The War Is Real
part 1 - My Story
We have been talking about how the kingdom of Heaven and the devil's kingdom are at war with each other. We have been sharing how the devil feels like his territory is being attacked any time that we do something to advance God's kingdom, such as healing the sick. Even though we don't usually think of healing in terms of fighting spiritual warfare battles, the devil views our activity that way. It is not unusual for him to feel attacked by our activity, and to attack us back. We call that type of attack "enemy counter-attack."
We have looked at a lot of examples of this from the bible, but I would like to share some real-life examples as well. The truth is that there is often a cost to moving in physical healing, because of spiritual warfare counter attacks. So we should not enter into healing unaware of that, but we should learn how to defend ourselves from the enemy's counter-attacks against us.
I think I've always known this (in theory) in the back of my mind. But recently the Lord pointed it out to me by reminding me of things that happened to me in my own life, and explaining them to me in terms of spiritual warfare.
I'd been struggling health-wise for the past many years. It seemed that when I'd go on a mission trip, I would be ok health-wise while I was on that trip. But I would get very sick when I came home, to the point where I couldn't function for four to six weeks after the trip. A couple of times, I ended up in the hospital shortly after returning from a mission trip, with things like serious kidney infections that required intravenous antibiotics, etc.
This sickness seemed to be a fact of my life and I started to think of it as "normal." I assumed that it was the result of some type of "spiritual warfare" related to doing foreign mission trips. I got used to being sick a lot, barely able to function on an ongoing day-to-day basis. This was frustrating for me because in the midst of my own physical problems, I would pray for sick people and they'd get healed. But I seemed to be sick much of the time.
Then this past year, the Lord put me in what He called a "season of rest." I did not do ministry related travel (mission trips, speaking at churches/conferences, etc). In fact, I seldom did any sort of ministry at home (teaching classes, serving on ministry teams, etc), except to do the day-to-day routine stuff of running GodSpeak.
The first two months, I needed the rest so bad that I did not even miss ministry. I was sick (and fatigued) most of those first two months, but then I started getting healthy again. And once I started to feel healthy most of the time, the Lord took me through a season of character development and personal growth and maturity, and He still did not release me to do much ministry. I began to miss it, and I began to feel like I wasn't "doing enough" to earn God's approval. He took me through a process of learning that He loved me whether or not I was actively doing things to advance His kingdom--and that lesson was harder for me to grasp than you might imagine. I had to stop deriving my sense of value from what I did for the kingdom, and start defining it in terms of my personal relationship with God.
I got to the point where I was so healthy that I could start working out, building endurance and doing fitness conditioning. I began doing a lot more physical activity, such as nightly hikes with my husband on a steep mountainous trail. It did not take long to forget how sick I'd been and to get used to feeling healthy and fit.
One day I was praying and thanking the Lord for returning me to good health. I told him that I'd not felt this good in a long time. And that is when He told me that I hadn't been doing much by way of healing ministry in a long time either. Then He said something interesting. He said, "Teresa, you did not always get sick on mission trips. In fact you usually came home from them healthy UNTIL..." then He mentioned the first trip I did where the main emphasis of the trip was on praying for the sick. Before that, it had been more about renewal and blessing and less about physical healing. But once the emphasis of the trips started including regular healing of the sick, that was when I started getting sick when I came home from the trips.
The God began to remind me about others in healing ministry who'd either gotten seriously sick or who had died of something like cancer. And that was my "ah-ha moment" when it clicked for me that there was a spiritual battle over healing the sick, complete with enemy counter attacks.
Not all counter-attacks are in the area of a person's own physical health. Some are in the area of family remembers getting seriously sick. Some are in the area of finances. Some are in the area of "sickness" entering into important relationships, etc. But the vast majority of the attacks I am aware of have to do with heath-attacks; either against you personally or against a loved one who is important in your life. But regardless of the form of the attack, you should be aware that more attacks will come. Rodney Hogue put it this way: "As you move into higher levels of healing ministry, you will experience A LOT more warfare."
The Lord has also been speaking to me, that I need to learn how to close the doors in my own life that allow the enemy to more easily attack me in the area of my own health. Open doors are any areas that the devil could use against to get a foothold in our life for harm. They can be emotional woundedness, sin, generational access, or any type of demonic attachment where the enemy can move in to attack us.
I am currently working on learning how to close the doors in my own life, so that when I get back to actively praying for the sick, the enemy won't be able to take me out health-wise.
As it turns out, I ended up I got a phone call while I was in the middle of writing this lesson. It was from a friend who is closely tied with John and Carol Arnott of the widely acclaimed Toronto Christian Fellowship Church. I told him about the teaching series I was writing. He told me that the Lord has been speaking similar things to John and Carol Arnott of the Toronto movement as well. They want their people to be aware that as they step up in ministry/anointing, there will be a step up of enemy attack against them. They have begun placing an emphasis on having people prepare for potential attack, by actively working to close the "open doors" in their lives.
They don't want their people to be "afraid" of the attack to the point where they back down from moving in their calling/anointing. They just ask them to be aware that the attacks will increase as the anointing increases; and they ask their people to prepare themselves for it. They do this by pulling away for a week of ministry to prayerfully discover and close any "open doors" for counter attack, by getting inner healing for past hurts, but examining themselves for any areas of unrepented sin in their lives, etc. The more squeaky clean a person is spiritually, the harder it is for the enemy to find areas to counter-attach them in when they start moving in higher levels of God's anointing.
The reason that they ask their pastors, leaders and ministry team to do this type of preparation is because they understand that it is a war, and that the more a person moves in God's power and anointing, the more the enemy will want to counter-attack them.
The same is true in each of our lives as well.
The War Is Real
part 2 - James Trumbo's and Randy Clark's Stories
We have been learning that as you move in greater levels of God's power and anointing, you become a target for greater levels of enemy counter-attack against you. It also seems that the level of attack is greatest when you first start moving at a new (higher) level, and it decreases over time when the enemy learns that he can't take you out as easily as he'd hoped. After all, this is a war and he has limited resources to work with--so if we are able to withstand his attack strategies against us, he will begin to look for more efficient ways to deploy his troops...moving some of them off of us and onto others where they might have more effect.
Spiritual warfare counter-enemy attack can come in any area of your life. But if you move in physical healing, it is most likely to come in the form of an attack against your own health, or against the health of a loved one.
What I'd like to do in this lesson is to share some people's stories with you...most of whom are (or were) public figures in healing ministry. These are real life true stories of how the enemy attacked them because they prayed for the sick and saw people get healed.
In each case, the people who got attacked were godly people, mature believers who lived in obedience to the Lord, and who served Him powerfully. The reason that they got attacked was not because they were doing something wrong, but because they were doing something right for God's kingdom. As a result, the devil felt threatened by their ministry, so he counter-attacked them. And God permitted these attacks.
Let's take a look at enemy counter-attacks in the lives of these people:
- James Trumbo
- Randy Clark
- Bill Johnson
- Rodney Hogue
- Anne and Lois (some everyday believers)
We will look at James' and Randy's stories in this lesson, and look at the others in our next lesson.
James Trumbo
James Trumbo was a worship leader and bible college professor who was extremely passionate for the Lord. One of his students posted this about him: "Other professors would walk into class and say, 'turn to page 483 in the Pentateuch commentary, blah, blah, blah...' but Mr. Trumbo usually had a different approach. He would walk into class so quietly with a calm sweet smile on his face, silently walk to the front of the room and wait for everyone to get quiet. As soon as the room quieted down he would say, almost in a whisper, 'Don't you just love Him? Don't you just love my Jesus?'"**
James was extremely passionate about two things: worship and evangelism. He was an extremely skilled musician, who decided to use his skill for the Lord as a worship leader. He ministered in his local church for 16 years, and eventually founded his own ministry, called Forerunner Ministries. He ministered publicly for 8 years, and his ministry was worship coupled with solid teaching from God's word. James taught differently than most--he did it primarily through song. It was not uncommon for him to stand at the keyboard and sing. The song would be a combination of sound bible teaching and prophetic utterance. It was centered in worship and there was usually a strong presence of the Lord in his meetings. A lot of people would experience divine inner healing as they listened or worshipped along. His songs seemed to have a powerful healing effect on damaged hearts.
James is considered one of the forerunners in modern-day prophetic song of the Lord, and he helped to establish this type of worship in Harp And Bowl and in 24 Hour Houses Of Prayer.
At some point, James started praying for the sick in his meetings, and saw them get healed. Mostly he prayed for people at the end of the service, but occasionally people were spontaneously healed as he taught through song. For example, one time a lady with a heard condition was healed spontaneously as James ministered in prophetic song.
James was well known in the San Francisco Bay area, and his ministry had a powerful effect on a lot of people. You might say he was doing a great deal of damage to the devil's kingdom, and that is probably why the devil decided to fight back. The devil attacked James with a fatal form of brain cancer in an effort to stop his ministry. God permitted this attack and the devil was allowed to take him out.
James first started getting sick in January of 2004 and saw his doctor. The doctor told him that he had one of the most aggressive types of brain cancer and did not have long to live.
At that point, a lot of prayer began going up for him, but it was a bit late, as the cancer was firmly established in his body. He fought the good fight, living longer than expected. The doctors operated and removed 99% of the cancer, but it grew back and eventually killed him. James died in March of 2005. He was only 57 years old, and died in his prime.
The Lord spoke to me shortly after his death and said that James was taken out before his time because of spiritual warfare, but the anointing that he carried has been deposited into others who have picked up his vision.
I talked to his widow, Anne, about James on the phone. One of the things I asked her was if they had much by way of prayer covering before James fell sick, and her answer was no. The main reason was because he was sort of a forerunner in what the Lord had called him to do, and it did not occur to him that the enemy would be counter-attacking him for the kingdom work that he was doing. So he did not realize that he needed a strong intercession covering to help protect him from enemy attack.
I know the Lord is well pleased with James and his ministry he did. I know that he is with the Lord now, worshipping before His throne, and I imagine he is thrilled to be with his beloved Jesus. But I can't help but wonder if James might have been with us longer if the appropriate level of intercession coverage had been in place before he got sick?
** from http://culturedrivenlife.blogspot.com/2005_03_01_archive.html
Randy Clark
Randy Clark is a person who's name is synonymous with healing. In fact, Randy is not just know for healing the sick, but for imparting healing anointing into the lives of others. He frequently takes teams of people (who've never healed anyone before) with him to foreign countries, where they serve as Randy's ministry team. By the time they come home, they've all seen God do miraculous healings through their hands.
Since Randy is known for his healing ministry, the enemy has attacked him in the area of his own health. For example, Randy has had a lot of severe back pain that has impacted his ability to travel. In fact, in the summer of 2008, the back pain was so bad that Randy was forced to refrain from ministering for 3 or 4 months.
When he first came back to his meetings, his back was so sore that he had to stand (not sit) when he wasn't speaking/teaching because his back hurt too much to sit. But even though he was sick himself, when he prayed for people, they were healed.
(We will take a look at more enemy attack in other people's lives in our next lesson.)
Closing Thoughts
I don't know why God allows these type of attacks, but He does. It is a fact that the kingdom of the devil is in a war with the kingdom of God, and battles are fought. Those of us in the body of Christ are also drafted as soldiers in God's army and we are in the war. That means the enemy will attack us at times and it would be a good idea for us to know how to fight effectively.
The War Is Real
part 3 - Other People's Stories
We have been talking about the battle (enemy attack) that comes against many of those who move in God's power and anointing, such as those who pray for the sick to be healed.
In each case, the people who got attacked were godly people, mature believers who lived in obedience to the Lord, and who served Him powerfully. The reason that they got attacked was not because they were doing something wrong, but because they were doing something right for God's kingdom. As a result, the devil felt threatened by their ministry, so he counter-attacked them. And God permitted these attacks.
We already looked at James Trumbo's and Randy Clark's stories in our last lesson. Now let's take a look at enemy counter-attacks in the lives of these people:
- Bill Johnson
- Rodney Hogue
- Anne and Lois (everyday believers)
Bill Johnson
Bill Johnson is very well known in healing circles. God always seems to show up at his meetings in powerful ways and do amazing things. If you attend any of his meetings, you will hear the testimonies of how God touched people and healed bodies; and it is easy to see that Bill has his share of victories. But what you might not realize is that Bill has also had his share of warfare, and of enemy attack.
Bill's church is known as the "no cancer" church and they have seen a very large number of people completely healed of terminal cancer. But that healing came at quite a cost. Bill's secretary (and close friend) contracted cancer, and she believed that God would heal her of it. The whole church (Bill included) believed along with her and they prayed for her healing in faith, fully expecting her to be healed. But she wasn't healed, and she died. This was a huge defeat for Bill and his church.
After recovering from his initial grief, Bill got mad--not at God, but at the devil. He and his whole church decided to take a stand and make their church a place were cancer wasn't allowed. Even after her death, they continued to war in faith against cancer--and people started getting healed. You might say that they rallied for the battle, fought in faith and turned a defeat (their secretary dying) into a victory (a lot of other people getting healed).
You would think that anyone who won such a great battle over cancer would have a clear road ahead of him, at least in that one area. But that hasn't been the case. The enemy counter-attacked Bill for his healing activity by causing Bill's dad to contract cancer. At this point, one would expect Bill's father to be healed, since his church had become known as a "cancer-free zone." But the enemy fought harder (maybe out of spite) against Bill's father, and he died from the cancer.
Bill's own health has been attacked as well. Even though God has healed countless people through Bill's ministry, this did not protect him from being attacked in the area of his own health. In 2009, Bill contracted a serious condition that required surgery. Fortunately, his church (and many others around the world) rose up in prayer and spiritual warfare on Bill's behalf and the enemy was not able to kill him off. He is recovered from that surgery and actively back in ministry.
Rodney Hogue
Rodney is the senior pastor of a spirit-filled Southern Baptist church in Hayward, California, and he has also served on the state board and the international board for the Southern Baptists. More recently, he has been traveling with Randy Clark and speaking at some of Randy's conferences in the USA and abroad.
Rodney has been doing healing and deliverance ministry for a long time, so he doesn't remember what the warfare was like when he first started, except that it did increase a lot when he started doing the power ministry stuff.
However, there has definitely been an increase of health related attacks against Rodney's family that came since he has stepped up the healing ministry. For instance, one of his sons was diagnosed with colitis and a serious liver condition shortly after Rodney started being one of the main conference speakers/ministers with Randy Clark's ministry. Also, Rodney's father (who was in full-time ministry himself for several years) came down with cancer and just very recently died from it. Shortly before that, Rodney's mother-in-law got seriously sick. She was on her deathbed in the hospital in November of 2009, but (to the doctor's astonishment) she recovered after a great deal of prayer and intercession went up for her.
Rodney is a seasoned warrior who understands "counting the cost." He is not easily scared off by the attack of the enemy and he understands that warfare 'comes with the territory. Rodney intends to keep on keeping on for God's kingdom, despite his recent personal loss.
Rodney also recognizes that there will sometimes be attacks on his own health when he ministers healing--and that God does allow some of these attacks to land. He recounted one story where he was teaching at a huge healing conference, and he had laryngitis the whole time. He could barely squeak the teaching out.
At the same time, Randy Clark (another speak at the conference) got bit by a bug and came down with a really bad fever. Randy was so sick that he could hardly stand up to minister. Leif Hefland (the third speaker) had just recovered from something physical, was but was distracted by a crisis with his ministry back home. All three teachers/leaders of the conference were seriously attacked at the same time. Yet God managed to glorify His name there, despite their weaknesses. Many were healed, equipped and empowered at that conference.
Everyday Believers
I don't want you to get the impression that only the "big name people" face spiritual warfare and enemy counter-attacks, so I want to briefly share two stories of "everyday believers."
The first is Anne and her father. Anne was a high school junior who I met in Mozambique. She had come to Heidi Baker's complex because she felt the call of God on her life for both healing and missions, and wanted to explore it further. Anne was a bubbly and enthusiastic girl, the kind it is impossible not to like, and it was easy to see a call of God on her life. She had been praying for sick people in Mozambique and was seeing God heal them. Her father was a soft spoken and very nice man. He accompanied her, not because he felt a call of God on his life but because he loved his daughter didn't want her to be unaccompanied as she traveled so far from home.
I only overlapped them by three days; they went home shortly after I arrived. But it was easy to like both of them, especially Anne. Unfortunately, Anne's father got Malaria towards the end of their trip and when home sick. About a week or so after they left, one of the staff members told me the sad news that he had died of Malaria complications shortly after returning home. Looking back on it in retrospect, I now believe that his death was actually a spiritual warfare counter-attack against Anne, designed to shut her down before she got established in healing and missions.
And I'd like to close with a story about Lois Smith. She is a friend of mine who lives on the East Coast, and she has accompanied me on a couple of mission trips to India. Lois prayed for the sick in India and she saw God heal a lot of people through her. The enemy did not like her ministry activity, so he choose to fight back. Lois had very good prayer coverage over herself and her family, especially for God's protection from any type of injury, sickness or disease. But the intercessors were not covering her finances and that is the area the enemy attacked her in. She returned home from India to discover that she had been laid off from her job while she was on the mission field in India. (This was before the economy turned so bad, but it was a long time before Lois was able to find another job, and it was a real financial hardship on her whole family.)
So what is the point that I'd like you to take away from this teaching? It is that the war is real, that the enemy does counter- attack us for our kingdom activity and that we need to learn how to defend ourselves against his attack. We will talk about how to do that in subsequent lessons.
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