"From the greatness of the crisis and the solemnity of the warning, these emissaries must be creatures of awesome power. Yet they seem unaccountably crude, uncouth, and unseemly. They surprise us. “Frogs!” we exclaim, “heralds of battle? Ambassadors to kings? Impossible! Absurd! Ridiculous!” The crisis is the greatest in the annals of war. It is referred to in scripture, as well as in our text, as “the battle of that great day of God Almighty.” It is portrayed as a World War, a Universal Conflict. And yet — to assemble the militant nations — three slimy batrachian monsters! What are these “questionable shapes,” these disgusting amphibia, from the swamps and mud of dried-up Euphrates? John describes them as “unclean spirits,” they are “demons,” or dead men. What we see in the vision is three ghostly emissaries, one out of the mouth of each of the confederates, the dragon, the wild beast, and the false prophet — gigantic shadowy frogs, croaking night prowlers, cold-blooded reptiles dwelling in marshes, quagmires, and stagnant waters, with their spotted skin, their sprawling limbs, their agile leap, their dismal croakings filling the night with noise. They are as politicians, these masqueraders, at home in the slimy pool, in the gooey mud, in the air or on solid ground; noisome, repulsive, abhorrent. Of what are these cheap orators, these uncanny imposters the emblem?"
Much more in the text:
“SPIRIT AND WORD” — that is the issue in this battle at Armageddon. “Three unclean spirits coming out of the mouth.” There is a time when God does more than just forgive our sins and pour down blessings upon us. The hour comes when He contends with the very spirit or spirits that motivate us and we find ourselves drawn into conflict — into the greatest conflict of our lives! The battle is not just “against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12). We are to be CLEANSED “from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (II Cor. 7:1). Thus, when God sets His hand to purify and perfect us it is no local skirmish, but erupts into a full-fledged WORLD WAR involving every vestige of the flesh and every stronghold of spirit as God in us goes about His work of “the pulling down of strong holds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (II Cor. 10:4-5). In John’s vision three unclean spirits emerge, touching upon the defilement and slavery of man in all areas of body, soul, and spirit. It reaches into all the expressions of society — religious, political, and economical. The frogs may croak all night but their influence will end with the Light of God’s New Day, when “the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ.”
"The truth is, my beloved, you can be filled with the Holy Spirit or you can be filled with the spirit of the devil. You can be filled with God’s Spirit or you can be filled with the spirit of the world. You can be filled with the Spirit of Christ or you can be filled with religious spirits. You can be filled with the spirits of demons, devils, and evil spirits. I don’t care how you conjure them up. Matters not to me whether you think they are entities walking about in the invisible spirit world about you or whether they are something that comes out of a state of mind — these powers are real and Jesus cast them out of people. I don’t pretend to understand all about evil spirits — I don’t even understand all about the Holy Spirit and how He works! And I am much more interested in the Holy Spirit than I am in a devil or a demon or an evil spirit. I’m not a devil preacher. I am not devil conscious in my own life. But it is a fact that there is an unclean and evil anointing just as there is an anointing of the Holy Spirit! And every man who follows on to know the Lord will eventually come face to face with every one of those unclean “anointings” or “devils” when he comes to his Armageddon; for Armageddon is the final battle where Babylon, with all its carnality, worldliness, fleshliness, deception, and deviltry falls to rise no more. Therefore this battle must of necessity deal thoroughly and eternally with every one of the “spirits of devils’! Armageddon is where all the devilish spirits, all the worldly spirits, and all the religious spirits make their last stand against the Lord of hosts! And, like General Custer, they go down into ignominious and everlasting defeat! IT IS THE BATTLE OF THE GREAT DAY OF GOD ALMIGHTY!"
"An “unclean” spirit is the opposite of the “clean” or “holy” Spirit. The “clean” or Holy Spirit of God is the Spirit of truth, life, and righteousness. Unclean spirits produce the opposite: lies and deceits, evil, and death. The characteristics of the Holy Spirit are found in the “fruit of the spirit” which is: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Gal. 5:22-23). These are the nine virtues which constitute the nature of the Holy Spirit which is the nature of God. The scriptures show that our bodies are the “body of Christ” and the “temple of God.” When we walk in the spirit we are walking in the nature of God. Paul says, “This I say then, Walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16). The lusts of the flesh produce uncleanness. Acts 1:8 says, “But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me.” What kind of POWER does the Holy Spirit give us? Certainly not muscle power! No, you get muscle power by eating certain proteins and exercising regularly. Would it be atomic power? There is a lot of power in atomic power — enough already stockpiled by the nations to blow twenty planets like ours to smithereens! If God is willing to give us power, it must be power AFTER HIS IMAGE AND LIKENESS. What is God like? First of all, we know that God is a Spirit, and when God gives us power, He would naturally give us spirit power. He gives us power after His likeness! This means that He gives us love power, joy power, peace power, longsuffering power, patience power, goodness power, temperance power, meekness power, and faith power. This is indeed — SPIRIT POWER!"
"First, I would draw your attention to the fact that they are called “unclean spirits.” They are unclean just because they are designated as frogs, and under the Old Testament law of Moses, as defined in the dietary laws, frogs were unclean animals and therefore not to be eaten by the people of Israel. Our second clue is that they are described as coming out of the mouth. Now how can a frog be in the mouth? The metaphor signifies an unclean spirit or an unclean word that is coming out of a false teaching. This is the spirit of all false teachings that originate from the mouth of the dragon (the devil and Satan), from the mouth of the beast (the world system), and from the mouth of the false prophet (the carnal church system of man). These are the teachings that people partake of, eat or assimilate into their lives, thus swallowing the spirit of that teaching, becoming defiled by it. And all of these teachings gather our minds and hearts in resistance and rebellion against the truth of God as it is in Jesus! Then when God shows up in our path and begins to deal with us by His Spirit the battle is ready to begin!"
"As we allow the spirit of Christ to rule in us, reign in us, and work through us, there is a manifestation of God’s kingdom through us to the world."
"The nature of the dragon, the nature of the beast, and the nature of the false prophet are three dimensions of the nature of the natural Adamic life within each of us."