Do not fear, only believe!

"These signs will accompany those who have believed:
in My name they will cast out demons..." Mark 16:17a

The following is an email received from my brother Greg Muse. I previously blogged about him in an El Paso Times newspaper article entitled At 45, former lawman finds a new road as an agent for God. Greg and his family live in the tiny town of Fort Hancock, TX on the border with Mexico. He is pastor of the First Baptist Church there.

Normally I wouldn't share a family email like this on my blog, but this email deals with an issue encountered in evangelism and church planting that few are willing to openly talk about. While the Gospels are full of Jesus dealing with demonic confrontations, we today, would rather ignore the whole issue and hide our heads in the sand. If the following weren't from my own brother, I admit I would probably be a bit skeptical reading something like this. But it is from someone I know well. I invite you to read what follows and decide for yourself...

"On Tuesday, I was asked to meet with one of the Mexican worker's on the M_____ farm (members of our church). I was informed that this man had a daughter who was either mentally ill or demonized. I met with him and he said that other pastors and/or teams had tried to minister to his daughter without success. I asked what would happen if these other pastors said "Did Jesus Christ come in the flesh?" He said his daughter would not answer but would instead roll her eyes up so only the whites could be seen and her jaw would drop and just shake/tremble. I asked what would happen if they mentioned anything about the "blood of Jesus?" He said she would roll her knees to her chest and her hands would turn inward like claws and her eyes would roll to the back of her head and then she would look like a dog...grit her teeth...and growl! He wanted me to come talk to her. He said she was getting worse...I agreed to go to his home across the border on Thursday...

I asked three other believers...[to] come with me as a team. They agreed. We arrived at the house on Thursday. There was a crowd of about ten people--family and friends--already waiting. Our team had already agreed that the purpose of our trip was to share the Gospel. So, right up front I asked each person what was their relationship to God? I shared the Gospel and the mother and older sister got saved! I looked at the one daughter, V_____who was the one we were to minister to, and asked her if that was the first time she had prayed and received Christ? She was not sure if she had done this before but did it that day! I then asked her if she could say "Jesus is Lord." With big tears welling up in her eyes she said it...and then the tears flowed. I believe this was the first time she truly accepted Christ...because there was no type of any demonic manifestation of any kind with her after that when we were ministering to her...

In the meantime, one of the members of our team noticed a woman wandering around the outside of the house and said that she looked like a witch! This woman came into the house after the salvations had already taken place! She caused a disturbance, bumped into things, and her face, especially her eyes, just did not look right. I asked who she was and the crowd said she was the aunt. I asked if she was saved and they all shouted a loud "no".

I had already asked if V_____ wanted to share anything personal not in front of everybody else back in another room. She had already said yes, so, I was taking one of the female team members with me to the back when all this happened. I asked one of the ladies present (perceiving from her testimony that she was a believer) to go through a tract that I had brought and share it with the aunt.

While in the back with V_____ I recieved a word of knowledge that V_____ was sexually molested in her past...I did not say anything but my team member said, "Greg, I believe this girl was violated sexually in her past. Would you ask her about it?" This was before anything was said at all... V_____ said, yes, and told us that when she was five years old an uncle had sexually violated both her and her cousin. I asked about the cousin and V_____ said well, her mom is here...it was the aunt [in the other room.] V_____ shared she has problems sleeping because she always has night terrors. She said one night someone appeared at the foot of her bed and said "when I am through with your aunt, you are next!" I then felt impressed to go immediately to witness to the aunt.

So, I returned to the living room and saw the aunt laughing as the other lady tried to share the tract with her. I sat in front of her and boldly shared the Gospel. She did not want to accept. I expounded the consequences (judgement seat...hell...name not in book...etc.) Still no decision. The crowd said, "do it" ... I said, "no, sometimes some accept and others reject..." I then noticed that she was getting tense and I told her, "there is a tremendous battle going on and satan has got you in his grip." I then said, "you have rejected Christ, why???" She then tensed, then relaxed a split second and said "I accept" real fast...then turned her head from me, grabbed her coat and covered her face, and let out a loud wail...and started crying, crying, crying, and crying...I finally said, "stop it, let's pray and ask Christ into your life..." I said, just say after me "Heavenly Father" ... as soon as I said that she collapsed to the floor, on her back, turned her face away from me and yelled out "I can't!" I had goose bumps from the bottom of my spine shoot up all the way to the back of my head and my hair (what little there is) stood up on its end, and I said to myself, "Oh Lord, what do we have here?" However, instantly I remembered when I was a trooper I had full authority and power regardless how the person was reacting in front of me...I then remembered that Matthew 10 says Jesus gave me the power (authority, right, priviledge) to cast out demons. So, I said, "In Jesus Name, evil spirit come out..." She kept on writhing on the floor wailing...two of my other team members came in and immediately began praying... Nothing seemed to be happening until it came to my mind to say "In the name of Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit, I bind you satan." Then the woman shut her mouth but kept moaning...I then said "all evil spirits come out of this woman." I then thought, forget the "sinner's prayer" I told her to just say "Jesus is Lord!" She said "I can't"...I said, "yes you can." She then struggled and belabored each word (all in Spanish of course) and said "J...J...Je...Je...Jesu...Jesu..." and so on and finally got out the name of Jesus...I said good, now say "is"...and she struggled with that word...now we had "Jesus is"...then I told her to say "Lord"...that took forever and was such a battle struggling and stutterring and finally got out the word LORD! Immediately it was like a storm broke and there was perfect calm and peace...she looked directly at me (for the first time) and sat up...I said say "Jesus is Lord" and she perfectly and peacfully said "Jesus is Lord"... I asked her, "where is Jesus?" ...she said, "in this room" ...I said, "where else?" ...she said, "in me!"....we all shouted praises to God! We helped her off the ground...she was asked if she had any physical problems that needed healing...she said she had a knee that was in pain and swollen...we laid hands on her knee...rebuked the inflamation...commanded the pain to leave...and for the knee to be healed in the name of Jesus! She stood up, I asked her to kick her leg...she did...I asked her where was the pain...she said, "it was gone!" I was told that they had tried to take this aunt to church before and she would come forward during the altar call but then would collapse and manifest in the manner she had just done. They said this was the first time their was a breakthrough. The Bible I brought ended up going to her!

[On our way home] I was embarrassed and confessed my lack of belief...lack of faith...because going over there I [had] told God... "I know that Your Word says you have given me the power and authority...but if it does not work...Your Name is at stake...and if it does not work...You are the one to blame..." However, He lovingly showed me that He had given me the power! I said, "Thank You Jesus...lesson learned!" Do not fear, only believe."