Prophetic Spiritual Warfare: Partnering With the Holy Spirit to Manifest Your Destiny

By Kathy DeGraw

How do you fight and resist something you can't see?
 
Receive prophetic revelation to combat spiritual warfare in your life!
We have a power source that can assist us in conquering the warfare around us. Jesus relied on this power source when He was baptized in the Spirit and fire. The Holy Spirit is our Helper and when we partner with Him in prophetic spiritual warfare, we will conquer and win the battle. Tap into the power of the Holy Spirit to:

• Effectively bind and rebuke the enemy
• Live victoriously as spiritual warfare attacks over your life cease
• Close demonic portals as you learn how to shut down demonic access 
• Rely on the Holy Spirit to assist you in annihilating spiritual darkness
• Break the bonds of fear over evil as you become a powerful spiritual warrior

In Prophetic Spiritual Warfare, learn that you are not alone. You have a Helper—the same Holy Spirit that empowered Jesus also dwells within you. Activate His power today!

This book will show you that spiritual warfare cannot be done with natural tools, reliance on the strength of the Holy Spirit is needed. You will learn that the battle between the natural and the spiritual realm has a direct impact on how you live and what happens to you. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Charisma House
• Release date: Jun 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781629999722

Book preview

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Chapter 1

WHAT IS SPIRITUAL WARFARE?

IF YOU ARE new to the concept of spiritual warfare, you are not alone. I knew nothing about spiritual warfare when my family found itself at the epicenter of the most intense spiritual battle we’ve ever faced. But the Holy Spirit taught me everything I needed to know, and in this book I aim to draw from that experience and help you discover Him as your Teacher and Guide in the same way.

Many years ago, when my husband, Ron, and I were green in ministry and pastoring our first church, we were thrown into the worst spiritual battle of our lives. We had no idea about what we were up against or how to fight it. We didn’t know about our authority in Christ or the power of our words. All we knew was that we were in an all-out war, and our church, community, and family were being attacked. We also knew God had us on a mission. We were going to stand strong in the Lord no matter what was thrown at us. The battle was intense, but we didn’t give up.

The Bible says, No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper (Isa. 54:17). It does not say a weapon won’t come, but that it won’t prosper. In our family’s case a spiritual attack of sickness and death came to visit our family over a period of two years, but it did not prevail. Extreme stress and fatigue from pushing so hard in ministry landed me in bed for six weeks, unable to lift my head. I was diagnosed with high blood pressure, a condition I was healed of years later after a time of prayer and fasting. Later that year, our son, Dillon, who was ten, was attacked with four different sicknesses, and we were told we had to get him to the hospital within four hours before his organs would begin shutting down. I was so oblivious to spiritual warfare and authority that I thought God was causing the sickness in our son so people would pray and be led back on the road to Christ.

I now know the spirit of death was attacking our family. It continued to assault my husband, Ron, a year later. He started feeling very ill, and we went to the hospital. He had elevated white blood cell counts. I stood by his hospital bed, not praying for healing but praying, God, if taking him to heaven would bring glory to Your name and release the pain, do it. They could not diagnose my husband and sent him home. His appendix burst overnight. The next morning they called and said the X-rays were read wrong and I needed to get him back there for emergency surgery. The thing that saved his life when his appendix burst was that the poison stayed in one part of his stomach instead of traveling throughout his body. He was in the hospital for a week and then sent home to further recover.

Paranormal activity and demonic visitation began to happen in our home. There would be no radios on, and yet we would hear music through the air ducts. Our son, Dillon, had two visitations from the enemy, where the enemy said, I am going to kill you. Our daughter Lauren, at four years of age, had demons with glowing red eyes visit her nightly. These and other manifestations continued until we consulted with a Spirit-filled pastor friend of ours who happened to know about spiritual warfare. She taught us the basics of spiritual housecleaning, where you go through your home to discern the spiritual atmosphere and then pray to expel any demonic activity and call forth blessings and peace. When we anointed Lauren’s bed and room with oil and began to speak out prayer declarations against the attacks, they stopped completely.

Then spiritual assault took on a new form with word curses and people within the church conjuring up and admitting to spreading lies about us. They had no shame as they revealed their plans of destruction against us, and they would coerce people into joining them in their plan to run us out of the community and church. They desired control and could control everything in the community except us. The control was being triggered by the witchcraft activity in that region. When witchcraft principalities are in a region, they can attack and lure people into wreaking havoc, even if they don’t know what they are doing is witchcraft.

These people were angry and hurting because of their pasts, and control was a way to deal with their pain. In the beginning they were subconsciously participating in witchcraft by not knowing their actions were part of spiritual warfare tactics the enemy deploys. However, later on, one of the people involved in this group admitted to us they hired a medium and began practicing witchcraft through cursing, séances, palm reading, and other witchcraft activities.

We knew we weren’t fighting people. We were fighting the principalities operating through them. (See Ephesians 6:12.) We must separate the principality from the person, which I’ll discuss in depth in another chapter.

If that wasn’t spiritual boot camp, I don’t know what is. We were thrown into an all-out battle with no experience. A person with over thirty years’ ministry experience mediated the situation, and she told us that most leaders would have quit ministry after what we experienced, but not us. With the Holy Spirit’s help, it made us stronger.

I believe God often gives us our hardest assignment first to make everything else look easy. Being a deliverance minister, I know there are different levels of deliverance and a variety of demonic experiences. When I minister to a person who has been hammered by the enemy, I tell the person, God will use you mightily! The prophetic side of me gets excited because I know the victory awaiting the person on the other side. If that person could endure what he or she did, I know he or she will be able to get through anything.

When we finally left the region, we stopped the vehicle, got out, and wiped off our feet in accordance with Matthew 10:14. We didn’t know about spiritual authority and demonic operations, but we did know enough to do a prophetic act and wipe off our feet as the Bible states. The Lord was with us in so many ways. It was a difficult experience, but I wouldn’t be here today writing this book or functioning as a prophetic deliverance minister without it.

SPIRITUAL WARFARE DEFINED

We are in an unseen, invisible war between good and evil, darkness and light. Spiritual warfare is when Satan and his kingdom of darkness, lies, and destruction come against God and His kingdom of light, love, and goodness. Friction and conflict happen in the spiritual realm, and Satan comes to oppose God’s prophecies and will for your life.

There is a direct correlation between the natural and the spiritual. What happens in the spiritual occurs in the natural and vice versa. A collision is happening in the spiritual realm at all times—and you are already involved in it whether you like it or not. Ignorance is not bliss, and being unaware of the war does not minimize its effects. Satan relentlessly instigates attacks to wear out those who seek God and desire to advance His kingdom. He will attempt to wreak havoc in your life any way he can. An unseen war not embraced by believers is a strategic way he can attack on the sly.

I shared my family’s experiences with you for two reasons. First, I wanted you to understand where I’m coming from and how I learned the insights I’m sharing with you in this book. Second, I wanted to give you a picture of what spiritual warfare can look like. Our battle was real, and even though we could see people and realized the attacks were demonic, we were fighting an invisible war. We couldn’t see the dark forces behind the medical ailments, emotional trauma, and witchcraft spirits. This is the essence of spiritual warfare. Whether or not you experience overt attacks as we did, it is important to know that you are taking part in an unseen war. It’s not something you choose; everyone is born into it. Everything you say and do affects it, giving power to one side or the other. That’s why it’s so important to be led by the Holy Spirit.

It’s also important to know who you’re up against.

THE ADVERSARY

Who is our adversary? The devil was once one of God’s angels. His name was Lucifer. He was the angel in charge of worship in heaven. Lucifer rebelled against God, and as a result God cast him down to earth. Here’s what the Bible says about it.

How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weaken the nations! For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also on the mount of the congregation, in the recesses of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High. Yet you shall be brought down to Hell, to the sides of the pit.

—ISAIAH 14:12–15

He said to them, I saw Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

—LUKE 10:18

The great dragon was cast out, that ancient serpent called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast down to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him.

—REVELATION 12:9

Now that we’ve covered how he became our adversary, let’s take a look at three things the Bible tells us about the devil.

1. He is a thief.

The devil is a thief who comes to steal, kill, and destroy anything and everything in your life. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly (John 10:10, NKJV). Stealing, killing, and destroying are spiritual warfare. The devil tries to make sure we don’t have the abundant life that Jesus said we could have.

Jesus wants us to have abundant life. Attacks that lead to a negative result are never the result of the Lord sending something forth to hinder or punish us. God does not make people sick to use them or teach them lessons. He is a Father who wants the best for His children. It is the enemy who comes to steal, kill, and destroy, while the Lord’s intention is for us to have abundant life.

2. He is wicked.

We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one (1 John 5:19, NKJV). When Satan was cast down to earth, he was given authority over the earth. We live under the sway of the wicked one until we come to know Jesus and His glorious power! Unfortunately the enemy has far too much influence on the earth, which is why we see sin, crime, unforgiveness, addiction, and bondage. However, Jesus came to the earth to make right what was wrong. He gave us His authority.

3. He is a liar.

You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). The devil is the father of lies, and he will lie to us. His lies can appear as thoughts we take hold of, things someone said to us or about us, or manipulation. The devil will use our pasts, generational curses, and soul ties to gain a foothold in our lives. I’ll discuss these more later.

When we haven’t been taught about spiritual warfare and how cunning the enemy is, we will take in the lies and begin to believe them. After a while these lies we take in become strongholds in our lives, and when we don’t change our thoughts and behavior patterns, the strongholds can become strongmen, which are demonic spirits. To ensure strongmen do not enter and occupy our souls, we must quickly capture all the enemy’s lies and give no place to the devil. Capturing the lie means recognizing the lie. When a thought comes into your mind, test it by discerning if it lines up with the Word of God. Is it something that would have a result that agrees with Scripture? If not, dismiss it instead of entertaining it.

Give no place to the devil by taking control of your thoughts so the lie does not torment you and cause you anxiety, anger, or fear. As we take unproductive and negative thoughts in and they stay captured in our minds, we entertain them instead of dismissing the thoughts. When we know Scripture, we can conquer our thoughts with the Word and replace a negative that might cause us to feel defeated or fearful with a positive, a truth of God’s Word and what He says about our situations.

Prophetic Exercise: No Place for the Devil

List 1–3 things that occupy your thoughts. What consumes you in a negative way? Where haven’t you been able to receive breakthrough? What brings forth stress, depression, or fear?

Next, think about what Scripture says regarding those unproductive thoughts. For example, if the thought is that you will never have enough, test it against the Scriptures, which say God is your provider (Phil. 4:19). Therefore, remove the lie now and lean on Scripture. Practice taking every thought captive. If it does not align with Scripture, dismiss it

Ask the Holy Spirit to convict you when you begin to have unproductive thinking and when the enemy is tormenting you. Ask the Holy Spirit to partner with you to conquer your thoughts by convicting and correcting you. Rely on Him to be your friend and lead you through spiritual growth in this area.

We have the final victory. No matter how hard the devil tries to defeat us, his fate is written in the Word of God, and he loses! He is defeated! Rest assured that whatever you go through, whatever you try to help someone through, it can be conquered. God’s Word says that we are conquerors. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Rom. 8:37, NKJV). We are conquerors, and the devil is defeated!

Now that we understand our adversary, let’s examine the spiritual forces at work.

ANGELS VS. DEMONS

For many people, it is easier to believe in an angel than a demon. People choose to believe in things that make them happy and help them. Hebrews 1:14 tells us that angels are sent as ministers. They are here to help guide us and protect us, among many other functions that angels perform. Most people would rather talk about the help angels give us than about how demons can attack us or their role on earth.

Many Christians don’t even believe in demons. I can’t count the number of people who have come to my ministry for a deliverance session because a friend told them it was the greatest experience. This is a caution for me. It tells me they don’t know what they are getting themselves into. When this happens, I start by asking whether they believe in angels. The usual reply is yes. Then I ask if they believe in demons. Most people either hesitate or say no.

The truth is we live in a fallen world. Satan was once the beautiful angel Lucifer, but he allowed pride and rebellion to arise. In the Scriptures we read that one-third of the angels were cast out of heaven with him. How can we read the Bible and think demons don’t exist? We can’t pick and choose which parts of the Bible to believe and which to ignore. The fight between good and evil is a very real battle, and Satan opposes anything that is God’s will, including God’s plan for your life.

THE BATTLE PLAN

To defeat the enemy, we must know his plans and purposes, expose them, and eradicate his attacks. How do we fight and resist something we can’t see? Knowledge is power, and when we follow the example of Jesus and prophetic insights from the Holy Spirit, we will have everything we need to know to engage and win the battle set before