Lesson 03 — Kingdom Warfare (Parts 3 and 4)

Invading the Realm of the Invisible
Eight Characteristics of Kingdom Warfare
(Continuing with characteristics 5 & 6)

Timeless Insights
“Prayer is the final armament. Prayer is the all-inclusive strategy of war. It is a form of spiritual bombing to saturate any area before God’s army of witnesses begin their advance. Prayer is the all-conquering, invincible weapon of the army of God.” — Wesley Duewel

5. Characteristic Five: Kingdom Warfare _______________ the Enemy.

Scripture:
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. — Ephesians 6:12 (NKJV)

You will be a new threshing instrument with many sharp teeth. You will tear your enemies apart, making chaff of mountains. You will toss them into the air, and the wind will blow them all away; a whirlwind will scatter them. Then you will rejoice in the Lord. You will glory in the Holy One of Israel. — Isaiah 41:15-16 (NLT)

Timeless Insights
“In its simplest meaning prayer has to do with spirit conflict.” — S. D. Gordon

Case Study: The Fall of the Berlin Wall

6. Characteristic Six: Kingdom Warfare ___________________ Demonic Strongholds!

Scripture:
We are human, but we don’t wage war with human plans and methods. We use God’s mighty weapons, not mere worldly weapons, to knock down the Devil’s strongholds. With these weapons we break down every proud argument that keeps people from knowing God. With these weapons we conquer their rebellious ideas and we teach them to obey Christ. — 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NLT)

Timeless Insights
“A stronghold is a mind-set impregnated with hopelessness that causes us to accept as unchangeable something that we know is contrary to the will of God.” — Edgardo Silvoso

Scripture:
No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house. — Mark 3:27 (NKJV)

Timeless Insights
“Prayer is our means of involving the omnipresent God of the universe in our personal battle with Satan.” — Evelyn Christenson

Scripture:
See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant. — Jeremiah 1:10 (NKJV)

Timeless Insights
“It is one thing to penetrate the darkness of a region through our passionate and persistent praying, but it’s entirely another matter to establish a permanent life-giving source of light forever preventing the darkness from reclaiming that area. We must penetrate the darkness for the purpose of eliminating it. Planting must accompany the praying.” — From The Jericho Hour by Dick Eastman (Creation House)

AFTERTHOUGHTS… PONDER AND PRAY

Ponder Points: Discuss (or ponder) what you think it means to engage principalities in prayer. Share any instances you recall of how prayer removed a stronghold in your life, your neighborhood or community, or somewhere in the world.

Prayer Points: God told the prophet Jeremiah to not only “root out, pull down, destroy and throw down” strongholds through his prayers, but to “build and plant.” Pray for the extension of Christ’s Kingdom in a specific nation or people group through the planting of the Gospel and the building of churches among them.

Invading the Realm of the Invisible
Eight Characteristics of Kingdom Warfare
(Continuing with characteristics 7 & 8)

7. Characteristic Seven: Kingdom Warfare ________________ Calvary’s Victory!

Timeless Insights
“It is vitally important for every believer to know with absolute certainty that Calvary was an utterly glorious triumph… Christ, through Calvary and the descent into hell, totally and irrevocably defeated and disarmed Satan both legally and dynamically, so that Paul refers to the satanic forces as ‘the dethroned powers that rule’ (1 Corinthians 2:6, Moffat).” — Paul Billheimer

Scripture:
And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” — Revelation 12:7-11 (NIV)

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. — 1 Corinthians 15:57 (NKJV)

“Conquerors will march in the victory parade, their names indelible in the Book of Life. I’ll lead them up and present them by name to my Father and his Angels.” — Revelation 3:5 (MSG)

Timeless Insights
“Prayer is not begging God to do something which he is loath to do. It is not overcoming reluctance in God. It is enforcing Christ’s victory over Satan. It is implementing upon earth Heaven’s decisions concerning the affairs of men… Calvary legally destroyed Satan, and canceled all of his claims. God placed the enforcement of Calvary’s victory in the hands of the Church (Matthew 18:18 and Luke 10:17-19). He has given her the ‘power of attorney.’ She is His ‘deputy’… But this delegated authority is wholly inoperative apart from a believing church. Therefore, prayer is where the action is.” — Paul Billheimer

8. Characteristic Eight: Kingdom Warfare ________________ Christ’s Kingdom!

Timeless Insights
“God shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there is the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil… The prayers of God’s saints are the capital stock of heaven by which God carries on His great work upon earth. Prayer, therefore, should be the main business of our day.” — E. M. Bounds

Scripture:
In the Messiah, in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade. Through us, he brings knowledge of Christ. Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance. — 2 Corinthians 2:14 (MSG)

From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. — Matthew 11:12 (NIV)

And from the time John the Baptist began preaching and baptizing until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has been forcefully advancing, and violent people attack it. — Matthew 11:12 (NLT)

Timeless Insights
“Jesus here asserts the ‘violence’ of the Kingdom. The unique grammatical construction of the text does not make clear if the Kingdom of God is the victim of violence or if, as the Kingdom advances in victory, it does so through violent spiritual conflict and warfare. But the context does. Jesus’ immediate references to the nonreligious style of John and the confrontive, miraculous ministry of Elijah teach that the Kingdom of God makes its penetration by a kind of violent entry opposing the human status quo.” — Jack Hayford

Case Study: Argentina’s Ombu Tree

Scripture:
Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” — Revelation 11:15 (NKJV)

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. — Matthew 24:14 (NIV)

Timeless Insights
“From heaven’s standpoint, all spiritual victories are won, not primarily in the pulpit, not primarily in the bright light of publicity, nor yet through the ostentatious blaring of trumpets, but in the secret place of prayer. The only power that releases souls from this stronghold is the power of the Holy Spirit, and the only power that releases the energy of the Holy Spirit is the power of believing prayer.” — Paul Billheimer

“Evangelism without intercession is like an explosive without a detonator. Intercession without evangelism is like a detonator without an explosive.” — Reinhard Bonnke

AFTERTHOUGHTS… PONDER AND PRAY

Ponder Points: Discuss (or ponder) what you think it means to “enforce Calvary’s victory” in warfare prayer and why this is so important. Why do you think it can be said that victorious warfare does “violence” to Satan’s kingdom?

Prayer Points: Because a stronghold can be anything the enemy uses to establish a foothold in marriages, families and other relationships, pray for the elimination of any strongholds you see that may affect you, your family, or someone you know personally.