Demons

In all these things we are more than conquerors 

through him who loved us.

Romans 8:37

Demons
Out at Esther's village there is a woman who wanders about in a tortured state of mind.  The children are frightened of her, the villagers pity her, but it seems they have no idea what to do with her.  The first day we went to the village to try to get Esther, she hovered around us sneering, glaring and clearly angry that we were there.  I watched her sit a short distance away from us cursing and mocking  as we tried to figure out what to do.  One of our team members just has this incredible gift of discernment and she mentioned that she thought this woman might be the one who had been giving bad counsel to Esther's mother.  She was completely correct.  Turns out that she is actually the aunt to Esther and was truly unhappy about our presence. We felt so strongly that we needed to confront her about the situation with Esther and boy did we ever get more than we bargained for.  We initiated a conversation with her to simply ask her what she was angry about.  She began to growl and roll her eyes back in her head and told us that she was angry about losing her land...Esther was her land.  Now I know there are many camps when it comes to things like this but I just have to say what we saw.  This poor tortured soul was as possessed as I have ever seen.  It had potential to be quite a freak out moment but I was truly peaceful and calm.  The more she manifested the calmer I became.  At one point she grabbed me and I could feel her attempting to curse me.  I simply looked straight in her eyes and began speaking words of love over her. She continued to growl with eyes rolling back in her head and I continued to speak to her about Jesus and His love.  When she finally let go of me she went after Kristen our 19 year old rock star team member.  Kristen continued speaking words of love and suddenly we could feel her breaking.  The intense anger and hatred seemed to subside and she actually smiled at us.  In the days to follow we would seek her out as soon as we arrived.  We were met with hugs and smiles instead of growling and hatred so we know something broke within her.  She was still manifesting a strong demonic presence but somehow with us, she was different.  We realized that anytime she got even near Esther's mom, the atmosphere would shift and Esther's mom would become  belligerent and angry so we decided that Kristen would have to be in charge of her so that we could speak in peace.  Kristen really felt that she should relate to the little child in this woman and so she included her in the kids games. At first the children were really afraid but eventually they warmed up and at one point I looked over to see Kristen fully engaged in a game of keep away...with this woman in the middle laughing, still growling a bit but having a great time.  The kids were letting her play even though it was just a tad scary.  The beautiful thing is that she also changed her mind about letting Esther go!
There is so much to be done in her heart.  At this point she cannot even say the name of Jesus and cannot answer when you ask her if she wants to be free of her torment.  You can tell she is trying to answer but this is deep stuff.  The cool thing is that we were able to really see a childlike beauty in her and will continue to pray over her and for her in the future.   Getting Esther to freedom is truly the number one goal of ours but the restoration and healing in this family is also a huge priority. This week she learned a lot about love..the God kind of love, the love that does not fear.  It not only changed her...it changed us.  Before I left the village on our last visit, she held my hand and  asked her  if we could be friends.  She smiled a huge toothless smile and nodded her head.  I hugged her and told her she would be free one day.  I cannot believe the compassion that rose up inside me over this poor woman but that is so God.  I have every reason to hate her.  She is partly responsible for Esther's mistreatment, but I have one reason to love her...because God loved her first and gave His life for her freedom.

This woman was an important key to Esther's release and I believe that along with Esther, she will also know true freedom very soon.

Love from the road,

Julie