Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Another Biblical Reference to Territorial Spirits

I've been doing some research lately about the Nephilim mentioned in scripture. If you're like most people, the word "Nephilim" doesn't ring a bell, so look up these references: Genesis 6:4 and Numbers 13:33 if you're interested. You won't get too much, which is why I'm having to do research!

Not intending to write about Nephilim today, I mention this to get your appetite whetted for a possible future entry on such. And it is the starting place for my musings today, because during this search I found the following which is ultimately providing information about Territorial Spirits/Authorities:

"The passage in Deuteronomy (32:8) reads 'When the Most High apportioned the nations, when he divided the sons of man. He established the borders of the peoples according to the number of 'the sons of Israel'.' The weird thing about this passage is how can the borders of all the peoples be established according to the sons of Israel when Israel hadn't already been established? The end seems to contradict the beginning. This contradiction doesn't appear in all Bibles, like the RSV based on the Greek Septuagint (dated from the 3rd century BCE), which state 'according to the number of the Sons of God.' This is also the wording in the Hebrew DSS version, which is now the oldest version of Deuteronomy we currently have, & what scholars now believe as the most authentic. "The implications are that the Sons of God are not just present at the beginning of the world, but also figure prominently in dividing nations. That implicates that while Yahweh chose Israel as his nation, each of the other Sons of God also received a nation to rule over."
(posted 12/25/02 by Krista on deliriumsrealm.com /delirium/articleview.asp?post=3)

[By the way, I don't agree with everything mentioned in this article and this is NOT a website I recommend. I place the reference information here only to give proper credit. One must realize that all Truth is God's Truth and sometimes we will find it in unusual places. It's really too bad that those who follow The Enemy know more about some things than we do. However, we can learn from them if we are careful in sorting out truth from lies. We must always be careful not to throw out the baby with the bathwater!]

What truth I am interesting in today is that we have scriptural mention of God dividing up the nations among his angels (children of God). Whether or not they were each given rule over these nations or they were given charge to cover them, we don't know. But we do see other references to this allotting territories when we read of Michael being one of the "Chief Princes," the "Prince of Persia" and the "Prince of Greece" in Daniel.

When God set these princes in charge is not specifically mentioned in Scripture. But based on how many nations have turned out, we can assume there were angels who were given charge of nations who eventually revolted against God and fell from his grace- whom we now call demons. I seriously doubt God would have given them charge of nations after they had fallen. The fact that Michael had to come and help Daniel's angel fight to get through the Princes mentioned above, shows they were/are obviously against God.

We can see how these Territorial Spirits are in charge of certain areas of physical land. Where those lines are drawn can often be observed based on the obvious spiritual changes one can sense (someone gifted in discernment) when moving from place to place, thereby crossing these lines of demarcation. There are documented cases of people being violently opposed to hearing the Gospel on one side of a street, but wonderfully open on the other side!

These divisions don't have to be just countries, but can also be states, counties, cities, and even areas of cities, etc.

Bottom line: there are spirits assigned to the geographical areas we live in. It would be wise for us to discern who they are and what they do so we can better learn how to defeat them.

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