In 2010, I had been a Christian for two years and was just getting used to the fact that Jesus and Heaven were real! I knew nothing about spiritual warfare. My friend, Antoinette, was standing to the left of me in an almost empty apartment just outside of Southwest Philadelphia, where I was working in the last few days of finishing a three-week restoration job for a friend. Antoinette had stopped by to visit my worksite and I suddenly saw tears in her eyes, and she was shaking! I asked her what was wrong? She told me that she just right then received a message from the Lord, that I was going to renounce Jesus! I told her passionately, “I would never do that!” We went back and forth a few times proclaiming this same thing to each other, Antoinette stating that I would renounce Jesus, and me passionately stating that I would never do so! Antoinette paused in thought and prayer for a moment, sensing the Holy Spirit, and stated, “you have to be strong at the right time then, James!” I told her, “I will!” Antoinette repeated, and more strongly urging, “you have to be strong at the right time, James!! BE STRONG!!!” I assured Antoinette, “okay! I will BE STRONG!!!”
Antoinette suddenly received another message from the Lord, telling me, “you are going to be attacked!” This was a bad neighborhood, so I assumed that it had something to do with that. I told Antoinette, “if I stay here this evening, I’ll jam the front door and windows!” Antoinette responded, “no, it (the attack) won’t be from that!” And it was left at that!
The next morning, I woke up in the apartment and was lying face down plastered to the bed from a thick spiritual darkness, a demon having a heavy weighted darkness was upon my entire entity! I had the sense of being paralyzed, not able to move but just a slight bit here or there, with the oppression so heavy and paralyzing that I did not even think about trying to escape and get up! I could only see darkness and greys, no colors or light, and could taste and feel darkness in my mouth and down my throat! A set of rules were somehow ingrained within me – if I pushed away my Bible, which I was holding in my right hand, that meant that I renounced Jesus!!! The demon was infiltrating my mind using spells of witchcraft and vivid perversion while repeatedly promising women, sex, alcohol, and that I would not have to go by God’s Word anymore, if I just pushed away my Bible – which would mean that I renounced Jesus!
As a new Christian, abstaining from sex due to not being married was not that difficult anymore as I really wanted to honor God, and loved and was in awe of Jesus and God’s Holy Spirit! I did not care about alcohol as I mostly never drank even before coming to Jesus. And the Lord’s Word was not a hindrance to me, I loved God’s Word! Although the offers were not enticing, what was breaking me was that I simply found myself having a hard time declining because the power of darkness was stronger than me!
Becoming mentally and physically drained by the moment, with such an intensity of darkness and the trauma of it – it seemed an impossible situation! I was clearly not able to stand up to the power of the devil’s demon that had engulfed me! Each moment that the demon was upon me was elongated! Each second was drawn out in a torture with all senses heightened as could be! The demon was taking the life out of me! I kept struggling – to not push away my Bible – simply because the demon was wearing me down to exhaustion after about ten minutes of his darkness holding me captive! It was too strong for me!
I was suffering and was no longer able to hold on! I was about to resign that I had no choice but to push my Bible away, which would mean that I renounced Jesus!!! Just about ready to push my Bible aside, suddenly —- I had ‘indignation’ of this evil thing that was holding me down! Appalled at it! And unknowingly to me, from cover to cover of the Bible, Scripture reveals that this is one of God’s outlooks toward evil, having ‘indignation’ of evil! And God wants, guides, and adamantly commands that His children have His same outlook of ‘indignation’ toward the devil, sin, and evil!
Laying there, consumed by a wicked angel of the enemy and nothing left to me, in a weakened state, but abruptly having developed indignation of evil (!!!) – the Lord rewarded my outlook and gave me newfound strength from His strength! I was then able to, with indignation and conviction, really meaning it, call out five times at the demon – “in Jesus’ blood get out of here! In Jesus’ blood get out of here! In Jesus’ blood get out of here! In Jesus’ blood get out of here! In Jesus’ blood get out of here!” The third time that I called out, “in Jesus’ blood get out of here,” the demon violently shook, which shook my body, and he screamed out in pain and took off quickly away from me!!! I sat up on the edge of the bed in shock and with incredulity at what happened! I could see light and colors again, and felt liberty by the power, blood, Glory, and mercy of Jesus our Lord and Savior!
Until this day, if I’m ever low on faith, this is one of the testimonies that assure me that Jesus and Heaven are real! I was only a Christian for two years and only knew two Bible verses when first coming to Jesus and knew nothing about the blood of Jesus and its power! A Christian friend had only told me weeks earlier, if I’m ever attacked by a demon to say those words. But up until that instance of the demon, I had learned nothing about the actual workings, specifics, and power of the blood of Jesus, then only learning of it by witnessing it first-hand! God is Holy smart! What the enemy wanted was my destruction. And by God allowing those things to happen in that way and order, was an exceeding faith-builder – and preparation for Deliverance Ministry – leading people from darkness and sin – to repentance, light, and salvation in Jesus!
Through enlightenment, I was able to give a message of encouragement to others – that no one should feel badly if they cannot make it to the light on their own – as no one can – only with the power and help of Jesus!
I later learned a multitude of lessons to arrive at a few conclusions. – It is a great sin to have any acceptance of evil, even the slightest bit of evil, even for just one moment! And it is a great sin to not have indignation of evil – just as God has indignation of evil! Even one moment of an acceptance of evil, and without indignation, someone might learn a life lesson from God until they do not have any more acceptance of evil and only indignation of evil! Praise Jesus – the Lord offers the gift of forgiveness upon sincere repentance!
Since that instance, the Lord guided me to conduct full time Deliverance Ministry work for fifteen years, leading people from possession, oppression, curses, darkness, and sin – to repentance and the eternal light and life of Jesus! Continually, the Lord’s Spirit aligns me with many assignments at once to help free individuals, families in generational curses, and churches influenced by the spirit of the anti-Christ. Out of necessity I learned that my only recourse was to have a complete reliance on prayer for God to directly intercede and prayer seeking wisdom to address the situations personally.
There are exact laws in the spiritual world – including the law of death and the law of life – that are unwavering, with the choices of human ‘free will’ critical, and God’s eternal plan predestined and unwavering!
Many assignments take only minutes to pray away a spirit of the enemy from someone. Others take many years. This is due to people not truly repenting and surrendering their pride and lives to Jesus, and ongoing exercising sins without repentance, which gives spiritual permission for the enemy to be present! But I never abandon or stop trying to free someone held captive by the enemy, even if they, and the enemy having trained them – are on a joint venture to destroy me and I need to pray from a distance!
Some of the biggest problems include enablers, someone holding to just a little sin, not willing to give it all up for Jesus, ‘those trained by the devil to abuse, persecute, and chase away someone sent by Jesus to rescue them,’ pride wanting to be their own independent false with their own rules and path, and pride not able to bear even hearing about correction and repentance! However, available to anyone who first has respect to Jesus, humbling themselves in one prayer —- making a confession of the repentance of their overall sins with faith in Jesus —- the principalities of darkness then become even subject to God’s children in Jesus – a gift to God’s children – as working through them is the Holy power of the blood, name, and Word of God in Jesus Christ!
Luke 10:19-20 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. 20 Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in Heaven.
Revelation 12:10-11 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down (the devil), which accused them before our God day and night. 11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. (Servants willing to be persecuted even unto death to serve Jesus Christ!)
Ephesians 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Luke 10:17 And the seventy {disciples that Jesus sent} returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.
Psalm 27:1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Written by James Rathman: Deliverance Ministry: Evangelist: BlessedInternational.com OneLostSheepMinistry33@Gmail.com
