For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (2 Corinthians 4:17-18). I t was December 1997. I was about to attend a deliverance training our church had prepared in a hotel outside Mexico City. That night, the spiritual warfare team went to see a movie about military training titled G.I. Jane . It had been recommended to me as an example of the tenacity and bravery a woman needed to become an Army Special Forces commando. There is a moment in the movie in which the commander of the training, who hates G.I. Jane, punches her in the face so hard that the audience cringes. She falls to the floor, almost knocked out. The camera zooms in for a close-up of her face. An invisible force begins to arise from the depths of her heart; you can see it in her facial expression. In the midst of intense pain, this inner strength wells up and she hits the final stroke. The Holy Spirit fell on me as I watched this scene. I felt Jesus say, “The final blow is always yours.” It doesn’t matter how great the pain is, the power of God’s love will always rise within us to give us the final blow of victory. (For those who have reservations about going to the movies, please set that aside. God can use anything to talk to us: a donkey, a dried fig tree, a movie. We are cautious about what we see. The truth is that God is using some movies to open the eyes of many. To Him and Him alone be the glory.) Only Jesus knew how this scene would help me to deal with the terrible blow the devil would deliver at the retreat the next day. We had traveled for more than two hours out of the city and had barely gotten settled in order to begin the event, when I received a call that would change the course of my Christian life. The call was my beloved friend, Cecilia Pezet. Her voice quivered with extreme emotional pain. “I am in the hospital with your sister Mercedes. She is in critical condition. I brought her to be examined. They have just given me her test results. She has three brain tumors and they just took her into surgery.” I froze. Mercedes had been dizzy the previous week. We all thought-even her doctor—that an inner ear problem had made her unsteady. Please understand what I felt at that moment. Mercedes was my identical twin. We were born from one egg that divided into two. I was not born alone, like the majority of people. I was born with my twin. God joined us from the womb with a very special bond. For 42 years, we had always been together; even when we were separated by distance, in soul we remained inseparable. Perhaps only those who are twins can understand what happened to me when Cecilia called. It was evident to me that my sister’s life was in danger, and I was convinced in my heart that the only thing I could not overcome in life would be to lose her, if she were, in fact, to die. This news was so sudden and unexpected. I felt the devil’s blow so sharply, just as I had seen it in the movie. But I also felt that strength that arose from the depths of my being. It was not the human strength of a soldier, but thevery power of Jesus that conquered satan in hell. In that very moment, in the midst of unspeakable pain, I knew that God would permit me to have the final blow.
VICTORY IN ACTION
A torturous path began with Mercedes’ diagnosis. It lasted four years, during which time my sister died six times, and six times, was raised by God from the dead. At the end of those four years, there came a point at which God said that it was time for her to go. Yet those years, so full of pain, were also filled with glory. They were perhaps the best years of Mercedes’ ministry. She ministered to many people from her wheelchair. She called it her “Chariot of Fire.” From that chair, she had the most marvelous experiences with God. She ministered to even the strongest among us. She also encouraged others who were in wheelchairs. She taught them to look at the invisible side of things, where God manifests Himself. During that difficult time, Mercedes organized the entire nation in “Glory Marches” that made history in Mexico. Hundreds of thousands of people praised God in the streets and in the central plaza of the capital. The marches continued even after her death. But we will always remember Mercedes in her wheelchair, marching and praising God. For me, those years were truly a kind of “Spirit University.” Even the revelation contained in this book is the result of fighting for my sister’s life. I learned that when you truly love, the fight will always lead to victory. I also learned this important truth: Defeat dwells in passivity. Even when hope and faith are present, inaction will result in a battle lost . This revelation dispels the deception that God will do everything simply because we raise a prayer to Heaven. We are closest to the most powerful manifestations of God when we are in the most difficult circumstances, those in which it seems there is no way out. We must wait for His voice and hear His instructions. God always gives us the answer. The tough times we go through bring a greater level of authority from God, if we are positioned for the victory. During the Exodus, God put Moses and the Israelites in Pi Hahiroth, a narrow place with no way of escape. Pharaoh thought the people of Israel were surrounded; he was confident the desert had closed them in. (see Exodus 14:1-3.) However, Moses trusted in Jehovah. Even so, not everything would happen from a passive position. Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground” (Exodus 14:13-16). God instructed Moses and the Israelites to take action . The same is true in our personal lives—and I know one thing for sure: nobody will fight harder for our loved ones than we will with the power of God. During one of her surgeries, Mercedes had complications and contracted pneumonia. She had few defenses left and the cold of the operating room caused the infection. Due to her weakened condition, phlegm turned into a hard mass in her lungs. There was no way to get it out. Finally, the doctor said shewould die. We had already done everything we knew to do in the areas of spiritual warfare and divine healing, but nothing worked. We were hours away from losing Mercedes. In my desperation, I called what was then the World Prayer Center, where I worked with C. Peter Wagner on warfare initiatives. Prophet Chuck Pierce answered the phone and made a statement that would change everything. “Ana,” he said, “get in deep communion with God. He is about to give you the key that will not only save Mercedes’ life, but He will teach you to fight against dominions and principalities at a higher level.” I received the prophetic word and began to seek God with all my heart. The Lord then spoke in my ear the following passage from the Book of Job: Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death? Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this. Where is the way to the dwelling of light? And darkness, where is its place, that you may take it to its territory, that you may know the paths to its home? (Job 38:17-20 NKJV) After reading it, I was perplexed because I really didn’t understand what God wanted to tell me. The answer to those questions was, of course, “No, I do not know the answers to any of these questions.” Confused, I asked Him what it was that He wanted to teach me. Then He said, “Mercedes is trapped in the gate of the shadow of death. You must go for her and bring her back.” When I heard this, I was speechless. I knew it was the Father speaking to me, but I didn’t know what to do with His instructions. “The shadow of death, Lord?” I asked, “Am I going to die?” He didn’t answer me. I told Apostle Rony Chaves, the person in authority over me, what I had heard. I told him that I didn’t have any right to continue teaching about the love of God if I didn’t do everything in my power for the person I loved the most. I asked for his blessing and for him to pray for me the next day at 7:00 A.M. At that time, I would go to God to seek that place, and if I didn’t return, I wanted Rony to know that I had died trying. I spoke with my intercessors and asked our church to pray for me. At 7:00 A.M., I was in communion with the Spirit. On one hand, I was nervous; on the other, I was expectant. I had full confidence in God and I had determined to do whatever was necessary, even put my own life on the line, to save my sister. Then the weight of His glory began to come upon me. It was like a heavenly invasion that entered the room. Two angels appeared in front of me. Their clothing was glowing and there was tremendous strength in their facial expressions. One of them had a chain with golden keys on it. He was the leader and with a firm, sweet voice, he said, “Follow us!” I got up from the bed in my spiritual body and followed them. It was as though I were entering a heavenly vision. We began to walk on the city streets until we arrived at a drain in the road. One of the angels opened the drain and we descended into enormous pipes. (This was interesting, since my sister had dedicated herself to rescuing street children who lived in the sewers.) We walked a long time through the damp, dark drainage pipes. The only light emanated from the clothing of my companions. Then we arrived at a hole in the ground. It seemed like an old pipe, worn and moldy, about two meters wide. It smelled like death and decay. Nailed to the wall of this pit was an ironladder that descended to a deeper place. It was a dark, cold tunnel. All along the tunnel were vertical beds of sick people with IVs and catheters. I began to look for Mercedes, hoping to see her somewhere. The angel said we had not yet arrived where she was. We walked among the patients, who moaned continually. Some cried in such pain that it made my soul shudder. My heart wanted to help them in some way, but I didn’t know where we were or how to help. I focused on obeying the directions of the angel with total submission. We opened a second hole that was extremely narrow and oppressive. One of my guides jumped weightlessly through the opening. I followed him, and behind us came the second messenger. It felt like I was sinking into an abyss of water, with my own weight pulling me to the bottom. Mercedes in the Prison of The Shadow of Death. We arrived at a deep place that was very cold. A long corridor extended in front of us, with cells on both sides. It was like an old medieval dungeon. There were about ten prisoners in each cell. In the second cell, I saw Mercedes. Everyone there had on gray clothing, but she was dressed in white and was curledup on a stone bed in the back of the cell. Suddenly, my mouth opened and I shouted loudly, “Mercedes, come forth!” In that moment, I understood what Jesus did when he called Lazarus from the grave. He was not only calling him out of the physical tomb, but he was taking him from the depths of Sheol. The angel interrupted me and said that Mercedes could not leave there by herself. I needed to go in there and get her. He took a beautiful key that he had with him and opened the door. I went to where she was and carried her over my shoulder. She didn’t weigh anything. I took her out of there and the angel told me to put her on the floor. He told me to impart the power of the resurrection, lying on top of her like Elisha had done (see 2 Kings 4:34). I did it and she became full of life and stood up beside us. The angel closed the cell and we went back the same way we had come. A little later, Mercedes, the angels, and I found ourselves back in my bedroom. Then the angel told me it was necessary to reunite my sister’s soul with the rest of her soul in the hospital. I came back from the spiritual arena and got into my car. I still felt the presence of the angels and Mercedes. All three of them got into the car with me. We arrived at the hospital and the fragmented part of Mercedes’ soul that had been captive, reintegrated with her body. Immediately, the power of resurrection gave my sister new strength; she coughed up the phlegm ball and became totally healed. The next day, she left the hospital. It took me days to assimilate the experience. It was like the joy a miner feels when he strikes a vein of gold and knows that he has tapped only the tip of the iceberg of incalculable riches. After this experience, I sought God for more on this subject. I realized that thousands of other people could be trapped someplace. A rain of revelation began to pour over me. The Bible was opened in a new, powerful way, uncovering things that had always been there, but that I had simply never seen before. The first thing I understood was the way in which the soul operates. The enemy fragments and imprisons our souls. I witnessed the spiritual world and its different regions, the prisons in which souls are kept captive. I also saw the devil’s destructive designs. I learned to break through and take the captive souls out through Jesus Christ. Please allow me to begin laying out this thread of knowledge, one step at a time. It will bring understanding of how we can fall captive and how we can be set free.