A
Native View of Spiritual Mapping
Qaumaniq Suuqiina and Dr.
Suuqiina
Recently we have received several
emails from our Native Brothers and Sisters who are angered by what is taking
place on our land in the name of Spiritual Mapping.
It seems that intercessors groups and prophetic groups in the majority church
are enlisting believers to:
1. Identify spiritual strongholds (sins and sin patterns) in areas of the country
2. Prayer walk those areas and pray that those strongholds be broken
3. Release spiritual blessings through so called prophetic acts
We believe that our land has been
defiled and that it is in need of healing as much as we as individuals are in
need of healing. We have used the tool of Mapping and have seen the Lord use it
in mighty ways. At the same time we have seen abuses of the tool that have left
others confused, angered and offended.
In our book we have written the following defilements on the land as:
1. Idolatry- Jeremiah 16:18
2. Immorality- Lev. 18:22-28
3. Bloodshed- Numbers 35:33
4. Broken Treaties-Isaiah 24: 1, 3-6
These defilements have been committed
by the whole human race. Only one man was without sin and His name is Yeshua
(Jesus).
In the book we speak about Ancient Defilements (those done by ancestors of all
cultures and Contemporary Defilements (those which are done in recent and
present times.)
We as Native people can repent for defilement of the land that our ancestors
committed just like Nehemiah, Ezra, and Daniel did in the Bible. Likewise the
immigrants can repent for what their ancestors have done to defile the land
since they came to these shores. Both of us, as people groups can repent for
what has been and is being done now and in the recent past.
What seems to be happening in the majority church is a preoccupation with native
defilements (real and contrived) and a lack of attention to immigrant ancient
and contemporary defilements. This is unfortunate and gives Spiritual Mapping a
bad name.
Spiritual Mapping is just a tool. Like the drum, it is neither evil nor good.
Instead, the heart of the person that is using the tool is what is the issue and
the heart will decide whether that too will be used for good or for evil.
Also there is presumption from the Majority Church. Many are speaking out on
things like the drum, the totem pole, etc that they have little knowledge about.
They have taken what has been taught them by their spiritual fathers and mothers
affected by paternalism and are calling things that are clean to the Lord as
though they are unclean. This is just ignorance and arrogance at its best. It is
faulty teaching and we must call it as such.
However, we do not want to stop using an affective tool in the hands of a person
with a good heart and the Lord just because some people are using the tool in
arrogant and abusive ways.
Spiritual Mapping is an affective strategy of Spiritual Warfare. It is only one
such tool that the Lord can use. Protocol is another tool that can be used as
affectively as Mapping and we would even go so far to say that in order for
Spiritual Mapping to be affective that one must utilize Protocol (Warfare by
Honor) first. Protocol is the act of giving honor where it is due. That begins
with acknowledging that the host people were here as the original inhabitants of
the land and they are due that recognition and honor.
This battle will not be won by the Majority church alone. If they do not
recognize the spiritual authority that the host people have on the land where
God placed them and humbly ask for the help of the host people, the spiritual
atmosphere in their areas will remain in the same shape or worse.
In Acts. 17:26 it says, "And He made from one blood every nation of men to
dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times
and boundaries of their habitation, so that they should seek the Lord, in the
hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each
one of us."
God placed the host people of the land in the areas that they should reside. He
gave them stewardship on that land and in so doing they were given spiritual
authority on that land. Just because the land was taken from them by man does
not mean that they ever lost the spiritual authority on that land. When God
opens a door, no man can shut it and it would be presumptuous to even try to do
so.
The majority church does not operate in this revelation or wisdom. This is why
the majority church can have these meetings without consulting or including the
host people of the land.
One of the reasons that Native people continue to be "turned off" by
much of what they see in the church is that it still seems to deal with land
issues and the same spirit that took the land from the native people in the
first place. It is regretful that many times Spiritual Mapping, a tool that is
useful and helpful, is being used in the same manner that other tools were used
in the past in dealing with our Native ancestors.
Intercessor teams tromping all over land in their area without going through the
gatekeepers in their area in the name of God is invasive and ineffective. The
gatekeepers in an area are the Host people on the land, the governmental leaders
and the spiritual leaders (native and non-native.) Just because someone does not
know Christ does not mean He does not have authority. Those leaders are also due
honor due for the authority that they have been given in their tribe or nation.
It says in the word of God that God places people in authority. It is
presumptuous to go into an area and claim ground for Christ in a way that usurps
authority, as Christ Himself would not honor that spirit in a person. He was a
man under authority and was a man of honor. It says in Revelation that "He
stands at the door and knocks and if any man would answer the door that He would
come in." That is His Protocol concerning entering into peoples lives and
if He, as the owner of all of us, would not barge in and take over how can we
bear His name and trample all over people's lives, beliefs, and dignity? Many
things that the Majority church is excited about have an adverse effect on us,
as Natives. For example, the Jabez Prayer, the book that has been released that
the church is so excited about. There are now T-Shirts, coffee mugs, pens etc.
all with the Jabez Logo. Most of our Euro-American friends can have little idea
at how this turns us off. The book is about a prayer that Jabez in the Bible
prayed to God asking for the Lord to enlarge Jabez' territory. After he prayed
Jabez was honored by God and God gave him more land.
Although God honored Jabez in this way, we believe that it is dangerous to claim
scriptures in a haphazard way without being led individually by the Lord to do
so. It would be helpful if the Majority Church could see, that for us, as
natives, this just feels like more of the same…"Give us more land,
God." We as Natives want to ask," What have you done with the land
(spiritual and physical) that the Lord has already given to you, are you
stewarding that land well.?" If the wrong spirit is at work in this we can
experience it as business as usual. It can appear that the church is just like
the immigrants that came to our shores and that there is always a quest for
more, an insatiable desire to claim more land. Just because this is cloaked in
God talk, it does not mean that it is necessarily what God really wants.
Likewise, it is difficult for Majority church intercessors and prophets to
understand what it is like for the Native peoples to read and see the
Euro-American church going out on all the land calling down blessing on that
land without any regard to the atrocities that were done to the native peoples
on that land. It is equally disturbing to hear about the spiritual acts they are
doing in order to reverse so-called curses that the Euro-church says the native
people have placed on that land. It grieves the hearts of the Natives and it
grieves the heart of the Father. It is very much like being raped or abused by
an individual and then seeing that same individual in the midst of preaching the
gospel or serving as a respected leader in the church without them ever
repenting for their abusive and destructive acts. It is difficult to place much
trust in that situation.
We pray that the church will come to the realization that many of the horrible
things done to our people were done using the name of the Lord. Words alone will
not impress our people. They will need for the words and the actions to match
up.
We often hear the prophets crying out for repentance in our land due to abortion
and homosexuality but rarely if ever do we hear about repenting for what was
done and still being done to the host people of the land. A genocide occurred on
this land. Nothing less than the truth will set this nation free. And blaming
the victim, a tactic used in abuse cases all over the U.S.A., may fool a jury
but it will not fool the living God. It is called blame shifting. Cain tried it,
it didn't wash in the face of the blood of Abel crying out to God from the
ground.
When the host people are ignored it is bad enough but when they are blamed alone
for the defilements on this land it is absurd and ludicrous.
We get email after email about how the native people placed curses on the land
and that is why of nation is under a curse. Many of these native prophets were
not cursing the land but instead were proclaiming what they were seeing in the
future very much like Jeremiah did. However, in all the talk about the curses
that the native people supposedly put on the land we are yet to receive an email
that quotes this verse,
Deut.27:17 Cursed is he who moves his neighbors boundary stone
When will the Majority church deal with
this scripture?
The moving of the host people's boundary markers must be dealt with by humble
people that are willing to reach out to the host people and ask for forgiveness
for the robbery of the native peoples inheritance and the inheritance of their
children and grandchildren. The next step would be to ask for their wisdom,
their help and their blessing. We also must realize that God gave one nation a
word to go into a land and posses land that belonged to another nation. This was
Israel and they were told to take the land belonging to the Canaanites. This is
the only time that the Lord in His word gives this directive to a nation. We
cannot go onto land and usurp authority from people in the name of God. We
cannot take a word given to Israel and through replacement theology, by
replacing ourselves in the promise to Israel, apply it to ourselves.
Our prayer is that the church would look into these acts that they are doing in
the name of God and see if they are based in the true spirit that Yeshua (Jesus)
operated from or if they are the same old "Lets take the land" spirit
that came over with the boats from Europe.
We also have heard the Euro-American church be somewhat "put-off" by
the anger that they see and hear coming from Native people. One thing that is
helpful for people to understand is that when a victim first begins to heal that
the first thing that needs to be taken back is their voice. Anger is a healthy
sign that a person is moving from the victim stage to the victor stage. We, as
individuals, can be angry at anything that Yeshua, himself, is angry about. You
had better believe that He is angry about what has happened all over the world
to the host people of the land and much of it done without His permission and
without His blessing although His name was used by those perpetrating against
the host people. We as natives, are loving, kind and generous. Our people never
saw themselves as owners of this land but instead they saw themselves as
stewards. The idea of "owning property" was foreign to them. Our
native ancestors and the native people today, are by nature, very trusting.
These two elements together, not owning the land and trusting others, were
positive aspects of the native character that were taken advantage of by the
immigrants and enabled them to take our land.
Many years have gone by since the land was originally taken, but the Lord is
quickening in the spirits of our people a new realization of our authority on
this land and the responsibility that The Lord has given to us. We do not take
that lightly. We also want to retain the trusting nature that we have and our
generosity but we do not want to have what the Lord has given us robbed again
for greed of personal gain. We will be glad to gift the people and the majority
church with our gifts that the Lord has given to us to steward but we will not
allow our spiritual land (vision, dreams, revelations, writings, art etc.) to be
taken from us. It is not righteous or just.
Having said this, we believe that it is possible to partner with the Majority
church to see our land healed. Both the immigrant and the native will need to
operate in humility in order for this to happen. It will not be a true
partnership if the Euro-American is in total control and only want a token
native to be available in name only. We are experiencing a handful of people
from the Majority church that have this revelation and are partnering with the
host people in their areas to see radical and lasting spiritual change.
When we get to be a part of this it is a beautiful and rewarding experiencing
and it makes the work that we do worthwhile.
Qaumaniq Suuqiina and Dr. Suuqiina