Prelude to this story:
At the beginning of each mission trip, I clarified something to the groups preparing to go into Mexico. I told them we would be going into a foreign country. We were leaving our “rights” as Americans behind us. We don’t have the protection of U.S. laws. It’s their country. So, any problems we faced, we would depend 100 % on God through prayer… that’s how we solve problems. Another important point that each group needed to know was that every week we have a great week – and that God will get the victory and Satan will be defeated. I then go on to say that the reason I say that is because we will have our meetings in Mexico no matter what. Yes, I said, “No matter what”. Whatever we are facing, we will have a meeting. Am I being foolish here? No. I will talk more about that at the end. Every week Satan tried to stop us… and fear is his primary weapon, always has been, and as long as he is around, always will be. His tactic is the same, paint a fear picture of some roadblock, problem, storm, or mountain that looks impossible to overcome, thereby making us afraid, and think we should give up and turn back. So it didn’t make any difference what kind of problems we faced, I reminded everyone that it is The LORD who goes before us, and HE is the one we will give all problems to, and He will take us through. We will not give up just because it looks bad (and Satan really knows how to make it look bad). Incidentally, this happens when you want to do anything for the Lord, Not. Just. Mission. Trips!
I usually went over these things with all the groups. Personally, I believe Satan was about to test me, and this group, on that last sentence that was underlined.
The meeting location was in a small town in Mexico (near Juarez) and was previously picked out by the Mexican pastor whom we were working with. Upon arrival in the little town, the skies were clear and blue. We were setting up on the paved street, about in the middle of the block. The unusual thing about this meeting was that the Mexican people coming to the meeting would be in a large, concrete, carport-like structure in which the sides, back and roof were closed, except the front (see the picture). They would be completely protected from the weather, and able to watch our meeting comfortably. Being protected from the weather didn’t seem important at the time, since it started as a clear day and blue skies. Now understand, if a big storm came and all the Mexican people went home, there would be no reason for us to stay. But in this situation, if a big storm came and there was no meeting, it would be because we couldn’t handle the weather, and we gave up and went home. The statement, “We will not give up just because it looks bad” was about to be tested. That beautiful clear day was very short-lived.
We were preparing to start the meeting. There was a group of Mexican people in their ‘shelter’. Then, the ‘super storm’ began, and came in levels of incredible intensity.
(1) Suddenly, the wind blew through the meeting place with a fury. Everyone grabbed on to anything loose and held on. I was holding on to one of the poles of our 12 foot canopy so it wouldn’t fly off. The wind seemed to come out of nowhere, and I guessed the wind speed at about 50 mph.
(2) NEXT, the sandstorm came. The sand was blinding and the wind howling. This was a sandstorm at its best! You kept your eyes and mouth shut. At some point during the sandstorm, the clouds came over us.
3) NEXT, the rain came. And rain during a sandstorm meant flying mud. And since it was blowing horizontal, the canopy was worthless for protection. If you smiled, you got mud in your teeth.
(4) NEXT, the cloudburst came. The mud stopped but the rain was torrential. The road we were on was a hill, and the water was coming down the hill so fast, it was running over the tops of our shoes. At the bottom of the hill, the road came to a “T” into another road which was a main road. In fact, so much rain came down, that the main road (about a 100 feet from us), looked like a river. It had 3 feet of water rushing on it! I then looked up into the bus behind me and I saw five teens from our group sitting on the bus, looking out at us through the windows, eating chips and drinking cokes. That didn’t make me happy. I ran on that bus and yelled at them, “The only reason anyone sits on this bus is to pray! If you’re not praying, get off and help us hold everything down!” They all ran off (they could have prayed). J
(5) NEXT, the lighting started. It was like a canopy of lightning strikes exploding and striking all around us. The noise level was unbelievable – you felt like a war was going on! Everyone was just trying to hold something down. I suppose we were putting on quite a show for the Mexicans, they were just watching, with awe, from inside their shelter. With that storm, they weren’t going anywhere. An American pastor from the group came up to me in the middle of the pouring rain and said, “I know you want to have a meeting, but this is crazy!
(6) NEXT, it started hailing! When that started, that’s when I knew Satan was behind this. This storm didn’t just happen, Satan was up to his old tricks and trying to chase us out of here! And it was at that this moment that I said something really dumb. Now you can talk about Satan, but don’t talk to Satan (Eve learned that). When the hail started, I knew Satan was trying to make us leave – and that really made me upset! I just yelled out, “Satan, is that the best you got?!” Like I said, not very smart. Actually, I said it twice. I don’t know if what happened next had something to do with my smart-aleck remark, but this is what happened. I was still holding one of the poles on our canopy to keep it from flying away. I was on the front-left side of the 12 foot canopy facing the Mexican people. I was looking to the far right side, under the canopy. I saw hail stones coming down hard over there and out of the midst of them, one stone, instead of going down like the rest, shot sideways directly at me and hit me right between the eyes… hard. I remember at the time, thinking, ooooh, I don’t think I should have said that! And I had a lump on my head to prove it.
At this point, the roar of the storm was deafening. So what should you do – what can you do? Well, I’ll tell you what we did. I started screaming as loud as I could to the Americans to start singing. They looked at me strangely – sing? (It worked for Paul and Silas) We began with Amazing Grace. It seemed somewhat amusing at first, singing this soft, beautiful song (Amazing grace, how sweet the sound), while the thunder and lightning sounded like bombs dropping around us. After that, we sang (at the top of our voices) Victory in Jesus, and Nothing but the Blood. We just kept on singing hymns one after another! And do you know what happened? It was as if someone took a giant pin and stuck it into that massive storm and let out all the air. Over about ten minutes, the hail stopped, the lightning stopped, the thunder stopped, the wind died down and the rain slowed down to a sprinkle. When that happened, I told the guys to quickly do the puppet program (we had promised that earlier to the Mexican kids). When that was finished, I told the Mexican pastor to forget the chalk drawing that was normally next and go and preach to those people. He did, and people came forward to be saved! Glory to God! God gave us a blessing, because we didn’t give up! And what really happened? We got a little cold and wet. And one dimwit got a lump on his forehead. And we rejoiced, because again, Satan was defeated and God got the victory! Glory! And you know, down there in the southwest, you dry off pretty fast!
God’s Point in this story: DON’T GIVE UP JUST BECAUSE IT LOOK’S BAD.
This was a classic example of Satan making it look like we shouldn’t do what God wanted us to do. It wasn’t easy (serving God is rarely easy), but we followed through anyway. And because we did, God got what He wanted, the group saw that Satan was NOT all-powerful, because we did have the meeting, lost Mexican people got saved, and the Americans who were there will never forget that time or that lesson. And all we needed to do was go home wet. Was it worth it? For the people who came to Christ… it was worth everything!
No matter what. There is a reason I needed to say that. I wanted the people in that group to believe God’s Word that says, “If God be for you, who can be against you?” Understand this, if you will go forward in God’s work against small fear, but retreat at big fear, Satan takes note. He will learn what level of fear defeats you. And when you retreat, you will justify it with the phrase “common sense”. Too many people justify fear that way (and not do what God wants them to do). Since when is there something God wants you to be afraid of because He can’t handle it? When doing God’s work, God commands us to “Fear not.” God says that because He knows Satan will try to make you afraid!
“And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha”. 2Ki 6:16-17 KJV
Here Elisha asked God to open the eyes of his servant so his servant could see the Lord’s army around him. You might notice here that Elisha asked the Lord to open his servants eyes, not his own. Elisha knew God’s protection was there by faith. That is the faith God wants his children to have. God can solve any problem, no matter what.
Satan’s main weapon against a Christian is fear.
Satan, by fear, can control Christians and make them unusable to God.
But by faith, a Christian can become uncontrollable to Satan, and thereby God can use them for anything!
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