Pastor Dan Carroll from Water of Life Community Church in Fontana, California, says Christians need to recognize the reality of demons and Satan working behind the scenes to wreak havoc on your life. Further, we must know how to combat this spiritual warfare.
“There’s a battle going on for your life, for your families’ lives,” Carroll says. “… Jesus said, ‘I give you the authority over all the power of the enemy.’ So should you ever be afraid of hell, nightmares, demons, witchcraft, demonic situations? No. Why are we, though? The truth is, I get your calls all the time, ‘Can you pray over our house? We’re really afraid; our kids have nightmares all the time.’
“Hold it. If you’re a Christian, you don’t need a pastor to come and pray for you, because Jesus gave you all the authority. So here’s the question: Why don’t you enforce it?”
The church of Ephesus in the New Testament was “steeped in the occult,” Carroll says. Paul was instructing the people not to run from the demonic, but to run to it with authority. Yet humility is key. Satan ended up becoming demonic because of pride, so our prayers against the demonic must be full of humility—putting others before yourself.
For more teaching on spiritual warfare, listen to the entire sermon here.