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THE WETHERS AND THE DEVIL
"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding." [Proverbs 3:5, The Holy Bible, KJV]
The Little Flock Of Sheep Had Rid The Paddock Of Gamba And The Native Grasses Had Returned.
Another day was ending and it was coming on dark. The birds had already settled down in roosts and pens for the night and the mango trees in the south east were turning from olive to grey. As I was guiding the small flock of sheep into the night yard, where they would shelter in safety, I saw that two of the wethers appeared to be suffering from bloat. They had all been out on the pasture together, so I did know how long they had been like this, but I did know that bloat was a condition I had to treat right away.
It was becoming darker. I had to get the wethers into the night yard, go and get the treats from the cottage and the treatment from the house, come back out, entice the flock [with the wethers] into the main pen in the night yard with treats, seperate the two wethers from the flock, herd them into the chute and administer the treatment.
I was not well, but I still knew I could do all of this with effort, since I had done it before. But sadly, I had only ever been been able to save one sheep [that being my hand raised wether Bam Bam] from bloat, by administering baking soda, water and vegetable oil. Bam Bam wasn't suffering from bad bloat and he had slowly burped his way back to life. I would have to try again now and as with other animal emergencies, the old familiar anxiety and feelings of panic and helplessness were slowly building.
I managed to get the small flock into the nightyard simply by openimg the gate as usual, because they knew that their treats of malted barley, crushed lupins and corn were already waiting for them in the six feed troughs in the main pen of the nightyard. So once I opened the gate, all the sheep raced in, swift footing it and quick stepping it, towards the evening's treats. But the two wethers with the bloat would not come in with the flock and they remained back out in the dimming light of the mango paddock.
Then the panic began to set in. What was I going to do since they would not follow the flock? This was not normal. Even sick an distressed sheep who lagged behind, or kept themselves seperate at a short distance from the others, would eventually follow the flock in. I just had to gently coax them, to stand aside and to be watchful and patient.
I quickly summed up the situation. It was Saturday night. The sun had just gone down. Suzannah, the only the vet who was prepared to travel out to Eva Valley from Humpty Doo, was not available. I was completely helpless. No one to help. I was on my own. This was one of the worst and most triggering situations that I could be placed in. Having animals in a life threatening situation, with me feeling powerless to help them.
Northern Part Of The Sheep Night Yard Facing South Towards The Telstra Radio Phone Tower.
It was at that moment that one of the demonic powers who had been stalking the sheep and myself on the property started to growl and shriek. It wasn't visible, but the raucous and chaotic commotion was coming from right in front of me, about level to where I was standing, like there was about to be a show down, about thirty metres to the south towards the fenceline. By now it was getting quite dark. The wethers were standing together, as if frozen, directly in front of me. They appeared unaware of the intensifying animalistic sounds. They were standing between myself and the demon.
If one could describe what a demon sounds like, it is a series of deranged and terrifying cacophony of sounds, the screaming of a women or man being murdered, an animal being tortured to death, the rapid shreiking like a gorilla or ape, roaring and gowling like a lion, grunting like a pig and throw the whole lot of these sounds into together and then have them projected straight at me, stopping and suddenly growing louder.
Then everything happened vey fast. The wethers were between myself and the demon. I was facing south and the gate to my right was open, with the flock already penned. I had to get the two wethers to move together into the nightyard. I slowly moved towards them with both arms outstretched, trying to coax them with desperation in my voice. My eyes were wide with fear and I was hardly breathing. Then they did something sudden and horrifying. They both turned together and began to bolt directly towards the demon, whose grunting and shrieking was continuing in the new darkness.
The wethers again froze, between myself and the demon, but this time they were closer to the demon than to me. I was driving them into danger. Then I did something unexpected. I did not rebuke the demon as I had been taught to do. I simply gave up. I said to God in a mixture accusation and defeat, “There is nothing that I can do. You have made it too hard for me to do anything. I'm leaving it in your hands.” I shut the nightyard gate and in a completely distraught state and I left the wethers behind, suffering from bloat, out in the dark paddock with the shrieking, growling demon.
Well then, the two wethers were not only alive the next morning. The bloat had began to go down and it dissipated completely over the next couple of days. Furthermore, the wethers lived on to lead happy and long lives, in the many gated paddocks and beneath the dying mango orchard and never had bloat again. Although they did need drenching before and after each wet season and their back hooves trimmed from time to time.
Father continued to test me and these, often sudden and intense trials always came at a time when I was not expecting them and when I only understood what He had been doing after the event had occured. Sometimes days after, sometimes weeks, months or even years after, but rarely during during the event itself. I gave up. I let go of control. I handed it over to Him come life or death and when the wethers were in supernatural danger from the demon. I felt like I had abandoned them and I only placed my trust in God, because the situation was intensifying, I was failing and I really felt like I had no other option. I was to spend many long years on the old mango farm on Eva Valley, the northern Territory of Australia undergoing trials, so that I would learn to trust God.
Note: If you want to know what a demonic power feels like, well, it feels like intense thinking energy, completely chaotic and deranged. The closest thing I could compare it to was Tasmanian Devil tornado on The Warner Brothers Looney Tunes cartoon series.
The Attempt To Work In My Own Strength Had Failed. I Gave Up And Surrendered To God In The Darkness.
“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” [Hebrews 11:6, The Holy Bible, KJV]. |
