Suppression: The Forces of Hell at Work (1)

         “I  don’t know. I just can’t figure it out.”

         “Figure what out?”

         “All the effort…”

         “What are you talking about?”

         “I’m talking about all of the effort we put forth. All the work…”

         He paused, as if trying to find the energy to go on with a line of thought he had traced out so many times before, that always ended in the same place, a place where nothing made much sense at all.

         “We work so hard and it seems we rarely get much done. I’m working twice as hard, three times… But it’s like pulling teeth. There is so much resistance, apparently. There is always such a backlash. It is so hard to figure. Why is there such a fight against our work? The level of vitriol just doesn’t fit.”

         His older friend said nothing. He turned from looking at him and stared at the ground, knowing the usual words of counsel would have little effect. After many seconds of silence, a thick silence filled with the proverbial Why’s and Woe’s of his friend and the desire to receive and provide a fitting answer, a word came.

         “Suppression.”

         “Suppression?”

         “Your work is being suppressed.”

         The younger man wondered at the idea. Why would anyone want to suppress his work? It wasn’t sinister, or…

         “The devil doesn’t like what you’re doing.”

         “I know that. That’s no secret. It’s all…”

         “You don’t quite understand. The devil has these people…”

         The older man was not really all that much older, only about five years, and had taken on the role of older brother to the younger man. He was much wiser and much more knowledgeable of spiritual things, though. He was perhaps thirty years older in that sense and it gave him the aura of being almost a father figure.

         “The devil has these people. They are bound to serve him. There are bound to stop you.”

         He wondered if he had said too much but quickly discounted that notion, knowing his younger friend had reached a point when he needed a clear answer and strong counsel regarding the fight at hand.

         “Evil was here first. It had already staked a claim. We’re contesting that claim. They don’t like that. They see us as attacking them, that we have no right to do what we’re doing. They hate losing…”

         “Seems to me they’re winning. They’ve got the whole blasted planet.”

         The last words trailed off as the weariness in the young man began to bleed through.

         “Why doesn’t God help us more? Why does the fight have to be so strong? I just don’t get it.”

         “You don’t get it because you see yourself as playing by the normal rules, that life is fair or should be, and that goodness should win out rather easily, and that evil just can’t be that evil.”

         He paused again. Both men stared ahead at something that wasn’t there, the younger man settling into a rare disillusionment, the older waiting for his words to sink in. He stared at the ground, strong, a slightly contorted look on his face, very slight, but showing the gravity of the moment. Many men never get past this moment. They give up though they continue on, no longer believing that the victory they seek will ever really happen to the degree they hope for. They are all in when young and fresh and excited about the future but become slowly bedraggled in their spirit for want of achievement that just won’t come.

         “You have to fight through it. You knew it would be hard, but you didn’t realize how hard. And even after trying harder it still didn’t work to your satisfaction. You know that in other pursuits you would have achieved so much more by this time and it bothers you that the work you are attempting appears next to impossible. Especially after you feel you have given it everything you have.”

         “Suppression?” The young man thought long and hard and said it again. “Suppression?” My work is being suppressed?”

         “Uh, YEAH.”

         “Wait. I know that. But not to this degree. I am… I’m just one man. Why is the devil so concerned about what I am doing? I’m nobody special.”

         “Well, actually you are, and it actually isn’t about you or your desires. You have signed up with the King of kings and the devil hates the King of kings with a passion no human being knows, and is also deathly afraid of Him, and knows his vast evil kingdom is always hanging on a mere thread regardless of outward appearances.”

         Continuing, he said, “Every young buck who wants to change the world and set the world on fire with the Gospel reaches this point where you are presently at, and realizes, shockingly, that it is going to be a lot harder than he ever imagined. It will even come down to fighting for survival. You don’t know what I have suffered to get to where I am, and I spent years trying to figure out why it all had to be so hard, and why it seemed as though God called me to do a job and then disappeared.”

         “Yeah…” The younger man’s words trailed off…

         [To Be Continued.]

         © 2015 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.