Derek Prince, who died 2003 in Jerusalem, has always been one of my favorite spiritual authors and speakers. His teachings via books or tapes or through his radio broadcasts were very influential in the early days of the Charismatic Renewal as well as in my life personally. One time I even heard him speak and watched him direct a team of healing ministers on a visit to Kalamazoo, Michigan, where I was living at the time.
He leaves behind a ministry organization which continues his radio broadcasts, distributes his thousands of writings, tapes, books and videos which go throughout the world, and from time to time they put his material together in book form. HERE is a link where I have blogged about another of his posthumous books which includes a story from his visit in Kalamazoo.
I have read quite a number of other books dealing with spiritual warfare and deliverance, including what I consider one of the classics by Prince called Deliver Us From Evil. This book - Spiritual Warfare - is quite different from the others in that it does not go into any details about deliverance or provide lists of spiritual strong holds for the reader to confess and apply the Word of God to. And in my opinion the center part of the book reflects a view of an overcoming Church in the last days which I have several problems with.
That said the teaching presented at beginning and end could not be more powerful or timely for today. Let me summarize it with one Scriptural verse from Revelation 12:11:
They overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony
This was made into a powerful worship song which takes this Scripture verse and brings it to us as a statement of faith: "We have overcome, by the blood of the Lamb and the strength of our testimony."
Here are some of the spiritual principles that Prince wants every believer to understand. I am only going to high lite just a few.
First, evil is a person, not a thing. We are in a struggle with the ruler of darkness who has evil spiritual minions assigned to torment us and to pull us away from the knowledge and love of the Father. Much of what we think is a physical or psychological struggle in our lives is actually a spiritual struggle with spiritual beings involved.
Second, by His death and resurrection Jesus has defeated the evil one and his forces. Because we have surrendered our lives to Jesus as Lord and Savior we have divine authority to overcome the kingdom of darkness.
Third, even though redeemed our ignorance of this spiritual battle empowers the evil one. Plus things that we do in the spiritual or attitudes we have, such as unforgiveness or harboring sin, give the evil one and his forces a legal right to torment and deceive us.
Fourth, we have three main weapons to use against evil spirits and their deceptions. These would be the Word of God (knowing and understanding the truth of Scripture), the blood of the Lamb (it is the shed blood of Jesus that both redeems us and gives us the legal right to defeat the evil forces), and the word of our testimony (we must declare the truth of the Word as well as declare, not just the blood of Jesus, but that we have authority because Jesus shed His blood for us, for me personally).
When we declare the Word, and testify to the shed blood for us, the Holy Spirit will always be at work. He is the true power behind everything we do.
In the last couple of chapters Derek Prince teaches quite a bit about the blood of Jesus and how to apply it to the situation in our lives. This is something that all Christians should understand and a main part of what makes Spiritual Warfare an important read.
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