Valuable lesson learned...

Many years ago, when our middle child was young, around the third grade, we were living in a small town just outside of Lake Jackson, TX.   At that time, my youngest brother was serving in the military and living in beautiful Hawaii.  When he came back to visit us he'd brought her a birthday gift, which happened to be a Smurf doll, the blue, white, black stuffed toys.  She was some excited and would later place it right there on the top of her bed against her pillows. 

Oh dear. 

I wouldn't even allow our kids to watch the Smurf cartoons on TV because they were actuially witches and warlocks and performed all sorts of sorcery.  They also weren't permitted to play certain video games when they came out if they involved demons and magic spells and powers (I had quite a few disagreements with others regarding my point of view on these issues, I can tell you).  I knew all of this would "open doors" to a demonic realm that I didn't want in our home.  Unfortunatley, not all of my relatives and in-laws felt the same way, so there were times that would slip in, you know, letting them watch certain cute little Disney shows and cartoons, or anything else I felt not good for our kids, while mean ole mom wasn't around. 

So ~ because I loved my brother and didn't want to offend him by not accepting the Smurf doll, add to that upsetting my daughter, I let him give her the stuffed toy.  Oh yes, the kids often got upset with me for not letting them watch what every other friend and kid in the neighborhood and world were allowed to watch, but they obeyed me at home . I would always explain to them why it wasn't good for them.  (Halloween is another story in itself, and I haven't had my way on this on many occasions, but our oldest daughter still doesn't believe in doing Halloween with her family.)

Mind you, we were regular church goers; I was deeply involved in Women's Aglow, the Women's Ministry at our spirit-filled church, and weekly bible studies...I went against what I knew best, just didn't want to hurt my brother's well meaning intentions:  I knew better, I KNEW better!

So here we go, this is what happened...

For the next week, our young daughter would wake up during the night crying for no apparent reason, almost like she was being tormented, you know, unappeased.  I already knew how to check our girls for pinworms, so maybe that's what it was.  I'd check her, nope no worms...Next night, all over again, like clock work.  I began to wonder if it had something to do with a spiritual matter, i.e., the new toy, and I truly felt the Lord was dealing with me to handle it...Well, I didn't handle it like I should, like if it's a spiritual matter, pray about it and get rid of the doll.  I'd learned about spiritual warfare, binding & rebuking the devil in areas he didn't belong, but I was still basically new at it.  Either I was in denial or leary, or chicken, or whatever, but I tried to ignore it, like maybe it'd resolve itself. REALLY??! 

After about a week of this waking up and crying during the night, which included breaking up OUR sleep (and not dealing with the obvious), while the kids and hubby were away at school and work, I decided to lie down on my bed and take a nap.  We had a four bedroom house so each of our kids had their own room.  As I'm lieing there, I could see her room by turning my head to the left and look down at the end of the short hallway.  The head of our bed was against the wall close to our door, with a side table on either side of the bed.  The foot of her bed faced towards her doorway. Got it? 

During this nap, I was "asleep" but it was like I wasn't.  Everything looked exactly as though I was awake.  Something caught my attention so I looked towards her room and this Star Wars looking little imp, roundish-like dark brown/black with two big eyes and long skinny arms that touched the floor.  It comes meandering, sort of walloping slowly down the hallway, looking directly at my eyes the whole time.  When it entered our bedroom, it hopped onto the edge of my bed where I'm lieing, at my knees, and stares at me, like trying to put fear into me.  I could sense it, this aim to put fear into me, with an impish type of "grin"...

I pointed at it, WITHOUT ANY FEAR, and said, "GET OUT OF MY HOUSE, IN THE NAME OF JESUS!!" It gave me a pause, like it didn't think I meant it, so I repeated it, swinging my arm & pointing to the hallway at the same time, "GET OUT OF HERE, IN THE NAME OF JESUS!"  It hopped down off my bed next to the bedside table, no longer grinning & hesitated, then slowly wobbled down the hallway stopping to turn around as if thinking, "eh, is she really serious", so again I exclaim those same words.  It went around the corner of the hallway never to be seen again.  I got up, and went straight to her room took that doll, brought it out to the side of our house throwing it into an aluminum garbage can and burned it, rebuking and binding any evil spirits over it and asked the Lord to forgive me for allowing this to even happen to our family.

That very night, she slept ALL NIGHT and has ever since, that I know of.  Now, tell me the Lord doesn't hear us!  It was like the Lord was saying, "Well, if she's not going to deal with it while she's awake, she will deal with it in her sleep, but she WILL deal with it."  *smile* 

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do
shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go
unto my Father. John 14:12

Thou answeredst them, O Lord our God: thou wast a God that forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions.  Psalm 99:8