Teenaged Twins Healed From Demonic Curse

Rhemagood

Quiet times were getting very predictable for Rhema. For the past year, every time she went into prayer, she felt impressed to pray for God to arrange a “Mount Carmel experience” in her Arab Muslim neighborhood. Some kind of circumstance which God could use to demonstrate that Islam was false and impotent, and to showcase the Lordship of Jesus Christ. She and her husband had been there as tentmakers for only a few months when the promptings had started, but after a year of praying she wondered when God would ever actually do it. A few weeks before they were to make a trip out of the country, Rhema was picking up Hamda and a few of her sisters, to drive them to a ziyarra (a visit). Each lady in their circle of friends took turns hosting the ziyarra, and today it would be at Amal’s house. Rhema had gotten to know Amal when she’d prayed for a fluent Arabic-speaking Christian to help her with the language on visits to local homes. Amal was a Lebanese believer who wanted to share the Gospel message, and had also been praying for a visit partner. They were the answer to each other’s prayers. While the girls finished getting ready for the outing, Rhema waited in their majlis (sitting room). The other women of the family all greeted her as usual, but eighteen-year-old Saliima was mysteriously quiet. More than that, she looked as if she was in a trance and gave no indication that she even knew Rhema was in the room. Not greeting a visitor is a big offense in Arab culture, so to avoid shame her mother began to scold, hit, and usher the dazed-looking teenager quickly out of the room. A few moments later Saliima’s twin sister Moza entered and sat very solemnly still with a strange look on her face. She suddenly burst into bizarre, cackling laughter, and then just as suddenly became stone-faced again. Needless to say, Rhema was more than a little curious as to what was going on here at Hamda’s house. Once they were in the car she asked, “What’s wrong with Saliima and Moza? Are they taking drugs?” Hamda was appalled that her friend would think such a thing of them, and explained that the girls were suffering from a curse. Someone had cast the “evil eye” on them out of jealousy, because the girls were excellent students. Now every time either of the twins tried to pick up a schoolbook, the jinn (demons) would trouble them so that they could not read or hold it, and then caused them fits of laughter or crying. In this condition the girls couldn’t possibly attend school, let alone graduate. “Maybe the girls are just tired of studying and are pretending to have fits. Couldn’t they just be trying to get out of having to marry when school is finished?” Rhema probed. Hamda said no, because other strange things were happening in the home that the girls had no control over, and which could only be explained by the presence of jinn—such as doors opening or closing by themselves, weird noises and objects moving. Besides, she added, the family had taken the twins to the mutawwas (Islamic medicine men)—7 different ones, in fact—and each one of them had diagnosed the problem as the “evil eye”. “So, what did the mutawwas tell you to do about it?” Rhema wanted to know. “They prescribed the reading of the Holy Koran out loud in our home, to drive the jinn away.” “And, did it work?” “No,” Hamda admitted. Rhema probed further, “What else did they prescribe?” “They gave us special tea for the girls to drink, to make them vomit. When they vomit, the jinn should come out with everything else.” “And, did it work?” “No,” Hamda admitted again. At this point, Rhema was so excited that she could hardly keep from smiling. Not that there was anything at all happy about the girls’ plight, but she felt such clear confirmation in her spirit that this was the opportunity God had been leading her to pray for, for the past year! She looked at Hamda and said, “Hamda, I am so sorry that Saliima and Moza are going through this, but I am so happy because I know what to do about it!” Hamda looked at her rather unexcitedly. “Rhema,” she said, a bit condescendingly, “what could you know about this kind of thing?” “Well, it’s not that I know anything. But in the Bible, God tells us everything we need to know for this life.” Then she added, “Who made the jinn?” “Allah,” Hamda replied. “Right. So, who do you have to get to help you if you want the jinn to leave you alone?” “Allah.” “Right. So, did you pray and ask God to get rid of the jinn for you?” Hamda was incredulous. “Of course we did!” “Of course,” repeated Rhema. “And it didn’t work. Did it?” “No...” “That’s right,” Rhema beamed, “and I know why!” Her apparently complete confidence piqued Hamda’s full attention. “Well... why?” she asked, now genuinely interested to hear the answer to such a perplexing question. Bubbling over with joy, Rhema seized her long-awaited opportunity and declared, “It’s because God has placed everything in Heaven, and Earth, and under the earth, under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. No one can come to the Father except through the Son!” She was holding her palms up at the simplicity of the solution. “And you didn’t do that. Did you?” Hamda smiled. She seemed a little amused by Rhema’s seeming naïveté. “No, because we don’t believe that,” she laughed. ‘We’re Muslims.” (Muslims hold that Jesus was nothing more than a great prophet. To them, the idea of God having a son is blasphemous, and to pray in Jesus’ Name is idolatry because it equates Him with God.) “Right! You don’t believe Jesus is the way to God, so you didn’t do it. And your prayers didn’t work. Hamda, I believe that if you let me pray for your sisters in Jesus’ Name, God will answer my prayer and remove the demons. He has promised His children that when we ask anything in Jesus’ Name, He will do it.” At this point, they arrived at Amal’s apartment and the conversation was postponed. The ziyarra went routinely, until nearly the end. Then in the sovereignty of God, all the other ladies became occupied with something in another room, leaving Hamda and her two Christian friends alone together. She shared the twins’ situation with Amal and asked what Rhema’s suggestion to “pray in Jesus’ Name” entailed. Did they have to kill a chicken? Did it require incense to be burned? Did the Christians have to be physically with the twins to pray for them? The two believers discussed it briefly and concluded that the Scriptures only required them to pray in Jesus’ Name. With that, Hamda gave permission for her sisters to be prayed for. The Christian women bowed their heads together and prayed. They specifically prayed that God would answer by removing the demons now, while the prayer was being offered, so that everyone would know the healing was in response to this prayer in Jesus’ Name. And, they asked Him to do it in such a way as to show their Muslim friend that Jesus was indeed whom the Bible says He is—the Lord of all, and the one way to God the Father. Circumstances did not permit Rhema and Amal to know the results of this prayer immediately. But the next day when Rhema called on the telephone, Hamda said the twins were “better”. Did that mean a little better, all the way better, or what? When pressed to be more specific, she would only answer, “What can I say?” On subsequent visits, the twins were kept in another room and not allowed out until Rhema left. Soon afterwards, the family took Saliima and Moza back to the mutawwas, and every one of them declared the girls were rid of the jinn, or the evil eye. Unwittingly, those mutawwas had verified the answer to the Christians’ prayer! Finally, she was allowed to see them for herself. The twins were forbidden to talk about what happened that evening, but Rhema did get to mention that she and Amal had prayed for them in Jesus’ Name. When the day finally came for Rhema and her husband to leave the country, all the women of Hamda’s family gave her a farewell ziyarra. They were all crying, talking and hugging her goodbye. Each of the twins took one of Rhema’s hands as they drew her near to make a quiet request, “While you are gone, please, pray for us every day.” Wanting to be sure they knew what they were asking, she reminded them, “When I pray, I pray in Jesus’ Name.” Squeezing her hands tighter, they both leaned forward and said, “We know. Please. Pray for us, every day.” -by Rhema Good, 9/15/05 This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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