Fight Back

Scriptures: Genesis 1:28, Psalms 149:6-9, Hebrews 4:12

God wants us to have praises in our mouth and His sword in our hands. Spiritual warfare doesn’t work if our mouth is full of complaining and admitting defeat. Our mouth speaks or reveals what is in our hearts. 

We were created to worship, and we are now called to engage in warfare. Warfare and worship go together. The high praises of God must be coming out of our mouth and our hands must securely hold onto the double-edged sword which is none other than the Word of our God. This sword of the Spirit is to bind and execute punishment on the enemy. We are used to only being delivered from bondage. Instead, God is now preparing a mighty generation to put the enemy in bondage, to put chains on the forces of darkness through the authority of Jesus’ name.

As Jesus said, “How can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house” (Matthew 12:28); the roles have been reversed. The enemy used to bind us; now we can bind him through the victory of almighty Jesus who is invincible.

This is more than just being freed from the enemy; this is being empowered to successfully fight the enemy. I love this part: “This honor have all his saints.”  Victory, dominion, and a fighting spirit are an honor. This honor to take dominion, to trample upon forces of darkness, to bind the enemy has been given to all his saints. This honor belongs to all of God’s children. Victory is not just for a few but for all.  Authority over the enemy belongs to all believers. 

You were called not just to receive deliverance but to walk in dominion.  Don’t just wait for God to cast out every enemy, but walk in the power of the Holy Spirit to actively resist whatever He has not yet removed.

Scriptures: Psalms 144:1, Psalms 18:34

Instead of moving from deliverance to deliverance, God intended for us to move from deliverance to dominion. Let’s take Israel for example. God didn’t plan for them to keep going back to Egypt for more deliverance after things got hard in the wilderness. Instead, led by the cloud each day and by fire at night, God expected them to move forward to become fearless soldiers. God was not just taking slaves out of the land of bondage, but He was leading them to conquer the land of promise. Israel was tempted to go back to Egypt many times. They talked about it, complained about it, and even threatened God and Moses about it. At times, life in bondage seemed better than a life of freedom in the desert. They failed to understand that even though freedom is free, learning to walk in victory takes time, effort, adjusting, and training.

God’s plan of getting Israel out of Egypt was not the final goal. It was only a means to the goal. The goal was for them to take possession of the Promised Land; God didn’t just give it to them.  In Egypt, they received deliverance by doing very little, but in the Promised Land, they would have to fight to take possession of it and keep what was promised. In fact, the children of Israel only possessed what they fought for, not what they wished and hoped for.  What was true for them is also true of us today. God delivers us from the cruel Pharaoh, but He expects us to conquer the wicked Philistines.  The Promised Land was different from Egypt.  The Israelites were delivered from Egypt, but the Promised Land required taking dominion. That’s what Israel did and that’s what we must learn to do as well.

Battles are not the same as bondage. To engage in battle is the designated privilege of free people. Bondage is bad; battle is good. Bondage makes you a slave; battle makes you a soldier. We have to renew our mind that battles are not bad. They are the keys to breakthrough. It’s time to move on from freedom to fighting. God set us free from sin but not from warfare. 

When you get saved and delivered, battles don’t stop. In fact, in some ways, they only begin. In deliverance, God works for you, but in dominion, He works through you. God does not deliver you from battles, but He trains you for them. Because of the cross, we don’t fight for victory; we fight from victory to victory. Like it or not, we must fight. 

Scriptures: Genesis 1:28, Luke 4:9, Psalms 24:1, Psalms 115:16

We were made in the image of God and created for dominion. God blessed us with the powerful commandment to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and to subdue it. And then there is this part of our spiritual DNA, “have dominion.” We were created for dominion, not for deliverance. Because we fail to exercise dominion over the snake, we find ourselves in need of deliverance from the dominion of the enemy. 

Adam and Eve were placed in paradise. This beautiful place also had a snake. Yes, paradise had a parasite. Paradise is not the absence of the enemy, it’s having dominion over it. God’s view of the good life on earth was not the absence of battle. Blessing is walking in victory and exercising our dominion. Adam’s perfect world had a snake in it. But when Adam disobeyed God, he lost that dominion. Now he came under the dominion of the enemy. 

When Jesus, the Son of God, faced the tempter in the wilderness, the devil didn’t hide the fact that authority on earth is now his. He declared that all this authority has been delivered to me. Hmmm, I wonder who delivered it to the devil. It wasn’t God for sure! God gave the earth to His children, the children of men. Of course, God didn’t give man ownership over the earth because the earth still belongs to the Lord.  God was holding the title deed to the earth, but He gave the responsibility and dominion over it to humans. Through sin, we give ourselves over to the enemy. We relinquish our dominion and turn ourselves into slaves of sin. 

We are either walking in dominion over the devil or living under his dominion of sin. Because we lost our dominion, we are in need of deliverance. Keep in mind, we were not created for deliverance but for dominion. 

Deliverance has become our need because we fail to exercise dominion. 

Scriptures: Luke 10:18-19, Romans 5:17

When Jesus delivered us from the grip of the devil, you would think that He wouldn’t ever entrust us again with authority since we blew it the first time. You would think that God might think: don’t trust humans with dominion. They don’t know what to do with it. Just deliver them and keep them safe until the rapture. Don’t trust them to resist deceitful Satan. Don’t entrust them to cast out demons. The devil and his demons are cunning and deceitful.  If they could manipulate angels into deception, how much more mere humans. 

I am going to say it again, God believes in us more than we trust in Him. God is immediately trusting us again with authority. His disciples were not mature yet. In fact, they were not baptized in the Holy Spirit yet. Jesus didn’t wait for them to finish Bible school before giving them authority. The devil is powerful, but he is not all-powerful! Our enemy has power, but we have authority over all of his power through our Lord Christ Jesus. 

Satan rules over humanity because of sin, but we can rule over him because of God’s gift of righteousness and through the abundance of His grace. Dominion was first given to us at creation, and then Jesus had to restore it on the cross. We are saved by grace through faith, but we are also empowered by grace to reign in life. Many of us appropriate only enough grace to make it to heaven but have not gone for an abundance of grace to reign while here on earth. 

Believers today are like the people of  Israel who had come out of Egypt but failed to enter the promised land. We have been saved by grace, but now it’s time to be empowered by that grace to reign. If you have been delivered from the power of sin, curses and demons, it’s time to move on to walk in dominion. 

Scriptures: 2 Timothy 2:3, Philippians 4:13

We used to be slaves to the devil, but after being freed from our spiritual Egypt, we may be tempted to develop a survival mentality. A survival mentality is a victim mindset. We must embrace the calling to be a good soldier of God. 

Israel couldn’t possess the promised land with a victim attitude. In fact, the people who were delivered didn’t really understand how God regarded them; they lived like slaves in their minds and died as victims in the wilderness. Of course, they blamed God for their failures. They waited on God to do everything for them. Because they failed to develop into soldiers, they died like slaves even though they were free from Egypt. 

• In Egypt, they were slaves; in the promised land, they had to be soldiers. 
• In Egypt, they got deliverance; in the promised land, they had to walk in dominion.
• In Egypt, God freed them from Pharoah; in the promised land, God entrusted them with Philistines. 
• In Egypt, plagues attacked the enemy; in the promised land, they were the plague – their presence brought terror on the nations. 
• In Egypt, they ran from the enemy; in the promised land, the enemy ran from them. 
• In Egypt, Moses used the staff; in the promised land, Israel followed the ark.
• In Egypt, they asked the Egyptians for things; in the promised land, they simply took them from the Canaanites. 
• In Egypt, they had bondage; in the promised land, they had battles.

Israel expected God to do in the promised land what He had done in Egypt. But God did not deliver them upon arriving in the promised land. 

Instead of moving from deliverance to deliverance, God intends for us to move from deliverance to dominion. 

Scriptures: Joshua 1:5, John 14:16

Let’s look at this transition closely. This shift from deliverance to dominion wasn’t easy for the children of Israel because Moses who had brought them deliverance was dead. The manna that had sustained them in the wilderness ceased. 

For deliverance, we rely on a “Moses” or a minister, but to exercise our dominion, we have to rely on the Holy Spirit. You can’t allow the absence of Moses to shake your faith. The removal of Moses is a sign that God is developing you to become His warrior. In fact, you can’t walk in victory if you always rely on your minister or leader who helped you get free. Deliverance occurred only because someone else carried the anointing.  But now you can’t walk successfully in dominion through your “promised land” by borrowing from someone else’s relationship with God. You have to put that ark of the covenant on your own shoulders. Develop your own times of prayer and fasting. Get into your secret place and discover intimacy with the Holy Spirit. 

No one can get into the promised land riding on the anointing of Moses. You can get out of Egypt like that, but living in your own “promised land” or destiny will not happen that way. If relying on men of God enabled you to get out of Egypt, that will not work in the next season of life.  A healthy dominion-mentality requires you to rely not on a man but on the Holy Spirit. 

When Jesus was on the earth, God’s anointing rested on Him. Then He promised that the Holy Spirit would rest upon His Body, the Church, which entered it’s promised land when the Holy Spirit descended on all 120 disciples present in the upper room – not just on the apostles or prophets but on every disciple of Jesus. Without a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit, there is no dominion. The Holy Spirit is the ark of the covenant and it’s time to carry Him wherever you go.  You must realize that the Holy Spirit wants to have a relationship with you, so talk to Him, walk with Him and obey His voice.  If life in bondage was the result of being full of demons, then the life of dominion is the result of being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Fighting back is different than receiving freedom. In freedom, someone else helped you to get free, the Moses that God used. But in fighting, you must develop your own personal relationship with the Holy Spirit.

Scriptures: Joshua 1:3, Matthew 11:12, 1 Timothy 1:18

When Israel was in Egypt, they waited on God for deliverance, but in the promised land, God was waiting for them to take dominion. In Egypt, God did everything for them with minimum participation from them. In the promised land, God did everything with them, expecting maximum participation from them. 

After exiting Egypt, they had to wait for the wind to split the Red Sea, but when entering the promised land, God had to wait for them to step into the Jordan River first before He stopped the flow. I find it interesting that God didn’t tell Joshua, “I will give you every place I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”  Instead, “I will give you every place you yourself tread on.”  Every place you march over. Every place you crush underfoot. Every place you trample on. That speaks of warfare. That requires dominion. 

This may come as a shock, but Israel didn’t get what they were promised; they only got what they fought for. Everyone got deliverance from Egypt, but not everyone got dominion in the promised land. Only those who were willing to “tread” on, exercise their authority, crush the enemy, wage warfare and fight got something. 

Scriptures: Ephesians 4:29, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

After crossing the Jordan River into the promised land, Joshua had all the men of Israel circumcised. That’s a painful procedure. Now, compare that with Israel crossing the Red Sea.  A few days after that incredible miracle of escaping through the sea, the people who were delivered complained. That was painful for God to hear. The ex-slaves complained, but the soldiers got circumcised. 

Complaining brings pain to God; circumcision brings pain to the flesh. God was teaching a new generation that before they can have dominion over their enemy, they must conquer their own flesh by bringing it into subjection. Before we can ever subdue the Canaanites, we must subject our carnal desires to the will of God. That my friend is painful. 

That’s what Joshua commanded his men to do. Before they were about to embark on the battlefield against the enemy, they had to defeat an inner enemy called the flesh. Circumcising of the foreskin removed the “reproach of Egypt from the camp of Israel”(Joshua 5:9). 

• Deliverance gets the demons out, but discipline keeps them out. 
• Deliverance is what God does for you; discipline is what God does inside you.
• Discipline is absolutely essential to walking in dominion. 

You can’t aimlessly watch what you watch, listen to what you listen to, hang out with whom you hang out and still expect to walk in victory. There is a cutting that must take place for those who are called to conquer. Some can’t conquer their enemy because their flesh hasn’t been cut off.  They can’t live for the Savior because they are not dead to their “self.”

To walk in dominion, we must cut away complaining because complaining is to the devil what worship is to God. 

Scriptures: Luke 6:38, Matthew 6:19-31

Another change that must happen in us if we are to fight back victoriously is in the area of giving. Israel serves as a good example for us. What they went through physically, we go through spiritually. Upon leaving Egypt, the people were given valuable gifts, treasures and riches by the Egyptians. That was awesome. But when they entered the promised land, the first thing that God asked His people to do was to give Him the entire city of Jericho and absolutely everything in it. God wanted the first conquest to belong entirely to Him. 

The slave mentality is scared of giving; it lives on getting. God wanted to break that poverty way of thinking by teaching His children to exercise the practice of generosity. Poverty runs on fear; provision operates by faith. 

It takes faith to give God the entire “city of Jericho.” You do the fighting but keep nothing for yourself. Our carnal mind screams, “That’s not fair!” Greed in us yells, “It’s mine!” Worldliness demands, “I deserve this; I worked so hard for this.”  A person who is a slave to Mammon (the false god of greed) freaks out at the thought of extravagant generosity. 

You can’t be in dominion if you are a slave to your possessions, wealth, and things. 

The primary indication that money owns you is your reluctance to obey God with your money. It’s almost like God was trying to break the Israelites away from the slave mentality. He was chipping away at “the victim” thinking. Their mind was being remodeled into thinking like prosperous people. They became generous before they became rich. They were victorious before they won a battle. That’s faith. 

In the wilderness, the former slaves used the treasures they brought from Egypt to build a golden calf to worship, but in the promised land, they gave an entire city in worship to the Creator. It’s not about money; it’s all about your mindset. Greed is the slave of fear; generosity is the distinguishing mark of spiritual soldiers. One of the ways dominion works is demonstrated in the way we handle finances. We can’t walk in dominion if we are slaves to the greedy spirit Mammon. Period. 

Walking in dominion is more than rebuking the devil. It’s giving your income to the Lord as a way to honor Him. When you give Him your income, you’re giving Him of yourself who earned that income.

Scriptures: Joshua 4:7, Romans 10:17, Luke 23:42, Psalms 77:11

When the children of Israel entered the Promised Land, God commanded them to take twelve stones from the river Jordan and build a memorial on the river bank. 

Those who fight and walk in dominion must learn to build memorials to God’s many miracles in their life, not monuments to unanswered questions. Every time God does something spectacular in your life, you must take “a stone” from that situation and build a memorial in your mind. That memory becomes a point of reference for your faith when things get hard. We all go through our “Jordan Rivers” in life. Sometimes we go through very low points in our journey of faith, but God never leaves us there in despair. He gets us through. So take stones from those points of life as a reminder of God’s faithfulness to you.

Fighting comes from faith. Faith comes from remembering God’s faithfulness. Yes, faith comes from hearing God’s Word but it also comes from remembering God’s works. One of the reasons people go from deliverance to deliverance instead of deliverance to dominion is they don’t have faith. They live by their feelings. They are controlled by symptoms. They bring God down to the level of their moods. God’s Word is no more important to them than their feelings about what they see happening in their lives. A person who wants to walk in dominion must live by faith, not by sight. A life of faith is not that hard. It’s based on feeding yourself with God’s Word and remembering God’s works.

If we don’t build a memorial to what God did, the devil will hijack our mind by filling it with what God did not do. Instead of building memorials to miracles, we build monuments to unexplained doubts and questions. Why didn’t God prevent this accident from happening to me? Why didn’t God heal my friend or loved one? Why, oh God, did someone commit suicide after we prayed for him? Why wasn’t this or that prayer answered? Why was I born this way? These are mysteries that plague our minds. For some of those questions, we will never get answers on this side of eternity. Questions are normal, but building monuments to things that God has not done or was expected to do will weaken our faith. Once our faith is crippled, it’s hard to be victors. We fall into self-pity and live like a victim.

In this broken world, if you want to walk in dominion, you must intentionally remember what God has done in your life. Remember His miracles, all the answered prayers, all the fulfilled dreams, all the things He delivered you from. Put into your memory bank all the gifts that He graciously gives you each day, which usually you take for granted. And don’t forget what He did on the cross for your eternal salvation and on the day of Pentecost when He sent His Spirit to dwell in you. You have to build into your soul an archive of God’s faithfulness. Design your memorial in your mind and heart; otherwise, your mind will gravitate naturally by default to all the things that God did not do.