus 15:1–18). That song is revived once again in the book of Revelation (Revelation 15:3). Once again God’s people will sing the song of Moses, for they too will have passed through tribulation. They too will have passed through the assault and the efforts of Satan to destroy them. Those efforts will be completely frustrated and Satan will be totally defeated. The people of the Lord in this day will be dancing on the shores of the Kingdom and singing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. Once again there will be the sounds of tambourines and dancing for joy because of God’s great victory.
Freedom is coming more and more to God’s people every day. A remnant is pressing in. They have left the trenches and are not looking again to be entrenched. They do not look for a foxhole in which to sweat out the coming days. Instead they take the aggressive role and bring down strongholds. Their weapons are mighty through God to bring down strongholds and to bring every thought and imagination of men’s hearts into subjection to Christ (II Corinthians 10:4–5). There is authority behind the Word. Position yourself in the complete, absolute victory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Be determined to have that victory without any doubt. Determine to relentlessly pursue everything that the enemy throws at you. He comes against you one way, and he will flee seven ways (Deuteronomy 28:25). Pursue him seven ways. Defeat him as he comes against you, and break the nephilim spirit. Then pursue him.
Pursue the enemy into the realm of politics and government, and bring him down there. Pursue him into the realm of finances, and bring him down there. Pursue him into the realm of sciences, and bring him down there. Pursue him into the realm of the arts, everything from pornography on up, and bring him down there. Everything of arrogance shall be pursued and destroyed. Every place in which he has planted his nephilim shall be destroyed. By this judgment, the Kingdom comes.
Transference is probably the deadliest weapon that Satan has with which to assault the Body of Christ. That is why witchcraft is a very predominant manifestation of Satan in the end time. Witchcraft has become more prevalent now than it has been throughout the centuries of the Christian Church. Witchcraft never existed on the large scale that it does now. It is based on the principles of transference: taking something from one thing and moving it to another. However, transference cannot work for a devil-possessed person outside the Church who tries to hit a godly person on the inside. That is the reason why nearly all witchcraft, voodoo, and other satanic cults are made up of professing Christians—usually Roman Catholics. Witchcraft in Brazil is called macumba. About seventy-five percent of Brazil’s population profess to be Catholic and about seventy-five percent also profess to practice macumba. Demon spirits are effective when they harbor within a religious host, especially among people who love the Lord.
In the body of believers that God has raised up to walk in this end time, Satan does not succeed in using witchcraft against them through channels that are outside the Body. Any witchcraft against them is always focused through a point of contact, someone who is inside the boundaries of the Body. In order to reach God’s people in the Body, Satan tries to use a triad, at least one of whom is in the Body. He often motivates two demon-possessed people to use witchcraft against the Body, but they have to use someone within the Body as a point of contact. In order for transference to be effective, there must be someone bordering on a religious spirit who can be used by Satan as a channel. Satan can also use a family relationship to establish contact. Sometimes when people in the Body are being spiritually assaulted a great deal, it can be traced to transference from a relative—father, mother, brother, sister, children—who, by the strength of a blood tie or bond, become a channel for transference. Sometimes transference is effected through a person who is not technically in the church, but within the scope of the sanctifying forces. For instance, I Peter 3:1 tells a woman to be submissive so that without a word she can win her unbelieving husband, and therefore he is included in the sanctification of the Body of Christ. Children can receive the transference of sanctification through either parent (I Corinthians 7:14). Often a bond created by marriage is used by Satan to assault the Body with transference, especially when someone outside the Body is married to someone in the Body.
Satan is concentrating now to use transference to strike within the Body of Christ. To combat him requires an eternal vigilance to find the bonds and the contacts who are his channels to get at God’s people. Satan is out to destroy God’s people, but immunities will come when those contacts in the spirit can be broken. Then they will be able to reach into God, drawing His blessing and anointing, and proceed to be the effective, aggressive army of the Lord that God ordained them to be.
The book of I Corinthians contains valuable teaching on immunity for the Body. Chapter 5 tells how Paul had received a report of immorality taking place in the church. It was an immorality in which a man had sexual intercourse with his father’s wife. It does not say that it was the man’s mother, so it could have been his stepmother; nevertheless, it was immorality. Paul wrote, And you have become arrogant, and have not mourned instead, in order that the one who had done this deed might be removed from your midst. I Corinthians 5:2. There is to be a mourning of repentance by every member of the Body which will vicariously accomplish much in the purifying of the Body.
God’s people should really be sorry that Satan has any power to hurt the Body. How can they deal with the problem? Some have a tendency to get angry and want to fight. Why not repent? Why not mourn? Why not take an impersonal attitude toward it? Do not be angry at another member of the Body who is being used as a channel. Instead, mourn that the Body of Christ is not pure. Take upon yourself the repentance and the mourning. This is one of the most effective ways of dealing with satanic transference within the Body. Rise up in violence, but at the same time humble yourself before God so that you can continue to flow with the Body as it comes forth in the last days. Repent! Take upon yourself the repentance for any defilement so that it will not be true today as it was with the Corinthians, that the Body had not mourned.
For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present. I Corinthians 5:3. In this day, foundational ministries, who move in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, are sometimes accused of practicing astral projection. That is not true, for the Scriptures clearly show the ability of apostles and prophets to tune into situations by the Spirit of the Lord. They had capacities to see into spiritual conditions that existed in places which were thousands of miles away (II Kings 5:20–27; 6:8–12; et al). Paul did that in dealing with the Corinthian Church. He wrote to them, In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with your spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. I Corinthians 5:4–5. The contamination in this case was being channeled through the flesh of the man. Paul said that the soul and the spirit of that man could be saved; therefore, he was willing to believe God for a deliverance.
Let God deal! With the same attitude as Paul had, there would be more effectiveness in the Body. The devil will be put in the pit shortly, but there is an immediate action that can be used effectively to deal with the defiling spirit within the Body. Believe God to deal with such a spirit. The Scripture says to “deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh.” In this context it is important to know that because of the nature of Satan, God often uses him as the “hatchet man.” He is a murderer; he was a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44).
Another Scripture speaks of two people who were delivered to Satan by the apostle because of their blasphemy (I Timothy 1:20). They were delivered over that they might be taught not to blaspheme, for the idea of their ultimate salvation was in Paul’s mind in their case too. In such cases, the flesh must be destroyed so that the spirit can yet be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Some may wonder how they can make the devil do what they want in those cases. He cannot keep from it. Regardless of what anyone may think, Satan is still the unwilling servant of God. Another illustration of this principle is found in the Old Testament. After King Saul had sinned, an evil spirit from the presence of the Lord came to drive him into madness (I Samuel 16:14). Why? An evil spirit from the presence of the Lord came and terrorized Saul because he had sinned against the kingship and the anointing the Lord had given him to lead the people of God.
Paul said, “My spirit will be with you to deliver that one to Satan.” The purpose was for the destruction of his flesh so that his spirit could be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. The second letter to the Corinthians tells how that same man repented and mourned very deeply, but the church would have nothing to do with him because of Paul’s apostolic orders. In that second letter, Paul said that he was not ignorant of Satan’s devices, and that the offender had repented and should be received back lest he be swallowed up by excessive sorrow (II Corinthians 2:5–11). The Scriptures do not reveal whether that man was crippled or what had happened to him in the judgment of his flesh. But evidently the ultimate destruction of the flesh, which would have resulted in death, had not been executed, because he was restored by Paul. Some might think that God intervened because Paul’s action of judgment was too cold-blooded, but that is not true.
Drastic measures must be taken in order to see the nephilim spirits broken. They must be confined outside the Body until the areas being used as channels are broken. This must be done so that God can accomplish His will and bring the salvation of the spirit. Satan can have access through the human mind and human emotions on the soul plane, or he can come into a person on the physical plane as was the case in the Corinthian church. In either case, that person becomes a channel to speak and to act with great force in whatever the enemy wants him to do within the Body. By putting that person in a place where there can be a destruction of part of his being, as Paul did, the possibility remains that his spirit can be released. Most likely in his spirit he will still want to serve God. Many people are like that. In fact, have you noticed in your walk that when Satan really gets to you, you cry out, “This is not me. It is not in my spirit. I don’t want this, but something is hitting my flesh!” This happens because of some point of access that Satan has to your flesh. The Lord’s way of dealing with such a problem is to destroy the point of access within the individual that is being used to contaminate the whole Body.
Paul went on to say, Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens a whole lump of dough? I Corinthians 5:6. just one individual can render ineffective and nullify the spirituality of the whole Body. That is a true principle, whether you want to accept it or not.
During the days of the conquest of Canaan, Achan sinned and brought defeat to all of Israel. Many people became casualties as a result of Achan’s sin. When the Israelites went against Ai, several died who had not committed any sin, but the sin of Achan resulted in the transference of guilt and responsibility to all of Israel. Then Joshua cried out to God, “Why are You doing this to us?” The Lord replied, “Because you touched the accursed thing.” Finally Achan and his entire family were stoned and buried under a pile of rocks which became a monument of that defilement within the camp forever (Joshua 7:1–26). Such a transgression never happened again in all the conquest of Canaan. They learned a lesson, and from that time on, throughout the days of conquest, there was a purity in Israel. That same fear of the Lord must be taught to the Body of Christ before it can effectively break into the Kingdom. They must fear, above everything else, the defilement that can come against them from within.
Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I Corinthians 5:7–8. The judgments are going to reach out to the whole world, but first they must be within the Body. If we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged (I Corinthians 11:31). This principle applies to the entire Body of Christ as well as to each individual in it.
I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters; for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother, if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one (because of the transference that occurs within the Body). For what have I to do with judging outsiders? (It was not the time for such judgment; the time is coming in which outsiders will be judged.) Do you not judge those who are within the church? (The word church did not occur in the original. The more correct meaning would be, “Do you not judge those who are within?”) But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves. I Corinthians 5:9–13. In other words, rise up in faith, saying, “This one, who has become a channel of leavening to the whole Body, must be set on the outside where God will deal with him.” Judge such individuals only to the extent that you refuse to be exposed to the contamination within the Body. Set them on the outside, for the Body of Christ must be pure.
Do not hold to the old idea of church discipline in which people’s attitude was that of throwing someone out of the church. Merely set the channels outside the realm of defilement and close the walls against them until they are shut off. Put them on the outside where God judges. Paul did that in setting the offender on the outside so that Satan could work away at the destruction of his body. Nothing but judgment could happen to him until he repented, which he did, and so he was saved.
In no way does the Body take God’s prerogative to judge. They do not suddenly sit on the throne to determine the right or wrong in a man. They only determine whether transference is working in the Body and whether they are being assaulted by Satan. If so, they must find and deal with the source of the oppression that comes to bind them.
Transference has been a problem to us for some time. In one of the first churches to come into the end-time restoration of New Testament order, a great deal of witchcraft came against the Body. At one time God removed a large segment of people from that church. Then the church began to grow and prosper. From that time on it became effective as an instrument of God. As soon as that defiling element was removed, the stalemate was broken, and that church began to move in God.
One of the key churches that God raised up was hindered in its effectiveness because of a nephilim spirit that was coming against it. A church that should have been packed to the doors nearly stopped growing because of the hindrance within. After months of trying to break forth in worship, there finally came a breakthrough to the liberty that should prevail in a New Testament church. But with the freedom came a few complaints that the church should be careful and quiet down. Who wants to be careful and tone down the liberty God gives?
Do not be too careful; just be dedicated and consecrated! Press on! Get the complete victory! See an end to the truth being defiled by just a little leaven! That has to end! Be cautioned, however, not to start on a witch hunt. The devil will be pleased if you start wondering who are the channels. If you look at someone with this attitude: “No, the devil isn’t there right now, but he might come back any minute,” that can place you in line for judgment. Do not judge after the flesh! The only way to effectively deal with the defiling leaven is to do what the apostle told the Corinthians to do. Then the action of the Body remains impersonal and not something by which they enter in to judge one another.
Satan is pleased if you have a wrong spirit in this matter of judgment. You can almost hear him goading, “Do you want to judge nephilim? Go ahead. Everyone be a judge. Look around until you find eight or ten nephilim to get mad at.” Falling for that is judging on a human plane, only to become victims of the principle which says that you will be judged in the way which you judge (Matthew 7:2).
Paul said, For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete. II Corinthians 10:4–6. Here Paul was saying that not much will happen until the Body comes into full agreement, until they are really dedicated to do the will of God with no misgivings and no reservations. Purification is the prelude to immunities. Purge out! That is the key. That was the teaching of the Passover. Sweep it all out! get rid of it! Get rid of every defilement in your own spirit. Then the Lord will work out the perfection in the Body. Then will come the ability to pull down everything that exalts itself like a fortress against the Body. Whether it be in the mind, in the spirit, or in the soulish realm—everything that comes against God’s people will be pulled down. When they are purged, then they will pull down the fortress.
Be encouraged to press in with all your heart. Take the impersonal view, and allow the love of God to fill your heart until you can say, “Lord, Thy will be done. We love You, Lord. We want to be the pure Body You want us to be, and if this is the way You say it is to be done, then this is the way we will do it. We will set the defiling channel out where You can deal with it. We will do it impersonally and realistically, knowing that there is no other pattern for us.” There is no other procedure for dealing with defilement. God will be the One who deals with it, but it is up to the Body to set it out.
On several occasions I have seen a contaminating force dealt with in this way. As the Body began to pray that God would loose such a person, soon God picked him up and set him outside the Body. He was unable to reach the Body in any way. The Body could then bless him and believe God for him, because he was no longer in a place where he could contaminate the people.
There must be no revenge in dealing with such people.
Simply set them out where God can deal with them, and then pray for them and bless them. That is the only effective way for the love of God to move. As long as cancer remains in a body, the entire body will suffer and eventually die from it. Cancer must be removed and dealt with, so that the body can live. With such guidelines, believe God and love. Do not be motivated by hatred or malice. Only the desire to do the will of God must be in your heart.
Paul’s disciplinary action was not accomplished with a spirit of animosity; it was done out of full obedience. Paul said that God is ready to avenge all disobedience the minute our obedience is complete (II Corinthians 10:6). When we are completely obedient to God, He will deal with everything else that is disobedient. That throws a little of the responsibility back on us. We may be praying, “God, why aren’t You doing something? We are taking the initiative, God. Now You do something.” He is doing something. God is working all the time. Much is being done, but that which we want done, the final pulling down of the last fortress, that has to be done when our obedience is fully complete. We are not obedient until we pursue the evil that comes against the Body. We are not obedient until we do what God sets before the Body to do.
Purge out the old leaven so that the Body can be free. Declare your liberation in every area—not just from Satan, but from the impasse, from the fortress that is created by the nephilim spirit that would render the Body ineffective, that would tie it up and keep it from the flow of miracles and from the work that God wants to do through it.