This Is the Important Element You’re Missing in Your Spiritual Warfare
Are we missing an important element of prayer? We’ve all heard people say, “I rebuke you, devil” or “I rebuked the enemy.” But are we following those words up with an action we want the enemy to take as Jesus did? Are we binding and restricting our situation or storms and then speaking to it and declaring over our situation what it should do?
As we look at the Scriptures, we see that when Jesus rebuked He gave the item He rebuked a follow-up command. We are rebuking, but I believe it isn’t getting us the results it should. I ministered to a couple for years, and they had an epileptic child. She kept saying, “I rebuked the devil.” However, there were three challenges with her prayer:
- She prayed silently. The devil couldn’t hear what she was binding and restricting.
- She prayed legalistically. She believed that just praying in her mind I rebuke you devil would get the job done.
- She didn’t give the enemy a follow-up command. Once she did rebuke him aloud—if she did follow my advice and pray aloud—she didn’t tell the enemy what to do, clarify what disease must leave or command her child to be healed. She just kept telling me all the time, “I rebuked the devil.”
When we look at the storm on the water in Mark 4, we see an example of Jesus rebuking the wind and speaking to the sea. “He rose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace, be still!’ Then the wind ceased and there was a great calm” (Mark 4:39). Jesus rose up and rebuked the wind, which was causing disruption on the sea. When He rebuked the wind, which is taking authority over it, He spoke to the sea and gave it a follow-up command of authority to be still. Notice, the wind ceased first. The wind and the sea, both things he took authority over, had to react in order for the stillness to come forth. It was a twofold task of rebuking and speaking a follow-up command.
We can discover another example in Scripture of rebuking and taking authority over demons. “When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the foul spirit, saying to it, ‘You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and enter him no more'” (Mark 9:25). Jesus did not just rebuke the demon, and it came out. Rather, He rebuked the foul spirit and said. When searching through the Scriptures for adequate spiritual warfare techniques, we need to pay attention to the filler words such as saying, said, and call. We need to look for action words in Scripture. Here Jesus said to the demon, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and enter him no more.”
Jesus not only cast the demon out, but took authority, commanded departure and sealed the person’s deliverance by commanding it to enter him no more. He was rebuking and taking complete authority over every part of the demonic stronghold. We, too, must follow Jesus’ example. I believe that many people don’t receive their deliverance or their healing doesn’t manifest because we aren’t following the biblical example of deliverance. Learn more about how Jesus walked in the ministry of deliverance that we should follow in my podcast, Prophetic Spiritual Warfare on the Charisma Podcast Network. You can learn more about deliverance and the power of speaking out in my books, Speak Out and Discerning and Destroying the Works of Satan.
Think about your situation and what you need to speak out and not only rebuke, but take authority over. I am believing for your situation to take a divine turnaround once you start rebuking as Jesus did!
Listen to the podcast to learn how to follow through with your spiritual warfare.
Kathy DeGraw is a prophetic deliverance minister releasing the love and power of God to ignite and activate people, release prophetic destinies and deliver people from the bondage of the enemy. She is the founder of Kathy DeGraw Ministries and Be Love Outreach. She is the author of several books, including: Speak Out, Discerning and Destroying the Works of Satan, Identity Invasion, Who is Speaking? and Warfare Declarations. You can connect with Kathy on Facebook at facebook.com/kathydegraw/ or visit https://kathydegrawministries.org/.
