Confronting the Python Spirit

Earlier this week, I was teaching on the subject of Prophetic Alignment. I shared with the students a story of an experience I had in the nation of Zambia.  I was set to preach in the church of my friend, George Palo. During worship, the Lord said the following words to me, “There is a python spirit present.” I leaned over to George and shared what the Lord had just revealed to me.  George is a man of the Spirit. Immediately he went to the platform and paused worship and began to minister the word. He invited those who felt afflicted by a python spirit to come forward.

What took place in the next few minutes was both very strange and very beautiful. I looked back and some of the people coming forward fell to the ground and began to slither forward like a snake. Others were hissing as they came forward. As the people responded to the invitation under the command of God, George began to cast the python spirit out of people and freedom was released. It was an amazing display of God’s power.

 After the meeting, I asked George to share what he understood about what had just transpired. He shared with me this is a spirit of control that squeezes life and the will to obey God out of people. It is a constricting presence that results in domination.

Whenever a family, a people group or a nation is undergoing a God-ordained transformation this spirit will attempt to tighten its grip to retain control. The victims will become progressively more desperate to get free, but at some point will become paralyzed under the squeezing influence of this dark spirit. The only hope for freedom is to yield to the freeing presence of God, like what I saw taking place in worship that morning in the nation of Zambia.

Be wise in how you interpret some of what is taking place in our nation in this hour. Some are under the influence of a spirit of control. Do not look at predictable human responses in an attempt to understand how this spirit operates. Some of the victims under its influence look calm like they are in control and at peace, but they are actually being held in a place of control to do the bidding of darkness. They are experiencing a false freedom.  Others held in the grip of this spirit are violently responding to the squeezing causing some to think the visible acts of violence we are seeing are only the result of rebellion and human anger.

Ask God to give you the ears to hear and the eyes to see what is transpiring beneath the surface in the personal life of individuals and the administration of world governments. His revelation will be your assignment to gather wise counsel around you to pray and seek the freedom of those held in bondage to a spirit of control. You can miss what is taking place, even in a place of worship, if you are not listening to the Spirit and only work from natural indicators. This is not a work of suspicion. It is the result of the revelation of God’s heart that has the power to set the captives free.