At the beginning of this Devotional
I want to issue a warning!
Some, perhaps many…
May not like or agree with
What they are about to read
And some may even be offended
By what they are about to read
It is NOT my intention to offend
But rather to retell “My Story”
What you are about to read
Happened to me (Alan Capper)
Over 30 years ago
It is, in a sense, a bit
Autobiographical
And as such is a retelling
Of an event that happened to me
The timing, for telling this now,
I believe is right
As I talked recently about
Two demon possessed men
Being delivered by Jesus
And also after what I preached
In my sermon on Sunday
14th February 2021
Shortly into my ministry
As a newly Ordained Minister
I suffered with a strange illness
Every Wednesday night
Thursday morning
I would begin to develop
A sniffle and a cough
Which would continue
Into Sunday service until
I finished preaching
Then immediately after the Service
Would disappear…
Until the next Wednesday evening…
After some consultation
I went to visit another Minister
In Rostrevor, to seek advice and help
On telling him what had been
Happening to me
He asked me a question
“Out of the blue”
“Alan, are you a Mason?”
I immediately thought, “What?”
And replied “No”
He then asked me if my father
Was a Mason?
And again I said “No”
He then asked me about
My grandfather
And at this point I stopped him
“Why, what has this got to do with
Me having a cold and a cough?
And me having difficulty in preaching?”
He then directed me to the Ten Commandments
“For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers
upon the children to the third and fourth
generations of those who hate Me”
(Exodus 20:5)
I am generation One
My father is generation Two
My grandfather is generation Three
And, my great grandfather is generation Four
I told him that I never knew my grandfather
How would I even be able to guess about
My great grandfather?
In response, he told me that
I could solve this problem very easily
Just pray a simple prayer
Renouncing Freemasonry
At this point everything changed
I started to have difficulty thinking
I didn’t know what to do
I became evasive and stumbled
Over words
I was a Minister – I knew HOW to pray
But found that I was finding it difficult
To PRAY
Eventually, I acted really silly and asked
Him what EXACTLY he wanted me to pray?
And he said, pray this Alan
“Heavenly Father, I renounce Freemasonry
In Jesus name. Amen.”
SIMPLE
Simple prayer
But then things got VERY strange
I couldn’t get beyond:
“Heavenly Father, I re…”
(If you are still with me
This is my story
This DID happen to me)
I was SHOCKED with myself
With my inability to speak out loud
A simple prayer
Remember I mentioned the
Two demon possessed men
And how in that story
The demons started talking to Jesus
Well, as I struggled with my prayer
I forced myself to SAY the words
And as I said the word “renounce”
My voice dropped about what seemed
Like two octaves (a musical term)
Now I sing First Tenor
Which is “high” musically
Two octaves below is a deep bass
Which I am not capable of singing
Put another way
The voice coming out of MY mouth
Was not mine
Scary – VERY
But I forced myself to pray the prayer
And with much effort
I DID
As soon as I had said “Amen.”
I resaid the prayer
With EASE
And again, I was shocked
What had just happened?
What was going on?
HELP!
Remember
This is my story
It is how I remember it
NOT that I would ever forget it
After that meeting in Rostrevor
The sniffling and coughing
STOPPED
I had been SET FREE