Went to the red light district again tonight.... this time it was for intercession. There was about 7 of us. There was a lot of darkeness. The deaf and dumb, The man in the red shirt, The Gadarene Woman, The righteous Drunkard, and The Blessed Two (the cutest, most lively, two elder, homeless, christian, men I've ever met), are some of the people we encountered.
The ones that impressed me the most were the last three.
One of the girls felt impressed on her heart to buy roses and pass them out to whomever. Just about everyone had a rose. As I looked at my rose, God reminded me of how beautiful and fragile He created women to be... I looked at the thorns and they reminded me of the times we have put up a front, a hard countenace as a defense mechanism to keep us 'safe'. I was also reminded of women in the Bible like Mary Magdalene and the adulterous woman, i thought about the woman at the well, how they all had one thing in common: a restored soul after meeting the Savior. As I thought about this things we had walked into the midst of the district, the darkness got even darker (yes, i'm talking about the spiritual realm). I was nervous. Who would God put in my heart to give this flower to? Would i have to say something? What would I say?! Then someone pointed her out to me. She was accross the street, in fornt of a night club/bar. She only had one leg. We started to walk in her direction... i still didn't know what to say. The girl walking with me offered the flower to her, from God. The woman became obviously uncomfortable, rejected the flower and said: 'I buried Christ a long time ago.' We pressed on a bit, my heart now burning, still unable to speak... i just looked at her and extended the flower to her- she turned and started to walk away. My friend urged me to walk away as well... I did, all the time looking back at her.
We stopped at the corner- 20 feet away from her. I turned back and walked up to her. I started to talk, mainly about what God had spoken to me about flowers and women... she started to talk back but this time she wasn't making any sense, it was incoherent. She asked me if I would give her the flower and I said sure... Then it happened... she started to tear it apart, not in a scandalous way, just quietly destroying it with her hands. She grabbed the petals, put them in her mouth, spat some of them out on the floor, the rest she smeared on her face and at that time I saw the devil in her eyes. Satan, laughing, showing me how he had enslaved this poor woman. He was destroying her, like she had just destroyed the flower in her hand.
I wished I could tell you I then proceeded to cast out the demon(s) out of her, but I didn't. My friend had come back to us, the woman said she was hungry and wanted some black coffee. My friend bought her some, the woman continue to speak incoherently and I just stared at her. My friend came back, gave the coffee to her and gently hurried me to walk away. As we did I was reminded of the man Jesus encountered in the region of the Gadarenes who had a Legion of demons in him...
So then what? why do I share this particular story with you instead of the one about the two nice homeless men we met toward the end of our walk?
Because this is why I need your prayer!! There is real evil stuff happening here and only the power of Christ can set these people free. Only the Holy Spirit can work in them to bring them to a new life in Christ and, like the Gadarene man, set their minds and souls right, free from the bondage of sin and alive in Jesus to love God with all their being.
