“All We Need is Love”-Really???

Is that truly all we need? Try telling that to my 12 year old daughter. I am sure she will let you know God is all we need. I am known for speaking what is on my mind so here goes nothing new. I have been praying about this one for a good year now and feel that I need to be sharing it. The good Lord needed to give me a lot of nudging on this one. A little past history, I grew up in the Christian Reformed Church and I was definitely not taught about what I am going to say. Frankly back then, I think the response would have been: “We should check her into Pine Rest”. Do not get me wrong, there is certainly a time and place to seek that type of help but I believe wisdom and discernment also need to be used. Truth be told, I have used their counseling services a couple times and I am thankful I did. Anyways…

A year to this month, we saw a quick onset of really strange behavior coming from our oldest on a weekend in September. Yes, it did cross our minds that we may need to look at Pine Rest. I had a gut feeling there was more going on though. By that Sunday evening it became evident that my gut feeling was correct. Bruce had sat down with her and started reading the Bible. She had just laid her head down and closed her eyes and promptly sat up screaming “the eyes, the eyes!!, call ______”. When I say screaming, I mean it was so loud we thought all the neighbors on our cul-de-sac would hear. This was 9 o’clock at night and I felt bad for calling him as I know being a pastor he was probably tired from working all day but we could tell we needed to call him as she was specifically asking for him. Not knowing at the time how familiar he was with spiritual warfare (as I had only read books and that was the extent of my knowledge) I kept repeating over and over, "This isn’t Western Christianity, this isn’t Western Christianity". When he arrived he let me know he was very much aware of what I meant and no need to explain. On his way over he had also put out a prayer request to prayer warriors available on a moment’s notice. He asked Bri a few questions to confirm the situation and he proceeded to pray over her. By the time he was done she was extremely tired but when you are in a battle of course it is going to tire you out! Over the next week she needed a lot of affirmation and we spent many nights reading the Bible to her while she fell asleep.

No issues after that and we thought it was a one and done deal until our first week in Haiti. We sat down to dinner and Bri told me the eyes were back. We were surrounded with Christian believers who had battled fights like this before so we sought their help immediately. They knew exactly what to do and they surrounded Bri with prayer, worship, and armed with scripture. These two situations equipped us for the most part to be able to fight these battles as a family. Our first night on the island we found ourselves having to put what we learned to the test. It was a longer than anticipated and tiring night but we were equipped. The next day we Skyped with a friend we had called the night before. She said she had been up all night thinking about it and educated us more along with providing us with a daily schedule to follow to prevent the attacks. Since then, Bri is now prepared and has fought these battles herself. When asked what she thinks of them, she replies, “It reminds me that God is much bigger.”

If I hadn’t dealt with it myself I may not believe it due to my upbringing, but knowing we were moving to Haiti, I read up on spiritual warfare in case I ran across it. It made me sad that I had a hard time finding people state side that were able to help teach me how to fight these battles. I heard a couple times, “I have never seen that, just look to God and find the answers in the Bible, I am sorry I could not be of more help”. Another response I heard to an offshoot of the question was: “that stuff doesn’t happen anymore, we have the Bible now” (prime Western Christianity response). These answers have been wrenching at my heart for the past year as we need to be ready to go into battle at any time. It gives the childhood song, Onward Christian Soldiers, a whole new meaning to me, but isn’t that what that song is all about? What part of the Bible says that because we have the Bible it doesn’t happen anymore? NONE!!! Do not put God in a box, He is WAY too big for that! As a side note, Voodoo is not just sticking needles in a doll like I was told when I was growing up. No, it is the worshiping of Satan. State side it is more well known as Witchcraft. Satan and demons are real and they like to feed on fear. Thankfully we know the one and only true God is bigger than anything else and we are blessed with already knowing that God wins the end battle. Because of this there is no need to fear. Fear does not come from God, only from dark places.

Two places in the Bible we quickly reference and arm ourselves with are Psalm 91 and Ephesians 6:10-18. I would like to leave with you Ephesians 6:13 - 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 be standing firm.” A Haitian friend pointed out something I never thought of before. He asked, “Why do Americans pray for a hedge of protection? We need full protection here, in Haiti!”

Some of you reading this are probably thinking this is super crazy. I don’t blame you, I used to think that too! I believe that God is calling me to share this and my prayer is that this will help some of you understand more, learn along with me, others to grow in your relationship with God, and that some will feel more comfortable talking about your personal experiences with spiritual warfare as this is truly a real part of life. Not everyone will necessarily need to fight like we needed to but everyone should be armed and ready. We are here to fight the good fight. Onward Christian soldiers!