Spiritual Warfare

We toss that term around, "spiritual warfare," at least in the circles I run in. It most certainly applies at critical moments of change that would affect Kingdom dynamics. To car accidents...to illness...to business difficulties...to thefts. We've experienced this level of spiritual warfare often.

But I have been praying for a situation the last few days that certainly makes my trials seem light and momentary. And this situation was OBVIOUSLY so spiritual, it has brought a thousand new questions to mind about how God does things.

There is a precious young couple in Uganda, Joy and Simon Peter who were expecting their first baby. Simon Peter is the associate pastor of a church making a difference in Kampala, and his wife is the worship leader. Joy was eight months along when they had their first encounter with the demonic last month; she looked out into the congregation at a new face and stared into eyes that made her think of a black hole. She then passed out and began to tumble off the four-foot stage, only to be rescued by someone on the first row. Whew. But then later in the service, this woman with the hollow eyes asked for prayer and during prayer began to speak in a strange voice, "we were not able to kill her so we're going to have to kill the baby!"

Of course, everyone began praying for protection over the baby and the mother. Just this past Friday night, Joy went into labor. The baby wouldn't come naturally so at 5 am on Saturday, Gabriel was delivered via C-section. But he wasn't breathing. The doctors tried frantically to get him to breathe and placed him on special machines.

Sunday morning at 5 am, seven or eight people in their church woke with terrible dreams about the baby, about his death. Some felt strangled in their sleep. Others saw dark, frightening hands reaching for them. Another friend became deathly ill in his abdomen. They all awoke with the urgent sense to pray fervently for this child. There was a church service at 7:30 am. The woman with the black eyes was there again, and had the same dark message: "we are going to kill the baby."

By the afternoon service, the message went out that the baby had died, was pronounced dead at 7 that morning. All day Sunday, pastors and elders from the surrounding area came in to pray for this baby's resurrection. Believing that the devil himself was behind all this, they prayed in faith. I was even praying when I found out on Sunday afternoon.

Monday morning I heard the news that they were releasing the baby to death. Everyone was devastated but at peace. I cannot imagine the depth of grief Joy and Simon Peter are feeling. My friend with the abdominal illness wrote this:

"It's terrible, but tonight God's people are mourning while the devil is celebrating. Did we not pray enough? Why would God warn us through dreams if the future was inevitable? Is the hospital to blame for not helping properly? Or did the devil just win this battle? Or is this the way it was meant to be? Was it meant to be that these good, honest, loving, God-fearing people loose their first born son, while a prostitute in the next town has a healthy baby and throws it in a dumpster because she can't provide for it...it's true, I read about it in last week's paper, and will probably read a similar story this week. But I guess we will never know the answer to any of these questions during our time on earth...sometimes questions must be better unanswered."

I have exactly the same questions.

But as we venture out to Haiti, so similar to Uganda and other parts of Africa in its spiritual oppression, we must be mindful of this level of battle. We must be alert and 'prayed up' as we go out. My traveling companion, Lisa, keeps reminding me that we have to spend some time fasting and praying. I am so caught up in the planning details that I forget where we are going! She is SO right.

So we are stepping up our prayer efforts ahead of this trip. Pastor Val and others deal with this all the time in Haiti. Pastor Val spoke of snakes he was battling and killing in his bed for three nights in a row. On the morning of the fourth day, he saw the same snake in a tree, and it spoke to him. He realized that it was no ordinary snake that would just die, but that it was a demonic attack. He then took different action and prayed that snake out of his life!

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of he world; on the contrary, they have divine power to demolish spiritual strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:4). But I take comfort in this: You dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the One who is in you is GREATER than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4).

I'm glad my God is strong.