Having received a few feedback regarding certain entries in our competition, we feel we need to clarify a few things:
- This competition is based on each writer’s individual experience and provided they can testify to them being genuine, we consider all testimonies valid and eligible for running. We hold to the guideline that each writer is entitled to their own opinions about their experiences, and in their expression of said opinions.
- Currently, this is still part of an ongoing competition. As such, the articles listed on this page are still under the prerogative of each writer and Asian Beacon will not meddle in any way with any content by any writer. If we ever publish any articles under the name of Asian Beacon, we will clearly state our stand on our statement of beliefs.
- This competition is judged purely on the writer’s testimonies and not on the finer points of theology. While the competition is still ongoing, in all cases, and in line with our respect for each writer’s individual testimonies, we adopt a ‘spirit rather than the letter of the law’ approach to each writer’s testimony.
- The Asian Beacon team will endeavour to its utmost to be fair to all participants, without any discrimination, prejudice, or favoritism to any single participant.
- In all cases, the Asian Beacon team will hold true to the conditions we have outlined in our Terms and Conditions for the competition. You may find these terms on https://asianbeacon.org/writing-competition/
Asian Beacon would like to reiterate here that we are all members of Bible-believing churches and we hold to the evangelical creed. We thank those of you who have raised your concerns and hope this will help answer your questions.
The Great Commission of Mark 16
by Lim Sze Choong
When I first read about the Great Commission of Mark 16 as a three-month old Christian, I was intrigued. Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all
creation…. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues…”
As an Asian, I had heard enough about demons harming people. Only qualified masters could help them. But now, here was Jesus saying that ordinary believers like me should go ahead and drive them out. I was not ready for that.
I was ready to preach the gospel though, because just a few months ago, Jesus had healed me amazingly when I stepped into church as an unbeliever. The experience was so distinct I knew immediately that Jesus was real.
So I told Jesus, “OK, I will go and preach the gospel, but I will not cast out demons. They are spirit and I am flesh. They can strike me but I cannot strike them. It is not a fair fight. It is like a five-year-old boy going into the boxing ring with a fifteen-year-old. But this I can do: I can pick up my guitar and my Bible, and preach the gospel to my students.”
As a Math teacher I had often slogged through the night correcting students’ exercise books because I cared for them. Now here I was, confronted with the amazing discovery that Jesus was real. How could I not tell them?
So I started a Christian Fellowship and invited my students to stay back after school on Fridays. We sang simple Scripture Choruses and then I preached a simple gospel message. They liked it, and happily stayed back, Friday after Friday.
One day, a boy of about fifteen came to see me after school. He told me that at around midnight every night, an evil presence would come into his room and he felt its weight pressing on him. I asked whether he could have imagined it, or if it could have been a nightmare.
He told me he was certain it was not a nightmare because he was fully awake. His parents had dismissed it as his imagination, and told him to ignore it and go to sleep. Then tears welled up in his eyes. I could see he was desperate.
I considered sending him for counseling, but if I did, the School Counselor would probably classify his problem as ‘emotional’ and that would not help. On my end, I could not invite myself to the house to pray, since the disturbance occurred around midnight.
I was upset, and refused to accept that a Christian teacher could not help a Christian student who came for help. So I told the boy we would pray right where we were, in that empty classroom.
Jesus’ words in Matt 16:19 came immediately to mind: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
So there in that classroom, miles away from the boy’s house, I proclaimed: “In Jesus’ name, I bind you evil spirit, and command you never to return to this boy’s room!” Then I told the boy, “Tonight, there will be no more disturbance!”
The following day, when I met the boy in school, he was all smiles. The oppression stopped that very day and never recurred! That was how I first ventured into spiritual warfare. Did I feel like a five-year-old boy in a boxing ring? No, instead I discovered the Word of God packed a powerful punch!
Sometime later, a top cross country runner from my school collapsed while running through some rubber estate. They sent her home, but she started having convulsions every day. She was admitted to hospital, but only got worse.
Her parents then consulted mediums, and they said the girl was possessed by an evil spirit. In school she would go into convulsions, toppling tables and chairs and sending her classmates scattering in terror.
I found her younger sister and offered to call the Pastor to the house to pray. The parents thanked us but said they would try their own ways first, and that they would call us if they needed us. But the call never came.
One day, as I was walking past the school office, I saw the girl lying on the couch, her sister by her side. By then a year had passed, and the girl was still ill. I went in and spoke with the sister. With tears in her eyes she said no one could help her sister.
I felt a deep anger inside me, and began to pray. As I laid my hand on her forehead, the girl began to squirm. “It’s coming again! It’s coming again!” exclaimed her sister, jumping up. I could not contain my anger and shouted, “In the name of Jesus I command you to come out of this girl!” A hush came over the school office as all eyes fell on me.
That happened on the last day of school for the first term of 1985. When school reopened after two weeks, both girls came looking for me, smiling. The girl had been healed that very day and the problem never recurred!
The entire school bore witness that a girl who had been ill for one year had made a sudden recovery. Many students accepted Christ at our Fellowship. I had stood out as the teacher who cast out a demon in the school office!
Two years later, another Christian student told me that his sister was demon possessed, and asked whether I could go to the house to pray. The sister who had been working happily in Singapore suddenly turned aggressive and irrational, and had to be sent home.
After school one day, I drove to the house with a couple of friends from church. When we arrived at the house the parents were seated on the floor, too exhausted to get up to greet us. When I told the father we had come to pray for his daughter, he waved his arm and told me to go ahead and do what I wished because they had tried everything already.
They had tied up the girl because she was abusive. When I asked the father to untie her, he chided me: “Untie her? If she ran out of the house would you be able to catch her? If you could catch her would you be able to subdue her?”
I insisted they untied her. As soon as her arms were free, she swung a fist at her mother, who ducked out of the way. Then she started making threatening kung fu moves. But when we prayed, she covered her eyes and let out a scream. She said she saw fire coming from our eyes.
The parents were amazed. Then they confided in me that they wanted to cancel an appointment they had made with a medium, but were afraid to do so. I could see they needed moral support, and I knew it was time to walk the second mile.
The next day, we were at the temple. The father began explaining his situation, saying that I, a teacher, had come to help him. The medium got angry, and rebuked the man for having brought me, a stranger, into his temple.
Seeing the father fumbling, I chipped in to say I had come of my own freewill to help this family. The medium rebuked me, saying that I was not qualified to speak. I replied when the girl got healed, he would know whether or not I was qualified.
We then walked out. As we descended the steps of the embankment, the medium shouted behind us that we would all go mad within three days. The woman’s legs buckled, but the man said, “Today my eyes are opened. On the one hand, he was supposed to help me. But now, he wants to harm me!”
The family accepted Christ and had their idols removed. The girl soon recovered and they began attending church. I now understood spiritual warfare better. There are people out there who needed help, and a teacher could be that help in such a time as this.
A teacher can enter a stranger’s house uninvited and not be chased out. He can walk into a temple and not be told to mind his own business, because helping others IS the teacher’s business. Teachers can go places where sometimes even Pastors cannot go.
As for my Students’ Fellowship, by the time I retired eighteen years later, some five hundred students had accepted Christ. At least two of them are Pastors today, all firm believers of the Great Commission of Mark 16.
