God authorizes apostles to represent Him through assignments and alignments. Once apostles receive assignment, God brings others into alignment with their assignments. Authority flows toward assignment–you have the authority of your assignment—aligning with apostolic assignments positions you to function in that authority as the apostle functions in his.
All authority comes from the King and flows toward His assignments. As Head of the Body, He makes all assignments, authorizations, and alignments work together so they accomplish kingdom purposes.
In this way, kingdom consensus combines kingdom coalitions to produce kingdom cooperation and collaboration. Kingdom systems are made by aligning assignments. Jesus has infinite genius to appropriate systematic spiritual dynamics, and the power of Holy Spirit in each of us that operates in these assignments, in a way that completely fulfills both personal destinies and corporate purposes.
In other words, the quickest and most efficient pathway to personal destiny fulfillment always lies in our surrender to align ourselves with apostolic assignments given by Jesus.
All the assignments come from Jesus; we submit to kingdom leadership because we are submitted to Jesus. This is the ideal seldom seen, difficult to experience, because we have lost so much of the kingdom norms. Without a good understanding of kingdom protocols, we fail to recognize these systematic spiritual dynamics. And, our distaste with religious institutions and substitutes for this kingdom leadership has made us leery of nearly all leadership dynamics. Our rejection of institutional bureaucracies has left us longing for Jesus to allow us all to be free spirits and turned the kingdom into a charismatic Woodstock. We mistake chaos for freedom, hoping God will somehow just make it all work out.
Enter Leviathan, hell’s answer to God’s systematic spiritual dynamics. Leviathan is a systematic spiritual delusion, the opposite spirit to that which functions in kingdom dynamics.
As we examine the many Scriptures that directly discuss the spiritual dynamics of Leviathan, and parallel them with the manifestations of the serpent/dragon who heads the spiritual conspiracy against the Messianic King, we see that Leviathan is a system of spiritual coalitions functioning strategically in a region, with an agenda to pervert God’s purpose for that region with confusion, substitution, and delusional pride. We should define pride as the distraction that produces substitution, the distortion of purpose that we welcome when we accept deceptions about ourselves instead of pursuing the rule of God.
Whatever Jesus is for, hell is against. We wrestle with the spiritual entities that produce the spiritual conditions called, “this present darkness.” The agenda of darkness is simply to avoid and empty the world of light. To defeat this darkness, we must reveal the Light of His Glory, punching holes at strategic points in the occult veil that Leviathan spreads over a region. Light pours through these punched holes and floods the region: “the knowledge of the Glory of the Lord fills the region as waters cover the sea.”
The punched holes become portals or windows through which God outpours Blessing for Curse, Glory for Pride, freedom for captivity, sight for blindness, favor for poverty, and rejection for the time of God’s acceptance!
Step 1 – Spiritual Refuge
“Church” has become a dangerous place. The stories about this syndrome are pretty extensive: first for leaders, because they have been drowned by false expectations created by warped “church growth” strategies. The disappearance of the “middle class of churchanity” has driven leaders out of the ministry: leaders are leaving ministry at an 1,800-per-month clip for various reasons. The expectation that every church of less than 200 should be larger is a delusion that drives many leaders out of ministry. Chad Hall says, “Perhaps more significant than the rise in the extremes is the decline of the middle: consider the disappearance of the middle-class, the demise of mid-sized companies, the loss of status for anything considered average and the polarization of politics in America. Our tastes and choices are shifting away from the middle and toward the extremes.”
We have moved toward extremes of massive or micro. Some demand intimacy at the expense of kingdom coalitions and other demand massive so they disappear in terms of accountability in the crowd.
The “middle class churches” are disappearing rapidly as those with the expectation that church and Disney World should merge so their children and youth will “want to go to church” shop churches in the city to find the mega-flavor they enjoy most. The “show” must be entertaining. The leaders must look like someone who could win “Dancing with the Apostles,” and the worship band should sound like something downloadable from “iPlod.” God forbid the leaders aren’t sculpted and beautiful! This level of Leviathan pride is simply stated as: “I deserve the highest level of professionalism, excellence, and identity because I’m so unbelievably hip myself!”
The middle class is also disappearing as another large demographic disappears into smaller expressions of church-anity, often something that is not and cannot function as an Ecclesia at all, that allows people to avoid accountability and nearly any form of leadership. This false refuge is another form of escapism that has fragmented the functional Ecclesia as millions of believers redefine “church” to fit their fears, rejections, and need for everything in their lives to be “tailor-fitted.”
We do not have refuge in these dysfunctional versions of church-anity in this season of confrontation with Leviathan; these dysfunctional forms manifest an invasion of Leviathan into the cultural mountain labeled “church.”
Isaiah records God’s promise of refuge in a season when He intends to deal with the dysfunctional substitutes to His expectations for Israel. “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon You, because he commits himself to You.” After making several specific observations about getting into this place of refuge, Isaiah says, “Because God is sure to come from His place to visit the people on earth [for an accounting of His expectations].” We need not fear the season of visitation! We have a refuge!
He will “visit” the people and the Leviathan. Some translations say, “Punish.” However, the sense of the Hebrew word, paqad, is basically “number.” When applied to specific situations, it is used to speak of “an accounting for expectations.” Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament says, “the basic meaning is to exercise oversight over a subordinate, either in the form of inspection or of taking action to cause a considerable change in the conditions of the subordinate, either for the better or for the worse.” From this root, Hebrew language also says, “visitation, overseer, officer.” Also, words for “allocation, appointment.” This is the root of the word for “precepts, statutes, commandments” because it speaks of God’s expectations.
God’s expectations and assignments have been clearly communicated, and God is arriving for a visit to account whether His expectations are being met.
God plants a vineyard expecting grapes, an apple tree expecting apples, a nation expecting that nation to fulfill His expectations in their specific assignments, purpose, culture, and mission. God shares His expectations, and visits for an accounting to see if His expectations are being met; He shows up to bring people, places, and generations to account for what He expected of them, and He uses the originating assignment parameters to make that decision and subsequent correction so the enterprise returns to its originating purpose.
Jesus made the same reference to His own season of ministry: “One stone will not be left upon another because you failed to recognize the time of your visitation.” [Luke 19:44] The Greek word for “visitation” [episcope], means “investigation, inspection, oversight, officer, elder,” the word from which we get “bishop,” which means, “overseer.” In other words, this verse speaks the Greek word that answers directly to Hebrew word Isaiah uses.
Jesus also mentions that God has sent prophets and leaders previously to bring His people to account only to have them persecuted and murdered. Jesus makes it clear that God has now sent His Son to bring them to account: they murdered Him as well!
This is the sense in which I use the word, “assignments.” God has expectations for people, places, and generations, and He will periodically “visit” them to measure how well they are fulfilling assignment, maintaining alignment and maturing agreement. This is the only way to meet His expectations. He will deal strongly with people, places, and generations who have wandered off task, perverted His expectations by substituting their own, and He will deal strongly with His enemies who have perverted His expectations for people, places, and generations.
In the times of visitation, God’s righteous remnant can stand in refuge while a great cacophony of distress noises around them because they are being positioned to reset the expectations of God after the time of accounting. Our refuge is in our agreement with God’s assignments and our alignment with God’s authority.
So, we put Isaiah 27:1 with 26:21 in order to get the full scope of what Isaiah says about Leviathan. This enemy has come out of the sea and involved himself in God’s expectations for His people, place, and generation. In this picture, we understand that a time of visitation means “open season for Leviathan hunting.”
Step 2 – Spiritual Restoration
Isaiah does not bring the division between verse 21 and Chapter 27:1. They read together. Verse 2 turns to another subject in response to “in that day,” but verse 1 is the conclusion of the discussion of Chapter 26. During a season of visitation, God brings the Leviathan to account for involving himself in God’s affairs.
Leviathan comes out of the sea, inserts and intertwines itself within God’s assignment and perverts His expectations (His Word). Leviathan is a systematic spiritual delusion that functions in a culture to pervert its assignment with substitutes. The system affects the beliefs, values, and behavior of the people in a place during a time. People and time are a generation; people and a place are a culture.
To better understand this scenario, recall Jesus’ discussion of the kingdom by the parable of the wheat and weeds. A man sowed wheat in a field but during the night an enemy sowed weeds. When the seeds germinated, it was obvious that weeds had been sown among the wheat, and some suggested that the weeds should be removed. To this the Master says, “No, you will destroy the whole field doing that. Wait until the time of harvest (accounting for expected return) and then separate the weed seeds into the fire. We don’t want to plant wheat and weeds next year.”
God deals with the separation of wheat and weeds in the day of visitation because the interwoven invasion of Leviathan must be dealt with strategically to avoid further damage and destruction to the people, place, and generation Leviathan has invaded. Otherwise, God would destroy the whole thing like Sodom and start over. But, He is not destroying the whole thing and starting over! He has put the remnant into refuge from which to partner with Him. He is doing a surgical strike against an ancient foe.
That He isn’t destroying the whole thing and starting over is made clear in Verse 2 with the song of the Vineyard: “During the same time, a new song for the pure wine will be sung! I, the LORD, will watch over the vineyard and tend its fruitful vines. Each day I will water them; day and night I will watch to keep enemies away. My anger will be satisfied. If I find briers and thorns bothering her, I will burn them up. Enemies will be spared only if they surrender to My power.”
God will deal with this Leviathan system that has invaded. He will restore His expectations to His dominion so that His paqad expectations have dominion. Keep in mind that the measurement of success in kingdom isn’t the disappearance of things that do not meet God’s expectations but the dominion of His expectations over these enemies. Do not fall for the idea that we will only see the kingdom of God when everybody is born again! God’s expectations can be realized by His remnant so that His enemies surrender to His expectations. Psalm 110 says He will rule in the midst of His enemies!
Isaiah introduces the spiritual entity, Leviathan, who is the dragon of the sea, as the culprit behind a culture-wide delusion. God will visit the Leviathan and bring him to account for coming out of the sea and intertwining himself in God’s affairs and assignments.
Leviathan appears a surprising number of times in Scripture. The picture of a very real physical creature also depicts a very real, spiritual condition. In the picture, we see a spiritual condition personified in the Garden of Eden and manifesting throughout history to reach ultimate exposure in the days of ultimates as that “old serpent or dragon, satan.” Revelation 12:9 says, “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world.”
Two words are used here, “Livyathan and Tanniyn.” The first term is transliterated “Leviathan.” It is identified as a living creature in many accounts while appearing figuratively or prophetically to represent manifestations of a very real systematic spiritual delusion in others. The second term comes from the basic word, “tan,” to speak of serpents, sea or river monsters, dragons, whales, and poisonous snakes. We are not trying to track down these meanings in terms of dinosaurs and mythical creatures; we are looking wide-eyed at the revelation of a spiritual condition and systematic function God gives through the use of this identity.
“Leviathan” is a transliteration of the Hebrew that comes from the root word, lavah, “to join together” with a sense of “bringing together.” A variation serves as a root for “wreath, twist, coiling.” Isaiah notes the “systematic joining and interweaving” of this spiritual condition with the terms, “piercing” and “twisting.”
Since Isaiah is speaking of Leviathan in prophetic language as well as the sword of the Lord that will be visited upon Leviathan and destroy or ruin the Tanniyn of the sea, we should learn why this picture is being presented so we can understand the spiritual revelation. From its name and descriptors, we see its character and how it works. It inserts into the culture and moves into place creating a spiritual condition, weaving itself into a people, place, or generation. In particular, we see the strategic and systematic way into which this spiritual condition becomes interwoven into the culture so that people, places, and generations are influenced and controlled by the Leviathan delusion.
Have you asked yourself or said aloud, at any time in the last decade, “How can people be so blind?” Did you ever say, “How can people be so easily lead around by obviously foolish, fantastical, and foundationless ideas?” Have you said, “It seems that the population is walking around dazed?” Perceptive and prophetic people commonly have this spiritual perspective with regards to a systematic spiritual delusion produced by Leviathan.
Leviathans live in the deep waters of the sea, come out of the sea to function in conspiracy against God’s purposes. “The sea” represents “humanity.” I propose that the “dragon or tan” represents this spiritual condition present in the populations, the ever-present spiritual conspiracy against Messiah that has been at work since Eden to thwart and frustrate the purposes of God in the earth. The “Leviathan” represents a specific, systematic, spiritual delusion of pride, a dominant and dominating characteristic of this spiritual conspiracy, rooted in humanity that weaves itself into place, people, and generation.
Leviathan in an individual is a root of pride. Pride in a culture is a Leviathan system. As this systematic spiritual delusion is expressed in a culture, specific characteristics of this principality are exhibited in the beliefs, values, and behaviors of the people living in that place.
“Systematic” answers to the characteristics of Leviathan’s scaled hide and the sense of the root word, lavah, “to join together, woven, wreath, twisting, coiling.” His scales overlap to create a system skin that is difficult to pierce, with a protective of overlapping that symbolizes the coalitions and patterns this spirit manifests in the seven cultural mountains. Leviathan joins coalitions of delusion into every aspect of society. With this patterned protection in place, it seems to hold together when attacked. It also maintains a pattern of growth through a coalition of movable parts.
A Leviathan pierces and weaves its way into a people, place, and generation in a way that protects the whole systematic delusion from outside attack. The system holds together and its overlapping layers make it seem impossible to penetrate, and intimidatingly fierce.
When we look at the inroads of delusion in the seven aspects of American culture, we discover a philosophical system that gradually perverts the foundations of medicine, education, arts, government, business, media, family, and religion. None escapes the pollution because each is infiltrated with this penetrating invasion, weaving itself into the fabric to produce a different pattern from that produced by God’s expectations.
For example, Leviathan thinking has so inserted and woven itself into medicine that what should be the safest place in the universe is now the most dangerous: the most dangerous place for a baby in modern America is his mother’s womb. A baby is more likely to be killed in his mother’s womb than anywhere else on earth! In New York City alone more than 80,000 babies are aborted each year, and in some demographics more than 60% are aborted! While not all medical personnel participate or approve of this spiritual condition; none are able to stop it.
“Spiritual” answers to the character of the Leviathan spirit. We can recognize any demon by its character, and we often name a spirit by its character. Paul says, “God has not given us a spirit of fear.” A spirit of fear is a demon most easily recognized by its character. Paul identifies a more systematic spiritual condition in Ephesians 2:2 as “the prince of the power of the air” and clarifies that this is “the spirit that is operating among and within the obstinate, rebellious children.” Paul says pre-saved people are influenced and controlled in their behaviors by this principality. Leviathan represents a manifestation of this kind of darkness. It is a spiritual system.
Leviathan is identified in Job 41 and here in Isaiah 28 with pride, or as God tells Job, as “the king of the children of pride.” In other words, Leviathan senses that he is impossibly powerful, overwhelming in his dominance, and becomes arrogant in his intimidation. He sees himself as undefeatable. He begins to throw his weight around, consuming more and more of the culture, growing fat by absorbing increasing amounts of the values, beliefs, and behaviors of the people, place, and generation. Leviathan is insatiable in its conquest of a people, in a place because it inserts and weaves itself into the fabric of culture as a way of substituting the expectations of people for the expectations of God.
A spiritual system affects the behavior of a people by perverting their beliefs and values. The purpose of God for that people and place becomes something foreign to the culture. Certainly, this is a clear picture of modern American culture! At times this culture ran nearly parallel with Scripture; now, it runs cross grain to Scripture.
“Delusion” answers to the understanding that pride is deception, and pride developed at a cultural level becomes a “strong delusion.” Isaiah 28 speaks of the “crown or wreath of pride.” Ephraim is “drunk” with pride, moving from deception and delusion into drunkenness. This is the picture of Leviathan interwoven into a culture, systematically deceiving the generation.
Delusions strike deeply into the minds of people driven by invading their beliefs. They believe someone is in love with them. They believe they have a great talent or ability unrecognized that makes them an exception or more valuable. They believe they are persecuted and treated unfairly or unjustly as a way of understanding their present conditions. They believe they are suffering from some malady undetectable to tests and examination. They believe people in their lives are betraying them or being unfaithful to them. They believe, and the belief affects behavior in a fundamental way.
Delusions provide a justification for personal problems. Delusions provide an explanation for why others succeed, have more money, friends, and happiness. Delusions invest value into things that are worthless as symbols of a fantasy. Delusions are escapes from realities too difficult to face.
Delusions are another level of deception because they affect beliefs, values, and behavior in a more systematic way.
Pride is deception. Pride is satan’s spiritual DNA and essential character. He is the father of lies because his DNA is deceptive pride. He raised his five-fingered fist in the face of God and said, “I will” five times, and each of his “I will” deceptions define the delusions of pride.
Step 3 – Spiritual Retribution
God says He will visit the Leviathan with His sword. In other words, He will bring this Leviathan system to account with the very expectations He has for the people, place, and generation being held captive by this systematic spiritual delusion. This serpent inserted itself into God’s designs and twisted them into perversions, piercing weaving itself into the fabric of His designed purpose and using God’s people, places, and generations to produce an unholy result. Upon arrival for an accounting of His expectations, Jehovah sees that Leviathan has usurped His purposes and influenced and controlled His people by systematic deception.
So, He will lift and wield His Sword, His Word, the rhema of the Spirit, a revelation of His expectations. He will again speak His expectations and purposes over that people, place, and generation with the authority of the Originator. When we look at Isaiah 28, we will hear the phrasing, “precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little.”
The Message version says, “He said before, ‘This is the time and place to rest, to give rest to the weary. This is the place to lay down your burden.’ But they won’t listen. So, God will start over with the simple basics and address them in baby talk, one syllable at a time – “Da, da, da, da, blah, blah, blah, blah. That’s a good little girl, that’s a good little boy.”
In other words, the revelation that visits Leviathan will be an empowered Word of restoration. All transformation is restoration because God is restoring His expectations during a season of visitation.
Three specific characteristics of God’s Sword against Leviathan: unrelenting (qasheh), massive (gadowl), and sharp (chazaq). The Word that will “visit to bring to account” the Leviathan will have these characteristics, and it will also slay or ruin the dragon in the sea. God’s Word will strategically deal with the interwoven serpent and will strike so hard that the source of this systematic spiritual delusion will be ruined or destroyed among the population.
To understand the Leviathan and God’s Sword, we must understand the contrast between what God is doing to establish His kingdom purposes and what the enemy is doing to frustrate that establishing. God invested His expectations in people, place, and generation: He expects grapes so He plants a vineyard; He comes for an accounting of the vineyard to see if His expectations have been met. This is the sense of God walking with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. This is the sense of God’s leadership strategies throughout history. This is the sense of the Incarnation. This is the sense of the New Testament kingdom leadership strategy of discipling. This is how God deals with men, nations, and generations. This is one of “the ways of God.”
When God invests purpose, hell invests perversion of purpose. To understand transformation and the process through which it arrives, we must comprehend purpose because all transformation is restoration. God removes the delusion in order to establish the authentic. In other words, to speak of city transformation, we must have a very clear picture of what our city would look like in full restoration because the transformation will return the city to God’s original expectations. No matter how perverted the work of hell, how far afield the wandering of culture, or how deep the stain of blood on the ground, God maintains His insistence upon original purpose and empowers that Word to be spoken with authority!
God’s purpose cannot be destroyed because the power of the Cross, the Life of the Resurrection, the Authority of the Ascension, and the Intercession of Jesus guarantees that full restoration of purpose is possible so fulfillment of that purpose can be realized!
Once the Leviathan is engaged with the restorative Word, the effort must be unrelenting. We cannot pierce this monster without finishing the job! The systematic spiritual delusion, like overlapping scales, protects the serpent from piercing. Once God reveals the fatal flaws of that system, we must engage the monster with the idea that we will not stop until he is dead!
The indigenous people of North Florida killed alligators by driving a long, slender tree into its open mouth. They would cut down a tall tree, trim off its branches and sharpen one end to form a long pole. Several young men would hold onto it in pairs, and approach a gator. When the gator would open its mouth, they would thrust the pole into the gator and continue thrusting until they had driven it to the tail!
The most powerful part of Leviathan, his mouth, is the place of his vulnerability. His boasting is his fatal flaw. While the scales do not allow for piercing, the mouth does! The terror of facing that open mouth certainly makes gator hunters think twice, but God’s Sword must be thrust completely through the vitals of the beast. We do not want to wound it! We want to remove it! So, once God’s visitation starts, the Sword must be unrelenting.
In this same way, the Leviathan response must be massive. It cannot be piecemeal or patchwork in terms of dealing with the systematic spiritual delusion. Efforts to win “moral victories” that merely scratch at the scales or play games with the beast only stir the monster to greater delusion. Harassing the Leviathan will cause the system to rise up in defense, lead with its strengths, and increase its level of intimidation.
Efforts of this kind will bring discouragement to the warriors of God, and we have experienced this weariness for a decade. The monster cannot be tamed or domesticated! The Leviathan cannot be appeased or educated. God has allowed it to remain in place simply because any human effort to remove it would destroy the whole. The system is so entrenched that only God can unravel it. It is wrapped around the vitals of this region but must be destroyed in a way that does not sacrifice the vitals.
God introduces Job to His strategy of Leviathan hunting: “Can you hook a Leviathan with a fly rod or put a noose around his neck? Can you put a ring in his nose and lead him or secure him on a spike? Will he beg you for mercy and ask you for pity? Will he become your workhorse? Do you put Leviathan in a cage like a songbird or give him to your daughters like a kitten for play? Do you throw spears at his hide or harpoons at his head? If you attempt to wrestle him, you will always remember that struggle! It is useless to attempt his capture, and the hunter who tries will hit the ground hard!” God concludes by saying, “Of all creatures, Leviathan is the proudest, the king of pride.” Or, “Leviathan is the king of the children of pride.”
Leviathan is a system but the piercing Sword will deactivate the system at the source of its power and the resulting restoration will be massive. It is a territorial principality, entrenched and interwoven into the seven mountains. The Word of the Lord that brings it to account will be massive.
Then, Isaiah says that the Sword of the Lord will be sharp. This speaks of specific, strategic revelation: Not a blunt instrument to batter down the outside shell. This is scalpel-like precision. The sharpness of this rhema Sword of the Spirit speaks of a specific revelation of strategic words that punch holes in the occult veil blinding people’s minds. The holes will be punched at places in the veil that allow the inserted Word to penetrate to the source of spiritual power supporting and guiding the Leviathan’s spiritual structure.
Here, we must return in humility to wisdom; wisdom is strategy or the strategic use of revelation. Here, we must have a revitalization and maturation of our intercession and warfare. Here, we must have some mighty men and women like David developed in the wilderness. Here, we must immediately remove ourselves from the silly and supercilious intercession left when the intercessors went home bruised and discouraged from Leviathan wrestling.
Move away from the “internet conspiracy wonders” wishing to do intercession and warfare from a vantage point of “inside information.” This represents a Leviathan insertion into our regional intercession, people believing themselves to be more than they are, a product of illegitimate leadership and warfare malpractice. Out of place. Out of mind. Out of order. This kind of intercession must be marginalized from the strategy of God that will release a sharp sword with surgical strike capabilities.
The word, chazaq, speaks to the concept of the strengths of something reaches its greatest use or design, and with respect to a sword, it refers to its tensile strength and sharpness, or ability to hold an edge. Only the strongest steel can maintain sharpness in use. The best scalpels are made with hardened and tempered steel, or even high carbon steel. Modern scalpels made are coated with Zirconium Nitride to improve and retain sharpness.
So, whatever condition our warfare readiness may have been, or whatever strategy we have employed in the past, dealing with Leviathan requires us to run into the refuge of God’s visitation. It is time for new weaponizing and training. It is time, perhaps most of all, for a deeper level of humility and surrender, submission and obedience, agreement and alignment with apostolic assignment. Any holes in our armor or pride in our souls will make us vulnerable to the same fatal flaw we intend to exploit to defeat Leviathan.
Step 4 – Spiritual Revolution
Isaiah says that God has been repeating the same message over and over, but the leaders of Israel are stupid with drunkenness. They simply refuse to listen to the revelation of God’s expectations, insisting upon God speaking a different message. So, God will reset the foundation cornerstone and put a plumb line on the foundation wall these leaders have built.
Deception and delusion have moved into drunkenness. A stupor has overcome the leaders; an occult veil has blinded the masses.
This revolution is a revolution of the spirit of leadership. The crown or wreath of pride sits upon Samaria, the capital city. Destruction is certain for the seat of pride, the delusion that leads the whole culture away from its purpose and calling. This is the focus of the reset coming to the leadership dynamics of Israel. The strategy of God to deal with the system of delusion is to strategically impact the leadership: a new spiritual leadership dynamic will reverse the effects of the delusions of Leviathan.
The crown or wreath of pride speaks of the leadership delusion that must be eliminated in order for a new systematic spiritual dynamic to be established. When that occurs, the crown or wreath of Glory will be restored, and the expectations of the King will be the motivating influence of the culture. This returns that culture to beliefs, values, and behaviors more consistent with the kingdom of God. Isaiah says judges will love justice and warriors will have the courage to stand guard at the gates.
The drunkenness of pride a deep delusional deception so that leaders hear the repeated, simple revelation of what God wants for the culture over and over without really listening. Leviathan turns deception into delusion, and drunkenness in the leaders best positioned to affect reform. Isaiah calls this “the pride of a people brought low by drunkenness.” Drunkenness removes inhibitions, causes unsteadiness in forward movement, and identifiable behaviors motivated by delusions.
Isaiah 28:16 says, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “Look! I am placing a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a splendid corner stone, fixed and established as a foundation. He who believes in it will not be shaken.”
Understand “Zion” by its initial and primary use: the citadel in Jerusalem where David established kingdom. In that sense, “Zion” is the establishment of God’s kingdom by a people in a place at a time or during a generation. While whole books can be written about “Zion” from many perspectives, this simple understanding makes this verse clearer in its application.
The work, “Look,” says, “Spiritual awakening.” When Isaiah hears God say, “Behold!” He knows God is calling attention to something, and he knows that He is doing so because the people He is speaking to are not hearing or seeing because of an occult veil.
About a year ago, I went south to share in meetings some apostles. I went on assignment and in alignment. I went also because I heard God speak to me about a word Chuck Pierce had released for Florida. I didn’t hear the word personally, didn’t see any pictures or charts. I simply heard someone tell me that Chuck had a word for Florida in which he saw a dark ribbon like a snake running through the state from south to north, so I looked up the word. I went that weekend, changing my schedule in obedience to the assignment, because God told me it was time to learn my assignment with reference to this word from Chuck Pierce. (I was in Brasil at the time Chuck released this revelation, but I knew Chuck was in Florida and knew that the word was something I needed to hear. I went looking for it.)
During the conference while preaching, the speaker turned toward me from the pulpit and prophesied, in part, “Don Lynch, there are thousands of people in Jacksonville and North Florida with your spiritual DNA, but they are blinded by an occult veil.” He went on to speak of some strategy to deal with it, and for a year we have been engaged in this strategic battle bringing us to where we are not as we begin this new year by the Jewish calendar.
Leviathan is the origin of the occult veil. God says, “Behold!” His voice contains the power of awakening! “See this!” He says. “I am setting a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a splendid cornerstone for the foundation, established. He who believes in it will not be moved to panic.”
Awakening overcomes the systematic spiritual delusion, the spiritual blindness, that Leviathan uses to veil the Light and Life of Jesus Christ. The battle for awakening is, in this sense, a battle with Leviathan.
In terms of revolutionary revival and reformation, God answers Leviathan with a reset of His original design and intention. He resets the foundations and recalibrates the meaning of “true” with a plumb line. This answers to the word “paqad” because God’s expectations haven’t changed, and He is resetting the foundation in order to restore the original design.
We can see this as well in the song of the Vineyard. To establish the vineyard that will produce the vintage God desires to drink, rootstock must be established and engrafting must be done. The rootstock is God’s systematic kingdom leadership dynamics, the apostles and prophets at the foundation of function; the grafted scions are true sons and daughters who align with the assignments of Jesus Christ. In the cornerstone picture, this means the authorized architecture of the building He is building will be assigned to leaders who can bring all the activities of His people together in a way that meets His expectations. In any case, a return to the original design is a first step toward giving God what He expects.
