Dear Devil

Dear Devil,

I have no idea how this spiritual warfare thing works. I have heard many different teachings from many different interpretations of the bible about it. I do not know how much we ought to credit you with when it comes to pain and suffering, and whether we ought to rebuke you or ignore you or bind you or whatever.

When I think of what has happened in the last few years, I keep thinking of Job and the unseen conversation in the spiritual realm that began his trials. I do not see ourselves as righteous people, except through what Jesus has done for us, and I do not liken our struggles to the devastation thrown on Job and his family. But like Job, our plan is and always has been to serve God and trust Him, whether we are stood firmly with our feet on the ground, or with our faces down in the dust crying out for His mercy.

But this I want to say to you today.

THERE IS NO VICTORY HERE FOR YOU.

If the death sentence that has been given to our boy comes to pass, we will be broken and devastated and our family will always feel as though it has a gaping hole in the middle of it. But God uses broken people. It will not stop us from serving God, trusting God, helping other people to find God, or teaching our children about God's goodness. And our boy will pass from the trials and pain of this life straight into the perfect goodness of life alongside his heavenly Father. At seven years old, thanks to medications that sent him into uncontrollable rages, he grasped a truth that most of us take decades to work out - that we are constantly at war with ourselves and will never always make good decisions or find internal peace unless we submit our lives to God and let Him live through us instead. So he is God's now and will remain so forever.

And if God decides to overthrow this death sentence, as Lord of life and defeater of death, and we see a miracle where no physical hope is left, the glory will all go to Him and the many many eyes that have turned to Him because of our story will see and know and spread the word that He is God.

So I will say it again.

THERE IS NO VICTORY HERE FOR YOU.

Do you hear that sound and feel that rumbling at your gates? That is the hundreds, perhaps thousands of voices, many of them strangers to me, who are praying and interceding for our boy today. They have been driven there by the darkest of circumstances and they are now opening heaven, calling angels into action and opening their hearts to the God who loves them and only needs that one invitation to change their lives and draw them closer to Him. Some of them don't even know God, but they're about to.

And watch out. Because tomorrow's Sunday - the day when the people of the Kingdom of Heaven gather together and lift up their voices to the King all at the same time. So that rumbling's about to get a heck of a lot louder.