The following story is from a long diary type article I wrote about my ministry trip to Uganda in 2008. In it I talk about a Balinese religious(Hindu)mask that I tangled with and what happened.
I worked in the Fisheries Department for the Western Australian Government. This job took me out to sea on patrol boats up and down the Western Australian coastline.
During these trips away, which were 10 days in duration, I took every chance I got to get alone with God and pray in the S/spirit…in the engine room, on the top-deck, on a lonely beach after we had anchored the boat, or tied her to the jetty. I was often witnessing to the deckhand or driving the skipper nuts with my Jesus talk all the time…..not much wisdom!!
Finally he had had enough and got me transferred to Geraldton, 465km north of the city of Perth, to another patrol boat and crew. After many adventures with Jesus during the next 18 months I had had enough of the sea-farer’s life and resigned from the Department.
One story comes to my mind from those days….I had to go onto one of the Abrolhos Islands, 80km off Geraldton in the Indian Ocean to check a professional Cray fisherman’s licence. I went ashore in our dinghy on my own, while the deckhand and skipper stayed on the Patrol boat. The fisherman greeted me on his little, rickety timber jetty, only wide enough for 1 man to walk upon and about 10metres long. I followed him to the door of his fishing shack that all the fisherman have for the “Abrolhos fishing season” which only lasts for about 4 months of the year.
These islands are protected as Nature reserves and the only people allowed on them are these fisherman..(as I write this Dec 08 this is being changed). As we got to his hut he opened the door for me and what greeted us as he did surprised me.
There hanging on the wall opposite the now open front door was a full size Balinese Hindu Barong mask which are supposed to be gods that protect the temples and villages.
It is such a fearsome and ugly looking thing, it made me angry inside my spirit. While the fisherman left me inside the hut with his wife as he went to get his papers from in his boat, I asked her what she thought of the thing.
She told me quietely that she hated it, but her husband brought it back from Bali and will not get rid of it. So, after he came back inside and I had done my business with him I left to go through the door.
After taking a few steps outside I turned and seeing that the man and woman had gone back into the living room, leaving the door wide open, I faced the mask which was about 6 feet tall if you measured the horses hair hanging down from it’s ugly face.
I said, “In the name of Jesus Christ, I rebuke you!”
I turned on my heel and went to my dinghy. By the time I started the motor, I had a massive migraine headache coming on!
I never got headaches, rarely if ever and certainly not migraines. By the time I got to the patrol boat, 100 metres off the island I was feeling like throwing up from the pain in my head! I climbed slowly up onto the bigger boat (65 feet) and went straight to my cabin and lay down. I could not believe the pain.
I thought..”What is going on Lord? I rebuked it in Your name….and it has overcome me!?”
The Lord in His gentle way convicted me that I had rebuked the spirit behind the mask out of fear and the flesh, that it had not been His guidance to do such a thing and so I had not been in His protection. I repented straight away…amazing how quickly we do this when we are suffering!…and the pain immediately left me!
So many stories could be told of the lessons I learned from the Holy Spirit over the years as indeed all of us could.
The Barong Mask
Some would say what a load of rubbish! That may be the case for them, sometimes our ignorance protects us.
Lesson: Do not buy or receive any religious relics for you will get more than you think.
Attached to every Buddha statue, every Barong mask, every African amulet and other religious objects are evil spirits/demons. The physical object is a violation of God’s Law which gives the evil spirit LEGAL right to attach itself to that thing. From that position of legality the spirit can then attack and afflict those who possess it(the object).
Deu 7:25 You shall burn the images of their gods with fire; you shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, and so you take it for yourself, so that you are not ensnared by it, for it is a detestable thing to Yahweh your God.
Deu 7:26 And you must not bring a detestable thing into your house, or you will become a thing devoted to destruction like it; you must utterly detest it, and you must utterly abhor it, for it is an object devoted to destruction.
You may scoff at this…especially if you already have these kinds of things in your life. Scoffing at God’s word is a sure sign of the presence of demons.
The list of accursed or detestable things is endless and sometimes these things slip into our lives unnoticed. A friend comes back from overseas and gives some gifts to members of the family…enter demons into the once peaceful home.A popular one for the last 20 years in western society are those Dream Catcher things from North American Indian spirituality. People hang them in the room and in their cars…they tattoo them on their bodies.
According to God’s law they have become devoted to destruction like the accursed thing that they trust in.
Cursed things.
Deuteronomy 7:26 uses the phrase “a thing devoted to destruction” or in the KJV “a cursed thing”.
The Hebrew word is חֶרֶם חֵרֶם
chêrem cherem -Strongs H2764 and it primarily means physically (as shutting in) a net (either literally or figuratively); usually a doomed object; abstractly extermination:
The accursed thing is a NET that ensnares the one who has it…literally or figuratively!!
The answer is always turn to God, cry out to Jesus Christ. Get rid of the accursed things from your life. Burn them and renounce the devotion you have given to them. Say clearly that you do not want those objects or the spirits that are attached to them anymore–instead you ONLY want Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Get free from the snares or nets of the enemy. You may need help from a mature Holy Spirit filled Christian to do this.
When repentance is given to us it is amazing how the Spirit of God will illuminate and show us certain things in our homes and lives that are accursed things with demons attached to them. Be sure that you will face opposition when wanting to destroy such an object.
If the object is yours then you have authority to destroy it….but it does no good to destroy someone else’s cursed object. The person must come to his/her own repentance over it. In the story I shared above…the wife confided in me that she hated the mask…but her husband would not get rid of it. She has no authority to destroy it. He must see it for what it is and destroy the thing.
Ultimately all accursed things on this earth and in the hearts of men and women, boys and girls, shall bow the knee before Jesus Christ of Nazareth. People are ensnared and caught in the enemies net. It is the Good News of Jesus death and resurrection that is the power of God for their salvation and rescue If they believe.
The demons know that they are accursed and doomed for destruction, they want to doom as many others as they can. The Deut 7:25,26 verses tell us we become like the accursed thing that we bring into our home. Anger, anxieties, night mares, headaches, depression, suicidal thoughts, hardness towards authority, rebellion etc etc…may be being amplified or even caused by the presence of these cursed objects in your life.
Act 19:18 And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds.
Act 19:19 Many of them also which used curious arts(Literally: energy work all through and around) brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.
Act 19:20 So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.
If you have come to believe in Jesus Christ you have switched sides. The believers in the true story above burned their expensive new age books…magic books, spell books….curious arts books. Those things were cursed and do bring a curse upon the owner. It’s serious stuff and not to be played around with.
Notice that the word of God grew and prevailed AFTER the burning of the magic books? You will have trouble reading God’s word while you still have accursed things in your life. Again if there is something in your home brought in by someone other than you, and you are the believer in that house, then God’s protection is over you. But you can seek Him for what to do and how to get them saved or how to get them to get rid of the “thing.”
Don’t fear the thing, you are in Christ and the enemy has nothing in you if you walk with Jesus.
