Having returned to Jacksonville, Daniels says she hit the streets even harder after her baby died, hanging out with the roughest people she could find. But when her father, himself jailed for racketeering, told her he never thought she’d turn out like this, Daniels realized she needed to make a change.
She says something whispered to her, “Go into the military,” and she joined the Army. Finally kicking her habit, Daniels began to taste success. Her son, Mike, was now living with her, and she had married a fellow serviceman.
It was 1987, and she went home on leave for a month before being stationed in Germany. While visiting her stepmother, who had recently given her life to Christ, Daniels watched the end-times flick A Thief in the Night.
“This movie rocked my world, and I wasn’t good for anything but Jesus,” Daniels says. “I found out I was on my way to hell and urgently needed to change course.”
She and her son committed their lives to Christ, and her husband later followed suit. But unexpected challenges awaited them in Germany. Daniels began experiencing strange manifestations of evil. She dreamed of devilish imps pulling her son from his bed, and on another occasion felt wiry, monkey arms come from under the bed and pin her down. She cried out to Jesus, but felt a hand on her mouth and heard a voice telling her to shut up.
Not knowing how to pray, Daniels says she read Prayers That Avail Much by Germaine Copelend along with Kenneth Hagin’s books on faith. Sensing that she needed something more, Daniels returned to the United States to attend Hagin’s camp meeting.
At a prayer meeting in her hotel with other attendees, Daniels says someone prophesied, “An unclean spirit is among us.” Believing this word was for her, Daniels stepped forward to receive prayer. When the meeting was over, she says she was free from demonic oppression, had been baptized in the Holy Spirit and was speaking in tongues.
Stomping on the Devil
Armed with the knowledge that she had authority over Satan, Daniels returned to Germany “lit up like a firecracker.” When she prayed for people at the hospital where she worked, demons manifested. She still didn’t know much about spiritual warfare, but had heard a voice say, “In My name they shall cast out demons.”
Daniels flourished under a charismatic ministry in Frankfurt, Germany, and was mentored by two seasoned prayer warriors in the United States. When she left the military in 1992 and returned to Jacksonville with her family–which now included a daughter, Faith–Daniels was prepared to “kick the devil’s butt.”
Along with two other praying women, Daniels went to prisons, crack houses and tough neighborhoods preaching the gospel, casting out demons and baptizing people in the Holy Spirit. With their reputation spreading, the trio became known as the “demon busters.”
In 1996, Daniels and her husband founded Spoken Word church with a handful of faithful members. But before long, she felt a backlash from the dark side as voodoo priests and witch doctors confronted her with curses and attempts on her life. She would find dead animals on the front steps of the church, and once there was a stench in the church that took weeks to remove.
During this season, Daniels says she learned the mechanics of spiritual warfare. When young people involved in the African religion Yoruba sought her out for deliverance, they introduced themselves by naming the strongmen over their heads, telling her that in order to help them, she’d have to deal with these demonic forces.
“I taught them Jesus, and they taught me warfare,” Daniels recalls. “They were used to fighting. They were used to spiritual warfare from the dark side.”
Not easily intimidated, Daniels confronts demons boldly, often calling them “sissy, punk gods” before casting them out. Though unconventional, her method has produced much fruit.
Lavette Peoples, 29, was a practicing witch when she first visited Spoken Word Ministries (SWM). “I participated in spells, blood and animal sacrifices, astral projection and conjured up demons,” says Peoples, now an intercessor at SWM. “I was crying out for help, and nobody in the city recognized I was full of demons. But when I went to Kim’s church, I received deliverance.
“My life is changed. I was told I could not get out of the Yoruba religion, but who the Son sets free is free indeed.”
L.A. Marzulli