Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 08076 The question of whether praying against principalities over cities is a legitimate Christian practice sounds technical, but a great deal hangs on it. Entire prayer movements have been built on the assumption that it is, and many believers have been made to feel unspiritual for hesitating. I do hesitate, and I want to…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 08075 Spiritual mapping is the practice of researching the history, religion and moral record of a place in order to identify the demonic powers believed to control it, so that intercessors can then target those powers in prayer. It grew up alongside territorial warfare and is usually presented as its research arm. I have…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 08074 The phrase territorial spirits refers to fallen angelic beings thought to exercise influence over particular nations, regions or cities. The idea has become so embedded in some circles that it is assumed rather than argued, and so foreign to others that it is dismissed without a hearing. I sit between the two. I…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 08073 Territorial warfare is the practice of identifying and confronting demonic powers believed to rule over geographical areas, and then attempting to break their hold through organised prayer. It has been enormously influential in the last forty years, particularly through the church growth movement and its offshoots. I want to describe it fairly before…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 8060. Tarot cards have moved a long way from the fairground. They are sold in high street shops, recommended as tools for self-reflection, and used by people who would be offended at the suggestion that anything occult is involved. That shift in packaging is the first thing worth noticing. Scripture forbids fortune-telling in every…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 8059. Ouija boards are sold in toy shops and used at sleepovers, and that is precisely what makes them worth talking about. A thing packaged as a game is a thing nobody examines, and what this particular game attempts is the one activity Scripture singles out with the sharpest possible language. The danger is…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 8057. Sleep paralysis is one of the most frightening experiences a person can have, and it is also one of the most misunderstood. You wake, you cannot move, you cannot speak, there is often a weight on the chest and a sense of a presence in the room, and it can last long enough…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 8056. When people ask about ghosts and demons they are usually asking two questions at once. Do the spirits of the dead come back, and if not, what did I actually experience? Both deserve an answer, and the answers are different. My position is that Scripture rules out the return of the departed, that…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 8055. The question of whether a haunted house is a real thing comes up more often than you might expect, and rarely from people looking for entertainment. It usually comes from someone who has experienced something in a building they cannot account for, and who is not at all sure they want to talk…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 8054. Whether demons can attach to objects or places is a question I get asked after house moves, after clearing out a relative’s belongings, and by new Christians wondering what to do with things from a former life. It deserves a straight answer rather than either a shrug or a scare story. My short…