Contemporary Experience of Spiritual Warfare in Prayer
Several Bible college students lived in rooms in the upstairs of a large private home of a Christian family. On some evenings they would gather in one of the rooms for prayer. As they prayed together one evening, Lester, the son of the landlord and also a student, sat downstairs playing the piano. His mother encouraged him to go upstairs and pray with the young boarders.
“Oh, Mother,” he responded, “I have this piano lesson to prepare, and other school lessons. I just don’t have time.” Nevertheless, in a few minutes he left the piano and joined the prayer meeting. Not a word was passed among the praying students, but at the precise moment Lester joined them, a heavy sense of spiritual warfare swept through the room, almost as though the very demons of hell had entered. So strong was the sense that one of the young men ran to the stairway landing and called to Lester’s mother for help.
“Plead the blood of Jesus, and keep on praying,” she instructed.
Following her advice, the men continued in prayer; in a short while the demonic oppression was lifted, and once again the atmosphere became calm and peaceful. No one seemed to know what to make of the strange experience until a week later when Lester related to the college chapel his remarkable experience. After he had decided not to join the others in prayer, he felt strongly urged to do so. He told of the awful battle with evil forces which raged as he obeyed the impression; and that in that prayer meeting he was miraculously freed from something he had battled for two years.