Confronting Demonic Activity

Confronting Demonic Activity

Restore us again, 0 God our Saviour, and put away your displeasure toward us.Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger through all generations? Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your unfailing love, 0 LORD, and grant us your salvation (Psalm 85:4-7).

When cultures and nations become demonised, what can God's people do? What can confront such unleashed demonic control and send it into retreat? What is the Christian's answer to the resurgence of Satanism in our world?

In His earthly life, the Lord Jesus Christ confronted demonic activity by the person and power of the Holy Spirit. Three Gospel writers record the sad details of the Pharisees' saying, "It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons" (Matthew 12:24).

Jesus' Method

The Lord Jesus Christ immediately addressed the absurdity of their accusation with powerful logic. In the process the Saviour reveals how He drives out demons.

Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do you people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you" (Matthew 12:25-28, emphasis added).

Luke's account of this same event speaks of the Holy Spirit as "the finger of God" (Luke 11:20). The Gospel accounts indicate further how a demonised culture can be freed from such terrible bondage:

How can anyone enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house (Matthew 12:29).

Luke's account makes it even more forceful:

When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armour in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils (Luke 11:21-22).

These texts establish the fact that demons are defeated and sent away by the mighty work of the Holy Spirit. He is the "someone stronger" who is able to overpower the strong kingdom of darkness. The Holy Spirit is the one able to strip away all of Satan's defences and rob Satan's house of those he holds in bondage.

A Necessary Balance

My counselling experience with demonised persons has frequently demonstrated the importance of the Holy Spirit's ministry in bringing the troubled person to freedom. The apostle James instructs believers to "resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7b). That's a strong imperative for every believer to practice, but we must never forget that it is immediately preceded and followed by equally strong demands:

Submit yourselves, then, to God... Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up (James 4:7a,8-10).

James uses nine words to call believers to aggressively resist the devil, but forty-two words to call us to repent and allow the Holy Spirit to clean up our lives. In simple mathematics, it is nearly five times more urgent for us to yield to God than to resist the devil.

That's a good reminder of the importance of keeping our perspective in spiritual warfare. Allowing the Holy Spirit control of one's whole being is the prerequisite to effectively resisting the devil.

Most counsellors of demonised persons find this admonition from James a very necessary balance. Freedom from demonic control demands that all areas of sinful rebellion be confessed and cleansed away by the blood of Christ. Yielding to the Holy Spirit's sanctifying and filling is an important ingredient in that redemptive process. When this happens, the believer's freedom is near at hand.

A composite of difficult counselling experiences testify to the importance of that truth. Freedom from the rule of darkness doesn't come until believers honestly and deeply deal with the sin problems that originally gave Satan ground. Important to that dealing is the submissive invitation for the Holy Spirit to bring wholeness through the finished work of Christ into the person's being. When that happens, resisting the darkness is tremendously effective.

Breaking the Control

Prayer confrontation that follows such dealing with sin and submission to God is usually dramatic and the results are precious to the troubled person. I often pray like this:

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the power of His blood, I invite the Holy Spirit to search out any rule of darkness in any area of person and being. Search the conscious, subconscious and unconscious level of -mind, will, emotions and body and totally control him with the Holy Spirit's fullness. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we demand that all demonic powers relinquish their control to the Holy Spirit and that they immediately go where the Lord Jesus Christ sends them.

When sin is being dealt with and submission to God is happening, the tormenting darkness is broken by resistance. The churning battle ends. Release comes and floods of inner peace from the Holy Spirit supplant the ugly rule of evil.'

The Holy Spirit's mighty work in an individual's life illustrates what must happen to reverse the effects of Satan's rule over a culture. When human sin and wickedness give Satan powerful control over a whole culture, weak remedies will never be sufficient. Satan's powerful force for evil is not easily dislodged. Such deep entrenchment requires "someone stronger" to confront this "strong man" in all areas of his rule.

Power Encounter Studies

We have heard and read in recent years about "power encounter evangelism," "power encounter deliverance" and "power encounter church growth." Most of this writing comes from the mission fields where the populace fully recognises evil spirits and evil powers. They understand that evil spirit beings can blind people, keeping them from believing the gospel, and that they can afflict people with their oppression. Dr. Timothy Warner in his 1988 Church Growth lectures at Fuller Theological Seminary defined "power encounter" with these well chosen words:

Power encounter is the demonstration by God's servants of God's "incomparably great power for us who believe" (Ephesians 1:18), based on the work of Christ on the cross (Colossians 2:15) and the ministry of the Holy

Spirit (Acts 1:8), in confrontation with and victory over the work of Satan and demons (Luke 10:19) in their attacks on God's children, or their control of unbelievers resulting in the glory of God, and in the salvation of the lost and/or the upbuilding of believers.

C. Peter Wagner, a former missionary, presently teaches in the Fuller Seminary School of World Missions as professor of church growth. He has written extensively about power encounter ministry and has studied particularly how this approach affects world evangelisation and church growth. Most of the statements in Wagner's articles and books are cautious and exploratory. The July 1989 Evangelical Missions Quarterly carries an eleven-page article by Dr. Wagner entitled, "Territorial Spirits and World Missions." He documents his article with numerous power encounter approaches being used in world mission fields. He points out that this vital concept is relatively new and that there is not yet an evangelical consensus on it.

Dr. Timothy M. Warner, another missionary leader who writes and speaks about power encounter, presently directs the School of World Missions and Evangelism at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. His ministry was in Sierra Leone, West Africa. He laments an all-too-common situation, familiar to most missionaries:

I look back on my own missionary experience in a tribal village in West Africa with a combination of regret and incredulity that I attempted ministry there with almost no understanding of either the biblical teaching on demons nor of the reality, of the demonic world to the people with whom I lived and worked.

While I have spoken on the issue in the years since my days in Africa and have continued to study the subject, it was only this year [19861 that I ventured to teach a whole course on the subject. The response from the missionaries in the classes has been overwhelmingly positive, Many have expressed thoughts like, "If only I had had this course before 1 went to the field!"2

Other evangelical scholars are also teaching and writing on this subject. Dr. C. Fred Dickason, chairman of the theological department of Moody Bible Institute, teaches extensively in the field of spiritual warfare and has written Demon Possession and the Christian. Dr. Ed Murphy of Overseas Crusades, formerly a professor in missions at Biola University, has taped a series on spiritual warfare which has a balanced, biblical thoroughness. Dr. Gordon Lewis of Denver Seminary, Dr. Gerald E. McGraw of Toccoa Falls Bible College, Dr. Neil Anderson of Talbot Seminary and Biola University, and Dr. Victor Mathews of Grand Rapids, Michigan, are other notable evangelical scholars doing creative study and work in the field. There are numerous others, I am sure. My point is, our Lord seems to be raising up careful evangelical scholarship to provide guidance in this field. Such an important area deserves the best historical and biblical perspective available from trained scholars.

A Muslim Power Encounter Experience

Ruth Veldcamp has served as a missionary with the Christian Reformed Church in East Central Nigeria, Africa, for more than twenty years. After periodically observing her work, Dean Hochstetler of the Mennonite Church calls her "the world's most effective missionary to Muslims." The success of her ministry to Muslims is directly related to a power encounter approach to evangelism.

In the early years of her missionary work, Ruth did not see large numbers of Muslims turning to Christ. A few were won but most of them were young and fearful of declaring their faith in the Muslim community. Troubled by the slow progress, Ruth began to see that Muslims in large numbers would never come to Christ until the religious leaders themselves, 'the "Mallim," led the way. They have studied the Koran and are looked to as authorities in spiritual matters.

In her years of working with the Muslims, Ruth, became convinced that Islam is essentially animistic and spiritistic; the Mallim "have inevitably dealt in some way with occult powers." Many of them practice witchcraft and sorcery as an integral part of the Muslim religious system. She realised these leaders were so bound to their sorcery and religious loyalties that to reach them would require confronting them with a mighty display of the power of God. They would not be reached by logic or argument.

As she prayed about it, the Lord took her to Exodus 17 where Moses, Aaron and Hur interceded on the hilltop while Joshua and the Israelites fought the Amalekites in the valley. When Moses prayed, the battle went in Israel's favour. When he grew weary and ceased to intercede, the battle went the other way. Only with the help of Aaron and Hur was Moses able to continue the intercession and assure the victory.

Ruth states, "I thought maybe that's the secret. I wrote home to all the people supporting me and asked for prayer warriors who were willing to pray every day for Satan to be bound, and that churches would come up in Muslim communities, stay in Muslim communities and be a witness for Christ there."

One hundred people signed up right away to pray daily. The number has grown now to more than 250. She sends monthly updates, including the names of those she feels are key to the desired breakthrough. When she first asked for the prayer support, remarkable things began to happen.

How did God answer those prayers for power confrontation to pull down strongholds of darkness ruling the Mallim?

Ruth says, "He did it in the one way that will get through to Muslim sorcerers. God brought them direct dreams and visions. The very first one I had contact with was Stazu real name changed. He had a series of four dreams or visions. In one of them a verse of the Koran lit up and caine out at him which said that all men were meant to be one community. The verse further said that if it had not been for the Word of God, they would have been judged because they

differed. Stazu knew by the Holy Spirit's conviction that the Word of God is one of the titles given to Jesus in the Koran."

In another vision, Stazu saw a Muslim bowing in his daily prayer ritual. A powerful voice thundered to Stazu, "This man is still under condemnation." You can't get much more explicit than that.

Ruth adds, "Every Mallim who has become a Christian has had a vision. The common theme of each vision is that salvation comes only through Jesus Christ." This illustrates God's power encounter with the deceptions of evil supernaturalism. Spiritual warfare praying brought the desired breakthrough.

Ruth's account of Stazu's conversion is graphic. "This man was a sorcerer. As a Mallim, Stazu had done the sorcery and the cursing that turned three people completely insane. They threw off all their clothes; they didn't know what was going on around them; and they were walking naked through the towns in a pitiful state. After he became a Christian, Stazu became convicted that he should do something to reverse their condition. His first reaction was to go and undo it as he would have done as a sorcerer. I had a sense that would cause more trouble than he realised. I said to him, 'You can undo it quite all right but in a different way than you would have done it before.'"

Ruth had learned, through her study of spiritual warfare, that the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work can cancel Satan's curses and sorcery.

"Well, in the end, Stazu did go to the place where the sorcery 'stuff' was that he'd used in the cursing ritual. He prayed over it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and destroyed the stuff. The very night he did that, all three of those 'mad' people came back to their normal senses. Can you imagine the impact that had on a Muslim, animistic society in those African towns?"

Another Muslim Breakthrough by Power Encounter

Gerald E. Otis has served with the Christian and Missionary Alliance in the Philippines since 1967. He tells of Ahmad, 85 percent illiterate, who was a new believer in a Muslim fishing village in the southern Philippines. A number of the people in the village challenged him, "If you can cast out the devil from this woman, we will truly believe and embrace immediately the faith in Jesus Christ."

He accepted the challenge and the time was set for the confrontation. Ahmad spent much time waiting upon the Lord and trusting Him for wisdom and for the Holy Spirit's presence and power. On the appointed day, Ahmad, without hesitation, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, confronted the powers controlling the woman. Here is what happened:

Words flowed from her lips indicating the battle to come. "You are nobody to me, I can eat you alive," a voice from within the woman said. "The only one I'm afraid of is the Holy One within you," the voice continued.

With every eye focused on Ahmad, he commanded the demon to depart in the name of Jesus Christ the Saviour.

The demon again spoke, "Yes, I will go away."

After a time of jerking and struggling, which rendered her seemingly lifeless, the woman awoke fully sober and sane, totally free from the chains of Satan.

The following day, those who had issued the challenge came to Ahmad's house, confessed their sins, repented, and received the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord. This one encounter continues to extend the work of Christ into the Muslim world in that part of the Philippines.

Challenges to Abou's Jesus

Loren Entz, a church-planting missionary with the Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission (AIMM) in Oradara, Burkino Faso, relates the story of a Muslim sorcerer, Abou. After listening to a cassette-taped testimony of an ex-Muslim leader who had experienced salvation in Jesus Christ, Abou felt God's powerful call for him to follow "the Jesus road." He destroyed all of his magical devices, and after five days of agonising, he found peace with the Lord Jesus Christ. This was followed by a month of illness that Abou calls his "cleansing experience." He saw it as a time to repent and get rid of all the evil he had done. During that month, AIMM missionaries sat with him, prayed, and read the Bible to him.

As Abou got well, he greatly desired to share his new faith. The missionaries taught him, gave him visual tools to use and encouraged him to witness. This led to an open challenge from the occult fetishers of Abou's village to prove if the power of Abou's Jesus was greater than theirs. They poisoned Abou's food, but Abou prayed over it, ate and suffered no ill effects. Entz records the next part of the test:

Then the elders took him to their sacred grounds late that night. Abou was placed beside a huge gaping hole. The six elders sat on the other side of the hole. Fire escaped from the hole. A special whistling brought poisonous bees from the pit to do their evil work against Abou, but again with no success. Abou could not be stopped or injured.

They had one test left, a test which no one else had ever escaped. The old men whistled a second time and a huge snake about 18 inches in diameter emerged. It came toward Abou. It tried to push him into the pit as countless others before him had been pushed in and disappeared. But the snake could only brush his leg. The snake itself fell into the pit. There was no doubt whose power was greater. God's power working through Abou was superior to that of the fetishes through the village elders. The rest of the night Abou preached Jesus to them until daybreak, when he returned to Oradara.

A second encounter occurred between Abou and a group of sorceresses who claimed their powers to be greater than the fetish powers of the men. Victory over the women in that encounter also led to a night of preaching the Lord Jesus Christ. Fatimata, the leader of the sorceresses, was miraculously converted. As the chief person of influence in the village, her conversion brought many to saving faith.

The next challenge came from Makoura, considered to be the most powerful person in that whole region of Africa. Her source of power was a special evil spirit which had enabled her to kill hundreds of people through her curses. She did not want Abou's Jesus to succeed in her realm.

The AIMM missionaries prayed much with Abou before he went to accept her challenge. He gathered a cassette tape player, tapes, Bible pictures and a change of clothes, borrowed a bicycle, and headed toward the appointed meeting with Makoura. Entz records what happened:

Suddenly, with an explosive noise, the bicycle burst into flames. Abou miraculously escaped unharmed with the Christian teaching materials but everything else burned. Even sand wouldn't put out the fire immediately, so Abou continued on foot to his destination.

On [hisi arrival, Makoura exclaimed, "What are you doing here? You are supposed to be dead."

Abou answered, "You invited me, and I've come with the power of Jesus." Abou was invited to share this source of power with Makoura. He spent the night in the house of the evil spirit which was no longer able to live there. It had not been victorious in the power encounter with Abou's Jesus.

Makoura was miraculously converted, and Loren Entz asks us to pray for Abou and his continuing power encounter ministry to those in occult bondage in Burkino Faso.

Such accounts from the mission field verify to us that believers do face an enemy who is capable of powerful activity against the truth of the gospel. Yet when faithfully applied, the power of our Lord Jesus Christ always triumphs.

Lessons From Power Encounter

These accounts, from various geographic locations, related by different denominational leaders, say something to those of us who desire revival. The laboratory of human experience confirms the truth of God's Word. In an account from closer to home, author and counsellor James G. Friesen relates:

The door was closed, That was not particularly unusual, but as I knocked on the door and was invited in, a strange feeling came over me. A few students sat around a small metal typing table. Their hands rested lightly on its top, and their little fingers overlapped to form an unbroken ring of human contact. "What's going on?" I asked.

The reply: "A seance."

I did not know how seances were carried out, so I just went over to the other side of the room and quietly watched as the students continued. In subdued voices they were asking questions of a spirit. The table would tip to one side for yes, to the other side for no.

To spell out a word, it would tip once for A, twice for B, and so on to twenty-six times for Z. The table was spelling out a sentence when I came in. The participants, fascinated and totally involved, hardly noticed my entry. I was not surprised at what I saw. Without any direct human help, the table tipped from side to side-and the students were in contact with the spirit world. It was right there. I could not help but believe what I was seeing.

After about twenty minutes I realised this was more to these students than a novel way to spend the afternoon. They excitedly sensed a mixture of belief and disbelief at what they were discovering. They were in contact with a spirit who had spelled out its name as "Hos," and who claimed to have been a court magician from the middle ages. Spinning out its story in answer to the students' questions, the spirit drew them deeper and deeper into the mysteries of Hoz's life and death. The seance was about a half hour old when I had entered the room...

I had been taught about the Bible throughout my childhood. My mother would read to me for hours from a Bible story book, and I had been a Christian for quite a few years. I knew practically verbatim the accounts of Jesus casting out evil spirits in the New Testament and I had heard stories from missionaries in third world countries, telling how they had, in the name of Jesus, cast out evil spirits. It occurred to me that I had such an entity in front of me. I found myself with a chance to discover if using the name of Jesus would expel an evil spirit.

Thinking things through, however, I ran into a dilemma. If I spoke the words out loud, "In the name of Jesus I command you to leave," the students could take their hands away from the table, or somebody could hold the table down to prevent any tipping. I might not know if the name of Jesus could be used effectively if I said it out loud. So I decided to just think the command.

I directed my gaze toward the table and thought the instruction: "Hoz, in the name of Jesus I command you to leave!" The students had no idea that I had just cast Hoz out. The table was in the middle of spelling out a word, and at the very second I finished my thought-command, it stopped. The students kept their hands as they were, and tried to figure out why the contact had been broken, but could come up with nothing. The table would not move, period. They hacked off from it, and glanced back and forth at each other, shocked and puzzled.

I told them what I had done. They expressed irritation with me and tried to start the seance again, but they could not conjure up Hoz or any other spirit. That was the end of the seance, and the power of Jesus' name had been demonstrated to me.

Believers who maintain a right relationship with their Lord Jesus Christ need have no fear in any encounter with Satanic forces. Unusual things may happen when we confront the powers of darkness in prayer or in other ways, but this abiding assurance remains:

In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:37-39).