WAR IN ORDER (Part 1)

I have always been a fighter. I fought in school, I fought my family, and I fought with my friends. I even challenged a guy neighbor to a fight after school at the Church of Christ parking lot! He didn’t show.

My maiden name was Battles! I guess I was destined to battle something. I spent a lot of time fighting without knowing who the real enemy actually was. It’s hard to win the battle if you have no idea who you need to fight.

When I got born again at 18 years old I had an eye opening experience. I was a musician playing in dives with a band when I got saved. After being saved, filled with the Holy Spirit and delivered from demons, I went back into the clubs to play because it was my source of income. The problem was that I was DIFFERENT! I had awakened in the God part of my heart/spirit.

YOU CAN IMAGINE WHAT A SHOCK IT WAS

When I went back in the club, it was not business as usual. That night the Lord allowed my eyes to be opened to see what was running that club. I saw creatures that looked like deformed monkeys. They were up around the darkened black light corners of the ceiling.

I was standing on the platform minding my own business playing the bass when I noticed the movement at the ceiling. As my eyes adjusted I saw them moving down the walls and into the laps and upon the backs of the people who were in that club. Do I have to tell you I was FREAKED OUT??

I literally threw down the bass and ran out of the club! I refused to come back in. I curled up in my van crying hysterically. The guys in my band thought I had lost my mind. I wondered if I had lost my mind!

THAT BEGAN A JOURNEY OF WAR AGAINST THE RIGHT THINGS

Don’t get me wrong, it took many years to figure out what was happening and what to do about it because no one that I knew seemed to know enough to teach me.

YOU MIGHT CALL IT THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS

That’s an old cliché but it is accurate. Once I found out that the devil was real and he was the active enemy, he began to aggravate me in public using people who were demonized. They would blank out and act drunk or angry. I have had them scream, cuss, blank stare, refuse to wait on me, ram my buggy in Walmart, yell hysterically and bark like a seal! At first I had no idea what was even happening. They would get me in public and pick a fight that I didn’t know how to win.

MY FIRST IDEA OF WHAT TO DO CAME IN A DREAM ABOUT 10 YEARS AFTER I WAS BORN AGAIN

I was actually a youth pastor 10 years after I got saved. My father had been born again about a year but was suffering with a depression. One night I had a dream. I dreamed that he was covered in cancer. I woke up afraid of the dream. I asked God if dad had cancer and He spoke to my heart and said, “NO, but he thinks he does.” I asked Jesus what I should do and He told me by His Holy Spirit, “Bind a spirit of fear and it will leave him.” I didn’t know anything about that but I did what Jesus said and within minutes my mother called me saying, “What did you do? Your dad snapped out of that depression as if a switch was flipped on!” The spirit that had infected my dad was gone and he was back to himself!

WHEN I SAW THIS HELPED MY DAD, I DOVE INTO GOD’S WORD

I had seen ‘binding and loosing’ in the scripture but frankly didn’t know what to do with it. It was a mystery to me. I began to wonder how many problems I had prayed over that would not move unless I used this authority I apparently had “IN CHRIST”.

Matthew 16:19 (NKJV)
¹⁹And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

I FOUND OUT THERE ARE OTHER SPIRITS LISTED IN SCRIPTURE

Maybe you have heard of them. Infirmed spirits, jealous spirits, familiar spirits etc. Sixteen to seventeen of them are in the Bible. Jesus Himself referred to them as “strongmen”.

Luke 11:20-22 (NKJV)
²⁰But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. ²¹When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. ²²But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils.

(You can find a list at Trinitychurch.org on the prayer page. Go to Adult Ministries and then to Prophetic Prayer. It is called Engage the Battle in Spanish or English) It is a free download.

What if these spirits were behind the mayhem that plagued people’s lives or cities or even nations? I told you that I am a fighter and now the battle lines began to look a little clearer.

HOW MANY THINGS DID WE BLAME GOD FOR WHEN IT WAS THE DEVIL OR DEMONS BEHIND IT?

I began binding the devil off things and people and situations and seeing more and more results. I was hooked! I love to win! In so many cases, this was the problem. Then I would loose the Holy Spirit into the lives of the people. Could I do that? Apparently I could though the authority that Jesus gave me as a joint heir with Him!!

THIS WAS JUST THE BEGINNING AS I FOUND THE AUTHORITY IN CHRIST

I want to share with you how you can war in order. I’ll explain over the next few weeks how this warfare works and how to keep you out of trouble as you use your authority in Christ. So until next week!