Derek Prince - What's The Satanic Strong Man Over Your Nation
Excerpt from "Casting Down Strongholds"
And then when we come to nations, the same is true. We have Brother Warren here somewhere. I was in New Zealand, which is a nation I know well, I've visited probably ten times at least. I love the people of New Zealand. But I was in a meeting there a few years back and I was teaching on this, and they said: what’s the strong man over New Zealand? I said it isn’t my business to tell you, it's your business to find out. They were leaders. But they kept on so I thought, God, maybe you’ll show me. And I felt God had shown me. There was a friend of mine, a well known New Zealand Christian, who had come in late to the meeting so he was sitting right at the back, with his daughter beside him. And eventually they pressured me and I said, well if you want to know, I believe the strong man over New Zealand is indifference. They’re a very friendly warm people but they don’t, in a way, take life seriously. Their attitude is it will work out all right in the end. In fact, what they say in New Zealand is: she’ll be right, Jack.
Well, the man who’d come in and was sitting at the back, at the moment I said that, turned to his daughter and said it’s indifference. And I’d have to say from then till now New Zealand basically - politically, socially and spiritually - has been on decline, and the problem is what? Indifference, that’s right. And until the New Zealand Christians come to grips with that problem, I think they’re not going to be really able, to deal adequately with the whole situation. Now we’ve got Australians here. And I’m bold, I was in Australia and was faced with the same issue. Well, I said, if you want to know what I believe, the spiritual problem of Australia is rejection.
Now you have to be careful what you say with Australians but, as you know, or you may not know, it was founded as a penal colony. Prisoners were given the opportunity to go to Australia, or forced to go to Australia. So you find, in the background of the thinking of the Australian people is this sense: we were kind of outcasts, we were rejects. And God gave the most beautiful prophecy when I was teaching on this to a brother in Australia, a New Zealand brother in Australia. He said God was going to heal that nation, God had compassion. In fact, God called it a nation born in chains. But He said He was going to break those chains. I believe that. I believe there’s a tremendous revival coming to Australia in the near future. We could go on. What’s the strong man over the United States? Of course, there are many forces in the nation but I would say essentially rebellion.
You see, the United States was conceived in rebellion. It’s an amazing thing. In history we British talk about the American War of Independence. The Americans call it the American Revolution. It’s just astonishing. I’m not criticizing those who revolted, if I’d been a Britisher in the day of George Washington I would have done the same. But the fact of the matter is that the nation was conceived in rebellion. And there’s something that goes very close with rebellion. How many of you know what it is? Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, that’s right.
And the other strong power over the United States is witchcraft. That’s just simple examples. Dear Lord, how did I get into this! Anyhow, what’s the problem with the British? Again, the British are complicated people. I mean, you can’t just say it in one thing but I tell people, if you want to know the difference between the Americans and the British, and I’m both, the Americans will tell you how good they are, but the British expect you to know without being told! And I don’t have any doubt the strong man over Britain is pride. I don’t say this to be critical. My aim is to diagnose in order to be able to deal with the problem.