The Spiritual Realm is Real and Active - Engaging in Spiritual Warfare

 
 

 I have spent quite a bit of time and energy over the last month going into some specifics about the spiritual realm as far as I understand them. I do not claim to be an expert on these things, but I have learned a lot from others who have different giftings that allow them to better understand things of a spiritual nature or who have more experience in these things. My writings on the spiritual realm have revolved significantly around the things that those people have taught me as well as what Scripture tells us. The Bible does not go into specifics when it tells us about the spiritual realm; I believe that the purpose for this is to make us aware of the spiritual realm and the general nature of it while also trying to avoid encouraging us to explore it for ourselves. I hope that I have made it very clear through my previous writings that it can be very dangerous to play around with the spiritual realm, but in Christ we have authority over it, and in this article I want to lay out a battle plan of sorts for those times when we do need to engage in direct battle against spiritual forces.

We are called to battle in the spiritual realm for God and against the devil. The Apostle Paul tells us this much in his letter to the Ephesian church where we read in Ephesians 6:11, "Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil." Then we also have James, the brother of Jesus and a leader of the early church, who tells us in James 4:7, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." When we take a stand against the devil in Jesus' name, he will leave us alone, but only for a time. He cannot overcome the power of the Lamb of God, and we have authority over the devil when we are covered in the blood of the Lamb. Also, Jesus Himself gave His disciples authority over demons as a foretaste of what was to come for all who are baptized in the Holy Spirit; Luke 10:17, "And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name." 

When we are confronted by evil, we are to stand firm, washed in the Blood of the Lamb and with the
authority of the Power of His Name given to us through salvation. We are also called to bear up each
others’ burdens; Galatians 6:2, "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." The law of Christ is to love the Lord your God with all your might and to love your neighbour as yourself (Matthew 22:37-40). He tells us that by doing so, we fulfill the whole of the Law. So when we see or sense that a brother or sister is burdened with a spiritual burden that they carry, even if they themselves are unaware of this burden or the nature of it, we are to step up, teach others what they may not know, and instruct them. But keep in mind that, in general, we cannot free someone from something which they do not want to be freed from; God allows us free-will, and as a general rule, we cannot impose our will on another person. There is one exception that I can think of and I will cover that a little later.
 
We are all exposed to the demonic realm to different extents and in different ways as we live our lives. If we are not intentional about maintaining our Armour of God, we leave ourselves susceptible to having demonic entities attach themselves to us. Even if we maintain our armour, the places that we go or the things that we engage in can create chinks in our armour and allow for the demonic to gain a hold on us. Even long time believers should undertake to have others battle for them in the spiritual realm to free them from these demonic burdens.

I want to reiterate something here; it is my belief and understanding that a true Christian who is walking in relationship with God cannot be possessed by a demon, that is to say that they cannot be made to do things that are contrary to their nature under demonic influence. Walking with God is an active thing. Just having prayed a prayer once and then choosing to have nothing further to do with God does not cover you in His protection because you do not have a relationship with Him, and this is what He desires. Those who are not walking in relationship with God and who have not claimed the blood of Jesus over them do not have this protection. They can definitely be demon possessed, but this does not necessarily make them act oddly or in any way that makes it obvious as we often read of in the Bible.

What follows is an outline on how to approach and engage in spiritual battle. This is a compilation of ideas and steps that I have come up with over the years. Not everything that follows is strictly necessary, but I am including some extras in an effort to protect you as you venture into this aspect of the Christian life. If you find that you are engaging is spiritual battle regularly, you may begin to sense which of these steps are not absolutely necessary and you can tailor your battle preparations to your own needs. But you must be aware that any soldier that goes into battle has taken the time to prepare themselves and their equipment properly prior to entering the battle. The same goes for the warrior in the spiritual battles that surround us. If you fail to properly prepare, it can leave you vulnerable to failure and counterattacks. This is not something to be entered into lightly.

First is the matter of personal preparation; steps to take prior to an expected battle. I am repeating myself here, but if you are not covered by the blood of Jesus making you an adopted child of God, DO NOT engage in spiritual warfare!! It would be like taking a stick to a gun fight. If you are not regularly in the Word of God and spending time with Him, you are like a skinny kid challenging a professional warrior to a fight. If you are facing a spiritual battle and you are not thus prepared, find someone who you know that is properly equipped and give them permission to battle for you. Then, after the battle, ask them to teach you how to be prepared at all times and how to engage in battle for yourself.

As a Christian, it is my belief that we are to be confessing our sins regularly so that we will not carry them to the Judgment Seat of Christ. If you want to better understand this concept, you can read my article on this which is called, "Past Due - The Role of Confession in The Christian Walk". Confession of our sins to God allows us to start with no points of weakness in our own life. This would be a chink in our armour, a soft and unprotected area in which we are susceptible to counterattack. If you are not in the habit of bringing your failures and sins to God and seeking His forgiveness for them, then this would be a good place to start your preparations.

The next step is similar to the first in that it is good practice to be in a regular state of readiness in this area; this is to put on the whole Armour of God. I just wrote an entire article on this topic which you can read here. In this article, I state that it is possible to live in such a way as to always have the Armour of God on our spiritual person, but if you want to take steps to intentionally put the armour on, you can find a guide for this in that article. Once you have equipped and prepared yourself for battle, you must then prepare the battle field.

I might refer to this as warfare preparation. Whenever possible, an army will choose where they want to meet the enemy. There are myriad reasons why one battle field may be better than another, and each side will want to make choices that will give them the advantage over their enemy. The same can be said in spiritual warfare. Whenever possible, it is advantageous for you to prepare the battle field to your greatest advantage by addressing the things which are to follow. There may be times when the battle has to happen immediately and you cannot choose or prepare the battle field; thankfully, in the spiritual realm, this is not as important as in the physical realm. Since we are backed by the power of God, the location and the situation are not critical to the outcome of the battle, but if you have the opportunity to prepare, I suggest that you do so.

My family tends to engage in battle for each other in our living room because it provides some open space with seating options, it is a shared space and it also happens to be where we engage in most of our spiritual and faith discussions. 

The first thing that you want to do is to remove any items of distraction. If you have pets you will want to contain them somewhere away from you where you can't see or hear them. Pets are sensitive to the spiritual realm and depending on the severity of the battle, they may sense and react to the things that are going on which can create a distraction for those engaged in the battle. Electronics should also be turned off and/or put away from you. This includes your phones. It would please the devil to interrupt your battle plans by bringing you to the mind of someone you know who may feel the sudden and pressing need to call you right then. Don't give the devil an 'in' to distract you. To this same end, young children can also be a distraction. If they are too young to understand the solemnity of what is happening, then they should not be in the room unless you are battling for them. If you can keep them entertained in another room by some means, that would be a good idea.

After you have prepared the battle field in the physical realm, you can prepare it in the spiritual realm as well. You can ask God to join with you in battle and to erect an angelic hedge of protection around you and the room in which you are battling. When engaging in spiritual battle, I think it can be helpful to visualize some things that you are setting up. If you want to envision the hedge of angels standing guard around you with their swords drawn and their eyes wary, then you may also want to request that they leave a pathway available for the evicted demons to be able to leave your presence. This is not specifically necessary; the angels will allow the demons to leave, they don't want the demons around any more than you do. One more thing that you want to do is to specifically ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in the battle, to let you know if there are things that you are not sensing yourself and how to proceed with the battle.

If you are battling for an individual for the first time, you should make sure that they understand what is about to happen. Explain to the person you are battling for what the process looks like, what possible changes they may notice, and advise them that this battle is not a once and done thing, but their cleanliness must be maintained through personal devotions, prayer and right living, obeying God and seeking His Will for their life. If you are engaging in a planned confrontation, make sure that the person that you are battling for understands that by submitting to this, they are granting you permission to do battle for them. If they are seeking release from long-time spiritual companions, it may be useful for them to state out loud that they are granting you permission to fight for them. Since the spiritual realm is made up of created beings, everything that is done and all commands that are given must be done verbally; spiritual creatures cannot read your minds. By the subject of the battle verbally giving permission to you, they are telling the demons that they are seeking to remove the demons from their being, which removes the perceived permissions that the demons may have claimed to be there in the first place.

Now it is time to engage in battle. This can be a long and arduous task, so anybody involved should be prepared for this. Everybody taking some time to go to the bathroom or get themselves some water to drink may not be a bad idea. Have everybody sit or position themselves in such a way as to be able to maintain their position for an extended time. Complete stillness is not a necessity, but if people are constantly moving around it can become a distraction. The less distractions, the better.

Have everyone lay at least one hand on the person who is being fought for. Each person should have direct contact with the one for whom you are battling. If possible, those engaging in battle should not have contact with any person other than the individual being fought for. Again, this is not a necessity and if it is not possible there is no reason to beleaguer this step. This is simply to reduce the possibility of one sensing twitches, tightness, spasms, etc. in someone engaged in the battle rather than in the individual being fought for. You want to sense the reactions of the person being fought for because this can act as a gauge for how the battle is progressing.

As I mentioned earlier, spiritual creatures cannot read our thoughts and must be engaged with your physical voice. You must speak out loud to address the demons that you are being lead to call out. Do not be timid about it; you are acting in authority. This authority is given to you by the One who created all things and you are acting on His behalf. Consider yourself an ambassador of God's on earth, and He has given you permission to act on His authority to accomplish that which He wants to accomplish. You may begin by bringing the person that you are battling for to God in prayer and asking the Holy Spirit to reveal any and all demonic entities that need to be removed from the individual, one at a time. Then you want to all quiet yourselves and listen for the Holy Spirit to whisper to you. Hopefully you have been practising being quiet in the spirit before this time and you have learned to recognize the still, small voice of God when He speaks to you. This is the same voice that will lead you in battle. This is not like the physical realm where battle is loud and chaotic; if it begins to become that way then you need to re-settle yourselves and seek the presence of God again. God is not a God of chaos but of order. He speaks in a whisper and His authority does not require volume for it to be effective. You can speak in your normal tone and volume and still affect victory, though there may be times when a dark spirit is particularly stubborn in releasing his prey and you will assert additional forcefulness in your tone as you repeatedly call the demon out.

Following the leading of the Holy Spirit, call out the demonic entities by name when possible, invoking the Name of Jesus Christ. Do not guess at what the person may be carrying; you are not throwing darts in the dark. Rely on the Holy Spirit to lead you. You are acting on God's behalf; you are not asking the demons to leave, you are commanding them to leave from a position of authority. Command the demons to release the individual, bind the demons in Jesus’ Name, and banish the demons. (Exit the property, sent to the Abyss, etc.) Do not stop until you sense the Spirit telling you that the demon has left. 

We have always had one individual leading the verbal part of the battle. That will typically be the patriarch of the family, but someone else will need to step up when it is time to pray for the patriarch. During the battle, anybody who senses the Holy Spirit speaking to them to call out a demon should do so in an orderly manner. Even the person who is being battled for can call out things that they sense. Just leave make sure that there is one person who is acting as the leader of the battle and who is actively calling out the demons. The rest are there for support and to help identify the adversaries.

When you call out evil spirits, you are doing so by the authority that Jesus has; I cannot express this enough. You do not have the power or the authority on your own, so you have to command them using the authority which you have been given permission to use and which you invoke by stating the name of Jesus. "In the name of Jesus, I command (the demon of) "lust/fear/despair/etc." to release "Sally". I command you to leave her and to (leave in whatever phrasing you may use) in Jesus' name!" I am trying to be careful that I do not give you exact words or phrases to use. The overall wording does not matter. This is not a ritual and it is not religion. The most important part is that you name Jesus as the power by which you are acting - say His name. He is the One who has conquered sin and death. He is the One who empowers us to battle on His behalf.

Take notice of the state of the individual – tenseness, shakes, twitches, calming, relaxing, rate of breathing. These are indications of the effectiveness and progress of the battle. As you monitor the above mentioned physical attributes, you should reach a point wherein you sense no further leadings of the Holy Spirit and the individual has reached a state of calm and relaxation. When you feel that the battle is complete according to these indicators and the leading of the Spirit, I tend to thank God for His power and authority in battling His enemies. You can seal the results of the battle with an "Amen" if you want to. 

Remind the individual that they are responsible to maintain their new state and make sure that they have the support they need in order to know how to do so. We are all exposed to the evil nature of this world in all types of ways. We need to guard ourselves from allowing evil spirits to attach themselves to us. We need to watch where we go, what we say, who we spend time with and even what we bring into our homes. I may need to write another article specifically about this topic.

Keep in mind that you are actually engaging in a battle. You will probably get warm and you may even begin to sweat. If the battle goes on for quite a while, you will probably get tired. Take a break in between people if you are going around all the members of your family. This is not merely an empty action; this is real battle.

Following, I want to leave you with some general notes that may help you. Keeping in mind that you do not know what there is that needs to be addressed and dealt with, remain supple to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes the demons will not be named, but you will merely sense that they are there. It is possible to call out an "un-named" demon or a cluster/group of demons, possibly referring to them by the way in which they manifest. The Spirit will lead you in this too. It may be that the demons are trying to hide themselves when this happens, but they can't hide from God. If you sense something, call it out, even if it doesn't make sense to you. The Spirit knows and the demons will know when they are being referenced. I imagine that the angels will specifically provoke the un-named demons so they are aware that they are being called out and will become very uncomfortable.

In general, you cannot undertake direct spiritual warfare for an individual against their will. They must be willing to submit their will to God first. This is not the case for a parent battling for a child; particularly a minor child. A godly parent can take control of a child’s spiritual wellness and battle for them even against the child’s will, but it will be up to the child to work to maintain their clean state. A child cannot engage in direct spiritual warfare for a parent against their parent’s will. As God is a God of order, there is a hierarchy of authority that He has set up and we are to live according to that hierarchy. We do not have permission to go against it. 

Unless lead by God, one should be of the age of accountability before they undertake spiritual battle for someone else, but even so, this is not child's play. Spiritual battle is best engaged in by mature adults in the same way that physical battle is best engaged in by mature adults.

I state the next with some hesitation. I have never had to deal with this yet myself, but this may be something that you will deal with. If the individual for whom you are battling becomes reluctant towards the battle, you may need to consider pausing for a while, or even resuming on another day. Do not allow the individual to disengage completely – be sure to resume the battle for them. You need to be wary that the individual's reluctance is not just a demon verbalizing reluctance in order to trick you into stopping for their own sake. A demon does not seek the best for those whom they possess, but only what is best for themselves. They will put off and avoid this type of confrontation by any means because they know that they cannot win it.

There may be an entity that is being held onto by the individual. It may be a good idea or even necessary for the individual to verbally release that entity themselves and to command it to leave. They have to make the decision to repent and turn away from that which they have allowed into their life and they will have to verbalize that to the demon. An example of this is that my youngest child dealt with worry and fear for a large part of their childhood, but it took a while for my wife and I to recognize that this was the problem. When we finally came to this realization, I also realized that because these little imps had been with my child for so long, they had essentially been granted permission to be there. I sensed that even though I had the authority to command them to leave, if my child was not ready for them to be gone, it probably would not take very long for my child to allow them back in because my child did not know what it was like to live without them; it would be too uncomfortable without them. My child was actually afraid of what life would be like if they didn't live in fear. My child was worried about what every day would be like if they did not worry about things. This is the power that evil spirits can hold over us. There are myriad people who are daily harassed by demons, but they don't know what life would be like without them, so they refuse to let them go; and the demons won't leave if they don't have to. We had to coax our child that they needed to recognize the source of their fear and worry, and they had to decide that they were done with dealing with those feelings. We had to convince our child to cast these demons away from themself. It took a lot of explanation and a fair bit of time, but when my child was finally ready and they renounced their own connections to those demons, the change was significant and immediate. Once those two were gone, we could much more easily address the others that had attached themselves to my child.

If you know an empath or a spiritual visionary, it can be useful to include them in the battle. They will be able to sense things that may otherwise go unnoticed, and can thus help to direct the battle. I have had several opportunities to battle alongside such people and their giftings have been extremely valuable. It may be difficult to find these people though, as they may keep these spiritual gifts hidden from others. I have had two different occasions when someone who could see in the spirit realm (this is a spiritual gift from God, not a skill sought out in pursuit of the spiritual realm) warned that during the battle, a large spiritual entity was approaching and needed to be dealt with right away. I do not have the giftings to be able to sense this, but I engaged the large entity, bound it and cast it out, as was confirmed by the visionary. Both times the visionary described spiritual claw marks on the walls as the demon was cast out. Battle is not joke, and you never know what you will draw out or encounter. When you start messing with what has been a comfortable situation, you may be approached by a security force of sorts.

The patriarch of a family should take the responsibility for the spiritual health and well-being of his family. If the patriarch will not do so, the matriarch can step up, though God has set the hierarchy of the human family to be under the man. We read this in Ephesians 5:23, "For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body." And also in 1 Corinthians 11:3, "But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ." The hierarchy that I mentioned earlier is as follows: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the God-fearing man, the God-fearing woman, the God-fearing child, and then everyone else. It is the responsibility of the dad to protect the home both physically and spiritually. If he fails to live up to that responsibility, the mom can step up and claim authority, but that is contrary to God's design, and the man will pay a price for his failures. Husbands and fathers, step up and fulfill your role in God's design for the family. This is your first and most important job and too many men are absolute failures at this.

IF you find yourself in a situation where you have undertaken a spiritual battle for someone who does not yet know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, you need to aggressively seek to get them into relationship with God. I can't see this happening outside of a situation where you are forced to battle in an unplanned manner. Failure to get the one for whom you have battled into a relationship with Christ leaves them in a precarious situation. Jesus tells a story which is an indication of how the spiritual realm works. In Matthew 12:43-45a Jesus tells of what it is like in the spirit realm if steps of spiritual maintenance are not taken. “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. 45 Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first." The house of our body is left unoccupied if we do not have the baptism of the Holy Spirit; this is why unbelievers can become possessed by demons while Christians cannot become possessed by demons. When a landlord evicts an unwanted tenant, he does not leave the unit empty, he finds another more suitable tenant to take up residence, whose job it is to keep the property in good repair. This is what must happen for those who were possessed by an evil spirit. They need to find someone better to take up residence in their heart and their mind, or else risk the demons returning with their friends and claiming squatters rights. The only one who can maintain their spiritual health is the Holy Spirit.

Spiritual battle does not just occur in the manner written of above, nor is spiritual battle waged only and primarily by men. Men and women are called to spiritual battle every single day and in innumerable ways. The battle to protect the unborn is a significant battle that needs to be continually waged. Battles against physical, sexual, emotional and all other types of abuse are constantly being waged in the spiritual realm. Battles against addiction, battles for marriages and other relationships, battles for forgiveness and healing, battles for the hearts and minds of our young people. And women are fierce warriors for Christ in the spiritual realm. Mothers, your prayers for your children and your husbands are powerful weapons against the devil. Never cease in wielding them! I have known several powerful women prayer warriors who have possibly single-handedly won battles in the spiritual realm. Do not think for one second that women do not have a role in the battles that are needed to be fought!

I want to close with one more story. When my wife and I first learned these lessons and we decided that we were going to put them into practice, we experienced something that we did not expect, specifically in our middle child. When we prayed over them and set them free from the spirits that had attached themselves to our child over the years, we actually noticed a physical difference. Our child grew almost an inch taller, their face actually shone and their eyes had a light in them that we had never seen before. Even now, our children possess something that people tend to take notice of when they walk into a room, even if those people can't quite put their finger on what that might be. Good people, believers in particular, will be drawn to this, but those who are covered or possessed by demons will not like it. They will avoid such people and may resort to bad mouthing and otherwise attacking someone who walks in this type of freedom. Be prepared for this to happen to you and your loved ones whom you are praying over. The changes are real.

There is so much more that I can share about this topic, but I do try to keep my articles to a reasonable length. I sense that this is not yet the end of my series on the spiritual realm, but I don't know how much more I will feel compelled to cover.

As always, the comments section is available if you have any questions or other inputs after have read this article, and I encourage you to check out my home page to see if there is anything else that I have written that interests you.

You can find the next article in this series by clicking here.