Christianity Oasis Forum

[Angelwings]

LIMITATIONS

Della has been working during the past few months at a home for developmentally handicapped (reduced mental faculties) people. These are folks, some of whom have the development of a six or seven-year-old, and a few with perhaps teen or pre-teen mental states who are in their 40's and 50's. It has been a real education for both of us. What has been evident is that in each case there is clear demonic activity with a couple of very severe cases that have a proclivity for violence.

Several weeks ago, she began taking her Bible with her, bringing some of the residents of the home out to a quiet place in the back yard and reading and praying with them. The spiritual impact of that one act alone was nothing less than dramatic. Now, each day when she arrives, she is greeted with, "Are we going to read out Bibles now?" or some similar question.

There are a couple of residents who have been easily triggered into screaming rampages or violent outbursts. With these folks, Della has begun praying with them each day and getting them to follow her in prayer, repeating after her something like the following: "Father, in the name of Jesus, I take authority over my mind and my thoughts. I place them under submission to you. I receive a Spirit of Peace in my being and I submit myself to you. Restore my mind. Restore my brain. Restore me so that I can achieve the destiny you have planned for me. I declare this in the name of Jesus. Amen."

To say that it has had an effect in them is an understatement. It gives a whole new dimension to the power and the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ that we can release with the words that come out of our mouths.

Obviously, Della isn't there in this group home every day, but other health workers in the home have seen what a difference this is making and they are picking up on it. With one resident in particular who is still easily distracted and set off, some of the health workers immediately stop this individual and initiate a declaration similar to the following: "I am at peace. Those are not my thoughts and I command them to leave now in the name of Jesus."

Without fail, it works! It gives an added dimension of understanding to what Paul wrote in II Corinthians 10:4-5, which reads: "(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."

Folks, we need to wake up and realize that we tend to operate with limitations placed upon ourselves by our own minds, our thoughts, and by a demonic predisposition Satan takes advantage of when he sees the open door. We've got to get out of our mental boxes and discard the limitations of religion, religious doctrines, the traditions of men and the demonic restrictions we've allowed as a result.

Notice that I listed "demonic restrictions" last in this list. Satan has no power over us that we don't give him; and we open doors of opportunity for his ingress into our lives by our thoughts and our failure to "bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." I can't tell you how often I've heard (and continue to hear) people blame God for their state or for the misery they are in. It isn't His fault: it's ours for not believing and acting upon the authority given to us by virtue of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

That's not to say that we won't still experience mishap and difficulty: we do and we will. Jesus made the statement, AND the promise, "In the world ye shall have tribulation(thlipsis: pressure, heavy burdens, anguish, persecution): but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

Hmmmm.... Looks like I just kind of dived in and forgot to say Good Morning to y'all! GOOOODDD MORRRNNNIIIINNNG !!! This is the best day of your life! Sure it is!

While we're still on the topic of dealing with emotionally and mentally handicapped or disadvantaged people, let me tell you about a remarkable event unfolding with our daughter, Rebekah. Like her mother, she works in a home dealing with some developmentally disabled or handicapped people. One of her charges is a young man who is in his late twenties. Several weeks ago she called us quite disturbed because the young man in question was waking up in the morning with what appeared to be bite marks and scratches all over his back. The injuries were clear and unmistakable. The other health workers in the home simply dismissed it as his having nightmares, sleep-walking and injuring himself in the process.

Rebekah has seen enough with our ministry throughout the years to know better and she called to ask what she could do about it. We told her to first document each instance, and if possible to get the agency responsible for the home to install a night-vision camera in the young man's room. The agency refused the request so Rebekah decided to do what she's seen us do and what we have challenged her to do in years gone by.

The young man in question has been greatly tormented for years, and yet he is -- and has been -- a Bible-believing Christian. Rebekah took him to some scriptures to show him how Jesus dealt with these issues, and made it clear to him that she felt he was dealing with evil spirits. He had grown up in a home where he was taught that Christians couldn't be tormented by evil spirits. It's a nice religious doctrine that pacifies a lot of folks and makes them feel good momentarily, but it doesn't get them the help they need, or the deliverance that Jesus paid for on their behalf.

After showing him some pertinent scriptures, Rebekah recommended that he pray with her and take authority over the evil spirits that had been tormenting him and command them to leave him in Jesus' name. He did so immediately.

We've shared with Rebekah the event that happened with Smith Wigglesworth many years ago (and a similar thing happened to Kenneth Hagin) in which he awoke one morning early to see Satan standing over him. Smith Wigglesworth looked up at him and said, "Ohh! It's only you," and turned over in his bed and went back to sleep.

Rebekah shared this with the young man and told him that he could do the same thing. Other than that, she said, "Just tell the demon or Satan to get out of your room and leave you alone in the name of Jesus."

A couple of nights later, that's exactly what happened. The young man woke up feeling pain in his back and turned over to see a demon standing there with his fingers dug into his back. He yelled at him, "Get out of here in the name of Jesus, and don't come back!" The young man was quick to tell Rebekah about it the next morning, and he was ecstatic! "It worked! It worked! Satan left me alone! He stopped scratching and biting me and left."

But that's not the end of the story. This happened more than two weeks ago, and the young man has been able to have a complete night's rest every night since, and the demon has not returned. That's not to say that Satan has given up on the young man yet, but he has had his first taste of Jesus' authority being operational in him and it is making a radical change in his whole makeup.

It's a funny thing! When folks begin to really taste of the power and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ operating in them, it alters their whole outlook on things. The fear which has been so resident and controlling in their lives begins to dissipate -- and if there is one common denominator in the developmentally disabled, it is FEAR! Once that fear begins to leave, their ability to reason returns or begins to develop the way God designed for them.

Kenneth Hagin used to tell the story of how he was urged to go and see a young woman in a mental asylum. This lady was locked in a padded cell, and had been there for many months. The Holy Spirit directed him to read to her from the Scriptures, pray over her -- and tell her every single day that Jesus loved her, and he did too. For one solid year he did this as the Holy Spirit instructed him. In that year, the woman's whole demeanor changed. She was transferred from the padded cell to the general population of the institution.

When Kenneth Hagin's year was up and the Holy Spirit said to him, "You're through. You've done all that is needed," he went his way and as time went by stopped thinking about the lady. Several years passed and one day he received a phone call from a lady who asked him to come to her place of business.

When he walked into the place, a well-dressed and elegant woman rose from her desk and shook his hand. "Brother Hagin, do you remember me?" she asked. He looked at her and confessed that he did not. "I was that woman in the padded cell in the insane asylum that you ministered to for a solid year."

She proceeded to tell him how she had grown up in the midst of extreme physical abuse and how it had driven her over the edge until she completely lost her sanity. During her growing up years she had been prevented from attending school and had no education whatever. She thus lacked any people skills and any ability to cope with her environment. When she was locked away, everyone gave her up totally considering that she would be institutionalized for the rest of her life.

Hearing the Word day after day, hearing the prayers, the declarations and prophetic decrees over her, and hearing that Jesus loved her (and Kenneth did too) slowly but surely brought her back to sanity. She learned to read by reading the Bible. In due time she was released from the insane asylum as completely sane and emotionally stable. In the years that followed she learned math and became financially proficient, eventually forming her own business. Her company became one of Texas' major trucking and transportation companies, and she became a pillar of society. More than that, she became a living, breathing testimony of how the love of Jesus transforms and restores an individual thought completely lost to society.

Are you beginning to get the drift in these events? These are miracles that are happening "outside the box." They go past the mental limitations -- the religious limitations -- that we tend to put on ourselves or allow Satan to trip us with.

How often have you heard someone say, "Oh, I can't do that!! That's for someone a whole lot more "spiritual" than me." Or maybe it came out like this: "I just don't have the faith for something like that."

Something like WHAT? Something that Jesus did? Something that He commanded us to do? Since when is it OUR faith that accomplishes it?

Jesus put it like this: "Have the faith of God." (Mark 11:22) Our KJV renders it, "Have faith in God," but that's not how the actual Greek text reads. OK, so if we are commanded to have God's faith, how do we get there?

Again, Jesus didn't leave us without clear and unmistakable answers. Consider how the apostle Paul put it in Romans 10:8: "The word (rhema: direct, spoken and uttered word) is near you, in your mouth and in your heart -- that is, the word (rhema: direct, spoken out loud word) of faith which we are preaching." (NASB)

Again Paul writes in the same place, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word (rhema: direct, spoken out loud word) of God." (Romans 10:17)

Get it? We hear Him speak it inside ourselves. It may be quiet, it may be nothing more than a prompt, it might even be a whisper, but it is still something we hear. He doesn't shout it, He simply speaks it into us.

It becomes alive and active once we put wind to what we hear -- that is to say, it comes forth from our vocal cords in agreement with what the Lord is speaking in our spirit.

What happens, then, when we hear that prompting inside and respond to it by speaking what we hear is that we see tangible results -- the kind of results that Della has seen with the people she's working with, the kind of results that Rebekah has been seeing, the kind of results that Kenneth Hagin saw when he responded to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and spent that year reading and praying and speaking to that woman in the institution.

Roughly three months ago while gathered for prayer with a group of local pastors and church leaders, one of the men shared a prayer request for his granddaughter who was struggling with epileptic seizures. He had requested prayer for her a couple of times previously and we had all prayed our usual prayers of agreement for her healing and deliverance both times.

This time was different. As he shared how she was being battered about by the Enemy and the number of seizures was increasing dramatically, anger against the Enemy rose up in me in a way that's hard to put into words. There was a passion that came out of the core of my being. The Word of the Lord spontaneously came out of my mouth and I began to decree and declare the Word of deliverance for this young woman. I commanded that spirit to loose her from that moment forth and declared her complete healing and restoration from any physical or mental or emotional damage done to her on the basis of I Peter 2:24.

Her deliverance, her healing and her restoration were already paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ and He deserved to get from her what He paid for! Now bear in mind that this young woman is not someone I've ever met -- and still haven't to this day. She was many miles distant from our gathering.

Though I did not quote this particular Scripture, it is one that has come to mind more often in recent weeks and months than at any time previously, namely, "He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions." (Psalm 107:20)

Jesus fulfilled that prophecy on several occasions. I remind you of the Centurion who said to Jesus, "Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed." (Matthew 8:8)

Jesus did so. He sent His Word and the Centurion's servant was healed instantly.

The same thing happened when the Word of the Lord -- a rhema -- came out of my mouth. That was three-plus months ago, and the young woman has never had a seizure since. She was healed and completely delivered from those epileptic attacks.

One of the problems we all have as Christians is that we tend to think that this will work for someone else -- and it certainly worked for Jesus -- but "we're just not Jesus!"

Bahh!! Humbug!! Talk about a lie of the Enemy! Let's see, the last time I looked, God's Word hadn't changed. Last time I checked, Ephesians 1:15-23 still says that Jesus is the head of the body, and WE are the body. That makes us part of Him. We are inextricably woven with Him. His DNA is our DNA. (And I'll talk about that more in our next Coffee Break.)

You see, folks, we have to get our limitations removed. We have to stop thinking "in the box." Religion and religious thinking keeps us boxed in and prevents us from operating in the fullness of the character, the nature and the makeup of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has given Himself for us and to us, and His command is that we go forth IN Him with Him IN US!

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)