And Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left; and the LORD said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said one thing, and another said another. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD, saying, ‘I will entice him.’ And the LORD said to him, ‘By what means?’ And he said, ‘I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.’ Now therefore behold, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the LORD has declared disaster for you.” – 1 Kings 22:19-23 ESV

Warrior;
Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ. I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready. (1 Corinthians 3:1-2) Are you ready to go beyond salvation, repentance, and confession? Are you still wondering if God can possibly love you? Are you still TRYING to be GOODNUFF for GOD? If you are ready for some real scriptural ‘meat and tators’, then welcome to the DIVINE COUNCIL. Hear the Word of the Lord; The heavens praise your wonders, LORD, your faithfulness too, in the assembly of the holy ones. For who in the skies above can compare with the LORD? Who is like the LORD among the heavenly beings? In the council of the holy ones God is greatly feared; he is more awesome than all who surround him.” (Psalm 89:5-7) God presides in the divine assembly; He renders judgment among the gods. (Psalm 82:1) “This decision is by the decree of the watchers, and the sentence by the word of the holy ones, in order that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, gives it to whomever He will, and sets over it the lowest of men” (Daniel 4:17) On another day the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them to present himself before Him. “Where have you come from?” said the LORD to Satan. (Job 2:1-2)

Leader, these verses present a divine council: heavenly beings referred to as “the council of the holy ones.” The “divine council” is also called the “great assembly” (NIV), “heaven’s court” (NLT), and “His own congregation” (NASB). God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment. Michael Heiser’s 2015 book The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible made us realize the filter of tradition that we have been using while studying scripture. Heiser states, “The term divine council is used by Hebrew and Semitics scholars to refer to the heavenly host, the pantheon of divine beings who administer the affairs of the cosmos. All ancient Mediterranean cultures had some conception of a divine council. The divine council of Israelite religion, known primarily through the psalms, was distinct in important ways.” The Desiring God website has an article based on Heiser’s research and states, “In his book, Heiser presents the divine council as an assembly of lesser divine figures, presided by a higher, supreme being. While in ancient Near Eastern (ANE) societies, such a concept entails a polytheistic pantheon of deities, its occurrence in Scripture is variously interpreted and debated. At the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11, God disinherited the Nations, puts lesser elohim in charge of the 70 nations and then calls out Abram from Mesopotamia in Genesis 12. It is written: When the Most High assigned lands to the nations, when he divided up the human race, he established the boundaries of the peoples according to the number in his heavenly court. “For the people of Israel belong to the LORD; Jacob is his special possession. (Deuteronomy 32:8-9)

Conduit, John Walton, whose ‘Lost World book’ series examines various Old Testament passages in light of the ANE context. Walton believes the problem with the common study of the Bible is that we read it from our Spiritual perspective today, instead of the writers. “Although the Bible was written for us, it was not written to us.” If the Bible was not written to us, then it seems we must adjust to the worldview of the biblical authors, at least to some degree, in order to properly understand the Old Testament, including the theme of the divine council. Amazon has this to say about bestselling author Jonathan Cahn’s book; “In ‘The Return of the Gods’, Cahn takes the reader on a journey from an ancient parable, the ancient inscriptions in Sumer, Assyria, and Babylonia that become the puzzle pieces behind what is taking place in our world to this day, specifically in America. The mystery involves the gods. Who are they? What are they? And is it possible that these beings, whose origins are from ancient times, are the unseen catalysts of modern culture? Is it possible that these gods lie behind the most pivotal events, forces, and movements taking place in our nation and around the world at this very moment? Are the gods at this very moment transforming our culture, our children, our lives, and America itself?” If we are to FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT, then we must know there are many Spirits active today. There are people in prison today, who were told by a spirit, they perceived to be God, to kill, cut up and burn people- to the glory of God. There are churches around the country where people say they walked in and “felt the Spirit there’. Yes, there are many Spirits, but only ONE HOLY SPIRIT. We are called to have discernment. It is written: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. (John 10:27) Unless you are studying His word, connected to HIS VINE, you could be deceived by a Spirit that is NOT OF GOD! In Matthew 24 under the description; Signs of the End of the Age, it is written: For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. (Matthew 24:24) The TIME IS NOW to get beyond the MILK and KNOW THE WORD.