Hordes of Hell

It's wednesday and I still haven't gotten Sunday's meeting notes up. But I got a request from a brother to talk about a book we were discussing.

The book is about exorcism, written by a man with extensive experience with casting out demons and spritual warfare.

I enjoyed the first half of it tremendously, because it was simply stories from his experiences. They were all similar to what I find in the bible, with Jesus and the disciples. The second half was really a lot of theology from a very strong, crystallized interpretation. There was a strong "mystical" bent to it. I liked that a lot, too. There are many christians around the world who hold those beliefs dearly, myself included.

I do believe in "all that stuff". Two major reasons:

First:

before I knew about a lot of that, as a brand new Christian, I had demons cast out of my body/head/heart/life...wherever they live or whatever... it felt like they lived in my liver or kidneys or something... i don't know or care where they lived in me or on me or around me. All i know is that after they came out of me/off of me, the power of temptation and interference--the voices in my head--became distinctly "other" to me.

You see, I lived my whole life before Christ with strong inner voices/compulsions/thoughts, all the time. They urged me to break with reality and live in fantasy, to get involved with the occult, to experiment in things that were spiritually dark, to hate my parents, to hate women, to...
When I was rescued by Jesus, I fell in among a crowd of Christians that talked about the Lord from experience of his work. They experienced the Filling of the Spirit (baptism of the holy spirit), powerful spiritual gifts that were supernatural, wisdom from the Spirit, suffering for righteousness... they were Biblical Christians. A joy to the Father, scum of the earth...

As they spoke of Jesus and I began to experience Him, I got all this "pushback" while I slept--evil, scary dreams like horror movies all night. This, and some really extreme "body takeovers" while in the presence of people who were prayerful and Spirit filled, made me seek GOD for deliverance from the bondage of Spirits/Demons that had invaded my life over the years... He delivered me, one night, during a time of prayer with other saints.

It was radical, physical, spiritual, and effective. My mental health and acuity were immediately greatly improved.

This, and the filling of the Holy Spirit, have utterly changed my interaction with this world and its temptations...
The battle is won, inside me. I am home, no matter where I am. The house is filled and guarded...

Second,
This stuff peppers the Bible so thickly that I cannot, utterly cannot, develop the practise of Christianity and Community in Christ, without expecting it to be a part of it. Done.

So, i invite your comments, and hope that we see the mighty works of the Lord in our midst in increasing intensity and frequency, as we rejoice in the rescue He has enacted through the Cross! namely, that we now belong to Him. Names in the Book of Life...