Miraculous June #1: Overcoming Nighttime Terrors
A story from my childhood
The Supernatural
My parents were baptized Pentecostal, so I have never been a stranger to the supernatural nature of our world. I feel as though I have lived a life privileged to have just enough knowledge about what one ought to do when encountering the spiritual realm to overcome certain situations in my life, where, without that knowledge, I would be dead either physically or spiritually or both.
Because so few know what to do in situations where the demonic influences you, many believers in Christ feel as though they have no recourse against supernatural darkness. But God created both the invisible realm and the visible realm and is Lord over them both, “…the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not” (John 1:5 KJV).
For by him were all things created which are in heaven, and which are in earth, things visible and invisible: whether they be Thrones, or Dominions, or Principalities, or Powers, all things were created by him, and for him.
Jesus has overcome the world; therefore, by his name, all believers have overcome world.
4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
God has given you, a disciple of Christ, the authority to trample over every evil thing that manifests around you.
17 And the seventy turned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subdued to us through thy Name.
18 And he said unto them, I saw Satan, like lightning, fall down from heaven.
19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on Serpents, and Scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.
20 Nevertheless, in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subdued unto you: but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.
—Luke 10:15-21 GNV, emphasis added
My hope is that you would be encouraged in overcoming these things as I share with you my most supernatural, most miraculous moments of overcoming spiritual darkness, demons and the like. Sometimes, I overcame through how I was trained and raised in being led by Holy Spirit. Other times, I only overcome because of the miraculous nature of God intervening in the situation. This particular situation is the latter.
The Story
My mother and I endured a deep spiritual torment starting the beginning of my eleventh grade year. We were both being tormented by demons in our sleep, but we did not know what the other was enduring until later. In my case, the first 6 weeks of my eleventh grade year, I could not sleep during the week in the slightest. I would lay tossing and turning before having to get up for school, FOR SIX WEEKS I SUFFERED UNNECESSARILY. My mother was also being tormented via “sleep paralysis.” I want you to know that sleep paralysis comes from hell and is not a medical issue. It is demonic torment, and you can overcome through prayer to the one true Living God.
You have to understand that spiritual ailments that afflict you are NOT separate from the physical manifestation. In other words, it doesn’t matter if you can get a medical test showing you the issue in your body and doesn’t matter if you can create a physical treatment plan that makes you better, the visible realm is connected to the invisible realm. Most believers in my sphere refer to the invisible realm as “the spiritual realm” or “the heavenly realms”, so I will use those words interchangeably. A health strategy that pushes back against evil diseases in your body affects your spirit. A spiritual strategy that pushes back against evil attacking you in the invisible realm affects your physical body. I almost always encourage you if you are fighting the manifestation of illness in your body to attack it from BOTH realms, engage in, at least, a two-front war against such things. Then push back also in your mind, the soul-realm, by getting it to submit to the biblical truth. A three-front war is a war that a Christian cannot lose.
5 [Inasmuch as we] refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God; and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One),
—2 Corinthians 10:5 AMPC, emphasis added
It is, however, important to know that the visible is preceded by the invisible realm, meaning that the impact in accomplishing a strategy of attack via prayer, prayer in the spirit, worship, fasting, giving, etc. that moves the spiritual side of the battle is often several times more potent than strategies that singularly come out of the physical realm (also know as “the visible realm”). God will give you strategies to attack what has come against your person, your family, your tribe, and your nation that has a component in both realms if you seek him through prayer and fasting. He desires for you to overcome so that your life will be a testimony of his goodness and a rebuke of the plans and strategies of the enemy.
During the six week stint, I suffered great mental, emotional, physical fatigue. I, a “gifted student,” saw my grades plummet and my desire to continue living squeezed out of me. By the end of that period, I would have accepted any dark deal just to be able to sleep during the week. Needless to say, when the enemy of our souls saw that I was desperate, as always, he came with his enticements.
Strangely, one night during the week, I fell asleep. It was not restful sleep but restless, and I engaged in a dream that modeled the current attack on my life by the enemy. It’s difficult to describe because I didn’t really see anything in the dream as much as felt everything, so I shall share what I felt.
I stood at a precipice, a cliff’s edge, and something dark and evil enticed me. If I just walked off the cliff into that deep darkness, I’d finally get the rest that I had been aching for these past several weeks. But it was more than that, for years now, I had also dealt with depression, so this enticement to dive down into the depths of abyssal darkness was deep, forming over years. It was more than the current bout of sleepless nights making me week. It was the mental torment and anguish built up by anxiety and emotional wounding from events that happened in my life. I was at my breaking point, and the enemy of our souls knew it.
I just wanted the torment to end.
All the insecurities of life that kept me in a cycle of hopelessness and depression and the last several weeks of constant sleeplessness and stress. It could all be over if I stepped into the abyss… So I did. I felt my body begin to fall the deepest that I have every been into the dream world, I didn’t know if I would live. I thought that it would be okay if I died. I was just so tired, and my mind told me that if I just allowed myself to hit the bottom then I would get the rest I was desperate for. It was all happening in this dream, but I felt everything.
Then, strangely something from outside the dream laid it’s hand on me. I was dreaming, and I was in a half-awake, half-sleep phase. So I felt it.
No. Literally.
A cold, firm hand grabbed my right arm in the real world, and I felt it while I was falling into the abyss in the dream. Something supernatural was taking place. With a start, I began pulling out from the dream for fear of what had taken hold of my arm. Years prior, I had learned to wake myself up from bad dreams; however, the pull of this dream was fierce, so I cried out the name of Jesus in the dream. Suddenly, my eyes were just open. No transition, just suddenly awake.
It was dark. I was in my bed. And the lingering feeling of a cool hand was still on my arm…yet no one was there. I breathed in and out slowly, and at that moment, I wasn’t afraid. I was aware that something strange and dangerous had just taken place, but I couldn’t grasp exactly which part was unnerving and which part was peaceful. I felt a inexplicable mix of both as I lay there. At first, because the hand scared me, I thought that part was the bad part, the creepy part, but as I have explained this experience with other Christians, they have pointed out that it was probably an angel stopping me from entering into death through the spell of that dream. These days, I agree with the latter.
I was saved from death that came after me in a dream. It was like I had become so depressed that I chose death in the dream and that would have manifested in real life if I hadn’t been stopped by the hand of an angel, which appeared to me as a deathly cold grip. It wasn’t death; it was life, keeping me from sinking down into the grave. Jesus saved me from death by sending an angel to bring me back to consciousness in my time of distress.
The Solution
When I awoke that morning, I got up early with my mother who was a bus driver. Somehow, we began talking, and I brought up what happened to me. My mother mentioned that she was also attacked spiritually that night. It was that experience when you are lying in bed and you feel a demon sit on your chest (or on/in your bed). The simulacra has labeled that experience as “sleep paralysis”, but if you know anything about casting out demons, Christians can stop this experience by rebuking the devil. My mother called on the name of Jesus and wrestled this thing during the night and won. Then, she heard my experience and became more alarmed.
I finally suggested what I had been thinking about for weeks. Often God will give you the solution to the situation your in, but because you are carnal, you will put it aside and let a problem continue for longer than it ought. My parent had taught me that if we buy some oil and ask God to bless it, then we could anoint the doors and windows of the house and rebuke evil spirits and stop them from tormenting us. We had not prayed over our house in a long time, so I finally suggested what I had been thinking about over this entire 6 week period of sleeplessness to my mother which was to pray over the house in that manner. She agreed that was the solution and told me that I should have told her earlier when I had first heard, which, after the fear that I had experienced, I could not disagree with her.
When we came home, we did just that. We prayed over some oil that we had, in this case olive oil, asking the Lord to bless it. We anointed the doors and windows while commanding that all evil spirits, devils/demons leave, and once it was done, we went to bed.
Shortly after that day, I began to sleep through the night again during the week and all was well for a while.