Author: Uche Izuora

When Anne left Juba for Yei, she said she had been given an eight-day “holiday” by the spirits she believed controlled her life. But when she arrived in Yei, her family insisted that she must not return to Juba.

Her family knew nothing about the strange world Anne said she had become involved with. But according to her, their decision greatly angered her “spirit husband” and the other beings associated with him.

Soon, she said, the spirits began visiting her in Yei and oppressing members of her family. Then came an ultimatum: she must return to Juba by November 4, 2011.

An Unexpected Intervention
Around this time, a brother in our church had a vision in which he saw Anne and two other young women in great danger. He shared it with me, and I encouraged him to prayerfully visit Anne and share the Gospel of Jesus with her.

He did, and returned with a disturbing story of his own.

While ministering to Anne that evening, he found himself overwhelmed by sexual temptation toward her. Anne then confronted him with what she said the spirits were telling her—“This preacher is weak.”

Shaken, the brother admitted that while trying to minister to her, his own mind had become polluted with lust.

The encounter deeply unsettled him. He asked us to pray for his protection and for his family. But I encouraged him not to retreat in fear. I asked him to return and bring Anne to us.

He did.

And our first ministry session with Anne began.

Exposing the Lies
Anne tried to keep her story brief, but from her responses, expressions and gestures, it was obvious that she was deeply confused and afraid. As we listened, we began walking her through several biblical truths.

First, we explained that the beings she described were not friends sent to help her.

From our understanding of Scripture, we told her that deceptive spirits are fallen beings, enemies of God whose purpose is not to give life but to deceive and destroy.

Anne immediately responded that these spirits had repeatedly told her that God was wicked and wanted to destroy her life.

Because of what they had told her, she had stopped praying and had not entered a church since these encounters began.

We showed her from Scripture that deception is one of Satan’s oldest weapons and that Satan himself can masquerade as an “angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14).

Slowly, she began to recognize the contradiction, beings who appeared beautiful and offered prosperity had also filled her life with fear, bondage and hostility toward God.

Second, we talked about her sudden prosperity.

Anne believed that these spirits had somehow been connected to the extraordinary growth of her business. We took her to Matthew 4:8–9, where Satan offered Jesus the kingdoms of the world in exchange for worship.

Anne then told us something disturbing. She believed many young people were being drawn into similar spiritual bondage through their desperate pursuit of wealth. She also claimed to know other young women in Yei whom she encountered on “the other side.”

But now the questions began pouring out of her:

“Why me?”

“How did they make me disappear and reappear on this side?”

“Why do these spirits hate God so much?”

“Why are they afraid of Jesus and praying people?”

And perhaps the most important question:

“Can God still forgive me and prosper me?”

Those questions opened the door for us to present the Gospel.

The Greater Deception
Third, we explained that Scripture presents rebellious spiritual powers as already condemned (Matthew 25:41).

Anne believed this. She told us that these beings had tormented her repeatedly and threatened her life several times.

Then we came to perhaps the most difficult part of the conversation—her son.

Anne maintained that her son had died and had been buried. Yet she also insisted that whenever she went to “the other side,” she saw him there.

We told her plainly: if her son had truly died and been buried, then whatever she was encountering and identifying as her son could not simply be assumed to be the child she had buried. We believed she was being deceived by something presenting itself in a familiar form.

This troubled her deeply.

“But he is growing,” she insisted. “He is growing like other children. How can he not be my son?”

We could not explain every detail of what Anne believed she had experienced. To her, these encounters were vivid and real. But we did not need to understand every mystery before pointing her toward the One we believed could set her free.

Then She Encountered a Different Kind of Love

This became the turning point. We presented to Anne a clear picture of the love of God.

The Gospel rests upon this extraordinary truth: God loved us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8).

Anne began to see the contrast. The “spirit husband” she described was possessive. He controlled her. He threatened her. He claimed her body and demanded her loyalty through fear.

Jesus was different. He wasn’t inviting her through terror but through love. He was calling her away from bondage and toward Himself.

The contrast became unmistakable.

The grip that this other world appeared to have upon her began to loosen as she encountered the gentle, saving love of Jesus Christ.

Finally, Anne said she wanted Him, and we began to pray.

Jehovah, the Man of War
After hours of ministering to this young woman, we witnessed what we understood to be a remarkable work of God in her life.

There was prayer.

There was confession.

There was renunciation.

There was resistance.

And, eventually, there was peace.

We remembered the words of Moses, “The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.” Exodus 15:3

Anne confessed Christ, renounced the spiritual relationships that had held her in fear, and emerged from that long session with a freedom and peace we had not seen in her when she arrived.

But we know that one dramatic encounter is not the end of discipleship.

It is the beginning.

We have therefore started a special daily discipleship journey with Anne. She needs to become deeply rooted in Scripture, grow in her understanding of who she is in Christ, learn to recognize truth from deception, and become established within the community of believers.

Please pray for Anne.

Pray that Abba Father will perfect the work He has begun in her. Pray that she will become firmly established in Christ and that fear will no longer rule her life. Pray also that her testimony will become an instrument through which others living under similar fear and bondage can encounter the freedom of Jesus.

And please pray for us as we minister in this environment, that God will give us wisdom, discernment, humility and courage, and strengthen us with might by His Spirit.

For ultimately, this story is not about the power of darkness., it is about the greater power, mercy and love of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah!

I was quite surprised, on returning here in Yei—South Sudan, to witness and hear reports of what appears to be an increase in disturbing spiritual activity since my last visit. Stories abound, from alleged demonic abductions of adults and women reporting sexual assaults by mysterious giant men, to troubling patterns of sexual seduction among teenagers. Some days, you simply do not know what you will hear next.

Barely 48 hours after I arrived, my phone rang. One of my disciples urgently needed me to come and help with a deliverance situation. It was already 9:30p.m. A young girl in his neighborhood was manifesting in a way those around her could neither understand nor handle.

We have encountered many situations like this before, in different forms, but the apparent increase has become a matter of serious concern.

Then came Anne.

Anne, not her real name, shared a story that left us with many questions. Before we prayed with her yesterday, she sat with me and two other brothers and recounted what she described as repeated encounters with visitors from another world.

Anne arrived in Yei a few weeks ago from Juba, where she had lived for about three years. Originally from Yambio, a growing town in southwestern South Sudan, she was then a single mother in her mid-to-late twenties.

Desperate to make a better life for herself, she moved around Juba looking for an opportunity. One day, she found five Sudanese pounds on the road. Instead of spending it, she invested it in roasting and selling fresh corn. According to her, by the end of that day she had made fifty-five Sudanese pounds.

The following day, she used the money to buy a carton of beer to resell. Business moved incredibly fast. She said she eventually sold nine cartons that same day. Before long, she had acquired a bar, and within weeks the business was booming.

It was a welcome breakthrough, but, in her telling, something strange soon followed.

One evening, she returned home to the single room she shared with her young son and found the entire room illuminated by a light whose source she could not identify. There were no shadows anywhere.

Terrified, she ran outside and called others to come and see it. They entered the room but saw nothing unusual. She alone could see the mysterious light.

Eventually, she gathered enough courage to remain in the room and lie down to sleep.

Then, she said, a huge, unusually tall white man appeared before her, his body glowing intensely. According to Anne, he reached for her son, and the boy died immediately. She was overwhelmed.

After her son’s burial, Anne said she began seeing the mysterious man more frequently. He told her that if she wanted to see her son again, she would have to follow him to what she called “the other side.”

She said she did.

And there, she claimed, she saw her son again.

She was warned that no one was to know what she had seen or heard.

According to Anne, these visits became increasingly frequent. In time, she said, one of the men there took her as his wife, and she had three children with him, two boys and a girl. She described this man, and others like him, as extremely jealous and possessive. He would not permit her to have sexual relations with another man.

She said this had continued for more than two years.

Anne also claimed that there were many children and adults on “the other side.” What particularly struck me was the way she described its beauty. Each time she spoke about it, there was a strange mixture of wonder and fear in her expression. She insisted that from her first encounter she knew this place was not of this world, even though life there seemed, in some ways, strangely familiar.

I asked her, “How do you get there?”

She motioned with her hands as though something were opening before her.

“They open the gates for you,” she said. “One of them walks in front and another behind. Then the gate opens and we enter.”

She paused before continuing.

“The chairs there are made of gold. There are so many beautiful things there, and beautiful people with spotless skin.”

We listened.

And then came the question that mattered most—How could Anne be set free from something that, according to her, had held her for more than two years?

That is where the next part of her story begins.

Read the concluding part tomorrow.

“The LORD shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall prevail against his enemies.”
—Isaiah 42:13