Well, if you were questioning my sanity a little bit with my last blog post, you may start demanding that I get professional help with the next few.
The issue of Satan and his army of demons has long been a bizarre topic, even among followers of Christ, often polarizing believers from one extreme to the other. I think because of the controversy it can create, as well as the rabbit holes that often ensue, many have just decided to leave it alone. Personally, I believe that in doing that, we have actually positioned ourselves in grave danger. It is that danger that I hope to alert us to with a story of my own personal experience.
Just a few weeks after I arrived here from Brazil, I was over at John and Cathy’s house, picking up my mail. We were just chatting, and they were about to leave to go workout, so I piped up about how I had been doing yoga and that it had greatly helped my back. I even showed them my “plank”. Anyways, John sighed and said, “Oh Allison, you gotta stop doing yoga.” And of course, I said, “Why??”
He proceeded to tell me about how recently he had heard of a bunch of Vineyard pastors being freed of demonic oppression related to tattoos and doing yoga.
I was confused. I have tattoos and I do yoga.
This conversation stirred curiosity in me, and I immediately wanted to know more. So I started researching the man who had lead the conference and listening to his messages. What he had to say fascinated and challenged me. Two things struck me the most. First of all, this guy didn’t sound like some crazy demon hunter. His theology was rooted in Scripture, and his explanations were practical. Secondly, I felt that while I was listening to these messages, a completely new world was being opened up to me. A world that surrounds us everywhere we go, but we are often completely oblivious to.
In the Vineyard, especially, we spend a lot of time talking about the Kingdom of Heaven. We long for the Kingdom of Heaven to come. We sing songs about it and our prayers are filled with the language of Heaven coming down.
But much less often and in a much more general way, do we truly acknowledge the kingdom of Satan. We know its there. We speculate about it. We infer at times that it is working in our circumstances. But mostly, it is shrouded in mystery. We are unaware and unfamiliar with the mechanics of this other kingdom, and how it is directly effecting our lives.
The kingdom of Satan was suddenly becoming a very tangible reality to me. And I realized something that was also very devastating.
“This guy (Satan) is getting away with EVERYTHING because we don’t believe that he EXISTS!”
So many people in my life that I had discipled and loved on and prayed diligently for, and yet they remained stuck in their old patterns and habits or sick and dying. And that included myself. I, too, am among those still caught in certain cycles and thought patterns and habits that no matter how much I have prayed or received inner healing for, stayed the same. The needle was unmoved in those areas.
Now, it was beginning to make sense why myself and so many others were not getting free, or were only experiencing partial freedom. We have been ignoring an important piece of the puzzle, the influence of demons.
While listening to these messages, I started making notes, taking an inventory of my past and current sins, yoga being one of them. This was familiar process to me as I had already done an extensive inventory of my past when I did the 12 steps several years ago.
I set up an appointment with John to talk and pray about these things. I came with my list in hand, ready to confess and renounce all of it. I started with the first things on my list, but soon felt like I should speak directly about the yoga stuff.
To be clear, I had never practiced yoga in any “religious” way. In fact, at least to me, the videos that I watched on YouTube seemed mostly mundane of any strong spiritual influence. I still can’t say that I truly understand all the connections, but what I can be sure of is my personal experience.
Once I began to pray specifically about yoga, confessing and renouncing any affiliations, I heard John begin to pray against a specific spirit often connected to yoga. It was a python spirit, and once John said those words, I begin to feel my head start to bury into my chest and my breathing became heavy. Soon, I was moaning and huffing. I stood up and stomped my feet, and with a strong moan like a woman in labor, I felt a force push up and out of my mouth. Then, it was gone and I sat back down. I was only vaguely aware of some of John’s prayer during this time. There were definitely commands for the demon to go, and I remember, specifically, commands for it to release my prayer life.
We kept praying for awhile and about different issues, but at least in this session, nothing else happened.
Immediately in the days that followed this event, I noticed a new hunger and ability to pray. It was much easier than it had been for quite some time.
As we read the Gospels, we see Jesus doing at least 3 things over and over again. He preaches the good news about the Kingdom of Heaven, he heals the sick and he casts out demons. Often in fact, the healing of the sick was directly related to the casting out of demons. Farther, he then trains his disciples to do the exact same things. If you take a look at a lot of the current church today, you would never know that these other 2 things were even on the agenda.
I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of watching the people I love suffer endlessly. If there is something that can be done about it, I want to know. Now, I know that we are not going to get rid of all of our problems while here in the Earth, but it seems like we could be having a lot more wins then we do. If we truly believe the word of God, if we really believe that God gave us authority to heal the sick and cast out demons and set the captives free, then let’s get to it!
I have to personally confess that I have not really believed the Bible in this area. I have not really believed that I could heal the sick or cast out demons. I have not really believed that freedom was a real possibility. I want to believe, and I want to see.
In my next post, I will describe my next session of deliverance with both John and Cathy, and how God powerfully moved me toward deeper freedom from the demonic.
Love,
Allison
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