Encountering the enemy in Romania

Last month our whole squad was living together in Romania. Our ministry host talked about the spiritual warfare in the region we were living in at our orientation, but I just brushed it off, not thinking too much of it.

About a week into ministry, a handful of my squad-mates were sick, another handful had been having terrible nightmares, and almost everyone was feeling this heavy darkness. We came together to pray over the house, call out demons and darkness, and declare our house as God’s holy ground. Some people prayed over the outside of the house, others went to each room and anointed the doors with oil, and some even prayed over each bed.

But not much changed. People were continuing to have nightmares, more people were getting sick, and the inner-darkness still loomed. Our squad came together and one girl said she felt like God was calling us to pray in unity, as one body. She said that she felt God highlight me to pray for all of us. So our squad joined hands and stood together and I prayed for all of us. And then we all said amen and went to bed.

Previous to that night, I had felt a slight darkness but wouldn’t say I had felt spiritually-attacked. Overall, I was doing fine. But that night, I woke up and felt like I had mosquitoes biting away at my legs. So I swatted and itched, but I was so tired that I just went back to sleep. A couple hours later I woke up again and felt like I had mosquitoes or ants or something crawling inside of my clothes, biting my stomach and arms and legs. It got so bad that I literally took off my shirt and pants.

The next day I woke up and one of my roommates asked me how I slept and I told them about the bugs. Every single one of my six roommates said they didn’t get bit once. As I looked at my arms and legs and barely saw any bug bites, I realized it was an attack from the enemy.

I was kind of freaked out, especially because I didn’t even realize it was spiritual warfare while it happened and it felt so real. But as I got to pray over our room and my squad and myself, God revealed a powerful message to me. He reminded me of something we asked God to do our lives before we left for the race. We asked God to refine us into gold. The process of refining gold is intense. It starts with some pounding and crushing, then it is washed and cleansed, and finally it is put into a furnace where it melts at extreme temperatures to get the deepest impurities out. Then you repeat! 

I asked God to refine me into gold, to pound and cleanse and sift and burn the sinful nature out of me. But as soon as a trial came my way, I prayed that He would take it away! So, I decided to change my prayer.

Instead of praying for relief, I prayed for strength. Instead of praying for an escape, I prayed for perseverance. Instead of complaining to God, I thanked Him. I found in 1 Peter 4:19, “So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you.” It doesn’t say pray that God would take away your pain and He will make it disappear …nope. It says trust your life to God and continue doing good.

Colossians 1:24 says, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body…” This is Paul. The Paul who was imprisoned and beaten with rods and pelted with stones…and what he is saying? He wants more! As Paul endured more and more suffering for Christ he felt a deeper connection to Jesus, who had suffered so much for him.

My prayer for the rest of the race (and the rest of my life) is that when I find myself in the valley, in the midst of a trial, I would remember these words. I pray that I will turn to God with thanks instead of distress. I will choose to rejoice, that I might come to know Jesus deeper and more personally as I share in His sufferings – even in the smallest of ways. Now comes the hard part – bringing it from my head to my heart. But I’m gonna let Jesus work that one out. 

Love y’all, 

Em

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