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THE PUNK FISH
by
David Pierce
We
asked The Devil (that was what the owner of the club called
himself) if we could meet at his club and pray. He said that
we could but he wasn’t able to come because he was sick
(apparently even the Devil gets sick).
In this gothic club there is a bookstore where they sell magazines
on vampires, the occult, role playing games and lots of other
occultic material. The name of the guy who runs this shop is
Lance.
As we were waiting for people to come to the club so we could
pray Lance stood behind the counter and so I went over to talk
with him. Lance told us that bad things happen in this club.
He spoke of seeing babies on fire flying through the air and
other dark things. I didn’t really want him to tell me
about it because it was so evil.
He said that whenever he comes to the club he feels this pressure
come on him when he enters the club. He spoke of how he has
to give people the idea that he would be willing to kill them
so that they won’t kill him. As he explained all these
things to us I could see the desperation in his eyes. It was
as though he realized that he was trapped.
I explained to him that he did not need to work for the devil,
that Jesus wanted him to be free and escape this prison. The
thing that Lance needed to understand is that Jesus is way more
powerful than the devil.
In Romans 8:37 - 39 it says
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through
him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor
life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the
future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything
else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love
of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
 It's
like when I had this punk fish.
I used to have this fish tank and in this fish tank lived the
punk fish. The punk fish thought he was the most powerful fish
in the universe. He used to beat up on the other fish whenever
I would put food into the fish tank.
If the other fish tried to eat, the punk fish would attack them
and bite off pieces of their fins and tails so that all the
other fish were wounded swimming around in the tank. Whenever
the punk fish would come around they would all try to hide in
the rocks.
While the other fish hid in the rocks the punk fish would stroll
around arrogantly eating all the food I'd put into the tank.
The punk fish was convinced that he was the baddest fish in
the universe.
Then one day I decided to move a rock in my fish tank. I put
my hand into the fish tank to move the rock. The punk fish ran
into my hand with his nose. I had finished moving the rock to
where I wanted it to be just as the punk fish hit my hand. So
I took my hand out of the fish tank.
But after this the punk fish started thinking to himself "the
hand, the hand was in the fish tank and even the hand is afraid
of me. I am the most powerful fish in the universe. No fish
is stronger or more powerful than I am".
And so the punk fish was even more arrogant after that. He continued
to beat up on the other fish in the fish tank because he was
convinced that no one was more powerful than he was.
But finally one day I got
sick of the punk fish.
So
I went into the kitchen and I opened the draw. I took out a
spoon and I went over to the fish tank and I scooped out the
punk fish and I flushed him down the toilet.
And
that's exactly how it is between Jesus and Satan. There is no
competition. Jesus has defeated the power of Satan and I don't
need to be impressed with satan's power but rather I should
be impressed with Jesus' power. And that's what Lance needed
to understand.
So
I asked Lance if I could pray with him and he said yes. So our
band gathered around him and laid hands on him and prayed. As
we prayed tears welled up in his eyes and he was deeply moved
by the power of the Holy Spirit. The presence of God was all
around us. He told us that he wanted to come to church to find
out more.
After
we prayed for Lance about 15 of us joined hands and prayed in
the club. Together we joined hands in one of the most notorious
underground gothic clubs in that city and prayed that Jesus
would break the power of the underground.
I
had a sense while we were praying that what we were doing was
way more significant than what we realized. The fact that we
could have a prayer time like this in the club itself is proof
that Jesus is more powerful than Satan.
David
Pierce can be contacted by e-mail at steiger@ihug.co.nz |
