Spiritual Warfare Library of PSM

What exactly does “apostasy” mean? The Greek word “apostasia” broken down describes something that once was standing, established, and settled– gradually moving away. You can think of a giant skyscraper, or even a tree werewith the whole foundation–slowly moving from its original place on the ground, until finally it’s in a completely different location. Now with that idea in your head, we know practices are the very actions of what we believe, and in this article you will see the Christian practices of the apostasy.

First Mention Of Apostasy

The apostasy was first mentioned as a prophecy by the Apostle Paul. This was no ordinary prophecy, but one for a generation of Christians close to the Day when Jesus will return to earth. He explained that there would come a time in the last days, when Christians would follow after doctrines of demons and seducing spirits and become so deluded with deception that God would send strong delusion as consequence for their disobedience to the truth. And because of their disobedience we would see practices of the apostasy.

Tongues

To start, tongues are nothing new under the sun. Even with the dispensation of the Holy Spirit upon the Lord’s ascension. There is much historical evidence that many non-Christian religions would speak in ecstatic unidentified languages. The key difference between the tongues we see in the Scripture and that of pagans was that the Disciples were actually speaking intelligible human languages. Essentially, the “opposite” of what happened at the tower of Babel.

And, when we see the Apostle Paul talking to the church of Corinth about prayer language, mysterious angelic tongues, we simply do not have enough context to understand exactly what this language was like. But, we know that Paul explained to the Corinthians that two or more interpreters were required for the use of tongues. He practically explained that tongues achieve no edification since the mind is unfruitful, unintelligent to what is being spoken, unless someone can interpret what is being said.

But, today we see a completely different approach. Christians are being taught by various denominations and non-denominations to just “speak in tongues.” Much like the Oprah Winfrey car giveaway, preachers are out here telling everybody, “You speak in tongues! You speak in tongues! Everybody speak in tongues!”

This is a doctrine of demons that the unsuspecting Christian eats up. I know, because I ate it up too, despite my suspicions. At a “Power and Love” convention hosted by a notorious evangelical pastor, another person came and started speaking in tongues to me. As he spoke, I heard in my mind, “God loves you.” Then, he told me that what he said was, “God loves you.” Seems like validation for tongues? Wrong.

The Tongues Set Up

The religious demon assigned to me, caused him to believe what he said (which he had no idea what he was saying) was “God loves you” and this demon also transmitted that thought into my mind to set up a cause-and-effect situation to get me to believe in tongues, which it ultimately did, and I went crazy with it! 

But, when I would sing, and speak in tongues, I remember the thought would come into my mind, “Worship Satan!” And it felt like I was praising the Devil. When you raise your concerns to the big tongue talkers they tell you, “Oh that’s just the Devil wanting you to stop speaking in tongues.” While ironically it’s the Devil that wants you to keep speaking in tongues…

Mind you, throughout this entire time, I WAS NOT EVEN BORN AGAIN. So, how can a carnal man speak in tongues when he doesn’t even have the Holy Spirit? It is because the Devil and his demons can also speak in tongues, and it’s precisely why they want us to speak in tongues because we utter demonic, blasphemous, accursing things into the spirit realm when we do.

Other Practices of the Apostasy

Now, tongues are not the only practices of the apostasy. Many other gifts of the Spirit, Satan also has a counterfeit.

We see that prophesy, and word of knowledge has become a demonic practice. Not that all prophecy is of the Devil, but the way Christians are being instructed by false teachers is the problem. They are taught that “whatever comes to your mind” is to be accepted as a prophecy. Or, “whatever word comes to your mind” is to be accepted as a word of knowledge. This “whatever attitude” without any trying of the spirits is completely contrary to the Scriptures that say we can’t believe every spirit, since not every spirit comes from God.

This goes back to the point I made earlier, that preachers and teachers are placing more emphasis on what Christians do and practice rather than their salvation experience– the defining moment of every Christian. 

So, despite I had “all these gifts” I was deceived into thinking I was saved because I could heal people, speak in tongues, have prophecies, and words of knowledge. And I was only one, but imagine how many other Christians are out there thinking the same thing. This is why we are in the season of major apostasy.

Save Them!

To continue with the practices of the apostasy, we see a full encompassing work with all the counterfeit gifts of the Spirit being used toward the Christian world, and the unsaved world.

The primary reason? Christians believe and are deeply taught that they are responsible for people coming to Christ. That is why they must use the gifts, all in an effort to prove to the unsaved that God is real and Christ is the way, and all you have to do is “accept Him.” 

So we see Christians going around with an evangelical frenzy rooted in guilt that if they don’t intervene the sinners in their lives, they will be held responsible for them going to hell. But, unknowingly these Christians are under a curse, because they are preaching a false gospel, and practicing the counterfeit arts of Satan. No wonder why demonic torment has reached an all-time high in our era…

I was one of them, praying in tongues for people, laying my hands on people trying to heal them, trying to prophesy to demonstrate the power of God, trying to win any soul for Christ so that I can feel good about myself that “I” saved someone from hell…

One time I even tried casting out a demon from someone by saying, “Jesus loves you.” Only to find myself in a similar situation to the seven sons of Sceva, the demon full-on attacked me, cursing and throwing objects at me and trying to chase me…

Christianity IS NO GAME Y’ALL!

The entire church-system has removed herself from the simple foundation in Christ: to be born again by the choosing and grace of God. They have made it all about works, and practice.

Jesus KNEW this would happen, and so He said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. On that day MANY will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.’” 

“Workers of lawlessness” AKA THOSE WHO DO FALSE PRACTICES.

Simply put, Jesus is not looking for those who do “mighty works.” He is looking for those He knows. And that is what we all need to come into agreement with: do we care more about the works, or being known by the King of kings?

So, let us set-aside the foolish virgin act and become wise. Let us detox and deprogram ourselves from the religious conditioning of the world, because Jesus is coming very soon… 

For we are in the times of apostasy.

Hercules and the Hydra – John Singer Sargent, 1921-1925

One of God’s first acts in creation of the earth was to create animals. Genesis 1 states that the Lord let fish and sea creatures live in the waters as well as birds for the air. It’s in verse 24 that we see God state that the earth was to produce animals and they would scurry along the ground with the ability to produce offspring, also acting as livestock.

Finally, God moved onto the highest form of living creations on earth: human beings. We read that humans would reign over the fish in the sea, birds in the sky and all the wild animals on earth. The next chapter in Genesis would detail how God created man as well as how Adam would name them all.

The takeaway from this and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is straightforward: Man was given a special place in the hierarchy of creation insofar as 1) they would rule over the animals and creatures of the earth and 2) Man would have a special relationship with God – so much so that the Lord Jesus Christ would die and resurrect so they may have life. Man would be given the Holy Spirit and have God dwell in his chambers.

The key component of Man’s relationship to animals is that man rules over them. This was amongst the first edicts we see decreed by God in the Book of Genesis. We also see that Daniel and Peter, two of God’s great servants, would go on to have dreams where animals would symbolize various aspects of messages God sent them.

Dreams of Animals in the Last Days

Exodus Internet Church’s teachings are always placed into the context of the times we live in: the 11^th hour, the last days before the Lord Jesus Christ returns to earth. We are caught in the middle of great spiritual warfare between God and Satan. Fallen angels and demons are more active than ever in peoples’ lives and will use dreams to attack them.

Animals in dreams are often representative of fallen angels. It’s a form of mockery that fallen angels have used due to their hatred for man which stems from us having a special relationship with God they used to have. The prevailing emotions of a fallen angel toward a human are hatred, jealousy and envy. Here’s the kicker: the mockery behind taking the form of animals in dreams is the fact that we were made to rule animals! The fallen angels are saying that they can rule over us while taking the form of a creature beneath us – they fully embrace the adversarial archetype they take against the people of God.

We even see this time and time again in the Old Testament. Adrammelech, a god with the countenance of a mule, is mentioned in 2 Kings 17:31 as having children sacrificed to him. Baal, a god with the face of a bull is named as a god whose priests exercised self-mutilation (1 Kings 18:28). Moloch, a calf, is spoken about by God as He instructs the Israelites to stone any person who offered a child to him (Leviticus 20:2-5). Evil spirits have been taking the form of animals to try and assert themselves over men before the Lord Jesus Christ descended to earth!

Animals can also serve as commentary with regard to what the evil spirits’ agendas are in our lives. At other times, they can represent a part of ourselves that we are facing, wrestling with or have overcome.

Examples of Animal Dreams from EIC Members

Several members of our own ministry have had dreams involving animals – I am going to draw from them for examples related to an animal we all know as Christians: the snake. The snake is important because it is representative of Satan whom we know will be defeated the Lord Jesus Christ. The scriptures tell us that the Lord has crushed the head of the serpent for His people – He has done this through His crucifixion and resurrection, meaning that all evil spirits must bow to Him now and forever!

Evan recently testified in one of our messages how a giant cobra bit him in a dream shortly before he cut its head off. The bite did not hurt him and he was fine. The symbolism in this lies in that the snake’s attack on Evan was ultimately shown to be ineffective. It’s a metaphor for how the occult practices he used to practice before the Lord baptized him now have no power or hold over him whatsoever. The Lord God gave him victory over the evil spirits who tried to attack him.

Lee spoke of a dream where she visited a reptile expo with many booths manned by handlers who showcase the animal they are in charge of. She came across a handler with a rat snake and while she was trying to showcase the snake, it got out of control and bit Lee. The next part of the dream shifted to another booth manned by Pastor Pam. She addressed the snake attached to Lee’s arm and grabbed the snake behind the head before shutting it in a cage. The dream is symbolic of how Lee and Pastor Pam’s relationship in counseling would deliver her from the influence of evil spirits, even foreshadowing her born again experience.

Lastly, I will give my own dream of a snake. It must be mentioned that before being born again, I was subject to abuse and beatings by evil spirits in my dreams. I received one after the Lord Jesus Christ redeemed me in His honor and in the dream, I was standing on my driveway as an enormous snake – I estimate at least 90 feet in length and 10 feet tall – charged me. I leapt at the snake and beat its head with a sword I brandished, representing the sword of the spirit that I could now wield in Christ.

When one gets a dream of an animal, the meaning and symbolism of the animal must be taken into account when analyzing what the message is saying. The dreams show that those in Christ will be delivered from the dark and evil forces in the Christian’s life through the mercy and power of the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth. One can rest assured that the Lord God will make any attacking spirit upon you in dreams will be forced to bow to the glory of Christ.