Captives Set Free

10.30.9(Friday)

One night during the 2 weeks that Kevin was gone I had a strange experience. It was my last night on malaria meds, I don’t know if that had anything to do with it or not, and I don’t know if it truly was demonic or not, but Minan said that it did sound similar to some demonic happenings.

My sleep was on and off that night. There were rats, and I had already gone to bed so early, that by the time it was 3 in the morning I had a good amount of sleep already. I also was dreaming off and on. But one time when I woke up very fast was because I felt something touching my foot. It felt like it was something nuzzling up against it through my mosquito net. I woke up immediately and turned my headlamp on. Nothing. There was nothing there and I wasn’t even touching the mosquito net with my foot. I didn’t really think anything of it, so I went back to sleep. Then the next time it startled me even more. This time the pressure that I felt was on the side of my neck. Again, it felt like something might have been trying to nuzzle up against my neck. It was the sensation of pressure, not chocking or anything, but just pressure on my neck. My first thought was that a rat actually might have gotten behind my head and was pushing on my mosquito net and was on my neck. But nothing was there, again, I wasn’t close to my mosquito net.

Then when I realized after it happened a couple of times, I remembered a former SM’s story that was similar except his was a blowing sensation like someone was blowing on his arm. He prayed and that never happened to him again.

So I got out my bible and read, and sang some hymns. I asked Jesus to come near and praised the power of his name. I asked that angels come surround me as I slept and my house. I declared to Jesus that this home was dedicated to Him and is His domain. That hasn’t happened since.

Josh (another SM here) also had an interesting experience one evening. He was awake working on some class lesson plans or something when all of the sudden his whole house started to shake and rock. He had a local boy sleeping over that night who was already asleep and the shaking woke him up. Josh said it didn’t feel the same as an earthquake, and nobody else around the area felt anything.

He immediately prayed and while he was praying, it stopped. He said he felt an evil presence too. Minan said that sometimes the earth is still settling and she’s felt something like that before, but she doesn’t undermine that it very well could be evil. In any case, we know that Jesus is always the best and the first answer. Whether these experiences were demonic or not, we can and should always go to Jesus.

There is a great controversy going on for sure. The Devil doesn’t like it when we pray on behalf of something or someone that he has claimed and by us praying, we give Jesus the right to step in and take over on behalf of us.

I’m curious about when the Georges leave for furlough in December. They will be gone for 2 ½ months and they told us that they seem to have most of the demon possession cases happen when they are gone. I pray that that won’t happen and am praying earnestly for these people now that the Devil will no longer be allowed to control them.

Please pray for that too and pray for the body of believers that are established here, that they would stand strong in their faith and can reach out to their fellow Palawanos and help fight against the old ways of the Devil. That Christ would gain victory through his followers.



10-31-09

Tonight we had a demon possession case. God is good and His power is mighty to save and uses us, who are weak, to bring glory to His name. Please pray for us here. Pray for a boy named Juney. Pray for his friends and family and others who might have the same sort of things going on in their lives. Here’s the story.

We just got done with a youth get together Sabbath afternoon. We had a good worship and we were all gathered around a computer looking at some fun pictures from the afternoon. Mumul, yelled at Joha and said someone was very sick. She said that she heard someone shriek and it sounded like maybe someone fell off a roof.

So it was my Sabbath to be on at the clinic if any patients were to come. Interestingly enough, just a few hours ago, I did see this boy at the clinic. His mother had brought him and said he was fevering and chilling. I pulled his chart to find that he just came to the clinic yesterday for the same reason, had received malaria meds and now was back. So I had Joha over the radio explain that he still has 2 more nights on his meds, and that they take 3-4 days to work. He still might have the symptoms for a few nights. So they went home and were instructed to come back on Monday or Tuesday if the symptoms were still not gone.

I didn’t realize this was the same boy. So Joha and I walked to the house, I heard the word, fevering and chilling and difficulty breathing, as we were walking, and I was thinking, “He needs to come to the clinic. We don’t have anything with us.” Then when we got to the house, it was about 5pm, dusk. I thought he should come out on the porch so we could see him better in the light that was left in the day. But it turned out that he couldn’t come out on the porch. When we stepped inside the house we immediately heard him breathing very heavily like he was hyperventilating.

Now if someone was truly in respiratory distress, they would be sitting up leaning slightly forward because the lungs get the best naturally expansion in that position, working with gravity. But this boy was flat on the floor, face down. He was clawing at the floor and wasn’t really talking. I went in to see if he felt hot, and to feel his pulse. Nope, not hot. Pulse normal. Why was he breathing so heavily? Why was he clawing at the floor? Joha immediately said that she thought that there was something more to this. I agreed.

We started to pray immediately. I prayed, she was singing, we sang, then she prayed and I was singing. She yelled for someone to go get Bubit, who is sisters with the George’s adopted daughter. She was home for vacation from college. She’s the first Palawano to ever go to college. Her story is interesting as well. But she was on of the people in charge of spiritual crisis while the Georges were gone. So then Joha went too to try to get ahold of Pastor and Minan. She didn’t get ahold of them but got a hold of Wendy a former missionary who is still in the Philippines. She also informed the rest of the team back at the house and on the trails to pray. As she left, she heard him saying that he didn’t want to live this life anymore.

Bubit came and we continued to pray and sing. We prayed that the presence of Jesus Christ would fill up this place. We denounced the evil that was present and claimed this boy and the family members present as Jesus’ children. We prayed that our own hearts would be cleansed and that we would be transparent so that we couldn’t get in the way. We claimed promises and sang them. We asked for Holy angels to come and battle against the evil that was present. We prayed so much. Bubit heard him yelling “Wake me up!”

I have never been in this situation before. I don’t know if Bubit had either, and Joha hadn’t either. He would flip flop and was just scraping for the floor with his hands. I was worried about his head at one point and tried to pad it with my tadyun. Another thing I noticed was his bracelets and rings that were around his wrist. I checked his ears for rings and other places on his body. I remember vaguely Minan mentioning something about that kind of thing, and not knowing what kind of hold those charms could have. I prayed that those things if they had any sort of evil hold that that chain would be broken.

I’m am SO thankful to the Lord for keeping us safe during this time. I didn’t know how much I should touch him and try to hold him, we were already laying our hands on him. At one point, we did have some boiled water there in case it was something respiratory, we wanted to do a steam treatment for his breathing. He couldn’t sit up at this point. So we pulled him onto my lap on his side and draped the tadyun over his head and the water. It was so crazy to have him in my lap. His eyes weren’t open during any of this, but he was foaming at the mouth a little bit. During that time he sat up immediately. We took the sheet off his head and he started to calm down. I have no idea how long this whole process had been going on. Then at this point his eyes were open and he looked directly at Bubit and asked her who she was. It reminded me of the bible when the demons asked who the men praying who they were. They knew Paul, they knew Jesus, but “who are you?” It was such a crazy thing when he would look into our eyes. It was this boy! He was trapped as a prisoner! Was it him looking into my face with his dark brown eyes? Or was it evil? Thank God, He gave us the courage to stare directly back at him. But then his breathing began to slow down. He was sitting up. He started to relax and to be still. Bubit started talking to him and asking him questions.

I couldn’t understand what she was saying at the time, but I knew she was telling him about Jesus and it ended with him wanting to promise to follow God. She said a prayer and he repeated it after her. At that time, the rest of the team had come to the house and we were all gathered around. We sang. I remember Bubit looking at me and she said. “He wants to follow Jesus. He promised to follow Him. And we are his witnesses. It was so powerful. The smiles from him and from his mom and from Bubit were incredible. I looked over at a little girl in the corner and smiled at her. She grinned back. It was such a beautiful moment. We sang more songs and Bubit continued to talk to the mother and to him. She told the mother to keep him away from any witch doctors or any other source of power to heal his sickness except for God. She told her to not mix medicines and to go to God for any healing that was requested. She told her to come to the clinic immediately where they could get support if he was sick. But his smile. God is so good.

It’s so crazy. It is such a wake up call. And it’s so interesting that it is Halloween tonight. People are worshiping the Devil not only intentionally, but also out of ignorance; or unaware. But God turned this night in these mountains into a night where the whole host of heaven is rejoicing.

We debriefed as a team and got all of the different pieces to the story from everyone’s point of view. For example, at the beginning of this, Kevin was just coming down from Josh’s house. We were going to have a birthday party for Bubit this night, and we were going to make pizza and all sorts of good food that is very rare here. Michelle passed them on the trail on her way to the clinic to get a stethoscope and other things. She was unaware at this point of the spiritual situation. She just told Kevin that I was seeing a patient and they talked plans for the evening. Kevin went home, Josh continued down the trail to the George’s house. Joha came running up the trail and said, you guys need to pray! They didn’t know what was going on, but Kevin and Josh got together and started praying.

We just praised God! We reviewed some of the promises and all agreed how important it was to be armed and ready at all times. And to be armed and ready means to have the armor of the Lord on found in Ephesians 6. And it also means to put on Christ each morning and to pray without ceasing throughout the day. We have weapons of faith that can guard us against the attacks of Satan. There is a really good sermon that Ivor Myers does on this called “Weapons of our Faith” if anyone is interested, go to the audioverse link on our blog for it.

It is also just so crazy how Satan has his prisoners. Kevin just listened to another sermon by Randy Skeet about setting the captives free. A synopsis of a quote is this; “There is no degree of possession that Christ cannot break. He said He came to do that. That is why it is an insult to the power of Christ to say, ‘that’s the way I am, I cannot change.’ Too many Christians take comfort in saying that’s the way I am. That is exactly why Christ came, because that’s the way you are, and that’s the way I am.” We can’t change, but we can by the power of Christ.

There are just so many things to learn and to keep learning and to learn again, over and over. We need prayer. We need to pray. And think on whatever is pure, lovely, of good report. Stay armed and ready for the ever pressing attacks of Satan. Through Christ’s power, which is all power on heaven and earth, we can play a part in this battle.