Derek Prince - Vast Armies Of Satanic Beings Arranged In Battle Order Against Us
Excerpt from "Casting Down Strongholds"
Now, for a brief description of the kingdom of Satan and its headquarters, we turn to Ephesians chapter 6 which actually is an absolutely key verse on this whole theme. Ephesians chapter 6, Paul says in verse 12: For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Now, I would like to give you the “Prince version” of that verse. It’s the amplified Prince version. You ask me, am I qualified? Well, I have learned Greek since I was ten years old, which is a long while now. I’m qualified to teach it at university level. That doesn’t mean necessarily that I’m always right, but, I’m entitled to my opinion. So, I’m going to give you the amplified Prince version: For our wrestling match is not against persons with bodies...
Now that phrase is taken from The Living Bible and I think it’s a very good phrase. We are in a wrestling match. But we’re wrestling persons who don’t have bodies. That immediately causes us to adjust our thinking because we’re not used to the concept, of persons without bodies— although, there are multitudes of such persons in the universe. Then he says (in the Prince version): ...against rulers with various areas and descending orders of authority. So it’s a very highly organized kingdom. There are rulers in this kingdom, each with a particular area of responsibility, and under each of those rulers there are sub-rulers, who are responsible for sub-areas in that kingdom. You might say Satan was very clever to devise such an organization. That’s not so.
The truth of the matter is that he rebelled against God being - as most people believe him - in charge of one third of the created angels. Brought his angels into rebellion against God with him and were cast out of heaven, and simply set up a rival kingdom, keeping the organizational structure that they had when they were part of God’s kingdom. So he doesn’t get any credit for this extremely clever organization. I’m going to do that part again. Our wrestling match is not against persons with bodies, but against rulers with various areas and descending orders of authority, against the world dominators of the present darkness. And I deliberately used the word dominate because the Greek word is a very powerful word.
And I choose the word dominate because God never dominates anybody. Wherever you encounter domination it’s something satanic. That’s not how God rules people. But Satan’s ambition is to dominate the whole world, do you understand that? Not just some little part of humanity but through a kingdom of darkness to dominate the whole world. And because his kingdom is a kingdom of darkness, the people who are in that kingdom, for the most part, don’t know what they’re in.
See, the kingdom of God is the kingdom of light. If we’re in the kingdom of God we know where we are, somewhat. But most of the people who are in Satan’s kingdom, don’t know where they are because it’s a kingdom of darkness, they can’t see. And then, going to the final phrase in verse 12: ...against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenlies. Or, in the heavenly places. So, there are vast armies. You know, the word host is Old English for army. Vast armies of satanic beings, persons without bodies, arranged in battle order against us. It’s important that we know that, isn’t it? It’s going to make a lot of difference in our lives, if we realize what we’re up against.