Sexual Temptations In Prayer

June 22, 2015

Tonight, my very dear and precious family, the Lord has something that He wants me to share with you. It's a teaching about getting closer to Him and the pitfalls and the things that are going to come against you and have been coming against you.

Earlier today in worship it was so beautiful. I was resting with the Lord in the Spirit. He was at my right-hand side and had His arm around me, I was leaning my head on His shoulder - and He was looking at all of you, at His Youtube Family. 'Cause I'd been praying for you all, that you'd receive the gifts that you need to be able to move forward in your spiritual life. He was very moved and tenderly was looking upon each and every one of you, and I know that He's bringing graces to your life, that you need at this hour, and that you so long for. And it was just a beautiful moment of feeling like family, receiving from Him.

Basically, what He's asking me to do is to explain to you some of the spiritual dynamics that are going on, when you come into worship and you desire a more intimate relationship with Him and hearing Him - so that you'll be able to cope with these things and know that He's with you and He's going to give you the tools to cope with them.

I've had a couple of people, a few people, come to me and say that they're having a little difficulty getting demonic resistance in spiritual prayer and dwelling prayer. And I want to talk to you tonight about what those things are, what those dynamics are.

So, let me go ahead and begin:

We worship the Lord in Spirit and in Truth. When we come into the Lord's presence in worship, it is both a physical and spiritual act. We have all learned from childhood how to navigate in the physical world, but we are less experienced in the spiritual. This is a learning process and a little more complicated than we perceive the physical reality to be.

Just because our sense are really tuned into that as well as our physical senses are tuned into things - our eyes, our ears and what we're able to perceive on a physical level. So, it's a little more complicated in dealing with the spiritual reality that's around us, and unseen most of the time.

For instance, talking about the presence of demons here. For instance - just as we encounter good people and bad people at the mall, when we are sensitized to the spiritual realm we will encounter God and His angels, and sometimes demons. Now, before we get the chills and weebee jeebies about demons, let me say that all of them are subject to God, none of them can act without His permission and very rarely will He allow them to overpower us. The kind of demons they dramatize in movies are very, very rare in day-to-day lives of the normal person.

So, what does an ordinary day-to-day demon look like?

Let's imagine for a moment, something has burned in the oven and the house is filled with smoke. So, you open the doors to air it out and a mangy old dog comes wandering in to check your house out. He goes here and sniffs, lifts his leg and there he goes, lifting his leg again on the couch, on the cabinets, etc. and claiming his territory. When you spot him, what's your first response?

"Out, get out! Go home! Go on, go home." And if he doesn't yield to that you might get a broom. (I'm a dog lover...please don't tell me how cruel I am. I'd probably feed him, unless he chased my cats, then I'd probably get a shotgun...cats are Alpha in this household.)

Anyway, It's your house! You take authority over your property and make the dirty influence leave. Most day-to-day demons are no higher than two feet, (if you could see them physically.) They're ugly, warty, slimy creatures that are scared to death of the Name of Jesus and His Blood.

The last thing they want is to be found out and sent back to the abyss with not having done what they were sent to do. The devils are mean. There's no love in them. They're terribly mean - mean to us, mean to each other. So, the consequences of being bound and sent to the abyss are not happy consequences for them or for their leaders. They're going to get some heavy flak for that. So, they're already afraid of a believer.

So, now that we have demons in a better perspective: filthy emaciated dogs or warty frogs - when you go to the grocery or other kind of store, you are entering a world full of demons that you probably will not see, but will feel the influence, if you're sensitive. For instance, they make all kinds of sinful suggestions based on our particular weaknesses. At the cash register, through our tendency to curiosity, they are tempting us to look at an unseemly, inappropriate magazine.

Through our insecurity, to buy more than we need. Through intemperance, to buy all kinds of luscious, fattening foods. Or in line, to judge the person ahead of or behind us. Through our need for attention, to respond to flirtatious advances by an attractive person of the opposite sex.

And where do you suppose all these temptations come from? They are all around us, and though we don't see the demons, we can feel their action on us by what we are drawn to and have to exercise self-control to avoid. I mean, you have to exercise resistance to these things. When you find yourself having to exercise resistance, I'd say that nine times out of ten you're dealing with a demon - not your own flesh. Although they work through the desires of our flesh, for sure.

In the same way, when we go to church, for instance, there are demons of gossip, jealousy, judgment, greed, lust - all kinds of demons trying to get our attention off of God. It is a spiritual fact, and I do mean fact, that wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, the demons of oppression are nearby, waiting to snatch the Fruits of the Spirit away from a believer. The more intense the Godly environment, the more intense the enemy's warfare. So, there you have a snapshot of what you deal with every day.

I'm sure you've noticed how you get interrupted the minute you try to do something holy or go into prayer, and the more important the task, the stronger the resistance. The number one threat to the kingdom of darkness is a spiritual Christian who hears from God. A person's intimate relationship with God is the most threatening thing to the kingdom of darkness. That's why so many of the really spiritual moves of God have come under so much opposition and fire.

In the course of events, Holy Spirit brings on a new movement of holiness and the devils respond by sending a counterfeit to confuse and scandalize anyone drawn to that movement. The enemy uses people short on discernment, who label it "from the Devil" and thereby try to put a stop to it. So, anytime you go deeper with the Lord, you will get demonic resistance: whether it be a child getting a fever just before you walk out the door to go to church, or telephone calls during prayer time that never seem to end if you haven't been smart enough to unplug your phone... Or car trouble on the way to a prayer group meeting. The more important the Godly activity, the more opportunity there is for you to be blessed and grow in the Lord - the more the demons are going to oppose you. They are there, whether you see them or not.

There are more subtle forms of resistance for people seeking an intimate relationship with the Lord. For instance, the Lord may allow your virtue to be tested while you're praying by allowing a lying spirit to say something derogatory about a brother in Christ. I think we've all experienced judgmental Christians coming on strong to correct us of something they know nothing about. But they believe that they have been privileged by God, that He confided to them our faults or something in the spirit, so they come on strong with condemnation. Who do you suppose planted judgment in their minds? Who do you suppose tells lies to separate the brethren?

Hearing a voice in prayer telling you negative things is a test in charity that I believe the Lord allows, to see just how mature and kind you are. So in other words, you know - the demons know when someone's falling short on a virtue! It's not like they need supernatural knowledge to tell that you have a problem with fear or you have a problem with vanity. They can see that clearly. So, when you go into prayer, even though the Lord may want to deal with you on a vanity - the demons might come across as "it's something that should be taken care of NOW", when in fact the Lord has a WHOLE different approach to it. But the demons know you have a problem with vanity, so they feed that to an immature Christian moving in the spirit - and he comes roaring out of prayer with judgment against you, that you're vain or you have a problem with vanity.

In reality, everyone knows you have a problem with vanity! And the demons have just put it in this person's head that HE'S privileged or SHE'S privileged to know that you've got a problem, and that you need to be corrected by them. So, that's typical, typical activity of demons. And I've been involved in that, I've learned things the hard way. Other people might - if they were given that information - they'd pray. They'd pray for us, or pray for you, or they'd pray for each other and not get involved in judging at all. In that respect, they would pass that test. A prophetic calling must have a rock solid foundation of charity and humility to keep it intact and from doing damage to souls who are struggling in their lives. To be useful to God we have GOT to have that foundation of charity and humility.

So, that's not something, charity and humility are normally not something that you come by very easily - these are things that take years to develop in us, if we haven't been raised the right way. Most of us have been raised in the world and our parents didn't teach us anything about that. So, that's something that has to be cultivated. And the Lord cultivates that in us, and so we can pass those tests. So that He can use us to minister to other people.

Another kind of test can be in the virtue of chastity. All of us have hormones, some of us have immorality and promiscuity even in our generational past. And getting close to Jesus, our most Beautiful God - being in His kind and loving presence and discovering His love for us, when we are hungry for affirmation and a meaningful physical relationship with a man... can make us more susceptible to a longing for a physical union. Demons standing by can even inflame the fires of lust in His presence if it is permitted by the Lord to test our chastity and purity. If we follow these impulses we can fall into the sin of impurity, or masturbation. Galatians 5:17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit...The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity...etc.

So, if we have these impulses in prayer... what do we do? Resist the devil and He will flee from you. It's not a sin to be tempted, but it is a sin to go with it. We don't resist the pure and loving affection of our God and Savior - we resist the sexual advances of impersonating spirits. And let me tell you, this is very, very common in Christian community where this kind of activity is going on, sexually in the spirit realm. It's something that people are either...too ashamed to admit that it's going on or they just are ignorant of it, and they don't realize what's going on. But it's demonic.

These sexual advances of impersonating spirits, these impersonating spirits are demons. They're still dirty little dogs. But they're projecting a costume that resembles our Lord Jesus, along with lustful thoughts. This is typical for demons. Halloween is a daily masquerade party for them. They project an image and snag a Christian.

Now, while all of this is going on - Jesus is there. He is God, He created hormones, He understands us and is not shamed by our temptation. Remember: He has been tempted in every way but never fell into sin. I have experienced this kind of temptation when I was in my 40's and God gave me the grace to walk away from it.

But let me tell you, it wasn't easy. The urge was extremely strong. I rebuked a spirit of lust, got up from prayer and began doing something else with my time and it finally went away. I saw Jesus and He warned me that it was a temptation from the devil and not Him, so I was able to walk away from it. But if I hadn't seen and heard Jesus clearly, it could have gone the other way.

Maybe you have had the same experience and fell into masturbation because of it. Don't be ashamed to repent and confess it to the Lord...just as you would confess gossip or lying. It's a sin. Don't let it stand between you and a pure and intimate relationship with God. This may just be a time in your life when you are really needy and very vulnerable. The Lord understands that and He's trying to bring you out of it.

I have had three people in our Youtube family come to me with this problem, so obviously it's not that rare. I'm sure there are many who have encountered this temptation and just don't know how to deal with it. But please, don't let a counterfeit "Jesus" steal your relationship with the REAL Jesus. Don't come to me and say, "This is too dangerous, this dwelling prayer. It's getting this close to the Lord. I might be deceived." If you've spent too much money at the store, or gotten hooked on soap operas, you've already been deceived. You just recognized it for what it was and next time you went shopping you stuck with your list and skipped that disgraceful channel. In just this same way, you will overcome temptations from the devils to fall into lust.

A little practice and some good rebukes in the Name of Jesus, and you will pass through your test of purity. If you know the Lord is Pure, that He is a Virgin, that He is our Creator - just that knowledge alone is enough to fend off lying spirits of lust, because now you can recognize HE'S not the source of that inspiration - it's coming from the enemy.

This is new spiritual territory you are entering. God will give you the grace to navigate it with self-control just as He taught you how to stand up and walk and keep your fingers off a hot stove when you were a toddler. Don't let the enemy bully you by making you think he is more powerful than you. The demons are no more than filthy little dogs you can easily take authority over. So take authority, press into the Lord's warm embrace and keep on worshiping.

Now having said that, I want to point out that if you or your parents or your ancestors have ever been involved in drugs, witchcraft, Ouija board, studied the occult or Eastern religion in any form, crystal balls, palmistry, Tarot cards, anything supernatural, not of God - you already have a strike against you going into dwelling prayer.

One thing you have going for you is that you are more sensitive than most to the spiritual realm. On the other hand, you probably have company tagging along from your past. You may have been delivered, but believe me they don't give up easily. They delight in causing confusion.

That's one reason why we are so strong on worship leading into hearing from the Lord. Worship or praying in tongues clears the air and the environment. It settles also your motive. Your motive is to worship. You are coming to the Lord to adore Him, not to get something from Him - unless it is His love. You are coming to adore and worship and be close to Him.

Wrong motives are open doors to the demons. Check your motives: you are not coming to get supernatural Knowledge, or to stand out as a prophet among others, or to feel good and have a sublime experience, or to be better than others. You are coming to adore the Lord God Almighty, and to serve Him through worship.

Your motives in the occult were totally different. So, there is a purification of motives that has to take place and until that is completed you may still be vulnerable to deceiving spirits. So, should you stop worshiping God and seeking His presence? Of course not. You need to be prepared to fight your way through a wall of demonic resistance for your relationship with Him. Are you willing to do that? Do you love Him enough? Please don't come back and tell me that Dwelling Prayer is opening doors to demons for you. No, it's not. You and your past are opening you to demons. With the Lord's help you will get through this.

Don't you think I get resistance? I was a New Ager for 12 years. I got terrible resistance when I became a Christian. Even now I am extremely careful because I know I have pride, which proceeds a fall - and I know the enemy is looking for a way to bring me down. New levels, new devils... who are masters of disguise and will hook onto any ungodly motive that might still be lurking in my heart. They can read me like an open book, they know my past, they know my longings, they know my buttons, and they know how to erect a wall of un-teachableness in order to protect their strongholds in your thinking, so you will literally resist and dislike the very people and teachings that could deliver you out of the enemy's hands.

What I'm saying here is: not only do they know everything about you, but they also know how to protect themselves, by trying to make you unteachable, or telling you that you are above the necessity of being taught by anyone else. That you already "know all that", when in fact you are actually in a bondage.

What I am saying is that you need to be honest, brutally honest with yourself and your motives, and you need to value truth and the Lord's presence in your life more than protecting your ego or image. And you need to fight for your relationship with Jesus if you start getting any kind of resistance.

How badly do you want this intimate relationship with Him?

How badly do you want this intimate relationship with Jesus ?

How much of yourself and the enemy are you willing to overcome with God's grace?

He is with you and wants nothing more than to have this very tender relationship. He's given you all the tools, He's at your right hand, He's promised that nothing can separate you from Him...all that's left is your resolve and cooperation - and that you desire with all your heart to be with Him in an ever deepening relationship of pure love.

We pray Lord, that whatever maybe standing in the way, whatever lies or deceptions may be standing in the way of a pure and deepening relationship with You in our lives - we pray that You would move these things out of the way. Reveal them to us and give us the grace to fight our way out of it and to overcome. Amen.