Then Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he slipped away from Saul’s presence; and he drove the spear into the wall. So David fled and escaped that night. I Samuel 19:10 NKJV

Outreach meeting xxx

Taxidermy is the practice of preparing, stuffing and mounting the carcass of animals as trophy collections. It is a past-time quite common with trophy hunters! People who hunt wild animals for sport! Some hunt to trade them to others who collect them, others are contracted to bring the heads of a particular beast for a certain price.

In the spiritual realm we also have evil agents who hunt men’s souls and mount them up as trophies like these taxidermists. One of the great casualties of God’s final judgement on Babylon the great will be ‘The Traders of Men’s Souls‘ Rev 18:10-13 who work very closely with the Hunters of Men’s Souls Eze 12:18-23 in entrapping men into destructive cycles and actions which will first bring them into bondage before eventually cutting of their heads.

These agents are in our churches, in our fellowships, in our prayer groups, in our sunday schools, in our offices, in our pulpits and even in some of our homes. Their devices range fromsexual to emotional to financial to intellectual to social to physical and to the spiritual. They aren’t often easily identified by their outward appearance but their end game is the same: to sell a man’s soul to their contractors who will hang them up for ridicule; hang them up for mockery; hang them up for derision; amidst boastful bleatings of their accomplishments against the people of God.

All through the scriptures we can see their operations subtly manifest:

John 14:8Salome daughter of Herodias contracted for the Head of John the Baptist to be brought on a charger
Judges 16:5Delilah struck a deal with the Lords of the Philistines for 1100 pieces of silver to deliver Samson captive
Gen 14:21The King of Sodom said to Abram “Give me the Souls, but keep the goods to yourself”
Matt 26:15Judas Iscariot ‘what are you willing to give me if i deliver Jesus over to you?’ 30 pieces of silver!
Genesis 38:16Tamar circumstantially said ‘what wilt thou give me, that thou mayest come in unto me?’
Prov 7:8-22The Strange Woman (Man) whose words flatter but her (his) bed is a door way to slaughter and Sheol.
1 Kings 22:29Ahab’s sly counsel to Jehoshaphat ‘I will disguise myself and go into battle, but you put on your robes‘

For the demonic spirits behind these trading and hunting operations to operate in this earthly realm, they must partner with men who often knowingly Rev 18:9 and sometimes unknowingly become pawns in this dark enterprise.

Example’s in our society abound: Father’s who trade their children’s destinies for gain; Ex boy/girlfriends who cause their married exes to stumble; Managers who prey on their subordinates for sexual compromise; Lecturer’s who give ‘trade grades for sex’; Pastors who bewitch the flock with the gospel of gain; Soothsayers who cloak as prophets of God to draw men into error like balaam; the people who create cliques and bring division amongst the flock. They are everywhere! hiding in plain sight.

A lot of the happenings which we easily accredit to human lapses are more than that. Many are carefully orchestrated schemes which have been cooked up in the dark places of the earth and unleashed upon men to draw them into error and attempt to bring the glory of God and testimony of Jesus Christ in the lives of men into disrepute and mockery.

In our reading today the old nature in the person of Saul sought to PIN the new man (David) unto the wall. No doubt in this specific instance Saul hoped to kill David and end His destiny. Today, the enemy [internal and external] still actively works to :-

  • pin men who claim Christ has conquered them to the wall of derision as conquest trophies;
  • pin men to the wall of mockery and helplessness.
  • pin men to the wall of ridicule and incapacitation.
  • pin men to the wall of scorn and contempt.

Samson’s hair and eyes where cut and set on display for this reason. John the Baptist head was cut and displayed as a trophy. Reuben’s strength and authority was stripped and displayed to his great shame.

Jesus willingly laid himself down as a substitute for you and I so we wouldn’t have to, but when you call yourself a Christian and comfortably live a life of compromise with sin in certain areas, you will suffer the same avoidable fate in sorek.

We have heard confessions of social covens in this town where married women and side chic’s who are eager, are taught the dark arts of confiscating the sexual organ of their philandering partners to ensure domination and exclusivity. Even church attending – christ affirming women participate in this practice. What are they if not traders?
We know many single sisters in various serving capacities who carry flesh-hooks and devices of entrapment on their bodies.
We have seen men who use money and gifts as their instruments of entrapment (take the goods, but give us your souls).

The good news is that David ‘slipped away’ and escaped! He was God-fearing 1 Sam 24:6 and a man of love 1 Pe 4:8.
Joseph also escaped by this very same standard. Joshua and Caleb escaped.

Have you been caught in the web of the soul hunters?
Have you lost a part of your life/destiny because of the inability to avoid sexual/spiritual compromise?
Have you in the course of non-divine pursuits become ensnared in the caravan of the soul traders like Lot’s family?
Has your strength being taken? your vision and revelation? your fruitfulness?

There is still good news!

GOD IS A GOD OF RECOVERY! In so far as He sees genuine repentance [A contrite spirit and a broken heart]. You can cry out to Him for help this moment! You can also cry out for the souls of your loved ones ensnared in these markets, that the Lord will visit them with His salvation and mercy.

Shalom.

4 Then I heard another voice from heaven say:“ ‘Come out of her, my people,’ so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; 5 for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.
Rev 18:4-5