Freezing the enemy

    Ministering in a mountain community such as Dixie is in many ways very different from ministering in the more populated and established communities. Often our services are attended by those either visiting, vacationing, or working some of the seasonal jobs at the outfitters or forest service.  One particular summer not too long ago a man who was working as a wrangler for the outfitter began attending our church. He shared his excitement regarding our services with a friend of his in the neighboring mountain community of Elk City, inviting that friend and several others to join us in worship on Sunday. After the service, they too were excited about the ministry they had experienced. It was that excitement that led to the opening of a door that we had prayed for for several years.  

       That door opened when the man from Elk City invited us to come and hold services during the week in his home.  That began our practice of making the hour drive to Elk City each Wednesday. Although we would be holding services at 6pm, Betsy and I would arrive around 1pm so this brother and I could ride out through the sprawling community, visiting and praying for many of his acquaintances.  Although our first service was made up of only about twelve people, we soon were packing his living room with twenty to twenty-five hungry and open souls.      

When winter set in, we would leave our cabin around 10am on our snow machines to travel into Dixie, where we would warm up our truck for the hour plus drive to Elk City. Still arriving around 1pm in that community, Betsy would visit people in town while I would spend the afternoon driving out to visit and pray with people in many of their isolated mountain homes. Often, we would get back from these trips just moments before time to begin service.   

Our services were in one sense like any other bible study. After opening in prayer, I would use my guitar to lead those gathered in a time of worship. Sitting around this living room, I would then share from the scriptures whatever the Lord had laid upon my heart that week. The message was often about the deeper spiritual life that the Lord offers for all those who believe.  The response was overwhelming. After the message, we would have a time of prayer, praying for the salvation of some and also for the needs and healing of others. Each week there seemed to be a testimony of either salvation or healing. Many nights we did not conclude services until well after 9pm. This meant that we also were not home to our cabin until around midnight.     

We soon became acquainted with a woman named Jeannie who lived just up the hill from the house where we held services. I first noticed Jeannie one evening as she drove her motorized wheelchair down the middle of the rugged asphalt street and up the ramp into the home we were using. Her many physical troubles not only kept her in the wheelchair; they also left her short of breath and often totally housebound. It was her hunger for the Word of God that compelled her to make what was a very difficult trip down the hill to attend the Bible studies.   

Jeannie’s sincerity and hunger for the Lord, along with her great need for fellowship, soon became very evident. We began making extra trips during the week to minister to her. Her husband’s work kept him out of the country for long periods of time so she was constantly alone. During this time, we developed a deep and mutually encouraging relationship with Jeannie. She began faithfully reading God’s word and experiencing the Lord’s presence as He met the many needs she had in her life.  One of her more serious ailments was that she had been diagnosed with a very week and aged heart. After praying specifically for healing in this area, she came back from a trip from the doctor testifying how amazed he was. He said she now had the heart of a thirty-five-year-old woman. Jeannie was nearer seventy. 

One day as we prayed with her, the Holy Spirit came upon her and she leapt out of her wheelchair and literally ran around the room several time. The Lord healed her in many ways during this time. Most importantly, she came to know how much the Lord loved her. She grew from being a woman who when she came to service she “brought a burden”, to a woman who came and was ready to “bear other’s burdens.”  Jeannie became a woman of prayer. 

Whenever the Lord does a great work in someone’s life, the Devil always has his counter attack. In the early years of Jeannie’s growing faith, she began to get pressure from some of the other “believers” in that community, telling her she was getting too fanatical.  Her growing devotion to the Word of God and her new dependence upon the Spirit’s power served to convict many of their own apathy.  Living alone as she was, Jeannie was very vulnerable to the influence of others, especially some of her family members.  Knowing our close friendship with Jeannie was largely responsible for her zeal and devotion, they began encouraging her to break ties with Betsy and I.   

One day when we made the drive to Elk City to visit her, Jeannie was not home.  The influence of her family had caused her to hide from us. Therefore, we went down to the home of her brother to see if we could track her down. This brother had previously attended our bible studies, even hosting them. He was now one of those discouraging her growing faith. When I went inside his home, he not only refused to tell me where his sister was, he also responded aggressively, eventually ordering me out of his house. As he did this, his son in law, a contentious young man around thirty years old, came out of the back room.  

Both men began crowding me, forcing me towards the sliding glass doors at the back of the home. The young man soon accelerated his aggression, pushing me and even threatening me with a beating. Eventually forced up against the glass doors, both men angrily pressed in against me. As the younger man continued to threaten, he lifted up his fist as if to hit me. I had been in this situation before, so my response was simple. Looking into the eyes of the younger man, I said “I will accept that in the name of Jesus Christ”.

       Although I had been in similar situations in the past, what happened next was something I had never experienced. It was like one of those movies where time suddenly stops and the characters freeze. Both men became like statues. The younger man’s hand was still suspended above his shoulder, maybe even a few inches advanced from where it had begun. I stood still myself for a minute waiting for something to happen.  It did not.  Although I was very much aware of my surroundings, time seemed to have frozen for these two men. 

After what seemed a very long time, (but in reality was probably no more than a minute) I realized the Spirit of God had caused their “frozen” posture. After mouthing a few words of praise and gratitude, I slid along the glass door out of the reach of these two “statues”, and exited to my truck where Betsy was waiting and praying. It may not have been a den of lions, but the Lord did that day deliver me from the den of the wicked. 

We were soon able to reunite with Jeannie, where she confessed her fears and apologized to us and the Lord for her unbelief. Over the following years, we would continue in a close and wonderfully beneficial relationship with Jeannie where we watched her grow into a mature woman of God.  She truly grew from being a woman who had “brought her burden” to a woman who would come to “bear the burdens” of others.