Tearing down Strongholds

 I met a guy I knew at the restaurant today. His name is also Ed.

We both attended the same church for a while a few years back.

We had joined forces there to cast out a demon, but we had never shared notes about it before.

My account is:
I had met a man and his wife at the church, we talked, and I suggested we should get together socially.

He agreed.
The next Tuesday I felt an urging all day to meet him and his wife that night for dinner.

I ignored this spiritual prod about four times, putting off to call him each time.
But on the drive home, it came again, so I called him.
He said something to the effect of it would be a bad time because of (bad cell connection) ... demonic oppression.

That got my attention. I told him we would bring pizza and he gave me his address.

Scherie and I arrived and he invited us in. The house was dark but there was a light over the kitchen table where his wife sat. She glared at us in a very dark, unfriendly way, when she did look up. 
Not the woman we had met Sunday.

My wife opened the pizza and set places while he walked me around the house explaining the situation.
Weird stuff had been happening since she had brought a Buddha into the house as a decoration.
Visiting kids staying the night having seizures (with no previous history), among other things.

They had left their last church because of her and the obvious problem she was having.
They knew she was a Christian, but Christians couldn't be demonically possessed, right?
Their church was dividing over her. So they left.

We ate and as we were leaving, I asked him if he was coming to midweek service the next night.
He hesitated, and I told him he had to come and that I would see them there. I did not tell him that I knew Ed would deliver her from the oppression she felt.

The next night, they were seated in the front row and Ed was at the podium as we arrived and sat next to them.
Ed began speaking about the Blood of Christ when she stood up and cursed a few sailor words as she walked to the back of the church. Ed told me today that he hadn't heard that.
He also told me today that God had prepared him in prayer a week earlier for this moment.

I told Ed to join us in the back of the church (the foyer) and I asked the rest of the congregation (who were a little stunned) to pray. He did. They did.

She was seated in a chair in the foyer when I got to her and when Ed joined us, I asked him to lay hands on her and pray for her. I put my hand on his shoulder as did Scherie and joined in prayer.

Ed spoke very clearly to the force that oppressed her and told it to leave in the Name of Jesus.

A little more praying and she tilted her head back, smiled and said thank you.

She was totally delivered. The four of us went out for coffee and ice cream and sat at a sidewalk table, talking. She was bright and charming. 

He and I went in for more coffee and he told me what a change he was seeing in his wife.

Until today, I never knew that God had been preparing Ed for that evening.
He never knew that we had gone out for dessert afterwards and the change we saw.

We did not see them again. My belief is that they went back to the church they had left.
I never followed up as I was hesitant to do so.

It was good seeing Ed again.