I am a skeptic. I always was skeptical about things that I can’t see for myself. Even when I was not a Christian, I questioned if I could even believe in a bible written more than 2,000 years ago. If you know me, I’ve spent more than a year studying the historical evidence of the bible before I became a Christian. When people talk about spiritual warfare, I believed it to some degree, but now that I’ve experienced it head on, I am convinced.
I don’t have the sight or the senses that some of my teammates have. When we arrived at this ministry and started to do things at the church, my teammate Oscar felt something. As he went downstairs to use the washroom, he felt a heavy presence. A dark presence that was very gloomy. He saw dark figures. He then brought others to pray over the 2 basement floors. The others also experienced similar things. They felt that there was sexual abuse that happened in the girl’s bathroom. Later on, after telling the Pastor and Pastora these things, they found out that this church was built on an abandon dance club, and many of the church congregation felt the same thing.
Days later, the demons were getting more aggressive. To the point where they made a lighter that was left on the table catch on fire. Its one of those lighters that are built to be safe, that the only way to ignite it is through sheer force of spinning the ignition mechanism. It burnt a jacket near by.
As soon as this happened, we got everyone downstairs and started to pray for the entire building. We sang songs of worship, recited bible verses, and prayed hard. Many could feel the demons press against us. It was exhausting.
I don’t have the spiritual senses to see or feel in particular, but this one night when we went to pray for a woman at her home, it was something I’ve never seen before. She told us about her struggle with depression and suicide ideation. We poured out our hearts to her as many of us had struggled with the same things. After a couple hours of talking, we wanted to pray for her. She was of course happy for this as she was looking forward to. I took her hand as we usually do to pray for someone, while others laid their hands on her. But as we started praying, she started to pull my hands off her. She started to get aggressive and started to back away.
I’ve never experienced something like this before. Pastor knew exactly what it was, so he told us to keep pursuing her, to keep praying over her, to continue to hold her hands dearly. As I grabbed her hands again and continued praying, I saw a glimpse of her eyes. It wasn’t her… The way she looked at me was not the sweet 50 year old mom that we were just in conversation with. I closed my eyes and continued praying harder in the name of Jesus. The pastor laid his hands on her head and on her stomach and was loudly proclaiming the name of Jesus over her. After 10 minutes of praying straight, we felt her starting to convulse. It almost seems like she was about to throw up. I started to feel a change in her posture and in her actions. She started to relax, she started to take hold of my hand in a loving way. She took both her hands and wrapped it around mine. After the prayer, it seemed like she didn’t know what happened. She asked us what she saw and what we experienced.
What was crazier was my good friend Connor, who grew up similarly like I did where we didn’t experience much spiritual battle or see much, had an encounter with a demon face on. As we went around praying and anointing her home, Connor stopped in front of the dark laundry room entrance. He said he felt an eerie feeling that wasn’t the kind that you get in your mind when you spook yourself out, but this one was different. He could feel it in his entire body. He stopped and raised his hands towards the dark laundry room and started praying and proclaiming the word of God over it. I saw him doing this over the entire span of the time we prayed. He never moved from that spot. Connor told me he started to hear growling. A low growl, like a dog! It was the first time he’s ever experienced something like that.
I am now convinced, that we no longer just battle the things of this world, but of the spiritual. The bible verse found in Ephesians 6 rings so true to me now.
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6 : 10-12
Pray for us that we can stand firm and proclaim the light in the darkest places we will go.
