The world of the Bible was conscious of the spirit world. From Genesis to Revelation Satan is at work, always the enemy of the people of God. We see him in Eden causing Adam and Eve to sin. He is the accuser of Job, implying that Job worships God for the wrong reasons. The New Testament opens with Satan at work trying to destroy the child Jesus. Throughout the Gospels demon possession is common and both Jesus and His apostles were confronted by evil spirits.
Today in Asia and Africa this scene has not changed and the lives of most people are influenced by the spirit world. Beneath the façade of the major religions, the worship of spirits is present.
Phuket hosts the most important Vegetarian Festival in Thailand, which lasts nine full days. This festival is also called ‘The Festival of Nine Gods’. It is believed that nine Chinese emperors were deified and that their spirits come to Phuket every October. The island of Phuket has many Chinese temples which are involved in the festival. Each temple has mediums who are servants of the temple gods. In preparation for spirit possession, the mediums eat no flesh and do not sleep with their wives. (Is there any connection with the ‘doctrines of demons’ which Paul writes about in 1 Timothy 4:1,3?) Most people in Phuket eat no meat during the festival. Dressed in white, they go to the temples where vegetarian food, which has been offered to the gods, is available. During the last three days of the festival there are processions in which men who are demon-possessed show the power of their gods. Some have their faces pierced by metal rods, others have skewers pierced through their tongues, whilst others beat themselves with jagged metal balls or have hot oil or water poured over their bodies. Fire-walking and climbing up blade ladders with bare hands and feet are also part of the festival. Forty years ago this was a local festival; today almost 500,000 people from many parts of Thailand come to Phuket to participate in it. In the past the mediums were all men; today men, women and children are involved.
The processions always pass the Gospel Hall in Phuket. One year we had a Daily Vacation Bible School during the festival and were having a meeting when the procession came along Thalang Road. As the procession reached the hall, the young people were singing a song about the power of the blood and about Satan’s defeat. The leading medium suddenly stopped as the spirit left him. He had to be taken aside and the metal rods removed. As the singing continued the whole procession was at a standstill. When the singing stopped the mediums took off at a run with everyone wondering what had happened. A missionary from Pakistan, who was visiting us, saw all this happen. This was not the first time the procession had been stopped in this way. Such is the power of the One who is in us.
Visitors to Thailand have seen the spirit houses which are outside most homes. The ground on which the house is built belongs to the deity Phra Phrom, and permission has to be sought from the spirit to build the house. A house then has to be built for Phra Phrom. Offerings of fruit are placed on the altar and incense sticks burnt in worship. One can also see trees with red or yellow cloth wrapped around them. Such trees have a resident spirit which people fear.
Fear of the spirits is seen in many ways. Little children have sacred threads tied around their wrists for protection from the spirits. Many children have unusual nicknames, such as Shrimp, Crab or Pig, which are given to deceive the spirits who might harm a beautiful child. A mother carrying her baby past a spirit shrine might say, “Why is my baby so ugly?” This is due to fear that the spirit might harm the baby. In the Thai language, the word for these spirits always means an evil spirit.
Many Christians have been delivered from spirit worship but some are persecuted. Mr Hor became the first Christian in his village. When he refused to join in the spiritual activities, the spirits threatened to destroy his fruit trees. When his neighbours ostracised him and his wife threatened to leave him, he was on the point of yielding to persecution. Just at that time, the Lord spoke to him in a dream and he had the courage to maintain his faith in Christ.
In Acts 19:15 a spirit said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know”. This is still true today. Joom, a young woman, was led to the Lord by a colleague in the bank where she worked. Joom is the youngest of a large family, two of whom are mediums. When Joom told her mother that she had become a Christian, her mother did not object. However, she asked Joom not to tell the rest of the family. One evening when the family gathered at the altar, a spirit spoke through Joom’s brother saying, “Everyone is here tonight except the one who has become a Christian”. As only Joom was absent, everyone knew that Joom was now a Christian.
Rekah had been a medium but she heard the gospel and trusted in the Lord. The person who led her to the Lord said that she would be delivered from demon possession. Her husband, a non-Christian, was disturbed night after night by Rekah speaking in strange languages. As I was in contact with her husband he brought her to me asking for help. After asking some questions I realised that Rekah was not completely free of the spirits. I asked her to write down the name of the spirit by whom she had been possessed, and to my surprise Rekah wrote a long list of names. She then prayed to the Lord, telling Him that through faith in His death and resurrection she was a child of God. Rekah then renounced the spirits by name, one by one. Since that time she has been completely free and she is actively serving the Lord.
At the end of October 2009 I was in Malaysia for special meetings. After I had spoken one Sunday morning, a young woman asked if she could speak with me. Her opening words were, “I am a Christian but I see spirits”. It so happened that some years previously a brother in the same assembly had had a similar problem. On hearing this statement, I showed no surprise but asked if she had been offered to the Chinese Goddess of Mercy as a child. When she replied in the affirmative, we dealt with the problem. Although she had trusted in Jesus, the spirits still surrounded her and she had never asked for deliverance.
Sometimes, as in the experience of the Lord and His apostles, demons have to be cast out. This cannot be entered into lightly and one has to be experienced in dealing with such situations. The Name of the Lord Jesus Christ is recognised by evil spirits and His power over them is acknowledged. In the village of Klong Thom a girl was possessed by the spirit of an old man and when she spoke it was in the voice of an old man. Her parents took her to both the spirit doctor and to the temple for help. Neither the spirit doctor nor the Buddhist monks could cast out the demon. The familiar spirit of the spirit doctor was less powerful than the spirit possessing the girl. As a last resort the parents went to the Christians asking if Jesus could deal with this spirit. The leader of the Christian group, who was the only elder, said, “Yes, Jesus can cast out the spirit”. At the Sunday morning service the believers prayed, then in the Name of Jesus commanded the spirit to leave. After the demon had been cast out the whole family trusted the Lord. It was a joy to meet this family when I visited the little fellowship.
In the Chin Hills of Burma there are many Christian villages and in recent years many more people have come to Christ. A team from Rangoon, led by brother Ronnie Tin Maung Tun, was teaching new believers when they were visited by a group of men from another village. They had come for help as they had heard of the powerful God the Christians worship. A teenage girl in their village had been demon-possessed for three years and no one had been able to cast out the spirit. When Ronnie affirmed that Jesus was more powerful than demons, he was asked to go and cast out this demon. On arriving in the village he asked the headman to bring all the people into the centre of the village. Ronnie told the man that before casting out the demon in the Name of Jesus, they must know who Jesus is. After preaching the gospel the believers went to the girl’s house, where she was locked in a room due to her parents’ fear. As soon as the Christians arrived in the house the girl started to scream. Realising that this was the demon and not the girl, they commanded it to be quiet. The demon was cast out in the Name of Jesus. Six months later there were 60 baptised believers in the village.
I had been invited by assemblies in Madras (now Chennai), India, to be the evangelist at a gospel crusade. Every evening, in the opening prayer, the brother commanded every evil influence and evil spirit to leave the premises. Here in Thailand, similar prayers are said. If a Christian is moving into a house where idols have been worshipped, the elders of the church are invited to come and pray that the evil spirits will leave.
In closing, I must remind Christians in the UK that all of the above is now present in our homeland. On three occasions during visits to Scotland I have been asked to deal with the problem of evil spirits. On one occasion I invited an elder to be present when dealing with an evil spirit. Later, this brother confessed that he would not have known what to do in such a situation. The society in the UK is now multi-religious, as people from Asia have brought their belief in spirits with them to their new home. New Age is also a door into contact with evil spirits.