CHAPTER 7
REMITTING THE SINS OF NATIONS
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a necessary starting point.
I agree with Frangipane’s response: “The scriptural posi- tion is not only that we have authority to war against these powers of darkness, but we have the responsibility to do so as well!” He also uses a play on words that may stick in our minds: “If we do not pray against our spiritual enemies, they will, indeed, prey upon us.”1
Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation
Many raise questions about the appropriateness of tak- ing the spiritual offensive against principalities and powers because of the Bible’s teaching that they have already been defeated. We are told that on the cross Jesus “disarmed prin- cipalities and powers [and] made a public spectacle of them...”
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(Col. 2:15). If they have been defeated, who are we to think that we can add to Jesus’ work on the cross?
Nothing, of course, can be added to the blood of Jesus shed on the cross. His sacrifice was made once and for all. Satan has been defeated. Jesus has overcome the world. The outcome of the war is no longer in doubt. But meanwhile we are engaged in mop-up operations. The Kingdom of God is here, and we are a part of it, but it will not arrive in its fullness until Jesus’ second coming. Then, and only then, will satan be cast into a bottomless pit and finally into the lake of fire (see Rev. 20:1-3,10). Until then he is the prince of the power of the air, although a defeated prince who is constantly being pushed back as the Gospel spreads throughout the world.
In order to understand this, let’s think of Abraham Lin- coln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which went into effect on January 1, 1863, 146 years ago. From 1863 on, black Americans have been free and have been granted full citizenship and social equality with all other Americans. No one questions the legality of the Emancipation Proclamation. All the authority of the federal government of the United States of America stands behind it.
Virtually all Americans, however, recognize and are embarrassed that today African Americans as a social unit do not actually enjoy full social equality alongside other Ameri- cans. It has taken time to implement in practice what was done legally once and for all by President Lincoln’s signature. For many years life did not change at all for multitudes of blacks on southern plantations. It took almost 100 years for some states as a whole to get rid of Jim Crow laws, which pre- vented blacks from voting, kept them out of certain restau- rants, and sat them at the back of busses.
It required the burning of urban ghettos in the 1960s to force America to begin to realize that the Emancipation Procla - mation needed to be implemented yet more thoroughly. Civil
rights leaders and social planners alike are realistic enough to know that only through strenuous and conscientious effort on the part of all Americans will our social situation ever be brought in line with the full legal intent of the Emancipation Proclamation. How long that will take is anyone’s guess.
Meanwhile, I myself want to be counted among those Americans who are striving right now to see complete equal- ity and social justice for African Americans as well as for all other minority groups. The war for liberation was won in 1863, but I also want to be part of winning the mop-up battles for civil rights in the 1990s.
Jesus’ death on the cross was the emancipation proclama- tion for the human race. However, 2,000 years later multitudes are not yet saved and huge segments of the world’s peoples live in social disaster areas. Just as I want to see victims of social injustice in our nation receive their rightful freedom, so I also want to see victims of satanic oppression around the world freed from satan’s evil grasp.
In order to do either, however, it is not enough to look back to legitimate legal transactions made 146 or 2,000 years ago. Evil is too great and too aggressive. Tom White of Front- line Ministries says, “Too often the church is re-active in responding to this flood. But the role of the redeemed is to be courageously pro-active in devising and implementing strate- gies that penetrate and weaken the influence of evil.”2
Satan’s Lust for the Nations
One of the things God used to impress Cindy Jacobs to establish her ministry, Generals of Intercession, was the real- ization that Christians desperately need a strategy. She says, “It became clear that the enemy has a strategy for every nation and ministry.”3
The Scriptures are quite clear that satan has a lust for power over nations. In Revelation 20 we read that satan will
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I have previously mentioned the harlot who controls peo- ples, multitudes, nations, and tongues (see Rev. 17:15). When the evil city of Babylon is thrown down, one of the great cries of rejoicing is that no longer by her sorceries would all the nations be deceived (see Rev. 18:23).
The reason I say satan “lusts” for this power over nations is that more than once we are told that the evil spirit called the harlot commits fornication with political rulers who have authority over nations (see Rev. 17:2; 18:3). Even if the fornica- tion is to be understood figuratively, it connotes nothing less than lust.
These nations satan desires to control are the same king- doms he offered to Jesus at the temptation in the wilderness.
And they are the same nations to which Jesus refers in the Great Commission: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...” (Matt. 28:19). Jesus commands us to move out in His authority to retake the nations satan has under his dominion. No wonder we find ourselves in spiritual warfare when we seriously engage in world evangelization. We are
threatening satan at a very sensitive and emotional point. We are taking from him his lovers.
Recognizing the Enemy’s Strongholds
How does satan, or the territorial spirits he assigns to nations, achieve control? Gwen Shaw, who has long been rec- ognized as a leading strategic-level intercessor, says, “The rul- ing spirits have no authority to move into an area without permission. Certain conditions give them authority to set up the base of their kingdom from whence they rule over the peo- ple in that area.”4 These conditions are frequently referred to as “strongholds.” George Otis, Jr., describes strongholds as “nothing less than satanic command and control centers.”5
Cindy Jacobs argues that the “legal entrances which have allowed Satan to establish the strongholds in the first place” can be seen as the “gates of the city.” She points out that in biblical times city gates were “symbols of authority,” places where the elders sat to discuss the welfare of the city.6
Those who are active in ministries of ground-level spiri- tual warfare know that frequently demons find entrance points into individuals through trauma, sexual abuse, abor- tion, curses, substance addiction, the occult, or any number of other footholds. In many such cases, inner healing is necessary for effective deliverance. Charles Kraft says that many people give satan grounds by “hanging onto such emotions as bitter- ness, unforgiveness, desire for revenge, fear, and the like.” He goes on to add, “I believe that there is no problem that a per- son has with an evil spirit that is not tied to some inner prob- lem.”7 I have heard Kraft say several times that demons are like rats that feed on garbage. Remove the garbage and the rats are relatively easy to kick out!
A similar phenomenon frequently prevails in strategic-level spiritual warfare. Nations as a whole can harbor “garbage” that needs to be cleaned up before principalities and powers can be
weakened. It is quite possible, for example, that the shameful way early American settlers treated many Native Americans has provided a number of significant historical strongholds for the demonic forces presently at work attempting to tear Ameri- can society apart. This may be one of the reasons why demonic activity is commonly found to be especially powerful in and around some Native American burial grounds.
Gwen Shaw lists 14 such national or city strongholds that have turned up with some regularity in her years of ministry on strategic-level intercession. They include idolatry; pagan temples; shedding of innocent blood such as through murder, abortion, or war; witchcraft; mind control; removal of prayer from schools; sexual perversion; substance abuse; fighting and hatred; occult objects; questionable toys; perverted media; relationships and uncontrolled emotions.8 The list could be extended almost ad infinitum, but this suffices as a represen- tative sample of national strongholds that may need to be dealt with before certain territorial spirits can be conquered.
Remitting the Sins
Suppose demonic strongholds actually exist in a nation or a city, affecting society in general and resistance to the Gospel in particular. What can be done about it?
Just as in the case of demonized individuals, if sin is pres- ent, repentance is called for; if curses are in effect, they need to be broken; if emotional scars are causing pain, inner healing is needed.
We know from the Old Testament that nations can be guilty of corporate sins. This was not only true of Gentile nations, but of Israel as well. Both Nehemiah and Daniel give us examples of godly persons who felt the burden for the sins of their nations.
Hearing that Jerusalem’s wall was broken down and its gates consumed with fire, Nehemiah wept, fasted, and
prayed. He confessed the sins of the children of Israel in gen- eral, seeking to remit the sins of the entire nation. He said, “...Both my father’s house and I have sinned” (Neh. 1:6). Here is an example of one person, under an anointing of God, mean- ingfully confessing the sins of an entire nation. This is a com- ponent of strategic-level spiritual warfare. His prayers obviously had some effect, and God opened doors that only His power could open for the walls and the city to be rebuilt.
Daniel, through reading Scripture, came to realize that Israel’s 70 years of captivity were coming to an end. So he went before the Lord in “prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes” (Dan. 9:3). He confessed the sins of his people in detail saying, “Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice...” (Dan. 9:11). Later he said he had confessed “my sin and the sin of my people” (Dan. 9:20).
It is important to note that both Nehemiah and Daniel, while they were standing before God on behalf of their entire nation, confessed not only the corporate sins of their people, but also their individual sins. Those who remit the sins of nations must not fail to identify personally with the sins that were or are being committed even though they might not per- sonally be as guilty of them as some other sins.
Argentina and Australia
In his book Taking Our Cities for God, John Dawson gives some specific examples of remitting the sins of nations. In Cor- doba, Argentina, in 1978, for example, Dawson and some fel- low Youth With a Mission workers were frustrated at the indifference of the people to their message. Through prayer and fasting they discerned that one of the principalities ruling the city was pride. So they confessed their own pride and humbled themselves by kneeling to pray on the sidewalks of some of Cordoba’s busy downtown areas. With that a harvest of souls began. Dawson says, “The people were so receptive
that they would wait patiently in line for us personally to autograph our gospel tracts.”9
Dawson also tells of attending a prayer meeting of some 15,000 in Sydney, Australia, in 1979. He speaks of the social psychology of Australia as frequently characterized by a sense of rejection and injustice. Then he tells of a spiritual release that came over the people there “when one leader led the crowd to extend forgiveness toward Britain for the injustice suffered by their forefathers in the establishment of Australia as a penal settlement.”10 This is a case of remitting the sins of a nation, and Dawson is able to report great blessing coming to the churches of Australia subsequent to the event.
But once again in remitting the sins of nations, Dawson agrees with Nehemiah and Daniel, that “we must identify with the sins of the city.” He says, “You may be a righteous person who is not involved in any direct way with the vices present in your city.” But he feels we must move beyond that. “We can all identify with the roots of any given sin.”11
The Challenge of Japan
I never really understood what Nehemiah and Daniel did until I went to Japan in the summer of 1990. I have been visit- ing Japan quite frequently in recent years because I have felt God giving me a special burden for Japan, along with Argentina, as a nation where He wants both to use me and teach me in these days.
Several of my visits to Japan have been with David Yonggi Cho, for I have joined him in his vision for 10 million Japanese Christians by the year 2000. Frankly, I am somewhat surprised at myself for putting such a goal in print. I always teach my students in church growth classes that setting goals is impor- tant, but setting unrealistic goals is a serious mistake. In the natural, nothing is realistic about expecting 10 million Japan- ese Christians by the year 2000 when our base in 1991 is only
1 million at the most, and probably only one third of them truly committed Christians. David Yonggi Cho has more com- mitted Christians in his local congregation in Seoul, South Korea, than can be found in the whole nation of Japan.
Although there is little or no hope for this in the natural, in the spiritual I have sincere faith that it will be a reality. I do not know the details of how God will bring this to pass, but I am as sure as I can be that the essence will be some kind of a spiritual battle—strategic-level spiritual warfare that will dra- matically increase the receptivity of the Japanese people to the Gospel. Political scientists were surprised and even baffled by the rapid collapse of the Iron Curtain. I believe something equally dramatic and equally swift can happen to the spiritual atmosphere of Japan. If it does, the projected 10 million can come into the Kingdom in a relatively short period of time. A large number of Japanese say that if they ever had to choose a religion they would choose Christianity.
The Demonization of a Nation
As I was planning to go to Tokyo in the summer of 1990, I became deeply disturbed by the plans being laid for the new Emperor Akihito to go through with the Daijosai ceremony November 22-23. This ancient Shinto ritual, in a word, openly invites the demonization of an entire nation. In it, the new emperor eats ceremonial rice chosen for him through witch- craft and keeps a personal rendezvous with the highest territo- rial spirit over the nation, the sun goddess, amaterasu omikami. On a special straw throne, called by some a “god bed,” he reportedly engages in either literal or symbolic sexual inter- course with the sun goddess. Through this they become one flesh, and traditionally the emperor is then regarded as a god and becomes an object of worship. As the human embodiment of the Japanese people as a whole, the emperor performs this occultic ritual on behalf of the entire nation.
When I went to Japan in August, a few months previous to the Daijosai, I, along with many others, called for fervent prayer and fasting that the emperor would exercise his prerogative of not going through with the occult ceremony. I, of course, did not know then that my worst fears would be realized and that it would actually happen as planned in November.
Two days before I left for Japan, I spoke to a group at the great Congress on the Holy Spirit and World Evangelization in the Indianapolis Hoosier Dome. I challenged the people to pray for the 10 million Christians in Japan over the next few years and to pray against the evil spiritual activity associated with the projected Daijosai ceremony. When I finished, the leader of the meeting invited Cindy Jacobs to come forward and to pray for me and for Japan.
A Prophetic Prayer
Cindy prayed a prophetic prayer, which I am going to record in its entirety:
Lord, I thank You that You are sending Peter Wagner to Japan. Father, it was the American people who caused great devastation when they dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Lord, I thank You that You are sending back an American to undo the atrocity of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Father, Peter will be used like a nuclear bomb in the Spirit to break apart the darkness that satan has worked against the nation of Japan and the Japanese people.
Lord, l am asking that You heal the Japanese people of the trauma done during the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Father, You want to use the Japanese people mightily to send missionaries all over the world in this end- time move of Your Spirit. Lord, You restore the years the cankerworm and the locust have eaten up in the land of the rising sun and “I the Sun of Righteousness will arise with healing in My wings for the land that I love.”
Now, Lord, let Your anointing be mighty upon Peter as he brings forth Your Word to unify and bring restoration to Your Body, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
At the moment I did not regard the prayer as anything out of the ordinary. I left my wife Doris, who was a member of the 24-hour intercession team for the congress, in Indianapolis and came home to teach my Sunday School class and leave Sunday afternoon for Japan.
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“I Have Sinned”
My problem came with Nehemiah’s statement that not only “my father’s house” but also “I have sinned’ (Neh. 1:6). My first thought was that I was only a boy of 15 the day the war ended (in fact, V-J Day, August 15, 1945, was my 15th birth- day). I didn’t fight in the war, manufacture a bomb, shoot a gun, or kill any Japanese. Then I felt the Holy Spirit come over me strongly and deeply convict me of two things.
First, He reminded me that I hated the Japanese people with a sinful hate. Second, God showed me that in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were other 15-year-old boys, as innocent as I was, who never shot a gun or dropped a bomb, who died or were permanently disabled because of the atomic bomb. The weeping for Japan started again with twice the intensity as before. To this day I can never share that story without losing emotional control.
At that moment I learned what John Dawson meant when he said we must personally identify with the sins of a given city or nation if God is to use us in remitting those sins. I learned why it was that Nehemiah “sat down and wept, and mourned for many days” (Neh. 1:4).
It just so happened that the place where I was staying in Tokyo, the Imperial Hotel, was the building General MacArthur had used for his headquarters while in Japan. It is right across from the grounds of the Imperial Palace, and the auditorium where I was teaching some 1,000 Japanese Chris- tians was adjacent to the palace grounds. After teaching a ses- sion or two, I asked my interpreter if he would help me locate some Christians in the audience who had suffered themselves or lost loved ones in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I wanted them to represent the Japanese people to whom I would confess.
Victims of the Atomic Bomb
We found two representatives from Hiroshima. The first was a man assigned to the military telegraph office in Hiroshima,
who had been exposed to radioactivity and also had to give first aid to the wounded and remove several corpses. The sec- ond was a woman whose mother-in-law was not physically wounded, but who still suffers the psychological effects.
We found two representatives from Nagasaki. The first was a man whose wife and sister-in-law were both exposed to radioactivity, and the sister-in-law died. The other was a woman whose mother went to Nagasaki to help as a nurse, was burned on her arms, and received secondary radioactivity from which she finally recovered.
After an extensive teaching on strategic-level spiritual warfare and remitting the sins of nations with specific applica- tion to the evangelization of Japan and the vision for 10 mil- lion Japanese Christians by the year 2000, I invited the four to stand by me on the platform. I explained in detail what I was doing, then knelt in humility before the congregation and the four on the platform and begged their forgiveness for my sins and the sins of my fathers. I wept tears of repentance, and when I looked up, handkerchiefs were out all over the audito- rium. God was doing a powerful, corporate work. As Pastor Hiroshi Yoshiyama later wrote, “The congregation melted in tears and repentance. We have never had a conference like this before.”
I said, “I used to hate the Japanese people, now I love them dearly.” With an apology for not knowing how to do the proper Japanese bowing on the occasion, I proceeded to give each an American hug.
The Japanese leader who was serving as master of cere- monies then led the congregation in a spontaneous and pow- erful session of individual and corporate repentance on the part of the Japanese. They forgave the Americans and then begged forgiveness themselves for what they said were worse sins than the Americans had ever committed. David Yonggi Cho, who as a Korean has his own set of feelings about the
Japanese, gave me an American hug and said that he also broke down and cried under the power of the Holy Spirit, feeling that important spiritual victories were won that day.
Needless to say, this was a spiritual experience I will never forget.
What Really Happened?
To this day I feel humbled that God would choose to use me as an instrument for remitting the sins of a nation. But what really happened? What difference did it make?
For one thing, I do not believe Japanese-American political relationships crossed some kind of a threshold that day. I think that for this to ever happen the participants will have to be those who have national authority, not a simple seminary pro- fessor. Certainly more was done politically some weeks later when U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh knelt in humility before Mamuro Eto, a 107-year-old Japanese-American minis- ter, in Washington, D.C., and in an official ceremony apologized for America’s actions toward Japanese Americans during World War II. He presented checks of $20,000 to each of nine elderly Japanese at the ceremony and said the 65,000 others would soon receive similar redress payments. President Bush wrote, “We can never fully right the wrongs of the past, but we can take a clear stand for justice and recognize that serious injus- tices were done to Japanese-Americans during World War II.”12
By mentioning this, I am not implying there was any cause-and-effect relationship between what we did in Tokyo and what happened in Washington. But I do think that in Tokyo something happened in the heavenlies. To what degree I do not know, but I feel sure the territorial spirits over Japan received a significant setback. The Los Angeles Times reported that in 1991 Japan commemorated the end of World War II “amid a rare flowering of contrition for its aggression in the war.”13 Much more repentance, confession, forgiveness, and
humility will be needed before we see the radical changes in Japanese receptivity to the Gospel we are praying for.
Changes are not easy to measure. As we gain experience in warfare prayer we will hopefully learn to be more effective. One of the things we need to recognize is the concept of the spiritual relationship between the visible and the invisible.
The Visible and the Invisible
John Dawson says we do well to ask God to help us dis- cern the invisible spiritual forces that are behind the visible problems in the city. He says Christians tend to “read reports of gang violence, corrupt government and child abuse, with- out clearly establishing the connection to the very real conflict in the unseen realm.” Dawson goes on, “I am committed to political and social action, but I realize that electing good peo- ple to office is not half as important as gaining victory over principalities and powers.”14
A key biblical passage for understanding this is the teach- ing on general revelation in Romans 1. There we are told that God’s “invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made...” (Rom. 1:20). One of the purposes of cre- ation is to show forth the glory of the Creator. However, satan and the forces of evil have corrupted this. They “changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things” (Rom. 1:23). As a result many created things now glorify satan rather than God. And people “worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Rom. 1:25).
This is exactly what has happened in Japan. God created the sun to reflect His eternal glory and majesty. The territorial spirits over Japan have perverted the sun. Japan has come to be known as the “land of the rising sun.” The one object on the Japanese flag is the sun. And yet the one who is exalted in that land is not the eternal God who created the sun, but a creature,
amaterasu omikami, the sun goddess. Japanese Christian lead- ers are praying that this will be reversed and that the sun on the Japanese flag will represent the eternal God rather than an evil principality. They believe that prophetically Isaiah 59:19 applies to Japan: “So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun ”
If we are to understand the spiritual dynamic of remitting the sins of nations and cities, it is essential “we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen,” as the apostle Paul says. “For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18).
Learning to see the eternal and the invisible is an impor- tant part of effective warfare prayer.
Reflection Questions
- List some of the sins that the United States has commit- ted against other nations. Then list some that other nations have committed against the United States.
- One of the most oppressed segments of the American population has been the Native Americans. Discuss the concept of remitting sins of nations and what it might do to spiritual powers over those people.
- If Jesus’ death on the Cross defeated satan, why does he still have so much power these days?
- Suppose you identify sins of a nation or a city that need to be remitted. How would you know where or when to do this?
- Give some examples of how people you know or have heard of “worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator.”
CHAPTER 8
NAMING AND MAPPING THE POWERS
A
homeless, and hopeless.
According to a report in Time magazine, of the 10 deadliest storms in the twentieth century, seven of them have struck Bangladesh. Meteorologists have no consensus why 70 percent of the world’s most devastating storms should be in one spe- cific area. But the famous Bengali poet, Rabindranath Tagore, offered a hypothesis 100 years ago. He attributed the phenom- enon to rudra, the Indian storm god.1
What Is in a Name?
In this chapter I want to look at the names of spiritual beings in general and territorial spirits in particular. Consider the following scenarios:
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Calcutta, India
Robert Linthicum is a pastor, a scholar, a relief and development consultant with World Vision, and the author of City of God; City of Satan, which is an outstanding biblical theology of the urban church. He arrives in Calcutta for the first time and is almost overwhelmed by a dark, permeating, ominous impression of evil. A frequent traveler to many of the world’s urban areas, he senses this is different. Here is the urban world’s worst poverty, “a city of suffering, dis- ease, and impoverishment beyond any words to describe adequately.”
Throughout the week, a common sight is young men fes- tively parading through the streets to loud music, beating drums, and exploding firecrackers. These young men are par- ticipating in the annual festival to the Hindu goddess kali who controls the city. The name Calcutta is derived from the name of the spirit. Linthicum says, “These young men had just left the temple of kali, in which they had pledged their very souls to the goddess.” They hoped to receive in return material goods that might break their vicious cycle of poverty.
“Who is Kali who gathers the souls of young men?” asks Robert Linthicum. “She is the goddess of darkness, evil and destruction in the Hindu pantheon. This is the goddess to whom the entire city is dedicated.”2
Anaheim, California
Larry Lea, recognized as a top-ranking leader of the cur- rent prayer movement, arrives in Anaheim to conduct the first of what has become a long series of “Prayer Breakthroughs.” His stated purpose is to “do some serious damage to the strongholds of this city.”3
Before going to Anaheim, Larry Lea sought the face of God. Among other things, he asked the Lord to show him the
identity of the strongholds over that part of Southern Califor- nia so that his prayers could be more specific. Through prayer he discerned that there were four principal warring spirits over the greater Los Angeles area: spirits of religion, witch- craft, violence, and greed. He proceeded to lead the 7,500 believers who attended the massive prayer meeting in the Anaheim Convention Center in warfare prayer against those specific spirits.
Manaos, Brazil
Kjell Sjoberg, a former Swedish missionary to Pakistan and church planter in Sweden, now travels extensively inter- nationally with prayer teams for the specific purpose of strategic- level intercession. He arrives in Manaos, the capital of the state of Amazonas in Brazil, and is teaching believers how to remit the sins of nations. He learns that Amazonas is in a seri- ous environmental crisis because of the wholesale exploitation and destruction of the vast rain forest that is so important to the ecology of the area.
As he and other believers pray that God will reveal to them the strongholds over the area, they visit the famous lux- urious Opera House, built by the rubber barons. A huge mural on the stage of the Opera House shows a woman in a river. It turns out to be a representation of the territorial spirit, iara, the mother of the rivers who ruled the area long before Columbus discovered America. The Opera House had been built as a temple to the goddess iara.
When Sjoberg exposes iara as the chief principality over the region, the host pastor says, “Before I became a Christian I was a worshipper of Iara.” They prayed together that the power of iara would be broken and that the rain forest of Amazonas would be healed.4
Do Spirits Really Have Names?
What do we say when we hear that Christian leaders feel they have actually identified territorial spirits by name? What goes through our minds when we hear of rudra or iara or the spirit of greed or the spirit of violence? It may seem strange to us until we recall that some of them are named just as specifi- cally in the Bible.
Jesus Himself asked for and learned the name of a very powerful spirit called legion (see Luke 8:30). Some say that was only a numerical description, but whatever it was, it came as a direct answer to Jesus’ question: “What is your name?” Diana (artemis) of the Ephesians is specifically named (see Acts 19:23-41). In Philippi, a slave girl had been demo- nized with a spirit of divination, in the Greek a “python spirit” (see Acts 16:16). Of course, we know the name of the chief evil spirit of all, satan. Beelzebub (see Luke 11:15), the “lord of the flies,” is so high ranking that some equate him with the devil. In Revelation we read of names such as death (see Rev. 6:8), hades (see Rev. 6:8), wormwood (see Rev. 8:11), abaddon or apollyon (see Rev. 9:11), the harlot (see Rev. 17:1), the beast (see Rev. 13:1), the false prophet (see Rev. 19:20), and others.
In the Old Testament, names of spirits such as baal (see 2 Kings 21:3), ashtoreth (see 1 Kings 11:5), and milcom (1 Kings 11:5) are common enough. Some of them have spiri- tual relatives, so to speak, such as baal gad, lord of good for- tune (see Josh. 11:17), baal-berith, lord of the covenant (see Judg. 8:33), or baalath beer, mistress of the well (see Josh. 19:8).
Apart from the Bible, other names of spirits have become known. How accurate they are is anyone’s guess, but those
who have some expertise in the fields of demonology and angelology seem to have a certain level of consensus on certain names.
Markus Barth tells us, “Jewish apocalyptic and sectarian writings describe the demons Mastema, Azazel, Sammael, or the arch-enemy Beliar (or Belial) by corresponding attrib- utes.”5 In his Dictionary of Angels, Including the Fallen Angels, Gustav Davidson lists hundreds of the names of evil spirits that have turned up since ancient times.6 Another such source is Manfred Lurker’s Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses, Devils and Demons.7
I am not listing these names and sources in order to glo- rify evil spirits, but to expose them and make them more vul- nerable to attack. At this point I simply want to argue that many spirits really do have names. Not only have they been known throughout history, but anthropologists and missiolo- gists who live among certain people groups of the world today discover that principalities and powers are currently known by name.
Few visitors to Hawaii, for example, have not been informed that the principality over the Big Island is the vol- cano goddess, pele. Vernon Sterk says that the Tzotzils, among whom he works in southern Mexico “are very aware of the names of many of the territorial spirits that inhabit their tribal area and villages. They are even able to name some of those which occupy homes and streams.”8 In Bolivia, where I worked for years, the awesome spiritual power of inti, the sun god, and pachamama, mother earth, went unchallenged by the majority of the population. It is common knowledge that some Australian Aborigines “can sense the spirits of the land: sometimes smell, sometimes hear and sometimes see them.”9 They know their names only too well.
Calling Spirits by Name
Recognizing that evil spirits do have names raises further questions. How important is it to know these names? If we do know the names, should we use them in warfare prayer?
First, it is helpful to distinguish between proper names and functional names. Kali, iara, wormwood, artemis, and pele are examples of proper names. A spirit of violence, the false prophet, and a spirit of witchcraft are functional names, emphasizing what they do. John Dawson, for example, associ- ates a spirit of mammon with New York, violence with Chicago, and political intrigue with Miami. He says, “Getting the exact name of demons at any level is not necessary, but it is important to be aware of the specific nature or type of oppression.”10
This is confirmed by many who have ministries of deliv- erance on the ground level. I have observed what appears to be a pattern with friends of mine who have strong ministries of personal deliverance. When they first begin, they often pro- voke the demons to talk to them and reveal their names and activities. They find that in this overt encounter they can eas- ily determine whether they are gaining the victory and when the demon actually leaves. I believe this is a valid methodol- ogy. However, as they grow in skill, experience, and spiritual discernment, many of them abandon this methodology and bind the spirits, refusing to allow them to speak, to give their names, or to manifest in any way. This quiet form seems to be equally, or in some cases more, effective.
Having said this, we need to recognize that those who deal regularly with the higher levels of the spirit world agree that while knowing the proper names might not be necessary, it is helpful in many cases. The reason is that there seems to be more power in a name than many of us in our culture might think.
Rumpelstiltskin
Many of us will recall the story of Rumpelstiltskin, which we heard as children. This anecdote from German folklore is clearly a tale involving demonic power. The dwarf has access to super- natural power, which allows him to spin flax into gold in order to save the life of the king’s bride. Obviously, this supernatural power is not from God because rumpelstiltskin’s price for the service is nothing less than her first child. When the child is born, the poor girl wants to renege, but the dwarf will allow her to do so only on the improbable condition that she guess his name. She discovers his name, and the curse is broken. The story has a happy ending and allows us to see that in the world of the demonic, knowing a proper name can be important.
I am not using a fairy tale to prove a spiritual principle, but only as a well-known illustration of the significance names can have within the worldview of a people (such as pre-Christian Germans) who were under strong demonic oppression. Clinton Arnold affirms that “The calling of names of supernatural ‘powers’ was fundamental to the practice of magic” in first century Ephesus.11 Vernon Sterk says that among Tzotzils “The shamans pride themselves in calling on the actual names of all of the different spirits and deities when they have difficult cases.”12
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Putting It Into Practice
Experienced spiritual warriors have found that the more specific we can be in our warfare prayer, the more effective we usually are. For example, Dean Sherman of Youth With a Mis- sion says, “God will show us the particular influencing spirit so that our prayers can be specific. We can then break these powers in the name of Jesus, and intercede for the Holy Spirit to come and heal the situation.” Sherman agrees that “The more specific we are in prayer, the more effective our prayers will be.”14
Urbanologist Bob Linthicum makes it a point in some of his urban workshops to have the participants identify the “angel of their city.” They must name it, describe it, and dis- cuss how it manifests itself in different aspects of the life of the city, including their churches. He says, “The exercise always proves to be the most stimulating event of the workshop.” A feeling grows that the participants understand their city in a deeper way. Linthicum’s conclusion is: “To be able to name your city’s angel and to understand how it is at work both exposes it and enables you to understand the dimensions the church’s ministry must undertake if it is truly to confront the principalities and powers!”15 This has much to do with why the first in Walter Wink’s trilogy on principalities and powers is Naming the Powers.
Dick Bernal, one of the pioneers of contemporary strategic- level spiritual warfare, says, “I cannot be too emphatic. In dealing with the princes and rulers of the heavenlies, they must be identified.”16 As Larry Lea prays over his church, he often addresses the principalities to the north, south, east and west of his church as persons. He says, for example, “North, you have people God wills to become a part of my church. I command you in the name of Jesus to release every person who is supposed to become a part of this body.”17
In summary, although it is not always necessary to name the powers, if the names can be found, whether functional names or proper names, it is usually helpful for focusing war- fare prayer.
Spiritual Mapping
A relatively new area of Christian research and ministry closely connected with naming the powers is called “spiritual mapping.” Key figures in the development and definition of this field are David Barrett of the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board, Luis Bush of the A.D. 2000 Movement, and George Otis, Jr., of The Sentinel Group. David Barrett, who edited the massive World Christian Encyclopedia and who has the most extensive data base for global Christian statistics ever compiled, discerned an area that encompassed North Africa, the Middle East and sections of Asia to Japan. His computer- aided calculations showed that at least 95 percent of the world’s unreached peoples and the largest number of non- Christians reside in this area.
The 10/40 Window
Luis Bush observed that this area was situated between the latitudes of 10° and 40° north and drew a rectangle on the map, which he calls “The 10/40 Window.” This 10/40 Win- dow is becoming widely accepted by missiologists as the most crucial area for the focus of the forces for world evangelization in the 1990s. Within it are the centers of Buddhism, Confucian- ism, Hinduism, Islam, Shintoism, and Taoism.
George Otis, Jr. said:
By playing host to these religions’ nerve centers—and some 95 percent of the world’s unreached peoples— the lands and societies of the 10/40 Window can hardly avoid becoming the primary spiritual battleground of
the 1990s and beyond. And when the epic conflict finally unfolds, enemy operations will in all likeli- hood be managed from two powerful strongholds— Iran and Iraq—situated at the epicenter of the Window.18
Otis points out that strategic-level spiritual warfare seems to be building up at the same geographical location where it started, the Garden of Eden.
This type of discernment enters into spiritual mapping. It is an attempt to see a city or a nation or the world “as it really is, not as it appears to be.”19 It is based on the assumption that the spiritual reality lies behind the natural. It takes seriously the distinction between the visible and the invisible, as I explained in the last chapter. The apostle Paul says, “We do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen...” (2 Cor. 4:18).
Otis explains that spiritual mapping “involves superim- posing our understanding of forces and events in the spiritual domain on places and circumstances in the material world.” The result is a map that is different from any we have yet seen. “On this new map of the world,” says Otis, “the three spiritual superpowers we have examined—Hinduism, materialism, Islam—are not entities in themselves. They are, rather, the means by which an extensive hierarchy of powerful demonic authorities controls billions of people.”20
Dean Sherman suggests that one reason we need to do spiritual mapping is that satan has already done his mapping. “Like any good general, Satan’s plans to rule the earth have begun with good maps…Satan knows his battleground.” Sherman’s experience bears this out. “In Los Angeles,” he says, “I have left one suburb for another and felt I had entered spiritually foreign territory.” He recommends that we study
maps. “Praying geographically will shake up the devil and hinder his plans.”21
Spiritual Mapping in the Bible
Some will naturally ask whether we have any biblical warrant to do spiritual mapping. A theological underpinning for it revolves around the concept of the visible and the invis- ible, which I have mentioned (see Chapter 7). As for specific examples, at least one is given in Scripture.
At one point, God spoke to Ezekiel and said, “You also, son of man, take a clay tablet and lay it before you, and portray on it a city, Jerusalem” (Ezek. 4:1). On a piece of clay, the equiva- lent of paper in those days, Ezekiel was to draw a map. God then told him to “lay siege against it.” This is obviously not a reference to physical warfare, but to spiritual warfare. He was then to take an iron plate and put it between him and the city as if it were a wall, and he was to lay siege against that as well.
Our spiritual maps of the 2010s will not be on clay tablets. They will, no doubt, be generated by computers and printed out on color laser printers. But I believe God wants us to be like Ezekiel and lay siege against the strongholds of the enemy whether they be in cities like Jerusalem, in neighborhoods, in unreached people groups, or in nations as a whole.
Drawing the Maps
Spiritual mapping is such a new endeavor that we do not as yet have seminary courses to train spiritual cartographers or do-it-yourself manuals for beginners. One thing we do know, however, is that accurate spiritual mapping is based on quality historical research. Several of those who have devel- oped some expertise in strategic-level spiritual warfare offer valuable instruction for researchers.
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Tom White, for example, says, “Begin research into the ideologies, religious practices, and cultural sins that may invite and perpetuate demonic bondage in your locality. Cities or territories may have distinctive spiritual atmospheres.” Discovering the original conditions on which a city was founded is helpful. This can also apply to buildings. White speaks of a Presbyterian Bible College in Taiwan that was hav- ing disturbing visitations of evil spirits at night. Research showed that the school had been built on a Buddhist burial ground.22
For those who are interested in more details on spiritual research methodology, I recommend books by two of the top leaders in the field, Cindy Jacobs’ Possessing the Gates of the Enemy23 and John Dawson’s Taking Our Cities for God.24 Cindy Jacobs provides a list of seven questions to ask, and John Daw- son a list of 20.
Not everything is discovered by research, of course. Dis- cernment of spirits is a spiritual gift that is extremely valuable, for through it spiritual cartographers are given special insights by the Holy Spirit. In many cases they go together: the research triggers questions that lead to prophetic spiritual insights as interpretations of research data. As Tom White says, “Learn to ask questions and listen for the Lord’s answers.”25
Mapping Guadalajara
Not long ago, I visited Guadalajara, Mexico, for the first time. I had been invited to do a church growth conference for
around 200 denominational executives from the Mexican Church of God (Cleveland, TN).
When I arrived, I found a city of six million people with only 160 evangelical churches. This was appalling because in the 1990s no significant area of Latin America should have been less than five percent Protestant. Many have 10 to 20 per- cent, and neighboring Guatemala has more than 30 percent. With a minimum of five percent evangelicals, Guadalajara should have had 1,500 churches, not 160. At the level of Guatemala there would have been 9,000 churches.
What was wrong?
As I pondered this, one of the things that I believe came from the Holy Spirit was the realization that these Mexican pastors were high quality Christian leaders. I imagined a sce- nario in which these 200 Mexican pastors were on one side of a room, and 200 Guatemalan pastors were on the other side. If I gave them a theology test, both groups would score virtually the same. If I examined them on their morality, there would be no significant difference. It would be the same in a survey of denominational spectrum, evangelistic methodologies, or motivation for evangelism. What, then, was the variable? How can we explain explosive church growth on one side of a border and staunch resistance to the Gospel on the other side?
It occurred to me that the Mexican pastors were not the perpetrators of this disparity in church growth. They did not need to be kicked, scolded, or subjected to another guilt trip. They were victims! Victims of wicked spiritual forces that apparently had been weakened in Guatemala, but remained entrenched in Guadalajara.
As I began talking to the pastors about these concerns I was somewhat surprised to find very little awareness among them of strategic-level spiritual warfare. I wouldn’t have been
that surprised had they been Baptists or Presbyterians, but they were Pentecostals.
“The Devil’s Corner”
I went back to my hotel greatly disturbed and prayed that God would give me discernment. Then I went downstairs to get a cup of coffee, and God answered my prayer sooner than I had expected. I casually picked up a tourist magazine and in it discovered the seat of satan in Guadalajara. At the center of the city is the Plaza Tapatía, and on the list of tourist attrac- tions in the Plaza Tapatía was a place called “The devil’s Cor- ner” (el Rincón del diablo).
Curious, I asked the pastor who was acting as my chauf- feur to take me to the Plaza Tapatía. When we were about three or four blocks away, I prayed out loud in the front seat of the car for protection. I could see that my friend was some- what surprised at this. We parked and walked through the plaza to the devil’s Corner. I felt chills up and down my spine when I saw what was there. Beautifully engraved in the mar- ble sidewalk was a compass pointing to the north, the south, the east and the west! Through it, satan had symbolically claimed total control of the city.
On our way back to the conference my friend said, “That was a strange experience for me. I have been to the Plaza Tap- atía a hundred times, and I never felt the blanket of spiritual oppression over me that I felt this time.”
I responded, “Don’t be surprised. The first hundred times you went as a tourist. The principalities have no problem with tourists entering their territory. But this time you went as an invading enemy, and apparently the forces of evil knew this and responded accordingly.” He then told me he understood why I had prayed for protection.
In my next session, I told the group about this experience in elementary spiritual mapping. They responded very warmly, indicating they probably never would have done that themselves since they had not been aware of that kind of approach.
Then Pastor Sixto Jimenez stood up. He was one of the few in the group who actually lived in Guadalajara and he served as the superintendent of the region. Jimenez said that, without knowing much about warfare prayer, a group of 60 pastors from different denominations around the city had begun to gather for prayer once a month about six months ago. Then he said, “Last Sunday we had 26 baptisms in our church, the largest number of baptisms in history!” I rejoiced with them that God was already at work in weakening the principalities and powers, which had for so long been blind- ing the minds of the residents of Guadalajara.
Back to Argentina
Throughout this book, I have made frequent references to Argentina as a principal laboratory in which some of us are testing the theories of strategic-level spiritual warfare. One of the keys to the substantial evangelistic results in the city of Resistencia was naming the spirits over that city: pombero, curupí, san la muerte, reina del cielo, witchcraft, and freema- sonry (see Chapter 1). Under the coaching of Cindy Jacobs, the Argentine pastors prayed strongly and specifically against these principalities.
Three large art panels in the main plaza of Resistencia helped considerably. Cindy said, “These panels are like a map of the spiritual realm. They reveal the plans and inten- tions of the enemy.” She then pointed out how a huge snake represented witchcraft and that it already had several Chris- tian fish in its belly. The fowls of the air represented religious spirits. The bony figure playing the violin was san la muerte.
A cloud-like figure with the sun and moon stood for the queen of heaven.26
The case of Resistencia shows how naming the powers and spiritual mapping go hand in hand.
The next target for Ed Silvoso’s Harvest Evangelism was a three-year evangelistic thrust in the city of La Plata, just south of Buenos Aires. A young Argentine pastor with gifts of dis- cernment of spirits, Victor Lorenzo, had been assigned the spiritual mapping of this city of 800,000.
Masonic Symbolism
Victor Lorenzo discovered that La Plata had been founded a little over 100 years ago by Dardo Rocha, a high-ranking Mason. He designed the city according to the dictates of Masonic symbolism and numerology. He installed two diago- nal avenues to transect the city, forming a symbolic pyramid. Then he went to Egypt, brought back some mummies, and buried them in strategic places to help assure that the city would remain under the demonic control he was helping to manipulate.
The huge Plaza Moreno in front of the central cathedral has four bronze statues of beautiful women, each representing a curse on the city. They had been ordered from a foundry in Paris run by Masons. The only other statue in the plaza is a muscular archer with a drawn bow. The arrow is aimed directly at the cross on top of the cathedral. And the cathedral has no cross. Apparently the evil archer is to be seen as having eliminated Christ crucified (Catholics often use a crucifix instead of an empty cross) from the center of Christianity in the city.
On a straight line out from the front of the cathedral are the centers of power: the city hall, the provincial capitol, the legislature, the police department, the municipal theater, and
others. They are on what would have been 52nd Avenue, but there is no street. Instead, there is a tunnel under all those buildings where the Masonic rituals have been, and possibly are yet, held.
The number 6 figures prominently in the city layout, and in the architecture of the public buildings the number 666 appears time and again. Grotesque demonic faces, beautifully painted and gilded, form a prominent part of the decor of many of the buildings. Victor Lorenzo has already discovered much more evidence, and God will show him even more as he continues the spiritual mapping of La Plata.
I need to reiterate what I have mentioned frequently— naming the powers and spiritual mapping are not to be seen as ends in themselves, much less as means of glorifying satan and his evil forces. In the Persian Gulf War, for example, dis- covering and plotting Saddam Hussein’s communications nerve centers was not designed to glorify Saddam Hussein, but to crush him and rob him of his power. Likewise, naming the powers is designed to bind the strongman and weaken his powers over the souls of 800,000 people in La Plata who have yet to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
Collectively, we have a long way to go in learning how to name the powers and do spiritual mapping with the excel- lence that God desires. In this chapter I have simply tried to provide a starting point for others to build on. My conclusion is that naming the powers and mapping them has the poten- tial to furnish a new and important tool that will be used by God for extending His Kingdom throughout the earth in our days.
Reflection Questions
- How accurate do you think it might be to attribute phe- nomena such as cyclones to spiritual forces?
- In your studies of history or geography have you come across any names that might identify territorial spirits? Talk about them.
- Could you attempt to identify the “angel of your city”? How would you test or validate your conclusion?
- Discuss a potential “spiritual map” of your city. What would be some of the more obvious boundaries?
- Why is it considered a danger to become overly fasci- nated with who the devil is and what he does?
(Note By Blogger: Due to the length of the book which this content is from I have broken it up into a short series of blog posts.)
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