Fasting for Breakthrough and Deliverance

Now there was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David. But David grew stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker.

YOU MAY NOT like this term long war. I don’t blame you. Who would? We want it to end quickly. But some wars don’t end quickly. If you are fighting a stubborn enemy who refuses to give in to surrender, then just know it is going to fight and fight and fight. There are demons who fight and fight and fight to hold on. But I have good news for you. If you keep putting pressure on the enemy, you will get stronger and stronger, and he will get weaker and weaker.

What demons cannot handle is a long war. They want you to hit them and give up. But you have the mentality that you will continue in prayer, fasting, and putting pressure on this demon, because it is just a matter of time before it breaks!

Sometimes you have to weaken demons. We have experienced this in our deliverance ministry at Crusaders Church. We’ve dealt with demons that are very strong. Over a period of time we will pray, fast, rebuke, and hold several sessions dealing with the same demon, but after a while we’ll see that demon getting weaker and weaker.

When you first start praying for deliverance from some demonic spirits, they will tell you, “We aren’t going. You can’t cancel/cast us out. You don’t have power. We’re going to stay here. We are going to destroy. You belong to us. This is our house.” You just say, “OK. Just keep talking. I’m going to pray—pray in tongues, fast, rebuke the devil, plead the blood, quote scriptures . . . ” Then after a while those same tough-talking demons will say, “Would you leave us alone? Would you give it a break? You are getting on our nerves.” You can always tell when demons are starting to weaken, because they get angry and start threatening. They’ll say, “We’re going to kill you.” Don’t be afraid. That’s called panic. When you start seeing the devil panic, you know that you need to keep putting on the pressure until he whimpers out of your life.

Just because it’s a long war does not mean you are losing. People have asked me why God would allow certain things to stay in our lives for long periods of time. God allows it because He wants to teach us how to fight. You learn faith and persistence in long war. You need that as a child of God. You need to learn how to stand in faith against impossible situations. You don’t look at how it looks. You need to believe God.

When God sent Israel into the land to drive out the enemy, they did not drive all of them out in one year. God didn’t let them drive all of the enemies out of the land in one year. Verse two in Judges 3 says that God left some of the nations in Canaan to teach Israel how to fight, how to war. Many of the ones that came out of Egypt knew nothing about warfare.

Sometimes as you are battling darkness, the Lord is teaching you how to war, how to use your faith, how to use the Word, how to use prayer, and how to stand. He wants to teach you how to fight so you will not be a wimp in the army of the Lord. The greatest warriors in God’s kingdom are people who have had to fight battles for themselves and overcome some things. When you overcome stuff, it is no longer a theory from the Bible. You know that victory is real. You know how to achieve victory. That gives you much better ability to fight for other people, to war for other people, to use your faith, and to develop your strength in the Lord. Sometimes your personal victories set you up to be able to help someone else get victory.

A lot of believers don’t like a long war. They give up. This is what the enemy is counting on. He is hoping the people of God will get tired and quit. What he wants us to feel is that we can’t do it, that we can’t defeat him, and that we won’t win. He wants to bluff us that we are not strong enough. But I say to you, don’t give up. Don’t roll over and die. If God be for you, who can be against you (Rom. 8:31)? God is on your side. You may have to fight for what’s yours, and it may take some time. But when you pray and fast and commit to seeing victory no matter how long it takes, it is only a matter of time until the enemy will break, and you will have victory.

In 2 Kings 13:14–19 we are introduced to the arrow of deliverance and learn how the prophetic anointing helps us to war.

I believe we can war according to prophecy. The word of the Lord is what you need to win and achieve victory. It is important to be connected to the prophetic. The words encourage us in what we are dealing with. It helps us to war against our enemies and win. The Syrians were the major enemies of Israel. They were a very strong and stubborn enemy. King Joash went to a sick and dying prophet Elisha and cried out to him about the armies of Syria. Elisha told Joash that he must strike against Syria over and over again until they have been destroyed. Then Elisha told him to take a bow and arrows and strike it on the ground. He didn’t tell him how many times. Joash hit it on the ground three times and stopped. The prophet was angry because it meant Joash would only defeat the Syrians three times.

Three times was not enough to destroy the Syrians as Elisha had prophesied. Perhaps Elisha could have told him how many times to strike the arrows on the ground. But sometimes what is in a person comes out in their actions. Joash didn’t have enough hatred and anger for the enemy to strike the ground beyond the third time—or until the arrow broke!

When you are dealing with the enemy, you need to give him more than just a courtesy tap. You need to really want to win. You have to hate what you are fighting so much that you beat it until the arrows break. You have to hate lust, poverty, fear, rejection, or whatever it is until you smash it. It’s not just one, two, three, and then look at the prophet and ask, “Did I do good?” No! Strike it until it is destroyed!

Another principle: sometimes it takes more than one victory before you completely consume the enemy. It wasn’t just one battle; it was more than one. In essence the prophet said, “You should have struck four or five times to completely consume the enemy. Now you will only win three times.” And evidently three victories would not be enough to completely destroy the Syrians. The Syrians lost, but they were still in a position to rebuild. We want to destroy the enemy so that he can’t rebuild anymore. We want to mess up his strongholds so much that they are destroyed, and we don’t have to worry about seeing that thing again.

Pharaoh is the type of the devil. He was stubborn. He kept hardening his heart. He kept changing his mind. No matter how much judgment came, he kept hardening his heart. But finally God had one thing to break him—he took his firstborn. Pharaoh still came after them, but God said, “Don’t worry about him; I am going to drown him in the sea, and you will see him no more!”

I pray that every pharaoh, every stubborn pharaoh, be drowned and you will not see him again! You may have to go on a fast not one time; you may have to fast ten times. It took ten plagues to break Pharaoh’s power. It’s time to break those stubborn pharaohs. Sometimes a pharaoh may be a person—controlling devil, witch, warlock, Jezebel, a person who wants to control your life, your church.

I hate to use this example, but it is what comes to my mind. In The Wizard of Oz when the Wicked Witch of the East threatened the other one, the latter laughed and said, “Ha, ha, ha! Rubbish. You have no power here!” In the same way, you need to laugh at the devil. When the devil threatens you, just laugh, “Ha, ha, ha! Rubbish. You have no power here!” I watch that movie just to see that. I know that’s one witch talking to another, but just eliminate the witch part, and you’ll get it.

Don’t let those demon spirits threaten you! I don’t care if they are flying around the room on a broom with a black hat on. Declare: “No witch, no warlock, and no Jezebel will control my life. I am a servant of Jesus Christ, and whom the Son sets free is free indeed. No apostle, no doctor apostle, no bishop, no archbishop, no archbishop deluxe . . . I don’t care what your title is . . . no prophet, no prophetess, whatever, you are not called to control my life. You are not called to dominate me and manipulate me and intimidate me. The devil is a liar!”

Sometimes it takes more than one judgment, battle, or victory to break stubborn enemies. There is something about stubborn enemies. You can hit them one time, but they keep coming back. It seemed that no matter what God did to loosen Pharaoh’s grip on the children of Israel, he would not let God’s people go. Even Pharaoh’s advisors told him, “This is the finger of God. You cannot fight God.” (See Exodus 8:19.) And eventually even he had to bow his knee to the King of kings.

It is time to put a hurting on the devil. We are not going to leave them alone, even as they cry out, “Let us alone” (Mark 1:23–24, KJV). We are going to put pressure on them. We are going to bind, rebuke, cast out, pray, fast, and deal with the powers of hell. They have been left alone for too long. Nobody was praying, fasting, taking authority, or preaching. They have had full sway in the generations. They did what they wanted to do. But now there is a new breed being raised up. There are pastors, prophets, apostles, teachers, evangelists, and everyday believers who will not leave the enemy alone until he is gone!

Never again will Pharaoh (Satan) control me, because I have been delivered from his power.

Never again will I allow the devil to do what he desires in my life, but I resist the devil, and he flees from me (James 4:7).

Never again will I listen to or believe the lies of the devil, for he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44).

Never again will I be vexed by unclean spirits (Luke 6:18).

Never again will I be harassed by the enemy (Matt. 9:36, amp).

Never again will I be bound, for Christ has made me free. I am free indeed (John 8:36).

Never again will I allow the demons of double-mindedness to confuse me and make me indecisive (James 1:8).

Never again will I allow curses to hinder my life. I break every curse, for I have been redeemed from the curse (Gal. 3:13).

Never again will I open the door for demons to come into my life through unforgiveness (Matt. 18:35).

Never again will I open the door for demons to enter my life through habitual sin.

Never again will I open the door for demons to enter my life through occult involvement.

Never again will I open the door for demons to enter through rebellion and disobedience.

Never again will the demon of mind control affect my thinking.

I sever all the tentacles of mind control.

Never again will serpent and scorpion spirits affect my life, for I have power to tread on serpents and scorpions.

Never again will the enemy be my master; Jesus is my Lord.

Never again will I tolerate the works of the devil in my life, for Jesus came and destroyed the works of the devil (1 John 3:8).

Never again will I compromise my standards and holiness; the Word of God is my standard, not the standards of the world (2 Cor. 10:2, NIV).

Never again will I allow the enemy to control any part of my life, but my life is under the control of the Spirit and Word of God.

Never again will I allow the enemy to control my destiny, but God is the revealer and finisher of my destiny.

Never again will I allow the enemy to abort any plan of God for my life.

Never again will I allow people to draw me away from the love of God, but I commit myself to walking in love, for God is love (1 John 4:7–8).

Never again will I shut up my bowels of compassion (1 John 3:17, KJV).

Never again will I behave unseemly, for love does not behave unseemly (1 Cor. 13:5, KJV).

Never again will I be easily provoked, for love is not easily provoked (1 Cor. 13:5).

Never again will I seek my own, for love does not seek its own (1 Cor. 13:5).

Never again will I think evil, for love does not think evil (1 Cor. 13:6). Never again will I lose hope, for love hopes all things (1 Cor. 13:7). Never again will I give up, for love endures all things (1 Cor. 13:7).

Never again will I allow the accuser to accuse me, for I am washed and cleansed by the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 1:5; 7:14).

Never again will I allow sorrow and sadness to control my soul, for the Lord has taken away my sorrow and pain (Isa. 65:19).

Never again will the heavens be shut over my life, but the Lord has opened the windows of heaven (Mal. 3:10).