Freedom from oppression from Santa Ria

Let me share an opportunity that I had to lead someone to the Lord. I began a friendship with a delivery guy. After getting to know him I discovered that he needed somewhere to stay and so I invited him to come and stay with me in my parents home while they were ministering in Singapore.

I soon learned that he was involved in a religion of demon worship called Santa Ria. He had allowed 16 demons to enter him for the purpose of giving him special powers. To his dismay he soon found that they expected many things of him in return.

Before coming to stay with me he had ordered the demons out of his life. The following is what he told me happened: That day his girlfriend left him, he was fired from his job, and he crashed his car into a tree. When he returned home a thick dark cloud of angry demons swarmed around him and demanded his submission. Then all of the windows in his apartment imploded.  He fled, climbed a tree, and wept all night.

When he came to stay with me he asked if he could bring his 16 altars with him. I said no. For the first time in years in our home he was safe from them. He then asked me if I could get rid of them for good. I told him that he would have to become a Christian. He replied that he was interested, but did not want to go from being under one power to being under another. He wanted to be his own man for a while.

I showed him the passage in Luke 11:24-26 which says that if you kick them out then they will return 7 times as strong without the protection of the Holy Spirit. (can you imagine 112 demons). We spent long hours reading the Bible and discussing the loving character of God and he decided that he wanted to ask Jesus into his heart.

My mom arrived the next day; and that night we prayed over him and told the demons to get out. The next morning we went and got the demon altars, and went deep into the forest and had a fantastic time smashing and shattering them against rocks and trees. We then went down to the Withalacooche river where I baptized him in front of several witnesses.

A week later I left for a YWAM school. While in Honolulu he called and told me that he was reading his Bible, had joined a wonderful church, and had already led 2 of his Santa Ria friends to Jesus!