Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling.  She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her” (Acts 16:16-18).

When I was four, my mom decided to mess around with a form of witchcraft called White Magic. She and a friend performed a spell in our living room to punish a man they didn’t like. Later that night, my mom found out that the man had died in a car accident. This event brought both fear and demons into our home. Our foyer became freezing cold, while the rest of our house was very warm. 

This scared my mom tremendously and she sought out a local church to ask for help. They sent people to our home to pray and break the demonic power.  As they prayed, the foyer became warm again.  Although the house returned to normal, I started to have recurring terror dreams from that time until I was 25 years old. This put a spirit of fear in my heart. Fear is one of Satan's most potent and oft-used weapons, and he used it throughout my life to make me afraid to draw near to God. 

God didn’t leave me alone in this situation. He was at work in my life even as a child. I believe that it was God who convicted my mom to send me to church, where I was later saved in my Sunday School class.  I started hearing God’s Word and growing as a Christian.  This prompted me to go to a Christian high school where God used my teachers to help me develop a deeper knowledge of God.  Later, when I worked at Grace Bible Camp, the camp director discipled me and prayed for me daily. I was also inspired by the missionary speakers. I learned how to read the Bible on my own and I was growing a lot in my faith. However, the dreams kept occurring, and I was still in bondage to the fear of spiritual attack.  

When I graduated from college, I felt called to the mission field. During my first two years in Singapore, I was on fire for God, but at the same time, I experienced more spiritual warfare than at any other time in my life. I felt that there was a spiritual battle going on inside of me, and the terrifying dreams became worse.

The next year, I felt God calling me to South Korea. It was during this year that I had a huge spiritual breakthrough. At this point in my walk with God, I had grown so much in my faith and was surrounded by godly Christians. I finally realized that God was more powerful than Satan and his forces. For so many years, Satan had been using fear of punishment to keep me away from God, the only one who could deliver me. When I finally surrendered my life and my fears to God, fully trusting Him to protect me, I was set free from the bondage, the fear, and the terror dreams. They never came back again.

These kinds of experiences were not unusual for Paul. He even cast out a demon from a possessed slave girl. I can relate to this slave girl.  Our experiences are far from identical, but we both experienced the reality that not everything "supernatural" is from God, and that Jesus can set us free from the oppression of the Enemy. I imagine that, like me, the girl experienced an amazing, supernatural deliverance that day. 

As Christians, it’s important to realize two things. First, the supernatural world, although usually unseen, is real (Ephesians 6:12). Second, we don’t need to be afraid because Jesus is all-powerful and has dominion over everything in the natural and supernatural world.  It wasn’t Paul’s power that cast out the demon from the slave girl, nor my power that released me from those dreams, it was God’s.

If you are in bondage to anything, God can deliver you. Run toward God. Dive deep into God’s Word and surround yourself with other Christians. Seek wise, biblical counsel and ask for prayer. God can rescue and deliver you from any natural or supernatural bondage just like He did me.