“How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit. Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: ‘Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, the man who made the world a wilderness, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?'” (Isaiah 14:12-17).

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Sometime after the dream I recounted in Revelation, the Holy Spirit came to me in another dream. Whereas the first dream was one of life and hope, this second dream was one of death and destruction.

I dreamt that I walked into my living room to find Satan sitting on a chair staring at me intently. He presented himself as my grandfather, but I knew immediately that I wasn’t looking at my grandfather; in life, my grandfather was a peaceful man of God. Satan’s eyes were black and filled with an indescribable rage; this rage was tangible and radiated from him. Without saying a word, I knew he wanted to kill me. His presence was one of great power with so much hatred and deceit. He was like a wild animal; a beast. I believe there was something playing on the television involving war and fire next to him, but I didn’t get a good look at the screen. Everything happened so quickly. Just as Satan opened his mouth to speak, I cried out to Jesus. My interruption enraged him. He charged forward and began choking me. I cried out to Jesus once more and immediately woke. If it had not been for the intervention of the Holy Spirit, no doubt restraining him in the first place, and then waking me, I certainly would have died that night in my sleep. Satan wasn’t playing games, and that was no ordinary nightmare.

“How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit. Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: ‘Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, the man who made the world a wilderness, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?'” (Isaiah 14:12-17). I don’t know whether the prophet Isiah’s use of  the term “morning star” in relation to Satan is a translation error, or perhaps, sarcasm on the part of the prophet, but what I do know is that Satan’s destruction is foretold. “And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Revelation 20:10). 

This dream was the first of many confrontations to come, asleep as well as awake. Satan has appeared to me in so many iterations, from inanimate objects to various people to things difficult to describe, that I’ve lost count of them all. Each time I encounter Satan, I look him square in the eye; his eyes always give him away. You don’t forget a thing like that. Satan is the enemy and the father of lies. Therefore, I must put on the full armor of God, because the arrows are coming. Prayer isn’t my last defense; prayer is my first offense. My mind is a battlefield; war rages in the members of my flesh. Bruised and bloody, tearstained and at times stumbling, I take comfort in that the war is already won.

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