Demons Only Happen in Africa
My first assignment with the Navigators was to live inside the Communist country of Romania in 1980. Through the efforts of traveling missionaries from Vienna, Austria, 400 people had already gone through some discipleship training, but there were no new converts. Training people in evangelism was the number one objective. The communists were in charge and it was against the law for Christians to evangelize. Yet, 16 people out of 60 who had had the discipleship training in the city of Cluj-Napoca showed up for training in evangelism. For the next four months, we met every Tuesday night. I used a Christian translator, and taught on how to share the Christian faith. We practiced sharing with each other, and they went out into the city to meet with friends they had been praying for and began to share Christ.
In December of that year, three people came to Christ in one week--our first converts. We held a prayer and praise meeting that lasted late into the night. I was so excited when I left the meeting I could hardly contain myself, yet I walked out of the believers' home, turned onto the street, and walked into a wall of depression. Within a few feet, I was overcome with despair and thoughts of discouragement and suicide filled my mind. As I walked forward the thought came to my mind, this is demonic, and I quietly spoke the words, "In the name of Jesus, Satan be gone." The depression lifted but I did not recover the joy I had left the meeting with. When I shared this story with an older missionary from Yugoslavia, he assured me that this kind of confrontation was common. Three years later I was glad to get back to America where I thought this kind of thing doesn't happen.
Years later in 1993, I had an encounter that was outside the box of my experience and challenged my understanding of spiritual warfare. We began to see strange happenings in our home. Pictures would fall off the wall in the middle of the night and my young children were having nightmares. They would wake up screaming having vivid pictures in their minds of ugly creatures that were attacking them. I prayed over my kids in the middle of the night. An hour later, however, they would wake up screaming again. Nothing was working. I began to pray and ask the Lord to send someone to help us.
A few weeks later, I sought the help of a staff person who had just received training on deliverance ministry from Charles Kraft at Fuller Theological Seminary. That weekend he did a deliverance session with me. I had been having thoughts of discouragement, and thoughts about going into other lines of work had plagued me for months. We discovered four harassing spirits that had been trying to discourage me and cause me to leave the ministry. Through this experience I also learned how to use my authority in Christ and to cleanse our home. I left this meeting with more joy in my heart than I had had in years. In fact, it was more joy than I had experienced since I first became a believer.
I knew that something had changed. During the next few months, I studied Kraft's book on deliverance and looked up every Bible reference I could. When I asked other Nav staff about this area, most were as ignorant as I had been. Some would shudder with fear and say, "Oh, I don't even want to think about this." Most seemed to feel that demons are relevant only in other cultures and that we should avoid this issue. But 2 Corinthians 2:11 bothered me: "In order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes." I had certainly been unaware of the demonic schemes against my own life and had been at a loss to protect my children from Satan's attack.
The next step in my journey occurred when Dan entered the picture. Dan was typical of the people coming to Christ in our ministry. He had non-Christian parents who divorced when he was in high school, discovered pornography from his friends in junior high, slept with every girl he ever dated, and lived with his wife before they were married. The pornography still had a pull on his life and they struggled in their marriage.
Dan was a brand-new Christian when I started discipling him. He lived in another city so I saw him about once a month for quiet time, Bible study, and prayer. Dan could not get consistent in his quiet time and he felt bad about it. He once said, "Lonnie, I open my Bible in the morning and a thousand thoughts rush into my head about what I should be doing down at the office. I try to read but it's like dry straw. I see my wife having her quiet time and she is weeping before the Lord, she loves Jesus so much. What's wrong with me?" This was puzzling since I had discipled him for more than a year, trained him in quiet times, and had quiet times with him while praying about this issue often. Dan's commitment to Christ was high, but something was going on spiritually. I wondered if it could be something from his past.
Dan and I began one afternoon by asking the Lord to lead us into truth about how his past was affecting his present. We discovered he was under some demonic attack. By the end of the afternoon, we had dealt with a number of demonic spirits that had a legal right or foothold in Dan's life. It was amazing! One of the chief demons told us that his purpose was to destroy Dan's intimacy with Christ and he did this by hindering Dan's quiet time. Another told us that his purpose was to attack Dan's marriage. Both were key issues for Dan. After the demons were gone Dan made significant progress in both his quiet time and his marriage.
That was almost 10 years ago. Since that time I've done a number of deliverance sessions dealing with issues such as depression, long-term poor self-image, pornography, rage, and other issues that were affecting marriages. Each of these was with godly people, Nav staff, pastors, and returning missionaries. Many times these deliverance sessions were necessary because the people felt under attack after their ministries had experienced great fruitfulness. I also discovered more than a dozen other Navigator staff who had found it necessary to do deliverances in their ministries.
Young people today are especially aware of the spirit world. Perhaps this is because many current movies and TV programs have strong spiritual and sometimes demonic dimensions. Even my teenage children report that their classmates often experiment with ouija boards or call the psychic hot line.
One thing I have learned and become convinced of through all of this is, while giving too much attention to demons is foolish, being ignorant and ignoring them is just as foolish. Ephesians 6:12 states: "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." The truth of this verse needs to be explored in the context of the American culture, our worldview, and our ministry philosophy. If you have an interest or need in the area of spiritual warfare or deliverance ministry, I recommend the following books as a starter.
- Defeating Dark Angles by Charles Kraft,
- I Give You Authority by Charles Kraft
- The Bondage Breaker by Neil Anderson