Power over the Enemy: Breaking Free from Spiritual Strongholds (9 page)

Consider our key scripture again: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4–5).

This
speaks of
thoughts
. These thoughts are
strongholds
. They produce
arguments
or
imaginations
. Then come fear, torment, sickness, and defeat!

The battlefield is the
thought life
. But our loving Father has provided us with divine ammunition. He said “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds, casting down arguments… bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” Thank God, now you have learned to replace lying thoughts with God’s thoughts from the promises in the Bible. Now you can pull down those strongholds and cast down those imaginations that have defeated you.

You don’t play with them or deal with them lightly. You refuse to allow them to linger. You pull them down and cast them out!

Now you know that God has given you the power to pull down strongholds and He expects you to do it. Christ died that you might have that authority, and He expects you to use it. And so you will!

This is warfare! But we do have weapons. And our weapons are not carnal… our weapons are not of the flesh. The Bible says they are “mighty in God!” He has provided you with mighty weapons so you can win this warfare in the thought life. He has given you His Word, the blood of Jesus, and the Name of Jesus.

Remember, you are not alone. When you dare to do your part, all heaven comes to your aid. You rise and do battle. You pull down those strongholds. You cast down those arguments and imaginations. You condemn every tongue or thought that rises against you. You refuse to allow negative, destructive, devilish thoughts to linger in your mind to meditate on them.

I know of homes that were blasted asunder by divorce, all because Satan placed a lying thought into the mind of one of the spouses. That person allowed that thought to linger and meditated on it until it became an obsession with them. They believed it so strongly that they felt justified in any action they decided to take. That thought was a stronghold!

When one continual thought lingers and becomes a stronghold, it allows others, similar to it, to also dominate the thinking. This leads to action and all the misery and heartache that inevitably follow.

I am compelled to share this message because this is a day when the legions of wickedness have been loosed upon the body of Christ. Mothers, fathers, ministers, missionaries, young men and women—all are feeling the effects of this satanic attack. Ministries are being destroyed. Young people are drowning in the cesspool of drugs. Homes are being assaulted and wrecked. Not only this, but multiplied thousands of God’s precious people are living in mental and spiritual torment. Innumerable Christians are, this very day, suffering pain, disease, and physical maladies. They have prayed and sought the way out but to no avail.

If you will resolve to follow God’s commands and rise up with the Word of God and renew your mind, God will lift you out of that horrible pit and set your feet upon the solid rock. “He has put a new song in my mouth—praise to our God” (Psalm 40:3).

You create the atmosphere in which you live by the thoughts you entertain for constant meditation. Thoughts are like seeds in trees and flowers. When they are planted, they “yield fruit according to its kind” (Genesis 1:11). God said in Isaiah 57:19, “I create the fruit of the lips.”

I am not talking about “mind over matter.” That is foolishness. I am speaking of filling our minds with the mighty creative thoughts found in the Word of Almighty God.

Take a man who “thinks poverty,” place him in the richest surroundings, give him good opportunities, and eventually he will change his surroundings by his “seed thoughts” of poverty. He will become poor again. His thoughts, like seeds, will create the atmosphere around him.

Likewise, a man filled with God’s great thoughts of prosperity will create that atmosphere wherever he goes. Even if you place him in the most poverty-stricken surroundings, the seed thoughts of prosperity will drive out the poverty around him with success. He will become prosperous again.

filling our minds with…

the Word of Almighty God

You can determine the atmosphere in which you live by the seed thoughts you plant in your mind of the great, unchanging promises of God. You can literally change your atmosphere by changing your thoughts and the words you speak.

You cannot sow seed thoughts of sickness and live in an atmosphere of health. You cannot sow seed thoughts of defeat and fear and live in an atmosphere of victory and peace. You cannot sow seed thoughts of poverty and live in an atmosphere of prosperity.

Begin today to fill your mind, mouth, heart, home, and surroundings with the marvelous, loving seed thoughts of God about health, victory, peace, prosperity, and all the other things you desire in life. Base these thoughts on definite promises of God. Think them, talk them, and act on them.

This is what the Lord meant when He stated, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7).

Now you know the truth! The rest is up to you!

I visualize faith rising in your heart. It seems that I can see this mighty revelation dawning in your soul. You are determined that you will not be denied. You have found the reason for defeat. You have found the way to change things. You have seen the pathway to victory!

Arise, precious child of God, and enter into the joy of your Lord.

T
he Word of God states clearly that Satan is a defeated foe. We not only need to tell the world this, but we need to demonstrate it by the power of the Holy Spirit and use the Word of God and the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible states, “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

In Hebrews 2:14, the Bible tells us that “since, therefore [these His] children share in flesh and blood… He [Himself] in a similar manner partook of the same [nature], that by [going through] death he might bring to nought and make of no effect him who had the power of death—that is, the devil” (
AMP
).

The Spirit of God is in us to empower us to bring this demonstration to the world. Jesus said, “… in My name they will drive out demons” (Mark 16:17
AMP
). We are to set the captives free! We are to demonstrate Satan’s defeat in our own lives and in the lives of others.

This demonstration should be in every realm of life—physical, spiritual, financial, marital, mental—every phase of our activities.

I want you to notice what the
Amplified Version
of the Bible says about the purpose of the believer receiving the Holy Spirit. John 16:8 tells us that “when He comes, He will convict and convince the world and bring demonstration to it about sin and about righteousness (uprightness of heart and right standing with God) and about judgment.”

Verses 9–11 tell us that the Holy Spirit will bring this demonstration “about sin, because they do not believe in Me… about righteousness… because I go to My Father, and you will see Me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler (evil genius, prince) of this world [Satan] is
judged and condemned and sentence already is passed upon him.”

Notice carefully that the Lord Jesus is saying the Holy Spirit will be in the believer to
bring a demonstration
about judgment, because the ruler of this world (Satan) is judged and condemned and sentence already is passed upon him.

Remember that the Holy Spirit is in us to bring about a demonstration. He is eager and jealous for Jesus to be glorified. He is zealous to perform this demonstration. He will rise quickly to come to the aid of every believer
to demonstrate to the world
that Jesus has completely conquered Satan and every demonic force.

It is pitiful to see the sons and daughters of God, cringing in fear of demonic powers and being overtaken by the enemy daily. I am sure the angels in heaven weep to see the body of Christ harassed in such a manner when the Lord Jesus Christ died to make them more than conquerors!

Let me illustrate what I mean. I had a dog by the name of Scooter. He was a fine, big German shepherd dog. When I went bicycling, many times he would go with me. He pranced alongside me like a thoroughbred, holding
his head up high. He was agile and quick. I looked at him many times and thought what a fine-looking dog he was and how proud I was of him! He seemed to be fearless, as if he would fight with anything that got in his way.

One day as I was bicycling through the neighborhood with my fine dog trotting along by my side, a tiny little dog came racing out of the yard toward Scooter. I thought to myself,
Be careful little dog. Scooter can tear you up in a moment’s time. He is so big and strong.

But this is exactly what happened: that tiny little dog barked incessantly at Scooter and charged at him bravely. I expected Scooter to grab him by the neck and shake him vigorously to teach him to leave him alone. He was well able to do that, but instead my big dog gave up the battle before it even began! He hung his head in a cowardly fashion and rolled over, with the tiny dog barking as though he was giving Scooter orders never to come that way again!

I was so shocked! I was devastated to think that a little dog had overpowered my big dog. I thought,
You are one sorry dog. You’re not nearly as big on the inside as you are on the outside.
I went home totally ashamed of my dog!

Now this is not nearly as sad in the sight of God as seeing the new creatures of the great race of the Lord Jesus Christ—who are the righteousness of God, endowed by the Spirit of God, mighty sons and daughters of God, who are to reign with Christ throughout eternity—turn and run from little attacks of the enemy every day!

The Bible says there are doctrines of demons that will arise in the last days (1 Timothy 4:1). The devil must laugh at the thousands of Christians—the mighty sons and daughters of God—who are intimidated by demon forces. They have the power to cast out demons, and yet they roll over and surrender like my big dog in the face of these defeated demon forces.

God has told us in His Word that we have been given the Holy Spirit to bring a demonstration to the world that Satan is a defeated foe! “He will convict and convince the world and bring a demonstration… because the ruler (evil genius, prince) of this world [Satan] is judged and condemned and sentence already is passed upon him” (John 16:8, 11
AMP
).

I know experientially what it is to contend with the devil in the arena of life. He will try every way possible to defeat you, and unless you learn how to conquer him, you could go through an entire lifetime dominated by fear.

In 1965, God visited me with the vision that I described in the previous chapter. My purpose here is to give another aspect to the lesson I learned from it that I believe you will find helpful. In this visitation, God showed me in conflict with Satan in three arenas. One was a lesser battle; another was a stronger battle, and in the third one, I was in the presence of Satan himself. I called him the evil genius of this world, the prince of this world, because he sat like a genius on a pedestal in a small room. He seemed to project a sense of dignity and power.

In this part of the vision, I stood by the door. There was a man struggling to get to the door to escape the room where the devil was. He was clawing and swimming through the air, moving his legs and arms, slowly trying to get to that door, but he was not gaining any ground. Satan did not move a hand, but just held the man in his power by looking at him, as if to say, “You cannot get out. I have you in my power.” Those in the kingdom of darkness are under his rule!

As I stood there in this visitation, anger welled up inside me. As I realized that the man could not get out of there, I said, “Well, I will walk out of here in the
Name of the Lord Jesus Christ!” and I did just that immediately.

At that time, I did not realize that God was showing me that Satan was going to attack me on three levels. I was to go through an intense time of horrible oppression and satanic attack, and God was going to teach me about spiritual warfare through it.

I had pushed myself pretty hard in the Lord’s work. You can get so busy for God that you forget to take time for God. You can be so “spiritual” that you do not truly seek God, and you open yourself up to satanic attack. You need to have time for reading your Bible and praying in greater depth to maintain your spiritual strength for battle.

One day as I drove down the highway, the oppression was so strong that I broke down, weeping. It just seemed as if all the forces of hell had come against me and my nervous system had collapsed. I felt as if all of my glands had ceased to function. It was a most peculiar feeling. Something had happened. I suddenly felt under spiritual condemnation about everything.

I did not realize that the devil was doing this to me. I should have, but you see, the devil is a deceiver. I knew in a general sense that all bad things were from the devil. I was a minister of the Gospel, but at that time in my life, I did not realize the level of spiritual attack I was under.

This continued for months, and I went from bad to worse. I felt the very presence of hell and demons of every kind. Every evil force came against me, and all initiative left me. Everything about life was too overwhelming to think about. A little task would cause me to weep, because it seemed totally and absolutely impossible to do!

The presence of Satanic forces encompassed me. Fear came on me and would grip me regarding every area of my life. It was a hellish fear that I had never imagined could exist. The devil told me that I had a brain tumor, that I had a fatal illness, and then that I was dying of an unknown, incurable disease. Sleep left me. Insomnia is a terrible thing. When morning came, I wished for night. When night came, I longed for morning. My heart would pound like it was coming out of my chest.

I was not a new Christian. I had been trained in the Word of God in seminary. But although I had preached for nineteen years, I did not even know what the armor from God was or that it was available to me. I was a minister who needed to use the Word of God, but I didn’t
realize its power until I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. So while all of this oppression was on me, I was trying to minister to others in my own strength.

I was planning a speaking trip when a man came to me and prophesied that he had seen a vision of me getting on an airplane, then he saw the plane rise up in the air, burst into flames, and come down with a crash.

I had planned to fly on my trip, so I took a train! That was the first mistake that I made—I acted on fear and took the train!

Weigh all prophecy carefully. Do not receive any prophetic word from any person without first comparing it to the Word of God. Be careful anytime a prophecy dominates you, puts you under fear, and makes you apprehensive about disobeying that prophecy. Beware of it! Some people have been held in the bondage of false prophecy for years. Prophecy is to edify, exhort, and comfort. It is not to scare you.

When I took that train instead of flying, I acted on fear. When you act on fear, things get worse. Fear activates Satan’s power. Faith activates God’s power.

We are to demonstrate that Satan is defeated. God has given us His Word. We are to remain in the arena of battle with His Word until we make up our minds to use it and deliver ourselves by the power of the Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 2:26).

When you act on fear, fear takes possession of you! I had such a hellish fear of flying that the very thought of flying made me break out in a cold sweat. When I acted on that fear and took the train, the fear of flying engulfed me.

Fear is the devil’s tool. Never act on fear! Fear is a vapor, a lie.

This oppressive condition went on for several months. I closed my office and began to seek God. I could not sleep at night. I did not teach or preach very often. I had a terrible fear of everything possible. I could not hear from heaven. I felt separated from God—like He was ten million miles away. I could not grasp anything in the Word of God. I could not reach the throne of God in prayer. Satan was all around me.