People, including pastors, have rebuked me for saying that
homosexuality is something that sometimes, maybe most times, the person is born
with.
I have reasons to believe that. Hear me out.
I was 5 months into my walk with the Lord. We were planning
to go to Boston to what would be the first Christian conference I’d ever
attended. Just prior to that, I had read Don Basham's book "Deliver Us From
Evil," in which he put forth the teaching that sometimes an affliction is
caused by demonic spirits - both as presented in the Bible, and as experienced
by many people even in this generation. I was skeptical, to say the least.
But after reading that book the idea stayed with me so I
prayed. I asked the Lord to show me if this could possibly be true.
It was a wonderful conference, one I'd never forget for the
rest of my life. The worship was outstanding. The seminar teachings were
tremendous, and I would always look back at that conference as being an event
that laid the foundation for my life in Christ.
At the end of one of the morning sessions, I stayed behind
because I wanted to ask questions about the "Baptism in the Holy
Spirit," which had been taught on in that session. So the people I was
with left, and I stayed behind and approached one of the ministers, asking him
to further clarify this subject of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit to me, and he
was willing to further instruct me on it.
After several minutes, I heard a sound, an unearthly sound
such as I had never, EVER heard before. The hairs on my arms stood up. I
thought an animal had come into the hall and shocked, I turned around to look. But it wasn't an animal.
The minister speaking with me tried to bring my attention
back and told me not to watch that, but how could I help it? There in the back
of the hall were two ministers, one on each side of a young man of about 20
years old. The young man's hair and clothing were saturated and matted with
sweat and he looked like a piece of limp spaghetti. The ministers on each side
of him were commanding an evil spirit to leave him, and each time they made the
command, the spirit within the young man screeched out in a voice that sounded
like an animal and said "this is my home, I've been here since before he
was born, and I am NOT going to leave." And then it would convulse the
boy. But the ministers continued to command the spirit to leave
saying, "you may have been here since before he was born, but he has
stated with his own mouth that he is no longer in agreement with you, and wants
you OUT. So you most certainly ARE going to leave, because we are commanding
you in the Name of Jesus to leave him. It was a spirit of homosexuality.
This went on, back and forth, for several minutes. It was a
most awful thing. I lost all interest in the minister whom I had asked
questions of, and just watched this spectacle taking place right before my
eyes. Finally, the Name of Jesus prevailed, and after convulsing the young man,
the spirit left him. The young man was so overcome that I wouldn't have been
surprised if he was dead. But he wasn't, and finally they got him up and seated
him in the chair. The ordeal was over with.
The next morning, I saw that same young man in the hall, and
his entire countenance had changed. It was almost as though he shined, and I
knew I had witnessed the power of God.
After musing on that for awhile, I suddenly remembered the
questions I had asked of the Lord, "Are these things real? Are there
actual demon spirits in the world today? Can they take over a part of a
person's personality?" I never expected such a demonstration as an answer,
but now I knew for sure! And as the years went by, I would see more and more of
this and I learned beyond the shadow of any doubt that this is real, it happens
today, and furthermore, it is NOT uncommon, and it causes untold misery to the
person afflicted.
In the following years I learned that you can’t change a
person with a demonic spirit, you can’t reason with it, you can’t subdue it,
you can’t improve the situation. I chafe when I hear people say to an afflicted
person that they need to just get over it, or try harder. There is only ONE
remedy for the afflicted person and that is to cast the spirit out. Nothing else will
work, no matter what effort the afflicted person makes to overcome it. It is
impossible, because that spririt has control over that part of the person’s
personality and you can’t improve a demonic spirit.
There are many, MANY other conditions caused by demonic
spirits and the afflicted person will try every which way to cope with it.
They’ll go to counselors, they’ll make every effort to overcome it, all to no
avail.
But there IS an answer, and that is the ministry of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to
destroy.
I have come that they may have life, and that they may have
it more abundantly."
Jesus, in John 10:10
"…He has anointed me
to preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed;"
Jesus, in Luke 4:18