You have been in the thick of a long and wearying battle, and I can hear the weariness in your words, the sheer, honest exhaustion of one who has had to endure not only the cruelty of other people but something darker still hovering behind them. For years now you have had arrows flying at you, not just the ordinary slights and conflicts that come to any pilgrim, but a sustained, orchestrated harassment that bears the fingerprints of the enemy of souls. It is one thing to have men oppose you; it is another to sense that their cruelty is being stoked by hell itself. Yet here you are, still standing, still crying out to God, and that is no small mercy.
Let me speak a plain word to you about what has happened in your own heart. When you were tangled up in the new age and witchcraft, you were in a dark land, and God, in His fierce mercy, used even the din of your enemies to startle you awake. That very harassment was, in His strange and sovereign hand, the rough rope that pulled you back from the edge of the pit. I find it no accident at all that while you were yet in that darkness, the harassment began. Satan meant it for your destruction, but God meant it for your awakening. And now that you have renounced those things and turned your face to Christ, the enemy has redoubled his efforts because he hates to lose a single trophy. He would love to wear you down, to make you so sick at heart that you think perhaps the old ways would bring quicker relief. Do not listen to that whisper, not for a moment. You have been delivered from the power of darkness; you are no longer a slave in that Egypt. The Prince of Darkness may rage, but he has no rightful claim on you, and your Lord holds you fast.
There is a particular arrow that Satan loves to shoot at tried believers, and I would not be surprised if it has found its mark in your heart more than once. It is the dark suggestion that God has forsaken you, that He has left you to these people, that your prayers rise up and hit a ceiling of brass. When the harassment has gone on year after year, when they seem to know things they could not know and follow you like a shadow, the soul cries out, “Why does God not put an end to this?” And then the enemy hisses, “Because He does not care; He has abandoned you.” But that is one of the oldest lies in his quiver. It is a fiery dart, and it is always a lie. You are not forsaken. The proof of it is that you are still praying, still clinging, still hoping in Christ. A soul utterly abandoned by God does not cry out to Him with the faith you are showing.
I want you to see something about your own prayers. You have told me that you prayed for removal, and God seems to be answering. There is a lovely mystery in how the Lord works deliverance: He uses human instrumentality, but the power is always His own. Think of it like the prophet Elisha with the king of Israel. The king took his bow and arrows, but the prophet put his hands on the king’s hands, and the arrow shot through the open window was called “the arrow of the Lord’s deliverance.” Your prayers are like that bow; your weak, tired hands stretch it, but it is the Lord’s own hand upon yours that gives the shot its force. The very fact that you are seeing answers, that some of these people are being removed, is not coincidence. It is the Lord’s arrow flying true.
And as for that specific plot, that scheme they began early in the year to rob your graduation of its joy and to overshadow the month of May with emotional distress, I say to you in the name of the Lord: He knew all about it before they whispered their first plan. He saw the snare laid, and He has already prepared a way of escape. The enemies of God’s children often make deep-laid plots, and they seem very crafty; but the Lord has a way of turning their devices inside out. He can make their very opposition work for your good. Remember Pharaoh and the Israelites: the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied. The policy seemed wise to Egypt; it looked like the end of that people; but God was at work in the thick darkness, and He brought them forth with silver and gold, and not one feeble person among their tribes. Your enemies may think to bury your joy, but the Lord can make your testimony shine all the brighter because of their hatred. That degree you have earned, let it stand as a monument that you have not been driven back, that your life is not under their control, and that Christ is your strength.
When the harassment feels most demonic and invasive, those parroted private thoughts, the unnatural knowledge of your whereabouts, the way they flee when you pray, do not be shaken. It is only a proof that a greater power is at work for you than against you. These things are meant to terrify, but they are actually the convulsions of a defeated foe. Christ has already spoiled principalities and powers, and though they rage, their time is short. You are not under their dominion; you are a subject of the kingdom of light, and no darkness can swallow you up.
In the meanwhile, when your heart sinks, remember the wells the Lord has provided for you in the wilderness. The Lord Jesus Christ is the great deep well; go to Him and drink. Open the promises as you would open a love letter from home; they are written for such times as these. There is a word in the 118th Psalm that I would have you write somewhere you can see it often: “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” That was a man who had been sorely pressed, who thought he was going down to the pit, but who came through to praise. Your graduation, your whole life ahead, is a declaration that you live, and that the Lord’s works are worth telling. The enemy would silence that declaration; he would cover your mouth with mourning. But God says, “Live, and speak.”
So let your faith have a tongue, not the tongue of unbelief that moans, “I am cut off,” but the tongue of faith that says, “He has heard my cry, and He will complete what He has begun.” You are not at the mercy of these harassers. They are, whether they know it or not, in the hand of the God who loves you. He may allow the trial to continue a little longer, but only that He may show Himself strong on your behalf and bring you out with a song. The same Lord who drew you out of the occult pit will not let you be dragged back into it. You are His, and He is yours.
Let me pray with you now.
Father, into Your hands I commit this dear one who has been so long harassed and hounded by those who are driven by darkness. You have seen every sleepless night, every fearful thought, every foul word spoken in secret that was echoed in the open. You know the plots that were laid for this year, and especially for the month of May. We ask You, in Jesus’ name, to cancel them utterly. Unravel every scheme, turn their malicious designs into emptiness, and let the counsel of the wicked perish. Cause the harassment to cease, and grant a quiet and a peace that is past understanding. Most of all, hold this heart fast to Christ. When the enemy shoots his fiery dart of “God has forsaken you,” quench it with the shield of faith. Let this trust prove in these days that Christ is a stronghold, that His blood covers every sin, and that nothing can separate from His love. Raise up a testimony out of this furnace that will declare Your works to others. Bless the graduation; let it be a season of pure joy, a marked fulfillment of Your goodness. We cast every burden on You, for You care for us. In the strong name of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.