PRINCIPLES OF SPIRITUAL WARFARE

You cannot get anything from demons without an open confrontation. People generally will not make up their minds to start keeping the laws of the land. Most people won’t do it. No matter the advancement in any country of the world, there are law enforcement agents to enforce

the law. Satan and his demons will not just volunteer to release their captives without the spiritual enforcement of the lordship of Jesus. They will try to fight and resist you, but it’s all a lie.

Have you seen where policemen try to arrest some criminals or accused persons? Force is used where there is resistance to the police authority in enforcing the law. You have to use force and violence of the spirit against demons to make them comply. Don’t give up to them willingly. If you do, they will gladly lead you into captivity. Some criminals have held some policemen hostage in their hideouts. The police force has to reinforce and be more aggressive to deal with them before they can release the captives. Demons and satan are spiritual criminals. Don’t ever think they will just surrender to you without force.

ANCESTRAL BATTLES

Unlike the children of Israel, the church is faced with terrible battles because it is fighting unseen forces of wickedness. The believer is facing terrible battles because he is fighting enemies that can see him but whom he cannot see. The warfare of the church is terrible because many Christians are not willing to fiercely engage the devil in the invisible realm. Many Christians are facing terrible battles

because most of them are not making the necessary eﬀorts to prepare for the war.

Most of us with African origin have very terrible backgrounds. We answer names whose meanings we don’t know. Your name might have been decided in the coven of witches and wizards without your parents having any contrary opinion. Some of us grew up to find incisions on our bodies without knowing what they symbolise or who put them there. Many of us were not born in the hospitals. We were delivered into the waiting hands of diabolic people that came as local or traditional midwives. Some of them came as midwives but in reality, they came to hurt our future. How can you come from a background like that and you will not be aggressive in prayer?

If you had a diﬀerent background of a father in the U.S., mother in England and you were born abroad in a very good hospital, you may be wondering why others are aggressive in their prayers. Being a Christian is even enough oﬀence against the devil. The battle has already been declared against the devil. Whether you know about it or not, warfare is going on around and against you. You need to be equipped with a sound knowledge of the warfare to succeed.

THE RISEN CHRIST

Paul demonstrate the power of Christ in his ministry. Peter demonstrated the power of the risen Christ. I will demonstrate the power of the eternal Christ. I will celebrate the supremacy of the power of resurrection. Those that confronted Paul and Peter either dropped dead or were led away blind.

You can never lead a peaceful protest against witches and wizards and succeed. Warfare is never about peace. In fact, if peace is desired war is a must. Your health will never know peace, if you refuse to declare war on the powers attacking i

t. This is also true of your finances, progress, career, ministry, marriage etc. If the whole world carry placards in peaceful protest against witches and wizards, singing, “All we are saying, stop drinking blood”, the protest will never work. Declare war on the enemies and you will have your peace.

Your destiny is a territorial possession you cannot joke with. Wild animals fight fiercely to keep their territorial integrity. Even domestic animals do the same. A dog resident in an area will ward oﬀ all other intruding dogs. It will bark, snarl, bite and wound the intruding dogs to keep its territory. Chickens do the same. Everything God created is conscious of the power and essence of territorial integrity. If animals declare war on other animals, why do you fold your arms and watch the devil intrude into all areas of your life? Arise and fight back!

Wars are not won by words. They are won by force, by strength, by aggression, by power and by violence. This is because the enemy him self has come to kill, to steal and to destroy. If you don’t fight and prevail, the enemy will accomplish this three-fold mission. Unfortunately, some people only arrive at the church as victims of these three activities of stealing, killing and destruction.

PRINCIPLES OF SPIRITUAL WARFARE

There are principles behind successful warfare. They are applicable to the battles in the invisible realm. Let me quickly explicate some of these principles:

Locate And Identify – The first principle in spiritual warfare is to locate and identify your enemy. You cannot fight an unknown enemy. No army in any nation goes to war without first locating and identifying the enemies. Spiritual warfare is a contest against spiritual beings. They are terrible princes of darkness, rulers and wicked spirits in high places, leaders of evil, demonic executives, demonic chiefs,

heads of institutions, demonic masterminds, controllers and strongmen, evil powers, evil intelligence, evil tricks, evil strategies, evil craftiness, evil skills, evil devices, evil schemes, evil councils, etc. These are the opposition army we are fighting.

I used to have a brother who specialises in disgracing magicians. Whenever he saw them carrying big snakes around their necks, he stood by to thwart the potency of their powers. When the magicians started to recite their incantations in order to activate demonic powers, this brother would stay behind the crowd and declare, “1 trample upon everything in the name of Jesus”. At his word, the magicians suddenly discovered that nothing was working for them anymore. They started looking round curiously. First, they selected all the old men in the crowd and ordered them to leave, because they thought the counter power came from them. They didn’t know it was a small boy with the big power of Jesus that was responsible.

To locate and identify the enemies, you have to know who, how many, the powers, what they do and the areas they attacked. The enemies are merciless beings. Don’t fight them with the mind of having mercy on them.

Our team went somewhere to preach. A man came to surrender his life to Christ. He brought all his evil powers for destruction. Right in their presence, the evil powers he brought began to jump and to speak. They told the man to clear out of the way so that they might deal with the preachers. The man warned them that they stood the risk of fire from above. At this, the demons kept quiet. After truly giving his life to Jesus, the team set fire to the demons in the evil powers. If you were in the shoes of those preachers, what would you have done? Through the victory of Jesus, the spirits are subject to us.

Launch Attack – The next principle after locating and identifying the enemies is to launch an oﬀensive attack on them. Don’t wait for them to strike first. Ransack for them and execute vengeance on them. The moment the military base or commander receives a signal from the soldiers at war that the target has been located, the next instruction that follows is “destroy”

The powers of darkness and their human agents know the true believers in Christ. You cannot hide yourself, so it is better to come out and declare war at once. You are deceiving yourself if you think they don’t know you.

A brother went to the house of a herbalist sometimes ago. He went there for spiritual assistance. But the herbalist surprised him by recommending that he should return to the MFM church. He pitied the ignorant brother and explained that if he had a child as a herbalist, he would ask him or her to join the body of Christ in the MFM church. He went on to inform the brother that if he had his way, he too was willing to come out of his fetish deeds. These acknowledgements and confessions greatly amazed the brother.

Know Yourself – If you don’t know who you are in Christ, your ignorance will work against your success in spiritual warfare. Paul knew himself and was quick to exercise his authority.

Acts 13:6-12: And when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-jesus: Which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man; who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the word of God. But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith. Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him, And said, a full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil,

thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand. Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord.

The believer or minister of the gospel, who does not know himself, will suﬀer in ignorance. Paul caused astonishment when. he brought judgement upon the sorcerer by the power of God. This miracle of instant judgement led to the conversion of the deputy. The kingdom of God is a kingdom of power and glory. It is a kingdom invested with power from above and it is only when you know yourself that you can advance that power.

SIMPLY DIFFERENT

Several years back, I went to England to study for my doctorate. I found a completely unfriendly environment in the university I attended. The other black colleagues there called me to forewarn me that I should be ready to be dealt with by the white counterparts. According to them, the whites were racists who didn’t believe any black man could be intelligent. When I got to where we drink tea, I saw the whites there drinking tea, but to my surprise, they all moved their teacups away. I got up and went after them with my teacup because I said to myself that they did not know who they were dealing with. One of them turned and said to me: “Get away from here, you black monkey”.

I smiled and said, “wonderful! what you said could be correct, but I know my father is not a monkey”. My mild reaction touched their hearts. Other black people around were hostile to their abuses, but I was not. They started discussing about me among themselves that I was a

diﬀerent black man. Against the usual way they treated my colleagues from Africa, they started being nice to me. They gave me whatever I needed for my studies. But for others, they hoarded some materials they needed so much that some spent about twice the normal years of their career.

Later, I was to sit for a much feared interview, preceding my doctorate examination. I had already been told that nobody ever finished his programme in that school in three years. I promised to be an exception, and to finish up in less than three years: They branded me a proud person, but I didn’t mind. I aﬃrmed to them that my confidence is in the book of Psalms chapter thirty three, verse nine.

Ps 33:9: For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.

DIVINE INTERVENTION

The time I am talking about was really tough for many people. Many Nigerians went to defend their Ph.D. theses. The white men really stressed them. Many were there for hours. Some would even go on break only to resume another round of the rigour. A particular Nigerian was there from 8.00 a.m. to 5. 00 p.m., sweating greatly in a cold Country. Though I knew and saw all of these, I held on to the verse of the scriptures that was my anchor. On the day of my examination, which was less than the normal three year, I wore a suit for the first time.

I combed my hair very well and knotted my tie neatly. My Supervisor was pacing up and down, not knowing what was going to happen and was cooling oﬀ with a cup of coﬀee. The external examiner who came to throw part of the questions at me did not even bother to wear his tie. He was just fumbling with it in his hands. When I looked at the tension around the people to examine me and their casual appearances, I said to myself, “Ah, today is going to be exceptionally tough.”

“Hello Daniel”, the external examiner spoke at once. He continued, “You have done very well. I have just three questions for you. He asked them and I answered at once. ‘That is it, that is it,” he replied and it was all over. It all started at 11.05 a.m. and at 11.30 a.m., I was through. When I got out, my supervisor was still drinking coﬀee. “When are you going to start?” he asked. “We have finished,” I replied; “Did you pass?” he asked curiously. “Yes, I passed”, I replied calmly. He dropped his cup and embraced me. He was quite happy.

PROPHETIC DECREES

I want you to decree the following prophetic declarations into your life.

My miracles will amaze my enemies

My life shall advertise the power of God.

I shall confound my enemies

I shall astound people by miracles.

I am praying for you that you will get to a point where the power of God in your life will discharge patients in the hospitals, leaving the doctors and nurses with nothing to do.

As Christians, we have to issue our warfare orders, because God has given us His power and dominion over all evil forces. Maybe the reason demons are not obeying you is because you have not given them enough firm orders.

They shouldn’t be telling you what to do. Evil spirits tell some people not to sleep and they don’t sleep. It shouldn’t be so with a child of God. The Lord Jesus has given us His name, His blood, His strength His victory, His word, His life and His armour. We are not supposed to tolerate the enemy’s pranks against us.

THE DANGER OF SPIRITUAL LAZINESS

Spiritual laziness constitutes a hinderance to exercising the dominion of Chris). It is a great disturbance to celebrating the victory of the cross. Unconquerable power must overcome spiritual laziness.

A man who was supposed be a security staﬀ in a compound needed to routinely go round the compound in every two-hour interval. As he was sleeping, he was woken up by a crackling sound. In a sleepy voice, he said, “Who is that?” And he slept oﬀ again. Thirty minutes later, he heard the same sound. He became more conscious as he queried, “Who is that”, more realistically. He threatened the unknown personality by deliberately filling his cutlass against the floor. He slept oﬀ again. By day break, the vehicle parked right by his side had lost its four lyres to robbers. His employees queried him about his whereabouts while the four tyres were being removed. His answer was short, simple and straight to the point. “Laziness,” he admitted. A lazy soldier is a disaster to his country.

Laziness has ruined many promising businesses. A lazy Christian is not a threat to the enemy. Procrastination breeds a lazy life. A lazy person may be loaded with the best of ideas, but he will practically do nothing. A lazy man will jump into another project while one is unfinished. A lazy Christian cannot fast and pray. A lazy believer cannot study the Bible as he ought. A lazy man cannot live to achieve his goals. You must overcome laziness if you want to be vibrant for the Lord.

A CHALLENGE

The opposite of laziness is the fire of the Holy Ghost that drives you on and on. Satan has perfected his methods of operations to suit diﬀerent personalities. As he keeps the

introverts physically lazy, he occupies the extroverts with activities without accomplishment. Look around you and see how many things are neglected because of your laziness. Look at how many chapters of the Bible you vowed to read that you have not yet read. Look at how many Christian literatures you bought to read that you have not yet read. Overcome laziness and watch the unconquerable power dominate your life.

PRAYER POINTS

I nullify, every satanic prayers (incantations and invocations) with the blood of Jesus in the name of Jesus.

I nullify, every satanic challenge, using the blood of Jesus in the name of Jesus.

I nullify, every satanic decree, using the blood of Jesus in the name of Jesus.

I nullify, every satanic desire, using the blood of Jesus in the name of Jesus.
I nullify, every satanic expectation, using the blood of Jesus in the name of Jesus.

I nullify, every satanic decision, using the blood of Jesus in the name of Jesus.

I nullify, every satanic agreement, using the blood of Jesus in the name of Jesus.
I nullify, every satanic plans and programmes, using the blood of Jesus in the name of Jesus.