So I’m up early and am ready for sharing the goodness of God to the African community where I am tenting. Not wanting to be late I walk over to the meeting place made of poles and tarps. As I sit meditating on God and His word I noticed that a lady is standing respectfully, with a little girl, about 15 feet away. As I continue to reflect, the lady continues to stand there, looking my way. Leaning over to my interpreter I asked, “Why is she standing there looking at us?”. The interpreter replied saying that she wanted prayer.
Motioning to her to come forward she says her daughter is struggling with pain in the head. We pray, the pain is gone and both leave happy. As they leave I look up and another lady is standing where the first lady had stood. She too wants prayer, said the interpreter. Giving her a nod, she too comes forward shares her situation and then we pray. When I look up this time there are a three ladies and some children standing where the original lady had stood. I now realize that they all want prayer. One by one we pray, some are healed, some are not, some are for marriages, finances, relationships, the needs were many.
After about 25 minutes a young girl comes forward, “There is a demon that keeps grabbing me, chocking me and sometimes in the church services it causes me to shake.” We start to pray, and she starts to shake, then she is screaming, then she is falling and convulsing on the mat covering the ground. She was right it did seem to be something demonic getting ahold of her.
Now to be honest, casting out a demon in another culture is not the easiest thing to do. It’s not that God can’t minister in another culture, but understanding what is going on is difficult, as everything needs to be translated. There were some other local pastors present, so I motioned for them to come to help. The girl is flopping around, kicking and screaming. One pastor is holding her head still, another is keeping her legs from kicking others.
As we pray she screams, I’m constantly asking for translations. “There is fire within my stomach, it is going to kill me.” “I’ll be dead by this afternoon”, “There is so much pain”, “He is going to kill me”. Over and over she screams and twists on the mat. She starts to spit up mucous, we need to keep wiping it away so she doesn’t roll in it.
After 25 minutes it seems like there is no progress. It is about time for me to start speaking yet we have this girl with the demonic problem in the front, where the service should start. Motioning to the pastors they carry the girl away into a building and continue to minister to her for another 25 minutes till she was delivered of the demon within her. When she reappeared there was a joyful smile upon her face. She was raising her hands, clapping, singing and dancing before God. One would never have known the past that she came from.
In the Gospel of Mark 9:29 Jesus’ disciples try to cast out a demonic spirit and have great difficulty, Jesus’ response was that “this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” Jesus had just been on the mountain top communing with His Heavenly Father. He had just received fresh revelation from God and had heard the voice of God. He was in close fellowship with the Father and so the battle was easy for Him.
In reflecting I couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps there are spiritual battles that each of us are facing on a regular basis. Battles that don’t seem to easily submit to the positive standard of God’s word. We could wait till the problems manifest themselves, but at that time we might be like the disciples, who should have been praying and fasting ahead of time. However, if we are constantly close to our Lord, then we will be ready for whatever situation comes our way.
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