Thursday, April 22, 2004
“I WANT IT PAINTED BLACK”
Religious Spirit 1:
The other month we had an intense encounter with a religious spirit operating through a person who came in off the street. In the time he was there, we were treated to a whirlwind of confusion and accusation.
1. The first thing he did was lie about his intentions: “I’m here to learn.”
2. He then said, “Please correct me if I’m wrong.” But this was false humility. (He was not open to correction or instruction. He had unique private interpretations of the Scriptures that he thought were absolute truth.)
3. He began talking to us haughtily putting down other ministries, looking for agreement.
4. His expressed perspective was that they don’t do enough for God, neither do you.
5. Then he displayed a great appreciation for God’s wrath, “God is not just a God of love.”
6. After he sat for a while, when we paused, he attacked praise and intercession – “That’s not real worship.”
7. Then he sought to usurp authority, seeking to wrest the leadership from the meeting.
8. He proclaimed that when Isaiah spoke of “the Holy One”, the prophet was referring to the Scriptures. He told us, “The Word is God.”
9. Resisting correction and feigning openness he then shared some other kooky interpretation of the Scriptures. When we interacted with what he said, he rejected the plain meaning of the text.
10. Then he attacked the leader’s authority.
11. Then he accused the leader of viewing himself as infallible.
12. When others tried to reason with him, he attacked them, accusing them of being dominated by the leader.
13. Then he returned to disqualifying the leader because of the stand against Islamic terror he had heard in one of our meetings.
14. As he was preparing to leave he attacked our ‘worldliness’, making plain that, “Things that are pleasurable are not good for you.” He was using food as an example of this. He told us that eating anything but unleavened bread and water should be forbidden. “The reason things taste good is because they’re poison.”
15. As he was leaving he testified to having a unique spiritual witness – a burning sensation in him. This subjective manifestation confirmed for him the rightness of his position.
16. As he left he manifested intense anger towards me.
This was a very sad encounter. It was only afterwards that we recognized it was a pure manifestation of the religious spirit we’ve encountered over the last 25 years.
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Religious Spirit 1:
The other month we had an intense encounter with a religious spirit operating through a person who came in off the street. In the time he was there, we were treated to a whirlwind of confusion and accusation.
1. The first thing he did was lie about his intentions: “I’m here to learn.”
2. He then said, “Please correct me if I’m wrong.” But this was false humility. (He was not open to correction or instruction. He had unique private interpretations of the Scriptures that he thought were absolute truth.)
3. He began talking to us haughtily putting down other ministries, looking for agreement.
4. His expressed perspective was that they don’t do enough for God, neither do you.
5. Then he displayed a great appreciation for God’s wrath, “God is not just a God of love.”
6. After he sat for a while, when we paused, he attacked praise and intercession – “That’s not real worship.”
7. Then he sought to usurp authority, seeking to wrest the leadership from the meeting.
8. He proclaimed that when Isaiah spoke of “the Holy One”, the prophet was referring to the Scriptures. He told us, “The Word is God.”
9. Resisting correction and feigning openness he then shared some other kooky interpretation of the Scriptures. When we interacted with what he said, he rejected the plain meaning of the text.
10. Then he attacked the leader’s authority.
11. Then he accused the leader of viewing himself as infallible.
12. When others tried to reason with him, he attacked them, accusing them of being dominated by the leader.
13. Then he returned to disqualifying the leader because of the stand against Islamic terror he had heard in one of our meetings.
14. As he was preparing to leave he attacked our ‘worldliness’, making plain that, “Things that are pleasurable are not good for you.” He was using food as an example of this. He told us that eating anything but unleavened bread and water should be forbidden. “The reason things taste good is because they’re poison.”
15. As he was leaving he testified to having a unique spiritual witness – a burning sensation in him. This subjective manifestation confirmed for him the rightness of his position.
16. As he left he manifested intense anger towards me.
This was a very sad encounter. It was only afterwards that we recognized it was a pure manifestation of the religious spirit we’ve encountered over the last 25 years.
