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.

In the last episode, "The Voice of Your Ancestral Blood," I dealt with some deep generational issues that most women struggle with. I know I have. But with this episode, I need to speak directly to you men who are listening and warn you about a serious life-threatening attack I believe the enemy has planned for you, and I want you to be especially alert in this day.

What inspired this message was my recent Torah studies in Numbers 31. This chapter concerns the very last battle that God told Moses to fight before taking him home. It was a gruesome, painful battle, but one that God entrusted Moses to lead. And this is significant. God didn't leave this one to Joshua; he gave Moses charge of it.

It was an all-out attack on God's men, and I see this as a *tavnit*, a picture showing us the final battle that you will have to fight before the Lord comes for us. Because we are at the end of days, the enemy knows his time is short, and he's pulling out all the stops. This final battle against Midian reveals how the enemy is planning to trip us up, and the strategy was aimed 100% at the men who were walking with the Lord.

That is his target: God's men. The false prophet Balaam gave this strategy to Moab and Midian, and that strategy did not involve traditional warfare. On the contrary, the strategy was sexual seduction. Now, this is a wake-up call alerting us that the way the enemy plans to take down our nation is by seducing God-fearing men.

Sadly, we live in a promiscuous culture where there is no longer any shame, or fear of God, or sense of modesty. Every part of a woman's body is out there to see, and men are the target. Walking in holiness will be the most difficult battle you will ever fight.

I know you like bottom lines, so I'm going to be straightforward. Sexual urges are most often linked to ancestral iniquities. These iniquities that are passed down from generation to generation are called proclivities. And a proclivity is a tendency to do something on a regular basis. It's an inclination or a predisposition toward a particular behavior.

You men were made by God to carry the seed of righteousness inside your body, designed to grow a race known as the children of God. Through our father Abraham, God gave you the privilege of bearing his mark on your body that sets apart his men from every other man in the world.

That mark is circumcision. God chose the part of the man's body where that mark was to be. It was not placed there by chance. Circumcision has an important place in the Torah because it is a picture that teaches us that a godly man is the guardian of the race known as the children of God. He gave his men the oversight to protect the purity of the seed that comes out of him and keep it clean. That makes you a watchman over the seed of humanity, and that is awesome.

This battlefield that you will have to fight through will be a smorgasbord of filth and perversion hurled at you in ways you never experienced. We are living in the times that Jesus referred to as the days of Noah. Genesis 6 deals with what happened right before the flood. Here's the way it reads: "And God saw the earth and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth."

I want to focus on the last phrase: "all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth." "All flesh" means everyone. This wasn't a small percentage of people. Whatever this corruption was, it involved everybody. The Hebrew word for flesh is the word *basar*, and it means more than just the body. Strong's Concordance says it especially means the *pudenda*, which refers to the external genital organs—not of the male, but of the female.

Now, I don't fully understand the meaning of this, but I feel it's important. But my sense tells me it relates to the lure of the female because of the context of Genesis 6. Now, many Bible translations say that all flesh corrupted their way, but this is a mistranslation. The Hebrew pronoun is not the word "their." The phrase should read: "all flesh corrupted *his* way," meaning God's way.

So this one phrase tells us that in Noah's day, the sexual practices of every person were corrupted or ruined to such an extent that God's way was not even depicted anymore. And this level of corruption was what brought about the flood and caused everyone to die except eight people. So what happened to mess everybody up?

The biblical principle is known as defilement. The word means to be foul or to pollute oneself. I have a lot of teachings on defilement, and I'll put links to those resources in the description notes if you'd like to learn more. But for the sake of time, I want you to picture an apple with a big bruise in it. It is visible, indicating that something is rotten or decaying inside that apple. The apple wasn't created with a bruise, but it indicates a genetic weakness.

Now, one of the ways that we become defiled is through contamination inside our bloodline known as ancestral iniquity. If your ancestors practiced sexual perversion, that behavior pattern is the rottenness in the apple that can show up in your life. If your ancestor did not repent, forsake those behaviors, and return to the Lord, then that proclivity or inclination to behave that way lives on, and it passes down as a curse to the third and fourth generation.

Now, the closer we come to the day of the Lord, that inclination grows in intensity, trying to manifest itself before the end of days. Jesus shows us this when he confronted the scribes and Pharisees and said, "You are of your father the devil. Fill up then the iniquity of your fathers." You see, inside their DNA was an unclean spirit, a familiar spirit that appeared religious but underneath was full of lies, deceit, and murder.

With Sodom and Gomorrah, there was one sin that especially stirred up rage in the Almighty, so much so that he wiped out the cities. It's a word called concupiscence, and it means a longing for the forbidden. This is an obsession, a compulsion to experience sexual sins that are particularly disgusting to the Lord. They include homosexuality, incest, pedophilia, and bestiality. The longing for these experiences and eventual acceptance of them by the people was what characterized the days of Noah and today.

Now, please hear me. Ancestral iniquity does not mean we are doomed. It means we will see the bruise quicker, and when we see it, we have the power to do something about it and stop that iniquity from passing down to our children and grandchildren. We can actually reverse that curse and heal our entire family lines.

Let me mention two primary doors that allow principalities of perversion to come into a country or a region. One door is legislative and the other door is spiritual. Just to comment briefly on the legislative door, whenever the laws of a land permit behavior that falls outside of biblical standards of holiness, those spirits and powers of perversion have legal right to come in, and that right only stops with reverse legislation.

It's the other door I want to focus on today because most Christians are not aware of it. Surprisingly, the door is music. The principle is that music carries spirit. Let me say that again. Music, as sound waves, carries spirit. Spirit can attach itself to the sound waves. When someone prays, preaches, prophesies, declares, or sings, that is sound coming out of their mouths.

God designed it so that when someone ministers at the altar and is walking in holiness, that sound is anointed by the power of Holy Spirit, so whoever is listening receives the anointing that person carries. Now, the reverse is also true. If a singer, for example, sings a worship song—the lyrics are one of worship—and she was fornicating with her lover the night before, that spirit of fornication will attach itself to her sound, and she will end up broadcasting a spirit of fornication from the altar into the congregation. That is what defilement is.

Now, you may think, "Wait a minute, this is going too far. It's just a song." On the contrary, this is exactly what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 15. He said, "It's not what goes into the mouth that defiles man, but what comes out of the mouth. For what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication."

These are all unclean spirits, and Jesus understood the principle that if a person's heart is inflamed or bound together with an unclean spirit of fornication, what happens then is the defiled singer releases the spirit of fornication directly into the entire congregation. They then become defiled because they're sitting of their own free will, opening themselves up to whatever is coming from the altar. They're not expecting a spirit of lust; they're looking for intimacy with God.

A good friend of mine was part of the intercessory team of one of Atlanta's mega-churches, and she told me that one day after church, a security car was patrolling the parking lot and found a couple fornicating in a car in broad daylight in the church parking lot. The pastor heard about it and blasted the congregation the following week.

But what had really happened? On a spiritual level, someone was ministering, whether it was through song, dance, playing an instrument, or preaching, and had likely been defiled by a spirit of fornication. And that unclean spirit attached itself to the medium of expression—the song, the music, the sound waves—and it went straight into the spirits of the unsuspecting people and landed inside somebody who had a lustful predisposition through an unruly thought life. This is exactly what is happening today in many churches and is a very subtle way of defilement.

How churches should deal with this danger is another topic altogether, having to do with the Levitical discipline of guarding the purity of the altar. Singing in a worship service did not originate in the church. Listen to what was required of priests and Levites whose turn it was to minister before the Lord. One week prior to their time of service, they came to the temple and purified themselves for seven days.

They understood that if they were unclean, they could die by the hands of a holy God who demands purity in his ministers. So they lived in the inner chamber of the temple. They bathed in the ritual baths before ministering at the altar. That's how serious this is to God and what Jesus was talking about. He knew the danger of spirits able to attach to sound waves.

A common practice in many of today's churches is to hire the best musicians because they believe a lot of people come to church primarily to hear good music. The pastor's reason: "If we don't have great music, the people will go someplace else." But the unspoken reality: they'll go tithe someplace else. So to ensure that the coffers will be full, churches hire the best musicians in town regardless of whether they are walking with the Lord or not.

So the musicians show up at church as another paying gig. They reason, "I believe in Jesus, I need to be in church anyway, so why not get paid for it?" The likelihood, though, is that the musician played at a club the night before, picked up all sorts of defiling spirits—fornication, lust, homosexuality, addiction, jealousy, murder—and brought all those spirits onto the altar and broadcast them through sound waves to the people.

What happens if a young dancer gets pregnant outside of marriage? Does the worship leader make her quit dancing until she has fully repented? I'd bet not. What if the worship leader is carrying on with the lead singer? Anybody dare to fire him? I don't think so, especially if he is a recording icon that the people come every week to hear.

Now, let's tie this all together now for you men. The world is filled with seducing spirits, and according to Numbers 31, the last and greatest battle before the day of the Lord is aimed right at you who are doing your best to walk with God. You need to know in all seriousness that to Satan, you, a godly man, are the target, and women controlled by the spirit of Delilah are the tool.

There are two types of women I want to warn you about. These women are attracted to power. Their egos are fed when they have turned someone's eye in their direction. I don't have any experience at all with the type of women who parade around half-naked wanting to draw sexual attention to herself. Frankly, these women make me sick. The ones I'm more concerned with for you are those who are gifted at getting you to open up your soul to them.

Men are not aware of the skills and innate gifting that women have in getting people to open up. This is a God-given gift. It is all involved with empathy, compassion, understanding, and an off-the-charts ability to read someone's body language. This is emotional intelligence, and women excel at this.

In part four of the "Days of Noah" series, I analyze the fall of four-star general David Petraeus. It's a sad story, but all too common. I don't think he started out working with a writer contracted to write his biography intending to leave his wife and family and destroy his marriage, his reputation, and his legacy. But it happened to a renowned general who thought he knew all about warfare.

But the spirit of fornication is a slippery one, masked in a soft feminine voice, gifted in learning intimate details of your life. Suddenly he came alive. Somebody understood him. His wife no longer did in his mind, probably. The woman sitting by him is beautiful, and she finds him appealing. He hadn't seen his wife look at him that way in years. He feels powerful, and she understands him, in her mind, in ways his wife was too busy to do.

I remember one of the biggest arguments I had with my late husband before we got married was reading the antennas of his assistant who worked closely with him in his accounting practice. I suppose she was a nice woman. He had certainly depended on her for years, long before we started dating. She was relatively attractive and married.

But when I dropped by his office to pick up something, she asked me a personal question that she had no business knowing: "How's Mike doing? He's been so depressed lately, but I'm sure you know that." I thought to myself, "Wait a minute here, that question was way too familiar." The business protocol boundary—and there is one—was not there.

The hair went up on the back of my neck. I brought the conversation up to Mike later, and I told him I was concerned. And he dismissed it as unimportant. He had no feelings for the woman, but I would not have it. I told him in no uncertain terms: "The way she talks about you is too familiar. She knew all about your personal business and the way you were feeling. She has to go."

She was gone in a week. I wasn't trying to be controlling like Jezebel; I simply saw the danger and was not going to let it jeopardize our marriage. Now, having ministered to many women, I hear the painful stories of them who cannot find the emotional intimacy they used to have with their husbands. It's heartbreaking.

If your marriage is in this state, let me say up front: you are a prime target right now for an encounter with a woman controlled by a Delilah spirit. And there are two choices you have. One choice is to continue this flirtation with another woman. Your wife will sense something is wrong; that's her gift. And when she asks you and you say, "Everything's fine, just get off my back," hear me: you are in the crosshairs of being decimated.

When in the snare of the spirit of fornication, the number one thing a man can do to open the door further to that spirit is to pretend to your wife that everything is fine. You need to know that pretense is a spirit. It's called the spirit of guile. And if you are not honest with her and continue to practice guile, that spirit will bring seven other spirits, and they will overpower you because you have come into agreement with the father of lies.

The other choice will save your life. No matter how bad the flirtation has gotten, the way out involves two steps that will be the hardest two steps of your life. Step number one is to humble yourself before Almighty God. There is no way you can get out of this snare without the power of God. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.

Step two is even harder. Humble yourself before your wife. Be honest with her. Admit to her you are struggling with flirtation with somebody else. Say you know it's wrong and you are ashamed to admit that you have no power to control your thoughts. Ask her to pray for you and stand by you and go to counseling with you. Assure her you don't want this in your life, that you want her. And even though you two are not getting along well right now, tell her you will do whatever it takes to restore the emotional intimacy you've lost with her. She needs to know that over and above your feelings right now, you want her. That's what she's been waiting to hear.

Before we close, I want to refer a book to you I have not read, but I heard about it from a ministry colleague whose marriage was in a very bad place. The book is called *A Garden of Peace: A Marital Guide for Men Only* by Rabbi Shalom Arush. I'll put a link to it in the notes to this episode.

But my friend shared that the Lord used this book to turn his life around and save his marriage. Now, if you've resonated with what I've been talking about today, I trust this book will be of great help to you. God wants you as a man of God to be victorious in this day and withstand this battle to take you down.

The Lord encamps around those who fear him, not those who think they have it all together. The Lord is your refuge and your strength and gave you your wife to help you in the time of your greatest struggle. To God be the glory.

Thank you for being with me today. You'll find this episode, "The Voice of Your Ancestral Blood," at candacelong.com/podcast as well as links to resources in the description notes. If you subscribe to my website, I'll keep you informed on the latest resources to help you stand strong in this evil day. I hope you join me again next time for Lessons in the Latter Days. God bless.