Confronting Territorial Spirits: Take Back Your Town from the Powers of Darkness
Costa Rica is one of my favorite places to minister.
It has become a very rich, fertile place for the ministry I walk in. Many times, I have preached in the outlying regions and have seen tremendous responses to the gospel.
One year, I was sensing God wanted me to conduct a crusade there, and I asked our crusade director, Pastor Jaime, if he knew of a group of pastors who would welcome a crusade. He had been in dialogue with a group from Pavas, a suburban town of San Jose. When I met with them, about twelve in all, they opened their hearts with tears and pleading. Their area, originally designed to be a business center for the capital city, had been flooded with refugees from other South American countries when the government opened a new airport in their backyard.
With the new influx of refugees also came a great influx of drugs and gang activity. They told me that fourteen-year-olds were shooting and killing each other on a regular basis. These churches, very successful in many ways, wanted a crusade that would break the stronghold operating in that area.
After conducting meetings in a few churches and praying about a crusade, I felt the release to begin planning the meeting. As we drove toward the town, my eyes fell on one particular lot in the heart of the city where we could hold the crusade.
Honestly, some of the pastors did not want that lot—it was too dangerous. They wanted the big stadium across the river. Yet, in my heart, I knew if we were going to impact the ruling spirits of the area, we had to be in the center of it.
After several attempts to get the stadium, my crusade director told me the lot I had seen was the only one available. I just smiled. God was planning this crusade.
When the day before the meeting arrived, that territorial devil started to act up. An assassin killed a man right at the entrance to the field. When the news hit the paper, our hired security team dropped out.
Immediately, I instructed our team to go to the nearest store and buy oil bottles—one for each member. When they returned to the field, we spread out, anointing every blade of grass, the perimeter of the field, the platform, and the entrance to the field. Someone also supplied a helicopter so we could take the ministers up over the town and pour oil all over it in the mighty name of Jesus.
That may seem crazy to some folks, but these were prophetic acts carried out to declare to our enemy that Jesus was about to reclaim some territory in the town of Pavas, Costa Rica.
On the very first night, one of our team’s ministers preached a powerful message and gave an altar call. Walking down the aisle was a young man—people gasped when they saw him. He was the ringleader of the gangs, and he accepted Christ as Savior on the very first night.
The next night, the crowds were growing, and the ringleader from the night before brought ten more young men to give their hearts to Jesus.
By the end of the crusade, God had moved on the hearts of the gang leaders and assassins. One received Christ while watching the services on television in the hospital! God was taking back territory, one heart at a time.
So much happened in Pavas, I could write a book about that one crusade. When I returned home, the local pastor texted me to let me know that after we left town, an additional 60 gang members gave up their weapons and drugs and gave their hearts to Jesus!
When God sends us into a region, we are going to give an eviction notice to any demonic squatters. We are sent to proclaim, “Get out, you unclean spirits—Jesus is the new Sheriff in town!”
Of course, we learned this from Jesus’ own ministry:
Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes. And when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains, because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones.
When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him. And he cried out with a loud voice and said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me.” For He said to him, “Come out of the man, unclean spirit!” Then He asked him, “What is your name?” And he answered, saying, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” Also he begged Him earnestly that He would not send them out of the country (Mark 5:1-10 NKJV).
As we unpack this very familiar story, we notice this demon-possessed man is couched in very territorial language:
The moment Jesus stepped foot out of the boat onto a new territory, He was confronted by this evil spirit.
The demon-possessed man “had his home among the tombs” and no one could control him.
When Jesus commanded the devils to leave, they begged Him not to send them from that region.
This passage makes it very clear that Jesus had come into that region to set a man free from a legion of demons, but He had also come to set the region free of that controlling spirit.
If you go back to Mark, chapter 4, you will find that before Jesus and the disciples landed in that region, they were confronted with an intense storm with high winds that terrified the disciples. It was as if a ferocious force was trying to hinder Jesus in the land of the Gadarenes, but Jesus commanded the winds to be still, and they obeyed.
We can learn much from this passage. The enemy God sends us to confront and overcome may be bigger than one tormented person.
Let’s take a look at the rest of the story:
Now a large herd of swine was feeding there near the mountains. So all the demons begged Him, saying, “Send us to the swine, that we may enter them.” And at once Jesus gave them permission. Then the unclean spirits went out and entered the swine (there were about two thousand); and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and drowned in the sea.
So those who fed the swine fled, and they told it in the city and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that had happened. Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. And those who saw it told them how it happened to him who had been demon-possessed, and about the swine. Then they began to plead with Him to depart from their region.
And when He got into the boat, he who had been demon-possessed begged Him that he might be with Him. However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.” And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled (Mark 5:11-20 NKJV).
This is quite an amazing passage. We clearly see this legion of demons needed a territory to inhabit. Jesus gave them permission to enter the swine, and the swine were driven mad and ran into the sea.
Isn’t it amazing to learn the capacity of the human spirit? We can either be possessed by thousands of demons who torment us and cause us to inflict pain and suffering on ourselves, or we can invite Jesus into our hearts, and our spirits will be filled with all the fullness of the Godhead! (Colossians 2:9) No contest!
I also marvel at the response of the townspeople from the region. They knew the power of God set that man free, and they became afraid. They wanted Jesus to leave! The same people who tolerated thousands of demons controlling their region, wanted the Son of God to leave! This shows us how demons control a region—through fear, misinformation, and intimidation. Those demons had the people believing they should put up with demonic activity.
This is no different from our society today. I have been to many inner cities in our nation. I have seen firsthand how neighborhoods will put up with drug infestation, gang warfare, and satanic cults. They will live locked inside their apartments, fearful of coming out. For decades, their families and relatives have literally been dominated and controlled by evil spirits.
But let a gospel tent start making plans to come into the midst, and the outcry begins! Usually, it comes from the area leaders, including pastors, many times. They don’t want preachers coming in because, I’ve heard it said so often, “They will take the money from the church.” Or, “They will steal our people from us.”
Even the preachers have come under the lies and intimidation of those ruling spirits!
However, after God gets us into a place, I have also seen Him break through those strongholds! Many times we have been told after leaving an area for two or three weeks, “The crime rate had gone down to zero while you were here! Please don’t leave!” Often, this came from the local police precinct.
Notice one final thing about this Gadarenes campaign—the man who was freed was commissioned by Jesus to tell his testimony everywhere he went. He obeyed, and the gospel was preached throughout the region by a man formerly inhabited by demons!
This is why God sends us into a region—to cast out devils, squatting devils, familiar spirits, generational spirits, and controlling spirits. When we do, we do it in concert with preaching the full gospel of Jesus Christ. We tell people Jesus came to set them free—and keep them free.
Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed (John 8:36 NKJV).
