Warfare Prayer By C. Peter Wagner (Pt. 4)

C_HAPTER 5

TERRITORIALITY THEN AND NOW

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the drama builds, a powerful demonic being appears as a har- lot. She is such a fierce enemy of the Gospel that she is drunk—drunk with the blood of persecuted and martyred Christians.

Quite notably, the apostle John, who by this stage of his revelatory vision had virtually seen it all, “marveled with great amazement” when he saw her (Rev. 17:6). She must have been awesome.

This harlot of Revelation 17 is in all probability the most influential territorial spirit mentioned in Scripture. For one thing she, apparently habitually, had engaged in sexual rela- tions and become one flesh with earthly political leaders, the “kings of the earth” (see Rev. 17:2). Whether this connotes literal succubus we are not told, but the language does not exclude the possibility.

We are told that this obscene, evil creature “sits on many waters” (Rev. 17:1). What are these waters? “The waters which you saw…are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues” (Rev. 17:15).

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Here we have an explicit reference to an evil supernatural being who had gained the highest level of malicious control over human social networks of many kinds. I have been call- ing this sort of being a territorial spirit.

Spirits and Territories

The notion that spirits are assigned to geographical areas, cultural groups, nations, cities or, as the Bishop of Exeter’s report says, “countrysides,” has not up to now received much notice or attracted much scholarly attention. I recently took the pains to examine every book in the Fuller Seminary library listed in the card catalog under “angelology” and “demon- ology” to see how many of these authors dealt with territorial- ity. Of the 100 books I perused, only five of them made any reference at all to territories, and of the five, only three dis- cussed the related issues a bit, but clearly in a secondary way.

As I continued to research, I did find bits and pieces from various authors in out-of-print books, periodicals, research papers, sections in other books, and other sources, most of which would not find a place in a seminary library. I put 19 of these together in a book, Engaging the Enemy (Regal Books), which many are finding helpful. Interest in the matter of terri- toriality seems to be escalating rapidly, at least in the circles I am in touch with.

Yale professor Susan Garrett, who approaches the subject not so much as a spiritual warrior but as a biblical scholar, sum- marizes her findings in The Demise of the Devil, a book I have mentioned previously, by saying that darkness lies like a shroud over the world in which the New Testament was written.

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.1

Not only does she mention Gentiles as a specific people group, but she also explains that “Luke believes that there are entire populations of humans who have long been under satan’s authority, willingly giving him glory and obeying his command.”2

More and more people these days are interested in finding out what all of this means, particularly as it might apply to  both world evangelization and transformation of human soci- ety. I believe it will be helpful to look a bit more closely at ter- ritoriality then, in the Old Testament and the New Testament, and now from the point of view of contemporary anthropolo- gists and missiologists.

Old Testament Territoriality

Throughout the Old Testament, it is evident that the peo- ples of that day—unfortunately including Israel at certain times—regarded gods, deities, spirits, or angelic powers of various kinds as having territorial jurisdiction. A prominent example is the fierce dislike Jehovah God had for high places. Texts such as Numbers 33:52, which commands the children of Israel to “destroy all their engraved stones, destroy all their molded images, and demolish all their high places” are too numerous to catalog. As I pointed out in the last chapter, there was more to these stones and images and high places than just harmless native art. Many of these had become the literal dwelling place of demonic spirits, later in the New Testament called principalities and powers.

Some of the fiercest expressions of God’s anger are con- nected with Israelites who, rather than destroy the high

places, worshiped and served the demonic beings that occu- pied them.

Ahaz was such a one: “in every single city of Judah he made high places to burn incense to other gods, and provoked to anger  the Lord God of his fathers” (2 Chron. 28:25). The result? “...They were the ruin of him and of all Israel” (2 Chron. 28:23). Time after time God had to execute judgment and punish Israel for what was frequently referred to by the prophets as spiritual adultery. The Babylonian captivity was one such judgment.

The Pentateuch

The Pentateuch provides us with one of the key texts for understanding the territoriality of spirit beings. It is part of the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32:8. Unfortunately, its mean- ing is hidden in most English versions translated from the Hebrew of the Masoretic text. For example, my New King James Version says:

When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel (Deuteronomy 32:8).

The problem comes with the phrase, “children of Israel,” which would in itself have little to do with spirits ruling terri- tories. However, biblical scholars such as F.F. Bruce tell us that, due to some discoveries from the Dead Sea scrolls in Cave 4 at Qumram, we now know that the Septuagint version, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew made about 250 years before the birth of Christ, more accurately represents the orig- inal text. Instead of saying that God set the boundaries of peo- ple groups according to the number of the children of Israel, it informs us that He set them “according to the number of the angels of God.” A crucial difference, to say the least.

F.F. Bruce says, “This reading implies that the administra- tion of various nations has been parcelled out among a corre- sponding number of angelic powers.” He then goes on to elaborate by carrying the implications of this to Daniel 10 where the “prince of Persia” and the “prince of Greece” are mentioned. He further ties it to the New Testament by saying, “In a number of places some at least of these angelic gover- nors are portrayed as hostile principalities and powers—the ‘world-rulers of this darkness’ of Ephesians 6:12.”3

Moving back from Moses to Abraham, we receive further light on spiritual territoriality in Old Testament times. In ana- lyzing the spiritual context of Ur of the Chaldees and the Sumerian civilization from which Abraham was called by God, biblical scholar Don Williams points out that the Sumeri- ans were dominated by a “pantheon of gods” and “central- ized rule was seen as their gift, making life possible.” A territorial spirit named enlil headed up the divine hierarchy, but he ruled in consultation with a heavenly council. “Each city was the property of its god, and its citizens were its slaves.” Abraham was the first among them to understand that Jehovah was king of the whole universe.4 The difference between God and territorial spirits was beginning to come clear.

Historical Books

Israel was at war with Syria (Aram) almost 900 years before Christ. Ben-Hadad, the Syrian king, was planning mili- tary strategy. His advisors told him that the gods of the Israelites were gods of the hills, while the gods of the Syrians were gods of the plains. Therefore, he should arrange it so the battle would take place on the plains (see 1 Kings 20:23). This shows that the Syrians perceived ruling spirits to have, if not territoriality, at least topographical jurisdiction. Nothing in the passage or elsewhere in the Old Testament contradicts their

perception of territorial spirits ruling areas. The assumption is that they were correct. Their big error was that they wrongly considered Jehovah God as just another territorial spirit.

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One of the most detailed treatments of the territorial nature of the pagan so-called gods is found in 2 Kings 17. Israel was in very bad shape spiritually. “...They built for them- selves high places in all their cities...” (2 Kings 17:9), they were setting up “sacred pillars and wooden images on every high hill and under every green tree” (2 Kings 17:10), and they provoked the Lord to anger because “they served idols, of which the Lord had said to them, ‘You shall not do this thing’” (2 Kings 17:12). As if this weren’t bad enough, they “worshiped all the host of heaven,” served baal, sacrificed their children to the fire god, and practiced witchcraft (see 2 Kings 17:16-17). God reacted decisively “and removed them from His sight” (2 Kings 17:18), and then the Assyrians moved into their land with settlers from many nations.

The new immigrants also imported their spirits, and they manufactured appropriate images and shrines to personify them. The spirits had specific names. We are told that those from Babylon made succoth benoth, those from Cuth made nergal, those of Hamath made ashima, the Avites made nibhaz and tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children in fire to adrammelecb and anammelech (see 2 Kings 17:29-31). There is little question that each people group perceived itself to be under the direct influence of a specific principality whose name and habits they well knew and to whom they were sub- servient.

The Prophets

In a word from Jeremiah the prophet against Babylon and the land of the Chaldeans, God declared, “Babylon is taken, Bel is shamed. Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are humiliated, her images are broken in pieces” (Jer. 50:2). The word bel or baal is a generic name for “Lord,” and here it is applied to merodach, as in lord merodach. He was “the state- god of Babylon”5 or the ranking territorial spirit over that nation.

In Chapter 3 I mentioned the enlightening passage in Daniel 10 where specifically the “prince of Persia” and the “prince of Greece” are named. It will not be necessary here to recount the details, but simply to reiterate the concept of terri- toriality. Old Testament scholars Keil and Delitzsch conclude that the “prince of Persia” is indeed the demon of the Persian kingdom. They refer to him as “the supernatural spiritual power standing behind the national gods, which we may properly call the guardian spirit of the kingdom.”6

In summary, it does seem that, without providing a great amount of detail, much of the Old Testament is based on the assumption that certain supernatural spiritual beings have dominion over geo-political spheres. Not only that, but it is

important to note that these concepts carried through the intertestamental time to the Jewish people of New Testament times. Oscar Cullmann says, “This abundantly attested late Jewish belief that all peoples are ruled through angels is pres- ent particularly in The Book of Daniel, in The Wisdom of Jesus, Son of Sirach, and in the Book of Enoch, and it can be shown to be present also in the Talmud and Midrash…the existing earthly political power belongs in the realm of such angelic powers.”7

The New Testament

I began this chapter by citing the harlot of Revelation 17, which is the most explicit New Testament example I have found of a demonic spirit controlling nations and peoples. Susan Garrett, in her detailed study of Luke’s writings, con- cludes that...

Luke regards satan as a powerful being with much of the world under his authority. He controls individuals by means of sickness and demon possession. He con- trols entire kingdoms, whose inhabitants live in the darkness of idolatry, worshipping satan and giving him the glory that is due God alone.8

That satan controls kingdoms is also obvious from the offer he made Jesus at the temptation in the wilderness when he showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and said, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me” (Matt. 4:9).

The Principalities and Powers

For decades, dating back to World War II and the Nazi atrocities, theologians have argued with each other about the implications of Ephesians 6:12: “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers....” Just how

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Although Walter Wink and I might not see eye to eye on the exact nature of these spiritual forces, we do agree some- thing evil is operating through society that cannot be explained simply by analyzing human nature, depraved as it might be, or by the application of sociological principles. He argues that the early Christians perceived “every nation and tribe and tongue and people” was “presided over by a spiri- tual Power.”9

Wink cites, as I have done, Deuteronomy 32:8-9 and Daniel 10, which, as he says, “provides the Bible’s fullest pic- ture of these angels and of the nations.”10 Although he doesn’t use the term “warfare prayer,” he agrees that prayer is our major spiritual weapon, affirming, “This new element in prayer—the resistance of the Powers to God’s will—marks a decisive break with the notion that God is the cause of all that happens…Prayer changes us, but it also changes what is pos- sible for God.”11 One of his classic statements is that “History belongs to the intercessors.”12 I couldn’t agree more.

As to the nature of the powers, Wink does not believe they are heavenly, transcendent beings, but rather, “the actual inner spirituality of the social entity itself.”13 Ronald J. Sider of East- ern Baptist Seminary sees the powers referring “both to the sociopolitical structures of human society and to unseen spiri- tual forces that undergird, lie behind, and in some mysterious way help shape human sociopolitical structures.”14 While deeply respecting the work of these scholars, and while agree- ing with their desire to unmask the invisible powers behind the visible structures, I have made clear so far that I hold the position that the principalities and powers are, to be very spe- cific, evil spirits or demons.

I agree with Leon Morris who affirms that we cannot clearly see Paul’s conception of Christ’s saving work “unless we see it against a background of the evil and the futility in this world, a world populated by evil spirits as well as evil people.”15

By saying this I want to affirm my agreement with Wink and Sider and others that social structures themselves can properly be seen as demonized. But to my way of thinking they are simply the visible entities, which the invisible demonic forces are using for their own ends much as demonic forces will use an idol, although the idol itself is simply a piece of wood or stone.

A person who is demonized is not per se a demonic per- son, but rather a victim of a powerful demonic force. Like- wise, social structures are not, in themselves, demonic, but they can be and often are demonized by some extremely per- nicious and dominating demonic personalities, which I call territorial spirits.

The view I am advocating at least permits a theology of hope. It opens up the possibility that social structures, like demonized human beings, can be delivered from demonic

oppression through warfare prayer. This is why I believe that history belongs to the intercessors.

Artemis of  the Ephesians

A case could be made that Paul’s power encounter with the sorcerer Bar-Jesus, or Elymas, on Cyprus involved a terri- torial spirit. But the spirit is unnamed, and there is nothing specific in the text that would either force such a conclusion or deny it (see Acts 13:6-12). Such is also the situation when Paul cast the spirit of divination out of the slave girl in Philippi (see Acts 16:16-24). I have a strong suspicion that it was a territorial spirit, but no conclusive proof.

The story of Paul’s ministry in Ephesus is different. Here we do have the name of the ruling spirit, diana (her Roman name) or artemis (her Greek name) of the Ephesians. Talbot School of Theology’s Clinton E. Arnold is a New Testament scholar who has specialized in the book of Ephesians and who helps us see the spiritual warfare implications of the epistle. He laments, “Few N.T. scholars have referred to the Artemis cult as relevant to the background of Ephesians, much less as relevant to the teaching on the hostile ‘powers’.”16 He feels that attempting to understand the principalities and powers in Ephesians apart from the cult of artemis is a mistake.

One reason I agree with Arnold is that leaders of the city of Ephesus itself became so upset by the ministry of the apostle Paul that they feared the goddess diana’s temple would be despised and her magnificence destroyed. They boasted that “all Asia and the world” worships her (see Acts 19:27). The city clerk proclaimed, “Who does not know that the city of the Eph- esians is temple guardian of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Zeus?” (Acts 19:35). Clinton Arnold’s historical research confirms that artemis was worshiped in Colossae, Laodicea, Hierapolis, and throughout Asia.

Artemis’ power was awesome. Arnold says, “One undis- puted characteristic of the Ephesian Artemis is the unsur- passed cosmic power attributed to her.” He says that because of her supra-natural powers “she could intercede between her followers and the cruel fate which plagued them.” They called her “savior,” “lord,” and “queen of the cosmos.” She wore the signs of the zodiac around her neck and “possessed an author- ity and power superior to that of astrological fate.”17

Releasing Evangelistic Power

I believe we will not be too far from wrong if we regard artemis of the Ephesians as a territorial spirit and see the pos- sible relationship that weakening her had to do with the evan- gelization of the territory she dominated. Certainly the “word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed” in Ephesus (Acts 19:20). Not only did a strong church develop there, but Ephesus became an evangelistic center for the whole region to the extent “that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks” (Acts 19:10).

Some historical sources of the times, other than the Bible, also reveal the belief early Christians had about artemis. Arnold quotes from The Acts of Andrew, which speaks of a crowd of demons in a rock beside a statue of artemis.18

Yale historian Ramsay MacMullen sees much of the Chris- tianization of the Roman Empire as a power encounter between Christianity and the resident demonic forces. He tells the story of one such power encounter involving artemis from The Acts of John. Apparently the apostle John, unlike the apos- tle Paul, went into artemis’ temple itself to do strategic-level spiritual warfare. He reportedly prayed the following warfare prayer: “O God…at whose name every idol takes flight and every demon and every unclean power, now let the demon that is here take flight in Thy name.” At that moment, so the

story goes, the altar of artemis split in pieces, and half of the temple building collapsed.19

History again indicates this had a direct evangelistic effect. The Acts of John records that, following this power encounter led by John, the Ephesians said, “We are converted now that we have seen thy marvellous works.” Clinton Arnold’s study indicates, “The influx and expansion of Chris- tianity eventually wrought the demise of the cult of the Ephe- sian Artemis.”20

Territoriality Now: Anthropology

As the field of cultural anthropology has developed in our times, an increasing number of social scientists, both Christian and non-Christian, are realizing it is not possible to fully understand the life-style, values, and behavior patterns of vast segments of the world’s population without coming to terms with their supernaturalistic worldview. Fuller Seminary anthropologist Charles H. Kraft has helped us understand this well in his remarkable book, Christianity with Power.

Kraft argues that we Westerners divide the world into “natural” and “supernatural” and then proceed to disregard the supernatural. Even as Christians, he says, “We do claim to assume that God is involved in all of our everyday activities. And yet we often base our thinking and behavior on naturalis- tic assumptions almost as much as do our non-Christian neighbors and friends.”21 This tends to cloud our understand- ing of the great majority of the peoples of the world for whom the supernatural is very much a part of daily life.

Jacob Loewen is both an anthropologist and a Bible trans- lation consultant. He sees the Old Testament as clearly assum- ing the territoriality of demonic spirits, frequently called “deities.” He cites the prophet Hosea, among others, who con- tinually reprimanded Israel for thinking like the pagans and

regarding Jehovah as a territorial spirit instead of the sover- eign Lord of the whole universe. Then he says, “The situation described in Hosea is very similar to the situation which we described for Africa where the conquerors felt obliged to accept the gods of the conquered because the latter’s deities controlled the land.”22

Loewen reports that in Central and South America spirits are considered to be the “owners” of geographical or topo- graphical phenomena. Nomadic Indians never travel from one territory to another without first securing the permission of the territorial spirit dominating the area they are about to enter. “People never own the land,” Loewen says; “they only use it by the permission of its true spirit owners who, in a sense, ‘adopt’ them.”23

When anthropologist David Lan began to study guerilla warfare in Zimbabwe, he soon discovered it was closely related to the activity of spirit mediums. These mediums were possessed by the mhondoro, spirits purportedly of dead chiefs. He found that each of these mhondoro “is thought to rule over a specific territory which he is believed to have conquered or been given when he was alive.” He calls them “spirit provinces.” He says of the region he was researching, “Every square centimeter is part of one spirit province or another.”24 While, as a secular anthropologist, he makes no attempt at biblical applications, Lan at least furnishes us with some basis for believing that spiritual mapping may have validity for social science as well as for world evangelization.

Territoriality in Southern Mexico

One of the finest case studies of spiritual territoriality in a field missionary setting comes from Vernon J. Sterk, who has served with the Reformed Church of America for more than 20 years among the Tzotzil Indians in southern Mexico. He says that every one of the Tzotzil tribes can identify specific

tribal deities by name. They also know the names of evil spir- its who are assigned to various kinds of evil activities. They know, for example, that yajval balamil controls sickness, poslom attacks people with swelling at night, and j’ic’aletic are looters and rapists.25

Sterk says that both evil spirits and guardian spirits among the Tzotzil “have territorial designations and assign- ments,” and he observes, “All of the spirits have geographical limits for their power, even though the reach of the evil spirits seems to be more extensive than that of the guardian or ances- tral spirits.”26 When the territorial spirit is strong, newly con- verted Christians frequently are forced to move out. Many Tzotzil Indians will not leave their territory because they fear losing the protection of their guardian spirit who cannot leave with them.

Vernon Sterk represents a rapidly growing number of thoughtful field missionaries who are beginning to see that the real battle for the evangelization of their regions is a spiri- tual battle. While lamenting that he had never been trained in strategic-level spiritual warfare, he nevertheless is looking to the future rather than to the past and believing that warfare prayer will make a difference in the spiritual harvest among the Tzotzil.

He also speaks for many of us when he, quite honestly, says:

I wish that I could report that we have taken authority over these spirits in Jesus’ name and the growth has become fantastic. But neither we who are missionaries nor the expelled Zinacanteco Christians had ever con- sidered this concept of specific territorial spirits. We never did more than pray general prayers against satan’s power in Nabenchauc, and the growth of the church has been generally slow and halting.27

My desire is that Vern Sterk and thousands of missionar- ies and evangelists like him, who have a heart that beats for world evangelization, will learn how to do warfare prayer in a way that will make a measurable difference in the spread of the Kingdom of God throughout the earth.

Reflection Questions

• Does it seem strange to you that theologians in the past have not paid much attention to territorial spirits? Why?
• This chapter gives several examples of known spirits over certain areas in Old Testament times. How many more examples can you name?
• What was the problem behind the Israelites seeing Jehovah God as a mere territorial spirit? Is there any danger of that today?
• Do you think social structures such as governments or industries can be demonized? What examples can you give from your knowledge or experience?
• Do you feel that the information anthropologists uncover among different peoples has validity? Could some so-called “primitive” people know more about the spirit world than most of us do?

C_HAPTER 6

EQUIPPING THE WARRIORS

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ing geared to carry them across the threshold from civilian to military life. The major purpose of boot camp is to develop the character that will sustain a Marine in the crisis situations of battle. This is partially done through grueling physical disci- plines designed to build both muscle and stamina. But even more important is the psychological conditioning necessary to assure that every Marine believes in the mission of the Marine Corps, develops courage and self-discipline, and is fully pre- pared to submit to authority and obey commands with no questions asked.

Without the basic training of boot camp, Marines would never win a battle, much less a war.

Spiritual Boot Camp

Basic training applies equally to Christians who desire to do spiritual warfare. Too many Christians want to get involved in the action without first submitting themselves to the discipline necessary to equip a warrior for battle. To the degree that they do, they leave themselves open to serious

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personal attack, and they run the risk of bringing discredit to the Body of Christ.

Spiritual warfare should be seen as involving two simul- taneous movements: the upward and the outward. Some call them Godward and satanward. In a book that has become a Christian classic, Quiet Talks on Prayer, S.D. Gordon at around the turn of the last century pointed out that “prayer concerns three.” It first concerns God to whom we pray, then the person doing the praying, but also the evil one against whom we pray. “The purpose of prayer,” says Gordon, “is not to per- suade or influence God, but to join forces with him against the enemy.” Joining with God against satan is essential in prayer. “The real pitch is not Godward, but Satanward,” Gordon says.1

Although our goal in spiritual warfare is to join God in defeating the enemy, we must never forget that we, in our- selves, have no power to defeat him. “...Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts” (Zech. 4:6). The principle here is that it is extremely dangerous to attempt to move too far outward without first moving far enough upward. Moving upward is the spiritual boot camp, while moving outward is the battle. Just as in the Marines, the battle cannot be won without first going through boot camp.

I find it helpful to conceptualize what I am saying by using a simple diagram. I have arbitrarily numbered the upward and the outward scales from 1 to 10. Although these numbers are very subjective, the best advice I can give in spir- itual warfare is at all times to make sure you are scoring higher on the upward scale than on the outward scale.

This chapter is about the upward side of the diagram: our personal, spiritual basic training. The rest of the book will describe in some detail our battle plan and what it means to

Drawing near to God

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9

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7

6

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3

2

1

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Outward

Upward

James Tells Us How

A central text for understanding the relationship of the upward to the outward is James 4:7-8:

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

In verse 7 “submit to God” is the upward or Godward rela- tionship and “resist the devil” is the outward or the satanward

relationship. These verses elaborate on the upward action by setting out three things we must do if we are to successfully resist the devil: (1) submit to God, (2) draw near to God, and

• cleanse our hands and purify our hearts. These are three essential parts of a spiritual boot camp designed to equip the warriors.

• Submit to God

We live in a permissive society where almost anything goes. Many of today’s adults grew up in dysfunctional fami- lies where they never learned what it means to have a loving father who leads the family, protects and provides for his household, earns the love and respect of his children, and also expects obedience. Not only non-Christians, but even some Christians have a difficult time relating to the commandment, “Honor your father and mother...” (Exod. 20:12) and the biblical admonition: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right” (Eph. 6:1). Rebellion often seems to be a more popular attitude today than loyalty.

Christians who never willingly submitted to a natural father frequently find it difficult to submit to their heavenly Father. They seek God for love, gentleness, forgiveness, and healing, but draw back from God’s demands for obedience and commitment. They have never fully come to terms with the concept that “Jesus is Lord.” In first-century society when the New Testament was written, there was no doubt in any- one’s mind that a lord was to be obeyed without question. Christians who are not ready to obey God unconditionally are no more ready for spiritual warfare than Marines who are not ready to obey their commanding officers.

The Bible uses some very strong language when it deals with obedience. How do we know that we know God? “Now by this we know that  we know Him, if we keep His commandments” (1 John 2:3). The New Testament does not allow the false sepa- ration of loving God on the one hand and submitting to Him as

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• Draw Near to God

Drawing near to God is the second lesson. This has to do with our personal prayer life. Prayer in general is a broad sub- ject with many extremely important facets. But none is more important for a Christian who desires to do effective spiritual warfare than personal prayer.

Why is personal prayer that important?

Our personal prayer life is the principal barometer used to measure the quality of our relationship to God. I agree with John Wimber when he says, “Intimacy with God in prayer is a primary goal of the Christian life.” Jesus provides our exam- ple. The world knew that Jesus was authentic because Jesus did only what He saw the Father doing (see John 5:19). Wim- ber asks, “Why is our goal intimacy with God?” His percep- tive answer is that only in sustaining a close relationship with the Father “do we experience forgiveness, renewal, and power for righteous living. Only in an intimate relationship with God can we hear His voice, know His will, understand His heart.”2

Like it or not, drawing near to God requires time. If we are motivated to pray, the first and most important act of self- discipline for implementation is to set aside blocks of clock time. Once you budget the time, a kind of spiritual Parkinson’s Law

comes into play and prayer tends to expand to fill the time available. Those who do not carve out time, particularly those who rationalize their reluctance to do so by claiming, “I pray without ceasing,” usually end up praying very little.

One reason some do not dedicate much time to prayer is that they don’t enjoy it. My daughter Ruth hated to wash dishes when she was at home. I was amused to observe through the years that by far the most urgent and critical demand on her time invariably came immediately after we finished dinner. Since she hated to wash dishes, there was always some higher priority demand on her time.

Many Christians have the same attitude toward personal prayer. There always seems to be something more urgent to do. Time for prayer is scarce because other activities have higher priority. Some even make the statement that “prayer is hard work.” I have a difficult time understanding this if the essence of prayer truly is a relationship of intimacy with the Father. It would be like me saying, “Spending time with my wife, Doris, is hard work.” I would never say that for two reasons. First, it is not hard work; it is pure joy. Second, if I did say it, she would take it as an insult, and I wouldn’t blame her. Could it be that God might take such an attitude as an insult also?

Enjoying Prayer

How can personal prayer become more enjoyable?

I plan on writing more about personal prayer in another book in this series on prayer, but because developing strong personal prayer habits is so essential to preparing spiritual warriors for battle, I will briefly mention five principles that will help a great deal if you want to enjoy prayer more:

• The place. Find a comfortable, peaceful place as your habitual place of prayer. Having a pleasant and familiar environment will bring you more quickly and naturally into an attitude of prayer. To help you relax, take a cup

of coffee or a glass of juice with you. There is nothing wrong with feeling good while you are praying.

• The time. I agree with Larry Lea that a reasonable long- range goal for a daily prayer time is one hour.3 I also understand that for many this will be a lifelong goal that may never be reached on a regular basis. If you are starting from scratch, use short-range goals and plan to increase the time gradually. If this sounds quite demanding to you, try starting with five minutes, then increase it to ten. In my opinion, five minutes every day is much more valuable than 15 minutes every three days, even though I would consider either clearly inad- equate for strategic-level spiritual warfare.
• The attitude. Concentrate on making your prayer time a personal relationship with God. I like what Pastor John Bisagno says: “Prayer is a conversation, a union, an intermingling of two personalities. God speaks to me and I speak to Him.” For many of us, it will take some effort and experience to allow this to happen because we are not used to hearing from God. Bisagno says, “Waiting on God is not a mere abstract passing of time. It is a definite spiritual exercise during which, after having spoken to God, He in turn, speaks to you.”4 Few things will make prayer more enjoyable than hearing God speak to you. Some experienced pray-ers even take notes on what He says and call it “journaling.”
• The format. I strongly suggest using the Lord’s Prayer as a daily format for the entire prayer time. This advice has been frequently given since the time of Martin Luther, but the present day manual I recommend most is Larry Lea’s Could You Not Tarry One Hour? (Creation House).
• The quality. Experience shows that the quality of prayer usually follows the quantity, not vice versa. As

you develop a personal prayer life, do not be over con- cerned with sleepiness or daydreaming. Quality will come over time. I once heard Mike Bickle, leader of the International House of Prayer, say that if you set aside 60 minutes for prayer you may begin by getting five good minutes. But then the five become ten, the ten become 20, and the quality increases.

Enjoying prayer is a sure sign that you are receiving good preparation for spiritual warfare.

Fasting

From time to time, when Jesus’ disciples ran into trouble trying to cast out a demon, Jesus had to instruct them that cer- tain kinds come out only through prayer and fasting (see Matt. 17:21). Just as it is necessary for us to draw near to God through prayer, it is also necessary to draw near through fast- ing. Learning how to fast is part of spiritual boot camp.

Many who read this will be experienced, practicing fasters. This short section is not for you, but for those who are wondering how to begin. Although there are many different kinds of fasts, the most common, and the one I recommend for starting, is to abstain from food, but not drink, for a given period of time. So far as drink is concerned, all agree that water is basic. Some add coffee or tea, some add fruit juices. All also agree that something like a milkshake goes too far and is not in the spirit of fasting. The fast involves an intentional practice of self-denial, and this spiritual discipline has been known through the centuries as a means for opening our- selves to God and drawing closer to Him.

I think fasting should be practiced both on a regular basis and also occasionally as needed or as agreed. I myself am just a beginner, so I have decided to discipline myself not to eat anything between Tuesday supper and Wednesday noon. This, I have found, is not hard to do. The hardest part was to

decide to do it. This is my regular fast, and it has taken any reticence about fasting away from me. On this basis, the occa- sional, longer fasts are much easier. A while ago, for example, I was invited to a retreat where we were to pray and fast all day long, and because of the habit I had developed, I had no problem at all.

Sometimes we don’t encourage other members of the Body of Christ to fast because we recall Jesus’ rebuke to the Pharisees that they sinned by making a public display of fast- ing (see Matt. 6:16-18). Just because we should fast in secret does not mean, in my opinion, that we should keep fasting a secret or not encourage others to do it by our example. That is why I share my present fasting habits in print here. We need to talk about fasting more and do it more.

To the degree that fasting becomes more of a norm in our day-to-day Christian life as individuals and congregations, we will become more effective in spiritual warfare.

Drawing near to God through prayer and fasting is the second important lesson of spiritual boot camp.

• Cleanse Your Hands; Purify Your Hearts

In His instructions for submitting to God, Jesus says, “Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (James 4:8). Cleansing the hands refers to what you do, and purifying the hearts is what you think or feel. Put together, this is a call to holiness, and holiness includes both attitude and action.

Developing holiness is essential for a spiritual warrior. Unfortunately, various aspects of holiness have been so blown out of biblical proportion in recent times that holiness has become not a blessing for spiritual warfare as God intends it, but a barrier to effective spiritual warfare. This is an important enough aspect of spiritual boot camp training that I feel it needs considerable attention in this chapter.

The “Bless Me” Trap

In August 1990, 25,000 Charismatics gathered in the Indi- anapolis Hoosier Dome for the third largest congress of its kind. Some observers felt the meeting represented a turning point of sorts for the Charismatic movement. A Christianity Today editorial commented approvingly that this time the Charismatics did not gather just for hand raising, fervent praying, and exuberant singing as they had in the past. This time they were challenged to move out in aggressive evangel- ism at home and abroad, especially targeting the poor.

In fact, Christianity Today was bold enough to suggest that Indianapolis was an indication that the Charismatic move- ment is “coming of age.”5

What is it that would cause some evangelicals and others to regard the 30-year-old Charismatic movement as less than mature? Vinson Synan, the congress director and chairperson of the sponsoring North American Renewal Service Commit- tee, probably put his finger on it when he said, “This was not a bless me conference.”6

Synan was comparing the attendance of the 1977 Kansas City conference (50,000) and the 1987 New Orleans conference (35,000) to the 25,000 in Indianapolis. Both Kansas City and New Orleans were regarded by the leadership as “bless me” events. But the theme of Indianapolis was “Evangelize the World—Now!” Synan’s view is that when the emphasis shifted from bless me to bless them, the interest among Charismatics dropped considerably, and so did the attendance.

Charismatics certainly do not hold a corner on the “bless me” brand of Christianity despite the disproportionately high profile of some rather questionable application of healing and prosperity teaching. Countless thousands of non-Charismatic churches also suffer severe cases of “koinonitis,” which is legitimate Christian fellowship gone to seed. “Visitors wel- come” signs over the front door of the church mean virtually

nothing in all too many cases. The “bless me” trap knows no denominational boundaries.

Churches, of course, should bless me. Few people would attend if there were no personal benefits. Jesus says, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). We invite our hurting friends to come to church with us so they can experience emotional, physical, and spiri- tual healing. In a real and legitimate sense the Church is seen as a hospital to care for the wounded.

But while the Church rightly functions as a hospital for healing the wounded, it must also be seen as a barracks for the warriors. It is a place for teaching, training, equipping, and spiritual conditioning. It is a place where people are filled with the Holy Spirit and power not simply to bless them, but also to empower them to be witnesses for Jesus in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth (see Acts 1:8). The Church does what healing is neces- sary, but the primary function of the healing is to build up the troops for moving out to the front lines in Kingdom min- istries of all kinds.

Holiness for Warfare

Holiness is as indispensable for a spiritual warrior as is good eyesight for a military fighter pilot. Most Christian lead- ers will agree with this, but some go on to develop the idea of holiness on a first grade Dick and Jane level. They deal with the milk of the Word on holiness, but do not seem to get to the meat. And others, in their commendable desire to emphasize holiness, tend toward an extreme that would imply holiness is an end in itself. If God just blesses us with enough holiness, if we concentrate on polishing Christians to a high enough lus- ter, effective ministry will supposedly flow forth on its own. This may be somewhat of a caricature, but it is one of the cur- rent approaches that can easily lead to the “bless me” trap. To

be effective in spiritual warfare, we need to understand some of the deeper implications of holiness.

Relationships and Rules

The two major facets of Christian holiness are (1) rela- tionships and (2) obedience. Both are prominent in the book of Galatians, a book written for the express purpose of help- ing Christians live the Christian life in God’s way. The churches in Galatia were a mixture of believers from two dis- tinct backgrounds. Some were Jews who had received Jesus as their Messiah. Some were pagans who had received Jesus as their Lord. The Jews knew all about obedience to the law, and Paul had to admonish them not to revert to the idea that keeping the law would in itself please God. “Are you so fool- ish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect  by the flesh?” (Gal. 3:3). The Jews needed to be reminded that the basis of our holiness is our personal relationship to God as children.

The pagans, on the other hand, knew all about relation- ships to supernatural beings, in their case the principalities, powers, and evil spirits. Paul had to admonish them not to turn back to the demonic forces in times of need or crisis. “But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?” (Gal. 4:9). The pagans needed to be reminded that the basis of our holiness is not only a rela- tionship, but obedience to God as our master.

How, then, are relationships and rules brought together?

I believe the answer to this crucial question becomes clear as we consider three vital aspects of our relationship to God:

• God is our Father. We begin with a loving relationship to Christ. We are children who say, “Abba, Father!” (Gal. 4:6).

• God is our master. We have a loving desire to obey Christ’s will. We are slaves and we obey, even though we are children. “The heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave...” (Gal. 4:1).
• —

—

to love Jesus and do what He wants.

A relationship of any kind has its demands. My wife Doris and I have maintained a quality relationship for more than   55 years. But it is not maintained automatically. Each of us has our own personality and its accompanying set of standards. We have discovered that our relationship is better if we adhere to each other’s standards. The same thing applies to our rela- tionship to Jesus. The sooner we learn the rules and keep them, the better we get along together. The major New Testa- ment passages on holiness such as Ephesians 4:17-32 and Colossians 3:5-24 spell out the rules in some detail. In Gala- tians, Paul lists both the works of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21) and the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23).

Holiness is not to love Jesus and do whatever you want. Holiness is to love Jesus and do what He wants. The relation- ship is basic, but how do we know if we are correctly related to Jesus? “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments” (1 John 2:3).

Who Is Holy?

If holiness is a prerequisite for spiritual warfare, can a per- son actually be holy? Can I declare that I have attained holi- ness? If I can’t, why do we keep admonishing one another to be holy?

At first, these may sound like confusing questions. But the confusion is cleared up if we ask two questions instead of one. The first question is: can anyone be holy? The answer is yes. Every Christian is holy. The second question is: can anyone be holy enough? The answer is no. No Christian is holy enough.

It is important, of course, to make sure we understand what the word holiness means. The Greek hagios means to be set apart; biblically it means to be set apart for God.7 It is syn- onymous to sanctification. But the biblical emphasis is on the relationship more than the being set apart.

In the sense of being set aside for God, every Christian has been made holy through the new birth. Peter says we are a “holy priesthood” (1 Pet. 2:5) and a “holy nation” (1 Pet. 2:9). Jesus will “present you holy, and blameless, and irreproachable in His sight” (Col. 1:22). Paul reminds the believers in Corinth, “...you were sanctified…by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11). If you are born again, you can truly say, “Yes, I am holy.”

But you cannot say, “I am holy enough.” Positionally, as  a child of God, you no longer practice sin. “Whoever abides in Him does not sin...” (1 John 3:6). But while the desire of your heart as prompted by the Holy Spirit is no longer to practice sin as a lifestyle, you are not yet perfect. You do, in fact, sin, and you might as well admit it. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). This is why Jesus tells us to pray daily, “Forgive us our sins...” (Luke 11:4).

Maturing in Holiness

Well, if we can’t ever be holy enough, can we at least be more holy than we were, say, last year? Certainly. I believe I can honestly say that I was more holy in 1990 than I was in 1980. I fully hope, plan and intend to be still more holy 10 years from now. In 20 years, according to actuarial tables, I will probably be holy enough at last, because I will likely be in Jesus’ presence!

In their enthusiasm for attaining greater holiness, some have fallen into the temptation Paul was trying to warn the Galatians against. They have selected certain outward actions or experiences as visible tests of the attainment of holiness or sanctification or fullness of the Spirit. Members of some churches knowingly wink at each other and say, “I had my experience in 1986. When did you have yours?”

Some years ago while cutting my hair, a barber told me he had his experience 14 years previously and since then he had never sinned. The accomplishment of outward standards, good as they might be, is not a biblical approach to measuring holiness. Much more important is holiness of heart or inward holiness. The direction one is heading is more significant than outward accomplishments, as Jesus’ words to the Pharisees in Matthew 6 clearly indicate.

Reasons for Outward Standards

What good are outward standards? Outward standards help us in our quest for holiness in three ways:

First, we can define the absence of holiness by using out- ward standards. At the same time, we cannot define the pres- ence of holiness by compliance with such, as we have just seen. If we habitually use the Lord’s name in vain, engage in extramarital sex, and falsify financial reports—to give three

examples of outward standards—we can be sure that we are not holy.

Second, outward standards are indicators of maturity. God is a good father—He understands His spiritual children. But He also expects His children to grow up, just as we do our natural children. What parent hasn’t said to a child in first grade, “Stop acting like a 2-year-old!” Sometimes God has to say that to us. Paul displayed his frustration at the Corinthians when he said with disgust, “I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ” (1 Cor. 3:1). Keep in mind that this spiritual maturity will be most evi- dent through mature character traits rather than checking off someone’s list of rules.

Third, the highest New Testament standards are for lead- ers. As the requirements for elders and deacons in the pastoral epistles reflect, outward actions and visible, overt, public tes- timonies are necessary requirements, not for avoiding excom- munication from the Church, but for qualifying for leadership positions (see 1 Tim. 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-9).

How Much Is Enough?

If Christians are never holy enough, but if they can advance in holiness, how far do they need to advance before moving out in ministry? How much refinement do the troops need before they are sent into battle?

In answering these questions, four dangers need to be avoided:

• Waiting until you are perfect before moving out. This results in ministry paralysis since no one makes it to perfection in this life.
• Regarding holiness as an end in itself. This results in the “bless me” syndrome, which so many are trying to avoid these days.

• Expecting ministry to self-generate from a holy life. This results in the inward journey turning out to be a dead-end street. Ministry requires motivation and ini- tiative regardless of the level of holiness.
• Relating effectiveness in ministry to compliance with certain outward indicators of holiness. This results in pride and self-centeredness.

Principles for Warfare

Now for the principles. We want to be good spiritual war- riors, so we know we must achieve holiness. Yet we want to avoid the “bless me” trap and ministry paralysis. Here are five principles that will help equip us for battle:

• Be sure you are in proper relationship to God. The basics are: knowing you are born again, knowing you have a satisfactory personal prayer life, and knowing you are filled with the Holy Spirit. Note: this check- point is in proper relationship to God, not a perfect relationship. The crucial test is that your heart’s desire is to know God more intimately and to please Him in all things.
• Confess all known sins. Most mature believers know when they have sinned. But just to check periodically, use the list of the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-21 and other bibical lists of sins as a starting point. Francis Frangipane warns: “If you attempt to bind a principal- ity or power while you harbor sin in your heart, you will surely be defeated.”8 Note: do not indulge in spiri- tual self-flagellation. That is also a work of the flesh. Something is wrong if you do not feel good unless you feel guilty. Allow the Holy Spirit Himself to convict you of sin.
• Seek healing for persistent sin patterns. If you have a heart for God but a particular sin continues to surface,

this is a spiritual illness for which you must seek heal- ing just as you would seek healing for a bladder infec- tion or sugar diabetes. Note: you will usually need outside help for this inner healing. Get the help before you attempt any ministry, but especially before you attempt spiritual warfare.

• Allow others to read your spiritual barometer. Relate closely to a number of other people whose spirituality you respect and who know you well enough to be frank with you. Note: too much openness, especially in public, can itself become pathological. But by keeping everything to yourself, you have no way to test the accuracy of your self-evaluations.
• The higher God calls you to leadership, the higher your standards of holiness. Many levels of Christian ministry are not overly demanding for holiness, although mature holiness is a goal for all believers. Some forms of ministry are like playing touch football with kids on the front lawn. Not too demanding. But other levels of ministry are more like the National Football League, and they require a spiritual conditioning that is considerably above the average. Note: strategic-level spiritual warfare should be considered more in the NFL category. If you feel you are gifted and called to this kind of ministry, be especially strict with yourself.

If your score on this checklist is satisfactory, you are ready for ministry. Don’t separate holy character from giftings or ministry, or you will end up with hypocrisy. At the same time, don’t wait until you have attained superholiness before you do ministry, or you will end up in the “bless me” trap.

The Whole Armor of God

A manual I like for equipping warriors for battle is Larry Lea’s The Weapons of Your Warfare. In it he lists the blood of

Jesus, prayer, the whole armor of God, praise, speaking the Word, the name of Jesus, and perseverance as “God’s store- house of spiritual weapons.” Space will not permit me to elaborate on all of them here, so I will simply recommend Lea’s book as a textbook for your spiritual warfare boot camp.

I do, however, want to mention the whole armor of God before concluding this chapter. In The Weapons of Your Warfare, Larry Lea uses the American “dress for success” mentality as an illustration. Many self-help books instruct aspiring busi- ness people on how certain clothing gives them a “look” that will allow them to move up the business ladder more rapidly. He then goes on to say that putting on the whole armor of God is “the only way to dress for success in the Lord, because the whole armor of God is a prerequisite to taking the King- dom of God by force.”9

Paul’s metaphor of the armor of the Roman Legionnaire gives us a list of vital elements in the preparation of spiritual warriors (see Eph. 6:14-17). Our loins need to be girded with truth. Jesus Himself is the way, the truth, and the life (see John 14:6). We put on a breastplate of righteousness. Our heart is protected by the holiness of cleansing our hands and purify- ing our hearts as we have seen earlier. The shield of faith pro- tects us from satan’s fiery darts. The helmet of salvation reminds us that we belong to Jesus and that we are assured of final victory in the battle.

As I have read extensively in the area of spiritual warfare, I am puzzled by the considerable number of authors who feel the need to make a special point that all the pieces of the armor of God are defensive. The fact is that the warrior not only wears armor and holds a shield, but has a sword in his right hand. The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, is certainly an offensive weapon. I enjoy Walter Wink’s com- ment, “It is humorous to watch the statement bob from

scholar to scholar that the weapons here are all ‘defensive.’ The Pentagon says the same about nuclear missiles.”10

Some, I believe, want to hope against hope that since Christ has defeated satan on the cross, all we are expected to do is to “stand.” If we stand around with our hands in our pockets, evil will somehow not bother us or our society. But this is not what Paul had in mind when he wrote Ephesians 6. Clinton Arnold raises the question whether “to stand” is static or dynamic. He asks, “Is the reader also called upon to take more ‘offensive’ action such as in proclaiming the redemptive message of the gospel to humanity held in bondage by the devil?”

His conclusion is, “The flow of the context also reveals that the author conceives of ‘standing’ in offensive terms.”11

Using the whole armor of God, then, we are ready not only to protect ourselves from satan’s onslaughts, but also to overcome the strong man and advance the Kingdom of God.

Reflection Questions

• Discuss the upward and outward scale. Explain in your own words what this means.
• If you were to give yourself a test on submitting to God and drawing near to God, what grade would you give yourself?
• Do you agree that Christians should spend one hour a day in personal prayer, or is this unrealistic?
• Do you have any experience with fasting? If so, describe it and discuss it.
• Are you more holy than you used to be? How do you know?

(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.)