Confronting principalities and powers had been a topic of much discussion sometime past in certain circles in the body of Christ.
Today, the understanding that some parts of the body have on spiritual warfare woefully lacks a proper foundation and it focuses mainly on a direct confrontation with demonic powers and principalities which is unhealthy. On the other hand, there are others in the body of Christ that are naive and don’t have a clue on this type of warfare. Both of these positions need to change (be corrected or balanced) because it is vital for our success; to help us persevere in the days of evil.
Now, a brief history into how the concept of confronting principalities and powers came about in our modern times will be helpful.
It could be said that Peter Wagner was the one who brought it to the church’s attention and also championed its cause with Cindy Jacobs also playing a key role a bit later.
Decades back, Peter was part of a meeting where the prayer warriors who were an integral part of the Argentinian revival where sharing on their experiences prior to the revival. They talked about duking it with the principalities in Argentina and overcoming them in prayer. This they said was crucial to the revival. It was then Peter became convinced, that to possess the nations; principalities need to be overthrown and soon, he started propagating it; after doing much more research on the subject.
In those early days, John Wimber was quite concerned on Wagner’s position on this type of warfare as he felt that principalities cannot be directly confronted. However, Peter would continue to hold on to his position on this type of warfare after discussions on the same.
Soon after, Wagner, would go on to extensively propagate his understanding on this subject and it was widely well received by many in the body of Christ and confronting demonic entities became a common practice. Now, there are instances where this warfare maybe practiced (we will look into them later). However, the body was largely ignorant and greatly unequipped for this type of warfare. This led to the enemy finding ways to attack them back; causing a lot of confusion, division, sickness….in the body. People who were involved in this warfare weren’t able to stand against these attacks and weren’t discerning about the nature of these attacks also.
John Paul Jackson’s controversial book on “Needless causalities of spiritual warfare” talks about this in detail. In it he does a good job of bringing in some of the checks and balances that are much needed during this type of spiritual warfare. However, he would go on to entirely discredit the concept of confronting principalities and powers directly.
Now, there is a reason for going into such detail, as later we would look to bring balance to this type of warfare using the above-mentioned points as reference. Before we do that, I feel led to share on my own journey in spiritual warfare.
In the early 2000’s Cindy Jacobs was in St. Petersburg, Russia talking about confronting demonic powers. As a young believer in the Lord, I received everything she said 100 percent and started practicing spiritual warfare trying to bring the hostel I was staying into Christ and then leading a group of young students to do warfare for St. Petersburg. I was new and had no idea on the schemes and the ways of the enemy. What followed was, years of battle; intense warfare in the mind; great sorrow and losses. During those times, I personally did not see the results of standing against these demons; except on one occasion on a smaller scale.
In spite of the intense battle that surrounded me, it didn’t dawn on me to quit. It shows that we don’t need to be afraid of any of these demons including Satan himself as I had stood against them with almost zero knowledge and God was merciful in protecting and keeping me. On the other hand, it also shows that we need to be equipped as myself and those around me experienced unnecessary attacks and times of intense struggle. It was after this phase, God revealed to me the truths from Ephesians 6 on warfare.
The holy fire inside of me that the Spirit had put for revival was still burning bright when we transitioned from Russia to India, and I kept moving forward in the journey of confronting demonic powers directly. Only now, I saw increased authority and that i could displace them in the places that I went to in India. I saw amazing results (temporarily mostly) but at the same time not being properly equipped still caused intense times of warfare even to the point of having serious health issues.
It was in this journey that God revealed the many truths on warfare a few of which I will be sharing later. ( For more info on some of these truths read the Ephesians Devotional- Chapter 6 on warfare- A Call To Maturity In Christ: God’s Plan for His Beloved Bride – Kindle edition by Edward, John. Religion & Spirituality Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.) ).
( TO BE CONTINUED)
