- “Do what God says do. Endeavor to be faithful, no matter what happens or what comes. And leave the results to God.”
- We need to realize that we have authority through Christ. Our combat with the devil always should be with the consciousness that we have authority over him because he is a defeated foe—the Lord Jesus Christ defeated him for us.
- In Christ, all spiritual blessings belong to us. Authority belongs to us whether we realize it or not. But just knowing this isn’t enough. Its knowledge acted upon that brings results!
- The value of our authority rests on the power that is behind that authority. God Himself is the power behind our authority! The devil and his forces are obliged to recognize our authority! The believer who thoroughly understands that the power of God is backing him can exercise his authority and face the enemy fearlessly.
- You never will understand the authority of the believer only with your intellect; you must get the spiritual revelation of it. You must believe it by faith.
- “In the Name of Jesus, I break the power of the devil _________ life, and I claim his salvation!”
- As long as Satan can keep you in unbelief or hold you in the arena of reason, he’ll whip you in every battle. But if you’ll hold him in the arena of faith and the Spirit, you’ll whip him every time. He won’t argue with you about the Name of Jesus—he’s afraid of that Name.
- You’re not demanding of God when you demand your rights; you’re demanding of the devil.
- As Smith Wigglesworth often said, “I’m not moved by what I see. I’m not moved by what I feel. I’m moved only by what I believe.” So stand your ground.
- Your level of faith is directly related to the degree of God’s Word dwelling in your heart, that is, that Word which is reality to you and in which you are daily walking.
Strongholds
- Basically, a stronghold is any argument or pretension that “sets itself up against the knowledge of God.”
- A stronghold is anything that exalts itself in our minds, “pretending” to be bigger or more powerful than our God. It steals much of our focus and causes us to feel overpowered. Controlled. Mastered.
- In any warfare waged by the enemy against the individual believer, the primary battlefield is the mind.
- The enemy’s chief target is the mind because the most effective way to influence behavior is to influence thinking.
- Satan plays make-believe. He can only pretend because he lost all rights to presume authority over the believer’s life when Christ, “having disarmed the powers and authorities, made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Col. 2: 15).
- Proclaim: nothing is bigger or more powerful than God! Absolutely nothing! Not even the strongest addiction or overwhelming feeling of rage.
- The sword of the Spirit, clearly identified as the Word of God, is the only offensive weapon listed in the whole armor of God.
- The two major weapons with divine power in our warfare are the Word of God and Spirit-empowered prayer.
- God has handed us two sticks of dynamite with which to demolish our strongholds: His Word and prayer.
- Prayer keeps us in constant communion with God, which is the goal of our entire believing lives. Without a doubt, prayerless lives are powerless lives, and prayerful lives are powerful lives; but, believe it or not, the ultimate goal God has for us is not power but personal intimacy with Him.
- The fastest way to lose our balance in warfare is to rebuke the devil more than we relate to God. The primary strength we have in warfare is godliness, which is achieved only through intimacy with God; therefore, God will undoubtedly enforce prayer as one of the weapons of our warfare because His chief objective is to keep us connected entirely to Him.
- Additional Weapons: Proclamations, Blood Scriptures, Fasting, Scriptural Meditation, Consistent Fellowship, Good Companionship.
- Recommending Reading:
- Believer’s Authority by Kenneth E. Hagin
- Praying God’s God by Beth Moore
- Prayers and Proclamations by Derek Prince