I was in an offsite building with many former pastors that I knew. They were sharing the difficulties of their lives, whining and complaining. It all had to do with loving their children and others; specifically, they were tired of it and irritated.
I left the room and was aware of a property I owned. A large apartment complex. I was not a “landlord”, but a “landowner”.
One property had police and media around it. I discovered the tenant was a crazed woman-an ex-wife of a friend I knew in the city government; the man was now currently married to a principal of a school. They had two daughters whom they let visit this crazed woman. Unbeknownst to them, though they recognized something was amiss, the crazed woman had let a serial killer kidnap the oldest of the girls. The youngest, the woman forced to exhume a dead body of a brother whom the serial killer had killed, and sleep with it and her. Necrophilia.
The woman was arrested; but the serial killer/kidnapper was still at large.
I began taking precautions to better secure and present my apartments in a more respectable manner. The rooms were repainted; the walls insulated; and a police officer added to walk the property at night.
I recognized the apartments as the same Carlia and I once lived in at the beginning of our marriage. I surveyed the property and noted how the previous landowners had put automated gates to the hallways that they believed would better secure the facility. It however had the opposite effect. Instead of securing and protecting, the convenience of the landowner brought a slow, unresponsive detection and opened and closed its doors slowly; anyone running in a hurry would either be blocked out or trapped in.
At that moment, a man with grizzled hair, gnarled knuckles, and barely any teeth blocked my way at the door.
Knowing the man to be the killer and desiring to hurt me, I fired my pistol at him ten times. But the gun did little to nothing.
He put me in his truck and I was overcome with peace—I knew he was not capturing me, but that I was capturing him and he was leading me to the kidnapped girl.
On the way, we spoke and sang. He told me much of his life and tried to keep me deceived that he was not going to harm me. I assumed this he did with most of his victims. It was little matter to me, because I wanted to know this man, and more so wanted to find how I could pray for him.
He drove off the side of the road and crashed through a rock and two or three fire barrels. We stopped at an old shack in the woods, and upon exiting the vehicle he revealed that he grew up Amish. I gripped his hands tightly and told him I would pray for him. Believing to still be in control, the demon inside of him acted the part and smiled, threw his head back, and acted as a charlatan would. I dropped to my knees, held his gnarled knuckles firm in my grasp and prayed. He tried to pull from me, and even at one point attempted to interrupt with his own prayer: “I declare—”; but I cut him short and prayed over him.
I declared my authority, cursed the demonic hold over him, cast out the demon, and prayed for his soul and the life of the girl nearby. I demanded he take me to her in the name of Jesus.
I woke.
Many things can be interpreted in this; and I will not dive as deeply as some may hope. But I will note three things specifically and you can dive into anything more yourself.
One: the parents of these girls I know personally and their occupations are aide to the city manager and school principal. I believe our school and government have married a demonic ideal and handed their children over to it; but most of them are unaware of it, though they know something is wrong. Pray for our city government and school administration’s eyes to be opened, wisdom to come, and for them to take back their children from the demonic tendrils of the Enemy; they know not what they are doing. They are not the enemy; they are just deceived.
Two: churches have, and are, trying to automate out of convenience instead of standing at the gates and rescuing God’s children. Pray for convenience to die in churches and for our pastors to never say, “it’s easier this way.” While pastors have focused on building conglomerates, they have lost sight of the child of God and find him/her a nuisance and burden. Convenience must die in the church.
Three: authority is ours! We aren’t “captured”. The devil didn’t drag us down to hell, drive off the road, and lock us away. He locked himself in with us! Use the name of Jesus, get freakin’ angry at the devil, recognize the true enemy, and fight for the world on your knees! The demon possessed, government, schools, and world are not your enemy. They are deceived and given to something broken. Fight for them! Pray heartily. Be ready to open the doors to salvation for your tenants. You aren’t landlord, you are landowner. Now quit yourself like a man or woman of God and take your authority as owner of this land, and disciple of Jesus Christ.
Keith G. Alderman 