I had to attend a hearing this week down at the courthouse. What led me to become entangled in this complex legal situation, and who was involved, is not important. The important part is how I partnered with God throughout and had a great outcome.
Before we get too deep, let me caution the average reader. If you are not dialed into this kind of thing, you are going to think I am some kind of religious nut job who has gone off the deep end.
The thing is that I believe there are such things as angels and demons. The evil ones are unleashed on this earth to make your (and my) life terrible.
I also believe we have a good model to fight them, and I will tell you what I did.
The hearing is for the awarding of damages. My attorney and I already won the first part of the legal battle, where we prevailed against the defending party. Now we are to the part where the judge decides what, if anything, I will receive to make me and my family whole.
We could get everything. We could get nothing. There is no telling how this will unfold. I could feel my anxiety creeping into overdrive, and I knew I had to take steps to tamp it down.
I drove down to the courthouse a day early to make sure I was going to the right place and figure out parking. This was my first time going to the big city. My first stab at parking was a fail, so I circled the block a few times. After finding a multi-story parking garage, I circled, paid my fee with a newly downloaded phone app, and started walking toward what I hoped was the courthouse. A few blocks later, I confirmed I was, indeed, in the right place. Now, it is time to switch over to pre-emptive moves.
I walked around the courthouse, praying the entire time. I asked God to put two angels on the roof and angels at each door. I strictly forbid anything evil to get into the courthouse until my hearing is finished. In a sense, I was claiming territory. I can’t imagine what all happens around a courthouse in the spiritual realm. Seems like it would be a hotbed of all manner of deceit and deception. I didn’t want to take any chances of this hampering my case, so I prayed like crazy. I retreated to my car and made my way home.
The next day — the day of the hearing — I was up and on the road a little after 8:00. My hearing was not until 2:30 in the afternoon, but I was not taking any chances. I was not going to allow anything — a flat tire, road construction, car problems, nothing — to get in the way of being on time for the hearing. I arrived 4 hours early.
The building itself is very intimidating. From the moment you enter, you get the feeling you could shoot an old-time gangster movie here. The building was finished in 1932. The architecture is stunning, and it is everything you can imagine when you think of an old courthouse.
Since I arrived so early, I spent a lot of time waiting in the hallway. The atmosphere inside the building was very intimidating. For some reason, the place was very dimly lit. The fluorescent bulbs high overhead were nowhere near strong enough to adequately light the hallway. I guess people in the ‘30s didn’t need as much light to see well. Yet, there was something more to the pall than lighting. It was the sense of, “You are in trouble. This is not going to end well. You should leave while you have the chance.” This feeling hit me after I was 10 feet inside the front door. It was…intimidating.
I got sucked into it. I started having doubts. I started wondering if I should even be in the building. What was I doing here? How did it come to this? Maybe during this whole legal process, I was just blowing everything out of proportion. The judge is going to call me an idiot. It took me about an hour before I realized what was happening.
If you are feeling something, perhaps that is the thing fighting you in the spirit realm. I finally snapped out of it and realized, “Hey, I am feeling intimidated here. I bet it's a spirit of intimidation — some gargoyle clinging to the floor-to-ceiling marble columns and taking verbal pot shots at every passerby.
I spent all of 3 minutes praying against the spirit of intimidation. Guess what?
The whole countenance of the hallway changed. The fluorescents weren’t any brighter, but the hallway felt lighter in every regard. It didn’t feel so oppressive. I stopped feeling the urge to walk out of the building. Instead, I felt a renewed sense of determination. “Wait! This my day in court! No force on this planet is going to take this away from me.” It felt great.
The clerk for the courtroom assigned to my case had mercy on me and invited me inside about half an hour before my hearing started. This is exactly what I wanted — to be inside the courtroom. I wanted to scope out the lay of the land, just like finding parking the day before. I wanted to feel the room, drink in every last crevice, so I could become comfortable. I felt my confidence begin to rise when the most amazing thing started to happen.
For 25 minutes, I was the only person in that courtroom. But I swear to you that the entire back half of the room was filled with a holy presence. It was like there were dozens, if not hundreds, of other individuals in the room with me. And in my heart, I not only felt their presence, but I could hear them cheering. It was like I was at a football game.
I’ve never experienced anything like this in my life.
I was so ready for the hearing to start that I could hardly bear it. No matter what the outcome, I was ready to get started. I pulled out all my notes from months and months of waiting, and I set out all the exhibits I had prepared. I had reviewed all the prep work my attorney sent. I had the wind at my back and a host of angels at my side. I was ready for battle.
The hearing was over in a flash. It barely lasted 20 minutes. Five of those minutes passed in dead silence as the judge looked over several exhibits I passed to him through the bailiff. While the judge acknowledged me at the start, he spent most of the time covering procedural matters with my well-prepared attorney.
The judgment was issued in my favor. We won everything we requested, including damages, interest, and legal fees.
My attorney said she had never seen anything quite like it. “He never even asked you any questions,” she said in bewilderment. Jokingly, she added, “I think he took a look at all the other exhibits you prepared and decided he didn’t want to be there for another 2 hours.”
It was a landslide win. That much is certain, and I think a great deal of that victory came in the spiritual realm before the hearing even started.
I drove home that afternoon, stunned at what had just happened. Lots of prayer. Angels? A heavenly host in the courtroom? A massive win. Wait, did my prayers actually work? Will we ever collect? It was far too much to process.
I made it through months of prep. Months of documenting things from every angle. Months of creating a timeline and reconstructing what happened in minute detail, down to the last email. I had made it through the trial phase. I prayed like crazy. I just survived the hearing where I was awarded damages far above my expectations. I drove nearly 2 hours home. I had cooked dinner for my family. Right there in the middle of reheating my plate, I realized it was finally over. I had nothing left. I was in bed by 7:00 that night and slept 12 hours.
I’ve spent years praying for things that never happened—so many unanswered prayers that I nearly gave up on faith altogether. But today was different. The veil between worlds felt thin, as they say. And here’s the real win: I’ll never doubt my faith again. Not for a moment.