Dear Saints,
Just over a year ago, around Christmas time, I was invited with my wife and two children to a small gathering at the house of a fellow believer. As I do not attend any church, I always welcome such occasions to share my faith in fellowship with others in this way. Unfortunately the visit did not go well. Indeed, it fairly quickly descended into open and quite ugly spiritual warfare.
Which was interesting, because while we had been travelling on our way to the house, I had received a very strong impression in my spirit that I was heading into an ambush. I did not have any idea as to why it was going to be an ambush, only that I was being warned to expect trouble. At the time, I was unaware that the fellow had been reading some of Joseph Herrin’s writings here on Parables, which I had just taken over due to Joseph’s health concerns. The friendly invitation to a gathering had not in fact been a sincere one. What the fellow desired most of all was to confront me on his own home ground, and to ‘put me right’ about the errors I was falling into.
This quickly became apparent to me upon entering his household. It was hardly the first ambush I had ever walked into, indeed I had already experienced quite a few over the decades before I even came to Christ. But I was given confidence from the fact the Holy Spirit had warned me this time of what was to come.
In the midst of the strange vibes in the house I began to pray silently, and peace settled upon me.
It was when we were alone together in the gloom of the kitchen that the fellow’s manner began to grow heated towards me, until I was only too aware that I was engaged in spiritual warfare.
The reason for this warfare? In my huge naivety, I had begun to talk about the signs all around us of the End Times. And this had lead to a discussion about Israel. The fellow I was speaking with was appalled that I considered the political country of Israel to be a ‘counterfeit’ of prophecy. Apparently to criticise the State of Israel in any way was to criticise God’s Chosen People, therefore placing me firmly in the camp of the devil.
The more I calmly spoke truth on the matter, the more his hostility grew towards me. He refused to admit the most basic of facts about the situation, but instead responded with growing emotional irrationality. When I eventually pointed out that even many Orthodox Jews had also considered the Israeli State to be a counterfeit upon its creation, since they believe that modern ‘Israel’ is to be the creation of their Messiah, not of man, his temper snapped entirely, to the point where he was bouncing on the balls of his feet, jerking around bodily, and contorting his reddened features. In his eyes was not light, but a burning darkness.
I am not that good with socialising, never mind confronting demonically triggered people in their own homes with my family present. As I often find in these cases, unable to really cope with the situation in my own flesh, I began to enter more and more into the Holy Spirit. In a way I became an interested observer to what I was saying and hearing and seeing while the storm raged around me. I tried love. I reached out and touched him, looked him straight in the eye, tried to break through his blind rage with some kind of brotherly connection. He would have none of it.
When I asked him why he was being so angry towards a fellow brother in Christ (not to mention a guest in his home), he recoiled for a moment, put on the spot, before declaring that his anger was ‘righteous anger’.
‘Oh,’ I replied, as his hostile words still echoed in my ears, and I wiped a drop of his spittle from my cheek. ‘Like Christ, you mean?’
He threw me out his house at that point. My family and all.
I have not seen or spoken to him since. I pray he may find some deliverance from the deceptions that have ensnared his soul. I pray he may find his peace in Christ.
All of this unpleasantness, this strife between two believers in Christ, was caused merely by a difference of opinion concerning modern ‘Israel’ and the Jewish people.
For some time now I have wished to broach this same subject on Parables. But I have held back. Last year I even had some discussion with Joseph on whether I should introduce this vital matter to the blog, and I also sought guidance from another trusted advisor to the ministry. Yet despite their affirmations, it is only now that I feel lead strongly enough to do so.
So please forgive me if I cause any undue distress to your present belief system with the following article. It is nothing personal. It is only that truth must never be shied away from for the sake of other’s feelings. And this particular truth is paramount to the times we are in and the times we are entering upon. It is central to the rise of the ‘Antichrist’ in the Last Days.
Besides, you may already know of this matter already.
I offer the following writing in the spirit of peace and love and understanding. It is not written by myself but by Tal Brooke, author of When The World Will Be As One, who has now passed away, and it has taken some work to reproduce the article here in a readable form.
Please read and consider his words carefully.
Colin Buchanan
Hi Colin,
Thanks so much for sharing your ambush experience. I have had a few of these also, but can’t honestly say that I handled them as humbly, as gently or as Christilike as you.
Have I shared with you what Father dropped into my spirit some years ago?… His simple, 5-step plan to reconcile the entire world to Himself….
https://enroutetometamorphosis.wordpress.com/2015/04/20/fathers-5-step-plan-to-reconcile-the-world-to-himself/
I would very much like to fellowship with you and your family more often, if you’re open to it. Promise I won’t ambush you. : )
That is very kind of you brother. I will pray and see if I am lead to that form of online fellowship. We are always transforming after all. 🙂
Yes I have not always been so calm in these ambush situations myself. All praise to the Father and His deepening peace.
I have noticed that it is a matter of how much we PERSONALLY IDENTIFY with an idea or a belief. As in, how much is our sense of SELF built upon a particular understanding?
For instance, I believe that the poor fellow I mentioned in the Introduction above had much of his IDENTITY, his sense of SELF, wrapped up with the issue of Israel and ‘The Jews’, largely because of what his parents believed. His beloved parents are both now deceased, and he still grieves very deeply for their loss. I believe he was probably defending the memory of his parents more than anything else, and what they meant to him in his own SELF …
Hence why he took it all so PERSONALLY, and so EMOTIONALLY.
But this is a good example of why we are not to IDOLISE anyone, not even our beloved parents. Because then their errors can became our errors.
Look at the most easily triggered people in the world – the WOKE. They not only PERSONALLY IDENTIFY with their beliefs, THEY BUILD THEIR ENTIRE IDENTITIES UPON THEM. Many have built their whole identity upon their sexual preferences. If you try to criticise their choices in any way or point out that it is sin, they EXPLODE – because you are essentially undermining WHO THEY ARE (or rather, who they believe they are in their own SELF).
But as saints we should not be standing upon SELF in any way. SELF is nothing but a slippery snake full of deceptions, and if we stand upon it in any way, it eventually coils around our souls.
Instead, we should be crucifying SELF while standing more and more upon the ROCK OF CHRIST, which is love, light, life.
Our IDENTITY should not be of SELF, but of CHRIST.
If we live entirely in CHRIST, dead to our own SELF and ONE WITH GOD, we will take nothing PERSONALLY, and so we cannot be triggered because there is nothing left TO BE triggered. We become immune to the devil’s whispers. We exist in the Kingdom, wholly safe from the probings and temptations of the adversary – for it is through our SELF that the devil works.
That was the reason I saw the burning darkness of the devil in this believer’s eyes, rather than the brotherly love of Christ.
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Thank you for the link to your inspirational blogsite Tim (very pretty website btw):
https://enroutetometamorphosis.wordpress.com/
I will repost the quick ‘5-step plan’ that you mentioned, below:
“…that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may know that You sent Me.” (John 17:21)
Love God
…and HWe will flow.
Love one another
…and we will show.
Preach only Christ
…and we will grow.
Surrender ALL
…and HWe will be one.
BE one
…and they will know!
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Amen!
Always good to hear from you. I pray you and your family are keeping well.