Power over the Enemy: Breaking Free from Spiritual Strongholds (6 page)

“And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”
(v. 17). That tells me that he is going to try to get you to not read and study the Bible, to not attend a Bible-teaching church, and to just keep avoiding the Bible. Don’t let the Bible become a dust collector. Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and get it deep within your spirit for the day of battle.

You ought to come out of your house dressed in God’s armor and looking like God, saying, “Devil, where are you?” But if you don’t take the time to put the armor on and meditate on these things, it’s not going to do you any good. You’ve got to get in a church that teaches you the Word of God! You’ve got to read and meditate on your Bible! Then you’ll be ready to deliver you and your family from the power of darkness.

“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints” (v. 18). When we pray, we move the hands that move the world. Consider the great invitations of God. First of all, God said, “Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:22). Then He said, “Call
to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3). And then He said through Jesus, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). The Bible says in Hebrews 4:16, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” And when you come to God, bring words with you. There’s where the battlefield is. Come with words. Bring God’s Word to Him and quote God’s Word to Him.

Prayer is worship. Take time to worship and praise Him for all that He’s done and He’s going to do. Praise Him for His mercy. Then ask Him for some things. Open your mouth and ask big! And then, listen. Listen as He speaks to you.

T
he apostle Paul wrote these powerful words: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down 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 Corinthians 10:4–5).

I am writing this chapter out of a deep desire to help those who are suffering spiritual defeat and do not know how to get victory. Even though you may have been tormented, defeated, and cast down, if you will heed the message of these verses, God will give you light on how to have victory in your present state and help you win every battle in the future.

There are thousands of Christians who are going through what you are experiencing, because every believer is an enemy of Satan. The enemy wants to defeat, deceive, trouble, and confuse you. He wants to keep you from the truth, for he knows that “the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).

Satan’s primary attack is in the mind. He begins his battle in our thoughts. Few Christians realize this fact. They take little care in guarding their minds. They fill their minds with social media, television and radio programs, music, Internet websites, newspaper articles, magazines, and the conversation of the world. Thousands of thoughts enter their minds—all concerning the things of this world.

The apostle states that “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.” Warfare! The area of our thoughts is a battlefield. The warfare starts in the mind, then spreads to other areas of our lives.

In the next verse, Paul speaks of “casting down arguments,” or “imaginations” (
KJV
), “and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” Wicked imaginations are from the devil. We are to pull down Satan’s strongholds and cast down his thoughts, which produce wicked imaginations and build arguments in our minds.

Christians are to have the mind of Christ! David knew the secret of guarding his mind. He said, “I will set nothing wicked before my eyes” (Psalm 101:3). David also said, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O L
ORD
” (Psalm 19:14). The meditation of our hearts—or our thought lives—should be acceptable to God. Win the battle in your mind and you will rejoice every day of your life in the victory God gives you over the enemy!

Jesus said the Holy Spirit would “tell [us] things to come” (John 16:13). In His love and mercy, He shows us things to prepare us for coming events. This has happened to me several times over the years, and it’s always a precious experience.

In 1965, the Lord gave me a very unusual visitation during the night. In this experience, the Lord showed me in three different confrontations with the devil. One was a seemingly minor encounter; the next was somewhat stronger. In the last scene, I was ushered into a room where the evil genius sat—the god of this world. There was another man in that room also. He was trying desperately to get out but could not. He moved his arms and legs slowly and with great effort, trying to get to the door, but the evil one held him captive. It was a bizarre sight.

But there I was in the same room. Courage swept into my heart, and I declared boldly, “I will walk out of this room in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ!” Upon saying that, I walked out without any difficulty at all.

Then I awoke. I pondered this experience but did not understand the meaning until later. Little did I know that the Lord was showing me what I would face in the next few months.

Satan’s Attack

Without relating it to this visitation, I suddenly felt myself being attacked by Satan. I will not describe the experience in detail, but for several months I had encounter after encounter with the enemy. It went from small battles to large ones. Finally, I felt myself in the presence of that evil one. No words can describe the fear and torment I felt while there. God is love, but Satan is fear and torment. It was a stark reminder of how terrible it would be to be lost throughout eternity.

While in this state, feeling that I was fighting for my very life, I noticed that every time Satan attacked, it was in the area of my thought life. He assailed my mind and flooded my thoughts. He raged from every direction with thoughts that would come against me with a powerful force. It almost seemed like a physical thing.

This constant barrage of thoughts brought on a weakness in my body. I came to the place where I felt as though I would never be able to preach and minister again. I felt strange. The
thoughts told me I had every disease in the book… that I was going to die… that I had failed God and highly displeased Him. The lying thoughts of Satan tried to convince me that this was God bringing judgment upon me for all my past sins. It was a fearful torment! I felt forsaken of God and man. This was the work of the devil!

God’s Counterattack

One day while in my office, I cried out to God in my suffering. I had prayed and prayed and prayed. Why did God not deliver me? In this state of mental torment and physical weakness, I asked God to help me understand.

Suddenly, He reminded me of that merciful visitation. In His gentle way, He said, “My son, don’t you remember that strange visitation I gave you several months ago?”

I began to think back, and I said, “Yes, Lord, I do.”

He said, “Tell me about it.”

Then I recounted all the events of that visitation. When I got to the part about the third phase, where I was in the enemy’s presence, the Lord said, “My son, that is right where you are now in your experience. You have gone through the other two, and the fear and torment you feel is because you are now in that third phase. I am not tormenting or condemning you. I am not sending
this fear. It is coming from the devil. I am the One who loves you. I am the One who sent my Son to die for you. I am the One who made a way for you to escape spending eternity with the devil and his angels.”

These are some of the thoughts I had from the Lord. Then He asked me, “How did you get out of that room when the other man couldn’t?”

As I sat there trembling, weak, and defeated, I suddenly realized what I had done. I said, “Lord, I stood up, filled with courage and without fear, and I boldly said, ‘I will walk out of this room in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ!’ ”

The Lord said to me, “Then get up and do it!”

The Victory

This was the turning point in my experience. It did not happen instantly, but through the weeks to come, I learned well my lesson from the Lord. I arose early each day and began to devour my Bible. I began to get His thoughts into my mind. I fought off the lies of Satan with the Word of God.

In my weakened state, I got a map of the world and looked at it. I boldly said, “I am going to preach the Gospel all over the world!”

The devil said, “If you get on a plane, it will fall with you.”

I said, “Mr. Devil, I have some thoughts for you to think about. The Lord is going
before
me. The blood of Jesus is
over
me. The everlasting arms of God are
under
me. And His goodness and mercy are
behind me, following me all the days of my life!
”

Every day I pulled out the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, and whipped the devil with it, in the Name of Jesus of Nazareth.

When the thought came,
You are weak
, I shouted with the voice of an archangel in my spirit, “I am strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” (Ephesians 6:10).

When the devil caused me to feel fear—which is simply the evidence of his presence near us—I said boldly, “The L
ORD
is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The L
ORD
is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell” (Psalm 27:1–2).

Well, do you know what happened? I lived and got well! All fear and torment left me. I have flown and preached the Gospel all over this world many times since then.

Through this experience, the Lord taught me that Satan’s attack is primarily in the mind. The Word of God must dominate the thought life. He allowed me to go through this to teach me, and to make it possible for me to teach you, the way to victory.

Since that time, I have stayed in my Bible. When the enemy tries to rush me with thoughts, I whip out the two-edged sword of the Spirit and face him squarely, just to let him know I am a victor through Jesus. I do this every day. With David of old, I climb up on the highest hilltop as it were, and with my whole soul I confess Psalm 91 with a shout in the face of the devil and demonic forces:

“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the L
ORD
, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust.’ Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence. He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look, and see the reward of the wicked. Because you have made the L
ORD
, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling” (Psalm 91:1–10).