Spiritual Warfare

Chapter 20, First Kings. It says there: “....Then Ben-hadad, king of Syria, gathered all his army together, and with him were 32 kings—imagine what a great army, 32 kings—with horses and chariots; and he went up, besieged Samaria, and fought against it....”

Samaria was the capital of the northern Jewish kingdom. Israel was divided into two kingdoms: the northern kingdom, whose capital was Samaria, and the southern kingdom, Judah, whose capital was Jerusalem. And this king of Syria comes and surrounds that city of Samaria and fights against it.

“....And he sent messengers, verse 2 says, into the city to Ahab, king of Israel, saying, ‘Thus says Ben-hadad: Your silver and your gold are mine, and your wives and your beautiful children are mine.’ And the king of Israel answered and said, ‘Just as you say, my lord the king, I am yours, and all that I have.’ The messengers came back again and said, ‘Thus says Ben-hadad: “I sent word to you, saying, You shall give me your silver and your gold and your wives and your children. Moreover, tomorrow at this time I will send my servants to you, and they will search your house and the houses of your servants, and they will take and carry away everything precious that you have.”’”

A second time, you see, this time more specifically. “....Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land, the rulers, and said to them, ‘Understand and see now how this man seeks nothing but evil, for he has sent for my wives and my children and for my silver and my gold, and I have not denied him.’ And all the elders and all the people answered him, ‘Do not obey him or do what he asks.’

Then he answered Ben-hadad’s ambassadors, ‘Tell my lord the king, I will do everything you commanded your servant at first, but this I cannot do.’ And the ambassadors went and gave him the answer, and Ben-hadad again sent word to him, saying, ‘May the gods do so to me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria is enough to fill the fists of all the people who follow me.’ And the king of Israel answered and said, ‘Tell him: Let not the one who puts on his armor boast as much as the one who takes it off.’ And when he heard this word, while he was drinking with the kings in the tents, he said to his servants, ‘Get ready’.....”

And here a prophet..... Look at how the situation changes. The first part of this text that I have read has a disheartening tone—discouragement, threat, helplessness, impending disaster. An army far too powerful is about to take possession of a tiny city that does not have the power to resist it, but here the account changes.

It says: “....And behold, a prophet came to Ahab, king of Israel, and said to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: Have you seen this great multitude? Behold, I will deliver it into your hand today, so that you may know that I am the Lord.’ And Ahab answered, ‘By whose hand?’ And he said, ‘Thus says the Lord: By the hands of the servants of the governors of the provinces.’ And Ahab said, ‘Who will begin the battle?’ And he answered, ‘You.’ Then he mustered the servants of the governors of the provinces, who numbered 232. Afterward he mustered all the people, all the children of Israel, who numbered 7,000. And they went out at noon, while Ben-hadad was drinking and getting drunk in the tents, he and the 32 kings who had come to help him, and the servants of the governors of the provinces went out first. And Ben-hadad had sent someone who brought him word, saying, ‘Men have come out of Samaria.’ Then he said, ‘If they have come out for peace, take them alive’—look at how confident this king was—‘and if they have come out to fight, take them alive as well.’

So the servants of the governors of the provinces went out of the city, with the army behind them, and each one killed the man who came against him; and the Syrians fled, with the Israelites pursuing them. And the king of Syria,...., Ben-hadad escaped on a horse with some cavalrymen. And the king of Israel went out and struck the horsemen and the chariots, and routed the Syrians, inflicting great slaughter upon them.”

(I am going to read the last verse, 22.) “Then the prophet came to the king of Israel and said to him—very sober words here—‘Go, strengthen yourself, because after a year has passed, the king of Syria will come against you again.’”

May the Lord bless His holy Word. Father, we cover ourselves with Your mantle of protection and anointing, Lord, as we declare Your truth in the name of Jesus. Amen and amen.

I wanted to share with you during this transition we are making from a sermon series about living by design and living a successful life in the Lord, before moving on to another series when I return from vacation. Will you give my family and me permission to go on vacation, brothers and sisters? Some said, ‘How nice, Pastor, that you were on vacation in Mexico.’ We were working over there. True, we took a couple of days off, but only because we had no more time left. But we are going on vacation, so pray for us, brothers and sisters.

The point is that we are making this transition, and I hope to begin a sermon series when we return. But as I asked the Lord what to share with you today, the Lord placed this text on my heart. I do not think I have ever preached on this particular text in the twenty-some years that I have been preaching in the church. But it is a beautiful text. And it lends itself very well to meditation on spiritual warfare, on the struggle we have with the powers of hell.

A couple of days ago, after the campaign we held at the State House, I had a nightmare that night, one of those nightmares that are actually very serious things, and I know that God opens a little window of revelation for us.

Someone tells me in the dream, ‘There is a spiritual being, a demon, who is looking at you and watching you.’ And I go to where they tell me this being is, and what I find is a half-length portrait of a man, but the eyes were alive; they were living eyes, and they moved. And what that image was saying to me in the dream was, ‘I am watching you; I am observing you. We have our eyes on you.’ And several times those moving eyes remained fixed on me in this picture, which was merely two-dimensional, but the eyes were alive, and they looked at me again and again, and blinked and moved, signaling to me, ‘We have our eyes on you.’

I remember that Meche had to touch me because I was saying the name of Jesus, and in the dream I was also attacking that image that was looking at me as much as I could with the name of Jesus.

Brothers and sisters, we are in spiritual warfare. We Christians, the children of God, are always fighting against an enemy who wants to destroy us. And do you know why that does not faze me, why it does not really worry me? Not because I am such a big deal, but because I know that there is another One watching over me who is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and He is more powerful than any look from the enemy.

And we have that mighty God watching us. Not long ago, in fact, a sister—I do not know whether she is here—but I went to a small-group meeting, and she told me that one day she was here with another sister. It was nighttime, and they were praying; it seems they were sitting right here, kneeling here in prayer. I do not know what the specific circumstances were, but the lights were off, and at one point during the prayer she opened her eyes and saw the eyes of a lion looking at her from somewhere around here, and those eyes were resting there upon her: the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

And she says that it made such an impression on her that she reached out, as if to feel where she was, but she could not feel anything physical around her. And she looked again, and the eyes of that lion were still looking at her from the dimness in this area over here.

Because the Lion of the tribe of Judah watches. I remember when I had the dream that gave rise to the name of this church, Congregation Lion of Judah, when I saw that scene of the city—you have heard the account—with skyscrapers covered by immense demonic entities, and high above them, far overhead, the face of a lion, which I understood to be the Lion of the tribe of Judah, watching over those horrible creatures. And His eyes were eyes of authority and power and control as He watched over them. And three times I said to that being, ‘You are the Lord,’ as though challenging those demonic beings by telling them, ‘You are the true Lord.’

Because the powers of the devil want to exercise dominion over the human race; they want to control, they want to rule, but we know that there is One who is far more powerful than they are. His name is Christ Jesus, the Lord.

And we are in continual warfare. Israel has been at war from the very beginnings of its history, continually facing enemy powers. Here we see Syria trying to destroy Israel, persecuting the children of God. Today the news tells us that there are still countries trying to destroy that people, and just when it seems that everything has been settled and that the Jews can finally breathe in a little peace, a few months ago, you know, they handed over the entire Gaza Strip—that area is called the Gaza Strip—an area that is part of the land God Himself granted to the Jewish people centuries ago. And the Jews, in their desire for peace, wanting to appease the Arabs, handed that piece of their land over to them.

Many Jews protested, and they had to drag them out of their homes; they evacuated that entire area, cleared it out, and left their homes there, their businesses and everything else, in order to hand it over to the Arabs, wanting to say, ‘Look, we want peace, and we are willing to pay the additional price.’

Nevertheless, do you know what happened recently? They came back again, invaded, kidnapped a soldier, killed two of them, and now the war continues. And now the war has erupted again. Why? Because the devil hates the people of God.

Now, those people are not perfect; they are a people who have become secularized. The Jews have been rebellious; throughout their history they have been rebellious. Israel is not a religious nation in one sense. Israel is a secular state and, in fact, one of the most secular nations.

Nevertheless, God loves His people and has a plan for them. And that land that God gave them 3,000-some years ago belongs to that people. I wish I could say, ‘No, the Arabs have a right to be there because they were there for hundreds of years after the Jewish people were driven out,’ and so on and so forth, but the Word says ‘that the gifts of God are irrevocable.’ God gave that land to His people, and He who owns the entire universe and all of this earth has the right to say to whom He will give whatever He wishes.

That land belongs to the Jews. I know they are not perfect, but they can take that up with God, not with me. I simply obey what the Word of the Lord says. God gave that land to the Hebrew people. But the devil is not happy and continues to battle against the Jews; he continues destroying them. Centuries ago, when Moses and the Jews were still in the wilderness, Amalek wanted to kill them and pursued them. Syria, Assyria, Babylon, Persia—all these powers have tried to destroy the people. In the twentieth century, Hitler, with all his German might, also wanted to destroy the Jewish people. But they have not been able to do it; yet the devil has a grievance against the Hebrew people.

And do you know what, brothers and sisters? He likewise has a grievance against the people of God, which is the church in this age. And every Christian, every believer, by virtue of being a child of God and belonging to that chosen race of God, is at war with Satan, and Satan is also at war with him or her. Even if you do not want to, if you are part of God’s chosen people, you are going to be fighting, and the enemy is going to wage war against you; he is going to struggle against you. And even if you are not aware of it, Satan is seeking some way to harm your life.

I am not saying this to frighten you; understand me. I am not saying this to fill you with fear. You do not fear the devil; you exercise caution toward him, let us say, but you do not fear him, because God has promised that He is more powerful. But you do have to be careful.

That is why the Apostle Peter said, ‘Be sober and vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.’

The Apostle Peter did not say this to make us afraid or frighten us, or so that we would give more in tithes. He said it because there is a truth behind it. As you go about your normal life—working, going home, driving down the street—know that you are also moving within a spiritual dimension, and there are powers there, powers that want to harm your life. The enemy is looking for any little crack in your life through which he can enter and then destroy and cause harm.

How does a germ enter a person’s life? Through a wound, when you cut yourself. Why do they put medicine on it and cover it with a Band-Aid and....? So that a germ will not enter through there, through that break in the skin, and begin to work its way through the blood vessels and cause harm; because they enter through tears in the skin, through the openings in the face. That is where they enter the nervous system or the tissue system of human beings.

The same thing happens on the spiritual level. How do the powers of the devil enter the life of a human being? Through the openings that we give them. That is why the Apostle Peter says, ‘Be sober and vigilant,’ because we have to be careful about the way we live, brothers and sisters, because the enemy is always looking for an excuse, always looking for a claim, always looking for legal grounds to come before God and say, ‘You have to withdraw Your grace and protection from this person because they have done this, that, and the other thing, and they are outside Your covering.’

The Lord Jesus Christ said to Jerusalem, ‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I longed to cover you and protect you as a hen covers her chicks, but you would not let me, and that is why you are now going to be completely destroyed.’ And indeed, shortly after the Lord was crucified, the Roman legions came and destroyed Israel, sowed salt throughout the Promised Land, and sent the Hebrews wandering over the earth for almost two thousand years, until they became a nation again barely less than a century ago—fifty-something years ago, 59 years, 58.

Why? Because when you abandon the protection that only Christ can give, you leave yourself exposed; and if you are a son of God, a daughter of God, the enemy is even more vicious toward you. So if you are not living a life that is sober and careful about spiritual values, then you are exposed: you have the enemy’s wrath against you and do not have divine protection in your favor; you are therefore in no man’s land, and the enemy can wreak havoc in your life.

That is why, when one enters the ways of the Lord, brothers and sisters, above all one must understand that now... the risks, as well as the benefits, increase tremendously, and one must walk with a certain caution, one must walk seriously, one must walk with tremendous sobriety, because the enemy is looking for any error, any transaction, even a mental or emotional one.

Do you know that sometimes you can leave yourself open to demonic attack through a false belief, a false practice, or a change in your spirit? I was speaking with the brothers and sisters just last night; I was preaching precisely about the special character of Jesus as Savior, as the center of creation, as the one toward whom all the forces of history point: Christ, the center of the cosmos, the foundation of human and universal reality. And I was saying that when a person, as a Christian, begins to doubt that truth proclaimed by the Word and begins to regard Jesus as though he were simply one more among a pantheon of different gods who can lead to salvation.

There are many so-called Christians out there who believe, well, if I am a Christian and within my tradition, as they call it, the Christian tradition, then Christ saves. But a Buddhist can also be saved, or a Muslim, or a Hindu, through his religion. I would like to believe that, but that is not what the Word tells me. And when one abandons that special, unique character of Jesus—the image of the invisible God, as the Word says; in him all the fullness of God dwells.

When one begins to relativize Jesus and place him in a secondary category, an opening has already formed within that person, invisibly and without his realizing it, through which the enemy can come and wreak havoc.

And this young woman was telling me precisely about that. She said, ‘Pastor, a couple of years ago, when I began attending university, I began to doubt precisely that. Through my studies of philosophy and religion and all of that, I began to doubt the lordship of Christ and the uniqueness of Jesus, and I began to entertain the idea that there could be other saviors besides him.

And from that point,’ she said, ‘I began to see a change in my emotional state, with anxieties and other things coming in. I believe that has a great deal to do,’ she told me, ‘with many of the afflictions I have been suffering during these months.’

And that is how it is, because the enemy is merely looking, brothers and sisters, for any area through which he can enter and do harm in our lives. And we are at war. What must a soldier do? A soldier must be sober; he must walk carefully. When he is on the battlefield, he must keep his eyes watchful, because the enemy can come in any way and bring destruction into our lives. And that is why we must know the principles of the Word of God so that we know how to defend ourselves.

And that is why this passage is so important, because it teaches us how we fight Satan. The first thing I see here is that there is a vastly superior power arrayed against the people of God. Ben-hadad with his armies is much more powerful than Israel. Israel could not resist the enemy in its own strength. And that is the first thing we must understand.

My brother, my sister, you cannot battle the devil in your own strength. Satan is much more powerful than you. The kingdom of darkness is stronger, more agile, more skillful; it has spent more years on earth and knows human psychology. He is an enemy whom you cannot see or smell; he does not sleep, does not need to eat; he is simply a pathological being who wants to kill you, destroy you, and steal your soul. You have no power on your own.

But the Word of the Lord says that Christ Jesus dwells within you. And Christ says that he is more powerful. The Word says that God gave him a name that is above every name. There is no demon that can withstand the power of Christ within you.

So you must cultivate the power of Christ within you; you must cultivate the strength that God has placed in your life so that you can resist the works of the devil. You must live filled with the Holy Spirit. You must cultivate prayer. You must live a life of purity before God, cleansing your walk before the Lord, removing every impurity, everything that prevents God’s blessing from flowing in your life, all negative attitudes, improper words, destructive thoughts, and treatment of others that is oppressive to them. Sanctification must extend to every area of life. And that is part of being sober and watchful: taking care of our spiritual health, taking care in how we walk, and watching our spiritual temperature.

Where are you at this stage of your life? Do you feel love and passion for the things of God? When there is an invitation to prayer, do you feel that enthusiasm to be there with your brothers and sisters, praying and praising the Lord? Are Sundays a burden to you—getting up and going to church—and you come when you can, and when you cannot, well, God understands? Or are you committed? Do you live for Christ? Do you passionately love the Kingdom of God? Do you know that above all else you are a spiritual being and that this world, with all its other things, is entirely secondary? You are a spiritual being, and you live for eternity. And to the extent that you passionately love the Lord, give the Lord your whole being, and serve him with love, to that extent the Lord can cover you with his grace. We must remain strong, brothers and sisters.

An athlete is continually exercising to stay in shape. A doctor is always reading to stay up to date with what he needs to know. A Christian must remain strong at all times in order to charge against and resist the powers of the devil. Be sober and watchful, says the Word of the Lord.

And in another passage, in Ephesians chapter 6, we are also told about this. You know, Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10 onward, I believe. It says, “...finally, my brothers, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may stand firm against the schemes of the devil.”

Look, twice now, two Apostles, Peter and Paul—two good witnesses—are telling us the same thing. One tells us, ‘Be sober and watchful’; the other tells us, ‘Strengthen yourselves against the schemes of the devil.’ Do you see that idea? Peter says he prowls around looking for someone to devour. Here he is lying in wait.

So we must put on the whole armor of God; we must be strong, brothers and sisters. So many people are ignorant of the rules of a healthy spiritual life. A healthy spiritual life—a life of authority and power capable of resisting the devil—does not come about merely because you go to church and spend a couple of hours there, absent-mindedly thinking about other things, and then somehow, magically, God’s anointing will be with you. And when life’s crises come and the devil seeks to destroy your life and wreak havoc, you will be strong, secure, and resolute.

No, it takes exercise. It takes vigilance. It takes staying spiritually fit. It takes feeding on the good Word of God. It requires paying a price, brothers and sisters. It requires being attentive to the truths of the Gospel. That is the only way you will be able to resist the schemes of the devil.

And the Apostle Paul continues, saying, “...for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly realms.”

What Paul did there was give us an X-ray of the reality we inhabit. Right now you see columns and concrete and walls and wood, but if you could have X-ray vision, suddenly all this would open up and you would see another dimension. It is a spiritual dimension, with angels and also demons flying everywhere or sitting right there beside you. May the Lord rebuke them if they are demons; if they are angels, let them stay.

But there is always another dimension that is.... And Paul says, ‘Hey, that is why you must be careful; that is why you must strengthen yourselves, because there are.... The problems of life,’ Paul says in this passage, ‘are not due to merely human things, to human processes.’ That is what he says: our struggle is not against blood or flesh. Do you see? The struggle you have in your home with that rebellious son is not against your son; it is against the power of the devil behind him, seeking to steal his soul and also to destabilize your life and make you doubt God.

Your marital problem is not merely with your husband, who is reluctant to come to church, who does not want to receive the Word of God, and who hates the things of the Lord; it is against the power of the devil, who does not want that man to be saved or your house to be dedicated to the Lord. So what are you going to do? Are you going to keep fighting your husband and speaking venomously about your wife, or are you going to begin waging spiritual warfare to destroy the enemy’s power, fill yourself with the grace of the Lord, dedicate your house more fully to God, spend more time on your knees, live closer to the Lord, and claim your house for the Lord, claim your children for the Lord?

There are powers, brothers and sisters. Our struggle is not against carnal, external things. It is against other things beneath them, those spiritual powers that are always making mischief to destabilize our lives.

That is why Paul says, ‘Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, so that you may resist in the evil day, and having done everything, stand firm.’

Oh, my brothers and sisters, if only more of us were less ignorant. I fear that there are many Christians—I see them continually—who do not understand the seriousness of the spiritual life. They do not understand the very serious dynamics of being a Christian and of this radioactive world we inhabit, and that is why we must be very clear about the patterns and principles that guide our lives, because we ignore them at far too high a price.

So Ahab had a problem: there was a kingdom much more powerful than he was that wanted what he had. The devil wants what you have. The devil wants your children; the devil wants your marriage; he wants your health; he wants your finances; he wants your emotional life; he wants your body; he wants your future; he wants your mind; and you must decide what you are going to do with that offer, that demand made of you by an enemy more powerful than you.

The first thing, as I have already said, is that you must strengthen yourself in the spirit. Ahab was an ignorant man. Ahab was a king who did not know God, did not know the Word of God, and was violating the Word of the Lord; that was precisely why he was fighting such a powerful enemy. And when the moment of crisis came, what did he do? The only thing he could do was simply wring his hands and say, ‘Look at how this man wants to harm me.’

And likewise, when the devil comes into our lives, the only thing many of us can do is what? Begin to complain. Oh, the devil is always against me; people do not love me; the church does not pray for me or visit me. We complain. God promises things he does not fulfill. When they told me to come into the Gospel, they said everything would go well for me, but it has been exactly the opposite. I have not been free of problems since I came into the Gospel.

We begin to complain. We begin to question God’s faithfulness. Why? Because we do not understand the principles. When we know the Word of the Lord, then we can counter the devil’s attacks.

Notice something interesting here. When Syria sends its ambassador to Ben-hadad, he simply tells him, ‘King Ben-hadad says that all your possessions belong to him—your wives, your children, your money.’ Notice how interesting this is: he does not ask him for any of those things, but merely asks him to acknowledge that he belongs to the king of Syria. And that is what the devil does. That is how he operates. It is a principle we must understand.

Many times, in order to gain entry into our lives, Satan will begin with something that seems symbolic, something that does not seem very compromising: a little slip, a little white lie, one little drink—what does that matter?—a trip to a nightclub one night, one little marijuana cigarette; after all, all it does is make you feel good. I am not taking drugs; I am not injecting them.

But the devil begins, brothers and sisters, simply with a statement, an apparently harmless one. But what he wants is simply for us to acknowledge a principle. What he wants is to establish a precedent, because in the spiritual realm things operate that way—through legality, through judicial principles. But once you acknowledged what he was telling you, you had already opened the door to greater things. You had already entered into dialogue with him. You had already acknowledged his power. You had already acknowledged his presence. You had already legally admitted that he has influence over your life.

Let us be careful about the deals we make. Because sometimes we make deals simply with a look, with a thought, with an action that no one saw and that we ourselves barely even noticed, but that already opened the door to the enemy.

Nowadays, society is being asked to accept same-sex marriage. Four judges handed down the ruling, and people say to you, as they say to me, as I was telling the men this morning, “Why are you so opposed to a small group of homosexuals getting married, if that is a good thing? That way they behave better; now they are married, they are less sensual, and they sleep around less. Don’t you want people to get married? Why are you so opposed to those people being happy?” And what I tell them, brothers and sisters, I tell you, just as I tell them: “It is not so much those few people, that handful of homosexual people who get married. It is the spiritual principle behind it.”

When a society legally recognizes that kind of behavior as a normal part of life, it opens a breach this big... and an eighteen-wheeler can come through it, and the devil begins to take a little more, a little more, a little more. One day they will come to our churches and restrict what we can preach. One day they will come to our home and tell us, “You have to let me rent there, whether you want to or not.” One day they will come to our after-school childcare centers and tell us, “It doesn’t matter; you are a public institution, so you have to accept a homosexual teacher there.”

It is not that we have anything against homosexuals, brothers and sisters, but we believe in certain spiritual values that God has established. And when things begin, we have to put our foot down and say, “No, we cannot open the door, because worse things will come through it.”

Nowadays, our children are already being taught about homosexual behavior in schools, and now we have to allow it. Before, if you did not want your child to receive homosexual indoctrination, you could tell the teacher, “Take my child out because I do not want him exposed to that.”

Nowadays, not even that can be done. Not long ago, a father tried to do that, and they put him in jail because he refused to leave the school until the principal promised him that his son would not receive that class. The principal told him, “I am not going to do it because I do not feel like it.” He insisted, they called the police, and he was arrested. Why? Because that is how things begin. The enemy says, “No, all I want is for you to let me live.” But after you let him live, then he says, “Now I also want your house, I want your women, I want your money—I want everything.”

What happened here? He simply told him, “I only want you to acknowledge that your women and your children are mine,” and he told him, “Yes, sir, I know they are yours,” intimidated by the enemy’s strength. And what happened? The next day they came and told him, “Now, tomorrow we are going to come for your money, your property, and your house.” It was no longer theoretical; now it was a reality. And that is what happens, brother, if you do not understand this spiritual principle.

That is why the Bible says, “Do not give the devil a foothold,” and the word translated into Spanish as cabida means... in English I believe they say, “Do not give the devil a foothold.” Do not give the devil a little piece of ground where he can place the tip of his foot, because if you let him place the tip of his foot there, he will come in with all his demons as well.

Do you see? We have to be careful because the Bible says that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough. So we cannot... the devil begins that way, with something harmless, something very small, but he comes back, comes back, and comes back, and then he begins to take, possess, govern, and establish authority. Why? Because there is a demonic spirit. Our struggle is not against homosexuals. Our struggle is against the spirit of antichrist that is behind the homosexual movement—the anti-Christian, anti-church, anti-morality spirit, opposed to safeguarding human values and the identity God has placed in human beings—and that is why we fight against this. It is not against them; it is against the power behind them. We have to be careful in spiritual warfare not to open any breach for the enemy.

Notice that when Ahab complains that he does not know what to do, the elders tell him, “Do not obey him or do what he asks of you.” That is how a Christian should conduct himself. When the enemy wants to take possession of your life, two things: do not obey him or do what he asks of you. Firmly resist the enemy.

The Word says, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” When temptation comes into our lives, let us stand firm in what the Word of God has said. When the enemy tried to tempt Jesus, make Him obey him, and make Him do everything he wanted Him to do, what did the Lord tell him? It is written. It is written. He resisted him with the Word of God, and we have to stand firm.

Satan has no power over a child of God. No matter how great his strength may be, He who is in us is more powerful than he who is in the world. And that is why a prophet came. In His mercy, God sent a prophet, because Ahab did not deserve that kind of treatment from God. And the prophet came and told him, “Look, the Lord says that you must not obey the enemy, that you must resist him, and that you must wage war against him.”

I have always believed that, brothers and sisters: you do not run away from the enemy; you do not... let yourself be intimidated. You cannot negotiate with the enemy, brothers and sisters; you cannot even be diplomatic with the enemy, I believe more and more. Because what he does is take advantage of diplomacy to seize more ground and dig himself in more deeply. That is the truth.

No, he told him, “Go and mount the battle against the enemy.” “Behold, I will deliver him into your hand today, so that you may know that I am Jehovah.” Brother, no matter what... in your life, I want to tell you that no matter how great the problem in your life may be, no matter what area the enemy is trying to ravage in your life, no matter how serious the problem may be, God can change everything in a moment.

In a moment, God can touch a spouse’s heart; in a moment, God can change a rebellious child; in a moment, a health situation can take a turn when the Lord is involved, brothers and sisters. That is why we have to be praying, crying out, seeking God’s anointing in our lives, day and night, asking the Lord, “Change the atmosphere.”

I ask the Lord to change the atmosphere in Massachusetts. I ask the Lord to change the atmosphere in the United States. I believe, brothers and sisters, that one day the visitation of God’s power will be so great that we will be amazed at how the hardness of heart in this culture will change. I believe it, I live for it, and I am preparing for it. And I am preparing our church for it, brothers and sisters, because I believe that, no matter how serious the situation may seem, God loves to wait until things become dire and then show up with the entire cavalry, crush the enemy’s hosts, and bring salvation. I believe it.

Sometimes God has to wait until things already seem impossible to change, and then say, “I am going to change it in a moment so that they may know that I am Jehovah.” No matter how serious your situation becomes, my brother, my sister, no matter how hard the battle may be, get down on your knees even more, fast even more, cry out to the Lord even more. Even if the words do not come to you, declare God’s lordship over your life; declare the seal of Christ over your house; declare God’s ownership of your children; declare God’s financial provision over your finances; declare that this problem, this mountain, will move and be cast into the depths of the sea, because my God is more powerful than the works of the enemy in my life.

If there is any problem in your life—anxiety, depression, neurosis of any kind, thoughts that pursue you, fears—in the name of the Lord say, “I submit that land to the lordship of Christ.” There is no power that can withstand the power of God in our lives, brothers and sisters. Let us believe it, confess it, and live it. In an instant...

Notice that this king asks the prophet, “Who will begin the battle?” And what does the prophet answer him? You. Because sometimes we want it to be someone else. Oh, I have a problem; let us find the pastor so that he can come, anoint us with oil, baptize me in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Let us find the elders of the church; let us find that missionary sister, because she really knows how to pray... And do you know what God says? “No, no, I want you to be the one who attacks the enemy. I have given you power. I have placed My anointing upon you.”

Brothers and sisters, the pastor does not have more of the Holy Spirit within him than you have. You received the same measure of the Holy Spirit that is in you. You have power. I—my sister, Mirna—I told her years ago, “Remember, Mirna... Mirna, you can do it, you can do it, you can serve the Lord, you can be a cell-group leader. You can have a cell group in your home.” And Mirna did not want to believe it, yet she has become one of the most powerful cell-group leaders León de Judá has. Because, brothers and sisters, there are no little Christians and big Christians unless their hearts are small. If your heart is capable of believing God, you have power against all the hosts of hell, and Satan has no power over your life.

The question is: how much capacity does your heart have to believe God? That is the question. How much can you believe God? Because if you are capable of believing that the Lord is with you, that God is powerful, and that He will give you the victory, you can attack the enemy.

Notice that they did not have to wait for the enemy to come. God told them, “No, you go and pursue him.”

And there was the enemy, entirely confident, entirely secure, drinking and getting drunk. Ben-Hadad was so confident that when they told him the Israelites were coming, he said, “Well, if they come in peace, take them alive; and even if they come for war, bring them to me alive as well.” What confidence. How confident the enemy often is, but they were coming in the Word of God. And they only had to kill those who came against them. Once they made the first confrontation, all the others took off running.

Because the devil takes advantage of your fear, you know—of your being afraid of him, of your immediately running away when he opens his mouth and bares his teeth. But God has already stripped the devil of his strength; He has already taken the sting out of death. Satan no longer has power over the children of God. When you begin and resist, when the people...

I tell the church this: if the church were to stand up at this time and dare to resist the enemy, brothers and sisters, everything in Massachusetts would change in one day. The problem is not the enemy; the problem is the church. When the church takes the battle to the enemy, the enemy has to flee, and what we do is simply engage in a symbolic fight—a few of us—and all the others begin to flee, because the devil has no power in himself.

The devil has the power that the church allows him to have, because the Lord already defeated him on the cross of Calvary, the Bible says. The devil has the power that you allow him to have in your life and falsely acknowledge as his, or that you hand over to him by giving him the legal right to wreak havoc. But if you stand firm on the Word and the principles of God and live your life within the Lord’s principles, Satan has no power. When he comes and attacks, he may do a little damage, but you will spring into action and into the anointing, counteract the devil’s power, and God will give you the land.

Believe. The power of God is in you. The power of God is within you, and although the enemy may come like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour, the Lord tells you, “I am with you.”

I do not believe I am preaching a general message today. I am preaching a prophetic word to the people of God. I do not know what awaits us on the other side in these coming days—what attacks, what struggles, what battles—but I know one thing: He who began the good work will be faithful to finish it; the God who told us, “Go forward,” will be there with us; and if God called you, He will be faithful to complete what He has said He will give you in your life.

God says, “I hasten to fulfill what I have promised. I am with you. Do not fear or be discouraged, for I will be with you,” says the Lord, “wherever you go.”

Stand up, my brother, my sister. Although the enemy may come like a roaring lion, although he may come like a river, the Lord will raise a wall between him and us.

What land does the enemy have that he should not have? What areas of your life is the enemy ruling over and wreaking havoc in while we have allowed it? It is time for you to begin resisting and reconquering that land in the name of the Lord. And the Lord says to you today, ‘If you believe it, I will be with you. If you believe my promises, I will be more than faithful. I will not let you be put to shame.

The Word says, ‘None who trust in him will be put to shame.’ So receive that word; take possession of it this afternoon in the name of the Lord.

Father, give me a double portion because I have preached the sermon twice. And help me to live that truth, Lord, and to immerse myself in it, just as each one of my brothers and sisters does. Bless them this afternoon and pour out your holy anointing upon them, Lord.

Father, may this word fall on good soil—good soil, Lord, fruitful soil, fertile soil. Remove all doubt from our hearts. Father, we take authority over family problems; we take authority over family problems, Lord, over sicknesses, over finances, Lord. We take authority over the territory of our minds and emotions, over problems of neurosis, doubt, fear, loneliness, depression, anxiety, and neurological problems of the brain. We take authority in the name of the Lord. Satan, we command you, ‘Out, in the name of Christ! You are defeated, in the name of the Lord.’ We stand in the authority of God this afternoon and say, ‘Out of the land of God’s people!’

We take power; we take authority in the name of Christ. We rebuke your works in the name of Jesus. Throughout this state of Massachusetts and in the land of God’s children, we take authority this afternoon in the name of Christ. We rebuke principalities and powers that seek to rule the lives of God’s children. We declare that our children are territory possessed by God, that our marriages are healthy in the name of the Lord, that our sleep is peaceful and restful, and that our finances are blessed in the name of Jesus. Oh, in the name of Christ, we compel the enemy.

Take your hands off the blessings God has declared over God’s people. Take your illegitimate hands off the promises we have received. You have no right to touch our inheritance.

We claim our inheritance before God. Father, give us what you have declared to us, Lord, and put handcuffs on the enemy’s hands. Drive him out, Lord, in the name of Jesus. Arrest him, Lord, in the name of Christ. In the name of Christ, arrest Satan and drive him out of this area. In the name of Jesus, cast out the powers of the devil, Lord. Your church, your church, your church cries out. Your church claims its land. Your church claims its land this afternoon, Lord.

We claim this nation, the United States. We claim the United States, Lord. We claim the government of the United States. We claim the universities of the United States, Lord. We claim this young generation in the name of Jesus. We declare that they will be soldiers of Christ; they will be spiritual warriors who wreak havoc on the hosts of hell.

We declare that your church will be revived, Lord. We declare that the valley of dry bones will once again hear the sound of people walking—made alive and raised from the dead by you, Father. Those bones will be covered with tendons, nerves, tissue, and skin, and you will put your Spirit, Lord, in the valley of dry bones; and a great multitude of warriors, Father, will rise up to conquer the land before the Lord’s final coming.

We declare a prophetic generation, Father; we declare the prophetic flow of your Spirit in this church, Father. We declare the gifts of the Holy Spirit, Lord, flowing freely in this church, in the name of Jesus. We release the blessing, Lord; we release the blessing. Hallelujah! We release the gifts of the Spirit, God. Flow, Holy Spirit.

Oh Lord, we want more. We want more. We want more. Oh Lord, we will not be content with mere spoonfuls, Father, with an eyedropper. We want to open our mouths and have you send rivers of living water flowing from within us, Lord. You do not give your Spirit by measure, the Word says, Lord. You give your Spirit until it overflows, Father. You want us to immerse ourselves in the waters of your Spirit. Father, your Word speaks of being baptized with the Holy Spirit. It is not about having a little water poured over our heads; it is about being immersed in the Holy Spirit.

Oh Father, fill us with your Holy Spirit—a fresh anointing, Lord. We ask for a fresh anointing, Father, so that we will not fear the enemy.

Oh, in the name of the Lord, I rebuke every spirit of doubt among God’s people, every spirit of lukewarmness among God’s people. Those who are here, those who are far away, those who are not here—may the members of this spiritual community receive a fresh anointing from the Lord. A fresh anointing. A fresh anointing. Fresh vision, oh, in the name of Christ. Fresh passion, in the name of Jesus.

Oh Lord, we want—we want more of you. We want more of you. We want to see your glory, Lord. Send your glory; send your glory, Father. Send your glory, Lord. We thirst for you. We hunger for you, Lord. We desperately need a visitation from you, Father. Blow, Father; blow upon that swarm of demons, Lord, that seeks to take control of society.

Oh Lord, send your wind. Look, look; set your gaze, Lord, upon the situation. Just one look from you destroys all the devil’s strategies. And we cover ourselves with the blood of Jesus even as we proclaim your truth, Lord.

We declare that Satan has no power over our lives this afternoon. We are armored; we are covered, we are covered, we are covered with the armor of God.

You will have no power, our enemy; you will have no power because the Lord has defeated you. And this afternoon we declare the might of Christ; we declare the might of Christ over this people, over this church, over this ministry, Lord. We declare your anointing, your anointing; we want your anointing. We want your anointing, Lord. We want more of you.

Oh Lord, we hunger for you. Do not leave us waiting, Lord; do not leave us waiting, Father. We rise in the morning and go to bed late, Father, awaiting your visitation. We want to see your glory, Lord. We want that little cloud to appear in the sky, announcing the coming of your rain, Father. Send your Spirit and visit us, Lord. Rekindle your fire in us; instill passion, instill a cry, instill a spirit of crying out.

Oh Lord, kill lukewarmness. Father, kill complacency in us, Lord. Kill timidity; kill indifference, Father. Oh Lord, kill double-mindedness. Father, we cannot live with one foot on earth and one foot in heaven, Lord. We want to be completely sold out to you, enslaved to you, Father, surrendered to you, Lord. Help us to live passionately for you, Lord.

We love your glory, Lord. We want to see your glory. Oh Father, you are so powerful. You are so powerful. We want to see your power, Lord. We want to live in the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Come, Spirit of God; we need you, Lord. We need you this day, Spirit of God. Visit us, Lord. Thank you, Father. Thank you, thank you, Jesus. Amen and amen. Glory to the name of the Lord.