The Gifts of the Holy Spirit: - Vital Christianity

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It would be verbally impossible to describe what began to change in my life. Suffice it to say,
nearly every aspect of my life and faith took an 180 degree turn. I had been possessed by
something that was alien to God’s will for my life. I was now emptied of it. A new beginning was
given me. That was three years ago and I praise God now, hundreds of times every day and night.
My life is turned around now. Virtually everything is approached from a different attitude--prayer,
Scripture, devotions, hard work and long hours, loving and appreciating (without using) others,
serving the church for what I may be privileged to offer rather than for political and status
aspirations—and I am actually dreading the day when retirement is forced upon me. I am not
where I want to be, but it is great fun to be in process. 61
Michael Easton, a 54-year-old businessman, found that his conversion in 1979 did not stop him
from multi-partner homosexuality, alcoholism, and a drug habit. In the days when he was “drinking
to get drunk” in 1987, Easton attended a deliverance meeting in Montana led by a visiting pastor
Win Worley, a controversial exorcist, author of Battling the Hosts of Hell: Diary of an Exorcist
(1976), and then-leader of Hegewisch Baptist Church in Indiana. During the 30 minutes Worley
prayed for Easton, evil spirits oozed out of him through “deep heavy coughing, lots of tears, things
coming out of my nose, a substance that came out of my stomach--it’s just as if a faucet was
turned on,” Easton recalls. Since that day 14 years ago, Easton hasn’t engaged in any homosexual
acts, he has stopped smoking pot, and the self-described “fallen-down-drunk” hasn’t touched
alcohol. 62
Worley also exorcised Thierer’s demons. Thierer was a narcotics addict and dealer in 1979 when
he spent 8 to 10 months “on the floor,” he recalled in an interview with Christianity Today. Once
Thierer got rid of his rock music collection, which he believes was blocking his deliverance,
Worley wrestled “all kinds of drug spirits” out of the man who would eventually marry his
daughter and take over Hegewisch Baptist’s leadership after Worley’s death in 1994. Since his
deliverance in 1979, Thierer’s drug addiction has been gone. 63
Arnold also tells a story of a successful demon expulsion. A college student had episodes in which
her pulse would sometimes shoot up to 150 or more beats perminute; she would black out and
often end up in the emergency room. Cardiologists were stumped by her condition. Wearing a
monitor to track her heart rate, the young woman stopped by Arnold’s office one day to tell him
that the heart condition originated when a demon startled her out of sleep. Knowing that she was
under the care of a cardiologist, Arnold decided to investigate if there was a spiritual root to her
condition. He made sure that she knew Jesus as her Savior, and talked with her about the
possibility of unconfessed sins and her background. 64