The Bulldog From Hell

I was praying early Sunday morning when suddenly, and completely unrelated to what I was praying about, I saw a man standing. This wasn’t too unusual until he turned and I saw that attached to the man’s back, and sticking straight out was a bulldog with very pointed and razor sharp teeth. The bulldog had bitten into the man’s back and had been there for some time feeding on him, weakening him and causing him much suffering.

The man expressed a desire to be healed of the wounds and suffering the bulldog had inflicted on him and had been prayed for repeatedly but without success. I saw good people praying and praying again for the man but the bulldog would not release his grip and continued devouring the man little by little. The man would smile at the people for their attempt and the kind attention they had shown him but the condition did not change and the bulldog kept his sharp teeth clamped into the man’s lower back.

But as I continued to look, I saw something else. From the saliva of the bulldog there was something being injected into the man that was actually providing something for him. It was like a compensating anesthetic but it was also a poison. But in order for the bulldog to get what he wanted, he knew he had to give the man something that the man wanted and needed as well.

The man did not know that the anesthetic being provided was coming from the bulldog who, was actually eating him alive and destroying him. He did not know the two were related. The man had become dependent upon the anesthetic and loved it. But the anesthetic was simply a mask the bulldog provided the man so the bulldog could continue to destroy him.

The Lord showed me that the bulldog was a demonic spirit and in order for the man to be delivered from the bulldog he had to first get delivered from the dependency he had developed in relation to the anesthetic. In other words there were in fact two healings that needed to take place. There is a deliverance from the anesthetic that has to take place before the deliverance from the bulldog itself.

But the man’s dependency on the anesthetic seemed like such a good thing to him. In fact he even thought the anesthetic was a gift being sent to him from God. He thought the results of the anesthetic were a sign of how greatly cherished he was by the Lord when in fact it was a deception. The more he believed it the more the bulldog fed.

Then the Lord showed me the man had wounds to his soul that went all the way back into his childhood and the devouring spirit had exploited these vulnerabilities in him. The deception was in the fact that the evil spirit would seemingly meet the void in the man left over from his childhood experience in order to gain what it really wanted, which was his complete destruction, then the dog would move on to feed on another victim.

In a way, evil spirits are like parasites. Because they have no life within themselves they have to feed off of the life of another host. They are more than happy to grant the illusion of comfort if it means they can devour the life of their host.

Jesus identified the final outcome of the activity of dark spirits when He said, “The thief comes only to steal, to kill, and to destroy. But I am come that you might have life and have it in overflowing abundance”, John 10:10.

In contrast to steal, kill and destroy, Proverbs 10:22 says, “The blessing of the LORD, it makes rich, and He adds no sorrow with it.” How fantastic is that? And what a contrast? The blessings that flow from God’s being are pure and they are blessing ONLY to us when they come. They are not part good and part bad. They are not mixed. God’s blessings make rich ONLY and there is no sorrow that sneaks in the door with them.

In the case of this man it seemed that sympathy had been a strong need at some point in his childhood. The affliction the bulldog had caused in the man provided him with all the sympathy he would ever want. The bulldog, even though he was destroying the man, was providing the man deep and genuine fulfillment in his person of something he had lacked.

I saw quite clearly that in at least one key event in his childhood when he needed someone to truly feel with him and acknowledge the pain he was going through, he was told to “buck up” and stop acting like a crybaby. It seemed almost militaristic. It was harsh and unfeeling. It was without love.

The unmet need in this event or maybe many such events opened a huge deficiency in this man into which the enemy was more that willing to step and weave an evil web. It would be hard for the man to give up having his need for sympathy being met now, which was being provided by the very condition the bulldog was creating.

When I saw how things like this can extend from childhood and parenting, I thought about the hell I must have put my own kids through and started covering them in prayer. That is of course, after I repented for all the damage I’m sure I must have done to them. Then the Holy Spirit came and comforted me saying, “Cheer up, very few do a truly great job of raising their children. But, you do have to be careful with them because their pure little spirits are very close to the kingdom of God. Don’t provoke them to the wrath and bitter resentments toward you, or they will lose the courage required to face the challenges of their lives. It can take a long time for them to heal. Some never do.”

Well, that really helped. That’s like saying, “Don’t worry, you’re just another loser in the midst of long line of other losers.” But I did see in those words that it’s not too late. There is still hope to “re-courage” your children, no matter what their age and to pray that Jesus will infuse them with a total abundance of His courage and they will be able to face the world and know they can do all things through Christ who WILL empower them for any and every challenge that appears before them!

No matter what the challenge is, He infuses us with power not just to win but to TRIUMPH COMPLETELY! Listen to the words of an apostle in 2nd Corinthians 2:14, “Now we offer great thanksgiving to God, Who ALWAYS CAUSES US TO TRIUMPH IN CHRIST, and makes manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place.”

The kind of courage we should impart is outlined in Romans 8:37-39, “In all these things we are MORE THAN CONQUERERS through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, or life, or angels, or principalities, or powers, or things present, or things to come, or height, or depth, or any other thing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

O.K., so let’s back to the man and the bulldog. Unmet, genuine needs leave us vulnerable to attacks from a very devious enemy who will give us a sense of comfort while he unwittingly devours our lives. We receive the comfort and can’t imagine the comfort to be evil. This is the power of the deception, because while we think we are being given to, we are actually being stolen from.

Healing sometimes requires that we first be delivered from any seeming comfort that is not flowing out from the Holy Spirit and the Fathers absolute love for us. Sometimes this takes discernment to recognize the false comfort meant to blind us from the true comfort that comes from God. God is our source of all things in life and He is willing to freely give us all we need.

If we find there is a longstanding problem that doesn’t seem to be moving in response to prayer, we should consider carefully if there is something about the thing, or the effects of it, that is actually feeding some long unmet need within us. If it is discovered that the result of having this thing is indeed feeding something unmet in us, then this needs to be healed first. The situation can be healed by taking it before the Lord and in faith submitting to HIS AMPLE POWER to meet that need.

And remember this promise, if the need stems back into your childhood and is related to parenting gaps, “When my mother and father forsake me, THEN THE LORD WILL GATHER ME UP”, Psalms 27:10. God promises to be to you a Father and a Mother and fill in the gaps that may have been left so that we might be strong and powerful people. He welcomes all his children, young children and old children alike, with open arms of His eternal comfort and love. Nestle in, and let God provide the love of a father or a mother you may have missed out on somewhere. He waits to comfort you with open arms.

Randy