Interactions with God #19
The only cure for ignorance is knowledge. Unfortunately there is no cure for willful ignorance. There are things in this world that most people don’t want to see, some of them are really scary too. We like to think that the world is normal, kind of like what is on a regular TV show. Pretty people, difficult problems that can always be overcome and any weird spiritual things are always fiction. This is comfortable, but not accurate at all.
Curtis, one of the guys that would go out witnessing with us, was a longtime friend of Cary. Curtis, I don’t remember why, spent a few days in the Houston area and met a pastor by the name of Ray. Ray was an odd character, from Curtis’ description. Ray was also very into the idea of deliverance from demons. This whole idea was not completely foreign to me considering my experiences in high school, but to say I was knowledgeable was a big stretch. Ignorance when realized can be accompanied by an over enthusiasm in the process of killing it through learning. This is something we all engaged in for a few months after the influence of the man named Ray.
The over-enthusiasm really showed itself in our sudden suspicion of demons being everywhere. Oh, they were there, and still are, but we really kind of went nutty with it. Among the more stupid things we did, was to start rebuking demons all over the place, especially in our prayer times together. This over-enthusiasm was based not only on our ignorance of scripture, but also on our ignorance of the power of God. You see, when you think that God is not really in control, you become concerned or even fearful that how or when an evil spirit can advance is up to YOU. This is arrogant at its core and completely foolish in total. God is God. When dealing with a spiritual being that is not very friendly, we are always going to be over our head. Why? Well, we are not even sure what they really are. Are they fallen angels? Not according to scripture. Are they people who are stuck here on earth after they die? That is not biblical either. Are they the Nephilim who died before and after the flood? Well, there is reason to believe this based on the writings in the Book of Enoch, but it is not a book that was included in the bible. Currently, I do hold to this idea, but there is still not enough evidence to say one way or another. What I do know and did in early 1985, was that demons were real and not something to be taken lightly.
So, learning it was, and this generally by experience. Now armed with our over-zealous understanding of a real spiritual battle between God and these unseen beings of malevolence, we headed out on our regular trip to talk to unsaved students about the salvation offered by God through Jesus Christ. On this particular night, we went to Sixth Street instead of the punker clubs on 2nd street. If I remember right there were at least 5 of us that night. While walking up the street looking for an opportunity to share our message, we came upon a rather large crowd of people in front of a shop that was closed for the evening. The crowd was gathered around a woman/man (no, not sure) who was offering a reading of Tarot cards. In front of her/him, kneeling on a mat, was a young Christian student loudly, and with profane language rebuking her/him.
Strangely, I did see what was happening here. I saw a deeper thing, something more sinister and planned out than I would have normally noticed. I believe the understanding came from the Spirit of God. The witch (not using as an offending term here, it was what she called herself) had purposely set up the mat, for this poor slob, who had taken the bait, so she could make Christ look bad. The crowd was mocking the young man who was not expressing the love of Christ, but rather a typical judgmental foulness not too different from what a seasoned Westboro Baptist church member might spew. I could see she had intended the scenario. She was looking like a lamb to the slaughter. Why would I think that? Well, I just knew it, plus, she didn’t move. She sat there letting the young idiot blast her with words. The crowd was growing increasingly anti-Christian.
I didn’t waste any time. I went straight to the young “Christian” man. I asked him what he was doing. He stood up and began telling me how evil and worthless this witch was. I then rebuked him, firmly, but not rudely. He was there to party with his friends, but knowing he was not right with God, mafelt better about his own wickedness by being noble and “standing up for God”. I asked him about his walk with God. In response, he hung his head seeing his own condemnation upon himself. I began to encourage him to REALLY give his life to Jesus…when things got really weird.
Out of nowhere, another young man came up and started yelling at me, while at the same time defending the judgmental “Christian” man. With this sudden change, I became overwhelmed by confusion and didn’t know what to say to either of them. Seriously, I was at a loss for words! This is when Curtis came up and took me by the arm and pulled me aside. He said to me that he saw the witch take a stone or something out of her bag and wave her hand over it and then in my direction, while saying some kind of spell regarding confusion. That is what he said.
Now Curtis had a reputation for exaggerating things somewhat and considering our new found overzealous efforts to see demons everywhere, one could easily think that this was a load of poo. But standing there overwhelmed with confusion, for no reason that I could see, it did make sense. Curtis said I should stand back from the crowd and pray, so I did. While standing in the back of the crowd, which had become even larger in size, I heard the Holy Spirit speak to me. He said: “I want you to go back in and talk to her. Tell her I love her and do not stray from that topic”. No longer confused, and with new orders, I went back into the battle. The witch was still sitting on her mat in front of a now empty mat, watching the discussions and yelling that she had created. I went up to her and told her Jesus loves her. She quickly stood up.
She was tall, much taller than me, but then most people are. She was thin, and like I have said already, I was not sure if she was female or male. Now, standing in front of me, she started telling me how she, a witch, was born a hermaphrodite and how she was the woman in red from the book of Revelation. Of course that part was a lie, as I suspect much of it was, it didn’t really matter. I had my orders. I ignored what she was saying, doing a rather decent job of not getting distracted into a rabbit hole of other topics…I kept saying, “That’s great, but Jesus REALLY loves you”.
This discussion didn’t last long at all, in fact after only a few attempts at getting me off topic, she started to pack up her stuff and then left. The crowd quickly dispersed. I do hope that she might have gotten the message, but I may never know. I do know that the power of God, met with the power of the enemy there that night, and God didn’t do it with wise words, or shouts of anger. No, he did it with a simple message that any one of us can do, from a long time Christian to the newest of newbies…just tell them that Jesus loves them. This is the power of God made manifest. The cruelest minions of hell cannot cope with this weapon. No sir, not at all.