Demons exist and spiritual warfare is a real thing. If I didn’t learn this growing up, I would definitely learned it these past few weeks.
Ephesians 6:12 says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms”.
My squad and I spent our first month of ministry in Morocco. It is a country dominated by Islam. There we experienced an oppressive heaviness in the spiritual realm. I felt the same thing last year on my Race while I was in Malaysia, which is also an Islamic country. It felt like all my joy was stripped away from me. After leaving Malaysia and entering Thailand, I felt a weight lift off of me and I was back to my normal joyful self. Leaving Morocco a couple weeks ago, we arrived in Athens, Greece. After leaving, I was expecting the weight to go away like it did the first time I left a country like that. But this time, we walked into a country that has it’s own spiritual things going on as well.
We met with a pastor the other day and asked him about the spiritual climate in Athens. He gave a 3 hour teaching on it and barely scratched the surface. It made me miss Bible College a bit. He talked about how there are 2 main forces of darkness in the Old Testament. Baal and Asherah. Baal is an evil spirit that attacks mostly the mind and Asherah is an evil spirit that attacks mostly the spirit. These two main spirits have manifested themselves in various ways. Over Islam is the Asherah, so it is more a spiritual thing, than attacking the mind. So that’s most likely what I was facing in Malaysia and Morocco. And in Greece, the main spirit here is Baal which attacks the mind which eventually brings unbelief. After receiving this teaching, our minds and spirits were opened up to more of what we are facing here and gave us greater discernment on what to do. (If you would like to know more about this, let me know and I can email you a more in depth view of the pastors teaching)
Ever since coming here, my team and I have been under attack spiritually. Other things that we have been sensing in the spirit here are spirits of lust, fear and religion. They manifest in different ways. For those of us who have struggled in the past with lust, we had our minds flooded with thoughts and it was hard to keep eyes off of women. For those who have dealt with fear in the past, it was coming back up again. And the best way to describe the religion, is “dryness”. There are many professing Christians here in Athens, yet many are spiritually dry and don’t have a relationship with God. The Greek Orthodox church is the main church here and it is spiritually dry. These things affect everyone who live here daily, but they don’t even realize it.
My team and I have been spending a lot of time in worship and intercession this month. We are learning to take our eyes off the enemy and his schemes and fixing our eyes on Jesus and His Kingdom. We are growing in intimacy with Him and each other through this time of spiritual warfare. For me, this is one of my favorite things to do and God was showing me more about my future and how I am going to lead His children to fight spiritual battles.
There are a few reasons I wrote this blog.
1. To open people’s eye to the spiritual war that goes on in this world. Whether you realize it or not, there are rulers and principalities everywhere. Maybe over the city you live. Do you know what they are and do you know how to face them?
2. To share what my team and I have been have been facing and update you on my situation. I want my friends and family to know that I am loving my life. Some days it’s really tough and my flesh hates it. But most times I am really loving it. I am disciplining 21 young men and women (20 Americans and 1 Canadian). I am travelling around from country to country learning more about the Kingdom of God each place I go. It is a dream come true.
3. To ask for prayer. We battle not against flesh, but against spiritual powers. We use prayer as our weapon. And the more people praying, the better. To be honest, I signed up to Squad Lead in the 10/40 window and really didn’t think ahead to what I would be facing. Everywhere I go, I want prayer support, but I’ve been taking it a lot more serious lately. I realized this war to bring God’s Kingdom around the world is mostly a spiritual war and to be effective, I need to win spiritual battles. I need all the back up I can get. The picture I have is of me being on the front lines with a sword and my friends and family with bows and arrows from a distance.
If you would like to join me in this, I am building an army of prayer warriors. I email updates of my life with my latest prayer needs and praise reports. If you are interested, email me at [email protected]
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