Freed by the Living Word

Pastor Mahesh Mukhiya’s peaceful presence is a far cry from the nightmarish existence he and his family endured before they encountered Christ.

Mahesh’s younger brother suffered from deep mental distress that could not be explained by brain chemistry or neuropathology. When he touched other people in the family, the same spirit of madness would infect them as well.

Mahesh and his brother could not sleep or rest, even with strong medication. They heard the regular sounds of rituals at a nearby Hindu temple, “and sometimes those spirits, demonic spirits, make a noise,” he said. But Mahesh also reported hearing horrible sounds like shrieking and scuffling throughout the house all the time.

The family wept and cried out to their Hindu gods for relief, but nothing changed. Even aside from the fits of demonic madness, the family was known to be negative and argumentative, quarreling with anyone who would come near.

Mahesh’s sister, Alisha, had married and moved away. When she heard the gospel and came to faith in Jesus Christ, she was released from the dark thoughts that had bound her. She recognized immediately that the madness was spiritual in nature and that her family could only be rescued from it in the same way she had been. She visited her family and shared the gospel with them.

“Why should I believe somebody else’s God?” Mahesh asked his sister. “My gods are far better than their God. My gods can do everything for me!” He forbade her from sharing more and kicked her out of the house.

One evening, the madness came upon Mahesh’s brother again, only this time he turned murderous and tried to kill his 3-year-old son. The behavior shocked Mahesh and left him shaken.

He went to a room where his sister had left the gospel tract and New Testament. He kept the tract to read and tucked the Bible under his brother’s pillow, thinking it would act as a good luck charm. He didn’t know then the real change that would come to his life through that little Bible.

“When I found my brother was healed in the middle of the night, from that day on I started searching about Jesus,” Mahesh said.

Mahesh took his brother to visit Alisha and find out more. They gathered with Nepalese Christians for a worship service, and Mahesh knew that something had changed. “That night I had a very, very peaceful sleep and no disturbance,” he said. As a pastor discipled him, Mahesh came to saving faith in Jesus Christ, along with 15 members of his family. Eight months later he was baptized. Soon after, he went to Bible school to become a pastor and church planter.

When he’d finished his studies, Mahesh started a home fellowship with the 15 members of his family who had become followers of Christ. Eventually others were added to their number, so Mahesh rented a space that could accommodate them better. Through the church’s outreach in the town, they grew in number to about 120 members.

By late 2023, the church’s growth had caught the attention of a radical Hindu group called Hindu Samrat Sena. Twenty members of the group threatened the owner of the rented facility where the church met. They warned her that if she continued to provide space to the Christians, they would make difficulties for her.

Mahesh soon discovered that the members of the radical Hindu group had been calling every local building owner, making the same threats to keep them from renting space to the church. So Mahesh decided to move the church into the second floor of his house.

On June 15, 2024, as Mahesh was leading worship, hundreds of Hindu radicals surrounded and stormed the house, recording the encounter to post on social media. A leader of the radicals confronted Mahesh, yelling, “Why have you left our ancestors’ religion? Before only your family was Christian, but now hundreds of people are converted!”

The yelling and pushing escalated until one man physically assaulted Mahesh. Another struck Mahesh’s mother in the face and broke her teeth. Others smashed instruments and equipment. Police arrived after 10 minutes, arrested some of the assailants and sent the rest away. Mahesh and some of the church leaders went to the station as well.

The crowd of radicals demanded that Mahesh and the other Christians should not be permitted to continue preaching and evangelizing. Then someone asked a question that made Mahesh’s heart rejoice: Why and how did he become a Christian?

“I grabbed the opportunity to bring the gospel,” Mahesh said. In front of that crowd of belligerent Hindu radicals, Mahesh shared the reason for his hope. One man cried out to receive Christ and was welcomed into the church.

Mahesh and the church now meet in smaller groups, coming together only once a month for a larger fellowship time. Even so, the church continues to grow in this town.

The ongoing threat has not changed Mahesh’s vision to praise the God who called him out of the darkness of demonic oppression and into his marvelous light — and to bring others into that light as well.