On the last night of Sunday School camp, we were treated to a wonderful experience of worship as God graced us with His presence. Many who were normally motionless on Sunday mornings were enthusiastically praising their Creator & others were blessed with an emotional encounter as the Holy Spirit moved strongly in Winfield Hall. However, to a not too small group of youth, the memory they will be taking back from that night would not be the awesome work of God but the crafty work of the devil.

I was enjoying supper with most of the campers after the worship when a boy with a worried look on his face came up to me and asked me to get my dad to come back up to the worship hall immediately. We rushed up and found a boy sprawled on the floor with a large group of adults & youth surrounding him. Apparently an evil spirit was manifesting in him and was causing him much discomfort as he was coughing. The adult Sunday school leader who was present at the scene had requested for my dad as he was more experienced in this field. My dad, after spending a few moments to take in the situation at hand, proceeded to move in with great composure. (Although later he confessed to me he was actually quite nervous as well)

He recoginised the adult Sunday school leader who was praying at that time as being the main authority figure and proceeded to assist him. As my dad prayed for the boy, he noticed some strange reactions from him as prayers regarding a certain topic were said. That gave him a sense as to what was the problem afflicting the boy.

By now, a large crowd of youth were gathering around and they all wanted to lay hands and pray for him as well. My dad was not too comfortable with this as he heard a theory from a pastor that if you are going through similar problems as the person who has an evil manifested spirit and you lay hands on him, the spirit may affect you as well. That may have happened as a young girl who was praying for the boy suddenly broke out in tears and ended up requiring other people to pray for her. My dad took the opportunity to take the boy aside with the other adults so that they could pray for him without the crowd. The other reason for doing this is also because the person being prayed for may be required to confess certain issues which he may find very difficult to do if a large crowd is gathered around him.

Away from the crowd, the adult Sunday school leader prayed against the specific problem which my dad sensed was affecting the boy and his response was favorable. Finally, with the authority that comes from Christ, he commanded the spirit to leave and then requested for the Holy Spirit to come and fill him so he won’t be left empty. The boy regained consciousness and managed to get up, free once more.

The boy is ok now but the damage was already done as the evil spirit accomplished his purpose. His job is to distract the people from the work that God is doing and unfortunately for those youth who had gotten themselves involved, that’s what happened to them as chances are they will remember that devil event far more vividly than the God event which occurred prior to that. That’s why such incidents should be kept from grabbing the spotlight by taking the affected person away from the crowd ASAP, so the people won’t get distracted from what God is doing. It is good that we learnt that.

Clever & sneaky, like a snake in the grass is the evil one.