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engaging the enemy |

DATE NUE |
BT 975 .E64 1991 |
Engaging the enemy

NEBRASKA CHRISTIAN COLLEGE

LIBRARY
1800 SYRACUSE
NORFOLK, NE 68701
 Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2022 with funding from
Kahle/Austin Foundation

https://archive.org/details/engaging-the-enemy--how-to-fight-and-defeat-territorial-spirits-_1991
ANCAGNG THE
How to Fightand Defeat Territorial Spirits
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 FOREWORD BY JOHN DAWSON

(,PETER WAGNER
EDITOR AND COMPILER

ANGAGNG THE
How to Fightand Defeat Territorial Spirits

hitedBooks
spel Light
Bae Oa Ue A,
Published by Regal Books
A Division of Gospel Light
Ventura, California 93006
Printed in U.S.A.

© Copyright 1991 by C. Peter Wagner. First published in Great Britain 1991 by

Sovereign World Ltd., P.O. Box 17, Chichester, England PO20 6YB. Originally titled
Territorial Spirits.

North American edition published by Regal Books 1991.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo-
copying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version of the Bible unless other-
wise stated. Copyright © 1983 Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Scripture quotations marked N/V are from the Holy Bible, New International Ver-
sion. Copyright © 1973, 1978, International Bible Society. Published by Hodder &
Stoughton.
Scripture quotations marked GNB are from the Good News Bible. Copyright © Amer-
ican Bible Society, New York.
Scripture quotations marked NASB are from the New American Standard Version of
the Bible. Copyright © The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971,
1973, 1975, 1977. ,

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Engaging the enemy : how to fight and defeat territorial spirits / edited by C. Peter
Wagner. — North American ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8307-1516-9
1. Spirits. 2. Demonology. I. Wagner, C. Peter.
BL480.T47 1991
235’.4—dc20
91-29362
Ccip

23456789
10/KP/ 95 94 93 92 91
 Contents
Foreword, John Dawson
Introduction, C. Peter Wagner XVii

Part I
THE ISSUES: Principles and Problems
1. Spiritual Warfare, C. Peter Wagner
2. Defeating Territorial Spirits, Steven Lawson
3. Territorial Spirits, C. Peter Wagner
4. Dealing with Territorial Demons, Timothy M. Warner
5. Dealing with the Enemy in Society, R. Arthur Mathews
6. Understanding Principalities and Powers,
Thomas B. White

Part II
THE MINISTRY: Pastors and Practitioners
7. Possessing Our Cities and Towns, Jack Hayford
8. Battle in the Heavenlies, Anne Gimenez
9. Binding the Strongman, Larry Lea
10. Jericho: Key to Conquest, Dick Bernal
11. Prayer Power in Argentina, Edgardo Silvoso
12. City Taking in Korea, Paul Yonggi Cho
13. High Level Powers in Zimbabwe, Richmond Chiundiza
14. Don’t Underestimate the Opposition, Paul B. Long
15. Seventh Time Around: Breaking Through a City’s
Invisible Barriers to the Gospel, John Dawson

Part Il
THE ANALYSIS: Perceptions and Perspectives
16. Territorial Spirits and Evangelization in Hostile
Environments, Vernon J. Sterk
17. Which God Do Missionaries Preach? Jacob Loewen
18. Principalities and Powers, Michael Green
19. The Subjection of the Invisible Powers,
Oscar Cullmann

Index
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 This book
is affectionately dedicated
to
George and Pam Marhad
cherished partners in ministry
 Foreword

I’m not really interested in territorial spirits. What is God up to, that
is the question. However, the presence of the adversary serves a use-
ful purpose.
The swarming presence of Beelzebub and his minions indicates
the places of wounding and corruption in the body of our nation; the
places where the land needs to be cleansed, through confession, rec-
onciliation and the presentation of the blood of the lamb, Christ Jesus.
Like vultures circling in the desert sky, the presence of the demon-
ic indicates approaching death below. The stronghold of the enemy
becomes the target of a praying people and the plans of Satan back-
fire once again.
This strategic book is a needed contribution. The Church is awak-
ening to the potential of united prayer. Citywide prayer meetings are
becoming a common phenomenon. It is time to examine again the
nature of the unseen realm as revealed in God’s Word. We need all
the help we can get and Peter Wagner has served us well by compil-
ing the insights of godly men and women who have proven the Word
in both scholasticism and in demonstration with power.
Understanding brings hope. Our ancient adversary can be over-
come. We need to lift ourselves out of a self-centered spirituality; a
mentality that says we are victims rather than warriors. Fiery darts will
come, but as we raise the shield of faith, we must take up the sword
of the Spirit and join with others in contending for cities and nations.
When we follow Jesus into battle our small steps of faith and obedi-
ence always contribute to a bigger victory than our own.
ix
 At the fall of the human race, Satan gained a mandate to become
“the god of this age” (2 Cor. 4:4). But since the birth of the church at
Pentecost, there has been an ebb and flow of satanic power in specific
places at specific times. He is like a squatter that the legal owner of
a building must evict.
In human history it is easy to see the enemy coming in like a
flood and the Lord raising up a standard against him. In a global
sense, each generation faces Satan in the form of the spirit of antichrist
or world domination. This is the spirit behind those who have had
ambition to rule the world such as Napoleon or Hitler. They would
usurp the place that belongs only to God. “The earth is the Lord’s and
all its fullness” (Ps. 24:1). A praying church should face this spirit and
drive it off long before we find ourselves in a world at war.
Physical violence represents an encroachment of spiritual violence
into the material realm. The spirit of world domination can emerge
only when the saints have lost their vigilance or when the internation-
al church has become severely divided over some issue. Nahum 2:1 says,
“He who scatters has come up before your face. Man the fort! Watch
the road! Strengthen your flanks! Fortify your power mightily.”
It is possible to trace through history the story of battles over
states, provinces, cities and neighborhoods. Consider this example from
my experience.
Several years ago I was in a Bible school in New Jersey, brows-
ing through some books on the history of missions to Africa. I began
to read the story of Uganda. Many of the first missionaries died of trop-
ical diseases, but others followed heroically until a powerful nation-
al church was established.
What caught my attention was an account of the tribal king who
dominated Uganda. He was proud, sexually depraved and extreme-
ly cruel. The description was remarkably similar to the newspaper
reports of the dictator ruling Uganda at that time. Idi Amin and his
regime of death seemed to match his predecessor in every detail.
Since that time I have studied the history of Uganda in greater
depth. The cycle of blood bath, followed by revival, followed by
blood bath is evidence of the ebb and flow of battle, as the national
church has come against the evil spirit that seeks to rule over the
nation.
 I have spent the last 20 years in extensive travel doing the work
of a missionary-evangelist and teacher with Youth With a Mission.
I have experienced firsthand the influence of territorial spirits while
ministering in over thirty countries.
Often when I first arrive in a new location, I discern the unseen
realm most clearly because I sense the contrast in atmosphere between
the old location and the new.
For instance, I recently travelled from Belo Horizonte, Brazil, to
conduct meetings in Manaus, Brazil. Belo Horizonte is a large city
in south central Brazil with many dynamic and growing churches. The
pastors of the city have a remarkable degree of unity. Belo is an
Antioch, a city with a gift to lead out and to send out. In fact, on that
particular trip I had been speaking at a large conference where eigh-
teen Brazilian missionaries were being commissioned for service
in Africa.
In Belo you can sense victory in the heavenlies. Like all Brazil-
ian cities, it is young and raw and filled with desperate problems,
but the church is alive, and positive changes happen daily.
Manaus is also a large city, set in the jungle, one thousand miles
up the Amazon River. Shortly after we arrived, we went to visit
Youth With a Mission’s base on the bank of the river. It was hot, so
I went for a swim, then lay sunbathing surrounded by the tropical
beauty of the forest. That night I was to speak at a service down-
town, so I stilled my heart before the Lord in preparation. I asked the
Lord for discernment regarding the “strong man” or territorial spirit
over Amazonas and Manaus.
My senses told me I was in a placid, beautiful place, but the Spir-
it of God showed me that Manaus was oppressed by a dominating, con-
tentious spirit. That night I preached on discerning the gates of your
city. The Lord gave me a word of knowledge concerning this city in
some detail. Operating under this principality were spirits working in
the fear of authority, distrust, covenant breaking, sensuality, sorcery,
greed, despair, regional pride, boasting and religious tradition.
I talked to the Christians about the temptations they must resist:
becoming scattered, withdrawn and isolated; losing heart concerning
their future; becoming judgmental toward authority figures; walk-
ing in polite but superficial relationships. That night two missionar-

xi
ies poured out a story of personal trial that matched exactly what the
Spirit of God had revealed to me.
This principle works just as well in the technological culture of
North America.
In the summer of 1982 I joined gospel recording artist Keith
Green on his last concert tour of America. (He died in a plane crash
that same summer.) We were best friends and enjoyed learning from
each other.
The first concert was in Houston, Texas. Before the concert we had
a discussion about spiritual warfare and then prayed fervently. Keith
was amazed at the results. There was a marked increase in the num-
ber of people who came forward during the altar call.
The next night we spent considerable time in spiritual warfare
before going to the concert venue. This time the city was Memphis,
Tennessee. As we prayed we discerned spirits of religion and apathy
as the principalities at work in that city. We turned the concert into
a giant worship service. Then Keith turned all the house lights on
and preached on commitment to God and repentance from dead
works. Again the response at the altar was enormous.
The next concert was in St. Louis. Again we asked God for a
specific strategy. That night 631 young people ran to the front to get
right with God. The key was to discern the gates of the city, to bind
the strong man and then plunder his goods (see Matt. 12:29).
All over the world, praying Christians are arriving at a consensus
about the nature of the battle for the individual cities. For example,
the prayer warriors of London believe that they are battling a spirit of
unrighteous trade that has influenced the world through that great
city for hundreds of years.
The Bible usually identifies an evilspirit by its territory or by its
prime characteristic, for example, “The prince of the kingdom of
Persia” (Dan. 10:13), or “Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake
of fire” (Rev. 20:14).
We associate New York with mammon, Chicago with violence,
Miami with political intrigue. Getting the exact name of demons at any
level is not necessary, but it is important to be aware of the specific
nature or type of oppression.
Let me add a strong warning. The Bible is a carefully edited book

xii
that reflects the priorities of God for the believer and shows us the
nature and character of Father God as revealed in Jesus. Although there
are many Scripture passages that teach us about the devil and his
devices, they are few in number compared with the space given to
God’s own character and ways. Even good angels are peripheral to the
mature believer who is preoccupied with the majesty of the living God
and Jesus, His Son.
Very little is revealed about specific territorial spirits in the Bible,
and that’s no accident. Daniel mentions the prince of Persia and the
prince of Greece, and there are New Testament references such as
Paul’s struggle “with the beasts at Ephesus” (1 Cor. 15:32). Howev-
er this should not be taken as a mandate for the development of spir-
itual maps in which we seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge.
God will reveal what we need to know when we need to know it.
There has always been a danger of either denial of satanic activ-
ity altogether or of focusing on it too much. If we gain knowledge of
the name and nature of an evil spirit and publish it broadly, the enemy
will only attempt to glorify himself openly or to instill fear among the
immature. Joshua warned the Israelites about this temptation. “You
shall not make mention of the name of their gods” (Josh. 23:7).
Morbid fascination is a carnal appetite that can drive us to search
out the hidden knowledge of the evil realm. The Bible says in Romans
16:19, “I want you to be wise in what is good, and innocent in what
is evil” (NASB). True, God reveals hidden mysteries to His close
friends. “The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him” (Ps.
25:14). However, the privilege of knowing God Himself should be the
center of our desire.
Territorial spirits are not responsible for the cultural and geo-
graphic divisions within the human family. God Himself claims to be
the author of human diversity.

And He has made from one blood every nation of men to

dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined
their preappointed times and the boundaries of their habi-
tation, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that
they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not
far from each one of us (Acts 17:26-27).
 From a biblical standpoint the diversity of human culture comes
first from the unique characteristics of individuals and families, such
as the traits of Noah’s three sons or Israel’s tribal divisions stem-
ming from the sons of Jacob. This is a direct result of God’s partic-
ipating in the formation of individual children in the womb. “Before
I formed you in the womb I knew you” (Jer. 1:5).
The second major reason for human cultural division also stems
from a direct act of God. “Therefore its name is called Babel, because
there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there
the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth” (Gen.
11:9).
Modern languages must have developed from the ancient lin-
guistic divisions that came into being when God directly created a
diversity of languages at the tower of Babel. The people didn’t evolve,
learn or develop these root languages. They just started speaking
them as God placed new vocabularies within their mouths.
Language is the foundation stone of human cultural division. It’s
small wonder then that missionary anthropologists like Don Richard-
son have been able to document the redemptive analogies lying dor-
mant even in the Stone Age peoples of Irian Jaya. In his bcok Eter-
nity in Their Hearts (Regal), Richardson records how God has prepared
cultures in every comer of the earth to receive the gospel.
Although God is the originator of human personality and therefore
of cultures, Satan has assigned a hierarchy of principalities, powers
and rulers of darkness to specific territories on the earth. In this way
Satan has marked the culture of every people on earth with some of
His own characteristics.
Ancient peoples were profoundly aware of territorial spirits.
They gained identity from them and lived in constant fear of them.
I believe that most of the ancient gods are still worshipped in other
guise by today’s secular societies. We teach our children about Greek
mythology in school, but we are actually instructing them in the
doctrines of an ancient religion that was a matter of life and death to
the ancient Greeks. The gods on Mount Olympus were not just lit-
erary figures but powerful demons holding the minds of the people
in a potent deception.
The cultures of the West are built on a Graeco-Roman foundation.

XiV
The fundamental beliefs of those ancient cultures are still central to
the popular commercial culture of America and Western Europe. By
this I do not mean to say that we are consciously bowing down to
ancient gods by name. Rather we live out life-styles that have their root
in ancient religious practice. Study the ancient Greek idea of suc-
cess or beauty or personal identity, and you will discover a set of
beliefs that are being propagated at the movie theater down the street.
It is easy to see the demonic in animistic tribes in Africa or the dark
fanaticism of resurgent Islam, but do we see the spiritual roots of the
modern urban culture of the West? Judeo-Christian revelation has
profoundly influenced the institutional life and laws of the West, but
the majority of Western people still march to the ancient drums of car-
nal desire. They march after a life-style dream devoid of the revela-
tion of the one true God.
In recent times the old gods have begun to show their faces again,
particularly in children’s entertainments. The next time you go to
the mall, look through the stores selling comic books and role-play-
ing games such as “Dungeons and Dragons.” You will see ancient cul-
tic deities packaged alongside fictional characters in the plot lines
of the games and stories. There are also examples of this in teen rock
culture and Saturday morning cartoons on television.
In some parts of the world this has moved beyond fantasy. Peo-
ple are again openly worshipping the old territorial spirits. An exam-
ple would be the renewed worship of Thor and Odin in Scandinavia
and the reemergence of the druids in Britain. When you see these
signs of satanic influence, be concerned but don’t be discouraged. Fear
is the enemy’s tool and has no place in the heart of the believer. God
has plans for your city, and He is the Almighty One who cannot be
hindered, except by our lack of obedience.
Daniel 7:14 speaks of Jesus’ final victory over all the earth’s cul-
tures:

To Him was given dominion and glory and a

kingdom,
That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve
Him.
XV
 His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
Which shall not pass away,
And His kingdom the one
Which shall not be destroyed.

We are to go to prayer with high praise on our lips, not a complaint

about the apparent power of the adversary. Read carefully this mind-
blowing Scripture: “...to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of
God might be made known by the church to the principalities and pow-
ers in the heavenly places” (Eph. 3:10). We are to proclaim that the
apparent victory of Satan at the cross was really a defeat for him and
his ruling spirits. The gospel is bad news to demons and good news
to human beings. The cross took away the devil’s power of accusa-
tion. The cross was Satan’s most humiliating mistake.
There is no reason why we, the church, should concede one square
inch of this planet to the government of territorial spirits. This is our
planet. “The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s; but the earth
He has given to the children of men” (Ps. 115:16).
Through Jesus we have regained our stewardship of the earth.

Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents

and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy,
and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits
are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your
names are written in heaven (Luke 10:19).

It is my prayer that Engaging the Enemy will contribute under-

standing and encouragement to you as you walk in your own partic-
ular obedience before the Lord.

John Dawson, Director

Youth With a Mission
Los Angeles, California
July 1991

XVi
 Introduction
by C. Peter Wagner

The growing interest among scholars, pastors, missionaries,

evangelists, and lay Christians in strategic-level spiritual war-
fare cries out for research and teaching. Many, myself
included, have begun to make efforts to respond to this need.
Soon after I began to build a reference library on the issues
of territorial spirits and intercessory prayer against wicked
principalities and powers, it occurred to me that I was locating
bits and pieces of important information which many of the
Christian leaders who needed it most would be hard-pressed to
know about or to locate even if they did. Thus, the idea of
putting together a book such as this one.
Some of the material is from out-of-print sources, some
from periodicals which may have been discarded long ago, and
some from a variety of books still in print which I highly
recommend to readers who wish further information. The only
original, unpublished material is my Chapter 1 ‘Spiritual War-
fare,’ and VernonJ. Sterk’s Chapter 16, “Territorial Spirits and
Evangelization in Hostile Environments.’
Now that this material has been put together for the first
time, it constitutes a book which I believe is unique in Christian
literature. I took the pains to examine the 100 (it happened to
be an exact number) books listed in the Fuller Theological

xvii
Seminary McAlister Library card catalog under ‘angelology’
and ‘demonology.’ Of the 100 books only 5 so much as
mentioned the issue of territoriality. Of the 5 which did, only 3
had information which could be regarded as helpful, but none
was valuable enough to include in this volume. Spiritual territ-
oriality has not been a prominent issue for theologians and
biblical scholars through the years, at least for some 95 percent
of them.
You can expect to read material from authors from many
different backgrounds and using many different styles. We
have journalists, pastors, professors, missionaries, biblical
scholars, anthropologists, and itinerant preachers. While most
of the material has been previously published in the United
States, the authors include an Argentine, a Korean, a Zimbab-
wean, a German, a New Zealander, and two Britons, as well as
Americans.
This variety is reflected in many ways. For one thing, not all
of the authors will agree with each other on the details,
although all will agree that our primary battle for the evangeliz-
ation of the world is spiritual, involving spiritual warfare with
high-ranking principalities and powers. Some come from an
evangelical perspective, and some from a charismatic perspec-
tive. We have Lutherans, Baptists, Congregationalists, Pente-
costals, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Reformed, and Mennonites
just to name some. Naturally, the items will vary in forms of
punctuation, capitalization, referencing, and spelling. I regret
that some were written before many of us became aware of the
need to use gender inclusive language, but I have not seen fit to
attempt to edit out the discriminatory language of older days.
It is my prayer that God will use this book to inform,
motivate, and equip vast numbers of committed Christians who
are prepared to accept God’s invitation to enlist in the mighty
spiritual army He is raising up so that in cities and nations
across the globe God’s kingdom will come and His will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
 Part I

THE ISSUES:

Principles and Problems

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 1
Spiritual Warfare
by C. Peter Wagner

As we begin moving into the 1990s, I sense, along with many

other Christian leaders, that the Holy Spirit is saying, ‘Prepare
for warfare.’ This decade may see the most intense spiritual
warfare of recent times. We may see some of the greatest
victories for God and His kingdom, and we may see some of
the most serious setbacks. The final outcome, however, is not
in doubt. The power of Satan was definitively broken on the
cross and it may well be that the enemy knows the end is near
and that he is waging a last ditch stand which will end at
Armageddon.
This is not happening in a vacuum. Through recent decades
God has been moving His people, step by step, through phases
of preparation, setting the agenda for the current decade. As I
analyze the trends, I believe that in 1950 God began to ripen
the greatest spiritual harvest in all of Christian history and He
put evangelism at home and in the world high on our agendas.
In 1960 God began speaking to us about compassion for the
poor, the oppressed, the homeless and the destitute. Social
responsibility was added to the agenda. In 1970 we saw the first
seeds of what is developing now into the greatest prayer move-
ment in living memory. In 1980 a contemporary renewal of the
prophetic ministry began and, while this is not so widely

3
recognized as yet, the gift of prophecy and the office of prophet
are reemerging. Now in 1990 spiritual warfare is moving to the
forefront.
To go further back in the historical context, the holiness
movement of the late 1800s and the Pentecostal movement of
the early 1900s laid foundations for personal righteousness on
one hand and ministry with supernatural signs and wonders on
the other. Both of these have continued to play major roles in
preparing the church for the 1990s. I believe we will see
increasing emphasis on both holiness and power ministries in
the years to come.

Is ‘Warfare’ the Best Term?

I wish we didn’t have to think about this phase of ministry as
‘warfare.’ After all, Christians are not advocates of war. Jesus is
known as the Prince of Peace.
If I personally were to choose an analogy for our struggle
with the enemy, I might want to say it is like a football game. I
could think of many very descriptive parallels between football
and our adversarial relationship with Satan. This would be
much more pleasant than talking in militaristic terms.
But I am not free to do this. The Bible itself describes our
fight against the devil as warfare. And I believe the reason for
this is clear. We are in a life and death struggle. Football games
are intense while they are being played, but very few people can
remember who held the nationai championship two years ago.
It doesn’t make that much difference. But, unlike football, our
spiritual struggle bears eternal consequences. It can mean the
difference between heaven and hell for millions of people.
Warfare is not a game. There is a finality to war unlike any
other human activity.

God’s Kingdom Implies Tribulation

The apostle Paul says, ‘We must through many tribulations
enter the kingdom of God’ (Acts 14:22). On several occasions

4
he details what some of this tribulation can be expected to look
like. He says that perilous times will come and people will arise
who are lovers of themselves, lovers of money, blasphemers,
disobedient to parents, unloving, unforgiving, brutal and
despisers of good (see 2 Tim. 3:1-5). He speaks of the per-
secutions that he suffered, and says, ‘All who desire to live
godly lives in Christ Jesus will suffer persecutions’ (2 Tim.
3:10-12). He desires that we ‘be counted worthy of the king-
dom of God, for which you also suffer’ (2 Thess. 1:5). He was
physically driven out of city after city and stoned to death in one
of them.
Satan is referred to several times as the god of this age or the
prince of the power of the air. He has usurped God’s authority
and set up his kingdom here on earth. His power is awesome.
Luther insightfully said, ‘On earth is not his equal.’
When Jesus came He invaded Satan’s kingdom with the
kingdom of God. Satan was not only insulted, but his power was
broken through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is
not taking this invasion lying down. That is why violence has
erupted both in the heavenlies and here on earth. That is why
Jesus said, ‘The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the
violent take it by force’ (Matt. 11:12). That is why Paul said, ‘We
must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.’
As we enter the kingdom of God we can choose one of two
postures. We can draw back and protect ourselves in a defen-
sive posture or we can move forward aggressively in an offen-
sive posture. Those who choose the defensive will attempt to
avoid spiritual warfare. Many I know even get upset when
others talk about it. I agree with what John Dawson says in his
book, Taking Our Cities for God (Creation House): ‘We need to
lift ourselves out of a self-centered spirituality - a mentality
that says we are victims rather than warriors’ (p. 21).

Jesus Changed the Picture

I mentioned that Jesus came to invade Satan’s kingdom. When
He did, the long period of time covered by the Old Testament

5)
permanently changed. Jesus brought a new covenant.
When precisely did things change? Theologically, they
changed on the cross. Paul explains this in some detail in
Colossians when he says that the Father ‘has delivered us from
the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of
the Son of His love’ (Col. 1:13). He then goes on to say that we
have redemption through His blood (see Col. 1:14). The blood
that Jesus shed on the cross defeated the enemy, or as Paul
later says, ‘having disarmed principalities and powers, He
made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it’
(Col. 2:15). He declares that Jesus is the ‘head of all principality
and power’ (Col. 2:10).
The de jure defeat of Satan came on the cross. However, a de
facto power encounter occurred earlier which served notice to
Satan that he was through. Jesus said that John the Baptist was
a great person, “but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is
greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until
now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent
take it by force’ (Matt. 11:11-12). How could Jesus declare this
before he went to the cross? He could declare it because he had
met Satan head on in the wilderness. Jesus’ temptation was a
high-level power encounter which Satan conclusively lost.
Notice that Jesus from the start took the offensive posture.
The first thing that happened after His baptism was that He
was ‘led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by
the devil’ (Matt. 4:1). This episode of spiritual warfare took
place at God’s initiative. Jesus, of course, was victorious. And
we also can be victorious as we are united with Him and allow
His power to flow through us.

Four Key Dimensions to Spiritual Warfare

Spiritual warfare is not fun and games. It is not some kids
running around in devil costumes on Halloween or a spooky
horror movie on television. These may be part of it, but they
are nothing more than masquerades of the real thing. Satan
and the demons under his control are real beings with warped

6
personalities, wicked hearts and malicious intents. They are
more powerful than humans, but they are not God nor any-
where near to God. We are not suggesting a new form of
dualism. In fact, God is their creator just as He is ours. Even
though their power is limited, and even though God has given
us authority over them, a chief danger in spiritual warfare is to
be overconfident. Many Christians have been clobbered spir-
itually, emotionally and physically because they have not been
wise in their approach.
In approaching spiritual warfare wisely, there are four
dimensions which must be carefully considered: 1) our
weapons of warfare; 2) our spiritual authority; 3) our engage-
ment with the enemy; 4) our plan of action. Let’s look at them
one at a time.

1. Our Weapons of Warfare

I have found by personal experience that one of the most
difficult lessons for the average Christian to learn is that our
weapons for spiritual warfare are spiritual weapons. It sounds
simple, and it is in theory. But it is difficult in practice because
even those of us who are biblical Christians still live much too
much of our lives in the flesh.
The Bible is clear. ‘For though we walk in the flesh, we do
not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds’
(2 Cor. 10:3—4). We are so used to trying to solve social and
economic problems through politics, or legal problems through
the courts, or personal disagreements through arguing about
them, or international relationships through war, that to hear
that God has a higher and more effective way through spiritual
weapons is regarded as wishful thinking, even by many born-
again Christians. This attitude needs to change.
What, then, are the weapons of our warfare?
The central, foundational activity for spiritual warfare is
prayer. In one sense prayer is a weapon of warfare, and in
another sense it is the medium through which all of the other

7
weapons are utilized. A chief New Testament passage on
spiritual warfare is Ephesians 6 where we are told that ‘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’
(Eph. 6:12). We are told to put on the full armor of God,
‘praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit’
(Eph. 6:18). Without prayer we are impotent in our struggle
with the enemy.
If prayer is the central activity for spiritual warfare, the
central attitude for those of us in the battle is faith and obedi-
ence. At one point when Jesus was on earth, His disciples tried
to cast a demon out of an epileptic boy and could not. After
Jesus stepped in, cast out the demon and healed the boy, the
disciples asked Him why they couldn’t do it. Jesus said,
‘Because of your unbelief (Matt. 17:20). The disciples lacked
the faith to succeed in that episode of spiritual warfare. Jesus
tried to encourage them by telling them that as their faith
increases they will have the power to move mountains, and
‘nothing will be impossible for yow’ (Matt. 17:20).
What does faith do? For one thing, through faith we estab-
lish our relationship to God. We are saved by grace through
faith (Eph. 2:8). Then once we are in fellowship with God, we
move on from there to deepen our relationship with the Father
through faith. That is why Ephesians 6 lists a part of the full
armor of God as ‘the shield of faith’ (Eph. 6:16).
Faith cannot be understood apart from obedience to God.
How do we know if we really have-the kind of faith that draws
us into a relationship with God? ‘Now by this we know that we
know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, I
know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar
and the truth is not in him’ (1John 2:3-4). Faith without works
is dead.
The proper combination of faith and obedience can be
summed up in one word: holiness. Holiness means being so
full of God that there is no room for anything else. That means
that we no longer love the world or the things of the world such

8
as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.
Instead of doing the things of the world, a holy person does the
will of God. All this is in 1John 2, where it is summed up in the
context of spiritual warfare: ‘You are strong and the word of
God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one’
(1 John 2:14).
If we pray with an attitude of faith and obedience, the
specific weapons which God has given us for spiritual warfare
will be effective in defeating the enemy. What are some of
these specific weapons?

The Name ofFesus

There are several biblical references which point to the
importance ofJesus’ name. Mark quotes Jesus as saying that we
cast out demons in Jesus’ name (Mk. 16:17). John quotes Jesus
as saying, ‘If you ask anything in My name I will do it’ (jn.
14:14). Paul says that God gave Jesus the name which is above
every name (Phil. 2:9), just to mention a few examples.
What’s so important about a name? It is the authority that the
name bears. An American ambassador to a foreign country
speaks in the name of the President of the United States. A
police officer knocks on a door and says, ‘Open up in the name
of the law!’ The other day I answered the telephone and a voice
said, ‘’m Susan and I’m calling Doris Wagner for Pat
Robertson.’ I immediately summoned my wife Doris to the
phone only to discover the call was an appeal for funds. My
habit is to hang up on such telemarketers, but the name ‘Pat
Robertson’ hooked me. And Susan got $100 from Doris! The
name carries authority.
When Jesus invites us to use His name, He transfers divine
authority. It is an awesome weapon, but caution is needed. In
Acts 19 we are told of the seven sons of Sceva who tried to cast
out a demon in Jesus’ name only to find out that the spirit knew
they were phonies and called their bluff. The one demonized
man beat up all seven, stripped them naked and chased them
out of the house. No one has the authority of Jesus unless Jesus
is truly their Lord. At the judgment many will say, “Lord, have

9
we not prophesied in Your name?” and Jesus will reply, “I never
knew you’ (Mt. 7:22-23).
The name of Jesus is a powerful weapon of spiritual warfare
and it wields tremendous authority, but only if we use it
according to His will.

The Blood ofFesus

Revelation 12 relates one of the fiercest episodes of spiritual
warfare imaginable. Michael and his angels are fighting against
the dragon and his angels. Michael wins ‘by the blood of the
Lamb’ (Rev. 12:11).
When Jesus shed His blood on the cross, Satan’s power was
definitively broken. It was on the cross that Jesus ‘disarmed
principalities and powers’ and ‘made a public spectacle of
them’ (Col. 2:14-15). Satan hates nothing more than to be
reminded of the blood of Jesus. The cross is an embarrassment
to him. Every soul saved by the blood of Jesus is a further
embarrassment to him. Satan cannot stand his ground against
the blood of Jesus.
I teach the 120 Fellowship adult Sunday School class in
Lake Avenue Congregational Church in Pasadena, California.
This is a Third Wave class in which we have experienced the
miraculous power of God for several years. Although we have
ministered to the demonized through the years, we were spared
from open demonic manifestations in class until I began a six-
month series on spiritual warfare, teaching many of the con-
cepts found in this chapter. During that time we experienced
two powerful manifestations.
In one of the instances I had bound the demons before they
had made any noise and was gathering a small team to minister
to the woman. One of the team members somewhat routinely
claimed the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. Just the men-
tion of the blood totally changed the situation from relative
quiet into shrieks and screams ‘NOT THE BLOOD! NOT
THE BLOOD! While claiming and applying the blood of
Christ must not be regarded as some magic formula, it cer-
fea must be recognized as a powerful weapon of spiritual
warfare.

10
Agreement
Undoubtedly the greatest day in the history of the church was
the day of Pentecost. On that day ‘they were all with one
accord’ (Acts 2:1). The accord was ‘in prayer and supplication’
(Acts 1:14). Few weapons of spiritual warfare are more effective
than agreement in prayer.
What is it we agree upon? We agree first of all on what the
Word of God is saying to us. Then we agree on what we see the
Father doing by the Holy Spirit. Even Jesus said He did only
what He saw the Father doing (see Jn. 5:19). It is possible for
us to know individually what the Father is doing, but given our
human tendency toward the world and the flesh we are on
much safer ground when others agree with us.
Jesus sums it up when He says, ‘If two of you agree on earth
concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by
My Father in heaven’ (Mt. 18:19). This is one reason why
corporate prayer is so important in spiritual warfare. When
numbers of believers in one local church or from many
churches in the same area get together to agree in prayer,
power against the enemy increases dramatically.

Fasting
While there may be several forms of fasting, at this point I am
referring to voluntarily abstaining from food for a given period
of time. This is the most common sense of the term.
Apparently some forms of spiritual warfare require fasting as
a prerequisite for victory. When Jesus was explaining to His
disciples why they couldn’t cast the demon out of the epileptic
boy, He said, ‘This kind does not go out except by prayer and
fasting’ (Mt. 17:21).
The apostles fasted when they wanted to hear from God.
When the prophets and teachers in Antioch fasted, the Holy
Spirit spoke and told them to send out Barnabas and Saul.
Then they fasted again before they laid on hands and sent them
out (see Acts 13:2-3).
The highest level power encounter of all time was Jesus’
temptation in the wilderness. As a part of it,Jesus fasted for 40

11
days. Did that weaken Him? Yes, it weakened Him physically,
but it strengthened Him spiritually. Paul says, ‘When I am
weak, then I am strong (2 Cor. 12:10).
We must be careful that we take the proper attitude toward
fasting. Fasting is a privilege which draws us closer to God and
makes us more sensitive to hearing from Him. It is not a
spiritual merit badge which makes us better than others. It is
not a method of manipulating God into doing what we want
Him to do. Jesus says that we are not supposed to make a
public display of fasting, but to do it quietly to the Father (see
Mt. 6:16-18). This does not mean we shouldn’t talk about it
discreetly, but it does mean we shouldn’t brag about it.
With the right attitude and with God’s timing and guidance,
fasting is one of our most useful weapons.

Praise
We often think of praise only as an expression of joy when
something good happens to us. We hear of some victory and
say, almost as a reflex action, ‘Praise the Lord!’ But there is
more to praise than that. Our praise, under any circumstances,
blesses God. The psalmist says, ‘Every day I will bless You and
I will praise Your name forever and ever’ (Ps. 145:2).
Paul and Silas show us clearly how powerful praise can be as
a weapon of spiritual warfare. In Philippi Paul had cast a high-
ranking spirit of divination out of a fortune teller. Her masters
were incensed and had Paul and Silas beaten and thrown into
jail. They found themselves in the inner prison with their feet
in stocks. One could hardly imagine a more dismal and dis-
couraging situation.
What did Paul and Silas do? They praised God! ‘At mid-
night Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God’
(Acts 16:25). The result was a divine earthquake which
loosened their chains and opened the prison doors. The jailer
himself was saved and a strong church was planted. Paul and
Silas were victorious, but the secret was that they had praised
God even before they saw the victory.

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The Word of God
In Ephesians 6 the full armor of God is described in detail. Of
the six pieces of armor, five are defensive weapons and only
one offensive — the sword of the Spirit which is the word of
God (Eph. 6:17).
What is the word of God?
The use of the written word of God, the scriptures, is a
powerful weapon of warfare as we see in the temptation of
Jesus. As a response to all three attacks of the devil, Jesus
quoted Old Testament scriptures and the devil could not resist.
But there is also a spoken word of God, a rhema, which I will
explain in more detail later one. At this point I simply want to
indicate that hearing a fresh, spoken word of God is an import-
ant part of using the sword of the Spirit.
An example from the Old Testament is found in Jeremiah
32. Jeremiah said, ‘The word of the Lord came to me’ (Jer.
32:6). This word happened to refer to a man named Hanamel
who would approach him and ask him to buy a field. When it
came true, Jeremiah said, “Then I knew that this was the word
of the Lord’ (Jer. 32:8).
The sword of the Spirit is hearing from God like Jeremiah
did. It is knowing what God’s will is for a certain time and place.
It is following in the steps of Jesus who said, “The Son can do
nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do’ (Jn. 5:19).
This is why prayer is part of the same sentence (even though
some editions of the Bible separate Ephesians 6:18 from 6:17
by a subtitle) that mentions the sword of the Spirit. It is only by
‘praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit’
(Eph. 6:18) that we are in a position to receive the word of God.
True prayer is a two-way conversation with God. We speak to
Him and He speaks to us.
Knowing God’s will by receiving the word of God and acting
accordingly is crucial to effective spiritual warfare. Fasting is
related to this since it makes our spiritual ears more sensitive,
and agreement with other believers helps protect us when we
are not hearing as accurately as we should. When accurately
discerned, the word of God is an extremely powerful weapon.

13
 The weapons of our warfare are spiritual, not carnal. As we
mature in the things of God we will better learn how to use the
name of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, agreement, fasting, praise
and the word of God. These are not the only weapons we have
for spiritual warfare we have, but they are extremely important
in resisting the enemy.

2. Our Spiritual Authority

Once we understand our spiritual weapons and something of
how to use them, we then need to focus our attention on the
divine authority which forms the basis on which we operate.
One of the weapons, the name of Jesus, gives us a clue to the
nature of our authority. It is in the name of Jesus that we are
authorized to bind and loose. What does this mean?
Jesus spoke of binding and loosing at Caesarea Philippi in
what is widely regarded as one of the milestone events of His
training of the twelve apostles. The incident is described in
Matthew 16, and Jesus makes three important points:
1. The Messiah has come. Simon Peter confesses, on
behalf of all, that ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living
God’ (Mt. 16:16). They know the world will never be the same
again. The one for whom the Jews had been waiting thousands
of years was there in their midst.
2. The church has come. The twelve were now ready to
hear: ‘On this rock I will build My church’ (Mt. 16:18). It was
Jesus’ intention that the church would advance, and He
assured them that even ‘the gates of Hades shall not prevail
against it’ (Mt. 16:18).
3. The kingdom has come. Jesus promises His followers
the keys of the kingdom of heaven. What are they? He says,
‘Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and
whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven’ (Mt.
16:19).

Binding and Loosing

A little later on, Jesus repeats His teaching on binding and
loosing, and adds, ‘Where two or three are gathered together in

14
My name, there I am in the midst of them’ (Mt. 18:20). This
seems to be a delegated authority which common believers
would be expected to use today.
‘Binding’ (Greek deo) is frequently used for tying up an
animal. For example, a watchdog will keep one away from its
master’s house unless it is bound. Likewise, Jesus says, ‘How
can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods,
unless he first binds the strong man?’ (Mt. 12:29). In the context
of spiritual warfare, binding means restricting the power of evil
on all levels.
‘Loosing’ (Greek /uo) often means untying the thong on
sandals. Jesus said concerning Lazarus, ‘Loose him and let him
go.’ He also declared that a woman whom Satan had bound for
eighteen years ‘ought to be /oosed from this bond’ (Luke 13:16).
It is important to realize that while we have authority to bind
and loose in the name of Jesus, we do not decide on our own
what should be bound and what should be loosed. The Greek
tense of Jesus’ teaching really means: what you bind on earth
will have been bound in heaven and what you loose on earth will
have been loosed in heaven. This indicates the necessity for a
synchronization between earth and heaven. The normal
sequence is heaven first, then earth. This once again reminds
us of the need to hear from God in prayer and know what He is
doing before undertaking any aspect of spiritual warfare.
How do we know what God is doing in heaven?
While the difference cannot be pressed to an extreme
because there is some overlapping of terms, some Pentecostal
theologians have made the helpful suggestion of distinguishing
the /ogos word of God from the rhema word of God. The /ogos is
said to be God’s eternal, written word found in the canon of
scripture. Through it we know, for example, that sin has been
bound in heaven. So, more specifically, have lust and pride and
bitterness, to name just a few. So have demons. We need look
no further to know that we have the authority to bind the
spiritual forces behind war or oppression or child abuse or
racism or pornography because God’s written word gives us
that information.

15
 The rhema is regarded as a more immediate word from God
which we do not find in the 66 books of the Bible. Although it
will never contradict the written word of God, it is something
we seek directly from the Father. For example, we want to buy
a home and we pray, ‘God, is this the one?’ Or we look for a job
and pray, ‘God, please show me if it is your will that I accept
this offer.’ We pray believing that He will give us the answer.
What are commonly (though questionably) referred to as
‘words of knowledge’ also fall into the rhema category.
A while ago, for instance, a woman in my 120 Fellowship
adult Sunday School class announced that God had spoken a
rhema word to her that someone in the class was suffering from
a severe affliction of the lower intestine which God wanted us
to pray for. When no one responded, she was surprised
because she thought she had received the word quite clearly,
including several details of what the affliction actually looked
like. During the week as she prayed further about it she
received another word from God, this time the actual first and
last name of the gentleman who was sick. That brother had
been absent from the class the Sunday she spoke up, but when
he came the following Sunday there was no doubt about
whether we had the authority to bind the affliction because we
knew it had been bound in heaven. We prayed for him and he
was healed. In this case our instructions had to come through a
rhema word rather than a Jogos word.
How do we know if a rhema word is valid? How do we know
that what we are hearing is not just our own imagination or,
worse, something generated by the world, the flesh or the devil?
Spiritual gifts, such as the gift of prophecy or the gift of
discernment of spirits come into the picture at this point. They
are extremely helpful. So are experience and Christian matu-
rity and holiness and personal intimacy with God. These go a
long way in providing assurance to an individual such as the
woman who had the word about the intestinal disease.
But there is an even greater assurance when the word is
allowed to be tested by others. I believe this is why Jesus
directly followed His teaching on binding and loosing by saying

16
that He is present when two or three are gathered together in
His name. ‘If two of you agree on earth concerning anything
they ask, it will be done for them by My Father who is in
heaven’ (Mt. 18:19). One of the things we need to agree on is
discerning what has been bound in heaven.
One of the most serious crises in the history of my 120
Fellowship Sunday School class arose when we had invited a
woman to give us some of our first teaching on contemporary
prophecy. The enemy obviously did not want this to happen
and he confused us enough to make some class leaders think
that it was not God’s will. I myself had no rhema word on this
one, so I called my leadership team together for an emergency
meeting. Although we did not agree with each other when we
started the meeting, before long we collectively discerned that
God wanted us to go ahead with our plans. I was in a personal
position where I could not have known this alone. But once we
agreed that we had a word from God we bound the enemy and
loosed the ministry of the woman we had invited. Not sur-
prisingly, the event turned out to be a powerful landmark
occasion for the group as a whole as well as for numerous
individuals and families.

It Doesn’t Always Work!

Almost any of us who can tell stories like the two I have told
above can tell even more stories in which binding and loosing
have not accomplished the desired results. Why is this?
There must be many reasons, and I do not profess to know
them all. It does seem to me, however, that there may be both
external and internal reasons for failure.
Externally, it is very simple. Satan obstructs the process. We
are told that he ‘walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom
he may devour’ (1 Peter 5:8). Obviously he is not omnipresent,
so he obstructs us from accurately discerning the will of God
through demons of different ranks. The higher the rank of the
evil spirit, the more spiritual power is needed to bind it. Unfor-
tunately many who shout in churches or in rallies on television,
‘I bind you, Satan!’ are operating on such a low level of spiritual

17
power that they are not accomplishing much more than making
noise. While we are assured that Satan is ultimately defeated,
we run a great risk when we underestimate his cunningness
and power. Nevertheless, when we find that we are impotent in
binding and loosing, we do well to search for a possible cause
in the spirit world.
Internally, it is quite possible that those of us who are
attempting to do spiritual warfare are not properly submitted to
the lordship of Christ. His authority and power flow through us
only when we maintain an intimate relationship with Him. To
the degree that we are not living holy lives we can expect a
reduction in spiritual power. It is all too easy for any of us to
revert to using carnal, rather than spiritual, weapons in our
lives and ministries. When we do, binding and loosing has little
effect.

3. Our Engagement with the Enemy

Having understood the weapons of our warfare and our auth-
ority to use them, we are ready to consider moving out and
engaging the enemy.
As spiritual warfare rises toward the top of the agendas of
Christian leaders in many parts of the world, it is to be
expected that a variety of opinions will emerge. The discussion
as to just how directly we should engage the enemy is an
extremely important one. Some come at it with a more cautious
approach while others seem to be considerably bolder. I say it is
important because we are dealing here with what can escalate
into a life and death issue.
The more cautious souls have frequently come to their
position because of disastrous events they themselves have
experienced or that they have heard of. Underestimating the
power of the enemy is a major danger, and some have paid the
price for falling into it. I know of several American pastors who
have taken on territorial spirits and ended up leaving the
ministry because of immorality. A Japanese pastor told me of a
church member who brought a family idol to be destroyed, but

18
also said he had been warned that if it was destroyed someone
in his family would die. He burned the idol in the patio of the
church, and within six months a cousin’s son died and his wife
lost her first child. A Presbyterian pastor in Ghana ordered a
tree which had become a satanic shrine to be cut down. When
the last branch was lopped off, the pastor dropped dead.
Stories like this are frightening. Who would not be cautious
if they knew that not only their own physical life and well-being
were at stake, but also those of their loved ones? Some see their
role as that of Daniel in the story of the great heavenly battle
which took place between angels and the princes of Persia and
Greece described in Daniel 10. Daniel did not engage the
enemy directly. In fact, he apparently did not even know a
battle was taking place. He stayed home and prayed to God, yet
his prayer triggered the cosmic struggle. Even Michael the
archangel at one time did not dare to accuse the devil, but
asked the Lord to do it for him (see Jude 9).
Appropriate caution, then, is called for in all spiritual war-
fare. At the same time, however, there seems to be a concomi-
tant biblical mandate for boldness in engaging the enemy.
Some particular challenges by the enemy require that, if we are
wise, we will edge toward the side of caution. Other challenges
will require us to be somewhat more aggressive. If we are
hearing the voice of God, as we should be, we will take our
cues from Him and move out accordingly.
Returning to Ephesians 6, we see that our engagement with
the enemy is described in some detail, with the Apostle Paul
characteristically mixing metaphors. He uses two simultaneous
analogies to describe our engagement with the enemy: the
wrestler and the warrior.

The Wrestler
Paul says that ‘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’ (Eph. 6:12). In the Graeco-Roman culture,
wrestling was a prominent sport. Wrestling, even more than, say,

19
boxing or karate, requires a high degree of direct bodily contact
with the opponent. The goal of the wrestler was not to protect
himself, although that was an important means to an end. His
goal was to conquer the opponent in physical engagement. The
winner came out on top and the loser came out on the bottom. In
fact, some Greek wrestling involved a fight to the death.
Paul is speaking about very serious spiritual business. When
he says that ‘we’ wrestle, he is not referring just to himself, Silas
and Timothy. He is referring to all true members of the body of
Christ. He does not suggest that we wrestle directly with the
devil because for one thing the devil, as I have mentioned
previously, cannot be in more than one place at one time. The
principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, and spiritual hosts of
wickedness are descriptions of the demonic hordes whom Satan
has delegated to steal, to kill and to destroy, and those are the
beings whom we are expected to engage.
In most cases we will be called to wrestle against ground-level
spirits such as those frequently mentioned in the Gospels. Some
may also be called to deal with the middle-level spirits which
operate through witches, occult practitioners, New Age chan-
nelers, spiritist mediums and others. Paul dealt with one of these
in Philippi, a spirit of divination which had controlled a slave girl
who was a fortune teller. This was such a high-level spirit that
the deliverance had political repercussions and Paul and Silas
found themselves in jail as a result (see Acts 16:16—24). Others, I
would think relatively few, may be called to deal with the higher
level territorial spirits such as the Prince of Persia or the Prince
of Greece. Obviously, the higher we go the more caution we
need,

The Warrior
Once he establishes that our engagement with wicked spirits is
like a wrestler, Paul switches analogies and describes our means
of combat as that of a Roman warrior.
Military equipment, then as now, includes defensive as well as
offensive instruments. The full armor of God is our defense
against our spiritual enemies. Interestingly enough, the Roman

20
armor was designed to protect the front of the warrior, not the
back. Apparently the assumption was that when the enemies
were near, the soldiers were moving toward them, not running
away. But as any soldier knows, the final objective is not to
protect yourself against the enemies, but to defeat them. Gen-
eral Patton once said the key to winning a war is not giving your
life for your country, but seeing that the enemy gives his life for
his country.
Paul mentions two offensive weapons in this passage, one
used by the devil and one used by the Christian warrior. The
devil’s weapon is a bow and arrow (Eph. 6:16). This is a weapon
used at a distance. It may well be Satan’s desire that his forces do
not engage well-armed Christians up close. On the other hand,
the Christian’s weapon is a sword, a close-up weapon. Satan
may continue shooting from a distance and we are expected to
use the shield of faith to defend ourselves. But if we are going to
use our sword we must be prepared to engage the enemy.

4. Our Plan of Action

There is no doubt about it. Engaging the enemy on any level is
risky business. Nor is there any doubt that we are called to do it.
So now the question becomes, how do we go about it? If we are
going to do spiritual warfare, let us do it well. Let us agree ona
wise and effective plan of action.
One of the most helpful scripture passages for formulating a
battle plan is James 4:7-8: “Therefore submit to God. Resist the
devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will
draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify
your hearts, you double-minded.’
This passage mentions two relationships with seven verbs,
five of them active and two passive. The first relationship is
upward and the second is outward.

The Upward Relationship — God

Four active verbs are used to describe our relationship to God:
submit, draw near, cleanse, and purify.

2A
 First, we are to submit to God. This means, first and fore-
most, to accept Jesus Christ as Savior, and acknowledge that He
is Lord. As we do, we enter the family of God. God is our Father.
It is a comfortable situation for us to be at home on our Father’s
lap, so to speak.
Secondly, we are to draw near to God. This means we must
spend time with the Father. We must get to know Him well, and
as in any other interpersonal relationship, time together is of the
essence. One of the obvious reasons we need to be near to God is
to know from Him what has already been bound in heaven so we
can effectively bind on earth.
Then, we are to cleanse our hands and purify our hearts.
Cleansing our hands refers to what we do. Purifying our hearts
refers to our motives, what we think and feel. Taken together
they point us toward holiness. Holiness, as I understand it, is
being so full of God that there is no room for anything else.
Without holiness we can expect very little power in spiritual
warfare. The opposite of holiness is worldliness, and a previous
verse in James 4 reminds us that ‘friendship with the world is
enmity with God’ (Jas. 4:4). While we no more produce personal
holiness through human works than we gain salvation through
them, if we decide to open our lives totally to the fullness of the
Holy Spirit, He is the one who does the work of cleansing and
purifying.
If we take the action, then, of submitting, drawing near,
cleansing and purifying, the passive verb comes into play: ‘God
will draw near to you.’ This is God’s action, not ours.
When He draws near to us, our chief desire is to obey Him.
We want to please the one who loves us so much. In describing
the weapons of our warfare in 2 Corinthians 10, Paul says they
are to ‘bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of
Christ’ (2 Cor. 10:5).

The Outward Relationship — Satan

While our first movement in spiritual warfare is upward toward
God, our second is outward toward the enemy. Here we have
only one active verb: resist. If we take steps to resist the devil, the
passive verb comes into play and ‘he will flee from you.’

22
 This is the scary part. Nothing scares a little bird more than
being pushed out of the nest. Nothing scares us more than the
thought of meeting the enemy in a spiritual wrestling match.
Satan is a roaring lion. Who wants to go in that direction? It
would be much more comfortable to run back home to Mom-
mie. But the verb is not ‘run away’ or ‘stay out of the jungle’ or
‘ignore him,’ but resist. We may not like the idea, but we must
move in the outward direction.
Jesus Himself had to go through a similar process. From all of
eternity He had been equal to the Father. But, as Philippians 2
teaches us, He became unequal to the Father by taking on a
human nature in the incarnation. Jesus had to come to earth, live
a human life, experience temptation just as we do, and resist the
devil one-on-one, not as God but as a human being. I would
imagine that doing that was as scary for Him as spiritual warfare
is for us. He knows by personal experience what He is sending
us out to do.
The twelve apostles had been with Jesus for a year and a half.
They had grown to love Him and to love each other. But the day
finally came when they were to minister on their own. Jesus told
them that the harvest was ready and that they were to go out by
themselves to reap it by preaching the kingdom of God and
manifesting the signs of the kingdom. After a year and a half of
moving upward, so to speak, they now were to move outward.
This was scary, especially when Jesus said, ‘Behold, I send you
out as sheep in the midst of wolves’ (Matt. 10:16). But they
obeyed, and much to their relief they did have the power to cast
out demons and heal the sick (Mark 6:13).
Later Jesus sent seventy of His followers out, giving them
‘authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the
power of the enemy’ (Luke 10:19). Their ministry was so
powerful that Jesus ‘saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning’
(Luke 10:18) as they were preaching and doing good works.
The apostles as well as the seventy had submitted to God and
God had drawn near to them. Then they resisted the devil and
he indeed fled from them as the scripture says he will.

23
Finding the Balance
As we today begin to learn how to move out in spiritual warfare
on all levels as did the early Christians, it is essential that we
maintain the delicate balance between the upward and the
outward. I like to conceptualize it in a diagram such as the
following:

Positions in Spiritual Warfare:

The Upward and the Outward
Oy pecan a a ee H
9 Spiritual Gift Zone
ne laae
Oba pen |
8 5} Christian Role Zone

31 3 | |
me ioe
% Li f2iee3) 456 Ov ide 8.49 al0

“Moving out with God’s authority”

How does this model function? It is simple. We must never

move outward faster than we move upward. The upward is an
indispensable prerequisite for the outward, since nothing we do
is derived from our own strength, but rather from the strength
provided by God through us.

24
 What happens if we are out of balance?
The danger of going upward without going outward is inef-
fectiveness in ministry. This is serious enough.
But the danger of going outward without going upward is
much more serious. It is truly like being a sheep among wolves,
but this time a sheep without the protection of the Great
Shepherd. The enemy can and will eat us for breakfast.
How far out should we go? Those who have read my book
Your Spiritual Gifts Can Help Your Church Grow may recall the
helpful distinction between spiritual gifts and Christian roles. It
is a Christian role for every believer to engage in ministries such
as evangelism, giving, hospitality, healing, teaching and any
number of others as needs and opportunities arise. But this is
not to deny that God has also given to a certain number of
members of the body of Christ special spiritual gifts known, for
example, as the gift of evangelist or the gift of healing or the gift
of teaching, in which case the ministry of those individuals will
be done on a much broader, more systematic and more effective
scale than that of the average Christian.
This applies to spiritual warfare. I know of no ‘gift of spiritual
warfare’ in the New Testament, but I do believe that some
Christians have been given a gift mix through which God
expects them to move outward more than others. I have
arbitrarily numbered the vertical and horizontal scales of the
model from 0 to 10 and drawn internal boundaries with the
dotted line at 7 on the upward scale and 7 on the outward scale.
It simply indicates that there is probably some limit to the level of
spiritual warfare which the ordinary Christian without a special
gift mix or ministry or calling should reasonably undertake. Past
that, especially when it involves dealing with territorial spirits
such as are described in this book, only those so gifted and called
would be advised to attempt it. Few would be expected to be
doing level 8 spiritual warfare, and fewer still level 9. The only
human being who would legitimately be a 10-10 on the scale
would be Jesus Christ, and His face-to-face encounter with
Satan in the wilderness might well be regarded as a unique
experience which will not be duplicated.

25
 Since it is advisable to be further up than out at any given time,
I like to go one step further and superimpose over the diagram a
‘danger zone’ in which we should avoid ministering at all costs.
In other words, never allow yourself to be found ministering in a
position within the shaded zone:

10 premnnn nnn nt nnn rrr nnn nnn nnn ?

: Spiritual Gift Zone

Sy PAO CE eee ieee a
E i '
ai 6
8 54 Christian Role Zone
ey 4
i) H
Cc 3
3 z )

5. 1
i=)
Ovlm2'3
WANS 2G Te orse Otto

“Moving out with God’s authority”

Keep in mind that these lines are arbitrary and illustrative

only. Perhaps as time goes by and we experiment more with
spiritual warfare we will be able to draw some more objective
conclusions.
Meanwhile as we strive to hear from God and to know the
level and intensity on which He might be calling each of us to
engage in spiritual warfare, we can be sure that as we move
upward God will draw near to us and as we appropriately move

26
outward Satan will flee from us. The scriptures promise us that.
And as the power of the enemy is pushed back and the glory of
God shines through, we will see the harvest increasingly reaped
and multitudes of unbelievers turning ‘from darkness to light,
and from the power of Satan to God’ (Acts 26:18).

27
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 Lp
Defeating Territorial Spirits
by Steven Lawson

It will be useful, near the beginning of a volume of this nature to see,

with rather broad brush strokes, a panorama of some of the new
things the Spirit is apparently saying to the churches. Steven Lawson
is a journalist on the staff of Charisma & Christian Life magazine,
a principal voice of the Pentecostal/charismatic movement in the
United States. This article, written specifically to communicate to
Christian laypeople, appeared as a feature cover story in the April
1990 issue of that magazine. Its lively style gives us a glimpse of the
thoughts of some of the leading Christian figures in the U.S.A., and
furnishes a backdrop against which to interpret some of the chapters
which follow.

Cordoba, Argentina. Two hundred Youth With a Mis-

sion (YWAM) missionaries are frustrated, discouraged.
They have come from around the world to tell fans

Excerpted from Charisma & Christian Life magazine, 600 Rinehart Road, Lake
Mary, Florida 32746. Copyright 1990, Strang Communications Company. Used
with permission.

29
 attending the 1978 world soccer finals about Jesus. But no
one seems to be listening to their good news. Their evan-
gelism efforts become listless, powerless; their Spanish-
language gospel tracts ignored, tossed aside.
Not quick to give up, the YWAM missionaries declare a
day of fasting and prayer, and retreat to a monastery on
the edge of town. There they engage in spiritual warfare.
God makes them aware of the true nature of the battle
they are fighting. It goes beyond demons attacking indi-
viduals. God shows how Satan has immersed himself in
the culture of the area. He reveals a demonic principality
that reigns in Cordoba: Pride.
Very sophisticated, fashion-conscious and materialistic,
Cordoba’s residents cling to values of position, posses-
sions and appearance. The spirit of pride that manifests
itself in these ways can be overcome in only one way —
through humility.
Scattering themselves throughout the central mall
shopping area, YWAM team members fall to their knees.
With their foreheads to the cobblestones, in full view of
passers-by, they pray for a revelation of Jesus to the city.
A breakthrough comes immediately. Large, curious
crowds gather to watch and listen. Men, women and
children ask the missionaries to autograph the tracts they
now take gladly. As outreach leader John Dawson
preaches at the Plaza of St. Martin, people in the crowd
drop to their knees, repenting of their sins. In a flood of
tears, one woman asks Dawson if she can accept Christ as
her Savior right there or if she has to go to church to do it.
“The intimidation of the enemy was broken along with
our pride,’ says Dawson, now the ministry’s Southwest
United States director.

What Dawson and his fellow YWAM missionaries partici-

pated in was full-scale spiritual warfare. What they accom-
plished was the breaking of a spiritual stronghold. From
Cordoba, Argentina, to San Jose, California, to Sofia, Bulgaria,

30
the supernatural battle rages, with Christians responding like
never before.
What once was limited to intercessory prayer and an occa-
sional deliverance from demonic possession is now unfolding
as a major aspect of church life. Dawson employs the principles
regularly in his work with Youth With a Mission in Southern
California. Larry Lea, pastor of Church on the Rock, Rock-
wall, Texas, has called an army of prayer warriors to ‘do battle
with the enemy.’ Earl Paulk of Chapel Hill Harvester in
Atlanta, Georgia, has said that as we enter the 1990s we
embark upon the most intense time of spiritual warfare in
history.
But the struggle is not new at all. The apostle Paul tells us
that this battle we fight is not ‘against flesh and blood.’ Rather,
we struggle ‘against the rulers, against the authorities, against
the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of
evil in heavenly realms’ (Eph. 6:12, NIV).
With his novels This Present Darkness and Piercing the Dark-
ness, Frank Peretti has popularized the conflict that Paul was
describing. These fictionalized accounts tell how packs of
demons have taken over complete towns, infesting government,
education, even churches. And they depict how Christians fight
back with prayer and how angels clash with evil principalities.
More and more people such as Dawson, Lea and Paulk are
taking Paul’s words seriously and applying as fact the same
principles Peretti used to craft his novels.
We live in the midst of a real-life, invisible, spiritual war,
says Dawson. The combatants include angels, demons, Satan,
the Holy Spirit and us. The battlefronts can be found at every
point on the globe. The stakes are the salvation of human
beings.

Evanston, Illinois. Steve Nicholson has preached the

gospel in the area for six years, with virtually no fruit. He
and members of his church pray for the sick and a few get
well. But his Vineyard Christian Fellowship is not grow-
ing. Nicholson begins some serious prayer and fasting.

|
 A grotesque, unnatural being appears to him. It growls,
‘Why are you bothering me?’ It identifies itself as a demon
of witchcraft who has dominion over the geographical
area.
In the heat of warfare, Nicholson names the city streets
in the surrounding area. The spirit retorts, ‘I don’t want to
give you that much.’ In the name of Jesus, Nicholson
commands the spirit to give up the territory.
During the next three months the church doubles in
size from 70 to 150, mostly from new converts coming out
of witchcraft. Nearly all of the new believers must be
delivered from demons.

For the most part, dealing directly with the demonic has
been limited to possession or oppression of individuals. While
this remains a vital part of the battle, a new front has emerged:
territorial spirits, such as the spirit of pride and the spirit of
witchcraft.
Professor C. Peter Wagner of Fuller Theological Seminary’s
School of World Mission calls this ‘cosmic-level’ warfare and
identifies different tiers of demonic activity, even a hierarchy.
Dawson, Lea and others say specific principalities with identi-
fiable characteristics are assigned to specific geographical loca-
tions and geopolitical institutions. Their domain can include a
household, a neighborhood, a city, a nation, a culture, a sub-
culture.
The dominating characteristic of these spirits can be greed
(New York City), power (Washington, D.C.), pornography
(Los Angeles), lust, timidity, pride or other sin. Lea says the
spirit of greed seems to dominate many areas of the United
States.

Orlando, Florida. Cars barely crawl along South Orange

Blossom Trail on this Friday night. Commuters head
home; tourists wind their way to their hotels; men try to go
unnoticed as they enter the topless bars that line the
street.

3Z
 Jim Gaines, a balding, 50-year-old church elder, pulls
his car into a parking space across the street from an adult
bookstore. He shuts off the headlights, turns off the
engine and quotes 2 Corinthians 10:4: ‘For the weapons
of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to
the pulling down of strongholds.’ Ann Agee and Norma
Gray, who have come with Gaines on this night, nod in
agreement. For the next 30 minutes or so the three praise
God and rebuke the devil — as they and others have on
several nights a month for several months.
‘We bind the spirit of lust and sexual perversion in this
place,’ Agee commands. ‘We marshal angels to take
charge and to speak to the hearts of the men who enter
this building,’ Gray declares. ‘We take authority in the
name of Jesus,’ Gaines exclaims.
Two weeks later and a half-mile down the road at a
combined meeting of several Orlando churches, Metro
Life Church pastor Danny Jones leads about 500 Chris-
tians in prayer for the city. Then they enter into spiritual
warfare, denouncing the demonic spirits that blind the
eyes of non-Christians in the city and pulling down the
strongholds that rule over the region. Specifically they
denounce the spirits that control the ‘adult entertainment’
businesses that sell pornography.
Within a month, the city’s Metropolitan Bureau of
Investigation has enough evidence to start legal proceed-
ings that could close the adult bookstores. Within two
months, owners of all seven adult bookstores in the
greater Orlando area voluntarily shut their doors.

John Dawson has just published a book titled Taking Our

Cities for God: How to Break Spiritual Strongholds (Creation
House). In the book he expands upon his teachings on territor-
ial spirits. C. Peter Wagner calls this the most important book
on the subject and the only textbook available. Jack Hayford,
pastor of The Church On the Way in Van Nuys, California,
wrote in the foreword: ‘This is a book of Holy Spirit insight. It

33
juxtaposes the inspired Word of God with the toughest prob-
lems we face on this planet today and shows how timeless truth
relates to and can transform our present entanglements.’
Dawson uses his Cordoba experience as a launching pad
into his broadened understanding of the theology of interces-
sion for our cities. This intercession involves warfare. Dawson
carefully charts a course that includes personal holiness, dis-
cerning of spirits, praise and worship, prayer, research, obedi-
ence to God, unity and direct confrontation.
Dawson, now 38, grew up in New Zealand, the oldest child
of Jim and Joy Dawson and the grandson of a Plymouth
Brethren radio evangelist. Loren Cunningham, YWAM inter-
national director, describes Jim and Joy Dawson’s household as
being one of the most spiritual he has ever seen. “They had a
constant flow of prayer and Bible study,’ says Cunningham.
Evangelist Steve Fry, who knew Dawson when they were both
teenagers, remembers Dawson as being sensitive to the Holy
Spirit and one desiring, even at a young age, an intimate
relationship with God.
After graduating from high school, Dawson was in Switzer-
land, attending a YWAM training school. There was no doubt
in Dawson’s mind that God had called him to be a missionary.
The big question was where: Germany, the jungles of New
Guinea, the rain forests of the Amazon? All seemed
reasonable.
Finally, he spent an entire day in prayer, asking God to show
him to which nation He was sending him. He promised God
that wherever it was, he would serve there the remainder of his
life.
The next morning Dawson awoke with a Bible reference
fixed in his mind: Ezekiel 3:5. He had never read Ezekiel, so he
had no idea that the verse said, ‘You are not sent to a people of
unfamiliar speech and of a hard language, but to the house of
Israel’ (NKJV). Before that day was out, God made it clear that
He was calling Dawson to the United States of America.
Though not his native nation, his parents had moved to South-
ern California several years earlier.

oo
 Memphis, Tennessee. Contemporary Christian singer
Keith Green has taken John Dawson along on a concert
tour. They discern spirits of apathy and religion in the city
and confront them. That night, they turn the concert into
a giant worship service. Green turns off all the lights
during the concert and preaches on commitment to God
and repentance from dead works. There is neither space
nor a dry eye at the altar.
Green’s widow, Melody, says the concept of spiritual
battle in a given city before and during a concert trans-
formed his singing ministry in his last days. She says that
Dawson and Green became close friends and that
Dawson has since shared this and other teachings with the
Garden Valley Christian Artist retreat, which is held each
year in Lindale, Texas.

Fuller Seminary professor C. Peter Wagner explains that

Satan is not like God. He cannot be omnipresent. He was
created as an angel, but chose to turn from God and took one-
third of the angels with him. These fallen angels became
demons.
In his book Angels: God’s Secret Agents, Billy Graham says that
the fallen angels chose to participate in ‘the war program of
Lucifer.’ The object of their program, according to Graham, is
to destroy faith in the world. Satan and his evil spirits want to
perpetuate unbelief and keep the gospel from being preached,
affirms Wagner.
Since Satan, the fallen prince of heaven, cannot be omnipre-
sent, he must delegate the responsibility of evil influence to his
demonic servants. How many demons are there? Wagner
reports that though no exact count can be arrived at, some hints
have been given:
Wagner tells of Friday Thomas Ajah — a Sunday school
superintendent at the Assembles of God church in Oribe, Port
Harcourt, Nigeria — who was a high-ranking occult leader
before his conversion. Ajah was purportedly given the name of
St. Thomas the Divine by Satan, He reports that Satan had

35
assigned him control of 12 spirits and that each spirit controlled
600 demons for a total of 7,212.
‘I was in touch with all the spirits controlling each town in
Nigeria, and I had a shrine in all the major cities,’ Ajah says.
The nature of demons can be argued. Some theologians
such as Wagner contend that these spirits can attach them-
selves to people, buildings, seats of government and other
objects. Others offer a more vague description, contending that
since demons also battle in the heavenlies they have attributes
humans cannot comprehend just as angels cannot be fully
understood.

San José, California. Pastor Dick Bernal, members of

his Jubilee Christian Center and Christians from a num-
ber of other churches plan to ‘attack the city’ in inter-
cessory prayer. Some rent rooms on the top floor of
hotels; others assemble on a nearby hill; still others gain
access to the rooftops of tall buildings.
Through research, they had traced the history of the
area back to the 19th-century California Gold Rush. Ber-
nal says that the type of people attracted by instant riches
produced the spirit of greed that now manifests itself in
the materialistic norms of the business community in
Silicon Valley, which San Jose anchors, and the self-
centered experimental lifestyle of the entire San Francisco
area.
Concerned that the San Francisco-San Jose-Oakland
area sits alone as the only major metropolis in the United
States never to experience a major revival, they began to
pray. Quickly the principality of ‘self was identified as
dominant.
The Christians gathered around the high places of San
Jose start with praise and worship, then prayer, and then
they confront the spirits. Specifically, they declare that the
skies of their city will be opened and the light of the gospel
will get through to the unsaved.

36
 Dawson encourages the research of local history before
entering spiritual warfare or serious intercession for a city. In
Annapolis, Maryland, a spirit of ‘bondage’ is traced back to the
slave trade that was conducted there. In Nashville, Tennessee,
the spirit of ‘religiosity’ finds its roots in the institutionalized
but inactive church denominations that have had a strong
presence there. In Orlando, Florida, spirits of ‘pleasure’ and
‘leisure’ can be clearly attached to the vacation industry that is
so predominant there.
Dawson differentiates between ‘points of entry’ and ‘domi-
nant features’ of a region. A point of entry would be a historic
event, such as the slave trade, that gave sin a place in the
community, thus enabling demonic forces to establish a
foothold. According to Dawson, geographical areas have domi-
nant features that can either be used to glorify God or to
advance Satan and sinful activity and obstruct the gospel from
being spread.
He uses his own city of Los Angeles as an example, saying
that communication is the dominant feature there. As proof, he
offers evidence that Southern California is one of the world’s
largest centers of pornography distribution and the home of the
film and television industry, which has sent messages propagat-
ing sinful lifestyles around the world. On the other hand, Los
Angeles is also home to some major Christian ministries, such
as World Vision, the Trinity Broadcasting Network and the
International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.

Miami, Florida. Larry Lea calls together the Christians

of the city for a ‘Prayer Breakthrough.’ He insists that
there be unity among the pastors — which has never been
easy to achieve in Miami. He says that without unity there
cannot be effective warfare. Pastors from 430 local
churches respond and join him. The Miami Herald calls it
the largest pastoral gathering in the area’s history.
More than 10,000 people join Lea for prayer at the
Miami Arena. There is repentance and praise and wor-
ship. Lea identifies four levels of territorial warfare:

37
 1. Principalities. These are individual demon spirits.
2. Powers. This group includes the captains of teams of
spirits (such as Legion in Mark 5:9).
3. Rulers of darkness. This group includes regional
spirits.
4. Strongmen. These dominate wickedness in high
places and oversee the other levels of demonic
activity.
On the first two nights, Lea and the 10,000 Christians
rebuke the regional spirits. Lea and the Miami area pas-
tors identify spirits of fear, religiosity, violence, drugs,
witchcraft, discouragement and greed. ‘We declare that
these spirits will not dominate this area,’ says Lea from the
podium. ‘We declare that the spirit of fear will not rule in
this city.’
On the final night, Lea leads a spiritual attack against
the strongman of ‘greed,’ which he discerns as ruling the
area.
‘Discernment and unity — you must have both if you are
going to be able to do this,’ says Lea about spiritual
warfare on a territorial level.

Lea conducts ‘Prayer Breakthroughs’ around the country.

He says this type of intercession and spiritual action will
become more visible and more intense in the 1990s. And it will
lead to evangelism, according to Lea. ‘Once the spirits that
dominate an area are held back,’ he says, ‘the gospel will be
able to get in. People will turn to Jesus.’
The New Testament makes it clear that Jesus and His
disciples dealt with demons. On one occasion, Jesus cast a
legion of demons into a herd of swine (Mark 5:1-15). He also
charged His disciples to cast out demons (Matt. 10:7-8), and
the book of Acts records their confrontations with evil spirits.
Their ministry is used as an example to indicate that we should
be doing the same today.
But when it comes to dealing with territorial principalities, it
is not quite so clear what we should be doing. C. Peter Wagner

38
says one of the many questions regarding territorial spirits is
whether or not Christians can confront them directly.
‘It can be very dangerous,’ says Wagner. ‘There are horror
stories where people’s ministries were wiped out when they
tried this.’
In West Africa, Wagner says, a pastor flippantly ordered a
tree cut down that had long been called ‘the devil’s tree’ and
identified with a local witch doctor. The second the tree was
felled, the pastor dropped dead. Was it demons? Wagner sees a
possible connection but warns that ‘there is still much research
to be done in this area.’
Bringing down territorial spirits identified with specific geo-
graphical areas is a fairly new concept. Vineyard Christian
Fellowship pastor John Wimber questions the lack of direct
biblical references and the lack of instruction in the Bible as to
how to handle principalities.
Wagner suggests that once church history is thoroughly
studied on the matter, evidence likely will be found that this
sort of spiritual warfare has existed all along, particularly in the
area of intercessory prayer.
Dawson says that the key to breaking spiritual strongholds is
not to focus on Satan — though we can uncover the devil’s
works — but to focus on Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy
Spirit. Dawson says the choice is either revival or judgment.

Los Angeles, California. John Dawson meditates on

Leviticus 26:31: ‘I will lay your cities waste and bring your
sanctuaries to desolation.” Was God talking about his city?
About Los Angeles?
Prompted by the Holy Spirit, Dawson begins to inter-
cede for his city and gets others to do the same. He prays
with his mother, Joy Dawson, and a pastor friend, Dan
Sneed. Mostly unfamiliar Bible passages come to their
minds. They look them up. Each one pronounces severe
judgment. The three cry out to God for mercy, entering
into a ‘season of travail’ of ongoing intercessory prayer.
More than six months pass. Dawson is busily involved

39
 in planning a massive outreach bringing together more
than 6,000 Christian missionaries to witness about Jesus
to people attending the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los
Angeles.
On the last day of the Olympic outreach, Dawson
receives a phone call from Jack Hayford. ‘John, I am
calling our church to pray with special urgency today,’ he
says, explaining that he and others are sensing that a major
catastrophe could be averted only through fervent prayer.
There are no visible signs of disaster in Los Angeles
that day, no natural calamity. The news media reports of
possible terrorist attacks have not yet materialized. But
Dawson knows in his heart that Christians need to pray as
never before. He begins a huge telephone prayer network.
The 6,000 missionaries gather at a park for a massive
prayer meeting. Christians from more than 30 nations
intercede for the city. With eyes shut and hands lifted,
they pray for God’s mercy and protection.
Simultaneously, Christians around the city pray. There
is no disaster, no terrorist attack. Instead, thousands of
people listen to the Word being preached and open them-
selves to the moving of the Holy Spirit.

‘I believe that in that summer of 1984 something terrible was

about to happen in Los Angeles,’ says Dawson. ‘It was averted
through the repentance, obedience and earnest prayer of thou-
sands of Christians.’
Spiritual warfare is activated on the international level, the
national level, the community level and in the church, accord-
ing to Dawson. But it also involves every neighborhood and
every household. ‘Warfare begins on a personal level,’ he says,
‘and escalates through layers of increasing difficulty.’
This is not a ‘demon under every rock’ theology. Neither is it
a formula or ritual that works at the snap of a finger. Rather, it
is an acknowledgment of the unseen battle and a willingness to
persist in the warfare until victory is seen. Dawson stresses
the importance of ‘travailing’ through prayer until there is

40
a breakthrough. Sometimes this can take days, months, even
years.
This decade promises to be a time of active spiritual warfare,
with Christians being more involved than ever and with Chris-
tians having a better understanding of the ramifications of
cosmic-level confrontations.
But for Dawson, Lea, Wagner, Bernal and others, the focus
is not on the battle itself but on the result: salvation of the lost,
deliverance of people bound by sin, a deeper relationship with
the Holy Spirit for Christians.
The strategies for spiritual warfare appear to be calling some
to the front lines. Wagner proposes that not everyone will be
involved with direct confrontations with high-level spirits on a
regular basis. Others have varying approaches and degrees of
caution. But everyone agrees that intercessory prayer for a
household, a neighborhood, a city, a nation, a region is the vital
cog, the initial seed that makes a breakthrough possible. And
the many voices of prayer around the world are indeed produc-
ing dramatic changes both on a cosmic and a natural level.

41
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Territorial Spirits
by C. Peter Wagner

One of the first pieces I published on territorial spirits appeared as a

short section in my book How to Have a Healing Ministry without
Making Your Church Sick (Regal Books). Without developing
theological fine points, I basically wanted to gather together some of
the field experiences of individuals ministering in different parts ofthe
world as case studies of what we might be looking at as we move to
engage in strategic-level spiritual warfare.

In many places a key to the spread of the gospel is the power

encounter. But there is a subcategory of power encounter that
has great potential for accelerating world evangelization and
about which Christian leaders seem to know relatively little. I
refer to breaking the power of territorial spirits.
We read in 2 Corinthians 4:4 that Satan has successfully
blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot receive
the gospel. This undoubtedly refers to individuals, but could it
also refer to territories? Could it mean nations? States? Cities?
Cultural groups? Tribes? Social networks? In the parable of the

Used by permission of Regal Books, Ventura, California, from How to Have a

Healing Ministry without Making Your Church Sick by C. Peter Wagner © copyright
1988.

43
sower, Jesus said that the seed of the Word falling on the road
produces no fruit, because ‘Satan comes immediately and takes
away the word that was sown in their hearts’ (Mark 4:15).
Church growth theory has long ago recognized the phe-
nomenon of resistant peoples. Could it be that at least some of
that resistance may be caused by the direct working of demonic
forces?

Sumrall’s Greatest Battle

To illustrate let’s look at a dramatic event that occurred a
number of years ago in the Philippines under the ministry of
Lester Sumrall. He reports that he went on an extended evan-
gelistic mission to the Philippines, because he felt he heard a
direct word from God telling him to go and that great things
would happen. But after five months of preaching, only five
people were saved. Obviously, something was wrong.
One night Sumrall heard a radio report mention an inmate
in the Bilibid Prison named Clarita Villanueva. Some unseen
creature apparently was biting her, leaving deep teeth marks on
her neck, arms and legs. She frequently behaved like an
animal, biting, scratching and kicking the doctors. The media
featured her case. During the radio broadcast Sumrall felt God
calling him to go to the prison and cast demons out of her. He
prayed all that night, and the next day asked permission from
the mayor. The mayor said that she was a witch and that no one
was allowed near her. But after Sumrall had signed a legal
release, he was permitted to go to her cell.
The moment he saw her, one of the demons spoke in
English (although the woman herself could not speak English);
‘I don’t like you!’ It cursed Sumrall, God and the blood of
Christ. Sumrall says, ‘I went into the greatest battle of my life,”
but through the power of the Holy Spirit he got rid of the
demons and led her to Christ. Sumrall reports that ‘150,000
people experienced salvation because of this great miracle’ and
‘From that day the Philippines has had revival.”!
I am not sure that we know for a fact whether the power of
44
one or more territorial spirits was broken at that time. But in
recent years the rate of church growth has greatly accelerated
in the Philippines. I cite this event because I believe it is a type
of ministry that we should take more seriously than many of us
have in the past. I should think that, using Clarita Villanueva’s
deliverance as a hypothesis that some cosmic changes may have
taken place, would be a potentially fruitful avenue of research
for evangelism and church growth.

Argentine Spirits
Among my personal circle of friends, the one who has had the
most experience in dealing with territorial spirits is Argentine
Omar Cabrera, pastor of the Vision of the Future Church. A
unique feature of his church is that it is decentralized, meeting
in 40 or more cities simultaneously throughout the central
region of Argentina. Omar and his wife, Marfa, travel 7,000
miles a month, mostly by automobile, leading the church,
which numbers some 90,000. How does he move into a new
location for his church?
His general practice, after the potential site is selected, is to
check into a hotel and seclude himself alone in a room in
prayer and fasting. It usually takes the first two or three days to
allow the Holy Spirit to cleanse him, to help him disassociate
himself, and to identify with Jesus. He feels he ‘leaves the
world’ and is in another realm where the spiritual warfare takes
place. The attacks of the enemy at times become fierce. He has
even seen some spirits in physical form. His objective is to
learn their names and break their power over the city. It usually
takes five to eight days, but sometimes more. Once he spent 45
days in conflict. But when he finishes, people in his meetings
frequently are saved and healed even before he preaches or
prays for them.
I have previously described the tremendous growth of
churches in Argentina today and the power evangelism that is
accompanying it. I have talked for hours with friends like Omar
Cabrera and Edgardo Silvoso listening to them analyze what

45
seems to be behind the extraordinary moving of God in that
nation since the Falkland Islands war of 1982. One hypothesis
relates directly to the type of cosmic struggles I am describing
here.
Back in the days when Juan Peron ruled the country, he used
as his chief advisor a male witch, Jose Lopez Rega, who was a
high priest of the Macumba strain of spiritism. Silvoso reports
that Lopez Rega was the de facto power of the government,
infiltrating the media, the business world and the military. A
wave of demonic activity swept the country. People were giving
testimonies on national television as to how they were helped
by Macumba. Unfortunately, the evangelical community was
ill-equipped to deal with all of this. As Silvoso told me, ‘We
had sound doctrine, but we were powerless to combat demonic
forces.’ Churches had not grown significantly in decades.
It is rumored that when Lopez Rega left the government, he
placed a curse on Argentina that resulted in the inhuman
atrocities under the role of the military from 1976 to 1981. Civil
rights were unknown. Thousands of people simply disap-
peared, now known to be raped, tortured, brutally murdered
and thrown into secret mass graves, or dumped into the river.
Then the change came in 1982. What exactly happened in the
cosmic realm in 1982 we do not yet know. But, more than in
any other place I know, the most prominent Christian leaders
in Argentina, such as Omar Cabrera, Carlos Annacondia, Hec-
tor Gimenez and others, overtly challenge and curse Satan and
his demonic forces both in private prayer and on public plat-
forms. The nation as a whole apparently is engaged in a world-
class power encounter.

Spirits in Other Lands

When I first met Omar Cabrera several years ago, I wondered
if his ministry of breaking the power of territorial spirits was
unique or whether others might know something about it as
well. Since then my research has uncovered several reports
from different parts of the world that seem to confirm the

46
reality of what we are talking about. For example, Timothy
Warner of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School believes that
pioneer missionaries especially need to be prepared to break
the power of spirits that rule territories. He relates incidents
from missionaries to Indians in Canada and Papua New
Guinea where this was actually done.?
Paul Yonggi Cho describes an interview with an American
Presbyterian chaplain who had experienced a dry, fruitless
ministry among the military in Germany, but in Korea ‘sud-
denly heaven opens and the Spirit pours out.’ Cho says that in
Germany ‘the powers of the sky were not broken because the
German church did not pray.’ In Korea the ‘atmosphere of the
air’ is different, because the cosmic evil powers have been
broken. In Korea, Cho says, “There is not so much pollution as
we are a praying church.’ He cites the early morning prayer
meetings, the all-night prayer meetings and the prayer moun-
tains that are all very much a part of Korean church life.
Jack M. Chisholm, pastor of the Glendale, California, Pres-
byterian Church, made an investigative trip to Korea. Among
many lessons for growth and renewal he learned was his new-
found conviction that we need to be able to ‘tackle the strong-
holds, to break down the towers, and to set people free.’ He
believes that the new wave of the power of the Holy Spirit that
many of us are seeing ‘will break the backs of demonic institu-
tions that hold nations as well as people in bondage.*
Bill Jackson tells in World Christian magazine of a missionary
couple in Thailand, who saw no fruit for years until they
decided to set one day a week aside to go into the woods and
engage the territorial spirits in warfare. A wave of conversions
followed. Jackson believes that thousands of unreached peoples
are currently under the direct thumb of Satan, and “The gospel
won’t go forward among these peoples until we bind the spirits
that bind them, whether those deceptive forces be Islam, Hin-
duism, or any of a myriad of others.®
In recent years churches have been growing rapidly in Brazil,
but very slowly in neighboring Uruguay. A missionary who met
Ralph Mahoney of World MAP had a strange experience while

47
distributing tracts in a small town on the border of Brazil and
Uruguay, where the main street divided the two nations. He
found that on the Uruguay side no one would accept the tracts,
while they received them gratefully on the Brazilian side of the
street. And individuals who refused them on the Uruguay side
would change their attitude and taken them on the Brazilian
side. The missionary’s interpretation was that ‘in crossing the
street they were passing out from under the covering of dark-
ness in Uruguay into a country that had experienced, in part,
the removing of the covering.®

What Are Their Names?

Mark I. Bubeck sees Satan as the commander-in-chief of the
forces of darkness, leading a hierarchical structure of evil
spirits. The most powerful are principalities or princes. Bubeck
understands them to have vast power and a certain degree of
independence of action. Under them are powers ‘probably more
numerous and somewhat less independent and powerful than
the princes.’ Next are the rulers of darkness who serve as lower
grade officers. Finally come the wicked spirits or demons.?
Paul Lehmann, a missionary to Zaire with Christian and
Missionary Alliance, recently published a list of the names of
demons he cast out of a witch doctor, Tata Pembele. They
included Guard of the Ancestors, Spirit of Travel, Feeder of
the Dead, Rescuer from Sorcery, Voice of the Dead, Spreader
of Illness, Paralyzer, Destroyer in Water, Healer and many
others. Through them the witch doctor had exercised great
power.® .
Witches in the Los Angeles area chant to Isis, Astarte,
Hecate, Demeter, Kali and Innana. Others bow to Cerridwen,
Mother of Earth and Cernunnos, Father of the Woodlands.
Paul Kauffman has identified a chief spirit of Thailand as
Narai. Indians in the Andes acknowledge the power of
Pachamama, Inti and Viracocha. Some Mexicans feel that the
Aztec war god Huitzilopochtil still exercies power.
The names of two territorial spirits are apparently men-
tioned in Daniel 10. He speaks of an angel of God who was

48
coming to minister to him, but who was delayed because of
spiritual warfare with ‘the prince of the kingdom of Persia’
(v. 13; see also v. 20) and who later expected a similar battle
with the ‘prince of Greece’ (v. 20). Paul refers to them as
principalities and powers and ‘spiritual hosts of wickedness in
the heavenly places’ (Eph. 6:12).

The Spirit of Merigildo

Edgardo Silvoso was the speaker at one of our recent prayer
retreats held at Lake Avenue Congregational Church in Pas-
adena, California. One of his topics was spiritual warfare. He
told how in 1985 he and some friends had taken a map, drawn a
circle with a 100-mile radius around his Harvest Evangelism
leadership training center near Rosario, Argentina, and dis-
covered that there were 109 towns within the circle with no
evangelical church. They then found that in a town called
Arroyo Seco a warlock named Merigildo had long exercised
great power. He had trained 12 disciples, and when he died, he
transferred his power to a spring of water. Once this was
discovered, Christian leaders of the area, Pentecostal and non-
Pentecostal, gathered together for a prayer meeting to do
spiritual warfare. Silvoso reports that it was the most powerful
prayer meeting he had ever attended. They took dominion over
the area in the name of Jesus.
Six of them then went to the headquarters of Merigildo in
Arroyo Seco, Silvoso among them. They served public notice
that he was defeated by the blood of Christ, pointed their car
toward the headquarters building, and broke the evil power in
the name of Jesus.
The results? In less than three years after Merigildo’s power
was broken, 82 of the 109 towns had an evangelical church, and
more were rapidly being planted.
There is so much more to learn about resisting the devil. We
have many questions and not enough answers. But one answer
that we do have is that Jesus is building His Church, and the
power of the Holy Spirit is more than sufficient so that ‘the
gates of Hades shall not prevail against it’ (Matt. 16:18).

49
Endnotes
. Lester Sumrall, ‘Deliverance: Setting the Captives Free,’ World Harvest, July/
Aug. 1986, p. 7.
. Timothy M. Warner, ‘Power Encounter with the Demonic,’ Evangelism on the
Cutting Edge, Robert E. Coleman, ed. (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell Co.,
1986), pp. 98, 99.
. Paul Yonggi Cho and C. Peter Wagner, eds., Church Growth Manual No. 1,
Seoul: Church Growth International, 1986, p. 41.
. Jack M. Chisholm, ‘Go to Korea and Learn From Them,’ The Forerunner, June
1984, p. 23.
. Bill Jackson, ‘Waging War,’ World Christian, Jan./Feb. 1985, p. 11.
. Ralph Mahoney, “The Covering of Darkness,’ World MAP Digest, Mar./Apr.
1983, p. 3.
. Mark I. Bubeck, The Adversary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1975), pp. 72, 73.
w&. Paul
coos)
>
aw Lehmann, ‘Invading Satan’s Territory,’ 7he Alliance Witness, Mar. 18,
1987, p. 19.

50
 4
Dealing with Territorial Demons
by Timothy M. Warner

Timothy Warner introduced a course on power encounter at Trinity

Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois, where he is a mis-
sions professor, and the response was dramatic. He discovered that
many traditional, rather conservative evangelicals had a deep desire
to learn about the reality of the spirit world, a subject somewhat taboo
in academic circles. Warner, a former missionary to Sierra Leone, not
only developed the theoretical side in the classroom, but also engaged
in a rather extensive deliverance ministry himself.
In recent years a number of other evangelical professors have
introduced similar subjects into their curriculum, stimulated to a
significant degree by Warner’s pioneering efforts. Many of these
professors contributed to a volume which I edited along with Douglas
Pennoyer, Wrestling With Dark Angels (Regal Books, 1990), and
which I strongly recommend to those who desire more information.
This brief chapter contains material which Timothy Warner pre-
sented to Fuller Theological Seminary in the 1989 annual Church
Growth Lectures. His over all topic was ‘Power Encounter in World
Evangelization.’

Excerpted from ‘The Power Encounter and World Evangelization,’ The 1988
Church Growth Lectureship at Fuller Seminary School of World Mission © 1988
by permission of the author.

ot
An area of power encounter which is just beginning to be taken
seriously is the confrontation of demons associated with spe-
cific locations or geo-political units. The whole concept of the
gods of the nations in the Old Testament and the references in
Daniel to the Prince of Persia and the Prince of Greece (Dan.
10:13, 20) provide us with a biblical insight into this, and Jesus’
statement about binding the strong man (Matt. 12:29) may also
apply.
I have come to believe that Satan does indeed assign a
demon or a corps of demons to every geo-political unit in the
world and that they are among the principalities and powers
against whom we wrestle.
This concept first came up in the missionary context when I
read of a new missionary going into an American Indian village
in Canada. A veteran of such ministry told him that he had
better be prepared to do battle with the demon of the village on
his arrival. The young missionary’s world view and training had
not prepared him for such concepts, and they just moved in. It
was not long, however, before his wife became ill and had to be
flown out. The young man was standing alone in his cabin with
his back to the stove to keep warm when he heard an awful
noise that seemed to be coming from the stove pipe. Suddenly
something jumped on his back; and, although he could not see
anything, he was barely able to stagger to a chair to sit down.
The ‘thing’ identified itself as the demon of the village, and the
battle was joined.
The missionary knew enough to claim his position in Christ,
and he said ‘All right Satan, you guardian angel of Borchet,
let’s have it out. Jesus Christ sent me here. I might die, but lam
not leaving, and with the Lord are the issues of death.’ After
thirty minutes of struggle, claiming the legal victory of Calvary
and all the while gasping for breath, the demon left as it had
come, and the missionary stayed on to carry out his ministry.
How this may relate to many other missionary problems, we
simply do not know because it has not even been seen as in the
realm of possibility. More recently, however, some other things
have called this to our attention. For example, there is a town

52
on the border between Brazil and Uruguay in which the main
street is the international border. One side of the street is in
Brazil and the other side in Uruguay. Ralph Mahoney of World
MAP tells of a missionary who was in this town passing out
tracts. On the Uruguay side of the street people were very
unresponsive; but when he crossed over to the Brazil side, a
person who had refused a tract on the Uruguay side of the
street now received the tract and even thanked him profusely
for it. His curiosity aroused, he tested several more people and
found the same pattern.
Peter Wagner reports that:

later as [the missionary] was praying about the incident,

the words of Jesus came to his mind: ‘No one can enter a
strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first
binds the strong man, and then he will plunder the house’
(Mark 3:27). Could it be that the ‘strong man’ on the
Brazilian side had been bound while the ‘strong man’ on
the Uruguayan side was still exercising power? (Wagner
1986, 84).

This concept is what seems to be a key factor in the amazing

revival movement that is taking place in Argentina. Ed Silvoso,
writing in Global Church Growth, reports that 3000, and maybe
as many as 8000, persons per day are making decisions for
Christ in Argentina. The one element in the evangelistic
approach which seems to be new is the role of prayer. Not only
are there prayer brigades organized to support the evangelists
and prayer as a prominent part of the services, at least one of
the evangelists will spend from several days up to two weeks in
fasting and prayer to bind the ‘strong man’ or the ‘prince’ who
controls the darkness of that particular ‘cosmos’ (Silvoso
1987, 5). As soon as the Lord gives him the assurance that this
has been done, he begins preaching; and the results speak for
themselves. This is a dramatic illustration of S.D. Gordon’s
statement, ‘Intercession is winning the victory over the chief,
and service is taking the field after the chief is driven off
(Gordon 1904, 17).

s3
 There are other elements to the evangelistic ministries in
Argentina which help to account for the response. One of them
is the use of an intensive care tent where the demonized are
ministered to. It appears that most evangelicals have chosen to
simply avoid confrontation with or ministry to spiritists, but
where that challenge is being met head on, God’s power is
clearly demonstrated and many are drawn to Him.
I am not suggesting that we can go around binding the spirits
that control any area we choose. I do think, however, that when
God commissions a missionary to minister in a particular loca-
tion, the missionary and the church can claim the authority of
our Lord over every spirit of the enemy claiming that territory
for Satan.

54
 5
Dealing with the Enemy in Society
by R. Arthur Mathews

Arthur Mathews, an internationally-known missionary leader with

Overseas Missionary Fellowship (formerly China Inland Mission),
has been on the front lines of spiritual warfare long enough to speak
with authority. He was born in China of missionary parents, raised
in Australia, served in the Indian Army in World War II, was a
missionary in China’s interior and suffered four years ofhouse arrest
with his wife and baby in Communist China. In this chapter
Mathews gives his views on how spirit powers of evil might be
affecting segments ofsociety.

Our generation has eyed with increasing trepidation the suc-

cessive waves of evil which have infiltrated world society. The
foundations of morality are being undermined. The central
influences of life are being taken over by men from the bottom
levels of society in contrast to earlier generations. God’s auth-
ority in society is mediated from the top in the punishing of evil
and the rewarding of good. But when control is taken over by
the men at the bottom, we may be sure that the devil is in it.
Thus permissiveness and situation ethics have blurred the

Excerpted from Born for Battle by R. Arthur Mathews © 1978 OMF Books with
permission of the publisher.

55
issues, weakened the power to discern evil under its camouflage
of misrepresentation, and then sapped the will to resist. Reli-
gious heretical sects are multiplying and gaining power. Drugs
that blow the mind have taken captive many of the upcoming
generation. Enemy attack has brought its casualties in every part
of corporate life — the family, the educational system, the judicial
system, and even the church. The pattern is to compromise or to
break away from God’s fixed moral standards.
What all this is saying is that, the ‘principalities and powers
in heavenly places’ have mustered their unseen array, rigged
their Trojan horse, infiltrated society, and opened the gates for
a flood of evil to take over.
The Bible has alerted us to the possibility of supernatural evil
powers establishing themselves in local cultures and then con-
trolling life and custom. The messenger of the church at
Pergamos is reminded of the grim fact that he dwells ‘where
Satan’s seat is.’ The obvious implication of this is that Satan’s
infiltration had reached its intended climax in the establishment
of a control center on earth, from which to direct the powers of
darkness in their opposition to God’s purposes of grace.
Questions again flood our minds. How do these spirit
powers exert their influence in society? Where do they get in? Is
there a distinctive modus operandi that would heip us identify
them? What can or what should we be doing to control and
prevent their intrusion? Since God is sovereign and omnipo-
tent, is it not our place to let Him deal with these supernatural
powers in His own time and way?
The Bible must have answers to these questions, and it does.
But the terrifying fact of a hostile world of evil and malicious
spirits paralyzes many Christians into inactivity and unwilling-
ness to seek our Biblical answers and to apply them. Edith
Schaeffer says that ‘there is a deafness, a blindness, an insen-
sitivity among many Christians, for they refuse to recognize the
war in which they are involved. They are letting the enemy
attack and score victories without resistance.’
There are many clear indications of Satan’s motives and
methods given us in the Bible, if only we would heed them. He

56
is the arch-deceiver, adversary, accuser, the father of lies, and a
‘murderer from the beginning.’ His central purpose is to pull
God from His throne in the minds of men and to take that
throne himself. To do this, he scored a flying start over the
whole human race through our forefather Adam. Having won
Adam over to his side, his fight is to maintain his advantage
over mankind. To do this, he has his control centers run by
men who have rejected God’s control, the world’s strong nat-
ural leaders who want to shape history after their own ideals;
and in smaller communities the witch doctors, and leaders in
heretical sects. We have a good example of this in the worship
of the goddess Artemis (Diana, KJV). In modern history,
ancestor worship in China and Japan are other examples. On
the other side, the Christian must make the reconquest of the
ground vielded to the devil his invariable study and be com-
mitted to the goals of his Captain.
However, what we are seeing today is the sacrificing of the
localized culture controls. The once powerful Lama system of
Tibet has been completely broken up in order to bring the
Tibetans into the larger orbit of atheistic communism. Thus
some of the centuries-old cultures are being forced to yield to
the mold of one great anti-God system, so the devil’s strong
natural leader will have a unified world under his control.
Satan is realizing that time is beyond his control and is running
out on him. This multiplies his fury, especially as he realizes
how limited is his success in welding the nations together. He
seems to have more success in fragmenting Christians than he
does in uniting his own side.
It seems to me that the shuffling of loyalties among the
nations of the world’s unholy alliances is evidence of God’s
working to scatter and confuse rebellious elements as He did at
the ‘Tower of Babel. This in itself is a guide for us as we pray
tor ‘kings and all in authority.’ We would see these things if we
were watching unto prayer. We miss them because we confine
our living and interest to earth and ignore our responsibilities
in the heavenlies. We have the man’s-eye view, instead of
communing long and deeply with the Lord to get the

af
Lord’s-eye view. Should we not encourage each other to gain
imperial perspective in our praying?
We look out on wars and rumors of war, political and
economic instability, visa limitations on missionaries in some
countries, and every kind of obstacle put in the way of the
Church to prevent her from fulfilling her commission. And
how do we react to these things? Yes, we do go to prayer, but
generally our praying centers around the missionary and
ignores the powers that arrange these things. Consequently our
praying, like King Canute’s command to the waves to come no
further up the beach, does nothing. Barriers are not moved by
God’s omnipotence until the believer takes the initiative and
stands his ground in the heavenly places to engage the powers
of evil that are directly the cause of the ground-level troubles,
and resists them in the name of the Victor of Calvary.
What does Paul do in the scary situation at Ephesus? He gets
together with Gaius and Aristarchus, or whoever was available,
and together they take their position in Christ in the heavenlies
and wrestle with and withstand the powers of evil that are
manipulating the willing puppets on the streets. Immediately
there is a break in the situation. Empowered in the Lord and in
the strength of His might and panoplied in heavenly armor,
they force Satan to yield ground, and the town clerk quietens
the screaming mob.
Such resistance against supernatural powers is not done
boastfully or presumptuously, but humbly as befits those who
realize that they have no might in themselves and that they owe
everything to the grace and power of God. The exercise is not a
call for self-advertisement as some would make it. It is the
ordained function of those who are in Christ and, I think we
should add, of those who are filled with the Spirit. God does
not commission men not filled with the Spirit to fight His
battles. Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit when he confronted
Elymas the sorcerer and exposed the devil’s attack and
defeated him (Acts 13:9). It is not to be passed over that the
command to be filled with the Spirit comes in the context of the
Christian’s walk on earth and his warfare in the heavenlies.

58
 6
Understanding Principalities and
Powers
by Thomas B. White

Thomas White is a Conservative Baptist pastor and the founding

president of Frontline Ministries of Corvallis, Oregon. For years he
has specialized in strategic-level spiritual warfare dealing with both
the theoretical and practical aspects. He is much in demand as a
seminar leader on spiritual warfare as well as a consultant to groups
attempting to deal with territorial spirits in their cities or other areas.
In this chapter White analyzes the nature of high ranking forces of
evil and gives practical suggestions as to the kind of ministry which
will be most effective in combatting them.

The term ‘principalities and powers’ evokes all kinds of mysti-

cal mental images. We think of giant, spiritual beings with
capes and swords who roam about wreaking havoc on innocent
people. Darth Vader of Star Wars fame would certainly come
close, a mythical being with a secret source of dark power.
Spiritual warfare demands that we gain a working understand-
ing of what these powers really are. My intent here is to make
simple an obscure subject. What exactly do we ‘struggle’
against? Who, or what, are these ‘principalities and powers’?

Excerpted from The Believer’s Guide to Spiritual Warfare by Thomas B. White, Ann
Arbor, Michigan, Servant Publications © 1990, by permission of the author.

59
 We know from Ephesians 1:21 and 6:12, and Colossians 1:6
and 2:15, that these are fallen spiritual beings that operate in
Satan’s domain, opposing the redemptive purposes of God.
Often the question arises: where did these evil beings come
from? Three separate theories are usually mentioned: they are
the disembodied spirits of a pre-Adamic race, destroyed by
God (this idea fits with the ‘gap theory’ of creation); they are
the ‘Nephilim’ of Genesis 6, the disembodied spirits of a
mutant race created by the mating of angels and humans; last,
they are of the original angelic creation that fell with Lucifer. I
believe the last theory is correct, that we are dealing with fallen
angels.
The study of both Old and New Testaments, with additional
evidence from Apocryphal texts, reveals three categories of
fallen angels: 1) those angels who fell originally with Lucifer at
the time of his rebellion and who are still active in the decep-
tion and affliction of people; 2) the ‘sons of God’ (angelic
beings) of Genesis 6:2 who committed such abominable acts of
immorality with the ‘daughters of men’ (women), they were
‘bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day’
(Jude 6); 3) angelic beings who were given charge to watch and
rule over certain groupings of mankind. This latter grouping is
the least familiar to us. Moses spoke of them:

When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,

when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the
peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel.
(Dt. 32:8, emphasis mine.)

According to the Septuagint text and recent scholarship, the

clearer rendering here is ‘sons of God,” angelic beings (cf. Job
38:7). Daniel 4:13 and 17 call these powers the ‘Watchers.’
Who are they? I believe they were angels of a high order
endowed with divine authority and appointed to watch over
certain segments of humanity. In short, they were spiritual
governors. Scripture speaks of the ‘council of Yahweh,’ heav-
enly beings who carry out the divine will (1 Kings 22:19; Ps

60
89:6, 7). In light of the Genesis 6 and Jude passages, it seems
that it was possible for these powers to lose their positions of
authority (Jude 6), and to come under satanic influence (cf. Ps
82:1, 2). Thus, there are powers who seem to have fallen after
the fact of Lucifer’s rebellion, tempted by their own pride, and
usurping positions not ordained by God. D.S. Russell, a
scholar of Jewish apocalyptic, captures what may have hap-
pened in the spiritual realm:

There gradually grew up, no doubt under the influence of

foreign thought, the notion that the angels to whom God
had given authority over the nations and over the physical
universe itself, had outstripped their rightful authority and
had taken the power into their own hands ... They refused
any longer to take their orders from God, but were either
rulers in their own right or were prepared to take their
orders from someone other than God who, like them-
selves, had rebelled against the Almighty.!

Dualism, however, was foreign to Old Testament theology.

The existence of a separate realm of supernatural evil was not
clearly perceived. Gradually a post-exilic understanding
developed that these powers were separate from God, a source
of evil unto themselves. The book of Daniel best reveals this
understanding. In my view, these powers coincide with the
pagan gods and goddesses worshiped by the Greeks and
Romans, territorial deities or ‘princes’ (Dan. 10:13, 20) who
sought the worship of men. Others became connected with the
worship of certain planets and astral bodies (Zeus, Mars,
Hermes). Thus, these forces became part of the domain of
darkness, manipulated by Satan, the mastermind of deceit.

Hell’s Corporate Headquarters

Paul brings light to the topic by depicting the powers as organ-
ized in a hierarchy of rulers/principalities (archai), authorities
(exousia), powers (dunamis), and spiritual forces of evil

61
(kosmokratoras). It is reasonable to assume the authority struc-
ture here is arranged in descending order. Daniel 10:13 and 20
unveil the identity of the avchai as high level satanic princes set
over nations and regions of the earth. The word exousia carries
a connotation of both supernatural and natural government. In
the Apostle’s understanding, there were supernatural forces
that ‘stood behind’ human structures. Paul no doubt is voicing
the Jewish apocalyptic notion of cosmic beings who were given
authority by God to arbitrate human affairs. Presumably, the
dunamis operate within countries and cultures to influence
certain aspects of life. The kosmokratoras are the many types of
evil spirits that commonly afflict people, e.g., spirits of decep-
tion, divination, lust, rebellion, fear, and infirmity. These, gen-
erally, are the evil powers confronted and cast out in most
deliverance sessions. Even among them there is ranking, the
weaker spirits subservient to stronger ones.
Until the Judgment, God allows these forces to remain active.
The world functions in the tension of a transitional time when
victory over darkness has been won, but the redeemed continue
to struggle against evil. God allows the adversary to act as
tempter and tester. For the individual Christian who submits to
God, the schemes of evil serve as tougheners of faith.
These insidious powers continue to work through human
governments, religions, and powerful personalities to keep
people in bondage to legalism, social ideology, and moral com-
promise. Their role is to pollute the minds and pervert the wills
of people, diverting them from redemption, holding them hos-
tage to the father of lies. When we describe evil at this level, we
are in a sense describing the Board Room of Hell, acknowledg-
ing that there are high ranking C.E.O.s (Chief Executive
Officers) responsible for major movements of deception and
destruction in our world. For example, there may be prin-
cipalities that promote such things as the proliferation of New
Age metaphysics, the rise of ritualistic satanism, the production
and provision of drugs, the practice of terrorism, sexual perver-
sion, and pornography. There are probably strong, ancient
principalities that work through the Hindu caste system of

62
India. Millions are held in bondage to this system of religious
legalism.
In 1988, I did some teaching for a missions organization in
Colombia. I will never forget the day I arrived at the jungle
compound that housed some four hundred Christian workers.
By the first evening, I began to notice a crushing weight of
oppression closing in around me. I felt unusually vulnerable
and threatened. No, it was not just the intense heat and humid-
ity of the jungle climate, nor was it the usual cultural adjust-
ment. As I worked that week, I learned that the compound was
surrounded by four major, militant influences: 1) armed Marx-
ist guerrillas fighting to control the country; 2) routes for the
transfer of raw coca out of the jungles and into the hands of the
cocaine drug lords; 3) tribal Indian groups that practiced
witchcraft; 4) militant groups who were vehemently opposed to
missionaries.
I also found out that the year before I arrived, a local
Colombian had murdered a missionary woman, and had vowed
to kill again as soon as he could get out of prison. By the third
or fourth day in this atmosphere, I felt I was being engulfed by
an oppressive confusion that made it difficult to function.
During the night, I battled as never before with false accusation
and discouragement. Was it just my imagination? Was it the
stress of a difficult assignment, added to the rigors of life in the
jungle? Partially, perhaps. But I have concluded that I and the
others at the compound were the targets of spiritual forces
opposed to our purpose. Because my task was to instruct the
other workers in discernment and spiritual authority, I was a
particular target for spiritual attack, the effect of which lingered
for weeks after my return home.
Far too many missionary candidates have been sent into such
situations untrained in the skills of spiritual warfare, only to
return from the field battered and defeated. It is time to take
seriously the biblical worldview that depicts front line ministry
in terms of armed warfare.
In the spring of 1989 I was privileged to take my family to
Israel for ministry and touring. Sitting with the leadership team

63
of a Jewish-Christian congregation in Tel Aviv, I posed the
question, ‘What is it really like being a Jewish believer in this
place?’ I was ill-prepared for the length and intensity of the
response. All of the social, political, and economic discrimina-
tion you can imagine was a part of daily life for them. But
beyond this, I began to discern the deeper spiritual dynamics
that make Christian life in Israel so difficult.
Over the next week, I began to isolate the principalities and
powers at work: 1) a militant, spiritual rejection of Jewish
Christians by Orthodox groups that is rooted in the rejection of
Yeshua as Messiah; 2) a curse of destruction spoken by Mus-
lims committed to the Intifada, the uprising against Israel; 3) a
powerful influence of secularism among the non-religious
Jews, especially in Tel Aviv; 4) the influx of New Age thought
and occultism that seek to fill the need of the Jews for spiritual
meaning. The longer we lingered in this land, the more real
and intense these influences became to us. Anyone with any
sensitivity who walks the streets and corridors of Jerusalem can
sense the presence of the Lord and the eternal significance of
this city. But one also senses in the atmosphere the conflict of
the various spiritual forces that operate behind the religious
systems of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and behind the
nationalities and cultures that thrive and strive in Jerusalem.
In any given city, region, country, or group, intelligent spir-
itual beings work to influence and control the attitudes and
behavior of the people. That’s the bad news. The good news is
that the Holy Spirit is also present in every place, orchestrating
the work of the faithful angels intent on revealing truth to men
and women whose hearts hunger to know the living God.

Making Sense of It All

Let me summarize what I believe is an effective approach to
spiritual warfare. I think spiritual warfare is a multilevel, multi-
faceted phenomenon that first includes conflict between God
and Satan, the angels and the demons. So little light is given us
on this realm that delving into it is fascinating, but speculative.

64
It makes for stimulating fiction, but it is hard to get a theologi-
cal handle on it.
The reality of the devil, who holds people hostage to his lies,
is more clearly depicted in Scripture. In the parable of the seed
and sower (Mt. 13:1-23), Jesus interprets the ‘birds of the air’
that steal away the seed as the demons that rob the understand-
ing of truth from one who hears the gospel. Unmistakably,
Christians have a role of prayer and authority as they co-labor
with the Holy Spirit to break through the demonic blindness
that separates men and women from the light of the gospel.
The New Testament describes one role of the Christian as
that of soldier, both standing ground and using divine weapons
to tear down strongholds of evil. Christians are to reveal ‘to the
rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms’ the manifold
wisdom of God to demonstrate his grace through the cross
(Eph. 3:10, 11); to expose the designs and deeds of darkness
(Eph. 5:11); to resist and stand actively against the devil’s
schemes (Eph. 6:10-18); and to overcome the evil one, to con-
quer his influence over our character (1 Jn. 2:12-14).
Most of what you and I deal with daily are the faults, foibles,
and physical infirmities of our own natural selves, with all the
emotional and psychological baggage that we carry through life.
Beyond that, each of us has individual areas of besetting sin
that nag at us and drag us down with discouraging regularity. If
this were not enough, the covetousness, pleasure, and human-
istic appeal of the world system presses upon us all. Now
alongside, and sometimes in and through these battles, the
devil takes what he can get and aggravates our unresolved
emotional problems, besetting sins, and willful blunderings.
We are like a finely tuned watch mechanism into which pieces
of grit are dropped. What could have functioned well according
to original design wears down and malfunctions due to an
external, foreign influence.

Keep Your Eye on the Spy

In the same sense that a secret agent sends out a signal that
merits serious attention by the opposition, so the Christian

65
walking in obedience to the Spirit of God, abiding in prayer,
and committed to the kingdom stirs enemy opposition. The
stakes are higher for the veteran who can do the most damage
to the domain of darkness. My premise should be clear by now:
any servant of Jesus Christ who poses a serious threat to the
powers of hell will be targeted and will encounter resistance,
especially at times of strategic ministry. The anointed agent of
Christ’s kingdom must be equipped to discern and deal with
the efforts of the enemy’s kingdom.

A Reassuring Word
Just because we are under attack, doesn’t mean we are
unprotected. The loving and protective presence of God
shields us moment by moment from haphazard assaults. If we
sin, the indwelling Spirit immediately goes to work on our
conscience to convict us of our transgression. Typically, we
squirm for a while. We may rationalize why we did what we did.
If this hard-hearted condition persists, we stand in danger of
grieving the Spirit. But all the while, he is wooing and working
on us to repent and return to him.
If we are following the Spirit and not desiring to make
provision for the flesh, we will repent and be forgiven. The
‘breastplate of righteousness’ cleanses our conscience and
covers us from the accusative arrows of the enemy. If, however,
we persist in our sin, and refuse to deal with it, we may give the
devil a ‘foothold’ (Eph. 4:27), an opening for his subtle intru-
sion into our lives. We need to know that God wants us
forgiven and shielded from evil more than we do (see Jn.
17:15). Our Lord is greater and more powerful than all the
hordes of hell. If our hearts are submitted to him in humility, if
we are willing to cleanse our hands of sin and stay committed to
his Lordship, then we speak the word ‘devil, be gone,’ and it is
done (Jas 4:6-10).
Some learning is ‘caught’ in the course of battle, not ‘taught’
in a seminar or learned through a book. Today, we need to be
open to allow God to train us to see the subtleties of evil. May

66
God be pleased to raise up men and women equipped to see as
he sees, and committed to act with his authority to counteract
the kingdom of darkness in our age.

Endnotes
1. Russell, D.S., The Method ofFewish Apocalyptic, (Philadelphia, PA: Westminster
Press, 1964), pp. 237-38.

67
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THE MINISTRY:

Pastors and
Practitioners
Pa
 /
Possessing Our Cities and Towns
by fack W. Hayford

Here is a warm-hearted pastoral word from one ofAmerica’s most

respected pastors. fack Hayford has seen the Church on the Way in
Van Nuys, California, grow from 25 to over 7,000 under his
ministry. He sees prayer as the most dynamic spiritual factor in this
dramatic growth. This is the kind of biblical admonition which the
Holy Spirit will use in the lives of many believers to encourage them
to step out more aggressively to pray for their cities and towns and
neighborhoods.

For three years now, I have had a great and distinct burden for
my city of Los Angeles. Van Nuys, the community in which our
congregation is located, is a part of the greater Los Angeles
metropolis; and as this prayer burden has begun, I have been
coming to truly /ove L.A. in a Holy Spirit-begotten way.
Through contact with other leaders, I am finding there are
more and more believers across the United States and around
the world who are experiencing the same compassion and
intercessory burden for their cities and towns. If you are among
those, then it is my prayer that you may feel even more

Excerpted from Taking Hold of Tomorrow by Jack W. Hayford, Regal Books,

Ventura, California © 1989 by permission.

71
confirmed in the call to love and pray for your city and your
church; to believe that God will bring a new tomorrow to them.
As Joshua reveals in the case of Jericho and other cities, our
Living Lord is ‘into’ city-taking. I believe He has called us all
to expect we can ‘possess’ our cities — for the blessing of every
citizen and for the glory of God.
I am not saying that I believe that any one church is the key
to capturing a city with the love of God. But I do believe that
yours might be the one that starts a trend! Dear friend, this is a
perspective needed in ministering to our cities, calling us all to
dimensions of love, service and witness broader than anything
we’ve ever answered to before.
I meet many who are hearing the Spirit’s call in this regard.
The pursuit of such ministry is to my view, very much like the
pathway outlined in principle in the book of Joshua.
Notice two texts: 1) ‘And Joshua rose early in the morn-
ing...’ (6:12); and 2) ‘It came to pass on the seventh day that
they rose early, about the dawning of the day...’ (6:15).
Here’s the foundational point for finding God’s strategy for
‘taking’ our cities and towns with His love. It begins with an
early start; forming bands of team-prayer — people who gird
their town with intercession.
The Lord hasn’t said, ‘Go and barrage the city with tracts‘;
or even, ‘Get on television — major channels and prime time! —
and tell them about Me.’ As valid as our literature and media
witnesses may be, I think events have placed us in an hour in
history where the world is less likely than ever to be impressed
by slick tactics.
But there is no defense against prayer!
Heartfelt, impassioned and consistent intercessory prayer
not only dissolves the power of sin’s hold on human lives, it also
begets among God’s people a new sensitivity to the Holy Spirit.
As a result, He begins to lead members to pathways of service,
to answer need and pain in the city. Compassionate service in
Jesus’ name inevitably cultivates an openness in the worldling,
a readiness to hear, to listen afresh to the message of life in
Christ. Because they’ve been loved and served, people in the
dark are more ready to consider the Light.

72
 That’s how the Holy Spirit started with us.
He awakened me one morning and said much the same
thing as He said to Joshua: ‘Call the people to prayer for the
city; to a dimension of prayer they’ve not known or experienced
before.’ As a result, hundreds every week come to our Prayer
Chapel and our midweek prayer services for extended times of
prayer for our city. While people don’t need to come to a
specific location such as our chapel for the prayer time, such a
gathering place can become the epicenter for the spiritual
‘counter-quake’ God wants to send. The type of prayer meet-
ings shown, for example, in Acts chapter 4 can shake down the
walls which divide people in our cities. They can demolish the
invisible satanic structures that tower over the city’s
inhabitants.!
When I first sensed God’s call to speak about this particular
need to pray, I saw our city on the brink of destruction. How
like God’s words spoken to Joshua! ‘I have doomed this city to
destruction and all who are in it — only Rahab the harlot shall
live;=
I recognized this ‘destruction’ was not a prophecy of seismic
doom. (Los Angeles is known for being threatened often by
‘prophets.‘) I saw so clearly that we don’t have to wait for an 8.0
earthquake, a 200 mile-per-hour tornado or a 100-foot flood to
ravage our city. It’s already being destroyed from within.
@ Disease runs rampant; sickness, infection and pain are all
around us.
@ Death comes through innumerable doors; suicide,
murder, abortion.
© Despair abounds; the growing sense of hopelessness as
people’s aspirations and dreams melt before them.
@ Disillusionment deepens; children see their homes being
broken as parental relationships crumble.
@ Disappointment devastates people, businesses go under,
contracts are violated.
Dishonesty. Deceit. Divorce. Dismay. Destruction!
People move from one city to another thinking that will solve

73
their problems — disenchantment with life, home, wife, kids,
job — and upon relocating only find that everything’s different
but nothing’s changed.
More disappointment. More destruction. More deception.
More destruction, but in another city.
Amid this, hope for tomorrow is rising.
The Lord is calling out a people who will march around their
cities with their prayers. As they do, they will see the walls
broken down which hell has built against healthy homes and
happy families. The power of God can shatter the darkness
that scatters families!
God is able to put the demonic powers to flight and send a
holy invasion of His righteousness by the power of His Holy
Spirit. He’s prepared to rescue the Rahabs of our towns — the
people who only wander in sin because no one has ever told
them of His real love.
Rahab is a prophetic study. That harlot from Jericho is an
example of hungry souls in the city where you live, searching
for reality.
Rahab comes from a Hebrew root word meaning ‘wide
space, roomy.’ Somehow it speaks illustratively of empty
hearts, wide open to whatever of /ife might be brought to them.
Though she was a prostitute when the Israeli spies came to her
home, Rahab was the first to acknowledge that their God was
greater than any others. Though indoctrinated in a pagan
culture and trapped in her own sins, she was open to the fact
that there was someone — a God bigger — the Living God — who
was better than anything she had ever known.
Rahab’s openness resulted in her life being spared, but
beyond that a heartful story emerges. The Gospel of Matthew
names Rahab (who, being rescued, married into the tribe of
Judah) as a direct ancestor of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah!
How many people are there in your town who are as open as
Rahab; who, if prayer broke down the walls, would respond
and end up related to Jesus!
Let us join hands in prayer for our cities. They aren’t
hopeless — never!

74
 This had to be written. I had to invite you to this adventure
as well; in responding to your own call to possess your tomor-
row, to pour out your heart in prayer for others whose tomor-
rows are at stake.
Something is happening among God’s people.
With cities and towns,
It’s happening right now.
Two kingdoms are wrestling for the city’s soul.
It isn’t too late to win,
if we will rise up early.
Cities deserve a tomorrow too.
They’re unable to possess it for themselves.
All children of Joshua — arise!

Endnotes
1. Acts 4:23-31
2. Joshua 6:17
3. Matthew 1:5

75
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 &
Battle in the Heavenlies
by Anne Gimenez

Anne Gimenez is co-pastor of the prestigious Rock Church in Vir-

ginia Beach, Virginia, along with her husband, fohn. For years she
has carried on an extensive ministry involving hands-on spiritual
warfare. In this helpful chapter she presents convincing biblical
evidence that neither the battle nor the victory in strategic-level
spiritual warfare are ours. She says, ‘The battle is the Lord’s and the
victory is already His.’ She tells how she learned from God that ‘my
victory doesn’t depend on my beating up the devil.’

The U.S. Air Force recently released pictures of the new

Stealth Bombers —a sleek black aircraft stated to become a new
element in our nation’s defense. But actually there’s nothing
new about stealth bombers. I saw a couple of them years ago in
Waller, Texas, near Houston.
In the wee hours of the morning, the Lord warned me of a
threat to my life. But as I prayed and looked up through the
darkness toward the room’s closed door, I saw two angels
standing like sentries on either side. Though I couldn’t see
their faces, they were large beings, taller than the doorway.

Excerpted from Charisma & Christian Life magazine, 600 Rinehart Road, Lake
Mary, Florida 32746. © 1989, Strang Communications Company,

77
 The Lord assured me that no evil would befall me; nothing
was going to get through that door that night. I didn’t see the
angels with my spiritual eyes for long. Even so, I knew I was
protected by God’s own ‘stealth bombers’ — heavenly angels,
more ready and effective and covert than any crafted machinery
imaginable.
Because angels belong to the spiritual rather than the natural
realm, they’re not visible to the natural eye. But God’s angels
are as real as our nation’s air force. In fact, the spiritual realm is
much more real than the natural in that it is eternal and not
subject to decay or death. The apostle Paul described the
situation in 2 Corinthians 4:18: ‘We look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the
things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are
not seen are eternal.’
The spiritual realm is also more real in that every natural
event has a spiritual origin. James 1:17 says that every good and
perfect gift comes from above. All the rest — sickness, turmoil,
debauchery, war, destruction — comes from rebel spirits.
As part of the spiritual realm, Satan’s air force is just as real
as the Lord’s The prince of darkness has a host of evil spirits
that rule and reign over the darkness. And there is a battle
raging in the heavenlies between God’s angels and Satan’s
angels.
Daniel 10 vividly portrays how this heavenly battle works. In
this account, Daniel had been praying and fasting for three
weeks, asking God for an explanation of a certain vision. After
21 days his spiritual eyes were opened and he saw an angel of
the Lord who said, ‘From the first day that thou didst set thine
heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy
words were heard, and I am come for thy words.’ (v. 12). The
angel went on to explain that ‘the prince of the kingdom of
Persia’ had resisted him for 21 days until one of God’s chief
princes, Michael, came to his aid. Then the angels prevailed
and broke through to give Daniel God’s message.
Imagine — all this battling went on for three weeks in the
heavenlies, yet Daniel didn’t even know about it. Evidently

78
heavenly battles precede earthly victories. Even so, we can
identify in this account a progression of important events that
began with Daniel’s initiative and led up to Daniel’s victory.
First of all, Daniel prayed and fasted. Victory will be ours
when we follow his pattern. When we get serious with God, we
can say no to our fleshly appetites so that our spirits can gain
strength.
I believe fasting will become a common practice again
because of its importance: It’s the part we play as the ground
forces in God’s battle plan. Angels may be God’s air force, but
the church is His army, and our fervent prayers open the
windows of heaven. As James said, the ‘effectual fervent prayer’
of the righteous avails much (James 5:16).
What did Daniel’s prayer and fasting set in motion? In
response, God sent Daniel His answer: heavenly hosts to the
rescue. The angel said he had been dispatched the minute the
prayer — the fervent prayer — had started. You might say that
Daniel started the battle by praying, pleading with God.
The Lord sent an answer, and then Satan countered by
sending an opposing force to interfere with God’s plan. For 21
days the battle raged, out of Daniel’s sight. So the battle against
the evil forces, in this case the prince of Persia, was obviously
not Daniel’s. Dake’s Study Bible gives an interesting comment
here: ‘All wars lost or won on earth are results of wars that are
won or lost by the heavenly army.’ The battles are fought in the
heavenlies, between Satan’s angels and God’s angels, not down
here.
As I meditated on this reality, I was struck with a new
insight. ‘God,’ I asked, ‘my victory doesn’t depend on my
beating up the devil?’
The Lord answered, ‘No, your part is to fast and pray. Let
your requests be made known, then let Me send My heavenly
hosts to your rescue. Let Me send someone who is a match for
those wicked spirits. You are no match for the devil.
‘Believe and pray. Knock and it will open. Ask and you will
receive. Pray, praise and receive.’
With faith that the answer was on its way, Daniel continued

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to hound heaven, and his prayers reinforced the Lord’s angelic
hosts. As if adrenaline were being pumped through their sys-
tems, their strength was renewed. Fresh troops arrived on the
heavenly battlefield because the ground force was covering the
field with prayer and praise. Though the evil forces fought
their hardest, they were powerless to stop the answer from
getting through to Daniel.
The devil has had us fooled. He has made us think that we
have to beat him up, bind him, get him in a pit and sit on him
before we can have any victory. We must resist the devil, but
the battle and victory aren’t ours. The battle is the Lord’s and
the victory is already His.
Our misunderstanding of the way the battle is waged could
be tied to a mistranslation of Matthew 16:19. In the King James
Version, Jesus says, ‘And I will give unto thee the keys of the
kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth
shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on
earth shall be loosed in heaven.’
But more accurately the verb tenses should be translated:
‘Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be that which has
already been bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose
on earth shall be that which has already been loosed in heaven.’
We do not originate victory; we cannot accomplish what has
already taken place.
God is always in the offensive position. Satan’s forces are
trying to sabotage and interfere with a victory that has already
been won by Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, who was
stronger than death, Satan’s most powerful weapon.
The war has been won; all we have to do is start praying that
the answer gets through to us. We pray, and God says that the
answer is coming. He calls some warriors, some stealth
bombers, and tells them to go penetrate the principalities and
powers of the darkness of this world to deliver His answer.
Never doubt that God’s answer is on its way. Sometimes we
wait out a long and fiery battle. But we are called to stand firm
in our belief, to pray that the line of interference will be broken
and to praise Him for His victory.

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 The Old Testament is full of accounts of heavenly battles. In
2 Chronicles 20, King Jehoshaphat and God’s people faced
several threatening armies. What did the king do? He called
upon God and asked his people to fast and pray. God’s answer
was this: “Be not afraid; ... the battle is not yours, but God’s ...
Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: ... stand ye still, and see
the salvation of the Lord with you’ (w. 15-17).
With that answer, the people continued to worship and
praise God for the victory. A choir singing ‘Praise the Lord’ led
their march toward the enemy, which they found already
defeated. God had caused the enemy armies to fight among
themselves and destroy one another.
Another example is the story of Gideon. What a battle in the
heavenlies must have raged at the sound of Gideon’s 300
soldiers blowing trumpets, breaking clay pitchers and shouting,
“The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!’ (Judges 7:18). The
result? The whole Midianite army panicked and killed one
another.
Joshua’s army marched around Jericho and gave a shout.
City walls fell down and an enemy was defeated simply because
God’s people shouted a confirmation of the victory that had
just been won in the heavenlies. God’s answer broke through to
His people.
God gives His angels charge over His children. According to
Psalm 91, those angels bear us in their hands to keep us from
dashing our feet against stones. The Lord says, ‘I don’t expect
you to know how to miss the bumps in the road. I'll send My
angels to carry you.’
Psalm 34:7 gives another promise: “The angel of the Lord
encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth
them.’ Those encamping, delivering angels outpower and out-
number the enemy’s forces. When Satan fell like lightning from
heaven, a third of the angelic host went with him (Rev. 12:4).
That means the Lord’s angelic forces outnumber Satan’s two to
one.
Long ago I memorized a verse that climaxes a wonderful Old
Testament story of victory. The king of Syria had sent an army to

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find and capture the prophet Elisha. During the night the enemy
surrounded the city, and in the morning Elisha’s servant
reported horses, chariots and soldiers everywhere. The servant
panicked, but Elisha prayed that God would open the man’s
eyes. ‘Fear not,’ Elisha said in words I can never forget. ‘For they
that be with us are more than they that be with them’ (2 Kings
6:16).
As Elisha prayed, the young man saw the situation as it really
was: ‘The mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round
about Elisha’ (v. 17). They were the Lord’s chariots, encamped
around His praying prophet.
No Syrian laid a hand on Elisha that day, and no evil need
befall you. Fast and pray. The answer is on its way.

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 f]
Binding the Strongman
by Larry Lea

Larry Lea is the founding pastor of the Church on the Rock in

Rockwall, Texas. He started the church as a prayer meeting of 13
persons in 1980, and he saw it grow to over 6,000. Larry lea is one of
the foremost leaders of today’s American prayer movement. He is
approaching his goal of recruiting an army of 300,000 intercessors
who are committed to pray that the kingdom of God will come to
America. His book Could You Not Tarry One Hour? (Creation
House) is one of the books on prayer I most highly recommend. Larry
conducts what he calls ‘Breakthroughs’ in major metropolitan areas
such as Los Angeles and Miami and Chicago, Philadelphia, San
Francisco and other places, calling together thousands of intercessors
who will corporately pray against the strongholds over those cities.
How does Lea see these strongholds and the strongmen who occupy
them? In an important book, The Weapons of Your Warfare
(Creation House), he shares what he has learned in plain, pastoral
language with personal illustrations and applications. He tells the
fascinating story of how he himself came face-to-face with a prin-
cipality sent by the enemy to prevent this new church and ministry
from flourishing in Rockwall. Larry Lea believes that when this

Excerpted from Charisma & Christian Life magazine, 600 Rinehart Road, Lake
Mary, Florida 32746. © 1989, Strang Communications Company.

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wicked spirit was dealt with the darkness was pushed back so that the
glory of God could shine more strongly in Rockwall. He sees as a sign
that this happened the fact that 3,400 people walked the aisles of the
church in the next twelve months to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior
or to join the church.

* * * *

Jesus was controversial. Not just a little. Not just occasionally.

He was thoroughly, persistently controversial throughout most
of His ministry.
Folks today who think they will follow Jesus, say the things
He said, and do the things He did without encountering
opposition are in for a rude awakening. Jesus was controversial
in His day, and we who express His life and His teachings will
be controversial today as well. Jesus even said so. He said to
His apostles, ‘If they treat the master of the house as if he’s the
devil, how do you think they'll treat you?’ (See John 13:16.)
Despite great miracles and teachings that stirred and con-
victed the crowds, Jesus was accused of:
@ not paying His taxes.
@ tricking and manipulating the people and using magic to
work His miracles.
@ being an illegitimate son.
@ being a fraud, a liar and a cheat.
@ casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub, the chief
of the devils.
In Luke 11:14—26, we read that Jesus cast out a devil from a
man who was unable to speak. As soon as the demon was gone,
the dumb man spoke and the people marvelled. But a few
scoffed, ‘He is casting out devils by the name of the ruler of
devils.’
The Bible says that Jesus knew their thoughts and
responded to the critics: “Every kingdom divided against itself
is brought to destruction, and a house divided against a house
falls. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his

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kingdom stand? ... But if I cast out demons with the finger of
God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you’ (Luke
11:17-20).
Jesus went on to give them this illustration: ‘When a strong
man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace.
But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes
him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and
divides his spoils. He who is not with Me is against Me, and he
who does not gather with Me scatters’ (Luke 11:21-23).
Jesus was speaking directly about the devil and the power of
his demons. He elaborated His point: ‘When an unclean spirit
goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and
finding none, he says, I will return to my house from which I
came.’ And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order.
then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more
wicked than himself, and they enter, and dwell there, and the
last state of that man is worse than the first’ (Luke 11:24—26).
Today God is raising up a company of people who know
what the score really is, where the action really is in God.
They're aware that unclean spirits are roaming this earth,
seeking places to dwell in order to destroy men and women.
This emerging company will have listening ears for what the
Holy Spirit is saying to the church today, and they'll answer
His call to battle. They know that this battle is a battle in the
spirit realm, and they are ready for combat.
The Bible teaches that ‘though we walk in the flesh, we do not
war according to the flesh ... the weapons of our warfare are not
carnal, but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds,
casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself
against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into
captivity to the obedience of Christ’ (2 Cor. 10:35).
In another place the apostle Paul calls this great struggle a
wrestling match, but he makes it clear that 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’ (Eph.
6:12).

85
 A war is going on for our nation today. A war is being fought
for our metropolitan areas, our great cities across this land.
There’s a war raging for our churches, for our families, and for
each of us personally.
It’s a war in the spirit realm, and this is the challenge you
face: The devil has sent messengers, strong principalities and
powers, to stand against you and to keep you from being and
doing all that God has called you to be and do. So what will you
do about it?
Recently as I was flying into a major city in this nation, we
began to descend through a smoggy cloud toward the airport.
We could see the sun above, but as we descended into the
cloud we couldn’t see the ground below. While I was praying in
the spirit during those final few minutes of our flight, I had a
spiritual vision that paralleled my physical look at this city. In
my spirit I saw a dark cloud over that city.
I said, ‘Lord, what is that cloud?’
He spoke in my spirit, “That is the strongman and his
minions hovering.’ Then He showed me that similar clouds of
darkness were over every major city in our nation.
I cried out in my spirit, ‘What shall we do? That cloud must
be removed!’
The Lord answered, ‘Son, that’s what the three hundred
thousand intercessors in America are ail about.’
God called me several years ago to raise up three hundred
thousand men and women who would pray daily and intercede
for America. That’s the heartbeat of my ministry as I go from
city to city across this nation. And when the Lord spoke that
into my spirit, I immediately had a vision of those three hun-
dred thousand intercessors lifting up their hands to God.
As they lifted up their hands, they were poking holes in the
cloud of darkness with their fingertips. Iwas reminded again of
that verse of Scripture in Luke: ‘But if I cast out demons with the
finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you’
(Luke 11:20, italics added). As those intercessors raised their
hands, and their fingers poked holes through the clouds of
darkness, the sunlight and the glory of God streamed through.

86
 Your hands today are the extended hands of Jesus. Your
hands are the only hands He has today in this world. When you
lift up your hands into the air and declare with your mouth that
the North, South, East and West must give up what belongs to
God, you dislodge the strongman from his place over us.
The sun doesn’t know how to do anything but shine. It never
turns off, though it’s sometimes covered from our view by
clouds. The same is true for the Son of God. He never stops
shining, but His glory is sometimes hidden from our view by
dark spiritual clouds. When the powers of darkness are forced
to flee and the strongman is bound, then the kingdom of God
shines through and the glory of the Lord is manifested on the
earth.
What is the nature of this spiritual cloud that may over-
shadow a city? It’s a spirit of darkness that obscures the glory of
God and covers up the kingdom of God with sin and strife.
Over many cities a spirit of religion reigns. That’s the spirit
that divides brother from brother and says, ‘I’m a Baptist’ — or
some other denomination — ‘and you’re a Methodist so there’s
no fellowship between us.’ Or ‘I’m a charismatic and you’re a
Catholic so there’s no love flowing between us.’ Whatever
denominations may be involved, this spirit insists on dividing
the church. With the spirit of religion, dogma is more import-
ant than Jesus. But when we resist this spirit, we must insist
that everyone who names the name of Jesus Christ and holds
that name as their only hope of salvation is our brother or
sister.
Over some cities are spirits of avarice and greed. Over others
are spirits of violence. Over still others are spirits of addiction.
So the only thing that will change what is going on in our cities
is an army of intercessors who will stand and raise their hands
in prayer and praise to poke holes in the darkness.
When enough holes are poked in the darkness, what hap-
pens? The cloud collapses. It evaporates. It ceases to be. Sun-
shine explodes over the face of the earth. We sing it in our song
of praise: ‘Arise, shine, for the glory of the Lord is come!’
A number of years ago, shortly after I was converted and

87
began to preach, my friend Jerry and I conducted a revival in
Prospect, Texas, a little town just a few miles north of Rock-
wall. In those days Jerry preached and I led the singing. When
we entered a town, we would usually meet together after the
first service to ask God to show us the enemy forces at work in
that particular town or church. Then we’d come against those
spirits and bind them.
We had only been saved and filled with the Holy Spirit a year
or so, but we knew it was God’s will that His light and power
would come upon the people. We believed with all our hearts
what I still believe today: It is not God’s will that any should
perish, but that all should come to know the Lord. (See 2 Pet.
3:9). We felt strongly that it was our responsibility as evangel-
ists to tear apart the spiritual darkness so that God’s light could
shine with full force on the people who heard us preach and
sing and testify of His greatness.
As Jerry and I were praying on Saturday of that particular
revival week, the Lord revealed to us that a spirit of fear
dominated that church. He showed us especially the great fear
in the pastor’s heart. We got down in a little back room of that
church and began to bind the spirit of fear. We declared that a
spirit of boldness and courage would come over the people and
be released in that area.
Now in many Baptist church revivals the custom is for the
evangelist and the pastor to go ‘witnessing’ in the afternoons
and then to conduct services in the evening. On that Saturday I
said to the pastor, ‘Let’s go witness to the roughest sinner in
town.’
So he said, ‘OK. Let’s go see ol’ Harold Bull.’ Even his
name sounded tough to me!
We drove over to Harold’s house, and Jerry stayed in the car
to pray as the pastor and I went to the door. Harold had just
come from his tractor. He was probably only about six feet,
four inches tall, but he Jooked at least seven feet tall to me as he
stood there behind the screen door of his house. He was dirty
and he had a mean look on his face. The chaw of tobacco in his
mouth looked about the size of a baseball.

88
 The pastor started to speak, but when he opened his mouth,
his voice cracked. In a voice three notes too high he finally
stammered out, ‘Hello, Harold, we’ve come to talk to you about
our revival meeting.’
Harold just stared him down. Never said a word. Just
stared.
Now I had prayed with Jerry for about four hours that
morning, so I was dangerous at that particular moment. I was
so full of God I was ready to spit holy nails. Suddenly I heard
myself saying, ‘Harold, what we really came out here to say is
this: Do you want to be saved?’
Harold nearly swallowed that tobacco. He turned to stare at
me. I got him in an eye-to-eye look. In my mind’s eye I could
imagine him tearing through that screen door and ripping my
little head right off my body. But in my physical eyes, I looked
at him with the love of Jesus and I didn’t back down. I didn’t
have any fear in my heart. I just kept looking at him.
Finally he said, ‘Yeah, I want to be saved.’
I said, ‘Then get out here on the front porch, Harold.’ He
came out from behind the door and stood on the porch with us.
I said, ‘Now bow your head and spit out that tobacco and be
reverent because we’re going to pray.’
He spit out his tobacco and bowed his head, and we prayed.
And ol’ Harold got saved that afternoon!
Then I said, ‘Now Harold, if you really mean this, you'll
come to church, you’ll walk down the aisle of that church and
you'll make a public confession of your faith before God and
everyone.’
We had revival that night and a few folks got saved, but
Harold wasn’t there. On Sunday morning, we started the song
service and Harold wasn’t there. We sang one song, and then
another, and then another — and still no Harold.
Then suddenly the back door opened in that little wooden
church, and there stood Harold. He nearly filled the door
frame, and as he walked forward, you could hear his big work
boots on the wooden floor. It was suddenly as if we were
filming an E.F. Hutton commercial. When Harold walked in

89
and sat down, everyone’s head turned, and the place got so
quiet you could have heard a pin drop.
Harold sat down, and Jerry stood up to preach. When Jerry
gave the invitation to come forward and accept Jesus Christ,
Harold stood up, walked forward and publicly gave his heart to
Jesus.
Word spread like wildfire through that town that ol’ Harold
Bull had gone forward and been saved. By that night the little
church was packed out. People were standing along the side
walls of the church because there were no more chairs and no
more room in the pews.
That night Jerry and I decided to lay hands on the people,
every one of them. We didn’t know any better than to do that in
a Baptist church. We had been to a meeting where the minister
walked around and laid hands on the people and prayed for
them, so we decided we’d do that, too. And let me tell you, that
place came alive that night!
Now I am 100-percent convinced that our revival services
would have never been successful in that town and in that
church unless Jerry and I had first prayed and discerned the
nature of the strongman over the church and the town and then
prayed that God would defeat the strongman and release His
kingdom. I don’t believe Harold would have been saved or the
lives of that community changed on that Sunday morning
without intercessory prayer first pushing holes through the
darkness that had bound that church in fear.
What will you do when you’re hit by the devil? Will you back
up and back down? Or will you stay in there and fight with all
your might?

Taking What is Rightfully Yours

Now the enemy is not only coming at you to bind you up and to
keep you from being and doing all that God desires for you.
The enemy is also at work to keep you from having all that God
desires for you.
Look at God’s promise in Isaiah 43:4—7:

90
 Since you were precious in My sight, you have been
honored, and I have loved you; therefore I will give men
for you, and people for your life. Fear not, for I am with
you, I will bring your descendants from the east, and
gather you from the west; I will say to the north, ‘Give
them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not keep them back!’
Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the ends
of the earth — everyone who is called by My name, whom I
have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have
made him.

‘Since you were precious in My sight.’ You are precious to

the Lord. He paid the price of His Son, Jesus Christ, on the
cross for you. You were purchased by the blood of Jesus. You
are precious to God.
At the Church on the Rock, when we pray together that
phrase of the Lord’s prayer that says, “Thy kingdom come, thy
will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,’ we stand and turn to
the North and say, ‘North, give up what belongs to this
church.” Then we turn to the East and say, ‘East, give up what
belongs to this church.’ We turn to the South and to the West
and say the same thing. We want everything that God wants to
give us. We cry, ‘Give up, enemy, what belongs to us. Don’t
hold back, enemy, what is ours.’
Now this refers to everything that God wants us to have. It
means resources and blessings for our individual lives. It means
souls being saved in our churches because sinners are coming
in and hearing the Word of God preached with power. It
means resources coming to our churches. It means every mira-
cle that we need coming our way.
As the Church on the Rock grew in numbers, the Lord
revealed to me in my times of prayer that my primary job as a
pastor was to break through the spiritual darkness over Rock-
wall and over the lives of those He wanted to bring into our
congregation. I knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that great
preaching wouldn’t cause souls to be saved and the church to
grow. Finely honed theology spelled out in precise statements

91
wouldn’t do it. No, only the tearing down of strongholds that
were holding back the people from experiencing God in their
lives would cause the church to grow.
So I went to the church building on Saturday nights to pray
especially for the services the next day. Often I met others
there, but on one particular Saturday night I was alone. The
church auditorium was dark, with only one light on above the
baptistry in front.
As I knelt there and cried aloud to the Lord, I broke through
into a spiritual dimension that I don’t know how to describe for
you. I was in ‘rarified air’ spiritually speaking. When I declared
to the North, South, East and West to give up what belongs to
the Church on the Rock, I felt a presence in that auditorium
that was unlike anything I had ever experienced. And it was not
a holy presence.
I was kneeling with my eyes closed, and at that moment
when I felt this presence in the room, I looked up and in my
spiritual vision I saw a being standing in front of me. He was
holding a large silver chain in his hands. I'll never forget it as
long as I live.
My first impulse was to get up and run out of the building.
But at the same time, I knew that I was at a moment of truth, a
divine intersection. I realized that I was face-to-face with the
very power that was holding back the harvest of souls that God
wanted to bring into the Church on the Rock.
The being communicated to me these words, ‘Do you really
mean it? Are you serious? Are you really going to take your
stand?’
Immediately that inner Man within me — the One the Scrip-
tures refer to as ‘greater ... than he that is in the world’ — stood
up. Before I knew what I was doing, I literally stood to my feet
and shouted back at this being, ‘Youre mighty right I mean
what I’m saying!’
I stepped toward him, and when I did, he stepped back. I
knew I had him on the run. He dropped the chain and disap-
peared. He was gone.
From that day to this, I have never encountered anything like

a2
that again. But in the next twelve months, we saw some thirty-
four hundred people walk the aisles of the Church on the Rock
getting saved or united with our church. We held no special
revivals. We conducted no house-to-house canvasses. We
sponsored no special membership drives. It happened solely by
the power of God shining through the powers of darkness. The
strongman had been bound and the kingdom of God released.
Something new is emerging in the spirit realm today. God is
calling His church to rise up and become militant warriors who
will stand and say to principalities and powers, ‘Yes, we are
taking a stand. Yes, we mean it. Yes, we declare to you that you
will not have our children; you will not have our families; you
will not have our churches; you will not have our blessings.”
And we will drive back the darkness so that the glory of God
might shine more strongly.
God’s desire is for you to pray this way. Believe it!
What’s the purpose of prayer anyway? Prayer is not coming
to God to convince Him to do something He doesn’t want to
do. Prayer is coming into agreement with God about something
He already wants to do. It’s saying, ‘Pll do my part so that You,
Lord, are free to do Your part.’
God’s desire is that you have all He wants you to have and
experience all He wants you to experience for your spiritual
good. Sometimes we don’t think big enough. Sometimes we
don’t expect enough. Sometimes we don’t desire His blessings
nearly to the extent that He wants to give them.
I remember one time when I was praying and calling out to
the North, South, East and West. God spoke in my spirit and
said, ‘You’re turning to the North, but in your spirit you’re only
getting as far as Denton. And when you turn to the East, you’re
believing only as far as Greenville out in east Texas. Son, I’m
the God of the whole world. When I turn to the East, I’m
looking as far as Germany!’
The very next Sunday, I gave an invitation to people to join
the church, and down the aisle walked a beautiful couple with
their children. The Lord prompted me to stop them and ask
them where they were from. The father stopped, clicked his

93
heals, saluted me and said, ‘My name is Lieutenant Bob
Cooper, and I was stationed in Germany when I got your tapes
on prayer. God told me to resign my commission in the mili-
tary, which I’ve had for nine years, and move to Rockwall to
report for duty.’
My soul nearly soared out of my body when that man said
‘Germany.’ I knew that I was standing in the heart of some-
thing very big. God has vast blessings for His people — there
are no limits. But we must break through the darkness to let the
kingdom come shining through. When you break through the
spiritual powers and the glory of God starts to shine through,
you don’t have to do much preaching to get folks saved.
We had a musical at our church recently and the choir and
orchestra were magnificent. But the greatest part of the service
was watching some eighty people walk the aisle to accept Jesus
Christ into their lives. My wife and I have grown up around
great musicals all our lives. But most of the time, we’ve noticed
that after a great evening performance by the choir, everybody
‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ a bit, then they all fall silent while the pastor
stands and leads the singing of ‘Just As I Am.’ Maybe one or
two come forward at the most.
Our musical wasn’t technically any better than those per-
formed at most other places. The difference was that the choir
was singing with the sun shining on them from heaven. The
spiritual darkness had been punctured so that the glory of God
could come through. Those who had prayed and interceded
before God, not just that day, but every day at sunrise for year
after year, had cleared the space. They had pushed back the
powers of evil so that the kingdom of God might be estab-
lished. And it was! Without a great effort. Without singing ‘Just
As I Am’ ten times through. Without pleading. Eighty people
accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord that one night. Now that’s
the kind of miracle that happens when the enemy is forced, by
our taking a stand in prayer, to give up what belongs to God
almighty.
We are to stand strong in the honor, love and courage of
God and cry out, ‘Give up, enemies to the North, everything

94
God has for me, for my family, for my church. Give up,
enemies of the South, everything God has for me, for my
family, for my church. Give up, enemies of the East, everything
God has for me, for my family, and for my church. Give up,
enemies of the West, everything God has for me, for my family
and for my church. Give it up! It’s mine! It’s ours!”
God says, ‘T’ll do it. If you’ll speak to the enemy like that, I'll
do My part. I'll cause things to come your way. It will happen.’
When you declare these things, believe that they are done on
earth as they are in heaven. When you start to fight battles like
that, winning them for the Lord, though the world situation
gets darker and darker, you’ll shine brighter and brighter. As
those in the world feel worse and worse, you'll be feeling better
and better. As the world’s systems get weaker and weaker,
you'll grow stronger and stronger. As the world starts winding
down, you’ll be winding up. Instead of wondering what will
happen next, you’ll be asking, “‘Where’s the next victory, Lord?’
Give God the glory, for the great works He has done, is
doing and will do. The victory is ours. It’s yours. It’s mine. It’s
a sure victory if we’ll but fight the fight.

95
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 10
Jericho: Key to Conquest
by Dick Bernal

Dick Bernal is a preaching pastor and his pulpit fervor shows clearly in
this fast-moving chapter. The founding pastor ofFubilee Christian
Center in San Jose, California, Bernal leads a church of over 5,000
members in which blacks and whites, Hispanics and Asians, rich and
poor joyously worship together. For the past several years teams from
Jubilee have been systematically interceding for their city with some
palpable results. In this chapter, using fericho as a model, Dick Bernal
concludes with nine practical principles for praying for your city.

The forty years the children of Israel spent wandering in the

wilderness was not a total loss. God was making soldiers out of
slaves, a task He is still undertaking today with all of His
delivered ones. It didn’t take long to get His people out of
Egypt, but it took years to get Egypt out of His people!
Finally, the Lord was ready to send them into the promised
land, a land of blessing and provision, but also a land with many
challenges, the first being a mighty walled city, the city of
Jericho.

Excerpted from Come Down Dark Prince by Dick Bernal © 1989, Companion
Press, Box 351, Schippensburg, PA 17257 by permission of the author.

97
The First Encounter
Some have concluded that Joshua erred in sending the two
spies into Jericho to get a layout of the land. The critics
maintain that Joshua should have trusted wholly in the Lord
and not followed the example of Moses which led to an evil
report from the ten spies, with only Joshua and Caleb standing
in faith. Let me remind you, however, that it was God’s idea to
spy out the land, not Moses’!

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Send men to spy

out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children
of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a
man, every one a leader among them’ (Num. 13:1-2).

We should also remember that Joshua was one of the spies

and apparently saw merit in ‘looking before one leaps’!

Now Joshua the son of Nun sent out two men from Acacia
Grove to spy secretly, saying, ‘Go, view the land, espe-
cially Jericho.’ So they went, and came to the house of the
harlot named Rahab, and lodged there (Josh. 2:1).

In Sodom and Gomorrah’s case, intercession and ‘drawing

near to God in the spirit’ worked wonders and nearly saved two
rotten-to-the-core cities. Lot and his family were rescued.
Although Lot’s wife’s deliverance was short-lived, God still
honored Abraham’s request.
But prayer alone is not enough. It is the beginning of city-
taking. It is preparing and planning in the Spirit, getting the
mind and strategy of Christ on just how to penetrate a city with
the gospel.
Spying out the land is essential when warring for a city. Most
Christians know how to get from their home to church, to the
store, to the malls, or to a friend’s house. But how many really
know their city? Christians should walk or drive every major
freeway, avenue and road of their cities, praying and coming
against demonic strongholds over every neighborhood.

98
 I have had the privilege of being raised in San José and have
watched this sleepy little agricultural town explode into the
heart of Silicon Valley. I have this city in my heart. I know it! I
know its people! I have my hand on the pulse of it, monitoring
each beat. I am constantly keeping surveillance over changes
which affect its flow. Make no mistake, knowing your city is a
necessary first step in taking your city for Christ.
When you move in faith to take your city for the Lord, two
things will be true. First, the resistance you will experience is
like nothing you’ve ever come up against before. When you tell
the prince over your city, ‘We’re here to take it for God,’ he will
not just play dead; he will violently oppose you! That is why the
Lord told Joshua over and over again, ‘Be strong and of good
courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your
God is with you wherever you go’ (Josh. 1:9).
But, second, it’s amazing who will come to your aid to help
you win your city. Imagine a prostitute named Rahab as a key
player in conquering Jericho! And what about David’s feisty
four hundred, ‘those in distress, everyone who was in debt, and
everyone who was discontented ... So he became captain over
them’ (1 Sam. 22:2). Out of David’s ‘maladjusted malcontents’
came mighty men who knew how to possess the land promised
to them.
Once the city had been surveyed and the scouting party had
safely returned, the task of crossing the Jordan and actually
taking the city had to be undertaken. Remember, Moses and
the old school had died off. A new, younger generation stood at
the Jordan. I’m finding out that it is this new, fearless genera-
tion today that is willing to take on a whole city.

Then Joshua rose early in the morning; and they set out
from Acacia Grove and came to the Jordan, he and all the
children of Israel, and lodged there before they crossed
over. So it was, after three days, that the officers went
through the camp; and they commanded the people say-
ing, ‘When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord
your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you

99
 shall set out from your place and go after it. Yet there shall
be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits
by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the
way by which you must go, for you have not passed this
way before.’ And Joshua said to the people, ‘Sanctify
yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among
you’ (Josh. 3:1-5).

The ark here prefigured Christ as the believer’s covenant

Guide. The contents of the ark represented the Word, the
authority and the provision of the Lord, capped off by a mercy
seat. ‘Let it (the ark) go before you’ was the command and ‘you
go after it.’
To get ahead of God when trying to win a city could be fatal
to a church or a group of churches or a pastor, and even to the
sheep. I’ve noticed in some areas of the world where revival has
broken out that there is a high toll of casualties — divorce,
sickness, church splits, even death. A price too high to pay for
being impetuous.
Before the Lord had Joshua move on Jericho, the nation
participated in acts of committal: The erecting of memorial
stones (Josh. 4), and the circumcision of all males who hadn’t
been circumcised in the wilderness (Josh. 5).
In ancient times, altars of stone were erected as reminders of
some wonderful intervention by God, as memorials to remind
coming generations of God’s goodness and power toward His
people.
The Lord is about to deliver a whole city into the hands of
His people Israel, but knowing how prone human hearts are to
forget His past interventions, He demanded an altar of
remembrance. A passage of Scripture recurring too often in
the Old Testament is “They soon forgot His works’ (Ps.
106:13).
The Lord held back the waters of the Jordan as a sign and
wonder to the heathen and as a reminder to His people that the
same God who parted the Red Sea some forty years earlier for
Moses was indeed with Joshua in battle. The twelve stones

100
were taken from the bottom of Jordan. Smooth stones, shaped
and constantly cleansed by a moving river. These twelve stones
represented each tribe, showing God’s love and interest not
simply in the masses but in individuals. These city-takers had a
God who knew them, loved them, would fight for them; a God
who took the rough edges off them by a rushing flow of His
Spirit.
Before God could turn them loose on Jericho, some import-
ant unfinished business needed to be attended to —
circumcision! The ‘circumcising of the sons of Israel again the
second time,’ needs a word of explanation. Obviously, the
Scriptures are not suggesting these men needed to be circum-
cised again, any more than you and I need to be ‘born again’
again! Knowing the importance of circumcision as the token or
sign of the covenant with God (Gen. 17:9-1]), it is inconceiv-
able that this was a slight oversight on behalf of the children of
Israel. Another question arises: How come Moses didn’t put
his foot down and demand that all males who were born in the
wilderness be circumcised? Scholars and commentators have
argued over this point for years. Some say, ‘Sinful neglect.’
Others suggest, ‘Because of their frequent journeying and the
inconvenience of performing circumcision, they kept putting it
off.’
Matthew Henry concedes the explanation is found in Num-
bers 14. ‘Because of their infidelity and evil hearts, they tasted
the breach of His promise; their apostasy and breaking of the
covenant releasing Him from His engagement to bring them
into Canaan.’ Circumcision is a type of the mortification of sin
and the putting off of the filth of the flesh.
City-takers are going to stir up the enemy’s nest. Only the
cleansed and sanctified will be victorious in battle. ’'m not
talking about the hyper-holy, super-do-gooders, but about those
who know their God and who do great exploits (Dan. 11:32).

The City Itself

A key city! A powerful fortress of seemingly impregnable walls!
An invisible sign seems to say, ‘God’s people, listen up. You

101
shall go no further. Stop!’ If Jericho could be taken, what
encouragement it would bring to the children of Israel and
what a message it would send to the other cities of Canaan!
Think of it! It would be like taking New York, Miami, or Los
Angeles, even San Francisco. What a blow to Satan’s kingdom!
But what joy it would bring to the camp of the redeemed!
Our attitude toward winning a city has been basically to
gather at the church for a prayer meeting and bind the devil
until we’re blue in the face. I believe there is an active side to
warfare as well as a passive one. As an old sage once said, ‘It’s
time to vitalize the legal.’ In other words, put feet to our
covenant rights and promises.
Only after the Hebrew nation had built a memorial altar, had
been circumcised and had kept the Passover, was it time for
them to move on the city.

And Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took
up the ark of the Lord. Then seven priests bearing seven
trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord went
on continually and blew with the trumpets. And the armed
men went before them. But the rear guard came after the
ark of the Lord, while the priests continued blowing the
trumpets. And the second day they marched around the
city once and returned to the camp. So they did six days.
But it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early,
about the dawning of the day, and marched around the
city seven times in the same manner. On that day only they
marched around the city seven times. And the seventh
time it was so, when the priests blew the trumpets, that
Joshua said to the people: ‘SHOUT FOR THE LORD
HAS GIVEN YOU THE CITY?’ (Josh. 6:12-16).

This was far more than human conflict. Jehovah God Him-
self was waging war against Satan and his hosts! The
Canaanites were devoted to idolatry, divination, necromancy,
witchcraft, charms and familiar spirits. The children of Israel
would be the instruments of God’s judgment upon these
wicked, perverted people.

102
 When you come into the land which the Lord your God is
giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations
of those nations. There shall not be found among you
anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through
the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer,
or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who
conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who
calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an
abomination to the Lord, and because of these abomina-
tions the Lord your God drives them out from before you.
You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. For
these nations which you will dispossess listened to
soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your
God has not appointed such for you’ (Deut. 18:9-14).

These satanic strongholds had to be pulled down, and

according to Paul we must do the same.

But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they
sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you
to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup
of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of
the Lord’s table and of the table of demons (1 Cor.
10:20-21).

A key verse to focus on in this whole process of spiritual

warfare is verse 2 of Joshua 6:

And the Lord said to Joshua: ‘See, I have given Jericho

into your hands, its king, and the mighty men of valor.’

Immediately we see who gets the credit for the victory. “God
resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble’ (Jas. 4:6).

The Game Plan

A.W. Pink brings up a good point: ‘If the Lord has definitely
given Jericho into the hands of Joshua, why were such elaborate

103
 preparations as these necessary for its overthrow?” (Gleanings
from Foshua, p. 149).
Pink answers his own question.

Let those who feel the force of any such difficulty weigh
attentively what we are about to say. In reality, those verses
exemplify and illustrate a principle which it is most
important for us to apprehend. That principle may be
stated thus: the disclosure of God’s gracious purpose and
the absolute certainty of its accomplishment in no wise
renders needless the discharge of our responsibilities.
God’s assuring us of the sureness of the end does not set
aside the indispensability of the use of means. Thus, here
again, as everywhere, we see preserved the balance of
Truth.

God’s promises should never promote inactivity on our part.

Many pastors who have read my book, Storming Hell’s Brazen
Gates, have told me, ‘God has given us our city,” yet few have
ever shared God’s instructions and strategy for conquest with
me. One man of God and a dear friend, Ed Silvoso, is an
exception.
Ed, the brother-in-law of Luis Palau and Juan Carlos Ortiz,
is, like these great preachers, an Argentine. Ed is a thinker, a
strategist. He and his team from Harvest Evangelism, a minis-
try over which he presides, has targeted a city in Northern
Argentina. Their street-by-street, block-by-block attack on the
ruling princes, followed up with crusades, Bible studies, con-
certs and personal evangelism is very exciting to me. I wish I
were right in the middle of it! Their main focus, once the rest
has taken place, is church planting.
How strange God’s instructions must have sounded to
Joshua. Can you imagine the look on the faces of the men in his
army when he shared the battle plan! There have been more
than a few eyebrows raised over some of my teaching on
dethroning the prince over San Jose, California.
Once again, please note the importance of the ark. God’s

104
presence was with them as they marched. This was not going to
iea victory brought about by the arm of the flesh but by ‘His
pirit.’
And then, the blowing of the trumpets. The Bible has much
to say about the significance of the trumpet’s blast. We are told
to lift up our voices like a trumpet, to sound the alarm, to
hearken to its sound, just to name a few.
AtJericho, I’m sure it was used to frighten the enemy as well
as to encourage the Israelites. I know beyond a shadow of a
doubt that when our church gathers for praise and worship and
our band ‘gets it going’ with the brass section wailing away and
the saints entering into the high praises of God, the demons
shudder and become confused while the children of God are
refreshed and strengthened.
The seventh verse of Joshua 6 is very powerful. It isn’t just
the priests doing the marching or warfare, but also the rank and
file. Today we have too many worn-out preachers trying to go it
alone. No one shows up at the prayer meetings or joins in a
called fast; so the preacher tries it solo. No, that’s not God’s
way. The pattern we see at Jericho is of the priests blowing the
trumpet and the people marching. What harmony!
Notice another interesting aspect of their strategy inJoshua
6:10, 11:

Now Joshua had commanded the people, saying, ‘You

shall not shout or make any noise with your voice, nor
shall any word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I
say to you, ’Shout!’ Then you shall shout.’ So he had the
ark of the Lord circle the city, going around it once. Then
they came into the camp and lodged in the camp.

This was no time for personal opinion, preaching, murmur-

ing, war cries or goofing off. Just holy, orderly silence. The first
day must have seemed like a waste of time and energy to some.
Yet much was accomplished. They were obedient to God’s
every instruction! No one added to or took away from God’s
plan. ‘Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and

105
sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey
is better than sacrifice...’ (1 Sam. 15:22).
Further, in making the Israelites march around the city once
each day for six days and seven times on the seventh day, it is
obvious that the Lord was teaching His people not only obedi-
ence, but patience and timing. I’ve often wondered what was
going on in the minds of the inhabitants of Jericho. Was God
lulling them to sleep with a false sense of security? What would
you think if all your enemies ever did was silently march around
your fortress?

But it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early,
about the dawning of the day, and marched around the
city seven times in the same manner. On that day only they
marched around the city seven times. And the seventh
time it was so, when the priests blew the trumpets, that
Joshua said to the people: ‘Shout, for the Lord has given
you the city!’ (Josh. 6:15-16).

This was no ordinary shout! It had been bottled up in them

for six days, faith and absolute obedience wanting desperately
to express itself in victory. “By faith the walls of Jericho fell
down after they were encircled for seven days’ (Heb. 11:30).
How much of our shouting at our city walls and gates is noise
and not faith?

So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets.

And it happened when the people heard the sound of the
trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that
the wall fell down flat. Then the people went up into the
city, every man straight before him, and they took the city
(Josh. 6:20).

Then, and only then, was victory theirs for the taking. It was
the culmination of a process of warfare involving commitment,
cleansing and unconditional obedience. Let’s summarize and
glean a few truths from the taking of Jericho to apply in taking
our own cities for God:

106
1) No city is too tough for God.
2) Gaze on your city through the eyes of faith.
3) Even though it is God who is doing the fighting, we still
have our responsibilities.
4) Stay humble.
5) Use His Word and stay in His presence.
6) Survey the territory.
7) Stick to God’s plan.
8) Even if you don’t see instant results, keep the trumpets
blowing.
9) Always remember, God is not slack concerning His prom-
ise; the walls will come down!

107
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Prayer Power in Argentina
by Edgardo Silvoso

Edgardo Silvoso, a native-born Argentine, is the founding president

ofHarvest Evangelism, a ministry dedicated to the evangelization of
Argentina and based in San Jose, California. Through the years
Silvoso has observed the effectiveness of power evangelism in the
urban centers of his nation. In this brief chapter, which introduces
some of Argentina’s most effective evangelists and pastors, Silvoso
describes several field case studies of the use ofstrategic level interces-
sion which apparently has been successful in pushing back the prin-
cipalities and powers, allowing the light ofthe gospel to shine through
more brightly.

* * * *#* *

Argentina has consistently produced top quality pastors, evan-

gelists and theologians. Men like Luis Palau, Juan Carlos
Ortiz, Alberto Mottessi and Samuel Libert have blessed the
body of Christ worldwide. All of them would readily credit the
church in Argentina with the reasons for their success. How-
ever, that same church has had the lowest rate of church

From Global Church Growth, July-September 1987, © 1987 The Church Growth
Center of Corunna, Indiana, used by permission of the author.

109
growth among all the nations in Latin America, with the prob-
able exception of Uruguay. Until not too long ago, the average
church in Argentina had less than 100 members. The lack of
growth has puzzled experts, especially in the context of a
church that is consistently capable of producing top quality
international leaders but somehow fails to translate that ability
into local church growth.
All of that has changed lately. C. Peter Wagner has stated
that Argentina, along with mainland China, is ‘the’ flashpoint
for church growth in the world today. No hard figures are
available, but churches that used to have fifty members have
grown to 1,000. Several churches have more than 5,000 people.
There exists what Wagner calls a centrifuge church. Ministers
go to the people by hoiding meetings in over fifty different
locations rather than expecting the people to come to one
place. The centrifuge church, Vision of the Future, ministers
to 90,000 members. Hector Gimenez, a lay preacher, was able
to plant a church of 20,000 members in downtown Buenos
Aires in less than six months. Carlos Annacondia, Argentina’s
leading lay evangelist, has led over one million people to a
decision for Christ in less than four years. Yet, he is not the
only one. There are at least a dozen evangelists and hundreds
of younger preachers with the same degree of zeal who are
efficiently preaching in every corner of the nation.
The church in Argentina has grown more in the last four
years than in the previous one hundred. Norberto Carlini,
pastor of the largest congregation in Rosario, had to move his
congregation out of the building onto an open field in anticipa-
tion of growth. In less than three years, the church grew from
several hundred to almost 5,000. Pastor Alberto Scataglini, in
the city of La Plata, used to minister to 400 people a month.
When the revival broke out, that figure jumped to several
thousands. And more growth is anticipated. Many churches are
moving out of conventional buildings that were designed to
hold a few hundred at the most, into basketball stadiums, open
fields and convention centers. It is not uncommon to find
‘house-churches’ meeting in backyards with three to four

110
hundred members under the leadership of young pastors or
somebody in his early twenties who has not been a Christian for
more than three years.
The Baptist church in downtown Buenos Aires, under the
leadership of Pastor Pablo Deiros, grew 43% in 1986 and 65%
in the first six months of 1987. Other churches are growing so
fast that figures are not available because they drastically
change from week to week. Pastor Regge, in Olivos, a plush
community north of Buenos Aires, according to an article
published in ‘El Puente’, leads a multicampus congregation
estimated at 70,000 members. When asked what is the current
membership, he shrugs his shoulders and says: ‘It is hard to
say. One of our annexes (sort of a daughter church) that is led
by an ex-nun has over 6,000 people.’ And that is jut an annex!
This is quite a change from the stagnant growth of only five
years ago. What is the reason behind this explosion? There is a
combination of factors. The unity of the body of Christ is partly
due to the establishment of A.C.I.E.R.A., an organization that
brings together the majority of denominations in Argentina.
The emerging of the Pentecostal Federation of Argentina has
provided the Pentecostal churches with visible unity and the
ability to maximize resources. The ministry of the ‘700’ club
and its close work with local churches all over Argentina, has
undoubtedly helped. I am sure that there are many other
factors, but I would like to single out what key leaders consider
to be the most important: prayer. The church in Argentina has
learned to pray.
It is not uncommon for churches to hold all night prayer
meetings, especially on the eve of a national holiday. I visited
one of those and 13,000 attended! Some churches have the
custom of holding prayer meetings that begin on Friday eve-
ning and go on until Sunday morning. Pastor Scataglini’s
church in La Plata, where the revival began in January of 1983,
holds prayer meetings in the basement after every service.
Hundreds of young people spend most of the night in prayer,
and they enjoy it tremendously! Omar Cabrera, pastor of the
‘centrifuge’ church of 90,000 has trained his people to carry a

111
prayer book with them at all times. As prayer needs arise, they
jot them down in their books and pray for them until the Lord
answers. Pastor Guillermo Prein, leader of a fast growing
congregation in Buenos Aires, told me: ‘If I call the people to a
business or teaching meeting, some will come. But if I invite
them to a prayer meeting, all of them will come!’
Carlos Annacondia, who leads an average of 1,000 people a
day to a public commitment to Christ, has patterned his
crusade ministry around four ‘times’ of prayer. First he
preaches to the unsaved and ends with a rich time of prayer for
and with the new converts. People go away with the certainty
that they have spoken to God. After a musical break comes a
time of spiritual warfare prayer in which Carlos prays for those
who are demonized. As he leads in prayer, hundreds, some-
times up to one thousand, fall to the ground under demonic
oppression. They are carried by co-workers to a huge tent
behind his platform — called “The Intensive Care Unit’ — where
they are ministered to in prayer for several hours until deliv-
erance comes. After another break, he prays for the sick.
Finally, he prays for everybody who wants to be filled with the
Holy Spirit by laying hands on them. I have estimated that of
the two hours that Annacondia spends on the platform minis-
tering, over one hour is actually spent in prayer. Under the
platform he has a ‘prayer brigade’ of approximately fifty people
who, for the duration of the meeting (sometimes up to seven
hours) are in prayer.
Hector Gimenez, the layman who leads the largest church in
downtown Buenos Aires, has built his ministry around prayer.
People come to his meetings to pray and to be prayed for. The
moment of prayer is the highlight of the service. Omar Cabrera
regularly instructs his people to begin praying as they come into
the meetings. I attended one of those meetings in which 24,000
packed a soccer stadium. It was inspiring to see the majority of
the people taking spiritual possession of the stadium as they
arrived. The Baptist church in Adrogue, under the leadership
of Eduardo Lorenzo, keeps records of every major answer to
prayer in a ‘miracle book.’ Samuel Libert’s church in Rosario,

18H
another Baptist church, is known for its emphasis on prayer
and body life. It is not uncommon to see believers in buses,
parks, and even restaurants, praying together. As they meet
socially, it is customary to end the evening with a time of
prayer. And when prayer time comes around, it is not only the
adults that pray but also children. One of the most moving
pictures I have of Argentina is to see children, as small as six
years old, on their knees praying!
All kinds of prayers are offered in Argentina, but the most
unique prayer is in the context of spiritual warfare. Christians
seem to have two focuses in their prayers: God, to whom they
address all honor and praise; and, Satan, whom they boldly and
aggressively rebuke. Believers subscribe to the view that prayer
plays a vital active role in God’s plan of redemption. They
claim that without the church’s prayer God will not retake the
territory invaded by Satan. They are quick to point out that
every verse in the Bible dealing with prayer indicates that the
action begins on earth. We must ask for Him to answer. We
must knock for Him to open. We must bind and release for
heaven to do the same. The action on earth not only precedes
but to some extent determines the answer in heaven. When it
comes to preaching the gospel, it is the church’s responsibility
to cast out demons, to heal the sick and to tread over the power
of the enemy.
This approach has made prayer exciting. When people pray
they expect something to happen. They engage the enemy and
they bind him. And then they move on and loot his camp.
Omar Cabrera, considered by some the dean of power evangel-
ism in Argentina, consistently closets himself in a hotel room
for five to seven days of aggressive prayer before opening up a
new city. During that time, he prays for binding of the strong
man, or prince, who controls the darkness of that particular
‘cosmos.’ Once he feels that this has been accomplished, he
goes public announcing to the people that now they are free to
come to Christ. Like prisoners freed from a dungeon, thou-
sands literally run to give their hearts to Christ.
Carlos Annacondia begins his crusades by showing the

a5
pastors how to take control over the area. The night before the
beginning of a crusade, all workers participate in a prayer
meeting so intense that it reminds one of Joshua and the people
marching around Jericho. When Annacondia went to the city of
Cordoba, Argentina’s most sophisticated center, many pre-
dicted that he would fail. Carlos’ approach paid off again.
Fifty-eight thousand made a commitment to Christ in two
months!
Floro Olivera, pastor of a Brethren church in San Justo, a
suburb of Buenos Aires, and his elders decided to put a specific
section of their town under spiritual authority. In a very short
time they saw massive conversions coming out of that area.
Today they have moved out of the church building and onto
the backyard of a school next door, due to dramatic growth in
membership.
Eduardo Lorenzo and his fellow leaders at the Baptist
church in Adrogue have been battling with a prince of darkness
who controls the entire county where the church sits. They
have already begun to see dramatic results not only in their own
church but in the rest of the county as well.
The reasoning behind this approach lies in the assumption
that God’s power is somehow limited by God’s moral charac-
ter. When God created the world He entrusted it to Adam,
who lost it to Satan. At that point in time Satan became the
‘god of this world,’ and the kingdoms of this world and their
glory became his possession. Even though God could retake
the world easily, his power is limited by moral law. Satan could
accuse God of trespassing if He were to intervene directly.
Since the government of earth was lost by Adam, a man, only
another man could recover it. But since all men have sinned,
they are automatically under Satan’s dominion. However, God
solved the problem through the incarnation of Christ. By being
conceived by the Holy Spirit, He is divine and the evil one has
no claim on Him. By being born of the virgin Mary, He is a
bonafide member of the human race. That is why — the reason-
ing goes — when Jesus defeated Satan, first in the wilderness
and later at Calvary and the resurrection as the second Adam,

114
He was able to take away from Satan, in a potential sense, what
Satan had stolen from the first Adam. Every time the church
(as the representative of the second Adam) prays, it provides
the legal and moral justification for God to release his power.
And that is why the prayers of the saints are so important.
Whether or not one fully agrees with this reasoning, it must
be conceded that it does make praying an exciting exercise. It
makes the believer not only a participant but also a partner in
carrying out the Great Commission. And when it comes to
prayer, the difference is as big as the satisfaction found in
swimming in the bathtub as opposed to the ocean. By enlarging
the perimeters and allowing for uncharted currents to bear on
the swimmer, prayer becomes exciting. By seeing thousands
come out of darkness in direct answer to prayer, faith is
strengthened. By witnessing miracles immediately after a
prayer meeting, the Word of God is validated and so are the
promises it contains. After a while, people naturally gravitate
toward prayer for the same reason that plants follow the sun:
because from the sun they get the benefit of its power and
greatness.

115
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 12
City Taking in Korea
by Paul Yonggi Cho

Although it is quite short, this chapter is worth reading because it was

written by Paul Yonggi Cho, pastor of the world’s largest church.
Whenever he tells the story of how the Yoido Full Gospel Church
grew to over 600,000 members, he emphasizes first and foremost the
spiritual dynamics of the ministry. Here Cho stresses how important
prayer, sacrifice and holiness are in taking a city for God.

We are living upon the threshold of a historical landmark in the

church age. For this reason, I have always considered myself
extremely fortunate to be able to serve God in these critical
times. In these last days, God is moving mightily by His Spirit
and is commanding us to arise, to cross over, to engage in
battle, and to possess the land. God is raising up a great army
to accomplish His purposes in our generation.
My ministry started with city taking. When I first pioneered
my church, nobody would come to our old, torn marine tent
because there was great demonic oppression over the village.
The key to breaking that bondage was the casting out of a
demon from a woman who had lain paralyzed for seven years.

Excerpted from the Foreword to Come Down Dark Prince by Dick Bernal © 1989
Companion Press, Box 351, Schippensburg, PA 17257 by permission.

117
When, after months of prayer, the demon oppressing her was
cast out and she was healed, our church exploded with growth.
The sky above the village was broken open and the blessings of
God began pouring down. Today, the Yoido Full Gospel
Church is still growing. We are now in excess of 600,000
members and we are marching forward to our goal of one
million members by the year 1992.
The growth of our church and the growth of Christianity
throughout the nation of Korea did not come by accident. It
came through fervent, violent, prevailing prayer. As Jesus said
in Matthew 11:12, “The kingdom of heaven suffers violence,
and the violent take it by force.’ For example, in our church we
have all night prayer meetings every single evening where
thousands come to pray. On Friday evenings, more than fifteen
thousand people join hearts and hands to pray for the Kingdom
of God to come. On Prayer Mountain, at least three thousand
people are praying, fasting, and ministering unto the Lord on
any given day. In all, one-and-a-half million people visit and
pray there in any given year. This is not limited only to our
church; all over South Korea Christians are praying. One of
the most unique characteristics of the Korean church is that
millions gather early every morning at 5:30 a.m. to pray,
despite wind, rain or snow.
Great sacrifices were made by the Korean church. The
Kingdom of God indeed suffered violence. There was a long
history of persecuting Christians by the Communists, as well as
by the Japanese occupation forces. For instance, the Japanese
installed Shinto altars in all Christian churches. The military
police stood guard to enforce the law that required all Chris-
tians to bow down to the Shinto altar before entering to wor-
ship Almighty God. Those who refused were jailed and
punished severely, with many ministers being executed at the
hands of the Japanese forces. Many churches corporately
decided to oppose this injustice. Many such churches were
locked, with women and children inside, and burned to the
ground due to their refusal to worship idols. Until recently, it
took great sacrifice to be a Christian in Korea. Believers were a

118
minority. But now, because ‘the blood of the martyrs is the seed
of the church,’ we count at least one-fourth of our nation to be
believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Finally, a word of admonition. It is so necessary for those
who are called to engage in this spiritual warfare to be holy and
sanctified, because He is a holy God. Many who have cast out
demons, who have prophesied, and who have done wonders in
His Name may find God declaring, ‘Depart from me you who
practise lawlessness, I never knew you.’ The devil has crept
into the Church and promoted iniquity, lawlessness and
unrighteousness in our midst.
It breaks my heart to see so many co-workers for the King-
dom falling in disgrace. Like the seven sons of Sceva, the evil
spirit leapt upon them, overpowered them, prevailed against
them, and they fled out of their homes naked and wounded.
Without holiness and sanctification, without great sacrifice,
and without a fervent prayer life, many will be so wounded.
The evil spirit will answer, ‘Jesus I know, Paul I know, but who
are you?’
It would do us well to be admonished by the great Apostle
Paul:

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the

power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that
you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For
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. Therefore, take up the whole
armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil
day, and having done all, to stand. Stand, therefore, hav-
ing girded your waist with truth, having put on the breast-
plate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the
preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the
shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the
fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of
salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of

119
God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the
Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance
and supplication for all the saints (Eph. 6:10-18).

120
 13
High Level Powers in Zimbabwe
by Richmond Chiundiza

An increasing amount of information on territorial spirits is coming

Jrom Christian leaders in the Third World who have had knowledge
of them for some time, but who have until recently been reticent about
telling what they know. This has partly been due to an underlying
fear that ifthey spoke about territorial spirits they would be written
off by Western church leaders as flaky or unbalanced. Especially since
the great Lausanne II Congress on World Evangelization held in
Manila in 1989, Third World leaders have been more willing to
dialogue on issues of spiritual warfare with Westerners. At Lau-
sanne II five workshops were held on themes relating to territorial
spirits, and the subject gained a degree of legitimacy it did not have
previously.
The following interview is between Ted Olsen ofDawn Ministries
and Richmond Chiundiza, national director of Disciples In Action
Ministries, Zimbabwe. In 1982, Richmond Chiundiza started Glad
Tidings Fellowship with six people. By 1990, he had 3000 members
and had planted 25 other churches and started 5 preaching points.
Chiundiza, who participated in the Manila congress, has researched
extensively the spiritistic religion of the Shona people of Zimbabwe

Permission was granted by Dawn Ministries for the use of this material which
originally appeared in Dawn Report, April 1990 © Dawn Ministries.

121
in order to help free new believers from the strong control of their old
religion and to see churches grow.
x * * KX *

DAWN: When the Gospel was first proclaimed to the Shona

in Zimbabwe over 100 years ago, there was the concept of a
supreme being. His name was Mwari. Some missionaries and
many church leaders today have contextualized the Christian
message and Mwari became God. Has this been a good thing
or not?
CHIUNDIZA: Even though the Shona religion is centered
mostly on ancestral spirit worship, a study on the Shona con-
cepts of God seems to reveal Mwari as God. Several of his
names in the Shona language describe his character.
Muwanikwa or mutangakugara mean ‘he who existed before
everything else;’ msiki is ‘creator of all things’ and
wokumusorosoro means the supreme, preeminent and transcen-
dent God.
This basic understanding is in accordance with Romans
1:18-23 which shows God’s revelation to men through con-
science (v. 19) and creation (v. 20). However, the Shona under-
standing of God is inadequate. The devil has taken advantage
of this ‘inadequate revelation’ by introducing the spirits as the
center of worship. Consequently, the spirits have become a
substitute for God.
DAWN: In Daniel 10, the angel comes to Daniel after a 21-
day battle with the ‘prince of the Persian kingdom.’ This was a
demonic ruler installed over a geographical region and working
within the world system of Satan. We read in the same passage
of a prince over Greece. Is there a prince over Zimbabwe?
CHIUNDIZA: Yes, I believe there are demonic princes set
over Zimbabwe. My research is directed in part at discovering
the identity of these princes. Zimbabwe is made up of two
people groups — over seven million Shona and nearly two
million Ndabele. From what I can discern, the highest ranking
spirits over Zimbabwe are set over these two major people
groups of the nation.

122
 DAWN: Have you identified these high-ranking territorial
spirits?
CHIUNDIZA: Yes, they have been identified.
There are two high-level powers in the heavenlies who can
be said to be princes over the Shona people of Zimbabwe.
They are Nehanda and Chaminuka. Both Nehanda and
Chaminuka were people in history who died around the turn of
the century. They became legends among the Shona because
of their exploits. Demonic powers have inhabited the legends
of Nehanda and Chaminuka and possess the bodies of a few
key ‘spokesmen’ for the spirit world.
Nehanda, a Shona woman who took a stand against the
colonial powers and was executed for her rebellion, is today the
more powerful of the two princes. In many areas of Zimbabwe,
the spirit powers of Nehanda are awesome.
Chaminuka was a man known as a prophet. He could foretell
the future. One of his visions foretold the coming of the white
men to Zimbabwe. Chaminuka’s vision also included a rolling
apparition which is interpreted as the arrival of the steam
locomotive. His power in the spirit world is strong, and he is
consulted even by government officials on certain occasions.
DAWN: If Nehanda and Chaminuka are the princes set
over the demonic hierarchy, how do the familiar or ancestral
spirits fit in?
CHIUNDIZA: Next in order to prominence are the Mon-
doro, or the demonic rulers set over the Shona clans who live in
distinctly separate territories in Zimbabwe. The Mondoro
inhabit the legends and identities of the founders of the Shona
clans (a coalition of families).
In times of drought or calamity, the Shona go to communi-
cate with these high ranking spirits. Year after year, these
festivals take place at specific places such as the Great Zim-
babwe ruins, a favorite spirit place for the Shona. It is a time of
brewing beer which is offered to the spirits. Animal sacrifices
are made and many rituals are undertaken. A person who is
known to be possessed by the spirit of Nehanda or Chaminuka
will speak the will of the high spirit.

123
 A witch doctor, known as a N’anga, supervises the process of
possession by the high spirit. Other people, possessed by the
lesser spirits of the ancestors, must confirm this person is truly
possessed by the high spirit.
The possessed person, who can be either a man or a woman,
will remain possessed by this spirit until he does. Manifestation
comes during these times of spiritistic consultation. The Mon-
doro control life within the clan territory and out of it. If a
Shona leaves his traditional homeland he risks leaving the
territorial guardianship of the spirits. He must first ask per-
mission of the territorial spirit. This is done through an
N’anga. In addition, he must wear a charm, such as a twig
concealed in the hair or a bracelet worn under a sleeve, to carry
the protective covering of the Mondoro with him. Many thou-
sands in Zimbabwe who work in the cities give special attention
to appeasing the territorial clan spirits each day and remaining
under their protection.
Under the Mondoro, there are the Mudzimu. These are the
lowest ranking of demons and are the ancestral or familiar
spirits. They are believed to be the spirits of grandfathers,
grandmothers, aunts and uncles. They are nonetheless import-
ant, and the Shona give much time and energy to appeasing
them every day. Food sacrifices are a common form of
appeasement.
DAWN: The Shona clans are ruled to this day by chiefs.
How does the chief fit into this spiritistic system of control?
CHIUNDIZA: Almost every person in Zimbabwe is under
the authority of a chief. And every chief is chosen by the clan
spirits through a demonized spirit medium. So it is accurate to
say that every person in Zimbabwe is traditionally under the
control of the spirits.
The chief's main function is to be a steward to the spirits. He
responds to their directives and controls over the people. When
a chief is selected, the clan spirits, the Mondoro, come on a
person recognized as a medium during a demonic seance.
The spirits literally select the next chief. He is pointed out by
the possessed medium who knows the secrets of his life and the

124
controls that other demons already have over him. This man,
when he is chosen, knows that he owes his job, his income, his
privileges, to the spirit for the rest of his life. This commitment
will involve the whole clan.
The chief sees that all the traditions in keeping with the
Mondoro are followed. The practical implications are obvious.
Millions of Zimbabweans are under the direct control and
authority of demons.
DAWN: Would a Zimbabwean who is now living in the city
be expected to participate in this process of joining in with the
clan to appease the spirits?
CHIUNDIZA: Yes. At least once a year — usually over a
holiday such as Easter — everyone within the clan families
receives word that they are expected to go home for a time of
ritual appeasement. Anyone who fails to appear is seen as being
in open rebellion. Such a one risks the vengeful reaction of the
spirits, and these demonic punishments are very harsh and very
real.
When someone is seen as having alienated the spirits there is
subsequently the need for appeasement. This is not a cute
cultural ritual. It is an unadulterated demonic practice. By far
the majority of Zimbabwe’s 10 million are involved in these
practices and are under the authority of these Mondoro spirits.
DAWN: You’ve referred to the power of these spirits as
being very real. How is this demonstrated?
CHIUNDIZA: When a spirit medium speaks under posses-
sion, he’ll tell you exactly what has happened in your life in the
past. He’ll prophecy that certain things will happen to you in
the future and these things happen, even down to the little
details. You may be told that you'll get a job next week on
Thursday — and you do. Or you'll hear that you’re going to lose
your hand in a machine accident at work during April, and it
happens. People fear this kind of control. Healings take place,
curses make people sick or die. The healings are very real. The
curses often kill people.
The tragic problem is that the Shona people don’t know
from whom this power comes. The teaching on Mwari as God

125
has them further confused. They will go to church because of
fear of hell, and will accept Christ. They want to go to heaven.
But, when it comes to needing help for now, they go to the
N’anga and seek the help of the ancestors.
It’s noteworthy that the biggest churches in Zimbabwe are
Pentecostal. This is because they are offering power and deliv-
erance. When a person is led to Christ in such a fellowship, the
national leaders — knowing the cultural/traditional background
from which all Zimbabweans come - insist on full deliverance
immediately.
This frees the person from the bondage of ancestral and
territorial spirit control. It also costs a lot, because they are cut
off from their families and know full well that curses are being
directed at them. But a person delivered in this way does not go
back to ancestral worship.
Unfortunately, the missionary churches and the mainline
denominations have not preached or taught these things. The
Shona people know the power of the spirits, but do not see the
power of God. The church is not proclaiming the truth about
the reality of Satan and his demons.
Hence, the people sneak back and practice these spirit rit-
uals secretly. They know there would be disapproval, but they
do it anyway. The church has removed the miraculous quality
from Christianity. The witch doctor has power, but Christ is
presented as appearing to be a wimp — weaker than the spirit
medium.
DAWN: What can the Church do to liberate people from
this form of bondage?
CHIUNDIZA: It takes vision and courage to preach the
liberating gospel. The mistake churches sometimes make is to
attack the system and the structure of the territorial spirits.
This is a big mistake. It is very negative to go to a chief and
tell him, ‘You’re a steward of demons.’ That will not win him
over. The church must preach a liberating gospel and be
involved in the subsequent power encounter. The people need
to see that through the power of Christ they can deal with these
things in the spirit world.

126
 My research is designed to help inform the church. My
subject is ‘Spiritual Warfare — The Only Way Forward.’ Unless
we have a breakthrough on this level, we’re wasting our time.
The gospel must have greater power than the traditional
system. Christ referred to the Spirit of God being upon him,
anointing him to preach a liberating, powerful gospel to the
poor. Christ didn’t just give lectures. He preached with power.
The black leadership in the church is not theologizing
enough. More and more of our own people — who have trained
in the Bible schools and seminaries in the west — come back as
extension cords of something that does not work here.
We need African leaders who know God, who can theologize
and bring the Bible alive to our people, so that God is released
from the pages of Scripture, so that he becomes real and
delivers people.
The church won’t grow or advance until it is freed from the
captivity of these spiritual forces. We need a breakthrough in
the spiritual realm. We’ve been praying, but missing the
enemy. The intercession of Christians is not relevant until we
know how to pray.
Our praying must be motivated by love. People who pray
their bitterness and fears to God will not achieve anything.
Like Christ, we must be prepared literally to die for the people
we pray for. God said: ‘I sought for a man to stand in the gap.’
If we’re going to change this nation, we need intercessors
who say ‘Give me Zimbabwe or I die!’ We will become prop-
erly aggressive to the enemy — because we love the people. It’s
dangerous to enter into intercessory prayer with the wrong
spirit. We need a network of real intercessors, informed
people, who will pray with humility before God. This is the
only way forward.

127
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 14
Don’t Underestimate the Opposition
by Paul B. Long

How did a Presbyterian missionary to the Congo (now Zaire) learn

that evil spirits, indeed, occupy defined territories? In this fascinating
anecdote Paul Long, who holds the Ph.D. degree from the Fuller
Seminary School of World Mission in Pasadena, California, and
who has served as a professor of missions at the Reformed Theological
Seminary in fackson, Mississippi, tells how his experience in minis-
tering to the Baluba people forced him into a theological paradigm
shift.

The Lord spoke to me with his strong hand upon me,

warning me not to follow the way of this people .... When
men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper
and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why
consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to
the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word,
they have no light of dawn. Distressed and hungry, they will
roam through the land; when they are famished, they will
become enraged and, looking upward, twill curse their king
and their God. Then they will look toward the earth and see

Excerpted from The Man in the Leather Hat by Paul B. Long, Grand Rapids,
Michigan, Baker Book House © 1986 with permission.

129
 only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will
be thrust into utter darkness (Isa. 8:11, 19-22).

Mungede had no son.

He had a happy Christian wife and two daughters, but no
son.
He was director of the Boy’s Home where some two hun-
dred boys lived while they studied at the mission station, but he
had no son.
He was the best hunter of wild guinea fowl in the Bibanga
mission area and he was an elder in the local church, admired
and trusted as a Christian leader. But Mungede was not happy,
for he had no son.
Although he was one of my first and best friends among
Africa’s Baluba people, and although we worked, talked,
hunted and prayed together, I did not realize how deeply
Mungede was burdened and how heavy were the pressures
from pagan relatives over his failure to father male offspring.
Nor did I know, at that time, why a son was so necessary in
tribal thinking. Therefore I was quite shocked when the pastor
announced during morning prayers one day that Mungede had
returned to his village and gone back to the old ways.
I just could not believe it. I thought I knew my friend. I
thought we communicated on deep levels and shared openly
with each other. But it was true — the tribal pressure for a son
had forced him to leave his Christian wife who had given him
only daughters, and to return to his village, taking on two
younger women with the hope that they would bear him sons.
“Why are sons so necessary?’ I asked the pastor.
‘Daughters marry and go with their husbands to the village
of his parents. Children all belong to the father — not the wife —
in our customs. Only sons remain in the village, and only sons
therefore can feed the ancestral spirits. If one does not show
respect for his Ba Nkambua (dead ancestors), they will become
angry and afflict the careless and ungrateful son. Furthermore,
when a tribesman dies, he must leave a son to care for his spirit
which remains in the village as an unseen member of the tribe.’

130
 “Then Mungede is trusting tribal ways more than the teach-
ings of the New Tribe, isn’t he?’
‘Yes,’ the pastor replied, ‘he has rejected the commandment
of God which warns against communicating with spirits of the
dead. He has gone back to the old tribe and is now caught in its
darkness.’
I was determined to try and bring my friend back, so I
traveled to his village, some five kilometers east of Bibanga
station. When I found Mungede, I was shocked with the
change in his appearance. His once radiant face was dark with
the ‘utter darkness’ that marks the people under direct
demonic direction. It was obvious that he had been talking with
spirits and seeking their power in his life. But I had a problem.
I did not believe that evil spirits could take over a life that had
been transformed by faith in Christ. From a theological stand-
point, it seemed impossible for the born-again believer to go
back to his former slavery, but it looked like that was just what
had taken place in Mungede.
We hunted guinea all day, rested in the shade, and talked at
length about life, death and our hope for eternity. But
Mungede was as closed as any pagan I had ever talked with; I
could not reach him in any way.
After a good hunt, we returned to his house to rest while his
wives prepared the guinea hens for our evening meal. Looking
around the area, I was impressed with the fact that he had
settled in the very center of spirit worship for the tribe. A
medicine man sat nearby, along with three medicine women in
the robes worn when communicating with spirits. The drums
were there, as were the rattles, the charms, and the spirit
mound. The mound looked like a good pulpit to me, so I asked
Mungede to beat the drum and call the people to hear a word
from God.
‘You want to worship here?” he said. ‘This is the devil’s
territory.’
‘I can talk with God anyplace, Mungede, and any time I
please. Don’t you know that?’
‘We will see,’ he said as he pounded the talking drum. (I

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never learned to ‘talk’ with the drum except to say, ‘Kill the
rooster, the preacher is here.’ I left Congo before I was able to
add, ‘but leave the setting hen on her nest.’)
A large crowd gathered around the spirit mound. I was
surprised to see that the medicine man and women were
amused — it’s always nice to have people happy when you tell
them God’s Good News, especially when they are capable of
being dangerous.
When I stood to speak, I felt the oppressive presence and
power of overwhelming evil. The ‘utter darkness’ was suffocat-
ing me. I felt the cold fingers of death press around my throat
and I could not speak. As I stood there in foolish helplessness,
the medicine people laughed; it sounded like voices from hell.
I turned in utter defeat to sit down with Mungede. ‘I can’t
speak here,’ I said when my voice returned.
“You should have known better. This is the devil’s turf. You
have no right or power here.’
‘Does God have any turf in this village?’ I asked.
“Yes. On the other side of the village we used to have a
Christian chapel. The building is gone, but the land still
belongs to God.’
‘If you will invite the people to go with us there, I will try
again.’ And when I passed the medicine man, I added, ‘Come
with us, powerful one, and hear about the “affair of God.””’
‘T will stay on my turf,’ he answered. ‘Here I have power.’
On the other side of the large village, I was led to a clearing
where the outline of the former chapel was marked by a shallow
ditch formed by rain washing over the grass roof. The rect-
angular outline was about ten feet wide and thirty feet long. I
stood where I supposed a pulpit had been, invited the people to
gather around, and noted with surprise that all those who had
come with us — about seventy — were pushing to stand within
the boundaries of the ditch. Apparently, they wanted to hear
God’s word while standing on God’s turf.
In the seven years we had lived with the Baluba, I had never
preached with such liberty in God’s Spirit. The words flowed
‘with power, clarity, and beauty well beyond my normal abilities

132
in that language. The people who stood on God’s turf were
electrified with a strange power and their response was
immediate and unanimous. ‘We will rebuild God’s house,’ they
announced, and by evening of the next day a new grass-roofed
chapel stood on the site of the former building. A new house
for a teacher was also constructed, and God’s work was reborn
in the village.
Mungede never returned to the New Tribe during my days
in Congo, but continued to follow the ways of his people,
looking for a son to feed his spirit after death. Instead of
inquiring of God, he consulted with ‘mediums and spiritists
who whisper and mutter’ — and demonstrate power enough on
their own turf to shut my mouth. He consulted ‘the dead on
behalf of the living’ instead of going to the Word of God. He
looked to those who ‘have no light of dawn,’ the ones who ‘will
be thrust into utter darkness.’
Two things I learned well in that village called Nkumba:
never to invade the devil’s turf without clear orders from the
Lord, and to move out of enemy territory when the battle is
beyond me. It does not pay to underestimate the opposition.

133
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SEVENTH TIME AROUND
Breaking Through a City’s Invisible
Barriers to the Gospel
by John Dawson

John Dawson of Youth With a Mission, who resides in Sunland,

California, has written the most popular textbook on dealing with
principalities and powers, Taking Our Cities for God (Creation
House). This much briefer piece condenses the teaching Dawson has
been developing over the past few years, and is one of the most
practical, how-to chapters in this book. Many others are now follow-
ing his strategy for strategic-level spiritual warfare.

Cordoba, Argentina is a city of proud and fashion-conscious

people. Position, possessions, and appearance are of prime
importance to 1.1 million living here, who are largely of Ger-
man and Italian descent.
The Youth With a Mission team I led to Cordoba was made
up of Christians from more than 20 nations. We were dressed
simply, struggling with Spanish and carrying gospel literature.
We really felt like nerds.
The crowds were there. Thousands of Argentines from all
over the country had come to see the world soccer playoffs. But

From Prayer Pacesetters Sourcebook, edited by David Bryant, © 1989 Concerts of

Prayer International, Box 36008, Minneapolis, MN 55435, used with permission
of the author.

135
our witnessing seemed to lack power. No one was coming to
know Christ. The next day, all 200 of us met for prayer in a
rented monastery on the edge of town. We cried out to God for
answer.
During that day of prayer and fasting, the Holy Spirit began
to reveal the nature of the unseen realm over Cordoba. We
realized that our timidity and weakness in proclaiming the
gospel was partly due to satanic forces at work in the culture.
We discerned a principality attempting to rule the city with
‘pride of life.’ The only way to overcome a spirit of pride is with
the humility of Jesus. So, with the Holy Spirit guiding, we
decided to come against the principality in the opposite spirit.
The next day our entire group went downtown. We formed
smaller teams of about 30 and walked into the open-air malls.
We knelt down right there in the midst of the fashion parade,
surrounded by expensive bistros, sidewalk cafes, and bouti-
ques. With our foreheads to the cobblestones, we prayed for a
revelation of Jesus to come to the city.
Breakthrough was immediate — breakthrough in us and
breakthrough in the city. Large crowds of curious people began
to gather around each group.
I vividly remember how Christ strengthened me when I set
aside my dignity and knelt in the street. The intimidation of the
enemy was broken along with our own pride. As the crowd
became larger, I stood to my feet and began to explain through
an interpreter why we had come to the city. As I lifted my voice
to communicate to the people at the edge of the crowd, the
boldness and compassion of the Lord filled me.
All over downtown Cordoba that day, team members
preached to attentive audiences. We reaped a harvest of souls.
The people were receptive to the point of insisting that we
autograph the gospel tracts we gave them! This warm response
continued for several weeks until our departure.
Now tell me: how could a city so resistant to the gospel
suddenly become a place of harvest? Satan holds the cities and
nations by accusation and deception. These are his only
weapons. When we minister in a city, we are hindered by that

136
which is deceiving the people. In Cordoba, we were hindered
by the spirit of pride that filled the city.
How do we overcome the enemy? We discern the nature of
his deception and come in the opposite spirit. Being careful to
resist temptation ourselves, we continue in united prayer until
authority is gained and God breaks through.
Remember the story of Jericho? Militarily it made no sense
to march around the city wall for seven days. But spiritually the
Israelites were gaining authority through the exercise of faith,
obedience and self-control. The fact that they had to march in
silence is probably a clue to the nature of the unseen realm over
Jericho. If they had responded to the insults and mockery
hurled from the walls, a spirit of contention, pride, and anger
might have been let loose among them. Instead, they walked in
silent self-control until the victory shout, and by God’s power
the walls came tumbling down.
On a personal level, we go through this when a Jehovah’s
Witness or Mormon comes to our door. They are often
empowered by a spirit of religion controversy. But the Bible
says, ‘We fight not against flesh and blood...’ So our contest is
with the deceiver — not the deceived (but sincere) person
standing in front of us. In other words, if you get into an
argument about the trinity and win, you lose. Far better to
come in meekness as one who has a testimony of Jesus’ mercy
in your life.
What about spiritual oppression over nations? How do we
approach the battle for South Africa, for instance? Apartheid is
a spirit, not just a political phenomenon. It is a spirit that goes
deep into African colonial history, with its roots in idolatry.
When a good thing like cultural heritage is made into an idol,
then injustice is the result. How do we shatter the power of the
spirit behind apartheid? Through yielded rights and humble
servanthood. We can rebuke the devil all day long and still be
powerless unless we apply faith and obedience to a God-
directed strategy.
A year ago I preached to a large, multi-racial gathering at the
Durban Convention Center in South Africa. I spoke on the sin

137
of unrighteous judgment and closed the message by leading us
in repentance of racial stereotypes and prejudice. We each then
washed the feet of someone of another race. Thousands of
Afrikaners, Zulus, Indians, English and Colored wept in each
other’s arms as a spirit of reconciliation spread. This may seem
like a small victory, but political reformation will grow only out
of territory gained in the unseen realm. God’s promise is: ‘If
my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves
and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways,
then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and will heal
their land’ (2 Chron. 7:14).
All over the world, praying Christians are agreeing about the
nature of the battle for individual cities. For example, the
prayer warriors of London believe they are battling a spirit of
unrighteous trade that has influenced the world for hundreds
of years through that great city. David exhorted the Israelites to
‘pray for the peace of Jerusalem’ (Ps. 122:6). I believe this was a
strategic instruction, directing them against a spirit of religious
controversy which had taken up residence in the holy city.
There was a time prior to the rise of today’s nationalism
when much of the world consisted of clusters of city-states like
Venice or Luxembourg. Today, apart from Hong Kong, Sin-
gapore, still-surviving Luxembourg and a few others, the world
consists of entities we call nations, which often have several
world-class cities within their borders. In reality, a nation is a
geo-political alliance among its cities. Cities are where the
national myth is largely enshrined. The land between is relativ-
ely empty and serves only to sustain the life of the city. A nation
is the sum of its cities.
As we dream of discipling nations, we need to understand
their urban makeup. The gospel must transform the spiritual,
philosophical, and physical life of a country’s cities. If it does
anything less, we have failed to win the battle.
The early days of the Salvation Army are a graphic example
of the power of the gospel transforming the life of the city.
General Booth and his followers clearly identified the satanic
bondages prevailing at the time, including alcoholism and

138
prostitution. They employed city-wide strategies which res-
ulted in city-wide victories.
To effectively penetrate the city with the gospel, we must
understand some truths of spiritual warfare.
1. Satan’s kingdom is a limited hierarchy of evil spirits.
2. High ranking, supernatural personalities, referred to as
principalities and powers in Ephesians 6, seek to dominate
geographic areas such as the city, with all its peoples and
subcultures.
3. We as believers are taught by God’s Word to treat such
beings with respect, but to ‘take captivity captive’ — to tear
down the rule and authority of the evil one. Our authority is the
result of Jesus’ victory on the cross.
4. God’s power is strategically applied by discernment of the
unseen realm.
5. We must overcome the enemy before employing other
methods of ministry among men and women.
In a given battle for a person, a family, a church or a city,
discerning the nature of the enemy’s lie is half the battle. Only
after his deception is exposed can we exercise the authority of
Scripture to thwart his schemes. Jesus resisted the devil this
way during his time of temptation in the wilderness.
Whole countries are kept in darkness by satanic lies that
have become cornerstones of a particular culture. For example,
take the struggle with rejection and the fear of authority experi-
enced by many Australians. Entering through the cruel roots of
Australian history, Satan has been able to create a general
distrust of all authority figures, including the highest of all —
God himself. The truth is that Australia is not a nation founded
on rejection and injustice, but a chosen people with as much
dignity and potential as any people in history.
Isaiah 60 says that the people of the earth sit in gross
darkness. Can you imagine walking into a darkened room filled
with people who have spent their entire lives sitting there
watching the TV images flickering in front of them, thinking
that is all there is to reality? Imagine flipping the light switch on
and asking everyone to examine the mundane equipment

139
responsible for the illusion. Satan is a projectionist, an illusio-
nist, a deceiver, the father of lies. The Bible says that one day
we will look upon him in amazement saying, ‘Is this the one
that made the nations tremble?’ (Isa. 14:16). He will be seen in
reality as being small and impotent.
How can you contribute to victory in the battle for your city
or nation? Begin by identifying the spiritual opposition and its
unique manifestations.
1. Look at your city’s secular history. Ask yourself the ques-
tion, ‘Why is this city here?” Is it just the project of geography
and commerce or does God have a redemptive purpose in
mind? Jonah was surprised at the way God looked at Ninevah.
You, too, may be surprised when you discover what is oppress-
ing people today. Psalm 115:16 says, “The heavens belong to the
Lord, but he has given the earth to all mankind.’ In other
words, this is our planet and the only authority that Satan has
stolen is man’s authority. He initially gains this authority when,
at some point in history, human beings believe his lies and are
seduced into allegiance to his plan. An obvious example would
be the spirit of greed let loose during the California gold rush
that still dominates much of San Francisco.
2. Look at your city’s Christian history. Research the life of
God’s people in your city, particularly during times of revival. If
you live in Los Angeles, a study of the Azusa Street revival would
give you insight into today’s battle. During times of revival, the
supernatural realm is seen with great clarity, and often records
are kept which contain important insights. Ours is a covenant-
keeping God, and you may be amazed at the promises received
by past generations — your spiritual forefathers engaged in the
same battle. It is an important principle of humility to acknow-
ledge and honor those who have gone before. It also inspires our
faith. Because of God’s covenant with David, Josiah’s genera-
tion lived in a time of revival rather than judgment.
3. Identify your city’s prophets, intercessors and spiritual
elders. In every city there is what I call a hidden eldership -— a
group of saints that you will not find listed in any book. It consists
of God’s circle of mature believers who ‘stand in the gap’ until

140
victory comes. Isaiah 62:6 says, ‘Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I
have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never
be silent. You who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest
and give Him no rest until He establishes Jerusalem and makes it
a praise in all the earth.’ Some of these ‘watchmen’ are obvious,
such as veteran pastors. Others may be intercessors in obscurity
or prophetic people with a premonition. If there is a common
theme among those who are sensitive to the Spirit’s guidance,
you’re on to something. God always confirms a strategy through
several witnesses, and this is particularly important when dealing
with demonic forces.
4. Study your city’s demographics. It is amazing to me how
ignorant we often are of the basic realities around us. Where do
the people live? How many are in poverty? Why are they in
poverty? Are there subcultures, ethnic groups, changes in the
economy, an aging population — what’s really going on?
Spiritual warfare doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Jeremiah 29:7
says, ‘Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into
exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare you
will have welfare.’ This is an exhortation to Jews in Babylon
who, like some modern believers, had a tendency to dream of a
distant Jerusalem instead of recognizing the task at hand. Be
grateful for your city. Study its potential, and you will receive
the insight you need.
Once we know what we are up against, what should we do?
1. Begin with worship. Everything born of God goes through
a very natural process. Worship is like an act of love that is
followed by conception, gestation, travail, and birth. So always
begin with worship. It is in the place of thanksgiving and praise
that God conceives within us his mind and heart for our city.
2. Wait on the Lord for insight. Don’t rely on finite reason-
ing or human cunning; what worked at Jericho didn’t work at
Ai. Learn to listen to God with child-like dependency, and he
will guide you into victory. The Scriptures are full of exhorta-
tions about waiting on God. Psalm 40:1 says, ‘I waited patiently
for the Lord; he inclined unto me and heard my cry.’ We are
promised that God will speak if we seek him. ‘My sheep hear
my voice and they follow me’ (John 10:27).

141
 3. Identify with those you want to reach. When Nehemiah
prayed for the restoration of Jerusalem, he didn’t pray for the
city as though he were not a part of it. He said, ‘I and this
people have sinned’ (Neh. 1:6). Ezra went even further when
he said, ‘Oh my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up
my face to thee, my God, for our iniquities have risen above our
heads, and our guilt has grown even to the heavens’ (Ezra 9:6).
Both were righteous men. You, too, may be a righteous person
who is not involved with your city’s vices. But we can all
identify with the roots of any given sin. Take, for example, the
shedding of innocent blood in the act of abortion. You may
never have participated in an abortion, but all of us have been
guilty of the root sins — lust, the love of comfort, the love of
money, rejection, unbelief. These common struggles can help
us identify honestly with the sins of our city when we ask for
God’s mercy.
4. Minister in the opposite spirit. Is the enemy tempting you
to be stingy or greedy? Come against it with exuberant gener-
osity. Overcome pride with humility, lust with purity, fear with
faith. Paul said, ‘I can do all things through him who
strengthens me’ (Ph. 4:13).
5. Travail in prayer until God’s purposes are birthed. That
which is conceived by God eventually comes to birth. Just as
the contractions of the uterus herald the beginning of labor,
there are times when our souls are stirred by God’s Spirit to
seasons of intense prayer. Anyone who earnestly seeks God
experiences such travail, but when the united Christians of a
city are at this stage, it signals impending revival.
How do you perceive God? How big is He? The size of your
God is revealed by your plans and expectations. His objectives
are plain enough. Envision this, for example: God’s heart for
the city becomes your heart. You and your teammates begin a
city-wide prayer movement. There is revival in the local
churches, followed by an awakening among non-Christians,
reformation of society, and new expressions of world mission.
Is your God big enough for that? He waits for people who
will see him as he is and then follow him to victory.

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 Part Ill

THE ANALYSIS:

Perceptions and
Perspectives

143
 16
Territorial Spirits and
Evangelization in Hostile
Environments
by VernonF. Sterk

Vernon J. Sterk is a field missionary of the Reformed Church of

America, working among the Indians ofMexico. Some ofthe persecu-
tion of believers that he has witnessed seems to him to come from
something other than simply human opposition to Christianity. In
this chapter he raises the question as to whether some ofthis might be
directly attributed to territorial spirits.

I want to address an often-forgotten factor in persecution and

resistance to evangelization, the reality and work of demons
and evil spirits, specifically ‘territorial spirits.’ Although this
will not be simply a case study of the Tzotzil Tribes in Chiapas,
Mexico, it will reflect on many of the events and illustrations
which have come from my experience in that particular work.
Because my awareness in the area of territorial spirits has only
recently begun to surface, I will not be analyzing my own
experience, but rather I will be compiling the available data and
analyses in order to formulate a hypothetical framework upon
which to base my own investigation. I will attempt to answer the
basic questions: Are territorial spirits a reality? Should they be

Excerpted from an unpublished research paper written for the Fuller Seminary
School of World Mission © 1989 with permission of the author.

145
considered as a factor in persecution? If territorial spirits find
their main assignment in resistance to the gospel, how are we
specifically to deal with them? These questions will set the
theoretical framework for our analysis.

1. Satan and Spiritual Warfare

At the outset, it would be easy to simply make a generalized
statement that all persecution and resistance to the gospel is
the work of Satan. And even though it is not the central aim of
this study, we must start there.
Satan is certainly behind all persecution and efforts to keep
the message of Jesus Christ from penetrating the hearts of
people and the core of cultures. We could even say that opposi-
tion to the gospel is probably his major role and goal. The
words of 2 Cor. 4:4 refer clearly to the work of Satan when it
says that ‘the god of this age has blinded the minds of
unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of
the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.’ And Scripture is
clear about calling Satan ‘the ruler of this world’ (Jn. 12:31,
14:30, 16:11), ‘the tempter’ (Mt. 4:3), ‘the evil one’ (Mt. 13:38),
and ‘the one who deceived them’ (Rev. 20:10).
Much has been written on Satan. There is general agree-
ment about the reality of the power of Satan and the fact that
we should never underestimate that power. Complete books
line the shelves of the library which list Satan’s titles and names
(see Bubeck 1975), and offer good biblical studies on the
origin, attributes, and work of Satan. Others have written on
spiritual warfare and how we can best do battle with Satan (see
Harper 1984). While these and others like them are valuable
studies and are important for us to use in the spiritual battle
that we experience all around us, many Christians in Latin
America and others parts of the Third World are now telling us
that such a concept of the personification of evil is not really
adequate. They express their feelings that it is not only too
vague and distant, but also does not fit what they see in reality
ai biblical revelation, to attribute all of the evil in the world to
atan.

146
 Simply stated, many Christians are observing that the
immediate work of evil and its destruction can be identified
specifically as the work of ‘territorial spirits.’ That is to say that
they actually experience the effects and presence of evil in a
sphere that is much closer and more personal than the identity
of Satan. In the battle against evil and in the challenge to
preach the good news of Jesus Christ, they are finding it much
more helpful to identify with the description of ‘principalities
and powers’ (Eph. 6:12) than with a general more distant idea
of ‘Satan.’
In our first years of pioneer evangelism in the Zinacanteco
tribe of the Tzotzil-speaking Indians in the Central Highlands
of Chiapas, Mexico, my wife and I had many people come and
explain that their illness was being caused by specific and
identifiable evil spirits. Some would speak of a spirit that dwells
in an underground stream of water running under their house.
Others would see these spirits attacking them as they gathered
firewood, or causing their children to fall and injure them-
selves. There were no Christians in that tribe, and we, as
Western missionaries, were ill-prepared to approach these
local manifestations of evil spirits. Our worldview caused us to
find it easier to deny their existence and attribute all of this to a
rather remote Satan. The Zinacanteco people were attempting
to exercise some control over these evil spirits through shamans
and a sacrificial system of curing ceremonies. They felt the
need to handle specific and local spirit forces with specific and
local ways of handling them.
As we noted earlier, one of the principal affairs with which
Satan is preoccupied is to ‘veil the gospel’ (2 Cor. 4:3). But
how does Satan do this? At this point in our discussion, I would
like to introduce an idea to which I had given very little
previous thought. C. Peter Wagner writes the following:

It is helpful to remind ourselves that Satan does not

possess the attributes of God, and therefore he is not
omnipresent. Although he may be able to move from one
place to another very rapidly, still he can be in only one

147
 place at one time. Therefore, if he is intent on blinding the
minds of the three billion who have yet to receive the light
of the gospel of the glory of Christ, he must delegate this
responsibility to others, namely evil spirits (Wagner
1990: 76).

In Matthew 12:24-28 Jesus spoke of the casting out of

demons as an invasion of Satan’s kingdom. Satan is described
as ‘the prince of demons’ (v. 24). All of this would give us a
fairly clear picture of Satan as the commander of an army of
evil spirits who function as his agents in all parts of the world.
Dick Bernal echoes what Peter Wagner has said:

‘I call your attention to the fact that Satan is not omnipre-

sent. He cannot be every place at one time. And so, he
must dispatch chief rulers (principalities) to guard and
protect his perverted scheme for empires, nations, prov-
inces, states, and even cities’ (Bernal 1988:23).

Satan delegates his power and authority to these evil spirits

who quite probably number in the millions. One of the evil
spirits that Jesus cast out (in Mark 5:9) gave his name as
‘Legion, for we are many.’ A Roman legion was made up of six
thousand men, so we would certainly be able to say that in this
one small area of Gerasa in that time there was a large number
of territorial spirits actively working in Satan’s hierarchy. And
the great number of descriptions of evil spirits and demons in
the Bible almost always denote them in the plural, as if they
were associated with many others.
I am now convinced that Satan does work by delegation, and
that there are many more demons and spirits in the world than
we have ever realized. It may be that when there is a large
representation of Christians in an area, the evil spirits are
reduced in number or considerably weakened, but in an ani-
mistic Indian village where I lived and worked in southern
Mexico that had no Christian presence, the ominous domina-
tion of that area was so oppressive that we could literally feel it,

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even though our worldview did not yet allow us to recognize the
specific evil spirits that were identified by the Indian people.
Even a non-Christian anthropologist who lived in that same
village for six months commented to us about the spiritual
oppression that she felt was so pervasive there. When a number
of people from those villages became Christians, there was
almost immediate and violent persecution. Was that persecu-
tion the direct responsibility of the territorial spirits that had
been delegated power for that tribe or village? We only prayed
general prayers for God to limit Satan’s power in opposing the
gospel, but we never took the local emissaries of the enemy into
account, nor did we know how to handle them. Could that be
why some of those areas are still extremely belligerent and
resistant to the message of Jesus Christ, in spite of the use of
the best missiological tools and approaches that could be
mustered?

2. Territorial Spirits
All of the Tzotzil tribes, with whom we have worked for more
than 20 years, can identify specific tribal deities which act as
guardian spirits (saints and ancestral gods), and they can also
name specific evil spirits that are in charge of the various kinds
of evil in their culture. The Yajval Balamil or ‘Earth Owner’
controls sickness and curing through ‘soul loss and redemp-
tion.’ There are many demons, like the Pos/om which takes the
form of a ball of fire and attacks people at night to cause severe
swelling. The 7 ic’aletic or ‘Blackmen’ are looters and rapists
who commit indiscriminate attacks of all kinds of evil. There is
a seemingly endless list of frightening evil beings or spirits to
which the Tzotzils refer to as Pucujetic ‘devils’ (Vogt 1969:304).
There is a very clearly defined specialization of the roles and
evil work of the Tzotzil spirits, but of even more interest in this
study, they also have territorial designations and assignments.
This is true for both the evil spirits and for the Tzotzil ‘guard-
ian spirits.’ The ancestral spirits reside in certain mountain
peaks. Evil spirits can be contacted by a shaman in certain

49
caves, and through specific cross shrines. All of the spirits have
geographical limits for their power, even though the reach of
the evil spirits seems to be more extensive than that of the
guardian or ancestral spirits, whose assigned areas seem very
limited. For example, Zinacanteco Indians have often
expressed fear of going to lowland cornfields outside of tribal
boundaries, because there they don’t have the protection of
guardian deities but the evil spirits ‘travel around and find
them.”
When Tzotzil Indians become Christians and undergo per-
secution, they often cite the power of territorial tribal evil
spirits as the reason that they cannot continue to live in the
tribal area. However, the pressure is a two-edged sword: they
fear tribal spirits, but they also experience the threats of phys-
ical violence. Again, for the study of the role of territorial spirits
in persecution and opposition to the gospel, it is very interest-
ing to notice that the two factors seem to be intertwined. It
appears that Tzotzil Christians attribute persecution more to
the evil spirits involved than to the people who act it out against
them.
Probably the most transparent example of the power of
territorial spirits in the geographic boundaries of the Tzotzil
tribes is seen when a sick person has a chance to go to the
home of an evangelical Christian who is living outside of tribal
boundaries because of persecution and expulsion. The person
who is sick will usually choose to stay at a Christian home,
outside of the territory of the tribal evil spirit, until he is
completely well. If that person has carried an evil spirit with
him or her in his or her body, the Christians pray in the name
of Jesus to cast that spirit out and have it return from where it
came.
In some cases, territorial spirits seem to be so fixed in a
particular house or underground stream that everyone living in
the immediate area is affected by sickness, mental illness, or
serious attacks. Zinacanteco shamans encourage a family to
leave that house or property rather than to even attempt dis-
lodging the spirit from the area. Shamans officially declare the

150
area ‘cuxul’ (living) and there is great fear of inhabiting this
occupied territory.
In other cases, the territorial spirits come as temporary
invaders of homes. Shamans perform house ceremonies in
which the Zinacanteco Indians believe that a demon takes the
form of a ‘hummingbird demon.’ It is interesting to note that
the shamans do not attempt to rid the area or house of the
demon, but rather try to appease the territorial spirit with
sacrifices so that it will cause no further suffering and fear.
On yet another level of territorial spirits, anthropologists
have noted that there are particular ancestral spirits connected
with the ceremonial circuits that surround the tribal center,
certain sacred places, and the special crisis ceremonies that are
carried out by shamans (Fabrega & Silver 1973:164—167).
Because I have not, in the past, paid much attention to the
concept of territorial spirits, 1 have not yet made an in-depth
investigation of this phenomenon.
The Tzotzil tribes which I have just described in this case
study are not the only area of the world where this territorial
spirit phenomenon is taking place. Others such as James Mar-
occo of Hawaii have observed what he calls ‘cultural ethnic
demons.’ His study of this states: ‘It is my contention that there
is a definite demonic power that affects the particular geo-
graphical areas and population centers’ (Marocco 1988:5). Nor
is this a new thing that is just now beginning to surface. John
Nevius, writing in the 1800s, describes a house in Ho-kia-
chwang, China, where a wealthy family was brought to poverty
by a local spirit (Nevius 1968:61-62).

Is the Concept of Territorial Spirits Biblical?

It is clear from empirical observation that a case can be made
for the existence of territorial spirits and their role in persecu-
tion and resistance to the Gospel. However, is it biblical? Does
the Bible indicate that we are up against territorial spirits in
specific local settings, and not just facing a more generalized
opposition from Satan?
Of course the passage that is most often cited is Ephesians

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6:12, where there is an indication that we are up against
‘principalities’ and ‘powers’ and ‘rulers’ and ‘spiritual hosts of
wickedness.’ But do these agents of Satan occupy or control
specific areas or territories in our world?

Old Testament Examples

In the Old Testament there is much mention of the specific
places such as ‘places on the high mountains,’ or specific hills
or certain trees where the pagan nations had identified as
locales for specific gods and spirits (Deut. 12:2). God gave
specific instructions to the Israelites that when they possessed
these places to live, they must destroy all semblances of these
gods and cast out the names of these gods and spirits from
those places. The different nations all possessed specific gods
and evil spirits which had specific names such as ‘Baal,’ and
‘Ashera’ (Judges 3:7), and ‘Ashtoreths’ (1 Sam. 7:3-4). In
2 Kings 17:29 we read that ‘each national group made its own
gods in the several towns where they settled, and set them up in
the shrines the people of Samaria had made at the high places.”
Each national group had its own gods or principalities which
had separate names and identities. “The men from Babylon
made Succoth Benoth, the men from Cuthah made Nergal,
and the men from Hamath made Ashima; the Avwvites made
Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children
in the fire as sacrifices to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the
gods of Sepharvaim’ (2 Kings 17:30-31). These images that
were made certainly represented already existing spirits and
gods, and the Bible clearly defines them as evil (2 Kings 17:17).
Deuteronomy 32:17 makes a clear connection of these foreign
gods to ‘demons.’
A very interesting observation on the power of territorial
spirits is made in 1 Kings 20:23 where ‘the officials of the king
of Aram advised him, “Their gods are gods of the hills. That is
why they were too strong for us. But if we fight them on the
plains, surely we will be stronger than they.”’ This expresses a
clear belief, at least among those people that spirits and gods
had power only over certain limited areas of jurisdiction.

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 Territorial Spirits and Evangelization in Hostile Environments

In the story of Naaman going to Elisha to be healed of

leprosy, Naaman is told that he must go to wash in the Jordan
where God would cleanse him, and not to the Damascus rivers
of Abana and Pharpar which were in the domain of the god
Rimnon (2 Kings 5:1-19). There are illustrations that indicate
that many in Israel also saw God’s territory as mainly the land
of Canaan. When David was being pursued by king Saul,
David expresses a fear of meeting death on some foreign soil,
far away from the Lord. He says, ‘Now do not let my blood fall
to the ground far from the presence of the Lord.’
I believe that the above Old Testament references are help-
ful in understanding what the Ephesians 6:12 passage means
when it speaks in the New Testament time of spiritual ‘prin-
cipalities and powers.’ During the Roman occupation, most of
the people of Israel also saw demonic personages located in
specific political powers in specific places.

New Testament Examples

The examples of territorial spirits in the New Testament are
limited. While there are many cases where demons and evil
spirits are openly confronted, there are but a few times when
the idea of those demons being attached to specific territories is
recognized.
When Jesus was about to cast the demons from the pos-
sessed man (Mark 5:1-20), the demons begged Jesus not to
send them out of that area. It would appear quite clearly that a
legion of demons belonged to that area and did not want to
leave. I also find it interesting to note that when the spirits were
cast into the pigs and then into the lake, then the people of that
region seemed to be blinded by the power of those demons for
they were immediately afraid and began to plead for Jesus to
leave their region (v. 17).
Although the connection is more difficult to demonstrate
from the text, the story of Paul’s extraordinary work in Ephesus
(Acts 19) suggests that territorial spirits might have been at
work. After Paul’s open warfare with evil spirits (v. 12), we read
the account of the seven Jewish exorcists who are overpowered

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and beaten by the evil spirit in a man. However, when power
encounter in the name ofJesus brought many to openly believe,
the goddess ‘Artemis’ stirred the mobs to oppose the gospel
and start a riot. The principality named ‘Artemis,’ who appears
to have been a principality over the evil spirits of that area, was
likely in control of the area around Ephesus.
Although there are many other passages in the Bible which
give confirmation of the hierarchy of Satan and many that
indicate that there are numerous demons and evil spirits del-
egated by Satan, except for the ones cited above, there are few
that give clear indications of them being territorial. However, I
believe that the above examples do reveal that there are territ-
orial spirits that do dominate certain areas, kingdoms, nations,
and places. Even though I am sure, from the Biblical evidence,
that Satan does not always use this territorial method or
approach, I agree with C. Peter Wagner’s hypothesis that:

Satan delegates high ranking members of the hierarchy of

evil spirits to control nations, regions, cities, tribes, people
groups, neighborhoods, and other significant social net-
works of human beings throughout the world. Their
major assignment is to prevent God from being glorified
in their territory, which they do through directing the
activity of lower ranking demons (1990:77).

The Major Assignment of Territorial Spirits: To Oppose

Evangelization
The major task of preventing God from being glorified is
carried out by the assignment of specific territorial spirits for
the purpose of halting or disrupting evangelism in their territ-
ories. I am entirely convinced that the resistance which we
experience in many areas of the world in the growth of the
church is the direct result of demonic forces. I cannot say that
they are always territorial spirits, but the more I hear of the
experiences and work of those such as evangelist Omar
Cabrera in Argentina, Christian psychologist Rita Cabezas in
Costa Rica, and many others, the more clearly I begin to

154
understand some of the things that we have seen in the work of
evangelism among the Tzotzils in Chiapas.
Nabenchauc is a village in the high mountains of Chiapas
where my wife and I lived for ten years among the Zinacanteco
Indians. It is the largest of all of the Zinacanteco villages and
boasts of hundreds of shamans. We experienced many world-
view changing experiences of the reality and power of demons
and evil spirits while we attempted to do pioneer evangelism
there. When the power of the Gospel finally broke down a few
of the walls in that village, the persecution became intense.
God performed many healing miracles, and some power
encounters have taken place. Yet, even after much general
prayer pleading with God to break the power of Satan in that
village, we have only seen small spurts of growth in which the
new Christians are either forced to revert to animism or be
harshly expelled from their land and homes. There has been
more growth in other villages in that tribe, even though there
has been much less evangelism done in some of those other
villages, and God has concentrated less of his demonstration of
power in those areas.
As I have read and studied about this phenomenon of territ-
orial spirits, it all seems to fit. In the village of Nabenchauc, the
shamans and tribal political bosses are also those who serve or
control the ‘cargo’ positions which have direct contact with the
local spirits and deities that are the ‘owners’ and ‘demons.’
They control all dimensions of life in the village, and any
deviation from that control is met with various forms of per-
secution. Since the Gospel was first communicated in this
village, there has been a great increase in the number of spirits
and deities. This has been reflected in both the increased
number of ‘saint’ images in the local church-shrine and in the
amazing multiplication of house ‘talking saints.’ The resistance
to the Gospel has corresponded with the increase in these
spirits.
i.wish that I could report that we have taken authority over
these spirits in Jesus’ name and the growth has become fantas-
tic, but neither we who are missionaries nor the expelled

155
Zinacanteco Christians had ever considered this concept of
specific territorial spirits. We never did more than pray general
prayers against Satan’s power in Nabenchauc, and the growth
of the church has been generally slow and halting.
We have observed, on the other hand, that the greatest
openness to the Gospel is shown when Tzotzils temporarily
work, reside, or market outside of tribal boundaries. Many
Tzotzils are open to the gospel and become believers when
they go to work far away from the influence of their tribal
areas.
Timothy M. Warner, professor of mission at Trinity Evan-
gelical Divinity School, has stated: ‘I have come to believe that
Satan does indeed assign a demon or corp of demons to every
geopolitical unit in the world, and that they are among the
principalities and powers against whom we wrestle’ (see page
52). As I recall accounts from all over the Tzotzil tribal areas
where Christians have suffered serious resistance to the Gos-
pel, I am becoming more and more convinced that anyone
facing persecution should be aware that there are surely
demons and evil spirits involved; and most likely they will be
territorial spirits.

3. Dealing with the Territorial Spirits

Knowing that territorial spirits exist and that they may, in many
cases of resistance to the Gospel, be the ones presenting the
obstacles and causing the reaction of persecution, there
remains another question: How do we deal with them?
It is possible that we should approach the battle with these
territorial spirits the same way that is suggested by major
authors for casting out any evil spirit or demon. Merrill Unger
simply states that ‘Demons are “dispossessed” in the Name of
Christ’ (Unger 1971:119). Michael Harper suggests that we
have four basic weapons: ‘l) the Name of Jesus, 2) the Word of
God, 3) righteousness, 4) the spiritual gifts’ (Harper 1984:56—
60). Harper also makes some important suggestions about
practising the ministry of defeating the enemy. He is not

156
speaking about demons at this point, but I believe that, for our
present discussion, these weapons are valid in the battle against
territorial spirits. He says that the first step is ‘self-repentance
and confession.’ The second is ‘deliverance’ or the command
to Satan and/or his agent spirits to get out. In prayer we bind
Satan or an evil spirit. In this prayer we do not ask Jesus to do
this; we do it in Jesus’ name with the authority that Jesus has
given us. Finally, we do not need to tell the spirits where to go,
but we do need to follow up with a prayer for God to fill the
area with the power of the Holy Spirit (Harper 1984:99).
I believe that one of the important roles that I must play as a
missionary working with the Tzotzil Presbytery in Chiapas is to
call the indigenous church leaders back to a ministry of
‘aggressive prayer’ in the battle against the principalities and
powers. Many of them have come to assume that God has
taken care of these evil spirits, and that they don’t have to worry
much about them. Thus, the ‘command prayer’ has almost
fallen into disuse except in cases of obvious personal demon
possession. Bubeck’s reminder is timely: ‘Aggressive prayer is a
mighty, mighty part of the believer’s effectiveness in spiritual
warfare’ (Bubeck 1975:113). Intercessory prayer is an important
tool, but it is not how Jesus said that believers would drive out
demons. Jesus makes it clear for ‘those who believe: In my
[Jesus’] name they will drive out demons’ (Mark 16:17). Jesus
Himself, in all of the Gospel accounts, commanded the spirits
out. He did not pray to the Father to cast them out. And then
He gave that power and authority to His disciples (Luke 9:1),
and also to us. The Tzotzils must be called back to this
ministry, especially in areas that have experienced severe
opposition to the Gospel.
However, I have also come to see that in dealing with
territorial spirits we may have some other factors to take into
account. Before we assume that these spirits can be dealt with
in the same manner as all others, we must investigate some
specific areas about the battle with these very specific territorial
spirits.

157
Identification of the Territorial Spirit by Name
One of the attempts that some of the writers in demonology
make is to determine titles and names. In The Adversary, Mark
Bubeck gives a detailed list of the names of Satan himself,
giving 13 different titles (Bubeck 1975). However, neither he
nor Michael Green (1981), nor Michael Harper (1984), make
an issue of using the names of Satan or other demons to have
more power in casting them out. Neither Unger (1971) nor
Nevius (1968) take any special care about this issue, but then
neither of them discusses the specific issue of territorial spirits.
In Michael C.H. Koh’s paper (Koh 1988:25), there is the
recognition of the need for prayer and warfare on two levels:
1) the larger spiritual powers, and 2) the local or territorial
power as in people movements and revivals. But he does not
deal with the issue of names and identity.
Jesus only once asked the name of a demon (Mk. 5:9, Lk.
8:30) during His ministry, recorded in the New Testament.
Daniel 10 does mention two names of territorial spirits. In
Revelation 9:11 ‘the angel of the Abyss’ is called in Hebrew
‘Abaddon’ and in Greek ‘Apollyon.” The name ‘Beelzebub’ is
used seven times in the New Testament, and appears to be a
play on the words that were derived from ‘Prince Baal.’ The
rest of the Biblical evidence would indicate that there is little
emphasis on knowing the names of demons or territorial
spirits.
On the other hand, there are several recent studies that
indicate that these spirits are identifiable by specific names.
Edward Langton, in Essentials of Demonology (Langton 1949),
has done some analysis of the Persian names for demons which
have meanings like ‘Evil Mind,’ ‘Female Deceit,’ and ‘Wrath.’
Manfred Lurker’s Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses, Devils and
Demons (1987) gives an extensive list of specific deity and
demon names from all over the world of cultures throughout
history. I have also discovered that the Apocryphal book of
Tobit and Judith contains passages on ‘Asmodeus’ who is
called ‘the worst of demons’ (Jerusalem Bible 524-532). Dick
Bernal, in his book Storming Hell’s Brazen Gates, says:

158
 I cannot be too emphatic. In dealing with the princes and
rulers of the heavenlies, they must be identified. Even the
ancient Greeks knew how to approach their gods (whom
we now identify as ‘principalities’). They were always
approached by name and title (Bernal 1988:57).

The Tzotzils, as I have indicated earlier, are very aware of

the names of many of the territorial spirits that inhabit their
tribal area and villages. They are even able to name some of
those which occupy homes and streams. The shamans pride
themselves in calling on the actual names of all of the different
spirits and deities when they have very difficult cases. There-
fore, for Tzotzil Christians to be able to name the spirits that
they feel are opposing the Gospel in a particular area would
probably be possible.
The question remains in all of this inquiry on names: Do we
gain any special advantage in spiritual warfare by knowing the
names of the spirits and demons? Many would agree with mark
Bubeck’s two bits of advice in dealing with evil spirits. He tells us
not to believe them or their threats, and warns that we should not
try to know too much about them (Bubeck 1975:124). However,
if we do know the names of specific territorial spirits, there may
be some validity in addressing the spirit by name when attempt-
ing to take over an area in Jesus’ name.
It may be valid that we are able to use the names of specific
territorial spirits in cases of persecution and sever opposition
and hostility to the Gospel. Yet, I am very suspicious of names
that are given by territorial spirits themselves, since I do not
believe that they are about to reveal any secrets which would
lead to their own downfall. Jesus Himself knew that: ‘Any
kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house
divided against itself will fall. If Satan is divided against him-
self, how can his kingdom stand?’ (Luke 10:17—18a). However,
this does not invalidate the using of specific names in casting
out these spirits.
In many cultures there is the recognition that to give some-
one your name gives them a certain power over you. The

159
Tzotzil people have strong feelings about knowing the name of
their ‘animal spirit companion’ (Vogt 1969:371). If some enemy
gains knowledge of the name of that spirit, he can place a curse
on that person by harming that particular animal spirit.
The Bible pays careful attention to the power that is embod-
ied in names, especially in the ‘Name of God’ and in the ‘Name
of Jesus.’ Deuteronomy 12:11 is an example of how the taberna-
cle was referred to as ‘a dwelling for his Name.’ In Solomon’s
message about the building of the temple he describes his plan
‘to build a temple for the Name of the Lord...’ (1 Kings 5:5).
Many of the studies that have been done on the concept of
‘name’ in the Old Testament indicate that in the Hebrew
culture the name itself signified something important about the
character and personality of a specific individual. The name
seems also to have revealed a similar identity in reference to
God or other deities.
The New Testament gives even clearer indication that there
is power in a name. Jesus said: ‘And I will do whatever you ask
in my name...’ (John 14:13). To use the name of a person
implies a certain authority granted by that person. In James
5:14 we are told to heal the sick ‘in the name of the Lord,’ and
in Mark 16:17 Jesus says ‘In my name they will drive out
demons.’ Again in Luke 10:17 the seventy-two that Jesus sent
out came back to report: ‘Lord, even the demons submit to us
in your name.’ in John 17:11 Jesus prays to the Father for his
disciples: ‘Holy Father, protect them by the power of your
name — the name you gave me...”
All of this may not give any conclusive evidence of how we
might use the actual names of specific territorial spirits or
demons when we are dealing with them. However, some hypo-
thetical conclusions may be helpful. First, we should not place
much credibility in names given to us by a territorial spirit. It
may be pure deception. Second, we may use the name of a
specific spirit if it has been revealed or confirmed by a source
other than a demonic one. Third, I do not think that we risk too
much in using the names that are common knowledge to the
people of an area or village, when these spirits have been

160
known for generations to exert control over specific areas or
territories. Fourth, we should use the general or functional
names of demons or spirits if the actual names are unknown to
us.
Finally, in this discussion on the importance of knowing the
names of territorial spirits, we must not neglect the gift of
discernment. One of the specific spiritual gifts available to the
Church of Jesus Christ in spiritual warfare against territorial
spirits is the discerning of spirits. I Corinthians 12:10 counts
‘the discerning of spirits’ as a gift given to us for ‘mutual profit.’
Certainly, this spiritual gift would be of great value not only in
any ministry of deliverance, but it is essential in dealing with
territorial spirits, especially in discerning of their specific
names.

Conclusions
While we began this study with the assumption that Satan is the
overall head of the hierarchy of evil in this world and is
certainly behind all persecution and resistance to the gospel,
we have seen clearly that he is not alone in his spiritual warfare
against the kingdom of God. Around the world, Christians are
experiencing the threats and the actual presence of evil forces
that are specific and geographically located. It is, therefore, an
oversimplification and underestimation of the enemy to simply
reflect the obvious fact that Satan is the force behind all of the
opposition to the gospel. We must take an honest look at the
reality of territorial spirits.
The Tzotzil worldview is full of many local spirit-owners
which are specific and geographical, much like those described
by Loewen (see Chapter 17). It would seem that these territor-
ial spirits have been delegated authority by Satan to oppose the
Gospel in a specific area. Thus, the territorial spirits are the
main agents in building resistance to the gospel of Jesus Christ
in places like the Tzotzil tribes. A careful analysis of the
territorial spirit concept reveals that they not only exist but that
they are also responsible for the severe persecution and expul-
sion of Christians.

161
 In tracing the Biblical examples of territorial spirits, we find
in both the Old Testament and the New Testament that Satan
has used territorial spirts to control nations, regions, tribes, and
other smaller places. The main assignment of territorial spirits
is the halting of evangelism. This is reflected in the Zinacan-
teco example.
To deal with territorial spirits, we must use aggressive com-
mand prayer. We address these spirits with their actual names
if and when they are known, but we should not place too much
emphasis on a proper name identity. It is important to identify
the territorial spirit by a traditional name or a functional name.
In all of the problem of identification, the gift of discernment of
spirits is essential.
Finally, there are some serious dangers. We must heed a
word of caution so that we do not lose a correct balance, and so
that we do not get involved in a use of power that is not a part of
God’s will for us and the church. I certainly do not want to
suggest an involvement with principalities that will ultimately
do great damage to individuals and to the church in Chiapas.
However, there is also the great risk of doing nothing because
of our questions and fears. That would, in effect, negate the
validity of this entire study, and it would allow the territorial
spirits to continue to cause resistance to the gospel and per-
secution of Christians around the world.
I conclude from this study that a balanced ministry in the
area of territorial spirits could be God’s method of opening
new doors for effective evangelism of which not only I, but
many Christian leaders around the world, have not been aware.

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Green, Michael B. 1981. J Believe in Satan’s Downfall. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Harper, Michael. 1984. Spiritual Warfare: Recognizing and Overcoming Evil Spirits.
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Koh, Michael C.H. 1988. ‘Intercessory Prayer and the Kingdom of God.’ (An
unpublished paper for Fuller Seminary School of World Mission)
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Lurker, Manfred. 1984. Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses, Devils and Demons.
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file.)
Nevius, John L. 1968. Demon Possession. Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications.
Unger, Merrill. 1971. Demons in the World Today. Wheaton: Tyndale House.
Vogt, Evon Z. 1969. Zinacantan: A Maya Community in the Highlands of Chiapas.
Cambridge: Belknap.
Wagner, C. Peter. 1990. ‘Territorial Spirits,’ Wrestling with Dark Angels, C. Peter
Wagner and F. Douglas Pennoyer, eds., Ventura: Regal Books.

163
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 17
Which God Do Missionaries Preach?
by Jacob Loewen

Jacob Loewen is an outstanding Christian anthropologist who served

as a Mennonite Brethren missionary to Colombia, then for several
decades as a translation consultant with the United Bible Societies in
South America and Africa. In the extended version of this article
which first appeared in Missiology: An International Review,
Loewen makes a case that many missionaries fall into the danger of
communicating to tribal peoples a concept of God which may appear
to the people to be more like the territorial and functional ‘gods’ whom
they serve rather than the universal, supreme God the missionaries
are intending to communicate.
In setting the context for his argument, Loewen presents informa-
tion about the territoriality ofpagan demonic spirits which readers of
this book will find very helpful. He also mentions some biblical
passages in the Old Testament where not only did the Gentile pagan
groups assume spiritual territoriality, but also where the Hebrews
themselves were wrestling with concepts which could tend to suggest
limitations to God’s omnipresence and omnipotence. It is little
wonder that some ofus could be in danger offalling into similar traps
today.

Excerpted from Missiology: An International Review, Vol. XIV, No. 1,January 1986,
© American Society of Missiology, with permission.

165
 For our purposes here, only Loewen’s background material is
reproduced. It is the part most apropos to understanding territorial
spirits.

* * *K j%+# *

A new missionary to Nigeria was deeply thrilled when he got a

land grant from the local king so that he could begin to build a
mission hospital. Once the building began, he started each
workday with Bible study and prayer for his work crew. Long
before the hospital was ready to function, all his workmen had
‘accepted Christ,’ and the missionary felt that even the con-
struction time had been an evangelistic success.
Once the building was completed all the workmen returned
to their respective home villages, and the missionary began
organizing a series of evangelistic tours through some of those
same villages. To his complete chagrin he found that his
‘converts’ were contentedly tending idol shrines in their home
villages. When he confronted them with what to him was a
gross incongruity with their confession of faith as Christians,
they in turn expressed their surprise at his abysmal ignorance;
surely he knew that at the mission they had prayed to owo (God)
because they saw that he was the one who had power there, but
he was not in charge here in their home villages. Here they had
to pray to the “deity that owned this area.’ ‘If we try to pray to
your mission God here, the local deity would be very, very
unhappy and make too much trouble for everybody,’ they
affirmed with conviction.!
This African experience highlights the important truth that
many, if not most, tribal and peasant societies experience their
deities as tribaly, geographically, or functionally specialized.
Western people who believe in God, especially Western
missionaries who go overseas, feel very comfortable that they
represent a God who is universal and who possesses the whole
gamut of all-attributes. He is omnipotent, omnipresent,
omniscient, and so on. Furthermore, Western Christians read
the Bible and see only this all-embracing God. Their own

166
worldview has blinded them to the fact that the Bible records
the tremendous struggle which God waged with the Hebrew
people, first of all, truly to become the only God of that tribe,
and then to have them catch at least a few glimpses of the fact
that he was really also the God of all mankind.

Deity as Territorially Linked

When my wife and I began our mission work in Colombia, one
of the first things that struck us was that the Indians there saw
every tree, mountain, stream, spring, or even large rock as
being the home of some specific spirit entity. When I began to
travel more widely during a dialect survey of Choco languages,
I discovered that it was next to impossible to take people from
one river or dialect to visit another dialect group because the
people were afraid that the spirit powers of that new area, to
which they were alien, would steal their souls and thus cause
their death.2 In group after group there are stories about
hunters who in the pursuit of game had inadvertently gone
beyond the domains of friendly spirits into the domains of alien
spirits and of the dire consequences that had followed. Only a
few had returned to tell the tale, and even some of those who
did make it back died soon thereafter because they were unable
to retrieve their souls from the alien spirits that had captured
them.
Already some readers will feel that I am not talking about
God but that I am talking about spirits. And in a way that is true,
but it also points to a second important reality: most tribal and
peasant peoples experience deity at least at two (and some at
many more) levels. The first is at the so-called ‘high-God’
level, and the second is at the level of ‘gods, spirits, fetishes, or
ancestors,’ and so on. (Each of these may form several separate
levels of deity.)
The high-God concept has been eloquently expounded by
the early Catholic missionary-anthropologist Wilhelm Schmidt
(1965:21-33). This high God is the creator of the universe and
usually also of men, but frequently a more personal or more

167
tribaly related deity plays the second role. After creation, how-
ever, something akin to the fall-of-man story recorded in
Genesis 3 occurred and the high God withdrew leaving men in
charge of, or under the domination of, lesser gods, spirits, or
even shades of their ancestors.
The accounts of this rupture between God and mankind are
as varied as the peoples who tell them. For the Waunana of
Colombia, where we began our missionary experience, it was
precipitated by direct intervention of dosiata, ‘the devil,’ who
caused the people to mistrust God and to buy axes from the
trickster-devil to be able to raise food crops independent of
their God. This act of mistrust caused Ewandama, ‘the tribal
high God,’ to withdraw from the Waunazn, ‘the people,’ and left
them to fend for themselves against dosiata’s kith and kin and a
host of other amoral spirit entities that inhabited their environ-
ment (Loewen 1969:156—-157).
West Africans often speak about creation time as the time
when the high God/sky God had placed his abode (heaven)
very close to earth. At that time the people, really the women
(shades of Eden) who did the gardening, used long-handled
hoes and they continually poked into the sky or God’s ‘but-
tocks,’ as one of the local languages puts it. God told the
women to use short-handled hoes, but they wouldn’t. Finally
he got so tired of having his bottom poked that he withdrew
from the human scene leaving the people ‘in the care of their
deceased ancestors. Subsequently everyone began using the
current short-handled hoes (about 20 to 24 inches long), but in
spite of this God has kept himself and his abode at a distance
from humans on earth ever since. In another situation it was
the smoke from the woman’s cooking fire that got into God’s
eyes and caused him to withdraw in a huff (Cardinall 1970:15).
The parallelisms between these many different myths and
the biblical accounts are striking. In Genesis 1 it is the high
God/El Elohim who creates the universe. The setting of the
rupture is a garden/gardening scene. The immediate vehicle
for the rupture in the Bible, as in many African accounts, is the
woman. The cause is human unbelief or disobedience to God’s

168
command, and the universal result is the current distance
between God and mankind, usually spoken of as God’s with-
drawal, or in the Bible as man’s ejection from the garden and
presence of God.
As already said earlier, often the high God and the tribal
God are one and the same, but not always so. In some cases we
have the high God creating the universe and the tribal god
creating the people and their culture. We see something very
similar in the Bible where we actually find two creation
accounts: one by Elohim, ‘the high God’ (Gen. 1-2:4a) and the
other by Yahweh, ‘the tribal God of the Hebrews’ (Gen.
2:4aff.).

The Owners
In many societies throughout Central and South America the
spirit deities associated with various geographical or
topographical phenomena are spoken of as their ‘owners.’
Thus nomadic Indians in the Paraguayan and Argentina Chaco
always ‘consulted’ the spirit owner of an area before they made
camp. If the response was favorable they made camp in peace;
if it was unfavorable, they would move to another area and
repeat the process. Spirit forces ‘owned’ the land and, in the
case of sedentary people, the land, in turn, is said ‘to own’ the
people living on it. People never own the land; they only use it
by the permission of its true spirit owners who, in a sense,
‘adopt’ them.
For many tribal groups, like those of Australia, the area
controlled by friendly spirits, or owners of the land who have
adopted them, is coterminous with land over which a tribe is
willing to roam. For this reason war against another tribe for
the purpose of taking away land is really inconceivable to them.
It would be suicidal for a people to try to occupy land whose
owners had already adopted another tribe, or which was
watched over and lived in by the souls of the deceased ances-
tors of a people other than their own. For such people con-
quering another tribe’s land invariably means that one must

169
change religion; one must worship the local deities. For exam-
ple, when the Zulus and their related tribes of South Africa
conquered tribes as far north as today’s Malawi and ‘Tanzania,
they immediately accepted the local gods. Thus in modern
Malawi among the Ngoni (as the conquerors are called today)
it is almost impossible to find even a trace of their earlier South
African deities.?
The practical result of deities restricted to specific tribes or
defined areas is that morality also is often similarly restricted.
Proscriptions on negative behavior apply only to one’s in-
group. Thus to steal from, to harm, or to kill a person from
one’s own group is punished, but if one does these things to a
member of another group one becomes a hero. This type of
morality limitation is one of the major obstacles the newer
nations of the third world have to overcome in their efforts to
build a national identity. On the international scene, we see it
especially in times of war when ordinarily law-abiding people
become heroes when they kill, rape, and loot the enemy. Inter-
nally,Western nations experience it in various kinds of interra-
cial or intergroup conflict as a result of which some groups feel
free to bomb, burn and loot members of an out-group.

The Specialization of Deity

So far we have been speaking about deities identified with
certain ecological or topological features, but deities can also
be specialized functionally as to their activities. Most West-
erners have at least some acquaintance with the Greek or
Roman mythology and so have some awareness of special gods
associated with or responsible for certain activities. Note the
following condensed list of Greek and Roman deities and their
areas of specialization.

Function Roman Greek

king of the gods Jupiter Zeus
god of the sun and youth Apollo Apollo
god of war Mars Ares

170
god of the sea Neptune Poseidon
messenger of the gods Mercury Hermes
god of wine Bacchus Dionysus
goddess of agriculture Ceres Demeter
goddess of hunting Diana Artemis
goddess of love Venus Aphrodite
goddess of the home Vesta Hestia

In South American tribes the specialization is largely among

evil spirits; for example, the Lengua of Paraguay identify sev-
eral dozen kinds of evil spirits, each of them with its own
specialized function (Loewen 1965:280-306).
In Africa, on the other hand, especially among many Bantu
tribes where the spirits are usually former human souls, the
specialization is often most marked among the protective
spirits. Thus it is not at all uncommon in West Africa to find a
hierarchy of specialized spirits or deities.
Tribal people, however, are not the only ones who engage in
such syncretism. We can see the Greco-Roman tradition of
specialized deities has been carried on in many Catholic
churches in the form of the saints which range from Saint
Joseph, the patron of carpenters, to Mary Magdalene as pro-
tectress of the prostitutes. In Latin-America Christopaganism
many local specialized deities have been saved from oblivion by
being rebaptized with the name of a Catholic saint (Madsen
1957; Herskovitz 1937).

The Bible and Divine Territoriality and Specialization

In regard to the presence of deity in topographical phenomena,
the Old Testament frequently speaks of the high places on
which the people offered sacrifices to the God who was seen as
residing there (1 Sam. 9:12-13; 10:5; 1 Kings 3:2; Hos. 2:13,
etc.). Usually, however, high places were associated with Baal
(‘high places of Baal’ in Numbers 22:41),or other alien deities
(Levi. 26:30; 1 Kings 11:7-8; 17:9-10, etc.). Sometimes these
mounds had been artificially built (1 Kings 15:23-24; 2 Kings

171
17:9); other times they were natural elevations like hills or
mountains (2 Kings 17:10-11; Ps. 121:1; 2 Chron. 21:11).
That certain gods were rulers of certain territories and could
only be worshipped there is also evident in a good number of
biblical passages. It stands out very boldly in the case of Naa-
man, the Syrian general who was leprous. He disdainfully
claimed that the waters of the Syrian rivers of Abana and
Pharpar were as efficacious as those of the Jordan River, but
when he was healed by bathing in Jordan’s waters, he realized
the power of the Yahweh of Israel and said: ‘I know that there
is no God in all the earth but in Israel.’ But since he had to
serve his king in Damascus, he asked the prophet for ‘two mule
burdens of Israelite earth’ so that he could pray and worship
Yahweh on Yahweh’s own soil because his birth and his posi-
tion condemned him to live in the domain in which the god
Rimmon was the controller (2 Kings 5:1-19).
The Hebrews themselves accepted the territoriality of God.
When Jacob, after his dream at Bethel, takes leave of Yahweh,
the God of his fathers, and of his territory in order to go to
Haran where £/ was enthroned, he says: ‘If Elohim (the high
God) will go with me and keep me in the way that I go... so
that I may come again to my father’s house in peace, then
Yahweh will be my Elohim’ (Gen. 28:18-22).
And again, when Jacob is to return to Canaan, we read that
Yahweh appears to him in a dream and says, ‘I am the God of
Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me.
Now arise and go forth from this land and return to the land of
your birth.” Here God (Yahweh) himself is presented as identi-
fying himself with a specific place and with a specific land.
In Hosea we find some very poignant references to this
problem. The prophet, or God by the mouth of the prophet,
reminds them that they, the Israelite people, had made a
covenant with Yahweh in the desert (Hos. 2:15; 9:10; 11:1;
13:4-5), but that when they entered the land of Canaan and
their lifestyle changed from pastoral nomads to sedentary agri-
culturists, then they, the people of Israel, seemed to be afraid to
trust Yahweh for fertility in the new land, and again and again

172
turned to worship the Baals, who were the local agricultural-
fertility deities. Thus Yahweh complains that Israel didn’t
recognize that it was he who gave them rich produce and that
they attributed their prosperity to Baal’s blessings (Hos. 2:8).
In fact, Yahweh wonders aloud whether it would help if he
would take them back to the desert (Hos. 2:14), where he first
made the covenant with them.
This situation described in Hosea is very similar to the
situation which we described for Africa where the conquerors
felt obliged to accept the gods of the conquered because the
latter’s deities controlled the land. Thus Yahweh complains: As
soon as they entered the land at Adam (Hos. 6:7, GNB) they
broke their covenant with me and began to follow after the
Baals. And even once they had been well established in Canaan
‘the more Yahweh blessed their fields, the more they pursued
the local Baals’ (Hos. 10:1-2). In fact, the more Yahweh
pressed them to be faithful to him, the more they worshipped
idols (Hos. 11:1—2). Israel seemingly did not have the faith that
Yahweh, the God of manna, quail, and water of the Negev,
could really provide agricultural fertility in Palestine.
A most striking example of people having to accept the local
gods in order to prosper is recorded for us in 2 Kings 17. After
the Assyrians had carried off the Israelite population, they
decided to fill the vacuum they had created there by transplant-
ing large groups of people from other conquered areas. The
groups that were transplanted into Israelite territory are listed
together with their gods (17:30) as follows:

People God
Babylonians Succoth Benoth
Cuth Nergal
Hamath Ashima
Ivvah Nabhaz and Tartak
Sepharvaim Adrammelech and Anammelech

These new settlers did not worship Yahweh (Lord), and so

the lions began to raise so much havoc among them that the

173
governor sent a complaint to the Assyrian emperor that the
immigrant transplants did not ‘know the god of the land and so
the god had sent lions, which were killing them’ (2 Kings
17:25, GNB). The emperor at once recognized the problem —
these people were not worshipping the god who controlled the
region, and so, to remedy that situation, he sent the Jewish
priests back to Samaria from Assyria ‘to teach the people the
law of the god of that land’ (2 Kings 17:25, GNB).
Another biblical example of the belief in the territorial or
ecological specialization of the gods is found in 1 Kings
20:23ff. The Syrians, under Benhadad, had suffered a severe
defeat at the hands of the Israelites (1 Kings 20:19-20), but
within a year they rebuilt their armies and planned a new
campaign, and this time they took the deity factor into account.
They reasoned: ‘The gods of Israel are mountain gods, and
that is why Israel has defeated us. But we will certainly defeat
them if we fight them in the plains’ (1 Kings 20:23, GNB).

Endnotes
1. A personal communication from Dr. Eugene Bunkowske.
2. In fact, when I did bribe (with the promise of a large cast-iron pot) the wife of
one Indian to encourage her husband to accompany me to our home on the
other side of the mountain range, I soon found myself battling with a dying man
— his soul had been apprehended by the locals, and unless he got back quickly
and had home spirits recuperate his soul, he was a dead man. Only by my
praying aloud beside him for a whole night could I arrest the death process.
Every time I fell asleep he resumed dying.
3. It has been noted by Nida, McGavran, and others that immigrant populations
are usually most likely to change religion. It is possible that this observed fact is
related to the regional deity — moving into another area requires a new God and
a new religion.

References Cited
Cardinall, A.W. 1970. Tales Told in Togoland. Westport: Negro Universities Press.
Herskovitz, M.J. 1937. ‘African Gods and Catholic Saints in New World Religious
Belief,’ American Anthropologist, 39:635-643.
Loewen, Jacob A. 1965. ‘Mennonites, Chaco Indians and the Lengua Spirit
World,’ Mennonite Quarterly Review, October, pp. 280-306.

174
Loewen, Jacob A. 1969. ‘I. Myth and Mission: Should a Missionary Study Tribal
Myths?’ Practical Anthropology, 16:147-185.
Madsen, William. 1957. Christo-Paganism:A Study ofMexican Religious Syncretism,
New Orleans: Middle American Research Institute.
Schmidt, Wilhelm. 1965. “The Nature, Attributes and Worship of the Primitive
High God,’ in W.A. Lessa and E.Z. Vogt (eds.), Reader in Comparative Religion,
pp. 21-33.

175
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 18
Principalities and Powers
by Michael Green

Michael Green is both a scholar and a practitioner. As will be seen in

this chapter, he does a thorough job of drawing on historical, biblical
and theological material to provide us a picture ofjust what we are
dealing with in strategic-level spiritual warfare. Although it is not
explicit here, Michael Green’s basic reason for grappling with these
issues ofspiritual warfare does not arise from overfascination with the
devil and his forces, but with a burning passion to see men and
women be transformed by the power of God from the kingdom of
darkness to the kingdom of light.
As professor ofevangelism at Regent College in Vancouver, British
Columbia, Green not only teaches theories ofevangelism, but he leads
his students out in evangelistic missions where the true spiritual
battles really are.

x * K RK

There is, in the heart of Oslo, a park where a fascinating

display of bronzes adorns a large bridge and monument beyond
it. The artist, Gustav Vigeland, is expressing his philosophy of

Excerpted from J Believe in Satan’s Downfall by Michael Green, Grand Rapids,

Michigan, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company © 1981 with permission.

177
life, and nowhere is it more clearly portrayed than in the central
figures on either side of the bridge. One is of a man, one of a
couple; and they are both gripped, encased by a circle from
which they cannot break free.
Modern man feels that bondage. So did ancient man. Per-
haps nobody has been grasped the flavour of Graeco-Roman
paganism than Edwyn Bevan. He wrote in Hellenism and
Christianity:

When men looked up at the stars, they shuddered to see

there powers whose mysterious influence held them in a
mechanism of iron necessity; they were the World-Rulers
who fixed men’s destiny without any regard to human will
and human tears. Effort, shrewdness, long-laid design
could bring no liberation from the predestined law... It
became an obsession. This earth, the sphere of their
tyranny, took on a sinister and dreadful aspect.

Judaism shared this sense of bondage to forces beyond

themselves. They were not so materialistic as to locate them in
the stars, but rather in the principalities and powers which were
at work in the universe. The matter is sufficiently important for
us to examine it in some detail.

The Principalities and Powers in Jewish Belief

When seen against the background of the demon-ridden world
of the Middle East, Judaism presents a very different emphasis,
concentrating on the one God, Creator of heaven and earth.
However, the Old Testament teaches that there are many
subordinate spirits under God’s overall sovereignty.
Sometimes in the Old Testament we read of the kedoshim, or
‘holy ones,’ a heavenly court presided over by the Lord himself
(Ps. 89:6, 8; Job 15:15; Deut. 33:2; Zech. 14:5). Frequently
God is called Yahweh Sabaoth, ‘Lord of the powers,’ and here
the gods of polytheism are seen as captives under his
suzerainty. As we read of the bene elohim or ‘sons of God’ in

178
Job, the Psalms, and Genesis 6:3. But perhaps the most
important passage of all is Deut. 32:8 where the best texts read
that the God ‘fixed the bounds of all the peoples according to
the number of the dene elohim, the sons of God. For the Lord’s
portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.’ The meaning
is well brought out elsewhere: Deut. 4:19 speaks of the moon,
stars and hosts of heaven which the Lord has allotted to all the
peoples under heaven, with the exception of Israel whom he
has appointed for himself. Thus ‘He appointed a ruler for
every nation, but Israel is the Lord’s own portion’ (Eccles.
17:7).
In this way the Jews resolved the problem of the one and the
many. There was only one God, and he was their God for ever.
All other spiritual forces, be they good or bad, were ultimately
of his creation, under his control and assigned as tutelary
deities to other nations. Thus in the apocalyptic book of Daniel
we find Michael appearing as God’s champion for suffering
Israel against the angel-prince (sar) of Persia and of Greece
(Dan. 10:13, 20f, 12:1f). The nations which ruled the ancient
world were under the supervision of their angel-princes, who
in their turn were under the ultimate control of Yahweh, the
Lord of heaven and earth, who had entered into a covenant
relationship with his people Israel.

The Principalities and Powers in the Graeco-Roman

World
As in any polytheistic culture, spirit forces figured largely in the
Graeco-Roman culture into which Christianity was born. The
world was subject to the guardianship of spirits, daimones, and
the whole point of magic was to use formulae or objects to
influence these ‘world rulers’ or ‘elemental spirits.’ The phys-
ical objects and the spiritual powers associated with them were
often given no clear distinction. Thus the Greeks used
‘Hephaestos’ to mean both fire and the deity which supervised
fire.
Another branch of this interpretation of the human and the

179
superhuman was given emphasis in the concept of daimones.
These were spiritual deputies of the gods (or God) who ruled
the world. They had many names, ‘principalities, powers,
rulers, thrones, world rulers, elemental spirits’ and the like. It
was from their clutches that men sought salvation through
means ranging from philosophy to the occult. In a long line of
writers, embracing Porphyry, the Mermetica and Celsus, these
daimones (which act as intermediaries in the divine government
of the world and as forces behind the human rulers and their
state) are seen to be both bad and good. The good ones do not
harm man, but preside over the state, commerce, medicine and
the rest. The bad ones are not officially appointed by the gods
but make up for this by trying to usurp authority, attract
worship to themselves and denigrate the great gods (Corpus
Hermeticum 16:13f, Origen, Contra Celsum 5:25, 7:68). The
Christian writer Origen is not keen to establish any common
ground with his pagan opponent, so he calls the evil spirits
daimones and the good ones angels; none the less, he is operat-
ing with precisely the same cosmology. It was very widely
accepted in antiquity that behind the rulers of the state, lay
their daimones — or, as some preferred to call it, the mumen or
genius of the ruler. There is, in short, such a correspondence
between the world of sense and time and the invisible world
that the two were, to the ancients, almost a single entity. As
Philo put it, the one God rules through his powers or angels
(Conf. 171, 181 and Leg. Alleg. 3:177f).

The Principalities and Powers in the New Testament

Their prevalence
Oscar Cullmann has repeatedly drawn attention (in books such
as Christ and Time and The State in the New Testament) to a
neglected area of New Testament studies by pointing out that
superhuman forces are mentioned in almost every place where
Christ’s complete lordship is being discussed. The spirit world
is a major factor in the teaching of the whole New Testament.
(See Chapter 19 — ed.)

180
 Heinrich Schlier in his book Principalities and Powers
instances the enormous number of names which the New
Testament writers employ to describe this conglomeration of
evil forces: they include principalities, power, dominions
(kuriotétes) thrones, names, princes (archontes) lords, gods,
angels, spirits, unclean spirits, wicked spirits, elemental spirits
(stoicheia). This is in addition to the many synonyms for Satan
(the devil, the serpent, the lion, the strong one, the wicked one,
the accuser, the tempter, the adversary, the enemy, the liar, the
murderer, the god of this age, the prince of this world, the
prince of the power of the air, Beelzebub and Beliar).
This astonishing collection of names indicates a number of
things. First, concern with these spiritual forces was a very
important matter to the New Testament writers, and continued
to be in the subapostolic age.
Second, despite the variety in nomenclature, the overall
picture is the same throughout the Bible, a variety of evil forces
under a unified head. It would be foolish and misleading to try
to separate the principalities and powers of the Pauline letters
from the demons of the Gospels.
Third, the very number and variety of the names for these
things shows us that the New Testament writers, unlike their
Jewish and pagan predecessors, had no interest in building up
demonologies; they enumerated at random, only in order to
show that these enemy forces were one and all disarmed by
Jesus Christ.
Fourth, the prevalence of this belief in the demonic through-
out the ancient world is significant. In Schlier’s words, ‘In
some way revelation absorbed these phenomena from the tra-
dition of universal human experience’ (op. cit. p. 13). Nowhere
does Jesus have to explain himself when exorcising, either on
Jewish or Gentile soil. The same applies to the apostles. And
the same is true in the subapostolic age. Justin is typical. He
castigates those who ‘yielding to unreasoning passion and the
instigation of demons’ persecute the Christians. He is at pains
to point out that what the heathen call gods are demonic spirits,
and shows how when Socrates tried to make this plain ‘the

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demons themselves, by means of men who rejoiced in wicked-
ness, procured his death as an atheist and a profane person on
the charge that he was introducing ‘new divinities’; which is
just what they do in our case’ (J Apol. 5, cf. 14:1, 44:12, Dial.
18:3).

Their source and habitation

These principalities and powers are regularly portrayed as the
subordinates of the quintessential spirit of evil, Satan himself.
In Matthew 25:41 Jesus speaks of ‘the devil and all his angels,’
clearly indicating demonic powers. In Revelation 16:13, 14 it is
plain that demons and unclean spirits are identical: they are
lieutenants of Satan. The Beelzebub controversy puts the mat-
ter beyond doubt (Matt. 12:22-29). The Pharisees charged
Jesus with casting out demons through Beelzebub, the prince
of demons, and Jesus rebutted their charge. But both parties
were agreed on the nature of these unclean spirits: they derive
from the Unholy Spirit himself.
These mighty forces are not merely powerful; they are
power. That is, their name and definition: ‘dominion,’ ‘power,’
‘might,’ and ‘authority.’ They are said to inhabit ‘the air’ or ‘the
heavenly places’ (Eph. 2:2, 6:12). How much we should read
into these rather vague cosmological statements it is hard to
know. But Paul certainly does not simply mean by ‘the heav-
enlies’ the home of God, but the surroundings of the material
world. They interpenetrate the climate of a country, the Tend-
enz of its politics and the nuances of its culture.

Their nature
In recent years a substantial debate has arisen about the nature
of these principalities and powers. There has been a tendency
to demythologise the concept, and regard them not as fallen
spiritual beings but rather as the structures ofearthly existence
— the state, class struggle, propaganda, international corpor-
ations and the like, when they become either tyrannical or
objects of man’s total allegiance. This has the double attraction
of divesting ourselves of belief in so unfashionable a concept as

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a hierarchy of angels, good and evil, stretching between man
and God; it also enables us to find a good deal more in the New
Testament about our very modern preoccupation with social
structures. Often this debate has been conducted more on the
basis of presupposition than of exegesis.
The truth of the matter is that words like principalities,
powers and thrones are used both of human rulers and of the
spiritual forces which lie behind them. This is readily
demonstrable. Lk. 12:11 clearly refers to men when it says,
“When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and
authorities.’ Acts 4:26 equally obviously indicates men, “The
kings of the earth set themselves in array and the rulers were
gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed.’
On the other hand, it is perfectly manifest that the powers and
thrones and authorities in Col. 1:16, 2:15, Rom. 8:38, Eph. 6:12
are superhuman powers. There are some passages which could
be taken either way, notably 1 Cor. 2:8, Titus 3:1, Romans 13:1.
Probably the ambiguity is deliberate.
It is important, then, to realise the flexibility of such terms as
principalities, and powers in the usage of the New Testament.
They do, on occasion, refer to human authorities. They do, for
the main part, refer to superhuman agencies in the spiritual
world. And even here there is ambiguity. The most probable
interpretation of these powers in Ephesians 1:21f, 3:10 is that
they refer to angelic spirits in the court of heaven. The certain
interpretation of these powers in Ephesians 2:1f, 6:12f is that
they are demonic spirits under Satan’s control. And yet the
same words are used! It is perhaps an implicit reminder that all
power is ultimately God’s, and that the fallen spirits were
angels before they fell, which is, of course, the consistent
teaching of the Bible.

Their influence
The New Testament attributes a widespread influence to these
principalities and powers.
1) We see it in the realm of illness. The woman with ‘a spirit
of infirmity eighteen years who was bowed together and could

183
not look up’ was described byJesus as ‘this daughter of Abraham
whom Satan has bound’ (Lk. 13:16). The dumb man of Matthew
9:32 was suffering from a demon, and when Jesus had cast it out
he was free to speak. In Lk. 9:42 epilepsy is attributed to
demonic interference, and in Matthew 12:22 blindness.
2) We see it in some historical situations. ‘Behold, the devil
will cast some of you into prison’ warns the Book of Revelation,
and refers to the place ‘where Satan’s seat is’ (Rev. 2:10, 13).
Since this was written to Pergamum, the seat of political power
in Roman Asia, we are surely right in seeing that Satan had a
particular grip of that historical situation. It was the place
where ‘My faithful witness, Antipas’ was martyred for his
loyalty to Christ in the midst of political pressures to secede.
And who can doubt that such massive extirpations of millions
of mankind such as our generation has been in many parts of
the world is demonic?
3) We see the influence of the principalities and powers in
nature. The whole mythological figure of chaos and leviathan
in the Old Testament is an expression of the demonic. So
apparently is the incident of Jesus’ walking on the water and
stilling the storm. He says, ‘Peace, be still’ (literally, ‘Be
muzzled’) as if to a living entity, the spiritual force which was
whipping up that storm into a welter of destruction.
4) We see the principalities and powers in even the Jewish
law, as G.B. Caird shows in Principalities and Powers, chapter
two. So much so that the law which was intended by God for
the life of the hearers became their death warrant (Rom. 7:10-
14). It had ceased to be understood as the expression of God’s
love and faithfulness to his people and had become their
justification for nomism. To this extent the law given by angels
had fallen under the hand of the Enemy who encourages self-
righteousness and self-seeking.
5) Christians are certainly not exempt from the prin-
cipalities and powers. Paul speaks of ‘false apostles’ who have
entered into his churches, disguising themselves as apostles of
Christ. ‘And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an
angel of light. So it is not strange if his servants also disguise

184
themselves as servants of righteousness’ (2 Cor. 11:13-15). And
heresy, which is incipient throughout the New Testament
period, is assigned unambiguously to their agency. ‘Do not
believe every spirit,’ urges John in 1 John 4:1. ‘The Spirit
expressly says that in the last times some will depart from the
faith by giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of
demons’ (1 Tim. 4:1). Christian teaching and Christian
teachers alike are subject to attack and distortion by the prin-
cipalities and powers.
6) Behind human sin there is the activity of these evil forces.
‘I can’t think what made me do it,’ we exclaim, surprised at the
reservoirs of evil within us. ‘It is not I who do it, but sin which
dwells in me,’ claimed Paul, reflecting on the force beyond
himself which held him in captivity even when he wanted to do
the right thing. Such is the human tragedy of Romans 7. Give
too much emphasis to this force outside of us, and you rob
human beings of responsibility, and make them mere pawns in
a celestial tug of war between God and the devil. Give too little
weight to it, and you fail to explain the persistent and over-
whelming wickedness of mankind, individually and collectively.
7) The state is obviously susceptible to the influence of the
principalities and powers. How could it be otherwise when the
state is in control of all the other power structures under it? We
shall be looking at this later on, but the point is obvious enough
whether you think of the Mafia or the Central Intelligence
Agency; of the multinationals or the corruption of the police; of
the fruitless deadlock between management and labour in
England or the endless succession of administrations in Italy.
Inflation and unemployment, the arms race and the corruption
of morals, these are all manifestations in the modern state of
the principalities and powers. The state does not want these
things, for the most part. It struggles hard to get rid of them.
But it fails. It is in the grip of a power beyond its own.

The Defeat of the Principalities and Powers

1 John 3:8 has a very succinct summary of the reason for the
coming of Jesus Christ. “The reason the Son of God appeared

185
was to destroy the works of the devil.’ That takes us to the heart
of the matter. It helps to account for the tremendous burst of
satanic activity that faces us in the Gospels, and supremely on
the cross. During those thirty odd years the key battle of the
history of the universe was being conducted, and both sides
knew it.
The triumph of Jesus Christ at the very juncture over the
powers and principalities of evil is a major theme of the New
Testament. He was tested by persecution at his birth and
throughout his life. He was tested by false friends, by hostile
religious leaders, by Jewish and Gentile civil authorities. He
was tested in the healings, the exorcisms, the temptations in the
wilderness. The principalities and powers attacked him
through opposition from within his own circle. His own family
assigned his notoriety to the devil (Mk. 3:20-35) and one of his
intimate friends sold him for thirty pieces of silver. No man was
ever tested like Jesus Christ. He faced it all, and overcame it
all, as no man before or since has done. The secret of his life
was his determination to please his heavenly Father at all points
(John 8:29). The spirits of disobedience had never before in
the history of mankind discovered a person who was both
totally obedient and totally fulfilled in that obedience. No
wonder they could get no grip on him. No wonder the demons
felt threatened at the very presence of Jesus: ‘Have you come
here to torment us before the time?’ (Matt. 8:29). The evil
spirits perceived the ultimate judgment, and they realised that
in Jesus Christ the end-time had broken in — and that his
appearance in the world spelt their doom.

Three aspects of the cross of Christ

But it was at the cross that Jesus Christ won the greatest and
most conclusive victory over the powers of evil. He destroyed
their sovereignty over man by utterly submitting to it all the way
to the scaffold. In submitting he conquered; just as, conversely,
in rebelling they had fallen. Unlike Satan, unlike the powers,
unlike Adam, Jesus had not considered being equal with God
as a thing to be seized.

186
 Back in 1951 Professor James Stewart made a plea in the
Scottish Journal of Theology for a recovery of the dimension of
the cosmic battle in our theology. Nowhere, he maintained, is it
more important than in understanding the meaning of the cross
of Christ. He showed how each of the three major factors
which led Christ to Golgotha is illuminated by giving full
weight to the influence of the invisible cosmic powers.
Behind the cross there lay, first and foremost, the design of
man. Basic human failings like pride, jealousy, and greed com-
bined with the self-righteousness and traditionalism of Jewish
religion, the injustice of Roman politics, and the apathy of the
crowd to take Christ to that gibbet. But behind these religious,
political and social pressures stood the principalities and
powers of evil. Thus organised religion was there at the cross:
all the more dangerous because masquerading as true religion.
Politics were there at the cross: but behind Herod and Pilate,
the earthly rulers (archontes) lay the invisible powers (archontes)
and it was they who crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:8).
Second, behind the cross there lay the will of Jesus himself.
He chose with his eyes open. He came to give his life a ransom
for many. But here again we are driven to look deeper. Why
was it necessary? Because of the grip the strong man had upon
the house: the stronger than the strong was needed to set the
place free. It was only be facing these forces in the place where
they exercised their power that he could break that power. The
cross was that place of victory over all the forces of the Enemy.
By submitting in perfect obedience right up to death, he broke
the power of him who held men in thraldom through its dread.
In that cross he conquered.
Third, behind the cross there lay the predestination of God.
If God ever acted in history he acted then. But look deeper. In
that will of God we see not only his reconciliation of sinners but
the complete rebuttal of dualism. These principalities and
powers which thwart his will are not independent military units
opposing his own army. They are rebel forces of his own. In
Christ they were created (Col. 1:16) and in Christ they were
defeated (Col. 2:15), Phil. 2:10 makes it quite plain that they

187
must own his sway whether they like it or not. His lordship,
since the resurrection, has been beyond cavil among beings
celestial, terrestrial and subterranean. ‘In the end,’ writes
Stewart, ‘the same invisible powers are the tribute which the
Son hands over to the Father, that “God may be all in all.”’ He
concludes this short but important article by pointing out that
our real battle is not ‘with Communism or Caesarism but with
the invisible realm where sinister forces stand flaming and
fanatic against the rule of Christ. And the only way to meet that
demonic mystic passion is with the passion of the Lord.’
There is little doubt that Stewart has stressed a critical
aspect in the cross of Christ, one to which Gustav Aulen has
drawn attention in his Christus Victor. The power of Satan was
shattered on that cross, shattered by the invincible power of
love. ‘Now is the judgment of this world, when the prince of
this world will be cast out,’ said Jesus as he faced the cross
(John 12:30, cf. 16:11, 14:30). And I think Stewart is right in
seeing a studied ambivalence in the ‘rulers’ of 1 Cor. 2:8. It
refers both to Herod and Pilate on the one hand and to the
invisible powers on the other. They worked hard to get the
Lord of glory on the cross. But in so doing they overreached
themselves, and lost the battle. Had they known the outcome
they would never have conspired to bring Calvary about.
On the cross the principalities and powers incurred the
defeat that indicates the outcome of the whole war, but what is
their present condition?

The Present Status of the Principalities and Powers

Since Scripture is not very explicit on this matter, it may be
safest to proceed by way of some negatives.
It is not the case that their defeat is only provisional until the
last day, as if some theoretical transfer of power has taken place
which does not affect anybody or anything. In the coming, the
cross and the resurrection of Christ even the greatest of the
powers, death, has been affected. And to concentrate on that
particular power may help us see what Christ’s victory has done

188
to the others. Men still die. Of course they do, and to that
extent the power of death is still operative. But the New
Testament maintains that death is a defeated foe. It has been
robbed of its fangs. Sin, its major adjunct, has been forgiven for
the believer, and therefore death no longer has the dread of
final separation from the God who is light and love. Moreover
in the resurrection of Jesus we see foreshadowed the destiny of
every believer: we shall be with him, and we shall be like him
(1 Cor. 15:20, 1 John 3:2). In these two respects death has been
shorn of its terrors, though we still have to go through it. We
know that, evil power and enemy though it is, our Lord holds
the key to its defeat and ultimate annihilation.
It is not the case that the principalities and powers have lost
their grip on the cosmos at large. True, they have received their
death blow, but like a thirty-foot conger with its throat cut
which continues for hours thrashing about in a fishing boat, the
principalities and powers refuse to lie down and die. They are
willing to admit defeat only when faced with the name of Jesus
Christ. He is the conqueror and they are vulnerable only when
approached on the ground of his victory.
Yet it is not the case that the principalities and powers
continue just as they were before the cross of Christ. Their
defeat is indeed hidden at present, but they are nevertheless
passing away, katargoumenoi, as Paul puts it in 1 Cor. 2:6. They
have no other expectation than final ruin. And this produces an
increasing tempo of chaos; could that be why Jesus forecast
wars, rumours of wars and men’s heart failing them for fear as
the end approached? As time runs out, the atmosphere of
history is increasingly filled with the fear of time. Man forgets
his transience and dreams of eternity, while the devil knows he
has lost eternity and rages at the ever shortening span of time
open to him. ‘Rejoice O Heaven, and you that dwell therein.
But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down
to you in great rage because he knows that his time is short’
(Rev. 12:12).
Therefore it is not the case that things will get better and
better and a millennium be created by man on earth. Such

189
facile optimism whether based on Communist, evolutionary or
humanistic presuppositions is totally at odds not only with the
news but with the teaching of the Bible, which indicates that
things will get worse and worse, and men’s hearts will cry out
for fear. The events prophesied by Jesus in Mark 13, the
preoccupations with the loss of time, the tensions between men
and nations, the willingness to believe propaganda, the very
tremors of the world itself are all manifestations of the frenzied
kickings of the satanic bull in God’s net as the rope gets drawn
tighter. Nor is it surprising that the attacks of the Enemy are
primarily directed against the church, whether through heresy
from within or seduction or persecution from without. For in
the church, however heavily veiled, the principalities and
powers discern the person of their conqueror, the Lord Christ.
The powers of the age to come are already at work in her, frail
and fallible though she is. And as such she reminds the prin-
cipalities and powers of their doom.
For doom is what awaits them. There is no hint in Scripture
that all will come right in the end for the principalities and
powers of evil, and for their satanic master. All that offends will
be wiped out and will not come into the eternal city (Rev.
21:27). It is not the principalities and powers that have been
reconciled by the death of Christ. They have been despdiled,
and the church has been reconciled. They have been defeated
and the church has been brought out of the power of Satan
unto God. The focus of Christ’s victory is not to be sought in
the principalities and powers but in the church, in those who
believe. The genial generosity of those who, like Alan
Richardson, maintain that the rebellious powers of evil are in
the end to be saved has neither logic nor Scripture to commend
It.
The rebellious spirits have locked themselves in a hell which
is chained both by their own choice on the inside, and by God
on the outside. As Milton, with prophetic insight and poetic
brilliance shows in Paradise Lost, the great debate between
Satan’s followers is how to find a way out of that situation other
than the one way which exists, the way of repentance and

190
restitution, against which they have resolutely set their faces.
But there is no other way. Moloch uses the weapon of blind
rage: anything is better than the frustration and agony of
fallenness. Belial uses the weapon of caution: gradual acclim-
atisation to alienation is better than a traumatic reliving of the
great rebellion. And Mammon seeks a solution by trying to
make hell a substitute for heaven. Indeed, one wonders
whether he had really seen the difference between the two!
The way of rage, of getting used to one’s lot, of blind substitu-
tion sometimes works on this earth. But in the ultimacy of the
Beyond, Milton knows it cannot be so. Hell is their dungeon,
not their safe retreat (2:317).
If logic points this way, so too does Scripture. It does not see
the conquered as some scholars have seen them: not tamed and
domesticated to do the will of Jesus Christ. They have indeed
to confess his sway (Phil 2:10). The archetypal sinners of Gen.
6:3 have heard the proclamation of his achievement (1 Pet.
3:18ff). But rebels they remain, like many of mankind whom
they control (Rev. 9:20, 21). A great bottomless pit is reserved
for the devil and his angels: so is the lake of fire. And at the end
the satanic trinity are found in this place of final ruin while the
heavenly Trinity rejoice with the Bride, the church, for ever
(Rev. 20:2f, 14, and compare 21:1ff). The destiny of the forces
of evil is destruction. They are given over to the ruin which
they have chosen and which they propagate. The end is inesca-
pable: any other would be unjust. It is the logical and necessary
outcome of the victory already gained through the cross and
resurrection. That is why Christians can lift up their heads,
however black the clouds. Their hope does not rest upon fairy
tales and the hope of pie in the sky, but rather on the solid
achievements of Bethlehem, Golgotha and the first Easter Day.

191
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 19
The Subjection of the Invisible
Powers
by Oscar Cullmann

Long recognized as one of Europe’s top ranking New Testament

scholars, Oscar Cullmann here argues, with admirable tenacity and
attention to details, that supernatural principalities, powers, rulers,
thrones, lordships and other angelic powers stand behind human
governments. The fact that some of these powers may be demonic and
hostile, Cullmann insists, does not lead us to a heretical dualism
which would see demonic powers as having an existence independent
of God. Rather, all angelic beings have been created by God and
ultimately are subject to their Creator, although God has allowed
them to exercise certain moral freedom in this age.

* *£ *£ KK

In 1 Cor. 2:8, in the course of his discussion concerning the

‘wisdom’ destined by God unto our glory, Paul writes that the
rulers of this world had not recognized this wisdom. ‘For had
they recognized it, they would not have crucified the Lord of
glory.’ By ‘the rulers of this age’ Paul manifestly means doth the

Excerpted from Christ and Time by Oscar Cullmann, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Westerminster Press © 1950 with permission.

193
invisible ‘princes of this world,’ who are often mentioned as
such, and their actual human instruments, Herod and Pilate.
We thereby are directed to an eminently important relation,
which gives us the key for the deeper understanding of the
problem of redemptive history and history. This problem we
now take up.
The assertion that God is also the creator of the invisible
things — an assertion taken up in to the later Church con-
fessions of faith in the Orient, as, for example, the Niceno-
Constantinopolitan one known from the liturgy of the Mass —
has its foundation in the New Testament. On the other hand,
we have established the fact that Primitive Christianity does not
stop with this statement concerning the creation of the invis-
ibilia, but proclaims the victory of Christ over these powers,
and we have shown that they are particularly mentioned in
every place where his complete Lordship is being discussed.
The existence of these powers Paul regards as certain, even
if they have no significance as mediators between God and us
(1 Cor. 2:8). As far as their character is concerned, he indeed
presupposes much as known, since he here is dealing with
views current in late Judaism. His readers obviously know
better than we do what is meant when he speaks of ‘prin-
cipalities, powers, rulers, thrones, lordships.’ Hence we should
pay more attention than is usually given to the late Jewish
teaching concerning these angelic powers.
It is connected with an arbitrary distinction between central
and peripheral statements of the New Testament when, in the
commentaries and presentations of New Testament theology,
this entire complex of questions is regarded as more or less
unimportant, as nothing but a framework ‘conditioned by the
contemporary situation.’ We must repeat here that there is but
one objective criterion for determining what is essential,
namely, the earliest formulas of faith. We have seen, however,
that in these quite brief summaries of the Primitive Christian
revelation the invisible powers are almost invariably mentioned.
Whatever our personal attitude toward this view may be, we
must conclude from this fact that these powers, in the faith of

194
Primitive Christianity, did not belong merely to the framework
‘conditioned by the contemporary situation.’ It is these invisible
beings who in some way — not, to be sure, as mediators, but
rather as executive instruments of the reign of Christ — stand
behind what occurs in the world.
We must regard the late Jewish teaching concerning the
angels, and especially concerning the angels of the peoples, as
belonging to the solid content of faith in the New Testament.
It is the merit of Martin Dibelius that in Die Geistermelt im
Glauben des Paulus, 1909, he pointed out for the first time the
importance of the faith, widespread in Judaism, that there is a
particular angel for each people. Giinther Dehn, in his essay,
‘Engel und Obrigkeit, ein Beitrag zum Verstandnis von Rom.
13:1-7’ (in the testimonial volume, Theologische Aufsatze fiir Karl
Barth, 1936), has taken up this reference and developed it in
greater detail.
This abundantly attested late Jewish belief that all peoples
are ruled through angels is present particularly in The Book of
Daniel, in The Wisdom ofFesus, Son of Sirach, and in the Book of
Enoch, and it can be shown to be present also in the Ja/mud and
Midrash. It explains the fact that in the already mentioned Ps.
110 the subjection of the pagan enemies of Israel which is there
promised to the king of Israel can be unhesitatingly referred to
the invisible powers. This faith further explains how, in the
well-known ancient confessional psalm, Phil. 2:10, the Old
Testament saying of Isa. 45:22f., “To me every knee shall bow,’
which originally had in view the Gentiles, could be referred to
the ‘beings in heaven, on earth, and in the underworld.’
We understand on the basis of this faith how the existing
earthly political power belongs in the realm of such angelic
powers. They stood behind the State authorities which had
brought Christ to the cross. They are the ‘rulers of this age,’
whom we mentioned at the beginning of this chapter. More-
over, 1 Cor. 6:3 proves that according to the Primitive Christian
view these invisible angelic powers stand behind the earthly
states. For it is only on this assumption that it has any meaning
when Paul justifies his admonition to the Church, to avoid the

195
State courts in trials among Christians, by reference to the fact
that the members of the Church will judge the ‘angels’ at the
end of the days.
Thus the so-called ‘Christological grounding of the State’ is
not at all based, as is usually presupposed by the opponents of
this view, merely upon the interpretation given to the ‘auth-
orities’ of Rom. 13:1. It is based rather upon the very specific
late Jewish teaching concerning the angels of the peoples; this
teaching is taken up into Primitive Christianity and actually
plays there a very important role in connection with the signifi-
cance that attaches to the subjection of the angelic powers through
Christ.
Therefore it will not do to transfer this conception of the
angels and powers to the periphery of the Pauline theology, as
is done by G. Kittel, and by F.J. Leenhardt. On these and other
grounds they reject the reference of the ‘authorities’ of Rom
13:1 to angelic powers.
The famous passage Rom. 13:1ff. contains rather a confir-
mation of this conception. We shall see that only when this
conception is found there does the entire section beccme really
clear; only then does it fall into harmony with the entire outlook
of Paul.
For everyone who comes from the other Pauline passages to
Rom. 13:1 and considers it without prejudice, uninfluenced by
the usage of the word in secular history and by the familiar
translation into modern languages, it is by far the most natural
thing to give to the plural é5o0votai no other sense than that
which it always has for Paul, that is, the meaning of ‘angelic
powers.”
When G. Kittel argues against this that in some eighty out of
ninety instances where the New Testament has the word é&o-
vota, we find only the ordinary meaning of ‘any power which
someone has,’ it must be replied that this usage of the singular
is not under discussion here. We here are dealing with the
plural form €Sovoiau or with the pluralistic usage of the singu-
lar tdoa é§ovoia (‘all authority’), and with reference to it the
result of New Testament statistical study is quite clear.

196
 To be sure, it becomes crystal-clear from the context that
the passage is speaking of the State. This, however, only proves
that the conception that we have found in the other two Pauline
passages and that is abundantly attested for late Judaism is also
found here, the view, namely, that the actual State authority is
thought of as the executive agent of angelic powers. The fact
that in ordinary Greek usage the singular and the plural (even
when used together with aoyxai, ‘principalities‘) designate only
the earthly magistracy, may not be cited in proof of the view
that also in Rom. 13:1ff. only this meaning can be considered.
The ordinary Greek usage is not familiar with the late Jewish
and New Testament teaching concerning the angelic powers.
Accordingly, and as a matter of course, the corresponding use
of the word éSovo/au is also foreign to it. But that Paul, for
whom this word elsewhere always designates angelic powers,
think of them here too, but specifically as the invisible angelic
powers that stand behind the State government, is naturally sug-
gested by the very use of the word in secular history, a usage
that was indeed known also to him and with which he con-
nected the late Jewish and New Testament usage. Thus as a
result the term has for Paul a double meaning, which in the
case corresponds exactly to the content, since the State is
indeed the executive agent of invisible powers.
The analogy to 1 Cor. 2:8 is complete with respect not only
to content but also to language. For here also, where it is quite
plain that by @oyovtes tod ai@vos tovtov are meant both the
invisible ‘rulers of this age’ and the visible ones, Pilate and
Herod, there stands in characteristic fashion a term that in
secular Greek naturally designates only the actual human
rulers, while in the New Testament it designates also the
invisible ones. In 1 Cor. 2:8 as well as in Rom. 13:1 the
expressions are purposely so chosen that they make clear the
combined meaning that is typical of the conception we have
indicated.
This explanation of é§ovoto, which is quite compelling,
was represented later in antiquity, outside of the New Testa-
ment, by Gnostics in their interpretation of Rom. 13:1; this we

197
learn through Irenaeus (Against Heresies, V,24,1). To be sure,
we know nothing more definite concerning their interpretation
of the entire passage. It is probable that these heretics, in the
context of their dualistic outlook, conceived these ‘authorities’
that stand behind the State simply as evil powers and nothing
more; in this case, to be sure, it is not clear how they may have
interpreted the demand of Paul for obedience to those powers.
In any case, it is an established fact that Irenaeus himself, the
opponent of the Gnostics, only rejected the interpretation of
‘authorities’ as angelic powers because he took into considera-
tion merely this false dualistic understanding, and on this view
to interpret the ‘authorities’ to mean the invisible powers that
stand behind the State would make of this State itself an
institution hostile to God. The New Testament conception of
‘authorities,’ however, is definitely not dualistic in this sense.
By their subjection under Christ the invisible powers have
rather lost their evil character, and they also now stand under
the within the Lordship of Christ, as long as they are subject to
him and do not seek to become emancipated from their place
in his service. Since Irenaeus probably, like his Gnostic oppo-
nents, reckons only with a false dualistic conception of the
angelic powers, he must reject as heretical the connection with
them of the ‘authorities’ of Rom. 13:1.
In the Primitive Christian faith in the conquest of the invis-
ible powers through Christ, the significant thing is the very fact
that while this faith holds firmly to the existence of powers
originally hostile to God, it nevertheless does not concede to
this existence any independent significance, and so it avoids all
dualism. The strongly Christocentric attitude is in no way
endangered by this faith; ‘even if there are such beings,’ Paul
writes in 1 Cor. 8:5f., “Yet we have only one God and one Lord.’
To him, indeed, all these powers are now subjected. They are
bound. That which the Apocalypse of John says of the binding
of Satan in the end time (Rev. 20:2) holds true somehow for
the Pauline conception of the present situation of the angelic
powers. In the time between the resurrection and the Parousia
of Christ they are, so to speak, bound as to a rope, which can be

198
more or less lengthened, so that those among them who show
tendencies to emancipation can have the illusion that they are
releasing themselves from their bond with Christ, while in
reality, by this striving which here and there appears, they only
show more their original demonic character; they cannot, how-
ever, actually set themselves free. Their power is only an
apparent power. The Church has so much the more the duty to
stand against them, in view of the fact that it knows that their
power is only apparent and that in reality Christ has already
conquered all demons.
A certain freedom, however, is left to the angelic powers
within their subject position. This explains how, in the present
stage of redemptive history, it still is not possible for the
Church to take without qualification or criticism the view that
the State is divine, even though, on the other hand, the State
too belongs within the Lordship of Christ. The situation is thus
in this respect quite complex, and every simplifying presenta-
tion of it fails even in this point to do justice to the Primitive
Christian conception. The complexity is connected with that of
the entire intermediate situation of the present time. On the
one side, the angelic powers are already subjected, and in this
respect are placed in the service of Christ, so that of them it can
be said in the most positive manner that although they had
formerly been enemies they have now become ‘ministering
spirits sent forth for ministry’ (Heb. 1:14); hence obedience
toward them is demanded from the Christians in Rom. 13:1ff.,
where their agents are designated by precisely the same expres-
sions as ‘God’s minister’ (Rom. 13:4) and as ‘servants of God’
(Rom. 13:6). On the other side, however, the apostle Paul still
remains critical toward this State; the Christians should keep
away from the state courts and settle their cases among them-
selves (1 Cor. 6:1ff). Not so very much later the same Roman
state of which Paul speaks so positively in Rom., ch. 13, can be
designated the ‘beast’ by another New Testament writer (Rev.
13:1ff).
This apparently contradictory attitude extends through the
entire New Testament. But of this contradiction also it holds

199
good that it appears as such only for him who has not recog-
nized the complexity of the situation in the redemptive history.
We have seen that this complexity has its roots in a temporal
but not in a metaphysical dualism. We know the ground of this
temporal dualism. That tension between present and future,
between ‘already fulfilled’ and ‘not yet completed,’ which con-
tains the key to the understanding of the entire New Testa-
ment, shows itself when applied to our problem in the fact that
the angelic powers are already made the ‘footstool’ of the feet
of Christ, and yet must once more be overcome at the end. The
Kingdom of Christ is indeed already present; in it both areas,
the Church and the world, are placed under Christ; neverthe-
less they are distinguished, since they will merge into one only
in the Kingdom of God, when at the end Christ’s mediatorial
role has been fulfilled (1 Cor. 15:28).
If in the ‘authorities’ of Rom. 13:1 as well as in the ‘rulers of
this age’ of 1 Cor. 2:8 we see both the invisible powers and their
executive agents on earth, there results a completely unified
view of the State in the New Testament, and the apparent
contradiction within Paulinism between 1 Cor. 6:1ff. and Rom.
13:1ff, or the still greater one within the New Testament
between Rev., ch. 13, and Rom., ch. 13, vanishes. For it
becomes discernible that, in spite of all the positive statements
of Rom. 13:1ff., the State here, as in the entire Primitive
Christian conception, is not an ultimate but only a penultimate
institution, which will vanish when this age does; the Christian
believer will always place over against the State a final question
mark and will remain watchful and critical, because he knows
that behind it stand powers which do indeed have their place in
the divine order determined by the victory of Christ, but which
nevertheless for the time being still have a certain possibility of
permitting their demonic strivings for independence to flare up
into apparent power.
This commissioning of the State has as result that the State
agrees with the Christian Church in its judgment concerning
good and evil (v. 3f.). Indeed, recompense, punishment, and
reward presuppose the capacity for this judgment. This agree-
ment Paul simply confirms; the State rewards the good and

200
punishes the evil. This accord with the Church in spite of the
completely opposed fundamental position — here recompense,
there love — comes from the fact that the State stands in a
divine order in which it becomes the agent of the divine
recompense. How important this concept of the divine ‘order’
(td&euc) is to the apostle appears at the beginning of the
chapter in the heaping up of the words that contain this root:
vmotdooeoBan (‘be subject’), tetayuévos (‘ordained’), anti-
tassomai (‘resist’), 6tatayn (‘ordinance’). We thus confirm the
fact that even apart from the significance of the word ‘auth-
orities’ in Rom., ch. 13, a view is here presupposed according to
which the State, not by nature, but only by its being placed in a
definite order, is God’s servant and fulfills his will.
In this case, however, the context yields a complete confir-
mation of the interpretation, much disputed in recent years,
that the ‘authorities’ are the subjected angelic powers. On the
other hand, this interpretation gives to the entire section a
particular emphasis; it does so by giving the section a place in
the article of faith, so very important for the Primitive Church,
concerning the subjection of all invisible angelic powers; it thus
builds the State into the structure of that order which Primitive
Christianity regards as present sovereign reign of Christ. The so-
called ‘Christological foundation’ of the State is thereby proved
to be correct. It is in the position to explain satisfactorily the
parrallelism of 1 Cor. 6:1ff. and Rom. 13:1ff, and on the other
hand of Rom. 13:1ff. and Rev., ch. 13, which all refer to the
same Roman State. The angelic powers are placed in the
service of the Kingdom of Christ, not by their original nature,
but only by being bound; they are, however, elevated to the
highest dignity by the function that is here assigned to them.
Nevertheless, they can for a time free themselves from their
bound condition and then show their demonic character. But
the final Christian criticism of the State can never be omitted,
not even where a State remains in its completely bound situ-
ation; because in its original nature it is not divine, it can never
be regarded as an ultimate fact. Hence the negative attitude in
1 Cor. 6:1ff. toward so completely legitimate an institution as

201
the State courts of justice. In view of this passage, which is also
Pauline, Rom. 13:1ff. cannot and must not be understood in so
uncritical and unthinking a way as is often the case. Neither of
the two passages may be explained without reference to the
other.
The ‘Christological foundation’ of the State which is here
championed has been accused of making the subjection of the
powers simply identical with a ‘commissioning.’ Yet, it is
objected, the new Testament speaks only of a subjection. This,
however, is not quite correct. As we have seen, the Epistle to
the Hebrews in particular speaks, in a way similar to late Jewish
teaching concerning angels, of the ‘ministering spirts sent forth
to minister’ (Aeitovoyixad avetuata Eig diaxoviav amoo-
teAAoueva; Heb. 1:14). In this connection it seems to me
particularly noteworthy that in this passage these ‘ministering
spirits’ are expressly whom the Christ who sits at the right hand
of God ‘makes the footstool of his feet.’ And it is furthermore
of the greatest significance that precisely in our section of the
thirteenth chapter of Romans, introduced with the mention of
the ‘authorities,’ we find applied to these ‘authorities’ who
stand behind the actual State the same expressions ‘minister’
(diaxovog, v. 4) and ‘ministers’ (Aettovoyoi; v. 6), that are
contained in the designation of the subjected powers in The
Epistle to the Hebrews.
We thus come to the conclusion that the relation that we
have indicated between the State and angelic powers agrees in
every respect with the little that we hear concerning the State in
the New Testament.

202
 Index
A China Inland Mission 55
Agee, Ann 33 Chisholm, Jack M. 47, 50
agreement in prayer 11 Chiundiza, Richmond 121-127
Ajah, Friday Thomas 35-36 Cho, Paul Yonggi 47, 50, 117-120
American Indians 52 Christian and Missionary Alliance
ancestral spirits 126, 130-131 48
angels xiii, 78-79, 81 Church on the Rock 31, 83, 91-95
Annacondia, Carlos 46, 110, 112, Church On The Way 33, 71
113 city-taking 72, 101, 117-120, 135-
Argentina 29-30, 45-46, 53-54, 142
104, 109-115, 135-137, 169 city taking, rules of 106-107, 140-
Aulen, Gustav 188 142
Australia 139, 169 Coleman, Robert E. 50
authority xi, xvi, 14-18 Colombia 63, 167-168
Conservative Baptists 59
B Cooper, Bob 94
Baluba people 129 cross of Christ 6, 10, 185-188
Bernal, Dick 36, 41, 97-107, 117, Cullmann, Oscar 180, 193-202
148, 158-159, 162 Cunningham, Loren 34
Bevan, Edwyn 178
binding 52 D
binding and loosing 14-15, 80 Daniel xiii, xv, 19, 20, 49, 52, 78-
Booth, William 138 80, 122, 179
Brazil xi, 47-48, 53 Dawson, Jim 34
Bryant, David 135 Dawson, John xvi, 5, 30-31, 32,
Bubeck, Mark I. 48, 50, 146, 157, 33-34, 37, 39-41, 135-142
158, 159, 162 Dawson, Joy 34, 39
Bull, Harold 88-90 Dawn Ministries 121-127
Bunkowske, Eugene 174 Dehn, Gunther 195
Deiros, Pablo 111
Cc demographics 141
Cabezas, Rita 154 demonic manifestation 10
Cabrera, Marfa 45 Dibelius, Martin 195
Cabrera, Omar 45-46, 111, 112, discerning of spirits 34, 161
154 Disciples in Action Ministries 121
Caird, G.B. 184 dualism 7, 61, 187-188, 193, 198,
Carindall, A.W. 168, 174 200
Carlini, Norberto 110
Chapel Hill Harvester Church 31 E
China 151 Elymas 58

203
evangelism 3 holiness movement 4
evangelization xvii, 154-156 Holy Spirit 64, 66
evil spirits, function of 170-171 human governments 185, 195-202
evil spirits, naming of 123, 136, humility 136
149, 152, 158-161, 170-171,
181 I
evil spirits, origin of 60 Indians, American 52
evil spirits, three levels 20 intercession 41, 86-87
Irenaeus 198
F Israel 63-64
Fabrega, Horacio, Jr. 151, 162
faith ix, 8 J
fasting 11-12, 79 Jackson, Bill 47, 50
Foursquare Church 37 Japan 18-19
Frontline Ministries 59 Jesus, blood of 10
Fry, Steve 34 Jesus, lordship of 18
Fuller Seminary xvii-xviii, 32, 35, Jesus, name of 9-10
$1, 129, 145, 163 Jesus’ temptation 6, 11-12
Jones, Danny 33
G Joshua xiii, 97-109
Gaines, Jim 33 Jubilee Christian Center 36, 97
Germany 47, 93-94 Justin 181
Ghana 19
Gimenez, Anne 77-82 K
Gimenez, Hector 46, 110, 112 Kauffman, Paul 48
Gimenez, John 77 Kingdom of God 4-6, 200, 201
Glad Tidings Fellowship 121 Kittel, G. 196
Glendale Presbyterian Church 47 Koh, Michael C.H. 158, 163
Gnostics 197-198 Korea 47, 118-120
Gordon, S.D. 53
Graham, Billy 35 L
Gray, Norma 33 Lake Avenue Congregational
Green, Keith xii, 35 Church 10, 49
Green, Melody 35 Langton, Edward 158, 163
Green, Michael B. 158, 162, 177- Lausanne II 121
191 Lawson, Steven 29-41
Greece, prince of xiii, 19, 20, 49, Lea, Larry 31, 32, 37-38, 41, 83-
52, 122179 95
Leenhardt, F.J. 196
H Lehmann, Paul 48, 50
Harper, Michael 146, 156, 158, Lessa, W.A. 175
162 Libert, Samuel 109, 112-113
Harvest Evangelism 49, 104, 109 Loewen, Jacob 161, 165-175
Hayford, Jack 33, 40, 71-75 logos 15
Henry, Matthew 101 Long, Paul B. 129-133
hierarchy of Satan 61-62, 148 loosing 14-15
holiness 18, 21-22, 34, 119 Lopez Rega, José 46

204
Lurker, Manfred 158, 163 Pentecostal movement 4
Luther, Martin 5 Peretti, Frank 31
Per6n, Juan 46
M Persia, Prince of xii, xiii, 19, 20,
Macumba 46 49, 52, 79, 122, 179
Madsen, Willliam 171, 175 Philippines 44-45
Mahoney, Ralph 47, 50, 53 Philo 180
Malawi 170 Pink, A.W. 103-104
Marocco, James 151, 163 political powers 195-202
Mathews, R. Arthur 55-58 pornography 33
McGavran, Donald A. 174 power encounter 6, 43, 46, 52-54
Mennonite Brethren 165 praise xvi, 12
Merigildo, spirit of 49 praise and worship 34
Metro Life Church 33 prayer ix, xii, xvi, 7-8, 11, 13, 72-
Mexico 145-163 73, 79-80, 92-95, 112-113, 119,
Michael the archangel 19, 78 142
Milton, John 190 Prayer Mountain 118
morality 170 prayer movement 3
Mottessi, Alberto 109 praying for cities, rules of 106-107
Prein, Guillermo 112
N Prince of Persia xii, xiii, 19, 20,
Nephilim 60 49, 52, 79, 122, 179
Nevius, John L. 151, 158, 163 principalities and powers xvi, xvii,
Nicholson, Steve 31-32 48-49, 52, 59-67, 147, 148,
Nida, Eugene 174 177-191
Nigeria 35-36, 166 prophecy 3-4

oO R
obedience ix, xv, xvi, 8-9, 21-22, redemptive purpose 140
34 Reformed Church of America 145
Old Testament territoriality 152- Reformed Theological Seminary
153, 171-174, 178-179 129
Olivera, Floro 114 Regent College 177
Olsen, Ted 121 Regge, Pastor 111
Olympic Games 40 revival x
120 Fellowship 10, 16, 17 rhema 13, 15-17
Origen 180 Richardson, Alan 190
Ortiz, Juan Carlos 104, 109 Robertson, Pat 9
Overseas Missionary Fellowship Rock Church 77
SB Roman Catholicism 171
Russell, D.S. 61, 67
Pp
Palau, Luis 104, 109 S
Paulk, Earl 31 Salvation Army 138-139
Paraguay 169, 171 Satan ix, x, xiv, xvi, 3, 5-6, 17-18,
Pennoyer, Douglas 51 22-23, 35-36, 56-57, 114-115,
Pentecostal churches 126 146-149

205
Satan, hierarchy of 61-62 v
Scataglini, Alberto 110, 111 Vigeland, Gustav 177
Schaeffer, Edith 56 Villanueva, Clarita 44-45
Schlier, Heinrich 181 Vineyard Christian Fellowship 31,
Schmidt, Wilhelm 167, 175 39
Shona people 121-127 Vision of the Future Church 45,
Silver, Daniel B. 151, 162 110
Silvoso, Edgardo 45-46, 49, 53, Vogt, Evon Z. 160, 163, 175
104, 109-115
Sneed, Dan 39 Ww
social responsibility 3 Wagner, C. Peter ix, 3-27, 32, 33,
Socrates 181 35-36, 38-39, 41, 43-50, 53,
South Africa 137-138, 170 110, 147, 148,154, 163
spirits, ancestral 126, 130-131 Wagner, Doris 9
Spirits, appearance of 92-93 warfare terminology 4, 20-21
spirits, discerning of 161 warfare, weapons of 7-14
spirits, naming of 37, 48-49, 87, Warner, Timothy 47, 50, 51-54,
123, 136 156
spiritual authority 14-18 weapons of warfare 7-14
spiritual gifts 16, 25, 161 West Africa 39, 168, 171
spiritual warfare position chart 24, White, Thomas B. 59-67
26 Wimber, John 39
Sterk, Vernon J. xvii, 145-163 word of God 13, 15-17
Stewart, James 187-188 word of knowledge xi, 16
Sumrall, Lester 44, 50 World MAP 47, 53
sword of the Spirit ix, 13, 21 World Vision 37
worship 141
T wrestling in warfare 19-20, 85
temptation of Christ 6, 11-12
Thailand 47, 48 x
Third Wave 10 Yoido Full Gospel Church 117-
This Present Darkness 31 120
Tibet 57 Youth With a Mission xi, xvi, 29-
Trinity Broadcasting Network 37 30, 34, 135
Trinity Evangelical Divinity YWAM (see Youth With a Mis-
School 47, 51, 156 sion)

U Z
Unger, Merrill 156, 158, 163 Zaire 48, 129-133
United Bible Societies 165 Zimbabwe 121-127
unity, Christian 34
Uruguay 47-48, 53, 110

206
C. PETER WAGNER, PH.D.,
is widely recognized as a leading authority
in the field of spiritual warfare. The
author of more than 30 books, including
Wrestling with Dark Angels and Church
Planting for a Greater Harvest, Dr.
Wagner is also the Donald A. McGavran
professor of Church Growth at Fuller
Theological Seminary, School of World
Mission. His education includes a B.S.
from Rutgers, a Th.M. from Princeton, a
M.Div. and M.A. from Fuller, and a
Ph.D. from U.S.C.
ie

“tone