Spiritual Warfare

It wasn’t until I was in Sudan that I truly grasped how real Satan is. In the midst of spiritual warfare God convicted me that I was not spending enough time with Him. If I want to grow as a child of God I must be dedicated to spending time in His word and lis-tening for His voice in prayer.
One morning our team held a prayer conference for Thiec Nhaialic (The Ask God Prayer Army). As Dr. Katie led the discussions and exercises on prayer, she shared three visions which God has given her for the Jieng people.
The first was of an old woman. “This old woman is one of Satan’s ser-vants,” she stated. “She is watching the Jieng people and she is reporting their activities back to Satan.”
The second vision is a vision of an army of men. Katie explained that the army is also from Satan. They have no weapons but they are on the move and they are coming quickly to attack the Jieng people. The final vision is of a huge
rock. This rock is in between the Jieng people and God. Dr. Katie further ex-plained that only the Jieng people will be able to identify and move this rock.
After explaining the visions, I was shocked by the eerie sense of complacency and disinterest which the people exhibited. My heart filled with fear for the future. Suddenly, I felt un-safe, I could sense that Satan was at work. I began praying over this fear and that God would send his Spirit to protect the Jieng people.
Transitioning to meditative prayer, Katie asked everyone to be silent and listen to God. Piercing the silence, a young woman broke out in song and the participants swiftly joined her. While the words of the song ex-pressed worship to God it distracted us all from hearing God’s voice.
While Dr. Katie re-explained the purpose of the exercise to the team and explicitly asked for complete si-lence, the American team spread out among the room praying over all of the people and the building. As everyone entered into a time of listening to God, I felt sudden sharp pains all over my body as though someone was stabbing me with needles. Concentrating on Christ and thinking about the cross I rebuked all evil and slowly the pain subsided.
Hearing the singing once again I opened my eyes and was disturbed to see a woman shaking violently in the corner. To my left a man began crying out in an angry aggressive tone and another woman behind me began con-vulsing and singing as before. All of these distractions brought great discomfort and fear into the room. As Dr. Katie said, “Satan is trying to prevent us from hearing God.”
In an effort to suppress any evil and summon God’s powerful presence, several of our team members began praying over the three previously men-tioned individuals.
Once back at the compound I asked Dr. Katie about what I had seen and felt. She confirmed that it was not of God. “God is a God of control,” she said. What I felt that day was not con-trol it was evil. In team debriefing we talked about how Satan’s presence had been in our midst and we entered a time of prayer for our own spiritual cleansing and for the cleansing of the building and the people who we would be holding the conference with the following day.
Through this experience Satan proved his power. I have never experi-enced evil in such a way, and it shocked me and opened my eyes. But through it all God showed me that He is more powerful than Satan and that He conquers all.

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 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.” – Ephesians 6:10-12

As the community danced for us, this woman depicted the devil and the army of God danced around her dispelling her power driv-ing her away.