Interview with Pastor Ken Schaap

• Ken Schaap defines the spiritual realm as a creation-order reality: humans are body, soul and spirit, awareness of the spirit world was dimmed at the fall, and after a cosmic rebellion there is a "third heaven" where God reigns and a "second heaven" from which Satan and his principalities rule with authority given largely by man.
• He attributes pushback against the spiritual realm — often from church people and pastors more than from the unsaved — to ignorance and fear, and argues it is both biblically and historically ignorant, since Paul writes to post-ascension churches about principalities and figures like John Knox, John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards and Blumhardt all dealt with demonic manifestation.
• Both kingdoms operate the same way, through words that are believed: received words of God are engrafted and bear life-giving fruit, while believed lies are seeds that bear toxic fruit and propel a person toward the outcome of the lie — though Ken is clear the person is still accountable for choosing to believe it.
• The demonic has military-style ranks; a principality is assigned a geographical region much like a municipality, demons gain authority when a person invites them, and because the kingdom of darkness is displaced it seeks a person or place to inhabit — including attachment to objects and artifacts, which Ken illustrates with the figurines and shaman-staff stories.
• Authority lost by Adam and Eve was won back by Jesus and flows down through covenant — marriage, children, and the local church — so a husband should delegate authority to his wife or oldest child when he leaves, and believers need a covenant covering (James 5's elders) to operate in full spiritual authority.
• Ken names fear and bitterness as the two footholds that open doors to the enemy: bitterness is anger left to spoil overnight (Ephesians 4), and fear warps identity and drives foolish moral and financial decisions, including fear-based religious tradition.
• The heart is the battlefield and has five compartments — mind, will, emotions, memories, imagination — each attacked differently; ministry must lay the axe to the root rather than manage the fruit through behavior modification, and Ken says confidence in Christ, not fear, is what makes walking in authority safe, including knowing its limits.

Take it further

1. Ken says the two kingdoms both operate through words that are believed. What words — from God or from the enemy — have you been living off of lately, and what fruit are they producing?
2. He names fear and bitterness as the two main footholds. Where in your own life might anger have been "left out overnight," and what would resolving it look like this week?
3. Authority in the episode flows through covenant — marriage, family and the local church. Who are you actually in covenant with, and what does having (or lacking) that covering look like practically?
4. Ken describes five compartments of the heart: mind, will, emotions, memories and imagination. Which of the five do you think the enemy has had the most access to in your life, and which has received the least attention from Jesus?
5. He distinguishes managing the fruit through behavior modification from laying the axe to the root. Where have you been picking up apples instead of dealing with the tree?
6. Ken says walking in authority without fear requires knowing the limits of that authority. Where have you tried to exercise authority you were not given — for example, judging people you are not in covenant with?