I am a spiritual person. My spirituality developed from a devout religious upbringing plus my share of trials that developed my faith in God. I am a faithful member of the LDS Church
My first profound experience with evil opposition occurred in my late 20s. Since childhood, I would kneel next to my bed each night to pray. During my late 20s, I noticed that I could not concentrate on my thoughts during prayer; instead, my mind would either wander or go blank. Blank turned to black, so that all I would see in my mind was blackness while I was trying to pray. This situation disturbed me because I had many things I wanted to pray about. I felt a strong blockage in my efforts to connect with God. I began to wonder if I was somehow possessed. This thought was obviously disturbing, especially because I considered myself a good person who tried hard to avoid sinful behaviors (as I defined them). As my frustration grew over the prayer difficulties, some spiritual guidance came into my mind. First, I heard the message, “Satan does not want you to pray.” Second, I heard the message, “Satan is having a lot of fun at your expense.” Third, I heard, “You don’t understand how Satan fights you, so he is winning.” I prayed for protection from Satan and the prayer blockage lifted.
Many years later, I was thinking about the earlier experiences with prayer blockage and I realized I still had not learned how Satan fights against me. I always had faith that God could protect me, but I felt ill-equipped by my own lack of understanding. I did not want to be the proverbial ostrich with his head buried in the sand. I began to pray that God would teach me to protect myself against evil forces. And, miraculously, He did.
