By Pastor Baz
This very morning I arrived at work to find out I had to attend a 'cleansing' which is kind of like an exorcism for a house.
I found out why when I arrived at the house with a whole ministry team.
The house has been used as a hostel for young people at risk. Many of the attendee's are emotional wrecks when they arrive. The house provides a safe haven and loving care to them. But something unusual had been going on and it started to affect everyone who stayed there.
When we arrived we went over the occurrences. If it had just been the young people staying there it could have been written off as auditory or visual hallucinations, overactive imaginations or mental stress or illness. But it was happening to the staff as well.
Voices yelling when no one was present. Screams in empty rooms, and in rooms where people were sleeping along with heavy human sounding breathing. Knocking, footsteps and sounds that at first were written off as possums, but after an inquiry by pest controllers turned out to be not the case. Feelings of dread, of being watched. Extreme sudden coldness and in particular one room where the heaviness was so oppressive you could barely breath. Some of these I got to experience myself this morning.
In a situation like this, it is good to try to find out all the possiblel natural causes. The first step is to rule out everything. In the rooms with the heaviness I looked for area's of high EMF and concentration of electrical equipment and proximity to wires, boxes etc.
Then we asked the staff what they had experienced, and they were all terrified to some degree. No-one wanted to stay there alone and as recently as 3am last night a staff member rang her mother to come and pick her up as the fearful presence had become so pervasive.
When you have highly educated, stable and professional people having seperate experiences that are terrifying to them, a good place to start once other options are ruled out is prayer.
It doesn't matter what the issue is, prayer will often help people break through their fears.
So we prayed through the entire house. As I looked around the room where most of the activity was occurring I noticed an Athiests Bible, many Occult books and Tarot Cards. These things can be like a magnet to things that are malevolent in an already fragile and vulnerable persons life. They go to them to find answers or gain control but it can end up controlling them as manifestations begins.
So we prayed in the name, power and authority of Jesus Christ throughout the house and in the back room where a lot of the action was happening I was overwhelmed by a feeling of weakleggedness, breathlessness, an inability to pray clearly - for me a sign that something is agitating back. It is those times you simply need to not be fearful in any way but to focus on God. And like a balloon popping it burst, the physical and emotional feelings vanished and the room became light again as you would expect it to.
The house was blessed and consecrated to God with oil on windows, doors and over rooms, we prayed for the staff and for ourselves and then left the team on the note of what to do if and when there was a reoccurence. Because sadly, when people dabble in the occult, their free will cooperates with other entities that are seeking entry to their lives and until that pattern breaks, further outbreaks of phenomenon as mentioned above may occur.
So in summary, start by looking for rational explanations, don't go in with any particluar bias, but if they can't be found then in my experience prayer has never hurt anyone or anything, even the hardest athiest I know has asked for prayer when there are no other options and he can't find a rational cause.
What are our readers experiences with these types of 'manifestations'? Have you found logical non-spiritual explanations? Has prayer helped you?
Looking forward to hearing your responses.
