Nicole suddenly had a knowing inside her spirit that this was the spiritual principality of Incubus Succubus. She cried out to Jesus, and then woke up.
She got out of bed and began trying to make sense of this dream. It disturbed her that she hadn't discerned the evil and that she had stepped under its power so quickly and easily, even if it was just a dream.
It was upsetting that this seemed to be a familiar spirit, and yet in retrospect, it wasn't in complete control because it was trying to tempt and trick her into remaining under its control by offering something she desired. Nicole realized that giving in to that desire would seal the deal with the demon and bring destruction, not fulfillment. That would be death!
The dream had been in a place of her past, and the calf inside of a freezer (a place of storage for future use) suggested that this was something that had been an issue from long ago. The fact that the calf slid out of the freezer and came to life suggested that whatever it represented, the time had come for her to deal with it. And it had gained power over her through something that seemed good, like compassion.
Was this a representation of someone accepting something that appeared to be a good thing but was not?
Nicole didn't know the answer to that, but she knew that the first thing she needed to do was to admit her own desire to be beautiful and sexually attractive. She hadn't realized until this dream how much of a desire this was.
"Jesus," she prayed. "Please forgive me for having an ungodly desire for physical beauty and the need of admiration from others, especially men. I renounce this as false comfort and counterfeit fulfillment. I renounce the worship of body image as a false god.
"I plead the blood of Jesus especially over my mind because this spirit seemed to be able to penetrate my mind; but I also bring my will, emotions, body and spirit under the covering of Jesus blood, and I rededicate all that I am to You, Lord.
"I renounce the lie that Satan can make me look beautiful because the truth is, that even if he did, it would only be physical beauty for a fleeting moment, and then it would bring decay, death and destruction.
"I will love and worship only You regardless of the looks of my physical body. I will look to You to be my comfort and my fulfillment. I will be diligent to protect my eyes and ears from ungodliness and will work at watching my thoughts and desires. I will guard my heart. Please Lord, help me to renew my mind!"
Nicole thought about what she had already learned about Incubus Succubus. She knew that it usually presented itself as a sexual spirit that would accost men or women, usually in their sleep; but its true identity was a religious spirit, and its deepest desire was for worship. Recalling her past experience at Trisha's, IS (as Nicole decided to nickname it) in its true form was a snake or serpent.
Interesting. Satan had presented himself as a serpent in the Garden of Eden. In heaven before the fall, he had been a seraph, a beautiful, majestic being with six wings, human hands and voice. He had been an attendant of God whose function was to worship Him by continually proclaiming His holiness. Nicole investigated and found that the word "seraph" was the same word in Hebrew as serpent or fiery serpent!
Isaiah 6:1–6 said that the seraphim cry continually to each other saying, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts." The passage went on to describe how one seraph picked up a burning live coal from the altar and purified Isaiah's unclean lips by touching them with the coal.
While the seraphim were all about purity, holiness and life, Satan, who had been one of them, had become the opposer of God and His holiness. He and all who followed him were now serpents of defilement, corruption and death.
Nicole had believed that IS was a strongman, but with this new information she realized that if he had been a seraph in heaven like Satan had been, then he was most likely a general in Satan's Kingdom, probably one of the most powerful principalities.
In fact, as Nicole considered his function, she saw that it was closely related to Satan's function. In heaven, Satan, or rather Lucifer had desired the worship that belonged to God, and that had been his downfall, literally. From the beginning, Satan's function on earth was to gain man's worship, to steal it from God.
In scripture, God used the marriage between a husband and wife to illustrate His relationship with people. Ungodly sex, sex outside of marriage with another in such intimacy of body and soul would create unholy unions and ungodly soul ties, not just with the physical partner, but with the spiritual being behind the sin as well.
But why had IS appeared in her dream as two calves? The children of Israel had openly rebelled against trusting and obeying God when they made a golden calf and worshipped it; and calves were worshipped in the nations around them for their power, sexual energy and strength. The calves in her dream had worked together in perfect unity to gain her worship and servitude.
Ephesians 6:10-18 kept coming to her mind, and even though she knew it well, she looked at the scripture again. "Jesus, I feel like You are trying to tell me something here. Please open my spiritual eyes to see it."
Verses 11 and 12 grabbed her heart. "Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." (KJV)
Nicole took this into the tabernacle inside her mind, her meeting place with Jesus. He was sitting behind a large desk with books and papers in front of Him as if He were studying, and she sat down opposite from Him.
"Jesus, I know that the devil's scheme is to gain my worship. I know I'm in a war with principalities, powers, rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness…" She paused as comprehension came to her. "That's it isn't it? You want to show me something about the hierarchy in Satan's kingdom!"
Jesus was smiling at her, so she opened her Strong's Concordance and saw that the Greek word for principality (Arche: G746) was "Beginning, origin, the person or thing that commences (begins, initiates), the first person or thing in a series, the leader,…the active cause, corner, the first place, rule, magistrate (judge or government)." This class of demonic spirits would most likely be the counterparts of the archangels in God's Kingdom. They would be assigned to rule over nations, states, cities…and while they were territorial, Nicole believed that they could also rule over individuals.
She continued her search investigating. Powers (exousia: G1849) had been given the ability or strength to exercise the power, the right, the jurisdiction and privilege of authority and influence to rule or govern. Their will and commands must be submitted to and obeyed by those under them.
"Jesus, who are these powers? Who gives them this authority, power and right to rule? And who do they rule?"
She realized that the principalities give the powers authority to rule, and those powers rule the armies of demons in the kingdom of darkness under them.
She thought about Trisha and the way the Holy Spirit had worked from the bottom of the hierarchy to the top as she had confessed her sin then renounced each demon associated with that sin, disarming the rights of the powers and commanding them to leave. Jesus had then been able to deal with the principality of Leviathan.
Then she thought of Samaria. It suddenly made sense! Nicole couldn't wait to tell Casie her thoughts and punched in her number on the phone hoping that she would pick up.
"Hey sweet girl," Casie answered. "What's up?"
"You are not going to believe this!" Nicole practically shouted with anticipation. "I know who the principality over Samaria is! And I believe that the Lord is giving us the beginning of a strategy to overcome!"
"You're kidding! Who is it?"
"Incubus Succubus!"
"Wow. Ok, tell me."
Nicole recounted her dream then said, "Think about it. Godly sex is the purest and greatest expression of love and intimate relationship there is between two people. So Satan has tried to take that for himself by assigning IS the function of ent
icing people into defiling, perverted, counterfeit sexual experiences that lead them away from Jesus and all godly relationships, and into a life of worship and servitude to him. This always results in bondage and ultimately death."
"Oh my goodness girl!" Casie exclaimed. "So even though sexual bondage is huge with this strongman, his goal is to gain worship and control through appealing to any of our fleshly desires. This could mean that he is the strongman behind every addiction. I mean, think about it. Eve was seduced with a piece of fruit."
"Good point," Nicole said. "I also think that the Holy Spirit is giving us an important key about the hierarchy in the kingdom of darkness so that we can effectively begin to pull down his strongholds in Samaria."
She explained what she believed Jesus had told her, and then they prayed and waited on the Lord for confirmation before they proceeded with this warfare strategy.
After several minutes Casie said, "I think that we should write out a list of the principalities, powers, and such."
"I think we better bind and remove seeker, scanner and eavesdropping spirits first since we are strategizing here," Nicole suggested.
"Good idea," Casie agreed.
The ladies didn't see the consequences that their words of authority had over these three small spirits; one with enlarged eyes, the next with huge ears, and the last with an enormous mouth. They had just enough time to scream before they were blinded, deafened and muted. As their functions were stripped from them, they began twisting and turning in fear against the holy beings that were suddenly binding them. The next thing they knew, they were being hurled into space, far from their assignment.
Once they had done that and prayed for God's mind to be revealed to them, they began making a list.
They identified possible principalities over Samaria as Incubus Succubus (IS), Leviathan, Beelzebub, and Belial.
The powers were identified as Fear, Jezebel, Ahab, Python or Divination, Anaconda, Whoredom or Harlotry, Behemoth or Gluttony, Accuser or Condemner, Bitterness or Wormwood, Legion or Insanity…
Casie asked, "What do you think the 'rulers of the darkness of this world' are?"
"The Greek says that the rulers are the devil and his demons," Nicole explained. "Darkness is defined as 'of ignorance respecting divine things and human duties, and the accompanying ungodliness and immorality, together with their consequent misery in hell; persons in whom darkness becomes visible and holds sway.' And 'world' is this world or this age."
"Oh boy," Casie sighed. "It sounds like this could be referring to people or institutions in positions of authority that are blinded to the spiritual reality and have fallen under demonic influence from which they rule. This could mean government officials and programs as well as laws and the legal system; businesses and bosses; schools, school boards, administrators, teachers; occult/covens; social clubs; sports; families, parents;…and I hate to say it, but even some churches, pastors, leaders, and church boards."
"Wow." Nicole whistled and then continued, "'Spiritual wickedness in high places' is also interesting. 'Spiritual' refers to either a human spirit or a spiritual being. 'Wickedness' is defined in the Greek (G4189) as depravity, iniquity, wickedness; malice (hatred, meanness, cruelty), evil purposes or desires; wicked ways. And the 'high places' is the heavenly region where the principalities rule from."
Casie said, "It sounds like these are the lower ranking demons that are under the rule of the principalities and powers, and who are assigned certain functions. They are the ones who look for humans that they can attach to.
She sipped her morning coffee. "So in thinking about Samaria, these could be demons of addictions such as drugs, meds, alcohol, food, sex, lust, sexual immorality and perversions; abuse, poverty, sickness, disease, infirmity, rage, violence, murder, guilt, shame, unforgiveness …"
Nicole joined in "…apathy, complacency, laziness, slothfulness, defilement, worthlessness, mental illness, schizophrenia, bi-polar, divination, materialism, victimization, self pity, self centeredness, selfishness, witchcraft, pharmakeia, religiosity, legalism, false gifts, doubt, unbelief, disbelief…"
"What about pride?" Casie wondered. Where does it fit on this list?"
Nicole responded, "Pride is evident in every one of these things. I think that pride is Satan's nature just like God's nature is holy. But there is something else we need to understand here. What is it Lord?"
They were both quiet for a moment, and then Nicole said, "I think that we need to realize that this is not a comprehensive list, and it is not a formula."
Casie said, "That's true. There are no formulas in God's Kingdom."
Nicole was deep in thought. "This list may look different for every person, territory or situation. I think that the rank, function and assignment of the powers and demonic spirits are subject to change. I'm not sure about principalities in this regard, but I don't think that their rank can change."
"I think I understand what you're saying," Casie said. "This list is for us in regards to Samaria, but the only thing that will always be the same are the hierarchy levels as mentioned in Ephesians 6."
"Right," Nicole agreed. "And the only thing that we can trust in is the leading of the Holy Spirit to guide us in each situation."
"You know," Casie said, "there might even be times when God doesn't tell us the name of the spirit He wants us to deal with."
"That's probably true. I think that many times demons are identified according to their function as much as their name." Nicole added, "And demons seem to be able to switch functions and degrees of wickedness according to their assignment."
"Lord, how are we to apply this knowledge?" Casie asked. She began to talk to the Lord and Nicole at the same time. "What do we do about IS? He's a major principality. We have been given Your authority and power. Do we bind him? I've heard people say that if you capture the general, then the army will fall."
"True," Nicole agreed. "But in Daniel 10 we see that he didn't war against that principality, he just prayed for help. And in my experience with Trisha, Jesus was the one to deal with the principality of Leviathan once the others under its rule were gone."
"Yes, but Luke 10:19 says, 'Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy.' Wouldn't 'all' mean principalities too?"
Nicole said, "I remember reading a book by Francis Frangipane called 'The Three Battlegrounds.' He explained that principalities are not cast out, but are displaced in the spiritual realm by Christ's dominance, power and control within the church as it surrenders to Jesus and becomes like Him. This fits with what I've experienced and what Daniel encountered."
"So when we encounter and identify principalities in Satan's kingdom, we should worship God in humility, surrender and obedience and allow Him to help us become Christ-like. And we should ask God to send angels of holiness to our situation," Casie added. "Maybe they are the ones to deal with the principalities in Satan's kingdom."
Nicole agreed. "We are the church and I'm thinking that our obedience and surrender to God gives the angels the authority they need to be able to displace the principalities."
"Wow! Just think how powerful it would be if all the churches in Samaria would operate in unity of heart and mind with Christ's heart and mind! Think of all the principalities that would get displaced!" Casie smiled broadly and clapped her hands together.
"One thing I do know," she added, "is that we must be careful not to overstep our area of spiritual authority. In identifying these spirits, it would be easy to want to start binding and casting them out, but if we step outside our area of authority, we would be acting in our own power and that could be deadly to us, our families, and to the people. I mean, we can't start commanding all these demons to leave the people when the people are giving them permission, or the legal right to stay."
"Yeah, you're right. You know, it's easy to want to get everything figured out, but that's not our job and it's not even possible!" Nicole exclaimed.
"Whew!" Casie sighed with relief. "Thanks for reminding me of that. I was getting a little overwhelmed. On the other hand, I do believe that Jesus wants to teach us certain principles of warfare and help us to strategize at certain times."
"Yes, and before we go into battle of any kind, especially against high ranking principalities and powers, we must know that God is calling us to that. I guess it goes back to listening to the direction of the Holy Spirit step by step. I believe He'll help us know what to do in each situation."
"You're right," Casie said. "We do know that God has called us to fight on behalf of Samaria though. So maybe we begin by praying against the powers, binding the strongman over Samaria like Matthew 12:29 tells us, and then loosing the angelic counterparts to the powers."
"I think that we should fast and pray today," Nicole said, "and then see what God wants us to do.
Casie agreed, and the ladies made plans to meet the following morning for prayer in Samaria.
IS roared with hatred for these two women. He had intended for the calf dream to reactivate an old program in Nicole that had been buried deeply within her. He had hoped that it would allow him to take immediate control over her, but instead, it had alerted her to his presence.
And not just within her, but in his stronghold over Samaria! He was livid! He, the master of control, was beginning to feel as if he were spinning out of control, and he was furious. If truth be told, he was scared. It seemed that every attempt to remain hidden was failing as the encroaching Light in Nicole and Casie was getting very close to exposing him. He knew that his power in Samaria was reliant on the darkness and his ability to move and work undercover.
The one comforting thought was that while Nicole recognized him, she had no idea that there was a failsafe in place that had been planted deep inside her mind. Something that she would never recognize. And if she didn't recognize it, he would always have a stronghold in her. Yes. It was time to play the trump card.
That night, IS paid a visit to Daemon, Marcus' successor, with an assignment. He could do this on his own, and would often sexually accost ignorant or vulnerable men or women in their sleep; however, when he joined himself with a willing human spirit who could implant human seed, the affect was much more powerful. He knew that Daemon was more than willing.
The Soul Redeemer: From Victim to Victory Page 3
