Jesus Met Us in Phitsanulok – We Saw His Power and His Glory
“Stretch out your hand of power through us to heal, and to move in signs and wonders by the name of your Holy Son, Jesus” (Acts 4: 30 TPT).
“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work” (1 John 3: 8 NIV).
“For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols, the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him, strength and glory are in His sanctuary” (Psalm 96: 4 – 6 NIV).
Late last year Judy and I were invited to travel to a church in Phitsanulok, Thailand to teach a course on emotional and physical healing, and spiritual deliverance as part of the RAK ministry (Releasing and Advancing the Kingdom ministry). We arrived in Phitsanulok on March 17, and taught from March 19 – 23. During that time we watched Jesus heal people emotionally from years of shame and hurt, break curses that had incapacitated people with fear, cast out demons and ‘set captives free’ from a life of demonic oppression, and heal people physically. The Kingdom of God broke out in that church and I believe with the training that the church members received, they will carry the Kingdom into this city and beyond.
Thailand is a complex country. The people, at least the ones I met, are gracious and respectful. The food is really good. But it is also a very occult-dominated country in which people worship almost anything. The country is a convergence zone of Hinduism, Buddhism, and many other gods. The occult has permeated every aspect of Thai society. During our 4 days there we witnessed both the power this darkness has to destroy lives but also the incredible power of Jesus to set people free.
On our second day, a young man (probably mid 30s) volunteered to do a demonstration with me in front of the class to show how we do emotional healing and spiritual deliverance. We began by making a list of all of his negative emotions, including shame; his fears (for example, he was afraid of men in red, blue, or yellow shirts), sins (among other things he was a drug addict, was addicted to pornography, and had thoughts about suicide) – and then we got to the occult. That was when the demonstration got interesting.
He had been a Buddhist monk, worshiped Hindu gods, was dedicated as a child to Buddha, had been a fortune teller, had a family history of spiritism, had put curses on people, had been cursed by others, played demonic games, had tattoos on his arms signifying the power of satan, had made vows to the devil, and worshiped ghosts and the dead. Quite a list.
After I wrote all of the negative emotions, fears, sins, and occultic practices on a white board, I started to lead him through prayers of repentance. (For me, true repentance consists of confessing, renouncing, forgiving and blessing, and then releasing negative emotions and sins to Jesus, asking Him to set them free).
But he couldn’t do it. Every time he brought a negative emotion to Jesus (“Lord, I choose today to give the anger I have toward my father to You”) all he saw was black. Several times he saw a huge black hand in his mind covering everything.
I have seen this before. It means that his ability to release the anger, disappointment, hatred, resentment, bitterness, fear, other negative emotions, or sin was hindered by demons let into his heart through doors opened by his occultic activity. So, we turned to the occult list. I needed to break some curses, cast out some demons in Jesus name, and then ask him to renounce and bring these activities to Jesus. Wow!! He had tremendous breakthroughs, he got so much freedom. Instead of blackness, he saw light each time and was able to give all of this junk to Jesus.
We returned to the negative emotions and he could let go all of them easily. Instead of a black hand, he saw more light, blue sky, trees, mountains, and even Jesus. He was weeping with relief and joy. Never in his life had he experienced so much freedom – freedom from shame, guilt, anger, disappointment, rejection, even hatred (he wanted to kill his neighbor).
When we got to fear, he could not release his fear of men in brightly colored shirts. Then I asked him if he could remember when he first had that fear. He could. It was while he was using drugs. He saw a man in a bright shirt staring at him. He felt something move inside of him. The Holy Spirit told me that the man had put a curse on him. I renounced the curse and cast out the demon associated with the curse in the name of Jesus. Now he was easily able to give the fear to Jesus, who immediately took it away.
Near the end of the session he had a wonderful vision. He saw a ‘seed’ planted in the ground. Almost immediately the seed sprouted and grew into a mighty oak tree. The tree grew so fast in his vision that he had to jump back to get out of the tree’s way. He knew the tree was an oak, but couldn’t tell me how he knew that – he just did. This was strange because oak trees do not grow in Thailand. He has never seen or heard of an oak tree.
Then he asked me what I thought the oak signified. Before the demo began I shared part of Isaiah 61 with the class, stopping just before the verse, “They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting for the display of His glory”. I told him about the strength of the oak tree, and recited this verse. I told him, “I believe that God is healing you and raising you up to be a mighty man of strength – an oak of righteousness for His glory”.
Later God showed me that the oak tree growing from a seed signified resurrection for this young man.
When the demo was over he was a different man – a new creation. I hugged him and he wept for about a minute on my shoulder. He had truly experienced the Father’s love.
Between Judy and I, we prayed for emotional healing and spiritual deliverance for 7 others. One was not ready to let go of her emotions, so go little healing. The other 6 got a lot of healing and freedom. Our prayer is, now that we are gone, the group will practice what they learned, and many more will be set free.
I learned a few things from this young man’s demonstration, which was consistent with my work with many others around the world:
I had the privilege of seeing Jesus’ first-hand and close up destroy demonic powers. It is true – “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Philippians 2: 10 NIV). Jesus cut through the darkness with a glance and a whisper. It reminded me of the final line in the poem, ‘The Destruction of Sennacherib’ by Lord Byron in which the Assyrian army (representing demonic powers) was destroyed. “And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail, and the idols are broke in the temple of Baal; and the might of the Gentile unsmote by the sword, hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord”. I love those final words, “melted like snow in the glance of the Lord”. I saw that!
We need to repent. In Scripture Jesus commands us to repent, but He doesn’t tell us how. I believe that true repentance includes confessing, renouncing, forgiving and blessing someone or ourselves, and bringing the matter to Jesus by saying, “Lord, I choose today to give this ______ to you”. Then it is Jesus who sets us free. True repentance involves all of these steps. The last step is important. Remember, we don’t just repent of what we have done (which also involves renouncing), we repent of who we are. Only Jesus can fix that – it is synonymous with God circumcising, or cutting away, something from around our heart.
Of the 4 doors that we address (negative emotions like anger and hatred; fear of something; sin; and the occult), participation in the occult is the most dangerous. Occult spirits will try to block healing by preventing the person from repenting.
Until he was set free from the occult in his life (which was not too difficult), he could not repent of the negative emotions and sins. At first, when we brought these negative emotions and sins to Jesus, all he saw was black.
But the good news is that Jesus is our savior! He saves and delivers us from the power of the evil one. In Christ, if we turn to Him, He will set us free. As soon as the young man repented of his occultic activities and asked Jesus to forgive him, it was relatively easy for him to be set free from all his negative emotions and sins.
Many people are living with hurt, shame, anger and other negative emotions; fear of something (fear of the future, finances, death, poor health, of abandonment, etc.) and sin. Many Christians have occultic activities in their lives, even participation ‘just for fun’ or out of curiosity. Every unrepented negative emotion, fear, sin, and occultic activity throughout our life contributes to a veil around our hearts, separating us from the Father; and opens a door into our hearts for satan to enter in and mess us up, preventing us from living the life of power and freedom that God intended each of His children to enjoy. True repentance unravels this veil; it brings us into the intimate presence of the Father. Even though Christians may be living in the Kingdom of God and therefore saved, many are not living lives of power and freedom in His presence. They have not appropriated and received their Kingdom inheritance that their Father has prepared for them: peace, joy, hope, power, spiritual gifts, fruit, a truly transformed life, and the indwelling Holy Spirit. Or, they are not living fully into this inheritance. Over and over again I have seen that when a person is able to repent of their negative emotions, fears, sins, and occultic activities, they begin to walk in Holy Spirit power and experience tremendous freedom. Often their physical illnesses and diseases are healed at the same time.
Jesus came and died to set us free from death, sin, the flesh, and bondage to satan. He is truly our Savior. I have seen him save again and again, like with this young man in Phitsanulok. Jesus is real, His power is tremendous, and His heart and His mission are to set us free – infusing us with power from our Heavenly Father to be “priests of our Lord and ministers of our God” (Isaiah 61: 6). And all for His glory!
“The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel”.
Grateful for a Savior,
John