Jul | 20 | Playing Cards With Dr. Vomit

Dream Word – POWER

Acts 19:11-15 Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, "We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches." Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?" NKJV

Playing Cards with Dr. Vomit

I used to work in the downtown heat of north Miami, in the city of Hollywood to be precise. So anyway, when I used to drive down past our church, I always took a good look underneath the covered entrance way situated at the front to the building, for this shaded area always seemed to attract a very weird variety of wildlife from the local area and many times from far, far beyond. Sometimes they would be people from Boston, taking a picnic from the heat, having just been robbed at the local greyhound bus station, (interestingly, everyone with a tale to tell me, had just been robbed at the local greyhound bus station! They’ve closed it down now), a family changing their car radiator with a distraught Romanian gypsy in tow and in desperate need of prayer, someone just out of prison, or someone else maybe carrying a sick child, needing money, or... well you get the picture. The covered entrance way of that downtown church….my goodness!

One particular day though I bumped into Dr. Vomit. She was a middle aged woman calling ‘Bill and Hughie," on the hot sidewalk, leaving splashes of speckled coloured sputum on all the cars driving by. So, I swung round and called to her, “Hey can I help you ma'am? Can I call 911?" She looks up, sweaty ,with sick dribbling down the side of her mouth and says, "No thanks I'll be just fine." I don't believe her so I get out of the car and walk up to her.
"Really my dear what’s wrong and how can I help?"No honest I'm fine, I'm a doctor" and with that she wretches more black sputum into the road.
"What's happened?" says I.

"El Presidente! Happened!" (Now, El Presidente was the awful and smelly, South American supermarket on the corner....) “ Yeah, El Presidente and their #$#@@ rice and black beans! That and those *%6#$%’s in that family that I put away! They’re messing up all the people around here again with all that tarot card crap and screwing their minds up!”

She shook a dirty finger at me with a piece of vomit sitting precariously on her well chewed nail. “Yeah, they live just round the corner there, the whole bad family; watch out now! They'll mess you up as well, they’re bad." So, by now I'm a bit confused, but knowing the nature of the multi-cultural community round here I say "What, do you think they’ve put a curse on you?""No! I'm Doctor Willow, I'm a doctor, they can’t put a curse on me. They just can’t!" By now she'd started puking again, quite nonchalantly into the side of the road. "No you can't help me, I’ll be OK, but watch out for them, they'll put Buddhism on yer!" And with a wave of her hand and a final puke she turns and staggers off into the distance. The passers-by are treading carefully, but apart from that, no one is really phased by what they have both seen and heard. It was Miami and it was hot. It was most abnormally normal.

Dr Willow? Ah yes, I think I remember that she came by our church stall at the local city open-air expo and gave me one of her business cards. ‘Dr Willow’ it read, ‘Reiki Healer.’ Now, I have dealt with the plush and proper forms of Reiki healing before, but with poor old Dr Willow all jacked up on fear, mutual cursing, black beans and bad rice, well, the flow of universal energy wasn’t doing her much good right then I can tell you!

It was evident that this particular lady was very ill indeed. No intellectual presentation of the gospel of choice would not even begin to get her attention. For her and the family she had previously ‘put away,’ now roaming around with a pack of tarot cards and big bag full of lies, yes it was obvious that only a direct encounter with the living and powerful, resurrected Lord Jesus would be able to begin to rescue and redeem this particularly pitiful and puking practitioner and all her sworn enemies.

The enemy today no longer keeps his cards close to his chest. Right now, in this post-modern post Christian and increasingly Pagan age, they are on the table face up for all the world to see. For Christians of course, even for two thousand years, God’s cards have been on the table and all bear this title,. ‘The Gospel- The Power of God to Salvation!’ So let’s play! We’ll beat him hands down. We always have. We always will.

Listen: - Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. (Acts 19:16-20 NKJV.)

Pray:-Lord, the devil is making a power play today for the souls of lost men and women, and is seemingly winning. His bondage is now both open and blatant. We ask You our Jesus, that Your church will make use of the power You have so readily granted us. So come Lord, follow the preaching of Your word in all mighty signs and wonders, amen!