PAULINA... A Life With A Difference
© OLAYEMI GRACE

EPISODE TWELVE
Immediately she entered the prayer room, the lady began to scream and beg for forgiveness.

“I’ll leave her alone, I’ll leave your church, I’ll never come back here to spy on your liberty anymore,” the spirit was speaking through the lady.

Paulina just stood there without saying a word and when the lady maintained eye contact with her, the spirit left her and she fell to the ground becoming almost lifeless. Paulina went over to pray for her and after a short prayer she came around and was made to sit down. Paulina excused the others and asked to address the situation and they obliged to her.

“How are you sister Lizzy?” She asked the lady.

“I don’t know how I’m feeling. My head hurts, my body is aching and I’m looking all dirty and I must have fainted because it seems something happened to me and I don’t seem to know what it was,” Lizzy replied in uttermost confusion.

“You were manipulated and taken over by an evil spirit that was sent to the church to distract people and to hinder the heart of people from concentrating on the sermon,” Paulina explained to the confused sister.

“I can’t believe this,” she screamed in surprise and began to cry.

“Does this mean I will run mad?” She asked in tears.

“Not at all, just that the spirit found a vacuum in you and decided to use your body to perform its evil deeds. You know a spirit cannot really operate in this realm without a body,” Paulina tried to explain to her.

“The question I want to ask you is that how was the spirit able to get a hold of you? If you are a Christian and filled with the spirit of God, no evil spirit can possess your body,” Paulina asked with concern and utmost surprise.

“I’m a Christian by the grace of God,” Lizzy replied.

“Let me rephrase the question, are you truly born-again?”

“I am,” Lizzy answered.

There was silence for some minutes as Paulina was praying silently for God to reveal where the missing link was so they can proffer solution to the problem. Because she knew just as the bible said that if an evil spirit was cast out from an individual and the spirit goes through arid regions and when he does not find a place of rest would conclude that he should go back to his house (the individual he was cast out from). When he gets to the place and meets the heart of the person swept clean but empty, he would look for seven other spirits more powerful than himself and they would invade the life of the person. And the bible says the latter end of that person would be worse than the beginning. That was the danger of conducting deliverance for a person and leaving the person without ensuring that Christ was enthroned in the person’s heart.

After a while, the source of the problem was impressed on Paulina’s heart and she was thankful to the Holy Spirit.

“Did you have a quarrel or misunderstanding with any one recently?” Paulina asked.

Lizzy thought for some seconds and was about to say no when she remembered something.

“I think so,” she replied.

“That is it. When you fight with someone as a Christian, you open the door for the devil to come in.”

“Did you reconcile with the person after the fight?” Paulina asked.

“No,” Lizzy replied.

“That was what gave the place for the devil to find expression in you. You see, actions like fighting, evil speaking, unforgiveness, malice, etc grieves the Holy Spirit and this makes Him leave which would in turn make the believer vulnerable to anything coming from the kingdom of Satan. I just thank God it was not more than that and that you had not died in that state because that would be a straight journey to hell. That is why many people would be surprised at the end when they hear depart from me all you workers of iniquities. Little things like these really matters and that is why the bible says we should examine ourselves always whether we are still in the faith and we should judge ourselves before the judgment of God comes.”

“What do I do now?” Lizzy asked.

“Ask God to forgive you and ask the Holy Spirit to come back into your heart then you would go and make peace with whomsoever you had a quarrel with.”

“Remember, the bible says “follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.”

Lizzy quickly went on her knees and was asking God for forgiveness. Paulina also joined her in prayers and afterward prayed with her. She was really grateful to God for the second chance she had to make her ways right and was also grateful to Paulina for not leaving her after the deliverance but for helping her solve the problem from the source. She expressed her gratitude and Paulina just returned all the glory to God since it belongs to Him. They left the prayer room and went into the main church where they discovered that the service had ended and almost everyone had left the church except few people that were hanging around to gist and others who were waiting to see the president for counseling.


EPISODE THIRTEEN
Paulina went to where she sat earlier to say a word of prayer and to get her belongings so she would head home. It was getting late and she was pretty sure her roommates would not wait for her because she was used to staying in church for long hours after service, sometimes to address her team members, pray with them or pray with people that come to her for prayers. Some people have even concluded that more people wait to see Paulina after the service than the president or the sisters’ coordinator.

After stepping out of the church, she met some sisters and they greeted her which she responded and exchanged some pleasantries with them and she walked away. Just as she left, they began to talk about her. They said a lot of nasty things and made derogatory comments about her. They said she was proud and that all that happened that evening was staged just to make her popular and people should think she was spiritual.

“Nobody called her into the prayer room when the prayer was ongoing but she found her way there just for show off,” one of them remarked.

“Exactly, I even heard she asked everyone to leave and took over the deliverance,” another said.

“Such an egoistic lady,” another retorted.

They continued by saying that she was always giving her used clothes to people just to show that she had rich parents and that all her devotion in church and outside church were just camouflages to deceive people.

Unknown to those sisters, a brother who was leaning against the wall behind them unintentionally eavesdropped on their conversation and he was taken aback to hear such things coming from supposed Christian sisters.

“I’m really disappointed in you sisters,” Bro Jerry said as he walked up to them.

He could no longer bear the insults and degradation they were putting up to a fellow sister just because she was better than them.

“To even imagine that you people are workers in this fellowship is so disheartening,” he said looking at them sternly.

“When the sister was here, you all greeted her and acted like saints but behind her you are busy biting her with your tongues. You will still use the same mouth to sing worship to God and to pray and you would expect God to hear you. Let me tell you something, backbiting and gossiping is a product of envy. You people are just envious of how God is using a fellow lady like you and instead of you to move closer to her to discover how she was able to attain such heights; you are here sinning against God. That is the problem of many so called Christians today, once they see someone doing something they wanted to do or what they had tried and failed at, instead of they to humble themselves and become a mentee to the person so they can learn, they would start criticizing the person as a way of covering their inner frustrations. You better go and beg God for forgiveness and apologize to her because what I witnessed tonight is sin against God,” Bro Jerry concluded and walked away from them saddened with the height of envy, jealousy, and hatred being portrayed in the body of Christ.
To be continued...

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