Casting Out Demons In Jesus’ Name…

It’s week two of Uganda and so much has happened since I wrote my last blog. Even though there is poverty, crime, despair and trash everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE, I still can’t help but feel joyful in this country. God is moving in such mighty ways here and I am so blessed to get to be apart of it all, even if it’s just for a month. The pastor we’re working with, Pastor Joseph is one of the most phenomenal people I have ever known. He is the definition of what it means to walk in the Spirit and be a disciple of Christ, taking up your cross each and every day. Pastor Joseph has no money and no Earthly possessions. He has a pregnant wife (that currently has a severe case of malaria) and four other children to take care of, as well as a congregation full of brothers and sisters in Christ that live in extreme poverty (some of the members sleep at the church on the dirt floor because they have no where else to go).

In Earthly standards, he should be miserable…but Pastor Joseph has more joy, more faith and more authority in the Spirit than any other person I’ve ever met. This man knows what it means to truly rely ENTIRELY on the Lord. He doesn’t have a 401K or even a pay check, for that matter. He just has extreme trust in a God in heaven and he knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that the same God that got him through the past forty years of his life will get him through the next forty years of his life. I always think of the verse in Matthew chapter 7 that says, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Pastor’s road to salvation is a hard one and a narrow one, indeed. But his suffering and hardship is nothing compared to the wonderful eternity he gets to spend with God the Father Almighty.

One of the best things about Pastor Joseph is the fact that he’s gentle and kind (and very funny, I might add) but he walks in the authority that Christ has given him. This was well executed the other day during a service our team did on intercessory prayer. We were all preaching on the power of prayer when all of a sudden we broke out into a time of worship. It was a good 20 minutes of singing and dancing and praising Jesus and it was all in the language of Lugandan. Pastor Joseph got very quiet all of a sudden and interrupted the worship session saying, “The Holy Spirit is speaking something to me and there is something we need to do for sister Lucy.” Sister Lucy is a church member that lives in a tiny shack a few hundred feet from the church. She had done door-to-door ministry with us and helped with open air preaching the previous day…but I knew nothing more about her than those few things. Lucy immediately got up to her feet when Pastor called to her and lifted her hands to receive prayer.

Pastor began speaking things that the Holy Spirit was telling him, things that no one could have possibly known but God Himself. He said that Lucy needed deliverance from the witchcraft covenants that had been made over her and all the bewitching that people had done to her recently. As soon as Pastor started speaking those things out loud, Lucy let out a scream of pain and doubled over, holding her stomache. I immediately knew she was possessed and that we needed to cast the demon out immediately. I had never seen anything like this before and I had definitely never been apart of a full out deliverance before. I mean, I knew about the evils of witchcraft, demons and deliverance and I knew they were very real…but I had never experienced something like that first hand. Well, we all began praying over her, laying hands on her and Pastor started rebuking the demon loudly and with authority. That’s when things got crazy…

Lucy, a tiny woman weighing about 100 pounds, bolted away from the eight of us praying over her, taking out a few of us with the force of a linebacker. A few of the church members having more experience with this rushed towards her pinning her down. She was screaming and writhing around with the strength of a football player. One of the members spoke to the demon inside of her binding it in Jesus’ name and it immediately stopped and allowed us to bring her back into the church. Pastor began speaking authoritatively in Lugandan again. He was definitely in charge, hearing from the Spirit on exactly what to do and the rest of us were just there for prayer and support…spiritually and physicially. Pastor Joseph said in English that there was a black chicken that the witch cut open over a grave made for Lucy, and that the witch had cursed Lucy by making certain covenants over her life with the devil and his demons. The witch had used black magic and the power of the devil through sacrificing the black chicken to bring demons onto Lucy and they eventually wanted to destroy her. Every time Pastor would call one of these things out the demon inside Lucy would growl at him and contort her face life an animal. She was kicking and screaming in Lugandan so much that we eventually had to hold her hands and her legs completely off the ground to restrain her.

Finally with the power of Jesus Christ, Pastor Joseph demanded that the demon tell him his name and where it had come from. Lucy growl and screamed a few things in Lugandan back at the Pastor and he began belting out things so strongly I literally felt the power of God coming into her. He said in English, “I can see the snake coming out of her. Paul, go behind Lucy…Mac, put your hand over her stomache.” Paul and Mac did what Pastor said and laid hands over her, praying that the fire of the Holy Spirit would fill Lucy. We all began to pray, rebuking the demon and to fill Lucy with the Holy Spirit. She let out one final scream and pastor screamed “Fire of God, fill this child!” over Lucy’s stomache and she collapsed into Paul’s arms. We laid her on a mat on the floor and let her take a moment. Later that night Lucy told Pastor that a man had asked for her hand in marriage and she declined so furious, the man took some of Lucy’s clothes and hair to a witch doctor and had a covenant made with Lucy to curse her life and kill her. Lucy had dabbled in witchcraft and been backsliding in her walk with God recently too, which created a doorway for the demon to come into her and possess her. She thanked Pastor and each of us on the team for allowing God to use us in the deliverance and that we had saved her life. And that was that…that is the story of my first deliverance experience.

I learned so much that day. I learned that when you walk with the authority that Christ has given you as a believer, nothing is impossible and that because of the power of Jesus Christ, all demons have to submit to your authority. I learned that when you have a thick anointing of the Holy Spirit as Pastor Joseph does, God will speak to you in mighty (and even crazy) ways. I learned to always have faith and never fear the Enemy because we are victorious over Christ. PERIOD. END OF STORY. And the Devil has no power when he’s coming against the Kingdom of God. I was so blown away by the battle of God and the Devil that day, I got Holy Spirit goosebumps and sat down, completely speechless. About 30 seconds after everything calmed down and went back to normal Pastor Joseph went back to his gentle Jesus self and said, “Angie, will you please bless us with another message about intercessory prayer?” WHAT??!?! I couldn’t believe that after all that, everyone just wanted to go back to the service and pretend that nothing crazy happened at all.

But the fact is, this is Uganda, and things like this happen in Uganda much more often and are handled much more casually than what I’ve experienced back home. So I obeyed Pastor’s request, and continued preaching on the book of Esther, thinking to myself “Did that just happen? Oh yes, yes it did. Keep going, Angie…you can act casual just like the church members are acting…just keep preaching. This is normal.” At the end of the service Pastor laid hands on us and prophesied over each of us individually. He gave me the prophecy that God is going to use my gift of mercy and compassion in big ways, allowing me to minister to the “least of these”…disabled and hurting. He said he saw me back in Africa working for the Kingdom of God and that even though I didn’t know it now, God was planting a big seed of prophecy in my heart and that I would begin walking in the gift of prophecy very soon. It was so cool, I just couldn’t stand it.

God is using Pastor Joseph in our lives this month like crazy and we are so blessed by his wisdom and love for us seven. We have a week and a half left here in Uganda and I know that God will continue to move mountains and change lives. Thank you sincerely to everyone who’s been praying and intercessing for my team and I. You have no idea what a difference you’re making in the spiritual realms here, and I am eternally grateful. Please keep praying for us, praying for Pastor Joseph and for his wife, Beatrice and their four kids. Pray that God heals Beatrice of malaria soon and protects her and her unborn baby. Pray that God continues strengthening and growing me and my team in the Spirit and that we begin walking in more confidence of our authority in Christ Jesus. I miss and love you all, thank you for all the support and remember, if God is for us…who can be against us?? NO ONE CAN. NO ONE.