The Bible makes clear the reality of personal demonic spirits, and also the ministry of the church to continue Christ’s work of proclaiming the Kingdom in word and in actions through healing and casting out demons. Scripture and church history recognise different degrees of “demonization”.
1. A person can be completely controlled by powers of evil. The term “possession” is often used but has no Biblical basis. They require “exorcism and blessing” (“solemn exorcism”).
2. Others (including Christians) may be afflicted in a lesser way by the demonic and require “deliverance” (“simple exorcism”). But not all Christians with sin problems need “deliverance ministry”.
The demonic can gain a hold on a person’s life through spells, curses and the actions of ancestors. Deliverance ministry can be dramatically effective in bringing release from all kinds of problems WHEN demonic activity is present. But we need the gift of discernment to be sure that the problem is actually spiritual and not psychological.
Many sincere (especially younger) Christians find the struggle with evil discouraging and even overwhelming. It can be comforting to place the blame on demonic forces and seek the help of deliverance ministry, but this is not necessarily appropriate or wise. We fight against the world, the flesh (our old sinful nature) and the devil with all his sneaky lies and tricks, and there is no short cut to maturity and holiness. We must learn, slowly and painfully sometimes, to trust more in Christ and in His cross, to resist the devil and to crucify our old sinful nature as we put on our new nature in Christ.
This will involve ongoing repentance and renunciation of evil. Christ HAS won the ultimate victory, and we share in it! But sometimes the claims made for the level of victory over sin we should experience are un-Biblical, unrealistic and can generate discouragement. We will always be in the middle of a battle which WE must fight, in God’s strength of course. There is no easy short cut! See 1 Peter 5:6-11; James 4:6-11; 1 John 1:7-10; Gal 5:16-26; Eph 4:22-5:2 etc.; Col 3:5-10; Rom 6.
Treating all sin problems as directly demonic in origin often only allows individuals to abdicate responsibility for their own spiritual progress. Very often what is needed is not “deliverance ministry” as such but a healthy dose of confession, repentance and renunciation of evil, and an ongoing battle with the fallen human nature which is still a part of us all. “Demons” of lust and pride and jealousy and anger are much less common than the fleshly sinful habits and desires attributed to them!
ALL respectable leaders working in areas of deliverance urge that counselling and ministry must take place IN PRIVATE, not in the presence of other (especially young) Christians unless absolutely unavoidable. True deliverances are often not exciting but terrifying.
Demons are not stupid! Most agree that anyone who thinks they need deliverance probably doesn’t. Demons will not be quick to invite expulsion!
Such ministry will not usually be done “on-the-spot”. Careful preparations, case histories and prayer will be essential and often many sessions of counselling will be required. Deliverance ministry should not usually be considered without reliable advice that the problems are neither medical nor psychological in origin.
Christians requiring genuine deliverance ministry (i.e. more than just confession, prayer, repentance and renunciation) will only be those with SERIOUS spiritual problems persisting from before their conversion (and in fact they may not be Christians at all). They will be those who, DESPITE no obvious sin or illness or disobedience still have a number of MAJOR problems, e.g. physical inability to pray (i.e. to say the words), evil nightmares, voices in the head, overwhelming fears, self-violence. Lesser problems do not need “deliverance”.
The Christian is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and this severely limits the extent of interference by demonic powers (unless they explicitly invite the demonic in, or are “targeted” by spells or curses by others who are demonised). Once demonic influences present (in rare cases) before conversion have been dealt with, further deliverance is unlikely to be required. Repeated need for “deliverance ministry” would indicate a deficiency in earlier ministry, not spiritual growth.
Deliverance ministry is valid, important and neglected in the church today. However, it can also become a major cause of pastoral problems as it is sometimes practised by those outside “mainstream charismatic” church life, who rely on their experiences and not the Word of God, and are guided by sensationalist popular literature with little theological basis.

VERSES AND PRAYERS TO USE IN MINISTRY

1 John 3: 8 He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
Matthew 12:28-29 Jesus said But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. “Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house.
Colossians 2:13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Luke 9:1 When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
Matthew 28:18, 20 Jesus said to them “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. … And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
We come in the all powerful name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Lord of all, the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, who died but is alive again forevermore and reigns on high, one with God the Father and with the Holy Spirit. In the name of Jesus we stand against all the powers of evil in this place, protected by the cross of Christ and the blood of Christ.
Matthew 16:18 Jesus said
18 I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
In the all powerful name of Jesus Christ We bind all spirits in this place. They may not harm any person. They may not speak. They may not manifest themselves in any way. All spirits stand bound in the name of Jesus Christ.
In the name of Jesus Christ we break all curses against us and all persons here – their power is broken in Jesus’s name. In the name of Jesus Christ we dispell all spells cast against us and all persons here – their power is broken in Jesus’s name.
The light of Christ has come into the world. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it. May the light of Christ fill every corner of this place driving out all darkness before it. May the peace of Christ which passes all understanding fill this place and all who enter here. May the glory of God fill this place and touch all who enter here.
“The Lord’s Prayer”
May the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit rest and remain here now and forevermore. AMEN
WHEN MINISTERING TO A PERSON who may be troubled by the demonic:
First bind the spirit(s) as above.
Then command the spirits in the all-powerful name of the Lord Jesus Christ
1. to leave
2. never to return
3. harming no-one
4. to go to the place assigned to them by the Lord of all, the Lord Jesus Christ.

EXTRACTS FROM A MASTER’S LEVEL ESSAY ON DELIVERANCE MINISTRY

Jesus was a particularly successful and powerful exorcist and `any historical picture of Jesus that does not include his activity as an exorcist will be a distortion.’ (Twelftree) Jesus’s ministry had eschatological significance as the first stage in the defeat of Satan. `The exorcisms do not illustrate the message of the downfall of the kingdom of Satan, but themselves constitute that very downfall.’ The Kingdom of God was coming through the power of the Spirit operating through Jesus (Matt 12:28 // Luke 11:20). Biblically, deliverance ministry is an integral part of Christ’s on-going commission to his church (Luke 10:17-20, John 20:21), as Acts and Church History exemplify.
The New Testament does not speak of `possession’, but rather of a person `having a demon’ or being `demonised’. `Exorcism’ is the act of casting the demonic out of a person, who is thereby `delivered’. `Demonisation’ is distinct from physical or psychiatric illness. `If we accept the gospel accounts we may suppose that any presenting symptom may (and may not) be of evil causation. Where such causation is in fact operative, medical treatment is inappropriate and “exorcism” or “deliverance” is necessary’ (Cowley) and vice versa.
`The church must not concern itself with exorcism until it first concerns itself with total healing. … The danger of even considering the deliverance ministry is that it maybe taken out of context and seen as the panacea for all ills.’ (Richards)
Diagnosing the need for deliverance – Charisma and intellect. `Discernment of the presence of the demonic and the need for exorcism is a faculty given by the Holy Spirit through the renewal of the Christian mind.’ (Twelftree) Green and Pytches value `the discernment of spirits’ as a charismatic prophetic phenomenon. A balance of case history, medical advice and charismatic gifting is surely desirable.
Indications of demonization Symptoms of demonisation recognised through church history have been preternatural strength, supernatural knowledge, indifference to pain, change in voice and personality, and strong reactions to the name of Christ and Christian things. A retrospective confirmation of diagnosis is that deliverance is sudden and complete. Twelftree finds all these to be Scriptural, for example with the Gadarene demoniac (Mark 5:1-20).
Writers advocate exploring the case history for possible `points of entry’ for the demonic, noting especially the Occult. But actually `the New Testament writers are remarkably restrained in both their interest, and the imagery they use, in their demonology.’ (Twelftree)
Procedures for deliverance ministry. The church Father, Tertullian, maintained that any Christian who did not know how to exorcise deserved to be put do death!’ `What authorises an exorcist is not episcopal appointment but the gifting of the Holy Spirit (Luke), belonging to the local Church family (Matthew) and being one of the leaders of that community (James).’ (Twelftree)
Jesus simply commanded demons on his own authority. `The early church rejected the incantational form of exorcism where the power was understood to reside … in the correct wording.’ Biblically exorcism is a confrontation between Jesus and the demonic so all commands must be in the name of Jesus, specifically and directly to the demon or demons (not to the counselee). … Commands given should include `to depart’, `harming no-one’, `never to return’ and perhaps `to go to the place God appoints’. Challenging contemporary experiences. `Verbosity is an indication of a lack of discernment and spiritual powerlessness.’ (Twelftree)
… Writers justifiably stress the importance of the counsellee’s genuine desire to be set free. They commend prayer with confession and the use of Scriptures and some find praying in tongues valuable. Almost all writers advocate asking the demonic the name and number of demons present as Jesus did with Legion (Mark 5:9). Biblically exorcism is an activity of the eschatological Spirit (Matt 12:20, Acts 10:36-39)
(David Pytches advocates the following procedure.) One of the group will call down the Holy Spirit upon the one seeking help. The afflicted person will be encouraged to invite the Holy Spirit to come into his/her life … Sometimes by the infusion of the Holy Spirit (a power encounter may be manifest) demons are driven out by the same operation.
Can Christians be demonised? People who believe they are demonised usually are not. Only Christians experiencing major spiritual problems might require deliverance ministry (and they may not yet be true believers). The indwelling Holy Spirit severely limits the extent of demonic interference, unless they are explicitly invited in. Once demons present (in rare cases) before conversion have been dealt with, further deliverance is unlikely to be required. Repeated need for `deliverance’ indicates deficiencies in earlier ministry, not spiritual growth.
Treating all sin problems as directly demonic merely encourages believers to abdicate responsibility for spiritual growth. The Bible offers no short cuts to maturity and holiness. The need is not normally for `deliverance ministry’ but for confession, repentance and renunciation of evil. Demons of (e.g.) lust, jealousy and anger are much less prevalent than the fleshly habits and desires attributed to them. D.Watson writes, “We should resist frequent `deliverance ministries’ and indiscriminate exorcisms. Every malaise cannot be ascribed to satanic oppression or possession and to do so yields untold distress and may create serious disorder. … We must beware of instant formulae for deliverance.”
There are many possible explanations for beneficial effects resulting from `deliverance ministry’, other than a genuine deliverance.
(a) Writers all agree that prayer with confession and absolution (James 5:16) together with renunciation is Biblical and often highly beneficial. This may well be all that is happening in many `deliverance’ situations.
(b) Receiving ministry may increase the recipient’s faith and expectation that God can and will act in their lives.
(c) Faith can be strengthened by physical manifestations which sometimes accompany `deliverance’. However the bodily experiences are not necessarly due to demonic activity or expulsion. They might often be psychological and emotional (Pytches), or even activities of the Holy Spirit misunderstood.
(d) God often blesses even when theological understandings are wrong, because He honours the motivation of faith and love for Him. God can graciously work despite human misunderstandings.
(e) It is possible that `deliverance’ sometimes produces initial victory over sin only because the Tempter schemes to `ease up’ on the temptations after `ministry’, luring the recipient to trust in that one-off `experience’ rather than in Christ and the Cross for continuing sanctification. The fall and discouragement is then greater when temptations return more strongly. The devil `disguised as an angel of light’ (2 Cor 11:14) can often distort and deceive.
These considerations do not dispute the reality of the spiritual experiences of many Christians `set free’ by deliverance ministry, but strongly challenge the theological interpretation of some of those experiences given by (some). Co-incidence of `deliverance ministry’ and blessings experienced need not demonstrate a causal relationship. Indeed, correlations may be generated simply by the observer’s paradigm.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
J.R.Coggins and P.G.Hiebert (eds) Wonders and the Word: an examination of Issues raised by John Wimber (Winnipeg: Kindred Press 1989).
P.Cotterell Critique – Signs and Wimber’ Third Way Nov 1986 p25.
J.Goldingay (ed) Signs, Wonders and Healing (IVP 1989).
J.B.Green `Jesus and a Daughter of Abraham (Luke 13:10-17): Test case for a Lucan perspective on Jesus’ Miracles’ CBQ 51 (1989) 643-54.
M.Green I believe in Satan’s Downfall (London Hodder 1981).
M.Harper Spiritual Warfare (London Hodder 1970).
P.J.Horrobin Healing Through Deliverance: the Biblical Basis (Sovereign World 1991).
Healing Through Deliverance: 2 The Practical Ministry (Sovereign World 1995).
P.Jensen and A.Payne (eds) John Wimber: Friend or Foe (London St Matthias, 1990).
D Kammer `The Perplexing Power of John Wimber’s Power Encounters’ Churchman 106 (1992) 45-64.
H.C.Kee Medicine, Miracle and Magic in New Testament Times (CUP 1986).
F.S.Leahy Satan Cast Out: A study in Biblical demonology.
M.Perry (ed) Deliverance, Psychic Disturbances and the Occult (SPCK 1987).
D.Pytches Come Holy Spirit (Hodder 1985).
R.R.Recker Review of J.Wimber `Power Evangelism’ in Calvin Theological Review 22.2 (1987) 357-361.
J.Richards But Deliver Us From Evil (London, Darton, Longman & Todd 1974).
G.H.Twelftree Christ Triumphant: Exorcism then and now (London Hodder 1985).
Jesus the Exorcist (J.C.B.Mohr, Tubingen, 1993). D.Watson Discipleship (London Hodder, 1981).
J.Wimber and K.Springer Power Evangelism (London Hodder 1985).
Power Healing (London Hodder 1986).

There is an expression people often use when we are talking to another person and getting absolutely nowhere. When they just don’t seem to be listening and whatever we say we can’t make them understand. They just couldn’t care less about what we are talking about. “It’s like talking to a brick wall,” we say. For so much of the time, when it comes to evangelism and witnessing and sharing our faith, it seems as though we are talking to a brick wall! Our words make no impression. It’s as if there is a thick solid brick wall between us and them and people just can’t hear what we are trying to say.

Sometimes that is our fault. Sometimes the walls can come from us and from the way we try to share the gospel. We fail to communicate, we use jargon, they really cannot understand a word we are saying. But at other times the walls come from the people we are speaking to. Consciously or unconsciously, many people have built up barriers of resistance to anything we could say which would unsettle their comfortable lives, anything which would get them thinking about the important issues of life and eternity, anything which would remind them of their own mortality.

And sometimes it is actually the devil who has built those walls to stop people who are lost from ever getting found! There can be genuine spiritual barriers which mean that our preaching and witnessing are ineffective.
2 Cor 4:3 Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

How can we help these people blinded by the devil to see God? What can we do to bring down these walls which stop people from believing in Jesus and being saved? That is the goal of this series on Spiritual Warfare. To equip us for those spiritual battles so that God can use us to set people free from the grip of evil and bring them to salvation in Christ.

The experience of church history and of churches in many parts of the world today suggests that some places and some people can be particularly influenced by evil spirits often as a result of activities in the past or present. So the first step in confronting evil is to seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance in discerning whether evil powers have any claim over any particular places or people. Then if there are any evil spirits present, we are called to challenge and rebuke those evil spirits. This is one way we fulfil Jesus’s commission to His church, not only to proclaim the gospel but also to bring healing and deliverance. As you go, preach this message: `The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. (Matthew 10:7-8)

Driving out demons was a central activity in the Ministry of Jesus. One third of all His miracles were miracles of deliverance. The same pattern is there in the book of Acts and that ministry of deliverance continued through the first three centuries of the Church.
In the second century AD the church Father, Tertullian, maintained that any Christian who did not know how to exorcise deserved to be put do death! Throughout the world even today, particularly in Africa, India, South America and the Far East, churches and missionaries coming into contact with people who worship idols and false gods frequently find themselves involved in deliverance ministry and in “power encounters” with the demons behind those false gods.

Over the last 30 years or so Christians have been realising that demons are not only found in the Third World. There are spiritual battles to be fought in USA and Europe and even in England! And there has been an explosion of books on the subject of “Spiritual Warfare” “Territorial Spirits” and “Spiritual Mapping”. Let me be honest. The majority of those books are not worth reading. Many are positively confusing – I do not think Frank Peretti’s books are at all helpful. Some books are just wrong. But don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. Let me point you to at least two authors who have vital insights for us in this field of Territorial Spirits and Spiritual Mapping.

Peter Wagner is Professor of Church Growth Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary, a leading evangelical theological college in USA. For 20 years he has been the world expert in the field of Church growth. Anybody thinking about church growth and evangelism has to take Peter Wagner seriously. And he has written and edited a number of books with titles like Territorial Spirits, Breaking Strongholds in Your City, Wrestling with Dark Angels and Engaging the Enemy. Then there is another good book written by John Dawson: Taking our Cities for God.

These writers not only quote the experiences of churches and missionaries but also look from scripture at the theme of Spiritual Warfare – approaches to prayer and evangelism which take seriously the fact that mission is a spiritual battle between good and evil, light and darkness. Behind the scenes of our efforts to spread the gospel, there is a spiritual war on!
Ephesians 6:11 Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 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. 13 Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

I deliberately repeat myself when I say that the experience of church history and of churches in many parts of the world today suggests that some places can be particularly influenced by evil spirits as a result of activities there in the past or present. Spiritual Warfare is concerned with confronting and driving out any evil powers which may, in some sense, have a claim on a particular area, so that the people there will be able to respond to the gospel with their eyes opened rather than blinded.

There is still some controversy over whether it is meaningful to suggest that the powers of darkness actually can “claim” a particular place or group of people as their own. The experience of missionaries supports this view. And in my judgement, the Bible does support the idea of such “territorial spirits” having influence and even control over particular places or areas or groups of people.

The tenth plague of the deaths of the firstborn was in God’s words `judgement on all the gods of Egypt’ (Exod 12:12). Behind all human idols are demonic powers.
Jesus referred to Satan as `the prince of this world’ (Jn 12:31), and Paul talks about `the God of this age (who) has blinded the minds of unbelievers’ (2 Cor 4:4).

In Daniel 10:12-13 the angel who was sent to Daniel says this:
12 “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain
understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. 13 But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia.
This opposition of `the prince of Persia’ to God’s angel implies an evil spirit controlling an area. In the same way, there may well have been demons behind the earthly kings of Babylon and Tyre we read about in Isaiah 14:12-14 and Ezekiel 28:12-16.

We can read about demons in Jewish literature written in the period between the Old and New Testaments and we can presume that much of their understanding about the activities of evil spirits underpins the New Testament understandings. It is particularly significant that we read that the demons in Legion seemed to fear being sent out of `their’ region (Mark 5:1-20). In the book of Revelation, Pergamum was the place `where Satan’s throne is’ (Rev 2:13). The Bible says relatively little about demons, but what it does say is consistent with the idea that demons can at least sometimes be associated with particular places.

And not only with places, but also with groups of people. The Old Testament teaches that the sins of the fathers will be visited on the children (Lev 26:39, Jer 32:18) even to the fourth generation ( Exod 20:5, 34:7, Num 14:18). This may sometimes happen by demons gaining a hold on particular families. There is strong evidence from cultures which practise ancestor worship that demons can pass from parents to children or grandparents to grandchildren, what could be called “generational spirits”. And then Christians around the world in every place where the peoples around practise magic or voodoo know very well where that curses and spells have real power.

Books on Spiritual Warfare stress the importance of identifying WHETHER, repeat, WHETHER, there are evil powers at work in a particular area. God gives spiritual gifts of prophecy, discernment, knowledge and wisdom to His church. The Holy Spirit at work in every Christian allows all of us to hear God’s voice and be led by Him. We should always be listening for specific guidance about the approach we should take to evangelism, and for discernment about the presence of evil in particular places.

Some books give a name to this process of identifying any unseen spiritual powers at work in an area – they call it “spiritual mapping.” Peter Wagner defines SPIRITUAL MAPPING as `an attempt to see the world around us as it really is, not as it appears to be’. This involves research into historical and spiritual factors which could be influencing an area, as well as using all the spiritual gifts especially prophecy and discernment to discover the nature of the enemy’s activities.

The ways that demons might come to have some kind of “claim” on a particular area or group of people are the same as the ways that demons gain hold of a particular individual’s life. Most obvious would be in a place where different forms of the occult have been practised over the centuries. We have also talked before about Discerning The Spirits and some of the Doorways to Danger by which people can open their lives to the powers of evil. We mentioned MAGIC, spells and curses and all kinds of attempts to manipulate the spirit world, to gain power over enemies or to help friends. In these days we also have the many faces of the “New Age” movement as well as people dabbling in ancient Celtic religions and traditional British mysticism, not to mention White Witchcraft / Wicca / “The Craft” and explicit worship of Satan. We have talked about FORTUNE TELLING in all its different forms and also about SPIRITISM or SPIRITUALISM – attempting to communicate with spirits of the dead for various purposes including seances and Ouija boards. The Bible condemns all these occult practices very clearly because of the dangers of contact with demons. And over the years we have been called to help a number of people whose lives have been wrecked by demonic activity.

The gospel is spiritual warfare. Evangelism is spiritual warfare. In Acts 26:18 Paul tells us that the mission God gave him was to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

So how in practice can we engage in Spiritual Mapping? We have talked before about Prayer Walking. We saw that prayer walking is just a way of praying not at home or at church but “on the hoof”. We know that prayer is vital if we are to break down the barriers which can stop people from hearing and responding to the gospel. When we are praying for other people who we don’t know, why not go to their streets and their neighbourhood and pray for them there!

In prayer walking we will be doing a number of things.
1. Praising and worshipping God

Mark 16:15 Jesus said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole of creation.
2. Praying for the homes you pass
3. Listening to God as you walk using the gifts of the Holy Spirit in spiritual mapping
4. Blessing the homes you pass

The closest thing to prayer walking we find in the New Testament is the way that Jesus sent out both the Twelve (Matt 10:5-15) and the Seventy-two (Luke 10:1-12) to heal, to minister deliverance and to preach the gospel. In Luke 10:5-6 Jesus gave these instructions. “When you enter a house, first say, `Peace to this house.’ If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you.”

This command, to “give peace to a household” may seem strange to us. Jesus was teaching that the words His disciples spoke would convey the blessings of God’s peace on those who received them, or equally bring God’s judgement to the people who rejected them.

Jesus has delegated HIS authority to his disciples and to his church. So Christians have the power to pronounce God’s blessing – to declare how God will bless. And when we do this, it will not just be empty words, nor even an optimistic prayer. Those words will be authoritative and declarative. Because we speak on behalf the Lord Jesus Christ, representing God, the blessings we command WILL happen.
And then there is a fifth aspect of prayer walking which is
5. Proclaiming Christ’s victory – claiming the ground
Beyond expressing our faith and obedience, praising God and praying for people, listening to God and declaring God’s blessings, prayer walking is also an activity of “spiritual warfare”. In prayer walking we are praising God and declaring Jesus’s victory over all the powers of evil. So our prayer walking will be an exercise in Spiritual Warfare.
For this purpose Christ was revealed – to destroy all the works of the evil one! 1 John 3:8.

Jesus said to his disciples, not once but twice, first in Matt 16:19
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
And in case they had missed the point, Jesus repeated exactly the same words two chapters later: Matt 18: 18 “I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Christ has entrusted to His church the authority AND the responsibility to drive out demons wherever they may be found. We are not to become preoccupied with the demonic.
Luke 10:17 ¶ The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
18 He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. 20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

We are not to become preoccupied with the demonic. But we are to engage is the spiritual battles which are just as real and as significant as any human battles!
The apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:4
The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We have the weapons of prayer and praise and holiness and truth and love and faith and unity and sacrifice and all the armour of God – and God calls us to use these weapons in rebuking the powers of evil and bringing people out of darkness into light.

Just as faith and obedience brought down the walls of Jericho, so faith and obedience will bring down the barriers which stop the people of North Springfield from hearing and responding to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Faith and obedience, expressed in prayer. You may not be convinced yet about Territorial Spirits and Spiritual Mapping. We don’t need to understand completely in order to trust and obey! But as we trust and obey and pray and keep on praying, we will see the walls come tumbling down!

What is “Victorious Christian Living” We are not talking about “success” or “popularity” in human terms. We are not talking a worldly false gospel of “health, wealth and prosperity”. Victory in Christian living means victory over temptation, victory over the devil, victory over everything which drags us away from God. And the secret of victorious Christian living is simple. A wise preacher once said,

“The triumphant Christian does not fight for victory; he celebrates a victory already won.”

Christ has already won the victory over sin and death and the devil by His cross and resurrection. We thought about this a month ago

1 John 3:8 For this purpose Christ was revealed – to destroy all the works of the evil one!
We thought about how from the very beginning of his ministry Jesus had already “disarmed the strong man.” And how the devil had no hold on Jesus. “I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me.” John 14:30. This was demonstrated clearly in Jesus’s acts of deliverance. Jesus came to release the prisoners and set the captives free – to set people free from evil by driving out demons.
MATTHEW 12 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 ‘Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house.
But the ultimate victory of Christ over the devil took place on the cross. We saw how Jesus explained his death on the cross in the week before he died, and how Jesus would be glorified, not through his resurrection but through his death.
JOHN 12 23 ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. … 31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.
The judgment and the salvation of the whole world would hang on that one hour in which the devil would finally be defeated and the grip of evil on the world would be broken.
It was the cross, not the resurrection, which was Christ’s victory over the devil and all the powers of evil.
Colossians 2:15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
And it was by his death that Jesus set human beings free from the grip which the devil has over us all.
Heb 2:14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Christ has defeated the devil. And one day the devil and all his minions will face his just desserts in eternal judgment for all the pain and destruction he has caused. Until then our victory over the devil comes from sharing in Christ’s victory. We don’t need to be afraid in this battle. Christ has already won the war.
1 John 4 4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

So we are called simply to resist the devil and he will flee from us. To put on the armour of God and stand firm, with truth, righteousness, gospel shoes, faith, salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God, the weapon which God has given us to confront and resist and rebuke the devil. Christ has already won the victory over sin and death and the devil. The Bible tells us an amazing thing. As Christians we SHARE Christ’s life. Our life and death are wrapped up in HIS death and resurrection life. Christ lives in us!
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (NIV)

Paul puts it this way to the Colossians.
1:27 God’s plan is to make known his secret to his people, this rich and glorious secret which he has for all peoples. And the secret is that Christ is in you, which means that you will share in the glory of God. (GNB)

The mystery is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (NIV)

Christ is IN us – living in us, working in us by His Holy Spirit. So here is the secret of victorious Christian living.
Colossians 2:6 Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

The secret of victorious Christian living is to live not in our own strength but in Christ’s strength. To let Him live and reign in US! Jesus Himself teaches us this when he says, “I am the Vine, you are the branches.”

John 15 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

This is victorious Christian living – abiding in Christ. We thought about this in our morning service three weeks ago but the principle is so important that it deserves to be repeated.
Apart from me you can do nothing. If only we would actually accept the fact that without Christ we can do nothing. That all our valiant efforts at showing love and becoming holy and witnessing for Christ are USELESS – absolutely worthless. That only God’s grace working through us can accomplish anything worthwhile for God! If only we would truly acknowledge that we desperately need God’s help in EVERY part of our lives! Then we would stop struggling and failing, and Christ’s life could begin to shine through us.

I talked about this last Sunday morning as we thought about God the Holy Spirit being The Helper: Helping us to know Jesus; Helping us to become more like Jesus; Helping us to serve Jesus and Helping us to tell others about Jesus. The Comforter, the Counsellor, the Strengthener, the Helper. In particular I said that it is the work of the Holy Spirit to change us into the image of Christ!
“All of us, then, reflect the glory of the Lord with uncovered faces; and that same glory, coming from the Lord, who is the Spirit, transforms us into his likeness in an ever greater degree of glory.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

The Spirit “metamorphoses” us into the image of Christ. He is the HOLY Spirit and His work is to make us holy too. That process is called “purification” or “sanctification” depending on which book you read. Oswald Chambers “Sanctification is not something our Lord does in me; sanctification is himself in me.”

“The triumphant Christian does not fight for victory; he celebrates a victory already won.”

We don’t have to win the war. The devil has already been completely defeated on the cross. We are just involved in the “mopping up” operations. And if there are times that seems difficult, remember the message of the Book of Revelation. Jesus is going to win. In our sermons on Revelation we thought about the Victory of the Lamb in Revelation 5 and the Saints in Glory in Revelation 7. In Revelation 19-20 we saw Six Pictures of Unseen Reality. Jesus as the Commander of the Armies of heaven, whose Victory is certain. The devil is condemned and God’s enemies are doomed. Judgment Day is coming and the church WILL BE triumphant. We may face hard times. But Jesus has already won the victory. We just need to live in that victory.

So how can we let Christ live His life through us? How can we abide in Christ? In John 15 Jesus points us to THREE essential parts to this.
1. SCRIPTURE

At the heart of Christian maturity and Victorious Christian Living is the Bible, Scripture, God’s Word.

John 15: 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you.
It is God’s Word that brings us new life – God’s word which is the truth that sets us free!

7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.
We become more like Christ as we allow His words to take root in our hearts and transform us.

10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
The pathway to maturity and victory is so simple. Obeying Christ’s commands. Knowing what the Scripture says, and obeying what we have learned. One of the first sermons I preached here was called “Disciples are Learners.” And in it I shared what I believe to be very true. “Most evangelical Christians are educated beyond their obedience.” We know what the Bible says, but be don’t obey it! We don’t allow the Scriptures to shape our lives. We allow the Word of God to inform our minds but we don’t allow it to change our hearts.

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Romans 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

Do we really believe in the transforming power of the Word of God?
1Thessalonians 2:13 And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.

Apparently it was Spurgeon who said, “A Bible which is falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t!” As Jesus proved in His temptations in the wilderness, the key to victory is “It is written.”

2. PRUNING

John 15:1 ¶ “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

Sometimes we go through hard times. These can be God pruning us. “God could have kept Daniel out of the lions’ den. . . he could have kept Paul and Silas out of jail.. . . he could have kept the three Hebrew children out of the fiery furnace. . . but God has never promised to keep us out of hard places . . . what he has promised is to go with us through every hard place, and to bring us through victoriously.” (Merv Rosell)

We do not become perfect overnight. We reach only Christian victory and Christian maturity through a process of refining, of purifying, of being made holy. But we have to be willing for God to change us. We have to be willing to be made willing. We have to want God to change us, and allow us to change us to become more like Jesus Christ.
Romans 12:1 ¶ Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God- this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- his good, pleasing and perfect will.

We still have to play our part by repentance and faith. But that transformation is the work of God the Holy Spirit, it’s not about human effort. Yet we still have to say “yes” to God! To be living sacrifices which are prepared to stay on the altar. To say yes to the Gardener’s pruning. For the clay to stop fighting and submit to the Potter’s will and purposes.

You are the potter and I am the clay, Help me to be willing to let You have Your way.
Jesus, You are changing me, As I let You reign supreme within my heart.

Scripture, pruning and of course, most important of all,
3. PRAYER

How else do we let Christ live in us but through prayer?

John 15:4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. 5 If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.

Prayer. Abiding in Christ. Spending time in His presence. Spending time listening to God and not just rattling through our shopping list of requests. True prayer is receiving God’s joy and His peace and His wisdom. Enjoying God’s presence, as adoring children love to just cuddle up and spend time in the arms of their loving Father.

Scripture, pruning, prayer – the paths to living a victorious Christian life. But why is it important that we should be letting Christ live in us and through us? It’s not just for our benefit. And it’s not just for God’s glory. It also matters because our victorious Christian living is our witness to the world. Our lives showing the life of Christ shining through us into the darkness. The difference Jesus makes to the things we do and the way we talk and the ways we think about things. That IS our Christian witness. Sometimes we think of “witnessing” as some desperately challenging and difficult task. But if we are living our lives according to the Scriptures, if we are living for God instead of for ourselves, then people around us WILL see the difference and WILL want to know about Jesus for themselves. Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

How on earth do you hide a city built on a hill? “A city on a hill cannot be hidden.” And the people of God are that city! Note that Jesus doesn’t say, “You must work hard to be the light of the world. You must try to be the light of the world.” He says “You ARE the light of the world.” The challenge is to let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. In other words, the way we live is our witness to the world. The difference Jesus makes and the victory he gives us is our witness. So we all need to discover the secret of victorious Christian living. Not just for our own sake! Not just so that we can live in victory over temptation and victory over the lies and schemes of the devil. But because our VICTORY is our witness to a watching world!

The secret of Victorious Christian Living is nothing dramatic, nothing surprising, nothing new. It is simply to let Christ live in us. To let the victory of his cross over sin and death and the devil be our victory. To let the power of His glorious resurrection life be OUR power. Through Scripture. Through Pruning. Through Prayer. Reign in me – Sovereign Lord. Reign in me.

Dwight L. Moody once used this illustration. “Tell me,” he said to his audience, “how can I get the air out of the tumbler I have in my hand?” One man said, “Suck it out with a pump.” But the evangelist replied, “That would create a vacuum and shatter it.” Finally after many suggestions, moody picked up a jug and quietly filled the glass with water. “There,” he said, “all the air is now removed.” He then explained that victory for the child of God does not come by us working hard to eliminate sinful habits. Instead victory comes by allowing the Holy Spirit to take full possession of our lives. By letting Jesus live in us.

My favourite Christian song from the days of Youth Praise puts it like this.

IF I tried to live for you Lord today. If I tried to follow your wonderful way.
Then all of my life would be me and not you. And none of your glory would ever shine through.

Since I first met you I knew Lord you were the way. I tried hard to walk I your footsteps each day.
But somehow my life didn’t glorify Thee. So make me a channel and you live through me.

Take each new day, whatever’s in store. Take my whole being and into me pour,
Your power and your Spirit, Oh make me anew. For no-one can change me, Lord Jesus, but you.

Scripture. Pruning. Prayer. Letting Christ live in us. That’s victorious Christian living!

Jesus Christ came to proclaim the beginning of God’s Kingly Rule, in words by preaching the gospel and in actions by healing diseases and by casting out demons (Mark 1:14-15, 32-33, 38-39). He entrusted this ministry first to the twelve and then to all his disciples (Mark 6:6-7, Luke 10:17-20). Western European Christians have generally been faithful in the preaching and are slowly rediscovering the healing. The ministry of casting out demons remains neglected, for nobody but the demons’ benefit.
PLEASE REMEMBER
These are all “doorways to danger”, channels by which the demonic CAN gain a hold on a person’s life. This does NOT mean that EVERYBODY who has been involved in such things is necessarily controlled by demons OR that people dabbling are totally evil! Demonic activity in Britain and certainly in Chelmsford is rare. Refer any suspected instances to a minister experienced in these areas.

Here is a brief introduction to ways in which people can open their lives to the influences of the principalities and powers. There are at least three main areas of danger.
(a) The occult

The occult means “hidden things”. We are not advised to be curious, but to be on our guard against these areas. Varieties of the occult offer power or knowledge or both, always by supernatural means at great cost and with damaging effects.

MAGIC

Attempts to manipulate the spirit world, to gain power over enemies (black magic) or to help friends (white magic). Telepathy, ESP, automatic writing, charms, fetishes, levitation, “out of the body experiences” and astral projection, magic healing and witchcraft, all forms are evil! A person may fall under the control of magic by hereditary involvement (the actions of an ancestor) by occult experiments, by occult transference from one person to another (e.g. spells or curses, blood pacts) or by explicit Satan worship. Places used for magic in the past or possession of occult books/objects can also have dangers.

FORTUNE TELLING

Here the object is knowledge rather than power. Varieties include palmistry, tarot cards, crystal gazing, psychometry, astrology and horoscopes, reading tea leaves etc, dowsing.

SPIRITISM or SPIRITUALISM

Attempting to communicate with spirits of the dead for various purposes. Approaches include mediums, seances, trances, ouija boards, and table turning. Spiritualist “churches” and spiritual healers are highly dangerous. We should include many of the psychic or paranormal events which people experience without seeking them, e.g. ghosts and poltergeists.

Because of the dangers of contact with demonic beings the Bible condemns all occult practices very clearly: see Deuteronomy 18:9-13; Leviticus 20:27 Exodus 22:18; Galatians 5:20; Revelation 21:8.

Deuteronomy 18:9 When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. 10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practises divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD; because of these same detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. 13 You must be blameless before the LORD your God.

Leviticus 20 27 “ ‘A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death. You are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads.’ ”

(b) Satan’s Counterfeits

Many counterfeit religions are not merely misguided but are controlled by the principalities and powers. They fall into various categories and the lists below are not exhaustive.

CHRISTIAN DEVIATIONS

These can be identified by two central errors (i) they have a wrong view of Christ, denying his deity or his humanity or his uniqueness as God the Son, and /or (ii) they have a wrong view of salvation, giving some way in which human beings must earn or deserve their salvation by their own efforts, rather than eternal life being the gift of God by His grace alone.
e.g. Jehovah’s Witnesses; The Mormons (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints); Christian Science; Unitarians; The Unification Church (Moonies).

OTHER RELIGIONS

Transcendental Meditation, and some other forms of Yoga; Eastern Mysticism, especially including ancestor worship and idol worship;
Many tribal, pagan and animistic religions including witch- doctors;
Voodoo; The many faces of the “New Age” movement; Ancient Celtic religions and traditional British mysticism; Other world religions – Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism; Krishnas; Scientology; Reincarnation;
White Witchcraft / Wicca / “The Craft”.

(c) Less obvious “doorways to danger”

There are all kinds of activities which seem to offer “something for nothing”. Sometimes they also give evil powers a foothold into unsuspecting lives.
Political religions, e.g. Nazism and Fachism, extremes of Marxism and Maoism; Personality cults, Hitler, Stalin, Mao; Many kinds of obsessive behaviour, e.g. violence, sexual perversion; Many aspects of Martial Arts; Possession of charms, amulets or other objects (often from the East) which have been used in idol worship; Many aspects of Alternative Medicine; Fantasy games and literature e.g. Dungeons and Dragons etc;
Then there is the “fifth column”: structural sins such as materialism, racism, and abuse of civil rights; Liberal Theology and Dis-enchantment
All the traps of money (greed is idolatry, Money/Mammon is an idol).

Doorways to Danger – a checklist

VERY IMPORTANT: ALWAYS SEEK THE HELP OF A MINISTER BEFORE OFFERING MINISTRY IN THESE AREAS OF DELIVERANCE.

1. Symptoms

Hearing voices
Evil nightmares
Seeing apparitions
Violence to self or others
Unusual reaction to Christian things:
e.g. cross, prayer, communion
Accusation – gossip
Deception – Lying
Disbelief and doubt
Depression or despair
Pride
Fantasies
Lustful thoughts
Fears
Insecurity, inferiority, inadequacy
Idolatry
Obsessive or compulsive thoughts
Blasphemous thoughts
Supernatural knowledge , deja-vu
Any other unusual/psychic experiences.

2. Background

(a) LIFESTYLE

Alcohol
Drugs (prescribed or illegal)
Solvent abuse
Smoking
Food habits
Occult/horror/Violent/Erotic books/films/videos/comp-games
Music e.g. heavy metal

(b) RELATIONSHIPS

with parents
with siblings
childhood friends
neighbours
experiences of bereavement
violent experiences
Sexual partners
Sexual perversion or pornography
Child abuse
Incest
Obsessive behaviour

3. Possible points of contact

Are there any links between any of the influences listed above under the occult, Satan’s counterfeits or hidden doorways, and
(i) the client
(ii) the client’s family (especially ancestors and sexual partners)
(iii) the place itself

Eph 6:11 Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 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.

So who or what are these rulers and authorities and powers of this dark world? Who are these spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms?

1 Peter 5 8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith,

The chief of our enemies is the devil. And he has his minions. We aren’t call on to defeat the devil, or his minions. Christ has already done that. We are called simply to stand firm in our faith, to resist the devil so that he flees from us. But it is good to know our enemy. We thought in our first session of this series about the schemes of the devil – we are not ignorant of his devices. We looked at the kinds of temptations he uses to trap Christians. ACCUSATION, Lies and DECEPTION, DIVISION, Stubborn DISBELIEF, PRIDE, LUST, FEAR, IDOLATRY and all kinds of DISTRACTIONS from entertainment to celebrity.

Tonight we will look at what else the Bible tells us about the devil and his forces of evil.

The devil has different names in the Bible. He is also called Satan (Luke 10:18) which means Accuser or Slanderer. He is the Tempter. He is the Dragon and the Serpent Rev 12:3, 9. He is called the Destroyer (Rev 9:11) the Prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2) and the Ruler of this world (Jn 12:31, 14:30, 16:11). He is also known as the Evil One, and Beliar or Beelzebub – the worthless one, the prince of the demons.

We learn from Ezekiel 28, Isaiah 14 and Revelation 12 that Satan is a fallen angel, the leader of a rebellion before time began where one third of the angels rejected God’s authority and were cast out of heaven to become the demons.

Ezekiel 28 begins with a lament against the earthly “Ruler of Tyre”, the enemy of Israel. But then it goes on to talk about a different figure called the “King of Tyre” in language which seems to refer to an individual who is very different from a mere human.

Ezek 28 11 The word of the LORD came to me: 12 ‘Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king of Tyre and say to him: “This is what the Sovereign LORD says:
‘ “You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
13 You were in Eden, the garden of God;
every precious stone adorned you: carnelian, chrysolite and emerald,
topaz, onyx and jasper, lapis lazuli, turquoise and beryl.
Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared.
14 You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you.
You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones.

So there was this supernatural figure in Eden, a guardian cherub. But everything went wrong when this angel became proud and rebelled against God

15 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created
till wickedness was found in you.
16 Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned.
So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, guardian cherub,
from among the fiery stones.
17 Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom
because of your splendour.
So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.”

Jews and Christians have understood this lament against the King of Tyre to refer actually to the devil. There is something similar in the taunt against the King of Babylon in Isaiah.

Isaiah 14 12 How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!
13 You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.
14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’
15 But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit.

So here again we see an angel cast out of heaven because of pride. And Christians have read Revelation 12 to describe the fall of other angels who followed the devil in rebelling against God and became demons.

Revelation 12 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4 Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. ….
7 Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient snake called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

So now the devil and his minions the demons, or evil spirits, are in a continual war against God and the battlefield is this world God has created and the hearts and minds of every human being. It was the devil, the ancient serpent, who deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. And the devil and his demons are still leading the world astray today.

1 Timothy 4:1 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.
The devil and his demons are the rulers, the authorities, the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms, which Paul warns about in Ephesians 6. It is good to know our enemy. But we should not be discouraged! Because our enemy has already been defeated. Christ has won the victory!

1 John 3:8 For this purpose Christ was revealed – to destroy all the works of the evil one!

Let’s start at the very beginning and remind ourselves of one important fact. Christ was the creator of everything that exists and that includes the devil and all the demons. All the forces of evil were created by Christ and are subject to him.

Colossians 1 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Then let us remember just who Jesus is. The Son of God. The Logos. The Word become flesh.
Jesus was different from every other human being in a number of ways but particularly in this respect. Since Adam disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, every human being who ever lived has been trapped by the devil. Everything in the world has been and still is in the grip of the devil. Except Jesus

Ephesians 2:2 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

But note what Jesus says about the devil in John 14 30 I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, HE HAS NO HOLD ON ME

1 John 3:8 For this purpose Christ was revealed – to destroy all the works of the evil one!

This is demonstrated clearly in Jesus’s acts of deliverance. Jesus came to release the prisoners and set the captives free – to set people free from evil by driving out demons.

Here is what Jesus said about his own deliverance ministry.
MATTHEW 12 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 ‘Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house.
In that little parable of disarming the strong man, the strong man represents the devil and Jesus is represented by the person plundering his possessions which is a picture of Jesus driving out demons. Jesus was able to command the demons because he had already “tied up” the devil. And Jesus accomplished that at the very beginning of His ministry when he was tempted by the devil in the wilderness. Jesus was tempted. But He did not give in to temptation. Jesus was the first human being ever who did not give in to the devil’s temptations. He proved there that He was stronger than the devil. So it was there in the wilderness that Jesus “bound the strong man”. Demons would have to obey Jesus!

But the ultimate victory of Christ over the devil took place on the cross. This is how Jesus explained his death on the cross in the week before he died.

JOHN 12 23 Jesus replied, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
The hour has arrived. The hour which Jesus had been anticipating every day of his life was getting very close indeed. It would be a vital hour not just for Jesus but for the whole world, the whole of humanity in every age. Jesus would be glorified – but not through his resurrection but through his death.

John 12 31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.
The judgment and the salvation of the whole world would hang on that one hour. For Jesus it would be the hour of his departure – the hour Jesus had to leave the world in death. But that be the hour when the devil was finally defeated and the grip of evil on the world would be broken.

It was the cross, not the resurrection, which was Christ’s victory over the devil and all the powers of evil.
Colossians 2:15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross

And it was by his death that Jesus set human beings free from the grip which the devil has over us all.
Heb 2:14 14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

Christ has defeated the devil. And one day the devil will face his just desserts for all the pain and destruction he has caused. In the parable of the Sheep and the Goats Jesus said this.

Matthew 25 41 ‘Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels

Eternal judgment and punishment is waiting for the devil and all his minions.
Revelation 20 7 When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. 9 They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. 10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulphur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

UNTIL THEN OUR VICTORY OVER THE DEVIL COMES FROM CHRIST’S VICTORY

We don’t need to be afraid in this battle. Christ has already won the war. The devil is already completely defeated on the cross. We are just involved in the “mopping up” operations.

1 John 4 4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
So we are called simply to resist the devil and he will flee from us. To put on the armour of God and stand firm, with truth, righteousness, gospel shoes, faith, salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God, the weapon which God has given us to confront and resist and rebuke the devil.

As part of our series on Spiritual Warfare I am revisiting this passage once again. Although this sermon begins as last time, it goes on to consider the Armour of God from Ephesians 6 and the place of fasting in Spiritual Warfare and Deliverance Ministry.

“Fight the good fight of the faith,” Paul says 1 Timothy 6 :12. We Christians don’t like fighting. Somehow we think we ought not to fight. And we aren’t any good at fighting. But there’s one fight we can’t escape from. There’s one battle God really wants us to fight and indeed to win, and that’s the fight against temptation. God calls Christians to follow Jesus and to become more like Him – to become holy as our heavenly Father is holy. And we can only do that by winning in the battle against temptation. A holy life is a succession of holy moments. We need to learn to say yes to God and no to sin, more and more every time. And that’s a fight, a struggle, a battle!
Oscar Wilde spoke for every human being when he said, “I can resist everything except temptation.” Sometimes we are still surprised when we fail God, when temptation overwhelms us and we give in so easily. But we shouldn’t be surprised. The Bible is very clear. We are in the middle of this battle against the world, the flesh and the devil, and the apostle Paul took that battle very seriously indeed.
As Christians we are caught up in the cosmic battle between good and evil, between God and the devil and his minions. The whole world is a battleground, and especially if we are Christians our lives and our bodies and our minds and our hearts are the battlegrounds. We saw this a long time ago in our sermons on Romans.
Romans 7 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. …. 21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
We are in a spiritual battle. The second world war was fought on three fronts, land, sea and air. In our spiritual battles Christians are also attacked from three directions.
The world around us – putting us under pressure to fit in.
The flesh – our fallen sinful human nature which can be especially challenging for a person who has only become a Christian later in life.
The devil – deceiving and lying and leading people away from God.
THERE’S A WAR ON
EPHESIANS 6 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 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.
Human beings are caught in the middle of this spiritual war between God on the one side and the cosmocrats, the devil and all his demons on the other. The devil has already been defeated by Christ on the cross. But although he has lost the war the devil refuses to give up. And Christians especially are caught in the middle of the fight. So we need to be on our guard. There’s a war on!
13 Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
We aren’t call on to defeat the devil. Christ has already done that. We are called simply to stand firm in our faith, to resist the devil so that he flees from us.
14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled round your waist,
In the face of all the lies and deceptions of the devil, which we thought about last week, we need God’s truth
with the breastplate of righteousness in place,
Without God we are all trapped in sin. We have no righteousness of our own. Only Christ’s righteousness which God gives us as his free gift can save us. So we cling to that righteousness.
15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
We need gospel shoes. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. (NRSV)
16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
We thought last week about the sin of stubborn disbelief, which is flaunted by some so-called preachers but is actually rebellion against God. With all the pressures to doubt and question we need to cling to our faith, the faith which was once and for all delivered to the saints. In the midst of all the spiritual battles we keep on trusting in God.
17 Take the helmet of salvation
When the going gets tough and the devil tempts us to doubt God, we need to cling on to the glorious fact that God has saved us, and is saving us and will save us to the uttermost!
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Faced with all the lies of the devil, we need to cling to the truths revealed in Scripture. Particularly, we fight spiritual battles using the Word of God, our two edged sword, the only item in the armour of God which is designed for offence as well as for defence and the weapon which God has given us to confront and resist and rebuke the devil.
The devil has so many tricks up his sleeve. But we are not ignorant of his devices. In this battle against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms we need to put on the full armour of God so we can take our stand against all the devil’s schemes. And Paul has more advice for us as we battle to resist temptation.
1 Corinthians 9 24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
In the battle to be holy in an unholy world, Paul is saying we need to be like athletes in training. Following Jesus can’t just be one hobby amongst many. Some people view being a Christian a bit like life insurance, or should I say “after-life insurance.” They think that as long as they turn up to church occasionally and pay their subscriptions into the offering box now and then everything will be OK.
But the Bible says we need to be like athletes training for a competition. The Corinthians would know all about that. In the ancient world every three years the Isthmian Games took place in Corinth, and they were second in importance only to the Olympic Games. Like those athletes, Christians need to be in strict training to win the prize of the crown of life which will last forever. Just like athletes, Christians need to make sacrifices and exercise self-control in all things. We should be prepared to give up not only unhealthy pleasures but even legitimate passtimes if they interfere with training and make the body or the mind flabby. And we know that spiritual battles are so much more important than winning a race.
So Paul says, 26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I’m not just a jogger! I do not fight like a man beating the air. I’m no shadow boxer! Paul took the battle against temptation seriously and so should we.
I’ve waffled on before about what was required to represent my university at the crazy sport I used to play. Not only the matches on Saturdays, which meant travelling all around the South of England. There was the team practice on Wednesday afternoons, skills training on Monday lunchtimes and circuit training in the gym on Thursday lunchtimes. We need to do our spiritual press-ups and star jumps if we want to be fit for the spiritual battles we face.
Fasting. Like Jesus did in the wilderness. Like Moses and David and Elijah and Esther and Daniel and Paul. Like the early church did, and Luther and Calvin. Committed Jews in Jesus’s time fasted two days a week and John Wesley urged the first Methodists to do the same, and refused to ordain anyone as a minister who didn’t practise fasting.
Fasting is a powerful aid to prayer, but fasting is also a valuable training ground for the battle against our selfish human nature. By fasting we learn to surrender to God instead of to the demands of our bodies, preparing ourselves for the battles against temptation. The world thinks that happiness consists of having all our desires met immediately. Fasting replaces selfishness with self-denial. We need an antidote to self-indulgence and fasting helps us develop self-control. Try fasting from food. Or from TV. Or from texting or from Facebook or from the internet. Like athletes in strict training, Paul says
26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave
Paul subdued his body and its desires and the spiritual practice of fasting can help us to do the same! All to make sure we are in tip-top spiritual shape and that when the time of temptation comes we can resist the devil’s traps.
As we prepare for our Week of Prayer and Fasting let me say two more things about the place of fasting in Spiritual Warfare. If we find ourselves confronting the powers of evil, and even called by God to drive out demons, we need to remember that we are doing so in obedience to the commands of Jesus and in His all powerful name. Here is what Jesus said about his own deliverance ministry.
MATTHEW 12 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 ‘Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house.
In that little parable, the strong man is the devil and Jesus is the one plundering his possessions by driving out demons. And Jesus was able to command the demons because he had already “tied up” the devil. And Jesus accomplished that at the very beginning of His ministry when he was tempted by the devil in the wilderness. Jesus was tempted. But He did not give in to temptation. Jesus was the first human being ever who did not give in to the devil’s temptations. He proved there that He was stronger than the devil. So it was there in the wilderness that Jesus “bound the strong man”. Demons would have to obey Jesus! We will return to the victory of Christ over the devil and especially through his death on the cross again, but for tonight let’s just notice that for forty days before and then during those temptations Jesus was fasting. Fasting was important in Jesus overcoming the devil and disarming the strong man. Because Jesus fasted, we should fast too! Fasting is important in our battles with the forces of evil.

One more reference to the place of fasting in spiritual warfare. After Christ was glorified in the transfiguration, Jesus, Peter James and John came down the mountain to find the other disciples had been unsuccessfully trying to drive an evil spirit out of a deaf and dumb boy. Jesus immediately drove the demon out of the boy.

Mark 9:28 After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”
29 He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer.
It should be obvious that prayer is vital in any confrontation with the powers of evil. But the point of interest here is the footnote which tells us that some of the ancient New Testament manuscripts add two more words, so it reads that Jesus said, “This kind can come out only by prayer and fasting.” Fasting keeps us close to God. Not only prayer but also fasting are important weapons in spiritual warfare, and fasting is of great value especially in deliverance ministry.

STAND FIRM
When temptation strikes we shouldn’t panic and we shouldn’t give in. Because help is always at hand.
13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
It’s true. Our temptations are only the same as those which others have faced. But let’s be clear. The way out of temptation which God offers is not a promise we can choose to claim if we feel like it. It is a way out we are obliged to claim whether we feel like it or not! This is not just an encouragement to weak Christians who are battling against temptation and losing. This is a challenge to strong Christians, who think they are standing firm. God’s way of escape is there. Make sure you take it and don’t fall into sin like the Israelites did! You ought to take God’s way out of temptation. You don’t have to sin – make sure you don’t!
This verse is both a promise and a challenge to us all. Fight the good fight of the faith. There is a spiritual war on. Get stuck in to the battle against sin and temptation. Don’t just give up the struggle. Get fit like athletes in training – and don’t neglect fasting as a spiritual discipline. So stand firm. Don’t just be a shadow-boxer! Fight the good fight!

Spiritual Warfare – There’s a War On!

There’s a war on! We are in a life-and-death conflict against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. This course is to prepare established Christians for battle.

13/1 1. “We are not ignorant of his devices” – A Bible Study

20/1 2 “I’m no shadow-boxer” 1 Corinthians 9-10

27/1 FOURTH SUNDAY Evening of prayer

3/2 3 Know your enemy – Christ’s victory over the devil (Communion Service)

10/2 4 Discerning the spirits

17/2 (Peter is away)

24/2 FOURTH SUNDAY

3/3 5 Victorious Christian Living

10/3 6 Spiritual mapping and Territorial Spirits

17/3 7 Driving out demons

BOOKS

Michael GREEN I Believe in Satan’s Downfall (Hodder)

C.S.LEWIS The Screwtape Letters (Fontana)

J Oswald SANDERS Satan, No Myth (Lakeland)

David WATSON Discipleship (Hodder)

David PYTCHES Come, Holy Spirit (Hodder)

C. Peter WAGNER Wrestling with Dark Angels and Breaking Strongholds in Your City

1. We are not ignorant of his devices – A Bible Study

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8)

Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. (2 Corinthians 2:11 King James Version)

in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes. (2 Corinthians 2:11 NIV 2011)

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)

The Bible warns us to be on our guard against the devil. Split up into groups of two or three people. Each group should spend ten minutes looking at one or two of the sections below, so that all the sections are covered by the different groups. For each of the devil’s schemes try to answer these questions and be ready to share your findings.

(i) What danger does the Bible warn us about?
(ii) How does that danger face us IN PRACTICE in everyday life and in the life of a church?
(iii) What does the Bible and our experience suggest will be the best defences to this kind of attack of the devil. Again, be PRACTICAL.

TEMPTATION
Matthew 4:1-11
James 1:13-15
1 Corinthians 10 :13

ACCUSATION
Job 1:6-12
Colossians 2:15

DECEPTION
Genesis 3:1-6
John 8:43-45

DIVISION
James 2:1-4
1 Corinthians 3:1-4

DISBELIEF
James 1:5-7
Matthew 16:21-23

PRIDE
James 4:6-10
1 Peter 5:5-9

LUST
Matthew 5:27-30
1 John 2:15-17

FEAR
Luke 22:54-62
Hebrews 2:14-16

IDOLATRY
2 Corinthians 6:14
Colossians 3:5-6
Matthew 6:24

DISTRACTIONS – no verses here; just think of some examples!

We talked this morning about prayer walking. We saw that prayer walking is just a way of praying not at home or at church but “on the hoof”. We know that prayer is vital if we are to break down the barriers which can stop people from hearing and responding to the gospel. Sometimes those barriers come from the people we are speaking to. Consciously or unconsciously, many people have built up barriers of resistance to anything we could say which would unsettle their comfortable lives, anything which would get them thinking about the important issues of life and eternity, anything which would remind them of their own mortality. And sometimes it is actually the devil who builds those walls to stop people who are lost from ever getting found! There can be genuine spiritual barriers which mean that our preaching and witnessing are ineffective.
2 Cor 4:3 Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

So where does prayer walking fit in to this.

 We know that we do not have to be in a church building for God to answer our prayers.
 We know that we do not need to be on our knees or have our eyes closed for God to answer our prayers.
 The more we know about other people and can empathise with their needs the easier we find it to pray meaningfully for them. So if we are praying for other people who we don’t know, why not go to their streets and their neighbourhood and pray for them there!

In prayer walking we will be doing a number of things.
1. Praising and worshipping God
2. Praying for the homes you pass
3. Listening to God as you walk

The closest thing to prayer walking we find in the New Testament is the way that Jesus sent out both the Twelve (Matt 10:5-15) and the Seventy-two (Luke 10:1-12) to heal, to minister deliverance and to preach the gospel. These passages tell us at least two things which are very important to prayer walking. I spoke this morning on Luke 10:5-6
“When you enter a house, first say, `Peace to this house.’ If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you.”

This command, to “give peace to a household” may seem strange to us. Jesus was teaching that the words His disciples spoke would convey the blessings of God’s peace on those who received them, or equally bring God’s judgement to the people who rejected them. This points us to another vital aspect of prayer walking.
4. Blessing the homes you pass

Jesus has delegated HIS authority to his disciples and to his church. So Christians have the power to pronounce God’s blessing – to declare how God will bless. And when we do this, it will not just be empty words, nor even an optimistic prayer. Those words will be authoritative and declarative. Because we speak on behalf the Lord Jesus Christ, representing God, the blessings we command WILL happen.
And now there is a fifth aspect of prayer walking which I only touched on this morning – prayer walking as
5. Proclaiming Christ’s victory – claiming the ground

Beyond expressing our faith and obedience, praising God and praying for people, listening to God and declaring God’s blessings, prayer walking is also an activity of what some people call “spiritual warfare”. The experience of church history and of churches in many parts of the world today suggests that some places can be particularly influenced by evil spirits as a result of activities there in the past or present. In prayer walking we are praising God and declaring Jesus’s victory over all the powers of evil. But we are also seeking the Spirit’s guidance in discerning whether evil powers have any claim over any particular places or people. And if there are any evil spirits present, part of prayer walking is to rebuke those evil spirits. This is one way we fulfil Jesus’s commission to His church, not only to proclaim the gospel but also to bring healing and deliverance. As you go, preach this message: `The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. (Matthew 10:7-8)

Driving out demons was a central activity in the Ministry of Jesus – one third of all His miracles were miracles of deliverance. The same pattern is there in the book of Acts and that ministry of deliverance continued through the first three centuries of the Church.
In the second century AD the church Father, Tertullian, maintained that any Christian who did not know how to exorcise deserved to be put do death! Throughout the world even today, particularly in Africa, India, South America and the Far East, Christian missionaries coming into contact with peoples who worship idols and false gods frequently find themselves involved in deliverance ministry and in “power encounters” with the demons behind those false gods.

Over the last 20 years or so Christians have been realising that demons are not only found in the Third World. There are spiritual battles to be fought in USA and Europe and even in England! And there has been an explosion of books on the subject of “Spiritual Warfare” “Territorial Spirits” and “Spiritual Mapping”. Let me be frank. The majority of those books are not worth reading. Many are positively confusing – I do not think Frank Peretti’s books are at all helpful. Some books are just wrong. But don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. Let me point you to at least two authors who have vital insights for us as we consider prayer walking.

Peter Wagner is Professor of Church Growth Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary, a leading evangelical theological college in USA. For 20 years he has been the world expert in the field of Church growth. Anybody thinking about church growth and evangelism has to take Peter Wagner seriously. And he has written and edited a number of books with titles like Territorial Spirits, Breaking Strongholds in Your City, Wrestling with Dark Angels and Engaging the Enemy.
Then there is another good book written by John Dawson: Taking our Cities for God.
These are listed on the Prayer Walking Guide leaflet if you want to read more about what I am saying tonight.

These writers not only quote the experiences of churches and missionaries but also look from scripture at the theme of Spiritual Warfare – approaches to prayer and evangelism which take seriously the fact that mission is a spiritual battle between good and evil, light and darkness. Behind the scenes of our efforts to spread the gospel, there is a spiritual war on!
Ephesians 6:11 Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 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. 13 Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

I deliberately repeat myself when I say that the experience of church history and of churches in many parts of the world today suggests that some places can be particularly influenced by evil spirits as a result of activities there in the past or present. Spiritual warfare is concerned with driving out any evil powers which may, in some sense, have a claim on a particular area, so that the people there will be able to respond to the gospel with their eyes opened rather than blinded.

There has been some controversy over the years about whether it is meaningful to suggest that the powers of darkness actually can “claim” a particular place or group of people as their own. The experience of missionaries supports this view. And in my judgement, the Bible does support the idea of such “territorial spirits”. The verses I’ll refer to are listed in the Prayer Walking Guide.

We know that Satan is `the prince of this world’ (Jn 12:31), `the God of this age (who) has blinded the minds of unbelievers’ (2 Cor 4:4).
The tenth plague of the deaths of the firstborn was in God’s words `judgement on all the gods of Egypt’ (Exod 12:12). Behind all human idols are demonic powers.
In Daniel 10:12-13 the angel who was sent to Daniel says this:
12 “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain
understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. 13 But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I
was detained there with the king of Persia.
This opposition of `the prince of Persia’ to God’s angel implies an evil spirit controlling an area. In the same way, there may well have been demons behind the earthly kings of Babylon and Tyre (Isa 14:12-14, Ezek 28:12-16). #
In the book of Revelation, Pergamum was the place `where Satan’s throne is’ (Rev 2:13).
It is particularly significant that we read that the demons in Legion seemed to fear being sent out of `their’ region (Mark 5:1-20). The Bible says relatively little about demons, but what it does say is consistent with the idea that demons can at least sometimes be associated with particular places.

And not only with places, but also with groups of people. The Old Testament teaches that the sins of the fathers will be visited on the children (Lev 26:39, Jer 32:18) even to the fourth generation ( Exod 20:5, 34:7, Num 14:18). This may sometimes happen by demons gaining a hold on particular families. There is strong evidence from cultures which practise ancestor worship that demons can pass from parents to children or grandparents to grandchildren, what could be called “generational spirits”. And then Christians around the world in every place where the peoples around practise magic or voodoo know very well where that curses and spells have real power.

Books on Spiritual Warfare stress the importance of identifying WHETHER, repeat, WHETHER, there are evil powers at work in a particular area. An important aspect of prayer walking for us will be listening to God to tell us if there are spiritual battles to be fought on Clements Park. God gives spiritual gifts of prophecy, discernment, knowledge and wisdom to His church. The Holy Spirit at work in every Christian allows all of us to hear God’s voice and be led by Him. We listen for specific guidance about the approach we should take to evangelism, and for discernment about the presence of evil in particular places.

Some books give a name to this process of identifying any unseen spiritual powers at work in an area – they call it “spiritual mapping.” Peter Wagner defines SPIRITUAL MAPPING as `an attempt to see the world around us as it really is, not as it appears to be’. This involves research into historical and spiritual factors which could be influencing an area, as well as using all the spiritual gifts especially prophecy and discernment to discover the nature of the enemy.

The ways that demons might come to have some kind of “claim” on a particular area or group of people are the same as the ways that demons gain hold of a particular individual’s life. Most obvious would be in a place where different forms of the occult have been practised over the centuries.

MAGIC – Attempts to manipulate the spirit world, to gain power over enemies (black magic) or to help friends (white magic). Telepathy, ESP, automatic writing, charms, fetishes, levitation, “out of the body experiences” and astral projection, magic healing and witchcraft, all forms are evil! In these days we also have the many faces of the “New Age” movement as well as people dabbling in ancient Celtic religions and traditional British mysticism, not to mention White Witchcraft / Wicca / “The Craft”.
A person may fall under the control of magic by hereditary involvement (the actions of an ancestor) by occult experiments, by occult transference from one person to another (e.g. spells or curses, blood pacts) or by explicit Satan worship. Places used for magic in the past or the locations of of occult books/objects can be affected in the present.

FORTUNE TELLING – Varieties include palmistry, tarot cards, crystal gazing, psychometry, astrology and horoscopes, reading tea leaves etc, dowsing.

SPIRITISM or SPIRITUALISM – Attempting to communicate with spirits of the dead for various purposes. Approaches include mediums, seances, trances, ouija boards, and table turning. Spiritualist “churches” and spiritual healers. We should include many of the psychic or paranormal events which people experience without seeking them, e.g. ghosts and poltergeists.

The Bible condemns all occult practices very clearly because of the dangers of contact with demons. But I am convinced that practices of magic, fortune telling and spiritualism in the past can have an impact on people living in places in the present. I know this is the case because on a number of occasions in a number of places we have seen this happen! Only last year Lin and I were invited to a brand new flat on Clements Park where the owners were terrified by an “evil presence” they felt to be there with them. They said that other neighbours had complained of similar problems. We prayed around the flat, but in the end the couple decided to move out rather than risk the continuing menace.

We don’t know what the land of Clements Park was used for in the distant past. We do know it has been a psychiatric hospital for many years. It probably is not a coincidence that the place where I have come into closest contact with the most dramatic form of “haunting”, poltergeists throwing furniture around the room, was in a new house built on land near Borehamwood which had formerly been a psychiatric hospital.

The gospel is spiritual warfare. Evangelism is spiritual warfare. In Acts 26:18 Paul tells us that the mission God gave him was to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

So our prayer walking will be an exercise in Spiritual Warfare and Spiritual Mapping.
For this purpose Christ was revealed – to destroy all the works of the evil one! 1 John 3:8
Jesus said to his disciples, not once but twice, first in Matt 16:19
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
And in case they had missed the point, Jesus repeated exactly the same words two chapters later: Matt 18: 18 “I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Christ has entrusted to His church the authority AND the responsibility to drive out demons wherever they may be found. We are not to become preoccupied with the demonic.
Luke 10:17 ¶ The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
18 He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. 20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

We are not to become preoccupied with the demonic. But we are to engage is the spiritual battles which are as real and as significant as any human battles!
The apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:4
The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We have the weapons of prayer and praise and holiness and truth and love and faith and unity and sacrifice and all the armour of God – and God calls us to use these weapons in rebuking the powers of evil and bringing people out of darkness into light.

We thought this morning about the ancient church custom of “beating the bounds” of the parish every years. A procession around the boundary led by the priest with the people praising God and offering prayers at different points. The people would also literally “beat the bounds” with branches. This was not merely to mark the perimeter of the parish. They believed that doing so would drive demons out of the parish so they would no longer trouble the people. I am convinced that their seemingly strange practices do show us important and neglected truths!

We also thought about Joshua and the battle of Jericho. That was a battle which the Israelites did not even need to fight, because God gave them the victory and God brought the walls of Jericho down! It is tempting to think that the Israelites did nothing at all. But in fact they marched. They shouted. They blew their rams horn trumpets. They carried the ark of the covenant. And when they seventh day came – they shouted! God gave the victory but the Israelites were not passive there. They were obedient. Even when they did not understand what God was commanding them to do, they trusted and they obeyed.
Just as faith and obedience brought down the walls of Jericho, so faith and obedience will bring down the barriers which stop the people of Brentwood from hearing and responding to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Faith and obedience, expressed in prayer.

You may not be convinced yet about Spiritual Warfare and Spiritual Mapping. You may not even be persuaded about the advantages of prayer walking over other approaches to prayer for Clements Park. So I invite you approach prayer walking around Clements Park as the Israelites did marching around Jericho. It is an act of faith and obedience. We don’t need to understand completely in order to trust and obey! But if we trust and obey, if we pray and pray and keep on praying, I am convinced we will see the walls come tumbling down!

Deuteronomy 20 When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you. 2 When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. 3 He shall say: “Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be faint-hearted or afraid; do not be terrified or give way to panic before them.

The Israelites stood at the door to Canaan. But they would have to fight many battles to take possession of their inheritance, the promised land. And as Christians we also face many battles to enter fully into our inheritance in Christ, to live holy and Christ-like lives and to proclaim the gospel before a hostile world. The Christian life is no bed of roses or a picnic – it is a battlefield.

Eph 6:11 Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 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. Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

So as Christians we fight spiritual battles on three fronts:

(1) The world
John 15: 18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.

1 John 2: 15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives for ever.

We must fight spiritual battles to stand firm for Christ and proclaim His saving truth against a hostile world.

(2) The flesh our fallen sin-spoiled human nature.
James 1:13 When tempted, no-one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

So often the hardest battles we face are against ourselves – to do what God wants instead of what our own selfish human nature wants.

(3) The Devil.
1 Peter 5 8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

As Christians we face a formidable adversary – the devil

In these battles against the world, the flesh and the devil, God gives us the victory.
We cannot win the spiritual battles on our own – we need God’s strength.
When we stand up for Jesus and share the gospel with others, it can be scary! The forces which stand against God’s purposes can be terrifying – but God gives the victory! That’s why Moses gives this rather strange instruction for the times when the Israelites are about to go into battle as they take possession of the Promised Land. He doesn’t say, bring on the military leaders who know how to fight battles. Bring on the good warriors. When it’s time for a battle, the instruction is, “Bring on the priest”. Not “time for some strategy” but “time for a good sermon!” Because the battle belongs to the Lord!

2 When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. 3 He shall say: “Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be faint-hearted or afraid; do not be terrified or give way to panic before them. 4 For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.”

We thought about that this morning in the promise, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. God’s blessings are for those who humbly put their trust in God as they wait for Him to intervene on their behalf. We saw the same spiritual strategy when the Israelites came to the edge of Red Sea
Exodus 14:13 Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. 14 The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
15 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. 16 Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. 17 I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. 18 The Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.” …..
21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

In any battles we have to face we have this promise. GOD gives us the victory!

PSALM 20: 6 Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed; he answers him from his holy heaven with the saving power of his right hand. 7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. 8 They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm.

Deuteronomy 20 4 For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.”

Meekness and humility. Our part in the battle is simply to trust in God.

But God know that some of his chosen people are not ready for battle. And that is as true for some Christians today as it was for some of the Israelites in those days. They weren’t ready for battle. Their minds were on other things. So God graciously allows for their human weakness. If some people aren’t ready for the fight, God can win the victories without them. The Bible suggests there can be four things which can get in the way of God’s chosen people going into battle for him. Four kinds of things which could take our minds off the spiritual tasks God has for us to accomplish. If we wanted to be clever we could come up with four headings each beginning with the same letter!
WEALTH – Preoccupation with possessions
We do all need somewhere to live. It is good to have enough clothes and enough to eat. It is so easy to look beyond what we need to set our hearts on what we might like to enjoy. And God understands this.
5 The officers shall say to the army: “Has anyone built a new house and not dedicated it? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else may dedicate it.

WORK – Preoccupation with our careers
It is important to give ourselves to our jobs – to do whatever we do as if we are serving the Lord, not serving men, to do everything wholeheartedly. It is so easy to get caught up in career and success and promotion. And God understands this.
6 Has anyone planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy it? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else enjoy it.

WOMEN – Preoccupation with relationships
Relationships with other people are important. Especially marriage and family life are vitally important. God understands this.
7 Has anyone become pledged to a woman and not married her? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else marry her.”

WORRY- Preoccupation with fear at the scale of the battle we face!
20:1When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you.
The opposing forces may appear overwhelming – we may indeed be terrified. God understands this.
8 Then the officers shall add, “Is any man afraid or faint-hearted? Let him go home so that his brothers will not become disheartened too.”

When Gideon face the Midianites in Judges 7, this was exactly the principle God commanded Gideon to use.
Judges 7:1 Early in the morning, Gideon and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. 2 The LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her, 3 announce now to the people, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’ ” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.

Spiritual battle is not for wimps. And God understands that!
Someone asked an ex-paratrooper how many jumps he had made. He responded by saying, “None! I was pushed out 18 times!” That is a sad picture of the lives of some Christians. We would rather avoid the spiritual battle if we possibly can!

So here were four things which could get in the way of the Israelites fighting the battles God gives us to fight. Wealth – work – women – worry. Four things which can just as easily get in our way when we seek to serve God. People whose minds are preoccupied with these things, or with anything else apart from God, are no use to God in the spiritual warfare we are engaged in. We must love the Lord God with all our soul, and all our heart, and mind, and with all our strength! If we do this all the other things will fall into place. God must be our first love! If we are to be any use to God we must not allow ourselves to be distracted by other things! God understands our weaknesses – he allows for them – but only those with courage and determination are useful to God in spiritual battles. Only those who are single minded in serving God.

Will you notice the grace of God! Those who go back to their houses aren’t criticised. They don’t lose their inheritance. Those who go back to their vineyards aren’t criticised. They don’t lose their inheritance. Those who go back to their fiancées aren’t criticised. They don’t lose their inheritance. Those who go back because they are too scared to fight aren’t criticised. They don’t lose their inheritance.

We don’t earn our spiritual inheritance by putting God first, by being singleminded for God. We don’t lose our inheritance when we put other things before God, whether it be wealth or work or women or worry or anything else. We don’t forfeit our salvation if these things hold us back. But the point is, we are of no use to God if we allow possessions or careers or relationships or fear to get in the way of serving God. We still receive the inheritance which God gives us as a free gift – but we are of no use in serving God in the spiritual battles he calls us to fight.

This is essentially what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3.
1 Corinthians 3:10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. 11 For no-one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. 14 If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. 15 If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

If we want to build with silver and gold, if we want to be useful to God, we must put God first. We must put our trust in God and step out and fight the spiritual war!
To win victory in spiritual battles and to enter fully into our inheritance we have to FIGHT! We may be afraid to fight the spiritual battles we find ourselves in. But we should not be!

Deuteronomy 20 When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you. 2 When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. 3 He shall say: “Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be faint-hearted or afraid; do not be terrified or give way to panic before them. 4 For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.”

In 1956 during the Mau Mau uprisings in East Africa, according to missionaries, a band of roving Mau Maus came to the village of Lauri, surrounded it, and killed every inhabitant, including women and children–three hundred people in all. Not more than three miles away was the Rift Valley Academy, Kijabe, Kenya, a private boarding school where children were being educated while their missionary parents worked elsewhere. Immediately upon leaving the carnage at Lauri the Mau Maus came with spears, clubs, torches, and bows and arrows to the school, bent on destruction.
You can imagine the fear of those children at the school. Word had already reached them about the destruction of Lauri. There was no place to flee. The only resource was prayer.
Out in the night, lighted torches were seen coming toward the school. Soon there was a complete ring of these terrorists about the school, cutting off all avenues of escape. Shouting and curses could be heard coming from the Mau Maus. Then they began to advance on the school, tightening the circle, shouting louder, coming closer. Suddenly, when they were close enough to throw a spear, they stopped. They began to retreat, and soon they were running into the jungle. A call had gone out to the authorities, and an army had been sent in the direction of the school to rescue the inhabitants. But by the time the army arrived, the would-be assassins had dispersed. The army spread out in search of them and captured the entire band of raiding Mau Maus.
Later, before the judge at their trial, the Mau Mau leader was called to the witness stand. The judge asked him, “On this night did you kill the inhabitants of Lauri?”
The leader replied, “Yes.”
“Was it your intent to do the same at the Rift Valley Academy?”
“Yes.”
“Well then,” asked the judge, “why did you not complete the mission? Why didn’t you attack the school?”
The leader of the Mau Maus, who had never read the Bible and never heard the gospel, replied, “We were on our way to attack and destroy all the people at the school. But as we came closer, all of a sudden between us and the school there were many huge men, dressed in white with flaming swords. We became afraid and we ran to hide!”

Prophet Elisha in Dothan 2 Kings 6:fs15 When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh, my lord, what shall we do?” the servant asked. 16 “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 17 And Elisha prayed, “O LORD, open his eyes so that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all round Elisha.

We believe in angels! We believe in angels because the Bible mentions angels almost 300 times. We believe in angels because there are many trustworthy accounts of angels appearing to Christians.

Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in angels. An article in the American magazine Newsweek’ not so long ago titled “In Search of the Sacred” observed that “20% of Americans have had a revelation from God in the last year, and 13% have seen or sensed the presence of an angel”.

As Christians, we believe in angels. But WHAT do we believe about angels? The word simply means messenger and in the Bible it occasionally refers to human messengers. But much more often it refers to angelic beings, God’s messengers, the heavenly host.
Angels are spiritual beings created by God to serve Him. Some, the good angels, have remained obedient to Him and carry out His will, while others, fallen angels, disobeyed, fell from their holy position, and now stand in active opposition to the work and plan of God.
Angels are created beings and they are spirit creatures
(1) Angels are spirit beings.
They do not have material bodies as we do. Angels are not subject to the limitations of human beings, especially since they are incapable of death (Luke 20:36). Angels have greater power than man (Matt. 28:2; Acts 5:19; 2 Pet. 2:11), yet they are limited in power (Dan. 10:13). Angels are not created in the image of God, therefore, they do not share man’s glorious destiny of redemption in Christ.
(2) All angels were created holy, without sin, and in a state of perfect holiness.
(3) As created beings, they are mere creatures.
Like all of creation, angels are under God’s authority and subject to His judgment (1 Cor. 6:3; Matt. 25:41).
The good and loyal angels are the mighty servants of God who constantly serve him always doing His will. The Psalmist described them as, “Bless the LORD, you His angels, Mighty in strength, who perform His word, Obeying the voice of His word! Bless the LORD, all you His hosts, You who serve Him, doing His will” (Ps. 103:20-21). Hebrews: “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?” (Heb. 1:14). The answer is “Yes!” Though God can always act independently without the use of agents, He has chosen to use both angelic and human instruments to accomplish His will. In keeping with this, over and over again in the Bible, we find angels acting as God’s servants involved in all kinds of ministry to people.
Angels Protect people

“The angels are the dispensers and administrators of the divine beneficence toward us; they regard our safety, undertake our defense, direct our ways, and exercise a constant solicitude that no evil befall us.” John Calvin (1509–1564)
Perhaps no aspect of their ministry to man is more talked about than the idea of a “guardian angel.” “Does everyone have a guardian angel?” While no passage specifically states that every person has a guardian angel, the Bible does teach that angels do guard or protect as Psalm 91:11 declares.
Psalm 91: 9 ¶ If you make the Most High your dwelling- even the LORD, who is my refuge- 10 then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. 11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; 12 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
In addition, Matthew 18:10 may suggest a guardian angel because of the statement Christ made regarding little children when He said, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you, that their angels in heaven continually behold the face of My Father who is in heaven.” But it should also be pointed out that Psalm 91:11 is directed to those who make the Lord their refuge. The psalmist explained that no harm or disaster can befall those who have made the Lord their refuge (their “shelter from danger”; . . . ) because He has commissioned angels to care for them. Angels protecting people
There is a reliable story of of a pastor shared about his recent trip to Mexico. He, along with several others, had gone there on a preaching mission. While they were returning, their van developed mechanical problems. After jacking up the van, the pastor crawled underneath to check out the problem. The jack collapsed, and he suddenly felt the crushing weight of the van on his chest. His companions quickly grabbed the bumper to lift the van. They weren’t able to budge it. He cried out, “Jesus! Jesus!” Within a few seconds a youthful-looking Mexican came running toward them. He was thin and small in stature. He was smiling. As he reached the van, he grabbed the van and lifted it. The others joined in, and the van lifted like a feather.
As he was freed, the pastor felt his chest expand and the broken bones mend. The visitor then lowered the van, waved to them, and ran in the direction from which he had come, until he disappeared on the horizon. No one knew who the mysterious visitor was or where he had come from. Angels protect.
Angels Provide for people
As angels were sent by God to provide sustenance for the Lord at the end of his forty days in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-11), so he has undoubtedly on occasion done so for believers in our day. Some would include the provision of bread and water for Elijah (1 Kings 19:5-6), but this was a ministry of “the Angel of the Lord”
As an illustration of possible angelic provision, Sue Bohlin gives the following account: In 1944, the penniless wife of a pastor and evangelist in Switzerland, Susie Ware prayed, “God, I need five pounds of potatoes, two pounds of pastry flour, apples, pears, a cauliflower, carrots, veal cutlets for Saturday, and beef for Sunday.” A few hours later, someone knocked on the door, and there was a young man carrying a basket, who said, “Mrs. Ware, I am bringing what you asked for.” It was precisely what she’d prayed for—down to the exact brand of pastry flour she wanted.
The young man slipped away, and even though Rev. and Mrs. Ware watched at the window to their building, the man never exited. He just disappeared (Anderson, Joan Wester. Where Angels Walk, New York: Ballantine Books, 1992, pp. 60-62).
In the book Celebration of Miracles. Connie, and her husband Geoff, were missionaries in Africa working with Hindu people and had an opportunity to visit missionaries in India. The trip involved a 38-hour train ride from New Delhi to an orphanage in the south. They had been warned not to eat the food on the train, but they had taken very little food with them and Connie was so famished she decided to take her chances. She ate some curried mutton, and was soon extremely ill.
After arriving at the orphanage, Connie went to bed where she remained for three days. Geoff was traveling during that time and the missionaries thinking she was reacting to the miserable poverty of their surroundings thought she didn’t want to be bothered and left her alone. It was not until it was time to move on to the next orphanage that they realized she was desperately ill. They realized she needed to get to a hospital fast so they set out for the nearest one which was three hours away. About fifteen minutes into the ride Connie’s muscles began to cramp. First her fingers then her knees and toes curled inward and her facial muscles contracted so she was unable to speak. Finally she found herself paralyzed as the jeep bounced along the primitive road.
They were concerned, thinking she might not make it because she was so dehydrated. Geoff cried out to God, “please do a miracle! Do something!” Suddenly the missionary who was driving spotted a small Red Cross building just off the trail. As the jeep pulled to a stop, Connie tried to protest. She was concerned about the rampant AIDS epidemic in these remote areas and the practice of reusing needles.
As the group made their way into the building which was well lit and very clean, an Indian man, dressed in white shirt and baggy pants, greeted them in perfect English. He said, “I know what’s wrong with her. She’s dehydrated. I have some electrolytes here in this packet. This water has already been boiled.” He mixed the electrolytes with the water and handed Geoff an eye dropper encased in a plastic bag. “It’s sterile,” he said, looking right at Connie.
Geoff was given instructions to put one drop at a time in Connie’s mouth (which had locked open) until they reached the hospital. When they reached the hospital an hour-and-a-half later, her muscles had relaxed and she was able to walk into the hospital. The doctor said it was the worst case of dehydration he’d ever seen. Her body had literally sucked the water out of the cells and she’d come within hours of dying.
A few weeks later, after returning to Africa, they received a letter from the missionary couple in India. They said, “You won’t believe this, but when we returned to our village via the route we had taken to get you to the hospital, that Red Cross building was gone. There was nothing there in the place where it was.” Was this the work of one of God’s ministering spirits? One day we will know, but in the meantime, we can certainly give praise to the Lord.
Angels Proclaim God’s Truth
Throughout the Bible we find angels involved in communicating God’s truth or message as the Spirit of God directed them. This is, of course, is very much in keeping with the basic meaning of the word angel as a messenger They announced the birth of John the Baptist and Jesus (Luke 1:11f, 26f; Matt. 1:20f)..
Angels Punish or Carry Out God’s Judgments
Remember the Angel of Death who carried out God’s judgement on the first-born of the Egyptians in preparation for the Israelite’s escape from Egypt!
Billy Graham calls angels “God’s secret agents”. They protect. They provide. They proclaim God’s truth and they carry out God’s punishments. On that glorious Day when Christ returns, he will be surrounded by legions of angels, as He is right now in heaven.
There’s the good news about angels – but there is some bad news.
While all the angels were originally created holy and without sin, there was a rebellion by Satan, who, being lifted up by his own beauty, sought to exalt himself above God and rebelled. In his rebellion, he took with him one-third of the angels (Rev. 12:4
So now, there are good angels and there are evil angels.
The leader of these fallen angels (or demons as they are also called) is Satan (cf. Matt. 12:25-27). Satan, the leader of unholy angels, is a liar, a murderer, and a thief (John 10:10). As God’s great antagonist, He hates God and God’s people. Scripture teaches us that he prowls about like a roaring lion in search of those whom he may devour by his nefarious schemes (1 Peter 5:8). As an angelic being, Satan, along with his demon-like angels who operate under his authority, is supernaturally powerful and brilliant, and he uses all his powers against humanity. Not only is he a liar, and a thief, but that which characterizes him above all else is deception. John describes him as the one “who deceives the whole world” (John 12:9). In his cunning, he disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). So, in view of this, the Apostle Paul wrote, “Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness . . .” (2 Cor. 11:15).
These rebellious fallen angels are what the Bible calls demons, or unclean spirits. They come to deceive people and lead them astray. Satan is the master of disguise. It is clearly his masquerade as an angel of light with his servant angels ,who also disguise themselves in one way or another. And so we must beware of many of the reports of angels which we read of from outside the church. In some circles there is almost an Angelmania in the world today. So we need to be suspicious of
1. Contacting or communing with angels.
There are now books available with titles like Ask Your Angels (Daniel, Alma, Timothy Wyllie, and Andrew Ramer, Ask your Angels, New York: Ballantine, 1992) and 100 Ways to Attract Angels (Sharp, Sally, 100 Ways to Attract Angels, Minnesota: Trust Publications, 1994). But the Bible gives neither permission nor precedent for contacting angels. When people start calling on angels, it’s not the holy angels who answer. They’re demons, disguising themselves as good angels to people who don’t know how to tell the difference.
2. Loving our angels, praying to our angels.
Some self-styled “angel experts” instruct their followers to love their angels and call upon them for health, healing, prosperity, and guidance. But angels are God’s servants, and all this attention and emphasis and glory should go to God, not His servants. God says, “I will not share my glory with another” (Isaiah 42:8). Scripture makes no mention of loving angels—only God, His word, and people. And it never tells us to pray to angels, only to the Lord Himself.
3. Instruction, knowledge, or insight from angels, and special knowledge or teachings from angels.
Many of the false religions and cults in the world today are based on revelations from angels. God’s angels are not teachers. God’s word says they are messengers—that’s what “angel” means—and they minister to us. God has revealed to us everything we need for life and godliness in the Bible (2 Peter 1:3), so any hidden knowledge that spirit beings try to impart is by nature occultic and demonic. ALWAYS REMEMBER
1. The ministry of holy angels will never contradict the Bible.
2. A genuine encounter with a holy angel will glorify God, not the angel. Holy angels never draw attention to themselves. They typically do their work and disappear.
Never Worship Angels
Do Not Participate in Angel Gimmickry
Closely associated with the worship of angels, but in a more subtle way, is all the angel gimmickry going on in our culture today. Sometimes this is not just a matter of collecting and enjoying angel figurines much as someone would collect and enjoy figurines and pictures of eagles.
”Christians should never fail to sense the operation of angelic glory. It forever eclipses the world of demonic powers, as the sun does a candle’s light.” Billy Graham (1918– )

We believe in angels. It’s very true that many have “entertained angels unaware” (Hebrews 13:2). But we need to make sure we’re entertaining the right kind of angels!

When John Paton was a missionary in the New Hebrides Islands, hostile natives surrounded his mission headquarters one night, intent on burning the Patons out and killing them. Paton and his wife prayed all that night. At dawn they were amazed to see the attackers just turn and leave.
A year later the chief of that very tribe was converted to Christianity. Paton then asked him what had kept him and his men from burning down the house and killing them that night. The chief asked Paton a return question: “Who were all those men you had with you there?” Paton told him there had been no one except his wife and himself, but the chief insisted they had seen hundreds of men standing guard–big men in shining garments with drawn swords.

11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;
Yes! We believe in angels!