Stormie Omartian had a sense of foreboding about her 18-year-old daughter working that night.
So she began doing what she knew best - praying urgently and persistently.
She had reason to be worried. Her daughter was in the middle of a frightening incident.
Omartian tells the story in her book Prayer Warrior to illustrate the spiritual battlefields Christians face when they become believers.
She states that no Christian can escape Satan's attacks on their minds, their families and their marriages. But Christians have the power to overcome these attacks through the Holy Spirit and prayer.
What happened that scary night to Omartian's daughter demonstrates how Christians can fight back effectively against Satan's malignant efforts.
That evening, Stormie's daughter agreed to go out for coffee after work with a young man she had chatted with occasionally over the previous months. She did not know him well, but he seemed pleasant. He suggested they could continue a conversation they had begun earlier in the evening.
They got in her car and he told her he would give directions to the coffee shop.
But the young woman began to be alarmed when he directed her onto a narrow road winding up a mountain side thick with trees. She wanted to turn around but there was no room on the road.
She began crying, but he did not respond. The young man, who had seemed so friendly, became cold and unfeeling.
She began praying out loud: "Jesus, help me! Jesus, save me!"
Stormie's daughter knew she might not escape this situation alive.
When they reached the top of the hill, there was a small clearing. He told her to stop and get out of the car. He climbed out, leaving the car door open so she could not lock the doors and escape.
She told him she was coming, but picked up her cell phone to call her mother. She spoke in a normal voice to say she was on the way home so that he could hear - and realize someone was expecting her.
Then, she locked her door and decided to stay where she was.
As she was thinking about how to fight him, he dashed out of the darkness - terrified - and jumped into the car. He yelled: "Go! Go! Go! There is something horrible in the woods."
He urged her to drive faster and faster - a dangerous thing to do on a narrow, unfamiliar road in the darkness.
The young man was unable to describe what he saw.
When she dropped him off at this car, he jumped out, climbed into his vehicle and roared off. She never saw him again.
She wondered how he could see anything in the pitch-black darkness. And why could he not describe it? If it was an animal or a person, he would have been able to give a description.
"She told me that whatever it was in the forest, it gave her peace," Omartian writes. "She knew it was from the Lord."
Omartian then told her how she had prayed that night. She said she prayed for her daughter's protection and that "no weapon formed against her would prosper, and no plan of the enemy would succeed in her life".
"I prayed specifically, over and over, that the Lord would surround her with angels," she added. "At that moment we both came to the same conclusion - that whatever that man saw that suddenly weakened him with fright was sent by God."
As described in the Bible, angels can be frightening creatures - so much so, that they say "Do not be afraid" to the believers seeing them.
Omartian's prayers - and her daughter's - were answered that night.
"We went to battle in prayer and the enemy was defeated," Omartian said.
No believer is immune to attack from the evil one.
But believers have the power to resist and defeat his plans.
So she began doing what she knew best - praying urgently and persistently.
She had reason to be worried. Her daughter was in the middle of a frightening incident.
Omartian tells the story in her book Prayer Warrior to illustrate the spiritual battlefields Christians face when they become believers.
She states that no Christian can escape Satan's attacks on their minds, their families and their marriages. But Christians have the power to overcome these attacks through the Holy Spirit and prayer.
What happened that scary night to Omartian's daughter demonstrates how Christians can fight back effectively against Satan's malignant efforts.
That evening, Stormie's daughter agreed to go out for coffee after work with a young man she had chatted with occasionally over the previous months. She did not know him well, but he seemed pleasant. He suggested they could continue a conversation they had begun earlier in the evening.
They got in her car and he told her he would give directions to the coffee shop.
But the young woman began to be alarmed when he directed her onto a narrow road winding up a mountain side thick with trees. She wanted to turn around but there was no room on the road.
She began crying, but he did not respond. The young man, who had seemed so friendly, became cold and unfeeling.
She began praying out loud: "Jesus, help me! Jesus, save me!"
Stormie's daughter knew she might not escape this situation alive.
When they reached the top of the hill, there was a small clearing. He told her to stop and get out of the car. He climbed out, leaving the car door open so she could not lock the doors and escape.
She told him she was coming, but picked up her cell phone to call her mother. She spoke in a normal voice to say she was on the way home so that he could hear - and realize someone was expecting her.
Then, she locked her door and decided to stay where she was.
As she was thinking about how to fight him, he dashed out of the darkness - terrified - and jumped into the car. He yelled: "Go! Go! Go! There is something horrible in the woods."
He urged her to drive faster and faster - a dangerous thing to do on a narrow, unfamiliar road in the darkness.
The young man was unable to describe what he saw.
When she dropped him off at this car, he jumped out, climbed into his vehicle and roared off. She never saw him again.
She wondered how he could see anything in the pitch-black darkness. And why could he not describe it? If it was an animal or a person, he would have been able to give a description.
"She told me that whatever it was in the forest, it gave her peace," Omartian writes. "She knew it was from the Lord."
Omartian then told her how she had prayed that night. She said she prayed for her daughter's protection and that "no weapon formed against her would prosper, and no plan of the enemy would succeed in her life".
"I prayed specifically, over and over, that the Lord would surround her with angels," she added. "At that moment we both came to the same conclusion - that whatever that man saw that suddenly weakened him with fright was sent by God."
As described in the Bible, angels can be frightening creatures - so much so, that they say "Do not be afraid" to the believers seeing them.
Omartian's prayers - and her daughter's - were answered that night.
"We went to battle in prayer and the enemy was defeated," Omartian said.
No believer is immune to attack from the evil one.
But believers have the power to resist and defeat his plans.
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