Several of the songs were quite moving, and in the final scene the packed auditorium joined the cast in singing and clapping to the title song, a rousing spiritual.
Immediately after the performance, Stephen Edwards appeared on the darkened stage in a single spotlight, describing how any family or any individual in trouble could call upon the power portrayed in their show by sincerely submitting to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Clearly many of the people in the audience were moved, either by the show, or by Reverend Edwards’ short talk, or by both, because Richard noticed that several people near them were using handkerchiefs as the houselights came up.
Richard was also moved by the performance. He identified with the husband who was feeling jealous of his working wife's time. The husband in the play finally turned to the Lord and began praying with his wife. It reminded Richard of the story Sally Coker had told them three years earlier. Janet shared many of Richard's feelings. But for both of them it remained an intellectual question, almost a curiosity. After all, how could people really find everyday power in their lives from the supernatural?
Seated in a Texas-style restaurant after the show, Richard and Janet were surprised to learn that Court and Sandy prayed about all major issues which faced their family and their business lives.
Richard was astonished to find that Court actually prayed every morning in his office and asked for God's involvement in each of his cases.
“You see,” Court smiled at Janet and Richard as he cut his steak, “Sandy and I believe that if God is going to be in your life, then He must be in your whole life. Otherwise, it's like I'm telling Him that I can still be in charge of certain parts of my life, which I don't believe I can be.”
“And of course,” added Sandy, “we gave the raising of our children to Him years ago. In fact, we tell our children that they are His children, and we have simply been given the blessing by Him of raising them as best we can, with His help. They are still young now, but we trust Him to guide them and to protect them.”
“But Sandy,” Janet asked, “do you really believe that God is involved in your life every day? I mean in your life, individually? Doesn't He have a lot more important things to do than to be concerned about a single family?”
“Oh I very much believe He is involved in our individual lives. I know. I feel His presence and see His work changing me, changing Court, growing our children. I see answers to specific prayers. It's very real and very much what He says in His Word that He will do,” Sandy smiled.
After their evening with the Shullos, as Richard and Janet were undressing in their bedroom, Nepravel, who had been spending more time with the Sullivans since Richard and Janet were growing into positions of authority in their firms, turned up the voice of Pride, when he realized to whom and to what Richard and Janet had been exposed that evening.
“Court and Sandy are certainly interesting people, you have to admit,” Richard said to Janet as he unlaced his shoes. “I mean, you look at our friends the Petersons, say, or even the Cokers. Both have told us stories over the years about their strong faith. In both of those cases, there was something powerful like Vietnam or Henry's arrest, which you can say explains why those two couples suddenly acquired their new faith. But Court and Sandy are so normal! I mean, he's a lawyer, just like me. And here they are praying about everything, and he's in there in his office praying every morning! He seems like such a regular person. And they do appear to be awfully happy, and awfully…well…I don't know, I guess the word is together. But can you imagine us…” And here the voice of Pride really kicked in. “Getting on our knees together here at night and praying to God about Tommy's baseball games?” He laughed.
“It's very strange,” Janet agreed, as she hung up her dress in their walk-in closet. “All the people we know who really talk about being Christians—I don't mean the people who just go to church—always tell us about the ‘power’ in their lives, about how they have been changed. That certainly was never talked about—at least that I remember—in the Catholic schools I went to. All we ever focused on was doing good and confessing our sins and praying that somehow we would wind up in heaven when we died. But these people—and you're right, the Shullos do seem awfully normal otherwise—really seem to feel some inner power, and to have some type of inner peace. I just find it hard to believe it's possible,” she concluded, with Nepravel right there helping her to that conclusion.
Ten minutes later they climbed into bed and read for a while. Janet turned out the light on her side of the bed and rolled over with her back to Richard. He finished two more pages in his book, turned out his light and moved up close behind her, putting his arm around her and brushing his lips on her ear.
Her body tensed up and she pulled her elbows into her side. “Not tonight, Richard.” Janet exhaled in a voice dripping with fatigue. “It's been a very long week and a very long night. Let's just get some sleep, and maybe tomorrow night we can.”
Richard rolled onto his stomach and said, “OK, OK. Good night.” But, frustrated, he thought to himself as he tried to go to sleep, You didn't used to be so tired all the time, when you weren't working. That's all I ever hear from you now. Maybe I need to find somebody who's not so tired!
Nepravel finally left, pleased that Richard and Janet were learning so well the lines he and the other demons were feeding them. “If we can keep this up and nothing interferes,” Nepravel congratulated himself as he moved through the bay window toward the Bryants’ home, “it shouldn't be too long before one or both of them starts having an affair. Humans, left on their own, are so wonderfully predictable.”
18
SATURDAY, JANUARY 14 – The fifteen individuals assembled that Saturday morning around the tables in the large Sunday school room at Morningside Church sipped their coffee and talked among themselves. They had all been invited by Michael Andrews, Jim Burnett, and Stephen Edwards, the three ministers whose churches had decided to join together in their effort. At a little past 9:30, Michael Andrews, the pastor of Morningside Church, welcomed them.
“And we are of course pleased and blessed to welcome from Pittsburgh both the Reverend Bryan Hughes and the layman who was in charge of their church's businessmen's prayer breakfast, Roy Wise. Jim and Steve, I'm really glad you could bring with you the men and women from your churches with a heart for evangelism, who want to work for the Lord with our upcoming prayer breakfast. Before we hear from Bryan and Roy, I know we all want to spend some time in prayer.”
There followed almost twenty minutes of silent and voiced prayer, as each individual in the room in turn lifted the meeting and its purpose to the Lord for His blessing and His involvement. Michael Andrews, as the host, finished their prayer time and concluded, “Now Lord, send your Holy Spirit to be here among us as the most important member of our team, that we can say and do only what is pleasing to You, to extend Your kingdom here on earth. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.”
Bryan Hughes and Roy Wise then described in great detail all the preparation that had gone into their earlier businessmen's prayer breakfast in Pittsburgh. Near the end of his remarks, Reverend Hughes warned them, “You have to realize that what you are planning will make Satan and his forces of deception and darkness very angry. It's one thing for us to preach the Word in our churches—he expects that. He almost laughs that the majority of ‘Christians’ really just gain enough knowledge of the gospel to be immunized against experiencing the real power of Christ in their lives. But now you're talking about going out into Satan's territory and taking the Word to business leaders, who might then affect many businesses, families, and individual lives. Satan hates that. And you can expect he will do everything he can to attack you and to discredit you and your efforts.”
Roy Wise added, “Given what we've told you about our experiences, we recommend that you organize around three distinct functions: all of the events which are necessary prior to the prayer breakfast, the prayer breakfast itself, and the follow-up activities after the prayer b
reakfast. Since you have three strong churches involved, you could either give each church the responsibility for one function, or you could have each church involved in each function, under a designated leader. However you decide that issue, we urge you, as we have already warned, to begin praying for the prayer breakfast now. As Bryan just said, you can count on Satan and his demons to attack you. And using your own strength alone, you'll be easy prey for them. So the most important thing you can do, however you decide to organize on a human scale, is to pray for the Holy Spirit's involvement, starting right now. It's never too early to begin praying for an event like your prayer breakfast.”
Michael Andrews again thanked the two visitors from Pittsburgh for taking time away from their families to help these three churches with the city's first businessmen's prayer breakfast in many years. There followed a question and answer period. After a break, the group reconvened to discuss how to organize their local effort.
Eddie Tatum, a volunteer from Morningside Church, suggested, “I like Roy's idea that we organize by activities. For the greatest learning possible, I believe each of the three churches should be involved in each of the three functions. And I have to admit that until this morning I never realized how much preparation will be necessary if we're serious about winning souls away from Satan in this city. We have a lot to do, so we'd better get organized this morning and get started.”
Betsy Chalmers, a member of Stephen Edwards’ Church of Faith, suggested that they begin the prayer cover, as Roy had recommended, immediately. “I'm the chairwoman this year of our Prayer Warriors, like the ones here at Morningside. We have almost two hundred people who each take an hour of every day of the week—twenty-four hours a day—to pray for the people and the concerns of our church. The Prayer Warrior Bulletin will go out on Tuesday, and we'll begin including the prayer breakfast right away. We'll continue into the follow-up period five months from now.”
“And we have a prayer chain at our church,” added Jim Burnett, “which we can also enlist immediately.”
“Are you having the prayer breakfast in a hotel ballroom?” asked Bryan Hughes.
“Yes, at the Palace Hotel,” answered Michael Andrews.
“Then—and I'm not exaggerating—you may want to rent a room in the hotel several days before the prayer breakfast and enlist a volunteer team to pray there and to claim the hotel as holy ground before and during the prayer breakfast.”
“That sounds like a good idea. We ought to do it,” Eddie Tatum agreed.
The group stayed together for another hour, planning for the prayer breakfast, following most of the suggestions made by the visitors from Pittsburgh.
Thanks to the fervent prayers of the Morningside Prayer Warriors and of other church members, there were always at least twelve angels protecting the church and any event held there, so that no demon would go near the place. Because of that spiritual protection, the early work of the three church groups responsible for the prayer breakfast was able to begin, and was in fact well underway, before any demons learned of it and reported the possibility of such a prayer breakfast to Balzor.
19
TUESDAY, APRIL 18 – It was only midafternoon, but already it was gloriously dark to Balzor. One of Satan's most experienced demons, Balzor was not visible to human eyes. But he was no less real. And just like a devastating, invisible wind, he was no less deadly. From his vantage point high above the northwest section of the city—his personal responsibility for forty years now—the sun's position was really irrelevant. His whole area had grown progressively darker during his years there, and he was immensely proud of his accomplishments. As he shifted his dark form and exhaled a breath of broiling sulfur, he watched his minions going about their tasks below, content that the long war was now almost won.
Everything was proceeding according to Balzor's grand strategy: Richard's affair with Kristen, Tommy's growing estrangement from his parents, Amy's fateful date with Billy, and Janet's initial concern with Tom Spence about the upcoming “911 Live.” Almost everything, that is. One thing Balzor hadn't counted on was that those in charge of the prayer breakfast would drench all of their plans and activities with prayer. Because they did, the prayer breakfast was different, as was much of what happened afterwards.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 3 – Two weeks later, just after Richard came home from work on the Wednesday evening before the prayer breakfast and said hello to Susan, Amy, and Bobbie, who were upstairs talking and doing their homework, Bobbie left to go home in her family's station wagon, and Susan told Amy goodbye in their turnaround. The telephone rang and Tommy answered it. “It's for you, Dad.”
“Hello.”
“Hi, Richard. This is Bob Meredith. How are you doing?”
“Fine, Bob. Hey, Bobbie just left a few minutes ago, and she should be home very soon.”
“Thanks, Richard. Dinner's almost ready, so I'm glad she's on the way. But that's not really the reason I'm calling. Listen, I'd like to pick you up in the morning and drive you to our prayer breakfast. I know it might seem a little bit strange, but it's a tradition we're starting, and I'd like you to be my guest for the ride in.”
“Well, that's fine, Bob. But isn't it a lot of trouble? How will my car get to the office?”
“Don't worry…. Just bring your keys with you, and we'll have your car parked in your regular garage space when you get to the office.”
Richard was stunned and a little concerned about all the trouble involved, but Bob persisted, and so he agreed.
“Great. I'll pick you up tomorrow morning right about 7:00. We're really looking forward to the prayer breakfast. See you then, Richard.”
As Richard hung up the phone, he thought, Someone sure is going to a lot of trouble. I didn't realize a prayer breakfast required so much organization!
Nepravel, who came through Richard's breakfast room near the end of the conversation, was infuriated. He and the other demons had been battling the prayer breakfast for almost two months now, since they had first learned of it. But, with few exceptions, the organization was very strong; and the prayer support was so intense that they were only able to learn bits and pieces of the details from conversations such as the one he had just overheard. He knew that Balzor, already in a terrible state because of the prayer breakfast, would not like this latest news.
The midnight gathering over the city in those last few hours before the prayer breakfast was chaotic. The demons had never seen Balzor so furious. For two months his anger and frustration had grown, since he had first learned that the prayer breakfast had been in the planning stages for six weeks, without any of his demons picking up a hint from any source.
“You should have suspected something from all the prayers coming from those three churches—and from that infernal church in Pittsburgh!” Balzor had screamed at his lieutenants. “…Even if they do pray all the time about everything!”
And the angels. They had started appearing a month before, boldly positioning themselves at the Palace Hotel, around the homes of the prayer breakfast leaders, in the offices and conference rooms where the organizational meetings were held, even taking up roving patrols through the homes of the men who had been invited! The result had been disastrous for Balzor's demons, who were constantly on the defensive, even in their own neighborhoods. They had to be looking over their shoulders to guard against attacks from God's holy angels, who were actually able to reintrench in parts of the city, as if it were forty years ago!
And with each passing day, as it became apparent that the demons would not be able to attack the prayer breakfast directly, the suggestions of Balzor's lieutenants became much less numerous, and each demon stayed as far away from Balzor as possible. But distance was not possible at the midnight meetings.
Looking down from their high vantage point, Balzor and his demons were sickened that night to see so many angels concentrated in their sector of the city. At least forty angels surrounded the Palace Hotel, claiming it as holy ground and daring a demon to be fo
olhardy enough to venture nearby. In addition, they could see the sharp bolts of angels’ light around churches and homes and roving through the neighborhoods, making it very difficult for streetleaders like Zloy and Nepravel to tend to the voices of deception in these last critical hours.
Balzor, enraged by the show of God's power in his sector, was examining his own future and looking for someone to blame. “All streetleaders will check and build up the voices in every invitee tonight. We can see the answered prayers arriving in these homes even now, and we must spin the voices up before these men arrive at that prayer breakfast!”
All the demons nodded silently, except one. “But there are so many angels around now,” complained Streetleader Plagor, who was responsible for a neighborhood just to the south of Nepravel's Devon Drive. “I was almost caught twice this evening.”
Balzor, whose fury had been pent up for days, locked his demonic gaze on Plagor, rose up, and sailed toward him. Plagor, regretting that he had spoken out, cowered down as Balzor closed in on him, and the other demons around him moved back.
“Those angels missed, but I won't!” screamed Balzor, and the blast of fiery heat he unleashed from his mouth burned Plagor to a crisp. He disappeared in an instant, blown back to hell.
Turning in a circle over the ashes that had been Plagor, Balzor snarled at the rest of his demonic forces, “Now, is anyone else going to complain about my orders to maintain your voices?” There was total silence. “Toron, you're now the streetleader in that neighborhood. Do you have any complaints?” Toron bowed his head in silent submission.
Balzor resumed his normal station. “Without control of the Palace Hotel, we may lose many souls tomorrow. A lot will depend on how much Pride and Confusion can keep spinning in these men before they arrive. But after the prayer breakfast, we'll have to redouble our efforts with those who are not saved at the breakfast. And with any of those who we do lose tomorrow to heaven, we'll have to be sure to isolate them with Apathy and Unworthiness, so they won't affect anyone else. Are there any other reports?”
On the Edge Page 33