The Battle

Over the centuries, every person ever to come into existence has fought a spiritual battle of some kind, be it large, obvious and notable, or small and almost meaningless save for those who fight them. To this day, most people will deny ever having been involved in such a thing.

But consider: if something as small as getting a cold has happened to you, and you have asked "Why does God allow this?", are you not then fighting a spiritual battle?

I'm sure some of you will say no. I tend to disagree. Allow me to explain.

The second you bring God into something, it has instantly become an object in the spiritual realm. Actually, it already was before that, in all likelyhood. But as soon as you ask "Why, God?", you have just placed yourself on the spiritual battlefield, whether you wanted to or not.

All of us experience something like this every day, regardless of how small or large a degree. The question every single person has asked is: 'Why?' Well, here's your answer:

BECAUSE SATAN WANTS YOU TO BE MISERABLE. And, sadly, in most cases succeeds. You're sick? Started with Satan. You're depressed? Started with you-know-who. Angry at God, falling away from him? Guess who? You get it.

It's times such as these that we must stop absolutely everything we're doing, and rethink EVERYTHING, and at the end of it all, and throughout, pray about it. That's the only way anything gets done. And pray out loud. I know it's sounds dumb, I too feel like a complete idiot praying aloud when I'm alone. But it WORKS. Words are essentially the key into the spirit realm, they can and will make or break...anything!

So, if you want something positive to happen, don't just pray about it and go on being a generic human being; change your attitude, your outlook on life, especially if you're depressed or angry. Negativity and negative WORDS lead to negative THINGS HAPPENING.

On the other hand, positive WORDS lead to positive THINGS HAPPENING.

The battle raging around us every single day is so much more real than most people realize; it affects everything we do, everything we are. The one good thing about it is, we have an option, which side affects us.

As I said before, being negative will basically allow the negative to happen to you. Being positive generally allows good things to happen.

Then there's the old adage, "Bad things happen to good people."

Yes, that is very true. And the question again becomes, "Why?" Why God? What have I done? Why am I suffering? Why, Why, I, I, I... Notice the pattern here?

We always ask why WE'RE suffering; almost never what God is trying to do for us, or tell us, or even why He's suffering. Therefore, the suffering of good people allows for the praise and worship of God, which is our ultimate purpose here on Earth. And, with the power of words, when we speak God's name, when we pray about things, when we command (for we HAVE the authority!!!) in Jesus name for something positive to happen, it can! And will! NOT ALWAYS, mind, but the point is, God has annointed us with authority over everything.

Matthew 17:20-21
For truly I tell you, if you have faith
the size of a mustard seed, you will
say to this mountain, ‘Move from
here to there,’ and it will move; and
nothing will be impossible for you.”


Luke 10:19
1: "Behold, I give you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. Nothing will in any way hurt you."


Amazing, yes? This is the power and authority of God, of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour in us! He gave us THAT!

And what do we do with it? We squander it, ignore it, pretend like it doesn't exist, act like it's an evil thing every time someone dares to use it.

So don't be afraid, speak up, speak out, use the authority you have! The battle is raging around you, you are a SOLDIER IN GOD'S ARMY! Ranks don't matter here; if you have even an ounce of faith, you are already capable of doing amazing things! We have been called to do even greater things than Jesus himself once did!

So pray. Fight in the battle. Speak out in positivity. Have a loving, caring disposition, have a good attitude towards yourself, your life, your family, friends, enemies, everyone else around you. And though the storms WILL come, you and I have a rock upon which we can stand; one that is infallible, unbeatable! Call on the name of Jesus Christ, and perform miracles in his name! And recruit others, not by force but by helping them to come to faith. And keep fighting, and keep recruiting, for this life is one massive battlefield, upon which rages the mightiest war the world has ever known, and few can even begin to comprehend.

God is great!



The Power of Prayer:

Matthew 7:7 :

Ask and you will receive. Search and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you. Everyone who asks will receive. The one who searches will find, and for the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Reason for: Faith

Hello sinners. At this point, you are all condemned to death. A most horrible death, from which there is no escape, and no return. And for you, no hope.

How many consider yourselves perfect? How many honestly believe they are without sin? For those of you reading this that do believe that, these are the questions I would direct to you.

How many of you are sitting there, with a full knowledge of every evil you have ever committed, yet do nothing to rectify your situation? For those of you reading this that know that, you should also know that you cannot possibly, of your own accord, rectify ANYTHING. And that is the question I ask you.

For those that know full well what they have done, and are trying to fix things of your own accord, why do you bother? Sincerely think about this, for there is no hope for you if you continue on this way.

And for those who know what it is they do, and ask for forgiveness on a daily basis, why do you sit here and read this, when you already know the truth? Why are you not out, doing what we as Christians are called to do, which is essentially share the Gospel with everyone?

The answers to theses questions are really quite simple: for the one that believes they are perfect, and I know they exist, it is probably a sense of incompletion, of feeling like there is still something MORE.

For those who know what they do, yet do nothing, they, too, feel incomplete, and have an overwhelming desire to redeem themselves, but they don't know how.

For those who know what they do, and try to rectify themselves, they do not fully understand the concept of 'faith', yet somehow feel drawn to the truth, that they may, finally, experience peace.

And for those who know what they do, and ask God for forgiveness daily, they read this because of an insatiable desire to constantly learn more and more about the one they worship, the one true God.

So basically, in every instance, people are reading this because of faith.

But where does that faith come from? Some people will see this, and completely ignore it, not even bother to skim over it, simply because they are completely without faith. Those are the ones who are truly lost.

Faith comes from the one who created it, the creator of everything: God.

So what is its reason for existence?

Well, the story goes something like this:

God created everything. Including man. God gave man a choice, DO NOT EAT THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT. Man chose the other path. Sin enters the world. God KNEW this would happen, it was part of his plan. Why? Well, I'd imagine because he wanted to be worshiped. What better way to receive that than to create a being with freedom of choice, who had a 50/50 chance of sinning, then offering said sinner a reprieve?

In other words, God created man to worship him. Part of the plan was to find a way to get man to actually do so. Could God have stopped it? Absolutely. Did he? No. Why? To create faith. What is the purpose of faith? To trust that God knows what is best, and to leave everything up to him. He's King, whatever he says goes.

So then why doesn't the entire world act like that? Because sin entered the world. Sin is like darkness: it is the absence of light. But it serves its purpose, because whoever is sinful is condemned to hell, the final death, but whoever believes in Jesus Christ and accepts him as their personal Lord and Saviour and asks for forgiveness, will be saved.

So faith exists so that God can give it to us so that we believe in him, worship him, and, eventually, live with him for all eternity.

But then, why didn't He just skip the whole drama display and set straight for the eternal life bit? Well, I don't imagine it would be very gratifying if one were to be worshiped by what they created just because. This way, there is a reason behind it all: worship God, and save our souls. God 'allowed,' so to speak, evil to be introduced into the world so that His Name may be glorified, that he might receive honour and praises and worship.

So either stay the way you are now, and leave yourself open for eternal damnation;
or, have faith, and worship and honour and glorify him in all that you do, and you will be saved.

Modern Day Martyrs: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly Truth

OK. So a couple days ago, I posted on a story of a friend of a friend of mine. To recap, 16 year old girl decides to go to youth instead of follow the ways of the world. Supposed to be home 10:30 PM, never shows. Found a little later lying on the sidewalk with her head kicked in, with a letter reading: "Let this be a warning; we hate Bible thumpers." Dies later in hospital. Sad story.

And also, just one among the many stories of the unsung war in which we find ourselves. So to get down to it.

The Good:

God is good. We all know this. We all believe it. Therefore, even in an event as brutal as this, some good can come from it: the girl is now in heaven with her creator and saviour, and the family has at least that comfort.

The Bad:

Well, for starters someone died. Never a good thing in it's own right. Death is a byproduct of sin. This, however, was murder, which is even more bad. And, the forces of darkness essentially won this one.

The Ugly Truth:

WE ARE AT WAR. We're on a battlefield, shooting at something we can't see. We can hear it. We can feel it. But we can't see our enemy, which makes it that much harder to hit. Our biggest problem? We don't have a big enough army. Not enough people are willing to volunteer, and most of those who say they are simply sit around and do what? Not much of anything. We need a bigger, better trained army.

Our Weapons:

Well, the Bible and Prayer for one thing. The name of Jesus has more power than any president. Or any exploding star, for that matter. Then there are the various weapons and shields and such from the Bible:

The Armor of the Lord:

The Belt of Truth
The Breastplate of Righteousness
The Sandals of Peace
The Shield of Faith
The Helmet of Salvation
The Sword of the Spirit the word of God.



We have been called, among many other things, to take part in this spiritual battle that is penetrating every aspect of our lives. Everywhere we look, it is there. We must evangelize to A) obviously bring people to Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour, and B) we must also recruit more people, ESPECIALLY people who are already 'Christians', into this war. We must train them. Teach them. And we must continue to learn ourselves.


So I am going to make this a call for people to join forces and fight against that which tries to attack us at every move. A call to rise up, and shout the truth from every hilltop. A call to arms!

A call


For Revival.

Modern Day Martyrs

A lot of us have facebook, right? It's a very good way to communicate with friends and family. Well, some people I know have used it to communicate things like miracles and other Christian related subjects.

Not five minutes before beginning to write this, I read one such story. It was the first story of a modern day martyr I had ever read. And it happened to a family close to a friend of mine.

Basically what had happened was one night, a young girl had opted NOT to hang out with her old, druggy friends, and instead attend a youth group. She and her sister spoke several times over the phone to make sure everything was OK. She said she'd be home around 10:30.

10:30 came and went. Her sister called her and the pastor several times after that. The pastor answered, saying she had just left. (Her house was only a couple minute walk away).

The pastor then walked outside, and saw someone lying on the sidewalk. It was the girl. Her head had been smashed against the concrete and kicked, and a note lay beside her: "Let this be a lesson; we hate bible thumpers". That's what the note read.

She died later in hospital, on September 7, 2009, at sixteen years old.


A sixteen year old martyr. That's not sad. That's outrageous. A pathetic display of cowardice and contempt on behalf of those who did it.



What I find many Christians fail to realize is that we are fighting a war. Martyrdom is a product of war, regardless of how subtle that war may be. And rest assured, this is no subtle war.

What I have seen and heard in the last year is nothing less than outright scary. I'm not scared of much. This scares me.

We as Christians need to realize that we are fighting a war, a war against the forces of darkness. A war against Satan, and his minions. I have seen battles won; this is a battle lost.

It's real. It's big. Awareness needs to be spread. We are called to shout the truth from the hilltops. And yet we sit at home, comfortable in our beds and safe. We are afraid to take chances.

This girl was NOT afraid to take a chance, take a stand. And she died in the name of Jesus Christ, her Lord and Saviour. So even in the shadow of death, God can bring good. What Christian is afraid of dying for their Saviour? I'm not. But still, awareness must be spread. Just because good can come out of a murder, it doesn't make it right.





I'm going to do a series on this, because the briefly put-together spiel above is confusing and to some may seem contradictory. I think that's where a lot of people either don't believe, stop believing, or don't know WHAT to believe. So over the next few days, I'm going to do the best I can to clear up some questions.


In the meantime, I hope this at least made SOME sense, you know where to post questions/comments, it's nearly one in the morning so I need to go.


But think about this. About the reality of what we're dealing with.

And have a good night/morning/day.



----Mike----

Encounters: Chapter One

OK. So like I said a few days ago on Araken's blog, I've been one of many witnesses to something A) simply amazing and B) something none of us ever thought we'd encounter.

I was out late Saturday night like I usually am, hanging out at a friend's house with about six or seven others. About 1:30 that morning (like I said, I stay out LATE), I received a text message from a good friend of mine saying that they needed prayer, his house was under serious attack. I don't remember the first thing that came to mind, but I did text him back asking what exactly was happening. His reply was this: 'A close personal friend is possessed in my living room.'

Surprised? Yeah. So was I.

So that night I carried on as usual, getting home around 2:30 3:00 in the morning. The next day was a little bit odd, just cuz everyone was tired. I wound up again where I had been the night before for a couple hours, then got an invite over to my other friend's house (the house where the proceedings had been taking place). Actually, two of my friends lived there at the time, three now, but that's beside the point.

So that day we went out of town to look at knives at the House of Knives (great place...hehe) and grab dinner.

I don't think it was an hour after we'd gotten back to the house that we all heard screaming from upstairs. No. Not screaming. Bloodcurdling shrieking. And my friend's Dad yelling at SOMETHING to leave, now, now, NOW!

For another half hour, we sat where we were in the basement praying. A little while later found us all upstairs, praying and telling demons to leave.

I asked this question in my last post, how many people have read the Forbidden Doors series? Because what is described in those books is EXACTLY what happened Sunday night.

What happened over the next two hours is quite nearly impossible to describe. A room full of about 12 people sitting or standing in a circle around a person who is writhing on the floor, being held down by five people, the demon inside her screaming out for water and begging not to be sent back to hell. Actually, that was every demon. There were over 20 demons inside this person, and each has to come out one by one.

Then something I did NOT expect happened: another person began to convulse and shake like the first person. She got one as well. That one took about fifteen minutes to purge, and the one we were dealing with in the first person couldn't be cast out until every person in that room was 'clean', as in, no outstanding sins, unforgiveness, anything. In fact a couple of people that night were cleaned.

The demon we were dealing with most of that night, like every other, (that night there were four or five, I was only present for two) had a name: Violence. The other's that night were Anger, Control, and a couple other's the names of which escape me now. Violence was a brutal pain to get out. It did not want to leave, kept screaming for water. Once, when noone was holding her down, the person with Violence inside her began to crawl to the kitchen. "What are you doing?" we asked.

"Water!" was the only reply; it sounded like someone was dying of thirst, the voice said it like..like it hadn't drunk for days. It pretty much gasped the word.

A little bit before that, another ... 'interesting' thing happened: The person began to go to the washroom to fix her shirt, BUT!, only made it to the doorway when the demon began to shriek again. Apparently, demons don't like seeing themselves in the mirror. It scares them.

Anyway, that night everything went well eventually. Violence was purged, sent back to hell, my friend's Dad who was standing over her most of that night yelling at the demons physically pulled the demon out of her mouth. It wasn't quite visible, but every time he grabbed hold and pulled the demon screamed, until it was out. A rather large round of applause broke the air, and every one sat back and just ... rested. The night was finally over.

***

I didn't sleep that night. Actually, I slept. But I didnt' rest. My mind replayed the events of that night over and over again; it was the first time I had ever witnessed or taken part in a spiritual battle. So I woke up that morning absolutely bagged, but I couldn't sleep longer than about 9:30 (I tend to sleep in..I don't start work till three in the afternoon). I couldn't stand to be in the dark, it was as if SOMETHING were there, watching, waiting.

And we'll probably be back at it again tonight. It all started Sunday morning, a little after midnight. Nearly a week later, we're still not done. God most certainly has something in store for us. I don't know what, but I do know that this has made us all closer together. We are all growing in our faith, and there is no longer ANY question whatsoever of what and who God is and that he exists. Not that I had any doubts, but...This was definitely an eye-opener.

Anyway, that's all for now. I'll post as more happens.



----Mike----

Encounters: Prologue

Okay, I've only got a few seconds right now but I'm gonna post tomorrow on something truly amazing, and just a tad unnerving, that happened to me this weekend.

Has anyone ever read the Forbidden Doors series by Bill Myers? If not, I strongly recommend them not only are the a good read but they are packed with spiritual truths, the likes of which the majority of humankind would pass of as fairy tales and myths.

In these books, the supernatural comes into play a lot. And, not only CAN it occur, but it DOES, in REAL LIFE! And I was a witness and participant in one of these encounters with the supernatural.

Stay tuned in the next day or so for more details!

Her Song

Remember the friend I spoke of a few months ago? Well, here is a song she wrote, and performed 3 DAYS before she passed...