Spiritual Warfare In Colombia

Stories. 

That’s all my experience has been when it comes to demonic encounters. Hearing other people’s stories, re-telling, and questioning their stories. 

It’s not that I doubt the reality or existence of spiritual warfare because Scripture clearly tells us that our battle is spiritual and not physical (Ephesians 6:1). However, I have never had personal experience or encounter to go off of so naturally, I’m a bit skeptical when I hear others recount their experiences. We’re all storytellers, we all make things more dramatic than they actually are, and we all embellish. That’s where my skepticism comes from. Not unbelief, but inexperience. 

Within the first few weeks of ministry some of my teammates who have deeper spiritual insight than I do felt oppression in the basement of the church. They went down to pray and emerged tired, heavy-hearted, and austere. Like they had just been through a really long and intense counseling session. 

I absolutely love and respect my team. While I knew they weren’t making things up, I felt as though they were being a bit dramatic. My role, however, is to encourage and build up so I asked questions and sought to understand what I could from their insights instead of voicing criticism. 

About a week later, both of our teams ventured down into the church’s depths to pray for the church, God’s work in that place, and for the people. I’m not going to lie, it was creepy down there. Personally, I didn’t feel anything because thirteen other people were around me the whole time, but the overall basement vibe was unsettling. We prayed for about 30 to 40 minutes, quoted Scripture, and walked in the authority we have in Christ… but no crazy manifestation of any demons that I saw. I was ready for something to happen. Ready to grow in my understanding and perspective. But nothing happened. 

At least not that night.

About two weeks after praying over the church Pastor took me and 5 others to make a house visit and pray for a lady in the church. As we walked down the mountain we had no idea what to expect other than sharing encouragement, praying for this lady, and eating whatever food she so kindly offers… because you know, that’s what a typical house visit looks like. 

It was dark by the time we reached the house. The door swung open and we were greeted by Helen (that’s not her real name but for this blog I will refer to her as Helen). She welcomed us inside, gave us coffee, asked us questions about the World Race, and told us about her struggles. We learned many things but the big points are that Helen has been battling severe depression and thoughts of suicide. Our hearts broke for this woman.

Pastor invited some of my teammates to share their testimonies and speak into Helen’s life. Tears began rolling down her face as she listened and related to some of the testimonies of my team members. Eventually, Pastor stood up and led us in prayer for Helen. We gatherer around her, placed our hands on her shoulders, and began to pray. A few minutes into prayer Helen out of nowhere started pushing our hands off of her and tried to pull away from us. 

This caught me off guard that I took my hand off of her shoulder and glimpsed her eyes. They were uneasy and fearful. It freaked me out at first, but then Pastor stepped forward and told us to pray harder. It was at that moment that I realized what was happening. This woman was being afflicted or affected by something other than herself. She didn’t speak in a deep voice nor did she have supernatural strength but afterward we all agreed… there was definitely something behind her eyes during prayer that was not there earlier. 

She feebly struggled for a while but calmed down as prayer continued. Afterward, she said that she didn’t remember pulling away from us at all. That was weird for me as well because once we finished praying she hugged and thanked us as if nothing strange had just happened when something SUPER strange just went down! 

The crazy part is that wasn’t the only strange thing that went down that night. 

…to be continued…