Debbie was born a Jew, but many years later she found Christ in the pages of the Old Testament. She approached Christianity the way she approached her professional career, with intensity, deep thought, and academic rigor. Debbie has always enjoyed studying the scriptures and taking every available opportunity to learn God’s word. She is a devout Christian with a loving and giving heart, never failing to help someone in need. But like most Christians, there were deeply seated issues that kept her from taking advantage of her full spiritual potential.
I met Debbie when I was still in college and when I finally moved to the DC area, I got know Debbie a lot better. She was so encouraging and she soon became a friend. I would regularly see her at church when she was living in the United States, but later her profession took her overseas. However, whenever she was in town, I took the opportunity to converse with her over coffee and good food. As much as I loved our conversations, there was always one topic that seemed to rob her of peace, her relationship with her mother. I could see and feel the bitterness as we broached that subject. The lack of a normal mother/daughter relationship had clearly taken a toll on her. Although I tried to be as encouraging as I could, I could see that my words were not doing much to alleviate her pain. It would be more than a decade later until Debbie would finally find healing.
As the years went by, the more I spoke with Debbie, the more I realized that what she truly needed was spiritual deliverance. She needed to be delivered from the pain of her childhood and from the hurt throughout her adulthood. I built the courage to suggest deliverance and to my surprise she jumped on board. A few weeks later she was flying to Laredo Texas to meet Pastors Luis and Lucy. By the end of her time at New Vision Community Church, Debbie was free.
What most surprised me about Debbie after her trip was how she spoke about her mother. There was peace in her voice. There was forgiveness. There was no more bitterness, but a yearning instead for her mother to find Christ. How wonderful when God delivers you of strongholds that are keeping you down! But another remarkable development that Debbie noticed about herself is her increase in spiritual discernment.
Debbie was always a bold woman. She would approach people on the bus or at a store and speak to them about Christ and she has always prayed for random strangers. Yet after her deliverance, it was different. She now had the ability to know when someone was hurting or suffering. She could discern when someone needed to be prayed for before even talking to them and in typical Debbie fashion, she would approach them to pray. In addition, Debbie recently has started receiving clear and specific revelation. In one instance, her heart was overtaken with sadness when talking to an individual. She knew then that this man was suffering from heartache and sorrow because she was physically feeling what he was feeling. When she prayed for him, the individual was astonished that Debbie knew what to pray for. In another instance, when advising an individual on future employment, Debbie was able to give her specific information on how her job search would proceed. It all turned out just as Debbie had “predicted.” The wonderful thing is that it was not a prediction. God was speaking to Debbie and Debbie was now more spiritually tuned to listen and therefore be able to help the people He put before her. Debbie now tries to post some of these encounters on Facebook and it is always amazing to see God working through her.
At New Vision Community Church, we are thankful to have been able to help Debbie this way and we are looking forward to seeing the amazing things she will do for God’s people!
Deliverance is the removal of spiritual oppression from a person’s life through a process of confession, forgiveness, prayer, and finally, ordering through the name of Jesus Christ for the evil influences to depart.
Luisa Rodriguez is the official blogger for New Vision Community Church, daughter of Pastors Lucy and Luis DeLeon, and the author of Fruitfully Living.