Freedom from evil powers

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Albu van Eeden

We welcome you on this Sunday which is celebrated by the Christian church as a day of worship because it was the day of the resurrection, of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Friends, if there were no crucifixion there would be no resurrection. We will celebrate Easter next weekend.

Mrs Stella Hlongwane will begin today’s service with a repeat of the testimony she gave at her mother, Mmaboshadi Elsie Somo’s funeral, on Friday.

Stella Hlongwane
(This is a combination of the testimony given at her mother’s funeral and today’s Sunday service)

I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Job 42 verse 5

This is what we can say after the 4 years and 5 months that my mother lived in our home. When we fetched my mother, she was filled with all kinds of spirits.

I come from a family that was deeply involved in witchcraft. My father was the president of witchdoctors in southern Africa. There was always money and food in our home. He was the first one to drive a black Mercedes in our area. My father was feared because he ruled through the powers of darkness. I was the child of the ancestors and designated to continue my father’s work after his death. I was already able to perform some of the deeds of darkness even though I had not yet been given that position. I was the only one allowed to enter the room where he mixed his potions. I mixed them too. It was during this time, that I questioned whether this was all there was to life. I cannot explain why God was so gracious to me. I ran away in 1981 and with R13 in my possession I took the train, arrived in Pietermaritzburg and then the Kranskop police brought me here to Kwasizabantu. When I arrived at this place, I knew that another spirit was at work which opposed my spirits. I listened in the services, and I was told that I should accept the Lord, He is the solution. There was a fierce battle within. I cleansed my life and I could ‘see’ clearly. The trees and flowers were beautiful. If you are involved in witchcraft, it seems as if you are behind a velvet curtain and everything is dark. When the Lord forgave me, it was as if the curtain was opened and I could see on the other side. I wrote letters and apologised to people at home and at school against whom I had sinned. My mother had said that if I ever adopted this Christian faith, I would no longer be her daughter. She pointed at herself and said, ‘You will never see me at KSB. I would rather jump into the sea and swim to Germany.’ My mother told me to return home. Potions, skins and other things had been kept aside in a room for when I would return one day. All I could do was pray.

My mother consulted a powerful witchdoctor and through their powers and concoctions they tried to draw me away from this place. You may not understand, but when various potions are mixed together, a type of creature is created called mlindi. E.g., when a man wants a girl, he sends this mlindi to kiss that girl at night and in the morning, she thinks of that man when she wakes. This mlindi was sent to the mission to fetch me back. (I only heard about this after my mother was converted.) The mlindi was unable to enter because of the wall of fire around the mission. They wanted to send the police to fetch me, but that was not possible as the police said I had just turned 18.

My father was honoured and famous because he had so much power. When he died my mother decided to take over where he had left off and use his things. She went to a witchdoctor and asked him to put those spirits in her so that she could continue. She visited about 5 witchdoctors and each one put spirits into her.

After praying for my mother for 20 years, it came to the point where my sister, Eunice, said, ‘Fetch your mother. We don’t know what to do with her anymore.’ There was just sorrow in her house. She eventually had nothing. There were two cups of water which were used to wash her face.

When she arrived at the mission, there was indescribable turmoil. A great battle ensued between the evil spirits and the Spirit of God. We could not sleep. She constantly spoke to her spirits. At 1 in the morning, she would want to leave the house because the spirits were calling her. (Our neighbours once said that they heard the commotion during the night, but they were praying. I apologised that they would be disturbed by my mother. But my neighbour said that is why they are at the mission – to assist souls to come to God.)

If you are involved in witchcraft, you are given a tokoloshe who accompanies you, sometimes even more than one. My mother was very weak, she could hardly walk yet when those spirts came, we had to keep the doors locked all the time because she was strong and wanted to leave the house. My mother could stay awake for 36 hours at a time without sleeping. She called the spirits her ‘children’. When she was given food, she wanted to feed them too. I said, ‘Mother, do you think I would fetch you from Pretoria and then allow you to serve your tokoloshes here in God’s place?’ One day she cried that her hungry ‘children’ had not eaten. I said, ‘I will not give them food.’ I got my knobkerrie and I asked where the ‘children’ were and I hit them in the name of Jesus. My mother cried and told me that what I was doing was not good because they were running away. I said that it was good that they were running away. She said that if they left, she would also leave. I gave her the liberty to leave. When she got to the door, she turned around.

One day she said she needed to burn incense and she asked whether she could do it at the end of the garden. I said, ‘It is fine, but know that when you have finished you must continue onto the R74 road and then the N3 and go home.’ I spoke to her in this manner because one of us had to submit.

Once she complained about a headache. I gave her pills and said that I would pray and ask the Lord to take her headache away. ‘No, my child,’ she said, ‘this headache will not be helped by pills, I need snuff.’ I asked her where she thought she would get snuff at God’s place? She had the wisdom of demons. She gave me directions to a shop which was outside the mission where I could buy it. She had never been off the premises, but she knew exactly where snuff could be purchased. I said that she would never get snuff. She said that I did not care about her and whether she died. I said that if she would be saved by snuff then I would allow her to die. She lay down and her headache went away.

We continued helping her, together with Mrs Khwela. We told her to make her life right. She said, ‘My child, my sin is so great. Where will I start?’ I phoned for advice and was able to help her. So, she confessed that which came to mind and we thought she had been helped.

Once a gentleman from CYPSA needed help with spirits that were troubling him. We sat in the dining room and spoke together. As we spoke, my mother entered the room and spoke to him in English and said, ‘Don’t listen to her (meaning me).’ Now actually, my mother could not speak English. This man realised the problem and I told him that I would take my mother to her bedroom. But she was soon back in the dining room. We then left the room and went outside for prayer. As weak as she was, she got up and threw stones at us so that we would not pray. We did eventually pray. When I returned to the house, she said that I was bragging about my God but that in time, God would leave me. I said, ‘God will never leave me because of what you say. He will only leave because of sin.’ I told her that I knew how I was raised, what I had been taught and what had been done to me. I told her to look at me in my eyes. She refused to and looked to the side because the Spirit of light and the spirits of darkness do not see eye to eye. The spirits told her to get out of this place. I did not fear because the power of light was in me. She would always say to me, ‘When the spirits come, we will do this.’ I said, ‘Do it now. I said don’t just call the demons, call Beelzebub.’ She begged me not to mention that name because it was honoured but I said I would. After a while, that spirit left her, she cried and apologised about what she had done.

We taught her that she should confess her sins so that they could be washed away. She confessed that she had visited a witchdoctor and received 3 tokoloshes and then another one gave her 2 tokoloshes. We thought she had confessed everything but there were things she had not brought to the light.

My mother was unable to go to the services, but she watched the livestream of the services. One day as she was listening, she got up and said, ‘No, no…they say I must get up and not look.’ We encouraged her to bring things to the light. She said, ‘This I cannot bring to the light. I swore with my blood that I would never bring it to the light. I was told that if I brought it to the light, I would see that something would happen.’ (Christ whom we serve has more power than all of this. My nation believes that Christ cannot help a person, but that they need something else they can hold onto besides Christ.) I said to her, ‘I came to this place and Jesus alone saved me.’ She agreed that she also wanted Christ. She prayed the prayer of Our Father and she recited the Lord is my Shepherd. Once she had said that I said, ‘Now say all of this in the name of our Lord Jesus.’ She refused. She said she would not pray to a child, Jesus Christ, she only prays to God almighty in heaven. I realised that the demons had a new kind of wisdom. I said to her, ‘Cry out to Jesus.’ Her response was, ‘Chase me away from this home if you do not want me anymore. You fetched me from my home, so you can persecute me in yours.’ We insisted that she should name the name of Jesus. We were drained. It took hours but after a long time she spoke the name ‘Jesus’ as if she had potatoes in her mouth. I told her to open her mouth and pronounce the word Je-sus. In the end she said it very softly. I said that it was wonderful, but Jesus had a surname – Jesus Christ. She refused point blank to say the two words. ‘In the middle East,’ I said, ‘there are people who name their children Jesus. But we call this man, Jesus Christ.’ She said, ‘I will not do that, I will leave.’ There was still something that she had hidden. She asked, ‘What will they say if I call out to Jesus Christ?’

One Easter, after the service she said that her head was burning. Her ‘children’ were still there but she had hidden them. She said that a fiery spear was hurting her. When she spoke to her demons, her eyes and mouth would droop.

When we prayed, they would tell her to close her ears and not listen to the bad people who had taken her away from her home. We had to physically remove her hands and pray into her ears so she could hear.

One day she had shoes with her. She said that she needed to do a task. Her tokoloshes were calling her outside but they were unable to enter the house. They had failed and brought stronger spirits who could conquer Jesus. We prayed and sang, after midnight she was set free.

My mother would often talk to my sister and say, ‘Run away.’ But my sister was not here with her, she was in Pretoria. I asked my mother what she meant. She said, ‘Let’s just leave it.’ Day and night she continued saying ‘My child run away, run away.’ I phoned my sister and asked her why she said this and what my mother meant. She said, ‘I want my mother to tell you. If I told you, you would say that I am lying.’

My mother had met powerful witchdoctors, one from Zimbabwe, and they worked together. In witchcraft, if you must perform something powerful you have to commit murder; either one of your parents, or a sibling and take a body part and do something ritualistic with it. Years previously, my mother had arranged for a vehicle to pass by, and for people to grab the person they wanted, murder her and use the body parts to concoct their muti. A long, very sharp dagger was used for this purpose. It was double-edged. The body parts had to be removed while the person was alive. By God’s grace, on that day, the driver missed the turn-off. When my sister arrived home, my mother asked her what had happened and asked whether she had she not gone where she normally went? My sister heard then of the plans my mother had made to kill her and from that day she hated my mother. She no longer called her ‘my mother’, she said that she is ‘your mother.’

I tried to help my sister to forgive my mother, but she said that she would never forgive her. I reminded her that God must have had a plan for her life because on that day, the evil plan to kill her was not fulfilled. I explained that my mother was at the mission now, just lying in bed and that there was nothing more she could do to her.

When I looked at my mother, a voice said, ‘If you have no sin then you be the first one to throw the stone.’

The Lord was gracious to my mother. There was much that she confessed and brought to the light, however, this issue regarding my sister was a very difficult thing. My mother asked my sister for forgiveness over the phone, but Mr Hlongwane (my husband) felt that she should come here to see her mother. My sister initially said that she would not come but she eventually agreed. When she saw my mother, she cried out and ran out the room. I said to me sister, ‘Mother was ridden by the devil. When a person is a sinner, they will do anything if the devil rides one.’ The next day we met peaceably and my mother could look her in her eyes and apologise. When my mother had the love of Christ in her heart, she looked at her daughter and cried, ‘Oh Jesus, forgive me that I wanted to kill my own child. I loved money and I wanted to make money through my child. My child, forgive me, I had no direction, the devil was in me.’ The Lord is wonderful. At that moment, we realised that the wall between my mother and sister was broken. Mr Hlongwane said that she could now pass away because that thing was no longer holding her back.

My mother then said, ‘Please thank Rev Stegen. He has carried us. Firstly, he made you (Stella) into a proper person, and then God worked in my life and I became a proper person.’ She asked me, ‘Your preacher, what kind of person is he?’ ‘ What do you mean, mother?’ ‘Is he a human being?’  ‘Yes’. ‘Listen to me, this is no man, this is Jesus. You will only realise what you truly have once he is no longer with you. You have become accustomed to the miracles you experience - the water, electricity. I would never have been able to cross this flooded river if it were not for this place. Neither would you have been able to. Is there anywhere else in the world where people live such lives?’ she said. I replied, ‘I do not know. I have not travelled all over. Maybe there is another place like this.’ ‘There is no place like this on earth, believe me,’ she answered.

When she first came, a deep voice spoke inside her and said, ‘I have lived in you for 86 years already, do not listen to what they say.’ By God’s grace, and through Rev Stegen’s faithfulness and teachings, my mother could be helped.

When my mother was well, we could converse. Previously we could never sit down with her as a parent and ask for advice because she was in constant communication with the spirits.

I mentioned to her that one day that someone from Germany had phoned and encouraged me to leave the mission. They promised to support us financially. I said to her that if we left, she would have to come along. My mother said, ‘My child, if you want to follow them without thinking, then do it, but leave me at Rev Stegen’s feet. Those who have left have their reasons for leaving but remain at Rev Stegen’s feet and keep quiet. Do not dare put a chair close to him so that you can rub shoulders with him. You are not worthy of that position. You are not on his level. True life and help are gotten at Rev Stegen’s feet. She said that our place was at Rev Stegen’s feet because that is where we would obtain wisdom. She said that I should forget about my children who are all over the world. ‘They are still young and they have not seen much. You are much older. Remain at his feet.’

After she was set free and the demons had left, she could sit outside in the sun. Once when she was outside, she cried that she could see these things coming over the hill and she said that I had said that they were gone. I was about to say let us pray when she shouted, ‘Voetsek!’ I said, ‘Mother, you are talking their language, you must shout in the name of Jesus.’ She said, ‘No, that is too long, they will be here before I finish.’ I said, ‘Just say Jesus and ‘throw Jesus’ at them.’ She called out the name of Jesus and she said, ‘There, they have run away.’

After she was set free, my mother was beautiful. All these things came to an end - food for her demons, the drums that were calling her.

She began to live a life of peace and pray for her children and grandchildren. She thanked us. She said, ‘It was hard for me, I thought you were running around for the white people. I did not realise that things were like this on the mission. I was in a flooded river flowing with rubbish. You stood on a rock in the river, with the other foot on the shore and pulled me out. Without you, I would never have been able to get out,’ she said. ‘I thank Rev Stegen. I failed to raise you as decent human being, but he managed. You are married and have a family. I trust that you honour your father, Rev Stegen.’ She admired this ‘Jesus’ and spoke about him daily.

Brethren, please remember my sister in prayer. We had to beg her to attend the funeral. I said to her, ‘My mother was driven by demons, our two sisters have passed away, I am living under the blood of the Lamb. Be careful, you are in danger. The Lord must work in her life as well. I am so thankful that my mother could stay with us and that I could bury her.

The day she passed away I had been away. She stayed with Tannie Annette. She had not been up all day. I got home and greeted her. She was breathing like someone who had been running. Mr Hlongwane prayed. I sang a Tswana song. I said to her that if there was anything she needed to make right that she should do so now. I asked Jesus to forgive her for whatever she had confessed. We continued singing. She looked at me for a long time, then breathed twice and passed away.

At that moment there was such tremendous victory because Satan who had ridden my mother for so long had been conquered. There is nothing you can wish for that is greater than what I have experienced. At that time, I had no words. I just thanked Jesus. For so long she had been like a mad person, but she died in peace. You’ll understand why Rev Stegen is so precious to us. Ms Dube is precious to us. They have taught us this way and carried us. We do not worship them, that would be sin. We worship their God. As our leaders, we love and respect them. They have shown us the way. I thank Rev Stegen that he accepted me and for everything he did for my mother.

Jabulani Dube

Rev Stegen loves people to testify before a service because it shows how the Lord works in people’s lives. The Lord worked in Stella Hlongwane’s life, and she repented and then won her mother to the Lord.

It is exactly as she said - if you want a potion to work powerfully, the eyes of a body must be gouged out while the person is alive. They must remove the body part while the person is alive. She knows about those sharp instruments which are used to cut off body parts. How terrible if you have been picked out to be the victim of such cruelty.

These evil spirits are all over, amongst different nations. I was amazed when Rev Stegen preached about white nations who also are involved with the occult. If you have never confessed your sins and have gone through rituals, been cut, mixed blood, etc. that could be the reason that you cannot overcome your sins.

A certain lady confessed that when the lights were switched off, she would immediately be troubled by lust. I asked her if she had ever confessed that sin where someone had cut her on her body and potion was rubbed in. She confessed it and received prayer. She said, ‘Now I sleep so peacefully at night. Nothing troubles me.’

It is recorded in the Bible that body piercings are not of God. It is demonic.

A visitor who had been here for help said that he saw the spirits running away in the direction of the packhouse. Who they got hold of there, we don’t know? So that person testified how these things truly exist and the Lord delivered him from these spirits.

The evil spirit called a tokoloshe truly exists and comes in the form of a male or female. This spirit sleeps with people. A person confessed that he/she slept with a boy/girl, but they were actually visited by this tokoloshe. Such a person needs to confess their sin thoroughly and not leave a stone unturned.

Some attend the service to judge and criticise. ‘He shouldn’t have said this or that.’ At the end of the service, that will fill the person’s heart and mind. They judge from beginning to end. They are troubled by evil spirits.

We pray for Mrs Hlongwane’s sister that she will find the Lord before she leaves.

Devil worshippers say that they find a wall of fire around the mission. How can one identify a Satanist? He will not look you in the eyes. Why? They say that it is too bright for them, it is blinding their eyes. If that person steals a glance at you, their eyes dart around as if there is a snake in them. If you ask that person to say ‘Jesus Christ’ they will say, ‘I am not allowed to say that.’ If such a person stays longer and counsels, they will reach the point where they will be able to say, ‘the Lord Jesus Christ.’

I met with someone from one of the branches who came for help because they were married to the devil. If a girl has a relationship with the devil, it will also be a sexual relationship as well. God continues to work. Even if people do not have hands laid on them, the Lord delivers them from the evil spirits.

When the lights go out, there are people who immediately see a man dressed in black. They quickly turn on the lights again and open the cupboards to look for the man. One girl said she could not sleep well at night because it sounded as if someone in the kitchen was boiling a kettle or washing. Some people just see porn. We pointed out that it is this porn that is calling these evil spirits and this man to trouble you.

A white person said that their daughter had gone to work somewhere and was troubled by bad dreams.

Mrs Hlongwane, we are grateful on your behalf that the Lord could work through you. Now you do not have to say the words, ‘Must I meet the Lord empty handed?’ You have your mother’s soul to give to the Lord.  She was not like some people who put their parents in old age homes because they are aged. We have seen the power of the Lord at work in and through you. May you continue to serve the Lord.

Dr Koch said that these evil spirits are often passed down from generation to generation. You will only escape in the Lord if you confess your sins and are protected by Him.

Mrs Hlongwane also said that when she visited home when she was young, she lost her way spiritually. She contacted my sister (Ms Dube) and told her. My sister flew up, found her and brought her back.  If somebody can testify that they sought help and received it, she is one of them.

If you visit a witchdoctor, they will tell you that you must twala your father, mother or child which means you must kill that person and some potion must be made from parts of their body which will give you strength and power. If it does not work properly, they will give you someone else to kill and it will eventually go well with you.

Are you troubled by evil spirits? Is there someone in your family who is troubled by evil spirits? As a child I experienced that. I slept in a room with my grandmother. She woke me up and asked me what the matter was. I could not speak initially but then I could tell her that I was being throttled. She sprinkled salt and prayed but it did not help. I was set free when I met the gospel.

The topic this morning on Radio Khwezi was pornography. If you look at porn, you are an addict. You will look at it even though you do not want to. This spirit is very active among young people. A spirit is working among young people and they are in bondage to this evil spirit. It has now even begun to trouble married people. When someone is busy in the kitchen, the husband or young man is constantly on his phone. A person no longer spends time with his family. He cannot pray with them because he is addicted to porn. Imagine these evil spirits and demons working through pornography, what enters a person? What remains in you? It does not leave your mind. A girl will undress a man completely. A man will undress a woman in his mind. It takes time for a person to be totally set free from the drug of porn. Drugs like dagga, whoonga are easier to get free from than porn. You can be delivered from that evil thing that holds you in bondage.

A person explained that his mother was involved in witchcraft. He asked for prayer so that she would be set free and she was helped. Today she is a believer. Another person asked for prayer and deliverance. Today he is free. When he drank, he vomited and he said it was because his aunt went to church at KSB.

Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear…
Isaiah 59:1

The Lord’s hand is not shortened. It was not shortened that it could not save Mrs Hlongwane and her mother. Then, surely if I give my life to the Lord, I will also be saved and the Lord’s hand will also not be shortened. Why then do you continue sinning?

The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.” Exodus 7:5

Allow the Lord to work in your life. Do not look at the person next to you and think that it is a good word for that person. Apply it to yourself personally. A chorus says, ‘Lord, send revival and send it to me.’ Pray and ask the Lord to send His Spirit to you. Do not be like that rock that lies in the riverbed for years and years and when you split it open it is bone dry inside. (You may live on the mission, but you do not see God working.) People are rescued daily here.

What kind of faith do you have if it has not brought you salvation? What kind of hand works in you if you say you are a believer, but you do not leave your sin? You say you are a Christian, but you are still stuck in porn. What kind of Christianity is that?

Are you a witness of what the Lord has done in your life and how He has saved you?

but your iniquities have made a separation  between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you  so that he does not hear. Isaiah 59:1,2

Our sins can come between us and Him so that He hides His face from us. Where somebody says, ‘I will never forgive that person because of what they did and said to me.’ That unforgiveness or grudge is evil in the sight of God. Stubbornness and rebellion are like the sin of witchcraft. Stubbornness and rebellion are no different from each other. Sin is a wall between us and God. Weigh up your prayers before God. When you pray do your prayers reach God? Do you receive an answer from God? It could be because of that wall between you and God, that wall that is hiding God from you that He cannot work as fully as He wants to work. You might be troubled by the spirit of haughtiness and pride. If a person is troubled by pride, then lust is often an issue too. If you are troubled by lust, is pride an issue? Can the Lord Jesus dwell in a heart where there are grudges, haughtiness, pride?

For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. Isaiah 59:3

We ought to examine our hands to see whether there is blood on them. If you wish something evil on another person, you have already killed that person before God. Examine your fingers and hands - are they clean before God? Your lips have spoken lies. If you tell a story, how often do you add lies to it? When you get to heaven, will you be able to lift up clean, holy hands before God? As you worship and praise God, are your hands and fingers defiled? You say you are a child of God. With those hands and fingers, you watch porn on your cell phone which defiles your eyes and mind.

We were raised as children that we should not look at the nakedness of an adult. The Bible confirms that. What a curse people bring on themselves by looking at porn and this nakedness? In 1 John 3:3 we read that those who have this hope in them purify themselves just as He is pure. It is wonderful if you are faithful and apologise when you have done something wrong. By doing that you are purifying yourself. If you have made right with God, God will hear your prayer.

No matter how red your sins may be as red as scarlet, if we come to the Lord for forgiveness, He will forgive us. Do not listen to the deception that says there is no need to confess your sins, just believe. How can this verse be wiped from the Bible? The Bible even speaks about confessing the sins of your fathers.

We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. Daniel 9:6

32 “Now, therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day.  34 Our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept your law or paid attention to your commandments and your warnings that you gave them. Nehemiah 9:32, 34

Maybe your children are in the state they are in because you have not yet confessed the sins of their fathers. You may have committed an abortion and you do not know whether you will ever enter heaven. There was a person who, as she stared death in the face, heard a child saying, ‘Mother, here I am. I am standing in front of you. You killed me.’ That woman constantly heard that voice in her ears. She did not know how to block it out. Post-abortion trauma is a reality. The women cannot sleep but if they confess their sin, God’s word says that He is faithful and just to forgive them. God showed us His grace by sending His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish.

We are all invited in Isaiah 55 to come to the blood of the Lamb. God sent His only begotten Son so that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16

19 If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. Isaiah 1:19

We have seen those who have lived before us. They have eaten the good of the land because they confessed their sin. They are ageing but the Lord keeps them because they confessed their sins and came to the Lord when they were young.

20 but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Isaiah 1:20

Those who have turned their backs will be eaten by the sword. This may not a physical sword, but it could be sickness. Those who turn their backs on the Lord and forsake the Gospel will be eaten by the sword. Confess and say, ‘This is my problem.’ Explain what happened to you as a child, explain what you experienced, and your mother might tell you that it never happened to you. Go for prayer that the Lord may deliver you from those evil spirits.

Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; Isaiah 59:1

Only our iniquities separate us from God. Let us allow God to work freely. The Bible says that when the Holy Spirit comes, He will convict us of our sin. Is He convicting you? For how long will you remain in your sin? Do you see God working in your life? Maybe when you go to bed or even when you are in the service, at work or reading your Bible, you hear voices.  You may immediately get drowsy when you go to a service. If you are not medically ill, it may be evil spirits. I was once troubled by that. I would even pinch myself to stay awake. I had to get rid of the root of that sin. If you have not yet been delivered of your sin, get rid of the root and you will experience the wonder of the burden of sin rolling away.