Destroying the Spirit of Poverty. Jane Turner

itself to his life. Walter ran his own landscape, irrigation and maintenance business. We started realizing that many times after securing a landscape or irrigation contract with a customer, Walter would get a call a few days later and the customer had changed his mind. Or Walter would plant trees in a customer’s yard and the customer would call in a few weeks saying the trees were dead. Walter would have to replace them at his expense.

      We endured circumstance after circumstance like this and it began to set up strongholds of hopelessness, lack, and failure in Walter’s mind. He began to look shabby in his appearance. He saw himself as the tail and not the head, beneath and not above. Walter could not see himself as a successful businessman. This is how a spirit of poverty will use circumstances in people’s lives to set up strongholds (or wrong thoughts) in their minds.

      At the same time, I was a chronic worrier. I worried about finances constantly. God has said in His Word to cast our cares upon Him, because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). Jesus told us not to worry about our lives, what we would eat, drink, or wear. If we are worried and full of care about our finances, then God’s hands are tied because we have taken possession of the problem. We have to release the problem and all our care and worry over to God.

      God spoke this word clearly to me, “When you pray a prayer, release the care!” We began to seek God for wisdom and understanding, and I asked Him to set me free from worry. I received by faith that God was going to do this for me, according to Mark 11:24 which says, “Therefore, I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them and you will have them.” He truly did set me free, and with that release, God began to move on our behalf. Kenneth Hagin’s book, Casting Your Cares on the Lord, helped me immensely in overcoming worry.

      Slowly we began to realize that we were dealing with a demonic attack on our finances. We began to fast and pray, and we experienced a temporary breakthrough. However, we were not consistent with our fasting and praying, and within a short time we were encountering the demonic assault on our finances again. We made the decision to break this demonic assignment over us once and for all. We got just as serious in our fasting and praying as the devil was about stealing our financial resources. We earnestly began seeking God through prayer and fasting to find out specifically what we were dealing with in the spirit realm and what it would take to break it. We wanted to know how many days and how many meals we should fast before the Lord.

      While fasting and praying to God with those specific questions, He showed us that a spirit of poverty had set up strongholds, not only in our minds through wrong thought patterns, but also in the heavenly realm. When we fasted and prayed sporadically, an angel would break through and we would see temporary relief. However, until we began to see ourselves as God saw us (which would change our thinking), and until we completely broke that stronghold of poverty in the heavenly realm (or spirit realm) that had been blocking our blessings, we would only have temporary relief from the problem. God showed us that if we were to suddenly receive a million dollars, a spirit of poverty would steal it from us if we did not fight the battle necessary to remove that spirit of poverty from our lives permanently.

      God gave us our steps to victory as three phases of warfare that would defeat the spirit of poverty that had been stealing our financial resources.

      Phase 1: Tear down the enemy’s stronghold

      Fast and pray for a specific number of days and number of meals

      Phase 2: Cut the giant’s head off

      Speaking God’s Word over yourself and your financial situation, binding and rebuking the spirit of poverty, until you get a release from God

      Phase 3: Stay free

      Continually give praise and thanksgiving to God, confessing His Word