“We need to fix our reputation in the community, and we need to prophesy to our future,” he explained.
It seemed simple enough.
What we did not know, however, was that the Holy Spirit had just engaged a territorial spirit.
During the special business meeting that was called to vote on the new name, we watched our dissenters finesse and manipulate the crowd to oppose the change. The ballots were cast and then quickly tallied. We were crushed to learn the membership had denied the declaration of a new name by only three votes. It was a discouraging blow, and neither Ron nor I slept that night.
Ron met with some church leaders the next morning to discuss the outcome and to strategize the next steps. He and two boardmembers heard the same prophetic instruction.
“Run it again in ninety days,” the Holy Spirit said.
They decided to put the name change before the church one more time—a gutsy maneuver by all previous standards.
Ron kept a great disposition before the church during this time, acting as if nothing had gone wrong. Behind the scenes, we prayed persistently for the will of God to come to pass.
A few months later, Ron spoke to the church on a Sunday to reintroduce the name change. This time, he stepped into his authority, outlining the situation more clearly.
“God has spoken to my heart about changing the name for several good reasons,” he said, “mainly that it’s time for a fresh start and a fresh focus. We are going to vote on this a second time, and I prayerfully ask that you would receive my leadership about this issue.”
Things really shook throughout the church at that point. It was politics and strife, as usual, and a heavy spiritual oppression filled the air.
The night before the vote, I had an intense dream. In the dream, a spirit in the form of an Asian woman appeared to me in my bathroom mirror. She stared at me, her eyes full of hate, and then she began to torment and threaten me.
I am not sure why the spirit was Asian, but in dream language, a mirror is often a symbol for identity. This made sense to me, since we were fighting for our identity as a church. The dream uncovered the truth: We were not just having strong differences of opinion over the name change. We were in a spiritual fight, and this spiritual fight was playing itself out in the natural realm.
The spiritual intensity of the dream is still hard to describe, as it was like nothing I had experienced before. But when I woke up, thanks to the dream, I knew in my spirit that the vote was ours. This territorial spirit, assigned to impair our identity, had finally been overpowered. I knew this happened as a result of our continued prayers.
As I expected, the vote that next evening was much in favor of the name change, and we have been Harvest Christian Center ever since. Over time, our reputation in the community has grown and a new identity has emerged, just as Ron foretold.
I have experienced this truth over and over. When God gives a directive to advance on something and it is met with opposition, we can assume there is some type of territorial spirit behind it. We have to consider the spirit of the matter and recognize that we do not live just in a natural world.
We Live in Two Realms
As Christians, we are privileged to have dual citizenship. We are citizens of earth and citizens of heaven at the same time (see Philippians 3:20). Many believe we receive our heavenly citizenship only after we die. The Bible, however, illustrates how connected to heaven we are while living on earth.
For example, when we pray on earth, our spirit manifests in heaven before the throne of God. The book of Hebrews gives this description: “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence” (Hebrews 4:16). We often read verses like this with a rational mind, reducing them to metaphors. But many times they are true descriptions of what is happening in the heavenly places as we engage the Lord in prayer on earth.
How is it that we can approach the throne of God in heaven while we are here on earth? It happens in the place of prayer, the place where heaven and earth unite.
Another example is illustrated in a prayer made by King David. He says to the Lord, “May my prayer be set before you like incense” (Psalm 141:2). On the surface, this appears to be an intimate prayer that uses a poetic picture to express David’s heart. This is more than a beautiful prayer, however. King David here reveals what happens in heaven as we pray on the earth. Remember the glimpse of heaven given to us in the book of Revelation, including the throne room of God? One throne room scene depicts four living creatures and 24 elders, each with a harp and a golden bowl of incense, and these “golden bowls full of incense . . . are the prayers of God’s people” (Revelation 5:8).
I find it comforting that my prayers transcend earth’s realm and become fragrant incense before the throne of God. Do you? It goes to show we are living in two realms at the same time, a natural one and a spiritual one.
Being citizens of heaven puts us into direct spiritual conflict on the earth, however. King Jesus leads a kingdom invasion through us, displacing what used to belong to Satan. These conflicts appear in many different forms and dimensions, and if we are not aware, we will fail to connect that they are rooted in the spiritual realm.
Consider how often Jesus and His disciples cast out demonic spirits from people as they ministered on earth. How often do we set people free of spirits in our modern society? In our Western society, it is not nearly as frequent. Is it possible we classify too many spiritual problems as emotional or medical problems because we do not discern where they come from? Do we resort to ineffective natural solutions for life’s problems that can be solved only in the spirit realm? The apostle Paul warned us against this, saying, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12).
Because we live in two realms, it is normal for us to encounter the spiritual realm in the context of prayer. Prayer reaches into the unseen, to the very throne room of God, to procure miracles for impossible situations. But there are sinister territorial spirits, malevolent to the core, that stand behind the situations we face. I believe God wants to unveil the spirit realm to us and lead us to pray more effectively.
Our God Rules Over All
We begin to pray more effectively when we remember that our God rules over all. We see this truth demonstrated in many stories in the Old Testament.
In one such story, we find what happens after the enemies of the Israelites made a calculated error. Ben-Hadad, the king of Aram, picked a battle with Israel and lost. His advisors, reexamining the spiritual landscape, said, “Their gods are gods of the hills. That is why they were too strong for us. But if we fight them on the plains, surely we will be stronger than they” (1 Kings 20:23).
This was the error the Arameans made: They believed the God of the Israelites was restricted to a territory and therefore restricted in His ability to deliver His people. However, when the Arameans executed their new strategy, God gave the king of Israel a prophetic word through a prophet. He said, “Because the Arameans think the LORD is a god of the hills and not a god of the valleys, I will deliver this vast army into your hands, and you will know that I am the LORD” (verse 28). Although the Israelite army was much smaller in comparison, the Lord delivered the Arameans into their hands, just as the prophet foretold. God proved to be not only the God of the hills, but also the God of the plains and everything else.
Now, this battle between the Arameans and the Israelites reveals their understanding of the spirit realm. They believed different gods ruled nations and geographical territories. However, the Israelites understood their God ruled over all. These other gods were actually demons1 and were a constant snare to the Israelites. They are the reason God invoked the commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3).
Battles between the Israelites and other nations, whether for new territory or their deliverance, then became battles bet
ween the God of the Israelites and the gods of the opposing nations. For example, the Lord delivered the Israelites from Egypt by dealing with the gods of Egypt, saying, “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD” (Exodus 12:12).
Another example can be seen in the battle between David and Goliath. King David, as a young boy, brazenly provoked the Philistine giant to a fight, intending to defeat him. Goliath, insulted by David’s young age and size, invoked curses in the name of his god on David and threatened David’s life. David responded by saying, “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” (1 Samuel 17:45).
We know the rest of the story. The God of the Israelites shouted His position by anointing David to win the fight with a slingshot and a rock. Once again, a battle between two people who represented two nations was really a battle that began in the heavenly places.
A parallel spiritual battle rages on today as we advance Christ’s rule and authority on the earth. Jesus instructed His disciples to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). This instruction was an act of war against the demonic spirits assigned to deceive the nations from worshiping the one true God.
Remember that Satan and his demonic cohorts lost their authority to rule at the cross—authority now returned to all those in Christ—but they did not lose their power. They will continue their sinister assignments in the heavenly places until overcome by the prayers of the Church. That is where we come in.
Just look at the example of Daniel, another Old Testament figure who teaches us how to contend with the spirits fighting to have their way with us on earth. During the Babylonian exile, the young man Daniel was taken captive and forced to serve King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar’s religion was downright scary and in conflict with Daniel’s Jewish faith. Daniel overcame several life-and-death challenges connected to his worship of Yahweh, and as a result, King Nebuchadnezzar began to acknowledge the greatness of Daniel’s God.
Then we find Daniel reading the book of Jeremiah and noticing the prophetic time frame for the release of his people from Babylonian exile (see Daniel 9 and Jeremiah 29:10). Freedom was at hand!
The new Persian ruler, King Cyrus, had released the Jews to go back to Jerusalem, but many chose not to go or were hindered from doing what they set out to do.2 Daniel needed more understanding of this and turned back to God with prayer, fasting and mourning.
After 21 days of consecration, an angel appeared to him and told him an unusual story. The angel shared that he was dispatched to Daniel from heaven on the first day Daniel prayed, but a demonic spirit prince assigned to the land of Persia had stopped the angel from advancing to reach Daniel. This prince was not human. It was a demon that held back this angel and Daniel’s answer to prayer. Finally, an angelic spirit prince named Michael came and fought with the demonic prince of Persia. As a result, Daniel’s messenger angel broke through and appeared to Daniel with some real answers about what awaited his people (see Daniel 10:1–21).
This seems like a scene from the movie The Lord of the Rings, I know, but it is not. Similar scenes play out again and again in our cities and nations. Those who see into the spirit realm can watch these activities take place but may not know how to navigate them. Even worse, they may see a territorial spirit at work, such as Daniel’s prince of Persia, and pronounce in defeat, “There’s a demon over this city!”
Heaven is not passive about these entities, but our cooperation in prayer and fasting is needed to see the angels bind and destroy the demonic powers and bring answers from heaven to earth.
We Have Territorial Enemies
The apostle Paul describes what appears to be an organized hierarchy of beings in the demonic kingdom in the Ephesians 6:12 passage, saying, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Although there are different theories behind their origin, these beings are most likely fallen angels.
In descending order, let’s consider our contending enemies. First, there are the rulers, also translated “principalities” (Greek: archai). These are most identifiable as high-ranking spirit princes, such as the prince of Persia and the prince of Greece that were mentioned in the Daniel passage (see Daniel 10:13, 20).
The authorities (Greek: exousia) are spirits that stand behind human authorities to oppose the work of God. Consider the centurion in Matthew 8:9, who referred to himself as a man under authority (exousia) and a man who exercised authority. Just as people can stand under human authority, human authority can submit to spiritual authority, whether demonic or divine. Elymas the sorcerer, for example, was one who appeared to stand under demonic authority as he attempted to oppose the work of God in order to retain control of Sergius Paulus, the governor, and the island of Patmos (see Acts 13:4–12).
The powers of darkness (Greek: dunamis) work culturally and philosophically to bind people groups from seeing the Lord. Examples are false religions, such as Hinduism; philosophies, such as humanism; and political ideologies, such as communism and all other -isms that deny the expression of God. James speaks of a kind of wisdom that is demonic (see James 3:15), which is found in belief systems created and promoted by the powers of darkness to blind people’s minds to the truth of Jesus Christ.
Finally, the spiritual forces of evil (Greek: kosmokratoras) are the lower-ranking spirits that afflict people through infirmity, fear, rebellion, deception, divination, complacency and the like.3
We handle higher-ranking spirits and lower-ranking spirits differently, and Jesus shows us what to do by example. When it comes to lower-ranking spirits, we see Him journeying to different towns by the leading of His Father, where He encountered people possessed by various spirits. These spirits would identify themselves either by speaking out to Jesus (“I know who You are!”; see Mark 1:24) or by making other manifestations through the people they afflicted, such as screaming, convulsing or foaming at the mouth (see Mark 1:26; 9:20). Jesus, being anointed of the Spirit to set the oppressed free (see Luke 4:18), would personally command the demons to leave (see Mark 1:25). The disciples continued ministering to the demonically oppressed in this way, and we are to do the same. When we encounter a demon-possessed person and they begin to manifest, we command the demon (or demons) to leave them, in Jesus’ name, and they have to go. (See appendix B for a practical guide to casting out demons in your ministry.)
On the other hand, we do not see Jesus address higher-ranking spirits in the same manner. He handled them, but He did so differently. I mention this because of the intercessors I have encountered or read about who take it upon themselves to confront territorial spirits directly—including Satan—in order to “tear them down.” I am uncomfortable with this, as they appear to be doing it out of their own will, rather than by a leading of the Spirit.
When it came to addressing Satan, the prince of demons, Jesus only spoke to him after Satan had revealed himself to Jesus during the time of testing in the wilderness. Remember that Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness and did not do this of His own initiative (see Matthew 4:1). He did not even speak on His own but responded to Satan’s verbal baiting by quoting the written Word of God (see verses 4, 7 and 10).
What do we learn from this? We learn that when handling higher-ranking spirits, we need to remember we are in partnership with the Holy Spirit. He is an expert Guide when it comes to navigating the spiritual realm. When He leads us into spiritual battle, He will lead us into victory. Without His help, we will not be effective.
I have experienced the differences between higher and lower spirits in my own city and ministry. In one such instance, it was my husband’s first year as senior pastor, and he had just finished teac
hing a Bible study at the church. As we all walked out of the study room, making our way down the hallway, a large man ran up to us. He was shaking and breathing hard, saying, “There’s a problem in the sanctuary!”
By now, I was in the front lobby and turned to look inside the sanctuary. I threw on the lights and opened the doors. There, I saw a blonde teenage girl huddled all alone in the area between the seats and the platform.
I stepped inside the aisle and began to make my approach. The nearer I came to her, the stronger I felt them. Demons! I could discern there was more than one and that they were occultic in nature.
I tried to speak to the young woman as gently as I could, but she was inaccessible, as the spirits were moving through her.
I said several times, quite forcefully, “In the name of Jesus, I command every one of you to leave her!”
It took about ten minutes, but the evil spirits came out and the young woman came back to herself. Again, just as Jesus did when handling lower-ranking spirits, I addressed the spirits and commanded them to leave. It seemed to be the appropriate and biblical response.
In contrast, I was once led by the Holy Spirit to contend with a specific occultic spirit in our city. This would be an example of contending with a higher-ranking spirit. It was not in possession of a person but was a territorial spirit and “seated” on a portion of land. This battle was completely different and required a much stronger confrontation.
It started not too long after we began praying together as a church once a week. As I led the prayer time, I would feel a viselike grip on my head while praying for our city. Sometimes it was so strong, I wondered if my head was going to explode. I could not explain the source of the feeling but would continue to pray, no matter how oppressive it became. Soon after, we began to fast annually as a church for forty days.
The Intercessors Handbook Page 6
