Other Books by C.

Peter Wagner

Let’s Laugh

Warfare Prayer

Praying with Power

Available From Destiny Image Publishers

© Copyright 2012–C. Peter Wagner

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This book is affectionately dedicated to
George and Pam Marhad,
cherished partners in ministry.
 Contents

Foreword
by John Dawson

Preface
by C. Peter Wagner

Introduction
by C. Peter Wagner

PART I - The Issues: Principles and Problems

CHAPTER 1: Spiritual Warfare

by C. Peter Wagner

CHAPTER 2: Defeating Territorial Spirits

by Steven Lawson

CHAPTER 3: Territorial Spirits

by C. Peter Wagner

CHAPTER 4: Dealing with Territorial Demons

by Timothy M. Warner

CHAPTER 5: Dealing with the Enemy in Society

by R. Arthur Mathews

CHAPTER 6: Understanding Principalities and Powers

by Thomas B. White

PART II - The Ministry: Pastors and Practicioners

CHAPTER 7: Possessing Our Cities and Towns

by Jack W. Hayford

CHAPTER 8: Battle in the Heavenlies

by Anne Gimenez

CHAPTER 9: Binding the Strongman

by Larry Lea

CHAPTER 10: Jericho: Key to Conquest

by Dick Bernal

CHAPTER 11: Prayer Power in Argentina

by Edgardo Silvoso

CHAPTER 12: City Taking in Korea

by Paul Yonggi Cho

CHAPTER 13: High Level Powers in Zimbabwe

by Richmond Chiundiza

CHAPTER 14: Don’t Underestimate the Opposition

by Paul B. Long

CHAPTER 15: Seventh Time Around: Breaking Through a

City’s Invisible Barriers to the Gospel
by John Dawson

PART III - The Analysis: Perceptions and Perspectives

CHAPTER 16: Territorial Spirits and Evangelization in Hostile

Environments
by Vernon J. Sterk

CHAPTER 17: Which God Do Missionaries Preach?

by Jacob Loewen

CHAPTER 18: Principalities and Powers

by Michael Green

CHAPTER 19: The Subjection of the Invisible Powers

by Oscar Cullmann
 Foreword
I’m not really interested in territorial spirits. What is God up
to? That is the question. However, the presence of the
adversary serves a useful purpose.
The swarming presence of beelzebub and his minions
indicates the places of wounding and corruption in the body of
our nation, the places where the land needs to be cleansed
through confession, reconciliation, and the presentation of the
blood of the Lamb, Christ Jesus.
Like vultures circling in the desert sky, the presence of the
demonic indicates approaching death below. The stronghold of
the enemy becomes the target of a praying people, and the
plans of satan backfire once again.
This strategic book is a needed contribution. The Church is
awakening to the potential of united prayer. Citywide prayer
meetings are becoming a common phenomenon. It is time to
examine again the nature of the unseen realm as revealed in
God’s Word. We need all the help we can get, and Peter
Wagner has served us well by compiling the insights of godly
men and women who have proven the Word in both
scholasticism and in demonstration with power.
Understanding brings hope. Our ancient adversary can be
overcome. We need to lift ourselves out of a self-centered
spirituality, a mentality that says we are victims rather than
warriors. Fiery darts will come, but as we raise the shield of
faith, we must take up the sword of the Spirit and join with
others in contending for cities and nations. When we follow
Jesus into battle, our small steps of faith and obedience always
contribute to a bigger victory than our own.
At the fall of the human race, satan gained a mandate to
become “the god of this age” (2 Cor. 4:4). But since the birth of
the Church at Pentecost, there has been an ebb and flow of
satanic power in specific places at specific times. He is like a
squatter that the legal owner of a building must evict.
In human history, it is easy to see the enemy coming in like
a flood and the Lord raising up a standard against him. In a
global sense, each generation faces satan in the form of the
spirit of antichrist or world domination. This is the spirit behind
those who have had ambition to rule the world such as
Napoleon or Hitler. They would usurp the place that belongs
only to God. “The earth is the Lord’s and all its fullness . . .”
(Ps. 24:1). A praying Church should face this spirit and drive it
off long before we find ourselves in a world at war.
Physical violence represents an encroachment of spiritual
violence into the material realm. The spirit of world domination
can emerge only when the saints have lost their vigilance or
when the international Church has become severely divided
over some issue. Nahum 2:1 says, “He who scatters has come
up before your face. Man the fort! Watch the road! Strengthen
your flanks! Fortify your power mightily.”
It is possible to trace through history the story of battles
over states, provinces, cities, and neighborhoods. Consider
this example from my experience.
Several years ago, I was in a Bible school in New Jersey
browsing through some books on the history of missions to
Africa. I began to read the story of Uganda. Many of the first
missionaries died of tropical diseases, but others followed
heroically until a powerful national Church was established.
What caught my attention was an account of the tribal king
who dominated Uganda. He was proud, sexually depraved, and
extremely cruel. The description was remarkably similar to the
newspaper reports of the dictator ruling Uganda at that time.
Idi Amin and his regime of death seemed to match his
predecessor in every detail.
Since that time, I have studied the history of Uganda in
greater depth. The cycle of blood bath, followed by revival,
followed by blood bath is evidence of the ebb and flow of
battle, as the national Church has come against the evil spirit
that seeks to rule over the nation.
I have spent the past 20 years in extensive travel doing the
work of a missionary-evangelist and teacher with Youth With a
Mission. I have experienced firsthand the influence of territorial
spirits while ministering in more than 30 countries.
Often when I first arrive in a new location, I discern the
unseen realm most clearly because I sense the contrast in
atmosphere between the old location and the new.
For instance, I recently travelled from Belo Horizonte, Brazil,
to conduct meetings in Manaus, Brazil. Belo Horizonte is a
large city in south central Brazil with many dynamic and
growing churches. The pastors of the city have a remarkable
degree of unity. Belo is an Antioch, a city with a gift to lead out
and to send out. In fact, on that particular trip, I had been
speaking at a large conference where 18 Brazilian missionaries
were being commissioned for service in Africa.
In Belo you can sense victory in the Heavenlies. Like all
Brazilian cities, it is young and raw and filled with desperate
problems, but the Church is alive, and positive changes
happen daily.
Manaus is also a large city, set in the jungle, one thousand
miles up the Amazon River. Shortly after we arrived, we went to
visit Youth With a Mission’s base on the bank of the river. It
was hot, so I went for a swim, then lay sunbathing surrounded
by the tropical beauty of the forest. That night I was to speak
at a service downtown, so I stilled my heart before the Lord in
preparation. I asked the Lord for discernment regarding the
“strong man” or territorial spirit over Amazonas and Manaus.
My senses told me I was in a placid, beautiful place, but the
Spirit of God showed me that Manaus was oppressed by a
dominating, contentious spirit. That night I preached on
discerning the gates of the city. The Lord gave me a word of
knowledge concerning this city in some detail. Operating under
this principality were spirits working in the fear of authority,
distrust, covenant breaking, sensuality, sorcery, greed, despair,
regional pride, boasting, and religious tradition.
I talked to the Christians about the temptations they must
resist: becoming scattered, withdrawn, and isolated; losing
heart concerning their future; becoming judgmental toward
authority figures; walking in polite but superficial relationships.
That night two missionaries poured out a story of personal trial
that matched exactly what the Spirit of God had revealed to me.
This principle works just as well in the technological culture
of North America.
In the summer of 1982, I joined Gospel recording artist Keith
Green on his last concert tour of America. (He died in a plane
crash that same summer.) We were best friends and enjoyed
learning from each other.
The first concert was in Houston, Texas. Before the concert,
we had a discussion about spiritual warfare and then prayed
fervently. Keith was amazed at the results. There was a marked
increase in the number of people who came forward during the
altar call.
The next night we spent considerable time in spiritual
warfare before going to the concert venue. This time the city
was Memphis, Tennessee. As we prayed, we discerned spirits
of religion and apathy as the principalities at work in that city.
We turned the concert into a giant worship service. Then Keith
turned all the house lights on and preached on commitment to
God and repentance from dead works. Again the response at
the altar was enormous.
The next concert was in St. Louis. Again we asked God for
a specific strategy. That night 631 young people ran to the
front to get right with God. The key was to discern the gates of
the city, to bind the strong man, and then to plunder his goods
(Matt. 12:29).
All around the world, praying Christians are arriving at a
consensus about the nature of the battle for the individual
cities. For example, the prayer warriors of London believe that
they are battling a spirit of unrighteous trade that has
influenced the world through that great city for hundreds of
years.
The Bible usually identifies an evil spirit by its territory or
by its prime characteristic, for example, “The prince of the
kingdom of Persia” (Dan. 10:13) or “Then Death and Hades
were cast into the lake of fire . . .” (Rev. 20:14).
We associate New York with mammon, Chicago with
violence, Miami with political intrigue. Getting the exact name
of demons at any level is not necessary, but it is important to
be aware of the specific nature or type of oppression.
Let me add a strong warning. The Bible is a carefully edited
book that reflects the priorities of God for the believer and
shows us the nature and character of Father God as revealed in
Jesus. Although there are many Scripture passages that teach
us about the devil and his devices, they are few in number
compared with the space given to God’s own character and
ways. Even good angels are peripheral to the mature believer,
who is preoccupied with the majesty of the living God and
Jesus, His Son.
Very little is revealed about specific territorial spirits in the
Bible, and that’s no accident. Daniel mentions the prince of
Persia and the prince of Greece, and there are New Testament
references such as Paul’s struggle “with the beasts at
Ephesus” (1 Cor. 15:32). However, this should not be taken as a
mandate for the development of spiritual maps in which we
seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge. God will reveal
what we need to know when we need to know it.
There has always been a danger of either denial of satanic
activity altogether or of focusing on it too much. If we gain
knowledge of the name and nature of an evil spirit and publish
it broadly, the enemy will only attempt to glorify himself openly
or to instill fear among the immature. Joshua warned the
Israelites about this temptation. “ . . . You shall not make
mention of the name of their gods . . .” (Josh. 23:7).
Morbid fascination is a carnal appetite that can drive us to
search out the hidden knowledge of the evil realm. The Bible
says in Romans 16:19, “ . . . I want you to be wise in what is
good, and innocent in what is evil” (NASB). True, God reveals
hidden mysteries to His close friends. “The secret of the Lord is
with those who fear Him . . .” (Ps. 25:14). However, the
privilege of knowing God Himself should be the center of our
desire.
Territorial spirits are not responsible for the cultural and
geographic divisions within the human family. God Himself
claims to be the Author of human diversity.
And He has made from one blood every nation of men
to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has
determined their preappointed times and the
 boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek
the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for
Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one
of us (Acts 17:26-27).
From a biblical standpoint, the diversity of human culture
comes first from the unique characteristics of individuals and
families, such as the traits of Noah’s three sons or Israel’s tribal
divisions stemming from the sons of Jacob. This is a direct
result of God’s participating in the formation of individual
children in the womb. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew
you . . .” (Jer. 1:5).
The second major reason for human cultural division also
stems from a direct act of God.
Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the
Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from
there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of
all the earth (Genesis 11:9).
Modern languages must have developed from the ancient
linguistic divisions that came into being when God directly
created a diversity of languages at the tower of Babel. The
people didn’t evolve, learn, or develop these root languages.
They just started speaking them as God placed new
vocabularies within their mouths.
Language is the foundation stone of human cultural
division. It’s small wonder then that missionary
anthropologists like Don Richardson have been able to
document the redemptive analogies lying dormant even in the
Stone Age peoples of Irian Jaya. In his book Eternity in Their
Hearts (Regal), Richardson records how God has prepared
cultures in every corner of the earth to receive the Gospel.
Although God is the originator of human personality and,
therefore, cultures, satan has assigned a hierarchy of
principalities, powers, and rulers of darkness to specific
territories on the earth. In this way, satan has marked the
culture of every people on earth with some of His own
characteristics.
Ancient peoples were profoundly aware of territorial spirits.
They gained identity from them and lived in constant fear of
them. I believe that most of the ancient gods are still worshiped
in other guise by today’s secular societies. We teach our
children about Greek mythology in school, but we are actually
instructing them in the doctrines of an ancient religion that was
a matter of life and death to the ancient Greeks. The gods on
Mount Olympus were not just literary figures, but powerful
demons holding the minds of the people in a potent deception.
The cultures of the West are built on a Graeco-Roman
foundation.
The fundamental beliefs of those ancient cultures are still
central to the popular commercial culture of the United States
and Western Europe. By this I do not mean to say that we are
consciously bowing down to ancient gods by name. Rather, we
live out lifestyles that have their root in ancient religious
practice. Study the ancient Greek ideas of success or beauty or
personal identity, and you will discover a set of beliefs that are
being propagated at the movie theater down the street.
It is easy to see the demonic in animistic tribes in Africa or
the dark fanaticism of resurgent Islam, but do we see the
spiritual roots of the modem urban culture of the West? Judeo-
Christian revelation has profoundly influenced the institutional
life and laws of the West, but the majority of Western people
still march to the ancient drums of carnal desire. They march
after a lifestyle dream devoid of the revelation of the one true
God.
In recent times, the old gods have begun to show their
faces again, particularly in children’s entertainments. The next
time you go to the mall, look through the stores selling comic
books and role-playing games such as “Dungeons and
Dragons.” You will see ancient cultic deities packaged
alongside fictional characters in the plot lines of the games and
stories. There are also examples of this in teen rock culture and
Saturday morning cartoons on television.
In some parts of the world, this has moved beyond fantasy.
People are again openly worshiping the old territorial spirits.
An example would be the renewed worship of Thor and Odin in
Scandinavia and the reemergence of the druids in Britain.
When you see these signs of satanic influence, be concerned,
but don’t be discouraged. Fear is the enemy’s tool, and it has
no place in the heart of the believer. God has plans for your
city, and He is the Almighty One who cannot be hindered,
except by our lack of obedience.
Daniel 7:14 speaks of Jesus’ final victory over all the earth’s
cultures:
To Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve
Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which
shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which
shall not be destroyed.
We are to go to prayer with high praise on our lips, not a
complaint about the apparent power of the adversary. Read
carefully this mind-blowing Scripture: “To the intent that now
the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the
church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly
places” (Eph. 3:10). We are to proclaim that the apparent
victory of satan at the cross was really a defeat for him and his
ruling spirits. The Gospel is bad news to demons and good
news to human beings. The cross took away the devil’s power
of accusation. The cross was satan’s most humiliating mistake.
There is no reason why we, the Church, should concede
one square inch of this planet to the government of territorial
spirits. This is our planet “The heaven, even the heavens, are
the Lord’s; but the earth He has given to the children of men”
(Ps. 115:16).
Through Jesus we have regained our stewardship of the
earth.
Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents
and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy,
and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless
do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you,
 but rather rejoice because your names are written in
heaven (Luke 10:19-20).
It is my prayer that Territorial Spirits will contribute
understanding and encouragement to you as you walk in your
own particular obedience before the Lord.

John Dawson, Director

Youth With a Mission
Los Angeles, California
 Preface
The 1990s was a decade in which the biblical teaching on
spiritual warfare rose to a new level in the Body of Christ. The
formation of the Spiritual Warfare Network was one of the most
visible signs of that season. However, as we moved into the
21st century, some other things that the Spirit was saying to
the churches seemed to attract the attention of Christian
leaders, and I was one of them.
If I may be personal, I felt that God was leading me to
research and teach on the areas of apostolic government and
ministry as well as social transformation as we moved into the
2000s, which I did. In all of this I harbored an assumption that
proved to be faulty. I assumed that because of the strenuous
work on spiritual warfare we had done in the 1990s—books,
newsletters, teaching, preaching, consultations, national
conferences, dramatic field applications—the Body of Christ
would be well-informed on the theory and practice of spiritual
warfare from then on. Wrong! Before the first decade of the
2000s ended, those of us who observe such things began to
notice that the Church was not as acutely tuned to spiritual
warfare as it used to be.
What was happening? For one thing, new individuals were
continually entering the new apostolic movements of the Spirit.
Some were recent converts; others were believers who wanted
to begin moving according to what the Spirit was now saying
to the churches. But many of them knew nothing of the
teachings of the 1990s, and most of the key books were by
then out of print. Additionally, some who had been on fire
about spiritual warfare in the 1990s began to soften because
there were few conferences on the subject and few new
writings. As leaders noticed this, they began to agree that,
“We need to get back to the basics!”
Enter Destiny Image Publishers. The leaders of Destiny
Image, observing what I have been talking about, approached
me about bringing back some of the most influential books on
spiritual warfare published in the 1990s. To date, they have re-
released my books, Praying with Power, Warfare Prayer, and
now Territorial Spirits. Soon they plan on re-releasing
Wrestling with Dark Angels. This is a huge step forward for the
Kingdom of God!
Let me say a few words about this book, Territorial Spirits.
As I will mention later on, it was only toward the end of the
1980s that I first began to understand what Paul meant when he
said that we do not wrestle with flesh and blood, but against
principalities and powers (Eph. 6:12). Then, much to my
surprise, no fewer than five of the speakers at the Lausanne II
Congress on World Evangelization in Manila in 1989 chose to
speak on territorial spirits. God spoke to me directly at that time
that I was to take leadership in this, at least for me, relatively
new field of what He was revealing to the churches.
At that time, I was a professor at Fuller Theological
Seminary, so I began my new assignment by doing what we
scholars usually do. I undertook an intense research project of
seeking out what others before me might have said on the
subject. Keep in mind that this was before Google and
Wikipedia, so it meant hours and hours of library research.
When I began, I didn’t expect to find much at all, but I was in
for a surprise. What I did find, as the weeks went by, is what
you have in this book.
It soon dawned on me that there was enough material for a
significant publication, so I approached Regal Books and they
released it under the title Engaging the Enemy: How to Fight
and Defeat Territorial Spirits. When they later decided to take
it out of print, Sovereign World in the United Kingdom took it
over and released it with the title Territorial Spirits: Insights
into Strategic-Level Spiritual Warfare & Intercession. It was
published in at least nine other languages. Once again, it went
out of print.
Now, as you can see, it has been resurrected. As I have
gone over the writings of the 19 contributing authors, I once
again stand amazed at the profound insights on spiritual
warfare that God gave them long ago. This is a valuable
historical document. We have made no effort to modernize it or
update it. As you read, you will see what God had been
showing to His people even before the outstanding decade of
the 1990s, and you will be amazed as well.
I know that you will agree that we need to go back to the
basics. This book, by the grace of God, takes us back to the
basics!

C. Peter Wagner
 Introduction
by C. Peter Wagner

The growing interest among scholars, pastors,

missionaries, evangelists, and lay Christians in strategic-level
spiritual warfare cries out for research and teaching. Many,
myself included, have begun to make efforts to respond to this
need.
Soon after I began to build a reference library on the issues
of territorial spirits and intercessory prayer against wicked
principalities and powers, it occurred to me that I was locating
bits and pieces of important information which many of the
Christian leaders who needed it most would be hard-pressed to
know about or to locate, even if they did. Thus, I had the idea
of putting together a book such as this one.
Some of the material is from out-of-print sources, some from
periodicals that may have been discarded long ago, and some
from a variety of books still in print, which I highly recommend
to readers who wish further information. The only original,
unpublished material is my Chapter 1 “Spiritual Warfare,” and
Vernon J. Sterk’s Chapter 16, “Territorial Spirits and
Evangelization in Hostile Environments.”
Now that this material has been put together for the first
time, it constitutes a book that I believe is unique in Christian
literature. I took the pains to examine the 100 (it happened to be
an exact number) books listed in the Fuller Theological
Seminary McAlister Library card catalog under “angelology”
and “demonology.” Of the 100 books, only five so much as
mentioned the issue of territoriality. Of the five that did, only
three had information that could be regarded as helpful, but
none was valuable enough to include in this volume. Spiritual
territoriality has not been a prominent issue for theologians
and biblical scholars through the years, at least for some 95
percent of them.
You can expect to read material from authors from many
different backgrounds and using many different styles. We
have journalists, pastors, professors, missionaries, biblical
scholars, anthropologists, and itinerant preachers. While most
of the material has been previously published in the United
States, the authors include an Argentine, a Korean, a
Zimbabwean, a German, a New Zealander, and two Britons, as
well as Americans.
This variety is reflected in many ways. For one thing, not all
of the authors will agree with each other on the details,
although all will agree that our primary battle for the
evangelization of the world is spiritual, involving spiritual
warfare with high-ranking principalities and powers. Some
come from an evangelical perspective and some from a
charismatic perspective. We have Lutherans, Baptists,
Congregationalists, Pentecostals, Presbyterians, Anglicans,
Reformed, and Mennonites, just to name some. Naturally, the
items will vary in forms of punctuation, capitalization,
referencing, and spelling. I regret that some were written before
many of us became aware of the need to use gender inclusive
language, but I have not seen fit to attempt to edit out the
discriminatory language of older days.
It is my prayer that God will use this book to inform,
motivate, and equip vast numbers of committed Christians who
are prepared to accept God’s invitation to enlist in the mighty
spiritual army He is raising up so that in cities and nations
across the globe God’s Kingdom will come and His will be done
on earth as it is in Heaven.
 CHAPTER 1
Spiritual Warfare
by C. Peter Wagner

As we begin moving into the 1990s, I sense, along with

many other Christian leaders, that the Holy Spirit is saying,
“Prepare for warfare.” This decade may see the most intense
spiritual warfare of recent times. We may see some of the
greatest victories for God and His Kingdom, and we may see
some of the most serious setbacks. The final outcome,
however, is not in doubt. The power of satan was definitively
broken on the cross, and it may well be that the enemy knows
the end is near and that he is waging a last ditch stand that will
end at Armageddon.
This is not happening in a vacuum. Through recent
decades, God has been moving His people, step by step,
through phases of preparation, setting the agenda for the
current decade. As I analyze the trends, I believe that in 1950
God began to ripen the greatest spiritual harvest in all of
Christian history, and He put evangelism at home and in the
world high on our agendas. In 1960, God began speaking to us
about compassion for the poor, the oppressed, the homeless,
and the destitute. Social responsibility was added to the
agenda. In 1970, we saw the first seeds of what is developing
now into the greatest prayer movement in living memory. In
1980, a contemporary renewal of the prophetic ministry began
and, while this is not so widely recognized as yet, the gift of
prophecy and the office of prophet are reemerging. Now in
1990, spiritual warfare is moving to the forefront.
To go further back in the historical context, the holiness
movement of the late 1800s and the Pentecostal movement of
the early 1900s laid foundations for personal righteousness on
one hand and ministry with supernatural signs and wonders on
the other. Both of these have continued to play major roles in
preparing the Church for the 1990s. I believe we will see
increasing emphasis on both holiness and power ministries in
the years to come.

Is Warfare the Best Term?

I wish we didn’t have to think about this phase of ministry
as warfare. After all, Christians are not advocates of war. Jesus
is known as the Prince of Peace.
If I personally were to choose an analogy for our struggle
with the enemy, I might want to say it is like a football game. I
could think of many very descriptive parallels between football
and our adversarial relationship with satan. This would be
much more pleasant than talking in militaristic terms.
But I am not free to do this. The Bible itself describes our
fight against the devil as warfare. And I believe the reason for
this is clear. We are in a life and death struggle. Football games
are intense while they are being played, but very few people
can remember who held the national championship two years
ago. It doesn’t make that much difference. But, unlike football,
our spiritual struggle bears eternal consequences. It can mean
the difference between Heaven and hell for millions of people.
Warfare is not a game. There is a finality to war unlike any
other human activity.

God’s Kingdom Implies Tribulation

The apostle Paul says, “ . . . We must through many
tribulations enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). On
several occasions he details what some of this tribulation can
be expected to look like. He says that perilous times will come
and people will arise who are lovers of themselves, lovers of
money, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unloving,
unforgiving, brutal, and despisers of good (2 Tim. 3:1-5). He
speaks of the persecutions that he suffered, and says, “All
who desire to live godly lives in Christ Jesus will suffer
persecutions” (2 Tim. 3:12). He desires that we “be counted
worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer” (2
Thess. 1:5). He was physically driven out of city after city, and
in Lystra, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city,
supposing him to be dead (Acts 14:19).
Satan is referred to several times as the god of this age or
the prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2:2; 2 Cor. 4:4). He has
usurped God’s authority and set up his kingdom here on earth.
His power is awesome. In his great hymn, A Mighty Fortress Is
Our God, Luther insightfully said of satan, “On earth is not his
equal.”
When Jesus came, He invaded satan’s kingdom with the
Kingdom of God. Satan was not only insulted, but his power
was broken through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
He is not taking this invasion lying down. That is why violence
has erupted both in the Heavenlies and here on earth. That is
why Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and
the violent take it by force” (Matt. 11:12). That is why Paul
said, “ . . . We must through many tribulations enter the
kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).
As we enter the Kingdom of God, we can choose one of
two postures. We can draw back and protect ourselves in a
defensive posture, or we can move forward aggressively in an
offensive posture. Those who choose the defensive will
attempt to avoid spiritual warfare. Many I know even get upset
when others talk about it. I agree with what John Dawson says
in his book, Taking Our Cities for God, “We need to lift
ourselves out of a self-centered spirituality—a mentality that
says we are victims rather than warriors.”1

Jesus Changed the Picture

I mentioned that Jesus came to invade satan’s kingdom.
When He did, the long period of time covered by the Old
Testament permanently changed. Jesus brought a new
covenant.
When precisely did things change? Theologically, they
changed on the cross. Paul explains this in some detail in
Colossians when he says that the Father “has delivered us
from the power of darkness and translated us into the
kingdom of the Son of His love” (Col. 1:13). He then goes on to
say that we have redemption through His blood (Col. 1:14). The
blood that Jesus shed on the cross defeated the enemy, or as
Paul later says, “having disarmed principalities and powers,
He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in
it” (Col. 2:15). He declares that Jesus is the “head of all
principality and power” (Col. 2:10).
The dejure defeat of satan came on the cross. However, a
de facto power encounter occurred earlier, which served notice
to satan that he was through. Jesus said that John the Baptist
was a great person:
. . . But he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is
greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist
until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and
the violent take it by force (Matthew 11:11-12).
How could Jesus declare this before He went to the cross?
He could declare it because He had met satan head-on in the
wilderness. Jesus’ temptation was a high-level power
encounter that satan conclusively lost.
Notice that Jesus from the start took the offensive posture.
The first thing that happened after His baptism was that He
was “led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by
the devil” (Matt. 4:1). This episode of spiritual warfare took
place at God’s initiative. Jesus, of course, was victorious. And
we also can be victorious as we are united with Him and allow
His power to flow through us.

Four Key Dimensions to Spiritual Warfare

Spiritual warfare is not fun and games. It is not some kids
running around in devil costumes on Halloween or a spooky
horror movie on television. These may be part of it, but they
are nothing more than masquerades of the real thing. Satan and
the demons under his control are real beings with warped
personalities, wicked hearts, and malicious intents. They are
more powerful than humans, but they are not God nor
anywhere near to God. We are not suggesting a new form of
dualism. In fact, God is their Creator, just as He is ours. Even
though their power is limited, and even though God has given
us authority over them, a chief danger in spiritual warfare is to
be overconfident. Many Christians have been clobbered
spiritually, emotionally, and physically because they have not
been wise in their approach.
In approaching spiritual warfare wisely, there are four
dimensions that must be carefully considered:
1. Our weapons of warfare,
2. Our spiritual authority,
3. Our engagement with the enemy, and
4. Our plan of action.
Let’s look at them one at a time.
 1. Our Weapons of Warfare
I have found by personal experience that one of the most
difficult lessons for the average Christian to learn is that our
weapons for spiritual warfare are spiritual weapons. It sounds
simple, and it is in theory. But it is difficult in practice because
even those of us who are biblical Christians still live much too
much of our lives in the flesh.
The Bible is clear.
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war
according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down
strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:3-4).
We are so used to trying to solve social and economic
problems through politics, or legal problems through the
courts, or personal disagreements through arguing about them,
or international relationships through war, that to hear that God
has a higher and more effective way through spiritual weapons
is regarded as wishful thinking, even by many born-again
Christians. This attitude needs to change.
What, then, are the weapons of our warfare?
The central, foundational activity for spiritual warfare is
prayer. In one sense, prayer is a weapon of warfare, and in
another sense, it is the medium through which all of the other
weapons are utilized. A chief New Testament passage on
spiritual warfare is Ephesians 6, where we are told that:
We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against
 principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of
wickedness in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12).
We are told to put on the full armor of God, “praying
always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit . . .”
(Eph. 6:18). Without prayer we are impotent in our struggle with
the enemy.
If prayer is the central activity for spiritual warfare, the
central attitude for those of us in the battle is faith and
obedience. At one point when Jesus was on earth, His
disciples tried to cast a demon out of an epileptic boy and
could not. After Jesus stepped in, cast out the demon, and
healed the boy, the disciples asked Him why they couldn’t do
it. Jesus said, “Because of your unbelief . . .” (Matt. 17:20). The
disciples lacked the faith to succeed in that episode of spiritual
warfare. Jesus tried to encourage them by telling them that as
their faith increases they will have the power to move
mountains and “nothing will be impossible for you” (Matt.
17:20).
What does faith do? For one thing, through faith we
establish our relationship to God. We are saved by grace
through faith (Eph. 2:8). Then once we are in fellowship with
God, we move on from there to deepen our relationship with
the Father through faith. That is why Ephesians 6 lists a part of
the full armor of God as “the shield of faith” (Eph. 6:16).
Faith cannot be understood apart from obedience to God.
How do we know if we really have the kind of faith that draws
us into a relationship with God?
Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His
commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does
not keep His commandments, is a liar and the truth is
not in him
(1 John 2:3-4).
Faith without works is dead.
The proper combination of faith and obedience can be
summed up in one word: holiness. Holiness means “being so
full of God that there is no room for anything else.” That means
that we no longer love the world or the things of the world,
such as the “lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride
of life” (see 1 John 2:16). Instead of doing the things of the
world, a holy person does the will of God. All this is in First
John 2, where it is summed up in the context of spiritual
warfare: “ . . . You are strong and the word of God abides in
you, and you have overcome the wicked one” (1 John 2:14).
If we pray with an attitude of faith and obedience, the
specific weapons that God has given us for spiritual warfare
will be effective in defeating the enemy. What are some of
these specific weapons?

The Name of Jesus

There are several biblical references which point to the
importance of Jesus’ name. Mark quotes Jesus as saying that
we cast out demons in Jesus’ name (Mark 16:17). John quotes
Jesus as saying, “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it”
(John 14:14). Paul says that God gave Jesus the name that is
above every name (Phil. 2:9), just to mention a few examples.
What’s so important about a name? It is the authority that
the name bears. An American ambassador to a foreign country
speaks in the name of the President of the United States. A
police officer knocks on a door and says, “Open up in the name
of the law!” The other day I answered the telephone and a
voice said, “I’m Susan and I’m calling Doris Wagner for Pat
Robertson.” I immediately summoned my wife Doris to the
phone only to discover the call was an appeal for funds. My
habit is to hang up on such telemarketers, but the name Pat
Robertson hooked me. And Susan got $100 from Doris! The
name carries authority.
When Jesus invites us to use His name, He transfers divine
authority. It is an awesome weapon, but caution is needed. In
Acts 19, we are told of the seven sons of Sceva who tried to
cast out a demon in Jesus’ name only to find out that the spirit
knew they were phonies and called their bluff. The one
demonized man beat up all seven, stripped them naked, and
chased them out of the house. No one has the authority of
Jesus unless Jesus is truly their Lord. At the judgment, many
will say, “Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name . . . ?”
and Jesus will reply, “I never knew you . . .” (Matt. 7:22-23).
The name of Jesus is a powerful weapon of spiritual
warfare, and it wields tremendous authority, but only if we use
it according to His will.
 The Blood of Jesus
Revelation 12 relates one of the fiercest episodes of
spiritual warfare imaginable. Michael and his angels are
fighting against the dragon and his angels. Michael wins “by
the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 12:11).
When Jesus shed His blood on the cross, satan’s power
was definitively broken. It was on the cross that Jesus
“disarmed principalities and powers” and “made a public
spectacle of them” (Col. 2:14-15). Satan hates nothing more
than to be reminded of the blood of Jesus. The cross is an
embarrassment to him. Every soul saved by the blood of Jesus
is a further embarrassment to him. Satan cannot stand his
ground against the blood of Jesus.
I teach the 120 Fellowship adult Sunday school class in
Lake Avenue Congregational Church in Pasadena, California.
This is a class in which we have experienced the miraculous
power of God for several years. Although we have ministered
to the demonized through the years, we were spared from open
demonic manifestations in class until I began a six-month series
on spiritual warfare, teaching many of the concepts found in
this chapter. During that time we experienced two powerful
manifestations.
In one of the instances, I had bound the demons before
they had made any noise and was gathering a small team to
minister to the woman. One of the team members somewhat
routinely claimed the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. Just
the mention of the blood totally changed the situation from
relatively quiet into shrieks and screams “NOT THE BLOOD!
NOT THE BLOOD!” While claiming and applying the blood of
Christ must not be regarded as some magic formula, it certainly
must be recognized as a powerful weapon of spiritual warfare.

Agreement
Undoubtedly the greatest day in the history of the Church
was the day of Pentecost. On that day “they were all with one
accord” (Acts 2:1). The accord was “in prayer and
supplication” (Acts 1:14). Few weapons of spiritual warfare are
more effective than agreement in prayer.
What is it we agree upon? We agree first of all on what the
Word of God is saying to us. Then we agree on what we see
the Father doing by the Holy Spirit. Even Jesus said He did
only what He saw the Father doing (see John 5:19). It is
possible for us to know individually what the Father is doing,
but given our human tendency toward the world and the flesh,
we are on much safer ground when others agree with us.
Jesus sums it up when He says, “If two of you agree on
earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for
them by My Father in heaven” (Matt. 18:19). This is one
reason why corporate prayer is so important in spiritual
warfare. When numbers of believers in one local church or from
many churches in the same area get together to agree in prayer,
power against the enemy increases dramatically.
 Fasting
While there may be several forms of fasting, at this point I
am referring to voluntarily abstaining from food for a given
period of time. This is the most common sense of the term.
Apparently some forms of spiritual warfare require fasting
as a prerequisite for victory. When Jesus was explaining to His
disciples why they couldn’t cast the demon out of the epileptic
boy, He said, “This kind does not go out except by prayer and
fasting” (Matt. 17:21).
The apostles fasted when they wanted to hear from God.
When the prophets and teachers in Antioch fasted, the Holy
Spirit spoke and told them to send out Barnabas and Saul.
Then they fasted again before they laid on hands and sent
them out (Acts 13:2-3).
The highest level power encounter of all time was Jesus’
temptation in the wilderness. As part of it, Jesus fasted for 40
days. Did that weaken Him? Yes, it weakened Him physically,
but it strengthened Him spiritually. Paul says, “ . . . When I am
weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10).
We must be careful that we take the proper attitude toward
fasting. Fasting is a privilege that draws us closer to God and
makes us more sensitive to hearing from Him. It is not a
spiritual merit badge that makes us better than others. It is not
a method of manipulating God into doing what we want Him to
do. Jesus says that we are not supposed to make a public
display of fasting, but to do it quietly to the Father (Matt. 6:16-
18). This does not mean we shouldn’t talk about it discreetly,
but it does mean we shouldn’t brag about it.
With the right attitude and with God’s timing and guidance,
fasting is one of our most useful weapons.

Praise
We often think of praise only as an expression of joy when
something good happens to us. We hear of some victory and
say, almost as a reflex action, “Praise the Lord!” But there is
more to praise than that. Our praise, under any circumstances,
blesses God. The psalmist says, “Every day I will bless You
and I will praise Your name forever and ever” (Ps. 145:2).
Paul and Silas show us clearly how powerful praise can be
as a weapon of spiritual warfare. In Philippi, Paul had cast a
high-ranking spirit of divination out of a fortune teller. Her
masters were incensed and had Paul and Silas beaten and
thrown into jail. They found themselves in the inner prison
with their feet in stocks. One could hardly imagine a more
dismal and discouraging situation.
What did Paul and Silas do? They praised God! “At
midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to
God . . .” (Acts 16:25). The result was a divine earthquake that
loosened their chains and opened the prison doors. The jailer
himself was saved and a strong church was planted. Paul and
Silas were victorious, but the secret was that they had praised
God even before they saw the victory.
 The Word of God
In Ephesians 6, the full armor of God is described in detail.
Of the six pieces of armor, five are defensive weapons and only
one
offensive—the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God
(see Eph. 6:17).
What is the word of God?
The use of the written Word of God, the Scriptures, is a
powerful weapon of warfare, as we see in the temptation of
Jesus. As a response to all three attacks of the devil, Jesus
quoted Old Testament Scriptures and the devil could not resist
(Matt. 4:3-11).
But there is also a spoken word of God, a rhema, which I
will explain in more detail later on. At this point, I simply want
to indicate that hearing a fresh, spoken word of God is an
important part of using the sword of the Spirit.
An example from the Old Testament is found in Jeremiah 32.
Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me . . .” (Jer.
32:6). This word happened to refer to a man named Hanamel
who would approach him and ask him to buy a field. When it
came true, Jeremiah said, “ . . . Then I knew that this was the
word of the Lord” (Jer. 32:8).
The sword of the Spirit is hearing from God like Jeremiah
did. It is knowing what God’s will is for a certain time and place.
It is following in the steps of Jesus, who said, “The Son can do
nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do . . .” (John
5:19).
This is why prayer is part of the same sentence that
mentions the sword of the Spirit (even though some
translations of the Bible separate Ephesians 6:18 from 6:17 by a
subtitle). It is only by “praying always with all prayer and
supplication in the Spirit . . .” (Eph. 6:18) that we are in a
position to receive the word of God. True prayer is a two-way
conversation with God. We speak to Him, and He speaks to us.
Knowing God’s will by receiving the word of God and
acting accordingly is crucial to effective spiritual warfare.
Fasting is related to this since it makes our spiritual ears more
sensitive, and agreement with other believers helps protect us
when we are not hearing as accurately as we should. When
accurately discerned, the word of God is an extremely powerful
weapon.
The weapons of our warfare are spiritual, not carnal. As we
mature in the things of God, we will better learn how to use the
name of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, agreement, fasting, praise,
and the word of God. These are not the only weapons we have
for spiritual warfare, but they are extremely important in
resisting the enemy.

2. Our Spiritual Authority

Once we understand our spiritual weapons and something
of how to use them, we then need to focus our attention on the
divine authority that forms the basis on which we operate. One
of the weapons, the name of Jesus, gives us a clue to the
nature of our authority. It is in the name of Jesus that we are
authorized to bind and loose. What does this mean?
Jesus spoke of binding and loosing at Caesarea Philippi in
what is widely regarded as one of the milestone events of His
training of the 12 apostles. The incident is described in
Matthew 16, and Jesus makes three important points:
The Messiah has come. Simon Peter confesses, on behalf
of all, that “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”
(Matt. 16:16). They know the world will never be the same
again. The one for whom the Jews had been waiting thousands
of years was there in their midst.
The Church has come. The 12 were now ready to hear: “On
this rock I will build My church . . .” (Matt. 16:18). It was
Jesus’ intention that the Church would advance, and He
assured them that even “ . . . the gates of Hades shall not
prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18).
The Kingdom has come. Jesus promises His followers the
keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. What are they? He says,
“Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and
whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matt.
16:19).

Binding and Loosing

A little later on, Jesus repeats His teaching on binding and
loosing, and adds, “Where two or three are gathered together
in My name, there I am in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20). This
seems to be a delegated authority that common believers
would be expected to use today.
Binding (Greek deo) is frequently used for “tying up an
animal.” For example, a watchdog will keep one away from its
master’s house unless it is bound. Likewise, Jesus says, “How
can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods,
unless he first binds the strongman?. . .” (Matt. 12:29). In the
context of spiritual warfare, binding means “restricting the
power of evil on all levels.”
Loosing (Greek luo) often means “untying the thong on
sandals.” Jesus said concerning Lazarus, “Loose him and let
him go” (John 11:44). He also declared that a woman whom
satan had bound for 18 years “ought to be loosed from this
bond” (Luke 13:16).
It is important to realize that while we have authority to
bind and loose in the name of Jesus, we do not decide on our
own what should be bound and what should be loosed. The
Greek tense of Jesus’ teaching really means: what you bind on
earth will have been bound in Heaven, and what you loose on
earth will have been loosed in Heaven. This indicates the
necessity for a synchronization between earth and Heaven.
The normal sequence is Heaven first, then earth. This once
again reminds us of the need to hear from God in prayer and to
know what He is doing before undertaking any aspect of
spiritual warfare.
How do we know what God is doing in Heaven?
 While the difference cannot be pressed to an extreme
because there is some overlapping of terms, some Pentecostal
theologians have made the helpful suggestion of
distinguishing the logos Word of God from the rhema word of
God. The logos is said to be God’s eternal, written Word found
in the canon of Scripture. Through it we know, for example, that
sin has been bound in Heaven. So, more specifically, have lust
and pride and bitterness, to name just a few. So have demons.
We need look no further to know that we have the authority to
bind the spiritual forces behind war or oppression or child
abuse or racism or pornography because God’s written Word
gives us that information.
The rhema is regarded as a more immediate word from God
that we do not find in the 66 books of the Bible. Although it
will never contradict the written Word of God, it is something
we seek directly from the Father. For example, we want to buy a
home and we pray, “God, is this the one?” Or we look for a job
and pray, “God, please show me if it is Your will that I accept
this offer.” We pray believing that He will give us the answer.
What are commonly (though questionably) referred to as
“words of knowledge” also fall into the rhema category.
A while ago, for instance, a woman in my 120 Fellowship
adult Sunday school class announced that God had spoken a
rhema word to her that someone in the class was suffering
from a severe affliction of the lower intestine, which God
wanted us to pray for. When no one responded, she was
surprised because she thought she had received the word
quite clearly, including several details of what the affliction
actually looked like. During the week, as she prayed further
about it, she received another word from God, this time the
actual first and last name of the gentleman who was sick. That
brother had been absent from the class the Sunday she spoke
up, but when he came the following Sunday, there was no
doubt about whether we had the authority to bind the affliction
because we knew it had been bound in Heaven. We prayed for
him and he was healed. In this case, our instructions had to
come through a rhema word rather than the logos Word.
How do we know if a rhema word is valid? How do we
know that what we are hearing is not just our own imagination
or, worse, something generated by the world, the flesh, or the
devil?
Spiritual gifts, such as the gift of prophecy or the gift of
discernment of spirits, come into the picture at this point. They
are extremely helpful. So are experience and Christian maturity
and holiness and personal intimacy with God. These go a long
way in providing assurance to an individual, such as the
woman who had the word about the intestinal disease.
But there is an even greater assurance when the word is
allowed to be tested by others. I believe this is why Jesus
directly followed His teaching on binding and loosing by
saying that He is present when two or three are gathered
together in His name. “If two of you agree on earth concerning
anything they ask, it will be done for them by My Father who
is in heaven” (Matt. 18:19). One of the things we need to agree
on is discerning what has been bound in Heaven.
 One of the most serious crises in the history of my 120
Fellowship Sunday school class arose when we invited a
woman to give us some of our first teaching on contemporary
prophecy. The enemy obviously did not want this to happen,
and he confused us enough to make some class leaders think
that it was not God’s will. I myself had no rhema word on this
one, so I called my leadership team together for an emergency
meeting. Although we did not agree with each other when we
started the meeting, before long we collectively discerned that
God wanted us to go ahead with our plans. I was in a personal
position where I could not have known this alone. But once we
agreed that we had a word from God, we bound the enemy and
loosed the ministry of the woman we had invited. Not
surprisingly, the event turned out to be a powerful landmark
occasion for the group as a whole as well as for numerous
individuals and families.

It Doesn’t Always Work!

Almost any of us who can tell stories like the two I have
just told can tell even more stories in which binding and
loosing have not accomplished the desired results. Why is
this?
There must be many reasons, and I do not profess to know
them all. It does seem to me, however, that there may be both
external and internal reasons for failure.
Externally, it is very simple. Satan obstructs the process.
We are told that he “walks about like a roaring lion, seeking
whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). Obviously he is not
omnipresent, so he obstructs us from accurately discerning the
will of God through demons of different ranks. The higher the
rank of the evil spirit, the more spiritual power is needed to
bind it. Unfortunately many who shout in churches or in rallies
on television, “I bind you, satan!” are operating on such a low
level of spiritual power that they are not accomplishing much
more than making noise. While we are assured that satan is
ultimately defeated, we run a great risk when we underestimate
his cunningness and power. Nevertheless, when we find that
we are impotent in binding and loosing, we do well to search
for a possible cause in the spirit world.
Internally, it is quite possible that those of us who are
attempting to do spiritual warfare are not properly submitted to
the lordship of Christ. His authority and power flow through us
only when we maintain an intimate relationship with Him. To
the degree that we are not living holy lives, we can expect a
reduction in spiritual power. It is all too easy for any of us to
revert to using carnal, rather than spiritual, weapons in our
lives and ministries. When we do, binding and loosing has little
effect.

3. Our Engagement with the Enemy

Having understood the weapons of our warfare and our
authority to use them, we are ready to consider moving out and
engaging the enemy.
 As spiritual warfare rises toward the top of the agendas of
Christian leaders in many parts of the world, it is to be expected
that a variety of opinions will emerge. The discussion as to just
how directly we should engage the enemy is an extremely
important one. Some come at it with a more cautious approach,
while others seem to be considerably bolder. I say it is
important because we are dealing here with what can escalate
into a life and death issue.
The more cautious souls have frequently come to their
position because of disastrous events they themselves have
experienced or that they have heard of. Underestimating the
power of the enemy is a major danger, and some have paid the
price for falling into it. I know of several American pastors who
have taken on territorial spirits and ended up leaving the
ministry because of immorality.
A Japanese pastor told me of a church member who
brought a family idol to be destroyed, but also said he had
been warned that if it was destroyed someone in his family
would die. He burned the idol in the patio of the church, and
within six months a cousin’s son died and his wife lost her first
child. A Presbyterian pastor in Ghana ordered a tree that had
become a satanic shrine to be cut down. When the last branch
was lopped off, the pastor dropped dead.
Stories like this are frightening. Who would not be cautious
if they knew that not only their own physical life and well-
being were at stake, but also those of their loved ones? Some
see their role as that of Daniel in the story of the great
heavenly battle, which took place between angels and the
princes of Persia and Greece described in Daniel 10. Daniel did
not engage the enemy directly. In fact, he apparently did not
even know a battle was taking place. He stayed home and
prayed to God, yet his prayer triggered the cosmic struggle.
Even Michael the archangel at one time did not dare to accuse
the devil, but asked the Lord to do it for him (Jude 9).
Appropriate caution, then, is called for in all spiritual
warfare. At the same time, however, there seems to be a
concomitant biblical mandate for boldness in engaging the
enemy. Some particular challenges by the enemy require that, if
we are wise, we will edge toward the side of caution. Other
challenges will require us to be somewhat more aggressive. If
we are hearing the voice of God, as we should be, we will take
our cues from Him and move out accordingly.
Returning to Ephesians 6, we see that our engagement with
the enemy is described in some detail, with the apostle Paul
characteristically mixing metaphors. He uses two simultaneous
analogies to describe our engagement with the enemy: the
wrestler and the warrior.

The Wrestler
Paul says that:
We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of
wickedness in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12).
 In the Greco-Roman culture, wrestling was a prominent
sport. Wrestling, even more than, say, boxing or karate,
requires a high degree of direct bodily contact with the
opponent. The goal of the wrestler was not to protect himself,
although that was an important means to an end. His goal was
to conquer the opponent in physical engagement. The winner
came out on top, and the loser came out on the bottom. In fact,
some Greek wrestling involved a fight to the death.
Paul is speaking about very serious spiritual business.
When he says that we wrestle, he is not referring just to
himself, Silas, and Timothy. He is referring to all true members
of the Body of Christ. He does not suggest that we wrestle
directly with the devil because, for one thing, the devil, as I
have mentioned previously, cannot be in more than one place
at one time. The principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, and
spiritual hosts of wickedness are descriptions of the demonic
hordes that satan has delegated to steal, to kill, and to destroy,
and those are the beings we are expected to engage.
In most cases, we will be called to wrestle against ground-
level spirits, such as those frequently mentioned in the
Gospels. Some may also be called to deal with the middle-level
spirits, which operate through witches, occult practitioners,
New Age channelers, spiritist mediums, and others. Paul dealt
with one of these in Philippi—a spirit of divination, which had
controlled a slave girl who was a fortune teller. This was such a
high-level spirit that the deliverance had political
repercussions, and Paul and Silas found themselves in jail as a
result (Acts 16:16-24). Others, I would think relatively few, may
be called to deal with the higher level territorial spirits such as
the prince of Persia or the prince of Greece. Obviously, the
higher we go, the more caution we need.

The Warrior
Once Paul establishes that our engagement with wicked
spirits is like a wrestler, he switches analogies and describes
our means of combat as that of a Roman warrior.
Military equipment, then as now, includes defensive as well
as offensive instruments. The full armor of God is our defense
against our spiritual enemies. Interestingly enough, the Roman
armor was designed to protect the front of the warrior, not the
back. Apparently the assumption was that when the enemies
were near, the soldiers were moving toward them, not running
away. But as any soldier knows, the final objective is not to
protect yourself against the enemies, but to defeat them.
General Patton said the key to winning a war is not giving your
life for your country, but seeing that the enemy gives his life
for his country.
Paul mentions two offensive weapons in this passage, one
used by the devil and one used by the Christian warrior. The
devil’s weapon is a bow and arrow (Eph. 6:16). This is a
weapon used at a distance. It may well be satan’s desire that
his forces do not engage well-armed Christians up close. On
the other hand, the Christian’s weapon is a sword, a close-up
weapon. Satan may continue shooting from a distance, and we
are expected to use the shield of faith to defend ourselves. But
if we are going to use our sword, we must be prepared to
engage the enemy.

4. Our Plan of Action

There is no doubt about it. Engaging the enemy on any
level is risky business. Nor is there any doubt that we are
called to do it. So now the question becomes, how do we go
about it? If we are going to do spiritual warfare, let us do it well.
Let us agree on a wise and effective plan of action.
One of the most helpful Scripture passages for formulating
a battle plan is James 4:7-8:
Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will
flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near
to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify
your hearts, you double-minded.
This passage mentions two relationships with seven verbs,
five of them active and two passive. The first relationship is
upward and the second is outward.

The Upward Relationship—God

Four active verbs are used to describe our relationship to
God: submit, draw near, cleanse, and purify.
First, we are to submit to God. This means, first and
foremost, to accept Jesus Christ as Savior and acknowledge
that He is Lord. As we do, we enter the family of God. God is
our Father. It is a comfortable situation for us to be at home on
our Father’s lap, so to speak.
Second, we are to draw near to God. This means we must
spend time with the Father. We must get to know Him well, and
as in any other interpersonal relationship, time together is of
the essence. One of the obvious reasons we need to be near to
God is to know from Him what has already been bound in
Heaven so we can effectively bind on earth.
Then, we are to cleanse our hands and purify our hearts.
Cleansing our hands refers to what we do. Purifying our hearts
refers to our motives, what we think and feel. Taken together,
they point us toward holiness. Holiness, as I understand it, is
being so full of God that there is no room for anything else.
Without holiness we can expect very little power in spiritual
warfare. The opposite of holiness is worldliness, and a
previous verse in James 4 reminds us that “ . . . friendship with
the world is enmity with God . . .” (James 4:4). While we no
more produce personal holiness through human works than we
gain salvation through them, if we decide to open our lives
totally to the fullness of the Holy Spirit, He is the One who
does the work of cleansing and purifying.
If we take the action, then, of submitting, drawing near,
cleansing, and purifying, the passive verb comes into play:
“He [God] will draw near to you . . .” (James 4:8). This is God’s
action, not ours.
 When He draws near to us, our chief desire is to obey Him.
We want to please the One who loves us so much. In
describing the weapons of our warfare in Second Corinthians
10, Paul says they are for the purpose of “bringing every
thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).

The Outward Relationship—Satan

While our first movement in spiritual warfare is upward
toward God, our second is outward toward the enemy. Here we
have only one active verb: resist. If we take steps to resist the
devil, the passive verb comes into play and “ . . . he will flee
from you” (James 4:7).
This is the scary part. Nothing scares a little bird more than
being pushed out of the nest. Nothing scares us more than the
thought of meeting the enemy in a spiritual wrestling match.
Satan is a roaring lion. Who wants to go in that direction? It
would be much more comfortable to run back home to Mommy.
But the verb is not “run away” or “stay out of the jungle” or
“ignore him,” but resist. We may not like the idea, but we must
move in the outward direction.
Jesus Himself had to go through a similar process. From all
of eternity He had been equal to the Father. But, as Philippians
2 teaches us, He became unequal to the Father by taking on a
human nature in the incarnation. Jesus had to come to earth,
live a human life, experience temptation just as we do, and
resist the devil one-on-one—not as God, but as a human being.
I would imagine that doing that was as scary for Him as
spiritual warfare is for us. He knows by personal experience
what He is sending us out to do.
The 12 apostles had been with Jesus for a year and a half.
They had grown to love Him and to love each other. But the
day finally came when they were to minister on their own.
Jesus told them that the harvest was ready and that they were
to go out by themselves to reap it by preaching the Kingdom
of God and manifesting the signs of the Kingdom. After a year
and a half of moving upward, so to speak, they now were to
move outward. This was scary, especially when Jesus said,
“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves . . .”
(Matt. 10:16). But they obeyed, and much to their relief, they
did have the power to cast out demons and heal the sick (Mark
6:13).
Later Jesus sent 70 of His followers out, giving them
“authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all
the power of the enemy . . .” (Luke 10:19). Their ministry was so
powerful that Jesus “saw Satan fall from heaven like
lightning” (Luke 10:18) as they were preaching and doing
good works.
The apostles as well as the 70 had submitted to God, and
God had drawn near to them. Then they resisted the devil, and
he indeed fled from them as the Scripture says he would.
 CHAPTER 2
Defeating Territorial Spirits1
by Steven Lawson

It will be useful, near the beginning of a volume of this

nature to see, with rather broad brush strokes, a
panorama of some of the new things the Spirit is
apparently saying to the churches. Steven Lawson is a
journalist on the staff of Charisma and Christian Life
magazine, a principal voice of the
Pentecostal/Charismatic movement in the United
States. This article, written specifically to communicate
to Christian laypeople, appeared as a feature cover
story in the April 1990 issue of that magazine. Its lively
style gives us a glimpse of the thoughts of some of the
leading Christian figures in the USA and furnishes a
backdrop against which to interpret some of the
chapters that follow.
—C. Peter Wagner
Cordoba, Argentina. Two hundred Youth With a Mission
(YWAM) missionaries are frustrated, discouraged. They have
come from around the world to tell fans attending the 1978
world soccer finals about Jesus. But no one seems to be
listening to their good news. Their evangelism efforts become
listless, powerless; their Spanish-language gospel tracts
ignored, tossed aside.
 Not quick to give up, the YWAM missionaries declare a day
of fasting and prayer, and retreat to a monastery on the edge of
town. There they engage in spiritual warfare.
God makes them aware of the true nature of the battle they
are fighting. It goes beyond demons attacking individuals. God
shows how Satan has immersed himself in the culture of the
area. He reveals a demonic principality that reigns in Cordoba:
Pride.
Very sophisticated, fashion-conscious and materialistic,
Cordoba’s residents cling to values of position, possessions
and appearance. The spirit of pride that manifests itself in these
ways can be overcome in only one way—through humility.
Scattering themselves throughout the central mall shopping
area, YWAM team members fall to their knees. With their
foreheads to the cobblestones, in full view of passers-by, they
pray for a revelation of Jesus to the city.
A breakthrough comes immediately. Large, curious crowds
gather to watch and listen. Men, women, and children ask the
missionaries to autograph the tracts they now take gladly. As
outreach leader John Dawson preaches at the Plaza of St.
Martin, people in the crowd drop to their knees, repenting of
their sins. In a flood of tears, one woman asks Dawson if she
can accept Christ as her Savior right there or if she has to go to
church to do it.
“The intimidation of the enemy was broken along with our
pride,” says Dawson, now the ministry’s Southwest United
States director.
 What Dawson and his fellow YWAM missionaries
participated in was full-scale spiritual warfare. What they
accomplished was the breaking of a spiritual stronghold. From
Cordoba, Argentina, to San Jose, California, to Sofia, Bulgaria,
the supernatural battle rages, with Christians responding like
never before.
What once was limited to intercessory prayer and an
occasional deliverance from demonic possession is now
unfolding as a major aspect of church life. Dawson employs the
principles regularly in his work with Youth With a Mission in
Southern California. Larry Lea, pastor of Church on the Rock,
Rockwall, Texas, has called an army of prayer warriors to “do
battle with the enemy.”
But the struggle is not new at all. The apostle Paul tells us
that this battle we fight is not “against flesh and blood.”
Rather, we struggle “against the rulers, against the
authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against
the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realms” (Eph. 6:12 NIV
1984).
With his novels This Present Darkness and Piercing the
Darkness, Frank Peretti has popularized the conflict that Paul
was describing. These fictionalized accounts tell how packs of
demons have taken over complete towns, infesting
government, education, even churches. And they depict how
Christians fight back with prayer and how angels clash with
evil principalities.
More and more people such as Dawson, Lea and Paulk are
taking Paul’s words seriously and applying as fact the same
principles Peretti used to craft his novels.
“We live in the midst of a real-life, invisible, spiritual war,”
says Dawson. The combatants include angels, demons, satan,
the Holy Spirit and us. The battlefronts can be found at every
point on the globe. The stakes are the salvation of human
beings.
Evanston, Illinois. Steve Nicholson has preached the
gospel in the area for six years, with virtually no fruit. He and
members of his church pray for the sick and a few get well. But
his Vineyard Christian Fellowship is not growing. Nicholson
begins some serious prayer and fasting.
A grotesque, unnatural being appears to him. It growls,
“Why are you bothering me?” It identifies itself as a demon of
witchcraft who has dominion over the geographical area.
In the heat of warfare, Nicholson names the city streets in
the surrounding area. The spirit retorts, “I don’t want to give
you that much.” In the name of Jesus, Nicholson commands
the spirit to give up the territory.
During the next three months the church doubles in size
from 70 to 150, mostly from new converts coming out of
witchcraft. Nearly all of the new believers must be delivered
from demons.
For the most part, dealing directly with the demonic has
been limited to possession or oppression of individuals. While
this remains a vital part of the battle, a new front has emerged:
territorial spirits, such as the spirit of pride and the spirit of
witchcraft.
Professor C. Peter Wagner of Fuller Theological Seminary’s
School of World Mission calls this “cosmic-level” warfare and
identifies different tiers of demonic activity, even a hierarchy.
Dawson, Lea and others say specific principalities with
identifiable characteristics are assigned to specific
geographical locations and geopolitical institutions. Their
domain can include a household, a neighborhood, a city, a
nation, a culture, a subculture.
The dominating characteristic of these spirits can be greed
(New York City), power (Washington, D.C.), pornography (Los
Angeles), lust, timidity, pride or other sin. Lea says the spirit of
greed seems to dominate many areas of the United States.
Orlando, Florida. Cars barely crawl along South Orange
Blossom Trail on this Friday night. Commuters head home;
tourists wind their way to their hotels; men try to go unnoticed
as they enter the topless bars that line the street
Jim Gaines, a balding, 50-year-old church elder, pulls his car
into a parking space across the street from an adult bookstore.
He shuts off the headlights, turns off the engine and quotes 2
Corinthians 10:4: “For the weapons of our warfare are not
carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.”
Ann Agee and Norma Gray, who have come with Gaines on
this night, nod in agreement. For the next 30 minutes or so the
three praise God and rebuke the devil—as they and others
have on several nights a month for several months.
 “We bind the spirit of lust and sexual perversion in this
place,” Agee commands. “We marshal angels to take charge
and to speak to the hearts of the men who enter this building,”
Gray declares. “We take authority in the name of Jesus,”
Gaines exclaims.
Two weeks later and a half-mile down the road at a
combined meeting of several Orlando churches, Metro Life
Church pastor Danny Jones leads about 500 Christians in
prayer for the city. Then they enter into spiritual warfare,
denouncing the demonic spirits that blind the eyes of non-
Christians in the city and pulling down the strongholds that
rule over the region. Specifically they denounce the spirits that
control the “adult entertainment” businesses that sell
pornography.
Within a month, the city’s Metropolitan Bureau of
Investigation has enough evidence to start legal proceedings
that could close the adult bookstores. Within two months,
owners of all seven adult bookstores in the greater Orlando
area voluntarily shut their doors.
John Dawson has just published a book titled Taking Our
Cities for God: How to Break Spiritual Strongholds (Creation
House). In the book he expands upon his teachings on
territorial spirits. C. Peter Wagner calls this the most important
book on the subject and the only textbook available. Jack
Hayford, pastor of The Church on the Way in Van Nuys,
California, wrote in the foreword: “This is a book of Holy Spirit
insight. It juxtaposes the inspired Word of God with the
toughest problems we face on this planet today and shows
how timeless truth relates to and can transform our present
entanglements.”
Dawson uses his Cordoba experience as a launching pad
into his broadened understanding of the theology of
intercession for our cities. This intercession involves warfare.
Dawson carefully charts a course that includes personal
holiness, discerning of spirits, praise and worship, prayer,
research, obedience to God, unity and direct confrontation.
Dawson, now 38, grew up in New Zealand, the oldest child
of Jim and Joy Dawson and the grandson of a Plymouth
Brethren radio evangelist. Loren Cunningham, YWAM
international director, describes Jim and Joy Dawson’s
household as being one of the most spiritual he has ever seen.
“They had a constant flow of prayer and Bible study,” says
Cunningham. Evangelist Steve Fry, who knew Dawson when
they were both teenagers, remembers Dawson as being
sensitive to the Holy Spirit and one desiring, even at a young
age, an intimate relationship with God.
After graduating from high school, Dawson was in
Switzerland, attending a YWAM training school. There was no
doubt in Dawson’s mind that God had called him to be a
missionary. The big question was where: Germany, the jungles
of New Guinea, the rain forests of the Amazon? All seemed
reasonable.
Finally, he spent an entire day in prayer, asking God to
show him to which nation He was sending him. He promised
God that wherever it was, he would serve there the remainder
of his life.
The next morning Dawson awoke with a Bible reference
fixed in his mind: Ezekiel 3:5. He had never read Ezekiel, so he
had no idea that the verse said, “For you are not sent to a
people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, but to the
house of Israel” (NKJV)—Before that day was out, God made it
clear that He was calling Dawson to the United States of
America. Though not his native nation, his parents had moved
to Southern California several years earlier.
Memphis, Tennessee. Contemporary Christian singer Keith
Green has taken John Dawson along on a concert tour. They
discern spirits of apathy and religion in the city and confront
them. That night, they turn the concert into a giant worship
service. Green turns off all the lights during the concert and
preaches on commitment to God and repentance from dead
works. There is neither space nor a dry eye at the altar.
Green’s widow, Melody, says the concept of spiritual battle
in a given city before and during a concert transformed his
singing ministry in his last days. She says that Dawson and
Green became close friends and that Dawson has since shared
this and other teachings with the Garden Valley Christian Artist
retreat, which is held each year in Lindale, Texas.
Fuller Seminary professor C. Peter Wagner explains that
satan is not like God. He cannot be omnipresent. He was
created as an angel, but chose to turn from God and took one-
third of the angels with him. These fallen angels became
demons.
 In his book Angels: God’s Secret Agents, Billy Graham says
that the fallen angels chose to participate in “the war program
of Lucifer.” The object of their program, according to Graham,
is to destroy faith in the world.
Since satan, the fallen prince of heaven, cannot be
omnipresent, he must delegate the responsibility of evil
influence to his demonic servants. How many demons are
there? Wagner reports that though no exact count can be
arrived at, some hints have been given:
Wagner tells of Friday Thomas Ajah—a Sunday school
superintendent at the Assembles of God church in Oribe, Port
Harcourt, Nigeria—who was a high-ranking occult leader
before his conversion. Ajah was purportedly given the name of
St. Thomas the Divine by satan, He reports that satan had
assigned him control of 12 spirits and that each spirit
controlled 600 demons for a total of 7,212.
“I was in touch with all the spirits controlling each town in
Nigeria, and I had a shrine in all the major cities,” Ajah says.
The nature of demons can be argued. Some theologians
such as Wagner contend that these spirits can attach
themselves to people, buildings, seats of government and
other objects. Others offer a more vague description,
contending that since demons also battle in the heavenlies
they have attributes humans cannot comprehend just as angels
cannot be fully understood.
San Jose, California. Pastor Dick Bernal, members of his
Jubilee Christian Center and Christians from a number of other
churches plan to “attack the city” in intercessory prayer. Some
rent rooms on the top floor of hotels; others assemble on a
nearby hill; still others gain access to the rooftops of tall
buildings.
Through research, they had traced the history of the area
back to the 19th-century California Gold Rush. Bernal says that
the type of people attracted by instant riches produced the
spirit of greed that now manifests itself in the materialistic
norms of the business community in Silicon Valley, which San
Jose anchors, and the self-centered experimental lifestyle of the
entire San Francisco area.
Concerned that the San Francisco-San Jose-Oakland area
sits alone as the only major metropolis in the United States
never to experience a major revival, they began to pray. Quickly
the principality of “self” was identified as dominant.
The Christians gathered around the high places of San Jose
start with praise and worship, then prayer, and then they
confront the spirits. Specifically, they declare that the skies of
their city will be opened and the light of the gospel will get
through to the unsaved.
Dawson encourages the research of local history before
entering spiritual warfare or serious intercession for a city. In
Annapolis, Maryland, a spirit of “bondage” is traced back to
the slave trade that was conducted there. In Nashville,
Tennessee, the spirit of “religiosity” finds its roots in the
institutionalized but inactive church denominations that have
had a strong presence there. In Orlando, Florida, spirits of
“pleasure” and “leisure” can be clearly attached to the
vacation industry that is so predominant there.
Dawson differentiates between “points of entry” and
“dominant features” of a region. A point of entry would be a
historic event, such as the slave trade, that gave sin a place in
the community, thus enabling demonic forces to establish a
foothold. According to Dawson, geographical areas have
dominant features that can either be used to glorify God or to
advance satan and sinful activity and obstruct the gospel from
being spread.
He uses his own city of Los Angeles as an example, saying
that communication is the dominant feature there. As proof, he
offers evidence that Southern California is one of the world’s
largest centers of pornography distribution and the home of
the film and television industry, which has sent messages
propagating sinful lifestyles around the world. On the other
hand, Los Angeles is also home to some major Christian
ministries, such as World Vision, the Trinity Broadcasting
Network and the International Church of the Foursquare
Gospel.
Miami, Florida. Larry Lea calls together the Christians of the
city for a “Prayer Breakthrough.” He insists that there be unity
among the pastors—which has never been easy to achieve in
Miami. He says that without unity there cannot be effective
warfare. Pastors from 430 local churches respond and join him.
The Miami Herald calls it the largest pastoral gathering in the
area’s history.
 More than 10,000 people join Lea for prayer at the Miami
Arena. There is repentance and praise and worship. Lea
identifies four levels of territorial warfare:

Principalities. These are individual demon spirits.

Powers. This group includes the captains of teams of
spirits (such as Legion in Mark 5:9).
Rulers of darkness. This group includes regional spirits.
Strongmen. These dominate wickedness in high places
and oversee the other levels of demonic activity.

On the first two nights, Lea and the 10,000 Christians

rebuke the regional spirits. Lea and the Miami area pastors
identify spirits of fear, religiosity, violence, drugs, witchcraft,
discouragement and greed. “We declare that these spirits will
not dominate this area,” says Lea from the podium. “We
declare that the spirit of fear will not rule in this city.”
On the final night, Lea leads a spiritual attack against the
strongman of “greed,” which he discerns as ruling the area.
“Discernment and unity—you must have both if you are
going to be able to do this,” says Lea about spiritual warfare
on a territorial level.
Lea conducts “Prayer Breakthroughs” around the country.
He says this type of intercession and spiritual action will
become more visible and more intense in the 1990s. And it will
lead to evangelism, according to Lea. “Once the spirits that
dominate an area are held back,” he says, “the gospel will be
able to get in. People will turn to Jesus.”
 The New Testament makes it clear that Jesus and His
disciples dealt with demons. On one occasion, Jesus cast a
legion of demons into a herd of swine (Mark 5:1-15). He also
charged His disciples to cast out demons (Matt. 10:7-8), and
the book of Acts records their confrontations with evil spirits.
Their ministry is used as an example to indicate that we should
be doing the same today.
But when it comes to dealing with territorial principalities, it
is not quite so clear what we should be doing. C. Peter Wagner
says one of the many questions regarding territorial spirits is
whether or not Christians can confront them directly.
“It can be very dangerous,” says Wagner. “There are horror
stories where people’s ministries were wiped out when they
tried this.”
In West Africa, Wagner says, a pastor flippantly ordered a
tree cut down that had long been called “the devil’s tree” and
identified with a local witch doctor. The second the tree was
felled, the pastor dropped dead. Was it demons? Wagner sees
a possible connection but warns that “there is still much
research to be done in this area.”
Bringing down territorial spirits identified with specific
geographical areas is a fairly new concept. Vineyard Christian
Fellowship pastor John Wimber questions the lack of direct
biblical references and the lack of instruction in the Bible as to
how to handle principalities.
Wagner suggests that once church history is thoroughly
studied on the matter, evidence likely will be found that this
sort of spiritual warfare has existed all along, particularly in the
area of intercessory prayer.
Dawson says that the key to breaking spiritual strongholds
is not to focus on satan—though we can uncover the devil’s
works—but to focus on Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy
Spirit. Dawson says the choice is either revival or judgment.
Los Angeles, California. John Dawson meditates on
Leviticus 26:31: “I will lay your cities waste and bring your
sanctuaries to desolation.” Was God talking about his city?
About Los Angeles?
Prompted by the Holy Spirit, Dawson begins to intercede
for his city and gets others to do the same. He prays with his
mother, Joy Dawson, and a pastor friend, Dan Sneed. Mostly
unfamiliar Bible passages come to their minds. They look them
up. Each one pronounces severe judgment. The three cry out
to God for mercy, entering into a “season of travail” of ongoing
intercessory prayer.
More than six months pass. Dawson is busily involved in
planning a massive outreach bringing together more than 6,000
Christian missionaries to witness about Jesus to people
attending the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
On the last day of the Olympic outreach, Dawson receives a
phone call from Jack Hayford. “John, I am calling our church to
pray with special urgency today,” he says, explaining that he
and others are sensing that a major catastrophe could be
averted only through fervent prayer.
 There are no visible signs of disaster in Los Angeles that
day, no natural calamity. The news media reports of possible
terrorist attacks have not yet materialized. But Dawson knows
in his heart that Christians need to pray as never before. He
begins a huge telephone prayer network.
The 6,000 missionaries gather at a park for a massive prayer
meeting. Christians from more than 30 nations intercede for the
city. With eyes shut and hands lifted, they pray for God’s
mercy and protection.
Simultaneously, Christians around the city pray. There is no
disaster, no terrorist attack. Instead, thousands of people listen
to the Word being preached and open themselves to the
moving of the Holy Spirit.
“I believe that in that summer of 1984 something terrible
was about to happen in Los Angeles,” says Dawson. “It was
averted through the repentance, obedience and earnest prayer
of thousands of Christians.”
Spiritual warfare is activated on the international level, the
national level, the community level and in the church,
according to Dawson. But it also involves every neighborhood
and every household. “Warfare begins on a personal level,” he
says, “and escalates through layers of increasing difficulty.”
This is not a “demon under every rock” theology. Neither is
it a formula or ritual that works at the snap of a finger. Rather, it
is an acknowledgment of the unseen battle and a willingness to
persist in the warfare until victory is seen. Dawson stresses the
importance of “travailing” through prayer until there is a
breakthrough. Sometimes this can take days, months, even
years.
This decade promises to be a time of active spiritual
warfare, with Christians being more involved than ever and
with Christians having a better understanding of the
ramifications of cosmic-level confrontations.
But for Dawson, Lea, Wagner, Bernal and others, the focus
is not on the battle itself but on the result: salvation of the lost,
deliverance of people bound by sin, a deeper relationship with
the Holy Spirit for Christians.
The strategies for spiritual warfare appear to be calling
some to the front lines. Wagner proposes that not everyone
will be involved with direct confrontations with high-level
spirits on a regular basis. Others have varying approaches and
degrees of caution. But everyone agrees that intercessory
prayer for a household, a neighborhood, a city, a nation, a
region is the vital cog, the initial seed that makes a
breakthrough possible. And the many voices of prayer around
the world are indeed producing dramatic changes both on a
cosmic and a natural level.
 CHAPTER 3
Territorial Spirits1
by C. Peter Wagner

One of the first pieces I published on territorial spirits

appeared as a short section in my book How to Have a
Healing Ministry without Making Your Church Sick
(Regal Books). Without developing theological fine
points, I basically wanted to gather together some of
the field experiences of individuals ministering in
different parts of the world as case studies of what we
might be looking at as we move to engage in strategic-
level spiritual warfare.
In many places a key to the spread of the gospel is the
power encounter. But there is a subcategory of power
encounter that has great potential for accelerating world
evangelization and about which Christian leaders seem to know
relatively little. I refer to breaking the power of territorial spirits.
We read in 2 Corinthians 4:4 that satan has successfully
blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot receive
the gospel. This undoubtedly refers to individuals, but could it
also refer to territories? Could it mean nations? States? Cities?
Cultural groups? Tribes? Social networks? In the parable of the
sower, Jesus said that the seed of the Word falling on the road
produces no fruit, because “Satan comes immediately and
takes away the word that was sown in their hearts” (Mark
4:15). Church growth theory has long ago recognized the
phenomenon of resistant peoples. Could it be that at least
some of that resistance may be caused by the direct working of
demonic forces?

Sumrall’s Greatest Battle

To illustrate, let’s look at a dramatic event that occurred a
number of years ago in the Philippines under the ministry of
Lester Sumrall. He reports that he went on an extended
evangelistic mission to the Philippines, because he felt he
heard a direct word from God telling him to go and that great
things would happen. But after five months of preaching, only
five people were saved. Obviously, something was wrong.
One night Sumrall heard a radio report mention an inmate in
the Bilibid Prison named Clarita Villanueva. Some unseen
creature apparently was biting her, leaving deep teeth marks on
her neck, arms and legs. She frequently behaved like an animal,
biting, scratching and kicking the doctors. The media featured
her case. During the radio broadcast Sumrall felt God calling
him to go to the prison and cast demons out of her. He prayed
all that night, and the next day asked permission from the
mayor. The mayor said that she was a witch and that no one
was allowed near her. But after Sumrall had signed a legal
release, he was permitted to go to her cell.
The moment he saw her, one of the demons spoke in
English (although the woman herself could not speak English);
“I don’t like you!” It cursed Sumrall, God and the blood of
Christ. Sumrall says, “I went into the greatest battle of my life,”
but through the power of the Holy Spirit he got rid of the
demons and led her to Christ. Sumrall reports that “150,000
people experienced salvation because of this great miracle” and
“From that day the Philippines has had revival.”2
I am not sure that we know for a fact whether the power of
one or more territorial spirits was broken at that time. But in
recent years the rate of church growth has greatly accelerated
in the Philippines. I cite this event because I believe it is a type
of ministry that we should take more seriously than many of us
have in the past. I should think that, using Clarita Villanueva’s
deliverance as a hypothesis that some cosmic changes may
have taken place, would be a potentially fruitful avenue of
research for evangelism and church growth.

Argentine Spirits
Among my personal circle of friends, the one who has had
the most experience in dealing with territorial spirits is
Argentine Omar Cabrera, pastor of the Vision of the Future
Church. A unique feature of his church is that it is
decentralized, meeting in 40 or more cities simultaneously
throughout the central region of Argentina. Omar and his wife,
Marfa, travel 7,000 miles a month, mostly by automobile,
leading the church, which numbers some 90,000.
 How does he move into a new location for his church? His
general practice, after the potential site is selected, is to check
into a hotel and seclude himself alone in a room in prayer and
fasting. It usually takes the first two or three days to allow the
Holy Spirit to cleanse him, to help him disassociate himself, and
to identify with Jesus. He feels he “leaves the world” and is in
another realm where the spiritual warfare takes place. The
attacks of the enemy at times become fierce. He has even seen
some spirits in physical form. His objective is to learn their
names and break their power over the city. It usually takes five
to eight days, but sometimes more. Once he spent 45 days in
conflict. But when he finishes, people in his meetings
frequently are saved and healed even before he preaches or
prays for them.
I have previously described the tremendous growth of
churches in Argentina today and the power evangelism that is
accompanying it. I have talked for hours with friends like Omar
Cabrera and Edgardo Silvoso listening to them analyze what
seems to be behind the extraordinary moving of God in that
nation since the Falkland Islands war of 1982. One hypothesis
relates directly to the type of cosmic struggles I am describing
here.
Back in the days when Juan Peron ruled the country, he
used as his chief advisor a male witch, Jose Lopez Rega, who
was a high priest of the Macumba strain of spiritism. Silvoso
reports that Lopez Rega was the de facto power of the
government, infiltrating the media, the business world, and the
military. A wave of demonic activity swept the country. People
were giving testimonies on national television as to how they
were helped by Macumba. Unfortunately, the evangelical
community was ill-equipped to deal with all of this. As Silvoso
told me, “We had sound doctrine, but we were powerless to
combat demonic forces.” Churches had not grown significantly
in decades.
It is rumored that when Lopez Rega left the government, he
placed a curse on Argentina that resulted in the inhuman
atrocities under the role of the military from 1976 to 1981. Civil
rights were unknown. Thousands of people simply
disappeared, now known to be raped, tortured, brutally
murdered and thrown into secret mass graves, or dumped into
the river. Then the change came in 1982. What exactly
happened in the cosmic realm in 1982 we do not yet know. But,
more than in any other place I know, the most prominent
Christian leaders in Argentina, such as Omar Cabrera, Carlos
Annacondia, Hector Gimenez and others, overtly challenge and
curse satan and his demonic forces both in private prayer and
on public platforms. The nation as a whole apparently is
engaged in a world-class power encounter.

Spirits in Other Lands

When I first met Omar Cabrera several years ago, I
wondered if his ministry of breaking the power of territorial
spirits was unique or whether others might know something
about it as well. Since then my research has uncovered several
reports from different parts of the world that seem to confirm
the reality of what we are talking about. For example, Timothy
Warner of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School believes that
pioneer missionaries especially need to be prepared to break
the power of spirits that rule territories. He relates incidents
from missionaries to Indians in Canada and Papua New Guinea
where this was actually done.3
Paul Yonggi Cho describes an interview with an American
Presbyterian chaplain who had experienced a dry, fruitless
ministry among the military in Germany, but in Korea “suddenly
heaven opens and the Spirit pours out.” Cho says that in
Germany “the powers of the sky were not broken because the
German church did not pray.” In Korea the “atmosphere of the
air” is different, because the cosmic evil powers have been
broken. In Korea, Cho says, “There is not so much pollution as
we are a praying church.” He cites the early morning prayer
meetings, the all-night prayer meetings and the prayer
mountains that are all very much a part of Korean church life.4
Jack M. Chisholm, pastor of the Glendale, California,
Presbyterian Church, made an investigative trip to Korea.
Among many lessons for growth and renewal he learned was
his newfound conviction that we need to be able to “tackle the
strongholds, to break down the towers, and to set people free.”
He believes that the new wave of the power of the Holy Spirit
that many of us are seeing “will break the backs of demonic
institutions that hold nations as well as people in bondage.”5
Bill Jackson tells in World Christian magazine of a
missionary couple in Thailand, who saw no fruit for years until
they decided to set one day a week aside to go into the woods
and engage the territorial spirits in warfare. A wave of
conversions followed. Jackson believes that thousands of
unreached peoples are currently under the direct thumb of
satan, and “The gospel won’t go forward among these peoples
until we bind the spirits that bind them, whether those
deceptive forces be Islam, Hinduism, or any of a myriad of
others.”6
In recent years churches have been growing rapidly in
Brazil, but very slowly in neighboring Uruguay. A missionary
who met Ralph Mahoney of World MAP had a strange
experience while distributing tracts in a small town on the
border of Brazil and Uruguay, where the main street divided the
two nations. He found that on the Uruguay side no one would
accept the tracts, while they received them gratefully on the
Brazilian side of the street. And individuals who refused them
on the Uruguay side would change their attitude and take them
on the Brazilian side. The missionary’s interpretation was that
“in crossing the street they were passing out from under the
covering of darkness in Uruguay into a country that had
experienced, in part, the removing of the covering.”7

What Are Their Names?

Mark I. Bubeck sees satan as the commander-in-chief of the
forces of darkness, leading a hierarchical structure of evil
spirits. The most powerful are principalities or princes.
Bubeck understands them to have vast power and a certain
degree of independence of action. Under them are powers
“probably more numerous and somewhat less independent and
powerful than the princes.” Next are the rulers of darkness who
serve as lower grade officers. Finally come the wicked spirits
or demons.8
Paul Lehmann, a missionary to Zaire with Christian and
Missionary Alliance, recently published a list of the names of
demons he cast out of a witch doctor, Tata Pembele. They
included guard of the ancestors, spirit of travel, feeder of the
dead, rescuer from sorcery, voice of the dead, spreader of
illness, paralyzer, destroyer in water, healer and many others.
Through them the witch doctor had exercised great power.9
Witches in the Los Angeles area chant to isis, astarte,
hecate, demeter, kali and innana. Others bow to cerridwen,
mother of earth and cernunnos, father of the woodlands. Paul
Kauffman has identified a chief spirit of Thailand as narai.
Indians in the andes acknowledge the power of pachamama,
inti and viracocha. Some Mexicans feel that the Aztec war god
huitzilopochtil still exercizes power.
The names of two territorial spirits are apparently
mentioned in Daniel 10. He speaks of an angel of God who was
coming to minister to him, but who was delayed because of
spiritual warfare with “the prince of the kingdom of Persia” (v.
13; see also v. 20) and who later expected a similar battle with
the “prince of Greece” (v. 20). Paul refers to them as
principalities and powers and “spiritual hosts of wickedness in
the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12).
 The Spirit of Merigildo
Edgardo Silvoso was the speaker at one of our recent
prayer retreats held at Lake Avenue Congregational Church in
Pasadena, California. One of his topics was spiritual warfare.
He told how in 1985 he and some friends had taken a map,
drawn a circle with a 100-mile radius around his Harvest
Evangelism leadership training center near Rosario, Argentina,
and discovered that there were 109 towns within the circle with
no evangelical church. They then found that in a town called
Arroyo Seco a warlock named Merigildo had long exercised
great power. He had trained 12 disciples, and when he died, he
transferred his power to a spring of water. Once this was
discovered, Christian leaders of the area, Pentecostal and non-
Pentecostal, gathered together for a prayer meeting to do
spiritual warfare. Silvoso reports that it was the most powerful
prayer meeting he had ever attended. They took dominion over
the area in the name of Jesus.
Six of them then went to the headquarters of Merigildo in
Arroyo Seco, Silvoso among them. They served public notice
that he was defeated by the blood of Christ, pointed their car
toward the headquarters building, and broke the evil power in
the name
of Jesus.
The results? In less than three years after Merigildo’s
power was broken, 82 of the 109 towns had an evangelical
church, and more were rapidly being planted.
There is so much more to learn about resisting the devil.
We have many questions and not enough answers. But one
answer that we do have is that Jesus is building His Church,
and the power of the Holy Spirit is more than sufficient so that
“the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18).
 CHAPTER 4
Dealing with
Territorial Demons1
by Timothy M. Warner

Timothy Warner introduced a course on power

encounter at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School,
Deerfield, Illinois, where he is a missions professor, and
the response was dramatic. He discovered that many
traditional, rather conservative evangelicals had a
deep desire to learn about the
reality of the spirit world, a subject somewhat taboo in
academic circles. Warner, a former missionary to Sierra
Leone, not only developed the theoretical side in the
classroom, but also engaged in a rather extensive
deliverance ministry himself.
In recent years a number of other evangelical
professors
have introduced similar subjects into their curriculum,
stimulated to a significant degree by Warner’s
pioneering efforts. Many of these professors contributed
to a volume I edited along with Douglas Pennoyer,
Wrestling With Dark Angels (Regal Books, 1990), and I
strongly recommend to those who desire more
 information. This brief chapter contains material that
Timothy Warner presented to Fuller Theological
Seminary in the 1989 annual Church Growth Lectures.
His overall topic was “Power Encounter in World
Evangelization.”
—C. Peter Wagner
An area of power encounter which is just beginning to be
taken seriously is the confrontation of demons associated with
specific locations or geo-political units. The whole concept of
the gods of the nations in the Old Testament and the
references in Daniel to the Prince of Persia and the Prince of
Greece (Dan. 10:13,20) provide us with a biblical insight into
this, and Jesus’ statement about binding the strong man (Matt.
12:29) may also apply.
I have come to believe that satan does indeed assign a
demon or a corps of demons to every geo-political unit in the
world and that they are among the principalities and powers
against whom we wrestle.
This concept first came up in the missionary context when I
read of a new missionary going into an American Indian village
in Canada. A veteran of such ministry told him that he had
better be prepared to do battle with the demon of the village on
his arrival. The young missionary’s world view and training
had not prepared him for such concepts, and they just moved
in. It was not long, however, before his wife became ill and had
to be flown out. The young man was standing alone in his
cabin with his back to the stove to keep warm when he heard
an awful noise that seemed to be coming from the stove pipe.
Suddenly something jumped on his back; and, although he
could not see anything, he was barely able to stagger to a chair
to sit down. The “thing” identified itself as the demon of the
village, and the battle was joined.
The missionary knew enough to claim his position in Christ,
and he said, “All right satan, you guardian angel of Borchet,
let’s have it out. Jesus Christ sent me here. I might die, but I am
not leaving, and with the Lord are the issues of death.” After
thirty minutes of struggle, claiming the legal victory of Calvary
and all the while gasping for breath, the demon left as it had
come, and the missionary stayed on to carry out his ministry.
How this may relate to many other missionary problems, we
simply do not know because it has not even been seen as in
the realm of possibility. More recently, however, some other
things have called this to our attention. For example, there is a
town on the border between Brazil and Uruguay in which the
main street is the international border. One side of the street is
in Brazil and the other side in Uruguay. Ralph Mahoney of
World MAP tells of a missionary who was in this town passing
out tracts. On the Uruguay side of the street people were very
unresponsive; but when he crossed over to the Brazil side, a
person who had refused a tract on the Uruguay side of the
street now received the tract and even thanked him profusely
for it. His curiosity aroused, he tested several more people and
found the same pattern. Peter Wagner reports that:
later as [the missionary] was praying about the incident,
the words of Jesus came to his mind: ‘No one can enter
 a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he
first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder the
house’ (Mark 3:27). Could it be that the ‘strong man’ on
the Brazilian side had been bound while the ‘strong
man’ on the Uruguayan side was still exercising power?
2
This concept is what seems to be a key factor in the
amazing revival movement that is taking place in Argentina. Ed
Silvoso, writing in Global Church Growth, reports that 3000,
and maybe as many as 8000, persons per day are making
decisions for Christ in Argentina. The one element in the
evangelistic approach which seems to be new is the role of
prayer. Not only are there prayer brigades organized to support
the evangelists and prayer as a prominent part of the services,
at least one of the evangelists will spend from several days up
to two weeks in fasting and prayer to bind the “strong man” or
the “prince” who controls the darkness of that particular
“cosmos.”3 As soon as the Lord gives him the assurance that
this has been done, he begins preaching; and the results speak
for themselves. This is a dramatic illustration of S.D. Gordon’s
statement, “Intercession is winning the victory over the chief,
and service is taking the field after the chief is driven off.”4
There are other elements to the evangelistic ministries in
Argentina which help to account for the response. One of them
is the use of an intensive care tent where the demonized are
ministered to. It appears that most evangelicals have chosen to
simply avoid confrontation with or ministry to spiritists, but
where that challenge is being met head on, God’s power is
clearly demonstrated and many are drawn to Him.
I am not suggesting that we can go around binding the
spirits that control any area we choose. I do think, however,
that when God commissions a missionary to minister in a
particular location, the missionary and the church can claim the
authority of our Lord over every spirit of the enemy claiming
that territory for satan.
 CHAPTER 5
Dealing with the Enemy
in Society1
by R. Arthur Mathews

Arthur Mathews, an internationally-known missionary

leader with Overseas Missionary Fellowship (formerly
China Inland Mission), has been on the front lines of
spiritual warfare long enough to speak with authority.
He was born in China of missionary parents, raised in
Australia, served in the Indian Army in World War II,
was a missionary in China’s interior and suffered four
years of house arrest with his wife and baby in
Communist China. In this chapter, Mathews gives his
views on how spirit powers of evil might be affecting
segments of society.
—C. Peter Wagner
Our generation has eyed with increasing trepidation the
successive waves of evil which have infiltrated world society.
The foundations of morality are being undermined. The central
influences of life are being taken over by men from the bottom
levels of society in contrast to earlier generations. God’s
authority in society is mediated from the top in the punishing
of evil and the rewarding of good. But when control is taken
over by the men at the bottom, we may be sure that the devil is
in it. Thus permissiveness and situation ethics have blurred the
issues, weakened the power to discern evil under its
camouflage of misrepresentation, and then sapped the will to
resist.
Religious heretical sects are multiplying and gaining power.
Drugs that blow the mind have taken captive many of the
upcoming generation. Enemy attack has brought its casualties
in every part of corporate life—the family, the educational
system, the judicial system, and even the church. The pattern
is to compromise or to break away from God’s fixed moral
standards.
What all this is saying is that, the “principalities and
powers in heavenly places” have mustered their unseen array,
rigged their Trojan horse, infiltrated society, and opened the
gates for a flood of evil to take over.
The Bible has alerted us to the possibility of supernatural
evil powers establishing themselves in local cultures and then
controlling life and custom. The messenger of the church at
Pergamos is reminded of the grim fact that he dwells “where
satan’s seat is.” The obvious implication of this is that satan’s
infiltration had reached its intended climax in the establishment
of a control center on earth, from which to direct the powers of
darkness in their opposition to God’s purposes of grace.
Questions again flood our minds. How do these spirit
powers exert their influence in society? Where do they get in?
Is there a distinctive modus operandi that would help us
identify them? What can or what should we be doing to control
and prevent their intrusion? Since God is sovereign and
omnipotent, is it not our place to let Him deal with these
supernatural powers in His own time and way?
The Bible must have answers to these questions, and it
does. But the terrifying fact of a hostile world of evil and
malicious spirits paralyzes many Christians into inactivity and
unwillingness to seek out Biblical answers and to apply them.
Edith Schaeffer says that “there is a deafness, a blindness, an
insensitivity among many Christians, for they refuse to
recognize the war in which they are involved. They are letting
the enemy attack and score victories without resistance.”
There are many clear indications of satan’s motives and
methods given us in the Bible, if only we would heed them. He
is the arch-deceiver, adversary, accuser, the father of lies, and a
“murderer from the beginning.” His central purpose is to pull
God from His throne in the minds of men and to take that
throne himself. To do this, he scored a flying start over the
whole human race through our forefather Adam. Having won
Adam over to his side, his fight is to maintain his advantage
over mankind. To do this, he has his control centers run by
men who have rejected God’s control, the world’s strong
natural leaders who want to shape history after their own
ideals; and in smaller communities the witch doctors, and
leaders in heretical sects. We have a good example of this in
the worship of the goddess artemis (diana, KJV). In modern
history, ancestor worship in China and Japan are other
examples. On the other side, the Christian must make the
reconquest of the ground yielded to the devil his invariable
study and be committed to the goals of his Captain.
However, what we are seeing today is the sacrificing of the
localized culture controls. The once powerful Lama system of
Tibet has been completely broken up in order to bring the
Tibetans into the larger orbit of atheistic communism. Thus
some of the centuries-old cultures are being forced to yield to
the mold of one great anti-God system, so the devil’s strong
natural leader will have a unified world under his control. Satan
is realizing that time is beyond his control and is running out
on him. This “multiplies his fun”, especially as he realizes how
limited is his success in welding the nations together. He seems
to have more success in fragmenting Christians than he does in
uniting his own side.
It seems to me that the shuffling of loyalties among the
nations of the world’s unholy alliances is evidence of God’s
working to scatter and confuse rebellious elements as He did at
the Tower of Babel. This in itself is a guide for us as we pray
for “kings and all in authority.” We would see these things if
we were watching unto prayer. We miss them because we
confine our living and interest to earth and ignore our
responsibilities in the heavenlies. We have the man’s-eye view,
instead of communing long and deeply with the Lord to get the
Lord’s-eye view. Should we not encourage each other to gain
imperial perspective in our praying?
We look out on wars and rumors of war, political and
economic instability, VISA limitations on missionaries in some
countries, and every kind of obstacle put in the way of the
Church to prevent her from fulfilling her commission. And how
do we react to these things? Yes, we do go to prayer, but
generally our praying centers around the missionary and
ignores the powers that arrange these things. Consequently
our praying, like King Canute’s command to the waves to come
no further up the beach, does nothing. Barriers are not moved
by God’s omnipotence until the believer takes the initiative and
stands his ground in the heavenly places to engage the powers
of evil that are directly the cause of the ground-level troubles,
and resists them in the name of the Victor of Calvary.
What does Paul do in the scary situation at Ephesus? He
gets together with Gaius and Aristarchus, or whoever was
available, and together they take their position in Christ in the
Heavenlies and wrestle with and withstand the powers of evil
that are manipulating the willing puppets on the streets.
Immediately there is a break in the situation. Empowered in the
Lord and in the strength of His might and panoplied in
heavenly armor, they force satan to yield ground, and the town
clerk quietens the screaming mob.
Such resistance against supernatural powers is not done
boastfully or presumptuously, but humbly as befits those who
realize that they have no might in themselves and that they
owe everything to the grace and power of God. The exercise is
not a call for self-advertisement as some would make it. It is the
ordained function of those who are in Christ and, I think we
should add, of those who are filled with the Spirit. God does
not commission men not filled with the Spirit to fight His
battles. Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit when he confronted
Elymas the sorcerer and exposed the devil’s attack and
defeated him (Acts 13:9). It is not to be passed over that the
command to be filled with the Spirit comes in the context of the
Christian’s walk on earth and his warfare in the Heavenlies.
 CHAPTER 6
Understanding Principalities and
Powers1
by Thomas B. White

Thomas White is a Conservative Baptist pastor and the

founding president of Frontline Ministries of Corvallis,
Oregon. For years he has specialized in strategic-level
spiritual warfare dealing with both the theoretical and
practical aspects. He is much in demand as a seminar
leader on spiritual warfare as well as a consultant to
groups attempting to deal with territorial spirits in
their cities or other areas. In this chapter White
analyzes the nature of high ranking forces of evil and
gives practical suggestions as to the kind of ministry
which will be most effective in combating them.
—C. Peter Wagner
The term “principalities and powers” evokes all kinds of
mystical mental images. We think of giant, spiritual beings with
capes and swords who roam about wreaking havoc on
innocent people. Darth Vader of Star Wars fame would certainly
come close, a mythical being with a secret source of dark
power. Spiritual warfare demands that we gain a working
understanding of what these powers really are. My intent here
is to make simple an obscure subject. What exactly do we
“struggle” against? Who, or what, are these “principalities and
powers”?
We know from Ephesians 1:21 and 6:12, and Colossians 1:6
and 2:15, that these are fallen spiritual beings that operate in
satan’s domain, opposing the redemptive purposes of God.
Often the question arises: where did these evil beings come
from? Three separate theories are usually mentioned: they are
the disembodied spirits of a pre-Adamic race, destroyed by
God (this idea fits with the “gap theory” of creation); they are
the “Nephilim” of Genesis 6, the disembodied spirits of a
mutant race created by the mating of angels and humans; last,
they are of the original angelic creation that fell with lucifer. I
believe the last theory is correct, that we are dealing with fallen
angels.
The study of both Old and New Testaments, with additional
evidence from Apocryphal texts, reveals three categories of
fallen angels: 1) those angels who fell originally with lucifer at
the time of his rebellion and who are still active in the
deception and affliction of people; 2) the “sons of God”
(angelic beings) of Genesis 6:2 who committed such
abominable acts of immorality with the “daughters of men”
(women), they were “bound with everlasting chains for
judgment on the great Day” (Jude 6); 3) angelic beings who
were given charge to watch and rule over certain groupings of
mankind. This latter grouping is the least familiar to us. Moses
spoke of them:
When the Most High gave the nations their
inheritance, when he divided all mankind, he set up
 boundaries for the peoples according to the number of
the sons of Israel. (Dt. 32:8, emphasis mine.)
According to the Septuagint text and recent scholarship,
the clearer rendering here is “sons of God,” angelic beings (cf.
Job 38:7). Daniel 4:13 and 17 call these powers the “Watchers.”
Who are they? I believe they were angels of a high order
endowed with divine authority and appointed to watch over
certain segments of humanity. In short, they were spiritual
governors. Scripture speaks of the “council of Yahweh,”
heavenly beings who carry out the divine will (1 Kings 22:19;
Ps. 89:6,7). In light of the Genesis 6 and Jude passages, it
seems that it was possible for these powers to lose their
positions of authority (Jude 6), and to come under satanic
influence (cf. Ps 82:1,2). Thus, there are powers who seem to
have fallen after the fact of lucifer’s rebellion, tempted by their
own pride, and usurping positions not ordained by God. D.S.
Russell, a scholar of Jewish apocalyptic, captures what may
have happened in the spiritual realm:
There gradually grew up, no doubt under the influence
of foreign thought, the notion that the angels to whom
God had given authority over the nations and over the
physical universe itself, had outstripped their rightful
authority and had taken the power into their own hands
. . . They refused any longer to take their orders from
God, but were either rulers in their own right or were
prepared to take their orders from someone other than
God who, like themselves, had rebelled against the
Almighty.2
 Dualism, however, was foreign to Old Testament theology.
The existence of a separate realm of supernatural evil was not
clearly perceived. Gradually a post-exilic understanding
developed that these powers were separate from God, a source
of evil unto themselves. The book of Daniel best reveals this
understanding. In my view, these powers coincide with the
pagan gods and goddesses worshiped by the Greeks and
Romans, territorial deities or “princes” (Dan. 10:13,20) who
sought the worship of men. Others became connected with the
worship of certain planets and astral bodies (zeus, mars,
hermes). Thus, these forces became part of the domain of
darkness, manipulated by satan, the mastermind of deceit.

Hell’s Corporate Headquarters

Paul brings light to the topic by depicting the powers as
organized in a hierarchy of rulers/principalities (archai),
authorities (exousia), powers (dunamis), and spiritual forces
of evil (kosmokratoras). It is reasonable to assume the
authority structure here is arranged in descending order. Daniel
10:13 and 20 unveil the identity of the archai as high level
satanic princes set over nations and regions of the earth. The
word exousia carries a connotation of both supernatural and
natural government. In the Apostle’s understanding, there
were supernatural forces that “stood behind” human
structures. Paul no doubt is voicing the Jewish apocalyptic
notion of cosmic beings who were given authority by God to
arbitrate human affairs. Presumably, the dunamis operate within
countries and cultures to influence certain aspects of life. The
kosmokratoras are the many types of evil spirits that
commonly afflict people, e.g., spirits of deception, divination,
lust, rebellion, fear, and infirmity. These, generally, are the evil
powers confronted and cast out in most deliverance sessions.
Even among them there is ranking, the weaker spirits
subservient to stronger ones.
Until the Judgment, God allows these forces to remain
active. The world functions in the tension of a transitional time
when victory over darkness has been won, but the redeemed
continue to struggle against evil. God allows the adversary to
act as tempter and tester. For the individual Christian who
submits to God, the schemes of evil serve as tougheners of
faith.
These insidious powers continue to work through human
governments, religions, and powerful personalities to keep
people in bondage to legalism, social ideology, and moral
compromise. Their role is to pollute the minds and pervert the
wills of people, diverting them from redemption, holding them
hostage to the father of lies. When we describe evil at this
level, we are in a sense describing the Board Room of hell,
acknowledging that there are high ranking C.E.O.s (Chief
Executive Officers) responsible for major movements of
deception and destruction in our world. For example, there may
be principalities that promote such things as the proliferation
of New Age metaphysics, the rise of ritualistic satanism, the
production and provision of drugs, the practice of terrorism,
sexual perversion, and pornography. There are probably
strong, ancient principalities that work through the Hindu caste
system of India. Millions are held in bondage to this system of
religious legalism.
In 1988, I did some teaching for a missions organization in
Colombia. I will never forget the day I arrived at the jungle
compound that housed some four hundred Christian workers.
By the first evening, I began to notice a crushing weight of
oppression closing in around me. I felt unusually vulnerable
and threatened. No, it was not just the intense heat and
humidity of the jungle climate, nor was it the usual cultural
adjustment. As I worked that week, I learned that the
compound was surrounded by four major, militant influences:
1) armed Marxist guerrillas fighting to control the country
2) routes for the transfer of raw coca out of the jungles and
into the hands of the cocaine drug lords
3) tribal Indian groups that practiced witchcraft
4) militant groups who were vehemently opposed to
missionaries.
I also found out that the year before I arrived, a local
Colombian had murdered a missionary woman, and had vowed
to kill again as soon as he could get out of prison. By the third
or fourth day in this atmosphere, I felt I was being engulfed by
an oppressive confusion that made it difficult to function.
During the night, I battled as never before with false
accusation and discouragement. Was it just my imagination?
Was it the stress of a difficult assignment, added to the rigors
of life in the jungle? Partially, perhaps. But I have concluded
that I and the others at the compound were the targets of
spiritual forces opposed to our purpose. Because my task was
to instruct the other workers in discernment and spiritual
authority, I was a particular target for spiritual attack, the effect
of which lingered for weeks after my return home.
Far too many missionary candidates have been sent into
such situations untrained in the skills of spiritual warfare, only
to return from the field battered and defeated. It is time to take
seriously the biblical worldview that depicts front line ministry
in terms of armed warfare.
In the spring of 1989 I was privileged to take my family to
Israel for ministry and touring. Sitting with the leadership team
of a Jewish-Christian congregation in Tel Aviv, I posed the
question, “What is it really like being a Jewish believer in this
place?” I was ill-prepared for the length and intensity of the
response. All of the social, political, and economic
discrimination you can imagine was a part of daily life for them.
But beyond this, I began to discern the deeper spiritual
dynamics that make Christian life in Israel so difficult.
Over the next week, I began to isolate the principalities and
powers at work:
1) a militant, spiritual rejection of Jewish Christians by
Orthodox groups that is rooted in the rejection of
Yeshua as Messiah
2) a curse of destruction spoken by Muslims committed to
the Intifada, the uprising against Israel
3) a powerful influence of secularism among the non-
 religious Jews, especially in Tel Aviv
4) the influx of New Age thought and occultism that seek to
fill the need of the Jews for spiritual meaning.
The longer we lingered in this land, the more real and
intense these influences became to us. Anyone with any
sensitivity who walks the streets and corridors of Jerusalem
can sense the presence of the Lord and the eternal significance
of this city. But one also senses in the atmosphere the conflict
of the various spiritual forces that operate behind the religious
systems of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and behind the
nationalities and cultures that thrive and strive in Jerusalem.
In any given city, region, country, or group, intelligent
spiritual beings work to influence and control the attitudes and
behavior of the people. That’s the bad news. The good news is
that the Holy Spirit is also present in every place, orchestrating
the work of the faithful angels intent on revealing truth to men
and women whose hearts hunger to know the living God.

Making Sense of It All

Let me summarize what I believe is an effective approach to
spiritual warfare. I think spiritual warfare is a multilevel, multi-
faceted phenomenon that first includes conflict between God
and satan, the angels and the demons. So little light is given us
on this realm that delving into it is fascinating, but speculative.
It makes for stimulating fiction, but it is hard to get a
theological handle on it.
 The reality of the devil, who holds people hostage to his
lies, is more clearly depicted in Scripture. In the parable of the
seed and sower (Mt. 13:1-23), Jesus interprets the “birds of the
air” that steal away the seed as the demons that rob the
understanding of truth from one who hears the gospel.
Unmistakably, Christians have a role of prayer and authority as
they co-labor with the Holy Spirit to break through the demonic
blindness that separates men and women from the light of the
gospel.
The New Testament describes one role of the Christian as
that of soldier, both standing ground and using divine
weapons to tear down strongholds of evil. Christians are to
reveal “to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms”
the manifold wisdom of God to demonstrate his grace through
the cross (Eph. 3:10-11); to expose the designs and deeds of
darkness (Eph. 5:11); to resist and stand actively against the
devil’s schemes (Eph. 6:10-18); and to overcome the evil one, to
conquer his influence over our character (1 Jn. 2:12-14).
Most of what you and I deal with daily are the faults,
foibles, and physical infirmities of our own natural selves, with
all the emotional and psychological baggage that we carry
through life. Beyond that, each of us has individual areas of
besetting sin that nag at us and drag us down with
discouraging regularity. If this were not enough, the
covetousness, pleasure, and humanistic appeal of the world
system presses upon us all. Now alongside, and sometimes in
and through these battles, the devil takes what he can get and
aggravates our unresolved emotional problems, besetting sins,
and willful blunderings. We are like a finely tuned watch
mechanism into which pieces of grit are dropped. What could
have functioned well according to original design wears down
and malfunctions due to an external, foreign influence.

Keep Your Eye on the Spy

In the same sense that a secret agent sends out a signal
that merits serious attention by the opposition, so the Christian
walking in obedience to the Spirit of God, abiding in prayer, and
committed to the kingdom stirs enemy opposition. The stakes
are higher for the veteran who can do the most damage to the
domain of darkness. My premise should be clear by now: any
servant of Jesus Christ who poses a serious threat to the
powers of hell will be targeted and will encounter resistance,
especially at times of strategic ministry. The anointed agent of
Christ’s kingdom must be equipped to discern and deal with
the efforts of the enemy’s kingdom.

A Reassuring Word
Just because we are under attack, doesn’t mean we are
unprotected. The loving and protective presence of God
shields us moment by moment from haphazard assaults. If we
sin, the indwelling Spirit immediately goes to work on our
conscience to convict us of our transgression. Typically, we
squirm for a while. We may rationalize why we did what we did.
If this hard-hearted condition persists, we stand in danger of
grieving the Spirit. But all the while, he is wooing and working
on us to repent and return to him.
If we are following the Spirit and not desiring to make
provision for the flesh, we will repent and be forgiven. The
“breastplate of righteousness” cleanses our conscience and
covers us from the accusative arrows of the enemy. If, however,
we persist in our sin, and refuse to deal with it, we may give the
devil a “foothold” (Eph. 4:27), an opening for his subtle
intrusion into our lives. We need to know that God wants us
forgiven and shielded from evil more than we do (Jn. 17:15).
Our Lord is greater and more powerful than all the hordes of
hell. If our hearts are submitted to him in humility, if we are
willing to cleanse our hands of sin and stay committed to his
Lordship, then we speak the words “devil, be gone,” and it is
done (Jas. 4:6-10).
Some learning is “caught” in the course of battle, not
“taught” in a seminar or learned through a book. Today, we
need to be open to allow God to train us to see the subtleties of
evil. May God be pleased to raise up men and women equipped
to see as he sees, and committed to act with his authority to
counteract the kingdom of darkness in our age.
 CHAPTER 7
Possessing Our Cities
and Towns1
by Jack W. Hayford

Here is a warm-hearted pastoral word from one of

America’s most respected pastors. Jack Hayford has
seen the Church on the Way in Van Nuys, California,
grow from 25 to over 7,000 under his ministry. He sees
prayer as the most dynamic spiritual factor in this
dramatic growth. This is the kind of biblical
admonition which the Holy Spirit will use in the lives
of many believers to encourage them to step out more
aggressively to pray for their cities and towns and
neighborhoods.
—C. Peter Wagner
For three years now, I have had a great and distinct burden
for my city of Los Angeles. Van Nuys, the community in which
our congregation is located, is a part of the greater Los
Angeles metropolis; and as this prayer burden has begun, I
have been coming to truly love L.A. in a Holy Spirit-begotten
way.
Through contact with other leaders, I am finding there are
more and more believers across the United States and around
the world who are experiencing the same compassion and
intercessory burden for their cities and towns. If you are
among those, then it is my prayer that you may feel even more
confirmed in the call to love and pray for your city and your
church; to believe that God will bring a new tomorrow to them.
As Joshua reveals in the case of Jericho and other cities, our
Living Lord is “into” city-taking. I believe He has called us all
to expect we can “possess” our cities—for the blessing of
every citizen and for the glory of God.
I am not saying that I believe that any one church is the key
to capturing a city with the love of God. But I do believe that
yours might be the one that starts a trend! Dear friend, this is a
perspective needed in ministering to our cities, calling us all to
dimensions of love, service and witness broader than anything
we’ve ever answered to before.
I meet many who are hearing the Spirit’s call in this regard.
The pursuit of such ministry is to my view, very much like the
pathway outlined in principle in the book of Joshua.
Notice two texts: 1) “And Joshua rose early in the morning
. . .” (6:12); and 2) “It came to pass on the seventh day that
they rose early, about the dawning of the day . . .” (6:15).
Here’s the foundational point for finding God’s strategy for
“taking” our cities and towns with His love. It begins with an
early start; forming bands of team-prayer—people who gird
their town with intercession.
The Lord hasn’t said, “Go and barrage the city with tracts”;
or even, “Get on television—major channels and prime time!—
and tell them about Me.” As valid as our literature and media
witnesses may be, I think events have placed us in an hour in
history where the world is less likely than ever to be impressed
by slick tactics.
But there is no defense against prayer!
Heartfelt, impassioned and consistent intercessory prayer
not only dissolves the power of sin’s hold on human lives, it
also begets among God’s people a new sensitivity to the Holy
Spirit. As a result, He begins to lead members to pathways of
service, to answer need and pain in the city. Compassionate
service in Jesus’ name inevitably cultivates an openness in the
worldling, a readiness to hear, to listen afresh to the message of
life in Christ. Because they’ve been loved and served, people
in the dark are more ready to consider the Light.
That’s how the Holy Spirit started with us.
He awakened me one morning and said much the same
thing as He said to Joshua: “Call the people to prayer for the
city; to a dimension of prayer they’ve not known or
experienced before.” As a result, hundreds every week come to
our Prayer Chapel and our midweek prayer services for
extended times of prayer for our city. While people don’t need
to come to a specific location such as our chapel for the prayer
time, such a gathering place can become the epicenter for the
spiritual “counter-quake” God wants to send. The type of
prayer meetings shown, for example, in Acts chapter 4 can
shake down the walls which divide people in our cities. They
can demolish the invisible satanic structures that tower over
the city’s inhabitants (Acts 4:23-31).
When I first sensed God’s call to speak about this particular
need to pray, I saw our city on the brink of destruction. How
like God’s words spoken to Joshua! “I have doomed this city to
destruction and all who are in it—only Rahab the harlot shall
live” (Joshua 6:17).
I recognized this “destruction” was not a prophecy of
seismic doom. (Los Angeles is known for being threatened
often by “prophets.”) I saw so clearly that we don’t have to
wait for an 8.0 earthquake, a 200 mile-per-hour tornado or a 100-
foot flood to ravage our city. It’s already being destroyed from
within.
Disease runs rampant; sickness, infection and pain are all
around us.
Death comes through innumerable doors; suicide, murder,
abortion.
Despair abounds; the growing sense of hopelessness as
people’s aspirations and dreams melt before them.
Disillusionment deepens; children see their homes being
broken as parental relationships crumble.
Disappointment devastates people, businesses go under,
contracts are violated.
Dishonesty. Deceit. Divorce. Dismay. Destruction. People
move from one city to another thinking that will solve their
problems—disenchantment with life, home, wife, kids, job—
and upon relocating only find that everything’s different but
nothing’s changed.
More disappointment. More destruction. More deception.
More destruction, but in another city.
Amid this, hope for tomorrow is rising.
The Lord is calling out a people who will march around their
cities with their prayers. As they do, they will see the walls
broken down which hell has built against healthy homes and
happy families. The power of God can shatter the darkness that
scatters families!
God is able to put the demonic powers to flight and send a
holy invasion of His righteousness by the power of His Holy
Spirit. He’s prepared to rescue the Rahabs of our towns—the
people who only wander in sin because no one has ever told
them of His real love.
Rahab is a prophetic study. That harlot from Jericho is an
example of hungry souls in the city where you live, searching
for reality.
Rahab comes from a Hebrew root word meaning “wide
space, roomy.” Somehow it speaks illustratively of empty
hearts, wide open to whatever of life might be brought to them.
Though she was a prostitute when the Israeli spies came to her
home, Rahab was the first to acknowledge that their God was
greater than any others. Though indoctrinated in a pagan
culture and trapped in her own sins, she was open to the fact
that there was someone—a God bigger—the Living God—
who was better than anything she had ever known.
Rahab’s openness resulted in her life being spared, but
beyond that a heartful story emerges. The Gospel of Matthew
names Rahab (who, being rescued, married into the tribe of
Judah) as a direct ancestor of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah!
(Matthew 1:5)
How many people are there in your town who are as open
as Rahab; who, if prayer broke down the walls, would respond
and end up related to Jesus!
Let us join hands in prayer for our cities. They aren’t
hopeless—never!
This had to be written. I had to invite you to this adventure
as well; in responding to your own call to possess your
tomorrow, to pour out your heart in prayer for others whose
tomorrows are at stake.
Something is happening among God’s people.
With cities and towns,
It’s happening right now.
Two kingdoms are wrestling for the city’s soul.
It isn’t too late to win,
If we will rise up early.
Cities deserve a tomorrow too.
They’re unable to possess it for themselves.
All children of Joshua—arise!
 CHAPTER 8
Battle in the Heavenlies1
by Anne Gimenez

Anne Gimenez is co-pastor of the prestigious Rock

Church in Virginia Beach, Virginia, along with her
husband, John. For years she has carried on an
extensive ministry involving hands-on spiritual
warfare. In this helpful chapter she presents convincing
biblical evidence that neither the battle nor the victory
in strategic-level spiritual warfare are ours. She says,
“The battle is the Lord’s and the victory is already His.”
She tells how she learned from God that “my victory
doesn’t depend on my beating up the devil.”
—C. Peter Wagner
The U.S. Air Force recently released pictures of the new
Stealth Bombers—a sleek black aircraft stated to become a new
element in our nation’s defense. But actually there’s nothing
new about stealth bombers. I saw a couple of them years ago in
Waller, Texas, near Houston.
In the wee hours of the morning, the Lord warned me of a
threat to my life. But as I prayed and looked up through the
darkness toward the room’s closed door, I saw two angels
standing like sentries on either side. Though I couldn’t see
their faces, they were large beings, taller than the doorway.
 The Lord assured me that no evil would befall me; nothing
was going to get through that door that night. I didn’t see the
angels with my spiritual eyes for long. Even so, I knew I was
protected by God’s own “stealth bombers”—heavenly angels,
more ready and effective and covert than any crafted
machinery imaginable.
Because angels belong to the spiritual rather than the
natural realm, they’re not visible to the natural eye. But God’s
angels are as real as our nation’s air force. In fact, the spiritual
realm is much more real than the natural in that it is eternal and
not subject to decay or death. The apostle Paul described the
situation in 2 Corinthians 4:18: “We look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the
things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are
not seen are eternal.”
The spiritual realm is also more real in that every natural
event has a spiritual origin. James 1:17 says that every good
and perfect gift comes from above. All the rest—sickness,
turmoil, debauchery, war, destruction— comes from rebel
spirits.
As part of the spiritual realm, satan’s air force is just as real
as the Lord’s. The prince of darkness has a host of evil spirits
that rule and reign over the darkness. And there is a battle
raging in the heavenlies between God’s angels and satan’s
angels.
Daniel 10 vividly portrays how this heavenly battle works.
In this account, Daniel had been praying and fasting for three
weeks, asking God for an explanation of a certain vision. After
21 days his spiritual eyes were opened and he saw an angel of
the Lord who said, “From the first day that thou didst set thine
heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy
words were heard, and I am come for thy words” (v. 12). The
angel went on to explain that “the prince of the kingdom of
Persia” had resisted him for 21 days until one of God’s chief
princes, Michael, came to his aid. Then the angels prevailed
and broke through to give Daniel God’s message.
Imagine—all this battling went on for three weeks in the
heavenlies, yet Daniel didn’t even know about it. Evidently
heavenly battles precede earthly victories. Even so, we can
identify in this account a progression of important events that
began with Daniel’s initiative and led up to Daniel’s victory.
First of all, Daniel prayed and fasted. Victory will be ours
when we follow his pattern. When we get serious with God, we
can say no to our fleshly appetites so that our spirits can gain
strength.
I believe fasting will become a common practice again
because of its importance: It’s the part we play as the ground
forces in God’s battle plan. Angels may be God’s air force, but
the church is His army, and our fervent prayers open the
windows of heaven. As James said, the “effectual fervent
prayer” of the righteous avails much (James 5:16).
What did Daniel’s prayer and fasting set in motion? In
response, God sent Daniel His answer: heavenly hosts to the
rescue. The angel said he had been dispatched the minute the
prayer—the fervent prayer—had started. You might say that
Daniel started the battle by praying, pleading with God.
The Lord sent an answer, and then satan countered by
sending an opposing force to interfere with God’s plan. For 21
days the battle raged, out of Daniel’s sight. So the battle
against the evil forces, in this case the prince of Persia, was
obviously not Daniel’s. Dake’s Study Bible gives an interesting
comment here: “All wars lost or won on earth are results of
wars that are won or lost by the heavenly army.” The battles
are fought in the heavenlies, between satan’s angels and God’s
angels, not down here.
As I meditated on this reality, I was struck with a new
insight. “God,” I asked, “my victory doesn’t depend on my
beating up the devil?”
The Lord answered, “No, your part is to fast and pray. Let
your requests be made known, then let Me send My heavenly
hosts to your rescue. Let Me send someone who is a match for
those wicked spirits. You are no match for the devil.
“Believe and pray. Knock and it will open. Ask and you will
receive. Pray, praise and receive.”
With faith that the answer was on its way, Daniel continued
to hound heaven, and his prayers reinforced the Lord’s angelic
hosts. As if adrenaline were being pumped through their
systems, their strength was renewed. Fresh troops arrived on
the heavenly battlefield because the ground force was
covering the field with prayer and praise. Though the evil
forces fought their hardest, they were powerless to stop the
answer from getting through to Daniel.
The devil has had us fooled. He has made us think that we
have to beat him up, bind him, get him in a pit and sit on him
before we can have any victory. We must resist the devil, but
the battle and victory aren’t ours. The battle is the Lord’s and
the victory is already His.
Our misunderstanding of the way the battle is waged could
be tied to a mistranslation of Matthew 16:19. In the King James
Version, Jesus says, “And I will give unto thee the keys of the
kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth
shall be bound in
heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be
loosed
in heaven.”
But more accurately the verb tenses should be translated:
“Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be that which has
already been bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt
loose on earth shall be that which has already been loosed in
heaven.” We do not originate victory; we cannot accomplish
what has already taken place.
God is always in the offensive position. Satan’s forces are
trying to sabotage and interfere with a victory that has already
been won by Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, who was
stronger than death, satan’s most powerful weapon.
The war has been won; all we have to do is start praying
that the answer gets through to us. We pray, and God says that
the answer is coming. He calls some warriors, some stealth
bombers, and tells them to go penetrate the principalities and
powers of the darkness of this world to deliver His answer.
Never doubt that God’s answer is on its way. Sometimes we
wait out a long and fiery battle. But we are called to stand firm
in our belief, to pray that the line of interference will be broken
and to praise Him for His victory.
The Old Testament is full of accounts of heavenly battles.
In 2 Chronicles 20, King Jehoshaphat and God’s people faced
several threatening armies. What did the king do? He called
upon God and asked his people to fast and pray. God’s answer
was this: “Be not afraid; . . . the battle is not yours, but God’s .
. . Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: . . . stand ye still,
and see the salvation of the Lord with you” (v. 15-17 KJV).
With that answer, the people continued to worship and
praise God for the victory. A choir singing “Praise the Lord” led
their march toward the enemy, which they found already
defeated. God had caused the enemy armies to fight among
themselves and destroy one another.
Another example is the story of Gideon. What a battle in
the heavenlies must have raged at the sound of Gideon’s 300
soldiers blowing trumpets, breaking clay pitchers and
shouting, “The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!” (Judges
7:18). The result? The whole Midianite army panicked and
killed one another.
Joshua’s army marched around Jericho and gave a shout.
City walls fell down and an enemy was defeated simply
because God’s people shouted a confirmation of the victory
that had just been won in the heavenlies. God’s answer broke
through to His people.
God gives His angels charge over His children. According
to Psalm 91, those angels bear us in their hands to keep us from
dashing our feet against stones. The Lord says, “I don’t expect
you to know how to miss the bumps in the road. I’ll send My
angels to carry you.”
Psalm 34:7 gives another promise: “The angel of the Lord
encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth
them.” Those encamping, delivering angels outpower and
outnumber the enemy’s forces. When satan fell like lightning
from heaven, a third of the angelic host went with him (Rev.
12:4). That means the Lord’s angelic forces outnumber satan’s
two to one.
Long ago I memorized a verse that climaxes a wonderful Old
Testament story of victory. The king of Syria had sent an army
to find and capture the prophet Elisha. During the night the
enemy surrounded the city, and in the morning Elisha’s servant
reported horses, chariots and soldiers everywhere. The servant
panicked, but Elisha prayed that God would open the man’s
eyes. “Fear not,” Elisha said in words I can never forget. “For
they that be with us are more than they that be with them” (2
Kings 6:16).
As Elisha prayed, the young man saw the situation as it
really was: “The mountain was full of horses and chariots of
fire round about Elisha” (v. 17). They were the Lord’s chariots,
encamped around His praying prophet.
 No Syrian laid a hand on Elisha that day, and no evil need
befall you. Fast and pray. The answer is on its way.
 CHAPTER 9
Binding the Strongman1
by Larry Lea

Larry Lea is the founding pastor of the Church on the

Rock in Rockwall, Texas. He started the church as a
prayer meeting of 13 persons in 1980, and he saw it
grow to over 6,000. Larry Lea is one of the foremost
leaders of today’s American prayer movement. He is
approaching his goal of recruiting an army of 300,000
intercessors who are committed to pray that the
Kingdom of God will come to America. His book, Could
You Not Tarry One Hour? (Creation House), is one of
the books on prayer I most highly recommend. Larry
conducts what he calls “Breakthroughs” in major
metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles, Miami,
Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and other
places, calling together thousands of intercessors who
will corporately pray against the strongholds over
those cities.
How does Lea see these strongholds and the strongmen
who occupy them? In an important book, The Weapons
of Your Warfare (Creation House), he shares what he
has learned in plain, pastoral language with personal
illustrations and applications. He tells the fascinating
story of how he himself came face-to-face with a
principality sent by the enemy to prevent this new
 church and ministry from flourishing in Rockwall.
Larry Lea believes that when this wicked spirit was
dealt with, the darkness was pushed back so that the
glory of God could shine more strongly in Rockwall. He
sees as a sign that this happened, the fact that 3,400
people walked the aisles of the church in the next 12
months to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior or to join
the church.
—C. Peter Wagner
Jesus was controversial. Not just a little. Not just
occasionally. He was thoroughly, persistently controversial
throughout most of His ministry.
Folks today who think they will follow Jesus, say the things
He said, and do the things He did without encountering
opposition are in for a rude awakening. Jesus was controversial
in His day, and we who express His life and His teachings will
be controversial today as well. Jesus even said so. He said to
His apostles, “If they treat the master of the house as if he’s
the devil, how do you think they’ll treat you?” (John 13:16.)
Despite great miracles and teachings that stirred and
convicted the crowds, Jesus was accused of:

not paying His taxes.

tricking and manipulating the people and using magic
to work His miracles.
being an illegitimate son.
being a fraud, a liar and a cheat
casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub, the
 chief of the devils.

In Luke 11:14-26, we read that Jesus cast out a devil from a

man who was unable to speak. As soon as the demon was
gone, the dumb man spoke and the people marvelled. But a few
scoffed, “He is casting out devils by the name of the ruler of
devils.”
The Bible says that Jesus knew their thoughts and
responded to the critics:
Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to
destruction, and a house divided against a house falls.
If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his
kingdom stand? . . . But if I cast out demons with the
finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come
upon you (Luke 11:17-20).
Jesus went on to give them this illustration:
When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own
palace, his goods are in peace. But when a man
stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him,
he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted,
and divides his spoils. He who is not with Me is
against Me, and he who does not gather with Me
scatters (Luke 11:21-23).
Jesus was speaking directly about the devil and the power
of his demons. He elaborated His point:
When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes
through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he
 says, “I will return to my house from which I came.”
And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order,
then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits
more wicked than himself, and they enter, and dwell
there, and the last state of that man is worse than the
first (Luke 11:24-26).
Today God is raising up a company of people who know
what the score really is, where the action really is in God.
They’re aware that unclean spirits are roaming this earth,
seeking places to dwell in order to destroy men and women.
This emerging company will have listening ears for what the
Holy Spirit is saying to the church today, and they’ll answer
His call to battle. They know that this battle is a battle in the
spirit realm, and they are ready for combat.
The Bible teaches that:
though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according
to the flesh . . . the weapons of our warfare are not
carnal, but mighty in God for the pulling down of
strongholds, casting down arguments and every high
thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God,
bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience
of Christ (2 Cor. 10:3-5).
In another place the apostle Paul calls this great struggle a
wrestling match, but he makes it clear that we do not:
wrestle against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of
wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12).
 A war is going on for our nation today. A war is being
fought for our metropolitan areas, our great cities across this
land. There’s a war raging for our churches, for our families,
and for each of us personally.
It’s a war in the spirit realm, and this is the challenge you
face: The devil has sent messengers, strong principalities and
powers, to stand against you and to keep you from being and
doing all that God has called you to be and do. So what will
you do about it?
Recently as I was flying into a major city in this nation, we
began to descend through a smoggy cloud toward the airport.
We could see the sun above, but as we descended into the
cloud we couldn’t see the ground below. While I was praying
in the spirit during those final few minutes of our flight, I had a
spiritual vision that paralleled my physical look at this city. In
my spirit I saw a dark cloud over that city.
I said, “Lord, what is that cloud?”
He spoke in my spirit, “That is the strongman and his
minions hovering.” Then He showed me that similar clouds of
darkness were over every major city in our nation.
I cried out in my spirit, “What shall we do? That cloud must
be removed!”
The Lord answered, “Son, that’s what the three hundred
thousand intercessors in America are all about.”
God called me several years ago to raise up three hundred
thousand men and women who would pray daily and intercede
for America. That’s the heartbeat of my ministry as I go from
city to city across this nation. And when the Lord spoke that
into my spirit, I immediately had a vision of those three
hundred thousand intercessors lifting up their hands to God.
As they lifted up their hands, they were poking holes in the
cloud of darkness with their fingertips. I was reminded again of
that verse of Scripture in Luke: “But if I cast out demons with
the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon
you” (Luke 11:20, bold added). As those intercessors raised
their hands, and their fingers poked holes through the clouds
of darkness, the sunlight and the glory of God streamed
through.
Your hands today are the extended hands of Jesus. Your
hands are the only hands He has today in this world. When
you lift up your hands into the air and declare with your mouth
that the North, South, East and West must give up what
belongs to God, you dislodge the strongman from his place
over us.
The sun doesn’t know how to do anything but shine. It
never turns off, though it’s sometimes covered from our view
by clouds. The same is true for the Son of God. He never stops
shining, but His glory is sometimes hidden from our view by
dark spiritual clouds. When the powers of darkness are forced
to flee and the strongman is bound, then the kingdom of God
shines through and the glory of the Lord is manifested on the
earth.
What is the nature of this spiritual cloud that may
overshadow a city? It’s a spirit of darkness that obscures the
glory of God and covers up the kingdom of God with sin and
strife.
Over many cities a spirit of religion reigns. That’s the spirit
that divides brother from brother and says, “I’m a Baptist”—or
some other denomination—“and you’re a Methodist so there’s
no fellowship between us.” Or “I’m a charismatic and you’re a
Catholic so there’s no love flowing between us.” Whatever
denominations may be involved, this spirit insists on dividing
the church. With the spirit of religion, dogma is more important
than Jesus. But when we resist this spirit, we must insist that
everyone who names the name of Jesus Christ and holds that
name as their only hope of salvation is our brother or sister.
Over some cities are spirits of avarice and greed. Over
others are spirits of violence. Over still others are spirits of
addiction. So the only thing that will change what is going on
in our cities is an army of intercessors who will stand and raise
their hands in prayer and praise to poke holes in the darkness.
When enough holes are poked in the darkness, what
happens? The cloud collapses. It evaporates. It ceases to be.
Sunshine explodes over the face of the earth. We sing it in our
song of praise: “Arise, shine, for the glory of the Lord is
come!”
A number of years ago, shortly after I was converted and
began to preach, my friend Jerry and I conducted a revival in
Prospect, Texas, a little town just a few miles north of Rockwall.
In those days Jerry preached and I led the singing. When we
entered a town, we would usually meet together after the first
service to ask God to show us the enemy forces at work in that
particular town or church. Then we’d come against those
spirits and bind them.
We had only been saved and filled with the Holy Spirit a
year or so, but we knew it was God’s will that His light and
power would come upon the people. We believed with all our
hearts what I still believe today: It is not God’s will that any
should perish, but that all should come to know the Lord. (2
Pet. 3:9.) We felt strongly that it was our responsibility as
evangelists to tear apart the spiritual darkness so that God’s
light could shine with full force on the people who heard us
preach and sing and testify of His greatness.
As Jerry and I were praying on Saturday of that particular
revival week, the Lord revealed to us that a spirit of fear
dominated that church. He showed us especially the great fear
in the pastor’s heart. We got down in a little back room of that
church and began to bind the spirit of fear. We declared that a
spirit of boldness and courage would come over the people
and be released in that area.
Now in many Baptist church revivals the custom is for the
evangelist and the pastor to go “witnessing” in the afternoons
and then to conduct services in the evening. On that Saturday
I said to the pastor, “Let’s go witness to the roughest sinner in
town.”
So he said, “OK. Let’s go see ol’ Harold Bull.” Even his
name sounded tough to me!
 We drove over to Harold’s house, and Jerry stayed in the
car to pray as the pastor and I went to the door. Harold had just
come from his tractor. He was probably only about six feet, four
inches tall, but he looked at least seven feet tall to me as he
stood there behind the screen door of his house. He was dirty
and he had a mean look on his face. The chaw of tobacco in his
mouth looked about the size of a baseball.
The pastor started to speak, but when he opened his
mouth, his voice cracked. In a voice three notes too high he
finally stammered out, “Hello, Harold, we’ve come to talk to
you about our revival meeting.”
Harold just stared him down. Never said a word. Just
stared.
Now I had prayed with Jerry for about four hours that
morning, so I was dangerous at that particular moment. I was
so full of God I was ready to spit holy nails. Suddenly I heard
myself saying, “Harold, what we really came out here to say is
this: Do you want to be saved?”
Harold nearly swallowed that tobacco. He turned to stare at
me. I got him in an eye-to-eye look. In my mind’s eye I could
imagine him tearing through that screen door and ripping my
little head right off my body. But in my physical eyes, I looked
at him with the love of Jesus and I didn’t back down. I didn’t
have any fear in my heart. I just kept looking at him.
Finally he said, “Yeah, I want to be saved.”
I said, “Then get out here on the front porch, Harold.” He
came out from behind the door and stood on the porch with us.
I said, “Now bow your head and spit out that tobacco and be
reverent because we’re going to pray.”
He spit out his tobacco and bowed his head, and we
prayed. And ol’ Harold got saved that afternoon!
Then I said, “Now Harold, if you really mean this, you’ll
come to church, you’ll walk down the aisle of that church and
you’ll make a public confession of your faith before God and
everyone.”
We had revival that night and a few folks got saved, but
Harold wasn’t there. On Sunday morning, we started the song
service and Harold wasn’t there. We sang one song, and then
another, and then another—and still no Harold.
Then suddenly the back door opened in that little wooden
church, and there stood Harold. He nearly filled the door frame,
and as he walked forward, you could hear his big work boots
on the wooden floor. It was suddenly as if we were filming an
E.F. Hutton commercial. When Harold walked in and sat down,
everyone’s head turned, and the place got so quiet you could
have heard a pin drop.
Harold sat down, and Jerry stood up to preach. When Jerry
gave the invitation to come forward and accept Jesus Christ,
Harold stood up, walked forward and publicly gave his heart to
Jesus.
Word spread like wildfire through that town that ol’ Harold
Bull had gone forward and been saved. By that night the little
church was packed out. People were standing along the side
walls of the church because there were no more chairs and no
more room in the pews.
That night Jerry and I decided to lay hands on the people,
every one of them. We didn’t know any better than to do that
in a Baptist church. We had been to a meeting where the
minister walked around and laid hands on the people and
prayed for them, so we decided we’d do that, too. And let me
tell you, that place came alive that night!
Now I am 100-percent convinced that our revival services
would have never been successful in that town and in that
church unless Jerry and I had first prayed and discerned the
nature of the strongman over the church and the town and
then prayed that God would defeat the strongman and release
His kingdom. I don’t believe Harold would have been saved or
the lives of that community changed on that Sunday morning
without intercessory prayer first pushing holes through the
darkness that had bound that church in fear.
What will you do when you’re hit by the devil? Will you
back up and back down? Or will you stay in there and fight
with all your might?

Taking What is Rightfully Yours

Now the enemy is not only coming at you to bind you up
and to keep you from being and doing all that God desires for
you. The enemy is also at work to keep you from having all that
God desires for you. Look at God’s promise in Isaiah 43:4-7:
Since you were precious in My sight, you have been
honored, and I have loved you; therefore I will give
men for you, and people for your life. Fear not, for I am
with you, I will bring your descendants from the east,
and gather you from the west; I will say to the north,
“Give them up!” and to the south, “Do not keep them
back!” Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from
the ends of the earth—everyone who is called by My
name, whom I have created for My glory; I have formed
him, yes, I have made him.
“Since you were precious in My sight.” You are precious to
the Lord. He paid the price of His Son, Jesus Christ, on the
cross for you. You were purchased by the blood of Jesus. You
are precious to God.
At the Church on the Rock, when we pray together that
phrase of the Lord’s prayer that says, “Thy kingdom come, thy
will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” we stand and turn to
the North and say, “North, give up what belongs to this
church.” Then we turn to the East and say, “East, give up what
belongs to this church.” We turn to the South and to the West
and say the same thing. We want everything that God wants to
give us. We cry, “Give up, enemy, what belongs to us. Don’t
hold back, enemy, what is ours.”
Now this refers to everything that God wants us to have. It
means resources and blessings for our individual lives. It
means souls being saved in our churches because sinners are
coming in and hearing the Word of God preached with power. It
means resources coming to our churches. It means every
miracle that we need coming our way.
As the Church on the Rock grew in numbers, the Lord
revealed to me in my times of prayer that my primary job as a
pastor was to break through the spiritual darkness over
Rockwall and over the lives of those He wanted to bring into
our congregation. I knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that
great preaching wouldn’t cause souls to be saved and the
church to grow. Finely honed theology spelled out in precise
statements wouldn’t do it. No, only the tearing down of
strongholds that were holding back the people from
experiencing God in their lives would cause the church to grow.
So I went to the church building on Saturday nights to pray
especially for the services the next day. Often I met others
there, but on one particular Saturday night I was alone. The
church auditorium was dark, with only one light on above the
baptistry in front.
As I knelt there and cried aloud to the Lord, I broke through
into a spiritual dimension that I don’t know how to describe for
you. I was in “rarified air” spiritually speaking. When I declared
to the North, South, East and West to give up what belongs to
the Church on the Rock, I felt a presence in that auditorium that
was unlike anything I had ever experienced. And it was not a
holy presence.
I was kneeling with my eyes closed, and at that moment
when I felt this presence in the room, I looked up and in my
spiritual vision I saw a being standing in front of me. He was
holding a large silver chain in his hands. I’ll never forget it as
long as I live.
My first impulse was to get up and run out of the building.
But at the same time, I knew that I was at a moment of truth, a
divine intersection. I realized that I was face-to-face with the
very power that was holding back the harvest of souls that
God wanted to bring into the Church on the Rock.
The being communicated to me these words, “Do you really
mean it? Are you serious? Are you really going to take your
stand?”
Immediately that inner Man within me—the One the
Scriptures refer to as “greater . . . than he that is in the
world”—stood up. Before I knew what I was doing, I literally
stood to my feet and shouted back at this being, “You’re
mighty right I mean what I’m saying!”
I stepped toward him, and when I did, he stepped back. I
knew I had him on the run. He dropped the chain and
disappeared. He was gone.
From that day to this, I have never encountered anything
like that again. But in the next twelve months, we saw some
thirty-four hundred people walk the aisles of the Church on the
Rock getting saved or united with our church. We held no
special revivals. We conducted no house-to-house canvasses.
We sponsored no special membership drives. It happened
solely by the power of God shining through the powers of
darkness. The strongman had been bound and the kingdom of
God released.
 Something new is emerging in the spirit realm today. God
is calling His church to rise up and become militant warriors
who will stand and say to principalities and powers, “Yes, we
are taking a stand. Yes, we mean it. Yes, we declare to you that
you
will not have our children; you will not have our families; you
will not have our churches; you will not have our blessings.”
And we will drive back the darkness so that the glory of God
might shine more strongly.
God’s desire is for you to pray this way. Believe it!
What’s the purpose of prayer anyway? Prayer is not
coming to God to convince Him to do something He doesn’t
want to do. Prayer is coming into agreement with God about
something He already wants to do. It’s saying, “I’ll do my part
so that You, Lord, are free to do Your part.”
God’s desire is that you have all He wants you to have and
experience all He wants you to experience for your spiritual
good. Sometimes we don’t think big enough. Sometimes we
don’t expect enough. Sometimes we don’t desire His blessings
nearly to the extent that He wants to give them.
I remember one time when I was praying and calling out to
the North, South, East and West. God spoke in my spirit and
said, “You’re turning to the North, but in your spirit you’re
only getting as far as Denton. And when you turn to the East,
you’re believing only as far as Greenville out in east Texas.
Son, I’m the God of the whole world. When I turn to the East,
I’m looking as far as Germany!”
 The very next Sunday, I gave an invitation to people to join
the church, and down the aisle walked a beautiful couple with
their children. The Lord prompted me to stop them and ask
them where they were from. The father stopped, clicked his
heals, saluted me and said, “My name is Lieutenant Bob
Cooper, and I was stationed in Germany when I got your tapes
on prayer. God told me to resign my commission in the military,
which I’ve had for nine years, and move to Rockwall to report
for duty.”
My soul nearly soared out of my body when that man said
“Germany.” I knew that I was standing in the heart of
something very big. God has vast blessings for His people—
there are no limits. But we must break through the darkness to
let the kingdom come shining through. When you break
through the spiritual powers and the glory of God starts to
shine through, you don’t have to do much preaching to get
folks saved.
We had a musical at our church recently and the choir and
orchestra were magnificent. But the greatest part of the service
was watching some eighty people walk the aisle to accept
Jesus Christ into their lives. My wife and I have grown up
around great musicals all our lives. But most of the time, we’ve
noticed that after a great evening performance by the choir,
everybody “oohs” and “aahs” a bit, then they all fall silent
while the pastor stands and leads the singing of “Just As I
Am.” Maybe one or two come forward at the most.
Our musical wasn’t technically any better than those
performed at most other places. The difference was that the
choir was singing with the sun shining on them from heaven.
The spiritual darkness had been punctured so that the glory of
God could come through. Those who had prayed and
interceded before God, not just that day, but every day at
sunrise for year after year, had cleared the space. They had
pushed back the powers of evil so that the kingdom of God
might be established. And it was! Without a great effort.
Without singing “Just As I Am” ten times through. Without
pleading. Eighty people accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord that
one night. Now that’s the kind of miracle that happens when
the enemy is forced, by our taking a stand in prayer, to give up
what belongs to God almighty.
We are to stand strong in the honor, love and courage of
God and cry out, “Give up, enemies to the North, everything
God has for me, for my family, for my church. Give up, enemies
of the South, everything God has for me, for my family, for my
church. Give up, enemies of the East, everything God has for
me, for my family, and for my church. Give up, enemies of the
West, everything God has for me, for my family and for my
church. Give it up! It’s mine! It’s ours!”
God says, “I’ll do it. If you’ll speak to the enemy like that,
I’ll do My part. I’ll cause things to come your way. It will
happen.”
When you declare these things, believe that they are done
on earth as they are in heaven. When you start to fight battles
like that, winning them for the Lord, though the world situation
gets darker and darker, you’ll shine brighter and brighter. As
those in the world feel worse and worse, you’ll be feeling better
and better. As the world’s systems get weaker and weaker,
you’ll grow stronger and stronger. As the world starts winding
down, you’ll be winding up. Instead of wondering what will
happen next, you’ll be asking, “Where’s the next victory,
Lord?”
Give God the glory, for the great works He has done, is
doing and will do. The victory is ours. It’s yours. It’s mine. It’s
a sure victory if we’ll but fight the fight.
 CHAPTER 10
Jericho: Key to Conquest1
by Dick Bernal

Dick Bernal is a preaching pastor and his pulpit fervor

shows clearly in this fast-moving chapter. The founding
pastor of Jubilee Christian Center in San Jose,
California, Bernal leads a church of over 5,000
members in which blacks and whites, Hispanics and
Asians, rich and poor joyously worship together. For
the past several years teams from Jubilee have been
systematically interceding for their city with some
palpable results. In this chapter, using Jericho as a
model, Dick Bernal concludes with nine practical
principles for praying for your city.
—C. Peter Wagner
The forty years the children of Israel spent wandering in
the wilderness was not a total loss. God was making soldiers
out of slaves, a task He is still undertaking today with all of His
delivered ones. It didn’t take long to get His people out of
Egypt, but it took years to get Egypt out of His people!
Finally, the Lord was ready to send them into the promised
land, a land of blessing and provision, but also a land with
many challenges, the first being a mighty walled city, the city of
Jericho.
 The First Encounter
Some have concluded that Joshua erred in sending the two
spies into Jericho to get a layout of the land. The critics
maintain that Joshua should have trusted wholly in the Lord
and not followed the example of Moses which led to an evil
report from the ten spies, with only Joshua and Caleb standing
in faith. Let me remind you, however, that it was God’s idea to
spy out the land, not Moses’!
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Send men to spy
out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the
children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you
shall send a man, every one a leader among them”
(Num. 13:1-2).
We should also remember that Joshua was one of the spies
and apparently saw merit in “looking before one leaps”!
Now Joshua the son of Nun sent out two men from
Acacia Grove to spy secretly, saving, “Go, view the
land, especially Jericho.” So they went, and came to
the house of the harlot named Rahab, and lodged there
(Josh. 2:1).
In Sodom and Gomorrah’s case, intercession and “drawing
near to God in the spirit” worked wonders and nearly saved
two rotten-to-the-core cities. Lot and his family were rescued.
Although Lot’s wife’s deliverance was short-lived, God still
honored Abraham’s request.
But prayer alone is not enough. It is the beginning of city-
taking. It is preparing and planning in the Spirit, getting the
mind and strategy of Christ on just how to penetrate a city with
the gospel.
Spying out the land is essential when warring for a city.
Most Christians know how to get from their home to church, to
the store, to the malls, or to a friend’s house. But how many
really know their city? Christians should walk or drive every
major freeway, avenue and road of their cities, praying and
coming against demonic strongholds over every
neighborhood.
I have had the privilege of being raised in San Jose and
have watched this sleepy little agricultural town explode into
the heart of Silicon Valley. I have this city in my heart. I know it!
I know its people! I have my hand on the pulse of it, monitoring
each beat. I am constantly keeping surveillance over changes
which affect its flow. Make no mistake, knowing your city is a
necessary first step in taking your city for Christ.
When you move in faith to take your city for the Lord, two
things will be true. First, the resistance you will experience is
like nothing you’ve ever come up against before. When you
tell the prince over your city, “We’re here to take it for God,” he
will not just play dead; he will violently oppose you! That is
why the Lord told Joshua over and over again, “Be strong and
of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the
Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Josh. 1:9).
But, second, it’s amazing who will come to your aid to help
you win your city. Imagine a prostitute named Rahab as a key
player in conquering Jericho! And what about David’s feisty
four hundred, “those in distress, everyone who was in debt,
and everyone who was discontented . . . So he became captain
over them” (1 Sam. 22:2). Out of David’s “maladjusted
malcontents” came mighty men who knew how to possess the
land promised to them.
Once the city had been surveyed and the scouting party
had safely returned, the task of crossing the Jordan and
actually taking the city had to be undertaken. Remember,
Moses and the old school had died off. A new, younger
generation stood at the Jordan. I’m finding out that it is this
new, fearless generation today that is willing to take on a whole
city.
Then Joshua rose early in the morning; and they set
out from Acacia Grove and came to the Jordan, he and
all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they
crossed over. So it was, after three days, that the officers
went through the camp; and they commanded the
people saying, “When you see the ark of the covenant
of the Lord your God, and the priests, the Levites,
bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and
go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and
it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come
near it, that you may know the way by which you must
go, for you have not passed this way before.” And
Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves for
tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you” (Josh.
3:1-5).
The ark here prefigured Christ as the believer’s covenant
Guide. The contents of the ark represented the Word, the
authority and the provision of the Lord, capped off by a mercy
seat. “Let it (the ark) go before you” was the command and
“you go after it.”
To get ahead of God when trying to win a city could be fatal
to a church or a group of churches or a pastor, and even to the
sheep. I’ve noticed in some areas of the world where revival
has broken out that there is a high toll of casualties—divorce,
sickness, church splits, even death. A price too high to pay for
being impetuous.
Before the Lord had Joshua move on Jericho, the nation
participated in acts of committal: The erecting of memorial
stones (Josh. 4), and the circumcision of all males who hadn’t
been circumcised in the wilderness (Josh. 5).
In ancient times, altars of stone were erected as reminders
of some wonderful intervention by God, as memorials to remind
coming generations of God’s goodness and power toward His
people.
The Lord is about to deliver a whole city into the hands of
His people Israel, but knowing how prone human hearts are to
forget His past interventions, He demanded an altar of
remembrance. A passage of Scripture recurring too often in the
Old Testament is “They soon forgot His works” (Ps. 106:13).
The Lord held back the waters of the Jordan as a sign and
wonder to the heathen and as a reminder to His people that the
same God who parted the Red Sea some forty years earlier for
Moses was indeed with Joshua in battle. The twelve stones
were taken from the bottom of Jordan. Smooth stones, shaped
and constantly cleansed by a moving river. These twelve
stones represented each tribe, showing God’s love and interest
not simply in the masses but in individuals. These city-takers
had a God who knew them, loved them, would fight for them; a
God who took the rough edges off them by a rushing flow of
His Spirit.
Before God could turn them loose on Jericho, some
important unfinished business needed to be attended to—
circumcision! The “circumcising of the sons of Israel again the
second time,” needs a word of explanation. Obviously, the
Scriptures are not suggesting these men needed to be
circumcised again, any more than you and I need to be “born
again” again! Knowing the importance of circumcision as the
token or sign of the covenant with God (Gen. 17:9-11), it is
inconceivable that this was a slight oversight on behalf of the
children of Israel. Another question arises: How come Moses
didn’t put his foot down and demand that all males who were
born in the wilderness be circumcised? Scholars and
commentators have argued over this point for years. Some say,
“Sinful neglect.” Others suggest, “Because of their frequent
journeying and the inconvenience of performing circumcision,
they kept putting it off.”
Matthew Henry concedes the explanation is found in
Numbers 14. “Because of their infidelity and evil hearts, they
tasted the breach of His promise; their apostasy and breaking
of the covenant releasing Him from His engagement to bring
them into Canaan.” Circumcision is a type of the mortification
of sin and the putting off of the filth of the flesh.
City-takers are going to stir up the enemy’s nest. Only the
cleansed and sanctified will be victorious in battle. I’m not
talking about the hyper-holy, super-do-gooders, but about
those who know their God and who do great exploits (Dan.
11:32).

The City Itself

A key city! A powerful fortress of seemingly impregnable
walls! An invisible sign seems to say, “God’s people, listen up.
You shall go no further. Stop!” If Jericho could be taken, what
encouragement it would bring to the children of Israel and what
a message it would send to the other cities of Canaan! Think of
it! It would be like taking New York, Miami, or Los Angeles,
even San Francisco. What a blow to satan’s kingdom! But what
joy it would bring to the camp of the redeemed!
Our attitude toward winning a city has been basically to
gather at the church for a prayer meeting and bind the devil
until we’re blue in the face. I believe there is an active side to
warfare as well as a passive one. As an old sage once said,
“It’s time to vitalize the legal.” In other words, put feet to our
covenant rights and promises.
Only after the Hebrew nation had built a memorial altar, had
been circumcised and had kept the Passover, was it time for
them to move on the city.
And Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests
 took up the ark of the Lord. Then seven priests bearing
seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord
went on continually and blew with the trumpets. And
the armed men went before them. But the rear guard
came after the ark of the Lord, while the priests
continued blowing the trumpets. And the second day
they marched around the city once and returned to the
camp. So they did six days. But it came to pass on the
seventh day that they rose early, about the dawning of
the day, and marched around the city seven times in the
same manner. On that day only they marched around
the city seven times. And the seventh time it was so,
when the priests blew the trumpets, that Joshua said to
the people: “SHOUT FOR THE LORD HAS GIVEN YOU
THE CITY!” (Josh. 6:12-16).
This was far more than human conflict. Jehovah God
Himself was waging war against satan and his hosts! The
Canaanites were devoted to idolatry, divination, necromancy,
witchcraft, charms and familiar spirits. The children of Israel
would be the instruments of God’s judgment upon these
wicked, perverted people,
When you come into the land which the Lord your God
is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the
abominations of those nations. There shall not be
found among you anyone who makes his son or his
daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices
witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets
omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a
medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.
 For all who do these things are an abomination to the
Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your
God drives them out from before you. You shall be
blameless before the Lord your God. For these nations
which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and
diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not
appointed such for you (Deut. 18:9-14).
These satanic strongholds had to be pulled down, and
according to Paul we must do the same.
But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice
they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not
want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot
drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you
cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of
demons (1 Cor. 10:20-21).
A key verse to focus on in this whole process of spiritual
warfare is verse 2 of Joshua 6:
And the Lord said to Joshua: “See, I have given
Jericho into your hands, its king, and the mighty men
of valor.”
Immediately we see who gets the credit for the victory.
“God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (Jas.
4:6).

The Game Plan

A.W. Pink brings up a good point: “If the Lord has
definitely given Jericho into the hands of Joshua, why were
such elaborate preparations as these necessary for its
overthrow?”2
Pink answers his own question.
Let those who feel the force of any such difficulty
weigh attentively what we are about to say. In reality,
those verses exemplify and illustrate a principle which it
is most important for us to apprehend. That principle
may be stated thus: the disclosure of God’s gracious
purpose and the absolute certainty of its
accomplishment in no wise renders needless the
discharge of our responsibilities. God’s assuring us of
the sureness of the end does not set aside the
indispensability of the use of means. Thus, here again,
as everywhere, we see preserved the balance of Truth.
God’s promises should never promote inactivity on our
part. Many pastors who have read my book, Storming Hell’s
Brazen Gates, have told me, “God has given us our city,” yet
few have ever shared God’s instructions and strategy for
conquest with me. One man of God and a dear friend, Ed
Silvoso, is an exception.
Ed, the brother-in-law of Luis Palau and Juan Carlos Ortiz,
is, like these great preachers, an Argentine. Ed is a thinker, a
strategist. He and his team from Harvest Evangelism, a ministry
over which he presides, have targeted a city in Northern
Argentina. Their street-by-street, block-by-block attack on the
ruling princes, followed up with crusades, Bible studies,
concerts and personal evangelism is very exciting to me. I wish
I were right in the middle of it! Their main focus, once the rest
has taken place, is church planting.
How strange God’s instructions must have sounded to
Joshua. Can you imagine the look on the faces of the men in
his army when he shared the battle plan! There have been more
than a few eyebrows raised over some of my teaching on
dethroning the prince over San Jose, California.
Once again, please note the importance of the ark. God’s
presence was with them as they marched. This was not going
to be a victory brought about by the arm of the flesh but by
“His Spirit.”
And then, the blowing of the trumpets. The Bible has much
to say about the significance of the trumpet’s blast. We are told
to lift up our voices like a trumpet, to sound the alarm, to
hearken to its sound, just to name a few.
At Jericho, I’m sure it was used to frighten the enemy as
well as to encourage the Israelites. I know beyond a shadow of
a doubt that when our church gathers for praise and worship
and our band “gets it going” with the brass section wailing
away and the saints entering into the high praises of God, the
demons shudder and become confused while the children of
God are refreshed and strengthened.
The seventh verse of Joshua 6 is very powerful. It isn’t just
the priests doing the marching or warfare, but also the rank and
file. Today we have too many worn-out preachers trying to go
it alone. No one shows up at the prayer meetings or joins in a
called fast; so the preacher tries it solo. No, that’s not God’s
way. The pattern we see at Jericho is of the priests blowing the
trumpet and the people marching. What harmony!
Notice another interesting aspect of their strategy in
Joshua 6:10,11:
Now Joshua had commanded the people, saying, “You
shall not shout or make any noise with your voice, nor
shall any word proceed out of your mouth, until the
day I say to you, ‘Shout!’ Then you shall shout.” So he
had the ark of the Lord circle the city, going around it
once. Then they came into the camp and lodged in the
camp.
This was no time for personal opinion, preaching,
murmuring, war cries or goofing off. Just holy, orderly silence.
The first day must have seemed like a waste of time and energy
to some. Yet much was accomplished. They were obedient to
God’s every instruction! No one added to or took away from
God’s plan. “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings
and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to
obey is better than sacrifice . . .” (1 Sam. 15:22).
Further, in making the Israelites march around the city once
each day for six days and seven times on the seventh day, it is
obvious that the Lord was teaching His people not only
obedience, but patience and timing. I’ve often wondered what
was going on in the minds of the inhabitants of Jericho. Was
God lulling them to sleep with a false sense of security? What
would you think if all your enemies ever did was silently march
around your fortress?
 But it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose
early, about the dawning of the day, and marched
around the city seven times in the same manner. On that
day only they marched around the city seven times. And
the seventh time it was so, when the priests blew the
trumpets, that Joshua said to the people: “Shout, for
the Lord has given you the city!” (Josh. 6:15-16).
This was no ordinary shout! It had been bottled up in them
for six days, faith and absolute obedience wanting desperately
to express itself in victory. “By faith the walls of Jericho fell
down after they were encircled for seven days” (Heb. 11:30).
How much of our shouting at our city walls and gates is noise
and not faith?
So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets.
And it happened when the people heard the sound of the
trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the
wall fell down flat. Then the people went up into the city, every
man straight before him, and they took the city (Josh. 6:20).
Then, and only then, was victory theirs for the taking. It
was the culmination of a process of warfare involving
commitment, cleansing and unconditional obedience. Let’s
summarize and glean a few truths from the taking of Jericho to
apply in taking our own cities for God:

No city is too tough for God.

Gaze on your city through the eyes of faith.
Even though it is God who is doing the fighting, we still
have our responsibilities.
Stay humble.
Use His Word and stay in His presence.
Survey the territory.
Stick to God’s plan.
Even if you don’t see instant results, keep the trumpets
blowing.
Always remember, God is not slack concerning His
promise; the walls will come down!
 CHAPTER 11
Prayer Power in Argentina1
by Edgardo Silvoso

Edgardo Silvoso, a native-born Argentine, is the

founding president of Harvest Evangelism, a ministry
dedicated to the evangelization of Argentina and based
in San Jose, California. Through the years Silvoso has
observed the effectiveness of power evangelism in the
urban centers of his nation. In this brief chapter, which
introduces some of Argentina’s most effective
evangelists and pastors, Silvoso describes several field
case studies of the use of strategic level intercession
which apparently has been successful in pushing back
the principalities and powers, allowing the light of the
gospel to shine through more brightly.
—C. Peter Wagner
Argentina has consistently produced top quality pastors,
evangelists and theologians. Men like Luis Palau, Juan Carlos
Ortiz, Alberto Mottessi and Samuel Libert have blessed the
body of Christ worldwide. All of them would readily credit the
church in Argentina with the reasons for their success.
However, that same church has had the lowest rate of church
growth among all the nations in Latin America, with the
probable exception of Uruguay. Until not too long ago, the
average church in Argentina had less than 100 members. The
lack of growth has puzzled experts, especially in the context of
a church that is consistently capable of producing top quality
international leaders but somehow fails to translate that ability
into local church growth.
All of that has changed lately. C. Peter Wagner has stated
that Argentina, along with mainland China, is “the” flashpoint
for church growth in the world today. No hard figures are
available, but churches that used to have fifty members have
grown to 1,000. Several churches have more than 5,000 people.
There exists what Wagner calls a centrifuge church. Ministers
go to the people by holding meetings in over fifty different
locations rather than expecting the people to come to one
place. The centrifuge church, Vision of the Future, ministers to
90,000 members. Hector Gimenez, a lay preacher, was able to
plant a church of 20,000 members in downtown Buenos Aires
in less than six months. Carlos Annacondia, Argentina’s
leading lay evangelist, has led over one million people to a
decision for Christ in less than four years. Yet, he is not the
only one. There are at least a dozen evangelists and hundreds
of younger preachers with the same degree of zeal who are
efficiently preaching in every corner of the nation.
The church in Argentina has grown more in the last four
years than in the previous one hundred. Norberto Carlini,
pastor of the largest congregation in Rosario, had to move his
congregation out of the building onto an open field in
anticipation of growth. In less than three years, the church
grew from several hundred to almost 5,000. Pastor Alberto
Scataglini, in the city of La Plata, used to minister to 400 people
a month. When the revival broke out, that figure jumped to
several thousands. And more growth is anticipated. Many
churches are moving out of conventional buildings that were
designed to hold a few hundred at the most, into basketball
stadiums, open fields and convention centers. It is not
uncommon to find “house-churches” meeting in backyards
with three to four hundred members under the leadership of
young pastors or somebody in his early twenties who has not
been a Christian for more than three years.
The Baptist church in downtown Buenos Aires, under the
leadership of Pastor Pablo Deiros, grew 43% in 1986 and 65% in
the first six months of 1987. Other churches are growing so fast
that figures are not available because they drastically change
from week to week. Pastor Regge, in Olivos, a plush community
north of Buenos Aires, according to an article published in El
Puente, leads a multicampus congregation estimated at 70,000
members. When asked what is the current membership, he
shrugs his shoulders and says: “It is hard to say. One of our
annexes (sort of a daughter church) that is led by an ex-nun
has over 6,000 people.” And that is just an annex!
This is quite a change from the stagnant growth of only
five years ago. What is the reason behind this explosion?
There is a combination of factors. The unity of the body of
Christ is partly due to the establishment of A.C.I.E.R.A., an
organization that brings together the majority of denominations
in Argentina. The emerging of the Pentecostal Federation of
Argentina has provided the Pentecostal churches with visible
unity and the ability to maximize resources. The ministry of the
700 Club and its close work with local churches all over
Argentina has undoubtedly helped. I am sure that there are
many other factors, but I would like to single out what key
leaders consider to be the most important: prayer. The church
in Argentina has learned to pray.
It is not uncommon for churches to hold all night prayer
meetings, especially on the eve of a national holiday. I visited
one of those and 13,000 attended! Some churches have the
custom of holding prayer meetings that begin on Friday
evening and go on until Sunday morning. Pastor Scataglini’s
church in La Plata, where the revival began in January of 1983,
holds prayer meetings in the basement
after every service. Hundreds of young people spend most of
the night in prayer, and they enjoy it tremendously! Omar
Cabrera, pastor of the “centrifuge” church of 90,000 has trained
his people to carry a prayer book with them at all times. As
prayer needs arise, they jot them down in their books and pray
for them until the Lord answers. Pastor Guillermo Prein, leader
of a fast growing congregation in Buenos Aires, told me: “If I
call the people to a business or teaching meeting, some will
come. But if I invite them to a prayer meeting, all of them will
come!”
Carlos Annacondia, who leads an average of 1,000 people a
day to a public commitment to Christ, has patterned his
crusade ministry around four “times” of prayer. First he
preaches to the unsaved and ends with a rich time of prayer for
and with the new converts. People go away with the certainty
that they have spoken to God. After a musical break comes a
time of spiritual warfare prayer in which Carlos prays for those
who are demonized. As he leads in prayer, hundreds,
sometimes up to one thousand, fall to the ground under
demonic oppression. They are carried by co-workers to a huge
tent behind his platform—called “The Intensive Care Unit”—
where they are ministered to in prayer for several hours until
deliverance comes. After another break, he prays for the sick.
Finally, he prays for everybody who wants to be filled with the
Holy Spirit by laying hands on them. I have estimated that of
the two hours that Annacondia spends on the platform
ministering, over one hour is actually spent in prayer. Under
the platform he has a “prayer brigade” of approximately fifty
people who, for the duration of the meeting (sometimes up to
seven hours) are in prayer.
Hector Gimenez, the layman who leads the largest church in
downtown Buenos Aires, has built his ministry around prayer.
People come to his meetings to pray and to be prayed for. The
moment of prayer is the highlight of the service. Omar Cabrera
regularly instructs his people to begin praying as they come
into the meetings. I attended one of those meetings in which
24,000 packed a soccer stadium. It was inspiring to see the
majority of the people taking spiritual possession of the
stadium as they arrived. The Baptist church in Adrogue, under
the leadership of Eduardo Lorenzo, keeps records of every
major answer to prayer in a “miracle book.” Samuel Libert’s
church in Rosario, another Baptist church, is known for its
emphasis on prayer and body life. It is not uncommon to see
believers in buses, parks, and even restaurants, praying
together. As they meet socially, it is customary to end the
evening with a time of prayer. And when prayer time comes
around, it is not only the adults that pray but also children.
One of the most moving pictures I have of Argentina is to see
children, as small as six years old, on their knees praying!
All kinds of prayers are offered in Argentina, but the most
unique prayer is in the context of spiritual warfare. Christians
seem to have two focuses in their prayers: God, to whom they
address all honor and praise; and, satan, whom they boldly and
aggressively rebuke. Believers subscribe to the view that
prayer plays a vital active role in God’s plan of redemption.
They claim that without the church’s prayer God will not retake
the territory invaded by satan. They are quick to point out that
every verse in the Bible dealing with prayer indicates that the
action begins on earth. We must ask for Him to answer. We
must knock for Him to open. We must bind and release for
heaven to do the same. The action on earth not only precedes
but to some extent determines the answer in heaven. When it
comes to preaching the gospel, it is the church’s responsibility
to cast out demons, to heal the sick and to tread over the
power of the enemy.
This approach has made prayer exciting. When people pray
they expect something to happen. They engage the enemy and
they bind him. And then they move on and loot his camp. Omar
Cabrera, considered by some the dean of power evangelism in
Argentina, consistently closets himself in a hotel room for five
to seven days of aggressive prayer before opening up a new
city. During that time, he prays for binding of the strong man,
or prince, who controls the darkness of that particular
“cosmos.” Once he feels that this has been accomplished, he
goes public announcing to the people that now they are free to
come to Christ. Like prisoners freed from a dungeon,
thousands literally run to give their hearts to Christ.
Carlos Annacondia begins his crusades by showing the
pastors how to take control over the area. The night before the
beginning of a crusade, all workers participate in a prayer
meeting so intense that it reminds one of Joshua and the
people marching around Jericho. When Annacondia went to
the city of Cordoba, Argentina’s most sophisticated center,
many predicted that he would fail. Carlos’ approach paid off
again. Fifty-eight thousand made a commitment to Christ in two
months!
Floro Olivera, pastor of a Brethren church in San Justo, a
suburb of Buenos Aires, and his elders decided to put a
specific section of their town under spiritual authority. In a
very short time they saw massive conversions coming out of
that area. Today they have moved out of the church building
and onto the backyard of a school next door, due to dramatic
growth in membership.
Eduardo Lorenzo and his fellow leaders at the Baptist
church in Adrogue have been battling with a prince of
darkness who controls the entire county where the church sits.
They have already begun to see dramatic results not only in
their own church but in the rest of the county as well.
 The reasoning behind this approach lies in the assumption
that God’s power is somehow limited by God’s moral character.
When God created the world He entrusted it to Adam, who lost
it to satan. At that point in time satan became the “god of this
world,” and the kingdoms of this world and their glory became
his possession. Even though God could retake the world easily,
his power is limited by moral law. Satan could accuse God of
trespassing if He were to intervene directly. Since the
government of earth was lost by Adam, a man, only another
man could recover it. But since all men have sinned, they are
automatically under satan’s dominion. However, God solved
the problem through the incarnation of Christ. By being
conceived by the Holy Spirit, He is divine and the evil one has
no claim on Him. By being born of the virgin Mary, He is a
bonafide member of the human race. That is why—the
reasoning goes—when Jesus defeated satan, first in the
wilderness and later at Calvary and the resurrection as the
second Adam.
He was able to take away from satan, in a potential sense,
what satan had stolen from the first Adam. Every time the
church (as the representative of the second Adam) prays, it
provides the legal and moral justification for God to release his
power. And that is why the prayers of the saints are so
important.
Whether or not one fully agrees with this reasoning, it must
be conceded that it does make praying an exciting exercise. It
makes the believer not only a participant but also a partner in
carrying out the Great Commission. And when it comes to
prayer, the difference is as big as the satisfaction found in
swimming in the bathtub as opposed to the ocean. By
enlarging the perimeters and allowing for uncharted currents to
bear on the swimmer, prayer becomes exciting. By seeing
thousands come out of darkness in direct answer to prayer,
faith is strengthened. By witnessing miracles immediately after
a prayer meeting, the Word of God is validated and so are the
promises it contains. After a while, people naturally gravitate
toward prayer for the same reason that plants follow the sun:
because from the sun they get the benefit of its power and
greatness.
 CHAPTER 12
City Taking in Korea1
by Paul Yonggi Cho

Although it is quite short, this chapter is worth reading

because it was written by Paul Yonggi Cho, pastor of
the world’s largest church. Whenever he tells the story
of how the Yoido Full Gospel Church grew to over
600,000 members, he emphasizes first and foremost the
spiritual dynamics of the ministry. Here Cho stresses
how important prayer, sacrifice and holiness are in
taking a city for God.
—C. Peter Wagner
We are living upon the threshold of a historical landmark in
the church age. For this reason, I have always considered
myself extremely fortunate to be able to serve God in these
critical times. In these last days, God is moving mightily by His
Spirit and is commanding us to arise, to cross over, to engage
in battle, and to possess the land. God is raising up a great
army to accomplish His purposes in our generation.
My ministry started with city taking. When I first pioneered
my church, nobody would come to our old, torn marine tent
because there was great demonic oppression over the village.
The key to breaking that bondage was the casting out of a
demon from a woman who had lain paralyzed for seven years.
 When, after months of prayer, the demon oppressing her
was cast out and she was healed, our church exploded with
growth. The sky above the village was broken open and the
blessings of God began pouring down. Today, the Yoido Full
Gospel Church is still growing. We are now in excess of 600,000
members and we are marching forward to our goal of one
million members by the year 1992.
The growth of our church and the growth of Christianity
throughout the nation of Korea did not come by accident. It
came through fervent, violent, prevailing prayer. As Jesus said
in Matthew 11:12, “The kingdom of heaven suffers violence,
and the violent take it by force.” For example, in our church we
have all night prayer meetings every single evening where
thousands come to pray. On Friday evenings, more than fifteen
thousand people join hearts and hands to pray for the
Kingdom of God to come. On Prayer Mountain, at least three
thousand people are praying, fasting, and ministering unto the
Lord on any given day. In all, one-and-a-half million people
visit and pray there in any given year. This is not limited only
to our church; all over South Korea Christians are praying. One
of the most unique characteristics of the Korean church is that
millions gather early every morning at 5:30 a.m. to pray, despite
wind, rain or snow.
Great sacrifices were made by the Korean church. The
Kingdom of God indeed suffered violence. There was a long
history of persecuting Christians by the Communists, as well
as by the Japanese occupation forces. For instance, the
Japanese installed Shinto altars in all Christian churches. The
military police stood guard to enforce the law that required all
Christians to bow down to the Shinto altar before entering to
worship Almighty God. Those who refused were jailed and
punished severely, with many ministers being executed at the
hands of the Japanese forces. Many churches corporately
decided to oppose this injustice. Many such churches were
locked, with women and children inside, and burned to the
ground due to their refusal to worship idols. Until recently, it
took great sacrifice to be a Christian in Korea. Believers were a
minority. But now, because “the blood of the martyrs is the
seed of the church,” we count at least one-fourth of our nation
to be believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Finally, a word of admonition. It is so necessary for those
who are called to engage in this spiritual warfare to be holy and
sanctified, because He is a holy God. Many who have cast out
demons, who have prophesied, and who have done wonders in
His Name may find God declaring, “Depart from me you who
practise lawlessness, I never knew you.” The devil has crept
into the Church and promoted iniquity, lawlessness and
unrighteousness in our midst.
It breaks my heart to see so many co-workers for the
Kingdom falling in disgrace. Like the seven sons of Sceva, the
evil spirit leapt upon them, overpowered them, prevailed
against them, and they fled out of their homes naked and
wounded. Without holiness and sanctification, without great
sacrifice, and without a fervent prayer life, many will be so
wounded. The evil spirit will answer, “Jesus I know, Paul I
know, but who are you?”
 It would do us well to be admonished by the great Apostle
Paul:
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the
power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God,
that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the
devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers, against the
rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual
hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore,
take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able
to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to
stand. Stand, therefore, having girded your waist with
truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
and having shod your feet with the preparation of the
gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith
with which you will be able to quench all the fiery
darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of
salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the
word of God; praying always with all prayer and
supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end
with all perseverance and supplication for all the
saints (Eph. 6:10-18).
 CHAPTER 13
High Level Powers
in Zimbabwe1
by Richmond Chiundiza

An increasing amount of information on territorial

spirits is coming from Christian leaders in the Third
World who have had knowledge of them for some time,
but who have until recently been reticent about telling
what they know. This has partly been due to an
underlying fear that if they spoke about territorial
spirits they would be written off by Western church
leaders as flaky or unbalanced. Especially since the
great Lausanne II Congress on World Evangelization
held in Manila in 1989, Third World leaders have been
more willing to dialogue on issues of spiritual warfare
with Westerners. At Lausanne II five workshops were
held on themes relating to territorial spirits, and the
subject gained a degree of legitimacy it did not have
previously.
The following interview is between Ted Olsen of Dawn
Ministries and Richmond Chiundiza, national director
of Disciples In Action Ministries, Zimbabwe. In 1982,
Richmond Chiundiza started Glad Tidings Fellowship
with six people. By 1990, he had 3,000 members and
had planted 25 other churches and started five
 preaching points. Chiundiza, who participated in the
Manila congress, has researched extensively the
spiritistic religion of the Shona people of Zimbabwe in
order to help free new believers from the strong control
of their old religion and to see churches grow.
—C. Peter Wagner
DAWN: When the Gospel was first proclaimed to the
Shona in Zimbabwe over 100 years ago, there was the concept
of a supreme being. His name was Mwari. Some missionaries
and many church leaders today have contextualized the
Christian message and Mwari became God. Has this been a
good thing or not?
CHIUNDIZA: Even though the Shona religion is centered
mostly on ancestral spirit worship, a study on the Shona
concepts of God seems to reveal Mwari as God. Several of his
names in the Shona language describe his character.
Muwanikwa or mutangakugara mean “he who existed before
everything else;” msiki is “creator of all things” and
wokumusorosoro means “the supreme, preeminent and
transcendent God.”
This basic understanding is in accordance with Romans
1:18-23 which shows God’s revelation to men through
conscience (v. 19) and creation (v. 20). However, the Shona
understanding of God is inadequate. The devil has taken
advantage of this “inadequate revelation” by introducing the
spirits as the center of worship. Consequently, the spirits have
become a substitute for God.
 DAWN: In Daniel 10, the angel comes to Daniel after a 21-
day battle with the “prince of the Persian kingdom.” This was a
demonic ruler installed over a geographical region and working
within the world system of satan. We read in the same passage
of a prince over Greece. Is there a prince over Zimbabwe?
CHIUNDIZA: Yes, I believe there are demonic princes set
over Zimbabwe. My research is directed in part at discovering
the identity of these princes. Zimbabwe is made up of two
people groups—over seven million Shona and nearly two
million Ndabele. From what I can discern, the highest ranking
spirits over Zimbabwe are set over these two major people
groups of the nation,
DAWN: Have you identified these high-ranking territorial
spirits?
CHIUNDIZA: Yes, they have been identified.
There are two high-level powers in the heavenlies who can
be said to be princes over the Shona people of Zimbabwe.
They are Nehanda and Chaminuka. Both Nehanda and
Chaminuka were people in history who died around the turn of
the century. They became legends among the Shona because
of their exploits. Demonic powers have inhabited the legends
of Nehanda and Chaminuka and possess the bodies of a few
key “spokesmen” for the spirit world.
Nehanda, a Shona woman who took a stand against the
colonial powers and was executed for her rebellion, is today the
more powerful of the two princes. In many areas of Zimbabwe,
the spirit powers of Nehanda are awesome.
 Chaminuka was a man known as a prophet. He could
foretell the future. One of his visions foretold the coming of the
white men to Zimbabwe. Chaminuka’s vision also included a
rolling apparition which is interpreted as the arrival of the
steam locomotive. His power in the spirit world is strong, and
he is consulted even by government officials on certain
occasions.
DAWN: If Nehanda and Chaminuka are the princes set over
the demonic hierarchy, how do the familiar or ancestral spirits
fit in?
CHIUNDIZA: Next in order to prominence are the
Mondoro, or the demonic rulers set over the Shona clans who
live in distinctly separate territories in Zimbabwe. The
Mondoro inhabit the legends and identities of the founders of
the Shona clans (a coalition of families).
In times of drought or calamity, the Shona go to
communicate with these high ranking spirits. Year after year,
these festivals take place at specific places such as the Great
Zimbabwe ruins, a favorite spirit place for the Shona. It is a time
of brewing beer which is offered to the spirits. Animal
sacrifices are made and many rituals are undertaken. A person
who is known to be possessed by the spirit of Nehanda or
Chaminuka will speak the will of the high spirit.
A witch doctor, known as a N’anga, supervises the process
of possession by the high spirit. Other people, possessed by
the lesser spirits of the ancestors, must confirm this person is
truly possessed by the high spirit.
 The possessed person, who can be either a man or a
woman, will remain possessed by this spirit until he does.
Manifestation comes during these times of spiritistic
consultation. The Mondoro control life within the clan territory
and out of it. If a Shona leaves his traditional homeland he risks
leaving the territorial guardianship of the spirits. He must first
ask permission of the territorial spirit. This is done through an
N’anga. In addition, he must wear a charm, such as a twig
concealed in the hair or a bracelet worn under a sleeve, to carry
the protective covering of the Mondoro with him. Many
thousands in Zimbabwe who work in the cities give special
attention to appeasing the territorial clan spirits each day and
remaining under their protection.
Under the Mondoro, there are the Mudzimu. These are the
lowest ranking of demons and are the ancestral or familiar
spirits. They are believed to be the spirits of grandfathers,
grandmothers, aunts and uncles. They are nonetheless
important, and the Shona give much time and energy to
appeasing them every day. Food sacrifices are a common form
of appeasement.
DAWN: The Shona clans are ruled to this day by chiefs.
How does the chief fit into this spiritistic system of control?
CHIUNDIZA: Almost every person in Zimbabwe is under
the authority of a chief. And every chief is chosen by the clan
spirits through a demonized spirit medium. So it is accurate to
say that every person in Zimbabwe is traditionally under the
control of
the spirits.
 The chief’s main function is to be a steward to the spirits.
He responds to their directives and controls over the people.
When a chief is selected, the clan spirits, the Mondoro, come
on a person recognized as a medium during a demonic séance.
The spirits literally select the next chief. He is pointed out
by the possessed medium who knows the secrets of his life
and the controls that other demons already have over him. This
man, when he is chosen, knows that he owes his job, his
income, his privileges, to the spirit for the rest of his life. This
commitment will involve the whole clan.
The chief sees that all the traditions in keeping with the
Mondoro are followed. The practical implications are obvious.
Millions of Zimbabweans are under the direct control and
authority of demons.
DAWN: Would a Zimbabwean who is now living in the city
be expected to participate in this process of joining in with the
clan to appease the spirits?
CHIUNDIZA: Yes. At least once a year—usually over a
holiday such as Easter—everyone within the clan families
receives word that they are expected to go home for a time of
ritual appeasement. Anyone who fails to appear is seen as
being in open rebellion. Such a one risks the vengeful reaction
of the spirits, and these demonic punishments are very harsh
and very real.
When someone is seen as having alienated the spirits there
is subsequently the need for appeasement. This is not a cute
cultural ritual. It is an unadulterated demonic practice. By far
the majority of Zimbabwe’s 10 million are involved in these
practices and are under the authority of these Mondoro spirits.
DAWN: You’ve referred to the power of these spirits as
being very real. How is this demonstrated?
CHIUNDIZA: When a spirit medium speaks under
possession, he’ll tell you exactly what has happened in your
life in the past. He’ll prophecy that certain things will happen
to you in the future and these things happen, even down to the
little details. You may be told that you’ll get a job next week on
Thursday—and you do. Or you’ll hear that you’re going to
lose your hand in a machine accident at work during April, and
it happens. People fear this kind of control. Healings take place,
curses make people sick or die. The healings are very real. The
curses often kill people.
The tragic problem is that the Shona people don’t know
from whom this power comes. The teaching on Mwari as God
has them further confused. They will go to church because of
fear of hell, and will accept Christ. They want to go to heaven.
But, when it comes to needing help for now, they go to the
N’anga and seek the help of the ancestors.
It’s noteworthy that the biggest churches in Zimbabwe are
Pentecostal. This is because they are offering power and
deliverance. When a person is led to Christ in such a
fellowship, the national leaders—knowing the
cultural/traditional background from which all Zimbabweans
come—insist on full deliverance immediately.
This frees the person from the bondage of ancestral and
territorial spirit control. It also costs a lot, because they are cut
off from their families and know full well that curses are being
directed at them. But a person delivered in this way does not
go back to ancestral worship.
Unfortunately, the missionary churches and the mainline
denominations have not preached or taught these things. The
Shona people know the power of the spirits, but do not see the
power of God. The church is not proclaiming the truth about
the reality of satan and his demons.
Hence, the people sneak back and practice these spirit
rituals secretly. They know there would be disapproval, but
they do it anyway. The church has removed the miraculous
quality from Christianity. The witch doctor has power, but
Christ is presented as appearing to be a wimp—weaker than
the spirit medium.
DAWN: What can the Church do to liberate people from
this form of bondage?
CHIUNDIZA: It takes vision and courage to preach the
liberating gospel. The mistake churches sometimes make is to
attack the system and the structure of the territorial spirits.
This is a big mistake. It is very negative to go to a chief and
tell him, “You’re a steward of demons.” That will not win him
over. The church must preach a liberating gospel and be
involved in the subsequent power encounter. The people need
to see that through the power of Christ they can deal with
these things in the spirit world.
 My research is designed to help inform the church. My
subject is “Spiritual Warfare—The Only Way Forward.” Unless
we have a breakthrough on this level, we’re wasting our time.
The gospel must have greater power than the traditional
system. Christ referred to the Spirit of God being upon him,
anointing him to preach a liberating, powerful gospel to the
poor. Christ didn’t just give lectures. He preached with power.
The black leadership in the church is not theologizing
enough. More and more of our own people—who have trained
in the Bible schools and seminaries in the west—come back as
extension cords of something that does not work here.
We need African leaders who know God, who can
theologize and bring the Bible alive to our people, so that God
is released from the pages of Scripture, so that he becomes real
and delivers people.
The church won’t grow or advance until it is freed from the
captivity of these spiritual forces. We need a breakthrough in
the spiritual realm. We’ve been praying, but missing the enemy.
The intercession of Christians is not relevant until we know
how to pray.
Our praying must be motivated by love. People who pray
their bitterness and fears to God will not achieve anything. Like
Christ, we must be prepared literally to die for the people we
pray for. God said: “I sought for a man to stand in the gap.”
If we’re going to change this nation, we need intercessors
who say, “Give me Zimbabwe or I die!” We will become
properly aggressive to the enemy—because we love the
people. It’s dangerous to enter into intercessory prayer with
the wrong spirit. We need a network of real intercessors,
informed people, who will pray with humility before God. This
is the only way forward.
 CHAPTER 14
Don’t Underestimate
the Opposition1
by Paul B. Long

How did a Presbyterian missionary to the Congo (now

Zaire) learn that evil spirits, indeed, occupy defined
territories? In this fascinating anecdote Paul Long,
who holds the Ph.D. degree from the Fuller Seminary
School of World Mission in Pasadena, California, and
who has served as a professor of missions at the
Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson,
Mississippi, tells how his experience in ministering to
the Baluba people forced him into a theological
paradigm shift.
—C. Peter Wagner
The Lord spoke to me with his strong hand upon me,
warning me not to follow the way of this people . . . .
When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists,
who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of
their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the
living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not
speak according to this word, they have no light of
dawn. Distressed and hungry, they will roam through
the land; when they are famished, they will become
 enraged and, looking upward, twill curse their king
and their God. Then they will look toward the earth
and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom,
and they will be thrust into utter darkness (Isa. 8:11,
19-22).
Mungede had no son.
He had a happy Christian wife and two daughters, but no
son.
He was director of the Boy’s Home where some two
hundred boys lived while they studied at the mission station,
but he had
no son.
He was the best hunter of wild guinea fowl in the Bibanga
mission area and he was an elder in the local church, admired
and trusted as a Christian leader. But Mungede was not happy,
for he had no son.
Although he was one of my first and best friends among
Africa’s Baluba people, and although we worked, talked,
hunted and prayed together, I did not realize how deeply
Mungede was burdened and how heavy were the pressures
from pagan relatives over his failure to father male offspring.
Nor did I know, at that time, why a son was so necessary in
tribal thinking. Therefore I was quite shocked when the pastor
announced during morning prayers one day that Mungede had
returned to his village and gone back to the old ways.
I just could not believe it. I thought I knew my friend. I
thought we communicated on deep levels and shared openly
with each other. But it was true—the tribal pressure for a son
had forced him to leave his Christian wife who had given him
only daughters, and to return to his village, taking on two
younger women with the hope that they would bear him sons.
“Why are sons so necessary?” I asked the pastor.
“Daughters marry and go with their husbands to the village
of his parents. Children all belong to the father—not the wife—
in our customs. Only sons remain in the village, and only sons
therefore can feed the ancestral spirits. If one does not show
respect for his
Ba Nkambua (dead ancestors), they will become angry and
afflict the careless and ungrateful son. Furthermore, when a
tribesman dies, he must leave a son to care for his spirit which
remains in the village as an unseen member of the tribe.”
“Then Mungede is trusting tribal ways more than the
teachings of the New Tribe, isn’t he?”
“Yes,” the pastor replied, “he has rejected the
commandment of God which warns against communicating
with spirits of the dead. He has gone back to the old tribe and
is now caught in its darkness.”
I was determined to try and bring my friend back, so I
traveled to his village, some five kilometers east of Bibanga
station. When I found Mungede, I was shocked with the
change in his appearance. His once radiant face was dark with
the “utter darkness” that marks the people under direct
demonic direction. It was obvious that he had been talking with
spirits and seeking their power in his life. But I had a problem. I
did not believe that evil spirits could take over a life that had
been transformed by faith in Christ. From a theological
standpoint, it seemed impossible for the born-again believer to
go back to his former slavery, but it looked like that was just
what had taken place in Mungede.
We hunted guinea all day, rested in the shade, and talked at
length about life, death and our hope for eternity. But
Mungede was as closed as any pagan I had ever talked with; I
could not reach him in any way.
After a good hunt, we returned to his house to rest while
his wives prepared the guinea hens for our evening meal.
Looking around the area, I was impressed with the fact that he
had settled in the very center of spirit worship for the tribe. A
medicine man sat nearby, along with three medicine women in
the robes worn when communicating with spirits. The drums
were there, as were the rattles, the charms, and the spirit
mound. The mound looked like a good pulpit to me, so I asked
Mungede to beat the drum and call the people to hear a word
from God.
“You want to worship here?” he said. “This is the devil’s
territory.”
“I can talk with God anyplace, Mungede, and any time I
please. Don’t you know that?”
“We will see,” he said as he pounded the talking drum. (I
never learned to “talk” with the drum except to say, “Kill the
rooster, the preacher is here.” I left Congo before I was able to
add, “but leave the setting hen on her nest.”)
A large crowd gathered around the spirit mound. I was
surprised to see that the medicine man and women were
amused—it’s always nice to have people happy when you tell
them God’s Good News, especially when they are capable of
being dangerous.
When I stood to speak, I felt the oppressive presence and
power of overwhelming evil. The “utter darkness” was
suffocating me. I felt the cold fingers of death press around my
throat and I could not speak. As I stood there in foolish
helplessness, the medicine people laughed; it sounded like
voices from hell.
I turned in utter defeat to sit down with Mungede. “I can’t
speak here,” I said when my voice returned.
“You should have known better. This is the devil’s turf. You
have no right or power here.”
“Does God have any turf in this village?” I asked.
“Yes. On the other side of the village we used to have a
Christian chapel. The building is gone, but the land still
belongs to God.”
“If you will invite the people to go with us there, I will try
again.” And when I passed the medicine man, I added, “Come
with us, powerful one, and hear about the ‘affair of God.’”
“I will stay on my turf,” he answered. “Here I have power.”
On the other side of the large village, I was led to a clearing
where the outline of the former chapel was marked by a shallow
ditch formed by rain washing over the grass roof. The
rectangular outline was about ten feet wide and thirty feet long.
I stood where I supposed a pulpit had been, invited the people
to gather around, and noted with surprise that all those who
had come with us—about seventy—were pushing to stand
within the boundaries of the ditch. Apparently, they wanted to
hear God’s word while standing on God’s turf.
In the seven years we had lived with the Baluba, I had
never preached with such liberty in God’s Spirit. The words
flowed with power, clarity, and beauty well beyond my normal
abilities in that language. The people who stood on God’s turf
were electrified with a strange power and their response was
immediate and unanimous. “We will rebuild God’s house,” they
announced, and by evening of the next day a new grass-roofed
chapel stood on the site of the former building. A new house
for a teacher was also constructed, and God’s work was reborn
in the village.
Mungede never returned to the New Tribe during my days
in Congo, but continued to follow the ways of his people,
looking for a son to feed his spirit after death. Instead of
inquiring of
God, he consulted with “mediums and spiritists who whisper
and mutter”—and demonstrate power enough on their own turf
to shut my mouth. He consulted “the dead on behalf of the
living” instead of going to the Word of God. He looked to
those who “have no light of dawn,” the ones who “will be
thrust into utter darkness.”
 Two things I learned well in that village called Nkumba:
never to invade the devil’s turf without clear orders from the
Lord, and to move out of enemy territory when the battle is
beyond me. It does not pay to underestimate the opposition.
 CHAPTER 15
Seventh Time Around: Breaking
Through a
City’s Invisible Barriers
to the Gospel1
by John Dawson

John Dawson of Youth With a Mission, who resides in

Sunland, California, has written the most popular
textbook on dealing with principalities and powers,
Taking Our Cities for God (Creation House). This much
briefer piece condenses the teaching Dawson has been
developing over the past few years, and is one of the
most practical, how-to chapters in this book. Many
others are now following his strategy for strategic-level
spiritual warfare.
—C. Peter Wagner
Cordoba, Argentina is a city of proud and fashion-
conscious people. Position, possessions, and appearance are
of prime importance to 1.1 million living here, who are largely of
German and Italian descent.
The Youth With a Mission team I led to Cordoba was made
up of Christians from more than 20 nations. We were dressed
simply, struggling with Spanish and carrying gospel literature.
We really felt like nerds.
The crowds were there. Thousands of Argentines from all
over the country had come to see the world soccer playoffs.
But our witnessing seemed to lack power. No one was coming
to know Christ. The next day, all 200 of us met for prayer in a
rented monastery on the edge of town. We cried out to God for
answers.
During that day of prayer and fasting, the Holy Spirit began
to reveal the nature of the unseen realm over Cordoba. We
realized that our timidity and weakness in proclaiming the
gospel was partly due to satanic forces at work in the culture.
We discerned a principality attempting to rule the city with
“pride of life.” The only way to overcome a spirit of pride is
with the humility of Jesus. So, with the Holy Spirit guiding, we
decided to come against the principality in the opposite spirit.
The next day our entire group went downtown. We formed
smaller teams of about 30 and walked into the open-air malls.
We knelt down right there in the midst of the fashion parade,
surrounded by expensive bistros, sidewalk cafes, and
boutiques. With our foreheads to the cobblestones, we prayed
for a revelation of Jesus to come to the city.
Breakthrough was immediate—breakthrough in us and
breakthrough in the city. Large crowds of curious people began
to gather around each group.
I vividly remember how Christ strengthened me when I set
aside my dignity and knelt in the street. The intimidation of the
enemy was broken along with our own pride. As the crowd
became larger, I stood to my feet and began to explain through
an interpreter why we had come to the city. As I lifted my voice
to communicate to the people at the edge of the crowd, the
boldness and compassion of the Lord filled me.
All over downtown Cordoba that day, team members
preached to attentive audiences. We reaped a harvest of souls.
The people were receptive to the point of insisting that we
autograph the gospel tracts we gave them! This warm response
continued for several weeks until our departure.
Now tell me: how could a city so resistant to the gospel
suddenly become a place of harvest? Satan holds the cities and
nations by accusation and deception. These are his only
weapons. When we minister in a city, we are hindered by that
which is deceiving the people. In Cordoba, we were hindered
by the spirit of pride that filled the city.
How do we overcome the enemy? We discern the nature of
his deception and come in the opposite spirit. Being careful to
resist temptation ourselves, we continue in united prayer until
authority is gained and God breaks through.
Remember the story of Jericho? Militarily it made no sense
to march around the city wall for seven days. But spiritually the
Israelites were gaining authority through the exercise of faith,
obedience and self-control. The fact that they had to march in
silence is probably a clue to the nature of the unseen realm
over Jericho. If they had responded to the insults and mockery
hurled from the walls, a spirit of contention, pride, and anger
might have been let loose among them. Instead, they walked in
silent self-control until the victory shout, and by God’s power
the walls came tumbling down.
On a personal level, we go through this when a Jehovah’s
Witness or Mormon comes to our door. They are often
empowered by a spirit of religious controversy. But the Bible
says, “We fight not against flesh and blood . . . .” So our
contest is with the deceiver—not the deceived (but sincere)
person standing in front of us. In other words, if you get into
an argument about the trinity and win, you lose. Far better to
come in meekness as one who has a testimony of Jesus’ mercy
in your life.
What about spiritual oppression over nations? How do we
approach the battle for South Africa, for instance? Apartheid is
a spirit, not just a political phenomenon. It is a spirit that goes
deep into African colonial history, with its roots in idolatry.
When a good thing like cultural heritage is made into an idol,
then injustice is the result. How do we shatter the power of the
spirit behind apartheid? Through yielded rights and humble
servanthood. We can rebuke the devil all day long and still be
powerless unless we apply faith and obedience to a God-
directed strategy.
A year ago I preached to a large, multi-racial gathering at
the Durban Convention Center in South Africa. I spoke on the
sin of unrighteous judgment and closed the message by
leading us in repentance of racial stereotypes and prejudice.
We each then washed the feet of someone of another race.
Thousands of Afrikaners, Zulus, Indians, English and Colored
wept in each other’s arms as a spirit of reconciliation spread.
This may seem like a small victory, but political reformation will
grow only out of territory gained in the unseen realm. God’s
promise is:
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble
themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from
their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and
forgive their sin and will heal their land (2 Chron.
7:14).
All over the world, praying Christians are agreeing about
the nature of the battle for individual cities. For example, the
prayer warriors of London believe they are battling a spirit of
unrighteous trade that has influenced the world for hundreds
of years through that great city. David exhorted the Israelites to
“pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (Ps. 122:6). I believe this
was a strategic instruction, directing them against a spirit of
religious controversy which had taken up residence in the holy
city.
There was a time prior to the rise of today’s nationalism
when much of the world consisted of clusters of city-states like
Venice or Luxembourg. Today, apart from Hong Kong,
Singapore, still-surviving Luxembourg and a few others, the
world consists of entities we call nations, which often have
several world-class cities within their borders. In reality, a
nation is a geo-political alliance among its cities. Cities are
where the national myth is largely enshrined. The land between
is relatively empty and serves only to sustain the life of the
city. A nation is the sum of its cities.
 As we dream of discipling nations, we need to understand
their urban makeup. The gospel must transform the spiritual,
philosophical, and physical life of a country’s cities. If it does
anything less, we have failed to win the battle.
The early days of the Salvation Army are a graphic example
of the power of the gospel transforming the life of the city.
General Booth and his followers clearly identified the satanic
bondages prevailing at the time, including alcoholism and
prostitution. They employed city-wide strategies which
resulted in city-wide victories.
To effectively penetrate the city with the gospel, we must
understand some truths of spiritual warfare.
1. Satan’s kingdom is a limited hierarchy of evil spirits.
2. High ranking, supernatural personalities, referred to as
principalities and powers in Ephesians 6, seek to
dominate geographic areas such as the city, with all its
peoples and subcultures.
3. We as believers are taught by God’s Word to treat such
beings with respect, but to “take captivity captive”—to
tear down the rule and authority of the evil one. Our
authority is the result of Jesus’ victory on the cross.
4. God’s power is strategically applied by discernment of
the unseen realm.
We must overcome the enemy before employing other
methods of ministry among men and women.
In a given battle for a person, a family, a church or a city,
discerning the nature of the enemy’s lie is half the battle. Only
after his deception is exposed can we exercise the authority of
Scripture to thwart his schemes. Jesus resisted the devil this
way during his time of temptation in the wilderness.
Whole countries are kept in darkness by satanic lies that
have become cornerstones of a particular culture. For example,
take the struggle with rejection and the fear of authority
experienced by many Australians. Entering through the cruel
roots of Australian history, satan has been able to create a
general distrust of all authority figures, including the highest of
all—God himself. The truth is that Australia is not a nation
founded on rejection and injustice, but a chosen people with as
much dignity and potential as any people in history.
Isaiah 60 says that the people of the earth sit in gross
darkness. Can you imagine walking into a darkened room filled
with people who have spent their entire lives sitting there
watching the TV images flickering in front of them, thinking
that is all there is to reality? Imagine flipping the light switch on
and asking everyone to examine the mundane equipment
responsible for the illusion. Satan is a projectionist, an
illusionist, a deceiver, the father of lies. The Bible says that one
day we will look upon him in amazement saying, “Is this the
one that made the nations tremble?” (Isa. 14:16). He will be
seen in reality as being small and impotent.
How can you contribute to victory in the battle for your
city or nation? Begin by identifying the spiritual opposition
and its unique manifestations.
Look at your city’s secular history. Ask yourself the
question, “Why is this city here?” Is it just the project of
geography and commerce or does God have a redemptive
purpose in mind? Jonah was surprised at the way God looked
at Ninevah. You, too, may be surprised when you discover
what is oppressing people today. Psalm 115:16 says, “The
heavens belong to the Lord, but he has given the earth to all
mankind.” In other words, this is our planet and the only
authority that satan has stolen is man’s authority. He initially
gains this authority when, at some point in history, human
beings believe his lies and are seduced into allegiance to his
plan. An obvious example would be the spirit of greed let loose
during the California gold rush that still dominates much of San
Francisco.
Look at your city’s Christian history. Research the life of
God’s people in your city, particularly during times of revival. If
you live in Los Angeles, a study of the Azusa Street revival
would give you insight into today’s battle. During times of
revival, the supernatural realm is seen with great clarity, and
often records are kept which contain important insights. Ours
is a covenant-keeping God, and you may be amazed at the
promises received by past generations—your spiritual
forefathers engaged in the same battle. It is an important
principle of humility to acknowledge and honor those who
have gone before. It also inspires our faith. Because of God’s
covenant with David, Josiah’s generation lived in a time of
revival rather than judgment.
Identify your city’s prophets, intercessors and spiritual
elders. In every city there is what I call a hidden eldership—a
group of saints that you will not find listed in any book. It
consists of God’s circle of mature believers who “stand in the
gap” until victory comes. Isaiah 62:6 says:
Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen;
all the day and all the night they shall never be silent.
You who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest and
give Him no rest until He establishes Jerusalem and
makes it a praise in all the earth.
Some of these “watchmen” are obvious, such as veteran
pastors. Others may be intercessors in obscurity or prophetic
people with a premonition. If there is a common theme among
those who are sensitive to the Spirit’s guidance, you’re on to
something. God always confirms a strategy through several
witnesses, and this is particularly important when dealing with
demonic forces.
Study your city’s demographics. It is amazing to me how
ignorant we often are of the basic realities around us. Where
do the people live? How many are in poverty? Why are they in
poverty? Are there subcultures, ethnic groups, changes in the
economy, an aging population—what’s really going on?
Spiritual warfare doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Jeremiah 29:7
says, “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into
exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare you
will have welfare.” This is an exhortation to Jews in Babylon
who, like some modern believers, had a tendency to dream of a
distant Jerusalem instead of recognizing the task at hand. Be
grateful for your city. Study its potential, and you will receive
the insight you need.
Once we know what we are up against, what should we do?
Begin with worship. Everything born of God goes through
a very natural process. Worship is like an act of love that is
followed by conception, gestation, travail, and birth. So always
begin with worship. It is in the place of thanksgiving and praise
that God conceives within us his mind and heart for our city.
Wait on the Lord for insight. Don’t rely on finite reasoning
or human cunning; what worked at Jericho didn’t work at Ai.
Learn to listen to God with child-like dependency, and he will
guide you into victory. The Scriptures are full of exhortations
about waiting on God. Psalm 40:1 says, “I waited patiently for
the Lord; he inclined unto me and heard my cry.” We are
promised that God will speak if we seek him. “My sheep hear
my voice and they follow me” (John 10:27).
Identify with those you want to reach. When Nehemiah
prayed for the restoration of Jerusalem, he didn’t pray for the
city as though he were not a part of it. He said, “I and this
people have sinned” (Neh. 1:6). Ezra went even further when he
said:
Oh my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up
my face to thee, my God, for our iniquities have risen
above our heads, and our guilt has grown even to the
heavens (Ezra 9:6).
Both were righteous men. You, too, may be a righteous
person who is not involved with your city’s vices. But we can
all identify with the roots of any given sin. Take, for example,
the shedding of innocent blood in the act of abortion. You may
never have participated in an abortion, but all of us have been
guilty of the root sins—lust, the love of comfort, the love of
money, rejection, unbelief. These common struggles can help
us identify honestly with the sins of our city when we ask for
God’s mercy.
Minister in the opposite spirit. Is the enemy tempting you
to be stingy or greedy? Come against it with exuberant
generosity. Overcome pride with humility, lust with purity, fear
with faith. Paul said, “I can do all things through him who
strengthens me” (Ph. 4:13).
Travail in prayer until God’s purposes are birthed. That
which is conceived by God eventually comes to birth. Just as
the contractions of the uterus herald the beginning of labor,
there are times when our souls are stirred by God’s Spirit to
seasons of intense prayer. Anyone who earnestly seeks God
experiences such travail, but when the united Christians of a
city are at this stage, it signals impending revival.
How do you perceive God? How big is He? The size of your
God is revealed by your plans and expectations. His objectives
are plain enough. Envision this, for example: God’s heart for the
city becomes your heart. You and your teammates begin a city-
wide prayer movement. There is revival in the local churches,
followed by an awakening among non-Christians, reformation
of society, and new expressions of world mission.
Is your God big enough for that? He waits for people who
will see him as he is and then follow him to victory.
 CHAPTER 16
Territorial Spirits and
Evangelization in Hostile
Environments1
by Vernon J. Sterk

Vernon J. Sterk is a field missionary of the Reformed

Church of America, working among the Indians of
Mexico. Some of the persecution of believers that he
has witnessed seems to him to come from something
other than simply human opposition to Christianity. In
this chapter he raises the question as to whether some
of this might be directly attributed to territorial spirits.
—C. Peter Wagner
I want to address an often-forgotten factor in persecution
and resistance to evangelization, the reality and work of
demons and evil spirits, specifically “territorial spirits.”
Although this will not be simply a case study of the Tzotzil
Tribes in Chiapas, Mexico, it will reflect on many of the events
and illustrations which have come from my experience in that
particular work. Because my awareness in the area of territorial
spirits has only recently begun to surface, I will not be
analyzing my own experience, but rather I will be compiling the
available data and analyses in order to formulate a hypothetical
framework upon which to base my own investigation. I will
attempt to answer the basic questions: Are territorial spirits a
reality? Should they be considered as a factor in persecution?
If territorial spirits find their main assignment in resistance to
the gospel, how are we specifically to deal with them? These
questions will set the theoretical framework for our analysis.

1. Satan and Spiritual Warfare

At the outset, it would be easy to simply make a generalized
statement that all persecution and resistance to the gospel is
the work of satan. And even though it is not the central aim of
this study, we must start there.
Satan is certainly behind all persecution and efforts to keep
the message of Jesus Christ from penetrating the hearts of
people and the core of cultures. We could even say that
opposition to the gospel is probably his major role and goal.
The words of 2 Cor. 4:4 refer clearly to the work of satan when
it says that “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.” And Scripture is
clear about calling satan “the ruler of this world” (Jn. 12:31,
14:30, 16:11), “the tempter” (Mt. 4:3), “the evil one” (Mt.
13:38), and “the one who deceived them” (Rev. 20:10).
Much has been written on satan. There is general
agreement about the reality of the power of satan and the fact
that we should never underestimate that power. Complete
books line the shelves of the library which list satan’s titles and
names,2 and offer good biblical studies on the origin,
attributes, and work of satan. Others have written on spiritual
warfare and how we can best do battle with satan.3 While these
and others like them are valuable studies and are important for
us to use in the spiritual battle that we experience all around us,
many Christians in Latin America and others parts of the Third
World are now telling us that such a concept of the
personification of evil is not really adequate. They express their
feelings that it is not only too vague and distant, but also does
not fit what they see in reality and biblical revelation, to
attribute all of the evil in the world to satan.
Simply stated, many Christians are observing that the
immediate work of evil and its destruction can be identified
specifically as the work of “territorial spirits.” That is to say
that they actually experience the effects and presence of evil in
a sphere that is much closer and more personal than the
identity of satan. In the battle against evil and in the challenge
to preach the good news of Jesus Christ, they are finding it
much more helpful to identify with the description of
“principalities and powers” (Eph. 6:12) than with a general
more distant idea of “satan.”
In our first years of pioneer evangelism in the Zinacanteco
tribe of the Tzotzil-speaking Indians in the Central Highlands of
Chiapas, Mexico, my wife and I had many people come and
explain that their illness was being caused by specific and
identifiable evil spirits. Some would speak of a spirit that dwells
in an underground stream of water running under their house.
Others would see these spirits attacking them as they gathered
firewood, or causing their children to fall and injure themselves.
There were no Christians in that tribe, and we, as Western
missionaries, were ill-prepared to approach these local
manifestations of evil spirits. Our worldview caused us to find
it easier to deny their existence and attribute all of this to a
rather remote satan. The Zinacanteco people were attempting
to exercise some control over these evil spirits through
shamans and a sacrificial system of curing ceremonies. They
felt the need to handle specific and local spirit forces with
specific and local ways of handling them.
As we noted earlier, one of the principal affairs with which
satan is preoccupied is to “veil the gospel” (2 Cor. 4:3). But
how does satan do this? At this point in our discussion, I
would like to introduce an idea to which I had given very little
previous thought. C. Peter Wagner writes the following:
It is helpful to remind ourselves that satan does not
possess the attributes of God, and therefore he is not
omnipresent. Although he may be able to move from
one place to another very rapidly, still he can be in only
one place at one time. Therefore, if he is intent on
blinding the minds of the three billion who have yet to
receive the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, he
must delegate this responsibility to others, namely evil
spirits.4
In Matthew 12:24-28 Jesus spoke of the casting out of
demons as an invasion of satan’s kingdom. Satan is described
as “the prince of demons” (v. 24). All of this would give us a
fairly clear picture of satan as the commander of an army of evil
spirits who function as his agents in all parts of the world. Dick
Bernal echoes what Peter Wagner has said:
I call your attention to the fact that satan is not
omnipresent. He cannot be every place at one time. And
so, he must dispatch chief rulers (principalities) to guard
and protect his perverted scheme for empires, nations,
provinces, states, and even cities.5
Satan delegates his power and authority to these evil spirits
who quite probably number in the millions. One of the evil
spirits that Jesus cast out (in Mark 5:9) gave his name as
“Legion, for we are many.” A Roman legion was made up of six
thousand men, so we would certainly be able to say that in this
one small area of Gerasa in that time there was a large number
of territorial spirits actively working in satan’s hierarchy. And
the great number of descriptions of evil spirits and demons in
the Bible almost always denote them in the plural, as if they
were associated with many others.
I am now convinced that satan does work by delegation,
and that there are many more demons and spirits in the world
than we have ever realized. It may be that when there is a large
representation of Christians in an area, the evil spirits are
reduced in number or considerably weakened, but in an
animistic Indian village where I lived and worked in southern
Mexico that had no Christian presence, the ominous
domination of that area was so oppressive that we could
literally feel it, even though our worldview did not yet allow us
to recognize the specific evil spirits that were identified by the
Indian people. Even a non-Christian anthropologist who lived
in that same village for six months commented to us about the
spiritual oppression that she felt was so pervasive there. When
a number of people from those villages became Christians,
there was almost immediate and violent persecution. Was that
persecution the direct responsibility of the territorial spirits that
had been delegated power for that tribe or village? We only
prayed general prayers for God to limit satan’s power in
opposing the gospel, but we never took the local emissaries of
the enemy into account, nor did we know how to handle them.
Could that be why some of those areas are still extremely
belligerent and resistant to the message of Jesus Christ, in
spite of the use of the best missiological tools and approaches
that could be mustered?

2. Territorial Spirits
All of the Tzotzil tribes, with whom we have worked for
more than 20 years, can identify specific tribal deities which act
as guardian spirits (saints and ancestral gods), and they can
also name specific evil spirits that are in charge of the various
kinds of evil in their culture. The Yajval Balamil or “Earth
Owner” controls sickness and curing through “soul loss and
redemption.” There are many demons, like the Poslom which
takes the form of a ball of fire and attacks people at night to
cause severe swelling. The Jf’ic’aletic or “Blackmen” are
looters and rapists who commit indiscriminate attacks of all
kinds of evil. There is a seemingly endless list of frightening
evil beings or spirits to which the Tzotzils refer to as Pucujetic
“devils.”6 There is a very clearly defined specialization of the
roles and evil work of the Tzotzil spirits, but of even more
interest in this study, they also have territorial designations
and assignments. This is true for both the evil spirits and for
the Tzotzil “guardian spirits.” The ancestral spirits reside in
certain mountain peaks. Evil spirits can be contacted by a
shaman in certain caves, and through specific cross shrines.
All of the spirits have geographical limits for their power, even
though the reach of the evil spirits seems to be more extensive
than that of the guardian or ancestral spirits, whose assigned
areas seem very limited. For example, Zinacanteco Indians have
often expressed fear of going to lowland cornfields outside of
tribal boundaries, because there they don’t have the protection
of guardian deities but the evil spirits “travel around and find
them.”
When Tzotzil Indians become Christians and undergo
persecution, they often cite the power of territorial tribal evil
spirits as the reason that they cannot continue to live in the
tribal area. However, the pressure is a two-edged sword: they
fear tribal spirits, but they also experience the threats of
physical violence. Again, for the study of the role of territorial
spirits in persecution and opposition to the gospel, it is very
interesting to notice that the two factors seem to be
intertwined. It appears that Tzotzil Christians attribute
persecution more to the evil spirits involved than to the people
who act it out against them.
Probably the most transparent example of the power of
territorial spirits in the geographic boundaries of the Tzotzil
tribes is seen when a sick person has a chance to go to the
home of an evangelical Christian who is living outside of tribal
boundaries because of persecution and expulsion. The person
who is sick will usually choose to stay at a Christian home,
outside of the territory of the tribal evil spirit, until he is
completely well. If that person has carried an evil spirit with him
or her in his or her body, the Christians pray in the name of
Jesus to cast that spirit out and have it return from where it
came.
In some cases, territorial spirits seem to be so fixed in a
particular house or underground stream that everyone living in
the immediate area is affected by sickness, mental illness, or
serious attacks. Zinacanteco shamans encourage a family to
leave that house or property rather than to even attempt
dislodging the spirit from the area. Shamans officially declare
the area “cuxul” (living) and there is great fear of inhabiting
this occupied territory.
In other cases, the territorial spirits come as temporary
invaders of homes. Shamans perform house ceremonies in
which the Zinacanteco Indians believe that a demon takes the
form of a “hummingbird demon.” It is interesting to note that
the shamans do not attempt to rid the area or house of the
demon, but rather try to appease the territorial spirit with
sacrifices so that it will cause no further suffering and fear.
On yet another level of territorial spirits, anthropologists
have noted that there are particular ancestral spirits connected
with the ceremonial circuits that surround the tribal center,
certain sacred places, and the special crisis ceremonies that are
carried out by shamans.7 Because I have not, in the past, paid
much attention to the concept of territorial spirits, I have not
yet made an in-depth investigation of this phenomenon.
The Tzotzil tribes which I have just described in this case
study are not the only area of the world where this territorial
spirit phenomenon is taking place. Others such as James
Marocco of Hawaii have observed what he calls “cultural
ethnic demons.” His study of this states: “It is my contention
that there is a definite demonic power that affects the particular
geographical areas and population centers.”8 Nor is this a new
thing that is just now beginning to surface. John Nevius,
writing in the 1800s, describes a house in Ho-kia-chwang,
China, where a wealthy family was brought to poverty by a
local spirit.9
Is the Concept of Territorial Spirits Biblical? It is clear
from empirical observation that a case can be made for the
existence of territorial spirits and their role in persecution and
resistance to the Gospel. However, is it biblical? Does the Bible
indicate that we are up against territorial spirits in specific local
settings, and not just facing a more generalized opposition
from satan? Of course the passage that is most often cited is
Ephesians 6:12, where there is an indication that we are up
against “principalities” and “powers” and “rulers” and
“spiritual hosts of wickedness.” But do these agents of satan
occupy or control specific areas or territories in our world?
 Old Testament Examples
In the Old Testament there is much mention of the specific
places such as “places on the high mountains,” or specific hills
or certain trees where the pagan nations had identified as
locales for specific gods and spirits (Deut. 12:2). God gave
specific instructions to the Israelites that when they possessed
these places to live, they must destroy all semblances of these
gods and cast out the names of these gods and spirits from
those places. The different nations all possessed specific gods
and evil spirits which had specific names such as “Baal,” and
“Ashera” (Judges 3:7), and “Ashtoreths” (1 Sam. 7:3-4). In 2
Kings 17:29 we read that “each national group made its own
gods in the several towns where they settled, and set them up
in the shrines the people of Samaria had made at the high
places.” Each national group had its own gods or principalities
which had separate names and identities. “The men from
Babylon made Succoth Benoth, the men from Cuthah made
Nergal, and the men from Hamath made Ashima; the Awites
made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their
children in the fire as sacrifices to Adrammelech and
Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim” (2 Kings 17:30-31).
These images that were made certainly represented already
existing spirits and gods, and the Bible clearly defines them as
evil (2 Kings 17:17). Deuteronomy 32:17 makes a clear
connection of these foreign gods to “demons.”
A very interesting observation on the power of territorial
spirits is made in 1 Kings 20:23 where “the officials of the king
of Aram advised him, ‘Their gods are gods of the hills. That is
why they were too strong for us. But if we fight them on the
plains, surely we will be stronger than they.’” This expresses a
clear belief, at least among those people, that spirits and gods
had power only over certain limited areas of jurisdiction.

Territorial Spirits and Evangelization

in Hostile Environments
In the story of Naaman going to Elisha to be healed of
leprosy, Naaman is told that he must go to wash in the Jordan
where God would cleanse him, and not to the Damascus rivers
of Abana and Pharpar which were in the domain of the god
Rimnon (2 Kings 5:1-19). There are illustrations that indicate
that many in Israel also saw God’s territory as mainly the land
of Canaan. When David was being pursued by King Saul,
David expresses a fear of meeting death on some foreign soil,
far away from the Lord. He says, “Now do not let my blood fall
to the ground far from the presence of the Lord.”
I believe that the above Old Testament references are
helpful in understanding what the Ephesians 6:12 passage
means when it speaks in the New Testament time of spiritual
“principalities and powers.” During the Roman occupation,
most of the people of Israel also saw demonic personages
located in specific political powers in specific places.

New Testament Examples

 The examples of territorial spirits in the New Testament are
limited. While there are many cases where demons and evil
spirits are openly confronted, there are but a few times when
the idea of those demons being attached to specific territories
is recognized.
When Jesus was about to cast the demons from the
possessed man (Mark 5:1-20), the demons begged Jesus not to
send them out of that area. It would appear quite clearly that a
legion of demons belonged to that area and did not want to
leave. I also find it interesting to note that when the spirits
were cast into the pigs and then into the lake, then the people
of that region seemed to be blinded by the power of those
demons for they were immediately afraid and began to plead for
Jesus to leave their region (v. 17).
Although the connection is more difficult to demonstrate
from the text, the story of Paul’s extraordinary work in Ephesus
(Acts 19) suggests that territorial spirits might have been at
work. After Paul’s open warfare with evil spirits (v. 12), we read
the account of the seven Jewish exorcists who are
overpowered and beaten by the evil spirit in a man. However,
when power encounter in the name of Jesus brought many to
openly believe, the goddess “Artemis” stirred the mobs to
oppose the gospel and start a riot. The principality named
“Artemis,” who appears to have been a principality over the
evil spirits of that area, was likely in control of the area around
Ephesus.
Although there are many other passages in the Bible which
give confirmation of the hierarchy of satan and many that
indicate that there are numerous demons and evil spirits
delegated by satan, except for the ones cited above, there are
few that give clear indications of them being territorial.
However, I believe that the above examples do reveal that there
are territorial spirits that do dominate certain areas, kingdoms,
nations, and places. Even though I am sure, from the Biblical
evidence, that satan does not always use this territorial method
or approach, I agree with C. Peter Wagner’s hypothesis that:
Satan delegates high ranking members of the hierarchy
of evil spirits to control nations, regions, cities, tribes,
people groups, neighborhoods, and other significant
social networks of human beings throughout the world.
Their major assignment is to prevent God from being
glorified in their territory, which they do through
directing the activity of lower ranking demons.10

The Major Assignment of Territorial Spirits:

To Oppose Evangelization
The major task of preventing God from being glorified is
carried out by the assignment of specific territorial spirits for
the purpose of halting or disrupting evangelism in their
territories. I am entirely convinced that the resistance which we
experience in many areas of the world in the growth of the
church is the direct result of demonic forces. I cannot say that
they are always territorial spirits, but the more I hear of the
experiences and work of those such as evangelist Omar
Cabrera in Argentina, Christian psychologist Rita Cabezas in
Costa Rica, and many others, the more clearly I begin to
understand some of the things that we have seen in the work
of evangelism among the Tzotzils in Chiapas.
Nabenchauc is a village in the high mountains of Chiapas
where my wife and I lived for ten years among the Zinacanteco
Indians. It is the largest of all of the Zinacanteco villages and
boasts of hundreds of shamans. We experienced many
worldview changing experiences of the reality and power of
demons and evil spirits while we attempted to do pioneer
evangelism there. When the power of the Gospel finally broke
down a few of the walls in that village, the persecution became
intense. God performed many healing miracles, and some power
encounters have taken place. Yet, even after much general
prayer pleading with God to break the power of satan in that
village, we have only seen small spurts of growth in which the
new Christians are either forced to revert to animism or be
harshly expelled from their land and homes. There has been
more growth in other villages in that tribe, even though there
has been much less evangelism done in some of those other
villages, and God has concentrated less of his demonstration
of power in those areas.
As I have read and studied about this phenomenon of
territorial spirits, it all seems to fit. In the village of
Nabenchauc, the shamans and tribal political bosses are also
those who serve or control the “cargo” positions which have
direct contact with the local spirits and deities that are the
“owners” and “demons.” They control all dimensions of life in
the village, and any deviation from that control is met with
various forms of persecution. Since the Gospel was first
communicated in this village, there has been a great increase in
the number of spirits and deities. This has been reflected in
both the increased number of “saint” images in the local
church-shrine and in the amazing multiplication of house
“talking saints.” The resistance to the Gospel has
corresponded with the increase in these spirits.
I wish that I could report that we have taken authority over
these spirits in Jesus’ name and the growth has become
fantastic, but neither we who are missionaries nor the expelled
Zinacanteco Christians had ever considered this concept of
specific territorial spirits. We never did more than pray general
prayers against satan’s power in Nabenchauc, and the growth
of the church has been generally slow and halting.
We have observed, on the other hand, that the greatest
openness to the Gospel is shown when Tzotzils temporarily
work, reside, or market outside of tribal boundaries. Many
Tzotzils are open to the gospel and become believers when
they go to work far away from the influence of their tribal areas.
Timothy M. Warner, professor of mission at Trinity
Evangelical Divinity School, has stated: “I have come to
believe that satan does indeed assign a demon or corp of
demons to every geopolitical unit in the world, and that they
are among the principalities and powers against whom we
wrestle.”11 As I recall accounts from all over the Tzotzil tribal
areas where Christians have suffered serious resistance to the
Gospel, I am becoming more and more convinced that anyone
facing persecution should be aware that there are surely
demons and evil spirits involved; and most likely they will be
territorial spirits.

3. Dealing with the Territorial Spirits

Knowing that territorial spirits exist and that they may, in
many cases of resistance to the Gospel, be the ones presenting
the obstacles and causing the reaction of persecution, there
remains another question: How do we deal with them?
It is possible that we should approach the battle with these
territorial spirits the same way that is suggested by major
authors for casting out any evil spirit or demon. Merrill Unger
simply states that “Demons are ‘dispossessed’ in the Name of
Christ.”12 Michael Harper suggests that we have four basic
weapons: “1) the Name of Jesus, 2) the Word of God, 3)
righteousness, 4) the spiritual gifts.”13 Harper also makes some
important suggestions about practising the ministry of
defeating the enemy. He is not speaking about demons at this
point, but I believe that, for our present discussion, these
weapons are valid in the battle against territorial spirits. He
says that the first step is “self-repentance and confession.”
The second is “deliverance” or the command to satan and/or
his agent spirits to get out. In prayer we bind satan or an evil
spirit. In this prayer we do not ask Jesus to do this; we do it in
Jesus’ name with the authority that Jesus has given us. Finally,
we do not need to tell the spirits where to go, but we do need
to follow up with a prayer for God to fill the area with the power
of the Holy Spirit.14
I believe that one of the important roles that I must play as
a missionary working with the Tzotzil Presbytery in Chiapas is
to call the indigenous church leaders back to a ministry of
“aggressive prayer” in the battle against the principalities and
powers. Many of them have come to assume that God has
taken care of these evil spirits, and that they don’t have to
worry much about them. Thus, the “command prayer” has
almost fallen into disuse except in cases of obvious personal
demon possession. Bubeck’s reminder is timely: “Aggressive
prayer is a mighty, mighty part of the believer’s effectiveness in
spiritual warfare.”15 Intercessory prayer is an important tool,
but it is not how Jesus said that believers would drive out
demons. Jesus makes it clear for “those who believe: In my
[Jesus’] name they will drive out demons” (Mark 16:17). Jesus
Himself, in all of the Gospel accounts, commanded the spirits
out. He did not pray to the Father to cast them out. And then
He gave that power and authority to His disciples (Luke 9:1),
and also to us. The Tzotzils must be called back to this
ministry, especially in areas that have experienced severe
opposition to the Gospel.
However, I have also come to see that in dealing with
territorial spirits we may have some other factors to take into
account. Before we assume that these spirits can be dealt with
in the same manner as all others, we must investigate some
specific areas about the battle with these very specific
territorial spirits.
 Identification of the Territorial Spirit by
Name
One of the attempts that some of the writers in demonology
make is to determine titles and names. In The Adversary, Mark
Bubeck gives a detailed list of the names of satan himself,
giving 13 different titles.16 However, neither he nor Michael
Green 17 nor Michael Harper18 make an issue of using the
names of satan or other demons to have more power in casting
them out. Neither Unger19 nor Nevius 20 take any special care
about this issue, but then neither of them discusses the
specific issue of territorial spirits. In Michael C.H. Koh’s
paper21, there is the recognition of the need for prayer and
warfare on two levels: 1) the larger spiritual powers, and 2) the
local or territorial power as in people movements and revivals.
But he does not deal with the issue of names and identity.
Jesus only once asked the name of a demon (Mt. 5:9, Lk.
8:30) during His ministry, recorded in the New Testament.
Daniel 10 does mention two names of territorial spirits. In
Revelation 9:11 “the angel of the Abyss” is called in Hebrew
“Abaddon” and in Greek “Apollyon.” The name “Beelzebub”
is used seven times in the New Testament, and appears to be a
play on the words that were derived from “Prince Baal.” The
rest of the Biblical evidence would indicate that there is little
emphasis on knowing the names of demons or territorial spirits.
On the other hand, there are several recent studies that
indicate that these spirits are identifiable by specific names.
Edward Langton, in Essentials of Demonology, 22 has done
some analysis of the Persian names for demons which have
meanings like “Evil Mind,” “Female Deceit,” and “Wrath.”
Manfred Lurker’s Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses, Devils
and Demons23 gives an extensive list of specific deity and
demon names from all over the world of cultures throughout
history. I have also discovered that the Apocryphal book of
Tobit and Judith contains passages on “Asmodeus” who is
called “the worst of demons.”24 Dick Bernal, in his book
Storming Hell’s Brazen Gates, says:
I cannot be too emphatic. In dealing with the princes
and rulers of the heavenlies, they must be identified.
Even the ancient Greeks knew how to approach their
gods (whom we now identify as “principalities”). They
were always approached by name and title.25
The Tzotzils, as I have indicated earlier, are very aware of
the names of many of the territorial spirits that inhabit their
tribal area and villages. They are even able to name some of
those which occupy homes and streams. The shamans pride
themselves in calling on the actual names of all of the different
spirits and deities when they have very difficult cases.
Therefore, for Tzotzil Christians to be able to name the spirits
that they feel are opposing the Gospel in a particular area
would probably be possible.
The question remains in all of this inquiry on names: Do we
gain any special advantage in spiritual warfare by knowing the
names of the spirits and demons? Many would agree with
Mark Bubeck’s two bits of advice in dealing with evil spirits.
He tells us not to believe them or their threats, and warns that
we should not try to know too much about them.26 However, if
we do know the names of specific territorial spirits, there may
be some validity in addressing the spirit by name when
attempting to take over an area in Jesus’ name.
It may be valid that we are able to use the names of specific
territorial spirits in cases of persecution and sever opposition
and hostility to the Gospel. Yet, I am very suspicious of names
that are given by territorial spirits themselves, since I do not
believe that they are about to reveal any secrets which would
lead to their own downfall. Jesus Himself knew that: “Any
kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house
divided against itself will fall. If Satan is divided against
himself, how can his kingdom stand?” (Luke 11:17-18a).
However, this does not invalidate the using of specific names
in casting out these spirits.
In many cultures there is the recognition that to give
someone your name gives them a certain power over you. The
Tzotzil people have strong feelings about knowing the name of
their “animal spirit companion.”27 If some enemy gains
knowledge of the name of that spirit, he can place a curse on
that person by harming that particular animal spirit.
The Bible pays careful attention to the power that is
embodied in names, especially in the “Name of God” and in the
“Name of Jesus.” Deuteronomy 12:11 is an example of how the
tabernacle was referred to as “a dwelling for his Name.” In
Solomon’s message about the building of the temple he
describes his plan “to build a temple for the Name of the Lord .
. .” (1 Kings 5:5). Many of the studies that have been done on
the concept of “name” in the Old Testament indicate that in the
Hebrew culture the name itself signified something important
about the character and personality of a specific individual.
The name seems also to have revealed a similar identity in
reference to God or other deities.
The New Testament gives even clearer indication that there
is power in a name. Jesus said: “And I will do whatever you
ask in my name . . .” (John 14:13). To use the name of a person
implies a certain authority granted by that person. In James
5:14 we are told to heal the sick “in the name of the Lord,” and
in Mark 16:17 Jesus says, “In my name they will drive out
demons.” Again in Luke 10:17 the seventy-two that Jesus sent
out came back to report: “Lord, even the demons submit to us
in your name.” In John 17:11 Jesus prays to the Father for his
disciples: “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your
name—the name you gave me . . . .”
All of this may not give any conclusive evidence of how we
might use the actual names of specific territorial spirits or
demons when we are dealing with them. However, some
hypothetical conclusions may be helpful. First, we should not
place much credibility in names given to us by a territorial
spirit. It may be pure deception. Second, we may use the name
of a specific spirit if it has been revealed or confirmed by a
source other than a demonic one. Third, I do not think that we
risk too much in using the names that are common knowledge
to the people of an area or village, when these spirits have
been known for generations to exert control over specific areas
or territories. Fourth, we should use the general or functional
names of demons or spirits if the actual names are unknown to
us.
Finally, in this discussion on the importance of knowing the
names of territorial spirits, we must not neglect the gift of
discernment. One of the specific spiritual gifts available to the
Church of Jesus Christ in spiritual warfare against territorial
spirits is the discerning of spirits. 1 Corinthians 12:10 counts
“the discerning of spirits” as a gift given to us for “mutual
profit.” Certainly, this spiritual gift would be of great value not
only in any ministry of deliverance, but it is essential in dealing
with territorial spirits, especially in discerning of their specific
names.

Conclusions
While we began this study with the assumption that satan
is the overall head of the hierarchy of evil in this world and is
certainly behind all persecution and resistance to the gospel,
we have seen clearly that he is not alone in his spiritual warfare
against the kingdom of God. Around the world, Christians are
experiencing the threats and the actual presence of evil forces
that are specific and geographically located. It is, therefore, an
oversimplification and underestimation of the enemy to simply
reflect the obvious fact that satan is the force behind all of the
opposition to the gospel. We must take an honest look at the
reality of territorial spirits.
The Tzotzil worldview is full of many local spirit-owners
which are specific and geographical, much like those described
by Loewen.28 It would seem that these territorial spirits have
been delegated authority by satan to oppose the Gospel in a
specific area. Thus, the territorial spirits are the main agents in
building resistance to the gospel of Jesus Christ in places like
the Tzotzil tribes. A careful analysis of the territorial spirit
concept reveals that they not only exist but that they are also
responsible for the severe persecution and expulsion of
Christians.
In tracing the Biblical examples of territorial spirits, we find
in both the Old Testament and the New Testament that satan
has used territorial spirits to control nations, regions, tribes,
and other smaller places. The main assignment of territorial
spirits is the halting of evangelism. This is reflected in the
Zinacanteco example.
To deal with territorial spirits, we must use aggressive
command prayer. We address these spirits with their actual
names if and when they are known, but we should not place
too much emphasis on a proper name identity. It is important to
identify the territorial spirit by a traditional name or a functional
name. In all of the problem of identification, the gift of
discernment of spirits is essential.
Finally, there are some serious dangers. We must heed a
word of caution so that we do not lose a correct balance, and
so that we do not get involved in a use of power that is not a
part of God’s will for us and the church. I certainly do not want
to suggest an involvement with principalities that will
ultimately do great damage to individuals and to the church in
Chiapas. However, there is also the great risk of doing nothing
because of our questions and fears. That would, in effect,
negate the validity of this entire study, and it would allow the
territorial spirits to continue to cause resistance to the gospel
and persecution of Christians around the world.
I conclude from this study that a balanced ministry in the
area of territorial spirits could be God’s method of opening new
doors for effective evangelism of which not only I, but many
Christian leaders around the world, have not been aware.
 CHAPTER 17
Which God Do
Missionaries Preach?1
by Jacob Loewen

Jacob Loewen is an outstanding Christian

anthropologist who served as a Mennonite Brethren
missionary to Colombia, then for several decades as a
translation consultant with the United Bible Societies
in South America and Africa. In the extended version of
this article which first appeared in Missiology: An
International Review, Loewen makes a case that many
missionaries fall into the danger of communicating to
tribal peoples a concept of God which may appear to
the people to be more like the territorial and functional
gods whom they serve rather than the universal,
supreme God the missionaries are intending to
communicate.
In setting the context for his argument, Loewen presents
information about the territoriality of pagan demonic
spirits which readers of this book will find very helpful.
He also mentions some biblical passages in the Old
Testament where not only did the Gentile pagan groups
assume spiritual territoriality, but also where the
Hebrews themselves were wrestling with concepts
which could tend to suggest limitations to God’s
 omnipresence and omnipotence. It is little wonder that
some of us could be in danger of falling into similar
traps today.
For our purposes here, only Loewen’s background
material is reproduced. It is the part most apropos to
understanding territorial spirits.
—C. Peter Wagner
A new missionary to Nigeria was deeply thrilled when he
got a land grant from the local king so that he could begin to
build a mission hospital. Once the building began, he started
each workday with Bible study and prayer for his work crew.
Long before the hospital was ready to function, all his
workmen had “accepted Christ,” and the missionary felt that
even the construction time had been an evangelistic success.
Once the building was completed all the workmen returned
to their respective home villages, and the missionary began
organizing a series of evangelistic tours through some of those
same villages. To his complete chagrin he found that his
“converts” were contentedly tending idol shrines in their home
villages. When he confronted them with what to him was a
gross incongruity with their confession of faith as Christians,
they in turn expressed their surprise at his abysmal ignorance;
surely he knew that at the mission they had prayed to owo
(God) because they saw that he was the one who had power
there, but he was not in charge here in their home villages. Here
they had to pray to the “deity that owned this area.” “If we try
to pray to your mission God here, the local deity would be very,
very unhappy and make too much trouble for everybody,” they
affirmed with conviction.2
This African experience highlights the important truth that
many, if not most, tribal and peasant societies experience their
deities as tribaly, geographically, or functionally specialized.
Western people who believe in God, especially Western
missionaries who go overseas, feel very comfortable that they
represent a God who is universal and who possesses the whole
gamut of all-attributes. He is omnipotent, omnipresent,
omniscient, and so on. Furthermore, Western Christians read
the Bible and see only this all-embracing God. Their own
worldview has blinded them to the fact that the Bible records
the tremendous struggle which God waged with the Hebrew
people, first of all, truly to become the only God of that tribe,
and then to have them catch at least a few glimpses of the fact
that he was really also the God of all mankind.

Deity as Territorially Linked

When my wife and I began our mission work in Colombia,
one of the first things that struck us was that the Indians there
saw every tree, mountain, stream, spring, or even large rock as
being the home of some specific spirit entity. When I began to
travel more widely during a dialect survey of Choco languages,
I discovered that it was next to impossible to take people from
one river or dialect to visit another dialect group because the
people were afraid that the spirit powers of that new area, to
which they were alien, would steal their souls and thus cause
their death.3 In group after group there are stories about
hunters who in the pursuit of game had inadvertently gone
beyond the domains of friendly spirits into the domains of alien
spirits and of the dire consequences that had followed. Only a
few had returned to tell the tale, and even some of those who
did make it back died soon thereafter because they were unable
to retrieve their souls from the alien spirits that had captured
them.
Already some readers will feel that I am not talking about
God but that I am talking about spirits. And in a way that is
true, but it also points to a second important reality: most tribal
and peasant peoples experience deity at least at two (and some
at many more) levels. The first is at the so-called “high-God”
level, and the second is at the level of “gods, spirits, fetishes,
or ancestors,” and so on. (Each of these may form several
separate levels of deity.)
The high-God concept has been eloquently expounded by
the early Catholic missionary-anthropologist Wilhelm Schmidt.4
This high God is the creator of the universe and usually also of
men, but frequently a more personal or more tribaly related
deity plays the second role. After creation, however, something
akin to the fall-of-man story recorded in Genesis 3 occurred and
the high God withdrew leaving men in charge of, or under the
domination of, lesser gods, spirits, or even shades of their
ancestors.
The accounts of this rupture between God and mankind are
as varied as the peoples who tell them. For the Waunana of
Colombia, where we began our missionary experience, it was
precipitated by direct intervention of dosiata, “the devil,” who
caused the people to mistrust God and to buy axes from the
trickster-devil to be able to raise food crops independent of
their God. This act of mistrust caused Ewandama, “the tribal
high God,” to withdraw from the Waunan, “the people,” and
left them to fend for themselves against dosiata’s kith and kin
and a host of other amoral spirit entities that inhabited their
environment.5
West Africans often speak about creation time as the time
when the high God/sky God had placed his abode (heaven)
very close to earth. At that time the people, really the women
(shades of Eden) who did the gardening, used long-handled
hoes and they continually poked into the sky or God’s
“buttocks,” as one of the local languages puts it. God told the
women to use short-handled hoes, but they wouldn’t. Finally
he got so tired of having his bottom poked that he withdrew
from the human scene leaving the people “in the care of their
deceased ancestors.” Subsequently everyone began using the
current short-handled hoes (about 20 to 24 inches long), but in
spite of this God has kept himself and his abode at a distance
from humans on earth ever since. In another situation it was
the smoke from the woman’s cooking fire that got into God’s
eyes and caused him to withdraw in a huff.6
The parallelisms between these many different myths and
the biblical accounts are striking. In Genesis 1 it is the high
God/El Elohim who creates the universe. The setting of the
rupture is a garden/gardening scene. The immediate vehicle for
the rupture in the Bible, as in many African accounts, is the
woman. The cause is human unbelief or disobedience to God’s
command, and the universal result is the current distance
between God and mankind, usually spoken of as God’s
withdrawal, or in the Bible as man’s ejection from the garden
and presence of God.
As already said earlier, often the high God and the tribal
God are one and the same, but not always so. In some cases we
have the high God creating the universe and the tribal god
creating the people and their culture. We see something very
similar in the Bible where we actually find two creation
accounts: one by Elohim, “the high God” (Gen. l-2:4a) and the
other by Yahweh, “the tribal God of the Hebrews” (Gen. 2:4affl).

The Owners
In many societies throughout Central and South America
the spirit deities associated with various geographical or
topographical phenomena are spoken of as their “owners.”
Thus nomadic Indians in the Paraguayan and Argentina Chaco
always “consulted” the spirit owner of an area before they
made camp. If the response was favorable they made camp in
peace; if it was unfavorable, they would move to another area
and repeat the process. Spirit forces “owned” the land and, in
the case of sedentary people, the land, in turn, is said “to own”
the people living on it. People never own the land; they only
use it by the permission of its true spirit owners who, in a
sense, “adopt” them.
 For many tribal groups, like those of Australia, the area
controlled by friendly spirits, or owners of the land who have
adopted them, is coterminous with land over which a tribe is
willing to roam. For this reason war against another tribe for the
purpose of taking away land is really inconceivable to them. It
would be suicidal for a people to try to occupy land whose
owners had already adopted another tribe, or which was
watched over and lived in by the souls of the deceased
ancestors of a people other than their own. For such people
conquering another tribe’s land invariably means that one must
change religion; one must worship the local deities. For
example, when the Zulus and their related tribes of South
Africa conquered tribes as far north as today’s Malawi and
Tanzania, they immediately accepted the local gods. Thus in
modern Malawi among the Ngoni (as the conquerors are called
today) it is almost impossible to find even a trace of their earlier
South African deities.7
The practical result of deities restricted to specific tribes or
defined areas is that morality also is often similarly restricted.
Proscriptions on negative behavior apply only to one’s in-
group. Thus to steal from, to harm, or to kill a person from
one’s own group is punished, but if one does these things to a
member of another group one becomes a hero. This type of
morality limitation is one of the major obstacles the newer
nations of the third world have to overcome in their efforts to
build a national identity. On the international scene, we see it
especially in times of war when ordinarily law-abiding people
become heroes when they kill, rape, and loot the enemy.
Internally, Western nations experience it in various kinds of
interracial or intergroup conflict as a result of which some
groups feel free to bomb, burn and loot members of an out-
group.

The Specialization of Deity

So far we have been speaking about deities identified with
certain ecological or topological features, but deities can also
be specialized functionally as to their activities. Most
Westerners have at least some acquaintance with the Greek or
Roman mythology and so have some awareness of special
gods associated with or responsible for certain activities. Note
the following condensed list of Greek and Roman deities and
their areas of specialization.
 In South American tribes the specialization is largely among
evil spirits; for example, the Lengua of Paraguay identify
several dozen kinds of evil spirits, each of them with its own
specialized function.8
In Africa, on the other hand, especially among many Bantu
tribes where the spirits are usually former human souls, the
specialization is often most marked among the protective
spirits. Thus it is not at all uncommon in West Africa to find a
hierarchy of specialized spirits or deities.
Tribal people, however, are not the only ones who engage
in such syncretism. We can see the Greco-Roman tradition of
specialized deities has been carried on in many Catholic
churches in the form of the saints which range from Saint
Joseph, the patron of carpenters, to Mary Magdalene as
protectress of the prostitutes. In Latin-America
Christopaganism many local specialized deities have been
saved from oblivion by being rebaptized with the name of a
Catholic saint.9

The Bible and Divine Territoriality

and Specialization
In regard to the presence of deity in topographical
phenomena, the Old Testament frequently speaks of the high
places on which the people offered sacrifices to the God who
was seen as residing there (1 Sam. 9:12-13; 10:5; 1 Kings 3:2;
Hos. 2:13, etc.). Usually, however, high places were associated
with Baal (“high places of Baal” in Numbers 22:41), or other
alien deities (Levi. 26:30; 1 Kings 11:7-8; 17:9-10, etc.).
Sometimes these mounds had been artificially built (1 Kings
15:23-24; 2 Kings 17:9); other times they were natural
elevations like hills or mountains (2 Kings 17:10-11; Ps. 121:1; 2
Chron. 21:11).
That certain gods were rulers of certain territories and could
only be worshipped there is also evident in a good number of
biblical passages. It stands out very boldly in the case of
Naaman, the Syrian general who was leprous. He disdainfully
claimed that the waters of the Syrian rivers of Abana and
Pharpar were as efficacious as those of the Jordan River, but
when he was healed by bathing in Jordan’s waters, he realized
the power of the Yahweh of Israel and said: “I know that there
is no God in all the earth but in Israel.” But since he had to
serve his king in Damascus, he asked the prophet for “two
mule burdens of Israelite earth” so that he could pray and
worship Yahweh on Yahweh’s own soil because his birth and
his position condemned him to live in the domain in which the
god Rimmon was the controller (2 Kings 5:1-19).
The Hebrews themselves accepted the territoriality of God.
When Jacob, after his dream at Bethel, takes leave of Yahweh,
the God of his fathers, and of his territory in order to go to
Haran where El was enthroned, he says: “If Elohim (the high
God) will go with me and keep me in the way that I go . . . so
that I may come again to my father’s house in peace, then
Yahweh will be my Elohim” (Gen. 28:18-22).
And again, when Jacob is to return to Canaan, we read that
Yahweh appears to him in a dream and says, “I am the God of
Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me.
Now arise and go forth from this land and return to the land of
your birth” (Gen. 31:13). Here God (Yahweh) himself is
presented as identifying himself with a specific place and with
a specific land.
In Hosea we find some very poignant references to this
problem. The prophet, or God by the mouth of the prophet,
reminds them that they, the Israelite people, had made a
covenant with Yahweh in the desert (Hos. 2:15; 9:10; 11:1; 13:4-
5), but that when they entered the land of Canaan and their
lifestyle changed from pastoral nomads to sedentary
agriculturists, then they, the people of Israel, seemed to be
afraid to trust Yahweh for fertility in the new land, and again
and again turned to worship the Baals, who were the local
agricultural-fertility deities. Thus Yahweh complains that Israel
didn’t recognize that it was he who gave them rich produce and
that they attributed their prosperity to Baal’s blessings (Hos.
2:8). In fact, Yahweh wonders aloud whether it would help if he
would take them back to the desert (Hos. 2:14), where he first
made the covenant with them.
This situation described in Hosea is very similar to the
situation which we described for Africa where the conquerors
felt obliged to accept the gods of the conquered because the
latter’s deities controlled the land. Thus Yahweh complains: As
soon as they entered the land at Adam (Hos. 6:7, GNB) they
broke their covenant with me and began to follow after the
Baals. And even once they had been well established in
Canaan “the more Yahweh blessed their fields, the more they
pursued the local Baals” (Hos. 10:1-2). In fact, the more Yahweh
pressed them to be faithful to him, the more they worshipped
idols (Hos. 11:1-2). Israel seemingly did not have the faith that
Yahweh, the God of manna, quail, and water of the Negev,
could really provide agricultural fertility in Palestine.
A most striking example of people having to accept the
local gods in order to prosper is recorded for us in 2 Kings 17.
After the Assyrians had carried off the Israelite population,
they decided to fill the vacuum they had created there by
transplanting large groups of people from other conquered
areas. The groups that were transplanted into Israelite territory
are listed together with their gods (17:30) as follows:

These new settlers did not worship Yahweh (Lord), and so

the lions began to raise so much havoc among them that the
governor sent a complaint to the Assyrian emperor that the
immigrant transplants did not “‘know the god of the land and
so the god had sent lions, which were killing them” (2 Kings
17:25, GNB). The emperor at once recognized the problem—
these people were not worshipping the god who controlled the
region, and so, to remedy that situation, he sent the Jewish
priests back to Samaria from Assyria “to teach the people the
law of the god of that land” (2 Kings 17:25, GNB).
Another biblical example of the belief in the territorial or
ecological specialization of the gods is found in 1 Kings
20:23ff. The Syrians, under Benhadad, had suffered a severe
defeat at the hands of the Israelites (1 Kings 20:19-20), but
within a year they rebuilt their armies and planned a new
campaign, and this time they took the deity factor into account.
They reasoned: “The gods of Israel are mountain gods, and
that is why Israel has defeated us. But we will certainly defeat
them if we fight them in the plains” (1 Kings 20:23, GNB).
 CHAPTER 18
Principalities and Powers1
by Michael Green

Michael Green is both a scholar and a practitioner. As

will be seen in this chapter, he does a thorough job of
drawing on historical, biblical and theological
material to provide us a picture of just what we are
dealing with in strategic-level spiritual warfare.
Although it is not explicit here, Michael Green’s basic
reason for grappling with these issues of spiritual
warfare does not arise from overfascination with the
devil and his forces, but with a burning passion to see
men and women be transformed by the power of God
from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of light.
As professor of evangelism at Regent College in
Vancouver, British Columbia, Green not only teaches
theories of evangelism, but he leads his students out in
evangelistic missions where the true spiritual battles
really are.
—C. Peter Wagner
There is, in the heart of Oslo, a park where a fascinating
display of bronzes adorns a large bridge and monument
beyond it. The artist, Gustav Vigeland, is expressing his
philosophy of life, and nowhere is it more clearly portrayed
than in the central figures on either side of the bridge. One is of
a man, one of a couple; and they are both gripped, encased by
a circle from which they cannot break free.
Modern man feels that bondage. So did ancient man.
Perhaps nobody has grasped the flavour of Graeco-Roman
paganism more than Edwyn Bevan. He wrote in Hellenism and
Christianity:
When men looked up at the stars, they shuddered to
see there powers whose mysterious influence held them
in a mechanism of iron necessity; they were the World-
Rulers who fixed men’s destiny without any regard to
human will and human tears. Effort, shrewdness, long-
laid design could bring no liberation from the
predestined law . . . It became an obsession. This earth,
the sphere of their tyranny, took on a sinister and
dreadful aspect.2
Judaism shared this sense of bondage to forces beyond
themselves. They were not so materialistic as to locate them in
the stars, but rather in the principalities and powers which were
at work in the universe. The matter is sufficiently important for
us to examine it in some detail.

The Principalities and Powers in Jewish

Belief
When seen against the background of the demon-ridden
world of the Middle East, Judaism presents a very different
emphasis, concentrating on the one God, Creator of heaven
and earth. However, the Old Testament teaches that there are
many subordinate spirits under God’s overall sovereignty.
Sometimes in the Old Testament we read of the kedoshim,
or “holy ones,” a heavenly court presided over by the Lord
himself (Ps. 89:6, 8; Job 15:15; Deut. 33:2; Zech. 14:5).
Frequently God is called Yahmeh Sabaoth, “Lord of the
powers,” and here the gods of polytheism are seen as captives
under his suzerainty. And we read of the bene elohim or “sons
of God” in Job, the Psalms, and Genesis 6:3. But perhaps the
most important passage of all is Deut. 32:8-9 where the best
texts read that the God “fixed the bounds of all the peoples
according to the number of the bene elohim, the sons of God.
For the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted
heritage.” The meaning is well brought out elsewhere: Deut.
4:19 speaks of the moon, stars and hosts of heaven which the
Lord has allotted to all the peoples under heaven, with the
exception of Israel whom he has appointed for himself. Thus
“He appointed a ruler for every nation, but Israel is the Lord’s
own portion” (Deut. 32:9).
In this way the Jews resolved the problem of the one and
the many. There was only one God, and he was their God for
ever. All other spiritual forces, be they good or bad, were
ultimately of his creation, under his control and assigned as
tutelary deities to other nations. Thus in the apocalyptic book
of Daniel we find Michael appearing as God’s champion for
suffering Israel against the angel-prince (sar) of Persia and of
Greece (Dan. 10:13, 20f, 12:lf). The nations which ruled the
ancient world were under the supervision of their angel-
princes, who in their turn were under the ultimate control of
Yahweh, the Lord of heaven and earth, who had entered into a
covenant relationship with his people Israel.

The Principalities and Powers in the

Graeco-Roman World
As in any polytheistic culture, spirit forces figured largely
in the Graeco-Roman culture into which Christianity was born.
The world was subject to the guardianship of spirits,
daimones, and the whole point of magic was to use formulae or
objects to influence these “world rulers” or “elemental spirits.”
The physical objects and the spiritual powers associated with
them were often given no clear distinction. Thus the Greeks
used “Hephaestos” to mean both fire and the deity which
supervised fire. Another branch of this interpretation of the
human and the superhuman was given emphasis in the concept
of daimones. These were spiritual deputies of the gods (or
God) who ruled the world. They had many names,
“principalities, powers, rulers, thrones, world rulers, elemental
spirits” and the like. It was from their clutches that men sought
salvation through means ranging from philosophy to the
occult. In a long line of writers, embracing Porphyry, the
Mermetica and Celsus, these daimones (which act as
intermediaries in the divine government of the world and as
forces behind the human rulers and their state) are seen to be
both bad and good. The good ones do not harm man, but
preside over the state, commerce, medicine and the rest. The
bad ones are not officially appointed by the gods but make up
for this by trying to usurp authority, attract worship to
themselves and denigrate the great gods.3 The Christian writer
Origen is not keen to establish any common ground with his
pagan opponent, so he calls the evil spirits daimones and the
good ones angels; none the less, he is operating with precisely
the same cosmology. It was very widely accepted in antiquity
that behind the rulers of the state, lay their daimones—or, as
some preferred to call it, the numen or genius of the ruler. There
is, in short, such a correspondence between the world of sense
and time and the invisible world that the two were, to the
ancients, almost a single entity. As Philo put it, the one God
rules through his powers or angels.4

The Principalities and Powers in the New

Testament
Their prevalence
Oscar Culhnann has repeatedly drawn attention (in books
such as Christ and Time and The State in the New Testament)
to a neglected area of New Testament studies by pointing out
that superhuman forces are mentioned in almost every place
where Christ’s complete lordship is being discussed. The spirit
world is a major factor in the teaching of the whole New
Testament.5
 Heinrich Schlier in his book Principalities and Powers
instances the enormous number of names which the New
Testament writers employ to describe this conglomeration of
evil forces: they include principalities, power, dominions
(kuriotetes), thrones, names, princes (archontes), lords, gods,
angels, spirits, unclean spirits, wicked spirits, elemental spirits
(stoicheia). This is in addition to the many synonyms for satan
(the devil, the serpent, the lion, the strong one, the wicked one,
the accuser, the tempter, the adversary, the enemy, the liar, the
murderer, the god of this age, the prince of this world, the
prince of the power of the air, beelzebub and beliar).
This astonishing collection of names indicates a number of
things. First, concern with these spiritual forces was a very
important matter to the New Testament writers, and continued
to be in the subapostolic age.
Second, despite the variety in nomenclature, the overall
picture is the same throughout the Bible, a variety of evil forces
under a unified head. It would be foolish and misleading to try
to separate the principalities and powers of the Pauline letters
from the demons of the Gospels.
Third, the very number and variety of the names for these
things shows us that the New Testament writers, unlike their
Jewish and pagan predecessors, had no interest in building up
demonologies; they enumerated at random, only in order to
show that these enemy forces were one and all disarmed by
Jesus Christ.
Fourth, the prevalence of this belief in the demonic
throughout the ancient world is significant. In Schlier’s words,
“In some way revelation absorbed these phenomena from the
tradition of universal human experience.”6 Nowhere does Jesus
have to explain himself when exorcising, either on Jewish or
Gentile soil. The same applies to the apostles. And the same is
true in the subapostolic age. Justin is typical. He castigates
those who “yielding to unreasoning passion and the
instigation of demons” persecute the Christians. He is at pains
to point out that what the heathen call gods are demonic
spirits, and shows how when Socrates tried to make this plain
“the demons themselves, by means of men who rejoiced in
wickedness, procured his death as an atheist and a profane
person on the charge that he was introducing ‘new divinities’;
which is just what they do in our case.”7

Their source and habitation

These principalities and powers are regularly portrayed as
the subordinates of the quintessential spirit of evil, satan
himself. In Matthew 25:41 Jesus speaks of “the devil and all his
angels,” clearly indicating demonic powers. In Revelation
16:13-14 it is plain that demons and unclean spirits are identical:
they are lieutenants of satan. The Beelzebub controversy puts
the matter beyond doubt (Matt. 12:22-29). The Pharisees
charged Jesus with casting out demons through Beelzebub, the
prince of demons, and Jesus rebutted their charge. But both
parties were agreed on the nature of these unclean spirits: they
derive from the unholy spirit himself.
 These mighty forces are not merely powerful; they are
power. That is, their name and definition: “dominion,” “power,”
“might,” and “authority.” They are said to inhabit “the air” or
“the heavenly places” (Eph. 2:2, 6:12). How much we should
read into these rather vague cosmological statements it is hard
to know. But Paul certainly does not simply mean by “the
heavenlies” the home of God, but the surroundings of the
material world. They interpenetrate the climate of a country, the
Tendenz of its politics and the nuances of its culture.

Their nature
In recent years a substantial debate has arisen about the
nature of these principalities and powers. There has been a
tendency to demythologise the concept, and regard them not
as fallen spiritual beings but rather as the structures of earthly
existence—the state, class struggle, propaganda, international
corporations and the like, when they become either tyrannical
or objects of man’s total allegiance. This has the double
attraction of divesting ourselves of belief in so unfashionable a
concept as a hierarchy of angels, good and evil, stretching
between man and God; it also enables us to find a good deal
more in the New Testament about our very modern
preoccupation with social structures. Often this debate has
been conducted more on the basis of presupposition than of
exegesis.
The truth of the matter is that words like principalities,
powers and thrones are used both of human rulers and of the
spiritual forces which lie behind them. This is readily
demonstrable. Lk. 12:11 clearly refers to men when it says,
“When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers
and authorities.” Acts 4:26 equally obviously indicates men,
“The kings of the earth set themselves in array and the rulers
were gathered together, against the Lord and against his
Anointed.” On the other hand, it is perfectly manifest that the
powers and thrones and authorities in Col. 1:16, 2:15, Rom. 8:38,
Eph. 6:12 are superhuman powers. There are some passages
which could be taken either way, notably 1 Cor. 2:8, Titus 3:1,
Romans 13:1. Probably the ambiguity is deliberate.
It is important, then, to realize the flexibility of such terms as
principalities, and powers in the usage of the New Testament.
They do, on occasion, refer to human authorities. They do, for
the main part, refer to superhuman agencies in the spiritual
world. And even here there is ambiguity. The most probable
interpretation of these powers in Ephesians l:21f, 3:10 is that
they refer to angelic spirits in the court of heaven. The certain
interpretation of these powers in Ephesians 2:lf, 6:12f is that
they are demonic spirits under satan’s control. And yet the
same words are used! It is perhaps an implicit reminder that all
power is ultimately God’s, and that the fallen spirits were
angels before they fell, which is, of course, the consistent
teaching of the Bible.

Their influence
The New Testament attributes a widespread influence to
these principalities and powers.
1) We see it in the realm of illness. The woman with “a
spirit of infirmity eighteen years who was bowed together and
could not look up” was described by Jesus as “this daughter
of Abraham whom Satan has bound” (Lk. 13:16). The dumb
man of Matthew 9:32 was suffering from a demon, and when
Jesus had cast it out he was free to speak. In Lk. 9:42 epilepsy
is attributed to demonic interference, and in Matthew 12:22
blindness.
We see it in some historical situations. “Behold, the devil
will cast some of you into prison” warns the Book of
Revelation, and refers to the place “where Satan’s seat is”
(Rev. 2:10, 13). Since this was written to Pergamum, the seat of
political power in Roman Asia, we are surely right in seeing
that satan had a particular grip of that historical situation. It
was the place where “My faithful witness, Antipas” was
martyred for his loyalty to Christ in the midst of political
pressures to secede. And who can doubt that such massive
extirpations of millions of mankind such as our generation has
been in many parts of the world is demonic?
We see the influence of the principalities and powers in
nature. The whole mythological figure of chaos and leviathan
in the Old Testament is an expression of the demonic. So
apparently is the incident of Jesus’ walking on the water and
stilling the storm. He says, “Peace, be still” (literally, “Be
muzzled”) as if to a living entity, the spiritual force which was
whipping up that storm into a welter of destruction.
 We see the principalities and powers in even the Jewish
law, as G.B. Caird shows in Principalities and Powers, chapter
two. So much so that the law which was intended by God for
the life of the hearers became their death warrant (Rom. 7:10-
14). It had ceased to be understood as the expression of God’s
love and faithfulness to his people and had become their
justification for nomism. To this extent the law given by angels
had fallen under the hand of the enemy who encourages self-
righteousness and self-seeking.
Christians are certainly not exempt from the principalities
and powers. Paul speaks of “false apostles” who have entered
into his churches, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ
“And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel
of light. So it is not strange if his servants also disguise
themselves as servants of righteousness” (2 Cor. 11:13-15). And
heresy, which is incipient throughout the New Testament
period, is assigned unambiguously to their agency. “Do not
believe every spirit,” urges John in 1 John 4:1. “The Spirit
expressly says that in the last times some will depart from the
faith by giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of
demons” (1 Tim. 4:1). Christian teaching and Christian teachers
alike are subject to attack and distortion by the principalities
and powers.
Behind human sin there is the activity of these evil forces.
“I can’t think what made me do it,” we exclaim, surprised at the
reservoirs of evil within us. “It is not I who do it, but sin which
dwells in me,” claimed Paul, reflecting on the force beyond
himself which held him in captivity even when he wanted to do
the right thing. Such is the human tragedy of Romans 7. Give
too much emphasis to this force outside of us, and you rob
human beings of responsibility, and make them mere pawns in a
celestial tug of war between God and the devil. Give too little
weight to it, and you fail to explain the persistent and over
whelming wickedness of mankind, individually and collectively.
The state is obviously susceptible to the influence of the
principalities and powers. How could it be otherwise when the
state is in control of all the other power structures under it? We
shall be looking at this later on, but the point is obvious
enough whether you think of the Mafia or the Central
Intelligence Agency; of the multinationals or the corruption of
the police; of the fruitless deadlock between management and
labour in England or the endless succession of administrations
in Italy. Inflation and unemployment, the arms race and the
corruption of morals, these are all manifestations in the modern
state of the principalities and powers. The state does not want
these things, for the most part. It struggles hard to get rid of
them. But it fails. It is in the grip of a power beyond its own.

The Defeat of the Principalities and Powers

1 John 3:8 has a very succinct summary of the reason for
the coming of Jesus Christ: “The reason the Son of God
appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” That takes us
to the heart of the matter. It helps to account for the
tremendous burst of satanic activity that faces us in the
Gospels, and supremely on the cross. During those thirty odd
years the key battle of the history of the universe was being
conducted, and both sides knew it.
The triumph of Jesus Christ at the very juncture over the
powers and principalities of evil is a major theme of the New
Testament. He was tested by persecution at his birth and
throughout his life. He was tested by false friends, by hostile
religious leaders, by Jewish and Gentile civil authorities. He
was tested in the healings, the exorcisms, the temptations in
the wilderness. The principalities and powers attacked him
through opposition from within his own circle. His own family
assigned his notoriety to the devil (Mk. 3:20-35) and one of his
intimate friends sold him for thirty pieces of silver. No man was
ever tested like Jesus Christ. He faced it all, and overcame it all,
as no man before or since has done. The secret of his life was
his determination to please his heavenly Father at all points
(John 8:29). The spirits of disobedience had never before in the
history of mankind discovered a person who was both totally
obedient and totally fulfilled in that obedience. No wonder they
could get no grip on him. No wonder the demons felt
threatened at the very presence of Jesus: “Have you come here
to torment us before the time?” (Matt. 8:29). The evil spirits
perceived the ultimate judgment, and they realized that in Jesus
Christ the end-time had broken in—and that his appearance in
the world spelt their doom.

Three Aspects of the Cross of Christ

But it was at the cross that Jesus Christ won the greatest
and most conclusive victory over the powers of evil. He
destroyed their sovereignty over man by utterly submitting to
it all the way to the scaffold. In submitting he conquered; just
as, conversely, in rebelling they had fallen. Unlike satan, unlike
the powers, unlike Adam, Jesus had not considered being
equal with God as a thing to be seized.
Back in 1951 Professor James Stewart made a plea in the
Scottish Journal of Theology for a recovery of the dimension
of the cosmic battle in our theology. Nowhere, he maintained, is
it more important than in understanding the meaning of the
cross of Christ. He showed how each of the three major factors
which led Christ to Golgotha is illuminated by giving full
weight to the influence of the invisible cosmic powers.
Behind the cross there lay, first and foremost, the design of
man. Basic human failings like pride, jealousy, and greed
combined with the self-righteousness and traditionalism of
Jewish religion, the injustice of Roman politics, and the apathy
of the crowd to take Christ to that gibbet. But behind these
religious, political and social pressures stood the principalities
and powers of evil. Thus organised religion was there at the
cross: all the more dangerous because masquerading as true
religion. Politics were there at the cross: but behind Herod and
Pilate, the earthly rulers (archontes) lay the invisible powers
(archontes) and it was they who crucified the Lord of glory (1
Cor. 2:8).
Second, behind the cross there lay the will of Jesus himself.
He chose with his eyes open. He came to give his life a ransom
for many. But here again we are driven to look deeper. Why
was it necessary? Because of the grip the strong man had upon
the house: the stronger than the strong was needed to set the
place free. It was only by facing these forces in the place where
they exercised their power that He could break that power. The
cross was that place of victory over all the forces of the enemy.
By submitting in perfect obedience right up to death, he broke
the power of him who held men in thraldom through its dread.
In that cross He conquered.
Third, behind the cross there lay the predestination of God.
If God ever acted in history Hhe acted then. But look deeper. In
that will of God we see not only His reconciliation of sinners
but the complete rebuttal of dualism. These principalities and
powers which thwart His will are not independent military units
opposing his own army. They are rebel forces of His own. In
Christ they were created (Col. 1:16) and in Christ they were
defeated (Col. 2:15). Phil. 2:10 makes it quite plain that they
must own His sway whether they like it or not. His lordship,
since the resurrection, has been beyond cavil among beings
celestial, terrestrial and subterranean. “In the end,” writes
Stewart, “the same invisible powers are the tribute which the
Son hands over to the Father, that ‘God may be all in all.’” He
concludes this short but important article by pointing out that
our real battle is not “with Communism or Caesarism but with
the invisible realm where sinister forces stand flaming and
fanatic against the rule of Christ. And the only way to meet
that demonic mystic passion is with the passion of the Lord.”
There is little doubt that Stewart has stressed a critical
aspect in the cross of Christ, one to which Gustav Aulen has
drawn attention in his Christus Victor. The power of satan was
shattered on that cross, shattered by the invincible power of
love. “Now is the judgment of this world, when the prince of
this world will be cast out,” said Jesus as he faced the cross
(John 12:31, cf. 16:11, 14:30). And I think Stewart is right in
seeing a studied ambivalence in the “rulers” of 1 Cor. 2:8. It
refers both to Herod and Pilate on the one hand and to the
invisible powers on the other. They worked hard to get the
Lord of glory on the cross. But in so doing they overreached
themselves, and lost the battle. Had they known the outcome
they would never have conspired to bring Calvary about.
On the cross the principalities and powers incurred the
defeat that indicates the outcome of the whole war, but what is
their present condition?

The Present Status of the Principalities and

Powers
Since Scripture is not very explicit on this matter, it may be
safest to proceed by way of some negatives.
It is not the case that their defeat is only provisional until
the last day, as if some theoretical transfer of power has taken
place which does not affect anybody or anything. In the
coming, the cross and the resurrection of Christ even the
greatest of the powers, death, has been affected. And to
concentrate on that particular power may help us see what
Christ’s victory has done to the others. Men still die. Of course
they do, and to that extent the power of death is still operative.
But the New Testament maintains that death is a defeated foe.
It has been robbed of its fangs. Sin, its major adjunct, has been
forgiven for the believer, and therefore death no longer has the
dread of final separation from the God who is light and love.
Moreover in the resurrection of Jesus we see foreshadowed
the destiny of every believer: we shall be with him, and we shall
be like him (1 Cor. 15:20, 1 John 3:2). In these two respects
death has been shorn of its terrors, though we still have to go
through it. We know that, evil power and enemy though it is,
our Lord holds the key to its defeat and ultimate annihilation.
It is not the case that the principalities and powers have
lost their grip on the cosmos at large. True, they have received
their death blow, but like a thirty-foot conger with its throat cut
which continues for hours thrashing about in a fishing boat,
the principalities and powers refuse to lie down and die. They
are willing to admit defeat only when faced with the name of
Jesus Christ. He is the conqueror and they are vulnerable only
when approached on the ground of his victory.
Yet it is not the case that the principalities and powers
continue just as they were before the cross of Christ. Their
defeat is indeed hidden at present, but they are nevertheless
passing away, katargoumenoi, as Paul puts it in 1 Cor. 2:6.
They have no other expectation than final ruin. And this
produces an increasing tempo of chaos; could that be why
Jesus forecast wars, rumours of wars and men’s heart failing
them for fear as the end approached? As time runs out, the
atmosphere of history is increasingly filled with the fear of time.
Man forgets his transience and dreams of eternity, while the
devil knows he has lost eternity and rages at the ever
shortening span of time open to him. “Rejoice O Heaven, and
you that dwell therein. But woe to you, O earth and sea, for
the devil has come down to you in great rage because he
knows that his time is short” (Rev. 12:12).
Therefore it is not the case that things will get better and
better and a millennium be created by man on earth. Such facile
optimism whether based on Communist, evolutionary or
humanistic presuppositions is totally at odds not only with the
news but with the teaching of the Bible, which indicates that
things will get worse and worse, and men’s hearts will cry out
for fear. The events prophesied by Jesus in Mark 13, the
preoccupations with the loss of time, the tensions between
men and nations, the willingness to believe propaganda, the
very tremors of the world itself are all manifestations of the
frenzied kickings of the satanic bull in God’s net as the rope
gets drawn tighter. Nor is it surprising that the attacks of the
enemy are primarily directed against the church, whether
through heresy from within or seduction or persecution from
without. For in the Church, however heavily veiled, the
principalities and powers discern the person of their conqueror,
the Lord Christ. The powers of the age to come are already at
work in her, frail and fallible though she is. And as such she
reminds the principalities and powers of their doom.
For doom is what awaits them. There is no hint in Scripture
that all will come right in the end for the principalities and
powers of evil, and for their satanic master. All that offends will
be wiped out and will not come into the eternal city (Rev.
21:27). It is not the principalities and powers that have been
reconciled by the death of Christ. They have been despoiled,
and the Church has been reconciled. They have been defeated
and the Church has been brought out of the power of satan
unto God. The focus of Christ’s victory is not to be sought in
the principalities and powers but in the church, in those who
believe. The genial generosity of those who, like Alan
Richardson, maintain that the rebellious powers of evil are in
the end to be saved has neither logic nor Scripture to commend
it.
The rebellious spirits have locked themselves in a hell
which is chained both by their own choice on the inside, and
by God on the outside. As Milton, with prophetic insight and
poetic brilliance shows in Paradise Lost, the great debate
between satan’s followers is how to find a way out of that
situation other than the one way which exists, the way of
repentance and restitution, against which they have resolutely
set their faces. But there is no other way. Moloch uses the
weapon of blind rage: anything is better than the frustration
and agony of fallenness. Belial uses the weapon of caution:
gradual acclimatisation to alienation is better than a traumatic
reliving of the great rebellion. And Mammon seeks a solution
by trying to make hell a substitute for Heaven. Indeed, one
wonders whether he had really seen the difference between the
two! The way of rage, of getting used to one’s lot, of blind
substitution sometimes works on this earth. But in the ultimacy
of the Beyond, Milton knows it cannot be so. Hell is their
dungeon, not their safe retreat (2:317).
If logic points this way, so too does Scripture. It does not
see the conquered as some scholars have seen them: not tamed
and domesticated to do the will of Jesus Christ. They have
indeed to confess his sway (Phil 2:10). The archetypal sinners
of Gen. 6:3 have heard the proclamation of his achievement (1
Pet. 3:18ff). But rebels they remain, like many of mankind whom
they control (Rev. 9:20, 21). A great bottomless pit is reserved
for the devil and his angels: so is the lake of fire. And at the
end the satanic trinity are found in this place of final ruin while
the heavenly Trinity rejoice with the Bride, the Church, forever
(Rev. 20:2f, 14, and compare 21:lff). The destiny of the forces of
evil is destruction. They are given over to the ruin which they
have chosen and which they propagate. The end is
inescapable: any other would be unjust. It is the logical and
necessary outcome of the victory already gained through the
cross and resurrection. That is why Christians can lift up their
heads, however black the clouds. Their hope does not rest
upon fairy tales and the hope of pie in the sky, but rather on
the solid achievements of Bethlehem, Golgotha and the first
Easter Day.
 CHAPTER 19
The Subjection of the Invisible
Powers1
by Oscar Cullmann Long recognized as one of Europe’s top
ranking New Testament scholars, Oscar Cullmann here
argues, with admirable tenacity and attention to details, that
supernatural principalities, powers, rulers, thrones, lordships
and other angelic powers stand behind human governments.
The fact that some of these powers may be demonic and
hostile, Cullmann insists, does not lead us to a heretical
dualism which would see demonic powers as having an
existence independent of God. Rather, all angelic beings have
been created by God and ultimately are subject to their
Creator, although God has allowed them to exercise certain
moral freedom in this age.

—C. Peter Wagner In 1 Cor. 2:8, in the course of his

discussion concerning the “wisdom” destined by God
unto our glory, Paul writes that the rulers of this world
had not recognized this wisdom. “For had they
recognized it, they would not have crucified the Lord of
glory.” By “the rulers of this age” Paul manifestly
means both the invisible “princes of this world,” who
are often mentioned as such, and their actual human
instruments, Herod and Pilate. We thereby are directed
to an eminently important relation, which gives us the
 key for the deeper understanding of the problem of
redemptive history and history. This problem we now
take up.
The assertion that God is also the creator of the invisible
things—an assertion taken up in to the later Church
confessions of faith in the Orient, as, for example, the Niceno-
Constantinopolitan one known from the liturgy of the Mass—
has its foundation in the New Testament. On the other hand,
we have established the fact that Primitive Christianity does
not stop with this statement concerning the creation of the
itwis-ibilia, but proclaims the victory of Christ over these
powers, and we have shown that they are particularly
mentioned in every place where his complete Lordship is being
discussed.
The existence of these powers Paul regards as certain, even
if they have no significance as mediators between God and us
(1 Cor. 2:8). As far as their character is concerned, he indeed
presupposes much as known, since he here is dealing with
views current in late Judaism. His readers obviously know
better than we do what is meant when he speaks of
“principalities, powers, rulers, thrones, lordships.” Hence we
should pay more attention than is usually given to the late
Jewish teaching concerning these angelic powers.
It is connected with an arbitrary distinction between central
and peripheral statements of the New Testament when, in the
commentaries and presentations of New Testament theology,
this entire complex of questions is regarded as more or less
unimportant, as nothing but a framework “conditioned by the
contemporary situation.” We must repeat here that there is but
one objective criterion for determining what is essential,
namely, the earliest formulas of faith. We have seen, however,
that in these quite brief summaries of the Primitive Christian
revelation the invisible powers are almost invariably
mentioned. Whatever our personal attitude toward this view
may be, we must conclude from this fact that these powers, in
the faith of Primitive Christianity, did not belong merely to the
framework “conditioned by the contemporary situation.” It is
these invisible beings who in some way—not, to be sure, as
mediators, but rather as executive instruments of the reign of
Christ—stand behind what occurs in the world.
We must regard the late Jewish teaching concerning the
angels, and especially concerning the angels of the peoples, as
belonging to the solid content of faith in the New Testament.
It is the merit of Martin Dibelius that in Die Geisterwelt im
Glauben des Paulus, 1909, he pointed out for the first time the
importance of the faith, widespread in Judaism, that there is a
particular angel for each people. Gunther Dehn, in his essay,
“Engel und Obrigkeit, ein Beitrag zum Verstandnis von Rom.
13:1-7” (in the testimonial volume, TheologischeAufiatzefur
Karl Barth, 1936), has taken up this reference and developed it
in greater detail.
This abundantly attested late Jewish belief that all peoples
are ruled through angels is present particularly in The Book of
Daniel, in The Wisdom of Jesus, Son of Sirach, and in the Book
of Enoch, and it can be shown to be present also in the Talmud
and Midrash. It explains the fact that in the already mentioned
Ps. 110 the subjection of the pagan enemies of Israel which is
there promised to the king of Israel can be unhesitatingly
referred to the invisible powers. This faith further explains how,
in the well-known ancient confessional psalm, Phil. 2:10, the
Old Testament saying of Isa. 45:22f., “To me every knee shall
bow,” which originally had in view the Gentiles, could be
referred to the “beings in heaven, on earth, and in the
underworld.”
We understand on the basis of this faith how the existing
earthly political power belongs in the realm of such angelic
powers. They stood behind the State authorities which had
brought Christ to the cross. They are the “rulers of this age,”
whom we mentioned at the beginning of this chapter.
Moreover, 1 Cor. 6:3 proves that according to the Primitive
Christian view these invisible angelic powers stand behind the
earthly states. For it is only on this assumption that it has any
meaning when Paul justifies his admonition to the Church, to
avoid the State courts in trials among Christians, by reference
to the fact that the members of the Church will judge the
“angels” at the end of the days.
Thus the so-called “Christological grounding of the State”
is not at all based, as is usually presupposed by the opponents
of this view, merely upon the interpretation given to the
“authorities” of Rom. 13:1. It is based rather upon the very
specific late Jewish teaching concerning the angels of the
peoples; this teaching is taken up into Primitive Christianity
and actually plays there a very important role in connection
with the significance that attaches to the subjection of the
angelic powers through Christ.
Therefore it will not do to transfer this conception of the
angels and powers to the periphery of the Pauline theology, as
is done by G. Kittel, and by F.J. Leenhardt. On these and other
grounds they reject the reference of the “authorities” of Rom.
13:1 to angelic powers.
The famous passage Rom. 13:lff. contains rather a
confirmation of this conception. We shall see that only when
this conception is found there does the entire section become
really clear; only then does it fall into harmony with the entire
outlook of Paul.
For everyone who comes from the other Pauline passages
to Rom. 13:1 and considers it without prejudice, uninfluenced
by the usage of the word in secular history and by the familiar
translation into modern languages, it is by far the most natural
thing to give to the plural εξoνσιατ no other sense than that
which it always has for Paul, that is, the meaning of “angelic
powers.”
When G. Kittel argues against this that in some eighty out
of ninety instances where the New Testament has the word
εξoνσιατ, we find only the ordinary meaning of “any power
which someone has,” it must be replied that this usage of the
singular is not under discussion here. We here are dealing with
the plural form εξoνσιατ or with the pluralistic usage of the
singular πασα εξoνσιατ (“all authority”), and with reference to it
the result of New Testament statistical study is quite clear.
To be sure, it becomes crystal-clear from the context that
the passage is speaking of the State. This, however, only
proves that the conception that we have found in the other two
Pauline passages and that is abundantly attested for late
Judaism is also found here, the view, namely, that the actual
State authority is thought of as the executive agent of angelic
powers. The fact that in ordinary Greek usage the singular and
the plural (even when used together with aoχαι,
“principalities”) designate only the earthly magistracy, may not
be cited in proof of the view that also in Rom. 13:lff. only this
meaning can be considered. The ordinary Greek usage is not
familiar with the late Jewish and New Testament teaching
concerning the angelic powers. Accordingly, and as a matter of
course, the corresponding use of the word εξoνσιατ is also
foreign to it. But that Paul, for whom this word elsewhere
always designates angelic powers, think of them here too, but
specifically as the invisible angelic powers that stand behind
the State government, is naturally suggested by the very use
of the word in secular history, a usage that was indeed known
also to him and with which he connected the late Jewish and
New Testament usage. Thus as a result the term has for Paul a
double meaning, which in the case corresponds exactly to the
content, since the State is indeed the executive agent of
invisible powers.
The analogy to 1 Cor. 2:8 is complete with respect not only
to content but also to language. For here also, where it is quite
plain that by αoχoντεζ τoν αiωνoζ τoντoν are meant both the
invisible “rulers of this age” and the visible ones, Pilate and
Herod, there stands in characteristic fashion a term that in
secular Greek naturally designates only the actual human
rulers, while in the New Testament it designates also the
invisible ones. In 1 Cor. 2:8 as well as in Rom. 13:1 the
expressions are purposely so chosen that they make clear the
combined meaning that is typical of the conception we have
indicated.
This explanation of εξoνσιατ, which is quite compelling,
was represented later in antiquity, outside of the New
Testament, by Gnostics in their interpretation of Rom. 13:1; this
we learn through Irenaeus.2 To be sure, we know nothing more
definite concerning their interpretation of the entire passage. It
is probable that these heretics, in the context of their dualistic
outlook, conceived these “authorities” that stand behind the
State simply as evil powers and nothing more; in this case, to
be sure, it is not clear how they may have interpreted the
demand of Paul for obedience to those powers.
In any case, it is an established fact that Irenaeus himself,
the opponent of the Gnostics, only rejected the interpretation
of “authorities” as angelic powers because he took into
consideration merely this false dualistic understanding, and on
this view to interpret the “authorities” to mean the invisible
powers that stand behind the State would make of this State
itself an institution hostile to God. The New Testament
conception of “authorities,” however, is definitely not dualistic
in this sense. By their subjection under Christ the invisible
powers have rather lost their evil character, and they also now
stand under and within the Lordship of Christ, as long as they
are subject to him and do not seek to become emancipated from
their place in his service. Since Irenaeus probably, like his
Gnostic opponents, reckons only with a false dualistic
conception of the angelic powers, he must reject as heretical
the connection with them of the “authorities” of Rom. 13:1.
In the Primitive Christian faith in the conquest of the
invisible powers through Christ, the significant thing is the
very fact that while this faith holds firmly to the existence of
powers originally hostile to God, it nevertheless does not
concede to this existence any independent significance, and so
it avoids all dualism. The strongly Christocentric attitude is in
no way endangered by this faith; “even if there are such
beings,” Paul writes in 1 Cor. 8:5f., “Yet we have only one God
and one Lord.” To him, indeed, all these powers are now
subjected. They are bound. That which the Apocalypse of
John says of the binding of satan in the end time (Rev. 20:2)
holds true somehow for the Pauline conception of the present
situation of the angelic powers. In the time between the
resurrection and the Parousia of Christ they are, so to speak,
bound as to a rope, which can be more or less lengthened, so
that those among them who show tendencies to emancipation
can have the illusion that they are releasing themselves from
their bond with Christ, while in reality, by this striving which
here and there appears, they only show more their original
demonic character; they cannot, however, actually set
themselves free. Their power is only an apparent power. The
Church has so much the more the duty to stand against them,
in view of the fact that it knows that their power is only
apparent and that in reality Christ has already conquered all
demons.
A certain freedom, however, is left to the angelic powers
within their subject position. This explains how, in the present
stage of redemptive history, it still is not possible for the
Church to take without qualification or criticism the view that
the State is divine, even though, on the other hand, the State
too belongs within the Lordship of Christ. The situation is thus
in this respect quite complex, and every simplifying
presentation of it fails even in this point to do justice to the
Primitive Christian conception. The complexity is connected
with that of the entire intermediate situation of the present time.
On the one side, the angelic powers are already subjected, and
in this respect are placed in the service of Christ, so that of
them it can be said in the most positive manner that although
they had formerly been enemies they have now become
“ministering spirits sent forth for ministry” (Heb. 1:14); hence
obedience toward them is demanded from the Christians in
Rom. 13:lff., where their agents are designated by precisely the
same expressions as “God’s minister” (Rom. 13:4) and as
“servants of God” (Rom. 13:6). On the other side, however, the
apostle Paul still remains critical toward this State; the
Christians should keep away from the state courts and settle
their cases among themselves (1 Cor. 6:lff). Not so very much
later the same Roman state of which Paul speaks so positively
in Rom., ch. 13, can be designated the “beast” by another New
Testament writer (Rev. 13:lff).
This apparently contradictory attitude extends through the
entire New Testament But of this contradiction also it holds
good that it appears as such only for him who has not
recognized the complexity of the situation in the redemptive
history. We have seen that this complexity has its roots in a
temporal but not in a metaphysical dualism. We know the
ground of this temporal dualism. That tension between present
and future, between “already fulfilled” and “not yet
completed,” which contains the key to the understanding of
the entire New Testament, shows itself when applied to our
problem in the fact that the angelic powers are already made
the “footstool” of the feet of Christ, and yet must once more be
overcome at the end. The Kingdom of Christ is indeed already
present; in it both areas, the Church and the world, are placed
under Christ; nevertheless they are distinguished, since they
will merge into one only in the Kingdom of God, when at the
end Christ’s mediatorial role has been fulfilled (1 Cor. 15:28).
If in the “authorities” of Rom. 13:1 as well as in the “rulers
of this age” of 1 Cor. 2:8 we see both the invisible powers and
their executive agents on earth, there results a completely
unified view of the State in the New Testament, and the
apparent contradiction within Paulinism between 1 Cor. 6:lff.
and Rom. 13:1ff, or the still greater one within the New
Testament between Rev., ch. 13, and Rom., ch. 13, vanishes. For
it becomes discernible that, in spite of all the positive
statements of Rom. 13:lff., the State here, as in the entire
Primitive Christian conception, is not an ultimate but only a
penultimate institution, which will vanish when this age does;
the Christian believer will always place over against the State a
final question mark and will remain watchful and critical,
because he knows that behind it stand powers which do
indeed have their place in the divine order determined by the
victory of Christ, but which nevertheless for the time being still
have a certain possibility of permitting their demonic strivings
for independence to flare up into apparent power.
This commissioning of the State has as result that the State
agrees with the Christian Church in its judgment concerning
good and evil (v. 3f.). Indeed, recompense, punishment, and
reward presuppose the capacity for this judgment. This
agreement Paul simply confirms; the State rewards the good
and punishes the evil. This accord with the Church in spite of
the completely opposed fundamental position—here
recompense, there love—comes from the fact that the State
stands in a divine order in which it becomes the agent of the
divine recompense. How important this concept of the divine
“order” (ταξειζ) is to the apostle appears at the beginning of
the chapter in the heaping up of the words that contain this
root: υπoτασσεσθαι (“be subject”), τεταγμεvoζ (“ordained”),
anti-tassomai (“resist”), διαταγη (“ordinance”). We thus
confirm the fact that even apart from the significance of the
word “authorities” in Rom., ch. 13, a view is here presupposed
according to which the State, not by nature, but only by its
being placed in a definite order, is God’s servant and fulfills his
will.
In this case, however, the context yields a complete
confirmation of the interpretation, much disputed in recent
years, that the “authorities” are the subjected angelic powers.
On the other hand, this interpretation gives to the entire
section a particular emphasis; it does so by giving the section
a place in the article of faith, so very important for the Primitive
Church, concerning the subjection of all invisible angelic
powers; it thus builds the State into the structure of that order
which Primitive Christianity regards as present sovereign reign
of Christ. The so-called “Christological foundation” of the
State is thereby proved to be correct. It is in the position to
explain satisfactorily the parallelism of 1 Cor. 6:lff. and Rom.
13:lff, and on the other hand of Rom. 13:lff. and Rev. ch. 13,
which all refer to the same Roman State. The angelic powers are
placed in the service of the Kingdom of Christ, not by their
original nature, but only by being bound; they are, however,
elevated to the highest dignity by the function that is here
assigned to them. Nevertheless, they can for a time free
themselves from their bound condition and then show their
demonic character. But the final Christian criticism of the State
can never be omitted, not even where a State remains in its
completely bound situation; because in its original nature it is
not divine, it can never be regarded as an ultimate fact. Hence
the negative attitude in 1 Cor. 6:lff. toward so completely
legitimate an institution as the State courts of justice. In view
of this passage, which is also Pauline, Rom. 13:lff. cannot and
must not be understood in so uncritical and unthinking a way
as is often the case. Neither of the two passages may be
explained without reference to the other.
The “Christological foundation” of the State which is here
championed has been accused of making the subjection of the
powers simply identical with a “commissioning.” Yet, it is
objected, the new Testament speaks only of a subjection. This,
however, is not quite correct. As we have seen, the Epistle to
the Hebrews in particular speaks, in a way similar to late Jewish
teaching concerning angels, of the “ministering spirits sent
forth to minister” (λειτovoγικα πvευματα εις διακovιαv
απoστελλoμεvα; Heb. 1:14). In this connection it seems to me
particularly noteworthy that in this passage these “ministering
spirits” are expressly whom the Christ who sits at the right
hand of God “makes the footstool of his feet.” And it is
furthermore of the greatest significance that precisely in our
section of the thirteenth chapter of Romans, introduced with
the mention of the “authorities,” we find applied to these
“authorities” who stand behind the actual State the same
expressions “minister” (διακovoς; v. 4) and “ministers”
(λειτovoγoi; v. 6), that are contained in the designation of the
subjected powers in The Epistle to the Hebrews.
We thus come to the conclusion that the relation that we
have indicated between the State and angelic powers agrees in
every respect with the little that we hear concerning the State
in the New Testament.
 Endnotes
Chapter 1
1. John Dawson, Taking Our Cities for God (Lake Mary,
FL: Creation House, 1990), 21.
Chapter 2
1. Excerpted from Charisma & Christian Life Magazine,
600 Rinehart Road, Lake Mary, Florida 32746.
Copyright 1990, Strang Communications Company.
Used with permission.
Chapter 3
1. Used by permission of Regal Books, Ventura, California,
from How to Have a Healing Ministry without
Making Your Church Sick by C. Peter Wagner ©
copyright 1988.
2. Lester Sumrall, “Deliverance: Setting the Captives Free,”
World Harvest (July/Aug. 1986), 7.
3. Timothy M. Warner, “Power Encounter with the
Demonic,” Evangelism on the Cutting Edge, Robert E.
Coleman, ed. (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell Co.,
1986), 98-99.
4. Paul Yonggi Cho and C. Peter Wagner, eds., Church
Growth Manual No. 1 (Seoul: Church Growth
International, 1986), 41.
5. Jack M. Chisholm, “Go to Korea and Learn From Them,”
The Forerunner (June 1984), 23.
6. Bill Jackson, “Waging War,” World Christian (Jan./Feb.
 1985), 11.
7. Ralph Mahoney, “The Covering of Darkness,” World
MAP Digest (May/Apr. 1983), 3.
8. Mark I. Bubeck, The Adversary (Chicago: Moody Press,
1975), 72-73.
9. Paul Lehmann, “Invading Satan’s Territory,” The
Alliance Witness (Mar. 18, 1987), 19.
Chapter 4
1. Excerpted from “The Power Encounter and World
Evangelization,” The 1988 Church Growth Lectureship
at Fuller Seminary School of World Mission © 1988 by
permission of the author.
2. C. Peter Wagner, (1986), 84.
3. Ed Silvoso, Global Church Growth (1987), 5.
4. S.D. Gordon, (1904), 17.
Chapter 5
1. Excerpted from Born for Battle by R. Arthur Mathews ©
1978 OMF Books with permission of the publisher.
Chapter 6
1. Excerpted from The Believer’s Guide to Spiritual
Warfare by Thomas B. White (Ann Arbor, Michigan:
Servant Publications © 1990), by permission of the
author.
2. D.S. Russell, The Method and Message of Jewish
Apocalyptic: 200 BC-AD 100 (Philadelphia, PA:
Westminster Press, 1964), 237-38.
Chapter 7
1. Excerpted from Taking Hold of Tomorrow by Jack W.
Hayford, Regal Books, Ventura, California © 1989 by
permission.
Chapter 8
1. Excerpted from Charisma & Christian Life Magazine,
600 Rinehart Road, Lake Mary, Florida 32746.
Copyright © 1989, Strang Communications Company.
Chapter 9
1. Excerpted from Charisma & Christian Life Magazine,
600 Rinehart Road, Lake Mary, Florida 32746.
Copyright © 1989, Strang Communications Company.
Chapter 10
1. Excerpted from Come Down Dark Prince by Dick Bernal
© 1989, Companion Press, Box 351, Shippensburg, PA
17257 by permission of the author.
2. A.W. Pink, Gleanings in Joshua (Chicago: Moody
Publishers, 1964), 149.
Chapter 11
1. From Global Church Growth, July-September 1987, ©
1987 The Church Growth Center of Corunna, Indiana,
used by permission of the author.
Chapter 12
1. Excerpted from the Foreword to Come Down Dark
Prince by Dick Bernal, © 1989 Companion Press, Box
351, Shippensburg, PA 17257 by permission.
Chapter 13
1. Permission was granted by Dawn Ministries for the use
of this material which originally appeared in Dawn
Report, April 1990 © Dawn Ministries.
Chapter 14
1. Excerpted from The Man in the Leather Hat by Paul B.
Long, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker Book House ©
1986 with permission.
Chapter 15
1. From Prayer Pacesetters Sourcebook, edited by David
Bryant, © 1989 Concerts of Prayer International, Box
36008, Minneapolis, MN 55435, used with permission
of the author.
Chapter 16
1. Excerpted from an unpublished research paper written
for the Fuller Seminary School of World Mission ©
1989 with permission of the author.
2. Mark I. Bubeck, The Adversary: The Christian Versus
Demon Activity (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1975).
3. Michael Harper, Spiritual Warfare: Recognizing and
Overcoming Evil Spirits (Ann Arbor: Servant Books,
1984).
4. C. Peter Wagner, “Territorial Spirits,” Wrestling with
Dark Angels, C. Peter Wagner and F. Douglas
Pennoyer, eds. (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1990), 76.
5. Dick Bernal, Storming Hell’s Brazen Gates (San Jose,
CA: Jubilee Christian Center, 1988), 23.
6. Evon Z. Vogt, Zinacantan: A Maya Community in the
Highlands of Chiapas (Cambridge: Belknap, 1969),
304.
7. Horacio Fabrega, Jr. and Daniel B. Silver, Illness and
Shamanistic Curing in Zinacantan (Stanford:
Stanford University Press, 1973), 164-167.
8. James Morocco, “Territorial Spirits” (1988), 5.
Unpublished thesis in C. Peter Wagner’s office file.
9. John L. Nevius, Demon Possession (Grand Rapids:
Kregel Publications, 1968), 61-62.
10. C. Peter Wagner, “Territorial Spirits,” 77.
11. Timothy M. Warner (see Chapter 4).
12. Merrill Unger, Demons in the World Today (Wheaton,
IL: Tyndale House, 1971).
13. Michael Harper, 56-60.
14. Ibid., 99.
15. Mark I. Bubeck, 113.
16. Ibid.
17. Michael B. Green, I Believe in Satan’s Downfall (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1981).
18. Michael Harper.
19. Merrill Unger.
20. John L. Nevius.
21. Michael C.H. Koh’s paper (1988), 25.
22. Edward Langton, Essentials of Demonology (London:
Epworth, 1949).
 23. Manfred Lurker, Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses,
Devils and Demons (London: Routledge & Kegan
Paul, 1984).
24. Jerusalem Bible, 524-532.
25. Dick Bernal, 57.
26. Mark I. Bubeck, 124.
27. Evon Z. Vogt, 371.
28. Jacob A. Loewen (see Chapter 17).
Chapter 17
1. Excerpted from Missiology: An International Review,
Vol. XIV, No. 1, January 1986, © American Society of
Missiology, with permission.
2. A personal communication from Dr. Eugene Bunkowske.
3. In fact, when I did bribe (with the promise of a large
cast-iron pot) the wife of one Indian to encourage her
husband to accompany me to our home on the other
side of the mountain range, I soon found myself
battling with a dying man—his soul had been
apprehended by the locals, and unless he got back
quickly and had home spirits recuperate his soul, he
was a dead man. Only by my praying aloud beside him
for a whole night could I arrest the death process.
Every time I fell asleep he resumed dying.
4. Wilhelm Schmidt, “The Nature, Attributes and Worship
of the Primitive High God,” Reader in Comparative
Religion, W.A. Lessa and E.Z. Vogt, eds. (1965), 21-33.
5. Jacob A. Loewen, “Myth and Mission: Should a
Missionary Study Tribal Myths?” Practical
 Anthropology (1969) 16:156-157.
6. A.W. Cardinal, Tales Told in Togoland (Westport:
Negro Universities Press. 1970), 15.
7. It has been noted by Nida, McGavran, and others that
immigrant populations are usually most likely to
change religion. It is possible that this observed fact is
related to the regional deity—moving into another area
requires a new God and a new religion.
8. Jacob A. Loewen, “Mennonites, Chaco Indians and the
Lengua Spirit World,” Mennonite Quarterly Review
(October 1965), 280-306.
9. William Madsen, Chrislo-Paganism: A Study of
Mexican Religious Syncretism (New Orleans: Middle
American Research Institute, 1957). M.J. Herskovitz,
“African Gods and Catholic Saints in New World
Religious Belief,” American Anthropologist (1937),
39:635-643.
Chapter 18
1. Excerpted from I Believe in Satan’s Downfall by
Michael Green, Grand Rapids, Michigan, William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company © 1981 with
permission.
2. Edwyn Bevan, Hellenism and Christianity.
3. Corpus Hermeticum 16:13f, Origen, Contra Celsum 5:25,
7:68.
4. Philo, Conf. 171, 181 and Leg. Alleg. 3:177f.
5. Oscar Culhnann (see Chapter 19).
6. Heinrich Schlier, Principalities and Powers (Chestnut
 Ridge, NY: Herder & Herder, 1962), 13.
7. Justin Martyr, 1 Apol. 5, cf. 14:1, 44:12; Dial. 18:3.
Chapter 19
1. Excerpted from Christ and Time by Oscar Cullmann,
Philadelphia, PA. The Westminster Press © 1950 with
permission.
2. Irenaeus, Against Heresies, V, 24, l.
 About C. Peter Wagner
C. Peter Wagner is vice president and apostolic ambassador
for Global Spheres, Inc., a vibrant organization that equips the
Body of Christ nationally and internationally, in the church and
in the workplace. He travels extenisively and has authored
more than 70 books. He is also the founder and lead apostle of
Eagles Vision Apostolic Team consisting of 25 recognized
apostles.
C. Peter Wagner served as a field missionary to Bolivia,
1956-1971; he taught church growth in the Fuller Seminary
School of Intercultural Studies, 1971-2001; and, he was the
founding president of Global Harvest Ministries.
He is the founder and chancellor emeritus of Wagner
Leadership Institute and earned a PhD in Social Ethics from the
University of Southern California. Peter and his wife, Doris,
have three children, nine grandchildren, and three great-
grandchildren. They live in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
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