Revival Through Spiritual Warfare

A Letter to Pastors and Leaders

By Fernando Jiménez

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Dear pastors, fellow ministers, and servants of our Lord Jesus Christ,

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I write to you today with a deep and pressing burden from the Spirit — a call to awaken once again to a reality that has been too often forgotten: true revival has never been separated from true warfare. The Kingdom of God has always advanced against opposition. Every genuine movement of God, every true awakening that has shaken nations, has been birthed, fought for, and sustained through spiritual warfare. Revival is not born in comfort; it is forged in battle.

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Our Lord Jesus Himself said, "When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him..." (Luke 11:21–22). The Gospel is not a suggestion to a broken world — it is a violent invasion into enemy-held territory. Revival is the visible manifestation of that invasion. It is heaven confronting the rebellion of earth.

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From the very beginning, warfare was written into the story of redemption. When man fell in Eden, it was God Himself who declared war against the serpent, saying, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel" (Genesis 3:15). The cosmic battle was set in motion, a battle that continues to this very day.

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When humanity once again rebelled at Babel, refusing to honor the living God, the Most High divided the nations and allotted them under the authority of the "sons of God," as Deuteronomy 32:8 reveals. The earth was handed over to principalities and powers because mankind chose darkness over light. That is why the apostle John would later affirm, "the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one" (1 John 5:19).

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But the heart of God did not abandon His purpose. Through the prophet Ezekiel, He revealed His longing: "So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one" (Ezekiel 22:30). The gap was not merely social or political — it was the gaping wound between a fallen earth and the holy heavens. God sought intercessors, warriors, those who would fight for His purpose to be fulfilled.

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The psalmist would later cry out under the Spirit’s anointing, "Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed" (Psalm 2:1–2). There is no neutrality in this war. Earthly rulers and unseen spiritual forces alike rage against Christ and His kingdom.

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When Jesus Christ entered history, He stepped onto a battlefield already raging. Before any public miracles or teachings, He was led into the wilderness to confront Satan himself. There, armed only with the Word of God, He overcame: "It is written," He declared again and again (Matthew 4). It was by truth that He triumphed. It was by Scripture that He overcame. It was there that the strong man was bound and the Kingdom of God began to be proclaimed with power: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17).

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Jesus announced that Satan was judged, saying, "Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out" (John 12:31). And on the Cross, He made a public spectacle of the powers of darkness, triumphing over them once and for all: "Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it" (Colossians 2:15).

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Yet the warfare did not end with the Resurrection. It continues today, through the Church, the Body of Christ on earth. Paul reminds us, "And He raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:6). We are positioned with Christ not for comfort, but for authority — called to enforce the victory He has already won.

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Thus Paul writes again, "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). Spiritual warfare is not a side issue; it is the normal Christian life. It is the atmosphere of true ministry. It is the battlefield on which revival is born.

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The early Church knew this well. Their missionary journeys were not polite excursions; they were violent spiritual invasions. Their prayers shook prisons. Their preaching shattered cities. Their lives tore holes into the empire of Rome. And revival history repeats this same truth.

In the Reformation, Luther’s hammer at Wittenberg shattered centuries of darkness. In the Great Awakenings of the 1700s, prayer and repentance broke the chains of dead religion.

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In the Welsh Revival of 1904, tears of intercession paved the way for an unprecedented move of the Spirit. In the Pentecostal outpouring of Azusa Street, desperate hunger birthed a new global awakening. In the post-World War II revivals, evangelists and missionaries fought unseen battles across the world, battling not only human resistance but demonic strongholds entrenched over nations. Every flame of revival was kindled by men and women who understood the nature of the fight. And so it must be with us today.

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The Church must recover this reality. We must not seek comfort over conquest. We must not substitute programs for prayer, or entertainment for evangelism, or eloquence for power. Revival will not come by cleverness. It will come when we once again bind the strong man, when we intercede until heaven opens, when we proclaim truth without compromise, when we live holy and separated lives, fully surrendered to the Spirit.

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Revival is not magic. It is the inevitable result of spiritual warfare waged faithfully by the people of God. It is the manifestation of heaven's triumph through an obedient, praying, preaching, burning Church.

​Paul assures us, "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet" (Romans 16:20). He reminds us, "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds" (2 Corinthians 10:4).

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Beloved fellow servants, this is a call back to the battleground where revival is born. A sleeping Church will never change the world. But a Church awake to spiritual warfare — standing armed with the Word, clothed in the Spirit, and ablaze with prayer — will once again shake the nations and make the powers of darkness tremble.

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Let us rise. Let us fight. Let us see the Lamb receive the reward of His suffering. Let us see the glory of the Lord cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might" (Ephesians 6:10).

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Yours in the battle and in the victory,
Fernando Jiménez
Missionary Pastor | Revivalist

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