Engaging in Spiritual Warfare

The next thing you need to do is to overcome the enemy. Spiritual warfare will become a way of life when you decide to go on for God and serve Him as a believer in this world.

You must maintain this because Satan doesn’t take a rest. He’s going to be there to attack you for the rest of your life, so you had better learn how to deal with that on a regular basis.

There are different levels of warfare, but I love the way the Scripture likens it to using your feet. Romans 16:20 says,

And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.

Can you see the picture? Crush him and squash his head because he is a snake.

You may be waiting for the Lord to crush the devil. But He is going to crush Satan under your feet. You have to take the action and make that move.

How Satan Works

You need to understand a bit about Satan’s realm to be successful in warfare. I have taught extensively on this in many places, so I am just going to give you a quick summary if you have never studied these.

In his attempt to be like God, Satan wanted to take the throne of God and be like God. He has tried to counterfeit everything that God does, and one of his biggest counterfeits is to set up something that looks like the Trinity.

Just as God functions as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Satan is not a universal spirit like the Spirit of God. But he has tried to counterfeit the Trinity by setting up three leaders at the highest level. I like to call them the Infernal Trio.

Pharaoh

The first leader is what the Scripture calls the god of this world. In the Old Testament Egypt was a picture of the world, and Pharaoh, the leader of Egypt, was a picture of the god of this world. So there is a spiritual Pharaoh.

These are high-level princes at the highest level of all. I have seen them in the spirit and I have done warfare with them.

You may never come to this place. But I want to make you aware of what they do because ultimately you will end up having some kind of conflict with them.

Pharaoh is set over the World System. He controls the finances of the world, and he is in control of worldly success and promotion, and everything that this world has to offer. He is also in charge of things like politics. That is Pharaoh’s job.

Apollyon

The second character is Apollyon. You can read about him in the book of Revelation. He looks like a scaly, reptilian creature and he is the general of Satan’s armed forces. His role is to attack.

One of his major areas of attack is our personal health. He is responsible for all health problems that we face. That includes mental illness as well as spiritual problems like spiritual bondage, sinful habits, addictions, fear, worry, and depression.

For every spiritual problem that we face, Apollyon ultimately is the author of those.

Lucifer

You might say, “What about Satan himself?”

Lucifer is the name that the Scripture gives to him. Lucifer is actually in charge of ministries and churches. He is in charge of the Religious System of this world.

So if you want to grow a church, you are going to be dealing with Satan and he will not be happy about that. If you want to set up a ministry and establish something in this world for the Kingdom of God, you will come into confrontation with Lucifer. That is his domain and he doesn’t like you interfering in it.

He has full control of the Religious System. He is in charge of the World Council of Churches and all the big church organizations and ecumenical movements.

They think they are working for the Lord. But actually, they are under the control of the Prince of Darkness himself. So Satan is opposed to any church growth and any ministry that you set up.

How do we overcome these? I want to look at that quickly.

Overcoming the World

How do you overcome World Systems? Anything that you accomplish in this world, whether it be financial wealth, promotion, or success, Pharaoh has his hand in it somewhere.

Before you can rise up and succeed, he has to give permission. He has to authorize whatever happens in this World System.

If you as a believer are to become wealthy and earn a lot of money, Pharaoh is not going to let you do that lightly. He will do it gladly for those who are following him so that he can control them, use them, and manipulate them to fulfill the goals of the realm of darkness.

I have dealt with Pharaoh in the Spirit. I have seen him. He looks a bit like one of the ugly characters in the Adams family. He is like the Lurch; the ugly guy.

He is the spiritual Pharaoh. And at times when I have tried to trust God for financial breakthroughs or other things that require a release in this World System, I have had to come in direct confrontation with Pharaoh himself.

I remember how on one occasion I saw him sitting with a piece of paper in front of him. I knew that this was authorization for me to get what I wanted. And I knew that before I could get it, Pharaoh had to sign that document and release it.

You might say to me,

“Isn’t God in control of that?”

No, in this world God has put you in control of that. If you will let Pharaoh be in control, you will not be in control. And God cannot overrule it, because mankind is giving him all the license that he needs. It is up to you to cut that license and break it.

The Spirit of the Lord said to me,

“Tell him to sign the document.”

So I spoke to him and said,

“In the name of Jesus, the name to which every knee will bow, Pharaoh you sign the document!”

I saw him angrily pick up a pen and sign it, and what I was asking for was released.

This is part of what is going to happen when you get into spiritual warfare, especially if it is going to be for finances, or for promotion and success in this world. Anything you want to do in this world he is going to oppose.

He passes his orders downwards to the princes that are under him. And this whole World System has been set up under princes of darkness.

Demonic Princes

There are several levels of demons. You have the lower-level demons who are really just like the ordinary privates and who carry out all the dirty work. You have the sergeants and others.

Your princes however are the highest level. And every region in this world has had a prince allocated to them.

We live here in Kempton Park and there is a prince of Kempton Park. Kempton Park is part of the province in South Africa called Gauteng. There is a prince of Gauteng.

Gauteng is a province of South Africa. There is a prince over South Africa.

When you get into spiritual warfare and by the gift of discerning of spirits you come against these characters, those who have entered into that higher level of warfare will at times find themselves seeing these demon princes in the spirit.

High-level intercession actually involves coming against them with the authority and power of the Lord.

Go to the Top

So Pharaoh will sign the document. Then he will pass it down to the lower-level princes until it comes down to the prince in your region.

We have an expression in English that says you should always go to the top. This is because if you can get the top guy to give the order, we know the guys lower down have to obey.

A lot of people get into spiritual warfare with their local prince. And after having a lot of warfare, they may be able to deal with that prince. But there is a higher prince and a higher one until it goes right to the top.

Because I have learned high-level spiritual warfare, I personally go to the top. If I am having a problem in this world, I am going to address Pharaoh himself.

I see these guys in the spirit like the local princes who think they are big shots. I start moving in the spirit, and as I am praying I see this little guy coming against me. He is ranting and raving and threatening me.

Usually what I will do is turn to him and say,

“Hey, you don’t know me, do you? Go and have a chat with your big boss. He knows me and he knows better than to argue with me. You are just small fry, so if I were you I would just shut up because I go to the highest level.”

I then see him kind of shrink. He loses all the air that he had when he realizes he is dealing with someone who has a much higher level of authority.

I want to tell you that you as a believer have the highest level of authority that there is in the name of Jesus. You can come against any one of these higher-level demons because the authority in Jesus is not just for little demons. It is for every demon right up to Lucifer himself.

I will share with you shortly how I dealt with Lucifer as well. I shared it before but I want to bring it into context.

So you must command Pharaoh to bow. You must make him sign the document.

Apollyon

We come now to Apollyon. You may be struggling with sickness and disease and your health. Perhaps you are under spiritual attack and are faced with terrific fear, anxiety, care, and worry. Or you are battling with the temptation to sin or any other spiritual problem that you face.

The author of all of this is Apollyon. He is the one who brings the spiritual attack.

If you are going to overcome Apollyon, he has to withdraw his forces. And when it comes to sickness and disease, we call the demons that he uses spirits of infirmity. They are responsible for bringing sickness and disease to our bodies.

There are also demons that possess and oppress. These are all coming from Apollyon.

All these things can affect your spiritual progress. So if you want to go forward spiritually and you want to overcome all of these problems, you will have to come against Apollyon and get him to retract his forces.

You can do that just by using your keys because you have authority in the name of Jesus.

Lucifer

Finally, we have the Religious System. Whatever happens in the Religious System has to get permission from Lucifer himself. That is the realm of his operation and responsibility.

This does not affect you as a spiritual, invisible member of the Body of Christ. He can’t touch you or your spiritual life in the Holy Spirit. Satan can’t get access because the Holy Spirit is there.

However the moment you want to rise up and get involved in this world in any way, you are going to have to deal with Lucifer. If you want to build a church organization, run church meetings or build any kind of ministry, Lucifer is going to stick his finger in the pie and you are going to have problems.

So if you want freedom for ministry, you will have to command Lucifer to bow. You are going to have to command him to authorize it, let go and get out of the way.

I have dealt with all of these characters in the spirit including Lucifer himself.

I met Lucifer at a time when I had left my job to move into full-time ministry. I was looking to the Lord to know how I should start and what I should do to begin a ministry.

I was spending hours every day in prayer and intercession, waiting on the Lord for wisdom and releasing things in the spirit.

Then one day this character appeared to me. He was tall, dark, and handsome, a good-looking character, and he tried to persuade me to give up everything I was doing.

He offered me whatever I desired in life if I was prepared to do that.

Perhaps one of the reasons why Lucifer himself came was because the area I was living in at that time was known as the Satanic headquarters of this country. So obviously I was in a region where there was a lot of demonic activity.

Probably Satan himself was visiting at the time, and he heard a noise coming from this guy interceding and praying in the spirit.

He said, “Let me go and sort this guy out quickly.”

But he wasn’t counting on what he got from me, because I knew my position in Christ and I knew the Word. And when I realized who it was who was standing in front of me, the Word of God came up out of me and I said,

“At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess. Lucifer that includes you. In the name of Jesus, you must bow. I stand in that name so you must bow, now!”

The charming, smiling guy became very angry. He got a really ugly look on his face and began to scowl. And as I laid it on him, he eventually bowed down and disappeared.

If you want to do a ministry for the Lord, you are going to get opposition at the highest level. If you want to build a new ministry or establish a church, no matter what size it is, Lucy is the one who is going to be involved.

I don’t have to be afraid of him or respect him. I call him Lucy and I say,

“Hey Lucy, are you giving me grief again? Go and bow! In the name of Jesus you were conquered over 2,000 years ago, so stop messing with me. I stand in higher authority than you.”

This is how you can deal with these things. And that is how you can use the foot of faith.

Blessing Then Warfare

The Lord wants to bless you, and when you come to Him in faith, He responds with a yes. But the moment that happens, warfare begins immediately.

Have you noticed that sometimes you have a wonderful time of prayer? You get the breakthrough in the spirit and you have the yes answer. You start to rejoice and say,

“Wow, the answer is on the way.”

But suddenly it is like a side wind hits you and you think,

“Where did that come from? What happened how? Things were going so good, now suddenly everything is crazy.”

I remember as a child going to the sea for the first time. A great big wave came up one day, knocked me over and I went flying. This is a good picture of how you feel when that happens. You suddenly get hit and you think,

“Where did that come from? I was on top of things. I was worshiping the Lord, standing in faith and authority and things were going great. The Lord answered my prayer. He said yes. Here it comes, hallelujah.”

You start telling everybody,

“The Lord gave me this thing.”

But just watch. There you are against the wall. That is when you have to use your foot. That is when you will have to learn that you are up against high-level powers who don’t want you to succeed.

So you have to learn to use your foot. You have to drive the enemy off and put your foot on the land.

That is what Joshua had to do. As they drove the enemies off they took the land. And as you progress and conquer different lands, you will go forward.

There is always more land to take. But once you have taken the land you will have to stand and hold it, otherwise, he will try and come back and attack you and take it back from you again.

So you must put your foot on the land, and then all you need to do is stand. Paul describes this in Ephesians 6, and the Scripture says in Ephesians 6:13,

Having done all to stand. Stand therefore in the armor of God

This is a continual process if you wish to make progress. You need to do this if you want to move forward, take more land, and do greater things for the Lord. Also if you wish to experience greater blessings and eventually come through to some degree of the abundant life that the Lord has promised you.

The Importance of Prayer

In order for this to happen, prayer becomes a major part of your success. Your prayer life is absolutely essential, especially if you are going to build a ministry.

The late Yonggi Cho, who built what was then and probably still is the largest church in the world, set up something called the prayer mountain. This was where they built little places on a mountainside, and where people could go and spend time in prayer.

They encouraged people to continually be there. People would go and spend days sometimes in prayer on the prayer mountain. They would have early morning prayer every day, and prayer became the major emphasis of Cho’s church.

Before he died, Cho made a statement. He said,

“Even if we didn’t succeed in all the things like the home cells and everything else that we did, if we took away prayer mountain this ministry would collapse, because that is all that keeps it going.”

In every church and every ministry, prayer must be the foundation. What Yonggi Cho called the prayer mountain I call the prayer wall. And those who are experts in doing this are those whom God has given a Prophetic Ministry.

The prophets are the experts at spiritual warfare. All believers however can still take part and be involved. Yes, the prophets move at a higher level and they decree God’s will into the earth. But you as a believer have the right and the authority to use the name of Jesus.

Perhaps you are struggling in any of these areas. You have been trying to put your foot on the land and it is not quite working the way you wanted. If so, I want to ask you this question. How is your prayer life?

You might say, “I have a very busy job you know. I work long hours and I barely have time to come home and eat and sleep. I really don’t have time to pray.”

Do you have time to die? Do you have time to get poor or to struggle in this life? You must make time to be in His presence because that is the place where you are going to walk up and down.

You are going to pick up your keys and your swords, and you are going to say,

“You serpent, I crush you now!”

You are going to put your foot on his head. And you know if you do that every day Satan is not going to mess with you much. The word will get around and he will say,

“While you are attacking believers, watch out for that one. He is dangerous.”

I can see Pharaoh speaking to some of his lower-level princes and saying,

“Watch out for that guy. I had a tangle with him once and he’s pretty tough, so rather avoid him. There are other people that you can deal with.”

You will become marked by the realm of darkness. Satan will know you. Does he know your name? When the sons of Sceva came and tried to cast out demons in the name of Jesus they said,

“Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you?”

Paul was known in the realm of darkness. Do they know your name in the realm of darkness? Or maybe you have never been a threat to them because you have never bothered to use your foot of faith.

Your Prayer Time

What do you do in your personal prayer? You can start by worshiping the Lord. That is probably the most important thing of all.

Then don’t come and bring Him a list of prayer requests. Ask Him what you should pray for and what you should do. Get wisdom and direction from Him. James said in James 1:5,

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask from God, who gives to everyone liberally, without any prejudice or condemnation; and it will be given to him.

If you combine together all the principles that we have learned so far in this teaching, and you will do them correctly, you will find that this will lead you automatically toward the abundant life that the Lord has promised us.

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