About a Spiritual Attack

Yesterday, something happened to me: I was sleeping when I witnessed a scene that seemed more like a vision than a dream. A voodoo priest, dressed in the traditional attire worn by witch doctors in Africa - with Kente cloth done up like a toga; with feathers sticking out of his hair; with beads and chalk-markings, and with all the accessory objects typical of the outfit - accosted me suddenly. Before I could say hey presto, he smacked me across the head and shoulders, with a very evil expression in his manner and eyes. He was of average height and very dark skin, and he seemed very angry indeed. And as he struck my head and shoulders, he seemed to mutter a curse under his breath. Immediately after this dark encounter, I woke up briskly. The first emotion I felt as soon as I rose was anger - a mighty dose of ferocious wrath. I knew I had been attacked spiritually. 

Spiritual attacks are very common in Africa. Adherents of African Traditional Religion (ATR) endorse this sort of behavior with significant frequency. It is a form of contemporary witchcraft, the type that plagued Europe in the Middle Ages. A person for example may feel envious or angry at a neighbor or relative; perhaps the relative recently got promoted, or won the lottery, or experienced something good happen to them. The envious person consequently feels indignant. They are upset that their neighbor or relative should have anything good happen to them. So they go to visit a voodoo priest in his or her shrine. They say to the evil witch doctor, "My neighbor or relative has had this or that good thing happen to them. I want you to cast a spell on them, so that they may fail at whatever they do; so that good things may stop happening to them." The voodoo priest asks for a payment and then proceeds to cast a spell on the client's victim. 

There are many ways of casting spells. The voodoo priest for example could hold a mirror up to his face and call the name of the client's victim three times. As soon as an image of the fellow appeared in the mirror, the voodoo priest would stab at it with a knife, and wherever the victim was he or she could fall dead, suffer a heart attack or experience some other misfortune. Another thing the voodoo priest could do is make an effigy of the client's victim, and tie the effigy with twigs or strings, and mutter words to the effect that the victim's progress would be similarly tied up. The victim would then experience very many upsets and frustrations in the course of their life. Still another spell a witch doctor could concoct is take up some powder in his or her right hand, call the name of the victim, and blow the powder off into the air, muttering curses in the process. All these and many more are the sorts of spells witch doctors in Africa cast. 

Now, I am not saying definitely that an enemy or two went to see a witch doctor on my behalf to cast a spell on me. I am not saying definitely that someone or some people who are very angry that I am now in my second year in the seminary went to visit with a voodoo priest and asked for a spell to be cast on me to block my progress. But I am not either saying that they did not. I mean, it is all too possible. It is in fact possible that a person or some persons did go to visit a voodoo priest and say, "Please, there's this young man in the seminary somewhere in DC. He is so proud of himself, saying how he made 4 A's in his classes and all what not. I want you to take him down a peg. I want you to make life miserable for him. I want you to make him fail. Here is some money for your trouble." The voodoo priest then took the payment and set about casting a spell on me. This is very possible. I don't know who did it, and I honestly do not care. Whoever did it hates me, and hates my progress. But - and this is as true as God's existence - I do not hate them back. I completely and holistically forgive them.

Now, the fact that I was able to see the attack quite like a vision; the fact that I was able to see the voodoo priest enter my seminary room without opening the door; the fact that I was able to see him so clearly as to discern his complexion, dress and manner, means that God made me definitely conscious of what was happening. And why would God do that? God wanted me to fight back, to defend myself. You see, to be able to counteract something, you should know about its existence. For example, if a gang of thieves were approaching to attack a man, and his wife saw them coming and, out of love for her husband, ran quickly to alert him, the man would promptly get up and use every means at his disposal to fend off the attack. If however he is not alerted of the approach of the gang of thieves, he would be powerless to help himself when they surprised him with their sudden onslaught. So, we alert our loved ones whenever they are in danger of an attack. But why would God want me to know of my attack? A loved one only alerts a significant other of an impending attack if the loved one knows that the significant other can defend himself or herself optimally. If the loved one did not feel that the significant other could properly defend himself or herself, the loved one would call the cops or look for other means to fend off the attack. But if the loved one went ahead and informed the individual concerned, it definitely means that the loved one believed in the significant other's ability to defeat the attackers. 

God knew I could defeat my attackers with prayer; and so, after he had allowed me to see the horrific vision, he made me awake with such a great amount of righteous anger that I immediately began to pray passionately. I did not pray softly; no, quite like the modern day Pentecostals and Evangelicals, I stomped and shook and danced about with fists in the air and thrown asunder, shouting words of vehement prayer and repeatedly saying: "back to sender." You see, the spiritual attack that had been sent to me was like a package. And when you receive a package, you can either accept it and use its contents in your life, or you can repackage it - if you've already opened and inspected it - and send it directly to the return address on the box or envelope. Similarly, I had inspected the spiritual attack package my enemy had sent me; I decided I did not want it in my life, and so I promptly through vehement faith-filled prayer - a sort of spell casting in its own right - sent the attack package back to whoever it was that initially sent it. I do consider myself spiritually capable of doing this. I don't need a pastor or prophet or - God forbid - another voodoo priest to counteract the attack. I just use my own well of faith and pray against it, and it goes directly back to the sender. 

I think what upset the most about the spiritual attack is the audacity of the one who sent it. Some people are so idiotic and so foolish that they don't think. They see someone doing well, or they hear that someone is progressing. They have no idea of what the person is passing through; they have no idea for example of the many hours spent studying; the many lonely nights spent in thought; the many excruciating sacrifices rendered, all in the bid to succeed - in short, they have no idea of the sufferer's tears. All they wait for is to hear the news of eventual success and they get promptly jealous and angry, and begin to concoct spells aimed at destruction. It's so annoying. What makes these individuals think that anyone would want to be destroyed or that anyone would willingly accept another individual's power over their lives? The only real power over my life is God, and no other person; least of all a hater. I refuse to be intimidated. I will continue to share news of my successes on Facebook and wherever else people share such news. And whoever feels jealous or angry - pardon my language - such a person can go fuck himself or herself. "I shall not die, but live to declare what God has done for me" (Psalm 118:17). In spite of the haters. 

How do I know this? By faith. The bible describes faith as "the assurance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen" (Heb 11:1). A crucial word to note here is evidence. You see, when a spiritual attack is sent a person's way, such an attack is like a software program uploaded in the person's soul-computer. The software begins to make the person act according to its program. The actions the person performs, motivated by the spiritual code embedded in his or her soul, leads to the intended result of the spiritual attack. So for example, if the intended result of the spiritual attack sent to me yesterday was my failure in the seminary, the attack program - if it were to succeed in my life - would then begin to motivate me to do things that would jeopardize my stay here. I could for example begin to miss prayer, or mass, or class; or begin to fail at tests, or exams or anything required of me by the seminary. I could also subconsciously or unconsciously - because the soul's province includes the unconscious and the subconscious, and the spiritual attack microchip is embedded in the soul-computer, remember - begin to attract to myself the conditions and experiences that would ultimately lead to my dismissal from the seminary. So that, if I am eventually dismissed, the authorities could say my dismissal was owing to such and such an actual situation, and not an esoteric spiritual device that no one can empirically experience.

And so the evidence of the successful operation of a spiritual attack in a person's life is the person's overt behavior as well as the unconscious and subconscious experiential manifestations consequent on the spiritual attack module in the person's everyday life culminating in their ultimate failure, as originally intended by the spiritual attack program. How can this be tested? The individual or those around them can observe the behaviors and conditions of the individual's life and notice how - if the spiritual attack was successful - these behaviors and conditions were leading to dismissal, because they were in fact the sorts of behaviors and conditions that usually led to failure in that respect. The individual or those around them can similarly observe the behaviors and conditions of the individual's life and notice how - if the spiritual attack was unsuccessful - these behaviors and conditions were not leading to dismissal, because they were not in fact the sorts of behaviors and conditions that  usually led to failure in the same respect. Faith is displayed in observable behavior. The faith that defeats a spiritual attack is displayed in actions that are contrary to those intended by the spiritual attack, especially because "to work is to pray," and prayer is a counter spell to every spiritual attack - all of this is contained in the book of James.

One of my aunts told me that the only reason my dad walked up to our room, drove us out and killed himself there on our bed was because a spiritual attack motivated him to do so. A spiritual attack computer code had been installed in his soul laptop, and was programming him to kill himself. On a psychological level, we could simply say he was depressed because of something or another, and in the depression took his own life, in spite of the fact that he was very gainfully employed at the highest levels in the Civil Service; was wealthy by international standards; married to a beautiful Army officer and had four healthy sons. Just like we could say that my vision-like dream was simply owing to a feeling of anxiety or insecurity or paranoia - or any of the many names psychology comes up with when it speaks about otherwise spiritual things in the language of empiricism, like I said in an earlier post. In such a case, one would quote Sigmund Freud extensively and exhort me to eschew anxiety in any of the ways proffered by psychology, like counseling and so forth. All of this is well and good. 

Whatever the case, be it mere psychology or spirituality - and I lean toward the latter, by the way - I know one thing for sure: I am not my father. Anybody sending spiritual attacks my way is wasting time. It is too late for them. I am not that weak. For every attack I am sent, I will fight back and return to sender; fire for fire. All the voodoo priests in Africa combined cannot undermine me. I will smash them all. Psalm 118:12 says: "They compassed me about like bees; they blazed like a fire among thorns, but in God's name, I smashed them." I spiritually smash all my enemies like cockroaches on the side walk. "No weapon fashioned against me shall prosper, and all those who rise up against me shall fall" (Isaiah 54:17). So, I am not afraid. I will keep going to class, reading my books, saying my prayers and keeping my place in the seminary. I will not shake. I am serious - enough is more than enough. Let my enemies leave me alone. I want to be a priest. I want to be a priest. I want to be a priest! I believe that whoever sent me the spiritual attack yesterday will go back to the voodoo priest, and the priest will tell them: "I'm sorry; the lad is too strong for me."