What Defiles the Land (and what to do about it)

“I brought you into a fertile land
    to eat its fruit and rich produce.
But you came and defiled my land
    and made my inheritance detestable.” Jer 2:7

by Melissa Nordell

Land can either be blessed or defiled. There are many scriptures which tell us what types of sin defile the land. As intercessors working on transformation of our cities, our countries, and even our own four square blocks, we have the authority and ability to remove these defilements through intercession and spiritual warfare by the power and Blood of Jesus Christ.

We do this first by asking the Lord to show us what has specifically defiled the land. Then we ask for direction as to how to remove this defilement. As Jesus ONLY did what He saw the Father do (John 5:19) and ONLY what He heard the Father say (John 12:49), how much more we need to yield to the Lord and ask Him what to do about a certain defilement. This is the way we do warfare safely and effectively.

First, make sure your own home is not defiled by any idols, witchcraft items, occult objects, dream catchers, evil artwork or jewelry, and any artwork from foreign countries or artisans which have put a curse on the item. Remove these objects, destroy them; then anoint and stake your home. See my blogs regarding staking: https://strategicprayercommandmin.com/2019/03/11/staking-and-anointing-the-land-buildings/

In following the Lord’s direction, the Lord directs intercessors to repent for what caused the defilement. “Un-defiling,” or redeeming the land means we stand in the gap for the people who committed the sin, for “they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34), and ask the Lord for forgiveness for those sins. As believers and as human beings on this earth, we are well able to repent for any atrocity that took place and to remit sins.

The Lord might also direct the group to place anointed oil over the perimeter, pour anointed oil on or remove an idol (depending on the safety and legality of doing that), draw a spiritual line in the dirt or walkway, travail against the sin, blow the shofar, break all ungodly covenants and soul ties, declare scriptures over the land, declare that Jesus is Lord over it, and anything else the Lord says to do. Next, we plead the Blood of Jesus over the land and break the curses. A group of believers can always anoint their shoes with oil (pray over the oil first), and walk the land where the defilement took place as well.

One Redeeming Land Story

Always look for objects or drawings on the land that may give you a clue as to the defilement, that which could potentially bring continued defilement, and that which assures that you are on the right track. Once while staking the land around a church with my intercessor’s class, we walked around the perimeter interceding, worshipping, and staking the four corners of the property. One intercessor in the lead on the walk saw witchcraft markings carved into the sidewalk. The markings indicated anarchy and a claim to the property from a witch’s coven. This explained some things that were happening against the church.

This church had a history of witchcraft attacks like this. It indicated to us that we were certainly following the Lord’s lead. We were glad to see these markings so that we could eradicate them and break the curses. There are many scriptures in the Old Testament regarding how to cleanse the Temple which we should continue today for our churches, inside and out, which in turn cleanses the land.

Also, sometimes it takes several times of walking the land to eradicate the darkness – not just once. At this same church we did a similar walk about a year later and found more witchcraft markings. As we walked, another prophetic intercessor saw in the spirit realm that someone was hanged years before in a certain spot and we discerned from the Lord that this was true. We then repented for that occurrence as well, anointed the land again and made declarations as led by the Lord. Undoubtedly, the hanging was the initial root for defilement that led to the open door for witches to curse the land, the church, and the pastor further. It was necessary to “take the layers off” with repeated spiritual warfare and activation to get to that root so it would never occur again.

As stated before, we always must act on what our Commander-in-Chief, Holy Spirit, says to do. Then we replace the defilement with good, Godly things like a surrender to God, salvations, open hearts to the love of Jesus, health and healing to the land and its people, prosperity in all Godly aspects, unity, the love of Jesus to visit all on that land, Godly changes in government and in each of the 7 Kingdom Mountain structures, etc.

A most important factor in the spiritual realm on previously defiled land is to replace with the opposite of that defilement. For instance, if there was innocent blood shed on the land (and breaking of the defilement curse has taken place first), we can declare a replacement with things like God’s love, respect for others, healing, value of life, and forgiveness after redeeming the land. If there was murder on that land, replace with life, healing and the Presence of Jesus Christ. If there was abuse of farmworkers, natives or slaves, replace with healed race relations, unity, equality, healthy crops with big yields, and for those people groups to come to Christ. If there were idols in the land, replace with God’s Presence and submission to the Lord, for instance. You get the point.

Plus, we always dedicate the land back to God. Other redeeming acts we can do on the land are blowing the shofar and worshipping God there. We can take communion on the land, bless the land, speak Godly healing decrees with scriptures, dance in worship over the land, make an altar unto the Lord, and bind and cast out evil spirits on the land; all to redeem it. However, we do this as led by the Lord in each instance.

We should also stake the land which is possible even if we do not own that piece of land, since we are not taking the land for ourselves but dedicating it back to the Lord. See my blog with info on staking and scriptures for staking at: https://strategicprayercommandmin.com/2019/03/11/staking-and-anointing-the-land-buildings/ and: https://strategicprayercommandmin.com/2019/03/11/sample-staking-scriptures/

Even though most scriptures regarding land defilement are in the Old Testament, this does not mean that it is already taken care of by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It does mean that by that same death, burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus, we have been given all power and authority as believers to take care of these defilements. We need to heal the land as commissioned and directed by the Lord. We can easily see that defilement has brought curses on our land, that all are not saved, that there are crimes and ungodliness on our lands, etc., which means that it needs kingdom work by the saints to make the wrongs right – by the power of His precious shed Blood. Jesus died to give us these keys to rectify sins which defile our lands that were committed in the past by human pride, negligence, error, and disobedience by the unsaved as well as by Christians.

Defiled land affects us all. The Bible says that it causes drought, desolation, pests, crops to die or to be unhealthy and weak, fear, illness, depression, death, darkness, crime, poverty, racial disparity, and disunity; not to mention the darkness that hinders people from receiving Christ as personal Savior and Lord. When we remove spiritual darkness, more light is available so people can see and feel the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.

In one act of transformational intercession in my classes, we heard from the Lord that abortion in that area had caused rampant poverty due to the fact that abortion is murder of the innocent and bloodshed on the land. This is how transformational intercession works: we inquire of the Lord as to what brought curses and what defiled the land, then do what He says to rectify that. This results in people automatically being drawn to the Lord as the darkness is dissipated. This is how transformation worked in Hemet, CA as shown in the first Transformations video of which I was a part. Many came to the Lord as land was redeemed.

To find out what defilement took place in the distant past or even recent past, some of the facts might be known by local residents, and some might be found in the history of the area. Older residents are a great source. Librarians, libraries, and museums are a wonderful source as well, and sometimes so is the internet. However, be careful and realize the computer and books might not have true facts. We must always be prophetically discerning. Some history is more difficult to find but all requires inquiring of the Lord. The best and quickest way to do this is to let the Lord lead. Because some things happened before written history and because archeology has not found certain facts, we must rely on Him. We always must go deeper.

A Transformation Story

A great deal of information is not found in history books as in one transformation project in Hemet, California. Three of the intercessor group at our church (myself and two others) were hearing from the Lord that there was defilement in the area close to the church which occurred from Aztecs. In our research, we could not find any history of Aztecs being that far north, no historian had that information, and there was no archeological evidence. But God knows.

We kept hearing from the Lord, though, that this was the case, and we knew the Lord was calling us to do something about it in order to work more transformation of the city and county. The amazing thing was that each of us at first did not know that anyone else was getting these same instructions from the Lord until one night after my Thursday classes at that church when the Lord opened to each of us that He had given the same assignment to each of us individually. We decided to keep it to ourselves until we interceded more and met together the next week.

However, that very Sunday night, Cindy Jacobs came to speak at our church and in the middle of speaking rapid-fire on something entirely different, she spoke these words: “There are a few of you here that are hearing from the Lord that there is defilement on this land from the ancient past that no one really knows about. You are on the right track in erasing what the Aztecs did in this area, in fact it is very nearby” as she pointed back to her right behind the church. We were astounded, of course, as we each had not told anyone. If Cindy Jacobs had not spoken these words, we might have been at a standstill because we could not find any information in the natural; but now we knew we were doing the right thing.

We had work to do so we went to the area Cindy Jacobs had pointed to behind the church where we were led to nearby outcroppings of boulders as we interceded to find out what actually happened near the church. The Lord showed us that the Aztecs had sacrificed babies and women on the huge rock outcroppings, throwing them down to their death. When we were there interceding, in the natural we noticed that there was drug paraphernalia within those rocks as well as witchcraft instruments and empty alcohol bottles – all most probably because the killings of humans there defiled that land for thousands of years. Defilement will continue, just as curses do, until the land has been healed and redeemed by believers by the power of the Blood of Jesus.

A Transformation Story in Fresno County, CA

In my intercession classes in Fresno, the Lord had directed us to go to the “Big Fresno Fair” to find out what the Lord wanted us to tackle in transformational intercession there. I could not imagine what we would find at the fair. But I soon found out there was a museum on the property. We found all sorts of history regarding defilements and sin on that area’s land.

The first and foremost sin that the Lord wanted us to erase was found at a booth there in that museum which had an effigy of a man that looked like a priest. There was not much explanation in this booth which contained a papier-mache statue, and all was in Portuguese. However, the exhibit did show that there was a parade in this man’s honor. In the Fresno area there is a large Portuguese population. I asked several born-again Christian friends of Portuguese descent who said they never heard of it.

I searched on the internet and the only thing I found about this “S. Elias Profeta” (meaning Saint Elijah the Prophet, in Portuguese) effigy was videos on YouTube of parades on an Azores island where a paper-mache idol of Elijah is paraded by townspeople down the streets at the same time each year. The parade in the Azores was in the same month as the parades in the Fresno area. On the island people sang and threw flowers at this homemade idol much like the one on display. People kissed the idol, bowed to it, and touched the statue believing that they would be healed. Many brought their children to kiss the statue.

And why was this so important to the Lord that we must eradicate this sin in the spirit realm off the land? Because the Bible says to have “no other gods” as part of the 10 Commandments found in Ex 20:3. There are many other scriptures as well about worshipping idols and people in the Bible and we certainly are not to worship Elijah. Healing does not come from a paper-mache idol but comes from the Lord. This defilement was profoundly serious to the Lord and the first thing in that point in time that the Lord wanted cleansed off that land.

So, in class we repented of these parades that were celebrated in Fresno County and for the worship of this idol, the latest we believe was in 1929. As a class we continued to follow the Lord’s direction regarding what to do about this. We discovered in prophetic intercession that poverty, sickness, and disease were the bad “fruits” of these ungodly parades and idol worship.

So, as in any transformational intercession and spiritual warfare, follow the Lord’s lead, then always bind backlash at the end. (For binding backlash see https://strategicprayercommandmin.com/2018/09/11/binding-backlash-how-and-why/ )

Here is a list of things that the Bible indicates defile or spiritually pollute the land:

1. Bloodshed of innocent men and women, babies. This includes murder, wars, tribal wars, abuse, beatings, and abortion. Check whether there was slavery with its abuse in the area. Check to see if there were lynchings or hangings. Look for tribal wars and trickery. The more cruel the atrocities, the worse the defilement. This can include abuse and killing of animals in an unrighteous way. Read Gen 4:10-12, Deut 21:1-9, Ps 106:38, Ezek 36:16-18
2. Sexual sin, immorality. Read all of Lev 18. Ezra 9:11
3. Worshipping idols and false gods (includes freemasonry). Idols can include Mary, the mother of Jesus as an idol, Buddha, Hare Krishna, Native or indigenous people idols or pagan instruments, ancestor worship, ungodly statues and false gods. Jewelry, signs and objects of idol worship or false gods can be embedded under the ground which God can reveal in order to remove or anoint with cleansing oil. Look at local monuments and where people gather and historical markers. People can be idols as well. Ex 20:1-5, Ezek 36:16-18, Jer 50:38, Jer 3:8-9, Ps 106:38
4. Disunity of churches, ministers, and Christians. Sin amongst the churches and includes sin of the pastors. Matt 12:25
5. Not helping the poor and oppression of the poor. Ezek 16:49-50, Isa 10:1-2
6. Being against Israel; antisemitism. Gen 12:3
7. Witchcraft (including palm reading, Santeria, witch and warlock covens, divination, horoscopes, anything occult). The Bible states that witchcraft defiles the person but it also defiles the land. So-called “haunted houses’ inhabited by demons can effect a whole city block or area. Look for occult symbols on the land, on buildings, and artwork. Deut 18:9-12
8. Dedications of property and land to ungodly things. Land and businesses have often been dedicated to freemasonry, religious groups, satanism, and often hidden to the untrained eye.
9. Breaking covenants with God and man (including against Native First Peoples especially). 2 Sam 21:1, Isa 24: 5-6, Jer 3:1-3, Isa 10:1-2
10. Robbing God and/or people.
11. Dishonor and disrespect of people – especially ministers, women, races and people groups. This includes dishonoring the weak and less fortunate. People are loved and special to God no matter what.
12. Cursing the land or cursing something on the land (people, including Christians, often curse cities like San Francisco, New Orleans, or the State of California, for example). Prov 18:21, Prov 12:6, Prov 15:2
13. Not taking care of dead bodies in the correct manner. Deut 21:22-23
14. Certain sexual and marriage laws. Deut 24:1-4
15. Enacting laws that are unjust and oppressive , withholding justice. Isa 10:1-2