CHAPTER SEVEN

Part 3

Occultic Bondages

Leviticus 19:31; 20:27; Deuteronomy 18:9-14; Isaiah 8:19;

Acts 16:16-18; Galatians 5:20;Revelation 21:8

Involvement in occult activities is another way in which satan gains access to a person’s life.  If  the shadowy world of the occult didn’t sometimes yield temporary relief from problems, it would have few devotees today.   Although most people are ignorant of the actual power behind the occult, their ignorance does not protect them from ultimately having to “pay the piper”.   The devil never dispenses his favors for free!  Anyone who has ever won the lottery or won the heart of a lover through occultic practices has actually received the supernatural assistance of satan’s demons, and the devil considers that one to be in his debt!  Although the powers of darkness have worked to bring temporal wealth and “love” to an individual, the enjoyment of those things will ultimately end in tragedy if God’s deliverance is not sought, and the person is not released from the power of satan, who is more ruthless than any gangster when it’s time to collect his fee. 

When King Saul felt overwhelmed by the vast forces of the Philistine armies,  he sought God’s help, but God wasn’t listening (I Sam.28:5-6). God had become Saul’s enemy (I Sam.28:16). And no wonder, because not only had Saul stubbornly disobeyed God’s orders and tried to kill David, he massacred a whole city of priests who had given help to David (I Sam.22:11-19).  Saul had everyone killed, including women, children, and newborn babies.  After all the evil he’d done, why should Saul have expected God to bail him out of his own mess?  So Saul turned to a witch to try to conjure up the spirit of Samuel the prophet (I Sam.28:7-25).  Saul got only a strong rebuke from Samuel, who was permitted by God to really appear to him.  Samuel warned Saul that he and his sons would join him in the netherworld the very next day. That prediction came true (I Samuel chapter 31).

Dabbling in the occult is strictly forbidden by the Word of God.  Occultic practices iinclude: New Age  philosophies such as medtation, visualization or affirmation, performed as a means to supposedly create your own reality in a god-like fashion;  Fortune telling;  Consultation with mediums (people who  receive messages from evil spirits posing as departed friends or relatives of the client); Witchcraft, either black or “white” (God considers both equally bad); Divination,  Astrology, Transcendental Meditation;  Yoga Philosophies; ESP (Extra-sensory perception); The I Ching, Hypnosis, Tarot cards, Water witching, Consultation with Phone psychics, Palmistry; Eastern Religions, and any other quasi-religious practices which conflict with  the clear teachings of Scripture.

Don’t Ever Bully Yourself!

You, as a believer, are the apple of God’s eye.  It is just as wrong to insult yourself as it is for a bully to do it.  One day I got irked at myself for being careless at the stove.  “What an idiot I am,” I murmured.  Immediately I felt the anger of God directed at me, and I knew I had to repent.  It was then I more fully realized just how highly He esteems me, and how precious I am to Him.  I am His treasure, and I am to have a proper love even for myself.

Job’s Comforter Counselors

Even counselors are human. But insensitive, inept ones are nothing but Job’s comforters (check out the Book of Job if you’re unfamiliar with the concept). They’ll try to assign the blame to you for having to suffer the trial of bullying in the first place.  But don’t buy that lie of satan, who can deceive even religious people.  Don’t ever let anybody convince you that YOU’RE to blame for the bullying!  Unless you committed aggression against the bully first, that’s untrue. Bullying is ALWAYS inexcusable! My full figure and frizzy hair did NOT make it OK to bully me!  I recognize bullying as a problem originating not with flesh and blood, but with evil spirits of the air ( Ephesians 6)  The devil is just as capable of singling out beautiful people, as well as plain people, for abuse. Only God knows how many high school beauty queens have been pressured to “put out” because why else would she wear heavy makeup and provocative clothes, etc.

About 8 years after I fled high school I went to my pastor and told him how horribly I’d been treated in school, and about depression caused by bad memories.  He asked me what I could have done to feel better about myself.  I told him I’d gotten thinner after fleeing my high school, straightened my hair, plucked my eyebrows thin, ad nauseum.  He asked:  “Why didn’t you do that before?” If I’d had the guts, I would have told him what he was really saying was:  Those bullies had every right to harass me because only skinny boy toys with spindly arms and sleek shiny hair have the right to self-respect in satan’s world!   But I just went along with him because in my eyes, he was the Bible expert and was higher on God’s totem pole.  Besides, hadn’t he cleared a slot in his busy schedule to counsel me about my nightmares and flashbacks?

In eighth grade I put on some pretty coral lipstick. It didn’t win me any extra friends.  I never said anything either good or bad about my own looks.  But this evil devil who sat in the desk in front of me still acted mean and nasty, though I’d never done or said anything to him.  He said, “You think you’re somethin’, just ‘cause you started wearing that lipstick.  He said my hair looked like sage brush.  He spat at me.  Bet that little creep went to church every Sunday like most of the vile hypocrites at that school.  This is a fine example of how trying to “improve your looks” doesn’t make a dime’s worth of difference.  If they’ve already designated you as THE one to pick on, come hell or high water, it’s gonna stay that way till the cows come home.

I say this to every Christian woman who feels she’s forever under the scrutiny of other churchgoers who have bought into the world’s lie and made it part of their gospel:  Don’t take it any more!  Say to yourself and to others:  “I have a right to BE the person God made me, and in the Name of Jesus I REFUSE TO COME (or stay) UNDER BONDAGE TO BABYLON’S ABOMINABLE BEAUTY INDUSTRY! IT DOES NOT BELONG IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD! Beauty bias is sanctified sexism, plain and simple.

I wish I had a nickel for every time some Christian told me I was sinning against the Lord because I still had to fight bad feelings that resurface every now and then, and still had to contend with old fears.  “Look at all the Lord’s done to bless you,” they might say.  “There’s no excuse for the way you feel, Pat.  Even the Bible says fear is a sin.”

Well, it’s a good idea to clarify what sort of fear God considers sinful. I believe the kind of fear that disgusts God the most is moral cowardice_refusing to stand for righteousness and defend the weak in a wicked world where good is called evil and evil is called good.  Many days I went to school with knots in my stomach, braced for yet another battle. But at least I gritted my teeth and went to that stinking hellhole every day.  The fear God counts as cowardice was committed against me day in and day out.  Unless I found somebody willing to sit with me, there were 5 vacant chairs at my six-seater lunch table every single day.  I lived in the Bible Belt, and conservatively speaking, at least 10% of the cafeteria crowd must have been born again.  At least one or two in my P.E. class must have been born-again believers.  God could not find anybody willing to thumb their nose at the Cult of Cool and dare to be seen eating lunch with me, or peep a protest when I was always  the last to be chosen for teams.  Sure, they’d go to some steamy jungle mission field and die for Jesus, but they wouldn’t dare walk a few feet over to my table and enjoy my company.  They might have professed Christ, but it was the devil pulling their strings at school!

For the first time in my life I noticed an odd inconsistency  in John Chapter 20. This is the story of men who have just witnessed the Miracle of the Ages and yet, their old fear still has a hold on them. Jesus has just been crucified by His enemies, and His bereaved disciples are petrified that the Jewish leaders who betrayed Christ to the Romans were out to get them, too.  In verse 19 we read: Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.

Notice.  Jesus doesn’t rip into those guys because they’re hiding behind locked doors. He doesn’t disown them in disgust. He comes to bless them with His peace.  In verse 22 He says:  Receive ye the Holy Ghost.  I believe that is the moment the disciples were spiritually born again, because in Acts Chapter Two they were filled with the Holy Ghost, the Blessing of the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. No one can be saved without the Presence of the Holy Ghost abiding in him, but there is a Second Blessing of the overflow of the Holy Ghost, which gives holy boldness and an anointing for power to serve Christ in this ungodly world.

The shocker is in verse 26:  And after eight days again His disciples were within (shut indoors) and Thomas with them:  then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.

Despite getting a visit from Christ after His miraculous resurrection from the dead, those same disciples again secluded  themselves behind locked doors for fear of the Jews!  Once again, Jesus doesn’t scold his men for being afraid to face their foes and for hiding.  Instead He blesses them!  If Christ had been like the rest of us, He might have gone over to pay Annas and Caiphas a visit and settled the score with those scoundrels for betraying Him to the Romans.  If Christ had used the strength of His glorified body to punish his religious archenemies for fighting against His Kingdom and hindering so many from entering into Life Eternal, the disciples wouldn’t have had to stay in hiding.  The religious leaders would have been way too scared to mess with them ever again once Jesus finished dealing with them!

A common misconception is that once we’ve received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, we should never again admit to being afraid.  But even Jesus Himself felt what we feel, so He could have compassion on us (Luke 22:28; Heb.4:15).  He wrestled with His own fears in the Garden of Gethsemane just prior to His Crucifixion. In Matthew 26:39 He pleads with His Father that if it be possible, to spare Him the bitter cup of suffering he must drink.  Fear had to be conquered before Christ could offer up Himself for our sins. Jesus had been anointed by the Holy Spirit before His own earthly ministry (Mark 1:9-10).  This Blessing did not put an immediate end to Christ’s conflicts and troubles; it empowered Him to engage in spiritual warfare against satan and ultimately defeat him.

In Acts Chapter Two the disciples were filled with the Holy Ghost after tarrying for ten days in the Upper Room. Peter gained a new boldness in preaching the Resurrected Christ and warning sinners of God’s coming judgment. But that doesn’t mean Peter never again felt afraid. In Acts Chapter 4 we find the apostles feeling intimidated  because the enemies of Christ have just threatened them with bodily harm unless they stopped healing the sick and preaching Christ.  In verses 23-31 they hold a prayer meeting, asking God for courage to continue preaching the Truth of the Gospel  even in the face of enemy opposition.  Once again they receive a fresh infilling of the Spirit, and renewed boldness.

This tells me that waging warfare against the father of all bullies is a lifelong business.  It is heartless  and ignorant to accuse a trial-weary Christian of sin just because he admits he is still at war with a devil who tries to paralyze him with fear.  God asks only that we avail ourselves of His power and courage to fight satan, not give in to him.

Victims get chided for “overreacting” to verbal abuse. Some say it is harmless and you should just shrug it off.  But it’s easy to be philosophical about somebody else’s suffering, isn’t it?  Why is it that people take physical suffering seriously, but think emotional hurts are a figment of the imagination? Bullying, even protracted, severe verbal bullying and social ostracism, is emotional murder!  Bullies destroy their victim’s ability to love and receive love.  Suppose a political dissenter is kept in a cell and starved of food.  He will feel acute hunger the first few days.  But once the stomach gets used to being empty, the sensation of hunger might dull to the point where it is hardly noticeable anymore.  The person still needs food, but what if he decides to just reconcile himself to the idea of dying and treats his deprivation of nourishment as a hunger strike to protest his ill treatment? Apathy toward food sets in as the hunger striker focuses on other things to keep his mind off eating. It is possible to starve to death by teaching yourself to think you no longer need food. The day comes when the jailer brings a huge plate of steak and eggs to the starving prisoner.  The prisoner responds: “Don’t need it no more.”

A kid who has been stepped on, ridiculed, snubbed and ostracized for years will begin to deliberately shut others out, if only to protect himself. He has only learned that his overtures of friendship will only be thrown back in his face because “he’s got cooties”. “Get away!” and “You’ve got the mange!” finally take their toll to the point where the bullied individual begins to resign himself to permanent social starvation.  It is even borne stoically. But it means a part of that person shrivels up and dies. Things which move others to laughter and smiles will leave him stony-faced and unresponsive, because he has been emotionally murdered by bullies. Worse yet, even when the teacher persuades the others to make positive moves to build bridges with that person, it might be too little too late, especially if the bullying victim is also estranged from God.  After so many years of having the rug pulled out from under him to make him feel like an idiot, the bullied kid no longer trusts the motives of others. Loving and caring have died and only cold cynicism remains.

Kids might be good as gold around the teacher.  But watch out for comments passed outside the bathroom stall or out in the hallway when Teach ain’t lookin’!” One girl, “Sandy”,  laughed and joked with her friends just outside the bathroom stall I was in. “She’s so dumb,” I heard.  I felt hurt, humiliated and angry. I had said nothing to her, and she had started it, knowing I was in the bathroom.  I came out and used the only defense I had to turn the comment against her: “At least I get good grades.” Her answer:,“I can get a girl friend.”

 And what kind of friends did Sandy have, but foul-mouthed backstabbers like she was? I definitely was not blessed at the time and my life was a dark pit, but was  Sandy really better off than me?  Sure Sandy had more pals than I did, but how long would their “friendship” have lasted if she’d developed a heart and a conscience?

Words wound. Seemingly little things can kill.  You used to get peanuts on the plane, but peanut allergy is taken so seriously now that they aren’t handed out by flight attendants anymore.  Warnings are pasted on food packages that peanuts might be lurking inside.  Just think of it.  Just ONE teeny-weeny peanut can send some people into throes of agony or even cause death.  And one cruel word too many can be the last straw for a kid who’s sick of life.

When was the last time somebody with a hypersensitivity to bee stings was rebuked for overreacting to a nasty sting?  Most individuals   find a bee sting a minor nuisance they can  live with till it goes away after a few days.  All they’ve gotta put up with is a sore red spot on their arm,  maybe even a slight swelling.  But they can get on just fine with their daily lives. But you have the occasional individual who will swell up like a balloon and nearly die from a bee sting. Yet nobody finds fault with such allergy sufferers because they can see the harm that’s done by the little bee. What annoys one person kills another.

When a rattlesnake bites the puncture marks it leaves are very tiny.  In and of themselves, those marks wouldn’t be much worse than stabbing yourself with a sewing needle.  But it’s the venom that does the snake’s dirty work for him. As you watch the bite victim swell up, turn purple and lose consciousness, there is visible evidence of harm, so you wouldn’t tell him to get a grip on himself and snap out of it.  To those too blind to see, only the visible is real. But I know I am much more than flesh and blood.  Long after this body is dust my spirit will live on and on.  My soul will survive eternity, full of zeal for the things of God.

Veterans of the High School of Hard Knocks are like that person hypersensitive to bee stings.  Being torn down time and time and time again can make them people-shy and supersensitive to verbal poison injected into their eternal souls by satan’s kids.  Satan is called a serpent (snake) in the Bible (Rev. 20:2). Jesus Himself called His own enemies vipers (Matt. 12:34).  The viper is an extremely venomous snake, common in the Middle East. Like begets like.  Bullies, satan’s children, are also deadly dispensers of hate.  They speak with the tongues of vipers (Psalms 58: 3-4).  The Psalmist declares that even from the womb the wicked are estranged from God.  They do not belong to Him, and they are of their father the devil.  The Bible says they are from beneath (John 8:23,44).  How ludicrous, to suppose that the eternal soul of a person is less real than the body which shall die and return to the dust, and the hurts inflicted on it are inconsequential, just because a bleeding soul is not visible to the naked eye!

Proverbs 11:9 declares that it is possible for someone to destroy his neighbor with his mouth!  Words can heal and words can destroy!  But how many smug pastors have told some hurting soul:  “That’s just your rebellious flesh nature reacting to nothing.  Grow up!  You know others in the world are suffering much worse persecution than you are!  Repent of your bad attitude toward the tiny little trials God sends along for your own good!”

So the devil’s deadly snake bites, inflicted by his wicked children, are transformed into gifts of God, eh?  Well, I have news for such Job’s comforters! I John 3: 8 tells me that Jesus came to DESTROY the works of the devil, not sanctify them! In Matthew 7:10 Jesus asks his followers whether any decent father would give his child a serpent if he prayed for a fish.  If you get a serpent and your counselor insists that you give thanks for it instead of complaining about it, tell him your Heavenly Father isn’t in the habit of sending you serpents (bullies), and when you get a gift, you should thank the appropriate giver!  What’s more, you aren’t on speaking terms with satan, so why should you give thanks to him anyway?

A counselor might try to get you to reason away the spiritual attack as if it were purely a mind over matter problem instead of a spiritual battle against the enemy.  I’ve tried it on myself, not to be boastful, but to neutralize the enemy’s venom and clear my sense of perspective after an enemy attack. “Pat,” I’d say to myself (or others might tell me this) “how many mean people have ever  written a book?  Lots of them can’t even read!”

The Psalmist David was a very cerebral guy.  He was a brave warrior, a poet, a first-class musician, and a natural-born leader of men. The young girls of Israel had sung his praises after he killed Goliath.  David must have had a MENSA-level  I.Q., and his enemies knew they didn’t. David knew he was gifted and anointed by God. But  he also had his moments of desperation.  In I Samuel Chapter 25 a rich sheep rancher named Nabal insulted David when he asked for food to keep  himself and his men from starving to death in the wilderness. What else could David do?  Back then there wasn’t a McDonald’s on every street corner.

If anybody deserved a free lunch David did. He had protected Nabal’s livestock from predators.  He had restored the honor of Israel by risking his life to defeat the giant Goliath when everybody else was too chicken to come out of their tents.  Not only did David have to flee from a paranoid king who’d put a contract on his head, he had to hide out in a sun-baked desert with enemies on his tail and zilch to eat! Nabal called him a runaway slave who didn’t deserve any of his precious food.  Not even a drop of his H2O.  The nerve of that grubby-fisted, penny-pinching Scrooge! David blew his cool.

I don’t know about you, I’d freak out too if my blood sugar crashed from acute carb deprivation and somebody treated me like trash on top of it.  I’d probably get mad enough to strap on my sword like David did and go pry more hospitality out of Nabal.  But thank God, somebody with some good sense came along and stopped David from making a big mistake that would have derailed his future: taking his own vengeance on crabby Nabal needlessly.  Not only did Abigail, Nabal’s prudent wife, provide sweet fig cakes to restore David’s depleted body, she spoke sweet words of positive affirmation which restored David’s sense of self-worth as someone precious in the sight of God.  There would be no wars on earth today if every world leader was as sane and sensible as Abigail!

I don’t really think God overlooks verbal sins.  Like all others, He keeps  a meticulous record of them.  Did you know that children who cursed their parents could be put to death for it in ancient Israel?  Exodus 21:17 says:  He that curseth his father or his mother, shall surely be put to death.  In the margins, that word “curseth” means to “revile” or scold harshly with bitterness and hostility.  Leviticus 20:9 says:  For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall surely (not maybe!) be put to death:  he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.

I can hear it now:  “Cool it, Pat, that’s old testament.  Jesus is way too sweet to endorse those barbaric standards.”  But turn over to the beginning verses of Matthew chapter 15. Jesus is rebuking a bunch of Pharisees who would rather honor their own man-made traditions than obey the commandment of God. The religious police are quibbling over whether people was hands before they eat.  But Jesus is far more concerned about a prevailing social problem of his day (and ours):  Instead of using their money to properly care for their aging parents, people were pressured to fork over the dough to the religious leaders instead. But in verse 4 Jesus reminds them of how sinful it is to abuse your parents when He says:  But God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.

One popular TV show  features dysfunctional families, and their family storms are televised before the nation.  The most horrible language imaginable is spewed at exhausted, frustrated parents by snotty kids who curse at them for asking them to straighten up their room, or turn their music down, or go to bed.  The cringing, weepy mother is cursed and called a bitch (and sometimes worse).  Dishes and punches get thrown by kids who know corporal punishment is against the law. Teenage terrors kick, bite and swear at father and mother while they trash the house.

I’d get tough with those little tearaways!  Why should they be allowed to threaten the well-being of the rest of the family? If they  were too old (and way too big) to pick up and carry into a “time-out room”, I’d make a few phone calls and make other living arrangements for them till they stopped acting like wild  beasts, and apologized and cleaned up the mess they’d made. You might feel like throwing an abusive youngster out of the house, especially if they’re endangering the safety of others.  But it would be illegal and counterproductive to do that if the brat is still a minor, with nowhere else to go. The only option for kids who won’t respond to a firm rebuke or receive prayer for God’s help might be to have  trained professionals take responsibility for your unruly child. If you live in the U.S. you can search the Internet to find out about Christian homes for wayward youth, where the Word of God is taught and Biblical discipline is still legal (at least in some states).  As a last resort you might have to hand them over to child welfare officials to protect yourself or your other children.    But every step of the way submit to Christ and plead His Blood over your home, and soundly rebuke the devil in the Name of Jesus!  Whatever is necessary to protect your home, pray for the guts to do it. You may hate to part with your troubled child  for awhile, but your home must not be a chamber of horrors for everybody else in it! 

My daughter has never once in her life said she hated her parents.  Not once has she ever hit us or cursed us, not at any stage of her blessed life.  All her life she has gone out of her way to pour out love on us in countless ways.  And, in case you’re wondering, she always did this because she enjoyed it, not because she was scared not to!  When she was small she would  surprise us with little homemade cards telling us how dearly she loved her parents.  Because she has been so good to  her father and  mother, she will reap God’s blessings (Exodus 20:12; Deut. 5:16; Eph. 6:1-3).

When my daughter was in the first grade she received a “super citizen” award for befriending a little Laotian girl who had no other friends.  But her greatest award is still to come. I believe that God will forever honor my daughter in heaven and on earth as a keeper of the Fifth commandment:  Honor thy father and thy mother.  Truly the Lord rewards you when  you pray for His blessing and watchcare to be upon  your son or your daughter, and that should start in the womb before they are born.  Those who don’t lean on the Lord to watch over their children and give them guidance in raising them must lean wholly upon themselves_and the arm of flesh can fail.

God has shown a tremendous amount of forbearance with incorrigible young people, in granting them space to repent that was unheard of in ancient Israel. In His eyes their cruel disrespect is worthy of death.

Rom.1:29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
Verse 30: Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, DISOBEDIENT TO PARENTS,
Verse 31: Without understanding, covenantbreakers, WITHOUT NATURAL AFFECTION, IMPLACABLE, UNMERCIFUL:
Verse 32: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

That’s God’s  honest opinion, though most think it’s a bit extreme.  Still think verbal abuse of parents and others is just a nit-picking peccadillo?

Some church counselors just smile and tell you you’re overreacting, and it’s all your fault your child is so terrible, because you don’t always return “love” for the little tyrant’s abuse, even if he or she is bigger than you are!. All such critical counselors are is Job’s Comforters, spiritual butchers who think they’re chalking up brownie points with God by carving you into tiny little pieces. Why not ship your restless kids over to their quiet, tidy home for a sleepover?  Those holier-than-thous would change their tune in a hurry, and their armchair “religion” would fold like a stack of cards!

An insensitive counselor sees your cries of pain as sins to be laid to the charge of you, the victim, who “needs to repent”  because you can’t suffer in silence, much less give God thanks for your trial!  No wonder so many hurting, alienated souls are ditching the insular, out-of-touch “church” as being irrelevant to their lives! With  Job’s comforters for friends, who needs enemies? If a bullying victim or domestic violence victim can’t confide in another Christian who understands his or her hurt, where on earth can they go to find a sympathetic ear?  A fortune teller? A bar?

Next time you go to a Christian counselor to help rebuild your shattered self-esteem, pick one who will pin the blame squarely where it belongs:  on the bully and his father satan, not on you!     

What Does  GOD  Think of You?

Whose opinion matters anyway? That of your loving Heavenly Father or that of lost sinners whose minds are messed up by their father satan? You should put far more faith in what God the Holy Spirit has to say to you through inspired words of Scripture than the lies the devil speaks through the foul mouths of his children.  If you have been born again by faith in the atoning Blood of Christ, you have gained mightily in status.  You have been spiritually united to Jesus Himself by the power of the Holy Spirit.  You have even been made one Spirit with Christ the Lord (I Cor. 6:17), and you are accepted in the Beloved (Eph. 1:6).  And what does God have to say about Jesus, His Beloved, that Blessed One in Whom you have hidden yourself by faith?  God the Father says in Matthew 3:17:  This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.  Well, it’s clear logic.  If you have been accepted in the Beloved, you are part and parcel of that One in Whom the Father is well pleased.  The whole wide world might thumb its nose at you because you’re bald, or freckled or fat, but God your Heavenly Father is well pleased with you because you’ve got the only connections that count in His sight, that of being connected with Christ, with the Holy Spirit, and by adoption as His Son or daughter, with Him!  When He looks down upon you from heaven, He beholds the perfection of His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

I have been given another word of prophecy to share with you.  This was given by the Lord for my edification during a difficult time in my life:

The Devil’s Jackasses

Job 30:1-8; Psalms 3:6-8; Eccl. 9:18; Jere. 8:2;9:22; 25:33;

Dan. 12: 2-3; Zeph. 1:17; Malachi 4:3; Matt. 21:42-44; Luke 20:17-18

 How long will ye be held in bondage to lies out of the mouth of the pit of hell, saith the Lord?  It is satan who is impressed by numbers.  He is that wicked one who boasts that sheer force of numbers will finally win the war of the ages for him and secure for him My Heavenly Throne:  First,  at the Battle of Armageddon, finally at the Battle of Gog and Magog when he musters all the wicked soldiers of all the rebellious nations against My Holy City.  But I will not panic even then, when the number of the enemy is as the sands of the sea.  Fire from My mouth will come down from out of heaven and destroy them all, saith your God.  I, Who have the power to create mankind, also reserve the right to destroy men who refuse to repent before the Day of Judgment.  Jesus is the Rock of Salvation to those who embrace Him by faith, but He is also a Rock of Retribution to those who reject His kind offer of forgiveness through His shed blood.  And surely the day shall come, saith God, that that same Rock over which the brutish, hardened unbeliever stumbled with fall upon that one to grind him to powder in My Day of Judgment.

I am One God, and if ye have trusted in the precious Blood of My Son to save you, you are My children.  My opinion of you ought to carry far more weight than the wild brays of a multitude of jackasses who are nothing but dummies serving their father the devil.  Only the best and the brightest populate My Kingdom, and satan knows it.  As stars of righteousness, My saints shine with My holy brightness.  The devil must settle for the dregs of humanity to populate his foul kingdom:  the drunkard, the thief, the fornicator, the child molester, the rapist, the school bully.  They pour poison into the atmosphere of this earth like a nuclear plant with no safeguards will foul the air and the water with noxious emissions.  Bullies belch out verbal flatulence all the time because a jackass wants to make as much noise as possible to make sure the world notices him or her.  Evil men will not let Me renew their minds in righteousness so they are not capable of building anything of eternal value; only things of destruction, rot and ruin.

It was YOU who were chosen last when you were in high school.  But on the day of judgment I will not even grant bullies the dignity of being chosen at all_they shall be relegated to My reject heap to be bundled up by My angels for destruction in My trash incinerator:  the Lake of Fire.  In the sight of My pure eyes, unrepentant, hardened citizens of hell are of no more worth than dung beneath the feet of the righteous.

I am offended that you would be impressed by a multitude of foul mouths whom I have appointed to eternal destruction because of their unbelief and rejection of the Truth, and that you would and put more credibility in the braying of a thousand wild  jackasses than in the opinion of One God Who hath called thee by name and set His eternal seal of approval on you!