Blogs about ‘Spiritual Warfare in India 2011

BLOGS ABOUT SPIRITUAL WARFARE IN INDIA 2011

By Rev. Dr. Jerry Schmoyer jerry@schmoyer.net

http://www.mainstreetbaptist.org/ – http://india.christiantrainingonline.org/

SPIRITUAL WARFARE IN INDIA (SLOW START BUT NOT FOR LONG) – 1

When I started pastoring 40 years ago I never imagined I’d have a ministry in spiritual warfare. I didn’t even know what spiritual warfare was until about 25 years ago. I knew some Christians who struggled with sin and didn’t seem to have victory no matter how hard they tried or how much they trusted God. No amount of counseling helped. It seemed like something greater than themselves was controlling them. One of my own children was being influenced by something evil . God in his mercy brought some men into my life who taught me about spiritual warfare and deliverance from demonizing.

Paul says “we are not ignorant of Satan’s devices” (2Corinthians 2:5-11) but I was very ignorant. Since that time I have been ministering to those in need of spiritual warfare counseling. I have read many books and talked to lots of people. God has been teaching me and helping me learn how to help those who are attacked by Satan and his forces.

As I learned about and ministered in spiritual warfare and deliverance over the years I never imagined that God was preparing and training me to be able to share what I have learned with pastors in India. Clearly He had that in mind all along. Spiritual warfare ministry and training has always been part of my pastors conferences in India, but this past year it took on a major role. I led several 1 and 2 day spiritual warfare conferences and spent half a day on it in each of my 16 pastors conferences. It was challenging, draining but very rewarding.

We (Nancy, my wife, was with me) spent the first week in northern India where the darkness and demonic are very strong. We had a one-day and a two-day spiritual warfare conference there and prayed with those present for deliverance at the end. We were all expecting some demonic manifestations, something to get stirred up or fight back – but nothing happened. Perhaps it will take more work there before God’s power really breaks through. The hold of darkness is very great.

From there we spent a few days in central India and taught on spiritual warfare again, then went to another town for pastors conferences and to minister. After the second week Nancy left and then things started happening there. For the first of many times, I felt a believer start to shake almost uncontrollably when I put my hands on their head and prayed for them. The person would often try to pull back from me but I held them in place and prayed against whatever was causing this until they calmed down. This happened to a young man and a young woman in the same church. They I learned to expect it wherever I went. I prayed for about 1000 people individually this way during the 5 weeks there and experienced this shaking about a dozen times.

After traveling to a few different towns and villages we went back to a place I had spent almost a week on my previous trip to India. It was very good to be reunited with many believers to whom I had grown very close during my first visit. I had taught on spiritual warfare and led them in a prayer for deliverance last time and did so again this time as well. Here is where the first overt manifestation took place.

After the session on spiritual warfare, as everyone was leaving to take a break, an elderly pastor in the back started shaking and moaning. Some men near him helped him lay down on the floor so he wouldn’t hurt himself falling. He was shaking, yelling and moaning. Those near him knelt by him and started praying for him. They knew it was a demon and had seen this happen many times before. Now they knew they could exercise their authority in Jesus. The man would be OK for a while then start shaking and yelling again and we’d pray for him some more. After several episodes of this he finally stopped.

Later in the day he came to me and asked me to lay hands on him and pray for deliverance and of course I did so. The whole episode reminded me of the first time Jesus taught in the synagogue when a demonized man shouted and shook (Luke 4:31-37).

There was a young pastor and his wife there whom I got to know well last time. We have been praying for them because there was a demonic issue of abuse that was destroying their marriage and ministry. God has intervened and they have moved beyond that. It was good to see them together and doing well. Spiritual warfare can be done from half way around the world – God’s power knows no limits! This was a full, draining but exciting day. Little did I know that it would be nothing compared to what the next day would bring!

SPIRITUAL WARFARE IN INDIA (SHAKING AND SCREAMING IN CHURCH) – 2

Tuesday, January 25, started like all the other days in India, with an early rise and a long drive to another village for a pastors conference in a local church. My voice was still very weak and my stomach still sore but getting better. Finally I was getting over a bad case of food poisoning (I guess there is no such thing as a good case, is there?). Then it happened.

While I was talking about Jesus power over demons a young lady on the woman’s side started pointing at me, screaming and pushing towards me while I was talking about Jesus commanding the demons out in Mark 5. I later found out she was screaming “Don’t tell them that! That can’t know that! Stop talking! Don’t be letting them know these things!” She really went wild!

The women tried to hold her and stop her, people started praying against what was happening. One of the larger men pushed through the woman, grabbed her by a large handful of hair on the top of her head and physically dragged her to the center isle and then down to the front where I was standing. He dropped her and she hit her head on the concrete pretty hard but never seemed to notice. Everyone was gathering around crying out to Jesus. I knelt by her and put my left hand on the top of her head and my right on the side of her head for she was jerking and shaking and I didn’t want her to hit her head again. She stopped screaming and was moaning and jerking. I tried to open her eyes to look at her and better command the demons but she kept closing them. Others were touching her and everyone praying out loud. They call on Jesus for help and mercy and are just learning the authority then have to command the demons to be gone. I held her and kept praying for awhile. Finally she calmed down and lay still.

This was the second experience in 2 days of a believer in a church service being demonized. When Jesus spoke in Capernaum (Luke 4:31-37; Mark 1:26) a regular attendee started shaking and screaming. Some think believers can be demonized but that is not true. When we become a believer we receive a new nature, where God’s Holy Spirit lives. However we still have our old sin nature, it doesn’t diminish or leave. We can still sin as much after salvation as we did before. We don’t have to sin for now we have a greater power in us, but we still can sin if we choose. It is in the area of our old sin nature that demons can have and keep control of believers as well as unbelievers. That is what happened with the pastor on the previous day and the young woman on this day.

The woman eventually went back to her seat, obviously drained and dazed. She barely seemed to be with it at all. I combined the last 2 sessions so we could get to the prayer for everyone and that went well. Afterwards I sought her out, laid hands on her head and prayed for her again.

I was surprised to see her stay afterwards. She was one of the 7 from the church who I was to baptize that afternoon. They were all Dahlits, the untouchables who are so low in Indian society they are below the caste system. Moses talked to them, I said a bit but couldn’t talk much. She clearly was a new believer who wanted to follow Jesus in baptism. We drove to the river, chased some water buffalo out of the way, and went in to baptize. She was the 6th one baptized. It felt very right having her take that step of faith and public commitment. I really believe God did a great work in her that day.

The woman I baptized after her, the last one, put her hands over her face when she came up out of the water. She started shaking and screaming as well. Falling down in deep very rocky water is not good so we prayed and got her to the shore. She came out of it quickly then.

Back at the church we talked, took pictures, a special meal was served to those baptized and we had more group and individual prayers. Pray for these young women. Ramulamma is the name of the first and Mangamma the second. I am not able to know what really happened afterwards, if the demons were totally gone or tried to attack them again, but God knows and will take care of them.

These women came from Hinduism with its millions of gods, many superstitutions, pagan sacrifices and strange traditions and rituals. Any of these can open a person up to demonic possession. Once a demon has access to a person he clams the whole family and their children. When those children have children he claims them and moves from generation to generation. Its easy to see how Satan has so much control over so many people in a place like India. Without Jesus no one is free!

As I thought more about Jesus’ experience in the synagogue (Luke 4:31-37; Mark 1:26) the many parallels came clear. Believers can be demonized, and often not know it. It didn’t seem like the man in the synagogue knew he was demonized, nor did his friends and family. When exposed to the power and truth of Jesus, though, demons must bow and yield. This demon reacted to Jesus’ presence, but had to leave when commanded by Jesus. The demon spoke through the man and then threw the man down, shook him violently, and screamed. All this happened in these 2 instances.

I also had an experience of a woman rushing into a church while I was speaking. She was screaming for help while holding a young baby boy that was convulsing and crying. She was a new believer and knew it was a demon for it had attacked her baby before. I thought of when a man brought his young son to Jesus and said he had seizures and often fell into the fire or water. Jesus rebuked the demon and the boy was healed (Matthew 17:14-18).

It was very strange to be living out Bible events, especially ones about demonizing. Knowing the end of the story, who wins the battle, certainly helps! When those kinds of things happen God’s power and presence is so overwhelming and awesome that the whole event becomes a worship experience! It is physically, spiritually and emotionally draining, but there is a tremendous spiritual ‘high’ that comes from witnessing God’s power displayed so clearly and convincingly. What a marvelous God we serve!

SPIRITUAL WARFARE IN INDIA (PASSING ON GOD’S BLESSING) – 3

About the middle of my 5 weeks in India I needed to take a couple days off to recuperate from food poisoning and to let my voice heal and return. I could barely speak loud enough for the translator alongside me to hear me. I don’t know if this was an attack by Satan or just me experiencing what others experience in India. I am in no means exempt from the ‘normal’ things others go through in life. The rest was good, though. We didn’t cancel any pastors conferences, though, but we did combine a couple. I still ended up with 15 conferences in 20 days (2 days being Sundays).

We started this second phase off with a large pastors conference and an evening service which 300 attended. This was the largest group I spoke to. The smallest was a group of 9 people. Most were 40 to 60. I got to baptize 6 tribal women, the first in that area to come to Jesus. Only 3 were to be baptized, then 3 more joined them. The tribal people are from an entirely different ethnic background than the Indian people and are often seen and treated as if they are barely human. The huts they live in are thrown together from scrap paper and plastic they find in the gutters. They have a very poor life.

To make things worse, 3 of these 6 women were widows, a very difficult condition to be in in India. Another had been married but her husband left, something not uncommon among the unbelievers. He will go elsewhere and marry again but she will never be able to marry and have a husband and family. It was a real joy and privilege to baptize these women and pray for them. God will use them to spread the gospel to their family and friends and that will be the beginning of the first church among tribal people in that area.

What was most touching was buying and giving them Bibles. They never imagined having a great treasure like a Bible of their own. Tears of joy ran down their cheeks as I gave them out one by one. Several knelt down and touched or kissed my feet – the greatest way of showing respect in India. Having them do that to me was extremely humbling and very moving. I look forward to spending time with each one in heaven, talking about how God used them and what He did in their lives. I know Satan won’t give them up easily, but with God’s Word and a spiritual warfare handbook they have tools to have victory in Jesus.

My rough statistics show I spoke to over 1000 pastors, 350 plus wives and over 1500 people in evening and Sunday church services. I spoke about 100 times, and after each time people would come line up before me asking me to lay hands on them and pray for God to bless them. Jesus did that many times in the Bible, and so did the apostles when they sent others out to new mission fields. Praying individually for these precious people is one of my greatest privileges in India. It is time and energy consuming and comes when I am already tired, but it brings a joy that goes beyond any physical discomfort.

After the baptism and evening service where 300 came everyone wanted to be prayed for so they all stayed seated and I walked through them praying out loud and laying my hands on each head as I passed by. Usually, though, it is a one on one experience. The picture is of Jesus in me connecting with and filling them. It’s not that I am anything special, I never feel that. I do feel that I am God’s chosen instrument, all by His grace, of coming to give them some of God’s truth and compassion. To them I am a visible reminder that God loves them and reaches out to them in their need so in praying for them I feel I am the channel by which God’s blessing flows from Him, through me and into them.

I don’t pray the same thing for each one but something different, something I feel God would have me pray for each. Seeing them gives me an impression of what to pray for, or God puts thoughts and ideas into my mind. I pray for protection and blessing, but the rest is different depending on how God leads me. If I sense something particularly strong from the demonic realm I pray against that, and that is often the case. I want to be sensitive to pray for what He wants to do in their lives.

In asking God to ‘bless’ them I am not asking for material or financial things, although that can be part of what they need and what God provides. That isn’t what they are thinking of when they want me to ask God to bless them. It isn’t a culture that is materialistic and their minds don’t think in those terms as our do. When I ask God to bless them I am asking Him to make them spiritually prosperous, to fill them with His presence, to help them grow in Him and to use them for His glory.

Often they will have a little container of coconut oil and hand it to me. They can’t speak to me and they don’t understand a word I pray, but I know the oil is to anoint them. It is a picture of God’s Spirit filling and using them. I put some on their head and then with my finger draw a cross in oil on their forehead. Every time I do it I get a powerful feeling from God – the cross is what its all about. That’s where our hope and power lie. As the song says, the cross says it all.

SPIRITUAL WARFARE IN INDIA (THE HEALING GOD) – 4

I’ve been blogging about some of my experiences in spiritual warfare in India. They are the highlight of this trip and its ministry. In a country filled with darkness and idols God’s power shines in stark contrast. While America is full of various shades of gray, in India its all black or white.

I’ve never gone into a shrine, temple or mosque. I have no desire to. The enemy lives and controls there and I want nothing to do with that. You can sense that evil presence when you are in the vicinity. Temples and shrines are everywhere. Many are small, just a few feet square. They are outside people’s homes, in fields and even in the middle of roads where traffic has to swerve around them. Some are quite large, though, like Tirumala Venkateswara Temple near Tirupati.

We drove around it one evening but didn’t go inside. The temple is for Lord Vishnu, the most popular of the millions of Hindu gods. Tirumala Venkateswara Temple is the richest and most visited temple in the world. The only religious site in the world that receives as many visitors is the Vatican. Five and a half million dollars a day or donated at the temple, and that in a country where the majority work for two or three dollars a day. One hundred thousand pilgrims visit the temple daily. One half million visit on holy days, many more than visit even the Vatican. We can only imagine the oppression felt by Christians who try to grow churches any near these places. The power of Satan is extremely great in these concentrations of demons.

God keeps showing His people that His power is greater. He is known throughout India as the healing God, the One to go to when all else fails. Each time I am in India I meet person after person who came to the Lord because a Christian prayed for them when there was no hope for them to live. Because God healed their body they know He can heal their soul as well.

While some parts of India have modern medicine as we know it here, most places have little or no medical care. Crutches, shriveled hands, missing legs, crooked fingers, eyes blinded by cataracts, fevers, aches, pains and every ailment known to man walk around everywhere. Not a day goes by that I don’t see or pray for those needing physical healing. Often it is closely related to demonic activity as well.

In one town I prayed for a Christian woman who was in terrible stomach and back pain. Some time ago someone who wanted to cause her harm touched her with the purpose of transferring a demon to her. The demon caused extreme weakness and awful pain and fever. They didn’t know what to do or how to get rid of it. I spend a couple hours in her home, praying for her several times. A short time later I heard she was all right, that God had healed her.

One of the pastors invited us over for breakfast and while there asked me to pray for his teenage son who came to the conference with him. They said the boy had ‘fits’ (a common term to describe falling, shaking and screaming or moaning). The demon made him very weak with fever, so he was hardly able to function. I prayed for him at home and at the conference.

During one conference a pastors wife came to me during the first break and, with Moses interpreting, said she had terrible head pain and couldn’t concentrate on what I was saying. It seems the pain was something she often had. I prayed for her right then, rebuking anything any demon was doing and asking God to heal her. Later that day I found out God immediately healed her of the pain.

I heard of a man who had back pain and after I prayed it was gone. Numerous accounts of God healing in response to prayer came back to me, many more to Pastor Moses as people talked and shared with him in Telugu.

I have no problem praying for God to heal people there. If He does so or not is up to Him. He doesn’t always heal. I wasn’t able to pray for myself to be healed, but others I prayed for with the same thing were healed. For these people, their only hope is for God to heal them. If not they will suffer until they die. It’s not like then can run to the drug store for an aspirin to help their pain. Many of the situations are even beyond the help of medicine in this country. Praying to rebuke and stop anything any demons may be doing is certainly something we can and should do. Praying for God to be their Great Physician, have mercy on them and heal them is definitely doable for me. He gets the credit and glory when they are healed, and no one who isn’t healed complains or asks why. They are glad for those He does heal, not questioning God because of those He doesn’t heal. That’s a mind set we all could use!

SPIRITUAL WARFARE IN INDIA (THE BATTLE FOR INDIA’S PASTORS) – 5

In India I never once had to address the question of whether Satan or demons were real and if they could attack us or not. In this country I often spend most of my time addressing those issues. In India they have experienced the evil side of Satan, not the ‘angel of light’ side we see in the USA.

Pastors especially are attacked. They have deserted Satan’s army and are now in God’s army opposing Satan’s Kingdom. That makes them prime targets for demonic oppression. Because they are pastors they play a very key role in the growth of God’s Kingdom in India. Stopping them stops the church. They come from backgrounds of Hinduism of Islam and have generations of ancestors who worshipped these demonic gods. The places where they live and worship have been given over to demonic forces many times over in the past several thousand years so when they live or worship there these spirits rise up and fight for what has been given to them. Not surprisingly, many people around them hate Christians and the church. They have evil thoughts toward these men and their families. Their deep desire is to see them destroyed and gone from the land of India. These thoughts and desires are prayers which empower demons to act to bring them to pass. Being a pastor in India definitely puts you right on the cutting edge of the battle between God and Satan.

Having ministered to 130 men and 35 wives last time, we set our sights much higher this time. By having a different pastors conference in a different place day after day we could go into unreached areas and help rural pastors who have never had any opportunity to have any pastoral training. They are thrown right into the hottest part of the battle without even knowing what their weapons are, much less how to use them! Thus we were able to train over 1000 pastors and 350 wives in 18 total locations. All day every day was a pastors conference – 4 sessions a day.

In the morning sessions I spoke about what God expects of them as pastors – what it means to pastor God’s sheep. I also focused on the importance of their own spiritual growth. Currently I’m writing a second book for India which is about the basics of pastoring – what God expects of pastors. This will be a great way to reach many more pastors, and give them more information than in a one day conference. What we need is money to translate and print this book.

The afternoon was given over to spiritual warfare training and ministry. From Mark 5 I taught the basics of deliverance from demonic oppression and possession. I showed how God’s power is great enough to provide freedom from bondage to anything demonic. I taught them how this power and authority was available for them and how to use it in their lives as well as for their family and church (Luke 9:1; 10:17-19). I worked in numerous magic tricks to reinforce key points and these were very well received, usually with loud applause.

Needless to say, they were very motivated to learn how to have victory in these areas! I ended each afternoon the same way I did last time in India – with a group prayer for deliverance. I prayed a sentence, Moses translated it into Telugu phrase by phrase and the people repeated each phrase after him. It was the most awesome experience I can imagine! God’s power was so strong and evident each time we did it – 18 times this past trip! The walls shook with the volume and emotion of their prayers renouncing anything demonic and claiming Jesus freedom and victory. I can’t imagine a greater emotional high than I experienced each time we concluded the day that way. Each one could feel God’s presence in a very real and powerful way in the room. Arms were raised, tears streamed down cheeks and lives were changed and demonic power was broken and God’s people were set free! No wonder the demons didn’t want them to hear about that!!!

I closed by raising my arms (something I’ve never been comfortable doing, but at this point I couldn’t keep them down!) and praying for their deliverance, detail by detail. I committed them to God and prayed for them, their ministries, families and churches. I felt like I was pouring out my very soul in that prayer, that it was something God wanted me to pray because it was a prayer He was going to answer in marvelous ways.

Every day when we were finished pastors (and wives) would share a public or private testimony of how they felt God’s presence come into them, how they felt delivered from the bondage of Satan and how wonderful and glorious it was. Time after time they said that they no longer have to fear demons for they know what to do when facing them. Days and weeks later reports were still coming in from each and every place about how God used and blessed them that day. Some even took off the next day to travel great distances to come to hear the same conference again in another place!

Literally hundreds of them begged us to come to their area to teach these things to the pastors where they lived and ministered. Of course we had to turn down every one of these requests. Many asked us to set up a training center where they could come for days at a time to learn more about these things. That would be a wonderful thing to do, and if enough money is donated we will do it. Next time we will have some of these pastors conferences, but we will bring key pastor leaders we met to one or 2 locations and there teach them how to take these truths to the pastors in their area. We’ll teach them to train others so those men can go out and train still other pastors. We can’t be adding we must be multiplying. That’s the only way to reach so many very committed and gifted young pastors. How can we not do everything within out power to help them advance God’s kingdom there?

India will be a key nation in the world in not too many more years. I think it will replace the USA as the leading democracy in the world. That makes it even more important to assure that this sleeping giant wakes up to serve the Living God!

To make sure this wasn’t a one day affair that fades in their minds as time goes on we gave each participant 2 copies of my spiritual warfare handbook in their own language – one for them and one to give to another pastor. That is a great tool to help them to the next step in learning how to have victory. I kept thinking of how God will use these sessions and these books to spread His truth throughout this part of India. It’s like throwing a stone in a lake and watching the ripples go out until they hit the shore. We threw in the stone and the ripples are just starting, but they’ll keep going until Jesus returns!

You can’t imaging the thrill of being able to train, pray with and for, and equip (handbook) over a thousand young highly committed and very gifted young pastors. What a tremendous honor and privilege!!! Some of them are gifted in spiritual warfare beyond what God has gifted me. This will be the start of their developing their gifts. They will take these truths and teach them in India going way beyond anything I could imagine. What a great privilege and blessing to be part of this!

(If you would like a free copy of my Spiritual Warfare Handbook, in English, email me and I’ll send you an electronic copy. If you’d like to donate to help print more copies, for we have used up our first printing of 6,000, send your donation to me or Main Street Baptist Church. Please keep praying for India’s pastors and our ministry there.)

SPIRITUAL WARFARE IN INDIA – 6

What a contrast between doing spiritual warfare in India and in America. I’ve shared many of my personal experiences. There are more but I think I’ve said enough for now. What I was aware of was the contrast between ministering in spiritual warfare in the USA and in India. I kept a list going when I would think of something else. Here is a summary of what I wrote:

AMERICA	INDIA
IGNORANT, SKEPTICAL of demonic activity	AWARE, CONVINCED of demonic activity
Demonic LAST RESORT	Demonic ALWAYS CONSDERED
USA founded in LIGHT, turning to DARKNESS	In past DARKNESS, now LIGHT coming
SUBTLE, HIDDEN work of Satan	OPEN, OBVIOUS work of Satan
CAMOUFLAGED activities, GRAY to hide it	OVERT EVIL evident, DARK clearly shown
Christians UNTRAINED, FEARFUL of demons	Christians UNTRAINED, FRUSTRATED by evil
Demons, Satan GROWING STRONGER	Demons, Satan slowly LOSING GROUND

Because of our ‘Christian’ heritage and culture, even to today, Satan’s work in the country is far more subtle and underground. Few even recognize that he exists. He works behind the scenes and in more “socially acceptable” ways. Yet is bondage is just as great and in many ways he is more dangerous here because he does work unrecognized. Its harder to deal with a sneaky, sly, hypocritical child who pretends on thing but really is another way than it is with an in-your-face rebellious child, at least I certainly think so. That’s the difference between demonizing in the USA and in India. Any disease that isn’t recognized is more dangerous than one whose symptoms are clear and obvious.

Paul says we should not be unaware of Satan’s ways and traps (2 Corinthians 2:5-11). In this country most Christians don’t recognize Satan’s tactics and work, many don’t even believe he exists. There is no way they are prepared to fight against him. At least in India they know he exists and what he can do. They may not know how to fight either, but they know they need to learn and want to learn. In that they are ahead of many in this country.

The most sobering observation I made is that in this country Satan’s power is slowly growing as we turn further from Jesus while in India his power is slowly fading as millions are coming to salvation every year. While demons are losing ground little by little in India they are gain it little by little in America. No one can deny the direction our country is going. I thank God for the privilege of taking a little of what He has shown me here and being able to transplant it into India. May God continue to bless and use His Word as it brings fruit for His Kingdom.