Persevering through a time of suffering hand-in-hand with God is a radically different experience from enduring a time of suffering alone without Him.

The first is always a fruitful experience, even though it might not always feel so at the time.

The second is always a desolate and isolating experience, and feels so all the time. 

This article deals with the first experience, the fruitful experience.

But it’s one thing to know intellectually that the Lord is your Protector and Healer from evil, and that He resides right smack in the midst of the evil attack in which you find yourself.

It’s quite another to experience this truth up close and personal.

In this article, we look at the latter.

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Whenever I speak about healing from an assault by evil and from the pain it causes, there are 2 pieces of immeasurably good news that you’ll hear me emphasize again and again.

They are:

1. Once the Lord has led you to final victory in your battle with evil, He will gradually reveal for you the many blessings and benefits that you are now able to draw from this exceptionally tough life-experience

2. Evil never lasts (Proverbs 10:25)

These will hold you in good stead on the days when your battle against evil seems overwhelming.

Now we’ll take a look at what to do and what not to do when you need healing from evil.

What to Do

1.    Keep Very, Very Close to the Lord

Only the Lord’s love has the power to heal you from the painful roller-coaster emotions, damage, hurt and trauma inflicted on you and/or your loved ones by evil.

Similarly, only His love has the power to neutralize and thwart the Evil One’s purposes to destroy you!

But how, you ask, can you experience the Lord’s love firsthand, directly, one-on-one?

The answer is that you must learn how to enter into His direct Presence. 

Why?

Because when you experience the Lord’s presence, you automatically experience His love.

Twenty-six years ago, when I experienced a prolonged, highly-organized, ruthless and determined assault by the forces of evil, I was able to arrive at full healing.

This was because I was able to experience God’s Presence and His love whenever I wanted or needed them —which, as you can imagine, was very often.

You see, 12 years before, the Lord had used a holy woman to teach me a very simple but entirely guaranteed way to do this. 

This way is known as prayer of the heart. 

These regular times of prayer of the heart spent in silence alone with God proved to be the indispensable backbone of my victory over and resurrection from evil.

Why?

Because whenever I did this, the Lord kept filling me with His love.

And the Enemy cannot survive in the presence of the Lord’s LOVE.

2.   Listen to What the Lord is Telling You

At any time in your journey, but especially when you are battling evil, it’s extremely important to hear what the Lord is saying to you.

The ability to hear the Lord speaking to you has been promised to you by the Lord himself (John 10:27).

NEVER FORGET THAT!

A key benefit of spending regular time in God’s presence is that you become far better attuned to hearing God’s Voice.

This happens outside the times spent in His direct presence i. e. when you’re washing the dishes, cleaning the car, playing with your kids or grandkids, making the beds, preparing for a presentation at work, even chatting on the phone (!) etc.

Spending time in the Lord’s direct presence puts you in an optimum position to receive God’s perspective on the assault by evil in your life and on all the daily events and problems that might have arisen and will keep arising out of this assault.

It also protects you from the distractions in your life caused by the constant noise, chaos, and confusion that an assault by evil always dumps into your life.

When I was battling my second confrontation with evil, I got into the habit not only of putting aside a few minutes daily for heart prayer but also of putting aside the odd day or two for special ‘retreat’ time.

I would tell my family and friends that I was not to be disturbed during my retreat days except for an emergency.

I knew that staying very close to the Lord and spending regular time in His presence would place me in an optimum position to hear what GOD wanted to tell me.

And it did.

3.   Develop Your Trust in the Lord and Start an Ongoing Conversation with Him!

Another indispensable benefit of spending daily time in the Lord’s presence and receiving His love is that you develop the trust in Him to ask Him questions and to put your anxieties and problems to Him without holding anything back.

In other words, you start to engage God in an ongoing conversation.

Why is this ABSOLUTELY VITAL to your full healing?

Because it’s yet another way of getting God’s perspective on your battle with evil.

In addition, it allows you to secure His ongoing guidance on what to do and what not to do in the process.

You give the Lord the green light to become your Chief of Operations in your battle with the forces of evil.

There is now zero possibility of your losing this battle and every possibility of winning it!

4.   Confidently EXPECT the Lord to ANSWER Your Questions!

The direct result of spending daily time in the Lord’s presence is that you develop the inner confidence to expect Him to ANSWER the questions you put to Him. 

Your 2-way, free-flowing conversation with the Lord really takes off at this point as you learn to rely even more on the Lord’s guidance.

5.      Don’t Try to Rush Matters Along on Your Own Timetable

In my second, prolonged battle with organized evil, the very first lesson the Lord taught me was the need to wait on Him and not run ahead of Him. 

He did this by repeatedly bringing to my attention the last verse of Psalm 27:

Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. 

and to verse 7 of Psalm 37: 

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.

The Lord made me understand very clearly that I was not to rush headlong ahead into decisions based on my own very limited human wisdom.

When you rush matters along using your own human wisdom and your own timetable, God can become an inconvenience —especially in times of confusion and crisis. 

This not only causes you frustration.

It also opens you up to all the subtle traps and pitfalls of your bitter opponent, Satan. 

Avoid this at all costs!

I discovered that as long as I continued to stay very close to God, I became better and better at waiting on Him.

Closeness develops mutual trust.

This makes the waiting far easier.

You begin to understand at a very deep level of your being that the Lord will bring you exactly the results that you need when He knows the time is right.

In my own case, as I became more patient and at ease with waiting on Him, I learned that His yoke is easy (Matthew 11:30).

I learned that His burden is light (Matthew 11:30).

I learned that I did find rest for my soul (Matthew 11:30).

YOU too will experience the same. 

Jesus promised you this (see Matthew 11:30).

6.    Nurture Your FAITH in God’s Promises

But to be able to wait with a certain amount of patience for the Lord’s guidance when under severe stress, you have to have consistent faith.

When Jesus saw that the Apostle Peter would experience a time of rough trial after his denial of Jesus, he knew that Peter would require great faith if he were to survive it.

Christ had explained to Peter:

“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers.”

Luke 22:31 New Living Translation

(My emphasis)

To acquire the kind of deep faith that will never disappoint, you have to keep returning regularly —even if only for a few minutes each day —to the presence of the Lord.

It is there that you experience His love firsthand for yourself.

How does this help your faith?

Because the more you know —really KNOW—from your own personal experience  —that the Lord loves you without conditions, the easier it is to truly believe that He genuinely wants to help you.

When you know that someone genuinely wants to help you, the easier it is to put your faith in that person.

It’s no different with the Lord. 

Keep asking God on a daily and sometimes on an hourly (or even a minute-by-minute!) basis to give you the FAITH to believe —through thick and thin —that He is interceding for you 24/7 (see Point 7 following).

He will.

7.   Remember that Jesus is the Great High Priest of Your Confession

It’s extremely important also to know —and REMEMBER —that Jesus is the great High Priest of your confession (Hebrews 3:1; Hebrews 4:14; Hebrews 10:21).

What does this actually mean?

It means that every time you sincerely confess to the Lord a particular part of His Word that appeals to you, and do so with faith, He will never stop interceding to the Father for that particular part of His Word to become reality in your life (Romans 8:34).

How to Do This

Choose a favourite promise and REPEAT IT BACK to the Lord slowly and deliberately e. g.

Lord, you said in your scripture that ‘no weapon turned against me will succeed’ (Isaiah 54:17). I claim that promise now.

You can repeat this several times, until you start to truly accept that the Lord will make good on the particular promise you have chosen from the scriptures.

It might require several repetitions on several occasions for this promise to start to really take hold in your mind and heart and spirit.

But the time will come when you know that you accept and believe it.

You can use any verse from the scriptures that contains a promise from the Lord and that makes sense for your situation!

You can now confidently expect the Lord to help you in your time of dire need (Hebrews 4:16), and to do so in very specific ways.

Also: always remember that the Holy Spirit is your 24/7 Guide, Teacher, Helper, and Advocate (John 14:16, 26; John 16:13). 

Here’s something else I want you to know and keep in mind as you ask God for help:

Your prayerful petitions to the Lord don’t need to be complex or profound or packed full of words.

You see, the Lord already knows your needs even before you ask (Matthew 6:8)!

It’s not words you need.

It’s not your words that He wants.

It’s His presence that you need.

It’s the full opening up of your heart that He wants 

And remember this:

The Lord hears and responds to your needs even before you cry out to Him:

Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.

Isaiah 65:24 NIV

8.   The Lord Never Allows You to be Tempted Beyond What You’re Able to Handle

Always remember:

The Lord never allows you to be tempted beyond what you are able to handle (1 Corinthians 10:13). 

9.   Keep a Thankful Heart

Long before I was properly educated on evil, I happened to read a book which explained (convincingly) that ‘evil cannot hurt a thankful heart’.

Whenever I had a problem, I would keep these words in mind.

I discovered that what they claimed always worked.

When you are battling evil, keeping a thankful and grateful heart is one of the ways to ensure that you receive the Lord’s healing.

Why?

Because gratitude always opens up the Lord’s heart!

As a result, you are automatically blessed with protection from and power to heal the effects of evil.

This power is the only power that weakens, and ultimately destroys, the forces of evil.

When your heart is thankful, Satan has to flee.

What NOT to Do

1.    Don’t fight the Person (s) Who Has Inflicted Evil on You

Warning!

Don’t fight your spouse or boss or best friend or whoever it might be that has inflicted evil on you and/or your loved ones.

Your spouse, family member, friend, boss, or whoever it is that has committed evil against you, is NOT your enemy.

Your enemy is Satan.

It’s Satan you have to fight.

You see, Satan uses people to do his dirty work.

But it is not people who are your enemy.

If you fight the perpetrators of evil, 2 things happen:

• You escalate the evil
• You gradually can become part of the evil

That’s NOT what you need to do!

2.   NEVER Try to Dispose of Evil in Your Own Way:

Jesus’ Parable of the Weeds and the Wheat