Dear Fellow Americans,
We Are At War!
War (meel-kha-MAH, מִלְחָָמָה) is not one of my favorite topics. I like to write about love, peace, joy, the goodness of God and His promises, and all things positive. This month, however, the Holy Spirit has constrained me to tackle a subject on His heart that is timely and crucial, albeit unpleasant: warfare. The Tanach (Old Covenant) is filled with wars. When Israel was serving God, He actually participated in wars in their defense. When Israel turned away from God, He allowed them to be defeated by their enemies. It seems as if war is always a part of life. Our country has had its share of wars: Revolutionary, Civil, 1812, World Wars I & II, Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan, to name a few. Nation fought against nation, and people fought against people in these wars.
The Bible speaks about another kind of war—a spiritual war—a war between good and evil. We are engaged today, in the United States of America, in this type of war, both on a national and personal level. We cannot expect the world to understand this truth, but we must. I believe that the hour has come for Bible believers to embrace our engagement in an End-time battle. While I said it many years ago, something is truer today than ever before: We are a bride with combat boots on under our wedding gown!
“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” (Eph. 6:12).
The Lord instructed me to expose the spirits that are warring against our country today. While I cannot write about all of them, I will attempt to deal with the major ones, some this month and the rest in the August newsletter.
America, the Devil, and Me
I must begin by stating that I love my country, the United States of America. I grew up serving tea to the ladies of the DAR, The Daughters of the American Revolution. Captain Joshua Hatfield, on George Washington’s staff, was one of my relatives. For me, saying the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, with the phrase “One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” has always been a non-negotiable reality. As much as I love this country, the devil hates it, at least its Bible-based origins. The Puritans who landed on our shores, dedicating this land to God, engaged in a spiritual battle that has reached a climax today. It seems at times that satan is winning the battle. We know, of course, that our God will win the war.
The United States has sent out more missionaries to preach the Good News than any other country in the world. We are prospering more than any other country. We have been a shining example of a democracy of the people, by the people, and for the people. Yet, we have strayed from our JudeoChristian heritage. Over the years, we have opened the door for the enemy through our national and personal sins, including racism, compromise, hypocrisy, and lukewarmness—both inside and outside of the Body of believers. We now find ourselves in a full scale battle with principalities and powers of darkness.
The enemy’s name in Hebrew, hasatan (hah-sah-TAHN) literally means “the adversary.” Yeshua said about him, “…he was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44). Over the years, satan has been victorious in canceling “In God We Trust” from the heart of our nation, if not from our money (at least for the moment). But we still trust in God, and, because we do, God wants us to take our stand on the spiritual battlefield, realizing that: 1) our country is under attack, and 2) our enemies are spiritual, not carnal.
The Lying, Deceiving Spirit
We are at war with this spirit today. Every day we hear someone say, “I just didn’t know who (what) to believe.” Why? Because lies abound. Satan is the father of lies, and God is truth. The two are forever in opposition to one another. The Torah says of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, “…a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He” (Deut. 32:4). Yeshua said of Himself, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (Jn. 14:6).
Is there really such a thing as a “lying or deceiving spirit?” Look up 1 Kings 22:22-23 and 2 Chronicles 18:21-22, and you will see that there is. The lying spirit is evident today in the spiritual war against gender distinctions. One radical feminist, Ruth Barrett, wrote: “There are over seven billion human beings on the planet. Therefore, there have to be over seven billion genders. No one is special if we are all unique.” This is not true according to the Bible. “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Gen. 1:27). Two genders: male and female. This war has been going on since as early as 1968, according to Dr. Michael Brown in his book Jezebel’s War with America. A group known as “The Feminists,” determined to annihilate sex roles, also called for the elimination of marriage which they labeled a “slavery-like practice.” The Bible says that marriage between one man and one woman is a picture of Messiah and His bride (Christ and the church). See Eph. 5:25, 32. The enemy would like to erase that picture. Once gender is meaningless in marriage, it is rendered meaningless in society as a whole. The issue of gender distinctions is as confusing as the gender distinctions themselves. Students on college campuses, for example, are stating how they want to be identified, by what pronoun: e.g., perself, humself, itself, and more. Transgender activists support describing one’s gender in multiple ways, sometimes up to ten ways simultaneously. A lying spirit seeks to confuse individuals so profoundly that they have no idea who they are, and more importantly, who God has created them to be. The devil does not want people to know that we are created beings with a designed purpose and a tailor-made plan for each precious soul. The enemy deceives vulnerable individuals into believing that they can be anything they want to be…a man, a woman, a combination, etc. We must pray for transgender individuals, that they will see the truth, embrace their Creator, and walk in their divine destiny. We must always remember that people are not our enemies; our warfare is with spirits of darkness. We are commanded to love.
We are dealing today with a lot of lying words. This is emphasized in a book by a Hollywood actress, Sam Sorbo, a passionate follower of Yeshua, who says in Words for Warriors that the enemy has changed the meanings of words today—exchanging lies for truth. Equity. Equality. Core values. These words don’t mean what they used to mean in a biblical values system. Similarly, words such as Pro-Choice, Reproductive Rights, Family Planning are deceptive words. They are words meant to cover up the murder of pre-born children through abortion. “Birthing People” has replaced “Mother” in our President’s 2022 budget. Our battle is against the spirits working through the world system (and especially through the media) with the use of deceptive words.
What about lies concerning the founding of our country? The truth is that our country was founded on a covenant with God. The Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776, has many references to God. The third reference states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Note: It is the Creator, God, who is the source of the rights—not government. The purpose of government is to protect those rights given by God.
There has been much debate about the Founding Fathers and the fact that many of them owned slaves. George Washington, the father of our country, was a slave owner. This is true, but, from all I have read, Washington’s views on slavery changed over the course of his life (radical for a landowner in Virginia in his day). As was the custom of the time, Washington inherited slaves when his father died. He was only eleven years old. As he grew older, Washington became “increasingly uneasy with the long-standing institution of slavery and provided for the emancipation of his slaves after his death” (Wikipedia and other sources). This is indeed a complex and sad part of our history. The Dutch had brought slaves to America in 1619, and by 1743, when Washington was eleven years old, slavery was ingrained in the economic and social life of several of the colonies, including Virginia. Slavery is wrong. Buying and selling other human beings is wrong. All men are created equal. This is true.
We were wrong to permit slavery. That’s why there was a Civil War. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves and restored our commitment to the ideals of the Declaration of July 4, 1776. There is an attempt today to erase the Bible-based foundations of our country because of the slavery issue, to remove that history from our textbooks, and to label the U.S.A. as a fundamentally racist nation. The “1619 Project” would have us place the founding of America in 1619 when the first slaves arrived in Jamestown, rather than in 1776. It proclaims that our democracy’s founding ideals were false when they were written. No. The ideals were not false, but the people who wrote about them were flawed human beings.
Men are imperfect. Only God is perfect. But nations, and individuals, do suffer consequences when we go against the standards of a Holy God. We must learn from history, not re-write it. We must acknowledge the mistakes of the past, repent of them, and move on to love, forgiveness, and reconciliation. As George Washington said, “Since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained.” Washington also wrote, “It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.”
We are living in the End Times. Any one of us may be subject to deceiving spirits. I am reminded of Mark 13:22, “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” Deception is something to be aware of. Always seek God’s truth. “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Tim. 4:1). “…let God be true but every man a liar…” (Rom. 3:4).
The enemy’s purpose in denying the God-given distinction between male and female, in distorting the meaning of words, and in attempting to cause enmity between races is to destroy our nation by causing confusion and division. Pray with me: Abba, raise up Your Spirit of Truth (Jn. 16:13) and expose the lies that are hidden in darkness. Empower me to be an agent of deliverance for my fellow Americans who are in bondage to deceiving spirits. If I have personally believed any of the enemy’s lies, I repent and ask you to set me free in Yeshua’s mighty Name.
The Antichrist Spirit
This spirit is anti (against) Christ (Messiah). It is the spirit of one referred to in the Bible as the “abomination of desolation,” “the man of lawlessness,” “the son of perdition,” and the “beast from the sea” whose number is 666. This is basically an anti-God spirit, a spirit opposed to God and Yeshua. “He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son” (1 Jn. 2:22). “…every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world” (1 Jn. 4:3).
The anti-Messiah spirit is very prevalent in the U.S. military today. I receive mail on a regular basis, endorsed by Dr. Ben Carson, encouraging believers to resist the war on God, freedom of religion and freedom of speech among our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines. Examples: Marine Lance Corporal Manifa Sterling—a Christian who was recently court-martialed, demoted and discharged for refusing to remove a Bible verse from her desk. Oscar Rodriguez, Jr.—decorated Air Force veteran who was forcefully dragged out of a retirement ceremony for mentioning the word “God.” Colonel Leland Bohamon— decorated Air Force commander who was denied promotion, removed from command, and reprimanded for refusing to sign a homosexual marriage certificate. I have no reason to believe that these reports are not true, although I find them unbelievable! This is spiritual and demonic, the work of principalities and powers.
What about spiritual wickedness in high places? Consider the White House. Are President Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, the Democrats, the Left, the secular media, our enemies? No. It is the spirits working in and through them that we must war against; the spirits that insist on “political correctness,” “tolerance,” “women’s rights,” and “human rights” among others.
What about the governor of California who shut down churches during the recent pandemic while allowing abortion clinics, liquor stores, massage parlors, laundromats, and more to remain open? That is the antichrist spirit at work. Some brave pastors took a stand against this spirit and refused to close their churches. They won their case in the courts, having defined the church as “essential.”
We must be spiritual freedom fighters who stand for the truth and against evil. As Psalm 97:10, says, “You who love the LORD hate evil…” And in Amos 5:15, “Hate evil, love good; establish justice in the gate….” We hate evil, not people. God loves people, but He hates evil—a spirit of the evil one—the devil. Remember, hasatan is the enemy of God. He and his demon workers are behind the anti-Christian, anti-God movement that is sweeping our nation. Spiritual forces are causing cities to remove Ten Commandment monuments, Nativity scenes, crosses, and any mention of God and Jesus from the public forum. The anti-Messiah spirit would like to turn the U.S.A. into an atheist, socialist country. Is this the will of God? What can we do about it? The Bible says, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds” (2 Cor. 10:4). Prayer is a powerful weapon. As King David said, “Blessed be the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle.”
Let’s pray: In the name of Yeshua, we break the anti-Messiah spirit, we cancel its assignments and eradicate it from our nation. Thank You, Father, that Your eyes are on the righteous, but Your face is against those who do evil (1 Pet. 3:12). Please help me to take a stand and to make my voice heard as the Holy Spirit leads me.
The Spirit of Repentance Brings Hope!
Please pray with me again: Abba, may a spirit of repentance spread throughout our beloved country. May Your children, who are called by Your name, take a stand for truth, for life, for morality, and for the values found in Your Word. Forgive us for idolatry and apathy in Yeshua’s Name. We pray for revival—first in our hearts, then in our nation. Turn us back to You, Faithful, Merciful God. We take authority over the spirit of division that wants to destroy marriages, families, friendships, political parties, cities, races, and the unity of our nation.
Thank You for the authority that we have in Yeshua’s Name and in the power of the Ruach HaKodesh to bind all deceiving and antichrist spirits operating in our towns and cities. We stand on the promise of Luke 10:19: “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” Please help us to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves in these Last Days and to stand on the truth of Your Word that promises us victory over the forces of evil: “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). Amen!
“God bless America, Land that I love. Stand beside her and guide her through the night with the Light from above…”
Fighting the good fight of faith together with you (Eph.6:10-11),
