Seeing the Voice of God: What God Is Telling You through Dreams and Visions (25 page)

1. Principalities

Greek
arche
—the first; the active cause; magistrate; of angels and demons, Greek root
archomai
—to be chief, leader, ruler.
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Romans 8:38 refers to these,

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(Other verses that use this term are Luke 12:11; John 1:1; Ephesians 3:10; 6:12; Colossians 2:10, 15.)

2. Authorities

Greek
exousia
—one who possesses authority; a thing subject to authority; the power of him whose will and command must be submitted to by others and obeyed.

First Corinthians 15:24 says, “Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all
authority
and power” (emphasis added). (See also Luke 20:20; Ephesians 1:21; Colossians 1:16; 2:10; 1 Peter 3:22.)

3. Spirits

Greek
pneuma
—a simple essence, devoid of all or at least all grosser matter, and possessing the power of knowing, desiring, deciding, and acting/used of demons or evil spirits who inhabit the bodies of men.

Mark 6:7 says, “And He called the twelve to Himself, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them power over unclean spirits.” Ephesians 6:12 (
NLT
) says, “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” (See also Matthew 10:1; 12:45; Mark 1:27; 3:11; Luke 4:36; 8:2.)

4. Demons

Greek
daimonion
—evil spirits or the messengers and ministers of devil; a spirit being inferior to God but superior to men.

Luke 4:41 says, “And demons also came out of many, crying out and saying, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of God!’” Mark 16:17 says, “And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues.” (See also Luke 8:2; James 2:19; Revelation 9:20.)

5. Dominions

Greek
kyriotes
—one who possesses dominion, Greek root
kyrios
—the possessor or influencer of a thing; one who has control of the person. French root
mignonne
—minion: a follower or underling of a powerful person; henchman, brown-noser, suck-up, boot-licker.

Colossians 1:16 says, “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or
dominions
or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him” (emphasis added).

These are the five rankings of Satan’s army, but there are other useful battle terms that also reveal demonic jurisdictions. Let’s look at three more.

Rulers (including all of the above)

Greek
kosmokrator
—the devil and his demons. Greek root
kosmos
—the ungodly multitude; the whole mass of men alienated from God and therefore hostile to the cause of Christ.

Look at Ephesians 6:12 one more time: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

Thrones

Greek
thronos
—a throne seat; a chair of state having a footstool.

Luke 1:52 says, “He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly.” (See also Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 12:2.)

Powers

Greek
exousia
—jurisdiction; physical and mental power over mankind; lawful.

First Peter 3:22 says, “[Christ] has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.”

“By Process”

So I am saying that, based on these biblical definitions, I believe the deaf and dumb spirit is a demonic
arche
(principality) who exercises spiritual influence in geographical territories where he has been assigned by Satan to oppress the hearing and communication of that region’s inhabitants, lost or saved. I believe this spirit has physical, emotional and spiritual manifestations that will vary from place to place, but in the end, it is just the same spirit with different hairdos.

I shared with you how this principality appeared uninvited in my foyer in 1993 as an intimidating, cocky war general, but I am pleased to tell you that I have seen him since in dreams, as have other people, and he is no longer intimidating and cocky. In one dream, he was a disabled war veteran stripped of rank, dressed shabbily and standing near the same spot near my front door, this time hobbling on a cane. In the most recent dream, he was on a deathbed, wheezing, with his days numbered. Stride for stride with his defeat has been my victory in the war against the seizures. I have not had a single convulsion in ten years, and the smaller episodes are fading, as well. I am taking less medication than I ever have before during this life journey, which has now spanned 35 years since that little cheerleader first received her diagnosis.

And if you are still asking, after all of this, why I believe my illness is more than an illness and is somehow connected to this spirit in Scripture, then my answer to you is,
If Jesus Himself looked at this same set
of symptoms and called it a spirit in
Scripture, then
who am I to call it anything less?
It is the same for you if you display any of these symptoms, too, emotionally, physically or spiritually. I do not believe in the demonic
possession
of Christians (the Holy Spirit resides within you, therefore no demonic presence can coexist there), but I do see evidence of the demonic
oppression
of many of God’s people. The enemy will try anything to keep us down.

As I said before, I have this hunch that I am already healed, but as long as that spirit is even remotely operational here in Nashville and is plaguing the Body of Christ, the “allergic reactions” of the now-infrequent smaller seizures remind me to pray. I also surround myself with like-minded intercessors, including one who shares the same physical struggle I have had against the deaf and dumb spirit. That is my good friend Tonya. I also receive excellent medical care to sustain me during this time from a wonderful neurologist and a nutritionist who understand the timetable I am on in the fight against this principality. She plays a key role in keeping my entire body whole as I fight. Never look at medicine as God’s competitor. When war comes, you use all your big guns.

I have spent the last twenty years of my life—since my visitation during the same year by this demonic general and by King Jesus—shamelessly telling anyone who would listen these three things: 1) God is healing me “by process.” 2) God is healing my city “by process.” 3) I believe my city is called to heal the nation—and
nations
—because of her unique platform. Nashville houses more Christian denominational headquarters than any city in the world, more Christian colleges, more Christian publishing companies, and is even home to Gideons International and to Thomas Nelson, the world’s largest publisher of Bibles.
Nashville is home to multiple Christian radio headquarters, which host multiple programs on Nashville’s airwaves, and let’s not forget that not only is she home to the Christian music industry, but also to country music itself, which has its roots in Gospel music. The Sunday school literature printed in this city goes all over the world.

Truly, what happens in Nashville does
not
stay in Nashville. So when revival hits this city, a media revival will be imminent. Our teachers, DJs, music artists, preachers, publishers, denominational leaders and writers will speak, broadcast, sing, preach, publish, endorse and write media that will change the world. God will prove once again how wise He is by investing revival in Nashville. Keep your eye on her.

But my deliverance and Nashville’s aside, I am convinced that there is a need for deliverance from this spiritual force in
the
Body, which includes you, whatever city you are in. As I said in chapter 1, books on what to do when God is silent still line the shelves of national bookstores.
Seeing the Voice of
God
helps you use your eyes in the middle of a hearing war, but this chapter is specifically written to ask you to fight with me in the battle against the deaf and dumb spirit. What started out as my hindrance became my city’s hindrance, and then my nation’s. It is many of yours, too. As you have read this chapter, many of you have found within it symptoms of this spirit’s meddlings in your life. Together, we can end his deafening influence by exposing him and it. You cannot be a doer unless you are a hearer (James 1:22).

Along the way, I also was able to make the connection between the angry Indians I had seen and this deaf and dumb spirit. On one desperate night, I asked God to reveal how this spirit had gained legal right to the skies over our city. There has to be an open door for this to happen—a corporate sin and/or a governmental toleration of it—and God reminded me of the atrocities committed against the Native Americans at the pen of Andrew Jackson, the original owner of the property where I still live. Soon after, I was contacted out of the blue by an Indian
named Riverwind, a Tennessean and Christian minister, who shared with me his forefather’s account of the Trail of Tears.

Riverwind said it was actually called “The Trail Where They Cried,” and that it referred not to crying Indians, but to the white men who cried as the Indians marched. Evidently, by the time they were forced out of this area, the Cherokee nation and many other Indian tribes had been proselytized and converted to Christianity, so many of their white brothers and sisters mourned on both sides of the trail as they left. When Riverwind stated that the Indians had decided bravely not to cry and instead to hold their heads high—and that they
took a vow
of silence—
I thought,
Silence, hmm. . . .
At that moment, the Holy Spirit revealed that this was the major entrance point for the deaf and dumb spirit.

Shortly after that, I was asking the Lord about the American Indians. “Lord, they were here first, but how did they get here? You didn’t just plant them here when You put Adam in the Garden, did You? They came from somewhere. But where?” He whispered something that I began researching, and my research led to article after article on scholars who believe that the American Indians hail from the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. It has been disputed many times, then revisited and then redisputed. But a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)
NOVA
article in November 2000 titled “Where Are the Ten Lost Tribes?” strengthens this connection and seemingly confirms it.
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If this is true, then the Indians’ removal was not just racial genocide, and it was not only martyr-esque due to their Christian status, but it was also another Jewish holocaust. No wonder God was so concerned about this blood crying out from the ground. No wonder the skies over our city were so plagued with silence. No wonder I was seeing angry Indians!

I would also learn that Andrew Jackson’s involvement with the Freemasons in our city involved two vows that opened doors to the deaf and dumb principality. In one vow for the Entered Apprentice Degree, initiates are warned about violating their oaths, and they “solemnly and sincerely promise and swear”
to many things, including “having my throat cut across, my tongue torn out,” both of which would leave one dumb and mute, I would say. Did this mean literally? Of course not. But when brotherhood secrets are revealed in confidence in some trivial, private conversation somewhere, the “symbolic” vow is a vow nonetheless and will come calling with its legal right for payment.

How? Remember, Proverbs 18:21 says the power of life and death is in the tongue. A vow or oath is binding in the spiritual realm, and therefore, while no literal repercussion may come, a spiritual one will. Especially since candidates in this case would seal the ritual oath with the words “So mote it be,” a phrase used only in Freemasonry and witchcraft.
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Instead of having one’s tongue ripped out in the natural, perhaps this Freemason would find it difficult to share Christ or pray aloud, or even worship freely the Spirit. I have interviewed former Masons who left the brotherhood due to God’s conviction. Many reference sources are available for Masons or the families of Masons who want to renounce vows and break off generational curses from themselves or their families.
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Perhaps some individual lodges abstain from certain rituals and focus more on brotherhood, but that would be rare. I wish to offend no one here, and I have met many good men who were Freemasons. But its dark roots are not worthy of some of these good men I have known.

As for Jackson, he not only was a Nashvillian, but president of the United States. His actions, which at one point I thought only affected my city, actually affected our whole nation. According to the Masonic Digital Archives that I researched, Jackson was Most Worshipful Grand Master of the Grand Lodge in Tennessee from 1822–1824.
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Interestingly enough, when I researched the military uniform that I saw the principality general wearing in my foyer that day, it matched the time period when Nashville was founded. He has been here from the beginning, probably welcomed in by our founding government leaders’ racial genocide and involvement with Freemasonry. These leaders had national influence.
Prayerfully examine your city and see if you recognize any of the spiritual manifestations of the deaf and dumb spirit, which I mentioned previously. If such symptoms plague your city, speak out, as I have. If you are experiencing the physical or emotional manifestations of it, stand up and take back your life. Even while seeking medical attention, try to look at your symptoms as having a spiritual root and pray accordingly. That turns it from an illness into an assignment. We will pray such a prayer together at the end of this chapter.