I’ve been in Nepal for a little over a month now. It’s been absolutely incredible. My first month here was spent doing something that the world race calls “Man-istry.” Manistry is a time where all of the men of the squad get together on one big (womanless) team and do ministry together. Everything about manistry was awesome. The host that we stayed with was awesome. The food was awesome. The community was awesome. The ministry was awesomest.
We spent the month doing a lot of different types of ministry. Some days we would go to Nepal’s largest and most sacred Hindu/Buddhist temples so that we could pray over the passing crowds and ask the Holy Spirit what He wanted us to do. Some days we would go to the slums and love on the community there. Some days we would go to widows homes and pray over the sweet women that lived there. Some days we would play soccer with orphans. Some days we would walk through unreached villages to share the incredible news of Jesus with people.
And one day we casted out demons… (I’ll get to that shortly.)
About halfway through manistry all of us took an excruciating eight hour bus ride to the southern border of Nepal to do ministry for a week in a small village in the middle of nowhere. Satan was utterly scared of us spending time in that village because about half of us got sick the night before or the day of the bus ride.
For the first four days in the village we walked for a few hours a day going from house to house either encouraging believers or sharing the Gospel. Those first few days were so, so encouraging. When we went to the homes of the believers throughout this village we heard the most insane testimonies and God stories. Up until this point in time, I had only heard stories like this second-hand. It was ironic… We were supposed to be encouraging them but they were encouraging us. I quickly realized that these people were living out their faith more than pretty much anyone that I’ve ever met. Their lives completely reflected Jesus. They gave Him everything because they realized that He IS everything. They took the Word of God literally… Unlike the unfortunate majority of the lukewarm American Church.
Revelation 3:15-16
I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
Think about it…
It doesn’t make sense for these people to be lukewarm. If these people truly live by the Spirit and if Jesus reigns as the King of their hearts then they’re outcasted from their communities and their families. They become a disgrace. They’re persecuted. It doesn’t make sense to be lukewarm when that’s what is at stake. Persecution truly does make the church thrive. Persecution refines the church body by driving out all of the people that aren’t willing to give Jesus absolute devotion. It was so freaking cool to see a church body where every single member of the body is fully devoted to Jesus.
On the fifth day in the village our Pastor said that we were going to a “Healing Program” which was his broken-english way of saying that we’re going to a revival. We showed up to the revival around 11 A.M. to find 300+ people sitting on the grass in front of a stage. We were given sashes that said “Volunteers.” However, for the first 2 hours of the revival we did nothing but talk to each other and play cards. Everything was in Nepalese so we were pretty out of the loop. Then we heard english start coming from the blasting speakers so we all stood up to see who was speaking. The lady that was preaching was introduced as “Prophet Sarah from the UK.” We were intrigued and wanted to listen to what she had to say so we collectively moved toward the stage. About twenty minutes into her “message” we were all highly skeptical of the things that she was saying. Honestly, very little of what she was saying was biblical. At the half hour mark of her message she ran out of things to say so she called the sick of the crowd to the foot of the stage to be prayed over. 80% of the crowd forced their way to the stage. Our Pastor told us that this is where we come in – we needed to pray for all of the weary and sick. “Prophet” Sarah made her way off of the stage and into the crowd. She started walking through the crowd touching everyone she passed. The people she touched had varying reactions. Some didn’t have any reaction at all, some bursted out in violent screaming, some passed out, some began violently weeping, some began shaking and sweating… It was really, really weird. This woman was saying, “Holy Spirit fire come on them now!!!” However, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. What was coming upon these people did not seem to be the Holy Spirit. As soon as I saw this happening, I began following the woman through the crowd with my brothers, laying hands and praying over every person that she touched. Chaos began erupting everywhere. People where collapsing and screaming all around us. I saw one of my team mates, Zac, laying hands on a woman that was lashing around violently so I made my way through the crowd to him. There was a pastor that was part of the revival-team that was holding this woman screaming into her face. He was speaking Nepalese so Zac and I weren’t entirely sure of what was happening. Then the woman collapsed. The Pastor turned to us and said, “She’s possessed and the demon refuses to come out. It’s tormenting her.” The pastor continued praying for her.
Zac turned to me and said that he felt like we needed to go on the stage to pray for the people that were unconscious up there. I was literally just thinking that exact same thought so I agreed and we hopped onto the stage. We prayed for a few different possessed people for about 15 minutes. I started to pray for the fourth person when the Spirit interrupted me and told me to look out into the crowd. I stood up, looked out into the crowd, and heard a man start violently screaming. I knew that wherever that scream had just come from is where I needed to be. I jumped off of the stage and found the man. My team mates -Kit and Mark- were crouched next to the man. They explained to me that the man didn’t speak any english but he had motioned to them to pray for his eyes. They said that when they started praying for his eyes the man started screaming, shaking, and sweating profusely. They said that they figured he was already possessed but when they started praying for him – the demon manifested itself. The man was on the ground with his legs laid out in front of him with his arms at his side. There was a crazy amount of sweat coming from every pour of his body. I sat down in front of him and grabbed his face with both of my hands. I began to speak to the demon commanding it to come out in Jesus’s name. He began writhing around in my grip and lashing his tongue out at me. His eyes were rolled into the back of his head this whole time. It seemed like he couldn’t look at me so I began telling the demon to look at me. I said, “You know who I am. I’m a disciple of Jesus Christ and you’re terrified to look at me in the eyes. In Jesus’s name, look at me!” The demon started started shaking and writhing even more and screamed at me, “No! No!” Then the man passed out. We woke him back up and I kept commanding it to look at me but it couldn’t. After a few more minutes of all of us praying over him he shot back onto the ground and passed out again. We all stood over him intensely looking and waiting to see what would happen. His eyes shot open and he gasped for air and sat up. He looked like a completely different person. He looked extremely disoriented and confused. We asked him if he knew what had just happened. The translator explained that this man had no recollection of what had just happened but the man said that he often experienced possession when he worshipped in the hindu temples. We asked that the translator ask him if he was a Christian. He said that he became a Christian a month ago.
According to scripture, it’s impossible to be possessed if you have the Holy Spirit inside of you. Through the translator, I explained to the man that he had not yet received the gift of the Holy Spirit. I explained that when the Holy Spirit enters him, he will be protected forever. I explained that the Holy Spirit will change him from the inside out – giving him new desires. Then I asked him if he wanted to receive God’s spirit. He nodded his head vigorously and then prayed with the translator.
That day was crazy.
I love this life.
