I was hoping we could just bask in
the presence of the Lord all morning.
Imagine what it's going to be like when
we no longer see through a glass darkly,
but face to face.
I was thinking of Keith Green, wrote that
song, Lord You're Beautiful.
He is buried just walking distance from where
I live, and about just a few feet
away from his tombstone is where my father's
buried.
And I would love to be there on
resurrection morning.
My dad loved the old hymns and taught
Keith Green, Holy, Holy, Holy, that he sang.
He'd never heard it before.
Came out of a sort of hippie background,
didn't have the rich sort of heritage, but
became one of his favorite songs, Holy, Holy,
Holy.
And now I can see them both on
the front row in heaven, just singing away
for all the world.
Amen.
Let's just pray again.
Hallelujah, thank you.
Thank you, Lord, there's going to be a
day when those from every kindred, every tribe,
every tongue, every nation are going to sing
the song of Moses to the land.
The Lord, that veil again is going to
be removed.
No longer again seeing you through a glass
dartly, but face to face.
And all your beauty, all your majesty, all
your holiness.
Lord, not for an hour or two hours,
but throughout all eternity.
Lord, we ask again today that Lord you
would come and unveil your word to us,
Lord.
Open our eyes, open our understanding again, in
Jesus' name, Amen.
I trust this morning that I have the
mind of the Lord.
After a time of worship like that, it
seems strange to talk about spiritual warfare.
But I want to speak to you this
morning about spiritual warfare.
It's an area that I have been interested
in for, I guess, the best part of
25 years or more.
It's an area that I have tremendous concerns
about.
In the last 10, 15, 20 years there's
been all sorts of strange doctrines, if you
like, crop up, strange things around the realm
of spiritual warfare that I grapple with, struggle
over.
But nevertheless, there is a battle that you
and I are in.
And I believe in order to advance the
kingdom of God, we need to know something
about the enemy.
The Bible says, we're not to be ignorant
concerning his devices, his operations, his schemes.
Let me begin by taking you to a
passage of Scripture in 1 Samuel, chapter 13,
verse 19 to 23.
Now no blacksmith could be found in all
the land of Israel.
For the Philistines said, lest the Hebrews make
swords and spears.
And so all the men of Israel went
down to the Philistines, each to sharpen his
plowshare, his mattocks, his axe, and his hoe.
And the charge was two-thirds of a
shackle for the plowshares, the mattocks, the forks,
the axes, and to fix the hoes.
An interesting glimpse into the history of Israel
on this particular occasion.
The Philistines had concocted a plan that they
carried out meticulously, whereby they went through the
entire nation of Israel and systematically eliminated every
blacksmith's shop.
We don't have any more detail, as far
as I know, than this.
I don't know how long it took them.
I don't know how they did it.
But the Bible says they did it.
And Israel, who was an agricultural nation, was
rendered powerless when it came to looking after
their agricultural implements.
If something broke, they had to go down
to the Philistines to get it repaired.
If something needs sharpening, they had to go
to the Philistines to get it sharpened.
If they wanted to buy a new plow
or something, they had to go to the
Philistines, because nobody was producing plows anymore, nobody
was fixing them, nobody was looking after them.
Every blacksmith's shop in the land of Israel
was eliminated.
But the strategy behind this was not simply
to cripple the nation agriculturally.
The purpose behind it was to cripple the
nation from their fighting power.
Notice in verse 19, lest the Hebrews make
swords and spears.
The blacksmith's shop was not only the place
where the agricultural implements were made, but it
was a place where the weapons of war
were fashioned.
It was a blacksmith who hammered out the
shields and the spears and the daggers or
whatever else they used.
They were the ones that worked, again, in
the iron and the steel.
And all of this was in view of
one thing, verse 22.
So it came about on the day of
battle, that neither sword nor spear was found
in the hands of any of the people
who were with Saul and Jonathan.
But they were found with Saul and his
son Jonathan.
So it came about on the day of
battle.
Israel was powerless.
There was not one single sword in all
of Israel, apart from in the hand of
the king and his son.
I find that hard to believe, but that's
what the Bible says, so I believe it.
So thorough was their elimination of the blacksmith's
shop.
On the day of battle, there was no
fighting power in Israel.
The blacksmith's shop today is the prayer meeting.
And the enemy concocted a plan long ago,
whereby he moved through the house of God,
the nation of Israel, if you like, spiritual
Israel in that sense, and systematically eliminated the
fighting power of the church.
And so we can have congregations, you know,
of thousands, hundreds, Sunday night meetings the same,
midweek meetings, maybe a little less, and then
the prayer meeting, just the king and his
son, basically.
A couple of old ladies, thank God for
the old ladies and the intercessors, but nobody
else.
And on the day of battle now, when
the enemy is coming like a flood, when
we see our young people ravished again by
drugs and sex and everything else, and nations
just falling apart before our eyes, Israel is
powerless.
We have to regain the fighting power.
We have to get used to using the
sword and the spear, the weapons of our
warfare, and our carnal, but their mighty through
God, to the pulling down of strongholds.
And so we want to look a little
bit into some things concerning spiritual warfare.
Matthew chapter 12, verse 22, "...there was brought
to him a demon-possessed man who was
blind and dumb, and he healed him, so
that the dumb man spoke and he saw.
And when all the multitudes were amazed, they
began to say, this man cannot be the
son of David, can he?
And when the Pharisees heard it, they said,
this man casts out demons only by Beelzebul,
the ruler of demons.
And knowing their thoughts, he said to them,
any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste,
any city or house divided against itself shall
not stand the importance of unity.
And if Satan casts out Satan, he's divided
against himself, how then shall his kingdom stand?
And if I, by Beelzebul, cast out demons,
by whom do your sons cast them out?
Consequently they shall be your judges.
But if I cast out demons by the
Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God
has come upon you.
O how can one enter the strongman's house
and carry off his property, unless he first
bind the strongman, and then he will plunder
his house?"
Jesus did not say, as a last resort,
we bind the strongman, but he says he
must first bind the strongman, if he is
going to destroy and carry off the strongman's
goods.
Everything Satan does is a replica, a copy,
if you like, of what God does.
And there are many parallels.
He has his doctrine, he has his apostles,
he has his communion, he has his house,
he has his kingdom, you know, you can
go on and on.
And just as we are God's house, and
God is the great shepherd of the flock,
and he watches over his own, likewise the
enemy has his house, and he is, if
you like, the false shepherd, but nevertheless he
guards those who are under him.
And he doesn't like anybody stealing, those that
he has blinded, those that he's confused, those
that he's got in bondage.
He protects his house.
And the only way we will plunder that
house is by, first of all, binding the
strongman, Jesus said.
Otherwise we will never carry off his property.
2nd Corinthians 4 and verse 4 says this,
the God of this world is blinded, the
minds of those that believe not, lest the
light of the gospel should be revealed to
them.
And whether we are involved in mass evangelism,
personal evangelism, door-to-door evangelism, child evangelism,
the God of this world has blinded that
person's mind for one reason, lest the light
should penetrate.
And so we're in a spiritual battle, whether
you're praying for an unsaved loved one, a
husband, a wife, a wayward child, a next
-door neighbor, whatever, the God of this world
has already blinded that person to keep the
light from penetrating.
We are in a spiritual battle, no matter
what type of evangelism we're concerned about.
And certainly when it comes to reaching the
nation, the enemy has blinded this nation.
My brother, who is a missionary in South
America, had the privilege of working for something
like 10 or 12 years, with a man
by the name of Brother Edward Miller, a
friend of Les and Dot's down here.
I went to school with one of his
sons.
And Edward Miller now is in his, what,
70s at least, I imagine.
But he was the father, the pioneer of
the Argentine revival.
And what is going on in Argentina today,
much of that can be accredited to this
one man.
He was in Argentina when that nation was
a land of darkness, nothing was happening, very
tough going.
Catholicism literally bound the nation, witchcraft.
Peron was the president.
His wife, Eva Peron, was involved in all
sorts of satanic stuff.
And God spoke to this man and said,
there will never be a move of God
in Argentina until the Prince of Argentina is
bound.
This nation is governed by a principality.
And then God said to him, if men
can work eight hours a day, you can
pray eight hours a day.
And so along with some other intercessors, he
began to wrestle against this principality, if you
like, against these forces of darkness and spiritual
wickedness in high places.
And at the end of something like six
months, day after day of spending time in
the presence of God and coming against these
powers, there was a breakthrough.
God suddenly broke through and opened the heavens
over Argentina.
Angels came to the Bible school.
There was all sorts of supernatural activity.
God gave one man prophetic insight to where
he was going to move, various cities and
so on and so forth.
He wasn't able to speak.
They finally figured out that he was supposed
to write things out and so he wrote
things out where God was going to begin
to move.
On the heels of that, an American evangelist
by the name of Tommy Hicks, went down
to Argentina just to take some meetings while
he was there.
Got impressed upon him that he was to
get permission to use the great arena there
in Buenos Aires, great stadium seating 50 or
60 thousand people.
People laughed at him, said you're crazy, you'll
never get it.
And so he decided that he would go
and talk to Peron, the president of the
nation.
So he went to the pink house, as
they call it, and was greeted at the
gate by one of the guards.
And the guard was about to turn him
away, asked him why he was there, why
he wanted to see the president and so
on.
He explained he was evangelist.
He believed in the power of God, the
God that can heal and deliver and so
on.
The man was sick, he prayed for him,
he was instantly healed.
He said, come back and I'll get you
in to see Peron.
Peron at that time was not seeing anybody.
He had some sort of, if I remember
correctly, skin disease or something, eczema.
Was not being photographed, not seen in public.
But true to his word, when he went
back, the guard was able to get him
access into Peron's office.
He prayed for Peron, to cut a story
short, he was healed.
That opened the nation.
He was able to get the arena there
and they had possibly one of the greatest
moves of God that we have seen in
our century.
Tens of thousands of people saved, healings, miracles
that took place and so on.
That was the beginning of the Argentine revival
that is still going on to this day.
Because a man realized we don't wrestle against
flesh and blood, we wrestle against principalities and
palates, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
And so there are two realms of spiritual
warfare.
There's the minor leagues and the major leagues.
Most of us know about the minor leagues
because those are the conflicts we face ourselves,
when the enemy comes and tempts us and
so on and so forth.
But very few ever transition, if you like,
into the major leagues.
Ed Miller was an exception.
But I believe in these last days, God
is wanting to raise up, not individuals, but
a corporate body that will tackle the principalities
and palates.
And there's numerous ways of doing that, I
believe.
I believe what we've done this morning can
be one way.
Let God arise and his enemies be scattered.
That as we produce an atmosphere for God
to inhabit, the powers of darkness cannot stand.
And if we go into it knowing what
we're doing, not just so this is a
time of worship again, and there are certain
songs and so on, I believe that we
can make declarations to principalities and powers.
But I want us to look at this
idea, if you like, of the strongman for
a while.
Turn with me to Mark chapter 5.
We're going to look at a strongman over
an individual, the strongman over a group of
individuals, a strongman over a city and a
strongman over a nation.
In Mark 5 we have the story of
the Gadarene demoniac.
And you know the story, this man had
incredible power.
They bound him with chains and so on.
He was able to break those chains.
Nobody was able to subdue him.
And he was crying out amongst the tombs.
Jesus comes along, verse 9, and Jesus said
to him, what is your name?
And he said, my name is Legion, for
we are many.
And he began to entreat him earnestly not
to send them out of the country.
Notice now, you have a spokesman.
My name, singular, is Legion, we are many.
A Legion was somewhere around five to six
thousand troops, under the command of some sort
of a general.
And in the spiritual realm, obviously there's a
hierarchy, if you like.
And this man is the captain, if you
like.
He is the one in charge, my name
is Legion, but we are many, under me,
under my ranks, under my authority.
There are thousands.
We know that of course, because when they
were cast out, there were two thousand head
of swine, that each received at least one,
maybe half a dozen, I don't know.
But certainly there were two thousand demons in
one man.
And the one in charge again, Legion, and
he's the one that begins to entreat and
sort of become the spokesman.
He entreated him, Jesus, earnestly, not to send
them out of the country.
And so he was pleading, if you like,
on behalf of his troops.
And so here is a strong man over
an individual.
We go into the book of Acts, Acts
chapter 13, and we have a situation here
where Paul is making his way through the
island of Paphos.
And word reaches one of the political figures,
one of the provincial governors, and he summons
Paul and Barnabas.
He wants to hear about the Word of
God.
And so it says in verse 6, when
they had gone through the whole island of
Paphos, they found a certain magician, a Jewish
false prophet, who was named Bar-Jesus, who
was with the pro-council, Sergius Paulus, the
pro-council, simply a provincial governor, mayor, if
you like.
And it says, this man, the pro-council,
summons or called Barnabas and Saul, because he
wanted to hear the Word of God.
It's not very often that the phone rings,
and some political authority is on the other
end, asking you if you would make your
way down to his office, because he wants
to hear the Word of God.
That's a rarity, isn't it?
This is not just a next-door neighbor,
this is a man that's got tremendous clout,
if you like, tremendous power, tremendous authority.
But he's heard about a greater authority, and
he wants to know about it.
And so Barnabas and Saul respond.
Now notice, he is open to the gospel.
He wants to hear the Word of God.
He initiated this.
He is the one that is interested.
But along with him, we have a magician.
And it says, but where verse 8, but
Elamus the magician, for thus his name is
translated, was opposing them, seeking to turn the
pro-council away from the faith.
So here you have a battle right now.
A man that is open, he's receptive, he's
interested in receiving the Word of God.
You've got spiritual opposition in the form of
this magician, who is standing opposing, seeking to
confuse, seeking to turn this man away from
the faith.
And we don't know again the time that
goes by here, but after a while it
dawns on Paul that he's up against some
demonic strategy.
And in verse 9, Saul, who was known
as Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, fixed
his eyes upon him, or his gaze upon
him, and said, you who are full of
all deceit, you fraud, you son of the
devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you
not cease to make crooked the straight ways
of the Lord?
Now Paul was the one that was speaking,
and yet somehow this man is interjecting, and
everything that Paul is trying to make straight,
this man perverts and makes crooked, and brings
confusion to the simplicity and the clarity with
which Paul is speaking.
Here is an apostle, here is a man
with incredible authority, and yet there is another
authority there that is distorting and twisting what
is straight.
And Paul says, how long?
In other words, a period of time has
gone by, and finally Paul realizes this guy
that's sitting here, maybe keeping his mouth shut
or whatever, you know, once in a while
opening it, this man is a plant of
the enemy, if you like.
And everything I'm trying to make direct, and
simple, and straightforward, is being twisted and made
crooked.
And so he says, you are a son
of the devil, you're an enemy of all
righteousness, how long are you going to make
crooked the straight ways of the Lord?
And now, verse 11, behold the hand of
the Lord is upon you, and you'll be
blind and not see the sun for a
time.
And immediately a midst and a darkness fell
upon him, and he went about seeking those
who would lead him by the hand.
Then the procounsel believed, when he saw what
had happened, and being amazed at the teaching
of the Lord.
You see the strong man had to be
bound.
Then the procounsel believed.
He believed for two reasons.
First of all, because he saw a greater
demonstration of power, number one.
But then he became amazed at the teaching
of the Lord.
That teaching that before was crooked, and perverted,
and twisted, because of this man that didn't
make sense.
All of a sudden became clear and wonderful.
I'll never forget when my wife and I
were first married, we again had the privilege
of working in New York City with David
Wilkerson.
And our first assignment at Gene Challenge was
to work with David's mother, Mum Wilkerson we
called her.
And she ran a coffee shop in the
heart of Greenwich Village, right in the heart
of Manhattan down there in Greenwich Village where
Barbara Streisand and all these stars had their
beginnings.
And those days it was back in the
sort of beatnik era.
LSD was just coming on the scene and
so on, and we had this sort of
subterranean coffee shop on MacDoodle Street, one of
the main streets.
And we would serve free coffee and doughnuts.
And people would come in, especially in the
winter, we'd have upwards of 200 people a
night, from about 7 till midnight.
And I'll never forget one night being there,
and a couple of men came down.
We had tables, it was all painted black,
the place, and flagstone flooring, little coffee tables.
And a couple of guys came, sat down
at my table.
We had sort of people at various tables,
and I began talking to them.
They were totally, seemingly open to the gospel.
One of them in particular kept asking all
the right questions.
He seemed to have a sincerity about him.
A little while later, a couple of other
guys came down, joined the table, because they
could just sit wherever they wanted.
And one of them in particular kept interjecting,
what about this, and what about that, and
so on and so forth.
And after a while, it was so confusing.
I mean, I knew he was not sincere.
He was just there to try and, you
know, trap me and twist the Scriptures and
so on and so forth.
And I remember in that moment, it doesn't
always happen like this, but I just simply
looked at the man without uttering a word,
and I took authority, and I said, in
the name of Jesus.
I didn't point my finger, but I just
looked at him, and I said, you know,
underneath my breath, I take authority over you,
and I bind you, Satan, and all your
confusion.
And within about 30 seconds, he sort of
stretched his head, and he said, I forgot
what I was going to say, and sort
of handed that conversation back.
See, we need to recognize the God of
this world is blinded.
And as soon as the obstacle, the opposition,
he was opposing the gospel.
And the moment it was removed, immediately, the
man believed.
Over into Acts 19.
So you can have a strong man, if
I can use this expression in a sort
of a loose way, over an individual.
You can have a strong man over a
company of individuals, because he had influence even
over Paul for a while, and certainly over
this man.
But then you can have a strong man
over a city.
Acts 19 deals with Paul's time in Ephesus.
And as you know, in Ephesus, there was
tremendous occult activity.
Paul, writing, is it to the Corinthians, says
that, there is a wide and effectual door
of ministry open to me in Ephesus, but
there are many adversaries.
So he says, while there is a tremendous
opening, there is tremendous opposition in Ephesus.
And Paul, of course, has a wonderful time.
We can read about it there from 17
to 20.
Verse 18, many of those who kept coming,
were confessing and disclosing their practices.
Many of those who practiced magic, brought their
books together, began burning them in the sight
of all.
They counted up the price, and found it
to be 50,000 pieces of silver.
I once figured that out to be about
140 years wages.
Can't remember how I did it now, but
anyway, a denarii, a common copper coin, was
a day's wages.
And you have 50,000 pieces of silver.
It shows you the magnitude of the occult,
the witchcraft, the magic that was going on
in one city.
On one occasion, one bonfire, 50,000 pieces
of silver.
Imagine what that translates to in today's language.
50,000, maybe silver dollars, 50,000 shillings,
I don't know.
But 2,000 years ago, that is a
lot of money.
Still is.
And so there is this darkness that hangs
over the city of Ephesus.
Why?
Because the city of Ephesus was the guardian
of the goddess Diana, or Artemis, depending on
the translation.
And people are getting saved, and there is
an uproar in the city of Ephesus.
All the silversmiths get together, because they are
losing their trade.
People are not buying their little shrines, and
their little goddesses.
You see, Ephesus was the center of worship
for this goddess Diana.
They believed there was a time in their
history, somewhere in the past, where this goddess
came down out of heaven, and established her
throne in the city of Ephesus.
And such was her power, it says in
verse 27, when these silversmiths got together, not
only is there danger that this trade of
ours fall into disrepute, but also that the
temple of the great goddess Artemis, or Diana,
be regarded as worthless.
And she whom all of Asia and the
world worship, should be dethroned from her magnificence.
This goddess had a worldwide impact.
All of Asia and the world were under
the power of this goddess.
And people would come from the surrounding nations,
to worship here in Ephesus.
And they would buy, again, their little shrines
and copies, I guess, of the temple of
the goddess, and go back and bow down,
make their grottos or whatever, and bow down
to them, and so on.
So the silversmiths are in an uproar, because
of Paul's teaching and preaching.
And so they rally the troops in the
city, and there is an uproar for three
hours.
They cry out, great is Artemis, great is
Artemis, great is Artemis.
They pledge their loyalty.
Declare again, as we would declare, he is
Lord.
They were declaring she is Lord.
And finally the crowd is shouting, and then
the town clerk stands up in verse 35,
it says, and after quieting the multitude, the
town clerk said, men of Ephesus, what men
is there after all, that does not know
that the city of the Ephesians is the
guardian of the temple of the great Artemis,
or Diana of the image which fell down
from heaven.
So she was the guardian.
She had her throne there.
Again, they believe that she came down and
she resided in Ephesus.
No wonder then, Paul says, there is a
wide and effectual door, but there is incredible
opposition.
Another place, he says, I fought with wild
beasts of Ephesus.
Some people believe that those wild beasts were
principalities and powers that transformed themselves into wild
beasts.
I know of missionaries.
We have a man that we have sent
our teams to in Pensacola, down into Mexico,
David Hogan, who has had something now like
a hundred cases of people being raised from
the dead.
Quite a remarkable man.
His lifestyle is to fast two days, eat
one day, fast two days, eat one day,
fast two days, eat one day.
That's his lifestyle.
Why?
Because he's in an area of Mexico where
there is incredible darkness.
He said, it is not uncommon for these
warlocks to go into a cave and fast
for 40 days and come out with supernatural
power, where they can levitate, where they can
walk across caverns and so on, and do
all sorts of things.
And he has stories I've never read about
in any books on spiritual warfare, stories that
will make your hair curl.
And he says, when you confront these principalities
or these warlocks, you don't have time to
run back and say, oh well, I'm not
quite right with God.
Give me a couple days to pray and
fast.
He says, you have to live a lifestyle
of prayer and fasting in order to equal
them in their authority, so to speak, because
they are so dedicated to what they're doing.
I could tell you stories that he tells.
Send shivers up and down your spine.
And he has seen demons manifest themselves in
the form of beings.
I remember Nicky Cruz.
He was still at Teen Challenge when we
were there, when we were first married.
His mother used to be some sort of
involved in witchcraft in Puerto Rico, and he
said it wasn't uncommon to see cats and
dogs come flying through the house, sort of
screaming and yelping and so on.
Again, manifestations of demonic entities.
And when Paul says, I fought with wild
beasts of Ephesus, it's possible that all of
hell broke loose.
I have a friend who has been a
missionary in Italy for many, many years.
Something like, what is it now, maybe 18,
19 years.
Moved his family there.
He's not a funny guy at all.
By funny, I mean, you know, he's not
so strange when it comes to the things
of the Spirit.
He's very straight sort of a guy.
And one day he was walking across the
Vatican grounds, and there was a shadow that
went over him, and initially I thought, that's
funny, and didn't think too much about it.
A moment later, there was another shadow, and
he sort of looked around, and thought, that's
strange.
There's no building sort of casting a shadow.
There's no cloud that would form a shadow.
And a moment later, he went a little
bit further, and again, the shadow, and he
looked up, and here was this huge winged
being.
Hideous sort of thing.
And God said to him, this is what
you're up against.
Spiritual wickedness in high places.
And so here in Ephesus, Paul confronts again,
some of his greatest opposition.
We'll come back to this in a moment.
Let's turn to the book of Daniel.
We have a nation, oh sorry, a city
now, that is under the authority, if you
like, of this goddess Diana.
The influence of this goddess, that has got
all this city now, in witchcraft, and occult,
where they're burning finally their magic books, and
confessing that they've been involved in all sorts
of activities.
Now you have a nation.
Daniel chapter 10.
In this chapter, Daniel has been seeking God
for revelation, and he has set aside some
time.
Verse 2, in those days, I Daniel had
been mourning for three entire weeks.
I did not eat any tasty food, nor
did meat or wine into my mouth, nor
did I use ointment at all, until the
entire three weeks were completed.
So he's fasting, he's praying, he's seeking God,
he set time aside.
And finally, verse 10, behold a hand touched
me, and sent me trembling on my hands
and my knees.
And he said to me, O Daniel, man
of high esteem, understand the words I'm about
to tell you.
Stand upright, for I've been sent to you.
When he spoke this word, I stood up
trembling.
And he said to me, do not be
afraid, Daniel.
Now this is an angel.
Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the
first day that you set your heart on
understanding this, on humbling yourself before your God,
your words were heard, and I have come
in response to your words.
From the first day, and I have come
in response to your words.
And yet Daniel tells us he's been fasting
and praying for three weeks, and it is
at the end of the three weeks that
the angel comes, and yet the angel began
his journey on day one.
God responded to the prayer of this wonderful
man of God, commissioned his angel with all
the details that Daniel was looking for, and
yet the angel takes three weeks.
I don't know if that proves conclusively that
males, that angels are males and they're afraid
to ask directions.
I don't know if angels get broken wings.
Now you see, there is a reason.
But, verse 13, but the prince of the
kingdom of Persia was withstanding me.
The margin says in my Bible, literally standing
opposing, or standing opposite.
There is opposition.
Where is Daniel?
He's in Babylon.
Where is Babylon?
He's in the kingdom of Persia, and in
that kingdom there is a prince, the prince
of the kingdom of Persia.
Was not interested in seeing the advance of
God's kingdom, was not interested in any of
God's men receiving insight and revelation.
This is my territory, this is my kingdom.
You can't get in here, you can't come
in here, I'm going to oppose you.
And so angel, you're not coming into my
kingdom.
And so the angel sends a message back
to the throne, and God sends Michael.
Verse 13 again, but the prince of the
kingdom of Persia withstood me 21 days.
Then behold Michael, one of the chief princes,
came to help me.
For I had been left there with the
kings of Persia.
So there's a prince of Persia, there are
kings of Persia.
Again, I don't have revelation on all of
that, other than these are spiritual beings.
Verse 14, now I've come to give you
understanding of what will happen to your people.
This is what Daniel's looking for.
Verse 20, then he said to me, do
you understand why I came to you?
Now I shall return to fight against the
prince of Persia.
So I am going forth and behold, the
prince of Greece is about to come.
Interesting insight here, this is one of the
few cases in the Word of God, if
not the only one, where you have a
little glimpse behind the scenes over nations, as
to what goes on over nations.
The Bible, of course, in Ephesians tells us
that there is spiritual wickedness in high places,
and this angel says, listen I'm going back,
because there is a battle going on.
You see, just as this angel called in
reinforcements, seemingly God sent Michael, one of the
chief princes, to deal with another chief prince.
So the prince of Persia sends word to
the prince of Greece, hey you're not doing
much today, we've got a warfare going on
here, our kingdom's at stake, I need help.
And so in comes the prince of Greece,
to reinforce the battle.
I share this, because I know there's a
lot of teaching that says, the way you
discover your principality over your city or region,
whatever, is to go to the library, spend
hours and hours and hours, as to why
your city was established.
Easy to do in America, because nothing's much
more than a hundred years old.
England's a little tougher, isn't it?
You know, you don't know whether you start
at the Bronze Age, the Ice Age, or
where you go.
Believe me, I suffered during English history.
You know, it goes back forever, doesn't it?
So never.
Then moved to Ireland, and suffered through Irish
history, moved to America, suffered through American history,
and hated history ever since.
But anyway, too many dates, too many dead
people, too many facts and figures.
You know, give me geography, something present, I
enjoy it.
But they will tell you that, you know,
maybe, you know, your city is built on
some Indian burial ground, or some, you know,
Nordic burial ground, or there was some great
atrocity, or this happened, or that happened.
And I'm not totally discounting that, but you
see, if you were doing research on this
occasion, it's pretty hard to come up in
the local library, with the fact that the
prince of Greece is about to come.
That's tomorrow's headlines.
That isn't found in any archives, that's not
found in any history book.
That takes true discernment.
The prince of Greece is about to come.
You can research all day long about the
Kingdom of Persia, but it doesn't help you
find out.
Now it is a possibility that this can
be looked at two ways, and that is,
following the Kingdom of Persia, we have the
Kingdom of Greece coming.
And so there's insight into what is going
to happen.
But you see, there are principalities, if you
like, that can be in an individual, strongman,
that can influence a group of individuals, that
can influence a city, that can influence a
nation.
I tell people in America, that I was
born here, still travel on a British passport,
believe it or not, I've never renounced my
British citizenship.
Britain never, never, no.
Got to be careful in America.
But I tell them that England, or the
United Kingdom, is made up of England, Ireland,
Scotland, and Wales.
And I said, Wales is really called the
Principality of Wales.
You know that, Americans don't.
Isn't that right?
That's its rightful name, the Principality of Wales.
And the prince over that principality, is Prince
Charles.
That's his legal title, Prince Charles, Prince of
Wales, or Prince of the Principality of Wales.
And so a principality is a geographical area
governed by a prince.
And not only can that be true, of
course, in the natural, but in the spiritual
realm, principalities.
And here you have, if you like, a
principality, a kingdom.
This is my kingdom.
I'm going to oppose.
I'm not going to let you in.
I don't want revelation coming in here.
I don't want an open heaven here.
This is my kingdom.
I'm the Prince of Persia.
Let's go back now to Ephesians, Ephesians chapter
6.
And out of all the churches that Paul
established, out of all the places that Paul
moved as an apostle, church planter, and out
of all the letters he wrote to those
churches, it's interesting that it was to the
Ephesians more than anybody else that he deals
with spiritual warfare.
Why was that?
Because there is great opposition here.
There is a wide and effectual door of
ministry, but I've run into the greatest opposition
in Ephesus that I have in any city.
Greater than Corinth, greater than this, greater than
that, and so on.
And so he deals then in his letter
to the Corinthians, and he says, listen, we
don't wrestle flesh and blood.
We're not up against town clerks.
We're not up against silversmiths.
We're not up against just the gods at
the temple of this goddess, people that sell
things on the road, and so on and
so forth.
No, it's bigger than that.
There are principalities and powers.
There is this spiritual wickedness over this city.
That's what we're fighting against.
That's what we're wrestling against.
Now it's interesting that there is a division
in chapter 6, and so we have two
separate thoughts.
And for many, many years I responded one
of two ways, especially as a child when
I heard somebody stand up in my father's
church and say, you know, tonight I want
to have you turn to Ephesians 6.
I thought, uh-oh, children obey your parents.
Here it comes.
And then later it used to be, oh,
we wrestle not against flesh and blood.
And two things sprung to mind, you know,
kids obeying their parents, and so on, and
spiritual warfare.
And I thought, what do the two have
in common?
Nothing at all.
Paul is in the middle of, you know,
writing this seemingly.
Maybe his candle's getting low, or his parchment's
running out, or something.
And he finally thinks, boy, I don't have
much time left.
I better, well finally, and he sort of
shifts gears and moves into something else.
But one day, I was musing on this
many years ago, and I realized that there
is a progression that is building here.
In other words, the first part of Ephesians
6, in fact the latter part of Ephesians
5.
Keep in mind, of course, this was a
letter, so there was no real chapter divisions
or verse, verses.
But Paul is leading up to something, and
there is a direct correlation to what he
says prior to finally be strong in the
Lord, and in the strength of his might,
and what there is before.
You see, before this, he speaks about submission.
Verse 22, wives, be subject to your own
husbands, as to the Lord.
Husbands, love your wife, and so on.
And so he deals with this whole area
of submission to authority.
Wives, submit to your husbands.
But then God always protects the underdog, if
I can use that expression.
And He says, hey guys, you are not
the final authority, I am, so make sure
you love her the way I love the
church.
Easy for a wife to submit, when she's
treated the way Jesus treated the church.
He gave Himself up for her.
He loved her with an everlasting love, and
so on.
Many, many years ago, of course, there was
all of this distorted teaching on submission, that
basically made the wife out to be nothing
more than a doormat, and the husband had
supreme command, and she was nothing.
And there was one of these men, you
know, that had this distorted concept, and he,
you know, was thundering away about the man's
role, and position, and headship, and so on,
and so forth.
And you know, the man was nudging his
wife, making sure she got this, and didn't
fall asleep during this important message.
And when he got home, he says, you
know, I don't ever want you to forget
who's boss around here.
Drew back his fist, hit her as hard
as he could.
He said, I'm in charge, don't ever forget
it.
And after that, he didn't see his wife
for two weeks.
And then he could only just see her
out of one eye.
But this is not the, I know it's
mid-morning, and you're getting tired, but Paul
deals here again, with the area of submission.
And then he goes right in, of course
again, there's no chapter divisions to deal with
children.
Children, you obey your parents.
They are the authority that God has placed
over you.
And then to protect the children, the underdog,
if you like, God says, and listen, Dad,
don't threaten, don't provoke.
I'm watching you, you're not the final authority,
I am.
I'm over you.
And so, treat those kids with the respect
that they deserve.
Don't get mad at them, don't provoke them,
because I'm keeping track.
And then he says, slaves, you be obedient
to your masters.
Not just by way of eye service, as
men pleases, but as slaves of Christ, doing
the will of God from the heart.
In other words, serve your master, because ultimately
you're serving me.
Show them what it means to be a
true believer.
Show them how you can submit, how you
can do it, not just because you have
to do it, but with genuine pleasure.
Masters, he says, you're not the final master,
I am.
So master, do the same things to them,
verse 9, give up threatening, knowing that both
their master and yours is in heaven, and
there's no partiality.
It's all going to be level ground, Jesus
is saying here at the cross.
That servant and you as a master are
going to be absolutely equal in eternity.
So treat him with respect, don't threaten him,
don't beat him, so on and so forth,
obviously treating, talking to masters in the church,
and slaves in the church.
And then Paul says, finally be strong in
the Lord, and in the strength of his
might.
And now he deals with spiritual warfare.
What's the significance?
It's very significant that we understand submission to
authority, if we're going to be effective in
spiritual warfare.
You see the devil one day said, I'm
tired of being number two, I want to
be number one.
I'm tired of submitting, I'm going to take
my throne, and I'm going to put it
over your throne God.
After all, I've got all this wisdom, all
this beauty, and so on and so forth.
And I could run the shows better than
you could.
And I'm going to take my authority, and
I'm going to usurp your authority.
And of course, we know what happened, he
became the devil.
And so Paul deals with submission to authority
before he deals with spiritual warfare.
Why?
Because if there is an ounce, a smidgen
of rebellion in you, towards your husband, towards
the authority structure over you, you have already
aligned yourself with the enemy.
Therefore, you cannot effectively wage warfare against him
when you've already sided with him.
The Bible doesn't say, resist the devil, he'll
flee from you.
It says, submit yourself to God, resist the
devil, he'll flee from you.
And Paul deals so often with submission before
he deals with prayer.
In Colossians, we have the same list in
chapter 3.
Wives, be subject to your husband's husband, love
your wife.
Children, be obedient to your parents.
Fathers, don't exasperate your children.
Slaves, be obedient to your masters, and so
on.
Verse 4, masters grant your slaves justice.
So chapter 4, verse 1, he goes right
on.
Verse 2, devote yourself to prayer.
All of this chain of command stuff.
Then devote yourself to prayer.
1 Peter chapter 5, Paul talks there, in
verse 5, you young men likewise, be subject
to your elders, and all of you clothe
yourself with humility towards one another, for God
is opposed to the proud, but gives grace
to the humble.
Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God,
that he may exalt you, casting all of
your anxiety upon him.
So we humble ourselves under the mighty hand
of God.
Verse 8, be sober.
Be on the alert.
Your adversary, the devil, goes about as a
roaring lion, but resist him.
How do you resist him?
First of all, by submitting yourself to God.
You see, time after time, submission, then the
enemy.
Submission, then prayer.
It's absolutely essential.
I had a phone call while I was
in Pensacola one day, from a gentleman who
I didn't know, and he asked me why
I was there in Pensacola, what I thought
of it.
Had that question many times, because my father's
writings on revival, and you know, is this
a real revival, what's going on down there,
and so on.
And this man said, he said, well the
reason I asked, he said, I've had a
number of preacher friends, at least two, three
I believe he said, but let's say two,
so I don't exaggerate.
And he said, they've had their churches destroyed,
because of this move of the Spirit.
I pricked up my ears, he began to
go on, and basically this was the essence
of what he told me, that his churches
were destroyed because of intercessors.
And what happened, these ladies went to Pensacola,
or some other place, Toronto, wherever, and they
came back seeing the move of God, and
seeing the wonderful things that were happening, and
so on, so forth, and wanted to see
their church experience the same.
And so, you know, rallied some of their
friends around, and began to pray, all out
of sincerity, God, send revival to this church,
send the move of God, Lord.
Lord, we're dead, we're dry, you know, we
need something, we need life, there's death everywhere,
and blah, blah, blah.
And after a while of praying, and this
is again incremental over a long period of
time, we need to understand that didn't happen
in 24 hours.
As they began to pray, you know, God
would quicken things to them, and then they
go to the pastor and share it.
And the pastor, of course, wasn't on the
same wavelength, not having been to one of
these places, and so on, and so, sort
of, didn't maybe do what they thought he
should do.
And so, you know, they said, Pastor, we
really believe, you know, God's going to move,
and da-da-da, you know.
And again, the weeks went by, and the
pastor didn't seem to do anything, and then
they came, you know, they were getting words,
and Pastor, you know, I believe we're supposed
to, you know, call, you know, a couple
of days of prayer and fasting, or whatever,
again, all out of sincerity, and, you know,
we've got to have revival, we've got, you
know, again, nothing.
And the weeks would go by again, they'd
be praying earnestly, and then they go to
the pastor once again, and maybe the pastor
didn't do anything about it, and so, aha,
the pastor's the problem.
So then the prayers, again, very sincerely turn
to, Lord, open his eyes, Lord, soften his
heart, he doesn't get it, Lord, he doesn't
understand how dead this church is, and so
on, Lord, we pray for our pastor, bless
him, Lord, and blah, blah, blah.
You know, again, go to the past, Pastor,
we want you to know we're praying for
you, we're asking God, you know.
Again, seemingly the pastor wasn't responding the way
they thought he should, and now, because of
the amount of time, the pastor is obviously
the blockage.
So, Lord, you know this man is standing
in the way, Lord.
We don't want Ichabod written over our church,
Lord, we're asking you to remove this man.
And then the transition, you see, to no
longer submitting to authority, oh, very subtle.
And now we are opposing this man.
We're no longer seeking to help him, we're
no longer going to be servants, we're now
going to work against the system.
And so now, you know, we're going to
have some meetings in our home, and we're
going to pray for that particular man, and
you know, the elders, and the board, who
just, you know, and then they began to
hear from God.
Oh, I don't think the same God that
they were praying to a little while ago,
because now there's rebellion, subtle, but rebellion.
And now they're receiving all sorts of things,
because now they've transitioned over into the enemy's
camp, and then it was sort of come
out from among them and be a separate.
Oh, by the way, we're having a Friday
night meeting, where we're going to believe God
to move and have freedom and liberty that
we don't have, you know, under Brother Jones's
ministry.
That was the essence, really, of what he
told me.
Very easy, isn't it?
Submit yourself to God, resist the devil, and
he will flee from you.
We've got to learn how to maintain, again,
an attitude of submissiveness.
It's like David under Saul.
If there was ever a guy that could
have usurped, he'd been anointed.
He had the prophetic word, the mandate, that
I'm not going to touch God's anointed.
These men, this man, in the case of
Saul, God placed him there.
I may disagree with what he does, and
so on and so forth, but God placed
him there.
I'm not going to touch God's anointed.
So, we've got to learn, again, the importance
of submission.
Our time has gone, and I have much
to say, but maybe that's where we need
to end it.
Let me just say this, that the key
that I find, all the way through the
Word of God, to effective spiritual warfare is
a holy life, an obedience to God, and
I am greatly concerned, as I said, about
all the trimmings and all the, you know,
additions that we've brought in now to spiritual
warfare, that you've got to visit a particular
location, and not only a location, but an
elevation in order to be effective, that if
you can take two weeks off and spend
five thousand dollars, and sort of go to
Timbuktu to pull down the, you know, some
particular queen or something, you can't do it
in your own closet, and we have added
to the atonement now, location, location, location, elevation,
elevation, elevation.
I taught a little bit on prayer when
I was at the Bible school in Pensacola,
and they asked me if I would assign
the students a book, and so I assigned
them Reese Howells' Intercessor.
They'd never read it before, one of the
greatest classics, of course, Reese Howells, who was
used in such a wonderful way of driving
back Hitler, and the whole war machine that
was going to devour this nation, and I
don't think he was the only one, of
course, but he was certainly a man that
gave himself to praying, and you see, according
to this theology, he would have been far
more effective if he could have got into
Germany to pray.
After all, it can't really be effective praying
in Wales, when the principality is in Germany.
You see, I thought that you went into
your closet, and you touched the throne of
God.
That was the way I was raised.
I mean, it's simple, but I sort of,
you know, grew up that way.
Now we've complexed it all, you know.
Now we've got to not only go there,
but we've got to find some high place.
Now we've got to do research into the
city.
Now we've got to find all the entry
points where the enemy came in, and that
works in America, because, you know, in 60,
80 years, it's pretty easy to find out
if there was a little bit of bloodshed
here and there, but imagine going to Jerusalem,
or Rome.
We've got 2,000 years of history.
Oh, this is where, you know, Pontius Pilate
did this.
We'd better cleanse that area.
This is where, you know, Herod did this,
and we'd better cleanse that area, and this
is where Judas betrayed the Lord.
We'd better cleanse that area, and this is
where Peter denied the Lord, and we'd better
cleanse that area, and, you know, I mean,
you've got 2,000 years of history, and
2,000 million entry points, if there are
such things.
I don't know.
And how you deal with all of those,
I don't know, but you can spend a
lifetime running around, and I thought the Bible
says that we can get on our face
before God, and we can pray, and the
fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much,
and now we have intercessory groups in America
taking communion to the corners of the state,
and having communion, and bearing the emblems in
the corners of the state to ward off,
and it's getting weirder and weirder and weirder,
at least in America, and everybody's in.
You see, when it talks about Jezebel, she
taught the deep things of Satan, and there
is an intrigue that comes in spiritual warfare
that everybody's trying to outdo somebody else, and
sort of revelation into all these deep things,
and all sorts of things are surfacing, so
that spiritual warfare now has nothing to do
with your relationship to God.
It's all external.
If I wave a banner a certain way,
the demons stop flying.
It doesn't matter what condition my heart's in.
If I blow the shofar long enough and
loud enough, the demons are going to take
off.
It's all external.
If I go to a state, and I
take communion and bury the emblems, again, you
know, if I can find research into the
background of this, if I can climb up
some tower, you know, if I can reconcile
with this group because of the atrocities that
my forefathers did, so like, you know, baptism
for the dead, now it's reconciliation for the
dead.
Let's face it, if I can ask forgiveness
for the sins of my forefathers, then why
don't we just have one great rally and
forgive Eve?
See, logically, logically you can.
If you can go back a hundred years,
you can go back two hundred years, you
can go back five hundred years, you can
go back a thousand years.
Why don't we go back to the beginning?
Just, let's put it all right.
Then now we have the redemptive value of
cities.
You know, God's got a redemptive value for
your city.
Yet God said to them, go in and
annihilate, burn the cities in the Old Testament.
Do we go back now to Egypt and
apologize that we were responsible for all the
firstborn dying?
What an atrocity.
Tens of thousands of firstborn.
Oh, we represent the church, you know, spiritual
Israel.
We're sorry for what we did to you
Egyptians, you know.
We're sorry you lost all, you know.
I mean, where'd you stop?
And it gets more and more intriguing, doesn't
it?
But there was one simple law in the
Old Testament.
Walk in obedience to me.
Let me close with it, and then we
will close.
Otherwise, you'll get me going.
Psalm, Psalm 81, verse 13.
Oh, that my people would listen to me,
that Israel would walk in my ways, I
would quickly subdue their enemies and turn my
hand against their adversaries.
Oh, that my people would listen to me,
that Israel would walk in my ways, obedience.
I would quickly subdue their enemies.
I will turn my hand against their adversaries.
My father said to me as a young
man growing up, he said, David, God's problem
in the Old Testament was never with the
Hittite and the Perizzite and the Jebusite, was
never with the nations.
That was never a problem with God.
It was always with Israel.
And when Israel was right, no weapon formed
against them was possible.
Absolutely none.
Didn't matter if they were outclassed, outnumbered by
the millions.
As we saw last night, when you go
out to battle, you encounter armies more numerous
than you and don't, don't be afraid.
That's why the Bible says the weapons of
our, the weapons of righteousness for the left
hand and the right hand, the breastplate of
righteousness.
In righteousness, he wages war.
His throne is established on righteousness.
You and I have authority, but one will
chase a thousand and two ten thousand.
And there is a collective power that God
gives when we are right with God, right
with one another in a place of holiness,
that we can advance the kingdom of God.
We can open up heavens, I believe, over
cities where God can begin to move and
the blinders are lifted.
And the God of this world can no
longer bind and blind the eyes of those
that believe not.
And one of those things is praise and
worship.
The warfare of praise and worship, with high
praises of God in our mouth, sharp two
-edged sword in our hand, to bind nobles
and kings with fetters of iron.
Bible says in the Psalms, he will subdue
nations under our feet.
Not just cities.
Oh, I know I'm speaking out of, not
of out of experience now, out of anticipation.
That one day we'll have a body of
believers that will get together and be, as
we heard last night, the church.
And because of the righteousness and the holiness
and the godliness of that church, no weapon
formed against it will prosper.
And these are they that turn the world
upside down, will be repeated once again.
And they've come here as well.
They're advancing up the nation, advancing over to
Europe, a company of people who in righteousness
they wage war.