The Spirit of Leviathan

Hey, welcome to my show Self Talk with me, Dr. Ray Self. So glad you joined me today. Got a very interesting topic today. The spirit of Leviathan. It's a spirit that you have probably encountered, whether you know it or not. And this is an important show has to do with you and your relationships. This show is sponsored by the school that I founded, the International College of Ministry. We enroll every day at icmcollege.org. Degrees in counseling, ministry, theology, and prophetic ministry. And we are accredited. Please check it out. There's also some free lessons on there and a lot of cool stuff. icmcollege.org. Thank you for listening to my show. This is going to explain a lot of frustrating things that you've experienced in relationships. God bless you. Let's get going.

[Music]

The spirit of Leviathan. What is it? Is it scriptural? How does it affect us? So, let me give you a scenario that you have probably experienced. Have you ever been talking to someone, may– someone, maybe your spouse or a good friend, and you say something which you think is just a very normal, innocent comment, and it's taken as an offense or is, and it's misconstrued, and you're shocked like, “I– h– how did you hear that? That, that's not what I'm saying.” And sometimes, uh, you may be talking to someone, and they don't respond to you. They go home later, you find out they were offended by your remark, and you meant no offense at all. And it's a communication breakdown. It's a, a twisting of your words. It's very, very frustrating. I've, I've had it happen in, in marriage. I've seen it happen in my marriage. I've seen it happen between friendships. I've seen this happen between pastors and their congregation. I've experienced it quite a few times where I would say something that uh, was from my heart that I felt was just an intelligent, innocent comment, and it's heard completely differently. Needless to say, this causes a lot of problems. This causes a lot of frustration, a lot of offense, and miscommunication. 

Miscommunication, misunderstanding, is very harmful to relationships. It's harmful to the ministry. It's harmful to our lives. Well, what I have found through experience is there is a demon spirit. I call him Leviathan. I'll share some scriptures about him. But this Leviathan spirit loves to twist your words. So, let me give you a couple of scriptures about Leviathan. So, in the book of Job, we have this spirit mentioned in Job 3:8. It says um, “Let those who curse it who curse today, who are prepared to rouse Leviathan.” Who's prepared to rouse Leviathan? Then we see it mentioned in Job 41. “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord? Can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? Will he make any supplications to you? Will he speak to you soft words? Will he make a covenant with you? Will you take him for a servant forever? Will you play” him, “...with him like as a bird? Or will you bind him for your maidens? Can you fill his skin with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?” 

So we know that this monster, this, this creature was a very fierce scripture, a monstrous scripture. We know that he had scales, and it was difficult to harpoon him or spear him. Okay. So, some people suggest that this was a crocodile. There's been other suggestions about this. I'm going to go with crocodile. Um, we mentioned him, it’s also mentioned again in Psalm 74, uh, 14. Now, this has something to do with you, so hang with me. “You crushed the heads of Leviathan. You gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.” Now, this is talking about God, and it's talking about the power of God that God is so powerful He can crush the head of Leviathan. So, Leviathan is described as a scaly, tough monster. Uh, some theologians have suggested that this was a, a crocodile. Now, I'm going to go with crocodile. Now, the way a crocodile destroys his prey is he twists his prey. He grabs hold of his prey with his jaws, and he begins to twist. He, he turns around and around and he twists his prey, usually drowning them. But it is a twisting spirit. Now, I've called this spirit the spirit of Leviathan because it is a twisting spirit. Now, you can say, "I'm not sure that Leviathan in the Bible is the same as the spirit." It really doesn't matter because there is a demon spirit that loves to cause conflict and confusion and twist your words. I've had experiences with, with my wife Christy, my beautiful wife Christy, where I'm talking to her and I say something which I think is an innocent comment and she hears something completely different. And for a long time, I was just confused. I, I just did not understand. And I would kind of look at myself and examine myself. Did I say this wrong? Was I…did I just imagine what I said? Did, Did, What did I do? What did I say? And I've seen this play out in so many relationships.

But what I have found so many times is that there are demon spirits that get between people that love to cause confusion and love to twist our words. Like a Leviathan spirit, a twisting spirit. And so, if you have experienced this, and I would imagine if you're listening to this podcast, you have experienced this, that your words have become twisted, something you've said is misconstrued, misunderstood, misappropriated, and has caused pain in your life, frustration in your life. I can tell you, um, a lot of examples. I remember once in, in my church um, I had an evangelist in my church and there was a, a, a couple that came up uh, for ministry and he, he, he prayed for her physical healing for this particular lady. It was a, a husband and wife, and the lady was sick, and he put his hand, and he prayed healing over her, and he could kind of tell that she wasn't receiving. You know, when you pray for people, some people receive your prayer. Some people, it’s like I used to say, it's like praying for a 2x4. So he prayed for this lady, and then, um, she went and sat back down. Then he called her back up, and he said something like, says, “I, I don't think, I don't think you're receiving me. Uh, let me pray for you again.” And so what she heard was that she was completely rejected. She heard that this man was rejecting her. And I'm going, and she, she got angry and offended and wanted to leave the church because of something this evangelist said about “you're not receiving my words,” and she twisted that as “I am being rejected and condemned,” and this is what happens. Now, sometimes people filter words through the pain of their past. Filtering is maybe you were uh, abandoned and rejection and maybe you had a lot of fear, uh, maybe you were uh, abused. And so what happens is that creates filters where even though it's not what is being said, you tend to hear put down, or you hear rejection or you hear betrayal, or you hear offense when there's no offense intended and no betrayal given. That's filtering. 

But Leviathan spirit, what that spirit does is it literally twists our words so our words are not heard. It's like a spirit that gets between two people. Now, this may sound crazy to you. This may not sound normal to you. But I promise you, I have experienced it. And I want to tell you what I've done. I've had this experience with my wife. I've had this experience with friends. Uh, I would say something to them. They may not respond. I maybe found out two weeks later, this is what they heard. So is offended with me because you said this. I said, I said, "No, I didn't say that. This is what they heard you say." Or in preaching a sermon on Sunday, you're just preaching the gospel. Somebody gets offended. 99% of the congregation loves your sermon, Somebody hears something completely different. 

So what the spirit does is he twists our words. And if you have been experiencing a continual problem or a consistent problem where you do not feel people can hear what you're saying, or someone, especially someone close to you, it could be the spirit of Leviathan. And the spirit of Leviathan again is a twisting spirit. Twists our words so what we say is not heard correctly, and it is twisted to mean something completely different. You remember in the Garden of Eden, how Satan twisted God's words when uh, they were going to eat of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and Eve said, "Oh no, the Lord said we, we shall surely die if we eat of that tree." And the devil said, the serpent said to her, "No, God didn't really say that. That's not what He meant at all.” He twisted God's words. Eve ate of the fruit, gave it to her husband, and the original sin started. It started as a twisting of words. 

So this spirit is active in relationships. If you are experiencing this problem where you're talking to people that you care about and, and so many times they hear something completely different than what your heart is saying, it could be this spirit. So what I do when I, when I experience that, I just stop. And sometimes I've told my wife, I said, “Honey, we, we need to stop. We need to pray.” And I will pray. And now, and then I will also do spiritual warfare. Now you know, asking God to do something He told you to do doesn't always work. Now God has given us authority over snakes and scorpions and all the works of the enemy. God has said, “These signs will follow those that believe, in My name they will cast out demons.” So, I've been given authority to cast out demons, and I need to take that authority. Now, I can pray and ask God to do it, but more than likely, God's not going to do it if He told me to do it. And you need to get that clear. So, my prayer, I may start off something like this. “Lord Jesus, I thank you, Father, for, for my beautiful wife. I thank you, Lord Jesus, for this relationship. Now, Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, I rebuke the spirit of Leviathan. I command this twisting spirit to stop now, in Jesus’ name. I rebuke your assignment. I command you null and void. And I command your assignment broken, and you are to get out of my house and get out of this relationship now in the name and the authority, the power of Jesus Christ.” And I have done this, and I cannot tell you how much it has helped. So many times it has helped me be understood or, and, and sometimes the spirit attacks both ways. My wife will be speaking to me, and I'll hear something completely different than what she said. But once we do our spiritual warfare, I recognize the spirit of Leviathan. I rebuke him. I renounce him. You'd be amazed at how communication clears up, and all of a sudden, you're able to hear each other and understand each other. 

Now, I'm not saying this is the problem all of the time, but I am saying it is common, okay? We're not to be, the, the Bible says, the Apostle Paul said we should not be ignorant of Satan's schemes. One scheme, course, that's a theme of my podcast, one primary scheme of the enemy is to twist our words and make us unheard and misunderstood, and to cause strife and conflict and division where God has called us to be unified and one flesh. So, that's what the devil does. That's what the spirit of Leviathan does. Now, don't get all hung up on the name. I'm calling it Leviathan because it kind of makes sense. This, this crocodile twisting spirit. However, we know that demons like to harass us. Even though I'm full of the Holy Spirit, it doesn't mean demons won't attack us. The devil tried to attack Jesus, too. However, I'm not ignorant of his schemes. I want to be heard and understood, and I want people around me, I want to hear and understand them. I do not want any confusion in communication. That's what Leviathan does. We've been given authority over it. 

Now that you're aware of it, if you're experiencing this, and I bet you, you are, start rebuking and renouncing the spirit of Leviathan or any twisting spirit, any spirit causing confusion or causing uh, twisting your words or causing you not to be heard or you not to hear, renounce that assignment in the name of Jesus Christ. And watch how communication starts getting so, so much better. Isn't that cool? And that's what we want. Heavenly Father, I thank you for everyone listening to this podcast today. I pray, Father, that if anyone listening has been experiencing this frustrating problem of not being heard and understood, if it is a demonic assignment against them, Father, Father, I pray for them that this assignment is rebuked and renounced. Lord, give them the power and the authority to stand in your, your anointing and to do the spiritual warfare, Father, to not accept any type of spirit trying to cause confusion, division, misunderstanding in relationships, in our communication. “You shall know the truth…the truth shall set you free.” The truth will not be twisted anymore because we are aware of this spirit. We're not ignorant of this scheme, and we stand against this scheme. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen and amen. Thank you. 

So, thank you for being a part of the show. I know this is a little bit different, but I really want to start talking…In the next few weeks, I'm going to be talking about different spirits and how they affect our lives. The first spirit is the spirit of Leviathan, twisting our words. In the next few weeks, I'm going to be getting into uh, the spirit of witchcraft, the spirit of divination, and some other spirits. And we're going to talk about how that, how that affects your life and what we can do about it. Thank you for being a part of Self Talk. Be sure and subscribe, follow, you know, all the cool stuff. Share it with some friends. Help us get this show out. I appreciate you so much. Thank you for being a part of Self Talk. This is Dr. Ray signing off. God bless you.

[Music]