(Every year I spend 3 to 5 weeks in India leading pastors’ conferences and ministering to people and churches. I teach about spiritual warfare, which is very real in India, as this blog shows. Prayers for my ministry there would be greatly appreciated. For more information see India.ChristianTrainingOnline.org) Spiritual Warfare in India 10
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 it’s 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 pastor’s 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 mindset we all could use! (Monday, March 14, 2011)
Matthew 4:24 News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them. (See also Matthew 12:15; 15:30; 19:2; 21:14; Luke 4:40; 14:4)
Pray and ask God whom He wants you to pray to be healed. Pray for them. Is there any healing He wants you to pray for yourself? Ask Him first, and if He shows you something to pray for go ahead and do so. Keep praying for these things for yourself and others as long as He keeps leading you to do so.
(If I can answer questions or offer personal counsel, or if you would like a free copy of my Spiritual Warfare Handbook, email me at Jerry@ChristianTrainingOrganization.org or download it from http://sw.christiantrainingonline.org/. My next book, Spiritual Warfare in the Bible, which is a more advanced treatment of spiritual warfare, is also available for free.)