I finally got to go back to one of my favorite places, Sierra Leone, Africa, to see all my kids and friends. But this trip brought sickness, prayer, and spiritual warfare.
Sickness
If you know my story, I was misdiagnosed by a local hospital and spent 11 days in the hospital (5 of them in the ICU) fighting for my life as malaria ravaged my body. You can read the whole story here and get the full scoop. It’s a pretty cool miracle as there is no medical reason I am alive, but God spared my life. I will wear that suffering with a badge of honor as I like to be part of the “God saved my life” club. I told God I would never stop sharing that story, so please head over to my blog to read all about it.
Something that came out of that experience was trauma, fear and anxiety. Ever since that happened, I cannot watch a hospital scene in a show or movie without crying, like really crying. Also, if someone I know gets sick, anxiety will pop up and rear its ugly head and all the thoughts start rushing in about this person dying. I get aggravated at myself when these thoughts come to mind because I know how to trust God … He saved my life!!!
For the last four years, this is a struggle I have that I did not experience prior to my malaria scare. I have chalked it up to PTSD, but part of me wanted to be reminded of this experience as it strengthened my faith. But when it happens (fear, anxiety), it can be debilitating.
The night before we were leaving for Africa, the anxiety started creeping in, reminding me of what could happen if I go. What if I get malaria again? What if someone gets sick? It was actually making me sick thinking about it! I called my good friend in the wee hours of the morning, and she was encouraging me to go. She kept telling me God uses us there and Satan is just trying to prevent us from doing the work of God. She even said, you may suffer the whole time you’re there, but God calls us to suffer … look at Paul! I will be honest … I was annoyed with what she was saying. Why would I say yes to suffering?
That morning, it was beautiful out and my husband said let’s go for a walk. We needed to decide if I was going or not, because my mind was screaming “STAY HOME!” On that walk, God met me and spoke to me. He told me that those of us who follow Christ WILL suffer. It’s not optional. But what I needed to remember was Christ suffered for me, on a cross dying a horrible death. Feeling anxious, nauseous, and uncomfortable is the least I could do for a Holy God who suffered for me. I want to be more like Paul, who knew exactly what he was getting into when he said yes to Jesus, and he went anyway. I want to learn how to suffer well.
So, on the plane I went. The trip there was rather uneventful. Lots of hours sitting on planes or in airports, but we finally made it there the next evening. I felt fine the first night … slept like a baby and felt fine the next day (Saturday) when we reunited with all those beautiful faces I have grown to love! But Sunday brought sickness. I was having a lot of nausea and headaches and just not feeling well. I ended up staying back as the rest of the team went to church to experience what I think is an awesome church experience.
Prayer
Monday morning our team was expected to leave around 8:30am to head to a village that we hadn’t visited before. A baby church had been planted there about a year and a half ago, so these people are new to the gospel. I was so excited to go and meet the pastor and his wife, but I woke up feeling awful. This caused my anxiety to be at an all-time high, along with feeling extremely nauseous. I couldn’t tell if I was sick because of something physically wrong with me (did I have malaria again?), or just mentally messed up.
What do you do when you feel this bad? Call in prayer warriors to pray over you – and we had lots on our team! A wonderful teammate named Ashlyn sat next to me and asked me lots of questions. A little background on Ashlyn – she received a dream from God a year ago that she would be going to Africa and perform healing miracles. Here she is in Africa. I think maybe the first miracle she performed was on me. She taught me that the fear I was having was a sin … something I have never thought of before. Fear is your lack of trust in God. Fear is a liar and is from Satan. She told me to repent of that sin, which I eagerly did. But, for clarification, not all fear is sin … there is some legitimate fear that doesn’t cause you to sin. If we allow our fear to control us, rather than trust in God, this leads to sin.
For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. – 2 Timothy 1:7
spiritual warfare
Next, she told me that anxiety, fear and trauma may be unclean spirits that need to be cast out. Those things are not of God – they are tools Satan uses to prevent you from doing the will of God. She taught me how to pray, rebuking fear, trauma, and anxiety using the mighty name of Jesus … OUT LOUD! I don’t typically pray like this, so it was new to me, but I wanted to get rid of these things tormenting me and I followed her directions to a T. As she is praying over me, telling these things to leave my body in the name of Jesus, this unbelievable peace washed over me from my head to my toes. It was a very tangible real feeling. The sickness I felt left along with it. My mind was at peace, and my body was at peace. I got up, took a bucket shower, and joined the group on the trip to the village. In the meantime, we were 3 hours late leaving that morning because of car trouble. Even that small detail was orchestrated by God, allowing me time to heal before the team left.
When Ashlyn was teaching me how to pray against spiritual warfare, she said that these demons will try to get back in my head. She told me not to leave my mind open even a crack or they will come back in. Sure enough, that night they reentered through visions and sickness. If I closed my eyes, I would get snippets of visions that were disturbing. I stayed awake all night so I wouldn’t see those visions. The next morning, I told Ashlyn what happened, and she prayed over me, casting them out and speaking the powerful name of Jesus. I knew from that point on I had to recognize this immediately when it happened and speak the name of Jesus myself.
The next few days I seemed to be feeling better. I felt those evil spirits come upon me and immediately rebuked them, out loud, using Jesus’ name. I could tell a huge difference in my mindset, feeling peace instead of torment. I was able to experience with the team many healings take place, and see God work through our team to minister to the people of Sierra Leone.
In Acts 8:5-8 it says: “Philip went to the people of Samaria and told the people there about Christ. Crowds listened intently to what he had to say BECAUSE OF THE MIRACLES HE DID. Many evil spirits were cast out, screaming as they left their victims, and many who were lame were healed, so there was much joy in that city!”
Miracles!
We saw this happen with our own eyes! A young girl had lame legs and had not ever taken a step. When we first arrived in this village, her mother brought her to my husband, who brought her to Ashlyn. Ashlyn and Mike prayed over this young girl laying hands on her and she took her first steps!!! The villagers were chanting “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus” over and over because they did not know any English, and this is what Mike and Ashlyn kept repeating. You can see the video of this miraculous event here.
When the church does what we see in Acts, you see miracles happen. It has been my experience that the church in the western world neglects to teach this part of scripture. Not just teach it but put it into practice. I feel like God had me turn a key, open a door, and see into a world that I knew existed but didn’t really know what it looked like. There is a very active spiritual realm that is going on all around us – angels and demons. It affects us daily, and if we don’t recognize where it comes from, we’ll miss the blessings (angels) and allow the demons to do their dirty work.
demonic deliverance
Francis, the pastor who runs the orphanage, was teaching me all week what deliverance looks like in his country. I knew there were strong demonic powers taking place in Sierra Leone as I’ve heard plenty of stories of these powers at work. But this time, Francis showed me video after video he has taken as he is casting out demons. He takes these videos to show the person who is being attacked what happened during the deliverance as they are unaware. I saw, with my own eyes, demons speaking to him, shrieking at the name of Jesus, just like Luke describes in Acts. Francis asks the demons how they got into this person, and many times it is because of a generational curse – the parents or grandparents dedicated their kids and grandchildren to Satan, sometimes to gain basic necessities like food or water. The demons tell him things no one would know. Many times, this information happened before the person was even born.
Spiritual warfare is a real thing. We experienced it and now I know what it looks like. The good thing is now I know how to combat it. Putting on the armor of God as described in Ephesians 6:10-18 is necessary to combat evil. Look at the world around us … evil is abounding in all kinds of forms. See it for what it is.
The day before we left, my husband went to the school and talked to two classrooms of senior students, encouraging them and sharing the gospel. He then had a meeting with our football (soccer) team (Joy Football Club) encouraging them and also sharing the gospel. He then met with the coach of the football team, and personally shared the gospel with him. After this, he came back to the house and said he wasn’t feeling well. He laid down and got a really high fever. We have no way to know how high the fever was, but it was concerning. He stayed in bed for several hours, got up, felt better, then danced with the kids. That night the fever returned, along with my anxiety in an extreme way. All I could think about was my husband dying in a foreign country. My prayer warriors laid hands on me, praying away all the sickness I was feeling along with fear and anxiety, and Jim’s prayer warriors were laying hands on him. We were a mess! But sharing the gospel 4 times in a matter of hours and extreme sickness lead us all to believe there was some serious spiritual warfare going on.
I have a very long way to go on my spiritual journey. I feel like scales have been removed from my eyes. I am so grateful for a team of people I got to spend 10 days with who are way more spiritually mature than I am, and I can learn from them. It is a gift to hang out with people who make you a better person and a stronger Christian. Surround yourself with those people, then become that person, then surround yourself with people who need it. What if the church looked like it did in Acts … can you even imagine what we could do?! BE THE CHURCH IN ACTS! Don’t wait for others to be that church … YOU be that church! Pray fervently, out loud, and use the powerful name of Jesus. Cast out and rebuke anything that is not of Jesus. Repent. And watch the peace that passes understanding take over your life. It’s life changing.
10 A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. 12 For we[d] are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
13 Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. 14 Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. 15 For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared.[e] 16 In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.[f] 17 Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.[g] – Ephesians 6:10-18
So amazing reading your hours of despair and fear, and the healing that resulted from prayer warriors for your healing emotionally and spiritually .
Thank you for sharing .
Thank you!
It’s amazing how much God can do if you take a leap of faith and follow his call! Imagine if you didn’t go and experience all of this and have this beautiful story to share. I think a lot of people forget that demons and spiritual warfare are real! It happens as often in the US as it does countries. Thanks for sharing your journey!
So so true! Spiritual warfare is everywhere! Put on your armor. 🙂
I know I’ve mentioned it before, but in our spiritual journey God led us to a church that believed in the battle we have between Angels and demons. It was definitely something we were not used to! There were several times we saw people prayed over and demons cast out.
I think of the times Jesus was tempted by Satan and needed to be cast out. That hasn’t ended. There is so much power in the name of Jesus. We need the Spirit to remind us, and overcome those demons of Satan!
God bless you and Jim for your faithfulness. I believe Mom sees these things, and rejoices with Jesus in Heaven! Love you both!♥️ ♥️
I remember that church although I was too young to understand what was going on. As my website title says, Mom inspired me to seek out truth no matter what anyone thinks about you, even if it’s not what everyone else thinks. Be a critical thinker. I’m thankful she put that in me so I’m not afraid to go into places that may be uncomfortable. If she was alive, we’d have some good chats about this. 🙂