Less than two weeks ago, we put the kids to bed after a full and very long day. Things were going fine until suddenly they weren’t.
Because totally without warning, our little Thai girl went from smiling to being under demonic attack.
I saw nothing in the room but without a doubt there was an unwelcome presence there.
I watched her instantly grow terrified as she stared at something I couldn’t see. She began muttering frantically and then quickly escalated to screaming.
I asked her what was going on and she yelled (into the translator), “Things are happening!!”
I was praying from the moment awareness struck. There were demons in our house and we hadn’t invited them.
I ran and told my 18 yo son what was happening and asked him to join me in prayer. Then I ran back.
At one point, her little body was pressed hard up against the rail of her bed as she screamed and swatted at that which was invisible to my eye.
Finally, I screamed into the room rebuking the evil instead of praying quietly as I had been. I wanted my voice to be heard by the intruders but her little head shot around and her eyes were wide as saucers.
She clearly thought I could see them and it seemed to momentarily shake her even more. But then things began to calm and she went from screaming in terror to sobbing in my arms.
And all I kept thinking was how horrible it was that there are people everywhere who don’t know the God who can overpower all evil.
Spirits are real, yes. But they have NO strength in the face of the God of Creation.
In America we tend to just turn a blind eye to such darkness. We don’t encounter it so blatantly very often so we’ve convinced ourselves it doesn’t exist.
Or that, at the very least, it doesn’t bother with us as long as we don’t dabble in the occult.
But here it’s different.
Here these precious people seem to be keenly aware of the darkness but not informed about the Light.
My heart hurts for any child, or adult for that matter, who encounters such evil without the means to confront it.
I imagined this precious little girl laying in that slum, with no parent in sight and no knowledge of God. And I saw, in my mind’s eye, the evil one draw near to her with nobody there to rebuke him.
I can’t help but think sometimes how ridiculous we are.
Sitting around caught up in our own pettiness. Fighting battles that are meaningless. Taking hard stands on issues that create dissension rather than seeking with our whole selves to find unity of purpose.
There’s a world out there that’s dying to know what we know and they don’t even know they need to know it.
It’s tragic. And it’s also narcissistic.
Because if we could just get over ourselves for a minute and stop worrying about being right or having our way or not being required to “give over” and do that which we don’t want to do, we might just accomplish the work God gave us.
We might even bring hope to a people desperately in need of it.
There’s darkness pressing in all around us. Agents of evil working to instill fear, create dissension, and tear apart relationships.
If we’re wise, we will avoid EVERYTHING that gives the devil access to us, and that includes worshiping at the altar of self.
Let’s bring the offering that Abel did ... the offering of obedience in a life emptied of “me”.
Because if we’re really careful and super intentional, we could each help at least one person to go to bed tonight knowing what they didn’t know when they woke this morning.
One person.
One person who will never again have to fight darkness without the Light.