Debrief, day 2.
Series, episode 2.
I titled this one: Can You See Spirits?
On the race, it’s pretty normal for us to be asked to share our testimony, preach a short sermon, give a devotional, etc.
So, during our time in Bolivia, we traveled to San Jose de Campamento (a small village) and this was asked of me.
Our host, Giover, asked if one of us would preach the following morning.
I felt the Lord nudge my heart, so I volunteered.
This camp was so small and quaint. It was in the middle of nowhere, and there were only small communities surrounding it.
There were open fields with horses, cows, goats, donkeys… all kinds of animals roaming.
Each house was tucked into a small piece of land and often didn’t consist of more than a room or two and a covered open space.
The family we stayed with had 2 rooms for sleeping, a kitchen, and a church in the back yard.
My sermon fell on the second day we were there, on Sunday morning.
Saturday night, I was praying and asking the Lord what He wanted me to speak on.
He hadn’t given me anything concrete, so I was just trusting that He would show me in His time.
As a team, we walked around the camp, explored a bit, and walked into various tiendas.
When we explore like this, I typically ask the Holy Spirit to reveal any strongholds in the area.
We didn’t really share during this walk though, we just walk around.
Things felt pretty heavy.
I went to bed that night and hadn’t heard anything specific from the Lord about preaching yet. As I laid down to sleep, the Lord gave me peace that He was going to show me.
At 1:30 AM, I woke up and was having a lot of trouble breathing.
For a couple days, I had been experiencing some weird drainage/sinus stuff, and it was making it pretty painful to eat and breathe.
My throat was feeling full/tight, and so I got up and went to the bathroom to try and clear it out.
When I came back into the room, I laid down and there was a physical heaviness on my chest.
I couldn’t breathe well.
I sat up and started to ask the Lord what was going on.
I looked in the corner of the room and I saw a physical, dark spirit hovering above our bags.
I stood up, looked around a bit, and thought at first that it was a dream.
I began praying into this spirit. I knew spiritual warfare was a thing on the race, but this was beyond anything I had experienced.
I asked the Lord was the Spirit was, and He showed me that it was the spirit of fear of abandonment.
I prayed and prayed for close to an hour, and as I prayed, the spirit got smaller.
I woke up the next morning and began asking the Lord more about that experience.
He just kept whispering, “I trust you.”
He trusted me to see, pray into, and cast down that spirit. Wild. He asked me to preach on it, so I trusted him and prepared to share that experience.
Our team sat down that morning, before the service, to pray together over the day.
Giover, our host, asked us if we had any specific feelings about spirits/strongholds in the area.
I said, “I do, but I am going to wait to share it until the sermon.”
Allie spoke up next and said, “I feel like there is a spirit of orphanhood here.”
Orphanhood and abandonment – they go hand in hand.
Confirmation.
I got up to preach at church, and I titled my sermon, “I’m not brave.”
I talked first about how it’s so common for people to say to us, “these women are so brave, leaving their homes, their families, their comforts, all to share the gospel.”
I love that people see these qualities in us and call them out, but sometimes I don’t feel brave.
Sometimes, I feel scared. I feel anxious. Sometimes, I feel like I’d rather be home.
But that’s the thing – we can’t allow ourselves to live a life simply out of what we feel.
We have to live a life out of what the Father says about us.
I shared about my experience the past night, and Giover looked at me (mid-translating) and said “really??”
He explained to the mother we were staying with that Allie had felt something very similar.
She looked at me, clinging tight to the words I was sharing, expectant of what Holy Spirit had for her.
I asked the people in the room, “what are you fearful of?”
I encouraged them to ask the Holy Spirit, “where does this fear come from?”
Man, He showed up.
Even in processing with the team, He showed something so beautifully specific to each of us.
We found out the mom we were staying with really understood and resonated with the spirit I saw. I knew we were there to strengthen her and her ministry, and so I took that as a chance to pray over her and cast out those fears/anxieties.
I don’t really have an explanation of what the Lord showed me in that small room.
All I know is that spiritual warfare is so real, and the Father trusts us to intercede on His behalf.
What are you fearful of?
Where did that fear come from?
Ask Holy Spirit to replace that fear with a truth He says about you.
All my love,
Hannah Beth
