When the Devil Tries to Kill You: 8 Practical Steps for Victorious Spiritual Warfare by KRIS VALLOTTON for Charisma News
Do you feel like you’re walking through the valley of the shadow of death? It can feel like the loneliest and scariest place. I know that valley well. I’ve walked through it in different seasons of life, and I’ve learned that it’s something we’re supposed to do just that in—walk. We’re supposed to walk until we’re out of it.
I learned this the hard way in a season right after Kathy and I got married. I made the mistake of camping out in the valley for three years, not because I wanted to, but because I had been taught that Christians could not be demonized. This teaching set me up to war against my flesh instead of the spirits that were attacking me every day. The truth is that the spiritual realm is real, and angels and demons are very active on the earth, whether we see them or not.
My Story of Hell on Earth
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While Kathy was fighting her way through her pregnancy, I was carrying tons of responsibility at the shop. I worked 12 hours a day, six days a week and rarely stopped to eat lunch. Consequently, my diet consisted mostly of candy bars, Coke and potato chips. One night, exhausted from a long, hard week of work, I got in the bathtub to relax my tired body while Kathy lay sick on the sofa. As I started to get out of the tub to dry off an intense thought hit me:Â I am going to die.
Like everyone else in the world, bad thoughts were not foreign to me, but this was different. This thought was so strong that it caused panic to rush through my whole being like stampeding cattle! My entire body began to tremble as my heart pounded out of my chest and my pulse raced uncontrollably. All my strength drained from my limbs, and I struggled to get out of the tub. I fell back into the water, shouting desperately for Kathy to help me. Eight months pregnant, she strained to help me out of the bathtub and onto the couch. Then she ran into the kitchen to call our family doctor. He relayed a few questions to me through Kathy and concluded that I was having a panic attack, not a heart attack. Little did I know that this was the beginning of a three-and-a-half-year journey through hell.
