The Power of a Story

"A thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it in abundance." John 10:10, HCSB.

People in Cambodia live in deep fear of the spirits around them.  There are many demons, and they do have power to torment the Cambodian people.  This is Satan’s ploy to steal mankind’s worship that God intended for Himself. 
 
As we train the Cambodian believers to tell the story of God, it is important that we begin these stories in a way that is relevant to their culture.  Since they believe in and worship spirits already, there is no better place to start.  Below is our first story – the creation of spirits and heaven. I’ve tried to tell the story as if a Cambodian believer I know were sharing. Imagine him in a village, with 20 villagers gathered around in a bamboo hut with a palm leaf roof....

The Creation of Spirits and Heaven

We live in our villages with many spirits.  One of these is a spirit called Ap.  She is the one who comes to our villages at night. I have seen her before, and many of you have as well.  She comes as the severed head of a woman floating above the ground and surrounded by a light.  Behind the severed head, she drags her intestines, and everywhere she goes, she brings with her a terrible smell like rotting afterbirth. She wanders through our villages in search of something to eat. Many of you offer sacrifices to her.
 
This spirit named Ap put a curse on me when I was 13 years old.  I did not speak again until I was 16 years old. For three years my parents offered sacrifices to Ap. We offered our chickens, and pigs, and rice. When my parents ran out of those, we had to sell our belongings to buy more offerings. When we had nothing left but our land, we sold that as well to buy offerings for this spirit.  Finally, I was released from the curse and regained my speech.

Have you ever wondered where these spirits come from?  How did they get here?  What do they want?  I know the answers to these questions now, and have come to give those answers to you as well – if you want them. 

There is a Spirit greater than Ap and greater than all the other spirits that we know.  This spirit is the Most High God, and we know of Him through a Holy Book he has given us called the Bible.  From this book we can know all that the Most High God wants us to know about Him. The book says that the Most High God created heaven where He lives, and He created the earth where we live.  And on the earth he put the trees, the rivers, the sun and moon, and even you and me.  But before He filled the earth with these things He created spirits who live in heaven with Him. They are called angels. God created so many angles that they cannot be counted. He created them to worship and to serve him.
 
The greatest of all the angels was named Lucifer, and God made him more beautiful and wise than all the other angels. But one day Lucifer began to become proud. He saw that all the angels worshiped and served God. But since he was higher, and wiser, and more beautiful than all the other angels, he wanted the angels to worship him instead. He wanted to become higher than God. And many angels chose to follow and to worship Lucifer. So Lucifer and the angels who followed him rebelled against the Most High God. 

The Most High God would not tolerate this rebellion.  Lucifer and the angels who followed him had to pay the consequences for their rebellion. God punished Lucifer and the angels who followed him by throwing them out of heaven to the earth. Lucifer is also known by other names like The Deceiver, or The Thief, or Satan. God’s Holy Book tells us more about him. His book warns us that The Thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. But that the Son of God has come to earth as well, so that we might know God and have abundant lives. We don’t need to fear Satan any more. The spirit we call Ap is one of Satan’s angels.  Now that I follow the Most High God, I do not fear Ap any more. She holds no power over me. This is because I follow God, who is more powerful than any other spirit. 
 
That is where spirits came from.  When I come back next week, I will tell you the story of how God created the sky, and the trees, and everything there is on the earth in just 6 days!  But before I go, let me ask you some questions about the story I just told....

Week after week Cambodian believers are sharing stories like this from the Bible. By the end of twelve weeks they share enough truth for villagers to understand and respond to the gospel.

Shared by a Last Frontier Missionary serving in the Pacific Rim

Pray that:

God will anoint Cambodian believers as they share truth in villages that have never had the opportunity to hear the gospel.

Many Cambodians will respond to the stories they are hearing with saving faith.

Pacific Rim is a region of the International Mission Board, SBC.