Filled with Light

Paul reminds the Ephesians that they “are now light in the Lord,” and so he tells them, “Live as children of the light”(Ephesians 5:8). He then lists what living in the light is and what it isn’t.

In order to live as light:

find out what pleases the Lord (verse 10)
have nothing to do with deeds of darkness (verse 11)
expose deeds of darkness (verse 11 & 13)
be careful how you live–not as unwise but as wise (verse 15)
make the most of every opportunity (verse 16)
do not be foolish (verse 17)
understand what the Lord’s will is (verse 17)
do not get drunk (verse 18)
be filled with the Spirit (verse 18)
speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (verse 19)
sing and make music in your heart to the Lord (verse 19)
always give thanks (verse 20)

This list is directed to those who have already been made new, who Paul already called “light in the Lord.” Paul is teaching Christians how to walk out their faith.

That’s what makes #9 so interesting. He commands (with a passive imperative) those who already have the Holy Spirit to “be filled with the Spirit.” Passive imperatives show up throughout Scripture. It is a command (that’s the imperative part) that you have to let someone else do to you (that’s the passive part). So, for instance, “be baptized” is a passive imperative. You are commanded to do it, but it is something someone else has to do to you.

The command to “be filled” is the same. We are commanded to be filled with the Spirit but the actual filling is something the Lord has to do. In water baptism, our job is to position ourselves–make ourselves available–to surrender to the other person baptizing us. The same is true for being filled with the Spirit. We surrender our lives in such a way that we are in a posture to receive an increase of Holy Spirit as He fills out our whole life with His Presence.

This command lets us know unequivocally that just having the Spirit is not the same as being filled with the Spirit. According to Scripture, they are two distinct situations. And I would suggest that the reason much of the American Church is riddled with sin, living powerless lives, is because many, if not most, are not filled with the Spirit.

We were only taught that we needed the Holy Spirit to be saved. We were never taught that to walk in holiness, purity, and freedom from sin we needed to be filled with the Spirit. We were never taught that in order to walk in the miraculous power of God we had to be filled with the Spirit.

Just as salvation is an event that happens (we were saved) and an ongoing process (we are being saved), being filled with the Spirit is both an event that happens (often separate from salvation) and an ongoing process. Like a waterfall that reveals a wider section of the river, being filled with the Spirit is both that moment of being deluged by the waterfall, and it is the process of traveling down the new section of the river.

Fruits and Gifts of the Kingdom

Every fruit of the Kingdom of God can either be cultivated as a fruit or it can be imparted, given as a gift. When it is cultivated, it lasts. When it is imparted, it is experienced right in the moment but doesn’t always last. Let me explain.

Paul writes to the Ephesians:

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.
Ephesians 5:8-11

So the “fruit of light” is “goodness, righteousness and truth.” We know from Galatians 5:22-23 that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” And we know from Romans 14:17 that, “the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” In other words, things of the Kingdom of God (like peace, joy, truth, goodness and righteousness) are things that grow in us by the Spirit as they are cultivated. They increase gradually over time as we walk in the Spirit and in obedience.

Yet, there is another side to each of these fruits. Take “righteousness” for example. We know that not only is it a fruit that grows in us but that it was also a gift given to us. Theologians say that the righteousness of Christ was “imputed” to us. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” There was an exchange on the cross. We received the righteousness of Christ as a gift and He became our sin. Romans 5:17 calls what Jesus did for us by forgiving us and making us holy “the gift of righteousness.”

So righteousness first came to us, imparted to us, as a gift when we received salvation. Now, because of the Holy Spirit, righteousness grows in us as a fruit. And I believe all the fruits of the Kingdom can do this. They can both grow in us as a fruit and be imparted to us as a gift.

Take “peace,” for example. Peace is listed as a fruit of the Spirit, a fruit of the Kingdom. Yet we also see Jesus release it, impart it, as a gift. In John 14:27, Jesus said to His disciples, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.” Then again when Jesus appeared to the disciples in the upper room after the resurrection, He imparts His peace to them (John 20:19-21).

I have firsthand experience being in situations where I was praying with someone, and either I or the person I was praying with released, through the Holy Spirit, something to the person we were praying for. I’ve seen peace released to a person and watched them physically feel peace fill their body. I’ve seen joy released to a person who was depressed and watched them erupt in laughter for the next 10 minutes, only to tell us later that they haven’t laughed like that in years. I’ve seen love released to a person and watched them break down in tears as they got overwhelmed with the love of the Father.

I can’t say that I know how it all works; but I’ve seen it enough to believe that, somehow, each fruit can grow in us as we cultivate it or can be imparted to us as a gift. As is the case of any gift, it doesn’t seem to last as long as a cultivated fruit tree that continues to produce good fruit year after year. Or maybe a better way of saying it is that when these fruits come as imparted gifts, they come as seeds that must be cultivated if we want them to stay long-term.

Another way of saying it is that when these fruits come as imparted gifts, they give us just a taste of the Kingdom, revealing who we really are and what we really have in Christ–what’s available to us if we’d be willing to cultivate it.

Unforgivable sins

If the American Christian would read the Bible, they would find it both life-giving and supremely challenging to our cultural norms. Scripture has a way, in one sentence sometimes, of preventing us from feeling smug in our little divisions between progressive and conservative. God doesn’t play favorites when He’s calling us to holiness. Both sides fall under conviction.

A good example of this is when Paul writes to the Ephesians, “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people”(Ephesians 5:3). What is absolutely brilliant about this is that in one verse, God dismantles the pet sins of the Right and the Left.

The unforgivable sin in progressive Christian circles seems to be greed. Yet, and I know I am stereotyping here, progressives tend to overlook sexual sin in general. Sex outside of marriage? No problem if you “love” the person. Sleeping around? Normal sexual development. Pornography? Sure, if it helps your sex life. Homosexuality? Born that way. Masturbation? Healthy and normal. Adultery? Maybe don’t do this one unless your partner gives you the green light. There seems to be a justification for nearly every sexual sin that is out there. So when a progressive comes upon a Scripture passage that says there shouldn’t even be “a hint of sexual immorality” they are forced to ignore it or manipulate it to fit their worldview. It’s totally disruptive to the typical progressive mindset.

Yet, in conservative Christian circles, the unforgivable sins tend to be in the category of sexuality. But greed is rarely discussed as a sin. The greedy are described as billionaires, but everyone else is safe from this sin. The greed of ignoring the material needs of others is explained away as a personal choice. To talk about the systemic greed in the investment banking world or the corporate world is anathema. To do so could mean expulsion from the country club. So when a Scripture essentially says that greed is as immoral as sexual sin, it is totally disruptive to the typical conservative mindset.

God, through His Word, doesn’t let us have pet sins. Maybe one way to help each group is to frame the pet sin in the language of their unforgivable sin.

To the progressive Christians, what God is saying is that to have even a “hint” of sexual sin is to be morally greedy with physical intimacy. The same greed that collects millions of dollars will also collect sexual partners and sexual perversions. To conservative Christians, material greed is essentially fiscal promiscuity. Corporate greed is economic pedophilia. Maybe using stark language like this can help each group have more of a visceral reaction against the true nature of sin.

As Children

Every parent will eventually experience that moment. It is always meant as a complement, but it doesn’t always land that way. It’s the moment someone says of your child, “They are just like you!” In a split second, both a flood of pride and a flood of concern hits your soul. This could be a great thing! This could be a terrible thing!

Children don’t wake up in the morning striving to imitate their parents. They don’t put it on their calendar or on their to-do list. They don’t enroll in a program helping them to imitate their parents. It happens naturally. Children pick up the language, mannerisms, voice inflection, moods, and morality of their parents.

It happens without anyone noticing or trying. It happens because of proximity and love. The things and people we love and to which we are in close proximity, we will begin to naturally imitate. This is especially true of children.

This is why Paul writes to the Ephesians, “Follow God’s example (literally: imitate God), therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God”(Ephesians 5:1-2).

One might counter this command with, “How can we possibly imitate God? Isn’t that impossible?”

Apparently not!

Scripture wouldn’t have commanded it if it was impossible. We have the Holy Spirit in us, empowering us to live as Jesus lived. When we write off this command as impossible, we belittle the full potential of “Christ in you, the hope of glory”(Colossians 1:27).

The key here is what Paul writes immediately after the command to “imitate God.” He suggests we do it “as dearly loved children.” This is about being secure in our identity as sons and daughters of the King of kings and Lord of lords. It’s not about striving. It’s less about effort and more about intimacy. Remember, children imitate their parents not because they make a strategic plan but because of proximity and love. This is an invitation to experience proximity to the Father. It’s an invitation to experience the love of the Father.

Consider the possibility that the ONLY way to imitate God is “as dearly loved children.” With faith like a child, drawing nearer and nearer to the Father, as we spend time with Him, we will naturally become like Him. We will find our capacity to love increase. Sacrifice will start to feel like a joy. We will see in others what we couldn’t see before…before we began to see through the eyes of the Father. Our lives will become a fragrant offering.

Created to be like God

Notice what the Ephesians were taught about their old life before Jesus and their new life in Christ:

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:22-24

Being a follower of Jesus means, in one sense, that our old self is dead and we have been made a new creation⏤all of this in the past tense. Paul tells the Romans to “count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus”(Romans 6:11).

Yet, there is also a sense that this activity of putting off the old self is one that is continuous. We must be continually choosing to live in the reality of our new life in Christ. This process starts by stepping away from our old life and changing the way we think. Our minds are the first battleground of the new life in Christ. Our minds are Jericho.

That’s why here Paul says “to be made new in the attitude of your minds,” and to the Romans he says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”(Romans 12:2). Just as we put on clothes by putting our head through first and then pulling it down around our torso, the same is true when we are clothed with Christ (Galatians 3:27); it begins with a change in our thinking, a renewal of the mind.

What is truly amazing is how our new life is described here. Our new self, our life as a new creation in Christ, was “created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” In other words, we were made righteous so that we could live righteously, not so that we could continually sin and get away with it. Paul asked the Romans, “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means!”(Romans 6:1-2).

What this means is that this new life we’ve been given in Christ has new tendencies. Whereas in our old self, we had a tendency toward sin and selfishness, in this new life we have a tendency toward holiness and righteousness. We’re no longer miserable sinners but glorious saints. Our identity has been radically changed. This new life we’ve been given was designed to be holy. When we are not holy, when we live unrighteous lives, we are living outside of its design. It was created to be righteous.

When I take my son to the batting cage, the purpose of me putting the coins in and paying for all of those balls to be pitched to him is so that he will hit them. At the batting cage there are no strikes being tallied. All the strikes have been paid for. They don’t exist anymore. But they weren’t removed so that my son could stand there and miss ball after ball. They weren’t removed so that he could earn a “walk” to first base. The whole reason strikes were removed was so that he would get to a place where he could hit every ball that comes at him.

Our sin was totally removed by Jesus’s death on the cross and resurrection from the grave. But our sin wasn’t removed so we could keep sinning and not care about it. Our sin was removed so that we could finally live holy. Not only were we made holy by Christ, but His grace enables us to live holy. His grace not only wipes our slate clean, but it empowers us to live righteous lives that would otherwise be impossible.

Real Love

Imagine a wife walks up to her husband and says, “You know, in our marriage we should be all about love. We’ve spent too much time focusing on fidelity. It shouldn’t really matter if I sleep with other men. What really matters is that we love each other. For us to have a healthy marriage, if we had to choose between being faithful to each other and loving each other, we should choose love from now on. And we need to ask forgiveness for all the times we focused on being faithful to each other rather than loving each other. I’ve been hurt by all the times you talked to me about being faithful to you alone. It’s hurtful. It’s not very loving. So if you want me to stay in this marriage, I need you to just love me and stop talking about fidelity.”

What would we say to that wife? I think we’d say that her understanding of love is deficient. We’d try to help her understand that what she is saying is nonsensical because one of the ultimate expressions of love in marriage is fidelity. To speak of fidelity is to speak of love. Likewise, her continual infidelity is the opposite of love.

If she’s “hurt” by talk of fidelity, it is the kind of necessary pain that comes from healing something that is broken. Surgery hurts. Physical therapy hurts. Addressing issues in counseling can hurt. This kind of pain is the pain involved in healing. Not all instances of being “hurt” are from injury. Some pain comes because a broken bone needs to be set in our souls.

Unfortunately, many in the American Church today, especially in more progressive circles, are saying something very similar to what the wife is saying here. Often today people are divorcing talk of holiness with talk of love. Because many view holiness as only “adherence to God’s law” (which is a very legalistic, Pharisaic understanding of holiness), people are saying things like, “If I have to choose to focus on holiness or love, I choose to focus on love. Too many people have been hurt by talk of holiness. I’d rather the church just focus on love.” But this sort of double talk just reveals their poor understanding of both holiness and love.

Holiness is fidelity to Jesus. Holiness in our marriage relationship with Christ is one of the highest expressions of love. A life full of sin is a life of infidelity and spiritual promiscuity. Talk of love cannot be divorced from talk of holiness or it ceases to be love. When we urge people toward holiness, we are calling them to a marriage of fidelity with Christ. We are calling them to the highest expression of love.

Paul had to address something similar in Ephesus. He starts this conversation by reminding the Ephesians to “live a life worthy of the calling you have received”(Ephesians 4:1). Then he describes what that looks like:

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.
That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:17-24

Inviting people to step out of their lifestyle of sin and into holiness is an invitation to step into love. This is real love. Justifying and pandering to sin is the opposite of love.

Ephesian Prayer (Part 2)

Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian Christians continues:

being rooted and established in love,may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Ephesians 3:17-21

Paul has been praying that the Father would take some power out of His storehouse of glorious riches and distribute it to followers of Jesus through the Holy Spirit for their inner strengthening. This is a strengthening that would allow Christ to dwell on the throne of their hearts in at atmosphere of faith.

Now Paul transitions to the connections between power and love. Because they’ve already surrendered their lives to Jesus, they are now rooted and established (or grounded) in love. The foundation of their house has been laid and the material used was love. The starting line of their journey of faith has the letters L – O – V – E spray-painted across it. The grace and love of the Father is the foundation of their life in Christ.

Yet, what we learn from Paul’s prayer is that there is more! This power that Paul is asking the Father to release will actually empower them to grasp or comprehend something that is incomprehensible. You see, the love of Christ isn’t just the foundation of the mansion; it’s also the wide corridors, the long hallways, the deep cellar, the multi-story high ceiling. His love is not only the beginning, but it’s also the end and everything in-between. The love of Christ is our starting line, it’s what sustains us on the journey, and it’s what is waiting for us at the finish. This kind of love is so expansive that it “surpasses knowledge.” The only way “to know this love that surpasses knowledge” is with a download of the supernatural power of God.

The beautiful thing is that as the Father’s power gets poured out on us, we begin, little by little, to comprehend this incomprehensible love. And as we do, we begin to get filled from the inside out with “all the fullness of God.” A couple chapters later Paul will remind them of this as he gives the Ephesian Christians the command to “be filled with the Spirit”(Ephesians 5:18).

Both this prayer to be filled with the fullness of God and the command to be filled with the Spirit are given to Christians who already have the Spirit. In other words, there is always more of God, more of the Spirit, to experience. The Holy Spirit is a person, not a liquid or a force, so it’s not like we get “more” of Him over time. What happens is that He gets more of us. Like a fragrant incense filling every room of the house, He begins to pervade every part of us. As we surrender every room of our life to Him, rooms that have already been purchased by Christ, the Spirit fills them with more and more of the characteristics of Christ, the fullness of God.

When the Spirit comes to fill us, he brings with him all the fullness of God, causing an overflow from the inside out. That’s why Paul writes next, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” Paul is asking that the Ephesians be filled with the full measure of God and knows that, when God comes to fill His people with His Spirit, there is no limit to what can happen. God can do more in and through filled Christians than we can even imagine.

And when He does, all the glory goes back to Him. It’s not about the Christians that are used so powerfully but about the God who, in His generosity and love, was so pleased to use them. To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Ephesian Prayer

Notice how Paul prays for the Ephesians:

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
Ephesians 3:14-17

Ephesians 3 is a chapter of the Bible that one could spend a whole year unpacking. It is so full, each sentence packed with powerful truths. And all these truths are elegantly woven together by Paul in a symphony of word pictures. This prayer gives us just a taste of it.

For this reason: this phrase connects the prayer he’s about to write with what he has just finished discussing. He’s just completed a section where he explained that the mystery of the Gentiles being included in the gospel is part of the “unsearchable riches of Christ”(Ephesians 3:8). It is not something one could just learn from study. Paul said this mystery had to be “made known to me by revelation”(Ephesians 3:3). And though Paul was the “less than the least”(Ephesians 3:8) of God’s people, God gave Paul “the gift of grace” to preach this mystery among the Gentiles in order to make it “plain to everyone”(Ephesians 3:7-9). So it is “for this reason” that he kneels before the Father to pray for them.

Out of His glorious riches: God’s Kingdom is a Kingdom of abundance. There is always more than enough when it comes to God’s provision. He never struggles with resources whether they are physical, emotional or spiritual. Imagine a massive storehouse of riches that the Father has continual access to. That is God in His Kingdom. There is always more than enough with God.

Strengthen you with power: Paul’s prayer is that the Father would reach back and grab some power out of His storehouse of glorious riches, and that He would send that power to each person Paul is praying for. This power would be sent so that they can be strengthened. But where and how are they strengthened by this power?

Through His Spirit in your inner being: God will bring this strength to the Ephesian believers by giving it to them through the Holy Spirit in their inner being. The strength that will hit them will be an internal strength, a strength of the mind, will and emotions. Some might call it an internal fortitude. This inner strength will come when the Father sends His power, through the Holy Spirit, to each believer.

So that Christ can dwell in your hearts through faith: What is the purpose of sending this power to increase the internal fortitude of the believer? The hope is that this inner strength, coming through the Holy Spirit, will allow Christ to dwell in their hearts through faith. Christ dwelling in their hearts here isn’t about salvation. They are already believers who have the Holy Spirit. Since their spirits have already been united with the Holy Spirit, this is about their souls (mind, will and emotions) being surrendered to Christ.

The idea of Christ “dwelling” is in contrast to Christ “coming and going.” Another way of saying it is that as this power comes and creates an internal strengthening, faith will rise up and allow their soul (mind, will and emotions) to be in continual submission to Christ. Their obedience to Christ will not be occasional; it will not “come and go.” He will, in a sense, have permanent residence on the throne of their hearts because of the atmosphere of faith there.

One final thing to note is that all of this comes from being in the family of God. It comes as inheritance. It comes because of our relational connection to the Father. We can receive this strengthening power in our inner being through the Holy Spirit, establishing Christ as permanently on the throne of our hearts, because we have the same last name as the Father.

Apostles and Prophets (Part 2)

When God wants to give the the Church insight into the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, He first reveals it to the apostles and the prophets, the foundation of the Church. Paul explains it to the Ephesians this way:

Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly.In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 3:2-6

Now, it’s not like God never mentioned this mystery before. As we look back into the Old Testament we can see how God continuously foreshadowed the Gentile inclusion into the family of God. But there was a revelation of wisdom and insight given to the apostles and prophets, of which Paul was among, so that they could see clearly God’s desire to include Gentiles as heirs together with Israel in the promises of Jesus.

This is why apostolic leaders and prophetic leaders are so essential for the Church to thrive. They open new doors of insight into mysteries that have always been there but the rest of us just couldn’t see. It doesn’t cease to be a mystery, as if it could all be explained away, but the mystery itself just becomes clearer and more accessible. This is what the apostolic leaders did in the first few centuries of the Church as they articulated and protected the mystery of the Trinity and the mystery of the nature of Christ.

Pastors and Evangelists are focused on people. Pastors care for people and Evangelists want to see people get saved. We too often like Pastor and Evangelist led churches because we want our church to be centered around meeting the people’s needs. It makes us feel good.

Apostles and Prophets, however, are focused on heaven, specifically seeing heaven come to earth. They get insight into the mysteries of Christ that the Church so desperately needs. They see from heaven’s perspective and think with the mind of Christ. They help the Church get beyond limited human reasoning and into Godly wisdom.

Teachers function as a bridge between the people of the Church and the insight of the Apostles and Prophets, helping to make it make sense. They take a mystery and break it down into something people can more readily apply to their lives. But if the Teachers of the Church aren’t connected to Apostolic leading and Prophetic revelation, they simply end up being a bridge between people and theology. The church becomes well-informed but doesn’t experience much personal transformation into Christ-likeness. Doesn’t this describe much of the American Church?

This is why Christ gave the Church apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors and evangelists. We need all of these fivefold ministries. But we can’t forget to prioritize apostles and prophets. Paul was clear about how important this is. He wrote to the Corinthians, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers…”(1 Corinthians 12:27-28).

The focus of the Church must be about bringing the Kingdom of God to the earth and not just on catering to people’s felt need in the moment. This is why we need apostles and prophets. They keep our focus heavenward.

Hope at Denny’s

Cam and I were exhausted from shaking all night, and we were hungry (see my post called Hand Spun Shakes for the backstory on that). He suggested Denny’s. Cam is prophetic⏤strongly prophetic. Every time Cam “suggested” we go to a particular restaurant or place, it always ended up being a divine appointment. I should have realized this was going to be another one, but I didn’t. All I could think about is eating a Moons Over My Hammy breakfast sandwich, a classic late night meal for me from years ago during “study” sessions in seminary.

Denny’s in Redding is in a shady part of town. We could sense it as we got out of the car. The first thing Cam said was, “Hey, we need to have our guard up.” I knew what he meant. He was saying there was demonic stuff crawling around, and we needed to have our physical and spiritual heads on a swivel.

On our way toward the restaurant, we walked past the hotel next door. It was called The Red Lion Inn. I commented to Cam as I pointed at the hotel sign, “We’re heading into the lion’s den.” We both laughed, but we couldn’t have predicted how right we were.

Just as we approached the entry door to Denny’s (mind you it is 11pm at this point) a dad and his young adult daughter were about to enter Denny’s at the same time. I recognized them from Bethel Church earlier that day. Out of all the people there I’m not sure why I recognized them, but I did, so I pointed to them and said, “Hey! Bethel?” They both turned and smiled and acknowledged that they had been there that day.

They both had a European accent that we would later discover was from Sweden. People from all over the world fly to Bethel for various reasons. They flew in for a week so that the daughter, who’s 21, could check out their school of ministry. The daughter immediately invited us to have dinner with them, which seemed strange at the time. But since the whole trip had been one adventure after another, we agreed and embarked on yet another unexpected adventure.

The four of us sat at a booth together, and as soon as we sat down I asked them about what led them to Bethel. The dad (we’ll call him Matt to protect his identity) said he had done bible school in the U.S. before moving back to his home country of Switzerland. As soon as the daughter started to share her story (we’ll call her Lulu since that was the affectionate nickname used by her father) all of the alarm bells in Cam’s spirit and my spirit started to go off. We had seen this sort of thing before, unfortunately.

Lots of things gave it away: her personal story of hearing evil voices and seeing evil things since she was a young girl, her longtime struggle with deep depression and self-hate, her scars from cutting that went up and down both arms, the way her eyes shifted away from me and Cam when she talked, how she would “go away” into a sudden catatonic state while we affirmed her identity in Christ or spoke of the love of the Father or talked about Jesus. All of these were indicators that she was heavily demonized. She was fighting for her life and the demons didn’t want her free.

Demonization this severe in a Christian is not unlike domestic abuse or human trafficking. The young girl was being tormented daily by many demons that resided within her. She didn’t know how to get free. Yet, she had been demonized for so long, since she was 12 years old according to her story, she also wondered that if she got totally free whether it would make her lonely. She had gotten used to the voices even if they were awful to her. They were some of her only “friends” as odd as that sounds.

There can develop a kind of trauma bonding with demons. The lies and the manipulations can create this toxic bond between the tormentors and the tormented. We saw this a lot in the world of human trafficking when I was a part of a nonprofit that fought against child sex trafficking in the Baltimore region. The dynamic was similar here. The truest part of her, the real Lulu, wanted freedom. But the deceived part of her wasn’t sure it was possible.

The other interesting thing about Lulu is that she had a really strong seer gift, which means she could see things in the spirit realm. Cam is a seer too. Lulu had been seeing demons and other things in the spirit since she was very young. Lower level seers get glimpses of things. Higher level seers can see things in great detail. Yet, if this gift goes without guidance, instruction and wisdom, this gift can be turned and used against the person who has it. Even worse, it can be recruited into the occult world of witchcraft. This kind of powerful gifting is a threat to the enemy, and so he often goes to great lengths to torment and demonize seers if he can get a foothold. She, unfortunately, gave him all too many footholds and open doors into her life.

We talked as we ate dinner together. We tried to encourage Lulu and her dad. We explained a little about deliverance, and Cam and I tried our best to wait until dinner was over before we set about to get her free. When you can literally see demons (in Cam’s case) and/or sense them (in my case), it is hard to have dinner with them sitting in the booth across from you. We did our best.

We then adjourned to my favorite ministry room known as the parking lot. Cam told me later that angels were encircled around us out there as demons were moving in to help their “compatriots” residing in the girl. He commanded them to leave in Jesus’s name so we could have room to work.

We worked through the deliverance process with her and cast out a handful of demons. Most of them were so deeply entrenched that each one took a while to leave. Though the dad had a charismatic church background, he had never seen a deliverance firsthand and certainly not with his daughter. It shook him.

We didn’t have the time or energy to try to get them all out, so we didn’t try. Instead, we took her hands in ours and imparted everything we could—the increase of the Holy Spirit’s presence, more power, more love, more joy. We could see her confidence growing. Hope was returning as her identity in Christ was being re-established.

When Cam released joy to her it was something to behold. She collapsed in laughter from the sheer overflow of joy that was being downloaded into her soul. Of course, demons don’t like their host so full of joy, so the spirits of despair and depression rose up, yelled obscenities, and gnashed their teeth at Cam. Spirits of despair and depression hate joy, and Cam was releasing a weaponized joy into Lulu that they were powerless to prevent.

During this process, both Cam and I experienced the Father’s love for Lulu. This was His daughter. She was trapped, enslaved, abused and tormented by these demons. He wanted her free, and so did we. She felt the Father’s love too. She kept hugging and holding on to me and Cam. She didn’t want us to leave. Through us she got a taste of the freedom, joy and love of the Kingdom of God. She got a taste of her real identity; she is a warrior princess. She is the one whom Jesus loves. She is a daughter of the King.

It was nearing 2am so we had to leave. We strongly suggested that Matt take his daughter to the deliverance ministry offered by Bethel Church during the weekdays. We stressed that more ministry was absolutely essential in order for her journey into freedom to continue. We exchanged information and left. During the drive back to the place where we were staying we felt saturated in the love of God for Lulu. She was our sister, and in some ways, our daughter. The love and compassion we felt for her was unusually strong. It wasn’t love we were capable of conjuring up ourselves. It was the Father’s love. It was the compassion of Christ.

I am happy to report that we got word yesterday that Lulu has a time slot for tomorrow (Friday, March 8^th) to receive more deliverance ministry from the Bethel ministry team. Please be praying for her to be totally free and for her identity in Christ to be restored.

A final postscript to this encounter with Lulu:

One of the more interesting parts of ministering deliverance to a girl who is a seer is that she could see things in the spirit as they were happening. Sporadically throughout the night she would tell us things that she was seeing in the spirit. At one point, she was hugging me tightly and said to Cam and me, “You both have the most beautiful armor on. I see it. It’s beautiful. It looks like Roman armor. And you have helmets on with that thingy on top.”

I asked, “Helmets with a plume?”

She said, “Yes, and it is so beautiful with all different colors.”

Since Cam is also a seer, I asked him about it later. He said that as soon as she started describing the armor he could see it. He said it was beautiful, shiny gold. As he was searching for words, he finally said, “It looked royal!” This is the armor of God. And while not all of us are gifted in a way where we can see it in the spirit, we can all be sure to put it on daily (Ephesians 6:10-18).

Who would have thought that a late-night trip to Denny’s would end up in a parking lot deliverance for a daughter from Sweden? Only God. The Father gave us all something that night. It was the beginning of hope and freedom for Lulu and her dad, and it was a download of love and encouragement for me and Cam. Thank you, Jesus!