During one of our outreaches we had a personal encounter with 3 demon possessed women. Let me pause right there. Some might be picturing the Exorsist right now. I don’t know if I would go that far. We didn’t break out the crucifix or grab the Holy Bible to raise over their heads, but what we did do was still new to me, because…. what was happening was all new to me. Some of you might be wondering, ‘is this for real?’ I was asking the same thing.
Let me tell you how things went down. It was our second to last outreach- we were venturing into a new neighborhood. As we stepped off the flat bed of the truck I overheard one of the ministry leaders say, “I hate this place.” Not something I was expecting to hear. ‘Joy!’ is what I was thinking. But I soon found out what she meant. The dancing and teaching went on as usual, except for the complimentary army of kids copying my every dance move. That was something to remember. Such a laugh!
After the sermon people came up to the stage to receive prayer. I noticed a woman in baby blue standing out in the crowd. When one of the ministry men went to go pray for her, she quickly threw her head back and spun around. It looked like she just self inflicted whiplash. I went after her to see if she was ok, thinking that she was refusing prayer because he was a man, which can happen. This was not the case. One of the people from the ministry (Mimi – a 13 year old very skilled in seeing this kind of thing) held me back and said “Its not her refusing prayer, its a demon. You need to wait for someone to help you.” ‘Excuse me? Is this real?’ I thought. I was shocked. Concerned for her, I stayed close by and started praying for her that she would be released from whatever it is that is controlling her. 5 or 10 min later 2 men came to pray for her. She thrashed and spun about swinging her head around fiercely. I prayed “Lord, free her. Let this girl go. Please send your spirit to free her. The enemy has no power over her. Please give her the gift of freedom so that she can joyfully worship you tonight.”
As this was going on, I noticed this woman in black walk by my two teammates (Tiffany and Maria) giving them a kiss goodbye on their cheek. I thought it was pretty unusual because she only kissed 3 people in the crowd. Mar thought for a minute- ‘wow, she was friendly.’ Shortly after though, this woman threw her body to the ground right in front of them. Felito and some of the other men from the ministry quickly ran to her aid. She started riving on the floor, flailing around, throwing her head back, screaming and yelling curse words in English. This woman must have weighed 90 lbs but had the strength of 200 lb body building man. This is why men usually step in to brace these people because it can get physically dangerous. After about 10/15 min of prayer she came back to her normal state, got up and had no idea what had just happened. We thought she was good to go, well sort of. Something was still off about her, but at least she was stable. About this time, the woman in light blue was set free! Yippee!
Prayer time was over and the music came on. We all began to dance. I looked over my right shoulder to see how the woman in light blue was doing. I was so excited for her. She was dancing and clapping away. I thought ‘Wow, if she is dancing and worshiping, I wonder how the woman in black is doing?’ As I scanned the crowed looking for her I suddenly saw her wrestling Tiffany and Mar back to the ground. During this fit the woman reached out and bit Maria twice on the right arm. Thankfully it did not break skin, but it was still painful and some what frightening for Maria. Jessica and I ran to their aid. At a moments notice the men from the ministry were there to help as well (one being Felito). Although the two men from the ministry were experts at this kind of thing, the four of us were not. The only thing I had to go on was the story of Jesus casting out the legion of demons into a herd of pigs (Matthew 8:28-34). I prayers got passionate, “let this woman go in the name of Jesus. We command Satan to leave. You have no power over her.” After 15 min of prayer she staggered to her feet and ran off to the nearest bar. Felito chased after her to make sure that she didn’t harm herself or others. It was a good thing that he did. When he got to her she was holding a broken bottle to her neck. The demon spoke, “I am going to slice her neck. Do you see what they are trying to do to me?” (This was in Filipino. When we were praying Tiffany could hear it speak in English- demons will respond in any language it needs to) Felito responded with authority, “You will not. God’s angels will not allow you to harm her. You have no power here.” Immediately the demon lost control and dropped the bottle to the ground and she was restored to normal, not remembering anything that had happened. The rest of the night she was free. When I asked Felito if she was delivered from the evil presences that plagued her, he said, “Some, but not all. This will take time. There were more than just a few. She has many.”
When Felito chased after the woman in black the four of us remained where she originally fell. Almost immediately after she ran off a woman in yellow, who I thought was praying behind us, fell right into our arms. We all looked at each other, like o my gosh another one?!?! So we started praying. She started gnashing her teeth. It was the worst sound I have ever heard. At this point I had enough.
Up until this point I had no fear. I knew that we were protected spiritually and physically by the Lord. The sense of safety was almost tangible. Before I heard her grind her teeth and saw her eyes roll back into her head with her head hanging limp I was in some sort of fog of denial, thinking how could this be real. After this though, it all became so real, too real. The Bible talks about stuff like this and here I was hearing it first hand- Psalm 37:12 “The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them;” I let fear sink in and thought I can’t do this. This is REAL! Unable to go anywhere- I prayed harder and louder to drown out the doubting thoughts that were going through my mind. Finally she let out a sigh of relief and her body became less ridged. The Lord heard our prayer and let this woman go. She was freed for the evening. We found out later that this woman was a witch doctor. She knew that we were coming. She wont be completely free until she chooses to leave this evil practice.
That night the 4 of us were rocked. We left understanding what the woman from the ministry meant by her statement, “I hate this place.”
I left not hating it, but I did feel rather overwhelmed. Shocked at the control darkness had over these women. Shocked that this exists in the world. Sad that the women were not completely free. Wondering if there was anything else that we/ I could have done. Wondering if I had enough faith? I asked Felito if they have ever seen people get delivered? He said “Yes, it is a beautiful thing! They are in their right mind and can talk about it. Talk about what it was like to be controlled by that spirit and talk about the freedom they are now existing in. Some of these people are a part of our ministry now.”
Before we left and as we drove home we prayed for ourselves and thanked the Lord for showing up that night- for protecting us and giving us the discernment on how to pray for the women. We also prayed for further healing for them. So they can be released from the darkness and brought into the freedom found in light.
