Two decades ago we were sharing on radio and TV shows the resurrection miracle of Jesus raising our daughter Theresa from the dead. Yesterday, for the first time in 20 years, I noticed half a million had viewed Sid Roth’s interview on youtube. It is gratifying to know this testimony has encouraged many others!
With Covid 19 in the news I thought it important to share a clip from Theresa’s book on Spiritual Warfare. “Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” Psalm 50:15
Thoughts on Spiritual Warfare
from Theresa: How God Orchestrated a Miracle
We named our first daughter Abundant Rose (Theresa Suzanne). I was mystified when I saw the paramedics roll her dead, gray body past us at the entrance to the ER. My heart’s impression, which I believed came from God, was that He would use Theresa Suzanne to win many to Jesus Christ. Her death at age two didn’t fit any of my concepts of how the Lord would use her life to bring folks into His kingdom.
Too often we assume that hardships and tragedies are always God’s will for us and should not be resisted. Sometimes, though, God permits the enemy of our souls to harass us in order to give us the opportunity to be overcomers–to overcome the enemy by exercising our faith. No way were we going to stand by passively while the enemy was dragging Theresa down to death. We were prepared to fight him tooth and claw, calling on the name of Him who is the Resurrection and the Life. Whatever the battle might cost us in exhaustion and frustration, we were determined to give it our best shot.
Jesus told us that Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but He came to give us abundant life (John 10:10). On the sunniest, cheeriest day there is a real but unseen enemy who is working to corrupt our lives with guilt, fear, anxiety, and misery. It is hard for us to appreciate how utterly wicked this adversary is. He loves to inflict loss, sorrow, and death. We have never been instructed in Scripture to lie down and let this fiend trample on us, or to accept his malice as the blessing of God. On the contrary, we are told to resist him, standing firmly in our faith.
It would be a lie to give you the impression that we snapped our fingers, said a prayer and quoted a Scripture or two and then everything was hunky-dory. Our battle was intense, protracted, and excessively draining. There was a time when I became a limp rag, soiled and threadbare. But at that time, I felt the body of Christ come and pick me up by the armpits and sustain me. Even with this support, it took us literally months to recuperate from the battle for Theresa and to regain our spiritual and emotional strength. Spiritual warfare is real warfare, and it takes its toll just as physical warfare does. Certainly, we are “MORE THAN CONQUERORS” in Christ, but I sometimes wonder at the cavalier attitude some people have about fighting Satan. I wonder how much of the thick of the battle they have really experienced, or is it just bold talk?
Victory in spiritual warfare never comes easily, at little cost. It cost Jesus His very life. So let’s be realistic, count the cost, and give our Lord heartfelt thanks and praise for enabling us to fight on His side for righteousness and goodness. His victory in the decisive Battle of Calvary has assured our final triumph in the age-long war!
Read the entire book, “Theresa: How God Orchestrated a Miracle.”
Steve and Pam Johnson