"You pushed me violently that I might fall, but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and song and he has become my salvation" (Psalm 118:13-14)

It was the morning of Wednesday April 18, 2012 I had been dancing all morning praising the Lord. While doing so, I was giving the demons a lot of headache because the Lord had sent his ministering Spirits to rescue my bleeding soul a night before. I had no other choice than to just dance and dance praising the Lord. Prior to this time, on Friday April 13, I had taken a whipping from the enemy of God. I went to a meeting with people I thought were Christians, but they were under the influence of demonic spirits. Not realizing what I was doing, I wanted to negotiate with them. I learned a lesson from this incident. "Never negotiate with demons." One of the major mistakes I made was to have inadvertently opened the window of my heart in receptiveness to demonic words of the enemy. Sadly, I took a beaten, and my soul injury was very severe. For four days, my soul was bleeding profusely in the spirit. For those four days, I also put up a fight in the spirit. However, on April 17, shortly before 12 mid night, the battle turned against the enemy. I had a breakthrough. I had been praying very hard without realizing what was happening. The bad events I was going through were happened in the physical realm. At the same time something more serious was also happening in the spirit realm. It was the preparation for my deliverance. I was either unaware, or I just did not think of it. That night, the Spirit of God revealed to me what had happened. I heard these words spoken to my spirit, "Come out from among them!" The Holy Spirit explained to me that I was under the oppressive spirits of the enemy. At that moment, I ran to my wife in the bedroom, woke her up and told her what I just experienced. The peace of God instantly came all over me. I blasted off the demons with the power of God! The demons started to tremble. I believe I had a divine visitation for empowerment.

Everything that happens to us in the physical has a spiritual dimension to it. Regardless to how we handle the physical, if we do not deal with the spiritual aspect, we may suffer for a longer period of time. In the meeting I just mentioned, I had written a report giving suggestions to my coworkers regarding some procedure issues. Instead of looking at the issues raised and using them to their advantage to prevent future problems for themselves and the institution, they went on the attack. I was subjected to their verbal abuse for a little over one hour because they felt insulted. When I left, I was wounded in the soul because the demons have afflicted severe injuries. For the next three days, my heart was so troubled as if I was being tormented in the soul. When I had a breakthrough on April 17 close to midnight, what happened became obvious to me with the knowledge of the Holy Spirit.

In the spiritual dimension, this is what happened. Although these two coworkers were angry and lashing out at me for about one hour behind a close door, their words meant nothing. What caused the soul wounds and sustained soul bleed was the demonic assault behind their words. For example, once you are a Christian, and you speak the truth to people through the Word of God, the Holy Spirit is behind those words. The projectile force that carries and hits the heart of the people comes from the Holy Spirit. That was why Jesus said, "The Word that I speak to you they are Spirit and they are life" (St. John 6:63). The Holy Spirit is therefore the one that changes people’s heart. We are only called to sow the seeds of the Word of God. Similarly, when I was subjected to this verbal abuse by these two coworkers, the demons behind their words carried the projectile force inflicting soul wounds. I was devastated!

My first mistake was lack of preparation. If I had prepared before I went to the meeting, I would have closed the window of my soul. The wounds would not have been so severe. I was not aware of the meeting and I was caught off guard. Secondly, by opening the window of my soul, I was receptive to their words carrying the venoms of the devil. The attack caused a substantial soul injury. It took me about four days to recover from the injury when the Spirit of the Lord came to rescue me. If I had closed the window of my soul prior to the attack, their poisonous arrows would have been deflated. The third mistake I made was not rebuking the demonic spirits with which I was attacked immediately after the incident. In a demonic attack from somebody else, that spirit hangs around the attackers regardless to whether they called themselves Christians or not. When they attack you with their words, the negative spirits that hangs around them split and leap on you. They tend to hang outside your human spirit. If you do not recognize the attachment to your human spirit, that demonic spirits start to torment your soul. For four days my soul was very troubled and I did not know why. The Holy Spirit and ministering Spirits notified me and helped me to chase away the demons. Then, I had a breakthrough. Immediately, my soul was set free from the attacks of the enemy of God. Following the rescue of my soul, the following day being Wednesday, I started to rejoice and praise God.

I had three solid pieces of evidence to confirm this attack and resolutions. A day before the attack, I was asked to prepare for a crisis situation. I prayed a lot before leaving home. I did not know what to expect. Evidently trouble was brewing. Second, my messenger bird had been visiting me for the past one week and everyday during this time of emotional torment by the enemy. Usually, this bird would come once in a day during visit. Prior to this time, I have not seen this bird in months. This time the bird must have visited me about four to five times daily throughout the days of this ordeal. I believe this is the Lord’s way of telling me he is walking me through the painful ordeal. The third most powerful evidence was what happened when I turned on the television that morning. The Holy Spirit led me to turn my television to a Christian program of 360 Degree Life on TBN. The program was by Billy Joe Daugherty’s family. It had aired earlier in 2010, and I saw it at that time. It was a program that addressed HOPE when everything around us seems to be falling apart. There was a woman in the program who gave her testimony about what happened to her when her husband died in a car accident. She discussed how God sustained and healed her and kept her alive for her children. The powerful and most impressive part of the program was when each of the children including Sharon Daugherty, the mother was preaching. They preached about standing up for the Lord in the middle of the crisis situations in life. One of the questions asked by Paul Daugherty was, "How weak is our faith when it falls apart in the midst of our challenges?" This was a program of HOPE the family developed in response to the death of their father, Evangelist Billy Joe Daugherty. I saw storm of tears on Sharon’s face as she talked about the passing of her husband and the reason why they all had to stand together for the Lord regardless to the painful situation. Lord, Sharon was so powerful on that program.

My Lord Jesus Christ used this program to preach to me about standing still for him in the midst of painful afflictions on the mission field. This is one of the many ways the Lord tends to show his love for his servants. He comforts them during difficult times. This incident has happened to me many times in crisis situations. Jesus never walks away from me during difficult times on the mission field. The 360 Degree Life program on TBN was like a program preaching directly to lift up my spirit. Thank God! Jesus came to my rescue! One question I asked myself and discussed with my wife during the emotional turbulence was, why do we turn to the people who hate us for comfort instead of looking up to Jesus? This is how many people have been enslaved in relationships and on the job because they look in the wrong direction for comfort. Sadly, we give too much power to people or situations when we settle for comfort in our achievements, jobs, money, people, or other situations in life. People will always fail you!

Looking back now, I do not believe the meeting and the result were co-incidental. I have been praying during the Lenten period this year that the Lord opens the door of a new direction for me to serve his purpose. For many years, I have been serving in different places especially in those places I was unable to freely utilize my spiritual initiatives to serve the Lord. I was always under the oppressive power of the enemy of God. I’m hoping the Lord will give me a free hand and place me in a better mission field where I can best utilize the Holy Spirit within me to freely serve his purpose. One thing I learn on the mission field is about those wolves in sheep clothing. They are the most dangerous challenge to be faced on the mission field. They appear to be Christians, even preachers. They will lure your with colorful phrases. They will quote the Bible for you, or tell you the history of Christianity. At the time you let down your guards, that’s when they strike like vultures. On a careful look at their purpose, they are actively driven by the desires of the devil because demons hang around them. These people are the disciples of the devil. Once you identify them, never let down your guards around them. You can identify them when you do something meant for good and they are angry. They tend to rejoice when people do bad things. They are always happy to use the power of their office to abuse others. They stayed jealous of your achievements and are always threatened by any of your positive initiatives. They will come to you looking for ways to get closer to your heart. Do not believe them. It is part of their ploy to get closer to your soul so they can strike you unaware with their deadly demonic poison. Jesus said, "Ambush lies the evil ones, watch and pray." Those evil ones may be standing and dancing next to you on Sunday during service, or working with you everyday with smiling faces. The devil plays all kinds of tricks on people, if you let him.

For the most part, in crisis situations, we do not seek help from the enemy of God; we go straight to the Lord Jesus. He has already seen the crisis coming and will sustain us even during painful moments. By human nature, we have this weakness of seeking comfort and approval from the same people who have wounded us. We just have to recognize our source of strength is from the Lord in crisis situations.

"I will lift up my eyes onto the hills, from where comes my help? My help comes from the Lord who makes Heaven and earth" (Psalm 121:1-2).

"Yea thou I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil because thou are with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me" (Psalm 23:4).

By Yinka Vidal, author, Closer Walk With Jesus