“Be sober, be vigilant; because you adversary the devil
walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him,
steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by
your brotherhood in the world.” (1 Peter 5:8-9)
I have written earlier about the devil
or Satan, and that he is a real person who does not like anyone coming to know
Jesus as their Savior and will do everything he can to keep people in bondage.
We in the Western world don’t seem to understand or believe in him but in most
parts of the rest of the world they know him and his demons and in many places
they worship them.
In
the jungles of Venezuela there is a tribe of Indians who know full well of the
devil and demons existence and the power they have to control peoples’ lives.
They are called the Yanomamo Indians. “The Yanomamo are one of the worlds most
mysterious peoples. Small, rarely over five feet tall, they have speed,
strength, and agility of a jungle cat. Their women can tote their own weight up
and down a jungle trail that would challenge me even if I were empty handed.
Their men can call, track, and shoot anything that breathes in a jungle that is
hostile enough to kill anyone but a trained survivalist.” (Spirit of the
Rainforest by Mark Andrew Riche, p7)
In his book about the Yanomamo, Mr. Riche does and excellent job of
chronicling the life of several Yanomamo shamans (witchdoctors), and one in
particular known as Shoefoot. He had been raised up to be a shaman by his small
tribe and learned the art of calling the spirits (demons) to live within his chest and to take the ebene drug
in order to hallucinate and communicate with these spirits. Mr. Riche spent 13 years gathering
information from the Indians that was translated by a New Tribes missionary who
had lived among the Yanomamo all his life, Gary Dawson. (Known as Keleewa by
the Indians.)
Shoefoot had come to know a
missionary named Pepe and had been persuaded by him to throw away his spirits and
become a Christian. He dearly wanted to do what the missionary told him because
he knew that what he had been told was true, but he also knew that any shaman
that tried to throw away his spirits would be killed by those same spirits.
This is how Shoefoot described what happened next:
“A long way from the village Shoefoot
left the trail so that he couldn’t be followed. He sat on a cushion of jungle leaves, leaned back
against the huge trunk of hardwood, and looked up at the roof of foliage over
his head. ‘This is a wonderful place,’ he said, ‘but so mysterious.’
He
had talked to this new spirit, saying things he could never say with Pepe
listening. Pepe couldn’t understand what we shamans knew. ‘I can’t throw these
spirits of mine away,’ Shoefoot said to Yai Wana Naba Laywa (God Almighty).
‘They will kill me before they will ever leave. I’ll let you take them away if
you can. But I don’t know why you would. You are the unfriendly spirit, the
enemy spirit. If you have noticed or care about me, then you know I have always
needed another spirit. My own spirits have told me that. If you are the spirit
I need, then you will have to get rid of the others. But I can’t throw them
away.’
Shoefoot
never again took ebene after that and never spoke to his spirits. He waited for
them to try to kill him…… A few days later it happened, but it was not what he
had expected.
He had been lying in his hammock almost asleep when Omawa himself
(Satan), the leader of all our spirits, had come to him from deep in the jungle.
As he came he swooped his hand down into the jungle and gathered from it all of
the sweetest smells in the world. His beauty, his power, and his sweet smell
were so wonderful that Shoefoot knew right away he could never resist him. Shoefoots’
body was filled with excitement. He was important enough to be visited by Omawa
himself!
Omawa had scooped Shoefoot up from his hammock and they began to dance
across the jungle. This was better than ebene or women or anything Shoefoot
could imagine, even though he knew that Omawa would take him back to his
spirits. Still, it was a moment that could not be resisted.
Just as they had been about to dance forever out into the jungle, they
were suddenly hit with a white light as bright as many suns, more dazzling than
anything Shoefoot had ever seen. It was like the sharpest flame of lightning
but it didn’t stop. The bright light stayed there, and the warmth from it
filled Shoefoot with a new feeling he had never felt, a feeling of safety. It
felt so good.
Just when the light appeared a huge voice had said, ‘You can’t have him.
He’s mine.’ And Omawa ran in terror! Across the top of the jungle he ran until
he was out of sight. It’s him, Shoefoot thought, when he heard his voice. It is
Yai Pada, the great spirit—and he’s not the enemy! He heard me when I asked him
to chase my spirits away! He must be friendly after all!
The
light, the warmth, the safety, the care of the most powerful spirit—it was all
too good to for Shoefoot to hold in one moment.” (Spirit of the Rainforest, by
Mark Riche, pp. 215-216)
Thus began a new life for Shoefoot as a Christian and faithful disciple
of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Yai Pada, as the Yanomamo call him.
What about you? Are you being tricked by the “angel of light’ that wants you to
follow him rather than Jesus? He
will do whatever he can to keep you from following the only One who can make a
difference in your life, Jesus Christ. He will use whatever weakness you have;
possessions, pride, power, selfishness, money, sex, drugs, alcohol, or a
hundred other things to keep you from serving and living for Jesus.
“And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of
light.” (2 Cor. 11:14)
Pray:
1.
That you will be strong in the Lord and be
faithful to what you have learned from the Scriptures.
2.
That you will pray for those who are battling
drugs, alcohol abuse, sex addiction or involved in the occult, and look for
ways to tell them about the only one who can save them.
3.
That you will put on the whole armor of God
every day and stand strong against the wiles of the devil.
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