Since my encounter with witchcraft (see ‘Key of David’ under “ARTICLES”), there have been many principles I have learned about how the spirit realm works. After coming through this battle in 2001, I began to see that curses act as ‘spiritual locusts’. Curses come through either wounded, bitter people (those who don’t know the Lord and sadly those who do) that have an offense against us, or through Christians who are praying witchcraft prayers (Christians praying against God’s will for another person), or people of other religions praying to their god(s) for a Christian, or through actual witchcraft or Wiccan activities designed to destroy us and our ministries that build the Kingdom.

When the Lord gets ready to visit a city with an outpouring of His spirit, the ‘curse of locusts’ is released in that city to eat up the rotten fruit of mans own agenda (works) and sin in the church. (Rev 9:3) Look at Pentecost itself. Before the Upper Room outpouring the disciples (the church) experienced the deepest death of self they had ever endured. Their Savior had died and they were lost in a sea of confusion and despair (Mark 16:10). The curse that came upon Jesus on the cross, began to eat up their flesh also (John 20:19). Just as the disciples had to face their worst fears before the outpouring came, the locusts will force us to face our worst fears as well.

The witchcraft or locusts that are released against a persons life, only bring up from the surface what is already resident within a human heart, namely fear. Fear is the first enemy of the soul that entered into the human race after the fall. After their disobedience, God asked Adam (Gen 3:9-10),’Where are you?’, Adam said, ‘I was AFRAID because of my nakedness and I was hiding’. Believe me, when it come to purifying His Bride, you can run, but you can’t hide. It is the same concept as getting grease out of clothing. It takes grease to get out grease. It takes something from the realm of darkness to get out darkness in a human heart. That is why Joseph in Genesis said, ‘What the enemy meant for harm, the Lord meant for good.’ So it is not that the Lord is cruel, but when sin is rampant, righteous judgement comes, to rid us of our bondage. If our hearts are pure and we have allowed the Lord to root up strongholds and close any openings in our spiritual armor, then we can stand during refining without faltering. But when we have continued to turn a deaf ear to the dealings of God in our life, then the locusts will and must do their work to purify and make ready a people that can stand against the coming onslaught against the church.

The locusts in Joel 1:4 are the Lord’s merciful judgement that come to prepare a people for revival by eating the ‘religion and flesh’ out of the church. Chapter 1 vividly describes what ‘religion’ has done to God’s idea of a Bride, just read it and see for yourself Then in Joel 2, we see a whole ‘other’ army coming, responding to the sound of the trumpet (Joel 2:1). Many have believed this to be a continuation of the description of the army of locusts in chapter one. But it can’t be, because it refers to this army as the ‘dawn spreading across the mountains’. Dawn is the bright beginning of something, mountains are governments or strongholds. This forerunner company is the corporate ‘John the Baptist’ that have come to clear the land of locusts. Remember what John the Baptist diet consisted of ? Locusts and wild honey.

The warning here is not to the downtrodden and the lost or the poor in spirit. The heart of Jesus is like a magnet to that kind of heart, He will never break a bruised reed. This warning is for the self-righteous religious establishment like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. The locusts are sent to eat up the flesh in those areas of our hearts that have a religious spirit attached to that flesh. Until that is gone in the church, we can evangelize all day and we may get numbers, but where will those same people be in 5 years? The only way we will ever reach the lost is when we get out of our high and mighty cathedrals and ‘super churches’, quit putting rules and regulations on people, and have the character and humility of Christ exploding out of us so the lost can see a church who is REAL. Lost people are screaming for something or someone who is REAL. Most people who don’t know the Lord are so put off by church and our ‘nose in the air’ phony attitudes, we don’t stand a chance to win them over by His love until that love has been BURNED within us by His Fiery Holiness.

Proverbs 26:2 says, ‘A curse without cause cannot light.’ Curses can only come into our hearts when there is an opening in them. Everything the Lord does He does with purpose. The purpose of the locusts is to eat away the flesh (sin and wounding) so there is no longer anything for them to attach to in our hearts. The more flesh that is eaten (crucified), the less the locusts have to hold onto, until what is left is a pure heart with no openings. Jesus said in the gospels that satan had found no place in Him. The curse will do its work until satan will find no place in us. We might think, ‘Is this really possible?’. Paul said in Galatians 2:20 that he had been crucified with Christ and it was no longer him who lived, but Christ in him.

Most of us have no clue how many open doors are in our hearts until the curses hit and cause us to get on our face and get real with God. In our desperation our eyes are opened and we see our true condition (Rev 8:18). The Blood of Jesus saves us, but the work of the cross continues in our lives to deliver us and bring us into the perfected, purified Bride without spot or wrinkle. You don’t really know Him as the resurrected Christ until you know Him as the crucified Christ.

The forerunners for the next move of God have already fought the battle of their own hearts and allowed the Lord to take His Holy Sword of Righteousness to them in private and they are now battle ready. The Fire of Purification will allow them to now stand in the midst of the swarm and be untouched. The Lord never intended for us to run from the swarm, that is why there is no armor for our backsides. Rather, He expects a purified remnant to be able to withstand Joel’s army by standing in the midst of the fray and help our brothers and sisters (by eating a ‘John the Baptist’ diet) who will now face this same battle, while the remnant remains unharmed.

After the locusts have done their work in the church, then we are cleaned out and ready for new oil. So it logically follows in Joel 2:28 that AFTERWARDS, He will pour out His spirit. After the purifying, when we are cleaned out and made ready for the oil . It is the oil that has been on Christ’s head, waiting to run down His body (Ps 133). Not only will we be ready for this new oil, but we will be ready to take on the enemy that has held so many in occult bondage. Those involved in witchcraft, satanism, and new age will have an army with authority to fight for them and set them free from the lies and bondage of satan. It will literally be a whole nation coming into the Kingdom.

I believe the locusts in Joel 1, have been released in America to eat up the flesh in the American Bride. I believe this is why we are seeing so many in public ministries being exposed for things that should have been taken care of between them and the Lord behind closed doors when His mercy was offered to them for deliverance. God is fiercely jealous for His American Bride, and the Righteous Judge has come to rescue her from her enemies of lust of the flesh, the pride of life and the devil.

The Lord would say to the prepared remnant of unknowns in this hour, 'Come, you who have been made ready, for the battle is at hand.' It is not too late to be in this group of prepared forerunners. Hurry, get in your closets on your face and cry out for the King of Glory to put salve in your eyes so that you may see your own true condition, in other words, repent for the Kingdom of our God is at hand!