Prepare-for-War

The battle in Rene's case centered around her salvation. I told her that she must, by an act of her will, ask Jesus Christ to save her and wash her clean from all her sins. We were there to help her, but she had to do the asking. The battle raged for about an hour. Again and again, Rene would start to speak to Jesus and the demons would attack viciously with severe pain which left her screaming. You may wonder why we didn't just command the demons to leave her, but the Holy Spirit guided all of us that Rene must be willing to fight for her salvation or she wouldn't be able to keep the demons out afterwards. When the demons finally saw that they could not stop her with pain, they tried to stop her from speaking. We prayed, sang hymns of praise to the Lord, and commanded the demons to be bound in the name of Jesus. At last, Rene broke through and started to cry out, "Oh, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. How can You love me enough to save me when I worshiped your enemy Satan? Oh, God, I believe that Jesus died for me, please forgive me and wash me clean from sin!" That was the first step. After Rene was saved, we took a break. I knew she was exhausted from the two hour struggle we had just been through. I bathed her face again, and helped her to take a drink. We rested for about ten minutes. Then I told Rene to command the demons to leave her in the name of Jesus. We spent three more hours in intense struggle until the demons were all gone. At the end of that time, the pain also was completely gone. Rene was completely exhausted, and so were the rest of us. I think coaching someone in deliverance is very similar to coaching a woman through labor to giving birth to a baby. It is exhausting for both. At one point, I asked the Lord if He would be willing to remove Rene's pain and let us share the pain (NOT the demons). He said "No, because then she will give up and not clear out all the demons." In Rene's case, the pain was

319