Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment. Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you (Jn.17:18-20).

I don’t know about you, but this verse bothers me.  Jesus seems to be saying that the smallest amount of faith can move mountains and if we are not moving mountains then our faith is truly microscopic. Rarely do I feel that I am moving mountains, so a bit of condemnation creeps up when I look at this scripture as the standard.  The question then becomes whether or not I am understanding this passage correctly.

Without letting myself off the hook for microscopic faith, there is another way to understand this passage.  The word that is translated “little faith” typically means a small amount or lack, but it can also be translated as “a short amount of time” or as “brief.” In the context, Jesus may have been telling his disciples that they didn’t sustain their faith long enough.  When the demon didn’t come out right away, they quit.  Persistence or perseverance is part of faith.  In an instant society, we want it now and are prone to give up if something doesn’t happen quickly. I think we can fall prey to that mindset when it comes to prayer, commanding a demon, or declaring healing. Sometimes, in order to move a mountain, we must persist or endure. The mountain may be moved a shovel full at a time instead of all at once.

James highlights this truth when he says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (Ja. 1:2-4). Sometimes we think that spiritual maturity and great faith always produce the overnight miracles of healing, provision, breakthrough, and so for. Yet James is clear that the quality of endurance is part of spiritual maturity.

In his letter to the church at Philippi, Paul exhorts them to “contend for the faith” against ongoing opposition.  That text has the flavor of contending, wrestling, and engaging in conflict.

In his “sermon on the mount,” Jesus taught us, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Mt.7:7-8). The verbs in this passage are “present progressive.”  They could be translated as keep asking, keep knocking, and keep seeking.  After you have kept on, your prayers will be answered.

Our faith then is not always measured by the immediate miracle.  Sometimes it is measured by a belief that God is hearing my prayers and storing them up until the movement when they will be answered in a powerful way. Persistence can be the measure of my faith. Even in the context of deliverance, such as the one in which the disciples of Jesus could not cast out the spirit, we may need to go after that spirit more than once, believing that the power and authority that God has given us weakens the devil’s stronghold each time we command and each time we declare the word of God over it. At some point, when we have persevered, the walls of that stronghold will crack and the enemy will flee. We may think that the walls of Jericho came down all at once, but they came down after seven days of establishing authority in the spiritual realm by marching around the city.

Often, the enemy wins by just holding on long enough for us to give up. In those moments, our faith was sufficient in one sense but too brief for the stronghold to fall. We did not endure. Paul’s life and ministry was defined by endurance. He described it with the following words.  “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Cor.4:8-9). Basically, he said that they kept getting knocked down, but always got up and pressed ahead.  Their faith was in the final victory if they kept going.

Whatever you have been asking for, keep contending. Our faith is enough if it is not too brief.

Occasionally, I have people ask why only a few churches have any kind of defined Freedom Ministry to help their people move past old wounds, broken hearts, addictions, depression, and demonic affliction. The core of our freedom ministry is Free Indeed, which is an eight-week class built around small group dynamics as well as teaching followed by an all day experience we call Freedom Weekend that activates everything we have talked about and prayed about for eight weeks.

Twice a year we offer a class on Sunday and another on Wednesday.  We typically have 40-45 participants in each class so that on Freedom Weekend we are ministering to around 90 people.  Each spring we offer a Wednesday only class.  We have been offering this format for about eight years and every class fills up every time so that close to two hundred people go through Free Indeed each year. On average, about 30% are people from the community – Baptists, Methodists, Church of Christ, Catholic, Bible Church, Episcopalian, and other community churches. They nearly all wonder why their church doesn’t offer something similar to what we do because it seems basic to the life of a believer.

I wonder that also.  After all, Jesus came to heal the brokenhearted and to set captives free (Isa. 61, Luke 4). We consistently see more life change in eight weeks than most of our participants have experienced in ten years. This isn’t because we have discovered some revelatory approach to discipleship.  I believe that all the principles and perspectives taught in Free Indeed should be categorized as Christianity 101. They are the foundational principles of our faith when you take Paul’s admonition seriously that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces. Paul clearly states that yet few churches equip their people for spiritual warfare.

We believe that Jesus came to empower his church with divine weapons that can overcome the past, deep wounds, and demonic affliction. Victory over those issues produces significant transformation in weeks or months rather than decades.  However, what we consistently find is that most believers have no expectation of significant change in their lives beyond forgiveness.  Some of the lack of expectation is due to the fact that their churches have preached a gospel without power.  After becoming Christians, they found that their faith seemed to have no power to overcome deep wounds from their past, addictions in the present, depression, suicidal impulses, etc.  Where those reached serious proportions, their church referred them to counselors or clinics in the community that were often secular.  The message is that Jesus has no help for serious issues beyond some simple encouragement and a prayer.  When secular therapy does not give them victory over their issue, they lose all expectation for significant transformation this side of heaven.  Our first goal in Free Indeed is to rebuild an expectation that God is in the business of radical life change and he can and wants to do it for you.

Secondly, we maintain a perspective that, in most cases, hindrances to growth and change exist more in the spiritual realm than in the emotional or psychological realm of the individual.  We move into the realm of curses, generational sins, our identity in Christ, and demonic affliction in order to remove what seem to be immovable barriers to healing and freedom.  Secular therapy does not touch the spiritual realm nor employ divine weapons so issues are managed, at best, rather than overcome.  Churches that don’t acknowledge these realities or teach about them keep their people from experiencing the power of the kingdom that Jesus demonstrated. They tend to produce a form of godliness while denying the power of the kingdom.  Decades of silence and avoidance of real spiritual warfare has allowed a huge accumulation of spiritual junk in the souls and family lines of God’s people.

When God’s people know who they are, when they are armed with an expectation for power, and armed with basic spiritual weapons to be used against the enemy, radical transformation can happen in weeks or months rather than decades.  We have seen it over and over again in our church.  Other churches that have developed Freedom Ministries in different forms report the same thing.

So why do few churches offer ministries that have such an impact?  One reason, of course, is a theology that doesn’t allow for the miraculous power of God operating in the life of individuals today.  That same theology does not recognize the impact of the spiritual realm in the lives of God’s people. When the expectation of miracles ceases, so does the faith for them and the loss of power from the church. Transformation takes supernatural power. No power, no transformation.

I think a second reason that many churches do not have Freedom Ministries is fear…especially on the part of senior pastors. Let’s be honest, by nature many senior pastors are high on control and freedom ministries, by their nature, deal with elements that are somewhat unpredictable. Many senior pastors fear that these ministries will get weird and hurt their church or people in their church.  In addition, extreme people are often attracted to these ministries and can make others uncomfortable.  The answer, however, is not to avoid ministries that can heal and free large numbers of believers, but rather to embrace such a ministry, mainstream it, and train leaders to be effective without being weird.  They in turn train others to be effective without being weird and to train them to be submitted to church leadership. We are glad to train other churches to do what we do and I’m sure other Freedom Ministries are willing to do the same.  Avoidance is not the answer but sound theological and practical training is the answer.

Does ministry in this arena get weird?  It depends on what you call weird. Demons manifesting in people and being cast out with a scream seems weird until you realize it is the norm in spiritual warfare.  It doesn’t have to get out of hand, but it doesn’t mirror tidy little church services on Sunday.  I agree that church services are not the place for these things to happen, but they need to happen somewhere. If you cannot tolerate the ragged or unexpected, then you will not be involved in spiritual warfare, but neither will your people find freedom and transformation.  Every believer should be equipped to break the power of the enemy. That alone would transform churches and communities.  I hope your church has a freedom ministry of some kind or will develop one soon.  We would be glad to help, but more than that, the Holy Spirit is quite willing to help.

There is a text found early in the book of Joshua that I found puzzling in the past. After forty years in the wilderness, the second generation of those whom Moses led out of Egypt had finally crossed the Jordon and begun the conquest of the land God had promised to Abraham and his descendants. Their first challenge was the walled city of Jericho. Forty years earlier, the spies that Moses had sent into Canaan has brought back a report that the land was, indeed, fertile and rich but, “the people who live there are powerful and the cities are fortified and very large” (Num. 13:28). Jericho was one of those cities and the first significant test for the Israelites.

On the eve before Israel was to attack Jericho, Joshua encountered an unknown man. The text says, “Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, ‘Are you for us or for our enemies?’ ‘Neither,’ he replied, ‘but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.’ Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, ‘What message does my Lord have for his servant?’ The commander of the Lord’s army replied, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.’ And Joshua did so” (Josh.5:13-15)

The puzzling part of this text is the way in which the man who, was the commander of the Lord’s army, answered Joshua. Joshua asked whose side he was on. I expected the angel of the Lord (or possibly Jesus before his incarnation) to say that he was on Israel’s side and had come to assure their victory. However, he did not respond in that way but instead said that he was neither on Israel’s side nor the inhabitants of Jericho. He then simply identified himself as the commander of the Lord’s army. His response seems peculiar but only because of our mindset.

Ultimately, I think this is the point. God doesn’t line up with us, we must line up with him. If we want him to fight for us, our first step is to align ourselves with him. We join him…he doesn’t join us. When we think God is on our side because of our affiliations, we miss the point. Achan was an Israelite, but his sin cost Israel a battle and cost him and his family their lives. Although he was a Hebrew, his misalignment with the Lord caused him to be rejected. Rahab was a prostitute and part of the community who lived in Jericho. However, when she believed God and aligned herself with his promises, she was accepted and she and her family were saved.

God is not particularly interested in our affiliations – whether we attend First Baptist or Mid-Cities or Gateway. He’s not impressed with whose preaching we follow most or to whose praise music we gravitate. He is not even concerned if we are Republican or Democrat, American or Russian, or what neighborhood we live in. What he is concerned about is whether our hearts are aligned with his heart. He doesn’t join us – we are to join him. He doesn’t take up our agenda – we are to take up his. That was the message of the man Joshua encountered that night. God would fight for whoever joined him. It is clear that Joshua took up the Lord’s agenda because there was no other reason to march around Jericho once a day for seven days and then seven times on the last day blowing trumpets and shouting. That makes no earthly sense. But once Israel aligned themselves with God’s will and his ways, victory was assured.

Too often, I expect God to pick up my agenda and my desires and give me the victory that I have planned. The Spirit, however, expects us to adopt the agenda and the desires of God that he reveals to us. Remember, Jesus modeled life for us and he said, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does” (Jn.5:19). When we discover that model, then we will see the power of God at work in our own lives.

One of Satan’s primary tools against believers and unbelievers as well, is a spirit of offence against God. That spirit prompts us to view God as the source of our pain or loss and paints some episode in which we have been wounded as a betrayal by God. The offence often begins in the form of a question such as “Why did God do this to me?” or “Why did God allow this to happen?” Satan follows up with accusing thoughts suggesting that God doesn’t love us or that he broke his promise to us and therefore cannot be trusted.

This strategy shouldn’t surprise us because it was the first strategy of the devil recorded in scripture. It began with the question from the serpent to Adam and Eve. “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the Garden’” (Gen.3:1). I’m sure he was pointing out an abundance of trees filled with fruits and nuts as he said that. His tone of voice undoubtedly suggested that God was the sort of God who always withheld the best things from his people. When Eve replied that there was only one tree in the garden from which they could not eat and eating from it would produce death, Satan simply replied that they would not die which implied that God was a liar and could not be trusted. Once Adam and Eve accepted the premise, it was downhill from there.

One of the great lies that Satan promotes in the American church is that God has promised that if you serve him faithfully, your life will be trouble free or, at least, the troubles will be light and momentary. With that expectation, anytime loss or serious crisis arises, the believer must either believe that they are so defective that God can’t love them or that God has broken his promise to them. Either one of those conclusions moves us away from God.

The truth is that Christians will most likely face loss, woundedness, disease, and betrayal from other humans in this life. Jesus warns believers that in this world we will face trouble (Jn.16:33). The idea that God is supposed to totally protect us from all hurts while we live in enemy territory in a fallen world is an unbiblical expectation. Look at the “roll call of faith” in Hebrews 11. Some of God’s best people were delivered from trouble after a season of serious suffering while many others were ridiculed, rejected, tortured, flogged, chained, put in prison, stoned, sawed in two, put to death by the sword, and so forth. Jesus was rejected, beaten and crucified. Eleven of the apostles were martyred and the other was exiled to a lonely island. Hundreds or thousands of Christians today in the Middle East and China have been imprisoned, tortured, and killed for their faith.

As believers, we are often shaken with a diagnosis of cancer, a spouse leaving us for another, the unexpected or even tragic death of a loved one, the loss of a job, the failure of a business, a child born with a birth defect, a miscarriage, or the inability to have children altogether. At moments like these, we want everything to make sense as if that somehow would comfort us. I’m sure it makes sense from heaven, but not from this side of the veil. At times like that, we have to hold tightly to the things we do know to keep from being shaken by the things we don’t know. Paul said that we only know in part (1 Cor.13:9). We will have to be content to live with some mystery and some unanswered questions. If we had an answer for everything we would not need faith.

What we do know is that God is good. He is faithful. He cares and his grace will be sufficient if we allow it. We have to know that we are all subject to loss, pain, and betrayal in this world and for it to come is neither a sign of God’s disapproval or any broken promises. The promise is not for a pain free life but that he will walk us through the pain to some good that waits on the other side.

In Psalm 23, David did not say that God would take us around the valley of death but that he would give us hope and courage as we walk through the valley. Paul tells us that God is the God of all comfort who comforts us in our troubles (2 Cor. 1:3). It is in the midst of trouble that we experience his comfort. It’s not that God does not keep us from harm or from the evil one. He protects us more that we will ever know.

There are certainly promises of protection in scripture. But those are balanced with the realities of living in a fallen world in which God chose at the outset to honor the free will of men. That free will can have devastating consequences. By man’s decisions people are betrayed, drunk drivers kill the innocent, spouses enter into adulteress relationships, war’s take the lives of millions, and drug overdoses take the lives if the young. But it is also the very thing that produces real love, sacrifice, compassion, heroism, and faith. The church’s mission is to bring enough people under the saving grace of Jesus Christ that man’s free will becomes a blessing rather than a curse.

They key is to know these realities before trouble comes. If we are living with the paradigm that God only loves us if no pain comes our way, the devil will have no trouble getting us to be offended at God. The key is to know that we all live with the possibility that in this world we will have trouble. Some trouble will be short-lived. Some we will overcome in this life. Some we will gain victory over only in heaven.

Remember that Paul promised that “in all things we are more than conquerors” (Rom.8:17). However, we are conquerors because we can never being separated from the love of God no matter what. Whether in life or death, we will eventually win because our standard for winning is living eternally with Christ. That is where true victory lies regardless of the outcome of our battles in this world. I believe God wants us to live as overcomers in this world, pray for supernatural healing, raise the dead, and believe God for victories here and now. But those victories will usually come after some initial pain, sorrow, and battles. Some victories, however, will simply show up as victory over the grave and victory over the enemy as we refuse to fall to his strategy of alienating us from the God who has prepared a place for us and has promised us eternal life in a place without pain, hate, loss, and betrayal.

Life without pain will eventually be the full expression of God’s love for us, but only when we finally arrive home. Until then, the question is not whether trouble will come but only whether our faith stands when it does arrive. Jesus told us that we will have trouble, so we would not be surprised when it comes. When it comes, we should only hold God tighter and know that he is not absent nor uncaring but has already prepared what we will need to walk through the moment if we will walk with him.

When the name Jesus is spoken, what is the first image that comes to your mind? It might be a favorite image from childhood – the one in which Jesus is tenderly holding a little lamb. It may be the familiar image of Jesus lovingly blessing little children who have come to him. As an adult you may first imagine Jesus on the cross as your much-needed savior, Jesus walking across the waters of Galilee, or Jesus graciously protecting the woman caught in the act of adultery. Each of these images would depict a facet of Jesus that is accurate. For the most part, we have come to think of Jesus as the gentle carpenter from Galilee who was willing to lay down his life for each of us so that we might have eternal life. All of us are in extreme need of grace, so we typically think first of the gentle, forgiving, healing, and shepherding Jesus.

There is nothing wrong with that, but there are times when we need another image. When we find ourselves in a showdown with the devil, we don’t need a quiet, gentle Jesus but a powerful and victorious savior who would go to war for us and with us. There are several images of Christ in scripture that I want to point to briefly that may become your focal point when it is time to go to war.

One of these images catches my attention in John’s gospel when he records the words of Jesus speaking to the Father. He said, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began” (Jn.17:4-6). Jesus is speaking about his position in heaven before he put on flesh and lived among us. Earlier in his gospel, John had recorded the words of Isaiah and then gives us a phenomenal insight into the pre-flesh Son of God. He says, “For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere: ‘He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn—and I would heal them.’ Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him” (Jn.12:39-41).

He is quoting from the famous passage in Isaiah 6 that declares, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.’ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple were filled with smoke” (Isa.6:1-4). Isaiah is given a vision of Christ’s glory before he came to earth and that glory is what Jesus asked the Father to restore.

From a distance, this vision seems glorious and sweet, but in the moment Isaiah received it, he was terrified. Jesus was huge, power, and glorious. He sat on a throne ruling the universe surrounded by weird creatures who0 declared his glory day and night. This Jesus was no one to be trifled with. No little lambs here but rather awesome and even fearsome power and authority.

Another image also comes from John in the book of Revelation. John tells us, “I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:‘King of Kings and Lord of Lords’” (Rev.19:11-16). This is a picture of Jesus riding out to make war against his enemies. The blood on his garments is not the blood of the lamb, but the blood of his enemies.

In Ephesians 4, Paul reveals that after his death, Jesus descended into hell and plundered the devil. He ascended with captives in his train giving gifts to men. This is the picture of a Roman general’s “triumph” as he would march through the streets of Rome pulling captives behind him and giving part of the spoils to friends as gifts. Jesus is painted as a conquering general here who has completely decimated his enemies and returned home to glory.

Finally, Paul shows us another image of the power and authority of Christ when he declares, “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil.2:9-11).

There are times when I need to perceive Jesus as the gentle shepherd, searching for me and binding my wounds. There are other times, however, when I need him to be a fierce warrior who rises in anger at those who would hurt me and comes to me as the conquering general and commander of the armies of heaven, ready to decimate those who would attack me. When we are under spiritual attack, this is the Jesus we must hold in our minds and present to the enemy. When demons encountered Jesus on the earth they were terrified. They knew who he was.

I think we shy away from this Jesus because we fear his wrath will be turned against us, but his blood has satisfied his wrath. His wrath is now reserved for the devil and his angels and his unmatched strength and authority is ready to be wielded on our behalf. When demons, disease, or premature death rears its head, this is the Jesus we should call on, for he is surely willing to come. Read Psalm 18:6-19, when you need the ultimate warrior and the Lion of the tribe of Judah by your side.

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Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Ephesians 6:10-13

The verses above are, perhaps, the most well known verses regarding spiritual warfare in the Bible. Sometimes it is worth going over familiar texts to see if the Spirit will give us any “new treasures” from the midst of the familiar, so let’s take a look.

It’s always good to take a look at the context of any scripture so that we might sense some of what was in the mind of the writer when he penned the verses. The Bible is anchored in history and the Holy Spirit was speaking into that moment of history whenever the scripture or letter in this case was penned. Here Paul was writing to a relatively small, fledgling church in Ephesus that was about ten years old at the time he wrote the letter from a Roman prison. Ephesus was a major commercial center as well as a center of idolatry. The temple of Diana (Artemis) was central to Ephesus and has been named one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Being a Christ follower was not politically correct in Ephesus. Not only that, but wherever there is extensive idol worship, there is tremendous demonic activity because behind every idol is a demon. Moses said, “They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols. They sacrificed to demons, which are not God” (Dt.32:16-17). Two years after the writing of this letter, Nero would become emperor of Rome and a brutal persecution of the church would be launched.

Paul is writing to a church in hostile territory that would soon face persecution on an empire wide scale. If they did not already know, Paul needed to tell them or remind them of the some things we must all know during hard times.

First of all, in the face of day-to-day persecution from the citizens of Ephesus who were offended by the notion that Jesus was the only way to heaven and in the face of demonic assaults and more intense persecution on the horizon, they needed to know that strength and power would be found in the Lord. Whatever they needed to maintain their faith and stand against cultural and demonic attack could be found in the Lord and his strength would be their only real resource. Nothing else would do.

Secondly, they needed to know that the time would come when they would have to make a stand against the schemes of the devil. It wasn’t “if trouble came” but “when trouble came.” The most important concept in this text is that our struggle or wrestling is not against flesh and blood. The idea of wrestling is that the battle will get close, hand to hand, and face-to-face. It won’t be a drive by where the devil takes a shot and speeds away but we will have to engage him and persist in the contest to win.

In a microwave culture, many of us have no endurance. If the issue isn’t settled quickly, we give up. The devil is into protracted warfare that wears us down at times and uses up our resources. Understanding his strategies is key and also knowing that God will give us strength and power to resist…to stand. We may have to stand for a day, a month, or even years and we need to understand that.

Most importantly, since our struggle is not against flesh and blood, strategies and weapons of the natural realm will not do. Money, politics, psychiatry, drug therapies, self-help, and so forth will not be sufficient. We may be tempted to compromise and try to make peace with the culture around us, but Satan drives the culture and he will not compromise unless it gives him an advantage that he will use against God’s people at a later time.

Not only that but our struggle is against rulers, powers, world forces of this darkness, and spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies (spiritual realm). Not every demon can be easily brushed aside. There are ascending ranks in the demonic realm just as in any army and with the rank comes more power. We need both God’s strength and his armor when the day of trouble comes.

It may be a sobering thought that “the big, nasty demons” might come after you. Some believers fear higher ranking demons and hold back rather than going after major strongholds of the enemy, Paul alludes to these ranks but nowhere suggests that we should fear them. His point is that the strength and power of God, along with our spiritual armor is sufficient to stand against any of those listed. After all, he that is in us is greater than he that is in the world and our King has all authority in heaven and in earth.

Another aspect of this verse is that in our personal. Interior struggles, the main battle is also wrestling with the enemy more than ourselves. If Satan can convince us that we are the problem, we will never go after him with divine weapons but will continue to focus on our own issues, our own brokenness, and our own past with counseling, self-help, twelve step programs, and self-criticism. What we need instead will be the truth of God’s word about us and a dogged declaration of that truth over our lives with a bit of deliverance mixed in. We too often take blame for the sinful or crazy thoughts bouncing around in our heads rather than treating those thoughts as something coming from a lying spirit so that spirit operates without opposition. Remember, our struggle is not against flesh and blood…not even our own flesh and blood,

The key to victory is found in training ourselves to look to the spiritual realm first and the use of divine weapons as we face every challenge. I understand that not everything is demonic or spiritual, but we should start there and work back to the natural. Too often we operate in the natural and exhaust every “solution” the world offers before taking up divine weapons which, according to Paul, should be our first defense. God is more than sufficient, but we primarily stand in his strength and power when we engage the enemy in the spiritual realm with spiritual weapons rather than asking him to bless what the world offers. Think about it. Blessings in Him.

In the realm of spiritual warfare, we often hear conversations about making declarations over a circumstance or a person. So…what is a declaration anyway and why and what should we declare?

The spiritual realm operates on the basis of authority. As followers of Jesus, we live under grace, but the rest of creation operates under law. Law operates on the basis of authority. That is one reason the New Testament speaks so often about the authority of Christ. As he commanded his followers to go into all the world and make disciples, Jesus himself declared, “All authority in heaven and in earth has been given unto me” (Mt.28:18). Later Paul taught, “That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come” (Eph.1:19-21). Jesus has all authority and has delegated a measure of his authority to us.

As representatives of Christ on the earth, when we declare the word of God or the name of God over a situation we establish our legal ground and our authority for prayers or commands that follow. As representatives of Jesus on earth, we have been given authority to do what he would do in the same circumstance. The most important declaration we make is, “In the name of Jesus.” The Pharisees asked Jesus by what authority he baptized, cleansed the temple, and performed miracles. He stated that he had authority because he represented the Father. In the same way, we act in the authority of Jesus Christ and should clearly state that truth when we command sickness, infirmity, or demons to depart. We preach in his name, we baptize in his name, we heal in his name, and we command spirits in his name.

To attempt to operate in our own authority is a dangerous thing. In the book of Acts we are told, “Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding” (Acts 19:13-16).

When we declare the word of God and the name of God over a circumstance, we not only release his authority but also confirm our authority to work on his behalf. In other words, we declare that we are acting in his authority and that what we are doing is lawful for us to do. That is not too different from FBI agents showing up, displaying their credentials to establish that they are representatives of the federal government, and then producing a warrant which demonstrates that what they are about to do is lawful.

God assured Israel that if they were careful to obey his covenant and stayed aligned with his word, then he would exercise his authority through them and give them every place they “set their feet” (Dt.11:24). The Hebrew phrase translated as “set their feet” embodies the idea of soldiers marching to conquer or establish dominion over an enemy. Our declarations establish our authority and lawfulness to take dominion over a circumstance because of the one we represent.

As a young man, David declared his victory before charging Goliath, the surly Philistine warrior who stood over nine feet tall. “David said to the Philistine, ‘You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.’ When David declared victory in the name of the Lord, he “set his feet” or stepped out to establish the Lord’s dominion in that place.

We are reminded of the verse from Job. “You will also decree a thing and it will be established for you” (Job 22:28). I feel certain that God put that decree on David’s heart. It was prophetic but not a prophecy. David never said, “Thus sayeth the Lord…” Notice that David did not identify himself as a man representing Saul or even Israel but rather declared that he opposed Goliath in the name of the Lord Almighty. Earlier in the chapter, he asked who the man was that was defying the armies of the living God…not the armies of Saul or Israel, but of God. When you have that heart, you can declare a thing and it will be established for you.

Speaking the word and name of God over a situation releases authority. If you begin to minister to people in the arena of deliverance, it won’t be long until you will have an unclean spirit begin to argue that the person you are ministering to belongs to him. We should respond with the Word of God, using scriptures declaring that the person in question does not belong to the demon but has been redeemed by the blood of Jesus. We should also declare scriptures that establish our authority over the enemy. Demons will always attempt to persuade the person they are afflicting that they have every right to remain and that we have no power against them. That is when it is time to take out the sword of the Spirit and establish our authority in Christ to evict the unwanted intruder. When he came face to face with Satan, Jesus simply declared, “It is written…”

Declarations are divine weapons that undermine the position of the enemy. They have power in the spiritual realm to dislodge demons by releasing power and authority and to shore up our own faith in moments when that is needed. Every believer should make extensive use of this weapon as we charge the giants that occasionally get in our way as we are about the business of the kingdom.

When I first became a follower of Jesus in my early 20’s, I lived with the impression that all the neat, clean people that sat on the pews around me on Sunday mornings were sinless, happy, and healthy people who lived worry free lives of contentment. However, after decades of serving in churches, I can say unequivocally that my impression was wrong.

If we are honest, a great many believers today are saved but remain in bondage to sin, addiction, shame, and a host of other hindrances to their walk. The truth is that other than church attendance and having their sins forgiven, a large percentage of believers differ little from the people they work with or go to school with who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them. Divorce rates in the church rival divorce rates in the culture at large. Christian teens seem to have little power over the cultural pressure to drink, experiment with drugs, or to be sexually active. A significant number of believers live on antidepressants, tolerate marriages dominated by anger and rage, live with bitterness toward the past, and are crippled by an overpowering sense of unworthiness and rejection. In short, they continue to live out their lives in emotional brokenness and bondage.

I’m not scolding these believers for not being “the Christians they should be.” Through the years, I have struggled with many of those issues as well. These believers are desperately looking for freedom and healing, but for the most part have not been able to gain victory over the issues that rob them of the joy and peace they long for.

Jesus declared that he came that his people might have life and have it to the full – abundant life. He also declared that he came to bind up the brokenhearted and set captives free. For many believers, there is a huge gap between the promises and the reality. Why? We can say with confidence that the shortfall is not on the part of Jesus for Jesus has done everything perfectly.

The truth is that, in many cases, these men and women have not been shown by their churches how to access the freedom and healing that Jesus promises. The majority of churches in America, offer their people the forgiveness purchased by the cross but not the healing and freedom. When confronted with brokenness and bondage, they send the children of God out into the world to find solutions. They are left to seek healing and freedom from those who often do not believe the core values of our faith or even that God exists.

Even when they are referred to “Christian counselors,” those good men and women have nearly always been trained to use the weapons of the world rather than divine weapons. There is something terribly wrong with that picture. Doing so implies that Jesus has no answers for the emotional suffering of his people, so we must look elsewhere. The weapons of the world can help but cannot go far enough for real victory. They tend to provide “coping skills” rather than lasting freedom.

A gospel that only gets us to a place of forgiveness, but does not radically change us through the healing and freedom that is ours in Christ is not the gospel that Jesus preached. When Jesus preached the gospel, there was always a demonstration of life-changing power with it. Paul pointed to this truth when he said, “Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life” (Phil. 2:14-16).

Stars stand out in stark contrast to the darkness around them. Jesus himself declared that his followers were to be the light of the world. Those who wear the name of Christ should stand out in the crowd by their sheer “differentness” and have a testimony of his powerful work in their lives. Jesus spoke of being “born again,” not as figurative language for trying harder, but as a reality where something real and essential has been altered in everyone who comes to him. After a short while, that essential difference should become apparent, not a as a reflection of our efforts but as a reflection of the power of God working in us and Christ being formed in us.

If the world can provide the healing and freedom that Jesus promised his people, then much of what Jesus paid for with this suffering and death was unnecessary. Paul clearly stated that the wars we truly fight, must be fought with divine weapons rather than the weapons or strategies of the world (2 Cor. 10:4, Eph.6). Most churches have little idea about fighting in the Spirit and little access to those weapons. Therefore, their people continue to struggle with emotional brokenness and bondage.

We need a shift. We need to be willing to say that what we have been doing is lacking. We need to be willing to say that we have meant well but have missed something important in the scriptures because our fruit does not yet rival the fruit we see in the New Testament. My hope is that many senior pastors and elders will begin to ask for more, seek more, and risk more so that their people have access to everything Jesus purchased for them. The power of Jesus is immense and its impact should be profound and visable. Our people should stand out from the world and walk in victory over the things that burden most of the earth. It is not that we will be trouble free, but that the trouble will come from without rather than from within where Jesus lives – and that makes all the difference.

Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. Hebrews 2:14-15

The writer of Hebrews declared that Jesus, through his death, has rendered the devil powerless. The word that is translated powerless, means to make insignificant or ineffective. Too often, those who are involved in spiritual warfare give the devil too much credit and, in their minds, give him too much power. Paul wrote, “But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, ‘When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.’ In saying, ‘He ascended,’ what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions of the earth?  He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things’” (Eph. 4:7-10).

Not only did Jesus render the devil powerless but he also descended into hell and either set those who had previously been held captive by the enemy free or brought enemy captives with him as trophies – figuratively or literally. Either understanding is possible. The probable picture Paul is painting is that of a Roman general coming home from war after securing a victory. Victorious generals were given a “triumph” by the Senate, which was essentially a tickertape parade through the streets of Rome. As he entered Rome, he would be riding in a chariot pulled by four horses. His chariot would be followed by prisoners that he had taken captive as a display of his power and his authority. After the prisoners, came all the spoils that had been taken from the enemy. Then the general’s soldiers and other dignitaries would come behind. After the parade, which sometimes took more than a day, the general would often throw a huge banquet, giving away gifts and providing food paid for by his part of the spoils of war.

This picture of Jesus confirms that by his sinless life, his willing death, and his resurrection he was completely victorious over the enemy. He rendered Satan ineffective and irrelevant for those who are in Christ. After the cross, the only power that Satan has over God’s people is the power we give him through sin, unbelief, fear, and agreement with his lies and deception. Ultimately, we are in the same condition Adam and Eve were in while living in the Garden. In the Garden, Satan could not assault them, kidnap then, take their lives, or even harass them until after they agreed with his lies and surrendered their authority to him.

Today, as believers, we also give him the authority to harass us and afflict us by coming into agreement with him. Apparently, Satan has the ongoing right to tempt us and cause others to persecute us because we are told to beware of his schemes and that persecution will come to the righteous. But, he does not have the legal right to constantly afflict us, take our lives, or harass us year after year unless something in our lives or the lives of those we are attached to has given him power. When those things are submitted to the blood of Christ and realigned with God’s truth, his authority is revoked again.

I like what Jonathan Welton says about this. “ I do believe demonic forces are at work in the world, but not in the way many think. Most true spiritual warfare takes place in the arena of truth versus lies. The devil is a liar, and he uses his craftiness to get us to lay aside our identity and authority. Our battle must be understood as a battle to maintain our identity, because the authority we have been given as believers is contained in our identity. Many Christians have reached a point emotionally where they feel as though they have been stripped of their armor. They have been beaten to a pulp. They have been chained and are being dragged behind the devil’s chariot as his spoils of war…The truth regarding our identity is that we have been put into Christ. ‘In him we live and move and have our being’ (Acts 17:28). We abide in Him and he in us (Jn.15:4). We have been seated with him in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6)…If we understand that we abide in Him (which also means that we abide in his authority), then our spiritual warfare is very different: we are not fighting for victory, we are fighting from victory” (Jonahtan Welton, The School of the Seers, DestinyImage Publishing, p.155).

In our own lives, when Satan shows up, we need to remember who Christ is and who we are in Him. We need to take a personal inventory and inquire of the Spirit to see if anything or anyone is giving the devil a key to our front door. If we find something, then we should immediately deal with it through faith and the blood of Christ. Having done that, we should reassert our authority as those who speak for Christ and represent him on this planet. When we command the enemy, we should do so with full confidence that we have the authority to do so and that he must comply because he that is in us is greater than he that is in the world (1 Jn. 4:4). James tells us to resist the devil and he will flee from us. The first step to resistance is remembering who we are and what Jesus has accomplished for us. When we remember and stand in that truth by faith, the battle is essentially over and the devil will beat a hasty retreat.

We already have the victory over Satan because Christ already has the victory. We should have no fear of this enemy who has been rendered powerless, but rather he should fear us for we sit in judgment on him. If we want to be effective in spiritual warfare we must maintain that mindset. When we go onto the field to face the enemy we should walk on with the swagger of those who already know that the game and the victory is theirs. It is that swagger in Christ, the certainty of who we are, and the total confidence that victory is already ours that intimidates demons and causes the devil to flee.

If we walk onto the field fearing defeat, being unsure of our Captain, and thinking that the enemy looks bigger, stronger and faster than we thought, we will be ineffective. We will empower and embolden the enemy by forgetting who our Captain is and who we are in him and we will not win the lopsided victory that was ours.

David is our model for facing the enemy. When he stood before Goliath, his mind was not contemplating his own strength but the strength of God Almighty. Goliath had taunted him and had pointed out how hopeless David’s efforts would be because Goliath had vast superiority in physical strength and experience. But David looked beyond Goliath’s taunts and intimidation. In his mind, the battle was already won because God was with him and God cannot lose. With his faith that God was with him, he declared victory over Goliath and charged him with a few stones and a slingshot. The rest is history. It never entered David’s mind that Goliath could win because David was representing the God of Israel. How much more confidence should we have because God is not only with us but in us and our commander cannot and will not lose.

We will face the enemy this year but he is defeated and rendered powerless in our lives when we remember who we are and whose we are. Like David, we have the right to declare victory in the name of Jesus and to charge the enemy. As we do, he will flee. Be blessed immensely and victorious in every skirmish with the enemy in this year to come.

Through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord assures us that when his word goes forth it always fulfills its purpose. “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isa. 55:10-11).  For us the question becomes, “How does God’s worth go forth?”  Under the Old Covenant, God told Jeremiah, “I have put my words in your mouth.” He went on to tell him that he was appointed over nations and kingdoms to uproot, tear down, plant, and to build although he would never lead an army or a political movement.

Concerning prophets, God’s word goes forth from his lips to theirs by revelation from the Spirit or from the lips of angels and when his prophets declare it, his power is then released and his word fulfills its purpose in lives and nations on the earth. In the Book of Hosea, speaking of his judgment the Lord says, “Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth; my judgments flashed like lightning upon you” (Hos.6:5-6). The declarations of God’s prophet released the angelic realm and even the Holy Spirit to make God’s word a reality.

Under the Old Covenant, God’s Spirit would reveal his will to those upon whom the Spirit operated – typically those appointed to the office of prophet.  Under the New Covenant, the Spirit of prophecy lives in every believer and each of us can hear directly from God and can declare his word over a person or circumstance.  Admittedly, those with a residing gift of prophecy can do so in just about any setting,  but all of us can receive a prophetic word form time to time as the Spirit determines.

Jesus taught us to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Like the Old Testament prophets, uur words in prayer and prophetic declarations release the heavenly realms to fulfill God’s purposes on the earth. So why does he wait on us? He waits for his people to declare his word or lift up prayers because he gave his people – his children – his representatives – dominion over the earth and the works of his hands from the very beginning. He simply continues to honor that intent and honors the authority he has given us. Much or even most of what God desires to do on the earth will depend on our prayers and declarations. God is willing to run and if he runs he will win the race.  But he waits on his people to fire the starting pistol.

Even when we recognize the essential place of our prayers and declarations in releasing God’s will and purposes not he earth, it’s important to notice the analogy God uses for his word as it goes forth from his mouth. He uses the analogy of seed that sprouts and grows, of planting and harvesting. Jesus used the same analogy when he talked about the word of God being broadcast and the different soils it might encounter (Lk.8:4-21). As microwave Americans, we expect instantaneous answers to our prayers, instantaneous healings, and instantaneous shifts in relationships and cultural issues when we have prayed or declared God’s word over a situation. But when seed is involved, we must allow time for cultivation, watering, growth, and then the harvest.

It is true that sometimes, our prayers or declarations will release almost instantaneous results. A person may be healed immediately or within hours. A prayer will bring a check in the next day’s mail. A house will be sold in the afternoon when the prayer was offered in the morning, and so on. But typically, like seeds, the words we have offered up will seem to make no difference for a season. Like a woman who has just planted a garden, we will go out daily to see if anything is pushing up through the soil. Initially, there will be no evidence of God moving to establish what we have prayed or declared or even commanded. Like a master gardener, we will need to have faith, watch the soil, and continue to water with our prayers and declarations until we see the first green sprouts breaking through the soil. Even after the first evidence of life, we will need to guard the initial progress with faith, diligence, and prayer. We will need to pray against the involvement of the enemy in the same way that we would be vigilant to keep insects and “critters” from killing the young plants. Eventually, we will witness a plant growing but that is still only the promise of a harvest. Then, after a season of growth, the harvest will come and there will be the full answer to our prayers or the full impact of our declarations.

Paul encourages us by saying, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Gal. 6:9). The harvest comes if we do not give up. Undoubtedly, much of what God wants to do or is willing to do on the earth gets choked out because his people plant their seeds but do not continue to water them with prayer and expressions of faith. After a short season, we too often decide that God is not going to answer our prayer or honor a declaration so we stop tending the plant and it is choked out by the enemy or by our own unbelief. We need to be confident of our standing in the kingdom and of the authority our words carry in declarations and prayers. We need to be confident that if God has placed something on our hearts or has given us a word by his Spirit or a prophetic declaration, then we are the carrier of his word that is to go forth from our lips. We should then stand on that word until it is fulfilled or until God releases us. What a privilege and what a responsibility. Enjoy both. It comes with our dominion over the earth.