“Yea!” we thought, “It’s Monday, our day off.” To keep from wearing ourselves out, we set Monday apart as our Sabbath, a special day of rest and restoration. “We will walk to a nice park, play volleyball, and just enjoy ourselves…”
Suddenly, the precious quiet of our rest day was interrupted by the phone’s loud ring. When I answered it, I heard the voice of one of our new believers, called Erick. Because he was very upset, his thoughts were jumping all over the place, and his English had become difficult to understand, but it was very clear that something serious and unusual was happening on the other end of the line.
After a few minutes of trying to understand what was going on, my wife heard me asking Erick, “What made you decide it is a demon who is speaking through her?” Before hanging up the phone I promised Erick, “We will be there in 10 minutes.” Our day off had finished before it had began. We saw that today God would be using us for a “spiritual emergency”. We were going to cast out demons from a twelve year old girl named Sweety.
We dressed and left as quickly as possible. On the way we asked God to give us wisdom, and activate the gift of discerning of spirits in us. As we turned onto a narrow street, trying to find the gate of the house where the girl lived, our minds wandered back to just four days earlier when Susmita, Sweety’s mother, had gathered about fifty friends and relatives in her home, and we had preached the Gospel to them. It was an amazing meeting filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Now, as we walked between poorly marked buildings trying to recognize familiar gates, we suddenly heard people shouting from a roof “Come here! Come here!” their voices hoarse from praying loudly. We ran quickly to the rooftop. We entered a room, stifling hot from the intense sun. About ten neighbors were gathered around Susmita who was crying, and Sweety lay on the floor exhausted, her hair disheveled, and her eyes rolling unnaturally. As soon as Sweety saw us, her body started convulsing terribly; and demons cried out that they would never leave this body.
We left the room and went to the people gathered on the rooftop to clarify what had happened. Some of our new believers, who had just received the gift of speaking in tongues were among them. They had been praying for Sweety for almost two hours, that was why their voices were hoarse. They all began speaking at once, telling us what had happened to Sweety.
Eventually we learned the story. Five new believers had gathered for prayer and started to praise God out loud. Sweety was among them, and at that time she was perfectly fine. Suddenly she fell on the floor shouting curses and other foul things, and her body started contorting. She was completely unconscious. Some unknown dark power was torturing her, bending her body in terrible convulsions, and rolling her eyes madly.
Our new believers, who had come to Jesus only one week before, didn’t lose heart. They started crying out to God like never before. They commanded the evil spirits to leave. Because of all the shouting, crying and screaming, the neighbors had rushed up to see what was going on. After two hours of non-stop prayer and negotiations with the demons, our new believers lost hope that they could drive the evil spirits out of the girl, and decided to call us for help.
We looked around the rooftop. The scene was bedlam. Sweety was in the room screaming and shouting, controlled by the evil spirit. Her mother, Susmita, was crying, feeling completely powerless. With great effort she held Sweety, trying to stop her from hurting herself on the cement floor as her body contorted and convulsed. Some of the neighbors were shaking with fear. Others looked lost. They didn’t know what to expect next. The atmosphere in the room was one of mixed fear, horror, confusion and desperation.
We re-entered the room and began to pray. We commanded demons to leave Sweety. Although we were speaking to them in Russian, they answered us correctly in Hindi. The evil spirits tried to speak against us. They repeated over and over that they hated Jesus, and that Jesus was not their Lord. They were trying to find some compromise, promising to leave then, and return later. But we continued to command them to leave, prohibiting them to come back. After a few minutes the evil spirits started to leave the girl, obeying the mighty name of Jesus. The whole time we were speaking to the demons, Sweety’s body was convulsing in terrible and ugly ways. Her body would be stiff one moment, and supple the next.
As we have noticed every time we have commanded demons to leave, Sweety began pulling at a small pendant hanging from her necklace. It looked as though the evil spirits didn’t want to leave without it. Engraved on this pendant was an image of a famous Hindu guru, whom many Indians worship. It was then that we realized this pendant may have been the reason these evil spirits had entered the girl. We took it off her neck.
This action brought the breakthrough for our prayers for Sweety’s deliverance. The door through which demons had entered this young girl’s life was now closed. The evil spirits stopped cursing and speaking against us. Slowly regaining consciousness, Sweety started to repeat the prayer of repentance, renouncing worshiping the idols. The last evil spirit cried out that he hated Jesus, and that Jesus was not his Lord, shook Sweety severely in one last convulsion, and left the girl. Completely exhausted, she rested in her mother’s arms, whispering, “I love you, Jesus. You are my Lord.” We could see that she was now completely free. The child didn’t remember anything that had happened to her during the last three hours. She only knew she felt very weak, and there was a strong pain in her neck, right where the pendant had been.
Everyone there felt the fear of the Lord, and people began to pray and praise Jesus. Suddenly the Holy Spirit filled Sweety, and she started praying in new tongues! That evening when Sweety returned home, she destroyed her two pictures of the idols.
When people saw that the girl was completely free, one new believer, a sixteen year old boy, ran and bowed before me, kissing my hands. He was simply overwhelmed with everything that had just happened. We stopped him, explaining that it was Jesus who had set Sweety free, not us. It was not done by our human power, but by God’s; we were simply servants of the Lord.
Praise God that Sweety was set free, but the Holy Spirit had even bigger plans that day. The Lord had been working in the hearts of those who had gathered on the roof during the last three hours. When they saw the power of God manifested by driving out the evil spirits, their hearts were filled with faith in the living Christ Jesus. The anointing of the Lord came to break the yoke of Hinduism in their lives. These neighbors had seen everything with their own eyes. When they realized that through Hindu amulets, evil spirits can enter their lives, they started tearing off all kinds of sacred threads, chains and pendants, which were dedicated to many different idols. Shaking with fear, they were giving them to each other, in order to get rid of them as soon as possible. We witnessed an unprecedented act of renouncing of idols!
Suddenly the Holy Spirit came upon a seventeen year old girl standing on the roof, and she started to speak in tongues out loud. We were amazed! Nobody had prayed for her, or laid hands on her. After some time we started to ask all the people gathered there whether they believed in Jesus. One by one we lead them in the prayer of repentance. As soon as they said “Amen!” the Holy Spirit filled each of them, and one by one they started speaking in tongues aloud. In that unforgettable evening, five souls were saved from the darkness of idol worshipping, and were baptized with the Holy Spirit, starting to pray in tongues. All of them were between twelve and twenty years old. This is the new generation of India. And the Lord will use them to bring many others into His Kingdom.
Our friends were overwhelmed with joy. They were jumping on the roof, shouting from the depth of their hearts, “Jesus is Lord! Jesus is Lord!” Their voices were hoarse from their long and loud prayers, but they continued crying out to God, praising him in new tongues with all their hearts, proclaiming the Lordship of Christ in their lives. “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work”. (1 John 3: 8)
The Lord has started to pour out his Spirit on a new generation of India. This country will see a tremendous move of God. The first drops of God’s mighty rain are already here. Do you want to see bigger waves of revival? Do you want to take part in this mighty movement of God?
#FromIndiaWithLove Stan & Lana
Jesus Unltd #EverythingIsPossible