Pulling Down StrongholdsI believe in spiritual warfare, of course, and in
spiritual militancy in the sense of being aggressive and
fervent in the Word and in the Holy Ghost. Be
aggressive to preach the Word. Be aggressive and
fervent to preach the new birth, the baptism of the Holy
Ghost, healing, and the believer's rights and privileges
in Christ. Be aggressive to preach faith and prayer and
to preach against devils and demons.
But in our day there is an extreme emphasis being
placed on the subject of spiritual warfare and spiritual
militancy to the exclusion of other Bible truths which
can get the Church off into a ditch.
Yes, we should be fervent in the Word, fervent in
prayer, and fervent in evangelism. "Militancy" meaning
fervency is fine. But when people teach others to focus
all their spiritual activity on the person of the devil—
that is both dangerous and unscriptural.
Where this is the most obvious is in the practice of
trying to dethrone Satan over cities. Militancy is taken
out of bounds when we get the idea that we have to
accomplish something which Jesus has already
accomplished for us. Why would believers want to
dethrone Satan or principalities and powers?
The truth is that Jesus has already defeated Satan
for us (Col. 2:15). As the Church, we triumph in that
victory—the victory Christ has already won for us at
the Cross. Our job now is to make manifest the savor of
that victory through the knowledge of God's Word (2
Cor. 2:15). We continue to triumph in that victory in our
daily lives as we walk in God's Word.
We don't have to win the battle over Satan. Jesus
has already won the victory for us. We must simply
walk in the light of God's Word concerning that victory,
and Jesus' victory over the devil will become manifest in