The Visit of a Witch, and a Modest Prayer Meeting

John C. Rankin

(January 17, 2013)

In the spring of 1993 I had opportunity to visit with a pastor in the southeastern portion of the state. He told me about a remarkable encounter he had recently by a witch who approached him after a worship service. She announced herself and said that in New London County there were three covens of witches assigned to curse every pastor who also resides there, and that there was at least one coven dedicated to curse every pastor statewide. She also said that the curses had three priorities; first that the pastor would fall into theological error; second, into financial ruin; and third, into sexual sin. She then left.

I found this amazing. Since when do witches come into the open and announce their agendas? Since the devil is described as a lion on the prowl by the apostle Peter, it would seem that those in the occult would only risk open terrain a) if they were utterly confident in easy pickings, or b) if they were desperate for a meal. Was this public confrontation a sign of increased pluck on the part of occultists, believing Connecticut is in their control? Or was it a sign that they sensed a rumble under the templates of the culture that God’s Spirit was about to move, and this was an attempted bravado seeking to cover fear?

That June, I also started a modest series of “warfare prayer” meetings at St. James Episcopal Church in Winsted. This term, used by C. Peter Wagner, in a book entitled the same, refers to the context of intercessory prayer relative to strategic demonic powers that seek ultimately to control cities and nations – just as Daniel encountered the “prince of Persia” and the “prince of Greece.” We prayed concerning the specific dynamics of Connecticut’s spiritual territory from the northwest hills, and that as the reactive curses of the spearhead were aimed from there at Hartford and down to New London County, we wanted to pray in the same direction. We prayed that a) demonic power would be broken, so that b) the blessings of religious, political and economic liberty for all people in the state would be manifest.

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