After reading the testimony of a demon-possessed lady who was healed and then believed in Jesus, I recalled what happened to a woman in our village a long time ago. Though the woman did not come to Jesus in the end, I would like to share this typical story in the countryside.
We have a tradition in our village. Every February, we will invite an opera troupe to our village because of a legend related to a small temple.
There are some spiritual things in the performing spot for the troupe and old women would kneel down before this area to burn incense and ask for medicine. The weak grandmas would then place a leakless funnel made of paper before them to ask for a miraculous medicine, uttering some words as if they were praying.
I was very curious about it when I was young and watched these women many times. From a distance, I saw they swallowed what miraculously appeared in their cone and my grandma would also go there to seek for medicine.
In our village, Christians and Buddhists seemed like enemies to each other. My mom is a Christian. Once I asked her what those old women were eating, she told me that they were eating nothing; but, air. I doubted her answer, wondering whether the medicine from gods was invisible.
Curious to find the answer, I watched carefully. On one occasion I took a close look, I saw how something gray and small appeared in their cone from nowhere after their prayer and even heard one of them asking another "how could you receive much more medicine than what I have got?"
I received atheist education at school and my grandma was a Buddhist while my mom was a Christian. I always wondered about theism and atheism. However, grandma's talk about demons and gods impressed me because the existence of gods was so real to her. If gods could give medicine to answer the old women's requests, we can imagine how great their faith in them would be because they had seen the medicine fall from heaven to their hands.
In short, people believe in all kinds of spirits, demons and gods in our village. Now that religion is closely related to gods and demons, the devil has successfully deceived many people with religions.
There was a woman the demon possessed for one year when the drama troupe came to our village to perform. She became ill, lost her mind and began to scream. When she was brought home, the woman claimed to be someone waiting to see her son and take the demon-possessed woman away.
Afterwards, the woman would try all means to commit suicide. She tried to jump into the river when washing her clothes there; but, was pulled back by others. Her husband had vainly sought help from witches before our village's Christians went to her home to pray for her. She was healed completely after receiving prayers for a few times.
Later, she confessed that she knew what she was doing when the demon was at work in her; but, she was not able to control herself. Her mouth, feet and hands did not follow her own will. Unfortunately, she did not go to church after being healed.
It is true that miracles cannot make people repent; but, the Holy Spirit and God's word can. Once Jesus Christ healed ten of leprosy, only one came back to thank Him. In the parable about a rich man and Lazarus, Abraham told the rich man that though some people rose from the dead to warn his brothers, they would still not believe if they did not listen to the prophets and Moses' teachings in the first place.
God knows more clearly about our hardened heart than we do. Some may think, "I will believe in God if I see a miracle." The truth is that Jesus, who had done many miracles, was crucified eventually by those who saw his miracles.
Jesus kept preaching God's word when He was on the earth. It is difficult to tell truth only through miracles. Though they can draw people's interest, only God's word can help people to become holy, understand the truth and salvation. How important it is to understand the Bible?
Translated by Alvin Zhou
