Night Terror

This is a true story.

Whether or not it was real is unknown.

Let me explain.

My church periodically offers special Bible studies on various topics, ranging anywhere from a study on the book of Acts to the prayer of Jabez. Currently, I am nearing the end of a study on spiritual warfare. I have also been reading a couple of Frank Peretti’s earlier works (This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness) which depict this kind of warfare quite vividly. While Peretti’s works may use a bit of dramatic license, I have always believed spiritual warfare is real. The experience I am about to tell you about has merely confirmed it.

I awoke a few nights ago, quite suddenly, from a deep sleep. A sense of fear gripped me, as I could neither see or move. I couldn’t even breathe. There was a dark presence around and I knew it was not benevolent. My only thought was, “As soon as you can, call out to God. As soon as you can, call out to God.”

I don’t remember ever saying anything out loud, but I vividly remember asking God to help me. As I felt the paralyzing grip slightly weaken, I commanded the demons “In the name of Jesus Christ to leave this house.” Then I remembered my brother Curt. He lives in the apartment directly above mine, and I began to be afraid that once this evil presence left it would just go and harrass him.

I changed my command. “In the name of the son of the living God, Jesus Christ, I command you to leave this building.” I repeated this at least once more. Whether my command was audible to human ears, I’ll never know. I may have been in that place halfway between sleep and awake, or my voice may have simply been too weak to hear. Either way, the power of the name of Jesus Christ could not be denied. The grip weakened. The fear began to leave. If it was a demonic presence, I believe there were more than one as they did not all leave immediately. One seemed to want to linger until I repeated the command a final time. I now felt at peace.

I fell back asleep almost immediately, but I’m pretty sure I was thanking God as I slipped back into full unconsciousness. Not wanting to be neglectful, I made sure to thank him throughout the day, too.

I’ll never know if I was completely awake for this. I can’t deny this was only a dream, but I cannot and will not confirm that it was. It felt real. I could feel the mattress beneath me and the heavy comforter on top of me. I knew where I was, and there were none of the usual dream trappings of changing scenery or feelings of weightlessness or anything to help me identify the experience as anything other than real. In fact, the only reason I can even suspect that this might have been a dream is that fact that I did not hear my own voice at any point. If Curt had been woken by me shouting, he never told me, and there is no reason that he wouldn’t.

I maintain that the experience was real. Whether it happened when I was awake or asleep, I really don’t care. I felt the oppression of demonic attack and repelled it with the name of my savior, Jesus Christ. In the end, that’s what’s important.