SPIRITUAL WARFARE
March 2022
​
There are times in life and ministry when we realise that we are really up against the devil.
​
This is a situation that requires strong prayers to come against him - in order to see the victory.
​
This kind of prayer is known as spiritual warfare but to be effective we have to understand how to do it.
​
The subject of spiritual warfare does not seem to be taught or talked about much in the church these days.
​
However, there was a time in the early days of my ministry when it was a very hot topic with a few very strange ideas floating around. In the end, people were looking for demons everywhere.
Maybe that is why mention of it is not made so often these days. Sadly, what so often happens when things are taken to extremes - we end up “throwing out the baby with the bathwater” as we say in English!
​
I certainly would not even mention it unless there was clear Biblical teaching on the subject and that is how I would like to approach the subject this month.
Here are five major statements in the New Testament about spiritual warfare three from Jesus and two from the apostle Paul:
"How can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods,
unless he first binds the strong man?
And then he will plunder his house.”
(Matthew 12:29)
“I (Jesus) will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven,
and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven,
and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
(Matthew 16:19)
“I (Jesus) have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions
and to overcome all the power of the enemy;
nothing will harm you.”
(Luke 10:19)
“The weapons of our warfare are not carnal (human/worldly)
but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds”
(of the enemy/devil). (2 Corinthians 10:4)
“We do not wrestle against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this age,
against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
(Ephesians 6:2)
​
Take note here, that Paul goes on to talk about wearing the whole armour of God before going into battle against the enemy! (Ephesians 6:10-18)
The devil when he was cast out of the highest heaven (Isaiah 14:12-15) - stayed in the heavenly realms and made it his business to gain control of the earth - which he did through the disobedience of Adam who handed over the rulership that God had given to him - to the serpent by obeying him instead of God.
Since then, the devil with many other hosts of wickedness and powerful princes of darkness under himself, remain in the heavenly realms and from there they reek all kinds of havoc on earth.
​
The Old Testament gives us a glimpse of those principalities at work in the heavenlies in Daniel 10.1-21 & 12:1. Michael is God's spiritual prince for the people of Israel fighting against the evil principality who rules over the earthly kingdom of Persia.
​
Daniel had been praying on behalf of his people and as soon as his prayers reached God’s ears, an angel had been dispatched to go and speak with Daniel - but the powerful demonic prince over Persia had hindered the angel from getting through the heavenly realms for three weeks – until the mighty heavenly, holy, Prince Michael had come to the angel’s aid.
​
Has a similar thing been happening in the heavenly realms over Ukraine?
​
Like Daniel let us continue to pray until the victory comes!
​
Even if I am not praying physically with other Spirit-filled believers in the same room I/we can join our prayers together with all those who are praying in a similar way.
However, I would not undertake spiritual warfare without wearing the whole armour of God and following the guidelines below and at the same time, consciously joining my prayers with the prayers of all God’s people who are also praying around the world!
How to do spiritual warfare:
-
Claim the cleansing of the blood of Jesus over your life, spirit, soul, and body
-
Pray for the protection of the blood of Jesus for yourself, your family, and those involved
-
Proclaim that you can trample on serpents and scorpions in Jesus’ name
-
Proclaim the Lordship of Jesus and praise His name
-
Be filled with the Holy Spirit – pray in tongues
-
Ask God to give you the right keys to unlock this situation
-
Start to take authority over the enemy in Jesus’ name
-
Bind up the enemy in the name of Jesus
-
Loose the victory in the name of Jesus
-
Praise the Lord for the victory
Looking back on many occasions in my own life and ministry, there have been many times when I sensed that the enemy was trying to hinder things or stop things from happening.
​
One such occasion happened recently when I was trying to move to London to be nearer my daughter and my son and daughter in law, and the Bible College where I teach (and I believe that there are many other reasons which I have yet to discover).
​
Everybody who knew the plan agreed that it was absolutely the right thing to do, in every way. But for some months, time and time again, it was being blocked and at one point it looked as though the whole thing was going to fall through.
I am told that in the original Greek of "Whatsoever things you bind" there's a sense of - "it's up to you."
​
"You can let things go on the way they are - or you can take authority over things - it's up to you."
​
So, I decided it was time to really take authority over this in the Name of Jesus – and with the help of the prayers of friends we got the victory - the devil did not win!
​
“The weapons of our warfare… are mighty in God
for pulling down of strongholds!"
​
​
​
​