"Voices Whispering Senselessly Around Me in the Dark"

Roberta Blankenship

"Satan still persisted in tempting me with offers of powers beyond my expectations if I would return to my occultic practices. My dreams turned to nightmares as the devil invaded my subconscious. Time after time I awoke screaming, 'I believe in the blood of Jesus Christ!'

Strange things began to occur. Sometimes when I was alone in my room the closet doors would rattle. When I tried to determine the cause, I would see a glowering, fiery image which seemed to cackle. Often at night I would be awakened by voices whispering senselessly around me in the dark. I knew Satan had great powers and that he was using them to torment and upset me. He tried to make the good seem evil, to create doubts in my mind.

One rainy evening I had been listening to an album of piano music by Chopin. Shortly after I turned off the music, I went to sleep and began to dream. I found myself sitting before a grand piano surrounded by blackness, and I began to play beautiful melodious chords. Then I noticed a distant ray of light that seemed to come from a doorway, and I soon distinguished the figure of a tall man clad in nineteenth century garb standing in the doorway. I couldn't see his face for it was concealed behind a black cloud, but I sensed that his gaze was directed at me. Then the lanky figure began to walk toward me. As it came around the piano, I rose quickly and backed against a wall. It came up to me, breathing heavily on my neck. I sensed an evil presence and began to shout, 'Jesus Christ...Jesus Christ...the blood of Jesus Christ.'

I awoke screaming those words, my heart pounding. A heavy breathing sounded through the darkness of my room. Someone was lying next to me on the bed, breathing heavily! 'It's Mom,' I thought. I thrust out my arm to grab her, but it landed flat on the other half of the bed. Yet the impression of weight was there and the breathing continued.

Suddenly I heard a flapping by my feet. I raised my leg in an effort to knock at the thing and again sensed an unearthly presence surrounding me. Then the laughter began.

'Jesus save me,' I cried. 'I believe in the blood of Christ. In the name of my savior Jesus Christ I command this spirit to leave me.' Immediately the evil presence vanished. I turned on the lamp near my bed and sat up. 'Praise God for the blood of Jesus Christ.'

My little lamp burned until daylight."

- Escape From Witchcraft by Roberta Blankenship (1972; Zondervan Books)