I don’t advise anyone to confront the demons in a particular place before having addressed the area’s strong man first. He is the one that coordinates the strategic and tactical operations of the spiritual forces of evil. Once we have bound and cast out the strong man of that area, along with the evil angels that follow him, the demons are left unprotected and vulnerable to our attack and to the attack of God’s angels who are helping us to fight. These angels of light are our helpers, and they participate in the conquest of the kingdom of God. When the demons lose their leader and their air support, they flee in fear and confusion.
There are many demons among Satan’s forces (See Matthew 12:26-27;25:41). If we defeat only a few of them, the power of their attack will not be diminished. But if we go against the prince, the power and the ruler, in the name of Jesus, we disturb the forces. And so, when the Spirit of God falls with power on the demons, they will disperse and flee in terror. To attack the head of the army of darkness is not a superstition or a fantasy. We have proved this in every one of our crusade meetings. From the beginning we have always tried to crush the serpent’s head first to remove all authority and intelligence from him in order to neutralize the combative effectiveness of his body.
I had an incredible experience during our first crusades in the years 1983 and 1984 in the city of Mar del Plata, Argentina. The local churches had organized a crusade in a stadium. The day after my arrival, while I was with one of my fellow workers in my hotel looking at the ocean through the window, God gave us a vision. We saw three giants in the water holding a piece of glass that stopped millions of demons from entering the city. Those giants were angels that would not allow the demons to come in. The demons had already been bound, even before the beginning of the meetings.
The impact of the crusade in that city was a milestone for its inhabitants. God moved in an extraordinary way in Mar del Plata! Some people walking ten blocks away from the stadium fell to the ground under the power of God. Others manifested in buses that were passing by the site. The passengers on the buses would get them out of the bus and bring them to the crusade. The whole city knew what was happening. When the meetings were over, the people took tape recordings of the preaching home with them. As a result, demons also manifested in the houses. The heavens were open over the entire city. Everyone was coming to the meetings, even those whom nobody had invited to come, and they all would eventually give their lives to God.
Just to have an idea of what happened there, let me tell you that out of four hundred thousand inhabitants, eighty-three thousand accepted the Lord — that is 20 percent of the population! The most common healing was that of the teeth. Our estimate is that at least one member of every family had a tooth fixed by God. The media came to see what was happening, and they wrote articles on it. The crusade and the miracles were on the front cover of many of the secular magazines. There was nothing better than that vision God gave me before the beginning of the crusade so that I would know that the demons and spiritual forces were already bound.
This spiritual war we fight every day has no end. If we stop, we will surely lose what we have conquered. Through all my years of ministry I’ve been to many countries and have seen much religion and many structures and tradition, but very few tears for lost souls. If we want to conquer those lives we need to fight a spiritual war daily!
(From the book Listen to Me, Satan! By Carlos Annacondia in 1998, pg 144-145)