Delivered!
A month or so ago I got a phone call telling me that I would be working at a different station for my next shift. The next morning I drove to my normal station to pick up all of my gear and then headed for the station I had been assigned to for the day.
I was pretty annoyed because I don’t like having to go work at other stations because it can be a hassle to drag all of my gear and belongings along. So I was annoyed but then I began to think. I realized that if I was being sent to another station for the day there must be some purpose in it. I began to ask God why he was sending me where I was going to work for the day.
I got my answer at about noon. We got called out to a person having chest pain. As we arrived on scene I could see that we were in the bad part of town. We were called to help someone in an area known for drugs, shootings and terrible living conditions. We entered the multi-family house and attended the patient. We did what we needed to do, loaded him up onto the stretcher and placed him inside of the rescue.
As my partner began to drive us to the hospital I looked at the patient in front of me. He was a middle-aged, hard looking man. I could tell that he had been through some pretty rough stuff in his life. His clothes were pretty worn and he looked like he hadn’t slept in days. He looked like someone who was carrying a burden that was just way too heavy. He turned his head to me and said “I have a weak heart.” I said “No you don’t.” He answered “Says who?” I responded “Says me right now!” After this interesting interaction he asked me if I was a Christian. I answered him by saying that I am a follower of Jesus. He understood that and said “Ok.” I took this opportunity to ask him about his experience with God. He looked at me and began to tell me about how he had run from God for 20 years. He told me that long ago God had called him to preach the Word and since then he has been like Jonah, resisting God’s call on his life.
I listened to him tell me about some of the tragic things he had walked through and I asked God what he wanted me to do. I looked at this broken man before me and I asked him if he was ready to stop running. He said that he was and there was sincerity in his voice. I asked him what he needed to repent of. He thought for a couple of seconds and told me that he didn’t know how to forgive himself for the things that he had done. There it was! There was the reason why God moved me for the day. God wanted to move through me to touch an area of this down-trodden man’s life that was still held captive by Satan.
I looked at the man and I asked him if he wanted to forgive himself right now. He said that he did. I began to lead him through a prayer of forgiveness. I led him to a certain point and then let him begin to forgive himself for specific things that had brought shame and guilt into his soul. He began listing things as tears filled his eyes. His voice grew stronger as he continued to forgive I could sense the chains falling off.
When he was finished I led him in binding and casting out the spirits of self-hatred and unforgiveness. I didn’t know what his experience with deliverance was or had been but I was only doing what the Holy Spirit was telling me to do. After the demons were cast out the prophetic word came. I was a beautiful word of love and encouragement. It was also call to continued obedience and living a new life in righteousness. The Holy Spirit was touching this man’s soul and a peace came over him that he had never felt before.
As we arrived at the hospital I asked him how he felt. He told me that he felt free and smiled all the way into the ER. Oh and the chest pain was almost gone! Praise God! This is what it means to take the light of God into the dark places and watch everything become light. I don’t know anything about what this man did from that day on but I know that he was touched by God and set free in the back of a rescue. I pray that he continued to allow God to change him into a new creation.
Jesse Birkey
