We hear your cry and we understand you feel surrounded and harassed on every side, in your neighborhood, among friends and family, in your workplace, and you feel that spiritual attacks are being sent against you through witchcraft and even through animals and insects. We take your distress seriously and we bring it before the Lord together, but we must also lovingly correct the way this prayer has been framed, because it does not align with how God calls us to fight spiritual battles.
Our hearts must be rebuked when we desire the bloody death and total destruction of people, even those we believe are our enemies. You have asked that your foes be plagued with the plagues of Egypt, that their blood be shed like an ocean, and that they be killed. This is not the spirit of Christ. The Word says in Romans 12:19, Don't seek revenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to God's wrath. For it is written, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord. And Jesus himself commands us in Matthew 5:44, But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you. We are not to curse people made in God's image or to ask God to slaughter them, but to ask Him to have mercy, to bring them to repentance, and to stop their evil if they do not repent, according to His perfect justice and timing.
We also need to understand true spiritual warfare. Ephesians 6:12 tells us, For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world's rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Our foes are not ultimately the neighbors whose names you listed, nor family or coworkers, but the spiritual forces behind witchcraft, sorcery, and evil tongues. When we make people the target of our hatred, we fight the wrong battle. God does hate witchcraft and sorcery, as in Exodus 22:18, but that law was given to the nation of Israel for civil judgment, not as a model for us to personally call down death on others. Likewise passages like Exodus 7:14-24, Exodus 8, Exodus 9, Exodus 10, Exodus 11, Exodus 12, Joshua 11:11, and Genesis 19:24 are historical accounts of God's sovereign judgment on hardened nations, not prayers we are to copy to ask for the violent death of our neighbors. And 1 Samuel 2:6 reminds us that it is the Lord who kills and makes alive, not us. Life and death are in His hands alone.
The Lord does hear the cry of the oppressed and He is our defender. Psalm 35:1 says, Contend, Yahweh, with those who contend with me. Fight against those who fight against me. Psalm 94:1-2 says, Yahweh, God to whom vengeance belongs, God to whom vengeance belongs, shine out. Rise up, you judge of the earth. Pay back the proud what they deserve. We can absolutely ask God to contend for us, to expose and nullify every work of witchcraft, fetish, magic and every evil sanctuary, to render it powerless and bring it to dust, and to protect us from fear and harm. But we must leave the judgment of persons to God and pray instead that He would either save them or stop their evil according to His will. God desires that all would be saved, as 1 Timothy 2:4 teaches, and 2 Peter 3:9 says He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
We also encourage you not to live in fear that every rat, cat, dog, bird, mosquito, cockroach or gecko is a spiritual attack sent against you. While witchcraft is real, God has not given us a spirit of fear. 1 John 4:4 assures us, You are of God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. Psalm 91:1 promises, He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. If you are in Christ, no curse can rest on you without God's permission, and He will be your refuge.
So we pray together now in the mighty name of Jesus, for it is only through Jesus that we have access to the Father, as John 14:6 says, Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.
We pray, Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we lift up this dear one who feels besieged and weary. We ask You to surround them with Your peace and protection, to cover them under Your wings and let no weapon formed against them prosper. We ask that every work of witchcraft, sorcery, fetish and magic directed against them be broken and rendered powerless by the blood of Jesus, and that any sanctuary or altar of evil be exposed and brought to nothing by Your power, not by our hand. We ask You to silence evil tongues and lying lips, to convict those who speak evil, and to bring them to repentance and salvation if it is Your will, or to restrain their harm if they refuse to repent. Forgive us for desiring revenge and bloodshed, and create in us a heart that loves our enemies and prays for those who persecute us. Deliver our brother or sister from fear, from torment, and from seeing an enemy in every creature, and fill their home and neighborhood with Your peace. Help them to walk in holiness, to put on the whole armor of God, to stay in prayer, in Your Word, and in fellowship with a faithful church and pastor for ongoing counsel and protection. We trust Your justice, Your mercy and Your timing, and we rest in the victory that Jesus has already won on the cross. In Jesus name we pray, amen.
We encourage you to continue to pray not for the destruction of people but for God's protection, for the defeat of spiritual wickedness, and for the salvation of souls. Seek peace with your neighbors where possible, as Romans 12:18 says, If it is possible, as much as it is up to you, be at peace with all men. Stay close to Jesus, abide in His Word, and trust that He who is in you is greater than any power in this world.