Have you ever believed a lie? At one time or another, whether knowingly or not, we all have fallen victim to deception. How did it make you feel after finding out? Angry, hurt, confused? For my friend Sam, who at the time was in a severe state of mental and physical anguish, the truth came to him not only as a shock but as a personal lifesaver directly from God.
Anyone who knows Sam would tell you that he is a humorous and affectionate guy who loves talking with people. In fact, in my professional interactions with Sam, I quickly learned that I had to add an extra 30 minutes to every visit, knowing that like a playful puppy pulling at your pant leg, he wouldn’t want to let you go. But on one professional visit to his business, I quickly discovered that Sam’s demeanor had transformed to deeply depressed.
“What’s wrong, Sam?” I asked.
“I don’t want to talk about it!” he snapped. “Just go do your job.” This obviously wasn’t the Sam I knew but I proceeded without any further prodding. It seemed strange without Sam tagging along and talking nonstop while I did my assessment. At the end of my visit, we sat down together to discuss my findings but before having him sign my report, I told him, “I’m not leaving, Sam, until you tell me what’s wrong.”
At first, Sam tried to make an excuse for his behaviour but I wasn’t buying it and I told him to be honest with me. What he then shared with me would have been unsettling had I not known what the Bible had to say about his troubling situation.
stranger things
Sam began to tell me about his mum, for whom he had great affection and how he had been her personal carer until her recent death. It was obvious that he was still in a state of grieving, but the mental and physical anguish expressed on his face told me that there was more to his story than sorrow for a lost loved one. Sam reluctantly confided in me that he was regularly seeing his dead mother. Her visitations included physically shaking him awake at night, showing up in different places like the inside of his vehicle while he was driving and even coming to his workplace. Yet strangely enough, she would never speak—just stare intently at him.
Sam reluctantly confided in me that he was regularly seeing his dead mother
Her visitations had worn out his welcome, his sleep and now his sanity. Sam just wanted his mother to go away! In his efforts to convince her to move on, he’d had numerous one-sided conversations with the apparition and had asked his Orthodox priest to come and pray over him and sprinkle holy water throughout his home. Nothing had worked. Believing that Sam was suffering from some type of physical or mental disorder, his brother, a medical doctor, had even arranged for Sam to have a full physical and psychiatric evaluation.
After listening to Sam’s woes, I told him, “Sam, I don’t believe you’re suffering from a physical or mental disorder, but a spiritual disorder. If you’re willing to come to my house for a Bible study, I’m sure God will free you from what’s ailing you.” Desperate for relief, Sam agreed.
answers in Scripture
In the days prior to our Bible study, things began to get very strange. One night Sam woke up to the sound of many voices above him, including the sounds of children laughing and playing. Since Sam lived on the top floor of an apartment building, he concluded that the voices had to be coming from departed souls in heaven.
When Sam showed up for our study, I could tell he was not convinced a Bible study would cure his troubles, but we prayed and opened God’s Word. Our study began with the creation of man: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7 KJV). A “living being” is how some translations put it. We then turned to the book of Ecclesiastes, written by Solomon, biblical king of Israel, which describes how at death, the living soul is no more as the breath of life departs from the body. “Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit [breath]1 will return to God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7).
As for any post-mortem thoughts, emotions or actions, Solomon clearly states, “For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even their name is forgotten. Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 9:5,6). Sam and I ended our study by seeing how the Bible describes death as a non-conscious state of sleep: “But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last and is no more. As the water of a lake dries up or a riverbed becomes parched and dry, so he lies down and does not rise; till the heavens are no more, people will not awake or be roused from their sleep” (Job 14:10–12; see also John 11:11–14; Acts 7:59,60).
It was obvious to Sam that what had appeared to be his deceased mother was not his mother at all. “The Bible tells us that the dead are asleep in their graves until the resurrection,” I told Sam. “They can’t come back to haunt the living. In fact, I believe your visitor is really a demon in disguise!” I further warned him, “Even though the truth from the Bible has now set you free, don’t be surprised if the demon returns to test your understanding of death. If that should happen, you will need to confront it in the name of Jesus.”
like a bad smell
As surely as the sun reappears in the sky each morning, the demon impersonating Sam’s mother reappeared about a week later. Remembering what I had told him, Sam commanded it in the name of Jesus to leave and never return. At that moment, it forever vanished from his life. Sam was overjoyed. He now knew that God’s truth is what set him free from the enemy’s lies!
Sam’s Christian upbringing was steeped in tradition and ceremony, yet weak in Bible literacy. Like many today, he believed that the human soul is immortal and that we can communicate with those who have passed away. This lie from the father of lies (Satan) has a bewitching influence over much of the world.
God calls those who communicate with the dead an “abomination” (Deuteronomy 18:9–12). He warns us to not be deceived by the enemy’s trickery. “When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn [in them]” (Isaiah 8:19,20).
As for the demon that tormented Sam, I had always wondered why it never spoke to him—until I read in Luke’s gospel where Jesus cast out a mute demon (see Luke 11:14). Even if Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), we need not fall victim to his deceptions. We simply need to cling to God’s Word as our source of truth and the standard by which we test every experience.
1. The word spirit in Ecclesiastes 12:7 comes from the Hebrew word ruach, meaning “breath”.
