Ephesians 6:12 says... "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."
I've always thought this to be an encouraging verse, but I guess never really grasped what it really meant. I've known it to be true in my mind, but never really experienced or seen it played out before my eyes.
Hut-to-hut Evangelism
All morning, I went out in the town with 3 people from our team and a translator. We walked through the streets engaging in conversation with people we met about Jesus. We met a lot of sweet people and heard some crazy life stories. We got to share the gospel with several people, encourage some Believers we met, and pray for everyone we talked to! I was most encouraged by an 11-year old girl we talked with. Her family invited us into their home to sit and talk. The grandmother explained to us that her granddaughter was sent home and cannot attend school because a couple weeks ago she got a skin disease that's taken over the left side of her body. She sat very quiet and depressed about her situation. I got to share with her who God is and how much He loves her! I got to share Zephaniah 3:17 with her--that God delights in her, rejoices in Her and that He wants to heal her disease to show her how much He loves her! We got to lay hands on this little girl and ask the God who created the Heavens & the Earth to remove this disease from her body that He might be glorified and known and the Almighty God by this family!! She and her grandmother were deeply encouraged and blessed by God during our time there. A couple days later a group of people doing hut-to-hut got to stop by their place to see how she's doing and her disease was visibly getting much better. How encouraging!! We serve an active, personal God who shows his great Love in such cool ways!! Praise God!
Town Square Revival
During the afternoon, we held a "revival"--as the mission called it-- at the town square. We sang some worship songs, performed a drama, had some speaking and then some more singing. We were told that when this was done in the past, over a thousand people have come simply because there isn't anything else going on! So we, of course, had high expectations of what God was going to do! As we got there and began to sing some songs, there were probably 40-50 kids there. Not at all what we expected but nevertheless awesome that the kids were able to come worship with us! As someone began to share the gospel in follow up to the drama, there was a lady toward the back of the crowd who was yelling things and being a huge distraction to almost everyone. The Haitian next to me said, Ohh, she's the crazy lady. So everyone in town knows this lady as "the crazy lady". Wow. So a couple girls got her to the back and began to pray over her. I went back and we quickly became aware that she was possessed by a demon. It was clear that there was activity happening in the spiritual realm. As we prayed over this lady for the next 30-45 minutes, Ephesians 6:12 became real to me. Our struggle was not against this lady, but against the enemy who was reigning over her life. She was created perfectly in the image of God. Sin has reigned in her life and she's said yes to Satan and the words of Voodoo. God taught me some powerful things during this time of prayer over this lady. I was encouraged that He allowed us to enter into the battle that is happening 24/7 in the spiritual realms and although it's manifested in a lot of other ways here in America, the battle is still raging.
I went to sleep this night in awe of the power of freedom!
Thank you Jesus for setting me free from sin! Thank you for setting me free from guilt and shame and works of the enemy in my life! It's my desire to live all the days of my life in true freedom, walking in the Light!
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