Hidden Thrones

by Scalzo, Russ

  “You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you.

  “Somewhere in the back annals of time, Lucifer got it in his heart that he wanted to challenge God for His throne. That was the beginning of the rebellion in Heaven. He was able to influence one-third of the angels in Heaven to follow him and rebel against God. He hoped to defeat and overthrow God and His angels and take over Heaven.

  “A great battle ensued and Satan and his angels were defeated and cast out. According to the book of Job, Satan still has access to the throne of God where he comes to accuse those of us who follow Christ. He is always trying to get God to focus on all our faults and shortcomings, so He will decide to change His plan of redemption. Lucifer hates us because God has chosen to love us and that drives him crazy. Although God allows him to come before Him on occasion, he can never again enter Heaven.

  The Apostle Paul calls him the prince and power of the air, meaning his kingdom is now, this world, and the atmosphere around it.”

  “I thought Earth belonged to God?” Emily asked.

  “The Lord God owns everything and is ruler over all, but for now He has allowed Satan to have influence over this earth. Paul tells us that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Those heavenly realms he refers to are the created heavens, the supernatural sphere that surrounds the earth, not the Heaven where God is.”

  Frank took a moment to digest all of what Jack had explained. He had seen some of those spiritual forces, so he knew firsthand they existed, and he knew all too well about this present dark world. “I can attest to the phrase dark world. The reports we get in every day at the FBI would blow your mind. It’s like you say in your blog, Jack. The world is getting darker every day.”

  Emily jumped in, “That’s because of the coming Anti-Christ. Right, Jack?”

  “Yes, that’s true, but I don’t want us to get off track here. Let’s stay on the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms part. Satan’s kingdom is set up similar to other kingdoms in the sense that there are levels of power and authority. There are fallen angels who the devil put in charge over different regions of the earth. There are princes over countries and cities all over the world. We don’t know the number of angels that followed Satan. All we do know is that one-third of all the angels in Heaven went with him. But, we do have a reference of how great that number might be.

  “In the book of Revelation chapter five, verse eleven…” Jack thumbed through his Bible and found it. “Here it is, ‘Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand.’”

  Emily thought for a moment, then her eyes widened. “Oh my God! That is awesome, but it also means that if the two-thirds who stayed with God number is in the hundreds of millions, then the devil has millions of fallen angels at his command.”

  Frank looked at Jack and smiled. “She’s pretty good with numbers.”

  “Unfortunately,” he said smiling. “Okay, let’s all take a deep breath. The Lord is all powerful and completely in control, and his presence is everywhere. Remember that the devil can only be in one place at a time. He is not God. The Lord said, ‘I am with you always, even until the end of time.’ He will never leave us alone or abandon us. He just proved that to me again yesterday. God has His people all over the world. We are not alone. He doesn’t expect us to take on all the forces of darkness, only what He puts in our path.”

  Frank glanced at Jack and said, “I think He has given us a wide path.”

  Jack nodded, “Not everyone is called to this ministry. If this is our calling then we must be obedient. I will admit it’s not something I prayed for, but it is what we’ve been given. It is a true privilege to serve the Lord in this way.”

  “How about a cup of coffee?” Fran proposed. “I think I need a shot of caffeine to keep up with all this, and I still have an hour drive back to D.C.”

  Emily immediately jumped up and headed for the Keurig. Feeling like a poor host, Jack stood up. “You don’t have to do that, Emily. Let me take care of it.”

  She laughed. “I can’t help it! It’s what I do. Really, it’s fine. I need to move around a little bit anyway. I get antsy when we talk about this stuff. Would you like a cup, Jack?”

  “Why not? I have a lot of writing to do tonight. I feel like I need to put some of what we are talking about on my blog tonight. You two have inspired me with these great questions.”

  “Well, I’ve got another one for you,” Emily had something in her mind that had always bothered her. It was about a friend that she hadn’t seen in years.

  “I have a question. What do you think about this? I had a friend at college who said she had a spirit guide that she communicated with who helped her make decisions and achieve a higher level of conscious awareness. I realize now that this so called spirit guide was not from God, but how do you explain this? Was she losing it, making it up, or what? Do you think this spirit was a demon?”

  “The short answer is yes. A spirit guide is a term used by the Western tradition of Spiritualist churches. Mediums and psychics describe an entity that remains a disembodied spirit in order to act as a guide or protector to a living human being. Evil spirits or demons are always impersonating deceased loved ones or masquerading as angels of light. They go searching for people who aren’t familiar with what the Bible has to say about the afterlife. They convince them that they are good and helpful entities, when in fact their one and only purpose is to lead them down a dead-end road and away from the truth. They may disguise themselves as departed loved ones, aliens, or in your friend’s case, spiritual guides.”

  Emily handed Frank his coffee. He took a sip and smiled in approval. “Okay, we’ve had a number of conversations concerning all we have seen lately, but we never talked about this. Were the beings we have seen demons or angels?”

  “We don’t have the time for me to get into the difference between angels and evil spirits or demons, but I will say this, all but one of the manifestations we have seen so far were demons.”

  Frank’s eyes widened and his heart rate went up. “Dante Adal. You’re saying he is a fallen angel.”

  “I believe so. Angels can take the form of men, but they don’t possess people. They don’t enter living humans and walk around. That’s the difference. Angels have a form, demon spirits don’t,” Jack explained.

  Before ending the conversation, Jack added, “It’s getting late but I’ll share one more thing with you. I don’t want to completely freak you out, but this is a true story and a great example of what we’re talking about.

  “I remember an incident a few years ago that happened in a church where I was asked to speak. It was half an hour or so before the morning service and the pastor was showing me around and introducing me to several members of his congregation that helped serve at Sunday service. He took me downstairs where they usually held their Sunday school classes. There were several teachers there busy preparing the rooms for the children. The pastor introduced me to this nice lady who had been one of his teachers for over twenty years. I remember it like it was yesterday. She was divorced, attractive, and nicely dressed, about medium height with brown hair. As I approached her, I felt something wasn’t right. I didn’t want to say anything at first, thinking it was just me. I mean, after all, I was an invited guest and didn’t want to go super spiritual on everyone. When I reached out to shake her hand, I felt it again, only stronger. I felt the Lord wanted me to pray for her so I asked h
er if that would be all right. She smiled and agreed.

  “I invited the pastor to join me and we gently laid our hands on her shoulder and began to pray. As soon as we did, her face went blank, her eyes grew wide, and a voice came out of her that wasn’t hers.”

  Emily sat back in her chair and crossed her legs, but never took her eyes off Jack, her heart racing. Frank’s eyes widened as he unconsciously tapped on his shoulder holster under his jacket and said, “That must have blown you away, man. What did it say?”

  “I must admit I didn’t expect that, and neither did the pastor. The other three ladies that were there immediately stopped what they were doing. I glanced over at them and they each had a look of complete terror on their faces. The voice was grave and low, and had a measure of authority when it spoke. It said, ‘You can’t make me leave her. I was invited to come in.’

  “The pastor and I looked at each other and then back at the woman. Then all of a sudden she jumped backward and her face abruptly changed from the sweet woman I first saw to an ugly, disfigured, tortured soul. I took a step towards her and the demon spoke again. ‘I am an unclean spirit and this is my house now!’

  “I could feel the Spirit of God coming over me and I commanded the demon to set her free in the name of Jesus. The demon yelled ‘No!’ but I commanded the spirit once again to release her and to leave the place. The woman screamed and dropped to her knees, convulsed, and then collapsed on the floor.”

  “Oh my God,” Emily said, leaning forward again. “Was she all right?”

  “We knelt down next to her and continued to pray and she quickly came around. We sat her in a chair and one of the ladies brought her some water. Once she came to her senses, she confessed that about a year before, she had started watching a few erotic movies and it quickly escalated into an addiction. She began watching them on a regular basis and started reading books that she knew were destroying her soul, but she couldn’t stop. She was fooled into thinking she could still follow the Lord while leading a double life.

  “We brought her into the pastor’s office and prayed for her. She cried and asked the Lord for forgiveness, and after a series of counseling sessions, was completely restored. She didn’t realize how far from God she had gone.

  “These things don’t happen overnight. It’s a long, slow process that begins with little things that eventually lead to a real bondage. She had no idea she was opening the door of her soul to an evil and unclean spirit.”

  Emily looked puzzled. She thought for a second, and then spoke. “Wow, that is some story. I was always taught and believed that a demon spirit could not enter a Christian.”

  Emily was obliviously upset. The thought of not being protected from evil spirits was frightening. Especially considering that the man she was in love with was front and center in a war with dark spiritual forces. She sat up in her chair, her eyes wide with alarm. “Are you saying that’s not true?”

  The last thing Jack wanted to do was get her upset or confused. “No, that is absolutely true. I didn’t mean to upset you. Please don’t ever think that, Emily. Jesus said ‘As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in My love. If you obey My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in His love.’

  “We are secure in God’s love, but when a person walks away from the Lord and chooses to live in darkness rather than the light, they open themselves up to all kinds of problems. It works both ways. The Lord said, ‘If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.’

  “We must continue in fellowship with the Holy Spirit. The devil is always ready to take a person back. It can be a very scary scenario.”

  Emily breathed a sigh of relief. The saying ignorance is bliss came to mind. It would have been so much easier if she didn’t know about all this stuff, but she also understood and realized that in order to grow, and of course keep up with Jack, she needed to stay plugged in and learn as much as possible.

  Her face softened, “It is scary, but I understand. So these so-called spirit guides are really demon spirits that lead people astray.” She thought for a moment and then asked, “So does that mean my friend was possessed?”

  “No, not at all,” Jack said emphatically. “Like I said, possession is a process. You don’t wake up one morning and find yourself possessed. I don’t want you to think that there is a demon around every corner. Remember, some people unknowingly invite them in to their lives out of ignorance, while others openly thumb their noses at God and blindly jump in with both feet. Either way, there is always a price to pay. There is only one spirit we should listen to and that’s the Holy Spirit. He will never lead us astray.”

  “They don’t teach this stuff at Quantico,” Frank piped in. “I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would be talking and learning about things like this. If anybody ever heard this conversation, they would lock you up and send me off to be deprogrammed and then to counseling. I have to say, if I hadn’t seen it myself, I probably would have you under constant surveillance.”

  Jack raised his left eyebrow. “Fascinating. Your comment is quite ironic, wouldn’t you say, Agent Lederman?” Among other things, Jack was a huge Star Trek fan. He knew all the old episodes and had watched the new movies at least five times each. He also did a great Mr. Spock impression. He got a laugh out of Emily, but only a smirk and head tilt out of Frank.

  “You and Star Trek. How can a guy with so much smarts watch that stuff?”

  “Come on, Frank!” Jack said with a big grin. “You can’t be serious all the time. Remember all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

  Emily gave Jack a playful smile, one that immediately increased his heart rate.

  “Oh my God. That’s my cue to get out of here and head back to D.C. Oh, by the way, I bought you a new phone. It’s secure, so use this when you need to call me. Don’t trust anyone at this point, and after what you told me about yesterday and your uninvited guests, I think we should all be putting more time into prayer.”

  Jack and Emily walked arm in arm accompanying Frank to the door. Frank opened the door, stopped, and turned to Jack for some last words, “Let me know if anything unusual happens, not that you would be involved in anything out of the ordinary,” Frank said sarcastically. “I will let you know what I find out in D.C tomorrow. Keep an eye on one another, okay?”

  “We will. Drive safe and keep your eyes open.”

  They watched Frank pull away until his car disappeared through the trees that lined the entrance to the driveway. As Jack turned to walk back inside, Emily grabbed him by his belt. She tilted her head at him and smiled playfully. Wrapping her arms around Jack’s neck, she pulled him in close and kissed him long and hard, letting it linger. She pulled away slowly leaving Jack somewhat stunned. He finally exhaled. “Wow, what was that for?”

  “I don’t know. I just felt like it. Why? You didn’t like it?”

  Jack more than liked it and she knew it. They hadn’t had much time alone together and Emily had had enough of all the heavy-duty conversations for one night. Besides, she had to be at work by six in the morning and before it was time for her to go home, she wanted Jack all to herself. Jack walked her over to the couch, grabbed the remote, turned the volume down low, and put on some music. Emily made sure that the rest of the evening belonged to them.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Dasht-e Lut is one of Iran’s largest desert basins, 300 miles long and 200 miles wide, and is also one of the driest and hottest places on Planet Earth. Surface temperatures in the Lut desert can get as high as 159°F, the hottest temperature ever recorded on the surface of the Earth. Its surface is wholly matted with black volcanic lava. Most reports confirm that no living creature lives or can live in this region, thus the nickname “Emptiness Desert.” Then again, man is not aware of all creatures in all dimensions of God’s time and space.

  A full moon
shown like a small sun in the night sky as the wind blew hard. Although the sunset was hours ago, the air was still inhumanly hot. On the horizon, three huge dark figures suddenly appeared atop one of the reddish sand dunes that dotted the desert floor. Marduk, Nabu, and Asaru stood tall and menacing against the arid plains with their large black and pewter wings outstretched, a stark contrast to the myriad of desert colors illuminated by the bright moonlight. Their still, silent images were unaffected by the strong, searing wind.

  These were familiar surroundings for the demonic princes. They had ruled these regions for thousands of years and especially flourished in the days just before the flood. They again thrived during the days of Nimrod - who was better known to them and the people of that time as Gilgamesh - a vile, filthy man, and the inspiration for the building of the Tower of Babel. Marduk and Nabu, the Biblical Nebo of the book of Daniel, did well for themselves in the time of the Babylonian Empire. They each had a temple built in their name and a whole library dedicated to their worship. As they all did, they longed to see those days again and looked forward to once again lording over not just this region, but also the entire world.

  They stood and waited for one more that was to meet them there. In the distance, they could see a huge imposing figure coming, moving swiftly and effortlessly across the desert floor. Within moments, he stood before them. They bowed before him, their knees touching the ground.

  “Where is Dante?” the voice thundered.

  Keeping his position, Marduk lifted his head and spoke, “I do not know, master.” His voice was deep and throaty.

  Suddenly, a swirling, twisting, thick red mist appeared alongside Marduk. It was unaffected by the strong wind that viciously and relentlessly blew around them. As it slowly dissipated, it revealed a bowing and somewhat humble Dante Adal.

  “Master, I apologize. I had a few obstacles in my path that I had to deal with. It won’t happen again.”