How to Overcome Territorial Spirits, Ep 2-40
Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing Territorial Spirits. We are going to take a look at what the Bible tells us about the existence of spiritual entities, explaining how Jesus overcame enabling us to overcome, a general understanding of their rank and order, how this affects you and your community, and how we are to address this territorial spiritual warfare. This is a 2 part episode because we are going to lay the groundwork in the first episode and then put a plan together for how to do it effectively but simply in your own area. We will use my own town as our example.
This episode was inspired this week by the happenings in Israel. I cannot begin to understand how these families are feeling and what they are experiencing. I’ve shared many times that we were in Israel earlier this year. Our time in Israel was filled with many positives, but you were always fully aware of the political, cultural and religious tension that could shift in a moment’s notice. The day we left, Israel encountered an attack and activated the Iron Dome. We traveled through the West Bank, which is a Palestinian territory so we had to go through check points as we traveled throughout Israel. These escalated occurrences are somewhat common there. What is happening now is rooted in biblical history, but the brutality is not what our modern world is willing to tolerate, thankfully most of the world has come together during this time to condemn Hamas. While I cannot change anything that has happened or continues to happen, what I can do are two things: encourage you to pray for the people and the nation of Israel to be able to overcome the evil that has occurred this past week, and talk to you about how you can address evil entities that are in your own area.
When this first occurred, and I watched the news in the comfort of my home, I asked the Lord why, why now, what is this about and he responded with telling me the podcast this week should be on territorial spirits. While we see the fighting going on in the natural, what the news is revealing to us, there is much more going on there that we aren’t seeing, a battle in the heavenlies over that territory. I can tell you without a doubt, there are evil territorial spirits at work in Israel. I could feel it in Jerusalem very heavily and Bethlehem as well. So let’s get started and discuss today what could change how you pray for your home, your town, your country and God’s people, the people of Israel.
The Bible has hundreds of places where it mentions a supernatural world. It not only tells us about it, we hear numerous descriptions in both the old and new testament and we know that it is where the final battles will occur and the location of that will be in the territory of Israel. Acts 1 tells us when Jesus returns, it will be to the Mount of Olives, just outside Jerusalem, maybe ¾ miles or just over a kilometer. This is not an end times discussion, I am just showing that the Bible begins and ends with discussion of the supernatural world that we live in simultaneously to our natural world. The supernatural world impacts what happens in our natural world and that’s in part due to the power of territorial spirits.
Paul writes to the Ephesians describing to them how satan’s kingdom is present and working to come against us. Chapter 2, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.”
Paul gives us more understanding of how and what demons do to prevent others from being able to receive the gospel, 2 Corinthians 4:4, The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
When Jesus came, he was entering Satan’s territory, where he had set up his rebellious kingdom on earth. Jesus came and overcame his kingdom. Paul refers to satan several ways in just those two scriptural references: ruler of the kingdom of the air, god of this age, meaning his rule is temporal, his reference to the ways of this world infers satan is the ruler of this world, the earthly world, not the heavenly realm. Those words help to reveal to us territory and the timeline that satan’s rule is temporary as opposed to the Kingdom of God which is the victorious kingdom that will stand forever. As a believer here on earth, you are seen by satan as an enemy of his kingdom. He will attack you.
Knowing that, you must ask yourself, are you a victim or are you a warrior in God’s kingdom? It is your own belief system that characterizes who you are. For those who look at Jesus still on the cross, you are already defeated. You are not acknowledging and moving forward in his resurrection. He did not die for us to stay on the cross, he died for us so he could rise again and overcome satan’s kingdom. We cannot lose sight of that fact. By then leaving us, and the Holy Spirit coming to earth to join with and reside in believers, that again is heaven invading Satan’s kingdom. A believer cannot be a pacifist in the kingdom of God. You will be overrun with satan’s strategies. You have to be a warrior if you are going to survive. You cannot live a defensive life and hope to achieve victory. That is not how it works. You have to be an active participant in the warfare that is already going on around us.
Colossians 1:13, talks about the two spiritual dominions we are living in simultaneously. When we are living in the fullness of Christ, we know we are rescued. Here is how Paul describes it: “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
When Paul tells the Ephesians in 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Paul doesn’t say that because we were rescued, or that we won’t have to deal with these struggles. He states explicitly that we will have struggles against this dark world, and that our struggles are not against flesh and blood. Flesh and blood are natural, so we are clearly struggling against the spiritual beings. Spiritual beings have assignments and some of those assignments are territorial, not over individuals which is what we have discussed here most frequently.
So what do we know about how these dark forces are structured? Not everyone who has researched this area is in agreement on names and rank. For our purposes we just need to have a general understanding of how the ranks are structured. If we get distracted by something as simple as, what is the right name in an org chart, then we are already are in an uphill battle. Don’t start from a weakened position. We are the victorious ones and we begin with that understanding because we can clear out territorial spirits if we apply what we know.
Satan: Commander
Principalities or princes: empowered and have some independent authority to act on
Powers: lesser degree of empowerment and authority, more in number than principalities or princes, have teams under them,
The best example of this is found in Daniel 10: the Archangel Gabriel is responding to Daniel directly regarding his prayer and tells him the territorial spirits which he refers to as the Prince of Persia, and later the Prince of Greece, interfering with his travel
Rulers of darkness: lower ranking than powers, could function at a regional level
Demons or wicked spirits: lowest level, typically work at individual level
How do these spirits move? We have two additional examples besides Daniel that reveal how a territorial spirit will utilize geographic territory to their advantage.
Matthew 13, “That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
Mark 4:15, Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.
So we know the demons are there, but what are we supposed to do? Paul reveals in 2 Corinthinas 10:3, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.”
The way we enter warfare is through prayer. Prayer does not have to be only one way. It doesn’t have to be complete silence before we pray. Our eyes don’t have to be closed when we pray. Our hands don’t need to be folded together. Pray wherever you are, however you are, our heart is what is needed, an obedient heart to pray that is willing to seek an outcome through faith. I pray while I am walking, I pray while I am swimming, I pray animated, I pray quietly, I pray and point, I pray and command, I pray and fast, I pray and decree. My point is do not limit prayer to a posture, a time or a location. Pray with your heart, pray with a purpose and pray without limits. When we pray, we don’t always get to see what happens. We don’t necessarily get to see that an angel was dispatched while we were still pleading on behalf of someone or something. Our appeal was still being presented to the Lord, but he was already working on what needed to happen. We simply do as Ephesians tells us in 6:18, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”
Without faith behind our prayer we are going to struggle. We can’t pray, seek to break strongholds over our home and then walk away doubting anything is going to change. We have to believe that when we pray on behalf of the Kingdom of God, change is going to occur. We don’t need to know when, we just need to stand on faith that it will.
This is actually a really good stopping point for today. We have gone through a lot of scripture and we have a pretty good foundation for next week where we will be talking about how we actually put a plan together to pray against territorial spirits and we will use my town as an example. Putting the plan together gets pretty interesting. We are in 19 countries, can you imagine the progress we can make around the world if we all took some time to break territories where satan has had control. Can’t you just see the freedom and life opening up? Exciting! So come back next week and you can hear what I will be dealing with here in my town.
I hope this has been time that inspires you to want to learn how to identify territorial spirits that may be affecting your home and your community. We want to grow in Him and learn how to work with Him to build the Kingdom and Conquer Our Unseen Enemies. The more we grow the more our life will change and you can help change the lives of anyone around you who is willing.
If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share.
As always let’s discuss our Top Show Points:
Our discussion centered on territorial spirits
This episode was inspired this week by the happenings in Israel. What is happening now is rooted in biblical history, the world has come together during this time to condemn Hamas.
While we see the fighting going on in the natural, what the news is revealing to us, there is much more going on there that we aren’t seeing, a battle in the heavenlies over that territory. There are evil territorial spirits at work in Israel.
The Bible has hundreds of places where it mentions a supernatural world
Acts 1 tells us when Jesus returns, it will be to the Mount of Olives, just outside Jerusalem, maybe ¾ miles or just over a kilometer.
The supernatural world impacts what happens in our natural world and that’s in part due to the power of territorial spirits.
Ephesians. Chapter 2, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.”
2 Corinthians 4:4, The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
When Jesus came, he was entering Satan’s territory, where he had set up his rebellious kingdom on earth. Jesus came and overcame his kingdom.
Paul refers to satan several ways in just those two scriptural references: ruler of the kingdom of the air, god of this age. As a believer here on earth, you are seen by satan as an enemy of his kingdom. He will attack you.
Are you a victim or are you a warrior in God’s kingdom? A believer cannot be a pacifist in the kingdom of God. You will be overrun with satan’s strategies. You have to be a warrior if you are going to survive. You cannot live a defensive life and hope to achieve victory. That is not how it works. You have to be an active participant in the warfare that is already going on around us.
Colossians 1:13, “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
Ephesians in 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
Spiritual beings have assignments and some of those assignments are territorial, not over individuals which is what we have discussed here most frequently.
How dark forces are structured
Satan: Commander
Principalities or princes:
Powers:
Rulers of darkness:
Demons or wicked spirits:
Matthew 13, “That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
Mark 4:15, Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.
2 Corinthians 10:3, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.”
The way we enter warfare is through prayer. Do not limit prayer to a posture, a time or a location. Pray with your heart, pray with a purpose and pray without limits.
Ephesians tells us in 6:18, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”
Without faith behind our prayer we are going to struggle. We don’t need to know when, we just need to stand on faith that it will.
We encourage you:
· To have an active Bible reading plan, it will be helpful in gaining wisdom and understanding and it is required for the gift of spiritual discernment
· If you want to learn more about how to Hear God's Voice, take a look at my book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice. There is also a Study Guide available and two devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book. One devotional is for women and one is for men. Those are available on the website www.lovingconversationssalo.com.
· Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies
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I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!