Biblical feudalism is highly decentralized on the human side of things. There can be no centralized human authority on this earth for a spiritual kingdom. Christ alone is the Lord of His people. He appointed messengers, not rulers over His Body. If you assume an earthly church magistrate before you read the Bible, then you’ll find support for the idea there. If you start from Hebraic assumptions, you’ll get an entirely different story from Scripture.
The thesis of the Unseen Realm is entirely Hebraic. It reflects the best we can know of Hebrew assumptions about cosmology and anthropology. The message of the Bible as a whole rests on that foundation. How and why we exist as fallen humans in God’s Creation are fully explained. We don’t need to know more than that. The rest of it — our mission, methods and means — are derived from that understanding and implemented in the context of this world.
I got a lot of questions arising from yesterday’s post. Some of it you will have to work out for yourself. You will need to be aware of your own election, mission and calling, including your gifts. It is your duty to work out the details and procedures for each case based on broad principles. The same Holy Spirit working in me is working in you.
However, as the basic thesis for the ministries of people like Fern, Audrey and Beth (the trio interviewed in the referenced Naked Bible podcast) is that you will most certainly need help getting your mind cleared of deceptions that keep you from serving effectively.
The overall goal is to help the Elect find their place under the Covenant of Christ. The central problem we face in that effort is American mythology and social conditioning. American minds are loaded with a vast burden of nonsense concocted by the Devil to keep the Elect away from their Covenant heritage. The garbage mythology that dominates churchianity is very powerful and effective. One of the first things those three women do in ministering to victims is help them understand the biblical Hebrew cosmology, including the knowledge of the Elohim Council, the Watchers, the Nephilim (demons) and so forth.
They teach the unshakable favor God has for His children, and how this is the very crux of where Satan comes from, and how we got here in our fallen condition. And these women are trained therapists who help traumatized people deal with the damage that is so common in American family life. We should be surprised how many people remain functional despite the hideous mess that passes for parenting in the US. There is a sense in which virtually every American carries some scars from bad child-rearing. All of that is the result of Satan’s plans for humanity.
We’ve warned often that the Enemy delights in using humans to torment other humans. Bringing Hell to human existence in this life is simply how the Kingdom of Darkness operates. There’s very little we can do for the Damned, but the Elect are inheritors of something far better. We can help them understand how they are acceptable to the Father because of the Son. It’s the paradox of humility and privilege.
The trio of ladies in the interview deal with especially hard cases, mostly people whose souls are so twisted out of shape that they manifest multiple personalities — what we used to call “schizophrenia”. That requires special training and clinical experience. Getting that training is tough because you have to wade through a huge pile of secular nonsense. I could wish that there was a body of clinical literature written from a better perspective.
Still, those of us called to assist others can help most people. Yes, there are things we can do for the Damned, but it really depends on how they are moved to submit to the Law of Christ alongside the Elect who submit to the Person of Christ. The power of the heart-led way is available to every human. The point here is that you don’t have a means to ascertain who is and isn’t spiritual family objectively; you can only estimate how the Lord wants you to handle each person. No one on this earth is called and equipped to reach everyone who needs help. Your reach is limited, and God will gladly help you keep track of which sheep you are to shepherd.
Shepherding is not asserting authority as most Americans think of it. You are supposed to demonstrate for others how you assert God’s authority over your fleshly nature. We don’t conquer Nature around us, but our own natures. We offer spiritual leadership by example. Only rarely would we pretend to exercise authority over other people, and even then, only in highly limited ways. The shepherd leads by walking off in the right direction to some destination God chooses, and trusts the work of God to compel the sheep to cling to the shepherd.
You cannot help anyone who doesn’t attach themselves to you in some way, driven by the Holy Spirit. That’s tied up on the Law of Christ that we love each other as He does.
There’s no need to study how the Devil and his allies work beyond the sketch provided by the message of the Unseen Realm. The Devil has a provisional authority over fallen humans, not the natural world in which we live. It is feudal authority in the ANE mold. The only escape is when the Lord initiates a change in awareness that we belong to Him. Everything else is a battle of claiming authority over your fleshly nature, flesh that is the Devil’s greatest ally in your life. It takes time and effort on your part to bring your whole being under subjection to Christ.
Part of the redemption process is learning the proper Hebrew understanding of sin and redemption, as we’ve examined in posts over the past couple of weeks. The fleshly nature gets its ideas from the Devil, who rules human culture. To the degree you cling to the world’s ways, to that degree you remain under Satan’s dominion. You have a commission from God to conquer the internal turf in your soul that is under Satan’s dominion and redeem it, occupying it with a mission from God.
This naturally includes healing all the wounds on your soul, wiping away the effects of any trauma that has opened the door to demonic influence in your life — the sense in which they “possess” you. You are the one who casts out your own demons.
