Tag Archives: spiritual warfare

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It is hard to keep things positive when so much darkness is at work in the world. We would hardly be responsible missionary correspondents without including the gory parts of the testimony. One such story began with a girl whose countenance was desperate as Cindy and I tried to console her. Names have been changed to protect those involved. A young lady, we will call Tanya, told us this story:

One of her classmates, we will call Gail, was talking to her grandmother In their home village over the Christmas break. Gail told her grandmother, a voodoo witch doctor, that she felt stupid in class and wished she was smarter.

“Who is the smartest girl in your class?” the grandmother inquired. 

“Tanya,” Gail replied.

“Bring me something personal of hers along with one of her textbooks, and place this charm somewhere near her sleeping place, and all her mental energy will be transferred to you. You will know what she studies, and her mind will be yours.”

Gail, allegedly a Christian, and an orphan in a well-known Christian child rescue, followed the instructions of the voodoo witch and pronounced the curse over Tanya, her victim. 

Tanya came to Cindy and me, crying, and complaining that the spell has made her befuddled and desperate. She can find no reason to continue studying since her memory is gone and her mind is going to thieves anyway. “What is the point of trying anymore if my mind is not my own? I would be better off dying!”

Saint Michael expelling Lucifer and the Rebel Angels by Peter Paul Rubens

Cindy and I reminded Tanya to whom she belongs, the incredible price that was paid for her redemption -- not just at the Judgment -- but now, and what victory in Jesus means. We were careful to acknowledge her fears about the dark forces of evil, which are well known in Africa, but tried to rejoice with her for being on the winning team that has defeated all such darkness. We prayed over her, breaking the curse in Jesus’ name. We prayed for her to walk in that victory as to have her faith strengthened. We prayed for God to dispatch His heavenly host to protect her and keep her from harm. We prayed for the restoration of her mind, and the courage to continue her studies. We prayed for the restoration of her emotions, that faith in her Lord Jesus Christ would overcome the fear of the black magic that had been set against her.

We continue to pray for her and encourage her as we get the opportunity. We would ask that you also pray for this young girl whose real name God knows full well. 

Since we left, Tanya’s body was attacked with malaria, and her local clinic was out of the medications she needed for three days before her treatment finally began. Tanya has been attacked socially, and several girls, including Gail, have made it impossible for her to receive any comfortable fellowship from the girls she normally calls her friends. The devourer loves to find his prey isolated, and I am praying that Tanya finds fellowship somewhere, someplace where she can openly pour out her emotions, cares, and prayers. She has a prayer warrior in her home village but does not have open contact with this woman regularly. 

According to the prayer warrior at home, the entire family has been attacked by the spells of this witch. Tanya’s cousin was cursed and suddenly was hospitalized after a roadway traffic accident crushed his left arm, hip, and leg. One of the witch’s messengers sent word that blood from this family would soon be collected in the form of death. The intended target family came together in Christian prayer to break the curse and bless the broken boy, who remains on bed rest in the hospital. The prayer warrior recommended that Tanya begin to pray for her persecutor, like Jesus said (Matthew 5:43), and be good to her in hopes that she escapes the trap of the Devil who has taken her captive to do his will (2 Timothy 2:25-26). 

Clearly, this lady has sharpened her Sword of the Spirit more than once. We would do well to re-read Jesus' Sermon on the Mount to get our own battling orders. 

For those who doubt the power of black magic, let me just ask, what victory does a Christian celebrate who does not believe in the powers of darkness? Ephesians 6:12 makes it clear that the heavenly realms are where our real battles are being fought:

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (NIV)

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It has been said that after this New Year’s Eve, every pronunciation of the year “2021” will sound like an admission that “2020 won.”  While I admit 2020 seems like confirmation of Jesus‘s words in John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble," the encouraging reality is in the second half of that verse: “but take heart! I have overcome the world.“ This year has brought division, discord, disease, and depression, all evidence of a competent destroyer, which seeks to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). Still, you and I have the assurance that 2020 did not win, the world doesn’t win, the destroyer doesn’t win, and whatever struggle you are facing today doesn’t win either. Jesus did not say that he may someday overcome the world, or that he will overcome the world, but that he has already overcome the world. It’s done. “It is finished” (John 19:30). The great tribulations we endure here on Earth serve to refine, prove, and prepare us for our divine graduation, so long as we do not give up (Galatians 6:9). 

Let this next year be the “twenty-twenty-first” year of our Lord rather than an announcement of defeat. 2020 did not win! Christ Jesus is still Lord! He has overcome racism, hatred, disease, isolation, grief, and hopelessness. In this world those things will still exist, but you and I can take heart, because they don’t win.

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Where the Lord guides the Lord provides. The battles to which He brings us are His to win, while the orders of a spiritual warrior are to “pray without ceasing,” “be still and know,” and “after all, to stand.” When those battles have to do with health, we are further instructed:
“Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.” (James 5:14, NIV)

It is in response to these orders that I write this update, which may err on the side of overshare since my recent prayer concerns are of a physical nature. You may remember I alluded to some of this in September's post.

For the last couple years I have endured minor pain and stiffness in my back, but dismissed it as merely part of nearing fifty. It turns out that aging is not supposed to hurt and pain really is an alarm for something amiss. After many sessions with my doctors and an MRI machine, it has been revealed that I have a lower spine issue that requires intervention. I have had two lumbar epidural steroid injections and have been going to physical therapy in hopes that surgical spinal fusion can be avoided. At the same time, another pain symptom in my groin, which green-flagged my start to the doctor after all this ignored pain, has proven to be an inguinal hernia, for which I have been referred to a surgeon. Each of these issues has brought warnings not to lift heavy objects, difficult orders to obey when one is a new nurse on an intensive care unit.

A good military commander will not attack merely one front, but will overwhelm an enemy with flanking maneuvers from all sides possible, and Satan is a crafty destroyer. So it is with my family recently. My physical concerns come at a time when I am also under the pressure of an extended orientation at work. Having failed to achieve satisfactory progress in critical decision-making necessary to remain in the ICU, I risk being reassigned to another new unit where I may have to learn everything anew. On other fronts, someone very dear to me faces the news of a cancer diagnosis, my parents are addressing their own health problems, and so on and etcetera.

I am reminded that the Lord has crafted His handiwork, and the maintenance of our bodies is a shared stewardship. While I should care for His temple with the diligence of one loaned an antique car, I also have to remember that He is the Chief Mechanic and Great Physician. We are called to pray for God’s will to be done on Earth as it is in Heaven, because the will of God is not the rule on this dirt world. God gave authority over this world to Adam, and man has been running the way of sin, decay, and death ever since. The Son of God and Son of Adam, Yeshua (Jesus), was born to combine the power of Heaven with the authority of Earth, and we as heirs were given permission to wield that powerful authority with prayer. It is precisely this miraculous combination that we celebrate at Christmas and, as Christians, every day in prayer. Thank you for fortifying my position with your prayers. My hope is for full remission after my loved one's treatments are complete, that I may be spared spinal surgery, and that a hernia repair will not interfere with my new job.

I am an ICU nurse by the will and design of God - the Lord of Heaven’s armies, and He will resource my development. For where the Lord guides, He provides!