Breaking Through the Barriers of Darkness: Recognizing the Cult of Qigong for What It Is

Chapter 8

How to Overcome the Interference of Evils Spirits

1. What is the Interference of Evil Spirits

Interference from evil spirits is the direct disturbance and attack by evil spirits within people who are sensitive to the spiritual realm and who can have direct dealing with evil spirits, so that these people feel disturbed in their souls and are harmed spiritually and physically.
How much blessed are people who have never been disturbed by evil spirits! They would never know the inexplicable pains and depression of people who suffer severely from the interference of evil spirits. Some people are disturbed for years or decades or even for all their lives by evil spirits that will allow them no peace. They dare not to tell others their misery, for no one believes or understands them. They have to make a stand again evil spirits with their own weak souls and lead a hellish life.

Here are some causes for the interference of evil spirits:

1. Some qigong practitioners worship idols of various religions and perform supernormal abilities.

2. Family members practice qigong, worship idols and exhibit supernormal abilities.

3. Some people were born to be attacked by evil spirits because their parents worship idols.

4. Some people suffer sudden physical or emotional blows.

5. Being present at places that evil spirits frequent is also a cause for getting interference from evil spirits.

Evil interference takes various forms, but all for the purpose of taking away peace of heart, tiring out the souls, and causing spiritual, emotional and physical damage. We will now illustrate each of these disturbances individually.

1. Evil spirits come to a person and rouse him/her suddenly from sleep. This person feels unusual, but cannot find any causes. Many people have this kind of experience. It is a very slight disturbance by evil spirits.

2. Evil spirits suppress one's soul when one is asleep and rouse this person suddenly from sleep, yet his/her body becomes stiff and cannot move. He/she is out of control and is horrified and eager to cry out loudly, but the voice is lost or only a very small sound can be produced. People of some areas keep twigs from peach trees under their pillows to solve the problem. This superstition originates in Taoism and is no way to solve the problem but pleases evil spirits all the more. Twigs of preach trees may keep evil spirits away for a while, but they are also traps laid by the evil spirits that will drag people deeper into dealings with them.

3. When one is asleep, evil spirits suddenly suppress his/her soul and seize him/her by the throat. This person wakes up in great surprise and can hear human voices or human-like voices or even feel the temperature or weight of evil spirits. In such cases turning on the lights will stop the disturbance. But such events cause many harms to the sufferer. Even if it happens only once in a night, the sufferer will feel very dispirited and inert and exhausted spiritually. Sometimes it gets worse when evil spirits launch attack so frequently that the sufferer simply cannot get to sleep or close his/her eyes.

4. When one is sleeping with lights on or during daylight, evil spirits still come to attack and suppress this person's soul, causing this person to experience horrible events in dreams.

5. Even when one is not sleeping at night, he/she hears very strange sounds or sees ghosts' shadows, etc. and gets so frightened that he/she has to be in bed with another soul or sit up in bed reading, listening to songs and music until falling asleep after daybreak.

6. Some people see dreadful ghosts, monsters and other images of this sort the moment they close their eyes. When they look, they also see on other people or in places strange or dreadful images or signs, etc.

7. Some people can see in the daytime ghost-like shadows. They can hear human voices talking into their ears. Evil spirits disturb them so that even when these people are doing something or saying something, they are often disrupted in their words and moods.

8. Some people have terrible ideas coming into their minds like a desire to commit suicide or they prophesy about dreadful events that will really happen later. So they get worried about terrible thoughts coming into their minds like birds startled by the mere twang of a bowstring. They live in the dark shadows of all kinds of dread and bafflement.

9. Some are so much victimized by evil spirits' sudden attacks that they fall down in fits of convulsions or in a coma or they pass out and never come back alive.

10. Some little children are attacked by evil spirits and fall asleep in a coma for days. When this happens in the countryside, their parents will ask people to "call back the souls" for them. They think the problem is solved in this way, but actually they have allowed more evil spirits to come into the children and cause a lot of problems in the future.

11. Some people are bound up by evil spirits and troubled by epilepsy, convulsions, lunacy, abnormality, idiosyncratic behaviors, and melancholic characters. Please note that not all these symptoms are disturbance by evil spirits. But I personally think that in most cases they are attacks launched directly by the evil spirits.

The above is just a very general list of disturbances by the evil spirits, but there are actually more. Evil spirits are always using different tricks to achieve the most effective results from their attacks on different people according to these people's specific conditions. Some people suffer from one of the above cases; some suffer from several. The attack happens either once in a month or in several months or happens several times. With some people it happens once in a few days and every day. Some tolerate these disturbances by themselves, daring not to let others know. Some do let others know; they are taken to a lunatic asylum as they are then regarded as being lunatic, and they really go mad in the end. Some cannot stand the torture and commit suicide. Some suddenly become mentally disordered and become vegetative persons. More miserably, some attacks by evil spirits result immediately in death.

I would like to say to those who for years persistently resist evil spirits with unfailing will power, "My friend, I admire you! Keep your mind and soul sober. Remember, knowing Jesus will put all your miseries at an end."

For all those who wish to get rid of the disturbances of evil spirits, the only way to solve the problem is to accept Jesus Christ and put one’s trust in Him, for only He is the Son of God and the Savior of all human beings.

May all Christians help people around them who are bound by evil spirits. Love them, have compassion for them, and give them practical care, for you can understand them, and you have the authority God has given you, with which you can easily defeat the evil spirits. May God's glory be manifested! Amen!

2. Invisible War

The First Encounter

During the year I became a Christian, a lot of demons were driven out of me. Evil spirits that had disturbed me for many years fled away at last. My life was very peaceful, and I always had joy in my heart.

An event that happened later made me realize that the evil spirits had just withdrawn for a little while. They returned and started all over again.

It was a very cold Spring Festival. I went to visit a teacher of mine.

She was expecting me while her family was out. After exchanging greetings, she suddenly asked me about qigong. I was shocked and did not see why she was mentioning it. Yet it seemed to me that she had something to say to me. So I was greatly concerned, and she started to tell me what she had to say.

She said she began to believe in the existence of souls, ghosts and gods because of some experiences she had had since her father died. She talked about many hurts she had before, and tears ran down her cheeks. I comforted her and told her I that I knew about qigong too, which surprised her. Our conversation about qigong did not continue.

Very soon, after a year had passed by, some business I was doing led me to her home again. She came out to meet with me, and again she mentioned qigong. Her face was gloomy, and her mood darkened. I began to pray for her in my heart and told her that qigong is dangerous and may destroy its practitioner. She sighed after hearing my words and shared with me about her qigong experience.

It was years ago that a mere chance led her into the practice of qigong. She began to have supernormal abilities one week later and could perceive through human bodies and know hidden things about others. Her qigong master was greatly overjoyed and formally accepted her as a disciple. She bowed sincerely to her master in front of many people and acknowledged him as her master. But after not long she started to hear voices talking in her ears, mostly during the daytime. She was so scared of them that her spirit almost collapsed and she had to quit practicing. People around her thought she had gone too far in qigong and gone lunatic. For years she would suddenly hear voices talking to her while she was teaching her students. She was so seriously interrupted that she completely lost her place and could not continue to teach. She knew for certain that she had not gone mad, but even her family would not believe her.
I had deep compassion for her after hearing her miserable experience with qigong. I told her that I understood her and that she had not become lunatic. But I told her that she should totally stop the practice of qigong immediately; otherwise, the situation would get worse. I intended to lead her to know Jesus, but she said at once, "No, no," that she would just like to be a normal person as before she practiced qigong, not dealing with any spiritual things.

She also told me that a young man had suddenly come to her home the day before and told her that should continue to practice and that there would be no disturbances after she had reached some higher level. It seemed to her that it was a strange coincidence that I came today and told her to quit the practice. She was at a loss as to whom she should listen to.

I realized that it was a very serious case. It looked like the evil spirits valued her a lot. I was very much concerned for her and said, "Do you believe in him or in me?"

She hesitated a little bit and said, "At least I know you and know who you are. I'd better trust you."

I was very much encouraged and decided to pray for her. She was afraid, so I prayed for her quietly. I decided to wait until the problem was solved and explain to her later. I said to her seriously, "Now I am going to drive the evil spirits out of you in my way."

"What should I do?"

"Nothing at all."

I prayed for her quietly: I prayed in Jesus' Name, “O Lord my God, please drive the evil spirits out that are disturbing her. Please save her and let her accept You as her God.”

Nothing happened after I prayed.

I looked at her and said with confidence, "The evil spirits will leave you alone."

"Really? That will be wonderful!" She looked at me, half-believing what I said.

I comforted her and left.

I was lying on my bed that night when I repeatedly thought about this issue. I began to feel uneasy and realized that the evil spirits would not easily leave and might even come to trouble me. I left the lamplight on when I went to sleep. I prayed for a while and listened to some praise songs before I fell asleep.

At about midnight the evil spirits came just as I expected. They jumped on me all of a sudden and roused me from sleep. I struggled hurriedly and heard the evil spirits say to me, "Why did you tell her those words?" I was unable to overcome them in the struggle and cried loudly in my heart, "Please, Jesus, save me!" As soon as I said this, it was like a huge hand seized the evil spirits and threw them far away. I heard the miserable cries of the evil spirits rapidly dying out in the distance, and they were completely gone in an instant.

For the second half of the night, I slept peacefully and soundly until daybreak.

I met her in the street several days later, and she told me how incredible it was that there were no longer evil spirits talking in her ears. She was very happily astonished and also found it hard to believe how incredibly easily the problem had been solved.

She later became a Christian.

The evil spirits have seldom attacked me since then. It has been the most relaxing time I have had since I first started to practice qigong —no disturbance by evil spirits at all.

Praying for Qigong Masters

One winter night, I had already gone to bed when a Christian friend suddenly came to see me and told me a well-known qigong master who enjoyed great popularity in our country had come to propagate qigong in our city.

This Christian friend had practiced qigong before and had suffered badly. We discussed the spiritual background of the whole event and decided to launch an attack on our own initiative. We planned to go and pray at the teaching site the next day in order to attack the evil spirits of qigong in the spiritual realm.

He left, and I went back to sleep without any extra thoughts.

I did not know what time it was when a white light sudden roused me from sleeping. I opened my eyes and saw that my room was full of white light. I knew evil spirits had come. In order to find out if that was true or false light, I looked up to see the huge picture that was on my wall, but I could not see anything except the white light. While I looked, a round shape suddenly appeared on the wall, and I tried to look closely at that thing, wanting to see what it was. Very quickly, the round figure turned large and came out of the wall like a sculpture. Oh, my! It was a hideous face.

I almost howled out loud and hurriedly stumbled to reach the switch and turned on the lights. The light drove away darkness in the room. I searched the room, but did not find anything! There were even obvious traces of commotion when the evil spirits left.

I looked at my watch. It said one in the morning. I was very angry, but could not do anything. I lay down again and kept the lights on until daybreak.

The next day my friend came to meet with me and told me he had been attacked by evil spirits the night before. But his case was much less serious. I shared with him the attack I had had as well.

We found out that undoubtedly it was because we had planned to pray for qigong masters that night. The evil spirits attacked us before we did them. They were really smart.

My friend found this hard to understand and wanted to know how to get rid of this kind of disturbance. I told him that many Christians knew about this situation of mine. Most of them believed that since I had been a Christian for a long time, I should no longer have such problems.

I agreed with them, but the fact was that the evil spirits had never ceased their attacks on me. I felt very much ashamed about it, yet could not see why it was like that.

Then I shared with him a testimony. On one summer day I met a Christian by chance in the street, whom I had not known very well and had not met for over a year now. But when he heard that I was having a lot of disturbance from evil spirits, he invited me wholeheartedly to his home. While we were at his home, he asked me to pray together with him and ask Jesus what the cause of these disturbances was.

We began to pray and ask Jesus for His revelation. It was all quiet in the room.

After about seven to eight minutes, he asked me what revelation I had received from Jesus. I said I had received none. He told me that the Lord had told him the reason that the evil spirits attacked me was that, deep in my heart, I was still complacent about, and proud of, my previous supernormal abilities.

I was greatly stupefied, for he was exactly right and had aired precisely my innermost secret. My soul prostrated itself before the Lord. How well the Lord knew me! I knelt down on the floor and was filled with shame in my heart. I confessed to God with my entire heart, soul, and mind, asking for His forgiveness.

Since then the evil spirits seemed to have disappeared forever.

Since then I have truly believed that Christians can receive revelations from God and that it really happens that God speaks in person to some Christians about some specific things.

After hearing my testimony, my friend was full of exclamations and immediately asked me, "Why then do evil spirits continue to attack you?"

"I don't know why."

"We should not be afraid of them!"

"I'm not afraid, but disgusted at them," I said.

"Why does God not simply stop this kind of attack by the evil spirits?" he asked.

"I believe we'll know God's will about this some day."

God did not forget about this, and years later He answered this question of ours and unraveled our puzzlement.

A Story on the Train

On a beautiful summer day, I completed my work of evangelism in an area and started my trip back home in an completely happy and relaxed mood.

I got into the air-conditioned compartment beautifully adorned. I lay down on my bunk and rested comfortably, recalling the miraculous and awesome doings of God in that area. I could not help but sigh with some emotions and thought of a few words a Christian had written:

Resting in His Faithfulness

When we recall past events,
We are amazed at
Deeds we have performed.
We know very well,
It has not been our craftiness,
But the wisdom of God;
It has not been our strength,
But the omnipotence of God;
It has not been our will power,
But the faithfulness of God.

Recollecting the past events, I had deep feeling about the wonderful meaning of these words. Seeing through the compartment window the flashing by of fields, mountains and rivers, villages and cities, I imagined the great miracles God was going to do in this huge land. I was so filled with a sense of pride and dignity, and expectations, that the sense of a holy mission welled up within my heart. How much more I hoped to do for God's ministry! How much I hoped to see millions upon millions of people all over China praise God freely and loudly! How much I hoped that China would soon be a country that pleased God and that God would richly bless her people.

My mind brought me to the darkest day in human history two thousand years ago, when Jesus Christ hung on the cross, dripping huge drops of His blood on the ground. Then I saw the cheerful tears of people who received the Gospel; I saw the stern faces of persecuted old missionaries; I saw toddling kids with little Bibles in their hands in churches at Christmas; childish laughter went up to Heaven.…Tears filled up my eyes. O Lord, my God, send me! I am willing to obey You! How could there be any places that I would not like to go, anything I would not like to do? What else do I have that I cannot give up? Lord Jesus, I want to be like you, today, tomorrow and the day after, and forever I will go forward, with no turning back.

The train slid into a tunnel, and my thoughts calmed down. Gradually, I fell into sleep.

Suddenly, in a dream I seemed to be with Jesus. O, yes, my heart began to welcome Him wholeheartedly. A light flashed instantly. No, I was wrong. It was evil spirits! I gave out a loud yell and sat upright. I could not stop screaming even after I had opened my eyes. Many people came to see me and asked me if I had had a nightmare. I calmed down and told them that it was nothing and apologized to them. They left and I leaned against the back of my bunk, soaked with sweat, as if I had just had a seizure of some sort.

I felt guilty and ashamed. I pondered and asked why. I asked Jesus, “Why?”

I heard no answer, only the rolling vibrating sounds of the train wheels running fast forward.

The Devil Does Not Believe in Tears

When we wept sadly before God, He would be very sorry for us and take us closely in His arms. He would give us the greatest comfort and fill our souls with endless love.

If we cry before the devil and evil spirits, they are just as happy as they could be. Satan uses our own tears to humiliate us.

Just at the time I decided to write this book, I met with unprecedented attacks by evil spirits. The price paid is heavy, but the victory is also tremendous.

Monday

I received in the evening a telephone call from a Christian friend who said, "You know very well about affairs in the spiritual realm and know a lot about how evil spirits use means like qigong to destroy people. Why do you not write down all your experiences so that more people will understand these affairs and avoid many disasters that are avoidable." He also said that he felt moved to share with me a certain thought of his, and he wanted to make a suggestion to me.

I responded immediately and was somewhat awakened to a very important fact.

I started to draft the outline at once and decided to put it into book form. I prayed to Jesus for His blessings upon this book and earnestly considered its contents. For years after I became a Christian, I had always tried to avoid recalling my past, especially my experiences with qigong. I feared my feelings when I recollected my practice of qigong. But on that night, I realized that I was going to remember carefully and very much in detail my history of qigong practice and do all over again my research into the rubbish-like qigong theories and principles. The thought of the book reminding and helping many people who are practicing qigong just like I used to filled me with passion and enthusiasm. In addition, I regarded myself as a strong Christian, no longer fearing the remembering of my own history in the devil's camp.

Soon, the outline was made, and I read it over and over again. I was satisfied with it and lay down to sleep.

It was not long afterward that I was suddenly roused from sleep. Evil spirits came and pushed down on me. I struggled to get up and turned on the lamplight.

I did not care a lot about it and left the lights on while I went back to sleep, for the evil spirits had haunted me once the night before too.

The moment I fell asleep, the evil spirits attacked me again. I sat up immediately and got very angry. I could not do anything but pray and ask Jesus to bind the evil spirits and get rid of them. My prayer was quickly effective, and nothing happened during the second half of the night.

Tuesday

I planned to start writing the book this night, but due to the disturbances of the previous night, I felt both mentally and physically exhausted, and hence I decided to go to bed early and delay the writing of the book for a day.

I sensed an unusual atmosphere in my room, and I thought for a little while about it and prayed for Jesus to protect me. I lay down to sleep.

At about one in the morning, evil spirits attacked my soul, and I turned on the lights and sat up right. I was extremely angry and looked in every corner of the room, trying unsuccessfully to find the fellow who had attacked me. I knew the evil spirits were looking at me, but did not know what their purpose was. I prayed for the Lord's protection and lay down again.

As soon as I fell asleep, the evil spirits jumped on me again, and immediately my arms and legs felt as if paralyzed and could not move a bit. I flew into a rage and said, "I'll kill you!" This was to no avail. I realized that I was tricked and cried to Jesus for help. I struggled out of evil spirits' control at last and sat up. I saw the orange light of my lampshade on my bedside. I was surprised that evil spirits were now not afraid of lights! This was the first time that I had met with such a thing. What had been effective ways to keep them away did not work now. What had happened?

I turned on the bigger lights in my room, and the bright light hurt my eyes. I kept my eyes shut and sat up on my bed disheartened. I then thought of my book. Ah, that was the cause! The evil spirits had gone too far! How disgusting! I was very tired and sleepy. I knelt down by my bed and prayed: “Lord Jesus Christ, please protect me and bind the devil and give me a good sleep. And also please protect my writing of the book.”

After I had prayed, I slowly fell asleep with the bigger lights still on.

After I did not know how long, I roused up again. I began to have fear and realized how weak and helpless I was. I got up and sat down at my desk. Looking at the lamplight, I did not know what to do. Finally, I decided to ask other Christians for help. I dialed the number of the friend who had suggested that I write the book. It was four in the morning. He answered the phone with a heavy sleepy tone in his voice. After he heard me, he thought that all these attacks had to do with my writing of the book and comforted me. We prayed together over the telephone, and then he said he would call immediately another Christian and ask him to pray for me too.

After the telephone call I went back to bed and fell asleep in about ten minutes.

It was broad daylight when I woke up. I took a long breath. Ah, the day had come at last. For a whole day I tried hard to look as if I were in high spirit, even though I felt exhausted mentally and physically. My colleagues asked me with concern why I looked so terrible today. I just said I had not had a good sleep the night before, while I wanted so much to give the evil spirits a fierce beating.

Wednesday

Night came again. I prayed earnestly before going to bed, hoping to have a good sleep. I left the lamplight on.

At about midnight I was suddenly aroused up. The evil spirits arrived and were right on my body. I hurried to turn on the bigger lights, as frightened as a tree leaf shivering in a wild wind. The room lightened up, and I felt relieved at once. I nervously looked around. Finding nothing unusual, I still could not let it go and went to look under the bed. I saw myself as very silly, for I knew evil spirits are invisible. I was just trying to find some comfort for my heart.

I started to realize the important significance of this book that I was going to write. Evil spirits seemed to hate this book a lot. Since this was the case, I should be happy about it! When I realized this, I laughed to myself and was determined to put as much effort as I could into the writing of this book and let more people know about qigong and about the evil spirits' tricks and methods. But then my thoughts turned and said to the Lord, "O Lord, I can't even solve the problem of myself of being disturbed by the evil spirits; how will I tell others how to defeat the evil spirits? Besides, I am now so much troubled and exhausted by them that I can't even start to write. Lord, why don't you help me?"

I knew that Jesus must have His special plan that I did not know yet. Throughout my Christian life God had always answered my prayers. Even though He might not answer me right away, He always let me know why He had not at the best time later on. In my previous experience of driving out evil spirits, praying and keeping the lights on always worked. Why did not these things work this time? Why did God delay helping me? I could not understand and was even a little unhappy with Jesus.

I thought of a very respectable Christian and made a long distance call to her. She was awakened from sleep but recognized my voice at once. I told her about the book that I was going to write and about the attacks I had had by evil spirits. She was surprised to hear what was happening, for I had been a Christians for years. All these things should not have happened. And she immediately prayed for me over the telephone.

I felt a little peace after the phone call, but just lay down on my bed, not daring to go to sleep. I was extremely sleepy, but the moment I closed my eyes, the evil spirits instantly got on me, and I had to open my eyes, wearing out my sleepiness in this way. Finally, I was careless enough to fall asleep. Evil spirits jumped on me, clutched my neck, and pressed my soul. I did not struggle this time, feeling extremely sad, and I said to the Lord, "O Lord, You see what they are doing to me. Why don't You stop them from so doing?" At last I could stand it no more and cried out to the Lord for help. At this point the evil spirits disappeared immediately. I sat up in my bed, feeling extremely disappointed. I did not understand the Lord’s allowing the evil spirits to torture me like this day after day so that I could only look at the outline of the book without being able to write anything.

I was very exhausted and lay on my bed. I closed my eyes for a little while and then opened them, persisting in my struggle against the evil spirits. The evil spirits began to make some sounds. They made a noise in the garbage can at this moment, and at the next they were in the computer. I did not care, but just wanted to call them names. Sometimes when I closed my eyes, evil spirits came to murmur at my ears. I could not hear them clearly, but they did not stop and even very annoyingly imitated my friend's voice.

It went on so until it was finally daybreak. I looked at my watch. It was 4:30. A sense of peace rushed into my heart, and I felt all the evil spirits were gone. I went to sleep immediately, as peacefully as in a quiet tent, having no dreams at all.

Thursday

I went to work in the morning and yawned all the time. I did not want to speak to anybody but rested my head on my desk and slept.

There was an unexpected event (not a direct attack by the evil spirits) at night, and I did not sleep for the whole night until daybreak. I was saddened almost to death and did not go to work, but slept all day long.

Friday

A friend called in the afternoon, reminding me of the fellowship meeting tonight. I felt indeed physically reluctant to go, but after many hesitations I did go.

At the fellowship meeting I told a respected Christian about my situation. He was very much concerned and asked the whole congregation to pray for me. They all stood in a circle around me and prayed specifically for me. After praying for a little while, they all quieted down. I felt nothing special, not even the moving of the Holy Spirit. I got very disappointed, and then a sister walked to my side and started to pray for me. I sat quietly on the carpet, and gradually I began to feel as if a hard piece of frozen ice were beginning to melt in my heart. The Holy Spirit was moving in my heart, and a comforting power seemed to touch my heart. I could not help wanting to cry. Realizing that so many brothers and sisters were around me, I tried hard to control myself and not to allow myself to cry. Yet that power grew constantly and was full of God's Love. Eventually, tears rushed out of my eyes.

I wept silently, tears running down like rain. My throat became very uncomfortable, and I could no longer keep from crying aloud. Between spasmodic sobs I poured out all my heart's troubles and bafflement. Out came all the fears and torment I had suffered for the past several days. I knew I was in God's church, within the body of Christ. I felt as if in a restful harbor. Since my baptism I had never cried like this. But since I had become a child of God, this was the worst trouble I had experienced.

I calmed down after a long time and re-discovered my long- lost joy and peace.

I started on my way back home. Lamplight in the dark night looked beautiful just as my mood was then.

As soon as I got back home, I went to bed and slept in great peace.

Just a little while passed before evil spirits attacked me. I was greatly surprised. I turned on the lights and got up. Tonight's attacks were more severe. I could see clearly that several evil spirits were taking turns attacking me. I could not shut my eyes, for they would stop only when my eyes were open. I could feel that they would very soon let me see what they looked like. I was not afraid, but I could not go to sleep either. I made telephone calls, contacting a number of Christians, several of them in other cities. They were deeply concerned for me and also surprised. They prayed for me, and one of them suggested that I give up writing the book and reminded me that I should listen to some delightful music. This was a good idea! I played my favorite tape of Christian songs. The atmosphere was greatly changed. Even though I could not close my eyes yet, at least I did not feel lonely.

I was later so tired that I made up my mind to simply close my eyes; then I fell asleep. Immediately evil spirits woke me up. I had indeed no choice, but opened my eyes for a few seconds and closed my eyes for another few seconds until daybreak. I got up in the morning and looked at myself in the mirror. One of my eyelids was red and swollen and already festering.

Saturday

I could not continue to live with such disturbance going on. I thought for a whole day about what I could do. I remembered that I could avoid them when I slept with someone else in my room. So I called my brother, who was very much shocked to hear what I told him, but agreed to come to be me over night.

But then he called me in the afternoon and told me his girlfriend was sick and that he had to take care of her and therefore could not come this night. I could not stop sighing and asking the Lord, "Why is it like this? What on earth is Your purpose?"

The night was coming, and I was worried. I suddenly thought of a Christian who was a university student who had once prayed for me about a very important issue. I dialed her up, told her about my difficult situation, and asked her to pray for me. She listened to me, then asked me to come over to her place, for she had words for me and also a book to show me.

I got on my bike and rode to her place quickly. She was waiting for me at her dormitory, with a book in her hand, when I arrived. She told me that there was a way to solve the problem. When evil spirits come, declare to them: I am a son of God, and in Jesus Christ's Name and by His Authority, I command you evil spirits to leave my room.

I did not really think it would work and also found her suggestion to be nothing new.

So I told her, "There is a whole bunch of evil spirits in my room."

"Then let them all go away."

I did not say anything, thinking to myself that it was not so easy!

She explained in a very relaxed tone, "Do not be afraid of them. No matter how many they are, they are merely small devils."

I brightened up. All right, they were only little devils, nothing significant. I was greatly encouraged.

This was a very unusual Saturday night. It was raining slightly outside, but my room was brightly lit.

I skimmed through the book she gave me. It was an account by a Christian about procedures to defeat evil spirits, the procedures which she had told me already.

When I started to bed, my room began to become crowded and in a commotion. I knew those devils were getting ready. I decided to try the methods she had told me and make a proclamation to the devils. But the moment I tried to speak, I strangely found myself completely speechless. A huge fear covered my heart. I was much astonished and wondered a lot why I dared not even speak anything. I suddenly realized the devils were afraid of what I was trying to say. Good! I was greatly pleased at finally finding out about their weaknesses. I proclaimed loudly, "Evil spirits, you hear me. I am a son of God. In Jesus Christ's Name and by His Authority, I command all of you to leave my room, never to be near my room again."

Then, I repeated the above words, without any fears at all this time. My heart relaxed immediately.

I said them for the third time and was really pleased with myself and very refreshed.

I turned out the bigger lights and left the lamplight on. I hesitated a little and then turned out the lamplight as well, thinking I could turn it on again if the evil spirits returned.

I lay on my bed and looked at the dim streetlight that was shone through my window. I felt uneasy and anxious, daring not to close my eyes, for I wondered how badly the evil spirits wanted to hurt me tonight. Finally, I willfully forced myself to close my eyes.

Sunday

It was broad daylight when I woke up. I experienced no disturbance at all.

I wanted to hail my success and loudly praise God. My soul was soaked in joy in the beautiful morning sunlight.

I had no time to think further about it, for I had to take a tourist group out today. So I left home quickly.

I had a great day with the tourist group. I looked at the high blue sky and beautiful white clouds on the meandering Great Wall. My mind and body were extremely relaxed. I pondered over the dramatic miracle. How unbelievable it had been! For the past week my life had been like a nightmare. Now I had at last had some peaceful sleep. The evil spirits were all gone after I had said a few words. So simple? So easy? Unbelievable! My sufferings of the previous days were now like a century away, and I felt as if nothing had happened to me.

I was reminded of the tenth chapter of Luke in which the seventy-two returned with joy and said to Jesus, "Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name." Jesus said to them, "I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you."

I suddenly saw the light and obtained a thorough understanding. Jesus has already given this authority to Christians. I had known this a long time ago. Why did I not practice it? How stupid I was! Now I realized why God had not answered this prayer request of mine, asking Him to bind the evil spirits. Jesus wanted me to get a deep understanding of my identity as a son of God through this lesson. He wanted me to learn how to use the authority He had given me. I was like a child that had grown old enough to walk but did not know how to. So the parents made up their minds to let the child walk, not giving him any help and not allowing others to help him so that he could learn to walk by himself.

A few days later, I read a book on Christian authority. I was very much amazed at the profound knowledge of the author in this area. Much of the book talked about exactly what I had just learned through my experience of the past few days.

It was through this careful plan that God had made for me that I had made great process towards maturity in Christ. I was not only relieved of the embarrassing perturbations of eleven years, but also had had my prayer answered that I had made before I started to write this book, so that I now could share with others this precious learning. Days later, I used this authority to help several others, and the result was once again vibrant, greatly amazing me.

Proclaiming Victory over Evil Spirits

For a whole week after defeating the evil spirits, I slept peacefully every night as if in heaven. I gave my testimony in church, and all were happy for me, praising the wonderfulness of God. Then a few days later, some of us Christian friends went out for a holiday together and stayed at a sanatorium.

I wanted to take a shower in the afternoon the first day we arrived, but there was no hot water. The attendants told me water would be provided only in the evening. I decided to take a cold water. But after I turned on the tap, the cold water turned rapidly warm. I was extremely pleased and enjoyed Lord's love and care happily. It was very interesting that as soon as I had taken a shower, the water turned cold again. I lay down on my bed, feeling clean and relaxed.

I slept at night in the same room with two other Christians. The moment I fell asleep, I was suddenly roused and saw the shadowy profile of a Christian who was also a tourist on our team in a white shirt, looking out of the window meditatively. The shadow disappeared instantly. I was very much surprised but did not know what had happened. I turned on my side and went back to sleep again without praying about it.

I was aroused again at about 12:50 at midnight and found that evil spirits had jumped on my bed and almost started to fight with me. In an instant I could hear my heart beating violently. As if having gotten an electric shock, I jumped off bed and seized my friend who was sleeping on a bed close to me by his arm. I tried my best not to cry out and told him that evil spirits had come. As a good friend of mine, he knew my case very well. He got up sleepily and started to pray for me. Then I remembered to turn on the lights. The other Christian was awakened too and gave me some words of comfort.

I was very much saddened. I had thought that evil spirits would not bother me any more, but I was wrong. Other evil spirits could come to attack me on certain occasions. But, after all, I could defeat them and drive them all out before I went to bed.

On the next morning, we learned that at least four other friends were disturbed to different degrees by the evil spirits, among whom three were seriously attacked. They had to pray until one o'clock before they could go to bed. One of them had previously worshipped evil spirits, performed special signs, practiced divinations, and prophesied. She had been a typical "half-mortal" before becoming a Christian. She had been perturbed by evil spirits for years and though the situation got better after she became a Christian, she was still often knocked to the ground and put in a coma by the evil spirits.

After hearing their cases, I became deeply compassionate toward them, told them about my experiences, and gave my testimony.

A few days later, they came to see me and complained that they could get nearly no sleep at all after they returned from the holiday. The evil spirits attacked them fiercely, yet none of the Christians around them had experienced this kind of things. So they came to see if I could help them.

I told them that we would solve the problem right here and now, that we would pray to drive the demons out. I also told them that every Christian has this authority. They were very much surprised and admitted that they were Christians with small faith. I explained further to them that as long as you are a Christian, you have this authority, even though you may not know you have it, because it is authority that God has given every Christian. It is like a prince inheriting his dignity and authority from his father the king.

I asked two Christians to pray for a sister whose case was very serious. She definitely had evil spirits in her, for she had performed supernormal abilities and had not been prayed for to drive out the demons when she became a Christian. We began to pray for her, everybody saying, "Evil spirits in …, in Jesus' Name and by Jesus' Authority, I command you to leave her body."

Very soon her body began to be in spasms. Her hands tightened, as if she were struggling very hard. A few minutes later, God revealed to me quietly that the evil spirits had left. Just as I was wondering if it was true, I saw her hands loosen their grip at almost exactly the same time. She was relaxed and opened her eyes, saying, "The evil spirits have left, for that face is no longer there in front of my eyes." She closed her eyes to make sure that it was true. "Truly, it is gone!" She was very excited.

We prayed to drive out demons for another sister. She did not have many reactions. We just simply prayed for still another sister who we thought had only the slightest level of disturbance.

They called us the next day and told us happily that the two who had been prayed for to have the demons driven out were relieved completely from these perturbations. One of them was especially excited, telling us that it was the first time in many years that she had overcome the devil's humiliation of her. The sister with the slightest case was no longer disturbed directly, except for the fact that she was aroused from sleep sometimes. We later prayed for her again to drive demons out, and she was relieved completely too. I was very happy to have witnessed these wondrous doings of God, for which I shouted aloud in praise to Him.

I reminded these Christian friends that sometimes when we did something good that angered evil spirits, or at places where evil spirits were active, or for other reasons or under some other conditions, evil spirits might come again to attack us. But we are no longer helpless. We are absolutely capable of conquering evil spirits and can proclaim our victory over them.

3. Detailed Methods for Overcoming the Interference of Evil Spirits

I hope people who have suffered from disturbances and attacks by evil spirits or the relatives of such people, whether you are Christians or not, will join in our following discussion— if you would like to override disturbances and attacks. Please note also that it is very helpful for defeating them to know their methods and weaknesses. Such knowledge often helps one to get twice the result with half the effort. First of all, there are some concepts one must be really clear about:

1. The triune God is Master over the universe and everything in it.

2. Satan is only a fallen angel, whose ability surpasses that of man, but who, compared with God, is impotent.

3. In this world God has given only the name of Jesus as the power to defeat this world and Satan, together with all the devils under Satan.

4. Christians can defeat evil spirits only by through Jesus' Name.

5. We should understand the victims’ pains, value them, and give them compassion and deep love. Even though they are idiosyncratic and gruff and sometimes hurt us, we should forgive them because in most cases it is the evil spirits in them that have done the hurting.

Now we can talk about the detailed methods for overcoming the interference of evil spirits. We will list here, in as much detail as we can, some cases we have experienced, suggesting specific ways to solve each problem. We have categorized all cases into two groups. The first group has two subcategories as follows:

1. When we help people who are disturbed by evil spirits because they have practiced qigong and other meditation and training methods or because they were born with supernormal capabilities, we should, in the first place, have them give up qigong or the other practices, accept Jesus as their personal Savior, sincerely confess their sins, and ask for God's protection. Then we should exercise our Christian authority and drive out the demons in Jesus' Name and by His Authority.

2. When we help people who have incurred evil spirits because they have worshipped Buddha or other idols or performed various kinds of evil crafts, such as divination, palmistry, mayi physiognomy, fengshui, spiritism, consulting the dead and incantation chanting and writing, we should lead them to accept Jesus Christ, confess their sins, and ask for God's protection; then we should drive out the demons in Jesus' Name.

Even if some people who conform to the above two cases feel no disturbance, they should be prayed for to have the demons in them driven out if they want to become Christians. Evil spirits are very subtle, and we are not to disregard the importance of driving them out; otherwise, there will be future troubles. It would be better to have a group of several Christians pray together and exercise Christian authority. The evil spirits in those people are usually many in number and more capable and subtle.

Now we will take a look at the second group.

1. People who are in a coma because of having had a shock, having been knocked over, having frequented temples and tombs, or having seen ghostly shadows should be prayed for to have the demons driven out of them in Jesus' Name, and the evil spirits should be commanded to loose the victims' souls and leave them immediately. Among this type of victims are mostly little children and people of infirmity or sickness.

2. As to those who are schizophrenic and lunatic, we should first pray for them and then try to find the causes because some of them have corporeal causes rather than spiritual causes. The way to test this is to pray in Jesus' Name. When you mention the Name of Jesus and the patient gets frightened and uneasy and struggles or even runs away, this patient is possessed by evil spirits. We should then exercise our Christian authority and drive the evil spirits out in Jesus' Name and by His Authority.

3. Those diseased with autism should be prayed for. We should drive the evil spirits out of them in Jesus' Name and by His Authority. We should lead them to accept Jesus and chat with them often and listen to their heart's desire. Urge Christians of bright and cheerful dispositions to make friends with them, go together with them on outings, and sing songs with them. Also try to develop their self-esteem.

4. People who have become vegetable-like because of sudden shocks and deep spiritual frustrations should be prayed for constantly. Drive the evil spirits out of them in Jesus' Name and by His Authority.

5. If persons are epileptic, deaf, dumb or blind for no specific reasons, we should first of all lead them to accept Jesus Christ, confess their sins, and ask God for healing. If you are sure these ailments have been caused by evil spirits, then drive the evil spirits out of them in Jesus' Name.

6. Something to be noted here is that Christians should both go to see a doctor for many diseases that they have and also pray for the Lord to heal them. Fellow Christians can also perform their authority and rebuke the evil spirits in Jesus' Name and by His Authority and have them leave the patient.

If your case is like any case described above in the two groups, you must accept Jesus as your personal Savior and become a Christian before you can completely get rid of your bondage and enslavement by the devil, for evil spirits will come back again after Christians have helped to drive them out of you if you do not accept Jesus and become a Christian. Jesus has said, "When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation." Therefore, if they do not have Jesus in their heart as their new Master, their final condition will be very dangerous.

Here are some further points of attention for your reference:

1. If you are victimized by evil spirits, you can ask Christians around you who know about spiritual warfare and know how evil spirits work to help you, or if you cannot find any Christians around you, you can pray by yourself to accept Jesus as your personal Savior (please see chapter 7,38), confessing your sins sincerely and asking for God's protection. Then you can use the authority God has just given you and in Jesus' Name command the evil spirits to leave you. The evil spirits will be frightened instantly and obey you because you have now become a child of God.

2. If your relatives or friends are victimized, it would be better if you become a Christian first and then help them. If they do not accept Jesus, you can pray for them in secret and ask God to change their heart and protect them.

3. Under some situations, evil spirits are very hard to deal with, and it takes fasting by Christians to drive them out. Please read Matthew 17:14-21. You will see that the effect of exercising the authority of the believer is closely related to the depth of faith of the believer. Mature Christians with strong faith achieve powerful results from their prayers and from the exercise of their authority. During the process of praying to drive out demons, the laying on of hands should be adapted to the specific situation. But to avoid suspicion, it is recommended that the laying on of hands be practiced by Christians of the same sex. Christians of the opposite sex should pray earnestly near by for the demons to be driven out.

4. When you pray to drive evil spirits out, you should speak directly to the evil spirits. For example, you should say, "I command you evil spirits to leave this person's soul and body.…" Speaking to the evil spirits has the effect of the performing of the believer’s authority. This is especially important.

5. While helping the victims, you can ask many other Christians to pray for them and also provide practical care for them. Let God's Love show through you and touch their souls.

Evil spirits are not anything to be afraid of. What should be feared is people's rejection and ignorance of the truth. Truth sets people free. But thousands upon thousands would willingly be bound and reject the truth, choosing to be enslaved by the devil and by ghosts. They do not know what they are doing. Jesus said, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

The Bible states: "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."

It is a great pity for Christians not to know their identity and value in God's eye and not to know how to use the authority God has given them. As a result they suffer pains that could have been avoided and miss a lot of blessings. The Holy Spirit often worries for us and intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

May more people become Christians and get relieved of bondage and enslavement by evil spirits. May more Christians heartily and effectively help people disturbed by evil spirits and enable them to defeat evil spirits, trample the devil underfoot, and give all glory to Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit and our Heavenly Father on high. Amen!

4. Suggestions for Spiritual Science

The spiritual world does exit, just like this material world that our eyes can see. Its truthfulness, regularity and qualities of having been created and of being intriguing are all undeniable. Yet there is also a huge difference between these worlds, even though they have inseparably close inter-connections between them.

First, the spiritual world and the material world have the following principal characteristics:

1. The material world can be clearly and substantially perceived through the senses, while it is through the functions of the human soul that the spiritual world can be known.

2. The material world is within the spiritual world just as humans stay within the air which surrounds them. The material world depends on the spiritual world for its existence and is controlled by it.

3. The spiritual and the material worlds exist harmoniously and interplay with each other, with the spiritual world in the dominating position, even though, on the surface, they are not interrelated.

4. The spiritual and material worlds interplay with each other through certain media, the most important and crucial of which is human and is described in Genesis in the Bible as "a living being."

Second, the spiritual and the material worlds interplay with each other as follows:

5. There are at present two supernatural forces existing in the spiritual world: the Holy Spirit of God and the evil spirits of the devil. The Holy Spirit is in the position of control. This is why, in the material world of human beings, there are also two forces of good and evil. At any period of time in history, righteousness is in the dominating position among human theories. Human beings are the major media in the reflection in the material world of the spiritual warfare between the two forces.

6. Due to the human composition of body and soul, human beings can connect the spiritual and the material worlds. Even though humans are media, they are independent and complete persons when dealing with the material and spiritual worlds, for they have been endowed with free will. Having complete and independent sovereignty over themselves does not contradict humans' being controlled by the spiritual world and limited by the material world. This can be illustrated by the principle that an object’s being static with reference to the earth does not contradict the fact that it moves with reference to the sun.

7. The material world is rich and full of various things. There are even higher and more wondrous beings in the spiritual world. There are in the spiritual world higher forms of "matter," which consist of totally different elements from those elements which compose the material world. The basic composition of the spiritual world and the conveyance and operations of energy in the spiritual world are even more different and even higher. There is something in the material world which has both materiality and spirituality— time. In the spiritual world there is no time. Thus that world is eternal.

8. The human soul and body may interplay with each other, with the body as the vessel of the soul. In the world of God people are endowed with a different and everlasting body, i.e. the "spiritual body." We can say this is "a higher form of matter of the body" in the spiritual world. After Jesus was resurrected, His body became a "spiritual body." The material world has resemblance to the spiritual world but is a world characterized by a lower form of existence. The material world that humans live in will be destroyed because the spiritual warfare will then have been completed, evil forces will have been destroyed, and everything still existent will be filled with the Holy Spirit. The material world will then have done its mission, and the new world will appear. The new world and God's world will exist simultaneously throughout eternity. This new world is a world that God will prepare for His loved ones.

Throughout human history people have always instinctively searched for the reasons and principles of the existence of the world and of humans themselves. They have never stopped searching. Some are adept at exploring the material world, and their genuine discoveries have set up the system of "material science." The modern development of material science has been very heartening.

Some other people have been interested in exploring the spiritual world. Their discoveries have formed religions. But due to the special features of humans and the spiritual world, these people often go in the wrong direction. Or maybe some people have discovered the existence and power of the evil spirits in the spiritual world, followed the various theories and regularities that the evil spirits have suggested to them, and allowed themselves to be controlled by evil spirits. Thinking that they have found out about all the principles and theories of the spiritual world, they spread them to others.

There are still others who have found out about the existence and power of the Holy Spirit and also the evil spirits in the spiritual world, and then accepted the Holy Spirit. These people benefit from the Bible, which expounds all the truths about the material and spiritual worlds and forms the system of "spiritual science."

Within human cultures are many subjects having the duality of both material science and spiritual science, for example, philosophy, painting, music, and literature. Modern sciences such as psychoanalysis and psychiatry all have a very strong flavor of the spiritual world, even though those who are involved in these fields may be engaging them purely from the angle of material science. Due to their duality of "spirituality and materiality," there are often intense controversies during the process of their development. The very sensitive and strong responses by people, both rational and instinctive, testify to the conscious or unconscious acknowledgement and attention people give to forces in the spiritual world. Research in these areas cannot give a bird's eye view of the whole truth; neither can it result in a consistent and stable law for describing principles and phenomena—without an approach that covers both the material and the spiritual worlds. A totally material approach may achieve a conclusion that has the same effect as "blind men feeling the elephant."

We know that truth comes from God. Both material science and spiritual science are parts of truth, and all parts of truth are supplementary. Therefore in modern times the development of science and of Christianity has been both rapid and simultaneous. They are the two developments that have attracted the most attention and have brought to all human beings astonishment, encouragement, and expectation.

The material science of the early modern times is regarded as "classical science." It describes the principles of purely material science. We know that there appeared some other sciences later that are superficially contradictory to the "classical science," but actually explain the fact that material science is moving towards spiritual science while it continues its search in the material world. Moreover, both the material and the spiritual worlds do exist and are closely connected to each other.

Great discoveries of material science in modern times have convinced people of the fact that many material things which do exist cannot be perceived directly by the human senses. These invisible worlds of atoms, microorganisms, electromagnetism, and also the immense outer universe are all complex, ordered and powerful. Though modern material science has not really yet touched the spiritual realm, we have reason to believe that, if God allows it, human beings will be able to achieve within a limited period of time a level of understanding which will enable them to prove by the means of material science the existence of the spiritual world and to learn to make use of its operating principles. This achievement will perhaps require much additional progress of science, and it would therefore be hard to estimate how long it will take. But by studying the Bible and putting its teachings into practice in spirit and truth, we can quickly and directly find out about the truths of the spiritual world and benefit from this discovery and acceptance of the truth.

The above suggestions and views, understandings and discussions are provided for your reference only. Corrections are greatly appreciated. The limit of human wisdom makes it very hard to know about God's world while we are still in this world. However, we believe that those who are blessed and enabled to enter into God's world eventually will learn about everything and enjoy the eternal life given by God. In the Bible God has given us all truth. After all, the condition that God requires for us to enter into His world is simple and easy to accomplish as long as we are willing. Amen. All glory belongs to God.

Chapter 7 | Table of Contents | Chapter 9