This past weekend was both encouraging and exciting during our local outreach time in the township of Masiphumelele (Masi). It was encouraging because our group hasn't seen much spiritual fruit during our times walking around in Masi, and exciting because I was able to see and experience some spiritual warfare! (Picture: Me, Sidwell, Matt, Sidwell's brother, and Jay)
I had never really seen a demon manifest itself in someone until this past weekend. My friend Jay and I were walking out of Masi one day when a guy asked us for some money. We told him that we didn't have any but that we could pray for him, so we did. Right after we finished praying for him we saw a woman making a bee-line for us. She was an older woman and was kind of hunched over. When she reached us she started telling us all of her problems and the trouble she had been having with her family, her finances, and her health. After she finished talking I thought she was going to ask for money, but to my surprise she just asked us to pray for her. We happily agreed and Jay started praying for her. As he started praying I could feel her start to shake so I just figured she was getting emotional or something. She continued to shake more violently until Jay finished and I started praying. When I started praying she fell into Jay and I so that we both had to hold her up. She was still shaking pretty hard and even started foaming from her mouth so that her saliva started falling to the ground. At this point I finally realized it was probably a demon. I had no clue what to do so I just kept praying. We were praying for her on a busy sidewalk so there were lots of people looking at us not sure what was going on. There was part of me that just wanted to lay her down and run away but I knew that was foolish. After praying for a couple of minutes she stopped shaking and stood up straight(!), said thank you, and walked away. It was pretty crazy.
On that same day while walking through Masi, Jay and I bumped into a guy named Sidwell who we had ran into once before. According to some of the locals, Sidwell is one of the most dangerous guys in Masi. The first time we had met him he told us that he kills white people if he thinks they have money. So I was immediately pretty frightened when he grabbed us and told us to come to his house. He was visibly drunk and also seemed demon-possessed because he was very angry and stern with us and would occasionally go into fits of swearing. Thankfully, there were some local guys with us and they eventually convinced Sidwell that if he wanted to hang out with Jay and I that he would have to come with us to our prayer shack in Masi. I still felt pretty uneasy as us three made our way to the prayer shack. I really wasn't sure what we were gonna do when we got to the prayer shack so I prayed in my head as we walked over there. After finally arriving at the prayer shack we walked in and Sidwell's facial expression immediately changed. He went from having an angry, drunk look to a calm, peaceful look. Once we sat down we started talking with him, asking him questions about his life. He was quick in telling us that he could hear demons, and my first thought was "oh great, why does he have to have demons?!" But thankfully, God really gave me a peace as he reminded me that he is control and that with the power of the Holy Spirit we have authority over the demons. So after he finished speaking, Jay and I started praying. I prayed with my eyes open because I was worried that he might pull a knife or that his demons would start manifesting themselves. Thankfully, nothing crazy happened and we ended up just praying over him for about 10 minutes. Afterwards he told us that he felt the demons fleeing while we prayed! He went onto tell us that he could see a light in us that he really wanted for himself. I was shocked. It was such an awesome display of God's power by producing such a radical change in him in such a short time! When it was time for us to leave, he kept asking when we could get together again. As of now, we have hung out with him around 4 times in the past week and he is so hungry for the Lord! He hasn't drank or smoked in the last week and he hasn't had any demonic oppression either. We have just been praying and reading through the Bible with him and he is just drinking it in. After one night of hanging with him I started feeling convicted because I don't know if I have ever hungered for the Word of God like Sidwell, even though I need God just as much as Sidwell does. We are going to continue discipling and empowering Sidwell until he feels ready to start sharing the Gospel in Masi.
I am so thankful that God has allowed me to be part of Sidwell's story, because it has built up my faith so much in the reality of how God can change lives. Sidwell saw God's light and wanted it, and now he has been completely transformed by God's love. Crazy stuff.
On a different note, Louisville upset Michigan State yesterday so I was super pumped about that. I have never picked the correct winner on my March Madness bracket, so maybe this is my year. Hopefully they can hold off the Gators in a few hours to get that Final Four berth!
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