The Mark on the Front Door
"The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore." — Psalm 121:8
Two Churches, Two Responses
A photo shop owner asked about a symbol he had seen — the encircled letter that marks the site of a blood sacrifice.
Asked why he wanted to know, he explained: his father-in-law pastored the large Baptist church in town, and about a month earlier someone had spray-painted that symbol on the side of the church building. Nobody had done anything about it. He had simply been curious what it meant.
He was told plainly. The symbol indicated that a blood sacrifice of some kind had been performed on the church property, most likely to place a curse on the congregation. The symbol needed to be obliterated, the curse broken, the spirits driven off, and the property cleansed.
Whether that was ever done is unknown. If it was not, many people in that congregation will have been affected without ever knowing why.
The same symbol has appeared on the side of a deeply troubled church in London that had been unable to grow for a long time. That symbol was certainly not the only reason for the difficulty. It is unlikely to have been irrelevant.
Why Churches Are Targeted
Congregations are frequent targets, and the reason is obvious once you consider it. A church is a concentration of what darkness opposes. Attack the church and you affect every family in it at once.
Unfortunately, far too many pastors assume they do not need to concern themselves with any of this. The reasoning is that God will take care of such things.
That reasoning is wrong, and it is the subject of a later lesson. Jesus specifically gave His servants authority over the enemy — and authority carries responsibility.
Two Pastors, One Warning
In one area a genuine move of the Spirit was underway. Churches were gathering monthly for worship. Pastors were meeting weekly for prayer. The purpose was to break down barriers, build unity, and see revival.
Then it came to light that a group of practicing witches — who attended various churches in the area — had been meeting in twos and threes to walk the property lines of those churches and the homes of the pastors leading the unity effort, placing curses on them and their families in order to halt the work.
The pastors were told privately. No names were given, but there were eyewitnesses.
The first pastor shrugged it off. "We believe God takes care of all such things as curses and that we don't have to bother with them."
The second reacted entirely differently. "Thank you so much for calling. You don't know how much my spirit bears witness with what you are saying. Our church has been under terrible attack these past couple of months. Several of our younger members have had strokes and serious illnesses that don't normally affect people their age. I knew we were under attack but I didn't know where it was coming from, so I didn't know how to pray against it."
He walked the grounds of both his church and his home, breaking the curses and cleansing the properties. He told his congregation and advised them to pray individually, commanding every curse sent their way broken in the name of Jesus Christ.
It is not difficult to guess which of those two congregations flourished over the following year.
Point to Ponder
One pastor shrugged. One walked his property line. Both had been warned.
Verse to Remember
"No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn." — Isaiah 54:17
Question to Consider
If someone brought me credible information like this, would I dismiss it or act on it?
Today's Practice
Walk your own property line this week — your home, and if you are able, your church.
Take oil. Anoint the corners, the gate, the front door, the mailbox, the driveway.
Pray aloud as you walk:
"In the name of Jesus Christ, I claim this ground for the Lord. I break every curse spoken or placed against this property, this household, and everyone in it. I command every spirit sent against us to leave now and never return. No weapon formed against us shall prosper."
Then examine your own attitude honestly. Are you the first pastor or the second? When information arrives that does not fit your framework, do you investigate it or dismiss it?
Prayer
Father, I do not want to be the person who shrugs when warned. Give me a humble and teachable spirit — one that tests what it hears rather than dismissing it.
I walk the boundaries of what You have given me today. In the name of Jesus Christ, I break every curse spoken or placed against my home, my family, my work, and my church. I command every spirit sent against us to leave and never return.
Cover this household with the blood of Jesus. Set Your angels around it. Guard our going out and our coming in.
And Lord, protect Your church in this place. Where the enemy has moved against pastors and their families, expose it and break it.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
"I knew we were under attack. I just didn't know where it was coming from." Now he did.