For 25 years, John Ramirez worshipped the devil. In fact, he says, he was “a general in the kingdom of darkness.” Now, he spends his life ministering to Christians, teaching them to walk in the power of the Spirit and fight the powers and principalities that consumed so much of his life.
He shares his story on the Revival Lifestyle podcast with host Isaiah Saldivar on the Charisma Podcast Network. And what may surprise believers is that Ramirez says the church has neither the weapons or ability to fight Satan. “The church doesn’t have arsenals to fight back with. The church does not put the devil in his place. The church will not set the captives free. The church doesn’t know how to teach spiritual warfare,” he says.
“How is it that in the church today, we’re not confronting the devil head-on?” Ramirez asks. “We talk about the devil on Sunday; we talk about the devil, and we don’t confront the devil. We don’t confront the devil because you know what? Either you don’t confront the devil because you don’t know spiritual warfare, or you don’t confront the devil because you’re in bed with the devil, and you can’t curse a devil that you’re sleeping with.”
His heart is broken for the church because, Ramirez says, “Christians, awesome brothers and sisters sit in the church fragmented, hurting, in pain, mentally destroyed … because you know one thing about the devil, one thing about witchcraft, if you can’t beat the devil here in your mind, you can’t beat him in the battlefield. If you can’t beat him here, you can’t beat him in the battlefield.
“A lot of Christians go to the battlefield to fight, but they’re defeated here,” Ramirez says. “If the devil has space, if the devil is renting property, real estate, in your mind, if you have strongholds in your mind … you can’t go into the battlefield and fight the good fight because you are already defeated.”
To hear more of John Ramirez’s testimony and how the church can practice true spiritual warfare, click here for the entire podcast. {eoa}
