This is a sobering but very necessary word that we need to hear right now.
I know some of you have gone through attack after attack, and wondered, "What is this all about?"
Well you're going to get some powerful insight from Madeline James as she shares this about dealing with attacks:
I had a recent dream that caught my attention and gave insight and revelation to what many have been dealing with in this season in the Body of Christ. Dreams, visions and revelations are the language of Heaven. The more we have a grid for the revelatory realm, the more we can understand the things of the spirit and inhabit the realms of the spirit. Many are in a season of transition, movement and promotion, but have been experiencing great warfare.
Over the last couple weeks I began to have a series of dreams where accusations were being made against me. I was being chased by the demonic, and I felt unusually drained. I began to inquire of the Lord as to what was going on, because this was abnormal.
A Snake on a Plane
I had a dream last week where I was on a plane with a known apostle, on the way to somewhere. (Planes represent going to higher realms in the spirit.) On the plane we were served dinner. I took the cover off of my food, and immediately noticed there was a dead snake in my salad. The apostle leaned over and asked if I liked snake. I replied, "No, I don't like snake, nor do I have a taste for it." He then began to tell me there is a way to deal with snakes. The apostle told me, "You have to take the snake and you have to bite the head off first."
In the dream it was exaggerated, and he actually ended up eating half of the snake in one bite. When he was done, he told me this is how its done in the apostolic, you have to take the head off and eat it; the attacks can become your meal and nourishment.
What is a Python Spirit?
I didn't realize I was dealing with a python spirit until this dream. I believe many of you have been dealing with this spirit as the Lord has been promoting you and enlarging you in this season. The python spirit comes to constrict and choke out the prophetic breath in you.
(Photo via Madeline James)
In Acts 16, when Paul and Silas were on their way to pray, they met a slave girl who was a diviner, and they encountered the python spirit. The Greek word for divination here is "puthón," which means "python" (Acts 16:16 KJV). She began to boast that Paul and Silas were men of God, there to tell the town about how they could be saved. What she was saying was right, but it irritated Paul's spirit. It irritated his spirit because that spirit was mocking them.
The python spirit is a counterfeit to the prophetic. We see this in the Old Testament as well. In Exodus 8, Moses and Aaron had a showdown of power with Pharaoh and his diviners. The Lord caused Aaron's staff to turn into a serpent. Pharaoh commanded his diviners to do the same. Their staffs turned into serpents but Aaron's staff swallowed up the diviners' staffs. There is no substitute for God's power. The enemy may try to mimic the power of God, but God's power will swallow it up every time.
The python comes to control regions and choke out the prophetic voice. In Acts 16 the slave girl and her owners had the whole city bought, and it prohibited the spirit of God from truly moving in their city. It was a false form of religion. When Paul cast the python spirit out of the slave girl it caused an uproar in the town, because the python spirit had been dethroned. It caused the people to come against them with false accusations, and they were imprisoned. The people tried to stop what God was doing.
Different Ways the Python Spirit Constricts You
The python spirit comes to constrict you in multiple ways. A lot of times we don't even realize we're dealing with a python spirit. In the natural, a snake will slowly began to wrap itself around a person or thing without much alarm, until it's too late and you can't get out of its grip. When it has you right where it wants you, it goes in for the kill. Just like in the natural, the python is very strategic in its attack. When you feel stifled and constricted in the spirit, it's a sign of the python spirit attacking you.
I really feel that the python spirit has been constricting your mind in this season, and even using people around you to keep you in a place of constriction because of their words. When the python spirit limits your thoughts, you're not able to think God thoughts, or receive where God is trying to take you. Proverbs 23:7(TPT) says, "For as he thinks within himself, so is he...." Our thoughts and what we think about ourselves play out in our behaviors.
How to Cut off the Snake's Head
The enemy will also use people to constrict you by releasing word curses, accusations, and lies. Sometimes people can't celebrate what God is doing in your life, and because they have open doors the enemy will come in and use them against you. Remember, our fight is not against flesh and blood but in the spirit (Ephesians 6:12). You win the battle when you take it up in the spirit.
To defeat the lies, accusations, and curses, you must release the Word of God. The truth of God's Word will break the power of the lies and accusations. The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit. Take the sword of the Spirit and sever the the head of that python or serpent coming against you. When you sever the head, it has no longer has power.
Another way to defeat the python and serpent spirits is to
stay close to the fire of God. We see this in Acts 28. Paul arrives on the island of Malta and starts a fire. As he adds more wood to the fire, a viper, that can't take the heat of the fire, comes out and bites Paul on the hand. Then he shakes it off back into the fire, killing it. The people who witnessed this are waiting for him to die because of the deadly venom, but Paul is fine, and the people end up revering him because he survives.
(Photo via Pixabay)
It's important to stay close to the fire, glory, and presence of God because it reveals pythons and vipers that try to hide, and lie in wait to attack. You don't have to fear the attack. The attack will come, but like Paul, shake it back into the fire for the Lord to deal with. You may have people watching and waiting for you to drop, but your life is going to be testimony of God's goodness and power. No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that rises up against you shall be put down (Isaiah 54:17). The very thing that's come against you is going to become the meal to your next!
I prophesy and declare over you that every accusation and slanderous tongue which has come against you is being brought down. I take the sword of the Spirit and sever the head of the python. I speak the breath of God to be loosed over you and in you. Where the enemy has tried to constrict you, to bind you, it's being broken in Jesus name! (To Subscribe to the Elijah List
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Madeline James is an emerging prophetic writer and voice who desires to release the heart of the Father, and be a tuning fork for the Body of Christ. She operates in the seer and revelatory realm. Her heart is to release revelation and wisdom that will help propel and push the Body of Christ forward. Madeline is the author of Rooted In Love, Declaring Your Morning, co-author of Emerge, and the blogger of the prophetic blog Nabi's Pen. She resides in Lexington, KY. with her husband Richie and their two daughters.
