Defending Your Territory

Lately Nancy and I have been doing a fair amount of traveling in the States. We had our annual staff conference with Barnabas colleagues in Wisconsin at the end of June and we wrapped a road-trip around that, visiting friends, family and others both before and after the conference. Being on the road that long makes me think about home and my “stomping grounds.”

Perhaps you have seen video footage of wildebeests in the Serengeti and how the males will stake out a territory for themselves and defend it against all (male) intruders. Birds, too, will establish and defend territories, especially during nesting season. We would do well to consciously defend and sanctify territory that the Lord has given us.

We stayed with a pastor and his family in our recent travels and slept blissfully in his guest room with no troubling dreams at all. That experience was a sharp contrast to another place we stayed where both of us had disturbing nightmares. I asked the pastor whether he had prayed over his house when he moved in, asking the Lord to cleanse and sanctify this dwelling from all previous inhabitants, both human and demonic. “Yes, of course,” was his response, “and I continually ask the Lord to set this place apart and defend it for the sake of my family and this ministry.” The peace in his house was palpable.

When we visit missionaries in the “uttermost parts” of the earth, they are often carving out peace-filled refuges in the heart of territories that have long been dominated by spirits of violence and darkness. The further the gospel of the Lord Jesus reaches, the more desperate the enemies of His sovereign rule become. They know their time is short and they only grudgingly release their control over real-estate that has long been the domain of evil. And they are vengeful spirits who seek to punish those who intrude in Jesus’ name. Thank you for your prayers for our protection as we visit servants who are creating refuges and inviting people inside.

But don’t you fail to defend the territory the Lord has given to you. Remember that Jesus himself spoke of displaced evil spirits roaming the earth restlessly seeking a place to settle. Keep your stomping grounds clean and well-defended. The time is drawing short.

Post Script: Only thirty minutes after writing the above, we experienced what felt like retribution for exposing the enemy. We were traveling at sixty mph on a busy four-lane highway when I glanced in my rear-view mirror just in time to see a black car traveling way too fast and about to crash into the left rear corner of our car as he careened from lane to lane, trying to gain a few seconds. I jerked the wheel and veered onto the shoulder of the road, narrowly avoiding what could easily have been a fatal crash. It was no accident (yes, pun intended!) that this experience came immediately upon the heels of my writing what I did about the spirit world.