Have you been spinning your wheels in one place for a long time? Have you lost the vision you once had for your life? Have you seen your finances, business or ministry begin to decline?
Satan has a plan of containment to stop the advancement of God’s kingdom, and he is always implementing it in some way. We should not be surprised when every forward movement we make for the kingdom is countered by difficulties, obstacles and persecution. The enemy will try to bind us and hold us back. He will confine us to one place, situation or circumstance—in our personal life, our ministry, our business or any other arena where we are actively involved in extending the kingdom.
If you have reached a point in your life where you have come up against an immovable wall, perhaps you think you have done something wrong. It is always important for us to check our motivations and to ask God to reveal anything for which we need to repent. Yet, it may be that Satan has constructed a wall in order to contain the advancement of the kingdom that you are making or are about to make. You can receive a spiritual breakthrough by taking the following steps:
- Refuse to tolerate the situation. We must overcome passivity and compliance in our lives if we are to fight back against the enemy. When we become sick and tired of a certain situation—when we realize that enough is enough and we choose not to tolerate the circumstance any longer—we will desperately seek God. We will recognize that we are at the end of our own strength and ability and will rely only on His.
- Be filled with righteous indignation. When three Hebrew young men who were living in exile in Babylon were threatened with their lives if they did not practice idol worship, they were filled with holy zeal, and they declared to the king that they would not worship false gods or kneel before the golden image. God rescued them after they were thrown into a fiery furnace, and He also silenced their enemies and gave them favor with the king. (See Dan. 3:13–30.) Similarly, when we are confronted by sickness, financial lack, marital discord, sin, bondage or anything else that threatens to destroy us, then we, too, can be overcomers and receive our breakthroughs by responding in righteous indignation. The enemy knows when we are serious and full of holy zeal.
- Exercise “spiritual violence.” When we seek God, and He gives us the spirit of might, or breakthrough anointing, we must begin to push forward what has been contained. We are to become spiritually violent, not physically violent. We are to become angry with the devil and his demons, not with God or other people. Otherwise, our violence will neither be from God nor be holy.
—”From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matt. 11:12, NASB).
A more literal translation of this verse might read, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been governed by force, and only those in power control it.” God is in control of everything, but He has given us authority and power to exercise dominion in the territory to which He has assigned us.
Why do we need to be “violent” in our governance? Because we are in a constant war with the kingdom of darkness, fighting over who will have dominion over various territories on earth—whether physical places, people or areas of influence. God has given dominion to His people, and dominion is the highest territorial power.
Jesus taught us that to defeat the “strong man,” or Satan, we must bind him. (See, for example, Matt.12:29.) We begin to do this is by confessing Jesus Christ as the Lord of our lives, because the phrase “Jesus is Lord” is a territorial expression—the word “Lord” meaning absolute authority and Master.
To establish your authority in any place, you must always declare the name of Jesus.
When we begin to take dominion over a territory where Satan has been ruling, he will fight back. Moreover, when the enemy loses a territory, he will never give up trying to retake it. This is why we must always be alert to his schemes and resist his attacks. (See Luke 11:24–26.) When we received Jesus, He gave us His Spirit, His strength and His supernatural weapons to retake what Satan has stolen from us—establishing the kingdom of God by spiritual force.
If we want a breakthrough, therefore, we must be militant in exercising kingdom principles. This is a spiritual matter, and it applies to all of us—whether our natural personality is to be assertive or quiet. Passivity will leave us spiritually wounded instead of securing our breakthroughs. We must be ruthless with the enemy—he wants to destroy us! Demonic strongholds will tremble and fall away as we push against them in God’s power.
Jesus was the most compassionate man who ever walked the earth, but He was also the most spiritually violent through the power of the Spirit. He was strong and firm, and He never tolerated religiosity, sin, sickness or death. Likewise, God’s spirit of might will come upon us, empowering us to aggressively push past the things that have kept us stagnant.
We can seize and control territory for the kingdom when we have power, but we cannot exercise power unless we are under spiritual authority. This is a kingdom principle. The devil recognizes those who speak with the weight of authority and those who don’t.
If we do not establish God’s authority and submit to His superior rule, we have no legal right to exercise His power. Could it be that we have granted the enemy the legal right to remain because we are not submitted to God and His delegated human authorities? Let us submit to God and advance His kingdom with authority and force.
This is a spiritual matter that applies to all of us—whether our natural personality is to be assertive or quiet.
- Offer glorious, spontaneous praise to God. Many people are not producing fruit in various areas of their lives due to a spirit of infertility that is robbing them of expansion and blessing. Each time they are about to find a job, close a business deal, get married or finish an important project, a spirit of barrenness or miscarriage causes them to lose their blessing. The solution to fruitlessness is spiritual breakthrough, and the final step in the process of receiving breakthrough is to offer glorious, spontaneous praise to God (see Isa. 54:1).
Rejoice, give shouts of jubilee, offer God exuberant praise, sing a new song to the Lord! We must praise God in the midst of our pain, even if it seems abnormal to do so. The kingdom principle here is to invade the kingdom of darkness through songs that are inspired by God’s Spirit.
I’m not referring to the regular songs we often sing in church, although we may begin with those songs. I am referring to what I call “sudden bursts” of song. It is not a matter of our singing one song, stopping and expecting the breakthrough but of continuing to sing out loud until the spirit of might comes upon us. We must continue to push against the kingdom of darkness through song because we are in the process of birthing something in the Spirit.
When the spirit of might comes upon us, we will extend to the north, south, east and west. The barriers that were hindering us will be broken down—the limits that were imposed on us will fall. Then, we will expand the kingdom by multiplying our ministries, churches, businesses and gifts. The spirit of might will be upon us to bring forth great breakthroughs. Today is the day of expansion in our lives! {eoa}
Active in ministry for over 20 years, bestselling author Apostle Guillermo Maldonado is the founder of King Jesus International Ministry—one of the fastest-growing multicultural churches in the United States—which has been recognized for its visible manifestations of God´s supernatural power. He is a spiritual father to 400 churches in 70 countries, which form the Supernatural Global Network. He is also the founder of the University of the Supernatural Ministry (USM). Apostle Maldonado has a doctorate in Christian counseling and a master’s degree in practical theology. He resides in Miami, Florida, with his wife and partner in ministry, Ana, and their two sons, Bryan and Ronald. Visit whitakerhouse.com/book-authors/guillermo-maldonado/.
Edited excerpt from The Kingdom of Power, © 2013 by Guillermo Maldonado, published by Whitaker House. Used with permission.
L.A. Marzulli