For although we live in the natural realm, we don’t wage a military campaign employing human weapons, using manipulation to achieve our aims. Instead, our spiritual weapons are energized with divine power to effectively dismantle the defenses behind which people hide. We can demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God and break through every arrogant attitude that is raised up in defiance of the true knowledge of God. We capture, like prisoners of war, every thought and insist that it bow in obedience to the Anointed One. Since we are armed with such dynamic weaponry, we stand ready to punish any trace of rebellion, as soon as you choose complete obedience. (2 Corinthians 10:3-6, TPT)
I have to be honest here, that since October 8, 2023, when the terrorist individuals who are part of the Hamas terrorist organization entered the sovereign nation of Israel, butchering around 1400 innocent Israelis from babies to the elderly, raping women, and dragging over 200 hostages back into Gaza, my emotions have been raw and on edge.
Over the past few weeks watching these hate-filled protests in our streets and on our educational campuses, and the pure evil coming out of their mouths and messages painted on their signs, I have to admit that it has stirred up some fleshly responses from within me, and in hindsight, I realize I should have been glued to the WORD rather than the news.
Last night was the tipping point which ended up with my spending several hours wrestling with this spiritually in what first appeared as a life-and-death battle. You see, over the course of the past 3 weeks, due mainly to watching news reports surrounding the war in Israel which has spilled over into the streets of many nations, I had opened the door allowing the devil to make little invasive entrances into my thought life which was why I now found myself in a major spiritual battle.
Towards the end of this spiritual battle, somewhere around 3:00 a.m. this morning the Lord broke through the battle lines and rescued me. Yet He first corrected me in His loving way, as He once again took me back through my life like He had in 2016. It was a journey that took me back to where I could see all the actions I had done which had at that time grieved His heart and once again He showed me His forgiveness and love.
You might ask – Why did the Lord take you there?
I believe He did this as it is was where the enemy had taken me during the battle, except his (the devil’s) strategy was not to bring me to the place of remembering all the forgiveness and love that the Lord showered over me in that encounter with Him several years prior but rather to get me to take back all the pains of my past in including all the guilt and shame that the Lord had healed and delivered me from. The enemy wanted to sink me back to my past, to where I would respond to all the events and people involved with the war in Israel and the anti-semitism in our nation with as much hatred as I could muster up. And to use all that hatred in response to those who are currently filling our airwaves, social media platforms, streets, and schools with hate.
However, the Lord took me to the same place so as to open my eyes in order to see that it was actually His love that sustained me. In His grace and mercy, even though I did nothing to deserve it for it was during those years of not walking with Him, that the actions of my life were not coming from a heart of love. In fact, I was not a very loving individual at all, I was actually a very selfish, self-centered, hate-filled prideful individual who cared about no one else but myself.
One might ask what led me to be like that?
Well, first let me give praise, honor, and glory to my Lord, who healed me of All the wounds and pain of those years, including washing all the guilt and shame away in 2016 just a few months before I turned 52.
After which over the course of around 7 months, Holy Spirit revealed to me that it was not due to my being born wicked, but rather that it was mostly due in part to the actions of other individuals in my life, who unknowingly through a divorce, allowed a door to be opened in my life, which once opened the enemy took full advantage by filling my life with demonic spiritual leeches such as the spirits of rejection, bitterness, abandonment, jealousy, and unforgiveness.
All of this led to my having a very negative and self-destructive view of myself, especially with regard to how I perceived how others looked at me. You see when the enemy has an opening into one’s soul, especially at a young age, he comes in with everything he has to invade and sets up camp (mental and emotional strongholds) with the intent of never surrendering the place of occupation.
Be well balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring [in fierce hunger], seeking someone to seize upon and devour. (1 Peter 5:8, AMPC)
Which led to years of drug and other addictions all in an attempt to stop the pain. We must understand that it is the “soul” intention of the enemy to bring chaos, sickness, destruction, and ultimately death to every one of God’s creations.
Thus, the Lord retraced where the enemy had taken me over the past 3 weeks, all in an attempt to ensnare me once again in the prison of my emotions. Which ultimately led me to this major spiritual battle I had last night. It even led me to the place of being physically sick.
By this course of action, the Lord was able to show me how the powerful prayers of my mother and others had all led me to that little room in an inn in Saluda North Carolina in March of 2016.
For in truth, it was that very encounter that radically set me free, as the Lord poured out rivers of His love that that life a very hot intense fire, went back all the way to my infancy and dismantled every stronghold of sin, shame, and guilt that the enemy had established in my life.
Then during my encounter with Him last night, He showed me in all I can describe as 3-D imagery, how those prayers of faith that had been prayed for me, carried the powerful Light of His Glory which supernaturally smashed through the dark prison walls that the enemy had built around my soul, crushing the demonic chains that had held in me captive for all those years.
At the end of this encounter this morning, He took me to 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 and said;
“These are the weapons that I have given you and My Remnant to overcome the evil that is warring against My people and it shall be used against the realms of darkness, not just to protect My people but to also set those who have been taken captive by it free. For you and My Remnant are fully equipped and commissioned by My Father to win the war against these demonic evil forces. But you must not let your guard down, you must not allow the devil to bring you down to his level of fighting. I won the victory over him in the grave and My Father has fully authorized and empowered My Bride to enforce that victory.”
This ended with the Lord saying “Champion the gates”.
As I woke up this morning, Holy Spirit immediately took me to these passages and said “The battle must be won in the Spirit, for it cannot be won in the flesh!!!
We must be persistent in seeking Holy Spirit’s direction regarding Spirit Warfare on a daily basis, unlike the President’s daily briefings, we can count on Holy Spirit giving us actuate intel regarding the spiritual locations of the enemy’s strongholds, the demonic actors we are facing, the plans of the enemy, as well as Heaven’s strategy to stand overcome each of them, standing in the position of victory.
We must stay in the Spirit to prevent the enemy from dragging us into viewing others according to the flesh rather we must walk in the revelation that Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:16;
“Therefore from now on we know no one according to the flesh: and even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him no longer”
Thus, we must discern and direct our warfare against the spiritual beings from the realms of darkness that have taken them hostage, and strategically pray according to Holy Spirit’s direction. In doing so I believe that we will witness many being set free.
And rightly so, for the WORD declares that our first ministry is that of reconciling the lost into a loving intimate relationship with the Father (2 Corinthians 5:18).
We must be accustomed to battle from our war rooms (Prayer closets) knowing that we have been authorized to use every Spiritual weapon we have been given access to in Christ our Lord, to overcome the plans of the enemy.
So, with “Great faith” let us direct our prayer to free those who have become intoxicated with demonic doctrines of lies, seeing them set free from the realms of darkness via prayers that are spiritually designed to weaken the spiritual hold that the enemy has on their lives, smashing the spiritual chains that have held them in captivity and opening the door so that they may enter the Kingdom of Light (Colossians 1:13).
~Russ G. Welch
A.K.A. WindWalker
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