This message was shared by Apostle Kathryn Krick, Lead Pastor/Apostle of 5F Church in Los Angeles, CA, on January 30, 2023. To watch the full video, scroll to the bottom of this post. We pray this teaching blesses you and equips you to walk as a powerful vessel of God. 

There are territories in the spiritual realm. God has given us complete free will, and there are different ways every person can choose of how they will live. Number one: you can choose God’s will, which is to surrender everything to Him, to live completely for Him, and to serve Him. When you choose that, abundant life is your inheritance. You get to enjoy the reward of following Jesus, the inheritance He has given us by dying on the cross, by enduring scourging, and by shedding His blood so you can be healed, delivered, and walk in abundant life! This comes when you make the choice to surrender everything, and really serve Him, not have one foot in and one out, but be fully surrendered. 

Acts 26:17-18, AMP

… to whom I am sending you, to open their [spiritual] eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness and release from their sins and inheritance among those who have been sanctified (set apart, made holy) by faith in Me.

When you turn completely from darkness to light—not keeping a little bit of darkness here and there—but you sanctify yourself, you’re set apart and holy, and that is when you receive an inheritance. Most people are not receiving the inheritance from Jesus—abundant life, healing, freedom, and abundance of peace and joy—because they’re not FULLY surrendered.

Choice number two that all people have on this earth is to be a lukewarm Christian: to have one foot in the world and one foot with God. God gives you free will; He doesn’t force Himself and say, “You have to surrender! What are you doing?” When you live a lukewarm life, there’s a very good chance that you have demons and need freedom. You’re also not going to be doing much for the Kingdom of God, if anything. You won’t be walking in your purpose and you won’t be able to access abundant life.

Then there’s choice number three: to live as a non-believer: an atheist, agnostic, or someone who worships other gods, such as by being Buddhist or Hindu. When you live this way, your life will have demons, and you will be in blindness. When you’re in that place, you are a pawn for the devil; you don’t know you're being used by the devil, but you are a pawn. When you don’t have Jesus, demons can come in easily, looking like anxiety, depression, rage, addiction, and many other things. For example, if you have rage, you will constantly lash out at people. That’s an example of you being a pawn for the enemy, because when you lash out in anger you’re speaking words of death over others, and this is having a spiritual impact. You’re speaking false identity over people, making them insecure, so they don’t see who they are or walk confidently in their purpose.

So there is this spectrum: you can serve God, where you’re doing great exploits for Jesus, advancing the Kingdom, destroying the works of the devil, living your purpose, and walking in abundant life. Or you can be a lukewarm Christian, not doing much, and on top of that you don’t have abundant life. Or you can be an atheist or worship other gods, and in that case you are being a pawn for the enemy and you don’t have abundant life at all—you have demons.

Then there is this last choice that everybody has free will to make: to be a real servant of Satan, to be a witch or a warlock, and to actively do the devil’s work. To practice witchcraft is to put curses on people. Witches are the ones who actually send demons out to people. Just like God uses us to be vessels of the anointing and destroy the works of the devil and cast out demons, the devil also uses vessels; he puts demonic powers in them to be sent out to people.

We all have complete free will; we’re not pressured by God in any way. Many people blame God when they see bad things happening to good people or when they have sickness, tragedy, or early deaths in families and friends, for example. So many people, Christians included, blame God, thinking: “If God is in control, how could He allow this to happen?” This is because most people don’t understand that we have complete free will: to choose who we serve, what we open ourselves up to, which territories we step into, what seeds we sow, and what harvest we’ll reap.

And as a believer, God has given you authority! Yes, God can do anything and He is in control, but many people think God is like a puppeteer—He is not. God gives us free will, which means He chooses to not control! When God created humanity, He placed Adam and Eve, the first humans, and said: “Let them have dominion” (Genesis 1:26). God was giving His authority to humans, so they would have dominion over the earth; this was God’s plan and His will. But Adam and Eve handed over the keys—their dominion—to the devil by giving in to his lies, and they basically said, “You can have our authority,” and the devil got to take the keys.

This is one of the big reasons why the Father sent Jesus: to return and restore the authority that was lost to us as children of God, so that we would have dominion again.

When you become a child of God, a big part of your identity is that you have AUTHORITY. And I will teach what that authority entails, because obviously, even if every believer in the body of Christ confessed at the same time “Devil, you must die! There can be no more works of darkness!” that wouldn’t happen. This is why this teaching is important for you to understand. We are not in heaven yet, where there is no darkness or sickness. On this earth, people have free will. We are here to do works, for God to open eyes through us, to rescue the lost from going to hell—that is why we are here, this is our purpose! For people to see that Jesus exists, loves them, and is their Savior and Lord. So as we are on this earth, the devil is still allowed to exist, people have free will, and people are allowed to do works of darkness.

Luke 10:19, NKJV

Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Jesus said this to His disciples: “I give you authority!” This is how we know we have authority now: Jesus has given it to us! So what does that authority look like?

When you give your life to Jesus, you immediately get authority over the devil; it’s part of your identity. But you have to know this to be able to walk in it, or you become like Adam and Eve: handing the keys over to the devil and not using your authority at all. And that’s what many believers do: they have not received this teaching, and that’s one of the biggest reasons why people don’t access abundant life. Because so much of accessing the abundant life is walking in authority and applying the Word of God daily: reject the devil’s lies, resist the devil. and he will flee from you (James 4:7). Take every thought captive to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).

One of the biggest ways the devil wages war against us is in the mind, sending lies such as “You’re not really free.” This is a scheme of the devil to keep you from walking in abundant life, to keep you stagnant, where you can’t even testify that God has freed you because the devil has convinced you that He has not.
When you give your life to Jesus, you are given authority over your own spiritual life.

All the attacks coming from the devil, most times in your mind—but it can also be in your finances, your children, your ministry, your body—you have authority over all those attacks, over the devil. You can command all the attacks to leave, reject them all and declare God’s truth: “By His stripes, I am healed (Isaiah 53:5). All sickness has to leave. I am healed, thank You Jesus for healing me!” “I have a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7), Every lie of anxiety and depression must go!”

When you wake up from a nightmare, speak: “I reject that dream.” That’s it. That’s what I do, and it works great. Once in a great while the devil tries to come with a nightmare; it’s not often, but when it happens, I reject it. I know it’s just a lie, and I don’t let it disturb me.

A big scheme of the devil is to have you do something sinful in a dream so that you would wake up thinking: “Why would I dream that? I must be bad.”

But instead, you know exactly what the devil is doing. You wake up, reject it, and move on with your day, and the devil has no power. Resist the devil and he must flee. 

This is what happens when you walk in authority. When you declare God’s truth, you’re plowing, prophesying, and taking territory into the abundant life!

Joshua 1:4-8, NIV

Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates, all the Hittite country—to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them. Be strong and very courageous.

In other words: “Be strong against the devil’s schemes, walk in your authority, and claim this territory I have already given you. Don’t shrink back.”

Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

This is the simple way of receiving abundant life: take the Word of God so seriously, meditate on it so you are sharp in the spiritual realm, knowing God’s truth and quickly rejecting every lie of the devil. Then you are able to walk in this authority effectively every day and take the land in the spiritual realm, rather than believing the devil’s sneaky lies because you don’t know the Word of God that much, so you shrink back, stay stagnant or go backwards.

We don’t need to blame God; we need to walk in our authority and take the Word of God seriously. Then we will be prosperous and successful. We will not die, become sick, or be oppressed—we will walk in abundant life! It’s as simple as that.

When you become a believer, you immediately have authority over the devil’s schemes, all the ways he tries to attack your life outwardly. Sometimes a person has demons before or after becoming a believer. They’ve opened doors or there were generational curses in the family that have passed down, and in that case you might not have the level of authority to cast them out of yourself.

Ephesians 6:12

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

This speaks of different levels, principalities being the highest, a prince of a region. “God did extraordinary miracles through Paul” (Acts 19:11). They even brought handkerchiefs and aprons to Paul’s skin and took them to the sick and demon possessed, and the sick were healed and the demons fled. The fact that it says extraordinary and unusual shows us that there are different levels of authority and anointing. When you have anointing, it also means you have authority over demons, darkness, and sickness.

Anointing is rare. It’s rare to see demons cast out in the body of Christ today. God doesn’t give the anointing to everybody. He gives it to those who are humble, childlike, and surrendered, those He can trust. And this doesn’t happen overnight or the moment you give your life to Jesus, God tests you to see if you’re trustworthy. He tests your surrender, humility, childlikeness, and if you’re teachable.
When you pass the test, then God sees He can trust you, and He pours the anointing.

And once God pours out the anointing—it’s not everything all at once, you don’t want to be destroyed by that much power because it comes with so much spiritual attack—you have to be ready and strong against the principalities’ attacks.

God will pour out more anointing as you become more obedient and also according to God’s calling on your life, because not everyone is called to be Apostle Paul or Apostle Peter. 

Jesus says to the disciples, “You cast out demons” (Matthew 10:1). The Bible never says to cast demons out of yourself. Because when you have a demon it’s a literal chain of bondage, and it is only the anointing that destroys the yoke (Isaiah 10:27), so you need a higher level of anointing to cast out that demon and destroy the yoke.

We have all authority over our own spiritual lives, but I am speaking about outward attacks. That is why it’s so important that the church carries the power of God. God is restoring the Acts church now, so that what we see in the Acts church, we will see now: when people need freedom and healing, they can come to the church where there is high-level authority and anointing, and without much struggle, they can be set free!

That is what happened with Peter: people brought the sick and demon-possessed near him, and as his shadow touched the people, the demons fled and the sick were healed!

This shows that Peter had high level anointing and authority. There was no struggle because the power and authority were so strong that simply being near him, darkness had to obey that authority.

There are certain places that are our territory, our domain, in the spiritual realm. First of all, your territory is your own spiritual life, to constantly walk in authority over every attack that comes your way. You also have spiritual authority in your house, and if your children are having attacks, you can rebuke those attacks.

If your children have demons, you should come to the church where the power of God is, and they can be set free simply by coming there. But you have authority over the outward attacks, and if you have grown in the anointing, you can cast demons out of your children—it depends on the level of demonic power and your level of anointing.

The great commission God has given all of us is to preach the gospel, heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead, and cleanse the lepers (Matthew 10:7-8). That’s not just for the “spiritual elite,” the twelve original apostles, just me, or other fivefold ministers—this commission is for everyone of you. We all have different callings according to God’s perfect purpose, but we are all called to be vessels of God’s power!

Some are called to be fivefold ministers who lead churches or ministries. But many of you are called to have your own territory and minister there: in your home, workplace, and where you are interacting with people: in public places and among friends.

God has given us authority, so as an Apostle and the leader of Five-Fold Church, this would be my territory and domain in the spiritual realm. That is why demons tremble here. Just like with Apostle Peter, the reason why everyone was healed had nothing to do with one on one prayer, screaming: “Demons go!” or laying hands on people, but it was all about the authority that Peter was walking in. 

So as we conduct church here, the mandate is for God's will to be done, for demons to go, for the sick to be healed and all darkness to go. Because that is my confession, my heart, and my covenant with God. The demons and the devil know that, so I don’t even have to say “Demons go,” but I am walking in my authority knowing this is my territory where these things must happen.

When you come to this church and you have demons, sickness, or strongholds in your life, you make the choice to submit everything within you in the spiritual realm, to the authority of Christ. It’s an action of surrender to Jesus; you are giving your free will to be here for God to have His way, that’s what is going on in the spiritual realm, and that’s why some demons tremble immediately.

But you have to come with the right heart, not like a rock which can be in a stream but the water doesn’t penetrate it. When you come with a heart that says “I want God’s will to be done here. I want to be free,”  that’s the action of submitting yourself, and the demons, sickness, and darkness have to submit and obey—it’s a principle!

It’s exciting to come to church, we should never miss out on it! You can know God’s will is going to be done in your life because you are coming to His territory! 

This example would apply to you too if you have a church or are a guest speaker somewhere: the moment you are speaking, you have the authority there. 

It’s very important we understand authority. Many Christians try to pray for people but don’t see much result because they don’t understand authority. Demons are not going to respect you if you are not walking in authority—it’s the authority that makes them go! That is why there is this order at 5F Church; we don’t have many people praying for others all the time, because that’s not how authority works. In the spiritual realm, God has given me the territory here, and the demons will obey the most when we all respect that order. Otherwise, there is chaos; it’s a kingdom divided, which cannot stand.

So you are coming to Five-Fold Church for God’s will to be done in your life; it’s a place for you to receive, to be healed, delivered, and filled up; to receive impartation and be equipped so you can walk in your territory and domain and minister to others.

If you are not a minister, your authority would be your home, your children, and whenever people give you their free will to minister to them. It can look different; if you lead a Bible study or prayer group for example, that would be your territory.

But besides that, God has called you to minister to people all throughout your life: in the public, at your workplace, among friends. You will come across many different people in your life, and God is calling you to minister to those who will give you their free will.

God never forces Himself on people, and He does not want us to either. This is very important, because when you step outside of your territory, it opens a door to the devil, and to attacks. You have to respect people’s free will.

So we should be the greatest light we can, full of God’s love everywhere we go, oozing His love, shining the brightest we can! We are called to be the city on a hill (Matthew 5:14). We are called to be so enticing, so full of love that we catch people’s attention with how we treat them with kindness when they didn’t deserve it, we catch people’s attention who observe: “Wow, that person was mean to you but you were kind back.”

We catch people’s attention when we are full of peace when we should be filled with anxiety and depression. We catch people’s attention when we smile at them. This is being the light of the world!

When you are truly the light of the world, people can’t help but be attracted. God is pursuing them, and one of the biggest ways He pursues people is through you. People feel that tug of God pursuing them, so eventually you will catch a fish; someone will come to you and submit themselves to your territory. Somebody will come and start a conversation with you: “What is it about you, why do you have so much peace? I’m filled with anxiety all the time.”

People feel in their heart they want to open up to you because they feel loved and safe, they feel Jesus—and they don’t know what it is yet. So you continue to love them, and once they open up they may get to the point where they say: “I need help.” And you can start telling them about God, sharing your testimony how God freed you, and how He wants to free them. You can even say: “I can pray for you, and God can free you right now. Do you want that?” Or they may ask you, “Could you pray for me?”

That is your territory. They have just stepped into your territory, your domain, where you truly have authority. That is how you know where your territory is, where you can minister to people, command demons and sickness to go, and God can release prophetic words through you.

But it’s important to not step out of your territory. I know we can get very zealous, thinking: “People need Jesus!” But we have to be very careful to not step out of our territory because that opens us up to demonic attacks.

We should love people and be the light rather than going on the streets to the homeless and shouting: “Demon, come out!” I know it’s hard because sometimes people are not in their right mind, but it’s still free will. Instead, it’s a good time to invite them to church and see if they will come, because then they are submitting themselves.

I travel on airplanes frequently, and there are demons everywhere, but I cannot stand up and say, “I command every demon on this plane in every person to leave now!” It’s not my territory there; people have free will. Some people on that plane want to serve the devil; some people want to be atheists or worship other gods, and I can’t force them. But I can be the light. I can be so kind and friendly to everybody who comes my way: the flight attendants, the people on the plane, those sitting next to me. I can smile, and they might feel they want to ask me something or strike up a conversation, and that can lead to me blessing them, praying for them, maybe casting out a demon on the plane.

But we need to be in our territory. This is a warning: stepping out of your territory is opening yourself to demonic attacks. That’s why it’s important that there is order here at 5F Church, because if you are stepping out of your own territory and into another servant of Christ’s territory, it’s opening up doors to demons because you’re going out of the order. 

There is also the devil’s territory. The devil is allowed to do certain things on this earth, and this is how there are demons everywhere, because the devil is doing works. He has servants, witches and warlocks, putting curses and sending demons to people. The devil’s territory is where his work is carried out, where his true servants, witches and warlocks, are all united, serving the devil, and doing his work in their free will. We are not called to go into the devil’s territory. We are called to be separate, set apart, to be light and not mix with the darkness. 

1 Thessalonians 5:5, NKJV

You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night.

You are all sons and daughters of light and of day. So we need to use wisdom, knowing where our territory is, and where we are effective for the kingdom.

Sometimes you might think: “I’m going to go into this darkness to be the light!” But in reality, you’re going into the devil’s territory, and it’s every person's free will there to serve the devil.

You can be so effective in your actual territory. Your territory is really big, not just where you can minister to people, cast out demons, and heal the sick, but also where you are the light and draw people in, either for you or someone else to minister to them. Our main focus should be to be the light, to bring the fish in, and to let God do His work. 

We are the city on a hill. Your place to be the light is big. It should be a neutral space. For example, being in a park is a neutral space—it’s not a Masonic temple or a Satanist building, but it’s a neutral space where we can be a light for people who have free will.

Some people walking by are going to get their Halloween costumes; that’s their free will. Some are on their way to a psychic or to be a psychic; that’s their free will. But some people walk by church in the park and they feel something as they walk by, and God has been pursuing them, and because we are spreading our light in our territory, where anybody can be reached, they are attracted and they come and receive Jesus.

So your place to shine should be neutral ground, like social media. You can post testimonies of what God’s doing at 5F Church for example; you’re sharing it to everybody but you’re letting people have free will; you’re not forcing it.

You talk about your testimony at work. You don’t force it, but you talk freely when they are open to it. There are so many places for you to shine, to be effective, and to be in a place of spiritual safety, protected. Because when you are in your territory, you are protected by God.

For example, I’m not going to knock on the door of a psychic and say, “You need freedom, I’d like to cast demons out of you.” It’s their free will. The psychic is actively serving the devil, and that’s technically the devil’s territory. Psychics put demons in people, and witch doctors send demons to people. For psychics, it’s a demon telling them things, a familiar spirit who follows the person and knows details about their life. That’s how the psychic gets their powers, from a demon giving them insight, and then they send the demons to the people who come to them.

So when you go to a psychic or a witch doctor, that’s you entering the devil’s territory.
That’s why so many people come to church and renounce going to a witch doctor, a healer that wasn’t of Jesus, or practices like Santeria or psychic readings. Every time, they get demons from doing these things, even if they are a believer, because they stepped into the devil’s territory. We can’t blame God; we have free will. When you step into the devil’s territory, he can do works there.

There are many ways we could not walk in wisdom. For example, somebody could think, “I’m going to watch a horror movie and just pray over everyone watching, that they won’t receive a demon.” But you’ve actually stepped into the devil’s territory as you’re watching and you’re allowing him to put demons of fear in you.

This principle is an example of ways that Christians are not walking in wisdom. They could think, “I want to bring the light there!” But they’re actually going to the devil’s territory where people have free will to serve the devil. To go there is not your territory; we have to be separate from that, to stay away from that. This also includes going to dark parties, Halloween parties, or clubs. You don’t have to go there to minister. The same people who go to those places are also going to grocery stores, they’re walking by you on the street; be the light there! Be separate, be set apart!

This is why it’s not good to take part in Halloween. The day came from the devil; he is the source and spirit behind it, so it becomes his territory. Everything is influenced by him: the ghosts, skeletons, witches, all of it. So there’s real territory there. When you engage in that, you’re entering unsafe territory. Sometimes nothing happens, but other times a demon of anxiety could come into a child, for example.

During my first year in ministry, I was still working part-time. I was a nanny to a twelve-year-old boy, and we were driving down Sunset Boulevard. The boy saw a scary movie on a billboard; it was a sequel to a movie he had seen as a child as his parents were watching it. As we drove by the billboard, he started freaking out; he covered his eyes and said: “Tell me when we pass the billboard!” I asked him what happened, and he explained.

When you watch a horror movie or go to a place where there is fear or death, this is the devil’s territory. This is a place where you’re using your free will to go into his territory and where the devil could do things: put demons, bring fear, darkness, anxiety, or death.

There was a horrible tragedy recently in Seoul, South Korea, where more than a hundred people died in a stampede at a huge Halloween celebration. People had come from Australia, Dubai, and many different nations; it’s one of the biggest Halloween celebrations in Asia. The alleys were narrow, and too many people were there, so people suffocated and were trampled. Most of them were in their teens and twenties.

I speak blessing, peace, and comfort of God to all family members who lost someone, and I pray God would open their eyes and that they would receive Jesus and be comforted by Him.

This tragedy reminded me of the Travis Scott concert in Houston, Texas. The same kind of thing happened, it was such a demonic concert—they showed images on the news—and I had never seen such demonic themes. Many secular singers are in the darkness, but not so blatantly dark images as this—it looked like worshipping the devil, but this is one of the biggest pop artists. And a very similar thing happened where all of a sudden there were so many people trying to rush the stage and get closer, and several people died, young people once again.

These tragedies are not a coincidence. You scratch your head and wonder, “How could that even happen? It doesn’t make sense.” There’s not a coincidence why we see these kinds of tragic deaths in these scenarios; things that are so dark like this is the devil’s territory, where people open themselves up to receive his works upon their lives. There’s no coincidence that it was a Halloween celebration.

It’s important for us to know that the demonic spiritual realm is real; witches are real, and they are doing works. The devil tells these witches that they need to make human sacrifices, and it’s all in the spiritual realm, so they allow people to die, maybe at their events. They allow things to happen. This is why it’s so important to know: don’t play around with this. Don’t step into the devil’s territory, the protection of God isn’t there. And we don’t blame God—we have free will!

Because of these tragedies, what happened in Seoul, at the Travis Scott concert, during Covid, and other things, people in the world live in fear. They live thinking: “Something bad could happen to me! It happens randomly to people; I could just die.”

We as children of God do not live in fear, because our spiritual eyes are open. We know that we have the protection of God when we follow His commands, when we walk in our authority, when we take it seriously and don’t sleep spiritually. We stay away from the things of darkness; we don’t mess around with it. We don’t give a tiny foothold to the devil, but we’re serious about our surrender to Jesus and about pleasing Him every day of our lives. When you do that, you are in God's hands where you are protected fully. You are protected more than any vaccine, mask, or anything on this earth could protect you. It’s a supernatural protection! 

We don’t live in fear because not only are we in God’s protection, but we know that God put us on this earth for a reason. We would all love to go to heaven right now, but we know that we have an assignment here, to reach the lost so they don’t go to hell, and to lead them to Jesus!
God wants us here, or He would have created us to live in heaven with Him. God wants us here so His people can be saved, He wants all of us to live a long life serving Him.

So we can live without fear. We can live confidently, knowing, “There’s nothing to fear. God wants me here. Nothing bad is going to happen to me. Anything that comes my way will only be God refining me in the fire to make me better. I have nothing to fear!” Every day we can live in this peace and joy and not worry, thinking, “Am I opening a door?” You’ve come to church; you’re equipped, your eyes are opened up; so you know not to step into the devil’s territory, you say no to that. 

Our God is so good! He has really given us abundant life, protection, peace, joy, healing, and freedom!

Thank You, Jesus! Praise God!