The following is an account of a real event that took place during training camp.
One of the nights at camp, we practiced prophetic prayer together as a squad. We each had a partner and took turns praying over one another to see what the Lord would make known about the other.
Let me take a timeout right now to give you a bit of background. I was born and raised in the Friends church. It’s kind of a branch off denomination from Quakers. Compared to traditional Quaker, we’re liberal. Compared charismatic groups, we’re borderline Lutheran. That said, the denomination I grew up in did little with prophetic prayer, miracle healing, speaking in tongues, etc. Needless to say, this night of practicing and receiving prophesy had me more than out of my comfort zone. Thankfully my lovely wife reminded me to keep and open mind and that prophesy is one of the fruits of the spirit.
So, when the time came for me to pray, I swallowed my uncertainty and braced for the unexpected. To my surprise, I did receive an image. It was a cow-print bow attached to something furry. The girl I had prayed for explained that I basically just summed up her childhood in one simple image. She went on to explain how she grew up on a dairy farm surrounded by cows and she loved stuffed animals and dressing them up…especially putting bows on them. Ok. So not some grand vision of the future or anything, but it more just proved to me that this was something real. I didn’t know this person. This was actually only the second time we had met and I knew nothing about her childhood. Little did I know that this was just the beginning.
Later that evening, one of the other guys from our squad, during a time of prayer, announced that his ear was hot. It was burning hot! That’s when one of our squad trainers stood up and told the story about her ear. Over the course of her life, she had overcome several medical problems. I won’t go into detail about her testimony suffice to say that the problem with her ears had persisted through all the healing prayer and medical testing. In addition, it was believed that this ear problem was being caused by a demon attack. So we as a squad gathered together around her and prayed for her. Many prayed for healing. I didn’t really know what to pray so I just asked the Holy Spirit to come and reveal what it was that He wanted me to know. That’s when I saw it. I was suddenly shrunk down or perhaps the ear was magnified but her ear was three times bigger than I was. As I looked at the ear, black smoke started to curl out from the canal. More smoke came out and then a heavy purple and green gas-like brume started oozing out leaving wisps of fumes floating about the ear. Then, the gases and smoke collated together to form a giant cloud. Two green glowing eyes and a mouth full of yellow and rotted teeth emerged from the cloud. It looked into my eyes, smiled vilely and said, “I am the Fear Feaster!” in a voice that sounded like it chain smoked for 30 years. At this point I was too scared to say anything. We’re all gathered around this girl praying and here I am standing face to face with the demon! Someone in the group said, “Someone is holding something back. They can see something but they aren’t saying anything.” I know they were talking about me but I just couldn’t bring myself to say it. I kept quiet. I was too scared. I returned to the vision and the demon was still there smiling and enjoying himself in that ear. I turned my head to see a man beside me, wearing a robe and glowing. An angel? ALRIGHT!! Now it’s about to get awesome! I’m going to watch this demon get slain and she’s going to healed of this ear thing! Or so I thought. But the angel did not move. He stood next to me with a giant two handed sword. The point dug into the ground as he leaned on the hilt but he did not move. He just stood there, looked at the demon and smiled back. I still could not say anything. I was too disheartened. Here this angel stood, weapon in hand, but didn’t slay the demon. He didn’t save her from it and I lost heart.
The praying ended and I was immediately flooded with guilt. I just failed. I was given this grand important vision for this person and I failed to speak. That night I couldn’t sleep. I prayed for forgiveness. I prayed for wisdom on what I should next. Do I still tell her? It is too late? I got this response from the Lord: “I gave you a mustard seed and it was good. Then I gave you a mountain. How quickly you forget your faith.” Ouch. If that didn’t pour on the guilt I don’t know what will. I decided that I would follow through with my mission to deliver this vision. If it was no longer a good idea or too late to tell it, I figured God would stop me or keep it from happening. The next day I told her. She thanked me profusely. Turns out she been searching for years as to the identity of the demon and now she finally knew its name: Fear Feaster.
Afterwards I thanked God for the second chance to redeem myself. I immediately got the response: “That was just the beginning. You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
Great…
