Prayer and meditation are integral parts of all religions and take many different forms. However, the demon-busting tactics listed below are relatively new spiritual warfare methodologies combined with pre-enlightenment demonology. A 2001 Christianity Today article stated, "Stunning numbers of North American Christians believe demons may be at the root of apparently natural maladies or temptations." The article included C. Peter Wagner as a popular demon deliverance author, but was written just as Wagner's New Apostolic Reformation was beginning to take form. Since 2001 these ideologies have spread beyond the rapidly growing sphere of Wagner's apostles and prophets.

The spiritual warfare techniques listed below are based on the belief that humans have been given the supernatural power to remove the sources of human misfortune, illness, and tragedy, as well as the ability to create utopias on earth through the taking of geographic territory from demonic principalities. The New Apostolics oppose religious pluralism and teach that an earthly utopia can be achieved through religious uniformity under the authority of their apostles in a global cell church system. Regardless of how alien these spiritual warfare techniques may sound to the reader, none of the examples below could be considered "fringe" as they are being practiced by millions around the globe. Instruction on these methods is probably no farther than your nearest Choice Books carousel, a distributor that often features books on spiritual warfare. (In my location, this is a carousel at the grocery positioned so you can read books on supernatural healthcare while waiting for the pharmacist. Choice Books are advertised as featuring wholesome inspirational literature at 9400 displays across the country.)

Curses and Witchcraft Cause STDs, Poverty

Larry Huch is founder of the Texas megachurch DFW New Beginnings and a former director of John Hagee's Christians United for Israel. In his book 10 Curses that Block the Blessing, Huch explains breaking curses from witches by relating the story of a couple he had advised. The young mother had a sexually transmitted disease that she acquired shortly after her marriage, and was passed on to her infant. After a few questions, Huch informs the couple that the STD was a curse put on the young woman by her grandmother at the couple's wedding. Huch then claims to have removed the curse and cured both mother and baby. This was one account in a chapter titled "Witchcraft - It's More Common Than You Think." Read more on Huch's view of curses at the Apostolic and Prophetic magazine The Voice Magazine.

Huch also recounts the story of a Nigerian whose village raised enough money for him to visit Huch in Dallas, so that a curse causing a drought could be removed from their village. Another chapter of the 2006 book deals with the curses which cause poverty. Huch states this is being broken as we approach the end times and writes in his book that the "wealth of the wicked" is waiting to be released into the hand of believers by the "Master Avenger." Everything that the oppressed, and their ancestors, were cheated of will be taken from the wicked and restored to the godly "as latter rain." "What's been stolen from you? Make a list and get excited," writes Huch. Like others who preach about the great wealth transfer of the end times, Huch does not specify exactly who this wealth will be taken from.

Huch credits his ability to "destroy the enemy" to the anointing and prophecy imparted to him by well known charismatic Derek Prince, just prior to Prince's death.

The Kingdom Health Care System

You can purchase Larry Huch's book, and many others on breaking curses and demonic bondage, from the International Association of Healing Room Ministries (IAHR) , headed by Cal Pierce, an apostle in C. Peter Wagner's International Coalition of Apostles (ICA). Pierce describes his international network of healing centers as the "Kingdom Health Care System." Kenneth Copeland recently spoke at the organization's tenth anniversary celebration. Pierce patterned his ministry after that of John G. Lake, a faith-healer of the early 1900s who claimed the ability to cast out demons. Pierce's bio states that he prayed at Lake's grave on a monthly basis until he received a vision during a 40-day fast. He reopened buildings that had been Lake's in Spokane, Washington, and has since expanded the healing rooms to locations around the world. A global map of healing ministries associated with IAHR shows heavy concentrations in the U.S., Canada, England, Australia, Finland, and centers in Africa, India, and Southeast Asia.

Pierce states on his Healing Rooms website, "Healing is the undergarment that God's army will wear to support the armor for battle... God is raising up an end-time army that must get out of the tent if it is going to march to the battle and take the harvest." Upcoming events led by Pierce and other New Apostolic leadership range from the Mexico National Healing Rooms Conference in Tijuana, BC to "Thy Kingdom Come Healing Rooms Conference at the Lutheran Church of the Master in Minnesota. The upcoming "Northwest Healing Explosion: Cancer Free Zone" is "calling on the Bold Eagles of God" to "command the spirits of sickness and death to leave our bodies... we are declaring the defeat of cancer and all terminal diseases." This is one stop on the Healing Explosion tour featuring New Apostolic luminaries Che Ahn, Pat King, Bill Johnson, and Stacey Campbell.

Deliverance Centers

Demon deliverance centers are also being developed around the globe. One example is the Cleansing Stream Ministries network which was formerly part of Jack Hayfords' Church on the Way. The president of the organization is Chris Hayward, another apostle in Wagner's ICA, but the centers remain under the apostolic covering (authority) of Jack Hayford. These centers are located in U.S. and other nations including Canada, Hong Kong, The Netherlands and Germany. Hayford states, "Any time you deal with the realm of the demonic, there are people who become uneasy." This may explain the soothing music and downplaying of the demon aspect on some Cleansing Streams websites. Bruce Wilson has also written about Jack Hayford and Cleansing Streams. Link here.

The brochure for this year's International Society of Deliverance Ministers (ISDM) annual conference advertised sessions on witchcraft and curses, mental disorders vs. demons, sexual and gender identity issues. The featured speaker at the Nashville event was billed as speaking about "Freedom from Islam." The ISDM is an outgrowth of C. Peter Wagner's Apostolic Roundtable of Deliverance Ministers founded in 2000.

Most of the leaders mentioned in this article are independent charismatics, with the majority involved in the relational networks of the New Apostolic Reformation. Jack Hayford is head of the Pentecostal denomination International Foursquare Gospel, but he has been involved with the New Apostolic movement from its beginnings. According to Wagner, it was Hayford who convinced him not to use the term "postdenominational" to identify the movement, so that established denominations would not be excluded.

Breaking Demonic Strongholds and Strongmen

Hayford has been a leader in the promotion of spiritual mapping and spiritual warfare, including the introduction to Wagner's video teaching series "Breaking Strongholds in Your City." The "enemy's strongholds" are the obstacles to evangelization and blocking Christian utopias as demonstrated in these videos and The Transformations series of videos, one of which also features Hayford.

Dutch Pierce, one of the three top leaders in the New Apostolic sphere, has stated that "the spirit of Baal is one of the strongmen - or the strongman - over America." He and Chuck Pierce, Wagner's heir apparent, agree that it is the principality of Baal that is stopping the great transfer of wealth that they have prophesied will soon come to the Church. Their statements are on Elijah List, a clearinghouse run by Steve Shultz of the Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders, and used to relay prophecy from top leaders in the movement. (Read more under the heading "great wealth transfer" below.)

Alaskan Apostle Mary Glazier is a member of the inner circle of prophets or Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders (ACPE) and is credited with bringing the New Apostolic movement and spiritual warfare networks to Alaska, long before the movement even had a name. At a 2008 national event she described the process of spiritual warfare against a "strongman," in this case "liberal candidates" running for governor. She also described the process through which geographic territory is to be taken for the church. "God is preparing to displace the ones whose sin is rising, so that then they tip over and the church goes in - one is removed, and the church moves in and takes the territory." Link to transcript. In the same speech she referred to Sarah Palin's participation in Glazier's spiritual warfare network, beginning when Palin was twenty-four years old. Charisma magazine reported after the presidential election that Glazier and Palin were also in contact during the campaign.

Generational Curses

Along with healing centers, removal of generational curses is becoming another national industry. Numerous personal problems are being attributed to the sin of ancestors. For example, the involvement of a grandparent or great-grandparent who was a Freemason can supposedly causes many types of physical and mental problems for their descendants. There are even separate prayers available to remove such curses based on the degree of Freemasonry of the ancestor.

Ted Haggard, former president of the National Association of Evangelicals, co-founded the World Prayer Center with C. Peter Wagner, Convening Apostle of the ICA. Haggard was instrumental in the founding of the New Apostolic Reformation, although his role received so little publicity that it might be considered Haggard's "other secret." Haggard was a groundbreaker in spiritual mapping and demon-busting activities. In his book The Live Giving Church (foreword by Wagner), Haggard writes about his vision of demons attaching themselves to babies. These demons included drugs, immorality, masturbation, pornography, witchcraft and more. If the parents were not born again Christians, Haggard claimed demons would enter the bodies of the infants and integrate into their personalities.

Those who specialize in the removal of generational curses make it clear that they are not talking about character weaknesses, but about demonic control over a person due to the sins of their ancestors, or even an attack on their ancestors, which allowed demons to enter the family line. They claim that these demons can jump from person to person in the family.

Spiritual Mapping

The Transformations movie series produced by George Otis, Jr. and The Sentinel Group is a training tool designed to teach spiritual mapping and spiritual warfare. The goal is to do battle with territorial demons and to create mini-utopias in preparation for the "Kingdom on earth." The Transformation movies claim to present evidence of the success stories in using these spiritual warfare methods, and are advertised as having been shown to 200,000 churches around the globe. The message of these movies is that social transformation must be supernatural in nature, and can not be successful without both the removal of the demons and unification of churches in the communities in "Spirit-filled" or charismatic belief. This is a concept which they have incorporated into faith-based programming and missions work in the U.S. and abroad.

The report "Spiritual Mapping and Spiritual Warfare: Muthee and the Transformations Franchise" can be downloaded in pdf format at this link and is also archived in the Talk2action.org special focus sidebar box titled "Sarah Palin and the New Apostolic Reformation." The closing pages of this 36 page report list some of the "Transformations" entities and their involvement in faith-based programming, homeland security and more. (The report was written in 2008 and a few of the links are no longer active.) The name "Muthee" in the title of the report refers to the Kenyan pastor who anointed Sarah Palin at Wasilla Assembly of God, and who was also one of the stars of The Transformations I and The Quickening, the third movie in The Transformations series, along with Jack Hayford, George Barna, Harold Caballeros and others.

Great Wealth Transfer

Leadership of the New Apostolic Reformation has recently shifted their emphasis from spiritual mapping to the preparation for the "great wealth transfer" and "Marketplace Apostles" as a methodology for taking control of territory from demons. C. Peter Wagner writes about the significance of the workplace apostles in his 2008 book Dominion! How Kingdom Action Can Change the World. Dominon!is a summary of Wagner's strategies for taking Christian dominion over the earth and a defense of his claims that this societal transformation can be accomplished within a democratic framework. He views the great wealth transfer and workplace apostles as key to this transformation.

The "Marketplace Leaders" and International Coalition of Workplace Ministries are led by Os Hillman and the Marketplace Apostles Roundtable by Bruce Cook. These apostles play a major role in the 7-M or "Reclaiming the Seven Mountains" campaign. This is a campaign to "reclaim" control of arts and entertainment, education, family, government, media, religion, and business under Christian dominion. See the video used to market the campaign and also video of New Apostolic leader Lance Wallnau explaining the 7-M concept at Wasilla Assembly of God in June, 2009.

The Apostles' yearly Kingdom Economic Summit features sessions on taking back the "mountain" of business and finance, being a missionary at work, supernatural laws of wealth, and seminars titled "Purpose Driven Wealth" and "The Secrets of Jewish Prosperity." The 2009 summit in Austin, Texas, was reported as "an international gathering of leaders from the marketplace and the nuclear church who came together to supernaturally network, strategize, impart and transform the Business and Finance Mountain--with the goal of the transformation of cities and nations." The "business and finance mountain" is considered to be the key to enacting the reclamation of the other six mountains.

Os Hillman tones down the meaning of the "faith at work movement" in media such as his article in Christianity Today, but Wagner openly describes the anticipated role of marketplace apostles. In his book Dominion!, a graphic showing the the relationship of workplace apostles and the great wealth transfer to social transformation and the taking of land, is repeated three times.

Intercessory Prayer for Businesses

Intercessory prayer takes on a new meaning in the world of the Apostolic and Prophetic. Hired intercessors can watch over your business to protect it from demons and trained prayer strategists check your business for signs of witchcraft, curses, and other spiritual problems that impact performance and profits. Information on hiring business intercessors can be found at Os Hillman's Marketplace Leaders website and Christ our Coach.

Sozo Services "provides intercessory prayer empowerment for employers, employees, family members, customers, and their business operations to ensure that there is a continual application of protection, based upon blood covenant rights."

Part Two will include "Identificational Repentance and Reconciliation" and the conclusion of the article.