Ground That Belongs to Someone Else
"Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you." — 2 Corinthians 6:17
A Town Within a Town
There are places in the world that have been given over entirely — not partially, not culturally, but entirely — to the service of darkness.
One such place in the American Midwest has existed since the 1800s. It functions as a town within a town. Its name is inscribed on an archway over tall wrought-iron gates set between stone pillars.
Inside are streets of neatly kept homes, some of them old and genuinely beautiful. On the front of each house is a plaque listing the occult skills of the residents — crystal reading, palm reading, mediumship, communication with the dead, fortune telling, and the conducting of séances.
There is a museum devoted to witchcraft and spiritualism. There is a spiritualist church. There is an old and well-maintained graveyard, and in the graveyard, on many of the graves, sit white wrought-iron tables with matching chairs on either side. The chairs have no seats, because visitors come to levitate over one chair while the spirit of the person in the grave is expected to rise and occupy the other, so the two may commune.
Why This Ground Is Different
That property belongs, legally and totally, to the powers served there. Everyone living within it is deeply involved in the occult.
The place functions as a magnet — drawing the curious and the ignorant, and recruiting many of them directly into that service.
The spirits reigning there are strong and they are jealous of their territory. Anyone walking on that property who is not in that service and does not acknowledge those powers comes under direct attack, and curses of destruction are placed on him.
This is especially true of believers. A Christian trespassing there is regarded as an insult. And because those powers hold that ground legally, they have a legal right to place curses on anyone who ventures onto it.
The Detail That Should Trouble Us
The most disturbing part of this account is not the town. It is who visits.
Students from a nearby Christian college and seminary have gone there over the years — for fun, out of curiosity, as a diversion. In some years, classes studying world religions were taken there on field trips to see the community and meet its residents. At least one such class attended a lecture on séances and how they are conducted.
Every person who went in that way — on a field trip, out of curiosity, for entertainment — had a curse of destruction placed on his life and on the lives of his family and offspring.
Years later, ministers and their families have traced decades of inexplicable disaster back to exactly that visit during their student days.
Point to Ponder
Some ground is held legally. Walking on it uninvited is trespass, and trespass has consequences.
Verse to Remember
"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." — 1 Peter 5:8
Question to Consider
Have I ever walked onto ground that belongs to darkness, simply because someone said it would be interesting?
Today's Practice
List every place of this kind you have entered: spiritualist communities, occult shops, psychic fairs, New Age centers and retreats, temples and shrines, séances and readings, occult-themed attractions, and locations known for such activity.
Include school and church trips. Include places you went as a child. Include places you entered for a few minutes to look around.
Then deal with it thoroughly:
"Father, I confess that I went onto ground I had no business entering. I was careless with the things of darkness and I never asked You. Forgive me and cleanse me by the blood of Jesus Christ.
In the name of Jesus Christ, I take authority over every curse of destruction placed on me at those places, and I command every one of them broken now — off my life, my spouse, my children, and my descendants. I command every spirit associated with those curses to leave my life forever, in the name of Jesus."
Prayer
Father, I have walked casually into places that belong entirely to darkness, and I did it for entertainment.
Forgive me. I was ignorant, and my ignorance had consequences that reached my family.
In the name of Jesus Christ, I break every curse of destruction placed on me at any such place, and I break it off my children and their children. I command every spirit associated with those curses to leave now and forever.
Lord, restore what has been lost in the years since. Heal what has been damaged. And give me a sober respect for the ground I walk on.
I go where You send me and nowhere else. In Jesus' name. Amen.
A field trip into someone else's territory is still trespass.