DELIVERANCE: DELIVERANCE OF PLACES Francis MacNutt HIS GLORY REIGNS B. Childress Jan 23 2009 08:00AM Just last week I (Frances MacNutt) was informed that five chairs were found on our property arranged in a circle around a voodoo doll. In fact, this happened twice last week. The chairs were found once in our chapel and once on the grounds outside our chapel. Whoever did this wanted to make sure we knew they were praying against us. So I asked a member of our staff who has good discernment to go over to the chapel and see if any spirit had been summoned up and, as it were, left behind. Half an hour later she reported that there was indeed a "large" spirit right behind the altar. She had been praying and the spirit had gotten "smaller," but would I please come over and pray to get rid of it. (The spirit themselves do not get smaller, of course, but the space they occupy and influence can grow smaller.) She asked another member of our staff, who discerns spirits, too, to check it out. It fascinated me to see how they both agreed as to the place the spirit occupied: They knew where it was because of denser air pressure in that place. Also, when they moved into that place, they felt oppressed and one actually got a headache, which disappeared when she moved out of the space. So the three of us prayed. Each time the space got smaller. Finally, after about twenty minutes it left. That same day last week my secretary, who has been putting this book (which I write out by hand) onto the computer, told me that every day when she was driving to work, she developed a headache. She also felt oppressed while she was typing, although she loves her work here. So we prayed for her office and especially the corner of the room where she was typing. Within a few minutes the headache and oppression lifted and she was feeling fine. One morning last month the computer flat-out "refused" to write out a particular sentence on how to break a curse, until we prayed for it. After that the computer worked fine. Later, when the manuscript for this book went to Jane Campbell, who was editing it for Chosen Books, further startling problems developed. I asked her to write up her own description of what took place:
was unable to save what I had been working on for the last fifteen minutes' worth of editing), brought it back, made a change and tried to save it. I couldn't. I repeated this cycle for fifteen minutes or so. Then the text disappeared altogether and the screen went white.
in the book and feared that the four chapters I had already edited were gone, too. Later I was relieved when the "Tools" function on my Macintosh told me there were 3,639 words in chapter 5, but I was utterly unable to access them. The support man from Microsoft called my problem "strange" and "weird" and told me it was at a level deeper than the software and that he couldn't help me.
them, triumphing over them by the cross." Even if this computer screen remains white," I said, "Jesus triumphed over you by the cross!" And I bound spirits and praised God.
These bizarre experiences reflect the ancient Christian tradition that places, buildings, rooms, and objects need to be exorcised and blessed. These blessings follow the familiar pattern that we find in blessing oil, water, and salt. First we pray to drive away any evil that may reside in the place. This is the exorcism of evil. Then we bless the place, asking God to fill it with His goodness, the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit. This is the blessing. Sometimes the evil that dwells in a place (like our chapel) arrived through a curse, which needs to be broken. At other times a crime has been committed in the place. Many haunted houses, for example, have a history of some murder or violent deed that took place on the premises. When a crime has been committed, you need to do something, in addition to exorcising and blessing the place to rectify the crime and set any restless spirits at rest. Dr. Ken McAll, who has studied these phenomena for years, believes that the tragedies of lost ships and downed airplanes that have disappeared mysteriously in the Bermuda Triangle were caused by the thousands of slaves dumped overboard and drowned in this area of the Atlantic, when the slavers decided they were too weak to finish the voyage. Their souls were crying out, as it were, for revenge. Dr. Ken prayed intently with friends ten years ago over the situation, then arranged to have a minister lead a special service asking Jesus to take care of all the murdered victims of the slave trade. Since then the mysterious tragedies in the Bermuda Triangle seem to have ceased. If a particularly nefarious crime has been committed in a site that was previously dedicated to God, the building or place also needs to be rededicated. In Catholic tradition, for example, if a murder has been committed in a cathedral, the cathedral needs not only to be spiritually cleansed but rededicated. At other times various rooms need to be cleansed because people afflicted by evil spirits seem to leave something behind in places they have visited. Our waiting rooms at Christian Healing Ministries need to be cleansed and blessed every so often because so many hurting people come for help. It is something like a hospital, where extra precautions have to be taken against the spread of infectious diseases that the sick bring with them. In summary, we need to pray for rooms, buildings, churches and other properties under the following circumstances:
Also, of course, when we first move into a new home or apartment (or place of business, if we are in charge), or when a minister moves into a new church assignment, it is wise to bless the place and pray through it. We should plead the blood of Jesus over that property and all attachments, and ask God to pour out His blessing on the property and protect it from evil. If you have not had experience in these things, what I have written here may sound extreme. Certainly you cannot prove that some tragic event occurred because someone cursed you, or that you avoided harm because you prayed for protection. Yet if you add up the number of times you have experienced something like this, you will find the chance that it is mere coincidence too great. Nothing can be proven by a single instance, but an inductive proof from many instances can readily be made. Is it coincidence that my (Frances MacNutt's) secretary, about whom I wrote about earlier, arrived at work this morning to say she has felt no oppression and had no headaches since we prayed four days ago, even though headaches and inexplicable depression had bothered her at work for the previous three weeks? There are many practical applications you can make from this teaching about blessing and exorcising places. As just one example, some of my friends who are spiritually sensitive are always careful about the motel or hotel rooms in which they stay. If they sense something spiritually oppressive or evil about the room, they ask for a change, or pray in the room until the oppression lifts. The people I trust enough to ask to come and pray through our home and ministry center are not extremists; they are mature, thoughtful and balanced. But they have learned to discriminate and sense the presence of evil when it is there, without going overboard and becoming overly fearful. Then they pray calmly. Source: Deliverance from Evil Spirits, by Francis MacNutt, Copyright 1995, Chosen Books. |
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