Written Confession: Spiritual Battle at Summer Camp

The following written confession was submitted via email:

…I just finished listening to your interview with Pastor Daniel in 541 and there were just too many coincidences to not reach out… Like Daniel, I was put into a situation that - frankly - I wasn’t prepared for, but the Lord stepped up in a huge way. Unlike Daniel, however - my church tried to sweep it all under the rug and refused to talk about it. To summarize the encounter - the necessary context is that my church hosted a summer camping trip for the youth ministry every year. I was a staff member and led one of the small groups (we split up by tent clusters). After a particularly good sermon that talked about spiritual warfare, the conversation in our group eventually came to demons. While none of the kids really engaged beyond simple questions, one fellow youth leader did. He asked if we could speak after the kids went to bed. I agreed, and not long after we were alone in a field between the camp sites. He told me about how he knew of several people in our fellowship that were playing with Demons and how he was present when there was an invitation. It was after that he told me that he was possessed, and things took a turn. There was some back and forth between us, but then it got really intense when he asked me if I wanted to know its name. His eyes started to black over, and his voice changed completely. I knew I was in over my head, but tried to tell the demon to leave. Its response was to say that, “No, [guy] is mine.” Immediately after it said that, I felt like I got pushed into the back of my own mind. I started moving and talking, but it wasn’t me. I heard myself say, “No, he’s mine,” and then my hand pushed this other guys chest and immediately we were both back in our own normal states. There was your expected emotional reaction to it, and I felt completely drained. Struck by lightning. We went to go sit by the fire pit nearby, and then I felt a comforting hand on my shoulder and a voice say to me, “Everything’s going to be alright.” I just know it was the holy spirit. The crazy thing to me was that this campground wasn’t that isolated, and we definitely weren’t quiet. While we were talking the field got darker and darker, and on the perimeter I could see shadow people. But after the hand pushed out the demon, everything snapped back into place. After listening to your show, I’ve come to believe that we slipped through into the spiritual plane a bit, and the whole encounter happened there. It’s the only thing that makes sense to why no one came out to investigate, and why no one heard us when I asked the next day…