The HITTITE Spirit
“Spirits of Fear, Terror, and Discouragement”
· Just as we said last week…it is very important to understand how each of these 7 spirits operates in order to recognize if our hearts are currently “infected” with any of them…and so that we can recognize them in the hearts of other people too…
· When you can understand how these spirits work in a person or in a group of people…then we can start the process of resisting their stranglehold on us and then conquer them like God told us to do!
· We are learning how these spiritual forces operate and how to deal with them….we’re not learning really how to “cast out a demon” but more along the lines of understanding how these spirits behave so we can discern more easily why and in whom, these forces are operating…
· The sad thing is…these spirits tend to operate within the Body of Christ…yuck! We have to remember that we “do not battle against the flesh, but against principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world.” Ephesians 6:12
· These spirits are very real…and their effects on our lives can be devastating…so it’s important to know how they operate
· The word “HITTITE” literally means “sons of terror”….the Hittites were descendants of Noah’s great-grandson Heth, whose name means “terror”
· TERROR refers to “an extreme manifestation of fear, and is always related to the element of MYSTERY”
· EX of TERROR: You may be afraid of a live wire because you KNOW that enough electricity is running through it to hurt you if you touch it…but this ISN’T terror…..TERROR is when you are walking all alone at night and you DON’T KNOW if someone is going to jump out and attack you…
· TERROR is related to the UNKNOWN….
· EX: a serial killer is loose in your neighborhood and you DON’T KNOW if you are his next target…
· Since terror is related to the unknown…it has to do with things YOUR MIND CANNOT SEE….terror is more EMOTIONAL than MENTAL….it’s based more on what your emotions “hear” than on what your mind can see
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· TERROR is, of course, where we get the word TERRORIST from…TERRORISM means: A manifestation of fear; a literal fear of an unknown happening; a SECRECY planned and carried out with the aim to create panic and confusion among the unsuspecting
· Our minds prefer it when all is right with the world….when law and order is around…when we can count on something….when we know we can “trust” things to work for our well-being…
· BUT…when FEAR comes along and attacks our minds…rationality goes out of the window and PANIC sets in. When PANIC and FEAR sets in…we start reacting to things IRRATIONALLY!.....this is exactly the type of ground that the Hittite spirit loves!
· When we start acting irrationally….we need to remember and SPEAK OUT what the Word of God says to us about fear and terror…
· Psalm 27:1 “The Lord is my Light and my Salvation--whom shall I fear or dread? The Lord is the Refuge and Stronghold of my life--of whom shall I be afraid?”
· Isaiah 35:5 “Say to those who are of a fearful and hasty heart, Be strong, fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance; with the recompense of God He will come and save you.”
· Isaiah 41:10 “Fear not [there is nothing to fear], for I am with you; do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen and harden you to difficulties, yes, I will help you; yes, I will hold you up and retain you with My [victorious] right hand of rightness and justice.”
· 2 Timothy 1:7 “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control.”
· Hebrews 13:6 “So we take comfort and are encouraged and confidently and boldly say, The Lord is my Helper; I will not be seized with alarm [I will not fear or dread or be terrified]. What can man do to me?”
· This evil spirit does NOT want you to remember these promises that God has given us in His Word!!!!
· The Hittite spirit….which is extreme fear of the unknown…works perfectly with the Girgashite spirit….remember how they are earthly…no spiritual vision… Once your eyes are off of God and His purpose…then you tend to fall back to your sensual (soulish) mind and begin to operate only out of what you can see and hear from the news, media, and newspapers in your environment…the consequence is that fear grips your heart, worries set in and you soon forget that faith does not work by sight…
· 2 Corinthians 5:7 “we live by faith, NOT by SIGHT.”
· Because HITTITES are spirits of terror…they attack your emotions…they are the spirit behind NIGHTMARES and non-rational PHOBIAS such as claustrophobia, exaggerated fear of DOGS, and fear of being in the DARK…
· If you have ever suffered from one of these things…then you know that terror produces a sense of DEEP EMOTIONAL DESPAIR AND TORMENT….it can actually cause a desire not to live anymore
· Because it relies on craftiness, secrecy and stealth in order to maximize its attack…it is very hard to detect except by revelation by the Holy Spirit…
· HITTITE spirits are behind suicides…because it causes such a sense of dread, despair, and torment….which all play heavily on the mind
· There are groups of people that operate in this spirit…EX: Groups like Al-Qaeda and Hamas
· The HITTITE spirit attacks our emotions….our brain is set up with 2 hemispheres…the right and the left….
· SHORT SCIENCE LESSON: The RIGHT side of the brain is associated with (LOGICAL REASONING): truth, law, limitations, established truths, death, structure, seen, public openness, and seeing…
· The LEFT side of the brain is associated with (CREATIVE AND INTUITIVE PROCESSES): spirit, grace, freedom, life, New unknown truths, intuitive randomness, unseen, secrecy, and hearing…
· So…..the MIND is on the RIGHT side of the soul and our EMOTIONS are on the LEFT side of our soul…
· Emotional people tend to be more creative than those who are by nature logical thinkers…that’s why most singers, composers, painters, and poets are emotional people…
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· Another aspect of the “suicide” part of this spirit…the Hittite spirit attacks the LEFT side of the brain…which also deals with grace and secrecy…….one definition of GRACE:….seemingly effortless beauty or charm
· Physical beauty is a God-given gift…it is actually to draw people to God’s beauty…not to you…
· There is only so much of your “grace” or “beauty” that you should expose in public
· EX: Just like in Exodus 3:5 God tells Moses not to draw any closer to the burning bush….God was not going to expose any more of Himself until Moses COMMITTED to God’s calling for his life….you see…Moses was drawn to the bush to “behold this great sight”……in the same way…there are certain dimensions of your physical beauty that MUST NOT be exposed in public.
· There is a certain deep enjoyment of another person’s grace that can only be done in intimacy that is covered in COMMITMENT…a COVENANT….
· EX: you can’t truly enjoy another person’s friendship until that friendship reaches a level of trust where you can tell each other secrets and share your deep thoughts and fears….
· Exposing yourself like that to a stranger who has not entered into a true friendship covenant with you would be SUICIDE…they would turn on you and rip you to shreads….
· EX: Spouses can enjoy each other’s physical beauty in a deep way because they have such intimacy…they have a COVENANT….to do this outside of a covenant is an act of SUICIDE….
· Matthew 7:6 says you can’t throw your “holy things” (your inner treasure) to the dogs and do not throw your pearls before pigs, because they will trample on them and then try to destroy them….
· When you expose yourself this way and you don’t have a COVENANT…then this beauty loses its truth foundation and becomes false beauty….it becomes totally LEFT sided with no RIGHT side…that opens the door to the Hittite spirits ….
· This is why men and women who improperly expose themselves physically to other people end up having constant bouts with DEPRESSSION, DESPAIR, and sometimes even SUICIDE.
· This is why propsitutes usually become drug addicts in their quest to flee from the torment of the Hittite spirits that they have opened the door to by their constant exposing of intimate beauty without demanding a COVENANT in truth.
· This is also why many congregations have lost their TRUE prophetic anointing…because young “women” or “sisters” go around the congregation wearing low-rise pants or low-cut shirts or short tight skirts or other provocative clothes…exposing their physical grace in public, and that in turns draws Hittite spirits that slowly suck up the true prophetic anointing in their own lives and the lives of those in the congregation!!!!!!!! WOW!!!! DO YOU GET THIS!!!!! How important is it for you to DRESS DECENTLY!!!!
· Do you see how the devil has even come in to our fashion culture to zap out this generation when it comes to the prophetic!!!!!! He knows what he is doing…..BUT do WE realize it!!!!!
· Two studies I was reading said that if you have a strong PROPHETIC CALLING on your life…you are likely to be attacked by this spirit….by the spirit that causes despair or emotional and mental attacks…on the outside the prophetic person may seem to have it together…but often those in the prophetic will tell how they are often under mental attacks by the enemy…but through Christ you can stand strong and defeat this spirit! Your “standing strong” helps to produce incredibly major victories in the spiritual realm that bless and liberate many people!
· Because of our fear of our “personal self” being hurt…we actually put up barriers in our minds to protect ourselves from anyone or anything that would inflict inward pain….some of these barriers are: PROCRASTINATION OVER DECISION-MAKING…or a REFUSAL TO CONFRONT ISSUES AND DEAL WITH THEM…or putting up a wall of “coldness” that hopes to protect us from people who would hurt us…
· A person who suffers from deep emotional despair usually falls into states of DEEP DEPRESSION AND SADNESS…if you ever look into a person’s eyes and you can see a sense of deep sadness and despair…you are looking into the eyes of a person under Hittite attack
· Since HITTITE spirits prey on people’s emotions…they like to stay in the dark and remain unseen to the mind…they WHISPER SPECULATIONS into the person’s emotions…this means that people who have the nasty habit of spreading rumors and speculations are people who hang on to the Hittite spirit in their hearts…YUCK!
· The HITTITE-spirit prefers to HIDE itself….it often disguises itself as a “FRIEND” rather than “FOE”…..which is exactly the mode that terrorists operate in…..
· Look at this example from the BIBLE….
· 2 Chronicles 18:28-29 “And the king of Israel went up, and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, to Ramoth-gilead. And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I WILL DISGUISE MYSELF, and go into battle; and you put on your robes. AND THE KING OF ISRAEL DISGUISED HIMSELF. And they went into battle.”
· When you read the whole entire thing in 2 Chronicles 18….we find that: (READ IT!)
o Ahab (the king of Israel…bad guy) and Jehoshaphat (the king of Judah…a righteous king who sometimes hung out with the wrong crowd) go into battle against the revelation of God (v. 16)…but God…knowing their hearts gives them what they have already decided to do
o In an attempt to keep the outcome that the prophet Micaiah said would happen Ahab chose to disguise himself
o (Ahab always hated Micaiah because this prophet always prophesied the TRUTH…Ahab would rather listen to the other prophets that were FALSE PROPHETS…they were more concerned with pleasing Ahab than saying what God wanted them to say….they were “real prophets”…they had a real prophetic calling on their lives…but they did not abide in TRUTH..so everything they prophesied was lies)
o Notice in v. 23 Zedekiah slapped Micaiah and asked him, “When did the Spirit of the Lord go from me to you?”…..this means that Zedekiah…who had a legitimate prophetic calling…actually felt some type of spiritual presence flowing through him as he prophesied…and he thought that this presence was God…BUT Zedekiah’s heart wasn’t right…it was not set on God’s TRUTH and God’s JUDGMENT…he wanted to speak to please Ahab so it was a spirit of DECEIT that God allowed him to be exposed to….when God sees you placing your FAITH in your EMOTIONS and not on His truth…Get ready…cause those EMOTIONS will deceive you….Don’t idolize your emotions…Don’t put the “left” side before the ‘right” side
o Ahab even uses Jehoshaphat as bait by asking him to wear his royal robes into the battle while he (Ahab) puts on a simple soldier’s outfit
o Against all odds (because the Lord is sovereign even in this battle)…Jehoshaphat escapes death (v. 32) while Ahab, even though disguised…cannot escape the Lord’s hand
o The end of the whole thing happens when a lone Syrian archer fires a RANDOM SHOT which “just happens to kill Ahab”
o SIDENOTE: Just as Hittites can shoot arrows from the dark…God’s prophetic people can shoot prophetic words into the atmosphere and impact distant places…that is actually what we are called to do!
· Check out how exactly Ahab ends his life…he wanted to be hidden in battle…but he ends his life propped up in a chariot away from the battlefield (v.33-34) His PROUD HITTITE spirit still wants to stand up…even if he has to be propped up to do it…
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· Can you see the Hittite spirit in Ahab…pride, hiddenness, secrecy, disguising himself…
· The HITTITE spirit might plan in the dark…but it will eventually come out in the light of God and He WILL deal with it!