One night in 1976, I was praying when I encountered something very evil. (I am very sensitive to the presence of evil.) I was hearing a voice but the voice didn’t feel right. Finally, when I challenged the voice, I was knocked over backwards and my whole body felt like it was on fire. Truly, I had encountered something evil in the spiritual realm.

From then on, I was terrified to pray. Oh, I could pray the superficial prayers, but I could never go back into what I call the spiritual realm. And going to church or reading my Bible did not yield any spiritual joy or peace. In short, I felt empty inside.

Dismayed by this condition, I talked with my pastor about this problem hoping he would have some answers. He didn’t. I talked with the chapelin at Calvin and like my pastor, he too was answerless. But, he did refer me to some books written by Catholic mystics.

One book in particular was “The Dark Night of the Soul” by St John of the Cross. In the Dark Night of the Soul, I found that it was describing my condition to a “T”.

Basically, the book said that this was one aspect of Sanctification and that it would last for many years. The book also said that the dark night would leave as suddenly as it came. And, there was not really any thing I could do except to continue to believe and wait.

The dark night lasted for 18 years.  So, for the next 18 years, believe is what I did. I lived by faith and not because I had some religious emotions or feelings. For 18 years, I lived in the “valley” with only memories of what it was like to be on the “mountain”.

Then, as predicted, it suddenly lifted. The joy and the peace were back and at 10 times the intensity of anything previous. Plus, I seemed to have a new relationship with God, one that was much deeper and more intimate.

This was also the start of the prayer time visions.  I will write more about those later.