|
TRANSFORMATION
AND SPIRITUAL MAPPING NOTES FOR PORT ELIZABETH INTERCESSORS
SPIRITUAL
MAPPING
previous
page index
Practical
Spiritual Mapping
(The
following points are a very brief outline, see the source material
for more details)
Starting
a spiritual mapping project
It
is important to ensure that there is infrastructure in place to
receive the fruits of spiritual mapping. If community churches are
not united or if there is no evident passion for the lost your
project may be premature. It is vital to build healthy anticipation
amongst the local church community.
top
Determining
the boundaries
-
You
will need to determine how much territory you are going to cover,
and why.
-
The
boundaries must be relevant to your aims and to known historical,
cultural and spiritual realities.
-
They
should also be realistic to the available time and manpower.
-
Do
not just adopt prevailing civic or political boundaries. Despite
their convenience, these boundaries are often arbitrary inventions
that ignore pre-existing facts and affiliations.
-
Spiritual
powers congregate in places and cultures where they are welcomed.
The only borders they recognise are those that have been established
through pacts with their followers.
-
On
average it will take a competent part-time team between one and a
half to two years to map a large neighbourhood.
-
It
is very important to keep the project to a manageable size to avoid
reducing the quality of your report.
top
Organising
a research team
-
Competent
leadership is vital.
-
It
is important to select participants who can be committed to the
project for the full duration of the project, which can be anything
up to 3 years. People with the following characteristics will be
useful additions to the team.
- The
right motive
- Commitment
to the community
- Servant
attitude (humility)
- Accountability
- Spiritual
balance
- Good
work habits (discipline)
-
Divide
the workforce into three teams, each to work on a particular area of
research, depending on their gifting. The teams must work
independently to allow cross-checking and confirmation of the
results. The three areas of research are physical, historical and spiritual.
-
Having
completed the research, the information must be passed onto a mature
group of intercessors and leaders to evaluate. If each area of
research is accurate, then all three should complement each other.
top
HISTORICAL
FACTORS
-
Use
sources such as libraries, museums, the city archives, newspaper
archives, ask elderly people, the internet, etc.
-
Establish
the answers to the following questions for your area.
-
What
is the name and what does it mean? Make a list of all the names for
the neighbourhood. Establish what the meaning, implication or
significance of the name is. What is the meaning behind the coat-of-arms?
-
What
is the nature of the territory? What are the main social problems
prevalent? What is the history of race relations in the city? Choose
a single word to describe each territory in the city.
-
How
have God's messengers and the Gospel been received so far? Have
there been any major blocks to the spread of the Gospel. Is it
currently open to the Gospel? How many churches does it have?
-
What
is the history of the territory? Using help from the Holy Spirit,
establish the events and circumstances around the birth of the
territory. When did it originate? Was the nation founded through
violence, deceit, slavery, breaking of treaties, etc.? Who were the
founders? What were their beliefs? Were there any tragic events? Has
there been any bloodshed that pollutes the land in the area? Are
there any areas of repeated tragedy (e.g. Van Stadens Bridge
suicides)? Ask God to reveal the true foundations of your city.
-
Are
there any legends that pertain to the area?
top
PHYSICAL
FACTORS
-
Does
or did the city have specific entrances (e.g. the harbour). The
church must take possession of the entrances in Gods name, denying
entry to any demonic activity.
-
The
same applies to specific institutions, such as schools. Parents and
teachers should pray at the entrances to close the gates to
addiction, sexual sins, etc.
-
Where
are the squatter camps? They are always sites of needy people and
there is almost always spirits of death, destruction, rape, poverty,
addiction, etc. over them.
-
Make
an inventory of the parks, monuments, archaeological sites, statues,
major institutions (social, judicial, religious, etc.), churches,
places of Satanism, high places.
-
Establish
where the rivers, dams and lakes are, as they are often sites of
water spirit worship.
-
See
if there are an unusual number of bars, sex shops, etc. in an area.
-
Are
there any areas of particularly high addiction (alcoholism,
gambling, drugs)
-
Is
there a pattern to any cult or New Age centres?
-
Map
out all the locations identified using colour codes.
-
Look
for patterns in the demographics and socio-economic conditions of
the region.
top
SPIRITUAL
FACTORS
-
These
are the most important as they reveal the real cause behind all the
symptoms in the other two areas of research.
-
The
spiritual researchers must be spirit-filled people who are gifted in
their ability to hear from God. They must turn to intense prayer to
know the mind of Christ and to receive revelation from God on the
spiritual situation of the area.
-
The
following questions can help the research but cannot replace
spending quality time in the presence of God.
- Are
the heavens open in this place?
-
What
are the citys main gods? Who do the political, business, and other
community leaders worship?
-
Is
it easy to pray here or is there oppression? Can the cover of
darkness be discerned? What are its dimensions?
-
Do
some areas have a different spiritual atmosphere to others? What are
the boundaries between these areas?
-
Do
we recognise any power or principality in the information from God.
-
Establish
who the Strongmen in your city are.
The
reference to a strongman and not a strong spirit or power is a
description of the interaction between humans and the spiritual
realm. Satan chooses people who will follow him and raises them to
positions of power on earth where they can influence many people.
These
strongmen are assigned to principalities and powers in order to
serve their purposes. These strongmen maintain direct and intimate
links with the angels of darkness. God calls us to break down the
powers and principalities behind these strongmen and the lines of
communication between them and the dark angels, but not to curse the
strongmen themselves, as they are still Gods creation.
Spiritual
mapping helps identify the strongmen in our communities. It may
direct us directly to a territorial prince or power, or to a human
who Satan is using, or to a corrupt social structure.
top
PROCESSING
THE INFORMATION
-
At
some point there is going to have to be a synthesis of all the facts
and bits of information that have been gathered. This is job of the
co-ordinator and the pastoral leaders.
-
The
synthesis process will be an ongoing one that must be flexible and
be goal driven.
-
There
must be a mechanism that allows rapid processing of information that
can then be passed onto the intercessors or used at prayer meetings.
-
There
must be an infrastructure in place to deal with the fruit of the
spiritual mapping, or else it will be a wasted effort.
top
previous
page index |
