Territory (3) Expanding

When some more people in the neighbourhood have chosen to follow Jesus, and once they have cleared out all evil spirits, and established strong spiritual protection over the territory, they can send two or three of their number out to a new piece of territory close by and repeat the process to establish another spiritual stronghold.

If three or four families who are united by their love of Jesus and empowered by the Spirit move to a place, they can establish another Kingdom Community. By living in a cluster of dwellings, they can drive out the spiritual powers of evil that control that vicinity. They can stand together against the attacks of the enemy and establish another place where Jesus has authority. If one family had moved there on their own, they might struggle, because the powers of evil could concentrate to pick them off.

When a group of people who are united in love and empowered by the spirit live in the same place, they can expand the territory that belongs to Jesus. A few different groups of believers living close together in the same general area, united by love and submitted to Jesus can resist the spiritual powers of evil and force them to flee some territory.

The spiritual powers of evil always take the easy option, so they withdraw from areas where the Holy Spirit is strong (James 4:7). When follows of Jesus have established territory that belongs to Jesus, the gospel advance gets easier, because the opposition gets weaker. As more and more people choose to follow Jesus the territory that belongs to him gets larger. The evil-spirit-free zone gets bigger too.