It was a lovely sunny afternoon, towards the end of winter, when Amy came to her door. Looking to be in her mid to late eighties, she stood in amazement as I explained to her why I was calling and she listened intently as I shared with her a little of my experience of the reality and power of the Lord Jesus Christ. I explained how Christ came into my life just five years earlier, as a result of two immediate physical healings and that He was now transforming me spiritually, mentally, morally and physically.
Amy then told me that she used to be a Roman Catholic many years ago, but she left the church at thirteen years of age, “because of the sexual questions the priest asked me in the confessional.” She said that at the time, towards the end of the First World War, sex was not spoken about and as a result, those suggestions put to her from that priest were the first she had ever heard. Amy told me that she got up and marched home to tell her father that she was never going back, “to that priest or that place ever again!” There was an argument with her father, but she did not yield.
This foul, cowardly and cruel incident did not turn her away from seeking God, however. She told me that she prayed and spoke to Him every day. With that, Amy thanked me, saying that she enjoyed our conversation and looked forward to my next visit, which took place eleven weeks later. On that visit, she told me she took my counsel and used Jesus’ name for help and prayer, telling me also, that she had given a lot of thought to what I shared with her about Christ the last time. She said, “I never could bring myself to pray to Mary and the saints and now I think I know why.”
Although Amy had not used these as her intermediaries to God, neither had she fully understood that Jesus Christ was the only way to God, nor the fact that He has told us to pray to God the Father in His name. The Bible had never been looked upon with any importance in her parents home, or in her own and as such, Amy had spent many long years praying to a god of her imagination. The fact that God had answered prayer for her down through the years was due to His mercy more-so than her knowledge of Him.
Quite a period of time went by before I saw her again and it was due to God putting her name on my heart consistently for two or three days that I did visit. I’m glad I responded. Amy invited me inside for coffee and she shared a little more about her days as a child growing up in a religious home and the fights she used to have with her father about rejecting the church, but I knew this was not the real reason for my visit. About an hour later the real reason exposed itself when she told me that, “lately I’ve been feeling very suicidal.”
Not only had I spent the past five years studying God’s nature and character from the Bible, but I had also spent much time studying the nature and character of Satan the devil – the great enemy of God and mankind, whether one believes that or not. Jesus called him the father of lies John 8:44. He’ll kill anybody, but in my experience his specialty seems to be young people and old people. He’s very successful with these two groups as he lies to them, painting pictures of despair and hopelessness here, but peace and bliss on the other side.
Like most people, including many practicing Christians, Amy told me that she thought the devil’s existence was a figment of a fertile imagination. Like those same people, she was completely ignorant of the fact that Jesus came to earth to destroy (dissolve, put off) the works of the devil. When I explained this, telling her also that it was him who wanted to kill her, plus the fact that he is now a defeated enemy of Jesus Christ, she said, “after all these years, now I’m beginning to see what the gospel is all about. Why did I have to wait this long?”
She wanted to pray for the Lord to reveal Himself. As we prayed, Amy began to cry and when finished, she looked at me saying, “I feel very peaceful and clean inside.” Once again the mercy of God was at hand. Then she had countless questions as to why the vast differences between man’s institutional religion and biblical Christianity.
I simply explained by saying that in both Testaments of the Bible, we see organized religion as the number one enemy of God and the gospel, and that this had not changed all through history. To involve one’s self with institutional religion costs you nothing – but it’s powerless for daily, abundant living. Surrendering your life to Christ costs you everything – but it’s powerful for daily, abundant living.
Amy loved my visits. Over the eight years I knew her, many would last three to four hours. The Holy Spirit gave her a hunger to know the Word of God, so I gave her a Bible, which she would read and then make notes to ask further questions on future visits. She even walked around to my house a couple of times to visit, but unfortunately I was not home on those occasions, nor was I when she phoned. Amy did not do this out of loneliness. She had her son and grandson living with her and their relationships were strong.
I had known Amy about two years, when one day in January she said to me, “the other day a man visited me. I think he was angel, because he didn’t show his legs. He had the most beautiful, peaceful look on his face and he told me that on the afternoon of Wednesday, March 22, at four o’clock, I was going to die.” The Bible tells us to test the spirits to see if they are from God or not, so I asked Amy if he mentioned the name of Jesus Christ. She said he did not.
Just to confirm, I asked her again if there was, “any hint of Jesus’ name coming up in his conversation” and she said there was not. So I asked her how she felt about his statement. Given that, “the man looked so peaceful,” Amy said that death may not be so bad, but nevertheless, she was afraid. I told her to put her fears away and that she would not die, because that spirit/man was not from God, “because if it was, the Lord Jesus’ name would have been mentioned.” I then asked her to recall our previous conversations regarding the works of the devil.
Amy was astounded at these revelations. I told her that in the meantime I would regularly visit and pray with her and that I would come on that March day a couple of hours earlier and, “you will experience the power of God like never before.” Amy experienced moments of satanic attack during this waiting time and so did I. God kept reminding me of, “the father of lies” and on the day of the 22nd, during early morning prayer He told me, “Amy will be ok today and so will you.”
I got to her house at one-thirty and mentioned what God had revealed and, although she was feeling very nervous, she said she was going to trust the Lord. It was not long however, when I noticed Amy’s eyes become very heavy and her speech began to slur, lasting off and on for nearly an hour. This confirmed nothing for me except the truth about our adversary, the devil – he is a liar and a deceiver. Getting on towards three o’clock we went for a walk in the park across the road from her home.
Many months earlier, Amy told me of an extremely sad experience that happened to her on the day of her father’s death. So I asked her to tell me of those events again. As a young married lady, she was pregnant with twins at the time. Her father, fearing his death, “was hanging on tight, not wanting to go.” She said when she kissed him at death, “I felt something absolutely awful inside and then I began to bleed.” One baby was born dead. The other one lived, but was a sickly little child and he died at three or four years of age.
I told Amy that it was an evil spirit of death that leaped from her father into her, the moment she kissed his dead body and that, “this spirit killed your babies, and today, it fully intended to kill you.” She jumped with surprise at this conclusion and gave me a full confirmation of that by explaining other events that had happened to her over her very long life. Then we sat down on a bench and I explained to Amy in detail the workings of evil spirits and the biblical facts of them needing a body to live in to express themselves.
Then I asked her if she wanted to see Jesus, “destroy the works of the devil in you?” Amy did not hesitate. I prayed with her and then asked her to take a big deep breath and then breathe out just as forcefully. At my command, in the Lord’s name, that demon was cast out. God was most gracious. Amy felt it go out saying, “beautiful things (angels) are surrounding the evil, pushing it away from me into the ground.” Evil spirits don’t live in the ground, but God showed Amy through this demonstration that it had no more control over her.
I asked Amy to confess life into her being and thanksgiving to God for His great mercy. We went back to her house, with Amy saying, “I’m free. It’s wonderful.” She remained free and would often talk with me about her experience of how Jesus, “destroyed the devil’s works.” Amy lived another five years, well into her nineties. The night she was taken to hospital, the doctors were astounded. They asked her son the whereabouts of her medicines. He told them, “she’s never had any need of them for years.”
In hospital only a very short time, Amy was known as that, “dear sweet lady.” When she did pass away to be with her Lord, I had the honour of being asked by her son to conduct her funeral. What a pleasure it was to prepare for it and to join with her family and friends for a true celebration of life. Without giving any details, I was able to share with them that I regularly witnessed the miraculous in her life, even during her worst moments with worry and confusion.
Her family shared that Amy loved the arts and theater and her gardening. She was proud of her son and two grandchildren who embraced her influences and enjoyed similar cultural pursuits. Amy also loved to be treated with a glass of sherry every night before dinner. It was an honour to have known her. God also used her to confirm His anointing upon me in a new ministry I had recently undertaken in radio broadcasting. “And He said to her, “Daughter, be of good cheer (comfort), your faith has made you well (whole). Go in peace.” Luke 8:48.