Interactions with God #71
Continuing the month, teaching my Sunday school class about prayer, the following week we discussed praying in a group. The next week we covered hands on praying for others. Then we talked of praying in the Spirit. Yes, that weird speaking in tongues thing. However, there was one area we didn’t cover. Frankly, it never occurred to me. Apparently, God did not want it missed, so being in charge of circumstances, well, He made sure that it would be covered.
Look, there are demons. I have addressed this before. What they really are is debatable. I don’t believe they are fallen angels, nor are they people stuck between heaven and hell. I have my views on it, based on the bible, and some teaching from men I respect for their wisdom, experience and intelligence. Either way, I don’t really know, none of us do. What I do know for sure is that they are here on this earth and they are not nice at all.
The first Sunday of my off month, Martha and I came to church just like always. However, when I got there, the woman who I alternated months with was out sick. Our class needed a teacher, so I was had to teach another class. I had no lesson prepared. Well, I knew God would make it work, He always does. I went on the same line as I had been during the past month. When the class started, we went right into a live round of praying for each other.
Rick Herlan (not sure if this is spelled right) was a guy who helped me with the class most days. Rick had been around a while. He was a great guy. He was there when the Vineyard movement started with Ken Gulliksen many years prior. He had seen much more that I had. Especially when it came to evil spirits.
Rick was managing the teens, while they prayed for each other. Me, I was talking to a young girl who was visiting with a girl named Amy. She was not sure what to make of the way we prayed. I sat there and explained to her what was going on. Rick then smacked me on the arm and nodded for me to help. I began to wave him off thinking, “I am not needed, they got this”, when a boy they were praying for began to snarl in a rather bizarre way. “OH!” Yea, I joined in.
I had dealt with demons before as I discussed in several earlier interactions, but as of yet, I had not dealt with them in deliverance fashion. Yes, that was what we had here. I had worried in the past how I would deal with something like this. I really thought I would be terrified. I mean, look at what happens in the movies. Yes, of course that is a load of poo! This was reality and I wasn’t scared, no, not at all. On the contrary, I got really mad. I mean, how dare this evil, non-corporeal being assault one of my students. I began to not just rebuke it, but I stood up and yelled at it. I was REALLY MAD.
In my yelling, I was not all that aware of how well it was working. Rick said he saw signs that four spirits came out of the boy. Me, I had to sit in a chair for a while to just calm down after it was over. I tell you if these things could have appeared in a physical form I would have lunged for their throats. I don’t know if it was partly the Spirit of God or not, but I wanted to do serious harm to these things for hurting one of God’s own. We dismissed the class to a large number of concerned parents. I think they thought I was yelling at one of the kids. Once leadership explained what happened, no one seemed too bothered in the weeks following.
Was there any signs that it was real? Maybe the boy faked it. After a while, I was concerned that maybe it was an odd emotional event. Well, I was, until the boy we prayed for came to church after a few weeks off… with no acne, none. He had struggled with it for years…very interesting…