At its founding, William Penn declared Philadelphia the City of Brotherly Love, a Holy Experiment, where people of all religious and ethnic backgrounds could live together in harmony. It was even pictured in a painting by Quaker artist Edward Hicks as the Isaiah 11: 6-10 Peaceable Kingdom, because that’s what it was meant to be. Today it is anything but, which prompted the recent Isaiah 60 Prayer initiative at the 60 intersections of greatest violence.
As we’ve moved into the next phase of that initiative, we’ve sensed the need to continue routing out the powers and principalities that are at the spiritual root of today’s turbulence, specifically the representatives of Lucifer/Satan who sought to exalt himself above all others, distorting the truth of God, replacing Him on the throne and destroying the identity and destiny of those created in His likeness and image. To do this, Lucifer/Satan works through pride, which was his own downfall (Isaiah 14: 12-14, Ezekiel 28: 17-18); Leviathan/pride being one of his chief representatives on earth. (Job 41: 33-34) The importance of addressing this has been highlighted as a number of prophetic intercessors have discerned that Leviathan is the spiritual stronghold over Philadelphia.
What exactly is the connection between Leviathan / pride and violence? Proverbs 6: 16-19 lists seven abominations linked to pride, including “hands that shed innocent blood”. Understanding how pride manifests is illuminating as well. All we have to do is imagine violent individuals to see these characteristics:
Unteachable and set in your ways
Jealous and easily offended
Attention seeking and accountable to no one
Rejected, rejecting others and a victim mentality
Rebellion to authority that can take the form of anger
Lies and deception, miscommunication, blind to the truth
Unforgiveness and refusal to listen to others
Refusal to get counseling that could heal trauma and redirect destiny
In addition to the above, each of the following represents other ways Leviathan manifests in the culture, displacing God, destroying destinies and sowing seeds for chaos and violence.
Leviathan is behind division in relationships through distorted truth, accusation, offense, gossip, and slander, in the church, among Christians, between racial and ethnic groups and across all spectrums of society, as Lucifer seeks to replace God and His Son, Jesus, the Prince of Peace, in the hearts and minds of man. (Psalm 18: 8)
God created male and female that they should multiply and replenish the earth. (Genesis 1: 28) Leviathan uses gender confusion to distort the image of men and women through the LGBTQ agenda and twists the interpretation of scripture to enable Christians to support this agenda and uses the sexualization of children, in its many forms, to defile what is sacred to God and destroy destinies. (Matthew 18: 6)
It equally operates through a spirit of greed that results in covetousness that leads to corruption and poverty, both of which are root issues in Philadelphia. (Philippians 2: 3-4)
Twisted communication and the inability of people, Christians and non-Christians alike, to hear truth are all the work of Leviathan who influences minds through witchcraft and divination. (Galatians 3: 1)
Leviathan / pride is also behind what many refer to as “the spirit of religion” that can be embodied in programs over Holy Spirit guidance, ritual over relationship, education over discipleship, psychology over discernment, “works” over devotion, reasoning over faith, and legalism over love.
All of these are contrary to love and peace and the fruits of the spirit that represent God.
So, what do we do? We acknowledge we are dealing with powers and principalities, we put on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6: 10-20) – and follow the example of Jesus, when He was confronting Satan, saying “It is written . . . “. (Matthew 4) When we do, we are inviting God to fight on our behalf. (Isaiah 43:26)
“Put Me in remembrance;Let us contend together;State your case, that you may be acquitted.”
This is especially crucial when dealing with Leviathan, for Isaiah 27:1 declares:
"In that day the Lord, with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan, the piercing serpent, even Leviathan that crooked serpent (or tortuous serpent) and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea."
Equally important is the fact that, according to Ephesians 2: 6, we are “seated with Christ in heavenly places.” It is from that position that we can speak the following declaration.
From these scriptures come our prayer strategies. We do not engage directly with Leviathan, the Lord is to do that. Instead, we use His Word to declare and thank Him for what He is doing. As we do, we are seeing a turnaround that is restoring Philadelphia to the City of Brotherly Love that God intended.
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