Spiritual warfare is a topic that is both biblical and contemporary. As the apostle Paul has said, “we are not fighting against human beings but against the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age” (Eph 6:12 GNB). And those of us who approach counseling and broader ministry from a spiritual and Spirit-led perspective soon discover that Satan is alive and active today on both of the levels spoken of below.
Whether it is the temptation in the Garden (Gen 3), the constant conflict between Yahweh and the various gods of Israel’s neighbors (e.g. Baal, Ashteroth, Chemosh, etc.) over the allegiance of Israel (e.g. Josh 24:14-24), the discussion between God and Satan over Job (Job 1), the hindrance by the “Prince of Persia” of the answer to Daniel’s prayer (Dan 10:13), the temptations of Jesus by Satan (Lk 4:1-13) or the various references in Acts (e.g. 16:16-18; 19:11-20), the Epistles (e.g. 1 Cor 10:18-21; 2 Cor 10:4-5; 1 Pet 5:8; 1 Jn 3:8) and Revelation (e.g. chs 2-3), it is clear that Scripture portrays human life as lived in a context of continual warfare between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan.
Though the concept has been questioned by ivory tower theoreticians (e.g. Guelich 19 ), spiritual warfare is an important biblical reality and, for those of us who are practitioners, a continual existential reality. Jesus treated Satan and demonic forces as real foes, frequently casting out demons and thus setting free people he called “captives” and “oppressed” (Lk 4:18). Such language is warfare language. Furthermore, He calls Satan “the ruler of this world” (Jn 14:30) but, according to John, His work will result in the destruction of Satan’s works (e.g. 1 Jn 3:8) and, according to the author of Hebrews, of Satan himself (Heb 2:14). In a similar vein, Paul refers to Satan as “the evil god of this world” who “keeps [people] from seeing the light shining on them” because “their minds have been kept in the dark” (2 Cor 4:4 GNB) and John says, “the whole world is under the rule of the Evil One” (1 Jn 5:19). These, too, are images that point to the need for warfare on the part of God’s forces to defeat the enemy.
Like most of the world today, biblical peoples saw the world as populated by enemy spirits that could cause trouble if they were not properly dealt with. Unfortunately, through most of its history, the people of Israel chose to deal with these spirits as the animistic peoples around them did rather than as God commanded them to. So God is constantly warning His people against worshiping the gods of the nations around them and punishing them when they disobey (e.g. Ex 34:11-17). We know that our God is a patient God. He has demonstrated this countless times in His dealings with human beings. But there are areas of life, especially those dealing with the counterfeiting of his power-oriented activities in which He has made it clear that there is to be no compromise.
Note, as one of many examples, what God said to Solomon in 1 Kings 11 (esp vv 9-13) concerning the penalty he would have to pay for disobeying Him by turning to other gods. God was angry with Solomon and took the kingdom away from his son because of his idolatry. In Acts 5, then, Peter asks Ananias why he “let Satan take control” of him (v 3) that he should lie to the Holy Spirit about the price of the property he had sold. And in 1 Corinthians 10:20-21 we are warned against eating what has been offered to demons. This warning, then, is given even more sternly in Revelation 2:14 and 20.
But Jesus came “to destroy what the Devil had done” (1 Jn 3:8) and gives his followers “power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases” (Lk 9:1,2 GNB) and to do the works that He Himself had done while on earth (Jn 14:12). We can’t be either biblical or relevant without a solid approach to spiritual power that involves us in a war between God and Satan. Unfortunately, pastors, missionaries and others who seek to minister in the name of Jesus Christ have usually been blinded by a western worldview that ignores this facet of biblical teaching and social concern. However, if we are to be truly biblical and effective in following our Master, we need to learn biblically legitimate and culturally appropriate approaches to such areas of Christian experience as warfare prayer, deliverance from demons, healing, blessing and cursing, territorial spirits, and dedications.
Prayer and Obedience in Spiritual Warfare
Certain principles govern the way spiritual power operates in the universe (see Kraft 1994). Among them is the scriptural fact that there is a very close relationship between what goes on in human life and what goes on in the spirit realm. This fact leads to better understandings of the ways in which prayer and obedience affect what goes on in the heavenlies.
When the veil is thrown back on interactions between God and Satan, we note that, at least on some occasions, Satan seeks, and sometimes obtains, special permission from God to disrupt human lives (e.g. Job 1; Lk 22:31-32). We learn, then, from Daniel 10:13 (an answer to prayer delayed by a demonic being) and 2 Corinthians 4:4 (blinding unbelievers) that the enemy can sometimes be successful in thwarting God’s plans. See also 2 Peter 3:9 where we are told that God “does not want anyone to be destroyed,” but Scripture indicates that many will be lost, because we allow the Devil’s influence in human affairs. In addition, we see throughout Scripture examples of people greatly enabling Satan to do his work through their obedience to Satan and disobedience to God. Satan thus wins many battles in spiritual warfare.
The other side of the warfare motif in Scripture shows, however, that humans can do things that thwart the enemy’s plans, such as prayer and other acts of obedience to God. Since the relationship between the spirit and human worlds is very close, it becomes clear that whatever is done in the human world has great implications in the spirit world. One of the rules seems to be that when humans honor and obey a spirit being, that being is enabled to do more of what he wants to in the human arena. Thus, when people obey God, God is able to do more of His will among humans than otherwise would be possible. When, then, people obey Satan, Satan is enabled to do more of his will.
Prayer, then, along with fasting, repentance, forgiveness, righteousness and every other attitude and behavior that humans do in obedience to God, can be seen as acts of war and means of enabling God to accomplish His plans in the human realm. When we pray as Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father in heaven: May your holy name be honored” and “may your Kingdom come; may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” and “forgive us the wrongs we have done, as we forgive the wrongs that others have done to us” and “do not bring us to hard testing, but keep us safe from the Evil One” (Mt 6:9-13 GNB), we are partnering with God to enable Him to defeat the enemy and to do His will in our lives.
The term “prayer” is, however, used to label several different kinds of obedience to God. When we pray, we ask for things as Jesus commanded us to do (Jn 15:7; 16:24), we confess our sins (1 Jn 1:9), we thank God (Eph 5:20) and we intercede for others as Jesus did in John 17:1-26. There are, however, two other types of activity usually referred to as prayer that, along with intercession, are especially related to spiritual warfare. These are what I call “intimacy prayer” and “authority prayer” (Kraft 1997:49-52).
Intimacy prayer is what Jesus practiced when He went off to deserted places to spend time alone with the Father (e.g. Mt 14:23; Lk 6:12, 9:28). This type of prayer is basically being with God in fellowship, conversation and listening to Him for direction. It is, then, what Jesus said is necessary between Him and us if we are to bear the fruit He expects us to bear (Jn 15:1-17).
Authority prayer should not, I believe, be called prayer, though we regularly speak of praying for healing or deliverance. This is, rather, the taking of Jesus’ authority over conditions that are against God’s will and asserting His power against that of the enemy. When we follow Jesus’ example and command demons to release their grip and to leave a person, we are asserting the authority Jesus gave us (Lk 9:1) to do His will in freeing that person. Likewise when we assert His authority in healing people, blessing people or objects, breaking the enemy’s power over objects or places and the like. Most of what is discussed below assumes that this kind of “praying” will be used to wage the warfare we are called to wage against our enemy.
Animism vs God-Given Authority
Most of the world, including most of the adherents of “world religions” practice what anthropologists and missiologists call “animism.” This is the belief, and the practices that go with that belief, that the world is full of spirits that can hurt us unless we are careful to appease them. Animists may or may not believe in a high god. When they do, he is usually seen as benign and thus in little if any need of attention. All animists agree, however, that the dangerous spirits need to be watched and kept happy. In addition, most animists believe that evil spirits can inhabit material objects and places such as certain mountains (e.g. OT high places), trees, statues (e.g. idols), rocks (e.g. the Ka’aba in Mecca), rivers (e.g. the Ganges), territories, fetishes, charms and any other thing or place that is dedicated to the spirits. Animists also believe in magic and the ability of at least certain people to convey power via curses, blessings, spells and the like.
Many westerners, unacquainted with animism, have difficulty with the fact that the Bible both recognizes the validity of the power and the power techniques practiced by animists and teaches us to use similar techniques based on similar principles. The deceptive thing is that much of what God does and endorses looks on the surface like what animists do. There is a reason, but those without experience and understanding of what’s going on in the interaction between the spirit world and the human world can easily miss it as Priest and his coauthors did when they accused myself and others of practicing what they called “Christian animism” (see Rommen, ed. 1995).
The reason why animism and Christianity look so similar is that the basic difference between them and us is not the presence or absense of power but the source of that power. In areas such as healing, dedicating and blessing, for example, we and they have the capability of doing essentially the same things but the source of their power is Satan, the source of ours is God. We learn both from Scripture and from practical experience that many, if not all of the rules that apply to God’s interactions with humans also apply to the ways the enemy interacts with us (see Kraft 1994). For example, obedience to God in prayer, worship, sacrifice and service enables Him to carry out His purposes in the world. On the other side, obedience to Satan in these same ways enables him to accomplish his purposes. The importance of obedience and the fact that this is a warfare issue are thus underlined.
For example, animists believe that objects such as idols or implements used in religious rituals may be dedicated to gods or spirits and thus contain spiritual power. Christians believe that objects can be dedicated to our God and thus convey His power (e.g. Paul’s handkerchiefs, the Ark of the Covenant, the communion elements, anointing oil). On the surface, containing and conveying power look the same, especially since what animists believe to be power contained in objects is in reality satanic power conveyed by them. For another example, animist diviners, shamans, priests, etc. can heal with the power of Satan. God, of course, also heals. The fact that satanic healing leads sooner or later to captivity and misery is not immediately apparent to the one healed. Nor is the fact that God’s healing leads to freedom and peace. On the surface, both types of healing look the same and people whose primary concern is for the healing rather than for a relationship with the Healer are easily deceived, especially since demons seem often to work faster than God does.
Our authority as Christians versus the authority Satan can give his followers is an important issue at this point. When we exercise the power and authority Jesus gives us to do things animists do, such as healing, casting out demons, blessing people and objects, dedicating buildings, praying for rain or against floods, we are not animists. For we are working in God’s power, not Satan’s. We are fighting the battle against Satan, not capitulating to him. We are simply exercising the authority Jesus gave His disciples (Lk 9:1) and told them to teach their followers (Mt 28:19).
We may summarize some of the major issues in this discussion by means of the following chart designed to show many of the contrasts between animism and God-given authority. Note again that the primary expressions of each of these areas will look very similar at the surface level. It is in the underlying power and motivations that they differ. The weapons of our warfare are the same as those employed by the counterfeiter, Satan, but the source of the power by which we use these weapons and the source of our authority to use these weapons is God.
ANIMISMGOD-GIVEN AUTHORITYPOWER Believed to be contained in people & objectsGod conveys His power through people & objectsNEED (in order to utilize spiritual power)Felt need to learn how to manipulate spirit power thru magic or authority over spiritsWe are to submit to God & learn to work with Him in the exercise of power & authority from HimONTOLOGY (what is really going on)Power from Satan: He is the one who manipulatesPower from God: He empowers & uses usGODGod is good but distant, therefore ignore HimGod is good, therefore relate to Him. He is close and involved with usSPIRITSFearful & can hurt us, therefore appease themThey are defeated, therefore assert God’s authority over themPEOPLEVictims of capricious spirits who never escape from being victimsPeople are captives, but we can assert Jesus’ authority to free themCOSTThose who receive power from Satan suffer great tragedy laterThose who work with God experience love and power throughout lifeHOPENo hopeWe win
Satan is very good at protecting himself from what he knows to be a power much greater than his. He knows that God has infinitely more power than he has and that Jesus passed this power on to us, His followers. Satan’s primary strategy, therefore, is to keep God’s people ignorant and deceived so that we cannot use God’s power against him (see below).
Gods, Idols and Divination
Our concern to wage spiritual warfare effectively must take into account the strong negative pronouncements by God concerning compromise with other gods, idols and the ways in which their power is engaged. The Old Testament, especially, is an excellent textbook from which today’s peoples can learn what is and is not allowable. As mentioned, most of today’s peoples share with the peoples of biblical times the understanding that the world is populated by evil spirits and that higher level spirits are in charge of territory (see Dan 10:13, 21). God never counters that belief. However, God does not approve of honoring these spirits when it is assumed, as it commonly was in biblical times and is now in most of the world, that when we enter the territory of any given spirit, we are to be polite and to recognize that spirit’s right to control the territory. Indeed, God got quite angry and taught the people a lesson when it was assumed that he was only powerful in the mountains but not on the plains (1 Ki 20:23-30).
The Bible, both Old and New Testaments, is clear that the worship of any god but the true God is not permitted. We are to “worship no god but me [Yahweh]” (Ex 20:3 GNB). There are, then, to be no idols made or worshipped because “I am the Lord your God and I tolerate no rivals” (Ex 20:5 GNB). And among the warnings in the New Testament is the command at the end of 1 John, “My children, keep yourselves safe from false gods!” (1 Jn 5:21 GNB).
Perhaps the clearest indication of what God feels about his people having relationships with other gods is found in the accounts of God’s wrath after Israel at Mount Sinai turned to worshiping the golden calf (Ex 32) and at Peor the god of Moab (Num 25). At Sinai, God was so angry that He threatened to wipe out the whole nation. He did have 3,000 killed by the sword (v 28) and many more through disease (v 35) but He spared the nation. At Peor, God became very angry at the Israelite leaders who attended feasts with Moabite women “where the god of Moab was worshipped” and where “the Israelites ate the food and worshipped the god Baal of Peor” (vv 2-3). God was so angry at them that he commanded that those who had participated in that worship should be killed publicly (v 4). Then He sent an epidemic that killed 24,000 people (vv 8, 9). God stopped the epidemic only when Phinehas, Aaron’s grandson, drove his spear through an Israelite man and a Midianite woman who openly challenged the prohibition by committing adultery in the Israelite’s tent (vv7, 8).
Several other practices are also forbidden to God’s people and labeled as the reasons why God gave his people the right to drive out the inhabitants of Palestine. In Deuteronomy 18:9-13 several of these things are listed and labeled “disgusting practices.” The practices listed there are, sacrificing children, divination, looking for omens, using spells or charms and consulting spirits of the dead. The text says, “God hates people who do these disgusting things, and that is why he is driving those nations out of the land as you advance” (v 12).
So it is clear that many common pagan practices involving spiritual power are forbidden. God does not tolerate appeasing pagan gods or spirits or seeking information, health, wealth or blessing from them. We are to war against such practices, especially among those who claim to have committed themselves to God.
It is frightening to think of what such total condemnation says to those who today practice “dual allegiance” by claiming to be committed to the true God but also seeking help from satanic sources. A majority of Christians in nonwestern, and many in western contexts, find so little spiritual power in their Christian contexts that they regularly seek help from nonChristian power sources (e.g. shamans, pagan priests, fortune tellers, tarot cards, horoscopes). In most of the world the kind of Christianity they have received has been strong on the intellectual and spiritual distinctives of western evangelical Christianity but virtually powerless in areas such as healing, deliverance, blessing and the other areas traditionally covered by pagan shamans and priests. So, failing to find these needs met within Christianity, the Christians (including many pastors and other church leaders) have continued to go to their traditional power brokers.
If, as these Scriptures say, God tolerates no rivals, the situation is serious if appealing to these other gods and spirits for help constitutes worship. We can hope, though, that God takes the ignorance of such people and their missionaries into account. We find in 2 Kings 5 that God does take pagan authority relationships into account. After Naaman was healed and committed himself to the God of Israel, he asked the prophet Elisha how he should now behave when he is required by his master to accompany him to a pagan temple. He says, “I hope that the Lord will forgive me when I accompany my king to the temple of Rimmon, the god of Syria, and worship him” (v 18). Elisha simply says, “Go in peace” (v 19), indicating that God will understand and not hold it against Naaman.
Though Israel continued to believe in many gods for some time, the true God insisted that there be no compromise with regard to allegiance. And no contacting spirits or dead people for insight into the future. God led His people, however, to capture and purify for His use places of worship (the high places) and rituals and initiation rites such as circumcision and baptism.
Power Encounter
An important part of the discussion of spiritual warfare is the concept of power encounter. This is a concept suggested by Fuller missiologist Alan Tippett (1987) to label an event commonly experienced by the peoples of the South Pacific as they converted to Christianity. Tippett noted that people usually had come to Christ in large groupings soon after a major confrontation that tested the power of their ancestral gods against that of the Christian God resulting in an obvious victory for the latter. These encounters were reminiscent of the scriptural encounters between Moses and Pharaoh (Exodus 7-12) and between Elijah and the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18).
A typical power encounter would involve a priest or chief who had decided to follow Jesus, speaking on behalf of his people, publicly denouncing their allegiance to their god(s) in the name of Jesus and challenging the god(s) to do something about it. When the god(s) could not respond, the victory belonged to Jesus and large numbers of the people usually converted. As Tippett noted, power-oriented people require power-proof, not simply reasoning, if they are to be convinced (Tippett 1971:81). This is as true among power-oriented people in the West and throughout the world today as it is of those in the South Pacific. The value and validity of an approach to evangelism that involves power confrontations is widely accepted today in missiological thinking and practice, since it is recognized that most of the peoples of the world today (including an increasing number of Westerners), as well as the Israelites of Jesus day, are power-oriented.
Current theorists (e.g. Wimber, Wagner, Kraft) have seen the concept of power encounter as virtually synonymous with the concept of spiritual warfare, agreeing that in addition to the spectacular encounters Tippett pointed to, healing and deliverance from demons are also power encounters. They see Jesus’ ministry as one large power encounter that includes numerous smaller power encounters in which, through healing and deliverance He freed people from the power of Satan. It is argued that these encounters qualify as genuine power encounters since they involve the pitting of the power of God to bring freedom against the power of Satan to keep people in bondage. As with the power encounters Tippett pointed to, such smaller “signs and wonders,” both in Jesus’ ministry and since, have frequently resulted in the conversion of families and even larger groups who accepted the healing or deliverance as demonstrating the presence and power of God. There is, however, some difference of opinion over whether such encounters should be planned or simply taken advantage of when they occur.
It important to note that conversion through power encounter does not assure that the movement will be stable and enduring. Throughout the Scriptures we see that people can observe God’s mightiest demonstrations of power but soon go right back to the gods who were defeated. Thus it was both after Moses defeated Pharaoh and Elijah defeated the Prophets of Baal. So it has been in many of the power events in the South Pacific and elsewhere. The crucial dimension, as always in conversion, is what happens after the turning, whether people feed and grow their new relationship or neglect it and let it die.
Three Crucial Dimensions
In any employment of power encounters in spiritual warfare, we need to keep our focus balanced. For spiritual power in Scripture is never an end in and of itself. The aim of power encounters is freedom. And this freedom provides the basis from which the Christian can operate in two other crucial dimensions: the allegiance-relationship dimension and the truth-understanding dimension. These two, plus the power-freedom dimension are what I am calling the three crucial dimensions of Christianity and of spiritual warfare. These dimensions are highlighted by Jesus in Luke 9:11 where after the twelve had returned from their first teaching and healing excursion and a large crowd had gathered, Jesus “welcomed them, spoke to them about the Kingdom of God, and healed those who needed it.” Jesus’ welcome was a relationship-building act, His speaking to the crowd an impartation of truth to help people understand, and His healing a manifestation of the power of God to bring freedom.
The first and most important of these dimensions is the allegiance-relationship dimension. When Jesus’ followers came back from a power-filled excursion into the towns and villages of Galilee, reporting with excitement that “even the demons obeyed us when we gave them a command in your name” (Lk 10:17), Jesus cautioned them and pointed them to something more important. That more important thing is our relationship with the God who provides the power. This relationship, resulting in our names being written in heaven (Lk 10:20) should, according to Jesus, be a greater cause of rejoicing than even our power over demons.
So, as crucial as the power issue is to bring freedom to respond to Christ, the allegiance-relationship issue is even more important even in spiritual warfare. As biblical Christians, we’ve recognized the need to emphasize a commitment to Christ resulting in a freeing and saving relationship with Him. When people are encountered with the claims of Christ and respond positively, the most important spiritual battle is won. So, in focusing on the very important spiritual power dimension, we must be careful not to de-emphasize or neglect all the love and other fruits of the Spirit that flow from the allegiance-relationship dimension.
Nor dare we neglect what I am calling the truth-understanding dimension. Jesus spent most of His time teaching, demonstrating and leading His followers into truth. But, contrary to western understandings of truth, this is to be an experienced truth, not simply an intellectual truth. For, in keeping with the implications of the Greek and Hebrew words for truth, John 8:32 should read, “you will experience the truth, and the truth will set you free.” That continual experiencing of the truth, then, leads to ever deepening understandings both of the truth dimension of Christianity and also of the power-freedom and allegiance-relationship dimensions.
For this truth-understanding dimension is, according to John 8:31, based on obedience to Jesus within the relationship. And all bearing of fruit, including the fruit of spiritual power, is dependent, according to John 15:1-17, on our abiding in a close relationship with Christ.
So, the three crucial dimensions of our Christian experience are our relationship to Christ with all the love and obedience that entails, the understanding that comes from continually experiencing His truth and the freedom Jesus gives us through the exercise of spiritual power that frees us from the enemy’s captivity (Lk 4:18-19). This same power, then, is given to us by Jesus to use as He used it in spiritual warfare, always as a means of expressing God’s love. We are, then, to encounter people and the enemy in appropriate ways with a balance of allegiance, truth and power encounters. Any approach to Christianity and to spiritual warfare that neglects or ignores any of these three dimensions is incomplete and unbalanced.
Levels of Spiritual Warfare
There are at least two levels of spiritual warfare in focus in Scripture. The lower level is what I call “ground-level warfare.” The upper level, then, is ordinarily known as “cosmic-level warfare” (called “strategic-level warfare” by Wagner 1996:19-20).
When Jesus and the apostles cast demons out of people, they were engaged in ground-level combat. When, then, Elijah confronted the Baal gods by spiritually attacking their prophets (1 Ki 18) and Moses confronted the gods of Egypt by staging a series of “power encounters” (see below) with Pharaoh and his priests (Ex 7-11), they were engaging in cosmic-level warfare. So were the angel assigned to carry the answer to Daniel’s prayer and the “Prince of Persia,” though this is another type of cosmic-level conflict. Note, however, that even cosmic-level warfare has a ground-level dimension. For it is the human representatives of the cosmic gods that engage in the humanly visible part of the battle. Though it is not as obvious, ground-level warfare also has an invisible cosmic dimension. For the ground-level demons are under the authority of cosmic-level spirits and, ultimately, of Satan himself (a cosmic-level being).
Ground-level warfare involves dealing with the spirits that inhabit people (demons). Indwelling spirits or demons may be of at least three kinds: family, occult (e.g. those of nonChristian religions, New Age, Freemasonry) and “ordinary” (e.g. those attached to emotions such as anger and fear, those of lust, death, homosexuality). Family spirits, gaining their power through the dedication of each generation of children to them, are usually the most powerful of the ground-level demons. Occult spirits, gaining their power through invitation, are usually (though not always) stronger than the ordinary demons. The strength of all ground-level demons is calibrated to the amount of spiritual and emotional “garbage” in the person and they are all weakened by dealing with those problems and dispatched in the same way (see Kraft 1992, 1993).
Cosmic-level warfare involves dealing with at least five kinds of higher-level spirits: 1) territorial spirits over cities, regions and nations such as those mentioned in Daniel 10:13 and 21 (called “Prince of Persia” and “Prince of Greece”), 2) institutional spirits such as those assigned to churches, governments, educational institutions, occult organizations (e.g. Scientology, Freemasonry, Mormonism), nonChristian religions (e.g. the gods of Hinduism, Buddhism, animism), 3) the spirits assigned to oversee and encourage special functions including vices such as prostitution, abortion, homosexuality, gambling, pornography, war, music, cults and the like, 4) spirits assigned to such things as objects, buildings and other spaces as well as non-material entities such as rituals and music and 5) ancestral spirits, assigned to work with specific families portraying themselves as ancestors. These spirits working at cosmic level are tightly connected to ground-level family spirits (see below) that dwell within the members of a family.
We may diagram these types of spirits as follows:
Cosmic-Level Spirits
1. Territorial Spirits (Over Territories)
2. Institutional Spirits (Over Organizations)
3. Special Function Spirits (Over Vices)
4. Spirits Attached to Objects, Buildings, Rituals
5. Ancestral Spirits (Demons Masquerading as Ancestors)Ground-Level Spirits (Living in People)
1. Family Demons (Assigned to Families, Inherited)
2. Occult Demons (Representing Occult Allegiances)
3. Ordinary Demons (Attached to Sinful Attitudes and Emotions)
Ground-Level Warfare
An important issue to deal with in every society is ground-level demonization. We should not call this “demon possession,” since this term is not a proper translation of the Greek terms which simply mean “have a demon.” So, to be true to the Greek and to refrain from giving the impression that the enemy has more power than he, in fact, does, we use the term “demonized” to speak of demons living inside a person.
Jesus frequently encountered and cast out ground-level demons. The Gospels record several accounts of Jesus delivering people from demons. In Mark 1:34 and 3:10-12 it is recorded that Jesus cast demons out of many people. Then, specific attention is given to the freeing of a man with an unclean spirit (Mk 1:23-26), the Gerasene demoniac (Mk 5:1-20) and the dumb man (Mt 9:32-33) plus the report that Mary Magdalene had been demonized (Lk 8:2).
Experience shows that there are a high percentage of people in any society who are hosting demons, especially in societies where babies are dedicated to spirits (see below on family spirits). In such societies, we can expect the percentage of demonized people to be nearly 100%. Only those who for some reason are not dedicated to the spirits (often called gods) might escape.
Experience also shows that demons can live in Christians as well as in nonChristians. I and many of my ministry associates started with the assumption that when a demonized person turns to Christ, the demons have to leave. Unfortunately, our experience with thousands of demonized persons, nearly all of them with undeniable Christian testimonies has disabused us of this fallacy. What seems to be the case is that, just as sin can live in our soul and body after conversion, so can demons, if they are there when we convert. What seems to be the explanation is that at conversion, our human spirit is made clean both of sin and of demons (if any). Our soul and body, however, need continual attention to root out sin and, if we should be hosting demons, to gain freedom from them (see Kraft 1992, Dickason 19 ).
Demons can live in people only if they have legal rights granted by what I have called spiritual and emotional “garbage.” Such garbage consists of rights given through dedication, through inheritance, through invitation by the person or one in authority over the person, through participation in occult organizations or nonChristian religions with accompanying vows and dedications, through the person wallowing in sin (e.g. adultery, homosexuality, gambling, drunkenness) or holding onto such attitudes as anger, bitterness and unforgiveness, through curses (including self-curses), through murder or attempted murder (including abortion and attempted suicide) and through other, similar ways (see Kraft 1992). The analogy I use is to say that demons are like rats living in garbage and their strength is calibrated to the amount of garbage in the host. Dealing with the garbage through deep-level prayer ministry, then, is the most important aspect of the process of fighting demons at ground level. Thus, we have found that when we first deal with the garbage in demonized people, we can then deal with the demons easily and effectively without violence (see Kraft 1993).
Demons work at ground level in ways appropriate to the society in which they are working. They adapt their approach to the problems and concerns most prominent in any given society. Spiritual warfare, therefore, needs to be conducted in recognition of this ability of the enemy to adapt. Though the principle of making negative things worse and getting people to go overboard on positive things seems always to be their way of working, the things they push in each society will differ for maximum effectiveness in Satan’s attempts to deceive and disrupt.
In Asian societies, for example, where the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is a difficult one, demons will often be active in pushing mothers-in-law to be oppressive and daughters-in-law to hate them. In African societies where fear of the unknown is endemic, demons will push all the buttons they can to increase the fear and scare people into going to diviners (where demonic influence is increased) for relief. In Latin America, Asia and Europe, where male domination of women and children is culturally inculcated, the enemy kingdom is very active in increasing the abuse and the pain felt by women and children. Western secularism, then, with its denial of spiritual reality, allows ground-level demons to run rampant in both western and westernizing societies. And we can speak of satanic enhancement of racism and social class oppression in many parts of the world. The thing that all such examples have in common is that the seed from which Satan works to produce harmful fruit is usually culturally appropriate.
One especially fruitful technique used by the enemy in many societies is to infest a family with what we are calling a “family demon” (sometimes referred to as a “familiar spirit” or a “bloodline spirit”). This spirit gets passed down from parents to children generation after generation and is able to invite other spirits into the person. Often a person will harbor a spirit with the name of his/her father’s family and also one with the name of his/her mother’s family. When, soon after birth, the name and exact date of a Chinese baby’s birth is written down and taken to a priest to be registered with the gods of the temple, the rights of the family spirit(s) to the newborn are assured and other spirits associated with the temple may be invited in. These spirits, then, gain strength if, as the child grows up, he/she is taken to a temple or shrine whenever the parents seek healing and/or blessing for the child. Family spirits claim to own the members of “their” family even after a given member has accepted Christ and the demon has been evicted from the person’s spirit.
It is often fairly easy to break the power even of long-standing family demons if people first claim Jesus’ authority to cancel all rights over the family given by ancestors through vows, curses, dedications, sins, violence or in any other way. They then need to willingly renounce their own dedication to the spirits, including any rights given through any permission they or anyone in authority over them has given enemy spirits during their lifetime (such as receiving healing and/or blessing from these spirits).
What remains, then, is to cancel out the rights given the demons through the creation and retention of spiritual and emotional garbage (e.g. unforgiveness, hatred, anger, lust, etc.). The major problems in the approach usually stem from the reluctance of persons of many societies (e.g. Asian societies) to admit things that they have done or said that have given rights to the demons. Since God is a God of truth, however, it is necessary for people, no matter what their customs might be, to “come clean” with the things they have done, especially their reactions to things done to them, in order that the heavy loads (Mt 11:28) they produce may be brought to Christ and laid at His feet. When these things are brought to Christ, the demons have nothing more to cling to and usually go quietly at our command.
Though dealing with demons in the authority of Jesus is not difficult, the enemy is active in seeing to it that culturally appropriate excesses are regular occurrences. In America, for example, Satan loves to see to it that stories of big fights with demons (usually by those who don’t know what they are doing) get noised abroad (e.g. the movie The Exorcist) so that people fear to attempt deliverance. In Korea and Africa, then, it is common to hear of deliverance sessions in which the patient was beaten in an attempt to get the demon out. It is not unknown for people to be killed when such methods are used, thus fulfilling a demon’s intent to destroy those he inhabits. Whether by getting people to fear him and, thus, not bother him or by getting them to overdo things, Satan is a master at interfering with and even taking over attempts to defeat him.
The appropriate and proper approach to getting people free from demons in any society seems, however, to always be the same: deal with the spiritual and emotional garbage to weaken the demons, then cast them out. Fighting physically with them is never a good idea and even when restraining the demonized person is required, it is God’s power wielded through words rather than through physical force that is most effective.
The Primary Focuses at Ground Level
Contrary to what many assume, the major focus of ground-level warfare has to be on what the enemy attempts to dowithin us, not outside of us. Our experience with several thousand clients leads us to conclude that Satan’s primary concern at ground level is to knock people down in their relationships: with self, with God and with others.
Often the most vicious attacks are on self-image. Prominent in the lives of a majority of our clients is a deep sense of unworthiness, often escalated to self-hate. These people usually have been believing enemy lies concerning who they are, why they are here and the inferiority of their past, present and future attempts to master the game of life. Frequently, these lies spin off from real or perceived feelings that they were unwanted at birth because they were conceived out of wedlock or they were the opposite sex from what their parents wanted. Such feelings, then, whether from such bases or springing from some later life experience (e.g. physical, emotional or sexual abuse) get reinforced throughout life as the person, under pressure from the enemy, focuses on and remembers his or her failures while allowing the memory of successes to fade out of focus. The result is a very low self-image, often in spite of significant accomplishments and a solid relationship with Jesus Christ.
From the enemy’s point of view, any time he can get Christians to think less of themselves than God desires, it is time and energy well spent. For, if we ever discover who we are in God’s eyes and what we can do to damage Satan’s activities when we work together with God in spiritual warfare, we become a serious threat to our enemy. Satan knows what we often forget: human beings are God’s masterpiece, much higher in the universe than Satan himself by creation (Gen 1:26; Ps 8:5 correctly translated as in GNB), by redemption (Jn 5:24; Rom 5:1), by adoption (1 Jn 3:1; Rom 8:14-17; Gal 4:5-7), through empowerment by the Holy Spirit (Lk 9:1) and in every other way. So his major tactic in relation to us is to keep us from finding out and acting upon these truths.
In addition to our enemy’s attempts to disrupt our relationship with self, he gives great attention to the disruption of relationships with others. We have no further to go than to the daily papers and the divorce statistics to calculate the extent of Satan’s activity in this area. He knows that the more he disrupts human relationships the more damage he can do to God’s masterpiece and to God’s plans for us. Behind the baser human propensities listed in several places in Scripture (e.g. Gal 5:19-21; Eph 4:25-31) lie satanic emissaries assigned to tempt, to disrupt friendships, to attack marriages, to sever relationships between parents and children and to bring about miscommunication at all levels.
Demons are also assigned to disrupt our relationship with God. We were made for this relationship and from Satan’s first attack on Adam and Eve’s intimacy with God to the present, he and his angels have worked full-time to prevent (2 Cor 4:4) or hinder our closeness with our Creator. Satan is undoubtedly behind nominalism and the sapping of meaning from worship, not to mention the various perversions of sound doctrine that keep people from close relationships with God. All of these are important, though perhaps not very glamorous, areas of spiritual warfare.
Cosmic-Level Warfare
Cosmic-level spirits are apparently in charge of ground-level spirits, assigning them to people and supervising them as they carry out their assignments in people or do their tempting and harassing of people from outside of them. Ground-level demons consistently speak of their “assignments,” implying that they are under the authority of higher-level satanic beings. I believe it is cosmic-level spirits that Paul refers to as “the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age” (Eph 6:12 GNB). Though few biblical scholars doubt the existence of such higher-level spirits, there is a good bit of controversy over what, if anything, we are to do about them since this matter is not fully addressed in Scripture.
The clearest scriptural reference to territorial spirits occurs in Daniel 10 where the angel sent to answer Daniel’s prayer speaks of an encounter with the “Prince of Persia” (v 13) and of an upcoming encounter with the “Prince of Greece” (v 21). In another reference, the events recorded at the end of 2 Kings 3 (especially v 27), are best explained on the assumption that the sacrifice of the son of the king of Moab so empowered satanic territorial spirits that Israel, feeling their power and forgetting to appeal to Yahweh, felt compelled to flee, thus losing a battle they had been consistently winning.
Most of the world believes there are specific spirits attached to nations, regions, mountains, rivers and other geographical features. We find this understanding throughout the Old Testament, where the Baal gods were considered to have control of the plains while Yaweh was supposed to be merely a mountain god. In the events recorded in 1 Kings 20:23-30, we see Yaweh angered at this belief on the part of the Syrians and, therefore, giving Israel a victory on the plains.
One of the spinoffs of the belief in territorial spirits is the understanding that when people enter the territory of a given god, they need to show respect to that god. We find this practice in the Old Testament where Israel continually gave homage to the Baal gods whom they believed to be in charge of the plains. In 2 Kings 17:24-28, then, we see the king of Assyria interpreting the difficulties his people who had moved to Israel were having with lions in Israel as attributable to the fact that they didn’t know how to show respect to the God of the land of Israel. So he sent priests of Yahweh back to Israel to teach the settlers how to honor Yahweh. This stopped the trouble.
In Hosea 2:8 we see Israel even attributing their prosperity to the Baal gods. Solomon, then, in order to cement relationships with the surrounding countries, both married wives from and erected altars to the gods of Ammon, Moab, Edom and other places to show honor to their countries. In this way he kept peace with these countries by keeping the wives and their relatives happy (1 Ki 11:1-10). But he damaged his relationship to the true God.
Westerners tend to feel that such beliefs need not be taken seriously since, we believe, these so-called gods are not gods at all but imaginary beings empowered only by superstition. The Bible, however, shows God and His people regarding these gods as satanic spirits and taking them seriously. But we are not to give them worship, thus giving them rights over us, nor to honor or fear them, since the true God is greater and more powerful than these servants of Satan. And, if we are properly related to the true God, we have the authority to protect ourselves from other gods and to confront and defeat them when necessary.
Skeptics point out that Jesus seemed not to be concerned with higher-level spirits except in His encounter with Satan himself (Lk 4:1-13). It is likely, however, that when He confronted and defeated Satan in Satan’s own territory (i.e. the wilderness was considered the habitation of Satan) Jesus broke much of the Devil’s power over at least that part of Palestine. Some have suggested, then, that the demons afflicting the Gerasene demoniac (Lk 8:26-33) were territorial spirits. If so, they were concentrated in one man, like ground level demons and dealt with in the same way Jesus dealt with spirits whose assignment was purely ground-level.
It is my position that our approach to Christian witness needs to recognize the reality of the spirits over the area and gain understanding of their assignments. Often nonwestern peoples who recognize that they have been under the sway of territorial spirits for generations have a great deal of understanding of what territory the spirits have influence over and what are the results of this influence. We can, therefore, gain from them valuable insight into how to deal with these spirits as we work with the true God to retake territory that is rightfully His. See Wagner (1991) for case studies dealing with territorial spirits.
Spiritual Mapping
An important spiritual warfare technique developed by George Otis, Jr. (1991), John Dawson (1989), Ed Silvoso (1994), C. Peter Wagner (1992) and others is called “Spiritual Mapping.” This is an approach to discerning and identifying cosmic-level spirits and the areas, institutions, vices, objects, etc. that they are over as a step toward developing strategies to oppose and defeat them.
Spiritual mapping is much like what God told Ezekiel to do when He commanded him to “get a brick, put it in front of you, and scratch lines on it to represent the city of Jerusalem …” (4:1). God then told Ezekiel to symbolically (spiritually) attack the city as a message to Israel after which he was to lie on his left side for 390 days and on his right for 40 days to symbolically bear the guilt of Israel and Judah. Such mapping is also like what the spies sent into the Promised Land were told to do to discover what the situation was that Israel would face as they attempted to take the land. Such spying and mapping is a regular practice in physical warfare and provides a major component of the development of the strategies for attacking the enemy. It should certainly be a part of any attempt to engage in cosmic-level spiritual warfare.
Experiments going on in Argentina and elsewhere in the world suggest that a direct approach to warring against cosmic-level spirits can be successful. As with ground-level warfare, the most important part of our strategy needs to be dealing with the spiritual “garbage.” At cosmic-level, issues of confession of sin, repentance, reconciliation and unity of believers (“corporate garbage”) are the first order of business if our praying against territorial bondage is to be successful. The chapter by Ed Silvoso in my book Behind Enemy Lines (1994) reports on the success of such an approach in Resistencia, Argentina where he led a three year comprehensive spiritual attack that started with the breaking of the power of the territorial spirits over the city through authoritative prayer, thus opening the people up for evangelism. That approach involved getting the pastors (the spiritual “gatekeepers”) to repent of their sins and their disunity and to unite, training pastors and lay church leaders in praying authoritatively, prayer marching and leading their people in repentance and reconciliation followed, after two years of such preparation, by all-out evangelism.
The results have been spectacular. Through this effort and those of prominent Argentine evangelists who use this same approach, it appears that much of the satanic blinding spoken of in 2 Corinthians 4:4 has been broken through. The result has been incredible response to evangelistic efforts issuing in perhaps the most rapid church growth of all times.
Some have criticized such efforts to wage war at the cosmic-level (e.g. Arnold 1997). They point out that Jesus never seemed to concern himself with any level above ground-level. Could it be, though, that the Holy Spirit is simply leading us in our day (the last days?) into some more of the “all truth” that Jesus promised in John 16:13? Or, might it even be that Jesus, by cleaning up so much of the ground level garbage and praying as much as he did, was contributing greatly to the breaking of satanic power at cosmic level? It seems clear from what those engaged in cosmic-level warfare are discovering that most of what it takes to effectively confront higher level spirits takes place at ground level. I am referring to such things as confession of sin, repentance, reconciliation and the need for spiritual gatekeepers to work in unity.
Dealing With Spirits Indwelling Objects, Buildings, Rituals
One category of cosmic-level spirits is assigned to trees, bodies of water, tools, household or other objects through dedication of these objects to a given god or spirit. Such spirits are also assigned to rituals, certain music and other non-material entities through dedication. Taiwanese speak of gods attached to stoves, furniture, clothing and other household goods. In many societies, all tools, farming implements and other items associated with the maintaining of life and well-being are routinely dedicated to their gods or spirits, as are all items used in religious rituals. When such items are obtained by travelers and taken home as souvenirs, the spirits in them can cause disruption in their homes.
It is well known that certain musical groups in western countries are openly committed to Satan and their music dedicated to him. Video games such as Dungeons and Dragons and, probably, certain movies are also dedicated to Satan. The dedication of artistic productions, often to be used for religious purposes, has been the custom of many of the world’s peoples for centuries. People regularly become demonized through contact with such non-material demonically-infested entities.
It is important that we recognize Satan’s ability to heal and bless those who come to places dedicated to him, such as shrines. For too long Christians have tried to ignore Satan’s counterfeiting and the attraction it has for many, both nonChristian and Christian, who seek enough spiritual power to enable them to live their lives reasonably well.
Spirits attached to such material or non-material entities are usually not difficult to deal with in the power of Christ. Once there is a suspicion that a given item is infested, all we usually have to do is to claim the power of Christ to cancel all enemy rights. If a material item has a specifically religious purpose, however, it may be judicious to destroy it after breaking its power. Non-material entities may raise other problems, since the lyrics of songs may be immoral as well as dedicated to Satan. And, with both material and non-material entities, the biggest battle may be against the former meanings even if the cultural forms are spiritually purified. With most items it is possible to first cancel all enemy power and then to bless them with the power of Jesus to complete their transformation from enemies to friends. Only after the empowerment has been thus broken is it wise to begin to deal with the meaning problems.
With regard to shrines, a more creative approach may be worth experimenting with. In Japan, for example, it is clear that those who come to the Shinto shrines are seeking the same kinds of blessings that Jesus offers to Christians. Might we not propose, then, that churches capture this custom by sponsoring Christian shrines where people could receive prayer in Jesus’ Name for such requests? For Japanese people are used to going to shrines whenever they feel the need for power, rather than at set times such as Sunday morning. So, even if such shrine concerns as blessings for marriage and for school examinations, healing of various ailments and relationships, fertility for themselves or loved ones and other such things are prayed for in church (and they often are not), Christian shrines would be more appropriate places to deal with them.
Christian shrines would, of course, differ in several respects from Shinto shrines. For example, they would involve people who would pray for those who come, not simply a statue to pour water over. And those with further interest would be encouraged to attend regular meetings (Sundays and other days) sponsored by the church. There would be literature there as well and the shrines would be advertised, as other shrines are, on the trains and busses. And those who pray for people could be young people with various spiritual gifts, thus enabling youth to minister in ways acceptable to Japanese even before they are old enough to be socially accepted in leadership positions.
Since the rules for spiritual activity are the same for Satan and for God, a parallel situation exists when we bless or dedicate objects in the name of Jesus. Anointing oil, for example, is empowered to convey God’s power when we bless or dedicate it. So it is also when we bless or dedicate buildings, such as church buildings or our homes and work space such as a teacher’s classroom or an office. Any substance or space, including homes, churches, work implements, vehicles, musical instruments, food, holy water, even salt can be so dedicated. So can rituals such as baptism, worship music, baby or building dedications and the like. When so dedicated to God, such items, places or non-material entities become conveyers of God’s blessing in the same way that satanic dedication enables such entities to convey his power.
Whether God invests such items and places with angels as Satan invests things and places dedicated to him with demons, I don’t know. I suspect that he does, however, since it is God’s methods that Satan is counterfeiting. It may, then, be appropriate to think of angels inhabiting things and places dedicated to God as well as demonic infestation of things and places dedicated to Satan.
An important part of spiritual warfare, then, is the retaking from Satan of things, places and non-material entities that God created to serve his purposes, just as we retake persons from the enemy when we free them from demons. Though some (e.g. Hunt & McMahon 1985) counsel Christians to retreat from the enemy by destroying or refusing to use items and practices employed by Satan in such occultic involvements as New Age, I believe the Christian posture should be to take things back from the enemy, whether at ground or at cosmic level.
Ancestors
As mentioned above, I believe ancestor cults to be satanic adaptations to culture carried out through demonic deception. People in every society, especially those that are strongly family-oriented are greatly concerned over what happens to their loved ones when they die. What a stroke of genius on the part of Satan to convince people that their loved ones are still alive (true) and that they continue to actively participate in human life (false)! By so doing, demons are able to work freely, disguised as ancestors. And since they already know everything about that ancestor, they can do an excellent job of impersonation and, in the process, exert a great amount of control over the people. Demons, posing as ancestors, can give such things as blessings, healing and material prosperity to those who please them and they can take things away from those who displease them. And by so doing, they can bind people to false beliefs and the rituals that go with them in a most impressive way.
Most of the peoples of the world, therefore, have long since bought the lie that it is really their loved ones who are receiving and responding to their attentions. And it is not easy to get them to understand that what they have been believing for generations is a lie. Nor is it easy to get the academics who, with no experience with the demonic world themselves, argue interminably on the basis of pure theory about whether or not ancestors, demons or Satan are real. Our enemy has done a good job of deluding, or at least confusing them also. Unfortunately, then, the academics’ lack of agreement affects the practitioners and would-be practitioners, causing doubt and uncertainty in their efforts to preach and teach and in their attempts to wage war against evil spiritual forces operating as ancestors.
Among the arguments advanced suggesting that ancestors are really conscious of what is going on in human life and present to influence it, is the interpretation of the passage concerning King Saul’s excursion to the “witch of Endor” (1 Sam 28:3-19). This account, however, and the fact that at the Transfiguration Moses and Elijah appeared to Jesus (Lk 9:28-31), are best interpreted as specific times when God allowed deceased people to return for specific purposes, though the witch of Endor event might have been satanic deceit. These events should in no way be interpreted to indicate the possibility that ancestors are conscious of and interacting with human life. More to the point is the statement in Hebrews 12:1 that “we have this large crowd of witnesses round us.” But, though this verse may mean that the deceased are able to watch us, it gives no indication that they can participate in human life.
So, we are left scripturally with no encouragement to believe that the dead interact with the living. And, in fact, we are warned sternly not to attempt to contact the dead (Lev 19:31; Deut 18:11). The practice of diviners seeking information about this life, and especially about the future, from the deceased is well-known, both in Scripture and in contemporary societies. It is a form of divination called “necromancy.” God’s attitude toward this practice is stated in the strongest terms in Deuteronomy 18:12, “The Lord your God hates people who do these disgusting things, and that is why he is driving those nations out of the land as you advance.”
When ancestors are regarded as participants in the living community, then, people are in actuality being deceived. And when people have for generations offered sacrifices and done other acts of worship to these supposed ancestors, their resistance to the Christian position is often great. “Where are my ancestors now,” they ask, often adding that they want to be with them for eternity even if they are in hell. With regard to where they are, I believe with Abraham that “The judge of all the earth has to act justly” (Gen 18:25). And Jesus helps us (and them) greatly when He tells the story of the rich man and his servant Lazarus (Lk 16:19-31). For, if any of our ancestors are in hell, according to that story they desperately want us, the living, to be able to avoid going to be where they are.
To free people spiritually from satanic deception in ancestral matters, we will have to deal with demonization early on. For such commitment to enemy spirits is an invitation for them to live inside. And since this commitment has been going on for generations, with accompanying dedications of each newborn to the spirits, what we are dealing with are ancestral, family spirits inherited from a person’s parents. These need to be banished. So do the spirits inhabiting the ancestral tablets and/or other paraphernalia associated with the reverence and/or worship accorded them.
The difficulties involved in dealing with change of meaning, however, are another matter. Will people agree to speak to Jesus, instead of directly to the dead, asking Him to convey any messages He chooses to the ancestors? Will they, then, replace the pictures of ancestors with that of Jesus, or place His in the center and the others in secondary places? And if they do that, are the meanings in their minds changed enough? Are the experiments in Papua New Guinea designed to present Jesus as the Great Ancestor working? And are they theologically valid? We need to hear of more experiments in this area.
Reincarnation
A demon once responded to a question about reincarnation, “We know people’s lives in detail. It’s easy for us to simply tell people someone else’s life as if it was their own past life.” This is how they fool westerners into believing something that is new in the West. It’s even easier to fool Hindus who have philosophized the recycling of lives. As in many of Satan’s activities, he has trained them to perpetuate his deceit themselves, without much, if any, of his help.
The Scripture is clear that “everyone must die once, and after that be judged by God” (Heb 9:27). There is, therefore, no scriptural allowance for anyone to be reborn into another earthly existence. God has created each of us unique and eternal. The battle over reincarnation, as with ancestor practices, then, is primarily a battle for the truth in opposition to Satan’s lies. A first step toward winning such a truth encounter, however, is usually a power encounter to rid the person of demonic squatters who are perpetuating the lies from within the person.
Conclusion
Spiritual warfare is a crucial dimension of biblical Christianity. It is a pity that so much of western Christianity has ignored it for so long. There are two levels of spiritual warfare: ground-level and cosmic-level. With each level the relationship between the spiritual realm and the human realm is very close and the way to influence things in the spiritual realm is through influencing human behavior. At ground-level, dealing with the spiritual and emotional garbage an individual is carrying paves the way for people to get rid of demons. At cosmic-level, corporate repentance, reconciliation and Christian unity pave the way for breaking the power of cosmic spirits. In either case, obedience to God is the decisive factor in defeating Satan and those who are living in obedience to him.
Though the Bible is not as specific as we would like it to be at many points, it is clear that God allows no allegiance by his people to enemy spirits, whether they are masquerading as gods or ancestors. Nor does He want us to be deceived by satanic blessings, such as healing or material prosperity or to believe the enemy’s lies with regard to reincarnation or the living presence of ancestors. Prohibitions against such things are prominent in the Old Testament and demonstrations and teaching concerning how to use the power of God to overcome both temptation and spirit infestation occur in the New Testament.
In whatever aspect of spiritual warfare we are engaged, we are to seek to experience Jesus and the power of His resurrection (Phil 3:10), learning what the enemy’s schemes are (2 Cor 2:11) and waging against him the “good fight” (2 Tim 4:7). Equipping us to defeat the enemy, Jesus, our Leader in spiritual warfare, gives us the “power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases” (Lk 9:1; Mt 10:8), promises that “whoever believes in me will do what I do” (Jn 14:12), sends us into the world as the Father had sent Him (Jn 20:21) and plans to “crush Satan under [our] feet” (Rom 16:20).
Helpful Resources
Arnold, Clinton, 3 Crucial Questions About Spiritual Warfare. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1997.
Anderson, Neil, The Bondage Breaker. Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 1990.
Bubeck, Mark, The Adversary. Chicago: Moody, 1975.
——-Overcoming the Adversary. Chicago: Moody, 1984.
Dawson, John, Taking Our Cities for God. Lake Mary, FL: Creation House, 1989.
Dickason, C. Fred, Demon Possession and the Christian. Chicago: Moody, 1987.
Guelich, Robert, XXXX
Hunt, Dave and T.A. McMahon, The Seduction of Christianity. Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 1985.
Kallas, James, The Satanward View. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1966.
Kinnaman, Gary D., Overcoming the Dominion of Darkness. Grand Rapids: Chosen (Baker), 1990.
Kraft, Charles H., Christianity With Power. Ann Arbor, MI: Servant, 1989.
——-Defeating Dark Angels. Ann Arbor, MI: Servant, 1992.
——-Deep Wounds, Deep Healing. Ann Arbor, MI: Servant, 1993.
——- Behind Enemy Lines. Ann Arbor, MI: Servant, 1994.
——-I Give You Authority. Grand Rapids, MI: Chosen (Baker), 1997.
Kraft, Marguerite G., Understanding Spiritual Power. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1995.
Murphy, Ed, Handbook for Spiritual Warfare. Nashville: Nelson, 1992.
Otis, George, Jr., The Last of the Giants. Grand Rapids: Chosen (Baker) 1991.
Penn-Lewis, Jessie, War on the Saints, 9th ed. NY: Thomas E. Lowe, 1973.
Rommen, Edward, ed., Spiritual Power and Missions. Pasadena, CA: Wm Carey, 1995.
Sherman, Dean, Spiritual Warfare for Every Christian. Seattle: Frontline, 1990.
Silvoso, Ed, That None Should Perish. Ventura, CA: Regal, 1994.
Tippett, Alan R., People Movements in Southern Polynesia. Chicago: Moody Press, 1971.
——-Introduction to Missiology. Pasadena, CA: Wm Carry, 1987.
Wagner, C. Peter, Confronting the Powers. Ventura, CA: Regal, 1996.
——-Engaging the Enemy. Ventura, CA: Regal, 1991.
——-Warfare Prayer. Ventura, CA: Regal, 1992.
Warner, Timothy, Spiritual Warfare. Wheaton: Crossway, 1991.
White, Tom, The Believer’s Guide to Spiritual Warfare. Ann Arbor, MI: Servant, 1990.