Q&A Forum

by Francis MacNutt
Spring 1997

A Binding Prayer For Protection

• In the name of Jesus Christ, by the power of his cross and blood, we bind the spirits, powers and forces of the earth, the underground, the air, the water, the fire, the netherworld and the satanic forces of nature.
• We rebuke any curses, hexes, or spells sent against us and send them directly to Jesus for him to deal with as he will. Lord, we ask you to bless our enemies by sending your Holy Spirit to lead them to repentance.
• We bind all interplay, interaction and communication of evil spirits.
• We claim the protection of the shed blood of Jesus Christ over — (add people, places and things you want protected here).
• Thank you for your protection, Lord. Amen

Q: Why, when you are praying for protection or deliverance, do you use the terms "spirits of earth, air, fire, water and of the netherworld and of nature?" Where did you find those categories of spirits?

A: These ancient categories used in deliverance prayers sum up all the areas of creation where spirits seem to lodge or come from in order to harm us. The ancient understanding of science was that there were four basic elements that make up the created world we see around us: "earth, air, fire and water." Today, we have a more sophisticated, complex understanding of the elements that make up the universe. Fifty years ago in college I learned the Periodic Table of elements, which kept getting enlarged as scientists kept discovering more and more elements. Now scientists are discovering something of the mysteries of the subatomic world and of various force fields. But that gets too complicated for most of us as we try to make up an inclusive prayer, so our deliverance prayer is just a very simple way of listing all the places where evil spirits may lodge.

This is something like Christian counselors using the ancient temperamental categories of "sanguine, choleric, melancholic and phlegmatic." Even though we now have more complex categories, such as the 16 types of the Myers–Briggs personality inventory, there is still a great deal of truth in dividing our temperaments into those four ancient categories. And it's a lot easier to remember.

The other two categories in our prayer; "of the netherworld and of nature" refer to:

a) of the "netherworld" (or "underworld") is the same as Hell. Evil spirits that dwell in Hell are technically called "demons." These demons, in general, are more destructive and powerful than ordinary evil or unclean spirits.

b) of "nature" this term would include any spirits that come from any part of the natural world not included by "earth, air, fire and water."

So when we pray to cast out or bind off the Influence of evil spirits In these six areas of creation, we are just covering all the bases in a very simple way.

In no way do we want to get into a kind of legalism that implies you have to pray with these particular categories or your prayer won't work. Our prayer is just an example of how you can pray, but if you come up with another prayer, which is better for you, that's fine.

A further reason for using these six categories is that these are the categories of spirits used by the Satanists themselves when they call upon evil spirits or demons and send them out to harass and attack people. In using these same terms, we are directly counteracting the evil that Satanic covens are attempting to direct against us. By the way, we learned this prayer from Fr. Richard McAlear and Betty Brennan, who have had extensive experience in praying for deliverance. Incidentally, Fr. McAlear had finished the manuscript for a book on deliverance when a mysterious fire started in his office while he was away and destroyed all he had done — A "spirit of fire"?

Perhaps it was the evil spirits riling up the wind and waves that Jesus was rebuking when he calmed the storm. Judith had an interesting experience once when she was praying for a group using our deliverance prayer with its six categories. There was a man present who was simply relaxing while he listened to the prayer. Suddenly, when Judith uttered the word "netherworld," he felt the powerful surge of some force within him — a demon who recognized the prayer's authority and fled.

Francis MacNutt is a Founding Director and Executive Committee member of CHM.