Depend upon it, if you are bent on prayer, the devil will not leave you alone. He will molest you, tantalize you, block you, and will surely find some hindrances, big or little or both. And we sometimes fail because we are ignorant of his devices. I do not think he minds our praying about things if we leave it at that. What he minds, and opposes steadily, is the prayer that prays on until it is prayed through, assured of the answer.
~Mary Warburton Booth
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
Because the Lord has anointed Me
To bring good news to the afflicted;
He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to captives
And freedom to prisoners;
To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
To grant those who mourn in Zion,
Giving them a garland instead of ashes,
The oil of gladness instead of mourning,
The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting.
So they will be called oaks of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.
Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins,
They will raise up the former devastations;
And they will repair the ruined cities,
The desolations of many generations.
Strangers will stand and pasture your flocks,
And foreigners will be your farmers and your vinedressers.
But you will be called the priests of the Lord;
You will be spoken of as ministers of our God.
You will eat the wealth of nations,
And in their riches you will boast.
Instead of your shame you will have a double portion,
And instead of humiliation they will shout for joy over their portion.
Therefore they will possess a double portion in their land,
Everlasting joy will be theirs.
For I, the Lord, love justice,
I hate robbery in the burnt offering;
And I will faithfully give them their recompense
And make an everlasting covenant with them.
Then their offspring will be known among the nations,
And their descendants in the midst of the peoples.
All who see them will recognize them
Because they are the offspring whom the Lord has blessed.
~ The Oracle, Isaiah, in Chapter 61 of Isaiah
Oh beloved, it is true.
Anyone who thinks spiritual warfare is not real, has no real idea of how things go. And, as we go into situations where things may get brighter, we often find that we come up against a heaviness that is difficult to discern, and impossible to see through.
There is a great joy in all of it though, for those who have been in the battle for some time, we know that what is actually happening is that the adversary is putting up their final bits of strength – in some sort of useless last stand – against the good that is about to break through.
This fool of a writer has been on a worldwide job search for the last nearly three months. I have pounded out resume’s to schools across Asia, and North America. However, all through the process it has been clear that He wants us back in the US, and particularly in the Phoenix area.
And so, as all the doors have slammed shut across Singapore, Thailand, China, Japan, South Korea and The Philippines, we have followed the Light towards the goal He has for us to find. Find it, we did. The school is a mission in and of itself; the neighborhood is rough, and violence is already a factor in the administration’s eyes as the head of school has already looked down the barrel of a gun and had her car jacked out from underneath her.
This is where the heaviness comes in. This is where the resistance comes in. When, and IF, one is going the way that the L_RD wants one to go, there will be a gauntlet of boogeymen for us to walk past. Oh, it is not that the lying phantoms can stop us. But, they can make us “feel” that things are not going as we hoped.
Can we see it?
Throughout our lives, we have, if we have been looking for it. Just as the screeching comes to its highest pitch. And just as the imps send out their false sensations of darkness around us, this is usually the sign that they are losing.
Yes, for us, we are on the verge of an offer from the school in Arizona. And, it is both an offer of employment, but it is also a place where this fool of a writer will offer up his dream job in China, and hand it back to The One Who gave it to him. The devil hates submission. The liar hates humility. The accuser of the brethren cannot comprehend that, in losing, i win – and so does the kingdom.
And so again, the doors have slammed shut, except to the place where He wants me to go. But, the forces of the evil one want to block that path with their cheap weapon: intimidation. They want me to lose my cool and blow it, so that when the good comes i look and feel a fool. However, the problem remains for the evil ones: that if I remain calm and keep walking towards the Light they cannot bear to countenance, they lose ever more power in one servant’s life.
So, are you feeling a nearly indescribable heaviness as you endeavour to obey your King? You are probably on the verge of the lightness of jubilation. Courage friends! We have much to be thankful for!
Tonight is your night. Time to believe the dawn is coming very soon.
“Against ill chances men are ever merry,
But heaviness foreruns the good event. …
Therefore be merry, coz; since sudden sorrow
Serves to say thus: “Some good thing comes tomorrow.”
~William Shakespeare
