Several recent posts from New Apostolic Reformation leaders have come through “The Elijah List” in the past several days. These posts represent the extreme form of hyper-spiritual dominionism that is rising. This Dominionism Worldview is a total doctrinal upheaval. The new doctrines taught by the new global “apostles” and “prophets” are a mixture of occult mysticism with evangelicalism. This new hybrid teaching is specifically geared toward the cause of building a “kingdom” on Earth.
So far, these proclamations from the prophets are soft-core dominionism, but the intensity of military rhetoric is escalating. “Spiritual warfare” is a perfect cover for dominionism activities worldwide. Spiritual warfare desensitizes people by 1) engaging them in the rhetoric, 2) programming them to believe the new doctrines, and 3) engaging them in spiritual warfare exercises. These hyper-spiritual activities seem harmless on the surface, but they are preparing a generation to wield the “rod” of “kingdom authority” on Earth.
HAMON/MITCHUM
The first example comes from http://www.elijahlist.com [specifically, http://tinyurl.com/luv6c] , “Four Keys for Entering Into Warfare Worship,” a “word” by Dean Mitchum posted by “Bishop” Bill Hamon, dated March 22, 2006.
“The prophets and apostles have been proclaiming that this is a season of war, so we need to prepare (Joel 3:9). [emphasis added]
“This is why we war–to establish a new Kingdom. When we enter into warfare praise, the focus of praise changes from an altar of redemption to the throne room of the King. The picture of a throne room carries a more powerful, majestic sense of the King of the universe who rules in the midst of our praise and then ministers through us. (Psalms 22:3) states that God is enthroned in our praises. This is an actual setting up of His throne on earth. Jesus taught us to pray, ‘Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ (Matthew 6:10). The words ‘in Heaven’ speak of the Kingdom of God being immovable and unshakable. ‘On earth’ actually speaks of a superimposing of God’s Kingdom on the earth.” [emphasis added]
Note the doctrinal shift from redemption to setting up this “kingdom.” There is also a significant re-definition of Matthew 6:10, which is the popular “new understanding” that Christ’s Kingdom must be built on Earth by the Church prior to His Second Coming.
Mitchum’s quotation also espouses the heresy that people can “proclaim,” “decree” or “praise” into existence heavenly things onto the Earth. This is a potent spiritual activity — whether real or imaginary — which has its roots in occult mystical doctrines that teach that the formative spiritual forces of creation can be harnessed and dispensed on Earth. Mitchum elaborates on this point below:
“So, by praising, not only is God enthroned in our praises, we also ‘superimpose’ His Kingdom on the earth–His presence, His will, His way, His Word. . . . In superimposing the Kingdom on the earth, we repeat the words of Heaven through our prophetic voices, and then we mirror on earth what God is saying in Heaven.” [emphasis added]
JOYNER
Also put out on “The Elijah List” was Rick Joyner’s latest prophecy, “Taking The Land–The Spiritual Versus The Natural,” Mar 26, 2006 [http://tinyurl.com/g4tf4]. “Taking the land” refers to hyper-spiritual warfare activities, laying a foundation for actual dominion.
“Our Promised Land is nothing less than bringing the Kingdom of God to the earth. We are preparing the way for this now. His Kingdom is coming, not just to take control of the earth again, but to restore it.” [emphasis added]
This reference to “restoration” pertains to the Genesis 1 reinterpretation that paradise can be restored on Earth. Joyner, in his typical neo-Gnostic manner, explains how this kingdom-building is to take place:
“. . .there must be a bridging and a free interchange between the natural and spiritual realms. This bridging of the realms will be through men who have transcended the original creation man to become the ‘new creation,’ which we become when we are born again by God’s Spirit. For those who are born again and go on to maturity, they will become at home in both realms, . . .” [emphasis added]
“Maturity” in Joyner’s way of thinking, is the perfected “God-man” characteristic of the Latter Rain, Manifested Sons of God cult doctrines. Joyner also teaches the heresy that believers can access heaven and bring things back to Earth, i.e., building the “kingdom” on Earth.
“The messengers of God are to ascend and descend upon the Son of Man, Christ Jesus, entering Heaven and then bringing back to the earth practical evidence of Heaven’s reality. When we preach the Gospel of the Kingdom, it should be in demonstration of the authority of Heaven over the conditions on earth.” [emphasis added]
Underscoring this Dominionist Worldview, Joyner reiterates: “We must keep in mind that the restoration of the earth, or the natural realm, requires a bridge to the spiritual realm, the Kingdom of Heaven. It is not either one or the other, but both.” [emphasis added]
The use of the term “bridge” is particularly intriguing. “Bridging” has an occult meaning. One definition states:
“When the purified lower nature (natural) corresponds [“aligns,” ed.] with the higher nature (spiritual), then union of higher and lower is effected, and the higher mind (rainbow bridge) appears in the consciousness. The ‘regenerate men’ are the souls who have attained liberation from the cycle of births and deaths.” [emphasis added]
Note the remarkable similarity to Joyner’s statement that “we need to understand that for the work of restoration, the bridge between the natural and spiritual realms must be completed.” Is this nirvana-type doctrine of “liberation from the cycle of births and deaths” the same as the new Genesis 1 restoration of Paradise heresy? According to this same dictionary reference, the “bridge of manas” must appear to effect the soul’s escape from its lower nature. (G.A. Gaskell, Dictionary of All Scriptures & Myths [The Julian Press, 1960], p. 610).
What is this “manas”? And what does it have to do with “bridging” the spiritual and natural worlds? The answer is startlingly similar to Joyner’s “prophecy” about “bridging.” It brings to mind the NAR teachings about “vision-casting,” “proclamations” or “decrees.” The definition reads:
MANAS (Mah-nas) Sanskrit, “power of mental picturing.” In Theosophy, the fifth principle or next faculty to ripen in human evolution: the capacity to imagine what is true, rather than rely solely on sensorial evidence; the cocreative power of IMAGINATION. In short, creative imagination — not only the capacity to imagine what is real and true, but to generate it. (John Lash, The Seeker’s Handbook [Harmony Books, 1990), p. 317) [emphasis added]
The so-called prophecies of these two men have much more to do with the occult than with Scripture. Which then leads to the most obvious questions: Just whose kingdom are these men building?
The Truth:
“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;” (Isaiah 14:12-17)