[Aquila]

Originally Posted by votivesoul

Several years ago a family came into church. One of the children, a daughter about 11 years old, came up to the altar to pray. The youth pastor and another person began praying with her. She began to cry and lament, and tremble. Then she fell to the floor as if unconscious. The people who had prayed with her claimed she had received the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. Someone else nearby was all ecstatic, saying something about "Slain in the Spirit!"

This young girl was then immersed, and upon coming out of the water, manifested an evil spirit, convulsing and shuddering and moaning. The pastor went over to her, put his hand on her head and said "Get out of there", and the demon left and she received the Holy Spirit, for real.

Here, this girl was demon possessed and some misinformed, undiscerning people thought she had received the Holy Spirit and was speaking in tongues. But it wasn't the case, no matter what they had originally claimed.

Amen. Those individuals didn't discern what was really happening. It took a someone with spiritual discernment, and who believed in casting out devils, to help her be set free from possession.

A few years later, she went to go out of town to visit some church friends and while there, she attended a service at the local UPCI assembly. Somehow, some people there convinced her she had an evil spirit that still needed to be cast out.

It sounds like a spiritual attack. It may have been the original spirit cast out of her, or it might have been an entirely different spirit. Either way, all it had to do was whisper into the minds of unguarded saints that this girl had an evil spirit that still needed to be cast out. If they believe those lies and think those are their own thoughts, and they tell her that, it can shake her faith...unless she is rock solid and able to discern the devil's lies as a spiritual attack.

When she came back, she was all confused and hurt, and didn't understand how she could still have an evil spirit when she was already delivered at her baptism and had received the Holy Spirit.

She came back oppressed.

I personally reassured her that she did not have an evil spirit, and the people who had told her she did were wrong.

But the issue threw her so badly, it took nearly three years to help her get back on track, to again be able to walk with the Lord in righteousness, just as she had done before these super-spiritual dingbats deceived her into thinking things about herself that were not true.

They didn't know her personally (sound familiar???). They hadn't been observing her walk with God over the course of time (sound familiar???). They just jumped on her and scared her and nearly completely derailed her with their pseudo-spiritual garbage.

I see what you're saying. But off the top of my head I see three possible issues in her situation.

1.) Maybe they got it right, but used the wrong terms or she misunderstood them thinking that they meant that she was still "possessed" when in fact what they meant was that a spirit was seeking to "oppress" her. Binding and casting out any spirit that would seek to oppress her would be in her best interests in such a situation.

2.) Those saints in the second church could have been unguarded and actually used by an evil spirit to tell her lies designed to derail her. And once those lies were believed, the spirit "oppressed" her for nearly three years until she could overcome the lies. Had someone explained to her that she couldn't possibly be possessed and that these were lies from an oppressive spirit, she could have been delivered instantly by rebuking the lies and casting the lying spirit out of her life.

3.) Or maybe they were just "dingbats" who wrecked her Holy Ghost filled faith with "pseudo-spiritual garbage" and she needed three years to overcome their stupidity.

I tend to lean towards number 2. You'd be surprised how many saints are oppressed by various spirits. Today Christians are taking so many medications for depression, anxiety, etc., it's a shame. Now, while some might truly need the medication, certainly not all of them do. I believe the vast majority of them are oppressed by spirits of fear, depression, and anxiety.

This is the kind of thing I am trying to address in this thread. We need to rise above this kind of thing, and learn how to judge righteous judgment.

Brother, I think you failed to recognize the devil's devices. She was oppressed her for nearly three long years because she believed demonically inspired lies.