Satan is on the move. The fiery darts of his evil workings are capturing an unsuspecting multitude and taking them captive. Our churches are full of good people that are bound and shackled. The unchurched world is equally blind, fettered, and unable to see or hear the saving Gospel. We hear much about praying, but I fear that most praying today is as empty as a desert. Please do not think I am being critical or down on the good saints that are striving hard to see results in spiritual matters. My effort is to answer this desperate need and see the devil defeated. Please read every word of this article.

Stealth is the first design of Satan. He hides his every move. Most of the church world and almost the entire secular world deny that Satan even exists. Satan has basically made himself a non-entity and the only people that believe he is around are his worshippers. He loves his obscurity. The truth is that he is a fallen angel and as powerful as the strongest of angels. He is not supernatural, but he is paranormal and can accomplish some wild things when unhindered by the power of God. Apostle Paul wrote Timothy and warned him of Satan’s design to ensnare the saints. He stated, “And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will” (II Timothy 2:26). We live in the ultimate day of his dark deeds.

There are many ways that good people are brought under his control. The Spirit said to the Hebrews or converted Jews, “Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright” (Hebrews 12:15-16). By the same Holy Spirit Peter said, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (I Peter 5:8). Satan and his army of fallen spirits have every person on this earth in their sight. They are out to buttonhole you and put you in their straitjacket.

It is impossible to name every bondage or stronghold. Certainly, roots of bitterness – something or someone offends you and you hold onto that offence – are a type of bondage. Jealousy, anger, resentment, and unforgiveness are emotions that easily become strongholds. If you disobey a truth in the Bible and do not repent, it will become a stronghold. Many fleshly habits, such as tobacco, drugs, or alcohol quickly become a bondage or stronghold. Worldly entertainment, immorality, and immodest dress will capture your very soul. Many people are bound with the decoration of the body and the passion of looking like the models in the latest Vogue Magazine.

The Spirit warns us about being captured by this world. Peter stated, “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning” (II Peter 2:19-20). The normal state of an unbeliever or the person that has not been born again is bondage to this world. “Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world” (Galatians 4:3).

Every power or bondage and every spiritual stronghold is empowered by demons or fallen angels. A person bound with tobacco has a spirit of uncleanness. The worldly lifestyle is an unclean bondage. Anything that holds you captive is the work of Satan. Jesus came to give you liberty, to set you free, and to fill you “with joy unspeakable and full of glory” (I Peter 1:8). He wants you to be free like a bird, to soar in Spiritual things, and to be full of His Holy Spirit. He wants to plant you in His Church and make you faithful to the House of God.

Now, it’s time to learn powerful praying so we can see deliverance from strongholds. I have wasted much of my prayer life, but thank God that has changed. The Son of God was the master teacher on prayer. First, He warned us that Satan had to be bound before any victory was possible. Here are His words, “Or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house” (Matthew 12:29). It does not matter what you are praying about – someone being saved, healed, or delivered from drugs or immorality – you must first defeat the spirits. Every life that is not free in Jesus Christ is bound by the enemy of Jesus Christ. There is not a “no man’s zone” in the spiritual world. You are either in or you are out.

Unsaved people are blinded by Satan, who the Bible called “the god of this world.” “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (II Corinthians 4:4). If you intend to be a soul-winner, you must first be a prayer warrior. That blindness in the sinner’s mind is their stronghold. Without the work of the Holy Ghost, it is impossible for that sinner to be converted. You may lead them to make a religious decision, but they will be just as lost as before. Praying the sinner’s prayer is powerless without conviction by the Spirit that breaks the stronghold of sin. Our churches are full of unconverted religious church members.

Mighty, anointed prayer is God’s design for victory in His Church. Man did not institute prayer. The Father Himself made prayer and communion with Himself our first line of victory. Forget your preaching, singing, or church worship if you have not learned to pray. Souls are saved in prayer closets before the first song in the House of God. When Zion travails, souls are saved, men are delivered, and the Kingdom of God comes to town. Read what the Spirit says, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled” (II Corinthians 1:3-6). Jesus has won this victory and we live in it by prayer.

Pentecost came after ten days – ordained and required by Jesus Christ – of soul-surrendered and unified praying. The early church leaders refused to become the Red Cross Brigade, but gave themselves to the Word of God and prayer. As the church shook the world, the saints of God prayed. “And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31). By the power of the Spirit it is about to happen again!

Remembering what I was when Jesus Christ came to me is overwhelming! I was a radically immature teenager. My language was gross and cheap. My habits were unclean and selfish. I was too immature to be bold with young ladies, but my thoughts were still dirty. Stealing what I wanted had become my lifestyle. Yet, nothing I had meant anything, so caring for a possession was beyond my comprehension. Reading or writing was non-existent. Listening to country songs on the old Victrola record player is the one pleasure I remember. I was on a road to nowhere.

The farm life was hard but the work never bothered me. It was the most secure thing in life. School was an absolute bore because I never learned how to read. I’m still not sure how I made it to the ninth grade, which was when my dad let me quit because the farm needed my labor. Dad’s drinking was the only sad thing I remember. It was like everything went into a spin when I saw him staggering in the door or trying to drive the car. My mother was a good woman and a great cook. I never remember being hugged even though it was reported that I was the spoiled one of the eight children. I certainly would never speak unkind of my parents or my family.

But something wonderful happened at the age of sixteen. A cousin that loved to drink and sell whiskey moved his family to our farm as a sharecropper. His wife had been wonderfully saved and loved to go to a church thirty miles away. Roby would drive us to church and then go sell his whiskey while we attended the service. I remember the old gunny sack that held his half gallons of peach brandy that my dad had made being under my feet as we rode to church. An evangelist preached the Gospel with power and I walked the aisle to surrender to Christ. The transformation was overwhelming and I have never wanted to turn back. On our way home that night, probably to deliver a half gallon of whiskey, I remember rolling down the window and yelling to someone that met the car, “I went to church tonight a goat but I am going home a sheep.” That was my total theology.

The pastor, Lanky Lambert, would come to the farm and stand on our tobacco wagon to preach the Holy Bible. I could not read but someone gave me a King James Bible and I fell in love with that book. I can remember holding it in my hand and thinking, “How will I ever learn this great story?” This is back when the unlearned were given the King James Version and the educated read the other versions. Out behind the old farm house was a single bush that became my hidden place to pray. I remember how every time the Lord seemed distant to me, I would hurry to pray until His presence would return. I have never gotten beyond that simple truth.

Falling in love with the Bible was the most important thing that happened to me. I knew I was opening the mouth of Jesus Christ every time I opened the Bible and closing His mouth when I closed the Bible. Preaching was the grandest part of church. I remember the old saints that would sing in the Holy Ghost as worship would fill the house. It was so orderly and yet so informal. Pentecost in those days was not controlled by men but was a sovereign sweetness in the bliss of power. It was like a little heaven on earth and never unruly or wild.

I will never forget the first time I saw wild emotions that made it all look so cheap. The contrast in those days could not be missed because pure Pentecost was so real that flesh was quickly hushed. Almost all of televised Pentecost today is nothing less than barbarian. I learned that a Sovereign move of the Holy Spirit is first pure, then it adheres to the Word of God spoken by Apostle Paul in I Corinthians Chapters 12 and 14, and it beautifully exalts Jesus Christ and Him alone. The carnal flesh has no place to be exalted when His Holy Spirit manifests true worship and ministry.

My life was led by the Spirit from the very beginning; otherwise, I would have fallen on my face. I could not have been more unwise in the early days. Alcohol had destroyed my dad’s body and he committed suicide when I was seventeen. I had already left home but returned to help my mother finish a large crop of tobacco and sell the farm when the year was over. When she was secure in a little house, I returned to Burlington where the Lord had brought Juanita into my life. We were married the following summer. How little then did I realize the purpose of God in mine and my Queen’s lives. She is the sweetest soul I have ever known.

I knew immediately after I was saved that I was called to preach. Although I could not read, I was slowly learning; but, I was horribly tongue-tied. However, I was completely confident that the Lord would be sufficient. I recall people begging me not to claim my calling because I could not pronounce words clearly and correctly. They even pressured me not to marry Juanita because she was a fragile diabetic since the age of eighteen. She is now seventy-five and a picture of health.

We are not satisfied with what we have accomplished to date. There is much we want to finish in our ministry. Our greatest burden is to see the fulfillment of Apostle Peter’s prophecy in Acts 2:17-21. The latter rain outpouring is on the horizon and when that is in full swing, I am ready to ascend the steps and fill heaven with my shouts. I saw Pentecost when it was real and I am going to see it again!