From darkness to light
04/11/2009 3:21 am John Watts <au-mediaSPAMFILTER@omf.net>
When the apostle Paul experienced his dramatic life changing encounter with the Lord Jesus he was commissioned to spend the rest of his life seeking to turn the pagan Gentiles from the power of Satan to transforming power of God. “I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God…” (Acts 26:17,18). The commission for missionaries today working among unreached or less reached people groups is no different. Ministry among tribal people, steeped in generations of animism provides some intense challenges of wrestling them out of the clutches of the enemy.
After many months of listening to God’s word and discussing the spirit world in depth, Crispen and his wife Lenie fi nally reached the point where they were ready to break with the old ways and trust Christ alone. Then came the most difficult step for them, destroying all their charms and paraphernalia and breaking ties with ancestral spirits. The air was tense in that little dark house and I could sense fear in them both as they laid out all the items on the fl oor. Their belief system told them that disaster would strike if they destroyed these items but they held onto their thin thread of new faith in the Lord Jesus. Strengthened by prayer and worship they slowly burned each item in their fire place.
“They have no more power!”, exclaimed Crispen, as they watched these valuable charms going up in smoke. A huge sense of relief swept over them both as they realized the power of Christ over these objects of Satan. No disaster struck. They were free, free indeed!
During the past 15 years of our ministry among tribal people in the Southern Philippines we have seen many, many people come into God’s kingdom but we have also been dismayed to see a number of people slowly drift back into animism. One friend who was a very powerful shaman went through a dramatic turn around to follow Christ and showed great potential. However, the people were not happy to lose their mediator with the spirit world and put immense pressure on him to continue his ‘priestly’ role. He was drawn back into his former animistic practices.
The “turning them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God” is one of the biggest challenges for the missionary among tribal animists.