It all started with us discussing what we are going to do after our DTS is over. A couple of the girls were stressing about what to do, because they have no clue (oh what a familiar feeling!). And that turned into talk about hearing God speak to us. We learned about it on our first week here. We had been sent outside to spend time with God and listen to Him speak. But, it turns out, a lot of us struggle with hearing God's voice. We have been feeling isolated, thinking that we were the only ones who couldn't hear or even sense God speaking to us. I am included in this group of people who are struggling in this area. That first week, with Kathy, it was great! I did hear God speaking to me. I've heard Him before in my life, like when I decided to come here to Wisconsin. I didn't really want to come. I like being at home. I like my family and friends over there! But one day in church, in the middle of the sermon, I had a thought that I knew was God, which simply said "You are going to Wisconsin". Which was what I had been trying to decide. So it isn't like I have never heard God before. But in the past few weeks, it seems like everyone is saying "God told me this" while I am sitting there struggling to hear His voice, and becoming discouraged because I cannot. So last night, when one of the other girls admitted this to us, I completely understood what she was feeling... I am going through the same struggles! And one by one, almost everyone in the room admitted that they were feeling the exact same way and struggling the exact same thing. Only each of us had felt alone in the struggle! It was just like Lea, one of our speakers last week, had said on Friday: it is so so important to talk to others about your struggles and questions and sins, because a) once you say it out loud to someone, it loses its power over you and the enemy loses that approach to attack you, and b) you can learn that you are not alone in your struggle and even those who do not share it can encourage you and pray for you, or hold you accountable. This became so obvious to us when we learned that almost every single person was struggling with the exact same problem.
It was about then that we realized what is really happening- spiritual warfare. Satan does not like what is happening here in this old elementary school in the middle of nowhere near Columbus, Wisconsin. So he is putting doubts and negative thoughts into our heads. He's not very creative, though... He is putting the same thoughts and doubts into all of our heads. Even when it came to simply coming here for DTS... shortly before arriving or even after coming, a lot of people questioned why they were doing this, and if they should just not do it at all. God has big plans for this group of young people gathered here, and the enemy clearly doesn't like it. On Friday, in class, we made a covenant between ourselves and God that we would strive to have a pure heart and become strong in the Lord, together as a community. And that we would strive for unity. We made it very clear to the spiritual world what we are about and what we plan on doing. And the warfare became more intense for people after that. So please keep us all in your prayers as we deal with that and stand up to the enemy! Some of us (myself included) do not know very much about spiritual warfare (like, as in, I don't know anything about it, really) so it is hard to know what to do. One girl in particular is extremely afraid, which gives Satan a foothold and so she has been attacked particularly hard.
As a group, once we had finished our discussion, we prayed and then departed for bed. So all of the girls who had been there gathered in the bathroom to brush our teeth and such. And somehow we ended up talking for another 40 minutes (girls, I suppose...) because some girls were struggling with spiritual attacks right then. So we prayed right there in the bathroom before going off to bed.
It was almost 1:30 by the time I actually crawled into bed, and I was tired. But I could not sleep. I just felt God pushing me to pray for our school and for my one friend in particular, the one who is extremely afraid about spiritual warfare. She sleeps in the bed across from me, and I normally sleep facing the wall. But last night, I felt God pushing me to sleep facing her and just pray over her for a good 5 or 10 minutes, and then over the school as a whole (its pretty ironic that I was struggling with hearing God speak to me, but as soon as we talked about it and our mutual struggles with it, I felt Him pushing me to do things! I still am having struggles with differentiating my own thoughts from God, but its a learning process! Please pray that I will grow in that area and learn to recognize God's voice!). So I lay in my bed and just pleaded with God to protect our school and send His angels to surround us and that we would not let the devil get any foothold and that we would know how to stand up against him. So I prayed for probably somewhere between half an hour and an hour, just repeating the same thing over and over and over until I felt peace. And then I could finally sleep.
Spiritual warfare is something I don't know very much about. I don't think we've ever talked about it at my church. I never ever have thought about it, up until this past spring. I don't know why, but all of a sudden, this spring, I had an avid interest in spiritual warfare. I talked to people about it at work quite a few times, because I wanted to know more about it. Like my friend, the thought of demons and things happening around me that I can't see kind of freaked me out. But after talking about it, I realized that I shouldn't be afraid, because not only does that give the enemy more power over me, but I also serve an awesome, powerful God who has already defeated the devil. Anyway, looking back now, I believe that God put spiritual warfare on my heart way back in May in order to prepare me for this fall, when I would experience a lot of it. I didn't realize it at the time, but God knows what He is doing. :)
So that is what has been going on in the spiritual realm around here. I'll try to talk about what else has happened soon. Maybe later today, maybe tomorrow.... and maybe in like a week because writing is hard. I get too distracted by wanting to be social :P
Again, just please keep me and the DTS in your prayers. Thank you!
Blessings,
Katie
Ephesians 10-18
Here are a few of us on our hike at Devil's Lake yesterday.... an amazing view! I will hopefully have a few more pictures later on!
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