One evening in
the spring of 1973, I received a phone call from a distraught young
woman. Karen, the stranger on the other end, had immersed her heart and
soul in a satanic cult: a dark spiritual reality that was virtually unknown
to most Christian churches. I knew nothing about the
terrifying occult bondage that had enveloped her. But I invited her to come
to my home later that week. Then I started to pray.
A few weeks earlier, with God's guidance and
my husband's blessing, I had joined the new "Compassion Corps" at our
evangelical church. My first assignment was
to counsel a young woman with a three-month old baby. Karen [not her real name]
had called the church for help and had indicated she was a Christian. She
said suffered from fear, anger and depression as well as mental and spiritual confusion.
The church office gave her my name and phone number. When she called, I felt utterly inadequate
to help her. But through my weakness God showed me His strength!
Using my Bible and concordance, I began my
study on angels and demons -- confident that Satan's malicious trickery
was no obstacle to God's power and protection.
Keep in mind...
Satan's
lures have brought sickness, death, fear
and confusion from the
beginning of time. That spiritual darkness seemed to diminish during
America's
first
centuries, but the tide has now turned! Today's children face an
unthinkable flood of corrupt entertainment. Mind-changing movies, occult
computer games,
seductive books, and mesmerizing music are fast banishing the good while welcoming the evil!
With our Bibles and a few reliable
history books we can trace the ups and downs of this movement. We see
that when
nations dismiss God, the nominal "Christians" as well as the secular
masses start seeking enticing substitutes.
But the joy is short-lived, for when God withdraws His hand of
protection, many face dreadful consequences. (Study the chart)
Today's "liberated" youth are now immersing
their minds in occult "virtual realities" that have entrapped blinded captives
across America.
As we might expect, they have little or no tolerance for Jesus and those
who follow Him.
"...they were holding at that time a
notable prisoner called Barabbas.
When
therefore they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them,
'Whom do you want me to I release to you? Barabbas, or Jesus
who is called Christ?' For he knew that because of envy they had
delivered him up....
"But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the multitude to ask
for Barabbas and
to put Jesus to death.
But the
governor answered and said to them, 'Which of the two do you want me
to I release for you? And they said, 'Barabbas.' Pilate said to
them,
'Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called
Christ?'
They
all said, 'Let him be crucified.' And the governor
said, 'Why, what evil has he done? But they cried out the more,
saying, 'Let him be crucified.'"
(Matthew
27:16-23)
Fighting the Forces of
Evil
A few days after her initial phone call,
Karen and I were sitting in our kitchen and praying, asking God, our heavenly Counselor, for guidance.
He led us for the next seven hours as Karen shared her traumatic personal history, read
Scriptures, extended forgiveness to all who had hurt and abused her, confessed her own
sins as God brought them to mind, and then praised the God who had begun to heal her.
Though she had not yet mentioned her occult connection, she left
full of joy. God had indeed touched her, and her heart was singing.
Her joy didn't last long. That evening
she called me in a state of panic. Her home was in chaos. The baby was
screaming, her husband was threatening suicide and Karen was terrified.
God then prompted me to ask if she
had been involved in any occult activities in the past. "Yes," she answered.
She was well aware of the evil behind that dark seductive power that had
been tormenting her.
I knew little about demonic oppression
and spiritual bondage, but again God prompted me to ask some questions. First, had
she kept any of the objects and symbols that still linked her to the cult?
Together we
asked our Shepherd to help her remember, and she began to list all the objects and clothes in her
house that had been used in ritual worship. We prayed that He would guide both Karen and
her husband as they sought to do their part in cleansing their home of all
occult connections.
When Karen called back the next
day, she had completed her search and discarded all relics from her years of
bondage. We thanked God, but my concern had deepened. Ephesians 4:27 and other Scriptures suggested that she might face more battles before she would walk freely in
God's
victory. Remembering Mark 9:29, I suggested we fast for
three days.
Andy, my wise husband,
suggested I call our church for help. So I did. The only available pastor was supportive,
but he was unfamiliar with occult bondage and could offer no advice. He prayed that God would lead me, and we both trusted that He
would. Meanwhile I continued in prayer, study and fasting.
"...when Jesus
saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked
the unclean spirit, saying to it, 'You deaf and dumb spirit, I
command you, come out of him and do not enter him again.'
And after crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsion,
it came out, and the boy became so much like a corpse that most
them said, 'He is dead!'
"But Jesus took him by hand and
raised him; and he got up. And when he had come into the
house, His disciples began questioning Him privately, 'Why could
we not cast it out? And He said to them, 'This kind cannot come
out by anything by prayer."
(Mark 9:26-29)
Some hours later, the phone rang. A woman I barely
remembered meeting at a Christmas gathering introduced herself. She told me that God had
prompted her to call
me with some advice. She had found my name and phone number on an old
Christmas list.
A bit skeptical at first, I listened, praying that God would guard me against deception.
"Open your Bible to the blank pages in the
back and write down these instructions," she said. "You need to know how to lead
someone through deliverance."
How did she know about Karen? Neither
Andy nor I had told anyone other than our associate pastor. When I told her about my
need, she shared my awe at God's amazing ways.
Following
her instructions, I wrote three
pages of notes. Then we prayed together, and she added an interesting comment. "If
you are fasting," she said, "drink juice as well as water. You will need it."
Wow. That was good news.
Half a day after starting the fast, I had felt waves of nausea. God knew something I didn't at that
moment: I was pregnant with our third son and desperately needed something more than water in my stomach.
Three days later, on a
Thursday, God led us through the steps He had given me through the
insightful woman.
This time, Karen left my kitchen with the certain knowledge that God was her
Savior, King, Lord and Shepherd.
"
When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public
display of them, having triumphed over them...." (Colossians 2:15)
A week later
But Karen's battle was still not over.
That Sunday night, Dr. Dick Hillis, then the General Director of Overseas Crusades
International (OCI) -- spoke at our church. By God's amazing
plan and timing, he described the demonic oppression, possession and deliverance he had
witnessed on the mission field from 1933 to 1961 in Asia. Then he
stressed this warning:
"When the unclean
spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places
seeking rest, and not finding any, he says, I will return to my
house from which I came. And
when it comes, it finds it
swept and put in order.
Then
it goes and takes along
seven other spirits more evil than itself; and they go in and live
there; and the last state
of that man is worse than the first." (Luke 11:24-26)
I took God's words to heart.
Karen had already memorized some key Scriptures in preparation for spiritual warfare. But we needed to discuss
the
Armor of God and make sure we were
both covered by His protective life.
The next three days went well,
but on the fourth night she called again. Her frightened voice exposed the intensity of
her battle. She began to describe the demons that were pressing into "the door" of
her mind, and what she "saw" seemed strangely familiar. As she
described her scary, hideous
tormentors, they seemed to resemble some of the weird creatures we now see -- and children
idolize -- in today's mind-changing entertainment.
I wondered
if I should follow her home and be available to
her during the night, but Andy told me to stay home. Instead, I
put some bedding by the hallway phone and prayed with Karen against the forces of evil
during much of
the night.
By God's grace and power, Karen
"won" the initial battle. Through the next few months, she learned how to resist
her demonic oppressors
through prayer and Scriptures. And finally then personal combat with evil finally ended! Hungry for His Word and presence, she grew fast
in Christ and became strong
in faith and spirit -- ready to fight the spiritual battles we all face in
these challenging times. Christ had set her free, and within two years, she was teaching Bible studies and encouraging
other women in their faith.[4]
[These
words are worth repeating:] "Finally
be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might! Put on
the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm
against the schemes of the devil.
...
"With
all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit and
with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and
petition for all the saints..... Grace be with all those
who love our Lord Jesus Christ with a love incorruptible."
