Nieve Grandma Nearly Kidnapped - Trafficked

Biblical Discernment Wk1 Pt1 - Get a copy of Jane Hamon's book.

GRANDMA: Here we are, our first day of the Bible study on Discernment, the book by Jane Hamon. And I have with me a very special guest, old time friend and sister in the Lord. I consider her my mama, although she's not old enough to be my mama, but in the spirit, things are just different. And I glean from her, I honor her today.

Her name is Sandy Long and I want her to just kind of share a little bit with you about a story. We went to the country of India on missionary trips together with our spiritual mom, Bonnie Khan, who is now with Jesus in heaven today. Bonnie was training me. I was going to be coming back to India and bringing different teams

And so she was training me and she was going to send me out into a tribal area. And I thought that she was sending Sandy with me to help me and I was very grateful for that. But I just found out another side of the story and I want Sandy to share that with you. What really transpired in all of that.

SANDY: Well, first of all, Bonnie probably was in her mind going to send some one with you. But in the interim and praying about it, the Holy Spirit just dropped into my heart that I was to go with you. And that you could be in some perilous situation. And you know, the Lord always sent us out by twos.

Having been to India by that time, probably over 10 times, I had a little bit of experience with the out, the bush areas and the villages. So, and really, honestly, I will just be truthful. It wasn't something that I had just planned for that day. I didn't mind it, but you know when the Lord told me to go, I knew then that I was on assignment to go and that we would need each other and you would need me and I would need you.

GRANDMA: Wow. And I think that was my first time to actually experience what I had only heard about people slithering on the ground like a snake with demonic oppression or possession. And you had to deal with that during service that day. Do you remember that?

SANDY: Yes, I do. Very, very well. Well, and preface this to the area that we were going to was relatively new Christians. This had been a snake village. The snakes in the village were their gods. They had a snake temple. I don't remember if you remember seeing it, it had been closed down and was decaying by this time. But that is where they actually had their meetings to the snake god. They had submitted themselves to worshiping snakes because, in Hinduism, there can be many gods and this happened to be a snake village.

So of course, you would expect snake manifestations through the demonic realm and they can be incited. Well, I believe your intention was to teach worship that day. So you were at the front of the stage on the keyboard. Little did we know that what incited the snake activity was music.

(Wow.) But it was much more intense when you think of Satan used to be the musician, the angel of music in heaven. He had of all the music. All worship. And so when you were trying to teach people how to worship the spirit of God through the Holy Spirit, those people that were not completely regenerated, they had given their hearts to Christ, but regeneration is a lifetime process of walking in the spirit. And there were many new Christians there, but the music would evoke a familiar response. Even if it was God's music, it could evoke a familiar response.

And not every person there had a pure motive. There were people in that village that were not going to submit to Christ and did not want their village to be followers of Christ. So they infiltrated that day.

GRANDMA: Well, it was amazing to me because I'm oblivious because I don't understand anything that's going on. I just wanted to come and share Jesus and let's worship him today, you know, just all in enthusiasm. But the thing is, later on I realized because there was a child, I think in that church that even though he was dark skinned, he reminded me of my little boy, Jalon, that had just previously died 20 months before his daddy died.  They told me he was an orphan and  that you can adopt him. And so we started the process. I started asking all the questions and everything. Long story short, we ended uprooting a fraudulent adoption ring that they were well prepared to take American money. But they would never see the children because the children really had parents. His mother was right in that service and they did not tell me. They were lying to me. But it took a pathway to get them to uncover all of that. They had me come and teach, I'm not sure if you were with me that time to teach in their Bible school. It was all a farce, a ruse; they had rented the building for just that night. It was not a Bible school at all. And basically what happened, Pastor Bonnie had connections with someone in the government and they had been trying to figure out what these people were doing for several years and they never could get an inside look. Well, with what I was sharing with them about the adoption and the baby and now they had what they needed to totally close down their operation. And I walked away as little Miss Innocent. I'm just out there to win people to Jesus, you know, it's like, wow.

SANDY: Yeah, you know, to the holy, all things are holy. To the pure, all things are pure. See, we have to maintain that state even in the midst of un-holiness, to the righteous all things are righteous. We have to maintain that in our spirit, even when the Lord is using us to uproot an unrighteous agenda for profiteering. It was all about money. And those two got the gentleman that drove us out to that snake village. I don't know if you remember, but it took us a very long time to get there. It was in the bush. It was a village way off the beaten path in or out of Chennai, the old Madras, India. And so those two gentlemen, as the understanding that I got filtered through later and possibly you too, they went to jail. Those gentlemen that were trying to rob you, they at least went to prison awaiting a trial. I do not know beyond that what happened to them because that was an industry in India that is sometimes winked at because of the abject poverty.

So people are given license to run with sources of money, potential money for any, especially from NGOs. Agape International went there as an NGO. We were tourists on our passports. Yeah. The Lord used us in the tourist industry to see many, many, many miracles, many miracles. And that was a miracle. It was a miracle that we got out of that place alive because that was not the intention of some of the spirits that were trying to operate around us. I think that Lee was with us that day as well.

GRANDMA: Yes. And when you think about human trafficking, being that far out in the bush with two guys that had not the best of intentions toward us, it was a miracle that our lives were spared that day coming out of that. And I'm just amazed at how innocent I was, but how God used it and used you to pray and protect.

And here we are now, years later, we understand where Satan originated. He was kicked out of heaven. He started as the worship leader in the Heavenlies before the very throne of God, the place we all long to be.

And Isaiah 14:12, 16, and 17 says:

"How you are fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning, how you were cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations... Those who see you will gaze at you and consider you saying. Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world as a wilderness and destroyed its cities? Who did open the house of his prisoners?"

We need to know that there is only two teams here. Yes. And we get to choose. We're either on God's team, the holy team, the winning team. Let me make that very clear because we win in the end. Or if you don't make a decision, you're automatically on the losing team and Satan heads that team up. And that's what we do not want.

Now, I love the stories as a missionary, but I'm telling you what, we're missionaries as children of God right now. We are missionaries in the very United States of America. We have got to learn how to discern these things and know what's happening and how to navigate it biblically.

In 1 Corinthians 11 31: it says,

"But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment."

So this book that we're gonna be studying of Jane Hamon's on discernment is not just about discerning the enemy, although we had better know who our enemy is and how to handle situations that he's all over. But it's also the balance of discerning our hearts because we are in this earth where the 'little god' of this world is filtering everything. We've got to be able to hear clearly the voice of the Lord. Discernment is the essential guide.

So, I want to make sure that our audience is very clear of who is ready for this teaching. First of all, you must have Jesus in your heart. He must be your Savior. You cannot fight against a demonic force that you are not of the kingdom of God first. Secondly, you've got to be empowered with all the weaponry that God has graciously provided us with here in the earth and that is the Holy Spirit, the indwelling Holy Spirit with the evidence of praying in tongues.

I have some non-Christian friends that they're not saved yet. They're on our radar. They will be saved. But they know something vitally is wrong, is wrong with our nation, is wrong with things. They recognize an enemy when they're out, but they don't know what to do about it. So let's give them, offer them the plan of salvation. How do you get saved? Give them the prayer of salvation to be saved and then take them right on in to receive their prayer language. Would you do that for us this morning?

SANDY: Yes, I would be so honored to do that. First of all, for anyone that's wondering if there is a God out there, God, if you're really real, if you're really out there, make your heart ready for an answer. I mean, many people are seeking and God says whoever seeks will find who knocks on the door, the door will be open. You are seeking something that you know you cannot provide for yourself.

Ask and it shall be given. Jesus said just ask me and the word says in John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life."

That is the precept and the foundation for all that you need to do is ask the Lord Jesus in Romans 10:9-10. I mean, specifically, the Lord said, if you believe in your heart that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, that he was resurrected from the dead and you confess these things with your mouth. Open your mouth and say, I believe in you, Jesus that you came here as the son of God, that you were crucified and that you died. You died. And then you were resurrected from that dead on the third day. Jesus says, "If you do these things you shall be saved." And that as a 19 year old young woman, almost 50 years ago now, I understood that Christ was my Savior. I had been a Lutheran, a Catholic and practiced each one of these religious rituals and doctrines.

I had been a Lutheran, a Catholic, and finally a Baptist, and I was never born again. (Wow.) Jesus saved me outside of the four walls, but he had touched my heart many times in my life. I knew Jesus was real. I just didn't know he had such a great life for me. And when I came to the end, when I was 19, I was at the end of a life that was terrible because I couldn't make it great on my own. I couldn't be good on my own. And the better I tried to be, the worse I got. It wasn't an outside thing. Nobody knew this. This was on the inside of me. This was in my mind and in my heart.

And when I came to the end of my own potentials, my own possibilities, he was waiting there for me with open arms. He saved me. And the very first words I heard after Jesus Christ saved me, it was on Mother's Day in 1973. And I was pregnant with my second child. I went home after being prayed for, not for salvation, the young lady was praying for me because I was having back pain that day. And she prayed for me that my legs would be lengthened and I had a miracle. I saw it with my own eyes. The spirit of God made known to me the reality of a miracle working Christ who loved me. And as I went home that day, I heard these words, "You are my daughter. I have called you in a way that I have never called you before and you will never be the same." And I have never been the same since.

I've had valleys of the shadow of death and I have had mountain peaks that were so high I thought I could touch heaven. And in each place, Jesus Christ, through the power of the resurrected Holy Spirit that he sent to be our helper, our guide and our teacher was with me every step of the way, every second. Even this second. if you have not done this and you really want to and you're sincere, God knows your heart.

Just say, "Jesus come into my heart, be my Savior, forgive me for my sins. Lead me in the path of righteousness and Holy Spirit come into my heart with the manifestation of the gift of speaking in other tongues and all of the gifts of the Spirit that Jesus' resurrection made available when he sent you back to us as our Comforter Guide and Teacher."

And then open your mouth and just begin to say, Hallelujah, hallelujah, la la la ,and then when that language begins to change, don't stop it because you know it's not you. That's what I did. I was sitting at work in my desk at work. I didn't know anything about speaking in tongues. I didn't know they even existed. But I just was reading in Romans 8:26. "Likewise, we don't know how to pray how we ought. But the Spirit of God who knows the very mind, will and intent of God will help us and give us groanings that cannot be uttered". That means, that utterance doesn't come out of your human intellect. (Exactly.) It comes from the power of the resurrected Christ living in you. It's the baptism of Jesus. John the Baptist says there's one coming after me whose sandals I'm not worthy to latch or unlatch. He will baptize you with the baptism of fire and that fire is the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit with the language of heaven. We have an earthly language whatever your mother tongue is. You imitated your mommy and daddy to learn that. Well now the indwelling Holy Spirit in you, the presence of Christ, brought with him a language of heaven.

So you're a heavenly citizen and you have the rights of a heavenly citizen and that is the communication tool between you and your father God. When I read that scripture a light came on in my mind. Literally I had an image, visual of a light bulb being pulled by a string and I was lit up and I started to say Lord teach me to, I was going to say prayer, but before I could get it out, the words and the language of the Spirit came out. And I felt like I swallowed laughing gas. For the first time in my life, I was so full of joy and wanted to laugh and I had no reason to laugh. There wasn't anything funny.

My life had been one spent of events that were either funny or sad, mostly sad. So if I was going to laugh, there had to be something that made me laugh. Well, how did I know that Jesus, when he came in, the power of the Holy Spirit gave us that joy unspeakable - that means there's no reason for it - and full of God's glory. Glory is the resurrected presence of Christ.

I've never stopped it. I speak it more than I do English because I realize in this hour, this book that the Holy Spirit has laid on your heart, Rebecca, to give us an expose', to dive deeper into one of these nine gifts of the Holy Spirit, Discerning a Spirit is most vital in the hour we're living it. And the fact that you said that even non-believers understand that, we would have called a woman's intuition or that gut feeling. There's something just not right, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Well, when you have the intuition of the spirit, as Jane Hamon calls the gift of discernment, the intuition of your indwelling spirit, the presence of Christ in you, in your spirit, he indwells your human spirit and makes it a holy presence to God. Let me make sure you understand you are not the Holy Spirit, but he changes your spirit which was corrupted with sin because of Adam's sin. And then you were born again by your belief in Jesus. He took your spirit, transformed it into a living, holy place for God to tabernacle with you, to commune with you.

So our God speaks. And if we have ears to hear, by His Spirit in us, we will know exactly what He says. We won't any longer be wondering what it is. I can't quite put my finger on it. We will know by the Spirit what is going on, where it's coming from, if necessary, the name of it. The Lord may reveal a name of the entity, but what we do know that it's all from Satan. It is the work of demonic powers. The Bible says, "Beloved, I would not have you be ignorant of spiritual things. Therefore, finally, brethren, put on the full armor of God, for you're not warring against flesh and blood, but principalities, powers, spiritual wickedness that rules in high places". I'm sorry, a long way to get to the answer, but inclusive.

GRANDMA: Beautiful, very, very, beautiful and I love the word commune, commune with God. You know there was a season in my life, and I believe that's why God put me with you and Bonnie and the others because I didn't know any better, but I could commune with God. I was saved, Spirit filled, communing with Him brought comfort to my heart. It was all about taking care of me. But there comes a point in time when it's time to grow up. You're not feeding on milk anymore. You're not feeding off of what somebody else knows. Now God needs us as His children to rise up in power.

And so communing with him is not just to get what we need for the moment. Yes, if we get tired, if we get exhausted, yes, you're gonna run to the Father and you're gonna get everything that you need because you already know how to do that. But now he needs you as a soldier of Christ in the earth, a warrior who knows how to fight biblically against such evil and that you're obedient, that you are hearing what he is saying and that you are obedient to speak, to say, to be and to do what is his good pleasure. Jesus said he only did what he saw the Father doing and only spoke what the Father told him to say.

And it was like... Jesus had a lot of rumors against him. A lot of, you know, talk, there was division in the camp. There were people that, well, he has to be the prophet. He's done all these miracles, but yeah, but this, but that, you know. And so how did he handle that? Well, he did it very beautifully. You'll have to go back and read that.

There's more on this topic of "discernment". We're coming back in multiple posts to dive into this book with questions like:

Have you ever been in a situation where everything looked right but felt wrong?

Have you ever met someone others admired and promoted, yet you have a deep sense of unease?

Have you ever had a foreboding nightmare that you blamed on last night's pizza, but you can't shake the feeling that God was trying to show you something pretty important?

Have you ever sensed the presence of angels or demons? And have you ever been overwhelmed by the presence of the Lord, heard his voice at an unusual time or in an unusual setting?

The next post on this topic will have a different title but the same or similar picture so you can find it easily.