Chapter Seven
Spiritual War Begun
The night had been long and Maria’s prayers had sort of drifted to a stop. It had been a wonderful time, but she was tired and would have nodded off to sleep if it wasn’t for the continued tension of deep prayer that Elon still manifested.
In regard to prayer Elon reminded her of her father. Her father had been a man of prayer too.
Suddenly everything in the atmosphere around them changed and Maria was instantly fully awake and looking around in search of what had caused the change.
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I watched Maria’s reaction to the dark waves of thought that pervaded the atmosphere around us. Her eyes found mine and I said, “More than a conqueror……”
“Through Jesus Christ strengthening me.” Maria said finishing my thought.
Good. She was as ready as she could be. I stood up and opened the door and walked out as she followed.
It was an eerie feeling that pervade the atmosphere like the calm before a storm. However there was an awful feeling of foreboding, as if something was about to go terribly wrong in a way far worse than any storm of nature.
I held my hand behind my back and Maria latched on to it and I squeezed her fingers reassuringly. There was nothing to like about what we were feeling. Yes I had more experience with this sort of thing, but being tried in the fire is not something that I ever liked to experience, even though it made me better in a spiritual sense.
“Get the children Maria and bring them to the master bedroom. Go quickly, as we don’t have much time.”
She let go of my hand and stepped into the first child’s room as I continued on.
I passed into the master bedroom noiselessly.
How did one go about waking a former agent of Flint’s skill safely?
I knew of no safe way.
I approached the bed and tapped the touch lamp that sat on the nearby table. A fist with a knife gleaming in its grasp came up at me and I barely caught his wrist to deflect his thrust at me. Flint’s eyes met mine and he abruptly relaxed in his attack.
My eyes left his to drift over to Lisa. She was panting heavily, as she held a 9mm trained on my head at point-blank range. Her grip on the pistol faltered slightly, as she recognized me and the gun lowered.
“What’s going on? We’re in danger aren’t we? That’s why you came isn’t it?” Lisa asked breathlessly.
There was no point in keeping anything from them now. “Darkness desires to torment and destroy what you both hold most dear in your life this night.”
Flint started to lunge up out of the bed, even as Lisa rolled to sit on her side of the bed. She was panting for breath completely panicked in the need to get to her children.
“Lisa I have them! Don’t get up!” Maria said quickly moving past the end of the bed carrying Brian and tugging the oldest girl along behind her.
Both children looked sleepy and completely puzzled as to what was going on. Maria set Brian down on the bed and Lisa pulled both of her children against her sides still breathing hard her face now creased in pain.
I dodged around the bed and knelt before her my hands going to rub on her belly, as I tried my best to calm both mother and the two frightened individuals in her womb. The two babies responded to my comforting thoughts before their mother did.
Lisa’s breathing came under control, as Flint whispered into her ear from behind, as I did my best to soothe her with the touch of my hands and thoughts.
Lisa was crying and in a breathless mumble of emotion she asked, “What’s going to happen to my babies?” Her eyes were fear itself, as she pulled her two older children against her sides tightly.
My hands left her belly and moved up to embrace her face as my eyes drilled into hers, “Nothing is going to happen to your children Lisa. Nothing!”
“Promise?” She whimpered.
“As the Lord lives why do you think we were sent to help you? Does the Lord fail in keeping those who are promised to Him?”
Lisa shook her head no as tears continued to fall.
“Then rest assured that the safety of your children is already an accomplished thing. God does not forsake those who’ve put their trust in Him, when they need Him most.”
Lisa’s lips firmed and she nodded resolutely.
I got back up to my feet and leaning over I kissed her on the forehead, which was damp with sweat.
“Be at peace Lisa and rest here with your children, while we handle the fight.”
I stepped away and Maria quickly hugged Lisa and whispered something into her ear before breaking off to follow quickly after me.
Flint slid around from behind and got to his feet. He quickly kissed the top of each of his two kid’s heads before meeting Lisa’s eyes and asking, “Are you going to be all right?”
She nodded bravely and he kissed her passionately for a moment. Pulling back he straightened up, as Lisa gazed up at him lovingly and said, “Go take them out Tiger!”
Flint left the room quickly and Lisa held her two children perhaps harder than she would normally have as another hard contraction coursed through her.
“Oh God please not now!” She moaned out gutturally, as she tried to get a hold of her fractured emotions.
A little hand touched her face and Lisa’s eyes opened to see her oldest daughter staring up at her tenderly, “I’m praying for you mommy.”
“Me too!” Brian piped up, as they both laid their hands on their mother’s tightly contracting belly.
More tears spilled down Lisa’s cheeks, even as the contractions eased off a little. Lisa leaned to either side and kissed their heads as she said, “Thank you! Mama needs your prayers.”
“Is daddy going to be all right?” Brian asked.
“Daddy will be fine. We’ll all be fine. You know why?”
“Why?”
“Because God loves us.”
Contented both children lay their heads against her, but Lisa stared at the darkness beyond the window before her praying fervently for her husband’s safety. Everyone’s safety this dark night.
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I walked across the large foyer headed for the big double doors, as a chill descended in the air. I threw both doors wide and stepped outside. It was freezing, but it wasn’t a change in temperature so much as a spiritual loss.
Flint stepped up beside me and I heard Maria close the doors. I turned to her. Maria was shivering and very decidedly looked like she wanted no part of what was about to unfold, but she was here and she wasn’t complaining. She was a good partner.
I walked up to her, “I want you to stay here at the doors and not let anything get past you. Understand?”
She nodded and gripped on to both door handles behind her back, as if her life depended on it. She was a brave woman.
My hands settled on her shoulders and I felt the trembling of her frame. There was a howling all around us and then sudden explosive gusts of wind. I watched her look to the left and then the right frantically and I snapped my fingers beside her ear and just as quickly her eyes came back to mine and I said, “Ignore all the theater and drama going on and focus on the Spirit of God residing inside of you.”
Her lips moved, but no words came as tears began to fall.
Reading her mind I said, “No words to express what you feel you need to express through prayer in this moment?”
She nodded miserably.
My hands framed her cold cheeks, “In the New Testament there are nine gifts that are given. One of them is the gift of speaking in tongues. It’s a gift by which the Holy Spirit enables your spirit to directly converse with the Father in groanings that cannot be expressed by any language known to man. Do you want this gift of the Holy Spirit Maria, because it’s been made freely available to all who ask for it?”
“Yes! I need help!”
I pulled her lower lip down with my thumb, “Then let that bubbling spring of life flow forth in Jesus name.”
No sooner had I said the words than her lips began to form words of inexpressible meaning.
Her eyes were panicked and I quickly said, “It’s okay! You’re not going to understand what is being said. It’s your spirit conversing with God what you can’t express with your given language that you can comprehend. The Holy Spirit is not going to overwhelm you or control you, rather just flow through you and communicate to the Father what needs to be said. You are completely in control and it’s your choice for it to happen or not happen. No demon or fallen angel is speaking through you or can interject into your private conversation with God so be strengthened and have faith.”
I stepped away from her as sweet words continued to pour forth from her lips. It was odd given the situation, but this new act of spiritual maturity on Maria’s part had me wanting to stay by her side, as something beautiful was born from within.
I wanted to kiss her so badly, but I had darkness to deal with so I left her to empower the air to be sweet with the sound of the Holy Spirit triumphing in the heart of this dark storm that had befallen a righteous man’s family.
I took Flint’s hands and I led him to one of the large portico pillars. I placed both of his hands on the pillar. He looked to me for direction as the howling grew louder all around us.
“Whose house and lands are these?” I asked.
“Mine.” He responded with looking puzzled.
“Wrong answer. The Earth is the Lord’s and the cattle on a thousand hills.”
Flint looked shaken, but I wasn’t done.
“Your wife and children, whose are they?”
He swallowed reflexively before saying, “God’s.”
“Is there anything you possess, even your own life which is not God’s?” I asked.
“No.”
“Then as you are fully given over to the God of creation make your case known to Him, even as Job did in the midst of his trial, but do not make his mistake. As all that you possess is the Lord’s, even the breath that holds you together know also that He has the authority to bless or destroy you at His good pleasure. Whether He blesses or curses He is forever righteous. He is not a man that He might be questioned as to His actions. Are you prepared to praise God in whatever state you are given?”
Tears flowed down Flint’s face as he nodded in bitter acceptance of the truth that God’s will does not always line up with what we want it to be.
“His will be done.” Flint said.
I didn’t think I’d ever seen Flint more afraid before than he was right now. I put an arm around him and gripped him tightly.
It wasn’t the swirling horde of invading demons that gave him fear, but rather the thought of what might be required of him. I knew full well how the story of Job and the loss of his children was even now emblazoning its way across his consciousness. Actually I didn’t. I’d never been a father so I didn’t truly know what a father might be feeling right now.
“Ask for your heart’s desires according to God’s will and it shall be done. But it has to be God’s will.”
Flint nodded, as his forehead pressed against the pillar even as he gripped it as Sampson would’ve had with all his strength.
I turned away praying inside that Flint walked away from this night with not only what he had entered it with, but far more as well. It was in God’s hands either to bless or curse. To build up or tear down.
I stepped out into the middle of the courtyard, as I was surrounded by the jabbering horde of darkness that flowed in from every side. I wanted to let anger reign in me and scream at them, but that was not how it was done.
“What is your authority in assailing a righteous man’s house this night? Who among you will give voice to the answer that I seek?”
“We are many! So many! We hunger!!!” Came the response of a horde.
Anger did come out of me then, “So get a group discount and go feed on a herd of pigs somewhere! I command by the power of the living Savior that you state your reason for being here now or forever hold your peace and be gone!”
The jabbering silenced and in another section of the courtyard not far from me a dark cloud coalesced into the shape of a woman. Laughter split the night air in a hedonistically ribald fashion that only left me chilled.
“Elon, Elon calm down! One would begin to think you had begun to lose your nerve. Are you Elon? Are you losing it after all these many years?” The voice was feminine in its form of liquid seductive influence and I searched my memory for where I’d heard it before.
“Has it come to you yet honey?” Soothed the voice as the form of a woman stepped forward toward me sashaying in an erotic fashion that only repulsed me for I knew what it was and I was not deceived by my eyes into believing it was one of the most beautiful women the world had ever known. Beauty can ever be deceiving.
“I believe your host’s name was Ishtar.”
She laughed coyly all seductive in her response, “Not was honey. Here I am in the flesh.”
It was my turn to laugh, only there was no humor in it or the warmth that Maria loved, “It does you no good to lie to me familiar spirit, as it would seem you have forgotten that it was I that lopped your earthly host’s head off.”
She pressed up against me with a sibilant hiss, “Tsk tsk tsk you had to go remember that didn’t you, but you and I can still have fun can’t we?” She said temptingly her full lips close to mine.
I met the flatness of her soulless eyes and said, “Take a breath mint your breath still reeks of hell.”
With a smile that showed teeth she flounced away from me and then indicating Maria in the distance she turned back to me her full lips pursed erotically, as she cupped and lifted her full breasts, “Now what does she have that I don’t?”
I wasn’t impressed with her vulgar display of herself, “A soul for starters. How about an everlasting love relationship with the Heavenly Father, while you rot in hell fire. Sexy enough for you?”
All pretense was dropped by her, as her skin split apart to reveal red and black visions of hell, even as her facial features twisted into something grotesque instead of the alluring vision they had been before. She roared at me with a sound of fury that no non-possessed person or beast of nature would ever have manifested.
“Glad to see we’re getting somewhere finally. Now what is your purpose in being here?”
The being from hell came at me, but I held my ground as it roared into my face, “To feed! There are fresh souls to plunder as we make their bodies over into our own. Now stand aside Elon before we destroy you once and for good!”
The demon made as if to pass by, but I reached out and gripped a hold of what really wasn’t even flesh, but a manifestation of a dark spirit that had enthralled a long dead person into giving up herself as a habitation.
“You will not transgress a righteous man’s dwelling without the authority that binds us both in our existences being given to you. Your kind is always hungry and looking for a fresh soul to inhabit, but it does not give you the authority to consume what has been consecrated to God. You will fail and your punishment will be severe for this offense this night against those loved and cared for by the Lord God Almighty!”
The arm I gripped twisted into the sinuous cord of a snake, which wrapped around my hand and arm binding me fast, even as its fangs sank deeply into my neck. Eye to eye with the demon I saw how it gazed at me hungrily.
“Even if my brethren fail to attain the new life yet unborn within the house we will still have you. Behold you are a man of many faults, sins, and mistakes and I will use them all to show you the pathetic worm that you are and what it is to be broken. I will break you and inhabit you an invite all my brethren into you as well and our victory will be all the sweeter tonight, as a highly favored servant of the Lord falls into darkness.”
“Your vain words deceive you to believe that you have any power over my eternal fate, but so that my God might be glorified and your punishment performed let your trial of me begin, as I trust in no might of man for my defense for I am wholly kept and preserved of the Lord God Almighty and He will deliver me from the very pits of hell itself if need be. His love for me does not fade and His strength to save never diminishes so child of hell spawn do your worst, for my future is secure and my path is set down for me by the I AM and I will not fear for I trust God to perform even that which His Holy Word has promised to all who put their faith in Him and His son Jesus Christ.”
Fire licked all around me and my torment began.
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Maria sobbed at the sight of Elon ensnared in a fiery matrix, as he gripped a hold of the dark creature of hell that she hated to even look upon as it was a nightmare to behold and yet Elon stood gripping it by the shoulder. She marveled at the man she had been paired with to walk life’s journey with.
She found herself terrified for him.
“Oh God help him!”
The words weren’t but said for a moment before her own torment began. A dark cloud of twisting hate pressed against her so thick that it was hard to breathe and she feared that her heart would stop from terror alone.
Voices assailed her. There were too many to count and their dark whispers overwhelmed her as she pressed back against the double doors.
“She is weak!” “I want her for mine!” “No she’s mine!” “Oh can you sense the new life beyond!” “There is more within!” “Step aside puny weak human and let us to our feast!!!”
Maria thought of the children within the house both born and unborn and something firmed within her soul, “I am weak, but my God is strong and by His strength I declare that you shall not pass!” Maria said, as she was prepared to die for the sake of the children.
The pitch of the sibilant whispers rose to a fever pitch of intensity as they prepared to assault her, but before they could two swords of living fire crossed over before her and drove the sudden shrieking horde backward, as the bearers of the two swords drove forward pressing the foul herd of darkness back.
Maria gazed at the two individuals before her with more terror than she had felt at the exposure to the dark menace of the horde. There was something far more powerful in the governing influence of the two individuals than any other force of power within the arena of spiritual conflict.
Suddenly Maria recognized them. They had been at the metro station!
They had been the ones who had given her provisions for the journey!
Swallowing she glanced to the left and the right and saw more of them stationed along the walls of the villa and elsewhere. God had been here all along with deliverance, she just hadn’t seen it until now.
They were angels and she was sure of it now, even as she was more sure of her faith in God than ever before in her life. Her faith felt as if it had bloomed inside of her overnight into an all-consuming fire that had left no part of her untouched in its quest to burn away the old and give birth to new life.
One of the two angels stepped forward and laid a hand on Flint’s back as he still prayed against the pillar and seemed to begin strengthening him in some way. The other angel came to stand beside her at the door as the crowd of moaning spirits ping-ponged around the courtyard as if caught within an invisible trap.
Maria’s eyes left the angelic being beside her to find out what had become of Elon. He was still there gripped by fire, but the fire was less intense and the countenance of the demonic manifestation was panicked as if it was losing control.
The demon’s plight was not what she cared for. All her eyes took in was how Elon looked. He was in great pain, which caused her heart to bleed, as if she had suffered from a mortal blow herself.
She glanced away from the struggle to the angel beside her. His presence of power and majesty of bearing made her feel small and insignificant, but surely that was a lie she told herself. For while made of lower stature in honor than the angels had not her God showed her that she was far from insignificant, as He had saved her in the moment of her dire need?
“It is even so. The Father’s eyes are always upon the righteous and His hand is quick to save them from sudden calamity. Tell me what is it you would ask?” The Angel said.
“Can you please help Elon?” She begged in agony with every moment Elon remained in the fire.
“It has not been given to me to intercede on behalf of him or I would. Do not fear for his faith is strong and the promises of God are sure. He will be delivered as he has placed his faith in the only One who can deliver. You should go to Elon as your place is by his side.”
Oh how Maria wanted to! All she wanted was to be near Elon experiencing life with him, but he had tasked her with the responsibility of keeping the door and obediently her hands remained on the handles behind her back.
“I will keep the way.” The Angel said and Maria let go of the handles as she did not doubt him.
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I was on a battlefield. I remembered it well. The battle had been lost.
“All these brave men and women died because of you. Why did they die? Because you inspired them to believe in what could only lead to their deaths. You are at fault!”
I turned in the vision to see once more the form of Ishtar.
“You are mistaken. I helped lead them into the path of righteousness and their blood that was spilled consecrated the ground of this place, even as the lives lost have an eternal resting place in glory with their Creator. How am I at fault?”
The scene changed and I was in the midst of a harem full of beautiful women, who rose to press closer to me moaning and yearning for my touch. I looked past them to Ishtar, who leaned against a post of the tent to await the words that I knew were coming.
“All these women were given to you as a gift and yet you refused them. You denied them their right to lay with you and as a result they were sold off as slaves, when they could have had the security of being your wives. Are you so righteous to hold to poorly thought out vows of celibacy to not consider the misery you caused by denying yourself the pleasures they so willingly offered you, which led to their demise?”
“Your logic is as twisted as your master and full of his lies. My vow of celibacy was well thought out and like Moses I departed from the pleasures of Egypt that last only a season, before they are gone forever. If these women were sold into slavery it was by no fault of mine for I have kept my vow before God and remained faithful to it. What is my fault?”
Another scene this time of a tavern came to life around me as the women faded from view. I jerked as the newly revisited memory assailed me.
“I see you remember this place well. You should. See the boy lying at your feet? He died because you were too drunk to save him oh self-righteous and faultless one.”
I stared down at the boy on the floor as tears ran down my cheeks. I wiped at them as I replied, “I never said I was faultless. I have many faults, but I have been forgiven and I’ve moved on ever seeking to be a better man than I was the day before.”
“How can anyone be forgiven of such a missed opportunity as this boy’s needless loss of life?”
“Well do you know the One by which forgiveness for wrong deeds came. How dare you suggest Jesus’s redemptive sacrifice is not inclusive over all sin!” I hotly retorted.
Scene after scene played on of my long life and I grew weary of living, but not of my righteousness of purpose.
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Maria walked out toward Elon in the center of the courtyard, but the panicked storm of darkness driven into a frenzy was between her and him. She was beaten down to the ground as every past wrong and guilty thought that she had ever had was railed and accused against her. This was wrong.
“Enough! I am redeemed! I am forgiven and through my Savior’s strength I am more than a conqueror!”
The dark waves peeled back away from her and she started to get up to continue to go to Elon, but the sound of a voice of majesty stopped her as all creation seemed to stand still, “Well spoken daughter of my Father and heir of My redemption of all mankind.”
Maria’s head turned to see the truth of the presence she felt, even as her spirit leaped for joy as the rest of her trembled in awesome fear of Holiness personified in living form. She would’ve fallen back to the ground, but a scarred hand steadied her and pulled her up into an embrace that was peace itself.
“The years have been hard Zora, but now is the beginning of a time of peace within the storm that has been your life.”
At the sounding out of her real name Maria could do nothing but cry at the completeness of how much God knew of her. Nothing was secret from Him and she was both glad and humbled by it.
“Come.” Jesus said, as He took her by the wrist and brought her along as He came up beside Elon, who was no longer caught in fire or captured by the bonds of the serpent nor poisoned by its bite. Instead the dark spirit choked and pleaded within the grasp of Elon’s hand.
The demon’s pleading eyes turned to the Master’s Son and begged to be let free.
Jesus spoke, “Speak no more and be gone from this place to what has been prepared of old for you.”
The dark spirits on a moaning wail beyond comprehension in terms of despair were gone within the blink of an eye, as the sun rose up over the far horizon.
All of creation’s Master turned to Elon, “Well done thou good and faithful servant. To you is given blessings and honor for all eternity, but for now, while time still remains for but a little while have peace and contentment within your heart and enjoy all My Father’s good pleasure that has been stored up for both of you to experience together as one.”
Zora’s hand was pulled forward and fitted into Elon’s in symbolism that was beyond words as their Master pressed their palms together with these words, “Let no man or power that be put asunder what God has joined together.”