False Spiritual Warfare

8 min read

The lack of information that we have regarding Satan and the demonic realm leads many church leaders to extravagant speculations.

When it comes to the subject of spiritual warfare, false teachers teach believers that they must bind and cast out demons from situations and locations. They tell believers that it's important to locate and name the evil spirits that control different parts of society, in order to bind, rebuke, and cast them out. Believers are told it's the way to regain ground in society for the kingdom of God. Life for the believer then becomes like a horror version of Pokemon Go.

Screaming prayers

False teachers teach believers that they need to shout loudly in prayer or else their prayers won't have any effect on the demons. Rather than praying to God, as the Bible instructs us to do, false teachers get believers to pray loud, screaming prayers in an attempt to scare away demons. None of this is actually biblical.

Spiritual warfare prayer meetings often get very loud, with frequent shouting. If you are not praying loudly, false teachers will conclude that something is spiritually wrong with you, due to some hidden sin perhaps. The Bible never says that the volume of a prayer is what determines its efficacy.

Casting out demons from demon-possessed individuals is biblical. Jesus and his disciples did this. However, they did not organize prayer meetings full of yelling and screaming to name and bind demons that were supposedly ruling over situations or locations.

Wrestling for victory

False teachers make believers think that victory is something they have to wrestle the devil for in prayer. This causes believers to be looking for the devil in every corner. As a result, every inconvenience a person experiences causes them to presume that the devil was out to get them. These types of false teachings cause believers to become obsessed with darkness, demons, and devils. Rather than experiencing joy, peace, and victory, believers end up stressed, worried, and afraid.

This is exactly what false teachers want. As long as the sheep believe that they were in a war against demons and devils, they will be afraid. Fear makes it easier to control someone. Fear makes believers think that they need these loud and tough false teachers as the general in their little army.

Chasing revelations

False teachers bombard believers with false teachings about the so-called principles of spiritual warfare. This puts believers constantly on the lookout for a special technique or a method that would allow them to win a victory over the powers of darkness.

If believers could just receive some special prophetic word or some special revelation, then they could be one step closer to this “victory” that the preacher speaks of. As a result, believers end up chasing preachers because they think that they are in desperate need of revelation from them. This makes it very easy for false preachers to control, manipulate, and abuse them.

When spiritual warfare teachings are the constant focus, darkness is talked about and darkness is glorified. These are enemy-oriented teachings rather than Jesus-oriented ones.

Such teachings tell us to seek deeper revelations into demons and devils. They lead us away from Jesus Christ because they tell us to seek revelation into other things apart from Jesus.

These extravagant spiritual warfare teachings are devised to make believers lose their focus on Jesus Christ. Without their focus on Jesus, believers have lost their anchor and can easily be manipulated and controlled.

Spiritual warfare teachings deceive us into thinking that we can gain some sort of leverage by which we can overcome demons. The power of the Christian life does not come from methods or strategies. It comes from Jesus Christ. When we trust in our own methods and strategies and supernatural abilities, we fail. We were made to trust in Jesus.

Victory is a person

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ...

2 Corinthians 2:14

The search for victory can be called off. Victory is not in spiritual warfare strategies or special revelations. Victory is in Jesus Christ. The victory that false teachers have us so desperately searching for has already been ours all along. Victory is Jesus. To know Jesus is to know victory.

that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him

Ephesians 1:17

This verse is part of apostle Paul's prayer for the church of Ephesus. He prays that God would give them wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, not in the knowledge of demons. Anyone who tries to get you searching for any other type of hidden knowledge is wrong.

The war is already won

having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

Ephesians 1:18-21

In these verses, it's clear that Jesus Christ won the war. The eyes of our hearts must be enlightened to see it because of the many false teachings that try to obscure this victory in an attempt to manipulate us. The war that false teachers tell us we must fight against the powers of darkness, has already been won.

False teachers make us search frantically for manifestations of God's power that will come to crush the demons that they make us fight. God won't do that because God already worked his great might for us when he raised Jesus Christ from the dead and seated him on the victory throne in heaven that is far above every evil spirit.

Jesus won't send us strategies and prophecies for victory because Jesus himself is that victory. We don't need a way to win a war that's already been won. All we need is to know the one who won it.

Living from a place of victory

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved — and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:4-7

When we believe in Christ, the Bible says that we are placed in Christ. Since we are in Christ, we died with Jesus, were raised with Jesus, and were seated with him on the victory throne in heaven. The battle against the devil, demons, and sin was fought and won by Jesus' death and resurrection. We did nothing for this victory, but we obtained it because we are in Christ. Since Jesus defeated the powers of darkness and we are in Jesus, we also defeated them as if we fought the battle ourselves.

Do not allow anyone to deceive you into looking for a way to get victory over spiritual enemies. We don't need a victory, because in Christ, we already live from a place of victory.

Curses and generational curses

Another popular false teaching related to spiritual warfare is the one on curses and generational curses. False teachers use it to tell believers that God may have cursed their bloodline for a certain sin that their family engaged in. False teachers attempt to convince believers that some of their problems today are the result of generational curses.

Believers are then told that they need to engage in spiritual warfare prayers to break these curses.

It's easy to fall prey to this deceitful teaching when we are going through a hard time. We can be misled to think that we are suffering through something because we've been cursed. By presenting themselves as the one with the supposed remedy to our curses, the false teacher then establishes their authority and control over our lives.

It is liberating to find the truth about curses right from the source, the Bible.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us — for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"

Galatians 3:13

When we turn to Jesus, there is no curse that we need to worry about ever again. Teachings and conferences about curses make no sense, but they do make a lot of dollars for false teachers.