The presence of evil was so real I could literally feel it. I was walking alone down a dark forest road. I looked behind me to see if somebody was following me, and fear gripped my heart. I couldn’t see anybody. The thought came to me that maybe the devil was stalking me, and I was helpless to resist him. In that moment, I felt my weakness and powerlessness as almost never before in my life, and I knew my only hope was in the protection of Jesus. I called aloud to Him in my desperation, and immediately I knew my prayer was heard, and peace and calm returned. For the rest of my prayer walk that evening, I was free from fear and rejoiced in the power of Jesus to save me from spiritual attacks.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this episode is that it did not occur in Africa or some other place we normally associate with such experiences. This happened to me this spring in Norway. In fact, I have had several experiences in the last three months that have shown me we are in a very real spiritual war even before we enter the mission field in Benin.

Now we are in our 11-week summer training here at the new AFM Training Center, and I have come to understand my experiences even better. Growing up in American Adventism, I was taught intellectually that both God and the devil are real and they can interact with human lives, but that knowledge did not reach very deeply into my heart. Now, having had powerful emotional experiences of my own, I know as never before that there are many unseen forces around us, both good and evil. In Benin, we will be entering a whole new stage of spiritual warfare, and we will be interacting with people for whom the spiritual realm is very real and close. Now I know a little bit of what they go through, and I know Jesus truly is powerful enough to overcome the forces of evil.

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