Casting out Demons

I think I was in the middle of crushing g-nut grains between my molars when she poked her head into the mud & thatch church shelter we were using as a dining room and kitchen. A handful of team members looked up briefly from their bowls of fried dough, bananas, & nuts to exchange greetings with this member of Faith and Deliverance Community Church in Kamesse, Buvu Island. Her words were brief, if not strained, indicating she had come for more than a casual greeting. As I continued to munch my breakfast, she spoke a long sentence in the Luganda language while a brother interpreted her plea for help. “I woke up this morning with a splitting headache,” she began, “half of my sight is gone, I feel weak, and desperately need prayer.”

I set down my chapati and milk tea, slightly annoyed at the disturbance, since we were still preparing for the day and “ministry time” had not yet begun. I called together a handful of our mighty men and we went to work, laying hands and believing God for a miracle to remove the migraine from this precious woman. But after a few minutes of intense prayer, commanding the sickness to go in Jesus’ name, she stopped us, sat down, and through excruciating pain, communicated the real source of the ailment: “This is not the first time this attack has come upon me,” she painstakingly reported. “I normally have demonic attacks in my body because of my background in witchcraft from where I come from.”

 

Knowing that believers cannot be cursed or oppressed unless a door has been opened to the enemy, we began probing for the cause of the torment. “There’s no witchcraft in my house, and I haven’t participated in it since I gave my life to Jesus,” she responded to our inquiry. “This curse is coming from my family back in the village.” We began instructing her on her authority in Christ, and coached her on renouncing the power of the devil in her life. Still wracked with pain & torment, with her eyes clenched shut and her head swaying back & forth in agony, she began to pray timidly as the attack worsened.

Sensing the need for further help, Elisha grabbed her hand and had her repeat a prayer of renunciation, claiming the blood of Jesus over her life, and commanding the devil to leave her alone. She became bold and prayed with strength for a few minutes while we prayed fervently and then she opened her eyes. The attack was over. The pain was gone. Her sight was restored. Her soul was at peace. With sweat on her forehead and tears in her now functioning eyes, she thanked us for our help. I opened my Bible to Numbers 23:23, explaining how a believer can’t be bewitched and not to give in to any oppression in the future.

It was this newly delivered friend who later on warded off a thief who came to steal the acoustic guitar we had left behind, and proceeded to prepare for our team a sumptuous supper of fried rice, g-nut paste, and smoked fish. I thought of Peter’s mother-in-law who rose from her sick bed and immediately began serving Jesus.

The next day, Jackson, Elisha, & Frank were circuiting the largest landing site in this particular string of islands, named “Kachanga” due to the large turnover of sexual partners in days past. As they passed by a certain open door a neighbor entreated the brothers to enter the house and pray for an acutely sick woman who was struggling to live. They respectfully removed their shoes on the dirty porch and ducked beneath the low doorway onto a vinyl floor covering in the two room house.

 

There on a twin mattress lay a sister in the Lord who had come under demonic attack after being cursed by a jealous lady who worked the field next to hers. Our sister had been a diligent worker and was prospering in her produce when the envious onlooker picked a fight claiming the land wasn’t hers to work on. The feud had gone on for some weeks until finally our sister fell sick and came near death as the demonic forces sent from the other woman battered her aging body.

The three disciples knew nothing of this until later, and confidently went to work in prayer, commanding her body to be made whole in the mighty name of Jesus. When a demon began to speak through the woman they spoke back, commanding it to be quiet and come out of her. After some struggle it appeared the demon had gone and the now sane woman shared her story with our brothers, ate some food, was completely whole, and got up to move around, promising to attend our crusade that evening and our seminar the next day.

The next morning Seth and I approached pastor Kamulali and his wife as they chatted on the road. They hurriedly briefed us on the situation at hand: It seemed the pastor had gone to visit our newly freed sister early that morning and all was well. She testified of her healing and deliverance and was up washing, cooking, and carrying on in a normal fashion. But soon after he had departed, another member of the church called him back to the house, saying the demons had come back in full force and she was worse off than before. Pastor stopped short at that point and at a loss as to what to do next, he led us to the house and brought us inside.

There she lay, lips trembling, head twitching in slight, uncontrolled movements. Pastor indicated they had been praying for the peace of God but hadn’t dealt with the demons yet. Learning that she was a believer I wanted her to pray a prayer of renunciation as we had successfully done earlier in the week, but it was clear she wasn’t coherent enough to even speak. Pa

stor sat her up, stood behind her and cradled her head in his hands as Seth and I laid hands on her arm and shoulder and began to pray. In her feverish stupor, she began to shout and flail about, while other brethren jumped on the opportunity to scream, “FIRE!” in her ears at the top of their voices.

When the violent activity seemed to produce no results, we began to command the evil spirit to be quiet and come out of her in the name of Jesus. Her face would contort uncontrollably while she would wail and cry out in the Luganda language. The demon was talking through the woman’s tortured voice. Pastor interpreted for us that the spirit had come from another village to take her back. It said it would come out if we would sacrifice a goat and make her drink the blood. We laughed at it and kept commanding it out.

 

At one point the demon declared that it was going to kill her, and she lay back on the mattress, still and quiet. That was enough for me. I jumped on her, commanding the spirit of death to leave her alone, declaring the life of Jesus over his blood-bought servant. Many more violent reactions continued, but at times the demon would stop, pretend to be gone, and release her mind and mouth for a moment. She would come to, looked around the room, call for the pastor and ask what was going on. But a nod towards a closing prayer would bring back the attack, and we were at it again. At one point, I wanted to grab my camera as Seth held his face and accusatory index finger an inch from her face forcing the demon to be quiet and stop tormenting her. After nearly an hour of this whole process the pastor discerned, “It’s soon leaving,” and sure enough following a final violent outburst, the spirit left and did not return.

 

Out on the doorstep, two of the pastors were talking together expressing their opinion that the devils were being revealed in the lives of their believers because they were scared of the anointing our team had brought to the island. I was excited for the opportunity to be a part of their deliverance, but more so to help these precious believers understand their authority in Christ over every demonic power.

Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. – Luke 10:19