Have you noticed that the stronghold of witchcraft is intensifying in our world today? Have you personally experienced it? How can you recognize and overcome it? This Discerning the Times (DTT) post is the first one of a two-part series about witchcraft, and it addresses how Christian leaders on the frontlines of advancing the Kingdom of God deal with witchcraft attacks.
Here, the Rev. Dr. Brad Long interviews the Reverend Gary Hixson, who has quite a background regarding demonic strongholds involving witchcraft and decades of experience as an ordained Presbyterian minister. Brad and Gary met at a prayer mountain in California 30 years ago and at the PC U.S.A. General Assembly in Baltimore, MD as an intercessor.
Currently, Gary is the Spain and Mediterranean area Director of Christ for the City International. He is also the founder and director of Deep Healing International and El Faro, a residential counseling retreat and training center. He has taught in Mongolia, where they established a school of inner healing and deliverance, and founded the Liberty School in Switzerland with Wolfgang Simpson, the author of “Houses that Change the World.” Gary has been a member of Dr. Charles Kraft’s international healing ministry team for 14 years.
Over the years, he has worked extensively in Islamic countries in North and sub-Saharan Africa. Gary is training Christian leaders and pastors in animistic settings in Haiti and Madagascar. Gary has been focused on refugees in Finland who are believers with a Muslim background, doing seminars, personal crisis counseling, and a Discipleship Training School for the past five years.
I hope you will take the time to listen to this important video and read the following information.
The Intensifying Demonic Spirit of Witchcraft
Truly, we have never seen the demonic strongholds of witchcraft so intensified as in our world today! It’s so powerful, so accepted, and so mainstream. Sex used to be the selling feature, but now – it is satan. The culture has been heading towards this for decades, as we have a whole generation raised on Harry Potter. It appears that it’s even fashionable for girls to be witches, along with self-cursing and self-mutilation. No wonder there is a terrible rise in teen suicide and so on. So many people have moved to the occult, which is not a biblical worldview.
One of the things that witches do is speak curses. They also mutilate and shed blood. When you participate in these activities, you make a pact with the devil, the enemy of Christ, and it can open the door to demonization. Black Lives Matter, primarily a Marxist movement, professes to be a spiritual movement, but it is filled with the occult, witches, and pagan elements. And clearly, witchcraft has exponentially grown in the past few years! But why?
Here are Pastor Gary’s thoughts and personal story:
“During the seventies, the Godless postmodern Marxist position coming out of the majority of universities legitimized the idea that there were thousands of ways to interpret reality. Truth became relative and, at the same time, nonexistent, becoming whatever you wanted it to me. Chaos began to rule.
Next, a biblical Judeo-Christian worldview was seen on one hand as oppressive while irrelevant and pushed aside, even satanically scoffed at. This created a fertile seedbed for young people where each person could discover their own truth and their own spirituality. They were told, ‘You too can become like the gods.’ All of this was completely coordinated by the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Like most people of my age, I viewed spirituality as a smorgasbord of spiritual practices where I could pick and choose without any consequences. In my case, I was into yoga, Hinduism, Sufism, Carlos Castaneda, and New Age, but most of my friends were New Agers. I was groomed and almost pulled into a very high-level sorcery witchcraft organization by my girlfriend and a group of very powerful witches with a demonic leader who had direct contact with Satan in Seattle, Washington. Their temptation was that I could get beyond belief systems. That is when Jesus stepped in and saved my life.
I was not alone in these practices. We have seen an aggressive, demonically inspired renaissance of pagan religions and witchcraft, including Gaia and Wicca. Many mainline churches have even syncretized occult practices in church services like smudging, etc. The city of Ganse in Austria invited the Dali Llama to create a huge Mandela that, when destroyed, as he declared, released thousands of spirits into the region he had brought with him to Austria. We minister to a lot of Christians who have had abortions, which are actually human sacrifices, and we see a huge uptick in adultery and divorces. The family is under a huge attack. Witchcraft has exploded with the pervasiveness of BLM, the riots and destruction of last summer, along with the grown indoctrination of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in every institution in America from the White House to kindergartens and our military.”
Personal Witchcraft Attacks
In the video, Gary shared how he has personally experienced witchcraft attacks and how God has used this for good in some incredible ways:
“I know this sounds strange, but spiritual attacks are just normal for me. I am not afraid; the enemy is afraid of me. Even the demons I have confronted have said that they see God’s hand is on me. They know who I am and even know when I arrive in a new city. I am more famous with demons than with Christians. They have even named me. In Milan, they call me “big demon hunter.” And when my son was eight years old, they called him “little demon hunter.” They see Jesus on me, in me, one with me, and He backs me. They see me the way Jesus sees me, wearing the translucent armor of God. Jesus possesses me in perfect love, which casts out fear. I received much inner transformation through inner healing, which I call internal discipleship training to arrive where I am today.
Spiritual attacks are part and parcel of my position as a warrior for Jesus Christ, and warriors get into fights. I love it! Just last night, a witch appeared on our property in the spirit. She was using a form of astral projection. It was very easily dealt with in a five-second prayer of authority as she fled into the night, never to return so far.
In our inner healing and deliverance ministry, we assume that we are in the bullseye to the enemy. We are a huge territorial and regional threat to the enemy; naturally, we are his targets. He is my target. I am here on earth to destroy the works of the devil and to set captives free, to imitate Jesus. Jesus was attacked, and we should not expect anything different, for He told us such. Jesus grows us through opposition, and you win by fighting.
My favorite prayer is, ‘If this is from the enemy, stop it!’ If the problem subsides, well, there you go, intel. We live behind enemy lines, always emersed in spiritual warfare. I always pray for a hedge of protection in the morning, night, and after every ministry session. Every time I get in a car, I pray for protection. We even prayed a hedge of protection over this video because we were attacked with a poor internet connection. “
So, how can you recognize and overcome personal spiritual attacks of witchcraft? And overcome them?
Normally you can spot witchcraft when things begin to go wrong or off-kilter. It can happen in your relationships or your finances. You can start to become irritable or even feel sick at some level. These attacks can happen gradually, subtlety, or even come suddenly like a glancing blow.
Most of the time, people will attribute what is going on to natural causes. But you need to know how to recognize these spiritual attacks of witchcraft so that you can overcome them. And here are some ways you can do this:
1 Cor 10:13 says, “God is faithful, so He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” And so, with His faithfulness, you can overcome too!
Discernment and Verification
Gary shared that he receives all his discernment from the Holy Spirit! God tells him precisely what is going on.
“Four years ago, I went through a huge demonic attack for four months. Every night all night long, it was like a firehose blast of pure evil against me, including death, murder, hatred, utter condemnation, curses, hopelessness, and witchcraft. I would pray out loud, ‘Satan, you cannot attack or touch my family. If you attack, you must come through me, and I do not let you pass.’ My family, for four months, was not touched at all. My wife slept at peace beside me. She would wake only to intercede for me. I had three pastors that ministered to me every day over Skype during this huge battle. Graham Cooke really helped me too. My days were prayers with tears.
One day while receiving inner healing over Skype with my James 5:16 partner presbyterian pastor Steve Frank, all of a sudden, I saw Jesus. He was pulling arrows out of my back and pushing them into the wounds of his hands. He did this dozens of times. Jesus said, ‘Gary, these are all the curses spoken by witches from every country in the world where you have been teaching and ministering inner healing and deliverance.’
These places included Mongolia, Costa Rica, India, Nepal, Madagascar, Mali, Algeria, Haiti, to name a few. Jesus continued, ‘You have been seeing only half the battle, which affected you. The other side of the battle has afflicted tremendous damage upon the enemy. I am taking you to a whole new ministry level.’ It was incredible. In the Spirit, He dressed me in a royal purple robe and put a crown on my head saying, ‘Good fight, good job, Gary.’ “
Prayer Battle Confirmations
Like Gary, you can also receive all your discernment from the Holy Spirit. God may be calling you into internal prayer battles like Gary described, but it’s important to remember… never do this alone! Make sure you have someone join in these intercessory prayer battles with you.
You should also know that one of the keys to these internal battles is to have objective verification and below are a few ways to do this.
- Often witches who have come out of witchcraft will share what they were doing, such as sacrificing an animal or graffiti symbols. In these cases, the Holy Spirit will reveal these physical things that are satanic markers.
- Sometimes you can receive correspondence from people who are filled with the Spirit of God. They may give you spiritual revelations, words of knowledge, and discernment.
- Your kids can even help you discern, as they may know what is going on, even through their dreams. You and your family can be training by God to defeat the demonic strongholds of witchcraft.
- And, of course, you need prayer warriors praying for you and sending intel information as confirmation.
The Lord wants to help His mighty warriors as they fight this battle.
Advice for Those Called To Defeat Witchcraft
Are you one of those called into spiritual leadership to overcome this onslaught of satanic attacks coming against us in Christian leadership? Here is practical advice that you should find helpful:
- You need to be accountable to each other and your leadership.
- You need to have your own house in order.
- Don’t be arrogant.
- Make sure you are cleaned up, healed, and ready for the battle.
- Consider having James 5:16 partners to meet with every week to get regular “tune-ups.”
- Don’t let the sun set upon your anger.
- Confess your sins to one another, and do it almost instantly.
- You have got to have a team. We all have giftings, and we all have blind spots. It’s in the team that we will be transformed into the likeness of Jesus.
- You can have a husband/wife team that ministers to each other.
- You can have a prayer team that meets every night or just once a week.
- God desires to heal and transform.
- Never forget that some of the best people in ministry right now were broken but transformed. These saints now know from the inside out how the enemy works and that others can be transformed. Be open to how the Lord desires to make you more like Him.
Well Done, Good and Faithful Servants
And finally, like Gary’s stories, teachings, and experiences, we believe that God wants to take you to a whole new ministry level, growing in intercessory prayer, being healed and transformed in Christ such that we afflict tremendous damage upon the enemy, advancing the gospel of Jesus Christ.
“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ ~ Matthew 25:23
May the Lord say to each of us, “Good fight. Good job. Well done, good and faithful servant.”
The next DTT in this series regarding how to defeat the demonic strongholds in witchcraft will be “Healing and Deliverance for those involved in Witchcraft.” So, stay tuned
Resources / Contact Information:
- New Book Coming Soon!
Discerning and Defeating the Demonic Stronghold of Witchcraft: A Tactical Manual for Intercessors and Spiritual Warriors, by The Rev. Dr. Zeb Bradford Long with Rabbi Mark Rantz, Rev. Dr. Dave Huizenga, Rev. Martin Boardman, and Rev. Gary, with notes from Intercessors for America (IFA) - Article from Intercessors from America entitled, Warring Against Witchcraft: Cutting the Demonic Chords by Joyce Swingle, posted on July 13, 2021
https://ifapray.org/blog/warring-against-witchcraft-cutting-the-demonic-cords/
If you have questions, need healing, or would like to contact the Rev. Gary Hixson, you can email him at deephealing@protonmail.ch. You can also visit his website at www.deephealing.eu.
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