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CHRISTOPHER - I used to be a member of a different faith until about 12 years ago when I joined the church. When I was a member of this other faith I observed something that always troubled me. The people who do something known as "Shouting" or "Experiencing the Holy Ghost" It required then to sort of flip out as if they were having some sort of panic attack. I always thought this was odd and I could never find this sort of reaction in the Bible as coming from God. When I became a Priest and I was sharing this story with Friend of mine he said that those people where really just possessed by an evil spirit and that since I had the priesthood I could cast out those demons, especially once I became and Elder. Fast forward a few years and I am indeed and Elder and on Sunday I was attending churc! h with my family ( I am the only member in my family) and my oldest sister start to "Shout" no one could seem to calm her down and to be honest I had had enough and it was distracting. So I
commanded her to calm down and she did. she late said that she remembered nothing until I told her to calm down. So I was wondering our these people really overcome by an evil spirit and by me being an Elder cast this demon out or was this just one wild and crazy Sunday. some sort of random but isolated event in my life.
JOEL - It's possible the people in the other church were possessed by evil spirits, but most likely they were just acting the way they thought they should act when moved upon by the Holy Ghost. And if they have a pastor and other church members doing the same or encouraging them, the power of suggestion and peer pressure just eggs them on in the activity. For some reason some religions have adopted such physical activity (shaking, shouting, dancing, falling backwards, speaking in strange languages, etc.) as an indication of the influence of the spirit of God, even though, as you say, there seems to be no scriptural support for most of these activities.
As the scriptures tell us people can certainly be posessed by evil spirits (Mark 5:1-16, Mark 1:34). And men called of God certainly have the power and responsibility to cast out those evil spirits (Mark 16:15-17, 3 Nephi 7:19). From what little you told me about your expereince with your sister it could have been a true casting out of an evil spirit; although I do not know what is in your sister's heart. But whatever the case, you should feel blessed that the powers of god were made manifest through you to help your sister.
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