Baptism, Deliverance and Visions of Two Children - Jesse Snow

My guest blogger today is Jesse Snow. This was posted on his Facebook page.

I was recently babysitting my friends' two daughters and as I was praying in tongues one of them asked me how I learned to speak in tongues. I said I didn't learn because it's not a skill it's a gift that anyone can receive for free. She asked me why I do it and I told her about how incredible it is. She asked me how she could do it to and I said "if you want it we can pray and Jesus will give it to you." 

Her little sister said she wanted in as well, so after going through some scriptures on the subject I prayed with them and they started speaking in tongues. When they did the older girl said she thought she was just producing the language with her mind, so I wrote some math problems down as well as the instructions "draw a picture of a butterfly" on a piece of paper. I had her start speaking in tongues and then handed her the paper to fill out. She spoke fluently in tongues while completing all of it. Then to confirm it even more I had her put headphones on and listen to music so that she couldn't hear herself, but she was still speaking fluently without hearing herself or producing it with her mind.

While she was listening to music I led the younger sister in this prayer: "Jesus, reveal yourself to me." Then I prayed in tongues over her for a couple minutes and asked her if she saw anything. She excitedly began describing a detailed vision where she was in a garden with Jesus. He put his hand on her head, hugged her and kissed her.

Then we prayed for her older sister the same way. She had a vision where there was a bright light outside her window. She went out her window to the light and saw a king with brown hair, a beard, and a white robe (aka Jesus). He hugged her and kissed her then took her hand and they started flying. He took her up to heaven where she saw lots of kids playing in a park and having lots of fun. She also said she picked an apple off a tree and it was the most delicious apple she had ever tasted. She then saw lots of seats and older people sitting on the seats, including her grandma and grandpa (who died before she was born).

She looked into Jesus' eyes and then went into them and was walking with Jesus next to an ocean that was really big, blue, beautiful, totally clear and smooth. I told her that what she saw was the sea of glass and that John wrote about in the Revelation (Rev.4:6, 15:2). She has since been to heaven a few more times, hugged her grandparents, and met angels.

By this time the girls were eager to pray and experience more of Jesus. I would lay hands on them and pray for them in tongues (anybody can do this by the way, its really easy w/ kids because they have much stronger vision in the spirit world than we do) and they would close their eyes and relax while Jesus took them into a vision. He never ran out of things to show them.

The problem was that each time the younger girl had a vision, it would start off well but then end badly. She would come out of the vision with a fright saying "Ah! That was scary!" The first time I thought she just misinterpreted the vision, but the next time it happened and she described what she was seeing I realized it was not something that Jesus would have shown her. She became afraid of praying anymore. So I said "We're going to pray and get rid of these bad guys that are trying to scare you okay?"

Now, I don't normally go around commanding demons to surface in 6-year-olds, but I realized that something was there abusing my little sister so I wanted to get rid of it. I commanded any poopheads (didn't use the words demons much, wanted to keep it playful and un-intimidating for the girls) present to manifest and she started hearing their voices loud and clear in her head.

Their were 11 demons in her. How does a 6-year-old manage to have 11 demons you ask? Its because the idea that only drug users, witches, and ppl involved in terrible sins can have demons is a myth. When you start doing deliverance you see how the enemy really works. I've cast demons out of people that were assigned to them at birth. Demons can often see the call of God on someone's life and attack them simply because they want to prevent you from fulfilling your destiny, even though you may be completely innocent and have done none of the things people think you have to do to get a demon. If you aren't spiritually equipped (and children usually aren't, but are very vulnerable) it will enter in and that's how people end up having demons their whole lives without even realizing it. Back to what happened..

The demon in charge started speaking up and the girl was speaking in a hissing voice to describe what she was hearing (it wasn't speaking through her directly, although that happens at times). It called itself morte ("death"). It said a lot of horrible things to the girl like, "We're going to kill you and celebrate your death," "no one's going to come to your funeral because nobody cares about you," "you're going to die because your parents don't love you," and "we are going to take Jesus off his throne and kill him." They even gave her a vision of putting fire on Jesus' butt and him running around frantically trying to put it out. They mocked, threatened, lied, and said all the typical stuff that poopheads usually say. Nothing that an innocent young child would come up with on their own. They also said, "Tell him to quit calling us poopheads!" and "He's stupid, quit listening to him".

The older sister (who is 11 yrs old) told her younger sister, "Just lift your hand up to them and use Jesus' magic and go (insert power-blasting noise here)." The only way they know how to call the power of God is "Jesus' magic" but hey, they already know how to use it better than most people with the right terminology.

So the younger girl went into her imagination (By the way grown ups, that means she began to engage the spirit world) and did in a vision what her sister told her to do. Then a big smile came on her face as she opened her eyes and said "They all went out of my head! They're gone!" and she actually saw Jesus show up in the room and start dancing and singing about how she was delivered. She said "He's right behind you dancing and singing" and she stood up and showed us how Jesus was dancing and sang the song he was singing.

After her little sister's deliverance, the older sister said, "You know, the only thing I'm afraid of is mirrors." "Why?" I asked. She then told me about nightmares she had for a while during which she came to sleep in her parents room because she was afraid (by the way-  parents, don't just brush off these things with your children. If you try to tell them the "monsters" aren't real it won't help them because that doesn't get rid of the attacks and the kids won't believe you anyway. Real or not, they scare the heck out of children, so you need to pray with kids and teach them how to use the power and authority of Jesus over the enemy).

In her nightmares there was a mirror with a woman in it who wanted to kill her. The woman had long black hair, pale white skin, black lips and black blood running out of her mouth.

So we prayed. During deliverances the person will always feel, hear, or see demonic manifestations (or a combination of the 3). So far every time I've done a deliverance with a child they have had visions (as well as other manifestations). This girl saw a big demon holding a mirror in front of it with the same lady as in her nightmares. Behind the big demon were countless smaller demons. When the demon showed up I told the girl to do the same thing she told her little sister to do (use "Jesus' magic to kill it"). She had her eyes closed and her facial expression got very tense, after less than 10 seconds her face relaxed again and she opened her eyes, saying "I did it! I killed him!"

Kids are really good at thrashing devils. "Great! Now what about the woman in the mirror?" I asked. She said the woman was still there but wasn't in the mirror anymore (the demon shattered the mirror for some reason). I said "Okay now do the same thing." She closed her eyes again and her face got tense, but then she said "Its hard, can you help me?" so I said sure.

I asked the little sister to come help, so she laid hands on her big sis and prayed in tongues. I did the same thing. The older sister saw her sister and I appear next to her in her vision and she felt stronger, then she killed the evil lady and all the other smaller demons ran away. Deliverance! Even more fun with kids :)

A few minutes after this the little sister said "Ah! They all came back into my head again!" She got really upset and started crying. I said "Its okay, you're okay, we'll just do the same thing again and this time we're not going to let anything come back." I prayed for her and the demons manifested.. They told her, "The others were going to kill you, but they left so now we are going to kill you." More empty words, as usual. Her older sister instructed her again, "Just close the door and put up the sign, and do this (she crossed her arms in front of her chest and gave a defiant sigh *Humph!"). Her little sister came out of her vision, very happy and excited again, and said she did what her sister advised and they all ran away!

I taught them more about how to resist demons and not let them come back when they try to, then taught them to start seeing angels. By "taught" I mean I just prayed "Father open their eyes to see angels" (see 2 Kings 6:17) and told them "Close your eyes and look for the angels that are in this room." (They had already seen demonic spirits, so might as well see God's ministering spirits too!)

The older sister saw several angels including our personal guardian angels that looked like us (see Acts 12:15). One of the angels was brushing its teeth and I thought "That's kinda strange," but then Holy Spirit let me know it was a sign to the girls to speak life and not to speak evil, so I taught them for a bit about the power of their words.

Jesse's Story

This is the testimony of Jesse Snow, a Facebook friend who agreed to let me post the story of his introduction to the supernatural life. The original message can be found on his Facebook page here. 

One day during the summer of 2010 I was checking my email and opened the latest update from Intentional Gatherings, my brother Aaron's non-profit organization. The email was talking about a new project that I.G. was starting to get involved with called Student CPx (Church Planting Experience). SCPx is basically a week long training for college students to plant simple churches on their college campuses and reach the world around them with the love of Jesus.

This email included a testimony from one of the recent SCPx's, which are held all over the nation. I read about how God healed the injuries of several football players after a student and one of the leaders prayed for them. This was completely foreign to me, but I loved it.

A few weeks later I was down in Austin, Texas with my brother Samuel visiting Aaron, his wife Morgan, and their baby girl Eliza. While I was there Aaron and I had a conversation about things he had been learning lately. He explained to me what it meant to pray "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven." He explained that Jesus told his disciples to declare "The kingdom of heaven is near" and that when the kingdom of heaven comes supernatural things happen - like people getting healed. There is no sickness or disease in heaven, and according to Jesus' model prayer God doesn't want it to exist on earth either.

I thought that I ought to go to a SCPx before moving to Hawaii in late July. Aaron encouraged me to do so too. The next one was in San Diego and Aaron was already scheduled to be on leadership. We flew out to be there the week of July 19 - 23, 2010.

Student CPx

This week in San Diego is really where it all began. The event was hosted by Origins, a campus ministry at UCSD led by Brian and Cecilee Orme. There I met a group of (mostly) college students who truly lived together in community as a real spiritual family. Eric Waterbury came down from Sacramento to be one of the speakers and shared with us his personal testimony and teach us about spiritual family and identity in Christ. Brian Orme, Eric Waterbury, Brad McCoy, Erik Fish, Pam Arlund, and Neil Cole all came to speak. All of these leaders are simply incredible and if I go into depth on any of them this note will be way too long. They have all had a tremendous impact on my life. The first two days were all about identity in Christ - knowing who you are and whose you are. Knowing the love that God has for you and finding your value in Him and nothing else. This is something I will spend the rest of my life uncovering.

The next part of the training was on healing and deliverance taught by Brian Orme. Brian shared some amazing testimonies and taught us about the authority we have. Once again, this was all brand new to me and I was eager to learn as much as I could. I was asking him about it and he gave me a simple challenge: "Pray for 200 people [to be healed]. If you don't see anyone healed after the 200th person, then its not for you. But I guarantee you won't make it to 200 before people start getting healed."

That was exactly the type of prompting I needed. I needed something measurable, something I could grasp. Those words stayed in my mind long after the week was over. I had always wanted the power to heal people, even before I knew it was possible. I grew up obsessed with superheroes and superpowers. Then 20 years into my life somebody told me I had some, and I haven't been the same since.

Back to the week of SCPx. This week was my introduction to the supernatural. That week was the first time I saw people speaking in tongues (and they weren't crazy people, they were of a sound mind and passionately in love with God and humanity), the first time I saw people "drunk in the Spirit" (I'm sorry if that offends you, its just terminology people use, but it is a biblical manifestation, please ask me about it), the first time I saw prophetic dreams come true before my eyes, and the first time I saw a miracle of healing. It was also where I received the gift of the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues for the first time (see my note "One-Year Anniversary," this is another idea that offends people but is absolutely biblical).


A Dream Come True (literally)
On one of the days we were sent out to do a "treasure hunt." I had never heard of that before, but it is basically a method of evangelism. It starts by asking the Holy Spirit for clues about certain people that He wants to speak to. The clues can be names of locations, clothing/appearance, etc. After you write down enough clues your group sets out to find those people. When you find the people whom the Holy Spirit was telling you about, you tell them about how you're on a treasure hunt and they are the treasure (God's treasure). You show them the description of them that you had written down and share God's love for them and why He sent you to them. If they have any need you give to them whatever you can (money, food, healing, prophetic word, encouragement, direction, whatever).

We started in groups of 3 (ours was Caryn Werner, Erik Bagley, and me) and prayed to receive words of knowledge from the Holy Spirit (see 1 Cor. 12). I had never had a vision, received a WoK, or anything like that before, so I just kind of went with it and let Caryn and Eric write down all the "clues." We set out and found the people that they had written descriptions of, which was pretty cool in itself, but the coolest thing that happened was when we were finished.

You see, at the beginning of the day, Erik told us to let him know if we saw a girl with a fish on her shirt. He explained that he had had a dream 3 nights ago when he was still in Redding, CA (where he was a student at the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry). In that dream God showed him that he would soon meet a girl with a fish on her shirt. That girl would have back pain because one of her legs would be shorter than the other. I thought, "that's interesting."

Then at the end of our treasure hunt we were just hanging out when a girl walked by us. When Erik saw her he immediately left us and went to talk with the girl. When I saw them talking I immediately went to see if this was the girl. I walked up to them, looked at Erik, looked at the girl, looked at her shirt, which had a fish on it, and thought, "Noooo way." They were just having a normal conversation and then Erik asked her if she ever got back pain. She responded yes, that it ran in her family. He asked if she knew whether her legs were even in length or if she'd ever had that checked, because uneven legs cause back pain. She didn't know, so he asked her if she would mind sitting down to check.

We went over to a place where she could sit and Erik held her feet with her legs straight out in front of her. Her right leg was noticeably shorter than her left by about an inch or inch and a half. Erik spoke to her leg and told it to grow out in Jesus' name, then we watched it obey (see Mark 11:23). That was pretty exciting to say the least. Not only did I watch everything he told me about his dream come true, I saw a miracle for the first time of my life. She stood up, walked around and felt totally different and free of her back pain.

This girl had already told us she was getting involved witchcraft, but instead of shoving religion down her throat, Erik just introduced her to Jesus. Then he got to tell her how much Jesus loves and cares about her. He cares about every aspect of her life, even an inch difference between the way her legs grew and the way he designed them to be, even her back pain. I'd like to point out that God didn't say, "renounce witchcraft," "believe," or "repent" before he would heal her, he just showed her his kindness. Its His kindness that leads us to change (Rom. 2:4).


God Smells
One of the nights that week we were all gathered in our regular nightly meeting room to worship God. We praised Him in song and many sang songs of love in angelic languages (1 Cor. 13:1). I heard the most beautiful languages I had ever heard that night. Many were overwhelmed with the supernatural peace and joy of the Holy Spirit, what people call "drunk in the Spirit," and were laughing almost uncontrollably for hours straight. They had felt a touch of God's infinite love for them and couldn't help but be excessively happy.

Not long after a few girls next to me started getting really drunk, a scent manifested in that spot where we were. It was a sweet fragrance, and since we were in a closed room I looked around to see if anyone had opened perfume or something. No one had, and the scent, which I could now clearly distinguish as the smell of wine, only grew stronger and filled the room. I would have been really confused if I hadn't already been introduced to the supernatural, and if I hadn't heard a hint of such a manifestation earlier that week when Caryn mentioned that she had "smelled God" (which I thought was the craziest thing I had ever heard). I was still analyzing all this in my head and trying to come up with a logical explanation when Brian Orme came over to us. He leaned in and cleverly joked, "that's the best wine tasting you've ever been to, huh?" I realized that the scent was a sign the Holy Spirit gave us to confirm the word when Jesus spoke of "the new wine." The Holy Spirit is the new wine, and we are the new wine skins.


My First Miracle
I think it might have been Wednesday night when we were sent into the city to heal the sick. We went in groups and prayed for a man with a broken leg, he thanked us and then said he had to go into the restaurant for dinner. We didn't see anything happen, but we were still feeling pretty free and joyful. We didn't see anyone else that night who needed physical healing but did minister to some other people.

Once again, we were finished doing what we were doing and all just hanging out on the sidewalk at the end of the night waiting to be picked up. Courtney and I were sitting on some stairs with a girl named Sky with us who was visiting from China. I was telling Sky about the girl whose leg had grown out and she was pretty shocked. Courtney said, "Have you ever checked if you have a short leg?" (turns out its actually a pretty common thing). Sky put both her legs out straight and sure enough one was short. I looked at Courtney as if expecting her to do it, but she just told me to do it (she had already done it many times before and was wise enough to give me the opportunity to experience it firsthand).

So I held Sky's feet, closed my eyes (I was afraid nothing would happen so didn't want to look), and started telling the right leg to grow out. I still had my eyes closed when I heard Sky start exclaiming, "Ah! My leg stretched! I felt my leg stretch!" I opened my eyes and she was freaking out (in a good way). But now instead of being even, her right leg was an inch longer than her left leg, which confused me. Thank God Courtney was there! She just said "that happens sometimes, just grow the left one out now to match!" So I did the same thing and her left leg grew out an inch. Both legs were now even and she stood up about an inch taller than before! Later in the car I heard Sky very excitedly telling her mom over the phone in China what had just happened. She was still freaking out and was nearly brought to tears. I was pretty excited too!


My Own Personal Prayer Language
I think it was Wednesday or Thursday night of that week when we were in that same room we had been meeting each night to worship. Brian stood up and started talking, but I had no idea what he was talking about at first. He said, "When I first heard about this I thought, 'There's more? Of course I want more.'" He said to stand up if if we hadn't been baptized in the Holy Spirit yet and wanted to. I wasn't sure what that meant, but I did know that anything that was of God, I wanted. I knew there was more and I wanted it.

I still didn't know what "it" was though. He taught us, "Its not just going to happen by itself, you have to choose to speak it out." A group of five or so people gathered around each of us who were standing and put their hands on us. They started praying in tongues aloud and every now and then one of them would tell me an instruction from God, like, "Don't over think it, just receive." I just stood there for a few minutes with my mind reeling. I had no idea what to do, how to "listen," or how to "receive." I knew I was supposed to "speak it out" but I had no idea what to speak out. Eric Waterbury was directly in front of me, and he told me to just start thanking God aloud. So I thanked God for everything I could think of, which at that time, didn't take very long (not because there wasn't an innumerable amount of things that God could've been thanked for, but because of my spiritual immaturity). After a minute or two I couldn't think of anything else and stopped speaking.

I was listening to Eric speaking in his prayer language and remembered what Brian said, that I had to speak it out. I decided to just move my tongue in my mouth and immediately it started dancing around in my mouth. That's the only way I know how to describe it. Then I decided to stop and it did. Then I started again and it started dancing again. So I figured I should speak it out now, though I was still timid and it was little more than a whisper. Fortunately the room was filled with people speaking in tongues so when I spoke out I didn't feel like all the attention was on me. I spoke for a few minutes and then we finished. As soon as we did, Caryn and Courtney Werner were like, "Did you feel that!?" "Yeah, electricity shot up our arms as soon as you started speaking!" I thought that was pretty cool, but I had still never felt anything like that before and didn't then.

Immediately doubts started coming at me about what just happened. It felt too easy, too natural, like it was something I could have done my whole life. Caryn helped explain to me in the few minutes we had and told me how I could test it myself. She said just count while speaking in tongues and you'll realize that its not your mind producing it, its your spirit, because your mind can still count and do everything else. I tried and realized I could think, count, and later realized that I could read and write and do anything while speaking in tongues. My mind is absolutely not involved at all besides choosing when to start and when to stop. "The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church" (1 Cor. 14:4). "For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also" (1 Cor. 14:14-15).

I hadn't yet learned these things though, so I was still struggling with doubt. It just seemed too easy and like something I could have done all along (later I looked back and realized that in the past I was never able to speak in tongues if I tried, for instance when I tried to fake speaking a foreign language it would not be fluent or sound real at all). So the next day when I talked to Erik Fish about it, he told me about his experience and showed me every chapter in the Book of Acts where it happened. He really encouraged me and solidified the truth of this for me.


Back Home
The last couple days of SCPx included awesome teaching from Brad McCoy (on prophecy), Erik Fish (on the origin of SCPx), Pam Arlund (on missions), and Neil Cole (on simple church, discipleship, and how "that stuff can't get on me"). They all also shared lots of amazing testimonies of God's supernatural works. I can't thank any of the leaders enough for what they do and the impact they've had on me: Aaron Snow, Eric Waterbury, Brian Orme, Brad McCoy, Erik Fish, Pam Arlund, Neil Cole, and Eric Bagley (even though he wasn't an official leader, he was still a leader and really impacted me, not just because of the prophetic dream and miracle, but the spirit of love and peace that he carried).

When I got back home I had less than a week left before I would move to Hawaii on July 29, 2010. I told my parents and my brothers almost all of what I had experienced. My brother Samuel went to the next SCPx in Austin about a month later and had amazing supernatural encounters too.