Fighting the Darkness
Well, the op I had was quite a serious one. For the first few days after the op, I was completely out of it. Family came to see me and left quite shaken because I looked so bad. And there were times where I thought, I don't know if I'm going to pull through here. And when the family thought, I don't know if this guy's going to pull through here. It was touch and go for a few moments there at the beginning.
Battling the Darkness
I remember a few days in, I was in the high care and I started to get quite depressed. In fact, a real sense of darkness began to overwhelm me. Now I understand that I was on some pretty heavy painkillers, but I think that the physical and the spiritual are pretty much intertwined a lot of the time. And so as this darkness began to take over me, I recognized this is some spiritual warfare going on here.
Every time I closed my eyes, I started to see dark, evil images. I couldn't control them. I wasn't trying to think of anything. They just started overwhelming my mind. I could feel myself actually slipping into a bad place.
My family came to visit and I asked them to pray with me, and that was very powerful. And then I asked my family to get in touch with a few of my prayer warrior friends and just tell them what was going on, to really lean into prayer for me on that night.
Power of Prayer
Well, a few hours later I was still struggling, feeling very overwhelmed, feeling this great sense of oppression. And I started to wrestle in prayer and I started to actually get quite aggressive in prayer. I mean, I was lying flat on my back. I couldn't move, but with my eyes closed I was wrestling with God, saying, "Lord, I will not let this darkness overwhelm me."
Some words of Scripture came to mind, in John's gospel that says, "The light shines in the darkness and the darkness can never overcome." (John 1:5) And so I started to pray this, say, "Lord, don't let the darkness overcome me. Come, Lord, let it lift, let it lift." At the same time my prayer warrior friends were praying, and one of them told me later she had a sense that I was drifting away, that I was being pulled down. Then there was this release. I was praying and praying and praying.
And suddenly from the bottom of my sight, my eyes closedโfrom the bottom, a white light took over and moved up, up, up, up, up, pushed all the darkness away.
And once all the darkness was gone, there was a silhouette standing there.
I opened my eyes and it was gone.
And for the rest of my time in hospital, there was no sense of oppression or darkness like that. It was quite an incredible experience.
Light Overcomes Darkness
I'm telling you this because it reminded me that spiritual warfare is real, that we have an enemy who is trying to get us and when we're down, he kicks us. And when we're at our worst, he comes for us even harder.
But if we persevere in prayer, and we pray hard and wrestle with God in prayer, and if we gather people around us who will pray with us and for us, then even the darkest attacks like that have no power, because God's power is greater.
Whatever you're going through, friends, take heart today that there's a light in the world, and His name is Jesus, and the darkness cannot overcome the light. Hold on to Him. Lean into Him. Pray ferociously to Him in your dark moments.
And oh I pray that just like I experienced, the light will overwhelm the darkness in your life and you'll be free. Praise God for my moment, and I can't wait to hear you praising God for similar moments.
