Overcoming The
12 Evil Strong Men
Overcoming evil spirits & demolishing strongholds of satan
which fights against the soul of man
The religious
spirit
That’s the spirit of idolatry.
Prophet Ezekiel saw the image or the seat of idol of
this evil spirit:
And He put forth the
form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head; and The Spirit lifted me up
between the earth and the heavens and brought me in the visions of God to
Jerusalem, to the entrance of the door of the inner [court] which faces toward
the north, where was the seat of the idol (image) of jealousy, which provokes
to jealousy.
Ezek 8:3, 5 AMP
The prophet also beheld the Glory of GOD (v.4).
The aim of this spirit is to seek for worship from
men—to keep GOD far off His “temple,” and we are the temple of GOD.
That’s why Apostle Paul said:
And what agreement hath the temple of God with
idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell
in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My
people.
2 Cor 6:16 KJV
Let’s take a look at verse 7 to 11 of Ezekiel 8, in
the King James Version:
And He brought me to
the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall.
Then said He unto me,
son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a
door.
And He said unto me,
Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here.
So I went in and saw; and behold every form of
creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of
Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about.
And there stood before
them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of
them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand;
and a thick cloud of incense went up.
In this ‘vision of idolatry’ in the temple in
Jerusalem, Ezekiel also had “out of body experience”—and he saw the idols of
abomination. In the darkness, he saw engraved on the wall all around, every
form of creeping things and loathsome beasts. He saw Jaazaniah the son of
Shaphan—a scribe, who was a writer—a secretary of the Law. He also saw the
elders of Israel with every man holding a censer in his hand, and a thick cloud
of incense went over their heads as they worshiped the demons of idolatry.
‘The religious spirit,’ today, has bound many GOD’s
people in churches and places of fellowship. Many have idolized their church
leaders, and many outside the church are introduced to ‘hero-worship’. Too many
people hold to superstitious beliefs.
In verse 14, The Spirit Of The LORD brought Ezekiel
to the entrance of the north gate of The Lord's house; and behold, there sat
women weeping for Tammuz [a Babylonian god, which they believe was supposed to
die annually and subsequently be resurrected].
And in verse 16, the prophet was brought into the
inner court; at the door of the temple of The Lord, between the porch and the
bronze altar, were he saw about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple
of The Lord and their faces toward the east, and they were bowing themselves
toward the east and worshiping the sun.
By this, GOD Himself Who is The Master of the
Universe—“The GOD of all flesh,” and “GOD of all gods” says in verse 18:
Therefore will I also
deal in fury: Mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though
they cry in Mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.
In countries like India, Bangladesh and Burma, in
mention of just a few, are people who burn incense to gods in Hindu and
Buddhist temples. Such, are under the domain of this spirit.
The greatest confrontation against the Gospel in
these last days is ‘religion,’ and the enemy pushes this confrontation through
the religious spirit.
How to
overcome the religious spirit
The religious spirit cannot operate where The Spirit
Of The LORD is. Where the true worshippers worship GOD, there The Spirit Of The
LORD is, and where The Spirit Of The LORD is there is Liberty.
Now The Lord is that
Spirit: and where The Spirit Of The Lord is, there is Liberty.
2 Cor. 3:17 KJV
Adonai is The SPIRIT and where The Spirit of Adonai
is present, there is Liberty.
Where The Holy Spirit is present there is Freedom. Where
He is absent, there is bondage.
Where He is present there is Light, but where He is
not present, there is darkness!
He brings freedom for ‘the captives’ and releases ‘the
prisoners’ from darkness.
He longs to fellowship with us. When we welcome Him
as an honored Guest in our fellowship, then we can behold His face.
But we all, with open
face beholding as in a glass the Glory of The Lord, are changed into the same
image from Glory to Glory, even as by The Spirit Of The Lord.
Verse 18 KJV
The more we see Him, the more our faces are
unveiled, and the more we are changed into His Holy and glorious Image. With
unveiled faces we reflect The Lord's Glory.
The ‘idolatrous spirit’ cannot have a hold on us if
we continually behold The LORD of Glory and abide in Him. By The Spirit we are
being transformed into the likeness of Jesus with ever-increasing Glory, which
comes from The LORD, Who is The SPIRIT.
Verse 16 says,
Nevertheless when it
shall turn to The Lord, the vail shall be taken away.
KJV
Whenever anyone turns to The Lord in repentance, the
veil is taken away. From Him we have emancipation from bondage
When the children of Israel enjoyed this great
privilege with The LORD, they suddenly recognized that GOD is a living Person, not
a piece of chiseled stone; and that His Presence was with them. When GOD is
personally present in our midst, a living Spirit, then, we come to realize
something: that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete, and we're
free of it!
At this point, nothing comes between us and GOD.
“Oh! How our
faces shine with the brightness of His face!”
And so we are transfigured much like The Messiah,
our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as GOD enters our
lives.
When we behold Him with faces unveiled, we see as in
a mirror the Glory of The Lord; and we are being changed into His very Image, from
one degree of Glory to the next, by Adonai The SPIRIT.
Worship GOD in spirit and Truth. Worship Him in your
innermost being—fully dependent on His Spirit, in Truth [in Reality-as He is
revealed in Scripture].
God is a Spirit: and
they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in Truth.
John 4:24 KJV
Where The Spirit Of The LORD is, Christ is
celebrated.
There, there is Liberty by The SPIRIT.
The Holy Spirit longs to inhabit the soul of man, as
He does under this “Gospel-Dispensation.”
He longs to set you free from the yoke of the ceremonial law, and from
the servitude of corruption; and to grant you liberty of access to GOD.
By Him we have the Liberty to worship GOD—we gain freedom
of speech in prayer and the heart is set at Liberty, and enlarged, to run the
ways of GOD's Commands.
The Spirit longs to give us Light so that with open
face—our spiritual eyes opened, we may behold the Glory of The Lord.
The Israelites saw the Glory of GOD in a cloud,
which was dark and dreadful; but Christians around the world today, are given
the privilege to behold the Glory of The LORD as in a glass.
It was a peculiar privilege of Moses, for GOD to
converse with Him face to face, in a friendly manner; even so we are given the
Freedom to see Him more clearly with open face.
The Spirit Of GOD reveals the Glory of GOD to His
children. His Light and Liberty
transforms our soul so that we are changed into “the same image” [GOD’s Image]
from Glory to Glory, from one degree of His glorious Grace unto another, till
Grace here becomes consummated in Glory forever.