Staying in an Unbeliever’s Home

I sensed from the Lord that I was to get on line and ask my friends to pray for us, so I did. It is something I do not like doing, for I hate to bother others with my needs. I figure they have their own problems to deal with, and do not need mine to add to their burdens. But then He reminds me of how I am blessed when I pray for others and then get to see the answered prayers. So I went ahead and sent out my prayer requests.

The parents of my son’s friend set up an air mattress in the middle of their living room for us to sleep on, and one of my other boys slept in the friend’s room.

That first night I slept there, satan kept trying to attack me, by whispering in my ear, that our house was gone. And every time he did so, I refuted it. He kept asking me, “How can you even think that your home is still there? Even the firemen told you it was gone!” But I kept claiming the Word out loud, (of which he hated,) and claimed yet again that it would still be there. Then he kept trying to hit me with those ‘what if’ questions, but I refused to give in to those thoughts either. After a few hours of these kinds of attacks, I finally fell asleep.

The next morning I awoke to find my husband gone. He had driven back home to see if we still had one.

I realized then, that the battle for my home was much more serious than I had first thought. It felt as if everything was resting on that one piece of scripture. I had felt Him tell me that I could claim it, and my children had felt the same from the Lord concerning our home. Wishful thinking or not, it still came down to that passage in the bible. Was God’s Word true or not? It says “If you live in Me…” well, I knew that I lived in Him, for I went to Him, asking Him what it is that He wants me to do, and when that is done, I go back and ask Him what I should do next. If that isn’t living in Him, then I don’t know what is. And then it said “And My Words live in you…” well, this got me hung up for a few moments, for I am not one of those people who have a hundred pieces of scripture memorized and can just whip them out as needed. But then I felt the Lord Jesus remind me, that I still use His Word on a daily basis, as I cast out demons and heal the sick, so I would still qualify for His promises. If I lost my home, that was one thing, for we could get another, but if I lost my faith, that was completely something else, for my God is irreplaceable! I felt as if this was actually a battle for my faith in Christ. If my home remained, then God’s Word was true. If it did not…

Well, you can see how this all affected me. Satan was relentless in his attacks. They physically tired me out.

The mother in the home, (the dad had gone off to work,) was also tiring me out, for she seemed to take for granted that we had lost our home. But I refused to talk with her about rebuilding it, and told her that I firmly believed that God would save it.

Then my husband calls. OUR HOME IS STILL STANDING! ALL GLORY BE TO JESUS CHRIST OF NAZARETH!

Apparently, the wind had shifted at the last moment, JUST AS WE HAD CLAIMED, saving our home from total destruction. Firemen were camped out at our place, still fighting the fire. My husband (and only my husband, no others from the family,) was allowed back into the house, to get any emergency medicines or important papers. The air was filled with thick falling ash, making it hard to breathe. He was led in by a police man, and given only a few minutes to retrieve what he could. The police man never checked his identification; he just asked him if he needed help in breaking into the home. My husband looked at him funny, and got out his key to enter. After four minutes, the policeman came and escorted him off our property.

That was the last time we seen our home for many days. After that, they refused to let anyone into the area.

The woman we were staying with, proclaimed that we were “very lucky” that our home survived. It felt like another attack from satan when she said that, so I told her flat out that I did not believe in that kind of “luck” for believers, and that it was the Lord that kept our home safe, just as I had claimed through the scriptures.

That night, we switched rooms with my son, and he slept out on the air mattress, and we slept in the bedroom. Satan kept trying to attack me like he had done the night before, but it was to no avail, for our house still stood. But then as I fell asleep, I had horrendous dreams of a great fire overtaking everything in its path. I dreamed that it not only took out our house, but it was now coming for me. They were incredibly satanic somehow, and when I awoke the next morning, I told my son about it, and asked him if he had experienced such dreams here. He nodded in agreement, and then frowned. He walked back into the room, stood there for a moment, before walking over to the headboard of the bed, (it was actually a shelf where you could store books and such,) and then grabbed something from beneath a pile of papers. It was a large deck of playing cards. “Yugioh cards!” he exclaimed, and then he showed me the top card that was facing upwards.

It was the fire demon card.

And it looked exactly like my nightmare.

We put them in a drawer face down, and then bound them up in the name of Jesus, and then claimed that they could not affect anyone in our family anymore.

The stress was really getting to me, so I begged the Lord to make this whole mess just go away. He then reminded me of the dream about the colonel that He had given me a short while ago. I told Him that I didn’t want to be a colonel, but just an average believer who’d get to heaven one day. At this, I felt the Lord take a step back from me, leaving me exposed. “Are you SURE you want this?” He asks me sternly.

And then I began to cry. Through all the stuff I had been through, I had not shed a tear. But THIS caused me to cry. I could feel the presence of the Lord begin to leave me, and it terrified me no small amount. So I broke down and told Him that “No, I will still do and be whatever You want me to; just please help me get through this!”

Then I felt the Lord’s presence envelope me once again, and I felt and sensed His angels surrounding me. I felt their peace and strength fill me, and I immediately calmed back down and stopped crying.

I realized then, that this was what the colonel dream had foretold. Staying there in that home, and feeling as if I was falling from the sky, (I was still shaky and unable to eat much from nerves,) was just what I had experienced in the dream. The knowledge that we were all protected somehow, and that there were other unbelievers there with us, made me realize that the colonel dream was referring to this moment in time. My questioning the Lord on the title of colonel, is what might have tipped over the shield that we were traveling in, had I let it.

Soon we started getting information on others who have been affected by the fire. One of my son’s friends lost their home. This boy was the one who had called my son and told him about the fire headed our way in the first place. My son had called him back, and told him that his family was in danger, and that they had to start evacuating now. My son then tried to tell him about claiming, and that he should do this for his home. “What’s claiming?” he asked, and then the phone went dead, so he could not tell him more.

I had asked my son, why he did not just claim that his friend’s home would be saved too. He told me that the Lord told him that as believers themselves, they must speak for their own house, and that he was not to do it for them.

When my son had given them the warning, they had first laughed it off. But an hour later, they were busy packing up their stuff. They had over six hours to remove most of their belongings, and move them to his grandmother’s house just a short distance away. They were able to clear out their home fairly well; not much was left in it when the fire finally took it. His grandmother had died a few months before, and they had been reluctant to put the house on the market. Now her house would be theirs to live in from now on.

I found out that they had said quite often, that if there was ever a fire near their property, their home would surely go up in flames. Their grandfather firmly believed that this would happen to his family one day, and his children believed him, and ended up claiming this for themselves.

THEY HAD CLAIMED THAT THEIR HOUSE WOULD BURN AND IT DID!

We then found out more about the homes that were destroyed near our house. The elderly Catholic lady and her husband, (a real sweet couple,) were the first to lose their home in our area. My husband then remembered that they had said at the last neighborhood party, that if there was ever a fire coming towards them, that their home would be the first to go up in flames.

AND JUST AS THEY CLAIMED, SO IT HAPPENED!

I spoke to a sister in Christ who is also my neighbor, and she told me that their house is still standing.

SHE TOO, HAD USED THE SAME EXACT PIECE OF SCRIPTURE TO CLAIM THAT THEIR HOUSE WOULD REMAIN UNTOUCHED! SHE CLAIMED IN HIS NAME THAT IT WOULD NOT BURN AND IT DID NOT!

They had a fireman call them up and tell then that he had personally witnessed their house going up in flames. Can you imagine it? Making the same claim upon God and then being told that? Oi! How she must have suffered! This woman must be incredibly strong spiritually. It wasn’t until a neighbor sandwiched between her home and mine called her and asked her for any diesel that they might have, that they found out the truth. The fire had circled back around one night, and took out the home directly next to them, and this is the home the fireman had assumed was theirs.

She told me that ALL THE HOMES BETWEEN MY HOUSE AND HERS WERE SAFE,

And that ALL THE OTHER HOMES AROUND US WERE GONE.

That means the witch’s home, the new age’s home, the agnostic’s homes and the atheist’s homes were all DESTROYED.

This same neighbor called us too, and told us that he had somehow sneaked back in and was trying to live in his house. (He lives between me and my Christian friend.) He told us that the firemen had moved on, but that there were still several spot fires on our property that he was still dousing with water. Several looters had infiltrated the area, and he had to chase them off with his gun and his dog. He was telling us that he would have to soon leave, for he could find no more diesel to run his generator. He had sent his son out to go get more, but the cops arrested him as he tried to get back in. We told him how to get into our garage, and that he could use our generator instead, which took propane, and there was plenty of that in the garages that were left. Then he told me that my chickens were safe, and that he was looking for something to feed them with. A phone call later to our Christian neighbors, told him where to get the feed that was needed from their garage.

OH HOW OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST PROVIDES FOR HIS CHILDREN!!

The lady of the house we were staying in did not like to hear any this. She kept arguing with me, insisting that it was all just luck. She brought up examples of family members dying young from cancer. I asked her if the cancer demon was cast out. She says they prayed, but to no avail. I told her that she must cast it out in Jesus name. Then she said “So you have to do it in a specific way, or He won’t honor it?” (She said this very sarcastically, as if I was crazy for even thinking it.) I told her that the Lord has given us examples in His Word, and that this is what we go by. She came back and started quoting the bible where it talks about no one being above another. (What this had to do with the argument confused me; anyone who lives in Him, and His words live in them, can make such claims. Sadly, I got pulled away before I could give her that answer.)  I wish I had my Geneva bible, and not the corrupt NIV, for the NIV has some very important scriptures missing from it. I had kept the bible because of all the notes I had put in it over the years. (This has taught me to transfer the notes to the new one, and then get rid of it. After all, who wants to be caught with a weak sword that breaks or bends in battle?)

When I returned, her husband was looking at me and smiling as if to say, “now you’re gonna get it!” He acted like he had sat down to watch a good fight on T.V.. She started asking me questions about what I believe, and made statements on her beliefs that were designed to draw me out. Some I sensed from the Lord to say nothing about, while others I got no warning message, so I would try to quote the right scriptures to match the topic, just as she was doing. At first I thought she was actually interested in what I had to share, but then towards the end, I sensed she simply wanted to fight. At this point, I let a distraction break off the conversation, and left the room.

The next night was much better in terms of sleep, though while writing on the computer, I found myself under attack once again. I sensed evil starring at me. I asked the Lord where this was coming from, and it turns out that this kid had more decks of yugioh cards sitting on his desk where I was working. So I bound them up and turned them away from me, and was able to then work unmolested.

The next day, the boy whose room we were staying in, (he is a believer,) returned to see how we were doing. So I told him about the yugioh cards in his room, and that they were cursed items that needed to be removed at some point, for his peace and safety, if he was ever going to stay there again. (He was no longer living there, but at times he had stayed there overnight.)

His mother heard me saying this to her son, and became very angry. She then came to the conclusion that it was me that was bringing in the demons, for she had not run into them before.

An hour later, right before bed time, her and her husband decided to kick us all out of their home. “Take your demons and get out!” she screamed at me. I tried to tell her that she could check up on the yugioh cards on line for herself, and see just how evil they really were, but she refused to listen.

Her son, the one who is friends with one of my boys, told them that they could not just cast us out without no warning, for even hotels gave a night’s notice. So they let us stay that night, but told us we had to leave right away the next morning.

Apparently, satan didn’t want to be bound up, nor did he want to be removed any more from their house, and fought back the only way he could.

In prayer time, the Lord revealed to me, how this family worked. I had always wondered if her husband was still a believer, but not anymore. I know this may sound crazy, but it’s almost as if he keeps her on a leash, and sends her out to go attack, and then when he thinks enough blood is spilled, he reigns her back in. This way, he looks like the good guy, even though he is not, and she gets to vent her beliefs, without making everyone look bad. What kind of a believer would sic their unbelieving wife on another believer, in order to watch them fight? My son described her as being extremely conniving and underhanded, never knowing when she would fly off the handle and start screaming at something or someone. To me, it was all very confusing. I had thought for the most part that we were getting along just fine, not agreeing with each other, but still respecting each other’s beliefs. But my son told me that she can put on a mask that makes her look all nice and friendly, when underneath she is anything but.

All night long, satan attacked me, very similar to my first night there in their house. He tried to convince me, that we would end up on the streets. (We had been told that all the hotels within an hours drive were all booked up already from fire evacuees.) But this time, he could not hit me as much, for I had won the biggest faith battle I had yet to ever encounter, and I knew that I could easily make another claim upon Jesus for shelter. So I did. I kept claiming that He would bring us to a better place to stay. Then He had me read psalm 23 out loud. It has been a long time since I read it.

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
He leads me beside quiet waters,
He restores my soul…

After I read through the whole psalm, He had me go back and meditate on the first part that I just shared with you.

The peace of His Word settled over my heart and soul, and greatly comforted me. I knew then for sure, that we shall not want, and that even amidst a great fire, he would find us a place to lie down in green pastures.

Another piece of scripture He led me to, is Psalm 5:11-12

But let all who take refuge in You be glad;
Let them ever sing for joy.
Spread Your protection over them,
That those who love Your name may rejoice in You.
For surely, O Lord, You bless the righteous;
You surround them with Your favor as with a shield.

(Remember the dream of the colonel? The Lord told me this scripture was the container, kind of like an upside down shield of old, that we were all in, as we fell down to the earth.)

The next morning, around noon, my husband got a response from one of his friends. (This was the one who had first offered my husband shelter.) He was out of town fishing, but told us where the key was, and that we could go in and make ourselves comfortable.

So we packed up and got ready to leave. As I was getting into the car, I heard the Lord Jesus tell me to wipe off my feet. I thought this really odd, and wondered what could be on the bottom of my shoes. I thought I should go back inside, and wash off my sandals in the sink, for they would get much cleaner that way. But I felt Him say no, and then tell me to simply brush off the top of my feet with my hands. I felt really odd in doing this, but I obeyed Him and brushed off the top of my feet. I then got into the car to leave.

As we drove off, we went a short distance, before my son in the car with me suddenly got very upset, and told me to stop the car. So I pulled over to the side, and he then grabbed my hand and told me that the woman had just tried to send her demons onto us, and that we had to cast them out from our car and claim that they would not follow us.

After doing this, he calmed back down, and we then drove to the next place to stay.

TO BE CONTINUED….

All The Christmas Stuff

It was now January second, 2011. With the holidays now over for another year, we began the task of cleaning up all the stuff, and packing it away for next year. But after what happened with the lights, (see previous post,) I did not want to even start, without praying first.

“Dear Jesus,” I said in my prayer place, “please let us know if there are other things we need to get rid of, besides not lighting the Christmas lights during the winter solstice. Is there something else that we would be better off not having? I don’t want anything unclean in my house. I don’t want anything that the demons could use to enter and attack us with! Please Lord! Gift us with a spiritually clean camp for us to live in!”

I paused for several moments, waiting for a response, but all was silent.

“Oh Lord, You know my heart. You know it is for You. You know that I desire to serve You with all that I am. I live for You. You alone are why I am still here. Please. LET ME KNOW.”

Silence still greeted me. I sensed that I should begin my work. So I rose and went out to begin disassembling the Christmas decorations.

I began by removing all the ornaments on the Christmas tree, and putting them back in the huge ornament storage box. I was half way done with the ornaments, when I noticed that my hands had begun to burn, as if I had touched a caustic chemical somehow, and was having a reaction to it.

I wondered if it was from the box of new unbreakable plastic bulbs that we had opened and added to our tree this year. There was probably some chemical on them that was irritating my skin. I set them aside in their original packing, and made a note to not use them next year, just in case.

I went to wash my hands, and I applied some hand cream that had always worked before to calm down a chemical reaction on my skin.

But this time, there was no difference. My hands still burned as before.

I went back to my work, figuring that the lotion just needed more time to do its job.

I switched from working on the tree, to packing up the advent wreath. But the burning on my hands just became worse.

Suddenly, one of my kids came up to me and exclaimed “Mom! What have you been touching?! Your hands are just COVERED with thick, black, smoke!”

So I told the child what I had been doing, and that my hands were very much in pain.

“Mom,” This child responded to me, “I can’t even SEE your own hands at all! All I see is a ball of thick black swirling smoke at the end of each of your arms!”

I stopped what I was doing. I realized then, that the pain in my hands must be spiritual, and not physical. But then my heart began to ache as well, for I had just begun to realize, what this now meant.

All those Christmas tree ornaments! The advent wreath! The Lord was letting us know, that they were tainted, unclean!

Our family then gathered to discuss what this meant, and what should now be done. Everyone agreed that we needed to get rid of the stuff that was spiritually tainted.

My husband agreed to get rid of the holiday lights, for if he could no longer use them during the days of winter solstice, (December 21st through the 26th,) then they were not worth all the trouble of putting them up and taking them down every year.

The kids felt that if they could not have the lights on the Christmas tree, then they no longer wanted to put up the Christmas tree. Too much work, for little reward. (I had to agree with them; the Christmas tree lights are what made it all so beautiful and special. Without the lights, it seemed like just another tree that was in our house.) The kids did not like having to get under the tree to water it, and hated the influx of creepy (and even dangerous) spiders that surfaced shortly after it was first brought in. Pine needles got into everything and were a daily mess to sweep up.

“We could get a fake tree, if you wanted to try that,” I said to them.

But no one wanted to go through the bother.

“It’s o.k.,” said one of my kids. “We don’t have to have a tree.”

Another one piped up, “As long as we can still have the presents!” Then the thought of the alternative must have come into this child’s mind, for the child then quickly added, “We can still have presents, right mom?”

“I’m not prepared to make that kind of a decision right now. I’m still trying to come to terms with having no tree!”

They seemed to understand this, (they could see that I was shaken and very upset,) so they left their present questions for a later time.

No one questioned the vision of this particular child; this child is the one that can see into that unseen world, like most people can see each other. This child sees the demons and casts them out in the name of Jesus. This child sees and converses with the angels, and is filled with the Holy Spirit. Often times, this child was the one to give us warnings of evil that was coming our way, and we were able to avoid and prevent great tragedy because of it. We have learned not to ignore this child’s visions.

But this! Surely there was some mistake! All those Christmas tree ornaments? Ugh! I simply could not face such a loss, so I went into denial.

“Maybe there are some Christmas ornaments that we CAN keep,” I said to the others. “Maybe we should see which ones are tainted, and which ones are not.”

The others nodded in agreement.

So the kids and I began to go through each item, to discern if it was clean enough to keep or not.

Some were easy for the kids to discern; they were quick to point out those right away. But by the end of the day, my hands throbbed with burning pain, and it began to be too painful to touch anything else.

So I called for a break, and asked this particular child (the one who has such strong visions,) to come and help me bless my hands.

I did not even bother to wash my hands this time with soap and water, for I knew it was spiritual and not physical. THE MOMENT THE BLESSED OLIVE OIL TOUCHED MY ACHING HANDS, THE BURNING AND PAIN SUBSIDED!

The child looked at my hands and said, “The black smoke is all gone now Mom.”

I gave a great sigh of relief.

I then looked back upon all the things that we had gone through, and realized with a sinking heart, that it made up quite a big pile of stuff. There was not even one Christmas tree ornament that was able to be saved.

I went back to my God in prayer, and told Him how sad I was, about all the tainted items. I then asked Him what He wanted us to do with it.

“Wait. Just set it aside and wait till you go though all the Christmas stuff.”

But I knew what the end of these things would be. I knew in my heart, that He wanted us to get rid of all of it. I just didn’t know if He would want us to pass it through the fire, and then break it all up into little pieces.

We had done such, (as Acts 19:19 describes,) to smaller amounts that were unclean and found to be tainted idols, but never to such a large amount of stuff. Even with the smaller items, we found that it left the ground a dangerous mess, with shards of broken pottery, glass, and metal pieces that were too hard to fully remove from the fire pit. The thought of smashing all those glass bulbs was a bit much for me to bear. I imagined the mess it would make and dreaded it.

“Don’t think of that right now,” He told me. “Just work on going through all the stuff.”

As usual, the Lord was right.

It took us almost two weeks, to go through all the Christmas stuff. It was heart wrenchingly painful, for we found that most of it too, was tainted.

Several times I broke down crying, when I’d realize that something precious to me was actually tainted and needed to be removed.

Anything that had a Christmas logo on it, was seen as having that thick, black smoke on it. Santa, reindeer, elves, holly, holly berries, bulbs, ornaments, a string of lights, the phrase ‘Merry Christmas’, red and green ribbons, presents, wreaths, anything with Yule Tide written on it; it was all tainted with the spirit of Christmas.

I think the most surprising of all the stuff, was the baby Jesus statues. The Roman Catholic ones that had the hands and arms molded into their odd positions, (reminding me of the hands and fingers of the Buddha god statue,) were the ones that had the darkest black smoke around them. The one that had a picture of a simple baby on it, only had a grayish fog surrounding it. Madonna and child statues and pictures, especially the ones with the halo in back of their heads, were among the worst.

I thought of all the money that these things were worth, (some of this stuff had yet to even be opened!,) and that perhaps we should just sell them to someone else, but I cringed at the thought of being responsible for giving such tainted items to another. I didn’t want that on my conscience, not at any price!

Oh but the things that were hardest for me to give up, were the priceless heirlooms that had been handed down to me from my family. At least three generations of stuff. The table cloth painted and embroidered with holly leaves and berries by the kids great grandmother, The placemat, kitchen appliance covers, and stuffed centerpiece, all patterned with a huge Christmas swan (or goose) that had been sewn up by my mother for our family, the ceramic creche my mother had formed for us in her ceramics class, complete with real gold highlights painted on the figurines. This alone had cost her several hundred dollars, just to add real gold to the statues. Even the Christmas ornament made by my great grandmother’s hands had to go. All was tainted with the spirit of Christmas. The hardest one of all to let go of, was a small little manger set that I had grown up with. It held so many memories for me. The pull to keep it was very great! But every time I would touch it, my hands would start to burn again. I knew in my heart that I had to let it go.

Numerous times during this cleansing, I would stop, and go into my private prayer place, and ask the Lord if there was some way I could still keep some of the items.

But He would usually tell me no.

“But Lord!” I pleaded with Him, “I’ve gotten rid of so much stuff already! Would it really hurt to just keep a few things to remember it all by?”

And He would often answer me with a question of His own.

“How many doorways for demons would you like to keep in your home?”

Or these ones that really got in to the heart of the matter.

“Will you not follow Me, ma petite? Can’t you trust Me? Are you not Mine?”

These last questions would cause me to fall at His feet in surrender, and then return to the sorting.

But I still cried. For days it was as if I was in mourning. It took me a while to say goodbye to all the stuff. I know this sounds silly. I am ashamed to admit that I mourned the loss of these things. But morn them I did. And the Lord, in all His mighty patience, remained there right beside me, as I cried, mourned their loss, and then continued on until the next great heirloom triggered that retaining emotion within me. Then the whole process would start up all over again.

He never forced me to give up any of it. I knew I had the choice to keep it. But I also knew my God, which meant that if He wanted me to give it up, then there was a very good reason for Him to do so, and I simply needed to let go and put my trust in Him.

Finally, all the items had been sorted. All that was left, was some rolls of Christmas paper and ribbons in solid colors (and with no holiday printings on it,) a few greeting cards that had only pictures of snow flakes on them, and some guest hand towels, that had been cut off at one end, where a holiday design had once been embroidered upon it. These towels would now be used as kitchen rags.

Both my hands and my heart were exhausted.

As I sealed up the last of the huge boxes of Christmas items, I felt the Lord tell me what we were to do with them.

“Throw them out.”

“You mean we don’t have to burn it all in our fire pit?” (I was greatly relieved to hear this!)

“No.”

“But Lord,” I replied, “Our garbage can is already overflowing!” Then I thought of an alternative. “Can we bring the stuff down to the garbage dump?”

“Yes. Close the boxes up, and label their outsides as ‘GARBAGE’, and then take them down to the local dump.”

That Saturday morning, the stuff was tossed into the city dump. There, it would be added into a big pile of other people’s garbage, crushed into a very small block, and then finally burned in a huge furnace.

The remains of history totaling almost over one hundred years of family Christmases, (and at least a thousand dollars worth or more of stuff,) had just been removed from our house.

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(And yes, in case you were wondering, our family still exchanges presents with each other. We now celebrate the Feast of Dedication. For eight nights, we each share a miracle or answered prayer from our own life, light the (7 candle) menorah, read scripture out loud, play board games with each other, and open up presents. Remembering God’s miracles in our lives has rekindled our faith in Him, and serves as a reminder to re-dedicate ourselves -a living temple,- back to Him. So far, no demonic attacks upon our family have taken place from celebrating this holy day, and great peace is experienced during this time, especially while the menorah is lit.)

To Jesus Christ goes all Glory! Thank you Jesus Christ of Nazareth!!

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