Jesus saves manager from engaging in territorial warfare in the wrong way

C excitedly joined an outreach programme for the homeless in Toronto but did not realise that she had been engaging in territorial warfare the wrong way. Thank God that she humbly asked for help after experiencing counter attacks and was instantly delivered of abdominal pains that came as a result of stepping outside spiritual boundaries. Praise God!

The word God revealed during my new year resolution fast this year was humility. 

Why is humility so important to God? Matthew 5:8 says that the “pure in heart can see God”. A pure heart embraces humility, comprehends and embraces our identity in Christ, and makes a covenant vow to surrender our will in order that we might accomplish His.

This year, I went for my first outreach after I moved to a new country, after seeking confirmation from the Lord. I began to visit and minister to the unhoused in downtown Toronto. At the outreach, I immediately pictured myself putting on the armour of God as I prayed to fight against the devil’s schemes, both before and after the outreach. I mostly learnt how to pray like this by self-learning using online sources.

I thought this type of territorial warfare prayer was normal.

After the outreach and a hot bath to relax myself, I felt a nauseating sensation come up from my stomach to my throat.

I was in perfect shape the entire day until I returned home after the outreach, so my mind immediately concluded it must be the result of spiritual warfare! This was not the first time I encountered spiritual warfare after an outreach, so I thought my reaction was normal. (It is not normal! Nothing will hurt us when we do God’s work, unless we open a door to the enemy.)

Luke 10:19 NKJV  Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Psalm 91:9-11 NKJV  Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place, No evil shall befall you, Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways.

Two months before, I had suffered constant nausea and stomach pain after a prayer walk I did on my own in my neighbourhood where I also confronted the territorial spirits. That time, I ended up in the A&E because I suffered persistent nausea and stomach cramps over a torturous weekend when I kept puking.

Another time was after I served in a red-light district outreach a few years ago in Asia. There, I used to pray relentlessly over the buildings, each of the floors, and every single room in the district. 

Little did I know that my prayers crossed a spiritual boundary. 

Considering my bad physical reaction during the first time serving the unhoused in downtown Toronto, I decided to try a ‘lighter’ prayer. I prayed a general prayer over the land, the community and the people shortly after hopping off my vehicle. 

It turned out to be the same bad physical reaction as I had before. 

Many thoughts popped into my mind. Was there a lack of protection prayer? Was my prayer not powerful enough? Was I alone on this prayer journey to the outreach? Was it because no one covered me in prayer during the outreach? There were many lies spinning in my head. The truth is I forgot that the battle belongs to God, and not to me. 

My bad stomach pain kept coming on and off, roaring and causing discomfort. 

For that reason, I did not have much of an appetite and my weight dropped significantly. I tried Chinese medicine but it only helped temporarily. At the same time, I also received a signal from the Holy Spirit to stop that particular Chinese medicine, but only lean on Him. 

Who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us. II Corinthians 1:10 NKJV

I tried to get to the spiritual root of my stomach issues, but regardless of the number of times I repented of judging churches, communities, pastors, sermons, Sunday school, and bible studies, the pain continued …

After speaking to a mentor from church, I learnt that I had crossed over spiritual boundaries and directly confronted territorial spirits that I had no jurisdiction over.

The Holy Spirit also revealed that the root to my problems was spiritual pride. 

For example, I always had one conclusion about all the Christian groups I engaged with — that they are not mature. Every Sunday, my takeaway from the sermon would be, “Why would the church deliver such a basic foundational message?” In my pride, I believed I was better than anyone else in my community and that I needed to stand out as a Christian model.

I idolised spiritual growth. This is even worse than having a spirit of performance!  

I falsely believed that God loved us for chasing spiritual growth, because the more I hunger for Him, the more He adores me. I thought God wouldn’t waste any single opportunity to work through us. 

The mentor asked me, “Compare a little child in a poor village who does not have any Bible education but is very excited about God, to someone who has deep knowledge of the Bible but is all about looking good and doing good works. Who do you think God favours?” This reminded me that God looks at the heart.

In a following prayer session with this mentor, I was led to repent of my spiritual pride and renounce spiritual growth as an idol. We cast out spirits of judgement, pride, performance, striving, comparison, jealousy, approval seeking, people-pleasing and self-righteousness in Jesus’ name.

I cannot chase spiritual growth without God. 

I also declared that I am not superior to other believers in Canada. I also prayed to break the lie that I needed to be different and must learn and be fed from other ‘advanced’ Christians. Finally, I repented of judging my local church for not caring for my age group. The truth is that Jesus cares for everyone. Jesus doesn’t forget nor neglect those who follow Him. 

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. Isaiah 43:2 NKJV

After that time of repentance and deliverance, my stomach has felt so relieved. I could go back to my regular meals and snacks without discomfort. 

The other significant change is that I am no longer sensitive to my husband’s snoring. I became sensitive to his snoring three months ago and my sleeping quality was hugely affected. I needed to catch up on sleep during the day, and I lacked motivation and felt down. I was busy sourcing and testing different earplugs trying to block the noise and none of them worked! After the deliverance prayer, I can go back to peaceful sleep, and not require ear plugs anymore. 

Through this experience, I learned the true meaning of humbling myself to pray for a nation, community or a neighbourhood. 

It’s so dangerous to command territorial spirits to leave or randomly try to eliminate evil spirits (without repentance on the part of the people there) etc. I cannot pride myself above Jesus or above principalities. The right way to pray for an area is to declare God’s truth, declare Bible verses, as well as to share the gospel. That’s also what Jesus asked us to do throughout the Bible, nothing more, nothing less. 

To live with a humble heart is not an one-off assignment. We cannot just repent for what went wrong. Humility is an ongoing practice to check if I have crossed any spiritual boundary and make sure I do not go ahead of the Lord. God is good and faithful to correct us and lead us back to safety.

Also, see Spiritual warfare prayers before sharing the gospel in any territory