In The Battle

So often we think of “spiritual warfare” in terms of the movie, The Exorcist. We might even have mental pictures of witchdoctors in the Amazon jungle faces striped with paint, little more covering their bodies than a vine wrapped around their waist with a few shrunken heads hanging at the hip, a bone rattle shaking in one hand and eerie chants and howls filling the air. Hollywood has filled our minds with strange ideas of what spiritual warfare is really all about.

This morning I was reminded of what spiritual warfare is like for us, we who do not live in the Amazon jungle, who do not believe everything we see in the movies. I was reminded that sometimes spiritual warfare manifests itself in the realms of health and even technology.

Mel was supposed to receive a conference call via Skype, a phone program that works over the internet and is free of charge all over the world when used computer to computer. Yesterday our cable internet was working perfectly all day long. No hiccups, no time off line, just perfect internet access all day long. When we got up this morning – no cable internet. And that was just part of it.

*Mel woke up with a headache.
*The cable internet is not working.
*The phone was dead (could be the neighbor, could be the phone line).
*Mel tried calling the cable internet guy on his cell phone and the cable guy had his phone turned off (I wonder why? - I thought in a somewhat sarcastic manner)
*Mel tried calling a couple of our guys here in Kherson to talk to them about other things and neither of them were at home by their landline phones, and neither of them had their cell phones turned on.
*Mel’s headache got worse.
*Finally our landline started working and Mel received a phone call asking why he wasn’t online for the conference call. One of the other guys decided to try calling him through his computer to our landline, but Mel could only hear a few words of every sentence.
*Mel decided it was time to take some ibuprofen for his headache.

These are little things. But when they are all added up together at one time they produce an incredible amount of stress, frustration and (dare I say it?), anger. It is not until we sit back and look at the whole picture, not focusing on the little parts one by one, that we realize that there is a pattern to this day. Ministry opportunities blocked at every point. Is this an accident? No, it is not. Is it a part of spiritual warfare? Yes, I think it is. Satan trying to discourage Mel, to ruin his day, cause this particular day to be ‘useless’ in our eyes.

Our God is greater than Satan and we rejoice in that. (Mel will better rejoice in that later when his headache has lessened or gone away.) It is easy to forget that God is sovereign, He is in control of what is happening and none of this is outside of His plan. We do not know all of the reasons why Mel was not able to be a part of this important conference call. We do not know why he woke up with a headache this particular morning. We do not know what God is doing. But we do know that God IS doing something – in us, in the other men participating in the conference call, in the young men Mel was trying to reach, in me as I watch and listen and pray over this situation.

And we know
that in all things
God works for the good
of those who love him,
who have been called
according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28

*****

What, then, shall we say in response to this?
If God is for us, who can be against us?
Romans 8:31

Now it is my turn. I wonder when the water will come back on so I can wash a load of laundry and do the dishes?????