Fasting and Prayer
Picking
up Kristin at the airport of that southeast Asian country's capital city for the second time in a few months felt like a déjà vu. But
this time, I wasn't expecting to quickly cast out a demon and then go have dinner.
We took a long minibus ride to a small seaside village, checked into two separate rooms at a guest house, and did what we had done the first night of her first arrival in the country: we read the Bible, prayed, commanded the demons to come out, and the demons made lots of noise as they came out or resisted.
The next morning, the owner of the guest house said the other guests had complained about the strange noise we made and told us to leave, so we did. There were a few other lodging options in that village but none with thick walls, so we moved to a small provincial town nearby, found a bungalow guest house with thick walls that was nearly empty, and moved into two rooms at the opposite ends of the building, which was in the middle of a very large yard. We stocked up on water, and then began to fast, pray, read the Bible together, cast out demons, sleep, and then repeat the next day.
Jesus said there are demons that "can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting" (Mark 9:29). The intensity of the spiritual warfare seemed to increase as we fasted, prayed and cast out demons. During the month that Kristin had spent having demons cast out of her at the youth pastor's house before he took her to Korea, she had been fully conscious and coherent. She was less so now, and when commanded in the name of Jesus to come out of her, the demons made her body thrash about and the guttural noise that emanated from her throat sounded even less human than before.
The intensity of the spiritual warfare was tough on me, but it was much tougher on Kristin, who had to end her fast after the third day. After six days, my urine turned dark brown, my body began to feel weird and less able to move, so I ended my fast the next day. I had heard of people fasting for forty days or even longer and being fine. I didn't have their faith or stamina.
Thereafter, we continued to pray and read the Bible, fast occasionally for up to three days, but eat normally on other days, and cast out demons. Our cheap rooms didn't have a kitchen and the street food was cheap, so we ate most of our meals out. After some of the casting out sessions, Kristin was so weak that she had to be supported while walking to the eateries.