The Spirit showed me once again, that all freedom and all authority, is mine.
I have been saying that and learning that all year it seems. Recently, I saw the truth of it, once again, come alive in me.
The last couple of weeks, we have been bouncing around all over Cambodia and Thailand. We were picking up ministry here and there, trying to find a place that the Lord really wanted us. Nothing was really coming together.
Through this resurfacing of the issue of the sex-trade and trafficking that goes on so heavily in this part of the world, a few of us decided to follow the Lord’s stirring back to Thailand to finish up our time of ministry in the bars.
Back to Bangkok we went, ready to bring Kingdom into this place. The first night we went into the bars, we had five of us girls, and two of our guys. We, ladies, had spent a whole month of ministry in this atmosphere. We knew what we were getting into, or so we thought. The men had no clue. (For more on their perspective, read Matt’s blog).
Nana is intense. It is dark. It is suffocating. I had no idea how girded with armor I needed to be. The first level of this horseshoe shaped plaza is all open bars. The second level is strip bars. The third level is lady-boy shows. A much more intense atmosphere than I had ever seen.
We go up. Our only mission: to pray, and follow wherever He leads.
Kim turned to me. She saw my eyes. Saw me struggling. “Are you okay?” “I can’t breathe.” She sat me on a bar stool. Puts her hand on me and prays for me. For my breathing, for clarity, for calm, for the reassurance that I am light in the darkness, and the light cannot be overcome. That I am His Daughter. That this is my territory.
My sister fought for me. In a seemingly insignificant way, she fought the darkness and released me, another light, to fight alongside her against the darkness instead of being burned out by it.
Reassurance came back. My identity and authority, which Satan was attacking, came back. My purpose and passion came back. Freedom came back. I stepped into seeing in the spirit again. Into seeing Nana for the facade that it is. For the deception, the shame, the hurt, the brokenness. The matrix.
Satan has such a squashing hand on that place, but once released back into seeing it with my spiritual eyes, all I could do was smile. Because we were there to bring light. To bring Kingdom. To bring love. And there is nothing Satan can do when God’s kids, when God’s chosen, when God’s power, comes in to claim back stolen territory.
Conversations were had. Shifts in thinking. Smiles given. Hope received. We were there. We prayed incessantly. We did not judge. We loved. We were able to do it because the Spirit enabled us. We were able to be above the darkness. Because of the Spirit. To see through the fog, the whirlwind. Because of the Spirit. We were there.
To usher in Kingdom. To welcome freedom. To stand in authority. Over OUR territory.
Because of the Spirit.
The Spirit showed me once again, that all freedom and all authority, is mine.
