Evicting the Serpent! 1/3

² And the natives showed us unusual and remarkable kindness, for they kindled a fire and welcomed and received us all, since it had begun to rain and was cold.³ Now Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and he was laying them on the fire when a viper crawled out because of the heat and fastened itself on his hand.

Acts 26:2-3 Amp Classic

The serpent never snuck into the garden of Eden. It was already there!

A good portion of christian life today is lived out in close proximity of the serpent. Either with the serpent scheming to get into us, or the serpent seeking to bite. Gen 3:15 – Rev 12:4, 12-17 puts us in direct generational conflict with the serpent. A war which Christ has won, but we must enforce that victory in our christian walk “seasonally”.

Late January I was heading up to minister in a partner church in town when the Lord began to speak these exact words to me.

“Anywhere the serpent finds space, it enters and it THRIVES”!!!!.

I had been hindered from prepared anything for that meeting which is just as well because HE clearly wanted to take the full reigns of that meeting Himself.

[May our churches know the true joys of having the Lord Himself take full reigns of our meetings regularly]. [This is actually a much rarer occurrence in a lot of our churches today because we’re ‘over-programmed’, and have relegated Him to a bit role player in our well choreographed routines….what a huge loss for us!!]

The Lord’s statement piqued my curiosity. As i entered the meeting which was rounding up the “praise/worship” phase, the Lord spoke to me again “I desire serious worship“. I conveyed this to the church & though very very orthodox, yet they complied & agreed to go off schedule

[may we learn to yield to the LORD taking us off schedule in our church meetings. Amen]

As the meeting proceeded back into serious worship [no instruments to gin up our emotions, just us on our faces before the Lord], suddenly our collective awareness of God’s presence was very heightened – even tangible. Suddenly several people’s eyes in the hall were opened in the spirit and they saw a serpent driven out of our midst literally!!!
I hadn’t mentioned a word! It couldn’t stand the heat from the worship!

This isn’t as unique or peculiar a situation as you might want to think. There’s a 90% chance your church is in exactly the same situation. Make it 96% if its Pentecostal :-). Hopefully this isolation gives us a chance to look inward, repent before the Lord and return with a more spiritually attuned approach in our services. Amen.

Though i didn’t see the serpent myself, but what they were shown was a confirmation. After the open declarations, I probed the Holy Spirit as to where it was and He showed me the serpent loitering just outside the door!!!!

[vip note: The serpent upon being evicted never wants to wander too far, its always seeking for an opportunity to get back in; hence constant vigilance is required on our parts individually and collectively]

So the serpent was already in the garden of Eden. It studied, lurked and made its move: not in the cool of the evening when God would be walking with Adam, but at a time/season when it felt there was ‘sufficient enough space‘ between Adam and God to exploit. In much the same way:
– The serpent lurks in many homes & marriages as a hidden guest.
– The serpent lurks in the hidden generational altars of many families.
– The serpent lurks in many house fellowships and study groups.
– The serpent seed has long been planted in the hearts of many of us
– The serpent occupies the empty spaces in the bodies/souls of believers
which have not been wholly presented to God as a living sacrifice.

In our text Acts 28:2-3. A fire had been lit because of the cold, yet not until Paul gathered wood and increased the heat quotient to a level above tolerance of the serpent did the serpent become discomfited and manifest itself.

Suprising fact: Snakes actually like heat! They are cold blooded animals but they thrive in temperatures ranging from 68 degrees to 104 degrees Fahrenheit [20 to 40 degrees Celsius], above which they overheat.

Of all entities in the kingdom of darkness, serpentine spirits are actually quite attracted to professing Christians, to our places of worship, and to servants of God because they feed of of us in a way!!. The root of this dates back to God’s judgement of the serpent in Genesis 3:14 where God commands that “the dust shall be food for the serpent“. Any professing christian who habitually reverts to the 1st Adamic state of dust [carnality] will be food for the serpent. [more on this in another teaching.]

Continuing in that meeting the Lord had me bring up a volunteer during the teaching to further illustrate on the subject matter of space and the serpent. He indicated that there are 4 areas in the life of a christian that the serpent seeks to occupy and I’ve depicted this in my very poor diagram below:

The Lord posited several questions to us:

– “What is in the space in between both ears?”
– “What is the space in between both hands?”
– “What is the space between both legs?”
These are all the spaces that the serpent sequentially longs to occupy in a believers life.

The Mind Space:

The chief target point of the enemy is to get into our minds. This is the primary battleground in spiritual warfare. Whoever has chief influence over the mind of a person controls the person Prov 23:7.
Chief stronghold’s are erected here.

Conversely the Christian who is able to walk continually in the renewed mind of Christ will live a victorious and successful Christian walk.

When the serpent’s voice finds space to thrive in a mind, often these things are the telling signs:

• It produces self-deception (bewitchment) 2 cor 11:3 . Gal 3:1-3 E.g. Where the person is passionately given to the cause of the belief, the denominational flag or the cult of leadership BUT NOT to the person of Jesus Christ.
• It produces an identity crisis: E,g, Where there is continuous doubt about the love of God, or the certainty of one’s salvation. Zech 3:1
• It taps into & amplifies the stream of -ve thoughts which produces depression & hopelessness amongst other things but its chief goal is targeted at sweeping us away from our purpose, from a close walk with God and from life itself Rev 12:15
• The word of God suffers corruption once it enters into our ears 2 cor 2:17, the mind is no longer simple to profit from its light. The religious & highly legalistic spirit is very often a direct product of this operation. John referred to them as a ‘brood of vipers‘
• Our perceptions of others becomes skewed: & the fruit of envyings, debates, wraths, backbiting, strife, becomes our primary contribution to the body of Christ 2 Cor 12:20-21
• We rationalize sin individually and corporately, playing down its consequence even as compromise becomes the order of the day Gen 3:4

The Heart Space

Guard thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
Proverbs 4:23 KJV

If the serpent is able to successfully get into our hearts space, it will release its bile of poisonous venom which will defile our hearts and manifest itself in the form of bitterness and unforgiveness. It will change our tender heartedness and will often cause our speech to become destructive (gossip, slander and backbiting is a key trait). Heb 12:15 Luke 6:45

Another consequence of the serpent getting into our hearts is that it will cause us to divide our love between God and other things. There will no longer be a purity of devotion in our love to christ 2 Cor 11:3 The serpent thrives in a ‘worship service‘ where God is not at the centre. We are more enamored by our outfits, our performance, our displays than the one who matters most.

When the serpent fastens itself to the collective hearts in a church, it sometimes manifests in the unchecked propagation of the spirit of divination and operation of familiar spirits. You can read this post to learn how to detect the fruits of familiar spirits which may be operating in your midst.

The Belly Space

He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. John 7:38

And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
Luke 1:35

For a born again Christian, the “belly” is arguably your most crucial organ. It is the place to “conceive the holy thing” which God divinely appoints as your destiny assignment.
From the belly you are able to “deliver” and “flow out” the things which the Holy Spirit has been “incubating” in you by grace fit to refresh and equip others.
Having incubated the seed, The belly is also the place for ‘generational transfer‘ both physically and spiritually. God’s dealings with and through us is always with a generational transfer consideration.

If the serpent gains entry into this crucial place in us it will:

• Produce Corruption of the generational seed (which goes against God’s interest Mal 2:15) and propagate generational bondage and defilement.
• Blunt the Force of the Anointing which you carry in its ability to cause the little babes (God’s agenda) on the wombs of God’s people who He has prepared for you to impart upon NOT TO LEAP. In essence, it will blunt your impact in being able to impart the tangible grace of God unto those God has brought to you.
  Luke 1:44 The voice of your salutation will carry no grace nor power. You will have nothing to offer beyond putting on comedians, entertainment and telling stories which lead nowhere.

The Private Space

Brethren, i have seen, encountered, performed deliverance on and been confronted by ladies (though some men are also involved) who have utterly yielded up their private organs as operating offices for the serpentine marine kingdom. Woe unto the man who falls into their web of lust, it will; require nothing less than the determined hand of God to pull one through unscathe.
Ezekiel 13:18, Nahum 3:4, Rev 18:13 describes their agency as nothing short of “Traders of Men’s Souls“. Many a pastor, many a deacon, many a congregation have fallen into the jaws of these vipers & cokatrices and have had their souls entangled and dominated by powerful demonic forces.

I once did a deliverance on an usher who would have the manifested form of a spirit report to her bedside at exactly 11pm every night. It would proceed to sleep with her and defile her without resistance. Her husband would always fall asleep 10 mins to the hour and never wake. This spirit so utterly dominated her life for years and actively afflicted any person whom she would show any affection toward, even her children.
Yet on the surface she was a dedicated usher in a ‘good church’ but nevertheless under bondage. One Reason? Not enough heat to flush out the serpent.

I have the privilege of working with different churches and denominations every year, yet one common factor i never cease to encounter is that of Christians living under active torment of the serpent. (another e.g. Cases of people with active movement in their bodies). And they are in every church!
There is not enough time and space to shed light on just how much damage sexual immorality and impurity is causing in the lives of brethren and in our very churches themselves. It has been devastating. Yet there is room for recovery, but it must start with you & me in agreement with the Holy Spirit.

How can we help them and help ourselves?
We must gather wood, place it on the fire so that there will be an increase in the ambient temperature to >40 degrees celsius.

Conclusions
Next post, we will discuss the specifics of the ways in which the serpent finds space and propagates and the measures we can take to evict and flush out the serpent from our ;oves and spheres of influence

More grace to us all