Those who deal with spiritual warfare reveal that behind almost all other spirits lies an even more elusive spirit, which we call Leviathan. Over the years, this term has been used to describe enormous sea monsters, or anything large, fierce, or deadly. This is at work within the body of Christ, Leviathan, or the Spirit of Pride.
Pride has led to over 44,000 denominations and millions of different churches throughout the earth. This is one of the fruits of Leviathan, which is the Spirit of Pride. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that to unify the body of Christ for the return of Jesus and a Millennium of Peace, this Spirit of Pride, i.e., Leviathan, must be understood and removed.
Jesus said that the default nature of man is like that of children – full of joy, innocent, kind, unafraid, and forgiving, among other qualities. There is no pride or envy, no jealousy or hatred; those things must be taught. We might imagine the opposite: that children are born sad, mad, mean, and vicious, and that they must be trained to be kind, tolerant, and happy. However, that’s not the case.
We must become (or return) to being like the pristine original nature of children, like we used to be, to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Why? Because that is the default nature of Heaven – it’s a joy-filled place with no hate, no envy, no animosity, and NO DIVISIONS. Think about it, THERE ARE NO CHURCHES IN HEAVEN, so why are we enabling or tolerating them now? Because of the Spirit of Leviathan.
When Leviathan is not present, there is (and will be) no pride, envy, anger, jealousy, selfishness, or divisiveness. Peace is and will be the natural result. The time has come to reveal this elusive enemy that has gone largely undetected by Believers, Exorcists, and Deliverance Ministers. It is the LAST ENEMY (and some would say the only enemy) that does not need a body for safe harbor to do its work. We’ll first examine some common definitions, then explore Biblical definitions, and finally present our own modern definition.
Contents
Definitions
Dictionary
1. Bible, a sea monster.
2. any huge marine animal, as the whale.
3. anything of immense size and power, as a huge, oceangoing ship.
4. a philosophical work (1651) by Thomas Hobbes dealing with the political organization of society. (Random House Dictionary)A sea monster mentioned in the Book of Job, where it is associated with the forces of chaos and evil. (American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy)
Late 14c., ‘sea monster, sea serpent,’ also regarded as a form of Satan, from Late Latin leviathan, from Hebrew livyathan ‘dragon, serpent, huge sea animal,’ of unknown origin, perhaps related to liwyah ‘wreath,’ from root l-w-h- ‘to wind, turn, twist.’ Of powerful persons or things from c.1600. Hobbes’s use is from 1651. (Online Etymology Dictionary)
Bible
Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon
wreathed, twisted in folds,
1) a serpent of a larger kind, Job 3:8; Isa.27:1 where it is [may be] the symbol of the hostile kingdom of Babylon.
Strong’s Definitions
livyâthân, liv-yaw-thawn’; from H3867; a wreathed animal, i.e. a serpent (especially the crocodile or some other large sea-monster); figuratively, the constellation of the dragon; also as a symbol of Babylon:—leviathan, mourning.
Wordnet
Monstrous sea creature symbolizing evil in the Old Testament.
Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Leviathan a transliterated Hebrew word (livyathan), meaning ‘twisted,’ ‘coiled.’ In Job 3:8, Revised Version, and marg. of Authorized Version, it denotes the dragon which, according to Eastern tradition, is an enemy of light; in 41:1 the crocodile is meant; in Ps 104:26 it ‘denotes any large animal that moves by writhing or wiggling the body, the whale, the monsters of the deep.’ This word is also used figuratively for a cruel enemy, as some think ‘the Egyptian host, crushed by the divine power, and cast on the shores of the Red Sea’ (Ps 74:14). As used in Isa 27:1, ‘leviathan the piercing [R.V. ‘swift’] serpent, even leviathan that crooked [R.V. marg.‘winding’] serpent,’ the word may probably denote the two empires, the Assyrian and the Babylonian.
Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
From lewy ‘joined’ (referring to its joined, plate armour like scales) and then a monster drawn out, i.e. long; or else Arabic lavah ‘to twist.’ So Job 41:15-17. The crocodile. The whale having a smooth skin and no scales cannot be meant. The crocodile’s teeth, 30 on each side of each jaw, lock into each other. Lips are wanting, so that the teeth are seen even when the mouth is closed, illustrating Job 41:14 , ‘who can open the doors of his face? his teeth are terrible round about’ As behemoth is the hippopotamus, so leviathan is the crocodile, both found in Egypt along the Nile. The term elsewhere is used for any large monster of the ‘sea’ or water. Psalm 104:26; Psalm 74:13-14; ‘Thou breakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.’ The king of Egypt is symbolized by the ‘dragons’ and ‘leviathan’ (compare Ezekiel 32:2; Ezekiel 29:3 ); he and his host at their overthrow in the Red Sea became a spoil to Israel (compare ‘bread for us,’ Numbers 14:9 ) ‘in the wilderness.’
The context shows that it is the benefits of God to Israel that are here recounted. In Job 3:8 translated ‘let them curse it (my day of birth) … who are ready to raise up a leviathan,’ i.e. necromancers who rouse and control wild beasts at will (compare Psalm 58:5 ). In Isaiah 27:1 , ‘leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked (wriggling) serpent,’ ‘the dragon in the sea,’ literally refers to the crocodile in the sea or Nile, or else to the great rock snakes. Spiritually every foe of Israel and the church. Anti-typically and finally Satan ‘the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil’ (Revelation 20:2; Revelation 20:10 ), whom finally ‘Jehovah with His sore, great, and strong sword shall punish.’ For ‘piercing’ (bariach ) translated ‘darting from side to side.’ Foiled on one side he tries to gain on the other side (Job 26:13; 2 Corinthians 11:14; 2 Corinthians 2:11 ). Typhon, the destroyer, was worshipped in Egypt under the form of a crocodile. (Fausset’s Bible Dictionary)
Holman Bible Dictionary
(lih vi’ uh thuhn) name of an ancient sea creature subdued by God meaning ‘coiled one.’ Leviathan appears in biblical and extra-biblical literature. A serpentine form is indicated in Isaiah 27:1 (‘leviathan the piercing [KJV] serpent’).
The sea creature is used interchangeably with other mysterious creations of the divine. Again, Isaiah 27:1 refers to leviathan as ‘the dragon that is in the sea.’ The psalmist in Psalm 74:14 presents leviathan among the supernatural enemies of God dwelling in the sea with many heads. Job 3:8; Job 41:1-9 present the sea creature as too formidable a foe for a person to consider arousing. Yet, leviathan was created by God and subject to Him ( Psalm 104:24-30 ).
Apocalyptic literature depicts leviathan as throwing off his fetters at the end of the present age, only to be defeated in a final conflict with the divine. See Apocalyptic. Ugaritic literature of Ras Shamra during the 1300s B.C. depicts the mythical Baal defeating the sea creature called Lotan (another linguistic form for Leviathan). The Hittites wrote of a struggle between the dragon Illuyankas and the mortal Hupasiyos . A cylinder seal found at Tel Asmar dated about 2350 B.C. shows two men fighting a seven-headed serpent.
Leviathan was seen in ancient legend as a sea monster engaged in primordial warfare with the gods. This creature represented chaos in a personified manner which any creator deity had to overcome in order to create. Leviathan was also seen as a threat to the orderliness of the universe and ultimately to be subdued at the end of time.
The ancient pagan myths concerning Leviathan were familiar to the Hebrews of the Old Testament. To what degree these myths of Leviathan influenced the Hebrews, if any, may never be known. Scripture used the name known to so many people and removed fear connected with it, showing God easily controlled Leviathan, who thus offered no threat to God’s people. (Holman Bible Dictionary)
Keywords
The following keywords were extracted from the definitions above:
babylon
coiled one
crooked
cruel enemy
devil
dragon
enemy of light
evil
form of Satan
formidable foe
force of evil
huge
immense power
immense size
joined
long
many heads
monstrous
mourning
old serpent
piercing
satan
scales (armour-like)
sea
sea animal
sea monster
sea serpent
serpent
supernatural enemy of God
symbol of evil
swift
teeth
turn
twist, twisted (in folds)
wiggling (the body)
wind, windy, winding
wreath, wreathed
writhing (body)
Modern Definition
From the accounts of those in deliverance ministries and from the above definitions, we can render a more modern definition like this:
Leviathan: The Evil One, known as ‘Satan,’ who willfully defied God out of pride, for said he in his heart, ‘I will ascend above God’ (Isa.14:14), who appealed to the pride of other angels, servants, creatures, and created beings and swayed one-third of them to defy God, and turn against Him (Rev.12:4). He is one of the greatest of all created beings and that is why he thought it was possible to topple God, and can keep all other defilers subservient to himself. His specialty is pride (all demons have a specialty), which is the root of all crimes, be it against God or our fellowmen (Isa.13:11).
We’ll next look at how Leviathan infiltrates.
Manifest
As stated in the modern definition, Satan – Leviathan manifests through pride. It appeals to a person’s pride and ego. Pride is considered one of the “Seven Deadly Sins”:
The seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins, is a grouping and classification of vices. Behaviors or habits are classified under this category if they directly give birth to other immoralities. According to the standard list, they are hubristic pride, greed, lust, malicious envy, gluttony, inordinate anger, and sloth, which are also contrary to the seven virtues. These sins are often thought to be abuses or excessive versions of one’s natural faculties or passions (for example, gluttony abuses one’s desire to eat). (Wikipedia)
This one sin is at the root of the other six:
The Church used the doctrine of the deadly sins in order to help people stop their inclination towards evil before dire consequences and misdeeds occur; the leader-teachers especially focused on pride (which is thought to be the one that severs the soul from Grace, and one that is representative and the very essence of all evil).
…
The capital sins from lust to envy are generally associated with pride, which has been labeled as the father of all sins, etc.
…
The negative version of pride (Latin, superbia) is considered, on almost every list, the original and most serious of the seven deadly sins: the source of the others- thus it is able to father directly and/or indirectly all sin. (Wikipedia)
Thus, we see that in deliverance ministries, they must first deal with secondary spirits and remove them before dealing with Leviathan. Leviathan is “swift,” meaning “quick to flee”, and therefore it is rarely, if ever, identified, confronted, or addressed. Only the more advanced deliverance ministers know of its workings. Here is an example of entanglement: let’s say you, as a child, were the victim of a thoughtless crime or prank. The devil would whisper in your ear to not forgive nor turn the other cheek (which is the default nature of children) but to become angry and vindictive like him, the defiler of God.
If a person gives in to the whispers of Leviathan, they’re directly turning to the dark side, for they’re choosing dark emotions to inhabit and guide their mind and body, overruling the natural light-filled emotions of kindness, patience, long-suffering, and forgiveness. If a person gives in to the darkness, they’re granting permission for Leviathan (and other spirits) to live in them. That’s how quickly we can become intertwined with Leviathan, as the definitions describe.
As pride has been labelled the father of all sins, it has been deemed the devil’s most prominent trait. C.S. Lewis writes, in Mere Christianity, that pride is the ‘anti-God’ state, the position in which the ego and the self are directly opposed to God: ‘Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.’ Pride is understood to sever the soul from God, as well as His life-and-grace-giving Presence.
…
Jonathan Edwards said Remember that pride is the worst viper that is in the heart, the greatest disturber of the soul’s peace and sweet communion with Christ; it was the first sin that ever was, and lies lowest in the foundation of Satan’s whole building, and is the most difficultly rooted out, and is the most hidden, secret and deceitful of all lusts, and often creeps in, insensibly, into the midst of religion and sometimes under the disguise of humility.’
…
Perhaps the best-known example is the story of Lucifer, whose pride filled him with so much evil that he forced a third of the other angels to worship him, causing his fall from Heaven, and his resultant transformation into Satan. (Wikipedia)
In this scenario, once Leviathan is inside someone, they find themselves inhabited by, or possessed by, the Spirit of Anger and the Spirit of Pride, for it was the Spirit of Pride or Leviathan that convinced them to accept the Spirit of Anger. This is how Leviathan can enter imperceptibly under the radar and remain, even after the Spirit of Anger (or some other spirit) is evicted. Thus, Satan – Leviathan – is the author of all sin, for all sin is based in pride. He always comes in first, and he wears that position like a badge of honor in his war against God.
Effects
What are the effects or earmarks of Leviathan? As described in the Book of Job, deliverance ministries, and the above definitions, he enmeshes himself within us so clandestinely that he becomes like an elaborate, tangled knot woven within us. This type of infestation is composed of:
a. A harmful event.
b. Physical pain.
c. Emotional pain.
d. The decision not to forgive, and its emotions.
e. The determination to get even, and its emotions.
f. Leviathan and its emotional and spiritual energy.
g. Other spirits and their emotional and spiritual energies.
Where does this occur? Around our hearts, because love flows from the heart, and it is love that forgives, turns the other cheek, has patience, long-suffering, etc. To stop our innate character, he must stifle it by spiritually or energetically squeezing it. Like a snake that coils itself around its prey, holding it hostage and squeezing the life out of it.
One can visualize a heart snared by the tentacles of an octopus, which are tied in a knot and then cinched, squeezed, and tightened. This would restrict breathing, causing the person to feel tense and uptight, as if their heart has become tightened. That pressure would cause the person to feel an increase in weight pressing upon them. Children naturally feel very light within themselves; that’s why they constantly run, dance, and play. Leviathan stops that, restricting them and weighing them down.
In physical terms of manifestation, think of what makes a person become irritable, uneasy, or frenzied, unable to breathe freely? Think about it: when we’re joyful and happy, our airways are open and unrestricted; we freely laugh, sigh, cry, sing, and so on. When we’re tense and nervous, the opposite happens: our breathing becomes restricted. Satan knows what state the body is in when it is NOT happy, so his approach is simply to cause that state all the time. So, like the serpent he is, he wraps around hearts and squeezes, restricting our breathing and keeping us in a state of stress; thus, a person possessed by Leviathan will be edgy all the time.
Uptight people are easily provoked. According to modern prophets and scripture, Satan – Leviathan has pulled out all the stops and is trying to thwart the final move of God by wrapping his tentacles around as many hearts as he can and ramping up the anger on Earth. This is decreasing the love. According to a recent study by AAA, road rage is at an all-time high. People are being murdered over a wrong look, driving too slow, and other petty things. You may have noticed an increase in these situations on the roadways, which is a sign of aggressiveness or a lack of peace.
Susceptible Groups
The following groups may be more susceptible to infiltration by Leviathan.
Girls
Girls are most prone to becoming ruled and controlled by Leviathan because they’re more concerned about their looks; it’s that simple. There’s tremendous pressure from social media, celebrities, and their peers to compare themselves with others. Jealousy, envy, and bitterness can turn a person into a hater, where they curse themselves because they don’t feel pretty, or curse those whom they perceive as attractive. And they might even curse God for not making them beautiful. Or, if they were blessed with good looks, they might act superior to others. Leviathan can infiltrate them in either scenario.
Car Owners
When people take pride in their cars, whether it’s an expensive luxury vehicle or a large, intimidating truck, that is an opportunity for infiltration by Leviathan. And as we learned, Leviathan hates to be wrong, so it’ll raise its ugly head and rage if another driver cuts them off or irritates them on the road. Whatever we’re prideful about, the Spirit of Pride will cover that thing. If it’s a vehicle, then that person’s pride in their car will accompany the car. And Leviathan will cover it as well, causing the energy of pride and arrogance to go everywhere the car goes.
Home Owners
When a homeowner or property owner is filled with the Spirit of Pride, that spirit then covers the home or property. The same applies to businesses, vacation homes, yachts, hotels, and other similar establishments and belongings. That arrogant, prideful energy will be upon those things.
Ministries & Churches
The worst infiltration of Leviathan is in ministries and churches. Some call this a religious spirit, but often those pointing fingers are themselves attending a church that is just as guilty as the one they claim is prideful. When church members take pride in their building, or their dynamic and attractive pastor, or believe their pastor is more renowned than others, it opens the door for Leviathan.
Minority Groups
If you’re a member of a racial minority group, you could fall into a racial inferiority trap and hate members of the majority. Or, if you’re in a lower economic class than others, you could easily hate those you view as financially superior. Leviathan will tell a person to envy others and hate them. If a person listens to those condemnations, they’ll allow Leviathan access to their life. Soon, everything the person does is motivated by Leviathan and the spirit of pride. The lies of Leviathan could shape an entire life or ministry, and this is often the case.
Outcome
Most people are not aware that the outcome of Sodom and Gomorrah came because of pride, not sexual sins:
49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. (Ezekiel 16)
What outcome can we expect when we tip our scale of pride beyond what God allows? Many prophecies discuss how God will destroy the wicked in the last days. When scriptures refer to Sodom and Gomorrah, we should keep in mind that both the cause and the method are types or examples of what will be the cause and method for the destruction of the wicked: by fire.
Solution
Pride results from selfishness; therefore, the solution is selflessness. Yes, those are relative terms, and the latter is much easier said than done.