So. A couple months ago we had the opportunity to stay in Baños, Ecuador. It is an incredible, exotic town settled at the gate of the amazon jungle. It is filled with plush green mountains, numerous waterfalls, and adventure around every corner.
Over the course of ten days, we helped two missionaries who had been there for over twenty years prepare to move back to the States. They had opened a boys home, and raised many boys from the jungle regions of Ecuador from boyhood into manhood.
They had a tremendous array of stories of what is was like to move to a foreign country in their 50s, and spend over two decades raising unwanted boys, physically disabled boys, and sons of witch doctors.
The spiritual warfare they witnessed was the epitome of demons manifesting in the physical. It was simultaneously terrifying and incredible to hear their stories.
I want to share one with you tonight. The mom of the house shared this story with me as someone who witnessed this first-hand.
Jefferson was a young boy who they brought into the boys home.
Now, as the mom shared, there was a demon who continually tried to claim the life of this young boy… a demon she named “cat demon.”
Spiritual warfare in this region looks nothing like it does in the States. The witch doctors constantly summon demons to achieve their purposes, and they flourish in the physical, visible realm.
Jefferson had been involved in witchcraft before coming to the boys home, and this one particular recurring demon would haunt him. When it took over, it would take over his physical body. When it took over, Jefferson could jump from ground level to the roof of a two-story home. He would lean over cliff edges trying to fall, and try to stab knives into his own stomach.
The mom at the home is convinced that the Lord prevented the demons from actually taking his life. But. He would run the edge of the property 20+ times. He would scream, and spew hate. The parents at this home would go outside and chase him around for hours, declaring the Lord’s authority over the situation. She even remembers one night, Jefferson fell over in exhaustion, and declared “they’re not gone yet” a couple hours before he destroyed their skylights in their roof by stomping on them and cracking them.
One night, the mom at the home decided to lock him in to try to prevent the “cat demon” from summoning Jefferson out onto the roof… and he started punching the windows trying to get out.
Jefferson was covered in blood and cuts, to the point it was pooling on the floor underneath him. He laid down and started drawing pentagrams in the blood.
The host mom, every time he drew a pentagram, would draw a cross over it in the blood on the floor. She refused to let the demons claim any authority over him.
At the end of these battles, Jefferson would wake up, and asked what had happened, and why he was out of bed. He would wonder why he had cuts or why he was covered in dirt. He almost always was very tired and simply wanted to go to bed.
The mom of the house told me the demon eventually stopped, but only through tremendous amounts of prayer.
I wanted to share this with you all because spiritual warfare is SO much easier to see in other countries. Demons seek to STEAL, KILL, AND DESTROY. They’re REAL, and they’re actively seeking to hurt you.
It just so happened that in Baños, Ecuador, they were very apparent in the physical realm.
But be aware. And if you’re feeling attacked, you probably are being attacked. Don’t overlook the power of prayer.
