The Day that I wrestled Pete Brownhill

The past week has been intensely busy for us. Our outreach groups are now in the process of praying for finances to be released for our trips. We believe that God will provide everything for us and we have basically the rest of the week to raise it.

Today we heard from the founder of YWAM Perth, Pete Brownhill. Pete is fairly athletic for being in his mid-50's. In his younger days he played all kinds of sports before God spoke to Him one day in the shower and told him to go to Perth and start a YWAM base there. Pete was obedient and almost thirty years later the Perth base stands at 300 students and staff with multiple ministries here in Perth City and in Asia. Pete speaks from his years of experience teaching and leading YWAM Training Schools.

Spiritual warfare is one of the main topics that we have touched on here in Perth. It's not just a matter of knowing the armor in Ephesians 6. YWAM teaches practical application when it comes with confronting Satan.

"We have here something in Australia that we call squatters," Pete begins. "Does everyone here know what a squatter is?" He looks to the students, having in mind that English is not everyone's first language. "A squatter is a person who stays and lives on a piece of property, pretending it's their's." Pete pauses for a moment and then explains, "Satan is like a squatter. He pretends that the world is his until someone with the right authority and power comes and kicks him out. Let me have a couple of you guys come up here."
"You," he points to Campy, an eighteen year-old with long curly brown hair. "And you," he points to me. Both Campy and I look at each other and smile and get up to the front of the class. "Now let's say I have a piece of land that I'm going to retire on. It's a little house in mountains, right by a lake with a barbie outside where we have barbequed wallaby. Now let's say that one day I come to my little house I see these blokes here staying on my land," Pete points to us, "using my house and barbie and I come to them and say you can't be here this is my property. And they say, 'no we're not leaving.' I then go and leave and come back with a certificate of ownership of the land and tell them, 'see here this says that I own the land now you have to leave.' And what do they do," Pete asks. "They take my little certificate and rip it up and throw it on the barbeque. Well then what do I do next?" Pete asks. "Let's have you Caleb and you Addam come up here." Caleb and Addam both come up.

Campy and I are on oneside of the class. Pete, Caleb, and Addam are on the other side. I have a feeling of what's coming next so I square off with Caleb. Campy and Addam are both younger and are roughly the same size. Caleb and I are both the same age and size as well I figure Campy will have a better time with Addam.

"So I have a couple of buddies here," Pete continues, "...and they're here with me. And we come back to these blokes again and we say get off our land. And what do they do? They're stubborn." Pete draws closer to the center between the two groups of men. "And they tell us 'no' again. So we have to forcibly remove them..." In a flash Pete grabs me in some kind of rugby hold. Adam and Caleb take after Campy. I throw myself at the wall hoping to break Pete's hold on me but the guy is strong and I can't move my arms. The class cheers as Campy and I try resist all three men. I can't see much as Pete and I struggle against one another but I can see Campy, who is a half a foot shorter than me, picking up Caleb. Adam joins Pete but I get my hand out from Pete and put Addam in a head hold. All five us wrestle the others until finally Adam, Caleb, and Pete force us off the front of the class.

The point Pete was making was as Children of God we're given the right or authority to tell Satan to leave. We face Satan in various places such as our own personal life when we struggle with something in which Satan is behind, or in physical places like the countries that we're going to on our Outreach. The Enemy has strongholds in these places and he won't leave until someone who has the authority tell him to leave. But we also need something else. Pete explained that we need power and the Holy Spirit can provide this. Just as in the situation where Campy and I were acting as squatters that needed to be physcially forcibly removed, Satan must be forcibly removed by the power that the Holy Spirit gives us.

Pete made a really great analogy to how our authority as Children of God work. Caleb is Pete's eldest son. He's twenty-eight. If Pete were to leave the country he could legally give Caleb authority over of all his possessions and responsibilities. Pete is basicaly giving Caleb the authority to act on his behalf. The same thing has happened with us and Christ. Christ has given the authority to act on His behalf. He is empowering us to do the things He would be doing if He was here.

Anyway it was fun wrestling with the founder of YWAM Perth, even though I lost it taught me a great lesson.

Just a couple of more weeks before Christmas and our Outreach. For those of you who regularly read my blog please pray that our team would be able to receive all of our support.