My life, a diary in the making part 9.

Moving on year 2000, living in New York, I was going to bible school and helping at a nearby church. One of the things that I helped out with was the prayer meetings. Well as always there are parents that are praying for the help of their children. In these prayer meetings was a little old lady, she was always praying for her son and his salvation (moms, you have to love them, no matter what their babies are going through they will keep praying for them). So after a while you get to know somethings about the people that you are praying with, and sometimes you don't know enough. Well this ladies son was in church a few times, I had seen him there, he could barely walk, needed arm braced crutches or a wheelchair to get around in. Johnny was his name, he was not an old man probably in his late 30's, looked to really had it rough. I new that he suffered though, when i heard his mommas prayers.

Anyway I was sitting at home one day eating my dinner. I was not scheduled to work that night so it was a good time home from my otherwise busy schedule. Phone call comes in from my pastor whom I was helping up there in New York. He asks me if I would go with him to a persons house that had some spiritual problems in the past. So I said yes (a wise man told me that, if given the opportunity to minister don't pass it by)and met him at his house. We left there and went up to Rochester to a gentleman's house that I had never been before. On the ride up I knew something was wrong pastor, did not say much and what he did say led me to believe he did not know much about the situation. The situation? A man called and requested that the pastor come pray for him and his girlfriend, that he thought he might die and needed to get right with the Lord. So we pull into the driveway and a feeling I had not felt in a long time came over me. I told the pastor there was an evil presence here and that we should really be careful. We get out of the car and go to the gate, at that moment I knew we had to stop. I told the pastor that the property was owned by something else and that we had bigger issues to deal with here other than just praying for a persons soul. I told him that I was going to start praying and that I would make my way in later. So the pastor went in to the house while I stayed in the yard. It was a small yard about 20x20, but each step felt like a journey, all I could do was pray for the property, that whatever was inhabiting this mans property would leave. See in the beginning a spiritual battle happened between man and the evil side of the spirit realm. Man gave all that was his to the enemy and now the enemy has control over that property unless we take it back. So here I am praying over the property that this property would become the sanctuary of the Lord for this man and his family. That he would have peace and security here, finally I felt released to go into the mans house, it probably took me 15 minutes to get to the door. So I go inside and I am paralysed at the door, the house is filled with native American artifacts. Every nook and crannie had something in it. Dream catchers, weapons, photos, paintings, it was a shrine to the religion of an Indian tribe. At this point I had no idea what I was about to get into, see some people collect stuff from eras, groups, shinny things whatever it may be. But somethings you don't want in your collection. So I was introduced to Johnny and his girlfriend, Johnny could not stand he was in a wheelchair. So I sat and listened to what he had been through, a demon was following him around and had been for several years. Johnny and his brother were bikers in the past and his brother loved it out west, they use to ride with biker gangs and finally Johnny had a son, this caused him to begin to settle down somewhat. Well then his brother was killed in a motorcycle accident. At the funeral Johnny was given in the will of his brother all of his collection of native American artifacts. Stuff he had collected over the years. I mean the house was full of stuff, it was a huge collection. Somewhere at the point of moving all his brothers stuff into the house Johnny came down with arthritis and a very bad case of it, he could hardly move and was in so much pain that he was basically giving up on life. Oh it gets worse, the spirit had thrown him down the stairs in his house on several occasion, broke his arms, concussion and neck problems just to name a few. Johnny was in bad shape. After hearing the full story I told Johnny that he needed to clean out the house and start over with a dedication of his life and family to the Lord. sounds easy right? Wrong, it was not that easy, these things were the only things that Johnny had left of his brother, how could he just get rid of it all. Problem was, we had no idea what items had been the problem or if they were all the problem, because we did not know what his brother had done with them.

In the spirit realm there is bondage by the enemy. In some cultures they try to deal with these bondage's by dedicating things and people to the spirit realm for safety or good health of themselves, the problem is it only gets worse, and for Johnny it was getting bad. After a while of explaining to Johnny his predicament we prayed for him and his girlfriend and we dedicated the house and his life to Christ(praise God). Then we left, and a few months later we left New York and I lost track of Johnny but not forever. I think it was some time in 2006 that I was back in New York and went back to that old church. And walked through the door was Johnny and his bride. He walked over to me and asked if I was that person who spoke with him and prayed with him that day. I was shocked the amazing turn around that God did in his life, it was huge. He absolutely was gloriously saved and now healed in Christ. I would have never thought that he would have been given such a complete overhaul, but there it was standing in front of me, a new life for the beloved Johnny. Freedom is for us all and Johnny is not an isolated case (like my old boss use to tell me). It is for everyone, for you and me.