by Melissa Nordell
The Lord has previously revealed to us how people can be held back from their future and God’s intention for their lives when they carry various forms of grief too long; but grief is not only from a person dying. It may be grief from a divorce, death of a loved one, changes in health and body image, loss of a job or career, attacks on finances, having an abortion, church offense, or many other things. However, the Lord has revealed that land can grieve for similar reasons as well, holding people who live on that land back from their futures. But through Jesus, land and people can both be set free and redeemed by the Holy Spirit.
This is fact and not metaphor since there is a true spiritual connection between land and humanity…and their corresponding grief as shown in the Word of God. There are many scriptures that show us that it is not only people that mourn; but as Joel 1:10 (NKJV) says:
“The field is wasted,
The land mourns;
For the grain is ruined,
The new wine is dried up,
The oil fails.”
Of course, this scripture records the prophet Joel talking about how the land mourned due to the sin of the people by rejecting God – and not by natural circumstances. This resulted in crops being destroyed and the land becoming desolate, lifeless. When the land mourns, the people of that land also mourn. Later in verse 12 of this same chapter, it states that there was no joy there as well.
Land remains in mourning unless the sins are repented of and the land cleansed by the Blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. This must be done by Christians who know the power and authority Jesus died to give us. Desolation, lawlessness, joylessness, financial ruin and lack of salvations occur in areas where there have been such sins as: turning away from God, murder, mistreatment of people, slavery, idol worship, ungodly war, abortion and many other transgressions prohibited by God. Sometimes natural disasters cause the land to mourn too, especially if there has been death.
And keep in mind that abortion is murder, which always affects the land and people that live on that land. Once in teaching intercession for a church, the Lord gave us the assignment to intercede against poverty in the area. One of the intercessors had a verified word of knowledge that the root of poverty in that city was due to the many abortions; so we repented of these sins and cleansed the land. We did not realize that we needed to heal the land of its mourning (by the Blood of Jesus) so the task was not complete at first.
Often the information we obtain in the library or on the internet does not share many things that happened in history. For example, in another class working on finding the root of an attack on a church, the intercessors discovered that there had been a hanging on the property. This information was not found in a book but revealed by the Holy Spirit to the group. Obviously, that circumstance of the hanging grieved the Lord and the people, which caused the land to still be in mourning. Because the atrocity had never been rectified by the Blood of Jesus, it resulted in that church and the surrounding area still being adversely affected by this darkness. Later, that land was redeemed from its mourning, cleansed, and curses broken.
So called “haunted houses” are often sites of murders or mistreatment of people but the reason some say they are “haunted” is because the mourning for whatever occurred was not eradicated, dealt with and healed. Houses and land can experience deliverance just as well as people can. When people carry grief, we get to the root of that despair, plead the Blood of Jesus over them and ask the Lord to heal them of that grief. We do the same for land that mourns.
In this wonderful time of rededication of the land back to God, it is imperative that we follow the Holy Spirit to redeem land that is mourning from sin and death so people can be set free. We must go deeper than we have before and seek the Lord Himself for restoration. I had never heard anyone redeeming the land of its grief; but the Lord gave scriptures that prove these facts.
Amos 8:8 (NKJV) says:
“Shall the land not tremble for this,
And everyone mourn who dwells in it?
All of it shall swell like the River,
Heave and subside
Like the River of Egypt.”
In the above scripture, God was speaking to Amos about the sin of Israel which had become great, causing the land to mourn. The prophet foretells that the land would rise (prosper) but then fall dry and desolate due to sin and resultant mourning of the land – like the River Nile rises then falls dry, affecting everyone in the area.
Also, Hosea 4:2-3 (NKJV) states:
“By swearing and lying,
Killing and stealing and committing adultery,
They break all restraint,
With bloodshed upon bloodshed.
Therefore the land will mourn;
And everyone who dwells there will waste away
With the beasts of the field
And the birds of the air;
Even the fish of the sea will be taken away.”
Sin has such a deep-rooted effect on the land which lasts until repentance occurs, curses are broken and the land redeemed and rededicated to the Lord. If not, the land becomes dry and desolate, crime is rampant, people lose their joy; and sickness, poverty and depression abound. But the worst of all is that people become lost and headed for hell since the evil darkness upon that land overcomes them. A broken society is left where people war against each other with no unity or purpose, continuing to go deeper in their sin leading to a void of the gospel with increasing darkness.
Isa 24:4-8 (NIV) is another passage explaining the effect of defilement of the land and the resultant curses:
“The earth dries up and withers,
the world languishes and withers,
the heavens languish with the earth.
5 The earth is defiled by its people;
they have disobeyed the laws,
violated the statutes
and broken the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore a curse consumes the earth;
its people must bear their guilt.
Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up,
and very few are left.
7 The new wine dries up and the vine withers;
all the merrymakers groan.
8 The joyful timbrels are stilled,
the noise of the revelers has stopped,
the joyful harp is silent.”
Since Jesus took the keys to death, hell and the grave and gave us authority on the earth by His Blood, we have the power to break these curses and redeem the land by repenting for the sins and restoring the covenants that were broken. Then we can anoint the land with anointed oil, call for the redemptive purposes of the land to be restored, plead the Blood of Jesus on that land, worship on the land and lift it up to God, do prophetic acts as directed by the Holy Spirit, stake the land and rededicate it back to God. Over the years, we have had wonderful success in doing this, seeing people set free and even churches uniting as a result.
There are so many areas in America that need intercession for mourning to be removed and healed; small and great. Unrighteous hangings, internment camps, slavery and scorching the land in the South, killings and mistreatment of Native peoples and other groups, unnecessary brushfires, the Trail of Tears, antisemitism, corruption, ungodly labor practices, greed and killings during the Gold Rush in California, mass murders on 9/11, unrighteous laws enacted, and school or church shootings are just a few areas of lands that mourn which need to be rectified. Some work has been done in this area to heal the land; however, most often it takes the Lord’s revelation as there are so many smaller nefarious acts that most people do not know. And specifically healing the land from mourning has not occurred. And do not neglect the need to redeem land where there has been sin in the church such as sexual failures of leaders, money-making schemes, greed, legalism, turning away those who do not look “right,” and misuse of the Word of God.
Let the Lord direct you and others to areas which need redemption without doing anything in the flesh because the Lord says: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places,” in Eph 6:12 (KJV).
As warriors, we have broken curses and evil ties, walked the land in prayer walks, re-dug the wells and cisterns, pleaded the Blood of Jesus and anointed the land for other reasons but have not cleansed and healed land that mourns. There is a difference. It has been proven that this type of transformational intercession which heals the land brings freedom of souls, people to Christ, and lasting revival.
Especially in this year of rededicating the land back to God, let us do all we can to heal the land that is in mourning; thereby bringing kingdom change and souls to Jesus Christ with God’s light abounding instead of darkness and evil. A recurring scripture that has been used during this rededication season is 2 Chron 7:14 (KJV); however, this time let us emphasize the last word of the verse:
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their LAND.”
Strategic Prayer Command Ministry 