On spiritual warfare

Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.” — Ephesians 5:1

I wasn’t going to post this on the internet. But then I read this verse and thought it wrong for me not to. I wrote this a couple of months ago. I posted this before but made some changes and need to post again.

I think it important to document the extraordinary encounters God has allowed me to bear witness. Working with a ministry devoted to doing God’s work has been a true blessing for me and has facilitated a growth in my faith and my walk that I never imagined possible. Not in my entire life. Over the past few months I have been witness to the Holy Spirit deliver many people from the evil forces that inhabit this earth.

Spiritual warfare is something I have always been somewhat aware of, but the degree of my understanding has until recently been elementary. There are forces present in this world that cannot be seen with the fallen man’s eye. These forces are often met with ignorance and little resistance because we are so unaware of their presence.

I have seen the consequences of such forces in the form of deep suffering, depravity, and bondage, these things that the enemy hand-delivers.

It is a scary thing, the unknown. Hidden away. Like the deepest secret you think no one can ever infiltrate. Until eventually repercussions begin to show themselves, and the results can no more be hidden than the light that shines from the sun.

And these results are obvious consequences from something ingrained far deeper than what is visible; a secret no one knows, a thing you can’t see.

For as long as I can remember I experienced irrational fear of what was unknown to me, these forces.

I’ve often described them as this:

I am in the middle of an ocean, on a dark night. While I am able to keep my head above the dark, rough waters, I am aware of all the possibilities of creatures creeping beneath me. Ones that I can’t see, but they see me. I don’t know what they are. There could be few, there could be many. They could be near or far. There might not be anything at all. All I know is that I am struggling to breathe. I want to stop moving. So they can’t feel the motion of the water I am creating. The more I struggle, the more ripples I create. I want to disappear. I want to shrink down to nothing. It’s very vulnerable out here. And I am terrified.

Now. It is important to note that I no longer carry this burden. I do not dwell in this ocean any longer, for my ocean is one filled with light and hope, grace and forgiveness, love and redemption. And I hope to write more about that later. Perhaps I will start from the beginning.