Monday, December 25, 2006

The Power of Joy

Perhaps the most amazing display of the name of the Lord I have ever witnessed in my life occurred in May 2000. It was just days after the death of my maternal grandmother.

Estefana Betancourt had been a pillar of the Spanish Assembly of God in Douglas and the Godly matriarch of a large family. At the height of the Pentecostal revival in Southern Arizona, with the second World War in full swing, she guided her young family into the burgeoning movement. This was no easy decision as the Betancourt family was a stalwart Catholic family with two daughters just days away from their first confirmation. Their departure from the church was met with heavy persecution directed not only at her and husband Juan, but also towards the Betancourt children.

My earliest impressions of her were that she was a wise and strong woman, and a woman with a heart after God. I remember many times looking up from the pew where I was sitting to see my grandmother singing to the Lord in a heavenly language. I would watch as the Lord would shower her with His Spirit. At the end of her spiritual songs, she would laugh under the joy of the Lord. Her laughs were at times deep from within and at other times as light as a childlike giggle. Her devotion as a loving Bride of Christ is what impressed me the most.

It was so difficult to see her succumb to Alzheimer's Disease. It was even harder on my mom who was so close to her. My mother poured everything she had into taking care of her mother. The last three and a half years, she brought grandma home to live out her days with the family. She was assisted greatly by our adopted sister and best family friend, Rev. Mary Louise Vigil.

To the end, Grandma Betancourt loved the Lord. In her rare moments of lucidity, she would sing to the Lord as in years past working her hands as if washing the dishes or cooking. Inevitably, she would laugh with that same joy she always had. She had long since forgotten our names, but she never forgot the love of her life, her Lord Jesus.

Her death, although not unexpected, tore a hole right through my mom's heart. After ten years of pouring into my grandmother, fighting alongside her against a mental enemy, she was now gone. She was finally with her Lord and reunited at last with her late husband.

My grandmother was my mother's greatest mentor and confidant. She could always be depended upon to encourage and speak words of wisdom just at the right time. She was a woman of prayer and great faith, but her wisdom and love for God were her greatest attributes.

Her words served my parents through countless valleys and mountains in the military, ministry, marriage, and parenthood. From the time my Dad courted my mom during the Korean War, through Vietnam, and even up to the first Gulf War, she was there. Through the Army, through the Air Force, and through the Army again, she was there. Through lay ministry, storefront pastorates, and on to perhaps the most powerful modern-day ministry Douglas has ever seen, she was there. From the Air Force years in Nebraska, to the construction years in Tucson, to the ministry years in Douglas, and even to the last Army years in Massachusetts, my grandmother was always there for my mother. Now she was gone.

I can't blame my mom for those first few days of grief. She lost her best friend and hero. But as my mom had taught me growing up, the enemy is always looking to steal, kill, and destroy, but then again, she also taught me that "greater is He that is within us than he that is in the world." A few days after my grandmother's death, my mom confided to us that she was experiencing a heavy grief that was unnatural.

A day later, and a few days before my grandmother's funeral, my mother told us over breakfast that she had a supernatural experience the night before. As she was taking off her slippers to slide into bed, she was startled by an old haggard lady walking down the hallway. My mother gulped in a breath and with that the lady disappeared. Terrified, she immediately began to pray and plead the blood of Jesus over herself and the home.

As she was retelling her story, everybody at the breakfast table sat wide-eyed with not a few hairs standing up at the back of our necks. She made it clear that what she had seen the night before was not my grandmother, but a spirit of grief that had come to oppress her.

That night we had been spent by all the preparations for the funeral and for the impromptu family reunion that was planned afterwards. My wife, my two-year-old son, and I crashed in Mary Louise's room, exhausted by the day's events.

About two o'clock at night, I had a terrible dream. In this dream, I was fighting this old haggard woman. She was hideous in appearance. I told her over again that she had to go. I instantly realized that she was the evil spirit that was oppressing my mom. The spirit refused to leave and we continued to battle back and forth.

Finally, a righteous anger and power surged within me. Deep within me came this shout and I yelled at the top of my lungs, "in the name of Jesus..." I then woke up shouting "GO!!!!!!!" pointing in the darkness next to our bed.

Suddenly, about a foot away from my extended index finger, formed a pinpoint light in the middle of the television screen next to Mary Louise's bed that illuminated the pitch black room. It was if my finger became a laser pointer. The effect was eerily familiar to how old television sets turned off with the image shrinking to a single point of light, but this time in reverse. Before, I could think to lower my hand, the pinpoint light exploded into a static image and the television turned ON with its volume at full blast.

My heart about stopped as I was stunned by what was going on. Martha whipped out of bed as if summoned by revile and shouted "DANNY, WHAT'S GOING ON? TURN IT OFF! IT'S GONNA WAKE UP THE BABY. TURN IT OFF!" At this point, my mom and Mary Louise rushed into the room to see what was going on. They turned on the lights. I saw the power button and turned it OFF as quickly as I could.

Everybody asked me what was going on and I told them that all I knew was that I was having this dream about the old woman that was bothering my mom, that I commanded her to leave in the name of Jesus, woke up pointing at the TV, and that the next thing I knew was that it turned ON by itself full blast. With this, everybody shook their heads with an "oo-yee" and with Mary Louise adding lightheartedly "you're scaring me Danny."

We then went back to bed scratching our collective heads. Early the next morning, Mary Louise and I tried to figure out how the TV turned ON by itself. We found no alarm set and that it turned ON to a regular channel and not the static one from the night before. It was then that we realized that it was no coincidence, but a miracle. At the breakfast table that morning, I rehashed the above story in its entirety.

From that day forward, the spirit of heaviness lifted from my mom and never returned. In its place, returned the joy of the Lord, such a signature of my grandmother's life. That week, we paid honor to the memory of one of God's most faithful brides. We knew that she was now one of God's songbirds in Heaven, laughing and playing in eternal youth before the Lord.

I will never understand why the Lord would choose a spontaneous act such as this to display His power, but then again I will never understand why He chose a fig tree and made it wither before His disciples' eyes. My grandmother and my mother have long understood that the joy of the Lord is their strength.

It's not so much that His name unleashes the power of ten thousand light sabers. It's that His name unleashes the power of ten thousand joys.

"At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: 'Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy...'" (Luke 1:39-44)

"And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord...'" (Luke 2:8-11)
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from
Light the Fire Ministries!