So I'm rolling down the road last night windows down, music up, wearing a tank top, my hat tilted to the side, shades on...and talking into the speaker phone function of my iphone. All that to say...#1 obviously I was stylin' but that's generally the case. Okay I'm being funny...#2 I don't even think I had Christian music playing so there was nothing about me that said "This guy is a christian". Okay just had to lay that foundation. So I roll up to one of the local intersections of Eugene. There I see a guy holding a sign...I'm not sure exactly what this guy's sign said although lately I've been reading the signs of those who stand on street corners with a lot more intrigue, concern, and compassion,...but this night I was on my way to pick up my kid. I didn't have any cash on me...pretty much the last thing on my mind was the dude standing on the street corner. For no other reason than I had things going on and flooding my mind. I've seen the guy many times before...He always looks a little pissed, as I would be if I had to stand on the corner of a street in order to get some cash to live my life on.
Okay let's get to the point...if there is one. So I'm sitting at the intersection and the dude stars berating me asking me if I think I'm brown (not sure if that's a reference to the tilted hat, tan skin, shades...ignorant at any rate). He commences to begin talking about San Fransisco and Seattle and how we are all the same...(Still not sure who I'm being wrapped in with here). I'm a bit in awe at this point and my natural instinct is to be thinking..."Dude this is not a good way to get my money which I assume is what you are standing on the corner holding the sign for?" My second natural instinct was to want to just beat the crap out of this guy. Isn't this what all those hours in the gym being beat up and tapped out by fighters better than myself and eventually getting to a point where I can tap them out and get them in the stand up has been all about? Wait....to beat up a homeless guy on the side of the road...okay probably not! Anyway, this guys just keeps going and going, at this point I'm absolutely starring at him which is probably getting him more upset. This goes on for a bit eventually it gets to a point where the dude is literally talking in what sounds like "tongues" but in a very aggressive and confrontational way. In my opinion it was demonic manifestation...I've seen this happen before with people on crack and other really hard drugs, probably addicts in most cases. Oh yeah the best part of the story is that my son's mother, who I was originally talking to was on speaker phone this whole time listening to what was going on. She keeps yelling for me asking what is going on and I'm like...."Yeah you're going to have to hold on for a second, it's probably not a good idea to ignore completely the demon possessed guy who has repeatedly said he's about to attack me and is standing about 5 ft from my car." If it came down to it...I'll beat him up but fighting a dude on the side of the road for all to see probably isn't the best way to shine the light of Christ in Eugene! Plus...who knows if he's got a shank on him...or worse! But it would have taken some quick thinking and action because the guy was not a small man...and boy was he pissed! Why....? I do not know :)
The thing is that once the adrenaline stopped flooding the receptors of my body...I wasn't mad at this guy. I was more disappointed with myself that I didn't really know what to do. Jesus would have know what to do wouldn't he have? I thought of the film I had recently seen called Furious Love. The premise of the documentary was that the Love of God changes things. The Love of God can go into the darkest places on earth and affect the darkness with the light. So I'm not mad at the guy...in fact I have more compassion for him than ever. To see someone so angry and tormented makes me sad...and angry with the devil who seeks to steal, kill, an destroy people's life and hope. I pass this place all the time...this same dude is there all the time...will he remember me and my car next time I pass by? Was he out of his mind on some chemical to a point where he didn't know what he was doing? Will he see me and attack like a rabid dog? Or somehow, some way will the love of a father who is passionate about his soul reach him and affect him? I don't really know...maybe you should stay tuned to this blog to find out...maybe you have some thoughts. If so share them...The thing that's got me right now is especially in Christan circles and also in general life people who have it together or seem to have it together seem to want to pretend that evil doesn't exist. But it does and on some level or another it came and confronted me when I was minding my own business in the middle of the city I call home. So what do I do about it? That's the question on my mind at the moment...my response last night was to kinda get out of the situation. Was that the right thing? It seems like that's been what the Church has been doing for years...is that working? Is it okay for us to live our nice little lives, maybe go on a mission trip to Africa for a week and assume that the same sort of activity isn't happening all around us? I don't have the right answer...for everyone the right answer i probably a little different. One thing I know...Love conquers all at the end of the day.
Just some things to think about and I'd love some feedback on this one!
Be Blessed Ya'll
Chad
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First of all, you did the right thing by driving away. Second, situations like that piss me off. Not because this man tried to attack you, but because I am tired of Satan winning. Remember the story of David and Goliath? The Israelites sat around letting this man mock God and no one would stand up to him. Until David came along and had the faith and courage to say enough was enough and believe that God was who He said He is and stand on that revelation. Too many Christians get in situations like you were in and ride it off as “this guy is nuts”. They don’t even begin to comprehend how much a man like this is being tortured by these demons. But worse they don’t believe it is demonic or if they do they do nothing about it. Christ defeated Satan at the cross and as Christians we SHOULD be utilizing God’s power inside of us by standing on His word and claiming those things He shed His precious blood to give us. This includes freedom from oppression from Satan.
When David fought Goliath it wasn’t the first time he had come to a battle. God had been preparing him his whole life for that moment by having him come against bears and lions when he was a shepherd. David knew that God had saved him from these and that increased his faith to go up against a stronger enemy. He increased his faith in God as God proved himself when David fought the lions and bears.
If you reread this story about David and Goliath you will find that not even Saul, the king, would go up against Goliath. He was supposed to be the leader and one would think the first to protect his people and stand up for the God he served. Yet he did nothing. He was a warrior and had more training than David did and yet he let David, a shepherd, come in to fight his battles.
There are too many Sauls in the church today. People who have the power and knowledge to the defeat the enemy and yet they do not use it. They allow God to be mocked. They allow sickness to prevail. They allow demons to oppress the body of Christ. They watch as Satan kills, steals, and destroys people in the world. Yet they wait for someone else to come and stand on God’s promises. They wait for someone else to pick up their sword of the Spirit, the word of God, and pierce the enemy with it.
This is where I get angry. I see the apathy in my own life and I am disgusted and ashamed. I, too, have been guilty of not praying and not fighting as much as I should for those who belong to the enemy and for those who belong to Jesus and are being oppressed by the enemy. We have powerful tools to defeat Satan: prayer, fasting, and the word of God. “But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting”,- Matt. 17:21. I am ready to see God manifest His power in His people to bring His kingdom into effect on earth and I will do whatever it takes to position myself so that He can be glorified in me. I believe that I will pray for the sick and they will be healed, that I will raise people from the dead, and that I will destroy the kingdom of Satan all for the glory of God that His name may be exalted. All because His word says I can do it. All because I know His love for His people (saved and unsaved) and His desire to manifest His presence in their lives and reveal Himself to them.
It would have been foolish for you to rebuke Satan out of that man if Jesus had not commanded you to do so in that moment. That is part of being led by the Spirit. BUT you have the power to pray for his deliverance and to come against the forces of hell oppressing him through prayer and fasting. Just because you would be defeated in the natural does not mean you cannot be victorious by accessing the supernatural power of God. “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much”.
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