God's Perfect Timing

What stopped Satan dead in his tracks was God’s perfect timing. The air raid siren did the trick. Gene explained: “I was so worried about you when you left. I didn’t know where you were going or what you would do. You were gone so long, and when the sirens started blaring, I didn’t know it was a scheduled test. All I could think of was that you were in danger and I couldn’t help you. It was after the sirens were silent that I realized where my true love was. It was for you. I didn’t even think of Donna.”

As he shared this with me, I knew whose hand had worked this great blessing for us. Our Lord, Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father, God Almighty, who rules the heavens. Again, timing was the key. The wisdom of God surpasses all understanding. Thus being removed from this fiery trial, Gene and I welded stronger together. And this was God’s purpose...to weld us into one. Remember, it’s no sin to be tempted, the sin is in the yielding. Gene didn’t yield when in the heat of the battle. He didn’t walk into her bedroom. She had tried her best, the same as Larry, but we both held fast to what we were taught, and Jesus took it from there.

Although attempts were made by the adulterous spirit in later years, it never had a chance after that, for God put armor around us by our request—our agency to choose to do right. Praise our God and Protector! “Till death do us part” is the most sacred promise I could make to my beloved. He has been faithful and so have I. What a richness this brings to a couple in later years to know they have won this war against Satan.

Every couple must be tried. Expect it and don’t fall apart when it comes. See it through together with Christ. When you know it is one of the trials you must face, it will help ease it if you understand why you are going through it. I wish I’d have understood that then!

Praise God for all the good things He has given you. Keep a prayer in your heart and on your lips. If there is God’s love in your heart for each other and for Him, you will work it out together. Your hands joined together, holding the hands of the Christ makes an unbroken triangle over which Satan can not prevail. Remember, build your marriage on the Rock—cause rocks don’t burn. If you have tripped, the nail prints are still in Christ’s hands and He already paid the price for your mistake. Get up and walk again.

 WITH JESUS
It’s not so much where you have been but where you are going.
It’s not so much that you have been hurt but that you will heal.
It’s not so much what you have done but what you will do.
It’s not whether you have fallen but whether you will get up.
It’s not who you are now but who you will become.
Jesus cares!

Test #2 The Spirit of Fear

According to the dream I would have to face down three demons, e.g., adultery, fear, and deception. Adultery I could control by my own choices; Fear, especially from priestcraft was more difficult—it came from outside of my control; Deception would be from inside and outside control.

On the whole, my association with the priesthood, and those engaged in priestcraft has been very difficult because of those unrighteous men 1 who did not live up to their calling. Equally so, I have been sustained in spirit and strength of body because of the power in those priesthood men who seek sincerely to minister to God’s people. There is always a balance of good and bad in everything, and when the weaknesses of men reveal themselves, they are speaking in their own names, not God’s, and their priesthood is of no effect at that time. Joseph Smith Jr. was a man. He only spoke for God when God’s Spirit was upon him. Man must learn how to separate the divine from the humanness of men, or women, who at times minister for God. This is wisdom and balance.

One specific incident which was heart wrenching for me came through a patriarch who was family. He lovingly counseled me to stop what I was doing...receiving dreams and visions, and talking to God...that I was on a dangerous course... inferring that it was Satan directing my life etc. It nearly broke my heart. I cried out to God through administration. I phoned my friend, Bill Oliver, and told him to bring an elder to administer to me that had never heard of my name nor knew anything about me, nor did I tell even Bill why I needed help. He brought a man I don’t know to this day, and Christ spoke through him to me. I will paraphrase what He said: “Janice, often times men speak out of the kindness of their own hearts and not of Me. Nevertheless, you must continue to bear testimony of the nearness of My coming.”

I knew the patriarch’s counsel then was his own thinking, his own fear, not Godly, but out of love for me. However what he did—setting himself up to be a light to me—is defined in the Bible as priestcraft. That is dangerous!

Test #3 The Spirit of Deception

This third evil spirit in my dream is subtle. It’s hard to discern. Christians reach out in love and service to help others, and don’t consider they could get trapped. (Herein is the wisdom of elders visiting by twos.)

A good example of this third evil spirit’s work is in the true story of a priesthood man who turned in his priesthood card in order to go into bars to help reclaim his wife who had gone astray. He became caught in the trap and dormant in the ministry. He had stepped outside the protection of Christ by subjecting himself to powers greater in evil than he was strong in righteousness. And then there is the story of another well known elder who got caught because of unwise “sympathy.”  He began taking drugs so he could relate to the drug culture. He lost everything when he himself became trapped.

There is a saying—fools walk in where angels fear to tread. Jesus said we are to avoid even the appearance of evil. We must pray always that we be not deceived and trapped by unwise sympathy. Pray over the situation and leave it in God’s hands unless instructed otherwise.

Update 1995
The third demon of my dream hung around for thirty years. As the time approached for this demon’s most powerful and final effort, God was also on the alert. He forewarned me in a dream of the approaching danger. My Patriarchal Blessing counsels me to guard my home against all intrusion. The neighbor lady across the street was about to become one.

Gene and I were in a restaurant and a flirting waitress came to our table. Gene became captivated and left me to go with her. He wanted a divorce. Speaking to him with the authority of the Spirit I told him that God would take him in death before He would allow Gene to fall in this manner. The reason was because of the damage it would do to God’s work

I kept the dream to myself and watched as events progressed.
The lady across the street, about 10 years our junior, had a habit of parading in her front yard in her scanty 2 piece bathing suit. She cut the grass, tended the flowers, washed the car...usually in this attire. I don’t know her motive or even if she had one, but my husband wasn’t the only one seeing her. Giving her the benefit of the doubt, sometimes we all do things without thinking how it looks to others. This was one of hers—an unacceptable attire for the front yard with no beach in sight. She was causing me to sin and I’m sure some males on the block too.

When she and my husband became “neighborly, ” you bet I got jealous. The Bible says my Heavenly Father is a jealous God. I got that emotion from him, along with love and understanding. Now, what to do about it? This woman was becoming an intrusion into the sanctity of my home.

I noticed she only came over when Gene was outside when he could help her start her weed eater, or other little things. I was beside them one day when their hands touched on the weed eater, and I discerned the sparks that ignited “just a little.” But that’s the way that sneaky demon of adultery starts roaring fires, and there wasn’t going to be a roaring fire if I could throw water on it, with the power of Jesus, before it began. When I spoke of it to my precious companion later, he owned up to it. Yes, he had felt a little surge of something. Satan was out to get him for sure.

She had managed to tell him her sob story when I wasn’t around—a husband that was never home...always away making money...she had to do all the yard work by herself...etc. Was she asking for sympathy? Who knows? But push came to shove rapidly. To prove my point I told Gene that I would go out in the yard and she wouldn’t come over, but that it wouldn’t be five minutes from the time he came out until she would be in our yard. He watched it happen as I said.

I was calling Gene’s attention to the danger of his unwise sympathy (as I had done in the dream). And when I did, he came back just like he did in the dream at least thirty years before. He hadn’t sensed the danger in the dream, and I don’t know if he was aware of it in reality. But because of his obeying the laws of Christ, I believe God spared him great sorrow and will reward him bounteously.

If the truth were known, I’ll bet there isn’t a male out there who can’t relate to this story. Satan wants all the sons of God he can get. But so does God!

You Can Get a Bad Sting From Curiosity!