This post will be just a bit longer than normal. Apologies up front for this, but there are some observations and clear messages that need to be addressed.
It was late February 2007. My son was moving back to Kentucky and I had agreed to help. My thinking at the time was – take your time – be careful. It didn’t work.
There wasn’t a great deal of moving to be done, so we had rented a cargo van to haul things. The weather had been extremely cold and there was still snow and ice on the ground. And in the driveway where we parked the van.
We had just finished loading a couple of items and I stepped back from the rear of the van. As I started to move around the van, I went down.
The best description I can make is that it seemed like some great arm swept both feet from under me. I want to make a point here – having studied martial arts for 20 years, one of the skills we develop is learning the right way to fall. But it didn’ t help.
I went down too fast and too hard, landing with literally all my weight concentrated on my right hip. And I knew in an instant that I had hurt something. Rolling onto my back, I couldn’t straighten my leg.
For those of you knowledgeable in such things, the most common fracture of this sort involves the neck of the femur. I was to find out a little later that I had not only broken the neck of the femur but had shattered the femur as well.
I’m not going to bore you with the details. It hurt – a lot. The surgeon told me that my bones looked pretty healthy aside from the fractures – so, no hip replacement. Just a hip full of hardware. Pins, screws, wires, a steel rod extending almost to my knee.
It’s a great weather station.
Following the surgery, I spent 2 days in the hospital. I received what I later learned was some not-so-great physical therapy. Trying to learn to use a walker according to these therapists directions, I wound up pulling a couple of muscles. Great. Just what I needed.
Going home, I spent a couple of really bad days confined to a hospital bed. So the decision was reached that I should check into a rehab center for a couple of weeks of further physical therapy.
Rehab center. I found out quick enough that in these parts that’s just another name for nursing home. We hired a van equipped to haul me in a wheelchair. The driver was really a great guy – turned out to be a believer. On the way to the nursing home he made one comment that was just a bit disturbing.
“I take lots of folks to these places (nursing homes). But I don’t ever take any of them home again.”
It wasn’t long after my arrival at the nursing home that something started to really nag at me again. Having experienced this before, I decided to listen. There was an overwhelming sense of urgency telling me – “Get out! Get out of this place.”
That was motivation enough for me. The following morning I went for my first physical therapy session. I had a long talk with the therapist and they agreed that it was ok for me to learn how to use crutches so that I wouldn’t be immobile. But first they wanted to test me.
After that first hour, which was more than a little painful, they agreed that crutches would be OK. The only problem was, they didn’t have any. This was Friday afternoon and they agreed to try and get some for my next session.
On Saturday, I couldn’t wait. I hauled myself out of bed and wheeled my way to the physical therapy department at the far end of the building. Yes, they had managed to get some crutches. No, I was too early and it wasn’t time for my session yet.
When the time finally came, I got to try it out. After about 15 minutes I was moving around pretty good. Slow down, they said, you’re going too fast. You don’t want to fall again. They just didn’t understand – I HAD to get moving.
Returning to my room, I called my wife. Get the driver, I said, and get me out of here NOW.
The nursing home people were not thrilled. They delayed my departure for what I considered an awfully long time. Getting the paperwork ready for me to sign. AMA – against medical advice.
Returning home Saturday night, I was one happy camper. That night, as we prayed together, my wife called on the Lord – “Jesus, you’re the healer and we ask for your healing now.”
The next morning I awoke virtually pain-free. From that point on, an occasional dose of Tylenol (the regular kind) was all I ever needed. Our insurance company surprised me in all this. One of their nurses called. She knew of my escape from the nursing home and arranged for in-home visits from a physical therapist.
Recovery from this, to me, seemed to take forever. The surgeon, on the other hand, was amazed at the speed of recovery.
About six weeks into the recovery, we were on our way to church one Sunday. Up to this point, I confess I had wondered about all this. But I hadn’t made any direct inquiries to the Lord. I didn’t have to. He revealed to me what had taken place as we were on our way to church that day.
Yes, it was an attack.
And it had come because of my prayers.
A couple of months before my injury, I had begun to ask the Lord to fill me with the same spirit as Elijah. And that was the reason – because of my request.
A little background
Derek Prince wrote a great teaching article about our prayer life that offers us some insight. He references the writings of both Paul and Daniel. In the book of Daniel, we learn that the enemy tried to intercept the answer to Daniel’s prayer and succeeded in delaying it for 3 weeks.
Paul writes about being taken up into “the 3rd heaven.” If there’s a “3rd heaven,” it follows there is also a 1st and 2nd. To reach into the 3rd heaven, the dwelling place of God, our prayers have to travel through the 1st and 2nd heavens.
Derek Prince concludes that the 1st heaven is the sky that we see around us, the air that covers the earth. The 2nd heaven is represented by what we call outer space and the 3rd heaven is that place where God dwells.
If he’s right about this, it provides us with some insights into why things can happen as they do. This brings up an interesting question. Who controls the air around us? The prince of the power of the air. This is satan’s domain. It naturally follows that anything we pray travels through the enemy’s domain on its way to God.
Not only do our prayers ascend before God, we actually have an enemy eavesdropping and trying to intercept them on the way. We already know from Daniel that he can sure get in the way of us getting our answers. Is it unrealistic to think that he attacks our prayers in the same way in both directions?
Now that thought will sure change the way you pray. I know it did for me.
I want to point out that God revealed that this attack was due to my request. He didn’t say specifically that He was granting that request. He also indicated that even though I was injured, through it I had been protected. The enemy’s intent wasn’t to hurt me – the intent was more sinister.
Some observations – and a revelation
As I mentioned, during the short time that I was in the nursing home, I felt that I was under spiritual attack. I had suspected that my injury was an attack and that this was just a continuation of the assault. That turned out to be a false assumption on my part. Yes, – this was different. Overwhelming, debilitating. It took everything I had to try and fight it.
While I was there, I made more than a few trips around the place in my wheelchair. And I noticed something that struck me as rather odd.
The patients in that place all showed the same signs. Blank stares. Confusion. According to the nurses, most of the patients suffered from dementia. Senility.
Now, I would think that some of this might be expected. What I saw was shocking.
Everyone – and I mean everyone that I saw – showed these signs. Things were not what they seemed. It was clear to me – there was something else going on here.
One of my sisters works in a similar facility in another state. I questioned her about her observations and she confirmed the vast majority of the patients exhibited these same signs.
Without my asking, the Lord revealed the source of this.
Now, before I go into this – I have a question for you. In some of my conversations with Tom, we have talked about how we both have experienced a heightened sense of anticipation in the spirit. It’s as though something is about to happen. Just what, nobody can really pinpoint. In conversations with other believers, I’ve gotten the same sense of anticipation. Have you experienced this yourself?
Well, there’s a reason for this. And it has to do with what was revealed about the things I just described. It is not confined to nursing homes. It is also in other places such as mental hospitals and other similar facilities.
These places, and many others, are the domain of the rider of the pale horse. Yes, you heard that right. You’ve probable heard him referred to as the Pale Rider.
“Revelation 6:8 – And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.”
Like I said, the attack was overwhelming. I’m confident in saying that the only way I got through it was because the Lord held it back and gave me time to get out of that place.
Read that again. “And power was given unto them -… – to kill with sword, and with hunger.” What was on your news channel today? A report on the war? Another senseless murder? Maybe a piece about the famine in one of the “third world” countries?
Time is short. Shorter than we think. Things really are not what they seem. Not at all.
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