THE LORD SAYS WE CAN “TAKE
UP SERPENTS”
A few years ago I went to
get my hearing checked. The doctor briefly looked at my ears, which were fine,
then arrogantly went on to say, “Your nasal passages are partially blocked, but
I guess you’ve learned to live with that.” Did I need to hear his negative
report? NO! But once we hear something, it’s hard to un-hear it. The devil
counts on that. He’ll bring up the bad report as often as he can, to hurt us or
make us afraid.
Psalm 140:3 tells us: “They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent’s; the
poison of vipers is on their lips.” Even if
people don’t mean it, their words can be used as powerful curses against us.
I got laryngitis over the
Christmas holiday and went to the doctor as soon as I got home. The meds took
care of it. But somehow it seemed to linger on. The devil was happy to remind
me of what the doctor had said about my nasal passages and those awful words
(curses) spoken against me, along with me thinking I was feeling some fluid
down deep in my lungs, well, it started to get me fearful. I even went and got
some expectorant, but there was no fluid in my lungs to bring up. Something was
not right.
So this morning I had my
roommate Jane pray for me. When she finished, I knew there was one more thing
to do. We rebuked a spiritual snake that had gotten ahold of me. It wasn’t scary
or weird, no ectoplasm or anything like that. We just spoke the words and
spiritually knew it was done. Very awesome. The Spirit of the Lord led us to
pull the snake out and cut its head off.
When Jesus appeared back on earth after He was
raised from the dead, He met with His eleven disciples and gave them what has
been called, The Great Commission.
“And he said unto them, ‘Go ye into all the world, and
preach the gospel to every creature. And these signs shall
follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall
speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any
deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and
they shall recover’” (Mark 16: 15,17,18).
Everybody knows about the
first part, to preach the gospel, but we don’t seem to know much about the
other parts. I looked up the words “take up,” concerning serpents. They mean, “to
draw up like you’d pull a fish up out of water,” “to take off or away something
that is attached,” and “to remove.” Today we took up that serpent, right out of
me. Snakes are sneaky and deceptive, like the snake in the Garden of Eden. They
are liars. This snake was telling me I had something still wrong with my lungs
and larynx and it brought back the words of that doctor as well, but it was all
a lie!
I’ve heard of other people
having that happen too. They had a car accident or something in the past and
the snakes brought up the thoughts, the emotions and even the symptoms from the
incident, but it was all a lie. As soon as the revelation came from the Lord
that it was a snake, they rebuked it and pulled it off and the symptoms instantly
went away. Praise God.
In Acts 28 Paul and others
were shipwrecked on an island. Paul literally pulled off a venomous
serpent.
“The
islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all
because it was raining and cold. Paul gathered a pile of
brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat,
fastened itself on his hand.
“When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his
hand, they
said to each other, ‘This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from
the sea, the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live.’
“But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and
suffered no ill effects. The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall
dead; but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him,
they changed their minds and said he was a god” (Acts 28: 2-6).
Psalm 91:13
says: “You will
overpower the strongest lions and the most deadly snakes.”
Even from the time
of Adam and Eve, snakes have been around to trick mankind by lies and deception.
We even use the phrase today, “He (or she) is such a snake!” Revelation 12: 9
calls the adversary, “that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which
deceiveth the whole world.”
Satan was able to
deceive me by using a real sickness (laryngitis) mixed with the cursing words
of that doctor, to set me up with a spiritual snake to keep me thinking something
was physically wrong with me. But the Lord once again set me free.
Don’t let the
snakes bite you!
Love, Carolyn
This weekend thru
Tuesday, my first book, WINGS: A JOURNEY IN FAITH is !!!FREE!!!
60 great short true stories of God’s
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If you don’t have Kindle,
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