Spiritual Warfare: Pastors Protecting Yourself and Family from Spirit Attacks

Pastors, preachers, deacons and other church leaders need to read this article. It will help them to understand how to prevent and also fight off demonic attacks. I have ignored this area of spiritual warfare because I was unaware how many pastors, preachers and even leaders in the church have been subjected to the bondage of the enemies of God. This article will help with the power of the Holy Spirit to ward off the attack of the enemies. If you know how to do it well, you will not need to fight, the demons will see you and they will not only start screaming, but they will run away from you. It is not because of who is mounting you in the spirit, it is who you are mounting in the Spirit of God. Prior to you mounting the energy of warfare of the angelic forces of Heaven, you have to make preparations. Through the process of your preparation you either mount with the power of the angelic forces of Heaven, or you call the fighting forces of Heaven into action.

There is an ancient key to spiritual warfare in the Old Testament, even some Christians have forgotten. This same power is also fully manifested in the New Testament through Jesus when he said in many words that he would carry those who follow him like a shepherd carries a sheep. The majority of the time when the children of Israel lost their battle due to sin in the camp, it is because they had dismantled themselves from riding on the mighty Wings of God’s protection. Even God himself said, "I carried the children of Israel like on the wings of eagle" (Exodus 19:4). God allowed the children of Israel to mount Him, and he carried them, and enshrouded them from their enemies through His mighty hands of protection. Similarly, in the battle of Jericho when the commanding angel of the fighting forces of Heaven appeared to Joshua he allowed Joshua to ride on his angelic fighting power so the purpose of God would be accomplished. Following Israel’s battle victory of Jericho, they lost their fighting power due to sin in the camp by Achan (Joshua chapter 7).

Preparation for War

When you are going to war, you need two things. The first one is protection to prevent you from getting killed by the enemies. The second thing is the firing power needed to defeat the enemy. In non-combat situations, the Spirit of the Lord Jesus protects us from unsuspected or unanticipated enemy attacks as the radiance of God’s glory (Psalm 91). The Lord Jesus enshrouds us with his garment of protection daily. In addition to this we are also surrounded by protective angelic forces. During spiritual combat situation referred to as spiritual warfare, Jesus does not get involved with spiritual warfare. This is the great mistake some people make during spiritual warfare. Calling Jesus during a spiritual warfare is like calling the president of a nation to personally take a machine gun and take a shot at your enemies for you. When Jesus disciples called for an air strike, Jesus rebuked them. He reminded them that they were on the rescue mission, and were not attack forces. Every country has military forces. Once they receive orders from the commander in chief, they will go into attack. Similarly, when we are in spiritual warfare, we call the commander in chief of ALL the armed forces of Heaven, not just the head of one division. The angel in charge of ALL the armed forces of Heaven is Angel Holy Michael. He carries the sword of fire and his garment is flaming red. Many of his fighting forces are divided into subdivisions depending on what is needed. All of his forces are armed to the teeth. Some of the angelic fighting forces carry the sword of thunder, others carry the sword of lightening, and another group carry the sword of fire. Other divisions carry grenades of chemical, biological and nuclear bombs. All these weapons were already used in the Old Testament. Imagine one angel throwing on grenade and 70 people died instantly (II Samuel 14:15). When God saw the damage done by this angel, God himself recalled the angel saying, stay your hand!

"And when the angel stretched out his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the destruction, and said to the angel who was destroying the people, ‘It is enough: now restrain your hand" (II Samuel 24:16).

You think we have fighting forces on earth - - - that’s a laughable statement. In the presence of the angelic fighting forces of Heaven ALL earthly arsenals are neutralized, become non-functional, and useless. The entire military forces on earth from every nation cannot stand against one fighter angel in Heaven.

Mounting Process

Before you enter the territories of the enemies be sure you have mounted the fighting forces of Heaven through your spiritual preparation. If you do not prepare in the spirit for such spiritual warfare, you will receive a beating by the enemy just like the children of Israel did. Regardless to how spiritual you may be, you are still a human being and you sin everyday. In your sinning process, you are not an effective fighter in the spirit realm. Consequently, you will need to actively engage the fighting forces of Heaven. You need to call out and mount the mighty power of the angelic forces of Heaven as part of your preparations. These forces and not just functional as protective power; they also specialize in slapping people upside the head and they just keep tumbling many feet away from you like some invisible powers just hit them. So, when people started to bother me on the mission field, I usually say nothing. I know when the time comes an angel is going to slap the daylight out of those people.

Critical Point of Protection

If you are a pastor leading a church, before you enter into the building, or into the sanctuary, prepare yourself as if going into a spiritual war zone. If you don’t, negative forces inside your church will cause you to tumble in the spirit. Tumbling in the spirit is very common with pastors who do not know how to walk in the Spirit of God. In the process of worship, you have to take command of all the spirit forces of distractions inside the building especially inside the sanctuary. Negative spirits carry negative energies. You have the power to bind and blind them. You also have the power to command them and cast them out of your sanctuary. Then, close the spiritual doors with prayers. This must be done prior to starting church service on Sunday, or prior to an event. Think of demons as bad boys coming to cause disturbances in the house of God. Learn to kick them out. I have had to deal with this situation many times when I was planning projects for the Lord. If you do not, they will cause disturbances inside your church during service, or special events. They will prevent the manifestations of divine atmosphere of worship. Remember, the words coming out of your mouth carry the projectile force of the Holy Spirit. In the atmosphere when negative spirits are partying inside your church, whatever you say is like shooting blanks into the congregation because you have lost your divine rider - - - the Holy Spirit. This is one of the major reasons today why the words coming out of the mouth of the preacher have less effect in changing the heart of the people sitting in the pews.

Very importantly, many people in your church come inside the sanctuary with many negative spirits hanging around them; anger, hate, despair, pride, discouragement, fear, jealousy, etc. - - - to name a few. Many of them are unaware of this fact because they have been living with these spirits for so long. These spirits are not indwelling, but are hanging on the outside of their human spirit bus. Some of them are demonic spirits; others are perverted human spirits, and yet some are the hybrids of fallen angels from other dimensions. Don’t underestimate the last group; they may be very deceptive and highly dangerous! These negative spirits cause disruption of the church service by disturbing the atmosphere of God spiritual worship. However, we are the ones who empower these negative spirits because of our love affairs with them. If you are dabbling in dark entertainments, you have an intimate and ongoing affair with demonic entities. Such a love affair is like an illicit intimate relationship that feels good to the flesh. Sadly, many Christians are having love affairs with both perverted and demonic spirits without realizing what they are doing. Consequently, the spirits that we embrace, listen to, or allow to thrive around us is the spirit that determines the atmosphere around us. The spirit that determines the atmosphere around us is same the spirit that influences our worship. This is why Jesus said, "God is a Spirit, those who worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth." Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit.

With this statement, Jesus was saying that the Holy Spirit MUST create and control your atmosphere of worship with God, otherwise forget it! Jesus then added, "The thief comes, but to steal, kill, and destroy"

He was therefore warning us not to allow the negative spirits to disrupt the atmosphere of worship either during Sunday service, Wednesday Bible class, or some special events. Expression of human negative emotions from the flesh is one of the open doors to allow the enemy to come into the sanctuary. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (St. John 3:6). At times we confuse the two by spiritualizing things of the flesh. Other times, people will have human spiritual experience and confuse this with an experience with the Holy Spirit like the New Age people do. The experience with the human spirit is different with the experience in the Holy Spirit. Please do not confuse the two.

Danger the Preacher Needs to Watch out For

If you are not prepared for spiritual warfare by mounting on the spiritual wings of the fighting angelic forces of Heaven, you open yourself to dangerous spiritual attacks. This is very evident in many preachers suffering from chronic illnesses. Continuous attacks by negative spirits allow both physical and emotional illness of the church members to come upon the pastor. This is why it is very important that you are anointed to lead a particular church. True, some sicknesses are due to the wear and tear of the physical bodies because they can only last for so long. Just think about it this way. If the Holy Spirit can influence surgical and invisible instant healing which many have reported as instant spiritual cures, what do you think negative spiritual forces can do to your physical body? Negative spiritual forces have the power to cause you both physical and emotional illness. "Depression" is a very common spirit illness among preachers. The first thing the negative spirit does is to steal your joy by dismantling your positive energy of the Holy Spirit and replacing it with the spirit of discouragement leading to the feeling of despair and depression follows. This is because you have given the demons power to override the positive energy of God working with you through the Holy Spirit. When this happens, many preachers tend to look to pleasuring the physical body as an antidote for depression, just like people in the secular world. Consequently, drugs, pornography, alcohol, or some illicit sex may become behaviors of choice. We ended up blaming the preacher, but we do not realize that a spiritual battle is raging within like wild fire. Pleasuring the flesh is a temporary solution because after the physical excitements, the physical euphoria will eventually fade away. The best antidote for such spirit induced depression is to get into the Word of God for at least an hour, as an effective antidote to fighting the depression brought on by negative spirits.

What happens when you get into the Word of God? There is an amplification of the power of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In the presence of God is the fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11). Once the Holy Spirit is amplified within by reading the Word of God, his power will neutralize and knockout the negative power of negative spirits. This is based on your choice!

Spiritual Preparations for Church Service

My preparation for Sunday services starts in the evening of Saturdays. I stopped allowing anything in the flesh to control my soul perception. I start to prepare my soul to engage the Holy Spirit and wearing my divine mantle. I will detach myself spiritually from everything in the world that may cause visual distraction, especially those things that pleasure the flesh. I will get into the Word and start meditating on the Word of God. With the Holy Communion Sunday, I start with a mini fast after eating the evening meal on Saturday; no more meal or eating anything till the Holy Communion is over on Sunday after service. Once I enter the church on Sunday morning, I go straight inside the sanctuary. The first thing I do is to bind any negative spirits inside the building in the name of Jesus. Once I bind them, I will then cast them out of the building by ordering them with the authority Christ has given me to trample over scorpions and over all powers of the enemies. Once I have done this, I will invite the ministering Spirits and Holy angels to take positions and help me to create an atmosphere of spiritual worship inside the sanctuary. Through this atmosphere created by the angelic forces of God will allow the Holy Spirit to descend during church service. The next thing I do is to block any negative spirits coming with any church member into the sanctuary. I will position angels at the doors. Subsequently, my next prayer is to ask the Lord to position cherubim with the sword of fire to guard all the doors of the church. As members come into the sanctuary those negative spirits will be detached from them. I don’t care if they pick them back up as they go back home. But, I do not want those bad spirits in the sanctuary. Otherwise those bad boys will come inside the church to cause some disruptions. The next prayer prior to the service is that God will bless each and everybody coming to worship. I will pray for each person coming into the sanctuary to have a spiritual experience and an encounter in the presence of God that will touch their souls to reveal the Spirit of God to them. Think about what happened on the Day of Pentecost. There was prayer preparation that created an atmosphere for the Holy Spirit to descend.

After the Service is Over

Once the church service is over, the pastor should enter into a special room in the church. He should pray alone to build a spiritual aura of protection around him and his family on his way home with Psalm 91 and 121. If you are not careful those spirits will follow you home. Every preacher has seen the manifestation of the negative forces of the enemies in their children in one way or another. When the spirits cannot get you, they will go after either your spouse, or your children. They will use these avenues to wage spiritual warfare against you. I have seen this happened to the children of clergy many times.

I remember one occasion I took two church members to a restaurant. When the dinner was over, I went to the grocery store. All of a sudden, I felt something choking me in the throat. It was like a person grabbed my throat with his hands. Here was I at the checkout counter at the grocery line and I was about to pass out. Initially, I thought I was having a heart attack. Then the Holy Spirit revealed to me it was a spiritual attack. Evidently some of the negative spirits have landed and become attached to me. I could not tell which church member brought the negative spirits. I knew it was a spirit attachment. Immediately, I started rebuking and casting the negative spirits out in the name of Jesus, pleading the blood of the lamb. Instantly, the attack stopped, and my throat choking effect instantly ended.

In the past, I have heard different stories from deacons or pastors going to visit a church member and they encountered some negative spirits. A preacher reported to me he and his wife received a beating from the hand of the enemy. Because the enemy used the person they went to visit as an attack dog. And I asked him if they prayed before going to visit this person. He said he did not pray neither was there any preparation to enter the territory of the enemy. Pastors, preachers and deacons need to be aware; there are familiar spirits who have taken over some territories. Anytime a Christian leader goes to their areas they feel threatened. As a result, they will go on the attack. Some of the Christians might have been living with these spirits like the familiar spirits controlling their lives and they are unaware of the spirits influencing their behavior. Prior to going to such visitation, prepare by taking dominion over the area and announcing to the demonic forces that you are on your way - - - bind and cast them out of your way prior to entering the physical location. This is very important because once you bind and cast them out; you will put on the radiance of God’s glory as a garment. Also create a sanctuary of Holiness in your house that represents the presence of God. Do not allow any cursed object or some ancient chimes in front of your house. You do the same thing prior to entering a disaster area.

I hope this article will help any preacher to be prepared for a spiritual warfare. Fasting is one of the powerful tools of spiritual warfare. Fasting disengages the human flesh and helps to engage the Holy Spirit thereby taking us to God’s Spirit dimension. The same way the pastor prepares for Sunday services, similarly, the church member should prepare from home before attending church services using Psalm 15 and 24.

Always remember, the devil is a defeated foe!

By Yinka Vidal, author, Finding Peace in the Storms – A Wife’s Inspirational Journey with Breast Cancer. It’s the shocking story of a woman who conquers the fear of chronic illness with her faith in God. Available at Amazon as an Ebook.

News Update May 20, 2013: I was finishing this article when I saw the news flash about the Oklahoma tornado and the two miles of destruction and many lives especially that of children lost. I became very tearful as I read many of the Christian leaders tweeting while sending comforting words across the nation through the Internet. However the past couple of years have been trails of disasters and bloodshed in the nation. The Spirit of God reminded me about Jesus visitations and the Lord’s messages, especially that of December 2006 about the coming catastrophes. In 2009 the book project was completed. In 2010 the Lord’s messages, His visitations, and warnings to the nation were published in the book, Closer Walk With Jesus by Yinka Vidal, 472 pages. Chapters 37 and 38 directly discussed God’s warning to the nation. I hate to be the bearer of bad news. God himself knows I hate to deliver this message. What we are seeing now may be the tip of the iceberg compared to what is yet to come. Then, in the same message the Lord sent me a personal warning with Ezekiel 3:17 documented on page #400 of the book. May God have mercy of us - - - Amen.

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