The sons of Ham were Cush and Mizraim and Put and Canaan. The sons of Cush were Seba and Havilah and Sabtah and Raamah and Sabteca; and the sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan. Now Cush became the father of Nimrod, he became a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord.” The beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. From that land he went forth into Assyria, and built Ninevah and Rehobot-ir and Calah, and Resent between Ninevah and Calah; that is the great city. Mizraim became the father of Ludim and Anamim and Lehabim and Naphtuhim and Pathrusim and Casluhim (from which came the Philistines) and Caphtorim. Genesis 10:6-14

Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” Genesis 11:1-4

1. A person with a Nimrod spirit will align with and follow natural heritage yet have a godly image.

Nimrod was referred to as a “mighty hunter before the Lord,” yet his natural heritage was that which drove him. As a hunter he was more likely to hunt for position, preeminence, and prestige, all the while having people view him in a positive manner. A Nimrod spirit represents an intense and unhealthy desire to hunt for position with impure motives while having others view you in a positive way. It works under deep deception.

Consider the natural lineage of Nimrod. He was the son of Cush who was the son of Ham. Ham was the son of Noah who had seen his father’s nakedness after they had come off the ark. There are many speculations about what happened when Ham saw Noah’s nakedness, but at the very least it is common belief that he lusted after his father. In the tent there was a twisted feeling of incestuous sodomy, if not such action.

As a result of his actions, Ham’s son Canaan – Nimrod’s uncle – was cursed to be the lowest of servants. Nimrod grew up knowing that his family had been cursed to a lowly place; therefore, his heart was driven by an insatiable desire to overcome that low place in his own strength and on his own terms. He became a mighty one on the earth, driven by a need to naturally correct what had been spiritually established. Although he may have been referred to as mighty before the Lord, the truth is that his might and strength came from himself and his perverted desires to maneuver things to his advantage.

2. A person with a Nimrod spirit will be marked by rebellious attitude and action.

The very name Nimrod means rebellion. Throughout history, the root cause of all things antichrist is rebellion. The natural order had been disturbed when Ham acted inappropriately toward Noah, and Nimrod took it upon himself to right what, in his eyes, was wrong. The heart of rebellion is a drive to save face or gain acclaim in the eyes of man at the expense of everything else. When Samuel told King Saul that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft it was in response to the king’s desire to save face before the army of Israel.

When a person is operating under a Nimrod spirit you will see their attitude and their actions laced with and motivated by rebellion. Rebellion is the clearest human manifestation of Satan that any of us can display. It began with eating the fruit in rebellion to God’s command, and for Nimrod it was rebelling against being the lowest of servants, in hopes of becoming the one most served.

We each are born under the curse of sin, but no matter how hard we try our rebellious approach toward overcoming that curse will never work. Only through Jesus Christ can that curse be broken in our lives. Rather than look to God for deliverance, Nimrod attempted to rebel and get to God on his own terms.

3. A person with a Nimrod spirit will skillfully mix the holy with the profane.

A Nimrod spirit works to mix the holy and the profane just enough to be able to blend the two together in an acceptable way. Nimrod began to build and establish his kingdom when he settled in the land of Shinar. Shinar represents a country of two rivers, and from this we understand that Nimrod took the approach that he was going to get back what belonged to him and his family by blurring the lines of the pure and the impure.

God has always had a stream or river of life that flows from Him. It is a river that flows pure and free and gives life everywhere it goes. The Nimrod spirit will come with a desire to produce a river of man that flows alongside and is heralded as being able to replace the river of God in case it runs dry. It serves as a natural ability to establish what God has put into place. Often you see this spirit work in digging and cutting a channel for a river that the person often calls the River of God. As the river flows, based on man’s planning and craftiness, the unsuspecting are led astray in an impure and polluted stream.

4. A person with a Nimrod spirit will build a kingdom based on confusion.

The beginning of his kingdom was Babel which means confusion. God is not the author of confusion. A Nimrod spirit, however, will work to establish or maintain some sense of confusion and to keep people from seeing or understanding what God is clearly doing. In connection with characteristic number one, the person will be seen as representing God; if confusion is the foundation it will automatically give people a false image or understanding of who God truly is.

It was not difficult for Nimrod to convince the people to build the city or the tower toward heaven, because he had worked so diligently to confuse and coerce the people into following his lead. A Nimrod spirit will be very convincing as it works to lead people into believing confusion is proper reality. The version of truth may seem absurd at first, but the Nimrod spirit will soon calm the concern and cause the confusion to appear normal and acceptable.

5. A person with a Nimrod spirit will extend his reign for as long as possible.

Beyond Babel Nimrod’s kingdom moved into Erech, which means long. A Nimrod spirit will motivate a person with the misconception that length is equal to strength. The mind of others will believe that if something is established long enough then it must be valuable, strong, and legitimate.

This is often a result of the amount of time taken to establish the rebellious confusion as being normal and acceptable. The longer a person is trapped in deception the more likely for that deception to become the newly established truth or reality.

6. A person with a Nimrod spirit will be subtle in his real agenda.

The next city of Nimrod’s kingdom was Accad, which means subtle. Nimrod was hunting for opportunities to make a name for himself and to take authority that did not belong to him. The enemy has convinced many that we must hunt and find our way to obtain what Christ wants to give us freely. We try to subtly reverse the curse that can only be reversed in Christ.

When a Nimrod spirit is present it often will be able to hide its true identity and agenda long enough to gain leverage and authority. In the Garden of Eden the serpent is described as being craftier than any of the other beasts or animals. He was able to get close to Eve because of his subtle approach, yet once he gained a voice, his attack was swift and destructive.

7. A person with a Nimrod spirit will operate in divination and witchcraft.

Nimrod’s kingdom continued into Calneh which was the fortress of Anu, a mythological sky-god or the god of heaven. He represented the lord of constellations. It was believed that Anu had the power to judge those who had committed crimes, and that he had created the stars as soldiers to destroy the wicked.

At its core a Nimrod spirit will assume that when things are aligned properly, in the natural first, they will align supernaturally as well. God has established spiritual things first and His design is for us to operate as spirit, soul, and body. The Nimrod spirit will reverse that and put flesh or body in the place of preeminence and will use divination and witchcraft in order to do so. Consider Simon the sorcerer in Acts 8. He utilized magic powers and witchcraft in the natural to establish a place and a position. He wanted to simply add the power of the Holy Spirit to his arsenal. Peter warned him, however, that the Holy Spirit is not part of an arsenal; the Holy Spirit is the only weapon of power.

8. A person with a Nimrod spirit will expand his rule into as many territories as possible.

A continued thirst for power and control will drive the Nimrod spirit. From the land already established, he continued to move into Assyria where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth, Calah, and Resen.

Assyria means a step. Along the way the person operating in this spirit will step on, step over, or step through anyone he must to get to the place he desires for himself. The problem is when you get to a position in this manner you will never be as high as you think or expect, and will feel the need to continue to climb to your desired yet unattainable position.

Nineveh became the capital of the ancient kingdom of Assyria, and is known as the abode of Ninus, yet another Greek mythological god. Ninus is often portrayed as a centaur, which is represented by a human upper body and the lower body of a horse. As the expansion grew it continued to mix the holy and natural with the profane and unnatural. A Nimrod spirit will move further away from the things of God, increasing the confusion and causing people to exchange the truth of God for a lie.

Rehoboth was built near Nineveh and it means a wide or spacious place. It represents a feeling of comfort and wide acceptance. A Nimrod spirit will move itself and those in its control away from any notion of a narrow way and cause them to find comfort in that which is roomy, even if it is filled with wickedness and death.

Calah means vigor and Resen means a bridle. A Nimrod spirit will constantly display a balance of bridled vigor and rebellious confusion. It is a masterful spirit that works great ruin in the lives of many. It literally took God stepping down from heaven to truly expose and remove what Nimrod was doing. This is not a minor spirit or issue. This spirit works hard to establish, maintain, and expand its authority and dominion.

9. A person with a Nimrod spirit will be behind many things that oppose the people of God.

A Nimrod spirit will virtually never work alone, and this is seen through Nimrod’s natural, family heritage and his kingdom. The enemy infiltrated the lineage of Noah right after the flood and re-introduced corruption, wickedness, and evil. He found a rebellious man named Nimrod who was willing to build and establish his own kingdom contrary to God’s design.

Nimrod’s entire family operated in a natural drive to climb or attain to a position that God had simply not given to them. Nimrod’s cousin, Casluhim, is the one from which came the Philistines. We understand historically how much trouble the Philistines were for the people of God.

Babylon was the first city built and has long stood as the opposition to God’s city or Kingdom. The Canaanites founded and dwelt in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah as well as Tyre and Sidon. The prince of Tyre, Eth-Baal, was the father of Jezebel. I believe that many of the things we face in the spiritual are descended from a union of the Nimrod and Jezebel spirits. Nearly every place that has stood as opposition to God’s people can be traced to or connected with Nimrod and the spirit he introduced.

10. A person with a Nimrod spirit desires a name for himself and a position of deity.

The reason for the building of the tower, and Nimrod’s ultimate goal, was to make a name and to reach heaven. The enemy has been working hard to get us to think that from creation God has turned everything over to us, and has become distant and separated from us. As a result it is up to us to do all things in our own strength to get back to the place we have lost. The building of the tower was as far away from the Garden of Eden as the people were able to move, and it was up to them to get back to God on their own. A Nimrod spirit will believe that his efforts will gain deistic acclaim.

In Isaiah 14 it is the king of Babylon who declares five “I will” statements. We often attribute these “I will” statements to Satan, and while that may have application, it was an oracle against the king of Babylon. Understanding that Nimrod was the first king of Babylon we can see that the Nimrod spirit is motivated to become something it is not and can never be. He was driven by a desire to get to a place with or above God in a way that was different than what God prescribed. When a person is motivated to build, climb, or establish themselves in their own strength they are operating in conjunction with the Nimrod spirit, with the antichrist spirit, and with Satan himself.

Conclusion

In opposition to Nimrod’s “I will” aspirations we find Jesus Christ who never said “I will” but always declared I Am. Christ, and all that is established by Him, never has to try to make a name for Himself. God has already given Him a Name that is above every name. The Nimrod spirit will ultimately try to gain what only God can give. In his best effort to become somebody Nimrod failed miserably.

The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. Genesis 11:5

God had to come down from Heaven just to get a look at what they were building. Even their best attempt was small in comparison to the magnitude of God. A Nimrod spirit will cause a person to be deceived into believing they are accomplishing great things, when in reality all they are doing is building toward their own demise and destruction.

And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. Revelation 18:2

What God establishes will end in glory; what man establishes will end in demonic imprisonment and destruction.