The Battle at Hand

Alert and Oriented Times Zero
It never ceases to amaze me how the Lord works. His ability to take us into new areas of spiritual and personal growth, and into a deeper relationship, understanding and reliance on him is vast beyond comprehension. The Lord has been at work in our lives in powerful ways recently. Having arrived at a point of awareness and clarity in this season, we can now see that this started nearly two months ago.

Several weeks ago, I was engaged in a week long time of fasting, prayer and worship for the purpose of drawing close to the Lord and hearing Him. Specifically, there is a strong movement toward intentional discipleship on a level never seen at this Church body. We are being challenged in many new areas and taking careful inventory of issues on a personal level and on a church-wide level to make certain that when He is ready to move we are willing and able to follow where he leads. Part of this preparation involves the coming together corporately to seek his face. On this particular week, I found myself completely alone; in the desert in a sense. The usual suspects, those that are always there, found themselves suddenly sick, busy, out of town, or in some way unable to participate. Very quickly, the Lord revealed that "alone" was where he wanted me. The purpose of this "isolation" was made clear. He was asking me, “Why do you do what you do. Is it for me, or is it to ‘feel’ good about where you are spiritually.” He revealed to me that I was very quickly slipping into spiritual Idolatry. The things of my faith were becoming the focus. And it was pulling me further away from the target they were meant to point toward, which is complete focus on Jesus.

The next week we received devastating news. Our daughter has slipped into a very dark thought pattern and depression. It was revealed, through the courageous actions of three of her friends from school, that she is hurting herself and her words are becoming increasingly dark. They were worried. I believe it was the Lord’s hand that gave these very young girls the courage and words to set aside their fear and come forward to bring into the light the darkness that has crept into our daughter’s life. We were aware that T is dealing with some problems, but we had no idea how far this has gone until we received a call from a very concerned School counselor.

On that day, our world toppled. Over the next few days we experienced the full spectrum of emotions from denial to ultimate acceptance. But there was a deep sense of hope through that entire time. That Sunday, my wife and I went to the side wall of the church where we participate in the alter prayer ministry during our church services. No one approached us for prayer that day. Instead, we fell apart right there. People surrounded us. We were ministered to. We found ourselves completely broken before the Lord and finally ready to deal with the situation as He wanted us to, whatever that meant. During this time strongholds in our marriage were revealed. We were made aware of things that are preventing us from standing along-side each other. Our family is weak in certain places.

“Coincidentally” the same week, I started a group book study with some brothers. We began to read through the book “Waking the Dead” by John Eldridge. In the first chapters he speaks of this great battle that we've become blind to. In his words, we have become “oriented and alert times zero.” As I told my wife about this book, she took it and read the entire thing in two days. What she read spoke to her in a powerful way.

Also “coincidentally,” the wife of our prior ABF teacher dropped off a daily devotional that she “had for some time but never had the chance to give her.” When Lynn opened the book and read the devotional for that day, it spoke of the VERY issues that we were dealing with and made the very same points that spoke so loudly to her from “Waking the Dead.” All around us people were being moved into place to provide the very things we needed to walk through this. We very much felt and were aware of the Lord moving as if playing a game of Chess. This time we were the ones in need of support and ministry.

That Sunday our paster invited our church body to participate in “10 Days to Pentecost.” Mark, under the prompting of the spirit called the church to 10 days of intensive prayer, daily worship and at least one day of fasting for the purpose of drawing near to the Lord on a church-wide level. As Lynn and I prayed in preparation leading up to May 1st the Lord placed heavy on my heart that I needed to focus on my home. It should have been obvious, and I think would have been for anyone else in our situation. But I am not so quick to see the obvious. I was immediately reminded of my “week in the desert” and I began asking myself the same questions. The Lord spoke to me as he guided my thoughts and revealed that I am blessed to be a part of really fantastic things that are going on within our Church body. But my participation in these things is for nothing if the defenses of my home is weak. He instructed me to withdraw from the crowd during this time and build up the walls around my house. This included the community online forums that we have and which I thoroughly enjoy. I felt I needed to limit my involvement to those light hearted posts only and I felt specific instruction to refrain from posting anything about what he was showing me during this time. This is not at all my character. I love to share what the Lord is doing.

Waking Up at War:
As the week progressed toward May 1st, a concept kept coming to mind: Spiritual Warfare. I am familiar with what we mean when we say this, or so I thought. But I have never been open to speaking of physical manifestations of the spiritual realm. This certainly includes the idea of Angels and Demons doing battle over us. It sounds way to mythical. It sounds like a bad Hollywood production. I would rather spend my time on the more real aspects of our walk with Jesus leaving whatever battling of Ghosts that needs to be done to those that care to involve themselves with that nonsense.

These thoughts continued through the week despite the nagging draw to learn more about what the scripture says of Spiritual Warfare. As I continued to read more and more verses came to me through a myriad of sources. And it was the same for Lynn. I began to see the stories presented to us in scripture, those we are so familiar with in a different light; in a truer light.
• Adam and Eve being tempted in the garden (Gen. 3)
• Satan’s use of fallen Angels to defile the seed of woman to breed the Nephilim (Gen. 6)
• The accounts of Satan’s rebellion against God in Ezekial and Isaiah. (Eze 28, Isa 14)
• The first chapter of Job, describing that Job's story is about much more than Job’s faithfulness (Job 1.)
• Elisha remaining calm when faced with the vast Syrian army and his knowledge of the Lord’s unseen helpers as he responds “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” (2 Kin 6:15-19)
• Satan’s manipulation of David in 1 Chronicles 21:1.
• Nebuchanezzar’s witness of the fourth man in the fire. (Dan 3:24-25)
• Legion of the Gadarenes Demoniac (Matt 8:28-29, Mark 5:6-10, Luke 8:30-31)
• Satan’s manipulation of Peter (Matt 16:23)
• Satan’s petition to sift Peter like wheat (Like 22:31)
• Satan entering Judas just prior to his betrayal (John 13:27)
And the list goes on.

So many verses of these verses I have read many times yet their deeper implication of what was going on has escaped me. As my impromptu research continued, verse after verse flooded me until I finally had to accept that the physical manifestations and demonstrations of an unseen battle are no less real than the air I breathe. I can’t see that either, but there is no doubt to me that it is there.

In that moment I awoke as a soldier on the beaches of Normandy, knocked out by a fall, regaining consciousness amidst a raging battle. But unlike my paratrooper likeness, I have never been to boot camp. I have not learned anything about how to fight in this or any other war. I might as well be standing naked on that beach holding a stick, because that is how effective I am at the moment. It is a very unsettling thing to realize I have allowed myself to be blinded to the truth all around me, even within my home.


My First Week at Boot:
I began to read Ephesians every day. I began to meditate on some verses that the Lord brought to me. Ephesians 6:10 and the armor of God, Mathew 28:18-20 and our authority through Jesus, 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 regarding our weapons that are not of this world. I did this for my piece of mind. I did this to convince myself it isn’t as bad as all that and that my imagination was getting the best of me. But the Lord was putting me through boot camp in a spiritual sense starting with basic training: know where you are, know who you are, know who you are fighting, and get yourself dressed.

Donning Armor & Building Our Defenses:
As I went home on Thursday evening, May 1st I went with purpose. I felt burdened to anoint my family and pray specifically over them. I sent Lynn a message stating my intentions and was met with immediate agreement. The Lord was showing her the very same things just in different ways and in language she understood. (Isn’t it cool how he does that, too.) So, that night we called our oldest into the room and explained what we were doing. She offered the much expected raised eyebrows and innocent laughing at my expense. She thought it was weird. Silently, she probably thought I had gone off the deep end on some super-christian kool-aid. We prayed over her, anointed her and rebuked any strongholds or unclean spirits that were present. We did this for our youngest while she slept. Finally, my wife and I did this for each other. We prayed aloud and specifically for each other with no fear or hesitation. As the words came, we spoke them. It was not especially peaceful. There was no unexplainable aura of light that manifested itself. No one screamed or withered on the floor. The half-hearted expectation of something magnificent like this happening exposed that I had not fully accepted the reality around us. Somehow it was still fiction.

My next step of obedience was a lot tougher for me and very comical for those involved. I knew that I was supposed to anoint our pets. When we told our oldest this she laughed out loud asking “You’re going to rub oil on my cat?” We all laughed at my expense and I nervously said “yeah. And its weird for me too.” So I anointed the cat. The cat gave me a “kiss my butt” look and walked away. So I proceeded into our room where we are temporarily housing T’s other pet. My wife, who at this point is already in bed was covering her mouth so I wouldn’t see she was laughing at me. Her grin was so large however, that I could tell what she was doing just by looking at her.

I turned, opened the cage and prepared to anoint our snake. Yes, our snake. I stood there, Olive Oil in hand looking at this corn snake slither around and began to pray quietly.

“Lord. This is stupid! This is about the dumbest thing I have done in my adult life. You can’t be serious. What good is it going to do to rub Olive Oil on a snake.”

I got as serious as I could and anointed our snake as I prayed protection over it. And I felt as dumb as I have ever felt in my life. I completed my task and exchanged light hearted words with Lynn, who found the whole affair quite amusing. And as I walked into our living room the Lord asked me a most interesting question; “If doing the silly is what is needed to build up the walls within your home, are you willing to do the silly?” I immediately answered “yes” and understood in that moment that obedience in the face of limited or no understanding is a basic principle. There is no reason I should exact any measure of proof on the Lord before I obey his commands, regardless of how silly the actions being asked of me seem. Then he followed this thought with a very powerful principle to dwell on. He took me back to Genesis where Adam and Eve were tempted…
by a snake.

Serpent actually, but the point was made. The Lord revealed that what I was praying for was protection against ANY doorway that the enemy could and would use to gain access to our lives. He revealed to me that there was absolutely no power in the actual act of anointing anything. But there is power in physical expression and demonstration of our spirits coming into agreement with the Lord that everything we owned belongs to him. Because Jesus is our Lord, we are anointed. And because we are stewards of all that we are given, snakes and all, we are to treat all that we have as Holy anointed gifts from the Lord for use as He wishes. This didn’t seem strange at all. It actually seemed quite normal.

Lynn and I had many great and fruitful discussions in the proceeding days. We talked about many things including the revelations of the Lord from that day. At one point, under the burden of the Lord I found myself in the back yard repenting and rebuking the authorities of this world that I have granted access to my life, and asking the Lord's forgiveness for doing so. Memories of things I did as a child with no concept of the danger came to mind. Playing with Ouija boards, faking a séance, romanticizing the demonic through a steady diet of movies, haunted houses, and activities firmly grounded in the camp of the enemy were all very much part of my high school years. I slowly concluded that none of these things were real or meant anything, that demons were not real and had no real power, and that there was no lasting danger in toying with what Paul calls "rulers, authorities and principalities of this current world." But all the while my life was sank deeper into lust and sexual addictions, chemical habits, anger, bitterness, deceit, self loathing and destruction, dishonesty and a total lack of integrity, complete rejection of God and his righteousness, until prior coming to the Lord I had decended into full belief that there was nothing wrong with any of it. I found myself rebuking the spirits I had invited in to my life. These unclean entities I had brought with me into my home and were now setting their sights on my family, especially my oldest daughter. All of a sudden all the jovial and dismissive winking at spiritual warfare had vanished. I was looking with unveiled eyes at the cost of self-deception and dismissive ignorance.

Our pastor’s message on Sunday May 10th could have been a lecture on what was going on in our home. His passionate and powerful message could not have been more directly relevant to the things the Lord was revealing over the previous 6 weeks if he had followed us around. He made several points that squarely hit the nail including “God will ask you to do the unordinary or unorthodox because through this he will bring life.” Did you hear that! Through this he will bring life.

The things He is revealing cannot be fit into a single post, especially with my love for words. So I will be sharing a lot more. I will end with this for today. Our home is different. We are different. We are armed and equipped. We are not walking around blind, deaf and dumb any longer. We are standing and our defenses are up. I am not saying we are perfect or in any way have this all figured out. I am simply saying that we understand now where we are standing. We have exchanged our nakedness for brilliant armor. We have set aside our sticks for the Sword, which is the Word of God. And now, at least in our home, the enemy trembles before us. Because we now stand in the faith that we have power over him through the grace and authority of our Lord Jesus Christ!