Matthew 17:17-18
“You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment.
As we read historical record of Jesus encounter with demons, we can become naïve by convincing ourselves those things happened during the time of Jesus. As if the demons left the world when Jesus went back to heaven. Satan and his demons came to this world for one reason to lead as many people as possible astray to join his army that is heading to hell (Revelation chapter 20:7-10). I can relate to the young boy’s encounter with Jesus. Yes, Jesus came and rebuked the demons that were tormenting me that doctors, elders, ministers, and Satan worshipers were not able to free me from. My health struggles continued after Jesus brought me the Bible and said one day I will understand what he meant. At the age of 13, my mother came to Haiti to bring my siblings and me to America to live with her and my father. Prior to leaving Haiti, the evil spirit that was tormenting me entered the body of his servant and made a proposal if accepted they would release me from promises that was made by my parents before I was born. The proposal was accepted, and they did exactly what the evil spirit requested.
The proposal involved this elaborate celebration that involved sacrifices of different animals’ foods, etc. Fast forward, I came to the United States with the belief that all debts were paid to the devil I am free from his bondage. When Jesus says the devil is a liar and called lies his native language that is so true (John 8:44). I learned early in my journey never to bargain with Satan. All the symptoms that I was experiencing under the devil’s spell ceased for maybe less than a year after arriving to the United States. My symptoms included a headache where my head felt like it was on fire, I couldn’t see and function; I would have these high fevers that made me feel so weak and oftentimes had spells that appeared as if I fainted but I was able to hear everything around me. The same cycle when I lived in Haiti started again, and my parents were taking me to doctors and specialists, and nothing was found to be wrong medically. All my medical tests came back as normal. All medical possibilities were ruled out. In the meantime, I was being treated by a different voodoo priest and priestess in the United States in hope to elude evil spirit attacks. Some of my treatments banned me from eating certain things. I had to wear a special red undershirt all the time because I had an experience where the devil attempted to take me to the underworld with him. I was encouraged to never go to the beach because that is where I was told one of the demonic spirits (what we call mermaid in America) that had chosen me lived and would kidnap me. During that period, God heavily put in my heart to seek him, but I did not know how. I started going to different protestant churches with family members on my Father’s side who professed to be Christians and continued to attend the Catholic church during that time. At some point I stopped following the catholic faith and consistently worshiped with different protestant/evangelical denominational congregations. I also studied with a few religious groups but never went as far as to joining their congregation because of my direct questions as I noticed discrepancies from what the Holy Bible said in comparison to what they believed. Sometime in 9th grade, a family friend invited me to visit her church (Redeeming Love Christian Center- also known as- RLCC).
That is when my journey of transformation to Jesus’ call in my life begins. By that time, I had already prayed the sinner’s prayers many times in my search to connect with Jesus Christ. At RLCC God allowed me to connect with Minister Marlene. She introduced me to the foundation of Christianity according to Jesus. I recalled how she asked me about my story and listened to me intently and with compassion. After I was done sharing my life journey and how Satan and his demons were tormenting me, she laughed and said you have been given the power to get set free from all this. She followed her statement as I listened and said if you decide to truly surrender your life to God through Jesus Christ there is nothing Satan can do to you. She prayed with me on that Sunday afternoon and encouraged me to join their equipping classes at church to learn more about Jesus and his goal to save me. Minister Marlene and several other members of the congregation taught me about the power of the Holy Spirit and how Satan is more afraid of me than I should be afraid of him (Luke 10:19, John 14 & 15). Minister Marlene taught me what it meant to be born again so that I can have the power of the Holy Spirit (John 3:3-21). They taught me how to pray and reinforced that Jesus is my access to my source of deliverance. I decided that I wanted to get baptized to receive the Holy Spirit and surrender my life to God. The month I made the decision to get baptized, my illness and symptoms came back ten times harder. I made a few trips to the hospital and my baptism was postponed. Like in the past, all my medical tests showed no explanation for my symptoms. As I increasingly got worse, sisters and brothers in the church were praying for me. Minister Marlene called me on the phone to pray with me. That was the time I began to apply what I learned about the power of prayer into practice. I got rid of everything that was connected to the evil spirit, and started fasting and praying day and night. One day, I recall my mother pleaded with me to go back to the hospital and I said only God can heal me and I believed it. The night before that I felt like the fever, headache, body aches, weakness, vision problems came back and I felt like I was dying. I cried to Jesus for help. This is the night I was indeed set free from Satan’s trap because Jesus rebuked the demons that were tormenting me and set me free. Testimony for next week!
