Chapter 65
I found out a few days after my purchase that the coffee house shared a common wall with a new-age/occult bookstore, with emphasis on the occult. These people did not like Christians, yet they did believe in prayer. Not praying as Christians pray to a Heavenly Father, but praying to a different god while sitting in a circle with candles burning in the center! The real battle had begun. For the next eleven months the trials were of such magnitude that many times I considered quitting the walk. The spiritual warfare was off the charts. Patrons would come in quite often and inform me of the degree of dislike my business neighbors had for me. This new type of warfare intrigued me. Someone informed me that they were mostly vegetarians, and my serving of recipes using meat was just one of the reasons for their anger against me. However, they also knew I was a Christian and that I would easily speak with guests about the important things in life, namely yahushua (Jesus). Although I served meat and seafood dishes, I always had a pot of vegetarian soup available for those customers that were vegetarian, but that did not seem to matter.
I feel it is very important to take a few moments and explain a little about Spiritual Warfare and the significance of it. When I say that I considered quitting the walk, I am trying to emphasize that a real battle had begun and this new type of warfare was taking a serious toll. There are many ways the enemy may attempt to afflict us through the spiritual, mental or physical realms. My battle was taking place in the mental realm. Daily I was bombarded with thoughts of despair and abandonment. I knew god was with me, but at the same time it was as if He was allowing their prayers to have tremendous effects upon me. The occultists were sending their lords to play havoc within my thought realm, and it was relentless. 
It was just before I got into the coffeehouse business that the Holy Spirit gave me the revelation about there not being two Gods, a good God and an evil one, but that there is only one God and a fallen angel that deceives the multitudes.
I had never considered that I would quit serving my Lord, but those were the thoughts that plagued my mind until I wanted to scream. God was doing an entirely different kind of refinement in me, and out of it was born a new compassion and understanding for people that actually have fallen away from their commitments and dedicated walks with our Lord. I did not like the teaching process; however, it did serve its intended purpose.
I have been in a walk with the Lord for over 30 years, and during the first fifteen years, I did not want God to call me into intercessor Prayer or to be a Missionary. However, after I finally started to settle down and started grasping the true essence of Christianity, I realized that the call of an intercessor is, in my estimation, the greatest call an individual could have on their life. It is not a “public” call, because most of the work of intercession is done in private and usually during the evening hours while everyone is asleep. I have been referring to it as “Rug Time,” and there are not enough words in my vocabulary to stress the shear importance of this type of intercession.
Without intercession it is doubtful to me that anyone could ever reach their god given potential or even know what their potential is. There is a formula that has proved to be essential in a walk with god if someone is seriously interested in the things god has for him. Let’s consider the sunflowers, which are so prevalent in Kansas; they know where their source of life is from. Every morning these big flowers turn to the east in order to face the Sun and then all day the flowers track the Sun in its course through the sky until they are facing west at sunset. We should take note of this. It is essential that at all times we keep our eyes on our Savior (spiritually speaking), then as we discern something He wants us to do, Do it! Once we determine where our true power comes from, we will realize the need for intercession and developing an intimate relationship with the Lordwe claim to serve.