The "Ites" in Our Lives

And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations" (Revelation 2:26).

God is speaking to specific people in a crowd of Christians, not the whole crowd, but "To him" will He give power over the nations.

The Apostle John was commission to write letters to seven churches. These represent seven corporate bodies of believers in Christ Jesus, and within each of these corporate bodies there are some that Jesus is referring to as "To Him."

This verse is talking about you! When you came into the personal awareness that Jesus Christ was your Savior from a life that was separated from knowing God into a life opportunity to not only know about God, but also that He was your Heavenly Father – you experienced what it means to be born again, a new baby in Christ Jesus. Now it is time to grow up in Him!

The fact that you are here means you have invested in yourself to be transformed today. Your putting forth the effort and desire to plant a new season in your life.

What does the word Overcomer mean? It means YOU are NOW OVER what has been over you…

These people that are within the church setting that John is writing to have a connection to the Old Testament when Joshua was commissioner to take the children of Israel into the promised land via the Jordan River. All the children of Israel – all 12 tribes – came out of Egypt led under the leadership of Moses to go to the promised land in the earth that God had shared with him. However, what should have taken 40 days turned into a 40-year encampment going around and around the same places several times till a whole generation died in the wilderness never making it to the promised land. Yes, they went to heaven, but there was something greater than going to heaven that God desired to bless them with while they were on the earth.

After Moses died and Joshua and Caleb are left to lead the children there was a circumcision that had to take place for the children that were born in the wilderness. All those that were 20 and older who came out of Egypt were physically circumcised. That generation died along with Moses. The generation that was under 20 years old along with born while their parents were in the wilderness had the ability under Joshua to enter the promise land, however, there was a circumcision that needed to be addressed. They didn't have to cross the Red Sea again, but they did need to circumcise their hearts with the Jordan River crossing. (Hebrew 8:8-10).

Before they crossed the Jordan River, Moses showed them the promise land and prophesied to Joshua that there would be nations in the promised land that they would have to conquer and overcome leaving no remains of men, women, and children. He also told him that they wouldn't have to go looking for these nations, but that God would bring the nations to Joshua and the people of God after they crossed the Jordan and entered the promised land God desired to give them.

Moses also told them that once they entered the promised land, God would not be going before them as He did in the wilderness, but He was with them giving them the means to conquer.

This Jordan Crossing experience is no longer being a follower of Jesus, but Jesus saying, "You go, and I'll go with you." It's not about literally killing men, women, and children, but recognizing the "familiar spirits" that come from your past and keep you from your best today in Christ.

There is a great "gap" of transformation taking place from when we are following God to God following us as our enemies are brought before us to be conquered. God showed the Israel people the promised land and He tells them, "There it is, but you have to change your understanding of what is going to happen. I'm going to bring your enemies to you and your going to conquer them!"

When raised in the church we are taught to pray and God answers our prayers. This is true, but there is another level in our relationship that God desires for us to seek after from being a child of God, to a son of God doing the Father's business, to being a bride of Christ Jesus.

There comes a time when the Father desires to give the keys of the car and teach the teenage son/daughter how to drive themselves for their own life journey. Then after that there comes a time when the Father desires for the little child of His heart to be married to The Son to produce children of their own with the blessings and DNA of the Father. (Rev. 1:18).

God is now telling each of you, "Go in my name and whatever you say, you decree in my name you will have it." (John 16:23-26). God wants us to conquer the "ites" in our life leaving nothing behind of these enemies – no trace of them. What or who are these enemies?

When the children of God entered the promised land, there were seven nations occupying the land – all outnumbered and mightier than the children of Israel. If they were going to possess the land they had to conquer all of them. This land was their inheritance because Moses died. Today, it is our inheritance because Jesus Christ died.

The land of Canaan was the promised land at the time of Joshua God had promised to Israel. It is a type an illustration of our inheritance we have available to us today when we know we are in Christ Jesus. Today, we can obtain full possession of the Kingdom of God within ourselves – within our life – as Christ's members of His body with our covering, the headship of Jesus Christ. (Col. 1:18, 2:19).

The true land of the promise of God today is more than a literal place in the world, but a people that are known as the corporate body of Christ Jesus ruling and reigning with Him in the earth. We can take dominion and authority over the atmospheric conditions that dominate in a people.

In the Old Testament we have Moses' Tabernacle in the wilderness and the Temples of stone beginning with Solomon. Today the place of God's dwelling is in a people called by His Name – Christ whom Jesus is the head. "I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. (Revelation 21:3). The promised land becomes a transformed corporate body called Christ in the earth led by the Spirit of the Lord. Where God dwells is where His Kingdom is.

The Old Testament is like a blueprint, a map, of heavenly things – our school master. "Therefore, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.?For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.?For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.?There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.?And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Galatians 3:24-29). The conquering process of the enemies of God begins within ourselves.

"When the LORD, your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so, the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly" (Deuteronomy 7:1-4).

"But thus, you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth" (Deuteronomy 7:5-6).

With fire – the Holy Spirit anointing – you are to destroy altars, break down images, cut down trees, and burn images that don't belong in the place of intimacy fellowship with Christ Jesus.

"If you should say in your heart, 'These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?'— you shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt" (Deuteronomy 7:17-18). God lets the people know in advance that this will be a challenge to their heart.

I am letting you know that this process will be a challenge to your heart…

But God says He will destroy them little by little (Deut. 7:22).

So now that you are a born-again believer in Christ Jesus and you know that when your earthen body is finished you will be crossing over to another side of Christ Life we call Heaven are you interested in conquering the promised land of your inheritance while your still in your natural body? What are these seven nations referring to in your life?

The first one mentioned in Deuteronomy chapter 7 are:

Hittites: These were a people that went to war against the people of God using a spirit of: Terror, confusion, and fear. It is a mind control that tries to break you down with an emotional play of bad news of the imagination. The "what if's" of the unknown.

Have you ever gotten a rash, a pain, or a bump that you didn't have an explanation for and until you went to the doctor to get it checked out your imagination went wild with the "what if it is this or that?"

Do you ever watch the news and hear about thieves, murderers, and dishonesty leaving with the feeling that you'll be the next victim if you don't take precautions? Instead of saying hello with friendship and kindness you find yourself perceiving everyone with suspicion?

Fear will try to suck the LIFE of Christ from you through disagreements, justification of right and wrong, oppression, depression, deflation, and emptiness. Paul told his son Timothy to beware of this "familiar spirit" and how it operates within you. It is in the world, but greater is Christ in you than this familiar spirit. You were given the Holy Spirit that unveils Love, Power, and a sound mind, not a spirit of fear. (2 Timothy 1:7).

"I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.?My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; The humble shall hear of it and be glad.?Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.?I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears" (Psalms 34:1-4).

"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me" (Psalms 23:4).

Girgashites: A people that were known to manipulate and control through the ignorance of the people, and the partial truths of the controllers. These people have an agenda and will use the word of God to justify their position within the body of Christ by mixing it with man's logic and reason instead of the Spirit of God. This familiar spirit will remind you of your past, keep you busy in a works mentality for the Lord, and remind you that you'll never be good enough until you get to heaven someday in your future. There is no anointing identified with this spirit, but legalism using the word of God.

"But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him."?But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. ?For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. ?Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.?These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.?But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For "who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ" (1 Corinthians 2:9-16).

You will prosper as your soul prospers – as your mind is transformed and renewed as the mind of Christ (3 John 1:2).

This spirit was not part of Moses' original assignment given by God (Exodus 3:8). This spirit was birthed in the wilderness after crossing the Red Sea.

Amorites: Pride, exhaustion, arrogance. Thinking being a Christian gives certain privileges to judge others. This familiar spirit is rampant in the church today.

"Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you" (Matthew 7:1).

"But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. ?For this reason, many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep" (1 Corinthians 11:28-30).

"Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." (Luke 23:34).

"Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time"(1 Peter 5:6).

"Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5). These arguments will always have an identification of your opinion of good or bad. Either way it comes from the Tree of Knowledge, not the Tree of Life.

"Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18).

Canaanites: peddlers, merchants trying to sell you something. The personality of a used car sales personnel. Selling doves in the temple. This familiar spirit has a subtle rebellious nature that will attempt to be your friend, but underneath there is an agenda of co-dependency. There are many marriages governed by this spirit in the name of love. When Jesus speaks with the woman at the well who is living with a man after having five husbands He identifies with her situation of searching for true love in all the wrong places, led by a co-dependency spirit. "Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him/her will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." (John 4:13-14).

Perrizites: unwalled, without covering, doubtful independent spirit. A vagabond/wandering spirit going from church group to church group, but never really getting involved. This familiar spirit is indecisive, easily offended, miserable, never satisfied, easy finds the faults in others, sees the negatives of life and very critical. They pull energy from positive encouraging people like a magnetic. They may appear to be fun to be around, but soon their familiar spirit will surface.

"For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself" (John 5:26). God is reigning in a people in the earth today that have LIFE in themselves. The world should see and experience this LIFE in the people of God. "Let your light (your Christ LIFE) so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:16).

Hivites: Exclusive religious system that controls. This is a strong corporate system rather than a small group of people. This is a mindset stronghold on a larger portion. It filters its control into politics, education, media, race, culture, custom, gender. It is not led by love but control in the name of the religion of Christianity.

"The wise men are shamed, They are dismayed and caught. Behold, they have [manipulated and] rejected the [truth in the] word of the Lord, And what kind of wisdom and insight do they have?" (Jeremiah 8:9 AMP).

"For as he thinks in his heart, so is he [in behavior—one who manipulates]. He says to you,

"Eat and drink," Yet his heart is not with you [but it is begrudging the cost]." (Proverbs 23:7AMP).

Jebusites: This familiar spirit means the threshing floor. It re-sprouts from something that has been cut down, beaten, tested, troubled, or striped. The Tree of Knowledge was cut down by Jesus when he cursed the olive tree for not producing fruit. In the natural this tree was out of season to produce any fruit. Jesus was aware of that, but the cursing of the tree was symbolic for the children of God not producing any fruit from the Tree of Life upon a hurting generation. There was no love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control released from the priesthood at that time. Instead, they used the words from the Torah to hold the people in control and bondage with a wrath of God instead of the love of God.

The Jebusite spirit occupied the high place of Jerusalem called Zion. It was the one nation that Joshua was not able to conquer. Infact, it was many years later until David defeated them and took Jerusalem with Zion for the Kingdom of God in the earth (2 Samuel 5:6-10).

When going into spiritual warfare knowing God is with you, fighting the "spirit of fear" of the Hittites is usually a small hurdle to defeated. You and God together…you can do this. However, whenever "fear" comes it carried behind it the religious "ites" of the other gods identified as the other familiar spirit nations. They network together creating a fortress in your life and justification that "ites" are ok.

In Joshua 10:12-13 we read where he had the ability to command the sun to stand still, but could not defeat the Jebusites (Judges 1:8, 21). The Jebusite spirit is the Laodicea church John writes to in Revelation 3. It is a spirit that comes in peace and in need seeking to dwell together in love and peace. Remember it is a spirit of something that should have been destroyed completely, but came back as a small tender shoot of a tree stump that was hidden. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in Genesis 2 that produces the fruit of death was totally chopped down by Jesus cursing it physically, and spiritually hanging on the cross. In the mind of Christ Jesus, it has no place, yet today most of the church hangs around the new shoots that come forth in the mind of believers determining what is Good or Evil instead of What is God.

"The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords" (Psalm 55:21).

Jesus said, "To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne" (Revelation 3:21). The Jebusite/Laodicea church mingles with the systems of the world with opinions of right and wrong, good or bad as if they are the oracles of what Jesus would do, yet they function with spectator perspective instead of the heart of God in the middle of the situation.

It's easy to say that divorce is wrong, unless you're the one that desperately needs to get out of a bad situation. It's easy to say that abortion is wrong unless you're an unwed woman that was searching for love in the wrong place and had been enticed by the preacher's son to sleep with him. It's easy to be negative against the LGBT community until you find out that your child was at the nightclub that was attacked, and you lost your child there never knowing their relationship preference. Then the reality check as a parent to realize your home was not a safe place for your child. They didn't feel enough of their parent's love to share their heart, and now their dead.

So much of the world issues will challenge our position as Christians, but the real war of Armageddon is not the people around us, but our relationship with Christ Jesus.

The Jebusite spirit is the biggest "Ite" to overcome, but in doing so puts you able to rule and reign with Christ/in Christ on the earth today. All the other enemies of God came with swords to fight Joshua. The Jebusites came with complacency of eating yesterday's old bread and talking about the same day.

Remember when "men where men, and women knew their place?"

Remember when "children were to be seen and not heard?"

Remember when: Women couldn't speak in church? It was there fault for being too pretty if a man molested or raped her? It was her fault if the children didn't listen to their father. It was her fault if the house wasn't cleaned, the washing wasn't done, the supper wasn't ready, the children weren't behaved, the paycheck wasn't big enough, and of course she wasn't prepared to please her man at the end of the day…all came down on her responsibility bringing guilt, shame, and oppression. This is the workings of familiar spirits passed down through time bringing grieving to the Holy Spirit or the "helpmate" to humanity Genesis 2 refers to as WOMAN – the Man birthed from within.

The needy dominance of masculinity covering the natural woman filtered into the spiritual understanding of what it means as the corporate body of Christ Jesus to Be the Bride of Christ. At the resurrection of Jesus Christ equality was returned for woman and man to be together as one new man in the earth.

"For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity" (Ephesians 2:14-16).

Jesus gave His disciples an assignment before He went to the cross telling them to go preach saying the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God is at hand – NOW. The evidence of this would be seen in healing, cleansing, raising the dead, and casting out the enemies of God – the "ites" in the mind of the people. (Math 10:7-8, Luke 9:1-2). They had to encounter the spirit of pride before they crossed to experience Calvary within themselves to become the corporate church in Acts 2.

When the bride of Christ arises clothed without spot or wrinkle in her heart there will be no more fear of devils and demons. No more do's and don'ts, right or wrong. Faithfulness is evident not because if you don't there is a consequence, but because the Love desire is so strong that temptation doesn't even exist in you. It has nothing to attach itself to.

The Jebusite spirit functions with the tools of delay and suspend your inheritance. It's not an obvious sin, but a complacency in our life that we allow to continue in a way of thinking, or a conduct in a way we respond with our emotions. Does it look good, feel good, seem good, taste good, sound good within yourself? Is this good from the Tree of Knowledge meaning there could also be a "bad" choice?

It is the bride of Christ who has made herself ready by choosing to share the essence of the fruit of the Holy Spirit from the Tree of Life to the world. She entrusts by faith that the Love and power of God released through the amazing Grace and Mercy found in the Holy of Holies will overpower and darkness around her, any "ites" that try to come against her. "I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, "Alleluia! For the Lord God, Omnipotent reigns! ?Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready." ?And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints" (Revelation 19:6-8).

The offspring of David can conquer the Jebusite Spirit. David was known as the apple of God's eye (Psalms 17:8). He functioned with the heart of the Father to rule and reign, even when he did something wrong, he quickly repented asking for forgiveness so that in his stumbling, he got back up.

Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him." (John 11:9-10).

That light is Christ in you (Col. 1:27).. When we as believers in Jesus Christ who have possession of the WORD use it mingled with the familiar spirits, the familiar essence from the Tree of Knowledge asking, "Did God say?" we open a back door for the enemy of God to attack the next generation with the fruit of death from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

What is Good for spiritual food?

The Tree of Life? Yes.

The other trees in the garden of God? Yes, those too (Genesis 2:9).

The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil? NO!! It carries the name "good," but it will bring death to the generations of your future.

"The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.?Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads" (Genesis 2:7-10).

What water flows from your inner most self? Do the words of your mouth and the mediations of your heart please the Father that He can trust you to rule and reign as He would? Would He be able to place His name and identity on the decrees you speak in the world?

Let us repent with humbleness and forgiveness where we have allowed these "ites" into the Temple of God, our hearts and minds rising with the Face of God that speaks LIFE, LOVE, and LIGHT.

"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48).

Do you see the face of God when you look in the mirror? Do you see: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control?

How you see yourself in the mirror is what you have to give to others

"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known" (1 Corinthians 13:12).