The challenge of walking with the God who knows me
Names changed throughout except in some cases where the person involved has been or is in ministry.
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If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. 2 Cor 5:17
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Matthew 2:13
“When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up,’ he said, ‘take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.’
The first issue that invaded our lives was when one of our sons became unreasonably violent at every opportunity. We seemed to be spending our time pulling him out of fights. On one such occasion I asked him why he was behaving like this. His reply rather took me aback. He said, I can’t help it. I know it is wrong, but I seem unable to help myself. I remember being rather dismissive at the time.
At that time we went to a service led by a Brazilian pastor. Half the time was spent casting demons out of members of the church. Having been mostly in conservative churches, this was quite new to me. There were two women, each with many demons. The pastor first ascertained how many there were and then began to go through each by name sending them out. The process was much the same for each one, a wave of agitation would come over the woman, that reaching to a crescendo until the spirit finally left, then there was peace.
That night it occurred to us that maybe the problem with our son was spiritual. So, while he slept we prayed for him, very simply that whatever spirit was on him, that Jesus would take it away and send it to the place where he sends the spirits. The next morning, the issue was completely resolved. We were amazed by the suddenness of the change.
We had been warned before we went out to Portugal that the occult was strong in the region. In fact those who had come from West Africa and Brazil even went so far as to say that it was stronger in Portugal than in either of those places. Eva had some experience with the issues involved from her teenage years in the Ozark Mountains of the US, I however was pretty unaware of what was involved.
With this new awareness, we became more alert to the warning signs. We would be on the look out for unusual and bad behaviour. When we saw it, we would pray. I remember once having a terrible row with Eva. Suddenly I stopped, and it is hard to stop when you are angry. I thought, what is going on here, we never fight? I suggested we pray. Neither of us had much faith, we were both right in our own eyes, however we prayed. The moment we finished the whole argument evaporated. We didn’t even feel angry any more.
The problem with the occult is that it is hidden. Witches don’t go around declaring that they are about to put a curse on you. How then could we defend ourselves? The Lord came up with a solution. He would give us dreams of warning. When we had the dream we would pray for God’s protection, and that we would see the situation arising when it occurred. Through these warning dreams and prayer, God kept us safe through our time in Portugal, and even back in Britain.
One of the most important was a dream where I was on a walking trip with some friends in the mountains. During the night, sleeping in tents, these so called friends tried to kill me. After the dream I could not work out the significance. Who could these evil friends be? It was only a year or two later, after I had prayed that the ones through whom evil was coming to us would make a mistake and reveal themselves, that we found out. They were indeed our friends, and we were amazed by this wickedness that would make people betray friendship in such a way.
SPIRITUAL ATTACK
