Be Prepared Always

A few years back, I had spent the weekend on a retreat. The retreat was a soul and spirit tie breaking weekend. I was to pray for people and break the ties that kept them in bondage.

I was leading a team with two other women. There was a large group of to be prayed over there, so we had been praying a long time and were getting tired.

After the women came for prayer, if they wanted, they were baptized. This took place in a hot tub, that was directly under the room I was praying in. So, at times we could hear the baptizing going on.

It was great. Women were being set free and there was joy everywhere. Many supernatural things had happened in the room that we were praying in, but one thing sticks out in my mind the most.

We were at the end. One woman was left. She was a very timid woman. Small and frail. My thought, in the natural, was that this would be quick and easy. She had been a Christian for a while and I did not see anything demonic or oppressive on her.

She sat down in front of me and before I could even say "hello", she was up, out of her chair, on top of me, her hands around my neck. She gave a squeeze and sat back down. This all happened so fast that you had no time to respond.

I heard a voice, from one of my team, saying "I'm leaving". I don't blame her, I would have wanted to leave to if I had been in her shoes. "Whoa, everybody stop." Was my response. I am staring at this little, frail, timid woman with a bit in wonder. It was so fast, that if no one else had been in the room to see it, one would have thought in was in your imagination. But, there were witnesses and it did happen.

So, I had to rethink. I could hear the women below me being baptized. I asked, one of my team members to go get a few of them to stand outside of the door and pray protection. When this was done, we got to work.

Binding up that thing in her was the first thing on the agenda. Did not need to be choked again. Why do you think demons like to go for the throat? It happens at night in our sleep, a lot, to Christians. Just a side bar thought.

She had been through a couple of rapes and a lot of sexual, physical and emotional childhood abuse. Spirits had gotten a hold of her that offered her comfort when she was a child and she had accepted the comfort. I see that a lot in my ministry.

We took her through soul and spirit tie breaking and deliverance. But, I really did not see much change in her. I do not think we were done. But, she was done and there is no use in trying when the party involved is done and satisfied with the status quo.

2 Timothy 4:2
Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.

I had let my guard down and was not prepared. I was tired and looking forward to the end of a long day. I defined this woman by my natural eyes, not my spiritual eyes. My mind was out of sorts with my spirit and so my thinking was grounded in the natural. I rationalized that this woman was safe and merely timid instead of listening to the Spirit of God and what He had to say. I let my guard down and became vulnerable to the attack.

"Be prepared in season and out of season" these seasons are not limited to the literal meaning. My season, in that room, was measured in minutes. The season, is now. The season is constant. Be prepared and on guard always. Not letting a moment in time fly by without knowing that we are at war and you need your weapons at the ready always.