Warfare Prayer By C. Peter Wagner (Pt. 3)

C_HAPTER 3

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f Jesus’ public ministry began with His baptism, His first act of public ministry involved the highest degree of strategic- level spiritual warfare. “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the

wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matt. 4:1).

The Old Testament does not have a parallel account of this type of activity. Jesus introduced something new to the history of salvation. By engaging the enemy in the highest level power encounter, Jesus was serving notice to him and to the whole world that the battle was on. The Kingdom of God had come!

The Kingdom Is Here

The message that the Kingdom of God had come was prominent in the preaching of John the Baptist, Jesus, and the apostles. The reason we see the phrase “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand” so much in the Gospels is that it signifies the most radical turning point in the history of humanity since the Fall of Adam and Eve. The turning point encompassed Jesus’ incarnation, virgin birth, baptism, ministry, death, and resur- rection. The broader application throughout the rest of history began on the day of Pentecost.

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Jesus’ coming was such a radical event because previously satan had enjoyed almost unlimited power here on Earth. This is not to ignore the fact that God is ultimately the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and the Creator of the entire universe, including satan. Satan is a mere creature who at one point never existed and who will ultimately find himself in a lake of fire, dearly wishing he had never been created in the first place (see Rev. 20:10). In the meantime, however, biblical descriptions of satan must not be taken lightly. He is called “the god of this age” (2 Cor. 4:4), “the prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2:2), and “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31). John affirms that “the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (1 John 5:19). This is awesome language.

If we think satan has formidable power these days, we must realize he had even more power before Jesus came. When Jesus came, the Son of God announced that He was introducing the Kingdom of God, and He engaged the enemy in a battle, which continues today. Satan knew full well that “the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8), and he was furious that his kingdom was being invaded. Jesus not only invaded satan’s kingdom, but He defeated him decisively on the cross as Paul so vividly describes in Colossians, saying that Jesus on the cross “dis- armed principalities and powers” and “made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it” (Col. 2:15).

Even before the cross, Jesus was able to say that till then no one in Old Testament times had been greater than John the Baptist; yet “he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Matt. 11:11). He could announce the ultimate victory some three years before it was actually accomplished on the cross because the devil had already been defeated at the power encounter, which we commonly call Jesus’ temptation.

Jesus Provokes the Conflict

Instead of going about His business and allowing satan to choose the time and place of attack, Jesus took the initiative and went on the offensive immediately after His baptism. Before He announced His agenda in the synagogue of Nazareth, before He called the 12 disciples, before He preached the Sermon on the Mount, before He fed 5,000 or raised Lazarus from the dead, He knew He must engage in some crucial strategic-level spiritual warfare.

The place Jesus chose is significant. He went to the “wilderness,” which was known as a territory of satan. The Dictionary of New Testament Theology says of eremos, the Greek word for wilderness or desert, that it is “a place of deadly dan- ger…and of demonic powers” and “only where God’s judg- ment has fallen is there victory over the desert and its maleficent spirits.”1 If Jesus’ encounter with the devil was to be decisive, the enemy should be given, to use an athletic term, “home field advantage.” Jesus moved in on the devil’s turf without hesitation and without fear.

Satan knew what the stakes were, and he gave it his best shot. He went so far as to offer Jesus his most priceless posses- sion, “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory” (Matt. 4:8). It was a crucial and ferocious battle, but the outcome was never in doubt. Satan’s power never has been nor ever will be a match for the power of God. Jesus won. Satan was defeated. The power encounter cleared the way spiritually for all that Jesus was to accomplish over the next three years, including His death and resurrection.

Can We Identify With This?

Some at this point may be reasoning that Jesus was able to engage in such a power encounter because He is God, the sec- ond person of the Trinity. Since none of us is God, we therefore cannot identify with this kind of spiritual warfare.

This is such a crucial issue that I am going to get theolog- ical and discuss the relationship of the two natures of Christ. Let me say up front that I believe a key to understanding how our ministry today reflects or does not reflect the ministry of Jesus is understanding what systematic theologian Colin Brown calls “Spirit Christology”2 and what I have often referred to as “incarnation theology.” I explain this in some detail in my book, How to Have a Healing Ministry (Regal), so I will only summarize it here.

My theological premise is the following:

The Holy Spirit was the source of all of Jesus’ power during His earthly ministry. Jesus exercised no power of or by Himself. We today can expect to do the same or greater things than Jesus did because we have been given access to the same power source.3

While holding firm to the fact that at all times Jesus was totally God and totally human during His earthly ministry, it is clear from His own words, “the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do...” (John 5:19). According to Philippians 2, Jesus voluntarily became obedient to the Father during His incarnation on earth (see Phil. 2:5-8). He agreed to forego the use of His divine attributes for a season. He did no miraculous works through the power of His divine nature, for if He had done so, He would have violated His pact of obedi- ence with the Father. All of His miraculous works were done by the Holy Spirit operating through Him (see Matt. 12:28; Acts 10:38; Luke 4:1,14; 5:17). Colin Brown therefore calls this “Spirit Christology.”

This is why, when Jesus was ready to leave the earth, He could truthfully tell His disciples it would be to their advan- tage for Him to go (see John 16:7). Only after He left could He send them the Holy Spirit to be their Paraclete (see John 14:16). Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the

works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to My Father” (John 14:12).

The Meaning of Jesus’ Temptation

Let’s return to the power encounter at Jesus’ temptation. I mentioned previously that satan gave it his best shot, but what specifically was satan’s plan of attack?

Satan attacked Jesus precisely as he attacked Adam and Eve in the first temptation—at the point of obedience to God. Satan succeeded in enticing Adam and Eve to disobey God, and he expected he would succeed with Jesus as well. Know- ing that if Jesus ever broke the pact of obedience He had made with the Father the plan of salvation would be over, satan went for it three times. Jesus could have turned the stones into bread, and He could have hurled Himself off the Temple and called angels to His rescue, but in either case He would have had to use His divine attributes, which He always had the power to do. He could have asserted His deity and taken the kingdoms from satan without worshiping him. But since the Father had not instructed Him to do any of these three things, Jesus didn’t. Unlike Adam and Eve, He obeyed the Father.

What we see, then, is Jesus in His human nature con- fronting the enemy directly. True, He was always the second person of the Trinity, but that was only incidental to the nature of this power encounter. The central fact was that Jesus, as a human being, openly challenged satan on his territory and defeated him. This He did through the power of the Holy Spirit. During His baptism, the Holy Spirit came upon Him like a dove and He was filled with the Spirit (see Mark 1:10). Then He was “led by the Spirit” to the power encounter with satan (Luke 4:1). And after the devil was defeated, “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee...” (Luke 4:14).

The question before us remains, can we today identify with this? Well, we can be tempted by the devil as Jesus was since He was “in all points tempted as we are” (Heb. 4:15). And we have access to the same Holy Spirit (John 14:16). Further- more Jesus said to His disciples, and to us as well, “I give you the authority…over all the power of the enemy...” (Luke 10:19). I believe we have the theological and spiritual potential to do the works that Jesus did.

But I hasten to point out this is largely a theoretical con- clusion. Whether we should do this at all, and if so to what degree and under what circumstances, is a different and more immediate question.

How Far Should We Go?

One of the reasons we need to exercise caution at this point is that we have no biblical examples of the 12 apostles or any other first-century Christian leaders who challenged the devil to a direct power encounter as Jesus did. I would sur- mise the best explanation for this may be that God did not direct them to do so. Apparently the Holy Spirit did not lead any of them to the literal wilderness or to an equivalent power encounter scenario as He did Jesus. If the disciples followed Jesus’ example and did only what they saw the Father doing, we can conclude that the Father quite obviously was not doing this.

What happens when Christians today shout, “I bind you, satan!”? Perhaps not as much as we would hope. Satan will eventually be bound for 1,000 years, but it will be an angel who does it, not a human being (see Rev. 20:1-2). On the other hand, saying “I bind you, satan!” may serve the useful func- tion of declaring to ourselves and to others in no uncertain terms that we do not like the devil at all and that we want to see him neutralized to the degree possible.

I would not be among those who scold brothers and sis- ters who aggressively rebuke the devil any more than I would criticize an American soldier in Afghanistan who would shout, “Here we come, Osama bin Laden!” None of the sol- diers even expect to see bin Laden personally, but they do declare who the real enemy is.

Jesus helps us understand this. He cast a spirit of infirmity out of a woman who had been bound by the spirit for 18 years. Then later, when explaining what He had done, He said that satan had kept her bound for 18 years (see Luke 13:10-16). I don’t think Jesus meant that satan himself had spent 18 years demonizing that woman, but that he had been ultimately responsible, as commander-in-chief of the forces of evil, for delegating that task to a certain spirit of infirmity. So while Jesus can say that satan bound her, it is appropriate for us to say, “I bind you, satan!” providing we understand the limita- tions of such an activity.

While, therefore, it may be doubtful that God expects us to have a direct confrontation with satan himself, at the same time there is little doubt that we do have a divine mandate to confront the demonic on levels lower than satan. New Testa- ment examples are so numerous they need not be rehearsed. Jesus clearly connected preaching the Kingdom of Heaven with casting out demons (see Matt. 10:7-8).

What Jesus did not specify, however, is whether our expected encounter with the demonic would be only on the ground level of spiritual warfare, which is quite obvious, or whether it would move upward to include occult-level or strategic-level warfare as well. On this point there remains some disagreement among those who actively teach on and engage in spiritual warfare. Our general agreement, so far as I can perceive it, is that we are to minister quite freely on the ground level casting out ordinary demons and that we do well

to stay away from direct encounters with the god of this age, satan himself. Some are more cautious about engaging demonic forces at the in-between levels, while others are more aggressive.

I myself feel that God may be calling, equipping, and enabling a relatively small number of Christian leaders to move out in frontline, strategic-level spiritual warfare. And I also believe He is raising up large numbers of Christians to back up these people with moral support, intercession, encouragement, and material resources. God, I think, is in the process of choosing an expanding corps of spiritual Green Berets such as Eduardo Lorenzo, Cindy Jacobs, Larry Lea, Carlos Annacondia, John Dawson, Ed Silvoso, and Dick Bernal who will engage in the crucial high-level battles against the rulers of darkness and consequently see measura- ble increases in the numbers of lost people who turn “from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God” (Acts 26:18).

Conquering a City

What did Jesus have to say to His followers about strategic- level spiritual warfare? Some of His most direct instructions are found not in the Gospels, but rather in the book of Revela- tion. It is not unusual to forget that more than two full chap- ters in Revelation are the literal words of Jesus. My Bible reminds me because they are printed in red ink. The content of the letters to the seven churches in Asia is one of the few parts of the Bible that apparently was literally dictated by God to the human author.

The seven different churches receive seven different mes- sages. Nevertheless, they have some things in common. For example, each letter begins with some descriptive phrases about the author, Jesus Christ. Each letter affirms that its con- tents are “what the Spirit says to the churches.” And, most

importantly for us here, only one command-type verb is used in each of the seven letters: overcome.

In fact, some rather extravagant promises are attached to overcoming in each of the letters. If we overcome, as Jesus desires us to, we will (1) eat from the tree of life, (2) not be hurt by the second death, (3) eat of the hidden manna, (4) have power over the nations, (5) be clothed in white garments,

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But what does it mean to overcome? Since this seems to be such a crucial item on Jesus’ agenda for the ongoing Church, a word study is in order. The Greek word for overcome is nikao, the root of the common Greek name, Nicholas or Nick. It means “to conquer” and is a prominent warfare term. When Jesus calls us to overcome, He calls us to spiritual warfare. The Dictionary of New Testament Theology says that in the New Tes- tament, nikao “almost always presupposes the conflict between God or Christ and opposing demonic powers.”4

Other parts of the New Testament record Jesus using nikao on only two other occasions. One is in John 16:33 where Jesus affirms, “I have overcome [nikao] the world.” This is a tremen- dously reassuring passage because it reminds us that the war itself is over and the winner and the loser have already been determined. It is not our job to win the war; Jesus did that on the Cross. Our job is the mop-up operation. But Jesus still expects us to overcome.

Overcoming the Strongman

The other time Jesus uses nikao is in one of His references to dealing with the “strongman,” or with an opposing demonic force. In Luke’s Gospel, He speaks of overcoming (nikao) the strongman so that his palace can be invaded and his goods spoiled. This not only is a significant spiritual war- fare passage, but it could reasonably be taken to apply to multi-leveled demonic activity. The incident begins with ground-level spiritual warfare as Jesus casts a demon out of a mute (see Luke 11:14). But Jesus then goes on to talk about satan’s kingdom (see Luke 11:18) and a palace (see Luke 11:21) and beelzebub who is a high prince of demons but ranked under satan himself. This could be seen as an escalation of Jesus’ scope of conquering or overcoming.

In the parallel passages on the strongman in Matthew and Mark, Jesus does not use the word for “overcome,” but the word for “bind” (see Matt. 12:29; Mark 3:27). It is the same word used in Matthew 16:19 where Jesus says, “...Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. ” We are justified, there-

fore, to use interchangeably the terms overcome, conquer, and bind when we describe our activity in taking the offensive against the enemy in spiritual warfare.

The churches in the seven cities are to overcome or con- quer the forces of evil preventing the glory of God from shin- ing in their cities. I take that as Jesus’ desire, not only for the first century, but for us in this century as well. For example, I feel a responsibility for conquering my city of Pasadena, Cali- fornia, for Christ. I have the privilege of participating in a larger group of Christian leaders called “Pasadena for Christ.” At this point we are only in the beginning stages of launching a massive effort at warfare prayer for our city. We sincerely hope that eventually we will be able to identify the strongman

or strongmen over Pasadena and to overcome in obedience to Jesus’ directive.

Satan’s Strategy

Overcoming the strategic-level demonic forces ruling a city demands a basic understanding of satan’s modus operandi.

I think it is accurate to summarize all the evil and tactical activities of satan in this statement: satan’s central task and desire is to prevent God from being glorified. Whenever God is not glorified in a person’s life, in a church, in a city, or in the world as a whole, satan has to that degree accomplished his objec- tive. The underlying motivation, as we are fully aware, is that satan himself wants the glory due to God. As lucifer fell from Heaven, he was exclaiming, “...I will be like the Most High” (Isa. 14:14). He tempted Adam and Eve by telling them that if they ate the forbidden fruit they would “be like God” (Gen. 3:5). He unsuccessfully tried to tempt Jesus into worshiping and glori- fying him (see Matt. 4:9).

How does satan go about keeping God from being glori- fied? To answer this question, it seems helpful to separate his activities into primary objectives and secondary objectives.

Satan’s primary objective is to prevent God from being glorified by keeping lost people from being saved. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost (see Luke 19:10). God sent His Son that whoso- ever believes on Him should have everlasting life (see John 3:16). Whenever a person is saved, the angels in Heaven rejoice. Satan hates all of the above. He wants people to go to hell, not to Heaven. And the reason this is his primary objec- tive is that each time he succeeds he has won an eternal victory.

Satan’s secondary objective is to make human beings and human society as miserable as possible in this present life. The enemy has  come to  steal, to  kill, and  to  destroy  (see   John

10:10). When we see wars, poverty, oppression, sickness, racism, greed, and similar evils too numerous to list, we have no doubt that satan is succeeding all too much. None of these things brings glory to God. But these are secondary objectives because each is only a temporal victory.

Satan is skilled at both tactics. He has accumulated millen- nia of experience. I agree with Timothy Warner who says, “Satan’s chief tactic is deception” and he does it “by telling people lies about God” and “by deceiving them through his shows of power.”5 How he so massively prevents people from believing the Gospel is almost incomprehensible to me.

Why is it that when we share the Gospel with our neigh- bors they don’t even hear what we are saying much of the time? The Gospel is such a good deal. The benefits are enor- mous. Becoming a Christian is better than winning the lottery! Yet many of our neighbors would prefer the lottery to eternal life. Why? The answer is clear in Second Corinthians 4:3-4. The apostle Paul was experiencing similar frustration. Not enough people were accepting Christ. So he said the Gospel is veiled to those who are perishing “whose minds the god of this age has blinded…lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ…should shine on them” (2 Cor. 4:4). People do not become Christians pure and simple because their minds are blinded. The glory of Christ does not penetrate to them. Satan is doing his thing.

Blinding Three Billion Minds

As I write, three billion individuals on Planet Earth do not yet know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And this doesn’t even count millions of others who are Christian in name, but not in true heart commitment. My point is that satan is getting away with a lot. But how does he do it? How does he blind three billion or more minds?

Obviously, satan cannot do it by himself. Satan is not God, nor does he possess any of the attributes of God. This means, among other things, that satan is not omnipresent. He cannot be in all places at all times as God is. Satan can be in only one place at one time. He may be able to get from one place to another very rapidly, but when he is there, he is still in only one place.

The only way I can imagine that satan can effectively blind three billion minds is to delegate the responsibility. He maintains a hierarchy of demonic forces to carry out his pur- poses. Exactly what that hierarchy is, we may never know, but we do have some general indications. Perhaps our clearest hint is found in Ephesians 6:12 where we are told that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against (1) principali- ties, (2) powers, (3) rulers of the darkness of this age, and

(4) spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

New Testament scholars cannot find a strict hierarchical order in Ephesians 6:12 since the same Greek terms are used with different meanings and interchangeably in other parts of Scripture. And other terms such as thrones and dominions are added elsewhere. In other words, these categories are not as clear as generals, colonels, majors, and captains would be to us. What is clear, however, is that the terms do describe certain varieties of supernatural, demonic beings whose assignment is to implement “the wiles of the devil” (Eph. 6:11). These beings, and perhaps many other kinds who are under them and obey their instructions, are in charge of keeping lost peo- ple from being saved and messing up their lives as much as possible while they are on earth.

Seeing Our Cites as They Really Are

As I have mentioned, George Otis, Jr., has been working on a fascinating concept, which he calls “spiritual mapping.” Among other things, he says we need to strive to see our cities

and our nations as they really are, not as they appear to be. It is crucial to discern the spiritual forces in the heavenlies that are shaping our visible lives here on earth. Walter Wink, for example, has been trying to convince social activists that big- ger and better reform programs have not nor in all probability ever will change society for the better if the spiritual powers behind social structures are not named, unmasked, and engaged.6

Frank Peretti, in his best-selling novels, This Present Dark- ness and Piercing the Darkness (Crossway Books), personalizes and dramatizes the struggle with the powers more than Wal- ter Wink might be inclined to do. Although their approaches differ from each other and mine differs from both, the point is that we are all striving to see our world as it really is, not sim- ply as it appears to be.

One of the most helpful biblical passages is Second Corinthians 10:3 where Paul says, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.” Jesus said we are sup- posed to be in this world, but not of this world (see John 15:19; 17:15). This means the real battle is a spiritual battle. In Second Corinthians, Paul goes on to say:

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down argu- ments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

The stronghold is the place where the devil and his forces are entrenched. Pulling down strongholds is obviously an offensive warfare action. God apparently wants us to attack these strongholds much as Jesus invaded satan’s turf in the wilderness for His definitive power encounter. Charles Kraft makes a helpful distinction between three kinds of spiritual encounters. All are found in Second Corinthians 10:4-5: truth

encounter, allegiance encounter, and power encounter.7 The truth encounter is “casting down arguments” and the allegiance encounter is “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedi- ence of Christ.” Warfare prayer needs to be directed against these two kinds of strongholds.

The phrase that most directly addresses the demonic in Second Corinthians 10:4-5 is, “every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.” The Greek word for “high thing” is hypsoma, which according to the Dictionary of New Testament Theology is a term relating to “astrological ideas,” “cosmic powers,” and “powers directed against God, seeking to inter- vene between God and man.”8 This points to the need for engaging in strategic-level spiritual warfare, which will push back these powers or territorial spirits that keep God from being glorified.

If we see these powers we will see our cities as they really are. The crime, gangs, poverty, abortion, racism, greed, rape, drugs, divorce, social injustice, child abuse, and other evils that characterize my city of Pasadena, California, reflect satan’s temporal victories. The empty churches and indiffer- ence to the Gospel reflect satan’s eternal victories. I affirm and participate in promoting social programs, education, pro-life demonstrations, strong police forces, and sound legislation. I believe in evangelistic crusades and the Four Spiritual Laws. But these social and evangelistic programs will never work as well as they could or should by themselves if satan’s strong- holds are not torn down. This is the real battle, and our weapon is prayer. Warfare prayer.

Biblical Examples

Once we come to understand the biblical and theological principles behind Jesus’ wilderness encounter with the enemy, His desire that we “overcome” or conquer our cities for Christ, and the nature of the real battle, which is a spiritual

one, several other biblical passages take on a new meaning. I see them not so much as tactical manuals for Christians who are called to strategic-level spiritual warfare as simply illustra- tions of how God used His servants from time to time in war- fare prayer.

Daniel

A common example is the experience of Daniel the prophet who engaged in three weeks of warfare prayer along with fasting (see Dan. 10:1-21). He was praying over issues that were directed to the highest political realm involving Cyrus, King of Persia. Daniel was praying for concerns in the natural, sociopolitical realm, but in this case we are given a rare glimpse of what actually happened in the spiritual realm as a result of Daniel’s prayer. We are shown the kingdom of Persia as it really was, not only as it appeared to be.

During his season of prayer and fasting, Daniel had a “great vision,” which left him with “no strength” (see Dan. 10:8). But then an angel appeared to Daniel in person to tell him what had happened. This angel had been dispatched to go to Daniel on the first day of his praying, but it took him 21 days to arrive. The three-week interval saw a fierce spiritual battle in the heavenlies. The demonic being named the “prince of Persia” was able to block the progress of this good angel until reinforcements arrived in the person of none less than Michael the archangel. He gave Daniel a message from God, which was so awesome that Daniel “turned [his] face toward the ground and became speechless” (Dan. 10:15). Then the angel told Daniel that on his return trip he not only would have to battle the prince of Persia but also the prince of Greece and that again he would only get through with Michael’s help (see Dan. 10:20-21).

This story leaves us little doubt that territorial spirits greatly influence human life in all its sociopolitical aspects.

And it also shows us clearly that the only weapon Daniel had to combat these rulers of darkness was warfare prayer.

Jeremiah

We do not have the same detail of the war in the heaven- lies accompanying the ministry of Jeremiah the prophet, but we have even greater detail of his divine call to strategic-level spiritual warfare. God said to Jeremiah, “See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant” (Jer. 1:10). This, obviously, is not a reference to the kingdoms of this world as they appear to be, but as they really are. It is a refer- ence to the principalities and powers, which are at the root of what takes place in human affairs.

And God did not give Jeremiah carnal weapons to do this work. He had no political office or military command or vast wealth at his disposal. His weapon was intercession (see Jer. 29:10-13), warfare prayer that was in tune with God and pow- erful enough to change the course of human history.

Luke and Acts

Few modern scholars have so painstakingly looked into the theme of strategic-level spiritual warfare in the New Testa- ment as has the Yale New Testament scholar, Susan R. Garrett. Her excellent book, The Demise of the Devil, confirms that the underlying theme of Luke’s narrative in the book of Acts was the battle against the demonic. Susan Garrett raises the ques- tion: “If people’s eyes have been ‘blinded’ by satan’s control over their lives, how can Paul open them?” The answer, she affirms, is: “Paul must himself be invested with authority that is greater than satan’s own” (emphasis hers). She sees a key pas- sage in Luke as being Jesus’ declaration that His disciples would have authority over all the power of the enemy (see Luke 10:19) and suggests that this is exactly the power that operates through Paul in Acts.9

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Paul’s ministry in Ephesus resulted in planting a strong church there as well as establishing a regional base for exten- sive evangelistic outreach. During two years “all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 19:10) and “the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed” (Acts 19:20). Susan Gar- rett says the phrase “growth of the word” signifies that an obstacle had been overcome. What was the obstacle? She says, “It was the seemingly relentless grip that the practice of magic—the trafficking in evil spirits and concomitant loyalty to their master, the devil—had exercised on the Ephesian peo- ple.”12 In other words, through the ministry of the apostle Paul

and others on his team, the principalities over the area were weakened to the extent that the Gospel could then spread rap- idly. This was effective strategic-level spiritual warfare, inter- preted by many as an assault on the known territorial spirit, diana of the Ephesians.

Previous to his experience in Ephesus, Paul experienced another high-level power encounter in western Cyprus where he discovered that the political leader, Sergius Paulus, had linked up with an occult practitioner, Elymas or Bar-Jesus. The sorcerer did what satan desired, seeking “to turn the proconsul away from the faith” (Acts 13:8). After making certain the gen- eral public recognized that this man was “full of all deceit and all fraud” and a “son of the devil” and an “enemy of righteous- ness,” Paul, by the power of the Holy Spirit, struck him blind (Acts 13:9-11). Susan Garrett comments, “When Paul invoked the hand of the Lord, causing mist and darkness to fall upon Bar-Jesus, Paul’s possession of greater authority than satan is unmistakably confirmed.” The people there quickly perceived that “Truly this man is one able to open the eyes of the Gen- tiles, that they might turn from darkness to light and from the authority of satan to God.”13

Bible-believing Christians will want to follow Jesus and the apostles in the strategic-level spiritual warfare that can lead to conquering their cities and nations for Christ. I like the way Susan Garrett describes the world surrounding the min- istry of Jesus and the apostles:

The dark regions are the realm of satan, the ruler of this world, who for eons has sat entrenched and well- guarded, his many possessions gathered like trophies around him. The sick and possessed are held captive by his demons; the Gentiles, too, are subject to his dominion, giving him honor and glory that ought to be offered to God.14

When Jesus came announcing the Kingdom of God, this dark kingdom of satan was doomed. Garrett says:

To be sure, the final victory lay in the future. But no longer could satan and his demonic and human ser- vants harass and torment at will. Satan’s kingdom was splintering around him, and his authority was  no longer acknowledged by all. The battle still raged but Christ’s ultimate triumph was certain. Christian experience—from the earliest days to Luke’s present— testified to the demise of the devil.15

Reflection Questions

• Discuss the concept that Jesus lived His life on earth through His human nature, but at the same time He was always God.
• What are the strengths and also the limitations of declaring, “I bind you, satan”?
• Explain how satan goes about his task of preventing God from being glorified.
• Looking at your own city “as it really is” and not just “as it appears to be,” what would you likely find?
• What was involved in the apostle Paul’s spiritual war- fare against diana of the Ephesians?

C_HAPTER 4

DEMONS BEHIND BUSHES

R

he was taking time off to do graduate studies in missiology in our Fuller Seminary School of World Mission. He is a mature, spiritual, and emotionally-balanced person. I say that because I suspect ahead of time that some who read the story he tells would otherwise desire to relegate him to what they consider the “lunatic fringe.”

The “Water Devil”

Back in 1975, Rich had been teaching in the Sinoe Bible Institute in Liberia for five years. Some of his students had been telling him of a “water devil,” which took the form of a brass ring and was often seen rolling down jungle trails under its own power. He later did some research and found that this “water spirit” was also described in Tribes of the Liberian Hinter- land by George Schwab.1 It was common knowledge that its power could be neutralized by striking the ring with a machete, putting blood on it, or throwing a banana leaf in its path.

Rich, in those days, thought such things were mere “super- stition.” They must have been figments of some collective tribal

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all created beings including demons and evil spirits.

Bad move!

Trouble began to pour in on the Collingridge family.

Rich’s wife Esther began suffering severe headaches. At first she attributed them to the stress of mothering, home schooling her children, teaching Bible school, and other pres- sures that many missionary wives experience. But these headaches were different. They were emotionally disturbing. They did not go away. And the pain they caused was not the usual headache pain. The pains were sharper and more driv- ing, and they came in strange parts of the head.

Their two young daughters began to have terrible night- mares. They would hear and actually see mysterious things on the walls. They often could sleep only if Rich or Esther would light a candle and sleep in the room with them.

As time went on and the unnatural disturbances grew more severe, the family prayed against the forces of darkness. Then early one morning their prayers were answered. Rich

suddenly came wide awake with the full knowledge of what was happening in their home. God had revealed to him that they were under direct satanic attack through the water devil they had naively brought into their home. Rich shared with his wife what he had heard from the Lord, got out of bed, took the brass ring to the workshop, destroyed it with a sledge hammer, and threw it away.

A dramatic transformation immediately came over the Collingridge home. The attack was over, and the victory was the Lord’s. When Rich shared the experience with a mature, wise Liberian pastor, James Doe, the pastor simply nodded his head as if to say, “Well, what did you expect?”2

Campus Crusade in Thailand

To my knowledge, the Campus Crusade for Christ Jesus film is the most powerful evangelistic tool operating in the world today. There can be little doubt that more people come to Christ through seeing the Jesus film than through any other single evangelistic resource. Paul Eshleman, the Campus Cru- sade executive in charge of the project, tells a fascinating story in his book, I Just Saw Jesus.

One of the outstanding examples of the fruit that can come through the Jesus film is the nation of Thailand. Up to the time that Campus Crusade began using the Jesus film in the early 1980s, only 500 churches had been established in Thailand during 150 years of missionary work. Since then, as Roy Rosedale’s research has revealed, more than 2,000 new churches were planted in 8 years.3

Eshleman tells the story of the film team who had shown the film in a certain rural village. They had planned on staying in the village that night and returning home the next day. They were told they would be sleeping in the local Buddhist tem- ple. What they were not told was that this particular temple

was known for miles around as a chief dwelling place of demons. Others who had tried to sleep there had been run out before morning. Some reportedly had been found dead the next day.

Shortly after the team had gone to sleep, Eshleman reports, “They were awakened all at once by the immaterial presence of a hideous beast. There in the corner of the room appeared the most frightful image they had ever seen. Fear struck them all like an icy fist.”4

The startled team decided to put into practice what they had seen Jesus do in their own film. They prayed together and boldly cast the demon out of the temple in the name of Jesus. Nothing else was necessary, and they slept peacefully the rest of the night.

In the early morning, the villagers came to carry off the team’s equipment they were sure had been left behind when the Christians were run off or killed by the demons. When they found them sound asleep “they were confronted with the undeniable fact that God is more powerful than any other force.”5

The Underlying Issue

A hypothesis I am attempting to defend in this book has been stated as follows:

Satan delegates high ranking members of the hierar- chy of evil spirits to control nations, regions, cities, tribes, people groups, neighborhoods and other sig- nificant social networks of human beings through- out the world. Their major assignment is to prevent God from being glorified in their territory, which they do through directing the activity of lower rank- ing demons.6

It can immediately be seen that this hypothesis will stand or fall on the issue of whether spirits or demonic beings can legitimately be perceived as occupying territories. I will dis- cuss that in detail in the next chapter, but first a preliminary question needs to be addressed: Do demons attach themselves to specific things such as idols, animals, houses, or natural features such as trees or mountains?

My answer? Yes!

Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell the story of Jesus casting out the demon named legion in the country of the Gadarenes. The demons went from the man into pigs (see Matt. 8:28-34; Mark 5:1-20; Luke 8:26-39). There is no biblical question, then, that demons can attach themselves to animals.

Parenthetically, it is apropos to point out here that when they realized Jesus was going to cast them out of the man, the demons “begged Him earnestly that He would not send them out of the country” (Mark 5:10). Why did they do this? Obviously, remaining in the same geographical territory had some value to the demons, and Jesus acceded to their request, sending them into the pigs. Argentine pastor Eduardo Lorenzo, whose congregation was successful in evicting the territorial spirit over Adrogué (see Chapter 1), reports their perception that principalities who are cast out of assigned territories fear cruel punishment will be inflicted by their spiritual superiors for their failure to remain. In Revelation 2:13, satan is associated with a city and its cult-center. In the passage, the city of Perg- amos in Asia Minor is said to be “where Satan dwells.”

Demons and Idols

A central biblical passage for understanding the relation- ship of demons to idols is First Corinthians 8:10, where Paul deals with the issue of eating meat offered to idols. He begins that extensive teaching by asserting that “we know that an idol

is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one” (1 Cor. 8:4). He later asks the rhetorical question: “What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to  idols is anything?” (1 Cor. 10:19). The answer is, of course not. Paul would agree with Isaiah who ridicules idol mak- ers by saying, “Who would form a god or mold an image that profits him nothing?” (Isa. 44:10). He tells of a fool who uses half a log to roast meat and the other half to make into a carved image and then “he falls down before it and worships it, prays to it and says, ‘Deliver me, for you are my god’” (see Isa. 44:16-17).

Paul also explains to the Corinthians that before we even begin to talk about demons and idols we must remind our- selves that God is supreme over all created beings including demons and evil spirits. Twice he cites Psalm 24:1: “The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness...” (1 Cor. 10:26,28). He is not about to fall into a dualism in which forces of good and forces of evil are seen as being on equal footing. No, satan and all the demons exercise only the power that God permits and no more, as the book of Job clearly illustrates.

Having said this, we nevertheless put ourselves in dan- gerous and vulnerable positions if we do not see that objects such as physical idols have the potential to harbor incredibly malignant power. This is, I believe, what is behind the first two of the Ten Commandments: “You shall have no other gods before Me” and “You shall not make for yourself a carved image...” (Exod. 20:3-4). Idols are not fun, games, and playthings. Dun- geons and Dragons is a qualitatively different game from Scrabble or checkers. Frequently there is a pernicious rela- tionship between demonic beings and physical objects, even though the objects in themselves are only wood, metal, stone, or plastic.

This is what Paul is attempting to explain to the Corinthi- ans, some of whom were actually accepting invitations to enter idol temples and eating the meat that had been sacri- ficed there. Not that there was something intrinsically wrong with eating the meat itself. Knowing ahead of time that much of the meat sold in the public market had previously been sac- rificed to idols, Paul nevertheless tells them to go ahead and eat it without asking any questions (see 1 Cor. 10:25). The meat is one thing; the idol to which it is sacrificed is something else.

Paul says the pagans are not simply sacrificing to a piece of wood or stone, but in the idol temple “the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God...” (1 Cor. 10:20). New Testament scholar George Ladd, in commenting on this key passage, says there is “a power connected with idols that resides in demons. To worship idols therefore means to sacrifice to demons.”7 Leon Morris concurs: “When people sacrifice to idols, it cannot be said that they are engaging in some neutral activity that has no meaning. They are in fact sacrificing to evil spirits.”8

This throws some biblical and scholarly light on inci- dences such as a water devil rolling down a Liberian jungle path or a Buddhist temple where resident demons are known to kill outsiders. Real demons do attach themselves to ani- mals, idols, brass rings, trees, mountains, and buildings as well as to any number and variety of manufactured and natu- ral objects.

Does This Happen in the United States?

Many of my missionary friends from all parts of the world mention how risky it has been to relate their experiences with the demonic when they speak to congregations in the United States, particularly in certain American church circles. One of the denominations that traditionally has been rather reluctant to accept challenges to vigorous spiritual warfare has been the

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After describing two rather startling demonic deliver- ances, one in the Caribbean and one in Malaysia, Leland Webb says, “Missionaries seldom share accounts like these with Baptists at home. One reason is that these reports fall outside the experience of most Christians in America.”9 He goes on to point out the obvious dilemma faced by those who hear such stories: if it happens on the mission field, why couldn’t it hap- pen here at home?

The fact of the matter, of course, is that it does happen here at home.

Like Southern Baptists, contemporary Mennonites have not been especially outspoken about demons and demonic manifestations. That in itself enhances the credibility of David W. Shenk and Ervin R. Stutzman, both Mennonites, who tell the story of a church-planting couple in New Jersey, Richard and Lois Landis. One of their church families became greatly troubled when their adolescent son kept waking up in the night by hearing mysterious scratching on his bedroom wall. Pastor Landis visited his room and found it cluttered with

lewd rock ‘n’ roll pictures, objects, and literature. The family repented, confessed, and cleaned out the room. “Then in the name of Jesus, they commanded the evil spirit who scratched the walls at night to leave forever.” As a result of this simple act of faith accompanied with warfare prayer, “Peace filled the room and the Holy Spirit came upon that little group gathered with the lad in his bedroom. The evil spirit has never returned.”10

Spirits in the Wagner House

Not only can we bring the idea of spirits occupying houses back from the mission field to the United States, but I can also tell of spirits in my own home in Altadena, California.

Back in 1983 my wife Doris and I hosted an intercessory prayer group in our home once a month. One night two of the women who have gifts of discernment of spirits mentioned that they sensed a special presence of evil located in the mas- ter bedroom. Not too long after that, one night when I was away, Doris woke up suddenly in the middle of the night with a powerful fear gripping her whole being. Her heart pound- ing furiously, she looked across the room and saw a shadowy form, about nine feet tall, with luminous green eyes and teeth. Her fear turned into anger, and she rebuked the spirit in the name of Jesus, commanding it to get out of her room and not to enter the children’s rooms.

It left.

Some weeks later we were both in the bed when Doris awoke, this time with a piercing cramp in her foot. I laid hands on, prayed for healing, and tried to go back to sleep. In about ten minutes I asked how her foot was. She said, “The pain will not go, and I think it is a spirit.” This time I rebuked the spirit in the name of Jesus. It apparently obeyed since the pain was immediately relieved and did not come back.

Two friends from our Sunday School class in the Lake Avenue Congregational Church who prayed regularly for Doris and me felt led of the Spirit to go into our house for war- fare prayer. We gave them a house key one afternoon while we were working at the seminary. When they got out of their car they knew they were in for a battle since some invisible force physically prevented them from entering the patio surround- ing the front door! They decided to go into the garage where they discerned several evil spirits, one so strong that one of them could actually smell it. After casting them out, they could easily enter the patio and go into the house. They found spirits in three of the rooms, the strongest, predictably, in the master bedroom. In the living room they sensed that a spirit had attached itself to a stone puma we had brought as a sou- venir from our missionary work in Bolivia.

When we got home we destroyed the puma as well as some animistic ceremonial masks we foolishly had mounted on our living room wall. The next time the intercession group met, they felt the atmosphere had changed and the house had been cleansed.

Wagner’s Green-Eyed Monster

Our spirit incident was such an important learning expe- rience for me that I wrote it up in a column in Christian Life magazine. When I did, I had no idea some students would post it on the Fuller Seminary “Board of Declaration” and make it the centerpiece for a vigorous campus debate, which lasted for about two weeks. Wagner’s “green-eyed monster” became a laughing matter and a source of ridicule for many, while others defended it mainly by recounting similar experi- ences. One of the upshots was that I was called into the semi- nary president’s office to give an account of my rather controversial behavior.

Although this experience was painful, much of the pain was relieved a few weeks later when I received a letter from Irene Warkentin of Winnipeg, Manitoba. She introduced her- self as a teacher and sociologist with good academic creden- tials. And she told me how much my Christian Life column had meant to her when she read it. She said her 5-year-old son Kevin had been experiencing severe leg cramps that had no medical explanation. She identified his cramps with Doris’s cramps described in my article. So she went into Kevin’s bed- room with a prayer that God would show her what was wrong. She says, “There it was—a dog statue brought from a foreign country.” She sensed a clear word from the Holy Spirit that she was to destroy the statue.

After praying what I have been calling a warfare prayer, Irene took the dog statue to the garage and smashed it with a hammer. She says, “I had done most everything in awe, but when I smashed that dog, the emotion I experienced was anger. I was so angry that I hit the dog with vehemence!” This, I might say, had special significance since Irene Warkentin is a Mennonite and by nature a very peaceful woman. Then, she says, the anger totally left. And of course the cramps in Kevin’s legs ended once for all.

Second Opinions

I became so insecure because of the ridicule I received when I wrote the Christian Life column, I began to wonder whether I had actually gone off the deep end. So I searched the literature to see if others agreed. I was relieved to find many others who asserted with confidence that demons could, and indeed did, occupy certain houses and objects.

I was encouraged to find that British Anglican leader, Michael Harper, had a similar experience to mine. He, quite unexpectedly, began to be plagued with nighttime feelings of gloom and fear, especially the fear of death. This was so

unusual for him that he became concerned, particularly when they steadily grew worse. He soon became convinced that the house his family had recently occupied, quite an old building, had “something unpleasant” about it. So he called on Dom Robert Petipierre, an Anglican Benedictine monk, to stay there for a night and do some warfare praying. Petipierre “con- ducted a Communion service in the house and exorcized every room” according to the prescribed Anglican ritual for such things. Michael Harper reports, “From that day onwards the atmosphere in the house changed and there was no recur- rence of the experiences which I have related.”11

The same Dom Robert Petipierre edited the report of a spe- cial commission to investigate such issues convened by the Bishop of Exeter in 1972. The Bishop described the situation that provoked him to form the commission as an investigation in the widespread attitude in the Church of England to “regard exorcism as an exercise in white magic or a survival of medieval superstition.” It usually had been seen as a negative action. He was concerned that Anglican leaders had all but overlooked exorcism’s “positive aspect as an extension of the frontiers of Christ’s Kingdom and a demonstration of the power of the Resurrection to overcome evil and replace it with good.”12

The report found that places such as churches, houses, towns, and countryside may be strained and influenced by a variety of causes such as ghosts, magical spells, human sin, place memories, poltergeist or psychic action, and demonic influence.13

Respected Christian leaders such as missionary Vivienne Stacey tell about driving demons from haunted houses in Pak- istan.14 Pastor James Marocco describes the spiritual oppres- sion on the Hawaiian island of Molokai.15 Don Crawford reports spirits occupying a tree in Indonesia.16 And the list could be extended ad infinitum.

Demons Behind Bushes?

I fully realize that many feel uncomfortable with the notion that demons can and do attach themselves to material objects or houses or territories. A common expression used somewhat defensively is that people like Wagner or Petipierre or Collingridge or Irene Warkentin “see a demon behind every bush.”

I must say that of the scores of Christian leaders I am in contact with who are involved in responsible deliverance min- istries, I have not yet found one who would claim that a demon is behind every bush. But we do agree that demons are, in fact, behind some bushes. And to the degree that we are able by the power of the Holy Spirit to discern which bushes they are and the specific nature of the demonic infestations, the better able we are to take authority over them in Jesus’ name and to reclaim territory they have usurped for the King- dom of God.

In this book I want to attempt to use this discernment. I want to take seriously the admonition of C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters:

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors, and hail a materialist and a magician with the same delight.17

Reflection Questions

• What do you think of the story of Rick Collingridge’s experience with the “water devil”? Have you ever seen or heard of anything like this?

• Many people believe that houses can be haunted. Can evil spirits also dominate whole territories?
• Talk about the relationship of physical idols to demonic spirits.
• When Doris Wagner saw the spirit in her bedroom, she first experienced fear, then anger. Can you identify with such emotions?
• Discuss both sides of not seeing demons at all and see- ing too many of them.

(Note By Blogger: Due to the length of the book which this content is from I have broken it up into a short series of blog posts.)