Darkness has to flee

 

 

My team was doing village ministry in a close by town this last week. We go from house to house taking surveys, praying for people and building healthy relationships with the people. It had been a normal week, a great week, actually. We had prayed for a bunch of people, blessed people and had been blessed ourselves. We were finally getting into the swing of things. One morning, after we got into town, we went straight to the place where we had left off the day before; our bellies full of coffee and our minds ready for another regular day of ministry. It’s funny how things happen when you least expect them. The first door we knocked on was answered by a women named Cristina who was holding her two month old grand baby. She invited us in and frankly we were having a very lovely chat. Her daughter came home and she visited with us also. She was twenty two, single and struggling with post partum depression. We sang a few worship songs (including “Open the Eyes of My Heart” in Spanish, a little ironic) and they even sang a few songs over us. It was a good time, and we asked to pray for them one more time before we left. As with every other house, we laid hands on them and began to pray out loud. 

 

This is where it gets weird.

 

The daughter began to shake beneath my hand: just a little at first. I felt a wave of unease wash over me. I got nervous and panicky as she began to tremble more and more. But we kept praying. She got worse and was pouring sweat. My teammate looked up and told us, even though we already knew, that this wasn’t of God.

 

 

For a moment, I was terrified. This was a darkness that I had never encountered before. This was the darkness that I knew I would see and it was scary. We prayed over her for about forty five minutes while she convulsed uncontrollably under our hands. 

 

But, in the wake of God’s love, darkness HAS to flee. That is the beauty of God’s love: that nothing can stand in it’s wake. Nothing conjured by the enemy is strong enough to withstand Jesus. We put our hands on that girl and the demons were terrified. We carry God’s love and His Spirit inside of us: God HAS given us the power to cast out demons and to heal. He told us we could do it and He has given us the ability to do that. God knows it, demons know it, but for some reason we forget.

 

We didn’t pray any wordy or pompous prayers over this girl. All we did was ask for God’s love and peace to be poured out over that room: and, I’m not kidding, God showed up. The darkness fled in the wake of the light and the peace that fell over that girl was unlike any I have seen. It was like Jesus was holding her in His hands: He WAS holding her in His hands. I know, deep in my spirit, that she was set free that day. That she encountered the love and power of Jesus in a very, very real way and where Jesus touches, He changes. We need to walk in the identity of power that Jesus has for us: I’m learning more and more everyday. God is good, so good but He is also powerful and He has shared that power with us.

 

This is the World Race. This is what life with Jesus is like. Miracles happen, and people are set free.