🚀 Casting Down Strongholds | Spiritual Warfare - Derek Prince

the theme of this session is entitled costing down strongholds and it's a session that will deal with spiritual warfare we need to understand first of all why there is spiritual warfare who is fighting who which side are we on so I want to turn first of all to Matthew chapter 12 a passage about the Ministry of Jesus which brings out the basic fact that there are two invisible spiritual Kingdom that are at war with one another one is the kingdom of Satan and the other is the kingdom of God now I imagine most of you have no problem with the concept that God has a kingdom some of you may not be aware that Satan has a kingdom but he does and it's most important for us as Christians that we understand the nature of his kingdom and how it operates because if we are in the kingdom of God through Christ we are automatically at war with the kingdom of Satan understand suppose I were a citizen of let's say Australia and Australia was at war which god forbid with new zealand we trust that such a thing will never even enter people's minds but if if it was so then as a citizen of Australia I would automatically be war at war with New Zealand because I belong to a nation that is at war with another nation so if the kingdom of God is at war with the kingdom of Satan and we are in the kingdom of God then we have no options we are automatically at war with the kingdom of Satan and it's very important for us to know it and to understand the nature of the war so let me read this passage from Matthew chapter 12 beginning at verse 24 Jesus had just healed a man who was deaf and dumb by casting out the evil spirit that caused him to be deaf and dumb do you know that evil spirits cause people to be deaf and dumb well when we were in Pakistan about four years ago we were ministering to Pakistanis naturally and God opened a wonderful door because Pakistan is 98% Muslim and we had the freedom to hold public meetings and up to 16,000 people gathered the reason why they gathered there was one reason because they had heard we would pray for the sick that was the sole reason that most of them came and in the course of ministry Ruth and I plunged into a crowd of men who were standing before us waiting to be prayed for and one man touched his ears and then touched his tongue we couldn't speak their language but I understood he was showing us that he was deaf and done so I knew theoretically the right thing to do and I thought I'll do it and see what happens so I said you deaf and dumb spirit that's in this man and I was speaking English and he was deaf and dumb anyhow so would no matter what language I was speaking I said you deaf and dumb spirit that's in this man I was speaking to you and not to this man and in the name of the Lord Jesus I command you to come out of this man then I said to the man now say something and immediately he heard he didn't understand but he heard and he began to make songs so they marched him up to the platform and told people that he'd been delivered from the death and the damned spirit and I said to myself this thing works so I think Ruth is here and I like to her to check on my accuracy but I think for the next 10 minutes we went around looking for deaf and dumb people and in Pakistan they're not hard to find and I think in the next 10 minutes we saw at least 10 people delivered from the condition of being deaf and dumb when the evil spirit was driven out of them so I just say this because it's not a theory it's not some old-fashioned tradition it's a very living up-to-date reality anyhow when Jesus did this we read what happened when the Pharisees heard it they said this fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub the ruler of the demons they made a terrible accusation they said he can cast out demons because he's in league with the the ruler of the demons jesus answered and said every Kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and every city or house divided against itself will not stand and if Satan cast out Satan he is divided against himself how then will his kingdom stand so Jesus said very clearly Satan has a kingdom and it's not divided then he went on to say and if I cast out demons by Beelzebub by whom do your sons cast them out therefore they shall be your judges but if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God surely the kingdom of God has come upon you there Jesus speaks about the kingdom of God so in this Ministry of delivering people from evil spirits the clash between the two kingdom is brought right out into the open the kingdom the invisible kingdom of Satan is represented by the demons the invisible kingdom of God is represented by Jesus and by those who continue his ministry in his name and I believe Satan particularly fears this ministry of deliverance because of two things first of all it brings out into the open his invisible kingdom and he'd much rather have it invisible and second it shows the victory and the supremacy of the kingdom of God over kingdom but I'm just giving starting with that passage to show you that the New Testament reveals clearly there are two invisible spiritual kingdoms at war with one another the kingdom of God the kingdom of Satan now for a brief description of the kingdom of Satan and its headquarters we turn to ephesians chapter 6 which actually is an absolutely key verse on this whole theme ephesians chapter 6 paul says in verse 12 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 now I would like to give you the Prince version of that verse it's it's the amplified Prince version you ask me am I qualified well I have learned Greek since I was 10 years old which is a long one now and I'm qualified to teach it at university level that doesn't mean this Rama was right but it gives me I'm entitled to my opinion so I'm going to give you the amplified Prince version for our wrestling match it's not against persons with bodies now that's phrase is taken from the Living Bible and I think it's a very good phrase we are in a wrestling match but we're wrestling persons who don't have bodies well that immediately causes us to adjust our thinking because we're not used to the concept of persons without bodies although there are multitudes of such persons in the universe then he says in the prince version against rulers with various areas and descending orders of authority so it's a very highly organized Kingdom there are rulers in this kingdom each with a particular area of responsibilities and under each of those rulers there are sub rulers who are responsible for sub areas in that King now you might say well Satan was very clever to devise such an organization that's not so the truth of the matter is that he rebelled against God being as most people believed in one in charge of one-third of the creative angels brought his angels into rebellion against God with him and were cast out of heaven and simply set up a rival kingdom keeping the organizational structure that they had when they were part of God's kingdom so he doesn't get any credit for this extremely clever organization all right I'm going to go to that part again our wrestling match is not against persons with bodies but against rulers with various areas and descending orders of authority against the world dominators of the present darkness and I deliberately use the word dominate because the Greek word is a very powerful word and I choose the word dominate because God never dominates anybody where ever you encounter domination it's something satanic dog that's not how God rules people but Satan's ambition is to dominate the whole world do you understand that not just some little part of humanity but through a kingdom of darkness to dominate the whole world and because his kingdom is a kingdom of darkness the people who were in that kingdom for the most part don't know what they're in see the kingdom of God is a kingdom of light if we're in the kingdom of God we know where we are somewhat but most of the people who are in satan's kingdom don't know where they are because it's a kingdom of darkness they can't see and then going to the final phrase in verse 12 against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly or in the heavenly places so there are vast armies you know in the word host is Old English for army vast armies of satanic beings persons without bodies arranged in battle order against arts it's important that we know that isn't it gonna make a lot of difference in our lives if we realize what we're up against now let me point out that Satan's headquarters as stated here are in the heavenlies we have a lot of language in the church which speaks about Satan as if he were in hell hell is a place of confinement for wicked persons below the surface of the earth my comment on that is it would be nice if Satan were in Hell but he isn't he's very much at large he's very active and his kingdom is in the heaviness now most of you will end again say in your minds I thought Satan was cast out of heaven you're perfectly right he was now the key to understanding this is that there's more than one heaven this is absolutely essential actually in the first verse of the Bible it says in the beginning God created the heavens plural the earth singular so from the right from the first verse of the Bible we had this revelation that heaven is plural now there are two passages in the New Testament which bring this out very clearly the first is 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 verses 2 through 4 where Paul is talking about people he knew who had had marvelous spiritual experiences and he talks about one particular person who was caught up from the earthly level into the heavenly and he says he doesn't know whether he was in his body or not this is what he says I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago whether in the body I do not know or whether out of the body I do not know God knows such a one was caught up to the third heaven and I know such a man whether in the body out of the body I do not know God knows how he was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words which is not lawful for a man to utter now Paul says this fellow Christian he knew was caught up into the third heaven he also says he was caught up into paradise which would seem to suggest that paradise is in the third ever and since there he heard the words of God the third heaven would apparently be the dwelling place have gone now I am a logician and I can't escape from logic one thing I am convinced of if there is a third heaven there must be a first and a second there never has been a third of anything without the first two so that scripture tells us there are at least three heavens and that's what I believe we have a phrase that people sometimes use when they're very happy and they say I was in the seventh heaven I don't think that's scriptural a matter of fact I think it's probably taken from the Koran so if you're feeling very happy just tell people I was on cloud nine see because the Bible reveals are a lot of clouds in heaven but my point is there are at least three heavens let me give you one other scripture Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 10 speaking about what happened to Jesus in death and resurrection it says he who descended into hell is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things so Paul says Jesus ascended far above all the heavens now I was a teacher of English as a Second Language in Africa and I learned there are certain pitfalls in the English language some of you may have struggled with them and one is the use of the way at all because you can't use it in certain situations for instance one of my students came to me one day and he said please all my parents have come to see me well I said I understand what you mean but you've got the wrong word because you can't have more than two parents and you can't use the word of all of less than three persons so when Paul says there were love all the heavens there must have been at least three heavens now I believe that's what there are now I'll offer you just my opinion and I'm not claiming that this is necessarily scriptural but it seems to me the third heaven is the heaven of God's dwelling place it's the holy heaven and remember that God dwells even above heaven that stated in many places then the first heaven I would suggest could be the visible heaven that we see the Sun the moon and the stars so in some way that there remains a second heaven which is never called the second heaven which is somewhere between the visible heaven and the heaven of God's being personally I believe that's where Satan's Kingdom is located I have a let me just offer you this theory maybe you think I'm very naive but Ruth and I travel a lot by jet airplanes and recently on the way from New Zealand to Singapore we were flying at an altitude of 39,000 feet which is a long long way up when I get that high I sometimes have the feeling I am above Satan's Kingdom it's like it's easy to pray you don't have to fight your way through composition now this this may be completely my subjective impression but somewhere or other between God and us is a hostile Kingdom which opposes us and seeks to hinder our prayer and that's why sometimes we have to pray through understand it's not that we're praying out of the will of God it's not that God is unwilling to hear but we have to penetrate a hostile Kingdom in the heavenlies to reach God now rather than speculate I want to give you a passage from the book of Daniel which very clearly reveals that this is so I'm not going to read the whole chapter but if you're interested you would do well to read the chapter for yourself later Daniel chapter 10 this chapter relates how Daniel said assigned appeared of three weeks four special print and he did what we've come to call it daniel fast he didn't give up all food but he only ate the plainest and simplest food and he drank no wine and he ain't no meat and he was morning before God on behalf of his people Israel who were captives of a Gentile Empire and at the end of three weeks a very glorious angel came to him with the answer to his prayer which was a revelation from God of what would be the future of his people which which consists of Daniel chapters 11 and 12 but the angel said to him the first day you began to pray your prayer was heard and I was sent with the answer to your prayer but he said it took me three weeks to get through because somewhere between the throne of God and Daniel on earth I was opposed by satanic angels and I had to force my way through those angels so it's very clear that at the time of Daniel somewhere between God's throne and earth there was this satanic Kingdom I believe it's still there it was still there when Paul wrote Ephesians chapter 6 verse 12 which was at least thirty years after the death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus in other words whatever the situation was it wasn't changed by the death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus Jesus ascended far above Satan's Kingdom but Satan's Kingdom still remained in place and then the angel told Daniel I've come with the answer to your prayer and when I leave I'm going to have to fight my way back through the same Angels and then I'm going to have to fight other satanic angels and that the angel that came to Daniel said on my way here the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me 21 days so for 21 days these angels were battling in the heavenlies and he also speaks about kings of Persia in the language of the King James and which is used here I understand the prince was the supreme ruler the Kings were sub rulers but they were all concerned with the kingdom or the Empire of Persia which at that time was the largest and most powerful empire on earth that had 127 promising provinces so Satan had one super angel who was responsible to him for the whole kingdom of Persia but this super angel had other angels that were responsible for different areas within the kingdom of Persia now this is no Theory for me because I've seen in many instances in cases how this principle works for instance let's suppose that there were major cities in the Empire of Persia which there were well I think there was one sub angel over each major city as I travel from city to city and place to place I've learned that to be effective in ministry in a certain city very often I have to identify the particular satanic power that's at work in that city and it's different from city to city to city again there were a lot of different nationalities in the Persian Empire and my observation is that many times there's a particular satanic king over a particular racial group taking the United States which is made up of many different racial groups and where I've lived now for more than 20 years my clear impression is that different racial groups have different satanic powers over them and in dealing with those racial groups spiritually it becomes important to identify the power that's over them for instance and so everybody knows there is a lot of black Negroes in America now I have no prejudice against black people I love them I have a black daughter but they are the descendants of people who were taken there as slaves and I've told I've shared this with black Americans you'll find that most black Christians can only get so far and something seems to stop them and I have shared my opinion that you came as slaves you've been politically emancipated but you've never been spiritually emancipated you're still under a spirit of slavery now Paul speaks about a spirit of slavery in Romans chapter 8 when he says we have not received a spirit of slavery again but the spirit of that God which makes us sons and daughters of God and when he's talking about slavery if you look at the context he's talking about religious legalism people whose religion consists of sets of rules do this don't do that my observation again is that nearly all black American churches are extremely legalistic hardly any of them know the real liberty of God's grapes what is the reason the reason is that that spirit of slavery has never really been dealt with it still has a measure of control over them they're Christians many of them and some of them are very lovely Christians but as a group never been sent free take another group in the United States the American Indians basically the United States is a country of Liberty unfortunately Liberty has been carried much too far these days it's a country where almost anybody can prosper because of the nature of the economy and the laws and so on you don't have to have a doctorate in philosophy to prosper in fact you probably do better without it but there's one group that basically have never prospered the American Indians they've never prospered financially they've never prospered socially and in spiritually they are still in awful darkness they are basically all practices of witchcraft and very powerful witch it's a tragedy but my impression is that until someone with vision understands the root problem of the American Indians and is prepared to do the spiritual warfare to release them they remain in bondage now I've been wise enough to take my examples from a distant land but I think if you ponder what I'm saying in a little while and you'll begin to see that there are similar principles operating in Asia very strong principles now when the angel had finished telling Daniel about this he said when I go I'll have to find a gang with the Prince of the kingdom of Persia and then after that I'll have to fight with the Prince of the kingdom of Greece now why Persia and Greece well because there were four Gentile empires that dominated God's people Israel and their land and the City of Jerusalem and you see the battle is always most intense spiritually where God's kingdoms issues are focused so wherever God is at work you'll find that Satan will be at work also his very name means the resister see he resists God's purposes and God's people that's his he can't help it he's a slave of his own nature so there were four such successive Gentile empires that dominated Israel Babylon Persia Greece and Rome now in Daniels day Persia was still the dominant Empire but the next one to follow it would be Greece and so we see that the spiritual warfare in a way relates to God's people God's purposes and in a sense it's necessary to carry out this spiritual warfare in order for God's purposes for his people to be fulfilled and Daniel is a marvelous pattern of somebody who by prayer and fasting and intercession changed the history of his people let me now read the passages that I've been quoting very quickly Daniel chapter 10 verses 2 & 3 in those days I Daniel was mourning three full weeks I ain't no Pleasant food no meat or wine came into my mouth nor did i anoint myself at at all till three whole weeks were fulfilled that period of three weeks is emphasized now the angel that came to him said various things and then in verse 12 this is what he said do not fear Daniel for from the first day that you set your heart to UM stand and to humble yourself before you're gone your words were heard excuse me and I have come because of your words but the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me 21 days and behold Michael one of the chief Prince's came to help me for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia so somewhere on the way from God to Daniel he was opposed by the Prince of the kingdom of pleasure for twenty-one days and in the end another angel of God the angel of Archangel Michael had to come and join in the conflict now if you read further on in Daniel Michael is called the great Prince or angel that stands up for the children of your people that's Israel so as a matter of biblical interpretation you found this helpful wherever Michael is on the scene Israel is center stage in human history because he's the particular angel that has the job of looking after Israel and believe me that is a pretty tough job now going on he says in verse 20 of Daniel 10 do you know why I have come to you and now I must return to fight with the Prince of Persia in other words the battle is noble yet and when I've gone forth indeed the Prince of Greece will come that's the next major Gentile Empire and you can understand behind the history of these human empires there are satanic forces at work that really are the explanation of what happens you really cannot fully understand human history if you only look on the horizontal human level because the real forces that determine the destinies of Nations and people are in the heavenlies and then he says verse 12 in verse 21 of Daniel but I will tell you what is noted in the scripture of truth no one upholds me against these except Michael your Prince again the Archangel Michael then you go on to the first verse of the next chapter which is part of the same message also in the first year of Darius the Mede I even I stood up to confirm and strengthen him there's a clear example of the intervention of angels in human history why did God's angel stand up for derives the answer is because God's people Israel had been captured and enslaved by the Empire of Babylon and Duras was the ruler of the Persian Empire that destroyed the Empire of Babylon and released God's people to return to their land which was God's purpose so behind all the human forces and the horizontal plane there is a vertical plane and there are angelic forces both angels have gone and angels of Satan that are at work and human history is to be explained by the interplay of all these forces now why we are significant as Christians is because God has given to us and us alone the weapons by which we can intervene in this spiritual war governments have armies and weapons that will deal with other nations but only the Christian Church has the weapons that will intervene in the spiritual realm in the hamlets and you understand that one who wins in the heavenlies ultimately determines the course of history so the most significant thing you can do in history in a sense is be an intercessor and pray through the spiritual issues in the heavenlies that will determine the history of nations on earth see Daniel is it just a perfect example No as I've said already we are involved in this war that's not an option the only decision you can make is whether you'll be part of the kingdom of God or not if you're part of the kingdom of God you are at war with the kingdom of Satan that's not something you can decide you just better get equipped and learn how to fight because if you don't you're going to be a casualty now going back to Ephesians chapter 6 Paul immediately after speaking about Satan's Kingdom and the heaven list tells us we better put on our armor and I'll read this rather quickly beginning in verse 13 therefore you know what I said about therefore what's it therefore because of verse 12 which is Satan's Kingdom in the ammonites therefore take up the whole armour of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand geez Paul says it's gonna come an evil day an evil day comes in the life of every one of us whether we stand or not depends on whether we've got the equipment that we need and then Paul lists the armor and it's taken from the battle armor of a Roman legionary in his day this is the picture there are six main items of armor which we look at very quickly we're not going to comment on them stand there therefore having your waist girded with truth you have a belt that you wear around your waist and it's truth having put on the breastplate of righteousness you have a protection over your chest which protects your heart and it's righteousness not the righteousness of works but the righteousness of faith and then it says having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace you have sandals that protect your feet unable you to march far and fast which Roman legionaries could do once the protection of your feet is the preparation the gospel of peace now let me just interject if you want more information I have a tape somewhere in my long list of tapes that deals with each one of these pieces of armor what is it called I'm threatened to forget now but at any rate it is available somewhere thanks to our dear brother Derek Jacob all right that's why I'm saying that because I don't want to hurry through this but I want to get beyond the defensive to the attack you understand if I get bogged down in defense we'll never reach the tank above all or over everything else taking the shield of faith this is a great big shield shaped like a door which could protect every part of your person from the arrows of the enemy and then it says take the helmet of salvation what part of you does your helmet protect your head what does your head stand for your thought life that's right and it is so important we know how to protect our thought line God has provided a helmet here it's called the helmet of salvation in 1st Thessalonians 5 8 it's called the helmet and for a helmet the hope of salvation you know what protects your mind hope you've got to be an optimist if you're a pessimist your mind is open to the attacks of Satan I have another message on that because it's something I'll learn by experience I was born and brought up a pessimist and I suffered Agony's in my mind until I learned I had to change and that I had a helmet that would protect my mind all right take the helmet of salvation the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God the spoken word of God notice you've got 6 items of equipment all of them are defensive except the last one the sword which is a weapon of a tank but only goes as far as your arm can reach but the seventh weapon is the weapon and it's in verse 18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the here is where we can reach out and a sales Sagan's kingdom in the heavenlies it's with the weapon of prayer in the spirit so we have seven items of equipment five are defensive the sixth is the sword which you can only reach as far as your arm reaches but the seventh is what I call God's intercontinental ballistic missile what is it all prayer we can a sail Satan's Kingdom with the weapon of all prayer all right now I'm coming to the very thing that I wanted to deal with again gonna go back to Matthew 12 and I'm going to show you one more verse and really all I can do is stimulate your thinking but that's a lot if the church would only start thinking we'd be undefeatable it always impresses me that Martin Luther started the Protestant Reformation but post-appointment pinning up 90 some feces he didn't pin up the answers he just got them started thinking and when they started thinking things change see it's important that we learn to think alright now we read in Matthew 12 about Jesus answer about the two kingdoms the next verse is very important it says verse 29 or else how can one enter a strong Mans house and plunder his Goods unless he first binds the strong man then he will plunder the house now this is in connection with the warfare in the kingdoms it's what I call the principle of the strongman Jesus pictures a house with a strongman a despot a cruel ruler who has in his house slaves all sorts of stolen goods but he's got everything under his control and it's very difficult to go in and set his slaves free or steal get back his plunder if you go in all the time you're trying to feed his slaves you're fighting off the strongman see and you may end up wounded so Jesus says that's not the logical way to do it the logical way is to begin by binding the strongman tie him up put a gag in his mouth then you can walk in and out at Liberty and help yourself to what you need and set his captives free now this is a spiritual principle if you want to be successful in any given situation you've got to discover who is the Satanic strongman over the situation then you've got to bind the strongman then you can do what needs to be done in the situation but the principle is first bind the strongman then set his captives free now as I said Satan's Kingdom descends from area from level to level with Pete with persons angelic beings with radius of responsibility and they come down the lowest ones are pretty small areas and generally speaking you don't start at the top you start where you are and you learn the principles of warfare and then you can move on until you are dealing with the strongman over a city or even over a nation but you don't normally begin there so if you have problems in succeeding in doing the will of God in breaking through spiritually maybe in your family maybe in a business maybe in a church and somehow things are not going the way you feel they ought to go but you don't understand the problem my suggestion is in all probability there is a strongman over that situation and you will not be really successful until you deal with the straw men now I will speak from experience I told the other evening that I had on the head of a large family which now has about 120 members and our family is made up of adopted children and basically it's a good family we love one another we've stuck together in all sorts of difficult situations we're still in contact and relationship right across the world but I was aware well I have to say it this way where I was living after my first wife died before I married Ruth I was a widower for two and a half years it's a tradition in our family that we meet as a family on Christmas Eve and celebrate and we meet a course in our home normally and at that time I had a big house so then the day before Christmas Eve I was pondering over the family coming together and although we love one another and have basically good relationships when a lot of the family come together I always felt a certain tension certain pressure partly I think it was various daughters hoping that I take more interest in their children than some other daughter's children and I thought to myself there must be something behind this and I was lying on my back in bed about eleven o'clock at night and I said gone what is really behind this and was like a kind of grey mist appeared in my room just below the level of the ceiling and I understood that God was showing me this is the power that makes relationships different difficult in your family so I asked God what is it and he said self-righteousness now I pondered a little bit I thought about my first wife she was a wonderful Christian but like many wonderful Christians she was very concerned to do the right thing and very occupied with doing the right thing and that's a step towards self righteousness then I thought about myself and I said it it certainly fits me so I saw that our family was to some degree under the influence of a spirit of self righteousness because both my first wife and I were open to it you see the parents in a family should be the spiritual umbrella protecting the family but if there's a hole in the umbrella then things get through that shouldn't come in see so I thought the first thing I do is repent renounce self righteousness for myself because you can't do much for other people that you have the problem yourself and I did and then I said God let that power of self-righteousness over our family be broken in the name of Jesus when we came together the next day it was quite different something that had pressured us just wasn't there so that's just one example you may have it in a business you may be a Christian businessman it may be then you really want to use your finance and your talents for the Lord but somehow your business never really prospers the way it should and just when you're on the point of breakthrough you get frustrated I want to suggest to you there's probably a strong man over your business I don't know exactly what it could be it's not my job to know it's your job to find out I don't go around solving everybody's problems but I tried to tell people how to solve their own now let me and then when we come to nations the same it's true we have brother Warren here I was in New Zealand which is a nation I know well I visited probably ten times at least I loved the people of New Zealand but I was in a meeting there a few years back and I was teaching on this and they said well what's the strong man / New Zealand when I say it it isn't my business to tell you it's your business to find out they were leaders but they kept on so I thought no God maybe you'll show me and I felt God had shown me well there was a friend of mine a well-known New Zealand Christian who'd come in late to the meeting so he was sitting right at the back with his daughter beside him and eventually they pressured me and I said well if you want to know I believe the strong man / New Zealand is in difference there are very friendly warm people but they don't in a way take life seriously and the attitude is it'll work out all right in the end in fact what they say in New Zealand is she'll be right jack well the man who'd come in and was sitting at the back at the moment I said then turned to his daughter and said its indifference and I'd have to say from them till now New Zealand basically politically socially and spiritually has been on decline and the problem is one indifference that's right and until the New Zealand Christians come to grips with that problem I think they're not going to be really able to deal adequately with the whole situation now we've got Australians here and I'm Bo I was in Australia I was faced for the same issue when I said if you want to know what I believe the problem the e spiritual problem of Australia is rejection now you have to be careful what you say with Australians but as you know or you may not know it was founded as a penal colony prisoners were given the opportunity to go to Australia or to go to Australia so you find in the background of the thinking of the Australian people is this sense we were kind of outcasts we were rejects and God gave a most beautiful prophecy when I was teaching on this to her brother in Australia and New Zealand brother in Australia and he said God was going to heal that nation God had compassion in fact God called it a nation born in Chains but he said he was going to break those chains I believe that I believe there's a tremendous revival coming to Australia in the near future we could go on what's the strong man over the United States because there are many forces in the nation in there but I would say essentially rebellion see the United States was conceived in rebellion it's an amazing thing in history we British talk about the American War of Independence the Americans call it the American Revolution it's just astonishing now I'm not criticizing those who revolted if I've been a Britisher in the day of George Washington I would have done the same but the fact of the matter is that the nation was conceived in rebellion and there's something that goes very close with rebellion how many of you know what it is rebellion is as the sin on witchcraft that's right and the other strong power over the United States is witchcraft that's just simpler Gambas what's the dear Lord how did I get into this anyhow what's the problem in the British again the British have complicated people I mean you can't just set one thing but I tell people if you want know the difference between the Americans and the British and I'm both the Americans will tell you how good they are but the British expect you to know without being told and I don't have any doubt the strong man ever Britain is pride now I don't say this to be critical my aim is to diagnose since order to be able to deal with the problem now let's come to some of the weapons that we can use and we'll have to close first of all prayer let me give you just a few scriptures about each Matthew 18 verses 18 and following Jesus is speaking as sure today I say to you whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven that's a tremendous statement there Greek actually says whatever you bind on earth will be having been bound in heaven so the moment you bind it on earth it's bound in heaven you see we have the power to intervene in the heavenly realm if we meet the conditions on earth we can bind something on earth which is bound in heaven or whatever we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven if a a group of persons a family a community even a nation are bound by certain spiritual forces if we meet the conditions on earth we can lose them and what we loose on earth shall be having been loosed in heaven in other words Jesus says you bind it on earth and when you look around it's bound in heaven see in a way we're not waiting for God God is waiting for us an attitude of passivity is hardly ever pleasing to God but Jesus attaches some conditions again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask it will be done for them by My Father in heaven so the word agree in Greek is symfon eyes or hominins so attached to the promise of binding and loosing is the condition of being able to harmonize if two people harmonize in prayer and ask for anything they'll get it but it's not easy to harmonize I believe the reason for that promise is because the only way we can harmonize is by the Holy Spirit and if we harmonize by the Holy Spirit will harmonize on what God wants you see but it's a tremendous challenge especially to Christian couples if you're husband and wife can harmonize they get whatever they pray for but it's not easy to harmonize how many of you would agree to that it's pretty easy to be almost in harmony but musically almost in harmony is excruciating and you'll find that God that the devil will fight you're harmonizing every way he can't because he's afraid of it and then it says thank then we'll say Thanksgiving is another tremendous weapon let me point out to you something very interesting about the Ministry of Jesus in John chapter 6 when Jesus fed the 5,000 verse 11 it says Jesus took the loaves and when he had given thanks he distributed them to the disciples the disciples for those sitting there Jesus did not pray all he did was give thanks and giving thanks over 5 loaves and 2 fishes made them sufficient to feed 5000 people and a little further on in John 6:23 it says other boats came from Tiberias near the place where they ain't brain after the Lord had given thanks what released the miracle giving thanks and then cranes Psalm 8 verse 2 God says out of the mouths of babes and sucklings his appointed praise that he may silence the enemy and the Avenger who's the enemy of the Avenger Satan that's right why does he need to be silenced what is he doing all the time he's accusing us before the throne of God why doesn't God silence him because God says I've given you the weapons to son in acts 16 Paul and Silas were in prison the maximum security jail bound hand and foot and at midnight they prayed and praised and God sent an earthquake that released the whole prison come contingent and opened every door what release that earthquake phrase that's right and then Proclamation this is the one that Ruth and I are majoring on these days you see Moses was called by God to go and deliver Israel out of Egypt and he said gone I don't have anything God said what's that in your hand oh that's just my shepherd stop God said throw it down on the ground then it became a snake Moses ran from his own staff he didn't realize the power he had in his hand God said to him all you need to deliver Israel is that one staff go back and use it and if you read the story with that one staff Moses rested the rule of Egypt out of the hand of Pharaoh and took it over on behalf of God and brought about the release of Israel you say well I don't have anything God says what have you got in your hand our Bible that's all you need just take that stuff and stretch it out how do you stretch up the staff by making proclamation of what the Bible says about you Ruth and I I would say never a day passes without our making Proclamation it's weighed out we've got about 39 seconds we'll make second Corinthians no let's do Deuteronomy 25 all right verses 32 33 25 all right this is our Proclamation with this we close the bolts of our gates will be iron and bronze and our strength will equalize there is no one like the god of gesturing who rides on the heavens to help us and on the clouds in His Majesty the eternal God is our refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms he will dry out our enemy before us same dish

Channel: Derek Prince

Views: 2,645,383

Rating: 4.8221316 out of 5

Keywords: casting down strongholds, casting down strongholds youtube, Casting down strongholds scripture, spiritual warfare sermons 2021, unlocking gods power in your life, spiritual warfare christian motivation, spiritual warfare scriptures in the bible, bible study on spiritual kingdoms, sermon on casting out demons, sermon on spiritual kingdoms, war in heaven sermon, spiritual kingdoms bible study, casting out demons bible study, casting out demons in church, War in heaven bible study

Id: -Q2XsucBAlA

Length: 57min 55sec (3475 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 04 2013