Lester Sumrall tells his first time in which he encountered a demon possessed person and he cast out the demon

 

I grew up in what was called Christian America. I had never witnessed a person manifesting an alien entity. According to the way I was taught in the church and society to which my family and I belonged, if a person became ill physically we prayed for him to be healed. If he went crazy, we just put him in the insane asylum. No problem at all, he was just put away. We thought that was the only thing we could do, since we couldn’t really understand what he was saying anyway.

We never realized that a person could be oppressed of the devil and could be set free by the same kind of prayer as if he had appendicitis. Somehow the two never were related in our minds.

When I began to preach, I spiritualized everything. I said: ‘Demon power reveals the fury of sin’. I said: ‘Palsy in the Bible reveals the helplessness of sin’. Then I said: ‘If you have leprosy, it will show you how sin eats away your life, that you are helpless before the power of sin’.

I did so because that was just the way I was taught. It was only when I went overseas to engage in missionary evangelism that the awakening came. It had not been part of my training, my religious thinking, or my personal experience to give consideration to a human person being demon possessed in these modern times.

I was ministering with Howard Carter in revival and teaching crusades across the island of Java in Indonesia. In a large church a girl of about 12 years of age began to slither back and forth across the altar area of the church during the song service and preliminaries. She would stick out her tongue. Her eyes became like a serpent’s eyes and green froth came out of her mouth. This was a totally new experience for me.

I thought to myself: ‘I’m sure the pastor will take care of this situation’.

But he didn’t. Neither the pastor nor the church officials nor the ushers paid her any attention whatsoever. For a full 45 or 50 minutes she went back and forth in front of the altar grinning, always looking at the platform. When she would crawl one way, she would face the platform. Then when she crawled back, she would turn her head around to keep facing the platform. It seemed to be the center of her attention.

I prayed silently: ‘Lord, just save souls’.

But God said: ‘I can’t. You’ve got that problem down there’.

‘Well’, I said, ‘You take care of it’.

God answered back: ‘That’s your problem’.

I had never had such a problem in my life. I had no idea what to do nor how to do it. I just sat there in utter hurt and confusion for the whole 50 minutes, wishing somebody would take care of the situation, but nobody did a thing about it.

I was a foreigner there. That was the first time I had ever been in that church. I didn’t speak their language.

I was seated about four or five steps back from the pulpit on the large platform. When I was introduced, I walked to the pulpit to speak. But rather than greeting the people by saying: ‘Good evening. How are you?’ I leaned over the pulpit and ordered: ‘Get up off that floor!’ The interpreter, scared, never opened his mouth.

Now I did not know one word of Javanese, and the girl didn’t speak any English. But the devil understood it. That poor little girl wiped the green foam off her face, backed up and sat on the pew. She didn’t sit there like a human. She sat there like a zombie and just stared at me without moving a muscle all the time I was preaching. When I got through with my sermon, I leaned back over the pulpit again and I said: ‘Now, come out of her!’

I’d never heard anyone do that before. I just did it. And I spoke loudly too. I said it so loud, you could have heard me down the street. (I haven’t decided yet why it takes loudness, except that the devil is dull of hearing. If you don’t get his attention, you don’t get anything).

I never did get close to the girl. But as soon as I spoke, immediately the Spirit of the Lord came upon her. Her eyes came back into focus. Her face that had been contorted was changed. Her body became relaxed, and she smiled.

My interpreter was listening, and he interpreted to me what the girl said. She turned to the person sitting next to her and asked: ‘Where am I? And what am I doing here?’ She had been so full of Satan that she didn’t even know where she was or how she had gotten there. By two strikes of the Holy Spirit she was set free.

Hundreds of people got saved that evening. They just came flocking down all the aisles. When that girl was set free, they began to come from everywhere to receive the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

From: Lester Sumrall, Alien Entities. A look behind the door to the spirit realm, printed in the USA by Whitaker House (PA), 1995, pages   152-155

 

 

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