Lessons: Spiritual Warfare… Perfect Love drives out all fear

1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in love. But perfect love
drives out all fear…”

When I allow myself to be consumed with the Love of Christ,
my fears are no more. Perfect Love drives out all fear. And the other day, I
[shouldn’t have been, but was] surprised at how true this proved to be.

We were walking around the city
asking people if they needed prayer and just sharing Christ’s love any way we
could with the people we encountered.  I
felt compelled to ask this one man who was sitting alone on a curb if he needed
prayer. He was a tall and skinny guy, probably in his early 30’s who just
looked lonely. I went up to him and asked if I could pray for him for anything.
He looked at me confused and then said no. That was fine, I’d probably be taken
aback if someone just waltzed up to me asking if I needed prayer too. I kept
talking to him and discovered his name is Michael and he’s from Italy.
Communicating with him was difficult, and I thought at first it was because he
didn’t know much english. But that was not the case… at the time I didn’t
know this, but he known around town as “Acid Man” because he
overdosed on some drugs a few years ago and has never been the same. I’ll tell
you in a minute about the ‘characters of Galway’, he is known as being one of
them. He walks around town talking to himself and rubbing his head. I tried to
communicate to him the message of the gospel and he kept nodding and even said “I
understand. ” I could see such innocence in his big green eyes. (He also had
exquisite nails, but that’s beside the point). He couldn’t get out much more
than “church?” “Safe place”. “Jesus?” “For
when I’m old”. What I gathered from our conversation was that he believes
church is a safe place, but only feels the need for Jesus when he gets old and
close to death. He didn’t want me to pray for him, so we departed as friends
and I have been lifting him up ever since. 

Galweigens refer to local people that are known around for their strange
behavior as the ‘characters of Galway’. They are harmless (usually) but their
peculiarity makes them stick out, and everybody knows about them. There is an
old lady named Nora Ward who sticks out her tongue all the time saying
“can I have a fag [cigarette]? Can I have a fag?” If you take a
picture of her, she’ll punch you in the face (it happened last year to a world
racer). There is the “Angry Dwarf” who gets provoked in anger and
goes around kicking people’s shins. There is Michael, known as “Acid
Man”…

…Then
there is Madame Bridget. She is a fortune teller who sits right near Eyre
Square in the same spot every day. She is an old, old woman who smokes a
cigarette all the time; she has one lame hand that’s a bit disfigured. Right
when Michael and I seperated, I walked around and saw her. Immediately, I felt
like she needed some prayer. So I walked over and asked her. She seemed furious
as she said “No! No” ..”mumble mumble mumble”… She kept looking away,
as I tried to make eye contact with her. She finally looked me in the eyes for
a millisecond, and I felt such a presence of evil in that moment. I kept pursuing
her, and was determined to pray over her but she would have none of it. Then I left
her as she wished.

Michael’s eyes burned with a
soul tired of nothingness. I could see struggle and heartache in his face. I
could tell that the spiritual forces of evil have done a number in his life,
and he is weary. I wouldn’t say that he was searching for Truth, but he was
definitely open to listening to what I had to share about the Lord. I felt such
compassion for this man and still yearn for him to be able to grasp the good
news of the gospel and start living in the freedom that comes from Christ.
Whenever we are downtown, I look around for Michael to talk to him more about
Jesus and in hopes that he will allow me to pray over him.

Madame Bridget is the first person I’ve ever encountered
that just by being in her presence, I could tell that this woman was probably
inhabited by one, if not several demons. It was an eery feeling I had around
her, but could not help but persist as best I could to pray on her behalf. The
most awesome thing is that in the moments I was with her, I knew full well she
was possessed by the very things that I hated to even think about a few months
ago. Yet I did not experience any bit of fear.

So as spiritual warfare is raging all around, I can most
assuredly again say that Love wins. And instead of me trembling when I hear of
demons, my prayer is that the exact opposite happens. That I would be so open
to the Holy Spirit’s work in me that when demons hear about me, they be the
ones trembling.