Destiny Image Books by Dr. Morris Cerullo How to Pray You Can Have a New Beginning 21 Days to Your Total Healing Demolishing Demonic strongholDs Spiritual Firepower Dr. morris Cerullo © Copyright 2012–Dr. Morris Cerullo All rights reserved. This book is protected by the copyright laws of the United States of America. This book may not be copied or reprinted for commercial gain or profit. The use of short quotations or occasional page copying for personal or group study is permitted and encouraged. Permission will be granted upon request. Unless other- wise identified, Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version. Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quo- tations marked NIV are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. 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Box 310, Shippensburg, PA 17257-0310 “Promoting Inspired Lives.” Previously published as One Demon Spirit by Morris Cerullo World Evangelism Previous ASIN: B000HMQQHW You Can Know How to Defeat Satan by Morris Cerullo World Evangelism Previous ASIN: B001PPTDCA This book and all other Destiny Image, Revival Press, MercyPlace, Fresh Bread, Des- tiny Image Fiction, and Treasure House books are available at Christian bookstores and distributors worldwide. For a U.S. bookstore nearest you, call 1-800-722-6774. For more information on foreign distributors, call 717-532-3040. Reach us on the Internet: www.destinyimage.com. ISBN 13 TP: 978-0-7684-4193-2 ISBN 13 Ebook: 978-0-7684-8756-5 For Worldwide Distribution, Printed in the U.S.A. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 / 16 15 14 13 12 DeDiCation This book is lovingly dedicated to Partners of World Evangelism who have become members of God’s Victorious Army and share the vision God has given me to reach the world for Jesus Christ in these end times. My prayer is that each of you will rise up with the greatest new anointing of God’s power and spiritual breakthrough that you have ever known—that very same anointing that opens blind eyes, causes the deaf to hear and the lame to walk. Remember, “…greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). If the enemy tries to come in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord God will raise up a standard against him (see Isaiah 59:19). All my love and prayers. God’s servant, Dr. Morris Cerullo Contents Introduction: Could a Demon Be Controlling Your Life? .................................................. 9 Chapter 1: Was Demonic Power Real in Jesus’s Day?...........................................11 Chapter 2: Ministers Are in Torment. ....................... 23 Chapter 3: Can a Christian Be Demon-Possessed? ....................................31 Chapter 4: The Invisible War for Your Mind............. 39 Chapter 5: The Secret of Spiritual Strength ............... 47 Chapter 6: The Love That Casts Out All Fear ............55 Chapter 7: Winning the War Versus Winning the Battle.................................. 59 Chapter 8: The Revelation of the New Anointing.......65 Chapter 9: An Appraisal of the Battlefield................. 75 Chapter 10: The World’s Great Needs— Can They Be Met?....................................81 Chapter 11: The Greatest Warfare Ever Known ...........91 Chapter 12: Locating the Enemy ................................ 97 Chapter 13: Satan’s Origin and Motivation................107 Chapter 14: Satan’s Domain and Sphere of Activity...117 Chapter 15: Satan’s Claim on the Righteous ............. 123 Chapter 16: Satan in the Affairs of the Nations..........133 Chapter 17: Satan’s Attack on Christ, Part I...............143 Chapter 18: Satan’s Attack on Christ, Part 2..............149 Chapter 19: Satan’s Power in Lives Today ..................161 Chapter 20: The Christian and Demon Possession .....169 Chapter 21: God’s Armor Against Satan’s Attack.......179 Chapter 22: Weapons of Offensive Warfare, Part 1: Intercessory Prayer.......................189 Chapter 23: Weapons of Offensive Warfare, Part 2: Speak the Word...........................201 Chapter 24: Weapons of Offensive Warfare, Part 3: Binding and Loosing...................211 Chapter 25: Weapons of Offensive Warfare, Part 4: Fasting and Faith ........................221 Chapter 26: Spiritual Firepower .................................231 Chapter 27: A Great Crowd of Witnesses...................245 Epilogue: God’s Got an Army................................257 - 9 - Introduction CoulD a Demon Be Controlling Your life? Demonic power is real. Do you believe it? I know you say that you do, but do you really believe that Satan’s demons could be con- trolling your life right now? I’m beginning to discover that even very dedicated Christians don’t really understand what is happening to them in the spirit world. The other day I was deeply concerned when one of my most fervent ministry partners said to an associate of mine, “There’s something about spiritual warfare that I just don’t understand.” “What’s that?” my associate replied. “Well, Brother Cerullo says that, ‘There is no total victory in spiritual war until we (as Christians) conquer our enemy who has already been defeated.’ Now, I know that Satan is our enemy, and that demons do exist; but if Jesus already defeated them at Calvary two thousand years ago, why do we have to conquer them all over again? How could Satan have any real power over Christians if Jesus has already won?” Unfortunately, this thinking is very common. On one hand, Christians are living lives of torment, walking in bondage and defeat with no real spiritual power. On the other hand, they know God’s - 10 - Demolishing Demonic strongholDs Word and have been trained in spiritual warfare, but they have little idea of the power and the seriousness of the war they are in. The bot- tom line of all their thinking is, Satan has already been stripped of his power. I’m safe because I’m in Jesus’s hands. Beloved, if this is what you have been telling yourself, then you, too, have been blinded by one of the enemy’s most brutal deceptions. Somehow, he has convinced you that all of the problems, illnesses, defeats, depressions, and anxieties in your life have nothing to do with demonic powers. He makes you think that they are all caused by circumstances, your in-laws, the wrong vitamins, a bad child- hood, or anything else you can think of! The fact is that demonic oppression is very real in the Church today. There is one demon spirit that controls, dominates, possesses, oppresses, vexes, and torments eight out of ten people in the world today, including born-again Christians! Right now there is an 80 percent chance that this demon spirit is secretly pulling you away from God, destroying your witness for Christ, and choking your growth in the Holy Spirit, and you don’t even know it. Can you believe it? I intend to prove it to you. Let us now turn to the Word of God, for God’s infallible Word is the same yesterday, today, and forever. - 11 - Chapter 1 Was DemoniC PoWer real in Jesus’s DaY? The Bible says that one day a man came to Jesus and pleaded: Sir, have mercy on my son, for he is mentally deranged, and in great trouble, for he often falls into the fire or into the water (Matthew 17:15 TLB). What was the boy’s problem? Was it psychological? Hereditary? The Bible goes on to plainly state that he was vexed with a demon. For as soon as “Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy…it left him, and from that moment the boy was well” (Matthew 17:18 TLB). Then, in the Gospel of Luke, we learn of a man from Gadara who was more than insane. When he came to meet Jesus, he was homeless, naked, and lived in a cemetery among the tombs. The demons took control of the man so often that even when he was shackled with chains, he simply broke them apart and rushed into the desert completely under the demons’ power. When attacks and fits of demonic activity would come upon him, he would throw him- self against rocks until his body was cut open and bleeding. When Jesus asked this demon his name, he replied, “Legion,” because there were so many! (See Luke 8:27-31.) - 12 - Demolishing Demonic strongholDs Many people in this modern, sophisticated twenty-first cen- tury would say, “The poor man probably had a severe hormonal imbalance.” Or, “I know that that kind of behavior is the result of a traumatic childhood.” Or, “I guess he was just born a ‘bad seed’.” That’s not what the Bible says. The Bible says it was the work of demon spirits, pure and simple. The Word of God proves that this man was not just a bad seed or someone with a chemical problem, because when he was delivered of all of those foul spirits, he imme- diately became an outstanding evangelist (see Luke 8:33-39). We could go on and on, proving in case after case that demonic power was real in Jesus’s day. Not only was it real, but it severely tormented, oppressed, possessed, vexed, and controlled many people of biblical times. Demons caused deafness, blindness, and countless other ailments that destroyed the minds and bodies not only of the heathen, but of God’s very own people. Is Demonic Power Real Today? Now, I want you to take a little imaginary trip with me. Come into a mental institution for the insane, such as is found in many of your cities. I want you to take a good look around as we walk inside. There’s a woman who comes to greet us at the door. She’s wear- ing a white uniform and has long keys dangling from her side. Let us have no delusions about what those keys unlock. They unlock cold, clammy, gray steel doors that house human beings just like you and I, people who are caged behind bars. You look inside one of those cages, and what do you see? You see a person just like you crouched against solid cement walls. On these walls you can see indentations—as deep as your fingers—that have been made by bleeding human hands. Next, we walk to the place where they keep the “hard cases.” There’s one skinny little man there, and it is taking five men to get that one human being into a straitjacket. - 13 - Was Demonic Power Real in Jesus’s Day? Sound familiar? Like someone you just met in the country of Gadara in the Bible? Tell me, where do you think he gets his super- human strength? As we watch, we see that it takes one 250-pound male nurse to hold down each one of his arms, and two more to hold down his body and his legs. Meanwhile, another man tries to squeeze him into that straitjacket, the only thing that they have to control him. Why? Because that man is possessed with superhuman power. That same superhuman, demonic power was as real 2,000 years ago as it is today. If you don’t believe me, pick up your morning newspaper, and ask yourself—what makes a man, 19 years of age, strangle a beautiful young lady whom he has never seen before? What makes a young mother take her seven-day-old infant, stuff her into a trash can, close the lid, and leave her there to die? The Bible tells us exactly what makes them do these things. It is the same demonic power that tried to murder that mentally deranged boy by throwing him into the fire! Again, we could go on and on with modern-day examples of demonic power and not even uncover the tip of the iceberg. In Jesus’s day, the reality of demonic power was never questioned. People knew it existed, pure and simple. The only thing that amazed them was that there was finally Someone around who had the power over the devil to do something about it. And do something He did. Jesus dealt with all of these gruesome situations in short order. How? With power and authority He commanded each one of those foul spirits to leave, and they did! The public was astounded: …What new doctrine is this? For with authority He com- mands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him (Mark 1:27 NKJV). By now you may be saying, “All right, Brother Cerullo, I’ve read my newspaper. I’ll admit that Satan has great power in the world today. But all of those things I read about are with unsaved people. The devil can’t get away with those atrocities in born-again - 14 - Demolishing Demonic strongholDs Christians. We’re protected by the blood of the Lamb. Jesus died to save us from all of that.” You’re absolutely right. Jesus did die to save us from all of that. However, all of that is still going on. Why? Let me ask you a question. Do we have people in the Church today who are deaf? People who can’t speak? People who have men- tal problems? People who are constantly ill? Jesus has plainly shown us that many of these afflictions are a direct result of demonic oppression. (See Matthew 12:28,43; Mark 1:23,26; 7:25; 9:17-26; Luke 4:33; 8:29; 9:42 and 13:11.) In addi- tion, we see the utter devastation caused by broken homes, child abuse, and divorce, which are rampant in the Church today. These are the very things that God sent His Son to this earth to destroy. …For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8 NKJV). He then put all of the keys to spiritual power in our hands to fin- ish the job. He has given us power over all of the power of the enemy (see Luke 10:19). Then why haven’t we done something about all of those tormented, demon-oppressed brothers and sisters, sitting right next to us in the pews, as we listen to sermons about love week after week? My Bible says that just as Jesus is in heaven (the Everlasting Conqueror), so are we to be right now in this world (1 John 4:17). Who is Jesus? He is the Victor. He is a Man of war against all of the destructive forces of the devil. What are we? We are so bound and oppressed that I am con- cerned that many Christians are literally on their way to being spit out of His mouth! (See Revelation 3:16.) Urgent Alarm! Today the Lord is urgently sounding the alarm, trying to make us see that many people in the Church who have assumed that they will be part of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb could instead be cast out of His Kingdom if they insist on living with - 15 - Was Demonic Power Real in Jesus’s Day? the oppressive forces that are binding them and destroying Christ’s Church. These oppressive forces are making you, as a Christian, both helpless and useless. I want to read to you one of the most chilling stories in the Word of God. It is a story that haunts me day and night—a story that keeps me awake, grieving for God’s blinded, oppressed, dominated, and controlled people. I know of nothing that shows how a Christian can be rendered helpless, uselessly bound by Satan, more than the story Jesus Him- self tells in Matthew 25:14-30. Open your Bible with me now as the Lord reveals to us the horrifying truth of how Satan oppresses God’s people in the Church. The story begins as Matthew tells of how the Master, Jesus, went away on a far journey. Before He left, He invested in His servants, entrusting them with all that He had. Read this dramatic passage of Scripture with me now: For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord’s money. After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reck- oneth with them.