During debrief in Durban, South Africa, I had a dream that woke me up in the middle of the night with a racing heart and a thought of “what the heck was that about?”
Then God spoke to me saying that it was a warning.
And even though God spoke to me saying it was a warning, I didn’t think too much of it, until we made it to Lesotho and we encountered spiritual warfare.
So here is as much of the dream that I remember and then what God told me about it.
Me and three of my teammates were talking one night after ministry—I don’t know what our ministry was, but we had met and befriended some women who lived at a monastery of sorts—we were getting ready to go visit one of the women that we had befriended. Needless to say, walking around at night in that area was not the safest of things to do, but we had really felt God telling us to go and visit with this lady.
So we decided that if God was leading us to do that, then He would protect us.
And, although the woman we were going to visit knew we were coming; for whatever reason, we didn’t give her an exact time so we ended up getting there a bit later than we originally thought we would—and it was pitch black outside.
So we got to the monastery-like building (it looked somewhat like an Asian temple, but we were in the middle of the woods and it was snowing, kind of like when Lucy first steps into Narnia through the wardrobe—so the land was nothing like the Asia I have seen, plus it felt as if it was up in the mountains) and our friend (let’s call her Nancy—I don’t recall what name she had in the dream) had a very worried look on her face and ran out to meet us before we could even come up to the door; she motioned for us to be quiet and ushered us around the building to a side door—which we all thought was pretty strange.
However, we had been witnessing to Nancy for the last count of weeks and she was extremely curious about Christianity and what we believed in and the authority that we were able to talk in and through. So, against the red flags popping up in our heads, we went with Nancy through the side door firmly trusting that God told us to go that night so therefore He would protect us—however it decided to do that.
Once inside, we saw people walking around in black robes, with their hoods up over their heads, chanting—all in all we felt a strong demonic presence as soon as we entered. We stayed hidden in the shadows for a while and after the chanting escaladed and then stopped, people started to leave. However, as they were leaving each person picked up a burning coal (don’t ask me how they didn’t burn their fingers… it was a dream) and touched it to their tongue before walking out.
After everyone had left, we asked Nancy about what we just saw. And immediately, she apologized saying that we weren’t supposed to see that and that we absolutely cannot tell anyone about it because it would leave her in danger. Yet, despite the threat to herself, she explained to us that it was an initiation ritual that new “members” of the monastery-like place had to go through as a way to always to remember to be “on tongue” with what they know. Aka always remembering their studies of their scriptures (or what I’m assuming is their version of scripture) in order to be able to combat other people, of different religions, that they encounter—because if they can quote their religion more than the other person can quote what they believe in they “win” and are justified and ultimately can then convert people who do not have a strong enough foundation in their beliefs. Additionally, they were then charged to go out and convert at least two people each person before they can advance within their teachings.
This was then our perfect in-way to converse with Nancy about what we believe as Christians
Afterwards, we were walking out and saw two of our squad-mates playing carefree in the snow just outside of the monastery, not seeing that two of the “initiates” were approaching them getting ready to try to convert them.
And then I woke up.
To be honest, I was like, “God, what the heck was that?”
And then He told me.
He said that we are going to encounter spiritual warfare in the upcoming months—warfare like I have never experienced before. And that this warfare has the potential to have a physical aspect of it—not necessarily as we will be fighting, but as in we will encounter demons and evil spirits within people that we meet—both obvious spirits and not-so-obvious spirits. In addition to encountering it within the purely spiritual realm such as dreams, thoughts, and voices.
He told me to not be afraid, because we all are clothed in His power and we have the Holy Spirit residing within us. But He also said that we need to be armed and ready to fight spiritually—through knowing His Word. And He reminded me of Ephesians 6:17, which is in the middle of where it talks about the armor of God and it says, “Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
He then clarified to me that one of our best ways to combat this spiritual warfare will be through knowing the Bible—aka living “on tongue” as the people in my dream were learning how to do—just as Jesus knew the Old Testament laws and was therefore able to combat Satan after He was in the wilderness for 40 days at the beginning of His ministry.
God told me to not be worried, but rather to be aware and ready.
So I want to live these next coming months—as well as the rest of my life—on tongue, so that I will be ready to fight against spiritual warfare that comes my way with God’s words rather than my own.
Please pray for my team as well as the rest of my squad, for I know my team has already experienced the warfare and I can only assume that if the rest of my squad hasn’t yet, that they will shortly.
