All throughout the day this past Friday, I kept on hearing the Spirit of God speak a word to me. To be honest, I was preparing to marry someone and was so exhausted from relocating my mother from out of state that I completely forgot that the Lord spoke this to me.
It wasn’t until late that night while preparing to go to bed did the Holy Spirit speak to me one last time. The word that He said to me was the exact same thing that He had been saying all day. The Word that the Lord spoke to me was the word “demagogue.”
A “demagogue” is defined as the following:
1) A political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than by using rational argument.
2) A political leader who tries to get support by making false claims and promises and using arguments based on emotion rather than reason.
3) A leader who makes use of popular prejudices and false claims and promises in order to gain power.
After delving into this more, I knew that the Lord was sharing a word with me concerning the looming Presidential election season. After further researching and studying the meaning of this word, I found out some fascinating information about demagogues and how they operate. Only some of the article from Wikipedia has been sparingly used due to the length of the information found about demagogues on their website. If you would like to read about demagogues in its entirety, please click the following link which will take you right to their website:
The following information, unless otherwise specified, is taken directly from Wikipedia.
Demagogue
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“A demagogue or rabble-rouser is a leader in a democracy who gains popularity by exploiting prejudice and ignorance among the common people, whipping up the passions of the crowd and shutting down reasoned deliberation. Demagogues have usually advocated immediate, violent action to address a national crisis while accusing moderate and thoughtful opponents of weakness or disloyalty. Demagogues violate established rules of political conduct; most who were elected to high office changed their democracy into some form of dictatorship (emphasis mine).
The word
demagogue, originally meaning a leader of the common people, was first coined in ancient Greece with no negative connotation, but eventually came to mean a troublesome kind of leader who occasionally arose in
Athenian democracy.
[6][7] Demagogues were a new kind of leader who emerged from the lower classes. Demagogues relentlessly advocated action, usually violent—immediately and without deliberation.
[3] Demagogues appealed directly to the emotions of the poor and uninformed, pursuing power, telling lies to stir up hysteria, exploiting crises to intensify popular support for their calls to immediate action and increased authority, and accusing moderate opponents of weakness or disloyalty to the nation. While many politicians in a democracy make occasional small sacrifices of truth, subtlety, or long-term concerns to maintain popular support, demagogues do these things relentlessly and without self-restraint.
[8]
James Fenimore Cooper in 1838 identified four fundamental characteristics of demagogues:[3][5]
- They fashion themselves as a man or woman of the common people, as opposed to the elites.
- Their politics depends on a visceral connection with the people which greatly exceeds ordinary political popularity.
- They manipulate this connection, and the raging popularity it affords, for their own benefit and ambition.
- They threaten or outright break established rules of conduct, institutions, and even the law.
The central feature of the practice of demagoguery is persuasion by means of passion, shutting down reasoned deliberation and consideration of alternatives. Demagogues “pander to passion, prejudice, bigotry, and ignorance, rather than reason.”[4] See below for a survey of the methods of persuasion used by most demagogues throughout history.
Modern demagogues include Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and Joseph McCarthy.[3] All, ancient and modern, meet Cooper’s four criteria above: claiming to represent the common people, inciting intense passions among them, exploiting those reactions to take power, and breaking or at least threatening established rules of political conduct, though each in different ways.[3]
The methods of demagogues
Below are described a number of recurring techniques that are reported among demagogues from many different times and places. No one demagogue uses them all, and no two demagogues use exactly the same methods to gain popularity and loyalty. Even ordinary politicians use some of these techniques from time to time; a politician who failed to stir emotions at all would have little hope of being elected. What these techniques have in common, and what distinguishes demagogues’ use of them, is their consistent use to shut down reasoned deliberation by stirring up overwhelming passion.
[23][24]
2) FEARMONGERING
Many demagogues have risen to power by
evoking fear in their audiences, to stir them to action and prevent deliberation. Fear of
rape, for example, is easily evoked.
“Pitchfork Ben” Tillman‘s
rhetoric was most vivid when he was describing imaginary scenes in which white women were raped by black men lurking by the side of the road. He depicted black men as having an innate “character weakness” consisting of a fondness for raping white women.
[27] Tillman was elected governor of South Carolina in 1890, and elected senator repeatedly from 1895–1918.
3) LYING
While any politician needs to point out dangers to the people and criticize opponents’ policies, demagogues choose their words for their effect on their audience’s emotions, usually without regard for factual truth or the real severity of the danger.
[28][29] Some demagogues are opportunistic, monitoring the people and saying whatever currently will generate the most “heat”. Other demagogues may themselves be so ignorant or prejudiced that they sincerely believe the falsehoods they tell.
[23]4) EMOTIONAL ORATORY & PERSONAL MAGNETISM
Many demagogues have demonstrated remarkable skill at moving audiences to great emotional depths and heights during a speech. Sometimes this is due to exceptional verbal eloquence, sometimes personal charisma, sometimes both.
The demagogues’ charisma and emotional oratory many times enabled them to win elections despite opposition from the press. The
news media informs, and often the information is damaging to demagogues. Demagogic oratory distracts, entertains, and enthralls, steering followers’ attention away from the demagogue’s usual history of lies, abuses of power, and broken promises.
5) ACCUSING OPPONENTS OF WEAKNESS & DISLOYALTY
Cleon, like many demagogues that came after him, constantly advocated brutality in order to demonstrate strength, and argued that compassion was a sign of weakness that would only be exploited by enemies. “It is a general rule of human nature that people despise those who treat them well and look up to those who make no concessions.”
6) VIOLENCE & PHYSICAL INTIMIDATION
Demagogues have often encouraged their supporters to violently intimidate opponents, both to solidify loyalty among their supporters and to discourage or physically prevent people from speaking out or voting against them. “Pitchfork Ben” Tillman was repeatedly re-elected to the U.S. Senate largely through violence and intimidation. He spoke in support of lynch mobs, and he disenfranchised most black voters with the
South Carolina constitution of 1895. Hitler wrote in
Mein Kampf that physical intimidation was an effective way to move the masses. Hitler intentionally provoked hecklers at his rallies so that his supporters would become enraged by their remarks and assault them.
[37] 7) PERSONAL INSULTS & RIDICULE
Many demagogues have found that ridiculing or insulting opponents is a simple way to shut down reasoned deliberation of competing ideas, especially with an unsophisticated audience.
A common demagogic technique is to pin an insulting
epithet on an opponent, by saying it repeatedly, in speech after speech, when saying the opponent’s name or in place of it. The use of epithets and other humorous invective diverts followers’ attention from soberly considering how to address the important public issues of the time, scoring easy laughs instead.
8) FOLKSY POSTURING
Most demagogues have made a show of appearing to be down-to-Earth, ordinary citizens just like the people whose votes they sought.
9) GROSS OVERSIMPLIFICATION
Scapegoating, described above, is one form of gross oversimplification: treating a complex problem, which requires patient reasoning and analysis to sort out, as if it results from one simple cause or can be solved by one simple cure.
10)ATTACKING THE NEWS MEDIA
Since information from the press can undermine a demagogue’s spell over his or her followers, modern demagogues have often attacked it intemperately, calling for violence against newspapers who opposed them, claiming that the press was secretly in the service of moneyed interests or foreign powers, or claiming that leading newspapers were simply personally out to get them.
(END OF WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE….)
After studying this information on demagogues, my mind couldn’t help but go back to another prophetic word that the Lord had given to me back in June 2016. An excerpt of that word is found below (What is shared is directly from my journal):
Journal Entry:
Thursday, June 23, 2016
A few weeks back, my family and I went away for a short time of R&R at a retreat center designed to give you a place to rest and unplug from the day-to-day grind of life.
While making breakfast this morning for one of my kiddos, I heard the Spirit of God say the following to me: “PORTEND.”
The word “portend” means the following:
1) To give warning of
2) It also means to predict or foreshadow.
3) To be a sign or warning that (something, especially something momentous or calamitous) is likely to happen.
4) To be a sign or warning that something usually bad or unpleasant is going to happen.
Portend means to show a sign that something calamitous is about to happen.
Immediately upon hearing this, I became unnerved. I have sought the Lord concerning the meaning of what He had spoken and feel like I am supposed to share the following information.
The general thrust of prophecy is to edify, exhort and comfort the hearer. There are times that God gives other words that step outside of these boundaries that include direction, correction, rebuke, warning, etc.
I strongly feel (this is me, NOT the Lord) that this word was a word of warning from the Lord. In His divine providence and foresight, I believe that He was compassionately telling us of things to come that WILL NOT be stopped due to intercession from His church.
Typically, when judgment of any sort comes/is about to come, typically it can be stopped or circumvented through strategic intercession (intercession is a kind of prayer). Judgment can also be stopped through a repentant heart by the leaders and people that the judgment is intended for. When people sin judgment is inevitable. This rule applies in both personal and national matters.
What am I trying to say here? I STRONGLY believe that something horrific is about to happen in the United States of America. When I say horrific I am referencing some kind of national tragedy or calamity (“portend”) which will require strong leadership to chart the course during those times of turbulence. If a demagogic leader is elected and placed in office during this time of national tragedy it is going to make things a million times worse.
I know that there are many who do not understand or agree with spiritual things which is fine but what I am about to say has a spiritual connotation to it. I believe that there are high-ranking demonic entities influencing aspects of the U.S.’s current political cycle. Although no candidate is perfect and has their own flaws, there are certain aspects of some candidate’s candidacies that are HIGHLY demagogic in nature. I am certain that demagogic leaders have been birthed and are being energized by the demonic realm. This is NOT a typical political election and is something that should be not be taken lightly by the church in North America. Much prayer is required in order for one to hear what the Spirit is saying to His church in this hour.
Let me interject this here: I am not a registered Republican, Democrat or Independent. In each election cycle, whether national or local, I cast my votes for those who I think are the most well-equipped for the rigors of political office. In this discourse, I am not advocating or endorsing any person or any party. I think that who one votes for should be according to the dictates of their own conscience. So I have not shared what I have shared to influence you to vote one way or another. I have simply sought to share the things that God has prophetically spoken to me.
May the Church of the Lord Jesus arise and heed the apostolic instructions that came from Paul to his young protege Timothy:
“Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.“-1 Tim. 2:1-4
Salvation is the only remedy for this nation. I encourage the church to not be blinded by one’s political biases or allegiances and to seek the Lord for strategy and wisdom for the turbulent times that lie ahead.
We are going to need all of the help that we can get….
-Warren G. Curry, Apostle
Life Changers Church
Cincinnati, OH
