The Lord has apparently made me attentive to details and also made me love pointing that attention to the Scriptures. In accord with that, I must emphasize this point: Every single word in Scripture was written by the Holy Spirit, speaking through men who knew how to listen, and every word of it is important and worth paying attention to. 2 Timothy 3:16 is explicit, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” Every word we read is from the mind of God and is there for a reason. If something’s confusing or seems contradictory, the Holy Spirit said it with purpose and we just need to ask Him to help us understand. When reading the Scriptures, think, “the Holy Spirit says,” with every word.
Jesus models this; he says in John 12:49, “the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment – what to say and what to speak… What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.” In John 17:8, “For I have given them the words that you gave me…” All the words matter to our Father, and the Holy Spirit made sure to write things to us and leave nothing out.
I have a most wonderful friend who, when she heard me say what I’m about to tell you, said, “I always tell people: mind your prepositions!” Lemme show you what I mean.
My current focus, again, is our authority over heaven and earth, how we got it, why we have it, how we use it, all the Glorious Purpose involved. I’d like to begin where Jesus began with his own disciples in Luke 5. The story, which I bet you know, tells about Jesus hopping into Simon’s boat and asking him to row out a little so he could be heard by the crowds that had cornered him to hear what he had to teach.
Luke 5:4 And when he finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.
Jesus could see something that the fishermen couldn’t see: “Head over there, put it down right there.” They catch a bazillion fish and then he says, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19 and Mark 1:17)
Fishers OF men.
If I go out on Lake Shasta and come back with a bunch of bass, I don’t tell people “I went out fishing of bass today.” No, I was fishing for bass. I was a fisher of Lake Shasta.
When we’re fishers of men, the men are not the fish. The men are the bodies of water. The fish are demons. He wants to teach us to pull demons out of people.
In this introduction to his disciples, what Jesus is saying is, “I can see into the things you cannot. I can see in the Spirit, through the covering that you all see. I just proved it to you by showing you that I could see fish where all you saw was solid blue water. But I can see what’s underneath. Follow me and I’ll teach you how to see past that covering, too. Your job will be to pull out the spiritual things hiding inside people.”
Ecclesiastes calls this covering “vanity” – the makeup that covers the spiritual realm. In Ecc 1:14 the Holy Spirit says “I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.” The Holy Spirit repeats that word “vanity” 31 times, in almost every chapter of that book.
What do we do at a vanity – we put on makeup, right? We cover up what really exists with something else that we want people to see instead.
The Holy Spirit is saying, “I’ve seen everything in the whole world, and it’s all a cover-up.” The kingdoms of the earth are a facade, and our enemy wants us to put all our faith in this facade that we can see and touch. Jesus wants us to see beyond that and start to realize the truth; there is no spoon. [1] And then he wants us to do something about it!
So Jesus showed us that he could see through that skin-layer on top of the water, and he wants to teach us how to do the same. Imagine that you’re standing on a shore looking out across a lake. Imagine that in the Spirit, the air and the land and all the stuff above water are the natural things that we can see and under the water is the supernatural world that’s hidden by a thin veil. There’s that thin “skin” of cohesion on the surface of water that reflects light and keeps us from seeing underneath.
Compare a person’s skin to the water’s skin. Our eyeballs see what’s on the outside, but behind that layer there is a soul, and at least one spirit (but usually more than one). There can be a mark of the Holy Spirit (the seal) saying who we represent. There can be a mark that says you’ve heard about Jesus and now you’re accountable for that. Revelation talks about spiritual marks that we can receive from the things we’ve done, and what spirits we’ve agreed with and accepted and exposed ourselves to. You get marks when you tie your soul to others. Job 1:10 teaches that we can have a hedge around us from the Lord, but Ecclesiastes 10:8 teaches that we can cause a break in that hedge by which a serpent can enter and bite.
2 Peter 2:13, speaking of people creating marks and blemishes on others, is proven by the many testimonies of those who have had conversations with demons living inside people’s bodies, who rightfully claim ownership of the souls they cohabitate with because of the marks they have received.
This is pretty heavy stuff, and let’s not get sidetracked right now. The point is that people are full of spiritual things hiding behind the natural layer, and Jesus sees it and fishes it out. Then he says, “Follow me, and I’ll teach you how to do that.”
We’re made of like 60% water, right? In Matthew 12:43 Jesus teaches, “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’” He says that same thing in Luke 11:24. He didn’t have to tell us the thing about “passes through waterless places,” but he made sure to. He coulda just said, “The demon comes out of a person and finds no new body and then goes back in.” The Holy Spirit wants us to understand that demons want to be in water, and a fantastic source of it for them is people.
In Mark 5 and Luke 8 when Jesus casts the legion of demons out of the man at the graves in the Gerasenes, they beg him to send them into a herd of pigs, which he does. The next thing they do is immediately run into the nearby lake and drown the pigs. Tryin’ to get back under water. I have a ton to say about this in another article; for now may I just say that the demons started in water and always want to be in water – and we’re made of water – and I’ll show you all the scriptures about it later.
Why do I want us to understand all this? Because of the “why we have authority” thing. People are full of spirits, and we are learning to believe it. Once we believe that the things we see in nature are being driven by the things in supernature, we start to see and recognize the spirits. And then we fish them out with a command, and wonderful people who were being tormented – and acting like it – are healed and free and start being cool again.
This is a huge part of our work as ambassadors of the Kingdom of Heaven. Sometimes, “Heal the sick” has to do with this. Every time, “Cast out demons” has to do with this.
I appreciate the time you’re spending with me. The next article is right on the heels of this one.
Garrison
[1] - The Matrix (Wachowskis,1999)
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