O’ Darkness, Darkness! My Son Shall Pass

This dark trick, this most subtle entrapment that encouraged Christians to focus on themselves moved an inexhaustible spiritual power meant for expansive work into the narrow field of wants and feelings. Milk behavior so long after receiving the spirit of adoption left them spiritually exhausted with little to show from any expenditure of talent or time.

Mark and Sarah were to see their parents work selflessly. See Max pray prayers that touched heaven’s door and wrought deliverance on earth. They were to see dad as all others in the congregation should, praying and laying hands with the expectation of evidence: a sign, a wonder. They were to hear Sylvia sing with a voice steeped in humility that reached heaven’s throne and offered itself like a cloud to seat Jeshurun who moved in majesty and power driving the enemy out before his own, the beauty of her voice realized through obeisance to the Spirit that rode upon it saying, “Destroy him!” Praying and singing needed no earthly audience. Praying like preaching was meaningless if bloated with enticing words of man’s wisdom and singing useless if appareled in flesh. Mark and Sarah would learn singing and praying under the anointing brought deliverance, sunk deep within the soul then exploded into light that destroyed dark strongholds. They would come to understand that a beautiful voice absent anointing was merely a beautiful voice and with a little luck might leave its signature pressed on a compact disc or digitally recorded for streaming and downloads, a beautiful voice for posterity of which the world and the church had many, voices that left nothing which impacted eternity. Mark and Sarah were to see mom and dad working in tandem, see the harvest from their labor overflowing the basket in the production of fruit and note that who God put together no one was to pull apart, that under the anointing the work of two who became one was a force.

Much depended on their training. What they did or did not see and how each learned to prepare in the spirit before offering a sacrifice. What did dad do before he taught or prayed? What did mom do to ready herself to minister through song? When did the preparation with prayer and fasting start? Hours, days before? Did it ever end? How should one live publicly and privately months before offering a sacrifice to God? The two along with all other children attending church would confront any manner of worldly diversions meant to derail them as they traveled a course designed by God and watched their parents and other adults live godly lives as they carried light before men. The enemy assumed Mark's years of lessons would lead to playing the piano in church, and Sarah’s nightly routine of books on the floor as she studied artifacts, paintings and literature since elementary school might place her on the teaching end of the spectrum. If they stayed on God's paths there was a limit to what Satan could change, but he could affect how well the gifts ministered based on their relationship with the Holy Spirit or the level of carnality in the church. His two pronged attack of darkness directed at the child and darkness festering in the environment increased the odds of elevating flesh to hamper spirit, ensuring music and insights offered would not minister or that which did landed in an arid atmosphere in a fleshy church.

The phone call gave Sylvia and Max a nudge for work today and the mentoring of workers today for a harvest measured tomorrow. While the parents could not see this, Satan suspected as much. Experience taught him present disruption sometimes derails tomorrow's promises. He taunted Hannah to break the lineage pointing to one yet to be born who would abide before the Lord forever. He entered Korah. He reminded Nazarenes Jesus was a local son. He clouded Jesse's sight in an attempt to prevent the selection of a shepherd destined to pen songs and poems for readers not yet born who would battle despair, failure and loneliness. He drew Demas. There was always a chance through misdirection, always. The devil sought to stunt the destinies of Sarah and Mark. He could limit the demonic wreckage each would exact on his kingdom by ripping in two the spiritual scroll that first appeared the morning Max and Sylvia said, "I do."

Satan would turn off the light as it were. He would eventually end Mark and Sarah’s reading of the epistle mid sentence with Mark fully situated in adolescence and Sarah approaching its threshold. But for now he would wait. While Max and Sylvia's unified yes and amen to God’s immediate demands appeared sound and created a pathway for Sarah and Mark’s individual yes and amen to God’s army, he would exhibit patience. He knew the unfolding body of the parental letter foreshadowed but had not yet realized the conclusion written in light and the salutation, the salutation of the best of their marriage wine only appearing toward the end of their journey as godly libation, a drink offering to the Lord if I remained interlocked with I over the decades and their voices spoke as one at the finish line to say, “I have finished my course....” Foreshadows they were that he, the father of lies, targeted to be edited out.