Interactions with God #80

We became part of Vineyard Church North Phoenix as soon as we arrived in Arizona.  We also became part of a home group that met weekly.  The group was led by Matt Armstrong, who became one of my best friends. 

By 1999, Martha and I were asked to lead another home group.  That home group met at the home of Jason and Karen every Wednesday night.  We had a really good group of people that joined us over that year.  Among them, where Mike and Susan.  They had two kids.  A daughter who was about 13 at the time and a son named Lance who was about 8. 

Mike and Susan spoke to me as the group ended one night.  They had a problem and wanted my help.  As everyone started to leave, Martha and I sat down with them.  Susan explained the story.  Lance was having terrible night terrors.  He was waking up in the middle of the night screaming that a demon was appearing to him. 

Yes, this was from an 8 year old boy.  Sure, it could have been his imagination or a dream…but it also could have been real.  I had seen weird enough things already, and I knew that evil spirits did exist.  So I asked for more detail.

Susan had a sister, who came to visit a few weeks earlier.  That sister, though a Catholic, was also into the mystical side of things, as is fairly common throughout Mexico.  She brought a “prayer” candle that was meant to summon the spirits of saints.  Of course you have seen these candles.  You can find them in any occult store.  They have then in grocery stores now.  Are they harmless?  Sometimes yes, sometimes no.  Like a Ouija board, it all depends on where your faith is.  Concerned, Mike had adamantly told Susan’s sister not to light the candle.  She did anyway.  She had stayed in Lance’s room. 

Now, since then, Lance had been waking up each night screaming.  The night before she told me this story, Susan had gotten up to comfort Lance as he let out his nightly shriek.  When she entered the room, Lance pointed to the window.  Susan turned, and from out in the darkness she saw a shadowy figure with bright red eyes.  No, she was not fooling around.  You had to see the look on her face as she told this story.  Terrified, yet since she had been taught enough about the authority we have in Jesus, she spoke to the thing and told it to go away.  It spoke back to her.  Yes, it did. “I have a right to be here. The candle called me.”

You know this had the making of a great horror movie, but it was all a lie.  No, not the story Susan told.  The lie was from this demon and by the Spirit of God I knew it immediately.  “The thing lied to you.” I said. “Mike, the candle is nothing. It is like an idol. It has absolutely no value unless you believe it does.  The reason the demon is there is because you, as the head of the house, believed the candle had some kind of power.  It does not.  You are NOT trusting in God, you are trusting in a supposed mystical object.  To get rid of this thing, you need to repent for trusting that some candle has power over God.” 

He did right there.  We went to their house and prayed over it, just to encourage them. 

Susan and Lance never saw the thing again.