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Backstory; “- What am I doing? I don’t even know who this Jesus is!
Eva retells what she was thinking, as she stood in line to be baptized at a Christian conference in Rogaland, Norway. The year was 2019.
The then 26-year-old woman from Stavanger knew little about Christianity, apart from the fact that it was about faith. She had never read the Bible either. “- This is disrespectful, she thought to herself. Nevertheless, she remained in the baptismal queue. She says that she had felt a pull towards seeking out this Christian congregation to be baptised.
It all started when she was scrolling on YouTube to distract himself from her severe back pain. She stopped scrolling at a video where Daniel Haddal, online evangelist and presenter at Visjon Norge, talked about healing. He also publishes a lot on YouTube.
“- I believed in healing, and was very open and searching for the spiritual“, she says. Eva was a certified yoga instructor and yoga teacher, actively practiced New Age and used, among other things, healing, divination, Reiki, chakras and crystals. Now she was in a desperate search for something that could alleviate the strong pain that even painkillers were unable to alleviate, she says.
Although she was familiar with many different spiritual practices, she was not prepared for what awaited her in the healing video. “- I see a young woman, and you have lower back pain. Your name is Eva, and Jesus is healing you now,” Daniel Haddal suddenly said in his video. Then something special happened in the room where she was sitting, she says.
“- I just started crying, and the pain disappeared from my back in an instant“, she says.
Eva, who was also a personal trainer, had tried everything. Both medically, practically and spiritually. The incident led her to seek out Haddal. Evangelist Haddal remembers the incident well and says that it was very encouraging for his ministry.
“- Suddenly someone called who had seen me on YouTube. She felt a touch on her back when I shared a word of knowledge about Eve with back pain“, says the evangelist, who specifies that he gives all the credit for this to Jesus.
Haddal later met Eva in a cafe, where he shared more about Jesus and the Christian faith. In her quiet mind she thought that this was not for her. “- I respect what you believe in, but I am satisfied with what I myself believe in and practice,” she thought to herself. Nevertheless, she chose to agree to join Haddal at a Christian meeting.
“- I thought it wasn’t for me, but at the same time felt a pull towards walking towards this meeting, she says. What this visit would mean, she had never imagined.
The meeting was held in a packed conference room in Rogaland, Norway. While Haddal sat at the very front, she herself chose the back row, with a short way to the exit. The topics that were discussed were foreign to her, but she noticed that those present were very dedicated.
“- They talked a lot about water baptism, I thought it was a ritual you had to go through to become part of the community“, she says.
The meetings stretched over several days, but Eva soon had enough. After half an hour she left the place.
The following night she woke up with an inexplicable desire to be baptised, she says.
The next day she therefore took an extra set of clothes with her, and stood in a queue with 70 others who wanted to be baptized. It was then that she began to wonder why she, who had no interest in Christianity, was even standing there.
“- Okay, God, if you see and hear me, and think it is good for me to be baptized, then I will go first. I can’t stand in this line and be unsure“, she thought. Soon after, the leader of the meeting came up to her and asked if she was the one who had been there the day before, and if she wanted to be baptized. She answered yes to that. “- Then you can go first“, said the meeting leader and took her out of the queue. “- Oh, what’s happening now, sort of,” she asked herself.
In front of the baptismal font, when she was going to confess her sin, she did not come up with anything special at first. Then, for a split second, she was suddenly convinced that things were not as good as she thought.
I realized that “- Wow, I’ve actually done a lot wrong in God’s eyes, and there’s a lot I don’t want to continue with”, she says. She didn’t quite understand why, but an inner feeling of wanting to start over pressed on. “- I’ve done so much that I need a new life,” she remembers saying to the man who was going to baptize her. “- Yes, Jesus can help you with that,” was the answer she got.
She was amazed at how easy it seemed to get a new life. If it was just a matter of ducking under the water and coming back up – it was no big deal!”- Oh, it was easy to become a Christian“, she thought. But the baptism was to prove to be far from easy.
“A Spiritual Battle” In the baptismal pool, during the laying on of hands, she experienced something she had never experienced in her life. Eva finds it difficult to put into words or explain what happened, but realized that she encountered a spiritual reality that she had no idea existed. She was conscious, but experienced that her body responded to the baptism with physical and verbal reactions over which she had no control. “- I believe that there are angels and demons. I experienced that there was an eviction of one thing after another. I was set free from a great deal. It was really tough“, she says.
Four men were needed to prevent her being dragged under the water, several witnesses to the baptism are said to have told her afterwards. She herself felt as if someone was trying to push her under the water. She describes the incident as a brutal “spiritual battle” that lasted about 20 minutes. “- It was absolutely terrible. I experienced that I got an insight into a dark world“, she says. That’s when she called out to Jesus.
“- Where is Jesus, shouldn’t he help me? Where is he who was supposed to be my rescue“, she thought. In the middle of the intense fight, she experienced a sudden shift. Then Jesus came. “– In that moment I realized that he is real, and I got to experience his love and peace“, she says. From one millisecond to the next, she realized that Jesus is not just someone you talk about, but a living God who loves and sees her. And who will heal her.
“- So much happened the moment I met Jesus, it felt like getting a new heart. I was physically, spiritually and emotionally healed in my heart.”
She experienced it as getting a new life, and immediately realized that she no longer wanted anything to do with yoga, chakras or the alternative spiritual environment of New age. This despite the fact that she had positive experiences with it from before. Shortly after the water baptism, she experienced that she saw the evil roots of both yoga and chakra. “- I saw how dark it is, and how trapped you become“, she says. Eva believes that yoga is more than a physical movement, and that it is a spiritual practice linked to Hinduism.
The meeting with Jesus set a completely new course in Eva’s life, and there was a lot of new things to learn about. “- Suddenly I became a Christian, how do you live then“, she asked herself. Seven years later, she can look back on what followed; Bible school, mission trips, teachings, coaching and work in psychiatry. She has also spoken in various congregations and assemblies.
But it is not only the external circumstances that have changed. She has found a new peace on the inside, and she tells of many moments with Jesus on. Today, she is grateful for what happened to her. She had an encounter with The truth and with a Love that surpasses all understanding. “- There is a freedom in Jesus“, she concludes.
Liberation can be both undramatic and dramatic
Øyvind Gaarder, senior lecturer at the University of Management and Theology (HLT), has read parts of the story of Eve, and believes it is a testimony of spiritual realities that the Bible describes. “- I myself have witnessed deliverance from evil spirits many times, mostly in Africa, but also here in Norway. It can happen in various ways. Dramatic, as in this case, or undramatic.“
He also feels that there are degrees of demonic influence involved, and in many cases he believes it may be more correct to call it a deliverance than an exorcism. “- I have heard a number of testimonies from people who have been involved in new spiritual practices, and who, through faith in Jesus, have been set free from a spiritual darkness they were brought into.” Gaarder Andersen believes that the more the church sees people come to faith in Jesus, the more it will also see the need for deliverance from evil spirits and their influence.
https://www.dagen.no/korsets-seier/dramatisk-dap-jeg-fikk-innblikk-i-en-mork-verden/1552299
