Evil Spirits
Bacar dashes down the street at
top speed screaming: “She kills her! She kills her! Help!”
Nobody
pays attention to him. The neighbours look at him and laugh.
At first
Bacar does not know where to go, but he keeps on pelting. The sky above
him has turned dark because of a heavy monsoon storm brewing. On the spur
of the moment he decides to run to Abou. Abou will help. He always
helps people.
A strong
wind starts blowing. Bacar speeds past a lane of tall banana trees.
He glances at the trees over his shoulder. The wind gusts through
the large leaves. The branches quiver wildly like enormous hands
attempting to seize the terrified boy. It seems to Bacar as if the trees
are calling his name: “Bacar”, they hiss. “We will come for you…;
we will find you…; we will catch you…!” Suddenly he is aware of heavy
footsteps running behind him. He dashes away from the trees into another
street, but cannot get away from the footsteps and the voices calling his name.
Abou
lives in the village next door. Bacar finds Abou’s house and falls down
on the floor exhausted.
Abou is
startled. “What happened to you, Bacar? You look as if you have
seen a ghost! What is wrong?”
At first
Bacar cannot get a word out. His mouth is too dry to speak. “Kills her,
kills her!” He stammers.
“Who is
killing whom?” Abou wants to know.
“My
mother. The lady!” The unhappy boy cries out.
“Is your
mother killing the lady?”
“No! No!
The lady! She is killing my mother!”
“Come on,
Bacar. Drink this glass of juice, and then you tell me the whole story.”
Bacar
looks scared as he tells the rest of the story. “My mother invited the
lady next door to our house. My mother seems to be very annoyed with my father.
They talked a while about my father’s other wife. Then my mother made a
potion in a small cup and the lady drank it. They also burnt incense.
The room was full of smoke. Suddenly the lady’s face became distorted.
Her eyes went large and white. She looked just like a demon. Then
she began to shudder violently from her head to her feet. Her eyes went
deep into her head and it looked like a dead person’s skull. She crunched
her teeth and made growling noises like a wild animal. She hit her head
hard and repeatedly on the floor. All of a sudden she jumped up and came
for me with hands stretched out like bird claws. I jumped up and ran.
As I ran out of the door I heard a terrifying scream. I think it was my
mother screaming because this lady was killing her! Abou, that lady
killed my mother and I could not help her.” Bacar sobs uncontrollably.
Abou
begins to understand. He knows Bacar’s mother and he heard that Bacar’s
father had taken a second wife recently. Polygamy always causes lots of
problems.
“Listen,
Bacar.” Abou calmly explains. “I do not think your mother is the
one who screamed. Demons scream like that when they enter into the
body of the medium. I have seen it many times.”
“Do you really think so?”
“Yes.
Go to you mother’s house and find out what the situation is.”
“I do not
want to walk alone in the dark.”
“Alright,
I shall walk with you and wait outside as you talk to your mother. You
will sleep with me tonight.”
They
leave together. Bacar walks close to Abou, still frightened but not as
terrified as before.
Abou was
right. Nobody was killed. Bacar’s mother has obtained the services
of the lady nextdoor because she knows how to call the djinis. They have
commanded the djinis to cause the second wife to become insane so Bacar’s
mother can have her husband all to herself.
“Will
this indeed happen?” Bacar wants to know.
“Yes,
unfortunately it is possible. We will see the results during the following
week. Do you know this lady?” Abou asks.
“Yes, her
name is Siti. She is the most beautiful lady of a village in the mountain.
She is actually a friendly and good person,” explains Bacar. “Is it right
to call the djini’s to harm other people, Abou?”
“What do
you think, Bacar, after what you have witnessed?”
Bacar is
puzzled. “I don’t know Abou. We are taught that we have good djinis
and bad djinis. I do not
understand
this, Abou. For my mother these djinis come to do a good thing, but for Siti
the same djinis do a very bad thing. I tell you, Abou, if good
djinis look like what I have seen today, I can not think what bad djinis will
be like. What do you think, Abou?”
“To tell
you the truth Bacar, there are no good djinis. Djinis are evil and they
cause evil. They kill, they make people sick and they make people mad.
A good tree bears good fruit and bad trees bear evil fruit.1
In my
faith the Living God wants us to love people. Jesus says we must even
love our enemies and not hate them. My holy Book, the Bible, says we must
bless our enemies and not curse them. When people do us harm, we must
forgive them. Let’s read the exact words of Jesus in Mathew 5:43-44: “You
have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your
enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who
persecute you.”
The
disciple Luke recorded the following words expressed by Jesus: “Bless
those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”2
The
Apostle Paul said: Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse
them.3
And the
apostle Peter put it this way: Do not return evil for evil or reviling
for reviling; but on the contrary bless, for to this you have been called, that
you may obtain a blessing.4
“What you
say sounds wonderful, Abou, but completely impossible,” says Bacar.
“Not
impossible, Bacar. God gives us the power to live by His rules and His
rules are the best. If we live according to God’s laws, we will have only
one wife and a happy family and work hard to care for our families.
Because people break God’s rules, that is why we are unhappy and things like
these with the djinis happen all the time.”
A week
later Abou finds Bacar waiting for him at his house when he comes from work.
“What’s
news?” Abou asks.
Bacar
looks sad. I have news from Siti,” he says. “My mother is very
happy because Siti has become totally mad.”
“What
does she do?” Abou wants to know.
“She
walks around in the street most of the day screaming and shouting at people,
insulting them and throwing stones. She has become dirty. Her hair
is filthy and stands on end like grass. She behaves like a demon.
Sometimes she takes her clothes off in the street, howling like and animal.
When she is tired, she just sits, swinging from side to side, saying nothing.
Abou, it is terrible that a normal, sane and sensible person could change in
such a way. Will you be able to help her? People say you can chase
the djinis away.”
“I cannot
do this, Bacar, but Jesus can. When He was on earth he cast many demons
out of people and He gives us the power in His Name and in His authority to do
the same. Remember Jesus is alive. He is still the same today and
He will never change.”
“Will you
go to her and cast the demons out by the power of Jesus?” Bacar asks.
The next
day Abou leaves for the mountain in search of Siti.
The
following weekend Bacar comes to Abou, skipping happily. He can not wait
to give Abou the good news: “Everybody speaks about this, Abou. Siti is a
different person. She is sane and she reads from your book.
She talks nicely to people and tell them about the Book. She does not
want to see my father anymore. She follows the laws of your God now.
I do not believe this. She is even praying for my mother. She
says she does not hate her. She is not even thinking of revenge.
Have you been to see her?”
“Yes, I
have been there and I cast out the demons in the Name of Jesus. She
listened to me immediately. She asked me by what power I did this and I
explained to her that it was Jesus who cast out the demons and set her free.
“Won’t she become
evil again?” Bacar asks.
“No, because she has
invited Jesus into her life as Saviour, she now has the Holy Spirit of God in
her heart. “
“Why can’t you go
around and chase all the evil spirits out of people?” Bacar wants
to know.
“I wish it could be
that easy, Bacar. Let me read you a story Jesus told on the subject:
‘When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless
places seeking rest, but he finds none.
Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he
comes he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and brings
with him seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter and dwell
there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. So
shall it be also with this evil generation.’ 5
“First a person has
to decide to follow Jesus with his whole heart, like Siti, and then no evil
spirit will be able to return to live in and harm a person.”
“I want
to be like this, Abou. What can I do to become a follower of Jesus?”
“You must
accept Jesus as your Saviour”, explains Abou. You must understand that we
are all sinners. God sent Adam and Eve out of the Garden because of one
sin. How many times do we sin? The wages of sin is death. We
deserve eternal death, but Jesus came to die in our place. He gave His
life for us. Sins are like a wall between us and God, it seperates us
from God.”
“Confess your sins to God with a sincere heart and ask Him to
forgive your sins. He will take your sins away immediately. The
Word of God says: If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to
forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 6When you accept
Jesus as your Saviour, He gives you the power to become God’s child.”7
“I am
ready to accept Jesus as my Saviour. How do Ireceive Him?” Bacar
asks.
“Invite
Him into your heart by saying these words:
Jesus, I
agree that I am a sinner. I confess my sins and ask you to forgive me.
I understand that You died in my place and washed my sins away with your blood.
Jesus, I accept You as my Saviour. Take control of my life and be my
King.”
Now Bacar
lives as a child of God. He is a very happy boy and everyday after school
he reads the Word of God with Abou, learning to live by the rules and the laws
of the Living God..
1 Mat
7:17; 2 Luke 6:28; 3 Rom 12:14; 4
1 Pet 3:9; 5 Mat 12:43-45; 6 1
John 1:9; 7 John 1:12.
No comments:
Post a Comment