Ummm… so this was the big news from last week that I´m finally posting! God´s doing awesome stuff!
Thursday, January 18th, 2007
Thursdays are my fasting/ praying day. Each member of our team has chosen a day to fast and pray, so I’m up. I went to breakfast this morning to have a few sips of coffee (OK, so it’s a liquids only fast) and then travel with three other girls (Meghan, Jenny, and Ann from team Revolution) and Selena, the pastor’s wife, to a local family’s home to share, what we thought was going to be just a nice time sharing with the women there about our lives, our love of Jesus…you know, missionary stuff.
We had been there for about 15-20 minutes talking about how God isn’t about church, He’s about love. (These women had either stopped going to church, or didn’t want to go, but said they believed in God). We told them how sometimes we struggle with going to church, because many churches care more about the rules of being a Christian than they do about people actually having a deep relationship with Jesus, and that relationship is what sustains us and what causes so much joy! One of the girls (I say girl, but she’s already married and has an 11 month old child) started crying because she wished her husband would want to go to church, that way she’d be able to go to church. We layed hands on her and prayed for her new family, that her husband would rise up and follow Jesus, and truly lead his family into truth.
We were getting ready to head out when the oldest woman in the house (the mother of Elizabeth, a girl who’s a regular at the church, and has been helping prepare our meals) told Selena that her husband travels a lot for work, and that when he’s away she hears voices and has bad dreams. She said that she would be at church on Sunday and that she would like prayer on Sunday for that. Meghan asked if she wanted us to pray right then, and so we layed hands on her and started praying.
We were a few minutes into praying when Selena started singing the words “libertato,” FREEDOM, all four of us recounted later that at that moment the hairs on our body stood straight up, and the woman began manifesting a demon. She was pushing us away but we kept holding her and her body was out of control. She finally made it safely into a chair and , from what I gathered, she was saying Let go… then she started laughing a horrendous cackle. And then that’s when we got loud… we didn’t know that going into this morning we’d be casting out a demon! She ended up doubling over and starting spitting up onto the floor. And then there was a peace, a calm that came over the whole house.
The Holy Spirit was flowing through that place, the woman renounced all kinds of witchcraft and occult practices, and shut the door to further attacks. We knew that her family had to be involved in a lot of the Mayan ancestry, as they had named their own 11 month old daughter after their Mayan history. But her smile after we prayed was a new smile, it was a free smile. And then I broke my fast when they offered us rice milk and some kind of spaghetti meal (you can’t refuse a gift of food). Before we left I felt the Holy Spirit prompt me to say that this woman will be able to show her children and her whole family Jesus’s love for them.
Later on when the four of us we recounting the morning, Ann said that she actually saw the demon leave the woman. And we also said how strange it was that none of us really saw this all coming, it just sort of happened… and you’d think that when you encounter a demon you’d be a bit afraid, but we all said that there was no fear in us. That the Holy Spirit was so strong and so powerful in us that there was no room for fear. I really don’t even feel like I was in that room, I don’t even really know what I said, it was all God!
Praise Jesus for the deliverance and healing that comes from his shed blood!
Luke 9:1-2
When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick!
We, as disciples (if you so choose to accept that calling) have been given this same authority! Don’t seek out the demons, they already know who you are when you’re present.
(As a side note, this woman and her daughters came to church Sunday night, and I got to hold this woman´s daughter and rock her to sleep during the service… God is so cool)
