Spiritual Territority

SPIRITUAL MAPPING

Borrowed heavily from the conference teaching of Apostle George Otis, Jr.

World leaders in intercessory prayer have recently used a strategy called "spiritual mapping" to pray for cities and nations. In essence, "spiritual mapping" is an attempt to see a city or a nation or the world as it really is, and not as it appears to be. This tactic is based on the assumption that spiritual reality lies behind the natural. It takes seriously the distinction between the visible and the invisible, superimposing our understanding of forces and events in

the spiritual domain on places and circumstances in the material world.

Spiritual mapping acknowledges that behind many visible aspects of the world around us are spiritual forces, invisible areas of reality, that have more ultimate significance than the visible. Spiritual mapping involves identifying and naming the spiritual forces at work in our communities, cities, and nations, and then applying this knowledge in strategic-level spiritual warfare praying.

The Scriptural mandate for spiritual mapping is taken from when God spoke to the prophet Ezekiel and said:

"You also, son of man, take a clay tablet and lay it before you, and portray on it a city, Jerusalem." (Ezekiel 4:1)

Ezekiel was to draw a map on a piece of clay. 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.

There are many levels of spiritual mapping. Mapping could be done in your neighborhood or your particular section of the city. Mapping could be done for the city as a whole, for the city and its surrounding area, for the state or the province, or for the entire nation. Some will want to map clusters of nations.

There are two parts to spiritual mapping: First, you gather the information. Second, you pray about what you discover. You can locate information by visiting the local library, historical museums, the chamber of commerce, consulting old copies of the local newspaper, or conversing with elderly residents and members of the historical society for your city (if one exists).

The following summary of guidelines will assist you in naming and mapping the spiritual forces at work in your own city:

OBJECTIVES OF SPIRITUAL MAPPING:

1. To identify the enemy's plans, strategies, and plots for a specific geographical area.

2. To apply this knowledge in intelligent strategic-level warfare prayer and be victorious in a minimum of time with minimum risk and loss.

HISTORICAL RESEARCH:

A. The founding of the city

1. Who were the people who founded the city?

2. What was their personal or corporate reason for founding the city? What were their beliefs and philosophies? What was their vision for the future of the city?

3. What is the significance of the original name of the city? Has the name been changed? Are there other names or popular designations for the city? Do these names have meaning? Are they linked to religion of any sort? Are they demonic or occult names? Do they signify blessing or curses?

B. The later history of the city

1. What role has the city played in the life and character of the nation as a whole?

2. As prominent leaders have emerged in the city, what was their vision for their city?

3. Have any radical changes taken place in the government or political leadership of the city?

4. Have there been significant or sudden changes in the economic life of the city? Famine? Depression? Technology? Industry? Discovery of natural resources?

5. What significant immigration has occurred? Was there ever an imposition of a new language or culture on the city as a whole?

6. How have immigrants or minorities been treated? How have races or ethnic groups related to one another? Have city laws legitimized racism of any kind?

7. Have city leaders broken any treaties, contracts or covenants?

8. Have any wars directly affected the city? Were any battles fought in the city? Was there bloodshed?

9. How has the city treated the poor and oppressed? Has greed characterized city leaders? Is there evidence of corruption among political, economic, or religious leaders and institutions?

10. What natural disasters have affected the city?

11. Does the city have a motto or slogan? What is its meaning?

12. What kinds of music do the people listen to? What is the message they receive from that music?

13. What five words would most people in the city use to characterize the positive features of their city today? What five words would they use for the negative features?

HISTORY OF RELIGION IN THE CITY:

A. Non-Christian religion

1. What were the religious views and practices of the people who inhabited the area before the city was founded?

2. Were religious considerations important in the founding of the city?

3. Have any non-Christian religions entered the city in significant proportions?

4. What secret orders (such as Freemasonry) have been present in the city?

5. What witches' covens, Satanist groups, or other such cults have operated in the city?

B. Christianity

1. When, if ever, did Christianity enter the city? Under what circumstances?

2. Have any of the early or later Christian leaders been Freemasons?

3. What role has the Christian community played in the life of the city as a whole? Have there been changes in this?

4. Is Christianity in the city growing, on a plateau, or declining?

C. Relationships

1. Has there been conflict between religions in the city?

2. Has there been conflict between Christians?

3. What is the history of the church splits in the city?

PHYSICAL RESEARCH:

1. Locate different maps of the city, especially the older ones. What changes have taken place in the physical characteristics of the city?

2. Who were the city planners who designed the city?

3. Are there any significant discernible designs or symbols im bedded in the original plan or layout of the city?

4. Is there any significance in the architecture, location, or positional relationship of the central buildings, especially those representing the political, economic, educational, or religious powers in the city?

5. Has there been any historical significance in the particular plot of land upon which one or more of these buildings are located? Who originally owned this land?

6. What is the background of the city's parks and plazas? Who commissioned and funded them? What significance might their names have?

7. What is the background and possible significance of the statues and monuments of the city? Do any reflect demonic characteristics or glorify the creature rather than the Creator?

8. What other art work is featured in the city, especially on or in public buildings, museums, or theaters? Look especially for sensual or demonic art.

9. Are there any prominent archaeological sites in the city? What meaning might they have?

10. What is the location of highly visible centers of sin such as abortion clinics, pornographic bookstores or theaters, areas of prostitution, gambling, taverns, homosexual activities, etc.

11. Where are areas that concentrate greed, exploitation, poverty, discrimination, violence, disease or frequent accidents?

12. Where are locations of past or present bloodshed through massacre, war, or murder?

13. Does the position of trees, hills, stones, or rivers form any apparently significant pattern?

14. Do certain landmarks of the city have names that would not glorify God?

15. What is the highest geographical point in the city and what is built or located there? This can be a statement of authority.

16. Which zones or sectors or neighborhoods of your city seem to have characteristics of their own. Attempt to discern areas of the city that seem to have different spiritual environments.

SPIRITUAL RESEARCH:

A. Non-Christian

1. What are the names of the principal deities or territorial spirits associated with the city past or present?

2. What are the locations of high places, altars, temples, monuments or buildings associated with witchcraft, occult, fortune-telling, Satanism, Freemasonry, Mormonism, eastern religions, Jehovah's witnesses, and the like. Do these form any pattern when plotted on a map?

3. What are the sites of pagan worship from the past, even before the city was founded?

4. What are the different cultural centers that might contain art or artifacts connected with pagan worship?

5. Has any city leader knowingly dedicated himself or herself to a pagan god or a principality?

6. Were any known curses placed by the original inhabitants on the land or people who founded the city?

B. Christian

1. How have God's messengers been received by the city?

2. Has evangelism been easy or hard?

3. Where are the churches located? Which of them would you see as "life giving" churches?

4. What is the health of the churches in the city?

5. Who are the Christian leaders considered as "elders of the city"?

6. Is it easy to pray in all areas of the city?

Spiritual mapping is all about finding the answer to the question, “Why are things the way they are?”  Science and rationalism can’t explain everything. There is much real and widespread satanic involvement in human affairs. There is much satanic involvement behind the scenes. The starting points for this involvement is Babel and other early worship centers in Asia and the Near East.

Early ideas and symbols were first systematized in Babylon. Therefore, Babylon became more than a city; it became a supernatural template for non-God governments, idolatrous systems and kingdoms.

Babylon was called the mother of harlots (Rev. 17:5) because it would give birth to all future corruptive and illegitimate systems.

Spiritual territoriality

          As ancient peoples migrated out from Babel, they encountered traumas which they dealt with by entering into pacts with spiritual powers. Once these primal welcome mats were put out, they became the basis for people-group-based spiritual strongholds. Since people are always some place, strongholds are also geographical in nature.

The God of history has had a lot to do with the matter of where idolatrous people lived.

When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel.  Deuteronomy 32:8 

This term sons of Israel, according to the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Latin Vulgate, the Septuagint and all other early texts should read, "according to the number of the sons of God"  or according to the number of their gods."

Thus, God allowed people to choose their own gods and the number of their gods, yet He is the God of history who decides WHERE their geographic boundaries will be.

EXAMPLE:  There was the Alti Bital seed-bed of shamanistic gods and worship in Siberia. It was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who determined how LONG this shamanistic flow of people would be allowed to traverse the Bering Land Bridge into the Americas. If He’d kept the flow open through an extension of the ice age for another several centuries it would have beefed up the shamanistic population of North America. This would have changed the course of human history considerably.

EXAMPLE: The Soviet Union, the great bastion of communism, had no warm water ports. Thus it was checked in its ability to move freely in earlier decades throughout the world. Because of this they have, are and will be able to fulfill their scriptural role of being the BIBLICAL NORTH - TSAPHON - (Hebrew word meaning hidden, dark, gloomy and unknown. It is used only when referring to the north as a quarter) - as a place of occult wisdom, an envelope of darkness, and a place of death with a concentration of demons. Many northern ideas and empires have historically been both implements and objects of great destruction. Out of it has come Babylon, Persia, Mongolia, Syria, Soviet Communism. But one more prophetic supernaturally energized coalition may yet arise out of that area. Could it possibly be a coalition of Islamic states that Ezekiel spoke of in Ezekiel 38 and 39?

As we view the world through the filter of the spiritual dimension and ask the question, “Why are things the way they are? More specific questions arise.

EXAMPLES : 

• Why has Japan been such a hard nut to crack?
• Why is Haiti the preeminent social and economic eyesore in the western hemisphere?
• Why do the Andean nations of South America, notably Columbia, Bolivia and Peru have the highest per capita homicide rates of any nation in the world today?
• Why is Mesopotamia or modern-day Iraq, have such a long extended history of tyranny with one tyrant after another being birthed out of that particular geographic location?
• Why does the Himalayan mountain chain seem to have so much overt demonic activity?
• Why does the 10/40 window with 95% of today’s unreached peoples, play host to the headquarters of every major non-Christian religion?
• Why does it encompass the continent of Asia instead of Europe or the Americas?
• The beginning of the answer to these questions can be found by looking at the nature and history of the people living in any geographic area.

As I mentioned above, as people lived their lives, they encountered traumas. As you know, when you go through a trauma of some sort, you must find a WAY or METHOD to help you through it. People down through history have dealt with traumas by entering into pacts with spiritual powers. Once these spiritual pacts are made, they became the basis for spiritual strongholds. If these are not pacts with the spiritual power of the Living God, spiritual darkness results. And when repentance does not occur, the stronghold gains power with the passing of time and each succeeding generation. Eventually, one of the primary characteristics of spiritual darkness is the lack of Godly repentance. Do you see why, in breaking spiritual strongholds over an area, repentance is the weapon of choice?

In determining a stronghold’s strength, look for:

1.  The explicitness of the original pact. When the original pact or welcome is made, intention counts.

But the person who does anything defiantly, whether he is native or an alien, that one is blaspheming the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from among his people. Numbers 15:30

2.  The nature of evil spirits.

1 Kings 11 - The story of Solomon who loved many foreign (strange) women. Even though God told him not to associate with them because they WOULD turn his heart away after their gods, he did it anyway. He managed to maintain his devotion to God until he became old. Then “his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God.” He went after the gods of his foreign wives, did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and built high places for them. So God tore the kingdom from him, waiting until after he died only for the sake of his godly father, David. Until then, God raised up two adversaries against him, and sent the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam who was one of Solomon’s best servants, to prophesy how God would give him 10 parts of the kingdom, leaving only one for Solomon’s descendant. Solomon heard about this and tried to kill Jeroboam just as Saul had tried to kill his father, David.

But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for 21 days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia. Daniel 10:13

And during supper, the devil having already PUT INTO THE HEART of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him…John 13:2

And after the morsel, SATAN THEN ENTERED INTO HIM, Jesus therefore said to him, “What you do, do quickly.” John 13:27

3.  The amount of time they’ve been in that area. The longer the enemy is allowed to remain in an area, the longer he has to dig in.

Matthew 23:13-38 Eight woes against the scribes and Pharisees.

Consequently you bear witness against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure of the guilt of your fathers. Verses 31,32  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate. Verses 37,38 

1 Corinthians 5:1-5 Paul reprimands a man who is having sex with his father’s wife and the church for being arrogant instead of mourning, “in order that the one who had done this deed might be removed from your midst.” Vs. 2 He then decides to “deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” Vs. 5 Then, after the church cleaned up its act, in 2 Corinthians 2:6-8. Paul writes, sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority, so that on the contrary you should rather forgive and comfort him, lest somehow such a one be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him.”

As I said in the beginning, When people and people-groups encounter life traumas, we deal with the trauma by entering into pacts with a spiritual power or powers. Even when these pacts are made with the Living Lord, the result is loyalty.  Allowed to continue, these loyalties become a basis for strongholds.

Spiritual strongholds are born whenever people and cultures welcome them in definite choices. Satan has four strategies for gaining the right to remain in a person or an area.

1.    Religious festivals and pilgrimages

2.    Cultural traditions, especially initiation rites

3.    Adaptive deceptions

4.    Unresolved social injustices

The purpose of a festival is to put on the “other” mind. Especially when done corporately it unleashes incredible power.

Initiation rites introduce people to the demon spirits.

By linking past pacts with history, Satan keeps power from generation to generation in continuity. Traditions are held more in manner than actual events. They are most effective by word of mouth and from ear to ear. As time passes, some bondages loose their potency so Satan tries to set up many rituals to keep the strongholds in place.

Unresolved social injustices can create bitterness and bondage - or repentance and reconciliation.

Demonic manipulations are made worse when we classify people based on superficial things. The consequences are:

• Dampening enthusiasm of potential intercessors
• Giving Satan more cover for his purposes
• Squandering of money and resources

Prevailing bondages and root bondage are IMPORTANT TO DISCERN

PREVAILING BONDAGES are:

1.    visible

2.    active

3.    thin

4.    transitory

5.    should not be ignored

ROOT BONDAGES are:

1.    Beneath the surface    

2.    Require patience to find and root out

3.    Require discernment

An example of a root bondage is Albania. We see communism. But before communism there was Rome. Before Rome there was the Byzantine empire. At the very root of Byzantian you find an ancient vendetta.

So it is very important that we not fixate on “Johnny-come-lately” ideologies like communism, drug cartels, etc. Appearances can be deceiving. Even Saddam Hussain attributed his work with the legacy of Babylon.

WE MUST MONITOR OUR ACTIONS TO SEE IF THEY TRULY HAVE RESULTS AND ARE BIBLICAL.

A key way to monitor results is to pray before, during and after a religions festival, pilgrimage, or initiation rite. These are good times to pray because it is when the enemy is more vulnerable because he is having to re-negotiate his pact. We also need to pray because at these times there is usually more persecution of the enemy - us.

Examples:

1.  Mardi Gras - is a festival with ancient roots in Haiti and Africa. It was attached to a Christian holy day but there is nothing Christian about it.

2.  Gay Pride parades. These parades are actually a re-enactment of the worship of the god Pan who was the patron saint of sexual pastimes. He was an adulterer, homosexual and bisexual. He is also a part of the worship in the upper levels of Masonic Lodges and Eastern Star.

We need to know our position in time as well as space. There are three significant trends in the past decade.

1. There has been a quantum leap in human knowledge unbridled by wisdom.

2. There is a rising tide of interest in supernatural signs and wonders.

3. Global evangelization has reached a critical mass. It is also more difficult because we’re closing in on the hardest-held strongholds.

There are two external problems to the church fulfilling its goal of world evangelization.

1.  Demonic entrenchment - many that were dealt with in scripture were never plucked up. If corporate repentance doesn’t happen, Satan will gain more power.

2.  The lateness of the hour. Revelation tells us that Satan is in great wrath because he knows he has little time left.

These days are as distressing to the enemy as they are to us. Consequently there is more confusion and more demands - on him as well as on us. But remember this:

THE TREMORS OF THE WORLD ARE THE KICKINGS OF THE ENEMY! It is the challenge of the latter realm. The deeper you go, the higher the stakes. But also, the greater the victory.