This miracle story is maybe the most vulnerable one I will tell. Because of the personal nature of the content, some details will be left quite vague. And in one place I’ll give a fictional example. But not in a way that will compromise the miraculous quality of the account. And I’ll tell you exactly when I do it!
You see, this account is about, among other things, demons. And one thing demons do is try and accuse Christians of sin. And the one sure-fire time I know was encountering a demon, this happened to me. As such, I will give an example that is similar in detail to what the demon said to me, although it is not the exact thing it was accusing me of.
While it feels like a vulnerable tale for me to tell, and the demon wanted to accuse me, God was also at work in that He used the accusation of the demon to convict me of the sin and to help me learn that He cared for me enough to bring about a very tangible lesson for me to change my ways.
Anyway, the story starts at an event a Christian group was holding and that I was volunteering at. A lot of new guests were in attendance, and I was trying to welcome the ones I could. I came up to someone I don’t recall ever meeting or seeing before and began to talk with him. He seemed a bit, I don’t know, aloof. Or maybe just spacey. Anyway, he did acknowledge me and we had just a little small talk, though it was mostly but not totally one-sided, me doing most of the talking. For this reason, after trying for a short time with it, I skipped past a lot of the formalities of introducing ourselves and got to the point - I asked him what he thought about Jesus. This is when things truly got interesting. He was trying to verbalize an answer. But as he opened his mouth, all that came out were squeaks. I had just heard him speaking a minute before, albeit briefly. I asked him if he was ok. “Yeah,” he responded, in verbalized English. Then I asked him again about Jesus. More squeaking. Finally, I was quite bold and said that Jesus had died for his sins and asked him if he believed that. That is when the accusation towards me came. He said one phrase. The phrase wasn’t “tax cheater.” But lets pretend for the sake of my privacy that it was. The point is that what he said was specific and a sin that I had struggled with but was currently not fighting too hard and I was at least trying to keep it a secret. Something a total stranger would not know about me.
I don’t even remember exactly how I reacted. It wasn't with any kind of charm, that’s for sure. Nor did I get angry or defensive. I probably just stared with my mouth cracked open. I do recall quickly ending the conversation, probably with something like “ok well I hope you enjoy this evening a lot and it was good to meet you.”
To be sure, I was more focused on what I had just been through than in welcoming people at this point. And I’m not saying that is what anyone should do in this kind of situation! I’m still not sure exactly what to do when we encounter a demon. But it did (probably) happen again to me perhaps a year later.
I was with my church planting friends Tyler and Matt and we were at the mall on a cold and snowy day, trying to evangelize there where it was warmer than standing at people’s doorsteps. If you read my introductory post then you have heard of one story about what can happen when engaging the public with spiritual conversations. In addition to that, we have experienced people who have been intoxicated with various legal and illegal substances, people in various states of undress (though thankfully no one completely unclothed), and we quite commonly run into people who speak of interactions with spirits and demons. But on this day, we would (in addition to talking to one young man who spoke about interacting with a demon) encounter two people who behaved quite like the person at the event I just told you about. Neither of these people made any accusations. But the common thread is that when we brought up Jesus and asked the people about Him, they could not verbalize an answer. One man was generally responsive, until being asked about Jesus, in which case he quietly laughed. Another woman was, again, generally responsive until asked about Jesus, at which point she could only silently scowl (and seemed to move her jaw in a way that was like she was trying to speak but couldn’t even open her mouth). Both of these individuals carried on as before once a new topic was presented. But it seemed like in all three of the cases (the one from the event and the two at the mall) that the person was physically unable to give their own response about Jesus. Like something was controlling them to not verbalize an answer about Him.
I think that most of the religions of the world are not just made up by people. From the more obscure pagan ones to the large polytheistic ones like Hinduism to the other monotheistic ones like Islam, Mormonism, Judaism, and Christianity, they all have a spiritual source. Maybe some of the more extreme cults are just made up by people, but I guess I don’t have interactions with them to have an opinion. In the case of Judaism and Christianity, the source is the Almighty God who is benevolent and our Creator. But the others are demonic and/or satanic. People are not most of the time going crazy (although that does happen) but they often have actual religious encounters and perhaps visions and are spoken to… but the spirits interacting with them are not God. They are powerful spirits, what might be described as gods. And while Christians can interact with these spirits as well (as we and others also might interact with angels who are truthful spirits or gods and not demonic), the key is in understanding which truthful spirits, including the Holy Spirit, to trust, and which ones are deceiving spirits.
As this whole site is devoted primarily to accounts of miracles, I will leave the larger discussion of discernment of spirits and of various cults and heresies and other religions, in comparison to orthodox and true Jesus-honoring Christianity, to the many other sources out there for those purposes. (I do mention several throughout my posts, but to mention one more here, Matt Slick has a great comparison of Buddhism vs Christianity at carm.org). But I do have one more miracle to share that demonstrates that, just as in general, demons can be exorcised by Jesus and those who He has given the authority, Jesus can display his power over other spirits in many ways. (I have never personally encountered a confirmed exorcism, although I have heard of more than one happening with people who I have met. Of course the bible details several accounts).
This miracle is not an exorcism, but it does show how praying to Jesus can interrupt the spiritual workings of deceiving spirits. It is another story that I will use generalities and vague details for the privacy of the person in it. But this story is from someone at a church I visited and she used to live in a primarily Buddhist culture. One time when she was with a group of Christians praying on a hillside that overlooked a Buddhist monastery, the monks came out of the monastery and approached them. The monks asked for the group to stop whatever it was they were doing because it inhibited whatever spiritual practice the monks were engaged in. It was not simply just a case of “we can see you and you are a little distracting so please give us our privacy.” The prayers of the Buddhist monks were in this case spiritually hindered by the prayers of the Christians living there.
I’m sorry that I can’t go into the exact details of who and where and what precisely was said in the accounts of my run-in with a demon and of this lady. But I hope you can trust that the spiritual realm is real. Maybe some people you know even have experiences in general with spirits other than God. Why we don’t talk about it too frequently in the western world is likely because there is a stigma against it. There are fake accounts and certainly there have been times and in some places still are cases where we become overly concerned with the spiritual and forget that the physical world has its impact on us as well. I think it is good to see medical doctors and mental health professionals as a more urgent response to health crises than to get prayer other spiritual remedies. But this isn’t always done. So there is some truth to the stigma.
But not only will you find that many people encounter spirits- Jesus is the most powerful of all! As the Bible says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him! And as the church of Christians goes forth to fulfill His commission for us to make disciples of all nations, if you stick around the church long enough and with an openness to being involved and listening to what people have experienced, you will find many stories of how Jesus does save people from lying spirits or at least displays His power over them.
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