June 5, 2025

“Then A Problem Arose”

“Resist the devil and he will flee from you!” I declared. “How many of you address demonic spirits occasionally?” I asked in my most anointed preaching voice. I was on a roll, waxing eloquent on the subject of spiritual warfare. 

I was fresh out of Bible College and feeling like God’s latest addition to the “Brother Wonderful Fraternity of World Changers International.” I had those people right where I wanted them—hanging on every word. 

Then a problem arose. 

I was in Guatemala preaching through an interpreter. Unbeknownst to me, my interpreter, a young member of the congregation, did not share my theology. And her convictions ran deep! She looked at me indignantly and insisted in no uncertain terms, “I won’t say that!”

For some reason, her words seemed to interrupt my anointed flow. “Excuse me,” I replied.

“I won’t say that,” she said.

“Why not? You’re supposed to say what I say,” I responded.

“Well, I won’t say it.”

“Why not?” I asked again.

“I don’t believe we should do that.”

“Well, the Bible says to do it.”

“Where?”

“James 4:7.”

Keep in mind that a church full of people was watching this obviously unpleasant exchange between “Brother Wonderful” and his interpreter.

My professors hadn’t prepared me for this in Bible College. No lectures were offered on “What To Do When Interpreters Won’t Interpret.” As I stood wondering what to do next, she opened her Bible and began looking for James 4:7; it took her FOREVER to find it. She then read it to the congregation. At least I think she did; she may have been telling them I was a heretic, for all I know.

I tried to continue my message. “Ephesians 6:12 tells us,” I began. 

She, however, wouldn’t allow me to quote the verse. When I mentioned the reference, she stopped interpreting, looked for it in her Bible, and read it. I was planning to use quite a few passages of Scripture. This could take forever, I realized.

I quickly ran through a few options in my mind: 

1.  End the message (which probably would have been the smartest thing to do); 

2. Continue, with her taking time to find 20 more verses; or 

3. HIT HER WITH MY BIG BIBLE! None of these seemed acceptable. 

Then I had another idea. Realizing she didn’t know the Scriptures well, I began paraphrasing verses I wanted to comment on, stating them as though they were my thoughts. After she had translated my words, I would look at her with a smug smile and say, “That was from...” and give the reference, at which time she would bore into me with very unspiritual eyes. I don’t think the people learned anything, but I believe they enjoyed the show.

Controversial though it may be, the Bible does clearly instruct us to resist the devil. It is often not enough to simply ask our heavenly Father to do or give us something, although this is most Christians’ only concept of prayer. Many times it is necessary to use our authority and enforce Christ’s victory, spoken of as “binding” and “loosing” (Matthew 16:19), “warfare” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5), and “wrestling” (Ephesians 6:12). As Arthur Mathews said in his great book, Born For Battle: 

“Victory is an accomplished fact, but it does need a man to lay hold of that victory and precipitate a confrontation with the enemy, and resist him.”(1)

Jack Hayford, in his insightful book Prayer Is Invading the Impossible, says:

“To see both sides of Jesus is to see both sides of prayer. It is to see the need for compassion, for care, for concern, for weeping with those that weep, for sympathy, for groaning, for aching deeply because of what you sense transpiring in human lives. And it is to learn the place and time for anger, when we see Satan’s wiles successfully destroying; for indignation, when the adversary’s program violates territory that is rightfully Christ’s; for boldness, when demonic hordes announce their presence; for attack, when the Holy Spirit prompts an advance.(2)

To be sure, extremes do exist regarding spiritual warfare. I once heard someone describe a religious cartoon they had seen. It portrayed the devil with 40 to 50 strands of rope around him and several individuals next to him discussing the situation.

“What do we do now?” one of them asked.

“I say we bind him again!” was the response of another.

Yes, extremes exist, but it is impossible to separate the Hebrew word for “intercession,” paga, from warfare. Fifteen times it is used to describe physical warfare.(3) Violence and warfare are unquestionably included in the meaning of the word. It is translated in various ways when speaking of battle: “attack,” “fall upon,” “strike down,” “impinge,” and others (see Judges 8:21; 1 Samuel 22:11–19; 2 Samuel 1:11, 16). The essence is the same in all of them—people in battle, fighting one another. When applying the word to prayer, we are obviously speaking of spiritual warfare, not physical violence. But the point must be made that paga, the word for intercession, is a word used to describe warfare.

Quoting Jack Hayford once again, he wrote, “But there is a way to face impossibility. Invade it! Not with a glib speech of high hopes. Not in anger. Not with resignation. Not through stoical self-control. But with violence. And prayer provides the vehicle for this kind of violence.”(4)

Although the approach and methods of spiritual warfare are open for debate—certainly it is a subjective area—some facts are indisputable:

•  We are in a very real spiritual war (see 2 Corinthians 10:4; 1 Timothy 1:18).

•  We are spiritual soldiers in this war (see Psalm 110:2-3; 2 Timothy 2:3-4).

•  We are told to “wrestle” against the kingdom of darkness (see Ephesians  6:12).

• We are to “resist” the actions of the devil (which would in most situations be his demons) (see James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:9).

• We are to “tread on” demonic opposition, which means exercise authority over them (see Luke 10:19; Romans 16:20).

• We are to cast out demons (see Mark 16:17).

• We have the authority to “bind” (forbid) and “loose” (permit) when dealing with the plans and efforts of satan’s kingdom (see Matthew 16:19).

• We have powerful weapons with which to overcome the kingdom of darkness (see 2 Corinthians 10:4; Ephesians 6:10-20).

I am not suggesting that you have screaming matches with demons. Personally, I have no interest in a conversation with demonic spirits. The Greek word for “bind” is first a legal term meaning to forbid based on legal authority.(5) The Passion Translation uses the word “forbid” to translate it, as does the Amplified and other translations. The Amplified also translates it “declare to be improper and unlawful.”

Wielding “The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Ephesians 6:17) means to declare the Word of God over spiritual battles, just as Jesus did when He was tempted (Matthew 4:1-11). Declare God’s Word over demonic situations, and forbid the actions to succeed. 

Let’s do so now, resisting the powers of darkness in their attempts to hinder the advancement of God’s Kingdom in America.

Pray with me:

Father, thank You for giving us the authority to resist and overcome demonic actions against us. We are told in Your word that demonic spirits produce infirmities, induce temptations, generate strife and division, and even initiate false doctrines. Grant us increased levels of discernment to know whether we are dealing with natural or spiritual causes. And when we discern that we are dealing with a spiritual cause, give us the boldness to use Your Word, the sword of the Spirit, and resist the demonic activity. 

Father, several spiritual leaders have discerned that spirits of hatred and murder are working to stir up violence in our nation. We know the antisemitism occurring is demonic at its core. Much of the hatred toward our president is demonically inspired. Racism is demonic. We bind these demonic plans and strategies that are bringing hatred and division, in the name of Jesus. We forbid the strategies to generate riots and murder in our land from succeeding.

We ask You, Father, to cause a movement of love and kindness in our nation. You said love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8). We ask You to tear down walls of division and uproot seeds of hatred. We ask that You stir up the church to pray against the violence and also to operate in the opposite spirit (Matthew 7:12), doing good and loving others. We ask these things in Jesus’ name.

Our decree:

We decree that the spirits of violence in our land are being stopped by the power of Holy Spirit and His angel armies. 

Today’s post was adapted from my book Intercessory Prayer, published by Baker Books. 

Click on the link below to watch the full video.

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1. R. Arthur Mathews, Born for Battle (Robesonia, PA: OMF Books, 1978), p. 113.

2. Jack W. Hayford, Prayer Is Invading the Impossible (South Plainfield, NJ: Logos International, 1977; revised edition, Bridge Publishing, 1995), p. 45. 1977 edition.

3. R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1980; Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., revised edition, 1991), p. 715.

4. Hayford, Prayer Is Invading the Impossible, p. 5.

5. James Strong, The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990), ref. no.1210.