The Power of Darkness

Devotional for 26 February 2018 / 11 Adar 5778

Satan is alive and well, and he is very active in the world today. He knows that his time is short, and he will use whosoever is available, whether they be good or evil, to carry out his evil deeds. I have included an excerpt from my book “Walking With the Enemy: A Testimony,” to help shine a little “light” on how the Devil is able to use unsuspecting people who are unaware of his evil ways to do his bidding.

The following excerpt is taken from the Fifth edition of my book, published in June 2015, but was also included in the First Edition that was published in March 1995. For those who have not read my testimony, Ira was one of the leaders of the Bible Study group I had been involved with for three years, and I wrote this letter to her after God revealed that they were not Real Christians, as the leaders of this group had professed to be.

Excerpt “Walking With the Enemy: A Testimony,” by C. Read

“The following letter will further prove that the Lord God Almighty will use whatever the devil intends for evil and turn it around for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purposes.

8 March 1994

Dear Ira,

I was a little presumptuous about that being my final letter to you, and after receiving the article entitled, “The Holy Spirit Versus Demon Spirit Guides,” in the mail, I feel led to respond. Since you didn’t include your own comments (but highlighted certain sections), I can only assume you are still contending that I am the one who’s being controlled by demonic spirits.

I must say that, in a way, I am delighted that you would think that of me, especially since they also used to wrongfully accuse my Lord and Master of the same thing. But I am equally disappointed because it shows me that you are still walking with the enemy, and completely under his control.

Ira, you have to know it would be so much easier if I’d just put all of you out of my mind, and not be concerned about anything in connection with you or Bill’s ministry, but the Lord has not allowed me to do that.

My ultimate desire in all of this is for the truth to be made known in regard to the tactics of the enemy, so as to free God’s people from the bondage of sin and Satan. And then, “we the people” of God, can truly serve and worship Him in the manner in which He so deserves.

You probably will never openly admit that Bill’s Bible study group is a cult, but I am very certain of it, especially since I was personally involved with all of you for three years. I just praise God that He didn’t allow me to gain knowledge of the very depths of Satan, but just enough to know and understand many of his deceptive ways.

Even though you were secretive about many things, I was always very open and honest with you about everything. Of course, you tried to lead me to believe that I was your trusted friend, so as to obtain information from me, but now it’s quite apparent that you had ulterior motives.

After I joined the group, I was led to the following passage of scripture. But Satan was always one step ahead of me in order to dissuade me from seeing the truth of the word of God. I praise God that His truth has prevailed in my life!

2 Corinthians 11:3–4 “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or [if] ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with [him].”

Because of my misunderstanding and lack of knowledge, I didn’t realize that just because a man claims that Jesus Christ is his Lord and Savior, and he would lay down his life for Him, doesn’t mean he’s referring to the only begotten Son of the most high God.

Because of my misunderstanding and lack of knowledge, I didn’t realize or even understand what it meant to receive another spirit. But due to my affiliation with Bill’s ministry, I was exposed to many other spirits that were quite contrary to the Spirit of the most high God.

Because of my misunderstanding and lack of knowledge, I didn’t realize that a man could claim to be anointed by God, sent to preach and proclaim the truth, yet preach another gospel while using the holy Bible to distort and pervert the word of the most high God.

Since we did not serve the same Jesus, our relationship could not remain the same after the truth was revealed during our meeting on 2 March 1993. Had I stayed with the Bible study group after that, I would have forfeited my relationship with the one, true, and living God.

The shroud of secrecy and deception has been removed, and I now understand why many things occurred as they did. Since I’ve been away from Bill’s ministry the Lord has been revealing to me the many ways that Satan has control of people without them even being aware of it.

The Lord has brought to my attention the various ways that Satan is able to introduce his demonic spirits through the medium of television and motion pictures. Some seemingly innocent and wholesome programs are tainted with evil so as to acquaint children and adults alike with demonic spirits.

Just to give you an example: this past weekend I watched a movie with my children called “Free Willy.” By all outward appearances, it was a nice little movie about a whale called Willy, certainly nothing to be alarmed about, or so I thought. But I should have known something was wrong due to the unusual fascination my children had for this movie; but I just dismissed it.

When I found out that one of my girls was willing to lie so as to encourage me to buy the movie in the first place, I really should have known something was wrong, but I dismissed that too.

When I discovered that a music video with (ungodly music) was at the beginning of the movie, I assumed that’s why I had a problem with it, so I just had them fast-forward that part. But not until I watched the entire movie did I finally understand why I had the nagging doubts.

The scene that I was most concerned about is where the little orphan boy has learned how to repeat an incantation that he hopes will give Willy the power to jump over the wall to freedom. Of course, it worked, and Willy was free! And everybody was happy!

But the movie didn’t explain, or even lead you to believe, that this occult practice of chanting can teach unsuspecting viewers how to conjure up evil spirits, and prepares them to be very accepting of these demon spirit guides.

Most people don’t even recognize this as something to be concerned about, because their minds have been so conditioned to be accepting of this kind of evil, thus they unwisely regard it as harmless.

But because the Lord has been giving me insight into this sort of thing, I know this subtle tactic of the enemy will enable Satan to control people’s thoughts and actions by the use of these demonic spirits. Which is why this is very important to understand and to be extremely cautious of.

Because this practice is so prevalent in every aspect of our society, we have been reaping the effects of this sin in our land. It’s very evident that something is terribly wrong, and it can no longer be ignored! If it is not acknowledged, the people of this nation, and the world, will continue to be distressed by this evil and wickedness.

When you hear of someone, whether a child or an adult, committing a despicable act of violence, you can be certain demonic spirits were involved. And part of the problem is that the perpetrator may have no recollection of it, nor understand how they could have committed such a terrible thing. And in many cases, the demonic spirits that they are controlled by will lead them to take their own lives after they have carried out the horrible deeds of the devil.

[This was in the first edition of my book in March 1995, and many of the concerns I addressed then are even more prevalent today.]

(Almost two and half years after I first published my book, the horrifying school shooting took place in Pearl, Mississippi by a demonically possessed man on 1 October 1997. And more recently, the horrific murderous attack on innocent children in Florida on 14 February 2018, was also inspired by the devil.)

God’s people need to wake up before it’s too late! The scripture that says, “My people perish for lack of knowledge” is so true, but the wonderful thing about it, is that God is exposing the many evils of Satan in order to give His people the opportunity to stand apart from the wickedness of sin.

In fact, the main purpose behind this letter or any other letter that I’ve written since the Lord God Almighty delivered me from the power of darkness is to share the truth of what God has revealed to me concerning my walk with the enemy, so as to warn others.”

End of excerpt of “Walking With the Enemy: A Testimony,” by C. Read.

I have been trying to warn others for almost twenty-five years by sharing my testimony with whosoever would like to read it. The anniversary of when God delivered me from the Power of Darkness is coming up, and it is a Day that I will never forget! I will forever be indebted to my Lord God Almighty for saving me from those who sought to destroy me and my family; and I am so thankful to God for giving me eyes that can truly see!

In closing, I would like to share an article I recently came across entitled: “The First and Final Deception,” that validates my great concerns about the prevalence of demonic spirit guides—even in churches! This article, dated 9 September 2017, was written by Lighthouse Trails author Berit Kjos. (lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/)

Excerpt from “The First and Final Deception:”

“Unfortunately, what we are experiencing today is a synthesis of the “I am God” ideology and accelerating occult activity. In fact, the two are inextricably linked together in that they have the same source—the demonic realm. Aleister Crowley, who promoted the ancient occult maxim “as above, so below” (i.e., man and creation are equal to God and the heavenly realms), also mobilized the youth of the hippie era with his own maxim, “Do what thou wilt” as being the whole of the law.

This maxim was then propagated to the mass youth of the sixties with the expression, “Do your own thing.” Today, we have a similar onslaught from Hell that is destined to be even more devastating to children and teens as they attempt to incorporate their notion of divinity within by practicing “divine powers,” all the while being caught in the web of self, pride, deceit, and occult manifestations.

You may remember December 14th, 2012 when a horrific event took place in America. A young tormented demonized man walked into an elementary school in Connecticut and shot and killed twenty children, six adults, then himself. It shocked and shook the nation. Less than twenty-four hours after the event, then President Barak Obama, and others in government, raised the gun control issue, believing that if there is enough gun control, such atrocities wouldn’t happen.

Tragically, what most do not realize is that we have turned this country into an esoteric New Age society, and the “fruit” of it is rearing its ugly grotesque face more now than ever. And these violent crimes committed by young people are only going to increase, especially if most people don’t realize what the true source of such incredible violence is.

What should Christian families do? Should we hide ourselves and our loved ones from the world’s charms and ills, or should we shine our light, work while it is day, and speak the truth in love and in boldness?

Of course, even if we wanted to, we really couldn’t hide. And though we heed God’s call to pray, study His Word, love one another in Christ, and reach out to the lost, we still can’t stop today’s rapid spread of evil. Yet Christian families can make a huge difference in the lives of untold numbers of seekers, if we let God use us to spread His light in a world growing darker by the minute. We need to show our children how to be in the world but not of the world.

We can be God’s ambassadors in an increasingly corrupt land, but we cannot allow its darkness to quench His light in us. We can demonstrate God’s concern for the poor, but we can’t compromise with a counterfeit social gospel and New Age solutions.

Let us pray that He fill us with His wisdom, compassion, patience, and love. And may God bless you as you work to accomplish His will at home with your own children and grandchildren.

“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. (Colossians 2:6-7)”

End of excerpt from “The First and Final Deception.”

In “The Message” of Eugene H. Peterson (Matthew 6:9-13), he uses the New Age term “as above, so below,” and for those who have read my views, they know I am absolutely opposed to his blasphemous book! To my great dismay, the whole “Christian world” has accepted his "message" as the Word of God!

Satan has been systematically taking over the churches, and I see that he has gained access to most Christian denominations. Only through the power of God working among those who are truly submitted to Him can the churches be cleansed of the evil that is so prevalent in these final days. And it is my sincere prayer that the “sleeping giants” will wake up before it is too late!

You all at this Real Christian community are in my prayers!

With the love of Christ,
C. Read