SPIRITUAL WARFARE

SPIRITUAL IMMUNITY

Lets turn to Eph. 6:13-17 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. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all taking the shield of faith which you will be able to quench all he fiery darts of the wicked one. And take on the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

We want to focus on verse 16 tonight - above all taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. It is possible to be immune from the attacks of the enemy. The way many Christians go about speaking, telling and sharing about their lives gives the impression that it is the lot of Christians to be attacked and harmed. Tonight I want to make it very clear from the word of God that though we are being attacked we are immune.

The most surprising thing to me is how few Christians walk in that immunity; I mean if just for once if your physical body failed in its immune system you would right now drop dead. Our physical bodies are everyday being assaulted by millions of germs and viruses and all kinds of terrible sicknesses. The reason why you fall sick is not because that’s when the germs attack you. The reason why you fall sick is because your immune system has broken down. And of course sometimes there is an element of exposure. However, when we are in perfect health exposure only strengthens our immune system; it doesn’t weaken it. Our immune system is able to change, to adapt to any kind of situation provided we are in good health. There is a resistance that God had put in out bodies. But sometimes you hear Christians talk, it looks like Christians have no immunity at all to the temptation of the attack of the enemy. The way they talk about Satan’s attacks on their lives, it is about the same as someone who tells you that it’s normal to be sick.

None of us will accept that it is normal to be sick. The whole world will not function the way it would. Your office cannot function perfectly if everyone thinks they have to fall sick. The world economy will be affected. Office hours will be shortened two hours a day because we have to be sick. But those of you who are in health were not conscious when germs attacked you in the morning or during the nighttime. You were not conscious when those germs attacked you. You walked about as if there is not a single germ around. The only time you realize that they are there is when you are having a symptom.

How is it that when we can have promises like Luke 10: 19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you - and yet a lot of Christians still go about hurt and damaged. No. 1 I believe is because of wrong teachings. A lot of the wrong teachings are not based on the Word of God but is based on personal experience. If we want to base our doctrine on experience, we will come out with weird doctrine. There are Christians who go about teaching that it is God’s will for people to be sick because they see that when people pray for others some get healed and some don’t. Based on their experience therefore it must be God’s for some to be sick. If you believe its God’s will for some to be sick and some to be healthy the devil will use that wrong doctrine to tell those who have not been prayed for that they are among those whom God chose to be sick.

Long ago the doctrines of double pre-destination and Calvinism were widely accepted in Christian circles but today we look back, we know it is an extreme doctrinal error. They thought that it was God’s will to choose some to be saved and to choose some to be lost. You can’t do anything about it. It’s God’s pre-destination. Those who have not heard the gospel will always be told by the devil that they are among those who God chose to be lost. In his biography, John Bunyan tells us how he struggled with that teaching until he came across a scripture where Jesus said, “Him who cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” Then he realized its God’s will for all to be saved. God by His foreknowledge knows who will accept Him. But God did not by His pre-destination destine some to be lost. By His pre-destination He pre-destined all to be saved. By His foreknowledge He knew those who will be saved.

The same kind of error is coming into the deliverance ministry where people accept the fact that if I get active casting out devils then the devil will attack me back. Jesus cast out more devils than any person. And He is not affected. The apostle Paul drove out demons. I never read about times when he was counter attacked and he was hit back because he cast out the devils. What about scriptures that say you shall thread upon scorpions and serpents and they will not hurt you. Where are we learning this hurtful and damaging teaching? From wrong doctrine. People who write books. People who teach wrong things based on experience. They can quote you one thousand experiences but that doesn’t prove they are right. Right and wrong is not determined by our experience. The Word of God determines right and wrong. Right and wrong is not determined by how many people have a common experience. You can have one million homosexuals in church but that doesn’t make that lifestyle right. You can legalize it but that doesn’t make it right. Right and wrong doesn’t depend on opinion. Right and wrong is not determined by human beings but its determined by the Almighty God who made this world and gave us this world and tells us what is right and what is wrong.

Tonight we want to look at the area of immunity. As we walk in spiritual warfare we need to be aware of it. People don’t realize the kind of spiritual warfare we war against until they walk in the same realm. Then they realize the kind of warfare we fight against.

Let me give an example. I have been traveling to Singapore from Kuala Lumpur for the past two years. I remember just before we were organizing the July 14 meeting, one of our artists who followed us told me a strange thing happened. He got into a taxi at the airport. As the taxi was heading towards the airport, the taxi punctured a tyre. Then as he got into another taxi, again a tyre punctured. He got into another one and again, one of the tyres punctured. It is no coincidence for three punctures to happen in a row. I told him that there is a spiritual warfare involved. See some people don’t realize that just because you are peaceful it doesn’t mean you have no warfare. Some people say you haven’t cast out demons you don’t know. They don’t know that we don’t fight with small fries. The small fries just run from us like cockroaches. We fight the big guys. And when you step on their territory and you deal with the big guys good and proper, all the small fries just run away.

It is important for us to understand that anyone who ever does the ministry has to do it through spiritual warfare. He can’t escape. This is warfare zone. The ministry is a war zone. Saving souls from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light is a war. Don’t tell me anyone can be an apostle, prophet, pastor, evangelist and teacher without knowing spiritual warfare. There is no such thing as a group of people who say they know deliverance when they only know teaching the Word. There is no such thing. We all have one enemy the devil. And you think the devil will surrender something easily without a fight. You must be joking. The devil doesn’t surrender easily. In the early days of my ministry I had to fight him tooth and nail. I think of any other five-fold ministry coming up I had it the worst. I was persecuted right, left, center. Don’t tell me it’s a natural thing. It’s a spiritual being that I am fighting against. So now that I have overcome them, they know where I stand. The enemy knows where I stand. It is important for us to understand this.

I remember in the early days of my ministry, people who claimed to be more experienced exposed me to such wrong teaching. But something in me said, “I am not going to accept that.” I was offered the choice of believing that if I attack the enemy he will attack me back. I completely rejected that idea and I said I would go by the Word and not by my experience. And up to this day, I have stood on this firm ground. Like Paul said we have fought wild beasts in Ephesus and not a single hair on our head was ever harmed. There is only one condition. You walk right with God. You don’t have any unconfessed sin in your life under the blood. And I believe that the blood has no loopholes. You think the devil would like to touch the blood of Jesus? No sir. So if you are attacked then the attacks came in through your loopholes, which are your fears, your wrong doctrines and your wrong teaching. If you want to choose to believe that way that’s your lot. But I want you to know at the time when ninety nine percent believed this wrong teaching, I chose to believe the right thing and I have proven that it works. So I also had the experience to show that it works.

There is such a thing as immunity. Here is a point where Eph. 6:16 says we quench the fiery darts of the enemy. How do we quench the fiery darts unless we know what the fiery darts are? Through the shield of faith. Above all quenching the fiery darts of the enemy. There is a great advantage when you render all the weapons of the enemy obsolete. The shield of faith renders all the weapons of the enemy obsolete. And his main weapon is his fiery darts. He throws fiery darts.

As we look into this area of spiritual warfare, we will raise and answer many questions along the way. The first question is why is it that when people worship idols or when demons powers want to enslave a group of people, they always look for the high places. The bible has an answer to that. That question will be answered along the way.

Lets look at the book of Revelation and raise a second question that we will answer as we go along. In chapter 2:13 I know your works, and where you dwell, Jesus was talking to the church of Pergamos. We know that there is an eschatological teaching that shows that each of the seven churches represents different church ages. But at the same time there is a historical interpretation where there are actual problems occurring in each of these churches. So from the historical point of view, Pergamos at the time of the writing of the book of Revelation will have this problem too. To the angel of the church in Pergamos the Lord says I know your works and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. Now from Ephesians 6: 12, we do know that the higher evil spirits known as principalities, powers, rulers of darkness of this world and spiritual wickedness prefer to dwell in the heavenlies above. These higher evil spirits prefer to be up there in the atmospheric places rather than to be down here on earth. One reason why they prefer to be up in the clouds above is that they would know which places on earth are the recipients of heaven’s graces by the movement of angels from heaven to earth. However there are times the enemy needs a base to work from.

Second question which will be answered along the way. These are not points. Why should Satan who is a fallen Archangel come down and live on this earth in the city called Pergamos at the time of the book of the Revelation? If that is true and since Pergamos doesn’t exist anymore, is there a central city on this earth to which he works from? There usually is and we need to be aware of that.

A third question that can be asked is: do demons flock to where human beings live, or do humans go to where demons already are? We do know that demons flock to where people are because they love the flesh. I am well read in the area of demonology. I have even read the worst extreme books. I have read every book you know on deliverance. Howard Pitman’s teaching is quite balanced. In his book “Demons: An Eye Witness Account,” Howard Pitman wrote about how he was given an open vision of how demons operate. An angel escorted him through all the different realms that the demons operate. And he saw a place where there were a lot of coming and going. Demons congregate in places where they can get a free ride like hitch hikers. Among those places are petrol stations. These demons will hitch a ride from your car without your knowing. Maybe we should not call it hitchhiking; we should call it hijacking. So if somebody shows up with an open door for them to cling to they will hop into the car and ride home with some of those people. Please don’t panic tonight if you have just been to a petrol station. Or the next time you go to petrol station you go with fear and trembling. It should never be that way. You know the Word. See yourself going to the petrol station with an army of angels.

God has a vested interest to what is going on in human affairs. The demons too of course will be interested. But here is the question. Do demons congregate to where people are or do natural or carnal people congregate to where demons are? If one of the questions is correct we need a scripture for that. The Word determines right and wrong; not your experience or logic or your smartness. God is smarter than all of us. He is always right. If we are not in line with the word then we are wrong. No matter how smart you are no matter how intelligent you are if you are not in line with the Word you are wrong.

The book of Genesis, which covers the beginning of all things, shows that cities are built by great men and sometimes by mighty men. In the history of the cities of the world, godly men were founders and builders of some great cities but these cities became corrupted later. But sometimes, crooks and criminals were founders of some of these cities. Out of the desert and wilderness, the small gambling town founded by them grew into a mega city attracting tourists from all over the world. What builds a city? Do the demons go there first and attract the people through wealth, money and all kinds of attractions? Or do the people go there and attract demons? Isn’t that an interesting question? Which is the correct answer? Both are correct.

Now if both are correct, then how do we answer the question of Babylon? Nimrod, the ungodly fellow, built the whole city. Behind the city of Babylon was a spirit. God dealt a deathblow to that. If both answers are right, then another puzzling question is which of these came first, the humans or the demons? It is very much like the chicken or the egg question. See both cannot be right at the same time at the inception of a city. One has to start first. And by answering those questions we will have some answers to the question of spiritual warfare because it all has to do with understanding and dealing with demon powers.

Now looking at God’s Word, lets look at II Corinthians. I have left those questions hanging and we will let them hang for a while. II Cor. 12:7 And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. See Paul had to fight with an angel from Satan. Paul’s ministry was affecting the entire generation. Remember earlier I made statements and I didn’t give you scriptures that the higher your ministry it doesn’t mean you don’t need to do deliverance. There is no such thing. Every ministry has to fight demon powers in order to expand the kingdom of God. There is no expansion of the kingdom of God without Satan withdrawing. And Satan is not going to withdraw without a fight. Paul had an influence on his generation and he had become a threat to Satan. God gave him the revelation to free the generation and Paul had to wrestle with high demons. Can Paul deal with small demons? Yes, but he cannot waste his time on trivial matters. This is why in Acts 16 his purpose to preach the Word to the entire city was to win the city and not get bogged down with small distractions. And everyday as he went out to preach the Word, there was this girl who was following him, crying out, “These men are the servants of the Most High God.” It was a demon in her. The question is why didn’t Paul cast out the demon when the demon was there? Why didn’t Paul discern the demon? Did he or not? I am sure he did.

Remember this is a battle. If the enemy is smart, he would know how to mislead and distract his foes using decoys. In the Allied landing in the Second World War at Dunkirk in France, the Allied troops also staged a camouflaged landing further up North to mislead the Germans into thinking that the main Allied battalions would land there. The main German army rushed up North to engage them but the Allied troops landed in Dunkirk and took the Germans from behind by surprise. There is no war without sending out distraction. If you are fighting a battle you keep the enemy guessing where your attack is. And the main German army was in the Northern side thinking that they will attack there. And the Germans also played the same game. They send some dummy defense that actually doesn’t work. This is to impress upon us that war is a sum total of strategy, intrigue and strikes. We are not here to fight skirmishes; we are here to win the war.

When Paul entered the city of Thyatira what must he do? He is there to tear down the strongholds and as he preached the Word, he will deal with multitudes of demons in the city and be distracted by one. But when that one became a nuisance he turned around and said, “In the name of Jesus get out.” And the spirit left. The authorities of that city imprisoned them because of that deliverance. You say God planned the whole thing. One demon casting won the whole place. It was not the one demon casting that won the whole city. It was the praise and worship that Paul had in the prison that won the whole city. They were not distracted. They knew what they were out to do. If he had cast the demon out and they locked him up and he did nothing, there will be no prison door opened and no earthquake. It was because Paul continued the spiritual warfare. They prayed and sang praises to God. The warfare was still going on until the whole city was shaken. So understand the strategy of the enemy and we must understand what our strategy is in spiritual warfare.

Do you know as a minister of God you can wear yourself so thin that God cannot use you. You are doing everything but achieving nothing. Even in the natural that can be done. We all have only one life we all only have 24 hours a day. We must know what we want out of it. We must know what we are planning with our life and the direction we are moving. There is no time to lose.

Lets turn to II Cor. 10:3 For though we walk in the flesh we do not war according to the flesh. He is not talking about fighting. Sometimes we talk about fight. We fight the fight of faith. But here he is talking about war. A fight and a war are different. If you have an argument with someone you have a fight with that person. Hopefully you are Christian born again and you repent and you both love one another with the love of the Lord. But if you have war, it involves a bigger area and more people. Paul says we do not war according to the flesh. And he says in verse 4 For the weapons of our warfare. This is not fighting. This is war. Are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.

No. 1 we need to understand all the works of the enemy. What kind of fiery darts is the enemy using? No. 1, strongholds; No. 2, arguments; No. 3, every high thing that exalt itself against the knowledge of God, and No. 4, every thought. These are the kind of fiery darts that the enemy is firing against our life all the time. We need to know how our immunity system works against these attacks so that we are immune to all the attacks of the enemy. It is possible to walk in a plain when none of his fiery darts go through because they all are quenched. The shield of faith quenches the fiery darts of the enemy. It is possible to walk in a plain like Luke 10 where it doesn’t affect you at all. It is possible to walk in a realm where you are a trap and a danger to the devil and he can’t do anything about that. He can’t harm you. He can’t hurt you. He tries to distract you but you are warned and thus could not get distracted then he will flee. Think about it, why doesn’t these attacks flee from some people?

No. 1 strongholds. Everything that is negative is also positive. Everything that is positive is also negative in terms of principle the way it works. Sowing and reaping is positive and negative depends on how you apply it. Here it says strongholds pulling down strongholds. What was the first thing that Joshua did when he fought in the land of Canaan? He went against the major city and a major king. If you observe very carefully, Canaan had squatters on it. Now Joshua did not wipe out all the people. He divided the land and the people who were supposed to possess the land. But Joshua did something. He wiped out all the strongholds and all the major controlling cities. We know that as Joshua went forth there was an army of angels going forth who were wiping out the spiritual strongholds too. So the natural strongholds fell because the spiritual was also falling. Here is a point. Every city that is build is either built on godly foundations or ungodly foundations - there is no half way point. Sometimes what was laid on godly foundation in the end was turned into ungodliness and corruption like the city of Jerusalem. By the time of the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel the temple itself was desecrated. Sometimes the city that has not been built in God can be turned around for God. But cities are what modern civilization is about. You take away all the organization of the city; scatter all the people and it will be back to the 18^th century. Remove all the things that we have as an organized society and we are back in the 18^th century.

In the book of Genesis, cities were built around spiritual forces. Now when the spiritual forces are there it attracts people. When the people started settling there, the city attracts more demons there. Which comes first? The spiritual force that builds the city comes first. Imagine if ever some of you had a special call and you see a place where you know you can have a great city there? It will be your vision that draws the people there. As you build it, people who started believing in that vision begin to support that and it becomes a big city in itself. But your vision came from the spirit realm. It either came from God or it came from the enemy. All cities have a history on how it comes into being. It’s important in our spiritual warfare and our fight against the enemy. That’s the negative side.

But the positive side is this. Whenever you go into any spiritual warfare you have to have a spiritual base to war from - a personal one and a corporate one. A corporate one can be a church. Tonight since we are all going to pray overnight and we individually doing a warfare need to understand the spiritual base. Turn to Revelation 2 to see a place where the devil is mentioned as having his throne there. Verse 13 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. In the natural to run a country you need to have a capital for the whole country. And in the United Nations, they need a central point of reference a city where they congregate. As Satan looks at this planet earth he has his central point of activity too that he is going to work. And you notice its like a battle goes hand in hand. In the beginning of the church age and all the time it was in Jerusalem. And it was Herod who was used by Satan to come against Jesus who was born at the same time. And the battle was around Jerusalem. Christianity was widespread there. But then it began to go to another place. City after city you notice this everywhere you read in history where any great city has influenced the world you can be sure that Satan use that as his temporary headquarters. Probably when Rome ruled the world that was also his temporary headquarters. And when America rule the world it will be one of the American cities. And yet at the same time there is a spiritual work of the gospel going forth. When America rule the world, it is the country with the greatest number of missionaries being sent forth.

Whenever God has His plans, the devil quickly sends the counterfeit. But this is what I believe God’s plan is. It is the overall plan of revival which I have mentioned before. If you understand it we are talking about overall plan of the revival of God in the church age. It began in the Middle East. It moved to the North European sector. It moved to the West it is now in the Far East. It will move to the South and then that will be the last wave and that will be the end. That’s the overall plan of God. North, West, East South and the end. The devil sensed it too and he copied it as he follows the revival everywhere and tries to duplicate the same thing to propagate his false religion. As you see the strategy of God you see the strategy of the enemy. We realize that each one of us is such a small individual in the overall plan of God and we need one area in our life all the time. I call that spiritual base. When you win a stronghold you have stronghold. When you pull down a stronghold the only way to pull down a stronghold is to build a bigger stronghold - to have a stronger hold over that stronghold. We all need a spiritual stronghold and a bulwark in our life.

In our spiritual warfare how do we build immunity? How many of you like to be immune? How do we do that? No. 1, have a spiritual base. This is a spiritual stronghold that is a bulwark in your life. Now each one of us may develop slight differences in what that spiritual bulwark is. Spiritual bulwark is something that is so strong and so impenetrable that is like a city to you. It is like a city in your life.

David’s spiritual bulwark. He was a great soldier. He is called a prophet in the book of Acts. He was a great king and ruler. You know what his bulwark was? He was a Psalm man. A bulwark is something that it stays the same whether you are in the valley or on the mountain. When David was at his lowest He strummed his minstrel. When David was beginning his service in the nation of Israel in his life, was he recognized as a king first, or as a prophet first or as a Psalmist first? When David was at his lowest point at Ziklag, the bible says he encouraged himself. Study the word encourage in the Hebrew and cross reference to other places and you will find that he uses his bulwark whether he was in the valley or on the mountain when he is at his greatest victory. But there were sad things that did happened when Saul died and Jonathan died he pulled out his minstrel tossing a Psalm.

What is your spiritual bulwark? If you cannot answer that question you will never ever be immune. You know what is my bulwark? Meditation on the Word. Whether I am famous or infamous my meditation on the Psalms was my bulwark. When there is no success nothing that you could touch or feel that you would consider success meditation on the Word was my bulwark. Now that doesn’t mean that’s the only thing you do. We all need to pray, we all need to praise. We all need to balance the Word in the Spirit. We need to do all those things. But there is one bulwark in your life that never fails day or night valleys or mountains. I still enjoy meditating on the Word. It’s something that doesn’t get dry in your life.

What is your spiritual bulwark? Remember a bulwark doesn’t mean that is the only thing you have. A bulwark is not your only diet. It doesn’t mean that he likes durian that he is going to live on durians. Durian for breakfast, durian for lunch, durian for dinner, it’s going to be a dull life. All of us need a balance diet. But if I were to ask you what is your favorite fruit you still can name it. That’s what I am talking about. It’s something that is there that triggers that thing in you. I am sure some of you may not have a favorite fruit. But most of you have some favorite food. We can acquire favorite food and fruit as we grow and it changes. But favorite means that at any point and any time when it is there you say ah my favorite. It draws something out of you.

A bulwark in the spiritual realm is something that draws that spirit out of you. If I were to bring your favorite fruit your saliva starts coming out. Why does it produce all these symptoms in your life? You have a natural reaction. Your favorite food or fruit produces a keen reaction on your inside, no matter what situation you are in. It is the same way with a bulwark. It is something that draws out your prayerfulness. It doesn’t mean that is the only thing that you are able to do. The bulwark is something that draws out everything of your spirit out. It’s what I call the starter switch on your inside. And a bulwark is something that can withstand pressure, that can withstand mountain top experience or valley experience. Every one of us has a bulwark. For some people like Elijah the bulwark is a mountain. When such people are on the mountain don’t play around with them. I am sure you read about the soldiers that tried to play about with him in II Kings chapter one. It doesn’t mean that he had only the God of the mountain because our God is a God of the mountain and a God of the valley. In fact God gets very annoyed if you limit Him. Remember those jokers who say the Israelites’ God is only a God on the mountain and not on the valley. Lets fight them in the valley and God gets very annoyed and say because they call me a God of the mountain and not of the valley I will defeat them, I will fry them, I will do all kind of things. God gets annoyed when you limit Him. When Elijah was down where did he go to.- the mountain. Did you notice that the mountain had a name? It was called the mountain of God.

I Kings 19:8 So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb the mountain of God. How is it that Horeb got that title? Horeb was where Moses also had an experience with God. When he was down he went to the mountain. Now that is a place where he can hear God. That is the place where he could consecrate himself. By walking there it produces something on his inside. By being there it draws out all the rest of his spiritual being. See a bulwark is something shakes that meets the very need of your personality. And each one of us may differ slightly according to our personality.

As I study Elijah’s personality, I noticed He is always a man who needs to pull out from the crowd. If he gets too much into the crowd, he gets lost and he may stop hearing from God or find it hard and gets discouraged. He is always a man who needs to cut off from the crowd on a regular basis. Secondly, Elijah has a personality of going to extremes. H would go all the way there and no turning back. He is bold and bold people have extremes. When they are bold they are very bold. When they are hurt they are very hurt. I have seen many like that. They could tear out the teeth from the lions. When they get hurt they get very hurt. Those who had stretched out that far can also be bend out that far. We need to know the strengths and weaknesses of our personality. God will show you through time and development.

My bulwark is meditation on the Word because I need the amount and depth of thoughts and ideas of God to keep coming to me. I think differently from other people. And I constantly need that as my bulwark. Different people have different personality.

Elijah’s bulwark was the mountain. What is your stronghold? Perhaps the Lord touched you through your prayer. And prayer was your key that unlocks the other things in your life. Examine how you started. Examine where you are on the mountain what you do and what you do in the valley. You find a common stronghold. What had the stronghold to do in the spiritual realm? It means that you know how to turn the switch of faith on day or night. If you have a house and you don’t know where the switches are when you go back and its still dark in the morning from overnight prayer you don’t know where to switch on the switch. We learn hundred of truths in our Christian life. We need to grow from glory to glory. And when you learn all these truths, remember you got still one very big switch in our life and not many switches. The one big switch turns on the mains and then you can see the other places where you can turn on the light. And each truth that you learn is the switch that you turns on many other departments. But there is always one switch on. For some people’s Christian life their switches keep changing. And every time they get problem they struggle which spiritual truth to apply. Imagine in a Christian life how much things we learn. Imagine leaning one thousand principles. And you are about to face the enemy with little choice. There is one main bulwark. Once that one is turned on you know where to go, what to do with all the nine hundred and ninety nine systems. You know when to use it how to use it and where to use it.

What is your stronghold? A stronghold in your life gets all of your spirit man in tune to the being of God. It could be the song of deliverance, a psalmist like David. You need to learn your bulwark and develop it so strongly so that you develop immunity to Satan’s attacks in the realm that God has called you to.

Involved with the bulwark is the area of positioning. Why should Satan position himself at Pergamos? Why should Satan position himself in certain places? We know Satan is a copycat - he goes where he knows the spiritual activity is greatest. America is in this decade the nation where the greatest number of Christians is. This twentieth century began with America being one of he greatest evangelical countries. But more and more Christians are now outside the United States and if all of you know the Spirit you know where the move of God is today - in Asia. So where do you think your old friend the wolf will be? Better not be next door to you. He will be in the process or he may have already done it by sending out his stronghold from Asia. But remember where God’s destiny is. Wherever God centralize his revivals, Satan will get as close as possible. And we have to constantly keep our guard.

Which is why the bible didn’t just say pray; it says watch and pray. Why did Jesus say watch and pray. Why didn’t He just say pray. Why watch and pray? Of course we know that in His time watches were not invented yet so it’s not looking at your watch and pray. The only way if you are immune for the enemy to get at you is for your immune system to fail first. I repeat again if you are immune the only way for the enemy to get a foothold in you is for the immune system to fail first. And he will do anything to get it fail. Unless it fails then only can he get a foothold. This is the reason why many people who are demon possessed or demon oppressed. Demons have entered the psyche of their soul through a crisis in their life an emotional storm in their life, a fearful experience in their life, a shocking event in their life. It has been things that hit their psyche and opened a gap for him to penetrate. Every demon case is also a soul problem. If the devil has his own way, he would have demon possessed everyone today. There are a lot of people who are unbelievers why didn’t the demons jump on them. He can only jump on them when there is an open door through things in the life, through fear, through crisis.

Why watch and pray? Notice how the demons work throughout the bible. In David’s life when David was idle and not doing anything then he was tempted to sin. When David multiplied his army it says that Satan stirs up in such a way that David was tempted to number Israel. Our open doors are when we stop that watching part. When we are no more watchful to the devil’s infiltrations that the strongholds of the devil come in.

Let me close with Eph. 4 and tell me from this scripture after you read it besides all the other scriptures we have covered whether its God’s will for the church to be immune or not. Verse 14 That we should no longer be children, tossed to and from and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.

That you should no long be tossed to and fro. This is the perfect will of God for the bride of Christ. Every Christian should no more be confused, or tossed to and fro, but be steadfast and immovable. This is another way of saying to have immunity from the onslaught of the enemy. Stand firm and strong in what God has for your life. Spiritual stronghold is a bulwark in your life.

I need to cover one area for our spiritual warfare tonight. I want to close but the Holy Spirit won’t let me close until I cover this. Lets look II Cor. 10:4-5 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Here it says casting down arguments. In the Old King James they have translated it casting down imagination. We know the reason why they put the word arguments is because the usage of the Greek word points more to the reasoning part. Yet there is an aspect of it being in the imagination part. The Holy Spirit wants me to touch on before we close tonight.

Why do those demons powers want to go into the high places because there is this spiritual law that says what you see is what you get. We know that there is also a spiritual law that say what you say is what you get. This spiritual law says what you see is what you get. Of course what we see on our inside can be helped by what we see on the outside or hindered. The reason why a lot of people find it hard to walk by faith is faith walk is not by sight but by something else on your inside. A majority of people goes by what they see. But faith doesn’t go by what we see. It walks by another higher realm of seeing. And what we see physically can either be a hindrance to our health.

Turn with me to Gen. 15: 5, And He brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and He said unto him, “So shall thy seed be.” Why should the Almighty God of the universe who can do all things, bring Abraham outside? God brought Abraham outside his tent. Do you notice that he was in the tent? God told him to get out of the tent and it was at night. And said, look now toward heaven and then what did God tell him? Count the stars if you are able to number them. And there is a full stop. He did not say, “Abraham, your children will be as the stars,” full stop. First He takes him out. Then He makes him count the stars. When God says something and there is a full stop and you are obedient, what do you do? You do what He tells you before the full stop. What did God tell him to do? Count the stars if you can number them. Did Abraham say anything? Did he say, “I can’t count the stars”? There is no record. How is it in the movies Abraham and Sarah say, “O God I cannot count the stars.” Where did they get that? Where did they get that part from just like where did they get the three wise men coming into the manger? The three wise men didn’t come to the manger. The three wise men came to a house. Besides that there were not three. We don’t know whether it was three. When God say something full stop we do it. And He said to him so shall be your descendants be. He waited till Abraham had done something physical and say, “So shall your descendants be.”

Now this is a very powerful spiritual law that you can activate tonight. The same law was activated in prophecy when Elisha told the king of Israel, “Take your arrow and shoot.” He took the arrow and he shot it out through the window. And he says that’s the arrow of deliverance of the Lord. Did he tell him what the arrow represents? He says take this arrow and hit the ground with that. And the king of Israel took the arrow and hit. And what did the man of God do?

Look at what the man of God did. The story is in II Kings. Don’t think that what you do tonight is not important. Now you know why God asked me to finish this part. This part is important at the end of the story in chapter 13 verse 17 he shot the arrow. Verse 18 And he said, “Take the arrows.” And he took them. And he said unto the king of Israel, “Smite upon the ground.” And he smote three times, and stayed. Verse 19 And the man of God was angry. In the overnight prayer, if you pray as if you were in just an ordinary prayer meeting, the man of God will be angry. Because if all we are doing is just vocalizing some mumbo jumbo, we are wasting time. I don’t believe in wasting time.

Remember what you do in the natural releases something else into the spirit realm. He is told what the spirit realm is. Notice this is a permanent thing. Let me go a bit slower. How many times did he strike? Three times. Who had the choice of striking how many times? God or man? Did God pre-destine that he strike three times? No, God pre-destine that he rather not. How many times he strikes depend on his ability in yielding to God. If he had been a perfect man yielding to God, he would keep on striking till he sensed that he has exhausted God’s anger. He was not a really yielded man, so therefore he never struck it out totally. He should have destroyed that arrow. This is what the man of God said. “Take the arrow.” He took that. “Strike on the ground,” and he struck three times and stopped. Verse 19 and the man of God was angry with him and said you should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it. But now you will strike Syria only three times. How could that one incident predict the will and lives of nation and national war? I don’t see the logical connection. We know that national wars are not won based on broken pieces of wood. How would you believe it if I were to tell you that the Gulf War is not won based on what they did there but based on some humble human beings and intercessors wrestling and praying through and if those persons had prayed halfway you may have a different story.

My spirit got angry when I read the celebration of the Dunkirk war. There was no mention about the intercessors that were praying. And men glorified men. Talking about the genius of men, they attribute the escape of the Allied troops to luck. Why is it that the fog cleared up at that precise time for the Allied troops to make their escape by boats and not other time? They didn’t know that there were people like Howard Rees, the intercessor praying. They didn’t know that there were many, many miracles that were taking place in the spiritual realm. Well let it be since this is the world that doesn’t know God yet until the body of Christ rise up. But that’s not what history was really like I want you to know. It is largely a history seen from the human point of view that left out the role of angels and demons powers. Behind it there were little saints who prayed through. And that is why I also cannot agree with anyone saying there is no necessity to use physical things like photographs when praying for others. If laying hands on a photograph helps to release your faith in God, why not? However, it must be all done in the spirit.

Its important for us to understand that here what took place in II Kings 13 was significant because No. 1 Elisha was called to the whole nation of Israel so there was a national anointing that works. The king of Israel had a natural anointing to be king over the entire nation of Israel. These were two ordinary human beings anointed by God but whose destiny affected the nation. Therefore even when they were alone what they did would affect the nation.

I believe that this prayer meeting and what we have here has a destiny that affects the nation. We have here in our midst people called to affect the nation. If you were just an ordinary intercessor with no divine call and destiny to affect the nation, that is different. You will be among the whole of the faithful who have their rewards. But if you were called to the destiny of the nation then what you pray here is important tonight and every night and every time when you pray. Learn that when you become the destiny of the generation and of the nation what happen is you will affect all the other people. Whether you like it or not it does affect them.

Let me give you a different example. For example if I am a pastor let say of this church, which I am. If my spiritual life goes down a bit, you will feel its effects in the pews. I am not talking about people detecting it in the pulpit. But it will affect every single one in the church. That is why spiritual leadership is important. If the leadership sinned, there is an open door where every member gets affected. I know leaders who walk in sins and things start happening way down that they cannot explain. Like a curse starts happening among the people. He couldn’t explain it in the natural but there was a spiritual law that is broken.

Brethren what we do in tonight’s overnight prayer is important. Some of the natural things that we do are very important to the outcome of your intercession. For example lets say if you are called to Indonesia and you are praying for Indonesia and you fall asleep while you pray. It is no different from the king of Israel striking three times instead of five or six times. It is dangerous if you get that kind of anointing and start becoming groggy and sleepy, because what you do you can’t alter it. Now can the king of Israel reverse his action of striking fewer arrows? He cannot since there was a spiritual law released. Only one chance, sometimes my friends, you get only one chance. When there is an anointing to perform a prophetic action, sometimes all you get is one chance. It doesn’t mean that God is not merciful. He does sometimes give another chance but the time period between the first chance and the second chance can be forty years. And we need to realize that there are crucial issues at stake here.

In Gen. 13 God told Abraham something that he has to release out of his life. After Lot left Abraham God said to him in verse 14 And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are – northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.

Abraham had to see and walk on the land God gave him. Now if we pray for any place it would be powerful if we actually walk in that place. That means if you pray for Singapore it would be helpful that you be able to walk through that place or drive through that place and claim and pray. It would be helpful to do that. Sometimes you could organize a prayer walk or a prayer drive. But do you know that your imagination is not limited to these four walls? If you could pray and the Spirit of God enlightens you, you could walk in your spirit through the length and breath of the land God gave you. Maybe the land God gives you is your business and as you pray for your business, you must walk through your business premises.

I am surprised at the many people coming to the overnight prayer to constantly pray and when they pray they don’t visualize the answer. I am not asking you to visualize something that is your own. I am asking you to visualize something that God says that He has given you. I am still surprised and astounded at the number of people who do not walk when they pray in the spirit. Robert Liardon calls it praying journeying in the spirit. Remember that. I am still surprised at the number people who don’t walk. Now some people are able to walk and some are not. The latter may need natural aids.

Besides overcoming besetting strongholds by developing a bulwark, the second area of spiritual warfare is to develop godly imagination. If you cannot imagine and visualize the answers, I want you to know it is the enemy that is robbing you and preventing you from seeing the answers clearly. Whether you pray with your eyes close or open, if you cannot visualize and imagine the answers but you can only see the problems, then the enemy has blocked you there. No matter how long you pray the effective part of praying is when the tide begins to turn. The other part of prayer is all building up to this climax of releasing some powerful force. There is depth only in your prayer when you began to see the answers in your imagination. That means that if you start praying from now, by the time we finish our overnight prayer, you should get a picture or substance in your imagination that will make your faith stronger.

This is why the Holy Spirit asked me to continue in this teaching because its important. It is not just the quantity of your prayer it’s the quality of your prayer. Of course we want both quality and quantity. But we need to understand how to get quality and then understand how to get quantity. If all you know how to do is to make a bicycle with one and a half wheel you can make one million bicycles it can’t help anybody. We need to understand what is the quality then you say O.K. I can’t reach the quality maybe I can reach this level of quality and then make it in quantity hoping that the quantity will help you to reach the quality.

If right now whatever you are praying for tonight I know many of you have different things in mind. The Holy Spirit will give to you the burdens of your heart and the desire of your heart will rise up. But if you cannot see it and if you only start seeing it at 4 a.m. then all the prayer up to 4 a.m. is only building up. I hope that none of us in this supersonic age are still spiritually using the B52 airplane of the 1940s and 1850s. Only you can make a choice of praying in a lethargic way or in a effective way. And I am saying tonight that your difficulty would have to do with the enemy attacking you there in your imagination.

The difficulty of your imagination and all these things are the enemies’ blockage. Everyone has thought life and imagination life. Up to the level the enemy has attacked and infiltrated your imagination with darts, the enemy has affected you and hindered your..prayers.

Here is the big second key to the immunity. As long as your inner mind and your imagination is clear-cut the enemy cannot touch you. I want to share with you one secret. Wherever I go, in my vision I always see the glory of God around me and no enemy can come into this glory. When I think about my family I see the glory of God and the enemy is far away from them and cannot come near them. Everywhere and anywhere. If the enemy can break through that imagination and plant an image that gives you fear, he can hinder your prayers.

Suppose somebody told you the doctor said there is a tumor right next to the kidney. Your mind sees it. It is right there no wonder the pain is coming from the right side. The battleground is what you see. Every time you pray you see it there. You know why it takes some people so long because they are seeing it there while they pray. They are saying something but seeing something else. Every time they pray they still see it. Do you know when will they be cured? When they pray they don’t see it. Instead when they pray they see the diseased kidney there. Every time they pray they see a coffin and the funeral. How can they ever overcome that? The day they overcome the imagination realm is the day they begin breaking through to God’s power. The enemy tries to put things on me but he does not succeed because I see the healing. You get immune to the things of the enemy. And sometimes all you have to do is see it.

I remember when my neighbor had his car stalled and I was as usual walking round the field he called me then I helped to push his car. While concentrating on the pushing, I must have strained some of my muscles. I didn’t feel anything physically at that time. When I came back, I did all my usual exercises and I found a slight pain in the afternoon. By nighttime I could not even lie down without pain. So what did I do in the middle of the night? I found it was too painful to lie down. So I got up and went to my studio and got my imagination right. I made sure there was not a single doubt planted by enemy in my imagination and any part of my being but I would see the light of God and the glory of God there. I see every part of my body is being right not a single thing is wrong with me. Of course you know how good the enemy is at suggestion. In case you do not know he had suggested about three different types of possibility. I am not accepting anything from the enemy. I knew the open door to this strain in my back muscles. I just sat down and make sure my imagination had not even a whisper of a doubt. And I fell asleep sitting upright. You should know it because in an overnight prayer a lot of people do it. I just meditated and see, just worshiping in the spirit and just praying. Just the power of seeing by the morning it was O.K. I know that if it had been anybody else who does not know the spiritual laws they would have gone to see a doctor. He would have given them some painkillers and sent them for an x-ray. What should you go for an x-ray when you have doctor Jesus? The only lesson is learned from that incident is when you are pushing a car be extra careful. It was just seeing the results that healed my backache. I didn’t even say a single word. This is the power of seeing.

What do I do when I walk in faith? When I walk in faith I see the people in all the grass became the world. I am walking round the world as I walk down the field. Some of you may not realize this as I walk round the field. To you it’s the field; to me it’s the world. To third a party examining the arrows they say what nonsense is this. These are just mere arrows. But it was what was quickening in your imagination that was important. Sometimes when I sit at the balcony and meditate for a moment of time it looks like everything turns into a multitude of people and I am ministering there to them. Dream dreams see vision but the power of sight is important. That which we see is important. It has to do with the area called immunity. Here is where the open door to the enemy’s attacks come in. You have your confession right, your action right but if your imagination is wrong – finished. See I have learned the laws of faith early. I know that before confession comes vision, which I hope most of you have learnt. If you don’t get your vision right, you will nullify your confession.

All your confession is either in the first category or second category. In the first category, your confession consists of just meditation and second category is decreeing and commanding. Vision comes before confession or decree. So make sure that gets corrected. That is the reason why I don’t simply pray any prayer. You cannot just pray a prayer of faith and say O Father God right now we are praying for China. No, if you can’t see it you cannot decree. As long as you cannot see the hands of the Lord moving you cannot see it as belonging to the Lord you cannot see the move of the Spirit there all you will be doing is O Father please give us China. This is what it sounds like to God. It’s still in the first category of praying. Before I ever decree I must get into the realm of the spirit I must see it. If I am praying for lets say China, India, it may take a long time for me to see it. I don’t care if it takes me two hours to see the picture and five seconds to pray. I would rather take two hours to pray and five seconds to speak forth the decree. Rather than struggle for two hours to pray, get the picture correct.

If you want the secret of immunity you must see the picture of victory. I would guarantee if you check this area, you would grow in immunity. This is the truth why the enemy attacks ministers - they see the attacks coming. Somebody told them a story of some fallen minister and the picture is locked inside their imagination. They read something unsavory and the picture gets inside the imagination part of their brains. But as long as you see angels guarding you, the glory of God surrounding you, the blood of Jesus in your veins, as long as you see all these things its impossible to penetrate the defense. That is your immunity.

Why are we speaking about immunity? When the bible says the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church, it means the church enjoys immunity from the enemy. However, many Christians are still attacked by the enemy because many Christians are poor in their defense and they want to attack. No doubt the best defense is offense. But that doesn’t mean you attack without knowing defense. We all don’t like to see defensive football where all the time the players are keeping the ball to themselves. Once a while when the opponents come too near, the players pass the ball to their own goalkeeper. But yet if all you know is attack and don’t know how to defend, at the end of the game, you lose. We must know how to defend. You could play chess defensively or aggressively. I play aggressively I never enjoy defensive chess however my defense is good. The defense must be solid for the offense to be successful.

It is important to see. I hear stories like: we have been praying and interceding for the world and now this unfortunate incident has happened to my family. Rubbish - that comes from the pit of hell. It’s a doctrine designed by the devil to stop you praying and to kill off all the intercessors. It never happened to Jesus, why should it happen to you? It never happened to Paul, why should it happen to you? Paul was a great intercessor in almost every epistle the first thing he says I am praying for you. Lets learn to understand what do you see. I can guarantee everyone who is under attack had seen the wrong imagination. That’s why there is an open door. But if you guard your imagination I can tell you it’s a beautiful realm you walk into. The realm of the spirit all you have to do is see it. And if you could get people to see it I would guarantee you that this is where the miracle power of God flows. I don’t care if you are here right now or you are hearing this tape or whatever if right now you could see that you are totally healed in your imagination without a single doubt and its formed.

You know there are many types of images: some images come once in a while; some comes clear and then blur again. Guess what their life is also like that; their healing is also like that. I know why their antenna is not tuned properly. This is not instant thing because a lot of our tubes are burnt and our antennas are crooked. I find very few people who can actually close their eyes and can see a very clear picture. Sometimes it’s a totally new area you got to build up the picture. But the day that you see it clear without any doubt I would guarantee that is when there is prayer released and the power of God will be released. If right now you have any physical illness its because of your imagination.

But in my life there is an area that is still on the way the perfection of my eyes. I have a lot of healing that come so far but it’s because deep in my imagination I still sometimes see myself as myself. And sometimes I see myself with the new eyes. But as it becomes more and more often, my eyesight is getting clearer and permanent. I don’t believe in having sickness I don’t believe in having defect in my body that’s my faith. Some of you who don’t wear glasses you don’t know the amount of faith it takes. It’s easier to heal a blind eye because its something you can conveniently and easily take care of you don’t want to exercise much faith. Which is why a lot of man of God wear glasses. I find that as there is a change on your inside there is a change on your outside.

I have a book on body building and it makes this statement. One key part of the bodybuilding is the imagination. It’s important what you see. Probably for some of you who struggle for success you sometime grasp it and you sometimes lose it. It because you sometimes have it in your imagination and you sometimes lose it.

Tonight look at immunity these are the two areas the bulwark your spiritual stronghold and No. 2 your imagination. If you see it clearly, it’s yours. As you come to God in prayer don’t underestimate those things that you got to see and then you got to do, look, arise, walk. Only the Holy Spirit can deal in your life and show you what to do tonight. You need to ask the Spirit what He wants you to do. Whether you are praying individually or praying corporately together, the first thing we want to do tonight is to get into the realm of the spirit. So what do we do when we pray overnight? First get out of this natural body into the spirit realm. And for that to happen you may need to pray a bit. Once you are there hold fast to that realm and don’t let go. And if you could lock in you would never fall asleep. But if your spirit is willing but your flesh is weak then you may have to do something in the natural to fight through. But tonight don’t just let the quantity come out; let the quality come out.

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