PART 1: Spiritual Warfare at CICRIN

Last month in Guatemala we spent countless hours learning about spiritual warfare, demons, and how to specifically exercise deliverance against them. I grew up in a family and in a church that speaks truth about spiritual warfare and the power and authority we have as Christ followers over the powers of darkness, but I never studied demonology as intensely as I have during my time with Pastor Ben in Panajachel. Ben taught us so much about the different kinds of demons, and how to rebuke and cast out each one. He taught us that the truly difficult part of a deliverance is not getting the demon to become subject to your authority over it, because that has already been given to you on the day you received the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:38). The hard part is what comes after the person has been delivered. If you do not pour into that person, and if the person does not receive the Holy Spirit and the Truth, then the demon can and will not only come back but will bring even more demons with him. We learned about territorial demons and that some demons require much prayer and fasting for them to be subject (Luke 9:37-45). With all this said, we knew that God had brought us to Panajachel and to Ben for a reason, especially since it was our first month on the Race. We knew God had big plans for our team this year and that He would use the wisdom and discernment we got from the Holy Spirit through Ben in major ways.

Then we came to CICRIN orphanage, in our second month in Nicaragua and we witnessed beautiful things the staff and children of CICRIN were doing for the Kingdom of God. Jesus truly is at this place and it is extremely evident to us all. I kept thinking of the “Social Work in the Global World” class I took during my summer studying abroad and that orphanages in developing countries can be horrific places filled with physical and sexual abuse as well as neglect and malnourishment. CICRIN orphanage has none of these things, and I was so thrilled. Just because it’s blessed now, though, doesn’t mean this property has always been a blessed place. After spending sometime here we learned the history of the property of CICRIN, before it was the orphanage it is today. It is important to know the history of people so you can break any generational curses Satan might have on a family. However, it is just as important to learn the history of places to know what demonic oppression you’re up against. As Lauren, our Squad Leader puts it, instead of shooting hundreds of arrows in a certain area, you only have to shoot a few arrows at the specific areas you know you’re dealing with. It’s much more effective to know what you’re up against.

Paul told us during feedback that a staff member had told him the orphanage’s property used to be an orphanage for children with physical and mental handicaps. However, this orphanage was not holy and Godly like CICRIN is. The director that ran the orphanage for handicapped children decades ago would systematically rape all the handicapped girls at the orphanage and that the staff would take all the handicapped orphans outside, tie them to a tree (the tree is still here on property) and beat them. Their reason for the beatings were usually that the children were “acting out” or “misbehaving” but the children were sometimes so badly beaten and then left outside tied up for hours at a time. If this part of the story wasn’t bad enough, when the Nicaraguan civil war broke out in the 1980’s the guerrilla soldiers took this property over, quickly ending the operation of the handicapped children’s orphanage, and the guerrilla soldiers used this land as a base camp for the war. The boys that were left on the island were stolen and used as child soldiers and the girls that were found were used as sex slaves to the war leaders to be passed around and raped on a continual basis.

Since both of these events, this place has been delivered by the blood of Jesus, through anointing and strong prayer of true warriors for the Lord. Helen, the director of CICRIN orphanage, came 20 years ago to the island of Ometepe as a volunteer and used Christ’s power and authority in her (1 John 4:4) to cleanse this property of all demonic spirits of sexual and physical sin. The spirits of lust and rage were so prevalent here but since then, Helen and her staff have made this a Holy place, filled with love and joy. They even prayed against one of the trees that was harboring a lot of evil in it and around it and through the power of prayer, the tree snapped overnight and fell into the lake. It is so neat to see that tree no longer flourishing but destroyed, and this only confirms our ability to destroy and demolish demonic attacks through prayer, anointing and power of Jesus.

The Devil is a lot like a bully in the school yard. Even though he is subject to the principle and the teachers, it doesn’t mean he isn’t constantly acting out, trying to get attention and continuously finding ways to torment. After spirits have been cast out, they come back to check up on the territory and if the Holy Spirit is not indwelling their, they will come back and bring more demons with it. If the place or person has been cleansed and is holy and blessed, the spirits can and will come and oppress the place they once had victory over. With that said, ever since we got to CICRIN both team Lovebound and team Pnuma have been attacked spiritually…but through our authority in Christ we have conquered the attacks.