Calling All Esther(s) 7: A Voice in the Spirit Realm

In this newest unedited excerpt from my soon-to-be released book my intention is to help the believer understand the pitfalls that could cause them to not walk in power and authority so they can take ground back from the enemy. It is essential that we maintain a relevant walk with God where we can recognize the move of His Spirit and the strategies of warfare available to us. This comes from steady intimacy in communion with Him and following the leading and guidance of the Spirit , so we don't die spiritually causing us to not be able to discern how He is moving at a given time. Obedience to His promptings is essential without delay because we don't know what we could be obstructing for ourselves or others when we choose to disobey or delay the commands of the Lord for us. Presumption can cause us to pay a hefty price that is unnecessary when what we need is to seek the Lord in all our ways, so He can direct our steps.

Jesus had a powerful voice of authority in the spiritual realm as well as in the earth realm because of His obedience to the Father to walk with Him on the pathway of prayer and intimacy with Him all the way to the Cross. Paul also had this authority in the spiritual realm because of His obedience to God’s pathway for him in all the suffering he endured because of the level of revelation, knowledge and understanding that helped him write several books in the New Testament. He went through those challenges because he was being made a powerful voice that would advance the Kingdom of God in his time after his conversion on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:3-4).

Acts 19:13-16 gives an account of what happens when we do not hear the voice of the Lord for our destiny, not only to do the works God has planned for us to do in the earth realm, but to know who we are in Christ. This is important because the spiritual realm knows whether or not we know who we are in Christ and whether or not we know and understand the power of our words of authority to stop the works of the enemy just like Jesus did.

¹³ A group of Jews was traveling from town to town casting out evil spirits. They tried to use the name of Jesus in their incantation, saying, “I command you in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, to come out!” ¹⁴Seven sons of Sceva, a leading priest, were doing this. ¹⁵But one time when they tried it, the evil spirit replied, “I know Jesus, and I know Paul, but who are you?” ¹⁶Then the man with the evil spirit leaped on them, overpowered, and attacked them with such violence that they fled from the house, naked and battered NLT.

One day as I was meditating on this passage and wondering about the possible causes that kept the sons of Sceva from casting out the evil spirit, I asked the Lord to reveal to me what went wrong. The Lord responded that one of three possibilities could cause this reaction of the evil spirit:

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·      1.    One could have been that the seven sons of Sceva that were attempting to cast out this demon were acting out of presumption without having paid the price to be known in the spiritual realm as a voice of authority and power at every level of their process because perhaps they had apostolic callings, but had not completed their process or were still early in their journey towards the fulfillment of their promised calling from God. They had chosen instead to look good in the sight of others and grab hold of that promise without having done their “homework” of spending time with the Lord in order to grow in wisdom and stature as well as learn warfare at every level. In addition, this demon was of apostolic caliber and resisted those walking in apostolic levels in the body. Jesus was an Apostle of apostles and Paul was an apostle to the Gentiles. This demon knew Jesus and Paul had paid the price for their callings and they were recognized at this level unlike the sons of Sceva.

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·        2.  Another possibility was that these men could not cast out the demon because they were walking in disobedience and served other gods instead (their disobedience caused them to walk in idol worship). They had not overcome the influence of the demonic spirit in their lives, therefore were not clean enough to come against it effectively. An example of this is King Saul, who disobeyed God’s command to eliminate the Amalekite race (who represented the anti-Christ spirit) and as a result lost his office and his calling in the natural realm, and power and authority in the spirit realm. The demons he could once come against were now finding him powerless to defend himself. David had to come to his rescue with anointed worship because he walked in the center of his calling and in right standing with God. It also did not matter that the sons of Sceva’s father was a priest. They had to pay their own price and walk each in a personal relationship with God of honorable reverence and dependent obedience.

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·        3.  The last possible explanation the Lord gave me was that the sons of Sceva were not familiar with or ignored the ways of the Lord and were going out without proper spiritual covering. They were also not obedient to the authority of God and the authority figures placed over them and followed their own pathways away from God’s will for them and therefore walked in a state of spiritual death. Thus, they had no authority in the spiritual or earthly realm to do anything to advance the Kingdom of God with their lives. They did not know how to lay down their lives for the cause of the Kingdom of the Most High God. All of this the spiritual forces of darkness know and recognize. To God alone be All the glory.