In the past few years increasing awareness of spirit activity on a territorial level has developed. There are and will be differences in teaching on this subject but this is where we should look at the fruit of what is accomplished rather than become judgmental because someone else's approach is not like ours. Mark 9:38-40 says: "Teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us." But Jesus said, "Do not forbid him... For he who is not against us is on our side."

   There is not a strong foundation for territorial spirits in Scripture, but there is quite a bit of evidence from ministry experience. There have been many books and a great deal of documentation presented on this subject, particularly in the 80's and 90's. Over the years, I have done a lot of research on this myself and have been able to learn a great deal.  Understanding the dynamics of the spirit world is not for the curious or those who are fascinated by such things. We are in a war and even though we may not see it with our physical eyes, it is raging! "...the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force" (Matthew 11:12). The kingdom of heaven is taken back from the enemy by force, and it is essential to view this in military/war terms, as Scripture often does, if we are going to maximize our effectiveness.

  There are a number of Scriptures we will look at but understand from the forefront that there are not a great number, and that is not an accident. The object of our attention is to be our Lord, not the enemy. Curiosity is a carnal appetite that can drive us to search out hidden knowledge. The Bible says in Romans 16:19, "I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil." God reveals hidden mysteries and knowledge to His close friends. "The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him" (Psalm 25:14). However, the privilege of knowing God Himself should be the center of our desire.

   In Deut 32:8 we read, "When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel." According to the Septuagint text and recent scholarship, the clearer rendering here is 'sons of God,' angelic beings (c.f. Gen. 6:2, Job 38:7, Psalm 29:1, 89:6, 82:1). Daniel 4:13 and 17 call these powers the "Watchers."

  The ancient pagans clearly understood territorial lordship. In the Old Testament there is much mention of the specific places such as 'places on the high mountains,' or specific hills or certain trees where the pagan nations had identified as locales for specific gods and spirits (Deut, 12:2). God gave specific instructions to the Israelites that when they possessed these places to live, they must destroy all semblances of these gods and cast out the names of these gods and spirits from these places. The different nations all possessed specific gods and evil spirits which had specific names such as 'Baal,' and Ashera' (Judges 3:7), and Ashtoreths' (1 Sam. 7:3-4). In 2 Kings 17:29 we read that 'each national group made its own gods in the several towns where they settled, and set them up in the shrines the people of Samaria had made at the high places.' Each national group had its own gods or principalities which had separate names and identities. 'The men from Babylon made Succoth Benoth, the men from Cuthah made Nergal, and the men from Hamath made Ashima; the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire as sacrifices to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim' (2 Kings 17:30-31). These images that were made certainly represented already existing spirits and gods, and the Bible clearly defines them as evil (2 Kings 17:17). Deuteronomy 32:17 makes a clear connection of these foreign gods to 'demons.'

   A very interesting observation on the power of territorial spirits is made in 1 Kings: "Then the servants of the king of Syria said to him, "Their gods are gods of the hills. Therefore they were stronger than we; but if we fight against them in the plain, then surely we will be stronger than they" (1 Kings 20:23). But the God we serve is not territorial. "Then a man of God came and spoke to the king of Israel, and said, "Thus says the Lord: Because the Syrians have said, 'The Lord is God of the hills, but He is not God of the valleys,' therefore I will deliver all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord" (1 Kings 20:28). This expresses clearly that those people believed that spirits and gods had power only over certain limited areas of jurisdiction.

   in the story of Naaman going to Elisha to be healed of leprosy, Naaman is told that he must go to wash in the Jordan where God would cleanse him, and not to the Damascus rivers of Abana and Pharpar which were in the domain of the god Rimnon (2 Kings 5:1-19).

    Another scriptural example of territorial spirits is provided in Daniel 10.  the angel messenger told Daniel that the answer he had been trying to bring in answer to his prayer had been delayed for three weeks because a demonic prince over Persia had detained him.  The messenger said the angel Michael had come to his aid (10:13).  The angel also said that he would have to fight against the demonic princes of Persia and Greece on his return and that he would have only Michael to help him (10:20-21).

   In Mark 5, Jesus met a man who had demons and lived among the tombs.  These spirits in him were called "Legion," for they were many.  "The spirits begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area." (5:10)  They had a lot of power in that particular area because the people raised pigs, contrary to the commands of the Lord.  The demons tried to bargain with Jesus to send them into a herd of pigs, so that they might remain in the area.  We must not think that Jesus complied with their wishes.  He used this incident to show us that demons are real entities, not someone's overactive imagination or cultural superstition.  Only real entities could affect a herd of two thousand pigs enough to drive them into a frenzy down a steep bank on the run into a lake and drown. The pigs desperately wanted to be clean from these filthy spirits and rushed into the water for cleansing. Ironically, the spirits ended up without a place to dwell and probably had to go where the Lord sent them.

   Many missionaries and evangelists have told of encounters with territorial spirits and these accounts are widely documented in dozens of books I have read. Just one of many examples is the firsthand experience of Vernon Sterk, a missionary of the Reformed Church of America to the Tzotzil Indians in Chiapas, Mexico.

   He states, "All of the Tzotzil tribes, with whom we have worked for more than 20 years, can identify specific tribal deities which act as guardian spirits (saints and ancestral gods), and they can also name specific evil spirits that are in charge of the various kinds of evil in their culture... There is a very clearly defined specialization of the roles and evil work of the Tzotzil spirits, but of even more interest in this study, they also have territorial designations and assignments. This is true for both the evil spirits and for the Tzotzil 'guardian spirits.' The ancestral spirits reside in certain mountain peaks. Evil spirits can be contacted by a shaman in certain caves and through specific cross shrines. All of the spirits have geographical limits for their power, even though the reach of the evil spirits seems to be more extensive than that of the guardian or ancestral spirits, whose assigned areas seem very limited. For example, Zinacanteco Indians have often expressed fear of going to lowland cornfields outside of tribal boundaries, because there they don't have the protection of guardian deities but the evil spirits 'travel around and find them.' When Tzotzil Indians become Christians and undergo persecution, they often cite the power of territorial tribal evil spirits as the reason that they cannot continue to live in the tribal area. However, the pressure is a two-edged sword: they fear tribal spirits, but they also experience the threats of physical violence. Again, for the study of the role of territorial spirits in persecution and opposition to the gospel, it is very interesting to notice that the two factors seem to be intertwined. It appears that Tzotzil Christians attribute persecution more to the evil spirits involved than to the people who act it out against them. Probably the most transparent example of the power of territorial spirits in the geographical boundaries of the Tzotzil tribes is seen when a sick person has a chance to go to the home of an evangelical Christian who is living outside of tribal boundaries because of persecution and expulsion. The person who is sick will usually choose to stay at a Christian home, outside of the territory of the tribal evil spirit, until he is completely well. If that person has carried an evil spirit with him or her in his body or her body, the Christians pray in the name of Jesus to cast that spirit out and have it return from where it came. In some cases, territorial spirits seem to be so fixed in a particular house or underground stream that everyone living in the immediate area is affected by sickness, mental illness, or serious attacks. Zinacanteco shamans encourage a family to leave that house or property rather than to even attempt dislodging the spirit from the area. Shamans officially declare the area 'cuxul' (living) and there is great fear in inhabiting this occupied territory."

    In Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, we notice that Lucifer is the power behind both the king of Babylon and the king of Tyre.   Their domains were really his domains.  It brings to mind the offer that the devil made to Jesus when he tempted him in the desert (Luke 4). "The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.  And he said to him, 'I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to.  so if you worship me, it will all be yours.' " (Luke 4:5-7) Jesus did not challenge that statement, because it was true.   Jesus even called him the "prince of this world" in John 12:31.  He rules over the kingdoms and countries working through the rulers and governments. Territorially, Satan is the "prince of this world." (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11) He has organized his kingdom on many levels with his princes serving him to keep the world in bondage.  We cannot allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problem.  We must keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and be obedient to the calling He gives to each of us. 

There is a related theology called Dominion theology which takes this a step further. It's perspective is that when God created the world, he entrusted it to Adam, who lost it to Satan. At that point in time Satan became the 'god of this world,' and the kingdoms of this world and their glory became his possession. Even though God could retake the world easily, his power is limited (by Himself) by moral law. Satan could accuse God of trespassing if He were to intervene directly. Since the government of earth was lost by Adam, a man, only another man could recover it. But since all men have sinned, they are automatically under Satan's dominion. However, the solution was the incarnation of Christ. By being conceived by the Holy Spirit, He is divine and the evil one has no claim on Him. By being born of the virgin Mary, He is a bonafide member of the human race. That is why when Jesus defeated Satan, first in the wilderness and later at Calvary with the resurrection of the second Adam, He was able to take away from Satan, in a potential sense through us, what Satan had stolen from the first Adam. Every time the church (as the representative of the second Adam) prays, it provides the legal and moral justification for God to release His power. God uses the church, His body to take back what the enemy has been squatting on, even though it all ultimately belongs to the Lord. This concept wrongly believes that we are to rule the earth and when we are in control, Christ comes back and we rule the earth with him, rather than be raptured with Christ. This is not Scriptural as we will be raptured with Christ before the millennial reign of Christ.

I think the enemy has created a great amount of confusion for many people of this topic, and other elements of spiritual warfare and has caused division rather than a united effort, skepticism rather than understanding. Proverbs 15:14 states, "The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge." and God himself said "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6). Confusion has been and still is one of Satan's chief weapons of warfare. Where there is idolatry, you'll find the spirit or principality of confusion. Confusion brings spiritual blindness. We are commanded to open the eyes of the blind with the truth of God's Word. "Whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe..." (2 Cor. 4:4). "and to make all people see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ, to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Eph. 3:9-11). In Isaiah's prophecy against idolatrous cities, he predicts this kind of confusion: The city of confusion is broken down; every house is shut up, so that none may go in" (Is. 24:10). "They shall be ashamed and also disgraced, all of them; they shall go into confusion together, who are makers of idols" (Is. 45:16). "Indeed they are all worthless; their works are nothing; their molded images are wind and confusion" (Is. 41:29). When Paul came to Ephesus, perhaps the most idolatrous city he ever ministered to (beside Athens), Scripture says "...the the whole city was filled with confusion, and rushed into the theater with one accord, having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians, Paul's travel companions (Acts 19:29). Remember, "...God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints" (1 Cor. 14:33). May we seek wisdom and understanding from the Lord so that we can be more effective in forcefully advancing the kingdom of God!

I encourage you to do your own research, and in doing so you will be overwhelmed with the testimonies and examples you will find. Territorial spirits are real and they are not just in other countries. They are active here and there are many examples documented, and much research already done on this. I believe understanding and addressing this could help us in our intercession and warfare prayer but I am not sure how the Lord would use it. I don't believe we are called to confront the higher-level spirits directly (Christ and the disciples didn't so why should we?) yet I believe God identifies them at times so we can pray more specifically in warfare prayer. Regardless, we still need to focus on Christ and the example set forth my him and his disciples.