Believers and Spiritual Attack
Lesson # 3
Principalities, Rulers of Darkness, and Strongholds

  1. Who is the Enemy?

    • For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12 NKJV


  2. The Work of Principalities, Powers, and Rulers of Darkness:
    • These are fallen angels that work with Satan attacking nations and regions of the world bringing people under the control of their power through the spread of spiritual forces that captivate the minds of the people.
    • When these principalities come into a nation or an area of the world, they create a stronghold and they begin to send out their spirits, which attack the people of the area bringing them under their control.
    • The work of principalities and powers in the world today:
      • The stronghold of drugs is a work of a principality.
      • The stronghold of religious fanaticism is the work of a principality.
      • All kinds of sexual immoralities are works and strongholds of principalities.
      • Idolatry is stronghold of a principality.
      • Hate, wars, gang fighting and the lack of peace is a stronghold of a principality.
      • Famine, pestilence, and widespread sickness are strongholds of principalities.
      • False religions and political fanaticism are works of strongholds of the enemy.

  3. The work of principalities recorded in the Bible:
    • First group of people on the earth to come under a principality that created a stronghold was the generation before the flood: “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” The principality’s stronghold was so controlling that the Almighty God had to destroy that generation. It had affected the entire earth—Genesis 6:5-7.
    • The enemy tried again to gain control over the earth during the time of the Tower of Babel conspiracy. But God destroyed the spirit of rebellion that was being birthed there—Genesis 11:1-9.
    • The description of the city that Abraham’s nephew Lot moved to showed that a principality had established a stronghold in that city: “But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the LORD.” Even though a righteous man, Lot, had moved to that city, at the end, the mighty God had to destroyed Sodom and other cities because they had been captivated by evil—Genesis 13:13; 19:1-29.
    • The inhabitants of the land of Canaan were under the stronghold of a principality of idolatry of false demonic religions. The Almighty God ordered Moses and later Joshua to destroy all these people as they took over the land of Canaan, but they did not do it completely. After Joshua’s death, the principality came back strongly and the people of Israel came under its control: “Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals; and they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger.” Judges 2:11-12 NKJV.
    • This is what was happening in Judah and Jerusalem before the Lord permitted the Babylonians to come and destroyed Jerusalem: “Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger.” Jeremiah 7:17-18
    • When Paul arrived in Athens he saw the stronghold of idolatry in that city: Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Acts 17:16 NKJV. Paul saw the whole city controlled by this principality. Paul was not able to start a church in Athens.

  4. The aim of these strongholds of the enemy:
    • The enemy uses all his power to stop the peoples of the earth from turning to Jesus and receive Him as their Savior and their Lord.
    • When a principality moves into a region of the world, it begins to send out its spirits to control the people’s mind, soul, and body.
    • The people fall into their control, which is very hard to be set free from. They are captivated by the spirits that come to control them under all kinds of satanic influences.
    • As we saw in many situations in the Scriptures, it was very hard for groups of people who were under the control of strongholds of the enemy to change, as the Almighty God had to destroy many societies that were under the enemy’s control.
    • Today, all kinds of principalities are setting strongholds in nations taking control of people’s mind and soul.
    • Only by God’s grace and Christ's saving power can they be set free.