Haiti is simply notorious for many of these things.
During our first week in Haiti while we were walking the streets signing children up for free school, we met a voodoo priest.
Ashlee, Laura, and I asked if we could pray for him. The response we got from our translator was quite funny. The voodoo priest simply said, "No, our prayers wouldn't align!"
That was certainly TRUTH! We pray to the one and only living God, while he prays to, well, I'm not entirely sure who he would pray to, but definitely not to Jesus Christ!
Following his negative response, we quickly retorted with, " We're praying for you regardless. We may not be praying OVER you but we will pray FOR you!"
He laughed uncomfortably when he understood the translation.
The three of us gathered together and began praying. We prayed that God would grab ahold of his heart and reveal himself as the one and only true God. We prayed that he would become powerless as a voodoo priest and his influence would dwindle.
As we walked on, Ashlee said she was watching him while we prayed. He was shifting in discomfort and he looked somewhat worried.
We will never know the full impact our prayer made that day; however, I'm confident that something in the spirit realm shifted and something within that man shifted and he will never again be the same.
About a week ago, during our time of street evangelism, we visited the sweetest, oldest woman. Her name is LeeAnn.
She is a member of the church we're working with, but she is unable to attend church due to her health. The first Sunday of every month, communion is brought to her at her home.
We spend at least 30 minutes visiting with her, mostly spent in prayer, contending for her health. Ashlee began feeling pains that were not her own; they were given to her by the Holy Spirit as clues as to what to pray for. Ashlee's pain matched that of LeeAnn's – from arthritis to chest pain to back pain.
During our farewells, we met another woman who lives in LeeAnn's home. This woman was younger than LeeAnn but she was cold and hard. We asked if we could pray for her but quickly learned she dislikes Christians because she worships … THE DEVIL!
When our translator told us, we weren't quite sure if she was joking! But she was 100% serious.
We immediately went into WARRIOR MODE. We began covering the place in prayer, proclaimed the name and blood of Jesus Christ, and rendered anything not of Jesus as powerless in Jesus' name. We continued praying for several minutes as we walked outside.
It was crazy to have two extremely different women and belief systems within the same household – one who worshiped and adored our Lord Jesus Christ and the other who worships His enemy, the devil.
The Bible warns us that the kingdom of light and kingdom of darkness can dwell in the same place but Light has already won! In LeeAnn's situation, her light will outshine and overpower the darkness.
"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it." John 1:5
Since arriving in Haiti on October 1, there has been a lot of sickness within our house. Our eyes have recently been opened to root cause – hexes and curses spoken over our house. It certainly occurred to us early on that spiritual warfare was at play, but confirmation only came recently.
One girl received two crazy visions from the Lord giving her insight into the spiritual realm. The meaning behind the two visions were the same – a witch speaking hexes and curses over our house.
We are fighting! Day one we anointed the house with oil in the name of Jesus and on a daily basis we cover the house in prayer and even sleep with worship music playing every night, but yesterday we kicked it up a notch.
Our house full of PRAYER WARRIORS went into WARRIOR MODE once again. We covered the house, the teams, and the atmosphere with the name and blood of Jesus Christ. We rendered powerless every hex, spell, or curse as powerless in Jesus' name.
"We are human, but we do not wage war as humans do. We use God's mighty weapons, not worldly weapons …" 2 Corinthians 10:3-4
Team Dunamisses is not battling as humans do. Daily, We choose to pick up the weapons the Lord has equipped us with. Daily, we clothe ourselves with the Lord's armor.
"A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared. In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere." Ephesians 6:10-18
We discovered during Launch, there are six pieces of armor and six Dunamisses! Coincidence? I think not! We each represent a different piece of armor and clothe not only ourselves, but each other with that piece of armor.
The Belt of Truth = Laura
Breast Plate of Righteousness = Becky
Sandals of Peace = Monica
Shield of Faith = Ashlee
Helmet of Salvation = Karen
Sword of the Spirit = Elizabeth
The battle rages on.
We will, however, not surrender! We will not retreat!
Today, we fought in a different manner. We fought in LOVE. We have been asserting the authority Jesus gave us through his name, but we are choosing to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44).
Several women joined together in a prayer session to pray LOVE over Haiti and those opposed to Jesus. During that time, the Lord showed up and gave those women a piece of his heart for Haiti.
"Three things will last forever – faith, hope, and love – and the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13
