Fight for Freedom

“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1, NAS.

One of the first cross-cultural workers to a Pacific Rim Muslim people group attended literacy training with fifteen new believers from the group with whom she was working. One of the lessons they had studied at the training involved occult attachments like amulets. Two of the people in the group confessed that they had amulets that had been given to them by their fathers.

The two men began quarrelling about the necessity of getting rid of the amulets. The girl from outside the group began to cry. Although she didn’t want to share why she was crying, the group encouraged her. She said, “Seeing these men who are supposed to be brothers in Christ fight like this makes me so sad.”

Both the men asked her forgiveness. Suddenly one of the men collapsed and began having seizure-like symptoms. Several people tried to restrain him, but he was too strong to be restrained. At this point everyone in the room was crying, except the other man who also had an amulet. After a while the man calmed down a little and said between sobs, “I’m tired. I’m tired; so tired of having this inside me.”

Everyone gathered around the man to lay hands on him and pray. Again the other man with the amulet refused to join. He said he felt tired. After everyone prayed for the man, he shouted, “I’m free! Thank God for His deliverance, I’m free!!” He shared with the group that he would no longer keep the amulet, but would return it to his father. The amulet had given him power to destroy life – he had worked as an assassin. He shared how the faces of the people he had killed haunted him constantly.

The man kept his word. After the training, he returned the amulet to his father, and he has been active in sharing the Gospel with his people with joy ever since. The other man, sadly, didn’t find freedom. It turns out his amulet gave him power to seduce women.

During the prayer times for Muslims, the new believers would gather for contextual worship. The one woman who was not from a Muslim background decided not to join, as she didn’t feel comfortable. The second man with the amulet followed her. She questioned him about not joining the worship, and he said he was tired.

The next day at the contextual worship time, the man again followed her. She asked “Why are you following me?” He replied that he just wanted to make friends with her. She told him to go to the worship and tried to close the door to her room. He stopped her and tried to force the door open. As they struggled with the door, the caretaker from the retreat center walked by, and the man quickly left.

Later that day she shared this experience with the Muslim background women. They all shared instances when this man had made advances to them. Even the married women had been approached. Some of them shared that when he held their hand during prayer that his hand felt warm but left their hand feeling cold afterwards. They also noted that his eyes seemed to glow red at times when he was making advances. When he was confronted by the women about the bondage to which the amulet was subjecting him, he refused their prayers. Instead he decided to leave the training. He has not been involved in the work since.

Pray that:

Occult bondages in the lives of new believers will be broken by the Mighty Spirit of Christ.

Wisdom will be given to believers to discern spiritual bondage so that they may lead people to freedom in Christ.

Those under occult bondage will find the courage and grace to cry out for freedom, rather than continuing in slavery to sin.

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