Spiritual warfare prayers before sharing the gospel in any territory

Jesus came to give us the best gift of all eternity, that is to reconcile us back with God the Father. God is merciful and patient, compassionate and kind. He even describes Himself as long-suffering. He endures mankind’s sinful rebellion to give us the opportunity to repent and receive Jesus’ offer of salvation and reconciliation. Now, as believers, we have the privilege of bringing that good news of reconciliation to those in our neighbourhoods and other territories by sharing the gospel. Yet there will be invisible evil forces that will oppose our efforts. How can we pray and stand against the territorial warfare that we might encounter from unseen spiritual powers?

(简体中文 > 在任何地区传福音之前进行属灵战争祷告 | 繁體中文 > 在任何地區傳福音之前進行屬靈戰爭禱告)

II Peter 3:9-10 NKJV. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

2 Corinthians 5:18-21 NKJV   Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

At His first coming, Jesus destroyed Satan’s works (but not his throne on earth)

Mankind was always meant to be in perfect communion with God. Satan, the god of this age, on the other hand, brought spiritual darkness and continues to blind the minds of many so that they cannot see the gospel. Sin causes people to become spiritually deaf, blind and separated from God. This is spiritual death. 

2 Corinthians 4:3-4 NKJV  But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

Thank God that Jesus came to earth to destroy the devil’s works and to give us an abundant spiritual life. 

1 John 3:8 NKJV  He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

John 10:10 NKJV  The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

Yet when Jesus left this earth and was taken up to heaven to be seated “far above all principality and power and might and dominion”, we see that Jesus did not dismantle, or cast down, or bind, or curse all these principalities, powers, might and dominion (which we will refer to as evil spiritual powers for this post). He did not even dismantle Satan’s throne on earth! He left them all there. Who are these evil spiritual powers and why didn’t Jesus remove them?

Ephesians 1:20-21 NKJV   which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.

Revelation 2:13 NKJV  “I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. And you hold fast to My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.

1. Who are these evil spiritual powers

Satan and his fallen angels originally had different ranks, jurisdictions and assignments in God’s kingdom in heaven. When they were thrown out of the highest heaven, where God is, after they rebelled, they came down to the lower heavenly realms as well as to the earth and its seas. These evil spiritual beings continue to operate along hierarchical lines, except now for evil and not for good.

[NOTE: For an explanation of how these spiritual beings came to be and about their end, please refer to the list at the bottom of this post called ”
THE BEGINNING AND END OF EVIL SPIRITUAL POWERS”. Click here to jump there.]

Deuteronomy 10:14 NKJV  Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it.

Revelation 12:12 NKJV  Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”

When we go and share the gospel in a territory, we will come up against the evil spiritual powers in the heavenly places that are in charge of dominating larger jurisdictions and territories of people. All these report to Satan. So, one might notice districts or areas in a country that seem to ‘specialise’ in different illicit activities, such as drugs, prostitution, violence etc. These are the strongholds for different evil spiritual powers of crime and debauchery. 

Ephesians 6:11 NKJV  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 places. 

These are not the same spirits that live in and torment fallen human beings. Those that operate in or influence people directly are lower ranking spirits that operate under these higher-ranking spiritual powers and report back to them. 

One example of the higher-ranking evil spiritual powers in the Bible are the unseen ‘the kings of Persia’ and ‘prince of the kingdom of Persia’ in the heavenly realm. These were apparently territorial spirits that hindered angel Gabriel from bringing Daniel understanding and revelation for a vision that Daniel saw.

Daniel 10:12-15 NKJV  Then he said to me, “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia. Now I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come.”

Another example is the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:1-3), who apparently can influence the desires of the bodies and minds of large groups of people. We know that a prince has a certain level of authority over an area or group of people. This prince of the power of the air is likely to be an evil spiritual power that specialises in mind control over large groups of people and helps transmit demonically inspired curses, spells, chants, and music through the air to influence the way people think. Where there is a lot of pagan scripture being chanted in mosques, temples, or over loudspeakers within neighbourhoods, for example, one may notice that the local residents appear to be under some sort of collective daze or spell. There can be a perceivable lack of joy.

Ephesians 2:1-3 NKJV  And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

2. Why they are allowed to dominate

God is love. One aspect of loving someone is to give that person free choice, and not dominate and enslave them. Therefore, if the people in a territory persist in rejecting God and lusting after idols, money, sexual immorality, witchcraft, debauchery, and prostitution, for example, God will eventually give us what we choose — to be dominated by the evil spiritual powers that drive such desires. People are the ones who give them the power to dominate them! Also, see Spiritual pollution of homes, districts and territories

Judges 10:11-16 NKJV  So the Lord said to the children of Israel, “Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites and from the people of Ammon and from the Philistines? Also the Sidonians and Amalekites and Maonites oppressed you; and you cried out to Me, and I delivered you from their hand. Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods. Therefore I will deliver you no more. “Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in your time of distress.”  And the children of Israel said to the Lord, “We have sinned! Do to us whatever seems best to You; only deliver us this day, we pray.” So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord. And His soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel.

Evil spiritual powers are only dismantled when the people of the land humble themselves as a nation, tribe, or community repent of other gods and call on the one true Creator God of all. When we collectively repent and turn from our wicked ways, God will forgive our sin and heal our land or territory or community from oppressive demonic powers.

2 Chronicles 7:12-14 NKJV   Then the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 

The battle over territories belongs to the Lord

Before nations, territories and tribes repent, however, we have to go on sharing the gospel to them so that they will believe and call on the name of the Lord. 

Romans 10:13-17 NKJV  For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!”

God the Father will draw those we pray for and testify of Jesus to Himself, as we rely on His Holy Spirit to move people’s hearts as we share the gospel.

John 6:44 NKJV  No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.

The Lord has to go before us to prepare the way as we bring the gospel to new areas and territories, because there will be evil spiritual powers who will oppose God’s people. But we do not fight these evil princes in heavenly places on our own, we ask for God to assign His angels, who also operate in the heavenly realms, to help us. Angels are very powerful beings and nothing like us. In one example, one angel killed 185,000 Assyrians who worshipped the evil spiritual power called Nisroch that had planned to attack Israel during the time of King Hezekiah.

2 Kings 19:35-37 NKJV  And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh. Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the temple of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

In another example, King Jehoshaphat and the Israelites came together to fast and seek the Lord for deliverance from attacking forces from Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir who worshiped other gods ie. evil spiritual powers. The Lord responded and promised to fight the battle on their behalf. As the Israelites humbly cried to Him for help, fasted, sang and praised the Lord, He set ambushes and defeated their enemies. This is one example of how God responded to the humble heart-felt cries of His people and personally intervened to bring them victory.

2 Chronicles 20:2-4,15,22-24 NKJV  Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, “A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from Syria; and they are in Hazazon Tamar” (which is En Gedi). And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord; and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord. And he said, “Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated. For the people of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to utterly kill and destroy them. And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another. So when Judah came to a place overlooking the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude; and there were their dead bodies, fallen on the earth. No one had escaped.

Example of triad organisations

To understand this further, we can use the example of triad organisations. 

Triads will not be dismantled as long as people in their target location continue to engage in drugs, prostitution, gambling, and other illicit activities. It only gives them more and more power as more people continue to go to them. That is why triads are still around no matter what police try to do. 

Hence, the way to take down triad strongholds starts by telling people how they can stop taking drugs (e.g. by sharing the good news of salvation from Jesus). Obviously, we too should personally stop buying drugs from our local drug dealer (repentance) and cut all ties to triad gangs and remove their influence from ourselves (deliverance) and our places of residence (spiritual cleansing of our homes).

But for us to go up against the entire multi-tier triad organisation by ourselves is obviously not a good idea, especially if their strongholds have been deeply entrenched over many generations. What we can do is to come together as a group of people to appeal to the highest authority in the land to do something that will dismantle their strongholds and turn people away from illicit drugs and activities. This makes way for believers to share the gospel more easily, as people have less access to drugs, and their minds are less drugged and foggy.

Contrasting the two types of warfare prayers

Here is a summary that contrasts the two types of warfare prayers we will encounter as believers. One is for the salvation of individuals through inner healing and deliverance prayers, and the other is how we can pray for salvation for entire groups of people or territories. The latter is the focus of this post.

How we can pray

If we are going to engage in any ministry work in a territory, here is how we can pray. Remember that this is a ministry that is best done in two’s or as a group, not alone whenever possible. Jesus always sent His disciples out in two’s. 

• First, check if this is an assignment the Lord has called us to step into, He will always bless whatever Kingdom work we do if it is according to His will 
• Then confess our own sins and transgressions, make sure to repent of any sins that we have in common with the people of that territory so there is no yoking with the evil spiritual powers there
• Allow the Holy Spirit to guide all our thoughts and heart attitudes 
• Ask the Lord to open our eyes to the needs of the area and ask the Holy Spirit how to pray for the people
• Then confess the sins of the territory, thank God for His mercy 
• Fast and pray for the territory, pray for a mighty move of the Holy Spirit
• Ask the Lord to send in His angels before us
• Ask for boldness and the power of the Holy Spirit as we go and share the gospel, ask for His protection 
• Pray for more labourers to be equipped and step forward to share the gospel in the territory 
• Praise and worship God

Sharing the gospel is the responsibility and privilege of every child of God. We can even bring the good news to the most unlikely of places, there is no need to fear when the Lord goes before us!

Psalm 5:11-12 NKJV  But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You; Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them; Let those also who love Your name Be joyful in You. For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous; With favor You will surround him as with a shield.

Testimony: Overcoming spiritual warfare through praise and worship for a harvest of 80 souls

“Last year, I was invited to share my personal testimony and thoughts about forgiveness. Two weeks beforehand, I began to intently seek after God on what to share and began to receive entire sentences on what to say, including this specific line, “I am here to testify for Jesus Christ.” The Lord even impressed on my heart the need to make an altar call at the end of the talk for the audience to give their hearts to Jesus. This was something I had never done before but I knew I should just obey.

In addition, the Lord also showed me in a vision that there would be two angels assigned to help me with this event. I learnt from reading the book of Daniel that angels fight to bring down revelations from God to earth. My head began to hurt for two days leading up to the event and the Holy Spirit told me that there was spiritual warfare and that I should worship and praise. I obeyed and that is when the head discomfort immediately lifted. That is when I suddenly received the key point for the talk, which was “If Jesus came to give us forgiveness and He represents forgiveness and you reject forgiveness, who is it that you are rejecting?”

On the night of the talk, everything went smoothly in spite of some technical glitches. A few of us had gone in earlier, before anyone arrived, to repent of our own sins, repent for the sins of the people involved, to bless the venue, and to invite God to fight the battle for people’s souls for us. As I stood up to share, my friends continued to pray throughout the two hours I was speaking.

During the altar call, about 80 people out of the 90 who attended stood up to receive Jesus Christ into their hearts and commit their lives to Him! The talk could not have had this outcome without the Holy Spirit’s direction and our intercession. All glory to God!”

Testimony: Making the mistake of praying against anti-prayer spiritual powers

“I had been fighting with fear and lust for some time and desperately wanted to remove my flaws and weaknesses. From googling online, I noticed that these are spiritual strongholds. I also watched sermons with supernatural experiences of Christians being delivered from demons, and wanted to be delivered from evil spirits tormenting me with fear and lust. So, I was busy searching for solutions online and found a template prayer titled a “Powerful prayer against Satan and demons”. Last year, I was delivered of the leviathan spirit and thought this was worth a try.

The prayer started with “rebuking and binding anti-prayer demons in the air, on the earth, under the earth, in the sea and all waters”. It was about 2-3am that I prayed this prayer and heard some loud noises outside of the home. I didn’t check or bother about it and went to sleep.

The next morning, I woke up and found a big bulk of ‘kibble’ like yellow object all over the doors of our home. My brother told me he also had an unusually problematic day. His car tires punctured and both he and his pastor were late for a ministry appointment. The washing machine and water heater broke down. I even fought with my girlfriend. I lost my peace. This series of incidents in just one day caused me a lot of unease, worries, and anxiety.

I reached out to my brothers and sisters-in-Christ to tell them about the prayer I had just done and asked them if they have had similar experiences. One of them pointed out that such a prayer may have crossed a spiritual boundary.

She explained that the “powerful prayer” I had used teaches us to take on principalities of air, earth, and water that we have no authority over. “Jesus never prayed such prayers, He left the evil spiritual powers in their place, even the evil forces. God has them in place for a reason. So as a result, such prayers cross a line and pit these forces against us.” She warned me that if I randomly searched on Google without waiting on the Lord first and foremost, I would eventually be led to spiritual error.

On hearing this, I repented of praying such a prayer. I also realised that I was focusing on seeking Christian “solutions” but had not sought God’s heart. During prayer, God assured me that He will take care of my fears. I was awakened to the fact that God didn’t tell me to pray certain prayers or search online for solutions to remove my anxieties. He will just take care of them. I only need to seek God and wait for His timing instead. Seeking God and being transformed by God is a process and it isn’t done by some quick prayer. There are times we need to be delivered of evil spirits, but there are also times we just need to renew our minds and wait on God.”