Have you ever believed a lie? At one time or another, whether knowingly or not, we all have fallen victim to someone’s lie. How did it make you feel after finding out? Mad, Hurt, Confused? For my friend Sam, which at the time was in a severe state of both mental and physical anguish, the moment of truth came not only as a shock but was a personal lifesaver to him directly from the Word of God!
Anyone knowing Sam, would surely tell you that he is a jovial and affectionate guy who truly loves conversing with people. A matter of fact in my former professional interactions with Sam, I quickly learned that I had to add an extra thirty minutes to every visitation, knowing that like a playful puppy pulling at your pant leg, he didn’t want to let you go.
On one particular professional visit, I quickly discovered that Sam’s pant-leg personality had been choked off and left for dead in a deep and dark state of depression. “What’s wrong Sam?” I asked. His coarse response back to me, “I don’t want to talk about it! Just go do your job.” This obviously wasn’t the Sam I knew, but I proceeded without any further prodding to do my job without him tightly tagging and talking non-stop along the way. At the end of my visit, we sat down together to discuss my findings, but before having him sign my report, I told him, “I’m not leaving Sam until you tell me what’s wrong.”
At first, Sam tried to make an excuse for his behavior, but I wasn’t buying it, and told him to be honest with me. What he then shared with me would have come as a big surprise, had I not known what the Bible had to say about his troubling and dire situation.
In quietly and inattentively listening, Sam began to tell me about his mom whom he had great affections for, and how he had been her personal caretaker before her recent death. It was obvious to me that he was still in a state of grieving, but the mental and physical anguish expressed on his face told me that there was still more to his story.
He then reluctantly began to tell me that he was regularly seeing his dead mother. Her visitations included physically shaking him awake at night, showing up in different places like the inside of his vehicle while driving, and even coming to his workplace. Yet strangely enough, she would never speak, but intently stare at him.
Her visitations had worn out his welcome, his sleep, and now his sanity. Sam just wanted her to go away! In his efforts to get her to move on, he told me that he had numerous one-sided conversations, and even had his orthodox priest come and pray over and sprinkle holy water throughout his home, yet nothing seemed to really work. Believing that Sam was suffering from some type of physical or mental disorder, his brother a doctor, had even made arrangements for Sam to have a full physical and psychiatric evaluation at the renowned Cleveland Clinic Medical Center.
After listening to Sam’s very real woes, I told him, “Sam, I don’t believe you’re suffering from either a physical or mental disorder, but actually a spiritual disorder. And if you’re willing to come to my house for a Bible study, I’m sure God will free you from what’s ailing you.” Desperate for anything to bring him some relief, Sam agreed to come for the Bible study.
In the days prior to our Bible study, Sam told me that things began to get very strange. On one particular night he woke up to the sound of many voices above him, including the sounds of children laughing and playing. Being that Sam lived on the top floor of an apartment building, he concluded that the voices had to be coming from those in heaven.
After showing up for the Bible study, I could tell that Sam was not overly convinced that a Bible study was going to be the cure for his troubles, but after a short season of prayer we began to study God’s Word. The study began with God’s creation of Man (the body + spirit or breath of life = a living soul). We then looked at how death is described as “sleep” and that the dead know nothing nor have any part with the living (see Ecclesiastes 9:5-6). Our study then transitioned from the old to the New Testament, which not only supported each other, but added validity to the fact that death is biblically viewed as a non-conscious state (sleep) for both the righteous and wicked prior to the time of their respective resurrections (see John 5:28-29).
At the end of our Bible study, it was obvious to Sam that what had appeared to be his mother, was really a demon in disguise. I told Sam, “Even though the truth from the Bible has now set you free, don’t be surprised if the demon returns to test your Biblical understanding of the state of the dead, and if that happens, then you will have to confront it in the name of Jesus.”
As sure as the sun reappears in the sky each morning, Sam told me that the demon impersonating his mother reappeared about a week later. Remembering what I told him, Sam commanded it in the name of Jesus to leave and never return; after which it forever vanished from his life. Praise God! Surely His truth is what sets us free from the devil’s deceptions and seducing errors! As for the demon that tormented Sam, I had always wondered why it had never talked to him, until I read in the gospel of Luke where Jesus had cast out a mute demon (see Luke 11:14).
In the case of Sam whose grandfather was once the head patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church, which would be the equivalent to the Roman pontiff; Sam’s religious experience was steeped in Christian tradition and ceremony, yet weak in Bible literacy. Unfortunately, the same holds true for many Christians today who don’t make the Word of God their fortified shield and sword against the deceptions and doctrines of devils. Spiritualism (old and new) teaches that the human soul is immortal and that we can have communication with departed souls. This is not only a lie from the Father of lies (Satan) but has a bewitching influence over much of the world today including many Christians.
After reading Sam’s story, it shouldn’t come as a surprise, that God calls those who seek after the dead an abomination in His sight (see Deuteronomy 18:9-12), and warns us to not be deceived by the devil’s trickery, “When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn [in them].” (Isaiah 8:19-20, NIV, emphasis added).