The Big Day Arrives

Suffering from restless nights and frequent nightmares, a woman asked to be scheduled for a Healing and Deliverance session. Despite having to wait 3 months for the next available slot, she gratefully accepted the date we gave her - a sure sign that she was ripe for ministry.

The big day finally arrived. As we made our way to her house, we were - quite unusually - faced with many challenges that particular morning. And so, we were full of wonder of what this day may bring that it would warrant such strong spiritual attacks upon our team. It turned out to be the longest and hardest session we had conducted so far, but an extremely important one for the Kingdom of God.

Healing: The Powerful Presence of Jesus

We started the session by listening to the woman's story going back from childhood to the present day. There were a few incidents in her life in which she had experienced trauma. As we invited Jesus into these situations, He came faithfully to heal the painful memories and to give revelation of what He was doing during these times.

• • The woman recalled a time when, as a little girl, she was beaten very badly by her father. He repeatedly slammed her head against a wall. She remembered crying, full of fear and dread at every painful impact that came. The pain of such a memory brought her to tears as she sat there recalling this story. Then, as she invited Jesus into this situation, she saw how Jesus had placed His hand over her head. And as her father was slamming her head into the wall, it was Jesus' hand that hit the wall, cushioning her head to the blow, protecting her head from serious harm. This was why she survived the ordeal without severe injury. Jesus loved her, He protected her, He was right there with her at that time of trauma. I shed a little tear myself as I listened, in awe of Jesus' amazing act of love.

  • The woman then recalled another time when, in a fit of rage, she continuously hit her husband on the face. He sat there quietly, non-resistant, enduring the beating as she lashed out her anger upon him. The memory of this incident brought the woman to tears once again, knowing full well it was wrong to have done what she did. Then, as she invited Jesus into the scene, she saw herself hitting her husband but then suddenly stopped because it was no longer her husband's face she was hitting, but the face of Jesus! He looked at her intently, non-resistant, as if to say, "It's OK to be angry, but don't stop loving... keep on loving...". She cried as she realised that in hurting her husband, she was hurting Jesus. This brought her to repentance, to being able to forgive her husband, and to being able to love him anew. Hallelujah!

  • Another traumatic memory resurfaced in the woman's mind - that of a time when, as a little girl, her mother discovered she had stolen something. As a threat and a deterrent, her mother stated that the punishment for such a sin was for her hands to be chopped off (much like Sharia Law in Islam). In her fear, she cried and cried, begging her mother not to do this. Her mother relented, and instead of threatening to chop her hands off, she tied her hands with a piece of rope.

The woman (little girl) cried and cried for hours with her hands tied, not being able to go anywhere. After some time, her sister came to give her some bread and water, but left her to eat and cry on her own. She had never felt so alone, and so unloved. Now as she invited Jesus into the scene, she saw Him right there by her side as she ate her bread. He was sat with her, smiling at her, keeping her company. She was not alone at all. He was with her, and she was loved by Him. How awesome is our Lord Jesus!

• Among all the above traumatic experiences, the woman also told the story of how, whilst being eight months pregnant, she was continually forced to move out of one house into another. The string of people that she came across with whom she was living did not seem to have the compassion to let her stay and settle, in spite of her condition. It seemed so heartless, and unfair that her life was this way. Just then, I heard the Holy Spirit whisper the name of the evil spirit that was responsible for this repeating saga, it was the spirit of Homelessness. I have never heard of such a spirit in all my life (it was such an absurd name!) but I wrote it down in faith, and with every intention to deal with it when we conduct the deliverance session.

• The woman then highlighted how, throughout her life, she was always expected to achieve many things; to be successful in everything she did. She was also consistently compared to her sister, and ended up taking a career similar to hers, rather than one she had a personal passion for. These pressures caused her to become herself expectant of other people in her life. Once again, I heard the whisper of the Holy Spirit revealing the name of the evil spirit responsible for this, it was the spirit of High Expectation. Another absurd name! Still, I wrote it down in faith to deal with it later.

Finally as we came to a close, the woman mentioned how she was afraid of frogs. She didn't like hearing them singing, never mind seeing one. It transpired that when she was a little girl, her sister slipped a frog down her back underneath her clothing. She was completely distressed, and repulsed by it as it tried to jump out from underneath her top. Over the years, her fear of them had become so strong that she had even put masking tape over a cartoon picture of a frog in her son's story book because she couldn't bear to look at it!

After a short lunch, we proceeded with the deliverance session.

Deliverance

With her husband and her friend present to help us in intercessory prayer and worship, we sat the woman down on a chair and began to cast out the evil spirits that we had discerned were living in her body. Before I even started to pray, the woman was shaking and murmuring as if the spirits within her were nervous and afraid of what was about to happen. In the five hours following, a total of 87 evil spirits were cast out of her.

Amazingly, the spirit of Homelessness and High Expectations were among those cast out (the Holy Spirit was spot on - hallelujah!). These spirits manifested and left the woman through coughing, burping, and vomiting clear slime. The spirit of nightmares also manifested in a similar way and left. Of particular interests also were the following spirits:

• The Spirit of Fear

This was a difficult spirit to cast out as it was well-rooted in her since childhood. After some manifestations of coughing, burping, then back to being calm again, we checked to see if the spirit had left by showing her a picture of a frog from Rob's mobile phone. Rob picked a really cute green frog - to which she shuddered in repulsion, immediately looking away from it. We knew then that the spirit of Fear was still inside. So, we continued our fight. After some time and further manifestations, she let out a big burp and cough, giving us a more convincing sign that the spirit had left. We checked again; this time Rob picked an image of a really ugly, brown frog on his phone. The woman looked at the ugly frog and let out a little scream of joy, exclaiming how cute it was! Then she tapped the mobile phone to enlarge the picture to see it more closely. This reaction of hers amazed everyone in the room, especially her husband. He had never known her to react favourably like that towards a frog, especially after seeing just how fearful she was only minutes before. Just to be sure, we showed her a few more frog pictures, she liked them all and found them cute. Truly, truly, she was no longer afraid of frogs! The spirit of Fear had gone, taking with it all the fears it had imposed on her all her life. Hallelujah! Thank you Lord for her freedom!

• The Mocking Spirit

The Mocking spirit almost escaped our radar. Had it not been for the Holy Spirit giving a word of knowledge to one of our team members, we would never have known about its residence in the woman's body. Indeed, the woman had not come forth about this aspect of her life. But there we were, around 4 hours into the deliverance session with many evil spirits already cast out, we tried to cast out this particular one. In defiance, it resisted our commands, it just wouldn't budge.

And so, Rob took charge over the spirit and asked, "Why are you not leaving this body? What legal right do you have to stay?"

The woman went into a trance-like state, eyes not blinking. And then the spirit spoke through her, saying, "No, I don't want to go .... she needs me."

Rob then asked, "Why does she need you?"

It answered, "To protect her."

Rob then asked, "How can you protect her? You're a bad spirit, you are bad for her, you cannot do any good for her."

It continued to insist, "She needs me to protect her."

Rob again asked, "To protect her from what?"

It again answered, "Past friends... past friends mocked her, so she mocked them back..."

At this point, I chipped in and said, "But she has forgiven her friends for hurting her!"

The spirit turned to look at me as if trying to recall the woman forgiving her friends and enemies. But before it could say anything more to me ...

Rob took charge again saying, "She has forgiven her friends, so you have no more stronghold, you have to leave!"

It then answered with a low tone of voice, "Pride."

Then it continued, "New friends, new friends... she mocks them first before they mock her... I protect her."

Rob then said, "OK mocking spirit, she's going to repent for mocking her past and new friends, and then you will go!"

With some reluctance, the spirit nodded, agreeing to leave.

Then Rob called out the spirit of the woman by her name, and immediately her head shook, and her eyes came blinking back. It was an amazing switch of transformation. There and then, we asked the woman to repent of mocking her past and new friends. We asked her to name each and every friend she mocked, which she proceeded to do so. And so once again, we commanded the spirit to leave the woman's body, but still, it wouldn't budge!

The Holy Spirit came to the rescue, again with a word of knowledge to one of our team members. The Holy Spirit highlighted that among the names confessed by the woman whom she had mocked, my name and the name of one of our team members were left out. And so with this knowledge,

I asked the woman, "What about me?"

The woman looked at me alarmed as if she had just been discovered, but then proceed to say, "I am sorry I mocked you, Elma."

To which I replied, "I forgive you, and I love you."

Then one of our team members did the same, saying "What about me?"

Again, the woman looked at her, saying, "I'm sorry I mocked you."

Our team member responded, "I forgive you, and I love you."

It was a beautiful moment, one that I know Jesus would be smiling upon in delight. He loves for us to confess our sins to one another, to forgive, and love each other. This is the antidote to the power of darkness! This is what spiritual warfare is all about.

Rob then asked the woman to tell the spirit to leave her body, that it was no longer welcome, and that she no longer needed its protection. After she did so, we commanded it to leave in Jesus Name, and it left almost immediately. Hallelujah, thank you Lord!

• The Bullying Spirit

The Bullying spirit took pretty much the same stance as the Mocking spirit because the sin of bullying was not confessed earlier in the session. We had to work with the woman in the same way - making her repent of her sins of bullying people, naming these people, and so forth. Nevertheless, the Bullying spirit still did not want to leave. Again, the Holy Spirit came to the rescue and gave a word of knowledge of two people that the woman had hurt recently, unbeknownst to her. So, we asked her to call them up to apologise to them, and to ask for their forgiveness.

The woman did as was requested, albeit with some apprehension as she did not know how these two people would react to the phone call. But God's ways are higher, and He honours those who humble themselves in such a way. The phone call went swimmingly, healing took place on both sides, happy tears were shed. Again, another beautiful moment that Jesus delighted in. And in no time at all, the Bullying spirit left.

• The Spirit of Pride

We were just finishing up, when suddenly the Holy Spirit reminded me that the spirit of Pride still needed to be cast out. I remembered the Mocking spirit mentioning it, giving it away, but with the time taken to cast out the Mocking and Bullying spirit, the spirit of Pride had escaped my mind. So I called the team together again, and we commanded the spirit of Pride to leave. The woman manifested before it left through the usual coughing and burping.

And so, we ended the session with praise and thanksgiving to Father God, the Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit - for setting the woman free from the power of darkness that had engulfed her for so long. We asked the Holy Spirit to fill every part of her being that the evil spirits had been occupying. We also prayed for her protection, especially in the coming days in which these evil spirits may try to come back. Finally, to seal the session, we anointed her with oil.

The woman felt light and free; her countenance bright. She even took the trash out in the dark without fear. She said she usually asks her husband to do this chore because of her fear of darkness. Already her life is changing in just a matter of hours. Praise God!

A New Life

A few days after the inner healing and deliverance session, I received the following email from her:

Dearest Elma,

I have been waking up for the past two days without any nightmares and am no longer tossing and turning before sleeping. I felt so light and felt as if a big burden has been lifted off my chest. I am surprised with the heaps of spirits living inside me that I asked God why I have so many spirits in me, and some of them are almost like a second skin, using them for my own protection. It's as if God answered me in a soft whisper - it's because over the years I have exposed myself to people who kept hurting me that have all these spirits. I have always prayed in my heart to change these people, but that will not happen because only God can change them in their own time and not in my quick fix time.

Some spirits have transferred to me and it's like the saying "if you can't beat them then join them". So now I am set free and I feel so light, I no longer feel like it's my responsibility to save the world, and just be the person that God created me. I am and will still touch lives, but am and will not be feeling guilty if people have not met their expectations of me or my family.

P. S. Yesterday I sat with my friend who had some nice acrylic paint. We searched through the computer how to paint daisies and these are what I've come up with... painted on a paper plate I manage to see myself as the blooming flower in the middle, with my family who are all blooming, surrounded with the blue paint which, for me, is God's presence in our lives. Thank you for the opportunity and I am excited now to read God's word and his promises to me and my loved ones.

What a wonderful email and a beautiful painting! As is often the case after deliverance, the gift that God has given to that person will start to show itself. Now that she has been freed by God, she will be able to be the person God had created her to be, effectively operating in her gifting. Her years of gloom are now over, and her time to bloom has now begun. She will join the collection of vessels; fit to be used by the King of Heaven to advance His Kingdom. Amen! Thank you Lord.

Isaiah 35:1-2

The desert and the parched land will be glad;

the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.

Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom;

it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.

© Elma Larsen. All rights reserved.