I want to briefly touch on protocols. The spirit realm operates based on rank and protocol. Rank is attained by promotion based on stewardship of the call. Protocol is based on understanding spiritual law and principles at work and how to engage them. Even demonic forces understand these protocols and principles, perhaps more than most believers. The same spiritual laws of approach and engagement, they must also follow. Many times, the enemy does not seem to give way and it is because they test us to see if we truly know the principle or protocol. Sometimes we might be violating a principle by implementing it wrong or for the wrong motive. When we violate spiritual protocol, we may not get the desired results and may have results we were not intending.

Here is the definition of a protocol:

Protocol = the official procedure or system of rules governing affairs of state or diplomatic occasions. The original draft of a diplomatic document, especially of the terms of a treaty agreed to in conference and signed by the parties.

It is really an official agreement of how things are to be done governmentally. Men were given protocols that we read right past and do not recognize. God told Moses: Take off your shoes for this is Holy Ground… a protocol. Jesus said, ‘when you pray believe and you will receive ‘…. a protocol. David said ‘who can ascend but he who has clean hands and a pure heart’… a protocol. What Jesus did was reset the true protocols in place again, erasing the laws men had created to control and bring grace to understand how the spiritual realms work. Jesus’ whole life was a model of engagement of protocols for every need of mankind. 

There are protocols in the Body of Christ, especially how we gather in our own individual church houses. We have protocols of how things are to be done in a service. We also have protocols of how we assign leaders and how we receive prophetic words, and how they are to be delivered. We have protocols concerning involvement in the worship team and protocols how we do altar ministry. We expect those to be followed to be able to have the desired results. The protocols of the spiritual realm in heaven are no different. They are a guiding outline that God himself has determined would not be violated. These protocols have been given to maintain order, set boundaries, and to allow freedom to be walked out in the midst of the atmosphere these protocols have created.

1 Corinthians 14:40 Let all things be done decently and in order.

‘Order’ here means an arrangement, a fixed succession, observing a fixed time, observing a fixed orderly condition, the rank you hold in civic affairs. It comes from a root word meaning a certain order, a certain arrangement, something assigned, placed, and appointed. Something that has mutual agreement. Paul was saying it was not just a casual thing of having an order but actually had substance to why it exists and the outcome it could produce. Paul was telling the Corinthians that there was a way of doing things. It also refers to the unseen that there is an incorrect way of doing things. We can see this brought out as he addressed the Corinthian Church in how they did certain things.

There are protocols that cover almost all areas of life and godliness. There are protocols for how we have relationships with each other and should be conducting ourselves in honor, one towards another. The Bible in Matthew 18, very clearly spells out a protocol for correction and addressing issues in the Body of Christ. This one is seldom seen and even understood. There are protocols of how we are to teach and instruct and to build and develop people. There are protocols of how to deal with demonic forces and powers. There are protocols on how to administrate healing and deliverance to people’s lives. And yes, there are protocols of how to access eternal realms and the heavenly realms themselves. Some of these are interactions upon Earth. Some are interactions in corporate gatherings. Some are interactions in spiritual plains or dimensions.

Demonic forces recognize authority and observe protocols as well. They are “subject” to protocols. The protocol that they are subject to is the Name of Jesus. The second one is our faith and our understanding of the principles and protocols of God found in His Word. The third one is our position that we have been given and the assignment that we have on the Earth. They are all things that Adam had in the Garden of Eden. Then when the Last Adam came, He restored our authority to not just engage in some spiritual promises, but to understand the spiritual protocols and principles by which all things must submit. The deeper you go in your understanding that the spiritual realm is more real than the realm of the earth, you come to a conclusion about what your authority really is and how far reaching it can go. You also will discover for yourself how the spiritual realms operate and the protocols that exist.