A suffocating weight settled on my chest as I lay in bed. It was as though a heavy blanket of darkness was being pulled up my body. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move, couldn’t escape. I’m usually pretty confident in prayer and decently good with words. But that night I couldn’t even formulate a prayer beyond the name of Jesus. “Jesus. Jesus. Jesus.” I stuttered weakly into the night. My heart cried out, “Jesus! Be with me. Save me.”

Slowly, more slowly than I thought it should take, the heaviness dissipated, the blanket lifted. I drew a deep breath. The name of Jesus was proved (yet again) greater than the darkness. 

We were at a home for single mothers and trafficked women in Fiji. We traveled there quite often and each time felt some sort of spiritual warfare. There, girls were breaking free from darkness and bondage to hope and light. It’s no wonder Satan tried to stop it. 

I spoke with one of the founders, asking her perspective on spiritual warfare there. She spoke of women willingly going to meet with Fijian spirits, who left these girls bruised on the outside and broken inside. And yet the girls kept going back for more abuse.  

She also spoke of campus prayer meetings regularly being disrupted by demon possessions. Terrifying, right? Actually, not at all. The leaders had learned there was nothing to be afraid of. God is greater! They would move these girls to another place to pray for deliverance, rather than allowing the demon possession to disrupt prayer and Bible study in the main room. It was a side issue to deal with, not the main focus. God alone is the main thing! 

The founder compared these demonic manifestations to a child's temper tantrums (used to get attention or get their own way); the kind of situation where you have to ignore the child and move on. The best thing was not to give undue attention to the demon’s behavior, or to focus on the darkness, but rather to attack the darkness by focusing on the truth. They had learned to recognize spiritual warfare but not to fear it. 

There is nothing to fear. Spiritual warfare is real, but it’s not the main issue. Keep God the focus and the darkness dissipates!