Finding Identity Through Deliverance Ministry
This month in Thailand our ministry is mostly physical labor. Day in and day out we sift sand, mix concrete, and mold bricks. We have been asked to assist in building a church and sometimes to change things up for us, our hosts take us to their rice farm where we work on building a road. While the work is hard and physically draining, this has been a month of much needed rest for our team. We are fed very well. We have a place to sleep with screens on the doors and windows so it actually gets cool at night. We have 24/7 wifi so we can catch up with family and friends back home whenever we want. There are even three 7elevens and a public swimming pool within a few miles of our ministry. After last month in India where we were too hot and uncomfortable to sleep and most of us were sick from the food, the comforts of this month are a blessing. The trick is using this time of rest and rejuvenation to reflect on how God has been and is working in our lives. We can’t just spend all of our free time on Facebook or skyping with people in America. We have to fight to continue growing to be more like Jesus everyday.
As I think and pray about our ministries from month one and two in Nepal and India, a common theme that keeps coming up is spiritual warfare. Over and over we have seen displays of power from the enemy followed by displays of sovereignty by God. We have ministered to people who have spent their entire lives oppressed by the evils of the caste system. We have prayed in temples where we could tangibly feel the evil in the atmosphere. We have seen demons manifest in people right in front of our eyes and God has used us to cast out those demons and bring the freedom only Christ can give into their lives. Fighting spiritual battles is clearly a part of God’s plan for this team, but why?
Why did God choose this team to spend so much of our first two months on the World Race in overt spiritual battles? Of course, as followers of Jesus, we are all called to fight darkness wherever it exists, but it is hard to believe that God called team Aperture to the other side of the planet just to free a handful of people from bondage. He doesn’t need seven white Americans to do that. He has believers in each of these countries He can use and does use all the time to do the same thing. The only thing I can come up with is that He has been using us in this way because of the changes he is making in each of our lives through that experience. He is walking us through a process that is forcing us to step into our identities as His children and His disciples.
Before we came on the Race most of our team had never seen the works of the enemy displayed so visibly. We had all read plenty of accounts in the bible. It is a topic for a lot of Christian books and Sunday morning sermons. The idea of spiritual warfare was something we all believed in as long as was only in theory. When we saw that first demon manifest in Nepal this war stopped being just theory and most of us weren’t ready for the reality of it. Nate and I were the ones who went with the girl when she was taken to a side room and prayed for her deliverance, but the experience still scared the crap out of most of the team. The enemy used our inexperience and fear of the unknown to launch an attack on the team. People started having nightmares. Some got unexplainably sick. One person even woke up in the middle of the night paralyzed with fear, feeling like she was being pinned to her bed. This is when God really started working though. It drove our team to be more open with each other. We had discussions about our authority over evil as children of God. We started fighting for each other in prayer. Ultimately those attacks from the devil were warded off and the terror lessened. We were hit hard at first, but we came out stronger in the end.
When we got to India, God didn’t waisted any time continuing His lesson. It was time for the whole team to get in on the action. We were asked to pray for a woman who was being tormented by demonic forces on our second day of ministry. This time all of us stepped up and fought for this woman. The initial fear of seeing the devil at work was pushed aside and the courage that can only come from God won out. Our plan of attack was a little flawed and we had to pray over this same woman twice in the same day, but in the end Jesus won that battle. He also had won the battle with our teams fear of demonic forces. We were finally starting to step into the authority part of our identities.
Later in the month we had our squad leader, Bethany, with us for the last manifestation we saw in India. Bethany had prayed for deliverance on her race and had picked up some knowledge along the way. A man brought his wife to us after a church service and asked us to pray for her deliverance from a demonic presence that repeatedly took over and kept her from eating, drinking, or even using her own name for weeks at a time. Bethany was able to give us some direction. There were eight of us praying that night, but Bethany had one of us (the team asked me) command the demon while the rest of the team prayed in the spirit, read aloud from the bible, and even sang some worship songs. It turns out that if you have more than one person with authority commanding a demon, at the same time, the demon gets confused about who to listen to. Essentially it is counterproductive. That made sense and it was probably something we would have never thought of on our own. The team, having seen God win out before, went into battle without all of the fear this time. In a matter of a few minutes, after fighting to stay and even begging us to stop praying, the demon left and the woman accepted Christ. It was by far one of the most beautiful things I have ever been blessed to witness and be a part of. That night God showed us how he uses others with more experience to share their wisdom and move us into a more productive direction.
I personally also learned something unexpected from that final experience. While we were all fighting and praying, I was the only one telling this evil spirit what to do. Whenever I commanded it to do something in Jesus’ name, it had to respond. That in itself was pretty awesome, but it was the revelation that I had as a result of that outright display of God’s power working through me that really rocked me. If God’s word was telling the truth about my God given authority over unclean spirits, He also must be telling the truth about everything else He says about my identity in Him. It must also be true that I am a son of the King. It must also be true that I am freed from bondage. It must also be true that I really am forgiven for my transgressions. It must also be true that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. It must also be true that the Creator of the Universe knows every detail of my life and He loves me anyway. These were all things that I “knew” before, but was never able to truly believe until that night in India. Through that experience God was able to open me up to a level of faith that I had never truly experienced before.
Two and a half months ago, when we left America on an eleven month missionary adventure, we all expected that God would be working in our lives while we were away. Just living day in and day out with the same people for that long forces us to start recognizing things in our lives that could change for the better. I think change is pretty much inevitable on the World Race. What I find interesting is how He works in such different ways in every squad, every team, and every individual. Some people may go their entire Race without ever seeing a demon manifest. Some may see more healings or work with more orphans. Some may be called to work with victims of sex trafficking or to teaching English. Whatever the calling, God is going to teach each person in different ways during their eleven month journey. One thing that I do know for sure is that no matter how He uses each of us, He will be pushing us to be more like Him and all that He does in us and through us will be for His glory. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I pray that each of you recognizes the ways in your lives that God is teaching you and walking you into your identity. Love Y’all!!!
