Some people are part of a church or ministry where demons and spiritual warfare are casual conversation and then there are others who would never dream of talking of such things. Before the race I knew it was a thing that happened, but felt pretty uncomfortable talking about it with, well, anyone! I was pretty sure that I would be viewed as the crazy girl making up ghost stories, but the thing is that I don’t really care anymore. I know God is real and I know that the other side- the spiritual darkness- is real too.
When we arrived in Uyuni, Bolivia, we had no idea just how real that darkness was going to become.
Our living quarters this month are pretty nice, but also a little weird. As far as I can understand it used to be a pretty nice hostel, but now is mostly abandoned. We were pretty much just excited that there were rooms and beds- a beautiful sight after days of bus travel all the way from Peru.
Almost all of us had some really weird dreams that night though that ranged from an intense warning to waking up crying to being too terrified to even call out for help. We decided to pray together before bed that evening and over eachother so we could get some much needed rest. Last month during all squad month a lot of people seemed to be attacked via dreams so it didn’t surprise us too much that it should happen again.
It was easy to explain away to the stress of travel and the adjusting to another new place.
That evening we were all piled in one room talking and laughing with eachother- enjoying our time alone as a team for the first time and getting to know our translator who would be living with us all month. We all started to get pretty sleepy and thoughts of a warm bed seemed like they were about to trump taking the effort to pray. Reluctantly we rallied ourselves and stood in a little circle to pray for the night.
And then that’s when it started to get weird.
I was feeling terrified. It’s like a heavy blanket had physically settled on my shoulders and I couldn’t shake the severly unsettled feeling I had that seemed to have no cause. The feeling lasted for a few more prayers, but when the third started to pray the blanket and the feeling suddenly lifted in an instant. It was so dramatic that I opened my eyes as did the the other girls and we were all able to affirm that the same thing had happened to them. It was a weird moment and I could see that everyone was unsettled by what had just happened. We decided that it would be best to continue to pray until we felt perfectly at peace and pray we did.
And it only got crazier.
We ended up staying up the entire night together praying against the darkness and it is the craziest experience I have ever had in my entire life. We saw, heard, felt, and even smelled demons and spirits many times that night. That’s weird to say for me, but the crazy thing is that whatever one person saw or heard was immediately affirmed by more teammates. And we are all VERY different people- we come from completely different church and family backgrounds and don’t have the same views on many things. None of us had ever experienced anything like that before and were very skeptical and cautious in the area of spiritual warfare. We were mocked, taunted, told nasty lies, saw terrifying images, were personally attacked in areas that were sensitive, smelled death, and even were suddenly overcome with violent physical illness when we tried to pray.
But all of that dark power is nothing compared to what God did that night.
Earlier that very day we had a really long, wonderful team time where we were able to regroup after a month of not necessarily doing ministry together since it was all-squad month and get on the same page again. We dreamed about what we could do this month here in Uyuni and set goals to work towards as a team. We all agreed that we felt that this month was really going to change something for us team-wise and there was an air of anticipation about it all.
That very evening God answered almost every goal on that sheet before we had even began our true ministry of teaching and shattered the “impossible” prayer request we had written out.
It turns out that it’s pretty vulnerable to share these crazy/terrifying things you are seeing/hearing/feeling in a room full of Christians. You are utterly convinced that you have completely lost your marbles and await the judging and concerned stares from everyone. Those stares never came though and everything was affirmed over and over again by others. And it was beautiful! So often throughout life we choke back truth for fear of how it will reflect on us or how others will recieve it. I saw it in our team often- we were walking on eggshells around eachother and attempting to love at an arms length. That night instilled a boldness in us with each other that I have seen call us closer to God this month. It also turns out that nothing is more awkward than yelling at demons through vomiting. After that, nothing is weird.
We also experienced God’s intimate knowlege of us and deep love for us that night. We not only prayed over the rooms, but also over each person- God brought some beautiful healing that night. As we layed hands on eachother God would speak directly into each person’s life through a teammate in a way that I have never seen the Holy Spirit move before. It was a perfectly beautiful experience for both the person giving the words and for the person recieving them and assured each of us that God is most certainly with us and knows us more personally than we know ourselves. The prayers brought many tears, many visions, some healing as things were brought to the light for the first time, and so much joy and encouragement as we heard of the Father’s love for us and the ways He wanted to use us.
And best of all, we saw the Light conquer the darkness. To so physically see the spiritual clash of Light and dark was humbling, amazing, and even a little terrifying- it showed us something in real time that we always read about in the ancient texts of the Bible. The Bible has crazy stories of people being healed, of demons being cast out, of a huge war that isn’t against flesh and blood, but rather against things of the spirit. The foundation of our religion is upon a man who was also God who died, but then was resurrected and that’s really tough to come to terms with sometimes in our scientific age. This night proved to me that all of this wasn’t just some really well played story, but that there is a reality beyond what we can usually see.
And the most beautiful part of the entire night that will stick with me forever is to see that God is the true king of both those realities: the physical and the spiritual.
So here I am, the crazy weird girl who talks about demons and God. Once upon a time that would have bothered me, but as I continue through this crazy Christian life and this global journey the Lord has called me on I gain confindence in who He is and therefore who I am. When I left for the race, many people reminded me that I was going to see things that I didn’t normally see because different places around the world are, well, different. I would just nod and smile and had no idea what I was in for. Turns out I love talking about my God- even the weird stuff- because He’s pretty amazing and does some crazy stuff! Oh, and I am happy to say that ever since that night we have had no more problems like this and have had a perfectly wonderful month of ministry.
Light always conquers the darkness!
