Heaven & hell, Angels & demons all seem up close & personal here
Actually, I do think hard before posting a negative article. I wonder what will this achieve? will it build up the body of Christ? What deposit will it leave in the readers spirit when the reach the end of the article?
So, why am I posting a story with a title as nightmarish as this one? Well, we see some pretty amazing miracles here - frequently, Thank God! It seems that the reality of the invisible realm is far less opaque or concealed here than the west. Yes, demons and angels are less of a myth and more of a reality here. I don't think its realistic if our blog or FB page would be as a surreal Disney film where "The skies are not cloudy all day" and everyone lives happily ever after. People die here - often and violently. People get amazingly saved here and experience outstanding miracle - Often, with no end.
So, why do we stay? There are a couple of answers to that.
Firstly, we are having the time of our lives in the Lord.
Heaven seems so close.
As Paul once wrote - "A great and effectual door is opened to me but there are many adversaries".
We neither feel the desire or permission to leave or to be elsewhere.
Not lastly, but importantly, not everywhere here is high risk, there are many low risk, no risk areas that we also outreach in.
Regardless, as we seek more and more to be led by the Spirit and experience that He is in fact leading, we find we consider less and less the potential danger to our own lives and instead leave the issues of life and death in the hands of Him who sent us here and will one day receive us with joy into his presence.
But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might
finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus,
to testify the gospel of the grace of God. Ac 20v24
He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot loose.
Elliot - Martyr of the Auca Indians
On Thursday night we were invited to a friend’s birthday
party, their home happens to be atop a hill which they have opened as a prayer
mountain. The house is simple, open, beautiful and the setting surreal. It
affords elevated panoramic views right across the calm horse shoe shape of
General Santos bay and way over across the other side of the horse shoe you can
see the glittering shore line of the Eastern Sarangani coast. On arrival we
were amazed at the night sky; it seemed so clear and closer than usual. We could readily identify the same
constellations that Adam, Abraham and Jesus all saw, surely a testament to the unchanging
faithfulness of God.
Outside, around a large split log table and corresponding
rough hewn benches the guest gathered to dine from an abundance of local
Philippine delicacies.
Close by to our left, a mere two metres away from where I
sat was a beautifully lit small sunken sitting pool, about the same length and
width as a standard bath but deeper with built in seating.
We were told that it was here at this spot that a brother
in Christ fell bleeding and died. Earlier in his life the man had been a hard
living drunkard but our friends had shared with him the good news of gospel and
he repented bringing transformation to his entire household. The change in the
man sufficiently impressed our friends in that they offered him the job of
caretaker whilst the hilltop home was being completed.
It was on this same back porch that the man sat along with
his young daughter. They were not looking at the stunning scenery or discussing
the temperature of the sitting pool. No, this man’s life was so changed, his
love for Christ so alive that he was actually sharing passages from out of his
bible to his daughter.
As I also am the son of a former drunkard, which drunkard
also handed his life over to Christ, I was well able to imagine this scene. This
man had no hope, no prospects, no future, and then someone took the time to
share about Jesus. How many more like him wait in shadows for us to bring them the
light of Christ? Are you the one to tell them? We have been blessed to see many
chronic and hopeless cases radically transformed by Christ’s love after we
shared the about the saving grace Jesus offers. Be encouraged to share as none
are beyond the reach of His nail pierced hand.
The child later described the full and awful story; She and
her daddy sat together enjoying their bible time together in the warm sunshine
when out of nowhere, “an enraged , possessed”
young man with blood shot eyes, mucus dripping from his nose and a machete tightly
gripped in his hand, flew, hacking at the father in a totally unprovoked attack.
Typically, this father was no easy target, in the past he would have demolished
any young gun bent on a fight. But this was no ordinary day and no ordinary
young gun. The assailant was known locally to have an unbalanced mental history.
Our friends, the owners of the house had treated him with the same kindness and
compassion they had showed to their caretaker convert. But something was
particularly wrong this day as demonic power thrashed and flailed through his human
puppet.
Was the location of the attack a coincidence? Wrong place,
wrong time? It was a clear expression of demonic hate bent on destroying a life
and defiling what was dedicated as holy ground with a curse of shed blood.
The daughter continued in essence that despite deep cuts
to his arm and head her daddy was very calm as if he “as if he was somewhere
else” “He was even smiling and spoke calmly to the madman like there was no
pain, no impending death erupting upon him.
She fled to get help, the murderer done hacking, ran into
the long grass, the father lay bleeding…dying right beside the sitting pool I
was now staring at trying to comprehend the awfulness of it all in front of his
young daughter – Life is basically tragic!
It was the women that had run up from the village below
that both cornered and caught the man. For the father, it was too late...
Absent from the body present with the Lord.
By the time help got there he was already being welcomed
by the heavenly host into his eternal home.
But, why is it that despite being critically injured and
his very life in the balance, he smiled? Why in the face of death did he manage
to exude peace & calm, even trying to reason with his assailant?
Did our brother experience something that we don’t know
about yet? Something extra special reserved only for those who are about to be
violently removed from this scene of time? Did he see what Stephen saw during
his stoning - Jesus standing at the right side of the Father?
Is this how it will be for those of us who are appointed
to martyrdom? What did Paul mean when he wrote “to live is Christ to die is
gain”? How simply astonishing, this man died under a furious hail of machete
blows both smiling and at peace?
“Death where is your victory – Grave where is
your sting”?
Actually, we had met the daughter a few weeks previous. Did
she appear embittered or traumatised, emotionally scarred for the remainder of
her life? Quite the contrary, in fact she also had a quiet calm, decorum, unusual
for one so young far less the witness to such a tragedy. If anything the
experience and the mentoring of these fine friends had led her to find the
secret place under the shadow of the Almighty’s wing.
The prayer mountain remains a prayer mountain and the glory
of the Fathers presence is readily found there. God is not geographical, No, He
is Omnipresent, but demons are and they have never succeeded in stopping prayer
up there. Their murderous efforts have only succeeded in intensifying worship
and prayer up that blood stained hill. As
a result it seems the demons prefer to leave that hill alone now.
Heaven Riegns - Daniel
4v26
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