Deliverance

During our final debrief on the field in Batumi, Georgia I signed up for a one-on-one with my squad mentor, Ari. The day that I was set to have it with her I asked God what He wanted me to talk to her about. The response I got back was something I was simultaneously surprised and unsurprised by, deliverance. 

We can allow the enemy to get a foothold in our lives (Ephesians 4:27). Deliverance is one of the ways that we take away the footholds that we’ve given him. We use the authority we have been given in Jesus to send the enemy away. Deliverance isn’t usually a big site to behold, I mean the one I’m writing about is, but it’s usually just repenting and living the way God has intended you to live. Deliverance is what allows you to walk in the freedom that God has intended us to have.

I participated in doing a deliverance on one of my teammates in Turkey. After we did that in Turkey we talked about what happened as a team because they are intense. I remember thinking during or after that talk that maybe I need a deliverance done on me. But I quickly dismissed it at the time as some kind of weird desire for attention. 

During my talk with Ari, she asked me if I thought I needed a deliverance done on me. I was scared to say yes because I didn’t know what it would be like (they all look different). But I knew that was what the Lord was calling me to. So I said yes and she asked me if I knew what I needed deliverance from. I did know and I told her, I won’t share what because it is too personal for this blog, I feel. Then she asked me to pray about who I wanted to be there alongside her during the deliverance. After praying about it God wanted two of my squad leaders, April and Anthony there and my new teammate Joanne there. 

Ari set it up so that we would do it the following week during our prayer burn. The prayer burn was a week in the middle of almost nowhere where at least two people on the squad were praying at all hours of the night. That was a great week. 

We did the deliverance in Ari and April’s room because unless God has other plans these are the kinds of things you want to be done in private. So I sat down in a chair in the room and they asked me if there was anything specific I wanted deliverance from and I shared what it was with them. Then they all started praying over me and rebuking the enemy and casting him out. I was praying in tongues during it and after a little while, I started coughing hard. And the people around me started praying even harder. As I was sitting there coughing, my knee also started shaking basically uncontrollably but I didn’t spend much time trying to stop it because that wasn’t important at the moment. Then after maybe half an hour of them praying over me and against the enemy I was free. That stronghold that the enemy had over me in my life was gone. He has tried to come back and attack those same areas again but I’ve just been constantly giving them over to God. 

It has allowed me to see God so much more clearly and fall deeper in love with Him. In times of worship during the burn, I was so on fire for the Lord. I just felt so free in a way I hadn’t felt in such a long time. 

The deliverance has allowed me to walk in more of the freedom that God has intended for me. The things that the enemy tempted me with in order to bring separation between God and I no longer affect me. I’m filled with more of God and less of myself. I’m now more focused on God than I ever have been. My desire to be in His Word and to do His will has increased since then.