by Mark Vance
Chapter Nine
Common Ground
“But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” Psalm 37:11
Four uneventful days pass, and Steve is driving home from the Atlanta airport, stuck in heavy traffic, anticipating three scheduled days off before the trip cycle repeats. Kay was almost giddy, anxious to share something important when he called, but opting to wait until he got home rather than share it with him over the phone. All she would say is that it involved Uncle Wohali and the Cherokee Nation in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Steve’s appreciation for the enhanced spirituality of Native-Americans was fostered at an early age by his exposure to life on an Indian reservation. Steve’s father, a geologist for a major U.S. oil company, was assigned to a Montana Indian reservation for several months when Steve was very young. With Tribal Council approval, the Lacey’s lived in reservation housing, enabling Steve and his family to fully immerse in Native-American culture for a short time.
After successfully navigating Atlanta traffic, he arrives home thirty minutes later, and is greeted by Kay standing at the door, looking almost giddy with anticipation. Thankfully, she doesn’t appear distraught or fearful, like she had been after her solo encounter with the Glenn Miller music in his office. Her mood this time is upbeat, with an undercurrent of excitement, obviously stemming from her desire to share good news with him.
“Hi Honey. How was your trip?” she asks coyly, kissing him softly on the cheek, but plainly bursting with anticipation.
“Uneventful … exactly what I needed.” he replied, eyeing her expectantly for a moment before asking, “are you going to keep me in suspense?”
“Well … I talked to Uncle Wohali three or four times while you were gone, probably an hour each time. I told him everything that has happened to us since this all started. He promised that he would have his prayer team put us on their prayer list.”
“Okay, that’s good, but it can’t be why you’re so excited.”
“No. Uncle Wohali and Aunt Awinita have invited us to Tahlequah! They want us to share all our spiritual experiences with the Cherokee people!”
“What?”
“As you know … Native-American people are very spiritual.” she said proudly. “Uncle Wohali wants you and I to share what we’ve learned with the Cherokee Nation. He wants them to know and understand the spiritual lessons we learned; especially the lesson about discerning dark spirits that masquerade as angels of light.”
“How would we do that?”
“Uncle Wohali has already obtained permission from the Cherokee Tribal Council, and if you agree, he wants us to share our experiences publicly.”
“Publicly?”
“Publicly among the Cherokee Nation. He wants to reach every member of the tribe … over 300,000 people around the world. Uncle Wohali believes the auditorium at Northeastern State University would make an excellent forum to share what we’ve learned with the Cherokee Nation. He said the majority of Cherokee’s in Tahlequah are believers, and many Biblical scholars believe that the Cherokee Nation is directly descended from the Hebrew Tribe of Gad. That belief coincides with the Biblical dispersion of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. He feels that because of their Biblical heritage, they must know and understand spiritual matters better than not only the American population, but light years beyond the rest of the world. He said its all related to Native-American relevance in the Biblical end times scenario, as depicted in the Bible’s Book of Revelation. In the meantime, he doesn’t want Native-Americans corrupted by Hollywood, modern American pop culture, or the secular mass media.”
“Well, I can appreciate that, but I’m not sure that sharing our experiences publicly is a really great idea. Remember how Eastern Airlines reacted to that story about the apparition of their dead flight engineer from flight 401?”
“Do you really think anyone from the airline industry or the rest of the world is going to care about a speech to the Cherokee Nation on spiritual activity and discernment?” she challenged. “Besides … this is important. We’re talking about the spiritual well being of thousands of people, God’s people. They are not only especially receptive to hearing our spiritual experiences, but they are destined to play an important role in Biblical end times. We need to share what we’ve learned about spiritual discernment with them.”
“All right, all right, but we may be begging to live in the Cherokee Nation if my employer gets wind of it.” he declared reluctantly.
“O ye of little faith.” Kay teased, hugging him tightly to seal the deal.
Eight days later, Steve and Kay are backstage at the main auditorium of Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The well regarded regional university, located on the grounds of the Cherokee Nation, is the historical site of one of the first female seminaries in the United States. Grounded in the Christian faith , the university serves to advance principles of Christianity and the Cherokee heritage throughout Oklahoma and beyond.
With only minutes remaining before the start of the presentation, the large auditorium is nearly filled to capacity as the steady stream of people entering the room finally begins to thin. Peering out from behind the curtain, Steve is filled with apprehension as he watches the capacity crowd gathering. Glancing around at Kay, he doesn’t detect the slightest hint of uneasiness or any misgivings in her. Downplaying his own, he asks Uncle Wohali about the Cherokee people not able to secure a seat in the soon to be filled auditorium.
“Most everyone in the Cherokee Nation has access to a radio and we’ve been promoting this presentation all week. The extra microphones are for the people that couldn’t get here in person.” Uncle Wohali replied thoughtfully.
“You mean we’re going to be on the radio?” Steve exclaimed, shifting his weight awkwardly.
“Yes, we will be live on every Tahlequah Christian radio station. The presentation is also being taped by secular radio stations for broadcast at 10:30 PM. All the radio stations in Tahlequah will simulcast the presentation in English and Cherokee, for the benefit of our older citizens. Citizens of the Cherokee Nation around the world, not able to hear the broadcast, will read about it in our monthly tribal newsletter. The newsletter is distributed to every Cherokee Nation citizen worldwide, regardless of their residence, and to all our fellow Native-American tribes in Oklahoma.”
“Fellow tribes?”
“Yes … Choctaw, Miami, Creek, Iowa, Wichita, Cheyenne, Arapaho, etc. We want to be a messenger of the Great Spirit and share this critical lesson with all of them. It’s important that every Native-American understand their role in this spiritual battle and for us to reiterate that they are destined to inherit the Earth once again. Now … to get things started … I’ll make a few comments, and then introduce both of you as my guests and relatives. Then, all you have to do is come forward and share your amazing story. Just tell it the way you remember it. Don’t worry about the language or cultural differences. Everyone has been told to expect the auditorium presentation by a couple from Atlanta in English.”
“Right … and hopefully none of it gets picked up by cable television or satellite.” Steve countered, glancing warily at Kay as Uncle Wohali smiled broadly, pulled the curtain back, and walked toward the podium.
Clasping Ray’s Bible with one hand and Kay’s hand with the other, Steve listens anxiously to the opening portion of Uncle Wohali’s address to the Cherokee Nation …
“The breath of the Great Spirit inhabits every living thing. It is that breath that gives us life. When our spirit leaves the physical body, the body dies and our spirit returns to the Creator. But there are also dark spirits that appear as angels of light. They roam the Earth, looking for those that will submit and surrender to their deceptive temptations. Everything that glitters is not gold, and the dark spirits I am referring to are masters of disguise.
The Great Spirit has infinite wisdom in all matters, while our wisdom is finite. Even as believers, most of us fail to understand eternal r
ealities. Such wisdom is reserved for those that seek, pray, trust, obey, and rely entirely upon the leading and guidance of the Great Spirit. The dark forces seek to diminish the wisdom of the Great Spirit, and many generations have been taught to depend on untrustworthy, alternative spiritual sources. They have negated the true voice of wisdom, and encouraged others to rely on dark spirits for wisdom and guidance. This gives the powers of darkness a stronghold that is not easily broken. It is only when we are faithful and walk according to the wisdom and direction of the Great Spirit that we are able to guard ourselves against such deception.
We all know the fundamental instructions of the Great Spirit, and yet many still reason away that wisdom and lean on their own limited understanding. Disregarding and rejecting the instructions of the Great Spirit, by default, puts you into spiritual agreement with the darkness. That essentially gives the dark spirits permission to enter into and control your lives. It is much easier to let them in than it is to usher them out. We all must make the decision who we will surrender to and serve. It is a decision that is made with every thought and deed.
No two people take the same path or have the same beliefs. That leaves a great deal of leeway for spiritual deception to inhabit and manipulate our earthly reality. Every path and every belief will lead us in one of two directions, either light and truth, or darkness and deception. The Great Spirit is always watching over us, but He will never enslave us. We are given free will to choose which spiritual path we walk. Free will is a precious gift from the Great Spirit and He honors our freedom to choose. Our spiritual enemy therefore only rules over us through our ignorance, weakness, and lack of understanding. Our lack of spiritual insight provides an open door to mental, physical, and spiritual enslavement. The dark spirits will use anything that appears to be acceptable in the eyes of the world, to deceive, manipulate, and control.
The Great Spirit longs for us to choose to willingly enter into fellowship with Him, a decision that results in a loving, trusting, eternal relationship. The forces of darkness stand ready to take advantage of our spiritual miscues and mistakes. Obedience to the Great Spirit however, provides us with a supernatural hedge of protection against the forces of darkness. Ignorance and disobedience to the wisdom and guidance of the Great Spirit removes that supernatural hedge of protection and opens the door for darkness to enter.
The dark side may seem like a harmless, enticing fairy tale, but their ultimate goal is to bring about everyone’s complete destruction. A lack of awareness to this reality is why our guests this evening have been at the mercy of such manipulation. They initially rejected the wisdom of the Great Spirit and allowed dark spirits to enter through an open doorway. Thankfully, they have come out of the darkness and into the light of wisdom and truth. Spiritual truth, in conjunction with wisdom and obedience to the Great Spirit, are the only spiritual weapons that mankind has available to defeat the enemies of the souls of men.”
As Steve listened attentively to the spiritual commentary, Uncle Wohali transitioned to the Native Cherokee language. Regardless of his inability to understand the Cherokee language, Steve is convinced that in any language, Uncle Wohali is without question a gifted orator, providing sincerity and enthusiasm for spiritual matters that actually required no translation. As a pastor, he had been especially interested in the supernatural aspect of Ray’s Bible, and although Steve couldn’t understand the Cherokee language, he felt certain that Uncle Wohali was incorporating a brief synopsis of Ray’s Bible into his extensive introduction. At the end of the lengthy narrative, he heard his name called, and watched the curtain part in front of him as Kay led him onto the stage.
The large auditorium was filled to overflowing, and the audience looked even more impressive from the podium than it had from behind the curtain. The number of microphones on the stage conveyed the gravity of tonight’s topic, and the serious message Uncle Wohali hoped to communicate to his fellow Native-American people. Placing Ray’s Bible slowly and deliberately on the podium, Steve let its positive energy flow through him for several moments before beginning to speak …
“I want to thank all of you for coming this evening to hear our story in person. My name is Steve Lacey and this is my wife, Kay. We’re here to share our experiences with you and to make you aware of a massive deception being perpetrated on humanity by the spirit world. I’m not referring to deception or deceit by the Lord’s angels or anything of a Godly origin. I’m referring to fallen angels, demons, including Satan himself, that successfully masquerade as angels of light. The lesson we are here to share with you this evening, the two of us learned the hard way, and we offer it to you now in Christian love, as a blunt warning, a word to the wise if you will. The admonition we share is actually quite simple, however the God of the Bible requires that it be accepted unilaterally and applied continually, for human beings to avoid becoming casualties of satanic deception during spiritual warfare.
The fundamental lesson that we are here to share with you is that the God of the Bible, the entity that you refer to as the Great Spirit, does neither endorse nor make exceptions to His written Biblical directives. Specifically, the Biblical directive against communicating with the dead needs to be respected without exception. The Word of the Lord specifically states that “the dead know nothing.” “What must also be emphasized in conjunction with respecting all of God’s written Biblical directives is symptomatic of a much deeper spiritual problem, one grounded in the misguided, satanically inspired culture of the modern world.
Kay and I learned firsthand that to succeed in spiritual warfare against the dark side, you must first understand and accept that you are in a spiritual battle for your eternal soul. Second, you must set aside the culturally accepted norms of the modern world, and avoid any and all spiritual dalliances that are counter to God’s written Biblical directives. Black magic, witchcraft, fairy tales, Ouija boards, ghost hunting, angel worship, or any activity that seeks or promotes wisdom or power apart from the Lord is expressly forbidden. There is no such thing as an innocent excursion into the spirit world. Once you open the doorway that leads beyond the veil, everything from that point on has serious consequences.
For me, this spiritual lesson began as one of my earliest childhood recollections. At the age of three, innocence abounds, and there is no awareness that such interaction is either abnormal or potentially dangerous. The innocence of youth makes children especially vulnerable to demonic interference and counterfeit attempts at relationship development. When I was a child, my first encounter with such an attempt involved an entity impersonating my deceased uncle, and it occurred while I was lovingly surrounded by adult relatives, including my mother. Sometimes the encounters were simply hearing a disembodied voice, but many times they involved direct physical interaction with the counterfeit entity appearing as my deceased uncle. Both methods of interaction continued throughout my life, especially during high stakes situations while I was piloting an airplane.
My uncle and his crew had been killed in the crash of a World War II bomber en-route home after the war ended in Europe. The demonic entity impersonating my uncle was supposedly safeguarding me from a similar fate in an airplane. For years, I thought that entity was not only legitimate, but my guardian angel. He even inspired me to assume my current career path as a jet pilot. The real purpose of that fictitious interaction however was to foster a trusting relationship throughout my lifetime, in conjunction with a satanically inspired plan of massive public deception.
The message we came to share with you this evening, is in direct opposition to that satanic master-plan, fostered decades ago and nurtured continually since its inception. The plan involved demonstration of satanic supernatural power, through the revelation of top-secret information that the U.S. Government refused to release regarding my uncle’s airplane crash. I received this top-secret information directly from fifteen demonic entities impersonating my uncle’s deceased crew and passengers, in a telepathic transference process that essentially ma
de me an eyewitness to the crash. With my supernaturally acquired awareness, the fifty year old mystery surrounding my uncle’s crash was instantly solved. When the transference concluded, the entities instructed me to publicly share the source of the satanic, supernatural power and credit them with solving the long held mystery. Their purpose was to entice people to seek the same supernatural power in their lives. Essentially, at the zenith of the satanic master-plan, I was formally tasked with recruiting for the dark side.
But Kay and I came here this evening to talk to you primarily about truth and light. The Bible I am holding, this supernatural book that everyone in my family refers to simply as Ray’s Bible, was part of this amazing story before I was born. It belonged to my Uncle Ray Wilkins when he was in service during World War II, and it miraculously survived dozens of combat missions and the crash of his homeward bound bomber. How such a small, fragile item could survive an in-flight explosion, virtually unscathed, was its own stand alone mystery for several decades.
The demonic impersonators of the crewmen and passengers inadvertently showed me how Ray’s Bible survived during the telepathic transference process. The Bible fell to Earth from the aircraft’s bomb-bay, after the bomb-bay doors separated following the first explosion, and it was found weeks later by an Englishman living near the crash site. The Englishman returned it to our family via the local church that had distributed similar Bibles to every American serviceman from the Shelby, North Carolina area. Although exposed to an explosion and fire, a fall of several thousand feet from a burning airplane, and laying in the open countryside at the mercy of the elements for weeks, you can see that Ray’s Bible is in miraculously good condition. The Englishman that found it relayed in his letter that Ray’s Bible was open to John 3:16 when he discovered it. Let me share that passage with you to enhance your appreciation of this amazing book …”
