so, i've been meaning to write about this for few weeks now. in the beginning of june we had the drama team from calvary chapel kharkov come out for a 2-day outreach. they performed a number of times in different places around the city and we were able to share the gospel with many. well, their last performance was on sunday evening after our church service was over. as i was setting up and getting ready to open with a few songs, along comes vitya (ironically also the name of kharkov's team leader). i'd never seen vitya before. he looked like your run-of-the-mill alcoholic/bum gathering empty beer bottles to trade in for change. but he wasn't gathering bottles that day. he comes up to the stage area in front of the benches (where the drama team is in the photo above) and starts frantically waving his arms at me, motioning like he wants us to leaves. then he does the same thing to the 100+ crowd (who all think its hysterical and are laughing at him). i would say he was "yelling" too, only it was like yelling with your mouth shut. he was loudly mumbling at us. well, i asked tom and grisha (from our church) to take him aside. they tried to lead him off, but vitya wasn't having it. grisha knew of him and said that he was "bol'noy", essentially crazy. i came up to him and prayed for him, but he didn't seem to react much (though he was calm while i prayed). i decided to just start playing the songs as the opening of our outreach. the whole time i was playing (3 worship songs), vitya was continuing to wave us frantically away. at one point he stood for a while just a couple feet right in front of me and was waving. as i sang, i was praying that the Lord would do something. i became convinced that this man was demon possessed. after i was done playing i handed my guitar off to someone on the team and walked up to vitya. this time, the Lord just gave me the boldness to speak to the demon inside this man. as i walked up to him, he just stood there, but as soon as i said to the demon in him that Jesus Christ died for this man and come out of him, vitya's eyes turned from glazed to pure panic. he turned around and started running away as fast as his haggard body could carry him. for a while i followed him, wanting to "finish the job". vitya (or maybe i should said the demon in him) kept running and looking over his shoulder at me like a beast being hunted. after some distance, and coming to a more populated street, i decided to return to the outreach. i was deeply impressed with the seriousness of the spiritual warfare we are in and also with the total power of Christ over all the power of the enemy. i ended up sharing the gospel that evening with the crowd, pointing out what happened with vitya as a clear example of the power of Christ (most the audience witnessed what happened in the beginning). the Lord used the situation to His glory. what was even more amazing was that at church that morning we were in Acts and reading about Paul's ministry in Ephesus and how God even used the incident with Sceva's sons to glorify Jesus. we talked about how even the demons can't escape ultimately glorifying God (no one can, its just a question of how we will glorify Him, as trophies of His grace or evidence of His justice). so all that to say, Jesus is truly over all powers and authorities, that we are in a very real spiritual battle whether we see it everyday or not, that the Word of God is truly prophetic in our lives and also please pray for vitya to be totally freed from the grip of satan. thanks.
