Letters From The Other Side (Continued) Dear Auntie Wylie, I cannot thank you enough for your most recent letter. This week has not gone well. I am afraid that my human is falling not into temptation. Just a few days ago, he began his morning with a positive attitude. He picked up the Big Black Book and read from it. He was defiant! He was actually meditating on the Scripture and I dreaded what would become of him. What was he now capable of in his refusal to backslide? My worst fears came to pass as I recognized the human attitude of prayer. My human was defecting to the Enemy. I once had taken a class on Prayer Mechanics. We were taught one basic principle: Even the worst demon may not be able to prevent one of those saints from praying, but we can take certain negative steps to undermine the prayers or to maximize the sense of failure or disbelief. Because it doesn’t matter if the Enemy hears the prayers of the people and is genuinely invested in them – what matters is for the human to think that God is not listening. If they must pray, then we enable them to pray superficially, or to pray only in self-centered terms. I enjoy leading humans to tell the Enemy God what to do next and when to get the job done for them, as if God would be hopelessly incompetent with human help. Sometimes they inform God how to make their lives easier and their bank accounts richer, and then they act all hurt and disappointed when God doesn’t measure up to their demands. But as I said, this week was not working out badly, and I was very concerned about my human’s ability to disregard the truth. My human specimen prayed the worst kind of prayer -- the prayer about “thy kingdom come, thy will be done,” sort of business that is so distasteful to us. And so I used one of my best tactics. I distracted him. “Remember how hungry you get if you don’t eat soon.” Then he broke his focus. “Remember that other people would tease you about prayer time.” Then his eyes opened. “Remember that you are really, really tired in your body.” He yawned. And then I said, “Remember you have sooo much to do today that you do not have time to sit and pray.” He was ready to give it up. At the end, I reminded him a sentence from a sermon he had heard. The pastor had said that some people are actually too spiritual! I saw doubt on his face and he was as good as mine. I certainly agree with you. If they pray, then they may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil and our cause is futile. They may also contend against the powers and principalities. They must never know that even their mediocre prayers cause us great grief and loss. We who are the spiritual hosts of wickedness could never survive; we would lose our grip on them. (Now, speaking to the congregation) Oh, I see you too. You have been listening to us as we discuss our wily ways. Maybe one of the difficulties you have now and then is that you listen to us too much, more than you listen to God. The messages of the world and the demands of day to day living make more noise, after all, than the gentle whispers of the Other Spirit. Sometimes we can be a lot more fun too. You get it, don’t you? There is a mortal battle for your souls. We would take you and use you. We would give you huge portions of brokenness, despair, and hopelessness, doling despair out to you in shovels. With us, you would never be in want for broken heart or a broken life. Our specialty is your disease. Our Enemy comes to you also. God does not tempt you into holiness. God does not coerce you into loving relationship. Instead, God lures you toward himself. He entices you with promise. He rewards you with joy. He heals your lives with a profound sense of well-being, inner peace, shalom. You come to belong to God’s family, as one of God’s children, and then you know to whom you belong and by whom you were created. Some say that we are much to be feared. But really, fallen demons like us fear you. We are afraid that you will embrace the power of the Name. We fear that you will act in authority and that you will speak with conviction. When you embrace that other kingdom, we tremble. We are afraid when you pray. I run from you when you take on the whole armor of God, because then you are able to withstand all of my attempts to tear your life apart and bring you to ruin. The picture of the Christian warrior is my greatest threat: girded with truth, wearing the breastplate of righteousness and covering your feet with the gospel of peace, carrying the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation on your head, and holding out the sword of the Spirit. So now then, let the battle begin... Copyright Phillip & Jane Moschenrose, 2009 << (Previous page) << Home Page >> | 
