Spiritual Darkness
Last night I experienced the most overt spiritual warfare I have ever seen in my life.
We were called to help a lady with her niece who has allowed herself to be influenced by a group of youth who are experimenting with dark spiritual things that should be left alone. Now she is involved and says she cannot get out.
Jesús, a brother from our church, and I went to talk to this group of youth and share the truth of God's Word with them. We both felt the spiritual oppression in the house where these youth live from the moment we walked in the door. Three of the five listened with interest as we prayed, read Scripture, and shared the Gospel message. They even said that they wanted to trust in Christ as their Savior. This is when things started to get out of hand.
One of the young men started sobbing uncontrolably. We went over to pray with him and try to encourage him. During my prayer I thanked God for the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all sin when we trust in Him. At this the young man was thrown to the floor and began going into some type of trance and convulsions. It was obvios to me that he was being possessed and was not able to let go.
We encouraged all the youth to get out of all of these activities, and told them that it was all a lie from Satan. I read
I John 4:1-6 and encouraged them all to renounce all these things they were being involved in. The situation continued to get worse, and before long it was appearant to Jesús and I that we could not do anything else.
Before we left we were able to talk to the young woman that we went to try to help, and we encouraged her to leave and go home with her aunt. She said she could not, and would not leave. We stepped outside and talked to the young man who had gone into a trance, and told him that he need to trust in Christ and renounce all these activities. He said that all they were doing was good. All the while things were getting more caotic inside the house.
How sad to see these youth open themselves up to spiritual darkness, instead of openning themselves up to God's Word, and the Light of the world, Jesus Christ. We realize we are in a spiritual battle, and need to be on our knees in prayer all the more. The area where this happened is an area where we would like to see a church started in the future. The oppossision is obvious.
Please pray for us, and for Jesús and Monica from our church, as we face these issues and try to help this lady, Salvadora, who came to us for help for her niece, Abigail. Jesús and Monica had never seen anything like this, and I pray that it will encourage them to grow in their faith. Pray for the area of Cerrito Colorado as we hope to target this area for a new church plant in the future. -Bryan