As those of you who read my previous blog know, last month was a crazy month and I saw God do things I had never seen before. I saw a woman be possessed by a demon for 24 hours and I saw God deliver her and bring her to the knowledge of Christ Jesus. For more information on what I learned and details about the deliverance read my blog linked here. I just want to dedicate this blog to what I learned about the spiritual realm during my time in Gorkha and the similarities it has both in Nepal and the United States and all over the world. To begin with, our host gave us a hint that we might encounter something like what we encountered by telling us that one of the previous world race teams that went up to those mountains encountered a demon possessed man who used to beat people and whenever someone tried to subdue him with chains, he would snap and break them with his strength. That previous world race team prayed for this man that the Lord would deliver him and he was delivered and gave his life to Christ.
When we arrived in Gorkha, we had the opportunity to meet this man and right away I noticed key similarities between this man and people back in America. The man had been in bondage to this demon for 15 years. He would alternate between states where it seemed like he was in control and moments where he was completely possessed and it was obvious he couldn’t control his actions. He was a slave to the “Ruler of this World” and even when it seemed like he was in control, he was truly in bondage. The same thing was true of the girl who was delivered while we were there. I look at how demons behave and operated and held people in bondage in Nepal and I asked myself if demons really behaved differently here in Nepal than they did back in America. I thought to myself how the primary thing the demon seemed to be concerned with when it occupied the girls body was self-harm. I thought to myself how common self-harm, depression, and suicide were in the United States. The demon boasted to us that it had already taken the lives of 14 people. I wonder how many demons back in America can boast taking more lives than that.
The biggest difference between life in Nepal and life in America is awareness of the spiritual realm. In Nepal, the spiritual realm is so obvious and no one would deny that it exists. However, in America, Satan is so crafty and has convinced even the church of Christ that his dominion is somehow less real than it was during Jesus’ time. We tend to attribute everything we see to physical and scientific explanations. Even though science is one of the greatest advances of the 21st century, science can only explain what is seen and cannot explain that which is unseen, aka the spiritual realm. The Bible says there is a war going on out there for our very souls. The devil would have us believe that our war is against flesh and blood because when we fight the wrong enemy, we lose 100% of the time. We tend to explain away things like depression, addiction, and suicide to the physical imbalances that are associated with these behaviors, but what if there an unseen cause. Something that can’t be tested in a lab or observed. Something that defies everything we think we know about the world.
What if the cure to depression or the way to break free from addiction was not some sort of therapy program and anti-depressant drugs? What if the reason it seems like so many people are losing these wars is because they are fighting the wrong battle? What if all these programs and drugs are battling the symptoms and allowing the underlying cause to remain and giving only perceived victory? I say these things not to say that these things don’t have their place. I have seen lots of good come from these programs, but the ultimate thirst and need for our souls is not found in any of that. It is found in the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Christ Jesus!!! We can’t expect true freedom from our sins, addictions, and depression outside of the overwhelming power of the blood of Jesus to conquer all things that cause death and to bring life. We are all born dead and enslaved to sin and the “Ruler of this World” and he doesn’t need to make us go all wild and do crazy things to possess us. He just needs us to bow down before anything that isn’t Jesus.
A few days after the Lord delivered the girl from the demon, we went to the highest point in all of Gorkha; a temple dedicated to gods of Hinduism where over 8,000 animals are sacrificed a year on a special holiday and where the demonic is praised as though it were God. Deuteronomy 32:16-17 warns against idolatry and compares it to worshipping demons. Whenever you worship anything besides god, you are giving a demon power over your life. The demon may not possess and physically take away your control, however, all it needs to do is give you the illusion that you are in control when in fact you are enslaved. We climbed up to the highest point and started praying that the Lord would take it all down and that he would make his name great here. Because when a demon enslaves someone all he brings is death, but Jesus came to bring life. So we prayed that God would push back the darkness, the same way we prayed for that girl to be delivered. I truly believe if every believer in America would take the time to pray for deliverance for their friends who aren’t believers and are worshipping idols the way we took 24 hours to do it as a whole body of believers, we would see revival in all of America. However, often we are fooled and distracted, focused on the wrong enemy on the physical world that is going to perish and we ignore the spiritual world that is going to last forever. I want to challenge you to dedicate your life to prayer that God brings freedom and deliverance to all of your friends who don’t know Christ as if they were possessed by a demon who was trying to cause them self harm and see if God doesn’t begin transforming and changing lives.
