Thursday, July 30, 2009

Deliverance

Mark 16:16-18
16Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."

For those of you who have read the previous blog titled “Sarah” we would like to update you further and request an abundance of prayer over this next weekend.
After talking to and praying for Sarah, we shared with Rick and Steve, and as a team we prayed over and discussed the situation that night. While praying against the demons we believed to be in Sarah, Rick and I both received a picture of her looking extremely angry, specifically in her eyes. The next day confirmed that what we had seen was inside of her.
We asked Sarah’s permission to pray for her, and the 5 of us gathered in the pastor’s office. Rick asked her questions concerning her salvation as we attempted to discern what she meant when she said she believed in Christ. She confessed Christ as her savior (though we are currently thinking she may not understand that Islam and Christianity are mutually exclusive.) Rick asked Steve, Bethany, and I to quietly pray as he began to pray aloud and claim Sarah for the kingdom God and began to rebuke any demons. The 45 minutes or so that followed are difficult to explain. As Rick began to address the demons, Sarah no longer seemed present, she closed her eyes, her shoulders sagged, she often yawned and when asked questions she had a difficult time answering, at times of consciousness she complained of not being able to hear us well. When Rick demanded in the name of Christ her eyes be opened, what stared back was not the girl we had gotten to know but the eyes Rick and I had seen the night before. Rick repeatedly tried to get the demon to tell us what it wanted and how it got there, but it refused.
At one point while praying it was impressed upon me that we should try to weaken/fight the demon by reading scripture aloud and I suggested such to Rick. What followed should not be surprising. I read aloud Mark 16 hoping to remind the enemy of our victory through the Resurrection, Steve followed by reading Job 38… “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations? … Have you ever given orders to the morning or shown the dawn its place?...” (read it, even now I have goosebumps, our God is awesome.)We continued on and on reading verse after verse, speaking truth after truth. She covered her ears, closed her eyes again, and started stretching her arms over head in a manner that didn’t appear very comfortable. When bringing our attention back to Sarah, Rick would ask her what she was seeing or hearing, she would say in a strained voice that she felt darkness, at one point that she saw angry eyes, and complained of pain in her back, and felt very cold. For the majority of the time though her consciousness appeared to have shut down. Towards the end of our time Rick again tried to call Sarah to attention asking her to say Jesus is Lord, and then led her through the Lord’s prayer. This was a very long and drawn out process, at times she would barely whisper as she repeated after Rick, other times she would remain silent, eyes shut, seemingly shut off from us before finally repeating a verse. As the Holy Spirit led the time to a close, Rick ordered that that the demons be bound, that the voices would cease, that her headache would cease, and prayed a blessing of protection over her. As she came to, it became apparent to us that she didn’t seem to have any memory of the past hour. She said that she was exhausted and felt very weak, but as she regained her focus she spoke of peace and her headache being gone.
This was a new experience for all of us, it was a lot to process, a lot to try and make sense of. I do however feel that the Lord blessed us with an opportunity to learn, and opened the doors to minister to her again. She missed an entire week of school due to sickness and so we didn’t get to talk with her much but we continued to pray fervently. She returned to school this week and the Lord has brought about the opportunity for her to come spend the weekend with us. She is coming home with us tomorrow (Friday the 31st) and we want to put on the full armor of God and shower the following days in prayer.
Please pray…
· Through conversations we’ve had it has become evident that Sarah has had some damaging experiences in life such as instances of abuse, that may need to be dealt with before confronting any demons again. Please pray that Sarah would be able to forgive those who have brought hurt to her life, that she would be willing to share with us and that in return we would be able to speak truth and love her.
· Pray for protection over Sarah, Bethany, and myself as well as our friends and family that are praying for us.
· Please pray that we would be sensitive to the Holy Spirit; that we would seek to listen first and then act.
· Pray that if Sarah is not truly saved she would come to know Christ in full this weekend and renounce Allah and Islam.
· Pray that time and interruptions would not be a hindrance or constraint on our conversations or times of ministry/possible deliverance.
· Pray that we would have a spirit of boldness not of fear, an attitude of love and humility not control.
· Pray that this weekend would be a blessing to Sarah, a growing experience for us, and that all involved would experience the love and power of Christ.
· We will be taking Sarah to what is probably her first Sunday morning service at a Christian church. Pray that it would be a positive experience and that the message would speak to her.
· Pray that she would be delivered from the demons.

5 comments:

  1. My, my...What fascinating and terrifying and awesome experiences you are all having.

    Firstly, let me open by telling each one of you how encouraging it is for me as a young believer to read how steadfast each of you are in helping this young woman overcome her demons through the infinite power of Christ our Lord and Savior. It's just...awe-inspiring to see how sure of our Lord you all are that you would confront these demons that bind Sarah knowing full-well that God will win through just as soon as she is ready for Him.

    Secondly, I most certainly do want to pray - both here as a written encouragement to you all (including Sarah) and on my own when I am finished here; for I know few or no times when prayer is a bad idea, and surely it is always a good idea in cases of demonic possession.

    Father in Heaven,
    I thank You for Your faithful servants who have followed Your most-worthy calling to reach out to this afflicted woman. I thank You for being who You are - the one and only all-powerful and all-loving God who was and is to come. I thank you for Sarah and everything that You have allowed to lead her to this very moment in time where she has met Your faithful servants in order to finally come to know Your Love and Power. I ask for Your will to be done - and only Your will; for I know of nothing greater to ask. In Your own time may it be done - if now is the time for my fellow Brothers and Sisters to act, may the act accordingly; if now is the time for my future Sister Sarah to act, may she act accordingly and take this golden opportunity that You present to her to denounce her false faith in false idols and gods. I pray that she will be open to Your ultimate Love and Power and Compassion for her so that she need not fear any such powers of the demonic, even their powers of Death. Lastly, Father, I pray for myself, that I would continue to read these experience as my fellows would write them without fear - for I know that even as I write do I fear even speaking of demons and their power. Lord, I pray that I would have no fear, that my heart would burn passionately for You and Your Love, knowing full-well the Power that burns within me as well to protect me from any and all threats - may this Knowledge be impressed upon my heart and soul so that my prayers and service to and for You would go unhindered. By Your Name, through Your Power, and for Your Glory,
    Amen.

    I hope that you all feel encouraged, and that you do not falter when your Faith is burning so brightly that even a young one like myself across the ocean is being warmed by it. Farewell for now.

    - Kevin.

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  2. Though demons may be present I suspect this girl Sarah has a dissociative identiy disorder or "Multiple Personalities." This is a response to severe forms of repeated sexual abuse, not demons. Her lack of memory after the episode is normal for someone with several identities or personalities. The identities do not share co-consciousness so the core personality loses track of time when one of the other identities is being used to face a stressful situation. Certainly having strange men surround you, even for prayer, could bring out an identity to face that particular situation. Demons could be present but from what I am reading I suspect a dissociative disorder, a chosen response to severe sexual abuse trauma.

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  3. Praying for you guys. It must be already Friday night there, so blessing you right now.

    -Steve

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  4. Hi Team,

    This sounds to me like a textbook case of demonization, even if DID is involved as well (the two are entirely compatible). I'll email you via Facebook, Charlotte, with some thoughts.

    Michael

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  5. Anonymous- I would love to email you more about the discussion on DID, we are always aware that it a possiblity when discerning whether demonization is a factor, however I feel the conversation would be best had over email. Jmaples14@aol.com
    Thanks,
    Charlotte

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