The Soul Redeemer: From Victim to Victory (3 page)

That is exactly what was happening.  As they arrested people in the physical realm, it was like the Holy Spirit was arresting them in the spiritual realm and was then breaking the bonds that had held their souls captive.

As summer drew to a close, revival did not.  The intercessors continued to pray.  They perceived portals and fissures in the earth that were passageways for demonic spirits between hell and earth, but as they persevered in prayer, those began to diminish, and portals between heaven and earth began increasing in size and number all over Samaria, especially over the churches.  Prayer and angels of breakthrough were pushing back the demonic interference, and God's presence and power was accessible and ready to be applied to every prayer. 

But they could almost feel the strongman.  The intercessors had pinpointed many of the demons, and yet there was something that was above all these that needed to be brought out of hiding so that they could bind the strongman in order to effectively plunder his house.

IS was becoming more and more agitated.  As churches and Christians began to work and pray together in unity, his thrones that had been set up over Samaria, specifically at Sierra Crest and the Samaritan Inn, were becoming unstable as the heavenly portals were growing in number and volume.  But he was working on a plan….      

N
icole woke from the nightmare
gasping for breath and a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach.  She prayed, Lord Jesus, what is this about?  She was trying hard not to throw up!  She couldn't get away from the thought that she was under the control of Incubus Succubus.  But how was this possible?  Hadn't she renounced everything? 

As an intercessor, one of the lessons she had learned was that not every feeling she had was her own.  Sometimes God would allow her to experience something that was attached to someone else so that she would be able to recognize the spirit behind them and know how to pray. 

She had learned that lesson the hard way.  If she claimed it as her own and it wasn't, this would result in someone else's demons attaching to her, along with whatever issue they were facing, whether physical symptoms, disease, emotional turmoil or mental attitudes. 

"God, what is this?  Is this just a bad dream?  Or is this a revelation for me personally or for someone else?" She cried out, hoping that it was not for her.  

In the dream, Nicole was in the kitchen of the house she had grown up in.  She had opened the freezer door and saw what appeared to be a whole, newborn female calf stuffed inside.  It slid out onto the floor and she watched as it moved just a bit. 

She felt compassion for it and reached down to stroke its soft fur.  The calf slowly began to stir and come to life, and then it stood and looked lovingly into Nicole's eyes as it nudged her hand, encouraging her to pet it some more, like her dog Jo did. 

She didn't realize that the longer she stroked the soft fur, the more power over her mind the calf seemed to have.  She didn't recognize that what seemed like innocent compassion on her part was opening her up to the deception of false love and comfort the calf was offering her. 

The calf moved continually closer to her until it was leaning against her legs.  The weight of it caused Nicole to sit down on the floor, and then it began crawling into her lap, wanting to be as close to her as possible.  At first, Nicole laughed at its insistent intimacy and felt special that it had chosen her, but it seemed to be rapidly growing and gaining weight, and before she knew it, it had pushed her down until she was lying flat on the floor and it was sitting on top of her, holding her down.

"Hey, now that's enough.  Get off of me!" Nicole said. 

It did, but before she could get up, suddenly, a male calf moved in so quickly that Nicole had no time to get up before it too lay on top of her chest, holding her down so that she was unable to move at all.  It was beautiful, dominating, controlling and strong, and it was familiar.  Its influence over her mind was fulfilling in an enticing and empowering sort of way. 

As Nicole was contemplating this, she began to feel as if the weight of the calf was crushing her and there was pressure around her neck that was making it difficult to breathe.  Suddenly she knew that it held her in a strangle hold physically and spiritually. 

Still believing that it cared about her, she told him that he was hurting her and asked it to get off of her and to release her, but he refused to move.  He sat up tall and proud and powerful, looking away from her.  She was beginning to choke and realized that he had no regard for her, except to conquer her. 

In that moment of her dream, Nicole had a vision.  She saw herself with the perfect body.  She somehow knew the calf was telling her that if she would remain under his control that he would give her this body.  It was an appealing temptation and yet there was a sense of defilement as well. 

Nicole suddenly had a knowing inside her spirit that this was the spiritual principality of Incubus Succubus.  She cried out to Jesus, and then woke up. 

She got out of bed and began trying to make sense of this dream.  It disturbed her that she hadn't discerned the evil and that she had stepped under its power so quickly and easily, even if it was just a dream. 

It was upsetting that this seemed to be a familiar spirit, and yet in retrospect, it wasn't in complete control because it was trying to tempt and trick her into remaining under its control by offering something she desired.  Nicole realized that giving in to that desire would seal the deal with the demon and bring destruction, not fulfillment.  That would be death! 

The dream had been in a place of her past, and the calf inside of a freezer (a place of storage for future use) suggested that this was something that had been an issue from long ago.  The fact that the calf slid out of the freezer and came to life suggested that whatever it represented, the time had come for her to deal with it.  And it had gained power over her through something that seemed good, like compassion. 

Was this a representation of someone accepting something that appeared to be a good thing but was not?

Nicole didn't know the answer to that, but she knew that the first thing she needed to do was to admit her own desire to be beautiful and sexually attractive.  She hadn't realized until this dream how much of a desire this was. 

"Jesus," she prayed.  "Please forgive me for having an ungodly desire for physical beauty and the need of admiration from others, especially men.  I renounce this as false comfort and counterfeit fulfillment.  I renounce the worship of body image as a false god. 

"I plead the blood of Jesus especially over my mind because this spirit seemed to be able to penetrate my mind; but I also bring my will, emotions, body and spirit under the covering of Jesus blood, and I rededicate all that I am to You, Lord. 

"I renounce the lie that Satan can make me look beautiful because the truth is, that even if he did, it would only be physical beauty for a fleeting moment, and then it would bring decay, death and destruction.  

"I will love and worship only You regardless of the looks of my physical body.  I will look to You to be my comfort and my fulfillment.  I will be diligent to protect my eyes and ears from ungodliness and will work at watching my thoughts and desires.  I will guard my heart.  Please Lord, help me to renew my mind!"

Nicole thought about what she had already learned about Incubus Succubus.  She knew that it usually presented itself as a sexual spirit that would accost men or women, usually in their sleep; but its true identity was a religious spirit, and its deepest desire was for worship.  Recalling her past experience at Trisha's, IS (as Nicole decided to nickname it) in its true form was a snake or serpent. 

Interesting.  Satan had presented himself as a serpent in the Garden of Eden.  In heaven before the fall, he had been a seraph, a beautiful, majestic being with six wings, human hands and voice.  He had been an attendant of God whose function was to worship Him by continually proclaiming His holiness.  Nicole investigated and found that the word "seraph" was the same word in Hebrew as serpent or fiery serpent! 

Isaiah 6:1–6 said that the seraphim cry continually to each other saying,
 
"Holy, holy, holy
, is the Lord of hosts."
The passage went on to describe how one seraph picked up a burning live coal from the altar and purified Isaiah's unclean lips by touching them with the coal. 

While the seraphim were all about purity, holiness and life, Satan, who had been one of them, had become the opposer of God and His holiness.  He and all who followed him were now serpents of defilement, corruption and death.   

Nicole had believed that IS was a strongman, but with this new information she realized that
if he had been a seraph in heaven like Satan had been, then he was most likely a general in Satan's Kingdom, probably one of the most powerful principalities. 

In fact, as Nicole considered his function, she saw that it was closely related to Satan's function.  In heaven, Satan, or rather Lucifer had desired the worship that belonged to God, and that had been his downfall, literally.  From the beginning, Satan's function on earth was to gain man's worship, to steal it from God. 

In scripture, God used the marriage between a husband and wife to illustrate His relationship with people.  Ungodly sex, sex outside of marriage with another in such intimacy of body and soul would create unholy unions and ungodly soul ties, not just with the physical partner, but with the spiritual being behind the sin as well.

But why had IS appeared in her dream as two calves?  The children of Israel had openly rebelled against trusting and obeying God when they made a golden calf and worshipped it; and calves were worshipped in the nations around them for their power, sexual energy and strength.  The calves in her dream had worked together in perfect unity to gain her worship and servitude.

Ephesians 6:10-18 kept coming to her mind, and even though she knew it well, she looked at the scripture again.  "Jesus, I feel like You are trying to tell me something here.  Please open my spiritual eyes to see it." 

Verses 11 and 12 grabbed her heart. 
"Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities
, against
powers,
against the
rulers of the darkness
of this world
, against
spiritual wickedness
in high places
."
  (KJV)

Nicole took this into the tabernacle inside her mind, her meeting place with Jesus.  He was sitting behind a large desk with books and papers in front of Him as if He were studying, and she sat down opposite from Him. 

"Jesus, I know that the devil's scheme is to gain my worship.  I know I'm in a war with principalities, powers, rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness…"  She paused as comprehension came to her.  "That's it isn't it?  You want to show me something about the hierarchy in Satan's kingdom!" 

Jesus was smiling at her, so she opened her Strong's Concordance and saw that the Greek word for
principality
(Arche
:
G746
) was
"
Beginning, origin,
the person or thing that commences (begins, initiates), the first person or thing in a series, the leader,…the active cause,
corner,
the first place, rule, magistrate (judge or government)." 
This class of demonic spirits would most likely be the counterparts of the archangels in God's Kingdom.  They would be assigned to rule over nations, states, cities…and while they were territorial, Nicole believed that they could also rule over individuals.

She continued her search investigating. 
P
owers
(
exousia: G1849)
had been given
the ability or strength to exercise the power, the right, the jurisdiction and privilege of authority and influence to rule or govern.  Their will and commands must be submitted to and obeyed by those under them. 

"Jesus, who are these powers?  Who gives them this authority, power and right to rule?  And who do they rule?"

She realized that the
principalities
give the
powers
authority to rule, and those
powers
rule the armies of demons in the kingdom of darkness under them.

She thought about Trisha and the way the Holy Spirit had worked from the bottom of the hierarchy to the top as she had confessed her sin then renounced each demon associated with that sin, disarming the rights of the powers and commanding them to leave.  Jesus had then been able to deal with the principality of Leviathan. 

Then she thought of Samaria.  It suddenly made sense!  Nicole couldn't wait to tell Casie her thoughts and punched in her number on the phone hoping that she would pick up.

"Hey sweet girl," Casie answered.  "What's up?"

"You are not going to believe this!" Nicole practically shouted with anticipation.  "I know who the principality over Samaria is!  And I believe that the Lord is giving us the beginning of a strategy to overcome!"

"You're kidding!  Who is it?"

"Incubus Succubus!"

"Wow. Ok, tell me."

Nicole recounted her dream then said, "Think about it.  Godly sex is the purest and greatest expression of love and intimate relationship there is between two people.  So Satan has tried to take that for himself by assigning IS the function of enticing people into defiling, perverted, counterfeit sexual experiences that lead them away from Jesus and all godly relationships, and into a life of worship and servitude to him.  This always results in bondage and ultimately death." 

"Oh my goodness girl!" Casie exclaimed.  "So even though sexual bondage is huge with this strongman, his goal is to gain worship and control through appealing to any of our fleshly desires.  This could mean that he is the strongman behind every addiction.  I mean, think about it.  Eve was seduced with a piece of fruit." 

"Good point," Nicole said.  "I also think that the Holy Spirit is giving us an important key about the hierarchy in the kingdom of darkness so that we can effectively begin to pull down his strongholds in Samaria." 

She explained what she believed Jesus had told her, and then they prayed and waited on the Lord for confirmation before they proceeded with this warfare strategy.