I wanted to share with you a testimony about Martin who is a wonderful brother in Christ who was recently delivered from an OCD demon and rescued from New Age doctrine. This is also a story about the importance of having a correct image of God, knowing true & accurate doctrine, and operating in faith & authority combined with determination & persistence.
Martin has been a Christian for quite some time, and he was previously exposed to truth about the full salvation of Jesus Christ and the goodness of Father God by way of our YouTube teaching ministry. About a year ago, however, Martin moved from Croatia to Ireland, and this is when the trouble began. Somehow the Devil used his skills in deception to lure Martin into New Age teaching. Jesus and the Holy Spirit warned us repeatedly that Satan and his ministers seek to bewitch & deceive us to lead us out of truth and into following him. The Devil uses various techniques, such as presenting himself as Christ or God Himself, impersonating an angel of light or minister of righteousness, and even at times he performs signs & wonders to lead people astray.
Galatians 3:1 NKJV O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?
2 Corinthians 11:14-15 NKJV And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. (15) Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.
Matthew 24:23-24 NKJV “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. (24) For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.”
After a while under New Age teaching, problems started to arise for Martin. He felt as though his personality had departed from him as he no longer felt like who he used to be. He would wake up in the mornings and feel like his mind was being ripped apart. He was overtaken with obsessive & compulsive thoughts & actions (OCD). Truly when someone partakes in New Age, they are literally involved in a doctrine of demons, and this often leads to demon oppression and/or possession. There are different kinds of demons, some cause sickness, some cause trials & tribulations, and others cause mental torment. Consider the man called Legion who was demon possessed and had great mental torment, including suicidal tendencies (cutting himself with stones) and mental anguish (crying out night & day).
Mark 5:5 NKJV And always, night and day, he (Legion) was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones.
Similarly, Martin was suffering great mental anguish as he was experiencing the worst days of his life, resulting in him becoming desperate for a solution. His first reaction was to dive deeper into New Age in an effort to “cleanse himself” through various (demonic) spiritual techniques. His problems only grew worse until he finally came to realize that all along he had been deceived, and the Devil had blinded his mind so that he couldn’t see the truth of his problems nor the demonic nature of the New Age doctrine that he was involved in.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 NKJV But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, (4) whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
Upon his revelation of this demonic deception, Martin knew that he needed to turn back to Jesus in order to be delivered. He started pursuing teaching from various ministers on YouTube, yet Satan again drew him in a wrong direction as he was led into a fearful image of God rather than a loving fatherly image of God. Neither his own prayers, nor the prayers of these ministers, were able to set him free. When we have a wrong image of God, our faith is weak and our prayers are ineffective, and such was the case for Martin. Rather than giving up, he was absolutely determined to be healed, which led him into different worldly solutions to OCD, such as ERP (exposure & response prevention), yet again he could not find relief with this approach nor a variety of other worldly solutions that he pursued.
After some time, God led Martin back to our ministry where he again heard about the true image of God and the message of “full salvation” by Jesus Christ. He came to realize that Jesus took stripes on His back and paid for his healing. He reflected on Jesus healing people who were afflicted with tormenting spirits. He became resolute in his thinking – absolutely determined – that Jesus was the answer to his problem and nothing was going to stop him from being healed.
Isaiah 53:4-5 HCSB Yet He Himself bore our sicknesses, and He carried our pains; but we in turn regarded Him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. (5) But He was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on Him, and we are healed by His wounds (stripes).
Luke 6:17-18 NKJV And He (Jesus) came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and be healed of their diseases, (18) as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits. And they were healed.
As Martin began ministering to himself, he was experiencing some improvement, but still had a long way to go. He continued to take more teaching and reawakened to the concept of authority and the commission that Jesus gave us to cast out demons. He realized that he needed to resist the devil with authority to make him will flee. His faith was increasing, and he was continuing to improve mentally, but he needed some help to push him further along. Jesus promised us that when two people pray in agreement it “will be done” by our Father in Heaven. He didn’t say “maybe it will be done,” rather, Jesus said “it will be done.” With this promise of God in mind, Martin submitted a prayer request to our ministry. After our prayer of agreement, he experienced tremendous incremental healing to where he was nearly completely healed & restored. Thank You, Jesus, for healing Martin by delivering him from this OCD demon and from New Age doctrine!
Luke 10:19 NKJV Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
James 4:7 NKJV Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Mark 16:17-18 NKJV And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; (18) they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.
Matthew 18:19 NKJV Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.
Something else that stood out about Martin’s deliverance was his absolute determination to be healed. Many times over the past year he tried to get free, but to no avail. He chose to fight and never give up, and I quote: “I’m going to get healed no matter what! This cannot be happening!” and “God is going to heal me no matter what!” He absolutely flipped the switch of faith and made the decision that he would be healed by way of faith in Jesus – period! This determination and persistence in prayer ultimately got him delivered. At earlier stages in the healing process, he felt that things had become manageable, but “manageable” wasn’t good enough for him, after all, who in the bible did Jesus heal only halfway? No one! Neither would Martin allow himself to be healed only halfway, on the contrary, his faith was set for complete healing! Amen! What did Jesus do with the blind man whose vision was only partially restored – did He quit and accept a 50% healing? No! Jesus ministered a second time and the blind man’s vision was completely restored. In the same way, Martin remained insistent & persistent until he fully received what Jesus paid for which is complete physical & mental healing. Amen!
Mark 8:22-25 NKJV Then He came to Bethsaida; and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him. (23) So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything. (24) And he looked up and said, “I see men like trees, walking.” (25) Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly.
Whenever we encounter a problem in life, let us draw faith, strength, and wisdom from Martin’s experience. Let us turn to Jesus and correct doctrine about full salvation and the true & good nature of God. Let us lay hold of our God-given authority to resist the devil and make him flee. Let us be determined to be healed, helped, or delivered by God and not by worldly methods. Let us stay in the fight with persistence & insistence as long as necessary. And let us reach out for help, if needed, to leverage the strength of the prayer of agreement. Amen!
Jesus, again we thank you for setting Martin free! And we thank you for bolstering our faith & trust in You through his experience.
God bless you all!
Bobby & Martin
PS: I received this additional update & feedback from Martin that I wanted to share:
I’m feeling good so far, Satan tries to come back at me sometimes but I don’t give up in faith because I know that’s his plan so… What I think is an important thing is not to be afraid of whatever Satan throws at you because that fear is paralyzing and keeps you in the same place. Speaking in an authoritative voice is a game changer! But what I believe is really important is knowing in your heart who and what you’re issuing the command to. I think a lot of people just kind of “say words” but there isn’t any substance behind them. We must believe that Jesus is the one and only truth and there truly is no other way through these situations but with him.