Today’s blog is a very practical slice of spiritual warfare.  I spent a little time today with a man who loves the Lord and serves him well but has been tormented lately by memories from his past that carry strong feelings of shame and unworthiness.  Those thoughts tend to make him feel as if God can’t use him to do significant things in the kingdom.

Those thoughts are projected by demonic spirits.  One of Satan’s primary strategies is to make us feel disqualified from God’s love, service and blessings.  Most of us struggle with our self-image due to our childhood experiences of rejection, neglect, abuse, and criticism.  Satan preys on that insecurity about who we are.   We know what the Bible says about God’s forgiveness, love, and acceptance of us. In spite of that, spirits of condemnation, accusation and shame find their way in and begin to amplify the feelings we already have of “not being enough.” When the thoughts begin to persist and get stronger, we need to deal with the source of those thoughts -accusing spirits.  Command them to leave.  We then need to know what God says about us and give that truth more authority in our lives than our flesh or the devil. 

To keep these spirits from returning, we need to thicken and heighten the walls that protect us from the lies of the enemy.  Other than the blood of Christ, truth is one of our greatest weapons.  Every temptation from the enemy begins with a lie and lies can eventually hold us captive.  But Jesus declared, “Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (Jn.8:32).

Knowing who we are in Christ is a great defense against the spirits that come to accuse, condemn and shame us.  If you struggle with these issues, I invite you to read the following declarations out loud every day for sixty days.  It takes that long to establish these truths in your heart. When his truth settles into your heart, it is truly transformative. Knowing your identity in Christ and believing it in your heart disarms the enemy and foils many of his schemes against us.  We use this set of declarations in our Free Indeed ministry and it has proven to be one of the most powerful tools God has given us.  Please use it.


Declaration of Faith – My Position in Christ

These descriptors are what God says is true about you.  You must give his word more authority in your life than your emotions, “parent tapes,” etc.  Declaring these verbally and consistently helps to write them on your heart.

In the name of Jesus …

I renounce the lies of Satan and his accusations that come against me. I renounce the lies that I am bound up in my brokenness, weak, worthless, and displeasing to my Heavenly Father. In the name of Jesus and by his blood, I renounce shame, worthlessness, inadequacy, rejection, guilt, accusation and condemnation. In Jesus Christ, I am totally loved, totally forgiven, totally accepted, totally valued, and totally competent.

In the Name of Jesus and according to the Word of God, I now declare that . . . 

• I am a beloved and blood bought child of God.  (Jn. 1:12, Jn. 3:16)
• I have been chosen as a personal friend of Jesus Christ.  (Jn. 15:5)
• I have been declared innocent of all sin by the blood of Christ. (Rom. 5:1)
• I am joined with Christ and his Spirit and I am made holy by that union. (I Cor. 6:17)
• I am highly valued.  I have been bought at an incredible price and belong totally to him. (1 Cor.6: 19, 20)
• I am a member of the body of Christ, designed by God, gifted by God, and placed exactly where he wants me so that I may fulfill the destiny He has ordained for me.  (I Cor. 12:27; Ps. 139:13-16; Eph. 2:10; I Cor. 12:18
• I am, in fact, a saint, a holy one of God. (Eph. 1:1)
• I lack nothing for godliness and love because I have been made complete in Jesus Christ. (Col. 2:10)
• Any condemnation is a lie from the evil one.  I am free forever from all condemnation (Rom.8:1).
• I am totally united to the love of God in Christ Jesus. Nothing can separate me from that love.  (Rom. 8:35-39)
• I am a child of God.  I am established by Christ, anointed by his Spirit, and sealed by the King.  (2 Cor. 1:22-23)
• I am a beloved child of God.  I can come before his throne of grace with boldness at any time and expect help in time of need. (Heb. 4:1)
• I am a bold in Christ because I have not been given a spirit of fear but of power, love, and self – control. (2 Tim 1: 7)
• I am a branch of the true vine, Jesus Christ.  His power, love, and grace flow to me and through me as I bear fruit in his kingdom. (Jn. 15:1, 5)
• I am a minister of reconciliation, made competent to serve by the Spirit and power of God.  (2 Cor. 5:17-21)
• I am a new creation, a servant of righteousness, and free from the power of sin. (2 Cor. 5:17)
• I am, in every circumstance, more than a conqueror though Jesus Christ. (Rom. 8: 37)
• I am loved and treasured. Since God is for me, who can stand against me? (Rom. 8:3l)
• I am never alone because God has said, “No matter what, I will never leave you, I will never forsake you.  (Heb. 13:5)
• I am appointed and anointed to fulfill my great destiny in Jesus Christ. (1Jn.2:26-27, Ps.139:17) 

I am absolutely loved, totally accepted, and worthy in Christ. I am royalty in the household of God, personally chosen by Jesus Christ, holy, and destined for greatness in Him. In the name of Jesus, I renounce all lies to the contrary and in his name and by his blood, renounce and nullify all curses and judgments that have been spoken against me contrary to God’s declared truth.  Holy Spirit, write these truths on my heart today for every circumstance…in Jesus’ name.  Amen

Be blessed….tom v

In judges 6, we find one of the great stories of the Old Testament…the story of Gideon.  As the chapter opens, we are told that because of Israel’s sin, God gave had given them into the hands of the Midianites, who severely oppressed Israel for seven years.  This was a familiar cycle in the life of Israel.  God would give them victory over their enemies and bless the land with fruitfulness.  But after a few years of blessing, Israel would forget God and reject his commands.  They often pursued the “gods” of the nations around them and slipped fatally into idol worship. In an effort to turn the nation back to him, God would then discipline them by letting their enemies oppress them once again.  They would then cry out to God and repent.  In response, God would raise up a man or woman as a judge over Israel who would lead them in victories over their enemies and restore their freedom. After a season of blessing, they would turn away from God once more.

In Judges 6, the people began to cry out to God again and he raised up an unlikely champion to lead them in battle against the Midianites. If you read the account, you will see that Gideon was highly resistant to the call of God to lead the nation, but finally began to trust Jehovah and won Israel’s freedom.  When God first commissioned Gideon to lead his people, his initial command was for Gideon to tear down his father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it (Judges 6:25).  Baal was the god of fertiltiy and Ashera was his concubine. He was then ordered to build a proper altar to God in place of the pagan altar.

The Old Testament is clear that behind every altar and idol was a demonic spirit.  When the pagans offered sacrifices on these altars and prayed to their “gods,” demons were released to fulfill the desires of the worshipper.  You may recall in Numbers 22, that Balak asked Balaam to place a curse on Israel so that he might defeat them in battle.  Hoping that God would give him permission to do so, he built seven altars.  We are told that Balaam was a sorcerer and we can safely assume that he would have offered sacrifices on those altars and called on the powers of darkness to wage war against Israel if he had the opportunity. God did not allow him to do so, but it was in his heart to do it if he could.

Here is the principle.  When demonic assignments are made from an altar dedicated to demons, the assignment stands as long as the altar stands.  The demon is honored and empowered by the sacrifices made on that altar. In addition, the altar Gideon destroyed was a family altar that would have continued to give demons access to Gideon.  Perhaps, that is where his initial fear and doubt came from. That is one reason God always commanded the altars to be utterly destroyed.  Not only would remaining altars tempt Israel to begin to worship at them again, but their assignments against Israel would stand as well.  

You cannot maintain peaceful coexistence with demons. By their very nature, their only intent is to kill, steal and destroy. While you ignore them, they are plotting new strategies for your destruction. That is why Israel cannot trust in treaties made with their enemies because their enemies are not just driven by politics but by the dark forces of evil.  Any treaty simply allows the enemy to regroup and rearm themselves for the next inevitable attack.  

We would also be naïve to believe that there are not thousands of demonic altars operating in America right now where witches and warlocks are offering sacrifices and repeating incantations in an effort to curse God’s people, his churches, and those who stand for life, biblical values, and freedom in this nation.  We need a worldviews that includes spiritual dimensions for Paul says our true battle is not against flesh and blood but the spiritual powers of darkness (Eph. 6:12).

As I mentioned earlier, we cannot peacefully coexist with these agents of darkness.  We need to be clear that there is more than politics going on with these agendas.  We are not to hate the men and women Satan is using for his enterprise, for they are truly deceived. But we must resist and take back the territory that has been relinquished in this nation to Satan in the arenas of government, media and education. Prayer and spiritual warfare will need to increase among God’s people.   Holiness and alignment with the Lord will have to mark our churches.  We will need to begin to operate in the authority of Jesus Christ at a much higher level if we are going to be the instruments God uses to restore America.  Ultimately, turning the followers of Satan into followers of Jesus is our best strategy to save this nation.  

If this sounds like an impossible task, it is not. In Acts 19, Paul preached the gospel in Ephesus which was a stronghold of witchcraft and pagan worship. God did “extraordinary miracles through Paul” (Acts 19:8) in that city. .  As a result, a godly fear fell on the population and the name of Jesus was held in honor.  We are told that a number of sorcerers brought their scrolls and burned them in the public square. Many Satanists have come to Jesus already in America.  A Satanist does not have to be convinced of the reality of Jesus. He or she already believes that. What they need to discover is that Jesus is more powerful than Satan.  Once they discover his power, they know they have been deceived by the prince ion this world and they quickly embrace the kingdom of light. In view of that, the church must begin to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit more than ever before and tear down and utterly destroy the altars of demons in this nation. 

The future of America and even this election will not be determined by politics but by spiritual warfare on both sides.  We must pray, fast, declare, and evangelize if this nation is to stand.  I hope we will all take our assignment seriously at the altar of the Lord.  

When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation(Mt.12:43-46).

This well-known teaching of Jesus has served as a warning for those who have experienced deliverance from a demonic spirit for centuries.  We sight it at the end of our Freedom Weekends as a warning not to return to the things that opened the door to demonization in the first place. If you do, you may not just end up where you started, but will be in much deeper anguish because the returning spirit will bring others with him you did not have to contend with before.

The thrust of the passage is not a warning against deliverance, but against creating a spiritual vacancy through deliverance that is left uninhabited.  If the vacancy left by an unclean spirit is not filled with the Holy Spirit, you are subject to the return of the demon…and his friends. I suspect that many believers walk around with a vacancy within them, because they do little to be filled with the things of God.

Paul called the Ephesians to eliminate any spiritual vacancy within them. “Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled withthe Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph. 5:17-20).

We may have the Holy Spirit living within us, but that does not mean we are automatically “filled with the Spirit.”  Often, God gives us the basics for being a child of God or for operating in a spiritual gift, but then leaves it to us to pursue more of him and more of the gift if we want to maximize what he has made available.  We can walk around with the minimum and still be saved, but as we do so, we leave room for the enemy to enter our house with torment and oppression. If being “filled with the Spirit” wasn’t dependent on us to some degree, he would not have instructed the church to pursue that state of spiritual being.  When we prioritize the spiritual above the natural, we will be begin to be filled with the Spirit and there will be no room for the enemy.  

Being in the word, in prayer, in obedience, in fellowship with other believers, in praise, etc. on a daily basis and inviting God’s Spirit to fill us is the process for being filled. When we fail to do so, we begin to create empty places within us that invite the enemy…either invite him back or invite him in the for the first time.  In the arena of spiritual warfare, being casual invites disaster because the enemy is always seeking entrance to our lives.  Because of that, we need to take inventory of what we are filling our hearts and our minds with.  

In addition to applying Christ’s warning to individuals, he applies it to an entire generation.  His words seem to suggest that entire cultures can be demonized when they have once enjoyed the presence of God but have since pushed God out of their culture leaving a huge vacancy for the enemy.  In Jonathan Cahn’s book, The Return of the Gods, he makes the case that this very thing has happened to America and that our culture has been demonized so that the “insanity” we see all around us is because Satan has been given the reins to our nation.  

Our situation is not hopeless but individuals or nations must begin to push out the enemy and his influence by displacement.  When we once again begin to earnestly seek to be filled with the Spirit, that filling will push out the presence of the enemy.  However, it is better to never allow the enemy in than to have to push him out later.  So the question once again is, “With what are we filling our lives?”. 

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 2 Corinthians. 4:4

Paul is the apostle who most often mentions spiritual warfare in his letters.  In his letter to the church at Corinth he gives an explanation as to why so many people do not respond to the gospel.  He simply says that the god of this age has blinded their minds. He means that Satan, through lies and deception, has rendered them incapable of understanding who Jesus is, why they need him, and what sin is … in their own strength.

Satan is called the “god of this age” because the world worships him.  He is not deity; he is not eternal; he is a “god” with a lower case “g.”  And yet he has beguiled and deceived the great majority of people who live on this planet.  What we need to recognize is that many of the people we care about who are lost and have proven to be resistant to the gospel, are not bad people…they are blinded people.  What is most important to understand is that they are blinded by supernatural forces, therefore, they will only be able to see by the supernatural power of God.  If we expect them to hear the gospel, analyze it by logic and intellect, and accept it because it is a superior way to live…they cannot. 

Later in the same letter to Corinth, Paul writes, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:3-5). Notice he uses the language of war…wage war, weapons, divine power, demolish strongholds, and captivity.  But notice also that the war is taking place in the arena of the mind…arguments, pretensions, knowledge, and thoughts. And remember that Satan has blinded their minds.

Before we share the gospel with a highly resistant friend or family member, we need to enter into a season of spiritual warfare on their behalf. A season of praying for God to remove their blindness and give them spiritual sight seems prudent.  As in most cases, demons are also involved in maintaining the deception and erecting strongholds (belief systems) that oppose God’s truth.  Each time we try to share some of that truth with an unbeliever, some demon is whispering an objection to what we are sharing.  A season of commanding spirits to be silent when we visit with that person will be in order and our declarations of God’s word over them will weaken the enemy.  Sharing God’s word with them in a non-confrontational way will allow the seed to begin to take root.  

Like any harvest, it will take time for the seed to germinate and grow so we must be ready for a season of warfare rather than a few days.  We may need to forbid the enemy from snatching up the seed as Jesus points out in the parable of the sower.   We may need to pray for the Holy Spirit to guard and water it, and we may need to persist in loving some unlovable people in our lives.  We also need to guard ourselves against unbelief and discouragement as well.  As we pray for the salvation of another, Satan will whisper in our ears that we are wasting our time and that the person we are praying for is beyond redemption. He will discourage us at every turn so that the strongholds keeping our loved one in unbelief will not be dismantled.

Paul clearly declared in Ephesians 6 that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but spiritual powers.  Spiritual powers must be confronted by spiritual weapons. In many cases, simply presenting the gospel or showing another person Jesus through our love may need to be accompanied by spiritual warfare that prepares the ground. Power is certainly in the gospel but it is also in prayer and the authority of Jesus Christ.  When we pray, power is released toward the object of our prayer.  When we declare scripture, God’s word is released to fulfill its purpose.  When we command spirits, the authority of Christ does its work.  

When Jesus healed the blind he exercised authority and often cast out a spirit that was the source of the blindness.  Surely, when we want to free a spiritually blind person from their inability to grasp the word of God, we will have to do the same.  Blessings in Him.

From one perspective, the life of Jesus is a study in spiritual warfare.  From his birth, the enemy was targeting Jesus.  First of all, Satan incited Herod to kill all the males in the region of Bethlehem under the age of two in order to eliminate the possibility that one of them would grow to be a king who threatened Herod’s throne.  The fact that Joseph, Mary, and Jesus became political refugees fleeing to Egypt while Jesus was still a toddler also put the family in danger.  The fact that angels drew near to pronounce both promises and warnings in visions and in-person tells us that there was much afoot in the spiritual realm.

As Jesus began his ministry, God himself spoke audibly confirming that Jesus was his son in whom he was well pleased.  Then, after his baptism by John, we are told that Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit for forty days of fasting and temptation.  Some versions say that the Holy Spirit drove him into the wilderness.  This would be a difficult introduction to spiritual warfare launched by the public ministry of Jesus.  The language of the gospels suggests that he was tempted throughout the forty days, with an ultimate confrontation at the end.

At the end of his fasting, Jesus had a personal confrontation with Satan who challenged him to demonstrate his deity if he really were the Son of God. He was betting that Jesus had an element of pride and arrogance that would prompt him to demonstrate who he was when Satan questioned him.  After all, Satan was filled with pride and arrogance and would have gladly demonstrated his power if it had been questioned. The first two temptations…turning stones to bread and jumping from the pinnacle of the temple mount… were kind of a dare. In essence, the accuser was taunting Jesus with, “I dare you to prove who you are.”  

The last temptation was to take a shortcut to becoming king and ruling over the nations of the earth, whichis his appointed destiny.  Satan offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if he would simply worship Satan. The offer was to fulfill his rightful destiny without the cross and the suffering.  We all want “a crown without a cross” and Satan tempts us with spiritual short cuts all the time.  Jesus responded with the word of God in all three moments of temptation which is the ultimate way to resist Satan.

Later we see Satan manipulating Judas so that he ultimately betrayed Jesus.  In fact, we are told that Satan entered into Judas just before the final betrayal.  We can’t know for sure, but it seems likely that Satan was in Gethsemane that night whispering that none of us were worth what Jesus was about to go through. On that night, Jesus asked the Father if there was any other way.  Of course, the flesh in any of us would have been looking for an exit from the appointed plan but, perhaps, Satan was amplifying the moment and the fear Jesus was wrestling with.  Remember, Jesus was tempted in every way that we have been tempted, yet was without sin.  As Jesus resisted the temptation, angels came and ministered to him.

I am convinced that we, like our master, are in the midst of spiritual warfare ourselves much more than we recognize.  Failing to derail Jesus, he is busy trying to derail those who follow him.  The problem is in recognizing his activity.  The most effective demons are those who work subtly in our lives to move us out of God’s will inch by inch rather than in catastrophic ways that would immediately raise a red flag in our minds that we are under spiritual attack.  He takes his time, studies our vulnerabilities, looks for things in our life or bloodline that will give him a legal right to afflict us, and studies our wounds to see how to use those against us.  

The best strategies of the enemy leave us feeling as if life and time are simply taking their toll.  Our health issues, our discouragement that moves into mild depression, our insecurities that develop into generalized anxiety, our view of ourselves as victims and questions about God’s goodness or fairness seem to come up like weeds. We have thoughts that we know are contrary to God’s word and we wonder why we think that way. We wonder why we don’t have the faith we once did, why lustful thoughts seem to dominate our imagination, why anger or jealousy begin to define us, and why we can’t forgive certain people in our lives.

In many cases, we simply conclude that we are not spiritual; that we don’t love Jesus anymore and that God tolerates us but is not pleased with us as his children.  We become discouraged and often give up on our spiritual growth or our relationship with God all together.  The truth us, many times the fear, the depression, the bitterness, and the lust are not originating in us, but are demonic spirits constantly whispering those things that stream across our minds as though they originated in our hearts.  Then the accuser fills us with shame and discouragement and tries to convince us that we are beyond hope and that spiritual growth is out of our reach.

Certainly we need to recognize the thoughts that are contrary to God’s word and repent of them, but even more we should recognize the source of those thoughts as demonic and banish those demons from our presence by the authority of Jesus Christ.  Thoughts that persist in the face of repentance and prayer or that press in even harder when we resist, are most likely demonic affliction.  Until the demons leave, the thoughts will gain ground rather than fading away.  My experience has taught me that more of our struggles are spiritual than we think. When resisting thoughts, impulses, or destructive behaviors, we should assume first that a spirit is operating.  We should command the spirit to leave and then deal with the flesh through prayer, repentance, and the word.  We should command these spirits to leave as soon as we see a pattern of thoughts contrary to God’s word and will for us.  We should command them before we start to come into agreement with them. If we assume out thoughts are always our own, those thoughts may become a stronghold that will be more difficult to dismantle.

Satan loves to work in the shadows and make us just miserable enough, tired enough, and depressed enough that we assume it is just life in a fallen world. We then look to doctors and counselors for help when the underlying cause is spiritual.  Until the spiritual realm is addressed, no counseling or treatment will be sufficient.  Paul declares that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but spiritual powers. Let me encourage you to start there when life isn’t as it should be and God’s blessings always seem to slip away. When you recognize a pattern of ungodly thought, make sure there is nothing in your life giving the enemy a legal right to afflict and oppress you. After that, command the thought as if it is a spirit. Command it to leave and never return. If the thoughts weaken then the spirit has left and you and the Word can continue to renew your mind.  If the thoughts press in harder, then command harder until the spirit leaves. 

In 1 Samuel 13, we are told of an incident between the Prophet Samuel and King Saul, Israel’s first king.  In this section of scripture, we are told of a number of battles between Israel and the Philistines.  As they prepare for an upcoming major encounter, Samuel told Saul to take his troops, go to Gilgal, and wait for Samuel to come and offer sacrifices on behalf of Israel before going into battle.  Samuel told Saul he would come on the seventh day to offer the sacrifice (1 Sam. 10:8).  

In chapter 13, we are told that Saul was waiting at Gilgal on the seventh day.   His troops were terrified.  He was frightened and yet Samuel had not yet arrived. As the day wore on, some of Saul’s men began to scatter. Saul decided to take matters into his own hands and he himself offered the burnt offering and fellowship offering that Samuel was to offer.  Saul was not a priest.  He was not authorized to offer sacrifices and yet he did so out of fear of losing his army.  Of course, the moment the last billow of smoke drifted up from the offering, Samuel arrived. 

The text reads, “What have you done?” asked Samuel. Saul replied, “When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Micmash, I thought, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the Lord’s favor.’ So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering.” “You acted foolishly,” Samuel said. “You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command” (1 Sam. 13:11-14). Notice that Saul decided to take matters into his own hands, blamed Samuel, and then said he needed God’s blessing even if he had to obtain it through disobedience. His thinking was skewed like that throughout his entire life.

Ultimately, this event and others like it cost Saul his kingdom and his life. We could take numerous lessons from this passage, but the one I want to emphasize now is the principle of waiting on the Lord.  Saul had received instructions from the Lord though Samuel to wait at Gilgal until the prophet, who was also a priest, arrived and offered sacrifices.  Saul depended on his own abilities and the abilities of his men for victory.  As they began to leave, he apparently had no thought that God could give them victory regardless of their numbers.  In fear, he went ahead and offered the sacrifices rather than waiting on God’s man to arrive. Saul believed that God would honor his actions even though they were disobedient. Saul always felt that the end he wanted justified the means.

There was a test woven into this circumstance.  Would Saul obey God even when it began to look like obedience might cost him his victory?  In a similar incident later, Samuel would say to the king, “Does not God desire obedience more than sacrifice?”  The issue is whether we will trust God and be obedient when things aren’t going according to our time table or our presuppositions about life and what it should look like.

Satan is quick to show up and whisper that God is not going to show up so we must take matters into our own hands.  When that happens, a lack of faith rushes ahead and tries to engineer the outcome we are wanting.  That is not a good idea! Remember Abram and Sarai.

God promised Abram a son, even though Sarai had been unable to bear children.  I’m sure they got busy trying to fulfill that promise, but time passed and nothing happened.  In Genesis 16, we are told that Sarai decided the promise was not going to be fulfilled through her, so she offered her handmaiden to Abram and he fathered a child though Hagar.  From a natural, fleshly perspective that made sense, but it was something that could be accomplished apart from God. God often wants to do something supernatural in our lives that leaves no question his hand was in it.  That brings him glory, increases our faith, and builds relationship with him.  But I have seen many people who waited on a promise or a prayer to be answered for a while…but then decided to make the promise or prayer come to pass in their own way by their own efforts.  

The enemy was busy injecting thoughts that God wasn’t going to come through for them or didn’t care about the need they so desperately wanted him to meet.  So, they moved ahead only to find that the decisions and the outcomes they engineered were catastrophic.  Just as Saul went ahead with the sacrifices, they ran ahead on relationships, marriages, job opportunities, major moves, and so forth.  Just as Saul lost his kingdom, they found the things they engineered did not work out well.

Very often, Satan prompts us to run ahead and take matters into our own hands. God wants to do things by his Spirit.  Satan wants us to operate in the flesh.  Abram and Sarai thought they would help God fulfill what he had promised.  But the way the promise was fulfilled was just as important as the promise itself.  Abram got Hagar pregnant.  But then Hagar began to despise Sarai and flaunt her pregnancy.  Sarai became enraged.  When Hagar bore a son, he was not welcome.  Ishmael and Isaac became estranged brothers and their descendants (Arabs and Jews) have been fighting ever since.  

Certainly, we have a part in many promises, but waiting on the Lord can be a significant part of spiritual warfare because God is aligning all things to birth the answer to our prayer and his promise.  If we run ahead, some ingredient(s) that will make the answer amazing will be left out.  The answer will fall flat, lack flavor, be bitter, or be inedible all together. Satan will have taken the best part and we will be disappointed. Satan will then rush to get us to blame God rather than ourselves for not having the faith to wait.

As we pray for significant things, we may also need to pray for God to give us the patience and even endurance to wait on his answer.  His supernatural outcome will always outpace whatever we can do in our own strength.  

In Amos 3:3, the prophet asks the question, “Shall two walk together unless they are agreed?”  The idea is that you cannot walk with someone unless you are going in the same direction.  Another perspective is that if we are in agreement with someone, we are walking with that person in one form or another. In addition, if we come into agreement with someone, we may well grant them influence or even authority over us.

For instance, if an abusive parent finally convinces a child that he or she is weak and worthless, and the child has come into agreement with their evaluation, that agreement will rule that child’s life for years to come.  The parent’s evaluation will continue to control the child even into his or her adult years. When Adam and Eve came into agreement with Satan’s view of God in the Garden, they submitted their “worldview“ to him.  Once they submitted, he was able to continue to direct their steps because he directed their view of reality.  

We keep encountering believers whose lives are in shambles because they have come into agreement with Satan in significant parts of their beliefs. Although they believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died for their sins, they do not agree with God in other significant issues.  Sometimes they know what God says about a matter but continue in the sin because it gives them pleasure.  That is simple rebellion. If we live in rebellion we are certainly walking with Satan. 

Others simply decide they can’t help themselves, continue to sin, and hope to cash in on God’s grace.  To believe we “cannot help ourselves” is also a belief that God cannot help us or won’t help us. That is simple unbelief that denies the character and the word of God.  Satan constantly whispers that God will not or cannot provide for us, protect us, or deliver us. He whispers that God is always angry and displeased with us like an abusive father.  If God delays an answer to prayer, the enemy whispers that the answer will never come because God cannot be counted on.  He constantly reminds us of our failures and weaknesses and paints us as defective people unworthy of God’s love, God’s blessings, or God’s use of us in significant ways.  The question is whether or not we will agree with these lies. If we do not constantly monitor these lies, they will grow like weeds in the garden until they begin to choke out every desirable plant…or in this case, God’s truth.

Agreement gives the enemy a great deal of legal access to our lives for control, torment, and oppression.  Jesus said that the truth will set us free. The corollary is that lies will keep us in bondage. Any unbelief regarding the character of God and his promises, constitutes agreement with Satan and gives the enemy a right to stay, even when commanded to leave, because we are “walking together.”

From time to time, we see demonized believers seek deliverance without success.  The demon may clearly manifest or the evidence of demonization is abundant, but when commanded to leave, the spirit stays.  The believer may be tormented or oppressed and sincerely wants deliverance, but nothing exits. In some cases, it is because the believer does not truly want to give up the particular sin that the demon promotes in their life. He or she wants the sin but not the consequence. Their desire to hold onto the sin is their agreement with the enemy.  

At other times, we may find the believer has fallen into agreement with the enemy about God’s “indifference” toward them or his “unwillingness to answer their prayer” or that he is the one visiting sickness or torment on them.  In these cases, more discipleship is often needed before deliverance can be affective. Part of our transformation comes from the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12:2) … which means we align our thinking with God’s truth rather than Satan’s lies. These individuals must commit to give more authority to God’s word than to their own emotions or the lies of the enemy which they may have been subjected to for decades.  We always want a quick fix for those who come to us in pain and oppression, but that is not always in their best interest.

Part of our problem in the contemporary church is that we get people saved but then fail to disciple them so that they can stand against the attacks of the enemy.  We fail to firmly ground them in the truths of scripture. Because of that, they continue to be double-minded people who agree with God on some things while agreeing with Satan about other things…more out of ignorance than rebellion.

The word of God is the sword of the Spirit and we have not taught God’s people how to fight. We have not taught them who they are in Jesus and have not equipped them to stand in the authority they have.  When the enemy shows up, they don’t understand and when they are afflicted, they feel as if God has abandoned them or is angry with them.  Just as Israel had to learn to fight to enter their promised land, we need to learn to fight to secure the promises God has given to us. God has a purpose for this conflict. Fighting and hardship makes us strong. Wise gardeners put fans in green houses because the young plants need the wind to blow against them to strengthen their stems and root systems.  Otherwise, they will not survive when placed outside the greenhouse.

Agreement is a huge issue in the spiritual realm.  It defines whose team you are on.  All of us need to check our thinking regularly to see if we have come into agreement with Satan in any areas of our mind or behavior.  If that agreement continues, it becomes an open door for the enemy.  Paul commands us in 2 Corinthians 10:5 to tear down every enemy stronghold of thought within us and take every thought captive to make it obedient to Jesus.  That simply means that any thoughts or beliefs bouncing around in our heads that are not aligned with the commands, perspectives, motives, and choices of Christ must be discarded.  The goal of every believer should be that every thought we have, every word we speak, and every belief we hold will be totally aligned with the Word of God. Be careful about your agreement.

For the past eighteen years, freedom ministries have been my primary area of ministry. For us, Freedom Ministries are those ministries that help God’s people heal and find freedom from every kind of bondage.

Our cornerstone passage for this ministries is Isaiah 61:1 – a prophetic passage pointing to the coming Messiah. Prophetically, Isaiah declares, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair ” (Isa. 61:1-3).

In Luke 4, Jesus read that very passage in the synagogue and declared that the passage was being fulfilled in him. The mending of broken hearts and the setting free of captives is for those in Zion. It is God’s people who need the healing and freedom. Certainly, those outside the covenant need it as well, but God’s first concern is for his children.

Over the past three weeks I have had the privilege of beeing part of three Freedom Weekends. The weekends follow an eight weeks of classes that prepares God’s people to receive their healing and freedom and to maintain it after they are healed and set free. Freedom Weekend is an all day event in which God’s people experience emotional healing from past hurts and experience deliverance from tormenting spirits. These spirit range from fear to shame, from heaviness to arrogance, from lying spirits to condemning spirits, and even from spirits of witchcraft and sexual immorality. The change in these men and women after Jesus ministers to their hearts and souls is remarkable.

Most of the American church is unaware of the spiritual realities that afflict them or are unwilling to wade into these unknown waters. Many simply dismiss the idea as something that occurred in the first century but not today or take the stance that Christians can’t be demonized because the Holy Spirit is in them. However, scripture no where declares that Christians cannot be afflicted by demons. Instead, it offers many warnings about demons and the devil’s schemes against believers. If believers are immune, then these warnings are irrelevant. Certainly not everything we face is demonic. Not everything Jesus faced was demonic but much was and much is.

Typically, on the Sunday following these Freedom Weekends or Freedom Saturdays, most of the participants come together to celebrate and share what God has done for them over the past eight weeks. The recurring story over and over again is trauma as a child that has followed them into their adulthood with tormenting beliefs that they are worthless, alone, unloved, and unlovable. They believe they must protect themselves because no one else will. These individuals are high on control which the damages their relationships and even limits what they will allow God to do in their lives. Many of God’s children are haunted with fear, depression, anxiety, doubts, and recurring thoughts of suicide. They have medicated these wounds with every kind of addiction: drugs, alcohol, sex, food, compulsive shopping, etc. and some have looked into occult places to find solutions.

Many have been to counseling, asked for prayer multiple times, and shared their struggle with their churches – only to be rejected. If not rejected, they have been sent to counselors who have not found a solution for them either because demonic spirits are at the root. When we send our people to professional counselors outside the church, the message may be that Jesus doesn’t have a solution for them. Remember that Paul declares our struggles are not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces arrayed against us (Eph.6:12) and declares that we face strongholds in our lives that can only be dismantled by divine weapons (2 Cor. 10:3-5).

What I get to see every year and over the past three weeks is God’s people truly healed and set free from decades old wounds and affliction. No where does scripture suggest that healing and freedom can only be found after years of professional counseling or drug therapies. There is power in the kingdom of God and it should be wielded on behalf of God’s people. It is always exciting to see what Jesus does on these weekends and even through the eight weeks of classes. Hope is restored to the hopeless. Pain ridden hearts feel the balm of his healing. Freedom is experienced by those who have been in bondage and torment and Jesus is glorified.

The teams that leads these ministries are amazing people who thrive in seeing what only God can do. We (the teams) are all people who also have been broken and in bondage and have been set free. This is not “super-spiritual stuff,” but basic Christianity walked out by those who believe in the power of the cross and the authority of Jesus Christ. It is lead by people who believe that freedom is every believer’s birthright and simply hunger to let others experience what they themselves have received from God.

If you are among the hurting and broken who have not yet been able to gain victory over your wounds and bondage, there is nothing wrong with you. You simply need to be ministered to with divine weapons and the power of the Holy Spirit. Ask the Lord to lead you to that church or those people who simply do what they see Jesus doing in th scriptures. If you don’t know where to go, you can contact me and we will help you find that church or group that can help you is discover your birthright of healing and freedom.

tom.vermillion@midcities.org

This past Sunday, I met with a small group of Christian writers at our church. We meet from time to time to encourage one another and share resources, new things we have learned about writing and publishing, and so forth. One of our group members, who is also a leader in our Freedom Ministry, was recounting a recent experience at a summer camp where there was a surprising amount of spiritual warfare…even among teens.

She said two things. First of all, she mourned the fact that very few Christians take spiritual warfare seriously and, secondly, if they do, they typically aren’t well equipped for the battle. I agree with her. I have been involved in spiritual warfare, deliverance, house cleansings, etc. for about 25 years. I have written on the subject, done seminars on the subject, and have helped other churches establish healthy, thriving freedom ministries. And yet, the number of churches actually ministering in this arena and training their members to do so remains a tiny fraction. This is true in spite of Paul’s famous affirmation that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual principalities and powers, and in spite of the gospel records that a great deal of the ministry of Jesus was given to demolishing demonic strongholds and setting people free.

We should pay attention to the emphasis. We are told that Mary Magdalene was delivered from seven demons. The Gadarene had enough demons that they identified themselves as Legion. We are told that Satan actually entered into Judas. Paul drove out a spirit of divination in Ephesus. Dozens of people were healed of physical maladies through deliverance…including years of crippling back pain, blindness, deafness, muteness, seizures, and a host of other conditions. This emphasis is not accidental.

So…do most Christians read those accounts as fiction or novel stories to entertain us or as accounts that actually happened then but mysteriously happen no more? In fact, we are told that all scripture has been written for our learning and application. Whatever we see in the written word, has application for our lives today. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Numerous examples and teachings regarding demons is found in scripture, yet simply disregarded by most believers…at least in America. We gladly believe in the ministry of angels but seem to steer quickly away from the topic of demonization.

I do believer balance is needful in the world of spiritual warfare. Not every flat tire, every achy joint, every physical ailment, or every fight with our spouse is demonic. Jesus healed many physical ailments that simply came from living in a fallen world. However, whenever healing numerous people is mentioned, deliverance was usually part of the evening. We are also commanded in many contexts to crucify the flesh. Not all anger, selfishness, manipulation or lust is demonic. We have to resist our fallen nature. We must be careful not give the devil too much credit. However, we must also be careful not to assume that demonic involvement is rare or occurs only in third world countries because to do so disarms us. The church should take spiritual warfare much more seriously than it does, because we are leaving too many of the people God has entrusted to us in bondage and torment with spiritual conditions that drug therapy and conventional counseling can’t touch. When demons are involved, more is needed.

Secondly, our churches need to know how to do spiritual warfare in effective ways that aren’t always highly sensational or dramatic. To be sure, there can be drama, but not nearly as much as some believe. Deliverance does not require screaming and shouting or power confrontations that go on for hours. Deliverance is about authority and authority can be established quietly. When an FBI agent appears at your door, he simply announces himself and shows you his credentials. He doesn’t have to shout and scream and get in your face and there doesn’t have to be a dozen others agents doing the same. Authority can be established and deliverance done in “a decent and orderly manner,” just as Paul instructed the church in the exercise of prophecy and tongues (I Cor. 14:40).

We have seen deliverance done in ways that were more traumatizing than the demon. Perhaps, that is why many churches steer away from deliverance. Our experience is that demons that won’t come out in a few minutes, usually remain because something is giving them a legal right to stay. That right may be secret sin, a generational curse that needs to be submitted to the blood of Jesus, a half-hearted desire to get rid of the demon, witchcraft, soul ties that need to be broken, unforgiveness, etc. We find it is more fruitful to give more time to prayer and to interviewing the person we are ministering to than in shouting at demons. Once the legal right is taken away, the demon will usually exit in a reasonable amount of time and in a reasonably orderly way.

That is not to say that, on occasion, we don’t have drama but it is only about 10% of the time and usually because we have not discovered what is giving Satan legal access to that person. Training in spiritual warfare and deliverance should be done on a wide basis with balance, discernment, and a healthy and orderly approach to setting people free. It doesn’t have to be weird or crazy…although some seem to prefer it that way.

The first step in deliverance is removing legal ground from the enemy and more time should be given to that than to the actual deliverance. In order to help those who are new or lack training in this area, I will spend the next blog or two talking about removing this legal ground so when a spirit is cast out, it cannot return. Hopefully, this will be practical and helpful.

Blessings in Him.

Sometimes, we become so familiar with great stories from the Bible and their most prominent themes that we fail to go back and discover important truths and principles that were also embedded in the story. One of the great stories is the account of Elijah’s showdown with Ahab and the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. As background to the story, Ahab was one of the most wicked kings in the history of Israel. He was married to Jezebel who earned her own reputation for exceptional wickedness. They both led Israel into years of worshipping Baal, Asherah, and Molech. The text in 1 Kings 16 says that Ahab did more to anger the Lord than all the wicked kings before him combined.

During his reign, Elijah was sent by the Lord to confront Ahab about his sins, time after time. However, Ahab, often prodded on by Jezebel, would not repent. As a part of his judgment on Israel, God had Elijah declare that there would be neither rain nor dew again except at Elijah’s word (1 Kings 17:1). The drought would last for three and a half years and would devastate an agriculturally based nation like Israel. Ahab clearly believed Elijah to be a true prophet, but rather than repenting, simply hated Elijah. It is possible that he did not kill Elijah because if he were dead, he could not command the rain to come again.

In 1 Kings 18, the great showdown occurs. Elijah confronts Ahab and tells him to summon all the people of Israel along with the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah to Mt. Carmel. When they arrived, Elijah challenged the people of Israel to quit wavering between God and the Baals and to decide who they would worship. He proposed that an altar be built and that the prophets of Baal would cut up a bull, place it on the altar, and then pray for their god to send down fire to consume the offering. Elijah would do the same and the god that sent down fire would be the true God. Of course, the prophets of Baal called on their god all day and nothing happened. Elijah taunted them until late afternoon. Then he built an altar of stone, put wood on it, put a sacrificial bull on the altar and then dug a trench around the entire altar. He then had the people poor water on the sacrifice, the wood, and the bull until water filled the trench.

At the time of the evening sacrifice, Elijah called on God to send fire upon the altar The text says, “Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!” Then Elijah commanded them, “Seize the prophets of Baal. Don’t let anyone get away!” They seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there. (1 Kings 18:38-40).

Immediately after that, Elijah prayed and declared that rain was coming, and rain returned to the nation. This had to be a spiritual highpoint for Elijah as well as a tremendous vindication that he was a true prophet serving the one true God. You would have thought that his faith would never be stronger, the presence of God never more clear, and the fruit of his labors never more visible than at that point. However, we are told that upon hearing the news about the slaughter of her prophets, Jezebel sent Elijah a message saying that by that time tomorrow he would be a dead man. We would have expected our hero to declare that she would be the one who would be dead the next day and that he, with God’s help, would do to her what he had done to her false prophets.

But the text says, “Elijah was afraid and ran for his life.” We are also told that he ran into the wildnerness, set down by a broom bush and asked God to kill him. He then went on to declare that he was the only man of faith left in all of Israel and totally alone. Why the great reversal after such a spiritual and political victory the day before?

I believe he was simply exhausted after the victory on Mt. Carmel. Spiritual highpoints and spiritual victories can be exhausting. If you have ever engaged in three to fours hours of intense intercessory prayer you know how tiring spiritual warfare can be. If you have ever engaged in deliverance for three to four hours you know that, even after the victory, you are totally spent. After the fire and after the rain, Elijah must have believed that Ahab and Jezebel would hide in their palace fearing for their own lives. But, in anger and lusting for vengeance, Jezebel decided to come after him. Elijah had no more strength. He didn’t have one more prayer left in him and the enemy came after him.

Satan will always come after us when we are vulnerable…especially, when we are exhausted and weary from life, sickness, the death of a loved one, financial strain, or even from a great spiritual victory. We need to expect it. We need to pray against it before it comes. When we are exhausted we lose spiritual perspective. Elijah told God he was the only faithful one left in Israel. God corrected him by saying he had 7000 in Israel, in addition to Elijah, who had not bowed the knee to Baal. Elijah felt alone, even abandoned. Yet angels ministered to him in the desert and God met with him on Mt. Horeb. In his exhaustion, he could see none of that.

Rest is critical for our spiritual lives. In the gospel of Mark, after the apostles returned from preaching, healing and casting out demons, Jesus said, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest” (Mk.6:31). I talk to so many faithful believers who are heavily involved in life and ministry that are exhausted. Many of us feel as if resting is unspiritual and that faith will simply sustain us in our frantic pace. We try to pour in every activity of our culture, work 50 hours a week and then be involved heavily in ministry. In our culture, rest has to be a discipline. We have to plan it, do it, and believe that God is not pleased when we neglect times of rest and renewal because the enemy will take advantage when we ar fatigued. We lose persecutive. We lose the joy of ministry. We are body, soul, and spirit and whatever is affecting one part affects the whole.

Let me encourage you to schedule your rest…every day, every week, and yearly. Put it on your calendar and your daytimer. The Sabbath may no longer be a command, but the principle of regular rest is still one of God’s spiritual principles. When we ignore regular rest and renewal, we violate God’s will for our lives. We need to learn to say no to constant business as much as we need to say no to sin. Evaluate your pace. You may be doing great things for God and experiencing success after success, but the Elijah Syndrome will visit you if you do not rest. Rest and renewal may look a little different for each of us, but find it, treasure it, prioritize it for you and your family. You may want to encourage your pastors to do the same. Life is a marathon not a sprint. If we try to sprint the entire way, we will not finish the race.

Blessing and rest in Him