Hi,
Thanks for the reply; it is very interesting to read of your views and opinions on my story and its characters...
I'm sorry to hear of your experience at 14; I can certainly understand why you felt uncomfortable!
Out of curiosity, may I ask if you know many Christians? It intrigues me that you would think it unusual that Christian university students would pray for their friends in the manner I described - such an instance of specific prayer, while not necessarily common, is certainly not in any way a strange occurrence in my experience. In fact, you may remember the "televised seance" that Derren Brown "held" on Channel 4 a couple of years back - on that evening some of my friends and I (all quite "normal" university students!
) got together to pray for our friends/university/nation in a somewhat similar manner (praying for protection etc) to what I described in my story. Had you been with us you may have felt a little out of place perhaps, not being a believer yourself, but I trust you would not have found it weird/crazy/peculiar. Prayer is simply God's people talking with Him - no funny words, strange way of speaking, or weird rituals. Just talking.
Of course, my story is not meant to describe a "normal" occurrence, although nothing I described would go outside of what I believe could happen were God to permit it. The Bible does mention good and evil spiritual forces (angels and demons) fighting with each other, though whether they have swords is another matter entirely...
If God was to allow a demon to visibly manifest itself, and then command an angel to do the same, for the purposes of revealing the spiritual realm to a specific person it wouldn't surprise me. It is by no means "standard procedure", but it has happened.
As for whether God responds to prayer, He most certainly does. Most often His answers come through His word, the Bible; a verse which particularly encourages or speaks into the situation, for example. Or they might come through His people; without prior knowledge a friend gives some encouragement/direction that is too specific to the situation to be mere coincidence. I've had this kind of experience myself; back when I was turning 17 I went through a tough patch in my faith, and one Sunday one of my church leaders brought a word from God - he didn't know who it was for, but I knew the moment he opened his mouth. He relayed a message I knew was directly from the Lord and I was overwhelmed with the indescribable knowledge that God was speaking to me personally, giving me words of comfort that were directly relevant to my situation. So yeah, God answers prayer. Of course, He doesn't always give the answer we want or in the way that we expect. And then there are the many occasions where God answers "spectacularly". I heard of one such example from a Christian speaker I went to hear several years back - one day he and his family had the visiting church speaker round for dinner, but happened to be completely out of food. He had been reading about George Muller, a Christian man in the 1800s who had a large orphanage. George Muller ran out of food for the children but would get the children to sit at the table and give thanks for the food he knew God would provide; minutes later it would come, for example by the hand of the baker who without prior knowledge of the need had felt burdened to bake extra bread the night before. Anyway, the guy I heard did the same; they sat round an empty table and gave thanks for food they didn't have.
Almost immediately there was a knock at the door, and when he opened the door there was a huge box of hot food (chicken, rice, etc) on his doorstep. At the time he lived in the middle of nowhere in New Zealand - miles of emptiness all around - so he rushed out to see who had left the food; there wasn't a soul to be seen, no dust, nothing... God had provided miraculously for them!
The most obvious question after reading such an account is "Why doesn't God do that for everybody, especially those without food?" I don't know; I can't give you a full answer for that one. I simply rest in the fact that God is infinitely wiser than I am, and He has His reasons for doing or not doing things. One such reason is His giving of choice to us; much of the suffering, the lack of food, and other such needs is a direct or indirect consequence of mankind's selfishness, our choices. God will not simply overule us in every case.
Well, I've written quite a lot there... hope you find it interesting. Do ask any questions you may have, and I hope to continue the discussion!
Regards, Dominic
Oh yeah, and I'm glad the amended sentence flows better.
