The Kingdom of Darkness

I know, seems like a pretty ominous title for a blog post, but I’m not here to water down the truth or make anyone feel comfortable. I’ll tell it how it is, and this is how it is: we are living in the kingdom of darkness.

When we first arrived in India, people would ask what we were doing and where we were planning on going. Whenever we would mention that Calcutta was on the itinerary, God-willing (which he did!), their reaction would be something like, “Oh man, that’s a tough place,” or “Wow, you guys are really brave.” Psh. We’d done the slum thing before. We were familiar with poverty, and quite frankly, we felt like pros, and brushed off each one of those comments. I mean, how bad could it be?

The last few days, after having really settled into our humble abode and becoming more acquainted with the area and the ministry, any comfort I had felt before had suddenly left me. I wanted to leave. I was negatively overwhelmed by everything about this city. I couldn’t understand why God would ever send me somewhere that I felt so out of place. I had strange desires to be back home with my friends and family without any worries, just livin’ some normal American life in the summertime. But the thing was, that’s not what I really wanted. I knew I was here for a reason. I wanted to want to be here, but I just…didn’t. Why? I spent 2 months last summer 9,000 miles away from home and loved every minute of it, aside from nearly dying, which is a different story, but the point is, I was so joyful in Kenya. I always looked forward to the next day of ministry. I couldn’t wait to go walking through the alleys of the slum or the layers of crops on the mountainside. So I realized what I had been truly missing in this place: joy. But again, why?

Yesterday our group had a “debrief” session, just having some time of vulnerability discussing where we were all at spiritually, emotionally, etc. At the end of the night, we made a vital discovery: Calcutta is Satan’s territory. Now, it would be wrong to attribute something to the enemy that is not his doing, but never have any of us felt the spiritual oppression like that which exists in this city. It has permeated through every street corner and into the atmosphere, the souls of the people, and even the animals. Beggars come crawling up around every bend and all I hear in my head is Jesus’ words: “Give to everyone who begs from you,” and I just have nothing to give but my prayers. People are bathing with the water from the broken fire hydrants as sickly men and women sleep on the side of the street, which is most likely where they will lay down and die. Most of the dogs look mangled and stricken with disease. The pollution hangs over the city like a dirty blanket. The other night I walked past a starving man lying on the street. He had no eyes. That was it. I couldn’t take it anymore. Was there any hope for him? I stopped on the side of the road, sat down, and wept. How did Jesus do it? Do I have enough faith to give that man new eyes? The real question is, do I have enough strength to walk through these streets without breaking down. The one time I swallowed enough of my pride to sit down next to a woman at the train station writhing in pain as she rolled back and forth on the ground and offered her some food and even prayer, she wouldn’t let me touch her. They have so convinced themselves of their complete lack of worth that even in their greatest moment of need they cannot accept love. If it wasn’t for our wonderful Redeemer, I wouldn’t hesitate to believe that there was no hope. Death has its dominion here. It is as if Satan has established his throne in the city of Calcutta.

I realized a serious mistake I had made before coming in assuming that this was just going to be another summer, and I wouldn’t have to fight. I wouldn’t have to really struggle. I was just here to love people and serve God. And then the Lord said, “Yeah, not this time, Ben.” It hit me that this is going to be some of the hardest 5 or 6 weeks of my life, and when I realized that, it’s almost as if it all became easier. Not easier to fulfill our ministry, but easier to swallow. When I acknowledged the presence of this darkness, I then saw what would be required of me to battle against it, and heck, even merely exist in it. It’s not SUPPOSED to be EASY! To think that I wouldn’t have to stretch myself to each and every one of my limits was quite the foolish idea. But now that I know where all of the negativity is coming from, I have an unquenchable motivation to conquer it. So yes, this is the kingdom of darkness, but if I’m not mistaken, Paul tells us in Colossians that God has “delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.” So wait a minute, there is hope after all!

I once heard a great analogy for light and darkness (you’ve probably heard it yourself in one form or another) that was something to this effect: “All of the deepest, heaviest, most terrifying darkness in all of the universe could not put out the light from a single candle.” You see, it’s quite simple: we are those candles. The church in Calcutta is that candle. And it is the only thing that will overcome the darkness. At the same time, all of the light from every light-source in this world could not put out the spiritual darkness and oppression here, and that’s why the only hope is Christ. As it says in Revelation, “They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.” Why not now? Isn’t God our only hope to defeat the darkness? Jesus legally defeated Satan on the cross, and it is, without a doubt, completely finished, but we are here to represent and literally enforce that victory. To have that victory, we must press hard against the enemy. Yes, we have been equipped with the armor of God to defend ourselves from all of Satan’s tactics, but the truth is, we’re on the offensive side here. If we are told that “the gates of hell will not prevail,” then we must assume that hell is on the defensive. I never heard that Heaven was defending any gates, so we don’t just sit around and wait to defend ourselves when we need to, but we step up to the front lines and enforce the victory of Calvary. And from what I’ve seen in the church here in Calcutta, there’s one heck of a chance to do that devil some damage.

I hope this gives you all a better idea of how to pray and intercede for us. Living in this kind of “kingdom of darkness” does not come without consequences. It can wear us down physically, mentally, emotionally, and most importantly, spiritually. It can even hinder us from accomplishing our mission. It sure has brought us to a new level of seriousness in our intercession and personal time with God. We always have the opportunity to be victorious, but sometimes we gotta take out the big guns to do it! So please let this insight guide your prayers. I feel like I could honestly write a book on all of this, but I’m probably nowhere near a publishing company right now, so that’s not gonna happen yet. I can’t wait to read everyone’s comments and write you all back. We love you and cannot justly express our gratitude for your prayers. Pretty soon there will be some more posts about what we’re actually doing and cool events that have happened. Be blessed, everybody.

-Ben

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~ by Ben on June 28, 2008.