A Troublesome
Locket
In the spring of 1983 my wife decided to
quit pioneering for one month and use the time to earn a little money. My son
and I continued on in the service without her. She found a job at a restaurant
about half an hour distance by car. But soon she was getting sick. At first
she just didn’t feel good and then started to lose weight. Although she went
to the doctor he could find nothing physically wrong with her. She got
progressively worse, not so much depressed as not seeming to care at all, and
eventually seemed to be in a constant drugged state. It had become almost
impossible to hold any kind of conversation with her as she spoke in a mono
tone. Although she could barely function she continued to insist to go to
work. It was during one such evening that I took the matter before Jehovah in
prayer. I had prayed about it before but only in general terms. This time I
reminded him why we had come to Greece and recounted the various blessings we
had enjoyed. Whereas for the first three years nothing could go wrong, now,
since the Memorial it seemed nothing could go right. What was wrong? I begged
Jehovah to help us again. He would certainly know what the problem was.
As I was praying my mind
went to an article that I had read many years ago in an Awake! magazine about
demons and how they can cause problems because of having something in our
possession they lay claim to. Also to mind came the story of a sister I knew
well, where she had a frightening experience on her honeymoon (no, it wasn’t
her husband.) Returning from her trip, she told us how she had been physically
attacked by a demon in the Motel room they were staying in, in Hawaii. When
they fled to the house of an elder they knew, the attack continued there. They
discovered the problem had to do with the key to the Motel room which they
promptly returned. Evidently, they had not been the first ones having such an
experience as the manager of the Motel knew of the problem concerning that
room. So I asked Jehovah if our problem was due to demons. I
became convinced that that was the case. But if it was something we had in our
possession how could I identify it? Practically everything we had was given to
us, including our furniture. I couldn’t just start throwing everything out.
In my mind I went over
everything we had and tried to remember where or who we had received it from. But I
would keep thinking that the problem revolved around my wife. She was the one
suffering. She was the one acting like a zombie. Did she have something in her
possession that was causing the problem? I begged Jehovah to help me identify
the object, if in fact that is what the problem was. While praying I came to
believe that it had something to do with her jewelry and so I collected all
her rings, earrings, bracelets and necklaces and put them on the bed,
spreading them out before Jehovah. Picking up the first item and holding it in
my closed hand I asked Jehovah if this piece of jewelry was the cause of our
problem. Putting it down I did likewise with the next item, and the next until
I came to the fifth one. As I picked it up and closed my hand around it a
terrible shudder came over me. My hair stood on end and I got goose bumps the
way you get when you walk down a dark alley after midnight and hear a sudden
noise close behind you. I immediately dropped it and the sensation
disappeared. I wondered what had happened. I picked up another piece and –
nothing. I picked up the previous item again and again got the same response.
I quickly dropped it onto the bed again and continued through the rest of the
jewelry, about fourteen pieces in all. All the other pieces were fine. I
decided to mix them all up and spread them out over the bed with my eyes
closed. Then, still with closed eyes, I started to grope around for the
different pieces and hold them again. As soon as I touched that piece again,
even without lifting it up, that frightening sensation swept over me again,
but with much greater intensity. I collected all the other pieces and put them
back again where I had found them. I thanked Jehovah for having helped me
identify the object which I was convinced was the source of my wife’s problem.
Strangely, after this I was able to pick it up with no effect. I put it aside
and waited for my wife to come home.
When she got home about 11 pm, a friend had driven her, I could barely wait to tell her what had transpired. I first asked her to consider the possibility of her “sickness” being caused by demon influence. Then I related about my prayer and how Jehovah had seemingly answered me. I told her the result without mentioning which object it was, asking her if she could think of anything she had that caused her discomfort, especially when she wore it. “I don’t know,” she answered in her monotone. When I showed her the item she said, “O, that! I get headaches when I wear it. That is why I am not wearing it anymore.” It was a necklace with a locket that opened. Inside was engraved the four Hebrew letters of the Tetragrammaton. I asked her where she got it from. “Sister so-and-so gave it to me,” she answered. Sister-so-and-so’s husband was a jeweler and an elder in our congregation. I told her that we should get rid of the locket since Jehovah had singled it out from all her other jewelry. She suggested that we leave it with her mother in the village and see if things would improve. She was reluctant to part with it as it was made from 18 carat gold. I answered that if we would take it to her mother then maybe her mother would have problems, or she herself would still not get better as she still owned the object. I told her that I would get rid of it by throwing it into the sea. It was midnight by now and I intended to do that the next morning. But I was very restless. Why wait until the morning, I thought. I should do it now, right away!
My son wanted to come with me but I told him to go back to bed. We lived only about a block, a short walk from the sea and the nicest sandiest beach, with two Tavernas. We had many tourists come to this area. Jehovah had blessed us with a comfortable little apartment for very reasonable rent, with the owners living upstairs. Across the street from us was a large Church where the bishop resided. The church bells might as well have been in the next room, they were so loud. Our landlady would tell us whenever at their Sunday service we, the couple from Canada, were preached against. The priests tried repeatedly to have us evicted but our landlady stuck up for us, even telling us not to worry if we did not have the money for the rent sometimes, which thankfully never happened. Down by the water were little fishing boats tied up which were protected from the occasional storms and high waves by a high wall build out into the sea. (see picture) The wall was wide enough to drive a car on and at least seven feet high. (see picture of what it looked like in 1983; and today picture.)
With the locket in hand I walked towards the water. It was a beautiful clear night with the stars shimmering brightly. The sea was as calm as could be. The path led past the little Taverna which was already closed. There was always this timid dog, easily frightened, belonging to the owners of the Taverna. This time the dog stood in the middle of the pathway and growled menacingly, not wanting to let me go by. I picked up a rock and waved it at the dog. He got the message and slowly moved to one side. I continued onto the roadway of the wall and thanked Jehovah again for having helped me this one more time. I finally got to as far as one could walk. At the end of this protective wall were huge boulders. (see picture) I jumped onto the last one, asked for Jehovah’s blessing on what I was about to do, (it was, after all 18 carat gold) and threw the locket with the necklace as far out into the water as I could. Immediately upon hitting the water, a screaming, howling gust of wind came blasting around the corner of the wall. I had never heard such a shrieking wind before, not even during the fiercest storms. I jumped off the boulder back onto the road part of the wall when a large wave crashed against the boulder I had just stood on and drenched my back. Had I still been standing there I am sure I would have been swept into the water. And although the sea had been very calm previously now all the boats were bopping up and down. I took it to mean that someone had expressed his rage.
The next morning I had the first good conversation with my wife in quite a while. It seemed as if she had come out of a trance.
Footnote:
The demons are not afraid of using Jehovah’s name along with profanities,
contrary to what some believe according to James 2:19. (That is another
experience, more recent.) What they are afraid of is God’s power and being
sent into the abyss. (Luke 8:31; James 2:19)
In fact,
Jehovah’s name and the
Tetragrammaton seem to have special appeal among magicians, spirit mediums
and those who are involved in the occult. But Jehovah can and will help us
when we call upon him. (Proverbs 18:10)