I was out of work for the next seven months.
That time was a strange mixture, to put it mildly.
On almost a daily basis I would arise with a new resolve to take the time to get to know my God better. And something would come up that would keep me from it…
I did manage to read several books on spiritual warfare, demons and deliverance. And I did increase my reading of the Bible. I had put off reading A.W. Tozer’s The Pursuit of God for some time. In his review, John Eldredge had called the book “life-changing.”
Finally, I read the book. And things really began to change as I put into practice what Tozer said was necessary to draw close to God.
Our finances had begun to suffer with me out of work and I asked God for a “small” miracle to get us through. That same day my wife was offered a job with a huge sign-on bonus.
We discussed the particulars of the job offer and after meeting with the people involved decided she should accept the job. We didn’t realize it at the time, but God had just prepared her a table in the presence of her enemies.
It wasn’t long after she began the new job that she told me she felt as though she was under a spiritual attack at work. I began praying in the context of spiritual warfare for her and she started to notice some relief from the attacks.
But the relief was only temporary.
She called one morning to tell me that she had seen shadowy forms in her office and had a strong sense of an evil presence along with it. My first thought was to prepare her a prayer that she could use daily against this intruder.
As I prepared the prayer, my computer would behave strangely – wrong letters would appear on the screen, the screen would jump and the cursor would just disappear. And then the printer locked up. I knew then and there that I was on to something.
I managed to finish the prayer and saved it to a disk. I decided I would take it to her at work and print it out on her printer.
As I left the house, the temperature gauge on the car acted up. Driving to her work, I offered a prayer along these lines – Lord, I’m not sure what’s going on, but if this is the work of the enemy, I would really appreciate Your help.
The gauge started working instantly.
After this incident, I started joining her several times a week for lunch. We weren’t really sure of the implications of all that was happening at that point. Sometime later, it was revealed to us, at least in part, some of what was taking place.
My wife is blessed with a strong personality. In this case, it became a good news-bad news scenario. She began to fight on her own. In so doing, she had unknowingly given the enemy the right to attack her directly. She had removed herself from my spiritual covering and as a result, our prayers were not as effective as they should have been.
It was a harsh lesson.
Several weeks later I was returning home from one of our lunches. I had an overwhelming urge to stop at the Christian book store and buy a book on spiritual warfare.
I went into the store not really knowing what to get. As I looked over the selection, I was led to a book by Bob Larson.
I took the book home and read it over the space of a couple of days. Then I did an internet search and discovered his website. To my surprise, he had a conference scheduled at a hotel about five miles away in three weeks. Naturally, I had to go.
Just prior to this conference, I was awakened one night by a strange dream. A nightmare, actually. The dream itself consisted of an image of a huge, multi-headed serpent. Nothing else – just this huge serpent. Yet it woke me – leaving me covered in a cold sweat.
Curious to know what this meant, I did an internet search on spiritual dreams and their interpretation. And I sure didn’t like what I found.
Several sites offered essentially the same explanation. The dream was most likely a warning of an impending attack. Definitely not good news.
The following night, I experienced yet another dream. And this one was just as vividly emblazoned in my mind, as if to make a point.
In this second dream, I was dressed in full battle armor, clutching a blazing sword. There were flames blazing forth from my chest.
This led to another frantic internet search. To no avail. I couldn’t find anything to explain this dream. Then I took a clue from John Eldredge and asked the Lord to reveal the meaning of this dream.
And He did. The image was me, after the attack that I had envisioned. Still standing.
Talk about a sense of relief. Just knowing that I would still be standing was pretty incredible. And it spurred me to even more Bible study and reading about spiritual warfare. Through it all, I was awe-struck at the messages I had received.
The night of Bob Larson’s conference finally arrived and naturally I was there. I really wasn’t sure what to expect.
Things began pretty much as a normal church service. Bob delivered a message, songs were sung and an offering taken. At that point my opinion was that Bob Larson was a bit of a showman but his message and teaching seemed sound.
As the meeting drew to a close, Bob offered an invitation to anyone who felt a need for specific prayer to stick around and he and his team would minister with them.
I decided to stick around. Just to see what may take place.
To say I was NOT prepared for what happened next would be an understatement.
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