As demonic activity ramps up, the last gasp before the coming of our Lord, we will hear more talk of spiritual warfare, especially from the usual sources. We will be told how to “map” principalities and powers. “Prophets” will instruct us how to pray special prayers to fight these powers and take dominion over what was stolen by the Enemy. We will hear all sorts of wild things, most of which have no basis in the Bible or in Church history.
The following Bible verses are absolutely true and right:
The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
—1 John 3:8bPut on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.
—Ephesians 6:11-20
Nonetheless, I get a bit frustrated by those who are deeply into spiritual warfare and dominion teachings. Why? Because those teachings and teachers verge on the sales techniques of gnosticism, 
always promising some “deep” or “secret” teaching only the “true prayer warriors” will know.
No doubt, one can learn to pray more effectively against the demonic, but there’s a point where all the supposed secret teachings—usually imparted at an expensive workshop or conference—do nothing more than detract from the one genuine secret of powerful spiritual warfare and dominion.
Right now, I will tell you the real secret of destroying the power of the Enemy. I’ll impart, for free, the secret that rightfully removes more “territory” from Satan’s hands than any other tool. And it’s the one real secret no one will talk about at the $250 conference on spiritual warfare and dominion.
You ready? Because I’m going to tell you. So prick up your ears.
It’s a single word.
Still listening?
Here it is:
Evangelism
No power, secret wisdom, or prayer destroys principalities and powers more effectively than ripping the talons of the demonic off the necks of the lost. Want to take dominion for Christ? No territory is more valuable in the eyes of God than a lost soul. If we want Satan to know our names, he’ll know them full well if we’re actively working to depopulate hell.
Yes, Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. But He also came to seek and save the lost. Funny how those two combine, isn’t it?
Yet I can almost bet that for every 100 attendees at some pricey workshop on spiritual warfare, maybe a handful of people attending are evangelizing the lost on a regular basis. More likely, the vast majority are looking for one spiritual high after another, chasing after experiences and esoteric wisdom rather than getting out there and actively sharing the life of Christ with someone who does not know Him.
Because the Enemy wants nothing more than to distract people into spending hours and hours scrying principalities and powers, attempting to find the demonic “city limits” around this place and that, while 4,212 people every day enter the gates of the eternal city of the damned.
A hearty “amen” from this corner.
A lot of folks will spend time and treasure going from conference to conference, running into self-styled prophets, healers and spiritual warfare geeks, looking for the next bit of knowledge or “impartation of wisdom.” If they spent a fifth of the time they spent on books, tapes and conferences on reaching out to the lost, we’d be ahead of the game.
Easier said than done, though. The conferences are fun for the charismatic with a academic bent, for we’ll know more than the average Joe. However, that and $2 will buy a latte in Hell for the person we could have reached out to.
Yeah, Mark, I’ve gotta ditto everything you just said.
Simple awesome! Timely and well-said. Thanks, Dan. Also, I fully concur with Mark’s comment above. I need to take all this to heart, because I can’t really say I’m walking it out the way I should be . . . but your post definitely pinpoints the bottom-line call on our lives.
Bob,
I need to talk about evangelism soon.
Well, you are right, but if you don’t pray as you go, you won’t see near as much fruit. It’s not either-or, but both-and. We all have the role of praying AND evangelizing, but some have one gift, some another.
And funny how my friends who go to a lot of these conferences also spend time ministering to their waitress at the restaurant or the worker at the grocery store or whoever God brings across their path. So let’s not throw everybody and a pile and judge them, m’kay?
I do agree that so many of us are so focused on learning that we forget the “doing.” And I have also noticed that lots of times God has me learning BY doing.
Oh, and I don’t have a quibble with an occasional conference to refresh and strenghthen. But I think we’d do so much better if we got our training one-on-one.
Connie,
I’m not saying that every last person who is really into spiritual warfare neglects the lost. That’s not the case. (Though, in truth, we all neglect the lost to some extent.)
But it’s always been weird for me to see people totally jazzed about spiritual warfare while giving that “well, uh…” thing when confronted with evangelizing the lost. I’ve seen that so much. It turns following Christ into a hobby. It’s akin to being totally into Dungeons & Dragons, eagerly awaiting the chance to sic your paladin character on every evil being you encounter. It’s nutty.
As an old-school D&Der (three little brown books plus Greyhawk), I can tell you that “eagerly awaiting the chance to sic your paladin character on every evil being you encounter” is the mark of a “trid player”, what’s now called a “munchkin”.
However, these Spiritual Warfare fanboys you speak about, “spending hours and hours scrying principalities and powers, attempting to find the demonic “city limits around this place and that”, are themselves playing a form of Live D&D. They’re playing High-Level Wizards, setting wards and casting spells in arcane tongues, their Bible reduced to a grimoire of one-verse verbal-component spells.
(Back in the Seventies, I was mixed up with a Pentecostal splinter group, very into Gifts of the Spirit. Everybody except me went all-out for “Tongues! Tongues! Tongues! Tongues! and Tongues!”. I was the weird one; I wanted Wisdom because Wisdom was the command control over all the other gifts — when to use them and when NOT to. Wisdom does have a flip side: You get very aware (and very annoyed) by all the Stupid People Tricks you see around you.)
Dan,
Good post. I think a lot of folk head to the conferences because they feel inadequate to evangelize or fight evil or pray effectively or do much of anything they’re “supposed to do.”. They hope that — just maybe — someone else can tell them how to get it right. It takes wisdom and/or humility to be willing to go out there and trust God to help you through the dark places you’ll find when you reach out to the lost. It’s hard work and sometimes scary, and often disappointing if looked at through the eyes of the flesh. Unless we’re trusting that God leads and uses and completes the work in His own way and His own time, we’re going to continue to feel inadequate. And a lot of folk aren’t going to bother to try for just that reason — because aren’t we supposed to have a belt-load of notches to show for the effort? Being the planter or the waterer or the tiller is not nearly as much fun as being the harvester.. So, if someone is promising fruit if you hand over the $250, a lot of people are going to leap first and regret later.
Normandie,
From the time I was 16 years old, I felt God’s call for me to be a Barnabas-like discipler who comes alongside the Sauls of the world and helps them become the Pauls they were meant by God to be. In other words, I always thought my calling was to other Christians.
Still, I can’t neglect the reality that all of us, myself included, need to share our faith with the lost.
In my neck of the woods, evangelizing is a dirty word. The popular attitude in the secular world is, “That’s between me and God” – end of discussion. Somehow, the Christians have come to accept this, too, I think, out of fear – fear of offending, fear of being rejected, fear of “doing it wrong.” The body of Christ needs strengthening.
akaGaGa,
Paul Copan wrote a great book about a decade ago (man, time flies) called True for You, But Not for Me that addresses the “That’s between me and God” excuse. I highly recommend it.
woah Dan! Your timing on this is perfect! Just saturday I was at a bible study and someone came to me and did the normal “did you know…” and basically told me what my calling was… (duh, I get it now okay?) and then proceeded to tell me that I should just come to this class on “war mapping” and spiritual warfare. Every discernment bell I had was ringing and I nicely told her no thank you. I couldn’t place it exactly and I am curious but just felt a big “NO” about it. Why do we have to make a method out of every thing God give us? Religion is the number one enemy of the Kingdom! Lets make rules and a 15 bullet point process to keep people from learning to hear the Spirit!
Geesh. *ends rant*
Know what this tells me? Satan knows full well what I’m called to do and will try to use things dressed up as holy to get me off the path.
Gee… sounds like a familiar tactic we all need to be aware of. Hrm?
Ronni,
The Enemy totally ran the Roman Catholic Church off the rails by getting it to focus on rituals and man-made contrivances that had the appearance of holiness but which only distracted people from the truth of how they should be living for Christ. It took Luther to shake things up and put it all in proper focus.
We need another Reformation.
A report of the greatest biblical model for spiritual warfare is found in Luke 10. Read it and tell me what the secret process was.