Lessons in the Ladder Days

Candace Long: I'm Candace Long with Lessons in the Latter Days, offering biblical commentary to make sense of the times that we're living in. Today's episode is called How To Spot the Decoy in Your Midst. If you've been listening to this series, you'll understand that this topic is the natural progression of what we have covered thus far.

If this is your first time listening, this episode is going to seem really out there, but bear with me. This is a critically important topic that I've been learning about since 2013. My goal is to expose one of the most nefarious, sneaky, and deceptive strategies being used by the enemy against God's people. Many are in the crosshairs of a very subtle attack designed to destroy them.

For those who need a brief review about now, I began this series to chronicle what it is like living in the latter days, the very end of days before the day of the Lord. It's like we are the proverbial frog in a pan of water. The heat got turned on and for a while we were doing okay. At first it was even warm and toasty and relaxing.

And now the heat is getting hotter and we've become more and more uncomfortable to the point where it can kill us if we do not learn how to navigate this period well. In the last few episodes, we've looked at what it was like during the days of Noah, describing the Nephilim invasion which brought about a mixed DNA race of people created when fallen angels impregnated women on Earth, and how that race has continued to grow.

I provided biblical and non-biblical evidence showing there are now millions of people all over the world who have alien Nephilim DNA inside them, which explains the drastic increase of evil in our culture and the oppression building against those who refuse to comply with their worldview. It also explains why we are beginning to see news reports of UFOs and strange phenomenon.

There is a connection between earthly DNA calling out to its parental heavenly source. Only that source is not the God that you and I know. The war is heating up between those who possess the seed of Satan and those who have bound themselves to the God of Israel, protected by the blood of Messiah, and who now have a threefold mandate during the time that we have left on the Earth.

We are to be number one, lights in the world. Number two, salt of the earth. And number three, ones who withstand in this evil day. Just the other day I was reading Ephesians 6 where the Apostle Paul exhorts us to put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Now we've discussed these powers and principalities, the fallen angels, the Nephilim, the demigods, Titans, evil spirits, and demons. There is an entire hierarchy of evil that is multiplying across our nation's landscape.

Just look statistically at the rise of murder and unrest in many of our cities and a bitter hatred against every form of governmental authority. That means a principality of evil is strengthening in the atmosphere around those cities. What I want to talk about for a minute is what the Lord wants us to do living in this environment.

His desire is that we stand. That word in the Greek means to continue abiding, to hold up, no matter what is thrown at us. Now believe me, this unrest will get worse and it's up to the Lord's faithful to encourage one another to keep holding on and not give in.

The historical context of Ephesians is that Paul wrote this book in prison. He was being persecuted for his faith and it was just six or seven years before the Romans would destroy the temple and conquer Jerusalem. It was a time period I believe much like today where the nation was losing ground. Later on in the passage Paul says, "Take the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day."

Now God's armor was not a new concept to Paul. It comes from Isaiah 59 in which the prophet describes a time known as the evil day, which foreshadowed the day of the Lord when God would pour out His wrath on His enemies. It is a time that we happen to be living in right before what this period foreshadows.

Isaiah writes, "God put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation upon His head. He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped Himself in fury as a mantle." The Lord is not going to a picnic here, He's going to war. And that is what the evil day is. Paul's admonition is to encourage those of us who have been chosen to live during this time.

What does it mean to withstand in this evil day? First we have to know what the evil day is. It is a specific, very specific time period known as the day of the Lord. It is judgment day when the primary characteristic of the age is evil. The word is *poneros*, which means hurtful and calamitous.

To withstand means to stand in opposition to the evil influence. Oppose it with everything you have. Do not kowtow or try to appease the situation to save your life or calm people's feathers. It is a time to stand strong, facing the evil head-on. It will not be easy. That's why we need each other to help us stay the course. That's what this series is all about.

I want to shift gears now and spend the rest of our time talking about one of the wiles of the devil that most Christians are not familiar with. Now the word wile, W-I-L-E, is *methodia*, which means to lie in wait or trickery. The trickery I'm talking about involves unclean spirits who are roving around looking for someone to inhabit.

This strategy involves honing in especially on people that we would all think of as godly, but with whom is an inherent weakness which makes them vulnerable. And almost without their knowing what has happened, they are invaded by an unclean spirit. Now this doesn't happen without someone's will, so there has to be some kind of trickery involved.

I have lost dear friends through this demonic strategy and it has taken me years to research the Scriptures to understand what I was dealing with. And once I discovered it, I have been writing and teaching anyone who will listen. It is that serious. Time doesn't permit going into depth here, but I want to touch on three key points and I'll refer further information for those of you who are interested.

Number one, what is a decoy and how do you know you're in the presence of one? Number two, how does a person become a decoy? And number three, what do you do if you suspect someone close to you might be a decoy? Let's look at number one. This is how I ran into my first decoy.

For quite some time, whenever I was around Maria—now this is not her real name—but I felt weird. I couldn't put my finger on it, I just didn't like being around her anymore. Now before I go any further, let me mention an important gifting that God has given His children. I'm talking about spiritual antennas that help us detect when we are in the presence of an unclean spirit.

It's like a spiritual barometer that senses when something is amiss. I call these body tells. When some people are around demons or unclean spirits for instance, they may smell a certain sulfur odor. Others experience hair standing on the back of their necks.

For me, I usually have a feeling of repulsion and unrest as if I can't wait to get out of the room. Sadly nobody talks about this from the pulpit. It is a spiritual discipline that we have to learn by practice, as the writer of Hebrews instructs us in chapter five.

Now this experience I had with Maria happened before I had any understanding about spiritual antennas. So basically I was thrown into the deep end by the Father in a crash course to learn about this strategy of the enemy. At first I felt guilty about feeling repulsion at being around Maria because it fell short of what a believer should feel.

It never dawned on me that she might have changed internally and I somehow picked up the change. That's why this spiritual warfare strategy is so subtle. In this situation, I didn't change, Maria did. Her change was internal and invisible. It happened behind the scenes.

Something in the core of her being shifted. It was like her personality was slowly displaced by a spirit that was not her, or at least the her that I had known. Now Maria and I were not what I would call close friends, but we had friends in common so I was around her quite a bit.

And because of this growing revulsion, I started avoiding her simply because I didn't like the way I felt when I was around her. Now I have learned over the years that this feeling of unrest is a key body tell for me, but it often takes a while to realize it if I'm in the midst of being defiled.

I'll define defilement in just a moment, but let me continue with how this played out. I began to pray for Maria, hoping that whatever was going on with her would leave. I thought about talking with her and admit my struggle, but what was I going to say? "Sorry Maria, I don't like being around you anymore."

That certainly didn't sound spiritual so I did the only thing I knew to do then, which was stay away. The more I stayed away, the more Maria sought me out, which brought about more internal conflict. One night I was increasingly troubled because the truth was I wasn't being honest about my feelings toward her.

I was pretending to be a friend. When I realized that, that's when the revelation hit me. I suddenly knew the name of this insidious spirit that I was somehow sensing. It was the spirit of guile. I was in the process of being defiled by the very spirit that I had been assigned to detect and cast out.

I will get to what guile is in a minute, but we often hear the word defilement, but I find very few believers really understand what it is. So let me just explain what I have learned about the essence of defilement. It is what takes place within a believer who comes in contact with someone who carries an unclean spirit.

Now with the increase of evil going on today, I believe this phenomenon is exploding. Here's how defilement works. When a person who is walking with the Lord is around an unclean spirit, that person picks up or senses whatever the nature of that spirit is.

For instance, if you're close to someone who has a spirit of fornication, you will likely experience a sexual pull. If it's a spirit of homosexuality, you may actually feel a subtle arousal toward someone of the same sex. It's the feeling that throws us off track because those who walk closely with the Lord have very sensitive spiritual antennas.

If we are not mature, it's easy to think, "Oh God, something is wrong with me." So let's go back to this encounter with Maria who was manifesting a spirit of guile. Thankfully with God's help I was able to discern that pretending to be a friend, which was what I was feeling, was in actuality the Holy Spirit revealing to me the name of the spirit that I was near—a spirit of guile.

So what is guile? The Word teaches us in Psalm 32, "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile." Now the Hebrew word means treachery or deceit. It comes from a root word that means to shoot or betray, as if causing to fall.

In the New Testament, the root word for guile means a decoy, a trick, a bait. Now my spirit was flooded with revelation. I immediately thought of a duck hunter. He often uses a decoy or a mechanical duck that looks, swims, and quacks like a real duck. He sets his decoys out in a lake in order to attract real ducks to join the flock.

And the hunter is off behind a tree with his rifle sights set on shooting the real ducks that he's out to kill. Now the key takeaway to understanding this decoy strategy is this: if you are a duck and hang around a decoy, you are in the sights of someone who is out to kill you.

I believe what we are seeing today during these latter days is that the enemy is creating decoys and positioning them close to believers who have a particularly high calling that Satan wants to shoot down. Remember Maria? She looked and sounded like Maria, but being around her was as if no one was at home.

The true personality that I used to know as Maria was no longer there, as if it were sucked out. And that is the description of a decoy: something that looks like the real thing, but who is not. So number two, how did Maria become a decoy?

Let's say Maria is a believer and Holy Spirit lives inside of her spirit housing. Suddenly she gets offended or hurt. At this point she makes the decision that most people do: she stuffs the hurt and pretends everything is fine. Now her spirit becomes slimed by a spirit of guile because now she is pretending.

Maria is in danger. The Lord does not want us to stuff something and pretend, rather He tells us in Ephesians 4 to put away falsehood, let everyone speak the truth with his neighbor. Maria chooses over and over to pretend everything is fine and begins to embrace pretense instead of truth.

Now the more repetitive this habit pattern becomes, a character flaw of deceit develops and her conscience hardens. Over time she loses the ability to discern truth from pretense altogether and becomes one with the father of lies. At this point, she becomes a decoy.

She may look and talk like Maria, but her essence has been replaced. I can't say strongly enough how life-threatening this enemy strategy is. I have lost dear friends who were led astray by someone who carried an unclean spirit.

So number three, what do you do if someone you know is being fooled or defiled by a decoy? Let me suggest six things. Number one, seek the Lord for counsel and wisdom. I spent a long time at this step, months and months, because I did not know what I was dealing with.

And that's why I'm sharing it now. You'll find this program on my podcast series at candacelong.com under resources. And when you click on the title, How to Spot the Decoy in Your Midst, you will find a link to a 19-page monograph which goes into much more depth and shares my research.

I believe this will be an invaluable tool for future reference because we will be seeing more and more of this as the days get darker. Number two, examine Matthew 7 well. Jesus taught that a sound tree cannot bear evil fruit. We learn by practice to discern the soundness of a person's words.

For instance, if somebody comes up to you and says, "It's so nice to see you," when you know that person hates your guts, there is no truth or soundness behind the words and chances are you may be dealing with a decoy. Number three, gently confront your friend with your concern.

The Apostle Paul writes in Galatians 6, "If a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Look to yourself, lest you too be tempted." Now I need to give warning here because confronting someone who is defiled by an unclean spirit will not be easy.

That spirit does not want to be found out. I had one decoy look me in the eyes as if to say, "I know you see me, but I am not leaving." The look in that person's eyes made the hair literally stand up on my neck. But what would you want someone to do if you were being defiled?

Would you want them to ignore you or care enough about you to confront the situation? I sought counseling from older and wiser ministry leaders to make sure I was discerning the situation correctly. Number four, respect another's free will. The one thing that we can never do is disregard another's ability to choose.

If you have warned others about someone you suspect may be a decoy and they choose to stay connected to that person, then it is time for you to walk away because you endanger your spiritual safety by staying connected. Number five, remove the decoy from your presence.

Paul says that we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. We are not dealing with flesh and blood when hanging out with a decoy. It is an unclean spirit that has taken over the body of someone you used to know. After washing the disciples' feet, Jesus said in John 13, "He who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but he is clean all over. And you are clean, but not all of you."

For He knew who was to betray Him. The Master was in the process of purging His own, distancing the true disciples from one with an unclean spirit—Judas. And finally number six, embrace the intimacy of the Lord. Once Jesus brought the darkness to the light, He shifted His focus and He spent more time alone with His true disciples.

This has not been an easy topic, and the last thing I want to do is to cause you to suspect everybody you're around is a decoy. Instead, simply ask the Lord to give you discernment and let you know if there is danger with anyone that you are around.

It is up to Him to teach you about your spiritual antennas. But if there is someone you no longer feel at peace being around, please listen again to this program and bring the matter before the Lord. Again if you'd like to refer this program and this series to others, you'll find it under my podcasts on my resources page at candacelong.com.

My desire is for each episode to provide important biblical commentary to help you understand the times that we're living in before the day of the Lord. Things will get worse and we will be in danger, but we are never to fear. The Lord is master of the universe who is totally committed to gathering us under the shadow of His wing and the shelter of the Almighty.

Please help me by sharing this series with others. I pray the Lord will use it to grow you in discernment so you can help others. I'm Candace Long. I want to thank you so much for being with me today for Lessons in the Latter Days. God bless.