This is second of a two-part study on the so-called Leviathan spirit, a demonic power that corrupts and twists communications, creating distrust and discord among Christians in all walks of life.

The Leviathan spirit is found working at all levels of Christian communication, both written and spoken, and driving wedges between individuals, church congregations, businesses and even whole denominations. It is a dangerous, implacable enemy of the Body of Christ, and one that we must be on our guard against.

Fortunately, as Christians, we have two very powerful strategies for defeating the works of the enemy—prayer and the Word of God. Both of these strategies are spelt out for us in Ephesians 6:10-18, by putting on the "whole armor of God." By doing this, God promises us that we can "stand firm against all strategies and tricks of the devil"—including the diabolical Leviathan spirit.

The Bible tells us to "use every piece of God's armor to resist the enemy—putting on the sturdy belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News, so that you will be fully prepared. In every battle you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows aimed at you by Satan. Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit."

Countering Leviathan With Scripture

We can fight the lies of the devil with God's truth and prayer, using the "sword of the Spirit"—the Word of God—as a mighty weapon to destroy and pull down principalities and powers. As Todd Bentley in his article says: "It is clear that natural weapons cannot destroy (Leviathan).

"Isaiah 27:1, 'In that day, the Lord with His severe sword, great and strong, will punish Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisted serpent, and He will slay the reptile that is in the sea'. It will take the sword of the Lord to overcome Leviathan; it is more than just a natural large sea mammal.

"When the Scripture speaks about the Leviathan, it is always in the sea or rivers. I asked God about this ... and He showed me the sea is a picture of the 'sea of humanity' ... The serpent-like creature ... is seen alongside ships—ships are prophetic of merchants and business.

"This spirit wants to destroy ministries, especially those at labor in the harvest. This spirit wants to destroy and bring down ministries, and ... he will do it with his greatest weapon, his tongue.

"The Leviathan wants you to be destroyed and carried away with lies, gossip, slander and accusations he will bring against you, and if he can, he will also carry away your friends and those who labor with you in the ministry. He wants people to believe the lie and accusation ... he wants to slander your character and bring reproach on your name.

"We can counter-attack this demonic assault of the tongue and lies, gossip and slander by claiming God's promises. 'The mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped' (Ps. 63:11) and 'No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord' (Is. 54:17).

"We need to speak this out, and act on it in prayer. We also want to be sure that this spirit has no truth in what it says. We don't want to give him a foothold by living in a lie in our lives. We can only effectively counter-attack this spirit by living in truth in every area of our lives."

In dealing with the sort of attacks and hurtful confusion Leviathan brings, it is all too easy to lash out and "counter-attack" the wrong person. It is the devil working through the Leviathan spirit we need to attack, not that friend or acquaintance or colleague who is as much a victim as we are. This is when a different spirit is needed—the spirit of humility.

Humility Defeats Leviathan

God is very big on meekness and humility in His Word and it will often take a lot of supernatural humility to handle what seem like unprovoked attacks and over-reactions from those around us. Adrian Ko, in an article "Spirit of Religion: Enemy of the Prophetic," says the key is to remain "Christ-like" under Leviathan-type attacks.

He says: "Be completely humble. If you are dealing with a particularly strong attack from a Leviathan spirit that is twisting all your communication and turning fellow Christians one against the other, the only way to defeat this is through humility. Remember, a soft answer turns away wrath (Prov. 15:1)."

It is important to realize that an attack by Leviathan won't be obvious—it will be cunning and deceptive by its very nature. Remember how it was with Eve in the Garden of Eden, when she was approached by a wily serpent. The serpent didn't come on strong and say something obvious like: "God is not who He says He is. If God is all powerful He can't be all good, and if He is all good, then He can't be all powerful."

No, the serpent in the Garden used Leviathan tactics—subtle and twisting. "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field ... and he said unto the woman, 'Yea, hath God said?'" Or as the New Living translation puts it: "'Really,' he asked the woman. 'Did God really say you must not eat any of the fruit in the garden,'" (Gen. 3:1). It softly and subtly just questioned God, planting a seed of doubt. Then moved on to appeal to Eve's pride—would she like to be "just like God, knowing everything?" (Gen. 3:5).

Interesting that the serpent did two things: he subtly planted a doubt by questioning God, twisting the truth of God's intention for Adam and Eve, and then he appealed to their pride—the "original sin" that ultimately got Lucifer thrown out of heaven. The devil doesn't have any new tricks, but he has lots of ways to re-use his old tricks! And humankind historically has fallen for them time and time again.

Effective Communication Works!

Good communication is a key to all relationships, including our relationship with God. Prayer is communication and it must always be two-way. If the devil can keep us away from prayer and communing with God, he is three-quarters of the way to knocking us right out of the game. That is why the Leviathan spirit is so dangerous among Christians!

As Scott M. Cutlip and Allen H. Center point out in their classic text "Effective Public Relations," the very essence of communication is two-way: "The word 'communication' is derived from the Latin 'communis', meaning 'common.' The purpose of communication is to establish commonness."

Cutlip and Center talked of "barriers to communication" including social, age, language and vocabulary, political and economic ... "and finally there is the constant roar of competition for people's attention." What they did not consider was that there was an intelligent, supernatural power that was actively working to distort and corrupt communications—in their wildest dreams they did not think of a "barrier to communication" as ruthless and fiendish as leviathan, with the avowed intent of creating misunderstandings and distrust, leading to confusion, suspicion and hostility, and ultimately to shattered relationships.

God has given us the twin weapons of prayer and the Sword of the Spirit—His Word—to fight against Leviathan and his wiles. As we open the Word of God, strategies leap out at us, and we see immediately why the Bible ultimately depicts Satan as a powerless and defeated foe, breast-stroking forever around a lake of fire.

I have many times recommended a daily dose of the Word of God as the best cure for what ails us. I have talked of God speaking to us through His Word, leading and guiding us, and cleansing us by the "washing of water by the Word" so we can be clean and holy channels for the end-time wealth transfer.

But as I go deeper and deeper into this study on Leviathan, I see just how crucial it is that we go to the Bible constantly for our personal strategies and battle-plans to defeat that "twisting and coiling" seven-headed serpent in our own lives and situations. At Christ's second coming, Satan, that ancient, deceiving, accusing serpent will be trampled under foot and thrown into the lake of fire. But in the meantime, we need to trample him underfoot every day of our lives in the unimaginable and limitless power of the Holy Spirit.

A Daily Dose Of Wisdom

One of my favorite Books of the Bible is Proverbs (31 chapters, one for each day of the month)—the Book of godly wisdom and good advice written for those ministering in the marketplace (which is all of us of course, whether your "pulpit" is a church, a foreign mission, a TV station, a law court, a business corporation, a government department, a school or a household). And sure enough, if you go to this Book you will find many strategies for overcoming Leviathan, as you would rightly expect.

It talks many times of "understanding," which is the power or ability ... to perceive the meaning of words ... the significance or explanation or cause of ... to be sympathetically aware of the character or nature of, know how to deal with (Oxford Dictionary). To understand something or someone means to have a deeper knowledge of that person or thing, so that we have a strong defense against the "twisting" and corrupting influence of Leviathan.

That supernatural "understanding" comes as we open our spirits to the wisdom of the Word of God: "Let not mercy and truth forsake thee ... so shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man ... Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding ... attend to know understanding ... Get wisdom, get understanding ... Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom, and with all thy getting, get understanding ... Attend unto My wisdom and bow thine ear to my understanding, that thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge ... Counsel is Mine and sound wisdom: I am Understanding, I have strength ... the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding" (Prov. 3:3, 4, 13; 4:1, 5, 7; 8:14; 9:10).

As we pray and commune with God in the holy and righteous fear of the Lord, we are open to receive godly wisdom and "good understanding." Wisdom is there for the asking, as James says (James 1:5), and interestingly enough, there are seven pillars of wisdom (Prov. 9:1) to overwhelm the seven heads of the dragon (Rev. 12:3).

With wisdom, understanding follows. And as we receive them, we no longer have to be victims of the discord, disharmony and divisive hurt and pain that are the poisonous fruit of Leviathan, the twisting and coiling serpent of old.

We are "more than conquerors," not just survivors in this cosmic battle. We are not victims, refugees, the walking wounded, we understand ourselves to be blessed in the city and blessed in the country, blessed as we go in and blessed as we go out, blessed in all we put our hand to, as the rain falls in its season, plenteous in goods, the head and not the tail, above only and never—ever—beneath.

Whosoever is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the lord (Ps. 107:43).