But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.

1 Corinthians 14:38

There is much to be learned about loyalty and disloyalty.  There are many ignorant people who choose to be ignorant still even though there is a lot to be learned.  This book contains the principles, laws, rules and facts that govern the concepts of loyalty and disloyalty.  Disloyalty is often a fruit of ignorance, immaturity and even a lack of education.  Uneducated people are more prone to rebellion and disloyalty because they do not understand the implications of what they are doing.   Through the teachings of this book, you will overcome the disadvantages that ignorance brings to your life and ministry.

More churches are destroyed by the work of disloyalty than by anything else I know!  I found that out first hand in the first year of my ministry.  My fledgling ministry experienced a satanic attack through conspiracy, accusations, faultfinding, slander and breakaways. I have never seen as much confusion as I saw in those days.

Very early in the ministry, I came to the conclusion that disloyalty and its associated evils are the most destructive weapons in the devil’s armoury.

Most Christians feel that the devil’s best weapon is to work through occultism, witchcraft and voodoo.  I agree that these things are weapons in the devil’s arsenal.

But what people must realize is that the strongest campaign of Satan is in the area of deception.  If Satan can deceive you, he will destroy you!  Satan makes many people believe that they are fighting a man of God in the name of justice and truth.  However, they soon discover with great pain, that they are doing nothing but kicking their feet against nails and thorns.

This is what Paul discovered when he fought against the church and supervised the elimination of one of its leaders, Stephen.  Saul was a man with a good conscience.  He earnestly thought that he was eliminating troublemakers from the peaceful city of Jerusalem.  In his fight for righteousness, he sought to wipe out elements that he thought were harmful to society.  There are many people who think they are on a holy war to expose false preachers and ministries.  Like Saul, they think they have a divine mandate to let everyone know the truth about the hypocrites in the pulpits.  The Apostle Paul was so surprised to find out that he was actually fighting against Christ.

And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?  And he said, Who art thou, Lord?  And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest:  it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.  And he TREMBLING AND ASTONISHED said, Lord, what will thou have me to do…

Acts 9:3-6

Paul was astonished when he discovered what he was really doing!  When people do not know what they are doing, they often do the wrong thing.  Paul claimed later on that he had received mercy from God because he did not know what he was doing.

Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I DID IT IGNORANTLY IN UNBELIEF. 1 Timothy 1:13

The inability to be faithful, loyal, stable, consistent and constant is the greatest killer of ministries.  It is the greatest killer of businesses.  The feeling that there is a shorter, quicker and easier way is in all men.  Satan capitalizes on that tendency.

Many Christians are tricked into following rebels and dissident visionaries.  Many people do these things out of ignorance.  The devil uses the example of tyrannical church leaders to create the culture of rebellion and disloyalty in the church.  Without knowing it, many church leaders are essentially rebellious and disloyal.  They teach their followers rebellion by the things they say and do.  They do not understand why anyone is unfaithful or disloyal to them.  You see, deception is such a strong thing.  When you are deceived you think that black is white and white is black.

A Vision of Disloyalty

I was really intrigued by the revelation that the Lord gave to Rick Joyner in his book “The Final Quest”. He described a vision of a large demonic army marching against the church.  The main aim of this demonic army was to cause division on every possible level of relationship:  churches with other churches, congregations with their pastors and even husbands with their wives.

Another notable aspect of the revelation was the weapons that this demonic army was carrying.  I noted in particular that the spears they were carrying were called ‘treachery’.  Do you know that treachery is actually the highest form of disloyalty?  It is interesting to me that only one spear was named and that spear was treachery!  Dear friend, I believe that Satan’s principal spear against the church is this weapon of disloyalty and treachery.

As I mused over this, I realized that many churches that had suffered major setbacks, had suffered these things because of disloyalty and treachery.  I thought about several great men of God I had grown to respect and considered how their ministries had become stunted.  Disloyalty had played a major role in this regrettable turn of events.

There were four arrows mentioned in the vision:  accusation, gossip, slander and faultfinding.  On the surface, these four weapons do not sound very effective.  They do not even sound like weapons the devil would use.  However, after being in the ministry for some years I have concluded that the most potent weapons of the devil are these very things.  At first glance, most inexperienced people would dismiss these as minor problems.

I am sure that many people have considered these listed arrows as trivial things that every minister can easily handle.  The devil knows that accusations weaken, confuse and paralyse the accused person.  No matter how innocent the accused person is, once he is accused he is drawn into a state of confusion.  He asks himself, “Why would anybody think of such a thing?”  Accusations are so powerful that, after a while, even innocent people begin to agree with the accusations.  Accusations paralyse the accused person.  Once paralysed, they are left in a state of inactivity.  As the accusations spread, the accused person does not even have the confidence to move in the circles where the venom has been spread.  Slander, gossip and faultfinding are all forms of accusation.  These things weaken, paralyse and confuse the church.  This confusion is within and without the church.  The accused person is confused and the hearers are confused.  Many people never overcome this confusion.  Some can never receive and some cannot continue in ministry.  This is such a powerful weapon of the enemy!  It is no wonder the Bible tells us that strength comes to the church when the accuser is dealt with.  As long as you hear the voice of the accuser, you will be weakened somewhat.

And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and STRENGTH… for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

Revelation 12:10

Have you ever wondered why relentless accusations are hurled at men of God?  I remember a pastor who did a great pioneering work in a large city.  Through him, many people were saved and many other ministers were trained.  He was slandered and accused until he eventually left the city.  His faults were magnified until there was nothing good said about him anymore.  Eventually, he left the city and put aside the ministry.  Satan’s modus operandi is quite simple – accuse them until they have no confidence in themselves!  Accuse them until no one in the community thinks well of them. Make them stop what they are doing.

However, many years after leaving, he was invited back and honoured by the people he had blessed.  I believe he was surprised when he saw the fruit of his ministry.  He probably realized that he should not have succumbed to the relentless onslaught of the accuser and his agents.  I am glad to say that soon after this he returned to the ministry.

Another amazing revelation in this book was that the demons were riding on Christians and not on horses.  In other words, Christians were being used by the devil without even knowing it!

I know a pastor who is very good at dividing the Body of Christ.  I have observed his ministry over the last fifteen years and I feel he has a special gift for dividing the church and creating opposing “camps” within the church.  I think he does not even know that his actions and decisions lead to the creation of factions within the church.  He does this effortlessly and with such distinguished diplomacy!  He looks and sounds so respectable that it would never occur to you that he is actually splitting the church into groups.  It is only when you sit back and reflect on his actions that you realize how factious he is.

I include here a short passage from Rick Joyner’s vision of the armies of Satan. I pray that you will see the strategies of the devil clearly.

“The demonic army was so large that it stretched as far as I could see.  It was separated into divisions, with each carrying a different banner.  The foremost divisions marched under the banners of Pride, Self-righteousness, Respectability, Selfish Ambition, Unrighteous Judgment, and Jealousy.  There were many more of these evil divisions beyond my scope of vision, but those in the vanguard of this terrible horde from hell seemed to be the most powerful.  The leader of this army was the Accuser of the Brethren himself.

The weapons carried by this horde were also named. The swords were named Intimidation; the spears were named Treachery; and the arrows were named Accusation, Gossip, Slander and Faultfinding.  Scouts and smaller companies of demons with such names as Rejection, Bitterness, Impatience, Unforgiveness and Lust were sent in advance of this army to prepare for the main attack.

These smaller companies and scouts were much fewer in number, but they were no less powerful than some of the larger divisions that followed.  They were smaller only for strategic reasons.  Just as John the Baptist was a single man, but was given an extraordinary anointing for baptizing the masses to prepare them for the Lord, these smaller demonic companies were given extraordinary evil powers for “baptizing the masses.”  A single demon of Bitterness could sow his poison into multitudes of people, even entire races or cultures.  A demon of Lust would attach himself to a single performer, movie, or even advertisement, and send what appeared to be bolts of electric slime that would hit and “desensitise” great masses of people.  All of this was to prepare for the great horde of evil which followed.

This army was marching specifically against the church, but it was attacking everyone that it could.  I knew that it was seeking to pre-empt a coming move of God which was destined to sweep masses of people into the church.

The primary strategy of this army was to cause division on every possible level of relationship – churches with each other, congregations with their pastors, husbands and wives, children and parents, and even children with each other.  The scouts were sent to locate the openings in churches, families or individuals that Rejection, Bitterness, Lust, etc., could exploit and make larger.  Then the following divisions would pour through the openings to completely overcome their victims.

The most shocking part of this vision was that this horde was not riding on horses, but primarily on Christians!  Most of them were well-dressed, respectable, and had the appearance of being refined and educated, but there also seemed to be representatives from almost every walk of life.  These people professed Christian truths in order to appease their consciences, but they lived their lives in agreement with the powers of darkness.  As they agreed with those powers their assigned demons grew and more easily directed their actions.

Many of these believers were host to more than one demon, but one would obviously be in charge.  The nature of the one in charge dictated which division it was marching in.  Even though the divisions were all marching together, it also seemed that at the same time the entire army was on the verge of chaos.  For example, the demons of hate, hated the other demons as much as they did the Christians.  The demons of jealousy were all jealous of one another.

The only way the leaders of this horde kept the demons from fighting each other was to keep their hatred, jealousy, etc., focused on the people they were riding.  However, these people would often break out in fights with each other.  I knew that this was how some of the armies that had come against Israel in the Scriptures had ended up destroying themselves.  When their purpose against Israel was thwarted, their rage was uncontrollable, and they simply began fighting each other.

I noted that the demons were riding on these Christians, but were not in them as was the case with non-Christians.  It was obvious that these believers had only to stop agreeing with their demons in order to get free of them.  For example, if the Christian on which a demon of jealousy was riding just started to question the jealousy, that demon would weaken very fast.  When this happened the weakening demon would cry out and the leader of the division would direct all of the demons around that Christian to attack him until the bitterness, etc., would build up on him again.  If this did not work, the demons would begin quoting Scriptures that were perverted in such a way that would justify the bitterness, accusations, etc.

It was clear that the power of the demons was rooted almost entirely in the power of deception, but they had deceived these Christians to the point where they could use them and they would think they were being used by God.  This was because banners of Self-righteousness were being carried by almost all of the individuals so that those marching could not even see the banners that marked the true nature of these divisions.

As I looked far to the rear of this army I saw the entourage of the Accuser himself.  I began to understand his strategy, and I was amazed that it was so simple.  He knew that a house divided cannot stand, and this army represented an attempt to bring such division to the church that she would completely fall from grace.  It was apparent that the only way he could do this was to use Christians to war against their own brethren, and that is why almost everyone in the forward divisions were Christians, or at least professing Christians. Every step that these deceived believers took in obedience to the Accuser strengthened his power over them.  This made his confidence and the confidence of all of his commanders grow with the progress of the army as it marched forward.  It was apparent that the power of this army depended on the agreement of these Christians with the ways of evil.”

by Dag Heward-Mills