There must a purpose to this, God. If I know what things are hindering my friends, I can pray more accurately for them, right? I have to admit, I’m not sure I want this gift.
I took a deep, jagged breath.
I’m not seeing the dark angels yet, but I must be getting close if I’m seeing visions of evil things on my friends.
In Sunday school once, Bev taught that all children of God had spiritual gifts. One of those gifts was discernment of spirits. Was I discerning spirits?
I wondered what kind of spirit I’d see on Christina when I saw her in school today.
I reached into my backpack and pulled out the Bible I’d tossed in before rushing out of the house. I turned to the index in the back and found a heading for spiritual forces. One of the verses listed was in Ephesians, so I turned to chapter six and read, “This is not a wrestling match against a human opponent. We are wrestling with rulers, authorities, the powers who govern this world of darkness, and spiritual forces that control evil in the heavenly world.” It was the same verse I’d read in the notebook, only worded a little differently in this version of the Bible.
When the bus arrived at school, I put my Bible away to face the day before me.
After getting my books out of my locker and hanging up my hooded jacket, I maneuvered down the crowded hallway, looking for Christina.
God, I need a break from seeing these “things” on people.
When I didn’t see any spirits lingering on people I passed, I was relieved. I could turn it off!
I caught Christina as she closed her locker. She looked like she hadn’t slept for days. But I didn’t see any spirit engulfing her.
I took her arm and whispered, “Are you OK?”
“Some weird stuff has been going on. Can we talk at lunch?”
“Absolutely.” I threw my arms around her and gave her a squeeze.
As Christina headed into the hallway, something fell out of her backpack. I picked it up. It was a medicine bottle. The label said it was Xanax.
My mom took that for anxiety. What was Christina doing with it? She was already lost in the sea of rushing students, so I slipped the bottle into my backpack so I could give it to her at lunch.
I had a test or quiz in nearly every class. I was relieved I had a study hall first period so I could review all my notes.
When the bell rang for lunch, I hurried to the cafeteria. Christina waved at the guys she usually ate with, signaling that she and I needed to talk. Then she pulled her chair close to mine. I sat down, opened my brown lunch bag, and pulled out an apple and a sandwich made from mom’s leftover meatloaf.
Christina’s eyes darted around to make sure no one could hear her. Then she whispered, “Last night, after I listened to the recording I made of the grave again, I saw the spirit of that little boy. He talked to me. He told me his name. It was the same one we saw on the gravestone.” She covered her face with her hands. “He’s been following me ever since last night. He sits in the corner of my room and stares at me. And he sat in the backseat of my car while I was driving to school today.”
God, what do I say to her?
I opened my lips and hoped God would give me the right words to say.
“You’re on dangerous ground, Christina. You have to stop playing games with this stuff.”
“I know. You’re right.”
“I want you to meet a lady I know from church. Her name is Bev. She’ll know what to do. And she’ll pray for you.”
She drew her hands away from her face and looked up at me. “Where does she live?”
“Right down the street from me. Let’s stop at her place after school tomorrow. I have too much homework to do it tonight.”
“I’ll do anything to get away from that spirit.”
I pulled the bottle of Xanax out of my backpack and handed it to her. “You dropped these after we talked this morning.” Christina took the bottle and tucked it into her purse. “I’ve been having trouble sleeping for about a month. My mom took me to the doctor, and he prescribed these pills.”
“Have you been seeing other spirits?”
Christina rubbed her forehead and grimaced. “The last time Greg and I tried to dream jump, I saw that spirit in a trench coat and hat standing near my bedroom window. His face was a blur. All I could see were his green eyes.”
Oh no.
“I tried sleeping on the couch one night, but he followed me there. So I asked my mom to take me to the doctor. He said I wasn’t getting enough sleep. The medication worked. But it made me feel sick, so I stopped taking it about a week ago. Even when I was sleeping soundly, I still saw that spirit.”
Well, I guess the proverbial boogey man wasn’t such a pretend thing after all.
The bell rang, and the cafeteria began to clear out. We picked up our backpacks.
I placed my hand on Christina’s elbow so she’d pause a moment before rushing to her next class. “Do you have a Bible?”
“There’s one on the coffee table in our living room. No one ever opens it.”
“You need to get it and read the book of Psalms.” Bev told me once that the Psalms could comfort people. Christina really needed to be comforted.
“I’ll read it tonight. Thanks, Liv.”
What if she forgot? Would she be kept awake another night with eerie apparitions lurking in her room again? Fear seized me as I wondered when I’d see an evil spirit. Mike had said I would in time. I didn’t want to.
While Olivia stopped during her route to pray in her car outside of Christina’s house, Mike flew to the window outside the girl’s bedroom, where he could observe her without losing sight of his charge.
A large hardcover Bible lay open on the bed. Christina lay on her stomach beside it, poring over her literature textbook.
Gideon sat on the floor in the corner of her room, bobbing his head to the rock music blaring from Christina’s headphones. He smiled at Mike in greeting.
“She’s going to blow out her eardrums,” Mike exclaimed, his hands covering his ears.
“I know!” Gideon shrugged. “We can only do so much.”
Mike understood. He danced to the beat thumping from the radio beside Christina’s bed, and Gideon joined in. A light mist filled the room. Mike and Gideon stopped dancing. Two dark-cloaked, faceless figures appeared again near Christina’s other bedroom window.
“Spirits of confusion,” Mike said with clenched teeth.
The two angels reached behind their backs and drew out swords.
Mike’s sword blazed with fire. A metallic bronze triangle materialized in his other hand. Gideon’s two swords glowed blue. A metal helmet clanged as it covered his face. Breastplates and shin guards clanked into position. Lightning shot from their armor.
Christina’s cell phone rang. She looked up from her books and spotted the boy in the corner. Mike had not seen him there until this moment, having been focused on the faceless cloaked ones.
She put her hand on the Bible.
Gideon pointed his sword at the tiny figure.
“She invited me here,” sneered the boy. “You can’t do a thing.” Of course, Mike knew that was a lie.
“Watch me!” Gideon dragged the boy by the scruff of his neck and hurled the boy through the wall. He dragged him into the field behind the house, then chopped at the demon with his blade.
Mike turned his attention to the other presences in the room. Suddenly a shriveled face appeared from under one of the cloaks and leered at Christina. The demon licked his lips with a snake-like tongue, the rest of his facial features still.
Mike moved toward his enemy with confidence, knowing Olivia was still in the car praying, and Christina had her head bowed also.
“Look at me, you filth!” Mike demanded.
“You have no power over me.” The demon’s eyes glinted as they turned in Mike’s direction. His dark companion hovered behind him.
“Wrong answer!” Mike swung his saber, knocking the legs out from under the demon, landing it
flat on its back. He traced a pattern over the demon with his finger. A golden rope followed the trail and bound the evil spirit, who writhed and screeched. Mike wrapped the golden cord around the demon’s mouth, silencing him. The second cloaked demon had already disappeared.
Hoisting the bound spirit over his shoulder, Mike joined Gideon in the field behind the house. He dumped his prey next to the other hellhound.
“Go back to where you came from,” Gideon yelled. The two angels plunged their swords into the demons’ bellies. They turned into a green dust cloud that quickly dispersed.
Mike and Gideon returned to the bedroom.
Christina got in bed and snuggled under the covers, leaving the lights on. She gazed at the bottle of pills on her desk.
Mike wished he could tell her she may not need them anymore.
“God,” she prayed, “if You’re real, show me.”
She sat up, picked up the Bible that lay open at the foot of her bed, and opened to the index. She found the page number for the psalms and turned to it. Mike peered over her shoulder as her finger pointed to a verse that said something about being in the shadow of God’s wing.
Mike felt a heavy hand on his left shoulder. He turned and embraced Gideon, whose expression had lightened, as there appeared to be hope for his charge.
She kept reading until Mike could see that her eyelids were beginning to flutter. Just before dropping off to sleep she peered at the window. No demons stood there.
“Thank You, God.”
She turned on the radio to the Christian station Olivia had played the night she slept over. Then she closed her eyes and fell asleep.
Olivia started her car and headed home. After driving about a mile down the road, she jumped at the sound of Mike’s voice as he said, “Hello.”
“If you hadn’t been present I would not have been able to assist Christina’s angel, Gideon, tonight because, of course, I can’t leave you.”
“I guess that’s why God had me stop in front of her house to pray instead of just praying for her at home.”
“There is a fight ensuing concerning your friend, you know.” Mike let the words hang in the air for a moment.
“Do you think Christina will make the right choice, and all these demonic attacks will stop?”
“I’m only an angel, not God. I don’t know the future. But you can pray, Olivia. Don’t stop.”
“I won’t.”
Mike and Gideon had emerged from this skirmish unscathed. But he had a feeling this battle was going to intensify. Soon. Was he ready for the war to come?
I climbed into bed and stared at the night-light in the corner of my room. It was a punched-tin angel that my mother gave me on my third birthday. The glow that peeked through the tiny holes in the tin always gave me a sense of peace and security.
I hoped Mike would visit me and we could talk more about Christina.
I closed my eyes and prayed again. “God, help me make sense of all the things I’m going through. Be with Christina. And Greg too.”
I felt a gentle hand rest on top of my head.
“Do you know you are a chosen one?” The voice came from behind me as I lay back on my bed.
I dared not turn around. Something I recalled from a church sermon told me it was impossible to look at God and live.
“Don’t be afraid.”
I guess God would say the same thing angels say when they talk to people. I wasn’t afraid.
“I’m doing something special in you. You will help many people. You will be a warrior.”
I can’t imagine that. I’m not much of a fighter.
“The gift I’m giving you is not for you alone. It is for My other children.
Can I trust you with it?”
“Yes,” I said aloud.
“I will always be with you. And I will send My angels to watch over you and protect you.”
A vision came over me, and I fell slowly through clouds into a sky that glowed like the blue-and-pink dawn of a fall morning. I drifted to the ground, landing on the patch of grass where I’d talked to Mike the last time I’d talked to him in a dream state. My heart raced with anticipation.
I saw him on the horizon just above the hill. He wore a red cotton T-shirt, jeans, and bright white sneakers. He swung his arms as he walked toward me.
When he came close I smelled the earthy, masculine smell of patchouli, one of my favorite colognes.
“It’s good to see you again.” He squatted down with his hands leisurely folded on his knees.
I resisted the urge to hug him since I wasn’t sure about our physical boundaries.
The corners of his eyes crinkled when he smiled. “We’ve had some exciting things happening lately. I bet you have a lot of questions.”
“I’m not sure I’d call all of this exciting. But I do have a lot of questions." I stood and instinctively brushed off my pants, which was stupid since there was no dirt to brush off.
“Let’s take a walk.” He leaped over a small creek and waited on the other side. “Come on over.”
I thought about how I’d get to Mike and in an instant found myself on the other side. Dreams were so cool like that. I wished I could float like that in real life.
“What’s your first question?” he asked.
“Am I crazy?”
He looked at me intently. “No. God has given you a gift. Most people ignore God’s gifts. Many don’t even realize they’ve been blessed with one.
Or they’re too selfish to use it the way it was intended. Some try to use their gifts for their own means or to manipulate people.”
“I guess my knowledge of private things about others could be used to manipulate them. But I wouldn’t do that.”
“I know. You remind me of Mary, Jesus’ mother.”
“I do?” I sure didn’t feel I deserved to be compared to her.
“She was just a young woman when God chose to use her. Joseph was a typical young man, but he had a heart that was surrendered to God, tender and sensitive. Like yours. God trusted him. He trusts you too.”
If God trusted me, He needed to know that my feelings for Mike were totally pure. “I think I’ve been looking forward to our meetings in the wrong way.” I wrung my hands, searching for the right words. “You seem like the perfect guy—the kind of guy any girl would love to have as a boyfriend.” I felt myself blush. “So if you’re reading my mind, please forgive me.”
Mike held up his hands. “Don’t worry. Intimate interactions with humans are off limits to angels. In the ancient days, some of the fallen ones crossed that line. They had improper relationships with women, and a race of super-humans resulted. They were called the nephilim. They were half-angel, half-man.”
These beings sounded like the characters having romantic relationships with human girls in the novels my girlfriends read. I’d seen these books on desks at school and had read the back covers to see what they were about.
“During the flood of Noah those creatures were destroyed. They were sent to a dark abyss. But the book of Jude says they’ll be released in the end times.” Mike ran his hands through his wavy, flaxen hair.
“My friends would fall for that deception. Falling in love with fallen angels. They read it in novels all the time and think it’s romantic. Girls all over school would brag about a half-angel boyfriend if they ever had the opportunity to have one. I’m sure all the stories about fallen angels and vampires—nephilim is what they sound like—has desensitized us girls. I think it’s a bit creepy myself. But this is serious stuff and not something to be romanticized.” I shook my head as the realization of this demonic deception overwhelmed me.
“That’s why God needs warriors who have discernment. Like you.”
“Me?” I felt like such a novice. I had so much to learn.
“You’ve always had a sensitive heart. God sees that. I see it. And now you are delving into the deep understanding of what a true walk with God is all about.”
“I had no idea how intense
it would be—yet exciting.”
“Your spiritual gift discerns, identifies spirits.”
“I’m scared. I’m not sure I want this gift. I saw some ‘stuff’ on people one day on the bus. It really freaked me out.”
“That’s because you don’t understand it. The church hasn’t done a very good job of mentoring people with your gift. That’s where I come in.”
All I could think to say was, “Thank you.”
“When you’ve learned to use your gift, you’ll be able to pray for people like few others can. And some of your friends really need some powerful prayer. They’re participating in activities that open themselves up to the schemes of the fallen ones. As a result they’re experiencing depression, oppression, and suicidal thoughts.”
“I do want to help them.”
“That’s what I love about you.”
Although flattered, I realized this was a pure, brotherly love.
“That’s what God loves about you too.”
That was exactly what I expected him to say.
“The last days on Earth are coming. As the time gets closer Lucifer and his fallen ones will become more determined. The battle is going to intensify. Eternal lives are at stake. God is equipping people like you to assist Him in the war to come.”
“I’ve heard about the final battle in the book of Revelation in church sermons, but I never really understood it.”
“God will allow humans to see the extreme evil that He has kept at bay for generations. The church needs to be vigilant and grow stronger. They need to know the crafty ways in which the evil ones work.”
I’d already had a taste of their work, knowing what Christina and Eden were going through. Anger rose up inside me. Suddenly I felt like fighting.
“For every gift of God, the fallen ones have a counterfeit. Remember when Moses tossed his staff on the floor in front of Egypt’s king, and the supernatural power of God turned it into a serpent?”
“Yeah, I remember that Sunday school lesson.”
“Under a different power, the court magicians did the same.”
“Yeah. Didn’t Moses’ snake eat theirs?” I smiled at the mental image.
Mike laughed. “God has a good sense of humor.”
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