Jesus said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning.”
Breakthrough! “David said, ‘God has broken through my enemies by my hand, like the breakthrough of waters!’”
Breaking through the bondages and strongholds of evil is the crescendo of all that we do for the sake of the Kingdom of God. Yet, the forms of evil bondages are many.
Jesus taught that “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed. But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder. He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters.” – (Luke 11:21-23 NASB)
The bondages of evil are seemingly everywhere around us and cover the globe like a great pile of chains and locks. For some people, where they abide can almost be like living in a torture chamber. But as strong as the “strongman” might be, we understand that the satan has already fallen to defeat and our message is the key that unlocks the bondages and sets the captives free.
We could tell you of our countless clashes with evil principle regional strongmen, our struggles to break the chains that bind up whole regions, or the battles against sickness, trauma, poverty, and pain in individual’s lives, but please keep in mind that we have tremendous battles in the future. You might say that we are looking for trouble. By that, I mean that we regularly receive intelligence on locations of bondage where lands and people need to be set free. We have a quest to breakthrough the forces of evil that hold regions captive. We excitedly look for the troubled spots and grasp heaven for the strategic ways to bring breakthrough to those lands and people.
Intercession for us is a serious matter. Proclamations, decrees, songs of victory sung over us and through us, and truths that affirm our triumphs over evil bondages are of the utmost importance to us.
If you were to travel with us you could easily see what we call a Holy Ghost Pattern in what we do. As a proclaimer of Jesus Christ – a servant representative of the King of all kings – I strongly deliver a proclamation of the Kingdom of God and how it always trumps the kingdom of darkness. When the Spirit begins revealing Himself I signal a team member (usually Kevin Ford) and who takes that last line of authority that I speak and continues to drive it home until he can see what is needed for miracles in the room. We call forth people and we then work together to breakthrough the evil forces in people’s lives that have been bound and tortured by the effects of evil.
Why do we do it this way? Because if we don’t set the authority of the Kingdom of God in the room, the kingdom of darkness will continue to operate unchallenged and we will see few if any miracle breakthroughs.
Whenever you have heard us say that we can feel your intercession, I think it is felt by us more from this place than any other. Your declarations and decrees toward us, pushing the authority of the Kingdom of heaven through us into the places we are ministering can make a huge difference.
The sense that I’m trying to give you here is not so much “praying for us” but praying through us. It’s like seeing the substance of your authoritative decrees going out of your being and target at the people through the gates of Kevin and me. If we are gates, your decrees pass directly through us to set people free. How cool is that?!?
Wherever we minister and deliver the proclamation of the superiority of the Kingdom of God, we find that the power of the presence of the Lord will reveal the hidden evils of demonic strongholds in people. Through decades of ministry, I cannot count the number of times that people have just begun to manifest in strange ways in the midst of preaching the Kingdom message. Many screaming out just as the gospels tell us happened when Jesus was teaching in the synagogues.
Most people don’t realize that the second something like that happens, there is a shift, or what many of us call a phase-shift that takes place, and a decision must be made as to what to do. It is a critical few seconds. Time is of the essence where wisdom and skill is needed and I have to admit that I don’t always do it right. I believe this moment can be energized by intercessors decreeing that we have wisdom of the Spirit activated to show forth the glory of God’s Kingdom dynamics.
One cannot assume that we just go around healing the sick and don’t deal with evil forces that are working to try to kill people’s destiny. Most of even the smallest of meetings, have evil spirit activities. We are always on careful watch to see what evil forces are struggling against the people in front of us. Again, this too can be energized with the help of intercessors decreeing that we have wisdom of the Spirit, insight, strength and a strategic mindset in order to set people free.
Then, the casting out of demons is a regular part of the miracle ministry. The power exampled in the casting out of demons is holy Kingdom authority. This is a spiritual legal matter. We are filled with the Kingdom authority and an edict from the great King Himself to go and cast out demons. Remember that when the 70 returned to Jesus, (Luke 10), they reported with joy that, “Master, even demons are subject to us in Your name!” Jesus revealed to them that He “was watching the satan fall from heaven like lightning.” Thus, the strongholds (strongman) of the regions they proclaimed His name and Kingdom in had fallen and there was breakthrough even in the heavens above those places.
So, we do not stand in front of demoniacs and try to muster our authority over the demon. We have authority because we have been sent by the King to cast out demons. You see, we are doing as we have been commanded. We are enforcing the commands of the Lord. Therefore, the substance of your decrees of intercession go through us as the Kingdom authority which demons cannot stand against.
Our faith is established by our realized authority of the Kingdom of God. The works of our faith are a manifestation of that Kingdom authority overcoming the grip of evil and revealing a miracle of liberation. Your decrees toward us – through us – cause us to realize that life giving authority and manifest the works of faith from who we are.
Yet there are other strongholds that lock down many people in the places where we preach.
In fact, there are cities that are key places of regional influence that have been taken over by the kingdom of satan. Those key cities are often spiritually dangerous as the pressures of “principalities”, “powers”, “rulers of the darkness of this world”, and, “spiritual wickedness in high places” are quite prominent.
At least a portion of our apostolic work concerns the spiritual governmental dominion that we are to cause the Kingdom of heaven to prevail over all other authorities in a land.
Let’s consider the ancient and biblical city of Philippi in Asia Minor. When the apostles Paul and Silas past through that region they found a place where some important women were praying beside a river in the city.
“It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer,
a slave- girl having a spirit of divination met us,
who was bringing her masters much profit
by fortune- telling. Following after Paul and us,
she kept crying out, saying, “These men are bondservants of
the Most-High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.”
She continued doing this for many days.
But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit,
“I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!”
And it came out at that very moment.”
(Acts 16:16-18 NASB)
This was not only an individual slave girl that was liberated from the stranglehold of evil spirits, this young woman was a portal or gateway to the “principalities” of that city. If you read on in that scripture you’ll find that the people of the marketplace grabbed Paul and Silas and threw them into prison after beating them publicly. Just think about how one girl’s deliverance caused the whole city to be in an uproar and threw the city into riot.
There is a lot to this whole incident but I only want to tell you of the implications that the demonic strongholds have in cities and there is almost always a person that is the principle evil spirit’s portal where it’s vulgar voice is to trumpet it’s evil plans across the lands.
We truly cannot count the number of cities we’ve enter into and had to deal with varying degrees of these kinds of incidents. Although they have never locked us up and beat us as they did Paul & Silas, we have had our share of demonic insolence toward us in many ways and manifestations.
Once again, your decrees and proclamations will make all the difference in such situations. The authority of the Spirit that you position yourself with and as you deliver the words of justice toward us and through us, this will set the powerful present Kingdom authority into action on behalf of the people and us.
As our praise for the Lord and His mighty deeds, His merciful acts, His just and liberating works, our praises will be a powerful force against the wiles of the wicked.
“But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and
singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners
were listening to them; and suddenly there came
a great earthquake, so that the foundations of
the prison house were shaken; and immediately
all the doors were opened and
everyone’s chains were unfastened.”
(Acts 16:25-26 NASB)
Note that “everyone’s chains were unfastened!”
“And He called the twelve together, and gave them power
and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases.”
(Luke 9:1 NASB)
We have built our lives and ministries upon the sending actions of Jesus Christ. We have come to know that His victorious, kingly, regal authority has been placed upon us and is enhanced by the decrees and proclamations of the people of prayer that we are depending upon.
It is written in the scrolls of the heavens that:
“And He called the twelve together,
and gave them power and authority over
all the demons and to heal diseases.
And He sent them out to proclaim
the kingdom of God and to perform healing.”
(Luke 9:1-2 NASB)
“The seventy returned with joy, saying,
‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.’
And He said to them, ‘I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning.
Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions,
and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you.’”
(Luke 10:17-19 NASB)
“Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others,
and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place
where He Himself was going to come.
And He was saying to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful,
but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest
to send out laborers into His harvest.’”
(Luke 10:1-2 NASB)