“What the wicked fears will come upon him, but the desire of the righteous [for the blessings of God] will be granted.” -Proverbs 10:24
In light of the events of last week, I’ve been thinking a lot about emotional warfare and manipulation. Humans were not designed to assimilate the tragedies of the entire world on a daily basis.
I was in London last week running an event for a group of entrepreneurs. I wanted to say something immediately, but I was working and had to focus — and to be honest, there was a lot of emotion I had to process. My statement on the issue can be found here.
When I woke up the following morning, I was flooded with messages on several different platforms asking me why I was so callous to have not spoken out about the shooting in America.
As with most things, the assumptions are the most dangerous, and they will get people into a lot of trouble. I simply responded to a few of them, saying I was sad and did not know what to say at that time.
Less than 24 hours later, the host of a prominent podcast in the US called me looking for advice. He sounded fearful, anxious, and worried. When someone who is not a politician, not running for an office, and not a “power broker” in the machine of government is murdered for having an opinion — it tends to wake you up to the risky business of sharing your mind.
Speaking the truth, regardless of how you do it, is a dangerous gig when the culture has propped up the mob’s mentality of right vs. wrong for so long.
Of the many things I sensed last week (grief being one of them) the most poignant ingredient I began to notice was the presence of witchcraft. Like a bad smell that you will never forget, I began to feel the tentacles of anarchy wrapping around everyone’s minds.
Keep in mind, this is not a political commentary — I will leave you to decide which morals you adhere to on your own time — I want to talk bout something much deeper than politics… something you must be aware of in the coming days if you wish to retain your sanity.
The Defining Features of Foul Play
One of the defining marks of witchcraft is fear.
Overwhelming, inconsolable, unreasonable fear. And with it, anger, and a thirst for vengeance
This is a weird thing to talk about, but it is appropriate, considering how prevalent witchcraft and divination seem to be on the face of the earth right now.
Society is bouncing around at a rapid pace between fear, anger, anxiety, confusion, and rage. There is also a subset of people who are publicly celebrating the loss of life. These people are predominantly witches and members of the occult. The kingdom of darkness celebrates regardless of the casualty or collateral damage. All it knows how to do is program the blueprints for war, oppression, and confusion.
Thursday night as I was scrolling through my newsfeed, the Holy Spirit spoke to me in no uncertain terms: “No. Go to bed. Right now.” I turned the lights off and went to bed, but I woke up the next day thinking about it — isn’t it interesting that God seems to be interested in what I we are paying attention to?
There is a counter-blueprint that you must be aware of and must begin to follow if you want to stay above the chaos of demons. Many will read this and not understand it at first. But there is a spiritual world operating in sync (and causally linked) to the natural occurrences we are experiencing on a day-to-day basis. You can chalk it up to nonsense, but it would be a mistake to do so.
Gates & Guardianship
A curse against a believer has very little power on its own.
It has to be inhaled, accepted, and powered by something. God’s investment into you is steady, consistent, and perfectly designed for where you are and what you are called to. He factors in your mistakes, missteps, and miscalculations. In short, you’re good and don’t need to worry about much of anything. If He couldn’t calculate for your missteps, and then redeem them from a future standpoint, He wouldn’t be effective and His strategy would not be perfect. This is why none of God’s plans rely on our perfection but, rather, our obedience and repentance.
David said it best:
“You’ve gone into my future to prepare the way, and in kindness you follow behind me to spare me from the harm of my past.“ -Psalms 139:5
Later on, he writes, “If I go up to heaven, you’re there! If I go down to the realm of the dead, you’re there too! If I fly with wings into the shining dawn, you’re there! If I fly into the radiant sunset, you’re there waiting! Wherever I go, your hand will guide me; your strength will empower me.”
There’s nowhere in the cosmos where the authority of God can be effectively challenged. Even in the realm of the dead (Sheol), the Lord has sovereignty and a throne room that provides power to the believer. This is universally acknowledged in the realm of the spirit. A witch, principality, or demon might hate Him, but none of them want to challenge Him directly. Their pattern recognition and self-preservation rules this out.
But most witchcraft is not deployed to physically hurt you. Most of it is sent to distract you, confuse you, and cause you to make decisions that hurt you.
There’s an old story in the Bible (Numbers 22) where an enemy of God’s people hires a sorcerer (Balaam) to curse a group of people. He tries to curse them 3 times and each time, as he speaks the words, he accidentally blesses them instead. This is obviously frustrating for him, as he had been paid to put a curse on these people.
He laments:
"How shall I curse those whom God has not cursed? Or how can I [violently] denounce those the LORD has not denounced?” -Numbers 23:8
There is a glitch.
It’s not that his curses are being performed incorrectly, it’s that they cannot even be formed and released to begin with. He decides to find an alternative route, and ends up getting the people to commit treason against their God.
In doing so, they are destroyed by their own decisions. A lot of witchcraft is like this, it can’t stick properly — but, IF you accept it, and you entertain it, and you worship it by being afraid of it — it can confuse you, muddy the waters, enrage and enflame your emotions, and water you down to the point where you lose yourself, and then it is effective.
When a a season becomes high stakes, I will slow down. I will ask God, “What do you want me to focus on? What am I supposed to stay away from?” I allow no decisions to be made from any messaging that is not coming from heaven.
That means I cannot make a decision from a place of fear, anxiety, hopelessness, or vengeance. These messages do not come from heaven. They come from somewhere else, and they are often part of the “first movers” when witchcraft is being released against you.
Engagement & Acceptance
There will be seasons where it is difficult to do this. Our channels collectively field 20,000+ comments a month and plenty of emails, messages, and requests. I don’t say that as a brag, because I believe our platforms are still very small compared to some peoples’ — but it can be an immense amount of response to sift through.
Every once in a while, something will get through (we have systems that protect me from seeing the lions share of responses) and I will see something that bothers me.
A witch is a prophet for the kingdom of darkness. A prophet is someone who is receiving messaging from a spiritual realm and transmitting it to the earth. As my influence has grown, I’ve had to learn from the Lord how to determine when to engage and when to disengage. There is always someone saying something.
Some of them are neutral, some of them are positive, and some of them are literal agents sent strategically to create doubt, fear, and insecurity. If something can shut your mind down due to fear, rage, or worry, you will be rendered essentially worthless.
Read from Jeremiah:
“Do not listen to the words of the [false] prophets who prophesy to you. They are making you worthless. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the LORD’S mouth.” Jeremiah 23:16
A year or so ago, someone sent me a very nasty message on one of our platforms. They claimed to be a believer and were concerned because of something that made no sense. They then proceeded to tell me that God was going to rebuke me and erase me because I said something they disagreed with.
I went to move on, because it is hard to argue or reason with the demonic, but the Holy Spirit said, “Respond to them.” This felt like an odd instruction, because I didn’t know what to say. So I asked for clarity.
“Rejected their words and make sure they see it. Tell them they have no permission to engage with you in areas they do not understand. And then ask them to have a nice day.” I felt like He wanted me to actually mean the last part, not just say it :)
I’ve since learned that sometimes, based on the level of communication, it is our job to reject anything that someone is attempting to plant in our minds — outright, directly, and verbally. The last thing you want to do is harbor a message that was sent from hell; or worse, to barter and negotiate with witchcraft, thinking you are simply “reasoning” with someone to set the record straight.
If you are a person with a calling, you should know that you are on many different radars in the spirit. Some of them are radars you’d rather not be on. Others are fine.
I hate when people will say things like, “You know, if you’re going to do things for God, hell will come after you.” It’s only half the story. You also have a significant amount of attention from heaven instructed to protect you. Both sides of the story need telling.
I refuse to allow myself to be the victim of a random “lucky hit” designed to take out my certainty (in God’s goodness, protection, etc) — these lucky hits often happen socially, and they can be just as effective as physical removal (if something gets in your head, and you stop saying what you are supposed to say, it’s a win for the wrong side).
Because of this, I am very careful about who I engage with unless I am instructed to do so. And when I do, I use the counsel of the Holy Spirit to engage.
This is not because I am upset, or mean, or do not care about constructive feedback. I simply do not have that much faith in my ability to track the comings and goings and game theories originating from the agendas of hell. I have complete confidence in the Holy Spirit’s ability to counsel me, consult me, guide me, and then tell me what to do.
It is often much easier to ask, “What do you want me to do here?” Then follow instructions.
Trust & Confidence
This is where the rubber meets the road.
God does not promise that He will protect us from “risk.” A few weeks ago, I was studying a book on risk. This is a fine thing to do. I love to study investing, math, business, and philosophy. But this particular morning, I recall reading this book because I wanted to learn how to better insulate myself. It was just a feeling in the back of my mind… nothing had really caused it, I just woke up feeling exposed somehow and I wanted to study how personalities and business owners protect themselves.
The Lord interrupted me and said, “Stop studying risk and start studying Me.” Then immediately this verse came to mind:
“If racing against mere men makes you tired, how will you race against horses?” -Jeremiah 12:5
The best part about your relationship with the Spirit of God is He knows your heart and the things you do not say out loud. He can give you instruction for things you haven’t even asked for yet, but He knows you’re thinking about it. In this moment, God was reminding me that I have a covenant that is far superior than any risks I can see with my physical eyes or my intellect.
Anytime you begin to feel fear, self-preservation, or self-protection, you are likely being targeted — either directly or indirectly. The failsafe is to allow your mind to be renewed. We do this by studying God, and studying how God works. He promises to protect you, but not to protect you from the appearance of risk.
A sword cannot be protected from the battle, or it is ineffective. For a sword to work, it has to be right up close. If I am to be a weapon in the hands of God, I will have to surrender my desire to get away from the battlefield and let God protect me in the middle of it.
It’s amazing that we have so many promises in Scripture that makes us unassailable to demonic weapons, curses, or traps. This doesn’t mean we will not feel them or wrestle against them, though.
Whether it’s something sent against your mind or against your environment, you will feel it because your self-preservation will kick in. You will start to feel things that are not fruits of the spirit. And then, when you sit down and ask God to renew your mind, read the Scriptures, and pray for God to do what he wants — the emotions will go away.
When my anxiety, or fear, or anger, or ______ begins to dismantle, replaced by the fruits of the spirit, I know that the renewing is taking place and the tides are turning.
This is a frustrating situation for the enemy, because nothing he ever sends after you will stick as long as it should. The enemy will try to make you feel inadequate. If you partner into that and begin to carry it, then it will stay in your mind and operate. If you reject it and begin to study what God says about inadequacy, it will disappear.
Notice, this has less to do with God’s protection, and more to do with us violating the rules and rendering that protection selective.
Worry, for instance, is a rehearsal of a future God did not write. Fear, for instance, is the faith you inject into an outcome that God is not interested in. When we partner with these things, we create a home for that strategy to live and hide in.
I do not want areas in my psychology that are being hijacked and used as “home bases” for refueling the enemy’s supply lines. This is where the rubber meets the road, because we must discipline our thinking under the governance of the Holy Spirit and the Scripture.
There is no room for debate on this.
The moment you recognize something is coming into your mind or out of your mouth that God did not say and He does not agree with, you must choose to disagree and reorient around what is true.
Important junctions
At unique moments in history, the stakes get higher.
This happens in an individual’s life; moments where 10 years can happen in a week or lifelong connections are made in unlikely moments. But sometimes, it happens at the macro level.
I am telling you that we are at a macro junction, where the decisions made, the words spoken, and the emotions harbored are going to create structural runways for the next 10 years.
If you are not a believer, the crazy thing is that implementing what I’m telling you will still make your life better. The oldest manual for living life “to the full” is found in Scripture and all sources borrow from it.
However, if you are a believer, and you rock with Jesus, it is incredibly important that you get your feelings, strategies, and timelines from heaven right now. If they do not match, you have work to do.
You do not have to look to a man to learn about God.
There’s nothing wrong with learning, but God is the best teacher and, at times, would prefer to teach you things Himself, personally.
Scripture is a key (by this, I mean understanding it, memorizing it, and agreeing with it). Prayer is a key (by this, I mean talking to God and asking Him for instructions). Community is key (you will co-regulate with the people you spend time around, both in person and online).
But perhaps the first key is the ability to recognize when something is clogging your filters up, preventing you from aligning with the truth of scripture, and confusing you beyond your comprehension. Do not lose yourself.
Parting ideas
I do not believe people are “beyond redemption,” nor is our current reality “beyond repair.” I understand if you feel that way. But you should ask yourself who told you that?
Who benefits if you lose yourself to shock, rage, and fear?
The messages I’m seeing online right now have a very unique origin of transmission. Far too many of them did not originate in heaven, which means they will bear fruit that is destructive.
Clean your inputs.
Allow your mind to be renewed.
And do not participate or partner with the doctrine of demons. You can be a born again believer, and yet choose to partner with the kingdom of darkness. That is not where you want to be.
Pause.
Ask.
Follow instructions.
“Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.” -C.S. Lewis