Casting Out A Demon
Kristin,
whom I had never met, exited the airport arrivals area holding a baby's blanket, which I
assumed had been for the airplane's cold air conditioning. I welcomed her and made
small talk with her during the taxi ride to
the church. I had read the night before that a
demon in a person often makes the person run away
when it is about to be cast out. I was concerned that the demon in her
will open her side door of the moving taxi and make her jump out, so I tried to keep the conversation light while
being ready to grab her if she reaches for the handle of the door on her side.
We arrived at the church, I introduce her to the youth pastor, who led us up to the small chapel and joined us. We pulled out and sat down on three plastic chairs, facing each other, prayed, took the time to read every passage in the Bible about Jesus or His disciples casting out demons, by the end of which Kristin was already hyperventilating.
Having never cast out a demon, I just went by the Bible and said while looking into Kristin's eyes, "In the name of Jesus, I command the unclean spirit inside to come out!"
In response, I again heard the deep voice that I had heard on the phone the night before, but it didn't say, "I don't want to leave" this time. Instead, it made a loud, low-pitched, guttural noise that didn't sound human but seemed to express discomfort, perhaps pain. Kristin opened her mouth and tilted her head upward as if something was coming out of her mouth but the noise continued, so I repeated, "In the name of Jesus, I command you, the unclean spirit, to come out of her!"
Kristin slid out of her plastic chair and onto the wooden floor, where her body began to writhe while the guttural noise continued to emanate from within her. The youth pastor and I pushed back our plastic chairs, knelt over Kristin, and again commanded the demon to come out of her. Thus began a fight that lasted much longer than I expected. We continued to command the demon to come of out her in Jesus' name, read over her the Bible passages about Jesus or His disciples casting out demons, prayed for her, and held down her shoulders when her body flailed too much.
The guttural noise continued to emanate from within her but changed somewhat, which made me think that we may be dealing with more than one demon. Sweat dripped from all three of us and the youth pastor left us at times. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him sometimes on his phone, and saw other people enter the chapel. At one point, I looked up from Kristin and saw that we were surrounded by over a dozen people, all locals, sitting on the floor facing us and praying in the local language, some holding up their hands with their palms facing us. Encouraged by the reinforcements that the youth pastor had called in and whom the Lord had sent, we continued all night.
Early the next morning, the youth pastor informed me that we would need to stop soon as people were arriving at the church for various scheduled activities. By then, we were completely exhausted anyway, caked in sweat, and I had a strong sense that we were dealing with more than one demon.
Kristin and I thanked the youth pastor and everyone who had come and spent the night waging war against the demon(s), and was about to leave, when the church's senior pastor arrived, seemingly oblivious to what had happened the night before. He saw two Americans coming out of his church, greeted us very cordially, and mentioned that he had spent four years in Long Beach, California pastoring a church of his people. He thanked us for visiting his church, had one of the young men fetch a tuk-tuk for us, and waved us goodbye with a smile as we pulled away from his church.
After arriving at my guest house, where I had booked Kristin a room of her own, we had a serious chat, during which I mistakenly said something that she later explained made her feel very rejected. I then showed her to her room, returned to mine, took a much needed shower, and crashed on my bed.
By the time I awoke, it was already evening. Before Kristin arrived, I had thought that the one demon will quickly be cast out, as in the Bible. Instead, we had battled for about twelve hours the night before and she still had at least one demon left in her.