In the year 2003 in St. Petersburg, Russia; I awoke paralyzed in the late hours of the night. Standing in front of me was a principality as high as the ceiling of the bedroom in the apartment. I had been praying against it for months. It had bugs and insects crawling all over and into it. I couldn’t breathe and it felt like my life was ebbing away. As this was happening; I saw my spirit man reaching out to God for help. He was communicating to Him even though i couldn’t through my natural senses and the answer was almost immediately communicated back into him. It was to mention “the blood of Jesus”. As my spirit man started to say it; it came out as words from my mouth and the principality fled/vanished out of sight in a flash. I was totally fine immediately. I realized that day on how powerful the blood of our Saviour is!! All we need to do is mention HIS blood and His name in faith against the enemy.
Now, on the other hand, the question remains as to why we don’t see the manifestations of His power each time we use His name or His blood. There could be several reasons for that. One of them is based on this principle, “we cannot cast out a demon that has an (even a small) influence on us or change a circumstance that has changed us (influenced us).
Any amount of prayer to see people free won’t be effective (at all), if we are living like the people we are praying for. This is one of the main reasons for not seeing results even after spending much time in prayer and warfare. The following statement is in no wise prideful but meant to provoke us in the Lord. ” If an ignorant, young believer in the Lord without any prior experience on warfare can disturb and trouble principalities over cities by simple faith; how much more we should be able to as a body; and as those who have known the Lord for a long time”??? The aroma of the Lord from a believer can be sensed by demons’ miles away and they flee even before he steps foot in that radius. The question to ask is ” do we carry the aroma of the Lord or the aroma of the world” ?
When we start to live our lives contrary to the spirit of the world in every way, it has such a powerful impact in the spirit realm, as demonic holds are destroyed as a result. “Christ like living” is one of the greatest offensive weapons against the enemy. For an instance, one can break the hold of the spirit of hatred in a place by simply (and consistently) walking in the love of Christ. Today, we focus a lot on prayer, warfare and intercession but if we don’t have purity and love in our lives to back it up; it is of no use. On the other hand, just the utterance of the ‘name of Jesus’ from a person whose lips are pure makes ‘all of hell’ tremble!!
We may claim to stand on the victory of the cross. What we need to understand is that the cross would be a mere symbol like any other devoid of power, if not for the humility and love of Christ that was displayed through and on it. If I want to see victory and freedom through the cross; then I must also have the heart to stand in humility and love as Christ did first.
I stand on the victory of the cross when I stand in humility and love. It is here I exercise claim to its power. Any other basis for claim on the power of the cross: is shallow, superficial and deceptive. A single believer standing in this place makes all of hell tremble including Satan himself and therefore, they do everything in their deceptive influence to get us to be proud and hate one another.
Now, some of the things i am about to say may seem new but i would ask you to prayerfully consider what i am saying in light of the Word of God and look for the Spirit’s witness. We will build a solid foundation first from which we will address confronting principalities.
Firstly, we need to understand that our God is Righteous and Just and, in His righteousness, He judges sin and evil. All through scripture we see God executing His righteous judgments on sin and evil in this earth. Not only that, but He will also execute His final judgements on all of sin and all of evil at the end of days. So, we see that, there is the partial judgments of God on sin and evil pertaining to this life and then there are His final judgements in eternity.
In the Old Testament , God used Israel as an instrument of judgement on other nations ( Deuteronomy 9:5). Now, when the Israelites were executing the judgements of God on the Canaanites, they were doing it not just on mere human beings only. It was much more. They were also executing the judgements of God on the demonic rulers and principalities at that time who had control over these people.
Now just as the sins of the people ‘maturing’ requires God’s just intervention ( Genesis 15:16); the demons that come (in legally or thru deception) into people or people groups, error grossly and constantly and at some point, their sins also mature requiring judgement from God!
Throughout scripture, we see God using Israel as a whole to bring judgements on nations under principalities and powers( which was actually bringing judgment on the principality(ies) and power(s) itself ). On a few occasions God used individuals to stand against these demonic powers. Elijah is one for an example . Also, David and his mighty men’s heroics are in scripture for a reason.
In the Old Testament God used His people to bring His judgements on demonic hosts through natural means (destruction of the people and places that the demons controlled ). It was one of His end goals. It was God’s intent to destroy the works of the enemy right from the very beginning of times . He did it in the Old through Israel using natural means and today, He does it through us , the spiritual Israel through spiritual means and weapons. God still uses Elijahs; He has his Davids; He has his mighty men even today. He has not changed!
Now we before we go further; principalities control not just cities and people groups but they can also possess or control individuals like other demons. These are usually leaders of nations or influential people. Elijah wasn’t just running away from a mere woman. Many today minimize the prophet’s failure. He was attacked by the principality (ies) in that woman Jezebel in a moment of weakness. He had been fighting with it from the beginning and was very successful but failed at the last step.
There are examples in scripture to what has been said above. In Isaiah 14; we see the partial judgments of God being pronounced on the Babylonian king and Lucifer who was the demon behind him.
As current judgements are pronounced on the king of Babylon; Lucifer (the demon(prince) behind him) is reminded of His earlier judgements.
In executing His current judgement for the sins committed by the Babylonian ruler thru Lucifer’s empowerment; God judges Lucifer also reminding him of his earlier judgements of being thrown down from heaven.
Lucifer faced judgement when he fell from heaven; God constantly keeps him and his minions in check by judging them from time to time, till the final day of judgement where He will get rid of him and his cahoots once for all.
Now, today; the cross is central to God executing His judgments on ‘Satan and his hosts’ through us ‘the church’. It was here, in His body” Christ made an open show of principalities and powers and crushed the head of the serpent! Hallelujah. Each time we stand against the enemy and demonic powers in the name of Jesus; each time we stand against them by the cross and His blood, we are enforcing the judgement on Satan pronounced and carried out at the cross. God has chosen us as the executors of His judgement on Satan and his hosts on this earth…
