Overseas Mission Trips & Spiritual Warfare

Some reflections on my trip to Brazil and the Spiritual darkness we experienced.

I’ve been on three overseas mission trips and on each there was a consistent statement: “You need to be prepared for the Spiritual Warfare”

If you’ve gone on a mission trip before you’ve probably heard the same sentiment. There are so many different factors involved on a mission trip and things we can’t control that our mind immediately goes toward asking God for victory in the spiritual world.

We need safe travel
We need a healthy team
We need to be led away from all evil
We need hard hearts to be softened

Because that’s the reality of a mission trip—we often go to places that the light of the world is not yet. We’re taking light into dark places, and the ruler of the darkness does not appreciate that.

My trip to Brazil

One of the first things that was said to me about the location we would be serving in Brazil was about spiritual warfare.

“The pastors there cannot believe how intense the spiritual warfare is in the area.”

My mind went to the worst-case scenario at first. How am I going to bring a group of high school students to an area with demon-possessed people? One student, who heard the same statement I did, asked, “Should I bring a knife?” Clearly, his mind went where my mind went. I responded calmly by saying I didn’t think we could bring those on an airplane. Internally, though, I was just as concerned as he was.

The conversation continued to develop and we learned more about the specific spiritual warfare that was happening.

It was described to us as a present darkness and heaviness, which is exactly what we went on to experience on our trip.

The “present darkness” would often present itself in a general heaviness that was hard to shake. At times, there was some clear outside interruption in the conversation we were having that could not be explained by anything other than an intentional act from someone trying to distract. And other times, the spiritual warfare manifested itself by impacting members of our team.

I’ll share two personal experiences with you. The first was a distraction during a conversation and the second is a specific conversation that I personally experienced spiritual warfare in a way that I never had before.

First, the distraction.

At our final location we were ministering to a group of people who were known for some pretty terrible things and were notoriously hardened to the things of God. The local pastor we worked with described little to no success when trying to share the Gospel with these people.

We went to war in the heavenly realm through prayer and worship for the 12 hours prior to our time at the village and we actually saw two people come to faith in Christ while we were there.

However, one of my experiences was incredibly interesting.

The first door we knocked on was the house of an elderly woman, and almost immediately, she said she didn’t want to talk with us. Which is fine, we just moved on to the next house. The next house was a complete family, and they were relatives of the elderly lady in the first house.

As we settle into conversation it’s clear the mother of the household is very interested in hearing about Jesus. She’s asking great questions and listening very intently to the Gospel presentation. But then right as we start to dial up the Gospel-talk the elderly lady from the previous house comes to join us. At first, I was excited. I wanted her to hear the same message. Very quickly, things went south.

She began ranting and raving about Adam and Eve and reading and how people can’t read and who knows what else. And I say, “Who knows what else?” because literally no one in the house knew what she was saying. Not our translators, not her relatives, no one. She was spouting off words that were indistinguishable and wouldn’t stop. Eventually, after trying to power through the conversation with the mother of the household, we had to just invite her to the service we were having later and end our conversation.

Spiritual warfare showed up in a very distracting way, that day.

Second, the personal experience.

One of my spiritual gifts that has presented itself over the last decade of following Christ is the gift of evangelism. So when I hear about doing one-on-one or group evangelism on mission trips, I’m generally not concerned. I know it’s a spiritual gift of mine, and I’ve seen God use me in that way repeatedly. But this particular moment was much different.

I was sitting down to share the gospel with a family that appeared to be somewhat knowledgeable about Jesus but clearly had a misunderstanding of who he was and the fullness of the Gospel of Christ. As I proceeded to ask questions and share scripture, I experienced a new phenomenon for me—I couldn’t think of a single question to ask them.

I couldn’t think of a leading question or a question that would take the conversation deeper or a question that would lead us toward any fruitful gospel conversation. It was as if my brain had completely stopped working, and I had forgotten how to have a conversation.

Not only that, I also forgot everything in the Bible. Seriously. As I was thinking about scripture and asking God to bring scripture to mind, it was as if I had no prior knowledge of the Bible. I couldn’t remember where things were in the Bible I couldn’t remember things that Jesus said. I couldn’t remember anything about anything.

You may think. Is that really spiritual warfare or were you just having a bad day cause you were tired?

Maybe? But I’ve also shared the Gospel with thousands of people either one-on-one or in group settings. I’m talking verses, stories, illustrations. I’ve used random objects right in front of me to communicate the Gospel. I am generally overwhelmed in my mind with various scriptures to choose from. At any given point in the conversation, I will have three or four different passages that I could lead them through, and I’m able to ask questions that guide our conversation toward those scriptures. I don’t see it as manipulative, I see it as the Holy Spirit using me to draw someone into salvation. But that day, with that conversation, I was totally blank. I had nothing.

The second experience here was earlier in the week than the first one I described, and this was when I finally understood what they were referring to about spiritual warfare. There was an ever-present darkness that seemed to hinder my ability to be faithful to God and do the work He called me to do at that moment.

So why am I sharing about this?

Because as bad as spiritual warfare is on mission trips, I think it’s far worse when we’re in our everyday routines. We see spiritual warfare, and we’re better prepared to handle it when we go overseas because we’ve actually spent time praying about it. However, I would venture to say that Satan is 100% fine with us having a successful mission trip as long as He can keep us at bay when we’re at home.

That I’m aware of, we didn’t interact with any demon-possessed people. Our experience was with spiritual darkness and oppression meant to hinder our ability to be faithful to God and do the work He called us to on the trip.

How often do “random” things happen in your daily world that might hinder your ability to be faithful to God and do the work He’s called you to do? Satan and his demons are constantly trying to prevent you and me from living the abundant life that Christ lived to give us. What does John 10:10 say?

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
—John 10:10

But what does it really practically look like for satan to try to steal and kill and destroy? Peter gives us a good picture.

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
—1 Peter 5:8

My concern (for my own life) and yours is that we rarely notice the roaring lion prowling around because we’ve made friends with that roaring lion.

In Brazil, Satan used a blabbering elderly lady to distract someone from the Gospel. Here in the States, we have cell phones and their notifications.

In Brazil, Satan confused my thinking, and I couldn’t remember any scripture. Here in the States, we’ve got social media, video games, and movies that numb our minds.

When we took off for our trip to Brazil, I was wildly aware of our need for God to intervene in the spiritual realm. But as soon as we hit the ground here in our home state, it was as if I had forgotten that spiritual warfare was even a reality. Somehow, I had convinced myself that spiritual warfare existed overseas but not in my home. That demonic influence had a stronghold in the villages of Brazil, but not the villages that we call neighborhoods in our country.

There’s probably spiritual warfare happening in your life.

I’ll just be as blunt as possible. Satan most likely has a strategy he’s implementing right now to destroy you. He wants to cut off your spiritual life—whatever it takes.

I think Peter’s reminder has two helpful and practical steps for us to fight off this warfare.

• Be sober-minded

• Be watchful

We won’t be able to fight in the heavenly realm if we’re distracted. We need to be sober-minded people. This doesn’t just mean drugs and alcohol. This means a mind absent of distraction.

What is distracting you from God’s activity in the world? I would encourage you to list these things and start getting rid of them or minimizing the distractions significantly.

What would it look like to be watchful? Ask God to give you eyes to see what’s happening in the spiritual world so you can fight appropriately. This might sound scary at first but if this fight is happening regardless, you’d want to be aware of what in the world is going on.

My belief is this: there is far more spiritual warfare happening at home than there is when we go overseas. We recognize it there, but we don’t recognize it here. Not recognizing it is far more dangerous to our souls and our ability to be faithful to Jesus.

Here’s the good news.

Jesus has all authority over any demonic power. The powers of darkness submit to Jesus. Through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, we can live confidently knowing we’re not on a losing team.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said, “Satan, you have no power here.” in the face of spiritual warfare and within minutes whatever situation was happening, stopped.

You can live victoriously through the shed blood and resurrection power of Christ. It’s probably time to step into that life of victory.

—Brandon