Over the past few months, The Women’s Corner has been privileged to have several sisters in Christ share the testimonies of God’s work in their lives.    As we prepared for January, I felt the Holy Spirit leading me to share part of our testimony that I’ve never previously shared.   Let me begin by saying that I am not sharing this story with the intention of embarrassing anyone or from a spirit of unforgiveness.   I truly believe that the Holy Spirit wants to use our family’s testimony to help women who are struggling or living with family members who are struggling, and introduce you to the ministry that changed our lives—the ministry of spiritual deliverance.

           I know that there are many who ask, “Why does your ministry place so much emphasis on spiritual deliverance?” 

           The answer is simple, “Because it works, and sometimes it is the only thing that works.”    As further explanation, please allow me to share a portion of our story with you.  

           I grew up in a loving, Christian family.   By all appearances, my parents were both committed Christians with a strong marriage and a desire to serve God.   From time to time issues would arise, but they were usually brushed under the carpet fairly quickly.   To any onlooker, we appeared to be the model of functional family life.   Then around Christmas of 1996, my Dad began spiraling out of control.  

            Actually, he began changing a few years earlier after his Dad passed away.   At first, we thought he was grieving.    As he became moodier and more difficult to live with, we began seeking medical treatments to see if there was anything physical causing the changes.    Eventually, it became evident that his problems were not of a physical nature—he was perfectly healthy. 

            By the time fall of 1996 arrived, my Mom was earnestly seeking God for a healing in their relationship and marriage.   It was now obvious that there were major problems, it just wasn’t obvious what they were or how to solve them.   That Christmas, after my Dad bought my Mom a very cruel, hurtful gift, it became very apparent that things could no longer be brushed away.   It was time for my Dad to start dealing with the issues of his heart. 

            That winter he began counseling, and the pattern of going to a counselor for a few sessions and then quitting.   It was a turbulent time filled with a lot of stress as counselors would touch the surface of my Dad’s problems, only to have him get angry and search for another counselor.   Along the way, stirring up all of these memories and emotions was causing him to begin having episodes of eruptive anger and very erratic behavior.  

            By the fall of 1997, my Mom and I were living a nightmare.  My Dad’s “anger episodes” were becoming more and more common.   They were also turning violent.   I remember spending nights behind locked bedroom doors waiting for him to fall asleep, go to work, and calm down.   You never knew what was going to set him off.   After each episode, he was very remorseful and sorry, even a little shocked that it happened.  Still, it didn’t keep it from happening again.  

On New Year’s Day of 1998, he had to stay at a relative’s house because his anger was completely out of control, and he got into a fight with my brother who reacted in anger because he could no longer stand the way my Mom was being treated.   The next day, we began searching for a Christian treatment center to help him deal with his issues.   However, because he wasn’t struggling with drugs or alcohol, he could only get help on an out-patient basis.

The nightmare continued when Dad’s new counselor began getting to the heart of my Dad’s repressed memories and secrets.  It wasn’t long before Dad declared that this counselor was crazy and incompetent and he was going to find yet a different counselor.  However, some of the biggest demonic influences controlling my Dad were lying, deceit and secrets.   The new counselor couldn’t see this.   He believed my Dad’s lies, and essentially told him it was time to “drop the hammer” on his family.   I still remember the day that Dad came home from a counseling session and told my Mom and I that this was the way things were going to be and if we didn’t like it we could move out of HIS house.  

We did leave, for a scheduled Dr’s appointment, and to get away for awhile.   We didn’t even know if we were welcome to go back home, but having nowhere else to go, we returned.  When we got home, we found my Dad sitting on the floor in my brother’s room staring at the wall like a zombie.   It was impossible to get him to react in any form.   It was absolutely terrifying.  

I don’t remember how that evening ever resolved itself.   The next thing I remember is that my Mom and I were asked to come into the counselor’s office, where every problem in our family was blamed on us.   I was absolutely horrifying being told that the erratic behavior, the violence we’d been experiencing, and the uncontrollable anger were our fault.   We left that office completely devastated and wondering if God, like the counselor, was against us, blamed us, and had abandoned us. 

That night when my Dad came home from work, he was brokenhearted at what the counselor had done to us.   He knew as well as we did that the problems were not our fault, he just had no idea what to do to solve them.   He made us dinner and decided that he was done with yet another counselor.  That night, he was the man I knew growing up, not the out-of-control, demonically controlled man he’d become. 

The next day, he went to work and my Mom, totally disillusioned, decided to make one last ditch attempt at finding help.   She called Rev. Richard Herritt, a local pastor who had experience in spiritual warfare and deliverance ministry.    As we drove to his house that day we were discussing what we were going to do with our lives.   Was it time to leave my Dad and get an apartment?   Was there any hope or was it time to give up?   What would happen to him if we abandoned him?

When we arrived at Rev Herritt’s, he took us through a spiritual deliverance session.   Immediately, we could feel the demonic oppression breaking in our lives.   We left there feeling like God did have a purpose for our lives and that He could bring us through this time.   When we got home, my Dad saw such a great change in us that he went through a spiritual deliverance session the next day.