Warning – Do Not Engage With Demons in the 2nd Heaven Unless Directly Authorized by the Lord
In the area of spiritual warfare, one very controversial issue you will come across is whether or not we, as born-again believers, have the power and authority to try and attempt to engage with demons who are in the 2nd heaven, who are in what the Bible calls the “heavenly places.”
After researching both sides of this very controversial issue, it is our personal opinion that unless God Himself directly authorizes and commissions you to engage in this kind of very special, high level type of spiritual warfare, that you stay completely away from this kind of activity.
If you try to step into this kind of arena without God’s direct approval and protection, you could open both yourself and possibly the members of your immediate family to major attacks from these higher-ranking demons.
In this article, I want to give you both sides of this argument so you can come to your own conclusions, as I have seen very good arguments made on both sides. I will also give you the titles to 2 very good books on this topic that will give you both opposing points of view on this topic.
1. There Are 3 Heavens
The first thing you need to know from our Bible is that there really are higher-ranking demons in Satan’s kingdom who are controlling much of the evil activity that occurs on our earth from these 2nd heaven positions.
The apostle Paul gives us a major revelation in that there are 3 heavens. As you will see from this following verse, it would appear that he is talking about himself when he was taken up to the “third heaven” where Yahuwah and Yeshua dwell. Here is the first verse you will need to have on this topic so you can see exactly how Satan has some of his demonic hierarchy set up, both on our earth and in the heavenlies.
“I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago – whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows – such a one was caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man – whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows – how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.” (2 Corinthians 12:2-3)
Many Bible scholars believe Paul was talking about himself, that he was the one who was caught up into the third heaven to have some kind of major encounter with the Lord. And if Paul was taken up to the third heaven by the Lord Himself, then there has to be a first heaven and a second heaven.
The first heaven I believe is our earth where we live at. The second heaven is the air – the atmosphere.
2. Satan is the Prince and Power of the Air
The second thing you need to know is that Satan and many of his demons are still allowed with God’s permission to roam about in this 2nd heaven – the air. The verse that gives us this direct revelation from the Lord is the following verse:
“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience … ” (Ephesians 2:1-2)
Many Bible scholars believe that the prince of the power of the air in this verse is none other than Satan himself. And if Satan is still allowed by the Lord to roam in our air, in this 2nd heaven to see who he can try and devour next, then many of his demons are also being allowed to roam about in this 2nd heaven as he is.
3. Principalities and Powers – Demons in the 2nd Heaven
This will now take us to the third piece of revelation you will need on this topic so you can see exactly what we are dealing with. This next verse will now give us revelation from the apostle Paul that Satan has his demonic kingdom divided up into what the Bible calls principalities, powers, and rulers of darkness. Here is the verse:
“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)
Again, many Bible scholars believe that the words, “principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, and spiritual hosts of wickedness” are referring to some of Satan’s higher-ranking demons who are in these 2nd heaven positions. The reason they believe this is due to the last four words – “in the heavenly places.”
I believe the words, “in the heavenly places,” is lining up with the above verse in that Satan is the prince and power of the “air.”
Put these two verses right next to one another like two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, and I believe the Lord is giving all of us major revelation in that Satan does have some kind of structure in place with his demonic army, and part of this structure is with these higher-ranking demons who do have definite positions in the heavenlies, in the 2nd heaven.
4. Earthbound Demons
However, as we also know, Satan also has many of his demons who are working down here on this first heaven, which I believe is our earth. Many people call these earthbound demons.
These are the demons who will try and attach to people, whether it be to get in on the inside of their bodies, or follow them around like a dark cloud trying to cause as much trouble and mayhem as they possibly can with them.
What many deliverance ministers have found out is that many of these earthbound demons are taking direct orders from these higher ranking demons who are in these 2nd heaven positions.
And not only do these higher-ranking demons control some of the action down here with demons who are assigned to certain individuals, but these second heaven demons are also controlling the action over certain geographical areas on our earth.
And this now brings us right into the heart of this debate. Do we as Christians have the power and authority from the Lord to directly engage with these 2nd heaven demons, or should we only deal with the earthbound demons who are directly attacking people down here on this earth?
After studying both sides of this argument, it is our own personal opinion that we only deal directly with the earthbound demons who are working down here on this earth trying to attack as many individuals as they can.
When you study the Gospel accounts of Yeshua and the apostles taking on demonic spirits, they were only taking on demons who were on the inside of people. There is not one verse in the Bible that I am aware of where Yeshua or one of His apostles were taking on any demons who were operating in the 2nd heaven.
In the Great Commission Command given to us by Yeshua right before He left us, He told us to “cast out demons.”
The way Yeshua was wording this command, you can tell that He is referring to demons who are attached to people, not to demons who are operating in these 2nd heaven positions. He also does not give us any words or commands to “cast down” demons from the 2nd heaven positions. As such, I believe we should stay completely away from this kind of activity.
5. Research Done by John Paul Jackson
One very good book that deals specifically with this topic is the following book:
“Needless Casualties of War” by John Paul Jackson
For those of you who are doing any type of research in this area, we would highly recommend this book due to what Mr. Jackson has found out from his own personal experiences.
Long story short, Mr. Jackson had a wave of different churches and individuals contacting him. All of these churches were coming under major demonic attacks such as miscarriages, heart attacks, cancers, runaway children, untimely deaths and sudden illnesses.
When he started to investigate why these types of attacks were occurring in some of these churches way beyond what would be considered normal, he found out that they were trying to directly engage with these higher-ranking, 2nd heaven demons who were ruling over certain geographical areas. He also found out that they were not directly authorized by the Lord to be doing this type of special work for Him at the time they were doing it.
As a result of directly engaging with these principalities and powers without God’s direct permission and approval, they stepped outside the bounds of their spiritual authority with Him and opened themselves up to major demonic attacks from some of these higher-ranking, 2nd heaven demons. Then once they confessed and repented of this activity before the Lord, the demonic attacks immediately stopped and order was restored in their lives.
John Paul Jackson came to the conclusion that unless you get a good, clear, concise word from the Lord to engage in this kind of special forces activity, stay completely away from it. If you don’t, and you step outside your hedge of protection with the Lord, you could draw down major demonic attacks on both you and your life. And in some of these cases, some people literally lost their lives.
Again, unless you are being directly commissioned and authorized by the Lord to take on these kinds of special assignments, stay completely away from it, both for your own sake and for those who may be close to you, as one of the kinds of attacks he found occurring were demons causing some of the children in the families to leave home and run away.
Bottom line – leave these kinds of special battles to the Lord and His battle angels, as the air is also where some of God’s angels will tread. This 2nd heaven is where some of the battles will occur between God’s angels and some of Satan’s fallen angels. A very good verse from our Bible that gives us this specific revelation is found in the Book of Daniel. Here it is:
“Then, suddenly, a hand touched me, which made me tremble on my knees and on the palms of my hands. And he said to me, “O Daniel, man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak to you.” While he was speaking this word to me, I stood trembling.
Then he said to me, “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words.
But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia. Now I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come.” (Daniel 10:10-14)
Notice that God did not try to get Daniel to cast down or cast out the prince of Persia from his 2nd heaven position.
This prince of Persia was obviously one of Satan’s higher-ranking demons who was in control of this certain geographical area at the time of Daniel. Notice it was God Himself who took on the battle in this heavenly realm and dispatched the archangel Michael to help the angel who was sent by Him to give Daniel some additional revelation on the end times.
John Paul Jackson then further states in his book that if God does specifically commission you to do this type of work for Him, just pray to Him that He be the One to fight this kind of battle in the heavenlies. Do not try and use the same wording as you would with a demon who is on the inside of a person.
When someone has demons on the inside of them, we have the authority and power to literally cast them out in the name of Yeshua. We can speak directly to the demons telling them to leave that person in the name of Yeshua.
But if you do get a special type of assignment like this from the Lord, do not use the same wording. In other words, do not directly engage with these 2nd heaven demons telling them to leave their 2nd heaven position in the name of Yeshua. Just pray direct to the Lord and ask that He directly handle these 2nd heaven demons for you.
If God decides that He then wants to answer your prayer, He can then take these demons out by the power of His Holy Spirit, or He could dispatch some of His warring battle angels to take them out like He did in the above story with Daniel and the demon prince of Persia.
6. Testimony
Two new good deliverance books that have recently come out on the subject of deliverance and demons are from a baptism minister by the name of Don Dickerman. This man and his deliverance ministry has our highest recommendation. The titles of his two new books are:
“When Pigs Move In” by Don Dickerman
“Keep the Pigs Out” by Don Dickerman
Don Dickerman has a big time prison ministry with the Lord and has thousands of hours of actual deliverance under his belt. In his second book titled, “Keep the Pigs Out,” he has a short chapter in this book devoted to just this one topic. Don also comes to the same conclusion that John Paul Jackson has and that we should stay completely away from this kind of spiritual warfare.
In this chapter, he gives a very good testimony of a good friend who almost got himself into serious trouble one day when he tried to bind and cast down a 2nd heaven demon who was controlling a certain geographical area and intersection where a lot of bad car accidents were occurring.
Here is the word-for-word testimony from his book on what happened to him that day when he tried to take down this 2nd heaven demon who obviously was causing some of these bad car accidents to occur at this specific intersection:
“Let me illustrate this with an example from Jay McCarley. As a young minister, Jay accepted a call to a church in Youngstown, Ohio. He and his family were trying to follow the call of God in their life.
With spiritual zeal, Jay was following what he had been taught and was out to stop the territorial demons in their tracks. He recalls that a particular intersection in the city of Youngstown had an unusual amount of bad car accidents.
He passed that intersection daily going to and from his church. He said that one day as he went though the intersection, he decided to command the demons to stop their activity of violence there. He tells of this incident with some awe in his voice.
He said, “I began to bind the demons that caused the wrecks and created the actions that brought so much damage and hurt to people. I was giving commands right and left.
Suddenly I felt a presence so strong that I had to pull my car over, and I was becoming sick to my stomach. I heard the Holy Spirit speak to my mind, ‘I’m going to protect you this time, but don’t ever do that again.’
He was trembling from the experience. He wasn’t sure what this was all about. As he prayed, he said it became clear that in ignorance he had stepped out of his spiritual realm of authority.
As he continued to learn from this experience, he found that at that very intersection there had been a history of violence. Union and nonunion workers had clashed on several occasions. There also had been murder committed in other situations. He learned that particular demons had gained rights because of what happened in the past.
Jay says, “I learned that I should never enter into warfare with demons powers in the heavens. I pray for God’s protection and intervention in situations, but I don’t go after territorial spirits … ever.”
Note – “Keep the Pigs Out” by Don Dickerman, page 105-106
7. An Opposing Point of View
Both John Paul Jackson and deliverance minister Don Dickerman, as well as many others, are warning us to stay completely away from this kind of spiritual warfare.
However, in fairness to the opposing point of view, there are others who believe that God will at times anoint and commission certain intercessory prayer teams to take on these kinds of special prayer assignments for Him. Their job will be to pray to God to take out these kinds of 2nd heaven demons in a certain geographical area so He can then move in to plant churches and/or cause revival to start to occur in the already existing churches in that area.
One of the best books I have ever read on this opposing point of view is the following book:
“Authority to Tread” by Rebecca Greenwood
In this book, Rebecca says the reason some people come under major demonic attack when trying to do this kind of work for the Lord is either because they were never authorized and commissioned by Him to do this kind of work in the first place, or they were not staying within His timing as to when they should be doing it.
Rebecca says these kinds of special prayer assignments have to be God-given. You cannot take on these kinds of assignments with your own initiative. She also goes through the basic steps you will need to take to be able to do this kind of higher-level, spiritual warfare properly.
She says you need to be part of a strong, anointed, intercessory prayer team. This is not the type of work for lone rangers. You also need to be under the covering of your church and pastor, along with not having any major sin in your life such as adultery and pornography, as these kinds of sins will create a major opening in your protective hedge with the Lord and thus give these kinds of demons a direct shot to be able to come directly after you.
Another very good book on this same point of view is the following:
“Warfare Prayer” by C. Peter Wagner
Mr. Wagner goes in depth on this topic, along with discussing some of the major mistakes they have made along the way as they were learning how to do this type of warfare properly. He also discusses some of the documented cases of where this kind of specialized warfare has really worked, especially in Argentina and some of the other countries down in South America.
To any of you who feel you are being called by God to do this kind of special work for Him, we would highly recommend both of these books, as they both give you very good, basic, common sense steps you will need to take with the Lord so you do not step outside the bounds of your spiritual authority with Him and get yourself into major trouble.
Conclusion
After studying both points of view on this topic, it is our own personal opinion that you stay completely away from this kind of spiritual warfare unless God Himself is calling you and training you to enter into this kind of an arena from time to time.
The best analogy I can give you on this is our U.S. military. In our military, we have special types of forces like the Green Berets and the Navy Seals. These types of soldiers are specially trained to do special kinds of natural warfare. In the same way, this kind of spiritual warfare is like special forces type warfare and not everyone will be called by God to do it.
So unless God is specifically calling you to do this kind of higher level spiritual warfare for Him, it would be our recommendation to stay completely away from it. There are enough earthbound demons for us to engage with and cast out.
And until Yeshua comes back to our earth to throw Satan and his demons into the bottomless pit for a thousand years, we are all going to be stuck with Satan and some of his demons being allowed to roam our air and set up stronghold bases in certain geographical areas throughout the world.
Again, three very good books on this subject giving you both sides of this argument are the following:
“Needless Casualties of War” by John Paul Jackson
“Authority to Tread” by Rebecca Greenwood
“Prayer Warfare” by C. Peter Wagner
If you are interested in this area of spiritual warfare, or you feel like God may be calling you to do something like this for Him from time to time, it would be our very strong recommendation that you read both of these books so you can see exactly what you will be dealing with and entering into.