Prayer in spiritual warfare

We live in a world of spiritual warfare. In "No Small Snakes," author Gordon Dalbey describes an

experience with a particularly frustrating member of his church, Liz:

If any situation bore a potential for conflict, she seemed to know supernaturally how to spark it. My training in psychology and knowledge of her painful childhood suggested several reasons for her disruptive manner, and for some time I compassionately tried to overlook it. Yet as she grew even quicker to assume conflict at church events, my 'pure compassion' gave way to an equally pure anger.

That night, we needed to discuss forming a new worship committee, and Liz -- in her late sixties -- urged three women over 65 for the three-member committee. At that, my inner leash broke, and I cried out in my spirit, Lord, what can I do about this woman? I know You want me to love her, but what she does is making me furious!

In that moment of surrender to God, I sensed the enemy at work. At once, I confessed and released my anger at her and asked God to show me through His Holy Spirit what was going on. The word contention came to mind, and I silently bound a spirit of contention in Liz. She became noticeably subdued, but I could see that she was nevertheless chafing at the bit to stir further conflict.

I asked God for a spirit of wisdom and then spoke to the committee, saying simply that we needed a cross-section of worship sensibilities, which three women in the same age bracket would not provide. Liz huffed and was about to speak, but I silently bound the contention again and others picked up the discussion.

After praying for her for several weeks, I finally knew I had to talk openly with Liz and went to see her. Thanking her for her years of service to the church, I then told her straightforwardly, with no anger, that her contentious attitude was becoming an obstacle to open discussion at the church. I hoped that such as truth-telling would spur her own will to cooperate more with others at the church -- though I never told her about my prayers of binding the enemy in her. As I anticipated, she was upset that I 'would say such a thing,' but I prayed to hold my ground, and she listened.

Thereafter, I demonstrated my compassion for her by thanking her when she was either supportive or helpfully critical in other settings, and by continuing to bind the enemy's power over her. In time, those who had before come to me complaining of Liz's manner told me how much nicer she had become.

Pay attention to your interactions with people. Sometimes there may be more at work than we notice on the surface.

Saint Augustine's vision of Jesus

In "Beautiful Outlaw: Experiencing the Playful, Disruptive, Extravagant Personality of Jesus," John Eldredge shares an interesting way that Saint Augustine encountered Jesus (pp. 181-183):

[Saint Augustine] was quite an accomplished sinner, by his own admission, a man we would send to a recovery center for sexual addictions. Though he had the opportunity to sit under the preaching of Ambrose, and though his own mother was praying night and day -- a most effective weapon for turning a wayward soul -- he was bound to his darkness. 'I was in torment,' he wrote. Until that fateful day when in a garden, he heard God speak -- through the voice of a child over a wall:

Somehow I flung myself down beneath a fig tree and gave way to the tears which now streamed from my eyes, the sacrifice that is acceptable to you.... For I felt that I was still the captive of my sins, and in my misery I kept crying, 'How long shall I go on saying, 'tomorrow, tomorrow'? Why not now? Why not make an end of my ugly sins at this moment?' I was asking myself these questions, weeping all the while with the most bitter sorrow in my heart, when all at once I heard the singsong voice of a child in a nearby house. Whether it was the voice of a boy or a girl I cannot say, but again and again it repeated the refrain 'Take it and read, take it and read.' At this I looked up, thinking hard whether there was any kind of game in which children used to chant words like these, but I could not remember ever hearing them before. I stemmed my flood of tears and stood up, telling myself that this could only be a divine command to open my book of Scripture and read the first passage on which my eyes should fall.

He does. They are the very words he needed to hear from God. And in that moment, which would end up echoing throughout the world, 'You converted me to yourself.' Take it can read, or take up and read, depending on the translator. Tolle lege in the Latin. I think we've missed the playfulness of this. Augustine is a voracious reader. Books are his language. Jesus -- who sent the fisherman fishing and the tax collector to hand out charity -- tells Augustine to get up and read. Open the book, you bookworm. Through the singsong chant of a child, which adds an even more playful touch. Jesus was singing his tune.

I find it thoroughly fascinating the way that Jesus connects with each of us individually.

Forgiving God

On p. 163 of "Beautiful Outlaw: Experiencing the Playful, Disruptive, Extravagant Personality of Jesus," John Eldredge shares the story of a friend who needed to forgive God:

A friend of ours called to ask for prayer. We met, not quite sure what was on the agenda, but willing to help if we could. She said she didn't feel Jesus anymore. Didn't want to feel him anymore. Surprising words from a woman who once had a pretty intimate relationship with Jesus. She began to talk about the suffering she and her family had been through -- bankruptcy, losing everything, and then church folk blaming them for bringing it on themselves through some unconfessed sin. (Which was not the case -- this was during the economic collapse of 2009. Can you see why I hate the religious fog?)

As she opened up the well of suffering in her soul, I could feel the loving, concerned presence of Jesus in the room. With all the intention you see in him toward the woman at the well, or the rich young ruler, I could feel him getting in position to rescue this heart. Rather than jumping to offer encouragement, counsel, or advice, we simply prayed. 'Jesus, what are you saying in response to all this?' I heard his loving voice very clearly:

You think I did this.

It was the same strong, kind voice I now see him using all the time in the Gospels, but never saw before because I was watching television with the sound turned off. I had removed his personality from the stories. He said it again:

You think I did this.

Our friend was speechless. The 'faithful church girl' part of her heart didn't want to admit what she was really feeling. But pain has a way of stripping all pretense. 'Yes, I do,' she said.

You need to forgive me.

Now that really blew her away. Forgive God? This idea is going to cause some readers to freak out. Just listen for a moment. If you are holding something in your heart against Jesus -- the loss of someone you love, a painful memory from your past, simply the way your life has turned out -- if you are holding that against Jesus, well, then, it is between you and Jesus. And no amount of ignoring it or being faithful in other areas of your life is going to make it go away. In order to move forward, you are going to need to forgive Jesus for whatever these things are.

When I lost my job in 2010, I needed to forgive Jesus. I was really mad. But I understand that it wasn't his doing; it was the responsibility of my employer at the time.

Tomb of Jesus Christ

In "Beautiful Outlaw: Experiencing the Playful, Disruptive, Extravagant Personality of Jesus," John Eldredge shares an amazing story of a woman named Jolie and her encounter with Jesus (pp. 151-153):

Jolie wrote me after she attended her first event held by Christian women -- something she was very reluctant to do. Understandably. She longed to experience Jesus at the retreat, but she hadn't felt him at all. When it was announced Saturday night that they would be having an extended time of worship, she was disappointed. 'My first thoughts were, This is going to be so boring. But I began as instructed -- I tried to think of myself sitting at Jesus' feet and worshipping him.' This is where her story gets really good.

'Suddenly I started to see pictures. I was standing at the foot of the cross.'

Whoa. Many of us who love Jesus are brought to tears merely by a reenactment of the crucifixion. A simple cross can stop us in our tracks. Can you imagine seeing the actual event?! Jesus took Jolie there personally.

'He looked down and said, This is for you.'

She was simply trying to begin a practice of loving Jesus. It opened her heart to experience him in a pretty dramatic way. He came to her personally, took her in real time to Golgotha. He spoke to her deepest deception, wounding, and fear. This is for you. I am speechless -- have you ever heard anything more beautiful?

But her story goes on. 'The picture changed and I was standing outside the tomb. Jesus emerged and held out his hand and said, 'Come with me.' There was invitation and desire in his eyes. I took his hand and we walked together. He touched my face.' Doesn't it remind you of the way Jesus was with the women he loved -- with Mary of Bethany, the Samaritan divorcee, and the woman with the alabaster jar, whom Jesus defended in front of a crowd of Pharisees? Invitation and desire in his eyes.

'He told me he had a gift for me. He brought out his hand from behind his back and there was my husband holding his hand. The three of us danced together. We came to a mountain. As we started up, there were places I couldn't get past and my husband helped me, and places he couldn't get past and I helped him. Lastly we came to a place neither of us could pass and Jesus helped us. At the top of the mountain there were lots of people milling about. We looked at Jesus and he simply said, 'Introduce me.''

That's quite an amazing experience.

Reading the Bible with the damned

In "Reading the Bible with the Damned," Bob Ekblad, executive director of Tierra Nueva and the People's Seminary in Burlington, Wash., provides insight on how to share the Bible with the unchurched. Ekblad finds that prisoners, illegal immigrants, drug dealers and the damned (which could mean all of us) connect with the Bible's stories of God's love for underdogs.

He has numerous stories of breaking through in prison small groups, such as this instance on p. 70:

Week after week I continue my studies and one-on-one visits. I keep asking the individuals who are on the journey whether they are sensing God's presence with them. In the Bible studies I regularly ask if people are hearing anything in their reading of Scripture that seems to be coming to them from God.

'Not yet. I still have not heard anything. I don't feel anything,' some keep saying. 'But it's not a problem. Who knows when it will happen?' one of them tells me with an air of confidence.

Then one day it happens. Someone tells of sensing God's presence. God has answered a prayer. This person has been touched in some way. I watch faith grow, and often get letters from people who have long since gone to prison, describing their conversion, their having been met by Jesus.

While Ekblad may be called to be part of prison ministry, others may be called to share God's Word where they are planted.

Get in or get out

On p. 192-193 of "Wild at Heart," John Eldredge relates how marriage involves a battle:

Will you fight for her? That's the question Jesus asked me many years ago, right before our tenth anniversary, right at the time I was wondering what had happened to the woman I married. You're on the fence, John, he said. Get in or get out. I knew what he was saying -- stop being a nice guy and act like a warrior. Play the man. I brought flowers, took her to dinner, and began to move back toward her in my heart. But I knew there was more. That night, before we went to bed, I prayed for Stasi in a way I'd never prayed for her before. Out loud, before all the heavenly hosts, I stepped between her and the forces of darkness that had been coming against her. Honestly, I didn't really know what I was doing, only that I needed to take on the dragon. All hell broke loose. Everything we've learned about spiritual warfare began that night. And you know what happened? Stasi got free, the tower of her depression gave way as I began to truly fight for her.

Men, we need to fight for our wives over and over.

Making the most of a sabbatical

On page 72 of "Beautiful Outlaw," John Eldredge writes about what led him to take a sabbatical. He was physically exhausted, angry with people and felt little hope.

I knew this had to be more than a vacation. The sabbatical would be wasted if I didn't get to the bottom of the issues that caused me to need a sabbatical in the first place. It needed to be open-heart surgery. But my inner world felt like an Oriental rug of issues so intertwined I couldn't sort it out. Early one morning, while I was still lying in bed, looking at the ceiling and asking God to come for me, Jesus asked, Would you like to know what it is? 'Oh, yes, please, Lord,' I said. This is all one thing. Then a pause for effect. I'm thinking, one thing -- this is all just one thing?! You don't look to me -- you look to yourself.

The truth of it was indisputable the moment Jesus finished speaking. All the years of striving, sacrifice, loneliness, heroic exertion -- so much of what I took to be noble about my life was suddenly exposed as godless self-reliance. Utterly godless. I felt naked, like a man lying on an examining table who had just been shown the X-rays of his bone cancer. It was horrifying. And wonderful. Finally, the truth was out.

Sometimes open-heart surgery to take a pause and look at Jesus is what we need.