07. An Experience in India

CHAPTER SEVEN AN EXPERIENCE IN INDIA A young girl, her sari thrown off from her head, insisted that she would dance for us. Her conduct showed demon possession. A Christian worker cast the demon out in the name which is above every name.

She fell to the ground (Mark 9:20) and lay there about a minute. Then she sat up and pulled the sari over her face very modestly. We helped get her on her feet. I said, “Why were you lying on the ground?”

“I do not know, Memsahib,” she replied.

“Has anybody pulled your hair?” She had been violent and was held by a Christian man. He could only hold her by her hair. It had been almost pulled out by the roots by her violent jerking.

“No, Memsahib, nobody pulled my hair.”

“Will you dance for me?” I asked, testing her.

“No, Memsahib,” she replied. “I do not know how to dance.”

She was sweet, modest and quiet. Her face was entirely changed.

Another young girl was brought here with her foot badly crushed, many small bones broken. I asked how it happened. Without hesitation her father said, “She is demon-possessed and the demons made her fall so as to crush her foot.”

We cast out the demons and prayed for her foot to be healed. A week later she came again, this time walking on that foot which had seemed to be hopelessly injured. I have, at different times and with different persons, tried to find out HOW the demons got into the person. Invariably it occurred when some actual sin was committed.

I have known persons who were healed by the Lord, and who afterward worshiped idols and lost the healing. Even though such idol worship was not voluntary but compelled by someone who opposed Christianity, still the result was the same. And only after repentance and confession was healing restored.

Out here, where things are more violently evident than in America, we say that the demons are “active” or “inactive.” The more violent the manifestations the more certain we are of victory through Him who loved us, and gave Himself for us that He might destroy the works of the Devil. The Pilgrims Mission Mary C. Norton India