"I do not always understand why God does things the way that He does. However, usually at a later time, God reveals the answer. I am thankful that we serve a God who does answer prayer, and I am thankful that "...in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28 NIV).
On yet another occasion, Paulo and I were hosting a conference for FEBC radio listeners in Battambang city (in Cambodia). Church leaders from Battambang, Bateay Meanchey, and Siem Reap provinces attended. After the conference concluded, one of the leaders asked us to go to a home of a young woman who had been ill for some time to pray for her. The leader believed an evil spirit possessed the woman.
Six of us went. As we sat in a circle in the front room of the home, family members described for us the young woman's behavior. From the descriptions, it was obvious the woman had some serious problems. I asked the elder sister where the woman was.
"She is upstairs asleep," the sister said. "This is the first time in four days that she has slept. She has kept us up each night with her screaming and babbling." As the elder sister finished speaking, the young woman stuck her head over the railing of the second-floor balcony and looked directly into my eyes. Why she chose me, I do not know. A sudden feeling of fear came over me. Her eyes had a deep, penetrating look, and she obviously was disturbed about something.
I greeted the young woman in Khmer and asked her what her name was.
"My name is Sopheap," she said.
Iasked the elder sister whether that truly was the woman's name, and she affirmed that it was. I called Sopheap to come down. She immediately got up and came downstairs. She then grabbed a chair, placed it in front of me, sat down, and again looked directly at me. Again, I asked her what her name was.
"I am the Son of God," Sopheap said with a strange laugh.
"Are you really the Son of God?" I asked. She just stared at me and laughed some more. I could feel the tingling move up and down my body as I watched and listened to this young woman.
I do not know what prompted me to ask the next question, but it had to have been the Holy Spirit, because I was too afraid to think of it on my own.
"Is anyone else in there with you?" I asked. The young woman calmly looked at me and answered,
"Yes, there is."
I responded, "Who?"
The young woman called out several names in Cambodian, but I did not know to whom she referred. I looked at the elder sister for exmplanation, but she dais that she did not know the names either. None of the people in the room had ever heard the names.
At that point, I called the groupt o gather around Sopheap.
"We need to pray for her," I said. We all joined hands. I held Sopheap's right hand, and a Cambodian friend held her left hand. As we started to pray, it sounded as if Sopheap was praying with us. Then I realized that she was only babbling nonsense.
Our prayers intensified. After about five minutes, I felt Sopheap grip my hand firmly with increasing strength. My arm hurt. She was beginning to scream. We kept praying. Then suddenly Sopheap went limp and fell on the floor. She quickly opened her eyes, and I could see a difference in her appearance.
Sopheap spoke gently and calmly to us, telling us that she felt much better. We all sat down in our chairs. I looked at Sopheap and asked, "Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Have you asked Jesus Christ into your life?"
Sopheap replied, "Yes, I believe."
Then, God helped me to recall a passage of Scripture in Matthew that says:
"Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. Then it says, "I will return to my house, from which I came"; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first."
(Matthew 12:43-45a)
I explained the passage to Sopheap and her family. Although none of us saw an evil spirit with our eyes, that day, we were all confident that an evil spirit had departed from Sopheap. Before we left, we rpayed with Sopheap once more. She asked the Holy Spirit to fill her life and fill where the evil spirit once resided.
Whenever I returned to Battambang after that experience, I was sure to ask how Sopheap was. Each report was that she was doing well. She had returned to her husband, was attending church regularly, and had not experienced any more problems with evil spirits.
Some people claim that these kinds of power encounters are normative in the Christian experience. I have a dear friend who, every time he meets me, will ask, "What sings and wonders are you seeing?" He takes the position that a ministry without signs and wonders is not valid.
I believe miraculous healings and deliverances from evil spirits are valid in Christian witness and ministry. God, at times, will perform miraculous deeds to bring people to proclaim Him as Savior and Lord. However, I am not convinced that signs, wonders, and power encounters are requisite for ministry. I see danger in that we easily can fall into performing Christian magic in an attempt to show the people that our "magic" is greater than theirs is.
Signs and wonders are not always needed for people to believe in Jesus. We cannot put God into human-made boxes and expect Him to work according to our designs and plans. Some people build a box and say that signs and wonders are no longer necessary, negating the miraculous work of God in their lives and in the lives of others. Others build a box and say that signs and wonders are necessary, often falling into the trap of becoming Christian magicians. I prefer rather to be attuned to the work of the Holy Spirit and rejoice in all that He does. To me, every heart that is turned from darkness to light by the power of the Holy Spirit is a miracle!
Svay Rieng
"The road id sudsty, the weather hot, and I never want to travel to this place again," I thought as I pulled into the town of Romeas Hek for the first time.
"Who would ever want to live in this barren land? The soil is no good. There are no trees, and all day long all you have to eat is dust, and more dust."
Saru was standing in front of the stone house when our now red clay-colored vehicle pulled up. Saru and several of the believers who met in this house regularly for worship greeted us as we stepped out of the car. It was mid-afternoon on a Saturday.
Saru is a short man even by Cambodian standards. I often remark that God called me to Asia because there I can look most people in the eye while talking with them. I am 5 feet 6 inches tall, the average hight of most Cambodians. I needed some time to talk with Saru, so he and I took a stroll toward the market place.
As we walked, I asked Saru what he had learned from the teaching on spiritual warfare that was presented in the most recent two-week training session of the Rural Leaders' Training Program. I also asked him whether he had a chance, upon returning to his home area, to use any of the principles he had learned. I specifically asked Saru this question because it was at his request that we had added this course of study to the program. As Saru shared with me that afternoon, I felt satisfied that he had understood the basic principles that had been taught. I also was pleased to hear that he had begun implementing those principles in his personal life and ministry.
As we approached the market, I asked Saru, "Do you want to share the gospel?" He nodded his head yes. "Let's go inside the market," I said. Now the Khmers in this small market had seen the westerners the United Nations stationed there to oversee elections or at least westerners on video. HOwever, none of those westerners spoke Khmer! As you might imagine, a large crowd soon was following me. I quickly began to feel like the pied piper in Robert Browning's poem, "The Pied Piper of Hamelin."
I stopped at a small stall where a woman was selling some kind of "num," or bread. I never had seen this type of bread, and I asked her what it was. It was made from rice flower and then deep-fried. I asked the price. It was inexpensive. "Let's see," I said to myself, "if I buy 10 of these huge pieces and then break them off for the children, I can probably feed about 50 kids. Do it!" I bought 10 pieces and began distributing them among the children. Soon about 50 children thronged around me. I became an even more popular fellow at that moment.
I asked the children, "Do you liket his bread? After you have eaten this bread, will you ever become hungry again? Have you ever heard about the Bread of LIfe?" Then I began to tell the children about how Jesus fed a large crowd of people. AFter Jesus fed them the bread, He told them a story about the Bread of LIfe, I said. Then I explained the meaning of the Bread of LIfe.
After I had talked with the children for about 10 minutes, I called Saru over and said, "Now it is your turn. Tell them more." The children listened attentively to Saru tell them about Jesus' love for them. I looked at the crowd and thougth again about hwo I stood outl ike a sore thumb. I was sure that within an hour everyone in the area would know that a westerner, who spoke Khmer, had come to town. Sata also was aware of our presence in the market, a reality I was soon to discover.
That evening we lodged in the home of an elder from the local Buddhist temple. The elder asked me to tell him and his wife about Jesus. FOr several hours, sitting on the front porch, Saru and I showed the elder the truth of God's Word from our Bibles. What a wonderful privilege it is to share Jesus!
Sunday morning came early, as to most mornings in Cambodia. Saru wanted me to visit every group in the district. I asked him how many groups he had started. "Only seven." he replied.
"Seven! You want me to visit seven places in one day?" I asked.
"Sure," he said. "If you just go to some of them the others will get upset that you did not go and visit them, so we either have to go to all of them or none of them." I sighed and said, "Okay let's get going." Once we started on our day's journey, it was not so bad. The groups were not that far apart, at least by car. By the time we reached the third group, I really was enjoying the day.
About 2 p.m., the heat sweltering, we pulled into the village of the sixth congregation. At least 50 people were waiting for us in the undersized room. As was the custom, we kicked off our shoes and sat on the floor. The signing was beautiful, more beautiful than we had heard from the previous groups. After a few songs, another young Khmner man traveling with me was asked to share his testimony.
As he began to talk, I noticed that others in the rom also began to talk. The louder he became,t he louder they became. In Cambodia, people often disrupt a speaker and others around them by talking back and forth, but I never had experienced anything like this. Finally, I was invited to speak. I shared the same story I had shared in the previous five groups. It was easier to do it this way! As I spoke, the people listened quietly. Then when I had finished, they began to ask questions, many of which I could not understand. I looked at Saru for help, but he said he had no idea what they were saying. Suddenly, this room of about 50 people became a place of confusion. I was shocked.
"What is going on here?" I asked Saru.
I leaned back against the wall. The young Khmer man who had shared his testimony also did. Simultaneously we both raised our eyes and looked toward the ceiling. When we saw it, our eyes darted to meet. Instantly, we knew what was wrong. A solid red flag hung at the top of the house. I forget the Khmer term for the flag, but I will never forget its meaning. It represents the spirit that has been invited to reside in the home and look after the family. Obviously, this spirit was angry that we were there sharing about Jesus. After all, our message could lead to the end of his reign within that home.
I stopped the meeting, went outside, and talked with the owner of the home. I described for him what had occurred inside. He responded,
"That flag means nothing now, because I believe in Jesus."
I asked him, "You invited that spirit into your house years ago, but after you became a believer did you ever, in the name of Jesus, tell that spirit to leave?"
He said he had not.
"In the name of Jesus, we need to command the spirit to leave," I told him. So, we all prayed that day. I told the owner to take down the red flag so that everyone would know that the spirit was no longer welcome in his house. Only the Holy Spirit of the living God was welcome.
Satan is the author of confusion and the father of all lies. What Satan had in mind as we shared the gospel that day was obvious. Cambodian people are spiritually attuned. They understand the spirit world because they keep in constant contact with spirits. Unfortunately, these are spirits of darkness, ambassadors of the Evil One.
Satan wants the Khmers to remain on his team. Those of us who have served among the Cambodian people know that; we understand that we must confront Satan's army of evil spirits. It is a spiritual battle we face daily, but how comforting it is to know that Christ already has won the war. The decision of each battle already has been decided in our favor if we will stand firm and claim the promises that are ours in Jesus. Even the father of lies dares not challenge the Holy Spirit directly. That is why he tries to confuse and decieve man instead. However, whenw e call upon the Holy Spirit, we call upon theg reatest power in the world, and Satan cannot stand.
Finding myself in a mass of confused people that sultry afternoon reminded me of Paul's words to the Corinthians.
"For thought we walk in the flesh, we do not war according tot he flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of GOd, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete."
(2 Corinthians 10:3-6)
That afternoon speculations and a lofty spirit raised up against the knowledge of God was destroyed. Today a church that is growing numerically and spiritually continues to gather in that home.
.... "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the roolers, against th e authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."
(Ephesians 6:12 NIV)
Know your enemy, prepare for the battle, stand firm, and pray pray pray!
I still find myself at times forgetting the important lessons God taught me through these experiances, but one thing I try to remind myself each day ist hat the real enemy is Satan. He uses people through deceit and trickery. So often, it is difficult to spearate, but, if we truly want to have spiritual victory in our lives, we must learn who the real enemy is and remember that the victory already is secured."
From a chapter from the book
Amazing Grace Published by Mission Educational Books of Chennai, India
Written by R. Bruce Carlton Copyright 2000
