“Bring him in.”

The guards at the door were about 5 feet high and 4 feet wide. They looked like boulders. They were all muscle, grey, and covered with hair. There were no discernible features on their heads. If they had eyes, mouth, or a nose, it was not obvious.

The guards came dragging Hectarus into the throne room. Each of his wrists were held tightly by one of the guards and he was drug face down.  As they drug him the guards’ free hands were whipping barbed wire across Hectarus’ back.

Hectarus screamed in pain as he was thrown at the feet of Lord Baal into a crumpled hysterical bleeding mess.

Lord Baal stood.

The guards left the room in terror because Baal almost never stood. This was not a good omen.

“Hectarus, the temperature is still rising!” As Baal spoke, his anger filled every cell of Hectarus’ body. His anger then changed to hatred and the room started vibrating with the intensity of his emotions.

“Last time you were here, I told you to stop that group of people in NW Georgia from following after the enemy  Jesus. It has been 7 months and the spiritual temperature has not returned to freezing, instead it has risen by 3 degrees. Why have you not stopped them from pursuing God?”

Baal stepped on Hectarus’ head and ground it into the floor. Hectarus’ nearly passed out from the pain.

“Explain yourself!”

Through broken teeth, blood pouring out of his mouth and ears, Hectarus mumbled, “Lord Baal, I have been executing attacks against them but it is not working.”

“I don’t believe you. What have you done?”

Hectarus could hardly speak. As he was trying to form the words Lord Baal spoke, “The first step is division. Division is always our first attack. That’s what you attacked with isn’t it? How come that didn’t work?”

Hectarus, managed to look up towards Baal and spoke, “We did that. We successfully got people to divide the group. They even did it claiming they were doing God’s work.”

“Then?”

“It was very successful. 50% of the people were scattered. It should have stopped their seeking God. But there was a group who refused to be moved by division. I have seen it before but it has been rare. So, we quickly moved to the next step of destroying their reputation. That was also successful. We spread rumors that they are controlling, too intense, and unbalanced. But they still would not move off of their pursuit of God. The angels that were being released by their intercession are devastating to us.”

Baal shifted his posture and his agitation at the situation was showing. “Hectarus, you are one of my top leaders, your time is running out.” Lord Baal stepped on the back of his leader bending his back in ways it was not made to move. Hectarus’ scream filled the room.

You could barely hear the words through Hectarus’ screams. “We took away 1/3 of the church’s income and people’s jobs. It caused forced a total reevaluation of their finances.”

Hectarus knew Baal was waiting for his next sentence, but he didn’t know how to say it, so he just didn’t say anything.

Baal’s foot ground into Hectarus’ knee cap. Hectarus screamed out, “They still wouldn’t stop. They would not be moved by finances. Their pursuit of God barely even wavered. They even seem to become more determined!”

Lord Baal sat down. Hectarus writhed about on the floor. The guards reentered the room.

Lord Baal was deeply thinking. He knew that very rarely in human history did humans not move from their pursuit of God when division came, reputations were destroyed, and money was removed.

The guards jerked Hectarus up on his knees to face Lord Baal.

“We started tormenting them every night for 2-3 hours. At 3am, we bombarded their minds with fear of losing everything, of being a failure, of absolute poverty if they continued. We robbed them of sleep and hope.”

Hectarus started whimpering. Through his sobs of pity for himself, he said reluctantly, “we invaded their sleep, their dreams, but they still would not back down. They simply would not be moved long by our voices.”

Lord Baal was somber. His anger seemed to subside. In fact, it seemed for a brief moment of time that fear was seen in his eyes. He said, “Did you bring sickness and physical oppression on them?”

“Of course, your Lord. We unleashed cancer and other sicknesses.”

Fear filled Hectarus. He knew what was going to happen next. He knew that he had failed. He knew that he had done everything he knew to do but it still did not work. He knew he was dead.

Hectarus stuttered, “They still refused to be moved. They would not stop seeking after God. They would not be moved unless God spoke to them.” He moaned, “Lord Baal, we have no way to fight against people who are only moved by the voice of God.”

Lord Baal, stood up, his hand swept over Hectarus in a rage, and he vanished from the room.

Was he dead? Was he sent into eternal torment? No one but Baal and Hectarus knew and the guards dared not ask.

Lord Baal, sat down, and pondered the question he had pondered for 6,000 years since man was created, “how do you stop someone who is only moved by one thing – the voice of God?”