Friday, April 20, 2012

Who is Sheba? Is it a spirit or a Real Person?






Is there a spirit of Sheba?


Question : Greeting brother Abraham, just wanted to ask a question to see if I could get guidance on this matter. Yesterday while in church the Pastor brought up a subject on discouragement. He said somebody on facebook was telling the brethren otherwise, he said it was the spirit of Sheba. I bind and rebuke that spirit in the mighty name of Jesus and rebuked it to the deepest part of the sea. My question is this brother Abraham, is there such a spirit? Thank you very much for your time and support brother Abraham. Blessings to you and your congregation in the name of Jesus. Praise the LORD!!

Answer : Greetings to you in Jesus name!

In the New Testament or in the Bible generally, we do not see specific spirits named or rebuked by Jesus and apostles in the first century. They did not need the names or character of any evil spirit particularly, but simply as they resisted the devil by their lifestyle filled with prayer and word of God in purity, the devil fled away from them whenever they saw them
(James 4:7; Acts 6:2, 4; 1 Peter 1:15-16; 1 John 3:3; 2 Tim 2:21). But some writers like Luke the physician described a "spirit of infirmity" which Satan had used to bind and keep a daughter of Abraham to be sick for eighteen years (Luke 13:11, 16). Jesus ordered the woman to be loosened from this sickness and she was healed (Luke 13:12-13). The Characteristic of this spirit which brought weakness and infirmity to this believing woman of faith, must have been revealed by the Holy Spirit to the writer as the writing was done under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Actually there are different spirits of evil like the following that are described in the Bible by their manifesting characteristics to make people understand that there are different kind of spirit at work for each manifestation in the spirit realm.

The Bible describes these spirits by name such as mute spirit
(Mark 9:25), dumb spirit (Mark 9:25), distressing spirit (1 Samuel 16:14), foul spirit (Rev 18:2), unclean spirit (Matt 10:1), spirit of divination (Acts 16:16), spirit of bondage (Rom 8:15), spirit of error (1 John 4:6), spirit of the world (1 Cor 2:12), deceiving spirits (1 Tim 4:1), jealous spirit (Num 5:14), lying spirit (2 Chronicles 18:21), familiar spirit (Deut 18:11), spirit of antichrist (1 John 4:3), spirit of fear (2 Tim 1:7), perverse spirit (Isaiah 29:10), sorrowful spirit (1 Sam 1:15), spirit of harlotry (Hos 4:12), different spirit (2 Cor 11:4) and spirit of ill will (Judges 9:23). By no means this is a exhaustive list of all the spirits in the spiritual realm, but only those mentioned are some which were actively at work both in the Old Testament and New Testament. These different spirits of evil worked under the sovereign God-allowed permissive will on earth (Job 2:1; 1 Kings 22:19-23). Some times because of the kind of evil that people indulged willingly, the Lord Himself sent evil spirit as a sign of His curse to trouble them so that they might repent (1 Sam 16:14).

There is a gift of the Holy Spirit named as
"discerning of spirits" in the New Testament which has the potential to reveal the true nature of the spirit entity that is coming against the Church or even a believer (1 Cor 12:10). This gift can work through any person whom the Holy Spirit wills to use at a particular time who is available and desiring to be used (1 Cor 12:11, 31; 14:1). Through this gift of the Holy Spirit, the leaders and saints in the Church some times may be used to rebuke certain spirits by their name and cast out the evil spirits.

But generally, I have seen people these days write books based on the rebellious character of people in the Bible and make a spirit behind the workings of their evil actions. This cannot be biblically accurate, but there is a chance for the Holy Spirit to inspire the writers to bring edification and exhortation to the Church in certain instances. For example, the spirit of sheba is such a making. In the O.T. Sheba is a person who brought division in the unity of the people of the kingdom of David by making people follow him, but in the N.T. context this has been assumed by certain writers as a divisive spirit whose purpose is to derail the vision of God. We can derive principles but not a doctrine which will be shaky in the spiritual realm.

Here is the Scripture that points to Sheba,
"And there happened to be there a man of Belial, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite: and he blew a trumpet, and said, We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to his tents, O Israel." (2 Samuel 20:1).

Here in the above verse we see that Sheba was wicked in his heart with a motive to reject the God ordained leadership of David and wanted to promote his own agenda. To fulfill it he appealed to the fleshly tribal identity of the Israelites as outcast through magnifying the tribal identity of David as belonging to Judah to which he was accused as though he owed all his loyalty because of his flesh connection. Because of this, the peopl of Israel began to question the integrity and loyality of the God ordained king towards the other ten tribes of Israel
(2 Samuel 19:40-43).

Therefore at the right time this rebel sheba blew a trumpet and divided the loyalty of many Israelites away from David
(2 Samuel 20:1-2). "So every man of Israel went up from after David, and followed Sheba…" (2 Samuel 20:2a). But very soon judgment followed upon this rebel who created rebellion with in the Israelites, he was beheaded and his head was thrown over to David's commander Joab from the wall of the city in which he hid and stayed (2 Sam 20:22).

Belial means "worthless" in Hebrew. In the Old Testament this term is used to refer to various wicked people. In later Christian tradition Belial became an evil angel Satan associated with lawlessness and lust
(2 Cor 6:15; 2 Tim 2:26; John 8:44). We see here how in a subtle way the meaning of Old Testament and New Testament usage of the same word "Belial" differs. Based on this difference, this person who is wicked in the Old Testament is clothed in a spiritual context as a wicked spirit in the New Testament. That which is physical in the Old Testament becomes spiritual in application in the New Testament. As the Old Testament is given to us as an example to the New Testament believers (1 Cor 10:6), now it has become an priciple manual to turn all the saints towards obedience to the faith and warn them against disobedience (Rom 16:26). The Old Testament is turned from a natural earthly physical point of view to a spiritual and heavenly point of view to be taught as a spiritual principles for spiritual learning which produces patience and comfort of the Scriptures, so that all saints might have hope which brings the presence of God and releases the love of God to fellowship one with the other for the GLORY OF GOD (Rom 15:4; Heb 6:19; Rom 5:5). The bottomline is that there is no direct evidence from the Scripture that there is a spirit of sheba present in our times, but that the people of God infer from the Scripture the character of this rebel sheba and are naming whatever spiritual rebellion that they see with in the Church agaist the God ordained leadership to be a spirit of sheba. They assume that there was a spirit within that rebel Sheba that is at loose coming against the Church. As the spirit of Jezebel which worked in the wife of the 1st century pastor against the Church (Rev 2:20), this might work against the Church if it was a spirit that caused this rebellion. But all the rebellion in the Church cannot be pointed towards this spirit of Sheba. But it is OK if someone describes a rebellion using the synonymous name "spirit of sheba", but rebuking it without knowing for sure by the Spirit of God through the gift of discerning of spirits, will dislodge no spirit in the spiritual realm and it will be just nice spiritual warfare phrase spoken in to the air (1 Cor 9:26).

So the pastor whom you have said might have seen a teaching from the word of God that is done in the Facebook that does not align with what he thinks and believes to be right about a particular doctrine, must have thought this to be bringing discouragement or is challenging his authority over the people whom he wants to believe what he believes to be right. In his insecurity, he might have thought that someone might cause division of belief within the Church. Many pastors do have the same insecurity towards others and para-church ministries. According to me, a pastor should point to the Bible and allow the Holy Spirit to convince a believer to believe that a particular doctrine to be right and not be insecure in such matters. Binding the spirit of Sheba and sending it to the deepest part of the sea is not Biblical, as your pastor is trying to do something that he thinks is right but is not right. Nobody can send a spirit to the deepest part of the sea until the appointed time of God in this world system of governace gets over legally when Jesus comes to this earth
(Matt 8:29, 31; 1 Cor 2:6; Heb 6:5). The demons in the country of Gadarenes begged Jesus not to send them in to abyss prison under the earth, because it knew that the time given to them by God is still not over and will continue until the Millenium rule of Jesus starts when the saints will rule this earth with Jesus (Luke 8:31; Matt 8:29; Rev 12:12; 20:1-3, 4-6). Only God has challenged Satan and his cohorts that He will bring all of them in to the deepest pit of sheol through the saints, which has already started in the Church age spiritually and will be fulfilled physically when the Millenium rule of Jesus starts in the earth, and will reach its zenith end during the White Throne Judgment, and therefore only He has the rights to send them permanently in to abyss in His appointed time which is a prison under the earth and the lake of fire which is eternal abode of all devils and unbelievers alike (Isa 14:15; Rev 20:11-15; Matt 25:41; 1 Cor 6:1-3). We do not have a single command to send evil spirit under the sea or to abyss when encountered with a evil spirit, instead we bind its activity spiritually and even send them out of a physical occupation and location. But Jesus himself said that demons will return with seven more worse evil spirits as long as people are empty without the Spirit of God filling the bodies and sealing it as a sign of God's possession (Matt 12:43-45; Eph 1:13-14; 5:18). Even if the pastor thinks that he has used the name of sheba led by the Spirit, it should not be against believer who checks or simply reads a doctrine in the facebook in this digital age. God has given a free choice for every believer and all should get convinced by their own understanding through biblical research that a particular teaching is correct or not. One should not forget that the Berean believers even checked the mighty apostle Paul's doctrine which he taught to them, who has written nearly one third of the New Testament inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. The same Holy Spirit commended these believers as "fair-minded" and noble for their diligence in checking the Bible whether what apostle Paul taught is in the word of God (Acts 17:10-12). So each believer should be allowed freely to get convinced himself by searching from the Bible to know whether a doctrine is right or wrong. The Scripture should be used in context and therefore allow the power of God to manifest for the GLORY OF GOD (Mark 7:13). MAY GOD HELP US ALL TO GO DEEPER AND DEEPER IN TO THE WORD AND THUS LIVE BY THE POWER OF HEAVEN ON EARTH THROUGH OUR RIGHT BELIEF.

Much Blessings.....







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