CXVII

THE LORD IS FAITHFUL, WHO WILL ESTABLISH YOU AND GUARD YOU FROM THE EVIL ONE

2 THESSALONIANS 3:3

DESTINY KNIGHT-STORM

“I suppose Brock’s FBI agent friend is gonna want to talk to me,” Zella LaStella-Sallie declared as I helped her settle into her room. Her normally calm, pleasant face looked forlorn. Her striking ebony cheekbones almost seemed to droop under her lovely dark eyes.

Her husband’s friend Oscar had been brutally murdered, and the killer, or killers, left a cryptic message warning that Zella may be in danger herself. One small consolation was that the heinous crime happened one thousand miles away. Another comfort was that there seemed to be no sign of danger when Oscar was being protected by my husband Brock, a former professional bodyguard. The Sallie family were now under his watch care themselves and taking up temporary residence in our home.

“Yes, I suppose she will,” I said light heartedly. “But you needn’t worry, you are a potential victim, not a perpetrator.”

I winced at calling her a potential victim, but she didn’t seem to bat an eye.

“There is something…” Zella began, then stopped and gazed at me cautiously.

“Something?” I gently pushed.

“It’s probably nothing,” Zella said, and then emitted a nervous chuckle.

“What’s probably nothing? Do you think you might know something about Oscar’s murder?”

“No, no nothing like that,” she stammered, then looked at the floor and scratched her temple with one finger. Then she looked up at me. “Well, maybe. Can I tell you something in confidence?”

“Okay.”

“No, not okay,” she responded with agitation. This took me by surprise. Zella was one of the most calm, dignified people I have ever known. “Yes or no, can you keep a secret?”

I wanted to tell her yes, but my husband and I were very open and honest with each other. I feared keeping secrets due to the risk of slippage. Then again, if anyone can tick a lock, it was Brock.

“Oh, I’ll just tell you,” she snorted. “I intend on being forthcoming with the FBI lady anyway.”

“I won’t tell anyone, Zella. My hesitancy was just a fear of letting something slip to Brock.”

“Brock is anything but a blabber mouth,” Zella said, and thankfully smiled. “Now MY husband on the other hand would probably make it known on his podcast.”

“Seven doesn’t know this secret of yours?” I asked.

She shook her head. “If he ever would have asked, or it would somehow have come up, I would have been honest. Oh well, it’s just something I’m not proud of. I didn’t commit a crime or anything. I guess if I would have accepted a certain invitation, I might have been an accessory to murder.”

“Murder! What murder?”

Zella’s dark brown eyes looked startled as she gazed into mine. “The murder of Bentley Bonnano.”

A chill ran up my spine, and I could feel hairs prickle on my neck. “You almost attended Jezebel Black’s attempted satanic sacrifice of her own sister?”

(This incident occurred in Johnathan Ember’s e-book ‘Knight Storm’. Amy Autumn was kidnapped by her sister’s satanic cult, and Brock, his friend Bentley, and Amy’s future husband Dirk endeavored to rescue her. In the process, sweet, goofy Bentley Bonnano was mortally wounded.)

“I had no idea that she intended to sacrifice a virgin,” Zella responded emphatically. “All she had told me was that it was a special black mass.”

“I don’t understand,” I replied with a frown. “Were you a part of Jezebel’s cult?”

Zella vigorously shook her head. “No, but she and I did have a brief… I don’t know, what were we? We weren’t exactly friends, yet we did become, briefly, more than acquaintances. And yes, I did attend a few of her meetings.”

“So you actually dabbled with satanism?”

“No, I did not. It’s hard to explain.”

“I’m listening,” I said, and then cringed inwardly as I reminded myself of Frasier Crane.

“I met Jezebel at a new age shop,” she explained. “We were both looking at tarot cards. She struck up a conversation with me. I was quite knowledgeable about tarot cards, and she was just learning. She was quite knowledgeable about ancient paganism, pagan rituals, spells, and such. These were things I was interested in, but I didn’t know too much about.

“So we started to hang out. I taught her about tarot readings, and she taught me about sorcery. I was interested in magic and wanted to become, I don’t know, spiritually enlightened, or powerful, or something. But then she started to bring up devil stuff, and strange rituals drinking blood, so I began to distance myself. Then the whole thing went down with that attempted satanic sacrifice, and Bentley Bonnano getting killed, and I dropped her like a hot potato. Which wasn’t too hard since she ended up in jail.”

“What about Lexi Gomez?” I asked, inquiring about her affiliation with Jezebel’s sister during her fortune telling days, and then Lexi’s subsequent deliverance from demon possession.

“It was more than a year after the satanic ritual incident when Lexi came to me for a psychic reading for the first time,” Zella replied.

“Did you know each other from your association with Jezebel?” I asked.

“No,” she responded shaking her head, her shoulder length braids swaying back and forth. “But the truth came out pretty quick when she first consulted me. First of all, she and Jezebel looked quite a bit like sisters. Second, she told me that she had been involved with the cult that killed Bentley, and that her sister was in prison. Pretty easy to put together.”

“But you never told Lexi that you knew her sister?”

“Nope.”

“She never asked.”

“Nope.”

“So she doesn’t know then?”

“If she does, she never let on to me.”

“What about Amy?” I asked, inquiring about the third and youngest of the half-sisters, and the one Jezebel intended to kill in a satanic sacrifice.

Zella bit her lower lip and shook her head, then softly muttered. “Oh no.”

“What’s the matter?”

“This is all gonna come out at some point,” Zella said. “Amy and Lexi are gonna hate me.”

“No, they are not,” I consoled. “They are both genuine, walking in the Spirit Christians. They’ll understand.”

“You’re sort of right, hate is a bit strong. They’re gonna dislike me, though.”

“Well, I don’t feel one bit different about you,” I said as I took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“I appreciate that,” Zella replied with a forced smile as she returned a gentle squeeze. “But it wasn’t your twisted sister I got chummy with, and then kept it secret.”

“Zella, I would have done the same thing as you,” I reassured her. “Who wants to admit to hanging out with a psychopath?”

“But I’m supposed to be converted, and I’ve been harboring a lie of omission,” she lamented.

“Is it a lie of omission?” I asked sincerely. “Are you required to acknowledge everyone you’ve known?”

Zella frowned. “Well, I think if you become friends with someone. Not only friends, but sisters in Christ, you should probably admit to having known their sister. Especially a sister that tried to kill you.”

“Zella, Amy has been something like a daughter to me. Her kids are even unofficially our grandchildren. I know if you explain everything to her, she will love you even more than she already does. Besides, whatever friendship you had with Jezebel in no way harmed either Lexi or Amy, right?”

“You’re right,” she responded with something close to a relieved smile. “I guess everything is just churning around in my head right now.”

We were quite for a long moment before Zella spoke. “You know, when we were dealing with Lexi’s demon possession ordeal, I couldn’t help thinking demons probably had a hold on Jezebel multiple time stronger than Lexi. Yet at times it seemed like Lexi was going to be destroyed as she struggled to be free.”

“Yeah, the same thing has crossed my mind, too.”

“Do you think it’s possible for someone like Jezebel to come to the Lord?”

“All things are possible with God,” I replied. “Mary Madeline had seven demons and ended up being the first to see Jesus after His resurrection. But Jezebel would have to want it. God doesn’t force Himself on anyone. He draws us, and it’s up to as to whether we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit or not.”

“Good points,” Zella nodded.

“Zella, why do you think Jezebel’s going to come up in this Oscar investigation? She’s still in prison, but do you think she is somehow involved?”

Zella shrugged and said. “I’m not one hundred percent certain, but I do know this much.”

She paused, and chewed her lower lip as she contemplated. I prodded her on. “What do you know?”

“That picture of me with the tarot cards at the crime scene,” Zella said and then sighed. “Jezebel took that picture of me the second time we got together.”

(DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES)

(The LIFE and MINISTRY of JESUS Part X)

The Victory

The tempter thought to take advantage of Christ’s humanity, and urge Him into presumption. But while Satan can solicit, he cannot compel to sin.

Not all the power of earth or hell could force Jesus in the slightest degree to depart from the will of His Father.

The tempter can never compel us to do evil. He cannot control minds unless they are yielded to his control. The will must consent, faith must let go its hold upon Christ before Satan can exercise his power upon us.

But every sinful desire we cherish affords him a foothold. Every point in which we fail of meeting the divine standard is an open door by which he can enter to tempt and destroy us. And every failure or defeat on our part gives occasion for him to reproach Christ.

God had already testified that Jesus was His Son; and now to ask proof that he was the Son of God would be putting God’s word to the test, tempting Him.

We should not present our petitions to God to prove whether He will fulfill word; but because He will fulfill it. Not to prove that He loves us, but because He loves us.

“Without faith it is impossible to please Him. For they that come to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

Presumption is Satan’s counterfeit of faith. Faith claims God’s promises, and brings forth fruit in obedience. Presumption also claims the promises, but uses them as Satan did, to excuse transgression.

God will preserve all who walk in the path of obedience. But to depart from it is to venture on Satan’s ground. There we are sure to fall. The Savior has bidden us, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. (Mark 14:38). Meditation and prayer would keep us from rushing unbidden into the way of danger, and thus we should be saved from many a defeat.

Satan does not appear as a hideous monster with cloven feet and bat wings. He is a mighty angel, though fallen. He avows himself the leader of rebellion and the god of this world.

Jesus gained the victory through submission and faith in God, and by apostle He says to us. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” (James 4:7, 8)

Jesus had endured the test, greater than we shall ever be called to endure. The angels now ministered to the Son of God as He lay like one dying. He was strengthened with food, comforted with the message of His Father’s love and the assurance that all heaven triumphed in His victory.

Warming to life again, His great heart goes out in sympathy for humanity, and He goes forth to complete the work He has begun, to not rest until the foe is vanquished, and our fallen race redeemed.

“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.” (Revelation 5:12)