War Room
I was blown away last week when I had the privilege to view the smash hit movie, “War Room.” It rocketed to number ONE in the American box office! As I walked out of the theater, the thought came to my mind, "This movie is going to start a movement of prayer in every church in the nation."
I learned the power of spiritual warfare when I had only been married for two weeks and headed off to Africa as a missionary. We began to experience bizarre dreams and even physical "attacks" in the bed where we felt we were dying. One of our team members lost her mind and had to be taken back to Germany in a strait jacket. The eastern region of Ghana where we were was infamous for it’s witchcraft and we were the only missionaries in 10,000 square miles!
In my two years as a missionary in West Africa, I learned some basic principles of spiritual warfare:
1. Satan’s strategy is to interrupt the progress of the Gospel.
Paul said he often wanted to visit the Thessalonians but “again and again Satan hindered us” (1 Thess. 2: 18). Someone said, “Big demons guard big treasures,” and when Satan sees a Christian getting too close to people he is holding in captivity he lashes out like a wounded lion. He HATES the family and is doing everything he can to disrupt, divorce, confuse, and divide the institution that will make America great again.
2. We have mighty power over the enemy.
Jesus defeated Satan in the cross and “disarmed rulers and authorities” in the cross (Col. 2: 15). Every demonic power is defeated! God has given us the very armor of Christ to wear (which I put on every day) and the Word of God as a sword to attack the enemy. I loved it when Priscilla Shirer, the wife in the movie, marched Satan out of her home, out the front door and demanded that he never return!
“Change your world in private. We CAN take this nation back when we do warfare in secret.”
3. Entrenched demonic powers may take time to remove.
Theologically, I know that all demonic spirits are defeated. My experience has taught me that they are stubborn! They even argued with Jesus when He cast them out of the maniac of Gadara. It takes patience, unmovable faith, determination, and a fighting spirit to finally extricate him from your family, your health, your finances, or your ministry.
4. Scripture is what Satan fears the most.
When Jesus was in the wilderness, He merely quoted three verses and sent the devil packing! The woman in War Room who played the role of a mentor in prayer had verses taped to the entire walls of her “prayer closet.” She spoke the promises of God every day against the enemy until she saw victory come. Find a verse in the Bible that fits your case and speak it until the devil gets tired of hearing it and gives up!
RUN, don’t walk to see War Room. Start your own prayer closet. Change your world in private. We CAN take this nation back when we do warfare in secret.
I would love to hear what impact War Room has had on you and how you propose to implement it’s principles into your daily life?