spiritual warfare

“I Push Back”

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Courtroom of Heaven Pushback Prayer

BACK TO SENDER❗️

Righteous Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, I enter into Your courts this morning by the blood of the Lamb, and I take my place before the throne of grace with boldness, not in my own righteousness, but in the finished work of Jesus Christ. I stand before You as Your daughter, redeemed, justified, and covered by the blood. I stand in the authority You have given me to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means harm me.

This morning I present my case before Heaven, and I push back.

Father, I ask that every accusation spoken against me in the spirit be silenced by the blood of Jesus. Every voice that says I am too much, I push back. Every voice that says I am not soft enough, I push back. Every voice that calls my strength brokenness, I push back. Every voice that calls my discernment pride, I push back. Let every lying spirit be overruled in this court.

Father, I renounce every agreement I have made knowingly or unknowingly with limitation, delay, poverty, confusion, rejection, and low level love. I break agreement with the lie that I must shrink to be accepted. I break agreement with the lie that I must settle to be loved. I break agreement with the lie that I must accept crumbs when You have ordained abundance for my life. Let every illegal contract be revoked now in the name of Jesus.

By the blood of Jesus, I cancel every covenant formed in my bloodline that invited struggle, delay, perversion, poverty, or limitation. I revoke the right of every spirit that has claimed access to my life through generational doors. Every bloodline curse, I push back. Every spirit of delay, I push back. Every spirit of complacency, I push back. Every anti progress spirit, I push back. Every anti marriage spirit, I push back. Every anti prosperity spirit, I push back.

Father, let the record of Heaven show that I no longer agree with what has been fighting me. I reject fear disguised as humility. I reject false peace that keeps me small. I reject manipulation that tries to control my emotions. I reject every arrow sent to distract me from my assignment. Every word curse spoken over my life, I send it back to the place it came from, and I declare that it has no power over me.

Every spirit that tried to convince me that my boundaries were wrong, I overrule it now. My boundaries are not rebellion. My strength is not brokenness. My discernment is not pride. My voice is not too loud. It was given to me by God, and I will not turn it down.

Father, I ask for a ruling in my favor this morning. Rule against delay. Rule against limitation. Rule against poverty. Rule against perversion. Rule against confusion. Rule against every spirit that has tried to punish me for being strong. Let divine justice speak on my behalf.

For it is written that the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. So this morning I take back territory. I take back my authority. I take back my confidence. I take back my discernment. I take back my joy. I take back my destiny. I take back my inheritance.

Every power of darkness interfering in my life from any direction, I command you to release your hold now by the blood of Jesus, by the authority of Jesus, by the word of God, and by the power that has been placed inside of me.

I push back. I overrule. I revoke. I reclaim. I advance. And nothing shall by any means harm me.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

The Power Pusher, LICSW

Pagan Celebration of Darkness “Paused”

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From The Daily Declaration:

Dark

Hobart’s Pagan Dark Mofo Festival Cancelled Next Year

Dark Mofo organisers cite rising costs and a need for rest, review and reset before coming back bigger in 2025.

Dark Mofo, a neo-pagan festival held yearly in Hobart during winter, has been cancelled for 2024. But two of its events, the nude solstice swim and winter feast, will go ahead next year.

The 2023 festival saw record attendance and ticket sales, but event organisers cited “changing conditions and rising costs” as reasons to pause the festival in 2024. Organisers issued the following statement:

“After 10 years of darkness, and in preparation for 10 more, Dark Mofo is pausing in 2024 for a period of renewal.

“Since Dark Mofo’s inception back in 2013, the festival has felt the weight of shifting conditions and the burden of escalating costs.

“While 2023 left an indelible mark, it also exacted its toll, prompting the decision to pause, reflect and plan out a more sustainable future.

“We will return – whole and bountiful – in 2025.

“From our dark heart to yours.”

 

Considering the amount of prayer against this dark festival, next year’s cancellation is very welcome and encouraging. But as spiritual battles won’t go away, there’s always the need to reflect on current culture, and how Christians should respond to it.

Government Backing

Dark Mofo receives significant public funding and government endorsement. The 2022 festival involved $7.5 million dollars in funding from the Tasmanian Government, $1 million from the Federal Government and $500,000 from Hobart City Council.

Reflecting on the 2023 ten-year anniversary, Tasmanian premier Jeremy Rockliff paid tribute to his predecessors “for the vision and courage to invest in what has been an extraordinary contribution of so many creative people over the course of the last decade.”

Hobart Mayor Anna Reynolds believes the event has changed Hobart, stating that “There’s been such a change in Hobart in the last ten years as a result of Dark Mofo and the winter feast.”

A Biblical Perspective

The Bible would agree that a public endorsement of neo-pagan practices would result in a change in Hobart. However, there would be sharp disagreement that change would be positive.

inverted cross Dark Mofo Hobart Tasmania

According to the Scriptures, humans don’t merely inhabit this planet. We co-habit it (with the spiritual realm made up of God and good and evil angels).

Dark Mofo has placed sayings such as “Welcome to Hell” at the Hobart Airport and features upside-down crosses. It’s interesting the ‘other side’ of the spiritual realm recognises where its true opposition lies: the cross. Why are there no inverted Hindu or Buddhist symbols? Why didn’t Anton Szandor LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan, call it the Mosque of Satan?

That the dark spiritual side segregates out Christianity as special while promoting hell tells us something about the reality of the world. Of course, like Jesus, we refuse the testimony of demons (Mark 1:34). But the demonic realm does have accurate theology, and it knows the truth about Jesus (Mark 1:24). And its knowledge of that truth will manifest itself in various, dark ways.

Modern Australian culture largely dismisses the role of the spiritual realm (Eph 6:12). Even among those who accept it, few would acknowledge the spiritual realm’s impact on day-to-day life.

Hosea 4:6 teaches that people “are destroyed for lack of knowledge”. Ignorance is not bliss.

Secularism Won’t Succeed: What Will Take Its Place?

The secular worldview (the idea that the natural realm is all that there is) has a stranglehold over the public square in Australia. But cracks in it are now appearing (such as Dark Mofo).

But it’s only a matter of time before secularism falls. In response to the question, ‘Why am I here?’, secularism answers, ‘For no reason at all. The universe is here through blind, chance processes. There is no plan, nor purpose. You are a cosmic accident, an insignificant biological machine in a cold dark universe.’

Such an answer cannot satisfy the longing of the human heart. Humans are spiritual beings created in the image of an eternal and infinite Spirit: the Creator God (Gen 1:26). We can only suppress that spirituality for so long.

The book Cross and Culture: Can Jesus Save the West? presents the changing Australian landscape using the following diagram:

Australian society is a mixed bag, not a homogenous whole. That said, it’s undeniable that we are moving clockwise around that circle, away from a Christian society and towards a post-secular and pre-modern one.

Dark Mofo falls under the ‘post-secular’ heading, where “humanity is debased and ancient beliefs are revived”.

A Christian Response

The rise of neo-pagan beliefs and practices create particular challenges for the Church. They also present opportunities.

The Church will require good training and equipping in knowing how to deal with the evil spiritual realm. And how to help people who, ignorantly or otherwise, are caught up in it.

People’s openness to spiritual realities will create opportunities for Christians where previously, invitations to ‘secular’ Australians would have met a closed door.

First-century culture in the Roman Empire was highly paganistic. If the Church could, despite the odds, thrive in this setting (Col 1:6), there’s no reason it can’t do so again.

 

Swooping Birds And Harassing Spirits

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Each year, spring time is quite hazardous in many parts of Australia. Some birds become very protective of their territories during the nesting season.

Normally placid and tame birds start to swoop pedestrians and cyclists whom they consider to be a threat. The worst among these are the Australian magpie and the plover. While they are mostly harmless, seeking to intimidate rather than injure, some individuals do make contact with people’s heads and faces.

Over recent weeks, I have been praying for the covering of the blood of Jesus when I enter a known hot spot. If a bird swoops, I command it to leave in the name of Jesus. Amazingly most of them do.

Recently I was swooped by a pair of crows, which I have never experienced before. Indignantly I told them to go and they immediately left me alone.

These are not all natural events. Some of them, if not all, are actually evil spirits that are sent specifically to harass, intimidate and distract us, even to reduce us to fear.

We might even consider them to be a sign of other events that satan is using to pull us down. If we are being attacked in a physical way, it is probably a sign that we are under spiritual attack in other areas. Sure enough there are many people in our church who are being intimidated and harassed by the enemy in various parts of their lives.

W don’t have to allow this to continue. We have been given authority over the devil and all evil spirits. Whatever realm in your live is under attack right now, surrender it to the Lord. Ask Him to cover it with the blood of Jesus and command those intimidating spirits to go in Jesus’ name.

Satan’s Mind Games

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Last Sunday, I was hit hard by a massive, full on attack of evil.

While the musicians were doing their music practice ad other people were getting things ready for church, I found a big stream of negative thoughts going through my head. I was making judgements against other people, being resentful of the least important things. Everywhere I looked, I found a reason to be frustrated. It was like this volcano of violence was stirring in my head, and it was about to erupt.

Not a nice scenario for just before church!

I closed myself in my office and began to repent of my wrong thinking. Then I rebuked satan and told him to get out of my head and out of our building. I claimed it all for Jesus and everything calmed down. The peace of God began to reign.

When we are walking with the Lord, satan is always working to trip us up. He puts thoughts into our minds that sound like our thoughts but really are not. Satan knows our weaknesses, so he will always press the buttons that get the maximum effect. It might be lust, jealousy, accusations, greed… the list is endless.

The key to overcoming these things is to keep our attention on Jesus.

In our daily activities, our busy-ness or stresses, we can find our eyes diverted from Jesus and onto other things. That is when satan will slip in the wrong thoughts, the destructive mind space.

The cure is simple.

First;y recognise that these thoughts are not yours but from the enemy.

Secondly repent of letting satan get into your thinking.

Thirdly, dedicate yourself again to the Lord.

After that, it is just a matter of staying vigilant. When those thoughts start to come into your head, quickly turn to prayer and worship.

The funny thing is that when we do that, the devil finds his tactics are not working any more, and he will leave us alone, until another source of temptation can be found.

Stay close to the Lord!