If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you will inevitably be engaged in spiritual warfare whether you are aware of it or not. Deliberate spiritual warfare requires that the believer lives a continual life of repentance and keeps himself or herself pure and blameless before God, so as not to give the enemy any legal right to enter his or her life.
If you are not a believer in Jesus Christ, I urge you to accept Him as your Lord and Savior so that you are on the winning side of the battle against the enemy of your soul. If you have not yet accepted Jesus as your Savior, I suggest you read my posts Prayer of Repentance, Setting Your Priorities Straight, Your Most Important Relationship and Know Your Enemy.
For your safety, I strongly advise you that you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior before you engage in deliberate spiritual warfare. Spiritual warfare is a serious matter and the weapons that God provides are powerful but these weapons can only be used safely by those who are under God’s protection; that is, those who have accepted His Son Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. In the book of Acts we see the potential danger of using the Name of Jesus without proper spiritual preparation:
Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. (Acts 19:13-17)
First, it is important to know that we have an enemy and that this enemy is not a thing, but a person. This person is identified as Satan or the devil in the Bible. He comes only to steal, kill and destroy. He is a liar and the father of lies. He works through subtle and not so subtle deception. It is through deception that he ensnares his victims, this is why it is of utmost importance for believers to guard against deception. How can you do this? By reading and memorizing the Word of God in the Bible. How did Jesus defeat Satan in the desert? By using the Word of God. Notice that each time Satan tempted Jesus, Jesus responded with ‘It is written…’, ‘It is written…’ The authority of God’s Word is not questioned even by the devil.
Read how Jesus overcame the devil’s attacks:
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. The tempter came to Him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took Him to the holy city and had Him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.
“All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’”
Then the devil left Him, and angels came and attended Him. (Matthew 4:1-11)
This is a key lesson in spiritual warfare: the most effective weapon against the enemy is the WORD of God. We are engaged in spiritual warfare continually and in order to overcome all the lies, snares and deceptions of the devil, we must use the WORD of GOD.
Next, we must understand that our battle is spiritual; that we battle demons, persons without bodies, not physical people. As the Bible states:
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. (Ephesians 6:10-18)
Whenever the devil tempts you, resist him even if he tempts you in the smallest of ways, so that he will not be able get his foot in the door of your life in any way. Use the Word of God, the Name of Jesus Christ and the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ as weapons against his attacks to free yourself from his grasp and he will flee. Remember that he only comes with the intention to steal your blessings and glorious inheritance from the Lord and to ultimately kill you. There is nothing good in him, so resist him fiercely. You have mighty weapons from the Lord!
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)
The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)
The key to victory against all the wiles of the enemy is a holy consecrated life of continuous prayer and proclamation of the Word of God out loud. Remember, that the SWORD of the Spirit is the spoken WORD of God! Speak the Word of God out loud. Decree and declare the Word of God over your life and the lives of your loved ones and you will witness miracles in your life. I have provided a list of Scripture verses you can use for spiritual warfare in the post Scripture Verses for Spiritual Warfare and Spiritual Warfare Prayers. I encourage you to search the Scriptures for passages that are more personal to you and your situation that you can use as daily proclamations.
Prayer and daily proclamations can change the course of human history. If you doubt this, I suggest you read the book Shaping History Through Prayer And Fasting by Derek Prince. In the book, he explains how he changed the course of World War II through his prayers! Yes, miracles really do happen!
There are many YouTube videos in which Derek Prince speaks about spiritual warfare. One such video is The Power of Proclamation. You can search YouTube for many similar videos by Derek Prince.
If you are interested in reading more about effective spiritual warfare, I suggest the following books by Derek Prince: Pulling Down Strongholds, Spiritual Warfare for the End Times, They Shall Expel Demons, Rules of Engagement, Prayers and Proclamations and Secrets of a Prayer Warrior.
I also suggest you read Cindy Trimm’s book The Art of War for Spiritual Battle.
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