Take A Stand On The Heavenly Battlefield And Destroy Demonic Resistance

As I began to get a glimpse and revelation of the Courts of Heaven, I began to understand why I had gone through so many attacks. It seemed that the more I prayed and challenged the devil to let go of what he was holding, the worse things got.

We call this backlash. As the Courts of Heaven came into view, I recognized that I had for years been inadvertently challenging demonic powers that still claimed legal rights. I begin to see that Jesus’ manner of contending with the devil and his forces was first courtroom, then battlefield. Of course I had never heard of this before, but I saw it in Revelation 19:11.

Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.

Notice that Jesus as the One sitting on the white horse is judging and making war. I began to realize that “to judge” speaks of judicial activity while “making war” speaks of battlefield. Even Jesus doesn’t march to the battlefield until He has first been in the courtroom. For years, I had practiced what I had been taught. I had functioned in binding and loosing and yelling at the devil and telling him what he wasn’t allowed to do. I had seen very little result, but I had suffered quite a bit of backlash against myself and my family. I suddenly realized that if I attack something that still has a legal right to operate, this is what happens. However, I can take the power of darkness to court and ask for a judgment against it and have any rights it is claiming revoked. I can then go to the battlefield and win every time. My whole manner of contending in the spirit world started changing. I began to realize that if there was something that didn’t seem to move and/or there was not an answer when I prayed, it was probably because something legal had a claim. We see this in how God led Gideon when He called him to defeat the Midianites. Judges 6:16 chronicles Gideon being called and commissioned to defeat the Midianites who were harassing Israel.

And the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.”

The Midianites would come and ravage the crops of Israel. Judges 6:1-7 shows the distress Israel was in because of this harassment. The people were impoverished, abused, and bewildered because of the situation.

Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years, and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains. So it was, whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. Then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey. For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts; both they and their camels were without number; and they would enter the land to destroy it. So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.

And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord because of the Midianites.

This whole thing began because the children of Israel had done evil before the Lord. This granted the devil the legal right to prevail over the people and to steal their crops away. The people cried to God. In this situation, God spoke and sent Gideon to be the deliverer. However, before he could deliver Israel, he had to do one strategic thing that was legal in nature. He had to tear down the altar to Baal that his father was probably the priest of. Judges 6:25-32 shows this story and what transpired.

Now it came to pass the same night that the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside it; and build an altar to the Lord your God on top of this rock in the proper arrangement, and take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down.” So Gideon took ten men from among his servants and did as the Lord had said to him. But because he feared his father’s household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it by night.

And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, there was the altar of Baal, torn down; and the wooden image that was beside it was cut down, and the second bull was being offered on the altar which had been built. So they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And when they had inquired and asked, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” Then the men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, because he has torn down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the wooden image that was beside it.”

But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Would you plead for Baal? Would you save him? Let the one who would plead for him be put to death by morning! If he is a god, let him plead for himself, because his altar has been torn down!” Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal, saying, “Let Baal plead against him, because he has torn down his altar.”

Before Gideon could march to the battlefield with the strategy of God to defeat the Midianites, he had to tear down this altar. Baal was also one of the gods of Midian. It was impossible for Gideon to go to the battlefield and win while his house was in allegiance with Baal. The principle is, you can never pull down what owns you. This altar that his father tended empowered the demonic. It gave the demonic rights against Gideon and his father’s house. The altar had to be removed, the sacrifices silenced, and the gate to the demonic shut so Midian would have no power against Gideon and Israel. Their gods could not help them to defeat an Israel that they no longer owned.

“You can never pull down what owns you.”

Gideon and some of his companions obeyed the Lord and tore the altar down. This broke the legal claim of the demonic off Israel. When everyone woke up the next day and figured out what had been done, they were furious at Gideon. However, his father defended him. This is significant, because as the priest of this altar this man would have had an undying allegiance to Baal. However, when the altar was destroyed his mind was freed from the influence of Baal. So instead of siding with the people, he now defended his son. When powers of darkness come down and their legal rights are revoked, the minds of people go free. This is what we need to see mass salvations happen in culture. II Corinthians 4:3-4 unveils for us that the reason people reject the good news of the gospel is because powers of darkness are blinding their minds.

But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

The god of this age cannot operate unless there is a legal right he is claiming. It can be the sin in the history of a nation that the ecclesia/church must repent concerning. On a family level, it can be the iniquity and sin in the history of the family that is allowing the god of this age to claim them for himself. Someone in the family must come into the Courts of Heaven and undo the legal claim that is being made to hold them. Once this is legally revoked, people’s minds can be free to respond to the good news of who Jesus is and what He has done. The problem is, satan has a legal right to claim the minds. If we are to see these minds freed, the legal right he is using to hold them must be revoked.

This is what happened when the altar of Baal came down. The result was Gideon then marched to the battlefield and routed the enemy. They were defeated and their power over Israel was broken. Before they went to the battlefield, however, the legal right being used had to be annulled, revoked, and renounced. This allowed Gideon and the army to win a great victory according to Judges 7:17-21. They followed the strategy of the Lord in battle and won because the defense of Midian had been taken away in the Courts of Heaven.

And he said to them, “Look at me and do likewise; watch, and when I come to the edge of the camp you shall do as I do: When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets on every side of the whole camp, and say, ‘The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!’ ”

So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outpost of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just as they had posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands. Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers—they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing—and they cried, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!” And every man stood in his place all around the camp; and the whole army ran and cried out and fled.

There was a rout and a great defeat of the enemy forces on the battlefield. If we can break covenants with the devil that are in our father’s house/family lines, his legal rights are removed. We will then march to the battlefield and win every time. However, to try to go to the battlefield without judicially dealing with the issues speaking and empowering the devil will bring defeat and backlash. May the Lord help us to see success on every level as we learn to function in the Courts and stand in His presence.

Having pointed out the need to go to court to revoke the legal rights of the devil, we also should know the significance of winning on the battlefield. Once we have gotten legal things in place, we can then challenge the powers of darkness within our jurisdiction. We can see this principle in being kings and priests but also operating as judges ourselves. From the king and priest perspective, we function in the Courts as priests. This is what the priests did in the Old Covenant. Their job was through offerings, sacrifice, and intercession to get legal things in place. This is why, for instance, kings would not go to battle until priests had offered sacrifices. We see this in the days when Saul was made king in I Samuel 13:7-14.

“Once we have gotten legal things in place, we can then challenge the powers of darkness within our jurisdiction.”

And some of the Hebrews crossed over the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead.

As for Saul, he was still in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling. Then he waited seven days, according to the time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him. So Saul said, “Bring a burnt offering and peace offerings here to me.” And he offered the burnt offering. Now it happened, as soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering, that Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might greet him.

And Samuel said, “What have you done?”

Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash, then I said, ‘The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the Lord.’ Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.”

And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”

Samuel had commanded Saul to wait until he came. When Samuel as the priest, and therefore the one who had the right to offer the sacrifice, was delayed, Saul took it upon himself to offer this offering. This was a serious violation. The result was God revoking the initial intent that He had toward Saul. This all happened because Saul as king stepped into the role of priest. This was forbidden in the Old Covenant. There was to be no blurring of the lines between king and priest in the Old Testament. In the New Covenant however, we are both king and priest to our God. Revelation 1:6 tells us that we have been made both kings and priests to our God.

And has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Through our function as kings and priests, we get legal things in place but then go to battle as well. II Samuel 11:1 tells us that the function of a king is to go to war.

It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

David had become lazy and soft. As a king, he should have been on the battlefield. This is what the scripture says kings were to do. The whole point is that we, through our intercession and function as priests to our God, set legal things in place in the Courts of Heaven. From this place, we go to war and win victories.

This idea can be seen in us functioning as judges in the Courts of Heaven. In Daniel 7:9-10 when we see the Courts of Heaven in operation, we see not just one throne or seat but multiples of them.

I watched till thrones were put into place,
And the Ancient of Days was seated;
His garment was white as snow,
And the hair of His head was like pure wool.
His throne was a fiery flame,
Its wheels a burning fire;
A fiery stream issued
And came forth from before Him.
A thousand thousands ministered to Him;
Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him.
The court was seated,
And the books were opened.

Multiple thrones are put into place because the Courts of Heaven is a tribunal court and not a jury court. In other words, decisions are made in this court from a panel of judges. This is why there were thrones, plural, that were set in place. In Isaiah 43:26, we are told that putting God in remembrance is a way we present cases in the Courts of Heaven. However, we are also told that we are to contend together with the Lord in this place.

Put Me in remembrance;
Let us contend together;
State your case, that you may be acquitted.

The word contend in the Hebrew is palal. It means to judge. The Lord is declaring that He and we together will judge anything that would stand against His purposes. When we have gotten legal things in place in the Courts of Heaven through our activities, we can then step into our position as judges and render decrees. These decrees are setting into place the rulings of the Courts of Heaven. We, functioning as judges in the Courts of Heaven, are a part of the process of complete and total victory. We have gained the privilege of not only getting legal things in place but also forcibly executing them into place as a part of the operation of the heavenly realm. We will function as those who judge and make war from a Courts of Heaven perspective. The result will be the annihilation of demonic resistance and the establishment of Jesus’ kingdom rule.