Location: The Outer Edges of the Third Heaven

Time: 3 am Sunday Morning

“EMERGENCY!” The red light was flashing and the siren was wailing. The doctor jumped from his hospital bed where he was trying to catch a few minutes rest to rush to the emergency room. It had been a busy night, but most of the incoming patients had only been minor cuts and bruises. This was the first real emergency.

The angels, Gillian and Joel (Hebrews 1:14), were bringing a saint in under the highest priority code. The saint had already entered into a spiritual coma and it was feared he may be dead on arrival. The doctor prepared himself and his equipment for the worst. He knew there had been an outbreak of fighting in the western sector. What was about to arrive, he could only imagine.

The fluttering of the angels’ wings were heard on the hospital roof. The orderlies rushed the incoming stretcher to the operating room. As it was rolled through the double doors a visible gasp could be heard from the medical staff. The saint was almost unrecognizable. He had suffered dearly under the enemy’s attack. He had deep gashes and punctures around the heart surrounded by black burn marks.

The doctor, in bewilderment, asked Gillian, “How did this happen? Wasn’t he under your care?”

Gillian was so shook up that Joel had to answer. “We tried our best! The Holy Spirit was trying to get through too.” Their blackened shields and burnt wings attested to the truth of their effort.

The doctor waved his hand to quiet Joel. Enough had been said. This scenario was all too familiar to him—heart attack cases were growing by the day.

The heart monitor loudly protested, “BEEP–BEEP—BEEP”. The doctor quickly turned his head to the monitor and saw that the saint’s heart was going into a seizure.  The life in it was literally being squeezed out by a foreign object.

The scenario was all too familiar. The saint’s heart had grown weak following after loves other than the Fathers’. He had allowed the cares of this life to wrap themselves around his heart like black strings. The gradual process had now completed its course.

“Emergency surgery must be done now”, yelled the doctor. “His only hope is the mercy scalpel of God to cut the parasites away from his heart.”

Location: Spiritual Recovery Room

Time: 7am Sunday Morning

“He will make it and have the opportunity again to become a strong Christian,” Gillian told Joel, “if he follows through on the therapy.”

“And what will that be,” Joel inquired?

“Above all else, guard your affections. For they influence everything else in your life.” Proverbs 4:23 TLB