Bill Johnson - Spiritual Warfare, God's Strategy for Winning Every Battle
We are not fighting for victory; we’re fighting from victory towards the broken conditions of life. That is the responsibility of every believer. So, when we talk about warfare, we have reason to celebrate ahead of time because the battle has literally already been won. We’re just learning how to apply that which Jesus has been victorious over. How many of you realize we’re honestly in a spiritual war? Yeah, there’s no question. In fact, there’s never been a time in my life where it’s been more intense, and I would say probably ten times more than any other season of my life; it’s been the last two years.
Now, our strength in spiritual warfare is no greater than our ability to control our thoughts. Our effectiveness in spiritual warfare is no greater than our ability to control our thoughts. In 2 Corinthians 10, probably the greatest chapter on instruction for spiritual warfare, there is this phrase: «Taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.» Imagine being in a natural war and you’ve got the number one terrorist on the planet opposing you, and you take that person captive—he’s now a prisoner of war. But what happens if you take that captive prisoner of war and turn him into a soldier for the same cause as you? That’s what it means to take captive renegade thoughts to the obedience of Christ. What was warring against me is now warring for me. It means that when you’ve got that little thing going on in your head where you’re arguing with somebody and you’re angry with them, and you’ve got this going on and that going on, turn it into a prayer of blessing for them and you’ll disarm the enemy. You actually use a thought that was supposed to be used against you, and it will now be used for you.
God has strange ways of winning wars. You know, anytime you send a choir out into battle first, they don’t have weapons; they just sing and carry instruments, and you send them into the teeth of a battle. That’s an unusual way to go to war. Unless you don’t like the worship team, but the Lord showed up and would deliver, and powerful things would happen. How about the time He had Moses lift his hands up and Aaron and Hur each holding up an arm? As long as the arms were up, they won. Or what about the time the prophet was surrounded by an enemy army, and the Lord blinds them all? The king said, «Can I kill them?» He says, «No, feed them.» So, he brings them into this big banquet, and then it says that army just decided not to attack Israel anymore. That’s a strange way to win a war. I’m not saying to feed your enemies; your demons—yeah, break down! Alright, so the Lord has unusual ways of leading His into war because the way a war is won is through relationship and trust, through obedience. It’s the raised hands; it’s the striking the rock; it’s the proclamation here; it’s the natural obedience to whatever God says to do. That’s what brings about the triumph and the victory.
Did I tell you where to open your Bibles to? No? Yes? No? Zechariah 1 is where you should be. Zechariah Chapter 1. If you’re not there, hurry and get there, and we’re going to read. Let me start by saying you’ll see the number four, and you’ll see the word horns. Four horns in scripture often represent something global—North, South, East, West. It’s a global thing. Horns are strength, authority, power. So, when it talks about four horns influencing the Earth, it’s a global demonstration of demonic power that enslaves people in wrong thinking.
Alright, so let’s read this passage, and then I’ll see if we can make some sense out of it. Alright, Verse 18: «Then I raised my eyes and looked, and there were four horns.» I said to the angel who talked with me, «What are these?» He answered me, «These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.» Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen. I said, «What are these coming to do?» He said, «These are the horns that scattered Judah so that no one could lift his head, but the craftsmen are coming to terrify them, to cast out the horns of the nations that lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.»
Let’s read these verses again. I want you to think with me as we go through this because it’s almost like the Lord is saying, «When in war, create.» Let’s read Verse 20 and 21: «Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen.» He said, «What are these coming to do?» He said, «These are the horns that scattered Judah so that no one could lift up his head, but their craftsmen are coming to terrify them.» That is a very unusual way to win a war. It is to raise up artists, craftsmen, skilled laborers, skilled workers. It says these horns—these four powers or authorities, these realms of darkness—have been released to, number one, scatter the people of God. Number two, scatter them so that they can no longer lift their head.
Sometimes we are separated not because of division, but because we’ve just not fought to be together, especially in this very unusual season. The scripture says, «Don’t forsake the assembling of yourselves together, as is the habit of some, especially as you see the day drawing near.» What is it saying? As you see things intensifying in the Earth, do what is not natural for you, go against the grain, and fight to be together. Yes, we are members of a body—all of us; we are members of one another. While there are times when we are forced to stand alone, that is a season—it’s not a lifestyle ever. Sometimes we’re forced to stand alone to fight something; it almost seems like on our own, just to prove our own faithfulness to the Lord. But we are actually joined together, members of one another. The enemy works to separate and to scatter, to cause a loss of identity.
If there’s anything we can see happening in the world right now, it’s that men who don’t know they’re men think they’re women, and women who don’t know they’re women think they’re men, or one of the other 58 options. People say, «Well, Bill, we’ve got to show compassion.» And I do believe that we’ve got some troubled people; we just need to love and serve. I’m just tired of seeing the church show compassion to demons! Yes, we don’t go easy on the powers of darkness and then call that compassion. We’ve got to know where to fight, where to stand strong, where to embrace, where to love, where to be patient, where to be kind.
God’s giving the church a backbone! So here we’ve got this unusual story where the Lord says there are these powers released into the Earth, and it’s global. If ever I’ve seen something that was out of order, demonic, that is global, it’s right now. I’ve never seen the nations in the same turmoil all around the world as is happening right now. I do believe this is a right-now word. So I’m going to ask you, with that kind of certainty and intentionality, listen to this very simple exhortation. That global insanity, sponsored by so many different movements and political leaders, has an opponent that it can’t stand up to, and that’s the people of God coming into their authentic selves to give creative expression of who God made them to be.
Artisans, craftsmen—not just referring to those who carve wood or paint beautiful paintings or sing beautiful songs or dance or act—those are the arts, and they are highly valued by us. But there is an artistic expression that a single mom needs with that one child who is different from the rest. To be able to communicate well to that child and bring that child to their place of destiny needs grace, wisdom, and artistic flair. It’s the lawyer that has a case he doesn’t know how to win, but he knows he must, and the Lord gives him creative expression and ideas. The accountant that has a challenge in helping this one business to prosper and gets that insight—there’s that artistic flair that comes out of fellowship with the Lord that is in great need.
When we look at the subject of warfare in scripture, we’re not talking about conflict with another person. We’re not talking about this nation, another nation; we’re not talking about you and your neighbor; we’re not talking about the conflict between maybe you and a boss that you work for, a coworker, or whatever. It’s not human-centered; it’s actually centered in a spirit realm that has influence over the thoughts and values of a culture. It is so vital that you understand that’s at work; otherwise, you’ll pick people off as your target. It’s not people. God loves people! But there are powers at work that persuade people to see through a biblical filter versus a demonic filter, and they have as much conviction for what they believe as you do for what you believe. It’s because they see through a demonic filter.
What we’re doing is learning how to engage in the right war, in the right battle, so that those powers no longer have influence over people’s thinking and lives. The mark of the Gospel impacting a person’s life is liberty, not conformity! It’s not becoming a part of a group where you’re controlled—it’s being entrusted with divine insight where God trusts you to think for yourself and make decisions. There’s the biblical pattern, there’s the filter, if you will, the template that we think through because it’s vital that we live according to our design. When you get rid of the designer in culture, you lose any reason for design!
So, this is a story. Paul said in Ephesians 6, «We battle not against flesh and blood; our battle is against spiritual powers, spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places.» He describes an unseen realm that actually influences the thoughts and the values of a culture, of a people. Alright, we’re going to read quite a few verses, so please have your Bible open, and we’ll just kind of dance through this chapter.
2 Chronicles 20:15: «Listen, all of you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the Lord, 'Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s! '» I love it when the Lord says, «Do not be afraid.» I love it, and I don’t. Anytime He says «Don’t be afraid,» it’s because you have a really good reason to be afraid—it’s what I’ve figured out.
But in the economy of God—the way He resources a life is through speech, through the word, through declaration—whenever God says «Don’t be afraid,» the words «don’t be afraid» carry the capacity to not be afraid. It’s actually in the deposit of His word to the heart. So, my role is to stay humble and tender, to stay responsive because whenever He speaks, He will create in me the ability to do what He just commanded me to do. That is the marked difference between law and grace—another subject, a lot of differences, but that is one. In grace, He empowers!
Alright, the battle is not yours but God’s. Go down to Verse 17: «You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord who is with you.» Oh, Judah and Jerusalem, do not fear or be dismayed. Tomorrow, go out against them, for the Lord is with you.» I think probably the most frustrating part of this walk with the Lord for me is knowing when I’m supposed to stand still and watch Him work on my behalf, and when I’m supposed to do something. Come on, true? I’m asked this question all the time: «When do you know what to do?» I don’t know. If I knew, I’d write a book on it!
I’ve got one thing figured out, though: If what I’m doing isn’t working, then do the other. If I’ve waited and waited and waited, and nothing’s happened, do something. If you’ve been swinging your sword and nothing’s happened, shut up and sit down for a while; just let’s see if God will show up and work on your behalf. He works one of those two ways!
Wow, it’s actually represented in how we progress in the Kingdom—these two realities. He said, «Unless you receive the Kingdom as a child"—what is that? That’s the rest position! And then He says, «The violent take it by force,» referring to advancement in the Kingdom. That’s the doing something. You can’t do them at the same time or you hurt yourself or somebody around you. You’ll mess something up because you can’t do the sit still and the fight at the same time. Those are the two postures, and the Lord will generally lead us into the one that will bring out the greatest strength, significance, identity—all that stuff in us that we need in that particular moment.
Jump to verse 20. You guys still alright? Don’t know what I’d do if you said no, but it has happened—I’ve had it happen. Verse 20: «They arose early in the morning and went out to the wilderness of Tekoa. As they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, 'Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem! Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established. Believe His prophets and you shall prosper.'» Now, I remind you; they are facing a war with insurmountable opposition—an army beyond their ability to fight reasonably against. This is the word of the Lord: «Believe in God, you’ll be established. Believe in His prophets and you will prosper.»
It didn’t say survive. God is not a survival God; He’s not a make-do God! He is the God of extremes—extreme breakthrough, extreme increase, extreme abundance! «Believe in His prophets and you will prosper.»
Verse 21—we have two more verses. «When he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord and who should praise the beauty of His holiness as they went out before the army and were saying, 'Praise the Lord, for His mercy endures forever.'» Last verse: «When they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, and they were defeated.» Extraordinary story! There’s another one that I turn to occasionally for recreational reading. It says to the people of God, «Sing a new song to the Lord, His praise to the ends of the Earth.»
At the end of this exhortation, it says, «The Lord will go forth like a mighty man; He will stir up His zeal like a man of war. He will cry out; yes, He will shout aloud; He will prevail against His enemies.» What’s the point? This response of praise is not stroking the ego of God so that He’ll work for us. He is not insecure with His identity, looking for somebody to remind Him He’s God. There’s something in the unseen realm where there is a connection to the nature of God and the confession, or declaration, of people. There’s something that causes a collision of the realities of two worlds—the confession, the proclamation, the song, and the invasion of God to repair a human ailment. They work together in tandem in the same way as prayer.
He answers, in this case, the prescription was not to pray. It was not to fight; it was not to march around a wall. This one was to send out a choir and just sing! And as they sang, notice what they said: «The beauty of holiness.» The beauty of holiness was the target! Do you know why Jesus heals people’s bodies? Of course, it’s His compassion, it’s His love for people. But think about this: the great promise that comes to us in Malachi says that there’s healing in His wings; there’s healing in His wings!
It goes on to say the Son of Righteousness will rise with healing in His wings. Righteousness—healing is a physical expression of holiness. It doesn’t mean if you have a physical ailment, you’re unholy and doomed—that’s not the point. The point—don’t go there; go here! When Jesus heals, He’s demonstrating He’s holy; He’s demonstrating His purity; He’s demonstrating the righteousness of God, and that righteousness was the target—the beauty of holiness!
It’s my personal conviction that all real beauty in the world stems from His personal holiness. All beauty in this world, from creation, everything that is beautiful in song, in thought, with the eyes, what we see in creation—everything has stemmed from this one aspect of God’s own person: that’s His holiness. And they took those things to mind and began to sing and to make declarations.
Old and New Testament alike teach this concept that we’re to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, strength. It’s not okay to just sit down and do nothing; there’s supposed to be physical alignment, physical response to who He is. It’s supposed to happen that I stand; it’s supposed to happen that I kneel; it’s supposed to happen that I shout or raise my hands. There’s some sort of a physical response because I’ve got to bring this thing that wants to rebel against the purpose of God into confinement and let it express the greatness of God through physical expression!
It’s important emotionally that I arrest my emotions that are up and down, and I grab hold of those and I give them a direction of focus. Today, we are going to consider the greatness of God! But it also says, «Mind, mind, mind!» I’m supposed to use my intellectual capacity to consider His ways, come to a conclusion, and put it into word form and make it a part of a song, make it a part of a praise.
That we think through what He did to arrange for you to hear the Gospel, and we become overwhelmed with His greatness, His significance. We think through— I believe in tongues as a wonderful expression of praise, but it’s directly from the spirit to God. It’s supposed to, at times, come through our own brain that has the filter, if you will, the filter, the template of God’s nature revealed in the stories, in the miracles. We declare His goodness, His greatness; they did that, and it says that God in the Isaiah passage sets Himself up as a man of war! He said, «I can’t handle it any longer; I’ve got to go kick some demons around, or I’m just not going to feel good about the day.»
Now, those aren’t His words; those are mine, but you get the point, and Israel brought about a great victory. The remainder of the chapter talks about how God made them rejoice before their enemies and they ended up with great joy. If you want joy, rejoice! Don’t rejoice because you have joy; rejoice to get joy! Amen!
I believe that when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes, and their enemies were defeated. There are situations being faced by everybody in this room. Some of those situations— all they need is a song! Some of the odds that seem to be so stacked against you, some of the circumstances that seem to be the most impossible—they are no match for a song! Come on! They are no match for that yielded song of surrender that acknowledges the beauty of holiness, the beauty of His wonder, the beauty of His nature, His history with the people of God! He’s no different today than He was then, and there is that song; there’s that decree; there’s that shout! The Lord says He stirs Himself up, and He brings about victory.
It says, «Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir who had come against Judah, and they were defeated.» I love stories like this. This particular theme is all through the Old Testament, especially from David onward. He learned in his own experience the power of praise. He saw in his own experience the triumph of how worship and praise transforms a person’s life.
We’ve learned together that when things are difficult, you don’t respond according to the circumstance; you respond according to the nature of God, and when we do that, when we’re anchored into the heart and the nature of God and the nature of His promises, we have reason to celebrate before the answer! This scripture—the story goes on to say the Lord made them rejoice over their enemies. The key was they rejoiced before they won the battle! By the way, don’t ever think the battle is between God and the devil. There is no threat there whatsoever. Satan is not the opposite of God; he’s the opposite of Michael. They are both created beings. There is no struggle between God and the powers of darkness—that is a laughable concept.
The enemy only exists as a training ground for the people of God who will reign with Him forever. Their one purpose alone—God designed humanity to destroy the powers of darkness in the creation. We had that assignment, but with sin, we forfeited the ability to defeat him. So, Jesus took on flesh, beat the powers of darkness on our behalf, and then handed us the keys of His own personal victory. We are not fighting for victory; we’re fighting from victory towards the broken conditions of life. That is the responsibility of every believer.
So, when we talk about warfare, we have reason to celebrate ahead of time because the battle has literally already been won. We’re just learning how to apply that which Jesus has been victorious over. In this particular story, they began to sing, and the Lord set ambushes before the people of God. I had an interesting experience about 20 years ago. It was fairly soon—we’ve been here 23 years this week!
Oh, how about that? 23 years this week! Okay, so about 21 years or so ago, it was a Saturday night. I was fast asleep in the middle of the night, and a voice woke me up—the voice of the Lord. I don’t know the time; I don’t remember the time, but He woke me up with His voice. I laid there literally the rest of the night putting this phrase through my mind, and come back next week and I’ll tell you exactly what that phrase was—that’s just so cruel, but that’s what I do.
No, He spoke to me; He woke me with His voice, and this is what He said: «He watches over the watch of those who watch the Lord.» He watches over the—I literally laid there all night thinking that through! What does this mean? We know that we have responsibility. If you’re a parent, you’re a watchman over your children, your household. If you’re a pastor, you’re a watchman. If you’re a business owner, you’re a watchman over that place of responsibility. So, we all have responsibilities, and God never leads us to be irresponsible.
But He was showing us how His world works. He was showing me—I should say—in this situation. He spoke to me and basically said this: «I’ll watch over your watch if you’ll watch Me.» And that’s what worship is! Worship is the engagement of heart to heart. The word worship actually is a word that means to kiss. It’s a face-to-face encounter. The Lord draws us into this kind of relationship regardless of circumstances because He remains the same; His promises, He has solutions and answers for every problem we could ever face in our lifetime. Whatever you think is the biggest problem in your life right now, He already has a plan and a solution charted out for that situation. It is not Russian roulette; it’s not some random «I hope we get a breakthrough!»
He has a very specific course of direction where His redemptive touch will be put to that problem. That’s who He is; that is His nature. And because that is so absolutely true, we have every reason—Kingdom reasoning is—I get to celebrate ahead of time! Thanksgiving and praise—whenever we offer thanksgiving to the Lord, we thank Him for what He’s done; we praise Him for who He is. What’s important, what I learned early on is I would get so discouraged, I’d get so bummed out, and there’d just be like this cloud over me. I’d try to quote scripture or do whatever to try to get my head cleared, and it just wouldn’t work.
What I finally figured out is that the darker the cloud, the more exuberant my praise needed to be! So, the time I least felt like dancing before the Lord is when I would dance before the Lord! The least time I felt like shouting, raising my hands, or lying prostrate before the Lord—whatever it might be—those were the moments I would do that, and it would break that cycle over me.
You can stand here like this for five days and have nothing happen, but when you give yourself spirit, soul, and body to glorify His name through your offering, something happens! Something happens! The air becomes charged with the power and the presence of God because He shows up in that moment to deliver; He shows up in that moment to heal.
I remember in the early days having to learn that because I knew it on paper, but I didn’t know it by experience. In thanksgiving, we give Him a sacrifice for what He’s done and praise for who He is; but in worship, I’m the offering! I just step right under the altar: «Here I am, do as You please; accomplish Your purposes!» That’s really what worship is.
We have a responsibility; it’s a responsibility to engage with God to make a difference. It says the church had constant prayer. It wasn’t a «now I lay me down to sleep» prayer; it wasn’t a prayer before a meal; it was an engaging with God until something changed! Constant prayer is digging the heels in because something is going on. There has been a partnership made—in this case, Herod, where a spirit of murder has come upon a leader, and he’s governed by—watch this—you’ll see this all through scripture where a political leader is governed by the fear of man. He sees it pleases the Jews, so he will commit yet another crime to please this particular group—the group that illustrates the spirit of murder.
He will adopt the spirit of murder to gain their favor, and that’s how the political system works! We pray not to throw stones at people in leadership, because we’ve got some wonderful people in leadership, and we have some that are wonderful; they just don’t know it. They’re thinking stupid! I’m not going to give names, but the responsibility is still to pray—to sit back and say, «Well, God’s sovereignty, He can turn this abortion thing around anytime He wants.» Oh, don’t be stupid! Maybe 62 million babies is enough; maybe it’s enough!
Yes, we vote; yes, we do what we’re supposed to do, but don’t fall for that trap that these life and death issues for a nation are political issues—they are not! Constant prayer—why? Because there was an opposition. I love the story about Jesus; the devil met Jesus in the wilderness, tempted Him again and again, and then it says finally the devil left Him. The devil has been severed from his source of strength! You have an eternal source of strength: your «Yes» to God wears him out!
Your «Yes» to God can outlast the enemy’s attempts to dissuade you! Constant prayer—agreement in prayer is profound! It’s not just an intellectual agreement, although I’m not opposed to that. It’s not just that we agree on an idea. You know, we can say, «Let’s pray together about abortion, being God healing and forgiving our land, and healing our nation,» and we would be in agreement together, but it’s more than that—it’s a burning of the soul!
It’s the joining of hearts that says, «This is something we must lay hold of.» There’s that unity in prayer; there’s this exponential increase that happens. The way I like to illustrate is if I take a fishing line—which it’s only right fishing is more acceptable than hunting, so I can use fishing line in my illustration today—and spare all the non-hunters—not in this room, of course, none here—but maybe out there somewhere in the YouTube world. If you take a fishing line that breaks with a 2 lb weight on the bottom—2 lbs of pressure—you tie a 2 lb weight; it breaks.
If you take two of those and you wrap them together, you would think it would hold up to four pounds of weight because it’s 2 plus 2; but it multiplies! It has this effect—it’s like 6 or 8 lbs now to break two 2 lb test lines. You take a third one and wrap it around; you’ve got three wrapped together. Now you’ve got something like 15 lb test line out of three 2 lbs! It’s exponential growth!
In the natural, it prophesies to us about the power of agreement in prayer. I believe in praying on our own. We have 12 acres, and I walk my property—that’s what I like. I walk, and when you walk and pray, you don’t sleep and pray. Now, every night I try to sleep and pray. I get in bed and begin to pray until I go to sleep, and I like that. But if I sit down and pray, it’ll be nap time soon; I will sleep in the arms of Jesus. He’s never mad, but I would like to pray for some!
So, I like to walk; I like to walk and pray and bring things before the Lord. That’s generally what I do. I come here early in the morning Sundays, and I just walk for an hour–an hour. I walk nonstop for an hour, sometimes an hour and a half, just walking and praying for what’s supposed to happen on that day.
The point is that we engage with God to make a difference! We don’t engage with God to check the box and say we finished our assignment. Engaging in prayer is to make a difference. It’s the only way I can access the reality of joy on a Kingdom level that is overflowing because things have happened due to this partnership! We’ve been called into a co-laboring role, a co-laboring partnership.
So here we have constant prayer was offered up. Now I want you to go to John chapter 15, and let me talk to you—John 15, verse one. We’re going to—excuse me—we’re going to read eight verses! Verse one: «I am the true vine; my Father is the vine dresser.» Jesus is giving a lesson, a metaphor, an illustration of an extremely profound reality.
Let me tell you where we’re headed before we get there so that you’ll be able to picture it as we read it. If you take a vine—a grape vine, a vine that grows grapes—the branch connects to the vine, but the fibers of the branch and the fibers of the vine are so intertwined that you can’t separate them. You can cut the branch off, but there is actually growth into itself, and that is the actual picture in scripture of abiding in Christ!
You can’t tell where He ends and where you start. There’s this intertwining of hearts, of minds, of will. There’s this yieldedness to the heart and purposes of God so deeply that I can’t tell where He starts and where I end. That sort of thing—that’s the work that God is doing in us, and that’s the purpose of this illustration.
Verse two: «Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, He prunes that it may bear more fruit.» God rewards all growth with pruning! How many of you want to grow? Yeah, He rewards all growth with pruning.
Verse three: «You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.» The word clean there is the same word as the word prune. You’re pruned! «I pruned you,» and then He says, «But you guys are already pruned because of the word I spoke to you.»
What does it tell us? The discipline of God comes from His voice; the circumstances are just to get our attention! «Oh, the whale swallowed Jonah, and that was the discipline of the Lord!» No, it just got his attention! It just got his attention so the next time God spoke, he was actually listening! He actually prunes us with His word; it’s called a sword for a reason!
Verse four: «Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.» Boy, isn’t that the truth? There’s nothing of the eternal I can produce through my own efforts, but everything is available if I yield.