Todd taught on the Spirit of Python in the morning session. I had glanced at the notes and thought that this would not apply to me because that spirit seemed to deal with witchcraft and occult things, things that I found repulsive and would not willingly have anything to do with. However, he described how a python kills it's prey. (Oddly, I had seen a nature special a while ago on snakes and it had also detailed the same thing about how a python kills it's prey.) It wraps around the prey's lung area and squeezes the ribs. Each time the prey breathes out, the python tightens its grip so that the prey can't breath in as deeply. It eventually gets wrapped so tightly around the rib cage that the victim can't inhale at all and suffocates to death. Then Todd began to relate that to various things in a person's life that leave them feeling drained and weak and low on energy.
That caught my attention, as I'd had a series of health attacks over the past year that had left me that way. I had thought that I was so low on energy and low on resistance to disease because I had spent seven years burning the candle at both ends by working both a full time secular job (to pay the bills) and a full time ministry job (to fulfill my calling). I thought my resistance was low because I'd pushed so hard for seven years and wore myself down. But as Todd did this teaching, I began to realize that this thing was effecting me.
At first it troubled me immensely, as it seemed to be a spirit that dealt with the occult, witchcraft, etc and I adamantly refused to have anything to do with any "power source" other than the Holy Spirit. I could not figure out why this thing would have a stronghold on me. Then Todd said something that made a lot of sense to me and solved my dilemma. He said that it is not uncommon for the spirit of python to attach to returning missionaries. Missionaries are often witchcraft cursed in the country where they ministered without their being aware of it. That gives the spirit of python a justification to attack them even though they personally did not participate in anything occult. His explanation made a lot of sense to me and things fell into place.
The health and energy problems started when I returned from Australia and New Zealand. I ended up in the hospital with an intestinal malady that I'd picked up in New Zealand. And I went to Brazil shortly after that, where my body had a reaction to my anti-malaria medication that ended up giving me severe acid reflux disease (a digestive disorder). Five months later I went to Mozambique, where I caught malaria. And after the malaria was over, I simply did not have any energy left. I am told that is not uncommon from malaria, because the parasites damage both your red blood cells and your ability to produce red blood cells , which carry nutrients and oxygen to your body. The net effect was that what used to be a light day would wear me out as if it were a very strenuous day. And if I had a truly strenuous day, I would be totally wiped out and non-functional for three days afterwards. It made perfect sense to me -- my symptoms were all related to problems picked up on returning from various missions trips. And each time I went out for a trip, I picked up yet another serious condition which added to my overall health and energy problems. In fact, my energy was so low that I found it totally exhausting to simply sit in the three teaching sessions a day for four days.
So I was more than ready for the ministry time to deal with this thing. But Todd said he was going to defer the ministry time on spirit of python until when he did ministry for "breaking generational curses" and dismissed us for lunch. I was mildly disappointed but figured it was only a few hours, so it would be ok.
After lunch he taught on generational curses. I had dealt with my generational stuff a long time ago, so I did not expect God to nail me on anything in that segment. However, to my surprise, God hit something. In addition to generational curses, Todd talked about self-curses and attitudes. He talked about one area where the Holy Spirit nailed me -- being critical or judgmental of other ministries. In fact, the ministry that I had been judgmental of was Todd's ministry, because his method of self-promoting his meetings via the internet in his early days had offended me. Because of that, I had never been to any of Todd's meetings before. I had erroneously judged him as being arrogant and self-promoting. I had been very surprised when God had told me to go to Todd's school of healing, since I did not think very highly of Todd. I had obeyed God because I was committed to obeying him. And at the four day school, I had seen that my earlier evaluation of Todd had been wrong and I had changed my opinion of him to a very positive opinion.
But the Holy Spirit was not going to let me off the hook that easily. He convicted me for having judged Todd in the first place, reminding me that He is the judge and I am His servant -- that I did not have a right to judge any person or ministry. I repented, and I was genuinely sorry about it. I could see my judgment had been wrong and I knew God was displeased about it. Then He reminded me of a negative remark I'd made to Bob Brasset about Todd. I knew I had to take two corrective actions regarding this. I had to write a note to Todd apologizing to him and I had to contact Bob and apologize to him as well. I purposed in my heart that I would definitely take these two corrective actions and I again approached the Lord for any further instructions. I felt God's pleasure at my repentance and I knew that I was forgiven. His presence and power came on me and I was lost in Him for a bit. I asked Him to help me not to judge others, not to be critical of others, but to be filled with His grace. I invited Him to transform me in that area. My prayer was very sincere, and I think it must have been pleasing to God, because the tangible sense of His presence on me increased.
As soon as the ministry time was over, I staggered back to my chair and sat down and wrote the note to Todd -- confessing and apologizing for my misjudgment of him. Then I looked around for one of his staff to give the note to, but they'd all gone to dinner. After the dinner break, I found one of his staff and gave the note to her, asking her to give it to Todd. I felt some release in doing that, because I had obeyed God and did what He showed me to do. The next morning I sent an email to Bob Brasset apologizing for having criticized Todd to him. It felt very good to take those corrective actions, and I felt like some enemy resistance against my own ministry was broken off when I did so.
It was a great ministry time. However, Todd never did deal with the spirit of python. So I made a mental note that I should ask some of the people from my church who attended the conference to minister to me regarding that.
[Previous Article] [Next Article]