The caller was desperate… The pastor of a large, rapidly-growing congregation explained his problem. In the past year, five women at his church had miscarried babies and now three more women looked as if they were going to lose their pregnancies. I promised that I would pray and seek God for some answers.
A pastor called my office. With great distress, he explained that his 16-year-old son had run away from home. “My son has always been godly,” he said quietly, “until last year. He dyed his hair purple, pierced his ears, shaved one side of his head, and tattooed his body. I can’t understand what happened.”
I asked God for clearer revelation about the dark cloud that was suspiciously hanging over so many intercessors.
One night, God spoke to me in a dream. During the dream. I watched its drama unfold as if I were suspended in the sky…
God spoke to me: To attack principalities and powers over a geographic area can be as useless as throwing hatchets at the moon. And it can leave you open to unforeseen and unperceived attacks.
God’s words echoed in my mind. These leaders did not foresee principalities counterattacking them. They believed they were doing something great for God. They failed to comprehend the nature of the enemy’s authority to retaliate with fierceness.
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Who is the Warfare Against?
Behold. I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. – Luke 10:19. Serpents and scorpions are earth-bound powers of the enemy unlike the mainly heavenly-based ‘officers class’ listed in Ephesians 6:12. We have authority to cast them out when they are in our space,
Matt.10:1 And… he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out… Act 16:18. But Paul, being troubled, turned and said to the spirit. I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. – Ephesians 6:12
Except we are involved through direct orders and strategy from the Lord, the warfare of the realms above is only to be handled by the Lord and the angels. They are cognizant of the terms of engagement in the spirit that we are typically unaware of. The 2nd Peter 2 and the short book of Jude illustrate the very real need to be cautious when engaging higher demonic beings.
But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses. did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said. “The Lord rebuke you!” – Jude 1:9
Those who are reckless about it are often defeated in many ways. They are often a spiritual wreck and “the proverb is true that describes what has happened to them: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and “A pig that is washed goes back to wallow in the mud.” – 2 Peter 2:22
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How it Ended
I spoke with the pastor who had three pregnant women in his church on the verge of losing their babies. He explained that they were directly coming against and binding demonic principalities of pornography and abortion that hovered over their city. Sharing the warning dream God had given me the night before, I prophesied. The day their church repented was the day the three women stopped bleeding. Some months later, all three women gave birth to beautiful, healthy babies.
The Pastor whose 16-year-old son had run away from home, throughout the previous year, his church had engaged in spiritual warfare, attempting to bind territorial spirits over their city. I prophesied to him. He and his church stopped, and within a week his son came home.
– Excerpt from ‘Needless Casualties of War’ by John Paul Jackson’
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