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Fighting the War in the Spirit Realm
This month, we are going to talk about the three levels of spiritual
warfare. I believe that this is the
most appropriate time to talk about it. Here,
I mainly want to talk about ground level and strategic (cosmic) level spiritual
warfare. The books, "This
Present Darkness" and "Piercing the Darkness" (Crossway) by Frank
Peretti, have brought spiritual warfare to the mainstream of Christianity. In these books we mainly see strategic level warfare, but
there are several instances of ground level warfare.
Most Christians are familiar with ground level
spiritual warfare. This is the
ministry of casting out demons. The first weapon is the blood
of Jesus. Second is the name of
Jesus, and third is the Word of God. These
are the main weapons used in every level of warfare.
When a Believer confronts a demon possessed person, often the demon will
manifest because of the anointing on the Believer. When the opportunity comes to the Believer
to cast demons out of a person, the first thing you need to know is that the
blood of Jesus has saved you. This
is partly where the blood of Jesus comes in.
The devil knows that he has to leave because, if he does not, he will be
destroyed. He knows that he has
shed innocent blood, and it has to be avenged.
The second weapon is the name of Jesus.
We use this weapon in prayer. When
we speak His name, we invoke all the power of heaven.
The Bible says that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of
things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth (Philippians
2:10). The third weapon that you use is the Word
of God. This weapon is used when
the evil spirits will not obey. God's
Word is a powerful weapon. They
have to go because God's Word brings the angels on the scene.
God's Word says that He will send out His Word and it would not return
void unto Him, but it would accomplish what He sent it out to do.
When you speak His Word, you become the voice of God.
You are doing the same thing that the prophets of old did.
You are speaking what God is speaking.
You are taking the Logos, the written word, and making it to
become Rhema, the spoken, living word. The second level of
spiritual warfare is the occult level. This
level deals with people who are into the things of the occult.
Usually, this deals with people who are deeply involved in New Age,
Satanism, Shamanism, or witchcraft. These
people have a different kind of spirit ruling them.
These spirits control others through the possessed person.
This type of warfare usually takes much prayer before the encounter.
The same weapons are used in this level as are used in ground level
warfare. Some people have a special anointing to release those under
this type of oppression from bondage. The third type of warfare is that of the
strategic level, also known as, cosmic level warfare.
This level deals with a region, city, state, or nation under demonic
oppression. The weapons are also
the same in this level, but there are several more that are used here.
In my city, we are seeing this type of oppression.
There is a strong spirit of apathy, division and selfishness.
The weapons that are also used to bind these spirits are prayer, fasting
and taking the opposite attitude. The way of binding these spirits is,
instead of being apathitical to the spreading of the Gospel, you go out and tell
someone about Jesus. Instead of
being detached from other believers who are not from your denomination or
background, you need to unite with them and together you can take more ground
for Jesus. Instead of being selfish
or materialistic, you give of your self. You
give of your time, money, and talent to the spreading of the Gospel.
John Dawson had an experience of cosmic
level warfare in Cordoba, Argentina, in 1978.
While he and a team of Youth With a Mission workers were ministering,
they experienced great difficulty in getting people to respond to the message of
salvation. They began to pray and
fast. During that day, God began to
show them the nature of the spirit realm over that city.
The ruling spirit over that city was pride. The people of that city are proud people.
They come from a race of dignified people, mainly Germans and Italians.
The way that spirit was broken was by their attitude.
They came to down town Cordoba, and assembled into groups of about thirty
and knelt down with their heads on the street. As they confessed their pride and humbled themselves, the
spirit of pride was broken. By
doing this the “strong man" over the city was bound.
Many people responded to the message of the Gospel.
Confessing the sins of the people that are
in your school, work place, city, or the nation is a very powerful weapon in
spiritual warfare. Daniel and
Nehemiah are both seen confessing the sins of the nation of Israel. Although they were not personally involved with these sins,
they still knew that it was necessary to the freedom of God's work in Israel.
John Dawson says "You may be a righteous person who is not involved
in any way with the vices present in your city.
But there is no temptation that is not common to humanity (1 Corinthians
10:13). We can all identify with the roots of any given sin." The strategic level warfare is very
important to the soul winners in every community.
If there is a certain spiritual bondage over a city, it affects every
nonbeliever in that region. To win
these people to Jesus, you need to know the type of oppression these people are
under. You then have to come
against that spiritual darkness with the weapons that God has given you. The next article will explain the weapons of our warfare in
more detail. |
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Last modified: April 27, 2003
