The Triumphant ChurchPaul had to deal with these moral issues in his Epistles
to the Corinthian church.
1 CORINTHIANS 5:3-5
3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in
spirit, have judged already, as though I were
present, concerning him that hath so done this
deed,
4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye
are gathered together, and my spirit, with the
power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the
destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be
saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Notice in this passage that Paul only dealt with the
man and his sin; he didn't deal with a "ruling spirit" in
the church or in the city. It's true that evil spirits which
predominate in a city will try to get into the church
unless believers and the church as a whole learn to
stand against them. However, in our day there has been
an extreme teaching in this area.
Some people today are getting into a ditch with
some of the things they are doing in the name of
spiritual warfare. Spiritual warfare is biblical. But
some marvelous and dear Christians have gotten into
excess by some extreme practices that are not biblical.
Although a lot of these extremes are listed under
what they call "pulling down strongholds," they do not
line up with what we read in the New Testament. Some
of these dear, misguided people believe they are
actually pulling down entire strongholds over cities and
nations through such excess in prayer as "warring"
tongues.
Actually, we have no direct scriptural support for
pulling down demonic strongholds over entire cities and