Derek Prince Sermons: Casting Down Strongholds | Spiritual Warfare – This is an original Bible Study, teaching by Derek Prince. We have an enemy that takes us seriously, so we should take our enemy seriously. In this insightful message, Derek Prince explains the nature and activity of spiritual warfare.
Casting down strongholds
The theme of this session is entitled
“Casting down strongholds,”
and it’s a session that will deal with
spiritual warfare.
We need to understand, first of all,
why there is spiritual warfare,
who is fighting who,
which side are we on?
So I want to turn, first of all,
to Matthew chapter 12,
a passage about the ministry
of Jesus,
which brings out the basic fact,
that there are two
invisible spiritual kingdoms,
that are at war with
one another.
One is the kingdom of Satan,
and the other is the kingdom of God.
Now I imagine most of you will
have no problem with the concept
that God has a kingdom.
Some of you may not be aware
that Satan has a kingdom.
But he does, and it’s most
important for us as Christians,
that we understand the nature of
his kingdom and how it operates.
Because, if we are in the kingdom
of God, through Christ,
we are automatically at war with
the kingdom of Satan.
You understand?
Suppose I were a citizen of,
let’s say, Australia.
And Australia was at war,
which God forbid, with New Zealand.
We trust that such a thing will
never even enter people’s minds.
But if it were so,
then as a citizen of Australia
I would automatically be at war
with New Zealand.
Because I belong to a nation
that is at war with another nation.
So if the kingdom of God is at war
with the kingdom of satan,
and we are in the kingdom of God,
then we have no options.
We are automatically at war with
the kingdom of satan.
And it’s very important
for us to know it,
to understand the nature of the war.
Let me read this passage
from Matthew chapter 12,
beginning at verse 24.
Jesus had just healed a man
who was deaf and dumb,
by casting out the evil spirit that
caused him to be deaf and dumb.
Do you know that evil spirits cause
people to be deaf and dumb?
Well, when we were in Pakistan
about four years ago,
we were ministering to
Pakistanis, naturally.
And God opened a wonderful door
because Pakistan is 98 percent Moslem.
We had the freedom to hold
public meetings
and up to 16,000 people gathered.
The reason why they gathered,
there was one reason.
Because they had heard
we would pray for the sick.
That was the soul reason that
most of them came.
And in the course of ministry,
Ruth and I plunged into
a crowd of men
who were standing before us
waiting to be prayed for.
One man touched his ears
and then touched his tongue.
We couldn’t speak their language
but I understood he was showing us
that he was deaf and dumb.
So I knew theoretically
the right thing to do.
And I thought I’ll do it
and see what happens.
So I said, “You deaf and dumb
spirit that’s in this man,”
and I was speaking English
and he was deaf and dumb anyhow
so it wouldn’t have mattered
what language I was speaking.
I said, “You deaf and dumb
spirit that’s in this man,
I’m speaking to you
and not to this man.
And in the name of the Lord Jesus I
command you to come out of this man.”
Then I said to the man,
“Now, say something.”
And immediately he heard.
He didn’t understand but he heard
and he began to make sounds.
So they marched him up to
the platform and told people
that he’d been delivered from
the deaf and the dumb spirit.
And I said to myself, this thing works.
So I think Ruth is here and I’d like her
to check on my accuracy, but I think
for the next ten minutes we went around
looking for deaf and dumb people.
And in Pakistan they’re
not hard to find.
I think in the next ten minutes we
saw at least ten people delivered
from the condition of
being deaf and dumb
when the evil spirit was driven
out of them.
So, I just say this because
it’s not a theory,
it’s not some old fashioned tradition,
it’s a very living up-to-date reality.
Anyhow, when Jesus did this
we’ll read what happened.
When the Pharisees heard it, they said,
“This fellow does not cast out demons
except by Beelzebub
the ruler of the demons.”
They made a terrible accusation;
they said He can cast out demons
because He’s in league with the
ruler of the demons.
Jesus answered and said:
“Every kingdom divided against itself
is brought to desolation;
and every city or house divided
against itself will not stand.
And if Satan casts out Satan,
he is divided against himself;
how then will his kingdom stand?”
So Jesus said very clearly
Satan has a kingdom.
And it’s not divided.
Then He went on to say:
“And if I cast out demons
by Beelzebub, by whom
do your sons cast them out?
Therefore,
they shall be your judges.
But, if I cast out demons
by the Spirit of God,
surely the kingdom of God
has come upon you.”
There Jesus speaks about
the kingdom of God.
So in this ministry of delivering
people from evil spirits,
the clash between the two kingdoms
is brought right out into the open.
The invisible kingdom of
Satan is represented by the demons,
the invisible kingdom of God is represented
by Jesus and by those
who continue His ministry in His name.
I believe Satan particularly fears
this ministry of deliverance
because of two things.
First of all, it brings out into
the open his invisible kingdom
and he’d much rather have it invisible.
And second, it shows the victory
and the supremacy of
the kingdom of God
over his kingdom.
But I’m just starting with
that passage to show you
that the New Testament
reveals clearly
there are two invisible spiritual
kingdoms at war with one another.
The kingdom of God,
the kingdom of Satan.
Now, for a brief description of the
kingdom of Satan and its headquarters,
we turn to Ephesians chapter 6
which actually is an absolutely key
verse on this whole theme.
Ephesians chapter 6,
Paul says in verse 12:
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.
Now, I would like to give you the
“Prince version” of that verse.
It’s the amplified Prince version.
You ask me,
am I qualified?
Well, I have learned Greek
since I was ten years old,
which is a long while now.
I’m qualified to teach it
at university level.
That doesn’t mean necessarily
that I’m always right, but,
I’m entitled to my opinion.
So, I’m going to give you
the amplified Prince version:
For our wrestling match is not
against persons with bodies…
Now that phrase is taken from The Living
Bible and I think it’s a very good phrase.
We are in a wrestling match.
But we’re wrestling persons
who don’t have bodies.
That immediately causes us
to adjust our thinking
because we’re not used to
the concept,
of persons without bodies—
although,
there are multitudes of
such persons in the universe.
Then he says (in the Prince version):
…against rulers with various areas
and descending orders of authority.
So it’s a very highly
organized kingdom.
There are rulers in this kingdom, each
with a particular area of responsibility,
and under each of those
rulers there are sub-rulers,
who are responsible for
sub-areas in that kingdom.
You might say Satan was very clever
to devise such an organization.
That’s not so.
The truth of the matter is that
he rebelled against God
being
– as most people believe him –
in charge of one third of
the created angels.
Brought his angels into rebellion
against God with him
and were cast out of heaven,
and simply set up a rival kingdom,
keeping the organizational structure
that they had when they were
part of God’s kingdom.
So he doesn’t get any credit for this
extremely clever organization.
I’m going to do that part again.
Our wrestling match is not
against persons with bodies,
but against rulers with various areas
and descending orders of authority,
against the world dominators
of the present darkness.
And I deliberately used
the word dominate
because the Greek word is
a very powerful word.
And I choose the word dominate
because God never dominates anybody.
Wherever you encounter domination
it’s something satanic.
That’s not how God rules people.
But Satan’s ambition is to dominate
the whole world,
do you understand that?
Not just some little part of humanity
but through a kingdom of darkness
to dominate the whole world.
And because his kingdom is
a kingdom of darkness,
the people who are in that kingdom,
for the most part,
don’t know what they’re in.
See, the kingdom of God is the kingdom of
light.
If we’re in the kingdom of God
we know where we are, somewhat.
But most of the people who are in
Satan’s kingdom, don’t know
where they are because it’s a
kingdom of darkness, they can’t see.
And then, going to
the final phrase in verse 12:
…against spiritual hosts of
wickedness in the heavenlies.
Or, in the heavenly places.
So, there are vast armies.
You know, the word host is
Old English for army.
Vast armies of satanic beings,
persons without bodies,
arranged in battle order
against us.
It’s important that we know that,
isn’t it?
It’s going to make a lot of
difference in our lives,
if we realize
what we’re up against.
Now let me point out
that Satan’s headquarters,
as stated here,
are in the heavenlies.
We have a lot of language in the church
which speaks about Satan
as if he were in hell.
Hell is a place of confinement
for wicked persons
below the surface of the earth.
My comment on that is:
it would be nice if Satan were
in hell, but he isn’t.
He’s very much at large,
he’s very active,
and his kingdom is in
the heavenlies.
Most of you will then begin to say
in your minds:
“I thought Satan was
cast out of heaven.”
You’re perfectly right.
He was.
The key to understanding this is that
there’s more than one heaven.
This is absolutely essential.
Actually, in the first verse of
the Bible it says:
in the beginning God created the
heavens, plural; the earth, singular.
So right from the first verse of
the Bible we have this revelation
that heaven is plural.
Now there are two passages
in the New Testament
which bring this out very clearly.
The first is 2 Corinthians 12:2–4
where Paul is talking
about people he knew,
who had had marvelous
spiritual experiences.
He talks about one particular person
who was caught up
from the earthly level
into the heavenlies.
He says he doesn’t know whether
he was in his body or not.
This is what he says:
I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago
– whether in the body I do not know, or
whether out of the body I do not know,
God knows – such a one was
caught up to the third heaven.
And I know such a man
whether in the body or out of the
body I do not know, God knows –
how he was caught up into Paradise,
and heard inexpressible words,
which is not lawful for a man to utter.
Paul says this fellow Christian he knew
was caught up into the third heaven.
He also says he was caught up
into Paradise,
which would seem to suggest that
Paradise is in the third heaven.
Since there he heard
the words of God,
the third heaven would apparently
be the dwelling place of God.
Now I am a logician.
I can’t escape from logic.
One thing I am convinced of:
if there is a third heaven there
must be a first and a second.
There never has been a third of
anything without the first two.
So that Scripture tells us there
are at least three heavens.
And, that’s what I believe.
We have a phrase that people sometimes
use when they’re very happy, they say:
I was in the seventh heaven.
I don’t think that’s Scriptural.
As a matter of fact, I think it’s
probably taken from the Koran.
So if you’re feeling very happy just
tell people: I was on cloud nine.
Because, the Bible reveals there
are a lot of clouds in heaven.
But my point is
there are at least three heavens.
Let me give you one other Scripture,
Ephesians 4:10.
Speaking about what happened to Jesus
in death and resurrection, it says:
He who descended into hell is also
the one who ascended far above
all the heavens,
that he might fill all things.
So Paul says Jesus ascended far
above all the heavens.
Now, I was a teacher of English
as a second language in Africa
and I learned there are certain
pitfalls in the English language.
Some of you may have struggled with them.
And one is the use of the word ‘all’,
because you can’t use it
in certain situations.
For instance, one of my students
came to me one day and he said,
“Please sir, all my parents
have come to see me.”
Well, I said, “I understand
what you mean
but you’ve got the wrong word because
you can’t have more than two parents,
and you can’t use the word ‘all’
of less than three persons.”
So, when Paul says “above all
the heavens” there must have been
at least three heavens.
I believe that’s what there are.
I’ll offer you just my opinion,
and I’m not claiming that this is
necessarily Scriptural
but it seems to me
the third heaven,
is the heaven of God’s dwelling
place. It’s the holy heaven.
And remember that God
dwells even above heaven,
that’s stated in many places.
Then the first heaven
I would suggest could be
the visible heaven that we see –
the sun, the moon, and the stars.
So in some way,
there remains a second heaven which
is never called the second heaven,
which is somewhere between
the visible heaven
and the heaven of God’s being.
Personally, I believe that’s where
Satan’s kingdom is located.
Let me just offer you this theory and
maybe you’ll think I’m very naive.
Ruth and I travel a lot by jet
airplanes.
And recently on the way from
New Zealand to Singapore,
we were flying at an altitude of 39,000
feet, which is a long, long way up.
When I get that high I sometimes have
the feeling I am above Satan’s kingdom.
It’s like it’s easy to pray.
You don’t have to fight your way
through opposition.
This may be completely
my subjective impression.
But somewhere or other between God
and us is a hostile kingdom,
which opposes us and seeks
to hinder our prayers.
And that’s why sometimes
we have to pray through.
You understand?
It’s not that we’re praying out of the
will of God,
it’s not that God is unwilling to hear
but we have to penetrate
a hostile kingdom in the heavenlies
to reach God.
Rather than speculate,
I want to give you a passage
from the book of Daniel
which very clearly reveals
that this is so.
I’m not going to read the whole
chapter but if you’re interested,
you would do well to read
the chapter for yourself later.
Daniel chapter 10.
This chapter relates how Daniel…
set aside a period of three weeks
for special prayer.
And he did what we’ve
come to call a Daniel fast.
He didn’t give up all food but he only
ate the plainest and simplest food
and he drank no wine
and he ate no meat.
And he was mourning
before God
on behalf of his people Israel
who were captives of a Gentile empire.
And at the end of three weeks a
very glorious angel came to him
with the answer to his prayer,
which was a revelation from God
of what would be the future
of his people, which consists
of Daniel chapters 11 and 12.
But, the angel said to him
the first day you began to pray,
your prayer was heard and I was sent
with the answer to your prayer.
But, he said,
it took me three weeks to get through
because somewhere between the
throne of God and Daniel on earth,
I was opposed by satanic angels.
And I had to force my way
through those angels.
So it’s very clear
that at the time of Daniel,
somewhere between God’s throne and
earth there was this satanic kingdom.
I believe it’s still there.
It was still there when Paul wrote
Ephesians 6:12, which was at least
thirty years after the death, resurrection
and ascension of Jesus.
In other words, whatever the
situation was, it wasn’t changed by
the death and resurrection
and ascension of Jesus.
Jesus ascended far above
Satan’s kingdom
but Satan’s kingdom
still remained in place.
And then the angel told Daniel,
I’ve come with the answer
to your prayer
and when I leave I’m going
to have to fight my way back
through the same angels,
and then I’m going to have to fight
other satanic angels.
The angel that came to Daniel said:
On my way here the prince of
the kingdom of Persia
withstood me twenty-one days.
So for twenty-one days these angels
were battling in the heavenlies.
And he also speaks about kings of Persia.
In the language of the King James,
which is used here,
I understand the prince was the supreme
ruler, the kings were sub-rulers.
But they are all concerned with
the kingdom or the empire of Persia,
which at that time was the largest
and most powerful empire on earth.
It had 127 provinces.
So, Satan had one super-angel,
who was responsible to him
for the whole kingdom of Persia.
But this super-angel had other angels
that were responsible for different
areas within the kingdom of Persia.
This is no theory for me because I’ve
seen in many instances and cases
how this principle works.
For instance, let’s suppose that
there were major cities
in the empire of Persia, which
there were.
I think there was one sub-angel
over each major city.
As I travel from city to city
and place to place,
I’ve learned that to be effective in
the ministry in a certain city
very often I have to identify
the particular satanic power
that’s at work in that city. And it’s
different from city to city to city.
Again, there were a lot of different
nationalities in the Persian empire.
And my observation is that many times
there’s a particular satanic king,
over a particular racial group.
Taking the United States which is made
up of many different racial groups,
and where I’ve lived now for
more than twenty years,
my clear impression is that
different racial groups
have different satanic powers
over them.
And in dealing with those
racial groups spiritually,
it becomes important to identify
the power that’s over them.
For instance, as everybody knows there
are a lot of African Americans in America.
I have no prejudice against black people,
I love them, I have a black daughter.
But they are the descendants of people
who were taken there as slaves.
I’ve shared this with black Americans.
You find that most black Christians
can only get so far,
and something seems to stop them.
I’ve shared my opinion that you
came as slaves,
you’ve been politically emancipated but
you’ve never been spiritually emancipated.
You’re still under a spirit of slavery.
Now Paul speaks about a spirit of
slavery in Romans 8 when he says:
we have not received a spirit
of slavery again
but the spirit of the God which makes
us sons and daughters of God.
And when he’s talking about slavery,
if you look at the context,
he’s talking about religious legalism —
people whose religion consists of
sets of rules, do this, don’t do that.
My observation again is that nearly
all black American churches
are extremely legalistic.
Hardly any of them know the real
liberty of God’s grace.
What is the reason?
The reason is that that spirit of slavery
has never really been dealt with.
It still has a measure of
control over them.
They’re Christians, many of them, and
some of them are very lovely Christians.
But as a group
they’ve never been set free.
Take another group in the United
States, the American Indians.
Basically the United States is
a country of liberty.
Unfortunately, liberty has been
carried much too far these days.
It’s a country where
almost anybody can prosper
because of the nature of the economy
and the laws and so on.
You don’t have to have a doctorate
in philosophy to prosper.
In fact, you probably do better without it.
But there’s one group that basically
has never prospered:
the American Indians.
They’ve never prospered financially,
they’ve never prospered socially,
and spiritually,
they are still in awful darkness.
They are basically all
practicers of witchcraft.
And very powerful witchcraft.
It’s a tragedy.
But my impression is that,
until someone with vision
understands the root problem
of the American Indians
and is prepared to do the
spiritual warfare to release them,
they’ll remain in bondage.
Now, I’ve been wise enough to take
my examples from a distant land.
But, I think if you ponder
what I’m saying,
in a little while you’ll begin to see
that there are similar principles
operating in Asia.
Very strong principles.
When the angel had finished
telling Daniel about this,
he said: when I go,
I’ll have to fight again with the
prince of the kingdom of Persia,
and then after that I’ll have to fight with
the prince of the kingdom of Greece.
Why Persia and Greece?
Well, because there were four
Gentile empires that dominated
God’s people Israel, and their land
and the city of Jerusalem.
And you see, the battle is always
most intense spiritually
where God’s kingdom’s issues
are focused.
So wherever God is at work
you’ll find that Satan
will be at work also.
His very name means the resistor.
See?
He resists God’s purposes and
God’s people.
He can’t help it, he’s a slave of his
own nature.
So, there were four successive Gentile
empires that dominated Israel:
Babylon, Persia, Greece,
and Rome.
Now, in Daniel’s day Persia was
still the dominant empire
but the next one to follow it,
would be Greece.
And so we see that
the spiritual warfare,
in a way, relates to God’s people,
God’s purposes,
and in a sense, it’s necessary
to carry out this spiritual warfare
in order for God’s purposes
for His people to be fulfilled.
And Daniel is a marvelous pattern
of somebody who by prayer
and fasting and intercession
changed the history of his people.
Let me now read the passages
that I’ve been quoting very quickly.
Daniel 10:2–3:
In those days I, Daniel,
was mourning three full weeks.
I ate no pleasant food, no meat
or wine came into my mouth,
nor did I anoint myself at all till
three whole weeks were fulfilled.
The period of three weeks is emphasized.
Now, the angel that came to him
said various things.
And then in verse 12 this is what
he said: “Do not fear, Daniel,
for from the first day that you set
your heart to understand
and to humble yourself
before your God,
your words were heard, and I
have come because of your words.
But the prince of the kingdom of Persia
withstood me twenty-one days,
and behold, Michael, one of the
chief princes, came to help me;
for I had been left alone there
with the kings of Persia.”
So somewhere on the way
from God to Daniel
he was opposed by the prince of the
kingdom of Persia for twenty-one days.
And in the end another angel of God,
the archangel Michael,
had to come and join in the conflict.
If you read further on in Daniel,
Michael is called the great prince
or angel that stands up
for the children of your people,
that’s Israel.
So, as a matter of biblical
interpretation you find this helpful.
Wherever Michael is on the scene,
Israel is center stage in human history.
See, because he’s the particular
angel that has the job
of looking after Israel. And believe me,
that is a pretty tough job.
Now, going on, he says
in verse 20 of Daniel 10:
“Do you know why I’ve come to you?
And now I must return to fight
with the prince of Persia.”
In other words,
the battle isn’t over yet.
“And when I’ve gone forth, indeed,
the prince of Greece will come.”
That’s the next major Gentile empire.
And you can understand behind the
history of these human empires,
there are satanic forces at work
that really are the explanation
of what happens.
You really cannot fully
understand human history
if you only look on the
horizontal human level.
Because the real forces that determine
the destinies of nations and people
are in the heavenlies.
And then he says in
verse 21 of Daniel 10:
“But I will tell you what is noted
in the scripture of truth,
no one upholds me against these
except Michael your prince.”
Again, the archangel Michael.
Then you go on to the first verse
of the next chapter
which is part of the same message:
“Also in the first year
of Darius the Mede,
I, even I stood up to confirm
and strengthen him.”
There’s a clear example of the
intervention of angels in human history.
Why did God’s angel stand up
for Darius?
The answer is because God’s
people Israel had been
captured and enslaved by
the empire of Babylon
and Darius was the ruler of the
Persian empire that destroyed
the empire of Babylon and released
God’s people to return to their land,
which was God’s purpose.
So behind all the human forces
and the horizontal plane,
there is a vertical plane and there are
angelic forces, both angels of God
and angels of Satan, that are at work.
And human history is to be explained
by the interplay of all these forces.
Now, why we are significant
as Christians is
because God has given
to us and us alone
the weapons by which we can
intervene in this spiritual war.
Governments have armies and weapons
that will deal with other nations.
Only the Christian church
has the weapons
that will intervene in the spiritual
realm in the heavenlies.
And you understand,
the one who wins in the heavenlies
ultimately determines the course of history.
So the most significant thing you
can do in history, in a sense,
is be an intercessor, and pray
through the spiritual issues
in the heavenlies that will determine
the history of nations on earth.
See,
Daniel is just a perfect example.
As I’ve said already, we are involved
in this war. That’s not an option.
The only decision you can make
is whether you’ll be part of
the kingdom of God or not.
If you’re part of the kingdom of God you
are at war with the kingdom of Satan.
That’s not something you can decide,
you just better get equipped
and learn how to fight. Because if you
don’t, you’re going to be a casualty.
Now, going back to Ephesians 6,
Paul,
immediately after speaking about
Satan’s kingdom in the heavenlies,
tells us we better
put on our armor.
And I’ll read this rather quickly,
beginning in verse 13:
Therefore…
You know what I said about therefore?
What’s it there for?
Because of verse 12, which is
Satan’s kingdom in the heavenlies.
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.
Paul says there’s going
to come an evil day,
an evil day comes in the life
of every one of us.
Whether we stand or not depends on
whether we’ve got the equipment we need.
And then Paul lists the armor
and it’s taken from the
battle armor of a Roman legionary
in his day. This is the picture.
There are six
main items of armor
which we’ll look at very quickly;
we’re not going to comment on them.
Stand there therefore, having
your waist girded with truth…
You have a belt that you wear
around your waist and it’s truth.
…having put on the
breastplate of righteousness…
You have a protection over your chest
which protects your heart,
and it’s righteousness.
Not the righteousness of works
but the righteousness of faith.
And then it says:
…having shod your feet with the
preparation of the gospel of peace…
You have sandals that protect your feet
and enable you to march far and fast,
which Roman legionaries would do.
What’s the protection of you feet?
It’s the preparation
of the Gospel of peace.
Now, let me just interject.
If you want more information,
I have a tape somewhere in
my long list of tapes
that deals with each one
of these pieces of armor.
What is it called?
I am forgetting now
At any rate,
it is available somewhere.
Thanks to our dear brother
Derek Jacob.
All right.
I’m saying that because I don’t
want to hurry through this,
but I want to get beyond the defensive
to the attack, you understand?
If I get bogged down in
defense we’ll never reach attack.
…above all [over everything else],
taking the shield of faith…
This is a great big shield shaped like a door
which could protect every part of your
person from the arrows of the enemy.
And then it says:
…take the helmet of salvation…
What part of you does the helmet protect?
Your head.
What does your head stand for?
Your thought life, that’s right.
And it is so important we know
how to protect our thought life.
God has provided a helmet.
Here it’s called the helmet of salvation.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:8 it’s called:
the helmet, …and for a helmet
the hope of salvation.
You know what protects your mind?
Hope.
You’ve got to be an optimist.
If you’re a pessimist your mind is
open to the attacks of Satan.
I have another message on that because
it’s something I learned by experience.
I was born and brought up a pessimist.
I suffered agonies in my mind
until I learned I had to change
and that I had a helmet
that would protect my mind.
All right.
…take the helmet of salvation, the sword
of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
The spoken Word of God.
Notice you’ve got
six items of equipment;
all of them are defensive
except the last one, the sword.
Which is a weapon of attack but only
goes as far as your arm can reach.
But the seventh weapon is the weapon.
and it’s in verse 18:
…praying always with all prayer
and supplication in the Spirit.
Here is where we can reach out
and assail Satan’s kingdom
in the heavenlies.
It’s with the weapon of
prayer in the Spirit.
So we have seven items of equipment,
five are defensive,
the sixth is the sword which can only
reach as far as your arm reaches,
but the seventh is what I call God’s
intercontinental ballistic missile.
What is it?
All prayer.
We can assail Satan’s kingdom
with the weapon of all prayer.
All right, now.
I’m coming to the very thing
that I wanted to deal with.
We’re going to go back to Matthew 12,
and I’m going to show you
one more verse.
And really, all I can do is stimulate your
thinking but that’s a lot.
If the church would only start
thinking we’d be undefeatable.
It always impresses me that Martin
Luther started the Protestant Reformation
by pinning up ninety-some theses.
He didn’t pin up the answers,
he just got them started thinking.
And when they started thinking,
things changed, see?
It’s important that we
learn to think.
All right, now we read in Matthew 12 about
Jesus’ answer about the two kingdoms.
The next verse is very
important, verse 29:
“Or else how can one enter a strong
man’s house and plunder his goods,
unless he first binds
the strong man?
Then he will plunder the house.”
This is in connection with
the warfare of the kingdoms.
It’s what I call
the principle of the strong man.
Jesus pictures a house with
a strong man, a despot, a cruel ruler,
who has in his house slaves,
all sorts of stolen goods.
But he’s got everything under his
control and it’s very difficult to go in,
and set his slaves free or steal,
get back his plunder.
If you go in, all the time
you’re trying to free his slaves,
you’re fighting off the strong man.
See?
And you may end up wounded.
Jesus says that’s not
the logical way to do it.
The logical way is to begin
by binding the strong man.
Tie him up, put a gag in his mouth;
then you can walk in and out at liberty
and help yourself to what you need
and set his captives free.
This is a spiritual principle.
If you want to be successful
in any given situation,
you’ve got to discover who is the
satanic strong man over the situation.
Then you’ve got to
bind the strong man,
then you can do what needs
to be done in the situation.
But the principle is first bind the
strong man then set his captives free.
As I said, Satan’s kingdom descends,
from level to level with persons, angelic
beings with areas of responsibility.
And they come down; the lowest
ones are pretty small areas.
And generally speaking, you don’t start
at the top, you start where you are.
And you learn the principles of warfare
and then you can move on
until you’re dealing with a strong
man over a city or even over a nation.
But you don’t normally
begin there.
So, if you have problems in succeeding
in doing the will of God,
in breaking through spiritually –
maybe in your family, maybe in a
business, maybe in a church –
and somehow things are not going
the way you feel they ought to go,
but you don’t understand the problem,
my suggestion is in all probability there
is a strong man over that situation.
And you will not be really successful
until you deal with the strong man.
Now I will speak from experience.
I told the other evening that I’m
the head of a large family
which now has about 120 members.
Our family is made up of adopted children.
And basically, it’s a good family.
We love one another;
we’ve stuck together in
all sorts of difficult situations.
We’re still in contact in
relationship right across the world.
But, I was aware,
well, I have to say it
this way.
Where I was living after my first wife
died before I married Ruth –
I was a widower for
two and a half years.
It’s a tradition in our family that we
meet as a family on Christmas Eve,
and celebrate.
And we meet, of course,
in our home normally.
At that time I had a big house.
So, the day before Christmas Eve
I was pondering over,
the family coming together.
And although we love one another
and have basically good relationships,
when a lot of the family come together
I always felt a certain tension,
a certain pressure.
Partly I think it was various daughters
hoping that I’d take more interest
in their children than some
other daughter’s children.
And I thought to myself,
there must be something behind this.
I was lying on my back in bed
about 11:00 o’clock at night,
and I said,
“God, what is really behind this?”
It was like a kind of gray mist
appeared in my room,
just below the level of the ceiling.
I understood that God was showing me,
this is the power,
that makes relationships difficult
in your family.
So I asked God what is it.
and He said ‘self-righteousness’.
I pondered a little bit,
I thought about my first wife.
She was a wonderful Christian,
but like many wonderful Christians
she was very…
concerned to do the right thing
and very occupied with
doing the right thing. And that’s
a step towards self-righteousness.
Then I thought about myself and
I said it certainly fits me.
So I saw that our family was to some
degree under the influence of a spirit
of self-righteousness, because both
my first wife and I were open to it.
You see, the parents in a family
should be the spiritual umbrella
protecting the family.
But if there’s a hole in the umbrella,
then things get through
that shouldn’t come in. See?
So I thought
the first thing I do is repent,
renounce self-righteousness
for myself,
because you can’t do much for other
people if you have the problem yourself.
And I did.
And then I said, “God, let that power
of self-righteousness over our family
be broken in the name of Jesus.”
When we came together the next day
it was quite different.
Something that had pressured us
just wasn’t there.
So that’s just one example.
You may have it in a business.
You may be a Christian businessman.
It may be that you really want
to use your finance…
and your talents for the Lord.
but somehow your business never
really prospers the way it should.
And just when you’re on the point
of breakthrough you get frustrated.
I want to suggest to you there’s probably
a strong man over your business.
I don’t know exactly what it could be,
it’s not my job to know.
It’s your job to find out.
I don’t go around solving
everybody’s problems
but I try to tell people
how to solve their own.
And then when we come to nations,
the same is true.
We have Brother Warren here
somewhere. I was in New Zealand,
which is a nation I know well, I’ve
visited probably ten times at least.
I love the people of New Zealand.
But I was in a meeting there a few
years back and I was teaching on this,
and they said: what’s the strong man
over New Zealand?
I said it isn’t my business to tell you,
it’s your business to find out.
They were leaders.
But they kept on so I thought,
God, maybe you’ll show me.
And I felt God had
shown me.
There was a friend of mine,
a well known New Zealand Christian,
who had come in late to the meeting
so he was sitting right at the back,
with his daughter beside him.
And eventually they pressured me
and I said, well if you want to know,
I believe the strong man over
New Zealand is indifference.
They’re a very friendly warm people but
they don’t, in a way, take life seriously.
Their attitude is it will work out
all right in the end.
In fact, what they say in New Zealand is:
she’ll be right, Jack.
Well, the man who’d come in
and was sitting at the back,
at the moment I said that, turned to
his daughter and said it’s indifference.
And I’d have to say from then till now
New Zealand basically –
politically, socially and spiritually –
has been on decline,
and the problem is what?
Indifference, that’s right.
And until the New Zealand Christians
come to grips with that problem,
I think they’re not going to be really able,
to deal adequately
with the whole situation.
Now we’ve got Australians here.
And I’m bold, I was in Australia and
was faced with the same issue.
Well, I said, if you want to know
what I believe,
the spiritual problem
of Australia is rejection.
Now you have to be careful
what you say with Australians but,
as you know, or you may not know,
it was founded as a penal colony.
Prisoners were given the opportunity
to go to Australia,
or forced to go to Australia.
So you find,
in the background of the thinking of
the Australian people is this sense:
we were kind of outcasts,
we were rejects.
And God gave the most beautiful
prophecy when I was teaching on this
to a brother in Australia,
a New Zealand brother in Australia.
He said God was going to heal
that nation, God had compassion.
In fact,
God called it a nation born in chains.
But He said He was going to
break those chains. I believe that.
I believe there’s a tremendous revival
coming to Australia in the near future.
We could go on.
What’s the strong man over
the United States?
Of course, there are many
forces in the nation
but I would say essentially rebellion.
You see, the United States
was conceived in rebellion.
It’s an amazing thing.
In history we British talk about
the American War of Independence.
The Americans call it
the American Revolution.
It’s just astonishing.
I’m not criticizing those who revolted,
if I’d been a Britisher
in the day of George Washington
I would have done the same.
But the fact of the matter is that
the nation was conceived in rebellion.
And there’s something that goes
very close with rebellion.
How many of you know what it is?
Rebellion is as the sin of
witchcraft, that’s right.
And the other strong power over
the United States is witchcraft.
That’s just simple examples.
Dear Lord, how did I get into this!
Anyhow,
what’s the problem with the British?
Again, the British are complicated people.
I mean, you can’t just say it in one thing
but I tell people,
if you want to know the difference
between the Americans and the British,
and I’m both,
the Americans will tell you
how good they are,
but the British expect you to know
without being told!
And I don’t have any doubt the
strong man over Britain is pride.
I don’t say this to be critical.
My aim is to diagnose in order to
be able to deal with the problem.
Let’s come to some of the weapons
that we can use and we’ll have to close.
First of all, prayer.
Let me give you just a few Scriptures
about each, Matthew 18…
verses 18 and following.
Jesus is speaking: “Assuredly I say
to you, whatever you bind on earth
will be bound in heaven;
and whatever you loose on earth
will be loosed in heaven.”
That’s a tremendous statement.
The Greek actually says whatever
you bind on earth
will be having been bound in heaven.
So the moment you bind it on earth
it’s bound in heaven. See?
We have the power to intervene
in the heavenly realm.
If we meet the conditions on earth,
we can bind something on earth
which is bound in heaven.
Or, whatever we loose on earth
will be loosed in heaven.
If a group of persons, a family,
a community, even a nation,
are bound by certain spiritual forces,
if we meet the conditions on earth,
we can loose them
and what we loose on earth,
shall be having been loosed in heaven.
In other words, Jesus says:
You bind it on earth and when you
look around it’s bound in heaven.
See, in a way we’re not waiting for God,
God is waiting for us.
An attitude of passivity is hardly ever
pleasing to God.
But Jesus attaches some conditions.
“Again I say to you,
that if two of you agree on earth,
concerning anything that they ask, it will
be done for them by my Father in heaven.”
So, the word agree in Greek is
symphonize or harmonize.
So attached to the promise of
binding and loosing
is the condition
of being able to harmonize.
If two people harmonize in prayer
and ask for anything, they’ll get it.
But it’s not easy to harmonize.
I believe the reason for that promise is
because the only way we can harmonize,
is by the Holy Spirit.
And if we harmonize by the Holy Spirit
we’ll harmonize on what God wants.
But it’s a tremendous challenge,
especially to Christian couples.
If a husband and wife can harmonize,
they get whatever they pray for.
But it’s not easy to harmonize.
How many of you would agree to that?
It’s pretty easy to be almost
in harmony,
but musically almost in
harmony is excruciating.
And you’ll find that the devil
will fight your harmonizing
every way he can
because he’s afraid of it.
And then we’ll say thanksgiving.
That’s another tremendous weapon.
Let me point out to you something very
interesting about the ministry of Jesus.
In John 6 when Jesus fed the 5,000,
verse 11, it says:
Jesus took the loaves,
and when he had given thanks,
he distributed them to the disciples,
and the disciples
to those sitting down.
Jesus did not pray.
All He did was give thanks.
And giving thanks over
five loaves and two fishes
made them sufficient
to feed 5,000 people.
And a little further on
in John 6:23,
it says: Other boats came from Tiberius
near the place where they ate bread
after the Lord had given thanks.
What released the miracle?
Giving thanks.
And then praise.
Psalm 8:2, God says: Out of
the mouth of babes and sucklings
he has appointed praise, that he may
silence the enemy and the avenger.
Who is the enemy and the avenger?
Satan, that’s right.
Why does he need to be silenced,
what is he doing?
All the time?
He’s accusing us before the throne
of God. Why doesn’t God silence him?
Because God says: I’ve given you
the weapons to silence him.
In Acts 16 Paul and Silas were
in prison, the maximum security jail,
bound hand and foot.
And at midnight they
prayed and praised,
and God sent an earthquake that
released the whole prison contingent,
and opened every door.
What released that earthquake?
Praise, that’s right.
And then proclamation.
This is the one that Ruth and I
are majoring on these days.
You see,
Moses was called by God to go
and deliver Israel out of Egypt.
He said, “God, I don’t have anything.”
God said what’s that in your hand?
He said, “That’s just my shepherd’s staff.”
God said throw it down on the
ground and it became a snake.
Moses ran from his own staff. He didn’t
realize the power he had in his hand.
God said to him all you need
to deliver Israel is that one staff.
Go back and use it.
And if you read the story,
with that one staff
Moses wrested the rule of Egypt
out of the hand of Pharaoh,
and took it over on behalf of God
and brought about
the release of Israel.
You say I don’t have anything.
God says:
What have you got in your hand?
A Bible.
That’s all you need.
Just take that staff
and stretch it out.
How do you stretch out the staff?
By making proclamation of
what the Bible says about you.
Ruth and I, I would say, never a day
passes without our making proclamation.
Sweetheart,
we’ve got about 39 seconds.
We’ll make 2 Corinthians,
no let’s do Deuteronomy 25…
Deuteronomy 33:25, all right?
This is our proclamation,
with this we close:
The bolts of our gates
will be iron and bronze,
and our strength will equal our days.
There is no one like
the God of Jeshurun,
who rides on the heavens
to help us,
and on the clouds in His majesty
The eternal God is our refuge, and
underneath are the everlasting arms.
He will drive out our enemy
before us, saying, destroy him.
That settles it.