See, it's seductive; and then it's threatening. Seductive - it's a goddess of love and seduction; but it's also a goddess of war. It will be violent against you. You've got to learn to be able to stand up in the Lord, to overcome the thing. You find it in the workplace; in homes; in churches; or in organisations. There will be the seductive side - in my experience, it's firstly by flattery. Oh pastor, you're so wonderful, your gifts are wonderful, I'm just so touched; but you can feel there's a lack of authenticity in it. There is genuine honour; but “flattery works ruin”, the Bible says. Sometimes it's flirting, slightly seductive talk, innuendos - all that kind of thing. It goes on in the workplace, in relationships - it just has hints of sexuality in it. That's to seduce, to draw people, and if you've got a broken marriage, or pain or struggle in your marriage, then that's the thing that will draw you away, and seduce you into something that will destroy you.
#9 - They can seduce people by false prophetic words, that can seduce people into agreeing with them, because they seem spiritual. People operating in this might seem spiritual, but if you look at the fruit, no one is built into the church - they just build to themselves. What I look for, in a leader - can you release other people, or not? If you can't release other people, then you're just building to yourself. There's something wrong with this - this is controlling. Are people being built into Jesus, or are they built to you? It's how this thing operates, and it's ghastly - horrendous. I hate the thing so much.
#10 - It's self-promoting. All kinds of ways of promoting self, usually by talking about what I can do; but also, criticising and undermining others. When you have a person with that spirit, they will smile to your face, but behind your back, they'll criticise you and run you down, and their strategy is very clear: undermine everyone, until in the end I'm the one, the last man standing.
They try and gain access to a pastor. If you pastor a church, they try and get near to you, by a process of serving, flattery, seductive, all that kind of thing. The idea is to gain control, gain your confidence, and your voice, and be the influencer in your life - not necessarily in charge, but just the one who's behind the scenes. It's horrendous! It can be hard to pick, because the person seems nice, and they do love Jesus, but they're broken, and a part of them is functioning under the influence of a spirit, that has trained them in this way of operating.
Repentance is required - you've got to deal with the spirit behind it, by leading the person to repentance. The only way through it is repentance. If you try to confront the person, if you try and have a meeting with them and say: listen, I need to talk about something I'm not happy with - you know what's going to happen?
Total Denial! No! They will deny so vehemently, what you know to be a fact, that you will feel ‘confused’, as to whether you got it right. The denial is so strong. They will literally lie, straight to your face, because they don't want to lose control.
Then, if the denial doesn't work, and you keep pressing in with the facts – and you've got to have those facts, if you're ever going to confront a person who's got that spirit operating. These are the facts; you present the facts; and you have a witness to the facts... I've had people sabotage my witnesses, and then I'm left with egg all over me, like I'm just an idiot. I've failed a few times, and I’ve had to get smart about how to deal with this thing now. So first they deny… then they'll blame you! It will suddenly turn; and it's all on you - you're being blamed! They will accuse you! So now it's turned from denial, to now attacking.
If none of that works, and you remain resolute… then they collapse in tears! And still, it's still not taking responsibility. It's trying to get you to feel sorry for them, so you take your eyes off what the issue is - they refuse to deal with the issue. It's horrendous!
You've probably had some experiences, I've had a few experiences with it; but in the end, I could very accurately predict it! I could tell people: this is what's going to happen; and they'd say: man, it happened just like you said!
In secular society, they might call them a narcissist. Anyway, how are we going to get free? There's an anointing of the Holy Spirit that breaks the yoke. One of the great things I love is that the Bible tells us of people that overcame that spirit, but it always requires repentance. Samson was overcome by that spirit, lost his vision, became confused, lost his anointing, lost his strength… but when he repented, God restored his strength, and he stood up!