090823 I Don’t Like Snakes

• And the Lord has a word for you (Pastor Tim) right here, the Lord says for you, “I am going to grow my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” The Lord shows me that you have been targeted by those in the occult, and that your church has particularly been targeted. I don’t know anything about your church, but I see some disruptions that have happened, and I see a python just like almost wrapped around the church trying to squeeze it financially and every which way, but I bind and I take authority over that python spirit of divination and I say you will not rule and you will not crush this church. And Lord we pray that you will roar over that church. And the Lord says you are going to expand, enlarge the place of your tent. The Lord said don’t give up on the dreams I gave you because the economy went south. Don’t downsize your dreams, I’m calling you to upsize and not downsize. For you are going to have a move of God of signs and wonders and miracles, I am going to pour out my Glory, and the Lord says particularly on the youth of your church. The Lords says, “I’m going to call them to be treasure hunters, and they’re going to go hunt for souls, and they’re going to do signs and wonders and miracles.” And the Lord says “I am going to move by my Spirit in an astounding way. And there will be a day the church will double and then it will double again--because it’s harvest time says the Lord! Amen, Amen, Hallelujah, Come on, lets give a shout!” Cindy Jacobs, 090815 Eagles Gathering
• I want to respond to this prophetic word this morning.
  • Intercessors and those who are prophetically motivated are excited about this word.
  • The pastors among us are excited and at the same time very sobered as they know people who don’t have victory over little foxes in their lives will try to take on something bigger than them
  • The evangelists are excited because they want to see the treasure hunting of souls to take place among the youth.
  • The apostolic gifts are excited because they want to see increase so influence gains momentum. Momentum is forward motion with mass.
  • Some people are like, “ya, o.k. whatever”—clueless. Others are ignorant they just have not been taught.
• Prophetic is simply God communicating His thoughts, His will, His intentions to His people.

1. What is a Python Spirit?
   1. Acts 16:16 spirit of divination--pneu=ma pu/qwna‎. Literally means pneuma puthon or spirit of python.
      1. Pnuema-breath, wind, spirit.
      2. pýthœn ‎is the name of the snake that guards the Delphic oracle, and it is also used from the early imperial period for a ventriloquist, through whom, as many think, a god is supposed to speak, and who is thus regarded as a soothsayer. How ‎pýthœn ‎comes to be equated with ‎engastrímythos‎, the ventriloquist, is not certain. It may be because the Delphic Pythia, like the ventriloquist, speaks in strange sounds. (from Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, abridged edition, Copyright © 1985 by William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. All rights reserved.)
         1. Ventriloquist- one who speaks through another. Divination, soothsayers, witchcraft. 1 Sam 28:8 Saul seeks witch of Endore, 2 Chronicles 33:8 Manasseh sacrifices children while consulting witches and the like, Is. 8:19,20 Rebellious people consult the dead, witches, with whispers and mutterings.
         2. In Acts 16:16 This girl stands in alignment with demons and speaks on behalf of the demonic.
      3. What is Divination? Divination, the art of obtaining secret knowledge, especially of the future, is a pagan counterpart of prophecy. Careful comparisons of scripture will reveal that inspirational divination is by demonic power, whereas genuine prophecy is by the Spirit of God. The biblical attitude toward divination is distinctly hostile. In Deut 18: 10-12, the prophet of Jehovah is contrasted with diviners of all sorts and is set forth as the only authorized medium of supernatural revelation. (Unger’s Bible Dictionary)
         1. Deuteronomy 18:10-14 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. 12 For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. 13 You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. 14 For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not appointed such for you. NKJV
         2. Hebrew word is qesem and it means: Divination, witchcraft, sorcery, fortune telling, omen, lot, orack, decision. The exact meaning of this variety of occultism is unknown. That fact accounts for the variety of translations. The account in Ezek 21:27-28 is the only clue to exactly how ‎qesem ‎may have been practiced. Shaking or flinging down arrows, consulting teraphim, and hepatoscopy (looking at the liver) may be subcategories of ‎qesem‎. In any event, verse :28 uses ‎qesem ‎as if it were one of the arrows to be thrown down. In fact, the NEB translates the word as "augur's arrow" and the NAB as "divining arrow." (from Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. Copyright © 1980 by The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago. All rights reserved. Used by permission.)
            1. Ezekiel 21:21-22 For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the road, at the fork of the two roads, to use divination: he shakes the arrows, he consults the images, he looks at the liver. 22 In his right hand is the divination for Jerusalem: to set up battering rams, to call for a slaughter, to lift the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to heap up a siege mound, and to build a wall. NKJV Throwing down arrows was a way of divination.
               1. Arrows-firey darts of the enemy
               2. Liver—how many prophetic and apostolic people have died of liver cancer. Jamie Buckingham, Nick Welch (pancreatic cancer). I am not going to make a doctrine out of this but I find it interesting.
            2. nachash (naw-khash’) A primitive root; properly, to hiss, i.e. whisper a (magic) spell;
   2. The Famous Oracle (History of Delphi)In Greek mythology, Python was a serpent that dwelt in the caves of Mount Parnassus and was slain by the Greek god Apollo, who then founded the sacred oracle at DELPHI or took it over from Python's guardianship. It is where the pagan temple of Apollo is located. It is a modern day Harry Potter story only Harry is Apollo and he slays the Basilisk (meaning little king) the giant serpent.
      1. People would come for hundreds of miles to receive a word from the diviners at the temple.
      2. Witchcraft (divination) was founded on python worship. This snake was worshipped for thousands of years before Apollo established his famous oracle and temple and was the very symbol of this region.
      3. One other interesting note about the Greek god Apollo which we know is a demon that expressed itself as many other strongholds in ancient mythology, was also known of as the god of healing diseases. I find it very interesting that even today the natural symbol of medical healing is a serpent and even in Numbers 21 when sickness strikes the Israelites, it comes with serpents and when God instructs Moses about the remedy it is a bronze serpent on a pole.
   3. There is not enough time to fully go into all of the word that account for divination, sorcery etc. For those who want more get out your concordance and study.

2. What does it do? How does it operate?
   1. It speaks.
      1. Witches, wiccans, tarot readers, sorcerers, psychics, fortune tellers all speak but from a different spirit. They may even speak correctly. In Acts 16:16-ff, the girl who spoke, spoke truth. “These are servants of the most High God who have come to show us the way of salvation.” Acts 16:17. It was an accurate word but it was from the wrong source and it troubled Paul. Just because something is correct or good does not mean that it is coming from a good source. The word of God is very clear about us staying away from such things. Dt. 18:11-14
      2. Hebrew word nachash means serpent and refers to that which hisses; whisper, magic spell. When the python wraps itself around its prey the head of prey is usually by the head of the snake. The snake can feel the breath of the prey with its tongue. It hisses by the head.
         1. Spells
         2. Curses
         3. Words of others-back biting, lying, division
      3. If we don't cut off the head, the speech center and authority of python (words), than we to will come under the spirit of apathy and despair closely linked to depression and the spirit of heaviness.
         1. The devil always attacks us with words like in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3 the great question. "Has God indeed said?" That creates doubts.
         2. The devil is always casting doubt and suspicion on God’s word, and if we listen long enough we to will be deceived of our inheritance lose heart and give up.
   2. Method of Attack
      1. A python kills by constricting not crushing. A python wraps itself around its prey and every time the prey exhales it constricts so that the next breath cannot be taken and eventually the prey suffocates and then it becomes lunch.
         1. The python spirit constricts your mind, speaking and spirit from moving in the path that God has for you. It also works with the spirit of procrastination, laziness, fear, and stuttering just to name a few. It slowly cuts off needed resource-love, encouragement, finances, hope, faith, joy, etc.
         2. The death process is very slow and the only way to escape is to cut off the head of the snake.
            1. You often do not even know you are being attacked. I read a story and saw the pictures of man sleeping in a hammock in south America when this python swallowed his leg up to his groin before he woke up. By the time they got the snake off of him his skin was already digested. If the church does not wake up soon, when it does it will be to late.
            2. Pythons most often get their prey when their prey is not ready, watching or ready.
      2. In the church and in life this experience can often be called a spirit of heaviness. Is. 61:3.
         1. The Cellophane ceiling. Heaviness that weighs you down until you can breath.
            1. It is like a spiritual cap in the spirit realm so God's people can only climb so high in the spirit.
            2. It manifests with a sluggish weight during worship and weighed heavy on the countenance of the people in the meeting.
            3. Python attacks in this way, squeezing the life, breath and joy of the Lord from our lives. It is even difficult to feel the Lord’s presence and you have to continually challenge the people to be hungry for God and that God can use them regardless of what they have been through.
            4. Imagine in the natural carrying around a 200-pound snake on your shoulders and how that would weigh you down and make you sluggish. One of the devils number one attacks is hopelessness, despair, discouragement and depression; it weighs you down and makes us tired. This spirit will whisper in your ear all kinds of lies, torments, accusations, condemnation, depression, and despair. It makes life heavy.
      3. It kills by control and often works in conjunction with a spirit of Jezebel.
         1. It wants to steal your dreams (Cindy’s word to me was, “don’t give up on the dreams I gave you because the economy went south. Don’t downsize your dreams, I’m calling you to upsize and not downsize.”
         2. Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; NKJV When people lose their dream they get complacent, apathetic, and wonder off the path of God.
3. How Do Deal With It?
   1. Get the sin out!
      1. Proverbs 26:2 Like a flitting sparrow, like a flying swallow, So a curse without cause shall not alight. NKJV
      2. Num 23:8 How can I curse those God has not cursed? Or how can I [violently] denounce those the Lord has not denounced? AMP. Numbers 22 & 23, the only way Balaam could curse Israel was to have them commit immorality (sin).
      3. The devil is looking for something to eat, don’t feed him. 1 Peter 5:8-9 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. NKJV
      4. If we want the curse off our state we have to get the sin out, same with our nation and our lives.

1. Get your Praise on! Paul a Silas refused to be silenced. They sang what they believed!
   1. After midnight they began to sing and praise. Get your praise on! You gotta do what you don’t feel like doing!
   2. When you feel the coils of Satan tightening around your situation, when you feel like you can’t move to the left or to the right, just lift up your head, pray your prayer and sing your praise because your redemption draws near. God is on the way and the enemy is in a heap of trouble.
      1. Ps 149 Praise shackles him!
      2. Ps 8 Praise silences the enemy!
      3. Amos 9:11 Praise lets us posses what is rightfully ours!
   3. Proverbs 15:13,15 A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance, But by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken. 15 All the days of the afflicted are evil, but he who is of a merry heart has a continual feast. NKJV
2. Get the Word out! Confess the word! What can I say that God has already said! Agree with the Word.
   1. John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. NKJV
   2. Psalms 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path. NKJV The word dispels darkness and gives us hope.
   3. Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. NKJV 1 John 5:4 and this is the victory that has overcome the world — ourfaith. NKJV
3. Fight like your life depends on it. 2 Cor. 10:4-5. Dream where I couldn’t speak and woke kelly.

• As a Christian, some of you have even innocently given yourself to any kind of divination and control or witchcraft. Maybe you have called a physic or read your horoscopes; we need to repent of all involvement in any form of divination or sorcery.
• Before you were saved you may have been involved in one or many various forms of divination and you still haven't renounced the power connected to all witchcraft specifically.
• Generational witchcraft in your family, someone close to you or even in your home may be involved in or searching for answers in divination.
• Ask the Lord if there is any witchcraft or divination directed at you, especially if you have come under attack since the mission field and break its power in spiritual warfare.
• If you believe in any way that you are battling with the spirit of python, be sure to repent of any legal hold or lies you believed. We give this spirit power at times through legal right and open doors in our lives and ministry.