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 I want to talk about one of the key markers of living in the latter days, and it is a mindset that I'm seeing in a lot of believers. I'm talking about the feeling of discontent with where God has you. In these days, the spiritual battle to capture believers and throw us off course is intense.

Jesus said in the latter days wickedness would multiply, and it has. Today's atmosphere is charged with spirits of distraction, spirits of chaos, spirits of unrest, and spirits of discontent. And this onslaught is only going to increase the closer we get to the kingdom. Today's topic is called "Think Twice Before Leaving Your First Estate."

The phrase "leaving your first estate" is biblical language, which comes from the book of Jude, which is the last of the general epistles in the New Testament. It's written by Jesus' brother, Jude. Jude wrote to plead with the believers about the dangers that they were in and introduces a concept that I've been writing about for some time.

Jude writes, "Admission has been secretly gained by some who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly persons who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness." Now, who was it that secretly gained access and infiltrated this group of believers? A few verses later, Jude writes, "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day."

Let's break this out a little bit. Each angel was created and placed in a specific territory and given a positional ranking and authority in the heavenly realm. This was their primordial assignment by their Creator, God Almighty. This is what's called their first estate. God gifted each one of them, anointed them, entrusted them with stewardship of their place within the heavenly order.

And then something shifted, and they were filled with something called concupiscence. Now, this is a word that we don't use much these days, but it's a great word. Concupiscence means a lust for the forbidden. Some of the angels began to lust after and became obsessed with something outside of the realm assigned to them. And pretty soon, they despised where they were.

They wanted out of the restraints placed on them, and they wanted to be free. So, Jude says they left their first estate, and they came to Earth. They had sex with women and created their own race. And that action of leaving their first estate so violated God's created order that He destroyed that generation in the flood.

And then He threw those angels into a prison underneath the earth, where they are to this day. The Apostle Peter writes about this as well in 2 Peter 2. He says God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of nether gloom to be kept until the judgment. Now, we may think these rebellious fallen angels are in prison, and so everything's fine; they can't hurt us, right? Wrong.

Let's return to Jude, who tells us that a group of ungodly people with wrong spirits have infiltrated the early believers, creating havoc. And Jude relates them to those who were long ago designated for this condemnation. So, what is going on here? Let me try to unravel it. After studying this phenomenon for many years, here's my understanding of the dangers those believers were in and what is happening to many believers today.

It goes back to a group called the Nephilim, the race of beings that came from the union of earthly women and those fallen angels. The Nephilim have mixed DNA. They are part angel, part human. One of our early forefathers, the seventh patriarch, Enoch, whom Jude refers to, wrote a whole book about these beings. It's called today the Lost Book of Enoch.

And Enoch explains that we have two different classifications of beings. The fathers of the Nephilim were the fallen angels, and yes, they are chained up underneath the earth without redemption. But because the Nephilim are part human, when they died, God did something else with their spirits. God referred to them as evil spirits, and He sentenced them to roam the earth in torment continually, knowing they will eventually be cast into hell at the final judgment.

Now, we need to understand that the number of these evil spirits is growing because the population of mixed DNA beings has been growing with constant intermarriage. So, millions of these evil spirits are frantically roaming around looking for someone to inhabit. They are on assignment by Satan to destroy as many children of God as possible, especially now that the day of the Lord is so near.

These spirits invade humans who are vulnerable and open to receiving them. But you need to understand that these invading beings are infiltrating groups in every sector of life. I believe these are the intruders that Jude was calling out. They pretend to be godly, and they gain admission or somehow get accepted by the group as normal. But they are not. Hear me, they are not fully human.

Now, this sounds like science fiction, but it is a biblical reality and is a latter days phenomenon. Jude describes these beings as ungodly, grumblers, malcontents, following their own passions, loudmouth boasters, and experts in flattering people to gain advantage and weasel their way in. Jesus said many times, "You shall know them by their fruits."

I have literally spent years researching and writing about this phenomenon and how they go about invading people. And I've published this research in two monographs, which you can find in my online store at candacelong.com/store. I'll put links to these two monographs in the description notes to this podcast. One of them is called "How to Spot the Decoy in Your Midst." The other is Part 2, "Beware the Religious Spirit."

I want to read a short section from the "Decoy" monograph so you will understand the danger that Jude is exposing. And it's a danger that you may be facing. It all begins with someone who looks like you and me, but who has been invaded by an unclean spirit. My research has led me to identify the specific spirit that opens the door to this invasion. It is called the spirit of guile.

Psalm 32 teaches us, "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile." Now, the reason the Lord hates guile so much is because it is pretense. It is untruth. It originates from the father of lies, who is Satan. The Hebrew word for guile is remiyah, which means treachery or deceit or false. It comes from the root word ramah, which means to shoot or betray, as if causing someone to fall.

In the New Testament, the word for guile is dolos, from a root that means a decoy, a trick, a bait. Now, let's examine what happens in this decoy strategy. When hunting ducks, a hunter often uses a decoy, a mechanical duck that looks, swims, and quacks like a real duck. And from a distance, you can't tell the real ducks from the decoys floating around in the water.

But remember, the purpose of a decoy is to lure and attract real ducks to that lake that the hunter intends to shoot and kill. I believe what we are seeing today is that the enemy is creating religious-sounding decoys and positioning them close to believers with a high calling. Jude calls these religious decoys "false teachers" who come into a group for the sole assignment of creating discontent, factions, and divisions.

They are gifted in flattery. They're masters at telling you how gifted you are and fill your head with the great things they see you doing for God. And you like that somebody notices you, and pretty soon, you begin to see yourself as having no real purpose in what you're doing now. You begin to grumble at your pitiful life, and a desire grows to find significance someplace else.

So you conclude, "I'm not staying where I am now. I'm going to pursue the greatness that everyone sees in me." After walking with the Lord over 50 years, I want to tell you this is a dangerous lure as old as time. It is the lure of leaving your first estate. I've not only fallen for it myself, but I have seen godly ministers crash and burn and die prematurely because of this deceptive trap.

One of our greatest temptations is looking at someone else's success and feeling like squat, like we are going nowhere. I hear from people all the time who go from job to job. They're restless wherever they are. Companies are going out of business because owners cannot find workers willing to work. Today's workers want high-paying jobs but do not have the skills that God wants to develop in them.

Nor do they have the patience to earn His advancement. He requires a work ethic of excellence, a character of humility, and a joy in serving others, not seeking to be stars and all that. Those qualities God wants in His children come only through the refining fire, and that fire begins in your first estate, where you start out.

If you love God but are wrestling with unrest, I hope you'll listen a few more minutes because this is an important juncture of your journey. The goal is how to find rest and significance where you are now. As I wrestled with this issue a few years back, I stood outside my deck one evening and I looked up at the heavens.

The sky was so clear, the moon brilliant, the stars unusually bright. And revelation began to come. And unbeknownst to me at the time, I was about to be taught an incredible lesson from the Creator of that sky. Psalm 19 tells us the heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims His handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge.

That night, the stars spoke volumes. In Genesis 1, we read that God set the stars in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. Now, from down here, at a casual glance, the stars all look alike. And yet God said He set each star in its place.

The Hebrew word for "set" is the word natan, which means to appoint, assign, to charge. So, the stars were not given the freedom to just roam around there at will. They were appointed to shine in a specific sector of the heavens. They were each given the power to rule over that realm of the sky and given the ability within itself to produce light and shine it over those who live on Earth below it.

In the time remaining, I want to share seven lessons that I found in the stars that night. Lesson number one: A star is defined as a luminous object of plasma held together by its own gravity. Plasma is scientifically referred to as the fourth state of matter, along with solids, liquids, and gases. So, in my pea brain, that says to me that there is nothing external making that star keep itself together.

God gives that star the freedom to come apart, just like He gives us. He says in Deuteronomy 30, "I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil; therefore choose life that you may live." That choice is internal. It is an action of your will to decide to remain where God has placed you and to shine there, no matter how obscure and hidden you may feel.

Lesson number two: According to NASA, the larger the star, the shorter its life. Once a star has fused all the hydrogen in its core, nuclear reactions cease, and soon the star collapses. Eventually, the outer layers are sloughed off and provide the building blocks for a new generation of stars. Now, this is a powerful lesson because the primary need that we all have is significance.

We want to be seen, heard, appreciated, and valued. But the more we are seen, and the larger than life that we become, the closer we are to collapsing. Lesson number three: A star is created to give light on the earth, not to reflect on itself in the mirror thinking how great thou art. Its very purpose is to serve others. If it loses its way and refuses to give light as it was created to do, it is useless by the Creator, and it will implode.

I have been a composer since I was 13, and in my day have won a lot of awards with my songs and music. And people have often said to me, "You're going to be a star one day; remember me when you make it big." And over the years, many have tried to get me to promote my music more. But I found, for me, that whenever I entered into the mental space of trying to promote myself and push my music in front of people to be heard, something dies inside.

I can feel it. And I finally had to lay it down. Seeking after my own glory is like a star that has turned inward and marvels at its own ability to shine. Lesson number four: The thing that makes a star shine are the nuclear reactions within its core. A nuclear reaction is defined as a process whereby something external collides with its internal core. But it is in this very collision of forces that produces light.

This is the way God designed it. I look back over the decades of my journey with God and it hasn't been easy. Jesus said in John 16, "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world." People are hurting out there and they need comfort and direction from those who have survived their internal implosions.

If God means for His light to shine through you, then you will have to endure many nuclear reactions that upset the core of who you are. But I promise you that if you remain in His presence, what He gives you will light the way for somebody else. Lesson number five: Remain in position until God shifts things by His hand and not yours.

When one star envies another whose light may be brighter, whose place overhead reaches more people, that's when to watch out and keep humbling ourselves before God every day. Isaiah wrote, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning." Lucifer refused to remain in position. He was no longer content with his place, high and mighty as he was.

It is God who exalts and removes kings, and once you push yourself out there on your own rather than God's doing, you can never return. And those who depended on you to be where God put you now have only a black hole where you once stood. Lesson number six: Every star set in place by God has a positional and relational responsibility to those stars next to it.

If one star is more dominant and shines a little brighter, the less bright one still plays an important role. It is the contrast of light distinguishing one star from another that points the way and provides guidance to those who live underneath and who look to that star grouping or constellation for guidance. The Father wants His stars to glory in whatever light they have been given because each is precious in His sight.

Lesson number seven: Do not become enamored by your own light. This was Satan's downfall. If you walk in any level of giftedness, there will be many who bow inwardly in your presence. I remember hearing the story of a famous worship leader who fell from grace in a sexual scandal. This man's gifting was bringing others into God's presence.

So leaders did what the world does all the time: they tried to buy that anointing by hiring him as worship leader. They clamored after him. If they could get him for their event, it would be a sellout; people would be moved in their worship experience and of course give more money to the ministry. Musicians puffed him up with flattery, hoping some drip of his anointing would fall on them.

After falling from grace, he resurfaced and was asked to speak to a sparsely attended group, and I was able to get the recording of that talk and I listened intently. He said, "I was given a powerful anointing to bring people into God's presence, but everyone put me on a pedestal. I was showered with adoration, praise, and money. I was sought after by leaders wanting me to align with their ministries. It was very seductive."

"I began to take my giftedness for granted and felt entitled to the attention and the praise and all the money. And slowly I began to lose something I never dreamed I would lose. I lost my reverence for God. My pride caused me to fall in the worst possible way and hurt many people. I lost my marriage, my family, my reputation, and everything else dear to me."

Proverbs 9 tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It is that reverence and awe that keeps us in position where we have been set by God. In closing, if you are battling feelings of discontent and restlessness, thinking that you've missed your moment, that voice is not God.

The Father knows every gift that He put inside of you. He delights in you. And He watches to see how well you steward the light you are given to shine where you are now. If you steward it well, He may well advance you. But when He does, He wants to make sure you have it firmly within yourself to serve others and walk humbly before your God.

You will find this episode and all the others at candacelong.com/podcast. In this program's notes, I'll put links to the two monographs that I mentioned earlier. I want to thank you for being with me today and I hope you join me again next time for Lessons in the Latter Days. God bless.