Spiritual Warfare: My Theory
There has been an interesting pattern of events in my life that must no longer go unstated. I believe that some things in the spiritual realm can be made sense of by logic. Let me explain:
For our first two and a half weeks here in Conocoto, Ecuador, life was easy as could be. Other than adjusting to an outhouse bathroom, 6 people sleeping in one room, and not being able to really communicate with anyone other than those I came with, life was fun and interesting… No problems here.
But we continued to press into the Lord and ask Him to use us more, stretch us further, and change us from the inside out. We asked God to give us a heart for the people and break our heart for what breaks His. We worshiped for hours, with only a guitar, and declared this as a place of the Lord’s, not of Satan’s. We demanded the spirits flee in the name of Jesus. We let out a cry for the Lord’s people on their behalf.
God heard our prayer and was pleased… Satan heard our prayers and was angry. Since the time we began pressing in and praying more bold prayers, life here has dramatically changed. We are being pressed on every side, but not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We feel hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We are getting knocked down, but not destroyed. Here’s a few examples:
– Our dog that we have adopted, Pinky is her name, was hit by a car. We were having a prayer parade, playing guitar, and handing out flyers for our upcoming drama at the church, when all of the sudden, Pinky who was leading the way, ran out in front of a car and was hit… Let’s just say that our singing of “Oh Happy Day” came to a dramatic hault… We can laugh about it now, only because she survived.
– We have also been feeling under the weather: We have all needed to rush to a bathroom on multiple occasions, 3 people have thrown up, and I am developing a sinus infection.
– There have been multiple times where were we have all felt the presence of darkness arounds us (in markets, driving down the road, at our dinner table, etc.). Feeling evil is so weird. It’s like all the hope and peace have been sucked out of the air and fear and condemnation take it’s place. We have had to stop what we are doing, call it out by name, and command the evil to flee in the name of Jesus.
– We have had more conflicts amongst our team than usual. Satan has been trying to get us to turn against each other. We have had to battle SOOO many lies from his lips.
– Without exception, we have all had terrible dreams. Dreams that feel so real and make us wake in the morning with unexplainable uneasiness.
– Our Ecuadorian madre was held up at gunpoint outside the church.
But here’s the cool part: All of this is happening because God is moving. The spiritual realm heard our cry for freedom for these amazing people, and it is battling for their souls. We just happen to be on the front lines of the war… Right where we need to be. So of course it is hard and we are experiencing trials. We do it because God’s people are experiencing joy, freedom, and healing. What exactly?
- More and more people attend church every Sunday.
- When we visit people at their houses, they are showing up at church wanting freedom from their pasts, addictions, and diseases.
- We pray over and lay hands on an average of 15- 20 people every Sunday.
- One of the pastors sons, Miguel, does not attend church and is mad at God for the accident that his mom was in. However, he has started showing his face around church more (pray for him!!)
- There is man with no legs that used to say “Why God!! Why did you do this to me?!”, who now says “Gracias Father! I believe in you!”
- We shared the gospel with three hippies at the market, sitting on the grass for hours, and I know that they felt loved.
- While construction of the church has ended due to a lack of funds, we have inside sources who tell us that there’s more coming.
So the pattern reoccurring in my life is this: Whenever I feel attacked, I had better brace myself, because God is about to rock this world.
In Him,
Catalina
