We don’t really talk about evil spirits. Even though the apostles included their experiences during the time of Christ. Early church members recorded instances as well.  I’ve always been careful to advise my kids not to engage in watching movies that embellish that dark side. It’s real, and it’s not good to fool around with it.

But it came up again, when my youngest son was interviewed to receive the Melchizedek priesthood. Our stake president recommended that he give someone a blessing shortly after being ordained. My mind flew back to the time I encouraged my eldest son to do the same. What I thought would be a sweet, simple blessing for a friend of mine, became my first experience with an evil spirit.

My husband and another priesthood holder had joined my son, at our home. As the three of them were blessing her, the evil spirit voiced through her, directed to my son — “don’t go on your mission.” That was the first indication that something was wrong.  My husband recalls that after the blessing, she slapped him. I sat on the sofa with her while the three men decided what to do.  The other man in the group advised my husband not to think about it, but just cast the evil spirit out. Which he did, but nonetheless left us feeling uncomfortable.

During this episode, my daughter had been upstairs, watching from the landing. She later told me that she heard a choir of children’s voices singing “I am a child of God.” (The power of children’s voices was mentioned in the book I just recently finished, Visions of Glory.) At the time of this incidence, our smoke alarm went off, and forever after that, whenever  the alarm sounded, we referred to it as the evil spirit alarm.  After the woman left our home, we had  a prayer on our home. And again felt peaceful.

F. Enzio Bushe, a General Authority in the LDS church, talks about the time he was visiting with a Mission President. After a long day of speaking, Brother Bushe had gone to sleep in the basement of the mission home. Shortly thereafter the Mission President came down and woke him up, explaining that a missionary, one of the assistants to the mission president, needed a blessing.

There was a great deal of fear because of the strange situation. Earlier in the evening another missionary had become possessed by an evil spirit and called the two Mission Assistants to come over and help cast out the evil spirit. Then, upon their return to their own apartment, the evil spirit had entered one of the assistants. The Mission President had tried to cast it out, but it didn’t work and he became fearful. The situation was scary. This was when he realized there was a General Authority staying with him in his basement, asleep — F. Enzio Bushe.

Bushe admits that he was not too comfortable with this assignment and he even wished he had stayed in a nearby motel. But strange as it seems, the Lord had prepared him, this was a subject he had mentioned earlier that day in his talk — Matthew 17 — about the apostles needing faith to cast out an evil spirit. He had explained that faith is more than a thought or feeling; “it is a power with which we can control or even change the circumstances of this world.” 
As he walked into that room he realized he had a choice — either to join in the fear or have faith and courage. Two scriptures came into his mind, “Perfect love casteth out all fear.”( Moroni 8:16, 1 John 4:18) But he said he did not have that love, he had fear. What would he do?  His mind went to“Wherefore….pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love.” (Moroni 7:48)
Brother Bushe prayed for this love and the Lord filled his heart, to such an extent that it became one of the more sacred times of his life. He smiled, he had joy, he had confidence. The fear was gone, and he looked around the room, that once was scary, but instead he felt calm and even amused.

” I learned in that moment that when we are under the influence of the Spirit, we can find a sense of humor and the ability to smile and not take ourselves too seriously, and we can laugh at ourselves. Then it dawned on me that the adversary’s weapons are sarcasm, irony, and cynicism, but that the Lord’s power is a gentle sense of humor. I have learned more and more since then that the adversary cannot deal with a sense of humor. He does not have a sense of humor; he does not even know what that is. He is always dead serious, and when you have a sense of humor, you are in control of the adversary’s influence.” (p.271, Yearning For The Living God)

Brother Bushe didn’t know what to do, but he felt as if someone had put his arm around him and helped. He says that he “watched” himself put his arms around this young man and tell him “I love you, brother.” At that moment the evil spirit left.

The spirit of Christ is the spirit of love and confidence and it is the opposite of the spirit of fear. I am still good friends with the woman who had been possessed, and we have talked about the incident. She felt that she had let this evil spirit in. But through the priesthood, and her own desire, became free from it.

 

Two things to remember to do:

 

After reading the Visions of Glory I realized that we simply need to ask God for help, that when we turn to him, invite his spirit, we receive angelic ministers to our side. That should be comforting. I also know that you can dedicate your home as a sacred place where the spirit of the Lord can be present (LDS Handbook 2, 20.11).