It Could Be Demons

“It could be demons” the lady told me, referring to her adult son, “But I don’t think so because he’s a really kind boy.”  Her son, who suffers from epilepsy was sitting just outside the door in the hallway as we talked.

The woman, a refugee from Eastern, Ukraine had asked me to meet with her.

Check out the video above if you want to see a little of our church services and refugee outreach.

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I sat and patiently listened as she told her story, one that included pain, bitterness and a search for truth. She was particularly bitter over an incident that happened 20 years ago when her son became ill and was cruelly mistreated and abused by those who were supposed to care for him.

Her search for truth had taken her to the Mormons, the Jehovah’s Witness’, and many others, but her favorite was a “spiritual teacher” and psychic who she claims helped her and her son more than anyone.

“If only I could get a drop of grace in my life!” She exclaimed with exasperation.

“I can tell you right here and now how you can get grace in your life.” I quickly responded.

Her eyes widened and she paused for a moment in unbelief.

“You can?!”

“Of course I can.” I reassured her as I placed my Bible between us on the table and opened to the Gospel of John.

I read to her several verses from John that show why Jesus came to earth and how we can have eternal life. Then I carefully and simply explained to her the promise of the gospel message -forgiveness of sin and eternal life through sincere faith in Jesus Christ.

“You can have grace in your life now if you’ll repent and believe in Jesus.” I told her.

As I watched her eyes narrowed and her lips pressed together making them nearly invisible.

“That’s not fair!” she blurted out.

“I’ve been a good person all my life and you’re telling me that those evil people who hurt my son could just repent and be forgiven!”

She didn’t really want grace in her life, she wanted to be justified by her own good works and she desperately wanted others to be punished for their sins against her son.

I find there is only one reason people think that they are good enough, it’s because they don’t understand the holiness of God. So I moved on to talk with her about God’s holiness and how Jesus being God had that same holiness.

I also find the deity of Christ is often the line of separation, the one truth the unbelieving world constantly stumbles upon.

Thus, I was not surprised when she interjected, “Yes, I know Jesus is god, just like I’m god.”

What did catch me off guard was what happened next. About 15 seconds after I began talking to her about the deity of Christ her son was seized by an epileptic fit.

Was the seizure demonic? I can’t tell you for sure, but if it was, it was well-timed; as it immediately stopped our conversation about the deity of Jesus.

What I can tell you, and what I told this woman, was that her false view of Jesus and salvation is no less than a demonic deception. (1 Timothy 4:1)

We’ve been serving and preaching the Gospel to these refugees for well over six months now and we are just getting to the point with some of them where the Gospel is beginning to touch the wounded areas of their heart.

What I’m finding is that without exception the spiritual needs are greater than the physical needs. The Gospel of Jesus is a great healer, but it’s also a great disruptor.

It dislodges long hidden sins that lay nearly silent in the cold depths of the heart. It opens wounds of the heart that are covered with layer after layer of scar tissue.

It messes with our personal systems of burying hurts, renaming sins, and disguising guilt in robes of self-righteousness.

You can’t really mess with things like long-held guilt, pride, and secret sins without messing with the demonic world. Recently, that spiritual battle has become more real to us than ever.

I don’t have time to share with you all the stories from the past month where we have seen Satan’s foul fingers greedily grabbing for people’s hearts.

What I can tell you is this, preach an easy gospel, one that doesn’t condemn, one that goes “lite” on sin, judgement, and the deity of Christ and “heavy” on God’s great plan to prosper you and you’re likely to never experience satanic resistance.

On the other hand preach a Gospel of repentance from sin, salvation in Jesus alone, and call people to follow Jesus, and sooner or later that spiritual battle will be hard not to notice.

There will be resistance!

The woman I met with hasn’t believed yet, unfortunately she is still blinded by Satan. However, don’t think for a minute that means I’ve given up! Usually the resistance is greatest just before victory is declared.

It’s not for nothing Satan is rearing his ugly head, I have preached the Gospel and I will continue to preach the Gospel. I have told her about the Messiah who is Jehovah God and the only Savior of mankind.

I won’t stop preaching Jesus because I know there’s power in that name,

Power greater than Satan’s futile efforts to deceive, distract, and destroy the hearts of men.

Power that can lift up the downtrodden and bring down the high-minded.

Power that heals the wounds of the past and infuses hope for the future.

Yes it could be demons, causing her sons epileptic fits but most certainly it is Jesus who is the answer to her and her son’s deepest problems!