A Queensland mayor’s spiritual adviser claims there is a “demonic stronghold” at an iconic Gold Coast venue where a “spiritual battle” continues.
Sue Baynes has been the spiritual adviser to Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate for years and became the city’s pastoral adviser in March.
While she claims she has “never prayed” for her position, Ms Baynes has supported the mayor and his family since he was elected in 2012.
Ms Baynes is an advocate for the Seven Mountains Mandate – a demonist Christian movement based in the United States with the goal of influencing the seven public spheres of family, education, government, media, arts or entertainment, church and business.
In a recording of a religious service attended by both Mr Tate and Ms Baynxjmtzywes in November, she revealed the Gold Coast’s Home of the Arts (HOTA) had a “demonic stronghold”.
According to the ABC, the spiritual adviser said she had read on Google how the area surrounding HOTA was the “original gateway to Surfers Paradise”, meaning it was a “place of control”.
“Those of you who know about spiritual warfare understand about gateways,” Ms Baynes said.
“I knew from that moment the enemy had a stronghold on that land and had been controlling the traffic flow, if you like, in the spirit to and forwards from Surfers Paradise and that’s where it was sitting.”
Because of the spiritual energy, HOTA was “increasingly resistant” to holding an Easter United event there in 2019.
“They didn’t want to hear God being glorified and Jesus being worshipped again,” Ms Baynes said in the recording.
After her realisation about the event, Ms Baynes met with Mr Tate and informed him of the “demonic stronghold” at HOTA.
Ms Baynes said the pair needed to “pray about it” in order to shift it elsewhere.
Mr Tate said in response the council was building a new bridge to Surfers Paradise.
“Why don’t we pray and dedicate that new bridge to the Lord and create a new gateway?” Mr Tate said, according to Ms Baynes in the recording.
Ms Baynes said she then blessed the newly built HOTA Green Bridge when it opened in 2020.
In the recording Ms Baynes said the mayor had told her the Gold Coast was being “awakened to God” and she believed God was telling her it was time for the church to “start claiming some things that are rightfully ours”.
She said she “did some treading at HOTA and around the Gold Coast City Council”, where her “spiritual battle” began.
“Sometimes we need to let the enemy stew in their own juices for a while and there is a timing on what we do,” Ms Baynes said.
As a result of her treading, Ms Baynes said she started to “displace the powers of darkness”, resulting in the mayor’s Christian prayer breakfast being held at HOTA in October.
Ms Baynes said it was a result of her “spiritual battle”.
“Can you see how God is working? Three years earlier, it wouldn’t have a bar of us,” she told the religious service.
“Few years down the track, we’ve done some treading, we’ve done some declaring, we’ve used our faith, we’ve done some claiming.
“Now, you can’t tell me that God doesn’t want us to do some treading in this city, that He doesn’t want us to take some territory in this city.”
Mr Tate said his religious views did not impact his role as mayor.
