The Power of Christ

God has been prompting me to write this for awhile, but I keep finding "excuses" not to. Yes, I'm lame :)

Our church, CCV, is going through 2 really cool sermon series right now (we have 2 different venues). Ian and I have been attending the Alternative Service for the series Supernatural. One weekend, Dennis spoke about demons and the real forces of evil in our world. One point that really stood out to me was that as Christ followers we can not be demon possessed, but we can be demon oppressed.

Fast forward to that Sunday night at High School service where Ian and I volunteer as "Youth Coaches." One of the girls I've been "coaching" for 3 years was there. She has been to church off and on since I've met her. She has some really crappy stuff in her past- and I mean real stuff, not the stuff fake drama is made of. Stuff that she had no control over and no way to stop. It makes me sick to my stomach to think about what this beautiful, 16 year old girl has experienced in her short life. She has been coming to service less and less and when asked about it she says, she doesn't belong there. When she comes she feels "weird" and "out-of-place." Again, not high school drama, but truly feels something in her soul that she has trouble dealing with. I used to think it was guilt- false guilt over what's happened. But 2 weeks ago, I changed my mind.

As we were singing songs and praising God she kept coming in and out of service, standing in the back, and talking to a friend all in an effort to distract herself from what I described above. Suddenly, I felt an overwhelming need to pray for her in that moment and remembered Dennis's words about demon oppression. Thankfully, she has accepted Jesus into her heart. She's very confused about what that means for her sometimes, but she has been baptized and claims Him as her savior. As I prayed I claimed her in the name of Jesus Christ (please know this is not something I do often, or do lightly) I'm hoping I don't sound like a "crazy Jesus freak" right now, but I promise you what the Holy Spirit put on my heart in that moment was very real.

So, I prayed in His name, and in His power that she would not be oppressed in that moment. That He would get to her heart and help her feel His love and hope. As the singing ended and we sat down she was still there (big surprise because she usually leaves campus altogether by this point). She grabbed my hand and I noticed she had tears in her eyes. I have never, ever in the 3 years I've known her and worked on a lot of these awful issues with her seen emotion actually showing on her face. She asked me if I was busy after service and if I could go and talk about some stuff with her.

We talked for 2 hours about a lot things going on in her life. She was honest and open about all of the junk she was doing to fill the hole inside of her. We had an amazing conversation! I'd love to say she's walking down happy street each and every day completely whole and "fixed." Of course, she is not. She has to make a lot of tough choices to stop a lot of very destructive behaviors that she brings on herself. We talked about her inability to experience and feel emotion and how to work on that. I told her what happened in service and how I had prayed for her because the Holy Spirit asked me to. She was quick to dismiss this, as she can not comprehend how someone could actually love her unconditionally. But I can not dismiss it.

I saw, felt and experienced God's amazing power that night. He opened a door for both her and myself to walk through. And we did- both of us together. She has a long road ahead of her, and I pray that God will show her how many people she has that are willing to walk along side of her and help her in anyway we can. Most importantly I pray she realizes that the God of the universe loves her- no matter what.

If you'd like to listen to the current sermon series you can check them out at CCV's website.