Prophet Experiences Deliverance From Witchcraft
“Sellout. Betrayer. Coward. I will kill you and your family.”
These were all statements that were repeated again and again through phone calls, social media commentary, and emails in the weeks that followed my public letter of apology to the body of Christ. Here are several more exact quotes to help the reader understand what we were receiving at the time:
“You are a freaking jerk. I love my President and you are no different than Mitt Romney.”
“You’re a false prophet and once Donald Trump is still the President you should go die in a hole somewhere.”
“Your apology was asinine and no one ever wants to see your face again.”
“You have given up faith in God and should be publicly stoned.”
“How dare you apologize for God you moron. Hold the line.”
To my shock, these statements were all coming from those who had partnered with our ministry and supported us for years. I had expected to be labeled as a “false prophet” by many outside the Charismatic world who expect a 100 percent accuracy rate at all times from anyone claiming to be prophetic, but I could have never prepared myself for the vitriol, threats, and harassment that came from the Charismatic movement.
On March 8th, 2021, Christianity Today published a viral article called “Trump Prophet Enraged His Followers by Apologizing,” detailing the response of so many Charismatics toward my public apology. Due to the intensity of the attacks that were coming from every side, I once again decided to shut myself in and seek God concerning the future of our ministry. What was I to do concerning so many close friends and ministry partners turning on us? The most common response that we received were angry messages stating, “Jeremiah, stop this! You do not have to repent for anything. Trump won and the Democrats stole the election.”
Sitting before the Lord, I was expecting Him to give me direction on how to navigate through all the turbulence of the season. How could I better address and bring peace to all the newspaper articles and anger toward us in the body of Christ?
“Son, I want you to shut down your ministry.” These were the exact words I heard in the secret place that shook me to my core. I instantly began to reel internally while simultaneously weep and wail externally. Shut down my ministry? “Yes, I want you to delete your social media accounts and public following.” I protested with numerous excuses. How would I take care of my staff and their families? What about the platform that He had given us that had a worldwide reach and took over ten years to establish? He continued, “You have been operating in a room for over a decade that includes preaching about eternal realities, but it has become polluted with prophetic commentary on political events. I want you to enter a new room where you are solely focused on My return and the preparation of My Bride for the Wedding Day. I want you to build Me a Wedding Altar in the earth.”
I remember being in my garage several days later, hysterically crying over what God was asking me to do. With close to one million active online followers and subscribers across our social media platforms, I just could not fathom shutting it all down. I seriously wondered if I was going insane. Maybe all the attacks and criticism regarding my public apology had gotten to my head and I was mentally unstable. The financial loss and further criticism were more than I could fathom. In a moment of desperation, I decided to make a phone call to a mother in the faith whom I knew had been praying for me through this entire process and led an established ministry herself. Surely she could talk me out of what I believed God was asking me to do.
“This is the way of the Cross, Jeremiah, and exactly what God is asking you to do,” she exclaimed with joy and laughter. On the other end of the phone I nervously laughed and then bawled my eyes out.
“Really?” I said. “You bear witness that I should shut down this ministry and start all over again?”
“Absolutely,” she said. “It’s no longer about you and your ministry. God is clearly asking you to birth an end-time movement in the earth that is going to touch a generation. If you do not let this die, what God is calling you into will never live.”
Terminating Jeremiah Johnson Ministries
In March of 2021, I made the public announcement. I was officially terminating “Jeremiah Johnson Ministries” with all of its followers. In the days that followed we lost tens of thousands of dollars in monthly partner support and millions of followers online. The vitriol and hate mail intensified. The newspaper articles kept circulating. I was cancelled from so many conferences and churches that it was deeply embarrassing. Several pastors whom I had close relationships with over the years flat out told me, and I quote, “If you want to come minister at our church and speak on eternal realities, we are not interested. However, if you would like to come and prophesy about politics and current events, we would love to have you back this year.”
While many might expect that I would experience great discouragement and despair after shutting down our ministry and receiving the untold number of attacks and death threats, what actually initially happened was the exact opposite. By getting offline and completely focusing on eternal realities, I began to experience a realm of joy and relief in greater measure than I ever experienced in my entire life. I chose two passages of Scripture to focus on every day—Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4. In the months that followed, I became completely disoriented to be reoriented. I was given grace to become more familiar with a vision of God on the throne and the supernatural activity that surrounds it than I had previously been with politics and current events. It was liberating to say the least.
Freedom from Witchcraft
As unusual joy filled my life in March, April, and June of 2021. I do not want the reader to think the road was not also tumultuous. On July 21st of 2021, I was invited to share at the National Prophetic Summit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The hosts asked me to share about the criticism I had endured and what God was revealing to me through it.
After I testified and attempted to get off the stage, a group of the prophets present rose from their seats and met me on the steps. They asked me to get back on stage as they wanted to pray for me. I was surprised by their spontaneous action. As they began to pray, they declared that the power of witchcraft would be broken off my life and ministry. They said the way the Charismatic movement responded to my public repentance was totally uncalled for. “All the curses, death threats, and spiritual attacks have to cease,” they said. Immediately, my body began to respond to their declarations and I hit the floor. I wept and shook violently. One of the women who came up actually grabbed my face as I lay on the floor crying and said, “You are not a false prophet and I bind the spirit of shame over you right now. You will not believe these lies any longer.” Another prophet said, “I see your prophetic mantle rejuvenating and coming back to life.”
After all of this unexpected deliverance and breakthrough taking place on the floor, Bishop Joseph Garlington, a well-respected African American leader in the global Church, came forward and sang a song over me. It was called, “I Will Restore.” He then prophesied over me that the national attacks on my life and ministry were broken and that I would not only recover what I had lost but would gain even more because of my posture of humility and heart of repentance.
A New Man Emerges
The next morning, I woke up in the hotel not even feeling like the same person. I called my wife early and said, “Honey, something has happened. I have been delivered from the spirit of witchcraft and feel one thousand pounds lighter.” It’s honestly hard to give language to what happened to me. Although God gave me grace and joy through the process in the early months of 2021, the attacks and curses we had endured over a six-month period were severe and had taken an enormous toll on me. In fact, I did not fully realize just how demonic what we had gone through really was until the following morning. Looking out the hotel window that morning, it was as if color returned and I was seeing clearly for the first time in months.
I am eternally grateful to that group of prophets who sprang into action and declared life over me. I hope to have the opportunity to do the same for another brother or sister walking out their own God-ordained process in the days ahead. When I returned to our headquarters in Charlotte the following day and shared with my staff what had happened, we immediately recognized what we had all been battling as a team and prayed together.
