Emotional Popcorn: My Thoughts on 12 Years a Slave

04/20/2014

I finally watched 12 Years a Slave. It was hard to watch and hard to turn away from at the same time. My emotions cycled through periods of fear, anger, confusion, irritation, sadness and I don't even know what else. When it won movie of the year at the 2014 Oscars the same thing happened.

On one hand I was happy that a movie with a large Black cast, director and writer won the award. But it's also ridiculous that such a horrible piece of our history is what's required to win such an award. Why do we only win awards when we remind others of the days of slavery and segregation, rape and families being torn apart? It's complicated, I know.

I also saw a lot of spiritual warfare in the movie so I'm going to spend some time examining it from that perspective. Slavery is demonic. Plain and simple. In the movie the historical practice of using religion as justification for slavery was obvious. The spirit of religion creates bondages of all sorts, and slavery is one of them. Slavery is not God's will but the enemy will deceive people to the point of ignoring God's love for everyone so that they read the Holy Scriptures incorrectly aka without a relationship with and submission to Holy Spirit.

In more cases than not in the Bible the word slave can be exchanged for what we might call an employee. When God spoke of slaves He reminded us from Genesis to Revelation through Abraham, David, Solomon, Paul, et. al. that slaves/employees were to be treated justly because masters/employers also have a master in heaven who is the ultimate judge. We have to understand that slavery that oppresses, beats, dehumanizes and kills is evil and cannot and should not ever be blamed on God Most High, creator of heaven of earth. But because the spirit of religion was and still is used to enslave people there are many in my community who are angry at God and therefore don't want anything to do with Him. It's the demonic realm that veils the truth of the written Word of God and that looses the spirit of religion to bind people. The door to the enemy was opened through racial slavery which wounded our souls, the blood of our ancestors is in the soil of this land and we and the land need healing.

So how does the Black community receive healing? It's actually very simple. It's spiritual warfare that's keeping us sick so we need a spiritual antidote. Jesus will heal each of us individually, we know this, but for us as an ethnic group to receive healing en masse there are a couple different ways I'm aware of that will bring healing to us. One is for Caucasian Americans to confess their sin and the sins of their ancestors committed in this land, repent and ask forgiveness of the Black community. You may think this is wild or far out, but it's actually happening all over the country in small groups.

Patti and I did this a couple years ago. We were just talking one day about something and the topic of race relations came up. She took it upon herself to confess her sin, if any, regarding Black Americans and that of her ancestors and then she asked my forgiveness. I received her confession, forgave her, and then I confessed my own sin and that of my ancestors that remained regarding my ungodly beliefs, words and actions regarding Caucasians. She received my confession and forgave me. Now Patti and I have a covenant that God has promised to use around this country because we broke layers of heavy, demonic chains in the spiritual realm. And, we're not the only ones. I've seen this happen in a few other apostolic centers in the nation. I know some want national apologies and that may not happen, and it doesn't have to. It can happen between a mentor and mentee like with me and Patti Cake. It only takes one powerful prayer warrior to drop the rock in the ocean and start the ripple.

Another way is for a deliverer for the Black community - like Moses - to rise up in this nation. The tricky part about this is human nature (go read Exodus for further understanding). Human nature poses a problem because we've seen a couple of leaders try to speak for The (whole) Black Community and fail - Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton - and the most successful - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - was assassinated. When we look at this it's easy to see how the demonic realm fights the healing of Black-Caucasian race relations in this country. The one who followed God's plan to bring national deliverance and healing - MLK - was killed but the two who have their own agendas (self is always of the demonic realm) are still around and we're still sick. Ok, so let me review the main points I want you to receive from this:

Black-Caucasian race relations in the U.S. is a spiritual warfare issue.
Sin causes wounds in the soul of the sinner and the sinned against. Only spiritual healing cleanses and seals the soul.
There's iniquity and bloodshed in the land - in the soil - that's crying out just like Abel's blood did. God hears it and I know He does because He's stirred my heart about it.
The spirit of religion is a demonic spirit. It's this demonic spirit that deceives and lies to people to tell them slavery that dehumanizes and oppresses is biblical. If oppressive slavery was ok with God He wouldn't have delivered the Israelites from Egypt and He wouldn't have given us a head's up about it as punishment for disobedience (see Deuteronomy 28:15-end). *I'm not stating that the Transcontinental Slave Trade was the result of disobedience, but it's possible it is. Serving pagan gods - any God other than Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - is disobedience regardless of the generation or continent we're born into. **I hadn't planned to write that it possibly is, but that's what came out. I mean ... I can't deny it. God's command to have no god before Him has existed since Adam was created so it's just truth. When you worship anything other Him doors are opened to the demonic realm and multiplication exists in the spirit so an open door to one demon allows seven in (Luke 11:26). ***This is why we confess and repent for our sins AND those of our ancestors.
Two friends together can confess, repent and forgive and bring healing to their own lives, those of their future generations and the regions they have spiritual authority over.
This process of bringing these truths to the citizens of this nation is happening now. I'm involved in it (this post is my first public announcement of my involvement, I believe, but Holy Spirit has been training me and leading me into sharing this understanding in more arenas. It's been interesting.), Venner Alston who has an apostolic center in Milwaukee, WI, Vanessa Battle who has an apostolic center in Lilburn, GA and Chuck Pierce who has an apostolic center in Corinth, TX are also involved in healing the spiritual issues of race relations.
The enemy doesn't want people unified, they want people separated in every way possible because it increases their influence and the damage they can do. You know, God can't heal someone who says in their mind, "The White man is keeping me back/down/broke." Nor can He heal the one who thinks, "Black people are still oppressed because they've refused to assimilate into the culture of the majority of America." We have to love God enough to say I'm sorry and realize everyone has a role in their personal and national circumstances. Notice when Patti and I had the conversation I had to do my part, too. It wasn't one-sided.

This is heavy topic and though I have more to share, I'm going to stop for now. I'm very interested to know your thoughts on this post and would greatly appreciate any comments you're willing to share. I always hesitate a little to speak on race because it's such an emotional topic, but the Lord's answer to me not wanting to share was, "Revelation isn't only for you." I do realize that there's a large population of people who want nothing to do with God, Jesus and Holy Spirit, but They're the only ones who can heal this issue. No amount of legislation, political commentary, convention, panels or temper tantrums about racial bias will heal the deep wounds of this country. Until someone with spiritual discernment takes the lead not even the small groups (like Patti and I, Dr. Alston, Dr. Battle and Dr. Pierce) will get started.

Emotional Popcorn: My Thoughts on 12 Years a Slave

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