As Allison preached her sermon to all of my squad at the end of our Kenyan debrief, I sit in amazement as she explains the very principle that God has laid on my heart, above all others. Radical obedience is the theme. The story comes from the book of Joshua when the priests carrying the ark of the covenant step in the river, only to watch the water roll back. She tells us that before we can see mighty power moves of God, we first have to step in the river. If we don’t, then the water will never roll back. At first, it may seem impossible, or even futile or crazy to step into an ordinary river and expect extraordinary results, but this is what our Christian life should be: One huge leap of faith after the other, all done in the name of radical obedience to God, even when what He calls us to do seems crazy.
As much as I knew everyone needed to hear this sermon, I knew God was saying, “Shannon, just step out, even when you’re uncertain or afraid, and I’ll do all the rest.”
Back at the hostel lounge, surrounded by smoke pouring out of the furnace, I told my team of my decision to be radically obedient the night before we left for Uganda. “I may be doing things that I’ve never done, I may be doing things that don’t make sense, but I need ya’ll to back me up on this.” In agreement, everyone promised to hold me accountable to my resolution.
I began to pray, “God, just tell me when, and no matter what it is, I’ll obey. Just tell me clearly.”
Days later, standing among the crowd with whom I had just shared my testimony, watching the Ugandan sun lower itself behind the thatched roofs of the mud-hut village, the dust stirred in anxious anticipation as Pastor Stephen, the leader of the Crusade, called all who had been listening to receive prayer and healing. He also asked all of the missionaries to begin praying over the people in the crowd. Don, Kendra, Katie and I began making our way through, stopping to pray for those who reached for us.
Suddenly, the crowd began to shift in shock and confusion as her shriek pierced my ears. I watched through squinted eyes as twilight fell, rendering clear vision impossible in this village devoid of any street lamps or electric light sources. In the clearing in the middle of the crowd, where Pastor Stephen and the other ministers were praying, a girl was screaming and rolling in the dust. I had heard of demon-possession before, I had even encountered people who I was pretty sure had a demon in them, but I had never actually seen something of this caliber.
As they restrained her, she kept screaming at the top of her lungs. As they prayed for her, she fell to the ground, shaking and screaming as if in intense pain.
And in this wild, crazy, uncomfortable moment, I heard God say, “There’s your girl, Shannon. GO.”
Strangely enough, I didn’t stop to think. I didn’t stop to consider I had no experience with casting out demons, I didn’t hesitate or hold back. All I knew in that moment was that God said “Go”, and before I had a chance to rationalize the command, I was in the middle of the ring.
Even though the night was dark, I could see her, writhing in the dust. I knew that whatever was plaguing her was coming out, but it was obviously fighting with all it had to stay. I didn’t know exactly what to do, but God said, “Reach out and touch her.” As soon as my hand touched her shoulder, her body went completely rigid for a few seconds, then collapsed in release. I was absolutely amazed. The Holy Spirit was working here in this Ugandan village, and he had used a simple, simple act of obedience to free her. The men that were restraining her let go of her and moved onto the next woman that was beginning to scream, even more violently than the unconscious woman laying on the ground.
I bent down and began to speak freedom over her. I began to tell her that she was beautiful and worthy, that God loved her and had given His life for her. I held her hand and stroked her hair as my tears fell. The Holy Spirit, moments before, had been telling me that her demonic stronghold came from sexual abuse. Although this was never clarified for me, I know it was true because the Holy Spirit was speaking so clearly. I began to pray against these thoughts of dirtiness and unworthiness that I knew had been plaguing her. In Gulu, sexual abuse is deep-seated and rampant, due to so many soldiers that took advantage of the local women during the twenty-year war.
As I finished praying for this woman, I heard a painful, violent scream. I saw three men restraining a woman by her arms as she flailed around on her knees. Before I had time to think, I was down on my knees in front of her, cupping her screaming face in my hands. I began to speak truth into her, telling her that she was loved, beautiful, and worthy, and that God was pursuing her with everything He had. She continued to scream, and from her throat, I heard more than one voice. At one time, I believe I heard at least three distinct voices: her own, a deep grunting, and a low, deeper roar.After the event was over, I would be told that the word she kept screaming in her native Luo was “blood, blood, blood”, over and over again.
As I continued to pray, the Holy Spirit told me that her demons were brought on by occultic practice. I began to pray very specifically for this, and as I did, her resistance grew desperate. She began to thrash, throwing the men around. I grabbed her by the shoulders, and was overwhelmed with the strength that she had (Later, I would find this quite amusing, by virtue of the fact that wrestling my brothers and sisters growing up equipped me with natural demon-restraining abilities. Who knows what aspects of your life God is going to use to flourish your ministry?).
I don’t know why, but in the moment, I was so singularly focused on praying this demon out, asserting the authority of Christ, and helping this woman find freedom, that I was total unscathed by the supernatual things that were happening in her body. Her arms kept impossibly twisting around, popping out of socket, and her elbows and wrists were bending in ways that were not humanly possible to bend unless broken. As night continued to fall, I could barely make out her eyes, which were rolled in the back of her head so only the yellowish-whites of her eyes were visible. The voices inside of her continued to wail from her throat, especially as I prayed the name of Christ. In the midst of all of this, I had no fear and no doubt that they would come out. I kept quoting scripture from Philippians 2, that says, “At the name of Jesus, every knee must bow in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” Every time I said this, her body would convulse violently and she would scream harder.
After praying for a very long time, Pastor Stephen told me to take her out of the middle of the circle to the porch of a local home and continue to pray for her. The men that were with me carried her over. I sat down behind her and laid her back on my chest. She reclined and I held her tightly, speaking truth over her, claiming the blood of Jesus cleanses her, and reaffirming to her over and over again that she was beautiful, chosen, pursued, precious, and loved.
At this point, her resistance lessened. I could feel her body start to relax more and more, and I felt that the demons were coming out. In a last ditch effort to scare me, the strangest and most surreal thing occured. She was laying against me, her back to my chest, when suddenly, her head turned in a perfect 180 degree turn to look me dead in the eyes. Her eyes were rolled back and her frothing mouth was slack and open, growling at me.
Funny how being filled with the Holy Spirit and the power of God casts out fear, because I didn’t even note this head-twisting-around event until after the ordeal was over. As the whites of her bored into me, an iron rod of anger burned through me and I said, “I’m not afraid of you, because Jesus is greater than anything that is in this world.” At this, I heard a high-pitched squeal, and her head turned slowly around.
All at once, God laid on my heart to pray for peace and rest. A peace that couldn’t possibly come from my words fell over us as I rocked her back and forth, speaking sweet comfort, peace, joy, and rest into her. Incredibly, all of the violence and resistance melted away, and she dropped her head against my chest in surrender.
One of the men who had been restraining her leaned towards me and said in his beautiful African accent, “Sister, I think that the demon has gone.” I smiled at him, weary as I was, and said, “I know it has.” The whole casting out event had taken about an hour of intense prayer and words of life being spoken.
As she stirred, she fell on her knees and my Ugandan brother instructed me to pray Christ over her. I prayed words that she repeated, not feeling led to lead her in a salvation prayer, but feeling more inclined to assert Jesus as Lord over her life. She repeated these words in a sincere, scratchy voice.
As I stood up, I realized that the Crusade was over and it was time for us to catch a motorcycle home. As I was walking away, this woman ran up to me and threw her arms around me, kissing my face, saying, “Thank you” over and over again.
This woman ended up becoming a good friend of mine over the course of my stay in Gulu. I found out that she had been kidnapped by the LRA as a child and forced to kill others and drink their blood, thus the painful screams of “Blood” that she kept repeating in Luo, over and over again. The LRA was founded in occultic practice, and so many of the children that they kidnap are forced to slaughter and rape others as an expression of Satanic practice. This woman’s family had come to Christ the month before we came to Gulu, through the ministry of team Ninja that had been working in this city while we were in Nairobi. She has only recently been returned to her family, and at 20, so much of life has been robbed from her, but God is actively restoring it as she trusts in Him for healing.
The workings of witchcraft and Satanic practice have been so deeply ground into her that it may take time for her to experience total freedom. But each time the Holy Spirit cleanses her from her past, she draws closer to total and complete freedom, which is found only in Jesus Christ. Now, she attends the church with which we worked, Victory Outreach, and she helps teach the children stories about the Jesus that redeems her, day by day, from a horrible past she had no control over.
And I have learned that I don’t have to have experience in something for God to use me. I just have to be obedient. I had no idea that my “stepping into the water” would involve wrestling matches against demons, but God did. If He would have told me before time, I don’t think I would have believed I could do it. But as we are filled with the Holy Spirit, He does the work for us. His perfect love casts out all of our fear and every single demon that could ever possibly come against us.
Please, continue to pray for this woman and her family, as well as the lives that are rebuilt in Gulu, with Christ as the foundation.
