Wrecked For The Kingdom
God wrecked me Saturday night in a completely unexpected way. If you read my blog, you know that I have no reservations about believing in the supernatural world and in spiritual warfare. I spend a considerable amount of time listening to sermons about, reading about, and watching films about the unseen battle between God and the enemy. I have prayed for people and seen them supernaturally healed. I have prayed for people being tormented by demonic spirits and felt the presence of God fill the room and the darkness leave. I was supernaturally delivered out of a life of addiction. In a heartbeat my entire life was completely flipped upside down and love filled a place in my heart which had previously been reserved only for cheap instant gratification. All of these things have opened my mind to how God works through the miraculous still today, but what I experienced while driving to get sushi Saturday night terrified and amazed me to the point I could hardly form words for hours after.
I will start by saying that I actively pray for God to use me in amazing ways for the advancement of His kingdom. I have watched all three of Darren Wilson's documentaries (Finger of God, Furious Love, and Father of Lights) multiple times. I spend hours at a time on YouTube watching sermons by Todd White and Heidi Baker and Bill Johnson. I get pumped up when I read in the bible that Jesus commands us to heal the sick, cast out demons, and speak prophetic words. These are all things that I want to be a part of. I pray for God to use me in these ways for His glory. I fully expect the Holy Spirit to use me in these ways when I'm at Street Corner Ministry on Saturday mornings or while I'm on the World Race in the third world or at church on Sundays. I ask Him to to normalize these things in my daily life, but when He answered that prayer it completely rocked my world.
Like I said before, I was driving through my neighborhood on my way to grab some sushi before a night of worship and prayer at my church. I got a few blocks from my house when I saw that traffic was completely stopped in both directions up ahead. At this point I felt a strong calling from God to pull over and pray. I could feel that I was approaching something dark. I made my way up the road a little more and parked along side a city park. As I got closer, I could see that a small crowd had formed and that someone was laying on the ground right next to the road. I figured that there must have been a car accident. Honestly, I got a little excited. I thought, maybe God is going to use me to heal somebody's broken leg or something, but as I approached I got a sinking feeling in my stomach and realized that I was completely wrong about what was going on.
The person on the ground was a young girl. She couldn't have been any older than thirteen years old. Her lips were completely blue like a corpse and she was clawing at the ground trying to pull herself into the street. The cars had stopped because she kept trying to throw herself into traffic. There were some nice people from the neighborhood keeping her on the grass and trying to get an ambulance there. Everyone was under the assumption that she had gotten ahold of some bad acid or mushrooms (Hallucinogens are pretty common in my neighborhood). I was able to see that there was more to it than that. This was definitely different than any bad trip I had ever seen or experienced. There may have been drugs involved, but there was something else at work. This was demonic.
My heart broke. When I picture demonic possession in my mind it is usually an adult in the third world or it is happening to the "crazy" homeless guy down in the ghetto. For some reason I don't think of these things affecting people in my own neighborhood and I certainly don't think of them affecting little kids down the street from my house. "This is America after all. This kind of thing just doesn't happen here." As He does with a lot of things in life, God showed me that my thinking on this subject was completely wrong.
I didn't want to be another body hovering over this poor girl, but I felt very strongly that prayer was definitely needed. I crouched down about fifteen or twenty feet away and quietly started praying. I prayed out loud because demons can't hear silent prayer like God can, but I wasn't close enough that the girl could have heard my prayers. I started rebuking this thing in the name of Jesus over and over, commanding it to get out of this girl. Every time I would speak the name Jesus the girl would scream "No! No! No! Blessed Mother! No Goddess, No!". It was terrifying watching this little girl being tortured right there in front of my eyes. It was like a scene out of a horror movie, but it wasn't just acting. It tore me up inside. I felt so much love for this little girl I had never met or even seen before and so much pain for what she was being put through. I heard God telling me "This unexplainable love is the strongest weapon there is in spiritual warfare. This love is just a glimpse of the love I feel for you. It is all about love."
After a few minutes of this, the ambulance finally showed up and somebody finally found the girls parents. Her family lived a few houses down the road, so they were able to walk down before the paramedics left with their daughter. I overheard the father telling the paramedics that it wasn't drugs, but that their daughter had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. He said that they had tried all of the medications but nothing ever seemed to help. He also said that her name was Amy. (Praise God! It was killing me not knowing the name of the girl I was praying for.) Once the ambulance left, I don't know what happened with Amy. I assume she is probably going to be in the psych ward for at least a few days.
I went and got my sushi and went to the church. I spent six hours at church in continuous worship and prayer. I made Amy the focus of my prayer that whole night asking God to take care of her. I have been telling a lot of people about her over the last couple of days, including my squadmates, and now there is an army of prayer warriors fighting for her deliverance. I would like to add to these numbers, so I felt like I needed to write this blog. Please pray for Amy. She is just a little girl and she needs all of the prayers she can get. I don't know first hand if my prayers Saturday night had any immediate effect on Amy's situation and I may never know. God has given me a sense of peace about it though. He let me know that He loves Amy and He has it under control. I learned more about Gods love for us and the constant battles going behind the scenes on for all of us in ten minutes on the side of the road than I have in months of listening to sermons, reading blogs, and watching films. I asked God to wreck me for His kingdom and He certainly answered that prayer. Thank you for taking the time to read this extra long blog post and thank you in advance for praying for Amy. Love Y'all!!!
