I remember one revival well. While waiting to preach one night, people started to come to the altar without an altar call. This at first seemed great, but then the Holy Spirit had me notice a woman who no one was approaching. There were several ministers up front, but none went near her. I asked the Holy Spirit why no one was approaching her. "I saved her for you." I wanted to know why I, and what He wanted me to do. "I need you to cast out some devils." I reminded Him of the sons of Sceva and how the demons attacked them. "They didn't know me. You do. I will show you what to do. I am the one who will send them running." The next 3-1/2 hours were intense, to say the least. When it was all over the Lord had cast 48 demons out of her including 3 strongmen.
That summer I traveled up and down the Eastern coast of America. I started in Atlanta preaching youth revivals in 5 churches in the area. I then preached in Fort Walton Beach, Fl, several towns in the panhandle, Tampa, FL, Naples, FL, 9 churches in Jacksonville, and then traveled to Evansville, TN, and up to Wintersville, Maine, crossing through North Carolina and Virginia twice, 117 youth revivals in 18 months!
Two years later, in 2005, I moved to South Georgia, about an hour from Savannah. I was taking on a new role as Assistant Pastor of a church with around 65 members.
I was asked to preach 6 or 7 times a month as well as lead music. I would also preach a revival twice a year. I noticed that when I talked with a visiting couple before one of the services they would not look me in the eye. I went on and took my seat, preparing for the service. I don't remember what my text was that night, but when I began to read the Word of God the woman stood up and said, "I hate you and what you are preaching!” I stopped my preaching and walked back to the couple. Both of their eyes were rolled to the back of their heads, where you could only see the whites of their eyes.
They both began cursing and spitting at me saying how the area churches just wanted money and would not help them with their bills.
This did not answer how the enemy had moved in, so I asked the Holy Spirit. He revealed to me that this couple in their 60's had never been married, even though they had been living together for 37 years.
When a Pastor had preached in the past about marriage they both became bitter. I confronted the spirit of bitterness and they both began to belittle members of this congregation. So I bound all the demons brought in by bitterness and cast them out.
I then invited them to accept the Lord, and they did. They also said that they knew that marriage was the right thing to do and asked the Senior Pastor to marry them. I opened the altar for others to accept Christ.
This is when the Pastor's daughter in law, a woman in her 40's named Angie, dropped to the floor and began slithering like a snake! I did not know if there might be others needing deliverance so I said, " in the mighty name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth I bind and cast out every demon in this place. Two people got up and ran out the side door. Angie, the Pastor's daughter in law kept on slithering on the floor.
She began hissing at me telling me that she couldn't be cast out because she was an invited guest of Angie. I knew that I could wear out a demon by binding them and speaking to the host, in this case, Angie. So I commanded the demons to be quite and asked Angie to speak to me.
Angie had been told that she was worthless. After hearing this over and over again as a teenager, she asked, "someone, anyone help me." It seems that a demon overheard this cry and took the opportunity to move in.
Angie was set free that day. Over the next 4 years, many were delivered and healed, including another daughter who had bone cancer.
The Lord called me to help start up a new congregation in the next town, again as the Assistant Pastor. I taught on Wednesday nights and was asked to help start 16 other churches in the area.
Some met in mobile homes, some in old warehouses and one was a Spanish-speaking church where I would tag-team preach. They also had a desire to be on TV in Savannah, GA so I set them up with a video camera and computer system.
I often found myself involved in up to 7 services each Sunday and 5 other services throughout the week. I loved every minute of it! The Lord was getting ready to move me again, but... that is for the next blog.
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