As we fight to free our lands from powerful spiritual forces, let's see what we can learn from the pattern Daniel used in freeing the Israelites from captivity.
Daniel prayed 21 days for the overthrow of the ruling principality over Persia (Dan. 10:12-13).
Then he (an angel) said to me, "Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words. "But the prince (i.e. the ruling principality over Persia) of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty-one days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia." (Dan 10:12-13)
Pastor Peg, a close friend, functions in this type of ministry, so I have asked her to share the truths she has discovered and her approach and stories concerning pulling down ruling principalities. Peg has already written three blogs on this topic. Perhaps you want to start by reviewing them: Join in Prophetic Warfare Battle - Pastor Peg Yarbrough, Billions of Angels Blowing Shofars by Peg Yarbrough, Meditation on Deliverance by Pastor Peg Yarbrough. So the information below may add to your overall understanding of 1) what she sees are the key principles in Daniel's spiritual warfare, 2) The steps she takes, 3) Stories from her experience, 4) How you can become active in such spiritual warfare.
Pastor Peg Yarbrough tells her testimony of how God led her into spiritual warfare!
For me, opening the door to spiritual warfare was a wild ride. I needed to know why God’s people should do this. Is it God’s will? Can I do it? Where’s my heart?
I will go through four steps that brought me those answers and more.
I truly believe Daniel also followed these steps I’m about to share with you because he got revelation like a house afire! So here we go.
The first key is to believe you can.
The second is to believe God wants you to.
Third: Why? Because He LOVES everyone and wants all people to be saved and come unto the knowledge of His Truth!
Fourth: How? Learn HOW to hear God’s voice.
Sounds simple, huh?
It’s easy to say, “I can do NOTHING of myself” like Jesus said. But actually doing that takes training your heart and mind to move yourself, your five senses out of the way — and that’s a tall order to do that consistently. It’s a skill we must hone.
I preface these four keys by saying that around 2006, I had a seismic change in my life. I read Mark Virkler’s “How to Hear God’s Voice,” which is essential to spiritual warfare OR walking by the Spirit in general. It is apostolic! Mark lays out an old Truth that the LORD had him bring back to LIGHT for our generation. Why? Because we all need it. Hearing from God is nothing new but something that had been buried long ago by man’s religion. God needed someone bold enough to break the mold that prayer was a DIALOGUE with God, not a monologue. And then to lay it out in such a way a child can understand it. Like I said, that truth is apostolic!
Long story short, after I read Mark’s book, I started journaling right away and was faithful to do it every day. Sometime around 2010, I felt a tug in my spirit that God wanted to bring me up to the throne room, like the vision that John had in Revelation chapter 4. Honestly, I was afraid to go. So the Lord gave me a dream/vision that made no sense to me at all, and then he told me to write it down and to do something I had NEVER, ever, done in my whole life. He told me to call a particular friend and ask her, “Does this dream mean anything to you?”
I felt totally foolish, but I obeyed anyway.
Well, I called, and after I read the vision to her, she immediately burst into tears and exclaimed, “I know EXACTLY what it means!” Right down the line, every visual in that dream had great meaning to her. And God gave her the perfect interpretation. It changed her life. It saved her from going back into a very bad situation. It saved her money, and it saved her time. In short, it blessed her life immensely.
At the time, that was way, way, way out of my comfort zone. I had never considered myself operating as a prophet, although I had given words of prophecy in a believer’s meeting throughout my whole ministry since 1974. But to think God would give me a word for someone else’s life!? Wow! I thought that was for other people, not me!
Sometimes we get so tangled up in religious labels, that we often miss simple truths that are staring us right in the face. God calls Himself, I AM that I AM, and you know what? We are whatever God puts on our hearts to be for Him. We can do anything that God asks us to do.
So the next morning, I said, Okay, Lord, if it's Your will to take me up to the throne room, have it! And before I could even blink an eye, I was standing on the sea of glass! That sea of glass put my heart at ease and filled me with peace. But in the distance, in front of me, I could see all this activity happening around the throne of God. I could see, in my vision, God sitting on a huge, magnificent rainbow throne. I could see Jesus on his throne at the right hand of God. I could see the 24 elders saying holy, holy, holy, and the four beasts and billions and billions of angels. I was blown away by how many angels there were! Actually, I was blown away by everything!
I wanted to know if I could still communicate normally with human beings after such a divine experience. I’m just being honest about the machinations of my five senses. This was all new territory for me. I was concerned that it would warp my mind. It was just so ‘out there.’ But, when I came out of my meditation, I was elated, on fire for the Lord, and sharper than ever before.
At Jesus’ word, I began doing spiritual warfare on a large scale. The Lord gave me words and pictures to proclaim as his ambassador to planet Earth. But it reached a white-hot fever pitch right around 2020.
I Timothy 2:1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; THAT we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
Was I really supposed to pray for the political success of all those in authority, even if their agenda was contrary to God’s Word?
But… I was in the midst of repenting, or having a paradigm shift. I needed to turn away from an old belief in order to gain a new understanding, a godly understanding. But I was now ready to do spiritual warfare, big time!
Key #1 - Believe you can. God wrote that we are to pray for, and claim, a quiet and peaceful life for ourselves and His people. This is in the New Testament, so this is something WE CAN ALL DO, and are called to do.
Key #2 - Believe God wants you to. Once I saw that God said it — that settled it for me.
Key #3 - That was the Kicker. WHY?
I was raised under the supposition that every ruler was put in their position by God and therefore I had an obligation to give them respect for their agenda.
Somehow I totally forgot about Jesus running the money-changers out of the temple with cords and Jesus confronting the Pharisees, calling them out as sons of the devil right there in broad daylight!
Hhmmmm… Jesus did NOT pray that the Pharisees would succeed. He called them out for their lack of love for God and love for the people they were supposed to be ministering to.
My eyes had been blinded to the truth that in the Old Testament, Moses, Joshua, and David were NOT praising ungodly rulers. I finally saw that from Genesis to Malachi, God's desire was to have godly leadership over his people as a nation. This is seen over and over when God would talk about one king and say, ‘and he did good in the sight of the Lord’, or a different king who “did evil in the sight of the Lord.”
But it takes a long time to get religion out of your head and ask God to create in you a clean heart. Especially if you learned this stuff when you were very young.
At that point, I had a friend come along and tell me, Peg, we are supposed to stand against these evildoers and let the righteous judgment of God be revealed on Earth! In our day and time and hour.
Again, I kicked against the traces. And again, God took me to the next step and showed me a vision of Him sitting on the throne with a gavel that He, Himself, is the Righteous Judge. He was sitting on a bench in a courtroom, only His gavel was made out of crystal, and it glowed. It was awesome!
So I went back and looked at 1 Timothy chapter 2 again with fresh eyes and asked the Holy Spirit to guide me.
I Timothy 2:1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; THAT we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
It did NOT say I'm specifically supposed to pray for any king or person and authority, does it? No! It says I’m supposed to pray for ALL men, doesn’t it?
And there's a “THAT” in verse 2, which says the REASON I'm supposed to pray for all men and women everywhere, including kings and people in authority… is THAT WE, you and I, God’s children, may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. Wowzaa! That was a mega course correction for me!
For years, it had defied my logic to believe that I should pray for all leaders to be successful in their agendas, even those who were putting us in bondage: trying to break the back of the middle class, increasing our taxes, and adding burdensome regulations. And worst of all, promoting abortion!
I'm a 'chapter and verse' kind of girl, and when the Holy Spirit revealed to me, “Peg, that's not what I'm saying in Timothy at all, to pray that everyone in authority succeeds in their agendas. My will is that your prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men; so THAT YOU (believers) can lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty in this dark and perverse world."
He said, “As far as kings and those in authority, pray for their success if they promote My goals and are Kingdom-minded. But pray against their agenda if they are evil and enslaving men and women by their governance."
You would think that being a relatively intelligent woman, I would've figured this out 20 years earlier, but like I said, religion is a hard rope to cut. And we cannot know truth by our intelligence alone; we need the mind of Christ to rightly discern the Scriptures.
When I came to that seismic shift in my heart about Timothy, I came before the throne of God, and I got on my knees, and I repented that it took me so long to get with His program. But before the words could even finish coming out of my mouth, He had Jesus by my side directing powerful ninja angels to different cities around the globe sowing discord among the demonic kingdom and sending ministering angels to other places and angels with words of knowledge and wisdom to other people across the globe.
I was flabbergasted. It felt almost blasphemous to wield this kind of power because this was all brand new to me.
I said, “Lord, why me?” And Jesus answered so sweetly, “Why not?” And that settled that.
He taught me that we don't kill these demons. We paralyze them or stun them. We just take them off the playing field. We can't kill demons because they are spirit beings and are yet to be judged, but we can certainly take them off the field at His word.
In comparison to Daniel, all I know is that Daniel walked and talked with the Lord like Mark is teaching us to do. Daniel’s life was very much like ours today, he lived in a land of captivity, and he was not free to worship as he chose. Daniel desired to let God's people go so that they might serve him again, just like Moses did. And Daniel fought mighty spiritual warfare.
In the times in which we live ...
You can go to one presidential rally, and if you tell them you love Jesus, they ask you to leave the rally! This actually happened two weeks ago.
Whereas the other candidate constantly praises God and proclaims that Jesus is Lord. He lets everyone know that he is alive today because God miraculously saved him from an assassin's bullet! He works alongside Franklin Graham and with a group of spiritual advisors. He's not perfect, but he's doing the best he can as a human being to be spiritually on the ball.
If I want the citizens of my country to live a quiet and peaceable life, to live under the Blessings of Liberty, it is my responsibility as a child of God, to exercise my citizenship, first in heaven and then on earth. It is my duty, my calling, and my pleasure to pray for and help those who speak the truth for God in love. It is my honor to do spiritual warfare, just because I said YES to the Lord.
The other presidential candidate is actively fighting against the Lord Jesus, who set us at liberty. So I have to make a godly choice to fight to keep them out of office. And VOTE for the one who praises God. That is also a form of spiritual warfare.
That leads us to the final Key #4 - HOW?
To do anything godly in my life, I first want to see it in the Scriptures. For me, the evidence was found in Galatians 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
It's hard to stand fast in Christ’s liberty when your government is trying to undermine your freedom of speech and your freedom of worship. So we must stand against the enemies of Christ! In the practical and the spiritual realm.
All through the Old Testament, God was always trying to keep His people OUT of captivity so they could serve Him. Obviously, serving God is much more peaceful when we are living in a free nation. Hence, 1 Timothy chapter 2.
Try preaching the gospel in Communist China or under the Taliban!
When I came to Christ in 1974 it was illegal to have a Bible fellowship in my home. Can you believe that? And I was having fellowships seven nights a week with around 40 or 50 people showing up. I never knew if a police officer was gonna knock on my door and arrest me. I just didn't care. I had read the record of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and had decided if the government wanted to throw me in jail or a fiery furnace, God would just get me out! I believe what the apostles said, “We ought to obey God rather than men!”
Proverbs 29:2 When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked bear rule, the people mourn.
Folks, there's no rejoicing without Jesus, because there's no joy without Christ.
In Closing, Here’s My Daily Routine:
1 - Every morning I get up early, and get quiet with the Lord. I put on my soaking music, and focus on Jesus to get into the flow.
2 - I spend a certain amount of time just relaxing, speaking in tongues softly, worshiping, and praising, and at some point, I always ask the question, “Lord, what would You have me do for You today? “
Every day is different. Many days in recent times have been flat-out bare-knuckles spiritual warfare.
3 – I actually close my eyes and type on my laptop while He's talking to me. And then I pass on what the Lord has said to one more spiritual advisors to get their input. Does this sound like it is legit? Is this from God?
Like 1 John says, then I try the spirits to see if my revelation is from God. As Proverbs says, in a multitude of counselors, there is safety. We need to have that accountability group to keep ourselves on the straight and narrow because even the best of us can get caught up in our five senses.
But two things are essential in spiritual warfare, and that is mastering to do ALL that we do from a heart of LOVE. Love for God and love for our brothers and sisters. And right along with that, is to master, “How to Hear God’s Voice.” Those two are the essentials of spiritual warfare.
Without hearing from God, you cannot know real-time information from heaven’s throne room, from the spirit realm, aka, the Kingdom of God. Word of knowledge, word of wisdom, discerning of spirits (both holy and unholy), miracles, and healing ALL come from being in the flow. All else is sinking sand.
My friends, spiritual warfare, that’s how Jesus did it. That’s how Daniel did it. That’s how Paul did it. That’s how John did it. And that’s how we do it. Listening and then doing what we see and hear the Father show us through Jesus.
God bless you on your spiritual journey. Get out of your comfort zone. Get your accountability partners. And then let‘ er rip, tater chip!
To GOD be the glory. Amen.
Journaling
Lord, what do You want to speak to me concerning this topic?
Extra gift! Here is an audio teaching by Pastor Peg on Spiritual Warfare.
Contact Peg: https://locm.org/contacts/
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Related Resources:
How to Be Empowered by the Holy Spirit! How to Hear God's Voice! Spiritual Transformations
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