Principalities
and Powers
Lucifer established a hierarchical structure over the
Earth through which to rule the Earth and its inhabitants after his fall. This
structure is filled the angels that fell with him. This structure was actually created
by Yahweh for the angels to function properly. They were created as servants
not sovereigns. Angels do not have choice, theirs is to follow and obey, in
this case Lucifer. Thus every one of the angels created to follow Lucifer fell
with him.
The Scriptures give us a small glimpse of the
structure; dominions, thrones, principalities, powers, and might are mentioned.
Strongholds are also mentioned. These were created for Yahweh's purposes.
Lucifer stole them from Yahweh and He commanded Adam to take them back. That
command applied to all of mankind. However, fallen man cannot do that since he
is a subject of Lucifer through sin. Only born again believers through the
direction, timing and power of the Holy Spirit can.
These positions represent a positional authority of
sorts. There are powers over every location on Earth and these powers are
fallen angels unless the believers in the location have removed the fallen
angels and placed Yahweh's angels is their place. This
is our job to take dominion and pull down the strongholds. This is essentially
the same as setting the captive free (from sin and demons), just going up the
ladder a ways.
Lucifer is everything evil, the exact opposite of
Yahweh. Where Yahweh is love, Lucifer is hate, where Yahweh is peace, Lucifer
is war, where Yahweh is life, Lucifer is death, where Yahweh is creative,
Lucifer is destructive, where Yahweh is Truth, Lucifer
is lies. This is all directed at Yahweh's creation. Because of man's fallen
state we are no different than Lucifer in our very core. We are evil in heart.
There is nothing in fallen man that is righteous, and we are captive to sin and
ruled by Lucifer and his angels and demons. We pursue our fleshly, fallen appetites
at the expense of Yahweh's creation. If we appear to do something good it is a
deception because our motive was self beneficial, not self sacrificial. Only
the righteousness of Yeshua in us can move us to do Good,
for only He can change our hearts.
Lucifer is not omnipresent, nor omniscient, nor all
powerful. He is just a fallen archangel. So he must gather information about
his subjects through this chain of command, and he also carries out his will
through the same chain of command. This structure was established by Yahweh to
bring the worship and praise of creation back to the Creator. Yahweh's
creatures freely gave their praise and worship to these angels to be carried to
the Throne Room, to Yahweh. These angels are worship angels by creation, with
Lucifer being the top worship angel, who decided to keep some of the worship
for him self. Since the fall, the angels now take praise and worship from
creation by deception and deliver it to Lucifer.
As an example, take a popular singer who is praised
by his listeners. He takes credit for his abilities that were given to him by
His Creator, thus elevating himself equal to or above his Creator, making
himself an idol. Pride came from Lucifer, it was not
man's creation. Lucifer has deceived this man into thinking more highly of
himself that he ought, through the lie that he himself wrote the songs and
originated the talents that attracts the praise, and that praise should even
belong to him because he is worthy of praise. Lucifer has designated fallen
angels and demons to provide lyrics and music to men as part of this deception.
He has also provided beings for pride and idolatry, along with competition,
seduction, sex appeal, lust, beauty, and many, many others. These demons and
fallen angels are used to entice, lie to and deceive men through appealing to
their base appetites. Their purpose is to cause humans to sin to the point of
death, either by disease, murder or suicide. The death of an unredeemed man, to
spend eternity with Lucifer, is the greatest damage that Lucifer can inflect on
a Loving Creator, Yahweh.
The demonic influence in a person's life is a matter
of degree. The word in the scriptures is oppression, not possession. Everyone
is oppressed to some degree just as everyone is deceived to some degree. Yeshua
is the only perfect human. Lucifer's tactic is to convince humans that we are
smarter, prettier, wealthier, wiser, stronger or more gifted than others, which
promotes pride. Not one of these characteristics is valuable with Yahweh. He is
interested in our brokenness, humility, dependency upon Him, and intimacy with
Him. Man has nothing with which to impress Yahweh other then himself.
Lucifer, through the hierarchy, has established rule
over individuals, families, cities, counties, states, regions, nations,
continents, and the world. Particular fallen angels with their individual
specialty will rule a city or a state, such as
These are the strongholds that Paul mentions that we
pull down. Of course all of these are absolutely opposed to everything Yahweh
is and desires. You must keep in mind that Yahweh created all of these beings
and He gave them their power and authority. If we are moving in the power of
the Holy Spirit these being, even all of them together, have no power over us,
for how can the creature overcome the Creator. However, if we are moving in our
own power and authority, or man given authority we will quickly become more
enslaved. A human is no match for a fallen angel that has spent the past few
thousands of years tricking, deceiving and enslaving men. Human authority is Lucifer`s authority not Yahweh`s,
and is thus sinful and evil. All authority comes from one or the other. Man has
no authority of his own. Man is either serving Lucifer or Yahweh. Man is only
serving Yahweh if he is hearing His voice and obeying the leading and timing of
the Holy Spirit. Father’s will is revealed to man out of the intimacy of
the man`s relationship with his God, not by following
another man, the scriptures or principles. Like Yeshua only doing what He saw
His Father doing, likewise each man is to do only what he sees his Father do as
well. When we are being moved by the hand of God with the power of the Holy
Spirit at His command, then we will bring down the strongholds and take
dominion over the Earth as we are commanded to, and His will, will be done on
Earth as it is in Heaven.