Prayer Lesson Six <<<

FIVE LEVELS OF PRAYER

Level 4 -- Spiritual Warfare

SPIRITUAL WARFARE 1
"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;" (II Corinthians 10:3-4).

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Ephesians 6:12).

Whenever a person becomes a real Bible-believing, Spirit-filled Christian, he acquires new enemies--Satan and his kingdom! Before we came to Jesus, we were a part of the "world system," over which Satan rules (Ephesians 2:2-3). Some of us didn't even know Satan existed, until we became a Christian. We were baptized in Jesus' name, and received the Holy Ghost. We felt so happy. The next morning some of us woke up to a voice trying to cause us to doubt the Lord and the experience we had received, "You really didn't get the Holy Ghost." We were already involved in spiritual warfare before even being warned that there is such a thing.

No wonder the Apostle Paul encouraged Timothy to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ (II Timothy 2:3), and "fight the good fight of faith" (I Timothy 6:12). Yes, we are in a battle, and to be successful we need proper knowledge concerning our enemy, so that we can identify and defeat him!

KNOWING OUR ENEMIES
It is important for all Christians to possess a correct understanding concerning Satan and his kingdom. God created angels before he created mankind. Man was created "body, soul, and spirit" (I Thessalonians 5:23). Angels possess spirit and soul, but do not have a flesh and blood body. God created hundreds of thousands of angels (Hebrews 12:22). He appointed three chief angels over the others: Gabriel (Luke 1:19), Michael (Jude 9), and Lucifer (Isaiah 14:12).

Although Lucifer was a beautiful angel, he was not satisfied with being a chief angel. He wanted equal status with God. Ezekiel describes the beauty of Lucifer:

"Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle; and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou was created" (Ezekiel 28:13).

This does not mean that Lucifer was literally clothed in jewels. Ezekiel had to use earthly words to describe a spirit being. To understand how beautiful Lucifer was, you would have to examine the beauty of all of the precious gems mentioned!

Also take note that Ezekiel was describing someone who had been created, not born. (There are those who mistakenly ascribe this verse to a man who lived during Ezekiel's time.) We notice also that this being had been in Eden, the garden of God.

The next three verses confirm the identity of Lucifer, and tell us why he fell into sin:

"Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground. I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee" (Ezekiel 28:14-15, 17).

Leaders were always anointed, as a confirmation of their position of authority. It was God who had made Lucifer "the anointed cherub," a chief angel. Only Michael is actually called an archangel (Jude 9), although there probably is justification to call all three of them "archangels," because the word archangel simply means, "a chief angel." The original Greek word comes from "arch," which means "to be first in rank or power, to reign or rule over"; and "aggelos," the Greek word for "angel." Many Bible scholars believe the reference to an archangel in I Thessalonians 4:16 is to Gabriel, the messenger angel.

It is most likely that each of these chief angels were appointed over one-third of God's angels. We read in the book of Revelation of a war fought between Michael and his angels, and the dragon (Satan) and his angels (Revelation 12:7). Notice the following verses, also found in Revelation, Chapter 12:

"and his tail drew a third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him" (Revelation 12:4, 7).

Sometimes angels are called "stars" in the Word of God (Job 38:7). In fact, the name "Lucifer," means "morning star." Isaiah gives us more of the history of his fall:

"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds: I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit" (Isaiah 14:12-15).

Take note that the five "I will"s of Satan resulted in his utter rebellion against God, which eventually plunged this world into the same kind of rebellion. About two thousand years ago, in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Son of God did the opposite of what Satan did. He humbled himself to do the will of God. It was a struggle, but victory finally came, and He prayed, "Not my will, but thine, be done."

THE KINGDOM OF SATAN
The fall of Satan took place before the creation of mankind. When we read concerning him in the book of Genesis, he was already a fallen angel. Those angels under his authority joined him in his rebellion, and became fallen angels, or demonic spirits, also.

These demonic spirits do not run helter-skelter throughout the earth, without any kind of organization. Jesus acknowledged that Satan had established a system of government--a kingdom:

"And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?" (Matthew 12:26).

God created all things for mankind, except man himself. Man was created for God. The whole earth was given to Adam, to be under his authority:

"The heaven, even the heavens are the LORD's: but the earth hath he given to the children of men" (Psalm 115:16).

"Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet" (Psalm 8:6).

God commanded Adam, "Be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over . . . every living that that moveth upon the earth" (Genesis 1:28). This was to include his wife. Yet, Eve became the tool of the devil, and Adam surrendered his right to rule the earth when he listened to her, instead of God. When he ate the forbidden fruit, he surrendered his right to rule the earth.

During Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, in some miraculous way Satan showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and then said unto Him:

"All this power (authority) will I give thee and the glory of them: for that is *delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it" (Luke 4:6).

*The original Greek renders "surrendered" a better word here, and, in fact, many versions of the Bible use this word. Adam surrendered his right to rule the earth by being subject to his wife, instead of God.

Notice that Jesus did not dispute Satan's claim. In fact, Jesus referred to Satan as "the prince of the world" three times (John 12:31; John 41:30; and John 16:11). Paul called him "the god of this world" (II Corinthians 4:40).

Paul certainly believed in a highly organized kingdom of Satan, whenever he wrote:

"For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood--contending only with physical opponents--but against the despotism, against the powers, against (the master spirits who are) the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere" (Ephesians 6:12, Amplified Bible).

Many Bible scholars, including some who are being used greatly of the Lord (such as Billy Cole, and Lee Stoneking) believe that wherever there are political boundaries in the world, there are boundaries in the spirit world also. If this is true (and I feel certain that it is, this means that every nation, every state, every county, every city and town has demonic princes set over them, and their power must be broken before a real outpouring of the Holy Ghost can come to an area).

Billy Cole only had a handful of people who had received the Holy Ghost, until he fasted and prayed for some length of time. Finally, the Lord spoke to him and said, "Behold, I give you power over the prince of Thailand." From that time on, great revival came to Thailand, and more than one hundred a month received the Holy Ghost.

When I first came to Kuala Lumpur for a revival (after being appointed a missionary) I had a terrible demonic visitation, but the Holy Ghost came upon me and speaking through me in English, said, "I rebuke you in Jesus' name, prince of this city." It was the confirming proof to me concerning this teaching.

We read in the book of Daniel, Chapter 10 that Daniel fasted for three weeks. On the twenty- first day of the fast, an angel visited him, and said:

"From the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me" (Daniel 10:12-13).

The angel was talking about something that took place in the supernatural realm. That means the prince of the kingdom of Persia was definitely the high ranking demon in Satan's kingdom in Persia.

Gabriel is often referred to as "the messenger angel," while Michael is known as "the warring angel." Besides defeating the demonic prince of Persia, we also read that he contended with Satan for the body of Moses (Jude 9). He also battled and defeated Satan and his angels (Revelation 12:7- 11). This will be covered more thoroughly in another lesson. ds

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