If you’ve known me for any of amount of time, you’ll know very well that I shy away from scary movies, haunted houses, or anything that has a tendency to terrify the daylights out of people. I am not a fan. In this blog post, however, I will describe my first-ever encounter with demonic possession.
Just a few days ago, the opportunity arose for me and another of my teammates, Luke, to attend a deliverance of a teenage girl. PT* (our contact this month) originally presented the opportunity to the team leaders. He explained there was space available for one guy and one girl from each team to go to a church in a nearby town and pray for release from demon possession for a girl named Tara*. I overheard the team leader from the team we’re with this month talking about it to one of his teammates and my heart actually leapt at the opportunity, which is odd because usually this is not the sort of ministry I am excited to participate in. I thought back to when I went to see “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” as a teenager and then had to leave my closet light on for a month so I could sleep. Assuming Jeff would tell our team about it later, I went upstairs and took a nap. Jeff asked if he could speak to me later on in the day, then asked me if I’d like to be the female from our team to go. This was confirmation from God that I was supposed to be there. I had been chosen. I agreed and began to pray for courage and wisdom.
We arrived at church at around 7:30 to join a small group of believers in a time of prayer, thanksgiving and praise. It was our understanding that Tara and her family would join us at the church, so when she did not arrive, we all grew anxious. PT told us we would be meeting at the family’s house instead. Silently, the five of us got into the car and began the journey to her house.
On the way over, PT told us the story of how he met Tara and her family: On his way out of town this past weekend, he and his family had stopped for breakfast at a café in the town where the family lives. They were enjoying their breakfast when all of a sudden he heard shrill screams. The café was next door to a Chinese witch doctor’s establishment. Tara’s family had taken her there to see if she could be cured of demon possession. PT walked over and told them that they should not pay the witch doctor anything, that it would only get worse if he performed a ritual on her. PT offered his phone number and told the family that he and his friend Amos* would gladly pray for her. The next day, Tara’s mother called PT and told him that he was right, the situation had worsened, she then asked for prayer. He agreed, and they performed the first deliverance on Sunday night.
When we arrived at Tara’s family’s house, I immediately felt an overwhelmingly dark presence. I prayed again for courage and wisdom. We walked up the staircase and rounded the corner. As soon as Tara saw PT, she screamed and slumped over in her father’s lap. She did not make eye contact with any of us. The members of the church had come with us to join in prayer and praise, so there was a group of around 16 people there, including Tara’s family. She had Hindu prayer bracelets on her right wrist, and her mother was in traditional Hindu dress. PT asked us to sit down. I was alone, so I asked Luke to come sit next to me to calm my nerves. He agreed. PT told us that we would begin by singing some worship songs. The church members sang songs we didn’t know, in Malay, so all we could do was clap our hands and intercede during the songs.
As soon as the singing started, Tara started screaming. PT and Amos each took one of her arms, as she began trying to scratch her face and throat and eyeballs. She started writhing on the floor and kicking her feet forcefully. Each of us in the circle was kicked multiple times. I tried really hard not to panic and to be very sensitive to how the Holy Spirit was prompting me to pray. PT and Amos held Tara’s arms, and held her to the floor and spoke the truth of the gospel in her ears. They commanded that the demon flee. These commands were met with screams and shouting in Malay. With my hands outstretched, I alternated between several different prayers:
“God, heal your daughter, Tara, in the time that will bring you the most glory. If that is right now, wonderful, but if it is later down the road, I pray that it will have even more significance.”
“Lord, I pray that through this Tara’s entire family would come to know you.”
“Lord, I pray that by Jesus’s wounds, by his stripes, she would be healed.”
It went on like this for about 45 minutes; writhing, kicking, screaming, scratching, and all. Several times, Tara tried to scratch PT and Amos, or rip their shirts open. Eventually, though, the storm calmed. We all sat down for a brief moment. PT requested that Tara’s mother bring her some water. She was sitting in the middle of the circle, PT and Amos on either side of her. They asked her a series of questions and had her repeat several phrases after them. From what I could understand, they were sort of prompting her to see if she was still under demonic influence. For a good five minutes, she repeated after them compliantly. For the first time, I began to feel hopeful. Tara grabbed the water from her mother’s hand and drank a few sips. She then threw the cup of water, still mostly full, on the floor -the bulk of it splashing her father’s legs. She began to scream, and the process started again.
This time I felt as though I was being called to lay hands on her and pray. I was unsure of the cultural implications, so I ignored the prompting, a decision I regret. For another 45 minutes we sang and prayed and chanted the name of Jesus. It was grueling. It was incredibly difficult to witness a fellow daughter created by God, writhing on the floor in extreme anguish, her face contorted, her limbs flailing. I was consistently terrified throughout the process, but I tried to keep my heart engaged and remember that I worship a Risen Savior who has conquered the grave and given me authority over demons in his name.
After it was over, Tara lay on the floor, exhausted. Someone offered her a chair and she rose carefully, PT and Amos still at either side of her, and sat in it. Her mother gently put her hair in a neat bun. PT asked her questions and laughed at her responses. She, too, laughed for the first time. She was a completely different person. After she had cooled down a bit and regained some strength, we introduced ourselves and she smiled and shook our hands.
Oddly enough, this portion of the evening was probably the most bizarre for me. I had watched, for the better part of two hours, this young girl writhe, kick, scream, and fight against the hands that were so desperately trying to draw her out of bondage. Now she was a normal teenage girl, shying away from the handsome American men PT had brought with him.
As we left, the group morale was hopeful. The next day, PT let us know that Tara had been fully delivered from possession and is now attending counseling and professing faith in Jesus. The Lord had answered my prayer and brought healing in the time that brought himself the most glory. What little faith that room of 16 people had mustered was enough to summon the incredible power of an Almighty God to bring healing for a Hindu girl and prove to her family that Jesus is more powerful than any other god.
Obviously the whole experience was brand new for me. How many of my friends and family members can say that they’ve been to a full-on exorcism? I don’t know of any. But as I have mentally and spiritually processed the experience, there are a few ideas I have ruminated on and a few that have been pointed out by teammates as to why this does not happen in America. Mind you, these are purely speculation, but this is a conversation that might need to take place in order to evaluate where the church places its faith.
1.) Our culture might be sufficiently obsessed with matters of the flesh, so the enemy does not even bother with demon possession.
Ponder this: Our nation consists of some the biggest proponents of greed, lust, materialism, and shady morality. We are a society eaten up with these things. We often hide our addictions to any or all of these, so the enemy has no reason to fear us getting healed of them or of bondages being broken.
2.) The enemy knows that the casting out/deliverance of those who are demon possessed would lead to an awakening of Christianity in America.
Ponder this: If we were to cast out demons, illnesses, disease etc. in America, don’t you think more people would profess belief in and follow the God of the Bible? The enemy uses other, subtle tactics to draw our attention away from Jesus instead.
3.) A reliance on God to meet our every need is unnecessary, because we feel we can meet our own needs without his help.
Please hear me: I’m not great at this either. I rarely bring Jesus into my decision making at home (a habit I hope will end after the Race). I will say, though, we do not allow ourselves as a society to be placed in circumstances that require full reliance on God. We provide for ourselves financially. We do not see God’s providential hand in our affluence because we have worked hard to earn our money. We do not see God’s providential hand in our healing because we first go to the doctor and prayer becomes our last resort.
4.) We do not have a comprehensive understanding of spiritual warfare or of the power within us in the Holy Spirit as the manifest presence of God.
Our culture has reduced spiritual battles to a matter of miniature angels and devils appearing on our shoulders, representing our inner turmoil. We have not even been introduced to the concept of the enemy’s tactics, much less the fact that if we profess faith in Jesus, his spirit actually DWELLS INSIDE OF US. We carry a part of God within us! Can you imagine what might happen if we actually said our prayers believing these truths?
PT’s heart for this family is that they would all come to know Jesus through Tara’s deliverance. “Imagine,” he said, “if they became Christians and fame of the God who healed Tara spread throughout the region!” My prayer is that you and I will not take this experience lightly. It is something I have wrestled with: should I blog about it or not? Here is what I have decided, though. The casting out of demons is biblical. The sending of missionaries to the nations is biblical. The Holy Spirit filling a group of people in order to perform miracles is biblical. The Lord using these things to bring himself glory is biblical. My actions, the actions of my contact, and the actions of my team, combined with the experiences that have taken place were used to bring glory and fame to Jesus Christ. Nothing that any of us did was out of our own power, but was done with the power of The One within us. I came on the Race to emulate my Savior, and he has been faithful in giving me ample opportunities to do so.
“And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. And behold, they cried out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” Now a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them. And the demons begged him, saying, “If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs.” And he said to them, “Go.” So they came out and went into the pigs, and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters.” – Matthew 8:28-32
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” – Matthew 28:19-20
“Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.” – 1 John 4:4
And my personal favorite, foretelling of the hope that is coming for us:
“In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world.” – John 16:33
Grace and peace,
Sarah
*names have been changed to protect identities
