By Jennifer LeClaire
I didn't realize
how strong is the spirit of python's choke-hold on my region until I started to
personally experience the effects of its presence. One of the only named
spirits in the Bible, the python spirit is a coiling spirit that works to
squeeze out the breathe of life (the Holy Spirit) and cut off your lifeline to
God (prayer).
To
accomplish its deadly agenda, this spirit will remind
you of wounds from your past, surround you with ungodly
influences that tempt you to compromise the Word of God—or just barrage you with circumstances that knock the wind out
of you.
Symptoms of a
python attack may include weariness, a loss of passion to worship and pray,
feeling pressured, overwhelmed, helpless and even hopeless. The severity of those symptoms depends on
how long this enemy has been coiling itself around you and how much pressure it
has applied.
Let me show you
this spirit in the Bible. You'll find it in Acts 16:16 when Paul
encounters a girl possessed with a spirit of divination. The word divination in
this verse comes from the Greek word for puthon, which translates in
English as "python." Vine's Dictionary explains how Greek
mythology believed the Pythian serpent guarded the oracle of Delphi
until Apollo slew it (and then took on the name Pythian). The word was later applied to diviners or soothsayers,
inspired by Apollo. (New Age)
Attacking Your
Prayer Life
Python can attack
anyone. You don't have to be in sin to find python trying to slide under your
door. Paul was a man of prayer. The Bible says he spoke in tongues more than
anybody else in the Corinthian church (1 Cor. 14:18)—and probably more
than anybody else in the early church.
Despite
Paul's relationship with Christ and a strong prayer life, he still had to
wrestle against principalities and powers and rulers of the darkness of this
age and spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places (see Eph. 6:12). Paul had to wrestle against python—and so may we. Let's look at Paul's
encounter with the python spirit.
"Now it
happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave
girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much
profit by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and us, and cried
out, saying, 'These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us
the way of salvation.' And this she did for many days" (Acts 16:16-17).
The python spirit
had a stronghold in Philippi. When the man of prayer started heading for the
house of prayer, this spirit launched its first attack against him—a
distraction followed by a full-blown trial that aimed to take him out of his
purpose. Python knows it has no authority in a city that prays in the presence
of God, so it works to distract people from praying so they can't fulfill their
purpose.
Python would
rather watch you lick your wounds than pray to a healing God. Python would
rather hear you complain or gossip than take your problems to a miracle-working
God. Python would rather distract you with attacks, trials and persecutions
than see you press into a gracious God for deliverance. Again, python's
ultimate goal is to put you in bondage and thwart your purpose. You may be
going through the motions but you feel dead on the inside because python has
squeezed the life out of you.
Loosed From
Python's Grip
When you
rise up in your Christ-given authority against python, the battle ensues. Paul cast the demon out of the girl, which
meant her masters could no longer profit from her false prophecies. "They
seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities"
(Acts 16:19). From there, they were falsely accused, had their clothes
torn off, were beaten with rods and thrown into prison with stocks on their
feet.
Paul and Silas
were in physical pain. They had been publicly humiliated. They were slandered
and maligned. And they were in the grip of the python spirit. At this point,
they had several options: They could lie there and lick their wounds. They
could complain to one another about their situation. They could meditate on the
persecution and decide to abandon their purpose in exchange for being set free.
But they didn't do any of that. Thank God, they left us a model for how to
break free from the python spirit.
"But at
midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the
prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so
that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors
were opened and everyone's chains were loosed" (Acts 16:25-26). Prayer and praise are what python is trying to
stop, but prayer and praise will set you free.
This python spirit
is a major influence in Florida, where we have more houses of prayer per capita
than any other state. Python is so spiritually active in our state that it has
manifested with an overrun of natural pythons in the Everglades. Experts point
to as many as 100,000 Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades that are
reproducing rapidly. This snake is driving down populations of opossums,
bobcats and raccoons and even swallows deer and alligators whole.
Although reciting
rote prayers from a book may push back darkness for a moment, ultimately that
spiritual-warfare strategy isn't going to deliver you—and keep you free—from
python's grip. Freedom from python demands a deeper intercession. It starts
with repentance and works its way into travailing prayer by the leading of the
Spirit of God (Rom. 8:26-27).
What do we do,
practically speaking? We need to pray to the righteous Lord who "has cut
in pieces the cords of the wicked" (see Ps. 129:4) that python has
coiled around us. We need to repent for our sins—and the sins of our
cities—that have allowed python a stronghold so God can surround us with songs
of deliverance in His presence (Psalm 32). We have authority in Christ to cut
in pieces this coiling spirit but, again, it often takes travailing prayer with
the Spirit of God to free the body from the head of the snake in a region.
I'll talk more
about travailing prayer in next week's column. In the meantime, meditate on Romans
8:26-27 and ask the Holy Spirit to give you revelation on those verses.
Amen.
- See more at:
http://www.jenniferleclaire.org/articles/what-the-python-spirit-really-wants#sthash.twAVsm3M.dpuf